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The weekend effect: an exploitable anomaly in the Ukrainian stock market?
|
[
"Ukraine",
"Trading strategy",
"Weekend effect",
"Efficient market hypothesis",
"G12",
"C63"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since Fama (1970) introduced the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), the behaviour of asset prices has been extensively investigated to establish whether it is consistent with this paradigm. Anomalies in the behaviour of financial markets, apparently inconsistent with the EMH, have been investigated extensively in the last 30 years. However, the evidence is still inconclusive, different conclusions having been reached depending on the data and the methods used.\n2. Literature review: Cross (1973) analysed Standard & Poor's Composite Stock Index data from January 1953 to December 1970 and claimed to have found some patterns in the behaviour of US asset prices, namely an increase on Fridays and a decrease on Mondays. French (1980) extended this analysis to 1977 and reported negative returns on Mondays. Gibbons and Hess (1981), Keim and Stambaugh (1984), Rogalski (1984), and Smirlock and Starks (1986) also found the positive-Friday/negative-Monday pattern. Agrawal and Tandon (1994) examined 19 equity markets around the world, and found \"day of the week\" effects in most developed markets. Further evidence was provided by Olson et al. (2011), Racicot (2011), Singal and Tayal (2015), and Caporale et al. (2014), who found some evidence of the weekend effect in the US stock market, FOREX, and commodity markets as well as in the Russian stock market; in particular, fractional integration techniques suggest that the lowest orders of integration occur on Mondays.\n3. Data and methodology: We use daily data for UX index futures, the Ukrainian Exchange being the biggest stock exchange in Ukraine in terms of trading volume. The future are particularly interesting because the relevant data can also be used to test trading strategies using simulation techniques. The sample covers the period from May 2010 (the first available observation) to the end of December 2014. The data source is the Ukrainian Exchange (www.ux.ua/en/).\n4. Empirical results: We start with some simple average analysis. The results are displayed in Figure 1.\n5. Conclusions: In this paper we have examined one of the most recognised anomalies, that is the weekend effect, in the Ukrainian stock market applying different methods to UX futures daily data. Using a wide range of statistical instruments (average analysis, regression analysis with the use of dummy variables, t-tests and fractional integration), we find some evidence of this anomaly in the form of positive returns on Fridays.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide some new empirical evidence on the weekend effect (one of the best known anomalies in financial markets) in Ukrainian futures prices. The analysis uses various statistical techniques.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis uses various statistical techniques (average analysis, Student's t-test, dummy variables, and fractional integration) to test for the presence of this anomaly, and then a trading simulation approach to establish whether it can be exploited to make extra profits.\nFindings: The statistical evidence points to abnormal positive returns on Fridays, and a trading strategy based on this anomaly is shown to generate annual profits of up to 25 per cent. The implication is that the Ukrainian stock market is inefficient.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides some new empirical evidence on the weekend effect (one of the best known anomalies in financial markets) in Ukrainian futures prices. The analysis uses various statistical techniques (average analysis, Student's t-test, dummy variables, and fractional integration) to test for the presence of this anomaly, and then a trading simulation approach to establish whether it can be exploited to make extra profits. The statistical evidence points to abnormal positive returns on Fridays, and a trading strategy based on this anomaly is shown to generate annual profits of up to 25 per cent. The implication is that the Ukrainian stock market is inefficient.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Corporate accountability in the Samarco chemical sludge disaster
|
[
"Brazil",
"Disasters",
"Extractive industries",
"Multinational corporations",
"Business and human rights",
"Corporate accountability",
"Chemical sludge",
"OECD Guidelines"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Businesses, especially those in the extractive sector, often risk that their operations may lead or contribute to disasters. Examples of disasters linked to business activities abound, notably the Bhopal gas leak in India (1984) and the \"Exxon Valdez\" oil spill along the coastline of Alaska (1989) (Zerk, 2006; Tevar, 2012). However, can large and influential companies, notably multinational corporations (MNCs), be held accountable in relation to disasters, particularly when these may combine \"natural\" and \"man-made\" features? This paper aims to answer this question - whether it is possible to hold into account MNCs operating in the extractive sector in situations where disasters are linked to their business activities. The paper uses the 2015 Samarco chemical sludge in Brazil as case study. Despite the large area affected and the devastating impact upon the population and the environment, this disaster has to date received little international media coverage and academic attention. The paper aims to fill this gap, thus shedding light on how corporate accountability (here the accountability of MNCs operating in the extractive sector) can be better achieved in disasters. It also identifies redress possibilities available to those affected by similar disasters, focusing on the particular international mechanism based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2011) Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) (hereinafter \"OECD Guidelines,\" or simply \"Guidelines\"). The motivation linked to the current investigation relates to identifying how existent legal frameworks and monitoring mechanisms may offer some insights relevant to the quest of enhancing accountability in disasters.\n2. Facts - on how it happened: On November 5, 2015, two iron ore tailings dams of the extractive company Samarco Mineracao S.A. burst in the small town of Bento Rodrigues, with a population of about 600 inhabitants (Augusto, 2015), and located about 2.5 km downhill from the affected dams, in the Mariana region, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The toxic mud of about 60 million cubic meters of iron waste (or more than 20,000 Olympic pools) would soon enter the river system (notably the River Doce, one of Brazil's most important rivers). In the next 17 days, the toxic mud would reach about 20 municipalities downstream from the mine site, having a tremendous negative impact especially in relation to water supply, fisheries activities, agriculture, and tourism. In total, 19 persons were killed (Pimentel, 2016), and more than 600 people lost their homes. Some municipalities (e.g. Barra Longa) managed to evacuate people living close to the river, thus avoiding the increase in the death toll (TVPMMG, 2016). Be this as it may, Bento Rodrigues, the town closest to the mine, is likely never to be considered habitable again.\n3. On what constitutes a disaster: Undoubtedly, the events in Mariana seem catastrophic, but do they necessarily meet the definition of disasters? There has been much debate in the literature around defining disasters. Although there is no full consensus on the subject (Perry, 2007; Quarantelli et al., 2007), some similar features appear in different definitions.\n4. Accountability for businesses, especially MNCs, for the negative social impact of their activities: This section discusses legal initiatives aiming at finding ways to improving businesses' record on social issues, focusing particularly on developments arising in the human rights sector. The human rights field has been built upon the assumption that it relates to obligations of \"states,\" that if violated would give rise to their own responsibility. Non-state actors (NSAs) (among others, corporations) were traditionally not considered to have human rights obligations of their own (Bantekas and Oette, 2013). However, it is uncontested that activities of NSAs may jeopardize the enjoyment of human rights, so there have been increasing attempts to find ways of closing this gap (Muchlinski, 2007; Amao, 2011).\n5. Rights affected and measures taken at the national level: The human and environmental cost of the Samarco disaster relate especially to the right to life, the right to water, the right to adequate housing, the right to a healthy environment, and the right to livelihood of fisheries' communities and other groups, including indigenous people. About 126 families of the Krenak indigenous people living next to the Doce River were affected by the disaster.\n6. What else could be done? Identifying international accountability mechanisms, and the potential of the OECD Guidelines for MNEs: The tragic events in Brazil demonstrate the importance of disaster prevention, especially in the extractive sector. The disaster equally evidenced Brazil's limited disaster preparedness (The Economist, 2015). Once the tragedy has taken place, different public authorities were challenged in handling the situation, adopting measures ranging from the imposition of fines to setting up assistance programs. Similar disasters, however, are likely to reoccur across the globe.\n7. Conclusion: This paper covered the Samarco chemical sludge that took place in November 2015 in Brazil as case study for accountability of businesses in disasters. This was the worst disaster ever affecting the country. The paper first contextualized the disaster, and then it identified some key judicial proceedings ongoing in Brazil against the companies involved. Finally, it was considered possible international mechanisms that could be useful in addressing situations such as the Samarco chemical sludge. It has been suggested that the OECD Guidelines offer a good opportunity for putting pressure on governments to seek accountability of companies involved. In the case of Brazil, the government is already undertaking such measures, but further alternatives could be explored, namely also putting pressure against Australia and the UK. One possibility would be to file a complaint before the UK NCP, considered by some as the one of the best operating NCPs, which counts with the support of an external \"steering board\" that provides oversight (Robinson, 2014). It is suggested that the \"Guidelines\" could be used as normative standard also useful in disasters linked to companies' operations abroad. Albeit not perfect, they contribute to enhancing the observance of especially human rights and environmental standards by companies operating across the globe. It is hoped that by following the \"Guidelines\" and engaging with the NCP procedure, MNCs shall increasingly avoid the adverse impact of their activities and those of their business partners.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore avenues of corporate accountability in disasters, using the Samarco chemical sludge disaster, which took place in 2015 in Brazil, as case study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper considers possible ways of enhancing corporate accountability in disasters, focusing on one particular international mechanism on multinational enterprises (MNEs), which addresses both human rights and environmental issues. The research is based on the location and assessment of a variety of written sources (i.e. normative instruments, academic literature, publications by practitioners, civil society organizations, and the media). The paper makes suggestions on the potential of using existent international accountability mechanisms in similar disasters.\nFindings: The paper identifies key measures taken by national authorities to address the disaster. It also considers how the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Guidelines for MNEs could be used to pursue corporate accountability.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a desk-based research, chiefly conducted on documental analysis rather than fieldwork.\nPractical implications: The paper might provide useful insights for organizations and communities facing similar challenges linked to multinational corporate activities that adversely affect human rights and the environment.\nOriginality/value: The study brings to attention normative standards relatively unknown to the disaster community, which may help raise interest on them, and lead to their potential use in future disaster situations. Furthermore, to date the Samarco chemical sludge has received scant attention from the academic literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Economic impact of data localization in five selected African countries
|
[
"Cloud computing",
"Africa",
"International trade",
"GTAP",
"Economic policy",
"Data localization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Access to foreign markets and integration with complex global supply chains are major sources of economic growth, jobs and new investments for developing economies. Similarly, domestic manufacturing, services and exports also depend on the availability of a wide variety of competitively priced products, inputs and services. All these are possible provided there is a secure and efficient exchange of information including cross-border data flows. Restricting the free flow of data would affect any business that uses the internet to produce and deliver goods and services (Kommerskollegium, 2015; Pelissie du Rausas et al., 2011).\n2. Literature review: Previous studies that treated the issue of data localization can be broadly broken down into two categories: the first strand of literature discusses the general negative impact in a qualitative approach such as Summer (2013) and Christensen et al. (2013), and the second attempts to quantify the negative impact of data localization or the positive consequences if data were allowed to move across borders.\n3. Cloud computing and free flow of data in African countries: Today the cloud offers flexible and affordable software, platforms, infrastructure and storage available to all organizations across industries. With limited budgets and increasing growth demands, cloud computing presents an opportunity for organizations to decrease costs, increase flexibility and improve IT capability. With an annual growth of over 15 per cent, it is anticipated that cloud services will globally reach $312bn by 2019. Cloud services, as a whole, will be the fastest growing segment of IT spending because organizations are beginning to take advantage of the high degree of customization, self-service, functionality and the level of automation offered by only paying for what they need when they require it. Advantages of cloud computing include reducing the costs of entry in developing countries, denoting extensive prospects for innovation and competition and thus future growth and offering computing infrastructure (processing, memory and storage of data), platform applications and software services for firms with access to the internet. Other advantages include reducing investment costs, where firms can use these services for a fee without investing in the underlying hardware or software infrastructure (UNCTAD, 2013; World Bank Group, 2016), thus considerably lowering the fixed costs of starting a business, which was the case in the past decade. Nowadays, startups can use the latest computing infrastructure, video conferencing services or online payment systems at a much lower cost, bearing in mind that the drop in entry costs has so far existed predominantly in high-income countries. Nevertheless, local providers have emerged in developing regions, such as Angani in Kenya, which have not yet achieved a sufficient scale (World Bank Group, 2016).\n4. Laws and regulations governing cross-border data transfers: A selection of five African countries was shortlisted. Four particular criteria were applied for choosing these countries. First, prior expectations that technology-enabled businesses and economic activities would play a significant part in the future. Second, these countries have reliable technology infrastructure. Third, they are home to businesses that either export data-driven services or consume data-driven services in their operations. Fourth, they have articulated a strategy or desire to increase the impact of technology on business, as well as government services. For the above-mentioned reasons, the shortlisted countries are:\n5. Methodology: The methodology for estimating the impact of data localization on the TFP and macro-economic indicators such as sectoral production, sectoral imports and sectoral exports was largely adopted by the paper, a methodology to estimate the costs of data regulations by Erik van der Marel, Matthias Bauer, Hosuk Lee Makiyama and Bert Verschelde published in the International Economics Journal (2015).\n6. Conclusion and policy recommendations: The obtained data indexes reveal that Mauritius is the country with the most laws and regulations governing the flow of data, followed by South Africa, then Egypt to a lesser extent and finally Morocco along with Kenya, which both show an obvious lack of data regulations. The small value of the estimated elasticity compared to the value of the estimated elasticity in the EU is -0.347; this shows that the impact of data localization is less in the selected African countries than the other set of EU countries examined in the above-mentioned paper. The fact that the selected African countries have smaller economies with fewer linkages to the global economy and are less reliant on sectors that are heavy users of data provides an explanation to the situation. Furthermore, data producing industries such as telecoms or data processing services are extensive in developed countries, which is not true of developing countries. In addition, data-intensive industries occupy a considerable part of trade in developed countries. Finally, the presence and activities of multinational firms are more prevalent in developed countries (Van Der Marel, 2015). Thus, the overall impact of data localization would not be as profound on TFP as is the case in advanced economies. Findings reveal that the manufacturing sector is the most strongly affected area, as shown in all the countries under study, particularly in Morocco; in addition, sectors that rely heavily on the free flow of data, such as banking and communication sectors, have moderate loss in TFP.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of laws and regulations that govern the cross-border flow of data on the economies of five selected African countries, namely, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius. Moreover, this study addresses the state of cloud computing in Africa. Finally, policy recommendations are provided in this respect.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To reach accurate finding the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) data was used, and then the computable general equilibrium (CGE) was computed to estimate the total cost on the economy. Using the three data regulations linkages indexes (DRLs), the increased administrative cost effect was analyzed on five to six major economic sectors in the target countries. This was followed by estimating the loss in sector-wide total factor productivity (TFP) (for the five to six shortlisted sectors). Using this data, the computable general equilibrium model (CGE) was computed, in order to estimate the economy-wide impact. Based on these findings, a set of recommendations were offered to the policy maker, reflecting the obtained results and conclusions and their implications on drafting data-related policies.\nFindings: The obtained data indexes reveal that Mauritius is the country with the most laws and regulations governing the cross border flow of data, followed by South Africa Egypt to a lesser extent and finally Morocco and Kenya both showing an obvious lack of data regulations. The small value of the estimated elasticity of the selected countries compared to the value of the estimated elasticity in the EU-0.347 shows that the impact of data localization is less in the selected African countries than in the other set of EU countries examined in the research paper. This is because the former has smaller economies with fewer linkages to the global economy and are less reliant on sectors that are heavy users of data. Thus, the overall impact of data localization was not as profound on TFP as is the case in advanced economies. This research paper arrives at the conclusion that fighting the trend of data localization is crucial. In fact, data localization hinders the necessary and essential role of global trade in realizing economic development. Specifically, this is evident in the increase in production costs as reflected in the increase of the prices of goods, which would lead to a decline in incomes.\nOriginality/value: Global studies looked at the impact of data localization on the EU, as well as China, India, Korea and Vietnam, providing some data on Asia Pacific. However, no study has ever been conducted on the Middle East and Africa. This study aims to fill this gap. The approach of this study is to capture the extent of data localization mandates encoded in the laws of each of the selected five African countries showing how these mandates govern their cross-border data flow and, in turn, affect their economies. Furthermore, the policy recommendations section of this research paper makes a contribution to the existing literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants of enrolment in the NHIS for women in Ghana - a cross sectional study
|
[
"Household survey",
"Ghana",
"Women",
"Health insurance",
"Enrolment",
"Social health protection"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Healthcare financing in Ghana has gone through many dynamics, from free healthcare at the eve of independence to the introduction of the nominal fee in the 1970s and the 1980s full cost recovery, popularly known as the \"Cash and Carry\" system. Recognising that direct out-of-pocket payment limited access to healthcare, the Government of Ghana declared its intention to abolish the system, and began exploring the feasibility making health care more affordable by the introduction of a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Since its implementation in 2005, the NHIS has become one of Ghana's flagship social protection interventions with the aim of increasing access to healthcare and improving the quality of basic healthcare services for all citizens, especially the poor and vulnerable.\nLiterature review: The justification for the introduction of health insurance in developing countries has been seen as a means of sharing risks as well as mobilising resources (Ekman, 2007; Hsiao and Shaw, 2007; McIntyre and Kutzin, 2012). Health insurance replaces out-of-pocket expenditures at the point of need with smaller regular contribution (premiums), which allows individuals to gain access to care, especially some of those who previously could not afford it (Nyman, 1999; Zweifel and Manning, 2000). While health insurance improves access to health care for members, there will still be individuals who cannot afford the premiums (Sarpong et al., 2010; Jowett et al., 2004). Access to health care can also be restricted by other indirect financial and non-financial barriers, such as travel costs, loss of income, and other social and cultural values (Spaan et al., 2012; Lagarde et al., 2007; Ensor and Cooper, 2004). There are also some systemic barriers which also deter individuals from accessing insurance in the first place. These include the bureaucratic nature of accessing insurance benefits, the limited portability of the insurance scheme and the perceived negative attitude of health staff towards patients insured (Fenny et al., 2014).\nMethodology: Study design\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: This study sought to assess the determinants of women's enrolment in the NHIS in order to identify the groups of women who are not participating in the NHIS and whether this could be attributed to social exclusion. Our study shows that enrolment is relatively higher among the elderly women which points to the fact that they may be taking advantage of the exemptions offered to elderly aged 70 years and above under the NHIS. On the flip side, elderly women residing in rural areas, widowed, uneducated and from poor households raises are vulnerable. Parmar et al. (2013) found a strong evidence of inequity in enrolment caused by a combination of economic, political and socio-cultural factors with elders in the richest quartiles being more likely to enrol than those in the poorest quartile.\nConclusion: By conceptualising social exclusion as the multi-dimensional processes driven by unequal power relationships which lead to differential inclusion and exclusion in social systems, our study provides evidence of factors that influence women enrolment into the NHIS. With women dominating the informal sector of Ghana's economy, the NHIS is seen as an important social protection intervention for informal workers and especially women. While not all the uninsured women could be described as socially excluded from the NHIS, the results suggest that factors that drive women to be socially excluded from enrolling in the NHIS are economically related. Others include age, health status, locality, perception about the quality of care at health facilities and the perception of the NHIS. How the NHIS adapts its features to ensure access for these vulnerable groups for whom these factors become a clear barrier to accessing health services needs critical attention. Policy should aim at identifying and targeting these excluded women. Rural-urban disparities with regards to general infrastructure need to be addressed to reduce the physical barriers to health care and to encourage more people to enrol in the scheme.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was introduced in 2005 to provide equitable access to healthcare. Furthermore, concessions were made for pregnant women, yet inequities in access continue to exist. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether dimensions of social exclusion explain why some groups of women are not benefitting from the scheme.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 4,050 representative households in five districts. Logistic regression is used to examine the factors that determine enrolment of women under the NHIS.\nFindings: The study sample consists of a sub-sample of 3,173 women out of whom 58 per cent were insured. The majority (64.9 per cent) of the women were in the reproductive age (15-45 years). The results show that wealth status, age, health status, locality, perception about the quality of care at health facilities and perception of the NHIS, are the key factors that determine enrolment into the scheme.\nPractical implications: By conceptualising social exclusion as the multi-dimensional processes driven by unequal power relationships which lead to differential inclusion and exclusion in social systems, the study provides evidence to show that certain groups of women are systemically excluded from participating in the NHIS.\nSocial implications: With women dominating the informal sector of Ghana's economy which is often characterised by relatively low incomes, these inequities in access need to be addressed.\nOriginality/value: Although gender equality incorporates discussions on issues affecting men and women this paper focusses on women in Ghana due to disadvantaged position in which many of them find themselves in terms of access to resources. Almost all of the identified barriers in previous studies have been worsened by gender with women generally facing greater difficulties in accessing adequate care. Few of these papers have taken account the specific health needs and gender-specific constraints of women in the NHIS. The authors aim to fill this gap by using a social exclusion lens to explore whether Ghanaian women (i.e. 15 years and above) are participating in the NHIS and examine the processes by which exclusion occurs and what explains the patterns observed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Innocent source of humanity
|
[
"Morality",
"Autopoiesis",
"Organization theory",
"Transcendental consciousness",
"Transcendental source of emotions",
"Veil of innocence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPrologue: Is there such a thing as the essence of humanity shared by all, and is it moral? The answers become important if they touch upon something real. If real and when found, the answers cannot be metaphysical or based on assumptions alone.\nIntroduction: MacIntyre (1984/2007) and Grey (2005, 2014) have something in common. Both demonstrate separately that a core foundation is missing, but assumed to be silently present underneath the important cluster of theories they analyzed. Moral theories were researched by MacIntyre and organization theories by Grey. In general, theories proposed or brought forward by science or philosophy genuinely support or try to support humanity by the true belief in the validity or plausibility of their theories. A validity established by forming the theories rationally, objectively and based on facts whereby when possible, assumptions are avoided by following approved methodological approaches. To ignore or take for granted a foundational and indispensable aspect in the forming of a theory is highly unusual. Still that is what MacIntyre and Grey have found.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: To identify the Transcendental Essence of Humanity, the purpose of this paper is to describe in brief what kind of research became possible when the theory of, e.g. autopoiesis, Husserl's Transcendental Consciousness and the theory of Rhodes and Thame came together to form a \"transcendental\" interview methodology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Critical conceptual implications are drawn to form a new research method to explore a de-subjectified inner domain and to search for a possible common essence of humanity.\nFindings: A Transcendental Emotional Reference was found practically alien to contemporary perspectives. Still, the reference governs the emotional structure of human experience. This different perspective answers basic questions of morality, organization theory and leadership.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of the new research open a new and transparent perspective answering Grey's question: \"What is it to be human?\" (Grey, p. 47, 2014.) A perspective shedding new light on the humanities. A research limitation is the number of respondents. Still, being transcendental the findings are theoretically valid for all.\nOriginality/value: The paper is based on a unique research enabling 32+ (ongoing research) respondents to explore their own and universally shared Transcendental domain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Training evaluation: an analysis of the stakeholders' evaluation needs
|
[
"Training evaluation",
"Stakeholder analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The market - that is, buying skills and services from training providers - was once the approach used by company training systems to establish relationships with groups outside the firm. Presently, however, companies also try to establish such relationships through participation in public programs typically financed by public bodies and intended to encourage and stimulate continuous training, which is considered to be a \"collective good\".In training processes delivered in such contexts, many actors are required to make decisions which may have an impact on the performance of the training initiative. Typically, these stakeholders have different institutional missions, and their training interests and objectives may be different as well: their inclusion in the evaluation process creates and maintains diversity within the participating stakeholder group (Wills, 1993; Mathie and Greene, 1997). Furthermore, \"stakeholders can be particularly helpful when reviewing evaluators\" recommendations for program revisions. Recommendations to program personnel are commonly expected in evaluation reports (Brandon, 1999, p. 363).This study focuses on training evaluation in such multi-stakeholder contexts, and the aim is to identify intersections between two different disciplines. The first is program evaluation, a formalized approach to the study of the goals, processes, and impacts of projects, policies and programs implemented in public and private sectors. The second is training and development management, and in particular, the literature on the evaluation models and tools used to evaluate training within companies.This study focuses on a continuous training project financed by an Italian public authority, in order to highlight the evaluation needs of the stakeholder groups typically involved in this kind of training process.In the research reported here, stakeholders were contacted after the planning and delivery of the program's training modules, using qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular, the research process consisted of an initial qualitative research phase of key informants belonging to the different stakeholder groups, followed by quantitative research on the entire population.The results of the research can be applied usefully to various different purposes. First, the study identifies convergences and divergences between the evaluation needs of the different stakeholder groups. Second, it identifies the \"guidelines\" which orient stakeholder groups in training evaluation.\n2 Literature analysis: The literature analysis focuses on three issues. First, the theory on training evaluation is analyzed, indicating the theoretical reasons why the stakeholder-based evaluation applied to training can be considered important. The findings in the literature on training stakeholder-based evaluation are then presented. The final part of the survey concerns the contexts in which company training systems operate, and demonstrates the practical importance of stakeholder-based training evaluation. Overall, this section highlights knowledge gaps and defines specific research questions.2.1 The theoretical background to training evaluation: why a stakeholder-based training evaluation?\n3 Knowledge gaps and research questions: The above survey of the literature has shown that a stakeholder-based approach to training evaluation is useful for two reasons. First, it enables the design of evaluation programs, which the actors involved in the training program can actually use to support their decisional processes. Second, it expands the range of the variables considered by the ROI training evaluation model, normally focused on the evaluation needs of the company's shareholders (Phillips, 1996; Kirkpatrick, 1998; Ross, 2008).These two advantages are significant because:1. company training systems are structured as open systems which participate in networks outside the company, and which involve a number of actors that make decisions with an impact on training program performance; and2. such networks are often part of the public-policy regulation system governed and financed by a third-party. Consequently, they include actors with different institutional missions, and, therefore, specific evaluation needs.This study belongs to the second strand of research on stakeholder-based training evaluation, because its aim is to identify the evaluation needs of the stakeholder groups typically involved in a training project within the public-policy regulation system.The results of the study are useful in identifying:* convergences, that is, the evaluation elements that all stakeholder groups consider important;* divergences, that is, evaluation elements considered important by one or more stakeholder groups, but not by all of them; and* latent variables, identified through a factor analysis, which orient stakeholder groups in training evaluation and convergence/divergences among stakeholder groups in the attribution of importance to these variables.\n4 Methodology and research process: The research reported by this study selected a training program financed by the Italian Lombardy Region (European Social Fund, D1). The program focused on the \"promotion of a competent, qualified and adaptable workforce\", and its objective was to implement training interventions which enhance the competitiveness of local manufacturing with particular reference to small and medium-sized businesses. Enterprise associations could submit their training proposals to the public authority, which then selected the relevant training providers.This case was chosen, because it was being implemented by means of cooperation and co-planning among enterprise associations, training providers and companies. The training program was, therefore, considered to be a privileged application of stakeholder-based training evaluation.The research process was divided into two phases: the first was based on qualitative techniques, the second on the survey research method.4.1 First phase\n5 Findings: The main findings can be summarised under the following headings:1. the levels of importance attributed in total to the items by the sample of stakeholders;2. differences among the different stakeholders groups regarding the importance attributed to the items;3. latent variables underlying the 35 items; and4. differences among the stakeholder groups regarding the importance attributed to the latent variables.These findings are presented in greater detail below.5.1 Levels of importance attributed in total by the sample of stakeholders to items\n6 Conclusions: As reported in the literature review, the studies on stakeholder-based evaluations applied to training, divide into two broad categories: those that provide a theoretical view of the topic and define which evaluation process should be used for stakeholder-based training evaluation; studies that analyze the evaluation needs of the stakeholder groups typically involved in a training program that is, the elements of evaluation that they consider useful for monitoring the balance between contributions and incentives. This paper is in the second category, as it identifies the evaluation needs of the stakeholder groups typically involved in a training project. The research focused on an intervention in a public-policy regulation system (governed and financed by a third authority), because it includes actors with different institutional missions, and therefore, specific evaluation needs.The outputs of this research are as follows: identification of evaluation dimensions not taken into account by the ROI training evaluation model of training evaluation, but important for satisfying stakeholder evaluation needs (LeBaron Wallace, 2008); identification of convergences/divergences among stakeholder group evaluation needs; identification of latent variables and convergences/divergences in the attribution of importance to them among, stakeholders groups (Michalski and Cousins, 2000).Considering the results of the studies on stakeholder-based evaluation included in the second category (studies about the evaluation process to be used in participatory evaluation, and in particular, Nickols, 2005), the results of this paper are useful for designing - before the training delivery - an evaluation system for training programs. In particular, the results might be useful in the following phases of the stakeholder-based evaluation process:* \"Identification of the significant stakeholder groups within the training program\", as the paper suggests the stakeholder groups that are part of the decision-making process for a training program included in a public-policy regulation system.* \"Identification, per group, of the program performances able to provide the expected benefits and (where necessary) identify a scale of priorities per group and per performance\", as the paper identifies the evaluation needs of the stakeholder groups in supporting their decision-making processes in the training program.The main limitations of the study can be summarised as follows:* the analysis was based on a single training program, which reduces the possibility of generalisation;* the study focused on the pre-conditions for designing a stakeholder-based evaluation plan, not on the operational evaluation process; and* the analysis considered the attribution of importance by the stakeholders, without addressing the problem of how dimensions or latent variables can be \"translated\" into a set of essential and consistent indicators.In the light of these limitations, possible developments for further research could be:* The added value of stakeholder-based evaluation and the correlated levels of increase in training-process performances. This could be useful in identifying the applicability conditions for stakeholder-based evaluation and privileged contexts of application.* The impact of regulation systems (market and public policy) on the quality and quantity of stakeholder groups to be involved in the evaluation, their specific evaluation needs, and the evaluation process to be implemented. This potential development of the research should take into account the formalized evaluation systems based on quality and standards that are becoming more and more important, both in the market regulation system and the public-policy regulation system (i.e. European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System).* Methods for \"producing\" consensus among stakeholders and the process of creating a shared evaluation program.From a methodological point of view, research should integrate both qualitative methods (Talbot, 1992; Wills, 1993; Maxwell, 1996; Miles and Huberman, 1994) and survey research methods (Hinkin, 1998; Miller, 1994); and, in particular for the analysis of consensus building processes, it should be collaborative (Bramley and Kitson, 1994; Shani et al., 2007).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In recent years, the literature on program evaluation has examined multi-stakeholder evaluation, but training evaluation models and practices have not generally taken this problem into account. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study identifies intersections between methodologies and approaches of participatory evaluation, and techniques and evaluation tools typically used for training. The study focuses on understanding the evaluation needs of the stakeholder groups typically involved in training programs. A training program financed by the European Social Fund in Italy is studied, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies (in-depth interviews and survey research).\nFindings: - The findings are as follows: first, identification of evaluation dimensions not taken into account in the return on investment training evaluation model of training evaluation, but which are important for satisfying stakeholders' evaluation needs; second, identification of convergences/divergences between stakeholder groups' evaluation needs; and third, identification of latent variables and convergences/divergences in the attribution of importance to them among stakeholders groups.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitations of the research are the following: first, the analysis was based on a single training program; second, the study focused only on the pre-conditions for designing a stakeholder-based evaluation plan; and third, the analysis considered the attribution of importance by the stakeholders without considering the development of consistent and reliable indicators.\nPractical implications: - These results suggest that different stakeholder groups have different evaluation needs and, in operational terms are aware of the convergence and divergence between those needs.\nOriginality/value: - The results of the research are useful in identifying: first, the evaluation elements that all stakeholder groups consider important; second, evaluation elements considered important by one or more stakeholder groups, but not by all of them; and third, latent variables which orient stakeholders groups in training evaluation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exercise and work-family conflict: a field experiment
|
[
"Exercise",
"Human resource strategies",
"Work-life issues",
"Work family issues"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research on the intersection of exercise and the workplace generally points to a positive association between workers' physical activity and outcomes relevant to both the organization and individuals. For example, Parks and Steelman's (2008) meta-analysis of workplace wellness programs indicated that employees who participated in wellness programs were more likely to be satisfied with their job and have lower absenteeism rates. In another study, small business owners who engaged in exercise were shown to have better sales figures than those small business owners who were sedentary (Goldsby et al., 2005).\nWFC: WFC is defined as \"a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect\" (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985, p. 77). Conceptually, this construct contains three different types of conflict. Time-based conflict occurs when the time an individual spends in one role interferes with the time they spend in the other role. Strain-based conflict occurs when the stress from one role, such as stress at work or home, impacts performance in the other role. Finally, behavior-based conflict exists when the behaviors expected in one role are incompatible with those behaviors in the other role. Following prior research (cf., Cho and Allen, 2012), we do not consider exercise to be a resource applicable to the effective management of behavior-based conflict and thus, do not hypothesize relationships regarding behavior-based conflict. WFC is also bi-directional in nature. WIF occurs when work demands make participation in the family role difficult and FIW when family demands impact an individual's work role. Managing the work-family interface has important implications for organizations and individuals. Past research suggests that perceptions of WIF and FIW can lead to negative work outcomes (e.g. lower job satisfaction - Carlson et al., 2000).\nExercise: Exercise may be defined as any voluntary physical activity which is purposefully undertaken in an effort to promote one's well-being (Ensel and Lin, 2004). Examples of exercise that are aimed at improving or maintaining some aspect of health include, but are not limited to, weightlifting, aerobic classes, and brisk walking/jogging. The general consensus within extant academic literature is that regular exercise is an important factor in individual well-being. For example, Maher et al. (2013) found that daily physical activity was positively related to overall satisfaction with life. Furthermore, results from a study utilizing an exercise program showed significant reductions in participants' stress-related state anxiety and psychological stress (Throne et al., 2000).\nAcute and long-term effects of exercise: For the purposes of this study, short-term (or acute) exercise refers to a single session of exercise while long-term (or chronic) exercise refers to several exercise sessions over the course of weeks or months. The literature generally defines acute exercise as those sessions lasting as little as eight minutes to those lasting longer than one hour. An earlier meta-analysis of exercise studies shows long-term exercise time frames ranging from four to 15 weeks in duration (Petruzzello et al., 1991). However, there is not a strong consensus in the literature as to what constitutes \"long-term.\" In a review of exercise-related studies, Taylor (2000) notes that several cross-sectional studies have been conducted attempting to examine the acute and chronic effects of exercise. As a limitation with most cross-sectional data, causal relationships cannot be directly observed from this research; however, several studies have used methodology that allows for causal relationships to be inferred for short-term and long-term exercise effects.\nMethod: Procedures\nAnalytical procedures and results: Basic diagnostic information regarding our data is shown in Table I. Correlations, means, and standard deviations for the study variables are in Table I. Given the number of personal and demographic variables previously shown to impact WFC, we verified congruence between the treatment and control groups using an independent samples t-test. The groups displayed a significant difference only on level of education (p=0.02). There were no significant differences between the two groups on any of the dependent variables at Time 1. We included the control variables in the initial runs of our models. No significant influences were found, therefore we did not include these variables in subsequent modeling, and they are not reported in the correlation matrix.\nDiscussion and conclusion: The current study represents the first investigation of the temporal relationship between exercise and WFC using an exercise intervention. Based on prior research on exercise and individual well-being indicators, we hypothesized that acute and long-term exercise would have an impact on reducing perceptions of strain- and time-based WIF and FIW. To test our hypotheses, we used a field experiment where participants were randomly assigned to a four-week group exercise class or control group. Data were gathered at three points from both groups to assess the influence of acute and long-term exercise on WFC.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recent research along with anecdotal evidence suggests that exercise may play a role in mitigating perceptions of work-family conflict (WFC). However, the temporal effects related to this relationship have been ignored. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by testing for the effects of acute and long-term exercise on the work-family interface.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Employed females (N=46) were randomly assigned to a treatment (exercise) or control group (no exercise) and data were gathered at three points in time, over four weeks. Linear Mixed Model processes were conducted.\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.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample was restricted to sedentary females, was predominantly white/Caucasian, and held white-collar jobs, limiting the generalizability of the findings.\nPractical implications: Results from the current study suggest that exercise assists individuals in managing the work-family interface. While this is not a broad-sweeping call for all employers to offer on-site exercise facilities, the authors suggest that employers consider offering accommodations to individuals seeking to utilize exercise as a way to reduce WFC and general stress.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical study that examines the temporal impact of exercise on the work-family interface.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Evaluating values-centred pedagogies in education for sustainable development
|
[
"Education",
"Sustainable development",
"Sustainability",
"Values",
"Evaluation",
"ESD pedagogies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and context: In 2004, the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared 2005-2014 the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) with the intention of integrating the \"principles, values and practices of sustainable development\" into all aspects of education and learning (UNESCO, 2006, p. 4). For UNESCO, the purpose of education for sustainable development (ESD) is to enable learners to acquire \"the values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future\" (UNESCO, 2006, p. 3), which, in principle, means that all students on all courses should have access to curricula and pedagogies that promote sustainability-related knowledge, skills and values. The research reported in this paper evaluates an initiative inspired by the UNDESD that seeks to respond to the values element of ESD within a professionally focused undergraduate discipline at a university in England.\nThe psychology of values: Milton Rokeach, a pioneer of modern values research, defines a human value as \"an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally and socially preferable\" (Rokeach, 1976, p. 159). Rokeach sees values as mental criteria that guide actions, which can be held both consciously and unconsciously (Rokeach, 1976, p. 160). This interpretation is endorsed by other psychologists such as Schwartz (1992, p. 17), for whom values are \"guiding principles in an individual's life\", and in a seminal paper on pro-environment behaviour, Kollmus and Agyman (2002, p. 301) point out that \"values shape intrinsic motivation\".\nValues and ESD: Values matter in ESD because the motivations they embody have the potential to influence behaviour (Darnton and Kirk, 2011). However, given the personal nature of values, educators need to exercise caution, as those who seek to \"teach\" learners to adopt particular values are likely to incur accusations of ideological indoctrination (Newman, 2010; Murray and Murray, 2007). Indeed commentators such as Jickling and Wals (2008) question the appropriateness of applying policy-driven, transmissive, authority-driven delivery methods to this agenda: \"Forcing consensus about an ambiguous issue such as sustainable development is undesirable [...] and essentially mis-educative\" (Jickling and Wals, 2008, p. 5). Such objections point towards the use of more \"transformative\" pedagogies in ESD that can enable learners to openly and neutrally explore their \"values, perspectives and aspirations\" (Tilbury et al., 2002, p. 19). With this in mind, Cotton and Winter (2009) reviewed a range of pedagogic techniques with potential applications in ESD, including:\nThe research setting: The research described here was set in an engineering school within a large provincial university in the west of England. The study was conducted with undergraduates of a single discipline, construction, the content of which is strongly influenced by accrediting professional bodies. Unusually for such courses, the curriculum in question is overtly themed on the environment, mainly expressed through the delivery of technical and profession-specific aspects of sustainability such as sustainable design and sustainable construction. However, following a sustainability-in-the-curriculum audit reported by Murray and Murray (2007), gaps were identified in relation to the big picture generic aspects of sustainability and values. As a result, a series of open-ended learning activities, loosely branded as Sustainability Training, was devised to fill these gaps. Despite the \"training\" label, the activities draw upon well-established ESD pedagogic techniques (Table II) and are best seen as an attempt to deliver the values component of ESD. The over-arching aim of training is to promote the personal engagement of learners with sustainability by making use of enquiry-based exercises that provoke thought and encourage participants to clarify, reflect upon their personal values in a sustainability context, as prompted by Tilbury et al. (2002). There is no intention to persuade learners to change either their behaviour or their values. Instead, the activities seek to help participants explore their values and the influence these might have on their potential to act or behave sustainably.\nMethodology: The research aim is to evaluate to what extent specific pedagogic interventions (the sustainability training workshops) help learners clarify their personal values in the context of sustainable behaviour.\nResults: Table IV reports the summary statistics for the nine value types surveyed, showing that all the means are above 6, with the highest scores being associated with warm relationships, excitement and self-direction, and the lowest with power and tradition.\nDiscussion: Tilbury et al. (2002) assert that learners need to clarify and understand their values as a key aspect of ESD. The findings from this study indicate that some clarification did occur as a result of the training activities, as a clear majority of participants made one or more changes to their value ratings in the post-workshop survey. Furthermore, the three value types that demonstrated the largest statistical effects, warm relationships, benevolence and universalism, are largely \"intrinsic\" in nature, and, therefore, have the potential to positively influence pro-environment behaviour (Kasser and Ryan, 1996). In addition, according to Maiteny (2002), intrinsic motivational forces can help individuals address the external barriers that can easily inhibit pro-sustainability behaviour. Warm relationships is also a potentially intrinsic value that implies a focus on \"others\", which has been identified as important to the promotion of sustainable development and pro-sustainability behaviour (for example, see Mulder, 2009, p. 74; Kasser, 2008). Interestingly, the other value types that showed significant rating shifts, security and tradition, demonstrated both very small effects and a rather weaker correlation with sustainability.\nConclusions and future work: While any conclusions drawn from this research should be considered as preliminary, the results are encouraging. The purpose of the intervention was not to overtly manipulate or change participant values or behaviour in any particular direction but to facilitate self-reflection and to observe any measurable impact of that reflection. The results suggest that reflection took place, indicated by a statistically significant shift in values ratings as a result of the training. Although the effects were small, the greatest values shifts occurred towards potentially pro-sustainability intrinsic motivations, and all the average scores for the main pro-sustainability values increased.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report an attempt to quantitatively evaluate pedagogies designed to help learners clarify their personal values systems in a sustainability context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A pre-test/post-test survey was used to assess shifts in values orientations among 113 undergraduates from the same discipline, following the completion of intensive values-based sustainability training workshops.\nFindings: The results indicate that small but statistically significant shifts in participant perceptions of their personal values orientations occurred, particularly in relation to values correlating with sustainability.\nResearch limitations/implications: The survey data were collated in six separate groups, potentially introducing unforeseen variables. As value types, rather than individual values, were used as the basis of the survey, there could be variations in participant perception and understanding of the value-type labels.\nPractical implications: No control group was possible because the training intervention was a compulsory aspect of the participants' degree programme, and the surveys were administered by the participants' tutor, which could lead to \"teacher\" bias.\nSocial implications: This research evaluates pedagogies aiming to allow individuals to clarify their values and better understand the motivational role these have in influencing \"sustainable\" behaviour. The research can inform the design and execution of \"holistic\" educational and training programmes seeking to help individuals understand their personal role in creating a more sustainable future.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this research lies in the quantitative analysis of values-specific education for sustainable development pedagogies. Findings point to the need for further research to assess the application of the pedagogies across different disciplines.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Using reliability indicators to explore human factors issues in maintenance databases
|
[
"Reliability",
"Human factors",
"Quality",
"Maintenance",
"Reliability management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Drayner (1963) stated that modern reliability management is mainly concerned in eliminating the effects of system faults caused by imperfect parts, assembled by imperfect people and used by imperfect individuals. In the most common definition, reliability is the probability that a component will not fail to perform within specified limits in a given time while working in a stated environment (Ebeling, 1997; Moubray, 1997; Neubeck, 2004; O'Connor, 2002; Smith, 2005). The indicators used in equipment reliability are the observed failure rate and the observed mean time between failures (MTBF); the failure rate is calculated as the total number of failures divided by the total cumulative operational time and the MTBF is the reciprocal of the failure rate.According to Smith (2005), data collection is an integral part of the reliability evaluation, and the analysis of the failures is the precondition for obtaining reliability improvement and growth. Kirkwood et al. (1987) state that a maintenance database may be a valuable source for getting a first picture regarding any reliability and maintainability problems, but it cannot explain the causes of such problems to assist in making final decisions for improvement programs.The dominant theory about parts' failure rate pattern during their operational life (Davidson and Hunsley, 1994; Rao, 1980; Moubray, 1997) assumes that the repairs restore the parts to an \"as good as new\" (AGAN) condition and the failures occur at random but constant failure rate. However, the research (Davidson and Hunsley, 1994) has shown that the equipment often is not AGAN after the repair due to maintenance errors or poor quality workmanship.The main causes that affect parts' reliability as described by Allan and Billinton (1982), Davidson and Hunsley (1994), Dhillon and Singh (1981), Lewis (1987), Patankar and Taylor (2004) and Rao (1980) are the improper maintenance or installation, the operating duty referring to the ranges of operating stress imposed, the operating conditions including the working environment, the operators' effects, the training of the staff involved in use and maintenance and the lack of adequate supervision. Apart from the use and maintenance, errors may be attributed to designer's inconsistencies or to the manufacturing and constructing stages (Lewis, 1987; Patankar and Taylor, 2004); though such errors become inherent in the system, which may demonstrate lower reliability than expected, but still a constant failure rate.Regarding the kind of the failures caused due to human interference, the basic forms of the maintenance error are either a discrepancy caused which did not exist before the maintenance task, or damage not detected during the preventive or corrective maintenance leading to equipment degradation (Graeber and Marx, 1994). Hobbs (1996) notices that the maintenance staff face challenges including extremes of weather, noise, height, darkness, too large tasks for a single shift and unrealistic procedures that may lead to divergence between the actual performed tasks and the requirements documented in the technical manuals, causing also the flourish of informal work practices.Taking into consideration the massive number of tasks taking place especially into the aviation maintenance domain, the idea of this study, comprising an MSc thesis project (Karanikas, 2008), was to search the existence of human factors areas in the maintenance domain by indicating trends in the historical data of repairable parts that may violate the assumption of the AGAN philosophy, and correlations between variables found or calculated from the failures database in order to detect potential areas with significant human factors influence. Such indications may assist on the allocation of resources to procedures and areas that are negatively affected by human influence, and may uncover areas positively influenced by human factors for their use as examples.\n2 Methodology: 2.1 Data\n3 Results: 3.1 Trends and dependencies\n4 Discussion: Regardless the total available fleet of 237 parts that were included in the database, eventually only 159 were suitable to be inducted in the current research. This fact decreased the sample for the statistical calculations without decreasing the significance of the results since the methods used do not explicitly require large samples. Furthermore, the choice of different electronic and mechanical parts maintained in different workshops by different personnel contributed to avoid any bias in the consideration of the depended and independent variables statistics.4.1 MTBF and Laplace trend test histograms\n5 Conclusions: Taking into account the methodology followed, the results described and the discussion above, the following conclusions may be claimed:* The corrections made to the data confirmed the literature references concerning the negotiable accuracy of the data input in the electronic databases and the insufficient reporting of failures and maintenance actions.* Histograms are adequate to show potential high variability in MTBF among the parts of each fleet indicating potential general human factors; SN sequences or correlation between SN and MTBF values may support the claim of batch production deficiencies.* Laplace trend tests seem useful to reveal the failure rate trend for each individual part, but in case of variability in the trend values (u) it may not possible to decide for the inclining or declining trend of the fleet. Although the literature does not imply any restrictions, the specific test seems better for application in parts with at least two failures in order to picture more evident trend indications between successive failures.* Time series plot picturing the oscillation of MTBF and failure rates may reveal periods with steep increase or decrease, which can lead to a further research for important events - decisions - changes made, that affected either human or parts' behavior.* The AMSAA-Duane-Crow model is more suitable than the Laplace test to determine the failure rate trends for a fleet. However, the simpler Laplace test should antecede for the first trend indications in order to decide the need of AMSAA-Duane-Crow model application; the latter sometimes provides ambiguous statistical results and any decision may require the parallel use of time series plots and engineers' knowledge.* MTBF and Laplace test histograms, time series plots and AMSAA-Duane-Crow model showed that none of the fleets demonstrated random and independent failures patterns or AGAN restoration, confirming part of the alternative hypothesis of this study. Simple correlations and statistics between the several variables considered in the research showed that part of this could be attributed to human factors influence.* MTBF, MTBI and MTBD figures are easy to be extracted from a historical database and their simple correlations may assist to spot weaknesses; especially, when MTBF is negatively correlated with the MTBI and MTBF, any issues regarding the procedures and the human influence must be considered.* The SN vulnerability to replacements and maintenance tasks is able to indicate either inherent manufacturing problems or inadequate procedures/equipment for detecting defective components.* The time of the year that the replacements are performed seemed to be irrelevant with the reliability of the parts concerned.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to explore the usefulness of repairable parts simple historical databases in assisting the human factors experts to identify candidate areas for applying human factors methods. Therefore, also contributing to the search for maintenance quality improvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study was based on the failure history of part fleets installed on the same type of jet engines, and used mean time between failures (MTBF) and failure rates plots, the Laplace trend test, the AMSAA-Crow-Duane model and serial correlations.\nFindings: - Increasing and decreasing trends in failure rates indicated factors that cause deflection from the literature assumptions of constant failure mode and \"as good as new\" maintenance philosophy. Further statistical calculations revealed patterns between MTBF and frequency of maintenance, specific serial numbers (SN) vulnerability to replacement and depot maintenance tasks, correlations between MTBF and number of both installations and maintenances, and influence of the maintenance month on the maintenance-failure hours' interval.\nPractical implications: - The literature refers to the relation between the parts reliability and the human factors in the maintenance domain. The research confirmed the literature references in data collection problems coming from human factors interferences; the patterns found were attributed to system deficiencies related to workload management, parts configuration management, supervision and manufacturing problems.\nOriginality/value: - The application of this research in combination with methods such as field observations and interviews of personnel involved in the maintenance domain can uncover specific maintenance working environment weaknesses and lead to suitable remedies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of knowledge sharing and LMX to enhance employee creativity in theme park work team: A case study of Taiwan
|
[
"Employee creativity",
"Theme Park",
"Hierarchical linear modelling (HLM)",
"Intention to share knowledge",
"Leader–member exchange (LMX)",
"Multilevel model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Milman (2001) indicated that theme parks are the favorite modes of mass entertainment in mature markets worldwide and are star players in the tourism industry (Cheng et al., 2014). However, they must continue to change because business environment changes rapidly (Fotiadis and Vassiliadis, 2016).\nHypotheses: Individual level mediation effect of leader-member exchange\nMethods: Research setting, sample and procedures\nMeasures: The measures about our study will be provided in this section. In addition to the team outcome, all questions were evaluated by the team members on a seven-point Likert scale.\nResults: Preliminary analysis of data\nDiscussion: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to empirically test individual, team and multi-level relationships among knowledge sharing (KS), leader-member exchange (LMX), employee creativity (EC) and team innovation (TI). The study tests how KS affects EC via LMX at lower and multi levels. At a higher level, how creativity affects TI is also tested.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Questionnaires were sent to 43 team leaders and 215 team members from the largest theme park in Taiwan, E-DA, who are engaged in offering creative and innovative customer services. Multilevel analysis was conducted based on the questionnaires received.\nFindings: Major findings agree the contention that KS can improve EC via LMX at both employee and multi-level. The results also indicate that KS affects team creativity (TC) at the team level; however, TC and TI do not have a significant positive relationship.\nOriginality/value: The study examined how to enhance employees' creativity from the individual and team levels in a theme park, an area with rare literature. The authors found that LMX is an important mediator between KS and EC. The mediated effect of KS on EC through LMX is higher in a cross level than individual level. In addition, a team's KS has more effect on EC than the individual level.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Today's talent contest: the battle for talent in the UK is hotting up
|
[
"Skills",
"Recruitment",
"UK"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: It's of little surprise to anyone working in HR that the two biggest challenges they face in 2007 are the recruitment and retention of staff. In fact, more than two-thirds of senior HR managers in the UK perceive these to be the most important challenges over the coming year, according to a survey entitled \"2007: The Challenges for HR,\" conducted by talent management company Taleo at the end of last year.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Looks at the increasingly competitive battle to recruit individuals in possession of scarce skills.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Discusses the problems caused by an aging population in the UK and its impact on recruitment.\nFindings: - As the population ages, the pressure on traditional sources of talent intensifies.\nOriginality/value: - Gives details of best practices that can help tackle the talent shortage.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A review of knowledge management about theoretical conception and designing approaches
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Literature review",
"Design approaches"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, knowledge has been widely recognized the most crucial competitive asset (Palacios and Garrigos, 2006). Knowledge refers to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. Knowledge management (KM) has become a very common term in the twenty-first century, as it has been applied to a wide spectrum of activities and areas with the purpose of managing, creating and enhancing intellectual assets (Shannak, 2009). And it has become enriched with a huge wealth of contributions from many scholars and an extensive accumulation of experiences. From a deeper point of view, KM should be a kind of working method and philosophy. KM is a part of the field of management studies, but it is also closely integrated with information and communication technologies (Mihalca et al., 2008). In fact, KM can be observed from several perspectives, as there are a number of fields that contribute to it. Prominent among them are the fields of philosophy, cognitive science, social science, management science, information science, knowledge engineering, artificial intelligence and economics (Kakabadse et al., 2003).\n2. Theoretical conception of knowledge management: 2.1 Definition of knowledge management\n3. Designing approaches for knowledge management: 3.1 Knowledge representation and organization\n4. Conclusions: For this research, we focus on providing a deep theoretical review and analysis of KM. First, we summarized and analyzed the theoretical conceptions of KM, which include conception and stages. Then we reviewed some major approaches for designing the KM system from different perspectives including knowledge representation and organization, knowledge sharing and performance measure for KM.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to conduct an in-depth theoretical review and analysis for the fields of knowledge management (KM) and investigate the future research trend about KM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: At first, few theoretical basis about KM which include definitions and stages about KM have been summarized and analyzed. Then a comprehensive review about the major approaches for designing the KM system from different perspectives including knowledge representation and organization, knowledge sharing and performance measure for KM has been conducted.\nFindings: The contributions of this paper will be useful for both academics and practitioners for the study of KM.\nOriginality/value: For this research, the focus is on conducting an in-depth theoretical review and analysis of KM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Profit
|
[
"Profit",
"Love"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nProfit: Profit is patient,\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this poem is to allow the reader to contemplate the substitution and to decide whether it works.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A short \"poem\" based on the idea of replacing \"love\" with \"profit\" in St Paul's famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13, and often read at weddings. The word \"charity\" would appear instead of \"love\" if the old King James Version of the Bible were used instead.\nFindings: An inference might be drawn that love is better than profit.\nOriginality/value: The poem encourages a comparison between profit and love.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using augmented reality video in enhancing masonry and roof component comprehension for construction management students
|
[
"Augmented reality",
"Construction management",
"Education",
"Construction assemblies",
"Construction processes",
"Spatio-temporal constraints"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The future of the construction industry depends on the capabilities of new employees, who often get their start, studying at colleges and universities around the world. It is vital for them to enter the workforce with the ability to solve the complex problems inherent in the construction process. Unfortunately, lack of exposure to such processes during their education makes it difficult for students to fully develop an understanding of the spatial (e.g. the relation of tasks and processes to one another on site) and temporal constraints (e.g. schedule or procedural dependencies between various tasks and trades) which exist during the construction process. Often, teaching techniques seek to remedy this lack of exposure through site visits and in-class media presentations. However, advancements in augmented reality technology (ART) have allowed for the development and evaluation of new methods for delivering information to students.\n2. Background: 2.1 Pedagogical challenges\n3. AR test case: 3.1 Selected sample project\n4. Study participants: The data analyzed in this research is based on a sampling of students currently enrolled in the construction management program at the UF and Louisiana State University (LSU). The research was performed with students in their second semester of their junior year in the program. The ART study was developed for implementation in the first of two estimating classes in the program. The estimating I class is the first class that exposes the students to the construction estimating process. The student learning objectives for this course are:\n5. Experimental considerations: 5.1 Augmentation procedure\n6. Experimental procedures: In order to assess the effectiveness of AR in enhancing educational experiences, a study was conducted involving students enrolled in an estimating 1 course at the UF and LSU. All participation in this study was voluntary and participants were informed of their rights based on the regulations of both the UF and LSU Institutional Review Boards. Consent forms were signed by the participants following the explanation of the purpose of the study, as well as what would be required of them during their participation. The standard lectures regarding masonry and roof construction estimating were used in various combinations with the developed ART-enhanced videos in order to attain an effective means for data analysis upon the conclusion of the study. Throughout the study, students were provided with all of the lecture materials and information outlined in the course curriculum and given makeup lectures when necessary to ensure that there was no impact on their regular learning experience.\n7. Results: 7.1 Masonry assembly results\n8. Discussion of results: The results for both the masonry and roofing portions of this study showed the effectiveness of ART in enhancing educational experiences for construction management students. The masonry wall assembly test results showed that the augmentation video increased the students' understanding of the brick veneer wall elements. The group that had access to the lecture and video (group B) showed the highest benefits. That means that the augmentation video helped stress the concepts and elements introduced in class. The video helped those students visualize and be able to remember the brick ties and flashing elements of the wall more clearly. In addition, students that had access to the video without the lecture remembered the brick ties more than the students who were exposed to the lecture only. However, those students did not know the correct terminology since it was not mentioned in the video. Therefore, the best outcome can be achieved by exposing the students to the augmentation video as a supplement to the class instead of a complete replacement.\n9. Conclusions: The implementation of ART for construction management applications is rapidly evolving and being considered in new ways. However, there is still a lot of work to be done before such technology finds main stream use to enhance the experiences of construction management students. This research is a first step in determining the effectiveness of ART for enhancing construction education experiences and discovering how to optimize its use. The ability to further develop students' spatio-temporal understanding of the complex problems which pervade the construction industry is a crucial part of preparing them to enter the workforce.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: New methods to introduce topics in classrooms are needed to enhance the construction management educational experience. One of these new methods is showing real time videos that highlight the various elements of concern in the classroom lecture. The purpose of this paper is to use augmented reality technology (ART) and a layer of artificial visualizations to simulate the environmental context and spatio-temporal constraints of various construction processes. The superimposition of images serves as an instructional mechanism to virtually incorporate jobsite experiences into classrooms. This enhancement of spatio-temporal constraints enables learners to visualize context and hidden processes otherwise unattainable through traditional classroom lectures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A significantly improved perception of reality is created through the combination of the learners' ability to understand the complexity of construction products (e.g. assemblies) and associated jobsite processes by viewing the real environment augmented with computer-generated information layers.\nFindings: Testing the ART video in a classroom with undergraduate construction management students showed that students who were exposed to the ART video were able to remember and identify the highlighted elements in the corresponding assembly more effectively than those who were not.\nOriginality/value: ART is a valuable tool in enhancing classroom learning and gives educators a teaching advantage when they combine traditional classroom lectures with ART enabled media.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Which moral hazard? Health care reform under the Affordable Care Act of 2010
|
[
"Insurance",
"Risk",
"Health care reform",
"Actuarial",
"Adverse selection",
"Moral hazard",
"Law of large numbers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as the ACA or \"Obamacare.\" Often marketed as the most important health care reform in the USA since Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s, the new legislation seeks to reduce the proportion of uninsured Americans by expanding both private and public insurance coverage, reducing the costs of health care for individuals and the government, and improving the quality and scope of health benefits.\nMoral hazard: two competing views?: The dominant economic literature finds moral hazard the key problematic of risk and insurance management in health care. The seminal work on this subject depicts it in terms of increased demand for, and consumption of, health care when people are insured (Arrow, 1963). Further research tends to indicate that insureds have ex ante suboptimal incentives to take preventive measures and maintain good health since the costs are borne by another party (Ehrlich and Becker, 1972; De Preux, 2011), and ex post optimal incentives to over-utilize (free or highly subsidized) insurance coverage (Pauly, 1968; Zweifel and Manning, 2000). Hence, the lower the price of health care, the higher the incentive effect (Cameron et al., 1988).\nHealth insurance, American style: Besides the problem of hidden action, insurers are typically faced with the problem of hidden information or adverse selection, because consumer intentions in purchasing insurance cannot be known beforehand. Moral hazard and adverse selection thus constitute two sides of the same coin (i.e., asymmetric information in insurance markets). Together, they offer a framework for explaining the historically exclusive evolution of health insurance, and why universalization of health care had been largely an elusive goal in the USA.\nManaging and marketing health care reform: This section identifies and analyzes salient ACA provisions in which morally hazardous behavior is anticipated or partially observed, as empirical data are insufficient at this time. We then distinguish between their welfare-decreasing (or undesirable) and welfare-increasing (desirable) moral hazard consequences. Undesirable moral hazard produces welfare losses to society as a whole. Desirable moral hazard is welfare-increasing because the value and necessity of extra health care consumption equal or outweigh its cost (Nyman, 2003, 2004). In that instance, associated inefficiencies are reduced.\nDiscussion: There are myths that inevitably grow around economic theory. In the case of health risk and insurance management, perhaps none is longer standing than the myth that any form of moral hazard is perforce inefficient, and therefore, undesirable. Conventional theory holds that full insurance leads to increased (even unnecessary) utilization of health care since cost is borne by a third party (the insurer) rather than by the patient or physician. Inefficiency arises from the difference between the high cost of producing health care based on its actual market price, and its relatively low value to the insured when it is highly subsidized or free. The resulting price-reduction payoff underlies the axiom of risk-avoidance that many economists and actuaries use to explain why people purchase insurance: they prefer the certain loss of paying premiums over the uncertain cost of self-insuring for risky events. This negative attribution bias of moral hazard continues to dominate the economic literature. It also forms one common denominator of the varied opposition to health care reforms under the ACA, whether politically motivated or not.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Moral hazard is a concept that is central to risk and insurance management. It refers to change in economic behavior when individuals are protected or insured against certain risks and losses whose costs are borne by another party. It asserts that the presence of an insurance contract increases the probability of a claim and the size of a claim. Through the US Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, this study seeks to examine the validity and relevance of moral hazard in health care reform and determine how welfare losses or inefficiencies could be mitigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is divided into three sections. The first contrasts conventional moral hazard from an emerging or alternative theory. The second analyzes moral hazard in terms of the evolution, organization, management, and marketing of health insurance in the USA. The third explains why and how salient reform measures under the ACA might induce health care consumption and production in ways that could either promote or restrict personal health and safety as well as social welfare maximization.\nFindings: Insurance generally induces health care (over) consumption. However, not every additional consumption, with or without adverse selection, can be considered wasteful or risky, even if it might cost insurers more in the short run. Moral hazard can generate welfare and equity gains. These gains might vary depending on which ACA provisions, insured population, covered illnesses, treatments, and services, as well as health outcomes are taken into account, and because of the relative ambiguities surrounding definitions of \"health.\" Actuarial risk models can nonetheless benefit from incorporating welfare and equity gains into their basic assumptions and estimations.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study which examines the ACA in the context of the new or alternative theory of moral hazard. It suggests that containing inefficient moral hazard, and encouraging its desirable counterpart, are prime challenges in any health care reform initiative, especially as it adapts to the changing demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the insured population and regulatory landscape of health insurance in the USA.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Lost in translation? Cross-language thematic analysis in tourism and hospitality research
|
[
"Methodology",
"Qualitative research",
"Thematic analysis",
"Translation",
"Tourism and hospitality",
"Cross-language"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Thematic analysis (sometimes also known as thematic network analysis) is a qualitative technique that has become increasingly popular in tourism and hospitality studies in recent years; it is a methodologically flexible tool useful for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within empirical material such as interviews, media articles and even images (Walters, 2016). In this method, the researcher goes through a six-phase iterative analysis process to identify the main themes and construct a network of related themes to facilitate the structuring and interpretation of the material (Attride-Stirling, 2001; Braun and Clarke, 2006; Walters, 2016). However, for the bilingual researcher, methodological issues related to the timing of translation when applying this method have been overlooked in the literature. Here \"timing\" refers to the point in the process where the material is translated from the source language into the target language. In this research paper, a practical model is developed to provide bilingual researchers with an epistemologically, methodologically and ethically sound rationale for the timing of translation during thematic analysis.\nLiterature review: Cross-language research and translation\nConducting thematic analysis: Thematic analysis is a useful method for researchers working within an interpretivist paradigm who are seeking a deeper, richer, more nuanced understanding of their empirical material (Braun and Clarke, 2006), and in tourism and hospitality studies, it has most commonly been applied to the analysis of interview transcripts (Walters, 2016). It is flexible enough to allow for a latent or semantic, inductive or deductive and interpretive rather than descriptive analysis (Attride-Stirling, 2001; Braun and Clarke, 2006). The use of web-like network diagrams in the final phase of analysis affords a useful visual representation of the themes, and provides a tool for describing, exploring and reporting the findings in a way that helps the reader make sense of how the material was interpreted (Attride-Stirling, 2001). The six phases of thematic analysis are described below, and although it is presented as a linear process, it must be recognised that thematic analysis is iterative and recursive and the researcher is constantly moving back and forth between the phases (Attride-Stirling, 2001; Braun and Clarke, 2006). Trustworthiness is also discussed in regards to conducting thematic analysis, as this has implications for the timing of translation when using this method. For bilingual researchers, deciding when to translate has important consequences for the subsequent trustworthiness of the research, as it relates to notions of accuracy, inclusivity, consistency and transparency during the analytic process (Braun and Clarke, 2006).\nTranslation timing model: For the bilingual researcher there are three potentially logical points during the qualitative research process at which to perform the translation from source language to English: at the beginning before the analysis, at some point during the analysis and at the end after the analysis (Figure 1) (Santos et al., 2015). The advantages and disadvantages of each of these points is first discussed in relation to thematic analysis. While two of these translation points (A and B) may be appropriate under certain circumstances, it is argued that there are more advantages for adopting Translation Point C as the preferred practical option for the bilingual researcher seeking an epistemologically, methodologically and ethically sound justification for when to translate during thematic analysis.\nDiscussion of the translation timing model (Translation Point C): In implementing thematic analysis, the researcher is engaged mostly with codes and themes rather than the whole initial data set of transcripts in the source language. Indeed, four out of six phases require the researcher to be directly involved working with varying levels of the themes. In other words, thematic analysis primarily occupies the researcher with identifying, systematising, theorising and analysing the key contextual extracts (codes) and themes as well as the relations between them. Consequently, when translation is required, ideally the same key codes, themes and relationships should receive focused attention (Braun and Clarke, 2006).\nConclusion: In cross-cultural studies, language differences are often perceived as a barrier (Squires, 2009). To ensure that their work is presentable and publishable in the international English-dominant world of knowledge, researchers must translate the source language into English (Regmi et al., 2010; Santos et al., 2015). However, despite the cross-cultural and cross-language nature of many of tourism and hospitality studies the epistemological, methodological and ethical decisions related to how to approach translation have received inadequate attention. This critical discussion about translation has also been overlooked by the majority of tourism and hospitality researchers who have used thematic analysis in their studies. Addressing this underlying gap, the main contribution of this paper was the development of a model for translation timing during the iterative process of thematic analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Tourism and hospitality research is frequently cross language in nature; yet, English is the most used language to disseminate research findings. The use of thematic analysis is increasing; yet, critical discussions of the implications of the timing of translation when applying this method are rare. The purpose of this study is to present a model for bilingual researchers undertaking qualitative studies in their mother language who are reliant on their own language skills to translate and overcome language differences, and who are using thematic analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Thematic analysis is a six-phase iterative analysis process during which the main themes are identified and a network of related themes is constructed to facilitate the interpretation of the material. The model is illustrated through reference to a research project carried out by the first author on the role and manifestation of intangible cultural heritage in tourism in protected areas in Iran.\nFindings: The model introduces translation as an internal procedure within thematic analysis, situating it between the second and third phases when the codes are being consolidated into basic themes. Translation is viewed as a part of the iterative process of thematic analysis.\nOriginality/value: This model is the first to provide bilingual cross-language researchers with a practical and epistemologically, methodologically and ethically sound rationale for the timing of translation when using thematic analysis. While it was developed on a tourism case study, the authors believe it is applicable to research in other disciplines where cross-language qualitative analysis is used.\n",
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] |
Strategic sourcing in the textile and apparel industry
|
[
"United States of America",
"Textile industry",
"Buyers",
"Suppliers",
"Channel relationships",
"Sourcing",
"Buyer‐supplier relationship",
"Performance",
"Strategic sourcing",
"Supplier evaluation",
"Textile and apparel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Strategic sourcing in the textile and apparel industry has received increasing attention over the last decade due to two important developments. First, textile and apparel firms have increasingly been competing in dynamic and complex world marketplace, considering continual changes and uncertainties in product availability, prices, and competition (MacCarthy and Jayarathne, 2012; Bruce and Daly, 2011; Kumar and Arbi, 2008; Akesson et al., 2007). Second, the prominence of effectively managing global textile and apparel supply chain has increased. Business managers are thinking of new strategies and implementing new practices to increase firm performance.The textile and apparel industry is a classical representation of global supply chain, which is characterized by the significant contribution to world economy and international trade, the numerous steps and the diverse activities in the chain, the extremely worldwide spread supply network, the tremendous competition in global market, the varying product and quality specifications being managed and the volatility of consumer preferences (MacCarthy and Jayarathne, 2012; Bruce and Daly, 2011; Abernathy et al., 2006). The textile and apparel industry not only includes industrial segments of fiber, fabric, and apparel production, but also consists of marketing, distribution, and retail operations of apparel and textile products. The nature of the textile and apparel industry and the increased pressures from fickle consumers and uncertain business environment are making more and more firms to recognize the strategic role that sourcing can play in achieving sustainable competitive advantage (MacCarthy and Jayarathne, 2012; Bruce and Daly, 2011; Kumar and Arbi, 2008). One method of improving a firm's competitiveness in managing the globally extended textile and apparel supply chain is through the strategic approaches to worldwide suppliers. Going far beyond cost considerations, sourcing decisions affect the production, marketing, distribution and financial strategies that a firm can put into effect. Top management in textile and apparel firms are developing and implementing more proactive sourcing strategies to deal with environmental changes, risks and uncertainties.The objective of this paper is to investigate the role of strategic sourcing in improving textile and apparel firms' performance, specifically the effect of strategic sourcing on buying firm's buyer-supplier relationship, supplier evaluation, and sourcing performance. In the following section, the relevant literature review is presented; then, the research conceptual framework and the hypotheses are developed. Subsequently, the research methodology is described, followed by the data analysis and results. The paper discusses the results and implications in Section 6. Finally, the paper provides conclusions and future study directions.\n2 Literature review: This section presents the literature on the theoretical background of this study and the research constructs, specifically strategic sourcing, buyer-supplier relationship, and supplier evaluation.2.1 Theoretical background\n3 Conceptual framework and hypotheses: 3.1 Linking strategic sourcing to buyer-supplier relationship\n4 Methodology: 4.1 Research design\n5 Analysis and results: A comparison was made between the respondents who responded immediately with those who responded after follow-up steps were implemented to examine non-response bias. t-tests were performed on the items included in the research model. No statistically significant differences were found among the early and late respondents, indicating that non-response bias was not a problem in this study. To investigate the relationships in the conceptual model, structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis based on the maximum likelihood estimation method was carried out using LISREL 8.8.5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6 Discussion and implications: The objective of this research is to better understand the role and the performance outcomes of strategic sourcing. Based on the data analysis results, several key insights emerge, which lead to discussion of the findings and the theoretical and managerial implications.6.1 The influence of strategic sourcing on buyer-supplier relationship, supplier evaluation, and sourcing performance\n7 Conclusions: This study contributes to the literature by assessing the linkages between strategic sourcing, buyer-supplier relationship, supplier evaluation, and sourcing performance in the context of the textile and apparel industry using empirical survey-based research methodology. Utilizing a multi-theoretical perspective, the study developed and examined a structural equation model connecting these variables, and found support of the significant and positive performance outcomes of strategic sourcing. Strategic sourcing is increasingly emphasized by textile and apparel firms, so this research fills a gap between theory and practice concerning this trend. The results provide compelling empirical support for incorporating sourcing in firm's strategic decision making to foster firm's strategic and operational competitive advantage.Several limitations must be acknowledged, which may lead to future research. First, considering the complexity of buyer-supplier relationship, a thorough and detailed operationalization and empirical assessment of the buyer-supplier relationship concept and measures need to be developed and refined. Second, the complex and rich relationship between buyer-supplier relationship and sourcing performance deserves further study. The impact of supplier evaluation also needs to be reinvestigated to validate this study results. Third, some of the common limitations of survey-based research apply to this study as well, including the limitations arising from reliance on single key informants for subjective measures of sourcing performance and the need for further research improvements in future studies. Fourth, considering the dynamic, global nature of the textile and apparel industry, future research may consider including business climate factors, such as dynamism and industry competition. Moreover, the generalizability of current study findings to other industries may require additional investigation. Finally, future studies could also reveal other possible avenues for studying the performance outcomes of strategic sourcing in greater detail using a qualitative research design. The in-depth interpretive approach could be fruitful for exploring and discovering new dimensions as well as identifying the actual nature of buyer-supplier relationship and supplier evaluation in firm's strategic sourcing processes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate performance outcomes of strategic sourcing, specifically examining how strategic sourcing affects buyer-supplier relationship, supplier evaluation, and sourcing performance from the buying firm's perspective in the context of the US textile and apparel industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study provides an empirical investigation of a theory-based model integrating the resource-based view and the relational view of strategic management. The model is tested using data from 180 US textile and apparel firms by structural equation modeling.\nFindings: - The survey results indicate that strategic sourcing significantly impacts buyer-supplier relationships, supplier evaluation, and sourcing performance of buying companies. The study also shows that supplier evaluation significantly influences buyer-supplier relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Given that the data are from a specific industry, the generalizability of current findings to other industries may require additional investigation.\nPractical implications: - Sourcing becomes a key strategic consideration for textile and apparel firms to sustain or improve their competitiveness.\nOriginality/value: - The study contributes to the literature by developing a research model based on a multi-theoretical perspective and conducting a large-scale empirical survey in the textile and apparel industry and analyzing the model by structural equation modeling. The dynamic textile and apparel industry is a classical representation of global supply chain, characterized by the industry's significant contribution to the world economy and international trade, the extremely worldwide spread supply network, and the tremendous competition in global market. Examining strategic sourcing's influences in this important industry provides many valuable implications for industrial practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A structured language for manipulating process models
|
[
"Computer software",
"Operations management",
"Machine oriented languages",
"Process planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: A number of software systems are widely used to support and automate business processes (Chang, 2005). Those software systems share at least three common features in developing and modifying process models:1. On the basis of design requirements, users first define process models in software systems, which then automate business processes during run time. As shown in Figure 1, development of process models during build time is one of three main function areas provided by software systems that support process management; it may also be necessary to modify the definition of process models after they are put into operation.2. Graphical modeling languages are usually used to represent process models, which are typically described as ordered business activities (Davenport, 1993; Malone et al., 1999). The Appendix shows some existing process modeling languages. Although different software systems may implement those modeling languages in different graphical notations, they all use nodes to represent business activities (or actions, functions, steps, tasks, and transitions); the ordering relationships of activities are usually denoted by control nodes - AND nodes for concurrence, XOR nodes for exclusive choices (i.e. exactly one), and OR nodes for inclusive choices (i.e. at least one); boundaries of process models are usually represented by start and end nodes.3. Existing software systems provide a graphical \"drag and drop\" interface (p. 199) (Rickayzen et al., 2002, pp. 124-6; Deborin et al., 2002, pp. 7-11; Information Systems Group, 1999) for users to develop and modify process models. Such a user interface typically consists of a modeling window and an element panel or toolbar.(A) Research problems\nII. Related works: To further illustrate the problems in the existing practice as well as justify the necessity of developing a new, alternative method for specifying operations on process models, we discuss existing works concerning manipulation operations on process models.(1) Process modeling languages, standards, frameworks, and tools\nIII. Process models and manipulation operations: Process models represented in modeling languages in the Appendix have common features: they use activity nodes to denote business activities, control nodes to denote ordering relationships, and start/end nodes to denote the boundaries of process models. Those common features can be generalized into standard process models called basic process models. Another important reason for defining standard process models is that a language should \"have an official standard definition to which all implementers adhere\" (Clark, 2000, p. 9); that is, we should define standard PML statements that are used to specify standard operations on standard process models.In this paper, we use UML activity diagrams to represent basic process models. At the end of this paper, we show that the definition of basic process models below is also valid for many other process modeling languages, including those in the Appendix, for which PML can be used.(A) Basic process models\nIV. Process manipulation language: PML statements consist of standard English words (e.g. CREATE PROCESS, INSERT ACTIVITY). PML statements are structured with fixed components. PML is free-format, which means that any part of a statement does not have to be typed at a particular location on the screen (Connolly and Begg, 2001).In PML, a statement is a standalone element that is executable to generate a result. Each statement starts with a command, which is a verb phrase (e.g. REMOVE ACTIVITY) for instructing a computer to perform a specific task. A clause is a part of a statement that does not constitute a full statement and is typically introduced by a reserved word(s) (e.g. WHERE).In the following subsections, we first define the symbols of PML and specify conditions used in PML to represent process constructs in process models. We then define each of PML statements in three categories with examples. Finally, we discuss nested statements. Since PML specifies operations on process models, there is no data type involved in PML.(A) Symbols of PML\n5 Implementation of PML: The use of PML in software systems depends not only on the design of PML, but also on the implementation of PML. Since manipulation operations specified by PML are based on algebraic operations (Bi, 2008), the implementation of PML is also based on this formal foundation.In this section, we discuss the issues of implementing PML. Those issues include database design, automatic generation of nodes and arcs, automatic transformations of control nodes and their incident arcs, and error handling.(A) Database design\nVI. Evaluation: We design PML as a language. PML statements are similar to those of SQL. Hence, we use principles for assessing language design as well as SQL to evaluate PML. We also compare PML with the existing drag-and-drop approach.(1) Language design\nVII. Conclusion and future research: In this paper, we have developed a novel, human-understandable language (PML) to facilitate manipulation operations on process models. PML can be used as an alternative to the existing drag-and-drop approach for developing and changing graphical process models. PML has advantages in supporting systematic specifications of operations on process models and minimizing user effort to deal with low-level details on nodes and arcs.We have two future research plans. First, PML can be extended in several directions.Extensions of PML for OR control nodes\nNote: 1. Supplemental materials (including SM. 1 and SM. 2) are available online at: www.willamette.edu/^hbi/bpmj/supplementalmaterials.pdf\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Although software systems used to automate business processes have been becoming rather advanced, the existing practice of developing and modifying graphical process models in those software systems is still primitive: users have to manually add, change, or delete each node and arc piece by piece. Since such manual operations are typically tedious, time-consuming, and prone to errors, it is desirable to develop an alternative approach. This paper aims to address this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this paper, a novel, human-understandable process manipulation language (PML) for specifying operations (e.g. insertion, deletion, merging, and split) on process models is developed. A prototype system to demonstrate PML is also developed.\nFindings: - The paper finds that manipulation operations on process models can be standardized and, thus, can be facilitated and automated through using a structured language like PML.\nOriginality/value: - PML can improve manipulation operations on process models over the existing manual approach in two aspects: first, using PML, users only need to specify what operations are to be performed on process models, and then a computer carries out specified operations as well as performs other routine operations (e.g. generating nodes and arcs). This feature minimizes user effort to deal with low-level details on nodes and arcs. Second, using PML, users can systematically specify operations on process models, thus reducing arbitrary operations and problems in process models.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Foresight for stock market volatility - a study in the Indian perspective
|
[
"Volatility",
"GARCH",
"Variance",
"P-GARCH"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Stock market of any economy is a barometer for measuring their growth. Economic fluctuations, up's and down's are reflected in the form of stock market boom and bust that is directly linked with the confidence of investors and business houses. For overall growth of the economy financial market is required to be in equilibrium. Steady growth of the market command higher share price and high price earnings ratio that attracts prospect investors.\n2. Measuring stock market volatility: The behavior of the stock market return series is not remaining constant over a longer period of time. Market return keeps on fluctuating in response to the macro-economic events and create risk for ordinary and institutional investors. In return series some stable periods are followed by unstable periods. These random fluctuations are termed as volatility of stock market (Stock and Watson, 2004). Financial market around the globe reflects high level of volatility because of uncertainty in the price and return, unexpected events and non-constant variance (Engle, 1982; Bollerslev, 1986; Floros, 2008). Conventional time series analysis model will not give desired results if a time series is having a non-constant variance or heteroskedasticity. ARCH model was developed by Engle (1982) that considers non-linear, on-constant variance for heteroskedasticity to estimate volatility. On stationary return series appropriate test (ARCH-LM test) must confirm the presence of ARCH effect. ARCH model can be applied (Uppal and Husain, 1999), which can be expressed as:\n3. Data sources and type: For the current study, daily data of closing value of BSE (Sensex) and NSE (Nifty) from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2017 is recollected from the web-portal of BSE (www.bseindia.com) and NSE (www.nseindia.com) for the analysis purpose. During the selection of the sample time frame pre-recession and recession phase is neglected to avoid the issues related to structural break that might cause ambiguity in results.\n4. Empirical results: In descriptive statistics, a large standard deviation suggests high volatility in the market return during the study period. Kurtosis and skewness values signify the symmetry in distribution. Positive skewness value implies a long right tail, which means there is a greater chance of positive outcomes for investors and vice versa. Skewness coefficient value greater than one is considered extreme (Chou, 1969). A kurtosis value equal to 3 confers that the variables are normally distributed (Rohatgi, 1976). Any excess kurtosis (kurtosis-3), positive value would mean that the distribution is leptokurtic (greater risk of getting occasional extreme outcomes in comparison to the prediction by normal distribution) and skewness values 3 and 0, indicates that the time series data is distributed normally. The Jarque and Bera (1987) test of normality confirms the non-normality of BSE and NSE market return. Descriptive statistics of both market indices are reflecting similar behavior that confers strong co-integration between both the markets. That means, both the market will follow a similar trend if one market moves upward (downward), another will also upward (downward), their magnitude might be different.\n5. Conclusion: During the analysis, normal distribution properties of both BSE and NSE stock market return series are analyzed. The significant Jarque-Bera test statistic indicates that the market return series for both the markets are not distributed normally. Negative value of skewness in both the series indicates that there is a possibility of earning negative returns is higher than that of positive ones in BSE and NSE both. LB statistics confers the presence of significant auto-correlations that leads to the rejection of the random walk behavior of market returns. The presence of serial auto-correlation in market returns gives scope for the application of ARCH and its generalized models to explain the conditional variance of market returns.\n6. Implication of research: This study has limited implications for retail investors because they plan and select the stock and market based on the information available through newspapers, magazines and word-of-mouth. There are no statistical models and calculations followed by retail investors their selection of stocks totally depends on individual intuition. However, results of the study have huge implications for institutional investors, research and consultancy firms as they are engaged in advising the profitable and less risky stocks as their decision has strong statistical calculation and analysis. This gives a clear insight that for modeling and predicting the volatility of NSE50, E-GARCH (1, 1) model is most appropriate in comparison P-GARCH (1, 1) model as this model is preferable for BSE30.\n7. Scope for further research: Further, research can be extended by comparing the market volatility among pre-recession, recession and post-recession period to get better insight about market performance. Research work can be further expanded by examining different sectoral indices of both the markets, with multivariate volatility models including multiple market return series. That will give additional exposure about the volatility spillover from one market or sector to another market or sector to access and explore the cross-impact of market volatility. Even the study can be extended more to model the volatility of different developed and developing countries to extract out the best suitable model for predicting and forecasting the market volatility and a comprehensive study can be made in context to India too.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Volatility is a permanent behavior of the stock market around the globe. The presence of the volatility in the stock price makes it possible to earn abnormal profits by risk seeking investors and creates hesitancy among risk averse investors as high volatility means high return with high risk. Investors always consider market volatility before making any investment decisions. Random fluctuations are termed as volatility of stock market. Volatility in financial markets is reflected because of uncertainty in the price and return, unexpected events and non-constant variance that can be measured through the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity family models and that will give an insight for investment decision-making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Daily data of the closing value of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) (Sensex) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) (Nifty) from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2017 is collected through the web-portal of BSE (www.bseindia.com) and NSE (www.nseindia.com) for the analysis purpose.\nFindings: The outcome of the study suggested that P-GARCH model is most suitable to predict and forecast the stock market volatility for both the markets.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research can be extended to other stock market segments and sectoral indices to explore and forecast the volatility to establish a trade-off between risk and return.\nOriginality/value: The results of previous studies available are not conducive to this research, and very limited scholarly work is available in the Indian context, so required to be re-explored to identify the appropriate model to predict market volatility.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Transferring appropriate manufacturing technologies for developing countries
|
[
"Analytic hierarchy process",
"Decision making",
"Technology led strategy",
"Developing countries",
"Microeconomics",
"Macroeconomics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The economic well being of DCs is heavily dependent on resource commitment to and adoption of appropriate technologies and the ability to attain the levels of technological development which could make them globally competitive. As developing countries often do not possess the necessary technologies or the ability to do their own research and development, the technologies needed in the implementation of the competition strategy are most likely to come from overseas through technology transfer (Stewart et al., 2003). If technology transferring is positioned strategically as the gateway for future applications, it can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage for DC. In this respect, the importance of technological transfer cannot be overemphasized. It is the central determinant of long-run success or failure of organizations in DCs. The extent to which DCs participate in the global economy will therefore depend on their ability to invest in and utilize their technology (Hipkin and Bennett, 2003). However, the role of technology in the advancement of developing countries DCs is complex and very controversial (Hipkin and Bennett, 2003) which involves technical, economical, social, and political aspects (Madu, 1992, Al-Ghailani and Moor, 1995). The technology transfer literature discusses a range of factors, such as culture, economic and political issues, knowledge, and strategic, operational and supply chain arrangements (Eldred and McGrath, 1997; Gupta et al., 1997; Tyre, 1991). Past experiences with unsuccessful technology transfers indicate that any failure in considering these factors may lead to failure of the entire technology transfer process itself (Ramanathan, 2002). It is indicated that, to be successful, the technologies being transferred have to match certain requirements of major human factors (micro- and macro-ergonomics) considerations (Meshkati, 1989). Inappropriateness of technology transfers in respect of ergonomics pose immediate barriers which should be addressed as these countries embark on projects to enhance their technological base. Ergonomics provides an approach bridging the gap between foreign and local practices allowing the technology to be adapted appropriately to the host country culture. Therefore, in DCs, it is extremely important to begin with a strategic ergonomics perspective. Analysis of successful and unsuccessful technology transfer experiences demonstrates that management understanding of and commitment to ergonomics efforts is essential to make this approach work. Especially, the level of management involvement in the technology transfer effort goes well beyond simply a technical understanding of the methods requiring also \"buying into\" the philosophy and accepting that the roles of managers in the firm will fundamentally change. Unless a manager has been involved with such efforts previously or receives intensive ergonomics training, it is unlikely that he or she will be able to successfully implement the technology transfer decision-making techniques. Incorporating ergonomics considerations in strategic technology decisions requires a balanced assessment between micro- and macro-ergonomics factors. These 2D are viewed as axes on a matrix, which allows the two criteria to be integrated into a joint decision of the appropriate technology strategy choice for the plant. It is suggested that only through thorough, proactive and systematic micro- and macro-ergonomics studies - i.e. analysis of human-organization-technology interfaces and culture-management-technology interactions - in addition to sound economic and culture-management-technology interactions - can provision be made for effective alternatives to ensure the appropriate technology transfer (ATT), and its safe, efficient utilization by receiving countries (Meshkati, 1989). Based upon Meshkati's (1989) studies, it could be concluded that the appropriate technology is a comprehensive, relative, multifaceted, multidimensional, dynamic, scale-free and evolving concept. Thus, selection and application of appropriate technology should imply the use of both large-scale/capital intensive and small-scale/labor-intensive technological choices. The existence of several choices in terms of technologies, and the importance of soft-intangible technological factors, which often prove to be the ultimate determinants of success in such situations, managers face considerable difficulty in making correct decisions. There is a growing consensus that a holistic approach which includes both tangible and intangible justification considerations has to be incorporated. Therefore, business professionals seek more effective ways to manage the process of technology transfer decisions which includes a multiple criteria matching process and the opinions of several managers. We view the decisions that must be made concerning the ATT for a manufacturing facility as multi criteria, stepwise process involving several levels of decisions. A review of the literature was undertaken to obtain information on possible techniques, which could be used in this situation. We then proposed a multi-criteria model, based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), for the matching process. The model is explained using an illustration, describing in detail the processes of elicitation of the opinions of managers and aggregation of the opinions of several managers. This model is seen as universal and can be applied in the selection of an appropriate technology under ergonomics consideration in any country, but becomes particularly useful in the context of developing countries where the simple transfer of an existing technology from another plant may not be appropriate.1.1 The research objective\n2 In determining the appropriateness of any transferred technology: major micro- and macro-ergonomics considerations: Most of the studies of appropriate technology indirectly and implicitly recognize the immense importance of ergonomics considerations in determining the appropriateness of any transferred technology; they stop short of providing a systematic approach to the proactive incorporation of micro- and macro-ergonomically based considerations into the study of appropriateness of the respected technology (Meshkati, 1989). In attempting technological change and improvement through technology transfer, it is essential to view a firm as a socio-technical system. The model for selection of appropriate technology presented in this paper is a socio-technical systems approach in that it stresses human factors as the critical element in adapting a technical system to the social system. Socio-technical systems theory argues that the technical and social systems must be developed jointly for a production system in order to be appropriate to its environment (Linstone, 1999; Trist, 1981; Hendrick, 1997). The goal of this integration is to maximize the acceptance and effective use of the transferred technology within organizations and to minimize the potential negative impacts. There are good possibilities of using socio-technical systems models and applying them in the diagnosis of any complex human-machine-environment, in order to evaluate and optimally design its organization and work-system structure (Hendrick, 1995). The result of this may be a greater likelihood of optimal system functioning and effectiveness, including productivity, safety, comfort, intrinsic employee motivation, and the quality of working life. A lack of compatibility may have a direct adverse impact not only on system productivity and efficiency, but also on employee motivation, commitment, and intrinsic job satisfaction (Ingelgaerd and Norrgren, 2001). It is argued that this approach would ensure an optimal ergonomic compatibility, integrity and synchronization between the new technology and the system components. Human factors (ergonomics), due to its multi-disciplinary nature, is capable of systematically identifying and addressing most of the critical factors determining the appropriateness of a technology for a developing country (Meshkati, 1989). In analyzing the major human factors considerations in technology transfer, Meshkati (1986a, b) identified four major areas of analysis based on the micro- and macro-ergonomics considerations. The first two are micro-ergonomics based and the second two are of macro-ergonomics nature. Micro-ergonomics consideration focuses on the application and adherence to the findings and principles developed by what is called the \"first\" and \"second\" generations of human-machine technology (Meshkati, 1989; Hendrick, 1987). The second two macro-ergonomically based criteria are concerned with the interaction of human, organizational, and technological variables. Macro-ergonomics has come to focus on the design of organizational and work system structures and related jobs and human-machine, human-environment, and user-system interfaces of new technique to the interaction between organizational factors and the technology used in the organization (Hendrick, 1994, 1995). Macro-ergonomics emphasizes the interactions between, on the one hand, the organizational and psychosocial contexts of a system and, on the other, the design, implementation, and use of technology within that system (Hendrick, 1994, 1995).\n3 Methods of study: 3.1 Background and context\n4 Conclusion: The complex, multi-criteria nature of the process of linking available technologies from the industrialized countries to the companies of industrially DCs under micro- and macro-ergonomics considerations for successful technology transfer has been brought out in this paper. Guided by ergonomics considerations, technology transfer can help to gradually upgrade certain technological capabilities of industrially DCs.A socio-technical systems approach is recommended to facilitate the integration of the transferred technologies to local conditions and available work structures in order to maximize the acceptance and effectiveness of technology within organizations and to minimize the potential negative impacts. If the goal is ATT, the model suggests the ergonomics choices which must be made. The managers should be careful to select technologies that not only involve production technologies but also knowledge and skills that allow them to upgrade these production technologies. They should take into account the broader prerequisites and be aware of the potential pitfalls of incompatibilities related to ergonomics. Integrating ergonomics and technology strategies in this respect has been shown to be useful.This research illustrated how AHP can achieve impressive results in strategic decision making about successful technology transfer under human factors considerations for DCs such as Turkey. The use of the AHP model for appropriate technology selection presents the ability to translate a variety of human factors requirements for an effective technology transfer and implementation. The AHP method provides an opportunity to include and measure qualitative decision factors. In its general form, the model provides a useful and a holistic conceptual framework for evaluating alternative technologies and identifying incompatibility problems in respect to human factors and can be extended to suggesting action for improving the decision process of managers and reducing the incompatibility of transferred technologies.Our conclusion is that without a proactive and systematic micro- and macro-ergonomics analysis, organizations are remaining unable to profit and to sustain the competitive advantage that their technological transfer provides them with. Finally, it is anticipated that our study can help both academicians and practitioners learn the importance of managing technology transfer, obtain ideas about the analysis of micro- and macro-ergonomics issues and where the field is going.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - This work attempts briefly to identify factors affecting the success of technology transfer in order to reduce the potential of incompatibilities in respect to micro- and macro-ergonomics and to optimize the decision process of managers in DCs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was selected as appropriate technique. The decision model developed in this research is specified in the context of micro- and macro-ergonomics view of technology transfer in DCs.\nFindings: - Based on the AHP, it is possible to determine the global priority weights of different technology alternatives and examine the critical factors and benefits that affect the appropriateness of technology transfer based on micro- and macro-ergonomics considerations. In its general form, the model provides a useful conceptual framework for evaluating alternative technologies in respect to ergonomics and suggests the ergonomics choices which must be made.\nOriginality/value: - As noted above, this study is unique in its provides a holistic analysis of the risk factors that are expected to contribute to the inappropriateness of technology transfer, also provides a useful conceptual framework for evaluating alternative technologies and identifying incompatibility problems in respect to human factors, and can be extended to suggesting action for improving the decision process of managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Corporate governance structure and capital adequacy: implications to bank risk taking
|
[
"Financial crisis",
"Banks",
"Corporate governance",
"Capital adequacy",
"Risk taking",
"G21",
"G28",
"G30",
"G32",
"M41",
"G01"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Many failures of financial institutions that took place during the financial crisis of late 2007 have been attributed to poor corporate governance practices that failed to manage bank risk taking amidst a massive economic meltdown. Accordingly, boards of directors have contributed to the collapse of many banks through the failure to: assess risks taken by their institutions; evaluate the vulnerability of banks to economic shocks; and act with prudence (Group of Thirty, 2012). As banks act as effective monitors of other banks' performance, one of the main issues that bank regulators has focused on is mitigating bank excessive risk taking (Furfine, 2001). Bank failures and bank runs occur due to undertaking risky asset positions coupled with opaque, highly technical information in banks. The regulatory interest of mitigating excessive risk taking is due to the importance of banks in financing economic activities and injecting liquidity into the economic system (Bryant, 1980). The opaque and asymmetric information highlights how differences in information available to different parties in a financial contract disrupt the financial markets and adversely affect the economic activities. Although information asymmetry exists in all corporations, it plagues banks more than other sectors. Asymmetric information between bank stakeholders results in agency problems, which affect the efficiency of financial markets, cause a decline in investment, and provide additional mechanisms for financial crises (Bernanke and Gertler, 1989).\n2. Background: The USA risk-based capital requirements increasingly have emphasized the role of bank capital as a cushion to allow banks to absorb adverse shocks. Therefore, bank regulators use risk-based capital requirements to mitigate the excessive risk taking by banks (Abou-El-Sood, 2012). Moreover, they impose certain penalties on those banks that hold too little capital, and reduce the effect of some regulations and allow expanded activities for well-capitalized banks.\n3. Hypotheses development: The structure of large financial institutions gives rise to three sets of principal-agent problems: between management and the shareholders, between blockholders and minority shareholders, and between the insiders and other stakeholders. The existence of blockholders, as a governance mechanism, can directly influence the bank's decision-making as concentrated ownership facilitates monitoring of bank managers and mitigates agency costs (Grove et al., 2011). The effect of blockholders is magnified given the opaque nature of banks and the complexity of banking operations. Although few prior studies claim that ownership concentration is positively associated with bank risk taking due to the monitoring role regulation plays in banks (Park and Peristiani, 2007; Elyasiani and Jia, 2008; Gropp and Kohler, 2010), it has been argued that ownership concentration is associated with less risk taking for different reasons. Blockholders are better able to negotiate managerial incentive contracts to align owner-manager interests compared to small investors (Levine, 2004; Iannotta et al., 2007; John et al., 2008; Shehzad et al., 2010). Concentrated ownership, especially of institutional investors, increases the pressure on boards to become more diligent (Gillan and Starks, 2000). Moreover, blockholders tend to be more knowledgeable in monitoring the management of underperforming entities (Watson, 2005). Concentrated ownership strengthens the benefits of monitoring. As contractual agreements with managers facilitate monitoring, concentrated ownership raises shareholders' sensitivity toward risk. Hence, shareholders have reduced comparative advantage in bearing risk (Heinrich, 2000). Konishi and Yasuda (2004) provide evidence that, when the bank has a large franchise value, stakeholders advocate less risky investments as they are threatened by the possibility of losing a bank's charter, or its franchise value, in case of liquidation. Barry et al. (2011) and Laeven and Levine (2009) attribute the results to differences in ownership structures. Thus, controlling for bank franchise value, it is conjectured that there is a negative association between ownership concentration and risk-taking behavior. The hypothesis is expressed as follows:\n4. Research design: Risk taking is a multifaceted phenomenon that cannot be captured by a single measure. Therefore, the dependent variable (Risktakingit+1) is a novel proxy for the degree of bank risk taking captured in each of the risk-weighted assets (RWA) portfolio, the risk-weighted loan (RWL) positions, and the risk-weighted derivatives and OBS items. The variables used in prior studies have been criticized for not directly measuring management risk-taking decisions. Therefore, data used to calculate the dependent variables are obtained from schedule HC-R in annual FR Y-9C regulatory reports filed at the FDIC. RWA proxies for the degree of riskiness in the bank's asset portfolio. It is calculated as the summation of total assets risk weighted at 0, 20, 50, and 100 percent all divided by the sum of total assets and OBS items[8]. RWL proxies for the degree of riskiness in the bank's loan portfolio. It is calculated as the summation of loans risk weighted at 0, 20, 50, and 100 percent all divided by the sum of total assets and OBS items. For reporting regulatory capital ratios in FR Y-9C reports, the credit exposure of the derivative contracts comprises the credit equivalent amount while the face value of the OBS items is multiplied by a credit conversion factor and then the resulting credit equivalent amount is risk weighted[9]. OBS is calculated as the summation of OBS items and derivative contracts risk weighted at 0, 20, 50, and 100 percent all divided by the sum of total assets and OBS items (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2007). Hence, the dependent variables reflect the regulatory aim of mitigating risk and they tie in well with the regulatory risk classes. For the main inferences, a year and firm fixed-effects model and a two-way clustering technique are used to adjust the standard errors. This specification controls for heteroscedasticity and intertemporal firm-specific and year-specific dependence in regression residuals[10].\n5. Data and sample: The sample consists of US BHCs for the period 2002-2014. The accounting and regulatory data are collected from BHCs' annual regulatory reports FR Y-9C filed at the US Federal Reserve Bank[19]. US banks are required by the Federal Reserve to file consolidated balance sheets and income statements along with other data pertaining to the banks' regulatory capital. The study period starts in 2002 to obtain detailed data of regulatory capital and risk-weighted positions from FR Y-9C reports. Data on ownership structure and board characteristics are hand collected from individual BHC proxy statements filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission and reports available at the Bankscope database maintained by the Bureau van Dijk. To calculate the market value of equity, we use price data and the number of common shares outstanding from the Center for Research in Security Prices.\n6. Results: 6.1 Descriptive statistics\n7. Conclusion: This study is motivated by the policy discussions on bank risk taking and concerns about recent bank governance breakdowns during the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007. An overlooked aspect in prior work has been banks' endogenous decision to modify their risk-weighted investments in adherence to regulatory capital required ratios. This study examines the effect of the bank-specific regulatory capital adequacy on the association between corporate governance mechanisms and bank risk taking. Furthermore, prior work is extended to include measures of ownership structure and board characteristics. Most importantly, new measures of risk taking are used to be in line with risk-weighted capital measures set by US bank regulators.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of policy discussions on the role of governance in limiting excessive risk-taking at times of turmoil.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Corporate governance measures are regressed on measures of risk taking using a sample of US bank holding companies (BHCs) during 2002-2014.\nFindings: Results show that BHCs with more concentrated shareholders, more managerial ownership, smaller boards, and less outside directors undertake less risky investments with respect to total assets, loans, and off-balance-sheet items. Capital adequacy effect is overpowering pushing for more risky positions. Finally, banks with good governance push for less risky positions, even with larger capital ratios, during the financial crisis period relative to the precrisis boom.\nPractical implications: This paper extends research on the association between bank ownership structure and risk taking. It adds to prior research by examining a key feature of banks, namely, their bank-specific capital adequacy. The relevance of this study stems from recent initiatives undertaken by the Basel Committee, the Group of Thirty (G30), and bank regulators to address deficient corporate governance structures that led to bank breakdowns.\nOriginality/value: One of the innovations of this paper is the use of risk-weighted measures to proxy for risk taking in banks, using risk weights used by bank regulators to adjust for operational risk, credit risk, and market risk.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Buttonwood Park, New Bedford: from conflict to partnering
|
[
"Action research",
"Conflict resolution",
"Organizational change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This is a narrative account of a community's effort to mobilize against a threat to its Olmsted Park, named Buttonwood. This occurred in New Bedford, Massachusetts, over a period of three years in the late 1990s. The Friends of Buttonwood Park served as the vehicle for action.While this narrative presents an interesting story in its own right, it also showcases a participatory action research (PAR) approach to organizational and community change. In doing so it suggests that PAR might prove to be a valid way to stimulate, support, and sustain community change in other locales. In addition, the case stands as a welcome example of conflict resolution.Because the PAR approach did seem to be a major factor in the preservation of the Olmsted vision of park usage, I open the paper with1. a description of that approach;2. some comments on methodology; and3. some words on the tools and techniques that I used.I proceed to a narrative account of the action, focusing particularly on the overall strategy for accomplishing the difficult tasks facing the friends. Next I1. document problems internal to the organization;2. note the turning point;3. describe the resolution of the conflict; and4. offer an analysis of the forces that sustained the effort to compromise as well as those that undermined that effort.I close with additional reflections on PAR method and theory.\nParticipatory action research: method, methodology, tools, and techniques: The methodology that I use flows from a theory of social change. Since that, in turn, stems from experience, a brief description of that experience is in order here.A politically engaged extended family and friendship network nurtured my earliest activist tendencies. As a student, I gravitated toward a similar milieu at the University of Chicago. While there I became active in the Independent voters of Illinois, working for the election of an alderman who challenged Mayor Richard Daley at every turn and who continued to question the Democratic Party machine for years to come. Later, as a young adult I became part of a Saul Alinsky organizing effort in my own Southside of Chicago neighborhood (Alinsky, 1989). These early experiences solidified into the pattern of engagement that I have followed throughout my life.When I returned to the academic world (relatively late in life), the formal research that I undertook enabled me to become more consciously reflective about my experience. I began to search for a better understanding of how change occurs and a way to articulate my views more explicitly. The formal research also connected me to a network of others who shared my views.The blending of experience - from political action to community and organizational development - with reflective, action-oriented research led to the following view.1. Change, if it is to be effective, must begin from within an organization or community.2. The seeds of change will generally already exist.3. The role of the action researcher, then, is to work from a position within an organization where h/she can:* locate the change agents;* support them by providing whatever resources they need;* help legitimize their behavior;* help them gather information and learn how to continue to do this in the future; and* disseminate information about the experience to others.Once immersed in the literature of qualitative methodologies I found an eloquent statement of my own emerging theory of change in the work of William Foote Whyte. The theoretical framework that he described in \"The Social sciences in the University\" which he labeled \"Participatory Action Research\" fit the approach I had informally taken (Whyte, 1991a, b). The work of Max Elden and Mort Levin on cogenerative learning, which is a type of PAR, fit as well (Elden and Levin, 1991). I will now describe the PAR method, methodology, tools and techniques in more detail.The method\nBackground: Buttonwood Park reflects a design offered to the City of New Bedford in 1894 by Charles Elliot of Olmsted, Olmsted, and Elliot. (Among the parks designed by this firm are Central Park in New York, the Public Gardens in Boston, and Lincoln Park in Chicago.) Although the city had never officially adopted the Olmsted plan, in 1987 the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (DEM) included the park in its Olmsted Historic Landscape Preservation Program. It did so in the belief that Buttonwood Park of the late 1980s had incorporated enough of the original Olmsted plan to deserve inclusion. With the Olmsted designation came a DEM grant of $1,000,000 to the City of New Bedford to create - and begin to implement - an Olmsted Master Plan for the Park (Kestenbaum, 1989).In 1988, when the Buttonwood Park Master Plan was completed, representatives of the Commonwealth asked Jean Bennett, who had been active in the master planning process, to create the Friends of Buttonwood Park. The organization was to function as park steward and oversee the implementation of the master plan.For the next two or three years, the Friends' organization consisted of the founder and others who had been engaged in the public planning process that yielded the Olmsted-vision master plan. By 1992, another president took the helm and guided the organization's activities with the help of a small group of people from the immediate neighborhood. Under their aegis, basketball courts with night lighting were created, trees were planted and maintained, and concerts and other such events were held in the park.The fortunes of the park were, of course, tied to those of the country, the state, and the Southeastern Massachusetts region. As the economy declined in the late 1980s the \"Massachusetts miracle\" unraveled and money for parks - historically significant or otherwise - disappeared.At the same time, government administrations supportive of historic preservation yielded to less supportive ones at both the state and city levels. The park renewal process came to a halt and the master plan was put on hold. It was not until 1996 that elected officials paid serious attention to the park again. In that year, the Mayor of New Bedford, running for re-election, endorsed a plan to rehabilitate the zoo within the park. The mayor's newly appointed zoo director had put forward this, his own plan, which he had dubbed \"Bio-Park 2000\".\nStatement of the problem: This particular plan posed a dilemma for the Friends. On the one hand, they were bound by their own charter to uphold the master plan for the park, preserving and enhancing the horticultural displays, while safeguarding the recreational and passive spaces. \"Bio-Park 2000\" was not compatible with this charge because it presented a zoo that would intrude on passive space; add rather than remove structures while increasing the size of existing ones; destroy much of the concourse that had been constructed eight years earlier; and increase the size of the black top parking lot.On the other hand, the Olmsted master plan did mandate a first rate zoo. Because the Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA) - the agency responsible for regulating zoos - had given the city the ultimatum, \"Correct the problems or close\", the Friends, had to oppose this particular plan while promoting an alternative one. In the process they had to consider the public's attachment to the zoo - especially to the two elephants, Emily and Ruth that were housed there - as well as the public's indifference to the Olmsted vision. To manage both goals, the Friends' Board created a zoo study committee with myself as the chair.Activist and researcher\nDeveloping a strategy: The zoo study committee tried to join the zoo's planning process, but soon realized that there was not one! In the words of the local city councilor and one neighbor:I'm on the Task Force and I never heard of any meetings either. I think I just went to one. Oh, yeah, then I was invited to go to the other zoos that the architects had done but that was during the day and I work...I didn't get any notice. When I found out and showed up anyway I learned that everybody else had packets and could actively participate. Then I was told that I wasn't welcome because I didn't buy into his (the zoo director's) plan!The lack of public process stemmed, in part, from the zoo director's personality. He was something of a loner who seemed uncomfortable with broad based participation. His own sense of himself as the expert led him to be somewhat bullheaded with a proclivity for trying to manipulate people rather than work with them as equals. By way of illustration consider the following excerpt from my field notes describing a meeting with this director:... each time we questioned some facet of the plan, arguing for the preservation of some important feature of the park, the Zoo Director rejected what we said. He sometimes expressed safety concerns such as\", ... the current concourse was too close to the bear cage and (hence) has to be moved. Or he would rely on the standards of the America Zoological Association (AZA), as he did when he said, \"... they won't allow us to put the infirmary outside the perimeter fence\". Or he might use cost or the concern for the wetlands in and around the zoo ... When one argument failed, he came up with another.Once the Friends realized that participation was not possible they decided to act on their own. The first task was to assess the situation and see where they stood.Assessing the situation\nGenerating a public planning process: Community outreach\nGetting to an alternative zoo plan: Preparing for the workshop\nInternal problems: As the campaign against Bio-Park 2000 progressed, problems surfaced within the Friends' organization, not surprisingly, since the circumstances had changed.Problems due to changing circumstances\nThe turning point: Despite the internal problems, the campaign continued. The turning point came shortly after the first workshop when the zoo director and staff members joined with members of the Friends' zoo study committee to plan the second workshop. There were three main reasons for this turnaround. First, the political pressure the Friends applied led elected officials to exert pressure of their own on the zoo director. Second, the city council changed its stance. Third, the professional architects and landscape architects presented a modified, smaller scale zoo plan that met the approval of the Friends zoo study committee members. The zoo director himself stepped forward and asked for a truce. In response, members of the zoo study committee sent a letter agreeing in principle to a meeting and asking for one as soon as possible. That took place two weeks later.\nBeginning to work through the differences: The Friends' zoo study committee prepared very carefully for the first meeting, deciding what to say, how to say it, and who would say what. They were particularly interested in staying focused on the present and in guarding against the tendency to argue over who had said what in the past. They were also determined to try to hold onto the fact that a major stumbling block - the overly large size and scale of the zoo with a double size parking lot - had been eliminated. At the same time, they wanted to be admitted as full partners in the planning process.In spite of some provocative behavior on both sides and some difficulty in maintaining parity between the two groups, the zoo director and staff agreed that the zoo and Friends would run the next workshop together. From that point on, the overtly adversarial relationship ended and the two groups began to cooperate.\nAnalysis: lessons learned: This case has reinforced my belief in the importance of working for change from within an organization by locating the seeds of change (i.e. the change agents), nurturing them, and offering legitimacy to their behavior. The PAR approach enabled me to understand the situation and get to know the key players. More specifically, it enabled me to.1. Find common, overlapping interests among the different stakeholders in a particular dispute and help them focus on these.2. Locate the pragmatists within each contingent. They, by definition, will be more likely to yield their ideological stance in exchange for an opportunity to achieve some of their goals.3. Help each side to back off from their original position gracefully.4. Work to diffuse personality clashes.Let me illustrate each of these with reference to a specific feature of the case.Overlapping interests\nConclusion: The PAR approach\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To offer a narrative account of an intervention to resolve a conflict and thus enable a community to mobilize against a threat to its Olmsted Park and, simultaneously, to showcase a participatory action research (PAR) approach to change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A detailed description of the action from the inception of the conflict through the partnering behavior among some of the former adversaries. The narrative account, combined with reflections on the role of the researcher as both a stakeholder in the outcome and a leader of the action provides a complete picture of the PAR approach.\nFindings: - There were four main findings. First, the ultimate divide in this conflict was between the pragmatists and the ideologues. The former could finally compromise; the later could not. Second, personality clashes often masked substantive differences. Third, the PAR approach, which combined quantitative as well as qualitative techniques and which crossed political, organizational, and community change boundaries, was effective in bringing about the partnering. Finally, once the crisis was over, the PAR researcher could not continue in that role.\nPractical implications: - PAR practitioners have a role to play in situations where they share the stake that others have in the outcome of change.\nOriginality/value: - Offers a contribution to the very sparse literature on PAR as well as some practical advice on community activism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ethical fashion: myth or future trend?
|
[
"Ethics",
"Fashion industry",
"Buying behaviour",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Germany",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The ethical consumer market is going through a significant period of growth. Also in the fashion industry a change is taking place. New ethical fashion brands, such as American Apparel and People Tree, are trying to bring a fresh approach to the market and to gain interest from the ordinary fashion consumer. Their recent success and business growth in the fashion market raises the question whether or not ethical consumerism is \"back in fashion\" and if the alteration to a new consciousness really hits the fashion nerve of mainstream consumers of our times. It is debatable whether the majority of consumers would truly forgo their self-interest in order to purchase alternatives produced under ethically acceptable conditions.Surveys have produced evidence that consumers will reward businesses that treat their workers and the environment fairly and sanction those that do not (Creyer and Ross, 1997; Forte and Lamont, 1998). However, limited research has been conducted concerning the consumers' view on ethical issues in the fashion industry and its influence on their purchase behaviour (Dickson, 1999, 2000; Balzer, 2000). Since ethical concerns exist globally, this study has the aim to analyse the effect of ethical issues on consumers' fashion purchasing behaviour in the UK and Germany. In order to fulfil the aim, the research objectives are:* to define ethical fashion;* to analyse the awareness of ethical issues in fashion of consumers and its effect on the purchase of fashion products;* to compare ethical attitudes towards the fashion industry in both England and Germany; and* to examine consumers' attitudes towards ethical fashion.Defining ethical fashion\nResearch methodologies: Primary research has been undertaken to fulfil the requirements of the aim and objectives. A triangulation of different research approaches is chosen to increase the validity and credibility of the research findings. Focus groups as a qualitative method and questionnaires as a quantitative method are used.Focus group and questionnaire\nResults: Results of focus groups\nDiscussion and conclusion: The aim of this research was to contribute to a better understanding of ethical fashion consumption, which is a contemporary phenomenon in western societies. However, the findings from this research demonstrate little evidence that ethical issues have any effect on consumers' fashion purchase behaviour. When it comes to fashion purchase, the majority of consumers are more interested in their own personal fashion needs than the needs of others involved in the apparel supply chain.Even though respondents are aware about ethical problems, it seems likely that their knowledge does not significantly affect their purchase decisions. The reasons for this behaviour are firstly that they feel that they do not have a real choice since large quantities of their garments are produced in developing countries. Furthermore, the \"Made in\" sign is no meaningful indicator of the production conditions. Secondly, they do not feel they are in a position to judge about unethical behaviour of manufacturing companies in developing countries. They argued that Western norms cannot be imposed on the culture of the manufacturing country.This does not mean that consumers do not care at all about unethical behaviour, but it seems not all unethically behaviours affect purchasing behaviour in the same way, especially when it comes to fashion items. Among the respondents it seems that animal abuse creates more sympathetic support than unethical work practices in the apparel industry. As long as the chemicals in their clothes have no negative effect on their skin, they do not care about the effect on the health of the workers and the environment. It is also argued that consumers buy fair trade and organic food because it directly affects their health. Consequently, it is assumed that consumers only care about certain kind of ethical issues and in particular to the ones which influence the consumer directly.The results of this research indicate the interest in a company's ethical conduct seems to be limited. Even negative news about apparel brands, such as Nike or Gap, has not stopped UK participants to continue buying their products because they simply liked them. Although the majority stated that they have negative attitudes towards the apparel industry, this information or awareness is not close to their mind when they go shopping.It seems that the effect of ethical issues on consumers purchasing behaviour is relatively low because respondents cannot avoid acting unethically when purchasing clothing which refers to low or no availability of fashion that suits their aesthetic needs. Ethical fashion can be bought mainly from catalogues but for the charge of higher prices. Furthermore, respondents need more knowledge to be able to act more ethically. They look with cynicism at the brands, which probably all produce under the same conditions. Providing more information, as suggested by Dickson (1999), Mohr and Webb (2001) and Shaw and Tomolillo (2004), seems to be important for consumers to make a more ethical judgement. However, the focus group has also revealed that respondents can be distrustful of this sort of information. A helpful device would be a label containing ethical information in a condensed format and issued by a truthful and reliable source (Shaw and Tomolillo, 2004). Although the majority of the respondents would favour such a label, it is debatable if the implementation of such a label is really that effective, particularly when a minimal number of consumers read a label when they are looking for clothing.Nevertheless, the majority of respondents showed favourable attitudes to buy ethical fashion and see a potential in this approach as long as it is comparable in fashion and price to other fashion brands. As indicted by Henley (cited by WGSN, 2005), if consumers buy ethically, the ethical reason is not the priority of consumers needs or desires. The strongest predictor of purchasing is the appeal of the clothing itself rather than the social component (Dickson and Littrell, 1996; Kim et al., 1999; Shaw and Tomillo, 2004).Similar to other studies (Balzer, 2000; Shaw and Tomolillo, 2004; Dickson, 2005), the outcome of this research revealed that some respondents view ethics to be the responsibility of the corporate sector and government. Nevertheless, the majority of this research thinks that consumers have to take over responsibility as well and have to force companies to act more ethically.Although Muncy and Vitell (1992) and Kotler (2003) argue that consumer behaviour is determined by culture and their specific ethical beliefs, comparing UK and German consumers no difference in consumers' behaviour with regard to ethical issues in clothing could be found. Even though British consumers seem to be more concerned and knowledgeable about issues in the apparel industry, which is a result of more media attention on companies such as Mark & Spencer and Gap, it does not translate it into more ethical actions.It appears that there has been a great deal of openness and honesty in the qualitative study of this research and there is no attitude-behaviour gap as identified by Cone and Roper (cited by Simon, 1995) and Folkes and Kamins (1999). The quantitative research seems to be not as straightforward concerning the effect of ethical issues on their purchasing behaviour. The discrepancies that exist between the focus group and questionnaire results may be explained by the fact that the group dynamics in the groups provided a supportive and spontaneous atmosphere, whereas the solitary completion of questionnaires may have prompted more conventional and politically correct responses. This is supported by Lea-Greenwood's (1999) argument that it is particularly difficult to study consumer opinions, attitudes and perceptions regarding ethical issues as they are a very sensitive area of research and consumers may give political correct or socially desirable rather than truthful answers. Furthermore, focus groups enable the researcher to ask follow up and more probing questions, an advantage that is not available with questionnaires.It is evident from the present discussion that young consumers are influenced in their purchasing decisions by brand image, latest fashion and price. Their esteem needs to get accepted by their friends is of strong importance to them. Perhaps younger consumers have a different ethical perspective than other age groups, which should be investigated in further research.Although the findings from this research did not demonstrate that ethical issues affect consumers' fashion behaviour, it is difficult to draw definite conclusions about ethical behaviour since only a specific age group was examined. Consumers do seem to need more information to allow them to make better ethical judgements and there is a role for ethical fashion companies to communicate this more effectively to increase the potential of ethical fashion.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of ethical fashion consumption. Even though consumers demand more ethical responsibility from companies, it is debatable if consumers would sacrifice their own personal needs to support ethically produced clothing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Focus groups are conducted in the UK and Germany in order to elicit consumers' beliefs and attitudes towards ethical issues in the fashion industry and its effect on purchase behaviour. Questionnaires are administrated to verify the outcome of the focus groups.\nFindings: - The findings from this research demonstrate little evidence that ethical issues have any effect on consumers' fashion purchase behaviour. When it comes to fashion purchase, personal needs motivate consumers primarily to buy garments and take precedence over ethical issues.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Only a specific age group between 18 and 26-years-old is interviewed. Both research methods are undertaken in the area of Manchester, England, and the area of Frankfurt, Germany, which perhaps limits the meaning of the results.\nPractical implications: - Consumers feel that they are often unable to make an ethical choice. Therefore they do seem to need more information to allow them to make better ethical judgements and there is a role for ethical fashion companies to communicate this more effectively.\nOriginality/value: - This research paper gives insight into ethical fashion purchasing behaviour among UK and German consumers and provides information to improve the potential of ethical fashion.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What does change look like? The impact of formal diversity training on mentor awareness and behavior
|
[
"Mentoring",
"Diversity training",
"Unconscious bias",
"Transtheoretical model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nWhy is formal diversity training important?: Diverse staff and an inclusive workforce are critical for innovative, successful research and business practice, clearly demonstrated by the increasing focus of many institutions and scientific organizations on creating a culture of inclusion through initiatives, training and developing best practice.\nTraining: The authors investigated a training program called Mentor Training for Clinical and Translational Researchers, designed for university faculty mentoring postgraduate staff. This was a voluntary training, lasting around 8 h and implemented with 283 mentor/mentee pairs across 16 universities in the USA and Puerto Rico.\nThe study: The study aimed to explore what change looks like within the stages of behavioral change. They conducted structured interviews with 277 participants of the training program three months after they had taken part in the training. The mentors were mostly senior faculty with an average mentoring experience of 14.5 years. The majority were men (64 per cent) and white (93 per cent), with an average age of 50.\nResults: The authors aligned responses with the stages of change described in the transtheoretical model. They found that responses fell into three of the four stages of change:\nImplications for practice: Understanding how the participants interpreted the training, and the subsequent actions they took to improve their mentoring relationships, provides important insights into how future training can have a greater impact.\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: Mentoring plays a key role in supporting early-career researchers, especially those from underrepresented groups. However, many mentors have not received formal training. This study looks at one training programme and evaluates whether the participants reported any change in awareness of behavior, and what this change looks like in practice.\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"
}
] |
The German historical schools in the history of economic thought
|
[
"Economic history",
"Economic doctrines"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The aims of the study\nThe histories of economic thought: One cannot, moreover, be said to possess a knowledge of any doctrine or to understand it until one knows something of its history, and of the pitfalls that lay in the path of those who first formulated it (Gide and Rist, 1948).What economists do and how they do it summarizes all that has happened in the development of economics. If the thinking and practices of economists are not in writing they cannot be part of the history of economics.Historians of economic thought work from the written record to tell the story of how the present came into being. This story is never the same in the words of the different tellers. Histories of economic thought will inevitably differ on many dimensions, according to the intentions and skills of their authors.The evidence used by historians is always a matter of selection. This evidence always has several possible explanations for its origins and place in the history of thought depending upon many things such as the time, place, intellectual milieu and theoretical framework of both the economist and the historian interpreting the evidence.It is important to notice that the histories of economic thought become themselves part of the history of economic thought. The assessments of the historians become an important determinant of how economists understand their subject.The basis for the conclusions of this study is an examination of more than 35 histories of economic thought. The histories are by the following authors: Blaug (1997), Brue (1994), Catlin (1962), Cossa (1893), Dewe (1908), Ekelund and Hebert (1983), Ferguson (1950), Galbraith (1987a, b), Gide and Rist (1948), Gray (1931), Gruchy (1947), Haney (1949), Heimann (1945), Homan (1928), Hunt (1992), John Kells Ingram (1823-1907), Kuhn (1963), Landreth (1976), Landreth and Colander (1994), Morgan (1990), Negishi (1989), Newman (1952), Niehans (1990), Mai (1975), Mitchell (1969), Neff (1950), Oser and Blanchfield (1975), Pribram (1983), Rima (1970, 1978), Robbins (1998), Roll (1942), Routh (1975), Rubin (1929), Schumpeter (1954), Ben B. Seligman (d 1970), Spann (1930), Spiegel (1983), Taylor (1960), Whittaker (1940, 1960), and Zweig (1950).Five books of readings in the history of economic thought by the following authors were also examined, Gherity (1965), Patterson (1932), Rima (1970), Spengler and Allen (1960) and Weintraub (1977). Because some members of the German historical schools had socialist inclinations Laidlers's (1927, 1948) two books on the history of socialist thought were scrutinized.A short description and significant details about what each of these histories say about the German historical schools are given in Appendix 1, \"short descriptions and significant details in the histories\". There are virtually no references to the individual histories in the main body of the paper because of space limitations. All of the statements about the histories are supported by the material in Appendix 1.There are dozens, if not hundreds of histories of economic thought in many languages. See, for example, the history by Cohn (1894) or the great bibliography by Howey (1982). Time and space limitations required the omission of some histories that discuss the German historical schools. Important among these is the work by Hutchison (1953), which I have consulted but have not annotated. Another is the Marxist work of Anikin (1975).The titles of some works of what are included as histories of economic thought do not indicate that they are histories. The histories selected for analysis can best be thought of as a sample of those most commonly referred to in studies of the history of economic thought.\nThe influence of the German historical schools: Economic writers are almost always influenced, though in varying degrees, by the special conditions, ideas, and institutions of the country and the period to which they belong, or to which they have by preference, turned their attention. The effects of this influence are very great, although often unobserved or denied by those who feel them (Cossa, 1893).The importance of the German historical schools in their time is manifested by the fact that they are written about in all but a very few of the major works in the history of economic thought. Such unanimity by those best qualified to judge about influences in the development of economic thought is powerful evidence for their influence during the peak of their power.What about their influence more than a century later? Has this band of German scholars left any traces in modern economic thought? What were their successes? What were their failures?The failures of the German historical schools\nComments about the treatment of the German historical schools in the histories of economic thought: Whoever embarks on the study of the history of economic thought is faced with the question of explaining why the meanings of commonly used terms vary so greatly between the different schools - why some concepts and problems which are of fundamental importance for certain schools are irrelevant or at least hardly significant for others (Pribram, 1983).The treatment of the German historical schools in the histories of economic thought is a strong argument for the study of the systematics of the history of economic thought. It is axiomatic that the authors of histories of economic thought intend to contribute to an improved understanding of how economic thought developed. The classifications they use vary widely.Most histories of thought can be characterized as \"a collection of critical summaries of past theories spiced with short biographies of major theorists\" (Merton, 1967). Partly because they use different classification schemes, none of them can be accepted as a complete telling of the story.The histories of economic thought are not characterized by so rapid a cumulative growth in knowledge as economics itself. The process of the growth of knowledge in the history of economic thought differs from that of economics. Although new discoveries occur, knowledge in the history of economic thought increases mostly by correcting past mistakes and by reinterpretations. Progress in both fields, as in all of science, is measured by the development of scholarly consensus.A related issue concerns the conceptual basis for this kind of history. The question of how the history of economic thought is to be organized was raised above. There can be no definitive answer, for which there are two main reasons. One reason is pragmatic. Scholars will write history however they wish. Another reason is that social and intellectual environments change with time. This requires periodic reviews of the past from the vantage point of the present.Problems of definition or clear elaboration of ideas loom large. An example is a common overstatement of this type, \"German economics, then dominated by the historical school under the leadership of Gustav Schmoller, had no use for economic theory\" (Niehans, 1990). Such statements ignore the fact that the historical method was backed by a theory. What Niehans should have said is that most members of the German historical schools had little or no use for some conventional or orthodox theory.Another, rather commonplace, observation about the history of economic thought is reinforced. Many challenges to mainstream economics, for example, monopolistic competition, ended up by being incorporated in it. If one had predicted that many of the challenges by the German historical schools would end up incorporated in mainstream economics, the prediction would have been correct for only some of their challenges, not all of them.An important question is whether the histories of thought have made progress in understanding the German historical schools. The answer depends upon the aims of the history and how progress is defined. If progress is defined as above, in terms of scholarly consensus, the answer depends on when the histories were written.The older classic histories, as for example, Ingram, Cossa (1893), Gide and Rist (1948), and Haney (1949) were all written before the first world war. They all agree on the importance and influence of the German historical schools in their time. There is however, little consensus about their long run influence, as the examples of the later histories of Schumpeter (1954) and Pribram (1983) illustrate.If progress is thought of as correcting earlier mistakes, there has been little progress. No serious factual errors about the German historical schools appear to have been made by the major historians of economic thought. Neither have there been any startling new discoveries of new material.If progress is thought of as broadening our understanding of economic phenomena, there has been progress. The interpretations of the later texts are sometimes more sophisticated and inclusive than the early ones. Lacking a general theory about what constitutes progress in the history of economic thought, one can only make statements about very specific definitions of progress. The matter is further complicated by the wide variety of assessments of the German historical schools and their members.The way the German historical schools are treated in the histories of economic thought provide strong evidence for the view \"that systems of social thought usually grew out of the conditions and problems of the time and were regarded, in one way or the other, as a solution of the social questions and crises of the era and culture of the writers\" (Barnes, 1948). \"Usually\" is an important qualification because not all systems of social thought develop in this way.With but few exceptions, historians of economic thought have avoided the temptation of assuming that to know and understand the German historical schools it is necessary to know the personal lives of their members.The selection of the materials by historians of economic thought is determined by the aims of the person writing it. These aims can include establishing or defending a viewpoint, approach or school. This is one reason that a single general work rarely can give a full and balanced view of any subject.There are many theoretical gaps in our understanding of why historians of economic thought treat the same people and events so differently. The wide differences in conclusions shows that we need to know much more about the influences on the authors of the histories of economic thought that lead to such wide divergences.\nMore questions of methodology: Here, the very ideas of economic analysis, of intellectual effort, of science, are \"quenched in smoke,\" and the very rules or principles that are to guide the historian's pen are open to doubt and what is worse, to misunderstanding (Schumpeter, 1954).Many questions of methodology arise in the study of the German historical schools. Tracing the heritage of their ideas is a classic case that illustrates the difficulties of untangling direct and indirect influences.Most often, questions of indirect influences arise when economists try to make a case that difficult-to-define factors, such as social environment, ideology, philosophy or nationality, are important causes of some event.In tracing what influenced the development of an economist's ideas, there are many persons, things and events that inevitably operate. One has to be especially careful about ideas that are generally accepted at the time. For example, almost every intellectual of the time thought Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) had found a good explanation for the evolution of plants and animals. Applying his approach to the development of society might have been expected. Ideas that are generally accepted can hardly be considered of great importance in determining the influence of one person on another since these ideas are part of the intellectual milieu.Students of the history of science have generally accepted the premise that complicated concepts, such as the economic role of the state or how the past affects the future involve ideas from many sources. What causes scholarly consensus has never been exactly determined.It is for this reason that conclusions about indirect influences must always remain speculative, even when they are useful and interesting.An example is the question, \"would economics be the same today without the influence of the German historical schools?\" All of the contributions of the members of the German historical schools had forerunners and advocates in other countries. Does this mean that the above changes in economics would have come about without the Germans? This is a case of a more general issue that comes up in questions about who or what caused changes in the development of economics.There is no way to find a definitive answer. History cannot be rewritten. All that can be done is to take the evidence we have and examine it. What it shows in this case is near certainty that the German effort, at the least, speeded up the processes for four undoubted changes, an increased scope of economics, the role of the state in economic life, attention to law and recognition of the importance of history.The decline in the study of the history of economic thought has been documented in more than one place. It is almost unheard of to include as one of the reasons for the decline systemic internal problems. Among these problems is little basic agreement about the subject matter or how it is to be treated. Is it not possible that attention to historiography and methodology might clarify some of the issues and thus bring about more scholarly consensus?Stigler (1976, p. 97) has written, \"the primary task of scientific history is to become scientific: to subject hypotheses to objective tests which the hypotheses are capable of failing\". Although he was writing about biography, his stricture applies equally well to the interpretations of the historians of economic thought. By that standard, most are a long way from being scientific, although that does not lessen their importance.Another methodological question relates to how long it takes before a group of scholars is recognized as a \"school.\" This depends, in part, on the definition given to the term \"school.\" For the present, it seems that it is usually easier to find similarities and differences in retrospect and during formative periods. Related to this, as pointed out above, many scholars put together in \"schools\" would not agree that they belong in it.The gaps in our knowledge about the German historical schools are not so important as the fact that economic historians lack the methodology to remedy them.\nConclusions: The two main tasks of a reassessment are to select and point up what is useful for the present and to get some sense of what has lasted and why.The study of the treatment of the German historical schools in the histories of economic thought demonstrates several things. It seems virtually impossible for historians of economic thought to say anything new about the schools or their members.The historians of economic thought, those best qualified to judge, leave no doubt about the influence of the German historical schools in their time. Although no one today would admit to being a member of any historical school, the schools left a lasting legacy in modern economic thought.A comparison of the present state of economics with what most members of the German historical schools desired shows that many of the reforms they wanted are in place.Methodologically there are special problems in associating the thought of the German historical schools with mainstream economics. The task is inherently difficult. It points up the fact that large theoretical gaps in our understanding of the history of economic thought remain.Until some of these gaps are repaired, we must remain content with the idea that what the history of economic thought ought to be is what it is in the hands of the most able historians.Writing the history of economic thought remains, and will probably continue to remain for a long time, a very individualistic activity. There are few rules; the main one is to shun the use of fraudulent data. What counts is clarity of exposition and the convincing organization of the data that makes up the past of economics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to study how the German historical schools are treated in the histories of economic thought as the background for an exploration of some historiographical issues in the history of economic thought.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study describes the contributions of the members of the German historical schools from a variety of different viewpoints and attitudes toward the history of economic thought.\nFindings: - One conclusion is that several of the things most of the economists of the German historical schools desired are now part of mainstream economics. These include an enlarged scope of economics, changes in the role of the state in economic life, attention to the relationships of law and economics and recognition of the importance of history. Another conclusion is that several historiographical and methodological problems important for the history of economic thought need further study.\nOriginality/value: - The study helps to explain and understand some historiographical aspects of the history of economic thought. It examines practices, principles, theories, methodology and forms of presentation of scholarly historical research on one subject in the history of economic thought.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Age-related productivity decrease in high-waged and low-waged employees
|
[
"Skills",
"Human capital",
"Estonia",
"Ageing",
"Employee productivity",
"Firm employment decisions",
"Labour flows",
"J23",
"J24",
"J31",
"J63",
"M51"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The decline in the share of prime-working-age population (25-54 years) is projected to result in a 19 per cent decrease in per capita income growth over the next 50 years (Manyika et al., 2015). Retaining the current standard of living requires firms to adjust to an ageing labour force. If the age-related productivity decline is not similar for all employees, focussing on the productivity of the groups with the largest decline might yield the greatest benefits.\n2. Theoretical framework: According to human capital theory, the stock of human capital is diminishing with ageing; thus, productivity also decreases with age (Becker, 1994). In the life-cycle model employees maximise human capital over their life-cycle choosing the optimum between working and training or alternatively between different jobs that offer various combinations of training and earning. In the alternative learning-by-doing model, employees learn about market activities while participating in them and their productivity depends on the time they spend in market activities, but also on the accumulation of past market experience (Killingsworth,1982).\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Empirical results: First, we conducted the decomposition of Ilmakunnas and Maliranta (2007) based on two wage groups. In all the models in the current paper we used the same sample and same control variables. The coefficients of hired employees in Table I measure the relative productivity of hired workers in each wage group compared to all staying workers. All the coefficients of interest were statistically significantly different from zero and in all sectors they showed that high-waged were relatively more productive. However, the Wald tests for equality of coefficients indicated that the high-wage and low-wage employees did not have statistically significant differences of productivity in industry (p=0.146), in knowledge intensive services (p=0.147) or in construction (p=0.978) (see also Appendix 3). This result implies the average wage in these sectors does not differentiate well between more productive and less productive employees. High-wage employees were relatively more productive than low-wage employees in traditional services (p=0.006) and in the whole sample (p=0.007). This result contradicts Kampelmann and Rycx (2012), who cannot reject the hypothesis of a flat productivity profile. In contrast, we separate only two categories; including more categories might have changed our result. Concerning the sector-related differences in productivity, pairwise tests for each pair of sectors indicated statistically significant differences between the productivity of low-waged employees in the whole sample and services (p=0.010); in services and traditional services (p=0.046); and in traditional and knowledge intensive services (p=0.040).\n5. Conclusion: The current study aimed to identify productivity differences between high-waged and low-waged employees based on age. Links between age and productivity have been analysed extensively, but the decomposition of the productivity of employees in different wage groups had not yet been carried out. By combining the theory of human capital investment and learning-by-doing there may be cases where the productivity of an individual increases at the beginning of pure work stage before it starts to decline and in other cases it just gradually decreases.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether the age-productivity curve is different for low-waged and high-waged employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Productivity growth is decomposed at the firm level into contributions by hired, separated and staying workers. Based on a matched employer-employee database of Estonian firms from 2006 to 2014 and considering the age as well as wages of employees, a panel data model with fixed effects is constructed to show the relative productivity of each cohort of employees.\nFindings: High-waged employees appeared to be relatively more productive than low-waged employees and middle-aged were more productive than young or old employees. However, the productivity difference between young and old employees was not statistically significant. The age-productivity curve of high-waged employees appeared to be flatter than that of low-waged employees. Only in knowledge intensive services were the low-waged old employees statistically significantly less productive than high-waged old employees. In the manufacturing industry, the young were more productive than in services, in knowledge intensive services the old were less productive than in traditional services.\nResearch limitations/implications: The productivity of employees is only analysed for cohorts of employees.\nPractical implications: Employers can be encouraged to hire older employees because old employees are shown to remain at least as productive as young employees.\nOriginality/value: The decomposition of labour productivity at the firm level is further developed, as the statistical difference between the productivity of different groups of employees is analysed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Critical theory and decolonial possibility in the neoliberal moment
|
[
"Neoliberalism",
"Democracy",
"Colonialism",
"Critical theory",
"Political theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is a sense in which mainstream critical perspectives on neoliberalism have undergone something of a reorientation. If once studied primarily with regard to its forms, developments, impositions and consequences at international (and often global) scales, and predominantly as a force emanating outwards from the west, neoliberalism's increasing dominance as a framework for reason and action within advanced capitalist societies has prompted increased scrutiny for its relationship with, and consequences for, western institutions, identities, imaginaries, values and ways of being (see, for instance, Brown, 2015; Gill and Scharff, 2011; Harvey, 2005; Hill and Kumar, 2009; Springer et al., 2016).\n2. Democracy imperilled: I want to begin by rehearsing Brown's critique on its own terms because I think it is important to have a clear understanding of the concerns and ideas underpinning it, the justifications it gives rise to, and so as not to lose sight of its value as a critical act even in light of the concerns I will subsequently raise against it. A useful place to start in this regard is by noting the considerable debt owed in Brown's analysis to Michel Foucault and his seminal 1978-9 lecture series at the College de France, published as The Birth of Biopolitics. Foucault's investigations there constellated around three core points of interest that also play an important role in Brown's project: to account for neoliberalism as more than a particular family of economic theories, principles, or policies, or even as an ideology, but as a distinctive form of rationality or reason; to consider how this manifests both as a way of governing states and economies and also the individual through the cultivation of a particular manner of living (Read, 2009); and to suggest this as marking a fundamental historical break, not merely the extension or intensification of classical economic and political liberalism.\n3. Narrowing the neoliberal moment: My interest here lies, as I have noted, less with the specifics of the case Brown levels against neoliberalism in this regard so much as the manner - and the potential consequences - of its construction. That is, I am not concerned with developing a competing or \"better\" critique of neoliberalism, but with understanding how the manner in which Brown goes about building her own critique might give rise to certain problems and doubts surrounding its critical status.\n4. Narrating loss, perpetuating myth: The significance of this stretches beyond a simple failure to properly confront questions of colonial power; however, it also supports a political-normative stance that threatens to facilitate its reproduction. This becomes evident when we turn to consider the narrative that this reduction of colonial-neoliberal simultaneity supports. Through her theoretical analysis of neoliberalism, Brown sets out a powerful and emotive story of imperilment and loss. Let me briefly reconstruct this.\n5. Towards reorientation: Through Brown's critique, then, I am suggesting, we can glimpse how a critical theoretical approach to the neoliberal moment might unwittingly come to allow, or even actively participate in, the reproduction of colonial power and injustice. I pick on Brown in this regard not because I think her uniquely or particularly guilty, but simply because her critique offers reasonable opportunity to examine how this alignment with colonial power - which I presume is not intentional - manifests itself in critical theorising, rather than merely that it does. In doing so, it gives us pause to consider how an approach more consistent with decolonial imperatives (and thus also with its own critical ambitions) might be developed. In this final section, accordingly, I want to open out the discussion a little by considering how efforts to place critical engagements with neoliberalism on a more advantageous footing might be directed.\n6. Conclusion: My primary aim here has been to try to ventilate a potential threat located in the way that critical engagements with neoliberalism proceed at a methodological level. I have concentrated on Brown's work in this regard not because I believe it to display a unique (or uniquely acute) failing - and still less out of a wish to fully condemn it - but for the opportunity it provides to uncover not only that, but moreover how, efforts to analyse and oppose neoliberal normality in advanced capitalist contexts might inadvertently undermine their own critical ambitions and place themselves in positions of precarity with respect to colonial injustice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider how practices of critical theorising directed towards present dilemmas of neoliberalisation might inadvertently participate in the reproduction of colonial power.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a critical theoretical approach, focussing on Wendy Brown's recent work on neoliberalism in particular.\nFindings: The paper argues that an alignment with colonial power is evident at a methodological level in Brown's critique of neoliberalism and that this offers indication of how critical theorising in general might begin to reorient itself in ways that better ally it with the creation/promotion of decolonial possibility in contemporary contexts.\nOriginality/value: The paper makes original contribution to understanding of how western critical theorising actively participates in the reproduction of colonial power. Its value lies partly in demonstrating how this occurs in Brown's specific case, and partly in suggesting correctives of more general applicability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Resistance to change in the case of mergers and acquisitions: part 1
|
[
"Change management",
"Transformational leadership",
"Resistance to change",
"Mergers and acquisitions",
"Organization culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and resistance to change: Dating back to the end of the nineteenth century, the concept of M&A is not unique to management decision making. Alluring in their promise of increased efficiency since their very beginning (Economy Watch, 2010), they nonetheless rarely deliver the promised returns. Indeed, \"US sources place merger failure rates as high as 80%, with evidence indicating that around half of mergers fail to meet financial expectations\" (Cartright, 1996).\nCommunication: At the onset of a merger (the \"pre-merger\" phase), not only does early communication reduce feelings of uncertainty, it also limits the possibilities of \"rumour mills\" wreaking havoc on the upcoming merger (Appelbaum et al., 2000a, b, 2007a, b; Messmer, 2006). During the merger itself, maintaining a steady and accurate flow of information is key to reducing resistance to the change at hand.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are inherent to firms evolving in today's business world, whether they be corporate giants, SMEs or start-ups. While the ultimate objective of an M&A is to improve the newly constructed firm's performance, financial and technical impacts are but some of the considerations the organization will need to face. Indeed, employee resistance appears to be a major factor in the overall success of this strategic move. The purpose of this paper, three part, is to provide a thorough overview of the forces at play in employee resistance to change, its influence on the M&A's success, and the ways to address such resistance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on existing empirical studies, industry expert findings and academic reviews, this paper sought to link together the concepts of communication at a time of change, leadership, employee involvement, feeling of adherence to the firm (the four key pillars) and their respective influences in how they may handicap or aid the firm in achieving its M&A objectives.\nFindings: Although it may seem like a straightforward concept, resistance to change in the turbulent time that is a merger and acquisition situation is anything but simple. Classic assumptions of resistance being a negative force or participation being a requisite part of overcoming resistance are challenged. At the same time, leadership and employee feeling of adherence to their previous organization play a supporting role when compared to the significant influence of communication pre, during and after the merger. The ensuing portrait is thus multifaceted and underscores the complexity of handling an M&A at the human resources level.\nResearch limitations/implications: Whilst the paper allowed to identify and link the different factors at play, a thorough empirical study in order to compare and contrast those factors at an M&A's different stages (pre-during-post), and thus evaluate their respective importance, would be commendable.\nPractical implications: In providing an overview of several aspects at play in employee resistance to change, this paper allows a management practitioner to consolidate their knowledge on the process' four key pillars.\nSocial implications: By illustrating not only its - expected - negative outcomes, but by also providing a glimpse at some potential benefits in terms of increased merger performance, this paper gives managers incentives to not always challenge but also embrace their employee's resistance to change as a healthy part of the firm's transformation process.\nOriginality/value: This literature review provides an overview of resistance to change and draws parallels between the concepts explored herein and the M&A situation, which would be useful to the general practitioner undergoing an M&A.\n",
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Leadership development in a global environment: lessons learned from one of the world's largest employers
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Social groups",
"Training",
"Globalization",
"Employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There is no doubt that the economic downturn has taken a toll on businesses worldwide. However, smart businesses are taking steps now to address key learning and insights uncovered during the downturn.\nThe first steps: The sheer size of UPS presented challenges when deciding where to begin. With employees in 215 countries and territories, the concept of evaluating and redefining our company's training, leadership development and succession planning practices, was truly a global initiative that required a step-by-step approach. That is why our preliminary action included conducting a global analysis of our corporate schools, leadership development programs and the state of our talent pipeline. This was an intensive process that included interviews, focus groups and surveys.We learned we needed to ensure our people were prepared to lead the company for the future. We designed programs to ensure our people were:* Strategically minded to connect their operations with overall business goals.* Prepared to manage younger generations.* Prepared to harness the full capabilities of the network, ensuring our people are \"fluent\" with our entire global network.\nLeading the leaders: We came up with a plan for moving forward that covered these three areas. First, to ensure that our leaders really understood how to connect their operations to the bigger company strategy, we spent the last year analyzing our management positions and ultimately developed new leadership competencies - skills that management must possess to help the company meet the increasing expectations of doing business in a global marketplace. We are now measuring manager performance against these competencies, which is helping ensure that all of our leaders have a thorough understanding of UPS's role in helping businesses better compete in today's global marketplace.In addition to the new leadership competencies, we asked members of the management team to tell us, in detail, what they do in their current assignments. We have been able to use these detailed response to develop a comprehensive set of job models that ultimately describe the basic requirements of the various management positions at UPS. Together with the leadership competencies, these job models also provided the foundation for more effective performance measurement. Thanks to these metrics, we are able to better identify high-performers, those who are effective in their job duties, innovative in their approach and knowledgeable about our business and the global business climate in general.\nTaking training to a new generation: Our analysis showed that UPS had to adapt the way we recruit, train and develop young workers. Millennials already make up a one-fourth to two-thirds of the workforce. And, with upwards of 40 percent of today's workers scheduled to retire within ten years, it is clear that we have got to harness the talents of this generation.About five years ago, we began to notice a decline in the performance of our young new drivers. Previously, trainees needed 30 days to become proficient drivers. Younger drivers were now taking 90 to 180 days. We knew that our younger drivers were just as smart. We knew that they had the same potential. But something we had been doing for decades just was not clicking with millennial trainees. And, we had to figure out how to correct this disconnect.With the help of a $1.8 million grant from the Labor Department, UPS studied the ways millennials learn, and with collaboration with MIT, Virginia Tech and the Institute of the Future, we built a high-tech, next-generation training facility called Integrad. We currently operate two Integrad facilities: one outside of Baltimore, Maryland, and the other outside of Chicago.The Integrad learning lab offers many different training delivery modes: 3-D models, webcasts and traditional classroom instruction. There is also a big hands-on training component. For instance, a slip-and-fall station teaches trainees how to be aware of, and prepare for, slippery conditionsIntegrad even includes a replica outdoor city named Clarkville that has real streets and street signs, sidewalks and simulated commercial and residential delivery and pickup sites. Trainees learn to avoid unexpected obstructions in the street and how to drive different-size trucks while simulating ten to 15 delivery or pickup stops each day.The new interactive training methods have been a huge success, especially among millennial drivers. Our young trainees say they are highly satisfied with the training approaches. We did not lower our expectations for younger workers. Instead, we started speaking their language, training them in ways that were relevant to them.\nTalking the talk: Finally, as UPS grew from a small package-focused business into a global logistics company, we needed to ensure our people are \"fluent\" with our entire global network. To really address the need for global competencies, we looked to one of our tried and true company philosophies for guidance: promoting from within.From our earliest days as a messenger service, UPS has always placed great emphasis on promotion from within, resulting in a company managed by people who have extensive experience and expertise in virtually every aspect of the business.To ensure that our company's most promising leaders understand today's ever-changing global business environment, we have made an effort to ensure that as we promote from within, we also look for opportunities to promote employees to international positions. This way, they can gain valuable global perspectives, while also sharing any best practices from their career path. I know firsthand the benefits of these international assignments, as my work in both the USA, Quebec, Canada, and throughout Asia, equipped me with business and cultural experiences that allowed me to better understand our company's global training needs.In addition, globally, UPS conducts special leadership development programs to help cultivate our local workforce for positions of greater responsibility. This kind of investment instills a unique sense of pride and commitment in our people, most of whom spend their entire professional lives at UPS.\nSharing the wealth: lessons learned: UPS has taken numerous strides to revitalize our company's global training, leadership development, and succession planning practices, recognizing some best practices along the way. Companies looking to redefine similar practices should keep the following in mind:* Align your training with your business strategy. UPS is a global business that moves more than two percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) every day. Yet, our training and leadership development models did not take into account that our managers should have an understanding of how the core of what we do every day - logistics - helps our customers compete on a global scale. Now, we are creating job models and leadership competencies that align with our company's goals and priorities.* Start where you are. Keep what works. UPS has always strived to make our managers partners in the company, partners who have a stake in the company's success and are rewarded for long-term service. Ninety percent of UPS's top executives began their careers in entry level positions, working their way up as package sorters or delivery drivers. As we looked to form a more globally minded workforce, we knew that we could leverage our promotion from within mantra to promote employees to international locales, which would help build a more internationally attuned culture.* Assess and redesign talent management and training programs. Millennials are already a huge part of our company - and this generation has only been in the professional workforce for less than a decade. Research has shown that millennials learn differently than previous generations. We had to adapt our training and talent management programs so that they resonate with this generation.* Assess group and individual strengths and weaknesses. Because UPS is a culture that grows employees through experiential development - such as lateral assignments and relocation - we are in a position to customize career paths to meet individual and group needs. UPS has empowered employees who understand the business and have promising leadership potential, to take on various job responsibilities within the company, based upon his or her strengths.* Focus leadership development programs for strategic development. UPS started its first Corporate School in 1946. Historically, our Corporate School programs were instructor-led courses that accommodated about 2,800 managers and supervisors each year. They were very expensive to run and tracked only about 50 percent effective. So, in August 2008, we launched a completely redesigned Corporate School program that aligned with the development of our leadership competencies; kept pace with the enterprise demand for development; leveraged more cost effective, progressive and timely methods of training; and offered a more flexible and customized approach to training.Whether it is taking lessons learned from the recent economic downturn or adapting cultures to meet the needs of younger workers, change is abundant in today's corporate culture. Now is the time to take a hard look at training and leadership development programs that impact your entire workforce to ensure that your company is positioned for long-term, global growth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to share best practices from global logistics leader, UPS, for approach overhauling a company's global training, leadership development and succession planning practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Told from the vantage point of Anne Schwartz, UPS's vice president of global learning and development, the case study shows how UPS's internal research of focus groups and surveys revealed that the company's current training and leadership development programs needed to evolve to ensure success in today's global business environment.\nFindings: - The company acted on its internal research by retooling its leadership development and training programs to foster more strategically minded leaders; better engage younger generations; and make certain its people are \"fluent\" with UPS's vast global network.\nPractical implications: - UPS shares several practical takeaways for other international companies that are also looking to overhaul their leadership development and training programs. Sample takeaways include: align your training with your business strategy; start where you are and keep what works; and assess group and individual strengths and weaknesses.\nOriginality/value: - As companies emerge from the recent economic downturn, the paper demonstrates that UPS maintains that now is the time to take a hard look at training and leadership development programs that impact workforces to ensure that businesses are positioned for long-term, global growth.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Globalising chains - decoupling grape production, wine production and wine exports
|
[
"Wine",
"Markets",
"Trade",
"Globalizing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent decades have seen two opposing developments: regionalisation and globalisation. While regionalisation integrates production in one location, globalisation is largely about decoupling: Cox (1992) emphasises the decoupling between production and demand, Elkins (1995) the decoupling of territorial states and trade, and Menkhoff and Tolksdorf (2000) the decoupling of the financial sector from the real economy.\n2. Theoretical framework: For a thorough understanding of forces that may or may not support a decoupling of grape production, wine production and wine marketing, it is certainly useful to summarise recent strains of thought about trade creation in general. This literature can be categorised in macro-approaches on trade generation and business studies concerned with the internationalisation of companies.\n3. Materials and methods: The study comprised the years 1998-2014, based on data from FAO and Gaulier and Zigagno (2010). This period can be considered relevant from the perspective of the recent reforms that changed the coordinates of the wine trade in this region. As indicated above, our analysis covered each country in the CEE region (Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania).\n4. Descriptive results: Lithuanian and Romanian wine exports: Figure 1 illustrates the fact that Lithuania has become one of the most important wine exporters in CEE (ranking in 16th position on the global list of wine exporters), whereas Romania's exports (despite the country ranking 9th in worldwide grape production) have decreased towards a very low level, incidentally similar to the Bulgarian development. For Romania, this trend corresponds to a steady decrease in the land area cropped with grapes, as described by Ladaru et al. (2014). In Romania and Bulgaria, the problems start in the production sector, which without subsidies would record a loss per ha (-97 Euro/ha in Romania and -236 Euro/ha in Bulgaria in 2015, according to FADN) even in the context of restructuration and conversion of vineyards.\n5. Multivariate results: The Wald kh2 statistic result (38.36) verifies the hypothesis that at least one of the predictors' regression coefficients is not equal to zero. As indicated in Table II, we would reject the null hypothesis and conclude that the regression coefficient for Year has been found to be statistically different from zero in estimating exports. The variable indicates a positive time trend of wine exports from CEE countries, corresponding to a worldwide rise in traded wines. As illustrated in the previous section, this is only an aggregated result. Still, some countries like Romania and Bulgaria faced a clear negative trend of wine exports over time.\n6. Discussion and conclusions: The top-ten wine exporting countries, led by Spain, Italy and France, are all still major producers of grapes. It had been suggested before that many societal movements can first be detected in CEE countries. This pattern can be confirmed by the (admittedly special) case of grape and wine production. Hence, it could not only be confirmed that, for the wine business, the decoupling process of globalisation easily outpaces the tendency of spatial concentration in regionalisation movements. It could also be shown that this decoupling is reaching levels which have not really been observed or discussed before. It should be remarked that this development has been supported by two geopolitical developments: One was the transformation process in Middle and Eastern Europe which made room for entering unprecedented pathways. The other was the enlargement of the free European market which enabled a stronger division of labour without bureaucratic hurdles.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that globalisation (or de-regionalisation) in the wine business is entering a new phase in which grape production, wine production and wine exports are increasingly decoupled. In order to illustrate the case, the authors present Lithuania, compared to Romania, as a case study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors tested the hypothesis that grape production and wine trade are increasingly decoupling. Based on the notion that transformation countries act as an avant-garde where new developments show first, the authors use Central and Eastern Europe as a case in point. The authors apply a mixed and a fixed effects model, where self-sufficiency in grapes explains wine exports to a reducing degree.\nFindings: In the descriptive part the authors demonstrate how Lithuania, since EU accession, has become a major hub for wine trade, importing from the main export countries, and exporting mostly to Russia. In the multivariate section, it can then be shown that this decoupling between grape production and wine exports is a significant development in international terms.\nPractical implications: The division of labour in wine trade has entered a new phase where wine production and wine marketing are decoupled. If extrapolated into the future, this may indicate that in the future world market, grape production and wine production may also decouple.\nOriginality/value: The paper has traced a new and un-described phenomenon on the global wine market. It shows that the division of labour is still advancing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Culturally sustaining pedagogy in higher education: teaching so that Black Lives Matter
|
[
"Teaching",
"Higher education",
"Organizations",
"Diversity",
"Black Lives Matter"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: I had barely walked through the classroom door when my students shouted, \"Did you see halftime last night?\" \"Did you see Bae? She was amazing!\" \"Why was Coldplay even there? The night belonged to Beyonce!\" It was the Tuesday after the Super Bowl, and their staccato questions and comments focused intently on Beyonce's halftime show. Viewing the show at home, through the lens of the students I teach at a small college serving majority-minority undergraduate students in a large city in the Northeast USA, I was ready for these questions and comments. Beyonce is a hero to many of my students. Given the interest, I led a discussion of her performance briefly that day. We discussed the significance of the outfits worn by Beyonce's dancers, which echoed the Black Panthers. Many students were unfamiliar with the group's commitments and activism, so I shared clips from a documentary about the group (Nelson, 2015). The students made connections between Black Panthers and earlier class discussions of the Black Lives Matter movement. The topic for that Media & Society class was the impact of politics on media, so we discussed racialized and gendered aspects of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson's 2004 performance in relation to political regulation of media (Eko, 2016; Billitteri, 2012).\nGoals and motivation: In this essay, I reflect on the development of my teaching over the last three years, as a white professor at majority-minority colleges who has sought to make my teaching relevant to my students' lives. In reflecting on these experiences, I show the utility of Black Lives Matter guiding principles in enacting a CSP in the college setting. This reflection is also fueled by conversations about the importance of white people standing up for racial justice. As Susana Morris of Crunk Feminist Collective wrote after the 2016 US Presidential election, \"White people - so-called liberal, progressive, radical, dare I say \"woke\" white people - it's time for you to do your motherfucking work. Organize, mobilize, and strategize with and for your people. Work on uprooting white supremacy at your job, place of worship, and at the Thanksgiving table\" (Morris, 2016a, b). I am a member of several online academic discussion groups where people of color forthrightly pointed out the needs for white people to educate themselves and take responsibility for racism so that the burden of the emotional labor of fighting racism does not also fall on those who are most harmed by racism. As a college professor, one of the most important places I can do this is in my classroom and on my campus.\nLiterature review: Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), theorized by Ladson-Billings (1995), includes three components: academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. The theory has focused mostly on settings in which all or most of the students were underrepresented minorities (Hefflin, 2002). The vast majority of research in CRP is focused on application in primary and secondary schools, particularly in urban and minority neighborhoods (Gay, 2010; Hefflin, 2002; Milner, 2011; Young, 2010). CRP does not separate academic success from success in social contexts (Ladson-Billings, 1992). Thus, teachers themselves work to identify and include educational content relevant to students (Hastie et al., 2006). The focus of CRP is often about lesson planning and making decisions for students (Young, 2010; Milner, 2011). Another concern is how to bring in culturally responsive teaching materials within the stringent mandates of required curriculum and assessment (Hefflin, 2002; Sleeter, 2012).\nBlack Lives Matter as CSP in college teaching: Diversity\nConclusion: In the previous section, I provide examples of using Black Lives Matter to enact CSP in my college teaching. I critically engage in teaching so that students with marginalized identities see themselves, their experiences, and their futures as central to the study and practice of media and communication. I make an explicit effort to engage issues of identity in courses that, in their titles and descriptions, do not focus on diversity, equality, and inclusion. I applaud courses focused solely on Black Lives Matter, as well as area and ethnic studies courses, women's, gender, and sexuality studies, and disability studies courses, which provide focused spaces to learn about diversity and identity. However, attention to diversity and identity must not be relegated only to these specialty courses, which students may inadvertently or purposefully think are not relevant to them. Thus, a CSP approach is important in general education and major courses in primary, secondary, and post-secondary contexts that do not, on their face, necessarily require such attention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how the principles of Black Lives Matter can be used to enact a culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) in higher education settings, particularly in small colleges that serve significant populations of students who are underrepresented in higher education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on examples from college courses in media and society, organizational communication, and interpersonal communication, the case study shows application of the principles of Black Lives Matter in the college classroom at two different institutions in the urban Northeast USA, where the majority of the students are young people of color and/or first-generation college students.\nFindings: The paper shows how founding principles of Black Lives Matter, particularly diversity, intersectionality, loving engagement, and empathy, can be used to guide concrete pedagogical practices. It provides examples of how to use Black Lives Matter as a framework to enhance and improve college teaching to make it more diverse and inclusive.\nResearch limitations/implications: This case study is based on the author's experiences teaching at two majority-minority colleges in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA. This paper is not the result of a systematic research study.\nPractical implications: This paper has significant implications for how to enact CSP in higher education settings. This paper is valuable to those looking for specific strategies to include more diverse and inclusive teaching strategies. This research also shows both the utility and impact of Black Lives Matter when applied to higher education.\nSocial implications: This paper improves public understanding of Black Lives Matter as a social movement.\nOriginality/value: Since the Black Lives Matter movement is fairly new, there is limited academic research on it. Further, there has not been attention to how Black Lives Matter provides insight into pedagogy, particularly in higher education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding pathways of poor and vulnerable communities
|
[
"Risk assessment and horizon scanning",
"Systems thinking",
"Issue‐to‐indicator",
"Policy options",
"Indicators",
"Risk analysis",
"Communities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPurpose and value: In partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, the RAHS Programme Office (RPO) of the National Security Coordination Secretariat at the Prime Minister's Office in Singapore has undertaken the innovative approach of the Searchlight function to systematically make sense of the current contextual environment to be better positioned to anticipate the future of poor and vulnerable communities (see Plate 1). The Rockefeller Searchlight function stems from the growing global efforts of governments, businesses and other non-profit organisations to tackle emerging challenges and integrate actionable foresight from a range of geographical regions.As a visualisation partner, RPO will present a diversity of perspectives through the utilization of its risk assessment and horizon scanning (RAHS) processes and tools to help understand the pathways of poor and vulnerable communities. Bringing the analysis to the next level, the notion of forward-looking multi-dimensional analysis augmented by RAHS processes and technology aims to shed light on the possibilities ahead to improve the lives of poor and vulnerable communities by deepening the appreciation of cross-cutting themes, emerging issues and possible policy options to address these issues.This paper will outline the approach taken (Figure 1) and offer a glimpse into the next steps as we prepare for the upcoming Rockefeller Searchlight meeting in 2012.Firstly, taking together the accumulated expertise and knowledge from the Searchlight trend monitoring newsletters, RPO has applied its SKAN-to-Trend process, which helped systematically funnel down newsletters and generate themes for investigation. This process is augmented by our RAHS system, which provides end-to-end capabilities used to collect and classify data generated from these newsletters to analyse and understand relationships therein, and anticipate as well as discover emerging issues. In particular, the research and analysis tools allowed the analyst to closely examine signals collected through the application of analytical and visualisation techniques.In addition to the use of the research and analysis capability block in the RAHS system, the SKAN-to-Trend process was also augmented by the scenario building capability block of the RAHS system. The scenario building tools allowed the RPO analysts to use systems thinking to build systems maps and influence diagrams to help identify critical drivers based on influence and to understand the relationships between driving forces. From the systems map, critical feedback loops were identified and analysed, and evidence marshalled to support alternative policy options to help overcome the vicious cycles of the poor and vulnerable communities.Going forward, this paper will also outline the application of another RAHS process, the issue-to-indicator process, or I-to-I process for short, which will help track key issues that arose from earlier efforts of generating thematic insights. This I-to-I process will serve to generate and prioritise indicators and subsequently identify appropriate sources to track these indicators through so as to understand how emerging issues are developing. Through this methodology of synthesis incorporating processes, technology and visualisations, RPO is confident that the generated analysis will serve to enhance pro-poor foresight.\nApproach: The SKAN-to-Trend process is an eight-step analytical process that was developed by RPO to identify themes and develop insights from a rich pool of related content. The key steps of the SKAN-to-Trend process will be discussed below in greater detail.Step 1: Developing the research question\nApplying systems thinking concepts to analyse key insights: The use of systems thinking allowed the analyst to understand how issues influence one another. Systems thinking is based on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect and has been used as an approach to problem solving by viewing problems as parts of an overall system, rather than reacting to specific part, outcomes or events.Figure 11 illustrates reinforcing and balancing loops that was used to examine pertinent relationships based on key thematic insights gathered from the outputs of the SKAN-to-Trend process.Based on Figure 11, the blue and red arrows represent direct and indirect relationships, respectively. The weight of relationships is represented by the thickness of the arrow (i.e. the thicker the arrow, the stronger the relationship between the nodes, and vice versa).By applying systems thinking, this section will illustrate how the RAHS scenario building tools may be used to develop systems maps to highlight interesting feedback loops related to the discussion of poor and vulnerable communities.The analyst developed a systems map in the RAHS system (Figure 12) to describe the dynamics of the poor or vulnerable communities based on thematic insights gathered as outputs of the SKAN-to-Trend process (Figures 8-10). These were represented using 13 nodes (see boxes in map in Figure 12):1. demand for healthcare;2. technology and patents;3. water and sanitation;4. food production;5. green transport systems;6. political stability;7. judicial reform;8. government capacity;9. access to education;10. urban labour market participation;11. fuel prices;12. extreme weather patterns; and13. investment flows.From the systems map that was generated using the RAHS scenario building tools, the system also generated an influence diagram (Figure 13) based on the relationships between the 13 nodes. These relationships were established by a team of analysts and subject matter experts through the drawing of arrows.As identified by the influence diagram, the most influential driver is Government Capacity, while the most influenced driver is Food Production. Through discussion, the team decided to focus on the next most influential driver, Urban Labour Market Participation, instead of Government Capacity, as the role of the government was apparent.As such, the selected nodes for deeper analysis were Urban Labour Market Participation and Food Production. These nodes were seen to be critical nodes in the examination of key issues in the discussion of poor and vulnerable communities.Looking back at the systems map (Figure 12), the RAHS system isolated the possible relationships relating to Food Production. This included all the links pointing in and out of Food Production. After the analysis of all possible linkages, the analyst zoomed in on Urban Labour Market Participation as migration to cities affect labour supply in rural areas which in turn affects food production. Also, based on the analysis done earlier using the SKAN-to-Trend process, the driver Urban Labour Market Participation featured strongly in the Economic and Financial-related domains. These links are highlighted in the systems map (Figure 14).\nDeveloping alternative policy options to overcome vicious cycles: By identifying the linkages between Urban Labour Market Participation and Food Production, which are highly influential and influenced nodes respectively, the analyst was able to generate all feedback loops containing these nodes from the systems map. Identifying feedback loops containing highly influential and influenced nodes will allow policy-makers to develop highly targeted policy responses that could yield effective outcomes across a wide range of areas.By exploring these feedback loops, the analyst selected the feedback loop highlighted in Figure 15 in view of its less than favourable outcomes. A narrative was developed to make sense of the loop based on evidence gathered from the short-listed articles.For Arrow 1, it was found from the newsletters that adequate food production maintained political stability by preventing popular discontent. For Arrow 2, governments were largely free to pursue judicial reforms in the absence of political turmoil. For Arrow 3, gender equity and child development reforms supported children access to education. For Arrow 4, better educated youths were entering the urban labour market where required wages and skills were higher. However, for Arrow 5, urban migration reduced available labour on rural farms, which in turn decreased food production levels.The key takeaway from this balancing feedback loop was that Arrow 5 (seen in red) is not favourable as urban migration reduces available labour on rural farms, decreasing food production levels. To address this outcome, the analyst proceeded to explore other feedback loops generated from the Systems map. An alternative feedback loop, containing similar nodes (see Figure 16) was selected to show how less favourable outcomes could be overcome by taking a systemic view on key issues confronting poor and vulnerable communities.In the alternative feedback loop generated by RAHS (Figure 16), we see the introduction of two additional nodes: Investment Flows, as well as Technology+Patents.For Arrow 5, the availability of skilled labour in urban areas was found to attract foreign capital inflows. For Arrow 6, investment flows facilitated technology transfer to domestic industries. For Arrow 7, the increased technology use allowed the food industries to enhance their operational capabilities, thus increasing overall food production.RAHS has allowed the analyst to generate alternative policy options to overcome less favourable outcomes (Figure 16). The examination of alternative policy options serves as an important policy tool for decision-makers to engage in forward-looking multi-dimensional analysis to improve the lives of poor and vulnerable communities.\nAnalysing alternative policy options using the issue to indicator process: Similar to the RPO's SKAN-to-Trend process, the issue-to-indicator (I-to-I) process, which comprises eight steps (Figure 17), is an in-house developed RAHS process designed to help agencies monitor key nodes described in the alternative policy option (Figure 16) generated from the RAHS systems map.Using the alternative policy option shown in Figure 16, the application of the I-to-I process may be described as follows:* Generating essential elements of information (EEI). The issue being analysed here pertains to the growing income gap resulting from urban labour market participation. The urban labour market participation node was identified for indicator generation as this was a swing node that could result in either favourable or less favourable policy outcomes (see Figures 15 and 16).* Identifying relevant domains. Identifying relevant domains based on the issues concerned helped frame the dimensions that the indicators would seek to address (i.e. social change, liveable cities and competitiveness).* Developing indicators. Guided by the domains identified, leading indicators were then generated to equip decision-makers with the necessary early warning capabilities to enhance policy implementation.* Prioritising indicators for further analysis. The set of indicators was then prioritised by the analyst based on relevance and importance to aid effective monitoring.* Generating keywords and search strategy. Keywords were combined in the form of Boolean search strings to return a set of relevant search results from the public domain to help identify relevant sources for tracking indicators.* Identifying recommended sources. Relevant content was systematically verified and recorded by the analyst to track critical indicators.* Collecting and monitoring. As the analyst pulled information from relevant sources (e.g. through the use of RSS feeds in Google Reader), information was analysed and reviewed for possible new insights. These insights allowed the analyst to better understand how the issues were changing and influencing the effectiveness of the policy option being explored.Figure 18 summarises the outputs from the key stages of the I-to-I process based on issues related to the urban labour market participation node. The developed indicators will be used to help decision makers track critical nodes associated with the policy option highlighted in Figure 16.\nResearch limitations: One of the common research limitations is the notion of depth versus breadth. In our approach, we funnelled down 124 newsletters to the 30 that were used more intensively for analysis. Although our approach may be seen to be limiting in terms of breadth, it is important to note that all 124 newsletters were used in the funnelling down process, at one point or another, to identify relevant themes and insights. The analyst was aided by the RAHS system, which has helped to classify domains more comprehensively by showing the frequency count of each newsletter as well as quick summaries and term extractions for the analyst to make the relevant selections, based on his own worldview and learning.The selection of domains and themes were also discussed among other analysts at times, and these views were then incorporated into the overall analytical process. To gather more perspectives from subject matter experts, the analyst also approached a team of researchers at the LKYSPP, whose areas of research cover pro-poor issues and their broader implications. Their ground research and expertise in these areas proved to be very constructive and valuable especially in the generation of policy options and indicators.\nSocial implications: Attempting to understand the pathways of poor and vulnerable communities through a holistic approach of engaging diverse perspectives using ground and theoretical research has implications for analysis and technology. Looking at the outcomes of the issue-to-indicator process in generating indicators to be monitored, \"growing income gap\" and \"inadequate food production and water management systems\" are seen to be indicators with significant impact on poor and vulnerable communities.Poor and vulnerable communities bear a disproportionate share of hardships associated with the growing income inequality and inadequate food and water systems.In looking at factors that contribute to the indicator of \"growing income gap\", such as the availability of living spaces and housing, access to physical infrastructure, affordable training and employment opportunities, it is evident that the expanding gulf of growing inequalities will tear the social fabric because poverty and inequality are so intricately linked. Research has strongly indicated that socioeconomic status (SES) is also inversely related to the health of individuals and communities.In relation to health, the factors that contribute to \"inadequate food production and water management systems\" include the availability of clean water, food and water quality (in terms of adequate distribution and food price indexes), and the lack of technological developments to support food and water systems. All of these also give rise to the notion that food and water are both health indicators and quality of life issues that should not be ignored. In the case of developing nations, inadequate food production and water management systems may stifle economic growth and labour, also contributing to rising numbers of disease, malnutrition, infant mortality.These recommendations have substantial repercussions for poor and vulnerable communities, though not limited to the scope of these two broad indicators explained above. The Rockefeller Foundation and its grantees could continue their monitoring efforts and take the recommendations and their implications into consideration to analyse the pathways of poor and vulnerable communities.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - In partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, the RAHS Program Office (RPO) of the National Security Coordination Secretariat at the Prime Minister's Office in Singapore has undertaken the innovative approach of the Searchlight function to systematically make sense of the current contextual environment to be better positioned to anticipate the future of poor and vulnerable communities. This paper aims to outline the approach taken and to offer a glimpse into the next steps.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using the expertise and knowledge from the Searchlight newsletters, RPO applied its SKAN-to-Trend Process to funnel down newsletters and generate themes for investigation. The process is augmented by the RAHS 2.0 system, to collect and classify data generated to analyse and understand relationships therein, and anticipate as well as discover emerging issues.\nFindings: - The scenario building tools allowed the RPO analysts to use systems thinking to build systems maps and influence diagrams to help identify critical drivers based on influence and to understand the relationships between driving forces. From the systems map, critical feedback loops were identified and analysed, and evidence marshalled to support alternative policy options to help overcome the vicious cycles of the poor and vulnerable communities.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the approach may seem limited in terms of breadth, it does provide a more in-depth study of relevant insights and themes.\nPractical implications: - The selection process was done by analysts whose selections will necessarily be subjective depending on each of the analysts' worldview and leanings. This was balanced by gathering a team of analysts from RPO from diverse backgrounds, from the sciences and engineering to the arts.\nSocial implications: - It is evident that the expanding gulf of growing inequality will tear the social fabric because poverty and inequality are so intricately linked.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that, as a visualisation partner, RPO will present a diversity of perspectives through the utilisation of its risk assessment and horizon scanning processes and tools to help understand the pathways of poor and vulnerable communities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Polish entrepreneurs in Glasgow and entrepreneurial opportunity structure
|
[
"UK",
"Organizational structure",
"Entrepreneurial orientation",
"Immigrants",
"Small firm/new venture strategy",
"Ethnic groups"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The notion of opportunity structure was initially introduced by Aldrich and Waldinger (1990) and subsequently developed by Kloosterman and Rath (2001). They claim to have adopted a contextual view of ethnic minority entrepreneurship since the context (and hence the opportunity structure) is a useful lens in understanding ethnic minority entrepreneurs' (EMEs) strategies in the host country (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990). The idea of contextualising entrepreneurship research has also been claimed by scholars from the broader entrepreneurship literature such as Zahra (2007) and Welter (2011). This paper argues that the concept of opportunity structure is appropriate for studying EMEs' entrepreneurial behaviour and strategies, as it can encompass the notions of ethnic enclave, community (Somerville and McElwee, 2011) (used in this paper to refer to the community of co-ethnics; fellow migrants sharing the same nationality) and group characteristics. These are distinctive features of EMEs compared to native entrepreneurs (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990; Kloosterman and Rath, 2001; Hjerm, 2004). Thus adopting a contextualised approach is suitable for research on EMEs and comparative work between localities and communities should be encouraged. The contextualised perspective provided by the concept of opportunity structure is therefore a relevant approach to explore and develop. However, the concept as it has been defined so far must be refined and extended by incorporating additional dimensions, thence leading to a multi-levelled (Kloosterman, 2010) and multi-layered (Jones et al., 2014) approach of context in EMEs studies. The paper is structured as follows.\nThe opportunity structure: When it comes to migrants' reasons for starting new ventures, there is strong criticism of cultural explanatory approaches to entrepreneurship as arguably these approaches attach too much attention to group characteristics (Hjerm, 2004; Deakins et al., 2007). Nonetheless, EMEs are able to identify or create opportunities in their community markets as EMEs have a better understanding of the needs of their co-ethnics (Werbner, 2001; Rusinovic, 2008). This goes beyond the formal shared nationality but also beyond the notion of shared - or common - identity (Ram and Jones, 2008; Jones et al., 2014), cultural and ethnic identity (Aldrich et al., 1985; Werbner, 2001) bounded solidarity (Zhou and Logan, 1989), or enforceable trust mechanisms(Portes and Sensenbrenner, 1993), through which the EMEs get access to resources. However, these refer mostly to group belonging and residential clustering as means to access to resources such as social and financial capital. Authors such as Rusinovic (2008), Altinay et al. (2014) and Foley and O'Connor (2013) take a closer look at the relationship between the EMEs and the (co-ethnic) customers' base. As they argue, tastes and preferences can be better captured by the EMEs due to the shared contextual reference between the EME and their co-ethnics. Research on EMEs has so far considered the importance of mobilising specific ethnic resources among the community, either financial support (Smallbone et al., 2003; Zhou, 2004), labour (Jones and Ram, 2010) or more generally co-ethnic social capital (Portes and Sensenbrenner, 1993; Deakins et al., 2007; Foley and O'Connor, 2013). While such previous approaches focus on shared culture, a material-structural approach focuses on the socio-economic context in which the EMEs are socio-economically disadvantaged (Phizacklea, 1990; Barrett et al., 2002). More so-called interactionist approaches stress the recursive relationship between the internal group resource dynamics and the external opportunity structure (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990; Kloosterman and Rath, 2001; Ram and Jones, 2008; Kloosterman, 2010).\nResearch methods and data source: Background\nFindings: This section builds on the main findings of the fieldwork and focuses on Polish EMEs' perceptions and on their contextualised experiences of the entrepreneurial process. Four main dimensions of the opportunity structure revealed during the data analysis process are presented in this section: resource mobilisation, use of the community as a market, perception of the opportunity structure, and importance of the household context on entrepreneurial behaviour.\nDiscussion: This paper aims at revisiting the concept of opportunity structure in order to provide an operational tool for comparative studies in EMEs research. The proposed model of opportunity structure is stemming from previous developments of the concept as discussed in the literature and as presented earlier. It is complemented by the different contextual dimensions of the opportunity structure revealed during the fieldwork. Thence, the model (Figure 4) is a visual representation, combining previous dimensions embraced by the concept as defined so far (Figures 1-3) and additional dimensions highlighted by the fieldwork. Those dimensions are incorporated in a comprehensive and multi-levelled representation (Figure 4).\nConclusions: This paper discusses and refines the concept of opportunity structure by exploring the definitions provided in the literature and by integrating those dimensions in a modelized representation. This modelized representation is complemented by dimensions emerging from new empirical findings on Polish EMEs in Glasgow. The modelized representation of the opportunity structure (Figure 4) extends from the mixed-embeddedness approach (Kloosterman et al., 1999; Sepulveda et al., 2011) and contributes to discussion on contextualised entrepreneurship (Sarason et al., 2006; Welter, 2011; Garud et al., 2014; Zahra et al., 2014) applied to studies on EMEs. This representation considers the mutually constitutive nature of various contextual dimensions and thence reconciles and incorporates demand and supply-side factors as part of the opportunity structure. It can be a highly useful analytical tool for researchers and practitioners interested in exploring the variety of contexts influencing EMEs' entrepreneurial behaviour. Although Kloosterman and Rath (2001) mention the usefulness of the notion of opportunity structure for comparative international research on EMEs, it can also be applied when comparing across communities and localities (also at regional and local level). As this research is spatially and temporally situated, it provides a contextual understanding of the entrepreneurial behaviour of Polish EMEs in Glasgow. Limitations of qualitative abductive research designs relate to the lack of hindsight on the population studied on a longitudinal basis (post-2004 Polish migrants starting-up their businesses) and on the lack of comparison with other localities (hence the call for more empirical work). However, the risk of over-contextualisation is overcome since as Welch et al. (2011) argue the experiences of Polish EMEs is contextualised, and their relationship with the environment is part of the process of understanding, i.e. the identification of the influence of the various dimensions of the opportunity structure in which they operate (Leitch et al., 2010). The modelized representation does not raise the claim of completeness, but rather gives a basis for further discussions and improvements and calls for the importance of more empirical evidence to further refine the model. Especially with regard to the role of contexts in EMEs perceptions and behaviour, further regional evidence is needed to even better reflect the opportunity structure.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a modelized representation of the concept of opportunity structures for ethnic minority entrepreneurs in Glasgow, Scotland, that incorporates the different demand and supply side dimensions influencing entrepreneurial activity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An appropriate qualitative research design was implemented in order to capture and understand the influence of contextual dimensions on entrepreneurial behaviour of Polish EMEs in Glasgow. As part of the abductive and reflective process of the research, 21 semi-structured interviews were carried out in with Polish EMEs who are sole-owners of businesses.\nFindings: By contextualising ethnic minority entrepreneurship, the paper reveals the crucial and ambivalent role played by the community (for resource mobilisation and as the primary market) and by Polish EMEs' perception of the opportunity structure, on their entrepreneurial behaviour. Moreover, it highlights the importance of the household as a contextual dimension on entrepreneurial decision making among those Polish entrepreneurs in Glasgow.\nPractical implications: Provides a comprehensive and operational model of opportunity structure for EMEs which can be used an operational tool for both scholars in the field as well as by policy makers. The proposed model constitutes a framework for analysing the influence of different contextual dimensions on EMEs' entrepreneurial behaviour.\nOriginality/value: The contribution is the provision of an original tool to enable further systematic comparative approaches while conducting research on EMEs across different communities and localities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Benchmarking model of supplier development for an Indian gear manufacturing company
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Interpretative structural modeling",
"Benchmarking practices",
"Indian manufacturing",
"Supplier development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The following notations are used in this paper to develop the structural framework and to propose a benchmarking model for an Indian gear manufacturing company:\n1 Introduction: Most manufacturing organizations have become less vertically integrated, and are focusing on their core competency, in order to survive in the ever-increasing global competition of today and to achieve long-term competitive advantages. The manufacturing supply chain with multiple suppliers has become lengthier due to outsourcing of raw materials, components, parts, subassemblies, services, etc. Therefore, the manufacturer expects better performance from their suppliers, including but not limited to competitive cost; minimum response time; low variability in response time; flexibility in terms of quantity as per requirements; superior quality; innovativeness and green capability. But if a supplier shows their inability to satisfy the expectations of the manufacturer, then the manufacturer has four possible alternatives: to produce the outsourced items internally, change the supplier to a more capable supplier, enhance the capability of the existing supplier to a satisfactory level, or some combinations of these three alternatives. The third alternative is known as supplier development (SD; Krause et al., 1998) and is often the only feasible and acceptable solution for a manufacturer in many situations. As a result, many manufacturing organizations put time, effort and resources into developing the appropriate supplier to achieve the right supply chain strategy and to operate the supply chain in the zone of strategic fit. Many global manufacturing companies such as Sony, Honda, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, General Electric, Nissan, Toyota, IBM, Motorola, Visteon Corporation, John Deere, HP, Wal-Mart, National Grid Company (UK), Dell, Whirlpool, and Pontiac (Hartley and Jones, 1997; Dunn and Young, 2004; Sako, 2004; Hahn, 2005; McGovern and Hicks, 2006; Sharma, 2010; Agrawal, 2010; Chandrasekaran, 2010; Talluri et al., 2010; Wagner, 2010) have adopted the SD approach in order to enhance the capability of their suppliers and improve the supply chain performance. Therefore, the supply chain manger should identify and understand the critical success factors (CSFs) and their inter-relationships for SD in a manufacturing environment for its successful adoption. In this paper, a benchmarking model for an Indian gear manufacturing company is developed, taking input from the structural framework of CSFs for SD, which is created using interpretative structural modeling (ISM).\n2 Literature review on SD: Leenders (1966) was first to mention the term \"SD\". SD is defined in many ways (Leenders, 1966; Hahn et al., 1990; Krause and Ellram, 1997; Krause, 1999; Handfield et al., 2000; Abdullah and Maharjan, 2003) with a central focus of enhancing the capability of the supplier with the aim of creating a win-win environment between manufacturer and supplier. SD creates benefits to enhance the performance of the supplier in multi-dimensions, such as enhancement of quality; improvement in delivery; reduction of costs; transfer of knowledge; enhancement of technological and product design capability; provision of better service, etc. (Monczka and Trent, 1991; Morgan, 1993; Hartley and Jones, 1997; Reed and Walsh, 2002; Giannakis, 2008; Talluri et al., 2010; Shokri et al., 2010). SD is composed of a wide range of activities and is not limited to the following: exchanging personnel between the manufacturer and its supplier organizations; assessing the supplier's processes; designing the reward for and recognition of achievements of the supplier; collaborating with the supplier for improving processes, design, materials and, etc.; education and training for supplier personnel; investment and resource transfer; supplier goal setting; supplier performance measurement and monitoring; sharing of timely and sensitive information; and knowledge sharing and transfer (Galt and Dale, 1991; Monczka et al., 1993; Krause, 1997; Handfield et al., 2000; Abdullah and Maharjan, 2003; Humphreys et al., 2004, 2011; Krause et al., 2007; Chandrasekaran, 2010; Bai and Sarkis, 2011; Chen et al., 2011) in general. It may be confined to a few activities in a specific environment in particular. SD activities may go beyond the tier 1 of suppliers to tier 2 or 3 (Sharma, 2010).\n3 CSFs of SD in the manufacturing supply chain: CSFs of SD are those factors which play a significant role in achieving sustainable successful SD adoption with minimum effort and resources. Thirteen CSFs are identified on the basis of the literature survey related to SD, discussions held with experts during industrial visits in India and results obtained from 25 engineers/senior engineers/managers of Indian manufacturing industries through formal questionnaires (Table I). The identified 13 CSFs are classified into four categories: primary CSFs related to the supplier, CSFs related to the manufacturer, secondary CSFs related to the supplier and CSFs related to both. The CSFs (i.e. proximity to manufacturing base, supplier certification, project completion experience and supplier status) directly related to the supplier are included in the primary CSFs related to supplier category. The CSFs (i.e. top management commitment, direct involvement and long-term strategic goals) directly controlled and managed by the manufacturer are considered as the CSFs related to manufacturer category. The CSFs (i.e. innovation capability, environmental readiness, supplier's supplier condition and external environment) directly/indirectly related to supplier and having less impact compared to the primary CSFs related to supplier category on SD adoption are termed as the secondary CSFs related to supplier category. The CSFs (incentives and information sharing) controlled and managed by both manufacturer and supplier are put in the CSFs related to both manufacturer and supplier category. The details regarding CSFs are discussed below.\n4 Development of ISM methodology for SD in manufacturing supply chain: ISM methodology has the ability to draw the order and direction of the complexity of relationships among factors/drivers of a system (Sage, 1977). It is evident that ISM is a qualitative tool used by a number of researchers in various environments from the literature (Saxena et al., 1992; Pandey et al., 2005; Thakkar et al., 2007; Singh et al., 2007a, b, c; Sahney et al., 2008; Chidambaranathan et al., 2009; Kannan et al., 2010; Jyoti and Deshmukh, 2010). There exist relationships between the CSFs of SD in terms of driving and dependence power. The supply chain manager should know these interrelationships of CSFs in order to implement a SD program effectively. Therefore, ISM methodology is adopted to know these relationships among the CSFs and develop a structural framework of CSFs. The various steps of ISM methodology for SD used in this paper are discussed below:\n5 Application of ISM methodology for the Indian gear manufacturing company: We have applied the ISM methodology discussed in Section 4 to an Indian gear manufacturing company \"I\" (the name \"I\" is used for confidentiality purposes) to develop SD structural framework. The company \"I\" is a manufacturer of sophisticated gears having a significant range of products with a manufacturing unit located in India. A mechanism is placed in the system to review and improve the products and processes along the supply chain. It has also adopted environmentally friendly practices to protect environment. The company's clients include but are not limited to steel, fertilizer, cement, sugar and power industries and, etc. In order to find the relevant CSFs for SD in the company \"I\", a detail discussion was carried out with managers, senior engineers and engineers. It is concluded that the 13 CSFs discussed mentioned in Table I and in Section 3 are relevant to the company \"I\" for implementation of SD. These identified 13 CSFs are considered for SD, and ISM methodology discussed in Section 4 is used to establish the relationship and to develop the ISM framework. It is decided to develop ISM framework for SD considering the opinions of five experts in company \"I\". The five experts are denoted as expert \"A\", expert \"B\", expert \"C\", expert \"D\" and expert \"E\" for confidentiality purposes. The contextual relationships are developed among the CSFs in order to develop SSIM based on the opinion of the five experts and it is mentioned in Table II. The IRM (Table III) is developed by substituting V, A, X and O by 1 and 0 (Section 4) in Table II. The transitivity of the contextual relation and IRM are considered to develop FRM and it is shown in Table IV. The driving and dependence power of each CSF is calculated from Table IV and FRM with driving and dependence power is mentioned in Table V. The level partition of CSFs is performed by developing the reachability and antecedent sets for each CSF from the FRM. Six iterations are carried out to assign each CSF to a level and, by the process, six levels are formed. The details of the iterations and levels of CSFs are mentioned in Tables VI-XI. The directed graph or diagraph is developed and is shown in Figure 1. The lower triangular matrix is prepared by arranging the CSFs according to their levels and then a structural model for SD is developed. It is shown in Figure 2.\n6 Conclusion: The manufacturing business environment is moving quickly towards a longer, supplier-dependent supply chain. SD will make this supply chain both responsive and efficient. In this paper, 13 CSFs for SD are identified and classified into four categories in an Indian manufacturing context, with input from extensive literature reviews and discussions held with managers/senior engineers. These CSFs can be considered for a specific Indian manufacturing environment with or without a marginal change (i.e. some CSFs may be added and/or some CSFs may be deleted from the proposed list of CSFs) for successful SD adoption. The ISM methodology is proposed to develop the structural model and establish the relationships among the CSFs. The proposed ISM methodology is lucidly explained and sufficient evidence is presented by the literature review to validate the use of proposed ISM methodology. In order to apply the ISM methodology, an Indian gear manufacturing company \"I\" is considered. The driving power and dependence level of each CSF is determined to develop the driving power and dependence diagram of CSFs. It is found that the \"incentives\" CSF has maximum driving power and minimum dependence level among the 13 CSFs. Therefore, the \"incentives\" CSF should be designed taking the confidence of the supplier at the beginning to create a win-win environment. A benchmarking model is developed on the basis of the structural model for CSFs. The proposed benchmarking model is a good instrument for enhancing the performance of SD to a feasible level in a short duration with minimum effort and resource. The proposed benchmarking model can be applied to different manufacturing environments capturing their unique environment which will reflect their own priority considerations. The findings of the proposed structural framework and benchmarking model for Indian gear manufacturing company \"I\" will serve as a guideline for successful SD adoption in a manufacturing environment. Further research is suggested to develop the structural framework of CSFs and a benchmarking model for SD in a green manufacturing supply chain environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose a benchmarking model of supplier development (SD) for an Indian gear manufacturing company for its successful adoption and improvement in a continuous basis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Thirteen SD critical success factors (CSFs) are identified and classified into four categories through extensive literature review and discussion held with managers/senior engineers in different Indian manufacturing companies. The four categories are primary CSFs related to supplier, secondary CSFs related to supplier, CSFs related to manufacturer and CSFs related to both manufacturer and supplier. The interpretative structural modeling (ISM) approach is applied to the Indian gear manufacturing company for developing and analyzing structural framework of CSFs to propose a benchmarking model for SD.\nFindings: It is concluded that SD adoption should be carried out in four phases sequentially for the Indian gear manufacturing company. The first, second, third and fourth phase should sequentially focus on primary CSFs related to supplier; secondary CSFs related to supplier; CSFs related to manufacturer; and CSFs related to both manufacturer and supplier, respectively. The proposed benchmarking model has four phases (i.e. plan, analyze, implement and measure) and bifurcated into 12 steps to enhance the performance of CSFs.\nPractical implications: This paper provides a useful benchmarking model for successful adoption of SD in manufacturing organizations.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the few studies to develop the relationship of CSFs for SD in general and its application to an Indian gear manufacturing company in particular. A benchmarking model for SD is also proposed having five phases and 12 steps. The findings of the proposed structural framework and benchmarking model for the Indian gear manufacturing company are discussed in detail and will serve as a guideline for successful adoption of SD in manufacturing environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A maintenance maturity assessment method for the manufacturing industry
|
[
"Manufacturing industries",
"Maintenance",
"Maintenance maturity",
"Maintenance processes",
"Maintenance best practices",
"Survey"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The investment to improve a maintenance management system is often a challenge and the decision to invest is not straightforward, even if it is understood that the profits and productivity of a company could be enhanced when maintenance potentials are exploited (Pinjala et al., 2006). Even when proper maintenance measurement systems (Parida and Kumar, 2006) are introduced in companies, maintenance decisions are often limited in scope: indeed, the maintenance function is normally bounded to a tactical and operational role and, correspondingly, the economic and technical performances result from decision making done mostly having in mind the short and midterm (Tsang, 1998). Nevertheless, decision making on the long term is a winning choice in order to effectively improve the maintenance management system: indeed, the maintenance management strategic vision is an important issue to discuss (Murthy et al., 2002).Jonsson (1999), when reporting the results of a survey in Sweden on the maintenance strategy, proves that companies with perceived long-term maintenance plans emphasize the manufacturing capabilities more than other companies, thus enabling to achieve a competitive advantage in business. Swanson (2001), based on a similar survey with manufacturing plants in USA, focuses on the proactive maintenance as a strategic lever positively correlated with the long-term improvement of equipment availability, product quality and production costs. Strategic maintenance planning is thus worth to be studied (Al-Turki, 2011). Besides, maintenance should be considered as a separate value chain to better understand its importance for the overall business strategy (Pinjala et al., 2006). Maintenance management models (see for instance Crespo Marquez et al., 2009; Lopez Campos and Crespo Marquez, 2011) are a relevant source to this end: they represent processes and practices, a company can conform to in order to implement the improvement strategy.Plenty of models has been proposed in the past and recent literature. Looking at the chronology of the proposals, it can be noticed that novel features have been added from time to time (Lopez Campos and Crespo Marquez, 2009). Indeed, considering a sample of such models, it can be observed that novelties refer to managerial, organizational or technological capabilities of the maintenance department.The organizational capabilities assume a particular importance for the maintenance management model of Pintelon and Gelders (1992), especially for what concern the link between the maintenance function and other organizational functions. Besides, Pintelon and Gelders (1992) underline the relevance of managerial capabilities, acquired through the use of quantitative techniques, total productive maintenance (TPM) and reliability centred maintenance (RCM) as practices to support maintenance management decision making. According to Vanneste and Van Wassenhove (1995), an integrated and structured approach is the solution for improving maintenance: their integrated approach first glimpses a joint exploitation of the organizational and managerial capabilities, also considering the support of technological solutions.The technological capabilities are then addressed also by successive management models. To this concern, it is worth mentioning Tsang (2002) since he is one of the first authors that suggests e-Maintenance as part of the maintenance management model. The e-Maintenance concept has been further developed since then, eventually leading to the comprehensive definition of e-Maintenance as: a \"maintenance support which includes the resources, services and management necessary to enable proactive decision process execution. This support includes e-technologies (i.e. ICT, web-based, tether-free, wireless, infotronics technologies) but also e-Maintenance activities (that is operations or processes) such as e-monitoring, e-diagnosis, e-prognosis, etc.\" (Muller et al., 2008). Discussions on the technological capabilities in a maintenance management system have been inspired by this seminal definition (for instance, further contributions are provided in Jantunen et al., 2008; Fumagalli et al., 2010).Notwithstanding the advancement in technologies, the recent literature has continued to emphasize the importance of the organizational and managerial capabilities. Soderholm et al. (2007) underline that maintenance has a relevant role for fulfilling the requirements of external stakeholders, interested in the values brought by the maintenance activities, e.g. production managers and production operators. An enlargement of scope - due to the consideration of the external stakeholders - is then suggested, especially in order to drive the improvement of organizational capabilities in the maintenance management system; in particular, cross-functional correlation with production is considered as an important issue to this concern. Assuming another perspective, Crespo Marquez (2007) proposes a model oriented to the improvement of the operational reliability besides the life cycle cost of the physical assets, thus leading to the enlargement of maintenance management towards asset life cycle management, which is another relevant concept to improve managerial capabilities. Knowledge management has also been considered as a lever, mainly for improving the organizational capabilities, even if the computerization - hence, the technological capabilities - becomes essential in order to effectively operate it; the reader can see for example the incorporation of the tacit and explicit knowledge in a computer database as discussed in Waeyenbergh and Pintelon (2002). Crespo Marquez and Gupta (2006) provide an overall picture by proposing a maintenance management framework made of three pillars as enablers to support organizational improvements and managerial actions based on technological solutions. The pillars are mentioned as: IT (including: computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), e-Maintenance, condition monitoring technologies), maintenance engineering techniques (including: RCM, TPM, maintenance policy optimization model, etc.), organizational techniques (including: relationships, management techniques, motivation, operators involvement, etc.). Amongst the three pillars, further insights on the maintenance engineering pillar are provided in a later publication (Crespo Marquez et al., 2009) that envisions the set of activities and engineering tools needed, as good practice, for achieving proper managerial capabilities in order to keep and improve maintenance effectiveness and efficiency. Last but not least, Lopez Campos et al. (2010) suggest the alignment of the maintenance management model to the quality management standards, having a special concern for the quality in maintenance processes: this is a relevant issue both for controlling the organizational and managerial capabilities of the maintenance department and for driving the development of technological solutions for its support.All the above cited models can be considered powerful descriptive tools: according to Lopez Campos and Crespo Marquez (2009), at least they describe the components of the maintenance management system (i.e. the declarative models), at most they represent process-oriented descriptions normally providing also the information flow between the components (i.e. the process-oriented models). Conforming to such models - hence, to the good/best practices they provide - is a pragmatic idea to improve the maintenance management system of a company, according to \"the best of the breed\" at the state of the art. Nonetheless, this is not enough in the experience of the authors. A company, in fact, normally requires to assess the current quality of the maintenance management system before deciding an investment for its improvement. Nevertheless, to this end, just describing the maintenance processes and checking the difference with existent maintenance management models from literature is not deemed enough. A further insight is needed.This research postulates that it is necessary that the company classifies the criticalities in its maintenance processes (in order to answer the question \"which are the most critical processes to invest on?\") and makes a benchmark with the best companies to better drive the investment (to answer the question \"which are the processes to focus on, considering the best companies as a reference target?\"). Under this postulation, the paper proposes a maturity assessment method to identify the practices to be improved in the different maintenance processes of a company.Using the concept of maturity can be, in general, considered a way to assess tangibly - normally by using a score - how a business process is conducted. Amongst the benefits of maturity models, Volker et al. (2011) mention that they provide a normative description of the good/best practices which, in the concern of this paper, becomes the rank of maintenance practices. Based on such a rank, the maturity assessment method is intended, first, for being used as a discussion tool in order to enable the interviewees (i.e. maintenance managers) reflecting on the current status of the maintenance department: this is essential before deciding an investment. Therefore, the rank may also help measuring the distance of the company's model with respect to the good/best practices proposed by the maintenance management models in literature and/or by the best companies. As a consequence, a classification of maintenance processes, from the highest to the lowest critical process, might be obtained: this is also advisable because, in general, a criticality analysis helps better deciding the target of an investment.The method has been developed starting from the results of previous works. Its concept was first presented in Garetti et al. (2007). Afterwards, empirical tests were performed by assessing the maintenance practices in the process production sector (Fumagalli et al., 2008), in the case of maintenance service providers in the telecommunication networks (Gomez Fernandez et al., 2008) and for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) extending their products with maintenance services (Macchi et al., 2010). In these contexts the maturity assessment method was used as a tool for a case study analysis and achieved positive feedbacks for what concern its potentials to assess the maturity of maintenance processes. The present paper aims at further extending the initial empirical evidences presented in Macchi et al. (2011), where the method was indicated as tool used in a survey on manufacturing companies, run in the context of the observatory on \"Technologies and Services for Maintenance\" of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano (TeSeM, 2012[1]). The maturity assessment method is now thoroughly presented in its background (section 2), its theoretical model (section 3) and its use through the analysis applied to a company selected from the sample of companies of the TeSeM research (section 4). The demonstration of its use is quite important because it provides a proof that the method helps companies focusing on potential investments for improving their maintenance management system. The concluding remarks envision the future exploitations of the method, thanks to its potentials for empirical researches and benchmarking projects (section 5).\n2. A literature background on maturity assessment: Defining a rank of maintenance practices is a known but still open problem. \"Maturity\" is a concept that has been introduced to this end, in order to assess different maintenance management practices in a qualitative or a semi-quantitative way. This does not mean that \"maturity\" is necessarily used to define an holistic indicator to make the rank: a maturity assessment could be developed for analysing different aims or process areas (PAs) (Garetti et al., 2007; Macchi et al., 2010; CMMI Product Team, 2010) and more indicators - usually based on a scorecard - may be adopted for this concern. In the research presented in this paper, maintenance PAs are assessed based on a set of indicators.The design of such an assessment method has its theoretical roots in the suggestions from literature, sourced looking at methods not necessarily designed for analysing maintenance management in industry. Henceforth, the main existing methods are first presented (section 2.1); afterwards, one of these methods is selected as reference background to help designing the method proposed in this paper (section 2.2).2.1 Overview of methods\n3. The theoretical model of the maturity assessment method: 3.1 The method\n4. The demonstration of the maturity assessment method: A case study is herein adopted to demonstrate the method. The reference sample used as a benchmark for the case study is initially presented in order to provide an overview of the features therein represented (section 4.1); the implementation of the method is then described in its logic (section 4.2) before proceeding with the demonstration (section 4.3).4.1 Overview of the reference sample for the benchmark\n5. Conclusions: The research presented in this paper started from the general need of manufacturing companies to be supported during the identification of levers to improve their existent maintenance management system. The solution proposed to this end was a maintenance maturity assessment method. This was theoretically built upon a scorecard inspired by the CMMI methodology and was further implemented as a procedure made up of two phases, whose objectives are, first, to classify the criticalities in maintenance processes and, thereafter, to make a benchmark with the best companies in order to better drive the investment decision required for the improvement. The method is now available and can be an aid to \"measure\" the state of maintenance practices in a company.The method allows to answer two questions. The first question (which are the most critical processes to invest on?) has also been addressed by other methods available in literature. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that the scientific value added by the proposal of this paper is the structuration of a multileveled maturity-based diagnostic analysis based on the application of a consolidated methodology (CMMI) to the capabilities and PAs considered for a maintenance department, synthesized from a wide number of references from literature on maintenance management models. The second question (which are the processes to focus on, considering the best companies as a reference target?) was instead leading to an innovative concept: to use the potentials of the maturity assessment methods to make a measurable benchmark on maintenance practices. To the authors' knowledge, in fact, structured approaches to maintenance maturity assessment are initiating to appear in literature, showing some similarities with respect to the method proposed in this paper (see in particular the above cited Schuh et al., 2009). Nonetheless, no one has exploited, for a benchmarking purpose, the capability of maturity assessment methods to provide a normative description as ranked orders of practices (from practices at low MLs to practices at an high MLs). The demonstration presented in this paper, and other feedbacks already collected in the frame of the whole TeSeM research (extended to four regions in Italy and over 100 interviewed companies), provided promising indication on the industrial interest for such a kind of benchmarking activity.The future research should exploit the maturity assessment method at least in three ways. First, the method may be widely applied in empirical surveys aimed at analyzing, and measuring, the state of maintenance practices. To this regard, it will be interesting to make cross-comparisons of the state of practices between different industries, sectors or company's sizes. Second, further exploitation can be naturally related to benchmarking projects and services, in order to support companies being aware of criticalities in their maintenance management system, before planning investments for improvement. Last but not least, it will be also relevant to complete the empirical methodology, combining the maintenance maturity assessment with the analysis of typical key performance indicators (KPI) used to measure the maintenance results. The main objective, standing behind this research idea, is to prove that maturity assessment can be considered a way to measure a set of \"leading\" indicators (the maturity indexes) which can be used to anticipate positive results measurable by means of \"lagging\" indicators, such as those measured through KPIs commonly adopted in maintenance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper proposes a maturity assessment method to measure the state of maintenance practices in a company.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The method assumes that a maintenance department is evaluated in terms of its managerial, organizational and technological capabilities. By its adoption it is possible to analyse the maturity level reached by a company, in order to classify the criticalities in its maintenance processes; a company can also make a benchmark with the best companies of a reference sample.\nFindings: - The paper presents the method as a support to identify the levers to improve the maintenance management system. The method is demonstrated on a company whose maturity is assessed before making a benchmark against a sample of other manufacturing companies located in the Northern Italy.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents a scoring method for maturity assessment and a procedure to use it in order to identify the criticalities in maintenance processes and to subsequently drive the improvement of the maintenance management system. The paper should be useful both to researchers and maintenance professionals interested in using new methods for long-term planning in maintenance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Characteristics of organizational culture, stressors and wellbeing: The case of Taiwanese organizations
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Qualitative methods",
"Stress",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Stress is a prevalent problem in modern life. Both individuals and organizations have been aware of the threats posed by excessive stress. Individuals who experience high levels of perceived stress often report poor physical health, depression, and insufficient job satisfaction (Smith, 2002; Tweed et al., 2004). For organizations, reduced productivity, high turnover, frequent tardiness and absenteeism are common consequences of workplace stressors (Williams and Cooper, 1998; Elfering et al., 2005).\nOrganizational culture and stress in a Pan-Chinese cultural context - Taiwan as an example: Organizational culture is analogous to the personality of an organization and can be seen as being comprised of the shared beliefs, values, norms and tangible signs (e.g. slogans and logos) of the organizations. Sonnenfeld (1995) described OC as fundamental assumptions that people share about and organization's values, norms, symbols, language, rituals and myths - all of the expressive elements that give meaning to organizational membership and are accepted as guides to behavior.Some researchers (Cameron and Quinn, 1998; Whetten et al., 1998) have emphasized specific characteristics of OC and their possible relations with work stress. However, the vast majority of studies on OC and stress have been performed in Western societies, the validity of these findings have to be established through the process of repeated verification with heterogeneous populations of people, time, and culture. The Pan-Chinese cultural context can provide a fertile test field for the OC and stress models originated in the West, owing to differences in individualism-collectivism (I-C) values upheld by their society members. I-C is a construct well researched in cross-cultural organizational studies (Hofstede, 1994; House et al., 2004). The core of cultural individualism is the supremacy of individual goals (Triandis, 1995), emphasizing personal independence and autonomy (Markus and Kitayama, 1991). In contrast, the core of cultural collectivism is the priority of group goals over individual preferences (Triandis, 1995), emphasizing interpersonal connectedness and role obligations (Markus and Kitayama, 1991). Taiwan, with a deep-rooted Chinese cultural heritage, has been found to consistently exhibit higher C and lower I compared to her Western counterparts (Oyserman et al., 2002). Reflecting such societal values, we would expect that Taiwanese organizations may possess some distinctive features of OC, such as strong emphases on harmonious interpersonal relationships, group belongingness, loyalty to the organization, and differential treatment of people according to their statuses, background, and connections. These phenomena are all well-documented in the general social conduct of cultural Chinese people, especially the Taiwanese (Lu, 2003; Yang, 1997).As for the OC-stress connection, we concur with other researchers that characteristics of OC not only reflect organizational uniqueness but also may become potential sources of stress. Our postulation is tentatively supported by several recent studies. To begin with, Katwyk et al. (2000) found that OC is often regarded as an invisible principle to organizational members (i.e. a collective value indicating how people are supposed to behave within the organization). When the personal value matches a collective value, the legitimacy of such value is committed. However, when the personal value is incongruent with the collective value, conflict will occur and provoke a sense of pressure. Lu (2006) conceptualized such value congruence between the individual and collective levels as \"cultural fit\", and further demonstrated that lack of such fit had detrimental effects on personal wellbeing. In the organizational context, Shahar et al. (2004) revealed that dictatorial communication style and excessive demands of organizational commitment served as stress accumulators, as employees neither committed to nor accepted these imposed values.Secondly, ignoring cultural influences does not help us to adequately understand the meaning making mechanism inherent in the work stress process (Hobfoll, 2004). Work stress does not occur in vacuum; rather, work is deeply embedded in the specific political, economic, and social realities (Lu et al., 2003). Therefore, the experience of stressful work events can only been understood in the context of social and cultural backgrounds where the individual functions. For instance, the above mentioned researchers found at a refined sub-cultural level, that different sources of work stress became salient contributors to wellbeing outcomes in both mainland China and Taiwan. These differences reflect the diverse political, social, and economic characteristics of the two Chinese societies.Thirdly, different social structure and historical contexts nurture and sanction different values, ethics and social norms, which can drastically alter the work stress phenomenon prevalent in different societies. This could mean that a stressor may be widespread in one social context and being rarely recognized in another (Hobfoll, 2004). Culture could also assert indirect influences though altering the effectiveness of stress moderators. For example, the buffering effect of social support may vary between societies in a way which results in people receiving different degrees of support when implementing their strategies to deal with pressure (Folkman, 1997). Lu et al. (2000) noted that internal locus of control became a vulnerability factor for Chinese managers working in the prevailing autocratic organizational climate.\nExisting research on work stress and wellbeing in Taiwan: While work stress research in the West has mushroomed over the recent decades, such research in Pan-Chinese societies are still gathering momentum. Specifically, studies looking at the link between OC and work stress are non-exist in Taiwan. To get a broad idea of work stress-related research in the country, a search of journal paper abstracts reported in the Social Science Citation Index was undertook, resulting in fifteen publications being elicited. These publications covered a variety of issues, and mostly used quantitative methodologies and standardized instruments. Main results of these studies are presented in Table I, and instruments used are listed in the footnote. A conceptual analysis methodology (Mertens, 1998) was used to examine the findings of these studies. Two coders calculated the stressors and stress consequences by frequency of occurrence; this extracted six main stressors and three main stress consequences. The agreement between the two coders was 89.66 percent, on the basis of Holsti's formula for inter-rater reliability (Weber, 1990).The six main stressors found were: relationship management; factors intrinsic to the job; organizational characteristics; individual career expectations; home-work boundary; and role in the organization. In addition, three main stress consequences were identified; physical health (e.g. insomnia, ulcers and hypertension), mental health (e.g. nervousness, depression and anxiety) and performance at work (e.g. high labor turnover, reduced productivity and low job satisfaction). Essentially, both stressors and stress consequences extracted here corroborates largely with Western findings (e.g. Shahar et al., 2004; Elfering et al., 2005).These published work have provided considerable information on the origins and consequences of work stress in Taiwan, a cultural Chinese society, however, they were not focused on the OC-stress relation. Across these 15 studies, only two (Lu, 1997; Lu et al., 1999) addressed the mediational effect of OC (e.g. management and communication styles) on wellbeing outcomes, i.e. mental health of employees. The scarcity of such research needs to be rectified.\nThe current study: The first purpose of the current study was to contextually describe prevalent characteristics of OC and common stressors in Taiwanese organizations. Secondly, we focused on exploring the potential link between OC and work stress. Such rich contextual evidence will hopefully help to unveil the dynamics of OC and work stress in a Taiwan-Chinese cultural context.As both OC and work stress are vast, varied, complex areas, and not much research has been done in Taiwan, we opted for a qualitative methodology. In essence, quantitative surveys provide efficient summaries of issues related to wellbeing of employees, however, quantitative surveys may somewhat simplify the results, as people's views have to be compressed into categories that probably do not do them full justice. In contrast, a qualitative approach is better equipped to describe the depth and subtlety of cultural influences and more truthfully convey the views and opinions of individuals.\nMethod: Design\nResults: Group discussion produced a considerable amount of data, which was classified into stressors and characteristics of OC. The former was further categorized into two levels (job versus. personal), whilst the latter was categorized into four characteristics. These categorizations are manifested in Table II. The details follow.Stressors: job level\nDiscussion: The current study identified two major sources of stressors and four characteristics of OC, which have shown to be associated with work stress and employees' wellbeing. If only looking at names of the stressors identified, one would get an impression that they broadly corroborate with Western findings (e.g. Shahar et al., 2004) and existing Taiwanese stress studies (e.g. Lu et al., 2001; Siu et al., 1999). However, our vast amount of group discussion verbatim has provided rich contexts underlying those abstract stress terms, and brought out the vivid, lived human experiences of OC and work stress, which are unfortunately lacking in the existing literature dominated by quantitative methods. After all, experience-near understanding of the human mind and behavior is a pivotal goal of psychology. The typology of stressors is like a skeleton to support a rigorous program of quantitative research; however, our qualitative exploration is like adding fresh and blood onto this skeleton to bring it alive. Our effort is an answer to Cooper et al.'s (2001, p.249) appeal for \"a greater triangulation of research methodologies\", aimed to enhance our ability to obtain comprehensive and generalizable findings. Hence, identification of generic categories of stressors using qualitative method converged with previous findings should further strengthen our confidence in understanding the complex work stress phenomenon. In addition, this study distinguished itself from previous research through its focus on the link between OC and stress in the Taiwanese work context. These findings and implications are discussed below.Characteristics of the organizational culture\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aimed to explore prevalent characteristics of organizational culture (OC) and common sources of work stress in a Taiwanese work context. The authors also aimed to analyze how characteristics of OC may be linked to stressors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative methodology of focus group discussions was adopted.\nFindings: - Four characteristics of OC were identified, including: family-kin, informal work obligations, organizational loyalty and subgroup involvement. Job characteristics, home-work interface, interpersonal relationships and career development were identified as common sources of work stress. Content analysis revealed that characteristics of OC could either alleviate or aggravate stress, depending on employees' perception and attribution. Double-coding analysis indicated that stressors related to job characteristics seem particularly linked to informal work obligation but not to organizational loyalty as characteristics of OC.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The exclusive reliance on qualitative methodology is a limitation of the present study. However, the results have both theoretical and practical implications. The authors note that Western findings regarding OC may not generalize completely to a different culture and the Taiwanese context supports distinctive features of OC and work stressors. Consequently, any effective corporate stress interventions should be formulated taking the core cultural values and practices into account.\nOriginality/value: - The in-depth and culture-sensitive nature is a major thrust of the present study, and the focus on the link between OC and stress is a rare effort in the Pan-Chinese cultural context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Future direction of sustainable development in private hospitals: general similarities and specific differences
|
[
"Healthcare",
"Spain",
"Sustainable development",
"Sustainability management",
"Private hospital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the earliest days of organizations, business and, therefore, marketing between organizations have been around (Hadjikhani and LaPlaca, 2013). For a meaningful marketing perspective, the study of business-to-business (B2B) relationships and networks of all stakeholders (e.g. buyers, sellers, intermediaries) is significant (Hedaa and Tornroos, 2008; Svensson et al., 2018a).\nConceptual framework: Triple bottom line approach of sustainability to create value\nSustainable development in the healthcare industry: The healthcare industry has shifted from its traditional business models (Hwang and Christensen, 2008). In particular, in the European healthcare industry, there has been an increase in private hospitals during the past few decades. These hospitals, which are in fact private firms, need to face significant challenges in adapting to their environment, such us the aging European population or new and expensive medical and technological developments (Anderson et al., 2018). The increase in market competition forces also private hospitals to be more market-oriented and face a radical redesign of their strategies to obtain economic outcomes while still considering all stakeholders in the network.\nTriple bottom line and sustainability initiatives in the healthcare industry: Sharma (2003) confirms that the healthcare industry needs to pursue sustainability practices to improve their economic and social well-being, and Wijethilake (2017) indicates that organizations should be proactive in terms of environmental, economic and socially related practices. In this manner, private hospitals are trigged to proactively undertake reforms and radically redesign their strategies, to achieve a triple target of efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability (Spohrer et al., 2007). The TBL encourages private hospitals to add social and environmental components to their financial assessment (Schulz and Flanigan, 2016). By doing so, such hospitals will offer a higher-quality service in accordance with the population's health needs, as well as economic outcomes for stakeholders.\nMethodology: The selection of private hospitals in the Spanish healthcare industry is based on a spectrum from strong to weak organizational conviction regarding the importance of engaging in sustainable development, so as to reveal general similarities and specific differences between them. Rahman et al. (2018, p. 349) define private health services as: \"[...] delivered by individual and institutions not administered by the state government [...]\".\nEmpirical findings: In this section, we consider the empirical findings on the future direction of sustainable development across the studied private hospitals (i.e. PriHosp1, PriHosp2, PriHosp3 and PriHosp4). We report the general similarities and specific differences found for each hospital.\nDiscussion of findings: Table II summarizes the common denominators of general similarities and specific differences between the studied private hospitals regarding their future direction for sustainable development. Once the research team had interviewed the respondents, data were categorized and tabulated. The categories are represented on rows in Table II. The conviction of each hospital about sustainability was obtained linking the answers of each hospital to these categories, as well as the extra information that the respondents offered through their comments to the open questions. This was the manner to detect which hospitals had stronger or weaker conviction of sustainability.\nResearch implications: The empirical findings reported and summarized in Table II yield several research implications based on the two axes. Figure 2 illustrates two-dimensional axes framing common denominators and organizational conviction so as to characterize the future direction of sustainable development in private hospitals.\nManagerial implications: The Spanish private healthcare industry with respect to its future direction of sustainable development may be affected by several phenomena, in such ways as:\nConclusions and suggestions for the future: This study reveals that, although organizational conviction on the future direction of sustainable development may vary in an industry, there are general similarities as well as specific differences. This study, therefore, suggests that the economic, social and environmental sustainable development across private hospitals may evolve according to general principles or guidelines (e.g. from local governments or expectations in the market and society). However, the specific sustainable development at each hospital may evolve along tailored economic, social and environmental actions (i.e. intra-organizational, top-down and bottom-up initiatives).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the future direction of sustainable development in the healthcare industry. This study aims to reveal general similarities and specific differences between private hospitals and enabler or hinders of sustainable development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on an inductive approach, judgmental sampling was applied to select relevant healthcare organizations. Informants were identified according to their knowledge of their organizations' sustainability initiatives.\nFindings: In the context the homogeneity that could be expected, the studied hospitals range from having a very strong organizational conviction as to the future direction of sustainable development to a very weak one. There are some general similarities and specific differences between them reported.\nResearch limitations/implications: There is no common formula applicable across private hospitals to determine the future direction of their sustainable development. Although hospitals benchmark best practices, others use them only as a general frame of reference. This scenario offers opportunities for further research.\nPractical implications: The economic, social and environmental sustainable development across private hospitals may evolve from general principles or guidelines, but the specific sustainable development at each hospital may well evolve along tailored economic, social and environmental actions.\nOriginality/value: Developing a framework considering similarities and differences between the sustainability actions of each hospital in the healthcare industry is important for understanding future directions. This study provides insights into factors that could enable success or constitute hinders of sustainable development. They can also guide the industry toward a common objective which improves the hospitals sustainability actions in the future, also minimizing the effort required.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Corporate tax disclosure on a CSR basis: a new reporting framework in the post-BEPS era
|
[
"Accountability",
"CSR disclosure",
"Tax aggressiveness",
"Tax responsibility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the second-half of the twentieth century, both the academic and non-academic literature has broadly addressed the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by questioning shareholder theory, which states that a company's social responsibility should focus on fulfilling the firm's fiduciary duties to its shareholders by maximizing profits. According to CSR theories (particularly stakeholder theory), there is an implicit social contract between the corporation and society, the terms of which are derived from the expectations of different groups (Wood, 1991; Waddock and Graves, 1997). Following this approach, international institutions have issued guidelines and developed managerial tools that not only consider stakeholders' demands but also define companies' primary economic, social and environmental responsibilities with respect to their impact on society (European Commission, 2011). One economic issue that has received relatively little attention is corporate taxation (Christensen and Murphy, 2004; Sikka, 2010; Dowling, 2014; Laguir et al., 2015), despite its substantial social impact (Sikka, 2010; Bird and Davis-Nozemack, 2018).\n2. Literature review: From the second-half of the twentieth century forward, management practices and theories have overcome the traditional agency theory of the firm by which a company's only objective was to seek financial profit for its shareholders (Jensen and Meckling, 1979; Friedman, 1962, 1970). CSR theories in particular have faced this approach by making it explicit that the responsibility of business implies considering the impacts of business on a wide range of stakeholders and addressing stakeholders' demands (European Commission, 2011; Aguinis, 2011). Business is not an exclusively economic entity but must follow a set of moral customs built in the community (Carroll, 1979).\n3. Research method: As stated by scholars such as Llewelyn (2003), to build on conceptual theories, a more down-to-earth approach rooted in a specific context is necessary: \"A criterion of utility rather than 'truth' in assessing the success of any conceptual framing also makes more sense in the context of the social science disciplines\" (Llewelyn, 2003, p. 666). Accordingly, we used a qualitative methodology as the types of techniques used (e.g. interviews) may generate categorization and concepts similar to CTR, which are linked to practices and can explicate such practices in a specific context. Following the stakeholder theory approach with respect to CSR, we based our analysis on companies' obligation to fulfil stakeholders' demands on corporate taxation as a necessary condition for a company to be socially responsible in a post-crisis context.\n4. Results and discussion: An in-depth analysis of the interviews led to a consensual definition of CTR and a deep analysis of the issues that constitute it. It further permitted the identification of a set of tax-related indicators that can assess CTR while taking into consideration consensual material issues for all companies, tax administrations, stakeholders and society, among others. It must be noted that the results and statements shown below represent a first approach to CTR derived from an exploratory analysis.\n5. Main conclusions and future lines of research: There is a multi-stakeholder consensus on the increasing importance of responsible corporate tax practices as part of companies' responsibility to their stakeholders (Hardeck and Kirn, 2016; Ylonen and Laine, 2015; PRI, 2015; Boerrild et al., 2015; OECD, 2016; Hillenbrand et al., 2019). However, the complexity that corporate tax contribution entails and the difficulties of understanding tax behaviour and tax disclosure in a global context require a practice-oriented, deep study of the concept of CTR that addresses associated practices and the key issues to disclose (Boll, 2014; Lanis and Richardson, 2015).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the emerging discourse on corporate taxation from a corporate social responsibility perspective to develop a consensual definition of corporate tax responsibility (CTR) and to identify a set of indicators that firms should publicly communicate to their stakeholders as an accountability mechanism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with representatives of stakeholders closely related to taxation: tax authorities, companies, NGOs, tax advisors and academics. Based on a discourse analysis approach, data were coded and analyzed using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software.\nFindings: CTR is defined as the set of tax-related practices and policies that allow companies to pay a fair share of taxes as a function of the generated value in each jurisdiction in which they operate and to then publicly disclose them. Disclosure should cover disaggregated quantitative data and information on practices and policies.\nOriginality/value: Despite the wealth of research on sustainability reporting and increasing public awareness of tax aggressiveness and disclosure, academic research has not explored tax-responsible reporting. Moreover, no consensual definition of CTR has been formulated, and no indicators to properly account for responsible taxation have been identified. This paper contributes to filling these gaps by providing rich interview evidence regarding the nature of the emerging discourse on CTR reporting and a set of material indicators for CTR disclosure. This paper encourages researchers to foster the development of social accountability by engaging in future empirical studies of CTR.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Contractor prequalification for green buildings--evidence from Turkey
|
[
"Green building",
"Prequalification",
"Construction industry",
"Decision making",
"AHP",
"MCDM"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of today's generation without depleting the earth's resources so that the future generations can meet their own needs (Shen et al., 2010) and recognises the interrelationships among societal, environmental and economic developments (Hutchins and Sutherland, 2008). Sustainable construction applications have been frequently practised recently, and the number of green buildings (GB) is increasing worldwide. GB can be defined as a process to design built environment in the context of environmental responsiveness, resource efficiency and cultural and community sensitivity (Ahn and Pearce, 2007). Since buildings alone are responsible for 36 per cent CO2 emission (European Commission, 2016), the adverse environmental impact of construction industry is non-negligible. In addition, since local social development, provision capacity of employment, infrastructures and public services can be regarded as the social impacts of the construction sector, sustainable construction is indispensible in achieving sustainable development goals (Shen et al., 2007).Several implementations different from traditional applications call for the needs of requirements in GB projects to maximise project performance (Ahmad et al., 2019). Involved parties may be subjected to risks that they have not encountered before (Coglienese, 2009). In this context, prequalification of potential contractors prior to selection is critical for clients to achieve project goals successfully, where selection of a limited number of contractors capable of performing all contract requirements is aimed (Ng et al., 1999) for the following phases. Prequalification is the phase where decision-maker's fundamental expectations are involved (Afshar et al., 2017), and when performed properly, project goals can better be achieved (Shahhossein et al., 2018). Since incompetent contractors are eliminated, it increases the chance to select the best alternative (Li et al., 2007) and provides confidence to clients during the selection process (El-Sawalhi et al., 2007). Therefore, a set of prequalification criteria that correspond to client's requirements of the project needs to be specified (Russell, 1996; Ng et al., 1999).It can be noted that contractor selection for sustainable projects was examined by several researchers (Xia et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2018; El-Sayegh et al., 2019), while prequalification phase was overlooked in the literature. Some studies focused on project delivery systems (Palaneeswaran and Kumaraswamy, 2005; Al-Reshaid and Kartam, 2005; Xia et al., 2014), while some others examined country-based applications (Plebankiewicz, 2010; Hosny et al., 2013; El-Sayegh et al., 2019) or sector-based implementations (Lo et al., 1998; Gransberg; Senadheera, 1999).The objective of this study is to develop an applicable model based on specific prequalification criteria for GB projects by using a decision-making framework and provide a practical evaluation tool for GB practitioners. One of the widely used MCDM tools, analytical hierarchy process (AHP), is used to identify relative weights of the criteria and evaluate hypothetical contractors developed to illustrate tool's applicability. Hence, it aims to analyse the contribution of contractors in the achievement of sustainability goals with a focus on the prequalification phase in GB projects and brings attention to the gap in the literature with an approach that prioritizes practicality.\n2. Background and previous research: 2.1 Studies about contractor prequalification\n3. Research methodology: Professionals from GB industry contributed this study to develop a prequalification model and demonstrate the proposed approach. As one of the most important sectors, Turkish companies rank in higher places in many of the industry-related reports. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Turkey ranked as the eighth country that has 245 certified projects over 6.06 million gross square metres until 2018 (Stanley, 2018). As of July 2019, in all, 388 and 40 buildings were certified through LEED and BREEAM rating systems, respectively (Cedbik, 2019). According to Engineering News-Record (ENR), of the top 250 international contractors, 44 are Turkish companies based on the total construction revenue generated, ranking second after China (ENR, 2019). With these facts, Turkish construction industry can be a good representative for conducting research in GB applications with its contractors.The research methodology is shown in Figure 1. In the first step, assessment criteria were specified through a comprehensive literature review on prequalification in construction projects. The most recent studies, on which this study relied, were listed in Table I.Prequalification criteria particular to GB projects were organised in the second step. The gathered material was discussed with a professional to establish a platform that would correctly reflect the GB project environment. The first hierarchical structure was developed based on this interview. For further steps, 'consultants to clients' and 'private clients' were selected as target groups for data collection; since there were few public GB projects in Turkey, it was difficult to find appropriate experts from this sector.To evaluate the criteria weights, a questionnaire survey was designed based on AHP since, i) it is one of the most frequently used MCDM methods in construction management literature, ii) it has excellent performance in dealing with both tangible and intangible criteria, iii) reliability can be controlled with consistency ratio, iv) experts get better understanding about study objectives with a hierarchical representation and v) it provides easy implementation (Balubaid and Alamoudi, 2015; Budayan, 2018; Darko et al., 2018). With its extensive use over the last two decades, professionals become familiar with this method (Darko et al., 2018). Therefore, AHP is used to elicit easy prevalence of the proposed tool for prequalification by green construction professionals. It can also be noted that various contractor prequalification studies employed AHP (Anagnostopoulos and Vavatsikos, 2006; Abudayyeh et al., 2007). Al-Harbi (2001) illustrated its use in project management with an example of prequalification, as its simplicity aided its applicability in managerial practice (Wicker and Lenord, 2014). This method is also preferred in this study for GB contractor prequalification phase. Since AHP enables handling small sample sizes (Cheng and Li, 2002), experts were selected carefully so that their judgements would represent the dynamics of GB projects. Arranging meetings with experienced professionals was challenging, since GB industry in Turkey is still growing and has limited number of experts. Their profiles are shown in Table II.In the third step, three experts--one from consultant to clients and two from private clients--attended the individual interview sessions. The underlying facts about each criterion were discussed, resulting with the final form of the model hierarchy. Consequently, 25 criteria were categorised into 8 groups suitable for GB prequalification phase as shown in Table III with corresponding references.In the fourth step, all experts, including the participants of previous steps, provided pairwise comparisons of AHP matrices in one-to-one meetings. In total, nine experts agreed to contribute to the questionnaire. As in the previous step, each criterion was reviewed with experts during the interviews, ensuring everything was discussed. Their reliabilities were checked with consistency ratios, and were found to be lower than 0.1 for each main criteria group provided by each expert (Budayan, 2018).In the fifth step, group assessments were calculated by geometric means of individual judgements. For a better insight, the correlations between inconsistency and i) number of criteria, ii) experience in construction industry, iii) experience in GB application, iv) proficiency and v) sector were also calculated. Agreement levels between experts were analysed by Pearson's correlation coefficient for relative criteria weights and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient for the criteria rank to present perspectives of different respondent groups (Budayan, 2018). Experts were classified into two respondent groups in three different ways: i) private client or consultants to clients, ii) civil engineers or architects and iii) experienced in GB project applications or experienced in GB development phase. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated in Excel via built-in function, while Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were found by using the following formula (El-Sayegh, 2008).rs=1-6[?]d2n(n2-1)where rs is the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, d is the difference in rankings between two groups of respondents and n is the number of criteria.Finally, six hypothetical contractors were considered to illustrate the applicability of the model. One of the contractors was arranged to represent a preferable contractor (C3) having many of the positive attributes, and another one as a non-preferable contractor (C5) with many of the negative attributes. C1 was assumed favourable in terms of financial factors, C2 in terms of safety and legal attributes, C4 with high sustainability capabilities and C6 was strong in documentation and certification aspects. In many projects, clients mostly have to deal with contractors with competing attributes; some of them qualify in similar features, while some others show distinctive favourable or unfavourable attributes. The studies of Al-Harbi (2001), Sonmez et al. (2002), Gransberg and Riemer (2009), Nieto-Morote and Ruz-Vila (2012), Balubaid and Alamoudi (2015) and Afshar et al. (2017) were used as a basis to form each hypothetical contractor with varying attributes. The hierarchy of the model is illustrated in Figure 2. Calculations were conducted with Expert Choice 11 software.\n4. Results and discussions: 4.1 GB prequalification main criteria\n5. Limitations of the study: This study presents some limitations as seen in many researches. These can be summarised as:Experts participated in the study were all involved in GB projects in Turkey with additional experience in international projects, as they stated during interviews. This provided wider insight to the model and judgements. Yet, the model relied on international literature with data collected from Turkey, so addition/modification of some other factors may still be needed for different locations.The number of experts may constitute another limitation that was substantially managed by AHP, which is proved to be convenient (Cheng and Li, 2002) and reported to be consistent for small-group evaluations, minimising the possibility to decrease the study quality for large sample size (Darko et al., 2018). Still, the participant number can be increased for improved assessments that can bring better representation for the general practice.Eight main criteria groups were used in the model, which could make it difficult to perform pairwise comparisons for the experts. Given the GB market size in Turkey, the balance between data sufficiency and avoidance from complexity was taken into consideration in the study. The model's hierarchy was expected to clearly represent the state of the art based on international literature survey followed by interviews. It may be argued that higher the number of comparisons required from experts, more possibility of less consistent responses. While this can be considered as one of the limitations of this study, the hierarchy needs to be representing the problem properly. Consistency checks are mandatory in this method, regardless of the complexity of the hierarchic model, to ensure reliability. Calculations showed the reliability of results with accepted level of consistency ratios.AHP is used in this study for mentioned reasons; however, it does not take fuzziness into account. Since the judgements of the experts may not be represented with precise values, fuzzy AHP method could be used to remove this limitation. AHP also does not consider correlations between criteria, where in some cases of fuzziness and uncertainties may require defining interrelationships. In that case, methods such as 'The Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)' and 'Analytical Network Process (ANP)' could be used to consider interrelationships. On the other hand, AHP is widely adopted by construction professionals (Darko et al., 2018) with its simpler steps, which enables easy dissemination of practical implications of the study rather than more complex combination of fuzzy approach. Development of a framework, including the entire process of contractor selection, can be considered with a fuzzy method.Validation is an important part of studies proposing models using an MCDM approach. In this study, applicability and practicality features were presented in the proposed approach, rather than validation of it. Determined results and past studies hold strong similarities, which support the way a problem is handled. However, validation can reasonably improve the reliability of the approach, which is planned with a case study in the future.\n6. Conclusions: Contractor prequalification is an important phase for clients that lead to successful achievement of performance goals in GB projects. Hence, this study attempts to prequalify contractors to bid for GB projects, as incompetent contractors are discarded on the way to choosing the right contractor.To address the problem, background analysis was conducted to develop a decision-making tool using AHP method based on an intensive international literature review, which was finessed with pilot studies, and a survey was conducted with nine construction industry professionals. Participants were selected from private clients and consultants to client, with either civil engineering or an architecture background, and those experienced in application or in development phase of GB projects, which made it possible to analyse and compare the perceptions of different group of experts. Twenty-five prequalification sub-criteria were classified into eight main criteria groups. 'Financial capability', 'Legal status' and 'Sustainability' were determined as the top three main criteria by all respondents, while 'Compliance with schedule requirements of the owner', 'Current legal status including suits', 'Negative Litigation history/record' 'Contractor's compliance capacity of client's sustainability checklist for the proposed project' and 'Sustainability with lower life-cycle cost (durability, maintenance, constructability)' were identified as top five sub-criteria. Reliability of the judgements was checked throughout the entire analysis steps, and all respondents were found to be consistent.Findings indicate that to determine the capability of a contractor, meeting requirements of client's sustainability checklist and ensuring lower life cycle cost are two of the significant factors that need to be evaluated through prequalification phase. If contractor selection is employed without assessing contractors' varying attributes in this phase, a contractor may be awarded the contract based on their stronger attributes while overlooking other attributes, such as sustainability capability. Prequalification phase can be employed as a filtering mechanism that allows contractors with certain features to pass to the next phase.This study can be used as a framework for clients aiming to increase their competency in GB industry. Since few studies investigated contractor prequalification for GB projects, this research aims to fill the gap in the literature. In further studies, the interrelationships amongst prequalification criteria can be analysed for improved assessment of contractors. The contractor selection framework can also be approached similarly to cope with potential risks in GB projects.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Competent contractors are one of the critical stakeholders to achieve targeted sustainability objectives in green building (GB) projects. Prior to contractor selection, prequalification is an important step, which requires contractors with certain capabilities in addition to traditional features. This study aims to develop a systematic and practical model for prequalification in GB projects using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach by adopting the analytical hierarchy process (AHP).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The AHP model with 8 main criteria groups and 25 sub-criteria is structured based on literature review and professional opinions accompanied by a pilot study. Then, interviews with experts, who are experienced in the development and application phases of GB projects in Turkey, are arranged to collect judgements. The agreement levels between different groups of experts are analysed via Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Model applicability is tested on six hypothetical contractors for practicality.\nFindings: The results show that i) financial capabilities, ii) legal status and iii) sustainability groups are the top three main criteria, while i) compliance with schedule requirements of the client, ii) current legal status including suits, iii) negative litigation history records, iv) contractor's compliance capacity to client's sustainability checklist for the proposed project and v) sustainability with lower life cycle cost (durability, maintenance, constructability) are the top five sub-criteria.\nOriginality/value: There is a gap in the literature analysing contractor prequalification phase in GB projects. This study attempts to fill this lack provided with a practical evaluation tool.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
From the mouths of babes: How understanding immature decision-making can benefit leadership
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Decision-making",
"Learning and development",
"Adolescence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: How do you make a good leader? Imagine for a moment, as if you are some Dr Frankenstein of an MBA program, what would you need to build the next Jack Welchs? Well, they would be super-smart, engage with people really well, get buy-in from investors, be able to take tough decisions, and would absolutely have a vision and be able to communicate them through their teams and organizations. They would also know their products and industries backwards, and be able to formulate strategy upon strategy with ease.\nHorror show: What is useful about the Frankenstein-thought experiment is that it starts at the end result and enables you to work backwards. This process can also be used in a number of ways in learning and development, where either a desired result has already been reached and needs to be understood better, or if a state of affairs might be different if something was taken away and hence become more interpretable. The latter approach is favored by Riddell (2017) in her article \"Reward and threat in the adolescent brain: implications for leadership development.\" In it, she seeks to understand how the maturing mind can improve leadership qualities, and by extension, how this understanding can be used to benefit the younger leaders who have yet to gain any real experience.\nApplication of science: The way decisions are made and the nature of those decisions do, of course, change greatly, so different types of decision and the relevant factors are assessed by the author in terms of leadership. These factors may also change in terms of the stage of development of people from adolescents to young adults and, in turn, to mature adults in their late 20s. These factors are:\nImplications: So, what does this mean for leadership development? Well, each of these observations can have certain implications for shaping the much-needed leaders of the future in our organizations. Inhibitions can be developed by simulating experiences where self-regulation is necessary, whereas reward situations can be supported by the appointment of mentors to give positive and constructive feedback. Risk is something that has to be experienced, and so giving high-risk projects to young adults is worthwhile as long as there is a low cost of failure. The effect of context can be used here as well by including mixed age groups in project teams.\nComment: The article \"Reward and threat in the adolescent brain: implications for leadership development\" by Riddell (2017) takes a scientific approach to understanding how decisions are made by adolescents and young people. While the implications of how teenagers make decisions might not at first seem apparent, the changing workforce and nature of work means that young adults are increasingly being put in more responsible positions in start-ups, social enterprises or in flat organization structures. As such, understanding that their faculties operate differently to more experienced adults is highly important.\n",
"role": "user"
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"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 his/her own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: The maturing mind can be improved in terms of its leadership qualities, specifically its decision-making, and by extension, understanding this can be used to benefit the younger leaders who have yet to gain any real experience.\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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] |
Leader's intention to support followers' self-worth
|
[
"Leadership",
"Competence",
"Expectations",
"Motivation",
"Self-determination",
"Self-worth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most of us spend our daytimes in the workplace, and our jobs are often important parts of our lives. It is therefore not surprising that a large part of our sense of self-worth resides in our jobs. We like to feel meaningful, effectual, and worthwhile within the organization in which we are employed, and the relationship that we have with our direct supervisors plays an important role in this respect. There is ample evidence indicating that attempts by leaders to build self-esteem, self-worth, and/or feelings of competence are a strong motivator for people (Redmond et al., 1993). In today's dynamic organizational context, an essential approach to the study and understanding of leadership concerns the relational process between a leader and a subordinate on a one-to-one basis (Yammarino et al., 2005). Even within larger contexts in which individuals function such as departments, business units, and organizations, effective leadership necessitates an individualized approach that gives explicit attention to leadership as an interpersonal dyadic process.\nMethods: Participants and design\nResults: Manipulation checks\nDiscussion: The main aim of this study was to contribute to our understanding of the early stage of relational development between a leader and his or her subordinate in an organizational setting. This study focussed on the initiation process from the perspective of the leader; it specifically looked into the factors that influence a leader's intention to provide a subordinate with a sense of self-worth, which will start the investment-return cycle needed to develop the relationship into one of high quality. The most important findings were the following: a subordinate's competence plays a key role in influencing a leader's expectation and a leader's intention to support a subordinate's self-worth; a subordinate's will to achieve and self-determination play an additional role in enhancing the expectations, especially for subordinates with low competence; and a subordinate's competence, will to achieve, and self-determination combine to raise the expectations of a leader and enhance the intention to enhance a subordinate's self-worth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of the followers' competence, will to achieve, and self-determination on a leader's intention to support a followers' sense of self-worth.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using an experimental scenario study design with a sample of 316 managers, a mediated three-way moderation model was investigated that tested the extent to which a new subordinate's competence, self-determination, and will to achieve would influence the manager's positive expectations of them and their willingness to support this subordinate's sense of self-worth.\nFindings: The results showed that a subordinate's competence plays a key role and that a subordinate's will to achieve and self-determination played an additional role that was mediated by positive expectations of the leader.\nPractical implications: The key findings emphasize that leaders can benefit from understanding how dyadic relationships form and are influenced by the earliest phases of the development of such relationships.\nOriginality/value: By taking the perspective of the leader, the paper provides empirical evidence of key determinants of the leader-follower relationship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury goods: An integrated model of neutralisation techniques and perceived risk theory
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Partial least squares",
"Counterfeit luxury goods",
"Neutralisation theory",
"Perceived risk theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The counterfeit trade has expanded exponentially over the years and is detrimental to the global businesses and development of national economies (Santos and Ribeiro, 2006). It is widely known that counterfeiting is an unlawful and unethical act by fraudulently imitating an artistic, or literary work, and even an industrial product without the authorisation of its original author or inventor (de Matos et al., 2007). Counterfeit goods are usually sold at drastically reduced prices with a compromised quality. The production of counterfeit goods is not only confined to luxury products with symbolic value, but also is found in daily use products, including personal care products, health supplements and foods.\nLiterature review: Neutralisation theory\nResearch methodology: Procedure and sample\nResults: Common method variance (CMV)\nDiscussion: This study found that only two dimensions of neutralisation (denial of responsibility and denial of the victim) have a significant influence on consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury goods. The result suggests that consumers tend to shift the blame of their counterfeit luxury purchase on external factors that are beyond their personal control, consistent with Bian et al. (2016). The authors found that consumers perceive that she or he is not personally responsible for their counterfeit luxury purchase. Some examples representing the neutralisation technique of denial of responsibility are \"there are so many of them on the marketplace in China\" and \"I'm buying for myself, I don't really care much about brands\". One thing in common from these examples is that they are in the state of denial by attributing their counterfeit luxury purchase solely to external factors. Nonetheless, considering the student population under study, the blame might refer to their low purchasing power. As a result, one way to experience the sense of prestige attached to luxury goods is through purchasing counterfeits (Barnett, 2005). In addition, the significant relationship between denial of victim and purchase intention implies that consumers believe that the indirect victims (e.g. the original manufacturers or the government) deserve all the negative eventualities. This is because the prices of luxury goods are generally not affordable for many people. In addition, the recent implementation of goods and services tax in Malaysia could have further infuriated consumers to buy counterfeits as a form of revenge (Hoe et al., 2015).\nConclusion: From the results of this study, it can be concluded the integrated model is useful and comprehensive in explaining consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury products. Previous studies have mainly used the theory of planned behaviour for understanding consumers' consumption of counterfeit luxury goods, whereas this study offers a new perspective through the lenses of the neutralisation theory and perceived risk theory. Specifically, four significant predictors: denial of responsibility, denial of victim, performance risk and social risk were found to be significantly related to consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury goods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Counterfeiting is a large business involving the manufacturing or distribution of imitation goods. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated research model that combines neutralisation theory and perceived risk theory to explain consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury goods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Of the 280 distributed questionnaires, 230 were returned. Rigorous data filtering was performed to remove problematic data, leaving 213 usable questionnaires for analysis. To validate the proposed hypotheses, PLS analysis (a variance-based structural equation modelling technique) was conducted using Smart-PLS.\nFindings: The results showed that denial of responsibility, denial of victim, performance risk and social risk are significant predictors of consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury goods. However, denial of injury, appeal to higher loyalties, condemnation of the condemners, as well as psychological risk and prosecution risks, were found to have no significant relationships with purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury goods.\nOriginality/value: The integrated model is useful in predicting consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury goods. This study discusses the research findings and concludes with managerial implications and limitations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Competency based management: a review of systems and approaches
|
[
"Competences",
"Competences framework",
"Modelling",
"Information management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Competence management (CM) is an important research object in the more general area of knowledge management and a CM system is often integrated with learning management systems (LMSs). CM can have an important contribution at an organizational and personal level, as it identifies the key knowledge that an employee or an organization should possess in order to achieve his/its targets.Competence and skills management have been tightly linked to the efforts of companies to create a setting for the empowerment of their workforce in order to increase competitive advantage, innovation, and effectiveness (Houtzagers, 1999). In addition, CM is directly related to corporate efforts to leverage internal knowledge and initiate consistent knowledge management initiatives (Hellstrom et al., 2000; Ley and Albert, 2003). Recently, CM is a research field attracting efforts to leverage personnel development (Beck, 2003), knowledge sharing (Won and Pipek, 2003), corporate e-learning efforts (Hockemeyer et al., 2003) as well as applications of semantic technologies like ontology management (Colucci et al., 2003).Our objective in the present paper is to review the most common and widespread competency management (CM) systems, to study their characteristic applications and to provide future research directions.The paper is organized as follows: in the first section, we provide a short introduction to CM. Next, we provide definitions of the key concepts of competency based management and analyse the competency lifecycle and the core application areas of CM systems. In the third section, we describe the different phases in developing a competency model, the cornerstone of a CM system. In the fourth section, we present our analysis on 22 CM systems and 18 LMSs which incorporate CM modules. We also present the common CM features in both categories of systems. Finally we discuss the technologies which will be evolutionary in the CM area and propose some research directions. An appendix (provided by the authors upon request) presents a description of the CM and e-learning systems we reviewed.\n2 Competency based management: an overview: 2.1 Definition of key concepts\n3 Development of competency models: Over the past ten years, many companies and governmental organizations have addressed issues such as organizational transformation, performance improvement, employee development, succession planning, etc. by the implementation of competency modelling programs, i.e. through strategic initiatives aimed at aligning employee performance with job requirements.A competency model is a list of competencies which are derived from observing satisfactory or exceptional employee performance for a specific occupation. The model can provide identification of the competencies employees need to develop in order to improve performance in their current job or to prepare for other jobs via promotion or transfer. The model can also be useful in a skill gap analysis, the comparison between available and needed competencies of individuals or organizations. An individual development plan could be developed in order to eliminate the gap. Important variables to be considered during the development of a competency model are the use of skill dictionaries, or the creation of customized ones and the competency identification and verification methods - surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.Competencies are the building blocks of competency models. For example, a competency model for an Area Sales Manager might include competencies such as sales planning, team working, market competition, industry trends and strategic thinking.Each competency in the model would be defined, including behavioural descriptors of how exemplary and lower levels of proficiency are demonstrated. Table III gives an example of a definition and some behavioural indicators for the competency of \"Strategic Thinking\".Table IV gives some examples of behavioural indicators for each level of proficiency, with the assumption that a specific competency can be characterized by three proficiency levels: the marginal, the average and the superior.The development of a competency model consists of different steps, required for the creation and validation of the model. The validation process is a means of checking that the competencies predict successful job performance. Table V outlines the most commonly used steps in the development of a competency model.In Table VI, we present the basic data attributes of a competency in a CM system, together with a description and some sample values.\n4 Analysis of competency management systems: With the aim to analyse systematically the main features of CM as treated by existing systems, we conducted a review of 22 CM systems which can operate as standalone applications, as well as of 18 LMSs which incorporate a CM module.The stand-alone CM systems that we reviewed are listed in Table VII, while detailed information about them can be found in the Appendix.Apart from CM systems which operate as stand alone applications, it is a common practice for a LMS to incorporate CM features or modules. We have also conducted a review of the most important LMS and the CM features which are included in them (Table VIII).Our review and analysis of abovementioned systems has revealed some common features that are available in most CM systems.These features are the basis on which a CM system is built and can be later enhanced with additional modules such as multi-assessment evaluation tools, 360deg feedback, talent management, succession management, e-learning library and learning objects integration and other. These features are outlined in Table IX.\n5 Discussion and research directions: In this section, we discuss and analyse the main factors which could influence future research conducted on CM systems. These include web services, ontologies, use of emerging standards, portal and self-service technologies and the core characteristics of future human resource management systems (HRMS).In the area of emerging standards, the worldwide web consortium (W3C) published XML specification 1.0 in 1998 in order to ease the enablement of e-commerce by providing a description of the way that data exchanged among systems over the internet should be tagged. The HR-XML consortium is one of the most active committees operating under the auspices of the W3C, with participation from major human capital management (HCM) vendors. A result of the work that the HR-XML consortium has done is Version 1.0 of the competency standard, which is embedded in the SEP (Staffing Exchange Protocol), used by many recruitment management vendors and core human resource packages. Future research should be conducted on enhancing this standard so as to increase adoption of competency data exchange and application interoperability.Furthermore, research should also focus on the potential usage and integration of CM systems with web services, which are web-based services targeted to the simplification of the way that applications communicate and share information. The majority of HCM systems have been or plan to be enhanced with the use of web services in their development environments. Although lack of a published security specification is currently limiting full use of the web services paradigm, vendors are re-architecting their own application components, mainly for internal usage. As technology matures, the use of web services and XML will enable the concept of workforce management systems' application components reading competency data from the HRMS \"master\" repository and updating the master with new entries or revisions based on completion of business processes.Another area which could prove to be increasingly interesting for further research is the area of employee portals with self-service technology. Most organizations and mainly financial and telecommunications companies, have adopted or plan to deploy such portals. An employee self-service portal can be integrated with the enterprise portal, thus facilitating tracking of certain competencies which are easily self-reported - such as courses and knowledge acquired out of the organization. This could be accomplished with the use of push and pull techniques - e.g. employees receive a quarterly e-mail notification reminding them to update their competency profile, with an embedded link to the relevant self-service page.A research direction or technology evolution in employee portals with self-service technology would be a very possible solution to the often met problem of employees' lack of time and commitment to update the content of a CM system.Moreover, ontology capabilities leading to the semantic web appear to becoming a core future technology. As a result, ontology-based models of competencies can present a tight integration of capabilities and information in a highly contextualized user interface. At the same time, different services and components may be loosely coupled through a dynamic architecture whose coherence is ensured via a common semantic model in a rich competency ontology.Additionally, during the next few years, ontology tools and techniques are expected to offer the unified semantics needed to support dynamic application integration at the enterprise level. Consequently, organizations and enterprises should begin exploring the integration of semantic modelling and information management skills with their competency centres. Such an evolution would deal with the problem of enterprise application integration, the integration of CM systems with other core applications of an organization.\n6 Conclusions: CM is a practice that becomes more and more important in private and public organizations, helping them to attract and develop talented employees, identify the right person for a job position, performing succession planning, training analysis and other core human resources functions.Apart from defining the concept of \"competency\" we have identified the four macro-phases in a competency lifecycle in a CM system: namely, competency mapping; diagnosis; development; and monitoring, and we analysed them in detail. Moreover, we provided an algorithm for developing a competency model, the core around which a CM system is based.We conducted a review of 22 commercial CM systems which can operate as standalone applications and 18 LMSs which incorporate a CM module and identified common features and differences amongst them. Some of the most common features are competency categories, definitions, proficiency scales, associated behaviours, job descriptions, assessment tool and competency tracking.Finally, we provided research directions in the areas of open standards (XML, web services, RDF), semantic technologies (ontologies and the semantic web) and portals with self-service technologies. Our estimation is that these areas are going to have a significant role in the evolution of CM systems.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Aims to review the key concepts of competency management (CM) and to propose method for developing competency method.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Examines the CM features of 22 CM systems and 18 learning management systems.\nFindings: - Finds that the areas of open standard (XML, web services, RDF), semantic technologies (ontologies and the semantic web) and portals with self-service technologies are going to play a significant part in the evolution of CM systems.\nOriginality/value: - Emphasizes the beneficial attributes of CM for private and public organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Brand identification, cause-brand alliances and perceived cause controversy
|
[
"Brand identification",
"Non-profit",
"Customer brand identification",
"Cause-brand alliance",
"Perceived cause controversy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the published research, scholars show that consumers are more favorable toward companies perceived to be socially responsible (Brown and Dacin, 1997). Associating a brand or a company with a non-profit organization communicates corporate social responsibility (CSR) to consumers (Davidson, 1997). This association is referred to as a cause-brand alliance (CBA) (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 2005)[1]. Companies have used CBAs as a means of competitive differentiation (Davidson, 1997). CBAs have been found to increase the customer's attitudes toward both the company and the non-profit (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 2005). Simultaneously, brand managers are strongly motivated to build brand identification among their customer base. Brand identification is important because it influences consumer buying-related decisions (Ahearne et al., 2005), brand preference (Tildesley and Coote, 2009), consumer loyalty (Bhattacharya et al., 1995) and positive word of mouth (del Rio et al., 2001), among other important outcomes.\n2. Conceptual background: Dann (2010, p. 151) introduces a new definition of social marketing as follows:\n3. Theory and hypotheses: In the proposed framework, we articulate the process of how a CBA influences changes in CBI. The product brand name and the non-profit organization name are two cues that are involved in a CBA. Controversy is information about public disagreements regarding an issue with which the non-profit is involved. Based on consumer learning, we theorize that the brand ally, non-profit ally and cause controversy will interact to influence the customer's attitude toward the CBA between a focal brand and a non-profit brand. The customer's attitude toward the CBA will, in turn, affect the customer's identification with the focal brand. Our conceptualization is grounded in consumer learning a subject to which we now turn.\n4. Method: 4.1 Pretests\n5. Results: 5.1 Manipulation checks\n6. Discussion: We investigated the interaction effect of brand ally, non-profit ally and perceived cause controversy on customer's evaluations of the alliance and their subsequent identification with the focal brand. Overall, the results of the study support our prediction about the effect of both product brand and non-profit brand name cues and customer's perception of cause controversy on customer's attitude toward the CBA. The results indicate that in the high perceived controversy condition, only the alliance of two high attitude brands will result in a statistically significant increase in customer's attitudes toward the CBA. Whereas, in the low perceived controversy condition, because the stronger brand cue provides unique and relevant information for the customer, the inconsistent pairings of brand and non-profit brand names (low-high or high-low) will result in a significantly higher evaluation of the alliance. In addition, we found that the CBA can improve consumer's brand identification but this effect is mediated through attitude toward the CBA.\n7. Conclusion: Our research shows that CBAs can have a positive influence on CBI. This depends critically on customer's attitude toward the non-profit ally and its involvement with controversial issues. As the Facebook and Starbucks examples show, a host of controversial and divisive issues confront managers. Simultaneously, managers are motivated to involve their brands with CBAs, which may lead to an association with a controversial social issue. When non-profits are involved in controversial issues, managers of for-profit brands have fewer options with respect to effective cause brand allies. Undoubtedly some managers might refrain from allying with such non-profits preferring the less constraining uncontroversial non-profit organizations. Our results show that although the options may be relatively more limited, that there are ways to build a CBA that can achieve brand building objectives like increasing customer brand identification. However, the trend affecting business seems broad-based and long-term. Thus, our study is just a first-step into how business can navigate through the changing landscape.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which a cause-brand alliance (CBA) leads to improved attitude toward cause-brand alliance, which in turn leads to improved brand identification.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach uses a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design to examine the interaction effect of the brand ally, the non-profit ally, and the perception of cause controversy on a customer's attitude toward the CBA, which in turn affects identification with the brand ally.\nFindings: On average, customers' perception of cause controversy influences attitude toward the CBA and subsequently the level of identification with the brand ally. When a non-profit organization is connected to a controversial issue, managerial options for building a successful CBA are more limited than when the non-profit is noncontroversial.\nResearch limitations/implications: We contribute to consumer learning theory in the context of CBA research by identifying an important boundary condition - perceived cause controversy. Perceived cause controversy impedes the customer's learning about partners in CBA. Moreover, fit and cue consistency are separate constructs.\nPractical implications: CBAs help build customer brand identification. Brand managers must include the customer's perceived cause controversy, the ally's unique information, and the customer's attitude toward the nonprofit in the decision calculus. Brands have an opportunity to demonstrate corporate social responsibility and build identification by helping a less well-established nonprofit to build positive customer attitudes. If the non-profit is linked to controversy, this opportunity is constrained.\nOriginality/value: A boundary condition-perceived cause controversy influences how the partners in a CBA differentially influence the customer's attitude toward the CBA and, ultimately, brand identification.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Renewable energy in international business
|
[
"Renewable energy",
"Climate change",
"Fossil fuel phase‐out",
"Corporate sustainability",
"Sustainable Development Goal 7",
"SDG 7"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Renewable energy sources are continually restored by nature and derived directly (thermal and photovoltaics) or indirectly (wind and hydro) from the sun or other natural mechanisms of the environment (geothermal and tidal energy). Renewables are a fundamental factor for decarbonizing economies. Renewable energy excludes resources derived from fossil fuels, waste products from fossil sources and waste products from inorganic sources (Ellabban et al., 2014). As a result, renewable energy is, to a large extent, climate-neutral and resource saving.\nGlobal production and adoption of renewable energy: Evidence shows that climate change is unavoidable without a drastic reduction in greenhouse gases emissions from fossil fuels emissions. However, there are abundant market failures around greenhouse gases and constraining greenhouse gas emissions still heavily relies on good intentions (Covert et al., 2016). Even though the share of electricity generated by renewables is growing faster than any other source (Berke, 2017), unfortunately, the era of oil and fossil fuels is not over (IEA, 2018). Fossil fuel subsidies amounted US$5.3tn and it is equivalent to 6.5% of global GDP in 2015 (Coady et al., 2017). Nevertheless, it is estimated that at least 40% of the planet's power will come from renewable sources by 2040 (IEA, 2018), and by 2050, the entire planet could be powered from renewables (Wood, 2020). While indicating a bright future for renewable energy, these statistics also reveal that there has been some lag in the production and adoption of renewable energy internationally.\nDark sides of international renewable energy: In general terms, renewable energy sources (solar, wind, ocean waves, hydropower, hydrogen, biofuels, biomass, waste and geothermal resources) have better credibility than non-renewables (oil, natural gas, coal and petroleum). However, there is an on-going debate regarding the credibility of renewable energy production, which is linked to the intermittency, unreliability and variability in the supply to match the demand (Delucchi and Jacobson, 2011). Also, though the vast majority of people are in favor of renewable energies, there is resistance from various interest groups and stakeholders. This is understandable, as the communities where energy generation projects are located might be negatively affected by renewable energy projects (Gipe, 1995). These adverse effects are associated with unwanted displacements, deforestation and engineering interventions that affect the quality of life either during the construction time of the project or permanently. This is what is identified as the \"not-in-my-back-yard syndrome\" (NIMBY) (Dear, 2007).\nSummary of the articles featuring in this special issue: After the review process, four articles were accepted for this special issue of critical perspectives on international business on \"Renewable energy in international business.\" These articles discuss both aspects of the aforementioned broader research themes: global production and adoption of renewable energy and dark sides of international renewable energy. They approach these topics on multiple levels, in several geographical contexts and with a methodological plurality. Further, we provide a summary of these articles and discuss their contributions to the nascent research on renewable energy in IB.\nConclusions: We have highlighted the potential of critical research on the global production and adoption of renewable energy as well as its dark sides. We have also introduced the papers that are included in this special issue and linked them to the debates we outlined in the beginning of this introduction. Altogether, the conceptual discussion and the papers portray renewable energy markets as complex systems. As a result, it is essential to acknowledge that focusing solely on the environmental or economic side of the phenomenon gives a myopic view of the market. If other fields follow this practice, we face the danger of the SDGs not being addressed holistically. The question we pose is: Does the IB discipline have the theoretical and methodological foundations to be the source of knowledge that overcomes the challenge of a myopic focus? We argue that if more IB scholars focused on the topics covered in this special issue, IB research could contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of renewable energy and become societally and environmentally more impactful. In other words, we would witness a change from renewable energy market being an exciting context feeding to IB research to IB research feeding back to the research and practice in renewable energy markets.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this guest editorial is to introduce the special issue entitled \"Renewable energy in international business.\"\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper presents a research agenda for the topic of the special issue and provides an overview of the articles included.\nFindings: This guest editorial contains a discussion of the themes related to the topic, with a particular focus on the global production and adoption of renewable energies and dark sides of international renewable energy.\nResearch limitations/implications: This guest editorial considers how the articles included in the special issue contribute to research on renewable energy in international business and provides an avenue for future studies for a broader impact.\nOriginality/value: The discussion raises two important research streams that have remained overlooked in international business research, namely, global production and adoption of renewable energies and dark sides of international renewable energy. This guest editorial also highlights the potential of international business research to become more relevant by incorporating conceptual, methodological and empirical insights that inform the multidisciplinary community of renewable energy researchers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Time flies when you're having fun: Are employees who have fun in the workplace more engaged?
|
[
"Work engagement",
"Job satisfaction",
"Participative leadership",
"Fun",
"Hong Kong",
"Leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Leadership styles have never been static. They evolve and develop to reflect the economic reality, business practices, and cultural values of the environment leaders operate within. One particularly style, participative leadership, has received an increasing amount of attention in both management research and management training and practice over the last few decades.\nThe link between participative leadership, job satisfaction and work engagement: Participative leadership is a style of management where employees are involved in decision-making and problem solving. Participative leaders share power, responsibility and autonomy with their employees, empowering and motivating them. By involving employees in the decision-making process, participative leadership provides employees with encouraging messages, allowing them to develop creative new ideas and solutions and work innovatively. Participative leadership encourages leaders to spend more time listening to and developing positive interpersonal relationships with employees. It can also help reduce uncertainty for employees, as being involved in decision making means they are less likely to feel unsettled by organizational change.\nThe role of fun in the workplace: Previous research has found that employees who feel like they have fun at work are more engaged. Fun experiences at work may affect how participative leadership influences employee work engagement and job satisfaction. Engaged employees represent improved productivity, better client relationships and greater performance and organizations put significant time and money into employee engagement strategies. Understanding how the role of fun mediates the relationship between participative leadership, work engagement and job satisfaction can inform current management practice and employee engagement strategies within organizations.\nThe study: The data was collected via a survey distributed at a retail store in Hong Kong. The survey measured employee perception of participative leadership, workplace engagement, level of fun experienced in the workplace and job satisfaction. There were 177 responses to the survey (64% female, 36% male). The average age of the participants was 32.3, and the average length of time participants had worked at the retail store was 4.4 years. The survey tested the following:\nDiscussion: The results demonstrate that participative leadership had a significantly positive impact on employees' job satisfaction. They also show that the positive relationship between participative leadership, employees' work engagement and job satisfaction was stronger when employees felt they had more fun at work. Fun at work strengthens the relationship between participative leadership and job satisfaction and between participative leadership and workplace engagement. Employees who have fun at work are more likely to be engaged. Participative leadership has a positive effect on employees' work engagement and job satisfaction. This positive effect is enhanced when employees have fun at work.\nImplications for practice: Incorporating participative leadership styles into management can lead to greater employee job satisfaction and work engagement.\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: This paper explores the link between participative leadership, job satisfaction and work engagement and asks whether fun in the workplace strengthens the effect of participative leadership of job satisfaction and workplace engagement. This study finds a significant link between participative leadership and higher levels of workplace engagement and job satisfaction. The study also finds that these links are enhanced when employees feel they are having fun in the workplace.\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"
}
] |
Strategic human resource practices for innovation performance: An empirical investigation
|
[
"Environmental uncertainty (EU)",
"Innovation performance (IP)",
"Knowledge management capacity (KMC)",
"Strategic human resource practice (SHRP)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last two decades, the Indian hospitality and tourism industry has emerged as one of the key drivers of economic growth in India. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) (2016), this industry has contributed 7.5 percent to the national GDP and is growing at a significant rate. At present, the direct contribution of the hospitality and tourism industry to India's GDP is worth $47bn, and it holds considerable potential for growth considering the historical heritage, ecological varsity, terrains and places of natural and cultural beauty spread across the country. With the growth of tourism in Indian states, the need for hotels has also increased greatly. Previous studies have shown that in developed economies, service sector contributes approximately 70 percent to its GDP (Dhar, 2015a). This is similar to developing economies like India, which largely depend on the service industry for revenue generation (Thakur and Hale, 2013). Today, hotels form an integral part of the tourism industry drawing a great chunk of domestic as well as foreign investment. With the growth of the hotel industry in India, customers have become more vocal regarding their preferences, so in order to sustain their competitive edge these organizations are continuously seeking new directions (Jaiswal and Dhar, 2015).\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses formulation: 2.1 Strategic human resource practices and resource-based view\n3. Research method: 3.1 Overview of Jharkhand Tourism\n4. Results: 4.1 Confirmatory factor analysis\n5. Discussion: Fierce competition among tourist hotels in India creates a pressure for showcasing extraordinary service delivery which is being done through different SHRP, so that the customers are delighted and are motivated to avail the services on a regular basis. When the employees of the hotel are highly skilled, they become assets based on which organizations differentiate themselves from their rivals. The tourist hotels in the Jharkhand region were found to be willing to modify their operating patterns in order to produce better and unique performances (Dhar, 2015b). In lieu to the above statement, it is being said that the utilization of strategy-oriented HR policy gives these tourist hotels an edge to grab on the opportunities which other competitors may turn a blind eye or are reluctant in taking any risky steps (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2014).\n6. Theoretical implications: The present paper builds upon the existing theoretical framework for explicating the relationships among SHRP, KMC, EU and IP of tourist hotel employees. Knowledge-based theory reveals that when hotel employees engage in knowledge-sharing activities, it leads to the creation of an environment that is learning oriented and conducive to IP (Laursen and Foss, 2003). When employees see the integration of SHRP in various functions of the organization, they realize themselves as important constituents in goal accomplishment; hence, motivation for greater IP develops (Mohsin and Lengler, 2015). The process develops intrinsic motivation and a positive work environment which leads to extraordinary work culture. Another important add on is the empirical backing of the hypothesized model. Earlier studies have examined the importance of SHRP in the process of innovation and creativity, but very few have examined its effects empirically. This research is the first of its kind to examine the effect of SHRP on IP of hotel employees considering KMC as mediator and EU as moderator in tourist hotels of Jharkhand area.\n7. Practical implications: The findings suggest that the implementation of SHRP can play a unique role in motivating the employees intrinsically and displaying KMC and IP. One of the essential contributions would be that managers give in extra focus on their firm's human capital through various SHRP, so as to enhance the practice of gathering knowledge as well as its sharing, dissemination and related activities, which can be done by inculcating the culture of open communication. The culture of open communication helps in boosting the morale of the staff and encourages them to be more active in KM activities. This process can effectively be brought only when the SHRP of tourist hotels are compatible and aligned with the proposed output, based on which the staff perceives that the organization is supportive to their needs, requirements and well-being. Thus, in order to excel in the best of service practices, tourist hotels must foster work patterns that boost employee morale. Additionally, if managers of tourist hotels assume leadership roles and guide employees toward creative and innovative problem-solving techniques, it would eventually lead to IP. Policies could also be formulated to link compensation with rewards if employees indulge in creative, risk-taking and problem-solving processes. It is seen that employees are unlikely to indulge in KMC because of multiple and varied targets in their task agreements, so roles should be clearly defined. In a turbulent and competitive business environment, it is essential for managers to understand the intricacies of KMC. Furthermore, they should proactively utilize SHRP to build upon KMC which in turn might result in productive innovation outcomes.\n8. Limitations and future research: The present research paper definitely has some limitations. First, the study was survey predicated and cross-sectional in nature, and even though the results are at par with the theoretical reasoning, it might be that the former is unable to chalk out a causal relationship between the constructs. Hence, in future, longitudinal studies may be conducted for examining the effect of SHRP and KMC on IP in an uncertain environment. Second, the endogenous issue has come forward due to the usage of convenience sampling technique. This might be a probable limitation. Third, this study only investigates hotels in Jharkhand state, so cultural differences may be prevalent. In order to understand the different cultural factors existing in tourist hotels influencing their day-to-day functioning, future studies can be taken up. Fourth, the proposed model considering hotel employees is the first attempt to include SHRP, KMC and IP in an uncertain environment; hence, the findings need to be replicated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the conception of strategic human resource practices (SHRPs) for establishing innovation performance (IP) in the tourist hotel industry. In this research, the author has also studied the influence of knowledge management capacity (KMC) as a mediator between the two and the role of environmental uncertainty (EU) in moderating the relation between SHRP and KMC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through survey method from the employees and managers of the tourist hotels in Jharkhand, India. Furthermore, 368 customer contact employees and 46 managers' responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and SPSS macro named PROCESS.\nFindings: The interpretation of the empirical results signifies SHRP influence on IP and KMC as a mediator between SHRP and IP. Additionally, the role of EU in positively mitigating the interaction between SHRP and KMC was seen.\nOriginality/value: The present research work adds to the subsisting literature by empirically fortifying the proposed hypotheses. Additionally, current studies focused on hospitality and tourism industry operating in a developed economy, the present study is an attempt to explore a comprehensive and theoretically grounded relationship between SHRP, KMC and IP with the help of resource-based view in an emerging economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Information systems outsourcing reasons and risks: a new assessment
|
[
"Information systems",
"Outsourcing",
"Spain",
"Management strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A wide range of facts and figures confirm the status of information systems (IS) or information technologies (IT) outsourcing as a growing, increasingly global phenomenon in the new millennium. Thus, the IT market moved ca. EUR185 billion worldwide in 2005 (IDATE Foundation, 2005). Forrester estimates that the value of the world's outsourcing market is $120 billion per year (Takahashi and Sayer, 2007) and predicts that European firms will increase the expenses derived from outsourcing in 2008. The Gartner Group expects the outsourcing market to grow from $180.5 billion in 2003 to $253.1 billion in 2008. About 87 per cent of the companies interviewed by KPMG plan to maintain - or increase - their current outsourcing level (ZDNet, 2007), since 42 per cent of them thought that their outsourcing contracts had definitely improved their financial performance, and another 27 per cent stated that outsourcing had enhanced their competitiveness (Khan, 2007; KPMG, 2007). Although the numerical estimates of outsourcing figures vary across sources, no one can deny their magnitude or the expectations for growth in the coming years.In the light of the above, the present study has as its main aim to propose a set of outsourcing reasons and risks, and to assess their importance and evolution over time within the context of the largest Spanish firms. For that purpose, a previous examination must be made of the position occupied by those firms in relation to IS outsourcing. The paper is structured as follows: after a review of the literature devoted to this topic which will help to identify the reasons and risks associated with IS outsourcing, there is a section illustrating the case of some large Spanish firms that are well-known for outsourcing its IT; then a presentation will be made of the methodology and the results of the empirical work, along with a summary of the main conclusions.\nIS outsourcing reasons and risks: a literature review: Quite a few authors have researched into the possible reasons leading firms to outsource their IS and into the multiple risks that this decision involves. All their studies have served as a reference to propose a number of reasons and risks that will later be evaluated during the empirical work.IS outsourcing reasons\nOutsourcing in large Spanish firms: In the Spanish area, there are some large firms that are traditionally recognized for outsourcing the IS function. For example, Endesa has entrusted its IT management in Spain and Latin America to International Business Machines (IBM) for over a decade. Recently - December 2008 - this firm has firmed a contract with IBM with a value of EUR360 million for seven years. In this way Endesa wants to cover some objectives like having a unified model to manage technology in all the countries, and to increase the security levels of IT (IBM, 2009; Techweek, 2009b). Real Automobile Club of Catalonia (RACC) is an insurance company, especialized in the automotive sector, with more than a million of associates in Spain. The outsourcing of IT is for this company a way to answer to the technological needs in the organisation with services of high quality. For this reason RACC has signed with IBM a contract at the end of 2008, which involves a five-year period and which is valued in EUR13 million (IBM, 2008; Computerworld, 2009). Caixa Galicia has signed in 2009 a contract with BT Spain (valued in EUR26 million and duration of five years). This financial firm has engaged in this outsourcing contract to control costs in communications and, at the same time, to innovate its technology (Techweek, 2009a). Another example is represented by the Spanish rail transport company (RENFE), which has outsourced is IT to HP during three years (Techweek, 2009c), in an effort to modernize its technological infrastructures, control costs and get flexibility in its technologies. One of the important points in this contract is to guarantee the continuity of the service.These are just some examples of large Spanish firms that have outsourced, but now we are going to enter in the field study that we have carried out to understand which are the main reasons and risks that large Spanish firms consider when they are outsourcing IT.\nMethodology: We have focused in large firms based on the assumption that the largest firms are also the most prone to outsource. The directory Las 5.000 Mayores Empresas (The 5,000 largest firms) of the Actualidad Economica magazine, Duns and Bradstreet's 50.000 Principales Empresas Espanolas (50,000 main Spanish firms) and SABI[1] served to select the study population. About 893 of the 5,000 firms with the highest turnover appearing on the first database were discarded, because their addresses and telephone numbers coincided with those of other organisations, which suggested that they were affiliate or subsidiary companies.The remaining 4,107 firms received a questionnaire, along with a stamped addressed envelope for the questionnaire to be returned. The questionnaire is largely based on a previous one (Gonzalez et al., 2005a, b) prepared by the same authors which, the same as this one, was constructed taking the literature on the topic as a reference. Furthermore, some experts in IS management analysed the questionnaire. Only six of the 26 questions included in the final questionnaire have been used in the present paper. Table I shows the measures for the two main study variables.The questionnaire addressee was the IS manager of the selected firms. Unfortunately, unlike what happens in other countries, lists of managerial positions in Spain are not very complete, they do not provide the name of IT managers in most cases, as a result of which the identity of the questionnaire addressee was unknown. Table II offers the technical specifications of the empirical work.Valid answers (329) were obtained, which represents an 8 per cent response ratio. The firms which answered the questionnaire were representative of the total population in terms of size (sales and number of employees) and sector.\nResults and discussion: General characteristics of the firms and their IS departments\nConclusions: The largest Spanish firms consider that outsourcing gives their organisations the opportunity to have better IS services and the possibility to achieve technological improvements and, although cost savings in staff and technology are generally seen as very important, they do not emerge as priority reasons for outsourcing in the present study. Only the smallest companies which have the fewest staff in their IS departments and outsource the least support cost savings as essential reasons to outsource.Regarding risks, interviewees suggested that they are mainly associated with providers, with great concern being expressed about the lack of qualification among their providers' staff, the potential lack of compliance with contracts, and the inability to adapt to the new technologies. This conclusion is in tune with those obtained in previous works, according to which most of the outsourcing problems have to do with the people involved in the projects (Khan, 2007). Owing to the importance of risks related with the provider side, it could be interesting as a future research to study the profitability for the clients firms of putting into practice stable and lasting outsourcing relationships with the IS providers.No dramatic changes seem to have taken place between the opinions expressed by IS managers in 2001 and in 2006 in the Spanish entrepreneurial context. More value continues to be assigned to the improvement made possible by outsourcing, which allows the firm to have access to better IS services and more up-to-date technology, i.e. the focus is on strategic reasons which have little to do with mere cost savings. In the case of risks, whereas in the past, interviewees were above all concerned about their own weaknesses when the time came to outsource, with such fears as developing an excessive dependence on the provider or losing relevant IS knowledge items, at present an increasingly high number of firms assign more importance to the risks derived from the provider, and more precisely, to the concern about the provider's poor qualification or lack of compliance. The reason for this \"U-turn\" in the valuation of these motives for concern could lie in the experience accumulated in the practice of outsourcing by client firms, which know increasingly well their providers, and particularly their possible weaknesses. Another reason could be the similarity of what client companies and IT providers want in their IT skills portfolio. Both of them are now looking for skills related with business domain (industry knowledge and communication). As a result the competition for talent between clients and providers could have been allowed the entry of IT providers with a deficit of quality and professionalism.Many of the reasons and risks mentioned in this study are difficult to measure, although it is worth making the effort to list and value them so that they can be taken into account and serve as a guide for managers in future outsourcing processes. Although the methodology used in the paper is mainly descriptive, an important contribution made by this study is not only the specification of outsourcing reasons and risks but also the fact that they are considered important by the firms interviewed. Additionally, being able to draw a comparison about the reality of outsourcing within this five-year horizon makes it possible to identify certain trends.Most of the literature has studied outsourcing reasons and risks from the point of view of the client, however, the increasing dynamism of the outsourcing market means that a significant proportion of the risks and responsibilities associated with outsourcing are going to fall upon the provider. This is actually a limitation of the study that can be overcome by carrying out new analyses from the perspective of the provider of these services.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Outsourcing is currently going through a stage of unstoppable growth. The purpose of this paper is to make a proposal about the main reasons, which may lead firms to adopt outsourcing in information systems (IS) services. It will equally analyse the potential risks that IS clients are likely to face. An additional objective is to assess these reasons and risks in the case of large Spanish firms, while simultaneously examining their evolution over time. This study of outsourcing reasons and risks has been carried out from the client's perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In order to achieve these aims, a questionnaire was administered to the IS managers of the largest Spanish firms.\nFindings: - Outsourcing gives the organisations the opportunity to have better IS services and the possibility to achieve technological improvements and, although cost savings in staff and technology are generally seen as very important, they do not emerge as priority reasons for outsourcing in the present study. Regarding risks, they are mainly associated with providers, with great concern being expressed about the lack of qualification among their providers' staff, the potential lack of compliance with contracts, and the inability to adapt to the new technologies.\nOriginality/value: - An important contribution made by this paper is not only the specification of those reasons and risks but also the fact that they are considered important by the firms interviewed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effective implementation of e-learning: a case study of the Australian Army
|
[
"Learning",
"Australia",
"Change management",
"Armed forces"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Knowledge of e-learning has largely been developed from the experiences of learners and teachers in education using interactive internet technologies to create online learning environments that support learning communities (Downes, 1998; Fisher et al., 2000; Hill and Hall, 2001). Research into e-learning in workplaces is more limited and tends to be anecdotal accounts by organisations or commercially based research companies with a US focus. Reporting from knowledge-based industries, where computers tend to be integral to their business has also created a bias in the e-learning case study literature (Newton et al. 2002). Therefore, there is a need for more exploratory case study research into the processes involved in adopting and adapting e-learning in different learning contexts.From their analysis of adult learning theories and e-learning literature for the US Army, Bonk and Wisher (2000, p. 67) discuss the importance of recognising inherent differences when attempting to transfer knowledge of learning innovations in one context to another, including \"learning culture, social interactions, motivational and affective factors\". Boud (2004) explores the resulting differences between education and training contexts in terms of the position of the learner as central in education and more \"elusive\" in workplace learning. Thus, understanding the inherent features of the learning context is important when considering e-learning implementation.It has also been argued that e-learning requires a major cultural change to be successful (Bates, 2000) or that it can provide opportunities for shifts in the culture of training and education (Rosenberg, 2001). However, researchers have found that understanding the culture of the organisation and adapting the e-learning strategy to fit that cultural environment is more likely to lead to success (Lea, 2003; Newton et al. 2002; Rogers, 1995). Lea (2003, p. 218) advocates awareness and inclusion of the \"inherent culture of learning\" for effective e-learning development including, the nature of the target audience, the amount of time people have to train and the \"tone of voice\" that the organisation uses. Further, the authors' previous case study research (Newton, 2002; Newton et al. 2002) suggests the importance of aligning e-learning implementation with organisational culture, organisational structure, organisational priorities and learners' needs.Thus, it is important for research to identify the particular characteristics of workplace learning and to highlight the factors influencing effective e-learning implementation. This case study of the e-learning implementation in the Australian Army provides the perspective of those involved in its design, development and delivery. A model of factors influencing effective e-learning implementation that emerged from analysis of the research data is provided.\nBackground to the study: The Australian Army has been using e-learning since 1987 and has received strategic support from 1996 to develop multimedia CD-ROM training packages as part of its regular training content. Since its establishment in 2000, the Army's Training Technology Centre's (TTC) staff of instructional designers and course developers have produced over 50 CD-ROM multimedia training packages. Year 2004 saw the implementation of the Defence On-line Management and Instructional Network (DOMAIN) using THINQ Learning Solutions(r) Learning Management System (LMS). This network was populated with commercial off the shelf web courses which were predominantly targeted at soft skill areas, such as, occupational health and safety, equity and Microsoft Office tutorial programs. In 2005, Army instructional designers and developers will concentrate on re-authoring existing media rich CD-ROM content into web friendly based packages using OutStart's Trainer(r) course authoring program. These packages will be customised Army built products compliant with sharable content object reference model (SCORM) and Aviation Industry CBT Committee (2005) standards. This case study provides insight into the challenges faced by the Australian Army in managing effective e-learning implementation to meet changing demands within an authoritarian and hierarchical culture.This paper represents the initial stages of a larger research project investigating the factors influencing the effectiveness of e-learning in the Australian Army. Ellis and Newton (2004) provide a history of the technical changes over the last decade and Newton and Ellis (2004) discuss change implications for course development staff with the shift from CD-ROMs to web-based learning in the Army. Although this is a specialised context for e-learning, the issues raised in this case study can be related to other workplaces.\nMethodology: As there has been no previous external research into the Australian Army's implementation of e-learning an exploratory, inductive approach using grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) was adopted for this research. Grounded theory is a well-established inductive process for developing theoretical models with a high level of rigour. It was important to gain an understanding of the concerns of the stakeholders involved in the design, development and delivery of e-learning. Also, as the authors are university academics with no previous experience of military training this inductive approach would also provide them with a better understanding of the organisational context.Convergent interviewing as described by Dick (1998) was used as it allows the content not to be structured but provides a structured approach to the interview. That is, predetermined questions were not used but questions emerged through constant comparative analysis of the data. The focus was on noting confirmation and seeking disconfirmation and possible explanations for disconfirmation to gain a better understanding of respondents' perceptions and concerns.The data for this case study included analysis of interviews with a range of stakeholders: six interviews with senior Australian Army personnel involved in the development and implementation of e-learning (referred to as \"Manager\" in this study); ten interviews with course developers and instructional designers at the TTC and 12 interviews with instructors and managerial staff involved in e-learning delivery at a Regional Training Centre (RTC). Most of these respondents were involved in the implementation of a first stage promotion course for soldiers. Army policy and directive documents related to e-learning and evaluation trials of the e-learning courses were also analysed and compared with interview data and provided background information for the study.While these respondents represent a cross section of stakeholders, at this early exploratory stage in the research it is acknowledged that interviews from other Army sites will be required to provide confirmation of the issues. Also, with recent external pressures on the defence force to develop networked e-learning the participants had only limited experience with some developments. However, these interviews do contribute to a case study of the historical and current issues influencing e-learning implementation in this context.The opening questions were the same for all respondents: \"What do you think of computer based learning?\" and \"What are the advantages and disadvantages?\" The interviews varied in length from about two hours to thirty minutes depending on the data being provided and the level of disconfirmation being provided by the stakeholder. The respondents were free to discuss any issues that they considered important and to continue talking with prompts from the researcher for more information and clarification.Hand-written notes of the main points raised were taken at the interviews. Two of the senior management interviews were taped, with their permission. Statements quoting particularly illustrative expressions were noted, where possible, and have been used as quotations to attempt to capture the full sense of respondents' beliefs and understandings. The interviews were analysed using a constant comparative process of the main themes as described by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Analysis of these notes was assisted by the use of a computer program, QSR Nud*ist (QSR International Pty Ltd, 2003), which allowed coding and sorting of the main themes.\nResults: This paper summarises the impact of the workplace context on e-learning in the Australian Army from the perspective of those involved in its design, development and delivery. Three main factors emerged from this study as important for the effective e-learning in the Australian Army. They were:* drivers for change;* training culture; and* learners' needs.Drivers for change\nConclusion: The main factors that were important for respondents involved in e-learning design, development and delivery could be identified. This case study demonstrates the importance of maintaining a focus on organisational priorities and learning goals while meeting the demands of change pressures. In particular, individual champions in positions of responsibility within the training section were able to influence decision-making as they appreciated high-level pressures and inspired lower level work teams. By using the organisation's need for efficiency, managers were able to implement the changes required to improve learning efficiency and effectiveness through e-learning. This case study also highlighted the importance of understanding the impact of the organisational culture on the e-learning environment. It was important that e-learning implementation was aligned with the organisational culture expressed through the organisation's priorities and learners' needs. Thus, it is proposed that relevant e-learning requires the responsive alignment of e-learning with the characteristics of the organisational culture. A model of effective e-learning implementation that summarises these relationships is shown in Figure 1.It is acknowledged that more research will be required to understand the e-learning context, including trainees' perceptions and issues for instructors and managers in other Army training establishments. While the Australian Army provides a specialised context for e-learning design, development and delivery it provides an excellent case study of managing change and e-learning within an organisational culture that is hierarchical and authoritarian. This analysis has also provided some important themes for further research. With ongoing external pressures on e-learning development and increasing operational demands in the Army it is expected that there will be an increasing need for research to understand effective e-learning in this context, for example: evaluation of e-learning retention and transfer to the field; the impact of individual learning differences on e-learning effectiveness; the role of blending learning delivery methods in learning effectiveness, the use of e-learning by distance students and the role of internet communication technologies (including mobile learning) in training. This case study will inform the understanding of further research and practice of relevant and effective e-learning implementation in this context and in other workplaces.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This case study identifies factors influencing the implementation of e-learning within the Australian Army training context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A grounded theory approach was used to gain an understanding of the concerns of stakeholders involved in e-learning implementation. This research included interviews with Army managers, course developers, instructional designers and instructors.\nFindings: - The main factors that were important for respondents involved in e-learning management, design, development and delivery could be identified. This case study demonstrates the importance of maintaining focus on organisational priorities and learning goals while meeting the demands of change pressures.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is an initial study to gain an overview of the main issues. More research will be required to understand the Army's e-learning context and to confirm these findings. Further research will include other stakeholders, including trainees' perspectives and extend to other Army sites.\nPractical implications: - For effective implementation there needs to be a process of continual adaptation and alignment of e-learning to reflect changing demands while meeting the priorities of the organisational culture and learners' needs.\nOriginality/value: - This paper analyses the first independent external research into e-learning in the Australian Army. Although this is a specialised context for e-learning, the issues raised in this case study will inform research into other workplace e-learning projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Behaviors linked to high levels of hotel managers' work-related learning
|
[
"Workplace learning",
"Individual behavior",
"Hotels",
"Management attitudes",
"Managerial learning",
"Jamaica"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The key to business success is more than attracting top talent, but using the knowledge of such talent to create and provide one-of-a-kind products that would improve lives and sustain organizational wealth; in other words, getting such talent to learn effectively and continuously in the work environment. In hospitality businesses this is easier said than done for a myriad of reasons, but, in particular, for reasons inherent to service-type businesses. A large part of what hospitality businesses sell and are distinguished by are their services, and due to their intangible nature and the significant human element required for their delivery, they are difficult to make consistently memorable for the client. Also, once a hospitality service is rendered, it is immediately consumed by the customer. Reactionary service recovery strategies can be employed, but there are no second chances to fixing that initial service encounter as is sometimes the case with manufactured products. Finally, once the opportunity to sell certain hospitality products has been lost, such as a room night, that opportunity cannot be regained. Neither can that time be sold at a later date. Therefore, the minimum standard for product delivery and sale in hospitality business is high, when compared to industries like manufacturing, and hence difficult to attain. This therefore creates a need for high levels of individual learning within the sector. However, in many instances the industry was witnessing the opposite. Managers in the sector would often complain of job boredom, a possible symptom of little or no individual work-related learning. A solution to the problem could be a close examination of the behaviors linked to high levels of work-related learning amongst this group.The goal of this study was to try objectively to find behavioral solutions to the problem of low learning levels amongst managers in the hospitality industry by determining if there was a link between specific behaviors and the managers' individual work-related learning levels. To do this, four likely behavioral determinants of the hotel managers' individual work-related learning were examined: how they were motivated to learn, their perceived risk-taking abilities, their attitudes towards learning and their attitudes towards the hospitality industry. It was felt that if the behaviors indicative of managers who reflected high levels of work-related learning were known, then deliberate steps could be taken to appropriately adjust management behaviors, ultimately reducing job boredom and by extension better equipping them to deal effectively with challenges unique to the sector. The following were therefore the study's objectives: first, to pinpoint the behaviors, from the list explored, that would be significant predictors of the degree of hotel managers' work-related learning; and second, to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between those statistically significant work-related behaviors and the managers' work-related learning levels.The study is important for two reasons. It provides an objective precursory look at the phenomenon of individual work-related learning, and therefore could be the launching pad for similar and more causal-comparative studies in the future. Most importantly, the study could form the basis by which work-related learning is improved amongst managers in the hotel industry.It is important to note that the study looked at the relationship between selected hotel managers' work-related behaviors and their learning levels (namely, their motivation to learn, perceived risk-taking abilities, attitudes towards learning and attitudes towards industry), the managers' work-related learning over a six-month period, and the hotel managers' own account of learning from specific learning engagement activities (namely, their education, training, work experience and networking). The study did not examine the link between the managers' other behaviors and their work-related learning, nor did it look at learning over an extended period of time. The paper also did not explore learning from the full spectrum of formal and informal learning activities managers engage in, only the more popular ones were examined. Also, the views of others or second parties on the managers' learning were not included in the study. Although the researchers hoped, that with the measures taken, the managers' report of their learning would be true, this was not corroborated. Also, the study focused on the extent of learning and did not delve into the type of learning.1.1 Definition of key terms used\n2. Review of literature: 2.1 \"Work-related learning\"\n3. Methodology: The methodology used for this study attempted to determine the following:1. Was there a significant relationship between specific hotel managers' behaviors (namely their motivation towards learning, perceived risk-taking abilities and attitudes towards learning and the industry) and their work-related learning levels?2. If so, what was the nature and strength of those relationships?3.1 Research design & method\n4. Findings: Below is a summary of results, beginning with a description of the sample, followed by the internal consistency of the survey items and ending with the results of the regression analyses.A total of 154 managers, i.e. 20 percent of the population, participated in the exercise. Of the 154 managers who completed the surveys most were female (61 percent); 26 percent were between the ages 41 and 50 years; 55 percent were departmental heads; and 23 percent worked in overall management, that is, overseeing the operations of two or more departments (Table II).Descriptive statistics for the study's variables and sub-variables are shown in Table III.Cronbach's a values for the study's five main variables - i.e. \"Intrinsic motivation to learn\", \"Perceived risk-taking ability\", \"Attitude towards learning\", \"Attitude towards industry\" and \"Hotel manager's work-related learning\" - were 0.17, 0.35, 0.72, 0.82 and 0.86, respectively. The Cronbach's a values for the variables \"Motivation to learn\" and \"Perceived risk-taking ability\" were below the minimum acceptable level for internal consistency of 0.7; therefore, the survey items used to measure those variables were not reliable measures. The survey items used for the other four variables were reliable.4.1 Behavioral predictors of managers' learning levels\n5. Discussion: Based on the findings, two key behavioral determinants of hotel managers' work-related learning levels were their perceived risk-taking abilities and attitudes towards learning, the higher the managers' perceived risk-taking abilities and attitudes towards learning, the greater their levels of work-related learning. When the managers' perceived risk-taking abilities and attitudes to learning were further explored, the study found that both taking work-related risks and making decisions even if they were contrary to the superiors' wishes were important risk-taking determinants of work-related learning and could actually predict managers' learning. This corroborated the views of researchers Ahmed et al. (1999), Glynn (1996) and Edmondson (2002), who also felt that risk-taking was important to learning. When it came to attitude towards learning, love of learning was not enough. What was important to hotel managers' work-related learning levels was the demonstration of such love of learning through their constant search for knowledge. Therefore, those who on their own accord took steps to improve their professional knowledge would more likely report a greater extent of work-related learning than those who did not. Scholars, such as Pierce and Delbecq (1977), also hinted at a connection between attitude to learning and workplace learning, in particular organizational innovation. However, this study pinpointed that aspect of attitude to learning that was important to hotel managers' work-related learning.A statistically significant positive correlation (r=0.16; p=0.03) between the variables \"Take work-related risks\" and \"Constantly seek knowledge\" was also discovered. Therefore, the more a manager took work-related risks, the more he or she constantly sought knowledge. Consequently, risk-taking could create a hunger for new knowledge within individuals.However, the study deviated from the literature when it came to the relationship between the extent to which one was intrinsically motivated to learn, as well as one's attitude towards the hospitality industry, and his or her work-related learning. Scholars felt the more intrinsically motivated an individual was to learn (Ahmed et al. 1999; Argyris, 1991; Beamish, 2005; Glynn, 1996; Leonard, 2005; London and Smither, 1999; Pierce and Delbecq, 1977; Vince, 2002) and the more positive one's attitude to a profession, the greater his or her learning (Buzan, 1991; Lohman, 2005; Pierce and Delbecq, 1977). This study found no significant relationship between each of the constructs just mentioned and learning. One explanation for the former could be that intrinsic motivation might be important to long-term, sustained learning and therefore less important to learning over a short period of time, a factor is this study. Therefore, what might be important to short-term work-related learning was not how one was motivated, whether intrinsically or externally, but rather the extent to which one was motivated to learn. When it comes to the latter the same might also be true, a love of and commitment to the hospitality industry might have no link to one's learning in the short-term but could affect one's long-term work-related learning.To conclude, of the four work-related behaviors explored, perceived risk-taking ability and attitude towards learning were the two significant determinants of a hotel manager's work-related learning levels. The higher a hotel manager's perceived risk-taking ability and the more positive his or her attitude towards learning, the greater his or her work-related learning levels. Potential and existing managers with these qualities might be least likely to become bored on the job, as they would have high levels of learning. High levels of learning are required for managers to bring new relevant information constantly within and to ensure the consistent distribution of information throughout the organization.The study has implications for the selection and development of managers in hotels. To improve work-related learning amongst hotel managers, risk-taking and information seeking affinities must be sought, developed and encouraged amongst this group. The study also has implications for hospitality human resource management research as it has unearthed behavioral determinants of management learning unique to hospitality business to confirm and to explore further.5.1 The limitations of the study\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The goal of this study is to identify behaviors linked to hotel managers who report a high degree of work-related learning. To achieve this the researchers seeks to determine whether the extent to which managers were intrinsically motivated to learn, their perceived risk-taking abilities, their attitudes towards learning and their attitudes towards the hospitality industry could determine their level of individual work-related learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study was conducted on the island of Jamaica. The survey was completed by 154 hotel managers and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data.\nFindings: - Of the four behaviors examined, two predicted the hotel managers' individual work-related learning levels, i.e. their perceived risk-taking abilities, and their attitudes towards learning. Managers who reported high work-related learning levels also reported high risk-taking abilities and more positive attitudes towards learning. The extent to which they were intrinsically motivated to learn and their attitudes towards the hospitality industry were not significant determinants of their work-related learning levels.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The exercise had a number of limitations and these should be taken into consideration when reviewing the findings.\nPractical implications: - The study therefore pointed to two behaviors linked to intense individual learning amongst managers in hotels. Hotel managers wishing to display high levels of work-related learning should therefore determine the extent to which they possess the behaviors connected and make the adjustments necessary.\nOriginality/value: - The study was one of a small number which examined objectively individual learning in hospitality business.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
No manager is an island: culture in sensemaking of business networking
|
[
"Cross-cultural management",
"Networking",
"Culture",
"Language",
"Communication",
"Networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As \"No business is an island\" (Hakansson and Snehota, 1989, 2006), the success or failure of companies today tends to be determined by their business relationships (Parker, 2008; Pittaway et al., 2004; Watson, 2007). These relationships form dyads, a series of which creates a business network (Hakansson, 1982; Hakansson and Snehota, 1995; Turnbull et al., 1996). Business nowadays is also increasingly conducted across national and industrial boundaries (Casson, 2013), which also requires that managers increasingly interact with other managers of different cultural backgrounds.\n2. Cultural aspects of business networking: Business networks have been defined as \"self-organizing systems\" (Ritter et al., 2004), and, from a broader perspective, markets are seen as networks of businesses in which individual business units form nodes. The relationships between these nodes act as connecting threads, forming a business network (Hakansson and Ford, 2002; Hakansson et al., 2009). A business network is \"two or more organizations involved in long-term relationships\" (Thorelli, 1986, 37) characterized by interlinked relationships between one's suppliers and other key actors (Anderson et al., 1994). Business networking, then, is defined as the formation of these inter-firm relationships (Anderson et al., 1994; Hakansson and Johanson, 2002; Lee et al., 2012), i.e. the process through which a business network manifests and develops.\n3. General characteristics of Russian and Finnish business culture: The Russian-Finnish context provides a fitting empirical context in which to conceptualize business networking cross-culturally. The influence of history on business relationships is particularly strong in Eastern Europe (Salmi, 2000), and personal networks are predominant in Russia, where they are products of cultural heritage (Michailova and Worm, 2003; Jansson et al., 2007; Ledeneva, 1998; Mattsson and Salmi, 2013). Conversely, in Finland, business relationships are more formal and business-like, emphasizing the organizational dimension of Konsti-Laakso et al. (2012) and strategizing in Laari-Salmela et al. (2015) networks.\n4. Methodology and data collection: Given the explorative aim to help illustrate the ways in which managers' cultural perspectives affect their understanding of business networking, we decided that a qualitative research approach was the appropriate method to use. Yin (2009) notes that qualitative methods are particularly suitable for obtaining in-depth knowledge on issues in focus. Qualitative methods are useful especially for researching complex business phenomena in their contexts (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008), to which this study aims to contribute. Furthermore, qualitative research can be regarded as \"language mastering,\" in which the ultimate aim is to understand \"How do people construct their version of things?\" (Silvermann, 2011), thereby making it appropriate for studying managerial sensemaking in business networking. Interviewing managers from different cultural backgrounds also opens up the possibility of interpreting different, culturally embedded ways in which they come to define their view of business networking on the individual level.\n5. Perceptions of organizational and individual business networking: 5.1 Organizational networking\n6. Discussion: The results suggest that the cultural backgrounds of individual managers and the business cultures from which their firms originate can make a substantial contribution to their understanding of what business networking entails and that this may further influence their business behavior. The Finnish managers we interviewed all conceptualized business networking as part of their long-term organizational strategy and repeatedly perceived their customers and other business partners as organizations rather than individuals. However, their Russian counterparts had a contrary view; they emphasized the process of engagement in personal relationships and personalized their business partners on an individual level. Thus, personal relationships are still \"deeply ingrained into the Russian psyche\" (Butler and Purchase, 2008, p. 538). This may indicate the different character of business networking in the respective countries and confirm the notion of previous literature (Jansson et al., 2007), i.e. that Russia is still a developing market that largely differs from the West.\n7. Conclusion: Our aim in this study was to explore how managers from different cultural backgrounds make sense of business networking. Several implications emerged from the empirical part, which consisted of a series of interviews with Finnish and Russian managers involved in mutual business relationships. We further conducted an analysis of the resulting narratives.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the role of culture in managerial sensemaking and conceptualization of business networking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors apply qualitative methodology through the sensemaking approach on three Finnish and three Russian managers in mutual buyer-supplier business relationship dyads.\nFindings: The results imply that the cultural background of the manager determines his perception of the level at which business networking occurs. Finnish managers conceptualize business networking as an organizational strategy, whereas their Russian counterparts conceptualize the phenomenon squarely at the individual level.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors suggest that the underlying cause of the differences in the conceptualization of networking may be that Finnish business networking relies more on concepts derived from Western European business culture, whereas Russian networking relies more on the traditional culture. Consequently, they suggest that the concept of business networking in extant research may suffer from ethnocentricity. Limitations of the study include the limited extent of generalizations from its qualitative nature.\nPractical implications: The results imply that business network relationships should be managed differently in different cultures, and that depending on the cultural background of the business partner, managing both the organizational and the individual levels of business networking is needed.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to limited literature on culture and the role of individuals in managerial conceptualization of business networking. This is one of the rare studies to illustrate differences through individual sensemaking on both sides of the relationship dyad and account for both Western European and Russian market environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Building brand relationship quality among hotel loyalty program members
|
[
"CRM",
"Benefits",
"Brand relationship quality",
"Hotel loyalty program"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Loyalty programs are the most popular \"value-added\" defensive customer relationship management (CRM) strategies used by hotel chains to foster repeat business. They are developed to reward frequent customers, generate information about customers, manipulate customers' behavior and to compete with other hotels. Loyalty program members have become business builders by buying more, paying premium prices and bringing in new customers by referrals (O'Brien and Jones, 1995). Some researchers assert that the loyalty programs can generally increase purchase frequency, customer advocacy, share of wallet and operational profit by lowering expenses in recruiting new customers while they decrease customer price sensitivity and switching costs (Bowen and McCain, 2015; Keh and Lee, 2006; Kim et al., 2001; Leenheer et al., 2007; Lewis, 2004; Reichheld, 2003; Sharp and Sharp, 1997). Others question the impact of rewards on customer loyalty and profits for firms (Dowling and Uncles, 1997; Mattila, 2006; Ni et al., 2011). While relatively high level of loyalty is detected on customers who join a loyalty program, most customers actually do not change their behavior after they become members (Gomez et al., 2006). Nevertheless, a loyalty program has been still frequently used by companies as an important tool of CRM strategies to enhance relationship quality.\nRelated literature and hypotheses: Brand relationship quality\nMethodology: Questionnaire design and sample\nResults: Characteristics of the respondents\nDiscussion and conclusion: Conclusion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of the loyalty program members' satisfaction toward the hotel loyalty program benefits and the customer management relationship initiatives of individual hotels on the brand relationship quality (BRQ), i.e. their relationship quality with the hotel brand, and its outcomes. The moderating impact of membership level on the hypothesized relationships was also investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A usable sample of 920 active members of a hotel loyalty program was obtained. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares method was used to estimate the structural relationships and to investigate the moderating effect of membership level.\nFindings: Employee's customer orientation, membership communication and hotel stay-related benefits are determinants of the loyalty program members' BRQ. BRQ is also confirmed as a higher-order construct of three latent variables which include trust, satisfaction and commitment. Moderating effects of the membership were partially supported in this study. The strongest effect of BRQ is on members' word of mouth followed by shares of purchase. BRQ is found to have negative relationship with members' willingness to serve as marketing resource, but the impact was small.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a cross-sectional study with a population of active loyalty program members of only one luxury hotel group. The sample size of the top-tier members is also smaller in comparison to the other two groups.\nPractical implications: This study contributes to the understanding of the antecedents and consequences of BRQ and the body of knowledge about loyalty program for hotel industry.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the few studies investigating the effectiveness of hotel loyalty programs from the active members' perspective and the moderating effect of membership level on the relationships among BRQ, its antecedents and its outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Portraying an employee performance management system based on multi-criteria decision analysis and visual techniques
|
[
"Performance management",
"ANP",
"PROMETHEE",
"MCDA",
"Personnel evaluation",
"Visual techniques"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Companies need to measure and improve their performances in all business areas if they want to remain competitive. Employees' performance is not an exception, especially as employees are often considered the most important and complex asset of an organisation (Coff, 1997; Vaiman and Vance, 2008). Performance appraisals evaluate the job performance of employees and the results are then communicated to and discussed with the relevant employees. It measures how well employees perform job-relevant tasks and further helps in distinguishing the more efficient employees. According to Workman (2009), managers are not only \"[...] involved in the gathering of information about employees such as their performance measurements compared to their objectives and other work-related activities\", but they also \"monitor\" employees' attitudes, organisational behaviour and absenteeism. Performance evaluations are thus the basis for determining the development and training needs of employees.\n2. Literature review: A structured, consistent and transparent appraisal enhances organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour (Narcisse and Harcourt, 2008; Organ, 1988). In contrast, an inferior appraisal method, in which employees and managers disagree about their contribution, can create conflict (Heathfield, 2007) and even lead to negative consequences, such as theft, vandalism, intentional idleness, absenteeism (Sania Zaheer, 2011) and intention to resign (Brown et al., 2008). Poor appraisals tend to avoid differentiation. The majority of the employees are wrongly ranked highly to avoid disappointment, unhappiness (Heathfield, 2007), inter-employee jealousy, hostility (Law, 2007) and the manager's discomfort in providing negative feedback (Chen et al., 2007). A poor appraisal method also prevents any true, transparent, structured and honest, value adding development or improvement as everyone is already \"artificially\" excellent. At an organisational level, performance management ensures that employees' performances and skills are aligned with the strategic goals of the company. A comprehensive assessment can define whether the organisation has the necessary capacities in house (Merritt, 2007). It also supports the implementation of strategic changes (Amaratunga and Baldry, 2002) and fosters good workplace harmony (Heathfield, 2007).\n3. MCDA performance management method: 3.1. MCDA method\n4. Organisational context of case study: Gamma: 4.1. Company background\n5. Conclusions: Every organisation assesses the performance of its employees. However, when appraisal is perceived as an ineffective and complex formality comprising form filling, its benefits diminish. This paper has introduced trans-disciplinary methods from operational research in the form of MCDA and visual techniques to develop a transparent, structured and honest employee performance management method. The multi-criteria analysis transparently combines qualitative and quantitative decision criteria into a holistic evaluation. The visual techniques allow the organisation to gain a deep insight into their employees' skills profiles structures and captures finer details in relation to where individuals are performing or underperforming. For the manager, this evaluation is easier to communicate because visual tools are conceptually easier to understand than a set of scores. The feedback on improvement measures can be precisely formulated. They may include developmental activities (e.g. training) to rectify performance deficiencies. The evaluation method can also be used for promotion or rewards. The evaluations are fully retraceable and therefore justifiable, which ensures the fairness of the decision, enhancing the trust and potentially the productivity of the employees.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Performance appraisal is one of the most critical and indispensable human resource practices for organisations. However, it generates dissatisfaction among employees as it is often viewed as complex and ineffective. The purpose of this paper is to present a new performance management system that integrates multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods - the analytic network process (ANP) and PROMETHEE - with the visual techniques of the GAIA plane and the stacked bar chart. MCDA methods allow a structured and consistent evaluation integrating qualitative and quantitative criteria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors developed a structured and transparent performance management system. It is based on the MCDA methods PROMETHEE and ANP. It also incorporates the visual techniques: GAIA and stacked bar chart. Feedback for trainings and developments can precisely be formulated.\nFindings: Visual techniques permit clear identification and quantification, for each employee, of the areas that need improvement through training and development, which contributes to the resource-based view of organisations. A real case study has been portrayed to show the added value of the MCDA methods and the visual techniques in employee performance management.\nOriginality/value: The paper describes a new employee performance system adopted in an organisation. The multi-criteria analysis transparently combines qualitative and quantitative decision criteria into a holistic and transparent evaluation. The visual techniques permit us to gain a deep insight into the employees' skills profile and capture fine details where individuals perform or underperform.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Benefits of IT in supply chain management: an explorative study of progressive companies
|
[
"Information",
"Communication technologies",
"Supply chain management",
"Electronic commerce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Current key trends in logistics for application in the near future include e-business supported supply chain management (Skjoett-Larsen, 2000). The use of e-business in supply chains is allied to, but in this paper is not limited to, use of the internet. Prominent case examples demonstrate potential benefits. Cisco reported savings of $500 million by restructuring its internal operations and integrating processes with suppliers and customers with the help of web-based tools (Berger, 2000). Currently, 90 percent of Cisco's sales are facilitated online (Copacino and Dik, 2001). Intel replaced hundreds of order clerks by an automated online ordering application (Chopra and Meindl, 2001). Celestica, one of the world's largest electronic manufacturing services companies, has applied a web solution to better coordinate its global supply base (Shore, 2001). Information technology (IT) has helped Celestica to improve its responsiveness to customers, thus helping, for example, its customer Dell to maintain its delivery promise to end-customers. Although it is commonly acknowledged that information technology is an essential ingredient in managing logistics operations in networks, and will increasingly be so over time, empirical evidence of the specific benefits of IT in supply chain management (SCM) is less clear.The issue of the efficacy of new technologies in supply chains is of paramount interest to companies operating in networks, as well as to governments investing funds in the development and promotion of new technologies. Hence the reason why the National Technology Agency of Finland (Tekes) commissioned the study on which this paper is based.This paper addresses these issues in the context of an empirical study conducted in Finland. The paper reviews, through a series of different research settings, the benefits IT specifically provides for managing supply chains in practice. Concurrently, how companies use different types of IT solutions in their networked logistics operations is examined. Finally, an answer is sought to the question of whether there is a trend in the use of IT for supply chain management. This paper is organized as follows: first, relevant literature on the themes of this study is reviewed. This is followed by a description of the research design. Second, key empirical findings paraded as propositions are presented. Finally, the results and conclusions of the study are discussed.\nLiterature review: Information technology and supply chain management\nResearch design: As the research was exploratory in nature, qualitative methods were deemed more appropriate. The case study method was selected as it permitted exploration of the question of what the benefits of IT in SCM are, even though many of the variables related to the phenomenon are still unknown (Meredith, 1998).Data collection\nResults: Based on the study, five propositions are developed on the use and benefits of e-business technologies in supply chain management. The content of the propositions can be summarized as follows:P1. A key operational impact of IT in SCM is the enhancement of service level.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The results of this study indicate that operational use of IT has developed in the last five years. In particular, internet technology and third-party transaction integration services have provided companies with increased possibilities to network with supply chain partners. However, in most cases the solutions used are quite individualistic, as they are developed from a single company's point of view. Of course user aspects (customer and supplier) have been taken into consideration when planning, for example, buy-side and sell-side portals, but the driving force has been to increase the effectiveness of e-business applications. These applications are relatively general with clear specifications, and the solutions do not technically differ significantly from each other. Furthermore, only implementing IT, as such, for example in invoicing automation, is not likely to lead to higher-level business impacts. Stating this, it is interesting to observe that in the SCM context the main body of companies view IT primarily from an operational perspective. One reason for this may be the relative novelty of IT, meaning that larger scale and strategic solutions are still yet to come, after companies have installed a basic IT infrastructure.When observing those e-business solutions that are genuinely dyadic, it can be seen that it is important to allocate sufficient resources to planning the processes and selecting the technologies, in conjunction with the network partners. These e-business solutions are more specific to the particular application, and there is more variety within implemented solutions. The case examples in this study demonstrate the multiple ways that IT can be deployed. There is no single way of using IT and, moreover, the broader the business area that IT impacts, the more solutions have to be customized. As applications are more tailor-made, it is also more difficult to copy a solution from one company to another. It was further observed that to achieve real competitive advantage it is important to focus on improving those processes that are most critical for customer service. Successful companies have been able to improve service levels and effectiveness simultaneously.The benefits of IT in SCM are manifold, and vary in the context of their implementation. Moreover, as the use of IT is closely related to process changes, most of the benefits are overlapping and interlinked. Thus, it is hard to specify the origin of benefit very explicitly. Notably, strategic benefits are only achievable when the introduction of IT is coupled with process redesign. The ideas of BPR are then closely related to the current study. Our study corroborates that business process re-engineering skills are vital to benefiting from IT strategically in SCM. The change in processes does not have to be total, but without any process changes, IT becomes merely an automating force, providing efficiency benefits in a limited scope.The study presented in this paper has limitations. First, the sample of companies included in the study was selected by expert assessment and is biased towards companies willing to discuss and share results openly. Second, the focus of this paper was on single companies rather than on entire supply networks. Additionally, since each company was interviewed only once, some important insights might not have been captured during the process.However, the findings of this study present an opportunity to further develop understanding of the underlying mechanisms of how IT investment benefits supply chain management. It would be beneficial to study entire supply networks and analyse the situation from various points of view. Sufficient emphasis should be paid to various organisational issues. Additionally, the propositions presented in this paper should be tested with a larger data set to gain further understanding of the various contingencies (type of network, business environment, technology used, etc.) that have an impact how benefits are composed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To provide empirical evidence of benefits from IT in supply chain management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data in this qualitative study were collected through multiple enquiries. SCM consultant interviews gave an understanding of the current state of practice. A survey of 48 progressive companies was conducted to identify what IT solutions they have implemented in SCM. This was followed by 18 in-depth case studies to identify the mechanisms for achieving benefits of IT in SCM.\nFindings: - Based on the empirical studies five propositions are presented on the use and benefits of IT. First, successful companies have developed focused e-business solutions for improving customer service elements that are most important in their business. Second, improved efficiency allows company personnel to focus more on critical business activities. Third, the use of e-business solutions improves information quality. Fourth, e-business solutions support planning collaboration and improved agility of the supply network. Finally, to gain strategic benefits, the use of IT has to be coupled with process redesign.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample of companies used in the study was selected by expert assessment and is biased towards companies willing to discuss and share results openly. Additionally, the focus of the paper was on single companies and not on the entire supply network. However, the findings of this study present an opportunity to further develop understanding of the underlying mechanisms of how IT investments benefit supply chain management.\nOriginality/value: - The paper fulfils an identified need for in-depth case studies that analyze the possible mechanisms behind the practical benefits of IT in supply chain management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Causal linkages between supply chain management practices and performance: A balanced scorecard strategy map perspective
|
[
"Partnership",
"Supply chain management",
"Information sharing",
"Customer orientation",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Balanced scorecard strategy map"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Thanks to a collaborative management of relationships between the organisations that constitute the value chain and to an integrated coordination of processes, from the ultimate supplier to the ultimate customer, supply chain management (SCM) aims to create more value for customers, as well as for the supply chain partners (Mentzer et al., 2001), thus improving performance not only within each organisation, but also across the whole chain. A SCM system entails the implementation of a set of practices that can be defined as activities deployed in an organisation in order to enhance the effective management of its supply chain (Li et al., 2005). Despite the constantly growing attention given to research on SCM, contributions to the link between supply chain management practices (SCMPs) and performance are very diverse in scope and nature, and most often remain dispersed and incomplete (Li et al., 2005). The existence of many SCMPs and many performance measures implies that both theoretical and empirical research can be focused on two fundamental questions:\nLiterature review, hypotheses and postulate: In this section, we will carry out a quick scan literature review that will enable us to establish the links between SCM and performance before formalising them in the form of eight distinct research hypotheses.\nMethodology: Unit of analysis and data collection\nResults and discussions: We will first use the results of the SEM to discuss the direct and indirect impacts of SCMPs on performance measures. Then, we will discuss the nature of linkages by combining these direct and indirect impacts with the sequential, non-sequential and intra-dependent linkages in the BSC framework.\nConclusion: By adopting a multidimensional approach, this paper has succeeded in empirically confirming some of the relationships between SCMP and performance, which have been reported in extant literature in a dispersed manner. It also discussed some relationships which were not observed as expected (according to the findings of previous authors). In other words, it aimed to contribute to broadening the awareness of top managers looking for ways to improve the performance of their supply chains.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Today, supply chain design and management constitute a major source of competitive advantage for firms. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate, from a balanced scorecard strategy map (BSSM) perspective, the types of linkages through which supply chain management practices (SCMPs) impact on financial and non-financial performance, and consequently lead to the achievement of the firm's strategic objectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is carried out in two stages. First, based on the survey data collected from 450 French industrial firms (with a return rate of 20.2 per cent), structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to test eight hypotheses that are formulated through the discussion of previous theoretical and empirical findings in extant literature. Then, based on the framework of the BSSM, the SEM results are used to discuss the linkages between SCMPs and firm performance.\nFindings: After confirming some of the relationships already observed in extant literature, the results show that there are many strategic paths (of different nature) that link SCMPs and other intangible assets to financial performance.\nPractical implications: The results of the study constitute a practical contribution that would guide managers in the strategic alignment of their firm's supply chain initiatives with corporate strategy. The authors argue that when implementing supply chain management initiatives, managers should pay particular attention to how intangible assets act as mediating factors in the achievement of the firm's financial objectives. The BSC framework that the authors propose can also be used by researchers to investigate causal linkages between intangible and tangible assets.\nOriginality/value: There are few studies that adopt an extensive multidimensional approach by looking simultaneously at both upstream and downstream linkages of the supply chain whilst taking into account many performance measures. Using the BSSM framework, this paper proposes eight types of linkages that could lead to the achievement of the firm's strategic goals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Education, organizational commitment, and rewards within Japanese manufacturing companies in China
|
[
"China",
"Organizational commitment",
"Exploratory factor analysis",
"Rewards",
"Japanese companies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Among developing countries, China is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) and has the largest number of employees who work for foreign companies (UNCTAD, 2010). In 2004, approximately 24 million workers (3 percent of China's total employment) were employed by foreign companies in China (UNCTAD, 2004). Japanese companies continue to benefit from China's growth and remain one of the leading investors in China, accounting for 6.5 percent of Japan's total FDI in 2015 (Japan External Trade Organization, 2016b). In response to the yen's appreciation against the dollar following the 1985 Plaza Accord, the Japanese investment in China has shown a remarkable increase: it accounted for 6.0 percent of the total effective FDI in 2013 and Japan became China's third largest source of foreign capital, following Hong Kong and Singapore (Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), 2016a). The number of Japanese companies located in China at the end of 2012 was 23,094, which accounted for the highest share (7.9 percent) of total foreign companies located in China (The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, 2016). Similarly, 1.62 million employees worked for Japanese companies in China in 2015, which was 40.5 percent of total employees of Japanese companies across Asia (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, 2016).\nLiterature review: Japanese companies in China\nResearch methodology: Participants\nResults and discussion: The objective of the present study was to investigate the antecedents of the OC among employees working in Japanese manufacturing companies in China. Our findings demonstrate that extrinsic rewards, social rewards, and intrinsic rewards engendered higher levels of OC. This supports the findings of previous work conducted on samples from Western organizations, which highlight intrinsic factors as the main influence on OC (Goulet and Frank, 2002; Steijn and Leisink, 2006). Likewise, it also matches the findings from previous research in China, which highlights extrinsic and social factors as the main influences (Chiu et al., 2002; Miao et al., 2013; Newman and Sheikh, 2012). The reason why Japanese companies in China show more similar results to the West than to other kind of corporations in China, in terms of the comparative importance of intrinsic rewards, may be that their headquarters in Japan, a highly developed country, give them easier access to more modernized HRM than other local companies in China.\nConclusion: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards, social rewards, and the OC of 27,854 employees who work for 64 Japanese manufacturing companies in China. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that variables included to measure extrinsic, social, and intrinsic rewards were strongly related to OC. These findings suggest that the antecedents of OC in Japanese companies are different from those in other kinds of corporations in China, where extrinsic and social rewards are more correlated with OC than intrinsic rewards. They also differ from companies in the West, where intrinsic rewards are more correlated with OC than extrinsic and social rewards. Overall, balanced HRM will work best given Japanese companies' combination of Western and Chinese characteristics. Managers should not simply focus on one particular type of reward but offer a variety of rewards to enhance employees' OC, especially for employees with less formal education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between organizational commitment (OC) and extrinsic, intrinsic, and social rewards, among employees who work for Japanese manufacturing companies in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to examine survey data obtained from 27,854 employees, who work for 64 Japanese manufacturing companies in China.\nFindings: The findings demonstrate that the variables measuring extrinsic, social, and intrinsic rewards were strongly related to OC, suggesting that the antecedents of OC in Japanese companies are different from those in other kinds of corporations in China and the West. A further comparison between university graduates and other employees showed that for graduates, extrinsic and intrinsic rewards had a stronger influence on OC than social rewards, compared to non-graduates.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study used self-report data from individual respondents, which may have resulted in common method bias. Future research might consider including supervisor-rated scales to strengthen the study design and reduce common method bias.\nPractical implications: As Japanese companies in China have both Western and Chinese characteristics, they often utilize balanced human resources management (HRM) practices. To enhance their employees' OC, especially those with less formal education, it is most effective to focus not only on some particular rewards but also on more varieties of rewards. However, balanced HRM may not be equally effective for enhancing the OC of university graduates, who prefer to obtain more extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and fewer social rewards. As Japanese companies are sometimes said to be less attractive workplaces, especially for university graduates, the results of this study could help HR professionals revise their HRM strategies and employ workers who can contribute to their Chinese branches on a long-term basis.\nOriginality/value: This research investigates how employees of Japanese companies in China could have higher OC, by focusing on the difference between university graduates and non-graduates and utilizing a large volume of their opinion data.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Business relationships during project afterlife: antecedents, processes, and outcomes
|
[
"Interaction",
"Buyer – seller relationships",
"Project afterlife",
"Project marketing",
"Service-intensive projects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past 20 years, services have become a central part of project business (Artto et al., 2008; Davies et al., 2007; Kujala et al., 2013), and many project-based companies earn greater revenues from project-related services than from delivering a project (Davies, 2004; Gebauer et al., 2010; Penttinen and Palmer, 2007). We call these projects service-intensive as they include a wide variety of services from basic maintenance to more sophisticated development and consulting.\nLiterature review and research framework: Relationship antecedents\nMethodology: This section highlights the relevance of the theoretical framework outlined in the previous section in a business context using a multiple case study. We contrast the outcomes of the framework (four post-project relationships) with our empirical findings.\nFour project buyer - seller relationship cases: Case A: an engineered wood solutions supplier and customers\nDiscussion: In the empirical research, we contrasted each of the four conceptual post-project relationships with an empirical equivalent. In the following, we will extend our analysis by associating each relationship with certain antecedents and processes. As a result, four buyer - seller relationship development paths emerge (Table II).\nConclusions: The current study explores different post-project relationship paths in service-intensive projects, which thus far has seldom been the focus of investigations in previous studies in the field. We used abductive reasoning (Dubois and Gadde, 2002; Peirce, 1931/1958) building on previous interaction studies (Brennan and Turnbull, 1999; Hadjikhani and LaPlaca, 2013; Hakansson, 1982; Moller and Wilson, 1995; Ring and Van de Ven, 1994) and our empirical research to construct a conceptual research framework (Figure 1). Subsequently, we illustrated the framework in practice by applying it to a comparative case study in four different project contexts: engineered wood solutions, chemical solutions, wind turbines and paper production. Our aim was to determine:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to increase understanding of post-project business relationships in service-intensive projects, a topic unexplored to date. This research contributes to the project marketing research focusing on post-project interaction, by building a conceptual research framework capable of illustrating the path from the initiation of a relationship through the project's afterlife.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A comparative case study is used across four different service-intensive project contexts to highlight the conceptual research framework, derived from the IMP-related interaction research, in practice.\nFindings: According to the research findings, there are at least four potential post-project business relationships associated with service-intensive projects. Furthermore, the findings indicate that these relationships embody certain antecedent and process characteristics, enabling us to compile four distinct development paths.\nResearch limitations/implications: The four cases of the empirical research were chosen on theoretical grounds to highlight the conceptual research framework in practice, and thus the purpose was mainly descriptive. The findings should be generalized only with caution, as more empirical research is needed in this emerging project context.\nPractical implications: For managers, the findings provide practical guidance to deal with different post-project relationships. They will help managers to initiate, maintain and develop post-project relationships and to avoid a mismatch between relationship antecedent, processes and outcomes.\nOriginality/value: Post-project buyer - seller interaction has been studied by the project marketing research stream, but mainly from the perspective of social exchange and sleeping relationships. With the advent of service-intensive projects, however, a whole new breed of post-project business relationships is unfolding and demanding research attention. This research is a step toward understanding the different post-project business relationships associated with service-intensive projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Trust-based segmentation: Preliminary evidence from technology-enabled bank channels
|
[
"Trust",
"Market segmentation",
"Internet",
"Banking",
"Telephone banking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a business environment characterized by intense competition, standardization, pressure on prices and customer volatility, self-service technology (SST) channels offer service companies great opportunities for cost reduction, customization and differentiation. For banks, the development of alternative SST channels, such as internet, mobile, telephone and interactive TV applications, is considered a strategic issue and the adoption of these channels has been a topical issue both for academics and practitioners (Durkin et al., 2008; Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006).Research on technology mediated services, including e-commerce, e-services and SST bank channels, point to trust as a key variable shaping attitudes, behavioral intentions and actual behavior towards these channels (e.g. Schlosser et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2006). Recognizing the fundamental role of trust, an important stream of research has focused on the antecedents of trust, its components, and outcomes as well as on trust building strategies for e-tailers and SST channels (e.g. Eastlick et al., 2006; McKnight and Chervany, 2002; Yoon, 2002).Surprisingly, despite this well-established link between trust and behavior towards a service provider, trust has not been tested as a segmentation variable. However, since the level of consumers' trust in a company and its SST channels can be hypothesized to vary considerably, and given the links between trust on one hand and perceptions, attitudes and behavioral responses on the other, it seems reasonable to suggest that trust could usefully become a variable for customer differentiation.Trust-based segmentation in the context of SST bank channels appears as a promising research question, since, as suggested by recent work:1. Technology-related risks, lack of familiarity and lack of trust are important inhibitors of SST channels (Gefen et al., 2008).2. Trust in the channel may be influenced by the already established trust in the bank (Arnott, 2007; Hahn and Kim, 2009; Johnson, 2007).3. The different technologies of SST channels and the large spectrum of their use offer a rich field in which the influence of context variables (technology, transaction risk) can be accounted for (e.g. Curran and Meuter, 2005; Eastlick et al., 2006; Huang, 2006; Park et al., 2007).From a managerial perspective, SST channels represent a strategic weapon for banks (Eastlick et al., 2006; Tyler and Stanley, 2007). Trust-based segmentation would be useful for better targeting consumers and accordingly designing specific trust building, trust-enhancing and trust-capitalizing strategies, in order to accelerate the adoption or the degree of use of SST bank channels.Based on this background, the present study poses a key question: can the level of customer trust in SST bank channels, namely internet and phone banking, be usefully used as a segmentation variable? More specifically, the paper attempts to answer the following research questions:1. Is the profile of \"high SST trustors\" different from that of \"low SST trustors\" and, if so, what variables differentiate the two groups?2. Can this distinction be meaningful in terms of willingness to use these SST channels?To address these questions, a multi-dimensional trust measure is used to assess the level of customers' trust in their bank's internet and phone banking channels and to classify customers into a high and a low trust groups. Demographic, behavioral, attitudinal, and technology-related variables are used to describe differences between the two groups. Finally, high versus low-trust customer groups are compared on their intention to use internet and phone banking for different transactions, in order to test the link between the SST trust segmentation and behavioral responses towards these channels. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time trust is tested as a segmentation variable capable of identifying clearly profiled and meaningful customer groups.The paper is structured as follows: first the literature review on the nature, the role and the consequences of trust in SST channels is presented, followed by a discussion of using trust in a segmentation approach. Then the methodology of the field study is described, followed by the results of a discriminant analysis of high and low SST trustors. Finally, implications of these results are discussed and limitations and opportunities for further research are outlined.\nConceptual background: Trust\nMethodology: Sample and survey procedure\nResults: Table III presents the descriptive statistics of the variables for the two trust groups and the two channels.For both SST channels, high trustors have higher levels of trust in the bank, more positive stance to new technologies, more disposition to trust, more information about SST, seem more innovative and more familiar with technology, hold more bank products, deal with more banks, visit more frequently the bank's branches and ATMs.The results of the discriminant analysis are presented in Tables IV and V for internet and phone banking respectively; since two groups were specified, one function was calculated for each channel. The first part of results concerns the identification of those variables that differentiate low and high trustors. Of all (14) variables tested, four have a significant discrimination power for internet banking and six for phone banking. Wilks' lambda statistic (the proportion of the variance not explained by differences between the groups) and F-values are the indicators to test the null hypothesis that the population means of the variables are equal between the two groups. Both tests are significant at the highest-level so-as-to reject the hypothesis of equality and conclude that these variables do differentiate low- and high-SST trustors.Four of these discriminating variables, trust in bank, stance to new technologies, level of information and number of banks, are common to the two SST channels. For phone banking there are two additional significant variables, Familiarity with the digital phone services and Innovativeness. These variables account for about half of the variance in the dependent variable in the case of both channels, as indicated by the squared canonical correlation value of 0.481 (internet) and 0.579 (phone), which is a very reasonable result.The second important result is the assessment of the contribution of each variable to the discriminant function, i.e. the importance of each variable in differentiating between the two groups. The standardized coefficients of the canonical discriminant function shown on the last column of Tables IV and V reveal that \"Trust in the Bank\" has, by far, the greatest contribution in the discriminating function for both channels. \"Stance to new technologies\" is the second variable in importance, particularly for internet banking, the rest of the variables showing a significant but moderate contribution.Finally, the quality of the analysis is assessed through the predictive accuracy of the discriminant function. Several approaches for validating results have been suggested (Morrison, 1969). The base line is that the discriminant scores should be useful for predicting to which group a case belongs. Tables VI and VII show the classification results obtained in the analysis.To evaluate these results, we first calculated the hit ratio, which is the percentage of cases correctly classified both for the original sample and the cross-validated, or holdout, sample. The holdout group was based on the \"leave-one-out cross-validation\" method, included in the SPSS software. Each case is excluded in turn and then the observed and predicted groups are calculated. In the cross validation process, each case is classified by the functions derived from all cases other than that case (Norusis, 2006). The hit ratio is analogous to regression's R2 (Hair et al., 1998). In our study, the hit ratios are 70.7 and 70.4 per cent for the original sample and 70.3 and 69.3 per cent for the cross-validation sample for internet, and phone banking respectively.In order to validate these levels of predictive accuracy as acceptable, we used two criteria, which assess the classification accuracy relative to chance. These criteria are the maximum chance criterion and the proportional chance criterion, which is more appropriate when the group sizes are unequal1. In addition, Press's Q test for the discriminatory power of the classification matrix when compared with a chance model was computed. Press's Q compares the number of correct classifications with the total sample size and the numbers of group2; its calculated value is compared with a critical value, which is the chi-square value for 1 degree of freedom at the desired confidence level. As a rule of thumb, in order for the model to have high discriminant power, the classification accuracy should be at least one-fourth greater than that achieved by chance (Hair et al., 1998).Table VIII presents these ratios for the two SST channels. All ratios' values clearly support that both internet and phone banking models have high predictive accuracy and discriminate successfully the two groups of \"high and low trustors\". The hit ratios for the two channels and the two samples (original and cross-validated/holdout) are quite above not only the two chance-based criteria, but of the rule of thumb too. In addition, the Q statistic is significant for all cases.We can thus conclude that the level of trust in SST bank channels can be considered as a segmentation variable, since it does differentiate groups of customers who can be profiled distinctly.The final step for this segmentation to be meaningful is to link it with current or intended behavior. To do so, in our case we compared the intention to use each SST, generally and for three specific transactions, of the two groups of high and low trustors. Table IX displays the mean scores of intention to use and the results of their comparison. As it can be observed from the tables all means, for both channels and for all three transactions, differ significantly between low and high trustors. High trustors express significantly higher levels of intention to use these channels for each one type of transaction, whether it is monetary or non-monetary.\nDiscussion: The objective of the present study was to examine trust in SST bank channels as a segmentation variable. To attain this objective, two specific questions were addressed:1. Is the profile of \"high SST trustors\" different from that of \"low SST trustors\" and, if so, what variables differentiate the two groups?2. Can this distinction be meaningful in terms of willingness to use these SST channels?The results of the discriminant analysis show that the groups of low and high SST trustors are different in a number of attitudinal, behavioral and psychographic criteria. In addition, the two groups of trustors react differently in terms of intention to use the two SST channels. It can thus be suggested that trust-based segmentation is meaningful and useful for predicting behavioural responses towards SST channels (Morrison, 1979).Implications for research on trust and technology\nLimitations and future research: Although the analysis clearly supported the discrimination between high, and low trustors and the subsequent opportunity to use trust as a segmentation variable, our conclusions are not exempt of limitations. As for any initial attempt to explore a new issue, our results should be seen as exploratory.Our findings are limited to the specific context of the research, i.e. SST bank channels. Validation of the trust-based segmentation requires the replication of the approach reported here in other settings. Also, as discussed previously, the present research focused on non-users of SST bank channels, thus addressing the role of trust in the pre-adoption stage of SST. This is particularly relevant in the case of emerging markets and/or new SST channels in order to draw implications for the acceleration of their penetration. Replication of the study for other SST channels such as mobile phone and interactive TV that are in the introduction stage in many countries would further validate our results.It should also be noted that since culture is known to affect trust, attitudes and behaviors towards technology, (Barnes et al., 2007; Kim, 2008; Nilsson, 2007), results of the present study must be validated in different cultural contexts.It is also suggested that future research should investigate the role of trust in segmenting mature markets, where the level of SST use would be the behavioral variable to test, in the place of intention to use. A longitudinal approach would be particularly useful to examine how trusting profiles may evolve in time and how the experience with an already adopted SST channel (for example internet) may influence trust in and adoption of a new one (mobile phone).Trust-based segmentation would be usefully applicable to other service sectors and objects of trust. Since trust is an important variable also in the \"traditional\", \"brick-and-mortar\" markets, its segmentation capacity could be tested at the level of a service provider, company or brand. Thus, it would be interesting to test if customer groups of high / low trust in a service company or brand have different profiles and behaviors towards the company or brand. For example, based on the results of the present study it would be interesting for academics and useful for practitioners to investigate customers' profiles according to their trust in the bank. In the case of high-contact and high-involvement services, such as retailing or health services, trust could be an even more customer-differentiating characteristic. Of course, in this case, different profiling variables should be used, such as service quality, company's reputation or brand perception.Finally, an interesting methodological approach to validate and extend the findings of this study would be the use of longitudinal research to see if the \"high trustors\" do adopt SST channels quicker than \"low trustors\".\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Trust has proven to be a key variable in understanding and predicting consumer behavior in the self-service technology and e-commerce contexts. However, it has never been examined as a segmentation variable. This study seeks to investigate the possibility of using trust in two self-service bank channels: internet, and phone banking, to segment potential users of these channels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using data from a survey of 762 real bank customers discriminant analysis is used to test variables differentiating two groups of customers having, respectively, \"high\" and \"low\" trust in internet and phone banking.\nFindings: - Results show that the groups of \"high\" and \"low\" channel-trustors are different in a number of attitudinal, behavioral and psychographic criteria. In addition, the two groups react differently in terms of intention to use internet, and phone banking.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This work contributes to existing literature on trust by opening an additional use of and a new research perspective on trust. Its findings are limited to the sector, technology and cultural context of the study.\nPractical implications: - In this paper several suggestions for bank managers to better target the adopters of self-service technology-based channels are discussed.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first attempt to examine trust as a segmentation variable and to bring evidence for its relevance for marketing decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Challenges in stakeholders self-organising to enhance disaster communication
|
[
"Communication management",
"Stakeholder communication",
"Disaster management",
"Disaster communication",
"Knysna fire disaster"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and purpose of the study: Communities self-organising through social media during a disaster has been well documented. Some examples include 2005 Hurricane Katrina, 2007 San Diego wildfires, 2007 Virginia School Shooting, Sichuan 2008 earthquake, 2009 Red River Floods, 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2013 Influenza A Outbreak in China and the 2013 Xavier snowstorm in Belarus (Nan and Lu, 2014; Shkaruba et al., 2015; Villagra and Quintana, 2017).\n2. Literature study: disasters and community-led communication initiatives: Input from disaster management and communication management theory is conceptually combined to frame the study within the systems paradigm. As a starting point, key concepts are defined followed by a discussion on communication for community resilience, and an overview of the main guiding documents and frameworks for such a scenario.\n3. Context of the study: Knysna is part of the tourist area, the Garden Route, in South Africa. From 7 June 2017, for more than two weeks, a fire fuelled by storm winds raged, leading to the largest mobilisation of South African firefighters in the country's history (De Villiers, 2017). At times, more than 26 separate fires were burning concurrently. More than 1,100 houses were destroyed, with a further 385 houses and 69 schools left damaged by the fire. The death toll amounted to nine people. The South African National Defence Force provided 150 troops as security for vacated properties that could be looted, and to assist in water-bombing operations (BBC, 2017). In total, 11 Oryx helicopters were used for water bombing at a cost of R13m ([?]PS650,000) because the typography of the landscape added to the complexities of fighting the fires.\n4. Research method: A phenomenological approach was used in order to understand the lived experience from those involved in managing and coordinating the community social media reaction to the 2017 Knysna Fire Disaster, in order to extract the universal characteristics of the phenomenon (Hillman and Radel, 2018; Taylor et al., 2015).\n5. Findings: The findings will be discussed according to the themes identified in literature.\n6. Discussion, recommendations and conclusion: The study reiterated what was found in previous studies: communities will strive to survive disasters (Hobfoll, 2012, in Williams and Sheperd, 2016).\n7. Research limitations and suggestions for future research: Bean (2018) motivates for research on communication in disasters as \"vitally needed\", and argues that the results can contribute to further community resilience. Although this study only focussed on one disaster, the trend of the disaster \"victims\" providing a valuable communication resource need to be further explored to provide clear policy frameworks and best practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to combine disaster risk reduction (DRR) and communication management literature to investigate the challenges and opportunities encountered when stakeholders spontaneously self-organise communication efforts during a disaster. The 2017 Knysna Fire Disaster in South Africa is used as the context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The qualitative, exploratory research was supported by data obtained through thematic analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews and the Facebook page created by the community. Information from the disaster debrief was also included.\nFindings: The findings suggest that disaster information needs to be sent every 30 s to a minute to coordinate rescue and relief efforts. The challenges for disaster management teams to manage this mammoth task and the role that the self-organising community played in assisting the communication process was found not to be recognised in disaster management policies or systems. This adversely affected the work of the disaster management team and stakeholder relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study focussed on one disaster. Future studies could possibly compare various disaster examples to provide even greater insight into the self-organising communicative behaviour of those affected by disasters.\nOriginality/value: The research gives one of the first clear indications of the scope of disaster communication needed during a disaster. It also highlights the community's ability to contribute to communication management during a disaster, and which is not catered for in the practice, guidelines or management systems used for disaster management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding supply chain analytics capabilities and agility for data-rich environments
|
[
"Big data",
"Supply chain agility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Big data analytics (BDA) is defined as \"a holistic process that involves 5V (volume, velocity, variety, value, and veracity) in terms of collection, analysis, use, and interpretation of data for various functional divisions, with a view to gaining actionable insights, creating business value, and establishing competitive advantages\" (Fosso Wamba et al., 2015, p. 235). BDA is considered as \"an end-all solution to supply chain problems\" (Lopez, 2017, p. 1) or \"a revolution that will transform supply chain design and management\" (Waller and Fawcett, 2013, p. 77), or even the \"silver bullet for supply-chain forecasting\" (Snapp, 2017, p. 10). The high potential of big data-driven supply chain analytics capability (SCAC) (Tiwari et al., 2018) for business value has positioned it as an important game-changer in the supply chain and one of the \"hottest topics\" among supply chain managers (Tay, 2016). The objective of using BDA across all supply chain processes is to improve SCAC. As such, SCAC is assumed to improve supply chain agility (SCAG) by synchronizing demand and supply (Niu and Zou, 2017) and by enhancing the overall business value and performance (Gunasekaran et al., 2017; Hofmann, 2017; Brinch, 2018). Recent industry literature shows that the market of supply chain analytics is expected to grow from about $4.8bn 2019 (Newswire, 2015) to reach about $9.87bn by 2025 (Newswire, 2017a, b), thus growing potentially by 13.68 percent during the period 2017-2021 (Newswire, 2017a, b).\nLiterature review and theories: Theories: the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability theory (DCT)\nResearch methodology: This study used a web-based survey to collect data from supply chain professionals, managers and mid-level managers in the USA. The survey was realized by a market research firm with more than 11 million panelists across 40 countries. Our study was mainly interested by supply chain professionals and managers in the USA with at least three years' experience in supply chain analytics. More precisely, an invitation explaining the objectives of the study was sent to the targeted panelists in 2017, including supply chain executives in charge of activities such as logistics, procurement, supply chain planning, purchasing, transportation, warehousing, production or shipping. A total of 679 persons from among those contacted agreed to participate in the study. At the end of the data collection process, we received 281 completed questionnaires or a response rate of 41 percent. Prior to the final data collection, a survey pre-testing was realized with seven scholars working on BDA-related projects.\nDiscussion: The study addressed three research questions as follows:\nImplications for research: This study has several theoretical implications for key issues such as data-driven SCAC, SCAG and FPER. Although the findings of our study are aligned with the results of a number of operations and supply chain management studies (see Kristal et al., 2010; Blome et al., 2013; Aslam et al., 2018), SCAG driven by big data-driven analytics capability has become an important challenge in operations discourse and no consensus has been reached on how to resolve this dilemma. In their recent attempts to bridge the gap, Dubey et al. (2018a), Dubey, Gunasekaran, Childe, Blome and Papadopoulos (2019), Dubey, Gunasekaran, Childe, Fosso Wamba, Roubaud and Foropon (2019), Srinivasan and Swink (2018) and Chen et al. (2015) failed to articulate the SCAC dimensions and their effects on SCAG and FPER. By integrating findings from RBV, DC and emerging big data theories, we have achieved some success, which has specific theoretical implications. The first of them is that this study has pioneered the conceptualization of SCAC, the modeling of its impact on FPER and the evaluation of the mediating effect of SCAG on the relationship between SCAC and FPER. Hence, the study extends the research stream BDA capability (Akter et al., 2016; Fosso Wamba, Gunasekaran, Akter, Ren, Dubey and Childe, 2017) using the DCT in the supply chain context. The second implication is that this study tested and confirmed the mediating effect of SCAG on the relationship between SCAC and FPER, and thus confirmed the importance of investing in complementary assets (e.g. SCAG) to leverage a firm analytics platform (Kohli and Grover, 2008; Anand et al., 2013). By doing so, the study proposes an integrated model that links SCAC, SCAG and FPER. While this study extends directly the modeling of SCAC, our findings that SCAG plays an instrumental role between analytics capability and FPER (Srinivasan and Swink, 2018; Gunasekaran et al., 2017) challenges the existing assumption that BDA capability is the only solution for superior supply chain performance (see Akter et al., 2016; Fosso Wamba, Gunasekaran, Akter, Ren, Dubey and Childe, 2017).\nImplications for practice: Our findings identified a significant positive relationship between SCAC and FPER as well as a mediating effect of SCAG on this relationship. These findings could guide managers' decisions to invest in SCAC. They should also consider investing in complementary assets such as SCAG in order to achieve a high-level sustained competitive advantage. Furthermore, firms should invest in an appropriate business model enabled by SCAC (Hartmann et al., 2016). It should be noted that this study identified the three main subconstructs of analytics capability in the supply chain context on which managers should focus when exploring the adoption and use of big data. The findings of the study can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify gaps in BDA capability. For example, the model obtained can help managers to identify any analytics sub-dimension that is lowly performant and poorly contributes to a particular dimension (i.e. talent, technology or management). The measurement of the relative contribution of any particular dimension to agility and performance can also rely on the findings of this study.\nConclusion, limitations and the way forward: In terms of contributions, this study has succeeded in identifying the key constructs and subconstructs that are required by SCAC for improved FPER, and, thus, help in a better understanding of the SCAC construct within the emerging big data literature. The second contribution resides in that this study tested the direct impact of SCAC on FPER as well as the mediating effect of SCAG on this relationship. Drawing on the emerging literature on big data, RBV and the DCT, and based on data collected from 281 supply chain managers in the USA, this study found a positive significant impact of SCAC on FPER and the mediating effects of SCAG on this relationship. This study contributes to the understanding of big data adoption, use and impact at the firm and the supply chain levels. Our proposed research model can be used as a baseline model for future studies on BDA-enabled supply chain optimization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Big data-driven supply chain analytics capability (SCAC) is now emerging as the next frontier of supply chain transformation. Yet, very few studies have been directed to identify its dimensions, subdimensions and model their holistic impact on supply chain agility (SCAG) and firm performance (FPER). Therefore, to fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a dynamic SCAC model and assess both its direct and indirect impact on FPER using analytics-driven SCAG as a mediator.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study draws on the emerging literature on big data, the resource-based view and the dynamic capability theory to develop a multi-dimensional, hierarchical SCAC model. Then, the model is tested using data collected from supply chain analytics professionals, managers and mid-level manager in the USA. The study uses the partial least squares-based structural equation modeling to prove the research model.\nFindings: The findings of the study identify supply chain management (i.e. planning, investment, coordination and control), supply chain technology (i.e. connectivity, compatibility and modularity) and supply chain talent (i.e. technology management knowledge, technical knowledge, relational knowledge and business knowledge) as the significant antecedents of a dynamic SCAC model. The study also identifies analytics-driven SCAG as the significant mediator between overall SCAC and FPER. Based on these key findings, the paper discusses their implications for theory, methods and practice. Finally, limitations and future research directions are presented.\nOriginality/value: The study fills an important gap in supply chain management research by estimating the significance of various dimensions and subdimensions of a dynamic SCAC model and their overall effects on SCAG and FPER.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT): a literature review
|
[
"UTAUT",
"Systematic review",
"Demographic details",
"External variables",
"Methodological analysis",
"Weight analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The continuing quest to ensure user acceptance of technology is an ongoing management challenge (Schwarz and Chin, 2007), and one that has occupied IS/IT researchers to such an extent that technology adoption and diffusion research is now considered to be among the more mature areas of exploration (Venkatesh et al., 2003). This substantial level of activity has witnessed the use of a wide range of exploratory techniques examining many different systems and technologies in countless different contexts, to the extent that even the most cursory examination of the extant body of literature will reveal a variety of stakeholder perspectives, technologies and contexts, units of analysis, theories, and research methods (Williams et al., 2009). This situation has in turn led to an element of confusion among researchers, as they are often forced to pick and choose characteristics across a wide variety of often competing models and theories. In response to this confusion, and in order to harmonize the literature associated with acceptance of new technology, Venkatesh et al. (2003) developed a unified model that brings together alternative views on user and innovation acceptance - The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT).\n2. Research methodology: This study examines UTAUT research conducted from 2004 to June 2011. A comprehensive electronic search using ISI Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar resulted in 174 usable research papers. We used the keywords such as \"unified theory of acceptance and use of technology\" or \"UTAUT\" to perform the overall search in the title and/or abstract of the articles. The studies, although being scattered across 134 journals and conferences, appeared more frequently in journals such as Computers in Human Behaviour, Computers\n3. Findings: Many different researchers with different research intentions and subjects of focus have conducted UTAUT studies by applying a variety of research methodologies in different environments. This diverse body of work has seen numerous new constructs being incorporated into the original theory, with UTAUT being blended with other theoretical models, and on occasion, a re-specification of the underlying relationships between UTAUT variables. These research papers were published in journals and conferences in diverse streams of study, and in line with the findings of Lee et al. (2003) in their study of TAM, were seen to have drawn the attention of both researchers and practitioners. This section presents an analysis of these UTAUT studies by examining a number of variables including most productive authors, universities/institutions and authors, most productive departments, university affiliation according to country, sources of primary data by country, authors' academic backgrounds, publications frequency, number of authors, publication outlets for UTAUT researchers, keyword analysis, types of systems examined, research subjects, relationships between major UTAUT variables, weight analysis, relationship of external variables with UTAUT constructs, and most frequently used external variables.\n4. Discussion: Our intention in this paper was to present the results of a systematic and comprehensive review of the development of UTAUT since its inception in 2003. Based on a review of 174 papers identified from various sources such as Thompson Scientific Web of Science database and Google Scholar, results were presented in terms of six major aspects: demographic characteristics, research topics and types of technology examined, methodological analysis, internal and external variable analysis, analysis of major limitations, and theoretical and methodological details.\n5. Conclusion, limitations, and future work: Our intention in this paper is to present an overview of the current state of UTAUT-related research by presenting the results of a systematic and comprehensive review of 174 articles appearing since 2004. Results were presented in terms of six major aspects: demographic characteristics, research topics and types of technology examined, methodological analysis, internal and external variable analysis, analysis of major limitations, and theoretical and methodological details. Our intent in conducting the investigation was to provide a useful and usable resource for future researchers by providing information on the key areas previously addressed in UTAUT research, how UTAUT research tends to be carried out, and what is usually studied during the course of UTAUT research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to perform a systematic review of articles that have used the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The results produced in this research are based on the literature analysis of 174 existing articles on the UTAUT model. This has been performed by collecting data including demographic details, methodological details, limitations, and significance of relationships between the constructs from the available articles based on the UTAUT.\nFindings: The findings indicated that general purpose systems and specialized business systems were examined in the majority of the articles using the UTAUT. The analysis also indicated that cross-sectional approach, survey methods, and structural equation modelling analysis techniques were the most explored research methodologies whereas SPSS was found to be the largely used analysis tools. Moreover, the weight analysis of independent variables indicates that variables such as performance expectancy and behavioural intention qualified for the best predictor category. Moreover, the analysis also suggested that single subject or biased sample as the most explored limitation across all studies.\nResearch limitations/implications: The search activities were centered on occurrences of keywords to avoid tracing a large number of publications where these keywords might have been used as casual words in the main text. However, we acknowledge that there may be a number of studies, which lack keywords in the title, but still focus upon UTAUT in some form.\nOriginality/value: This is the first research of its type which has extensively examined the literature on the UTAUT and provided the researchers with the accumulative knowledge about the model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Dimensions of guest house service: Managers' perceptions and business travellers' expectations
|
[
"Business travel",
"Hospitality services",
"Service levels",
"Hotels",
"South Africa"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Compared with the hotel, which is the traditional and the most important type of lodging in South Africa, the guest house industry offers an opportunity for more entrepreneurs to participate in tourism. Guest houses are a cheaper alternative to hotels. They are usually smaller than the average hotel and only have a limited number of rooms. Sometimes they are in people's homes and the accommodation is offered on a bed-and-breakfast or room-only basis. The rooms are typically basic, but pleasant and homely and some have television and tea- and coffee-making facilities (Canwell and Sutherland, 2003).However, many guest house managers in South Africa are not formally trained in hospitality management (Henning, 2004). There is thus a need for information on managing and marketing guest houses in a professional, effective and profitable manner. Part of effective marketing is guest house managers' knowledge of the customers and their needs, particularly since a mismatch can easily occur between customers' expectations and management's perceptions of these expectations.Consumers' expectations may differ depending on the type of consumer. This means that business travellers are expected to have different expectations from those of leisure travellers. Weaver and Oh (1993) suggest that there is an ignorance of the importance of business travellers because there are fewer business travellers than leisure travellers in the lodging market at any one time. Although business travellers may be fewer in number, their intensity of use of accommodation is much higher than for leisure travellers. If marketers are able to identify the characteristics of the business traveller market, they can provide the appropriate product to meet their needs and thus increase occupancy (Lockyer, 2002).This study aimed at determining what business travellers expect from a guest house and how these expectations compare with the perceptions of guest house managers. Conclusions drawn from this research are expected to benefit guest house managers in other parts of the country, and in other countries where there are guest houses frequented by business travellers.\nLiterature review: Consumer expectations\nMethodology: The instrument\nResults: Profile of the respondents\nImplications for management: This research has shown that differences exist between the views of business travellers and managers with regard to the attributes of guest service. Guest house managers deemed the service attributes related to staff as more important than what business travellers did. The question arises as to whether managers put too much emphasis on the role of staff in the service delivery.Business travellers staying at guest houses deemed the professionalism of staff as very important. Management thought that the friendliness of front desk staff would be more important. This implies that although friendliness is required, overall professionalism has to take priority. Professionalism depends in part on the guest house's actions, particularly recruiting, selecting and training of employees. It is not suggested that guest house managers scale down on training and developing competent employees. However, based on the gap between the expectations of business travellers and the perceptions of guest house managers, it is important that a balance between people, process and physical evidence be maintained.Visitors at guest houses had higher expectations with regard to services being provided punctually than complaints being handled efficiently. This implies that at certain stages of service delivery guest houses need to simplify the process and improve on the standards associated with the service. Moreover, there was a strong emphasis on employees performing services efficiently and providing accurate information. These requirements could also be addressed by an improved process.Management's perceptions and guests' expectations were almost in line with regard to room amenities. Attention to the cleanliness of the room rather than comfort has to take priority when preparing for guests. Likewise, attention has to be paid to security, modernised buildings, decor and signage, and business facilities.Despite the findings of the study showing that business travellers perceived the importance of attributes of service quality to be of less importance than what guest house managers thought they would, the latter has to ensure that all moments of contact between guest house representatives and guests result in a positive experience for guests. Moreover, guest house managers are advised to aim at a balance in their focus on non-core and core elements of service, and at concentrating on those elements that have the highest importance for their guests.\nLimitations of the study: This exploratory study only focused on a relatively small group of guest houses chosen from a limited geographic area. Although it is not expected that the findings would be significantly different, a random sample of guest houses spread throughout the country might improve the generalizability of the findings.In addition, this study targeted only business travellers. Future research comparing the expectations of business travellers with those of leisure travellers could assist guest house managers in better matching the needs of both segments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to determine similarities and differences in business travellers' expectations and managers' perceptions of the service provided by guest houses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two questionnaires with seven-point Likert scales were used to measure travellers' expectations of guest house service and managers' perceptions of these expectations. Data was analysed using Statistica Version 6.1 by employing factor analysis and ANOVA tests.\nFindings: - Business travellers deemed secure parking and the professionalism of staff as the most important attributes, while guest house managers thought it would be friendliness of front desk staff and efficient handling of complaints. Both groups indicated that cleanliness of rooms and services performed by staff adequately the first time, were of particular importance. The importance rating of the different service dimensions was not significantly influenced by the business travellers' gender, managerial position, nights of stay or by the guest house grading. Managers mostly overestimated guests' expectations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitation of the study is the relatively small sample used (50 guest house managers and 300 business travellers within one city). Future research needs to examine a broader sample of guest house managers and could compare the expectations of different types of guests.\nPractical implications: - It is worth noting that guest house managers had overestimated the expectations of business travellers regarding the service provided. Management should focus on service dimensions important to guests and not those based on own opinions.\nOriginality/value: - An understanding of business travellers' expectations could lead to their needs being more closely addressed and satisfaction levels being raised.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A preventative approach to promote food safety: Bacterial contamination of domestic refrigerators
|
[
"Temperature",
"Domestic refrigerators",
"Food-borne pathogens",
"PCR analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: According to the epidemiological data that revolved by the World Health Organization, food-borne illnesses as a world-wide health challenge could affect the life of millions of people each year, both in the developed and developing countries (Behrens et al., 2010; Scott, 2003; Sanlier, 2009). As far as we know, there is no published data about occurrences of the food-borne diseases in Iran; however, based on an unofficial report was published by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran, 63 cases have led to death among 2,797 observed cases of food-borne diseases in 2013-2014.\n2. Materials and methods: 2.1. Household selection\n3. Results: 3.1. Contaminations screening by PCR analysis\n4. Discussion: Complete elimination of food pathogens in kitchens seems to be impossible. Poor hygienic maintenance of kitchen can be resulted in unsuitable conditions in refrigerators, increasing the probability of food contamination due to the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. Efficient and constant cleaning of domestic refrigerators makes them consistently reliable elements in the chilled-storage chain of foods, and less likely to act as significant sources of human food-borne diseases.\n5. Conclusion: Whilst refrigeration should be a food safety aid, by preventing the growth of food-borne pathogens, refrigerators themselves can be a source of pathogens. Cumulatively, negligence in cleaning fridges, disorganized refrigerators, and unadjusted temperatures may lead to low level of hygiene. The improvement of storage conditions for foods in domestic refrigerators is the last, but the important step of the chain of food safety which could be risks for transferring food-borne illnesses among the population of Tehran. The obtained results can provide information to conduct essential messages for educational intervention programs that may be useful for implementing prevention programs and policy decision to prevent food-borne diseases. Consumers should learn about cross contamination in refrigerators to promote their family food safety and diminish the risk of food-borne illnesses. Therefore, for future research, studies must be conducted regards to the effects of ionizer's application in domestic refrigerator for reduction in surface and airborne bacteria. Also providing enough knowledge about proper ways of keeping of food stuff in domestic refrigerators for example temperature may be helpful in improving household food safety.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Domestic refrigerators could be considered as one of the major potential sources of food-borne diseases, in addition limited data are available regarding the level of contamination of domestic refrigerators in Iran. The purpose of this paper is to detect some of bacterial contamination in domestic refrigerators.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 104 households were randomly selected from ten health centers in five areas of Tehran, Iran. Visual inspection and temperature evaluation of the households' refrigerators were done. In addition, the refrigerators were swabbed and analyzed for contaminants using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. DNA was isolated and purified by the proposed standard protocol.\nFindings: Screening of the domestic refrigerators by PCR method showed that 51.7 percent of the samples were positive for pathogens as follows: L. monocytogenes 41.6 percent, S. aureus 5.5 percent, Salmonella spp 4.6 percent, and E. coli O157:H7 0 percent; consequently, none of mentioned pathogens were detected in 48.3 percent of the refrigerators. Results of the visual inspection indicated that 57 percent of the refrigerators were on desirable, 36.5 percent were acceptable, and 7 percent were weak conditions. Most of the refrigerators about 44 percent had desirable temperatures. There were no significant correlations between the visual inspection scores, temperature and frequency of isolation of specific pathogens in the domestic refrigerators. A significant correlation was observed between contamination and education of parents (p\nOriginality/value: Determination of the bacterial contamination and evaluating the temperature of domestic refrigerators in Iran can be considered as a novel approach of current study. These findings could be employed in designing and implementing appropriate educational interventions to promote food safety and diminish the risk of food-borne illnesses. Also, obtained results might be applied as introduction for further investigations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Making change last: leadership is the key
|
[
"Transformational change",
"Transformational leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Organizations are facing a continuous state of uncertainty in today's world of increased competition, technological breakthroughs and globalization. The work environment is significantly different than it was a decade ago. Technology is altering the way companies operate and how the workforce communicates. Organizations span global borders, reaching a diverse population of employees and customers. These factors have resulted in greater competition for resources and market share, increasing the frequency of organizational change.\nWhy is change so difficult?: There is no shortage of literature indicating that organizational change is very difficult. In fact, more than 60 per cent of all change initiatives fail, are abandoned or never get off the ground (Kotter, 2012; Miles, 2010). Understanding the reasons why these initiatives fail can give insight into how to make them succeed.\nA transformational leader for transformational change: Transformational leadership\nComparison of organizational change models: Kurt Lewin's three-step plan for structured change\nA consolidated approach to organizational change: implications for a transformational leader: Several commonalities become apparent across Kotter, Bridges and Lewin's approaches to change which can support leaders undertaking initiatives in their own organizations:\nImplications for organizational leaders: Today's organizational leaders are facing change on many levels. Organizations may be struggling for marketplace superiority, trying to hold onto a competitive customer base or reorganizing internal departments. The rate of globalization and speed of technological advancements add layers of complexity to current organizations as well (Nahavandi, 2015). An environment of transformational change requires transformational leadership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Multiple models of organizational change provide guidance, goals and strategic steps for organizations to complete initiatives effectively. The purpose of this paper was to discuss the impact of transformational leadership as it relates to organizational change in the twenty-first century and propose a consolidated approach to planned organizational change useful for practitioners.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Practitioners and researchers can benefit by a strategy to apply models of change to organizational initiatives. It is proposed that models by Kotter (2012), Bridges (2017) and Lewin (1951) can be consolidated into a comprehensive approach to achieve successful organizational change. Transformational leadership is a critical component which bonds such models together and guides the leader's role in the process.\nFindings: Kotter, Bridges and Lewin's approaches all share similar beliefs about the effectiveness of a transformational leader. First, people and process aspects of change take center stage. Second, urgency needs to unsettle or awaken the need for change. Third, people want to be part of the change process. By involving others, engagement, empowerment and buy-in all increase. Fourth, change will only last if it is embedded into the structures and systems which make up the organization's culture.\nOriginality/value: The value of the consolidated approach to change proposed in this paper is that it meets leaders at their level of skill and experience, as it offers options depending on the needs of the organization and extent (depth) of the change required.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Absorptive capacity and small family firm performance: exploring the mediation processes
|
[
"Entrepreneurial orientation",
"Market orientation",
"Realized absorptive capacity",
"Potential absorptive capacity",
"Small firm performance",
"Technology orientation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The ability of a firm to recognize, acquire and commercialize external knowledge, known as its absorptive capacity (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990), merits special attention for small family firms for numerous reasons. As small family firms often face stiff competition, dynamic environment, resource constraints and threats of survival (Chirico and Salvato, 2008), acquiring and utilizing accurate and relevant knowledge becomes one of the most crucial sources of sustained competitive advantage (Schiuma, 2012). Also, small family firms typically generate a lot of tacit knowledge owing to long tenures of leaders in such firms (Lee et al., 2003; Sharma, 2000), making it all the more difficult to manage knowledge. The family firms also face difficulty in valuing and acquiring new ideas, and intra-firm knowledge transfer owing to cultural attitudes (Casprini et al., 2017). Finally, given that family firms are \"based on a culture of continuity, inclinations to consider the future and support for perseverance\" (Moss et al., 2014, p. 53), managing knowledge across generations becomes imperative. To be successful, family firms need to have a very clear understanding of opportunities that exist in the environment and an ability to exploit those opportunities (De Massis et al., 2012a). Accordingly, given the importance of knowledge acquisition and assimilation for small family firms, it is imperative to understand the linkages of absorptive capacity (AC) with the firms' performance.\nTheory and hypotheses: AC is a multidimensional construct, with several researchers having distinctively attempted to define its dimensions in a myriad ways. Numerous scholars have variously linked absorptive capacity to organizational learning (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Lane and Lubatkin, 1998), innovation (Kedia and Bhagat, 1988; Guisado-Gonzalez et al., 2017) and dynamic capabilities (Zahra and George, 2002; Andreeva and Kianto, 2012), and even offered resource-based (Barney, 1991) and knowledge-based views (Grant, 1996; Sasson and Douglas, 2006). Drawing on the literature of organizational learning, Cohen and Levinthal (1989) initially defined AC to be the \"firm's ability to create new knowledge\", which enables it \"to learn to do something quite different\". Zahra and George (2002), building upon the earlier work of Cohen and Levinthal (1990), termed AC as the \"dynamic capability pertaining to knowledge creation and utilization\" and defined it as \"a set of routines and processes by which firms acquire, assimilate, transform and exploit knowledge\". The term \"dynamic\" refers to the organization's capability to \"renew competencies so as to achieve congruence with the changing business environment\" (Teece et al., 1997). While Teece et al. emphasized the role of an organization's resources and processes in achieving competitive advantage, Grant (1996) reasoned the role of knowledge as the \"most strategically significant resource of the firm\". The basic premise of knowledge-based view is role of firm to integrate knowledge and create new capabilities. Thus, following Zahra and George (2002), we view absorptive capacity as dynamic capability in this study.\nMethod: Sample\nFindings: Descriptive statistics and correlational analysis are presented in Table I. None of the correlations were more than the acceptable limit of 0.5; hence, multicollinearity was unlikely. Accordingly, we proceeded with the mediation analysis.\nDiscussion: This study made an attempt to combine the literature of the small family business and strategic management to arrive at the proposed hypotheses. We argued that absorptive capacity helps firms in developing appropriate strategic orientations, which, in turn, enhance small family firms' performance. In so doing, our study departs from previous work examining direct relationship between AC and the firm performance, and explored the mediating mechanisms in the relationship between AC and small family firm performance. Consistent with our theoretical anticipation, this study adds evidence that AC, through its linkages with strategic orientations, results in improved firm performance. Our findings reveal that small family firms that acquire, assimilate and exploit knowledge toward crafting an entrepreneurial posture and technology augmentation stand a better chance of achieving sustainable competitive advantage.\nConclusion: The specific purpose of this study was to explore the mechanisms through which AC translates into superior performance for small family firms. Family firms offer a unique context for understanding the linkages proposed in this study. Entrepreneurs running family firms are invariably attached to the well-being of their establishment and are committed to the long-run survival and reputation of their firms (De Massis et al., 2012a, 2012b). Accordingly, it becomes imperative for researchers to understand how family firms acquire and manage knowledge, both within the organization including inter-generational transfers, as well as external knowledge originating from environmental changes. Also, as small family firms often lack adequate resources (Batra et al., 2015), it is even more crucial for them as compared to large firms to build a strong AC, i.e. effectively acquire, assimilate and use knowledge to exploit surrounding opportunities (Gray, 2006). However, little is known so far about the mechanisms through which such firms make use of their AC for enhanced performance. This study tried to address this gap by theoretically arguing that a small family firm's strategic orientations translate into the performance benefits of its AC. We proposed that firms may not benefit from the knowledge they acquire or assimilate as that knowledge may decay or time (Lichtenthaler, 2016). Rather, the real benefits of knowledge acquisition accrue when firms use it to inhabit relevant strategic orientations from such knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Despite the recognized importance of knowledge management for small family firms, relatively little empirical research has been done so far to understand the mechanisms through which absorptive capacity (AC) assists their performance. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between absorptive capacity and performance in small family firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, the authors theoretically argue and empirically validate that AC enables the creation of entrepreneurial, market and technology orientations in small family firms, which, in turn, lead to superior firm performance. They also tested the study's hypotheses using mediation and multiple linear regression analyses on data collected from 272 small Indian family firms.\nFindings: The study's findings suggest indirect relationship between AC and performance. The strategic orientations provide a mechanism through which investments in small family firms' AC results in firm performance.\nPractical implications: This study offers crucial insights to practitioners and small firm managers regarding the use of knowledge-based capabilities in creating appropriate strategic postures, which, in turn, assist firm performance.\nOriginality/value: This study is among few research attempts in understanding the knowledge aspects of small family firms. The present research contributes to the existing literature by unravelling the relationship between knowledge management and small family firm performance. Also, by bringing in data from an under-studied context of an emerging economy, this study strengthens the theoretical applicability of knowledge management in different contexts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Profitability determinants among micro firms: evidence from Swedish data
|
[
"Sweden",
"Small enterprises",
"Profit",
"Business development",
"Profitability determinants",
"Growth",
"SUR method",
"Productivity",
"Micro firms"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Firm profitability is generally regarded as an important precondition for long-term firm survival and success; moreover, the variable significantly affects the firm's achievement of other financial goals. Another factor explaining the importance of firm profitability is its effect on economic growth, employment, innovation, and technological change. However, due to increasing competition, improved efficiency, and pricing pressure, firms are experiencing greater difficulty attaining the required profitability. The question of what factors determine profitability should accordingly be one of high priority for both researchers and practitioners, including managers, investors, debt holders, and policy makers. Despite the growing body of research focusing on the variables associated with firm profitability, the issue remains an open question in the empirical literature. Previous studies have empirically examined the question from various points of view; however, differences, for example, in the theoretical perspective, samples, measures of variables, and methodologies applied, make direct comparisons of the results of these studies difficult. These studies are mainly based on small samples of large manufacturing firms. The current study extends previous research, using a novel and more reliable econometric approach and a large sample of unlisted micro firms in four industries. Despite the crucial and growing role of micro firms in the Swedish economy, where they account for over 78 per cent of firms (SCB, 2011), little research attention has been paid to their profitability determinants. To empirically investigate the above issues, the present research applies the resource-based view (RBV) with a management perspective and focuses on firm-level profitability determinants, investigating the influence of a set of variables on profitability.The study consists of six sections. Section 1 describes the background of the study, while Section 2 presents its purpose.Section 3 describes the theoretical framework in detail and reviews previous empirical literature. Section 4 discusses the selection of variables, hypotheses, data collection, sample, and model specifications. The empirical and analytical results are presented in Section 5. Finally, the conclusions and implications of the research are presented in Section 6.\n2. Purpose of the study: This study investigates the influence of a set of variables on profitability, empirically examining the profitability determinants of Swedish micro firms at the firm level.\n3. Theoretical framework and review of previous literature: 3.1 Theoretical framework\n4. Selection of variables, hypotheses, the data, sample, and model specifications: 4.1 Dependent variable\n5. Results of the empirical analysis: 5.1 Results of the descriptive analysis\n7. Conclusions: The current study addresses an issue that is relevant to various stakeholders, including managers, investors, and debt holders, and may facilitate further research in similar areas of small business studies. The empirical results from investigating a large sample of Swedish micro firms in four industry sectors suggest that firm size, growth, lagged profitability, and productivity positively influence firm profitability, while firm age negatively influences it. The findings further indicate that larger and younger firms with high productivity and growth are more likely to be profitable. The coefficients of all explanatory variables vary by industry, indicating profitability heterogeneities at the industry level. This study has found that firm productivity is the strongest determinant of profitability. The results are relevant for two reasons. First, the estimation results concerning different firm contexts confirm the findings of previous studies of firm profitability. Second, the present paper is based on a larger sample and uses a more reliable statistical technique than did previous studies, strengthening our knowledge of firm profitability.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the variables affecting firm profitability, applying the seemingly unrelated regression method to a large sample of approximately 87,000 observations covering 12,530 non-financial micro firms operating in four industry sectors, from 2006 to 2007.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study considers profitability determinants at the firm as well as industry affiliation levels in examining hypotheses developed from resource-based approaches. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) was used to detect the combination of variables that best estimated the impact of the explanatory variables on the dependent variable.\nFindings: - The findings indicate that while firm size, lagged profitability, growth, and productivity positively influence profitability, firm age and industry affiliation negatively influence it. The empirical results suggest that productivity is the most significant determinant of profitability. These results are fairly robust across the various industry sectors covered in the study and are largely consistent with the hypotheses developed from the resource-based approach.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The current study addresses an issue that is relevant to various stakeholders, including managers, investors, and debtholders, and may facilitate further research in similar areas of small business studies.\nPractical implications: - The question of what factors determine profitability should accordingly be one of high priority for both researchers and practitioners, including managers, investors, debt holders, and policy makers.\nOriginality/value: - Most of previous studies of profitability determinants were actually performed in the industrial organization discipline. This study examines the impact of internal determinants including firm size, age, and sector on firm profitability from a managerial perspective. Unlike the other approaches, this approach suggests that firm performance is mainly determined by internal rather than external variables.\n",
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The role of macro context for the link between technological and organizational change
|
[
"Organizational change",
"Technological change",
"Macro‐context",
"Police",
"Europe",
"Organizational processes",
"United Kingdom",
"The Netherlands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Organisations are unthinkable without technology. From word-processing in the 1980 s to the more recent introduction of mobile phones, we all experience how strongly technology impacts and changes our work life and organisational interactions. There is little doubt therefore that technological innovations have a direct impact on organisations. The link between technological and organisational change has been explored variously, for instance, on organisations' size and structure (e.g. Brews and Tucci, 2004; Brynjolfsson et al., 1994; Sahaym et al., 2007), their social makeup (Davidson and Chismar, 2007; Leonardi, 2007), or their internal processes and routines (e.g. Argyres, 1999; Boudreau and Robey, 2005). Technology implementations are in fact often strategically used to achieve specific alterations in practices, structures or cultures (Magala, 2009).\nTechnology-driven organizational change: from adoption to alignment: In linking technological and organisational change, scholars tend to assume a \"logical chain\" of distinctive steps and mutual interactions. On a very abstract level this process can be divided into consecutive phases starting with the organisational decision to adopt a new technology and its implementation into the organisation to adoption decisions by individual members in the organisation. Adoption is then followed by the appropriation of the innovation and new patterns in work behaviours and interactions. Organisational change is created by the alignment of pre-existing organisational structures and procedures with these new behavioural patterns (see Figure 1).Despite the seemingly straightforward path from organisational adoption to alignment, the process is not unequivocal in the sense that end-results are clear or pre-determined. Rather it is a process \"by which social orders and technologies configure or adjust to each other through emergent patterns of use\" (Leonardi and Barley, 2010, p. 25; also Orlikowski, 2000). Unexpected and unintended effects of new technologies in organisations are common (McAulay, 2007), as users often diverge from the \"spirit\" in which a technology was created and implemented (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994). Accordingly, predicting effects of new technologies for organisations can become a hard task indeed.The previous issue points to the artificiality of differentiating between the material substrate of a technology and its usage. In fact, as Arthur (2009) in his book \"The nature of technology\" argues, the material aspects of technology and the processes with which they are used \"are not different categories\", but \"merely different ways of viewing technology\" (p. 31). Consequently, technology scholars have moved away from a deterministic \"tool view\" (Orlikowski and Iacono, 2001) of technology as a static artefact with highly predictable effects towards a more constructivist perspective (e.g. DeSanctis and Poole, 1994; Fulk, 1993). This reorientation recognises the fact that technology is always \"technology-in-practice\" and as such socially constructed (Orlikowski, 2000). An even more radical extension to this view is the concept of sociomateriality put forward by Orlikowski (2007) and Orlikowski and Scott (2008). Sociomateriality posits that technology and social system are neither discrete entities nor mutually dependent ensembles, but that instead \"the social and the material are constitutively entangled in everyday life\" (Orlikowski, 2007, p. 1437, emphasis in the original). Technology, people and practices are inseparable, because social practices are always expressed in the use of technology and technology only becomes relevant by its use in a social context. Consequently, technologies are socially inscribed through the context of their usage, while work practices and organisational structures live within the material framing of technologies (Leonardi and Barley, 2008).Reactions to technologies can therefore not be divorced from the social context, in which they take place. For technology in organisations this means that rules and structures within organisations affect how individuals perceive a technology and thus affect how they appropriate and use it long-term (e.g. Brown et al., 2010; Kraut et al., 1998). Hence, identical technologies do not automatically lead to identical processes and outcomes in different places (Barley, 1986; Edmondson et al., 2001). Instead, the actual result of the alignment between technologies and organisations depends on the individual actors and the context they operate in. It is this fact that frustrates many attempts to optimize organisational processes by implementing \"proven\" technologies (Pentland and Feldman, 2008).The socio-cultural context, in which technological changes take place, is vital to understand adoption and usage decisions on multiple levels from organisations to individual users. The subjective and social norms held by peers and supervisors, for instance, are one of the strongest predictor for individuals' intended and actual use of a new technology (e.g. Simon and Paper, 2007; Sykes et al., 2009; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). Similarly, technology adoption by (inter-organisational) groups can be hindered by disparate views about the value of collaboration and technology standards across organisations (Mark and Poltrock, 2004). On a still higher level, national culture affects reactions to technologies from their design to their usage (Fukuyama, 1995; Leidner and Kayworth, 2006; Sia et al., 2009; Srite and Karahanna, 2006).So far, these aspects have found only limited reflection in both the organisational and technological change literature, as well as in studies aiming to link these two processes (for an exception on organisational adoption see Damanpour and Schneider, 2006). In a review of 99 studies on IT adoption in individuals and organisations Jeyaraj et al. (2006), for instance, found government considered only twice, country culture merely once, while environmental instability appeared three times, complexity twice, and dynamism once. It thus remains unclear in what way macro-context affects the impact of specific technologies on the process and dynamics of organisational change.Clearly, a more comprehensive view on technology-triggered organisational change is needed that also addresses the \"wider\" aspects of an organisation's context. To address this gap, we used comparative case studies collected in European police organisations to investigate the role of macro-context for the link between technological and organisational change. Our investigation was driven by the question of how disparate features of the macro-contexts, i.e. the political, economic, social, technological and legal trends identified in van den Born et al. (2013), this issue) affect organisational change in concrete terms.\nMethods: Study context and data collection\nFindings: Case 1: automatic number plate recognition systems\nDiscussion, implications and open questions: In this paper we investigated the role of macro-context for the link between technological and organisational change. Our study was triggered by the observation that police forces across ten European countries varied widely in their judgments about and reactions to current technological trends (see van den Born et al. (2013), this issue). Our aim was to obtain a deeper understanding of the factors that lead to disparate paths organisations take despite identical triggers. Based on extensive data on two different technological innovations we showcased how variations in social, legal, political, technological and economic conditions resulted in systematic variations in practices and structures concerning the implementation of technologies across European police organisations. Especially the case of social media adoption by police forces exemplified how the organisational as well as the national macro-context impact the willingness on the organisational as well as individual level to engage with new technologies. Our study thus illustrate that the macro-context of organisations not only frames, but also actively shapes the link between technological and organisational changes. That is, the way organisations reacted to and integrated technological innovations could only be fully understood when legal constraints, economic pressure and social, technological and political preferences in the organisational environment were considered. Macro-context thus modified the alignment process between technology and organisation.As Labatut et al. (2012) claimed recently, technologies in organisations can be conceptualised on three dimensions: their technical substrate, i.e. the set of techniques, material aspects and rules mobilized in the technology (\"what is it?\"), a managerial philosophy of the objects and objectives (\"why should it be implemented?\"), and an organisational model referring to the work organisation and routines defining the use of this substrate ('how should it be used?'). As our study demonstrates, this still prevalent view of \"technologies in organisations\" needs to be broadened into a wider view on \"technologies in organisations in their macro-context\". We therefore argue that the original triangle between material agency, human agency and organisational properties created by the \"dual nature\" of technology (Orlikowski, 1992) requires an extension beyond the boundaries of the organisation (see Figure 4), thus claiming a more prominent role of the socio-cultural macro-context in the organisational change literature.Technology designers are increasingly aware of this challenge. One attempt to facilitate the alignment process is a more organic approach to technology design, in which technology is developed jointly with the users. Here technology is understood rather like a \"plant\" that is grown in close co-operation with the client than a ready-made product thrown at the organisation (e.g. Bjerknes et al., 1987; Denef et al., 2011). Still, organisations have an interest in standardised solutions to facilitate implementation and coordination across socio-cultural contexts. Hence, the need for alignment to disparate contexts and their impact on attitudes and practices are often underestimated (Krishna et al., 2004). This tension between standardisation and flexibility is a continuous balancing act (Hanseth et al., 1996), in which contextual and cultural issues need to be taken into account to understand IT effects on organisations (e.g. Mekonnen and Sahay, 2008). Our study thus also has practical implications. As Avgerou (2001, p. 8) pointed out, \"Innovation inside an organisation is rarely a result of 'free choice' and action: it is to a large extent determined by events, trends, pressures, opportunities, or restrictions in the international or national arena\". Our findings demonstrate that organisational decision makers require a clear view not only of the internal environment in which they aim to implement new technologies, but also of the external environment. The need for a broader view is also critical, when considering technology adoption and use in inter-organisational networks, where societal, legal, and political frameworks in a specific country or even international discussions and conflicts about IT use become explicit barriers (Avgerou, 2001; Sarker and Sahay, 2004). Operating in disparate contexts poses very concrete challenges organisations have to deal with, when deciding on the adoption of technologies and the way they can be integrated into current practices and structures. This starts with conflicts around questions such as: Is it permissible in a country to sell customer information to third parties without notification, as happens regularly with smart phone apps? Or have customers in an economy sufficient access to internet to move customer service from brick-and-mortar offices to (social) networks? Organisational leaders thus need to become aware of the culture-dependence of their technological decisions.The strength of our study is its foundation in a broad and varied set of data including interviews, documents, focus groups, observations as well as validation through repeated discussions with large numbers of police officers from the operational to the strategic level. With this we took an exploratory approach enabling us to unearthing important findings on the impact of macro-context and their inter-linkages on technology-driven changes in European police organisations. Still, more systematic analyses are needed to understand the relative importance of environmental factors to each other and their effects during disparate phases from early adoption decisions by organisations to the appropriation by individual users and user groups. In this context the long-term and multi-level nature of organisational change processes need to be taken into account, raising the question whether the impact of environmental factors differs across time. Further, while our focus was on a comparison across countries, it is also important to remember that police forces in a country do differ in nature (e.g. rural versus urban forces or forces with a stronger military versus civilian focus). Consequently, there are also variations of technology adoption practices within a single country. While the environment is largely stable across organisations, there are internal variations of organisations within the same field. This interplay between these internal (i.e. organisational) and external (i.e. environmental) factors is an important aspect, if we aim to understand or even predict technology effects on organisations.\nConclusions: Novel technologies, once introduced, have an impact on existing organisational practices and structures. Often this impact differs considerably from the one originally intended. We thus need rigorous theories that enable both technology designers and strategic leaders of organisations to better understand what it means for a system to be \"good\" in a particular context. Present considerations linking technological and organisational changes often stop at the boundaries of the organisation. Yet, as we have shown in this paper, the \"particular context\" for a technological system transcends the organisation. We thus advance the view that the prevalent micro-perspective of the socio-material agency of technology for organisational change needs to be extended towards a macro-level perspective of the external organisational contexts. The concrete cases described in this paper demonstrate the relevance for macro-context for technology-driven changes, but also highlight the complexity of studying this phenomenon. We hope that our study helps in motivating more investigations into this important and exciting area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Technology is an important driver of organizational change and often strategically used to facilitate adaptations in organizational processes and cultures. While the link between technological and organizational change is widely recognized, the role of macro-context for this link remains undervalued. Based on data from technology implementations in European police forces the paper aims to illustrate the importance of integrating analyses of the macro-context to understand the complexity of technology driven organizational change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors conducted 56 interviews and five focus groups with police officers from 13 countries on two of the major technology trends in European police forces: automatic number plate recognition systems (ANPR) systems and social media. They further conducted site visits to police forces in The Netherlands and the United Kingdom to observe technology usage first hand. Comparing accounts across countries they analyzed how macro-context impacted adoption decisions and implementation processes. In this analysis they concentrated on the five macro-contextual factors in the PESTL framework, i.e. political, economic, social, technological and legal factors.\nFindings: - In analyses of ANPR systems and social media the paper details how the macro-context of police organizations impacted decisions to adopt a technology as well as the intra-organizational alignments of processes and structures.\nPractical implications: - Organizational decision makers and implementers need to be aware not only of the strong agency of technology for organizations' structure and processes, but also of the relevance of the organizational macro-context for the process and impact of technology implementations on the organizational as well as individual level.\nOriginality/value: - The paper illustrates the impact of the macro-context of organizations in shaping the link between technological change and organizational change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
CSR and consumer behavioral responses: the role of customer-company identification
|
[
"Customer satisfaction",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"C-C identification"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The hospitality industry has become one of the largest industries having 120 million employees and generating revenue of US$ 400-500 billion worldwide (Fatma et al., 2016a). The industry has been offering various benefits to the social, cultural, and economic environments through generation of employment and development of infrastructure and cultural heritage (Yang et al., 2012; Bohdanowicz and Zientara, 2009). Nevertheless, this industry has also produced a negative impact also, for example, environmental degradation (Pereira-Moliner et al., 2012), unethical labor practices and growing rate of prostitution (Frangialli, 2002), in order to satisfy the needs of tourists (Prud'homme and Raymond, 2013). A sustainable development approach may be understood as one that is viable and minimizes the environmental hazardous activities (Barr, 2003). In India, tourism accounts for 6.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and is the third largest foreign exchange earner in the country. The tourism and hospitality sector contribution to the GDP was US$ 44.2 billion in the year 2015 (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2015). The tourism and hospitality sector is among the top fifteen sectors in India that attract the highest foreign direct investment (FDI). During the period April 2000-February 2015, this sector attracted around US$ 7,862.08 (approx. 529259.11 INR) millions of FDI, according to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (2015-2016) annual report.\n2. Literature review: The concept of CSR is broad (Mohr et al., 2001), elusive (Smith and Langford, 2009), and still evolving (Cochran, 2007). Many conceptualizations of CSR have emerged in literature, but result in a lack of commonly accepted definition (Gatti et al., 2012). Bowen (1953) was the first who defined the concept of CSR as the obligation \"to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society\" (p. 6) in his book, Social Responsibilities of Businessmen. LaterKeith Davis (1960) suggested that the business social responsibility refers to the \"decisions and action taken for reasons at least partially beyond the firm's direct economic or technical interest\" (p. 70). At about the same time, Eells and Walton (1961) shows the concern for the broader social system. In 2000, European Commission view defines CSR as a \"concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis\" (Commission of the European Communities, 2006, p. 5). This concept has also been interchangeably used with the other terms also such as corporate social responsiveness (Wartick and Cochran, 1985), corporate sustainability, and ethics (Vaaland et al., 2008) and corporate citizenship (Maignan, 2001). Over the period of time, the importance of CSR has been acknowledged by several firms all over the world (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006).\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Results and analysis: Of the 350 questionnaires distributed, 327 valid responses were received, yielding a response rate of 93.4 percent. In total, 59.02 percent of respondents were male. In all, 35.47 percent respondents fell in the age range of 41-50 years. 36.08 percent of the participants were post graduate, and 50.76 percent of all respondents had monthly incomes above Rs. 50,000 (Table I).\n5. Discussion and implications: Findings of the study provide evidence of the relationship between consumer perception of CSR activities and loyalty. The theory of social identification has been applied in several studies by researchers in various contexts (e.g. Marin et al., 2009; Ahearne et al., 2005; Keh and Xie, 2009). However, despite the widely accepted importance of C-C identification in business and industry, its influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty largely remains unexplored in the context of the hotel industry except the few studies (e.g Martinez, and del Bosque, 2016). Previous studies have focused on the direct effects of CSR on loyalty (Mandhachitara and Poolthong, 2011), but have largely ignored the mediating effect of C-C identification on loyalty. The present study addresses this gap by examining the influence of consumer perception of CSR on customer satisfaction and loyalty through C-C identification. Our study provides a comprehensive framework that integrates social identity and social exchange perspectives towards building customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study also adds to the empirical evidence supporting the direct effects of perceived CSR on C-C identification (Marin et al., 2009) and satisfaction (Lee and Heo, 2009) and loyalty (He and Li, 2011). The present paper further extends the work of Luo and Bhattacharya (2006) by integrating the mediating role of C-C identification in the relationship between CSR and customer satisfaction. The finding of our study that CSR has a positive and significant influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty is in line with findings of previous studies (Brady et al., 2002).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of perceived CSR and its influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the hotel industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Personal surveys of hotel guests were carried out in three metropolitan cities of India. The survey resulted in 327 valid responses which were further analyzed. To test the proposed model, structural equation modeling was applied.\nFindings: The findings show that consumer perception of CSR activities positively influences consumer identification with the company, and identification positively results in customer satisfaction and loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: Findings of the study have important implications for hospitality companies as they suggest that hotel managers should invest more in socially responsible initiatives since consumers tend to support those firms that are perceived as socially responsible by developing a sense of loyalty towards them.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a comprehensive framework that integrates social identity and social exchange perspectives towards building customer satisfaction and loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Team care approach to population health and care management
|
[
"Primary care",
"Engaging clinical members",
"Improved health",
"Population health and care management",
"Primary care provider",
"Value-based care"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: moving from emphasis on sickness to wellness and prevention: The US healthcare system has been noted for having the poorest outcomes at the highest cost among industrial nations for years (Squires and Anderson (2015)). With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) one of the major goals is to transform our \"sickness\" care system into a true \"health\" care system that emphasizes prevention and wellness. This will require a significant restructuring of our health system infrastructure along with a transformation of our medical culture. Population health encompasses much of this work, and has been defined as \"the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group (Kindig and Stoddart (2003)).\" Don Berwick also refers to improving the health of the population as one of the three goals of the triple aim (the other two refer to patient experience and reducing cost), again highlighting this as a key goal for our healthcare system. Managing the medical needs of a population involves several major tasks, including:\n2. Key US initiatives in the move toward value-based care - a primer: Over the past decade there have been several major initiatives that seek to drive meaningful change in the US health system.\n3. Primary care and why a team care approach is essential: Practice improvements often fail because they rely on the willingness of physicians, who are already too busy, to take on additional workThomas Bodenheimer (2008), MD.The practice of primary care is evolving, shaped in part by the goals set for the PCMH and the role of primary care in accountable care organizations. The PCMH seeks to achieve many things including: a patient centered approach to care, improved access to care and communication with the care team, care management and care coordination, engaging the patient in care planning, and a commitment to population health as defined above. While these are laudable aims, the fact is that the current primary care practice model focuses its resources on billable face-to-face encounters that are mostly problem focused. A study by Yarnall et al. (2003), pointed out that for a primary care provider (PCP) with a typical patient panel of 2,500 patients it would take 7.4 hours per day to provide all recommended preventive services to these patients. This in addition to the demands of:\n4. Starting with the patient as partner: In this model, the patient must be engaged in improving their health and take an active role in the decisions that direct their care. Not all patients have had the opportunity to learn how to be an active partner in their care nor has the healthcare system traditionally viewed it as a responsibility to systematically orient patients to their role as active participants in their care.\n5. Building screening and prevention into the workflow: In earlier studies, including one by McGlynn (2003), the authors found that only 55 percent of patients received the recommended services suggested by current evidence. So, there is much room for improvement. Here we discuss what this improvement could be.\n6. A team approach to care management - the collaborative care model: As noted in the Introduction, the goals of transformation of care are to improve outcomes and patient experience, and to lower the cost of care. Nowhere is the opportunity greater to achieve these aims than in managing chronic conditions. It is estimated that almost half of all Americans live with one or more chronic conditions[4].\n7. Lessons learned: While change has been a constant throughout the history of healthcare, it seems like the current pace of change is unprecedented. It is important to be aware of the impact of change on our staff and physicians, and to anticipate that there will be questions and often resistance to any proposed change to the status quo in clinical practice. Introducing the new roles and workflows associated with a team care approach requires thoughtful planning that facilitates management of the change. The following are some lessons we learned as we introduced team care approaches to population health and chronic disease management:\n8. Conclusion: The authors concluded that this initiative was successful because of the compelling objectives, the buy-in generated by using Lean methodology and engaging the team in the design process, use of multiple feedback mechanisms including stories, dashboards, and patient feedback, and the positive impact on providers, staff, and patients. Strong leadership, clear objectives, and tools to support accountability were all integral to this practice transformation initiative.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As the US health system moves to value-based care and aligns payment with quality, the role of the primary care provider (PCP) is becoming ever more important. The purpose of this paper is to outline a successful population health and care management strategy depending on accountable teams to standard workflow and agreed upon process and outcome measures in order to achieve the triple aim of improved health, patient experience, and value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two major areas of focus for primary care are ensuring that all patients receive appropriate evidence-based screening and prevention services and coordinating the care of patients with chronic conditions. The former initiative will promote the general health and well-being of patients, while the latter is a key strategy for achieving better outcomes and reducing costs for patients with chronic conditions.\nFindings: To achieve these goals while managing a busy practice requires that the authors leverage the PCP by engaging clinical and non-clinical team members in the care of their patient population. It is essential that each team member's role be clearly defined and ensures they are working at the top of their scope.\nOriginality/value: This initiative was successful because of the compelling objectives, the buy-in generated by using Lean methodology and engaging the team in the design process, use of multiple feedback mechanisms including stories, dashboards, and patient feedback, and the positive impact on providers, staff, and patients.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using performance templates for manager and employee learning - in-action
|
[
"Learning",
"Action theory",
"Performance improvement",
"Performance templates"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This article demonstrates how the performance improvement process, performance templates (hereafter, p-t), may be used for manager and employee learning. The process has roots in experiential learning theory and action theory and there is some empirical research that supports the efficacy of the approach. The p-t process can stimulate manager and/or employee learning for several competencies or skills.\nAn approach to manager and employee learning and development: P-t has been shown to improve employee effectiveness and performance and may stimulate management learning for several competencies or skills including communication, coaching, stimulating employee motivation, team building, and change management. In practice, the p-t method includes these competencies as training activities. This helps make p-t different from many single-feature approaches to manager learning. It may be applied/directed by a single manager with a self-improvement focus or it may be used as an activity in which a group of managers is educated in the method's use. Our assumptions and expression of the approach suggest that managers, having studied the approach in detail, initiate and control its application with an employee group. In so doing, managers are immersed in many learning and instructional opportunities for change and growth, as illuminated below. We also present theoretical foundations for the p-t approach, its steps and features, its linkages to other concepts, and we address the efficacy of the approach.\nTheoretical foundations and literature review: Motivation\nGeneral features of the performance template (p-t) model: P-t is a set of interdependent, group-based activities or steps. Unlike many training and development approaches, it includes a training component embedded within a process for performance improvement that is created by managers and the employees. The activity has an unlimited life because the performance feedback mechanisms occurring as a defined part of the approach can take place over many months. The feedback loop enables performance to improve over several iterations. Salas et al. (2012) report that the use of iterative training processes usually correlates positively with successful applications of training.\nCreating and using performance templates: We begin by assuming the managers and key operatives know their business and its operations well. Further, we assume that most employees have this same knowledge. These assumptions are important because, in the model cycle, managers must first identify key processes and critical performance indicators associated with those processes. Thus, important tasks and functions can be identified clearly at the outset:\nEfficacy of the p-t approach: A few empirical studies examine the application of the p-t approach. In two of them managers led the p-t processes. In one study (Lyons, 2007), sales firm employees were randomly selected into two groups, T and C, for training targeting four CPE in sales visits. The T group was trained using the explicit steps of the p-t process to create templates for CPE. The C group was conventionally trained, e.g. role-taking, study of best practices. The objective was to determine if performance differences would result from the training.\nConclusions: Limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This article demonstrates how the performance improvement process, performance templates, may be used for both manager and employee learning. The paper explains the concept, offers theoretical support for it, gives evidence of the efficacy of the process, and explains, in detail, how the process may be applied.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach is to present or demonstrate what performance templates are and how a manager and a group of employees work together to create them and use them in the field. The paper presents the approach, explains how it connects with theory, offers empirical support for performance templates, and gives a sequence of events as to their creation and use.\nFindings: The findings indicate that, in general, the learning and performance approach, performance templates offer an influential and practical tool for both manager and employee learning, and consistent performance improvement. The approach has many applications, although recent research relies mostly on its use in sales organizations.\nResearch limitations/implications: Primarily, the performance template approach has been used with small samples of learners. In the extant studies of the approach, small sample sizes limit the value of statistical analysis.\nPractical implications: The approach has not been tested with large employee groups (more than 25). The method is labor-intensive and time consuming. Large groups of participants would compromise the use of the approach as individual employee participation could be limited.\nOriginality/value: Performance templates add to the arsenal of tools and methods available to trainers and managers. There is some empirical support for the approach. Performance templates represent both a learning approach and a performance improvement approach as managers and their employees work jointly to create learning and change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Lean process design for a radiology department
|
[
"Radiology",
"Value stream map",
"Public hospital",
"Lean health care",
"Value-added activities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Health care is one of the trending topics in the world. As health is one of the most valuable issues in human life, it must be maintained with rehabilitation. Nowadays, service delivery quality and capability has not sufficiently kept pace with increased delivery requirements, and thus has resulted in long waiting times in both the diagnosis and treatment phases of care. Hospitals are the most important part of health care service systems, as they are also the place where patients can wait for a long time just to be treated. There are a number of wastes considered in health care organizations which should be eliminated or at least be minimized. Since queues in hospitals are directly affecting the quality of human life, their reduction should take priority compared to other types of queues. Special efforts should be made to shorten patient queues. The rapid increase in the volume of with cancer patients in Turkey, and in fact globally, suggests that heath delivery concerns in this area should be considered as a priority. Among cancer types, breast cancer is the most encountered type in Turkey.\n2. Literature survey: There is a rapidly growing pressure on health care institutions to increase their efficiency and increase satisfaction of patients, physicians, nurses, staff, and stakeholders by adopting new methodologies with the same level of resources. Lean is about making \"value\" flow at every step, where value is what a customer would pay for, and waste is what a customer would not pay for (Burgess and Radnor, 2013). Burgess and Radnor (2013) also added that lean is therefore primarily about improving quality so that non-value-added activities such as waste, which often adds to delay and requires extra resources, which also ultimately attracts extra costs, should be eliminated. Health care system is faced with challenges and opportunities from a rapidly changing operating environment, including increasing expectations on the quality of health care (Shazali et al., 2013).\n3. Lean application in health care: Since the term \"lean\" originated in manufacturing, most literature and available implementation examples are related to manufacturing. However, lean applications are not limited to manufacturing, and good implementations are spreading quickly in the service sector. In general, process design begins with the identification of bottlenecks (e.g. movement of specimens).\n4. Current health care situation in Turkey: In Turkey, the executive of health care is the Minister of Health. After handing over SSK hospitals to the minister, the role became more important. From 2003, the minister began to perform improvement and transformation projects in health care. When the expectations of patients are questioned, they indicate their wishes as \"equal and protected rights in providing health service,\" \"increase in the number of physicians,\" \"less bureaucracy and better patient transfer,\" and finally \"improved health institutions and building more facilities\" (SERDE, 2007).\n5. Methodology: The aim of this paper is to decrease the non-value-added activities and increase patient, doctor, and even nurse satisfaction by applying lean health care to a radiology unit of a public hospital based in Istanbul, Turkey. Thus, in order to be able to develop such a sophisticated lean model and improvement methods in mammography and ultrasound fields of the radiology, a current system for the given fields was observed in place. Time study methods and face-to-face interviews were done with radiologists, technicians, and even breast surgeons to make sure that the process is well understood. After mapping the current situation, the bottlenecks and non-value-added activities were found and analyzed. The health care system data were also analyzed which were collected from the IT department (number of patients, workloads, time spent in each activity, etc.). Key performance indicators were determined, improvement suggestions were discussed, and the best option was decided all together with a focus group formed, all from radiologists, breast surgeons, and technicians. Finally, the improved future value stream map was formed for the radiology department regarding mammography and breast ultrasound division.\n6. Analysis and results: In the radiology department, there are two mammography devices throughout the hospital: one of those is digital and the other one is conventional. Conventional is old type of mammography which is why it is not used anymore. Moreover, mammography does not provide service all day; the technician's shift ends at 15:30. In other words all the workload is scheduled on only one of the mammography room plus, with less than six hours of work time. Additionally, there are four radiologists and one assistant doctor available for breast ultrasound. However, they are not just working for patients with breast cancer, but they are also accepting and analyzing all other types of patients.\n7. Conclusion: To conclude, literature and studies related to mammography and ultrasound fields and lean hospital applications have been carefully examined, and several observations, time studies, discussions, and meetings are made with surgeons, specialists, and radiologists in one of the most crowded public hospitals. According to the findings of the literature reviews, it has been recognized that applying lean applications in the health care eliminates non-value-added processes, improves health care quality, increases both patients' and hospital staff's satisfaction, and decreases the costs. Since mammography and ultrasound fields have been our focus study area, medical knowledge related to the field and breast cancer types is deeply gained, thanks to the doctors who we have worked together, apart from the literature reviews.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to design a future value stream map of the system and patient pathway with lean health care application tools in terms of quality improvement (QI) in order to decrease the non-value-added activities for patients, doctors, and nurses for a radiology unit in a public hospital based in Istanbul, Turkey.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data are collected from personal observations, information technologies unit, and authorized employees. In order to measure subprocesses, some qualitative data are transformed into quantitative data via authorized employees' experiences. Moreover, data tracking and keeping systems are too poor for revealing the current situation.\nFindings: The current value stream map of the system of the radiology department of a public education and research hospital was analyzed and the future value stream map of the system and patient pathway was redesigned with lean health care application tools in terms of QI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The greatest limitation is the resistant to change and fear of talking on mistakes and low performances.\nOriginality/value: This paper states an example of a current and future value stream map showing step by step where the bottlenecks are and how these can be improved and what specific benefits will this analysis bring to the health care system. It will be useful for both academicians and practitioners on how to apply lean to health care.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Levels, trends and socio-economic correlates of caesarean section deliveries: District level analysis in Karnataka, India
|
[
"Caesarean delivery",
"Caesarean section",
"Risk factors",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globally, approximately 287,000 maternal and 2.9m neonatal deaths are reported annually. Access to extensive emergency obstetric care, including caesarean section (CS), is a vital key to reducing these deaths[1, 2]. However, in spite of being a life-saving surgical tool when complications arise in the process of childbirth, the CS is a major surgical procedure and is associated with immediate maternal and perinatal risks and may have long-term effects and implications for future pregnancies[3-6].\nMethodology: Data\nResults: Profile of the respondents\nDiscussion: Increasing CS rates\nConclusion and recommendations: There is an increase in CS deliveries. Caesarean deliveries are higher in most parts of Karnataka district but reach alarming levels in the southern part. Further, the increase in CS was only observed in private health facilities, whereas this proportion was stagnant or even decreased in public health facilities during DLHS-3 and DLHS-4. Therefore, medical audit, quality assessment and supportive supervision should be considered in order to minimize unnecessary CS rates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Caesarean section (CS) is being used as a life-saving surgical tool when complications arise in the process of childbirth. CS rates have dramatically increased across the world, especially in recent decades. In this background, the purpose of this paper is to explore the CS rates and its determinants in Karnataka, India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses multiple rounds of the District Level Household Survey (DLHS) data to show the trends, differentials and determinants in CS deliveries. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses have been carried out, and the kh2 test and logistic regression models were applied.\nFindings: Result shows a sharp increase in CS rates across Karnataka; further, this is high and reaches an alarming level in southern parts of the state. Along with a huge rural-urban difference, significant biological and socio-economic differences were observed. Further, a very dramatic increase in the CS rate was observed in private health facilities, whereas it was stagnant or even decreased in public health facilities during recent years. Mothers age at birth, birth weight, birth order, multiple births, birth institution and place of residence were significantly associated with CS delivery. Unlike these biological factors, the social-economic factors like maternal education, caste, religion and below poverty line household were not found to be significant in determining CS deliveries.\nOriginality/value: A strong policy to address the dramatic increase in CS deliveries is the need of the hour. Further, there should be a proper mechanism at national, state and sub-state level to provide appropriate checks and monitoring for CS deliveries which are unnecessary.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Inherited organizational performance? The perceptions of generation Y on the influence of leadership styles
|
[
"Organizational performance",
"Generation Y",
"Leadership styles",
"Organizational size"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Rapidly changing and more competitive environments have increased the significance of developing competitive advantage through leadership to improve organizational effectiveness (Jaramilo et al., 2005). Rather than financial efficiency, companies focus on leadership and intangible resources to sustain their competitive advantages (Wang et al., 2010). Leadership is one of the most explored concepts in business and industry during the last decades and it is defined not only by leaders' actual behaviors but also by the perception of this behavior (Tourish, 2014). It has become an essential element for organizations (Schein, 2010; Bryman, 2007; Brymer and Gray, 2006). As such, the impact of leadership styles on organizational performance is well documented and research has shown that different leadership styles would generate different outcomes (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000). Therefore, leadership styles not only have generally an influence on the employees' performance but also on the organizational performance in particular (Windsor, 2009; Wang et al., 2010). Lost sales or market share, staff turnover and, in the worst case scenarios, bankruptcy, are the typical outcomes associated with leaders and leadership styles, steering practitioners toward the use of effective or ineffective leaders terminology. Unfortunately sometimes organizations do not recognize the difference between being an effective or an ineffective leader until it is too late.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Leadership styles\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Participants and procedure\n4. Results: Results regarding descriptive statistics (see Table I) reveal that in the considered sample the majority of respondents were male with 71.7 percent (n=127) of valid responses whereas only 28.3 percent (n=50) were female respondents. The results illustrate that the majority of the respondents were between 22 and 29 years with 85.9 percent (n=152). Only 9.4 percent of the respondents were under 22 years (n=17) while the minority of the respondents were 30 years and above (4.7 percent, n=8). The large proportion of the respondents had earned a bachelor degree with 44.9 percent (n=79) whilst 21.3 percent (n=38) of the sample were currently master students and 18.0 percent (n=32) had a master degree. Only the minority of the respondents were currently completing their bachelor degree (15.8 percent, n=28). As such, they can all be classified as young professionals or the German generation Y as previously explained. Additionally, 63.8 percent (n=113) of the respondents had worked for a large company with 250 and more employees, followed by 24.4 percent (n=43) with an employment at a medium-sized company between 50 and 249 employees and only 7.9 percent (n=14) of the respondents had worked for a small company with 10-49 employees while the minority of the respondents with 3.9 percent (n=7) were employed at a micro enterprise with a size of one to nine employees.\n5. Discussion and implications: The empirical findings of this study show that all the mean scores of the leadership dimensions were significantly higher in this study than the European mean scores. A possible reason for this is that the young professionals considered in this study were highly skilled employees with academic degrees. This supports Windsor (2009) argument in which he stated that employees from successful organizations with a higher level of education tend to rate their leaders higher when they perceive the organization as high potential with strong evidence of participative decision making, clear goals and mission and positive intercultural climate.\n6. Concluding remarks: Previous researchers provided limited empirical studies that examined the role of leadership styles on organizational performance from the perspective of young professionals. Moreover, the impact of the leadership styles on the four BSC performance dimensions has also not been investigated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Leadership has a major impact on organizational performance (Agle et al., 2006; Felfe and Schyns, 2004; Peterson et al., 2003). However, results are still conflicting regarding these effects and research has yet to focus on the expectations and perceived impact from the point of view of young professionals (the future senior employees and managers). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how leadership is perceived and how leadership styles influence performance from the perspective of young professionals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative research strategy was implemented by using a self-completion online questionnaire and the data were analyzed using multivariate statistical analysis to demonstrate the impact of each leadership style on organizational performance. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass and Avolio, 1995) was used to measure leadership styles (passive/avoidant, transactional and transformational leadership) and organizational performance was measured based on the balanced scorecard performance dimensions (financial, learning and growth, customer orientation and organizational effectiveness) (Kaplan and Norton, 2005).\nFindings: The main findings supported the literature suggesting a statistically significant positive impact of both transactional and transformational leadership on organizational performance. Conversely, the relationship between the passive/avoidant leadership style and organizational performance was statistically significant but negative. This suggests that leaders in organizations driven by German culture should reconsider their approaches and practices.\nOriginality/value: The present study has focused on the responses from young German professionals who represent future organizational success. Consequently, it is of major importance to know how these groups assess the leadership style of their leaders and how this has an influence on organizational performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
No pain, no gain: how PACE information attenuates consumption
|
[
"Consumer behavior",
"Obesity",
"Decision-making",
"Well-being",
"Nutrition",
"Physical activity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Obesity and diet-related chronic diseases are global pandemics affecting consumers throughout the world. Over two-thirds of American adults are either overweight or obese and at risk for developing chronic diseases (Flegal et al., 2012; Kit et al., 2014). Even emerging countries such as China and Mexico, once thought immune to the problems of overconsumption, are seeing obesity rates climb to alarming new heights (Burkitt, 2014). In most countries, efforts to guide healthier decision-making present consumers with nutritional information such as calorie content. Examples include the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990 and the US federal healthcare reform bill that requires restaurants with more than 20locations to post calorie information at point of purchase (111th Congress, 2010). Manufacturers also provide a wealth of nutritional information beyond imposed legal requirements, including health-related messaging on packaging (Wansink, 2003), fitness cues and other packaging and branding aesthetics (Koenigstorfer and Baumgartner, 2016).\nProvision of nutritional information: Encouraging healthy food choices is an arduous task. The NLEA in 1990 was intended to help consumers make more informed and better choices by providing standardized nutrition information for certain food items (Balasubramanian and Cole, 2002; Roe et al., 1999). After the NLEA was introduced, consumers could refer to the nutrition facts panel to determine caloric content, along with a host of other product information (e.g. sodium, carbohydrates, etc.), prior to purchasing or consuming an item.\nMental simulation and negativity bias: The consumer decision-making process is one of subjective weightings and biases rather than impartial, calculated probabilities (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979). Consumer decision weights are based on feelings and expectations about a specific outcome rather than on rational, judicious assessments. Presenting choices with differing features leads to an asymmetrical focus on different aspects of a choice set. One way consumers evaluate choices is by constructing mental models based on prior experiences. These models are used in the development of expectations and assumptions about anticipated events (Barsalou, 2008; Klein and Crandall, 1995). Underlying this modeling process is the concept of mental simulation.\nThe current research: We draw upon the mental simulation and negativity bias literature to propose that when consumers face a decision in which required physical activity time is made salient, mental simulation will lead to a disproportionate weighting of costs and benefits. Because simulations are based on select, salient features (Taylor et al., 1998), we hypothesize that consumers will weigh the cost of consumption represented by required activity time more heavily than the cost depicted in caloric format alone. We expect that given the nature of mental simulation and the tendency to focus on negative aspects of an event, the depiction of the time required to offset consumption will prompt consumers to generate forecasts about the consequences of consuming that will be particularly negative. We base required physical activity time on caloric content because calories are more salient for consumers and are a popular way of gauging healthiness of many items (Burton et al., 1999; Drichoutis et al., 2006; Keller et al., 1997; Kozup et al., 2003; Moorman, 1990, 1996).\nOverview of studies: The present studies make three key contributions. First, we broaden the parameters of what is currently known about PACE information by replicating and testing the approach in both actual and intended consumption settings using different food items (hedonic vs utilitarian) within different categories (healthy vs unhealthy) to establish theoretically relevant moderators. Second, whereas extant research demonstrates some possible effects of combining caloric content with required activity time, we extend these findings by identifying different contexts and situations in which the benefits of PACE information may be muted or absent altogether. Finally, we identify the causal mechanism by which PACE information influences consumption decisions.\nStudy 1: Generalizability of PACE information and the moderating role of health consciousness: Study 1 tests hypothesis H1A, which predicts that consumers exposed to PACE information along with a standard NLEA panel will consume less than consumers exposed to a standard NLEA-mandated nutrition panel alone. Additionally, Study 1 tests hypothesis H2 by examining the relationship between consumers' level of health consciousness and the influence of PACE information on consumption.\nStudy 2: The robustness of PACE information: Study 2 attempts to replicate Study 1 by providing more externally valid findings using a different context, a different activity and a generalizable, non-student sample population. Additionally, Study 2 demonstrates robustness of PACE information using additional food items across healthy and unhealthy categories.\nStudy 3: The moderating role of activity difficulty on consumption: Studies 1 and 2 support H1A and H2 and provide initial evidence that adding PACE information reduces consumption compared to NLEA-mandated information. The central element of PACE information is the inclusion of physical activity. Study 3 further demonstrates the process behind the effects by manipulating the type of physical activity used in PACE information. We expect that perceived difficulty of the physical activity will moderate consumption. We test hypothesis H3 by examining whether consumers presented with PACE information containing a physical activity perceived as being difficult, relative to an activity perceived as easy, will attenuate consumption to a greater degree.\nStudies 4a and 4b: The role of mental simulation and negative affective forecasting: The purpose of Studies 4A and 4B is to test the proposed psychological process linking PACE information to reduced consumption. Based on research demonstrating that consumers simulate future consumption scenarios that lead to influential, emotional reactions, we expect consumers to weigh the cost of consumption represented by required activity time more heavily than the cost depicted in caloric format alone. Recognizing the greater sensitivity to negative information (i.e. costs, potential losses) and the fact that this sensitivity commands a disproportionate influence in the decision process, we expect PACE information to prompt mental simulations that are particularly negative because the cost of consumption is more salient and more quickly brought to mind. Study 4A tests our prediction that consumers will be more mentally involved and visualize consumption consequences to a larger degree when presented with PACE information compared to NLEA-mandated information alone. Study 4B tests hypothesis H1B and demonstrates that these simulated events will engender feelings of negative affect and consequently reduce intended consumption to a greater degree in the PACE condition.\nGeneral discussion: Providing nutritional information is the primary means by which marketers and policy makers attempt to encourage healthier consumption patterns among consumers. Both empirical and anecdotal studies, however, find the effectiveness of current approaches to be negligible. The present research contributes to the marketing literature by examining, and more importantly, better understanding a presentation format in which caloric information is complemented with physical activity time required to offset consumption. To our knowledge, our study is the first to systematically evaluate the impact of this approach in both actual and simulated consumption settings and to provide evidence of its contribution to healthier decision-making. This research uncovered several important insights into how consumers are influenced by, and respond to, the presence of physical activity times.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The current research contributes to the marketing literature by examining, and more importantly, better understanding a presentation format (i.e. PACE) in which caloric information is complemented with physical activity time required to offset consumption. The purpose of this paper is to systematically evaluate the impact of this approach in both actual and simulated consumption settings while providing evidence of its contribution to healthier decision-making. This research uncovered several important insights into how consumers are influenced by, and respond to, the presence of physical activity time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper used experiential designs in five studies to examine how the presence of physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) information affects consumption. The studies measured both intended and actual consumption behavior. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance as well as bootstrapping methods.\nFindings: The paper establishes that PACE information reduces consumption compared to NLEA-mandated information. We show that the effectiveness of PACE information differs based on consumers' level of health consciousness as well as food type. Our research also uncovers a moderating effect based on perceived difficulty of the featured activity. Finally, we show the psychological process underlying the effectiveness of PACE information.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research can address the generalizability of current findings across different consumption domains and contexts. Our work focuses on the efficacy of information delivery at the point of consumption. The results of the current study may differ when the decision is being made at the point of purchase for future consumption.\nPractical implications: The paper's findings represent a win-win scenario for consumers and manufacturers alike. Manufactures stand to benefit from PACE information as many consumers are seeking healthier food options and are willing to pay a premium for items that help them make more healthful choices. Consumers will benefit as well, given the struggle with obesity and other diet-related ills, by being provided with a more effective means of making healthier choices.\nSocial implications: Obesity and diet-related chronic diseases are global pandemics affecting consumers throughout the world. This paper contributes to this issue by presenting manufacturers and researchers with a better understanding of how consumers can be encouraged to make healthier choices and overcome the barriers to healthier lifestyles.\nOriginality/value: This paper addresses a gap in the literature as well as an important social concern by better understanding how healthier nutrition choices can be encouraged.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Advancing diversity through research, teaching, and service: A review of gender and diversity in organizations' activities
|
[
"Diversification",
"Social groups",
"Teaching"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In August 2006, the Academy of Management (AoM) hosted its annual meeting where management scholars from around the world convened to disseminate information and engage in discussions centered on the conference theme of \"Knowledge, action, and the public concern\". The conference theme was particularly fitting in that the meeting was held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a city that played an important role in the civil rights movement. Over 6,000 persons participated in the 1,521 sessions on the program, representing 71 different countries. While there are over 20 divisions and interest groups that comprise the AoM, the current report provides a brief summary of a select group of the sessions dealing specifically with diversity as sponsored by the gender and diversity in organizations (GDO) division. A small sampling of the 93 division papers, 18 symposia, and 21 professional development workshops are included to illustrate how important diversity is at the individual, organizational, and societal levels of analysis. These sessions are grouped along three themes - research, teaching, and service - which are well-known categories within the academic community and provided attendees and presenters an opportunity to dialogue about important aspects of diversity.The GDO division's specific domain is content regarding gender and other identity group relations in organizations, as well as the influence identity group relations have on the structuring of society and the production of knowledge. As such, several paper sessions and symposia were held that dealt with different aspects of identity groups. One paper by Ely and Meyerson (2006) used a case study of offshore oil platforms to \"disrupt conventional masculine identity-construction processes and to illuminate how alternative identities are linked to critical organizational capabilities, such as learning\". The authors posit that masculine attributes can be invaluable to organizations, if used to effectively complete work rather than prove oneself manly. Another paper explored whether or not conceptualizations of racism, either as institutional or individual, was affected by the desire to maintain one's self-image. Four studies were conducted and consistently found that \"White Americans may strategically limit their conception of racism to mitigate the self-threat evoked by the institutional conceptions connotation of White privilege\" (Unzueta, 2006). Evaluating privilege from a different perspective, Harrison and Thomas (2006) suggest that, for African Americans, skin tone may affect selection decisions more than one's educational background or work experience.One such symposium, \"Shhh! There are stigmas associated with those topics: Potential Diversity Hotbeds\", was organized by C. Douglas Johnson and Myrtle Bell. While diversity is gaining more attention in the management/organizational sciences literature, there are certain topics that remain stigmatized, resulting in less research and/or conversation in organizations about these important diversity relevant issues. The session organizers used a stigma continuum with invisible stigma (e.g. sexuality) to visible stigma (e.g. weight) on each extreme to frame the session. The session included both conceptual frameworks and empirical research, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research methods for analyzing the data. Munoz and Thomas (2006) discussed empirical findings associated with distancing behaviors and the need for supportive organizational climates for gay and lesbian employees. Making a case for religion as a dimension of diversity, King (2006) explained the reticence to engage religion as a scholarly managerial topic and provided a conceptual framework and potential suggestions for overcoming obstacles, generating much discussion and debate with the session attendees. Using the social dominance theory as the theoretical grounding, Kwesiga et al. (2006) offered a new look at age discrimination by focusing their attention on the emerging age minority, younger workers, and investigated how age and power hierarchies in organizations impacted perceptions of age discrimination. Looking at discrimination from another perspective, Wiegand et al. (2006) assessed how symbols worn (i.e. Confederate flag, gay pride triangle, Ichthus/Christian fish) impacted respondents' desire to select individuals to work on group project. The study yielded mixed results, which was both good news and bad news. Given that 65 per cent of Americans are overweight or obese, the research by Wilkins and Mosley (2006) was particularly timely as they evaluated real life experiences of this population and found powerful accounts that weight discrimination is very real in workplaces today and negatively affects organizational outcomes.Another symposium advancing the field of diversity was \"Diversity Resistance Revisited\", chaired by Kecia Thomas and Matthew Harrison. This session defined diversity resistance and focused on some of the costly problems which persist relative to diversity and was particularly important given the scant attention given to the topic. Thomas (2006) presented a typology of diversity resistance which included manifestations (i.e. overt and subtle) and levels (i.e. individual and organizational) of diversity resistance, which can be used to guide future research on the topic. Wassermann et al. (2006) used an intriguing metaphor, dancing with resistance, to illustrate how leaders' reactions to resistance may damage further diversity efforts in organizations as much as the resistance. Given many organizations will utilize diversity training as part of their diversity strategy, it is important to understand how prevalent resistance to training is. A second paper at the organizational level of diversity resistance addressed retaliation and secondary victimization (Reynolds-Dobbs et al., 2006). At the interpersonal level, aversive prejudice can have a significant, negative effect on diversity efforts in an organization (Hebl et al., 2006). Chrobot-Mason et al. (2006) provided examples from the academic literature and practitioner experiences of how and why this form of resistance exists. Finally, Johnson and Avery (2006) offered a provocative lens on organizational commitment to diversity by identifying incongruencies between espoused beliefs and organizational practices. The authors discussed the mixed messages organizations send relative to diversity, the problems created, and propose strategies to remedy such diversity resistance. These presentations were based on materials including in a forthcoming book on diversity resistance, edited by Kecia Thomas.There were some sessions that overlapped between diversity research and teaching. For example, Buttner et al. (2006) provided empirical evidence that countered the traditional theories espoused relative to minority business faculty under-representation. Six arguments have been found in the literature to explain the shortage of minority business faculty: lack of awareness of school leaders about race relations; the belief of equal opportunity where a level playing field is provided for all and meritocracy; the pipeline theory of insufficient numbers of qualified individuals for these positions; rational person economic theory with highest salaries winning the recruitment game; discrimination; and low strategic priority. Based on survey responses of 143 AACSB deans (or designees), the authors conclude that minority faculty representation is predicted by the racial awareness of the leader, perceived importance of cultural change, recruitment, and feedback efforts. Holmes (2006) provided additional insights relative to the journey of management faculty of color and proposes a competency model for said faculty in responding to tokenism, affirmative action stigma, and diversified mentoring within the academy. The model is presented as a continuous loop, suggesting that management faculty of color must enact each competency throughout one's career, giving focused attention on specific competencies as the situation dictates.In an effort to assist management faculty with teaching diversity at the undergraduate, graduate or executive level, David Kravitz organized a professional development workshop with veteran teachers sharing their insights, syllabi, textbooks, and experiences. Several of the current and former GDO leaders participated in the session. Bernardo Ferdman and Martin Davidson kicked off the session by having the workshop attendees participate in an experiential exercise used on the first day of class dealing with social identity groups. They also talked about the importance of changing perspectives. Gary Powell provided insights from his vast years of teaching undergraduates and MBAs on diversity. He highlighted course activities. Derek Avery shared a unique experience of a seminar offered to a select group of students as part of the Business Leadership Development Program where students rethink universal truths. Myrtle Bell challenged attendees to educate students on diversity issues by infusing empirical research into the course and encouraging students to wear their \"diversity hats\" at all times. The energy in the room evidenced the excitement professors had about teaching diversity on their respective campuses and provided a service to their students, which will in turn benefit organizations and ultimately society. Plans are in place to repeat this valuable workshop in the future.The GDO division is also spearheading an effort to assist with the diversification of business school faculty. The Coalition for Faculty Diversity is a grassroots group of volunteers concerned about the recruitment, retention, and promotion of business faculty from under-represented groups. The Coalition held a town hall meeting to report progress and develop strategies for promoting diversity in business schools. For instance, one sub-committee will be conducting a census and ranking business schools based on the composition of the faculty in terms of diversity. Another committee's charge is to create diversity awards for the organization and individual leading the way by instituting programs that can serve as best practices. There are more than 80 Academy members serving on various committees, as well as advisors and division representatives. A professional development workshop was also organized by the Coalition in an effort to assist junior faculty members with their publications. Interested members were invited to submit a diversity work-in-progress to be critiqued by senior diversity scholars with the hopes of enhancing the manuscripts for publication. The session, organized by Raymond Trau, Robin Ely and Belle Rose Ragins, was an overwhelming success with journal editors and other scholars volunteering their expertise to benefit the junior faculty, which in turn supports the goals of the Coalition. The efforts of the Coalition are ongoing as its members see the value of having diversity amongst the business school faculty.Given the conference theme, several sessions dealt with service and applying knowledge to benefit others. Sessions were held to address how diversity scholars engaged in service learning projects in response to Hurricane Katrina. Session participants discussed projects designed to assist victims following the devastating disaster. For example, James King had his human resource management students assist victims who had relocated to the Birmingham, Alabama (USA) area with the job search process. The GDO theme session, which featured noted diversity consultant and scholar, R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., described the curriculum and how executives and community leaders used \"learning circles\" to apply knowledge acquired through the Diversity Leadership Academy (DLA) in an effort to benefit agencies within the community. Session organizer, C. Douglas Johnson, used the \"head, heart, and hands\" metaphor to describe the intent of the DLA: putting the knowledge in one's head into action (hand) on problems plaguing the communities served (heart). Melanie Harrington, the executive director of the American Institute for Managing Diversity, based in Atlanta, gave the historical perspective as well as highlighted some benefactors of the learning circles.In an effort to provide a service to the GDO membership, a doctoral student consortium was offered to assist with the development of future gender and diversity scholars. In the doctoral consortium organized by Jeanie Forray, doctoral students were given strategies from junior and senior gender and diversity scholars on topics ranging from completing the dissertation to selecting a first job to building a research agenda. The consortium is an annual program sponsored by the division as part of its ongoing commitment to advance the field and develop new scholars. Participants included students from various universities around the world.Overall, the GDO program advanced diversity through research, teaching, and service. The program was insightful, informative, provocative, and entertaining, with presentations addressing a broad range of topics at multiple levels of analysis and employing a variety of statistical techniques.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - To highlight the gender and diversity in organizations (GDO) division's conference program at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AoM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A select group of presentations are summarized based on observation, notes, discussions, and reading of material.\nFindings: - Attempts to advance diversity are being made via a variety of avenues to include research, teaching, and service efforts. Presentations illustrated how important diversity is at the individual, organizational, and societal levels of analysis.\nOriginality/value: - The GDO division of the AoM is making positive strides as it relates to advancing diversity. This report summarizes some of the key contributions made during this conference.\n",
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] |
A collaborative scenario-based decision model for a disrupted dual-channel supply chain: Benchmarking against the centralized structure
|
[
"Supply chain coordination",
"Transshipment",
"Channel disruption",
"Dual channel",
"E-channel",
"Profit variation control"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As a direct result of vigorous growth of the internet users[1], many companies and corporations like HP, Dell and Nike have started up selling products via direct e-channels (Huang et al., 2012; Cao, 2014). E-business is known as a business procedure where the establishment of e-channels helps business owners to obtain a more significant market share while decreasing their distribution and logistics costs (Cao, 2014). Nowadays, many companies start to establish a direct sales channel through internet while the traditional retail channels are retained, resulting in dual-channel supply chains (SCs) (Pu et al., 2017).\n2. Literature review: As the current study investigates the pricing decisions of a dual-channel SC under the disruption, the related works are reviewed in two different categories. At first, the literature on dual-channel SCs is reviewed and next, the literature of disruption management in SCs is investigated thoroughly. Finally, the interactions and possible integration of these two categories shed light into identifying and formulating the research gap. Interested readers may refer to Hervani et al. (2005), Arshinder et al. (2011), Singh et al. (2019) for more detailed discussions on SC coordination, dual-channel SC and SC performance evaluation problems.\n3. Problem description: In this paper, a dual-channel SC, consisting of a single manufacturer and a single retailer with a single commodity is investigated under disruption. The manufacturer produces at a unit production cost and distributes the products through two available channels, i.e., traditional retail channel and online channel. The manufacturer owns the online channel while the retail channel is an independent entity. The manufacturer sells products to the retailer at a unit wholesale price, and the retailer sells the products to the consumers at the retail price. Similar structures of dual-channel SCs are also analyzed in the previous literature (e.g. Aslani and Heydari, 2019). Figure 1 illustrates the studied SC.\n4. Decision-making structures: In this section, both the decentralized and centralized decision-making structures are investigated. Afterward, a collaboration model is proposed to resolve the channel conflict and coordinate the SC. In the decentralized structure, the investigated SC is under the manufacturer-led Stackelberg game. In this setting, each player aims at maximizing its own expected profit. The manufacturer makes decision on the direct selling price while the retailer determines the retail price. Under the centralized decision-making structure, the SC owner aims to maximize the expected profit of the entire SC. In the centralized setting, the manufacturer and the retailer are vertically integrated, and both the direct selling price and the retail price are under the authority of a unique owner. The best practice for SCs happens under the centralized decision-making structure and therefore it will be our benchmark case for the whole SC profit. However, this structure does not guarantee that all the members benefit from this performance individually, which is called channel conflict. To deal with this issue, a collaboration scheme is proposed to maximize the entire SC's profitability while all the members earn more than the decentralized structure's optimal values. The fluctuation of channel income is one of the main concerns for SC managers when SC faces disruptions. Regarding this concern, the proposed collaboration model ensures that the standard deviation of the SC profit will be less than the centralized decision-making structure's fluctuations.\n5. Numerical experiments: By series of numerical experiments, the important features of the proposed model are examined and investigated. In the numerical examples, three different data sets are utilized as follow.\n6. Sensitivity analyses: To analyze the impact of parameters set on the behavior of the SC members and decision-makers, the sensitivity of the proposed model against tm, a and b are examined, using first test data set.\n7. Conclusions: In this paper, a dual-channel SC consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer under channel disruption is investigated. The proposed coordination mechanism called \"collaboration model\" guarantees a win-win situation for both channel members and at the same time ensures fewer fluctuations in channel income. Sensitivity analyses reveal that when the reliability of one channel decreases, decision-makers adopt higher selling prices. In addition, evidently, for one channel, as its reliability diminishes, profitability decreases. Despite this, each channel benefits from the other channel's lower reliability. This is due to the fact, as one channel is disrupted, there is a modification to market share pattern. Therefore, to maintain a desirable level of profit, managers need to guarantee a rational degree of reliability. One significant point about the collaboration model is that without any incentives like contracts, it can convince members to act in a coordinated manner. Further, the SC profitability in collaboration model (in most of the numerical examples) is equal to the centralized model, indicating the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed coordination mechanism. Our proposed approach gives insight on the behavior of the SC members. When the reliability of the direct channel diminishes, direct selling price and retailer's expected profit increases, while the expected profit of the manufacturer decreases. Finally, the proposed model proves to reduce the channel's income fluctuations.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Distribution systems usually utilize both traditional retailing channels in conjunction with e-channels. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a dual-channel supply chain, comprising a traditional retailing channel and an e-channel under disruption. By benchmarking against the centralized decision structure, the authors intend to propose a collaboration model to achieve channel coordination as well as more reliable decisions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Four different channel disruption scenarios, with customers' reaction toward disruptions, are examined, and then, optimal pricing decisions for both centralized and decentralized decision-making structures are extracted. Next, a collaboration mechanism based on the dominancy power of channel members is developed to entice all channel members to participate in channel coordination. By benchmarking the proposed collaboration model against both the decentralized/centralized structures a win-win solution is guaranteed for all channel members. In addition, the proposed model ensures more reliable decisions than the centralized structure, as it guarantees less fluctuated income levels.\nFindings: This study shows, as the disruption probability grows, the channel profit decreases while the channel-retailing price increases. Furthermore, the exact alignment of the centralized decision-making approach and the proposed collaboration model is not achievable due to the problem infeasibility. Numerical experiments and sensitivity analyses benchmark the performance of the proposed collaboration mechanism against the centralized structure for the full alignment with centralized decision-making approach.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the channel conflict literature as jointly considers pricing decisions, disruptions and coordination. Further, consumers' reaction toward disruption is analyzed through a transshipment agreement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The critical success factors affecting the adoption of inter-organization systems by SMEs
|
[
"Critical success factors",
"Electronic commerce",
"Business-to-business marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\n1. Introduction: An inter-organizational system (IOS), which is also called a business-to-business (B2B) information application, is a connection, via the Internet, of two different organizations (companies) for the purpose of exchanging data. Previously, the classic method was an electronic data interchange (EDI). At present, an IOS is usually based on extensible markup language (XML) technology. A number of independent studies have found that an IOS can increase sales and cash flow, improve management performance and the accuracy of forecasting, reduce inventory levels and transaction costs, enhance operational benefits and efficiency, develop trading partnerships and boost returns on assets (Lu et al., 2006; Wilson and Vlosky, 1998). Therefore, the adoption of an IOS is important for companies in today's turbulent and highly competitive business environment. Large-sized enterprises are more willing and able to adopt an IOS to enhance their competitiveness because these larger enterprises have sufficient resources, such as budget, know-how and personnel. However, for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) there are still many barriers to the adoption of an IOS: deficiencies in financial resources, time, information and skills; concerns over security, legal issues and competition; doubts about the applicability of e-business to their business practices; and cultural and infrastructure issues (Jones et al., 2003). Most SMEs have very little understanding of - and fewer requirements for - the application of information technology, which makes it more difficult to integrate their upstream suppliers and downstream customers. This makes it more difficult to persuade them to adopt an IOS (Laukkanen et al., 2007; Thong, 2001). It is clear that there are some uncertainties surrounding the adoption of an IOS by SMEs and, therefore, enhancing the success rate of IOS adoption by SMEs has become an important issue.\n2. Literature review: There are large number of factors that affect the intention to use an IOS: globalization; the compatibility and complexity of the IOS; the support of chief executive officer (CEO); the size of the business and the level of employees' knowledge of information system (IS); the support of suppliers or trading partners; the convenience of usage; the privacy, security, accessibility, convenience, design, content and speed of the application; the availability of product features; and the level of service fees (Asare et al., 2011; Gibbs et al., 2002; Holmes and Srivastava, 1999; Poon, 2007; Thong, 1999). There are many articles related to the factors affecting the enterprise IS or IOS adoption. The paper summarizes these articles in Table I. The paper also reviews the literature related to these CSFs in Table II. In addition, this paper indicates the research methodology used in each of the reviewed papers because the biggest difference of this study is the use of MCDM tools to identify CSFs, which is a different methodology than was used in previous studies.\n3. Methodology: The MCDM tool is used to select a set of available solutions based on multiple criteria to determine the better solutions. It provides complete and systematic evaluation criteria to solve the decision-making problem (Chen and Cheng, 2009). CSFs are selected from the factors, according to their importance. This includes more than one assessment criteria or goal. Therefore, CSF's selection is also an MCDM issue, and MCDM tools are used in this paper.\n4. Identifying CSFs: Based on the description of steps in the methodology section, this section follows the eight steps of the methodology to find the weight of each factor and identify the CSFs for the adoption of an IOS by SMEs.\n5. Data analysis: After the weight of each factor and CSFs is identified (Tables V, VI and VII), data analyses and discussions are conducted for the goal, objective and criteria levels and of CSFs, as shown below.\n6. Conclusions: To address the research gaps mentioned in the Introduction, this study examined the factors that influence the adoption of an IOS from related studies, and constructed a three-level hierarchical factor table based on the TOE framework. The factors in Table I covered 27 possible factors that influence enterprises that are adopting an IOS. This represents more factors than were considered in previous studies and the table provides a valuable reference for further research. This study also confirmed that the MCDM tools, FAHP and VIKOR acceptance advantage can be combined to objectively identify CSFs. Earlier work used only regression methods, literature review and case studies. This study also determined the weight of each factor; this information can help the SMEs managers to allocate their resources appropriately.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purposes of this study were to formulate a hierarchical table of factors that influence adoption of an inter-organization system (IOS) by enterprises and to apply multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools to find the weights of these factors and to objectively identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for the adoption of IOSs by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study first used a literature review to collect the factors that affect an enterprise's adoption of an IOS and then constructed a three-level hierarchical table of these factors, based on a technology - organization - environment framework. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy processing was used, based on the returned questionnaires, to determine the weights of the factors. The concept of VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) acceptable advantage was used to objectively identify the CSFs of SMEs that have adopted an IOS.\nFindings: This study identifies six CSFs of SMEs that have adopted an IOS: industry knowledge and experience, the degree of application of information technology within the industry, system safety, the organizational infrastructure, customer relationships and ease of use. In addition, four findings are proposed.\nPractical implications: The work has studied, in depth, the factors that influence the adoption of an IOS by SMEs and identified four practice implications that provide a useful guideline for SMEs when they plan to adopt an IOS.\nOriginality/value: The identification of CSFs is also an MCDM problem. However, very few previous articles have used MCDM tools to identify the CSFs. This study adopted MCDM tools to objectively identify these CSFs and determine their appropriate weights. The results can help the managers of SMEs allocate their resources, according to the weighting of these CSFs, when they are making plans to adopt an IOS.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Developing a meat supply chain network design using a multi-objective possibilistic programming approach
|
[
"Multi-objective optimization",
"Meat",
"Management",
"Supply chain design",
"Possibilistic"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: A network of food supply chains covers a number of sectors involved in production, distribution and consumption of food products. For delivering a high quality of food products with minimum costs and maximum profits, different tactics can be employed (Simchi-Levi et al., 2001; Shankar et al., 2013); of which supply chains network design plays a key role on product quality, service levels, material flow, customer satisfaction and profitable return (Meier et al., 2012). Nevertheless, supply chain designers often encounter difficulties in making a trade-off solution due to optimization of conflicting objectives in such as minimization of costs, and maximization of profits and service levels. A good plan can also help deliver products timely from manufacturers to retailers through a supply chain network. This process involves a determination of allocations and locations of facilities, material handling capacity, transportation capability, delivery time and other performance measures.\n2. Model description and formulation: Figure 1 illustrates a three-echelon meat supply chain network consisting of farms, abattoirs and retailers. An RFID (radio frequency identification)-based transportation system was proposed for monitoring safety and quality of meat products during the transportation process from farms to abattoirs and from abattoirs to retailers (Mohammed et al., 2016). RFID-based logistics and supply chains are a trend for future generation automated warehouses where customers place their orders on line and ordered goods are delivered directly to door steps of these customers (Wang et al., 2010). In order to minimize: the total transportation cost, the number of required vehicles for transportation and the delivery time. A three-objective mathematical model was developed and used for making a design decision; this also includes a determination of numbers of farms and abattoirs in response to flow of quantity of meat products between farms and abattoirs and between abattoirs and retailers.\n3. Optimization methodology: In order to obtain the Pareto-optimal solutions, the following steps were carried out:\n4. Case study: In this section, a case study was used for examining the applicability of the developed mathematical model with the effectiveness of the proposed solution methods. Data were collected from the Meat Committee (HMC, UK, 2010). A range of application data is presented in Table I. The transportation distances between meat supply chain facilities were estimated based on Google-map. The computational results were conducted using LINGO11 on a Corei5 2.5-gigahertz personal laptop with an RAM of 4 gigbytes.\n5. Conclusions: This paper presents a study in developing a multi-objective possibilistic programming model based on a three-echelon meat supply chain. The developed model comprises three objective functions aimed at: minimizing the total transportation cost, minimizing the required number of transportation vehicles and minimizing the delivery time. Three methods are proposed in order to obtain the Pareto solutions and based on these to determine the optimal solution. Further, the developed model can be useful for decision makers to determine numbers of farms and abattoirs that need be established, and the quantity of livestock from farms to abattoirs and the quantity of meat products from abattoirs to retailers. In order to examine the applicability and effectiveness of the developed mathematical model that can be a useful tool for food supply chain designers, a case study was investigated based the collected data and the computational results were obtained using LINGO.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a study in developing a cost-effective meat supply chain network design aiming to minimizing the total cost of transportation, the number of transportation vehicles and the delivery time of meat products. The developed model was also used for determining the optimum numbers and allocations of farms and abattoirs that need to be established and the optimal quantity flow of livestock from farms to abattoirs and meat products from abattoirs to retailers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A multi-objective possibilistic programming model was formulated with a focus on minimizing the total cost of transportation, the number of transportation vehicles and the delivery time of meat products. Three sets of Pareto solutions were obtained using the three different solution methods. These methods are the LP-metrics method, the e-constraint method and the weighted Tchebycheff method, respectively. The TOPSIS method was used for seeking a best Pareto solution as a trade-off decision when optimizing the three conflicting objectives.\nFindings: A case study was also applied for examining the effectiveness and applicability of the developed multi-objective model and the proposed solution methods. The research concludes that the e-constraint method has the superiority over the other two proposed methods as it offers a better solution outcome.\nResearch limitations/implications: This work addresses as interesting avenues for further research on exploring the delivery planner under different types of uncertainties and transportation means. Also, environmentalism has been increasingly becoming a significant global problem in the present century. Thus, the presented model could be extended to include the environmental aspects as an objective function.\nPractical implications: The developed design methodology can be utilized for food supply chain designers. Also, it could be applied to realistic problems in the field of supply chain management.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a methodology that can be used for tackling a multi-objective optimization problem of a meat supply chain network design. The proposed optimization method has the potential in solving the similar issue providing a compromising solution due to conflicting objectives in which each needs to be achieved toward an optimum outcome to survive in the competitive sector of food supply chains network.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises: a multi case study
|
[
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Globalization",
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Brazil"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over recent years, there has been a growing body of studies on the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although there is strong evidence about the increasing participation of them in international trade, many of the studies are still focusing on the strategies and determinants of internationalization of large companies.Previous researchers have tried to approach the issue from a perspective of comparative analysis with the strategies of large companies (Rowden, 2001; Westhead et al., 2002); others have emphasized the Uppsala approach, in order to evaluate the gradual and incremental model of their internationalization (Hilal and Hemais, 2003; Kovacs and Oliveira, 2007). More recently, within the body of international entrepreneurship and networking theories, some authors have focused their research on the specific patterns of the SMEs internationalization (Chetty and Holm, 2000; Arbix et al., 2005; Mort and Weerawardena, 2006; Gemser and Brand, 2006). However, most empirical studies have been concentrated to evaluate and address this phenomenon based on the experiences of developed countries (Gemser and Brand, 2004; Hollenstein, 2005). Although there is a growing interest in the internationalization of SMEs in developing countries, they are still limited empirical studies in this field (Hilal and Hemais, 2003; Arbix et al., 2005). This research intends to fill this gap in two different manners: focusing on companies from a developing country, and also using a qualitative analysis to point out the factors that affect the patterns of SMEs internationalization.Thus, the aim of the present paper is to analyze, based on multi case qualitative research, the determinants of the internationalization of SMEs from Brazil. More specifically, it is to test the effects of entrepreneurship and networking relationship on the strategy of markets selection and mode of entry into foreign markets.This paper is organized as follows. The next section presents a review of relevant literature and empirical studies about the internationalization of SMEs, followed by a description of the adopted framework in this study. In the third section, we will present the methodology, while in the fourth section, we will present and discuss the results of the investigation. We will then conclude the paper with a discussion of our main findings and provides some suggestions for further research.\nLiterature review: During the past two decades, the interest in international operations has been growing, not only among entrepreneurs and investors, but also among academics and policy makers. The concept of internationalization tends to be used, in a wider conception, to describe \"the process of increasing involvement in international operations\" (Welch and Luostarinen, 1999, p. 84).Along the decades, the theories around the process of internationalization may be classified according to two main perspectives. The first one is the economical perspective, especially the different approaches they have been developed in the chart of international business theories. This perspective stood for a pillar which would help the development of different approaches of the determinant of investment strategies of the multinational enterprises (Hymer, 1976; Buckley and Casson, 1976; Dunning, 2000). The second perspective is related to the studies of researchers from the Uppsala University (Hornell and Vahlne, 1973; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Johanson and Vahlne, 1977, 1990), which have focused interest mainly on the analysis of the process of internationalization mostly based on behavioral theories. In this paper, we will emphasize, particularly, the behavioral approaches for the analysis of the internationalization of SMEs.The Uppsala approach\nMethod: The present study was designed to be qualitative, with the aim to capture the effects of networking and entrepreneurship on the strategies of internationalization of SMEs. The applied methodological procedures were based on Eisenhardt's (1989) proposals , concentrating on constructing a theoretical descriptive framework about the studied phenomenon based on the multi-case (two or more cases) qualitative study.In order to assure the pertinence of and the relevance of the information derived from the data collection, the studied firms were chosen using the following selection criteria:* being a small- or medium-sized business, as typified by the Brazilian classification (the size of SMEs is limited to maximum 499 employees by industry sectors);* presenting independent property and management from any other firm, customized management (reflecting the owner's figure) and controlling a thin slice of the market where it acts; and* being engaged in international activities at least for three years, continuously.Highlighting the entrepreneurship issue and its importance to the internationalization of SMEs, this paper refers to the definition that considers entrepreneurs who presented the following characteristics emphatically:* proactive posture in search for opportunities and growth methods in the domestic market and development of exportation activities based on their own efforts making use of their own department to manage, develop and promote sales to the external markets;* interest in innovation; and* initiatives of calculated risk.On the other hand, to capture the importance of international networks, it will be considered in this study personal and also organizational level of relationship. It means that SMEs are dependent not only on the social relationship, but also on their capability to establish and plan a formal network relationship with suppliers, customers and even competitors. It is also important to mention, that also local networks are important for the understanding of a firm's international development.For the data collection, multiple sources were used. First, secondary data (web site of the firm, annual reports and different documents company) have been collected, in order to pile up several quantitative data about the internationalization performance of the company. However, for a deeper understanding of the internationalization pattern of SMEs, a semi-structured interview script was used, focusing more specifically aspects connected to the internationalization of SMEs:* firm's origins and entrepreneurship character;* international experience, and the way how the internationalization process began;* market selection and mode of entry in foreign markets;* the determinant factors of the exportations performance;* entrepreneurship and active/reactive strategy of internationalization; and* the role of formal and informal relationship networks in the firms' growth strategy in external markets.In order to get deep understanding of this process, three companies were selected from small to medium businesses, operating in the manufacturing sector, which have a continuous involvement in foreign markets. The interviews were conducted with at least one of the owners of the companies and their executives of foreign trade area. As requested by their managers names of these companies were not revealed, so we will call them: Alfa, Beta and Gama.The research had an exploring character due to the lack of a qualitative research about SMEs' internationalization in emerging countries. The data analysis was made in two stages: first, each case was analyzed separately; second, we made a comparison between the cases.\nCase analysis: Company Alfa\nConclusions and recommendations: The objective of this study was to approach the internationalization process of SMEs, more specifically to evaluate the role and how networks relationship and entrepreneurship affect the strategy of market selection and entry mode. The literature review and the case study of Brazilian companies have shown some common features of the internationalization's pattern of SMEs from less developed countries (LDCs). There are strong evidences about the importance of entrepreneurs and networks relationship as key factors for the understanding of the market selection, entry mode and international performance. Furthermore, the export performance and market diversification depend largely on the ability of companies to relate innovative and proactive international behavior to learning's process through the maintenance of national and international networking. The higher the SMEs involvement with their relationships networks, through integration with customers and/or suppliers, the higher the tendency is to reach better performance in the foreign markets.Different studies have investigated the case of SMEs internationalization from different LDCs, pointing out the importance of factors related to network and entrepreneurship. Mtigwe (2005) examined the internationalization of small entrepreneurial firms from South Africa and found out that there are both internal and external factors pushing firms towards the foreign market, but are the firm-specific factors that have been considered the determinant factors of internationalization.On the other hand, some studies have pointed the importance of the external factors. Cheng and Yu (2008) also suggest that the external environment may affect the firm's international orientation, since SMEs may positively respond to institutional and external pressures, leading them to adopt some risky strategies and to accelerate their internationalization process. Zhu et al. (2007) consider, in the case of transition economies and LDCs, that the domestic institutional scenario is preponderant for SMEs' international competitiveness by providing access to rare and valuable resources and advanced knowledge.Many authors have focused on the role of public policies to enhance local firms' international competitiveness. Todd and Jivalgi (2007), studying the case of Indian SMEs, reveal that these firms are largely supported by governmental measures supporting entrepreneurship, innovation and finances to boost the global presence of Indians SMEs. Technological development also was vital by allowing the reduction of information costs across borders. The government's assistance was also considered relevant by Ali and Shamsuddoha (2007) in the case of the Bangladesh's SMEs in term of stimulating positive attitude from managers and entrepreneurs regarding the foreign market.The role of networks and the entrepreneur's profile for the internationalization could also be supported by the case of SMEs from Singapore. Xia et al. (2007) have shown that professional knowledge and networking, social, internal or external, as the most valuable resources for the firms' competitiveness in the Chinese market, while managerial skills and technological resources were less preponderant.However, according to our findings, public policies are not considered determinant factor of international performance. But in many cases, the start of foreign markets approach by SMEs has been a result of the engagement of public institutions to fostering international competitiveness of the companies. Nevertheless, in most the cases, entrepreneurial capital and risk taking strategies, ability to cooperate and learn through networks relationship are the driven forces for a rapid and sustainable internationalization.Regarding to the implications for management, the study of SMEs internationalization can provide important insights of how companies can relate a process of innovation and risk taking to the establishment of a strategy oriented to developing a learning process through specific informal and formal alliances. However, more empirical studies are recommended, more specifically quantitative approaches of the determinant of internationalization strategy and international performance of SMEs. New researches, with cross-country analysis perspective should be done to identify other important factors to understand international strategies and performance under different cultural environment and different institutional arrangements.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). More specifically, it is to test the effects of entrepreneurship and networking relationship on the internationalization pattern of SMEs from an emerging economy, Brazil.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study was designed to be qualitative, using a sample of three companies from the manufacturing industries, with significant involvement in foreign markets.\nFindings: - The study has shown that the importance of entrepreneurs and network relationship are important factors for the understanding of the internationalization's pattern of SMEs. Furthermore, the performance of internationalization depends largely on the ability of companies to relate innovative and proactive international behavior to learning's process through the maintenance of national and international networking.\nOriginality/value: - Most empirical studies have been concentrated to evaluate and address this phenomenon of SMEs internationalization based on the experiences of developed countries. Although there is a growing interest on the internationalization of SMEs in less developed countries, they are still very limited empirical studies in this field. This research intends to fill this gap in two manners. First, in terms of focusing more specifically on the internationalization of the case of companies from a developing country, using a qualitative multi case analysis. Second, using a framework, which relates entrepreneurship and networking and how they affect the internationalization's strategy of SMEs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Public policy paradox in enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in BRICS countries: A comparative analysis of legislative and judicial approach
|
[
"Foreign arbitral awards",
"Public policy exception",
"Recognition and enforcement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In preference to adversarial litigation, arbitration has emerged as a preferred mode for resolution of international commercial disputes. International agencies have contributed substantially toward the standardization of international arbitral mechanism. Notwithstanding these efforts, the enforcement of international arbitral awards has continued to be the proverbial Achilles heel. It is mainly attributable to the judicial practice in certain jurisdictions to refuse the enforcement of international arbitral awards for their failure to meet the test of public policy of the concerned state. Such a phenomenon is particularly intriguing in the wake of ratification of New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards by an overwhelmingly large number of jurisdictions with full knowledge of Convention's pro-enforcement stance. Subjecting the international arbitral awards to public policy exception thwarts attempts to expand international trade. Global monetary flows are principally based on trust in the finality of the arbitral awards. This issue is particularly significant for the emerging economies of BRICS countries who are striving to attract global capital for restructuring of their economies. Not only their legal and judicial frameworks need to be robust but these must also be marked by uniformity of approach to establish their international credibility. The recent establishment of BRICS Business Council indicates their desire to forge strong inter-se commercial relationships. This exercise needs to be taken to its logical culmination through the establishment of an inter-country mechanism for ensuring enforcement of arbitral awards. A uniform approach toward expeditious recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, unhindered by the invocation of public policy exceptions will encourage global investors toward these destinations. The WTO envisaged expansion of global trade inter alia hinges on the existence of a robust and uniform dispute resolution framework designed to secure a definite enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Both the UNCITRAL Model Framework on Arbitration as well as the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of International Arbitral Awards 1958 have contributed to providing a standard framework for the guiding the ratifying nations in crafting their legislative and judicial frameworks. These international efforts could not achieve their coveted objectives due to the tendency of certain jurisdictions to subject the issue of enforcement of foreign arbitral awards to the scrutiny of their respective public policies. The much-touted party autonomy and finality of arbitral award had thereby become the victims of parochial public policy considerations. Indisputably, the invocation of public policy exception renders arbitration akin to adversarial litigation followed by the concomitant negative ramifications. Such an approach belies the pro-enforcement stance of NYC toward enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Intriguingly enough, some of the jurisdictions tend to deploy public policy exception as a tool of pervasive protectionism. Besides thwarting the attempts at world economic integration, it also hinders the attempts of developing economies to ameliorate the fortunes of their teeming millions through global financial flows. It is in this backdrops that the present article has analyzed the occurrence or otherwise of a public policy paradox in the legislative framework and/or judicial approach of various BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) toward the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. The objective is to provide a guide map to the international business community to devise their dispute adjudication strategies before committing investments in any of these destinations. The second part of the article has examined the variegated notions of the concept of public policy exception; the existence of differences in judicial approaches toward the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and the reasons thereof. The next five parts have analyzed the specific legislative and judicial approaches of each of the BRICS countries toward recourse to public policy exception in the context of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. The last part of the article has concluded the theme by pointing out the critical areas which need immediate attention to make these countries attractive destinations for parking of investments by international parties.\nLiterature survey: The role of public policy exception in foreign awards has evoked considerable academic interest due to its economic impact on international commerce. But due to the private and confidential nature of arbitration, systemic studies on the subject are limited in number particularly in the context of BRICS countries. The heightened economic significance of these countries has prompted some of the scholars to examine the extent to which public policy considerations have impacted the enforcement of foreign awards in these countries. Jonathan C Hamilton in \"Three Decades of Latin American Commercial Arbitration Anniversary Contribution: International Arbitration and Litigation\" (2014) has highlighted the distrust of the Latin American countries in their own judicial system but lauded Brazil's positive approach toward the issue under consideration. In \"Public Policy Exception under the New York Convention: History, Interpretation and Application\" (2012), Anton G Maurer has highlighted the way clause V (2) (b) of NYC has been applied by courts in BRIC countries, while adjudicating the issue of enforceability of foreign awards. Boris Karabelnikov and Dominic Pellew's \"Enforcement of International Arbitration Awards in Russia\" (2008) shows the emergent changes occurring in Russian orientation toward application of public policy to foreign awards, although political affiliation still matters. In \"Enforcement of Commercial Awards in China\" (2011), Clarisse von Winschheim has undertaken an evaluation of the quality of enforcement system of arbitral awards and its implications for the efficacy of general arbitration in China. Amazu A Asouzu, in \"International Commercial Arbitration and African States: Practice, Participation and Implementation\" (2001) has comprehensively dwelt on the manner in which arbitration, as opposed to litigation in Africa, can contribute to the aspirations of African nationalism as well as promote international investments in various African countries.\nConceptual dimensions of public policy in private international law: The term \"public policy\" is considered to have originated in the fifteenth century in England. The vague and amorphous nature of the concept made many jurists to liken it to \"an unruly horse\" [Richardson v. Melish [1824] 130 Eng Rep 294]. The public policy is basically enables the judges to use it as a guardian angel of the integrity of their respective national legal systems. Pointing toward its utility, another verdict rendered after 150 years of the previous, remarked that \"with a good man in saddle, the unruly horse can be kept in control [...]\" [Enderby Town Football Club Ltd v. The Football Association Ltd [1971] Ch. 591-600 (Lord Denning)]. Public policy reflects a state's fundamental legal principles and moral values Guedj (1991) which continue to evolve with time as a society develops (van den Berg, 1981) The use of the concept in this sense represents the hardcore and wider aspect of public policy so that its violation may lead to a judicial refusal to recognize or to enforce the arbitral award. As arbitral legislation differs from country to country so does the public policy. Guedj (1991) Surprisingly, the differences in conceptual notions of public policy have persisted despite New York Convention's attempts to standardize the same. Presently, three different conceptual notions of public policy are prevalent. The notion of \"Domestic Public Policy\" comprises the most basic notions of morality and justice of the forum state. The \"International Public Policy\", in comparison, denotes the narrower part of domestic public policy Sammartano (2001) encompassing rules deemed paramount by a state in an international context (Mayer, 2006). \"Transnational Public Policy\", the third connotation, is said to be steeped in international law exclusively and refers to universally accepted standards and values [Parsons & Whitmore Overseas v. Societe General de Industrie du Papier (RAKTA) [1974] 508 F 2d 969, 974 (2d Cir)]. The use of domestic public policy for refusing to enforce a foreign arbitral award is perhaps the most controversial. Notwithstanding that Article V (2) of the New York Convention confers on forum states the right to invoke public policy; the Convention has a clear and unequivocal pro- enforcement stance. The seemingly inherent contradiction in the provisions of the convention has led to the creation of the so called 'public policy paradox'. The USA is one of the countries which has consistently adopted a deferential approach to enforcement of foreign arbitral awards [Indus Risk Insurers v. MAN Gutehoffnungshutt GmbH [1998], 141 F 3d, 1434, 1435 (11th Cir)] and construed \"public policy\" in the narrow sense of \"the most basic notions of morality and justice\" instead of the general considerations of any supposed public interest (Born, 2001). Due to the dichotomous nature of the subject, the scholars have endeavored to discover ways to ensure the enforcement of foreign awards (Carbonneau, 2002). A group of scholars regard public policy exception as nothing more than \"disguised protectionism\" designed to scuttle the trans-border arbitral process (Park, 2000). Some others have advocated a reasonable counterpoise between party autonomy and its judicial control (Cremades and Cairns, 2002). Since Article V (2) (b) of the Convention constitutes the backbone of international regulatory regime on public policy relating to enforcement of foreign arbitral awards Mush (1989) with its pro- enforcement bias[1], the analysis of legislative framework and judicial approach of BRICS countries toward the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards has been undertaken specifically by reference to the aforesaid provision.\nDiscussion: Public policy in Brazil\nConclusion: Based on the above analysis, the legislative framework and judicial attitude of BRICS countries appears to be inclined toward a restrictive interpretation of public policy in the context of enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. However, Russia and China need to take steps to rationalize their judicial systems with a view to command greater respect of the international business community. To begin with, the BRICS countries need to spell out the universal principles applicable to construing the notion of public policy at least in the context of these countries. It would reduce conflicts between national laws and help the municipal courts in determining the issue of enforceability of foreign awards by reference to a common yardstick. So far, the prevalence of different legal and cultural traditions in various countries has not prevented such enforcement on the ground of public policy in any substantial number of cases. Hence, until a harmonized approach to public policy toward foreign awards is developed at an international level, the BRICS countries may take initiative to set up an inter-regional arbitration council to resolve intricate cases occurring in the field of application of public policy exception to foreign arbitral awards.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the specific legislative and judicial approaches of each of the BRICS countries toward recourse to public policy exception in the context of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Further, it points out the critical areas which need immediate attention to make these countries attractive destinations for parking of investments by international parties.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is a conceptual paper that provides knowledge of the critical areas which needs immediate attention to make BRICS countries attractive destinations for parking of investments by international parties. The first part of the paper examines a guide map to the international business community to devise their dispute adjudication strategies before committing investments in any of BRICS economies. The second part examined the variegated notions of the concept of public policy exception and the existence of differences in judicial approaches. The next parts analyzed the specific legislative and judicial approaches of each of BRICS countries toward recourse to public policy.\nFindings: The BRICS countries need to spell out the universal principles applicable to construing the notion of public policy. It would reduce conflicts between national laws and help the municipal courts in determining the issue of enforceability of foreign awards by reference to a common yardstick. Hence, until a harmonized approach to public policy toward foreign awards is developed at an international level, the BRICS countries may take initiative to set up an inter-regional arbitration council to resolve intricate cases occurring in the field of application of public policy exception to foreign arbitral awards.\nOriginality/value: The paper is an original work of the author.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Knowledge combination, innovation, organizational performance in technology firms
|
[
"Knowledge combination capability",
"Product innovation",
"Process management",
"Innovation",
"Organizational performance",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Spain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Innovation has become one of the main strategies that organizations use to achieve competitive advantage and increase performance. In fact, the literature views innovation as a valuable instrument enabling the firm to obtain greater capability to respond and adapt to the changes in its environment (Damanpour et al., 2009) and thus to discover new opportunities on the market and exploit them to a greater extent than do its rivals. As a result, in recent years, a growing body of research has examined the way in which innovation contributes to better entrepreneurial performance (Zahra and Covin, 1995; Camison and Lopez, 2010; Alipour and Karimi, 2011; Rubera and Kirca, 2012). Since this research stresses the role of innovation as one of the elements with the greatest impact on organizations' performance (Camison and Lopez, 2010; Rubera and Kirca, 2012), researchers and firms are becoming increasingly interested in understanding how to stimulate innovation in organizations (Rubera and Kirca, 2012).Innovation has been understood alternately as the transformation of knowledge that the firm possesses into products and processes, and as significant changes in existing processes and products to introduce them in the market (Damanpour, 1991; Camison and Fores, 2010; Molina and Martinez, 2010). Further, many articles that have studied the relationship between innovation and knowledge demonstrate that knowledge is a precursor of innovation (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Tsai, 2001; Zahra and George, 2002; Camison and Fores, 2010).On the other hand, various empirical studies have shown that most organizations that manage and combine their knowledge have obtained benefits in different areas of the organization (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Tsai, 2001; Zahra and George, 2002; Levin and Cross, 2004; Nonaka and Peltokorpi, 2006; Ho, 2009; Camison and Fores, 2010; Perez-Lopez and Alegre, 2012). Combination indicates the process of bringing together previously unconnected elements or developing new ways of combining elements associated previously (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). For example, knowledge has been used as an effective tool to improve the firm's functioning (Zaim et al., 2007; Perez-Lopez and Alegre, 2012). Some research has argued that this capability enables organizations to innovate and overcome their rivals in dynamic environments (Grant, 1996; Collins and Smith, 2006), as well as to create new knowledge reflected in new opportunities generated from income and competitive advantage (Carmeli and Azeroual, 2009).Although the scholarly literature has analyzed the relationship between knowledge and innovation, there is a growing need for simultaneous analysis of the relationship between knowledge combination capability and product and process innovation, and ultimately of the relationships between these two variables and the firm's performance. To fill this gap, the current study develops a research model that connects knowledge combination capability, innovation, and firm performance. The general goal of this study is to advance our understanding of the relations between these variables by addressing the following question: do product and process innovation mediate the relationship between knowledge combination capability and firm performance?We decided to research this effect because much has been written recently on the positive and significant impact of the variables involved on organizational performance (Carmeli and Azeroual, 2009; Camison and Fores, 2010; Rubera and Kirca, 2012). No studies have, however, investigated the mediating effects of innovation on the relationship between knowledge combination capability and firm performance, and it is important to determine the effects of innovation as a mediator in the relationship between some of the organizations' capabilities and results.We will focus our analysis specifically on technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), because innovation is crucial to this sector and can thus be a key to creating competitive advantages. In the case of SMEs, knowledge combination capability can contribute to overcoming the resource limitations that this kind of firm faces, enabling it to make better use of the knowledge generated or acquired by the firm. Furthermore, SMEs are important to the economy for their substantial contribution to job creation and economic and social progress (Gedajlovic et al., 2012; Ruivo et al., 2012), but this importance is not reflected in the amount of research on them. Thus, our study attempts to determine how these companies can improve their performance.Our study makes two important contributions to the literatures on innovation and knowledge. First, it incorporates a new variable for analysis to explain the relationship between knowledge combination and firm performance: innovation. The study thus deepens existing understanding of how innovation encourages knowledge combination capability and firm performance. Second, our results show empirically that knowledge combination capability is an effective resource for technology firms, a resource that can be used to improve their innovation and performance.To fulfil its goal, our paper is structured as follows: after the introduction, we present a review of the literature on knowledge combination capability, innovation, and entrepreneurial performance, followed by the research hypotheses. We then present the methodology employed and the data analysis. Finally, we discuss the results of the research and present the main conclusions, as well as the limitations and future lines of research.\n2 Literature review and presentation of hypotheses: 2.1 Knowledge combination capability and innovation\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4 Analysis and results: This study employs structural equation model (SEM) to explore the relationship between knowledge combination capability, innovation, and organizational performance. We used the program LISREL 8.53 to perform the statistical analysis. The results of the analysis show - in asymmetry, kurtosis, and joint analysis of both - the absence of multivariant normality at a significance level of 5 percent. Therefore, we used the weighted least squares method to estimate the parameters.Next, we analyzed the measures of absolute fit, incremental fit, and parsimony. Table III summarizes the results for the analysis of goodness of fit for the model proposed.As can be observed, all of the measures of absolute fit analyzed fall within the appropriate intervals. The kh2 takes a value of 627.71 with df=148, a significant value. We have verified other indicators, such as the GFI, which takes a value of 0.98; the RMSEA, which is 0.08; and finally the RMSR, whose value of 0.05 is very close to the value of zero recommended in the literature.The values related to incremental fit behave similarly, also falling within the range of appropriate values (greater than 0.9). The AGFI and RFI yield values of 0.98, and the DE is 0.97. In contrast, the TLI, CFI, and IFI are 0.99. All of the results described are favourable, since according to Hair et al. (2004) these indicators should be>0.9. We also observe measures that are responsible for parsimony fit, specifically the adjusted kh2. In this case, the measure takes a value of 4.24, which is within the recommended acceptable range of 1-5.This result enables us to propose that we have neither an overfit of the data nor a poor representation of the information gathered in the correlation matrix; we have obtained a good overall fit of the model proposed. The structural submodel thus has acceptable indicators of absolute and incremental fit and of parsimony, since all of the values are located in the proper confidence intervals.Figure 1 shows each pathway, indicating the hypothesis associated with it as well as the estimated path coefficients and the t-values in parentheses (t-values of path coefficients greater than 1.96 are significant at p<0.05; t-values of path coefficients greater than 2.58 are significant at p<0.01). We can see that knowledge combination capability has a positive and highly significant effect (p<0.01) on both product and process innovation, which leads us to accept H1 and H2. We can also see in Figure 1 that product and process innovation have a positive and significant influence on performance (t=11.03, p<0.01; t=2.35, p<0.05).To analyze the mediating effect of product and process innovation on the relationship between knowledge combination capability and firm performance (H3 and H4), we performed a competing model analysis (Singh et al., 1994; Perez-Lopez and Alegre, 2012) using two different models for each organizational performance.The first model examines the same relationship with product and process innovation acting as mediator (Figure 1). The second model examines the direct relationship between knowledge combination capability and organizational performance (Figure 2). The mediating effect of product and process innovation on the relationship between knowledge combination capability and organizational performance is said to be supported when:* the first model explains more of the variance of organizational performance than the second model;* there is a significant relation between knowledge combination capability and product and process innovation and between product and process innovation and organizational performance; and* a significant relation between knowledge combination capability and organizational performance (as observed in Figure 2) is greatly diminished or eliminated in the first model.We can see that the first model provides a better explanation of firm performance than the second (71 vs 34). Further, there is a significant relationship between knowledge combination capability, product and process innovation, and firm performance in the full mediation model. Finally, we obtain a significant relationship between knowledge combination capability and performance for the second model (b=0.6, t=9.26), but this relationship decreases in the first model (b=0.22, t=0.7), enabling us to confirm the mediating effect of product and process innovation on the relationship between knowledge combination capability and firm performance (H3 and H4).Table IV summarizes the results for the analysis of the goodness of fit of the direct structural model proposed. All of the measures of absolute fit analyzed fall within the proper intervals.\n5 Discussion, implications, limitations, and future lines of research: 5.1 Discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of product and process innovation on the relationships between knowledge combination capability and organizational performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data were collected from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) belonging to the sector of Spanish technology-based firms (TBFs). This study employs the structural equation model (SEM) to examine the relationships between product and process innovation, knowledge combination capability, and organizational performance.\nFindings: - The findings of this study suggest, first, that knowledge combination capability has a significant impact on product and process innovation. Second, product and process innovation mediate the relations between knowledge combination capability and organizational performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample includes only firms in the technology sector; future studies could analyze another kind of organization. Further studies might also use a wider sample that encompasses several countries.\nPractical implications: - This paper implies that, to achieve better performance in technology SMEs, the managers should focus more on knowledge combination capability to improve innovation, as this is the key to excellent business performance.\nOriginality/value: - This study contributes to the literature on innovation and knowledge. It examines the mediating effects of product and process innovation, knowledge combination capability, and organizational performance in technology SMEs. The research demonstrates empirically that innovation strengthens the effect of knowledge on firm performance in the sector studied.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Assessment of information literacy skills: A survey of final year undergraduates of library and information science in Nigerian universities
|
[
"Nigeria",
"Developing countries",
"Universities",
"Information literacy skills",
"Final year undergraduates",
"Library and information science"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's academic environment undergraduates are faced with the daunting task of identifying, locating, searching and synthesizing various sources of information to meet their information needs. This is due to the explosion of information which is generated at a fast rate by the internet and information and communication technologies (ICTs) (Ali-Issa, 2013; Baro and Keboh, 2012). This is the reason why university libraries introduced information literacy instruction in the form of library orientation, seminars and workshops so that the undergraduates are equipped with necessary skills to use adequately both print and electronic information resources available in the universities. For undergraduates to effectively search, retrieve, evaluate and use information efficiently to engage in independent learning, research and life-long learning, information literacy competence becomes inevitable. Thus, Abubakar and Isyaku (2012) state that information literacy skills are essential to all academic endeavour, considering the exponential growth of information in forms, size and sources. It is a solution to the proliferation of information sources and multifarious methods of access. The theory of information literacy presupposes that an individual recognizes the need for information and knows how to find, evaluate, use and subsequently communicate information effectively to solve a particular problem or to make decisions (Ojedokun, 2007). Ojedokun further asserts that whether information comes from the internet or the World Wide Web, online databases, books, journals, government departments, films, conversations, posters, pictures or other images or any number of other possible sources, the skills to understand and critically evaluate the information is inherent in the notion of information literacy. Rockman (2004, p. 2), a leading authority on information literacy, puts it thus:\nResearch questions: RQ1. To what extent do the undergraduates of LIS recognize their information needs?RQ2. What sources of information do LIS/undergraduates consult during their research process?RQ3. What is their preferred format of information sources?RQ4. To what extent do the undergraduates of LIS evaluate online information?RQ5. To what extent do the undergraduates of LIS organize, integrate, apply and communicate information?RQ6. To what extent do the undergraduates of LIS able to cite and reference sources using referencing styles.RQ7. What is the overall level of information literacy skills of the undergraduates?\nLiterature review: Information literacy skills among undergraduates\nEvaluating online information and sources: Information evaluation is the systematic determination of the merit and worth of information (Belanger et al., 2019). As the internet is flawed with information quality problems, students need to have the ability to discern between good and bad information and decide on using the most relevant information for their tasks. Helping undergraduates to locate, identify, evaluate and use information is a concern of both librarians and faculty. The study by Educause Center for Analysis and Research found that students rated themselves slightly lower in their ability to evaluate the credibility of online information and their understanding of related ethical and legal issues [Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR), 2010].\nUndergraduates' knowledge of citation and referencing styles: Many studies have revealed that undergraduates do not respect copyright laws, such as observing ethical issues regarding using information properly by acknowledging sources used (Secker and Coonan, 2013; Kousar and Mahmood, 2013; Anafo and Filson, 2014; Malanga, 2017). The study by Kousar and Mahmood (2013) found that a significant number of students (65 per cent) at Air University in Pakistan, were not familiar with how to cite information resources correctly. In the same vein, a study on information literacy of freshmen at Illinois Wesley University by Asher and Duke (2010) reported that the majority of students (83 per cent) had problems in accurately reading citations which in turn made it difficult for them to find and select appropriate sources. Malanga (2017) assessed 'information literacy skills of undergraduate education students at the University of Livingstonia in Malawi.' The study found that the undergraduates expressed familiarity with the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style and acknowledged the importance of providing citation and references to academic work to avoid plagiarism but they neither have adequate knowledge on writing proper citation and references nor being familiar with the bibliographic and reference management software tools. In Dubicki's (2013) study, several faculty members mentioned that academic integrity needs to be discussed with students regarding referencing borrowed ideas and citing sources used in research, including specific format requirements. The study by Anunobi and Ukwoma (2016) reported that citation interpretation and investigating authors' expertise were not part of the content of the programmes in 60 per cent of the universities studied.\nMethodology: The population for the study consists of all the final year undergraduates in the 25 universities offering LIS in Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative research method. A self-assessed questionnaire was developed by the researchers to collect data from the respondents. The main reason for choosing final year undergraduates is that at graduation level, they are expected to be information literate, having undergone various assignments and research projects.\nResults: Number of universities that responded to the survey\nDiscussion of findings: Undergraduates' knowledge of their information needs\nConclusion: Based on the results, it was found that LIS final year undergraduates rated as very important because of their knowledge of the type of information they needed. They mostly consult journal articles, followed by internet information and online databases during their research process. This study also found that more than half of the LIS undergraduates preferred electronic formats. On evaluation of online information resources, the study revealed that undergraduates rated well-known author(s), current information, credible information, accurate and relevant information as very important.\nRecommendations: Based on the findings, the following recommendations are made:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess information literacy skills of undergraduates in Nigerian universities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A self-assessed questionnaire was developed to collect data from the final year undergraduates in 15 universities. A total of 1,350 final year Library and Information Science (LIS) students responded to the questionnaire which was used for analysis.\nFindings: The study revealed that the majority of the LIS final year undergraduates mostly consult journal articles, followed by internet information and online databases during their research process. The undergraduates rated well-known author(s), current information, credible information, accurate and relevant information as very important when evaluating online information resources. It was found that the students rated their ability to organize information and integrate ideas from consulted information as high. While they were deficient in ability to correctly paraphrase ideas to avoid plagiarism and use citation and referencing styles correctly. On the whole, almost half of the final year undergraduates of LIS rated their level of information literacy skills to be moderate.\nPractical implications: The findings of the study will inform librarians and faculty in universities in developing countries like Nigeria to develop an information literacy instruction policy.\nOriginality/value: Assessing information literacy skills will provide the foundation and knowledge to improve the development of information literacy training programmes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Modeling the enablers of organizational commitment
|
[
"Organizational commitment",
"Interpretive structural modeling",
"GCC countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The State of Qatar can be viewed as a capital rich state suffering from severely limited indigenous human resources. As the development plans of the country are ambitious on the agricultural, financial, and industrial fronts, the country is largely dependent on migrant manpower. The country employs large labor forces from the Indian subcontinent, the Far East, and from Arab countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon. This diversity in the workforce makes the task of managing human resources issues much more difficult. One such issue that has drawn the attention of human resources function in Qatari organizations is organizational commitment (OC). Lately, this issue has gained much importance as taking cue from Japanese companies, organizations want to retain their staffs for a long term.\nEnablers of organizational commitment: A number of challenges stand in way of the human resource managers' goal of improving OC. For example, fulfilling the requirements of the government legislations on the Qatarization process and improving OC where majority of the workforce is made up of expatriates, is a challenge. After review of literature and soliciting opinion of experts from human resources in industry and academia, ten enablers of OC were identified. The literature review as well as the experts' opinion were also used to develop the relationship matrix, which was later applied in the ISM model.\nResearch objectives: The focus of this paper is on OC, particularly on the interrelationships among variables that could positively impact OC in an organization. The main research problems addressed by the study are:\nMethodology: To address the above questions, a framework is proposed that utilizes ISM approach. A brief discussion on the rationale for choosing ISM approach is presented followed by actual model development. Ill-defined problems tend to be dynamic problems that involve human factors. Soft systems methodology (SSM) is generally used for dealing ill-defined problems as to what shall be done, because at the onset there is no obvious or clearly defined objective. But the main limitation of SSM is that it can be used to solve only some ill-parts of the system and not for building the system as a whole (Faisal et al., 2007). The structural equation modeling (SEM) is a confirmatory approach to data analysis requiring a priori assignment of inter-variable relationships. It tests a hypothesized model statistically to determine whether it is valid with the sample data (Schumacker and Lomax, 1996). One of the limitations of SEM is that it requires the statistical data to obtain results. In such cases, ISM can be used for identifying and summarizing relationships among specific variables, which define a problem or an issue (Warfield, 1974; Sage, 1977).\nDiscussion and conclusions: In times of crises and job cuts, committing top performers to the organization becomes a challenge (Hunziger and Biele, 2002) and it is found that OC is one of the main reasons for these employees to stay (Hausknecht et al., 2009). The objective of the ISM model in this research was to develop a hierarchy of variables that would help to improve OC in the organizations. These variables assumes importance because the economy in Qatar is growing with a very fast pace and is dependent on workers from diverse backgrounds. This makes the task of the managers dealing with commitment more difficult and thus the present study provides a basis to understand the relative importance of variables affecting the OC.\nLimitations and scope for future research: The present study also have several limitations. First, the ISM model developed is based on inputs of a select experts group and thus may have an element of bias. Second, the model developed in the study has not been statistically validated. Path analysis or SEM approaches have the capability of testing the validity of such a hypothetical model. AMOS or LISREL software could be used to further examine the relationships derived from this model.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Organizational commitment (OC) has important implications for both individuals and organizational outcomes. This paper aims to present an approach to understand the dynamics between various enablers that help to improve OC in the organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using interpretive structural modelling, the research presents a hierarchy-based model and the mutual relationships among the enablers of OC in organizations.\nFindings: The research shows that there exists a group of enablers having a high driving power and low dependence requiring maximum attention and of strategic importance, while another group consists of those variables that have high dependence and are the resultant actions.\nPractical implications: This classification provides a useful tool to human resource managers to differentiate between independent and dependent variables and their mutual relationships which would help them to focus on those key variables that are most important for effective implementation of policies to improve OC in their organization.\nOriginality/value: This research assumes importance in context of countries in the gulf region which are developing economies dependent on large-scale expatriate workforce. Meeting governmental legislation alongside managing differences in culture, work attitude poses a challenge to human resource managers. The findings of this study would serve as a guide to these managers to frame effective policies related to OC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do compassionate firms outperform? The role of organizational learning
|
[
"Compassion",
"Organizational learning",
"Firm performance",
"Compassion at work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Workplaces can be hostile environments in which employees often experience pain and suffering, which is pervasive and can dramatically impact the work environment and be highly costly (Dutton et al., 2014; Lilius et al., 2008). Recognizing the negative consequences of suffering in organizations, workplace compassion has been recently proposed as essential way to alleviate this suffering in organizational settings, which in turn may improve collective capabilities such organizational resilience, innovation, learning, and performance (Worline and Dutton, 2017). Workplace compassion is defined as an interpersonal process involving the noticing, feeling, sensemaking, and acting in a way that alleviates the suffering of another person (Dutton et al., 2014).In an increasingly interconnected, painful, and unequal world, compassion is considered as timely and timeless since it is essential for human interrelating and responding to suffering (Kanov et al., 2004). Yet, since the system of capitalism and the pillar of self-interest have dominated the business arena (George, 2014; Mele, 2012), companies have usually moved away from encouraging love, care, and compassion in the workplace. Hence, values such as domination, aggression, ambition, and competition continue to prevail in organizations.Nevertheless, new scientific evidence about human motivation and behavior suggests that compassion is a normal and pervasive way of interrelating at work (and beyond) (Dutton et al., 2014). In accordance, a paradigm shift in management rooted on care and compassion has been recently proposed, in contrast to self-interest theories (Rynes et al., 2012). This alternative approach seeks moving away from theories based on self-interest motivation and predominance of rationale over emotions in which management research typically has been focused. In line with this new paradigm, academics have noted that suffering is a fact of life, which requires a response by management research and practice since organizations may be sites of pain and suffering but also places of healing, when caring and compassion are displayed (Kanov et al., 2004; Frost et al., 2000).Following this alternative paradigm, in the last few years, an emergent body of research has theoretically supported that workplace compassion yields collective benefits like shared positive emotions, greater collective commitment, lower turnover rates, customer retention, and even better financial performance (Cameron et al., 2011; Dutton et al., 2006; Lilius et al., 2008). Moreover, compassion has been also proposed as a collective capacity that cannot be easily substituted or imitated and therefore be particularly advantageous over the long term (Kanov et al., 2004; Lilius et al., 2011). In fact, an incipient body of organizational literature has advocated for the workplace compassion and the examination of its consequences in organizations (e.g., Atkins and Parker, 2012; Dutton et al., 2007; Frost et al., 2006; Lilius et al., 2008). However, although most of the literature on compassion seems to agree that it has important benefits for organizations, at least theoretically, implying that it promotes organizational performance (Lilius et al., 2011), this topic has been largely neglected in management field and only recently has begun to receive more attention by organizational researchers. Moreover, although some quantitative studies have been conducted (i.e., Cameron et al., 2004; Lilius et al., 2008), most research on workplace compassion has consisted mainly of theoretical studies. Consequently, academics called for more extensive empirical research on the organizational consequences of compassion as a collective capability (Dutton et al., 2014; George, 2014).Accordingly, in this article, we aim to empirically examine the outcomes of compassion. More specifically, we aim to test the direct effects of organizational compassion on firm performance and indirect effects affecting such relationship as well. As compassion has been suggested to encourage human-based collective capabilities such as learning, which contribute to sustainable competitive advantage (Worline and Dutton, 2017), we propose that organizational learning may mediate in the relationship between compassion and firm performance. Hence, by revealing some of the consequences of compassion at work, we want to take a step forward in the validation of the new management theories and practices based on a compassionate approach. Moreover, since management research has often failed to see organizations as human institutions with members who suffer, care, and respond to pain (George, 2014; Rynes et al., 2012), examining the role of compassion in organizational life may offer a more human and precise view of organizations, helping to fill a gap in the field of organizational literature. To examine these relationships we have carried out two empirical analyses on different samples.After this introduction, we make a brief review of the concept of workplace compassion. Then we review the theory of relations between the constructs of this research and propose the hypotheses of the study. We then explain the methodology used in this research. Finally, we provide the results of both empirical analysis and draw conclusions, profiling the implications and limitations of our study and suggestions for future research.\nTheoretical framework: compassion at work: The study on compassion is not something new. Disciplines such as religion, philosophy, and sociology have been studying this phenomenon for more than 2,000 years. However, this concept has only recently been introduced in the field of management. In fact, it was not considered a topic worthy of being explored in organizations until 1999 when Peter Frost claimed for the importance of workplace compassion. From that moment, interest arose in this phenomenon, which was reinforced when the author advised that the inevitable pain generated within organizations needs an academic response (Frost, 2003).Once interest has been aroused, several researchers have focused their efforts on the study of compassion. Specifically, Kanov et al. (2004) synthesized a long historical tradition in philosophy and theology, building on Clark (1997), who proposed a tripartite model of the compassion process that incorporated cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. From this model emerged the definition of compassion as noticing, feeling, and acting to alleviate the suffering of others (Kanov et al., 2004). Currently, this first definition has incorporated a fourth process that consists of making meaning of suffering in a way that contributes to a desire to alleviate it. Therefore, compassion is a four-part process that involves: (1) noticing that suffering is present in an organization, (2) making meaning of suffering in a way that contributes to a desire to alleviate it, (3) feeling empathic concern for the people suffering, and (4) taking action to alleviate suffering in some manner (Worline and Dutton, 2017). Therefore, compassion could be defined as an interpersonal process involving the noticing, feeling, sensemaking and acting that alleviates the suffering of another person (Dutton et al., 2014).Specifically, in the context of this research, compassion is addressed at an organizational level. Therefore, according to the above conceptualization of compassion, in this study, organizational compassion is considered as the level in which organizational members notice, feel, sense make, and act to alleviate others' suffering. In this sense, organizational compassion is a social process in which employees collectively acknowledge that pain is present, share and express their empathy, and respond to suffering in a collective way (Lilius et al., 2011). This shared acknowledgment that suffering is present often leads to coordinated action to address or alleviate pain (Lilius et al., 2011). According to Dutton et al. (2014, p. 283), \"acting compassionately can involve a breadth of different behaviors, ranging from mere presence or listening to more elaborated, coordinated, and durable actions that involve directing multiple resources toward a sufferer.\" These recourses include for example giving clothing, food or cards or other intangible such attention, time, concern, creation of safe psychological space (Frost et al., 2006). Moreover, compassionate actions also involve withholding or delaying actions when doing so is believed to be most helpful to the sufferer (Dutton et al., 2014).Organizations enable organizational compassion by facilitating some processes that contribute to the creation of resources, the strengthening of certain shared beliefs and values, and the cultivation of key relational skills, which triggers the noticing, feeling, and responding to pain of their members (Dutton et al., 2006). For example, organizational structure and formal programs can be designed to enhance organizational compassion (Lilius et al., 2011). More specifically, organizations can designate specific roles to detection of and response to human suffering (i.e., ombudspersons, grief counselors, and patient advocates). Moreover, some organizational programs can also deliver compassion. For example, organizations may create a fund where employees can choose to regularly contribute that provides financial support for other employees are going through economic emergency or facilitating that employees can donate vacation time to other employees who are facing a family emergency.According to Frost et al. (2006), compassion is a healing force that is essential to flourish in organizations since it enhances the human capabilities that are necessary for an organization to succeed. For example, compassion is theoretically supposed to enhance employee attachment and commitment to their organization (Grant et al., 2008; Lilius et al., 2008) or allow the sharing of positive emotions such as pride and gratefulness (Dutton et al., 2006). Moreover, Dutton et al. (2014) consider that compassion has effects on all members of an organization, affecting the entire organization. On one side, compassion positively affects the person who exercises it due to the satisfaction that comes from helping others (Stamm, 2002), since compassion is associated with seeing oneself as a caring person (i.e., prosocial identity) (Grant et al., 2008). On the other side, compassion also benefits sufferers since the person shapes their sensemaking about oneself seeing the self as more capable, peers as more humane and organization as caring. Furthermore, compassion also improves the relationship between the person who exercises it and the person who perceives it. Because compassion breeds trust, among other factors, as suggested by Clark (1997) and Dutton et al. (2007), connections between coworkers become stronger (Frost et al., 2000; Powley, 2009). Likewise, compassion affects not only the direct subjects, those who participate in the compassionate acts, but also the witnesses of those acts. These third persons feel pride in how the members of their organization act (Dutton et al., 2007) and can be more predisposed to act toward the common good (Haidt, 2003).Although organizations are sites of pain and suffering, they can also be places of healing, where compassion is both given and received (Kanov et al., 2004). That is why it is essential to give value to everything that can help alleviate this suffering. In this sense, compassion within organizations turns out to be a very powerful tool of healing and strength. As Dalai Lama (1995) said, where there is suffering, there is also the human capacity for compassion.\nHypotheses development: Compassion and firm performance\nResearch methodology: We tested the hypothesized relationships in two studies. Study 1 collected data from a sample of firms from Spain with high innovative capability within different sectors. On the other hand, Study 2 collected data from a sample of hotels in Spain. In tandem, these two studies examine the relationships proposed to provide empirical evidence about direct and indirect effects between compassion and firm performance.In both studies, we used the same measurement scales for the variables examined, thus enabling a consistent comparison between the results of the hypothesized relationships. Particularly, we used the following validated measurement scales (the reliability information of each scale is presented in the analysis sections of each one of the studies):Compassion at work\nDiscussion: Over the last few years, a growing number of studies have begun to explore the role of compassion in organizations. However, these studies have predominantly consisted in theoretical proposals highlighting the potential benefits of compassion at work. Accordingly, in order to advance in the study of compassion, this research has empirically examined some of the possible consequences of compassion. In this sense, our findings provide two main contributions to the management discipline. Firstly, this study advances in the empirical demonstration of the benefits of compassion in organizations. The results of this study demonstrate how compassion affects firm performance. Thus, these findings contribute to explain the performance implications of compassion, a large gap in the literature that has been set aside until now. Secondly, the study findings indicate that the performance advantages that accrue from compassion can be better understood by considering OLC as an explanatory and mediating mechanism. In other words, this study also provides empirical evidence about the role of compassion as an antecedent of a collective phenomenon such as organizational learning that can be considered a competitive advantage. In sum, the results confirm that workplace compassion improves organizational performance and learning capability.Theoretical and practical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Based on a new management paradigm rooted on care and compassion, this study explores the consequences of compassion at work on organizational learning and firm performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the research model by using data from two different samples.\nFindings: Results confirm that compassion increases firm performance through organizational learning capability; however, compassion do not enhances directly firm performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study findings indicate that when compassion is propagated among organizational members, organizations are better able to learn so they obtain a competitive advantage that is difficult to imitate and leads to higher firm performance.\nOriginality/value: This study takes a step forward on literature by providing empirical evidence for a promising area of management research such is compassion in organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Peter Drucker and the challenge of tyranny
|
[
"Management gurus",
"Education and training",
"Management skills",
"Career development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This paper is focused on lessons to be drawn from the works of Peter Drucker and related to the Drucker Global Forum which is focussed on management issues for the twenty-first century. The core argument of this paper is that the development of ethically based management skills from the lowest levels in any organisation - public or private - is a fundamental imperative to effective management at the highest levels - especially in crisis situations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to focus the attention of management educators and trainers internationally on the need for cooperation and coordination in developing management skills at the supervisory level. Such action is perceived not only as being highly beneficial in advancing effective management in any type, or size, of organisation, but also as a socially responsible action to offer those in less developed circumstances a positive counter to the perverted appeal of increasingly violent negative elements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on a combination of extensive reading and many years of first-hand management experience across numerous national and cultural borders.\nFindings: - There is a perceivable and positive benefit in offering opportunities for enhancement in lower level management training to organisations, the social values of communities, but above all to individuals.\nPractical implications: - The practical implications are to highlight the urgent need to promote improved coordination of training in management skills internationally, based on improved analysis of training needs in relation to development aims in deprived societies.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is seen as offering an empirically based outline for management educators and trainers to develop widely accepted core principles for the rapid development of lower level management skills, in the context of increasing social need.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Efficiency and convergence analysis in a women's clothing retail store chain: Evidence from Portugal
|
[
"Portugal",
"DEA",
"Scale efficiency",
"Sigma convergence",
"Technical efficiency",
"Women clothing retail stores"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The growing market liberalisation and international trade has created a competitive environment across markets encompassing almost all sectors of the economic activity. In the Portuguese case, specifically, the retailing industry has been witnessing shorter product life cycles, one clear example being the case of the clothing collections, which are strongly influenced by the growing exposure of this sector to international markets.\n2. The apparel industry: The apparel industry is characterised by the short life cycles of its products and/or collections, where the introduction of new products is used to capture consumer needs in what pertains to new styles and images. Moreover, the instability of consumer preferences and consumption decisions has led retailers to adhere to the fast-fashion concept, which simultaneously causes an increase in the heterogeneity of production, marketing and supply management activities in the clothing industry (Ghemawat and Nueno, 2003). This provokes a constant struggle for strategic market suitability and sales management.\n3. Methodology: For confidentiality reasons, the name of the firm cannot be disclosed. The firm is composed of 26 different retail stores of women's clothing, 21 located in shopping centres. All the stores are located in urban areas across Portugal. Seven stores are located in the greater Lisbon area, six on the greater Oporto area, whereas the remaining stores are scattered in other main Portuguese cities. In total, 21 stores are located in modern shopping malls, while five stores are located in classy traditional retail stores.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1. Convergence analysis\n5. Conclusions and management implications: The methodology used to analyse the performance takes into account each store as a DMU. As such, each store's operational performance is strictly connected and correlated to the stores' network management. Accordingly, each DMU manages its resources to optimise sales of the clothing collections and the lines of the products commercialised and available in each of the stores. Thus, in brief, at operational level we consider each store as a unit that manages a set of resources to obtain the maximum sales of the women's clothing collections and fashion accessories.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate retailing efficiency in a 26-store women clothing retail chain and to decompose it in several measures in order to contribute to the performance improvement of this retail service firm, as well as to compare the efficiency of the different decision making units.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses the following measures to estimate efficiency: sigma convergence analysis; efficiency analysis; technical efficiency (TE) analysis; pure technical efficiency (PTE) analysis and scale efficiency (SE) analysis for a set of 26 stores of a women retail service brand operating in Portugal. A cross-section input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to analyse quarterly data sets from 2010 to 2013.\nFindings: The results show that costs with personnel are slightly increasing when analysed using the sigma convergence method, although there are some geographical differences. Moreover, it is possible to witness that the retail store chain's TE diminishes as the operations outputs do not grow as fast as input savings. On the other hand, there are no SE problems as the levels of SE are larger than pure efficiency levels.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of the study stems from the fact that the analysis is based on a simple retail chain, which makes it a single case study. Therefore, the generalisation of the conclusions for other firms or for other periods of analysis should be made cautiously.\nPractical implications: It is shown that some stores have a good TE and other stores have some SE advantage. As such, it is possible to select some stores as benchmarks to deploy internal efficiency throughout the retail chain.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this paper is based on the application of the sigma conversion and DEA techniques to evaluate efficiency in retail service store.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Five focus strategies to organize health care delivery
|
[
"Service delivery",
"Demand management",
"Focused factory",
"Production strategy",
"Supply management",
"Health care delivery"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Health care authorities and managers need to answer certain questions. Should there be one large hospital serving all the health needs of a population or several smaller units with varying profiles, specializations and target segments? Should professionals be encouraged to specialize in increasingly narrow fields or asked to develop broad skills and exploit cross-specialty synergies? The phenomenon behind these questions is focus. In industry, the focused factory (Skinner, 1974) means organizing work and equipment to focus on a limited range of products or markets. Reduced complexity contributes to productivity and quality improvement.\nAn overview on focus in health care settings: In general, focus can be defined as a way to systematically manage variety by controlling demand and supply. An overview of previous research reveals that the concept initially emerged in health care during the 1990s as patient-focused care (e.g. Brider, 1992; Lathrop, 1993), underlining the coordination of clinical care across a continuum of sites and services and organizing resources around patients rather than specialized departments. As those studies highlighted the shift in management from specialties to the flow of patient care, they paid less attention to the management of variety, which is at the core of the original idea of focus (Skinner, 1974). Later empirical studies took variety reduction into account, and focus has been defined as narrowing the range of:\nThe focus concept: In his seminal article, Skinner (1974) stated that focus is a strategic choice to avoid falling into the trap of being everything to everybody. A factory cannot perform equally well by every yardstick: short cycle times, superior quality, dependable deliveries, flexibility and low cost. Limited resources, capital equipment, competence and labour should be concentrated on doing a few things exceptionally well.\nThe mechanisms of focus: All technologies build on natural or social phenomena that are exploited in a systematic way for some purpose (Arthur, 2009). For example, antibiotics are based on the discovery of the biological phenomenon that certain moulds kill certain bacteria. Focus exploits the basic drivers of productivity: division of labour, specialization, standardization and knowledge creation (Douma and Schreuder, 2008).\nChoice of focus: five focus strategies in health care: The universality of the demand variety vs requisite supply variety dilemma led to the adoption of focus strategies long before the term was coined. An early focus strategy was to separate emergencies from planned and elective procedures. That gave rise to emergency clinics and trauma hospitals. The varying needs of specific demographic groups, such as children, women, veterans and the elderly, have been recognized, and hospitals specifically designed for their needs have been built. Eye hospitals have been around for some time, focusing on a narrow range of illnesses and cures. Palliative and end-of-life care has been organized into hospices.\nPractice implications: management of focus: The developed framework supports health care organizations to select whether or not to focus and what focus strategy to choose in certain circumstances. The strategy should be selected based on key performance indicators, e.g. cost-efficiency, outcomes, access or throughput time. Therefore, performance management is crucial to consider in each focus strategy, as the selected focus defines performance measures in which the unit can expect to be especially good.\nPractice implications: coordination of focus: A shift from wide variety service units towards focused operations increases the need for coordinating activities at the patient episode level. When a focus strategy is utilized to organize different care practices and processes into dedicated production units, the full vertical integration of care pathways is hard to constitute (Kreindler et al., 2012). Focusing can lead to a fragmented delivery system in which patients face challenges navigating between service providers, and inappropriate incentives for focused providers cause sub-optimization. For example, a joint replacement clinic might favour operative treatment in cases in which conservative treatment would be sufficient.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The initial motivation for this study originated from unclear definitions of focus in health care research. The confusion around specialty and discipline approaches using focus concepts differs remarkably from Skinner's (1974) original idea of market and product-based approaches in which the role of professions and specialties is reduced.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The focused factory is one of the concepts that decision-makers have adopted for improving health care delivery. However, disorganized definitions of focus have led to findings that cannot be utilized systematically. The purpose of this paper is to discuss strategic options to focus health care operations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First the literature on focus in health care is reviewed revealing conceptual challenges. Second, a definition of focus in terms of demand and requisite variety is defined, and the mechanisms of focus are explicated. A classification of five focus strategies that follow the original idea to reduce variety in products and markets is presented. Finally, the paper examines managerial possibilities linked to the focus strategies.\nFindings: The paper proposes a framework of five customer-oriented focus strategies which aim at reducing variety in different characteristics of care pathways: population; urgency and severity; illnesses and symptoms; care practices and processes; and care outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: Empirical research is needed to evaluate the costs and benefits of the five strategies and about system-level effects of focused units on competition and coordination.\nPractical implications: Focus is an enabling condition that needs to be exploited using specific demand and supply management practices. It is essential to understand how focus mechanisms differ between strategies, and to select focus that fits with organization's strategy and key performance indicators.\nOriginality/value: Compared to previous more resource-oriented approaches, this study provides theoretically solid and practically relevant customer-oriented framework for focusing in health care.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Developing a socio-technical framework for business-IT alignment
|
[
"Communication technologies",
"Strategic planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: IT investment has been an important issue to senior executives as IT investment is one of the major budget items in most businesses. Management literature has shown contradictory results on the impact of IT investments on performance (Sircar et al., 2000) meaning that IT investment can improve business performance under certain conditions such as business-IT alignment. Business-IT alignment is one of the most important requirements that convert the IT-driven value into business performance. The concept of business-IT alignment became a key concept in management as it could provide insights into the link between IT investment and business performance. For example, business-IT alignment is a critical success factor in large IT projects such as ERP implementations (Chakraborty and Sharma, 2007).However, due to the ambiguity and complexity of the alignment mechanism, previous studies showed difficulties in developing the constructs of business-IT alignment (Reich and Benbasat, 2000) and a comprehensive model for the alignment process (Reich and Benbasat, 2000; Sabherwal and Chan, 2001). As a result, there has been lack of comprehensive conceptual models and empirical studies that investigate the impact of business-IT alignment on business performance in a dynamic business environment.New business environments are lowering firms' boundaries to business partners and customers due to improved information technology and flexible and secure service-oriented architecture infrastructure. To cope with collaborative environments, accomplishing functional integration using business-IT alignment is critical. In this study, the socio-technical alignment framework was employed to explain how business-IT alignment could be accomplished in group collaborative environments. Specifically, we emphasize internal business-IT alignment between business and IS groups, which is typical setting in a boundary-less, networked business environment. The rest of paper includes Theoretical development, Method, Results and discussion.\n2 Theoretical development of business-IT alignment: 2.1 Frameworks of business-IT alignment\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4 Results and discussion: 4.1 Results\n5 Conclusion: This study extends and thus helps balance the concept of alignment. The study analyzes the business-IT alignment mechanism from both the social and technical activities that cover strategy formation and processes of individuals, groups and organizations. By establishing a socio-technical framework of business-IT alignment, this study proposes a conceptual framework for business-IT alignment that accounts for not only improved technical performance, but also improved human performance as well.This study considers IS effectiveness as a business-IT alignment-driven business value that is mediated by social and technical alignment and directly linked to business performance. By discarding the direct link from alignment to business performance, which is a dominant pattern in alignment literature, this study magnifies implications as to how decisions regarding IT investment should be considered. Top management can consider IT investment as a way to create sustainable business-IT alignment driven business value, and to build core IT assets and capabilities that continuously improve organizational performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for evaluating business-IT alignment. Specifically, the authors emphasize internal business-IT alignment between business and IS groups, which is a typical setting in recent boundary-less, networked business environments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on the previous studies, a socio-technical approach was developed to explain how the functional integration in the business-IT alignment process could be accomplished in collaborative environments. The study investigates the relationship among social alignment, technical alignment, IS effectiveness, and business performance.\nFindings: - The results indicated that alignment between business and IS groups increased IS effectiveness and business performance. Business-IT alignment resulting from socio-technical arrangements in firms' infrastructure has positive impacts on business performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study is limited by control issues in terms of the impact of the confounding variables on business performance. Future studies need to validate the research model across industries. The study results imply that business-IT alignment is a multidimensional concept that includes social and technical activities explaining the way people and information technology institutionalize business value.\nOriginality/value: - By establishing a socio-technical framework of business-IT alignment, this study proposes a conceptual framework for business-IT alignment that accounts for not only improved technical performance, but also improved human performance as well. This study emphasizes the importance of addressing internal socio-technical collaboration in modern business environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Importance measures for degrading components based on cooperative game theory
|
[
"Shapley value",
"Cooperative game",
"Degradation modelling",
"Degrading system/component",
"Importance measures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: Importance measures have been widely used to trace system bottlenecks and to rank the impact of a particular component within a system design. By identifying the criticality of components, analyst can also effectively take proper actions for system reliability enhancement at the minimum cost or effort.\n2. Degradation modelling for system with degrading components: Previous research efforts on reliability analysis for multi-state systems have largely focussed on the generalization of frequently used binary methods. However, some multi-state systems have more complicated behaviours. Components of systems such as water distribution, telecommunications, oil and gas supply, production and power generation and transmission, may operate in a degraded state, causing the system to either continue to provide an acceptable level of service, or perhaps, a partial level of service (depending on how the system is configured). As the probabilistic modelling of failure mechanism degradation path, degradation modelling can be used for assessing the reliability of highly reliable parts and systems whose life data are rare.\n3. Shapley value based importance measures for degrading components during the process of system reliability degradation: The loss of system reliability is generally caused by the degradation of a set of components which always consists of j[?][1, n] components. Hence, we can assume that there exist inevitable cooperative behaviour among degrading components. In this section, cooperative game theory will be introduced to get a deep insight into the mechanism of system reliability degradation and to analyse the criticality of components. Degrading components are viewed as the players in cooperative game.\n4. Illustrative examples: Two examples are presented in this section to show the application of the Shapley value based importance measure for degrading components during the process of system reliability degradation.\n5. Conclusion: This paper has proposed a new method to quantify the criticality of degrading components for systems that are characterized by degrading features or continuously changing status. Based on the reliability analysis of degrading system as well as components, the proposed importance measure characterizes how a specific degrading component contributes to the degradation of system reliability by using Shapley value. Besides, the new importance measure is the function of time, which can provide timely feedback on the responsibility of a particular component to the degradation of system reliability. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the application of this method and comparison results show that the proposed estimation is more suitable for measuring the importance of degrading component. The ranking of degrading components according to the newly developed importance measure depends on the degradation parameters of components, system structure and parameters characterizing the association of components.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose new importance measures for degrading components based on Shapley value, which can provide answers about how important players are to the whole cooperative game and what payoff each player can reasonably expect.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed importance measure characterizes how a specific degrading component contributes to the degradation of system reliability by using Shapley value. Degradation models are also introduced to assess the reliability of degrading components. The reliability of system consisting independent degrading components is obtained by using structure functions, while reliability of system comprising correlated degrading components is evaluated with a multivariate distribution.\nFindings: The ranking of degrading components according to the newly developed importance measure depends on the degradation parameters of components, system structure and parameters characterizing the association of components.\nOriginality/value: Considering the fact that reliability degradation of engineering systems and equipment are often attributed to the degradation of a particular or set of components that are characterized by degrading features. This paper proposes new importance measures for degrading components based on Shapley value to reflect the responsibility of each degrading component for the deterioration of system reliability. The results are also able to give timely feedback of the expected contribution of each degrading component to system reliability degradation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
High versus low online price discounts: effects on customers' perception of risks
|
[
"Online shopping",
"Purchase intentions",
"Perceived risk",
"Signaling theory",
"Price discount"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Price discount is a very common type of promotion used in the consumer marketplace; it refers to a direct stimulus via an extra value or incentive offered by sellers to attract customers and lead them to purchase promoted products immediately (Haugh, 1983). Price discounts are interesting because they are more complicated for consumers to interpret and because they signal meanings unique from price. By their very nature, price discounts are harder for shoppers to evaluate than price because they require use of a more demanding cognitive process. When customers see a product that sells at list price, they receive only one piece of price information. In contrast, price discounts require customers to process several pieces of price information to calculate the selling price and then evaluate the deal; price discount information to process includes percentage and/or dollar amount of price discount, original price and calculation of the selling price. In the case of the percentage discount amount, customers also need to conduct an additional cognitive task to figure out how much money they actually save, such as subtracting the selling price from the original price (Biswas et al., 2013); research shows that consumers sometimes simply choose one or two pieces of price information to evaluate a product rather than evaluating each piece of price related information individually to understand the deal (Fiske, 1982; Sujan, 1985).\nLiterature review: Signaling theory supports the role of price discounts as a heuristic cue. According to the signaling theory, because there is information asymmetry between two parties involved in a transaction, the party who has more information sends signals to reduce information asymmetry (Riley, 1987; Kirmani and Rao, 2000; Connelly et al., 2011). Then, the other party, who has less information, uses the signals to make inferences. In the consumer behavior context, information is asymmetric between the sellers and customers, and sellers generally have more information than purchasers. Sellers who have high-quality products try to send appropriate signals (e.g. providing guarantees, warranties and advertising their high quality) to inform customers about their higher quality and reduce customers' perceived risk (Boulding and Kirmani, 1993; Biswas and Biswas, 2004; Roggeveen et al., 2006). However, a price discount signal would increase the information asymmetry between the retailers and customers. When customers see a price discount, they would try to infer why this product is discounted now. If customers cannot find appropriate reasons to explain why the product is discounted, such as a closeout, this would increase the information gap between retailers and customers and consequently increase customers' risk perceptions.\nMethods: Experimental design\nResults: Laptop\nDiscussion: Our research results suggest that when customers encounter high price discounts in the online marketplace, they are skeptical about the quality of the product and the credibility of the retailers offering those discounts; they associate high discounts with risk. From this perspective, this study observes the mediating effect of perceived risks on the relationship between discount size and purchase intentions.\nImplications, limitations and future research: Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the signaling effects of high versus low price discounts by integrating extant literature on price discounts, perceived risks and purchase intentions for products sold online. The study examines the influence of price discounts on perceived risks, and the subsequent influence of these risk perceptions on online purchase intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used an experimental design. The manipulated factor was price discount (10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 per cent). Responses were collected via online surveys. Nonlinear regression analysis with the MEDCURVE macro was used for the analysis.\nFindings: The results show that the discount size increases customers' perceived risks, and that these perceived risks mediate the relationship between price discount and purchase intentions.\nPractical implications: This study provides a better understanding of customers' risk perceptions for online price discounts, which enables retailers to decide appropriate price discounts to attract customers.\nOriginality/value: Most previous literature focusing on price discounts takes into consideration the presentation effect on consumers' positive perceptions, while this study investigates the price discount effect on customers' negative perceptions. In particular, this study examines the mediating effect of perceived risks on the relationship between price discount and purchase intention, which has not been investigated in previous studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Threat orientation in small and medium-sized enterprises: Understanding differences toward acute interruptions
|
[
"UK",
"SMEs",
"Risk management",
"Business continuity",
"Acute business interruptions",
"Threat orientation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Formal planning has been argued to be critical if organisations are to respond and recover effectively from an acute business interruption, but in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the underlying perceptions of managers in developing provisions to recover are less well understood. An acute business interruption is a situation in which normal commercial activities are temporarily or permanently inoperable and this bears many features of what would be considered a \"crisis\" in terms of high impact, ambiguity and the requirement for immediate action (Doern, 2014). In the strategic planning literature, attention is placed not only on the processes for developing corporate strategies, but also on the influence of individual cognition and heuristics on these processes. Despite the claimed importance of planning for acute business interruptions for organisations of all sizes, the association between experiences, perceived vulnerabilities and threat orientation (i.e. the distinctness and formality of preparations for acute business interruptions) is less well understood. Part of the reason for this is that the many studies of \"crisis management\" and \"business continuity management\" in businesses have sampled on the dependent variable of experience of an acute business interruption and focused on larger enterprises. The different orientations of managers, owners and businesses are well established in areas such as entrepreneurship (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996), learning (Calantone et al., 2002) and market selection (Chang et al., 2014). An understanding of these differences within orientations illuminates our understanding of a spectrum of approaches that are used by managers to address current and future organisational challenges. The introduction of, and examination of the influences on, \"threat orientation\" in this paper attempts to provide a non-binary measure of what Davison (2014) refers to as \"discontinuity planning\" but in the specific context of SMEs.\nBackground: SME vulnerability, experience and impact\nMethodology: The sample frame for this study comprised of 1,000 UK SMEs selected at random from the Bureau van Dijk 2010 FAME database that covers nine million companies in the UK and Ireland. The European Commission definition of an SME was used as the selection criteria for inclusion within the sample frame (a small firm has turnover per annum/balance sheet value of less than 10 million and has fewer than 50 employees, and a medium-sized firm has turnover per annum of no greater than 50 million, a balance sheet value less than 43 million, and between 51 and 250 employees). Data were collected using a mail questionnaire sent to owner-managers as part of a broader study in UK businesses (Herbane, 2013). A total of 215 owner-managers returned the survey, representing a response rate of 22 per cent (accounting for 42 non-contactable businesses within the sample frame). Kolmogorov-Smirnov two sample tests for age and number of employees confirms that the respondents in this study and non-respondents come from the same population.\nResults and discussion: Table I presents the descriptive statistics and correlation matrix for the dependent and independent variables. Ordinary least squares regression was used to test the three hypotheses indicated above. Variance inflation factor (maximum VIF=1.19; VIF mean=1.10) and tolerance values (range between 0.83 and 0.98) were calculated to ensure that results are not confounded by multicollinearity (Hair et al., 1995).\nConclusion: As Buchanan and Denyer (2013, p. 206) have remarked, crisis management-related research is largely represented by small sample studies and \"a qualitative-processual paradigm\", but while this observation is made for studies about acute business interruptions in enterprises of all sizes (but principally large ones), a parallel literature with a smaller firm focus is increasingly shedding light on the circumstances and challenges facing organisations that have traditionally been less of a concern in management studies of how organisations deal with acute business interruptions that are referred to generically as \"crisis\". This paper contributes to a more refined understanding of SMEs in regard to the factors that overcome a reluctance to develop distinctive and/or formal provisions for the management of discontinuities that produce an acute business interruption. Threat orientation challenges us to think about the false dichotomy between planning and non-planning firms, and how and the importance of the owner-managers of SMEs in shaping the use and development of specific resources and capabilities to respond to discontinuities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the experience, impact and likelihood of an acute business interruption, along with the perceived ability to intervene, influences the \"threat orientation\" of owner-managers in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. The concept of \"threat orientation\" is introduced in this study as a way to eschew the binary view of whether an organisation does or does not have processes and capabilities to respond to acute interruptions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: \"Threat orientation\" is operationalised and survey data are collected from 215 SMEs in the UK. Data from owner-managers are analysed using multiple regression techniques.\nFindings: The results of this study provide empirical evidence to highlight the importance of firm age rather than size as a determinant of the propensity to formalise activities to deal with acute interruptions. Recent experience and the ability to intervene were statistically significant predictors of threat orientation but the likelihood and concern about specific types of threat was not found to positively influence threat orientation.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the data are self-report in nature, the respondents in the study are the chief decision and policy makers in their organisations and thus it is essential to understand the influences on their threat orientation. Results are generalisable only to UK SMEs.\nOriginality/value: The findings of the paper contribute to a nascent understanding of planning for acute interruptions in SMEs and (despite the cross-sectional nature of the study), the findings clearly reinforce the need for continuing longitudinal research into how resilience develops in smaller organisations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Role expectations and agency in the audit tendering process
|
[
"Audit tendering",
"Role expectations",
"Strategic agency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tendering processes are a growing issue in auditing research and practice (Beattie and Fearnley, 1998; Boon et al., 2005, 2008; Butcher et al., 2013) as well as in the procurement of professional services in general (O'Mahoney et al., 2013; Sonmez and Moorhouse, 2010; Werr and Pemer, 2007). Primarily, this involves clients availing themselves of a formal tendering procedure or a structured assessment method for the procurement of professional auditing services (Beattie and Fearnley, 1998; Financial Reporting Council (FRC), 2013). Such a tendering process is often described as a highly formalized procedure consisting of different identifiable phases (Beattie and Fearnley, 1998; O'Mahoney et al., 2013). It is generally assumed that the successful completion of each phase by the leading auditor and his/her auditing team will ultimately result in the tender being selected and the auditor contract signed.\nThe audit profession and audit tendering: There has been an increased interest in the role and processes of tendering in audit research. At least two relevant streams of literature on audit tendering can be identified: one focuses on the occurrence and general implications of audit tendering for the auditing profession, and another on the actual process of tendering in the context of auditor-client relationships.\nStudying role expectation and enactment: Role theory in social research is comprised of a wide array of studies on how human behavior is shaped by the role-related expectations of others, and the role-taker's own understanding and enactment of these expectations (Biddle, 1986; Broderick, 1998; Danna Lynch, 2007; Mantere, 2008). This approach helps conceptualize the practices auditors utilize as they seek to combine their individual fulfillment of a job with the various role-related expectations of what a professional auditor should do. We first discuss the nature of these roles and role-related expectations, followed by a detailed look into role enactment. In particular, we examine what enables and constrains an auditor's enactment of a role.\nMethods: Sampling\nFindings: On the basis of our analysis, we developed a phase model of professional role enactment as a response to multiple and often-conflicting role expectations present throughout the tendering process. In particular, we found different constellations of formal, relational, and professional role-related expectations placed on the auditor. These constellations varied throughout three distinct phases: the orientation phase; the intake phase; and the presentation phase (see Table II). At the same time, the data also revealed varying and evolving formal and informal practices in each phase of the tendering process aimed to help convince potential clients of the value and quality of the professional knowledge and skills of the auditor. Furthermore, we describe the conditions that promote the agency of auditors, shaping the extent to which they are able to satisfy the given role expectations. In the sections that follow, we discuss for each relevant phase the key role expectations, the main activities auditors undertake in response to these expectations, and the conditions that enable their agency.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Using a role-theory perspective, this study has emphasized that to better understand audit tendering, there is a need to shed more light on the way expectations may evolve, and the possibilities for agency, that is, the auditor's capacity to shape a role to his/her own interests (e.g. Mantere, 2008). In line with this, our research question was:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Tenders are generally considered important in auditing research and practice, and are associated with significant difficulties for the auditing profession, as well as for individual auditors in the context of client relationships. The purpose of this paper is to explore the way auditors respond to complex client expectations related to the audit tendering process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a role-theory perspective, the authors analyzed 75 client evaluations of auditors, along with in-depth interviews with high-level auditors.\nFindings: The authors present a theoretical framework of audit tenders that identifies different formal and informal practices auditors may employ in response to evolving client expectations that arise throughout different phases of the tendering process, and elucidate relevant conditions that may enable or impede these practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: First, the study reveals that, in the context of auditor-client relationships, expectations cannot be considered stable, but may vary significantly throughout the tendering process. Second, the study indicates that auditors are not only determined by the formal tendering procedures, but are also influenced by their level of agency.\nPractical implications: The framework has practical value by providing individual auditors guidance in managing their client relationships and, further, top management guidance for creating favorable conditions for auditors to meet client needs.\nOriginality/value: The findings provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the autonomy auditors have in responding to the contemporary pressures exerted on them.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Patterns of web linking to heterogeneous groups of companies: The case of stock exchange indexes
|
[
"Competitive advantage",
"Intelligence",
"Data analysis",
"Worldwide web",
"Business analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Thirty years ago Michael Porter (1980, 1985) developed the idea that the creation and maintenance of competitive advantages are key factors of business success. Despite the evolution of business theories over the last three decades, competitive strategy remains as a fundamental element in the management of a company. Competitive intelligence (CI) is the result of the general acceptance of this important managerial thinking. Today CI plays a key role in a company's strategic effort to achieve and sustain competitive advantage (Heppes and du Toit, 2009). According to Kahaner (1996), CI consists of a systematic plan to obtain and analyze information about competitors and general trends in the industry. The abundance of information on developed economies, especially with the development of digital technologies and the internet, has created new opportunities and challenges for companies so that they need to monitor changes around them in order to remain competitive. In the last decade, web hyperlink analysis has been used for CI purposes with promising results (Reid, 2003; Tan et al., 2002).Inlink and co-inlink are basic webometric concepts to understand the nature of web hyperlinks. According to Bjorneborn and Ingwersen (2004), an inlink, also called back link, is a link pointing to a web page - for example page X has an inlink coming from page Z. If page X and page Y both have inlinks from page Z, then page X and page Y are co-inlinked. Co-inlink analysis is referred to simply as co-link analysis later in this paper.Previous research has established the relationship between the number of links pointing to a business web site and the company's financial performance, for example revenue and profit (Vaughan and Wu, 2004). Moreover, direct links pointing to web sites have proved to be a relevant measure of similarity (Thelwall and Wilkinson, 2004). Business competitors, however, link each other very rarely in order to avoid diverting web traffic to rival companies (Shaw, 2001; Vaughan et al., 2006). This fact leads to the use of co-links rather than inlinks to study competitive positions. As Vaughan (2006) points out, co-link data are more robust than inlink data as the former are less easily manipulated. Content analysis has been carried out to study the motivations for co-link creation (Vaughan et al., 2007). Co-link analysis has also been demonstrated to be a useful tool to reveal the cognitive or intellectual structure of a particular field of study (Zuccala, 2006), analogously to co-citation analysis in bibliometrics (Small, 1973).Web co-link analysis for business information started with a single industry (Vaughan and You, 2006) or on a detailed picture of the competitive landscape of a sector within an industry (Vaughan and You, 2008, 2009). The methodology developed in these papers has also been tested and verified in other countries and other industries, for example, China's chemical industry and electronics industry (Vaughan et al., 2009). Romero-Frias and Vaughan (2009) extended the use of co-link analysis into the banking industry in the USA in order to test the feasibility of combining page content with co-link data to monitor financial crisis. Parallel to these studies on commercial web sites, research on heterogeneous web sites has been carried out to test the triple helix theory on the web (Stuart and Thelwall, 2006; Garcia-Santiago and de Moya-Anegon, 2009).This paper reports on a study that extended co-link analysis to web sites of heterogeneous companies belonging to five stock exchange indexes. These companies are the biggest in their respective economies and therefore have a significant presence on the web and are likely to receive attention from users, companies, government and other economic agents. When studying a single industry, co-link analysis allowed us to visualise business competition within the industry. When we applied co-link analysis to companies belonging to different industries in this study, we see not only competition within an industry but also alliances or other relationships between different industries. The scope of this study is much broader than those carried out before, which gives us an opportunity to explore the issues that were not examined in previous co-link studies. Results were compared from five different stock exchange indexes representing different economic, geographical and cultural backgrounds. The Eurostoxx 50 was analysed from two different perspectives of country and industry. This allowed us to observe the degree of economic integration in the Euro-market. We also tried to observe whether there is any clear pattern, common to all the stock exchanges, about the type of business activities that attract more web links and other activities that attract fewer web hyperlinks due to their particular business features. We observed that there is one main variable that could determine a generalised pattern between economic activities; this is the degree to which the activity is information centred. This applies mainly to IT, media, and financial companies, among others. These industries are in an ongoing process of business model transformation, for example the deep crisis in the media sector due to digitalisation of information. The paper is exploratory in nature with the intention of opening new lines of research on the application of webometric methodology to business studies.\nMethodology: Selection of companies to study\nResults: The five stock exchange indexes are representative of different economies and differ in industry composition and in social, cultural and political backgrounds. In this section we present a sketch of each stock and then compare them to obtain general findings and patterns. Limitations and future research prospects are discussed in the next section.As pointed out above, co-link count is a similarity measure that has been used in previous papers to evaluate competitive positions of companies within a single industry. Extending those earlier studies, the current study analyzed heterogeneous companies in terms of activity, and therefore our first expectation is to find clusters of similar companies - that is, companies belonging to the same industry are expected to be grouped.Dow Jones Industrial\nConclusions and future research: The originality of this study is based on the application of co-link analysis to heterogeneous companies listed in five major stock exchange indexes. Previous co-link studies examined companies within a single industry with successful results in mapping competitive positions. However, due to the diverse industrial affiliation of the companies in this paper, the expectation is for companies in the same industry to appear together in clearly identified clusters, according to the similarity principle used in previous research. Competitive analysis could also be developed but only within a previously identified cluster of homogeneous companies. This is not possible in this study due to the scarce number of companies belonging to the same industry. So far, studies based on heterogeneous types of organisations have only been developed in order to test the triple helix theory on the web, but their perspective is not purely commercial or economic. The previous section examined the results of each index individually. However, when we look at all the maps together from a global perspective, some overall exploratory conclusions can be drawn. These conclusions suggest directions for future research on using webometric techniques for business studies.Individual MDS maps show that the expectation of finding the same industry companies grouped together is only partially fulfilled. Industries whose business model is more information-centred form distinct clusters located at a position that is distant from other companies located in a more central position. Information centred industries, according to our interpretation, comprise mainly four groups:1. companies based in the production of information contents (called Media in the study);2. companies providing information infrastructures and services (IT);3. companies very intensive in applying e-commerce techniques (leisure companies in the tourism industry); and4. financial companies.Financial companies, including banks, insurance and other financial services, are information-intensive in the sense that they do not usually provide physically tangible services or that they only operate in virtual venues (e.g. stock exchange companies, banks that are mainly present on the internet).In addition to their location on the MDS maps, media and IT companies receive more inlinks than any other companies that belong to more traditional industries. This particular inlink pattern reflects a business model that is highly exposed to the internet. This is true of financial companies to some extent. Generally speaking, they are second only to IT companies in the number of inlinks received. This explains why, in most countries, financial companies are located in a position between the centre of the map, where more traditional companies are placed, and the IT and media companies. Therefore, generally speaking, companies that are located away from the centre of the map are the ones that depart from a traditional business model that is slower, by its own industrial nature or by a management decision, to move to an online context. This explanation is supported by the use of the Jaccard index in our data analysis. Because information centred companies receive many inlinks but relatively fewer of them are co-links with other companies, the Jaccard index scores tend to be lower. That is why they are positioned away from the centre, at the outskirt of the map.But why do different patterns exist based on information? The so-called information-centred companies have undergone a process of digitalization with the result of an increasing presence on the web. The more dramatic changes are affecting the information content production industry (media industry, e.g. press, music, cinema, and so on). These companies need to reinvent their business models in order to face the significant digitalization process of the last two decades. In most of the cases intellectual property issues are brought up. Companies that in the past seemed to be stable and to enjoy dominant positions in the market have found themselves competing in a totally new and challenging economic and social environment.Eurostoxx 50 is the only index in the study that is made up of companies belonging to different countries. This fact allowed us to analyze economic integration in the Eurozone. The positions of the companies in the Eurostoxx 50 map are better explained by countries rather than by industrial affiliation. Except for the information-based industries (IT and Financial) no industrial clusters are clearly identified on the map. As a contrast, the Dow Jones map is more clearly defined in terms of industries, underlining the deeper economic integration of the US market. This suggests that the Eurozone economy is not as tightly integrated yet. Perhaps future studies will reveal less country division as the trend of integration continues. An effective economic integration is likely to be easier in industries that are based on information technology. This integration is fostered by the rapid process of digitalization of EU countries. There could, however, be some limitations in the Eurostoxx 50 co-link analysis due to language differences.This paper reveals that web co-link data constitute a readily available source of information to obtain new insights into the business environment. The study of heterogeneous companies belonging to different industries allows managers, financial analysts and other stakeholders to locate their company's activity in relation to others and to identify differing business modes and to follow their evolution over time. If a company is trying to increase their presence online, co-link analysis could be used by managers to monitor their progress by observing how the co-link MDS maps change. Therefore, co-link analysis could become a managerial tool useful for companies changing their IT strategies. Finally, this paper used online data to provide confirmatory evidence of the changes in business models of information centred industries due to the digitalization process of the last decade.The conclusions are mainly exploratory, but relevant enough to develop a whole set of future confirmatory studies and to open a new direction in the webometric research of commercial and economic issues. Additional evidence about the suggested explanation of different business models in terms of information is needed. Another important research direction to pursue is to monitor the changes of the MDS maps by collecting and analyzing data over time. Given the rapid development of the internet in the last decade, it is likely that in previous years IT and media companies were not located in such an external position on the maps. Evolution in the coming years could provide confirmation about the transformation in the business models. The same longitudinal perspective could be applied to monitor changes in the Eurozone in order to find out whether country lines become less visible and industry clusters become clearer. Finally, a content analysis study to examine the motivations of webpage inlinking could be useful to determine if there are significant differences between information-centred and traditional business model companies.Although the paper explored the use of co-link analysis for heterogeneous groups of companies, providing new ways of studying commercial and economic issues, the study has some limitations, most of which are beyond our control. The interpretation of the results could differ due to factors such as different official industrial classifications, alternative criteria to include companies within a cluster, or specific knowledge of the researcher about a particular economic context. The industrial composition of the indexes differs due to the economic characteristics of each country. Also the number of companies in each index is not homogeneous. For example, FTSE 100 includes several leisure companies although Dow Jones Industrial does not. Sometimes only a single company is representative of an industry and no cluster can be identified. However, the position of the particular company can be interpreted in comparison to similar companies in other indexes. Finally, language differences could affect the results due to a potential language bias of the search engine used for data collection, especially for Eurostoxx 50 that includes companies from different countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to extend co-link analysis to web sites of heterogeneous companies belonging to different industries and countries, and to cluster companies by industries and compare results from different countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Web sites of 255 companies that belong to five stock exchange indexes were included in the study. Data on co-links pointing to these web sites were gathered using Yahoo!. Co-link data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) to generate MDS maps that would position companies based on their co-link counts.\nFindings: - Comparisons of results across different countries and economies showed the following overall pattern: companies whose businesses are information-based tend to form well-defined clusters, while companies operating on a more traditional business model tend not to form clear groups. A comparison between the EU zone and the USA suggests that the EU economy is not well integrated yet.\nPractical implications: - The findings from the study suggest the possibility of using co-link analysis to distinguish information-based industries from traditional industries.\nOriginality/value: - The paper extends co-link analysis from a single industry to heterogeneous industries with global and complex business phenomena.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Onsite handover of clinical care: implementing modified CHAPS
|
[
"Information exchange",
"Patient care",
"Risk management",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Handover of clinical care is an area of clinical risk where loss of data during the handover process can adversely affect patient care. The National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHSLA) of England has identified onsite handover of care as an essential criterion of maternity clinical risk management standard. The Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation (SBAR) structured communication tool has been used effectively in clinical context to improve handover of clinical care. Clinical picture, History, Assessment, Plan, Sharing information (CHAPS) is an adaptation of the SBAR tool which has been used successfully by midwives on delivery suite of a busy UK teaching hospital. This paper is based on a retrospective audit of a modified CHAPS tool used by doctors for handover on the labour ward of a UK university hospital.\nBackground: NHSLA maternity standards; on site handover\nMaterials and methods: A proforma for patient handover based on modified CHAPS tool as described above was devised and ratified through the Labour Ward Forum. Only initials were chosen for patient identification to ensure Caldicott compliance since hard copies of these forms were to stay on delivery suite during the time of the pilot study. All medical staff was made aware of the introduction of this new form over a period of two weeks through e-mails and visual display signs on delivery suite before formal introduction of the form. These forms were used for \"doctor to doctor\" handover over and above the existing practice of standing in front of the labour ward board. The main handover times between the obstetric registrars are at 0830 and 2030 hours each day. The completed forms were collected and filed and the data from these forms over six weeks between 14 September and 31 October, 2009 was analysed. Quality of the transferred data on the handover sheets was assessed by the auditors (RA & NF) one of whom was an advanced (RA) while the other (NF) was a junior trainee in obstetrics and gynaecology. This was done to introduce variety into the assessment process. They independently determined whether it was possible to assess satisfactorily the clinical background of and the care required for each patient from the information provided on the handover sheets and prepared a list separately. Only those patients whose name appeared on both the lists were selected. The analysis was based on 69 available forms. The aim of this study was to assess the quality and adequacy of transfer of information between doctors for patient care by a retrospective audit of standardised forms. Hence the auditors did not refer to the notes of any patient identified on these handover sheets. However in order to identify adverse effects from loss of information during handover, surrogate indicators were used as already mentioned.Poor communication leads to data loss as explained above. Such events are likely to lead to adverse events which generate incident reporting. UHSM including the maternity unit has a robust incident reporting system. All incidents reported from the maternity unit are categorised, analysed and events discussed at risk management meetings every month. The results are broken down to the area from where they originate and hard copies of the reports are widely displayed. Among the different categories of adverse events, it was felt that failure to adhere to guidelines/policies and poor communication were the categories of adverse incidents most likely to arise out of suboptimal handover. Hence incidents from these two categories were considered to reflect the usefulness of this new handover system. A comparison was made between the incidences of these surrogate indicators before and after the introduction of the modified CHAPS tool.\nResults: There were 69 forms available for analysis out of a possible 84 (two shift changes each day over 42 days). A breakdown of the times and personnel doing the handover is described in Table I. According to the documentation on these 69 forms, the handover was done by the registrar in 45 (65 per cent) and by the senior house officer in two. No information was available about the person doing the handover in the remaining 22 (32 per cent). The time of the handover was documented in 53 (77 per cent) forms with 27 of these at 0830 and the remaining 26 at 2030. There was no documentation of time in sixteen forms (23 per cent).As already described, the quality of the handover was assessed using concordance of the auditors' findings on analysis of the available data (CHAP) on the forms. A breakdown of this information is provided in Table II. The patient initials were present in 89 per cent of the forms. Satisfactory evaluation of the patient's clinical picture and history was possible in 96 per cent and 90 per cent cases respectively. Assessment of the patient was deemed satisfactory in 90 per cent cases while the plan of management was satisfactory in 88 per cent.A signature was the only modification in the tool used in this study and detailed analysis of the relevant information regarding the issues related to signature on the form is provided in Table III. The parameters assessed were identification of the individuals involved in the handover process as well as the date and time of handover. A. signature of the person handing over the care was identifiable or present in 64 per cent while that of the person taking over was identifiable in 55 per cent. The date of handover was present in 58 (84 per cent) but the time was documented in only 53 (77 per cent).Incident reports arising from either communication failure or non-adherence to guidelines/policies were used as surrogate indicators to assess usefulness of handover. There were 31 incident reports triggered from delivery suite during the study period compared to 54 in the preceding eight weeks. The hospital does not use any specific denominator for incident report analysis as number of incident reports is not considered to represent any defined ratio. The departmental philosophy is that incident reports should be generated regardless of the volume of work done and lesser numbers only represent poor reporting and not due to a reduction in the number of incidents. This belief is underpinned by the fact that approximately 10 per cent of patients admitted to UK hospitals will suffer some kind of patient safety incident (Meadows et al., 2005) and identification of an adverse event is highly dependent on the quality of incident reporting which in turn is dependent on the personnel involved in the incident/accident (Basu et al., 2008).There was one instance each of non-adherence to policy both before and during the pilot study but none were related to obstetric registrar handover of care. There were two instances of communication failure during the study period compared to none in the preceding period but these again were unrelated to suboptimal handover between registrars.\nDiscussion: It appears from the above findings that poor documentation is the main weakness during handover. There was no documentation of the person doing the handover in twenty-two instances. Though there were signatures of the person taking over and/or handing over present in most forms, they were identifiable in 44 among those who were handing over and 38 of those who were taking over. In fact satisfactory documentation of each and every information was present in only eight forms. Documentation issues continue to be a recurrent finding in most audits and this was no exception. This does raise issues relating to legal implications which is beyond the scope of this study.The result also shows that the quality of information transferred (CHAP) at shift change was good (Table II) regardless of the issues with documentation relevant to the personnel identification and signature. This is corroborated by the absence of adverse incidents arising during the study period from delivery suite due to poor communication or failure to adhere to guidelines/policies. The incidents alluded to earlier were to do with medical devices and bereavement policy unrelated to the handover process between doctors. One may therefore argue that this exercise was futile since it did not produce any improvement in outcome. It may also be coincidental that there was no serious untoward incident (SUI) on delivery suite during or immediately before the study period. However SUIs (e.g. maternal death) on delivery suite in UK are extremely rare in the first place and hence cannot be used as a reliable indicator. It can also be argued that the chance of any SUI was minimal anyway due to the good quality of handover. This again may reflect the fact that importance of handover has now been successfully internalised by the trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology as a consequence of continuing CNST assessments over the past 15 years.However, this small study has several limitations. It was carried out over a short period of time in one clinical area of a single hospital. Most of the doctors who were working at UHSM at the time and involved in handover were at advanced stages of training and perhaps had greater awareness of the importance of a good handover. The surrogate markers to ascertain success of the handover process were also assessed over a short period of time and so did not determine any major improvement in outcome. It is a personal observation of one of the authors (AB) that delivery suite is a clinical area where a good working atmosphere normally coexists with efficient multidisciplinary teamwork. It is also an area which cares for women who are usually in good health and even those who are not have few pre-existing co-morbidities. Hence the gaps in care that could have arisen from suboptimal transfer of information were more likely to have been bridged as explained by Cook et al. (2000). A more stringent test would be to trial the tool in different clinical areas caring for patients with different illnesses and requiring a broader scope of multi-professional input as in medical assessment unit or accidents and emergencies.\nConclusion: Handover of care is an extremely important aspect of patient care in any clinical setting. The flow of information relies heavily on how a healthcare provider assesses a patient and deems important which again determines what is communicated further. Supplementary to this is the cultural overlay of what information is seen as having a greater or lesser weighting. The current NHSLA maternity standards include on site handover of patient care as a mandatory assessment criterion and alludes to SBAR or any locally developed tool to demonstrate consistency in handover of care. A modification of SBAR has been successfully trialled already among midwives at a UK teaching hospital through CHAPS to assess handover of care. A locally developed modified CHAPS tool was trialled among doctors at a UK university hospital to assess efficacy of patient handover on delivery suite. It appears from this small study that there was good quality of data transfer about patient care among doctors of the same grade. The issue regarding human behavior in response to change is evident from the availability of 69 forms out of a possible 84 which is beyond the scope of this paper. The study also demonstrates that poor documentation regarding date, time and identification of the person handing or taking over of care is an area that needs to be addressed though developing a better system such as electronic signature perhaps would not impact on the quality of care.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper's aim is to determine the quality of transfer of information in relation to NHSLA criterion \"on site handover of patient care\" between doctors on delivery suite of a UK teaching hospital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A pilot project, supplemental to the existing system, was trialled on delivery suite to assess the usefulness of a locally modified, standardised instrument (CHAPS) tested previously among midwives at a UK hospital. This was a retrospective audit of the hard copies of the forms available over a period of six weeks.\nFindings: - A total of 69 (82 per cent) forms were available for analysis. Obstetric registrar did the handover in 45(65 per cent) while no information was available in 32 per cent. Satisfactory assessment of clinical picture and history was possible in 96 per cent and 90 per cent cases respectively. Patient assessment was deemed satisfactory in 90 per cent cases. Management plan was satisfactory in 88 per cent. Documentation regarding date and time of handover was present in 84 per cent and 77 per cent cases respectively. Signature of the personnel handing and taking over were identifiable in 64 per cent and 55 per cent cases respectively.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This pilot study was done in one clinical area at a single hospital over a short period. Wider use in other clinical areas treating different conditions is required to demonstrate global applicability.\nPractical implications: - This small study demonstrates good quality of transfer of information regarding patient care with the modified CHAPS instrument for handover between doctors on a delivery suite. It also raises the issues regarding poor documentation.\nOriginality/value: - This is the only study of its kind hence comparisons could not be made. However it highlights the multiple issues regarding the complexities of handover of patient care between medical personnel.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Image descriptions and their relational expressions: a review of the literature and the issues
|
[
"Library systems",
"Archives",
"Indexing",
"Knowledge organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This review attempts to lay down the interesting intellectual activity evident in the literature that concerns relationships and their role in organizing information, especially visual information expressed in photograph descriptions. It negotiates through both the generalities and specifics as they pertain to how people describe and represent relationships in photograph descriptions within the context of library information systems. It considers, in Mitchell's (1994) terms, the ways in which image content in photographs may be turned into language.\nMachine-readable description: Structuring visual information descriptions in machine-readable records is motivated by a desire to make photographs and photographic image data accessible and retrievable in online library systems. The phrase \"machine-readable\" refers to bibliographic and other information that is structured, represented, and communicated in MARC format. MARC, an acronym for MAchine-Readable Cataloging, defines a data format used for building the bibliographic records found in most library catalogs. It is a specification that enables computers to interpret, use, and exchange the bibliographic information found in cataloging records. While this mode of description may be described as readable by machines and humans, predicates and word senses represented in bibliographic database records are only meaningful to humans.\nPhenomenal descriptions: Phenomenal descriptions evolve during research studies examining image user behavior (Jorgensen, 2003) and during analysis of concepts and relationships included in controlled vocabularies (Bean and Molholt, 1996) or data sets extracted from online image databases (Tribble, 2010). This is a less direct link to machine-readable processes. Researchers develop categories of concepts and relationship types and apply various systems of representing these entities within the context of their research papers, which may or may not coincide with existing bibliographic machine-readable standards. Phenomenal descriptions are often times more formal than natural language, but not always. More important, this section explores research on the nature of description within the framework of image searchers' questions. Writers include Enser (1993) on unique and non-unique image properties, Enser and McGregor's (1993) adaptation of the Gibbs-Smith and Keystone classification schemata, Enser et al. (2005) image taxonomy, Keister (1994) on the language of queries, Armitage and Enser (1997) on the classification of queries, Collins' (1998) pre-iconographical description, Jorgensen (2003) on user behavior, and Greisdorf and O'Connor (2002) on viewer's percepts.\nDiscussion: The diversity of arguments and positions on this topic of relationships should be noted. We may begin by revisiting Green's assertion that the semantics of relationships are determined by the nature of the entities they link together. Doing so sheds light on one central aspect of the relationship problem in LIS. It is often proposed that the entities that exist in the world and the relationships that hold between them need only labeling and categorization. No further explanation is necessary. Such an account neglects the role that humans play in reasoning over relationships and how systems might supply a means of supporting reasoning. It is also objected that while understanding the semantics of relationships is considered a key factor in information systems, many writers fail to distinguish representing relationships and their properties vs representing keywords and subject terms. For example, Greisdorf and O'Connor argue that by describing image content within a framework of \"figures of speech\" traditional indexing systems can be extended by generating an array of associations and meanings between entities not visible in the image. The researchers' goal, in effect, is to represent in image descriptions what image searchers \"see.\" They claim that by applying these relationship types to search and indexing systems searchers can achieve more meaningful and relevant search results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to survey the treatment of relationships, relationship expressions and the ways in which they manifest themselves in image descriptions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The term \"relationship\" is construed in the broadest possible way to include spatial relationships (\"to the right of\"), temporal (\"in 1936,\" \"at noon\"), meronymic (\"part of\"), and attributive (\"has color,\" \"has dimension\"). The intentions of these vaguely delimited categories with image information, image creation, and description in libraries and archives is complex and in need of explanation.\nFindings: The review brings into question many generally held beliefs about the relationship problem such as the belief that the semantics of relationships are somehow embedded in the relationship term itself and that image search and retrieval solutions can be found through refinement of word-matching systems.\nOriginality/value: This review has no hope of systematically examining all evidence in all disciplines pertaining to this topic. It instead focusses on a general description of a theoretical treatment in Library and Information Science.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Employer branding lessons from Ugandan universities: HR strategies for tackling the global talent retention challenge
|
[
"Uganda",
"Employer branding",
"Talent retention",
"People-orientedness",
"Reward strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The work of establishing and maintaining a believable and freshly relevant employer brand is perhaps the greatest ongoing challenge for any company. Leveraging the talents of employees to grow profits raises continual questions around how to lead people and how best to reward them. Getting this consistently wrong presents the growth-stifling business risk of a talent shortage at the HR department's door.\nThe competitive advantage created by a strong employer brand: The paper quotes one Ugandan university's academic staff attrition rate as being ten senior lecturers each year, which punctuates how retaining crucial operational staff through efforts such as aspirational employer branding is a key target for HR professionals in maintaining a competitive marketplace advantage for their organization. Without the talented people to deliver the education, these universities will struggle to be top performers, as any erosion in their reputation threatens the sustainability of their future revenue streams.\nMagnifying talent retention: The study divided employer branding into three categories: reward, people-orientedness, and leadership and development. Scale-rated survey questions such as \"I am unlikely to look for a new job in the next year\" were used to reveal the following results:\nImplementing action: The managerial implications of the results are that a focus on providing a sticky rewards package and building a bona fide people-oriented culture are the avenues through which Ugandan universities are most likely to succeed in increasing their academic staff-retention rate, rather than investing more in leadership and development. For HR to manage their risk, creating a transmission of knowledge culture is one way of mitigating the impact of key employee resignations. By evolving HR policies to boost the reward offer and the people-oriented experience that academic staff receive, a talent-retention strategy can be deliberately pursued. For example, managers could be given greater decision-making scope, under guidance, and over employee rewards such as a bonus or pay rise. A suggested success factor is to promote those managers who follow the resulting reward and people-orientedness strategy well, as their direct actions have a positive impact on retention.\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Employer branding and talent retention: perceptions of employees in higher education institutions in Uganda\" by Matongolo et al. (2018), published in Industrial and Commercial Training. This research paper reveals that pursuing an employer branding strategy that prioritizes improving both rewards and people-orientedness will have a significant positive effect on talent retention among academic staff in Ugandan universities. Focusing on leadership and development, on the other hand, did not have a significant impact on retention rates among the Ugandan respondents.\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 his/her own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This research paper reveals that pursuing an employer branding strategy that prioritizes improving both rewards and people-orientedness will have a significant positive effect on talent retention among the academic staff in Ugandan universities. Focusing on leadership and development, on the other hand, did not have a significant impact on retention rates among the Ugandan respondents.\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"
}
] |
Prioritization of maintenance tasks on industrial equipment for reliability: A fuzzy approach
|
[
"Fuzzy logic",
"Maintenance reliability",
"Risk analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the recent past, reliability centered maintenance (RCM) strategy has gained more adaptability in process industry due to its strength in deciding maintenance requirements using a structured logical approach to ensure high levels of reliability at optimum maintenance expenditure (Nowlan et al., 1978; Moubray, 1997). With reference to industries such as steel, power and oil, it is observed that 3 per cent-5 per cent of the turnover is spent on maintenance. Pintelon et al. (1999) addressed the problem of designing an optimum maintenance concept for process equipment (paint spraying robot) using the concept of RCM. The process plant equipment needs more specialized approach in deciding maintenance requirements, since operating context plays a major role in the degradation process. Operating context is a set of operating conditions in which equipment operates. Deshpande and Modak (2002) have applied RCM on steel rolling mill to develop a maintenance strategy by addressing equipment specific needs, but the maintenance tasks are not prioritized. RCM frame work does not offer the approach to do the same. Failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) can be utilized to identify and prioritize the maintenance tasks based on failure modes using either a Criticality Index or Risk Priority Number (RPN).Sharma et al.(2006) proposed an approach using fuzzy inference system (FIS) with FMEA to compute RPN with maintenance history. In their approach, the parameters to compute RPN namely, frequency of occurrence, severity of risk and non detectability of failure mode, are considered as fuzzy sets using appropriate membership functions. The membership functions for the parameters are deduced from the maintenance records integrated with maintenance expert's knowledge. The rule base is generated to apply approximate reasoning on input variables at various levels. The fuzzy conclusion is aggregated and defuzzified to get a crisp value for RPN.The well-known RPN expression is given in (1): Equation 1 where Of=frequency of failure mode occurrence, S=severity of failure effect and Dp=probability of non detection of failure mode. Hence, RPN is more suitable index for prioritization of maintenance tasks in process plants.While computing RPN (Sharma et al.(2006)), the non detectability of the failure mode occurrence is represented by fuzzy sets using the domain knowledge and classified in terms of linguistic variables, such as low, remote, highly possible, etc. Score is awarded to the classification based on the subjective judgment by the domain experts or limited maintenance data. The approach discussed so far provides, a solution in the absence of adequate maintenance information. But, when the equipment is monitored under predictive monitoring (PDM), useful information is generated in the form of quantitative level of condition indicating parameters. Moreover, other associated PDM information i.e. operating context and frequency of monitoring could also be used to estimate possibility of failure mode detection (POD) along with condition monitoring data. Place et al. (2000) had used the predictive monitoring data of a helicopter gearbox to model degradation process with Bayesian approach and used the same to find out the dependency of the POD to detect functional failure. The model had estimated POD probabilistically and brought out the importance of probability of failure detection as expressed in (2) before the potential failure matures as a functional failure: Equation 2 where p(FF)=probability of functional failure, p(FM)=probability of occurrence of failure mode and p(POD)=probability of detection of failure mode.To integrate the maintenance expert's domain knowledge with PDM data, fuzzy approach is more suitable for handling both quantitative and qualitative data. Therefore, the present paper extends the above two approaches in two ways, i.e.:1. proposes to use PDM data in place of maintenance history; and2. estimating POD with quantitative data from PDM instead of purely relying on expert's opinion.The PDM data are collected and recorded quantitatively using different gadgets, like vibration recorders, thermal imagers, flow indicators etc. The proposed approach is generic and computes RPN two steps using fuzzy inference system (FIS). The approach is demonstrated with application to a large gearbox of an integrated steel plant and results are presented.The paper is organized in five sections. Section 1.1 deals with necessity of RCM and FMEA-RPN approach in process plants. Section 2.0 outlines the fuzzy inference system to use with FMEA. Section 3.0 details the proposed approach with the use of predictive maintenance data to estimate possibility of failure mode detection and RPN. Section 4.0 validates the approach with practical case study. Section 5.0 is summary and conclusions.1.1 Failure mode effect analysis - risk assessment - priority of maintenance task\n2. Process plant equipment - failure mode detection: Process equipment can be classified into three categories, critical, semi-critical and non-critical based on process criticality, operating context and complexity of the equipment. The equipment degradation is estimated using condition indicators (or variables) like, vibration, temperature etc. The amplitude levels of the condition indicators reflect the level of degradation, i.e. higher the level, higher would be the degradation but easier to detect abnormality.The operating context is another important factor, which influences degradation. Operating context is classified into three operating regimes (Edwin and Chaturvedi, 2006), namely, normal, marginal and hostile operating contexts as reproduced in Table I. Under the influence of operating context, it is practically found that condition indicator levels are modulated, thereby true level of degradation can not be inferred by the mere trending of condition indicator's level. Hence, operating context needs to be considered while using condition indicator level to infer state of equipment. Invariably, the maintenance domain expert does not have a precise knowledge about the correlation of the operating context and level of degradation for a given level of condition indicator on the specific equipment (or group of equipments).2.1 Potential - functional failure and probability of failure mode detection\n3. Predictive maintenance data and fuzzy estimation of RPN: approach: The estimation of RPN in two stages as proposed in this paper heavily relies on the predictive maintenance data. The predictive maintenance data can be generated during the periodical monitoring of the industrial equipment with the help of online and off-line measurements, and data recording systems. Online monitoring systems are permanently installed measuring, transmitting and recording devices, such as vibration, temperature, flow, pressure monitors etc, and off-line instruments are like handheld vibration data collectors, thermal imagers, ultrasonic leak/crack detectors etc.The RPN as discussed in the Section 1 and computed using (1), the estimation of the RPN requires, three quantities, i.e. Frequency of Occurrence of failure mode (Of), Severity of risk (S) and probability of non detection of failure mode (Dp). Since the present approach uses fuzzy estimation, the probability of non detection of failure mode is replaced with possibility of failure mode detection (POD) represented by fuzzy sets. Other two variables are also represented by fuzzy sets. In the first step of the approach, the possibility of failure mode detection can be estimated using the fuzzy input variables and FIS-I and the output of the FIS-I can be used as input to FIS-II along with other two inputs to estimate RPN. Table IV provides fuzzy sets and their corresponding FIS input - output relationships.The frequency of occurrence of the failure mode (Of ) is found from the number of withdrawals of equipment from the service in a planned way to eliminate the specified failure mode. This is possible by trending the condition indicator level over a period of time. As the trend level reaches the unacceptable level, the equipment is withdrawn from the service to replace/repair the component, so that the failure mode is eliminated. The best example is that, when the equipment bearing temperature rises to an unacceptable level, the most probable failure mode would be the bearing failure (seizure or break). To avert this failure mode, the bearing would be thoroughly checked and replaced (if necessary), otherwise necessary maintenance actions like adjustment of bearing clearance, alignment etc will be done.The severity of the risk can be estimated from the equipment configuration and operational criticality. The failure mode can be traced back to the component level, and the consequence due to damaged component can be used to estimate the severity in the linguistic form, like very low, moderate and high.\nCase study: To demonstrate the usefulness of the above approach, predictive maintenance data on the large gearbox, which drives the steel rolling mill stand, is used. The gearbox specifications are as given in Table V.The FEMA along with condition indicators is as shown in the Appendix (Table AI). Five failure modes are identified with the gearbox, namely, abnormal sound (F1), abnormal vibration (F2), bearing temperature (F3), bearing vibration (F4) and shaft shear (F5).Step 1\n5. Summary and conclusions: Maintenance needs of the process plants equipments can be better addressed with RCM Approach. Failure mode and effect analysis, helps in identifying all possible failure cause with a specific reference to the component of systems and sub-systems. Predictive monitoring is not only a better maintenance strategy, but also helps in achieving higher maintenance reliability.In this paper, the approach is presented for computing RPN with integration of RCM, FMEA, PDM and FIS to draw a better maintenance plan on industrial equipment, which helps in mapping field data and maintenance engineer's expertise. Through the Aggregation of various variables like operating conditions, severity of risk etc. (which are fuzzy in nature), have been taken care by framing an expert rule base thereby reducing the dependency on equipment history. This approach presented in this paper is generic in nature and can be used on any process equipment to guide maintenance engineer to reach the objective with an engineering reasoning.Further, this approach also offers a quick tool to access maintenance requirements periodically for large number of equipments under various operating context and predictive strategies. Fine tuning of the system is possible and full pledged fuzzy inference system on a hardware platform can be developed for a real-time application. The system is put in a pilot study in an integrated steel plant and observed encouraging results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to prioritize preventive maintenance actions on process equipment by evaluating the risk associated with failure modes using predictive maintenance data instead of maintenance history alone.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In process plants, maintenance task identification is based on the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA). To eliminate or mitigate risk caused by failure modes, maintenance tasks need to be prioritized. Risk priority number (RPN) can be used to rank the risk. RPN is estimated invariably using maintenance history. However, maintenance history has deficiencies, like limited data, inconsistency etc. To overcome these deficiencies, the proposed approach uses the predictive maintenance data clubbed with expert domain knowledge. Unlike the traditional single step approach, RPN is estimated in two steps, i.e. Step 1 estimates the \"Possibility of failure mode detection\" and Step 2 estimates RPN using output of step 1. Fuzzy sets and approximate reasoning are used to handle the uncertainty/imprecision in data and subjectivity/vagueness of expert domain knowledge. Fuzzy inference system is developed using MATLAB(r) 6.5.\nFindings: - The proposed approach is applied to a large gearbox in an integrated steel plant. The gearbox is covered under a predictive maintenance program. RPN for each of the failure modes is estimated with the proposed approach and compared with the maintenance task schedule. The illustrative case study results show that the proposed approach helps in detection of failure modes more scientifically and prevents \"Over maintenance\" to ensure reliability.\nOriginality/value: - This approach gives an opportunity to integrate the predictive maintenance data and subjective/qualitative domain expertise to evaluate the possibility of failure mode detection (POD) quantitatively, which is otherwise purely estimated using subjective judgments. The approach is generic and can be applied to a variety of process equipment to ensure reliability through prioritized maintenance scheduling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Constructing composite indices: Some lessons from developing an economic and social rights fulfilment index for Egypt
|
[
"Composite index",
"Indicator selection",
"Margin of error",
"Missing values",
"Multivariate outliers",
"Scale of measurement",
"Aggregation",
"Weighting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A composite index combines equities and/or other factors to provide a useful statistical measure of overall performance of a targeted phenomenon over time; see Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2008a). In the past, usage of composite indices was included in many statistical and social work, but without mentioning it as a composite index or following its current structure. Nowadays, composite indices are widely used in many fields for measuring certain multidimensional phenomenon.\n2. Construction of composite indices: Many studies in the literature depend on composite indices to measure different phenomena and give a direct message about the situation with one aggregated value (see, e.g. Dharam, 2003). This value can be tracked in different times to check for trend. Additionally, the comparisons across different disaggregation levels can be made using the value of the index to indicate inequalities or gaps. Researchers working on different studies are not necessarily statisticians, and sometimes they do not fully understand the statistical techniques they are using and the characteristics of it that may affect the aggregated value and hence may lead to misleading decisions. This paper gives a model for constructing a composite index and the main problems that may face researchers, especially the ones using households' survey data. Actually, the methodologies can be applied straightforwardly to other composite indices.\n3. The ESRFI: 3.1 The dimensions of the index\n4. Handling the problems of composite indices: As mentioned in previous sections, there are many steps in constructing composite indices, and each step includes many statistical procedures and an uncertainty about the selection between certain methodologies within each step. This section addresses the methodology for the main debatable issues in the construction and measuring of composite indices in general with application on the ESRFI (missing and NA data, outliers, scale of measurement, weighting and aggregation and computing the margin of error).\n5. Results of calculating the ESRFI for Egypt: Based on the methodology presented in the previous sections, the calculations of the ESRFI have been made. In this section, the results of index scores as well as the dimensions are presented with bootstrap 95 percent confidence intervals. Results are presented with disaggregation levels to present the gaps - if any - between different groups. Then different results on each dimension are presented. For all five dimensions, the overall score and the score by different characteristics are presented. All scores are measured on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 is the worst value and 100 is the best value. For all the results, unless otherwise noted, bootstrap results are based on 1,000 bootstrap samples.\n6. Conclusions and policy recommendations: As the economic and social rights are basic and essential rights to all citizens, they should be fulfilled completely. These rights are very well known and stated in all human rights declaration and as well as the Egyptian constitution; the constitutions set obligation of the state to fulfill those rights. This paper quantified those rights by constructing a composite index reflecting the fulfillment of economic and social rights among the Egyptian people. The economic and social rights used in the index are five rights: the Right to Food, Right to Education, Right to Health, Right to Adequate Housing and Right to Decent Work. All rights are defined in details through a theoretical framework. This index is calculated for the first time in Egypt to add a new way in measuring economic and social rights by relying on a composite approach as well as a right-based approach.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to construct, for the first time, composite index for Egypt that measures the economic and social rights fulfillment (ESRF) based on socioeconomic surveys at the household/individual levels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper highlights some of the statistical debatable issues about composite indices and focuses mainly on six of them. Those issues are indicators selection, handling missing data, identification of and dealing with outliers, scale of measurement, computing the margin of error, weights assigned for indicators and domains and aggregation method. Handling these problematic issues gave rise to a rigorous index.\nFindings: The quality of economic and social rights fulfillment index (ESRFI) is judged by its bootstrap standard error. Based on these margin of errors, confidence intervals can be computed and rigorous comparisons across all disaggregation levels of the ESRFI can be made. The results shows that the overall index is accurate and representative in measuring the ESRF in Egypt. Comparisons between rural and urban regions indices show that the rural areas are always worse than the urban areas in all levels of dimensions, especially for the Right to Education and Adequate Housing.\nResearch limitations/implications: The ESRFI is not very current because it is based on the 2010 Egyptian Household Conditions Observatory Survey (EHCOS), which is the latest published version of the survey with complete variables for the index data. When the next EHCOS becomes available, an updated ESRFI can be easily and quickly constructed.\nPractical implications: The ESRFI could strengthen policy formulation that takes into account ESRF, especially by highlighting the situation in different regions and disaggregation levels.\nSocial implications: The proposed ESRFI would strengthen policy formulation that takes into account ESRF, especially by highlighting the situation in different regions and different disaggregation levels.\nOriginality/value: The paper emphasizes the importance of recognizing and handling of the six problematic issues that arise when constructing composite indices. The paper presents the first ESRFI for Egypt and demonstrates the rigor of its construction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Regional demand and supply factors of social entrepreneurship
|
[
"Sweden",
"Social entrepreneurship",
"Determinants",
"Demand and supply factors",
"Demand and supply theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The literature on social entrepreneurship has grown exponentially, with the number of articles increasing by 750 percent from 1991 to 2009 (Short et al., 2009). During the 2008-2010 period, the number of articles tripled compared with the 2005-2007 period (Lehner and Kansikas, 2013). Despite this huge increase, a common understanding of the characteristics of social ventures and social entrepreneurs is still lacking (Bull, 2008). The field of social entrepreneurship is dominated by a business discourse that characterizes social ventures as a particular form of business activity (Bull, 2008). However, it is often assumed that the factors driving individuals toward commercial entrepreneurship also drive them toward social entrepreneurship, and that similar policies should be applied to promote both. Such factors include behavioral factors such as risk taking (Peredo and McLean, 2006; Zahra et al., 2009), recognizing opportunities (Dearlove, 2004; Johnson, 2003; Nicholls, 2006; Peredo and McLean, 2006; Roberts and Woods, 2005; Tracey and Phillips, 2007), being innovative (Austin et al., 2006; Roberts and Woods, 2005), and striving for survival and growth (Sullivan Mort et al., 2003; Weerawardena and Sullivan Mort, 2006).\nTheoretical framework: Research into social entrepreneurship can progress more quickly if the knowledge acquired from commercial entrepreneurship studies is applied (Griffiths et al., 2013). According to Dees et al. (2001, p. 2), social entrepreneurship theory should be based on established theories and research into conventional entrepreneurship, including the demand (pull) and supply (push) theory. According to this theory, factors determining the rate of entrepreneurship can be categorized into demand and supply factors (Verheul et al., 2002). Previous research has distinguished between the demand and supply factors influencing the decision to become an entrepreneur (Dawson and Henley, 2012). The demand side includes factors influencing the need or opportunities for entrepreneurship in a specific context (e.g. the product market and its carrying capacity), while the supply side includes the characteristics of the potential entrepreneur and of the labor market (Verheul et al., 2002; Wennekers et al., 2002). The demand and supply framework has been used in research on social entrepreneurship (e.g. Nicholls, 2006).\nPrevious findings: Previous studies of determinants of social entrepreneurship can be divided into two streams: individual- and environmental-level studies. As can be seen from Table I, individual-level studies investigate determinants associated with social entrepreneurs themselves, such as age and education, while environmental-level studies investigate determinants associated with macro-structural influences such as wealth.\nHypothesis development: Based on the demand and supply theoretical framework and the results of previous research, this section develops several hypotheses regarding possible determinants of social entrepreneurship. The hypotheses are divided into supply- and demand-side hypotheses based on whether the determinant stimulates the supply of social entrepreneurs or the demand for social ventures. As mentioned, some determinants may influence both the supply and demand sides of social entrepreneurship; the hypotheses regarding these determinants are present in a separate sub-section.\nVariables, data, and model specification: Dependent variables\nEmpirical results: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: As shown in the previous section, the results of empirical analysis indicate that both the supply- and demand-side variables are positively and significantly related to the rate of social venture creation in a region. According to these results, regions with higher proportions of males in the workforce, more entrepreneurs, more educated individuals, higher income per capita, higher unemployment, higher proportions of elderly people, and higher urbanization also tend to experience a higher rate of social venture creation.\nConclusions: Social ventures are important contributors to regional development and well-being. However, quantitative empirical research into determinants of non-profit ventures is still scarce (Doherty et al., 2014). This study addressed this gap by empirically investigating seven determinants of non-profit social venture entry at the municipal level in Sweden. Based on the demand and supply framework, the results indicate a positive and significant relationship between four supply-side variables (i.e. gender, education, role model, and wealth), one demand-side variable (i.e. unemployment rate), and two supply- and demand-side variables (i.e. age and urbanization) and the rate of social start-ups.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate determinants of social entrepreneurship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses a large-scale database covering Sweden's 290 municipalities over the 1990-2014 period. The theoretical analysis is based on the demand and supply theory of entrepreneurship, while the empirical analysis is based on feasible generalized least-squares regression models.\nFindings: The results indicate that the male proportion of the workforce, education level, the presence of entrepreneurial role models, wealth, unemployment rate, age, and urbanization positively influence the rate of social venture creation in a region.\nOriginality/value: This is one of few studies that empirically investigate determinants of social entrepreneurship, and the very first in the Swedish context. The study uses a large-scale database and advanced regression methods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A consumer-based view of multi-channel service
|
[
"Customer service management",
"Customer service quality",
"Customer relations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Driven to generate value-in-use, many organizations have become multi-channel service providers by increasing the number of service channels available to their customers in an effort to improve the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and consistency of their frontline operations (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2004). Likewise, the development of communications and information technology has increased the ways in which customers choose to interact with service firms (Froehle and Roth, 2004). Forrester research estimates that multi-channel shopping in the USA will grow from 20 percent of total retail sales in 2007 to 38 percent in 2012. That would be $1.1 trillion in retail sales to multi-channel customers (Deloitte, 2008). As Lusch and Vargo (2006) point out, value can only be created with and determined by the user in the consumption process. Thus, the potential benefit of a multi-channel strategy in terms of improved service and cost efficiencies is appealing. As the number of channels grows, however, managing the interface with the customer can be a significant challenge.We define multi-channel service as the use of alternative modes of contact by customers to interact with and obtain service from an organization. For instance, customer contact with an airline may be face-to-face through frontline employees who use technology to assist the customer (e.g. an airline representative at the check-in counter); it may also be remote either through back-office representatives (e.g. the airlines' call center) or without the presence of a human representative (e.g. web sites and self-service kiosks). The infusion of technology may reduce the cost of servicing customer needs and enhance loyalty (Wallace et al., 2004), but loyalty may also be damaged by negative experiences (Bitner et al., 2000) or the decrease in human contact (Neslin et al., 2006).There is evidence that customer shopping patterns have evolved in response to multiple channel retailing (Wallace et al., 2004) and that multi-channel shoppers have higher expenditures than do single-channel customers (Kumar and Venkatesan, 2005). Consequently, a growing number of firms attempt to provide multiple integrated channels (Bendoly et al., 2005) as a way of retaining customers and minimizing the consequences of service failures on alternative channels. The multi-channel strategy extends beyond retailing to a wide range of services (e.g. airlines, mobile phones, hospitality, healthcare, banking and financial services, and courier companies). This trend motivates two important questions: how do customers evaluate a multi-channel service interface? How do multi-channel interfaces affect relationships with customers?Our study contributes to this emerging area of research with a consumer-based view of the multi-channel experience where substitute service channels are considered components of a comprehensive service interface. Previous research has examined some multi-channel issues, such as the use of online channels (Montoya-Weiss et al., 2003), customer satisfaction in online vs offline channels (Shankar et al., 2003), online/in-store integration (Bendoly et al., 2005), and perceptions of channel value by multi-channel shoppers (Wallace et al., 2004). Explication of a multi-channel service concept is important in understanding the impact of innovations in service delivery. In particular, customers may use the multi-channel experience to determine how to evaluate service delivery and to form impressions about the quality of relationship with the organization. A consumer-based measure of multi-channel service will allow managers to identify areas for improvement and innovation in service delivery. Investment in technology can be better matched to consumer requirements to ensure a positive return on the investment.This study elucidates four measures of multi-channel service and shows the effect of these measures on relational mediators and loyalty (Figure 1). First, we briefly review the literature that guides the development of measures for a consumer-based view of multi-channel service. Subsequently, we develop the measures and preliminary hypotheses of the influence of multi-channel service on relational mediators and loyalty. Next, we use survey data from two contexts to test the hypotheses. Finally, we review the results, suggest ways in which managers can benefit from the results of this study, and indicate avenues for future research.\nConsumer-based view of multi-channel service: Customer response to the service interface\nAnalysis and results: Measurement evaluation\nDiscussion: Review of empirical results\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Consumers increasingly experience multi-channel service and a significant challenge for the service organization is to ensure that the design of the multi-channel interface contributes to the service experience and helps to build bonds with customers. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate four features (i.e. problem-handling, record accuracy, usability, and scalability) used by customers to evaluate multi-channel service and investigates their impact on customer relationship and loyalty intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study involves an online survey with customers selected randomly in two service industries. Empirical data are analyzed using structural equation models.\nFindings: - Customer evaluations of the multi-channel service interface have a strong influence on customer trust in the organization but a negligible impact on customer commitment. Trust, however, has a positive effect on commitment, thus enhancing customer loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The measures developed in the study represent a summary account for considerations involving multi-channel service. However, the ability to capture the hypothesized roles of the multi-channel service interface suggests a robust foundation for future research. These consumer-based measures provide managers with a blueprint allowing for the integrated analysis and design of customer touch points.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides key variables to advance the study of multi-channel service. Ways are suggested in which firms can benefit from a view of their service channels as an interface system to inform effective service design strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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