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The application situation and determinants of postponement: A field survey for large manufacturers in Greater China
|
[
"China",
"Information systems",
"Production scheduling",
"Operations and production management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Postponement is a strategy that simultaneously reduces delivery times and increases flexibility by postponing building, packaging, or assembling products until a concrete order from a client is received (Chopra and Meindl, 2001). The core concept of this strategy is to have common components during most of the push phases within a supply chain and to shift product differentiation to pull phases. Many industrial giants such as Xilinx, HP, Dell, and Benetton, have used postponement and the scope of postponement research has expanded to include marketing, logistics, manufacturing, product development, purchasing, and promotion processes (Yang et al., 2005). Reasons for the increased interest in postponement vary, but growth in postponement is partially reflects the increased demand for customized products (Boone et al., 2007).Many researchers have discussed postponement in terms of definitions, types and typology, practical applications, and cost-benefit analysis, but some research gaps remain. First, the literature has anticipated that applications of postponement will increase (Council of Logistics Management - CLM, 1995; Morehouse and Bowersox, 1995; van Hoek, 1998), while some empirical studies (Battezzati and Magnani, 2000; Brown et al., 2000; Yang et al., 2005) found that postponement applications have not been utilized as much as expected. Most survey research on postponement has been conducted in Western countries, especially the USA and the UK, although postponement is widely practiced in other regions. There are still very few field studies on postponement in the Greater China region. An objective of this research is to conduct an exploratory survey of applications of postponement in Greater China.Second, applying postponement to a whole organization involves considering many factors, such as costs, product design, and characteristics of supply chains. Since 1990s, Greater China has been become the world's factory because of its low labor and land costs. Recently Greater China has been developing other strategic advantages such as the managerial capability, especially in manufacturing and supply chain management. Some evidences from case studies (Graman and Magazine, 2006; Huang and Lo, 2003; Wang et al., 2006) point out that when postponement strategies are applied, relevant adjustments in organizational structure and human resources, improvement on management systems, and optimization of management information systems (ISs) will be needed. Earlier research on postponement in Greater China (Chiou et al., 2002; Graman and Magazine, 2006; Huang and Lo, 2003; Wang et al., 2006) has suggested that demand uncertainty and internal operations are key drivers for the use of postponement applications. Therefore, this paper tries to assess the effects of environmental uncertainty, IS maturity, and production techniques on the use of postponement in the circumstances of Greater China.The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the theoretical bases derived from past literature, Section 3 describes the measurement of constructs and the design of data collection, Sections 4 and 5, respectively, present data analysis and discussion, and the last section describes the research's limitations and suggests future research.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Postponement\n3 Research methodology: 3.1 Measurement\n4 Results, analysis, and discussions: 4.1 Validity and reliability\n5 Discussion: 5.1 Usage of postponement is increasing in Greater China\n6 Limitations and further research: Although rigorous research procedures are followed, several limitations should be acknowledged. First, larger firms may be advantaged by greater financial resources and economies of scales in implementing and practising postponement. We suggest that the effect of company size on postponement be studied. Second, there may be some organizational factors (such as expertise, financial resources, and the development of IT system, etc.) that would limit postponement in small and medium enterprises. Future studies should therefore consider the effects of other potentially relevant firm-specific variables especially managerial skills.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The concept of postponement has been developed over many years. Past empirical research has been conducted almost entirely in Western countries. This paper aims to investigate the current status of postponement applications in Greater China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) to ascertain the effects of some determinants (i.e. environmental uncertainty, production techniques, and information system (IS) maturity) on postponement application.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A field survey of big manufacturers of electronic/information technology, clothing, and electric appliances is conducted. A total of 106 usable responses are received from 411 surveys yielding a satisfactory response rate of 25.8 percent.\nFindings: - The result indicates that the number of applications of postponement in Greater China is growing and the incidence of postponement applications is higher than in the Western countries. Environmental uncertainty, production techniques, and ISs maturity have have positive effects on applications of postponement techniques. Some specific postponement strategies for the three industries studied are noted.\nOriginality/value: - From an exploratory perspective, the findings present in this paper may be useful in the sense that they give a broad and general picture of the current situation of the use of postponement in certain industries in Greater China.\n",
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] |
Managing browsing experience in retail stores through perceived value: implications for retailers
|
[
"Browsing",
"Perceived value",
"Satisfaction",
"Behavioural intentions",
"Shopping",
"Retail trade",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Marketing environment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The development of experiential approach initiated by Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) incited many retailers to give up traditional marketing practices focusing on products/services' attributes for the benefit of experiential marketing focusing on hedonic aspect of consumption's experience. This shift mobilized big investments in store's conception and atmosphere to offer pleasurable experiences (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Turley and Chebat, 2002; Backstrom and Johansson, 2006; Bellantine et al., 2010; Pantano and Naccarato, 2010) and to delight and surprise consumers (Knee, 2002; Arnold et al., 2005; Chitturi et al., 2008). Consequently, consumers consider some stores and malls as places where they can enjoy their time and satisfy their experiential needs. This may lead them to consume places rather than products:While the shops are designed strategically for commerce, at the moment of the encounter between the mall and the consumer, the organizing principles lose their determinacy; people are free to use the mall as they wish, thus producing their own ways of consuming the mall (Sandikci and Holt, 1998).At the Sharper Image or Brookstone, notice how many people play with the gadgets, listen to miniaturized stereo equipment, sit in massage chairs without paying for what they valued (Pine and Gilmore, 1999).This may explain the increase of some behaviors such as \"browsing\" which consists in visiting stores for recreational and informational motivations without intention to buy (Bloch and Richins, 1983; Jarboe and McDaniel, 1987; Bloch et al., 1989; Lombart, 2004; Lombart and Labbe-Pinlon, 2007). It's surprising that this kind of consumers interests few researches in marketing and no studies examine how browsers live this experience, what benefits they derive from it and if their presence in stores is profitable or not for retailers.The existence of browsers in stores undoubtedly helps retailers to generate traffic, but how it can be profitable to have such category of consumers in stores? The study of perceived value related to browsing experience could help retailers in this issue since it allows transforming browsers from simple visitors to loyal consumers. Indeed, it has been highlighted that the creation of value for consumers may be the best way to achieve their satisfaction and loyalty (Jones and Sasser, 1995; Payne and Holt, 2001).The current paper presents an integrative framework to understand browsing experience and its benefits for retailers. It aims to find empirical evidence regarding the relationship between experiential value related to browsing, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The remaining of this paper is organized as follows. First, we review relevant literature and set up hypotheses followed by a description of research methodology. Then, we discuss the findings and precise the implications for retailers. Finally, we conclude with limitations of the research, and avenues for future research.\nConceptual framework and hypothesis: Shopping and browsing experiences\nResearch methodology: Questionnaire and sampling\nResearch findings: The structural model\nDiscussion and implications: By investigating experiential value of browsing, this paper expands the existing literature that has followed a dominant motivational approach. Although such an approach has provided important insights to the study of browsing, it has the drawback of neglecting the experiential side of browsing which revealed in addition to hedonic aspects, functional, social and even spiritual facets. Hence, studying browsing as an experience revealed value's sources that have never been addressed in browsing literature and helped to understand in a holistic way this experience.This paper is primarily aimed at examining the role of perceived value in managing browsing experience by focusing on its determinants and its consequences in terms of satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The results provide evidence describing how situational factors impact the value derived from browsing experience. For instance, store atmosphere is a key determinant of hedonic, social and spiritual value of browsing experience. Hence, retailers who aim to create such value's types for browsers should create a store environment that stimulates: senses to please browsers, interactions between browsers, customers and salespersons to reinforce social value, and imaginations to help accessing spiritual world. This contributes to browser's immersion and leads to memorable browsing experience. Results show that store atmosphere has also an important effect on excellence, efficiency and economic value emphasizing therefore the key role played by physical environment in inducing positive evaluation of the products' quality/prices and managing in an efficient way the time spent in the store.When the effect of accompanying on browsing's experiential value was examined, we found that companions influence only other-oriented value (social practice, social interaction, status and spirituality). Hence, \"co-browsing\" is viewed as a social act that enhances the browser's status and gives the opportunity for socialization and affiliation with others. Unexpected finding concerns the influence of companions in creating spiritual value. It seems that companions make the browser feel psychologically comfortable and represent a prerequisite to feelings of wellbeing facilitating thus the access to spiritual experience.Concerning the relationship between browser's motivation and experiential value and given that utilitarian, hedonic and social value are associated with browser's informational and recreational motivation, it's relevant for retailers to consider this dual nature of motivation when communicating in the store by focusing not only on experiential aspects of browsing, but also on the products' quality and the width of the merchandise assortment offered. The link mood-experiential value revealed that when in a good mood, browsers perceive service excellence. This result suggests that mood play a prominent role in inducing favorable evaluation of retailer's performances. Besides, when in a good mood, browsers are more predisposed to communicate with salespersons. The latest might trigger impulsive buying and mood can thus be seen as a means to influence browser's decisions. This research has also shed light on the fact that when browser visits the store in a slack period, spiritual value is higher. This finding is basically in accord with the findings of previous research (Babin et al., 1994; Eroglu et al., 2005) showing that stress and discomfort created by crowding will decrease the ability to appreciate an experience. It seems that when there's no crowding, browsers feel more relaxed and devote time to themselves in peace and quiet which facilitates the access to spiritual experience.Concerning the consequences of experiential browsing value, this study indicates a clear pattern: browsing's experiential value does not systematically lead to satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, the value resulting from browsing experience acts differently on the affective and cognitive components of satisfaction. In fact, when it comes with aesthetics, play and excellence, the effect concerns both cognitive and affective satisfaction, while for others value's types (efficiency and social practice), only one satisfaction's component is involved. Consequently, to manage efficiently browsing experience, it would be interesting for retailers to focus on value's types such as aesthetic, play, social practice, excellence and efficiency for which the influence on satisfaction and future intentions has been proved.By giving the image of store that offers fun browsing experiences, it is possible for retailers to gain a competitive advantage not easily achievable by competitors because the more common attributes on which companies build their image are merchandising, atmosphere or service (Sit et al., 2003). Besides, entertainment in retailing represents a powerful tool that facilitates learning processes (Pantano and Naccarato, 2010), so entertaining browsing experiences might help browser to learn more about the offer's characteristics and to use this knowledge for a further purchase decision.Retailers who are seeking to provide satisfying browsing experiences should work on social practice value derived from the interaction between the browser and his companions. Indeed, customer-customer interaction is a source of information that is more credible than the interaction with the salespersons. Therefore, managers should encourage browsing as a group activity. This requires first a store layout that stimulates social interactions such as creating a space of communication between consumers around a specific or a particular event. The result concerning the influence of social value on satisfaction offers also an interesting theoretical perspective. Indeed, researches studying the relationship between perceived value and satisfaction have mostly linked satisfaction to hedonic and utilitarian value without taking into consideration the value's social component. Thus, a contribution of this study lies in integrating social value as a relevant analysis' axis to better understand the satisfaction related to an experience.The finding that efficiency and excellence influences browser's satisfaction suggests that browsers should perceive the saving of time, not only in terms of free time browsing experience can achieve, but also as a means to enrich their knowledge about the offer. Therefore, retailers should focus on store's layout that facilitate information search and use technologies like automatic machines and display screens in order to make the knowledge transfer easier.This study evidenced that some value's types such as social interaction, spirituality and economic value are not always taken into consideration by the browser in his satisfaction's judgment. It thus seems necessary to narrow down what may induce satisfaction and to go beyond the simple relationship between perceived value and satisfaction. An effort must be made by searching for the value's sources that are causing satisfaction.Managers might assume that the browser's loyalty, both in the repeat behavior and in the positive word-of-mouth, comes from the affective component of satisfaction. This emphasizes the role of emotions in predicting behavior and leads managers to focus on the emotional content of browsing experience: given that high levels of emotional intensity can be achieved through extraordinary experiences (Arnould and Price, 1993), it may be interesting for example to create unusual events (e.g. inviting celebrities in the store) that amaze and surprise browsers.Finally, the browsers that participated in this study are mainly young female people (under 35 years). This is meant to be highly dependent on cosmetic retail context and show that in this specific context, browsers represent a large and influential market segment. In fact, younger people are more easily influenced by peer opinions (Mangleburg, 2004), so browsers may exert positive or negative influence on other consumers during browsing experience or after through word-of-mouth communication. They constitute thus important information's sources acting on others consumers' decisions and influencing store image.\nLimitations and future research: One limitation of this research may be due to the sample, which was drawn mainly from female (91.9 percent). To justify this limit, we rely on most researches on browsing (Bloch and Richins, 1983; Lombart, 2004) which show the big interest of women to this type of experience. However, the integration of a larger sample of male would have made results statistically richer. A further limitation pertains to the measurement of the perceived value construct. Given the absence of a scale that reflects all the types of value identified by Holbrook (1999), \"esteem\" and \"ethics\" dimensions was not included.Future studies may be needed to conduct this study in other stores' types, such as clothing stores, bookstores or interior decoration stores and compare the results with those found in this paper. Furthermore, using a longitudinal study is strongly recommended to see the evolution of satisfaction's levels over time and whether the intentions have been realized (White, 2010). This longitudinal study would also examine if value's sources vary or not over time. Forthcoming researches may concern browsing online. Thus, it might be interesting to compare real and virtual contents of browsing experiences and to examine which is more profitable for the retailer and/or consumer.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The objective of this paper is to examine the role of perceived value in managing browsing experience by focusing on its determinants and its consequences in terms of satisfaction and behavioral intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data were collected through a survey of 470 browsers frequenting cosmetic stores. Structural equation modeling and ANOVA are applied to test hypothesis.\nFindings: - The empirical study allowed testing the effect of situational factors (store atmosphere, accompanying, motivation, mood and time of visit) on browsing's perceived value. It has also contributed to identify value's sources which lead to browser's satisfaction and loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitation of this research concerns mainly results' generalization related to methodological issue.\nPractical implications: - The conclusions offer managers the opportunity to learn more about browsers and how to establish a long-term relationship with them.\nOriginality/value: - This paper brings new insights by considering browsing as a fully-fledged experience from which the study of perceived value and satisfaction are of a great interest for retailers who aim to make browsers loyal consumers.\n",
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Maintenance management for transportation process in quarry industry
|
[
"Preventive maintenance",
"Maintenance management",
"Autonomous maintenance",
"Deming cycle",
"Quarry industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: At present, the economic and social growth has led to the expansion of construction of roads, various buildings, etc. Consequently, the increasing demand of numerous stones for use in the construction necessitating the improvement of stone production should be more efficient and productive. The transportation of mineral stones from a quarry to a crushing plant is one of the important primary processes since, without it, there will not be sufficient raw material to feed the crusher, rendering it inefficient. The machines deemed important to the process are excavators and ten-wheel trucks. The excavators perform the function of scooping up stones at the mine site for loading on to ten wheel trucks for transporting to crushing plant. Such transportation is in the harsh conditions involving heavy loads, working area on steep mountains with potholes and earthen, dusty roads. The working conditions of this process cause the excavators and ten-wheel trucks to work harder than usual, moreover resulting in emergency breakdowns that cause the frequent stoppages of the crushing plant.\n2. Theories and related researches: 2.1 Importance and types of maintenance\n3. Conducting research: This research started with building a working team and enhancing team's knowledge, followed by brainstorming to set up a maintenance management plan in line with the Deming cycle. The process began with initiating the first Deming cycle for the strategic plan to assess the machinery conditions and capabilities and ensure that the machinery was ready for use. Moreover, the investment evaluation for machinery improvement was obtained. The second cycle was the tactical plan. The PM plan, the AM plan, schedules and activities were designed, and the third cycle was to conduct personnel training for proper use of machinery, including doing suitable activities according to PM and AM. Figure 2 illustrates the flowchart of conducting this research.\n4. Implementation results: After the implementation of the Deming cycle, the results are as follows.\n5. Comparison results of the improvements.: After the implementation according to the Deming cycle, a comparison is made on the availability of excavators and ten-wheel trucks including the process capability value of the mineral stone transportation process before and after the Deming cycle was applied. The availability value of excavator and ten-wheel trucks is shown in Table VI.\n6. Conclusions: The paper revealed the adaptability of the Deming cycle for planning maintenance management covering strategic, tactical and operation planning. It is suitable for factories where the machines work on heavier load than usual and personnel involved in operating the machines are not so knowledgeable. It can increase both the availability value of excavators and ten-wheel trucks, and the capability of the transportation mineral stone process from a quarry to a stone crushing plant. Such improvements and development shall continue in line with the Deming cycle which will not stop at this juncture. Whenever new problems are encountered, it will be brought to the attention of the working team meeting to find an appropriate solution.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enhance the capability in managing the maintenance of the transportation process from a quarry to a crushing plant, measured by the availability value and the process capability value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The maintenance management plan consists of plans for three levels of management: strategy, tactical and operational maintenance plans. The Deming cycle is a continuous improvement tool use for controlling and monitoring activities of the plans. There are three Deming cycles according to these plans, the first of which involves the improvement of machine performance and investment evaluation. The second involves the improvement of plans, schedule, and activities of preventive maintenance including autonomous maintenance. The third is for human resource development on maintenance works. Moreover, the feedback of a prior round of each cycle comes early to detect abnormalities that provide better capability in maintenance.\nFindings: Three Deming cycles can use for enhancing the maintenance management. The parameters are availability (A) of machines and the capability process (Cpk) of the transportation process. The results of this research state that the availability value of machines increases to 80-92 percent while the process capability value increases to 0.56.\nPractical implications: The maintenance management, especially strategic plan, tactical plan and operational plan via the Deming cycle, can be implemented in other medium-sized industries with limited technology and personnel. It was found that the implementation of the plans has continued to progress with the Deming cycle.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes how to successfully implement the maintenance management for medium-sized industries with limited technology and personnel. The maintenance management of three levels is carried out simultaneously by using the Deming cycle. This work has proven to be successful which can be expressed in the availability and the capability process values.\n",
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] |
Ethics and crisis translation: insights from the work of Paul Ricoeur
|
[
"Ethics",
"Justice",
"Virtue ethics",
"Paul Ricoeur",
"Crisis translation",
"Disaster bioethics",
"Linguistic hospitality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Disasters and humanitarian crises lead to calls for help which are answered by neighbours and local agencies, as well as by responders from diverse disciplines and organisations coming from many parts of the world. Many disasters occur in locales where a variety of distinct linguistic communities live, and, in many crises, international responders have limited capacity to communicate in local languages and dialects. These events thus inevitably lead to interactions between people with different languages, creating urgent needs for translation and resulting in various challenges. Crisis translation is the term used for translation that occurs during these types of crises. Although various definitions of a crisis have been proposed, three conditions are generally present: expectations that have been violated, significant threats and the need for a response (Sellnow and Seeger, 2013). Elsewhere, we have adapted the work of Sellnow and Seeger to define crisis translation \"as the act of transferring meaning and cultural encodings from one language/cultural system to another, either in written, oral, or signed modes, before, during or after a crisis\" (Hunt et al., in press). Within this understanding of crisis translation, our focus here is on humanitarian crises where responders are not proficient in local languages. This most clearly applies to international responders, but can be relevant within countries where many languages are spoken, especially with minority languages. Similarly, when crises occur in regions where refugees and migrants live, language issues can be a factor for domestic responders.\nTranslation during crises through the lens of Ricoeur's work on translation: Much of Ricoeur's (1974, 1976, 1978) foundational work was concerned with language and interpretation, leading him to focus on hermeneutics. Only later in his career did he explicitly address translation (Kearney, 2006). For him, translation included the commonly understood means of taking ideas from one language and rendering them understandable in another language, but Ricoeur also had a more psychological understanding of these practices as a means of translating oneself to oneself or to others (Kearney, 2006). He held that translation is a labour involving both tension and suffering as it seeks to bridge the gap between what Ricoeur called \"two masters\", which could be \"an author and a reader, a self and another\" (Kearney, 2006, p. xv). In this way, translation for Ricoeur can refer to either textual or oral communication. Our paper will address both formats as the ethical implications apply equally to both, though we acknowledge that there are important differences between these activities that have important practical implications.\nTranslation during crises through the lens of Ricoeur's work on ethics: Ricoeur was pluralistic in his approach to ethics (Pellauer, 2019). He addressed ethics throughout his career, but his fullest statement was presented later in what he called his petite ethique, or \"little ethics\" (Ricoeur, 1992, p. 290). For him, the goal of ethics was \"the 'good life' with and for others, in just institutions\" (Ricoeur, 1992, p. 172). Approaches to ethics are often separated into those which are, very broadly speaking, teleological (consequences-focussed), deontological (duty-focussed) or based on virtues (focussed on character traits). Barnett and Snyder (2008) note that \"the language of moral duties and responsibilities underlies much of the discussion on humanitarian aid\", but since the early 2000s, they identified an increasing focus on an \"ethic of consequences\" among humanitarian organisations (p. 143). Virtue ethics approaches have received considerably less attention in humanitarian ethics, though these have been seen by some as having the potential to enrich ethical discussion in the field (Slim, 1997; Hunt et al., 2014; Lofquist, 2017).\nLinguistic hospitality: Ricoeur's discussions of ethics and of translation are very much focussed on others and not primarily the self. Ricoeur (1992) developed his \"little ethics\" in Soi-meme comme un Autre, published in 1990 and translated as Oneself as Another. An aspect of ethics is learning to see how our actions could be interpreted by others, and how others view us and our actions. We noted earlier that as Ricoeur reviewed the history of translation, he found that encountering new cultures could produce fear of the other. Rather than letting this negative reaction dictate behaviour, Ricoeur noted that curiosity about the other can lead to a desire to translate. But \"translation sets us not only intellectual work, theoretical or practical, but also an ethical problem. Bringing the reader to the author, bringing the author to the reader, at the risk of serving and of betraying two masters: this is to practise what I like to call linguistic hospitality\", originally hospitalite langagiere (Ricoeur, 2006, p. 23, emphasis original). This brings us back to his relational approach to translation as well as ethics: \"the 'good life' with and for others, in just institutions\" (Ricoeur, 1992, p. 172).\nConclusion: putting Ricoeur's ideas into practice for crisis translation: As we have described above, Ricoeur's ideas around translation, ethics and linguistic hospitality provide useful lenses through which the ethics of crisis translation can be examined. They help us understand better the ethical dimensions of language and its translation during crises. They also offer insights for practice. As humanitarians respond to crises, those who are suffering can come to be seen as passive victims who have neither resources nor the capacity to overcome the challenges they face. Responders then come as rescuers to save those in need. Ethical challenges, from this perspective, turn around the question of how the limited resources brought by responders can be fairly distributed among people in need. Viewing the situation through the lens of Ricoeur's ethical understanding calls on responders to practice humility, be open to engage with people affected by crisis, and to develop \"two-way learning\" (Footitt, 2017, p. 529). While local people may have lost their property and possessions, they have other essential resources which can be shared with responders. These include their linguistic and cultural expertise which responders should want to learn about and learn from. Through this process, responders may come to learn about local resources such as community values and institutions which emphasise helping and sharing with neighbours, or individual character strengths which bring resilience in the face of suffering. Stories and sayings from other languages may capture and communicate values and concepts better, allowing deeper understanding from their translation. Engaging with communities with a desire to learn from them would differ significantly from an approach where the focus is only \"on the contractual, the standard and the quantifiable\" (Footitt, 2017, p. 519). The former exemplifies linguistic hospitality.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethical dimensions of crisis translation through the lenses of Paul Ricoeur's philosophical scholarship. In particular, his work on both translation and ethics will be examined in order to draw practical applications for those involved in humanitarian action.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors identified relevant themes in the work of renowned philosopher Paul Ricoeur and used philosophical analysis to apply them to ethical issues in crisis translation.\nFindings: Paul Ricoeur was one of the leading philosophers in the twentieth century, writing on a wide variety of topics. From these, his work on translation and on ethics provided suitable ways to examine ethical issues in crisis translation. In particular, his concept of \"linguistic hospitality\" provides an important lens through which translation ethics can be examined. In addition, Ricoeur's approach to ethics emphasised relational and justice dimensions which are crucial to examine in humanitarian settings.\nPractical implications: While the findings are conceptual, they have many practical implications for how translation is approached in humanitarian crises. The focus on justice in Ricoeur's approach has implications for policy and practice and serves to ensure that translation is available for all affected communities and that all groups are included in discussions around humanitarian responses.\nSocial implications: Ricoeur's work provides important insights into both translation and ethics that have significant social implications. His ideas highlight the personal and emotional aspects of translation and ethics, and point to their relational character. His openness to others provides an important basis for building trust and promoting dignity even in difficult humanitarian settings.\nOriginality/value: Ricoeur's ethics points to the importance of persons and their relationships, reminding responders that translation is not just a mechanical exercise. This approach fosters an interest in and openness to others and their languages, which can promote respect towards those being helped in humanitarian crises.\n",
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Enhancing the consumer-perceived benefits of a mass-customized product through its online sales configurator: An empirical examination
|
[
"Consumer value",
"E-commerce websites",
"Mass customization toolkits",
"Product self-customization",
"Sales configurators"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The popularity of offering online mass customization (MC) has been growing in both product and service industries (Jiang et al., 2015). In its more visionary sense, MC denotes the ability to profitably provide individually designed products and services to every customer anytime, anywhere, and any way he/she wants it (da Silveira et al., 2001; Chandra and Grabis, 2004). More pragmatically, many scholars define MC as the ability to deliver a wide range of products and services that meet specific needs of individual customers at near the cost of a mass-production system (da Silveira et al., 2001; Chandra and Grabis, 2004).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Consumer-perceived benefits of a mass-customized product\n3. Research hypotheses: To narrow the above-mentioned gap in the literature, the five (online) SC capabilities conceptualized by Trentin et al. (2013, 2014) were considered and hypotheses were developed about their effects on consumer-perceived UN and SE, as well as on the traditionally considered consumer-perceived UT of possessing a mass-customized product.\n4. Method: To test the hypothesized relationships, an empirical study was designed using a convenience sample of postgraduate students of management engineering at a large, public university in Italy. The students in an MC class were given extra credit for taking part in the research. On average, the participants had a positive attitude toward online shopping and sufficient expertise in using the internet to conduct transactions (Table II).\n5. Results and discussion: In accord with this study's research hypotheses, the full model included the impacts of all five SC capabilities on consumer-perceived UT, UN, and SE. The typical fit indices consistently demonstrated that this model fits the data well (cf. Table V).\n6. Conclusions, limitations, and directions for future research: The results of this study extend the current understanding of how online SCs can enhance the consumer-perceived benefits of possessing a mass-customized product. This is the first empirical study that offers insights into which characteristics an online SC should have in order to draw from two sources of consumer-perceived benefits - uniqueness and self-expressiveness - that recent studies have suggested are largely untapped (de Bellis et al., 2016). The paper does so by showing that online SCs with higher EC, FlexN, and FocN lead not only to greater consumer-perceived UT, but also to greater UN and SE. However, higher levels of BCC and UFD enhance consumer-perceived UT but neither UN nor SE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on online sales configurators (SCs), also known as mass-customization toolkits, which enable consumers to self-customize their product solutions online. The paper aims to provide new insights into which characteristics of an online SC increase the consumer-perceived benefits of possessing a mass-customized product.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Previous studies on mass customization (MC), sales configuration, and learning psychology are used to develop the research hypotheses, which are tested by analyzing data from 675 configuration experiences from a convenience sample of potential consumers using 31 real online SCs for laptops/notebooks, economy cars, and sport shoes/sneakers.\nFindings: The paper finds support for the hypotheses that SCs with higher flexible-navigation, focused-navigation, and easy-comparison capabilities enhance not only the traditionally considered utilitarian benefit (UT), but also the consumer-perceived uniqueness benefit (UN) and self-expressiveness (SE) benefit (SE). Furthermore, consistent with the study's hypotheses, SCs with higher benefit-cost communication and user-friendly product-space description capabilities are found to improve UT. The hypotheses that these two capabilities enhance UN and SE, however, are not supported. Post-hoc analyses suggest that the examined SCs are generally UT-centered and need improvement of their ability to communicate the UN and the SE a consumer could derive from the purchase of his/her configured product.\nOriginality/value: While prior research has primarily been concerned with conceptually arguing and empirically showing that uniqueness and self-expressiveness are two additional sources of consumer value in business-to-consumer MC, this is the first empirical study that offers insights into which characteristics online SCs should have in order to draw from these two value sources.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The role of ideal self-congruence and brand attachment in consumers' negative behaviour: Compulsive buying and external trash-talking
|
[
"Negative behaviour",
"Brand attachment",
"Compulsive buying",
"External trash-talking",
"Ideal self-congruence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The self-concept theory posits that individuals have two different types of self, namely, the actual-self and ideal-self (Malar et al., 2011; Escalas and Bettman, 2003). Actual-self refers to the individual's perceived reality of oneself, whereas ideal-self refers to the individual's aspirations of ideals and goals to be achieved in the future. Self-congruence refers to perceived personality fit between the consumer and the brand (Aaker, 1999). When the brand's image is congruent with the consumer's self-image, consumers are likely to establish strong emotional attachment and loyalty with the brand (Malar et al., 2011; Thomson et al., 2005; Park et al., 2010).\n2. Research hypotheses: 2.1 Self-congruence and emotional brand attachment\n3. The studies: Study 1a and Study 1b have been undertaken to explore these propositions. Study 1a was based on a mail survey of 280 respondents within the UK. Using the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach, the research hypotheses were tested. Study 1b was conducted to assess the external and predictive validity of the research model. The data were based on an electronic survey of 152 respondents.\n4. Study 1a: 4.1 Measures\n5. Study 1b: The objective of Study 1b is to assess external and predictive validity of the model. Woodside (2013) advocates the need to test for predictive validity and not just fit validity. One way of testing the external and predictive validity is using additional samples of cases (Woodside, 2015). Hence, we replicated Study 1a with additional samples.\n6. Post hoc analysis: To test the robustness of the results, we conducted further tests. First, we pooled the data from Study 1a and Study 1b. Thus, there were 432 respondents. Second, we formed ideal self-congruence into high and low group, based on the mean score. For respondents that score above the mean score, they were categorised into high ideal self-congruence group, whereas the rest were categorised into low ideal self-congruence group. Third, we tested the direct effects of ideal self-congruence on compulsive buying and external trash-talking using ANOVA (bootstrap 5,000 samples). The results of the ANOVA analysis show that ideal self-congruence has a significant main effect on compulsive buying (Misc high = 2.66 vs Misc low = 2.27, F = 7.41, p < 0.01), whereas it does not have a significant main effect on external trash-talking (Misc high = 3.11 vs Misc low = 2.81, F = 3.62, p > 0.05). Based on these results, we continued to analyse the mediation effect of emotional brand attachment.\n7. Discussion: 7.1 Theoretical contribution\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of ideal self-congruence in instigating two types of negative consumer behaviours - compulsive buying and external trash-talking - and the mediating role of brand attachment on these relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two studies were designed using a structural equation modelling methodology. Study 1a was based on a mail survey of 280 respondents, whereas Study 1b was based on an electronic survey of 152 respondents. Study 1b was conducted to test the external validity of the research model.\nFindings: In Study 1a, ideal self-congruence affects emotional brand attachment and in turn emotional brand attachment affects compulsive buying behaviour and external trash-talking. The mediation analysis indicates that emotional brand attachment mediates the relationships. Study 1b offers support to the results of Study 1a.\nPractical implications: From a practical point of view, this study is useful for policymakers seeking to regulate and prevent excessive consumerism. For marketers, they should understand that brand attachment leads to compulsive buying and external trash-talking, which may provide immediate benefit for the brand or the firm. However, marketers should understand that these two negative behaviours may harm the firm image and consumers' well-being in the long run.\nSocial implications: Apart from practical implications, firms should consider alleviating compulsive buying, as it is harmful to society. Similarly, excessive external trash-talking may lead to physical aggression. Consumers expect firms to be socially responsible. Thus, firms should start conducting activities that promote responsible shopping and reduce external trash-talking.\nOriginality/value: The study highlights a dark side of ideal self-congruence and brand attachment. The results suggest that ideal self-congruence with the help of emotional brand attachment predicts compulsive buying behaviour and external trash-talking. This may not only damage brand image but also the consumers' well-being.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Negative interference" between Australian construction professionals' work and family roles: Evidence of an asymmetrical relationship
|
[
"Role conflict",
"Hours of work",
"Stress",
"Family life",
"Construction industry",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Work-family conflict\nPredictors of work-family conflict: Types of predictor\nOutcomes of work-family conflict: Outcomes of WIF\nResearch methods: Data collection and sampling\nResults: Sample demographics\nDiscussion: Domain specific antecedents and outcomes of work-family conflict\nConclusions: Our results provide evidence that when construction professionals and managers face obligations in one role that interfere with the enactment of a second role, performance in the second role suffers. However, this cross-role effect was only found to occur in one direction, i.e. negative interference from work to family life. Family life was not found to negatively impact on the job role performance of the managerial and professional construction employees in our sample. Reasons for this are unclear but the asymmetrical relationship between work and family life may, in part, be due to the predominance of male respondents in our sample. Nonetheless, our results confirm the importance of organizational practices for employees' family functioning. There is a growing need for Australian construction organizations to address issues of work-family balance in order to safeguard employees, whether male or female, from adverse family outcomes associated with long work hours and strain-based job demands. Further, the work-family balance performance of construction organizations should be scrutinized, alongside occupational health and safety and environmental indicators, as part of their overall corporate social responsibility (CSR) profile.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper sets out to describe the testing of a model of work and family life among a sample of professional and managerial employees in the Australian construction industry. The model positioned work-family conflict as a variable linking experiences in one domain (i.e. work or family) with outcomes in the other domain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey exploring experiences of work and family life was conducted among employees of one large private and one large public sector construction organization in Queensland, Australia. Regression analyses were performed to test the validity of the work-family interface model.\nFindings: - The model was partially supported in that time and strain-based demands in the work domain were linked to family functioning via work interference with family. However, time and strain-based demands in the family domain were not linked to work role outcomes via family interference with work.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The survey was cross-sectional so the causal direction of relationships could not be ascertained. Longitudinal research is needed to establish the causal direction of the work-family relationships supported by the research. Further research is also required to examine the effectiveness of strategies designed to reduce work interference with family life in the construction sector.\nPractical implications: - The asymmetry in the relationship between construction employees' work and family lives indicates that the family life of professional and managerial construction employees in Australia is more susceptible to interference from work than work life is susceptible to interference from family life.\nOriginality/value: - Provides evidence that, when construction professionals and managers face obligations in one role that interfere with the enactment of a second role, performance in the second role suffers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Modelling, simulation and analysis of control mechanism of a dynamic supply chain system considering supply-price trade-off, using control theory
|
[
"Supply chain",
"Z-transform",
"Frequency domain analysis",
"Transfer function"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Supply chain management has attracted much attention from system engineering researchers. There are many dimensions of supply chain research like flexibility, coordination and strategic chain design. One area is analysis of the inventory at different agent in the supply chain system using control theory. Supply chain is a complex network comprising different agent (echelon), material and information flow across the network, with primary focus on the material and information flow. A smart supply chain has the capability to make system stable (sustainable) in the situation where demand and supply are dynamic. Therefore, it is attempted to formulate a model, which describes the dynamics of complex networked supply chain system. Primarily the focus is to maintain the safe inventory level at each unit of the supply chain to satisfy the demands of the customers. The ordering and replacement policy can be viewed as control strategy for inventory level. Further, supply chain system has to adapt to the changes in the market like change in price and abrupt changes in demand from the downstream. Control theory approach is suitable for the study of dynamicity and transient behaviour of any system currently it is used in controlling the electronic devices, in this paper authors used control theory approach to study the transient behaviour of the supply chain while implementing certain control policy for inventory.\n2 Basic dynamic model: Consider a simple supply chain that has no branch (as shown in Figure 1). There is three logistic echelons: warehouse, distribution centre and retailer between the producer and customer. Let Sj(t) denote the inventory at each logistic node (Figure 2) at any time t, where j[?]{w,d,r}, qij denote the material flow, where ij[?]{pw,wd,dr,rc}. Oji denotes the information flow in terms of orders, where ji[?]{cr,rd,dw,wp},jk[?]{wd,dr,rc},kj[?]{cr,rd,dw}. A time delay of l is assumed for all delivery actions so that goods dispatched at time t will arrive at t+l.\n3 Stability analysis: The objective of the stability analysis is to examine the limits of the parameters like price, quantity ordered, quantity received and the dynamic behaviour during the transient state of the supply chain system with the help of this analysis the control parameters can also be investigated.\n4 BW effect: The BW effect can be represented as an amplification of demand fluctuations from downstream to upstream. It has been observed from above discussion that demand fluctuations which depends upon ordering policy and pricing policy is only in the case of sufficient stock and supply. Therefore, from case 1: Equation 27 From the above equation, for amplification of demand in upstream: Equation 28\n5 Control strategies: In this section different control strategies have been applied to simulate the model, it has been assumed that customers demand follow Poisson process with constant arrival rate. The objective of a simple inventory level controller is to maintain a given inventory position. Lalwani et al. (2006) has discussed control strategies for APVIOBPCS model. In this literature cascade, PI and robust control strategies have been discussed. While designing the controller, Lin et al. (2003) has identified the following parameter to be tuned:\n6 Conclusion: The stability of the system is analysed with change in price using z-transform. Characteristic equations of the closed loop transfer function are obtained. The BW, BO, EI and IAE are analyzed as shown in Figures 6 and 8-12. Results are compared (Table I) subjected to different control strategies. Study proves that the BW effect is inevitable if the standard heuristic ordering policy is employed with demand forecasting. Price supply trade-off in dynamic demand and supply has been analysed and shown in Figure 7. Simulation results show that BW is less in PI and simple p-only with cascade control. In this literature robust control, PD and PID control results are not shown, it is subject to further research. Strategies could be also tested in multiple supply chains. Simulation results could be used to design inventory control algorithms for different industry to control the supply network for stability (sustainability).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The objective of this work is to develop a model that can be used for simulation of different parameters including price, subjected to different control strategies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The entire supply chain can be modelled by combining the transfer function into a closed loop system. The transfer function of each entity in the supply chain can be obtained by using the control theory tools. The model can be approximated as a linear discrete system with various operating constants, like lead time, price, order policy and supply.\nFindings: The continuous replenishment ordering policy for a distribution node in a supply chain was analyzed using the z-transform. Characteristic equations of the closed loop transfer function are obtained. The bullwhip (BW) effect is analyzed. Study proves that the BW effect is in evitable if the standard heuristic ordering policy is employed with demand forecasting; also the paper analysed price supply trade-off for dynamic demand and supply. Simulation results show that BW is less in PI and simple p-only with cascade control. Robust control and PD, PID control results are not shown in this literature, and it is subject to further research.\nOriginality/value: Research is original, it can be applicable in today's dynamic world, due to globalization, it is necessary to have a automated machine that can handle most of supply chain decision.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intellectual capital reporting at UK universities
|
[
"Intellectual capital",
"Universities",
"Annual reports",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The purpose of this research is to analyse intellectual capital (IC) reporting practices of UK universities and achieve the following objectives:* assessment of nature and extent of IC disclosure and the attitude of these institutions towards the importance of IC disclosure;* evaluation of UK universities performance influence on IC disclosure; and* suggest recommendations for IC disclosure in UK Universities and form a basis for comparative studies with other professional education providers in UK or with universities of other countries.\n2. Literature review: Intangibles and IC have become a major issue not only for academics, but also for governments, regulators, enterprises, investors and other stakeholders during the last decade (Sanchez and Elena, 2006). There is increasing evidence that the drivers of value creation in modern competitive environments lay in the firm's IC rather than in its physical and financial capital (Cuganesan et al., 2005).2.1 Previous research on IC disclosure\n3. UK universities: UK universities have a strong global reputation (IFSL, 2004). They are legally independent and their governing bodies are responsible for ensuring the effective management of the institution and for planning its future development (Guide, 2005). The work done by university researchers in UK is among the best in the world. The promotion of UK expertise and training has formed part of a wider government strategy, with the Prime Minister's Initiative (PMI) launched in 1999, which has contributed to growth in number of international students, particularly from outside EU and helped to raise awareness globally of UK as a leading centre of expertise (IFSL, 2004). The current basic research profile of UK Universities shows research of international standards and research funding for basic research is more highly concentrated in UK than it is in any other major country, including the USA (UniversitiesUK, 2003).Central Government decides the total amount of money allocated to universities (Figure 1). The way that UK universities provide their funds suggests that universities with higher levels of research will have higher levels of teaching, will attract the best staff, will have the highly competitive entry standards for students, and will attract the most non-government money (Shattock, 1999). Universities have been going through many changes in the recent years and the way they are administered, funded and functioning is becoming more complex and demanding. UK universities are considered under funded therefore they give higher attention to research and its success in order to get hold of more funds. Today more universities are looking to exploit their intellectual assets in ways that more directly bring income and rewards to fund their work (UniversitiesUK, 2002).\n4. Methodology: The methodology considered a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods and identified the use of the content analysis and questionnaire as most appropriate. Primary data from the questionnaire supplemented the secondary data from annual reports of universities, which are the most popular source of gathering data for many IC disclosure studies.4.1 Sampling\n5. Analysis of results: 5.1 Quantitative analysis\n6. Limitations and future research: This study tried to overcome the limitations of the previous studies on IC disclosure by choosing a different sample other than private sector or top listed companies. It will also bring new expertise regarding IC disclosure in higher education and form a sound basis for future research as well as raise awareness among UK universities towards IC reporting and the latest IC developments. Universities would benefit in improving their performance measurements, assessment of their intangible assets especially IC, allocation of their resources and their benchmarking exercise. The results could provide valuable feedback to regulatory bodies especially the Higher Education authorities in assessing UK universities performance. Private investors will have a wider range of information regarding the usage of their grants and this could be in conjunction with other areas of performance other than Research. Conclusions were limited to the specifics of the sample, the particular research methods and techniques applied for this research resulting in few limitations associated with the study.The research techniques\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to examine the amount and the nature of the voluntary intellectual capital (IC) disclosure of UK universities, the relation between performance and amount of IC disclosed; and the opinion of UK universities on a mandatory disclosure of IC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Content analysis was used to examine the amount and nature of IC disclosure of the annual reports of 30 UK universities. Directors of Finance were chosen as representatives to submit an online questionnaire about IC statements and the mandatory reporting of IC for universities.\nFindings: - Findings suggest that the amount of IC information disclosed by UK universities in their annual reports is low. UK universities were identified as being over-regulated and having low awareness of IC.\nResearch limitations/implications: - IC framework used for the content analysis was specific to Austrian universities and the online questionnaire responses were limited. Few adaptations were made but it is necessary to perform a preliminary study to better understand the characteristics and functioning of UK universities.\nPractical implications: - Further research and recommendations are provided. Introduction of mandatory disclosure of IC reports would contribute further to the increase of the burden. Therefore at the present time voluntary IC disclosure is the best option.\nOriginality/value: - No previous research was conducted for UK universities. This brings new expertise regarding IC disclosure in higher education and forms a sound basis for future research. Universities could benefit in improving assessment of their intangible assets, performance measurements, allocation of resources and benchmarking exercise.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Detecting and analysing emerging science and technology issues: the EFMN Issue Analysis
|
[
"Sciences",
"Emergent strategy",
"Knowledge society",
"Forecasting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. The EFMN Issue Analysis: The aim of the EFMN Issue Analysis is to exploit the results of international foresight activities as a valuable source of information for identifying key emerging science and technology issues of high relevance for European policies, as well as contributing to the development of future European science and technology policy priorities.Hence, on an annual basis, the Issue Analysis of the EFMN project:* exploits the outputs of the mapping of foresight exercises in the EFMN foresight database Dynamo[1] as well as of the EFMN Foresight Briefs[2] available from the EFMN website and identifies, assesses and analyses the key \"emerging issues\" - with a focus on science and technology (S&T) issues - that emerge from foresight activities carried out at national, supranational or regional level all over the world;* combines and synthesises these findings on one issue, selected as most relevant to discrete policy areas of the EC;* prepares, convenes and reports upon an annual workshop involving the European Commission and external experts;* brings new combinations of leadership together into working groups at the annual Issue Analysis workshop; and* analyses the S&T policy priorities that emerge from the discussions at the workshop into a final report.The outputs of the EFMN Issue Analysis are designed to contribute directly to the development of EU research and innovation policies.\n2. Methodological approach for the issue selection: Much methodological work has been undertaken to develop S&T indicators. However, these indicators have often failed to create effective policies for scientific and technological development. Therefore, the process for identifying relevant foresight issues from international foresight exercises was built on the EFMN strength as a \"bottom up\" network. Through an iterative process EFMN's national correspondents, having insight into their respective national foresight processes, were involved and fed their knowledge into the process. For the identification and filtering of \"issues\" from foresight exercises, the term \"issues\" should be interpreted in the sense of \"trends and trend breaks\".2.1 Clustering and integration\n3. Annual emerging issues of the past three years (2005-2007): According to the above methodology and in consultation with the European Commission, EFMN identified the following topics as most relevant to EC policies[4]:* \"Cognitive Science\" in 2005;* \"Healthy Ageing\" in 2006; and* \"Emerging Knowledge-based Economy and Society\" in 2007.In the following, the reasons for selecting the respecting annual issues and the main findings of the Issue Analyses, including the discussions at the Issue Analysis workshops, are given.3.1 EFMN Issue Analysis 2005: Cognitive Science\n4. Lessons learnt from the EFMN Issue Analysis: 4.1 Reflection on the methodology: strengths and weaknesses of the Issue Analysis\n5. Concluding remarks: The EFMN data pool provides a wealth of information about the characteristics and outcomes of foresight related activities around the world. With a network of more than 120 correspondents, as of July 2008 it had received approximately 2,000 foresight exercises and related activities. Furthermore, it enjoys a sound system of organisation and classification of information spreading to three levels of detail as well as a system of regular brief writing. Until now more than 140 briefs have been produced. These mechanisms, along with the mapping exercise, provide a rich basis for information retrieval and analysis in various ways.Based on this wealth of research opportunities, the EFMN Issue Analysis consolidates on the one hand the global perspectives and the European initiatives on a specifically selected emerging issue, and on the other hand draws the line to statements made on that issue in recent national, regional, corporate and international foresight exercises. Each year an EFMN Issue Analysis Workshop exploits how various communities, nations, regions, foresight exercises display the respective emerging issue and explores what is \"in the pipeline\". Even though a direct comparison of emerging issues over the years is not possible for too much differing objectives, drivers and contents, the EFMN was able to sum up the recent status and stimulate further observations of the driving forces of how the S&T/R&D environment will evolve.Moreover, the Issue Analysis does not only identify the key \"emerging issues\" and prepares, convenes and reports upon an annual workshop involving the European Commission and external experts. It also brings new combinations of leadership together into working groups thus contributing to a wider participation in policy-making. The Issue Analysis acts as the \"prime analyst\" of future emerging issues, by combining trends and drivers from a variety of sources and perspectives and meeting the interests and needs of the European Commission. In this respect it can act as the \"prime analyst\" for other stakeholders.Drawing on the information gathered but also upon the knowledge, expertise and contacts of its members, EFMN through the Issue Analysis task, can be the \"intelligent readers\" for any institution wishing to see what has been analysed in terms of future trends, issues, challenges and what are the consequent implications. This in turn can help to identify and enhance the potential for trans-national, international collaboration in foresight, a topic much supported in the context of the European Research Area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to highlight the contribution of the EFMN Issue Analysis to the identification of key emerging science and technology issues of high relevance for European policies, as well as to the development of future European science and technology policy priorities. As such, it describes the experience of the past three EFMN Issue Analyses (2005 to 2007), which focused on \"Cognitive Science\" (2005), \"Healthy Ageing\" (2006) and \"Emerging Knowledge-based Economy and Society\" (2007).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The annual EFMN Issue Analysis aims at selecting and analysing one key emerging science and technology issue that is relevant for European Union policies. The selection is based on the screening and analysis of recent international foresights along a set of predefined criteria.\nFindings: - The paper highlights future socio-economic perspectives and S&T developments coming along with the topics \"Cognitive Science\", \"Healthy Ageing\" and \"Emerging Knowledge-based Economy and Society\", as well as policy recommendations as emerged from the respective expert workshop discussions. The paper also reflects on the methodology used, and experience of, and the lessons learned from the last three Issue Analyses.\nPractical implications: - This paper is of interest for foresight practitioners and policy-makers at European level, as well as at national or regional level in European Member States.\nOriginality/value: - The paper highlights the role of the EFMN Issue Analysis in providing the basis for well-informed (science and technology) policy-making.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Brand addiction: conceptualization and scale development
|
[
"Addictive behaviour",
"Brand addiction",
"Consumer–brand relationship",
"Measurement scale"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Addictive behaviors appear in shopping, technology use, exercising, gambling, playing video games, hoarding, overeating, plastic surgery, pornography, kleptomania, dietary supplement usage, religious convictions, among others (Griffiths, 1997, 2002; Martin et al., 2013)[1]. In her seminal article on consumer-brand relationships, Fournier (1998) suggests that consumer-brand relationships may extend in intensity to the level of addiction. A recent neurophysiological study (Reimann et al., 2012) points out that close consumer-brand relationships may lead to brand addiction since there is evidence that close consumer-brand relationships are associated with activating an individual's brain area known as the insula, and activating the insula is responsible for addictive behaviors such as alcohol addiction (Myrick et al., 2004) and nicotine addiction (McClernon et al., 2005).\nTheoretical background: Brand addiction: a form of consumer-brand relationship\nBrand addiction scale development: To develop a theoretically sound conceptualization of brand addiction and a valid brand addiction measurement scale (hereinafter referred to as BASCALE), we followed Churchill's (1979) procedure for developing measures of marketing constructs. Accordingly, the following sections report on brand addiction's conceptual domain specification, item generation, scale purification, scale validation, nomological validity assessment and scale norm development.\nDiscussion and implications: Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research directions: The first limitation in this research lies in the examination of consumers' brand addiction exclusively in the fashion context in the UK. This limits the generalizability of the findings from the current research to wider populations and other product types. Further research could examine brand addiction in different product categories and test BASCALE with samples of different countries. In the current study, we assessed the BASCALE's discriminant and nomological validity with a small number of constructs. Future research should test the BASCALE with other types of consumer-brand relationship (brand attachment, brand liking, brand love, brand loyalty brand passion and brand trust). The sample size of 604 respondents is relatively small compared to the estimated 19,489,600 British citizens aged between 18 and 40 years. Future research should use a larger sample to replicate the findings from the current study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop a definition of brand addiction and a valid brand addiction scale (BASCALE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used focus-group results to define brand addiction and generate items for the BASCALE and validated the BASCALE with survey data collected in the UK.\nFindings: Based on the 11 brand-addiction features found from the focus groups, the authors define brand addition as an individual consumer's psychological state that pertains to a self-brand relationship manifested in daily life and involving positive affectivity and gratification with a particular brand and constant urges for possessing the brand's products/services. Based on the survey study, the authors have established a valid ten-item BASCALE.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to the survey's setting in the fashion context in the UK, the authors do not intend to generalize the results to other product types and countries. Future research should replicate the BASCALE in different product categories and different countries.\nPractical implications: The BASCALE can serve marketers in the behavioral segmentation and assist brand managers to identify brand addict consumers and maintain long-term relationships with them.\nOriginality/value: The authors have developed a definition of brand addiction and a valid BASCALE, which one can use for a wide range of theoretical and empirical research in the marketing and psychology fields. The definition and BASCALE also serve to differentiate brand addiction from other consumer-brand relationships and addiction constructs (e.g. compulsive buying, brand love and brand trust).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Measuring university-to-work success: development of a new scale
|
[
"Careers",
"Higher education",
"Career development",
"Graduates",
"Assessment",
"Young adults"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The transition from university-to-work is an important step for most new graduates and a topic of interest for researchers and applied practitioners. Young professionals must successfully complete numerous tasks to make this transition, including learning the job, understanding organizational rules and norms, assimilating to the organizational culture, analyzing their fit within the chosen occupation and firm, increasing their competence, developing specialty and team skills, and identifying their long-term goals. Additionally, they need to acquire socio-emotional competencies such as support, autonomy and confidence (Russell, 2005).\nMethod: Participants\nResults: EFA - for this sample the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) criterion was 0.92 and Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (kh2 (df=465)=3,918.689, p\nMethod: Participants\nResults: After preliminary scale testing and modification, we conducted a cross-validation study with an independent sample. Based on Hinkin's (1998) recommendations, in this stage the purpose of CFA was to assess the goodness-of-fit of our model compared to a single common factor model, and with a multi-trait model with the number of factors equal to the number of constructs in the new measure. Thus, CFA was first run for a one factor solution in which all 22 items loaded onto a single factor (Model A) and subsequently run for the first-order model with four factors (Model B). Finally, we tested the second-order model suggested by Stage 2 (Model C).\nDiscussion: Although there has been substantial research on career success there is a need to increase the range of construct operationalization and measurement because traditional measures do not reflect the diversity of careers (Abele et al., 2011; Dries, 2011; Heslin, 2005; Mulhall, 2011; Pan and Zhou, 2015). In the absence of an accepted frame to assess early career success, we looked to extant research in this area by developing a new and specific measure of UWS that was cross-validated in two independent samples of new graduates in Brazil.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a subjective multidimensional measure of early career success during university-to-work transition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The construct of university-to-work success (UWS) was defined in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic career outcomes, and a three-stage study was conducted to create a new scale.\nFindings: A preliminary set of items was developed and tested by judges. Results showed the items had good content validity. Factor analyses indicated a four-factor structure and a second-order model with subscales to assess: career insertion and satisfaction, confidence in career future, income and financial independence, and adaptation to work. Third, the authors sought to confirm the hypothesized model examining the comparative fit of the scale and two alternative models. Results showed that fits for both the first- and second-order models were acceptable.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed model has sound psychometric qualities, although the validated version of the scale was not able to incorporate all constructs envisaged by the initial theoretical model. Results indicated some direction for further refinement.\nPractical implications: The scale could be used as a tool for self-assessment or as an outcome measure to assess the efficacy of university-to-work programs in applied settings.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a useful single measure to assess early career success during the university-to-work transition, and might facilitate testing of causal models which could help identify factors relevant for successful transition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Team performance in the Italian NHS: the role of reflexivity
|
[
"Structural equation modeling",
"IPO model",
"Mediational analysis",
"National Health Care System",
"Work team performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since 2007, the financial market crisis intensified competition in the global economy, pushing private and public organizations to maximize profits and services and to reduce costs. Teams are widely recognized as a key element in enhancing several outputs in different contexts related to work. Up-to-date literature reveals hundreds of studies dealing with work teams. Many of them have focused on identifying sets of variables used to determine their success as, for example, design (e.g. autonomy, interdependence), process (e.g. helping behavior, cooperation) and contextual (e.g. adequate resources) (Cohen and Bailey, 1997; Guzzo and Dickson, 1996; Mannix and Neale, 2005; Roe et al., 2012). Research has shown that work teams have a significant impact on both organizational performance and employee well-being (Aube et al., 2011; Cacioppe and Stace, 2009). From the workers' point of view, working groups promote a number of positive results including job satisfaction, quality of working life, flexibility, creativity, and performance (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2007; Kerr and Tindale, 2004; West and Sacramento, 2006). For work teams, performances refer to explicit and visible results and a strategic element that organizations continuously tend to improve.\nMethod: The present study is cross-sectional with a descriptive-explorative research design. Data were collected in several organizations belonging to the NHS of Southern and Central Italy. A written request for participation in the study was sent to all available health care organizations. The inventory was administered in paper and pencil form, providing team members written instructions on how to complete it. Participants were given 30 minutes to complete the inventory. The inventory was anonymous, and participation was optional for everyone.\nResults: Table I shows reliability and Pearson correlation coefficients between dimensions.\nDiscussion: Overall, this study aimed to advance the understanding of the goodness of the IPO model in order to evaluate work team performance within Italian health care organizations and to test the mediating role of reflexivity as one of the most important variables intervening between input and output factors. The traditional theoretical framework of IPO suggests a mediation model: predictions are based on the established path where input influences team processes which in turn impact output.\nLimitations: Several limitations of this study were considered and should be addressed. First, the study was based on cross-sectional data, which makes it impossible to draw causal inferences. Furthermore, measures were self-reported by health care professional figures. This implies the risk of a common method variance as a result of using one inventory for all measures where it can be assumed participating team members tend to provide consistent answers to inventory items that are otherwise not related (Chang et al., 2010). Furthermore, team working and team performance are subjective and indistinct measures, assessed at the same time by team members' self-perception (Korner et al., 2016). Collecting data with a single method from a single respondent at one time is problematic for testing associations. In line with these limitations, further studies should use objective and longitudinal data. Second, the questionnaire return rate was relatively low (42 percent), considering an acceptable level at 50 percent (Bungard and Jons, 1997); in any case, we did not know whether the sample was representative with respect to the factors of the IPO model. Furthermore, participation was voluntary for both health care organizations and team members, thus reaching only motivated organizations and team members. Another point concerns socio-demographic characteristics of our sample, prevalently composed of women and nurses and with very different tenure years, but in line with characteristics of Italian NHS. This selection bias limits the representativeness and generalizability of the results. The model used and tested in this study could benefit from being tested in a longitudinal design.\nFurther research and practical implications: Certain limitations mentioned above provide opportunities for further research. This study yielded new valuable information about the IPO model and the way to evaluate work team performance within Italian health care organizations. It also showed the crucial role of reflexivity in health care teams as an important dimension of effective team functioning. This study is important in further explicating on health care teams' reflexivity and performance relationships. A related question, based on our findings, would be whether there are influences that make a specific task related to reflexivity to exhibit a stronger or weaker performance. More research is needed to address specific health care teams to provide more detailed information about the aspects that mostly affect work team quality. Moreover, although there are many previous theoretical and empirical studies about the causal relationship between input, process, and output, further research with longitudinal studies will be necessary to investigate and clarify the relationships between these variables over time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to focus on reflexivity as a mediator in the relationship between the dimensions of input and the dimensions of output of the IPO model. This study can contribute to developing a culture of performance measurements in the NHS, still not widespread in Italy, and increase future studies to search alternative theoretical models for enhancing the performance of teamwork.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the goodness of the input-process-output (IPO) model in order to evaluate work team performance within the Italian National Health Care System (NHS); and second, to test the mediating role of reflexivity as an overarching process factor between input and output.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Italian version of the Aston Team Performance Inventory was administered to 351 employees working in teams in the Italian NHS. Mediation analyses with latent variables were performed via structural equation modeling (SEM); the significance of total, direct, and indirect effect was tested via bootstrapping.\nFindings: Underpinned by the IPO framework, the results of SEM supported mediational hypotheses. First, the application of the IPO model in the Italian NHS showed adequate fit indices, showing that the process mediates the relationship between input and output factors. Second, reflexivity mediated the relationship between input and output, influencing some aspects of team performance.\nPractical implications: The results provide useful information for HRM policies improving process dimensions of the IPO model via the mediating role of reflexivity as a key role in team performance.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of a limited number of studies that applied the IPO model in the Italian NHS. Moreover, no study has yet examined the role of reflexivity as a mediator between input and output factors in the IPO model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate governance failures and the role of institutional investors in Pakistan: Lessons to be learnt from UK
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Institutional investors",
"Code of corporate governance of Pakistan",
"The combined code of the UK"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nInstitutional investors: Institutional investors are institutions who collect money from individuals and companies and invest on their behalf being experienced and expert in financial matters and corporate ventures (Shabbir, 2012). Their clients have confidence in their skills due to their professionalism and through owning large shareholdings they can have a better say in and influence on the companies' strategies and through this monitor the decision-making of the board of directors. Therefore, it is presumed that, institutional investors can influence the kind of companies they put resources into, change share prices and switch in and out of assets, with noteworthy consequences on the values of shares and resultantly the economy as well (Bainbridge, 2005).\nNeed for the activism of institutional investors in Pakistan: Institutional investors can declare their influence as owners of the company's assets in order to have an impact on the affairs of that company [The European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), 2015], checking of execution and corporate governance of their investee companies (Shleifer and Vishny, 1986). However, the degree of activism extends to the activities to realise improvements in a company's conduct and develop awareness regarding the benefits of adopting a code of corporate governance. It is clear that institutional investors purchase shares in a company as a block-holder with a determination to have an impact on the policies and decision-making of not only of a company but also the capital market for the purpose of corporate control (Dou, 2013).\nWhat motivations do institutional investors have to be \"active\"?: Institutional investors do have incentives to be active owning large shareholdings, but due to the cost involved in the course of monitoring and intervention, they do not exercise their activism rather prefer to stay passive, as we have seen above. However, if they act collectively, the issue of cost can be resolved and can influence their investee companies in more effective way. For instance, pension funds which ought to have a long-term view because of the way of their business would be expected to emphasise the significance of achieving a long-term corporate outcome (Faccio and Lasfer, 2000). Charkham suggested that the type of approach adopted by a particular institutional investor is dependent not only on the purpose of investment but also on a complex mixture of factors relating to the management of those funds, such as the motivation and ability of the individual fund managers.\nInstitutional investors and corporate governance in Pakistan: In Pakistan, the role of institutional investors is restricted and the fund industry is immature (Shah and Cheema, 2006); investment via investment funds (Modigliani and Miller, 1958; Monks and Minow, 2004) gives business market entrance to individual investors as only a few securities are open to institutional investors, for example, the American Depository Receipts and Global Depository Receipts. It is submitted, institutional investors are worthwhile, as they give respective jurisdictions admiration of managing, authority and exchange of securities, as they benefit by working on a more drawn out measure (Bainbridge, 2005). Institutional investors likewise tackle liquidity problems, in any event in SOEs, which is a noteworthy issue in business markets having concentrated ownership like Pakistan.\nStrategies to enhance the role of institutional investors in corporate governance of investee companies: lessons for Pakistan: First, institutional investors can decline to share in rights issues when companies go to the market to increase extra value funding. Institutional investors are highly influential in these circumstances, due to the fact that the burden is on management to negotiate with them. They might make the procurement of extra finance conditional upon changes in the management of company, for example, changes to the board of directors. As the companies are asking institutional investors to encourage them at the time of the rights issues, numerous issues of organising combined efforts will not emerge; especially the expenses of these efforts will be less for institutional investors because of the fact that they do not need to start such an activity by themselves rather the management will take initiative to handle these issue (Short and Keasey, 2005).\nConclusion: Institutional investors can play a considerable role in protecting shareholders' interests and the development of corporate governance in their investee companies due to being skilled, professional, experienced and most significantly due to their large-shareholdings as compared to minority shareholders. Apparently the only motivation for them to intervene and monitor the decision-making policies of their investee companies is large-shareholding. However, they have to face a number of challenges in exercising their activism, such as agency problems, conflict of interest, free-rider issue, absence of collective action and the cost of monitoring and intervention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyse a current theme of international interest regarding the increasing role of institutional investors in corporate governance. The role of institutional investors is getting elevated in world's corporate market day by day due to their large shareholdings and having expertise in investment matters. However, their role and importance has not yet been accepted and explored in Pakistan. Therefore, this paper fills this gap and explores their role in Pakistan's corporate governance by using a comparative study as to the role of institutional investors in the UK's corporate governance. This paper identifies the failures of corporate governance in Pakistan and explores how institutional investors can help to overcome these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research paper uses a comparative approach based on documentary analysis. It conducts a comparative study of the role of institutional investors and the related code of corporate governance in Pakistan with that of the UK. It analyses the existing studies and the data relating to the role of institutional investors in Pakistan's corporate governance and formulate recommendations to enhance the role of institutional investors for the betterment of corporate governance practices in Pakistan.\nFindings: This paper finds that the role of institutional investors in Pakistan's corporate governance is under-developed and the fund industry is immature. Though there is a considerable scope for them to work in Pakistan's business market and play their role in the development of corporate governance in the listed companies of Pakistan. For this purpose, the guidance can be taken form the \"Combined Code of the UK\". A number of recommendations have been formulated through which the role of institutional investors can be enhanced for the development of corporate governance practices in the business market of Pakistan.\nOriginality/value: This paper analyses the role of institutional investors in Pakistan to formulate recommendations through which this role may be enhanced for the development of corporate governance principles and practices in Pakistan. This paper fills a gap in the existing literature relating to the role of institutional investors in Pakistan, as there is a dearth of research in Pakistan concerning this issue. Further, it contributes to the on-going debate on the increasing role of institutional investors in corporate governance more widely.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A contingency theoretical perspective to the product-process matrix
|
[
"Operations strategy",
"Process design",
"Contingency theory",
"Operations management",
"Process planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: One fundamental challenge in the work of operations managers is to design production processes that fulfill the market requirements and the strategic goals of their organizations (Skinner, 1969; Hill, 2005). For the past three decades, practitioners have found guidance from the product-process matrix of Hayes and Wheelwright (1979a). Its central proposition is that product variety and production process should be matched in order for manufacturing plants to achieve the best operational performance. As shown in Figure 1, one-off production should be organized as a job shop, low-volume production as a batch shop, large-volume production as an assembly line, and commodity production as a continuous flow line. Empirical evidence has shown that many manufacturers indeed organize their product offerings and production processes according to the propositions of the matrix (Safizadeh et al., 1996; Das and Narasimhan, 2001). Consequently, many researchers have been encouraged to apply the model outside of its original context, for instance, to guide the design of product offerings and delivery channels in service businesses (Huete and Roth, 1988; Boyer et al., 2002).Despite the relatively wide acceptance of Hayes and Wheelwright's (1979a) normative proposition, empirical evidence about the performance implications of the recommended product-process combinations has remained mixed (Klassen and Menor, 2007; Kemppainen et al., 2008). Several studies have concluded that manufacturers may perform well with product-process combinations that contradict the propositions of the model (Das and Narasimhan, 2001; McDermott et al., 1997; Safizadeh et al., 1996). We propose that the lack of empirical evidence is due to two specific reasons. First, the original product-process matrix was defined according to technological constraints that reflected the time of its creation but do not necessarily hold in today's industrial reality. Second, the matrix does not take into account the dynamism of the task environments in which managers make decisions about the designs of their production processes.The objective of this paper is to develop the central ideas of the product-process matrix into a more theoretically grounded model that would be free from the constraints of the original matrix and provide improved guidelines for practitioners. On the bases of the contingency theoretical literature and the observations from earlier empirical investigations, we attempt to understand the underlying issues that rationalize the deviations from the proposed \"diagonal\" positions of the original product-process matrix. The outcome is a more generalized and extended model that describes how production processes should be aligned with the complexity and dynamism of the task environment. Empirical analysis of 151 manufacturing plants provides support for the hypotheses that describe our extended model. The two contingency dimensions of the model serve as a foundation to introduce and discuss the operations strategy implications of the contingency theoretical concept of suboptimal equifinality (Gresov and Drazin, 1997; Payne, 2006).\n2 Conceptual model: 2.1 Current state of literature on product-process matrix\n3 Data and methods: 3.1 Sample\n4 Results: Table V presents the descriptive statistics and an inter-correlation matrix of the variables used in the hypothesis testing. Table VI shows the results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Two models are analyzed for each dependent variable. The first models (I) are used to estimate the effects of the control variables and the main effects of the theoretical variables. The multiplicative interaction terms are entered into the regression equations in a second set of models (II). This enables estimating the amount of variance explained by the hypothesized effects. To avoid multicollinearity, we centered the main-effect variables to their averages before calculating the gross products (Aiken and West, 1991).The first observation from the results is that the interaction between the complexity of tasks and the specificity of production processes has a significant negative effect on delivery performance but no effects on the other two performance dimensions. The result thus provides support to H1a but rejects H1b and H1c. This means that manufacturing plants with highly specific processes must have relatively simple production tasks in order to maintain good delivery performance. When the production tasks become more complex, the highly specific production processes begin to have problems in terms of responsiveness.Another observation is that the interaction between the dynamism of the task environment and the production process specificity has a significant negative effect on product performance. This result is aligned with H2b, but the lack of effects on the other two performance dimensions leads to the rejection of H2a and H2c. The result means that in stable task environments, highly specific production processes benefit in terms of product performance, but when the dynamism of the task environment increases, they start facing difficulties in producing goods that would consistently meet the market requirements.Interesting observations can be made also from the results that did not support the hypotheses. First, the lack of support for H1c and H2c is probably related to the non-hypothesized positive main effect that the specificity of the production process has on cost efficiency. In other words, the specificity of the process seems to be always beneficial in terms of manufacturing costs. This outcome is, in fact, aligned with the earlier studies on the relationship between production process types and efficiency (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2002; Schmenner and Swink, 1998). It seems to be an empirical fact that the potential detrimental effects of specificity, proposed in H1 and H2, are only directed against delivery and product aspects of operational performance.Second, the rejection of H1b and H2a - together with the support for H1a and H2b - hint at the existence of more profound contingency effects than originally expected. The rejection of H1b means that the alignment between process specificity and task complexity, or lack thereof, does not influence the ability to produce competitive products. Similarly, the rejection of H2a means that the alignment or misalignment between specificity and dynamism does not affect delivery performance. These outcomes make sense. Complex production tasks make processes more vulnerable to glitches, such as scheduling errors, cannibalization, and missing raw materials, which rather lead to delays than bad products. Meanwhile, dynamic market requirements necessitate an ability to keep up with rapidly changing tastes and trends; failure to do so is rather manifested as uncompetitive products than delivery failures. We will discuss these non-hypothesized contingency effects further in the next section.To illustrate the two supported hypotheses, Figure 2 plots the simple slopes of the interaction effects (Aiken and West, 1991). The slopes show the effects of production process specificity under different levels of complexity (Panel 1) and dynamism (Panel 2). The lack of significant main effects can be seen as level slopes when the complexity and dynamism are at their sample averages. However, when the slopes are drawn at plus and minus one standard deviation from their averages, the performance effects become considerable. The effect is slightly larger on delivery performance (H1a) than on product performance (H2b).\n5 Discussion: 5.1 Implications of the CSD model\n6 Conclusions: In this paper, we have built on the existing operations management literature and contingency theory to develop and test a model that explains both the performance implications of Hayes and Wheelwright's (1979a) product-process matrix and the best-known departures from it. Our model extends the original matrix in three ways: first, it generalizes the structural dimension (originally: the process type) to the \"specificity\" of the process; second, it generalizes the contingency dimension (originally: the product variety) to the \"complexity\" of the production task; and third, it adds the \"dynamism\" of the task environment as an additional dimension. Named accordingly, the CSD model proposes that the process layouts and technologies, which determine the specificity of production processes, should be aligned with both the complexity and dynamism of the task environment. The alignment can be sought in many ways. In addition to changing the process design, the contingency dimensions can also be changed. The complexity dimension can be influenced with product design and outsourcing decisions, whereas the dynamism dimension depends on strategic decisions regarding the markets in which the firm chooses to operate.The results complement two different streams of operations management literature. First, the model integrates and gives theoretical explanations to the observations that have been made in the empirical tests of the product-process matrix (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2002; Das and Narasimhan, 2001; Safizadeh and Ritzman, 1997). Second, the results complement the contingency theoretical operations management literature, which has often focused on the contextual fitness of different manufacturing \"practices\" (Sousa and Voss, 2008). Our study focuses on process design instead of any individual practices and therefore more closely aligns with the original themes of the structural contingency theory (Hickson et al., 1969; Thompson, 1967; Woodward, 1965). Although the research on the contextual conditions under which different practices are effective is important, our results show that there might still be something to be learned from the seemingly more old-fashioned topics, such as the process design.In particular, the concept of suboptimal equifinality may provide opportunities for further theoretical contributions. Future studies may be aimed at testing and elaborating how our conjectures about decision making under suboptimal equifinality hold in reality. For example, do firms adjust their strategies when they face conflicting contingencies, and do the managers of individual business functions try to rationalize their favorite process designs by using their expertise to claim the alternative designs infeasible?Further research can also be aimed at exploring our model's domains of generality and applicability. Although our tests were conducted on the level of manufacturing plants, the model can be applied, for example, to the level of product lines in a similar way as in the study of Safizadeh et al. (1996). Another possible path to explore is the expansion of the model into the context of supply chains. In that domain, the well-known matrix of Fisher (1997) has proposed that the dynamic demand of innovative products should be matched with responsive supply chain structures, whereas the stable demand of functional products should be matched with efficiency-focused supply chain structures. The propositions are quite analogous with the ones of our model but less detailed, so it may well be that the two models can be integrated as a more general contingency theory of complexity, specificity, and dynamism in manufacturing operations. Naturally, taking this path would entail its own challenges regarding at least the operationalizations (i.e. how to translate the measures to the supply chain context) and the data collection (i.e. how to get sufficient amounts of reliable data when the unit of analysis is an entire supply chain). However, such a path would answer the calls for more convergence between the operations management and the supply chain management research (Bozarth et al., 2009).Another possible direction for further explorations would be to test if the service positioning matrices (Schmenner, 1986; Collier and Meyer, 1998, 2000; Silvestro, 1999) can benefit from similar modifications that our model made to the product-process matrix. Ideally, by explaining the reciprocity among process designs, task environments, and business strategies, the resulting model could help in understanding how to design effective processes and strategies for integrated product-service systems, which are increasingly important in modern business environments (Baines et al., 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The product-process matrix of Hayes and Wheelwright is widely known for its prescriptive managerial guidance. Yet, most empirical studies have found no support for its performance assertions or have even contradicted them. The purpose of this paper is to propose a contingency theoretical generalization and extension that accommodates both the performance implications of the original model and the best-known departures from it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors test their extended model with survey data from 151 manufacturing plants.\nFindings: - The authors' model extends the process dimension of the original model into a specificity dimension that depends not only on the layout of the process but also on the flexibilities that can be achieved with advanced manufacturing technologies. Similarly, the product dimension, which was operationalized as product variety in the original matrix, is generalized to the complexity of the production task, where product variety is only one element among others. Furthermore, the authors extend the model to accommodate also the dynamism of the task environment.\nResearch limitations/implications: - In addition to the testing of the extended model, the study provides openings for further theoretical development. In particular, the findings demonstrate the value of the contingency theoretical concept of suboptimal equifinality to operations management research.\nPractical implications: - The study updates the product-process matrix to match the modern industrial reality and thus enables the continued application of this important operations strategy prescription.\nOriginality/value: - The study integrates insights from previous research in operations management and contingency theory into a generalization and extension of the product-process matrix.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Identification and selection of ICTs for freight transport in product service supply chain diversification
|
[
"Diversification",
"ICT",
"AHP-DSS",
"Freight transport",
"Product service supply chain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Supply chain management (SCM) is one of the topics most widely studied in the field of logistics. SCM has centred on traditional manufacturing-oriented supply chains in which the concept is defined in terms of the events related to the flow and transformation of goods and services from the point of origin to the point of use (Buyukozkan and Cifci, 2011). In general terms, there are four stages: supply of materials; production; storage; distribution and transport.\n2. Antecedents: 2.1 The FTI\n3. ICT-based diversification in the FTI: Assuming the technological diversification suitability of a firm (Phase 1 of the methodology) and an analysis of the TP and the OP of the company with results that satisfy the requirements of the group of experts (Larrode et al., 2012; Muerza et al., 2014), during Stage 2.1 an inventory of the company's technologies is made and the key technologies are identified.\n4. Selection of the best ICT diversification strategy: Once constructed the technological shrub of the company, different diversification strategies (applications, services or portfolios of services) are fixed as alternatives of the decisional problem. Its determination (Muerza et al., 2014) may be provided by the group of experts who collaborates in the diversification process (bottom-up approach), or by the group of specialists from the company itself (top-down approach).\n5. Conclusions: Following the methodology designed by the authors for selecting the best industrial and technological diversification strategy, one of the best methods for achieving the long-term sustainability of companies, this work describes its application in the SSC sector, specifically, in freight transport in PSSCs. Furthermore, based on a review of the literature, a functional inventory for ICTs in the FTI has been carried out in accordance with the three main functionalities: information, telecommunication and computing systems, which are inter-dependent when offering a service. The identification of such dependence has allowed us to introduce the concept of a technological shrub.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Following the methodology designed for selecting the best industrial and technological diversification strategy, one of the best methods for achieving the long-term sustainability of companies, the purpose of this paper is to describe its application in the service supply chains (SSCs) sector, specifically, in freight transport in product service supply chains.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology used in diversification processes comprises four stages: evaluation of the technological diversification suitability; selection of the technological diversification strategy; implementation of the diversification strategy; and evaluation of the process.\nFindings: The main contributions of the paper are: the proposal of a taxonomy or functional inventory for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the freight transport industry (FTI); the introduction of a new concept, the technological shrub, a variant of the technological tree that allows interdependencies between the functionality systems; the construction of a technological shrub for ICTs in a standard FTI firm; and the multicriteria selection, based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), of the best diversification strategy that can be incorporated by this standard firm for improving competitiveness. This selection utilises a \"bottom-up\" approach.\nOriginality/value: The paper deals with the long-term sustainability of companies by means of technological diversification strategies. Based on the taxonomy constructed for ICTs in the SSC sector and the identification of key technologies for a particular firm, a technological shrub is constructed and a multicriteria procedure is developed in order to select the best diversification strategy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
It's not the job that you do but the way that you do it
|
[
"Performance",
"Recruitment",
"Competencies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Heard the one about the great class teacher who made a lousy head-teacher? Or the top-notch newspaper reporter who could not cut the mustard as editor? Of course you have; it is the stuff of HR legend.\nSounding out the views of colleagues: A proper evaluation of a job incumbent's potential therefore involves not only closely regarding how he or she performs in the current role, but also trying to extrapolate how he or she will adapt to the new role and perform in it. Sounding out the views of colleagues, clients and, indeed, anyone the employee regularly comes into contact with in the current role, as well as those who will be most closely affected by his or her performance the new role, is therefore crucial.\nGrades do not tell the whole story: Grades do, of course, have a role to play. They can help to legitimize pay practices and define the level of responsibility and scope of work that a person handles. But they cannot, and should not be allowed to, tell the whole story. Competencies are the key. They should serve as the basis for remuneration and be constantly reassessed. Any subsequent pay revisions should be subject to reassessment of a person's competencies and their continued relevance in the business context.\nNote: P.B. Srikanth, a doctoral student at XLRI Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India, is particularly interested in organizational roles, competency management and training. Write to: Xavier School of Management, C.H. Area (East), Jamshedpur - 831035. India. P.B. Srikanth can be contacted at: r11016@astra.xlri.ac.in\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Advances the view that employee potential needs to be assessed based on capability to handle the breadth and complexity of a given role, for which past performance may not serve as a good indicator.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Proposes a role-based perspective for evaluating performance and identifying employee potential.\nFindings: Details practical ways of implementing a role-based approach and identifies how to overcome obstacles.\nPractical implications: Explains why promotion needs to be based on a person's adaptability and potential to deal with complexity rather than his or her ability to do more of the same.\nSocial implications: Reveals how organizations can be made more effective by promoting the right people.\nOriginality/value: Concentrates on the importance of employee potential in selecting the right people for promotion.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards adaptive tourism areas: using fitness landscapes for managing and futureproofing tourism area development
|
[
"Complexity",
"Resilience",
"Adaptive capacity",
"Fitness landscape",
"Tourism area"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Tourism area development is a dynamic socio-spatial and socio-economic phenomenon. The emergence and consecutive development of the tourism industry, and related industries of recreation, leisure and hospitality, serve as a driving force that stimulates tourism area (re)development. Throughout the world, places have been adapted and transformed for the purpose of leisure, tourism and recreation. Some regions have become tourism areas whilst others are in process of becoming a tourism area, exhibiting variety in their tourism area life cycle (Butler, 1980). These sectors are continually evolving, however, and actors are forced to co-evolve, even regardless of the position of the tourism area in its life cycle. Because of the enormous growth in these industries, there is an immense and intense local as well as global competition. For visitors this means that there is an abundance of choice available. Visitors are able to continuously shift their interest from one destination to another. As such, actors in the sector of tourism are caught up in a process of continuous improvement and innovation - finding themselves caught in a process of becoming as actors try to find and develop niches that captivate people and attract visitors, inhabitants and businesses. The tourism area development is influenced, steered and shaped by a variety of actors and factors. It can be framed as the result of the interplay between changing contextual circumstances, planning interventions and (self-organized) responses by actors at multiple spatial and governance levels (Urry, 2003; Urry and Larsen, 2011).\n2. Theorizing and characterizing fitness landscapes: Fitness landscapes are visual representations of a system its space of possibilities which, in other words, concerns the totality of development options that are available to a system. This space of possibilities can be visualized, as it explained by De Landa (1994, p. 266): \"To put it in visual terms, it is as if the space of possibilities [...] included mountains and valleys, with the mountain peaks representing points of optimal performance.\" In literature, there are multiple notions describing more or less the same ideas. Walker et al. (2004) uses \"stability landscapes\" instead of fitness landscape. Battram (1998) uses \"search space\" instead of possibility space. Heylighen (2001) as well as Walker et al. (2004) use \"state-space\" instead of possibility space. Frenken (2006) uses \"design space\" instead of possibility space.\n3. From theory to practice: implications for tourism management: Theories on complex adaptive systems emphasize that dealing with persistently changing circumstances it is critical to feature adaptive capacity, which involves iteratively exploring a system's space of possibilities and generating a degree of diversity. For complex socio-spatial systems such as tourism areas, these features involve actions that need to be actively pursued and governed. This implies that tourism area development is entangled in an endless process that involves both diverging perspectives on development (exploring the space of possibilities/mapping the fitness landscapes in order to move to peaks and stay away from valleys; generating diversity) as well as converging perspectives on development (articulating which peaks to pursue; distinguishing development trajectories). Similarly, Van Wezemael (2012, p. 45) states that planning and management processes \"becomes readable as a repeatedly and experimentally generated response to changing relations in spatial development. Via trial and error the space of possibilities [...] [is] explored.\" This perspective on adaptive capacity draws attention to various issues for tourism planning, management and governance.\n4. Discussion: toward adaptive tourism areas: Enabling development trajectories to unfold in a particular direction whilst retaining a capacity to adapt brings forth major challenges and conditions for institutional design. Alexander (2002, p. 1) defines institutional design as \"the devising and realization of rules, procedures, and organizational structures that will enable and constrain behavior and action so as to accord held values, achieve desired objectives, or execute given tasks\" (North, 1990; Alexander, 2006). Institutional design is a key aspect of planning and management (Innes, 1995; Alexander, 2005) and takes place at the levels of the state, the province, the municipality/county and results in laws, rules and regulations at multiple governmental levels. By enabling and constraining particular land uses and activities over others, it becomes possible to steer and shape the development trajectories of a region, for instance toward leisure. A major challenge in the institutional design process is to ensure that tourism areas feature a degree of robustness and flexibility at the same time. Robustness is relevant to avoid disturbances that inhibit tourism areas in their uphill movement toward reaching better system states (e.g. ensuring that the regional leisure economy is diverse, protecting nature, heritage, spatial quality). Flexibility is relevant to facilitate actors to adapt and transform tourism areas, so that progression can be made (e.g. introducing new business concepts, land uses, stimulating spatial quality).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Tourism areas are challenged to become adaptive areas in the context of a dynamic networked society and globalizing economy. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to an enhanced understanding and conceptualization of adaptive tourism areas by drawing attention to \"fitness landscapes,\" a metaphor that is used in complexity theories to visualize development trajectories of adaptive systems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Fitness landscapes, and its underlying theories, are useful to conceptualize tourism area development as a stepwise movement through a dynamic landscape with peaks and valleys. Doing so allows us to highlight why adaptation is a crucial property for tourism areas that are embedded in dynamic contexts and offers a frame of thought for how tourism areas can be managed.\nFindings: The article raises awareness about and draws attention to a set of factors and conditions that support tourism planners and managers in enhancing the capacity of tourism areas to adaptively respond to changing circumstances.\nOriginality/value: Introducing fitness landscapes contribute to the discussion on adaptive capacity building - a topic that contributes to managing uncertain futures and is likely to gain importance in the dynamic society. Moreover, it helps as well as stimulates tourism scholars to further develop this topic. Finally, it helps tourism planners to build adaptive capacity in practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of atmospherics on WOM about short life-cycle products: the case of motion pictures
|
[
"Word of mouth",
"Attitudes",
"Emotions",
"Atmospherics",
"Motion pictures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and purpose: The role of store atmosphere on consumers' cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses has been extensively studied over the last four decades (Tang et al., 2001; Eroglu et al., 2005; Parsons, 2009; Bigdeli et al., 2014; Jalil et al., 2016). Two converging streams of research in the marketing field, atmospherics and servicescape (Bitner, 1992), have provided useful insights on how and when store atmosphere influences consumers' experience and evaluation of service (Mari and Poggesi, 2013). In particular, prior studies have revealed both the effects of specific atmospheric cues (such as music, scent, temperature) (Madzharov et al., 2015) and the interactive effect of different environmental cues on pleasure (Morrison et al., 2011), arousal (Mattila and Wirtz, 2001), dominance (PAD) (Kottasz, 2004), resource expenditures (Babin and Darden, 1995), store evaluation, patronage intentions (Baker et al., 2002), image and shopping behaviour (Mari and Poggesi, 2013). Likewise, atmospherics appear to exert a significant effect on consumers' intentions to spread positive word of mouth (WOM) about the store (Babin et al., 2005; Bonn et al., 2007; Jeong and Jang, 2011; Heung and Gu, 2012).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Atmospherics\n3. Research hypotheses: 3.1 The mediating role of positive emotions evoked by atmospherics in the relationship between movie theatre atmospherics and attitude toward the movie\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Procedure\n5. Results: Means, standard deviations, reliabilities and correlations for all variables appear in Table IV. To examine the multiple mediation model, a bootstrapping analysis was conducted (1000 bootstrap samples with 95 per cent confidence intervals), based on the SPSS macro suggested by Preacher and Hayes (2004, 2008). This technique addresses some weaknesses of the Sobel test and, more importantly, allows researchers to incorporate multiple mediators.\n6. Discussion and conclusions: The current work contributes to the literature on atmospherics and WOM in four fundamental ways. First, through the use of confirmatory factor analysis (AMOS) and the SPSS macro (PROCESS tool), this study provides further evidence that atmospherics positively influence customers' WOM intentions. In that way it extends the prior research that has supported a positive association between store atmosphere and WOM about the store (Babin et al., 2005; Bonn et al., 2007; Jeong and Jang, 2011; Heung and Gu, 2012), by developing and proving a new causal model which illustrates both the direct and indirect effects of (theatre) atmospherics on WOM about a brand (movie brand). Atmosphere and specifically facilitative elements and physical conditions trigger positive emotions in customers. Positive emotions of customers affect the formulation of their attitude toward the brand and, in turn, attitude toward the brand influences the generation of WOM about the brand.\n7. Managerial implications: The present study offers a number of managerial implications for motion pictures producers and exhibitors. It reveals the pivotal role of a movie theatre's atmospherics in the success of a movie (attitude toward the movie and WOM about a movie) and provides an explanation of why production/distribution enterprises have become more and more involved in the theatre operation, during the last thirty years (Fu, 2009; Sunada, 2010; Jin, 2012). The vertical integration and/or horizontal control on the exhibition of movies could be a source of competitive advantage, since movie theatre atmosphere constitutes a significant part of the movie's total product.\n8. Limitations and future research: Like any other research, the present study is not without limitations. Although, as it was indicated before, students are more likely than other groups to watch a movie in a theatre (ELSTAT, 2014b), the student sample limits the external validity of the model. Future research could extend our results, using a more representative sample. In the present paper, scales were modified and applied to Greek culture because they have developed in a Western culture (USA and Western Europe).We attempted to overcome the cultural sensitivity of the scales, paying careful attention to the translation of them (translation/back translation methodology) (Mullen, 1995).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to empirically examine how atmospherics affect word of mouth (WOM) about the brand. The authors focus primarily on uncovering the causal mechanism in which such effect is serially mediated by both perceived positive emotions evoked by atmospherics and attitude toward the brand.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To test the research hypotheses, 314 Greek moviegoers were drafted to participate in a survey. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (AMOS) and the SPSS macro (PROCESS tool). The model was applied to motion pictures, as they provide a particularly good example of short life-cycle products.\nFindings: Findings indicate that atmospherics are related to WOM about the brand through perceived emotions evoked by atmospherics and, in turn, attitude toward the brand.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present study extends the relevant literature by providing both direct and indirect links between atmospherics and WOM about a brand.\nPractical implications: The model of the present study could be applied to other short life-cycle products that share key characteristics with motion pictures. Moreover, the present study increases movie producers and exhibitors' understanding of the effects of theatre atmospherics on WOM about the movie and leads to practical suggestions and implications.\nOriginality/value: WOM is one of the key variables that can affect the profitability of short life-cycle products. To date, there was no evidence that atmospherics can influence WOM about a short life-cycle product.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Getting a "sweet" deal: does healthfulness of a sub-brand influence consumer loyalty?
|
[
"Segmentation",
"Behavioural loyalty",
"Dirichlet",
"Healthful sub-brands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most of the world's population now lives in countries where the over-consumption of nutritionally deficient foods contributes to the deaths of more people than the under-consumption of nutritionally rich foods (World Health Organisation, 2015). Poor dietary habits often lead to poor health outcomes and an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases (Must et al., 1999). While government policies make substantial investments in promoting healthful diets and lifestyle choices (Public Health England, 2014; National Health Service, 2013), prevailing obesity trends suggest that modern consumers find it hard to maintain healthful choices.\nBackground and research questions: Healthful food trends in the marketplace\nBehavioural loyalty towards healthful brands: Past consumer behaviour literature has developed and tested a suite of empirical models and analytical techniques for understanding and predicting consumer loyalty. We explain these below.\nMethod and results: Double jeopardy\nDiscussion and implications: This study contributes to the body of empirical evidence regarding consumer goods buying behaviour in the context of a global trend towards increased demand for healthful food options. The findings shed light on an important question: does the nutritional difference in healthful and less healthful sub-brands, global healthy living trends and marketing efforts of healthful sub-brands, result in consumers displaying higher behavioural loyalty towards healthful sub-brands than their less healthful counterparts in the same category? The answer is no. Our data show almost no sign of excessive loyalty or rejection towards healthful sub-brands. All sub-brands, regardless of their objective healthfulness, display the levels of loyalty that are expected by established marketing laws, based on the size of their customer bases. Table IV summarises the results of all research questions.\nLimitations and further research: While this study addresses several limitations present in Sjostrom et al. (2014), there are still limitations. First, the study was conducted solely in the UK. While the UK suffers from increasing rates of obesity, other developed countries, such as the USA and Australia, have similar issues. Therefore, further research in these areas is required. Second, perhaps the key limitation is the time of analysis (being 2008 to 2010). Seven years of marketing activity in this area since 2010 may have led to higher demand for healthful alternatives and therefore the development of healthful sub-brands. This suggests a fruitful avenue for analysis of more recent data that span more extended periods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Increasing and maintaining the population's consumption of healthful food may hinder the global obesity pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether it is possible for healthful sub-brands to achieve higher consumer behavioural loyalty than their less healthful counterparts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study analysed three years of consumer panel data detailing all purchases from five consumer goods categories for 15,000 UK households. The analysis uses best-practice techniques for measuring behavioural loyalty: double jeopardy, polarisation index, duplication of purchase and user profile comparisons. Each sub-brand's healthfulness was objectively coded.\nFindings: Despite the level of healthfulness, all sub-brands have predictable repeat purchase patterns, share customers as expected and have similar user profiles as each other. The size of the customer base, not nutrition content, is, by far, the biggest determinant of loyalty levels.\nResearch limitations/implications: Consumers do not show higher levels of loyalty to healthful sub-brands, or groups of healthful sub-brands. Nor do they buy less healthful sub-brands less often (as a \"treat\"). There are also no sub-groups of (health conscious) consumers who would only purchase healthful options.\nPractical implications: Sub-brands do not have extraordinarily loyal or disloyal customers because of their healthfulness. Marketers need to focus on growing sub-brands by increasing their customer base, which will then naturally grow consumer loyalty towards them.\nOriginality/value: This research brings novel evidence-based knowledge to an emerging cross-disciplinary area of health marketing. This is the first study comparing behavioural loyalty and user profiles towards objectively defined healthful/less healthful sub-brands.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Maximizing the value of online data for HRM research: Network-based text analysis widens the scope
|
[
"Social media",
"Online data",
"HRM research",
"Network-based text analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe rising significance of online data sources: As technology continues its seemingly incessant march to greater heights, researchers have arguably never had it so good. Information and data, the raw materials for their work, are now obtainable from a much wider range of sources than ever before.\nOnline research within human resource management: The field of human resource management (HRM) is one which has deployed quantitative and qualitative research methods. However, the online presence of human resource (HR) professionals is growing exponentially and has given rise to articles, discussions, and blogs pertaining to issues within the sector. Practitioners thus now have an ideal means of keeping their finger on the pulse that concerns developments, trends, beliefs, opinions, and attitudes.\nSome common barriers: The above emphasizes why a tentative approach is necessary when researchers seek to acquire and use data produced online. Awareness of any copyright issues and intellectual property rights is imperative. It does not help that guidelines can be vague and contradictory, leaving people uncertain about the ethical nature of their intentions. Lack of clarity causes additional confusion about ownership and control of information and whether written consent for its re-use is needed. Gaining such permission in itself is often less than straightforward.\nThe merits of network text analysis: Notwithstanding all this, HRM researchers will undoubtedly still be able to accumulate large volumes of data. How to sort and analyze it thoroughly is the next hurdle to overcome.\nComment: The review is based on: \"Using online data and network-based text analysis in HRM research\" by Platanou et al. (2018), published in Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance. The growth and popularity of social media and other online platforms offer a potentially rich data source that can enhance HRM. Effective acquisition and analysis permit researchers to identify attitudes, developments, and trends within the sector. Attention must be paid to various ethical factors when capturing and using such data, which is naturally occurring and unstructured.\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: The growth and popularity of social media and other online platforms offer a potentially rich data source that can enhance human resource management. Effective acquisition and analysis permit researchers to identify attitudes, developments, and trends within the sector. Attention must be paid to various ethical factors when capturing and using such data, which is naturally occurring and unstructured.\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"
}
] |
Library customer service in an Italian university library: from ILL to circulation and back
|
[
"Document delivery",
"University libraries",
"Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Fundamental staffing changes in libraries have become possible as a result of technical developments. In addition the general and global decline of conventional document supply potentially leads to reductions in staffing levels in this service. This article describes the potential for document supply librarians to widen and deepen their role by integrating their current role and skills into the wider circulation process within the library. This potential is illustrated by describing what is proposed in the home library of the authors at the University of Bocconi in Milan.We describe our experience in three sections: the first analyses the past (policies, staff, procedures), while the second describes what changed this situation. In the third, we imagine a possible future for our departments.\nThe context: First of all, we think that it would be useful to describe the context in which we work. Bocconi is a private university founded in 1902 by a Milanese entrepreneur to initiate the scientific study of economics in Italy. Economics, in all its branches, remains the main subject studied in the university; however, recently a degree in law has been started. The University has four first-level degrees and seven second-level degrees. In 1971 a business school (SDA) was founded. From the beginning the university has been engaged in exchanges with foreign universities. Now foreign faculty is enrolled and seven courses are in English, for foreign students. Students number about 15,500 (undergraduate, graduate and working doctoral). The university has one central library and a small branch library. The Library has about 700,000 volumes and currently subscribes to 16,700 periodicals. Off-campus access to electronic journals is offered to all its institutional patrons. In 2007 the Circulation Department checked out 136,350 items; the DS Department managed about 1,250 borrowing requests, 650 lending requests and 370 inter-campus delivery requests. The library is staffed by one director, ten professional librarians, 42 paraprofessional librarians and two clerical staff.\nIn the past: Policies\nChanging the situation: In 2005, the Library purchased a new automation system. The new automation system gave us the opportunity not only to review our own workflows, but also to see the whole library in a new perspective (Intner, 1987).The new system had a very complex circulation module that determined loan rules, matching users' privileges and materials' characteristics.Our loan policies suffered the consequences of this rigid stratification of practices. We were expected to implement the circulation module without changing the loan rules. However, we realized that we would lose an opportunity to innovate if we left everything as it was, merely transferring our old rules into the new system. So we decided to face the change and with the permission and the support of our director we started changing our loan rules, our user types and our item categories. The analysis and the proposal had to be done together, integrating circulation and interlibrary loan policies. In our perspective, the two services had to keep their autonomy, but they had to share procedures and loan rules.We started to define the different categories of users (who), and then to analyze the collection (what) and then to redefine the loan periods (how long).Who?\nMaking plans for the future: By the end of the conversion process, library user types and item categories were completely revised and our procedures were integrated; the new automation system had been implemented which improved the effectiveness and the efficiency of the library. However, a new problem arose which is described below: technology again made us think about our structure, our workflows, and perhaps also our professional identity.The new system facilitates the relation between users and books; users may easily make requests though the OPAC for different kind of materials. In general, by enabling the OPAC, we obtained model of item circulation shown in Table I. The user stays on one side of a virtual front line, the items on the other side. The only difference is the waiting times. But the process has one direction only: it starts from the user request and it ends with a successful fulfilment. For this reason, between the user requesting and receiving an item, they only see one librarian, a unique intermediary, no matter the item type they have requested. Nevertheless DS and Circulation staff have different tasks and different skills. In our policy (and in our system of rules) circulation and document supply are integrated, but we still have two locations and two professional profiles.So we think that the next step towards a client-centred library would be to integrate DS and Circulation tasks and skills, in order to create a new librarian who can solve user information needs and manage each loan transaction easily, who can focus on the specific case and locate it within the circulation of items and people. In order to create this new librarian, we could move DS librarians forward and Circulation staff backwards. The former will learn to face continuous flows of users asking for loans for every type of item. The latter will learn to be good searchers, to be real intermediaries between books and people.Within this dual shift of culture and frame of mind, towards people on the one hand and towards books on the other. how can we define the skills and the attitudes of this new librarian? Firstly, we can compare tasks. Thus, we can see that DS and Circulation librarians do similar tasks:* they receive requests from users, in person, through web forms or via e-mail;* they verify requests and the user record;* they trace the items users request (inside the library, outside the library);* they obtain items directly, or by requesting them from other libraries; and* they notify the user and deliver the item.The process is the same. But what kind of skills do we require to manage the whole process, from the more critical operations (verify and locate) to the simpler ones (request, deliver)? We have to integrate skills. DS staff are required to have searching skills, to be able to manage information, to have a good knowledge of Library policies and structure and to have good negotiating skills. They are required to have the capacity to learn, to collaborate with others and to have good planning skills. Circulation staff must have the ability to:* relate and communicate effectively with other employees and the public;* make decisions based on established policies and practices, as well as common sense;* understand complex oral and written instructions; and* use resourcefulness, tact and courtesy in dealing with library patrons.They also need good knowledge of standard library principles, practices and procedures.A new job profile, the intermediary between the user and the collections of the library, can be created from the merging of the skills described above. The technical ability to manage and solve the particular problem must be integrated with a wide knowledge of the library's organizational context.\nConclusion: This case study presented points out an experience of changing the policies, staff and procedures in our Document Supply and Circulation Departments. The first step we suggest is to focus on the analysis of policies: DS and Circulation librarians have to study together their patron types (who), their item types (what) and the loan period (how long).The second step is to review (maybe annually) DS and Circulation loan rules. This is necessary for two reasons:1. users change their behaviour as a consequence of institutional change; and2. the publishing business is always changing and the library must reflect these changes.The adoption of a new automation system for the library and the development of different services precedes a specific job profile for library personnel: the new Access Librarian.But this new job profile is also the direct consequence of a growing culture of flexibility in the organization. In our opinion, it will be possible only with the outcome of an attitude of continuous learning (both formal and workplace learning).At the moment we cannot implement this project, but we are trying to create opportunities for our staff to better organize their workplace learning, and to be aware of the opportunities through periodical meetings, during which we can understand their learning needs, and plan tools and ways of organizing opportunities of learning.This should be the first step in preparing for the radical changes described in this paper.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describe the changes taking place at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, after the introduction of a new automated system, and to propose the integration of the work of the Document Supply (DS) and the Circulation Departments with radical changes in the job descriptions of both.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is descriptive in nature.\nFindings: - Automation has led to process changes but not yet to the staffing changes that have become possible.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows how one university is responding to the changes that are taking place technologically and particularly in relation to document supply librarians and staff in the service areas of the main library.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does competency matter? Competency as a factor in workplace bullying
|
[
"Competences",
"Organizational performance",
"Behaviour",
"Individual behaviour",
"Managerial psychology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Bullying is one form of deviancy experienced in organizational settings as well as in society and in the school setting. Manifestations can run from simple incivility, ill treatment, social undermining, and harassment, to bullying and even mobbing (Hershcovis, 2011). The literature on bullying moved into the realm of business, but was previously prevalent in the nursing, medical, and educational literature. For many years, it was suggested that bullying occurred in primary and secondary school, but bullies outgrew their deviant behavior when they entered the workplace. This now seems counterintuitive, knowing what we do about human behavior. There is an intriguing lack of research focussing on why victims of bullying might be considered to be powerless or timid (Olweus, 1993), lacking the skill or support from others to fend off the bully (Arora and Thompson, 1987).\nBullying: Some argue that large organizations are noxious to humans (Leavitt, 2007). However, bullying does not happen only in large schools or organizations - it is pervasive throughout the society. Research on bullying in school contexts has been the most prevalent, with it being called staggering (Sassu et al., 2004), widespread (Hirschstein et al., 2007), and \"the most prevalent form of violence in American schools\" (Ross, 2003, p. 43). Bullies graduate and turn up in the workplace (Magnuson and Norem, 2009), and they can cost the firm large amounts of time, productivity, and money (Glendinning, 2001).\nCompetence: The exhibited and perceived competence of the bullying victim becomes a key matter for examination in this dysfunctional behavior, because it is a precursor to performance (Spencer and Spencer, 1993). The need for competence is the basis for self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000), which has implications for work behaviors, including motivation and performance (Gagne and Deci, 2005). Discussion of the competence construct is enriched by the overview by Elliot et al. (2002), who emphasize the need for competence in their chapter. These authors believe that competence is highly related to various forms of motivation. Taking these works into account, we can see that the presence or absence of competence could be a relevant part of the motivation to take particular types of actions, both positive and negative. However, Sandberg (2000) contended that competence has not been researched systematically nor has it been in use frequently in the context of management.\nA framework of bullying and competence: In examining the various research streams of bullying and competence, we find that there is little work on the intertwining of the two. However, it is logical that bullying would impact competence, or vice versa. Notelaers et al. (2010) pursued job characteristics as antecedents for victimization, finding that role ambiguity and role conflict were the most important, and these can create an internal feeling of incompetence. Other characteristics associated with victimization were lack of feedback, lack of skill use, and lack of participation (Notelaers et al., 2010), all of which could lead to lower perceptions of competency by victim and/or the bully. Einarsen (1999) suggested that feelings and perceptions about others may increase the likelihood of bullying. This can be in the form of disparagement (Menon and Thompson, 2010); someone who is very competent, but unsure of their abilities may be bullied by someone disparaging their worthwhile accomplishments. It can also be a response of the incompetent when the competent gets praise for good work; the incompetent may blame the competent for their own failures (Attribution theory: Baron, 1990) and bully them.\nConclusion: Examining the various types of bullying and its relationship to competency is a new step toward a more thorough comprehension of the phenomena of poor interpersonal behavior in the workplace. In this paper, a model is developed to address the victimization of individuals by bullies from a competence perspective, thus tying together various streams of literature in an attempt to suggest some reasons for the development of psychologically hazardous working conditions that are likely to be expensive for the firm. Although incivility, harassment, hostile workplace environment, bullying, and mobbing have been discussed and modeled for several years in education, nursing, and management literature (cf. Aquino and Lamertz, 2004; Zapf and Gross, 2001; Hershcovis, 2011), the tie between competency and bullying has not been discussed. As previously discussed, it is also possible that there is a reverse interaction; those who are bullied may be made to feel incompetent. However, this preliminary exploration of the concept is from the view of performance effects on the victim.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection of competency and bullying behaviors, not yet reported in the literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach is an examination of the literature available on both topics, and development of a framework related to both.\nFindings: The theory is that there is a strong mediating relationship between the victim's self-perception of competency and outcomes (the victim's reactions) to bullying behaviors. There are multiple impacts of bullying behaviors, but the authors believe this mediation action of competency might be crucial. There is little research on competency or expertise in terms of behaviors resulting from these self-assessments. Future research should seek to examine the link empirically, and there are implications about the competency levels of bullies themselves that might arise.\nResearch limitations/implications: As this is a newly developed research stream, the authors plan to continue with work on the topic.\nPractical implications: By developing competency, individuals may develop some protection or coping mechanisms when confronted by bullying behaviors. Managers need to be aware of the need to allow employee development to reduce the incidence of such behaviors.\nSocial implications: Bullying behaviors have become rampant in society. In trying to determine where the problem might be best addressed, the authors feel that they have made a significant impact to allow managers to address competency among those victimized by these behaviors. This should have a flow-on effect for organizational and societal culture.\nOriginality/value: This is an intersection that has not been explored but holds significant explanatory power in the area. These bullying behaviors are on the rise; therefore, it is an exceptional opportunity to present new ideas in a forum that is well read by both academics and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Top management's perception of knowledge management in a vocational education and training organization in Finland
|
[
"Educational management",
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge flow",
"VET organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper studies knowledge management in a vocational education and training (VET) organization in Finland. The research is topical because the VET system in Finland is going through a major structural change. Previously independent and fairly small organizations are being merged into regional education consortiums. This change poses serious challenges for the management of organizational knowledge processes by adding hierarchy and complexity to the system. This paper explores empirically what kind of knowledge-based management challenges are encountered in a newly established regional education organization. The paper contributes by increasing the understanding of the phenomenon and raising several important aspects that have to be taken into account when planning and managing the change in a similar setting.\n2. Theoretical framework: managing knowledge-based and service-oriented value creation: Educational institutions are highly knowledge-intensive service organizations, where knowledge has a central role in service operations - knowledge is both an input and an output of the service (e.g. Starbuck, 1992). From the viewpoint of knowledge-based value creation (Laihonen and Lonnqvist, 2010) the service context poses some specific management challenges. Intangibility of services, customer's active role as well as the difficulties in defining the actual service output and long-term outcomes pose challenges for managing the transformation of knowledge into high-quality services (e.g. Sampson and Froehle, 2006; Gronroos, 2009).\n3. Empirical setting: 3.1 Research context: the changing VET system in Finland\n4. Empirical examination: knowledge-based analysis of a VET organization: 4.1 Knowledge needs of individual managers\n5. Discussion: knowledge-based management challenges of a VET organization: The analysis of the empirical data indicates that knowledge management is not so far considered to be an important task of education management so far. Currently the main focus is on sharing administrative information and knowledge management seems detached from the provision of education services. Information is widely shared but attention has not been paid to its actual utilization. The results also show that managers feel that when the size of the organization increases, the number of organizational instructions, rules, meetings, follow-ups, etc. increases as well.\n6. Conclusions: This paper studied knowledge-based management challenges in an educational management context. The practical contribution of the paper is connected to suggestions and guidelines for developing knowledge management in educational organizations. The tasks of knowledge integration and coordination are universal problems for educational organizations. By identifying management challenges in one particular organization that has gone through a major structural change, this paper provides important viewpoints on developing knowledge processes in any similar setting.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report top management's view of knowledge management in an educational organization. The paper also recognizes the main knowledge-based development areas. The aim of this paper is to bridge a knowledge gap regarding managerial processes that support teachers in their diverse knowledge tasks; gathering, creating, sharing and explicating knowledge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative case approach was applied to uncover the knowledge processes of a vocational education organization in Finland. The empirical data were gathered in two phases. First, the existing knowledge needs of management team members were mapped by an e-mail enquiry. Second, a group interview was held with the same management team. Interview themes were derived from the literature and from the first empirical phase. The interview data are discussed and analyzed in light of the knowledge-based management literature.\nFindings: The results of the study indicate that knowledge management is so closely related to education organizations' value creation processes that it should be considered an essential part of modern educational management. Based on this notion the paper argues that more emphasis is needed especially on mastering knowledge that relates to the education function and the creation of enabling knowledge structures that support this function.\nPractical implications: The paper provides practitioners with a basic understanding about the existing knowledge-based management processes in education organizations. It also turns the focus onto knowledge usage instead of mere information provision. Furthermore, the paper provides a basis for a systematic modeling and development of knowledge integration and coordination in educational organizations.\nOriginality/value: The paper links knowledge management activities to the value creation processes of education services. Whereas the existing educational management literature seems to consider knowledge management mainly as a support function, the discussion presented here makes it the main focus and argues that for knowledge-intensive education organizations it should form an essential part of their strategic management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Spatial variability assessment of river-line floods and flash floods in Himalaya : A case study using GIS
|
[
"Database Management System",
"Geo‐informatics",
"Weather‐informatics",
"Hydro‐informatics",
"Flood hazards and risks",
"Floods",
"Himalaya",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Dwarfing all other mountains of the world in sheer height, Himalaya is the youngest mountain system, which is still undergoing tectonic movement due to prevailing geological conditions. Though each and every part of the world is more or less susceptible to natural calamities, the Himalaya due to its complex geological structures, dynamic geomorphology and seasonality in hydro-meteorological conditions experience natural disasters very frequently, especially water-induced hazards. Although the Himalaya is highly vulnerable for all type of water-induced hazards such as flood, erosion, landslide in monsoon period and drought in non-monsoon period (as drying up of natural water springs and streams) but recent past its observed that flood hazard causing a major threat for the entire Himalaya tract. Mainly two types of floods are common throughout the Himalaya, i.e. flash flood and river-line flood which are among the more devastating types of hazard as they occur rapidly with little lead time for warning, and transport tremendous amounts of water and debris at high velocity. Flash floods and river-line floods affect thousands of people in the Himalayan region every year by loosing their lives, homes and livelihoods along with expensive infrastructure. There are several different causes of flash flood and river-line flood in Himalaya such as intense rainfall (IRF), glacial lake outburst, landslide dam outburst, rapid snow melt and failure of dams and other hydraulic structures (Jonkman, 2005). But IRF is very frequent cause for flash flood and river-line flood in the Himalaya which play a key role for flash flood and river-line flood. The main meteorological phenomenon causing IRFs in the region are cloudbursts, stationarity of monsoon trough and monsoon depressions. Flash flood in the region cause great loss to life and property and poses serious threat to the process of development which have far-reaching economic and social consequences. About hundreds of peoples are losing their life each year due to flash flood hazard in Himalaya region such as in a recent incidence of flash flood hazard occurred at midnight of August 6, 2010 due to cloudburst hit the Himalayan town of Leh in the frontier region of Ladakh Himalaya killing at least 93 people and more than thousands of peoples lose their houses and property. On the other hand the river-line flood triggering several environmental socio-economic problems in many ways. River-line flood is undercutting of valley sides which causes the mountainsides to become unstable and ultimately ends in landslides and slope instability which demolished the infrastructural development (road network, buildings, canals, communication connectivity, etc.) and natural resources specially forest, land and water. During floods, tremendous amounts of erosion occurs on the banks of rivers and streams and washed away the crops and productive land whereas some time moreover, unsorted sediments are deposited over agricultural fields and settlements especially during monsoons. Thus, the impacts of natural hazards are multi-dimensional, affecting environmental, social and economic systems. There is an urgent need to produce quantitative, reliable model that can be used for flood hazard and risk management to formulate a sustainable development plan for the study area which could be equally implement through the Lesser Himalaya region and as well as other similar mountainous parts of the world. The Dabka watershed constitutes a part of the Kosi Basin in the Lesser Himalaya, India in district Nainital has been selected for the case illustration. Although in recent past a number of studies (Hamilton, 1987; Haigh et al., 1988; Scheling, 1988; Ives, 1989; Valdiya and Bartarya, 1989; Cruz, 1992; Jain et al., 1994; Tiwari, 2000; Sharma et al., 2003; Sing, 2006) have been carried out on flood hazard and risk assessment in Himalaya by considered one or two triggering factors of flood but there is no scientific basis to agree with the views expressed by them because there are several factors they may contribute to this acceleration equally, including steep slopes, stressed geology, active tectonics, drainage density and frequency, changing land-use pattern, stony hilly soils, dynamic geomorphic features and high runoff, flood magnitude and erosion rate, etc. Consequently the present study carried out with integrated approach considering 11 flood controlling factors and their 44 sub-factors to flood hazard assessment and mitigation (Table I). Seven major factors, i.e. slope, geology, drainage density, drainage frequency, land-use pattern, soil types and geomorphic features have been identified by comprehensive field and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping whereas four key factors, i.e. rainfall, runoff, flood magnitude and soil erosion intensity of the land surface have been estimated through hydro-meteorological modeling following representative micro-watershed approach (Rawat and Rawat, 1994; Tiwari, 2000; Rawat et al., 2011). In order to that four sample micro-watersheds (representatives of different ecosystem) have been identified to estimate monthly runoff and erosion rate in terms of varied geology, geomorphology, average slope, soil types and land-use pattern in Lesser Himalaya (Table II). After validation of final flood hazard and risk zone maps a remote sensing and GIS-based sustainable land-use plan proposed as eco-friendly and low-cost measures for flood hazard mitigation in respect to existing geology, geomorphology, slope, soil types and vulnerability of flood hazard. In view of this the proposed work will fill up this highly realized gap and thus will have great scientific relevance in the field of flood hazard and risk management in Himalaya and other mountainous parts of the world.\n2. Study area: The watershed lies between the latitude 29deg24'09''-29deg30'19''N and longitude 79deg17'53''-79deg25'38''E in the northwest of Nainital town along the tectonically active main boundary thrust (MBT) of Himalaya, India. The region encompasses a geographical area of 69.06 km2 between 700 and 2,623 m altitude above mean sea level (Figure 1). In most of the mountainous part of the watershed the surface gradient is steep and the topography is rugged.\n3. Methodology: The study comprises mainly two components, lab/desk study and field investigations. Geo-structural maps were prepared during field study and details were verified and modified with other maps prepared during the lab/desk study. The procedure adopted for flood hazard mapping has been outlined in Figure 2, which is suggesting that the vulnerability of flood hazard and risks has been determined by integration and supervision of several triggering factors and their sub-factors under three GIS modules, have been prepared by geo-hydrometeorological Database Management System (DBMS).3.1 Geo-hydrometeorological DBMS\n4. Results and discussion: The main objective of the study was to develop geo-hydrometeorological DBMS to integrate and superimposition of the attribute and spatial data for flood hazard and risks assessment. As mention methodological section that geo-hydrometeorological DBMS constituted of three different GIS modules consisting of number of spatial map layers with their attribute data. These three GIS modules are geo-informatics, hydro-informatics and weather-informatics. The detailed results on all three modules are as follows.4.1 Geo-informatics\nConclusion: This investigation is an effort to assess the sound effects of an increasing human impact and geo-environmental impact upon hydrological hazards (i.e. floods, erosion, landslides during rainy season and drought due to dry-up of natural springs and streams during summer season) in the critical and vulnerable areas of the Lesser Himalaya. The results suggested that geo-environmentally most stressed areas of barren land (i.e. riverbeds, flood plain, denudational hills, sites of debris flow, gullies, landslide-prone areas, etc.) have extreme vulnerability for flood hazard due to high rate of runoff, sediment load delivery and denudation during rainy season (i.e. respectively 84.56 l/s/km2, 78.60 ton/km2 and 1.21 mm/year) whereas in geo-environmentally least stressed dense forest areas (i.e. oak, pine and mixed forests) have low vulnerability due to low rate of stream runoff, sediment load delivery and denudation (i.e. respectively 20.67 l/s/km2, 19.50 ton/km2 and 0.20 mm/year). The other frazzled geo-environment which also found high vulnerable for flood hazard and their risks is agricultural land areas due to high rate of stream runoff, sediment load delivery and denudation rates (i.e. respectively 53.15 l/s/km2, 90.00 ton/km2 and 0.92 mm/year). It is, therefore time to move from environmental consciousness to articulation of an eco-friendly strategy for integrated sustainable development of Himalaya. This makes it necessary to take up an integrated and comprehensive sustainable land-use policy for the entire Himalaya based on the scientific interpretation of the crucial linkages between land use and hydrological hazards. The study would help the village, district and state development authority to formulate their policies and program for alternate planning and management for the Himalaya region.\nAcknowledgement: This study constitutes part of multidisciplinary project, Department of Science and Technology (D.S.T.) Government of India, No.ES/11/599/01 dated 27/05/2005, \"Geo-environmental appriasal of the Dabka Watershed, Kumaun Lesser Himalaya, District Nainital: a model study for sustainable development\" funded to Prof. C. C. Pant, Head of the Department of Geology Kumaun University Nainital. Dr. P.K. Joshi, Scientist \"E\" in Forestry Division, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) Dehradun helped in GIS analysis for which the authors are indebted to him. Thanks to Shri M.S. Bargali, project assistant who helped during the intensive field work. The authors give special thanks to the Department of Science and Technology (D.S.T.) Government of India for funding to carryout this research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main objective of the study is to identify the vulnerable areas for river-line and flash flood hazard and its mitigation through GIS Database Management System (DBMS) of geo-hydrometeorological parameters. The Dabka watershed constitutes a part of the Kosi Basin in the Lesser Himalaya, India in district Nainital has been selected for the case illustration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Dabka DBMS is constituted of three GIS (Geographic Information System) modules, i.e. geo-informatics (consists of geomorphology, soils, geology and land use pattern, slope analysis, drainage density and drainage frequency), weather informatics (consists of daily, monthly and annual weather data about temperature, rainfall, humidity and evaporation) and hydro-informatics (consist of runoff, sediment delivery, and denudation). The geo-informatics and weather informatics modules carried out by comprehensive field work and GIS mapping than both modules used to carry out hydro-informatics module. Through the integration and superimposing of spatial data and attribute data with their GIS layers of all these modules prepared Flood Hazard Index (FHI) to identify the level of vulnerability for flood hazards and their socio-economic and environmental risks.\nFindings: - The results suggest that geo-environmentally most stressed areas of barren land (i.e. river-beds, flood plain, denudational hills, sites of debris flow, gullies, landslide prone areas etc.) have extreme vulnerability for flood hazard due to high rate of runoff, sediment load delivery and denudation during rainy season (i.e. respectively 84.56 l/s/km2, 78.60 t/km2 and 1.21 mm/year) whereas in geo-environmentally least stressed dense forest areas (i.e. oak, pine and mixed forests) have low vulnerability due to low rate of stream runoff, sediment load delivery and denudation (i.e. respectively 20.67 l/s/km2, 19.50 t/km2 and 0.20 mm/year). The other frazzled geo-environment which also found high vulnerable for flood hazard and their risks is agricultural land areas due to high rate of stream runoff, sediment load delivery and denudation rates (i.e. respectively 53.15 l/s/km2, 90.00 t/km2 and 0.92 mm/year).\nResearch limitations/implications: - For hydro-informatics module it is quite difficult to monitor water and sediment discharge data from each and every stream of the Himalayan terrain due the steep and rugged topography. It requires strategic planning and trained man power as well as sufficient funds; therefore representative micro-watershed approach of varied ecosystem followed for a three years (2006-2008) period.\nPractical implications: - The study will have great scientific relevance in the field of river-line flood and flash flood hazard and its socio-economic and environmental risks prevention and management in Himalaya and other mountainous terrain of the world.\nOriginality/value: - This study generated primary data on hydro-informatics and weather informatics to integrate with geo-informatics data for flood hazard assessment and mitigation as constitutes a part of multidisciplinary project, Department of Science and Technology (D.S.T.) Government of India.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Developing in engineering students a critical analysis about sustainability in productive systems: Empirical evidences from an action research experience
|
[
"Higher education institutions",
"Sustainability",
"Engineering education",
"Didactic experiences",
"Production systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Corporate competition and stakeholder pressure have increased considerably in recent decades, forcing companies to hire professionals that are more skilled in critical thinking (Leal Filho et al., 2016; Mochizuki and Fadeeva, 2010; Mulder et al., 2012). In addition, the new generation of students also requires innovative forms of education. Faced with these characteristics, higher education institutions need to rethink their approaches (e.g. learning processes and methods, programs organization and course content) to help graduate students adapt better to the new social and economic reality. This reality is present in all professional fields, including engineering (Guersola et al., 2016; Holgaard et al., 2016; Pinto et al., 2015).\n2. Background: 2.1 Sustainability in higher education\n3. Methodological procedures: This is basically a qualitative descriptive and exploratory research. From the point of view of research strategies, this study used literature review, document analysis and group discussion workshops in an Action Research design.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Initiatives developed\n5. Conclusions: The market has demanded dynamic professionals that, besides solid knowledge, also have practical skills and abilities in critical thinking. In this context, engineering higher education institutions are trying to improve their courses to integrate different areas of knowledge with sustainability concepts, thus providing students with a closer vision about the complex future (Baroutian et al., 2016; Kellam et al., 2007; Leal Filho et al., 2016; San-Juan et al., 2015).\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The Mechanical Engineering course at the University of Campinas is composed of different disciplines in the areas of materials, mechanical design, manufacturing (production and manufacturing), computational systems, thermal and fluids. In the manufacturing area, in particular, there is a discipline entitled Productive Systems whose main objective is to offer to the student a global vision about operations management. In the field of operations management, sustainability is gaining more and more importance; thus, it is important to develop in the students a critical sense about social and environmental aspects. Thus, this paper aims to present the main initiatives developed in the discipline to promote sustainability in engineering students.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Since 2015, the professors responsible for the Productive Systems discipline, assisted by post-graduate students and professors from other universities, have begun to redesign the discipline, including debates, lectures, projects and other initiatives to provide a critical view concerning the traditional concepts taught. The discipline has been performed three times with this new conception. The methodology to structure this research was literature review, documental analyses of the discipline records and meetings with professors that participated in the initiatives. An Action Research approach was performed by two professors and a graduate student. The authors of this paper also compared the results with those obtained by initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden).\nFindings: This study allowed to reinforce some results from initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden); however, some differences were identified. For example, similar to the initiatives mentioned, the professors of University of Campinas had problems with didactic books, as they loosely integrate the basic operations management concepts with sustainable development fundamentals. On the other hand, debates related to social sustainability were considered positive from the point of view of the professors and students, differing from initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology.\nResearch limitations/implications: Results come from one field study (University of Campinas) when professors of the Mechanical Engineering course try to integrate operations management concepts and sustainable development. Different results may be observed by other higher education institutions.\nPractical implications: The authors of this paper believe that the diffusion of these initiatives can stimulate other professors and researchers in the field to broaden the academic debate about the insertion of sustainability into engineering courses.\nOriginality/value: There are few papers presenting didactic experiences and empirical results about the integration of operations management concepts and sustainable development. Results of this paper reinforce some good practices and they also present other ones, in a way that extend the debate about educational engineering.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Information security: management's effect on culture and policy
|
[
"Information control",
"Management effectiveness",
"Organizational culture",
"Surveys"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Information security is a critical issue threatening organizations worldwide. With modern national economies and businesses fully dependent upon information technology for survival (President, 2003), the need to protect information is more paramount than ever before. Multiple national surveys confirm a high number of attacks against organizational information resources (Bagchi and Udo, 2003; Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), 2004; Gordon et al., 2004). Between 1998 and 2003, the number of reported incidents to the US CERT nearly doubled each year with 137,529 reported incidents in 2003 alone. According to an Ernst and Young survey, security incidents can cost companies between $17 and 28 million for each occurrence (Garg et al., 2004). Because incidents are frequent and costly, management must take security seriously to protect critical organizational information.For decades, security authorities recognized that solving security problems requires managerial attention (Allen, 1968; Parker, 1981; Van Tassel, 1972). Even so, managers often did not regard security as important and many permitted their information systems (IS) to be either lightly protected or wholly unprotected (Straub, 1990). In some IS key issue studies during the 1990s, the \"security\" issue dropped entirely off the top 20 list (Brancheau et al., 1996). Since 2000, even with increased media attention about e-mail viruses, internet worms, and software vulnerabilities, managerial attention to security still appears to be insufficient. A 2004 key issues study of 874 certified information security professionals showed that top management support was ranked number one from a list of 25 security issues (Knapp et al., 2004). In the same study, organizational culture ranked sixth and policy-related issues ranked seventh.Few studies have developed and empirically-tested theoretical models that apply these managerial constructs to information security (Kankanhalli et al., 2003; Straub, 1990). Some IS scholars even perceive a serious lack of empirically based information security research altogether (Kotulic and Clark, 2004). Considering the general lack of empirical research, this study seeks to explore, develop, and empirically test a theoretical model in information security.The lack of empirical research and theory in information security caused us to organize this paper differently than most articles reporting the results from empirical studies. The next section of this paper describes the research methodology we used to produce the theoretical model and the survey instrument that tested the model. This methodology section describes each phase of the study from qualitative data collection to the results of the quantitative data analysis. Following the methodology section, we conclude with a discussion of implications for research and practice.\nResearch methodology: This research study involved six major steps combining qualitative and quantitative techniques. Such an approach can provide a richer, contextual basis for interpreting and validating results (Kaplan and Duchon, 1988). The qualitative portion of the methodology relied on the grounded theory research strategy (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) in order to analyze open-ended question responses from 220 certified information system security professionals (CISSPs) who are constituents of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium ((ISC)2). This analysis enabled us to develop measurement scales by extracting questionnaire items from the content of the open-ended question responses. An expert panel of 12 CISSPs then evaluated the extracted items for meaningfulness and readability.One research objective was to create an instrument that exhibits not only high validity and reliability, but also minimizes the respondent's perception of instrument intrusiveness. Instruments with intrusively worded questions that cover sensitive organizational issues may cause respondents to be less than forthright in their answers. For this reason, development of a non-intrusive instrument is important to encourage respondents to participate thoroughly and candidly in the research. Thus, one of the key roles of the expert panel was to identify potentially intrusive questionnaire items.After multiple rounds of expert evaluation and a pre-test by nine CISSPs and nine academics, quantitative data was collected through a web survey version of the developed instrument. The subsequent results were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). We now describe each of the qualitative and quantitative methodological steps of this study.Qualitative data collection: open-ended questions\nDiscussion and conclusion: As noted, some researchers urge caution when engaging in information security research because of the intrusive nature of the topic. Kotulic and Clark (2004) recommended a careful methodology to minimize this problem. We acted on this advice and attempted to minimize the problem of perceived intrusiveness in our study. The willingness-to-answer scale was critical in this endeavor. Inviting a panel of certified security professionals to rate every candidate item for levels of intrusiveness prevented inclusion of questions in the survey that respondents might be uncomfortable or unwilling to answer. Researchers engaged in topics where perceived intrusiveness might represent a problem may consider using this scale to help identify potentially intrusive questionnaire items.This study combined qualitative and quantitative research methods. Qualitative data can help the quantitative side of a study during design by adding to the study's conceptual development and instrumentation. Qualitative data can also help quantitative analysis by confirming and illustrating quantitative findings (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The combination of these methods in this study contributed to establishing the credibility of the results.Although exploratory, the study's results indicate that top management support positively impacts security culture and policy enforcement. These findings are consistent with the qualitative statements from the open-ended questions as well as literature on the topic. Dutta and McCrohan (2002), for instance, stated that it is incumbent on senior management to provide the leadership to break down cultural and organizational barriers to force collaboration on security. This finding is consistent with statements found in our data such as, \"If there's no management support, real or perceived, all information security programs will fail\" and \"technology is great, but without the culture change that embraces security and management's backing - all the bits in the world won't help.\"A factor limiting the model to three constructs was the small sample size of the study. Future use of the instrument may benefit from a larger sample size more appropriate for SEM. Follow-on studies should also enhance the methodological rigor by minimizing common method variance through, for example, the introduction of time lags between the data collection of independent and dependent variables (Whitman and Woszczynski, 2004).Future research may also build upon the model by introducing other managerial constructs. For instance, during the grounded theory portion of the methodology, the axial coding phase produced a list of 25 categories developed along the theme of critical issues. Researchers may want to consider adding some of these constructs, such as Training Awareness, into an expanded model.Implications exist for the security profession. By providing evidence that a significant relationship exists between important managerial issues in information security, this study highlights the role of such issues in helping to protect mission critical information and systems. Security practitioners should understand the impact of top management support on achieving security effectiveness. Without management's visible support, running an effective security program will be an uphill battle. Based on the findings of this study, low levels of executive support will produce an organizational culture less tolerant of good security practices. Low levels of support will also diminish the level of enforcement of existing security policies. As one CISSP stated:Enforcement is without a doubt the most critical information security policy issue. While an organization can include whatever it wants in its security policy, this content is next to useless unless it is enforced.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study proposes to put forward and test a theoretical model that demonstrates the influence of top management support on an organization's security culture and level of security policy enforcement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The project used a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The grounded theory approach was used to analyze responses to open-ended questions answered by 220 certified information system security professionals. Using these responses, a survey instrument was developed. Survey results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: - Evidence suggests that top management support is a significant predictor of an organization's security culture and level of policy enforcement.\nResearch limitations/implications: - During instrument validation, a special effort removed survey items that appeared overly intrusive to the respondents. In this endeavor, an expert panel of security practitioners evaluated all candidate items on a willingness-to-answer scale. While especially helpful in security, this scale may be used in other research domains.\nPractical implications: - Practitioners should understand the impact of top management support on achieving security effectiveness. Based on the findings of this study, low levels of executive support will produce an organizational culture less tolerant of good security practices. Low levels of support will diminish the level of enforcement of existing security policies.\nOriginality/value: - Researchers developed original scales to measure levels of top management support, policy enforcement, and organizational culture. The scales demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity scores.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A new organisational memory for cross-cultural knowledge management
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Organizational memory",
"Culture",
"Organizational culture",
"Russia",
"Austria",
"Eastern Europe",
"Western Europe"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Blue chip companies around the world are aware of their employees' knowledge capital constituting a key resource for creating innovation and competitive advantage (Drucker, 1999; Raich, 2000; Holden and Tansley, 2007; Khamseh and Jolly, 2008; Yadav et al., 2010). These companies know that their success relies on the \"heads\" of their employees being affected by national and organisational cultures (Raich, 2000).In the meantime, the incalculable value of knowledge is identified by many companies and, therefore, treasured and protected by them to a great extent. On the other hand, this knowledge protection attitude often represents a considerable obstacle for international business co-operations. For knowledge to be transferred smoothly across cultures, i.e. in cross-cultural business co-operations, an open and trustful knowledge sharing attitude is required. The following two statements referring to an inherent multiplier effect of knowledge might be regarded as especially valid in an international business environment necessitating a great knowledge pool to solve increasingly complex problems in a globalized world: Harris (2001, in Ford and Chan 2003, p. 12) states that knowledge \"is possibly the only resource that, when used, can enhance the value of other capital and does not diminish in value\"; Alavi and Leidner (2001, in Ford and Chan, 2003, p. 12) even expand on that view by stating that \"knowledge increases in value with use\" (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). Against this background, this paper illuminates the influence of culture on cross-border knowledge management, specifically regarding a knowledge sharing attitude and organisational memory (OM).A knowledge sharing attitude: condition Sine Qua Non\n2 Methodology: The research used a phenomenological approach to better understand social realities, which are based on people's experiences and the meanings attached to them (Sanchez Bengoa et al., 2009). The research was designed in three stages. In the first stage, prior to the data collection, secondary research was conducted by an extensive literature review. This research was intended to increase the researchers' familiarity with the research setting rather than to develop any theoretical framework. This stage was also used to explore literature as to inform the choice of data collection methods. A primary research stage followed having conducted qualitative research methods (case study) and techniques (focus-groups, participant observation and in-depth interviews), because \"all of them are methods that allow the researcher to respond to emerging themes and to the particular characteristics of each of the cases\" (Daengbuppha et al., 2006, p. 3). The case study settings were Vorarlberg in Austria, an area known for its international business dynamics and St Petersburg, one of the thriving economic centres in Russia. The very extensive data collection phase was carried out over a 13 month period from February 2007 to March 2008. It mainly consisted of in-depth interviews requiring 23 of them to reach theoretical saturation, non-participant and participant observation (7), focus-groups (4) and fieldtrips notes in Russia and Austria. Theoretical sampling was used to select the participants.The gender sample included five male and six female respondents in Eastern Europe and nine male and three female respondents in Western Europe. All of them belong to industry and academia being involved in international business co-operations and actively taking part in knowledge sharing activities.Every piece of information the researcher gets in his/her way when researching is data and property of grounded theory (GT) (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). This implies the researcher is very aware and always keeping eyes and ears open, to be receptive to new data coming from different angles, for example, from field notes, from informal interviews, autobiographies, lectures, seminars, expert group meetings, diaries and journals, internet, mail, lists and even television (Charmaz, 2002).As one ethnographic technique gathering data in this research, participant observation refers to the back office organisation and participation in the International Conference for Economics, Business Studies and Law held in St Petersburg on the 1-2 March 2007 with 47 presentations and 110 participants from eight countries and six Russian regions. In addition, data collected from participant observation was gathered at a Conference held in Croatia in 2006 with 30 presentations and at a conference in Bern, Switzerland, in September 2007. The final activity for collecting data reiterating validity refers to the participation in the International Conference \"Contemporary Global Economy: Trades and Prospects\", held in St Petersburg, 25-26 April 2008, with 39 presentations and 123 participants, from 11 countries and six Russians regions.During the time of the three conferences (above mentioned), the personal interactions in the towns and during the travels provided the researcher with an additional source of information by direct observation contributing to the general understanding of the situation and widening the data collection.The first focus group took place on 6 June 2007 in Dornbirn, Austria. It was originally planned to have five participants, but unfortunately due to unexpected travels two of them could not come. Nevertheless, the focus group was conducted due to the interesting background of the three participants. The session lasted two hours from 18.00 to 20.00 h and it was conducted on the premises of the University of Applied Science, room 212. The second focus group with ten participants was conducted on the 19 September 2007, at 18.15-20.15 on the premises of the University of Applied Science, room 212.The GT method of constant comparative analysis based on Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Strauss and Corbin (1990) was used to analyze the gathered data in the third research stage. From these researchers' point of view, current research can be criticized in that it is mainly used for the verification of theory or the development of it, through logical deduction more than from an experimental point of departure. Their argument is that \"basing theory on experimental data ties it to the data and makes it irrefutable\" (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, p. 5) because \"it reduces the opportunistic use of available theories or the forced fit of popular theories to the data\" (p. 5). Additionally, they are convinced that \"the adequacy of a theory can't be divorced from the process of creating it\" (p. 5).Discussion of findings\n3 Conclusion: Companies can gain international competitiveness by becoming aware of both possible detrimental impacts of culture on KM in cross-border co-operations and the large potential benefits of value creating knowledge exchange and its dissemination. Unfortunately, the reflection on the research results implied that the implementation of this concept in practice is still in the early stages. Although it is regarded as costly in time and effort, it is acknowledged to be of vital importance. The benefits include keeping the vast and diverse knowledge possessed by co-operation partners, integrating, assimilating and using it in daily practice as well as learning from mistakes, avoiding reinventing the wheel and, finally, creating new knowledge leading to quick innovative results. This paper presents GT on OM, which was derived by axial coding reflecting the emerging category, sub-category, dimensions and properties. Furthermore, concluding from the research and from a more practitioners' perspective a processual model on the implementation of OM for international business co-operations is provided.The results of this research in settings of diametrically different cultures mirror the high importance of emotions and emotional intelligence to share knowledge. First, it could be clearly perceived that the business relationship and even friendship, which is important in the Russian high context culture, can flourish when personal interaction takes place and personal details and knowledge are shared. Therefore, practitioners are well advised to prioritise the development of social interactions. Second, emotional intelligence should prevail for providing and maintaining the motivation for knowledge sharing and caring for the relationships which should continuously improve. Latter contributes to trust development resulting in knocking down former institutionalised patterns of behaviours and synthesize diverse knowledge and behaviour. The suggested physical part of the OM provide many opportunities in this context for people to exchange and share knowledge in a low threat environment being regarded vital for the success of the international business co-operation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Effectively managing the cultural environment is an important stepping stone towards international business success. Cultural problems, especially between partners coming from diametrically different cultural categories represent one of the key challenges of knowledge management in international business co-operations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of controversial cultural attitudes on collaboration and the use of most diverse knowledge capital of employees being regarded as a key resource for innovation and competitive advantage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on a comprehensive literature review, the very extensive data collection phase, applying the case study method, was carried out over a 13 month period. It mainly consisted of in-depth interviews requiring 23 of them to reach theoretical saturation, non-participant and participant observation (seven), focus groups (four) and fieldtrip notes in two culturally diverse Russian and Austrian research settings. Theoretical sampling was used to select the participants. The grounded theory method of constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the gathered data.\nFindings: - The attitude towards sharing the precious resource of diverse employees' knowledge regarded as a prerequisite to international business success is influenced by national cultures. Protective attitudes for knowledge sharing limit the growth of humans' and the company's development. This paper suggests that providing the appropriate knowledge management tools and environment, especially referring to the soft aspects of emotions, will enhance and even change former institutionalised and ingrained patterns of behaviours. Therefore, the paper sheds light on the knowledge sharing contingency depending more on a social-cognitive state rather than a static hierarchical status.\nOriginality/value: - The paper poses two innovative organizational memory conceptualizations based on respondents' needs and demands entailing a synthesis of knowledge management and interpersonal interactions to achieve the highest level of efficiency and high degrees of knowledge sharing and absorption. It bridges the gap of purely knowledge based and unemotional management tools towards a lively and engaging tool. This would appear to be the first time that an investigation of this type has been conducted explaining culturally influenced factors of knowledge management in Eastern and Western European co-operations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Impact of consumer socialization on soft drink consumption and mediating role of consumer generational behavior
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Culture",
"Consumption",
"Social classes",
"Soft drinks",
"Soft drinks industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Consumer socialization is a source of influence on drinking behavior and has been emphasized in socialization theories which stress the primacy of drinking behavior and socialization and the critical roles of parents and culture (Kim et al., 2011). In addition, parental and familial dynamics have been described as the major source of cultural transmission through which particular styles of drinking are learned beside this other sources of socialization like social media has gain a lot much attention these days and act as catalyst to passed theses social values to other groups members (Nowak et al., 2006). Consumer socialization is a process by which people get knowledge, skills and form a specific behavior and attitude through their social environment. Despite the increasing interest in soft drink socialization, very little research is available on association of consumer socialization to their drinking practices (Ponte and Rizzi, 2010; Andreyeva et al., 2011).\n2. Literature review: The literature on consumer socialization regarding soft drink consumption emphasizes on the idea from theory of planned behavior which deals with consumer social behaviors and its complexities. It is a process where consumer perceived values and behaviors changed continuously as time goes on. This theory covers the consumer's attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavior of beliefs (Ajzen, 1991). According to the Consumer Psychology in behavioral perspective drives from cognitive psychology most widely-accepted and influential models of consumer behavior prove that consumers problem solving and decision-making activates are linked with their intellectual functioning and goal-directed processing of information (Foxall, 1990). Soft drink consumption has gain lot much interest these days. Soft drink is a non-alcoholic drink which contains water, sweetener and a flavor. These drinks gives them a sense of satisfaction and they feel relax after consuming these drinks (Attila and Cakir, 2011).\n3. Methodology: Mainly inspired by the wine consumer socialization the primary objective of the study is to understand the effect of consumer socialization on soft drink consumption with the mediation role of consumer generational behavior in Pakistan. Data for this study come from a nationwide survey. A quantitative approach was followed to conduct this study, as the approach is mostly used to describe the cause and effect relationship between the variables (Weisberg et al., 2011). And for this sake of the study research design was developed to target the consumer social groups and their consumption patterns, like within a family, across the culture with in a social groups, etc. (Cleveland et al., 2011). In order to address the research questions the data were also gathered by an online survey. Only few researchers have reported the online survey approach (Wang et al., 2012; Lee and Wohn, 2012; Aljukhadar and Senecal, 2011). The consumer online tracking was taken place by an online database source named as \"GOOGLE DOCS\" where the list of questions was developed. A total of 637 respondents (including generation X, Y, Z and baby boomers) were sampled from population residing in Pakistan households. Data were collected throughout Pakistan, but especially in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Khushab. As Islamabad is a metropolitan city and people who are living in Islamabad are belong to different cultures and representing the whole population of Pakistan. Convenience sampling technique a non-probabilistic method was used to collect data (Henley et al., 2011). A printed questionnaire was used to record the responses and the written questions were more informative and easily understandable for the consumers. A Likert scale questionnaire was used to record the response where 1 representing strongly disagrees and 5 strongly agree. Statistical software was use to analyze the data. Data were also pretested to check the validity (Mai et al., 2011; Lingyun et al., 2011). Questionnaire was distributed personally and collected by the researcher (Chang and Chin, 2011).\n4. Results: Cronbach a was carried out to check the inter item consistency of the items. Consumer generational behavior has five items and its Cronbach's a value is 0.707 which demonstrated good inter item consistency. Social media groups were measured with 11 items and its Cronbach's a value is 0.927 which falls in high acceptable range, consumer social groups were measured with nine item and it has 0.906 Cronbach's a value, consumer cultural group has 0.931 Cronbach's a value and it has ten items and, respectively, soft drink consumptions was measured with 12 item and it has 0.737 Cronbach's a value.\n5. Findings and discussion: The results of this study point to ethnic differences in consumer cohort's attitudes and behavior regarding soft drink use via socialization prospective. This study offers interesting insights about the consumer soft drink consumption behavior in Pakistan by employing convenience sampling technique our findings are consistent with the existence evidence based on the socialization behavior of the consumer and consumption patterns of the consumers. In addition, the more conventional drinking attitudes and behavior among different cohorts which inculdes consumer social groups, consumer cultural groups and more importantly social media groups have a strong reason in the consumption of soft drinks, which is consistant with exiting literature (Gervilla et al., 2011).\n6. Conclusion: Study has found a significant and positive relationship among the consumers in soft drink socialization. These findings are indicating that consumer soft drink consumption is dependent upon the consumer socialization which is combination of different social and cultural components and the consumer cohort's behavior also have a significant mediating role in the relationship.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how consumers' socialization influences soft drink consumption behavior in Pakistan. Since consumer socialization has long been considered but it is important to understand whether the extent of consumer socialization in terms of soft drink consumption influences consumer behavior by taking into consideration consumer cohorts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The quantitative research is based on consumer survey method by using Likert scale questionnaire. Convenience sampling technique with a sample size of 637 is used. Data are analyzed by using cronbach a, ANOVA, correlation and multiple regressions.\nFindings: Overall, the findings maintain the impact of consumer socialization on soft drink consumption. Such influence of consumer socialization through social media, cultural groups and social groups encourages soft drink socialization behavior. Additionally there is also an evidence of mediating role of consumer generational behavior in soft drink consumption.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this paper extend knowledge of how consumer socialization affects soft drink consumption behavior and provide important insights into how consumer cohorts should be targeted. The Chosen research approach is a limitation of the study.\nPractical implications: The results are of value to academic researchers, soft drink industry practitioners in a way that it will help them to portray marketing and advertising activities by taking into consideration consumer cohorts behavior.\nSocial implications: This paper addresses an untapped issue on how cohorts socialization at different social setting impact on consumer soft drink consumption behavior.\nOriginality/value: This paper fulfills a recognized need to study soft drink socialization in terms of cohort's behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A BRIC MNE's subsidiary in France: human resource management in adaptive mode
|
[
"Human resource management",
"France",
"BRIC",
"Developing market",
"Emerging MNE"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Scholars and practitioners distinguish between multinational enterprises (MNEs) from developed markets and developing markets. Some researchers claim that an MNE's strategy is not only dependent on where the MNE comes from but also on \"where\" it goes in terms of the state of development of its country of origin and the host countries. MNEs from developed markets manage their subsidiaries differently than MNEs from developing markets because the latter have to overcome the liability of their country of origin. Today, interest in MNEs from emerging countries, especially the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), is extremely high in both the academic and business worlds.\nMethodology: We adopted an exploratory and descriptive single case study research design for this paper (Yin, 2009). The company under study was chosen for several reasons. First, the company originates from a developing country (BRIC) and it operates in developed countries. Second, it is a world leader in its domain. Third, the company was willing to participate in our research and provided us with a generous opportunity to conduct our study. For the sake of confidentiality a pseudo-name of Gamma is chosen for this industrial company. Gamma is now the market leader in the sector it operates. As of September 31, 2012, the number of employees worldwide amounted to around 18,000 people. Gamma established a French unit (referred as Gamma France henceforth) about 30 years ago.\nFindings: A global company with BRIC DNA\nConclusions: The objective of this paper was to improve our understanding of the human resource management challenges MNEs from developing markets face when operating in developed markets. We aimed to study the nature of these challenges with regard to the global-local dilemma, the choice of management approach and the liability of the country of origin. We used the Gamma case to illustrate the factors contributing to the smart management of a BRIC company operating in France.\nManagerial implications: The results of the paper have several implications for companies originating from emerging markets. These implications are based on the data of a single case study. Although these implications may not be generalizable, they may be helpful for MNEs from emerging markets wishing to launch operations in developed markets.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Some scholars state that multinational enterprises (MNEs) from developing markets manage their subsidiaries in a different way than MNEs from developed markets because the former have to overcome the liability of their country of origin. To analyze this question through the lens of human resource management (HRM), we study the case of a BRIC MNE's subsidiary in France.\nDesign/methodology/approach: We adopted an exploratory and descriptive single case study research design. We used multiple data sources: interviews, internal company documents, academic publications, and media sources.\nFindings: The results show that the BRIC MNE subsidiary standardizes its HRM practices towards global best practices to compete successfully with MNEs from developed markets. Furthermore, the subsidiary's origin that was considered as a shortcoming in the past is an advantage at present time. Finally, according to the interviewed managers, French subsidiary must overcome a country of origin liability in that it has to change the way that it may be perceived in terms of the issues linked to France's labor relations system.\nPractical implications: MNEs originating from developing markets should consider their origin as an advantage: they may be perceived as dynamic, growing, and aspiring to be the best. Another implication concerns the use of global best practices that may facilitate the global coordination of MNEs.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the literature on the HRM practices of MNEs from developing markets operating in developed markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Do your employees think your slogan is "fake news?" A framework for understanding the impact of fake company slogans on employees
|
[
"Values",
"Slogans",
"Organizational culture",
"Typology",
"Value propositions",
"Fake news",
"Employee attachment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research interest in \"fake news\" has focused largely on how fake news impacts communications related to elections (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017; Guo et al., 2018), journalism (Khaldarova and Pantti, 2016; Murtha, 2015) and health care (Cantoni, 2017; Speed and Mannion, 2017). As fake news involves the production of false information, there have been calls by marketing scholars to explore the complicated relationship that brand management has with fake news (Berthon and Pitt, 2018). In response, this article explores how company slogans can be a form of fake news, conveying false information about a company's actual values and value propositions.\nDefining fake news: Fake news has been defined as any type of news that is intentionally and verifiably false and could mislead readers (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017; Berthon and Pitt, 2018). Internet platforms are the most important enablers and primary channels of fake news (Lazer et al., 2018), with the news content of such platforms often designed to be more alluring and impactful than real news. For example, a study of verified true and fake news stories distributed on Twitter from 2006 to 2017 found that fake news was more novel and more shared than true news (Vosoughi et al., 2018). Other studies have examined how the spread of conspiracy theories about scientific news generates homogeneous and polarized communities (i.e. echo chambers) (Del Vicario et al., 2016) and how social ties help such fake news spread readily and rapidly (Friggeri et al., 2014). Based on such research, we suggest there are at least three important aspects to consider when examining how the phenomenon of fake news relates to company slogans.\nSlogans as fake news: Slogans are defined as short phrases that capture a brand's essence, personality, value proposition, and differentiates the brand from its competitors (Wheeler, 2018). They represent an organization's values, philosophy (Melewar and Karaosmanoglu, 2006), history, culture, and strategy (van den Bosch et al., 2005) and can reinforce a brand image held by many, if not all, of a company's stakeholders (Hatch and Schultz, 2001). Slogans are typically highly visible, commonly featured on websites and advertising (Dimofte and Yalch, 2007) and at the forefront of many marketing strategies (Dowling and Kabanoff, 1996).\nHow slogans can be fake news for employees: a typology: To understand the influence of slogans on employees, it is useful to conceptualize them as a type of cultural form (Trice and Beyer, 1993), in that they serve to both express and reinforce aspects of organizational cultures (Sadri and Lees, 2001). For example, the \"Just do it\" slogan expresses the action-oriented nature of the Nike culture and also reinforces the importance of this cultural value to employees. Avis' \"We try harder,\" Prudential's \"Own a piece of the rock,\" Du Pont's \"Better living through chemistry\" are examples of company slogans that convey messages to employees about the importance of work ethic, financial stability, and science-driven culture, respectively (Gray and Balmer, 1998).\nSlogans reflecting value proposition: The first dimension of the typology is the extent to which employees perceive a slogan to truly reflect a company's value proposition. For many companies, the value proposition offered to customers will be synonymous with or driven by the company's brand (American Marketing Association, 2019). In other cases, a company may not strive to create a clear brand image, and the value proposition will be aligned with other aspects of the company. For the sake of brevity, this article uses the term \"company's value proposition,\" and highlights that companies' use of slogans can reflect their value proposition not only to external stakeholders but also to those inside organizations (Dowling and Kabanoff, 1996). In other words, a slogan's statement of a company's value proposition conveys information to customers and to employees, whose actions will determine whether that value proposition is delivered to customers (Baker and Balmer, 1997; Ind, 2003). When a company's value proposition is clearly captured in a slogan, this helps provide a clear direction for employee efforts (King and Grace, 2008; Tosti and Stotz, 2001).\nSlogans reflecting values: The second dimension of the typology is the extent to which employees consider the slogan to truly reflect the values of the company. Corporate values represent the core assumptions, beliefs, and ways of seeing the world that are commonly held within organizations (Grojean et al., 2004; Hunt, Wood and Chonko, 1989; Schein, 1990; Trice and Beyer, 1993). Values can comprise or express the intended priorities and practices of companies (Michailova and Minbaeva, 2012) and the criteria for making decisions and taking actions (Chatman and Jehn, 1994). Values are a crucial building block for organizational cultures (Quinn and Rohrbaugh, 1983) and can have a powerful influence on the actions of employees (Detert et al., 2000; Khazanchi et al., 2007).\nImplications for research and practice: This article has explored a heretofore neglected aspect of company slogans: their impact on employees. By viewing these slogans through the lens of fake news, we have generated novel insights into how and why different aspects of slogan fakeness influence employees. More specifically, this typology provides the basis for a diagnostic tool to help researchers and brand professionals understand the impact of slogans on employee audiences. To conclude, the article focuses on future areas of research and advice for practitioners.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This article explores how employees can perceive and be impacted by the fakeness of their company slogans.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This conceptual study draws on the established literature on company slogans, employee audiences, and fake news to create a framework through which to understand fake company slogans.\nFindings: Employees attend to two important dimensions of slogans: whether they accurately reflect a company's (1) values and (2) value proposition. These dimensions combine to form a typology of four ways in which employees can perceive their company's slogans: namely, authentic, narcissistic, foreign, or corrupt.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper outlines how the typology provides a theoretical basis for more refined empirical research on how company slogans influence a key stakeholder: their employees. Future research could test the arguments about how certain characteristics of slogans are more or less likely to cause employees to conclude that slogans are fake news. Those conclusions will, in turn, have implications for the morale and engagement of employees. The ideas herein can also enable a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of slogans.\nPractical implications: Employees can view three types of slogans as fake news (narcissistic, foreign, and corrupt slogans). This paper identifies the implications of each type and explains how companies can go about developing authentic slogans.\nOriginality/value: This paper explores the impact of slogan fakeness on employees: an important audience that has been neglected by studies to date. Thus, the insights and implications specific to this internal stakeholder are novel.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Intentional consequences: Identifying a more effective path for leadership development
|
[
"Human resource management",
"Talent management",
"Learning and development",
"Human capital",
"Leadership development",
"Neuroscience"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: Do leadership development programs develop leadership skills and competences? This may seem to be a frivolous question, but such programs are a class of service that tend not to be scrutinized after the fact, and as such cold, hard data on their effectiveness or otherwise can be in short supply. Compare them to, say, driving lessons. The ultimate value of a driving instructor and how effective they are is their track record on getting people through the driving test, and how many times it takes each person to pass. If an instructor has a high pass rate, they will be held in high regard by their peers and future customers; if their students fail more than average, then they will find it harder to find enough customers.\nBest intentions: It is clear, then, that either some sort of independent checks should be put in place for leadership development programs and their efficacy, or that the nature of leadership development itself should be rethought. Authors Couch and Citrin (2018) take the latter route in their article \"Retooling leadership development\". To set the scene, they share two pieces of startling facts. First, they estimate that the total spend on leadership development in the US alone is $13bn, with the global figure probably totaling many times that.\nSome answers: To compound the problem, an ageing generation of C-suite executives are about to retire without the numbers of people to take their place, and those that are seemingly ill-equipped to be supported in the right direction. The authors' response to the problems in leadership development is to put forward a new approach, which they term \"intentional development\" (ID). This is framed by linking outcomes to effort, or understanding why something is important to how it can be accomplished. This \"implementation intention\" has to be made explicit so that the brain opens up to the process and learns new responses.\nMany paths: While this does look prescriptive, the authors are at pains to point out that leaders have many routes to follow in improving themselves. A typical route might be to focus on a weakness, but a leader can fail by overextending on their strengths rather than from one clear weakness. Paths towards an effective intentional development plan should, however, consider the following:\nComment: The article \"Retooling leadership development\" by Couch and Citrin (2018) uses the basics of neuroscience to paint a different picture for leadership development. It acts as a critique on existing leadership development programs, by dispelling a few myths and focusing on the fact that leaders have to train their brain to work in new ways to be more effective.\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 papers in context.\nFindings: A new leadership development program called \"intentional development\" can be more effective by using the basics of neuroscience to create the skills and implementation plan for aspiring leaders.\nPractical implications: This paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A reflection on survey research in hospitality
|
[
"Reliability",
"Survey research",
"Validity",
"Social desirability bias",
"Answer scale",
"Response style"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Hospitality researchers make extensive use of surveys to collect empirical data. Using surveys for data collection has inherent dangers. These dangers are well understood and have been discussed across a wide range of disciplines. The present article reflects on survey research in hospitality with the purpose of increasing the validity of conclusions drawn from survey studies. First, the article summarises the dangers related to survey research. Next, a small set of recently published articles in the field of hospitality is inspected to assess whether there is a reason for concern about the validity of survey research in hospitality. Finally, the article discusses measures that can be taken by survey researchers, reviewers and editors to mitigate the risk of reducing the validity of findings as a consequence of collecting empirical data using surveys.\nKnown dangers of survey research: Lack of item content validity\nA snapshot of survey studies in hospitality research: Articles using empirical data published in the first 2017 issue of the leading hospitality journals served as the basis for developing a snapshot of survey research in hospitality. According to the Thomson Reuters' Journal Citation Reports, the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management has an impact factor of 3.2, the International Journal of Hospitality Management has an impact factor of 2.8 and Cornell Hospitality Quarterly has an impact factor of 2.7, making these three journals the most cited in the field of hospitality research. The first issue of those three journals published in 2017 contained a total of 49 articles; 11 were literature reviews, and 1 was a conceptual article. These 12 articles have been excluded from investigation, leaving 37 articles for further analysis.\nRisk mitigation measures: Lack of item content validity\nDiscussion and conclusions: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Survey research has developed to become the default empirical approach to answering research questions in the field of hospitality (and many other fields of research within the social sciences). This paper aims to reflect on the use of survey research in hospitality and offers recommendations for improvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, known dangers to validity associated with survey research are discussed. Next, a sample of studies recently published in leading hospitality journals is assessed in view of these known dangers. Finally, recommendations are offered for editors, reviewers, readers and authors to mitigate the risk of drawing invalid conclusions based on survey research.\nFindings: Survey research is very common in hospitality research and is used to investigate a wide range of research questions and constructs under study. The nature of constructs studied, the answer scales used and the nature of the samples point to a substantial risk to the validity of conclusions drawn.\nPractical implications: A number of risk mitigation measures are proposed that can help authors minimise the risks to validity arising from known dangers associated with survey research. These same risk mitigation measures can be used by editors and reviewers in the assessment of manuscripts and by readers to evaluate the validity of conclusions drawn in already published work.\nOriginality/value: The value of this study lies in reflecting from a distance on how the survey research is conducted in the social sciences in general and in hospitality research in specific. The paper reveals that some routine approaches particularly prone to undermining the validity of conclusions may have been adopted and offers a few suggestions how this risk can be mitigated.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cultivating creative workplaces through mindfulness
|
[
"Innovation",
"Creativity",
"Mindfulness",
"Divergent thinking",
"Cognitive flexibility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Creativity and mindfulness have become buzzwords in organizations. Yet, evidence exists about their potential value when appropriately used. For example, in a recently released Harvard Business Review article that is provocatively titled \"Can 10 minutes of meditation make you more creative?\" authors Schootstra et al. (2017) shared studies in an experiment with students at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and of 24 senior innovation managers at a large Dutch research organization. In both experiments, researchers found that a short period of mindfulness training had positive impact on creative output. In an IBM survey of more than 1,500 worldwide CEOs, leaders believe that \"successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity.\" While at the same time, over 50 percent of the leaders believe their firms are insufficiently equipped to confront \"highly volatile, increasingly complex business environments\" (IBM, 2010). The following study shows that it is possible to tackle this longstanding challenge of increasing creativity through the simple use of the ancient practice of mindfulness.\nResearch significance: While the research on mindfulness in the workplace is surging (Kristensen, 2018; Purser, 2018; Good et al., 2016; Hulsheger et al., 2018; Levett et al., 2017; Lomas et al., 2017; Vu and Gill, 2018; Yu and Zellmer-Bruhn, 2018; Walsh, 2018), this study specifically examines if mindfulness training contributes to creativity with individuals in a workgroup. It not only explores a real-world work environment, but also addresses a growing concern that much of the mindfulness hype needs to apply more rigorous science and considers many of the recommended design features identified in the most recent prescriptive checklist (Van Dam et al., 2018).\nMethod and hypotheses: This study is built on existing laboratory designs (Cleirigh and Greaney, 2015; Kudesia et al., 2015; Ostafin and Kassman, 2012; Walsh and Greaney, 2013) by developing a methodology that is applied in a real-world setting. All of the comparative studies took place in university settings where participants were students receiving credit and consisted of only a single session. In contrast, the setting in this study is an intact workgroup in a real organization over the course of 16 weeks, where pre-test and post-test assessments are administered. A multiple-week intervention was chosen because of the nature of learning new cognitive processes, and the time associated with a shift in mindset. This exploration over time is a gap in current empirical studies and contributes to scholarly literature. In this study, there are two workgroups, one treatment group with six participants and one comparison group with four participants. The groups have an unequal number of participants due to the time of year the study is being conducted and the research site's availability. The ten participants are assessed with pre-test and post-test treatment measures using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS).\nIntervention: Mindfulness training\nResults: Findings related to H1\nDiscussion: To recap, the key findings are as follows:\nResearch limitations: The complexity of examining an existing workgroup adds challenges not experienced in lab-based studies. The sample size in this research is one of the most notable limitations. With only six individuals in the treatment group and four individuals in the comparison group, the smaller sample effects the statistical power needed to determine significance. Despite sustained efforts and persuasion, the fast-paced realities of the workplace prevailed that the researcher had to accept what was available. After being faced with the choice of abandoning the project and missing a unique opportunity to study an intact workgroup over a 16-week period, the researchers decided to move forward. The treatment group and control group selection were dependent on which participant could attend which session. This resulted in six individuals in the treatment group and four in the control group. Another example of field work challenges.\nResearch implications: This study begins to bridge the science behind existing empirical research with the practicality of working in an organization as it relates to mindfulness and creativity. It adds to Good et al.'s (2016) recent call for more mindfulness research. To find a workgroup that could commit to the time requirement necessary to measure the mindfulness training impact was a challenge. Each group member had to attend all five sessions and the employer had to be willing to allow these employees time away from their work. Finding this kind of sample is more difficult than asking students to attend a one-time session with the benefit of receiving course credit. The complexity of studying organizations adds limitations not experienced in laboratories and needs to be considered if research in this area is to flourish.\nPractical implications: This study provides encouragement for organizations to consider the mindfulness phenomenon in an effort to develop creative environments. Establishing tools and strategies to support shifting mindsets toward creativity and less habitual behavior could alter basic corporate structures that exist today. The relatively small amount of time (four hours over five weeks) demonstrated in this study seems to be a small accommodation for the benefit of strengthening mindsets. Relative to many initiatives, adding elements of mindfulness to an organization would be low cost, and potentially those businesses could reap rewards with innovative ideas.\nConclusion: The findings indicate an association between mindfulness and creative workgroup outcomes in the moment and over time for this small sample. Amid the expansion of mindfulness research and the mainstream focus relating to wellness, stress reduction and emotional intelligence, this study fuels the excitement in how broadly the mindfulness phenomenon can be applied. If future research confirms this study's initial findings, businesses have the opportunity to take advantage of a relatively inexpensive source to develop their workforce's physical, emotional and cognitive well-being. By unblocking cognitive pathways, organizations have the ability to maximize human potential and develop more progressive and nimble environments that become the norm for workplaces of the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how mindfulness training impacts creativity with individuals in a workgroup and propose a methodology for future research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology developed drew on existing laboratory-based research and applied those designs in a real-world application. The sample participants were from a mid-sized real estate firm that included ten realtors and support staff, six in the treatment group and four in the comparison group. The study took place over 16 weeks where pre-test and post-test mindfulness and creativity assessments were administered. A five-week mindfulness training was conducted with the treatment group and following the post-tests with the comparison group.\nFindings: Results indicated that the mindfulness training positively impacted creativity in the moment and over time. There was evidence that the mindfulness training positively impacted an individual's level of attention and awareness in daily activities which is likely to influence creative outcomes in organizational settings.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study shows that it is possible to design experimental studies in work settings and contribute to the empirical research about mindfulness despite the widely held perception about scarcity of time and lack of access to do such research. The findings also build on existing literature and address some of the gaps in current research. The most notable limitation relates to the small sample size.\nPractical implications: The finding affirms that even a short but consistent practice of mindfulness in organizations can lead to a measurable increase in creativity.\nOriginality/value: This empirical study adds value to existing literature by expanding laboratory-based methodology to a practical application. One of the unique aspects of this research relates to the sample population. This research was conducted with an intact workgroup and translates the insights gained from laboratory research to a potential benefit for an organization by applying a version of this methodology to enhance its workgroup creativity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An exploratory study of entrepreneurial marketing in SMEs: The role of the founder-entrepreneur
|
[
"Communication",
"SMEs",
"Entrepreneurial marketing",
"Portugal",
"Founder-entrepreneur",
"Networkimg"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Due to global competition, technological progress and the new needs of consumers, competitive paradigms are in constant change. Those changes are leading firms to compete simultaneously in different dimensions such as design and product development, production, distribution, communication and marketing (Singh et al., 2008).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Marketing in SMEs\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Type of study and case selection\n4. Case studies: 4.1 Case 1: Fa Clube do Queijo\n5. Conclusions and implications: The objective of this study was to understand the role and importance of entrepreneurial marketing in SMEs and to examine the influence of the founder-entrepreneur role in this process. To attain these goals, a qualitative methodology of investigation was used (multiple case studies) through interviews and documentary analysis, with two SMEs situated in an inland region of Portugal: Fa Clube do Queijo (case 1) and DAMAR (case 2).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Marketing has been seen as one of the greatest problems faced by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but simultaneously one of the most important activities for their growth and survival. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine the importance and role of entrepreneurial marketing in SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To reach this goal, a qualitative approach was adopted, with two case studies (SMEs) selected. As data-collecting instruments, interviews and documentary analysis were used, and the data-treatment technique was content analysis.\nFindings: The empirical evidence obtained shows that the importance of entrepreneurial marketing is recognized, but that it differs considerably according to firm size. In the SMEs studied, marketing is informal and reactive to market opportunities and the founder-entrepreneur has an influence on the decision-making process.\nPractical implications: The study contributes to the existing research about the role the founder-entrepreneur can have in the firm's ability to develop entrepreneurial marketing activities. From a practical viewpoint, the study has found that entrepreneurial marketing is based on networking to build and support marketing activity and it is associated with the use and development of the marketing management competencies of their entrepreneurs.\nOriginality/value: The study is innovative because the authors are able to outline empirically new issues for future investigation in this area of scarce research. Second, an integrative and holistic model is proposed for entrepreneurial marketing in SMEs and this represents the primary contribution of the study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The separation of directors and managers: A historical examination of the status of managers
|
[
"Innovation",
"Corporate governance",
"Directors",
"Management history",
"Company law",
"Managers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the seminal work of [Berle and Means (1932)], the separation between ownership and control in business has been the subject of lively debate. There have been important discussions on when and how this separation took place in different countries (Coffee, 2001; Cheffins, 2001; Cheffins, 2008; Foreman-Peck and Hannah, 2015; Guinnane et al., 2007; Guinnane et al., 2017). But, whatever the process of this separation, the literature on corporate governance sees it as critical because it delineates the sphere of intervention of shareholders in the management of corporations. The separation of ownership and control, therefore, shapes the conditions for managerial discretion (Hambrick and Finkelstein, 1987; Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1990; Phillips et al., 2010; Wangrow et al., 2015). Different perspectives have been put forward. The economic literature has focused on the agency relationship between shareholders, who bear risks, and those who run companies. The general idea is that more accountability of \"agents\" to their shareholder \"principals\" is needed, either through supervision by the principals or through other mechanisms that align the interests of the two groups (Fama and Jensen, 1983; Jensen, 2001). The legal literature, however, insists that directors are not agents of the shareholders and that the separation between shareholders and directors is legally grounded and economically sound because it supports specific investments from different constituencies (Blair, 1995; Blair and Kruse, 1999). The separation between ownership and control would, thus, favor a director primacy model, which is also seen as a condition for stakeholder management (Johnson and Millon, 2005; Lipton and Rowe, 2007). Dai and Helfrich (2016, p. 4) noted:\nSeparation of ownership and control: economic and legal views: The separation of ownership and control is perhaps the most famous issue in corporate governance, first identified by Berle and Means (1932). At the end of the 1920s, these authors observed the rise of \"modern corporations\", giant and powerful business organizations where powers were allocated in new and puzzling ways. At that time, most Western countries had adopted limited liability and consolidated the law for public corporations (for example, the UK's Companies Act 1862 consolidated earlier Acts and gave full separate legal personality to joint stock companies). The new legal setting allowed massive fundraising and led to the dilution or dispersion of ownership (Franks et al., 2005; Berle and Means, 1932). Those providing the funding did not necessarily control the business. In fact, the separation of ownership and control gave rise to two possible models of corporate governance, namely shareholder primacy and director primacy (Lipton and Rowe, 2007; Lan and Heracleous, 2010).\nThe rise of management: new rationales for separating directors and managers: Few studies have analyzed the separation of ownership and control from a managerial perspective. In Blair and Stout's analysis, there is little or no emphasis on the distinctive role of managers. Managers barely figure in this account, appearing, like employees, merely as functional or \"bona fide\" team members (Lan and Heracleous, 2010). This contrasts with what we know from management science, which highlights the profound, transformative effects of management on employees, as they are guided to develop the capabilities necessary to achieve the enterprise's goals (Conner and Prahalad, 1996; Eisenstat et al., 2008).\nThe rise of management: the specific case of the UK: It is clear that the development of management followed a different pattern in the UK than in the USA or in Germany or France. Different reasons have been put forward. Among them, we can quote the ownership structure and the related \"proprietorial theory of the firm\" (Quail, 2002), but also the noticeably different approach to engineering (Buchanan, 1989). It is beyond the scope of this paper to offer a detailed account of British business history, but it is important to note that recent historical works have traced the rise of management in the UK during this period.\nManagement as a blind spot for company law and its reformers: the UK case: The reception of the rise of management in law: an ambiguous turn\nConclusion and further research: towards a new status for managers?: In this article, we have contrasted the historical rise of professional managers with the law's silence on their function. Focusing on the increased role of science and technological innovation in business, we have highlighted how the rise of a distinctive management function provided some important reasons for separating ownership and control. We identified three basic rationales: the shift of the source of wealth from ownership to management, the need for specific skill-sets and the rise of new social responsibilities. Corporate law clearly distinguished between directors and shareholders, but managers remained either employees (with no autonomy) or directors. Progressively, reform - overlooking the historical emergence of and justifications for management - gave back control to shareholders and limited the scope of managerial discretion.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contrast the historical rise of the managerial function and its reception in law. It thus contributes to the debates on the separation of ownership and control, by showing that managers were never recognized in law. As a result, the managerial function was not protected in law.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper brings together management history and the history of UK company law to study the emergence of management in the early twentieth century and the law's response. The authors bring new historical evidence to bear on the company law reforms of the second half of the twentieth century and, in particular, on the changes inspired by the Cohen Committee report of 1945.\nFindings: Scientific progress and innovation were important rationales for the emergence of managerial authority. They implied new economic models, new competencies and wider social responsibilities. The analysis of this paper shows that these rationales have been overlooked by company law. The lack of conceptualization of the management in law allowed reforms after 1945 that gave shareholders greater influence over corporate strategy, reducing managerial discretion and the scope for innovation.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper focuses on the UK. Further research is needed to confirm whether other countries followed a similar path, both in terms of the emergence of management and in terms of the law's approach.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to examine the law's historical approach to management. It calls for a reappraisal of the status of managers and the way corporate governance organizes the separation of ownership and control.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumer attitudes and buying behavior for green food products: From the aspect of green perceived value (GPV)
|
[
"Consumer attitudes",
"Buying behaviour",
"Green food products",
"Green perceived value"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The increasing environmentally friendly behavior seen in the form of growing demand for green products has resulted in academic and practical interest in green perceived value (GPV) of products (e.g. Holbrook, 2006; Lin and Huang, 2012; Masini and Menichetti, 2012; Schuitema et al., 2013; Suki, 2016). Prior studies noted that the term \"green\" is broadly replaced by \"ecofriendly\" or \"environmentally responsible,\" but all of these terms describe activities that are good for the environment (e.g. Aschemann-Witzel and Aagaard, 2014; Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007; Roberts, 1996). Protecting the environment has been a critical topic in most parts of the world, and individuals have also been interested in environmental issues. These ecologically conscious consumers or green consumers are more likely to exhibit environmentally friendly behaviors than others (e.g. Menozzi et al., 2017; Pipatprapa et al., 2017; Worsley et al., 2015). From this point of view, Chen and Chang (2012) suggested that consumers pay more attention to rising environmental issues and their behavior can reflect their attitudes toward environmental protection.\nConceptual framework and hypotheses development: Green perceived value (GPV)\nMethods: Questionnaire development\nFindings: Demographic characteristics of respondents\nDiscussion and conclusions: In line with previous research (e.g. Chen and Chang, 2012; Hur et al., 2013; Sangroya and Nayak, 2017) which suggested that a consumer's environmental concern is a key influence on his/her purchase behaviors and that GPV can be an important antecedent of consumer attitudes, the current study adopted the construct of GPV and attempted to examine the relationships among GPV, attitudes, and purchase intention in the context of the food industry. The study tested the appropriateness of GPV, including functional value, conditional value, social value and emotional value, to explain consumer attitudes and the intention to purchase green food products, that is, whether the constructs of GPV have a significant effect on consumer attitudes and the buying behavior of green food products.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply the multidimensional construct of green perceived value (GPV) to the buying behavior of green food products to enhance the understanding of consumer behavior intentions and explain the formation of the intention to buy green food products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopted four GPVs (i.e. functional value, conditional value, social value and emotional value) and explored the relationships among GPV, attitudes and purchase intention. A total of 300 self-administered questionnaires were distributed, from which 253 usable responses were obtained.\nFindings: The relationships between six constructs and 20 indicators were measured using structural equation modeling. All the underlying dimensions had a significant effect on consumers' attitudes, significantly affecting their purchase intention.\nOriginality/value: Implications for future research and marketing strategies in the field of purchasing behaviors of green food products are discussed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Whiteboard-based interface for collaboration in e-manufacturing environment
|
[
"Information media",
"Video",
"Virtual work",
"Computer aided manufacturing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Demands on collaborative environments for distance and/or global participants have been growing in various areas, including product design and development in industries (Wang and Wright, 1998), e-manufacturing (Jiang and Fukuda, 2001), teaching classes in education (Wallace and Mutooni, 1997), and entertainments. Video conference systems, for example, provide effective means of communication, which allows participants to join the meeting at their convenience, even across the world. These systems are getting more and more popular today for general users to enjoy the benefits of video conference systems. Typical systems are listed on the reference section of this paper, including NetMeeting (Microsoft), www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/, ViaVideo or PictureTel (Polycom), www.polycom.com/home/, Flash Communication Server (Macromedia), www.macromedia.com/software/breeze/, CUWorld (CU World), www.cuworld.com/, RadVision (RadVision), www.radvision.com/, etc. Some of these systems requires specific hardware, whereas others do only require general web-camera with headsets. In any case, it is becoming quite easy to set up an environment to start a video conference.Although the video conference is one of the application systems running on a computer environment, it is basically used independently from other application software. Even if the participants are supposed to discuss, for example, some data on a CAD application, or to discuss some developing applications, participants cannot share them in the video conference. Therefore, more integrated environment in video conference is strongly required to support more collaborative work (Baetge et al., 2003). In the long run, the sharing of physical model may become possible, which would be a good news for e-manufacturing (Hagenmeyer et al., 2003).For a single participant who communicates with the counterpart participants, a monitor of personal computer provides a suitable interface, because the participant can join the video conference as well as can work on the general computer applications. However, for a group of participants who communicate with other parties participants, a large display or a large screen with a video projection would be better to support the appropriate communication. In that case, the display or the screen is prepared as a specific environment especially for the video conference, which is separated from the computer applications.For meetings or lectures in general, it is very common and effective to use a whiteboard to describe or to show something which might be very difficult to explain in spoken words, but could be easier to explain in written words, memos, figures, equations, sketches, and so on. In the video conferences, participants can communicate each other face-to-face even if they are located in different places. In this sense, the participants do not have to worry about the location where the other participants currently are. However, the video conference participants cannot directly use the whiteboard-based communication, which is primitive but an effective method of communication in meetings.This study adopts the whiteboard as a communication media, which contains all of the information to be shared in the virtual space. The study proposes a whiteboard-based interface system for the integrated environment to support collaborative activities, which could overcome the difficulty in communication over the popular video conference systems. The whiteboard interface works not only as an interface for the video conference, but also for a computer which controls teleoperation devices as well as application software to be shared in the virtual space Telemedical.com home page URL www.telemedical.com/Telemedical/Products/vidconf.htm.This paper presents an overview of the prototype system which was implemented based on the idea mentioned above, describes the two key components of the system, which are called CELAVIS and BOCOLLA, and shows how the video conference could be carried out through the whiteboard interface. In addition to this basic feature, the teleoperation for remote devices is also embedded to the prototype system. Describing some toy robot arms, this paper shows how the participants for the video conference could manipulate the teleoperation through the whiteboard interface. Finally, the paper summarizes the research, and discusses the feasibility of the system.\n2 Prototype system overview and its evaluation: To evaluate the idea of whiteboard-based interface for collaborative environment which this study is proposing, this study implemented a prototype system. One of the basic components is a custom-made video conference system module called CELAVIS (Collaborative Engineering LAb VIdeo conference System). Participants can join a CELAVIS video conference using a standard personal computer via an IP-based network connection. Another key component of the system is a whiteboard-based interface system called BOCOLLA (BOard-based COLLAboration interface), with which participant could join the video conference through a conventional whiteboard, and also manipulate local or remote computers during the conference.2.1 Video conference interface (CELAVIS system)\n3 Application to teleoperation: Feasibility of the prototype system for a whiteboard-based video conference was recognized in the several video conference tests as described in the previous section. Differing from the typical video conference systems as described in the introduction section, this prototype system provides more interactive features for participants. As a result, participants could share a virtual space where they can provide/obtain data, information, idea, etc. all of which would be used in the video conferences. As one of these approaches, this research proposes a method to allow participants to control a physical device which could be accessible via IP network connection and could be manipulated by a telematic operation, so that the participants could share them in the video conference. For example, when the participants are having discussion on some operation procedures, they may actually perform these operations to make sure how they should work appropriately or not. Interaction with remote machines or devices may be available during discussion over the video conference. As a result, they can continue the discussion without interruption of putting off the conference until the result of teleoperation should be obtained later. This section describes some of the scenarios to show the idea of teleoperation over the BOCOLLA system.3.1 Teleoperation devices\n4 Concluding remarks: As the increasing demands on video conferences in industries and education, a number of commercial systems or freeware are already available. The main objective of these systems is to provide an environment for audio/video communication for the participants. If what you need is a phone conversation with visual images of the counterparts, then these systems could surely meet these needs. The CALAVIS system described in this paper allows us to have small group meetings, which can satisfy the basic requirements for the audio/video conferences.When the participants have a face-to-face meeting, what they are sharing is not only the information which is under discussion in the conference but also the data, software, or physical devices to which the agenda of meeting is related. If the meeting were to design, build and review a physical product, for example, it would be very critical for the participants to work on the physical machine parts. Unfortunately, currently available video conference systems including CALAVIS do not provide such an environment, where the participants can share those items over the network. Under these circumstances, what this study is pursuing is to provide an environment where participants share a virtual workspace, which not only holds video conferences, but also allows the participants to further collaborate in a natural manner as if they were in a face-to-face meeting. The digital model in e-manufacturing surely plays a critical role, but its physical model would enhance the collaboration in e-manufacturing if it could be shared among the collaboration members over the network, which we would like to prove in the future study.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to develop an environment where participants share a virtual workspace, which allows the participants to collaborate on a physical model as well as a digital model in a natural manner as if they were in a face-to-face meeting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The idea of this study was designed and implemented as BOCOLLA system based on CELAVIS system. BOCOLLA system enables users to manipulate computer software on a conventional whiteboard using a marker pen during video conference with CELAVIS system.\nFindings: - BOCOLLA system shows the feasibility of the non-IT interface with a conventional whiteboard as an IT-based interface which enables telematic operation for video conferences.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Digital models plays a critical role in e-manufacturing, but their physical models would enhance the collaboration in e-manufacturing if it could be shared among the collaboration members over the network.\nPractical implications: - The study identifies the potential of conventional tools as an interface to the innovative technologies.\nOriginality/value: - Using a physical model sharing example, this paper shows the feasibility of BOCOLLA to the application of e-manufacturing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Examining organizational climate in Greek hotels from a service quality perspective
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Hotels",
"Greece",
"Employee behaviour",
"Customer services quality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In a fiercely competitive global setting, achieving organizational effectiveness and managing to get the most from employees are prerequisites for organizational survival, let alone prosperity and success in the long run (Wisner and Corney, 2001). For this reason, one of the organizational behaviour concepts that has attracted increasing attention - both theoretical and empirical - is organizational climate. Previous research has examined the climate in various organizational contexts and related it to several outcomes at an individual, group, and organizational level. In particular, researchers have found links with employee attitude, behaviour and motivation (Bowers, 1976; Hemingway and Smith, 1999; Litwin and Stringer, 1968; Manning et al., 2004; McMurray et al., 2004), performance and innovation within organizations (Montes et al., 2004; Patterson et al., 2004), service quality (Davidson, 2003; Emery and Summers, 1996), customer satisfaction and retention (Manning et al., 2005; Schneider, 1973; Schneider and Bowen, 1985; Schneider et al., 1980, 1998), and overall organizational effectiveness (Franklin, 1975; Kanter, 1983; Lin et al., 1999; Mudrack, 1989; Stetzer and Morgeson, 1997).Organizational climate is \"the feeling in the 'air' that one gets from walking around a company\" (Schneider et al., 1994, p. 2) and is evident to everyone operating within or even engaging with the organization. Similarly, service climate is defined as \"the shared perceptions of employees concerning the practices, procedures, and kinds of behaviours that get rewarded and supported with respect to customer service and service quality\" (Schneider et al., 1998, p. 151). Service climate has been found to be related to employee commitment (Lux et al., 1996). In addition, Maxwell and Steele (2003) found that the cumulative effects of organizational commitment outcomes have a positive impact on service quality and organizational performance. Rogg et al. (2001) found that service climate facilitates the delivery of customer satisfaction. Schneider et al. (1998) reported a positive link between the way employees perceive service climate and customers' perceptions of service quality.According to Clark (2002), in the case of service organizations, the existing climate may be an important antecedent of the relationships formed between employees and customers and the actual service provided. In the same context, examining hotels, Davidson (2003) proposed that organizational climate is a determinant of both the perceived and the actual level of service quality, and in turn, customer satisfaction and organizational performance.Organisational climate is therefore of considerable interest in hospitality research, given its potential implications for both service quality and employees. Having taken all these findings into consideration, the present study seeks first to identify the organizational climate operating in Greek hotels, based on employees' perceptions. The second objective of this study is to check for potential differences between employees, based on whether their job is managerial or non-managerial, as previous evidence is rather contradictory (Johnson, 2000; Patterson et al., 2004). Finally, the role of organizational climate and its links to the provision of service quality are discussed.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Organizational climate\n3 The Greek tourism industry: Tourism is a vital sector for the Greek economy (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2008). Table I incorporates relevant data from various sources regarding the number of hotels and beds in Greece, occupancy ratios, income from tourism, and employment, clearly reflecting a growing trend.Nevertheless, before discussing the evidence from the Greek tourism sector, it is important to recognize the difficulty in tracking tourism data in Greece, whether domestic or international because of the unreliability and inadequacy of the statistics that are available. As the World Travel & Tourism Council - WTTC (2007) recently indicated, in many cases the analysis is based more on anecdotal evidence than actual volumes and growth rates.According to the WTTC (2006, 2007), in 2006 the Greek tourism industry contributed 7.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) directly and 16.4 per cent indirectly, which is well above the figures reported for Europe and worldwide. Specifically, in the European Union and worldwide, the travel and tourism (T&T) industry posts a GDP contribution of 3.9 and 3.6 per cent, respectively, while the broader T&T economy's contribution is 10.9 and 10.3 per cent, respectively.Obviously, this is a human resource intensive sector. For the year 2006, the T&T economy accounted for 8.7 per cent of the global employment (WTTC, 2007). The European Union's T&T industry generated 4.2 per cent of the total employment, while the broader T&T economy accounted for 11.8 per cent of the total employment. In the case of Greece, however, the sector provided 449,100 jobs (10.3 per cent of the total employment) directly and 857,156 (20.0 per cent of total employment) indirectly in the year 2006 (Table I).Greece has been identified as an important player of the world tourism arena, with all the credentials to become a leader, thanks to its wealth of culture, mythology, geographic diversity and unique identity (WTTC, 2007). In addition, the successful hosting of the 2004 Olympic Games boosted Greek tourism. Yet, there are still some barriers that need to be overcome. The most important are:* seasonality and the need for new product development;* bureaucracy; and* quality and value for money (ICAP, 2007).Regarding the structure of the industry, Greek hotels are mostly small companies, not only privately owned, but also often privately managed (ICAP, 2007).\n4 Method: 4.1 Sample and procedure\n5 Results: The first step of the statistical analysis included an analysis of variance to ensure that there were no significant differences among the three hotel categories examined. Since no significant differences were revealed, the first objective of the present study, which was to identify the organizational climate within Greek hotels, was pursued. For this reason, mean scores and standard deviations for all climate dimensions were computed and appear in Table II in descending order, based on the extent to which they describe the examined hotels. Before examining the relative value placed on priorities, according to the perceptions of employees, it is worth noting that the mean scores are rather low for all dimensions, ranging from 2.13 to 3.10 on a five-point Likert scale.As can easily be seen, employees in the hotels examined tend to believe that efficiency, reflexivity, innovation and flexibility, supervisory support, quality, and employee welfare are among the top priorities. Generally, putting emphasis on producing the desired effects with minimum waste, on replacing old ways and habits with new ones, on keeping employees happy and free to act, and of course, on achieving excellence are all critical for organizational survival in a highly competitive era. Surprisingly, the least prioritised area would seem to be outward focus. Yet, ignoring customer needs and wishes and competitors' actions is like walking in the dark; success is based only on luck. Among the priorities that scored somewhere in the middle, special attention must be paid to skills development, involvement and performance feedback, and formalization, which are prerequisites of continuous improvement and standardizing the level of service quality offered, respectively (Table II).The second objective of the present study was to examine potential variations in employees' views of the organizational climate, based on whether they held a managerial or a non-managerial position. t-Tests revealed significant differences in only two out of 17 dimensions examined. These dimensions were employee involvement and organizational efficiency. Table III presents only the significant differences identified, as a result only two out of the 17 dimensions are included. As apparent, in both cases, managers tend to believe that involvement and efficiency characterize their hotels to a greater extent than their subordinates.\n6 Discussion and research implications: The present study did not attempt to identify the \"right type\" of organizational climate for Greek hotels, which would have been in line with Argyris's (1958) early efforts. Rather, it aimed to examine the prevalent climate, in an attempt to recognize the strengths and weaknesses originating in the climate, with regard to service quality provided and subsequent customer satisfaction. As far as strengths are concerned, the encouragement of and support for new and innovative ideas offers the basis for finding ways to better serve the customers, who have higher expectations as they become more quality aware (Moore and Schlegelmilch, 1994; Parasuraman et al., 1988). Moreover, support and understanding from supervisors is necessary for overcoming any difficulties and problems that may arise in the best and quickest possible way, and quality procedures guide employees' actions towards customer satisfaction. As Schneider et al. (1994) suggested, the climate for innovation, for employee welfare and for service are critical for ensuring the success of quality improvement efforts. In addition, the ability of an organization not only to fulfil but to exceed the needs of its customers is currently regarded to be a strong source of competitive edge and a prerequisite for gaining customer loyalty and increasing market-share (Kandampully, 1997; Mittal et al., 1998).However, there are also some weak points that need to be recognized. In particular, although Greek hotels seem to be paying increased attention to their external environment and trying to adapt to it, they do not focus on recognizing the needs of their customers and their competitors. Such a finding suggests that they are not actively trying to understand customers; they are not open to messages sent by customers, and thus they are not doing their best in order to retain them. In short, they lack customer, service orientation, which according to Deshpande et al. (1993) is a prerequisite for developing a long-term profitable enterprise. Also, the limited outward focus exhibited by Greek hotels may signify their inability to benchmark global competition. As a result, it is likely that they will be left behind in the long run, scoring low in tourists' preferences, when deciding on their travel destination.Another important weakness that relates to the existing climate in Greek hotels is the fact that even though quality scores high, the most prevalent climate dimension is efficiency. In an era when provision of high-quality products and services has become more essential than ever for organizational survival, let alone prosperity, hotels in Greece seem to be giving greater emphasis to costs. Finally, a major weakness is that all climate dimensions were considered by individuals to be stressed by their employing organizations only to a moderate level. Such a finding probably indicates a failure on the part of hotels to infuse an obvious and coherent organizational climate among its members. In such a case, the organization will also fail to indicate clearly the desirable sets of behaviour and define common priorities for its members (Wallace et al., 1999).Regarding the second objective of this study, it was revealed that organizational climate is rather uniform among employees in Greek hotels. In particular, after controlling for potential differences between employees' perceptions based on whether they hold a managerial or a non-managerial position, significant differences came up for only two of the 17 organizational climate dimensions examined. This finding is in line with the work of Patterson et al. (2004) but contrasts with that of Johnson (2000). Such a divergence may be very well attributed to the different organizational setting of the study (Johnson, 2000), as the hotels examined in the present study were of relatively small size. Lack of major differences may be attributed to the fact that in relatively small hotels, similar perspectives may be held by all organizational members (Gordon and DiTomaso, 1992).The differences that were revealed, concerned involvement and efficiency. Naturally, it is more likely for supervisors to believe that getting involved in organizational actions, choices and decisions is a job requirement. In contrast with this, those that do not hold a managerial position may not have the autonomy or the motivation to get involved. Likewise, supervisors seem to be interested in more than just getting the job done, focusing on spending the least possible resources, as they are more likely to have an overall view of the organization and to be held accountable for things that go wrong.Globalisation has completely altered the hospitality industry around the world. Greek hotels will have to adjust their structure, processes and procedures in such a way that they achieve high-service quality, in order to ensure survival in the long run. As a result, specification of new organizational goals and priorities seems to be an imperative in the current, constantly and rapidly changing, global hotel setting, for hotels that wish to maximize their effectiveness. Greek hotels need to make the delivery of quality service their first priority, to scan their micro and macro environment constantly for threats and opportunities, and to listen actively to customers' needs and preferences. Of course, they also need to be able to respond quickly to new information, facts, and trends (Daniel and Darby, 1997).In order to achieve all these goals, organizational agents need to understand their employees' views of the climate within the hotel. To the extent that they comprehend the existing climate they will have the chance to shape it in a desirable way and they will also be equipped with the means of preparing for and sustaining organizational excellence in a highly competitive era. For this reason, Davidson (2003) stressed the need for managers to understand organizational climate, if they wish to operate a successful hotel.Since organizational climate involves both the overall organization and each employee within it, organizational agents need to develop trust and cohesion among organizational members, through training and human resource development (Rogg et al., 2001). They also need to maintain supportive, cooperative, and trusting interpersonal relations and try to coordinate and control the acts of individuals through empowerment and providing reasons for involvement.\n7 Research limitations: As is the case for any study, the present study has some limitations that need to be taken into consideration when interpreting the findings. The most important is that, as already mentioned, only 24 hotels from the Thessaly region participated in the study. Since Greece is a very diverse country in terms of tourism, including hotels that operate in other regions would make the generalization of the present results safer. If Greece wishes to stop being a seasonal destination, it needs to make sure that everyone involved manages to at least respond to, if not exceed, customer needs and expectations.Furthermore, since these findings concern Greek hotels, they cannot be safely extrapolated to hotels around the world. However, they do provide a platform for further research. Conducting similar research in other countries that are currently developing in terms of tourism or that perform at above average levels in the global tourism scene would provide interesting insights into which climate dimensions are essential for successful short and long-term operation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Organizational climate, which includes the setting of values, rules and priorities to be followed by all individuals involved in the organisation, has been receiving increased attention over recent years. The purpose of this paper is to look into the prevalent organizational climate within hotels and to identify variations in employees' perceptions, based on whether they hold managerial or non-managerial positions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper reports a study conducted in 24 Greek hotels located in the Thessaly region, providing 217 usable responses. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the relative importance placed on the climate dimensions and then t-tests were used to check for significant differences between managerial and non-managerial employees.\nFindings: - The results show that efficiency, reflexivity, innovation and flexibility, supervisory support and quality were among the most prominent characteristics affected by organisational climate, whereas outward focus and pressure to produce were least affected. Moreover, the only differences revealed between managerial and non-managerial employees were in the areas of involvement and efficiency.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Since Greece is a very diverse country in terms of tourism, including hotels that operate in other regions of the country would improve the generalizability of these findings. Future research should also try to link organizational climate directly with measures of the actual service quality provided to customers.\nOriginality/value: - Identifying the prevalent organizational climate can help managers to optimize performance by identifying inherent strengths and weaknesses. Managers can then exploit the opportunities offered and evade the threats evident in the globalized hospitality setting. In addition, variations in perceptions between managers and non-managers may help the organization to identify common priorities among all individuals employed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Public procurement as a policy tool: using procurement to reach desired outcomes in society
|
[
"Public procurement",
"Policy instrument"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In Europe, over 250,000 public organizations spend 14 per cent of the GDP on the procurement of goods and services (Grandia, in press). They procure these goods and services, ranging from stationery to fighter planes, cleaning services and public road works, for the execution of their policies, as well as for their own operations. In many of these public organizations the role of public procurement has changed significantly over the years. Being the biggest spender in the EU allows public organizations to use their procurement to apply leverage to certain key policy objectives (Grandia, in press). Therefore, where public procurement was first only about fulfilling a specific demand and providing what the users demand in the right quantity, at the right time and in the right place, it is now often also about making sure that procurement adds value to its environment (Telgen et al., 2007). Public organizations nowadays use public procurement for a multitude of societal goals, such as minimizing long-term unemployment, improving working conditions throughout the (international) supply chain, stimulating innovation, providing opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or local businesses, and stimulating the market for sustainable goods and services. This development means that public procurement is no longer just a means to an end, but also a policy tool that is used to achieve desired outcomes in society.\n2. Public procurement as a policy tool: Public procurement has been consistently used to further public policies in a wide range of fields, such as the national industrial policy, reducing unemployment, improving employment conditions, support for small businesses, local development, employment of disabled workers, and equal pay for men and women (McCrudden, 2004).\n3. Introduction to the research articles: This special issue of IJPSM presents six articles on public procurement. Despite their common topic, they come from different disciplinary backgrounds (public administration, economics, international business), from different continents Europe, Africa, and Asia (and countries: the Netherlands, France, Finland, India, Sweden, and Ghana), and use both quantitative and qualitative research methods. More importantly these six papers examine different assumptions underlying the use of public procurement as a policy tool.\n4. Reflection: The collection of articles in this special issue contributes to a broader understanding of the role and potential of public procurement in delivering desired policy outcomes in society. Keulemans and Van De Walle provide insight into the rarely explored area of citizens' preferences, and show that citizens want public procurement authorities to choose quality over price, recognising the wider societal \"value\" of these decisions. A challenge arising in how procurement choices are made is demonstrated by Lundberg and Bergman, who show that uncertainty of the quality of goods and services affects the relationship between price and quality weightings in tenders. As authorities' selection criteria tend to be relatively fixed, and wider policy goals increase outcome uncertainty, public procurers need to explore how they can increase the flexibility of how they use the regulatory processes. The role of regulation is further explored in Ibrahim et al. in the context of Ghana. The authors provide evidence that legal and regulatory frameworks do not necessarily guarantee compliance and value for money, but, if complied with, could help in promoting accountability and value. Similarly, Storsjo et al. expose gaps between policy and practice in Finland. Their article shows that despite the policy on using public procurement to achieve goals regarding civil preparedness this does not mean that it is fully implemented. Patil and Krishna show that a developing country context increases the barriers to implementing public procurement policy, and in this case to the implementation of a policy on enhancing the participation of SMEs. Network relationships are another important issue identified by Mamavi et al. who find evidence that the strength of ties affects the chances that a company is awarded a contract.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue and outline its major themes and challenges, their relevance and the research opportunities the field presents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reviews prior literature and outlines the need to view public procurement as a policy tool to introduce the contributions to this special issue.\nFindings: Public procurement has been consistently used to further public policies in a wide range of fields. The collection of articles in this special issue contributes to a broader understanding of the role and potential of public procurement in delivering desired policy outcomes in society. The articles show that public procurement largely has strategic aspirations, and its potential to deliver on wider societal issues is attractive to policy makers. The issues raised in this collection of articles, however, also demonstrate that public procurement often lacks strategic maturity and critical issues, notably around how to demonstrate and evaluate its impact and \"success\".\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper aims to stimulate interdisciplinary research into the role of public procurement as a policy tool and its ability to achieve public value.\nOriginality/value: This paper discusses theoretical and empirical findings that highlight the importance of public procurement for achieving public value. The special issue examines the interdisciplinary literature on public procurement and shows how it is being used to achieve public value.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Customer involvement in product development: Using Voice of the Customer for innovation and marketing
|
[
"Case study",
"Innovation",
"Marketing",
"Customer relationships",
"Cross-functional"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Collaborative development between firms is increasing as products include new technologies and are expected to have rapid market introductions. External collaborators have been identified as sources of innovation (Knudsen, 2007; von Hippel, 1988) that improve firms' product development (Lau et al., 2010; Un et al., 2010). Firms collaborate with a number of actors to obtain input for new innovative ideas and to access new technology, as no firm can have all new knowledge in-house. In product development, firms collaborate with a range of partners in their network and supply chain. There is extant literature on supplier involvement in product development (for an overview, see Johnsen, 2009). A more recent literature stream on open innovation includes a wide range of collaboration partners (Chesbrough, 2003; Dahlander and Gann, 2010). The research presented here focusses on the less studied area of customer involvement in product development.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Customer involvement in product development\n3. Method: This study applies a qualitative single case study methodology to gain a rich insight into customer involvement through VoC in product development. The single case study method is used as it pays attention to the context and enables the telling of a story, as explained by Dyer and Wilkins (1991). The case study method is well established within the literature of customer involvement in product development (see e.g. Eslami and Lakemond, 2016; Laage-Hellman et al., 2014; Lagrosen, 2005). The context of an industrial setting was chosen. A firm, here called Auto, was selected because it operates in an industrial market, is a world-leader of the product range under study and has recently invested a large amount of resources into VoC aimed at product development for a number of product segments. Auto's first VoC was conducted by Auto's R&D unit together with the sales and marketing units.\n4. Using VoC for product development at auto: 4.1 An overview of product development\n5. Discussion and conclusion: This paper provides insights into the process of conducting VoC and points to the importance of involving customers in product development. By using VoC, firms have a strategic and structured way of collecting information from customers. By starting a product development project by conducting a VoC, firms put customer focus on product development from the start. By interviewing and conducting need rankings with a larger number of customers in the same segment, firms collect information from a broad knowledge base. The VoC method also allows some adaptability, as demonstrated in the VoCs conducted in North and South America by Auto. The first VoC in North America focussed on customer needs, mostly to provide input for product development projects. The second VoC had a shorter-term focus aimed at providing more knowledge to the marketing and sales department in the USA and to strengthen customer relationships. Similarly, the VoC in South America had a clear aim to increase sales.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: Being innovative and bringing new products to the market fast is important for firms to stay competitive. Customers are important for providing input to product developments in industrial markets. The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of how firms use Voice of the Customer (VoC) in product development and how VoC can complement other customer involvement methods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a qualitative case study of a global leading and innovative firm, a maker of tools for the automotive industry. The study provides detailed insight into the implementation of VoC for product development.\nFindings: The process of customer involvement in product development through VoC is explored. The study shows that by using the VoC method, firms can gather knowledge for input to product development projects while developing relationships with a larger number of customers. The findings point out that VoC can be modified to focus on customer needs related to product development as well as marketing efforts requiring cross-functional collaboration. The VoC method is suitable for combining with other customer involvement methods such as project involvement and pilot testing. Through VoC, firms have the chance to benchmark across industries and regions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper provides insights into the VoC process of customer involvement aimed at product development. The case study provides an illustration of how an industrial firm uses VoC in product development. The paper points out the importance of managing external (customer) involvement in product development and internal (cross-functional) collaborations.\nPractical implications: A set of questions that firms can ask themselves before embarking on customer involvement has been developed. The paper shows that customers can be involved at a number of points in time, have a wide range of roles and contribute different knowledge. VoC is suitable for combining with other customer involvement methods.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of the paper consists of a case study illustrating how customer involvement in product development can be achieved through VoC. A number of customer involvement methods for product development are discussed for combining with VoC, showing how different methods are complementary in product development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Selling luxury goods online: effects of online accessibility and price display
|
[
"Luxury",
"E-commerce",
"Internet retailing",
"Desirability",
"Online distribution",
"Price display"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Luxury goods manufacturers have long been hesitant to adopt the internet as a channel of distribution (Chevalier and Gutsatz, 2012). To date 40-50 percent of luxury goods manufacturers do not sell online (Bain\n2. Conceptual background: Distribution is about making goods available to relevant customers. Mass manufacturers typically aim for a high distribution intensity to serve more consumers more frequently. In contrast, luxury goods manufacturers intend to limit the accessibility of their goods as over-diffusion diminishes the desirability of a luxury brand (Dubois and Paternault, 1995). In luxury, distribution is about controlling and communicating scarcity (Kapferer and Bastien, 2012). Maintaining scarcity represents a critical success factor to luxury brands (Brun and Castelli, 2013). Among other antecedents of perceived scarcity (e.g. rarity of material and human resources, limited production, high-end prices) luxury distribution strategy is about constraining the accessibility of products, i.e. the extent to which consumers may easily obtain a luxury item. Following this logic, marketing scholars and executives alike question the suitability of the internet as a channel of distribution as it implies extending the accessibility of luxury goods to virtually anyone (Gastaldi, 2012; Hennigs et al., 2012; Kapferer and Bastien, 2012). Existing literature cites multiple arguments both in favor and against direct online distribution for luxury goods as summarized in Table I.\n3. Pre-study: expert interviews: The purpose of this pre-study is twofold: first, re-confirming the managerial relevance of the research question before actually testing it. Second, expert interviews help identify managerial approaches to preserve consumer perceptions of scarcity within the ubiquitous mass medium internet. We conducted seven interviews with luxury industry experts (see Appendix, Table AI) using a semi-structured interview guideline. The experts interviewed are senior managers at consultancies and luxury goods manufacturers that are members of national luxury associations like the French Comite Colbert. They indicate an average job experience of 20 years. All interviews are recorded and transcribed verbatim. The mean interview duration is 58 minutes.\n4. Experiment 1: effects of online accessibility: To test the hypothesized effects of online accessibility (see Figure 1) we conduct an experiment using a single-factor (i.e. online accessibility), randomized between-subject design. Four levels of online accessibility apply: find a jeweler nearby (i.e. buy in-store only); order upon request; sign in for online store; or buy online. In this first experiment, we test the effects of online accessibility for a high-involvement luxury good category (i.e. wristwatches) among high-income individuals from Germany.\n5. Experiment 2: effects of online accessibility and price display: To replicate the effects of online accessibility and additionally test for effects of price display we conduct another experiment using a 2 x 2 factorial design with factors online accessibility (yes vs no) and price display (yes vs no). Other than for the first experiment, we test the effects of online accessibility for a relatively lower-involvement luxury good (i.e. writing instrument) among qualified luxury insiders from the USA.\n6. Conclusion: Selling luxury goods online has long been expected to come at the expense of a luxury brand's desirability. A luxury brand's concept of exclusiveness is seemingly incompatible with the ubiquitous accessibility provided by the mass medium internet. The present paper empirically addresses this apparent contradiction by examining the results of interviews with luxury industry experts and two experimental studies with high-income individuals from Germany and luxury insiders from the USA.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Luxury goods manufacturers have long been hesitant to adopt the internet as a channel of distribution. A luxury brand's concept of exclusiveness is seemingly incompatible with the ubiquitous accessibility provided by the mass medium internet. The purpose of this paper is to address the apparent contradiction by examining consumer responses to the online accessibility and price display of luxury goods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three studies are presented: first, a qualitative pre-study with luxury industry experts is conducted to identify the current managerial discussion on the online distribution of luxury goods. Second, an experiment with 183 high-income individuals is conducted to test the effects of online accessibility on consumer perceived scarcity and desirability. Third, a second experiment with 142 qualified luxury insiders is conducted to test consumer responses to the online accessibility and price display of luxury goods.\nFindings: Results indicate that the online accessibility of luxury goods does not affect consumer perceived scarcity and, hence, does not dilute brand desirability. This \"no-dilution\" finding applies to both high- and low-involvement goods and persists independently of whether or not retail prices are explicitly displayed.\nOriginality/value: Whether or not to sell luxury goods online has been controversially discussed among both marketing scholars and executives. To the authors' knowledge, the present paper is the first to empirically examine consumer responses to the online accessibility and price display of luxury goods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Customer influence on supply chain management strategies: An exploratory investigation in the yacht industry
|
[
"Case studies",
"Luxury industry",
"Supply chain management",
"Yacht industry",
"Marketing and supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the 1990s, individual companies started becoming members of larger networks where independent units were transformed into integrated chains (Caniato et al., 2012; Vachon and Mao, 2008). Supply chain (SC) consists of upstream and downstream partners in the management boundary (Brandenburg et al., 2014). In this vein, SC encompasses a complex set of nodes that are intersected by information, cash flows and material flows (Persson, 2011). SC management (SCM) hence refers to the management of these intersected businesses to deliver products and series required by the end consumers (Harland, 1996). To this end, SCM could be described as the management of physical, logical and financial flows in networks of intra- and inter-organizational relations (Mentzer et al., 2001).\n2. Theoretical background: Luxury consists of very heterogeneous products and services, including personal goods, jewelry and highly complex systems such as jets and yachts. Luxury is distinctly separated from other traditional industrial sectors since a strong factor of human involvement, limited supply and the value recognition by others are some of the distinguishing features (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). A luxury brand is considered the one whose ratio of functionality to price is low when the ratio of intangible and situational utility to price is high (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). Legitimacy in luxury is essential, and therefore some factors whose significant consideration is pivotal to operate in luxury are highly critical.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research objectives\n4. Results: 4.1 Findings pertaining to RQ1\n5. Theoretical discussion: Luxury is meant to last, empower and make individuals feel exquisite. As earlier findings highlight, the luxury experience is expected to go beyond basic product and/or service offering. Creating emotional attachment and value experience has become one of the main goals of luxury companies. Despite being already challenging to reach a balance between technical and emotional aspects, this becomes even more complex for certain industries, such as yacht, where high-tech systems are meant to meet craftsmanship. This section aims to seek an understanding on how complex supply networks could translate customer expectations into performance and how to create a more structured supply management to stipulate both quality and emotional appeal.\n6. Conclusion and future steps: The current study aimed at understanding to what extent companies operating in the yacht industry adjusted their strategic SC decisions pursuant to their customers' expectations. Results were generated throughout multiple case studies conducted with eight companies operating in luxury yacht industry in Italy. Exploratory case study methodology was pursued to seek meanings, interpret and uncover the creation of social reality through open dialogue and negotiation with participants.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Customers influence companies' operational strategies and supply chain (SC) processes. In this vein, signals coming from the market must be translated into proper strategies in terms of production and supply. The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding on how to transform customers' expectations into SC decisions. The yacht industry, encompassing both technical and emotional peculiarities, becomes this study's driven focus to interrogate the interrelationship between supply and demand.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study explores the luxury yacht industry through exploratory case studies conducted with eight companies operating in Italy.\nFindings: It was found that a wide range of factors influenced customers. That is to say, brand reputation, other brands' involvement in the final product and emotional appeal were the most distinguishing characteristics identifying emotion-oriented customers. In this sense, companies serving such customers adjusted their SC strategies to channel a direct emotional impact. It was noticed that personalization was pivotal and companies were increasingly required to customize and create unique products to attract and further satisfy the customers. Thus, multiple sourcing strategies were often employed with an increasing number of suppliers to ensure that increasing material supply need would be met. As for performance-oriented companies, cost, quality and innovation capabilities emerged as key signals to be embedded in operations management. Companies serving performance-oriented customers were characterized by low product value and medium level of customization, and kept their core activities, including design and architecture, vertically integrated. In order to generate cost advantages without compromising product quality, single sourcing strategy was largely implemented. What the findings suggested is that the customization level and the product value were positively correlated. To illustrate, companies having more exclusive products were found allowing their customization and customer involvement in higher degrees.\nOriginality/value: Due to a relatively unexplored nature of the phenomenon, this study opted for a method by which individual and collective reconstructions were explored in a not well-investigated area, that is, the luxury yacht industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The government's role in creating an innovation ecosystem: the Springfield Armory as hub in the Connecticut River Valley
|
[
"Networks",
"Innovation ecosystem",
"Arms",
"Interchangeable parts",
"Muskets",
"Springfield Armory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Consider a skilled craftsman making a rifle as one end of a continuum with a modern Ford auto assembly line at the other end. Now, consider what transformations must occur in the methods of manufacture and management to get from one end to the other. Each step away from the craftsman requires an increasing sophistication in tools, processes and organization to be successful as the self-paced, skilled artisan making an entire something is replaced with a less skilled worker making only a part of that something. To make this process more difficult, each separately produced part must fit with others in a structured sequence to make a completed product. Each step taken away from the completed product of a skilled craftsman required innovators who singly or in alliances figured out a way to make independently produced parts fit together. Not only did they need to invent ways to produce parts that fit together but the innovators also had to figure out how to sequence the assembly of these parts, manage the different people and even different organizations making them, and market the final products.\nEcosystems: The term ecosystem was first used by the English botanist A. G. Tansley who noted in 1935 that:\nInnovation ecosystems: Innovation ecosystems are characterized as having three types of assets: economic, physical and network (Katz and Wagner, 2014). In other words, they have capital, locational advantages and a network of knowledge, skills and abilities shared across those in the ecosystem. It has been noted that when the right mix of knowledge, skills and abilities:\nSpringfield Armory as hub: As suggested above, the historical example of the Springfield Armory illustrates the critical importance of governmental sponsored activity that created an innovation ecosystem of networked organizations. Because of the government's goal of producing arms with interchangeable parts set by Chief of Ordnance of the US Army, Colonel Decius Wadsworth (1812-1821) in 1815 and its willingness to fund innovative activity, the Armory at Springfield became the hub of co-located firms up and down the Connecticut River Valley. Because of its key geographic location and its ability to influence funding to enact the government mandate, it was ideally positioned to energize and lead the development of the technology and systems required to achieve large scale production of arms through the use of interchangeable parts (Smith, 1977). While few saw any value in pursuing this goal, and many resisted it at the time, the government and its army leadership recognized the importance of creating a mandate (goal) and market demand to support the innovations spawned by weapons manufacturing led by the National Armories in Springfield and Harper's Ferry (Smith, 1981). As seen in the map in Appendix 1, from Robbins, Kendall and Lawrence in Windsor, VT to Eli Whitney in New Haven, CT, the Springfield Armory was the geographic hub of an innovation ecosystem that connected the arms industry and the machine tools producers that had to be invented to make pistols, muskets and rifles with interchangeable parts (Best, 1990; Deyrup, 1948; Ford, 2005; Whittlesey, 1920). While geographic co-location of the firms up and down the Connecticut River that became part of this ecosystem was important for facilitating easy communication and knowledge sharing across the organizations, it was the government's leadership and funding that made the arms industry collaborate and coordinate to develop their joint capability of making rifles interchangeable: lock, stock and barrel.\nImportance of contract systems: Two contract systems were important contributors to the development of the innovation ecosystem: the product contract and the labor contract. The product contract system had the government as the customer to private producers for specific numbers of arms (Appendix 4), which resulted in three important innovation outcomes besides expanding production capacity beyond the armories (Deyrup, 1948). First, because the contractors were required to deliver a product that met certain specifications, those certain specifications had to be defined and a system of measurement developed to ensure that the delivered arms met those specifications (Uselding, 1981). No longer could an independent armorer, blacksmith or machine tool producer create whatever suited that person and his judgment as to what the product should look like or its quality. While initially this was done entirely by sending pattern or ideal models to the contractors against which government inspectors would measure the fit, by 1819 Springfield had developed gauges that were used as the standard measures. By the 1840s, 64 different gauges had been developed to be used by contractors and inspectors for inspecting muskets for uniformity (Deyrup, 1948). Those who had the gauges were part of the network. Fitch (1881), in his famous report, shows how important this measurement system had become as he states, \"150 gauges are used in testing the accuracy of the parts of the Springfield rifle (p. 619).\" The contracted producer did not receive payment unless its output tested out when inspected by government agents.\nThe value of Springfield for locating an armory: Springfield was initially selected by George Washington in 1777 as a logical place for a national Armory as it was on the primary navigable river in the middle of New England (Connecticut River), and located on the important and existing Boston Post Road about halfway between Boston and Albany (Abbott, 1852; Raber, 1988, 2017). In addition, Springfield had access to water power, was located near plentiful natural resources needed for arms manufacture (Rosenberg, 1981) such as hard wood forests and iron ore in Salisbury, CT, had enough surrounding population to attract skilled gunsmiths and blacksmiths, and most importantly, was located just north of Windsor Locks which marked the shallows beyond which any sea going British war vessels could not go (Whittlesey, 1920). Congress approved and funded its establishment in 1794 to produce 4,500 muskets annually (Deyrup, 1948). However, in the five years following it only produced 7,750 so the War Department decided to contract with other nearby contractors to supply an additional 7,000 (Deyrup, 1948). By 1798, as war became a possibility, Congress appropriated $800,000 to purchase cannon, small arms and ammunition from 27 private contractors which \"established small arms making on an industrial footing\" (Deyrup, 1948, p. 38). The contract system had a major influence not only on how many arms were made but also more importantly, how they were made. The contracts typically included funding in advance which meant the government as demand creator, acting through the Armory, made the rules and set the standards (Woodbury, 1960). Thus, contracting set the stage for the Armory to become the hub of an innovation ecosystem of many, especially smaller, manufacturers of arms and machine tools primarily located in the Connecticut River Valley (Smith, 1981).\nImportance of interchangeable parts for arms: Imagine you are a soldier in the American Revolution fresh from home carrying your own musket to the battlefield. As you aim your musket at the charging Red Coats, it fails to fire. Because each musket had been crafted by the soldier's local gunsmith, there is no way to fix the problem without a blacksmith and the usefulness of the soldier as a combatant is lost (Smith, 1981). This was an all too common problem during the American Revolution and the War of 1812 as the production of war making arms was limited to the number that could be produced by the pool of available skilled armorers and the ability to fix those arms that failed was limited to access to a blacksmith on the battlefield (Winchester, 2018). At any given moment in the heat of a battle a large percentage of the fighters were out of action or forced to rely on hand to hand combat and bayonets. This is a problem that the government recognized as needing a solution.\nInterchangeable parts: Interchangeable parts were not a brand new idea in 1800. The Venetian Arsenal of the 12th century developed an early assembly line process that included the use of interchangeable parts to have the ability to quickly produce naval vessels in case Venice was attacked (Wren and Bedeian, 2017; Yoho and Hughes, 2017). However, when one considers arms production, most agree that the idea was first applied by the Frenchman, General Jean-Baptiste Gribeauval. In 1765, Gribeauval initiated major reforms in the organization and production of French ordnance that included the use of standardized parts using pattern models, specialized production techniques and rigid inspections (Smith, 1981). His patronage of one of his armorers, Honore Blanc, led to Blanc becoming the leader of France's Vincennes Arsenal. By the mid 1780s, Blanc had created a system for manufacturing muskets based on the production of uniform parts through the use of die-forging, jig-filing and hollow milling techniques to effect \"the greatest economy and the most exact precision\" (Smith, 1981, p. 67). This arsenal was visited by Jefferson in 1785 while he served as ambassador to France. There, Jefferson witnessed Honore successfully assembling a musket lock by picking parts randomly from a pile. Jefferson left so impressed with the potential of interchangeable parts in musket production that he wrote letters advocating it to Secretary of State John Jay that year and, later in 1786, to then Governor of Virginia, James Monroe (Durfee, 1894; Smith, 1981; Woodbury, 1960). In his letter to Jay, Jefferson described what he saw, \"it consists in the making of every part of them so exactly alike, that what belongs to any one, may be used for every other musket in the magazine (quoted in Durfee, 1894, p. 122).\"\nRoswell Lee: While John Hall is credited with first making interchangeable rifles in the mid 1820s at Harper's Ferry (Smith, 1973, 1977) and Simeon North is credited with making the first systematic production process to make pistols with interchangeable parts (North and North, 1913), it was the leadership of Roswell Lee at the Springfield Armory who brought this concept to fruition for muskets and rifles manufacturing at scale. He coordinated the many organizations in the Connecticut River Valley plus those around Harper's Ferry into the innovative ecosystem it became. He did it by developing and then sharing his important management and technological innovations. (Duckworth, 1975; Raber, 1988; Tull, 2001). Lee recognized and successfully addressed the key organizational and technical challenges to developing a production system that could produce large numbers of arms. He designed a manufacturing process that enabled the Armory to manufacture interchangeable parts in quantity that were then readily assembled by lower skilled work men into a completed weapon. As Chandler (1977) noted in his classic work, \"Modern factory management [...] had its genesis in the USA in the Springfield Armory\" (p. 75) and later added, \"the contribution of the Springfield Armory was as much the result of the administrative capacities of its superintendent, Colonel Roswell Lee, as of its special and unique condition\" (p. 73).\nDiscussion: What do the national armories in the early 1880s have in common with the contemporary commercial space industry? The answer is an innovation ecosystem that was created from freely available intellectual property generated by the government and paid for by US taxpayers. Roswell Lee, Superintendent of the Springfield Armory, required anyone with a government contract to make any intellectual developments in the production of muskets and rifles to freely share that knowledge, along with anything developed at the Springfield Armory, with all who wanted it. Today, as then, NASA, NIH, DOD and other US Government research agencies that conduct or pay for innovative research require the sharing of this knowledge. While the extent to which this amazing sharing of intellectual property has added value to the US GDP is the subject of others' research, one goal of this paper is to illustrate how the government funding of weapons production in the 1800s created an innovation ecosystem in the Connecticut River Valley. The munificent environment government contacts created and the leadership of the Springfield Armory made access to the intellectual property associated with the technological innovation of interchangeable parts possible. The importance of this free access to government sponsored technological innovations is incalculable as the widespread adoption of this innovation ultimately changed the business models of America and the world, created the American System of Manufactures, led to new systems of management, and impacted living standards across the world. Springfield's Armory leadership of this ecosystem should serve as a reminder of the value of government sponsored research as it spills over into interrelated businesses and, ultimately, widespread commercial application.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, through the example of the Springfield Armory and its role in the development of interchangeable parts, the critical role of government in establishing a cluster of organizations that evolved into an innovation ecosystem primarily located in the Connecticut River Valley in the 1800s. Using the Springfield Armory example, we use the related but largely unjoined concepts of ecosystem and networks to show that these organizational forms are effective in driving innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The design uses an in-depth analysis of the role of the Springfield Armory to explicate the joining of network and ecosystem theory as an early example of the importance of governmental funding and support for innovation.\nFindings: The development of interchangeable parts in the American arms industry in the 19th century transformed manufacturing worldwide. At the heart of this transformation was the network of arms makers that developed in the Connecticut River Valley as a direct result of US Government investment and support. This network of arms makers evolved into an ecosystem of mutually reinforcing relationships as machine tool manufacturers benefited from an environment of free-flowing intellectual property, information and growing governmental demand for arms. The Armory illustrates the government's role in initiating and sustaining clusters of innovation that otherwise might not have developed as quickly.\nOriginality/value: Much of the research on the role of government in creating innovation ecosystems and organizational networks is based on modern organizations. This use of the Springfield Armory in the early 1800s broadens the knowledge on how innovation ecosystems in conjunction with networked organizations can be created by governments serving the public good.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Five-star or thumbs-up? The influence of rating system types on users' perceptions of information quality, cognitive effort, enjoyment and continuance intention
|
[
"Continuance intention",
"Cognitive decision efforts",
"Cognitive fit",
"Perceive enjoyment",
"Perceived information quality",
"Rating systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Rating systems have received the increased attention of practitioners and academicians because of their potential power for collective intelligence in influencing a consumer's purchase-decision (Lee et al., 2016; Lee and Yang, 2015; Tamimi and Sebastianelli, 2015; Tsao, 2014). For this reason, recent years have witnessed the development of a variety of rating systems (Schafer et al., 2007; Tamimi and Sebastianelli, 2015) and their increasing usage on different types of websites, including shopping sites, social networking sites, news sites, movie sites, and online forums (Lee and Yang, 2015; Tsao, 2014).\nTheoretical foundation: The theory of cognitive fit and the concepts of hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations in combination provide a theoretical lens through which to understand the effects of rating system types on perceptions and intention to continue to use the rating systems.\nResearch framework and hypotheses: The cognitive fit between rating systems and tasks\nStudy design: Experimental design\nResults: Descriptive statistics showing the frequencies for gender and age in each condition was presented in Table I. Most respondents were between 18 and 25 years old at the time the data were collected and are males in each condition.\nConclusion and contributions: Conclusion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recent years have witnessed the development of a variety of rating systems but the authors have little knowledge about their impact on users' perceptions of information quality, cognitive decision effort, and enjoyment. The purpose of this paper is to understand the potential cognitive fit underlining the relationship between rating systems types (i.e. five-star, binary-visual, and binary-textual) and tasks (i.e. purchase-decision and browsing tasks) in the context of shopping websites.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 191 subjects were obtained. This study conducted an experiment with a 2x3 between-subject factorial design. The first dimension is a task that has two conditions (purchasing vs browsing). The second dimension is a type of rating system that has three different types (binary-textual, binary-visual, and five-star).\nFindings: The results show that the cognitive fit may occur when individuals use a five-star rating system to help them make a purchasing decision and when they use a binary-visual rating system while browsing. This fit might increase perceived information quality while decrease cognitive decision efforts, and in turn raise intention to adopt the systems. Moreover, five-star rating systems can make users feel more fun and enjoyment than binary-textual and visual rating systems, regardless of task type.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study focuses on three main rating systems that are popular on shopping websites. Nevertheless, few other rating systems exist in the market such as unitary or ten-star rating systems. Further studies can consider other types of rating systems and address, in addition to representation, the issue of information granularity (i.e. unitary, binary, five-star, and ten-star rating systems).\nPractical implications: The results of this study could provide design principles for web designers in determining which rating systems best match the websites they are developing. If the websites or specific webpages are more utilitarian oriented (hedonic oriented), five-star rating systems (binary-visual rating systems) are more appropriate.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the rating system literature by examining the cognitive fit underlining the relationship between rating systems types and tasks. Importantly, this study extends cognitive fit theory by considering affective responses, that is, perceived enjoyment and intention to continue to use.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Job sharing as a tool for flexible work systems: Creating opportunities for housewives in the Indian labor market
|
[
"Employment",
"Women empowerment",
"Contingent workforce",
"Job sharing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The untapped potential - educated housewives\nLiterature review and theoretical framework: Job sharing\nTheoretical framework: The current study borrows from the \"Work/Family Border theory\" to understand the importance of work life balance in general and for women in particular. Research indicated that women need extra support and care to fulfill the needs of both organizations and family (Agarwal, 1997).\nEconomic empowerment of women: Economic empowerment results in women's ability to influence or make decision, increased self-confidence, better status and role in household, etc. It is necessary to overcome exploitation and create confidence for economic self-reliance of the rural poor, particularly among rural women who are mostly invisible in the social structure. If a nation is to prosper, it cannot leave behind or ignore half of its population. Adler (1986) gives due recognition to the role of women in nation building. He points out that women need to play their role of mothers and homemakers to the hilt to be able to nurture responsible healthy children and future citizens. This latent contribution of women cannot be eclipsed by the more visible roles in society. She needs to be given opportunities that she missed out during her most fertile years as she was busy with domestic responsibilities. To help her get back into the working pipeline, she needs to be provided with the wings of empowerment, to be able to trudge out of the homes and soar high into the skies. Ferree (1976) points out full-time housewives are more dissatisfied and feel themselves to be worse off than women with jobs. Housework does not contribute to the psychological empowerment of women. Weiss and Samuelson (1958) reported that most employed women, regardless of education, cited their jobs rather than their home and family obligations as the chief source of their feelings of usefulness and importance. It was also noted that fulltime housewives report more stress and anxiety than women with paid jobs, regardless of class. As a remedial measure Shobha (2007) points out that with employment, women do not remain as objects of social change but become agents of it. They cease to be \"consumers\" of economic goods and services and turn into \"producers\". They participate in social reproductions as well as reproduction of labor for the next generation (ILO, 1984). There has been much debate in the gender and development literature on how to achieve women's empowerment, with this debate often centering on income earning opportunities and their empowerment potential (Kantor, 2003; Acharya and Bennett, 1983; Blumberg, 1989, 1991, 1995; Chant, 1995). Improvement in women's social status is generally accompanied by advance in their education and a corresponding change in its character. That is why \"the movement for improving women's status all over the world has always emphasized education as the most significant instrument for changing women's subjugated position in society\". It is well known that in pre- and early-British, India there was a fairly widespread system of indigenous education. It was mostly confined to males of the Brahmin and higher castes among Hindus and of privileged non-Hindu minority groups. This is not to say that there were no literate or educated women. Their number was very small.\nExploration of housewives as the contingent workforce and the organizations' concerns for thereto: An investigative study using qualitative research design attempted to describe the need to bring back housewives in the mainstream employment and illustrated why organizations are hesitant of trying job sharing as a possible means to provide them with the suitable work opportunities. On the basis of the existing theoretical frameworks and review of literature, 20 housewives were interviewed in-depth as a part of the pilot study.\nConclusion, implications and future recommendations: This paper attempts at exploring the financial, social and employability status of housewives with the intention of finding a window of empowerment for them. The investigation reveals a number of issues in their lives as social pressures to stay at home, financial crunch and outdated skill sets. Financial independence is not sufficient if it is not accompanied with empowerment. A secure job would empower them to assert their rights and reservations without the fear of losing their only support, the acceptance of family members. Requirement of working for eight hours and leaving their families and homes that are totally dependent on them makes women hesitant in seeking employment. Job sharing would help them come out of this confusing, complex situation. In return, the companies will also benefit in terms of the availability of a lesser expensive workforce. Thus, they can become the preferred source of employment if private organizations are willing to train them according to their aptitude and skillsets and offer them job sharing or part-time employment opportunities to make their debut into the workforce. This initiative by organizations will help enhance the women's ability too to function as an independent bread winner for their family. Also, at the same time, the government can lay down some norms on compulsory employment of this workforce which will ascertain their necessary participation in the mainstream employment. This can also be covered in the ambit of CSR initiatives. This study has strong implications for the social policymakers. It points at the loopholes in the system, which needs to be addressed appropriately. Precisely, this study has major societal and managerial implications. Today in India, where women make almost equal the possible workshop yet they are unable to contribute because of their social system bindings; however, job sharing as an option tries bring them back into the mainstream employment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Women experience insurmountable work life balance challenges, which are the reasons a large percentage of women leak out of the workforce pipeline. Flexible work systems empower women to contribute in meaningful ways to their personal and professional lives. Job sharing is one such strategy of flexible work system, which is proposed as an empowering management practice. This paper aims to create a model of empowerment for housewives. Non-working housewives are the most neglected lot of society in terms of getting their dues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For the purpose of this study, qualitative study was conducted and data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Focus group discussions with 266 housewives were conducted to find out their reasons of not joining the full-time workforce, and their willingness to contribute, if they have any. In-depth interviews of nine HR managers were also conducted to assess the openness of the corporate side toward job sharing as a work design. The paper has significance for the corporate as well as for the social and government agencies.\nFindings: Qualitative data collected from 266 housewives presented three core themes - the bottlenecks to employment, the available opportunities of employment and growth and their preferred status of employment. The qualitative data further revealed that though they can easily do with some more money at their disposal, they cannot join in the full-time workforce as they have family responsibilities. They were willing to put in half a day's work. Thus, the investigators recommended job sharing for them, which would engage this talented human resource and give them back their due for selflessly giving in their most productive years to their families. The interviews of nine HR managers from three multinational companies revealed the skillsets of these housewives as the major concern for putting them back on work.\nOriginality/value: The paper has significance for the corporate, women as the contingent workforce and social and government agencies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Integrated marketing channel relationships: integration dimensions and channel performance
|
[
"Authority integration",
"Channel performance",
"Coordination integration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Inter-firm integration is characterized in multiple dimensions (Jaspers and van den Ende, 2006). Drawing upon Langlois and Robertson's (1995) typology of vertical integration, inter-firm integration can be measured in two dimensions: coordination integration and authority integration. This study addresses how the intensity of coordination and authority integration affects performance in marketing channel relationships.\n2. Review of literature: 2.1 A survey of inter-firm relationship literature\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Results of confirmatory factor analysis\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Theoretical contributions\n6. Conclusion: The issue of inter-firm integration or integrated relationships is widely researched in related research fields. This means that while it is an extremely important theme, adding something new to the existing knowledge is challenging.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Inter-firm integration is a multidimensional concept. This study aims to examine the performance effects of two aspects of inter-firm integration, coordination integration and authority integration, and their co-alignment with strategic and contextual factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author conducted a quantitative empirical study using survey data of Japanese manufacturing companies' relationships with their wholesalers to test hypotheses based on a literature review.\nFindings: Coordination integration has a positive performance effect. There is co-alignment between high (low) coordination integration and high (low) product uniqueness. High (low) coordination integration is associated with high (low) demand uncertainty. High (low) authority integration is consistent with high (low) behavioral uncertainty.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study contributes theoretically to marketing channel and business-to-business marketing literature by holistically examining the linkages among governance forms, marketing-strategic factors, exchange-contextual factors and inter-firm performance. A limitation of this study is that the research data were collected in only one country, Japan. Thus, country-specific factors might affect the analytical outcomes.\nPractical implications: Appropriate co-alignment among governance, strategies and contexts significantly influences performance. The findings have significant implications for manufacturing firms' channel strategies.\nOriginality/value: This study tests the influences of two distinct dimensions of inter-firm integration on inter-firm outcomes, which few previous studies address. It comprehensively examines the linkages among governance forms, strategic factors, environmental factors and performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Whole school food programmes and the kitchen environment
|
[
"England",
"Primary schools",
"Secondary schools",
"Catering",
"Cooking",
"Employees development",
"Engagement",
"Food For Life",
"Partnership",
"School cooks",
"Whole school approach",
"Profession"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Background: Following the reintroduction of National Nutritional Standards for English school meals in 2001 and Jamie Oliver's School Dinners television campaign in 2005 the downward spiral of school food quality has seemingly been checked. Growing political backlash and public interest in school food coupled with a moral panic surrounding obesity, fears around declining physical activity and the development of initiatives like Healthy Schools have contributed to a School Food Revolution (Morgan and Sonnino, 2008, p. 21). UK standards are now amongst some of the most detailed and comprehensive in the world (Rees et al., 2010). Studies provide evidence that the re-introduction of such standards is having a positive impact on school meal provision, including food choice and the nutritional profile of school lunches (Evans and Harper, 2009; Rees et al., 2010).Several school food programmes have contributed to improvements, building on new standards to improve things like fruit and vegetable uptake. Such programmes often engage parents, teachers and pupils, for example: Sahoti et al. (2001) study of a health promotion programme reducing risk factors for obesity. However, few adopt a whole school approach in which consistent messages are promoted in both the classroom and the dining room (Harper and Wells, 2007). Key themes identified by schools involved in whole school approaches include: leadership, management and managing change, linking the curriculum with the dining room; involving pupils and parents; improving the design and environment of the dining room and collaborating with the school's caterers. Through such initiatives, the European Network of Health Promoting Schools argue, schools should have an improved potential to make a significant contribution to positive dietary change and health (Barker et al., 1998).Whilst some programmes adopt a whole school approach, less appear to consider the role that kitchen staff can play to promote healthy eating. Yet their involvement has been increasingly seen as pivotal to achieving success in school health programmes. Critics argue that the role of kitchen staff in school meal provision has progressively reduced over recent decades as cost/productivity pressures have led to the rationalisation of school food production processes resulting in a reorganisation of work tasks towards preparing pre-processed food and an associated \"de-skilling\" of staff (Leppanen et al., 2008; Morgan and Morley, 2003). In a US context, Cho and Nadow (2004) suggest that lack of support and training for food service staff is one of the main barriers to \"quality\" lunch provision. This view is supported by the School Food Trust who are specialist advisors to the UK Government; and report that kitchen staff are inadequately supported to improve skills or market their activities (School Food Trust, 2009). Moore et al. (2010) identify the role of caterers and school cooks along with lunchtime supervisors and children themselves, as critical in efforts to improve the nutritional content and uptake. Their involvement in decision making has been seen as indicative of reported increase in uptake (Wood et al., 2011); and their relative permanence in school life can be crucial to developing trust in healthy food. Leppanen et al. (2008) report that a combination of formal training and participative approaches successfully improved work process knowledge across a sample of Finnish kitchen workers. The same study also found increases in well-being among participants (Leppanen et al., 2005). Biltgard (2008) argues that habitual trust is key to promoting confidence in quality food in late modern societies. Given that few packed lunches meet school meal standards (Evans et al., 2010) the role of kitchen staff may be regarded as crucial to sustaining trust in school meals and health programmes.This paper focuses on the Food for Life Partnership (FFLP) whole school programme. It is led by the Soil Association in partnership with Focus on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the Health Education Trust. Its mission is:[...] to reach out through schools, to give communities access to quality, local and organic food, and to the skills they need to cook and grow for themselves. We want all young people and their families to rediscover the pleasure of taking time out to enjoy good food that makes them feel healthy and connected to the changing seasons (Soil Association, 2011).Initiated in 2007, it received five years funding from the UK Big Lottery Wellbeing Fund to deliver a programme of whole school food reform. Alongside a focus on healthy eating, the programme emphasised the value of organic and sustainable food consumption. Participating schools worked towards Bronze, Silver and Gold FFLP marks: each representing a level of achievement with regard to over 50 criteria in four domains: food leadership, food quality and provenance, food education and food culture and community involvement.Over 3,600 primary, secondary and special schools have enrolled. 180 schools were selected to be \"flagship schools\". These had a diverse range of school and catering settings, and reflected a mixture of demographic characteristics. For approximately 18 months, flagship schools received a package of support from a team of programme officers specialising in areas of food procurement, food education, stakeholder facilitation and catering. This paper focuses on the catering element of the programme. The objectives for caterers included:1. Equip staff with skills and knowledge to achieve the FFLP's criteria for food provenance and quality (e.g. increased use of locally sourced food).2. Ensure schools operate government school food standards menus.3. Raise take up.4. Develop catering staff networks locally and regionally.5. Engage with multiple aspects of the programme (e.g. food education activities).These were to be achieved through training courses, one-to-one advice and mentoring, facilitated meetings with senior decision makers in schools and catering organisations, facilitated action planning meetings with students (called School Nutrition Action Groups or \"SNAGS\"), and a small budget to improve facilities.\n2 Methods: To understand the impact of the FFLP on school cooks; semi-structured interviews were conducted with kitchen staff at enrolment. The interview schedule included open and closed questions. The interview format was piloted by the research team and the interviews were conducted by a member of the research team or, following training, a lead FFLP officer. A similar follow-up interview was sought after 18 months. In each school, the same respondent was sought for the follow-up interview. These two data collection exercises form the analytical basis of this article. All the data was analysed using SPSS Version 17.The study list sampled the first 92 schools (65 primary and 27 secondary) that enrolled with the FFLP flagship programme. Information collated from school census data suggest their catchment areas were predominantly urban with only 10 per cent of schools from areas defined as \"village and isolated hamlet\". All 92 completed the baseline interview, however only 74 (51 primary and 23 secondary schools) satisfactorily completed the follow-up. Thus, the analysis presented draws upon the 74 schools with matched baseline and follow-up data: an 80 per cent response rate. For 72 per cent of these cases, the same member of staff participated in both the baseline and follow up. The average length between baseline and review was 20 months (SD: 4.18; min. 13, max. 29). All respondents were adults and they were largely female (93 per cent, n=69).Non respondents included six schools that had withdrawn from the programme, eight schools where the cook was unavailable and six schools where the interview was either incomplete or conducted too late for inclusion in the analysis.\n3 General school and catering characteristics: Schools were evenly distributed across English regions. Indicators of social deprivation suggest participating schools had an above average national representation of schools in catchment areas with high child poverty. 19 per cent (n=14) of the primary schools and 12 per cent (n=4) of the secondary schools were in the top quintile for free school meal entitlement. The schools also had a similar proportion of pupils from black or minority ethnic backgrounds as the national school census profile for English schools.At baseline, the average pupil roll for the primary schools was 278 (SD: 128; min. 51, max. 671) and 984 for secondary schools (SD: 226; min. 570, max. 1428). Overall, school meal uptake increased amongst the participating schools. In a comparison of the 12 months preceding baseline interview with the 12 months preceding the follow-up interview, primary school meal uptake increased from 45.7 to 49.2 per cent (at follow up SD: 17.4; min. 13.2 per cent, max. 100 per cent), and secondary school meal uptake increased from 50.3 to 56.0 per cent (at follow up SD: 17.4; min. 21.1 per cent, max. 77.0 per cent). As the standard deviations indicate, there was considerable variation in numbers of children attending school dinners.In terms of catering provider types, 35 were local authority, 33 in-house and six private. Average ingredient spend/meal reported by primary schools rose from 70.1 to 78.8 per cent during the programme, an increase of 12.4 per cent. This can be compared with the latest national average of school meal ingredient costs at primary level of 68 per cent (School Food Trust, 2011). Among this group, the number of local suppliers involved in school procurement rose by 73 per cent. Organic suppliers (a programme focus) increased by over 50 per cent. Overall, schools made considerable progress with respect to FFLP criteria. Thus, no school was sufficiently developed for an award at baseline, but at review 29 schools had been awarded the Gold or Silver award, 34 Bronze award. 13 had no award, but had made progress in terms of specific criteria.3.1 Interview results\n4 Conclusion: This article has provided insight into the challenges faced by kitchen staff involved with the whole school FFLP programme. There are some potential weaknesses to the data and its analysis. Clearly, these are inherently subjective responses that could have been influenced by perceived pressures from other stakeholders (including FFLP) to attribute positive impacts to the programme. However, this research offers a unique longitudinal insight into the experience of catering staff within a whole school programme.Overall, this analysis highlights perceivable improvements to the school catering function. This study indicates that schools increasingly worked with their catering teams to develop measures to increase school meal uptake. This \"market reorientation\" within the catering and kitchen environment was tied to measures that promote the integration of kitchen staff and the catering function in general to the wider school and its stakeholders.Kitchen staff report a general level of satisfaction regarding the standard of their kitchen environment, equipment and progress, but the impact of FFLP on staff numbers and hours worked appear mixed. Both numbers of employees and hours worked showed modest increases. Within these figures there were as many kitchens whose staff numbers and hours worked decreased as increased.Both the provision of continuous professional development schemes and uptake of formal training opportunities for kitchen staff increased. There was some reported decrease in hygiene training, but high staff turnover coupled with delays in providing training due to the other developments could account for this; but generally staff with formal qualifications increased.Overall job satisfaction was high at the start of the programme and remained high at follow-up. Most importantly one in five schools catering staff cite getting involvement in decision making or having more control as the main programme change introduced to have enhanced their satisfaction. They are now involved in a broader range of activities in and outside of the school since enrolment. Several catering leads reported no discussion before FFLP but now they are involved in discussions with other members of staff and particularly the SMT.Follow-up interviews reveal a rise in anxiety concerning issues outside of the FFLP. This included concerns about the long term sustainability of FFLP related kitchen improvements. Unsurprisingly cost issues dominated concerns. This reflects both long term cost pressures on the service reported in the background section of this article and current issues around cuts in public service budgets and wider economic issues.Our findings indicate that catering staff became more formally integrated and better equipped as a result of FFLP involvement. Although this cannot be linked directly to overall programme success or higher school meal uptake, the centrality of the dining experience within the programme suggests that these factors contributed towards these goals. The data also indicates that the relationship between improvements in food and the physical kitchen environment and the experience and job satisfaction of kitchen staff is complex and contingent on factors such external funding pressures, staff hours and salary. It also demonstrates how a whole school approach can serve to integrate an often ignored but important partner in delivering health benefits to children: kitchen staff and caterers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of the Food For Life Partnership (FFLP) whole school food programme on kitchen staff employment and professional development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This exploratory research involved baseline and follow-up interviews with 74 kitchen staff (51 primary and 23 secondary English schools) enrolled onto the FFLP programme. Empirical data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire between 2007-2010 with an average of 20 months between baseline and follow-up. Data were collected on the perceived programme impact on school cook professional experience and employment and their role in health promotion.\nFindings: - Numbers of kitchen staff and mean job satisfaction grew. Kitchen staff reported significant investment in their kitchen environment. They felt a greater degree of involvement and broader integration with the rest of the school's educational mission. However, towards the end of their involvement, kitchen staff became increasingly cognizant of the growing challenges posed by broader economic conditions emerging at the time of follow-up.\nPractical implications: - Kitchen staff can play an important role in the promotion of healthy eating and school cohesion. However, there are significant organisational and employment-based barriers to fulfilling this potential.\nOriginality/value: - This paper outlines the role of kitchen staff in whole school food programmes and illustrates the key dimensions and barriers that need to be overcome to enhance their role through the delivery of improvements in school food uptake and the promotion of healthier and more sustainable food consumption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Globalization and health worker crisis: what do wealth-effects tell us?
|
[
"Migration",
"Health",
"Wealth",
"Human capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globalization is to some extent responsible in various ways for causing the \"push\" and \"pull\" conditions of emigration which have contributed to chronic problems in Health Human Resources (hence HHRs)[1] (Ken and Albert, 2012). Deteriorating socio-economic and environmental conditions (partly attributable to liberalization and other forms of global market integration) are pushing health workers out of their countries. Conditions linked to loans or debt relief from international financial institutions has limited governments' ability to pay adequate salaries or provide incentives for health workers to remain[2]. As a result, physicians and nurses are being pushed-out and governments are hard-pressed to implement effective remedies to curb the exodus. The movement of HHRs is asymmetrical and tilted toward developed (rich) countries, with the poorest countries unable to attract replacement workers. For countries unable to draw-in new health workers to replace those who have left for greener pastures, the natural effect is diminished health care access and service.\n2. Existing literature: 2.1. HHR crisis in Africa\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1. Data\n4. Empirical analysis: 4.1. Summary of results\n5. Conclusion: Owing to lack of relevant data on HHR migration, the empirical dimension of the health-worker crisis debate has remained void despite abundant theoretical literature. A health worker crisis is growing in the world. Shortages in health professionals are reaching staggering levels in many parts of the globe. This paper has complemented existing literature by empirically investigating the WHO hypothetical determinants of health-worker migration in the context of globalization when income-levels matter. Thus we have assessed the determinants of emigration in the health sector through-out the conditional distributions of emigration rates (physicians and nurses). The findings have been presented in two main strands: when existing emigration levels are low and when existing emigration levels are high.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Owing to lack of relevant data on health human resource (HHR) migration, the empirical dimension of the health-worker crisis debate has remained void despite abundant theoretical literature. A health worker crisis is growing in the world. Shortages in health professionals are reaching staggering levels in many parts of the globe. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantile regression approach is used to examine the determinants of health-worker emigration throughout the conditional distributions of health-worker emigration. This provides an investigation of the determinants when existing emigrations levels matter. The author assesses the determinants of emigration in the health sector through-out the conditional distribution of HHR emigration.\nFindings: The findings have been presented in two main strands: when existing emigration levels are low and when existing emigration levels are high. In the former case (when existing emigration levels are low), wealth-effects have the following implications. First, while economic prosperity is a good tool against nurse brain drain in middle income countries (MICs), health expenditure is a good instrument against physician brain drain in low income countries (LICs). Second, whereas positive demographic change fuels the problem in LICs, it mitigates the issue in their MIC counterparts. Third, savings, government-effectiveness, foreign-aid and inflationary pressures only accentuate the problem for both income groups. Fourth, corruption-control becomes a vital tool for emigration-control in both income-brackets. Fifth, while trade openness mitigates physician emigration in LICs, financial openness has the opposite effect on nurse emigration. In the latter case (when existing immigration levels are high), the following conclusions have been drawn. First, While economic prosperity fights nurse emigration only in LICs, savings is a tool against physician emigration only in their MIC counterparts. Second, health expenditure and inflationary pressures are relevant tools in the battle against physician resource flight. Third, whereas, government effectiveness is an important policy measure for mitigating emigration in LICs, human development plays a similar role in MICs. Fourth, democracy, press-freedom, foreign-aid and financial openness fuel emigration in either income strata. Fifth, population growth and trade openness are important tools in the fight against brain-drain. Sixth, the HIV infection rate is a deterrent only to nurse emigration.\nOriginality/value: This paper complements existing literature by empirically investigating the World Health Organization hypothetical determinants of health-worker migration in the context of globalization when income-levels matter. In plainer terms, the work explores how the wealth of exporting countries play-out in the determinants of HHR emigration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
E-fulfilment and distribution in omni-channel retailing: a systematic literature review
|
[
"Retailing",
"Logistics",
"Systematic literature review",
"Omni-channel",
"E-fulfilment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: E-commerce has shown an impressive growth in the past decade in all the main markets. In 2016, worldwide e-commerce sales reached $1.86 trillion and are expected to grow further over the next years, reaching $3.88 trillion in 2019, at an annual growth rate of above 10 per cent (Statista, 2017). As highlighted by De Koster (2003), companies that sell online to end customers are either product manufacturers, traditional retailers, online retailers with or without physical premises (e.g. Amazon in the former case, eBay in the latter). While direct sales to customers are still relatively insignificant for manufacturers, retailers are increasingly offering products both online and in-store (Agatz et al., 2008; AT Kearney, 2015). Many traditional retailers are adding an online channel to their portfolio and many online retailers are opening brick and mortar stores or are working in partnership with traditional retailers as a means to provide a more complete offer. More than 50 per cent of the leading retailers are now adopting a multiple-channel approach, and their numbers are growing (Hubner et al., 2015).\nMethodology: A systematic literature review (SLR) was selected as the research method for this study because it is particularly suited to our objectives, where the aim is to understand trends and detect existing gaps in the scientific literature (Lagorio et al., 2016). SLRs usually entail \"integrating a number of different works on the same topic, summarising the common elements, contrasting the differences, and extending the work in some fashion\" (Meredith, 1993, p. 8). It is, therefore, a valuable methodology for developing propositions and discussing future research implications (Carter and Rogers, 2008). As highlighted by Lagorio et al. (2016), the SLR method has been already widely used to consolidate emerging topics in other areas, such as the role of logistics in achieving supply chain agility (Gligor and Holcomb, 2012), extending sustainability codes to suppliers (Gimenez and Tachizawa, 2012), and the servitisation of manufacturing (Lightfoot et al., 2013).\nMain issues related to e-fulfilment and distribution in retailing: General overview of analysed papers\nResearch agenda for e-fulfilment and distribution when moving towards OC retailing: Although a growing body of literature is available on logistics for companies moving towards OC retailing, a number of key topics are still under-represented or missing. The purpose of this section is to highlight the main gaps identified in literature and, consequently, propose directions for future research.\nConclusions: Retailing is at an exciting stage. In the recent past, the progressive growth of e-commerce sales and the increased deployment of new technologies have created additional opportunities and challenges for retailers. These dynamics have been making logistics-related activities - e-fulfilment and distribution specifically - more and more critical, engendering a significant number of works on this subject. In line with this premise, the aim of this study was to provide an up-to-date systematic review of the literature on the evolution of e-fulfilment and distribution when moving towards OC retailing. Even though previous reviews dealing with this topic were found in literature, they presented several limitations relating either to the timeframe being considered (lack of recent contributions) or content (lack of an exhaustive description of the logistics issues involved or focus on a particular methodology). This review was specifically developed to overcome the above-mentioned limitations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Given the progressive growth of e-commerce sales and the rising interest in omni-channel (OC) retailing amongst academics and practitioners, the purpose of this paper is to provide an up-to-date literature review on the logistics involved when moving towards OC retailing. Specifically, we have examined the main issues relating to e-fulfilment and distribution, highlighting how the topic has been developed over time, and identifying the most promising research streams for the near future.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review methodology is adopted. The review is based on 58 papers published from 2002 to 2017 in 34 international journals. The papers were analysed and categorised according to their defining characteristics, methodologies adopted and themes addressed.\nFindings: This paper provides an overview of the main issues relating to e-fulfilment and distribution experienced by companies shifting towards OC, mapped along three dimensions: distribution network design, inventory and capacity management, delivery planning and execution. Despite the growing interest in OC retailing, many key topics are still under-represented, including the evolution of retail distribution networks, assortment planning over multiple channels, the logistics role played by stores in the delivery process and the interplay between different logistics aspects.\nOriginality/value: The paper offers insights into the main logistics issues in MC and OC retailing, as well as highlights potential fields for further investigation. From a managerial perspective, this paper is useful for retailers adopting an OC approach to guide their future efforts concerning their business logistics model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Codes of ethics content: UK and Australian corporations
|
[
"Australia",
"United Kingdom",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Content analysis",
"Corporate codes of ethics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the twentieth century, industrialized economies around the world enacted legislation to protect free trade, securities dealings, consumers, suppliers, shareholders and more recently other stakeholders (Hoffman et al., 2003; Wood and Callaghan, 2003; Svensson and Wood, 2008). This legislation was prompted by some major business organizations in the developed world seizing opportunities to profit unethically and, in many cases, illegally. Subsequently, as the powers of large corporations grew and the malfeasance of others was becoming recognized, collectively, they were confronted by greater expectations from the societies in developed nations to behave in an ethical manner (Cleek and Leonard, 1998; Sorensen, 2002; Joyner and Payne, 2002; Lea, 1999; Spiller, 2000; Wood, 1991).\nDefinitions of codes: Corporations need to define and articulate the acceptable behaviours that they wish to inculcate (Singhapakdi and Vitell, 2007). Codes of ethics are a \"distinct, and formal document which consists of moral standards that help guide employee or corporate behaviors\" (Schwartz, 2005, p. 27). These documents vary in length, as does the breadth and extent of the topics covered.\nThe benefits of codes: There have been mixed findings by research studies on the effectiveness of corporate codes of ethics in influencing behaviour. Some studies have found that having a code of ethics does have a positive impact on the ethical behaviour of the employees of the organization (Ferrell and Skinner, 1988; McCabe et al., 1996; Stohs and Brannick, 1999; Adams et al., 2001; Wotruba et al., 2001; Somers, 2001; Bodolica and Spraggon, 2015). Other studies have found this causal relationship not to be conclusively the case (Cleek and Leonard, 1998; Mathews, 1998; McKendall et al., 2002). These findings are in many ways contradictory, yet they suggest that codes may be potentially valuable in corporate decision-making and as a signal to stakeholders of a company's organizational values.\nComparison studies: Langlois and Schlegelmilch (1990) found differences between European and American codes in that while most ethical issues transcend national barriers, there were differences in the issues addressed by American and European (British, French and West German) codes. In particular, they concluded that European companies emphasized employee responsiveness to company activities, while firms in the United States stressed company responsiveness to employee requirements of fairness and equity. Furthermore, the study found differences among the codes of British, French and German companies.\nComparative indicators - Australia and the UK: The economies of both countries are well developed. Australia has a prosperous Western-style capitalist economy, with a per capita GDP on par with the four dominant West European economies. Up until 2014, Australia had continuous economic growth for the previous 20 years based ostensibly on the resource boom in Asia and in particular on the insatiable desire for raw materials in the Peoples Republic of China. The Global Financial Crisis had a limited effect on Australia due to the strength of its banking sector. It needs to be noted that in 2015, the Australian economy was not as robust as in the previous two decades, due largely to a fall in commodity prices that have impacted upon its GDP (CIA, 2015).\nMethod of collection of the codes: The sample size of fifty was chosen based upon the work of Winkler (2011) who surveyed the top thirty companies listed on the DAX Top 30. Winkler's reasoning for using the top thirty companies in Germany is applicable in the context of this study in Australia and the UK. He contended that these blue chip, top thirty companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange were, \"arguably the most visible German enterprises and therefore the most important as perceived by investors, business analysts and the public.\" Winkler (2011, p. 657). Winkler (2011) believed that an analysis of the codes of these companies was appropriate, because they were leaders in the German economy and could therefore be seen as representative of large German companies.\nPresentation of results: Of those companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (2014), 85.1 per cent are Australian based whilst only 54.3 per cent of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange are UK based. The list of the London Stock Exchange top 50 companies is more international in make-up than that of the ASX top 50 listed companies (Table III).\nContent analysis of the codes of ethics: proffering a new instrument of analysis: This study of the content of codes of ethics in both jurisdictions builds upon the work of Cressey and Moore (1983), Mathews (1987), Lefebvre and Singh (1992), Wood (2000), Singh et al. (2005), Singh (2006), Svensson et al. (2009), Singh et al. (2011) and Singh (2015), in which the contents of codes of ethics across the corporate sectors of the USA, Australia, Canada and Sweden were analyzed to assess what items were incorporated into the codes.\nManagerial relevance: In the last thirty years, many major corporations have become notorious for their failure to uphold both legal and ethical standards. It is of no surprise that business ethics continue to be a key concern to the public, regulators and governments. As a result of these issues, most major corporations have adopted a code of ethics, however, to influence employee behavior at all levels, their challenge today is ensuring that such codes are embedded in their business culture. Existing research has shown that within an international arena, codes of ethics take on additional importance and complexity. To be effective, the articulation of these statements of ethical behavior standards must recognize both the national culture in which the corporation is based, and the national cultures in which the organization operates, therefore it is crucial that management understand both differences in national cultures and the influence that these cultures have on ethical standards and employee behavioural responses to them.\nConclusion: The establishment and use of codes of ethics by corporations have become mainstream across the developed world (Erwin, 2011) and, as previously noted, numerous studies have been conducted over the last thirty years in respect to codes of ethics. Studies that have undertaken cross-cultural comparisons of codes of ethics have indicated that national differences in ethical beliefs and values are reflected in the content of codes employed by the corporations that operate within those countries (Arnold et al., 2007). The importance of investigating and noting such differences is essential to understanding and evaluating ethical behaviour in the workplace (Singh et al., 2011; Bodolica and Spraggon, 2015).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to compare the content of the codes of ethics of the top 50 corporations in the UK and Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The code of each of the 50 top companies listed on the London Stock Exchange and the 50 top companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange based on market capitalization was read against an updated version of a previous code content classification system.\nFindings: This research provides valuable insights into the similarities and differences that exist between the expected ethical standards in corporations based in two historically linked and culturally related countries: corporate approaches that are worthy of comment.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper does provide a sound basis for further investigation and cross-country comparisons of corporate codes of ethics.\nPractical implications: The instrument used for classifying code content gives an insight into the top companies operating in the UK and Australia and what they consider important to cover within a code of ethics.\nSocial implications: In light of increasing societal expectations of corporate ethical standards, this research study offers improved understanding of/insight into the development of codes of ethics as a means to guide organizational behaviours/conduct.\nOriginality/value: This study proposes a contemporary instrument for the analysis of codes of ethics that has built upon the work of others over the past 30 years.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Attracting Generation Y graduates: Organisational attributes, likelihood to apply and sex differences
|
[
"Graduates",
"Recruitment",
"Employment",
"Gender",
"Job applications",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Attracting applicants is central to recruiting (Barber, 1998; Rynes, 1991) as firms establish a pool of applicants who are both attractive to the organisation and attracted to the organisation (Wanous, 1992). In the graduate recruitment market, firms invest large amounts of time and money to attract applications from soon-to-be minted university graduates for management trainee, professional and technical positions (Breaugh, 1992; Rynes and Boudreau, 1986). As women are the fastest growing section of the labour force, recruiters are especially interested in attracting female talent.The graduate recruitment process begins with the organisation communicating values and image through publicity and advertising. Potential graduate applicants then evaluate their understanding of the organisation and make a decision to apply or not to apply (Herriot, 1984). As organisations are extremely selective with candidates, they need to attract a large number of applications at an early stage to ensure a diverse applicant pool. For example, if there are insufficient applications from women, the make-up of new joiners to an organisation will inevitably be male-dominated. Significant sex differences in new graduate applicant attraction outcomes have been noted (Connerley et al., 2003), and scholars and practitioners have called for further research.In particular, researchers highlight the need for better understanding of the process and dynamics of recruitment decision making (Breaugh, 1992; Breaugh and Starke, 2000) and factors related to applicant attraction (Connerley et al., 2003; Powell and Goulet, 1996; Rynes, 1991), including analysis by sex (Thomas and Wise, 1999). A growing body of research explores recruiters' perceptions of applicants (Varma et al., 2006), however, we know little about applicant impressions, particularly of different potential employers. Organisational attributes are a key factor in applicant attraction (Rynes, 1991) and an applicant's positive first impression of an organisation increases the likelihood of post-interview attraction (Turban et al., 1998) and offer acceptance (Powell and Goulet, 1996). Following their meta-analysis of 242 US studies of sex differences and similarities in job attribute preferences, Konrad et al. (2000) call for research on intrinsic reasons, internalisation of gender roles and stereotypes and nationally representative samples. The Konrad et al. (2000) meta-analysis also reveals generational differences in job attribute preferences by gender and sex, suggesting the need for research on the next generation to join the labour force and also on extensions to organisation (rather than job) attributes. Furthermore, graduates' initial expectations about future employers influence career expectations (Scholarios et al., 2003) and their socialisation in firms (Garavan and Morley, 1997). As extant research on applicant attraction is criticised for its atheoretical nature, we answer calls for research at various recruitment stages and the development of new models (Turban and Dougherty, 1992; Wanous and Colella, 1989) and theory-based approaches to recruitment (Breaugh and Starke, 2000), sex and gender (Konrad et al., 2000). We incorporate gender self-schema and person-organisation fit perspectives into an analysis of organisational attribute preferences.Our research examines graduate applicants' preferences at the beginning of the recruitment process when many make the initial decision to submit an application. We are interested in which organisational attributes attract Generation Y men and women graduates to apply for a job and the perceived presence of these attributes in three popular UK graduate employers: a management consultancy, an investment bank and a media corporation. Corporate recruiters are keen to attract high numbers of both men and women applicants (Barber, 1998) and to understand potential applicants' desired organisational attributes and their assessment of these attributes in their organisation, and we hope our research will also be interesting to these stakeholders. To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure sex differences in desired organisational attributes and their presence in three organisations and the likelihood to apply. Most extant research explores job, rather than organisation, attributes (Konrad et al., 2000). We extend earlier work by using repertory grid interviews to ask students to identify important organisational attributes. We then evaluate the importance of these attributes in a study of Generation Y final year university undergraduate students in the UK.This paper proceeds as follows. First, we review two complementary theories, gender self-schema and person-organisation fit, and develop hypotheses. Second, the sample and two phase, qualitative (repertory grid interview) and quantitative (internet survey) methodology is laid out, followed by an explanation of the variables. Third, we present our results regarding organisational attributes, perceptions of organisations, and the relationship to likelihood to apply. We specifically examine these findings in the context of one employer, a management consultancy. Finally, we discuss our findings, offering implications for the recruiting practice as well as future research.\nTheoretical background: This paper distinguishes between occupational (e.g. job) choice and organisational choice, focusing on the latter. Two theoretical perspectives are reviewed and extended: gender self-schema and person-organisation fit. Both theories are concerned with an individuals' self-assessment, social categorisation and identification.Gender self-schema\nData and methodology: Data\nResults: Organisational attributes\nDiscussion: We begin by reflecting on the 20 most sought organisation attributes (Table I). Konrad et al.'s (2000) meta-analysis identified 39 commonly-identified job attributes from 242 previous studies. While many attributes are also identified in our sample, we note the absence of students' mention of benefits (e.g. medical, life insurance), job security, physical work environment, solitude, easy commute, geographical location and feedback. This provides some at least anecdotal evidence that, compared with previous generations, Generation Y are looking for slightly different qualities in their employers.We extend earlier research by analysing likelihood to apply to three organisations by women and men undergraduates, and explore the relationship to organisational attractiveness. Our findings corroborate the importance of certain organisational attributes for applicant attraction (Rynes, 1991; Wanous, 1992) and with regard to sex and gender. Organisational attractiveness is operationalised as the product of the importance of organisational attributes and the perceived extent of their presence in a particular organisation. Differences in likelihood to apply to an organisation may be due to sex differences in either of those components. This study finds sex differences exist in both the importance of organisational attributes and the perceived extent of their presence in three organisations that recruit heavily from the graduate market.In line with earlier work on gender self-schema, our results suggest that men place greater importance on a high starting salary. We had expected the male students to identify with this masculine gender role. However, we had also expected men students to identify more with the masculine stereotype for the following three attributes: \"clear opportunities for long-term career progression\" \"opportunity, in the early years, to move around the organisation and work in different roles\" and \"widely regarded as a prestigious employer\". In fact, none of these attributes revealed differences that were significantly more significant for men. This suggests that Generation Y men and women are more similar than different with regards to these traditionally masculine stereotypes.We found that women indicate a greater preference for \"feminine\" organisational attributes. Based on the Konrad et al. (2000) meta-analysis, we suspected women students to more strongly identify with the feminine stereotypes of \"friendly, informal culture\" and \"employ people with whom you feel you will have things in common\" and the feminine gender role \"require you to work standard hours only\". Indeed, all were true and significant. Interestingly, the non-gender typed intrinsic attributes \"variety in your daily work\" and \"use your degree skills\" were also more true and significant for the women in our sample. We did not have any expectations about three other attributes: \"care about their employees as individuals\" \"relatively stress-free working environment\" and \"internationally diverse mix of colleagues\" however all were found to be significantly more important for women. Taken together, our findings suggest organisational attributes explain more of Generation Y women's preferences than those of their male counterparts. It may be that women, even at the career entry stage, adapt behaviours which are more associated with traditionally masculine gender roles and stereotypes.Limitations\nConclusions and implications: This study of graduating university students' perceptions of organisational attributes and reported likelihood of application offers several key contributions for academics and practitioners. First, we add to the emerging body of early applicant impressions of organisations (Cable and Graham, 2000; Gatewood et al., 1993; Highhouse et al., 1999) by identifying the organisational attributes used by UK undergraduates to differentiate among potential employers at the job application stage. Building on gender self-schema, we distinguish sex differences with regard to attributes on two levels: importance of ascribed benefits and the attributes favoured more highly by women can be related to female gender self-schema's emphasis on relationship-based organisational characteristics and career satisfiers. The study finds that men and women respondents held different perceptions of three potential employers. Finally, as expected by person-organisation fit theory, desirability of perceived organisational attributes is linked to likelihood to apply.Taken together, our repertory grid interviews with Generation Y students produce a list of desired organisational attributes which vary from earlier work in the field (Posner, 1981). These findings are not surprising given that most Generation Y students (born 1977-1994) were not even born when Posner's (1981) and other studies of labour force perceptions were published. Our sample's five most preferred attributes are \"invest heavily in the training and development of their employees\" \"care about their employees as individuals\" \"clear opportunities for long-term career progression\" \"variety in daily work\" and \"dynamic, forward-looking approach to their business\". These findings answer Konrad et al. (2000) and others' calls for a focus on intrinsic reasons and extend work by Heslin (2005) who identified the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Prior studies indicate that Generation Y workers, when compared to their generation X and Baby Boomer counterparts, are more adaptable, confident, able to multi-task and technologically savvy (NAS Recruitment, 2006). Generation Y employees plan to move around and want to work faster and harder than their colleagues and want to be \"climbing the corporate ladder by their sixth month on the job\" (NAS Recruitment, 2006, p. 6). The implications of the importance of this generation's preference for organisational attributes cannot be understated as, in the not too distant future, Generation Y will replace retiring Baby Boomers.Implications for recruiting professionals include the need to become familiar with the organisational attributes desired by Generation Y graduates. Following scholarly work on the importance of realistic job presentation (Wanous, 1992; Wanous and Colella, 1989), it is important that recruiters should only advertise those attributes which are true for the organisation. Firms that emphasise unrealistic attributes will quickly be found out by the new graduate recruits who depart for other organisations which they perceive to have these attributes. New recruits who do not sense a strong fit with the organisation are more likely to leave (Chatman, 1991) and the churning of graduate employees constitutes a great cost to the firm in terms of lost time, morale and possibly customer trust and goodwill. Furthermore, it takes time for new employees to become productive, impacting firm performance (Watson Wyatt, 2006).Private UK employers seek applicants from the over 125,000 degree graduates each year. One of the main implications of the study to practice is that a segmented approach is needed if the male and female Generation Y undergraduate population are to be assessed effectively. There is little evidence of sex segmentation activity in the existing recruitment marketplace. Regardless of the popular view that the values of young men and women are increasingly converging and possibly contrary to the professed view of young women themselves, women undergraduates' value, to a greater extent than men, organisational characteristics that reflect gender self-schemas. This presents both a considerable challenge and a great opportunity to organisations wishing to increase their representation of women. Employers may wish to consider gender roles and stereotyping and sex in a broader sense.Our study suggests a number of future research directions. First, while it is critical to study the earliest phases of the graduate recruitment process, our work could be extended to later career stages to examine men and women's perceptions of desirable organisational attributes. Further studies could explore men's and women's changing perceptions of the attributes of their employer and how this influences their likelihood of seeking alternate employment. For example, are women more attached to organisations with their preferred attributes and are men more likely to join another organisation that offers a higher starting salary? Further research of a longitudinal nature could examine how Generation Y graduates' organisational attribute preferences change over time, for example given additional work experience and family responsibilities (Corrigall and Konrad, 2006).Finally, this study focuses on graduates' perceptions of large multinational employers. As an increasing number of Generation Y university students are enrolling in entrepreneurship classes (Katz, 2003), and considering entrepreneurial careers (Mainiero et al., 2007), future research might explore students' perceptions of these possibilities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Building on person-organisation fit and gender self-schema, this research aims to examine UK university final year students' perception of the importance of organisational attributes and their presence in three major graduate employers. This study also seeks to explore which organisational attributes attract Generation Y men and women to apply to a management trainee position.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In phase one, 32 repertory grid interviews identify 84 common constructs in undergraduates' organisational choice. A short list of 20 organisational attributes was carried forward to the phase two survey of 862 undergraduates in their final year at 22 UK universities. The respondents rate the attributes in terms of importance and then evaluate three employers in terms of perceived presence of these attributes. The students also provide the likelihood that they would apply. T-tests, correlation and multiple regression are used to test hypotheses.\nFindings: - Among university students, the five most important organisational attributes are: \"invest heavily in the training and development of their employees\" \"care about their employees as individuals\" \"clear opportunities for long-term career progression\" \"variety in daily work\" and \"dynamic, forward-looking approach to their business\". Sex differences exist in both the importance of organisational attributes and the perceived extent of their presence in three organisations. In describing an ideal employer, women rate eight attributes as more important than do their male counterparts: \"really care about their employees as individuals\" \"variety in your daily work\" \"friendly, informal culture\" \"employ people with whom you feel you will have things in common\" \"use your degree skills\" \"relatively stress-free working environment\" \"internationally diverse mix of colleagues\" \"require you to work standard working hours only\". Compared to women, men rate just one attribute as more important: \"a very high starting salary\". The perception of presence of these important attributes is significantly linked to likelihood to apply.\nPractical implications: - Recruiting firms can better understand how Generation Y men and women graduates perceive the importance of organisational attributes and their presence in firms.\nOriginality/value: - The paper represents a seminal study relating organisational attributes to likely applicant behaviour across a large number of UK university undergraduates.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Interview with Charles Jennings
|
[
"Learning and development",
"Corporate governance",
"Training",
"Strategy",
"Business development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Charles is the director of Duntroon Associates, a leading learning and performance consultancy practice focused on helping organisations build their ability to deliver maximum business benefit from their workforce. He is also a Principal of The Internet Time Alliance, a think-tank of leading learning and business performance practitioners helping organisations exploit emerging practice and informal and social learning to \"work smarter\". From 2001 until the end of 2008 he was the Chief Learning Officer for Reuters and Thomson Reuters.\nWould you be able to tell us a little about your professional background and what led you to become involved with corporate governance?: I was an academic and professor at Southampton Business School and ran the national centre for network-based learning for several years. Even when working as an academic I was managing a lot of projects and running what we call \"near market research\" with large corporations, helping them to integrate new ways of people development using \"smart\" approaches and technology. I guess where I really saw the importance of learning governance was on leaving academia in 1995 to work for Dow Jones Markets - then part of the big American Dow Jones Company. I had previously seen, working both as a consultant and also from my academic experience, that one of the key elements to engendering change and transforming the way in which organizations supported learning was to have a really robust and structured governance process and structure, particularly in times of change - and we are living in times of change all the time now. It still surprises me that around 50 percent of organizations do not have an explicit governance structure and approach for how they support people in the workplace - a crime! What became apparent to me really early on when I first started a big learning transformation at Reuters was that a good governance structure and a set of governance processes were probably the simplest way in which to align strategy right through the organization and make sure that what the learning and development function was doing was aligned with the business requirements and those of the executive level. It seemed to me a \"no-brainer\" really. Everything tumbles out of a good governance structure:*our agreed priorities;*the ability to change priorities to ensure we are responding to changes in the organization; and*the systems, structures, practices and processes to embed in all our undertakings.\nThere are many different models of corporate governance around the world. In your opinion, what is governance?: I often refer to governance as being \"the way we do stuff around here\". It has to be very practical. If you can ensure that everything is coherent and that there is absolute clarity around accountability and responsibility - in other words what needs to get done and where the accountability lies, and who's responsible for the actions - then the learning and development function can operate in an effective and efficient way. For me this is what governance is about. How you structure and how you run learning and development to make it efficient and effective.In the context of learning, governance is therefore understanding and defining the structures, the systems, the practices and the processes that underpin strategy, effectiveness and accountability.\nFrom an La&D perspective, how important is it for learning professionals to be involved in sculpting company strategy and at what level should this take place?: I see two elements here. One is that senior learning leaders need to be involved in company strategy, full stop. This is because company strategy is defined and evolves - the learning leaders have a responsibility for ensuring that the workforce is going to be able to execute that strategy. Unless learning leaders are intimately involved as this strategy is defined and developed, then they will be at arms length and will not have the clarity needed in order to deliver on the demands the organization makes on them. If you look at a balanced score card approach, which lots of organizations use, where they have financial, customer, business and people lines - and the learning and development organisation is put at arms length from organizational strategy - you are essentially saying that the leadership will define the strategy and simply pass down its needs and requirements to L&D. It is the same as not involving the CFO in the financial dimension, and instead we will simply tell the CFO what we need to do. Clearly this never happens! The same is true of the head of customer service, sales or any other senior or critical role in terms of business execution.I think one of the challenges we have to address is that in many organizations learning and development is seen as an arm of HR and often L&D is represented at that level by an HR director. The HR director is representing a lot of things on this people dimension and, I think, cannot really represent the learning side effectively.\nIn many organizations the line between L&D and HR can appear quite blurred. At what point do the roles of L&D and HR professional part ways but also, how do they best work together?: That is a good point. I have always seen HR as being the umbrella organization and within HR you have a set of professional groups. Now, some organizations split L&D so that part of that - maybe the functional development - fits within the line and the responsibility of that line of business. The more strategic elements in terms of defining the strategy, the senior leadership, management and new development in all done in the centre. Some organizations have a hybrid model; other organizations drive it all out of HR. There is certainly a very tight link between the other HR people functions and L&D. However I have seen real challenges particularly where you have an HR business partner model in which the HR business partner sees themselves as the key link, the only link, between the line of business need and HR functions. I think is a real challenge because L&D is a very specialist area. I always argue that to be a good learning professional you need to have a number of core skills: you need to understand adult learning, the business, balance sheets etc, and key stakeholders. You also need to have an understanding of technologies.So my view about that linkage: I think there needs to be a close linkage between the overall people strategy and the L&D strategy in an organization, but I do not think the answer is to have HR generalists or business partners acting as agents for L&D. Where I have seen this work best is where you have HR business partners who, on discovering a problem that has to do with competency, skills and knowledge of employees, bring in their specialists. This a little bit like going to your GP who has a wide spectrum of knowledge on a lot of things and so will identify if there is a particular problem and send you to a specialist. The GP will not intermediate your relationship with the specialist, rather they hand the problem over. HR businesses partners holding L&D people at arms length and not allowing them to work directly with the stakeholder causes all sorts of problems. It slows the process down, it does not allow L&D people to understand the real business problems, it does not allow them to build relationships and almost inevitably leads to a below par solution.\nWhat should L&D professionals bear in mind when defining their own departmental strategies to align with that of the business?: There is a need to understand how the governance fits into the operating model of the business, this is absolutely clear. However with every development strategy I think it comes down to how you organise. Industrialisation led to specialisation, however specialisation without the whole overview lads to chaos. There is no doubt that L&D people need to be specialists as one learning professional can no longer cover all bases. L&D people need core skills, but also specialist skills. I have often been asked in my consultancy work whether it is a good idea to have L&D teams who are just concentrated on designing, developing and delivering formal classroom based learning and others who are concentrating on technology based learning, and then yet another group who will look at how we support people in the workplace. I do not think this works because if you re going to be an effective L&D professional in the twenty-first century you need to have an understanding of where technology fits, and how learning occurs in the workplace, as well as knowing the principles of good formal learning design. Every L&D professional needs to have a good understanding of workplace learning, performance support, and informal learning as well as a whole range of other experiences and skills. You cannot simply stick your head in the sand and say \"well my job is to design, develop and deliver courses!\" Equally you need to have a really good understanding of to the best approaches to identify performance problems with your stakeholders and engage with your stakeholders accordingly. This requires consultancy skills. Without these you cannot understand their business problem or have adult, grown-up conversations. around what the best possible solutions can be brought to bear, and you end up simply order-taking.I think one of the major challenges we have is that people, and often L&D people, see themselves as being able to solve any problem where underperformance is involved - for example if customer service satisfaction levels are down and the feedback tells us \"our experiences with your customer-facing people are not good\" there is often a knee-jerk reaction - \"we need to train our people\". There has been a lot of research carried out that shows about 80% of underperformance has nothing whatsoever to do with lack of knowledge or skill, rather it is due to motivation or inadequate processes. Formal training, or any type of training will have little, if any, impact on these. Solutions to these problems often lie with leadership and management actions. L&D professionals need to understand this fact. This is why I do not like the training needs analysis approach as this assumes that training is the answer - when we know that in 80 percent of cases training is not the answer. For me, performance analysis is the key and this is where the consulting skills come in.\nHow would an L&D professional go about quantifying the business contribution of training to an organization's board?: I get asked this on an almost daily basis! I think that you need to take a step back and take a broader view of evaluation and measurement. For me the answer is this: the only valid evaluation is determining the impact of learning on outputs in terms of performance and productivity in the wider sense (such as increasing customer satisfaction, reducing first-time error rate, increasing employee engagement etc.) Measuring learning in terms of assessments may have some use but is not what I would call strategic value-adding. The next question is how do you quantify L&D's contribution to those outputs. IBM and the ASTD did a very interesting study back in 2005 where they interviewed a large number of C-level managers and chief learning officers. What came out of this study really clearly was that senior managers are actually not obsessed by data. They want to understand what L&D is doing and need to gain the impression that L&D is contributing and pulling the same direction as their managers and adding to their efforts. But they are not going to be convinced by masses of L&D-generated data if they do not feel \"in their gut\" that a strategic contribution has been made. What the study found was that a lot of L&D departments spend a huge amount of time almost trying to justify their existence with overly-complex ROI and measurement approaches.If I am advising organizations I always say that the key ways in which you can ensure that L&D value is being recognized and that you are getting a reasonably accurate view of your value is to build solid relationships with managers in order to have open and honest discussions about your contribution to the overall outputs. Once you do this you will find that managers are actually very open to saying \"well this has been a success, our customer satisfaction levels have gone up 4 percent and we acknowledge that what the L&D department did with our people contributed to that success\". Trying to measure actual percentages and details can, I think, often end up and be seen as L&D leaders trying to justify their existence. To paraphrase the outcome of the IBM study - if your senior leaders and managers think you are doing a good job then you are doing a good a good job. If they think you are not doing a good job then you are not doing a good job. Relationships are key.It is a bit like train travel. Train companies can tell us that they are providing a fantastic service and can show us all the data to back this. Frankly, they can do whatever they like. If, as a passenger, my fellow passengers and I think we are getting a rubbish service, we are getting a rubbish service. No amount of data will convince us otherwise if this conflicts with our experience!\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to provide an interview with Charles Jennings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The interview is conducted by an independent interviewer.\nFindings: - Charles Jennings is the director of Duntroon Associates, a leading learning and performance consultancy practice focused on helping organizations build their ability to deliver maximum business benefit from their workforce. He is also a principal of The Internet Time Alliance, a think-tank of leading learning and business performance practitioners helping organizations exploit emerging practice and informal and social learning to \"work smarter\". From 2001 until the end of 2008 he was the chief learning officer for Reuters and Thomson Reuters.\nPractical implications: - Charles Jennings explores the concept of governance in learning and development and how learning and development professionals need to become involved with business strategy.\nOriginality/value: - The paper reveals that learning and development professionals need to develop core consultancy skills in order to communicate and deal effectively with key stakeholders and thus help define company strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managing the exploration-exploitation paradox in healthcare: Three complementary paths to leverage on the digital transformation
|
[
"Ambidexterity",
"Digital technologies",
"Efficiency frontier",
"Healthcare"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Healthcare organisations are currently trying to reconfigure and innovate their processes to achieve and maintain a continuous balance between quality improvement and cost rationalisation (Porter and Lee, 2013; McCullogh and Snir, 2010; Borzekowski, 2009; Djellal and Gallouj, 2007). Underlying this twofold aim, tensions emerge being produced by exploratory and exploitatory behaviours (Lavie et al., 2010), acting as opposing attractors whose effective balance can only be reached by deploying concrete and persistent efforts. On this point, recent ambidexterity research (e.g. D'Souza et al., 2017; Benner and Tushman, 2015; Birkinshaw and Gupta, 2013) suggests exploring the processes through which organisations cope with these tensions over time either reconfiguring their activities within an exploration-exploitation space limited by an efficiency frontier (EF), or pushing it out to achieve higher performance. However, such tensions seem to be highly context dependent and this may require approaching ambidexterity from a relative perspective (D'Souza et al., 2017).\nTheoretical background: Exploration and exploitation represent overarching demands, spurring nested tensions throughout the organisation (Andriopoulos and Lewis, 2009). Paradox thinking assumes these tensions can be beneficial if adequately harnessed (Andriopoulos and Lewis, 2009). This is because the juxtaposition of coexisting opposites intensifies experiences of tension, challenging actors' cognitive limits, demanding creative sense-making, seeking more sustainable management strategies (Benner and Tushman, 2015).\nMethodology: Research perspective\nResults: Path A: assets digitisation\nCharacterisation of the three emerging paths: In this paragraph, we carry out a full IPO characterisation of the three emerging paths (Table IV).\nDiscussion: In this paper, we focused on how solving the exploration-exploitation paradox in hospitals. Through an in-depth investigation, we disentangled inputs, processes, and outcomes of implementing digital transformation programs, their temporal attainment and configurations. Four contributions to the literature on the exploration-exploitation paradox emerge alongside specific propositions.\nLimitations and future research: This paper does not come without limitations. The first one concerns generalisability. The focus on a specific lever (digital) and on a specific industry (healthcare), combined with the extensive use of interpretative studies, risks producing very idiosyncratic phenomena. As a further development, we could combine the interpretative methodology with a more quantitative-oriented set of vertical research that could formally test the effectiveness of proposed contributions in all their details in specific subfields. Furthermore, scholars could mix the findings of this research with a bibliometric or patent analysis, and contrast the sequence of digital technologies described by our model with the dynamics in the domain of digital technologies in healthcare that emerge through the study of publications or patents (Ardito et al., 2017). The second limitation is related to the operationalisation of the constructs. Successful management of the exploration-exploitation paradox requires multidimensional concepts. The empirical analysis showed it is not straightforward to separate these forces completely. Future studies could rely on variables that precisely measure: the level of exploration and exploitation accomplished within and among hospitals; the performance achieved through their balance; and the impact that digital technologies play in the achievement of the EF.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how digital technologies can help healthcare organisations and improve the exploration-exploitation paradox over time. The authors explore inputs, processes and outcomes of implementing digital transformation programs and advance four testable propositions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted multiple case studies with embedded units of analysis: digital transformation processes; hospitals; and regional healthcare systems. Primary sources come from 107 semi-structured interviews with key informants within 14 Italian hospitals between 2009 through 2011.\nFindings: Three complementary paths emerge as fundamental to balance exploratory and exploitatory efforts in healthcare: assets digitalisation within hospitals; digitally based process integration; and disruptive decision-making through analytics. Intra- and inter-path characteristics are discussed to show how digital transformation can both move hospital within the exploration-exploitation space.\nResearch limitations/implications: By its very nature, this study is exploratory. Notwithstanding the number of cases and interviews, its generalisability is limited.\nPractical implications: Digital transformation programs are fundamental to resolve the tensions raised by the exploration-exploitation paradox. Their implementation leads to better performance (cost reductions, quality improvements). A framework is provided for practitioners to make better decisions.\nOriginality/value: This study sheds new light on how digital technologies are actually adopted and adapted in healthcare contexts. It does it by entailing a longitudinal perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer groups as grassroots social innovation niches
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Sustainable consumption",
"Consumer groups",
"Grassroots social innovation",
"Sustainability niches"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The food system has been increasingly acknowledged to be one of the main challenges for moving societies towards sustainable development: the type of food eaten and how it is produced have a significant impact on the environment and on society. Consequently, food sustainability challenges the socio-economic context, the production systems and the consumption dimension (Sage, 2015).\nUnderstanding grassroots social innovation niches: The academic field of innovation, which developed initially from technology, has been addressed by many different disciplines and from various perspectives (Dawson and Daniel, 2010). One of the most promising fields of application has been \"social innovation\" (for an overview of the nature of social innovation see Nicholls and Murdock, 2012; Mulgan, 2012). Indeed, in recent years, there has been growing recognition of the need for innovations that contribute towards sustainability and societal well-being (Dawson and Daniel, 2010).\nResearch context and data collection: As defined by Brunori, Rossi and Malandrin (2011, p. 31), GAS are \"groups of consumers who purchase collectively through a direct relationship with producers, according to shared ethical principles (the 'solidarity' concept)\". The first GAS was established in 1994 and over the last decade this practice has become widespread throughout Italy, even though there is a greater concentration in the northern regions of the country. According to data available from retegas.org (the national network that connects and informs those GAS wishing to register with the website), the number of GAS in Italy has risen from 153 in 2004, to 394 in 2008, 518 in 2009, to the current number of 867 (retegas.org, last accessed 17 October 2017).\nSolidarity purchasing groups as grassroots innovative niches: main findings and discussion: Regime crises or landscape pressures are often a precursor for the formation and development of niches (Olsson and Galaz, 2012). For this reason, the presentation of data on GAS will start from precisely this point. Then, the data will be presented and discussed following the main features highlighted in the literature and research on grassroots social innovation.\nConclusions: Previous research emphasised the potential of using the concept of grassroots social innovations, as a form of niche, \"to understand the ability of local food networks to develop the capacity of communities to respond to locally identified problems and to effect more widespread, sustainable change\" (Kirwan et al., 2013, p. 830). Nevertheless, further studies were required to uncover how niches function and how, \"in practice\", they could influence the regime (Seyfang and Longhurst, 2016; Moulaert et al., 2017; Hossain, 2016).\nLimitations and further paths for research: Although representing a quite unique study due to the very high number of respondents our research has several limitations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to draw on the theoretical framework based on grassroots social innovation niches to analyse how and to what extent participation in consumer groups helps to foster food-related sustainability changes (both at individual, niche and potentially regime levels).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data have been collected via two online questionnaires: 204 consumer groups (named GAS, from the acronym of Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale) and 1,658 families belonging to the same groups participated in the research.\nFindings: The findings reveal that participation in GAS not only makes individuals more responsible towards their consumption choices and lifestyles, but also makes consumers more willing to collaborate with others, more interested in politics (especially local politics) and increases their sense of social effectiveness.\nSocial implications: The paper shows how collective consumption can represent a way to increase and foster sustainable behaviours, with the potential to modify socio-economic regimes. Interesting implications are advanced on the relationship between consumers and mainly local and small-scale food producers and on local public governments' policies.\nOriginality/value: Due to the very high number of respondents, this research represents a unique opportunity to observe a phenomenon which is difficult to study with surveys and questionnaires because of its informal nature. Understanding the mechanisms and processes that give rise and sustain such forms of collective action is highly relevant for finding ways to promote grassroots initiatives and community actions, which are an often neglected area of system-changing innovation towards sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Battling the bulge: menu board calorie legislation and its potential impact on meal repurchase intentions
|
[
"Nutrition",
"Labelling",
"Consumer behaviour",
"United States of America",
"Obesity",
"Restaurants"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The issue of obesity has recently received a great deal of attention from academics, policy makers, and the popular press alike. Diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke are on the rise (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009), and obesity is now considered among the leading causes of preventable death. Along with inactivity and increasing sedentary lifestyles, out-of-home food consumption is often suggested as one of the primary antecedents to these rising trends of overweight and obese consumers (e.g. Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2009).Over the last 30 years, the average American's total yearly expenditures on food purchases outside the home has risen 20 percent, and now accounts for nearly half of all yearly food costs (Lin et al., 1999). Consumers currently spend more than $500 billion annually on quick-service and table-service restaurant purchases (National Restaurant Association, 2009), and this increase in away-from-home food consumption has raised questions regarding the healthfulness of food prepared outside the home. While this trend of increased consumption has been financially beneficial for the restaurant and related industries, concerns have been raised with regard to consumer awareness of the foods that are being consumed. Particularly, the quick-service industry has been under fire in recent years following Morgan Spurlock's Academy Award nominated documentary \"Super Size Me\" in 2004, which chronicled the negative effects occurring to Spurlock's body as he adopted a diet consisting strictly of fast foods high in calories and nutrients related to disease risk (e.g. saturated fat, sodium) and that are offered in overly large portions. Following the rising trends of obesity, preventable diseases, and away-from-home food consumption, considerable national attention has been placed on the relationship between fast food, other out-of-home consumption, and diet-related health problems.The focus on these issues has led state legislators to increase their attempts to mitigate some of the recent health developments (Sorrel, 2009; Kirk, 2009; Drake, 2008). Specifically, a flurry of proposed legislation is spreading across the country that is designed to better inform and encourage consumers to be cognizant of the calories they consume when dining at a quick service or other chain-restaurant establishment. The city of New York now requires all chain establishments with 15 or more locations nationally to display menu item calorie information on menus or menu boards (Sorrel, 2009). Seattle has implemented similar legislation for chains of ten or more national restaurants (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2009). Going a step further, the state of California has followed this initiative by passing bills that require menu information for all chains with 20 or more national locations, as well as requiring vending machine operators to increase the number of healthy offerings to at least 35 percent in all machines on state property (Drake, 2008). And most recently, the state of Massachusetts has passed legislation to require chains of 20 or more to display calorie information on menus and menu boards as well (Kirk, 2009). In addition to these state initiatives, there is proposed legislation in Congress that would pre-empt local and state laws that is receiving support from both the National Restaurant Association and many members of the public health community (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2009). Given support for this federal legislation from firms like McDonald's, Burger King, and others that in recent years have been opposed to calorie disclosures, it now appears more likely that a national labeling program is on the horizon. In general, it is clear that many policy makers feel that consumers are uninformed with regard to the nutritional value of their restaurant meal options, and that many will begin to make healthier selections if caloric content is disclosed.Thus, the purpose of this research is to address how well informed consumers are about the nutrition contents of typical quick service food options they choose and to examine whether item calorie posting on menu boards may be helpful for the average consumer. Our second study also addresses the role of consumers' motivation to process nutrition information when disclosures are provided and to examine the degree to which this information provision will influence consumer repurchase intentions of previously chosen meals, relative to other attributes such as meal taste.\nStudy 1: Background and predictions\nStudy 2: Background and predictions\nImplications and conclusions: Local and state mandates that require menu labeling have been passed in New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and the states of Massachusetts and California. While legislation has also been introduced in some twenty additional local markets, proposed federal legislation would potentially preempt local and state laws and is now supported by both the National Restaurant Association and many members of the public health community. Given the differing groups supporting this legislation, a national labeling program may be forthcoming.Study 1 confirmed findings from other studies that meal calorie levels may be underestimated by more than 20 percent and showed that the underestimation of sodium is far higher. Excessive sodium consumption may lead to increased blood pressure and the ailments associated with this condition (e.g. heart attack, kidney failure, and stroke). While the currently proposed legislation initiatives focus primarily on caloric intake, over consumption of sodium appears to be an issue that warrants further examination in future research. As generalized by plots in Figure 1, as caloric, fat, and sodium levels increase, the absolute level of underestimation for meals also increases. In study 2, we found that exposure to objective calorie and nutrient information for foods perceived as less healthy has a negative effect on reported repurchase intentions. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the influence of perceived healthfulness on reported repurchase intentions, relative to perceived taste, is strengthened by the nutrition information disclosure. Compared to when respondents were not aware of the nutrition profile of the meals, the repurchase intentions of respondents after becoming aware of the nutrition information are reduced. Thus, after gaining awareness of the nutrition profile, consumers' repurchase intentions appeared to be more substantially impacted by the healthfulness of the meal. In addition, respondents' motivation to process nutrition information had a significant role that was associated with repurchase intentions. Specifically, nutritional motivation was associated with lower repurchase intentions and higher motivation increased the strength of the positive effect of perceived healthfulness.Given these findings for the impact of the nutrition disclosure and effect of healthfulness of the meal, it is likely that restaurant managers will consider expanding their offerings of healthy meal alternatives as legislation begins to require an environment in which calories or nutrition information is provided. Clearly, some restaurants are already taking steps in this direction. For example, KFC, which has announced its plans to provide nutrition information for its quick service restaurants by January 2011, recently introduced its Kentucky Grilled (unfried) Chicken. These grilled options offer an improved caloric and nutrition profile compared to their fried offerings. Other examples include Burger King's apple fries, Taco Bell's Fresco menu, Subway's 7 subs with under six grams of fat, and McDonald's 260-calorie chicken snack wrap. Additionally, restaurant management may consider adding more healthful items to existing meals (e.g. salads and vegetables with lower calorie dressings or sauces) or decreasing portion sizes of the less healthy items, so that meal sizes remain at a reasonable level but still reducing total meal calorie levels. While any long-term expectations would be premature at this point, generally speaking, healthier menu options would be beneficial to consumer welfare.Note, however, that results in Study 2 demonstrate the importance of perceived taste to the meal repurchase intentions of these consumers. The strength of the effect of taste perceptions on intentions dominates the effect of healthfulness of the meals. This is consistent with prior research that indicates the importance of taste, and suggests that it will continue to be a critical attribute overall and far more important than food healthfulness for many segments of consumers (e.g. Glanz et al., 1998). While the motivated, health conscious segment of consumers may be willing to make some trade-offs between taste and nutrition level, the interaction of motivation and taste is non-significant, suggesting that taste remains quite important even for these nutritionally motivated consumers. Therefore, it is likely that the menu calorie disclosures will not be sufficient alone to entice consumers to make healthier choices; the items must also be perceived as tasty options.Additional concern for the effectiveness of nutrition disclosures is found in a recent study by Wilcox et al. (2009). The authors have demonstrated that the mere presence of a healthy alternative in the midst of an array of unhealthy options may actually lead consumers to choosing unhealthy items. This phenomenon is referred to as \"vicarious goal fulfillment\" by the authors and has been demonstrated to be most prevalent among consumers demonstrating high self-control. The mere presence of a healthy item satisfies the need of consumers desiring the ability to choose a healthy option, but those same consumers are highly likely to indulge in the most decadent item available. This effect occurs because once a need for healthy items is met, the perceived similarity between the available options increases greatly; and the consumer is then likely to attend to the most indulgent item available. Therefore, restaurants that do offer these healthier alternatives may be simultaneously driving up customer satisfaction and increasing the sales of the unhealthiest alternatives (Wilcox et al., 2009).The addition of these new caloric disclosure requirements by many city and state governments is opening up new segmentation opportunities to restaurant managers. The expansion of concepts such as \"light\" menus or snack options targeted toward the highly nutrition motivated and health conscious consumers could expand upon or open up new markets. Calorie disclosures should permit health conscious segments to become better equipped to mix and match items to satisfy their dietary needs, but existing research suggests that it will not be that easy to encourage consumers to actually buy the healthier alternatives. Our current research suggests that the inclusion of caloric and other nutrition information significantly impacts consumer evaluations and repurchase intentions of away from home foods, especially those consumers that are highly nutrition motivated. This is consistent with the findings of Fishbach and Zhang (2008), which demonstrated that when healthy and unhealthy foods are presented together, consumers have a delayed preference for the healthier item. However, we are only examining purchase intentions rather than actual consumer decisions. Based on the findings of Wilcox et al. (2009), it is possible that consumers believe that \"if I eat a salad on my next visit, I can have fries today,\", and findings from Burton et al. (2009) demonstrated that consumers will adjust their subsequent food consumption when informed of the nutrition content of foods eaten previously that day. While these findings are not conclusive, evidence suggests that there is potential for consumers to adjust subsequent purchase decisions and make healthier decisions when given full information disclosure. More research will be needed in the future to study the longitudinal effects of nutrition information provision and the creation of healthier menu options, but currently it is important to note that initial exposures will still often lead to purchases of the less healthy items whether it is due to taste (Raghunathan et al., 2006) or due to vicarious goal fulfillment (Wilcox et al., 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - There are initiatives proposed in a number of states that would mandate calorie information disclosures from restaurant chains on their menus and menu boards. Such labeling laws have already been passed in New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and the states of Massachusetts and California. This paper aims to analyze whether nutrition disclosures are necessary for the average consumer to identify meal calorific content, to address consumer motivation to attend to nutrition labels, and to assess whether such labeling efforts may influence consumers' subsequent behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To address issues related to nutrition labeling of chain restaurants, a food court field study and a longitudinal quasi-experiment were conducted.\nFindings: - The results indicate that as meal calorie, fat, and sodium levels increase, the level of consumers' underestimation of calories and nutrients increases. Consumers generally need the help of nutrition labeling to identify the content of menu items. Furthermore, there is an effect of perceived item healthfulness on repurchase intentions, and this effect is strengthened by disclosure of nutrition information. However, even after nutrition disclosure, the strength of the effect of taste perceptions on repurchase intentions dominates the effect of meal healthfulness.\nOriginality/value: - This paper identifies that consumers do not have adequate nutrition knowledge when it comes to foods consumed outside the home. Relative comparisons among alternatives may be made, but consumers do not understand the absolute nutritional value of foods consumed. The authors identify that nutritional labeling does influence healthier consumer decisions. However, the key variable is consumer motivation. Only for the most nutritionally motivated consumers will this influence of healthfulness withstand the influence of taste.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effects of scenario planning on participant reports of resilience
|
[
"Scenarios",
"Intervention",
"Resilience",
"Planning",
"Scenario planning",
"Quasi-experiment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Scenario planning seeks to develop in individuals, teams and organizations the ability to flexibly and adeptly manage the uncertainty of the future (Wack, 1984; Schwartz, 1991; Chermack, 2011). The study of resilience looks to understand how people - and consequently their teams and organizations - are able to endure stressful situations and succeed despite unforeseen challenges (Luthans et al., 2006; Davydov et al., 2010; Burnard and Bhamra, 2011; Dean, 2012; Fitzpatrick, 2013; Garcia-Dia et al., 2013). It would appear a natural connection exists between these two fields.\nSituating the study in HRD: Chermack and Swanson (2008) clearly positioned scenario planning as Human Resource Development's (HRD's) strategic learning tool. Because scenario planning is primarily focused on a learning basis for thinking about the future (rather than strictly a financial or budgetary approach), it seems apparent that HRD professionals are well suited to champion scenario planning (Wack, 1984). In other words, the focus of scenario planning is to alter mental models of participants in terms of helping them see the possibilities the future might hold and reveal assumptions that sometimes get \"locked in\" to planning and decision making (Chermack, 2017; Wack, 1984, 1985a, 1985b). The core mechanism that enables the \"unlocking\" of these deeply held assumptions is based in learning (Burt et al., 2016). Participants have to learn something that challenges previous ways of thinking (Wack, 1984). Further, while HRD researchers have not specifically focused on resilience to date, the ability to remain focused in turbulent times, and overcome adversity are logical potential components to the development aspect of HRD as a discipline (Swanson and Holton, 2009). These characteristics align directly with previous work led by HRD scholars in the realm of crisis management (Wang et al., 2009). Thus, this study blends two increasingly relevant aspects of HRD research that could be brought to the forefront of the disciplines' focus and suggests further opportunities for research.\nSignificance of the research: Scenario planning and resilience are increasingly well-studied phenomena (Gallopin, 2002; Chermack et al., 2007; Chermack and Nimon, 2008; Glick et al., 2012; Haeffner et al., 2012; Veliquette et al., 2012; Luthans et al., 2007; Scheier and Carver, 1985). Given the evidence available, it would seem both are also particularly well situated in the movement to study positive outliers in organizations. Efforts to understand the full dimensions of resilience are driving contributions in research on high performance in organizations (Shirey et al., 2008). In addition, a significant opportunity exists to develop a deeper understanding of interventions that have the potential to build resilience. So far, little progress has been made in the study of interventions that might promote resilient behavior (Luthans et al., 2008). Though the construct of resilience is increasingly understood, tools for building and promoting resilience remain vague. It would be valuable to examine an intervention that may promote resilience even if it has never been studied from that perspective. We propose scenario planning is such an intervention. This project contributes to the literature by investigating the ways in which scenario planning may build and develop perceptions of resilience.\nResearch purpose and questions: The concept of resilience and the process of scenario planning are not completely foreign to each other. In the field of environmental planning, it is not uncommon to see scenario-type strategizing included in discussions of building environmental or species resilience (Allen et al., 2011; Dean, 2012; Garcia-Dia et al., 2013). Further, from neuroscience to organizational behavior studies, some of the aspects of scenario-style thinking and reflection are cited as promoters of resilient behavior (Dean, 2012; Wu et al., 2013; Svendesen et al., 2014; Paterson et al., 2014). In the field of nursing, in which workers experience often extreme forms of on-the-job stress, scenario thinking activities such as contemplative reflection about specific cases and what does or does not work for handling the stress have been noted to promote resilience - including stronger coping ability and less burnout (Dean, 2012). However, none of the literature has yet provided a clear investigation into how scenario planning may impact individual resilience. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of scenario planning on participant self-resilience. The following research questions addressed this issue:\nTheoretical framework: The framework for this study draws from the two fields of scenario planning and resilience. These bodies of research have been initially connected in a few areas - notably environmental planning and nursing - but the possibility that the intervention of scenario planning might contribute to individual perceptions of resilience has not been fully examined. Still, the connection between these areas seems almost immediately apparent. The key domains scenario planning impacts:\nMethod: This section describes the research participants, sampling approach, instrument, research design, data collection and data analysis.\nResults: This section presents the results from the data analysis, which included basic descriptive statistics, tests to show the data meet standard assumptions (Zientek et al., 2016), hierarchical liner modeling (HLM), score reliability and validity assessment and finally the t-tests comparing scores from treatment and control groups with effect sizes.\nDiscussion: For this study, we sought to evaluate the potential connection between scenario planning and perceptions of self-resilience among participants. Resilience literature suggests that a stronger sense of self-resilience enables individuals to weather stressors of the work environment more effectively (Luthans et al., 2006, 2008, 2005, 2008; Youssef and Luthans, 2007). Where resilience has been studied, typically the focal point is existing resilience - that sense which is already developed within the individual or team being studied. Our work seeks to investigate the value of scenario planning as a resilience-building tool, a means of developing perceived self-resilience in participants.\nLimitations and recommendations for future research: Sample size is one potential limitation of this study. However, the results, especially when compared against the control group, suggest the significance warrants further work in this area. The sample size is adequate to meet the power requirements for a t-test. Still, a larger sample size is desirable and would increase the generalizability of the results and the confidence with which they may be communicated. Regardless of sample size, there are three important limitations that must be recognized in considering the results of this research. They are:\nConclusions: There is exciting potential for mutual benefit between the fields of scenario planning and resilience studies as potential HRD domains of research. Early work in both areas shows a strong connection, and the prospect of having a developmental tool such as scenario planning to build resilience in team members promises returns on organizational performance. Moreover, the possibility for enhancing individuals' experiences in their work environment provides a solid basis for further exploration of the union between these two topics. This article has continued to position scenario planning as an important tool for HRD scholars and practitioners, and has suggested resilience as an additional domain of study that aligns with HRD values. Finally, this study has provided another example of intervention research in HRD and related disciplines.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of scenario planning on participant ratings of resilience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design is a quasi experimental pretest/posttest with treatment and control groups. Random selection or assignment was not achieved.\nFindings: Results show a significant difference in reports of resilience for the scenario planning treatment group and no significant difference for the control group.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations include the use of self-report perception measures, possible social desirability of responses and a lack of random selection and assignment.\nPractical implications: Practical implications imply that scenario planning can be viewed as a legitimate tool for increasing resilience in organizations.\nSocial implications: Organizations with an ability to adjust quickly and recover from difficult conditions means reduced layoffs and healthy economic growth.\nOriginality/value: While there is increasing research on scenario planning, to date, none has examined the effects of scenarios on resilience.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Are international small business owners really that different?
|
[
"Gender",
"Personality",
"Small business",
"SME internationalization",
"International entrepreneurship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Individuals, such as founders, play a greater role in small businesses' growth pathways than in more established, larger firms. Key to better understanding if and why small businesses internationalize is thus unpacking the personal drivers of key decision makers' behaviors and intentions. This study aims to identify those personality traits which may serve as micro-foundations for several typically researched small business-level actions, namely, small business establishment and small business expansion, particularly through internationalization (Contractor et al., 2019; Foss and Lindenberg, 2013; Foss and Pedersen, 2016; Gavetti, 2012). Such entrepreneurial endeavors are positioned within the broader choice sets around both career path and internationalization at the level of the individual businesswoman.\nLiterature review and question framing: While the IB and entrepreneurship literatures are well-developed, the experiences of female small business owners as they internationalize remain a nascent area of research (Adler, 2004; Bullough et al., 2017; Henry et al., 2015; Kobeissi, 2010). Holmquist and Carter (2009, p. 122) argue that female entrepreneurship is the \"area with the largest discrepancy among perceived research importance (in terms of number and extent of projects, researchers and publications on the subject) and social and economic importance (in terms of numbers and extent of the phenomenon).\" Studies of women's internationalization or entrepreneurial ventures are often critiqued for treating women as an idiosyncratic and miscellaneously categorized variable (Adler, 2004; DeCarlo and Lyons, 1979; Jennings and Brush, 2013), as opposed to a population with their own varied experiences. As discussed below, the specific decision to study solely businesswomen for this paper is grounded in a desire to treat gender as a given condition, with the business ownership dimension the primary focus.\nMethod and data: For this exploratory study an online survey was developed focusing specifically on Australian females currently engaged or interested in engaging in global business. The items from the questionnaire used specifically here include: the role of the individual (i.e. the owner/employee delineation); personality and capability measures; perceptions of barriers to internationalization; and information on the extent of internationalization.\nFindings: Do business owners have different personality traits and capability assessments to decision-making employees?\nDiscussion: This study sets out to investigate several fundamental, potentially micro-foundational, relationships between the founders of small businesses and the actions of their firms, particularly the choice to expand internationally. Put simply, the underlying question is: are international small business owners really that different? Is there something distinctive in the personality traits or perceptions of one's capabilities that might explain the choice to start a small business (that survives) and/or the subsequent move into the international arena?\nConclusion: For ambitious small business owners, especially from smaller economies such as Australia, expansion beyond the domestic market may be the path to higher, sustained growth levels (Hermans et al., 2015). The decision to internationalize a small business (the typical domain of entrepreneurs) is strongly influenced by the perceptions, attitudes and intentions of the business' owners due to the great amount of control they exert in relation to the behavior and performance of their firms (Chetty and Campbell-Hunt, 2003b). This study of Australian businesswomen set out to investigate if small business owners are particularly distinct in terms of their personalities and self-perceptions, and whether any such differences might explain the choice to internationalize their businesses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of individual traits and attributes on the entrepreneurial and internationalization actions of Australian businesswomen, many of whom run small businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is exploratory and quantitative, based on a questionnaire survey of 323 Australian businesswomen. Drawing upon the extant literature on internationalization, gender and entrepreneurship, the study explores two micro-foundational relationships of interest - personality and capability assessment differences between female business owners and their employed counterparts, and the impact of such traits and assessments on their internationalization. A further question is explored in terms of any differentials in perceptions of barriers in internationalization.\nFindings: The findings show key personality dimensions do not differ dramatically between Australian businesswomen working in their own businesses (i.e. entrepreneurs) or as employees in organizations, while there are surprisingly few differences between women who are engaged internationally and those yet to do so. When comparing the female entrepreneurs and employees, in particular, the findings around tolerance for ambiguity and management efficacy are notably counterintuitive. This leads to the development of testable propositions to refine the causal claims in this domain.\nPractical implications: The study calls into question the distinctiveness of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial endeavors, at least for female businesswomen.\nOriginality/value: By including entrepreneurs and employees, women who have engaged internationally and those that are yet to do so, the study avoids some of the potential self-selection and confirmation biases inherent in studies of only entrepreneurs or small business owners. The investigation of individual traits, attributes and experiences as micro-foundations for internationalization motivations challenges existing theories of small business expansion.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Identification of best reverse value chain alternatives: A study of Romanian used clothing industry
|
[
"AHP",
"Reuse",
"Multi-criteria decision",
"Closed-loop decision",
"Clothing value chain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A value chain in which forward and reverse logistics are integrated is called closed-loop value chain (Paksoy et al., 2011). The closed-loop value chain is a concept that aims to maximize the utility of a product, before and after the end of life. Its main components are direct reuse, repair, and recycling (upcycling and downcycling). Products are moved to incineration or land-filling, if not found suitable for direct reuse, repair or recycle. Several efforts have been made to bring back the discarded product in the utility cycle to exploit its unused value (Jayaraman and Luo, 2007). Morley et al. (2009) had defined direct reuse as the use of the product based on its original product function (e.g. clothing reused as apparel to cover the body). Whereas during the upcycling process, the value/quality of the product is improved by converting it into superior products, during downcycling, an inferior product is made or the product is broken down into raw material. The concept of reverse value chain optimization or cost minimization can be used to maximize the recovery. Efficient recovery could be possible with these techniques in a complex environment (Yang et al., 2013). Direct reuse, upcycling and downcycling are economical and environment-friendly processes as compared to land-filling, as the entry of virgin material into the consumption cycle is sufficiently controlled by these processes (Ji, 2010).\n2. Literature review: Discarded and unwanted clothes can be converted into fashionable products. Various processes like shape modification and printing could increase the value and use of particular clothes (Braungart, 2006). The future use of material highly depends on the material or fabric composition. Durable material is suitable for direct use or upcycling. Woollen or acrylic or other mono colour materials are suitable for downcycling. All other low qualities, multicolour and multi-fibres materials are incinerated (Subie et al., 2009). A textile-based material cannot be used for all purposes; therefore, material needs to be grouped on the basis of composition, colour, types, etc., for different uses (Keith and Silies, 2015). The homogeneous material should be stitched together; however, polyester and cotton should be used separately in a garment for the ease of disassembly (Xiaohua, 2010). The reverse value chain of a clothing product depends on the type of material extraction. The material should be designed for utilization such as recycling, redesign, etc. The quality of the material is the foremost important aspects for future use (Subie et al., 2009). The raw material can be categorized into biological or natural and technical or synthetic. Biological material can be broken down into compost and can enter into biosphere safely, whereas technical material is designed for optimum use in the circular supply chain (Dervojeda et al., 2014).\n3. Method: A mixed approach comprising qualitative and quantitative technique has been adopted to study import, distribution and sales of used clothes. The study was administered in two phases in line with research objective and RQ1 posed. In the first phase, the exploratory method is followed, which involved identification of the organization involved in the used clothes business, followed by in-depth interviews and on-site observations. The exploratory inquiry of a subject is suitable for the qualitative study (Creswell, 2007) for building the theory about used clothing import, distribution and sales (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). In the second stage, the questionnaire was designed and used to collect the data about factors affecting reverse value chain alternatives for the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) analysis. AHP refers to suitable MCDM techniques to quantify subjective parameters (Saaty 1980). Even though the collection or acquisitions processes have significant impacts on the reverse value chain process of used clothes, the same have not been considered for the current study, mainly because the process of collection does not significantly exist in the country from which the case has been selected.\n4. Findings: The study utilizes the AHP method to measure the weight of each factor in the closed-loop clothing value chain. The hierarchical model has three factors, and each factor is divided into sub-factors (criteria). These factors and criteria are considered for making the decision, that is upcycling, direct reuse, downcycling and incineration/landfill. The analysis has been started by giving weight to factors and subsequently pair-wise comparison has been done. The factors, sub-factors and alternatives for the reverse value chain are mapped in Figure 2.\n5. Discussion: The impact of all these factors can be understood with the help of ranking and weight of each alternative. Ranking and weight of closed-loop alternatives are based on the material, economy and technology factors. Economy of a society or a country has a great influence on secondhand clothing market as stated by the manager of Sort1 organization: \"Romania is not such a rich country. It developed very fast from one shop to nine shops\". He further explained about the importance of material factors: \"Second hand clothes made up of good quality not only save time and money during sorting process but also picked very fast by the customers in the shops\". The manager of Redg1 organization elaborated better about the material and their sub-factors: \"[.....] first year we played very much with different materials. At this moment, we know very well that these are the material which can be useful for upcycling because it has some kind of texture, pattern that is helpful to transform it\". This is in accordance with factors and sub-factors found in literature review. At the same time, the founder of organization Redg1 has highlighted the importance of technology: \"technology affects a business a lot [...] for best result, you do not have to apply one size fits for all types of systems. One needs to improve techniques and technology from daily experience and customise according to the requirement and the context\". These statements clearly underscore the importance of right technology/techniques for the success of reverse value chain of clothes and its adaptation based on the context.\n6. Conclusion and implications: The study considers four types of closed-loop clothing value chain methods, namely, the direct reuse, upcycling, downcycling and landfill/incineration methods. The material, economy and technology factors are found to be the main factors. These factors are used to develop the hierarchy model for closed-loop clothing value chain decision making using the AHP method. The result revealed the importance of material-related factors over the economy and technology factors. The current study has identified that upcycling and direct reuse are most suitable alternatives, as they give the highest net weight score among the four methods. This might be due to the fact that the higher lifespan of products could be achieved through upcycling and direct reuse methods. Downcycling is found to be the third preferred alternative, whereas incineration/landfill is least preferred alternative to close the loop of clothing value chain.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Undesired changes in the environment and reduction of natural resources have necessitated the need for environmental protection and resource conservation. Textile and clothing industry is the second largest (after food) industry. Therefore, there is a need to protect the environment by reducing the use of natural resources. The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the best reverse value chain alternatives for the clothing industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory study is undertaken at six organizations working in the area of used clothes. The data were collected with the help of semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire, for the analytical hierarchy process analysis. The information from other sources such documents, websites, and reports was also gathered to strengthen the findings.\nFindings: There are different reverse value chain methods to minimize the use of natural resources such as direct reuse, upcycling and downcycling. Incineration and landfill can be considered as the last options. The selection of best reverse value chain method is a multi-criteria value decision-making problem, as this involves complex decision parameters.\nPractical implications: The industry practitioners can use the above model and results to make end-of-life decisions.\nOriginality/value: This paper develops a model on the basis of the analytic hierarchy process to determine the best method to close the loop of the clothing value chain. On the basis of the result and analysis, upcycling emerged to be the best alternative to close the loop of the clothing industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Process selection in re-engineering by measuring degree of change
|
[
"Business process reengineering",
"Strategic objectives",
"Best practice",
"Change management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: By introducing the reengineering concept in 1990, Hammer and Champy (1993) established a movement which significantly influenced the world of business. He believes that corporations need to reconsider their condition and reorganize their activities on a process-based context in order to succeed and survive in the present global economy (Hammer and Champy, 1993). During recent 20 years, the focus on the processes as the core of organizational performance development has had various stages. Many researchers have also emphasized process reengineering as a managerial tool for satisfying continuous changes in the market, customers, demand, and competition (Davenport and Short, 1990; Hammer, 1990; Hammer and Champy, 1993; Grover and Malhotra, 1997; Macintosh, 2003; Terziovski et al., 2003).According to the literature review done by Deakins and Makgill (1997), the number of papers using survey research in the field of reengineering is few and constitutes only 3 percent of the business process reengineering (BPR) literature. About half of these papers concentrate on execution or information technology and a few others study human resources or BPR strategy goals (Deakins and Makgill, 1997).In modern corporations, maintenance and development of the productive and strategic processes are considered as the main components of process management. Therefore, in order to improve and develop corporation's activities, designing and reengineering of those processes playing a strategic role in the corporation is much more effective than those of non-strategic processes (Guha et al., 1993; Benjamin and Levinson, 1993).Strategic processes which are selected from the corporation's processes are those that are directly involved in satisfying the strategic goals of the corporation. Therefore, the corporation's investment in such processes causes the effect of process reengineering to be observed directly on the corporation's strategic goals (Hanafizadeh and Moayer, 2008). It is important to note that only a few processes directly and significantly affect the achievement of the organization's strategic goals. The question is whether a corporation can tolerate the changes caused by reengineering the strategic processes or not.This question can be answered if the candidate strategic processes for reengineering and the prospective changes to these processes are determined. In this regard, Hanafizadeh and Moayer (2008) propose a methodology for determining the strategic processes of some managerial holding companies. First, a list of major processes of the company is prepared. Then, these processes are categorized based on the balanced scorecard. Finally, using questionnaire and statistical tests, the processes are graded. A strategic process can be selected for every balanced scorecard (Hanafizadeh and Moayer, 2008). This methodology has also been applied in the context of investment companies (Hanafizadeh et al., 2009b) and in the process of information system strategic planning (Hanafizadeh et al., 2008).Many change patterns exist in the literature (Hanafizadeh et al., 2009a). The question is \"which of these experiences gained is the most appropriate one for process reassessment?\" Hanafizadeh et al. (2009a) argue that the criteria related to the corporation's strategic goals are considered as the selection criteria in choosing the best practices. They investigated 29 cases of the best-reported practices in reengineering literature and selected the best practices consistent with the organization's strategy. The most consistent experiences with the organization's strategic goals were suggested as the suitable pattern for process change (Hanafizadeh et al., 2009a).Therefore, the main question addressed in present study is whether the corporation can tolerate the changes caused by application of the proposed pattern in the processes and how these changes can be calculated. In order to measure the degree of these changes, a model is needed which includes all the aspects involved in process change in an organization. This model should have appropriate indicators for measurement. So, the research questions are:RQ1. Which dimensions are involved in measurements of process change in an organization?RQ2. How can the organization's degree of change be measured based on these dimensions?RQ3. In which strategic process, the company is capable of being changed based on the best strategic practices?Thus, the main purpose of this research is to design a model that measures the changes of processes caused by implementation of reengineering projects. Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the research framework.Making fundamental change through reengineering is considerably different from other managerial approaches. Various companies in developed countries, such as Wal-Mart, CIGNA, and Ford Motor which were about to collapse or lose their contribution in global markets managed to basically change their companies' structure by a new process reengineering approach. As a result, they were able to acquire more market share and now they are endeavoring to gain better positions by applying continuous modifications (Currie, 1999). However, reengineering projects are highly complicated and risky. Hammer and Champy (1993) estimated that approximately 70 percent of the companies could not achieve their desired results (Hammer and Champy, 1993).According to a report published by Forster, about 50-70 percent of the efforts done by various companies intending to implement BPR project have failed (Currie, 1999). So, investigating the reasons of failure or success is essential (Currie, 1999). In order for reengineering projects to succeed, several factors are involved which need to be satisfied. Al-Mashari and Zairi (1999a, b) examined five factors including change in management, management competencies, organizational structure, BPR project management, and IT sub-structures. Other researchers have also classified the reasons for the success of process reengineering projects into four groups of egalitarian leadership, working environments, top management commitment, and managerial support (Crowe et al., 2002). The employees' resistance against change is the reason for most failures (Crowe et al., 2002).Previous studies have also investigated other factors of success or failure of reengineering projects (Guimaraes, 1999; Motwani et al., 2005; Terziovski et al., 2003). The findings of previous papers suggest that failure of the majority of reengineering projects result from ignoring soft factors in the organization which are directly associated with human and social problems (Willcocks and Smith, 1995; Purwadi et al., 1999). It is not possible to simply set a boundary for these complicated and flexible factors. On the other hand, hard factors are those which are not related to human aspects (Al-Mashari et al., 2000).Hence in this paper, the factors leading to measurement of change in reengineering projects are categorized into two groups of soft and hard factors.In this study, the corporation's degree of change is obtained through measurement of change in terms of soft and hard factors. These factors are extracted from literature.1.1 Background of effective BPR dimensions and factors\n2 Research methodology: The survey method was employed in this study. Since the required information and the method of evaluating the desired factors had been specified for the researcher, the questionnaire could be used as a useful tool for data collection in this research. Tools utilized included questionnaire and interviews with managers and experts.Using survey methodology, the experts' ideas were used for final determination of the factors and change measurement indicators, as well as identification of the weight of dimensions in the first phase. For this purpose, questionnaires were submitted to experts via e-mail or in face-to-face meetings.2.1 Data collection\n3 Modeling: The purpose of the survey in the first step is to examine and delete indicators and factors which are less influential in measuring the change or have high correlation with each other. Factor analysis, which intends to simplify the complex sets of data, is applied here for identifying the main indicators and factors, and removing the correlated indicators and factors.Moreover, since the number of factors was determined based on a comprehensive literature review, the confirmatory factor analysis was utilized in which the number of the factors was set by the user. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using varimax rotation and 24 factors were chosen as default value. To execute factor analysis, the number of samples had to be between 50 and 400. Various claims exist regarding the tested factors to variables ratio, oscillating from the high ratio of 10 to 1 to the minimum required ratio of 2 to 1. The sample of 134 was chosen for testing 46 indicators with a ratio of approximately 3-1. Then, principal component method of factor analysis was performed on data and for this analysis, 0.621 was indicated by Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test. Since this number was greater than 0.5, sampling sufficiency and data appropriateness for performing factor analysis were concluded. Also, Bartlett's test of sphericity indicated that the correlation between matrix data was confirmed with a significance coefficient of 0.0001.Factor analysis suggested that indicators related to \"effective use of consultants\", \"effective planning and use of project management techniques\", \"adequate resources\", \"setting performance goals and measures\", \"external orientation and learning\", and \"alignment of BPR strategy with corporate strategy\" measured the same factor. However, indicators related to \"adequate alignment of IT infrastructure and BPR strategy\" factor measured two different factors. Similarly, indicators related to \"IT function competencies\" measured two factors. On the other hand, other indicators fit into the appropriate factors based on the results of the literature review. This was resulted from the high correlation between \"effective use of consultants\", \"effective planning and use of project management techniques\", \"adequate resources\", \"setting performance goals and measures\", \"external orientation and learning\", and \"alignment of BPR strategy with corporate strategy\" factors. To resolve this problem, the above factors were combined and reduced to a single factor. Besides, the indicators having maximum factor load on \"adequate alignment of IT infrastructures and BPR strategy\" and \"IT function competency\" factors were preserved; meanwhile those which were not correlated to the mentioned factors were deleted.The confirmatory factor analysis was repeated for 19 factors. KMO test resulted in 0.649 for this analysis, which was acceptable. Bartlett's test of sphericity was also verified with a significance coefficient equal to 0.0001. These results are shown in Table II.All indicators were rotated on appropriate factors. Since the factor loadings were greater than 0.4, it can be concluded that removing the mentioned factors and indicators was a reasonable decision. As a result, 44 distinct indicators and 19 distinct factors were selected out of the primary 46 indicators and 24 factors, respectively. Finally, selected indicators within factors and dimensions were categorized using the suggested model by Al-Mashari and Zairi (1999a, b), as well as expert opinion. Consequently, a list of the classified factors and indicators in addition to comprehensive functional definitions was prepared. The indicators related to each factor are explained in the questionnaire in detail. Table III illustrates the modified factor-dimension table versus soft and hard dimensions.Having utilized expert opinion for questionnaire design and final confirmation of the factors and indicators and their weights, the linear method could be used for weighing the factors and indicators. In fact, the dimensions' weights were the average opinions of the experts in the first study. Hence, each dimension's factors were considered with the same weight in calculation. Moreover, the weight of each factor's indicator was in fact the arithmetic average of the primary indicators related to that factor.\n4 Model implementation: The proposed model was verified using a second questionnaire from \"recruitment\" and \"performance measurement\" strategic processes experts in Mahab Ghodss Consulting Engineering Company. The respondents were 45 experts, in \"organizations and methods\", \"process management\", \"information systems\", and \"human resources\" with minimum work experience of five years and bachelor's degree. The purpose of this questionnaire was to collect the data required for implementing the model in order to measure the change of the studied processes. The questionnaires were delivered to the experts via e-mail or by personal attendance, and 42 of them were completed.4.1 Case study\n5 Concluding remarks: Failure of most reengineering projects in business processes is caused by the combination of soft and hard dimensions. However, majority of the survey researches on the failure of these projects have examined hard dimensions. So, in this paper, the degree of change of dimensions, segregating soft and hard dimensions are measured. That is because, nearly half of the failed reengineering projects had only considered technological and profit-making aspects rather than human-related ones.The degree of change of each best practice creates in the organization along with measurement of these changes, and the strategic processes' capability for accepting them are important factors that assist senior management in making any decision about implementing reengineering projects.By considering the degree of change applied on the company's strategic processes, especially soft dimensions' change which is determinant in the project success, management can select the appropriate processes for implementing process reengineering projects.Obviously, by considering both the degree of the applied change of soft dimensions, such as \"change of management\" and having old employees in the organization, the management may believe that implementing the project is risky.The model proposed in the current paper on appropriate process selection in performing process reengineering by evaluating their degree of change is the key in performing reengineering projects.This research was conducted by evaluating all credible models and patterns in the field of reengineering and its resulted change. Also the dimensions, factors, and indicators related to the change in business processes were derived. Inquiring the experts of water management industry is the third tool utilized in this paper.This model contains five dimensions, 19 factors, and 44 indicators. The suggested method was investigated for \"recruitment\" and \"performance measurement\" strategic processes in a consulting engineering company in the field of water industry. Then, the strategic processes that the company could change were identified. This was conducted based on the strategic best practices.Since there are few survey research papers in the field of reengineering (only 3 percent of the BPR literature), examining field-based and practical areas of process reengineering projects can be the subject of future studies. In this research, the changes in organization caused by performing process reengineering were measured. Measuring threshold limit tolerance changes of organization can be an important topic for future research, as well. In other words, it can be recommended that more comprehensive empirical studies be conducted to study the level of change that an organization can bear on a particular process based on corresponding changes that is imposed by strategic best practices on that process. In this case, if the threshold limit tolerance change of organization is less than the potential change that the corresponding strategic best practices are imposing on, then reengineering on the process is likely to fail.Moreover, in order to select the best scenario, besides considering the degree of soft and hard dimensions of change implicit in the model study, cost and time factors can also be used.The present model is proposed for consulting engineering companies in the field of water industry, and the results can only be generalized for this industry. Therefore, it is suggested that the proposed model is applied in other industries and the results and its applicability in other areas are reported.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a model in order to select the most appropriate process for business process reengineering (BPR) through evaluation of the degree of change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Corporations usually work in an environment in which business requirements are subject to continuous inevitable change. Therefore, in order to sustain competitive advantage, the corporations are required to continuously configure their business processes and operations with respect to these changes. This paper presents a model for evaluating change in an organization. By applying this model, one can select appropriate processes for reengineering.\nFindings: - The proposed model was confirmed by consulting with engineering companies and was also implemented in one of them. This model includes five soft and hard dimensions, 19 factors, as well as 44 indicators for measuring the changes. Eventually, the proposed model was carried out in \"recruitment\" and \"performance measurement\" processes in a consulting engineering company in the water industry.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that by applying the selected best practices in BPR projects, some degrees of changes are imposed upon corporation in which soft factors usually cannot be assimilated to these changes. This condition leads to a high resistance and finally the failure of the changes in corporation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Modeling store loyalty: perceived value in market orientation practice
|
[
"Market orientation",
"Customer loyalty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: Loyal customers are the lifeblood of an organization, regardless of its scale and business scope. In order to maximize business profit, it is critical to keep a customer with \"ultimate loyalty\" (Oliver, 1999). For this reason, any organization must strive to keep loyal customers as long as possible. This is the reason behind the popularity of customer loyalty programs developed by marketing practitioners, and that of data mining techniques used by researchers for identifying loyal customers. Yet, despite efforts for attracting and retaining customers, customer attrition exists for every organization. In the case of retailing, the blooming stores coexist with declining ones in most commercial precincts. According to Levitt (1960), based on his study of several large American manufacturers, such variation is due to the existence, or non-existence, of market orientation.An overview of the market orientation literature suggests that a consideration of personnel's implementation is imperative (e.g. Siguaw et al., 1994). The importance of front-line employees' contribution to an organization's business performance is generally acknowledged (e.g. Menguc, 1996; Reynolds and Beatty, 1999). Indeed, front-line employees play a critical role in the interaction with customers by representing their organizations (e.g. Westbrook, 1981). The employees' interaction with customers significantly influences customers' overall satisfaction and their willingness to remain with the organization (Mittal and Lassar, 1996). Past studies suggest a mediating role of personnel interaction between market orientation and business performance, although this has not yet been fully explored in the research domain of market orientation. In the retail service context in particular, the store personnel should have a decisive influence on the organization's market orientation performance since they are the key implementers of market orientation.The most challenging suggestion emerging from the literature on market orientation is that an organization ought to continually create superior customer value (Narver and Slater, 1990). However, the dimensions of customer value have not been clearly specified: with what means and in what context customer value can be created remains to be explored. Given the theoretically imperative role of customer value in market orientation, integrating customer value in relevant studies should clarify its potential contribution to market orientation. Specifically, understanding how service employees deliver value as well as how customers perceive and react to it in a service context should provide new insights into the effect of market orientation on business performance. This is the primary objective of this study.Finally, a review of the market orientation literature suggests that little effort has been made to explore the relationship between market orientation and non-financial performance indicators such as customer satisfaction and customer retention. Most studies of market orientation have examined business performance outcomes using traditional financial indices (e.g. Greenley, 1995; Appiah-Adu, 1998). A broader view of business performance outcomes, involving a variety of non-financial indicators, is clearly needed to enhance our understanding of the potential business performance implications of market orientation.In this study, a review of the relevant literature provides the theoretical basis for developing a conceptual model. A qualitative study is then conducted to identify the possible dimensions of the proposed model from the perspectives of both firms and consumers. An empirical examination of the proposed model is subsequently performed in the retail industry in order to examine its validity and reliability. The outcome of this model is examined through the major business performance index of store loyalty. Following this, we provide a discussion of the results and consider their implications for theory and practice. We also discuss the limitations of the study, and suggest future research directions.Definitions of market orientation and customer value\nResearch hypotheses: In light of our research purpose, the interaction between service employees and their customers is examined. Two focal points are underlined in this relationship: one is understanding how service employees appraise their own performance of implementing market orientation by means of fulfilling customer value (staff performance); and the other is assessing service employees' market orientation performance in relation to customer value from the consumer perspective, and the impact of the above consumers' perceptions on their attitude (customer satisfaction) and behavior (customer store loyalty). Hence, this study examines the relationships among these key variables in two types of causal sequence such that staff performance leads to customer satisfaction, which in turn impacts on customer store loyalty. The other one is staff performance directly leads to customer store loyalty.Relationship between staff performance and customer satisfaction\nMethodology: Research context\nAnalysis methods and results: Validation of research instrument\nDiscussion: Table II presents the standardized path coefficients and their t-values between any two variables in the model. Research outcomes indicate that the hypothesized relationships of the effect of staff performance on customer satisfaction (H1), and that of customer satisfaction on customer store loyalty (H2) are supported with statistical significant results in the expected direction. However, the results do not support the relationship between staff performance and customer store loyalty (H3). These findings are discussed below.Relationships between staff performance and customer satisfaction\nConclusions: A valid customer store loyalty model was presented in this study. This model provides a valuable insight into the effect of perceived value in market orientation practice on service firms' business performance. Significantly, an emphasis placed on the interaction between service employees and their customers differentiated this study from previous ones. As most previous studies in market orientation center on the relationship between an organization and its employees, a focus on this external interface provided a much-needed understanding of the effects of implementing market orientation.A clear causal relationship among the key variables discussed in this study was established. The validated model provides new insight into the direct and indirect effect of market orientation on business performance from two standpoints of front-line employees and customers. Namely, from the employee perspective, implementing market orientation can result in customer store loyalty through customer satisfaction. From the consumer perspective, customer satisfaction directly leads to customer store loyalty. By providing empirical evidence of the indirect and direct links between market orientation and customer store loyalty at two levels of employees and customers, this study contributes significantly to the research domain of market orientation.This study provided an insight into the \"moments of truth\" as experienced by both service providers and their customers. The evidence indicated appropriate ways to enhance employees' service performance and satisfy customers. All are critical to a successful business. Most importantly, avenues for customer loyalty were revealed. The study showed that customer satisfaction is the prerequisite of customer store loyalty. The role of customer satisfaction in the implementation of a value-based market orientation for generating customer loyalty was emphasized.In addition, by using non-financial performance indices of customer store loyalty to examine the market orientation-performance relationship, this study provided a different view on the effect of market orientation on business performance. The workforce contribution to an organization's business performance, such as service employees' efforts to satisfy and retain customers, could then be appropriately measured. These non-financial performance indices supplement the traditional financial indices used for the manufacturing industry in past studies. Moreover, based on customers' satisfaction with employees' service performance, the non-financial or performance index of customer store loyalty was better suited to capture the comprehensive nature and total effect of market orientation. An organization's business performance can thus better be predicted. In addition, the time lag effects identified by researchers as one critical cause of ineffective market orientation were reduced.Management implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study developed a model of customer store loyalty for retail service based on a value-based market orientation practice, staff performance and customer satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A comprehensive qualitative study was undertaken to develop measurements, derived from both perspectives of firms and consumers. The model was then tested empirically in a retail setting in Taiwan, using a dyadic data collection approach. For each service provider from a random sample of hairdressing salons in Taiwan included in our survey, a matched set of customers provided information concerning their expectation and evaluation of service.\nFindings: - Our findings provide an insight into the effect of perceived customer value in market orientation practice as well as its impact on customer retention. The model indicates that marketing practitioners should manage customer satisfaction and perceptions of value in their implementation of market orientation as they are directly related to customer store loyalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study involved only one service industry (hairdressing salons) in one country (Taiwan). However the scales and methodology described here could and should be replicated in other settings.\nPractical implications: - By using our scale and results, service providers may be able to enhance their customers' perception of value and increase their degree of store loyalty.\nOriginality/value: - Despite the importance of customer value for organizations seeking to become market oriented, customer value measures are not included in market orientation scales. This study shows how including customer value into market orientation measurements can assist in enhancing business performance via customer retention.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Prior knowledge, transformative learning and performance
|
[
"Customer empowerment",
"Normative pressure",
"Innovativeness",
"Transformative learning",
"Performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Internet technology has many implications for various branches of marketing, including consumer (Peterson et al., 1997), business (Kaplan and Sawhney, 2000), and international marketing (Quelch and Klein, 1996).\nConceptual development: According to the service marketing literature, prior knowledge includes customer empowerment, normative pressure, and innovativeness are as follows.\nMethod: Sample, pretest and data collection\nAnalyses and results: Measurement model\nConclusions and discussion: This study collected service industry data in Taiwan to understand the effects of e-business environments and performance, and conducted theoretical and management implications discussion of research results.\nLimitations and future research: The results of this study may have the following bias. First, this paper conducts an empirical study of the service industry in Taiwan, by mailing questionnaires to conduct surveys of firms. The results of this study may not be generalizable for use in other countries or industries. Most past studies discussed the manufacturing in e-market. This study investigates the services e-business environment and performance. The data in Taiwan includes general services, finance, and information firms. Therefore, the characteristics and findings of sample industries are different from previous studies. Future studies can analyze the standard industrial classification to make the comparisons more generalizable. Second, future empirical studies can examine the relative contribution of customer-oriented on the firms' positional advantage. Factors such as capacity to innovativeness, learning orientation, interactive orientation, and market orientation affect firms' positional advantages (Hurley and Hult, 1998; Hult and Ketchen, 2001). Third, transformative learning is a crucial role on superior performance. Future studies can continue to develop relations with the hypotheses of mediation effect. Fourth, this study is a cross-sectional research and future studies can use a longitudinal method to observe the long-term relationships among constructs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the prior knowledge perspective on e-business environments to maintain expertise by firms. The perspectives indicate the crucial of e-service innovation and emphasize the transformative learning in the model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The model proposed in this study examines the relationships among customer empowerment, normative pressure, innovativeness, transformative learning, and performance. This study presents empirical results from benchmark services in e-markets of Taiwan. There were 225 valid samples to test the proposed model with SEM.\nFindings: Customer empowerment has significant and positive effects on innovativeness and transformative learning, respectively. Normative pressure has significant and positive effects on innovativeness and transformative learning, respectively. Innovativeness has significant and positive effects on transformative learning. Transformative learning has significant and positive effects on financial, customer, and business performance, respectively. In addition, innovativeness mediates the effects of customer empowerment and normative pressure on transformative learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study finds that transformative learning is a crucial role on customer performance. Firms should emphasize on transformative learning of prior market and technological knowledge to achieve customer performance.\nOriginality/value: Customer empowerment is the technological knowledge innovation of e-business environments. However, normative pressure has to implement the market knowledge orientation on e-business environments. Besides, transformative learning has the largest effect on customer performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The private life of Henri Fayol and his motivation to build a management science
|
[
"Fayolism",
"Motivation (psychology)",
"Scientific work",
"Research",
"Business environment",
"Business history",
"Management theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Much has been written about Henri Fayol's work, but little is known of his motivations. What could have motivated Henri Fayol to formalise and publish his management theory at the age of 75 after a long and successful business career? He had successfully managed the Commentry-Fourchambault company, a 10,000-employee strong metallurgy and mining endeavour for 28 years before he published his management theory in 1916. He collected and recorded observations throughout his career and spent the last 15 years of his tenure as managing director writing and promoting his doctrine. His contribution was a major one and is still considered relevant today (Pryor and Taneja, 2010).Henri Fayol's motivation would not have been financial as he had already made his fortune and was a part of the French bourgeoisie as managing director of a large enterprise. We suggest that his motivation may be found in his private life. In the first parts of our text, we reconstruct his extra-professional life based on available official sources. The last part uses a psychological theory, equity theory to offer an explanation of his motivations to build a new science.One motivation may have been a quest for intellectual success to avenge his father's restricted military career. Henri Fayol's father had a career in the military. He joined as a simple soldier and quickly rose through the ranks. He remained however a non-commissioned officer. His speciality was the artillery and to become an officer he had to attend the Ecole Polytechnique. It was no doubt a rebuff for the Fayol family. Henri Fayol junior sought to surpass these limits within the institutional and social context of nineteenth century France. We look more closely at Henri Fayol's family background, his schooling and his extra professional activities to improve our understanding of his motivations.Very little is known about (Jules) Henri Fayol's private life. Only two documents broach the subject. In his authorized biography of Henri Fayol, Henri Verney only notes that he came \"from a lower middle-class family in all circumstances so admirable in its understanding of the worth of its children and always knowing what sacrifices to make for strongly asserted callings\" (Verney, 1925, p. 3). Henri Fayol himself had told Verney what to write. Sasaki Tsuneo more recently published the results of his research into Henri Fayol's family (Sasaki, 1995). He visited Henri Fayol's descendants still living in France. His genealogical source was Anne Marie Grange de Presles, the widow of Henri Fayol's grandson, Maxime Grange. These two biographies are incomplete, in particular concerning Henri Fayol's father, Andre Fayol. We know that he was born in 1805 in the small commune of Le Veurdre in the North of the Allier administrative division in central France however we have few details about his work that took him to Istanbul in Turkey and La Voulte-sur-Rhone (\"La Voulte\") in the Ardeche area in Southern France.The lack of reliable information on Henri Fayol's ancestors shows that neither he nor his brother Paul spoke about them to others. Their silence may reflect a hidden and deep influence. The Fayol's either consciously or unconsciously chose not to evoke them. To know more, it is necessary to consult sources that were not available to Sasaki: Henri Fayol's school records at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint Etienne, his Legion d'honneur file, and the family records held by the civil registry. They are the main sources we use to better describe his private life and move beyond the well-known areas of his professional life and the development of his ideas (Peaucelle et al., 2003).The ancestors of Henri Fayol and his wife were neither wealthy nor labourers. They belonged to an intermediary class of merchants. They are discussed in the first part of this article. Henri Fayol's wife, his children, his brother and his sister, are discussed in the second section. We will see that the family environment was one of industrial managers, socially above that of their ancestors. The third part of the article discusses Fayol's schooling, his extra-corporate responsibilities and his standard of living.\n2. Henri Fayol's ancestors: Henri Fayol's ancestors lived in the town of Le Veurdre in the eighteenth century. They were merchants, using their small personal capital and travelling to do trade. Henri Fayol's father Andre Fayol followed this tradition, working throughout France and Europe. His wife's family were also merchants but with more money invested in their business. Both families climbed the social ladder generation after generation.2.1 The Fayols of Le Veurdre\n3. Henri Fayol's extra-professional life: Henri Fayol's life was occupied by his professional activities and his research. He had little time for personal activities. His studies at the Ecole des Mineurs de Saint Etienne formed the foundation of his skills and knowledge. The associations he belonged to illustrate his various interests.3.1 Henri Fayol's schooling\n4. Examining Henri Fayol's motivations: The information about Henri Fayol's family confirms that his origins and particularly those of his wife were in the lower middle-class. The revenues he earned using his technical skills and as managing director allowed him to hold a higher social status in the Parisian bourgeoisie. The works of Verney (1925) and Sasaki (1995) are confirmed.How did Andre Fayol's lack of professional success influence his son's intellectual ambitions ? One explanation may be found in John Stacey Adams' \"equity theory\" (Adams, 1963). According to equity theory, an individual calculates a \"score\" of rewards gained for effort expended both for himself and for others. Differences in scores between individuals are perceived as inequities. A comfortable social standing is perceived as inequitable and unjust if the individual works little, is incompetent or did not deserve his position. An individual that earns a low wage will be in an equitable situation if he expends little effort and has a low skill level. One's own perceived score as well as that of others is a source of personal motivation by encouraging greater efforts to obtain higher rewards. If the difference in scores is too large, the system may be perceived as unjust and create dissatisfactions that can lead to a reduction in effort.This model can be applied to Andre Fayol. His rewards in terms of salary and career were low given his level of skills. His score was lower than that of his superior officer Emile Auguste Ernest Julia that he accompanied to Turkey. Julia had studied at the Ecole Polytechnique with its selection based on mathematical abilities. While he had little knowledge of the artillery and the fabrication of canons and shells he still had a honourable military career. The rewards/efforts score was very different between the officer and the sergeant. It was inequitable. According to equity theory, \"turnover may be one method employees utilize to alleviate perceived inequity\" (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978, pp. 204-205). Andre Fayol often changed jobs because of this perceived inequity.The son took on his father's dissatisfaction. This discontent motivated Henri Fayol to follow a different professional trajectory. He worked hard to graduate and to be a successful engineer, manager and geologist. This was however insufficient to satisfy his quest for justice. He wanted to surpass the \"polytechniciens\". He knew them well as they had been both his teachers at the Ecole des Mines de Saint Etienne, the inspectors appointed by the State to control his mines, and the directors of competing French mines and foundries. The founding of a new theoretical science, a management science, would elevate him to a theretofore unattainable status with a high level of \"social rewards\" that would reflect his merit and efforts. It could be seen as compensation for his father's low score.Equity theory influenced Henri Fayol in so far as he identified with his father. This is a classical concept in psychoanalytic theory that was proposed by Freud as a means to move beyond the Oedipus complex (Freud, 1939). Henri Fayol sought to correct the injustice that he had felt for his father. Founding a management science was a way to do so.The description of Henri Fayol's motivations to develop a management theory has little to do with the theory itself. Only a small part of his thinking, namely his view of mathematics and the Army were influenced by experiences in his private life. His criticism of excessive mathematics teaching in engineering and management training reflects his experience with mathematics when he was a student at Saint Etienne. His difficulties in mathematics prevented him from graduating at the head of his class. At the same time he studied accounting, which later became an important part of his doctrine.A second influence can be found in his opinion about the Army. His father was a non-commissioned officer in the artillery, his sister married a pharmacist whose brother was a military doctor and he was fond of a distant cousin who was a colonel in the engineering corps. His understanding of the Army came through its support functions. He learnt of some of its operating absurdities and in particular those at peacetime.Nonetheless, the substance of Henri Fayol's thought came from his professional experience (Reid, 1995; Wren et al., 2002) and his readings (Peaucelle, 2003). We can read Fayol's work today independently of the motivation that drove him to write it. His thought is based on his management experience that he wanted to theorise.\n5. Conclusions and lessons for today's managers: Our study of Henri Fayol's private life shows how an engineer climbed the social ladder using his management talents. He looked to further his scientific training by contributing to the research endeavours of his time, in particular in the field of geology. He also sought to fulfil a social role as a manager and turnaround a flailing enterprise. His originality lay in the way he used these two aspects to generate theory from his management actions.What motivated Henri Fayol to publish his management theory so late in his career? Henri Fayol's intellectual ambition would not have been financial as he had already had a successful business career and was quite wealthy. It was most probably a reaction to the institutional restrictions on his father's career. His affective proximity to his family made Henri Fayol sensitive to his father's lack of professional recognition during his military and civilian career.Many of today's managers are as talented as Fayol was. They too could theorise their experiences and contribute to the advancement of management science. Through time, a number of managers have done so. It is interesting for comparative purposes to consider how they undertook their reflective and writing tasks. Alfred Sloan published My Years with General Motors (Sloan, 1964). He was aided by two ghost writers, John McDonald and Alfred Chandler in the same way a large number of other personalities have been in their writing tasks. This collective writing process is sometimes visible as in the case of Jack Welch who co-authored with his wife (Welch and Welch, 2005). However, it is not so important who wrote the text as it is that the reporting of facts remain unbiasedWe know that Frederick Taylor found inspiration in an unpublished manuscript by Morris Cooke (Wrege et al., 1978) when he wrote The Principles of Scientific Management (Taylor, 1911). This was not the case for Henri Fayol who authored his work alone. As an author's intellectual investment increases, so too does the need to understand the necessarily strong motivations that drive him. Motivations can be found in their personality, their childhood or their personal history. For example, Chester Barnard wrote The Functions of the Executive (Barnard, 1938) for a series of seminars that he ran at Harvard University. He had accepted to participate in memory of the seminars that he had followed in his youth at the Lowell Institute in Boston (Wolf, 1996).We hope that more managers feel this need to confront their experience with management theory, confirming or disproving through observation the various intellectual constructions that describe business and management. They too can use scientific method to construct new theories. Managers have their place in management research so long as their contributions are original and their methods are rigourous.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim is to identify Henri Fayol's motivations as an accomplished business manager to publish his management theory at the age of 75.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors retrace Henri Fayol's private life using primary sources from various French public archives including civil registry records, military and diplomatic archives, schooling records, publications from learned associations and inheritance declarations. They then use a psychological theory, namely equity theory, to interpret this new information about Fayol's private life and construct an explanation of his efforts to theorise his management experience.\nFindings: - Henri Fayol's schooling and his father's military career respectively influenced his perception of mathematics teaching in management training and the functioning of the army. His motivation to found a science of management was not financial but instead most probably a response to the obstacles his father encountered during his career.\nResearch limitations/implications: - It is rarely known what motivates a manager to collaborate with specialists in management science. This research into Henri Fayol's motivations can be replicated for other managers.\nPractical implications: - The paper dentifies one major practical implication for managers who wish to contribute to management theory as Fayol did. Before they begin such an undertaking, it is important for them to reflect upon their motivations. Their motivations as managers, based on financial and business success are insufficient. Deeper motivations are needed, that are anchored in their own personal history to drive the considerable intellectual investment that is necessary for them to be successful contributors.\nSocial implications: - The results encourage managers to contribute to building and improving management science. They can theorize their experiences in dealing with the management of contemporary issues such as sustainable development and social responsibility. They must do so as Fayol did: using scientific method and strongly motivated by personal beliefs.\nOriginality/value: - The research question is original: \"What motivated Fayol to build his management doctrine?\". Scholars rarely ask why individuals decide to build and organize knowledge. This question is relevant for managers today as they too can bring original contributions to management thought. The paper reports previously unpublished details about Fayol's life to answer the research question, and in doing so completes and corrects the works of Sasaki Tsuneo and Henri Verney.\n",
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] |
Coping with the change: a longitudinal study into the changing manufacturing practices
|
[
"Finland",
"Manufacturing industries",
"Best practices",
"Operations management",
"Change management",
"Longitudinal study"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: During recent decades the business environment has changed dramatically and at an increasing pace all over the world. The latest change to have a big impact on companies was the collapse of some banks in the USA and the subsequent money market turmoil and government reactions. Such changes have forced companies to adapt all aspects of their operations - their structure, strategies, practices, processes and overall control.This paper shows how management theories have changed in recent decades. Second, it describes the operations management paradigms that have been introduced, and, third, it outlines the nature of current management theories in the new economy. After that, the paper depicts how management theories and operations management paradigms are expiring at an ever increasing pace. The empirical findings from a longitudinal study are then presented and found to be in line with the findings presented in the literature. The paper concludes with final remarks. The data in this study is based on a three-phase longitudinal study conducted in the years 1993, 2004 and 2010.The period covered by this longitudinal study was a very interesting one, as, between each of the above dates, big changes occurred in the Finnish economy and business environment. After the first interview, Finland joined the European Economic Area in 1994 and then the EU in 1995. Both of these events had a strong impact on the business environment and promoted the globalization of Finnish companies. Towards the end of the 1990s, use of the internet started to rise followed by the \"Internet bubble\" of 2003, shortly before the second study. The third study was conducted in 2010 during maybe the biggest challenge faced by the EU in its history.Timeline of management paradigms\n2 Objectives and method of the study: This paper examines how manufacturing companies have reacted to the turbulent business environment by changing their improvement and/or management practices. The first objective is to investigate whether, and how, the companies changed their practices over the period from 1993 to 2010. This is done by using Friedman's test for non-parametric repeated measures comparisons. Longitudinal data (collected in 1993, 2004 and 2010) from Finnish manufacturing industry is used. The hypotheses for the comparison across these data sets are:Ha. The distributions across these data sets are different.or:Ho. The distributions across these data sets are the same (the null hypothesis).If the Ha is accepted, then there is a difference in the data sets and the usage between years is different, at least with some practices, and there will be clear changes in usage in the studied practices.If the Ha is accepted, then the second objective is to observe if there is any evidence that the use, and the change in usage, of different practices follows the Bass diffusion model. This will be done by using the results obtained from the Friedman's test and comparing the means of the different samples.\n3 The sample and the study: The background to this study is the Made in Europe (MiE) study conducted by Professor Voss from the London Business School in close co-operation with IBM UK (Hanson et al., 1994; Hanson and Voss, 1995; Voss et al., 1995) and later several business schools across Europe (Table II). This is one of the largest benchmarking studies of manufacturing companies ever undertaken.The original sample size was over 600 manufacturing sites in Europe across different industries (Hanson et al., 1994; Hanson and Voss, 1995; Collins et al., 1996). The model proposed (Hanson et al., 1994) made it possible to compare different industries and the impact of ownership, and measured the adoption of best practices and operational performance. It also suggested that there is a link between the adoption of best practices and the overall performance of a manufacturing site. The relationships between single practices and performance were not studied at all, due to the fact that a successful study would require that the surrounding factors were isolated, which is impossible in real business life.The first study - \"Made in Britain\" - was performed jointly by the London Business School and the IBM Consulting Group UK 1993 (Hanson and Voss, 1993). Later, the research sample was expanded and similar studies were made in Finland, Germany, and The Netherlands. The results of these studies were reported in the first \"Made in Europe\" report (Hanson et al., 1994). Later, a \"Made in Switzerland\" study was conducted by Collins et al. (1996). In total, close to 800 manufacturing sites were interviewed for these benchmarking studies. Information on the research teams in the different countries, and on the sample sizes and time of studies, is given in Table II (Hanson and Voss, 1993; Collins et al., 1996; Hanson et al., 1996).The results of these studies were stored on a database - PROBE (Yarrow et al., 2004) - which started to live its own life as an independent database like the PIMS database (Buzzell, 2004). Even though it is possible to make time-based analyses on the PROBE database, it does not allow one to compare the same company over time.The sample and the questionnaire\n4 Discussion: The results seem to indicate that there is a pattern or lifecycle that the practices used in the companies follow within the sample. Obviously, as stated earlier, the starting point for each practice differs and the \"life expectancy\" varies as well. The study does not reveal the reason for this kind of lifecycle. One reason may be that changes in the business environment (economic, competition-related, political, etc.) are so fast that something new is always demanded. Companies and consultants constantly create new ideas and test them, and the fittest will survive until a big change. Some practices may only be \"disposable\" practices that carry a company through a certain period or technological phase. Other reasons for abandoning practices may be that they become \"worn out\" (a change is needed to get rid of the dust), or they are out-of-date (nobody speaks of them anymore), or they no longer deliver what they promised (time to try something better), or they have served their purpose already, or the business has changed (they no longer fit the environment).Another phenomenon is that the studied companies seem to be more committed to personnel-related practices. Usage in this case seems to be more deeply rooted and they seem to last longer than process-related practices. The reason for this was not revealed in the study, but it is worth further study - an encouraging point for employees.One unresolved question is whether any of the abandoned practices will be reborn. There are general indications that some practices may go and come back after a while in a different form (rephrased), or that only parts of them may come back.\n5 Conclusion: This research analyzed the evolution of some management and manufacturing practices and paradigms from the theoretical point of view. The empirical part analyzed and mapped the changes happening in some Finnish manufacturing sites between 1993 (pre EU) and 2004 (growth) and 2010 (recession) in light of these studied paradigms.The focus of this paper was to examine how some manufacturing companies have reacted to the turbulent business environment by changing their improvement and/or management practices. The first objective was to investigate whether the companies changed the use of their practices during the period from 1993 to 2010 and the second objective was to observe whether there was any evidence that the use of different practices follows the Bass diffusion model.The results from the sample indicate that the lifecycle of some best practices is quite short, as Schonberger (2001) noted. Most of the practices adopted in the early 1990s were well on the growth path ten years later. Towards the end of the first decade of the 2000s the use of most of the practices started to decline. This may have been due to the lifecycle of particular practices, but was also partly due to the economic situation and the state of technological development. Nevertheless, the sample exhibited a pattern that may be common for adopted practices. Once they have served their purpose they may go. The second reason may be that the new era, the \"new economy\" as Hayes calls it, demands new practices and new ways of developing and improving operations.An interesting phenomenon is that the use of ABC costing is still increasing. The reason may be that, unlike the other practices measured, ABC costing was almost non-existent at the time of the first interview and was thus a brand new idea. The other practices measured were already well known or established practices and were further along the lifecycle curve. In this respect ABC costing is younger, and the starting point is in a different location from the other measured practices.These results are restricted to the sample and no generalizations can be made based on them alone. However, the results seem to follow a pattern reported in earlier studies, but more research is needed to confirm these indicated results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to study how, in recent decades, manufacturing sites have reacted to changes in their business environment by developing their management practices. This also makes it possible to predict the behavior and lifecycles of the new practices adopted by companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study is longitudinal, conducted in 1993, 2004 and 2010. It used a standard questionnaire, based on the \"Made in Europe\" benchmarking study. The results were analysed by Friedman's rank order method. The use of a three (or more) data-point longitudinal study is the clearest way to reveal changes in, and the behaviour of, the practices.\nFindings: - The data suggest that there is a lifecycle for the practices used in companies and that many of the practices adopted in the late 1990s are already out of date. However, personnel-related practices seem to last longer than process-related practices. Furthermore, these practices seem to follow the curve of the Bass diffusion model.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results are restricted to the sample which is quite small in size, but gives a good insight into the changes occurring within it. This research excludes new practices adopted in recent years, and uses only the questions designed for the first year in which the study was conducted. However, its purpose is to show the evolution of some practices in the form of a unique, longitudinal study. The study also indicates the lifecycles of the practices included in the sample.\nOriginality/value: - This study is the only longitudinal study in its field to use data from three different time periods. It can thus look into and analyze change from a unique perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How does liquidity in the financial market affect the real estate market yields?
|
[
"Liquidity",
"Pricing",
"Office market",
"Panel analysis",
"Excess liquidity",
"Yield"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: After the 2008 global financial crisis, many countries implemented expansionary post-crisis monetary policies. For instance, the Federal Reserve in the USA lowered the federal funds rate to near zero and authorized a series of large-scale asset purchases of longer-term securities to increase liquidity in the market. In the case of Japan, its central bank announced an additional asset purchase program as part of the comprehensive monetary easing together with \"virtually zero interest rate policy\" (Rogers et al., Wright, 2014). The Public Bank of China also cut its long-term benchmark bank loan, leading to a tremendous expansion of money supply and bank loans. These expansionary monetary policies have drawn attention of many researchers resulting in a plethora of debates and explanations regarding the impacts of global liquidity.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Determinants of yields\n3. Methodology: Our starting point for the office yield model in the sample of Asian countries is the discounted cash flow model. The model discounts future net cash flows or net rents and the end value of the building (when it is sold):(1)\n4. Data and descriptive statistics: 4.1 Data\n5. Empirical outcome: In this section, the impact of financial market liquidity on yields is examined across six major office markets in Asia. The empirical specification consists of base model, lnM2 (natural log) model, money gap model and excess liquidity model. The base model intends to follow the standard modeling of yields used in previous literature (Tsolacos et al., 2009). It includes the fundamental determinants of yields: ten-year government bond interest rates and real rent growth rates. The lnM2 model is employed to measure the impact of normal liquidity on yields, and both the money gap and the excess liquidity models show the effects of excess liquidity on office markets. In this instance, one-quarter lagged values of the liquidity variables are used to reflect the above empirical outcome of past research and to examine the time-lag effect of liquidity on yields.\n6. Actual values, implied values, signs of mispricing: Figures 3-8 present fitted yields and actual yields during periods of increasing excess liquidity. These figures are based on the results obtained by the excess liquidity model panel regression. Comparing the fitted and actual yields aims to examine the impact of excess liquidity on office yields. According to Bruggeman (2007), a period of excess liquidity is defined is the period when excess liquidity is increasing for at least two consecutive quarters. Additionally, in the instance where a period of increasing excess liquidity is separated by a quarter of relatively decreasing excess liquidity, it is considered as a consecutive increasing excess liquidity.\n7. Conclusions: As expansionary post-crisis monetary policies began to implement globally, the impacts of liquidity on financial markets have drawn the attention of many researchers. However, liquidity's impacts on office markets remain poorly understood because most previous studies have focused on the residential real estate market. Therefore, this study aims to explore the influences of excess liquidity on office markets in six Asian countries using quarterly data from the 2007Q1 to the 2015Q4. The reason that excess liquidity is used instead of normal liquidity is because excess liquidity captures the effects of expanded liquidity in real estate markets more accurately.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: After the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the impact of expanded liquidity in the financial market has drawn attention. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between liquidity in financial markets and office markets across Asian countries. In particular, the research not only examines the effect of normal liquidity on real estate markets, but also the effects of excess liquidity are specifically highlighted.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses panel estimation utilizing quarterly data from the first quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2015. Taking both time and location dimensions into account allows for a more precise estimate of the relationship between liquidity and office market's yields.\nFindings: Per the empirical outcome, an increasing excess liquidity tends to decelerate the value of office yields in six major Asian office market centers due to the positive effect on commercial real estate value. This effect is also identified by comparing the difference between the level of fitted yields and actual yields.\nPractical implications: The results enhance the understanding of commercial real estate yield determinants. Furthermore, the results can be used to assess the impacts of liquidity on major office markets in Asia.\nOriginality/value: This paper attempts to uncover the impact of liquidity in financial markets on the office market yields. To better understand the relationship, the concept of excess liquidity is adopted and further exploration of each office market is conducted by comparing the fitted yields, which is computed considering the effects of excess liquidity on yield levels and actual yields.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Yours truly: the role of organizational commitment in shoplifting prevention
|
[
"Workplace attachment",
"Interactional justice",
"Phenomenological approach",
"Retail crime prevention",
"Supermarket employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Shoplifting is the criminal act of stealing merchandise offered for sale in a retail outlet (Perlman and Ozinci, 2014). Each shoplifting incident contributes to a financial loss and will impact the supermarket's gross revenue. Cumulatively, this adds up to a significant annual financial loss for retailers (Clarke and Petrossian, 2012; Goh and Kong, 2016). Global trends suggest that shoplifting is increasing (Bamfield, 2018; Beck and Hopkins, 2016) and, reflective of this, New Zealand's supermarket industry is consistently facing elevated incidents of shoplifting (Andrae et al., 2017; Curtis-Ham and Walton, 2017). Retail crime that includes shoplifting, burglary, robbery, etc., results in an average of 1.3 percent of erosion of annual sales revenues within New Zealand (Guthrie and Mulder, 2017). Additionally, shoplifting has an adverse effect on tax revenues that amounts to billions of dollars per annum (Smith A.D., 2014) that could be utilized for national welfare (Crocker et al., 2017; Welsh and Farrington, 2018). Taken holistically, this suggests more effective measures for the deterrence of shoplifting are required (Hayes et al., 2012).\nReview of literature: New Zealand's retail sector is an important contributor to the economy employing 10 percent of the workforce (StatisticsNZ, 2018b) and growing annually at a rate of 5.5 percent (StatisticsNZ, 2018a). Within this sector, employees are increasingly recognized as a crucial asset within retail organizations and therefore need be nurtured, supervised and motivated if a retail organization is to achieve optimum success (Fernandez-Guadano and Lopez-Millan, 2018; Gambeta et al., 2019; Lee S. et al., 2018; Van Buren and Greenwood, 2008). Recognizing this, extant literature that focuses on retail employees encompasses fields as diverse as job motivators, the role of the human resources functions in retailing, retail-employee relations, the diversity of the retail workforce and the types of stress experienced by retail employees, future career prospects and retail crime.\nResearch methodology: A phenomenological approach was adopted as it enables a richer and deeper understanding of the perceptions of shop-floor employees and their relationships with their employer as well as potential behavioral consequences (Kvale, 1992, 1994). In the words of Burkhead (2014), \"relating the first-order effects to second-order theories through the lived experiences of participants is the basic principle of phenomenology\" (p. 67). Following Polkinghorne's (1989) framework on designing interviews, a semi-structured interview guide was developed based on the review of the literature and the phenomenon under investigation. This was subsequently piloted for three shop-floor employees from two supermarket chains. As a result of feedback received from this exercise, a number of minor changes were implemented to eliminate any ambiguities. Additionally, and in line with the guidelines of Reynolds and Gutman (1988), interviewees' postures, gestures, eye contact, comfort and perceived confidence were also noted.\nFindings: Findings are presented in two key areas reflecting the most important themes emerging from the data and relevant to the focus of this research: first, interactional justice, workplace attachment and organizational commitment; and second, their influence on the motivations and manifestation of guardianship behaviors.\nDiscussion: Holistically, these findings suggest a relationship between interactional justice, workplace attachment, organizational commitment and guardianship behavior that potentially manifests itself in shoplifting prevention. A climate of perceived in-store interactional justice facilitated through interactions with managers, supervisors, and employers evokes and intensifies emotions associated with employee workplace attachment. Such positive interactional justice and heightened workplace attachment appears to lead to increased organizational commitment and voluntary guardianship behavior. Of particular relevance to this research is how this may manifest itself in shoplifting prevention.\nConclusion: Existing literature on SCP within retail contexts has primarily focused on contemporary electronic surveillance equipment. However, a focus on softer preventative measures and the role of employees in this arena remains scant. The results of this exploratory research suggest a positive relationship between interactional justice, workplace attachment and organizational commitment may culminate in guardianship behaviors manifesting in a willingness to participate in shoplifting prevention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how interactional justice within a retail context may influence employee organizational commitment and how this may evoke guardianship behaviors that manifest in shoplifting prevention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research uses a phenomenological approach conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 shop-floor employees of two major national supermarket chains in New Zealand.\nFindings: The findings suggest that interactional justice in the workplace is important in shaping organizational commitment amongst employees. Additionally, heightened organizational commitment may have a significant effect on employee propensity to engage in shoplifting prevention/guardianship behavior. A conceptual model is developed based on these findings.\nPractical implications: Retail managers may promote and exercise interactional justice practices with employees to improve their organizational commitment and consequential shoplifting prevention/guardianship behaviors.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, and from a theoretical perspective, it offers both a conceptual foundation and empirical-based evaluation of interactional justice and its effect on organizational commitment and, specifically, on guardianship/shoplifting prevention behaviors. Second, and from a pragmatic perspective, the conceptual model derived from this research may assist retailers in developing interactional justice strategies that encourage organizational commitment of employees that consequently leads to employees' guardianship/shoplifting prevention behaviors. Finally, it explores significance and role of employee perceptions of interactional justice, employee workplace attachment and organizational commitment within the context of retail crime prevention.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does FDI affect carbon intensity? New evidence from dynamic panel analysis
|
[
"Foreign direct investment",
"Carbon intensity",
"Pollution halo effect"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the mid-twentieth century, with the development of economic globalization, multinational companies actively participated in international production and operation, which encouraged the moving of resources globally. Multinational companies promote resource optimization worldwide, affect the utilization of natural resources in the host country and influence their emission of pollutants. On the one hand, the change in the layout of multinational companies also might result in a redistribution of carbon emissions in different countries, as it might promote the global spread of capital and technology and accelerate the speed of technological diffusion (Acharyya, 2009). On the other hand, multinational companies with advanced technology and capital transfer might promote the development of technology in the host country and reduce the emission intensity during the utilization of regional resources. Moreover, the emission efficiency-enhancing technologies, policies and performances found in one economy diffuse (\"spillover\") into another economy via transnational economic linkages (Hoffmann et al., 2005; Perkins and Neumayer, 2012; Wheeler, 2001). Therefore, foreign direct investment (FDI) might not only promote the transfer of production capacity but also affect the environmental pollutions.\n2. Literature review: In recent years, researchers have begun to focus on the causes and mechanisms of environmental pollution, and the relationship between capital flow and the environment as one of the most controversial issues. To reduce the implementation costs and fees leading to higher environmental standards, the enterprises in developed countries tend to transfer the pollution industry through FDI to the developing countries with low environmental control standards, which significantly worsens the host country's environment. This is the classical \"pollution haven hypothesis\" proposed by Chichilnisky (1994) and Copeland and Taylor (1994). Copeland and Taylor (1994) propose a static model of North-South trade to examine linkages between national income, environmental quality and international trade. One of the most important results from their study is that the income gains arising from an opportunity to trade can affect pollution in a different way from the income gains obtained through economic growth. By isolating the scale, composition and technique effects of international trade on pollution, they show that free trade increases world pollution: if the human-capital-poor country is less densely populated than the rich country, then its tendency to specialize in pollution-intensive goods will be reinforced.\n3. Carbon intensity analysis: Carbon intensity can be calculated as the ratio of CO2 and GDP in a certain period. Figure 1 shows carbon intensity of nine high-income countries, namely, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Kore, and the USA during 1990 through 2013. Figure 1 shows that most of the countries' carbon intensities reduced, and only Italy and Japan's carbon intensity did not change dramatically. In the nine countries, the USA had the highest carbon intensity, and Italy's emission intensity was the lowest during most times. Through the development of strict regulation, low energy consumption, industrial structure and other measures, the high-income countries' carbon intensity decreased slowly; it is worth mentioning that the USA's carbon intensity decreased rapidly. The implementation of strong environmental policies will help a country to reduce its carbon intensity (Ponce de Leon Barido and Marshall, 2014).\n4. Econometric methodology and data description: 4.1 The variables and data description\n5. Empirical results: 5.1 Result with worldwide samples\n6. Research conclusions and policy recommendations: This paper first analyzes the effect of FDI on carbon intensity by using the data of 188 countries during 1990-2013. The dynamic panel data model is first used to consider the endogeneity problem, so that more reliable results can be obtained. The result shows that FDI has a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of the host country. After considering the share of fossil fuels, industrial intensity, urbanization level and trade openness, the impact of FDI on carbon intensity is still significantly positive. In addition, the share of fossil fuels and industrial intensity are both positively correlated with carbon intensity, while urbanization level and trade openness are both negatively correlated with carbon intensity. Furthermore, FDI also has a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of high-income countries and middle- and low-income countries. However, the effect of urbanization level and trade openness on high-income countries becomes insignificant, and the effect of other control variables is still significant with the expected sign.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to clarify the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and carbon intensity. This study uses the dynamic panel data model to study and provide fresh evidence for the issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study first uses the dynamic panel data model to consider the endogeneity problem, and applies a system-generalized method of moments estimator to study the effect of FDI on carbon intensity using the panel data of 188 countries during 1990-2013.\nFindings: The result shows that FDI has a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of the host country. After considering the other factors, including share of fossil fuels, industrial intensity, urbanization level and trade openness, the impact of FDI on carbon intensity is still significantly positive. In addition, FDI also has a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of high-income countries and middle- and low-income countries.\nOriginality/value: This paper offers two contributions to the literature on the effect of FDI on carbon intensity. From a methodological perspective, this paper is the first to apply a dynamic panel data model to study the effect of FDI on carbon intensity using worldwide panel data. Second, this paper is the first to analyze the effect of FDI on carbon intensity in different countries with different income levels separately.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Integrated reliability and maintainability analysis of Computerized Numerical Control Turning Center considering the effects of human and organizational factors
|
[
"Human factors",
"Maintainability",
"Weibull analysis",
"Imperfect maintenance",
"Downtimes analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Modern complex systems have four basic elements, namely, hardware, software, organizational and human, which affect system performance, reliability, maintainability and availability (Zio, 2009). Reliability engineering was initially developed to handle the failures of hardware systems. However, technological development in the field of software and electronics resulted in the more advanced and sophisticated hardware system controlled precisely by electronic devices and software. Today, many engineering systems are developed by integrating both hardware and software. In this context, software reliability is significant for smooth and interrupted operation of the hardware and should be taken for system reliability analysis (Johnson, 2007). So, it is required to enlarge the scope of software reliability assessment and need to integrate with hardware.\n2. Literature survey: As discussed in previous section that the modern system consists of four basic elements: hardware, software, organizational and human. Reliability engineering was initially developed for the analysis of only hardware element. However, it is required to consider all these four elements in order to model and predict the reliability and maintainability of the complex systems. This research work started with the collection of a large number of research papers. These papers were reviewed with the aim to know:\n3. Human performance influencing factors (PIFs) and organizational factors (OFs): In this section, 12 human PIFs and 10 OFs taken for the analysis are defined and summarized. The human PIFs and OFs are selected using the opinions of the experts in the field of CNC assisted machine tools and by referring several research papers.\n4. Prioritizing human PIFs and OFs according to their criticality: It is in this context, the focus of this study is on:\n5. Effect of HOFs on the reliability and maintainability of the CNCTC: The HOFs influence the reliability and maintainability of the CNCTC. If the maintenance is greatly influenced by HOFs, then it may increase the time required for maintenance of a component and the next failure of the same component may take place before the expected time-between-failure (TBF) or time-to-failure (TTF). As such, if the time required for maintenance is far greater than the mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) and the failure of the component takes place far before the mean-time-between-failure (MTBF), then repairs or failures are assumed to be influenced by HOFs. This may be due to improper maintenance, selection of faulty components, manufacturing defects, misalignment and so on. In this context, the failure and repair times influenced by HOFs can be identified in consultation with experts in the field. The failure and repair data are sorted according to the pure failures and repairs due to hardware, software and HOFs.\n6. Comparison of results of reliability and maintainability analysis with those obtained using experts' judgments: In this section, the results of reliability and maintainability analysis are compared with those obtained using experts' judgments for the verification. The criticality rank for each of the 14 different sub-systems namely. CNC sub-system, Chuck sub-system, electrical and electronic sub-system, hydraulic sub-system, main transmission, spindle sub-system, x- and z-axis sub-system, coolant sub-system (CS), turret sub-system, pneumatic sub-system, other sub-system, lubrication sub-system, swarf conveyor and tailstock sub-system of the CNCTC have been collected from 12 maintenance analysts or experts in the field. The rank value of \"1\" represents the most critical sub-system, whereas the rank value of \"14\" represents the least critical sub-system. Table XII shows the expert judgments on the criticality ranking of various sub-sub-systems of the CNCTC from reliability perspective.\n7. Conclusions: The reliability and maintainability analysis of the CNCTC carried out in this paper reveals that the HOFs play a significant role in the reliable, maintainable, and safe operation of a system. In total, 12 human PIFs and 10 OFs have been identified, defined and prioritized according to their criticality from reliability and maintainability perspective using expert opinions and judgments. It has been shown that the experience, training and behavior are the most critical human PIFs, and safety culture, problem solving resources, corrective action program, and training program are the most critical OFs. Therefore, it is concluded that the close monitoring of these HOFs is essential in order to improve reliability and maintainability of the CNCTC.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Reliability, maintainability and availability of modern complex engineered systems are significantly affected by four basic systems or elements: hardware, software, organizational and human. Computerized Numerical Control Turning Center (CNCTC) is one of the complex machine tools used in manufacturing industries. Several research studies have shown that the reliability and maintainability is greatly influenced by human and organizational factors (HOFs). The purpose of this paper is to identify critical HOFs and their effects on the reliability and maintainability of the CNCTC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, 12 human performance influencing factors (PIFs) and 10 organizational factors (OFs) which affect the reliability and maintainability of the CNCTC are identified and prioritized according to their criticality. The opinions of experts in the fields are used for prioritizing, whereas the field failure and repair data are used for reliability and maintainability modeling.\nFindings: Experience, training, and behavior are the three most critical human PIFs, and safety culture, problem solving resources, corrective action program and training program are the four most critical OFs which significantly affect the reliability and maintainability of the CNCTC. The reliability and maintainability analysis reveals that the Weibull is the best-fit distribution for time-between-failure data, whereas log-normal is the best-fit distribution for Time-To-Repair data. The failure rate of the CNCTC is nearly constant. Nearly 66 percent of the total failures and repairs are typically due to the hardware system. The percentage of failures and repairs influenced by HOFs is nearly only 16 percent; however, the failure and repair impact of HOFs is significant. The HOFs can increase the mean-time-to-repair and mean-time-between-failure of the CNCTC by nearly 65 and 33 percent, respectively.\nOriginality/value: The paper uses the field failure data and expert opinions for the analysis. The critical sub-systems of the CNCTC are identified using the judgment of the experts, and the trend of the results is verified with published results.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of achievement press on student success in elementary schools
|
[
"Achievement press",
"Leadership",
"Principalship",
"School climate",
"Schools"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, schools have been charged with doing more with less. However, the press for both school accountability and student achievement remains. To be sure, educational stakeholders are searching for ways to encourage positive learning environments while targeting institutional efficiency.A burgeoning body of research is emerging that supports achievement press as a key element in both formulating and maintaining organizational effectiveness (McGuigan and Hoy, 2006). This investigation examines the impact of achievement press on student success in elementary schools and has both theoretical and practical significance. The concept of achievement press provides fertile ground for an important line of inquiry about the nature of schools. Specifically, this inquiry probes the types of school climate factors that nurture achievement in elementary schools. We begin our analyses with a brief discussion of achievement factors and then identify the organizational climate index (OCI) (Hoy et al., 2002) as the operational measure used to assess the concept. Next, we develop a central research question to guide the analysis and test our general hypotheses by employing a diverse sample of elementary schools in the southern portion of the USA. Finally, we offer some suggestions about how administrators can utilize the results of the investigation to change and advance schools.\n2. Literature review: The quest for academic achievement, instructional quality, and organizational excellence are major challenges confronting administrators, teachers, students, and parents. For educators, determining how organizations contribute to students' academic success oftentimes proves perplexing. Indeed, societal changes continue to increase pressures on schools as student populations become more diverse and high-stakes testing persists. As a result, schools have been forced to engage models that embrace systems of student assessment and minimum standards for advancement. These and other changes have fueled demands for both higher standards and greater accountability in our schools. Indeed, public scrutiny of achievement differences among schools is growing.School climate affects students and their quests for achievement. Hence, a key to the academic success of students is the nurturing of healthy and purposefully directed school environments. Whereas teachers are directly responsible for teaching and learning in the classroom, school administrators are charged with the development of organizations that facilitate teaching and learning (Murphy and Louis, 1999; Rowan, 1994). Together, campus stakeholders focus their talents on increasing academic achievement for all students.As educators seek the means to improve school performance in response to societal changes and recent policy developments, the examination of campus social factors that facilitate excellence becomes critical. To be sure, the school environment represents a critical piece of the effective schools' puzzle. Indeed, the organizational climate of the school may forward effectiveness and meaningful learning connections. Our discussion now turns to the identification of achievement press, an important organizational feature that has been shown to enhance student success.Academic achievement: a brief history\n3. Research question and hypothesis: We maintain that an important facet of effective schools is strong stakeholder recognition of high academic performance. At schools where students, parents, teachers, and administrators press for academic achievement, stakeholders also embrace high-performance goals, which may lead to increased student performance (McGuigan and Hoy, 2006). Therefore, seeking to further explore the concept of achievement press, this investigation is driven by the following research question: What is the relationship between achievement press and student achievement? The general hypothesis of this study is that achievement press will be positively related to student achievement, but we recognize both social and demographic factors impact school achievement outcomes. Thus, we also consider SES, student attendance rates, principal longevity, and school size in our analysis. The discussion now turns to the methodology employed in the study.\n4. Methodology: Sample\n5. Results/findings: An initial analysis\n6. Discussion: The data yielded information on two different strands: school climate variables that impacted near-term success (one year) and school climate variables, which impacted longitudinal success (three years). In regards to near-term success, three variables made statistically significant independent contributions to the dependent variable: SES, administrator longevity, and achievement press. In addition, two study variables, SES and achievement press, emerged as statistically significant independent predictors of longitudinal success.Administrator longevity\n7. Conclusion: In this study, we found that achievement press is a critical factor contributing to school success. Accordingly, this research reinforces the seminal work of Lezotte (1997), veneers the more current research of Goddard et al. (2000), and adds to a growing body of literature connecting specific campus climate variables to student success. In brief, we found achievement press was a significant predictor of school success. This research also serves to further validate the usefulness of \"achievement press\" as a concise multi-level school climate measure. It is our hope that the findings from this investigation advance the premise that school leaders interested in sustaining greater levels of student achievement can do so by increasing the achievement press of campus stakeholders. To be sure, achievement press does make an impact on school-level success and the evidence from this analysis of 105 elementary schools in south Texas confirms the importance of developing high levels of academic expectations among all campus stakeholders.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to examine the relative impact of achievement press on student success in elementary schools in the Southwestern USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data from individual teacher assessments and student achievement tests are collected and aggregated at the campus level. Hierarchical linear modeling is utilized to calculate the Intra Class Correlation (ICC), then campus level scores for achievement press (along with control variables) are regressed on school success indicators in order to determine the relative impact of achievement press on various levels of school attainment.\nFindings: - The results of these analyses demonstrate that achievement press made a statistically significant independent contribution to school success, both near term (one year) and longitudinally (over three years).\nResearch limitations/implications: - Via the use of a reliable and valid diagnostic tool, this investigation adds to the extant literature on school climate, achievement, and school effectiveness.\nPractical implications: - This study provides important information for educational leaders interested in improving both school climate and student achievement. Practical concerns about socioeconomic status and administrator longevity are also addressed.\nOriginality/value: - This research validates the usefulness of achievement press as a concise multi-level school climate measure. To that end, this study both demonstrates that achievement press makes an impact on school level success and adds to a growing body of literature connecting specific campus climate variables directly to student achievement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Motivations to consume ecological foods in alternative food networks (AFNs) in Southern Spain
|
[
"Motives",
"Consumers",
"Ecological",
"Food Choice Questionnaire"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: During the 1970s and the 1980s, Europe witnessed expressions of social protest such as ecologist groups, fair trade, movements against globalization/global justice, among others, as a response to changes in food propitiated by contradictions in the global food system, the agricultural modernization by the so called Green Revolution and the exploiting relationships of the global supply chains (Goodman et al., 2012; Calo et al., 2012; Perez Izquierdo et al., 2012; Lopez Garcia, 2011; Descals and Perez, 2000).\n2. Methodology: Data were collected via the application of questionnaires in ecological markets in Seville. The study was applied at random (Keith et al., 2002) to consumers over 18 years of age (Rojas-Rivas et al., 2018; De Maya et al., 2011; Diaz Viquez et al., 2015). For the total number of questionnaires to apply, we followed the recommendations by Field (2013) and Hair et al. (1999) for cluster analyses, which require five cases per analyzed variable, this is to say, a total of 150 questionnaires were applied.\n3. Results: 3.1 Factor analysis\n4. Discussion: The number of factors obtained in the present work was superior in comparison with other works that report from five to nine factors (Bertuglia and Roa, 2017; Escobar-Lopez et al., 2017; Lee and Yun, 2015; Mohamad et al., 2014; Sevilla Guzman et al., 2012; Stolz et al., 2011); on the other side, it agrees with the factors obtained by Zander and Hamm (2010).\n5. Conclusions: Even if the four groups obtained have the same reasons to buy ecological foods, they display a differentiated behavior by giving each of them various degrees of importance. By and large, it is noticed that the first motivation is social ecological concern, this is to say, consumers are interested in the local impacts on nature and the world around them, which is ensued by hedonic motivations (consumers looking for their self-benefit). Indubitably, these are differentiated consumers, interested in quality local foods that benefit the world around them; however, there is a mixture of hedonic and ethical motives, being the former the most stressed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the motivations to consume ecological foods in alternative food networks (AFNs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 150 questionnaires were applied; the questionnaire was adapted from Food Choice Questionnaire (Steptoe et al., 1995). Data were analyzed by means of multivariate statistics with factor and cluster analysis. In order to identify statistical differences (p<0.05), Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney nonparametric tests were performed.\nFindings: Ten factors or motivations were found: social ecological concern, nutritional content, sensory aspects, certifications, naturalness, specialized consumption, trust in the seller, economic aspects, health and availability. Four groups were obtained and called: citizen consumers, in-process citizen consumers, conscious social consumers with no interest in certifications and conscious pragmatic consumers. It is concluded that differentiated consumers visit these establishments and their motivations are diverse, albeit they concur, to a varying extent, with the objectives of AFNs, finding a mixture of hedonic and ethical motivations.\nPractical implications: This sort of works about specific places of consumption as well as specific consumers, in this case ecological, contributes to the development of future social research on other contexts, different consumers and products.\nOriginality/value: This sort of research has been carried out in various European cities, with a number of foods and over various sales channels; however, at present there is a debate around AFNs and the veracity of their goals. This way, the present work can contribute with an answer to whether the goals match the motivations of consumers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Co-creation of value using hotel interactive technologies: examining intentions and conversion
|
[
"Service-dominant logic",
"Hotels",
"Technology adoption",
"Conversion",
"Consumer participation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The hotel industry continued its efforts to deploy information systems (IS) to engage consumers and offer high-value experiences (Dickinson et al., 2016). A particular group of IS - interactive IS - became attractive to hotel decision-makers because of their ability to stimulate consumers' participation in interactions with firms (Zhu and Morosan, 2014). Such interactions stay at the foundation of most contemporary service models, which are increasingly grounded in the service-dominant (S-D) logic paradigm (Rozenes and Cohen, 2017). According to the S-D logic, consumers do not passively reach to firms' predetermined value propositions; in turn, they engage actively with firms to change the initial value proposition (Morosan and DeFranco, 2016). The goal of such service models is to enhance the value-in-use[1]* resulting from consumer-firm interactions (Prebensen et al., 2017). Specifically, consumers interact to change the parameters of the initial value proposition offered by a firm, and in turn, the firm gains knowledge of how to continuously adjust the services offered, with the aim of further improving the experiences provided. As it is imperative for firms to encourage consumer-firm interactions, the IS that facilitate consumers' participation - thereafter called \"hotel interactive technologies\" (HINT) - began to be recognized as important to the creation/appropriation of value (Morosan, 2015a).\nReview of literature: Theoretical foundations and variable selection\nMethodology: Instrument development and data collection\nResults: Preliminary analyses\nDiscussion: The analysis provided support for six hypotheses, therefore validating the theoretical model explaining hotel consumers' intentions to use HINT and conversion in hotels. The first objective of this study was to validate habit and hedonic motivation as predictors of consumer participation in consumer-firm interactions using HINT. The habit was found to strongly influence participation, while the role of hedonic motivation, though significant was marginal (supporting H1 and H2). This finding denotes that consumers respond relatively automatically to the availability of interactions proposed by firms. In contrast, hotels' emphasis on the enjoyment aspects of HINT usage does not resonate highly with consumers. This could be explained by the fact that a multitude of contemporary technologies is designed to engage consumers based on hedonic elements, which may drive the consumers to expect pleasantly designed or gamified systems and task environments in all aspects of contemporary life, including in hotels. In such contexts, consumers' hedonic motivations may be sufficient to drive participation, but the overall motivational structure that drives participation may rely on other types of motivations.\nImplications: Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research: Given its social science nature, there are limitations to this study. Such limitations may affect the generalizability of the findings, which should be carefully interpreted. A limitation is the use of only a few measures of conversion. Yet, this limitation opens up opportunities for further research, which can investigate various aspects of conversion (e.g. types of services that the consumers are bundling together). Another limitation is the broad conceptualization of HINT. While the literature generally focuses on specific task-technology dyads, this study grouped the HINT together because only their common purpose - to facilitate consumer-firm interactions - was relevant to the study's context. Future research could explore in more detail individual interactive technologies to build specific theoretical and managerial knowledge of the role of different IS in the contemporary hotel services. Another limitation is the description of the task environment (i.e. to access products or personalize a stay). Future research can investigate discrete tasks, which can elucidate the way various discrete task environments influence the overall consumption experience. Another potential fruitful research direction is to conduct a longitudinal study, where data can be collected pre- and post-stay to reveal insight into the role of the consumption environment on consumers' behavior or the behaviors of actual HINT users.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study was to validate a conceptual model that examined consumers' intentions to use hotel interactive technologies (HINT) and their conversion behaviors in hotels. The model was built on consumers' participation in consumer-firm interactions, their level of innovativeness and their perceived benefit of using interactive technologies as antecedents of intentions and conversion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The conceptual model was built upon the service-dominant (S-D) logic, technology adoption, social psychology and marketing theory. Using structural equation modeling, the model was validated using a nationwide sample of 841 consumers who have stayed in hotels that offered interactive technologies.\nFindings: Consumers' information system habit and hedonic motivations influenced their participation in consumer-firm interactions when using HINT. In turn, participation and innovativeness influenced conversion behavior, while innovativeness and perceived benefit of using interactive technologies influenced intentions to use such technologies.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study extends the S-D logic, technology adoption, social psychology and marketing literature by validating a model that blends system perceptions, consumer characteristics and information system-related behaviors to explicate intentions and conversion. Thus, this study illustrates the modeling/evaluation of such blended models.\nPractical implications: The study provides hoteliers a layout of the factors influencing consumers' intentions to use interactive technologies and conversion. It also explains how participation in consumer-firm interactions and perceived benefit have contrasting roles in influencing consumers' intentions and conversion behavior.\nOriginality/value: This study examined two distinct concepts that reflect the value co-created in hotel settings due to technology-based consumer-firm interactions: consumers' intentions to use interactive technologies and their actual conversion behavior. The study also recognized the pivotal role of participation in influencing conversion and emphasized the contrasting roles of participation and perceived benefit in influencing longer-term (i.e. intentions) and short-term (i.e. conversion) behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Green supply chain management initiatives and operational competitive performance
|
[
"Performance",
"Supply chain",
"Delivery",
"Green purchasing",
"Environmental management",
"Cost"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The key factors that have been driving the integration of environmental management and sustainability in businesses in the past were compliance with regulation, legislation, and cost savings (Green et al., 1995). Currently, many firms have recognized that meeting only the regulatory requirements is not adequate to stay in the competition and have now turned efforts to pollution prevention and monitoring for effective and efficient operations (Yosie and Herbst, 1996; Watson et al., 2004). Most organizations are enhancing their competitiveness through improvements in their environmental performance to comply with the mounting environmental regulations, in order to address the environmental concerns of their customers and to mitigate the environmental impact of their production and service activities (Bacallan, 2000).\n2. Literature and research hypotheses: 2.1 GSCM\n3. Research method: 3.1 Data collection and sampling\n4. Results: 4.1 EFA\n5. Discussions and conclusions: The results from the studies provide some highlights on the relationship between GSCM practices such as environmental management and GP practices and how these practices will impact the implementing organization's competitive operational capabilities in terms of reduced cost, improved quality, and flexibility in Ghana. From the results, organizations in Ghana stand the chance of reducing production cost, improved quality, and operational flexibility by implementing green supply chain practices such as EMSs and purchasing from environmentally responsible suppliers. These findings seem to be consistent with other researchers such as Kumar et al. (2012), who found environmental management practices' implementation and its potential for cost savings, improved efficiency and attracting new suppliers and customers. Madsen and Ulhoi (2003), Green et al. (2012), Porter and van der Linnder (1995a, b), Rao and Holt (2005) all found similar results in their studies and concluded and argued that corporate adoption of environmental management practices could actually reduce production cost, and improve product value or the image of the company. Green et al. (2012) found a positive association between operational performance and both environmental and economic performance. Our results did not find support for environmental management practices and delivery time of the implementing organization. In fact, Perotti et al. (2012) reported that only a minor increase in on-time delivery has been experienced. It is, therefore, important for organizations involved in environmental management initiatives to expect some improvement in cost reductions, quality, and flexibility; however, it is unlikely that they will experience some improvements in delivery performance.\n6. Implications, limitations, and future research: The results indicate that when organizations invest in green supply chain management systems such as the implementation of EMSs and GP, they are likely to achieve cost reductions, improved quality, and flexibility. For managers and executives, this, in fact, indicates that it is important to invest in EMSs since these investments are likely to enhance their operational competitive capabilities in terms of cost, quality, and flexibility. Such enhanced benefits are also likely to improve the image of the overall performance in terms of sales growth, increased profits, and overall market share.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Manufacturing organizations have begun to implement green supply chain management (GSCM) practices in response to customer demand for products and services that are environmentally sustainable and that are created through environmentally sustainable practices and in response to governmental environmental regulations. Despite rising concerns about green management, there seem to be few studies investigating GSCM and its impacts on the operational competitive capabilities from a developing economy. The purpose of this paper is to understand the extent of GSCM practices' implementation in Ghana and how such practices impact firms' operational competitive capabilities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling was used to study the relationship between GSCM practices and firm operational competitive performance in terms of cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery time using a survey of informants.\nFindings: Using data from Ghana, the work demonstrates that GSCM practices such as environmental management systems (EMSs) and green purchasing (GP) practices will have a positive relationship with firm's operational competitive performance in terms of cost, quality, and flexibility, but seems to have no positive relationship with delivery time. Further moderation analysis indicates that the paths from environmental management practices to reduced cost and flexibility were significant, indicating that the effect of environmental management practices on operational efficiency differs among services, manufacturing, construction and mining. The paths from Green purchase to improved quality, delivery time, flexibility, and reduced cost were insignificant.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results indicate the relevance and the implications of GSCM practices such as implementing comprehensive EMSs and GP on operational competitive performance on firms from a developing country such as Ghana. Specifically, the results indicate that when organizations invest in GSCM practices, they are likely to achieve cost reductions, improved quality, and flexibility. The relationship between GSCM practices is moderated by various industrial sectors.\nPractical implications: The research shows how GSCM practices such as EMSs implementation and GP practices can enhance firm's operational competitive performance.\nOriginality/value: The work illustrates and provides some insights and build on the literature in the area of green supply chain and firms' operational competitiveness from a developing country's environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"It may well be that Briloff is the nearest US equivalent to Sikka"
|
[
"Accounting",
"Accounting research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: We begin with a conundrum that arises from a comparison of the above title and:... to say that our scholarly work and public interventions have been modeled on Briloff's work is unsupported and unsupportable (Sikka and Willmott, 2001, p. 5)[1].The quandary concerns the relationship between the scholarship of Abe Briloff, and that of Prem Sikka (and Hugh Willmott). Sikka and Willmott contend that their work was not \"modeled\" on Briloff's. They claim that any assertion to the contrary is \"unsupported and unsupportable\", (Sikka and Willmott, 2002, p. 3). Here we examine the evidence.A useful starting point is \"The Mountains are still There\" (Sikka et al., 1995). In this, Sikka et al. (1995) discuss the works of three accounting intellectuals (MacNeal, Briloff and Stamp). These authors constitute a literary system -that is a canon of accounting activism - out of which future texts were produced. Jonathan Culler in his structuralist literary theory highlights the way in which such literary genres are created. Inter alia, he highlights what can be said within a particular literary system. In Culler's analysis, the specificities of the individual author become less important than the structural conventions of the genre itself. It is our argument that Briloff played an important role in creating a literary genre - accounting activism - which Sikka and Willmott find themselves operating within. The implication of Culler's position is that Sikka and Willmott are less significant as individual authors and instead should be seen as contributing to a broader literary genre.Sikka et al. (1995) is instructive insofar as it provides an account of the accounting activist literature by highlighting the achievements of three of its foremost luminaries. Whilst reproaching Stamp, there is nonetheless an unmistakable fondness for the achievements of the triumverate of MacNeal, Briloff and Stamp. Indeed, the title of their paper is drawn from a quote from Briloff himself:if you are going to climb the highest mountain and you don't make it with all the wind and elements against you, have you failed? You have only failed, if you did not try with all your might. The challenges, the mountains are still there. That is what makes life exciting.Briloff, cited in Lea (1995), emphasis added denoting the title of Sikka et al. (1995).Simply put, the paper serves to consecrate MacNeal, Briloff and Stamp as the doyens of an emergent pantheon of the accounting activism. That is, it is an illustration of the existence of the accounting activist literary system. A mere 6 years after the publication of their paper, which drew such palpable inspiration from Briloff, the authors are confident enough to commit an Oedipus-like inversion, by enthroning one of their number into this august pantheon:...It may be the case that \"Briloff\" is the nearest US equivalent to Sikka (or vice versa) (Sikka and Willmott, 2001, p. 5).In this fashion, the simulacrum eclipses the original; the pupil supplants the teacher. But what is the logic behind this triumphant inversion? Unlike the hapless Briloff, the commentators have achieved institutional cultural capital- in the form of chairs at the prestigious Universities of Cambridge and Essex, respectively. Not so for poor Briloff:... Briloff's reputation as a stout and vocal rooter-out of dissembling and hypocrisy effectively dampened the prospect of gaining an academic position at a more prestigious and \"respectable\" institution which would have added further \"clout\" to his voice (Sikka et al., 1995, p. 127).1.1 Activists and intellectuals\n2 Summary and implications: Sikka and Willmott (2002, p. 13) note that, \"We would welcome the careful examination and critique of our work\". Within the confines of a very severe word budget, we have attempted to provide hard evidence for such examination. We conclude that their assertion contained in this paper's title - that Sikka is a British Briloff, and that the two are equivalent - is false. Briloff is not an American Sikka. As Lloyd Bensten put it, \"We have known Professor Briloff Mr. Sikka; you are no Abraham Briloff\". From their earliest writings, Sikka et al. celebrated Briloff's methods and accomplishments; portraying him as the quintessential activist. Yet their own work is a pale imitation in terms of both method and results. Regarding the former, it is telling that Sikka and Willmott just did not understand that, to become a British Briloff, it was essential to master Briloff's craft of financial statement analysis. Anything short is a cheap imitation. In our view, these authors are candidates for \"The Abe Briloff Tribute Band\": earnestly knocking out the old hits, but certainly not the real thing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - A reply to responses by Prem Sikka and Tony Willmott (\"The withering of tolerance and communication in interdisciplinary accounting studies\") and Robert Scapens (\"Reactions on reading 'The withering of criticism'\") to Tony Tinker's initial paper, \"The withering of criticism\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper employs argument and discourse to critique the responses and defend the author's position.\nFindings: - The paper offers the authors' view of the comparative research approaches of Briloff, Sikka and Willmott.\nOriginality/value: - The paper extends critical debate on North American and UK contributions and approaches to critical accounting scholarship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The evolution of township and village enterprises (TVEs) in China
|
[
"Rural economies",
"Business development",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Township and village enterprises (TVEs) have played a significant role in promoting rural employment and economic growth and reducing disparity of urban and rural economy. This article starts with a summary of how TVEs have contributed to rural economic growth. This is followed by a description of the challenges facing rural enterprises. It then argues that policies have to be made to promote private enterprises, to help upgrade industrial structure, to develop the agri-food processing industry, to improve quality and branding, to encourage business concentration in towns, and to encourage regional economic and technical collaborations. It ends with a description of the latest development in property restructuring in TVEs.Since the reform and opening up policy was adopted in China in the 1980s, TVEs have thrived in rural areas. They were the remarkable innovation of farmers indeed. TVEs, as a very special concept, have rich indications. From the ownership point of view, they are set up by townships, villages, several households (or partnerships), individual household (or private), or jointly by Chinese and foreign partners through shareholding mechanisms or shareholding cooperative systems. In terms of forms of organisations, some are established as companies or partnership entities, but mostly are now privately owned. Regarding the scale of operation, some are big, but the majority are small and medium-sized enterprises, which as a whole dominates the SME sector in China. Geographically, they are located in rural areas. Or more precisely, their businesses originated from there. As small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) themselves, they share the general features of smaller businesses and follow the patterns of SME development. However, the most important thing is that they have played an active role in promoting rural employment and economic growth and reducing disparity of urban and rural economy. In order to keep up with the original connotation, this paper uses the term TVEs throughout.\nTVEs as the driving force behind the rural economy: Reforms in China started with the introduction of household contract arrangements in villages, which helped raise productivity by freeing productive forces. The unprecedented speed of agricultural growth gave farmers the possibility of looking for non-agricultural jobs and business opportunities. Initially, in relatively developed eastern part of China, TVEs came to the fore like bamboo shoots overnight after rainfall, attracting surplus labour to swarm in to work. They were involved in the light industry, textile, building materials, machine making or transportation, offsetting huge gaps in products or sectors as a result of the shortage economy under the planned system. Businesses in general were very profitable. As farmers in China opened a wealth-making opportunity for themselves independently, and success of entrepreneurship in rural areas helped to nurture the market economy in China as a whole, TVEs have contributed to the acceleration of market reforms and phenomenal changes in the rural economy. Their contributions are summarised as follows.They are the new economic force\nChanges and challenges facing TVEs in the process of growth and transformation: TVEs have played their part in driving forth the rural and national economy and economic restructuring over the past 25 years. After experimentation in contract systems, shareholding cooperatives or other forms of ownership, they have accumulated invaluable experience for further economic reforms, particularly for reforms of collective or state-owned enterprises. After the rapid economic growth and replacement of the planned system by the market economy, raw materials and products are no longer in shortage, which is a fundamental change. The market is much more open to both domestic and overseas players, and competition has become much fiercer. Pressure is now mounting on enterprises for their products, technologies and management. So TVEs are confronted with new challenges.The outdated management and organisational set-ups\nWhere to go in the future: TVEs will not feel that the mission is accomplished until the dual structure of urban-rural economy is removed and over 400 million farmers unshackled from farming fields. This may take a long time to achieve in China. They will surely move on through readjustment and restructuring. In the near terms, attention has to be paid to the following issues.Efforts should be made to develop non-state-owned enterprises or to diversify ownerships\nLatest progress in property right system reforms of TVEs: TVEs are the result of China's economic reforms, and continue to evolve with reforms. The progress of current reforms is reflected in the following aspects.First, reforms have gradually deepened. In the 1980s, the contract-based responsibility system prevailed in TVEs; at the beginning of the 1990s, with cooperative shareholding system as the focus of the reform, the property right system was touched upon; since 1992, the TVE reform has come to a new stage with the property right system reform as the focal point. Currently, in the reform of TVEs in China, 80 per cent of the enterprises engaged in the reform are somewhat involved in property right system reform. The reform has basically addressed the fundamental problems of TVEs in terms of obscure property right and lacking property owners. Township governments have changed their direct control over enterprises to indirect control and service provision, as a result enterprises have become true competitors in the market.Second, reform was carried out in various forms in line with the specific actual situation of enterprises, such as selling, leasing, contracting, merging, bankruptcy, organising enterprise groups, cooperative shareholding system, limited liability company, limited liability stock company, etc. An oversimplified practice of selling enterprises that appeared in some places some time ago has been abolished.Third, reform practice was gradually regulated. Noting the tremendous loss of collective assets, which made a small number of people super rich overnight in the name of enterprise reform a few years ago, local governments have drawn lessons from regulating practices. Emphasis has now been placed on assets evaluation, property right clarification, assets restructuring, and property right transfer. By keeping a wide-open eye on collective assets evaluation, assets flow and interests distribution, local governments have effectively prevented and corrected the problems such as the loss of collective assets, evasion of debt repayment to banks, weakened function of supporting agriculture, etc.Fourth, importance is attached to supporting measures. Most enterprises carrying out property right reform have implemented internal supportive reforms. Corresponding adjustments and improvements have been made to governance structure, management recruitment system, employment system, distribution system, responsibility system, evaluation system, and management systems related to finance, cost, quality, etc. In many places, the property right reform has combined enterprise management reform with product development and marketing, technical upgrading, structure adjustment and strengthening management, which has promoted the development and improvement of enterprises.The reform has clarified property rights of TVEs, realised the separation of government functions from enterprises management, added to the vitality of enterprises, strengthened the input mechanism, enhanced the sense of responsibility of the manager, made more efficient use of bad assets, brought along the introduction of talents and technology and development of new products, and dramatically promoted the overall quality of enterprises and economic returns. But there are also some problems and difficulties in the reform of TVEs. First, some enterprises lag behind in the system reform. Some large and profitable enterprises lack initiative and sense of urgency in the reform, while some large and loss-making enterprises are facing too many difficulties in the reform. Second, the cost of enterprise system reform is high. The reform involves assets re-evaluation, transfer of property right and land usage right, related procedures required by the authorities of industry and commerce, authorities of taxation, banks, etc., and some even involve litigation, which takes a long time and high cost, adding to the heavy burden of enterprises. Third, there were losses of collective assets. The assets evaluation is not standardised. Inappropriate evaluation and under-evaluation happen frequently. Some of the sales and transfers of collective assets lacked transparency, while some of the recovered funds were not used properly. Fourth, supportive reforms fall behind. Some enterprises have not established standard corporate governance structure in time after the reform, shareholders' conference, board of directors and supervisory committee are not fully functioning, and the enterprise management system still needs to improve.Therefore, we should continue to stick to the direction of reforming the property right system in the TVE reform. With the existing problems in mind, we should regulate the reform practice and improve the policy of reform. Related government departments should endeavour to provide coordinated support, ensuring a steady and healthy progress of TVE reform.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article presents a summary of the development and current status of township and village enterprises (TVEs) in China, examines the latest development in property restructuring in TVEs and explores the key challenges facing TVEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is a reflection of the key policies that were conducive to the development of township and village enterprises.\nFindings: - This article argues that the further development of rural enterprises in China should focus on a number of policy issues, including promoting private enterprises, upgrading industrial structure, developing the agri-food processing industry, improving quality and branding, encouraging business concentration in towns, and encouraging regional economic and technical collaborations.\nOriginality/value: - The article highlights the trajectory of the development of township and village enterprises in China and the lessons that have been learnt in the process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Psychological adjustment and social capital: a qualitative investigation of Chinese expatriates
|
[
"Social capital",
"Organizational support",
"Grounded theory",
"Acculturation",
"Chinese expatriates",
"Psychological adjustment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Continuing globalization has led multinational companies (MNCs) to rely heavily on expatriates in order to compete in the global marketplace (Harrison et al., 2004; Lee et al., 2017). Expatriates are the key to MNCs' core competencies, and have a significant impact on the implementation of global strategies (Au and Fukuda, 2002; Bauer and Taylor, 2015). However, expatriates have to adapt to unfamiliar, complex work and non-work contexts overseas (e.g. different cultural customs, work practices), and such challenging assignments may result in psychological discomfort (e.g. uncertainty, anxiety) (Black et al., 1991; Caligiuri and Bonache, 2016; Gudykunst and Nishida, 2001; Morgeson and Campion, 2007). In addition, the disruption of original, domestic social networks by overseas transfer leads expatriates to undergo great pressure, which seriously affects their psychological well-being (Baruch et al., 2016). This may result in psychological withdrawal from, or in extreme cases the premature termination of, their international assignment (Kraimer et al., 2001). These further lead to many negative outcomes, include high financial and human costs, such as damage to the enterprise's reputation, loss of business opportunities and reduced self-esteem and increased stress in expatriates (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2004; Takeuchi, 2010; Tung, 1987). However, previous expatriation studies were mainly based on the theoretical framework which was developed by Black et al. (1991). The psychological adjustment process of expatriates has been far less examined (Fenner and Selmer, 2008). The existing psychological adjustment literature mainly focuses on immigrants (Berry and Hou, 2016, 2017) or international students (e.g. Zheng and Berry, 1991), and seldom pays attention to expatriates (Gonzalez-Loureiro et al., 2015; Kealey, 1989). The concept of social capital has come into adjustment research in recent years. Social capital refers to the social networks of individuals (Putnam, 1995, 2007). Two types of social capital have been distinguished in the literature: bonding capital (networks within an individual's own group) and bridging capital (networks between an individual and other groups). Among migrants, both bonding and bridging capital have been shown to relate to psychological well-being (Berry and Hou, 2016, 2017). While the expatriates' psychological adjustment has been recognized as having a significant role in the international assignments, the topic of how expatriates experience psychological adjustment and how their social capital affects that remains an under-explored area. This paper attempts to address this deficiency by examining the psychological adjustment of Chinese expatriates from the social capital perspective.\nLiterature review: Psychological adjustment and expatriates\nMethod: We used the qualitative approach to develop a nuanced and in-depth understanding of how Chinese expatriates experience their psychological adjustment, and why and how the social capital affects that process. We collected data through in-depth interviews, which enable us to understand their fresh experiences and the meanings of these experiences (Given, 2008, p. 423). The in-depth interview is an important tool for qualitative research because it can be used to collect rich practical data (Lindlof and Taylor, 2002). We applied the grounded theory method developed by Strauss and Corbin (1998), Corbin and Strauss (2008) to analyze the data, which represents a methodologically systematic approach to qualitative inquiry that uses progressive coding and analytic memos. This approach moves beyond description to generate a theory; it provides an abstract analytical schema of a process. It is characterized by constant comparison \"in order to explain the process under investigation and generate theory that is grounded in the relationship between the data and the categories into which they are coded\" (Barker, 2015).\nAnalysis and results: We derived 520 initial codes, which were summarized as 22 subcategories and further refined as 9 categories. The specific categories and their linkages are presented in Table II. The systematic coding revealed the intricate process of Chinese expatriates' psychological adjustment. And it also explained how social capital affected that. The 22 subcategories were identified to illuminate the essential sense of this process and social capital. Based on the entire coding, there was a clear \"story line.\" Namely, Chinese expatriates' psychological adjustment went through three stages, which included \"crisis period,\" \"adjustment period\" and \"growth period.\" During this whole process, the social capital (i.e. links with the organization, co-workers and family) would help them to adapt to the new environment. Therefore, we selected \"psychological adjustment and social capital\" as the core themes according to the categories and linkages that emerged from the data.\nDiscussion: Based on the above analysis, we developed the theoretical frameworks shown in Figures 2 and 3. These research findings contribute to the understanding of Chinese expatriates' psychological adjustment, in terms of its process and related influencing factors from the perspective of social capital. By applying an inductive approach, this research contributes to the development of context-specific knowledge about expatriates' psychological adjustment experience.\nConclusion: Based on the qualitative approach, this study has provided insight into the process of Chinese expatriates' psychological adjustment, and why and how the social capital affects that process. Overall, Chinese expatriates' psychological adjustment process included three periods: crisis, self-adjustment and self-growth period. This critical process took less than one year and was relatively positive under the influence of organizational support. The bonding capital was more conducive to their psychological well-being than bridging capital. The results also suggested that a positive separation acculturation strategy was conducive to psychological adjustment, rather than the integration strategy. These findings provide specific guidelines for future research as well as for practitioners. It takes a significant step forward by illuminating the psychological adjustment of Chinese expatriates from a social capital perspective, while also providing empirical evidence to better guide and manage Chinese expatriates in adjusting to international assignments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the psychological adjustment process of expatriates from Chinese multinational enterprises, including how their social capital affects this process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This qualitative investigation was based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 26 Chinese expatriates. The grounded theory method was applied to guide the data collection and analysis.\nFindings: The psychological adjustment process of Chinese expatriates includes three periods: crisis, self-adjustment and self-growth period. In addition, bonding capital (including organizational, family and co-cultural colleagues' support) is more conducive to Chinese expatriates' psychological well-being than bridging capital (e.g. host-nationals' support). Finally, a separation acculturation strategy is more conducive to psychological adjustment, rather than an integration strategy.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study focused on expatriates themselves. Future research should consider other stakeholders (e.g. organizations, family), and examine expatriate adjustment from new perspectives (e.g. strategic human resource management, work-family balance). This study had a small sample and focused on only one organization. Future research could usefully add other Chinese multinational corporations, and other Chinese expatriates to expand the generalizability of the current findings.\nPractical implications: This study suggests the possible benefits of management practices for expatriates. Organizations can develop an \"expatriate bubble\" to help structure basic life overseas. Organizations could develop family-support programs and make them expatriate-supportive. Organizations should also strengthen the connections between expatriates and local colleagues.\nOriginality/value: Few scholars have elaborated on how different support groups (based on their cultural backgrounds) influence the psychological adjustment of expatriates. Until now, mainland Chinese expatriates have received little attention. In addition, this research takes a significant step forward by illuminating the psychological adjustment of Chinese expatriates from a social capital perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Packaging logistics": promoting sustainable efficiency in supply chains
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Supply chain",
"Efficiency",
"Logistics",
"Packaging"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In increasingly turbulent and volatile markets, where competition is no longer only between companies, but rather between supply chains (Christopher, 2005), organisations ought to increase their efforts to increase competitiveness in these chains (Andersen and Skjoett-Larsen, 2009).\n2. Objectives and methodology: The main aim of this paper is to examine the aspects of internal and external transformation that take place in each company along the supply chain when a \"sustainable packaging logistics\" approach is implemented. Before this can be achieved, it is necessary to identify and characterise the principal cornerstones and stages associated with this implementation.\n3. Packaging, logistics and sustainability: Packaging\n4. Sustainable packaging logistics in Mercadona: Presentation\n5. Sustainable packaging logistics in Mercadona's supply chain: Presentation\n6. Discussion: Implementing a \"sustainable packaging logistics\" approach has actively contributed to Mercadona\n7. Conclusions: In the current competitive environment, companies must undertake actions to improve both the efficiency and sustainability of their processes, especially in terms of logistics. Many companies see this as a threat to their productive and logistic efficiency rather than as an opportunity to compete.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the aspects of internal and external transformation that take place in each company along the supply chain when a \"sustainable packaging logistics\" approach is implemented. Before this can be achieved, it is necessary to identify and characterise the principal cornerstones and stages associated with this implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the paper the combination of \"case study\" and \"action research\" techniques have been chosen. It has been analysed the implementation of \"sustainable packaging logistics\" in the supply chain of Mercadona (one of the largest retailers in Spain), paying special attention to the implementation and evolution in one of its main food suppliers.\nFindings: To adopt a \"Sustainable Packaging Logistics\" approach allows for a proactive integration of the efficiency and sustainability in supply chains. The proposal to implement \"sustainable packaging logistics\", based on four cornerstones and three stages of evolution is particularly significant, while contributing to improved competitiveness. This implementation constitutes an evolutionary process which is conditioned by how each area, department or company along the supply chain interpret and assess different packaging features over time.\nResearch limitations/implications: The model is based on a single supply chain analysis.\nOriginality/value: This paper may be of interest both for researchers and professionals, because the model can aid companies in improving their global vision of product and packaging design in order to jointly increase sustainability and efficiency in the supply chain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Distributional impact of public expenditure on human development in Nigeria
|
[
"Environmental protection",
"Rural development",
"Human development",
"Public expenditure",
"National economy",
"Fixed effect",
"Random effect",
"C23",
"E60",
"H30",
"H50"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the discovery of a new development paradigm which links growth with enhanced quality of life, public expenditure on some sectors of the economy has assumed an increasing importance. This is more due to the failure of most developing countries to achieve substantially the millennium development goals which have been rolled into sustainable development goals with a target year of 2030 when African countries should achieve specific targets in health, poverty and inequality reduction, education, water and sustainable environment, housing as well as food security that are imperative for human development, this according to Sen (1999) have exacerbated government carrying out expenditure on the education, health, agriculture, rural development, energy, housing, environmental protection, water resources, transport and communication sectors. In Nigeria, government at the federal and state levels has been playing prominent roles in improving human development to such an extent that one should expect a positive correlation between progress in expenditure in these sectors. This optimism may, however, be suspected because despite growth in public expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development, energy, housing, environmental protection, portable water resources, transport and communication, the pace of human development has been slow, and so far, its growth has been unstable and erratic. For instance, the human development index (HDI) grew positively by 0.3 percent in 1987 but declined to 0.1 percent in 1988. In 2005 and 2012, it grew negatively by -0.2 and -2.7 percent, respectively (UNDP, 2014).\n2. Review of literature: Bigsten and Levin (2005) posited that the compositions of government expenditure are critical determinants of growth, poverty reduction and human development. They are also of the view that if government is undertaking fiscal reforms, three types of impact should be considered. First, is the relative impact on prices and factor income change, income distribution and poverty. Second, the composition of government expenditures as it affects sectoral productivity and hence labor demand. Third, change in public expenditure on services such as education and health which impacts on household's well-being. In line with this and based on simulations equation model of the Swedish 13 different public expenditures, Dehlberg and Jakobsson (2005) showed that the effects of an increase in public consumption on employment, imports and private consumption differs considerably depending on which sector expenditure is expanded. In similar vein, Dorosh and Lundberg (1996) found that change in government expenditure following reduced current expenditures dampens mainly urban households, due to the bias of government employment. Protecting urban households from a short-term income loss incidentally has a long-term negative impact on the rural poor. At the International Food Policy Research Institute, some studies have been conducted along this theme for different countries. These studies are Fan et al. (2000) on India; Hao and Fan (2001) on Vietnam; Fan et al. (2002) on China and Jitsachon and Methakunavut (2003) on Thailand. A major profound conclusion of these studies is that public expenditure has influenced human development. However, the extent of influence differs from country to country. In a World Bank's (2005) study of 83 developing countries, it was observed that for countries that had the highest growth rates of real per capita GNP between 1980 and 1997, education played a significant impact. In a comparative analysis, it was also discovered that the literacy level in 1980 averaged 16.0 percent higher than those of other countries at the same income level of development. Krueger and Lindahl's (1991) study of 98 countries between 1980 and 1985 equally confirmed that education impacts growth rate of real per capita GDP positively.\n3. Methodology: The Sen's (1985) capabilities theory has shifted the analysis of development to the vector of not only attributes or even the basic needs view of human welfare, to the vector of possible opportunities available to individuals in a particular country. In essence, the capability approach goes far beyond assessing individual efforts to acquire these benefits to considering the efforts of government in enhancing or influencing an individual's ability to acquire more opportunities which the development process provides. In fact, Anand and Ravallion (1993) posit that the most effective means of human development flow through government budgetary expenditure.\n4. Presentation and discussion of results: This result shows that although there was no systematic difference between the two models, in terms of goodness of fit, the R2 overall is consistently higher for the fixed effects model in comparism with the OLS models. Based on the model specification tests, it is evident that the assumption of no individual effects, whether fixed or random, is not supported in the data. Besides, the outcome of the HST points to the rejection of the random effects assumption. For a comparative purpose, we present the results of the fixed effects and OLS models below (Tables I and II).\n5. Conclusion: This study was undertaken to determine the distributional impact of public expenditure on human development using education, health, agriculture, rural development, energy, housing, environmental protection and portable water resources. Based on the distributional impact assessment model, the result reveals that expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development while the impact of energy, housing and environmental protection is negative. Among the sectors, education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources expenditure has positive marginal impact on human development while energy, housing and environmental protection have decreasing marginal impact. The policy implication of the finding is that government have spent on energy, housing and environmental protection toward improving human development, such expenditure seems to have negligible marginal impact on human development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a distributional impact assessment methodology to empirically analyze distributional impact of public expenditure on human development using data from 20 states in Nigeria. For robustness of the analysis, expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development, energy, housing, environmental protection and portable water resources are employed as predictors of human development. The result reveals that expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development. In contrast, the marginal impact of energy, housing and environmental protection is negative. Among the sectors, education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources expenditure has positive marginal impact while energy, housing and environmental protection have decreasing marginal impact on human development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Panel approach.\nFindings: The result reveals that expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development.\nOriginality/value: A panel approach is used to investigate whether expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Successful new-to-the-market versus "me-too" retail financial services: The influential role of marketing, sales, EDP/systems and operations
|
[
"Retailing",
"Financial services",
"Services marketing",
"Product launch",
"Product development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: During the past decade, a considerable number of studies have investigated the factors that discriminate successful from unsuccessful new services (Cooper and de Brentani, 1991; de Brentani and Cooper, 1992; de Brentani, 1989, 1991, 1993; Easingwood and Storey, 1991; Edgett and Jones, 1991; Storey and Easingwood, 1993; Cooper et al., 1994; Edgett, 1994).A common characteristic of these success/failure investigations is that they tend to examine many different aspects of the new service development (NSD) process in a single study (e.g. synergy and service superiority and NSD process activities and so on). Despite the undisputed contribution of these research attempts, they cannot provide a deeper understanding of specific components of the NSD process. For example, one issue that is largely neglected in the pertinent literature refers to the impact of various functions on nsd success.Another shortcoming of the existing studies is their \"global\" level of analysis, instead of taking a contingency approach. A contingency perspective has been proposed in the literature in examining the patterns of involvement of different functions in different stages of the npd process (Song et al., 1998; Olson et al., 2001) and for different types of innovations (Olson et al., 2001). Existing evidence suggests that that new product success is more likely when a firm employs function-specific and stage-specific patterns of cross-functional integration than it is when the firm attempts to integrate all functions during all npd stages (Song et al., 1998).Given the fact that functional involvement has been recognised as a critical determinant of new service performance (Booms and Bitner, 1981; Langeard and Eiglier, 1983; Lovelock, 1983; de Brentani, 1989; Johne and Pavlidis, 1996), the present paper focuses on this particular NSD component, by examining the relationship of functional involvement and performance for retail financial service projects at the opposite end of the innovativeness spectrum. In other words, the present study seeks to confront the limitations of existing literature by examining what functions are important for achieving success in what stages of the NSD model for new-to-the-market vs \"me-too\" retail financial services.The rest of the manuscript is structured as follows. First, we provide the background and research hypotheses. Next, we present the research methodology and the measurement of variables. Then, analysis and results are provided. Finally, there is a discussion of the results, their contribution and implications, following by the limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research.\nBackground and research hypotheses: Functional involvement and new service degree of innovativeness\nResearch methodology: Sample\nVariables measurement: Service innovativeness\nData analysis and results: In order to test H1, we applied a series of t-tests. Table I presents the involvement of the four functions along the five NSD stages for the new to-the-market and the me-too retail financial services.The results indicate that, there are also significant differences in the involvement of marketing in the stages of business analysis and marketing strategy, technical development, testing and launching, and the involvement of EDP/systems during technical development between \"me-too\" and new-to-the market retail financial services. On the basis of these results, H1 is partially accepted.Further, in order to compare the involvement of each of the four functions in each of the five NSD stages for the successful vs. unsuccessful new-to-the-market and \"me too\" retail financial services (H2a and H2b), a series of t-tests were also carried out. Table II provides the results of these analyses.According to the findings, in the case of new-to-the-market projects, the involvement of marketing and sales influences performance. In other words, data analysis revealed that, the involvement of the marketing-related functions in the new service development process of major innovations safeguards the success of such offerings. This is done mainly by generating and screening alternative product ideas in order to come up with a unique/novel service concept, incorporating intelligence from the market and directing the NSD efforts to meet the needs of the selected market segment, being involved in the development of the technical specifications of the new offering and finally, designing and implementing a series of launching activities in order to appeal to the target market. By contrast, the involvement of EDP/systems and operations do not differ between successful and not successful new-to-the-market projects.Further, the performance of \"me-too\" retail financial services is mainly affected by the involvement of the technical-related functions, namely EDP/systems and operations. In the case of \"me-too\" offerings, usually, the pioneering firm has accomplished the task of understanding and serving the market. Thus, followers are required to solely fine-tune the aspects and/or the delivery process of their new services, in order to better match the needs that have already been expressed by the buyers. This is a technical-oriented task, hence the contribution of the technical-related functions of the firm in the success of the new service development process. On the contrary, the involvement of marketing and sales do not differ between successful and not successful \"me-too\" projects. On the basis of these results, H2a and H2b are also partially accepted.\nDiscussion and implications: The focus of the present study is to empirically examine the involvement of various functions in the different stages of the new service development process. This is an important issue, since evidence exists, which support a direct effect of functional involvement on the success - failure of the product after it is commercialised (Olson et al., 1995, 2001). Special attention is given to the degree of innovativeness of the new services in development. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only study conducted for retail financial services, and thus, it could assist on shedding light on this important issue.Having said this, it is interesting to note that for major innovations (i.e. \"new-to-the-market\") the involvement of marketing is significantly higher compared to \"me-too\" retail financial services during the NSD process. In other words, according to the findings of this study, the marketing function plays a strategic role in innovation. Similarly, during technical development, it seems that EDP/systems is more involved in the case of new-to-the-market than \"me-too\" services. These results practically indicate that, financial institutions follow similar involvement patterns for the sales, operations and largely EDP/systems functions regardless of the degree of innovativeness of the new service under development. However, further analysis revealed that this is not the most appropriate strategy for reaching success in the market.More specifically, data from Table II, which is also summarized in Figure 1, indicate that, for successful highly innovative projects the marketing function is literally required to guide the entire NSD process (except product testing), while the technical functions play a minor role. This result is consistent with past research suggesting that, when financial service providers develop innovative offerings, the main concern should not be on the seamless operation of a set of established procedures (de Brentani and Kleinschmidt, 1999). It is known that such discontinuous innovations are targeted to innovators and early adopters who, most likely, are more willing to make a trade-off between receiving an innovative service and accepting minor deficiencies in its delivery process. Further, during product testing, the role of the marketing function does not seem to differ significantly between successful and unsuccessful new retail financial services. Additional data analyses revealed that, this stage has been conducted to a limited extent, thus it is far from surprising that this part of the NSD process has no impact on success.What is more, our study revealed that the technical-oriented functions influence the performance of \"me-too\" retail financial services by leading the NSD process and particularly those phases following the idea generation stage. It is also interesting to note that marketing and sales seem to hold a supportive role during the NSD process of not-so-innovative new services, probably by providing feed-back about competitive offerings. When the degree of innovativeness of the new financial service diminishes, potential buyers perceive no scope for compromising between the features of the new service offered and drawbacks in the delivery process. In fact, it is very likely that, for such \"me-too\" offerings the only significant benefits perceived by the market are the improvements in their delivery process. Thus, financial service providers must concentrate their efforts on minimizing any fail points that could occur in the operating/delivery systems of non-innovative service offerings.In summary, this study reveals the following:* The involvement of the various functions during the NSD process is influenced by the degree of innovativeness that characterizes the project.* The involvement of different functions during the NSD process influences different aspects of performance.* Marketing and sales make a greater contribution in the development of successful innovative new retail financial services. Not-so-innovative services, on the other hand, rely on technical functions to achieve success.Overall, these findings are important for both academics and practitioners. With regard to academia, our study implicitly emphasizes the close relationship between successful innovation and market orientation. Evidence exists which has demonstrated that market orientation requires, among other things, that the marketing function: assumes control over the marketing tasks, such as new service development; and it generally holds a leading role in corporate strategic planning and implementation (Gounaris and Avlonitis, 2001). By revealing the leading role that the marketing function plays for successful innovative new services, our study provides, indirectly, solid ground to support a link between successful innovation and market orientation development. This link is inconsistent with the findings from similar studies in various goods sectors which, in general, seem to suggest that really innovative new products are the fruit of a more \"technical orientation\" according to which R&D production and/or manufacturing lead the new service development process (e.g. Urban and Hauser, 1993; Song and Parry, 1996). In fact, it appears that the result of these studies were so compelling that have led researchers to suggest that radical innovation is hindered by market orientation (e.g. Atuahene-Gima, 1996).However, despite the inconsistency with previous studies, our findings are far from surprising. In explaining our findings two issues should be considered:1. The potential customers of major innovations can, at best, have a vague perception of the innovative product that would satisfy their existing but latent needs (Dalgic, 2000). A market orientation contributes to success by helping to unveil such needs, for example, through appropriate market research techniques and use of market intelligence, and achieve a closer and more fruitful match between the targeted customers and the characteristics of the innovation under development.2. When it comes to services in particular, one has also to bear in mind their intangible nature, an issue that becomes even a greater problem when developing radical innovative services. Thus, the need to adopt a market orientation and empower the marketing function during the NSD process is even greater when compared to tangible goods.When it comes to not-so-innovative new services, the core concept of the new service is more or less defined. Hence the task in hand becomes more a technical issue with the operation and/or the EDP functions leading the development process of successful new not-so-innovative services while the marketing function probably sustains a supportive role by feeding in the process with market intelligence.With regard to practitioners, our study helps to improve the chances for successful new service development. Given the findings discussed in the previous paragraphs, middle and top management ought to reconsider their NSD process and possibly reassess their practices regarding the different roles that various functions hold during the development process. Our findings would seem to support that performance objectives are easier met when the marketing function leads the NSD process of radically innovative new services, while technical functions are required to lead the development process of not so innovative new services in order to improve the possibilities of meeting their performance objectives. This, in turn, calls for greater flexibility in the management of the NSD process, which means that companies need to allow different functions to assume different roles in the NSD process depending the degree of innovativeness that characterizes the project.\nLimitations and future research suggestions: Given the inconsistency of our findings with those of relevant studies in the past, a few concerns are raised before the findings are generally adopted. However, future research, which is strongly invited and particularly welcome, can easily address them.One concern has to do with the measurement of market orientation. Our findings offer indirect evidence of a strong link between market orientation adoption and performance of innovative retail financial services. This link needs to be investigated in detail and directly. Hence, future research attempts should incorporate a measurement of market orientation and examine directly its relation with the performance of major innovations.In addition, prior to adopting our findings one has to keep in mind that the development process is only one of the many factors, which may explain variations in the performance of different new services. For instance the structure of the market, the competitors ability to react to the new service developed by the company are examples of other factors, which may explain variations in performance. Thus, future research is again needed in order incorporate in the analysis measures of such factors and refine the links that this study has revealed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of marketing, sales, EDP/systems and operations in the ultimate success of new-to-the-market vs \"me-too\" retail financial services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To collect the data, the \"dropping off\" method was followed using a self-administered questionnaire. Respondents were new service development project leaders. The unit of analysis was the service innovation project. After two follow-up contacts, 114 usable questionnaires were returned from 64 companies, yielding a company response rate of 76 per cent and a project response rate of 68 per cent.\nFindings: - There are significant differences in the involvement of marketing in the stages of business analysis and marketing strategy, technical development, testing and launching, and the involvement of EDP/systems during technical development between \"me-too\" and new-to-the-market retail financial services. Further, in the case of new-to-the-market projects, the involvement of marketing and sales positively influences performance. By contrast, the performance of \"me-too\" retail financial services is positively affected by the involvement of the technical-related functions, namely EDP/systems and operations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study offers only indirect evidence of a strong link between market orientation adoption and performance of innovative retail financial services. Future research attempts should incorporate a measurement of market orientation and examine directly its relation with the performance of major innovations. Also, the development process is only one of the many factors, which may explain variations in the performance of different new services. Future research is again needed in order incorporate in the analysis measures of such factors and refine the links that this study has revealed.\nOriginality/value: - On the basis of the study's findings, middle and top management may reconsider their new service development process and possibly reassess their practices regarding the different roles that various functions hold during the development process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Changing styles of informal academic communication in the age of the web: Orthodox, moderate and heterodox responses
|
[
"Scholarly communication",
"Scholarly publishing",
"Social web",
"Information seeking",
"Informal communication",
"Scholarly collaboration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past two decades, the scholarly communication process has changed significantly. An increasing number of researchers are using Web 2.0 applications to communicate with other researchers, collaborate with peers, publish and disseminate their research among scholarly community. In the past, researchers were restricted to journal papers, faculty hallways, and conferences to communicate and share knowledge. However, modern communication technologies changed how they communicate, blurring the boundaries between formal and informal communications, allowing them to share their research with a huge number of scholars without restrictions.\nScholarly communication models: A number of models of scientific communication have been developed over the years. The earliest model was that of Garvey and Griffith (1972). This model was considered by practitioners on the field to be applicable across both the physical and social sciences as it provides details of the stages of scholarly communication within a time frame, starting from initiating the research, to the integration of the research as an accepted component of scientific knowledge. At the end of the century, a study by Roosendaal and Geurt (1998) explored the forces that play a role in allowing the description of the scholarly communication dynamics of the market. The study also analysed the change from the traditional linear scientific information chain to the network form. In addition, the study identified four main functions of scientific scholarly communication which are registration, awareness, certification, and archive.\nChanges in the scholarly communication system: In all of the previous scholarly communication models, the process of scholarly communication is based on a number of main activities: communicating, seeking, citing, collaborating, publishing, and disseminating information. These activities are the core of the scholarly communication system as it has been concluded from the literature. However, many of these activities have changed because of the influence of information technologies:\nMethodology: The present study deployed a naturalistic inquiry research approach which is a \"discovery-oriented approach that minimizes investigator manipulation of the study setting and places no prior constraints on what the outcomes of the research will be\" (Patton, 2002, p. 39). The study exemplifies an approach to information behaviour research which is characterised by the adoption of a social science, and, in this case, a naturalistic perspective; a qualitative as opposed to a quantitative orientation; a focus on the modelling of information behaviour; and a concern with empirical validation and exemplification (Ellis, 2011). The study aimed for depth and richness of information rather than high numbers of participants. A study guided by naturalistic inquiry does not seek to achieve statistical generalisability, the aim is to explore and provide a basis for understanding a point of view belonging to those participants and in naturalistic terms would look to transferability not generalisability (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).\nStyles of scholarly communication: The study showed that researchers engaged in scholarly communication use different approaches or styles. As a result, they were categorised into three main groups of scholars (Shehata et al., 2015):\nConclusion: This paper discussed the impact of new information technologies on scholarly communication practice and expands our understanding of how developments in information and communication technologies have changed the scholarly communication practice and informal scholarly communication activities in particular. The investigation of how scholars communicate with each other and the impact of the social web on scholarly communication revealed that scholarly communication practices have changed, creating new styles of communication which altered the traditional scholarly communication system. The identification of the styles of scholarly communication gives practitioners in the field better understanding of scholars' behaviour in the social web which would help in improving the scholarly communication experience for each type.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study to investigate the changes in scholarly communication practices among a group of scholars in the UK and build upon the results that were published in a previous paper.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study deployed a naturalistic inquiry approach using semi-structured interviews as a qualitative research tool. A sample of 40 participants from four UK universities was interviewed to explore the changes in informal scholarly communication behaviour.\nFindings: The analysis of the interviews revealed that there are three ideal types of behaviour: the \"orthodox\" uses formal and traditional scholarly communication approaches; the \"moderate\" prioritises formal communication approaches, but at the same time is trying to get benefits from informal channels; and, the \"Heterodox\" uses all channels available in the scholarly communication.\nOriginality/value: The value of the current study lies in using a naturalistic inquiry approach to investigate the changes in scholarly communication practices, and to explore the different scholarly communication styles. In the context of this study, the use of a naturalistic approach and grounded theory principles in connection with coding provided a stance that allows for the gathering of rich information to enable understanding and explanation of scholarly communication activities in addition to uncovering themes that related to scholarly behaviour.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Which Google keywords influence entrepreneurs? Empirical evidence from Vietnam
|
[
"Vietnam",
"Capital",
"VAR",
"Entrepreneurs",
"Threshold",
"Google search",
"Granger",
"M10",
"M19",
"M51"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: After \"Doi Moi\" (the name given to the economic transformation in Vietnam until 1986), Vietnam changed its policies from the centrally planned economy to the emphasis of privatization sectors. The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam contribute to half of the total national GDP. Interestingly, Brandt, Rand et al. (2016) indicate that the SMEs and private sectors have been playing the prominent in the growth of Vietnamese economic. Therefore, the Vietnamese Government is going to generate many policies as well as campaigns to foster the nationally entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since 1997, Vietnam has used the Internet as a member of the global network. According to Statista Portal (Statistics and Studies from more than 22,500 Sources), Vietnam currently has 55.19 million users. Thus, it is not difficult for those who want to find the information through the search engines as well as an Internet system in Vietnam. As other countries, Google is one of the Vietnamese favorite tools. Google Trend declares that they record the users' history of finding and searching for statistical purpose. Thus, they can pick how frequency the users want to capture keywords by ranking them in the range from 01 to 1000. The more they search, the higher the indicators are. Before doing business, people have a tendency to find whether there exist potential markets for them to penetrate or not. Hence, we can use Google tools for searching the macroscopic determinants as well as microscopic factors. Can that tool use to predict for entrepreneurial activities in Vietnam? Can the groups of these factors such as high internet penetration, high internet feasibility, and high utilization of Google's search forecast what people react under the information of new business? Our paper is to investigate how Google search influence the entrepreneur on both sides, such as the number of firms and an amount of capital. This is a standard reference for not only academic researchers but also the policymakers when promulgating any policies regarding entrepreneurial movements.\n2. Literature review: It is undeniable that technological change has intervened in almost all areas ranging from medical treatment to economics, which leads to high adaptability by using these widgets. The prediction of technological determinants and entrepreneurship is attracting not only academic researchers but also a businessmen. Google is probably using the most frequent tools for those who apply the searching engine in their lives and work. Most entrepreneurial executives often try to reach those customers, markets, and politics to find their opportunities whether they use their money to commence businesses or not.\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Test of stationary\n5. Implications and conclusion: There are various studies, which investigate the relationship between the Google keywords and the other elements such as stock returns, unemployment rates. This paper contributes a piece of new empirical evidence regarding Google keywords and the number of firms and an amount of registered capital in the context of Vietnam by threshold regression.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to shed light on an impact of Google keywords on the number of new businesses (and an amount of capital registered) in Vietnam, the Southeast Asian country, after the year of an entrepreneur, 2016.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a rich set of quantitative techniques from VAR Granger and threshold regression. The whole sample period covers the data (keywords, number of new businesses, an amount of capital invested to register) from the first week of 2016 to October 2018, which includes 144 observations in total.\nFindings: The findings suggest that the relationship between Google does not persist in the long run. There is a short-run shock, might cause a change to the frequency of the other keywords rather than the number of firms (or an amount of capital). However, under the number of firms' threshold, keywords have the both positive and negative impacts on entrepreneurs whereas a higher threshold of capital, keywords show their roles to predict an amount of money for registering firms.\nPractical implications: The Vietnamese Government and executives are advised to consider the Google keywords \"entrepreneur\" (in Vietnamese) and \"start-up\", which cause a decline in entrepreneurial movements. In addition, the current period is going to inverse from the previous one in terms of the number of firms and an amount of capital. Finally, there are two critical thresholds: 1,602 companies and 35,010m VND for the keywords' influence.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes empirical evidence of technological change and entrepreneurship and contributes to the existing literature by discussing how this relationship under the threshold.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Workplace and leadership perceptions between men and women
|
[
"Gender",
"Leadership",
"Perception",
"Workforce",
"Management",
"Attitudes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The number of women in the workforce today is far greater than prior to end of World War II when less than one-third of women worked outside the home (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). With more women in the workforce, issues surrounding gender diversity continues to be a concern. As gender diversity increases, companies are faced with new challenges, as the face of the workplace continues to change. However, although changes have occurred in workforce participation by women, pay and leadership positions continue to lag behind those of men. According to the US (USA) Census Bureau (2010), women earn approximately 77 cents to every dollar a man earns, and the percentage of managers who are women is still only approximately 38 per cent. Additionally, when it comes to top level executive positions, women are even far less represented with only a meager 4.2 per cent of them being chief executive officers at Fortune 500 companies (Waber, 2014).\nTheoretical background: Leadership perceptions\nData and methodology: Data were from Wave 6 of the World Values Survey (WVS). The WVS is conducted by a global network of social scientists that survey people on all continents about their basic values and beliefs (WVS, 2012). Knowledge networks (KN) recruits a research panel through probability-based sampling that is representative of the of the entire US population. Once selected, KN supplies computer hardware and Internet connection if necessary. Households are selected and then contacted by email when they are needed to complete a survey (WVS, 2012).\nResults: Q1. \"When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women\", results of the Mann-Whitney U Test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference at the p\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to investigate if men and women had dissimilar perceptions of workplace and leadership issues. This paper improves our understanding of the perceptions of men and women in relation to these issues. The results showed that men and women do not significantly differ in their attitudes toward a woman making more money than her husband, and they do not see it causing problems. However, for the other four questions, there was a statistically significant difference between the responses of the males and females. When jobs are scarce, men feel more strongly that they have more rights to a job than women. Men also feel more strongly that when a mother works for pay, the children suffer, men make better political leaders and men make better business executives.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudinal differences between men and women with respect to work issues and leadership and the implications that these outlooks have in the US (USA) workforce. While studies have been conducted to show how men and women differ in the work and leadership styles, attitudes can affect how workers and leaders are treated and may explain why people behave the way that they do.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using data from the 2010-2012 World Values Survey (WVS-6), comparisons were performed with the Mann-Whitney U test to determine if there were significant differences in attitudes and perceptions of work and leadership between men and women in the USA based on five questions concerning attitudes toward men and women in the workforce. The sample consisted of 1,070 males and 1,139 females who responded to questions using a Likert scale-rating system.\nFindings: There were significant differences between males and females at the p\nOriginality/value: The research provides insight into factors that might affect how men and women perceive both their own group and the other group. It is important to ensure that gender perceptions are evaluated to address issues that may still persist and contribute to gender inequality in the workplace and how behaviors and attitudes of each gender affect roles and norms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Preserving or maneuvring leadership? Teacher unions' strategies in Israeli educational regulation
|
[
"Leadership",
"Licensing process",
"Professional certification",
"Teachers’ union",
"Teaching work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Education is one of the fundamental social services that responsible states provide. In order to supervise and regulate public and private education, states tend to create licensing mechanisms for teaching, determining the criteria that must be complied with by an adult serving as a teacher (Ingersoll and Perda, 2008; Lindert, 2004; McCormack et al., 2018; Natan, 2006; Rahman et al., 2017; Newton and Da Costa, 2016).\nLiterature review: Regulation of teaching\nMethodology: Method\nFindings: For decades, the official statements of both teacher unions in Israel supported the concept of union regulation of teaching licensing. There are many examples. For instance, one of the Israeli Teacher Union leaders explained in 1983 that in the past, the education systems had no choice and had been unable to regulate admission to teaching because of \"a lack of qualified teachers,\" which was no longer the situation by the 1980s (Levin, 1983, p. 160). Another past leader of the opponent union (the High School Teacher Organisation) said: \"We need to create an ethical code that determines who can be a teacher so that the system can protect itself\" (Veler, 2009, p. 55). Despite such announcements, the regulation that these spokesmen referred to was not established by law. The analysis of various policy documents and the rare interpretations of these documents by the leaders, provide a picture of a conflict of interests and a glimpse into the unions' strategies in this reality.\nDiscussion and conclusions: The current study used qualitative content analysis to analyze the government's bill, official union publications and interview responses by teachers' union leaders and officials, who participated in the negotiations concerning the bill. The analysis yielded five themes representing the reasons why the teachers' leaders abandoned the opportunity to obtain the right to participate in primary regulation by law: \"Two competing agendas,\" \"Unionist status\" agenda and \"Non-unionist agenda\"; \"Antagonistic atmosphere\" - the leaders' feeling that the other side is untrustworthy; \"Perception that the law constitutes a threat\" - that is permanent and unalterable from the teacher leaders' point of view; \"Ignoring the power of the union\" - which may be a misinterpretation of the establishment's intention (Moe, 2011); and \"Leaders' attitudes and behaviour\" - the leaders attitudes and actions during the negotiations (Tamir, 2009). The common denominator of the themes was the scant trust that the teachers' leaders attributed to the government and their desire to retain the ability to maneuvre in times of crises. The leaders were aware that teachers' licensing did not need to be arranged by law (Ingvarson, 2015), and they had their own considerations, that led them to resist the proposed policy (Moe, 2011; Wiborg and Larsen, 2017). In the case of Israel, we can see that the teacher unions' leaders intentionally avoided advancing regulation by law, perhaps partially because they were offended by the fact that they were not called to discuss the proposed law.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine why, despite the advantages they might gain by participating in regulation of teaching by law, Israeli teachers' unions leaders abandoned the opportunity to obtain the right of regulation and instead preferred an ambiguous role.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a policy research study, involving documentary analysis, focusing on one specific bill and data from interviews with teachers' union leaders and officials who participated in discussions on the bill, and/or in crucial negotiations concerning teaching regulation.\nFindings: It was found that unions' leaders preferred to leave the licensing process for teaching as an open-ended and constantly negotiable issue with their employer rather than assuming the role of gatekeeper, understanding that this gave them more space and power to maneuvre in future struggles. Consequently, only the Education Ministry determines who becomes a teacher.\nResearch limitations/implications: These findings can inform educational policy makers and stakeholders, by giving them a glimpse into policy considerations. New knowledge is offered for the development of theory concerning teaching profession regulation and involvement of the teacher unions in these processes.\nPractical implications: Policy makers may re-evaluate their interests as stakeholders in the education system, when they try to shape the profession through regulation of those who seek to become teachers.\nOriginality/value: The research sheds light on a hidden part of the policy-making puzzle that most studies do not explore and educational leaders prefer not to discuss especially when there is no proof of achievement, nor a public crisis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Stimulating environmental management performance: Towards a contingency approach
|
[
"Environmental management",
"Stakeholder analysis",
"Food industry",
"Food and drink products",
"The Netherlands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and outline: In the last decennia, ecological modernization has served as the dominant theoretical and normative foundation for the structuration of public-private cooperation to improve environmental performance (Mol, 2000; Janicke, 2008). Economy and ecology are meant to converge through the positive effects of environmental innovation. It heavily relies on the self-regulating ability of industries. Viewpoints on the self-regulating ability of companies range from optimistic to pessimistic (Eisner, 2004). The optimistic viewpoint stresses the complementarity of - at first sight - conflicting claims from organization fields (Scott, 1995). In the perspective of Porter and Kramer (2006) the potentially contrasting needs of industry and society can be bridged through effective innovation management, making \"pollution prevention pay\" (see Hart, 1995; Amit and Schoemaker, 1993; Reinhardt, 1999). However, despite remarkable progress, only a small amount of companies pays attention to environmental issues in strategic planning and decision making (see Hillary, 1999; del Brio and Junquera, 2003; Hedstrom et al., 2005). Measures with respect to environmental management (EM) carried out in the food and drink (F&D)-industry are predominantly short-term instead of long-term (Setthasakko, 2007); they are mainly internally in stead of supply-chain oriented (Bremmers et al., 2007); they are predominantly process-oriented (mainly \"end-of-pipe\") in stead of product-oriented; and are predominantly defensive in stead of prospective. In this paper we do not focus on generic properties of the F&D-industry, but try to signal differences between companies and the factors that determine these differences. The aim of this article is to investigate the internal and external drivers for EM capability deployment and -performance in the F&D-industry, and link differences in managerial drivers to contingent environmental policy instruments.A contingency approach is necessary, since F&D-companies operate in diverse sub-sectors with different field pressures, product characteristics, legal requirements and institutional settings. \"Generic theories\" (a \"one size fits all approach\"; Porter and Kramer, 2006) on managerial impediments for environmental performance lack specificity. This article expresses a differentiated view by coupling public policy alternatives to groups of companies with similar strategic and organizational profiles.Theoretically, this article is based on two lines of thought. One is business network theory, which stresses the interrelatedness between a company and its external actors (Christopher, 1998) such as buyers, suppliers and competitors (Hakansson and Snehota, 1989; Rumelt, 1990). This \"outside-in\"-perspective, with which the managerial problem of strategic alignment is connected (Fortuin, 2006), is supplemented with an \"inside-out perspective\". This perspective has its locus of origin in the competence view. It evaluates the firm's competitiveness from the possession of valuable resources and (dynamic) capabilities (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Barney, 1996; Teece et al., 1997). External connectivity has been stressed by - among others - Porter and Vanderlinde (1995), Esty and Porter (1998), Fineman and Clarke (1996), Aragon-Correa (1998) and Anton et al. (2004). The internal (\"resources and barriers\") perspective was - among others - stressed by Hart (1995), Cordano and Frieze (2000), and Azzone et al. (1997) concerning SMEs. The dynamic interrelatedness between external influences and internal build-up of resources comes from the permanent shift of environmental field and institutional requirements and. It requires permanent (re)building of environmental assets and capabilities (see Giddens, 1984; Marcus and Geffen, 1998; Hoffman, 2001; Bansal and Bogner, 2002). Business strategy - the projected coordination of environmental requirements and available resources (see Porter, 1980) - plays an important role, since it creates alignment between firm and its environment.The remainder of this article is structured as follows. First we discuss the research model, the data gathering process, operationalization and used methods. Next we present the empirical findings. Finally, we include the conclusions, policy implications and a discussion section.\nModel, material, operationalization and methods: Explanation of the model\nResults: A questionnaire survey was sent to 417 firms. A positive response was received from 65 firms, after the first mailing, and 35 firms after the second. This equals a response rate of 24 percent (n=100). A proportional statistical test did not indicate significant differences in the distribution of the sub-sectors within the study sample compared to the total population (kh2 >0.10). No significant non-response bias was detected (using techniques proposed by Armstrong and Overton, 1977). Overall, the sample appeared to be representative for the Dutch F&D-industry. The validity and reliability of the independent constructs was evaluated by means of factorial data reduction (Principal component; Varimax rotation) and Cronbach's a (see the Appendix for results). The results are satisfactory for explorative research. An overview of the distribution of respondents over subsectors is given in Table III.Table II shows that the large companies score higher on EM-performance than the smaller companies, which is in line with the results obtained by other scholars which explain differences in EM-performance from size differences: larger companies have more resources (Aragon-Correa, 1998, Cordano and Frieze, 2000) and interests in environmental conformity due to effects on image and expected benefits in marketing (Shrivastava, 1995). We obtained data from The Netherlands National Certification Body to assess the ISO 14001-certification level, which appeared to be 12 percent for the research sample. Certified companies score significantly higher on almost all items of Table II (p < 0.01), which is also in line with previous research (Annandale et al., 2004). A remarkable low association was found between prospector strategy and environmental management performance (r=0.02, p > 0.10).A further explorative analysis revealed that prospector firms are particularly interested in environmentally friendly product (re)design (see Figure 2), and score low on the process-oriented items (see Table II), which are dominant in the structure of the dependent variable.A significant and strong association was found between the adoption of a prospector strategy and environmental commitment of top-management (r=0.43; p < 0.01). Also, we observed a significant correlation between prospector strategy and perceived environmental marketing opportunities (r=0.30; p < 0.01). This result is not surprising since prospector firms aim to differentiate their products to outperform competitors (Miles et al., 1978).The regression analyses consist of six models, of which the significant variables are included in the final regression model (see Table I).All submodels are significant and show sufficient predictive power (adj. R2 >= 0.28). A visual and statistical check of the standardized residuals indicated no problems because of non-normality (as confirmed by the non-significant outcomes of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test included in Table I). The first model addresses only the control variables. They all appear to be significant. Next, in line with the research model, variables are included referring to firm strategy, enabling internal capabilities and external influences. The final model shows that environmental communication and the involvement of different company functional departments in environmental issues are both significant predictors (p < 0.10), as well as participation in covenants (public-private agreements) and pressures of different stakeholder groups (banks and insurance, and suppliers, which is - surprisingly - negative).Next, the significant variables in the final regression model (see Table I, last column) were used as clustering variables. This resulted in four groups of firms referred to as compliance-oriented (22 percent of the firms included in the present study), environmental transition (34 percent), compliance-plus (25 percent) and commercial and environmental excellence (19 percent).1. Compliance-oriented. The first cluster contains mainly medium-sized firms (n=20), which have less environmental concerns, as compared to the firms in the other clusters (variable 2 in Table I). These firms perceive a relatively low level of business network impacts. Consequently, their priority for the deployment of EM-capabilities, more than is needed to comply with basic environmental regulation, is low.2. Environmental transition. The group of firms in the second cluster (n=20) is clearly confronted with environmental issues, but the managerial capabilities seem to be lacking. The companies in this cluster perceive a strong impact from several supply chain partners (suppliers, buyers, and consumers). A further analysis showed that the second cluster group is dominated by bakery factories (39 percent), which are \"supplier-dominated\" (Pavitt, 1984). Their top-management is strongly committed to environmental goals, but lacks the competences to translate this in daily practice. The negative impact of suppliers on aggregated environmental performance (see Table I) is probably caused by this group of firms, which is lagging behind.3. Compliance-plus. The third cluster (n=22) is in many respects the opposite of the second. Although the urgency to take measures is lower, they commit to (especially) local governmental policies and have developed the resources to implement environmental measures. They have well-developed environmental management capabilities and perceive a relatively strong pressure from government, local inhabitants and branch-organizations to pay attention to environmental issues.4. Commercial and environmental excellence. The fourth cluster mainly consists of large firms (n=17). They need to cope with a wide range of environmental issues. The influence of the business network is strong. On average, these companies implement a prospector strategy more often than the companies in the other clusters, but the differences are not significant. Significant differences with the other clusters can be observed on perceived impacts on environmental image and marketing opportunities. In the eyes of these companies, environmental pro-activeness not only invokes costs but also market and network benefits.\nConclusions, implications and further research: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to provide an analysis of the joint impact of the business network and the company's internal resources on the level of environmental management (EM) deployment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Correlation, regression and cluster analyses of data gathered in 2005 in the Dutch food and drink (F&D) industry were carried out.\nFindings: - The deployment of managerial capabilities that support ecological modernization (such as supply chain cooperation and network information exchange, or product-redesign) in the Dutch F&D industry is low. The results show that different company profiles are connected with specific drivers and barriers for environmental pro-activeness. Prospector companies (a minority) are more pro-active with respect to environmental capability building than defenders.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Comparative longitudinal studies of environmental management drivers in subsectors could improve the understanding of the factors that stimulate environmental performance.\nPractical implications: - Optimism that industry will enhance EM-performance through radical market-induced innovation is misplaced. Instead, a contingency approach is in place. Public environmental policy with respect to the F&D industry should be adjusted to discernable managerial patterns and categories of companies. Voluntary cooperation, self-governance, and market-induced environmental innovation are only effective with respect to a minority of the companies.\nOriginality/value: - The research opposes the existing foundation of public environmental policy on generic attributes assigned to the whole F&D-industry and, consequently, of generic policies to improve environmental management performance. A differentiation of public policy should be based on the understanding of the drivers of managerial behavior.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Task and relationship orientation of Chinese students and managers in the automotive industry
|
[
"China",
"Culture",
"Relationship",
"Leadership",
"The automotive industry",
"Task"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 The Chinese culture: China is a large and mountainous country with a population of over 1.3 billion people. Most Chinese practice Confucius principles, which can socialize them toward strongly focusing on a network of relationships with their friends, colleagues and business partners in the workplace. If the Chinese have high scores on their relationship orientation, then this assumption is likely to have validity. A study by Mujtaba et al. (2010) confirmed that Chinese managers are highly relationship-oriented. Another recent study looked at the interaction of leadership and personality styles of Chinese and American students, which demonstrates that researchers are focusing on the future leaders coming out of Chinese schools (Singer and Millage, 2013). This current study compares the responses of Chinese managers with Chinese students who are studying to acquire their master's degrees in the automotive industry.\n2 Study methodology: Paul Hersey (1984, 1997) explains that leadership is the process of influencing other people (Hersey et al., 2001). Generally speaking, task behavior is the extent to which leaders engage in top-down communication, and relationship behavior is the extent to which leaders engage in joint communication with followers while providing support (Tajaddini and Mujtaba, 2009).\n3 Implications and recommendations: The results of this study showed that the Chinese managers from the automotive industry are high on both task and relationship orientations. Compared to the students, managers' scores were significantly higher on both the task and relationship orientations. The high relationship orientation of the Chinese might very well heavily influence the progress and continuous improvement of employees' performance. Due to their collective nature and high-context culture, the Chinese respondents in the automotive industry might be socialized for an orientation toward achievement, competition and success. Therefore, Chinese managers are demonstrating high relationship orientation as well as high task-orientation since they compete with people from around the globe. Chinese managers and students in the automotive industry appear to be people oriented. People skills are important for teamwork and effective relationship building.\n4 Limitations: For comparison purposes, the authors were not able to obtain responses from the automotive industry in other cultures for this paper and thus future researchers can collect data from several other countries for comparison purposes. The authors acknowledge that these general responses from the student population are not always comparable to the working professionals in the Chinese automotive industry which came from one company and these workers might have received specific training or conditioning in the organizational culture that would influence their leadership orientations. So the differences obtained in this study might not have stemmed from differences in age or work experience, but rather education or organizational training.\n5 Conclusion: This study has shown that Chinese managers and students who are working in the automotive industry of this high context culture are highly focused on their relationships, while also highly oriented toward completing their tasks. These respondents from the automotive industry understand the importance of getting the job done, while maintaining a good relationship with others. Chinese male and female respondents have similar scores on both task and relationship orientations. Suggestions, implications and limitations were also presented for managers and future researchers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to study the management approach of automotive industry managers and students in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper focused on comparing the leadership orientation of respondents and compared 200 working managers with 181 graduate students in the automotive industry.\nFindings: It appears that these Chinese respondents from the automotive industry have significantly higher scores on the relationship orientation than task orientation. Managers have significantly higher scores on both dimensions of leadership. Similarly, the female respondents in China had similar scores as their male colleagues.\nResearch limitations/implications: It appears that being socialized in a collectivistic or high context culture can lead to higher focus on relationship orientation. Based on the results, practical implications and application for future research are explored.\nOriginality/value: This paper is original and analyzes the leadership orientation of respondents.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Prediction of corporate financial distress in an emerging market: the case of Turkey
|
[
"Financial performance",
"Predictive process",
"Modelling",
"Turkey"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The prediction of financial distress has been a field of study during the last 70 years. The early researches (Ramser and Foster, 1931; Fitzpatrick, 1932; Winakor and Smith, 1935; Merwin, 1942) focused on the comparison of the values of financial ratios in failed and non-failed firms and concluded that the ratios of the failed firms were poorer. The pioneering study of Beaver (1966) presented the univariate approach of the discriminant analysis which was expanded into a multivariate framework by Altman (1968). The discriminant analysis has been the primary method of failure prediction until 1980s during which the use of logistic regression method was emphasized. In recent years, artificial neural networks have produced promising results in prediction of the financial distress.The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to search for predictors of financial distress that lead to the highest classification rates for corporations in an emerging market over a period of economic turbulence. Second, it searches for the statistical method that leads to the highest prediction accuracy, by re-examining the discriminant and logistic regression methods, in a highly unpredictable economic environment.The economic crisis that started in February of 2001, with the collapse of the banking system in Turkey, had its adverse repercussions on the capital market. The downturn of the capital market and the shooting interest rates coupled with the substantial devaluation of the Turkish lira against other currencies had severe impacts on the corporations leading several firms to bankruptcy. The study covers the period of a deeply effective crisis and aims to contribute to the identification of critical variables that lead to corporate financial distress in turbulent environments.This study covers 27 manufacturing firms that faced financial failure during the 1996-2003 period and their non-failed mates of similar size from the same industry. The distressed firms represent 84 per cent of the population over the period of analysis due to the elimination of five companies that had missing data in some years. The firms in the sample are manufacturing firms that are in the lowest quartile of market value in the capital market. So, both the failed and non-failed firms in the sample are small in size, as measured by their market values, relative to the rest of the publicly traded firms in the capital market. Almost half of the distressed firms are from the textiles industry. Most of the corporate failures have occurred after the economic crisis which implies that economic downturns and the industry characteristics seem to emphasize the impact of incorrect policies adopted by the corporations.The findings of this study document that the logistic regression model provides a better overall fit and higher predictive accuracy than the discriminant model. The predictive power of the discriminant model in the first year prior to bankruptcy is lower than those documented by previous studies. This results from the violation of the assumptions of the discriminant method, multivariate normality of independent variables and equal dispersion of variance-covariance matrices across the groups, in this study.Both methods identify higher number of significant predictors than those revealed by some studies in this field. Out of the 11 predictors of distress identified by the logit model and ten variables selected by the discriminant model, six are common in both models. EBITDA/ total assets, EBIT/sales, fixed asset turnover, return on equity, size, and tax burden are the variables selected by both models.Firm size reveals a positive relation with financial distress in both models. The financially distressed firms are relatively larger in size and use higher leverage than the non-distressed firms.The logit model identifies 11 significant predictors, which are indicators of the degree of economic distress, solvency, liquidity, trade creditors' coordination, return on equity, tax burden, and size. EBITDA/ total assets ratio is the most important predictor in bankruptcy prediction. The negative sign of its coefficient reveals that an increase in the earning power of assets, abstracting from any leverage and tax factors, causes the likelihood of financial distress to decrease. EBIT/sales is the second most important predictor in the logit model.The ratio of trade credit to total claims is positively related with the probability of financial distress and is found to be the third most important predictor of failure following the economic distress variables.The signs of the coefficients of some significant predictors have been contrary to expectations and have contributed to revealing the underlying problems of the economic system. The high rate of inflation and the attractive real returns on financial securities have resulted in a reduction in the level of capital investments and operating profits. The economic downturn seems to have adversely affected the corporations that had relatively higher short-term liabilities and lower operating profitability. The variables selected by the logit model imply that heavy short-term financing and capital insufficiency, due to low operating profitability or consecutive losses leading to equity deterioration, are the major determinants of corporate financial distress.The second section of this paper documents the evidence presented in finance literature. The research design section includes the sample selection process, data collection, and the measurement of the variables with a detailed explanation of the methodology used. The findings of the study are documented in the results section. An integrative assessment of the findings is presented in the conclusion.\n2. Theoretical overview: The use of financial ratios in discrimination of failing and non-failing firms started in 1930s. The studies in this group (Winakor and Smith, 1935; Ramser and Foster, 1931; Merwin, 1942; Hickman, 1958) concluded that failing firms exhibit significantly different ratio measurements than continuing entities.The change in research took place when Beaver (1966) presented the univariate analysis, which set the stage for the multivariate attempts that followed. Beaver's study documented that failure status of firms can be correctly predicted to a much greater extent than would be expected from random prediction. This suggested that financial ratios could be useful in the prediction of failure for at least five years prior to failure. Beaver (1968a) extended his earlier work to examine the differences in the predictive ability of the ratios indicating that non-liquid asset measures predict failure better than the liquid asset measures and that there are also differences in the predictive power of ratios among the liquid asset measures.A pioneering study in the field is done by Altman (1968) who employed multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) to classify financial ratios and developed a bankruptcy prediction model. The discriminant ratio model proved that bankruptcy could be accurately predicted up to two years prior to actual failure with the accuracy diminishing rapidly after the second year. This research is followed by a number of studies that have used MDA (Deakin, 1972; Edminster, 1972; Blum, 1974; Beaver, 1968a; 1968b; Altman, 1973; Altman and Lorris, 1976; Altman and McGough, 1974; Altman et al., 1977; Libby, 1975; Moyer, 1977; Sharmaand and Mahajan, 1980; Taffler and Tisshaw, 1977). Altman et al., (1977) reworked the Z-score model including a number of refinements in the utilization of MDA as well as in the computation of financial ratios to incorporate the effects of the changes in size and financial profile of business failures, changes in the financial reporting standards and the advances and controversial aspects of discriminant analysis (Joy and Tollefson, 1995; Altman and Eisenbeis, 1976). The ZETA model is more accurate in bankruptcy classification in years two-five compared to the original Z-score model. These studies reveal a potential of ratios as predictors of bankruptcy.Subsequent attempts are made to compare the predictive power of ratios and stock returns. Beaver (1968b) compared the predictive power of capital market derived data and financial ratios and concluded that ratios have a superior discriminating power. In a similar study, Aharony et al., (1980) document a sharp decline in the differential return during the seven weeks prior to bankruptcy and conclude that even shortly before the event, the market did not fully expect that these firms would soon file for bankruptcy. The variance of the mean returns for the distressed firms is significantly attributable to the firm specific variables like production, investment, and leverage and not to market wide factors concluding that beta is not a useful indicator of firm deterioration over time. This finding is in line with Levy (1978) who documents that, in an imperfect market, beta plays no role in price determination and that variance provides a better explanation for price behavior.Until 1980s, MDA has been the dominant method in failure prediction. However, it suffered from the assumptions that were violated very often (Ohlson, 1980). During the 1980s, the discriminant method was replaced by logistic analysis, which until last years have been the most used statistical method for failure prediction (Ohlson, 1980; Back, et al., 1996). During the 1990s, artificial neural networks produced promising results in bankruptcy prediction (Wilson and Sharda, 1995; Serrano Sinca et al., 1993; Back et al., 1994; 1996).In a comparative study of the discriminant, logit, and genetic algorithm models, Back et al., (1996) document the differences in the selection of independent variables and in failure prediction accuracy. They reveal that the use of the three methods leads to different prediction models. The amount of variables included in the models varies and different methods lead to the selection of different financial ratios. Despite the selection method used, liquidity seems to be very important factor in failure prediction and the stepwise selection for the logit model uses the fewest number of factors in all three years prior to failureA comparative analysis of the credit risk models developed in recent years (Crouhy et al., 2000) documents that these models relate the probability of default to the market value of the firm's assets which in turn depend on the shape of the economy.\n3. Research design: 3.1. The sample\n4. Results: 4.1. Logistic regression\n5. Conclusion: This paper attempts to examine the well-known models of bankruptcy prediction, the discriminant and logistic regression methods, in an emerging market over a period of high economic turbulence in contrast to the evidence prevailing for the corporations of the developed economies. Predictive power of the models is evaluated and the critical predictors of financial distress are identified with an emphasis on the differences of the results obtained in this study relative to others.The evidence reveals that the logistic regression method reveals a better overall fit and yields an average correct classification of 95.6 per cent. The model correctly classifies 97.5 per cent of the non-failed firms and 91.4 per cent of the failed firms.Logistic regression model has higher predictive accuracy than the discriminant model in all years prior to bankruptcy. Predictive results of the logit model are 94.5, 94.3, 91, and 87.1 per cent in years one, two, three, and four prior to bankruptcy, respectively. Type II errors detected in the logit model are significantly lower than type I errors over the four years prior to bankruptcy.The findings document the outstanding impact of the earning power of assets, operating profit margin, and the composition of liabilities on corporate failure. This evidence supports the tendency of most of the distressed firms in the sample to arrange workouts, rather than filing for bankruptcy, to resolve the problem of low operating returns relative to investments and to coordinate the high number of trade creditors through reorganization processes.The signs of the coefficients of some predictors that have been contrary to expectations reflect the distortions in the corporate financial structures, revealing the impact of the constraints of the financial system surrounding the corporations. The extensive use of trade credit and short-term bank loans relative to long-term debt and equity financing reduces the level of net working capital and increases the risk of default. Access to the capital market funds may be costly especially under financial distress. Furthermore, the corporate bond market is inactive because of the high interest rates on T-Bills and T-Bonds. The lack of long-term funds results in lower levels of fixed asset investments and the use of highly depreciated fixed assets. Consequently, higher values of fixed asset turnover and working capital turnover for the failed firms do not indicate increased efficiency in the utilization of assets but signal low levels of net working capital and fixed asset investments. The positive sign of the coefficients of EBIT/sales and the fixed asset turnover ratios indicate that the failed firms have lower investment in fixed assets and face higher sales contractions in recessionary periods. As firms suffer losses and deteriorate toward failure, asset replacement declines leading to higher turnover ratios that in turn indicate that there is insufficient capital to support sales. Furthermore, slower employment growth for the distressed firms results in the reduction of operating costs and sales when managers try to downsize efficiently during industry downturns.The negative coefficients of current asset turnover, capitalization, return on equity, and liquidity, ratios are as expected. Net working capital seems to be more important in predicting financial distress than current assets because it indicates the impact of the high level of current liabilities, in financially distressed firms, relative to the current asset investments. Capital market based ratios such as returns to shareholders and the variability of returns are not significant predictors of financial distress in the models developed.The findings of this research indicate that profitability, liquidity, and solvency ratios are major predictors of failure. The evidence reveals that firms should focus on increasing operating profits, and the level of net working capital while shifting to long-term sources of finance to support investments.Both methods reveal that firm size, as measured by total assets of the firms, is significantly larger in the failed group than the non-failed group. Although the significant, positive relation between firm size and probability of failure is not very strong, this finding may indicate that the firms tend to adopt sub-optimal growth strategies and/or finance growth with debt when the cost of funds exceeds the profitability. The economic crisis have increased the costs of leverage above the predicted levels and have further increased the risk of bankruptcy for the growing firms. Since most of the firms in the sample are family-owned businesses with a small proportion of public ownership, the investors may have discounted the firms heavier by over-reacting to the unfavorable firm performance in the presence of information asymmetry prevailing in the market.The limited sample size and the unavailability of data for a new sample of distressed firms prevent the validity and predictive accuracy assessment by cross validation approach. The method of predictive assessment used in this paper may lead to an upward bias in predictive accuracy of the functions and the chance model criterion used. However, the values seem high enough to justify the use of the model.Consequently, the evidence documents that the logistic regression model serves to predict corporate financial distress, in the presence of economic turbulence, with a higher precision level than the discriminant method. The uncertainty in the economic environment seems to reinforce the unfavorable impact of the managerial errors related to financing decisions, growth strategies, and investments and tends to accelerate financial distress.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To identify predictors of corporate financial distress, using the discriminant and logit models, in an emerging market over a period of economic turbulence and to reveal the comparative predictive and classification accuracies of the models in this different environmental setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research relies on a sample of 27 failed and 27 non-failed manufacturing firms listed in the Istanbul Stock Exchange over the 1996-2003 period, which includes a period of high economic growth (1996-1999) followed by an economic crisis period (2000-2002). The two well-known methods, discriminant analysis and logit, are compared on the basis of a better overall fit and a higher percentage of correct classification under changing economic conditions. Furthermore, this research attempts to reveal the changes, if any, in the bankruptcy predictors, from those found in the earlier studies that rested on the data from the developed markets.\nFindings: - The logistic regression model is found to have higher classification power and predictive accuracy, over the four years prior to bankruptcy, than the discriminant model. In this research, the discriminant and logit models identify the same number of significant predictors out of the total variables analyzed, and six of these are common in both. EBITDA/total assets is the most important predictor of financial distress in both models. The logit model identifies operating profit margin and the proportion of trade credit within total claims ratios as the second and third most important predictors, respectively.\nOriginality/value: - This paper reveals the accuracy with which the discriminant and logit models work in an emerging market over a period when firms face high uncertainty and turbulence. This study may be extended to other emerging markets to eliminate the limitation of the small sample size in this study and to further validate the use of these models in the developing countries. This can serve to make the methods important decision tools for managers and investors in these volatile markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Equal employment opportunity legislation and policies: the Australian experience
|
[
"Equal opportunities",
"Affirmative action",
"Equity policies",
"Women and work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Support for employment equity for women at the highest level of government is universal in the developed economies (Wirth, 2001, pp. 139-51). The past fifty years have seen a transition from state and organisation-supported inequity and discrimination against women workers to policies that support the removal of discrimination and reflect changed social attitudes. In the OECD, the form of these policies depends on prior practice, cultural expectations, political and industrial systems and economic circumstances. A detailed examination of the forces (legislative, judicial, social and industrial) that impact on organisations as they develop and implement equity policies in Australia serves to highlight the current mixture of messages and directives to which organisations must respond. Industrial relations practices, workplace relations and anti-discrimination legislation equal opportunity/affirmative action legislation and developments in human resource management are considered. Together they trace a trajectory which began with the recognition of the need to redress direct discrimination against women and concludes with a variety of policy approaches. Along the way, measures that promote women's employment opportunities, help businesses to be profitable and support workers who are also carers have been absorbed into the legislative and policy mix. In the end, it can be difficult to talk about organisational equity policies in a country like Australia where the variation in practice between organisations is great with the result that outcomes for women are variable and uncertain.A series of case studies undertaken in organisations committed to equal opportunity goals that revealed pragmatic but not always consistent responses to legislation, policy guidelines and labour market pressures (Burgess et al., 2005) prompted this re-examination of the prevailing pressures organisations face. Hence this article discusses the range of approaches to workplace equity in Australia and examines the likely implications of the current mix.In Australia, legislation prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex, pregnancy and marital status and prohibits sexual harassment. Industrial relations legislation contains provisions that promote equal pay and guarantee unpaid parental leave for workers who meet certain employment standards. Provisions that supplement this leave with paid leave and provide a right to return to work after maternity leave on a part-time basis are contained in some industrial agreements or organisational policies. Provisions for leave from work to undertake family caring responsibilities are generally contained in an award or agreement made in an industrial commission between an employer and a trade union but may also be contained in organisational policies. Recent legislation (Workplace Relations Act 2006) has foisted more responsibility on individual firms to negotiate terms of employment rather than relying on trade union negotiations or industry-wide determinations.Large employers in the private sector are required by law to furnish reports detailing their efforts to ensure equal employment opportunity (EEO) for women, but employers with fewer than 100 employees are exempt. The public sectors of federal and state government operate parallel but separate EEO programs (Bacchi, 2000; Burton 1991; Poiner and Wills, 1991, pp. 36-56). Although the notions of \"work and family\", \"work-life balance\" and \"diversity\", and variations of these terms, are discussed in public fora such as radio discussion programs and are accepted in the wider community and within organisations, they lack firm definitions. What an organisation does to promote gender equity is variously determined by its history and ethos, the tightness of its specific labour market and the minimum standards set by legislation. We argue that because employers and employees are faced with a range of options about the way working arrangements are decided and work itself is organised, underpinned in a few instances by legislative minima, outcomes for employment equity are difficult to uncover and unlikely to be consistent among workers and across employers in similar industries. The plethora of policy options provides new challenges for realising gender equity in employment.Legislation and policy development in Australia\nPolicy approaches: Equal pay\nOverview of the equity policy mix: The legislation and policies have been propelled by a mixed rationale of social justice (including acceptance of international standards in the form of ILO conventions) and business benefits (see Table II). In recent years the legislation has been promoted on the basis that it is good for business. Work and family or work/life policies are harder to assess, since they are specific to the work place and work role, and can serve the needs of employers and/or employees. MD is an initiative promoted as good for business, and the assumption that it is \"family friendly\" is largely untested (Strachan et al., 2004).A pattern can be seen in the development over time of equal pay policies, affirmative action, equal opportunity and managing diversity trends in Australia. Early attempts to eliminate discrimination were followed by a legislated EEO program of setting, monitoring and achieving gender equity outcomes; currently business is left to manage its gender equity programs with less government intrusion. The deletion of the step specifying goals and targets in the 1999 EOWW act reduced the emphasis on outcomes, and other changes have allowed greater management discretion in the development of equity policies. The recent change to biennial rather than annual reporting is another step along this path (EOWA, 2007a). It is quite clear when sampling annual reports to the EOWA that many organisations' reports meet the minimum requirements of the act and no more. Overall, most of their HR policies do not display an understanding of EEO or MD issues (French and Strachan, 2007).From the mid-1990s, and increasingly, the dominant discourse in employment is about combining paid work and family care. These issues have gained widespread public recognition in Australia and have resulted in some minimum conditions (for example, unpaid parental leave and use of sick leave to care for family members), largely through decisions of the industrial relations commissions. Yet implementing these in a cohesive way to the benefit of employees is reliant on an EEO plan within each organisation. The discourse has moved from being one of EEO that is based on an analysis of gendered workplace discrimination to that of \"work and family\" and \"family-friendly\" organisations - a notion that is hard to disagree with and one that is more acceptable to a conservative government analysis of women and society (Ostenfeld and Strachan, 1999). In Australia the language of choice, flexibility and work-life balance has largely replaced earlier discourses that involved employment equity and even earlier ones of positive discrimination or affirmative action (Strachan et al., 2004; Bacchi, 2000).In Australia affirmative action/EEO legislation sits firmly on a base of recognition of historic and systemic discrimination against women. In contrast, work and family policies and MD policies do not necessarily recognise any groups, including women, who still face systemic discrimination and disadvantage. Instead, these policies focus on individual differences. While work and family policies explicitly recognise that workers have to combine paid employment with other responsibilities, it does so with a non-gendered face which, it has been argued, defies reality in Australia (Goward et al., 2005).Managing diversity as a workplace policy has similarities with family friendly work policies in a number of respects. Both are voluntary and rely on managers to determine policies and practices. There are no objective standards by which to measure the success of different programs, and indeed what constitutes a successful program is unclear. In an era of increasing emphasis on quality assurance of products and services, it is concerning that these policies come without any measurable goals and objectives. The EEO/AA legislation in Australia emphasised collection of data on which to base programs and report to the community; organisations could develop performance indicators to measure progress towards a defined goal, and employment data and policy outlines were publicly available. Both MD and work and family policies are individualist: differences in family arrangements support the family friendly work agenda while differences across the workforce support the MD agenda.Anti-discrimination and affirmative action/EEO legislation do not seek to change work practices explicitly except to remove discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity. Women are to receive the same conditions and opportunities as men. Work and family policies may change some features of the organisation of work as they include temporal flexibility and recognise the mix of demands that employees face. However, there are major questions over how much control employees have over their own working arrangements and this varies between and within workplaces. In addition, some of this flexibility is gained alongside increasing hours for full-time workers (Watson et al., 2003, pp. 84-92) so the practices can be pulling in opposite directions. The business case may or may not promote equity or work-life balance, however defined. MD promises cultural changes at work, but each enterprise must set its own goals and work within its existing norms: this raises the likelihood of accepting the status quo as an adequate response.\nThe choices for organisations: In Australia, organisations are made aware that they must not discriminate and have to take action to prevent sexual harassment. Otherwise, they face an array of policy approaches promoted by a variety of government agencies and debated in the popular press. In the absence of compulsory practices or specified endpoints, and with satisfactory work-family balance outcomes largely undefined and untested, organisations are left to make their own judgements about what is equitable for employees and profitable for business. It is not surprising that organisations are really only certain about what to do when policies are clearly spelt out in legislation (Liff, 1997; Strachan et al., 2004).Like many other OECD countries, Australia now presents a complex mix of legislation and policies related to gender equity. Prior to the 1970s employment was characterised by direct discrimination against women in remuneration and availability of training and jobs. From this position of overt discrimination, legislation from the 1970s recognised direct and subsequently indirect discrimination and put in place systems through which individuals could process a claim of discrimination. Since the mid-1980s there has been recognition that pro-active policies and practices are needed within organisations if women are to achieve equitable employment outcomes. These policies, while they are in some instances promoted by the government, have only weak legislative underpinning and are not necessarily observed in many organisations.Organisations are able to choose the policies and practices that they believe are appropriate to their particular business situations, and the extent to which they will implement them. This might include attention to workers' preferences in relation to individual work arrangements and career paths; emphasis on recruiting and/or training women in non-traditional roles; increasing \"flexibility\" in the span of hours worked, length of shifts and other temporal arrangements; or any one of a number of other priorities. Organisations can portray many different policies and practices as related to EEO without assessing outcomes against specified criteria or undertaking any measurement of change. Organisational equity policies and practices are determined by ad hoc business and labour force demands which may be coloured by the organisation's own ethics and values (Burgess et al., 2005).The emphasis on individual organisation choice is in line with an increased Australian Government emphasis on individual agreements, and away from collective, industry-wide norms, in the industrial relations system. This has been accompanied by reduced legislative minimum employment standards. The result is that working conditions and arrangements, including gender equity, must be negotiated or fought for at the level of the workplace or individual employee with the back-up of only minimal legislated labour standards together with anti-discrimination legislation, and that organisations are left with many choices and little guidance in developing employment policies and practices. The need for government agencies, trade unions and industry organisations to help employers and employees arrive at consistent and equitable outcomes is pressing.\nNote: 1. The pace quickened with the election of a federal conservative government in 1996 and the introduction of workplace or enterprise bargaining (Workplace Relations Act 1996). More recently, a conservative majority in both houses of federal parliament facilitated the introduction widespread changes in industrial relations legislation, removing all but the most basic protection for workers and reinforcing the existing emphasis on individual as opposed to collective workplace agreements (Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005). As most of these agreements are confidential, and there are few legislative minima, changes will occur on an individual basis and the outcomes for women workers will be hard to discover.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Organisations have to respond to a range of legislative and policy initiatives intended to promote equal employment opportunity for women. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the mix of legislation and policies in Australia: anti-discrimination and equal opportunity legislation, equal pay, work and family and managing diversity policies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Legislation, industrial relations changes and policies relating to pay equity, non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, affirmative action and equal opportunity, including work and family policies and managing diversity approaches are reviewed in the context of changing labour conditions and social trends.\nFindings: - Organisations are presented with a range of policies from which to choose and the result is variety in the extent and type of equity programs which produce variable outcomes for women in the workplace.\nPractical implications: - While this paper deals in particular with Australia, the pattern of multiplicity of approaches is common to other Western countries. As organisations choose among a variety of approaches in implementing an equal opportunity programme, the outcomes for women will vary.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers insight into equal employment opportunity legislation and policies within the Australian context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of envy on brand preference: brand storytelling and psychological distance as moderators
|
[
"Brand preference",
"Envy",
"Brand storytelling",
"Psychological distance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring. ~Victor Hugo\nBackground overview and theoretical development: Brand storytelling\nMethodology: Pretests of stimulus material\nResults: Manipulation check for brand storytelling\nResults: Manipulation check for psychological distance\nResults: Manipulation check for brand storytelling\nDiscussion: Theoretical contribution\nLimitations and future research: This research contributes to broadening the horizon of marketing and consumer psychology and addresses some practical suggestions to advertisers. However, there are still some limitations that should be considered for future research. First, this research is based on the premise that advertisers adopt different types of brand storytelling strategies (underdog vs top dog) and psychological distance (proximal vs distant) for precisely targeting consumers with different types of envy; however, it is difficult for firms or advertisers to detect potential consumers' envy types (malicious envy or benign envy) before an ad message strategy is formulated. Second, this research was conducted in Taiwan rather than in Occidental countries. Cultural differences were not considered in examining the impact of envy on brand preferences. Future research is expected to examine whether the impact of envy on brand preferences can be moderated by cultural factors. Moreover, this research fails to take consumer knowledge and familiarity of the product domain into account. It is assumed that when consumer knowledge is high, the underdog effect and the psychological distance effect may be mitigated. This is because consumers are likely to apply their own existing product knowledge to assess candidate brands, regardless of provided brand information characterized by either underdog vs top dog or proximal vs distant psychological distance. In addition, situational variables (i.e. cognitive resource and temporal pressure) could influence consumer's cognition and attitudes. For example, consumers who lack cognitive resources or who are under high temporal pressure tend to form differential brand preferences, regardless of brand storytelling style. Therefore, future research could consider situational factors in examining the effect of brand storytelling. Finally, this research adopts bank financial services as the experimental stimulus material. Future research may wish to use tangible products to refine the generalizability of this research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: While envy has been widely explored in psychology literature, theoretical understanding of the effects of envy on consumers' emotional responses to brands is promising but under explored. Therefore, this study aims to apply cases of envy and psychological distance to consumers to examine whether the style of brand storytelling can moderate brand preference.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of envy on consumer evaluations of an advocated brand, through viewing a series of advertisements that varied in brand storytelling styles. A total of 104 working students were randomly assigned to a 2 (brand storytelling: underdog vs top dog) single factorial design. Experiment 2 investigates the effect of envy on consumer evaluations of the advocated brand through viewing advertisements that varied in psychological distance. A total of 108 working students were randomly assigned to a 2 (psychological distance: proximal vs distant) single factorial design. Experiment 3 investigated the effect of envy on evaluations of the brand through viewing advertisements that varied in brand storytelling style and psychological distance. A total of 208 working students were randomly assigned to a 2 (underdog vs top dog) x 2 (proximal vs distant psychological distance) between-subject factorial design.\nFindings: Results demonstrate that for consumers experiencing benign and malicious envy, advertisements characterized by brand storytelling (underdog vs top dog) and psychological distance (proximal vs distant) will elicit differential brand preferences.\nOriginality/value: This research takes up the call to address the limited attention given to envy in the context of brand advertising. Specifically, this research aims to explore how consumer envy influences brand preference and the role of moderating effects such as brand storytelling and psychological distance in this context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Language in the information-seeking context: A study of US scholars using non-English sources
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"Languages",
"Strategies",
"Information seeking",
"Qualitative user study",
"Situations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: How scholars conduct research is a complex topic, and many models have been built to represent, de-construct, and understand their information seeking strategies. But what if the resources they require to accomplish their research are not in English? An Asian historian may rely upon primary sources that exist only in Chinese, Japanese, or Urdu to provide the information they need for their topic. Language scholars studying twelfth century German texts, nineteenth century Afro-Colombian poetry, indigenous Latin American plays, or Holocaust history require rare and specialized documents as sources. When these scholars have their home base in the USA, the needed documents may also be far away and difficult to access.\nResearch problem and research questions: The problematic situations encountered by researchers in the USA using languages other than English can be related to the geographical location of the source, the cultural factors involved in gaining access to the source, or the language itself. Nonetheless, existing research on information seeking strategies (ISSs) among users in general or scholars specifically has not explored how language, culture, and geography effect scholars' choices of strategies and the shifts they make from one strategy to another. This study specifically explores the role that language, culture, and geography play in the information seeking behaviors of US scholars who rely on sources that are not in English. The specific research questions are:\nLiterature review: For decades - if not centuries - scholars in history, literature, political science, classics, modern languages, and various other disciplines have relied on strategies such as bibliographic tracing, library browsing, personal collections, conference attendance, and human interaction to identify and obtain sources relevant to their topic of research. With the fairly recent advent of online search tools, most non-scholarly information seeking revolves around \"Googling it.\" Younger scholars, such as those at the undergraduate level, may naturally gravitate toward information seeking strategies that rely on searching unless they are specifically shown how to engage in the more classic techniques such as bibliographic tracing. Younger scholars also lack the personal collections and the human connections that more mature scholars consider key to their research.\nConceptual model: This study makes use of a new conceptual model - the information triangle - developed as a result of the authors' research, which facilitates the classification of strategies used by scholars throughout a specific information seeking task as well as the characterization of the shifts between strategies (see Figure 1). While the three classifications that make up the sides of the information triangle correspond to some theories in the previous literature, they are derived primarily inductively and directly from the subjects in the study as well as the authors' previous and subsequent studies.\nMethodology: This study was conducted using 16 human subjects, all of whom are college or university instructors with advanced degrees actively pursuing research on a topic in their field.\nData analysis: Data were analyzed throughout the course of the study using grounded theory and the constant comparative method (Glaser, 1965; Glaser and Strauss, 1967). While it is tempting to combine or divide certain strategies to make them fit more neatly into existing models, the model presented by this study emanates from the data rather than trying to fit the data into an existing theoretical model.\nResults: The findings of this study are presented according to the research questions: first, types of ISSs used by scholars; and second, types of shifts in strategies made in routine, disruptive, and problematic situations. Many more cases of strategies and shifts exist; the cases presented here were deemed to be most illustrative of the corresponding concept.\nDiscussion: This study specifically sought to identify and classify the strategies deemed most effective by scholars conducting research in languages other than English and to identify, classify, and understand the shifts that these scholars make between strategies. This section focusses on the discussion of the role of language in scholar's selection of information seeking strategies and shifts between strategies.\nConclusion: While the results of the study are very helpful in identifying the information seeking strategies used by scholars who rely on non-English sources and the role that language plays in the situations that prompt strategy shifts, its primary limitation is related to isolating the variables of language, culture, and geography from other possible factors such as the searcher's domain knowledge, their system knowledge, and/or limitations of the systems or resources being used. Future studies should bring out additional evidence from multiple data collection methods to support the conclusion that language plays a direct and observable role in the information seeking context which, in turn, causes shifts in ISSs to satisfy the scholar's information need, especially at the stage of resource acquisition. In addition, the sample size can be expanded to have a better representation of scholars and to allow for quantitative data collection and analysis as confirmation of the qualitative observations. Confirmatory quantitative statistics should be gathered to determine which strategies are most often used in what situations. The strategies used and shifts between strategies made by scholars using non-English sources should then be compared to strategies and shifts applied by scholars engaged in information seeking in general to determine by comparison if some specific strategies truly are more \"language-proof\" than others.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to specifically investigate information seeking strategies that are used by scholars in the USA conducting research in languages other than English and the types of shifts that scholars make between strategies in planned, disruptive, and problematic situations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Interviews and research diaries were employed to gather information from 16 subjects using seven different languages across seven disciplines. Grounded theory and the constant comparative method were used to analyze types of strategies and types of shifts between strategies.\nFindings: This study identified four formal system strategies, seven informal resource strategies, four interactive human strategies, and one hybrid strategy. Subjects in the study selected informal resource and interactive human strategies more often as initial strategies while informal resource strategies are used as final strategies. Moreover, the findings presented a variety of shifts between strategies in planned, disruptive, and problematic situations.\nResearch limitations/implications: Theoretically, this study introduces a new conceptual model - the information triangle - which facilitates the classification of strategies used by scholars throughout an information seeking task as well as the characterization of the shifts between strategies. Practically, this paper discusses implications for system designers, publishers, and support providers to better meet the needs of this specific group. A primary limitation is related to isolating the variables of language, culture, and geography from other possible factors such as domain knowledge, system knowledge, or limitations of the systems being used.\nOriginality/value: This study fills a gap in current research in relation to how language plays a role in the selection of and shifts between information seeking strategies used by scholars who rely on sources that are not in English.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Attitudes toward mammography: questionnaire psychometric properties
|
[
"Psychometric",
"Attitude",
"Breast cancer",
"Women",
"Screening",
"Barrier"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Cancer is the leading death cause in developed countries and the second leading cause in developing countries. The International Agency for Research on Cancer reported in 2012 that breast cancer was the most diagnosed cancer among women in most countries and more than half of new breast cancer cases and deaths occur in economically developing countries in which breast cancers are often diagnosed after the disease has progressed, and survival chances are poorer (ACS, 2012). In Asia, for instance, breast cancer is 39 percent of all new cancer cases and 44 percent of all cancer deaths in females in 2012 (Bray et al., 2013). Breast malignancy may lead to other cancers such as bone marrow, lung, liver and brain (Razavi et al., 2007). Nevertheless, advances in treatment along with better screening and early detection over the past two decades resulted in a major reduction in mortality from breast cancer (Ghaderi et al., 2014). Screening offers the opportunity to detect cancer early, before symptoms appear, which usually results in less extensive treatment and better outcomes. Fewer screening practices in developing countries result in delayed diagnosis and treatment, which results in higher mortality rates compared to developed countries (Yilmaz and Sayin, 2014), which suggests that conducting research to identify factors that dissuade women from undergoing breast cancer screening in these contexts is important.\nMethods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2016. A total of 1,000 Iranian women were recruited using a convenience sampling technique. The survey contained items on participants' age, employment, marital status and health insurance coverage. The ABCSPS was used to assess women's attitudes and beliefs about mammography procedures. Dibble et al. (1997) changed Wolosin's (1989) original questionnaire from a yes or no format to a Likert scale. We used a seven-point Likert scale ranging from one (strongly disagree) to seven (strongly agree). The World Health Organization (2016) instrument translation and adaptation process were used to render the ABCSPS into Persian.\nResults: Participants' demographic characteristics are shown in Table I. The Iranian women sample's mean age was 41.1 years (SD =9 years). Almost 82 percent were married and 86.1 percent had health insurance. While 58.4 percent reported that they were not employed, 22.5 percent said they had a full-time job and 16.7 percent reported that they had a part-time job. The most common education level (51.7 percent) was higher than a diploma.\nDiscussion: Our aim was to assess the Persian ABCSPS's psychometric properties among Iranian women. The underlying scale's structure was investigated using EFA with oblique rotation. The KMO test and Bartlett's sphericity test were used to check the study sample and model appropriateness. Based on the EFA findings and eigenvalues greater than one criterion, a two-factor solution labeled as: embarrassment; and pain and radiation fears was selected, explaining 55.1 percent of the variance. The highest load was related to embarrassment and the lowest was related to pain and radiation fears. Performing CFA on the results obtained from EFA showed that the two-factor measurement model had an acceptable fit. The final two-factor model was invariant across different groups. The study findings also indicated an acceptable reliability.\nLimitations: Our study has limitations; first, its cross-sectional design prevents the researcher from assessing test-retest reliability, longitudinally. Second, the self-report design could be subject to bias. Third, related scales that could be used for psychometric comparison with the ABCSPS are lacking.\nConclusion: Findings showed that the Persian ABCSPS has two factors and acceptable reliability; we conclude that among Iranian women, the ABCSPS Persian translation appears to represent a reliable and relevant breast cancer screening attitude measure that taps into two-related domains: embarrassment; and pain and radiation fears. Assessing and confirming the scale's validity and reliability in other populations is recommended as an area for further investigations. The two dimensions are the main barriers to breast cancer screening and examination among Iranian women, which contribute to late disease detection and death. Further research should investigate embarrassment, and pain and radiation fear determinants and consequences. Poor knowledge among Iranian women requires more targeted efforts to improve their knowledge, to minimize existing barriers to screening.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Persian version of the Attitude toward Breast Cancer Screening Procedures Scale (ABCSPS) among Iranian women.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this methodological study, 1,000 Iranian women completed a demographic questionnaire and the 14-item Persian ABCSPS. The scale's construct validity was evaluated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency and reliability were assessed using Cronbach's a and McDonald's coefficient o.\nFindings: The exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution accounting for 55.1 percent of the variance. The two-factor measurement model had a good fit with all factor loadings greater than 0.5, which were statistically significant. The results showed good reliability and internally consistency (a=0.767 and 0.872; o =0.979 and 0.997). Moreover, model structure was invariant across different income groups.\nOriginality/value: The Persian ABCSPS translation demonstrated good validity and reliability among Iranian women. The results also showed that the scale had a multidimensional structure. Regarding proper psychometric properties, the validated scale can be used in future studies as a reliable and relevant breast cancer screening attitude measure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Credit card knowledge, social motivation, and credit card misuse among college students: Examining the information-motivation-behavioral skills model
|
[
"College students",
"Credit card knowledge",
"Credit card misuse",
"Credit card self-efficacy",
"Social motivation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Credit cards have emerged as one of today's most convenient and popular means of payment, being an important tool to support modern lifestyles (Hayhoe et al., 2000; Bernthal et al., 2005). About 38 percent of all US households owned some sort of credit card debt in 2015 (United States Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve, 2016). The average US household credit card debt was $15,762 in 2015. Each American had an average of 2.6 credit cards in 2014; among credit card owners, the average was 3.7 cards.\n2. Literature review: Credit card misuse refers to excessive and irresponsible spending in using credit cards causing substantial debt (Norvilitis et al., 2006; Omar et al., 2014; Palan et al., 2011; Sidoti and Devasagayam, 2010). Credit card misuse among college students has serious financial and psychological consequences, being associated with higher level of student dropout rates while in college, compulsive buying, and the resulting high levels of debt (Palan et al., 2011; Robb et al., 2012; Roberts and Tanner, 2000). Therefore, the practice of marketing credit cards to college students is a topic of concern which has received increasing attention from academics, policy makers, and credit card companies over the last decade. Studies have raised serious questions about college students' abilities to appropriately use credit cards and manage credit card debt.\n3. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: The IMB skills model, originally developed to predict health behavior by Fisher and Fisher (1992), has been shown to predict and change a number of behaviors. The IMB model is comprised of three core components - information, motivation, and behavioral skills. While the term \"information\" refers to the facts, heuristics, and implicit theories, the \"motivation\" construct consists of personal and social motivation. \"Behavioral skills\" on the other hand include abilities and self-efficacy in implementing those skills in various situations. The IMB model assumes that information and motivation are the basis for behavioral skills which ultimately promote risk-reduction behaviors. If individuals are well informed, motivated to act, and possess an appropriate behavioral skills to engage in a targeted behavior, a target behavior is more likely to occur (Fisher et al., 2006).\n4. Direct effects of credit card knowledge on credit card misuse and self-efficacy: In this study, credit card knowledge is defined as college students' general understanding of concepts related to the use and management of their credit cards, including minimum payment, interest rate, and late fees. Prior investigations show that financial knowledge influences credit card behavior and practices (Allgood and Walstad, 2013, 2016; Moore, 2004). Researchers have demonstrated the important role that credit card knowledge plays in responsible credit card usage. Studies show that inadequate or lack of financial knowledge is a major source of credit card misuse and debt among college students (Norvilitis and Santa Maria, 2002; Norvilitis et al., 2006). On the other hand, Robb (2011) indicates that personal financial knowledge promotes responsible use of credit cards among college students, suggesting that a higher level of personal financial knowledge is associated with a more responsible use of credit cards.\n5. Direct effects of social motivation on credit card misuse and self-efficacy: In general, social motivation refers to an individual's perceptions of significant others' (e.g. family, friends) support for a behavior. In this study, social motivation is defined as the extent to which an individual gets support and advice from family and friends for credit card usage and her/his motivation to comply with others' advices. In other words, it refers to the extent to which college students used their social networks (friends, family, or people who are important to them) to obtain advice and support for their credit card use.\n6. Direct effect of credit card self-efficacy on credit card misuse: Self-efficacy refers to people's perceived capability to exercise control over events that affect their lives in general (Bandura, 1977). Credit card self-efficacy in this study is defined as college students' perceptions that they can control themselves as regards to credit card overspending behavior. Livingstone and Lunt (1992) suggest that locus of control, people's beliefs that they have control over their behavior, can predict credit card debt. Another study shows that financial self-confidence, an individual's self-confidence to carry out a financial management task, can affect credit card usage (Santos et al., 2016). Wang et al. (2011) found a significant impact of self-efficacy on revolving credit use. Another study concluded that credit card self-efficacy had a significant negative effect on young consumers' propensity to overspend on credit cards (Sotiropoulos and d'Astous, 2013).\n7. Indirect effects: The literature suggests that financial knowledge alone is insufficient to ensure better financial behavior as the relationship between knowledge and behavior is complicated (Braunstein and Welch, 2002; Perry and Morris, 2005). Considerable information may be required by individuals to appropriately and effectively use credit cards. Norvilitis and Santa Maria (2002) argue that college students' financial knowledge rarely correlates with behavioral change. Another study indicates that many college students that have financial literacy training believe that they should be financially responsible, including their credit card obligations. Such awareness and beliefs do not necessarily decrease credit card misuse and decrease credit card debt (Ackert and Church, 2015).\n8. Methodology: Sample\n9. Statistical analysis and results: Measurement model\n10. Conclusion and implications: Theoretical contributions\n11. Limitation and future research: This study has several limitations that offer avenues for further research. First, due to the cross-sectional nature of the study design, causal inferences cannot be made. Future studies should employ longitudinal studies to determine how different levels of IMB skills predict the changes in credit card misuse behavior over a period of time. In this study, direct association between social motivation and credit card misuse was not significant. Social motivation can be considered as a source of credit card knowledge. Therefore, future studies can examine if social motivation indirectly influences credit card misuse through credit card knowledge. Future studies can explore the tendency to misuse credit cards between consumers in emerging markets and those in developed markets or between consumers living in collectivist societies and those living in individualist societies (Sotiropoulos and d'Astous, 2013). The current study employed a subjective measure to assess students' credit card knowledge. Future studies should consider more objectively measuring actual credit card knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: By applying the information-motivation-behavioral (IMB) skills model, the purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect effects of credit card knowledge and social motivation on credit card misuse behavior mediated through credit card self-efficacy among college students in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 427 participants was surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the hypothesized model.\nFindings: Credit card knowledge and social motivation were inversely associated with credit card misuse mediated through credit card self-efficacy. Credit card knowledge had a direct negative relationship with credit card misuse. The results confirm the theoretical relationships in the IMB model.\nPractical implications: The results offer several implications for bank marketers and policy makers. The IMB model could be used to predict credit card abuse among college students; credit card literacy programs should incorporate strategies that can enhance students' knowledge, social motivation, and behavioral skills with regard to responsible use of credit cards.\nOriginality/value: This study is unique in that it applies the IMB model to examine predictors of credit card misuse among college students.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Estimating shadow economy in Tanzania: an analysis with the MIMIC approach
|
[
"Tanzania",
"Shadow economy",
"MIMIC model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Large empirical literature investigates methods to assess and to measure the size of the shadow economy (SE) and the analysis of its determinants across the world (Schneider and Enste, 2000). These studies reveal that the SE is a persistent problem in every country, but its size is significantly higher in developing countries. For instance, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Nigeria are the countries with the highest shadow economies in Africa and among the highest over the world, averaging 58.6 per cent in 1999, 56 per cent in 2004 and 53.7 per cent in 2007 (Buehn and Schneider, 2012), with an average of 56.4 per cent during the period 1999-2007. The literature shows that SE is undesirable because it is a source of inaccurate data from which macroeconomic policy decisions are made. In view of this, SE raises problems for public finances and biases official statistics, also reducing the effectiveness of economic policies. However, the SE is often a source of income for poor, excluded and unskilled workers who have greater difficulties to find a formal job. Accordingly, to have a reliable knowledge of the size of SE is a necessary prerequisite to design public policies effectively.\n2. Definition of the SE: In accordance with the international standards of the system of national accounting classifications, the use of the terms non-observed, underground, informal, illegal economy is not just a question of terminology. They clearly measure different aggregates and therefore require diverse theoretical and empirical methodologies. Several attempts are presented in the literature to summarise the wide range of proposed definitions of SE (Schneider and Enste, 2000; Dell'Anno, 2016).\n3. Literature review on Tanzanian SE: Maliyamkono and Bagachwa (1990) provide the first contribution to the literature of SE in Tanzania. They estimate the Tanzanian SE using the macro and micro approaches, in which the macro approach constitutes monetary models, that is, the currency-demand deposit ratio or Gutmann's (1977) model and the currency-money ratio or Tanzi's (1983) model. Their macro-monetary models cover the sample period 1975-1986. The micro approach uses sampled household survey data, focusing on individual sectors (i.e. agriculture, labour and trade) in which they extrapolate the sectoral estimates to national levels. The findings from the monetary (i.e. Gutmann) model and the micro approach indicate SE more than 30 per cent in 1986.\n4. MIMIC approach and data: The MIMIC model is a particular structural equation model which \"considers the SE as a latent variable linked, on the one hand, to a number of observable indicators (reflecting changes in the size of the SE) and on the other, to a set of observed causal variables, which are regarded as some of the most important determinants of the unreported economic activity\" (Dell'Anno, 2003, p. 2).\n5. Empirical strategy and outcomes: The empirical analysis starts by the preliminary test on stationarity and multinormality. Concerning the former, the series in levels and differences have been tested for unit roots using Augmented-Dicky Fuller and Philip-Peron and Kwiatkowski et al. (1992) tests[4]. Accordingly, all the variables have been differenced for the achievement of stationarity except the inflation rate which is stationary in level.\n6. Conclusions: The paper estimates the Tanzanian SE from 2003 to 2015 by applying the MIMIC approach and provides some economic recommendations for policy makers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the Tanzanian shadow economy (SE) from 2003 to 2015 and test the statistical relationships between the SE and its potential causes and indicators.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The econometric analysis is based on a multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model. To calibrate the SE from the estimates, the authors adopt the value of 55.4 percentage of the SE to official GDP from the literature for the base year 2005.\nFindings: The SE ranges from 52 to 61 per cent of official GDP and slightly decreases from 2013 to 2015. Increase in inflation, unemployment and government spending were the main drivers of the SE dynamics.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the challenges facing estimation of the SE (e.g. small sample size, exogenous estimate to calibrate the model, meaning of the latent variable), quantification of SE should be considered to be rough measures.\nPractical implications: To lower the size of the SE, the government needs to keep inflation and unemployment stable over time, to reduce government spending because it creates pressure on tax collection due to the limited tax base.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study specifically focused on Tanzanian SE based on the MIMIC approach. Existing estimates of Tanzanian SE are calculated by monetary models or apply a common MIMIC specification to the worldwide context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Personnel participation as a key factor for success in maintenance program implementation: A case study
|
[
"Maintenance",
"Productive maintenance",
"Total quality management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The new needs that the market places on companies are seen in the productive sphere as improvements in standards for quality, cost and service. Appropriate management of manufacturing resource maintenance can contribute greatly to such improvements, as has been stated by authors such as Fruin and Nakamura (1997) who point out that total productive maintenance (TPM) programme implementation in Japanese manufacturers has made a significant contribution to their success in reducing operating costs. However, the authors of this paper feel that implementing improvement schemes for maintenance management is hindered by the scarce commitment and involvement of affected personnel.Thus, it becomes interesting to adopt personnel participation schemes that make it possible to channel personnel commitment and involvement towards improvement in different areas, particularly in maintenance areas, in accordance with a TPM approach. Authors such as Nakajima (1988), Patterson et al. (1995), Tajiri and Gotoh (1992) and Yeomans and Millington (1997), identify factors such as management support and commitment, and greater responsability, cooperation and involvement among production and maintenance workers as being critical in TPM success.Likewise, TPM implementation should not be considered in isolation, but should instead be recognised jointly with the implementation of other continuous improvement processes in a company. Thus, O Cua et al. (2001) and Yamashina (2000) highlight the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and just in time (JIT). Other authors, such as Hipkin and De Cock (2000) link TPM and reliability centred maintenance (RCM) as part of TQM and business process reengineering (BPR).It is, therefore, important to associate, as a key aspect in TPM programme implementation, the proper functioning of work teams with the involvement of their participants, as has been pointed out by Liselott (2003) and Jostes and Helms (1994), given that the implementation of such programmes shows a high failure rate (three out of every four implementations (Ezey, 1997)).Despite such importance, recent literature includes very few examples presenting applied methodologies for TPM programme implementation. There is a contribution by Cooke (2000), which identifies the difficulties faced by four UK processing/manufacturing companies during TPM implementation; and McKone et al. (1999), who identify the most significant variables for explaining the degree of variation in TPM programme implementation in a sample of 97 factories in three countries; and finally, Samuel (1999) highlights the importance of personnel participation in the application of 5-S, BPR, QCC, ISO 9000 and TPM programmes leading to TQM in the experience of four large companies that have survived and grown in an environment of economic crisis.Other authors, such as Bohoris et al. (1995), add technological aspects to those of motivation and involvement when they point out the need for an appropriate computerised maintenance management system to aid TPM programme implementation at carmaker Land Rover.Throughout this paper, the usefulness of the improvement project approach will be explained. This approach has been successfully developed and implemented by the authors in several companies, although here we will concentrate on the maintenance management experience of Grupo Losan (Prado, 2001).Thus, with the application of the improvement project in one section, an organizational redesign is attempted based on existing human resources (workers, middle management and top management) and materials, tending to increase current levels of productivity and quality, and reduce lead times and cost, but always relying on involvement from all the personnel in that section, not only in design, but also in development and implementation.It therefore means that personnel (especially operators) are involved and participate not only in operational aspects of production management (the scope generally covered by quality circles, Kaizen teams and suggestions systems), but also in the design or redesign of the production processes.\nObjective of the paper: In this context, the objective of this paper is to present the most methodological aspects (organizational structure, stages, operative of the meetings) of the successful design and implementation of a maintenance program with a participative approach in the Spanish company Grupo Losan, a process in which the authors have participated in, acting as agents of change. Case study approach is appropriate when studying managerial processes, since the boundaries of the phenomenon and its context are not clearly evident (Yin, 1994). So, designing and implementing a maintenance program is a good example of this situation due to the complexity of the process and to the multiple exogenous and endogenous variables to be considered in each company. The description and comments of these methodological aspects can facilitate the implementation of these kinds of programs in other companies and sectors, increasing the knowledge in this issue. Nowadays, with the high degree of competency present on the markets, to ensure the reliability of the production system is a key element to being able to provide standards of quality, service and costs in accordance with customer demands.\nCase study: This section provides the methodology used by the authors to establish continuous improvement through an improvement project structure in the company.This approach is presented in several parts. First, company and basic objectives of the project are presented. Second, the organizational structure of the continuous improvement project is shown. Thirdly, the steps taken to put things into practice (plan) and the operational running of the improvement projects are described. Finally, the main results are commented.Grupo Losan and TQM\nDiscussion and conclusions: The difficulty in implementing TPM program (as a part of TQM policy) is caused, among other factors and in the authors' judgement, by the complexity of obtaining commitment and involvement from affected personnel. However, application of such programmes is now becoming a differentiating element given that proper implementation makes improved company competitiveness possible.Relying on affected personnel (from maintenance, production and other departments) - supervised by the company's management team - in the design, development and implementation of the maintenance management system itself, not only facilitates implementation but also contributes to better adaptation of daily production reality (thanks to contributions from the personnel responsible for undertaking this), so improving standards of cost and service offered by the area (the brilliant results obtained in the maintenance improvement projects in the Grupo Losan are noted).Thus, adopting an appropriate, reasoned methodology with a participative approach (with an adequate organizational structure, certain pre-established stages and an efficient operative at the meetings to comply with these stages) such as that used in the case studied, becomes a key factor, as noted by Kanji and Asher (1993), Kotter (1996), Lycke (2000) and Hanson (2001). Furthermore, this participative approach can contribute, not only in implementation, but even in designing process (Senge, 1990; Prado, 2000).The participative approach applied by Grupo Losan in designing the maintenance program (which can be perfectly extrapolated to other companies) has been one of the primordial keys to its success. In fact, the advantages of the approach put forward go beyond the important improvement in the functioning of the production system, since the workers' commitment and involvement make it possible to bring the organization in line with the \"continuous improvement\" approach demanded by the market (Boer et al., 2000), by an orderly questioning both of the work methods and processes as well as assigning tasks and people responsible.Needless to say, there is no doubt about the fact that the priority approach in the actions should be to identify quantifiable improvements, as shown in the case in point. In fact, for some time now, the definitions of continuous improvement highlight this search for improvements in competitiveness (Boer et al., 2000).In a similar manner to our experience, Middel et al., 2005 comment that \"the findings from the case study indicate that improvement activities frequently have the character of (ad-hoc problem driven) improvement projects, rather than that of collaborative, structural and pro-active improvement processes\" or, as noted by Cagliano et al., 2005 in particular during its first implementation, \"is more likely to be structured and directed instead of emergent and spontaneous\".People, and particularly those belonging to the improvement team, in our case, are those best acquainted with the processes developed in their company, in which they actively participate, on a daily basis, and therefore, they are the most enabled to identify problems and opportunities for improvement and to contribute solutions. One of the most satisfying aspects of these experiences has been precisely personnel satisfaction with the process (an aspect that has been given the maximum points in the surveys carried out on all the participants, once the improvement team had served its purpose).Also, when implementing, at entrepreneurial level, a maintenance program, the researchers have the opportunity to witness the process, not only as mere observers of the same, but also as real agents of change. All this is in line with the \"action research\" approach originating in the works by the sociotechnical authors at the Tavistock Institute (inter alia, Emery and Thorsrud, 1969; Trist et al., 1963), based on experiences in the English coal mines in the 1950s. Two of the most striking characteristics, from the researcher's point of view, in these approaches are, first, the fact that action research lies with the so-called processes of intervention (strengthening collaboration between the entrepreneurial and the academic world). Second, the role played in these interventions by the researchers themselves (termed by the authors as facilitator or agent of change) are noted. The processes of intervention are directly intended to solve a certain problem or deal with a certain problematic situation, whereas the know-how generating processes are appropriate techniques or methods to deal with specially interesting situations or problems due to their importance or the frequency with which they arise. Based on the volume of observations provided by the processes of intervention, a generalized can be made for the same, in two aspects: either the generalization of descriptive models of a type of frequently observed phenomena or, alternatively, the generalization of explanatory theories for such phenomena. In the study of the production systems, however, (in general, in the logistics field and particularly in the context of information systems), observations of the real world are especially important in view of the existence of a series of difficulties that prevent their use in this field. The main difficulty is that it is impossible to conduct experiments in controlled environments and, later, to repeat the results. Several authors have supported the action research approach in the field of production/logistics. Therefore, works by Susman and Evered (1978), Warmington (1980), Meredith (1993), Platts (1993), Maull et al. (1995) and Prado (2000) are to be noted.Thus, not only is the intention to observe a given situation, but also to act on it in order to change it, logically with the consent of the companies, this being a pro-active research that unleashes processes of change in the organization, because they are considered to be beneficial, not only for the company but also for the worker, particularly if it involves a participative approach as proposed in this paper.Lastly, it is noted that this only concerns one experience, which is not significant, but do allow us to draw conclusions which, we consider, contribute to increasing knowledge of continuous improvement and TPM. Evidently, we need more experiences which, in conjunction with other previous ones allow us to continue moving ahead in extending continuous improvement, not only in the company, but also in the supply chain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to put forward the methodology and most important aspects used at the Spanish group of timber companies Grupo Losan to design and implement a satisfactory preventive maintenance program in the manufacture of melamine and veneers in accordance with continuous improvement and TPM philosophy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper draws on empirical evidence from one case study and develops a framework for improvement in continuous improvement management for company competitiveness.\nFindings: - The authors judge the difficulty in implementing a continuous improvement culture to be caused by the complexity of obtaining commitment and involvement from the personnel most affected by the project. In this context, a participative approach and a suitable methodology for implementation are key factors that are not always taken into account by companies. This experience also proposes the important role that researchers can play as \"agents of change\" from a viewpoint of \"action research\".\nPractical implications: - The management experience provides companies with a useful guideline to implement continuous improvement culture not only in the maintenance area, but also in supply chain management.\nOriginality/value: - The case study covers a gap in the research field on the lack of implementing guidelines which aid adopting continuous improvement in companies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An empirical test of the perceived relationship between risk and the constituents severity and probability
|
[
"Risk perception",
"Information security risk assessment",
"Perceived probability",
"Perceived severity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is widely accepted and uncontroversial to view information security in terms of risks. Information security risks are, in many of the most widely accepted definitions, assessed in terms of the probability that a threat will be realized and the severity of the consequences of a realized threat. For instance, a number of authorities and textbooks prescribe that information security risk is a combination of probability (in some contexts called likelihood or frequency) and severity (in some contexts called consequence, impact or magnitude) (NIST, 2012; ; Club de la Securite de l'Information Francais, 2011; Karabacak and Sogukpinar, 2005; Lund et al., 2011). The decision-making literature agrees - risk is calculated as the product of the severity and the probability (Gordon and Loeb, 2002; Sommestad et al., 2010; Blakley and Mcdermott, 2002). Thus, rational and balanced security decisions require that risk is assessed as the product of probability and severity. The rationale for this is clearest in the extreme cases - with no negative effect (severity zero), the probability should be irrelevant; with no possibility of happening (probability zero), the severity should be irrelevant. But it is also clear in between these extremes - if a bad thing is twice as likely or twice as severe as another bad thing, the expected costs will be twice as large.\n2. Method: The study design was heavily influenced by the design used by Weinstein (2000). The sections below describe the participants, the survey instrument and the data collection procedure.\n3. Results: The risk equation used by the respondents is analyzed within-subjects and presented in Section 3.1. This risk equation allows us to test H1. As will be seen, the results of this test made it difficult to test H2 and H3. Section 3.2 describes this further.\n4. Discussion: Most of the respondents seem to have an idea of probabilities and severities associated with information security incidents. For eight out of ten respondents, the probabilities and severities provided at different weeks for the same incidents had very strong correlations (>0.75). This perception of probabilities and severities is also, to some extent, shared among the respondents. Between-subjects correlations are considerable for probabilities (0.46), severities (0.52) and risks (0.48). Thus, their responses seem to stem from some partially shared perception of the information security threats. This suggests that the survey is able to measure the perceptions it set out to measure. Nevertheless, there are many possible reasons for the fact that our result - in contrast to the one of Weinstein (2000) - does not support a multiplicative relationship between severity and probability in people's minds when calculating risk. The results indicate that information security risk assessments are determined by the severity.\n5. Conclusions: The results of this study suggests that neither information security experts nor other information system professionals perceive information security risk associated with an incident as a result of a multiplication of its probability and its severity. Instead, the respondents of this study tend to see the severity of an incident as sufficient for assessing the priority of removing the risk and the value of an insurance premium for the risk. This is in stark contrast to the established idea that the risk should be determined through a multiplication of probability and severity. The result is a good justification for procedures described in many information security risk assessment methods that force the users to assess probability separately from severity and then multiply the two factors. For example, the use of two-dimensional risk assessment matrixes with probability and severity as inputs will help to make sure that risk is assessed in a rational way.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In methods and manuals, the product of an information security incident's probability and severity is seen as a risk to manage. The purpose of the test described in this paper is to investigate if information security risk is perceived in this way, if decision-making style influences the perceived relationship between the three variables and if the level of information security expertise influences the relationship between the three variables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Ten respondents assessed 105 potential information security incidents. Ratings of the associated risks were obtained independently from ratings of the probability and severity of the incidents. Decision-making style was measured using a scale inspired from the Cognitive Style Index; information security expertise was self-reported. Regression analysis was used to test the relationship between variables.\nFindings: The ten respondents did not assess risk as the product of probability and severity, regardless of experience, expertise and decision-making style. The mean variance explained in risk ratings using an additive term is 54.0 or 38.4 per cent, depending on how risk is measured. When a multiplicative term was added, the mean variance only increased by 1.5 or 2.4 per cent. For most of the respondents, the contribution of the multiplicative term is statistically insignificant.\nPractical Implications: The inability or unwillingness to see risk as a product of probability and severity suggests that procedural support (e.g. risk matrices) has a role to play in the risk assessment processes.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to test if information security risk is assessed as an interaction between probability and severity using suitable scales and a within-subject design.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Leader perceptions and student achievement: An examination of reading and mathematics international test results in Korea and the USA
|
[
"Leadership",
"International comparison",
"Non-Gaussian approach of regression analysis",
"PISA reading and mathematics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The relationship between principal leadership and student achievement has been a long-standing interest of researchers in educational administration. (Hallinger and Heck, 1996; Leithwood and Day, 2008; Leithwood et al., 2008; Marzano et al., 2005) The search for key leadership variables has been accompanied by a more thorough examination of systematic forces across multiple constituencies. Bryk and Schneider's (2002) studies of Chicago schools found that trust between principals and teachers and between principals and parents was related to student achievement. Newmann et al. (2000) postulated the concept of school capacity to include the strengths of individual teachers, the professional community, a coherent program, school resources, and principal leadership. Li et al. (2016) combined several variables as part of school capacity: communication, trust, quality of student support, sustained focus on achievement, and teacher professional development. A number of studies have provided evidence to connect some school capacity variables to principal leadership. For example, distributed leadership (Heck and Hallinger, 2009) and support for professional development (Robinson et al., 2008) have been positively related to achievement.\nResearch questions: Our research questions were:\nResearch method: Data sets\nResults: A total of 4,467 American students from 143 public schools and 2,664 Korean students from 85 public schools were included (Table I).\nDiscussion: This study was an investigation of three questions:\nConclusion: This research was not an experimentally designed study which might allow interpretations in a cause and effect manner. It was conducted based on provided survey data, hence interpreting the analysis results was somewhat limited. Nonetheless, this study adds to the literature on school capacity that emphasizes the importance of attention to organizational hindrance from students and teacher attitude. The work of the principal will likely vary from one context to another, but the need to overcome negative environmental factors and develop capacity is a prerequisite to student achievement. The negative environment may come from within or without. The principal needs to be wary of low expectations when describing the learning environment. In addition to school capacity, schools in Korea and the USA may also improve mathematics achievement by giving more attention to after-school activities. Within this framework, adequate financing of schools is necessary for student achievement and well-being, particularly in areas that have few resources to begin with. From a research methodology point of view, the present study shows an example of using a non-Gaussian approach of regression analysis to examine a more comprehensive relationships between multiple predictors and an outcome variable across the conditional distribution of the outcome variable which the conventional multiple regression fails to identify.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine what factors affect student achievement in reading and mathematics. The research questions addressed the perceptions of school principals and background characteristics related to student achievement in Korea and the USA with respect to differences among students in low, middle and high quantiles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were taken from the Program for International Student Assessment 2012. Scores in the reading and mathematics were analyzed in conjunction with a principal survey. The Quantile Regression method was used for data analysis with three quantile points. T-statistics were used to test for significance. The predictor set consisted of seven school-leadership variables, and four to six additional covariates.\nFindings: The most important finding for the USA was a relationship between organizational hindrance (HND) and low student achievement for the middle and upper quantiles in mathematics and for all quantiles in reading. The (HND) variable included poor teacher-student relations, low expectation of students, overly strict enforcement of rules, lack of attention to student needs, resistance to change, lateness to class, and lack of preparation. The most important finding for Korea was that there were significant associations across all groups between teacher attitude (TCHATT) and student reading achievement and with the low group in mathematics.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study adds to knowledge about school capacity and suggests that the leadership role of the principal is to overcome negative environmental factors and create a positive organization.\nOriginality/value: The non-Gaussian approach of regression analysis allowed us to identify significant differences that we otherwise might not have found.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Quantity and quality regulation in the wine sector: the Chianti Classico appellation of origin
|
[
"Quality standards",
"Wines"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a context where the product quality is not directly observable to consumers, the appellation of origin system represents a quality signal providing information about the wine geographical origin and its average quality. Hence, the delimited production area and the definition of specific production requirements (the maximum yield per hectare, the minimum natural alcohol level by volume, the minimum total acidity, etc.) confer to the wine specific quality characteristics and substantially differentiate each appellation of origin from the other ones. Nevertheless, quantity and quality uncertainty, free riding behaviors, complexity of vertical relationships and hold-up risks menace the effectiveness and reliability of the system and may thus justify the implementation of additional long-term and short-term quantity and quality regulatory mechanisms (see for example, the management of planting rights, the regulation of the maximum yield per hectare, the stocks management, etc.). Namely, these regulatory tools are mainly aimed at adapting supply to demand, in order to stabilize both the quantity and the quality level supplied on the intermediary market and upstream producers remuneration. Hence, adequately remunerating upstream producers compliance process to the specific production requirements reduces the incentive for short-term opportunist behaviors and incentives producers to undertake long-term quality investments; otherwise, firms may be prompted to individually reduce the quality level and take advantage of the collective brand reputation. Thus, the appellation minimum quality standard (and the collective reputation) may be compromised in the long-term. Hence, the major consequence is a decrease in the average quality supplied on the market, which may generate a long-term demand drop. Furthermore, this risk is reinforced by the overall trend of increasing competition from the New World wine producing countries, declining consumption and difficulties in getting back lost market shares. The regulatory framework for the economic regulation of supply in the wine sector is provided by the common market organization (CMO) for wine (Reg.EC 1493/1999), which establishes rules governing wine-production potential, market mechanisms, producer organizations and sectorial organizations, etc. Namely, the CMO identifies the role of the sectorial organizations in adapting supply to demand in terms of quantity and quality, as well as in promoting quality wines both on domestic and international markets.Given these premises, the objective of this paper is to illustrate the mechanisms for the economic regulation of quantity and quality in the Italian Chianti Classico appellation of origin, by focusing on the role of the sectorial organization (Consorzio di Tutela) in regulating the intermediary market, stabilizing both quantity and quality and reinforcing the product's identity through the promotional activities. Hence, the objective is to identify a set of tools for quantity and quality regulation, which might be implemented in addition to the quantity constraints and minimum quality standards regulating the appellation of origin.Our research provides an original contribution in the sense that we highlight some empirical evidences, which both support the theoretical arguments for an economic regulation of supply by the sectorial organizations and provide some suggestions, which might be useful outside the Chianti Classico to improve the effectiveness and reliability of the system. Namely, we show that reinforcing the quantity constraint established by the production code, controlling and certifying the compliance process to the minimum quality standard from upstream grape production to downstream commercialization, supporting an evolution of the specific production requirements over the course of time, towards more stringent rules, creating a product's identity by reinforcing the link with the terroir, improving the promotional activity and protecting the Appellation of Origin on the international market may improve the effectiveness and reliability of the system and increase both sales and upstream producers remuneration and incentive an increasing number of producers to associate themselves to the sectorial organization. Nevertheless, we show that a more operational role should be given to the sectorial organization as nowadays, this latter is relatively constrained in the possibility to regulate quantities and prices. Hence, in a context where the quality of the final product depends both on upstream and downstream firms investments and consumers perception of quality depends both on individual and collective communication strategies, inefficiency still persists in the sense that the instability of both quantity and quality on the intermediary market reduces the incentive for upstream firms to undertake long term quality investments and for downstream firms to develop market-oriented strategies. Finally, the main risk is the decrease of the average quality (and collective reputation) and a consequent long-term demand drop.This paper is organized as follows. In the first section, we provide some background elements; namely, we highlight some theoretical arguments, which may justify the role of sectorial organization in the regulation of supply. In the second section, we illustrate the current situation of the Appellation of Origin Chianti Classico, namely the supply chain organization and intermediate market mechanisms. In the third section, we illustrate the main quantity/quality regulatory mechanisms and the strategies implemented by the sectorial organization. Finally, we provide some considerations about the results of the regulatory tools implemented, by illustrating the strengthen and weaknesses of the system and suggesting how to improve the role of the sectiorial organization.\nBackground: In the wine market, both the heterogeneity of supply and the nature of wine as an experience good, create information asymmetry between producers and consumers and consequently generate significant promotional and research costs for producers and consumers respectively (Nelson, 1970; Darby and Karny, 1973). In this context, according to Giraud-Heraud et al. (1998), setting up an appellation of origin system affects the space of characteristics, in the sense of Lancaster (1966) by increasing the differentiation among different appellations and decreasing the differentiation among wines within the same appellation. Hence, as highlighted by the authors, the quality signal provided by the appellation is represented by two main factors of horizontal product differentiation. Namely, both the delimited production area and the specific production requirements differentiate the wines belonging to the same appellation from the others and represent the product's identity towards consumers. Hence, both quantity constraints (delimited production area, planting rights, maximum yield per hectare, etc.) and minimum quality standards (ampelographical composition, the minimum density of plants per hectare, the minimum natural alcohol level by volume, the minimum total acidity, etc.) regulate the production-commercialization system within the appellation. Hence, the appellation of origin represents an important quality signal concerning the wine characteristics, which provides information about the wine geographical origin and its average quality. Indeed, both producers and consumers information costs may be reduced.Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the system depends on some relevant conditions. Indeed, as highlighted by Giraud-Heraud et al. (1998), the information asymmetry may only be solved if the number of appellations is not so large to compromise the reliability of the quality signal. Otherwise, consumers may misperceive the quality signal and/or this latter may be not sufficiently clear to reduce informational costs. Furthermore, despite the system aims at decreasing the differentiation among producers within the AO, the product range within each appellation has to be maintained, in order to meet the heterogeneity of consumers' preferences. Hence, Bovet and Chappuis (2001) highlight the possible negative effects of product's standardization and decrease of differentiation within the AO. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the system may be compromised by quantity and quality uncertainty (instability of farm income, weak incentive for producers to undertake long term quality investments), free riding (Holmstrom, 1982) and hold-up risks (Williamson, 1985). Hence, the main risk associated to the absence of a reliable quality signal is the decrease of the average quality supplied on the market and a long-term demand drop (Akerlof, 1970).Hence, in addition to the quantity constraints and minimum quality standards regulating the appellation, interprofessional organizations may play an important role by reducing quantity and quality uncertainty, promote long-term contractual relationships among economic agents, develop quality certification and control systems and promoting and protecting the appellation on the domestic and international market (Giraud-Heraud et al., 1998; Raynaud and Valceschini, 1997). At first, some actions may be developed to adapt supply to demand and thus stabilize producers remuneration (both ex-ante and ex-post regulatory tools may be implemented, as for example, planting rights, or regulation of the maximum yield per hectare or stock's management). Otherwise, in absence of regulatory tools, the instability of producers remuneration may compromise the compliance process with the minimum quality standards over the course of time and thus incentive firms to reduce the product quality with respect to consumers expectations (Bovet and Chappuis, 2001). Hence, in the long term, this opportunist behavior may result in a decrease of the collective reputation (Klein and Leffler, 1981). Secondly, interprofessional organizations are crucial actors in the implementation of quality certification and control systems, which guarantee the compliance with a minimum quality standard and the reliability of the quality signal through a third party certification (Deaton, 2004). Finally, interprofessional organizations play an important role with respect to the promotion of the collective brand (Reviron et al., 2003), which is aimed at reducing the informational asymmetries between producers and consumers (Beales et al., 1981), and protection of the appellation on the international market. Indeed, the role these sectorial organizations is recognized by the CMO for wine. Namely, member states are given the possibility to lay down marketing rules aimed at regulating supply on first marketing, provided that such rules relate to the retention and/or gradual release of product. Indeed, the aim is to improve the effectiveness and operation of market transactions. Hence, sectorial organizations may intervene by regulating quantity and quality and promoting the AO on the domestic and international markets.\nEconomic regulation of quantity and quality in the Chianti Classico appellation of origin: Supply chain organization and intermediary market mechanisms\nQuantity and quality regulation mechanisms: As illustrated in the background section, the delimited production area and the existence of specific production requirements characterize the product's identity and substantially differentiate each appellation of origin from the others. The horizontal product differentiation is thus based on the specific production requirements to which producers commit. In exchange of quantity restrictions, which limit producers' strategic flexibility in the long term, and compliance with minimum quality standards, producers have access to a collective reputation, which may increase consumers' willingness to pay for the appellation (Chambolle and Giraud-Heraud, 2003). Hence, the appellation of origin system is regulated both through quantity constraints and minimum quality standards. In addition, several supply regulatory mechanisms may be implemented, in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the system. Namely, long-term mechanisms can be ex-ante defined (for example, planting rights), as well as short term mechanisms (regulation of the maximum yield per hectare, stock's management, etc.).Namely, several additional regulatory mechanisms may be implemented by the sectorial organization (Consorzio di Tutela) in order to improve the effectiveness and reliability of the system. As established by the Italian law 2/10/92, no. 164, the Consorzio di Tutela is a voluntary sectorial organization, which aims at protecting (from plagiarism or unfair competition) and promoting the appellations. Namely, this organization guarantees the producers' compliance with the specific production requirements and may be given the authorization to the vigilance concerning the application of the above-mentioned law (with respect to the associated producers).Quantity constraints and minimum quality standards\nConcluding remarks: In this paper, we have illustrated the mechanisms for the economic regulation of quantity and quality in the Chianti Classico appellation of origin, focusing on the role of the sectorial organization in stabilizing the intermediary market, reinforcing the product's identity and the reliability of the quality signal.Namely, we have shown how the supply chain organization and the intermediate market mechanisms may have an influence on the effectiveness of the appellation of origin system in providing a reliable quality signal and maintaining the collective reputation in the long term. In addition to the quantity constraints and minimum quality standards regulating the appellation, we have illustrated that other tools might be implemented to regulate both quantity and quality. Hence, reinforcing the quantity constraint established by the production code, controlling and certifying the compliance process to the minimum quality standard from upstream grape production to downstream commercialization, reinforcing the link with the terroir and improving the promotional activity are some of the main strategies identified.Nevertheless, limitations in the possibilities to define interprofessional agreements and regulate quantities and prices on the intermediate market compromise market equilibrium and the reliability of the quality signal. Hence, the main risk is that of collective reputation losses and demand drop in the long term. Given the empirical evidences arising from the case study, some suggestions are provided on how to improve strategies of quality and quantity regulation. For example, the improvement of vertical and horizontal coordination among agents, the implementation of ex-ante and ex-post market regulatory tools, would be aimed at stabilizing remuneration of vine growers and thus facilitating the development of both quality investments upstream and promotional investments downstream. Moreover, further development of the collective brand's promotional activity could reduce the informational asymmetries between producers and consumers and reinforce the product's identity. Hence, a more operational role should be recognized to the sectorial organizations, in order to stabilize and regulate the transactions on the intermediary market, both in terms of quantity and quality.Further research could be addressed to an evaluation of different typologies of supply regulation (private or public, at national or regional level, etc.) or to a quantitative assessment of the effects of producers' coordination on products' quality and collective reputation. Namely, any further research model should take into account some relevant context factors, as for example, the increasing competition on the international market, the structural changes on the demand side, the supply and demand uncertainty and the legal framework's changes in the context of the forthcoming reform of CMO for wine.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to illustrate the mechanisms for the economic regulation of quantity and quality in the Chianti Classico appellation of origin, focusing on the role of the sectorial organization in regulating the intermediary market, reinforcing the product's identity and the reliability of the quality signal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Starting from some background elements (literature review and legislation framework) and given the supply chain organization and the main market mechanisms, the quantity and quality regulatory tools are illustrated and it is suggested how to improve the role of the sectorial organization in achieving the effectiveness of the system.\nFindings: - Reinforcing the quantity constraint established by the production code, controlling and certifying the compliance process to the minimum quality standard from upstream grape production to downstream commercialization, reinforcing the link with the terroir and improving the promotional activity are some of the main strategies identified to improve the effectiveness of the system. In addition, a more operational role should be recognized to the sectorial organization, in order to stabilize and regulate the transactions on the intermediary market and attract a more market-oriented approach.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Using a case study and not a quantitative approach represents the limit of this paper.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides an original contribution in the sense that some empirical evidences are highlighted, which both support the theoretical arguments for an economic regulation of supply by the sectorial organizations and provide some suggestions, which might be useful outside the Chianti Classico to improve the effectiveness and reliability of the appellation of origin.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Markov chain decision model for urinary incontinence procedures
|
[
"Decision making",
"System thinking",
"Comparative effectiveness analysis",
"Cost utility analysis",
"Markov chain decision model",
"Stress incontinence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The current healthcare delivery system is designed for treating acute illnesses within the US population. However, the majority of available healthcare services in the USA are being used to treat chronic illnesses. These long-lasting health conditions can develop and/or worsen over an extended time period. The monetary toll of chronic conditions in the USA has reached unsustainable heights and requires pressing actions to limit its incidence and burden.\nMaterial and methods: Howard's (1960) work created a core body of research on Markov chain decision processes. They are used in a wide area of disciplines, including robotics, automated control, economics, and manufacturing. The Markov chain decision model provides a mathematical framework for modeling decision making in situations where outcomes are partly random and partly under the control of a decision maker. The Markov chain decision model is useful for studying a wide range of optimization problems solved via dynamic programming and reinforcement learning (Bellman, 1957).\nMarkov states: Since the model Weber and Walters developed occurred over a single time period, we had to specify Markov states and transitions that would be possible in our model (Figure 1). In this figure, the ovals represent Markov states, and the arrows represent allowed transitions.\nTheory/calculation: To evaluate the C/E of the Burch and Sling procedures, a decision tree was developed (Figure 2). Each strategy uses a set of common data as shown to the far left in the root node. Furthermore, each strategy has four unique variables of data values specific to either the Burch or Sling procedure.\nTransition probabilities: As mentioned earlier, there was a limited amount of data on the outcomes of UI surgical interventions when the Weber and Walters study was published in 2000. Since then, there have been a number of studies published which have examined the effectiveness of Burch procedures vs Sling procedures. When reviewing the literature, we limited our search to high-quality randomized control trials which compared the two procedures. Below, we have included Table I, which summarizes our findings. There is a consensus in the literature that Sling procedures are more effective than Burch procedures at curing incontinence within women. Though the Weber and Walters study shows significant differences in cure rate of incontinence between the two procedures on UI outcomes at the 95 percent level, there is definitely a larger body of research, as compared to 2000, that we used to estimate our transition probabilities (Albo et al., 2007).\nCosts and utilities: According to many sources, UI has a substantial impact on health-related quality of life. According to Abrams et al. (2000), women with stress UI evaluate their general health as having an average SF-36 score of 55 out of 100. Corcoles et al. (2009) found that women with SI score their general health as 55.43 out of 100 according to the King's Health Questionnaire. While we were unable to find research specifically comparing the quality of life of people with incontinence vs retention, there has been evidence that people who suffer from retention have a significantly worse quality of life than people who do not (Thomas et al., 2005). The estimated utilities used within this study are shown below in Table IV.\nResults: According to the results in Table VI, women who receive the Sling procedure have 11.18 quality adjusted life years (QALY), while women who receive the Burch procedure have only 10.19 QALY. This means that the Sling procedure results in women having an increase of 0.99 QALYs than the Burch procedure. This is a significant difference, and our analysis reaches a very different conclusion than Weber and Walters, who found that the Burch and Sling procedures had a similar effectiveness on women with UI. In addition to the increased effectiveness of the Sling procedure, the overall cost of the Sling procedure is $7,618.84 less than that of the Burch procedure. The C/E ratios in Table VI demonstrate how the Sling procedure is more cost-effective per QALY.\nDiscussion: Since we were unable to find strong evidence on the quality of life of people who experience UI, we conducted a sensitivity analysis to find out if changing the utilities shown in Table IV significantly affects whether the Burch or Sling surgery is more effective on curing incontinence in women. In addition to our analyses of utilities, we also tested our assumption of what percentage of patients choose to undergo secondary procedures to determine its effect on whether the Burch or Sling is a more effective procedure. The results shown in Figures 4-6 demonstrate that regardless of varying the probability of women who choose to undergo a secondary procedure, the Sling procedure remains the most effective solution. However, the gap between the effectiveness of the Burch and Sling procedure becomes smaller when the proportion of women who choose to undergo urethrolysis is small (Figure 6). This is because retention occurs more frequently after Sling surgery as compared to after Burch surgery. The Sling procedure's effectiveness dominance holds true when the utility values in Figures 8, 9, and 11 are varied. Also, the difference between the effectiveness of Burch vs Sling becomes smaller when the utility of persistent retention (Figure 8) is small. However, this is not the case in Figures 7 and 10. In Figure 7, if the utility value for persistent incontinence is greater than 0.82 the Burch procedure is a more effective procedure. In contrast, if the utility value in Figure 10 for recovery is greater than 0.67 the Sling procedure is a more effective procedure.\nConclusions: The study offers an innovative approach in examining procedures for treating UI, widely prevalent among elderly women in developed and developing countries. This research improves upon other analyses reported in the literature using a Markov chain decision model to analyze treatment strategies for UI.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common chronic health condition, a problem specifically among elderly women that impacts quality of life negatively. However, UI is usually viewed as likely result of old age, and as such is generally not evaluated or even managed appropriately. Many treatments are available to manage incontinence, such as bladder training and numerous surgical procedures such as Burch colposuspension and Sling for UI which have high success rates. The purpose of this paper is to analyze which of these popular surgical procedures for UI is effective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research employs randomized, prospective studies to obtain robust cost and utility data used in the Markov chain decision model for examining which of these surgical interventions is more effective in treating women with stress UI based on two measures: number of quality adjusted life years (QALY) and cost per QALY. Treeage Pro Healthcare software was employed in Markov decision analysis.\nFindings: Results showed the Sling procedure is a more effective surgical intervention than the Burch. However, if a utility greater than certain utility value, for which both procedures are equally effective, is assigned to persistent incontinence, the Burch procedure is more effective than the Sling procedure.\nOriginality/value: This paper demonstrates the efficacy of a Markov chain decision modeling approach to study the comparative effectiveness analysis of available treatments for patients with UI, an important public health issue, widely prevalent among elderly women in developed and developing countries. This research also improves upon other analyses using a Markov chain decision modeling process to analyze various strategies for treating UI.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Pedagogical advances in business models at business schools - in the age of networks
|
[
"Management development",
"Management education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While there have been many recent substantive contributions attempting changes in the business model of business schools - in such areas as research directions, revised curricula content, etc. (Dameron and Durand, 2013; Rayment and Smith, 2013; Lorange, 2012, 2013; Thomas et al., 2013), there seems to be relatively little focus on potential advances in pedagogy and in the process of learning itself. One exception is the work of Hall et al. (2013), although even here innovations in teaching and learning methods are only treated in a relatively cursory way. As a consequence the present article primarily addresses these evolutionary challenges in pedagogy.\nNetworks and business schools: The traditional model for value creation at business schools has come under criticism from several sources during recent years. Issues of contention include:\nAdvances in IT-based developments: Advances in IT-based technology have made efficient distance learning approaches, and more integrated uses of IT-based materials by students possible. However, it is evident, that a blend between self-learning, via distance, of the basics, say via MOOCs or video lectures, and face-to-face learning, typically in a business school's auditorium, and ideally with a primary focus on current dilemmas, i.e. a \"meeting place\" setting is increasingly advanced. This two dimensional approach more and more seems to be a reality! This would also enable the student \"pick-and-choose\" among many options to create his/her tailored curriculum.\nAdvances in learning pedagogy: We begin with a brief review of some major pedagogical development trends at IMD, a leading European Business School. Their major approach to learning has evolved over the years, and this evolution might be summarized briefly as follows: relatively short, freestanding programs, typically one-to-two weeks long, but with a few programs even longer (up to ten weeks). A typical set of four daily class sessions each with a typical length of one hour, some slightly longer - most sessions are taught in horse-shoe style, tapered shape auditoria, typically with from 30 to 60 participants in a given class. Most professors come from IMD's own permanent faculty, with a smaller sub-set of faculty assigned to each specific programme. There are also be a few occasional outside guest lectures, most often from practitioners. There would be a widespread use of typically quite current cases and separate study rooms would typically be provided for pre-assigned groups of participants (typically six to nine per group), to discuss cases and other assignments (typically for one to two hours, or so, per day). A \"new\" development, over time of several so-called \"flat-rooms\" had been constructed, each one with accompanying separately located study-group rooms. Thus, groups were seldom asked to work in the flat-rooms themselves, while yet they were configured with round tables to facilitate group involvement in existing classes. Indeed, there seemed to be a cultural bias among several professors to favour a more conventional approach of teaching - the classical classroom, and, with the associated use of separate supporting study-group rooms.\nDigital textbooks: With new pedagogical approaches it is critical that the participants are provided with digital access to relevant independent homework materials to prepare beforehand. Unfortunately, such access might become far too expensive if complete textbooks were to be assigned. Indeed, specific chapters or highlights, from conventional textbooks might be perfectly acceptable. However existing copyright laws may, however, may make this form of reproduction difficult. Interestingly, digital textbooks may provide some \"solution\" to this - at least in part. In the US digital textbook sales were only 2 per cent of the overall US textbook market in 2010. But by 2013 it had risen to 11 per cent. Estimated volume in 2017 is forecast at: 44 per cent (Babbage, 2012). The so-called FlexBooks are a good example of this approach. This is a textbook platform offered by the CK-12 Foundation, aimed at reducing the costs of textbooks (Wikipedia, 2013a; Clarke and Clarke, 2009).\nInnovative architecture for more effective learning space: The physical interaction among the key \"players\" in academic value creation may be taking on new forms, because of the social norms of the new networked environment, the advent of emerging group enhancing, software technology, and, also because of modern architectural innovations (Allen and Henn, 2007; Kohlert, 2010; Catalini, 2012). It has been pointed out by several academicians that there seems to be a positive link between office design and productivity. With more so-called \"open\" space in the workplace, the achievement of higher levels of productivity seems to be possible. Price (2010) provides a good review. However, he also warns us that this positive relationship may not be linear. Rather, he proposes that there might be an \"optimal\" balance between the \"old\" order (the \"old\" way of organizing office space) and chaos (the \"new\", open, work space).\nConclusion: Indeed, there seem to be several evolving trends that aspiring business schools might now strive to adopt. While the layout of academic buildings traditionally seems to have been heavily based on individual offices, and on grouping academicians with similar specialties together, a new mode of academic building design is more focused on \"open space\" has emerged. It is intended to create potentially faster communication and eclecticism, across disciplines as an easier way to integrate all professors, i.e. also those who are not necessarily working full-time at the particular academic institution. This, phenomenon of the \"part-time\" professor, incidentally, may more and more become a norm, with professors often having academic appointments at several institutions (Thomas et al., 2013) and, also with a greater number of practitioners as lecturers (practice professors). A consequence of this form of organization is that cross-disciplinary research might benefit, too - to achieve better relevance, higher quality and with potentially more speedy outputs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on potential advances in pedagogy and on the process of learning in business schools. It examines innovations in teaching and learning methods particularly in the context of networked organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It approaches, and examine the impact of, three key developments in business schools, namely, recent advances in IT, changes in the architecture of classrooms and learning spaces and advances in the way teaching is undertaken.\nFindings: The paper suggests that a blend between self-learning via distance approaches and face-to-face learning will increasingly become the norm. Face-to-face sessions might be in a \"flat room\" environment with a creative mix of short lectures, experiential, group learning and conceptual plenary lectures, software innovations, and digital textbooks \"open plan\" learning spaces would complement the instructional process.\nResearch limitations/implications: There are clear implications for parallel IT (developments in course modules) and architectural innovations for the design of more effective and creative learning spaces.\nPractical implications: Improving pedagogy together with the physical design and layout of learning spaces is critical. The aim is, through enhanced participative pedagogy and \"friendly\" architecture, to improve learning by encouraging dialogue and closer interaction between students and professors from different disciplines and fields.\nSocial implications: The authors argue that this model of collaborative learning and an interactive teaching framework should enable the same amount of learning material to be covered in a business school in approximately half-the-time required in conventional pedagogical approaches.\nOriginality/value: It offers a prescription for a participative, technology enhanced and interactive teaching pedagogy that could produce more effective and efficient, teaching outcomes. This has strong implications for the sustainability, and funding capability, of many existing business schools and business school models.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding co-editing mechanism of wiki-based digital humanities projects
|
[
"Crowdsourcing",
"Digital humanities",
"Consensus",
"Co-editing",
"Culture heritage",
"IBIS"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The digital revolution of the twenty-first century is empowering humanities scholars to pursue new strategies of collection, organization and evaluation of valuable resources (Travis and Holm, 2016). Wiki technology, being a prominent Web 2.0 application, has received intense interest because of its characteristics of collaboration. A certain number of digital humanities (DH) scholars have leveraged wiki tools to develop DH projects, which are called as wiki-based DH projects (WDHPs), such as \"Australian Newspaper Digitization,\" \"Wiki Loves Art,\" \"Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision,\" etc. Collaboration is defined as working together to achieve collective results (Lipnack and Stamps, 1997). In the sense, most WDHPs have applied Wiki tools in gathering human resources as the specific collective results. For example, the Australian Newspaper Digitization Project invites users around the world to calibrate the Optical Character Recognition (OCR)'ed newspaper text, a complex task that is difficult to deal with limited manpower. Nonetheless, collaborative editing (co-editing) as the core contribution pattern of wiki tools, being proficient in collaboratively creating web content, still gets a limited application among the current WDHPs. Existing research has confirmed that co-editing can enable users to be actively involved and work with peers, to review and share ideas and, finally, to create content in a collaborative manner (Hadjerrouit, 2014; Bradley et al., 2010). Furthermore, online encyclopedia (e.g. Wikipedia) is the successful product of the co-editing pattern, and it confirms the enormous capacity of co-editing in content creation. Indeed, in the WDHPs of culture heritage domain, there exists a long tradition that gathering contextual content has been done by means of writing scientific publications, compiling magazines, etc. (Oomen and Aroyo, 2011). In this sense, gathering contextual information is similar to content creation. Therefore, it is evident that co-editing pattern offers an enhanced opportunity to engage citizen scientists and volunteers in creating scientific content, leading to potential prosperity of the WDHPs (Bonney et al., 2009; Follett and Strezov, 2015; Zhao, 2017), what we lack is a clear understanding of the co-editing mechanism of the creating process of contextual content.\n2. Literature review and theory development: 2.1 Wiki-based DH projects\n3. Methodology: To explore co-editing mechanism in WDHPs, this study utilized the stepwise analysis procedure consisting of four steps (see Figure 2). First, we identified the entry to be analyzed and defined the period of data collection. Second, the linked-structure was generated based on the reorganized statements, and PageRank (PR) algorithm was run based on the linked-structure to analyze the co-editing process. Third, consensus analysis was performed by conducting skewness statistic, and the consensus evolution with time was investigated. Fourth, the influential factors of consensus evolution were explored using linear or curve fitting.\n4. Finding: 4.1 Description analysis\n5. Discussion: From the perspective of group discussion, this study has deeply explored co-editing mechanism of WDHPs oriented to context creation. The main conclusions can be revealed including the following three points, which are invaluable for promoting and enhancing WDHPs.\n6. Conclusion: This study is among the first attempts to reveal co-editing mechanism of WDHPs from the perspective of group discussion and to investigate the efficiency of co-editing by analyzing the consensus and its influential factors. Related findings can be valuable for the development of WDHPs and other similar crowdsourcing projects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the co-editing mechanism aiming at content creation, and an entry of online encyclopedia is taken as a case, for the purpose of promoting and enhancing the development of wiki-based digital humanities projects (WDHPs), specifically, the projects that focus on gathering contextual information in the culture heritage domain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory study was conducted by three steps. A representative entry's editorial records were reorganized to obtain a data set of discussion statements (n=608), based on which linked-structures were built, and PageRank algorithm was used to analyze the co-editing process. Skewness statistic was applied to measure the consensus of co-editing, and consensus evolution over time was explored. Linear or curve fitting was performed to analyze the correlation between consensus evolution and its influential factors.\nFindings: In WDHPs, co-editing activity of content creation can be considered as a large-scale group discussion, consensus can evaluate the efficiency of co-editing, which evolves with time and is influenced by the number of statements, breadth and depth of argumentation structure. Taking \"Mogao Grottoes\" as an example, group discussions around 15 key issues dominate the content creating process, consensus is on a rise with time, finally reaches a relatively high level, and consensus evolution is more influenced by breadth than by depth of argumentation structure, which indicates that co-editing efficiency of \"Mogao Grottoes\" is fine and more argumentation in a depth manner should be guided.\nPractical implications: For researchers of WDHPs, it is beneficial to apply online encyclopedia platform combining with consensus analysis to develop WDHPs. For designers of WDHPs, the elements related to argumentation structure can be absorbed into the design to promote co-editing in an effective manner. For DH researchers, the analytic procedure can be beneficial of revealing the interest of contributors in a specific DH field.\nOriginality/value: This research is novel in comprehensively understanding co-editing mechanism of content creation in WDHPs, resulting in a three-step analytic procedure of presenting co-editing process, evaluating and improving co-editing efficiency.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Customer experience management in hospitality: A literature synthesis, new understanding and research agenda
|
[
"Social media",
"Technology",
"Hospitality",
"Customer experience management",
"Customer-to-customer relationships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Firms are recognizing the critical roles played by positive customer experiences (CEs) - and subsequent word of mouth - across all industry sectors (Teixeira et al., 2012). Today's technology-driven, digitally advanced customers expect personalized experiences at every point of interaction. A survey by Gartner (2014) shows that 89 per cent of firms expect to compete primarily on the basis of CE, and it is now one of the key strategies adopted by hospitality firms; leading firms such as Marriott, Hilton, Starbucks, Disney and Starwood excel by creating a distinctive CE both offline and online. Although it is a nascent field, customer experience management (CEM) has become a key interest also in academia (Grewal et al., 2009; Puccinelli et al., 2009; Jaakkola et al., 2015), highlighted by the Marketing Science Institute as a \"tier 1 research priority\" for theory and practice for 2014-2016 (MSI, 2016).\nMethodology: To map the existing research knowledge and emerging CEM topics, we undertook an extensive review of literature and combined it with invited commentaries from a selection of leading hospitality scholars and hotel general managers. We identified research relevant to our study, analyzed and synthesized the research findings and developed conceptualizations and conclusions on the basis of this evidence (Denyer and Tranfield, 2009).\nDefining customer experience management: Customer experience is an elusive and indistinct notion. It's a difficult construct to define, let alone measure, because of its multiple elements and individualized, personal nature. Think about the last time you went to a movie with someone. You both sat in the same theatre, ate the same popcorn, and saw the same film, yet you each walked out with a totally different experience. This is because each consumer is unique. Each person brings a different background, values, attitudes, and beliefs to the situation; everyone experiences it through individualized \"rose-colored glasses\". (Bonnie J. Knutson)\nDisciplinary perspectives on customer experience management: Our review of extant research reveals that CEM studies reflect three disciplinary perspectives: marketing (including technology and social media), operations (including service design) and human resources (including organizational behavior and strategy) (Table I). Marketing scholars study the positive implications of creating superior CE and advocate for the importance of this concept (Grewal et al., 2009; Klaus and Maklan, 2013). Several studies connect CE to the management of customer relationships in multichannel environments, noting the importance of insights into the experiences customers have through various encounters with firms or brands (Chan, 2005; Frow and Payne, 2007). Retailing research with a marketing focus also addresses constructs that affect CEs, with a strong emphasis on characteristics and stimuli in the servicescape (Baskaran, 2011; Verhoef et al., 2009).\nKey aspects of customer experience management in the hospitality context: Although hoteliers and restaurant managers embrace CEM as a key goal (Bharwani and Jauhari, 2013), only a limited number of hospitality studies focus on CEM (Johnson et al., 2009; So and King, 2010). The following section provides a summary of the few studies that explicitly address CEM in the hospitality sector.\nFuture research agenda: Our analysis of extant research, coupled with the commentaries of leading experts in the field, enables us to provide a rich agenda for further studies of CEM in the hospitality industry. Specifically, we propose six research avenues.\nConclusions and implications: Theoretical contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the contemporary hospitality industry, superior customer experiences are essential in gaining customer loyalty and achieving a competitive advantage. However, limited research addresses this subject. The purpose of this study is to advance scholarly research on customer experience management (CEM) in the hospitality field by providing a comprehensive overview of the key elements of CEM, a framework for managing customer experience and a rich agenda for research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review produces a comprehensive overview of the existing knowledge of CEM. A synthesis of previous literature reveals the need for additional, contemporary information sources. The study is, therefore, supplemented by invited commentaries on CEM from senior scholars and hospitality managers.\nFindings: The proposed model takes a holistic perspective on managing a positive customer experience, through collaboration among marketing, operations, design, human resources and strategy, in association with technology and social media.\nResearch limitations/implications: The literature review and commentaries from leading experts reveal six areas for further research on CEM in the hospitality industry.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a comprehensive, systematic review of CEM literature and detailed understanding of the mechanisms for managing customer experiences in the hospitality industry. It integrates state-of-the-art CEM knowledge in the generic business context, along with principles of hospitality management, and advances CEM research by emphasizing the need for collaboration among marketing, operations and human resources.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Controlling innovation and innovating control: insights from a knowledge intensive network
|
[
"Case study",
"Innovation",
"Control",
"Change",
"Management accounting systems",
"Knowledge-intensive networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper begins by acknowledging that from both theoretical and practical perspectives the relationship between innovation and control is becoming increasingly central and yet it has been scarcely investigated. Indeed, the study at hand was grounded in the debate of the strategic role of control systems, especially broadly conceived management accounting systems (MAS) in innovative settings (Bromwich and Bhimani, 1994; Davila, 2005; Davila and Foster, 2005; Ma and Tayles, 2009; Nilsson et al., 2012; Simons, 1990; Tomkins, 2001). This literature, with various nuances and examinations of heterogeneous settings, agrees that MAS can stimulate the innovation process (Bisbe and Otley, 2004; Widener, 2007) by assuming a crucial role as a means of knowledge transfer and integration (Canonico De Nito and Mangia, 2012; Ditillo, 2004; Rhodes et al., 2008). However, despite their undeniable contribution these studies lack a systematic approach to the issues of innovation and control, which are still affected by some level of scepticism regarding the view of controls as elements constraining and diminishing innovation.\n2. Innovation, knowledge management, and the role of controls: Innovation is generally regarded as an on-going attempt to achieve new and unique knowledge and ideas (Subramaniam and Youndt, 2005) to support new business processes and outcomes (Du Plessis, 2007). From this perspective, innovation can be referred to as an incremental process because by looking for something new it is possible to add to existing knowledge.\n3. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework adopted is a \"skeletal\" theory of organizational change, set in the context of societal change (Broadbent and Laughlin, 2003, 2005, 2013). It provides an understanding of the nature and functioning of accounting in society and organizations, including the mentioned factors of internal and external complexity. According to Habermas (1984), society is the combination of three elements: lifeworld (i.e. a symbolic dynamic space, a normative context within which culture, tradition, and identity can be reproduced), systems (i.e. a functionally definable arrangement of operations, such as organizations, which represent the tangible expressions of the lifeworld), and steering media (i.e. mechanisms, such as power, money, and law that steer the interface and interaction between the lifeworld and systems, and play a role in ensuring that the latter reflect the former). Furthermore, increasing the complexity of the systems can generate decoupling between them and the lifeworld, leading to a colonization because the steering media follow the systems instead of the lifeworld.\n4. Research design: The study focused on a case study (Wagner and Llerena, 2011) of the Alfa network, as it was created in the wake of external regulative pressures and has faced a process of change in its management accounting practices. The complexity of this network, in which a wide range of entities (private companies, public entities, research organisms), and stakeholders (with different interests and backgrounds) interact, renders the Alfa network an interesting setting to examine the issues under investigation. The focus on a specific regional setting is justified on the ground that actors in a region can develop a particular \"social filter\" that facilitates the transformation of innovation into economic growth, due to a stimulating institutional framework, favoring close interactions, and collective learning processes (Brenner and Broekel, 2011). The attention for the biotech field is motivated by the fact that it allows for the comprehension of complex dynamics due to the nature of the innovation taking place (featured by high costs, high risks, high ethical implications) and due to relationships among very different actors, especially researchers and universities (for extended discussion on the nature of biotech networks; Smith and Bagchi-Sen, 2006; Traore, 2006).\n5. Findings: 5.1 Setting the context\n6. Discussion and conclusion: The aim of this study was to deepen the countervailing relationship between control and innovation in knowledge-intensive complex organizations. Thus, a middle range theory perspective was adopted to explore how control systems and innovation dynamics interact and shape each other in contexts characterized by high complexity and intensive knowledge creation, by means of a case study of a biotech network located in southern Italy. In accordance with the aforementioned framework, the network is regarded as a societal organization and the regulatory agent (regional government) as a societal institution. We took into account that any attempt by an institutional steering medium to promote change in one of the organizational systems would provide a disturbance, which can work through the organization in different ways. As highlighted in this paper, changes may occur as morphostasis (first order change) when the change neither really affects the heart of the organization nor the interpretative scheme, or as morphogenesis (second order change) when the change influences the interpretative scheme because it profoundly permeates the essence of the organization. The former can arise especially as a rebuttal, when an environmental disturbance is tackled through changes in the design archetype, but afterwards the latter returns to the original situation, or as a reorientation, when environmental disturbances are internalized, because they also affect subsystems, but do not affect the interpretative scheme. However, morphogenesis may alternatively occur as colonization, such as a compulsory change, or as evolution, when there is a free and non-compulsory change.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to deepen the countervailing relationship between control and innovation in knowledge-intensive complex organizations. It adopts a middle range theory perspective (Broadbent and Laughlin, 2013) to explore how control systems and innovation dynamics interact and shape each other in the contexts of high complexity and intensive knowledge creation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper employs single case study of a research-intensive biotech network located in Southern Italy, focusing on the change in the management accounting practices fostered by evolving environmental conditions and regulations that the network has faced in recent years.\nFindings: The paper finds out how successful organizational changes are facilitated by the implementation of innovative control devices, favoring informal collaborative relationships, which in turn contribute to further innovate and to share knowledge and capabilities within the organization.\nPractical implications: The findings are relevant to all organizations involved in complex processes of co-production of knowledge and innovation. They allow for unpacking the \"black box\" of the interplay between innovation and control, which is becoming increasingly central to these organizations and to policy makers.\nOriginality/value: The value of the study lies in its ability to depict how contrasting and molding forces in control systems and innovation dynamics contribute to re-shape a complex organizational setting. The study offers a newer perspective of analysis to interpret the role of control systems in innovative networks, thus contributing to the growing academic debate on the antecedents and facilitators of knowledge sharing and knowledge integration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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