title
stringlengths 6
301
| keywords
listlengths 0
23
| messages
listlengths 2
2
|
|---|---|---|
Satisfying the workers who appreciate galloping change
|
[
"Management learning",
"Learning methods",
"Equine assisted learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nMillennials might well benefit from equine-assisted learning: Fast changing world\nComment: This review is based on \"Addressing the needs of the Millennial workforce through EAL\", by Meola (2016). The precise development of soft skills via this appealing form of learning requires further research, as the author acknowledges. It is possible that some of the young managers with greatest need of this kind of approach might be among the most reluctant to give it a try.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: With organizations striving to attract Millennials into their businesses and ensure that they are entirely engaged, new approaches need to be considered. This paper aims to consider the value of equine-assisted learning (EAL) programs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A literature review examined current research and use of EAL in the field of management training and development.\nFindings: EAL does promote a number of so-called soft skills among employees, including communication, body language awareness, relationship building, and teamwork building.\nOriginality/value: EAL is an up-and-coming management training trend, the subject so far of very little research - especially so in the UK, where it has not yet had the impact it is beginning to make in the USA.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Uncovering transfer - a cross-national comparative analysis
|
[
"International comparison",
"Academic spin-offs",
"Knowledge and technology transfer",
"National specifics",
"Technology transfer offices",
"O31",
"I23",
"O32"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Technology is like sugar, you cannot just ship it all over the world, you have to package it, and these packages are called companies(KTT manager, male).Strong knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) is necessary for driving economic growth and increasing the capacity for innovation. While science, industry, and policy continue to hybridise, state funding agencies are increasingly evaluating proposed projects with regard to their estimated capacity to benefit the public. These communities are therefore increasingly recognising the value of public input and the need to respond to public needs within the innovation process (Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat), 2016). These developments necessitate that new ways and more effective methods for cross-sector interaction be developed (Etzkowitz et al., 1998; Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 2000; Ranga and Etzkowitz, 2013). In this regard, KTT is becoming increasingly important for all four major stakeholders of the innovation system - science, industry, policy, and society (Carayannis and Campbell, 2009).\n2. Theoretical background: KTT and methods for its promotion have enjoyed an increase in scholarly interest and study within a variety of disciplines over the past 30 years, often with a focus on TTOs as a subject of research. Reviews of existing literature (Rothaermel et al., 2007; Siegel and Wright 2015b; Perkmann et al., 2013) have suggested that merely establishing TTOs does not appear to automatically improve KTT in the long term, a position borne out by several recent studies (Baldini et al., 2015).\n3. Methodology: The goal was to examine the transfer practices in a number of leading, internationally recognised research institutions, which was accomplished using analytical framework described in the previous section[1]. Five countries were chosen for the study. Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland were selected because their start-up cultures are similar. Start-up culture is defined here as the \"entirety of all economic, political, and social factors that influence the frequency and quality of start-ups\" (Koch, 2000) and also as a national system of shared values in a country that recognises and supports entrepreneurship (Ireland et al., 2008). Even though Israel differs from the other countries in this regard, we included it because of its well-recognised achievements in academic entrepreneurship. Finally, we identified Northern Italy as a Europe-wide innovation hotspot, which, primarily with the help of EU funding and of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, has recently developed a strong innovation ecosystem. Because these five countries had similar levels of economic, social, and technological development, the approaches of their transfer offices could be easily compared.\n4. Findings: 4.1 The meta-level\n5. Discussion: One goal of this study was to identify and compare those specifics of the given offices that can be attributed to meta-level influences, particularly national. We found that interviewed organisations varied by country, and to some degree within each country, with regard to their understandings of what \"KTT\" means, what goals it should pursue, and what practices it should follow. Interviewees in Israel regard transfer as a uni-directional process, originating in an academic or research institution, in which a solution is transferred to a recipient through a \"technology push\" (Di Stefano et al., 2012). In other countries, most often in Switzerland and Italy, interviewees described transfer as a bi-directional exchange between science and industry. This latter understanding aligns more closely with the theoretical Quadruple Helix model of the innovation system (Carayannis and Campbell, 2009) and thus provides empirical evidence for this model. However, it does so only partially because the Quadruple Helix model comprises four major elements, science, industry, policy, and the public, each bi-directionally interacting with all of the others.\n6. Conclusions and implications: Within dynamically evolving innovation ecosystems, actors in KTT are becoming increasingly diverse, as are the ways in which they interact. The transfer process can no longer be understood simply in terms of uni-directional \"pulls\" and \"pushes\". Because of these developments, transfer offices are growing indispensable in their capacity as ecosystem mediators.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Successful knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) is necessary to ensure the competitiveness and growth of national innovation systems. In this regard, technology transfer offices (TTOs) are becoming indispensable in their capacity as intermediaries between science, policy, industry, and the public. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies and operations of particularly productive transfer offices in five different countries in order to account for the high levels of transfer activity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To this end, the authors interviewed 34 senior KTT managers in these offices. The collected protocols were analysed in three phases. First, the authors extracted and organised the key characteristics of the transfer practices by applying rigorous method of open-end, qualitative content analysis. The authors then enhanced the thus gathered descriptive statistics and ultimately developed a transfer office typology by building on the concept of attribute space.\nFindings: The analysis suggests two ideal types of transfer offices, distinguishable in terms of their intertwined characteristics such as their goals, practices, sources of income, and positions within their associated organisations. While the primarily state-funded common good type would seek benefits to the public, the self-financed entrepreneurial type would pursue commercial success. The former would therefore create opportunities for disseminating knowledge and strengthening the local innovation ecosystem, while the latter would scout for promising ideas and cultivate relationships with industry.\nOriginality/value: The goal was to uncover the individual characteristics of the offices under study, and the relationships between these characteristics, that can help explain these offices' exceptional productivity. This study is the first to propose a TTO typology, which can support interorganisational and international transfer collaboration. The findings provide empirical evidence for the theoretical Quadruple Helix model of the innovation system and have implications for research and practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Strategic consensus on manufacturing strategy content: Including the operators' perceptions
|
[
"SME",
"Manufacturing strategy",
"Strategic consensus"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Manufacturing strategy (MS) concerns a fit between market requirements and operations resources (e.g. Miltenburg, 2005; Skinner, 1969; Slack and Lewis, 2008). This fit is accomplished through a sequence of structural and infrastructural decisions made within the manufacturing function (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984; Miltenburg, 2005). Almost all individuals within a manufacturing function make operating decisions. Thus, effective decision making and strategic fit occur only when everyone has a shared understanding of the organisation's MS (Boyer and McDermott, 1999, p. 290; Kellermanns et al., 2005). It is imperative to comprehend these individuals' understandings of MS to enable communication and agreement across various levels (Marucheck et al., 1990; Sarmiento et al., 2008).\nLiterature review: The MS presented is divided into content and process areas, and the strategic consensus concept is described.\nMethodology: An exploratory, multiple-case research design was selected to explain the phenomenon under investigation (Voss et al., 2002; Yin, 2009). The case study is a valid choice when the context and experiences are critical to understanding the phenomenon comprehensively (Barratt et al., 2011). This study was guided by the thematic coding procedure for comparative studies (Flick, 2009), in which \"the research issue is the social distribution of perspectives on a phenomenon or a process\" (p. 318). Thematic coding is used to compare differences among predefined groups' \"specific ways of seeing and experiencing\" their social world (Flick, 2009, p. 318). Thematic coding also allows comparison between theory and practice (Hudson et al., 2001). For this research, the predefined groups were operators and managers, respectively, and their social world of interest was the operations function.\nEmpirical data: This section first presents the three case companies (Table II) and continues with the operators' and managers' perceptions of the MS dimensions, according to the thematic structure explained in the methodology section.\nAnalysis: The analysis addresses the purpose by first evaluating the operators' and managers' perceptions of the MS dimensions (see Table AI). Thereafter, the degree of strategic consensus between the two hierarchical levels is assessed.\nDiscussion: This section discusses the findings in the analysis. First, four theoretically related observations on strategic consensus within the operations function are explained. Each observation results in a proposition for future research. Second, the managerial implications of the findings are offered.\nConclusions: This paper contributes to the theory of strategic consensus on MS by addressing the research problem related to the interconnections between strategic consensus and MS content. The paper's purpose was to empirically examine the level of strategic consensus on MS within the operations function, specifically, the operators' and managers' perceptions of MS. We first defined the MS dimensions and then sought to understand the individuals' perceptions of them. This has resulted in a threefold contribution to the current body of knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Strategic consensus between operators and managers is an important means to accomplish a successful manufacturing strategy (MS) process. Previous studies largely left out individual operators from this concept. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the level of strategic consensus on the MS within the operations function, that is, the operators' and managers' perceptions of MS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with both operators and managers at three small- and medium-sized enterprises in Sweden. The MS dimensions were selected based on previous research; the data were analysed by using thematic coding.\nFindings: The study shows that the levels of strategic consensus on the MS vary among companies. Even when strategic consensus exists between operators and managers, their underlying reasons often differ. Furthermore, the levels of strategic consensus vary among MS dimensions. The companies' usage of information-sharing channels, along with their size and position in the supply chain, can be important for the level of strategic consensus.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the body of knowledge in three ways. First, it expands the scope of the MS dimensions under study, thus offering a stronger, resource-based perspective on MS and strategic consensus than what earlier studies showed. Second, it goes beyond the management level by including both managers and operators as the unit of analysis. Third, compared to previous research, it focuses on a new context and is based on in-depth case studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The influence of the structure of employees on sensory quality of restaurants' food
|
[
"Food",
"Restaurants",
"Structure of employees",
"Sensory quality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Tourism and hospitality industry is one of the fastest growing in our complex and turbulent environment. By analyzing their competitive factors, there is a common belief that structure and training of staff is one of the most important conditions that influence the quality of products and services, at the same time influencing the success of business (Littlejohn and Watson, 2004; Connolly and McGing, 2006). The competitive position of every business system in the global business environment depends on its flexibility, inventiveness and its focus on quality (Barron, 2008). In that way the dynamism of the trends in development of the modern world put before hospitality industry even more and more complex tasks and obligations that it has to fulfill in order to be able to follow the trends and satisfy customers as well as possible. These trends can be achieved by raising the level of education, by permanent education of employees (Jeong and Oh, 1998; Barron, 2008) and by establishing high standards of quality. Only educated, highly trained staff can establish high technological, nutritional, health safety and sensory standards of quality (Walley et al., 1999; Early, 1995; Davis et al., 2008), but also influence other factors that can increase the satisfaction of consumers, such as: location of the restaurant, its interior, seating arrangement, speed of service (Pratten, 2003), prices, appearance of staff and many others (Keating and Harrington, 2003; Namkung and Jang, 2007).\n2. Literature review: New trends in the hospitality industry require new knowledge and new types of education. The authors say that new necessary knowledge in the hospitality industry is in the field of accounting, law, economy, marketing, human resources management, planning, information technologies, innovation and management of changes (Murphy and Murrmann, 2009). Innovative knowledge in technology of food and beverages, sanitary safety, nutrition, as well as specific knowledge in the quality of products and services is also required.\n3. Materials and methods: The research was done in 30 restaurant facilities on the territory of Belgrade (capital of the Republic of Serbia), from 1 September to 1 December 2011.\n4. Results and discussions: 4.1 Sensory quality analysis\n5. Conclusion: By analyzing the influence of the structure of employees on the sensory quality of food in restaurants of Belgrade, by applying the described research methods, it was concluded that:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to determine the sensory quality of food in restaurants by professional food evaluators and to research the impact of education, age and number of employees on the quality of food.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the first phase five trained food tasters evaluated the sensory quality of food. In the second phase, the analysis of the structure of employees was done by establishing their level of education, age and number of employees. In the third phase the regression and correlation analysis was done with the aim to establish the impact of the level of education, age and number of employees on the sensory quality of food.\nFindings: The sensory evaluation has shown that the evaluated food is of moderate quality. Correlation matrix has shown that the education level of employees has a high impact on the sensory quality of food. There is a correlation between the number of employees, their age and their education.\nPractical implications: Obtained results are the indicators of the quality of food in restaurants in the region and they can serve for the improvement of quality. They have shown that education and staff training can contribute to a better quality of food. Established methodology can also contribute to the practical evaluation of quality.\nOriginality/value: This paper is reflected on the specific application of methodology of the sensory analysis of food in restaurants. The paper pointed to the impact of employees on the sensory quality of food by statistical methods. Statistical results which point to the great impact of the level of education of employees on the sensory quality of food in restaurants are particularly valuable.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Country image in the context of European Union membership: the Turkish case
|
[
"Country of origin",
"Turkey",
"European Union",
"Manufacturing industries",
"Furniture industry",
"Product image"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As the volume and diversity of international trade grows, an increasing number of consumer decisions involve products of foreign origin. While formal barriers to trade are being removed by multinational public policy initiatives, improved transportation and communication infrastructure, and the globalization strategies of multinational corporations, the potential influence of intangible barriers in the form of national stereotypes takes on additional importance (Chattalas, 2005). Therefore, export performance of a firm is influenced not only by internal factors that managers have greater control over, but also by external factors, such as home and host country characteristics (Kochhar and Hitt, 1995). The country-of-origin (COO) effect is one of these crucial external variables. The COO of a product can be defined in several ways: the country location of the corporate headquarters (Johansson and Thorelli, 1985), the country of manufacture or assembly (Papadopoulos, 1993), and the country of product design (Ahmed and d'Astous, 1995).Consumers often perceive stereotypes about countries and these stereotypes are subsequently used as information cues in judging products from different origins (Lotz and Hu, 2001). COO information can serve as such cues and influence consumers' product perceptions (Nebenzahl et al., 2003), product evaluations (Johansson, 1989), and subsequently decision-making (Khachaturian and Morganosky, 1990; Knight, 1999; Piron, 2000). Consequently, COO can influence the success of a firm in international markets.An important precursor to COO is country image, which gives rise to COO associations in consumers' minds (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993). Country image refers to consumers' evaluations of a particular country, based on their prior opinions of the country's perceived strengths and weaknesses (Roth and Romeo, 1992). It is the sum of all descriptive and informational beliefs and subsequent inferences that consumers have about a country (Martin and Eroglu, 1993; Olsen and Olsson, 2002). When a consumer evaluates an imported product, he or she will mostly likely adopt a COO image to obtain and evaluate product information (Hong and Wyer, 1989). If consumers hold a positive (or negative) country image for a given country, this image can lead to a generalized positive (or negative) attitude towards all the products associated with that country (Agrawal and Kamakura, 1999).Although country image has the power to arouse importers' and consumers' beliefs about product attributes and to influence evaluations of products and brands (Srikatanyoo and Gnoth, 2002), country image effects on products are dynamic constructs. Similar to evaluations about products from particular countries changing over time (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Heslop and Papadopoulos, 1993), COO effects have also been found to change over time (Brunner et al., 1993; Graby, 1993; Damanpour, 1993; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). In studies conducted during the Cold War, Chasin and Jaffe (1979) as well as Kaynak and Cavusgil (1983), found that both US purchasing agents and Canadian consumers perceived products made in Communist countries to be significantly inferior to those made in the USA. This started to change as companies established production facilities in those countries (e.g. GE's purchase of Tungsram-Hungary, Fiat's investment in Lada-Russia, and Schwinn's joint-venture with Csepel-Hungary) (Nebenzahl and Jaffe, 1996). Also, the vast change in perceptions of the label \"Made in Japan\" shows the contingent nature of the COO effect (Amine et al., 2005).Despite numerous investigations, including the studies mentioned above, the literature on country image and COO effects still has several gaps. First, most of the studies have been investigated at the consumer side of the evaluation process, i.e. how country stereotypes influence consumers' purchase decisions (Usunier, 2006). Research findings have, for instance, shown that American consumers (Reierson, 1966; Gaedeke, 1973) or American industrial buyers (White and Cundiff, 1978; Crawford and Lamb, 1981; Cattin et al., 1982) have preconceived ideas about the quality of products from specific countries. Only a very limited number of studies have explicitly taken the manufacturer's perspective. Therefore, unlike previous studies of COO effects on consumers' judgment of quality and behavioral intentions, this study is designed to assess the views of exporting manufacturers on the country image changes expected through EU accession.Second, in most COO studies, there is an over-representation of consumer electronics, automobiles, textile and apparel, i.e. traditional western (US and European) products that have been challenged by Asian products (Usunier, 2006). Focusing solely on high financial risk product categories such as automobiles or extremely low financial risk product categories such as clothing may be misleading, as the COO effect is particularly strong in situations where performance and financial risks of purchasing a product are high (Cordell, 1991, 1992) or maybe negligible in the case of low-cost/low risk products. Since there is evidence in the literature that COO effects do vary by product category or product line (Cattin et al., 1982; Cordell, 1992; Eroglu and Machleit, 1989; Roth and Romeo, 1992), we attempt to extend previous studies by reviewing the effects of COO on evaluation of a more \"neutral\" product category: furniture.Last but not least, COO effects are typically explained in terms of the perceived economic development levels of the countries involved (Cordell, 1991; 1992; Gaedeke, 1973; Schooler, 1971; Schooler and Wildt, 1968; Tse and Gorn, 1993; Wang and Lamb, 1983). However, country image can be explained by other facets such as the political and social domain of a country (Martin and Eroglu, 1993). Correspondingly, we evaluate not only economic, but also political and democratic development levels as determinants of the COO effect.In this paper, we investigate the factors that affect country image. Our study is therefore set to examine the COO effects on the products of Turkish furniture manufacturers, soon after Turkey started official membership talks with the European Union (EU). This study setting is deemed appropriate for studying country image because there has been much debate on Turkey's membership among the current EU member countries. Turkey's prospective membership in the EU has therefore captured significant attention in EU countries for several years and the discussion turned out to be related not only to the accession of a new member, but also to the future profile of the EU members. Hidden European fears and prejudices often came to surface during the discussion (Grigoriadis, 2006). While some of the concerns may be legitimate, some judgments are based on speculation and stereotyping (Pahre and Ucaray, 2005). In recent years, to get closer to EU, Turkey has made significant changes in its democratic regulations, economic structures, and political system. These developments are expected to have positive influences on the experiences, beliefs, and views European consumers have on Turkey's country image and subsequently, Turkish products.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. First, literature review and hypotheses are presented. Next, country setting, sample, data collection, and measurement of constructs are described. Then, the analyses are delineated and the results are presented. Finally, the results and the study's contributions are discussed, followed by future research directions.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses: 2.1 Country image and country-of-origin effects on consumer attitudes\n3. Research methods: 3.1 Country setting: furniture manufacturers in Kayseri, Turkey\n4. Analysis and results: Each measure was investigated for low item-to-total correlations and construct reliabilities were subsequently calculated (Churchill, 1979). All coefficient alphas were above acceptable levels, ranging from 0.71 to 0.86 (Nunnally, 1978). To provide support for unidimensionality, principal components analyses were conducted for each construct. The results showed that only the first eigenvalue is greater than 1, which provides evidence for unidimensionality.Next, correlations between constructs were calculated. The significant pairwise correlations between country image and democratic influence (0.33), political influence (0.37), and economic influence (0.43) provided an initial support for all H1, H2, and H3. Table II demonstrates these reliabilities and correlations between the constructs.The data were further analyzed via linear regression where country image, the dependent variable, was regressed against the predictor variables of democratic influence, political influence, and economic influence and the control variables of firm age and firm size. Overall, the regression was significant with an F-value of 12.62 (df=5; p<0.01). Moreover, adjusted R2 is 48.0 per cent, suggesting a satisfactory level of explanatory power.The regression results provide support for H2 and H3, which posit that the expectation of positive political influences and positive economic influences are significantly related to country image. As seen in the regression results (Table III), standardized betas for these predictor variables are both significant (p < 0.01). No support was found for H1, indicating that democratic influences are not associated with country image. Although the coefficient is positive as expected, it is insignificant. Finally, as expected, the results suggest that firm age and firm size are not significantly related to country image.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: The main objective of this study was to examine the impact that the political, democratic, and economic changes that are expected to occur in Turkey during the EU accession process, would have on the image of the country. Focusing on furniture manufacturers from Kayseri, Turkey, we shed light on the country image consequences these determinants would have. Although the study was conducted in a highly progressive part of Turkey, the results should not be taken as representative of the whole business community or the whole country.It was expected that improvements in the way Turkey runs its political institutions would lead to a better country image of Turkey. This relationship appeared to be valid for this particular sample group. Political adjustments that were required by EU decision makers were of particular importance and Turkey put special emphasis on moving ahead politically in its attempt to join the EU. A firm commitment was made to continue the process of domestic policy reform, including the new civil code and enhanced independence of the judiciary. Important human rights issues were addressed. Political and legislative adjustments can be implemented relatively quickly by a government firmly committed to EU accession, whereas democratic changes require a longer time to settle in and be accepted by the larger public. Therefore, Kayseri businessmen expected political improvements to have a more direct effect on country image.Another hypothesized relationship was related to economic influences on country image. In our study, respondents were of the opinion that economic adaptation to EU criteria would have a direct and significant influence on how the country, and the overall country image, is perceived by others. Turkey has undertaken significant steps to improve its macroeconomic situation. Inflation and real interest rates have been reduced, the financial sector has been restructured and the business environment has been improved. As the respondents in this study were members of the business community, it was foreseeable that they would focus to a higher extent on economic outcomes and the image consequences of economic performance.The third hypothesized relationship was that if the country makes significant progress on democratization, this would lead to an improved country image. Our analysis demonstrated that the businessmen of the Kayseri furniture industry do not believe that improvements in the areas of democratization will lead to a better image of the country in the Western markets. This particular group may be of the opinion that the democratic adjustments Turkey has made within the framework of the EU process have not been the results of social agreement or a collective practice of decision-making. Democracy is a slow process and in the case of relatively young democracies, the consolidation of new democratic institutions may be difficult. Since the adjustments in the democratic sphere have not been the outcome of a public debate, they may lack domestic ownership and need time to be completely internalized by the public. Consequently, the immediate image influences may be insignificant, but this might change over time.In summary, our study shows that the surveyed part of the business community, i.e. furniture manufacturers in Kayseri, are not unanimously of the opinion that adjustments to EU expectations in the economic, political and democratic fields will automatically lead to a better image of Turkey abroad. Whereas economic and political influences are more obvious and visible for the larger EU public, this is less the case for the democratic efforts of the country, which need to be deeper internalized by the Turkish public in order to reflect on country image of Turkey. Sustainable democratization has to be foremost a domestic transformation based on internal changes and consensus (Somer, 2006).5.1 Managerial and policy implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the opinions of owners/managers of Turkish furniture firms on country image effects of expected improvements in Turkey's democratic, economic, and political life resulting from Turkey's likely EU membership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Survey-based empirical data are analyzed via multiple regression analysis.\nFindings: - The paper finds that political and economic influences of EU negotiations will improve country image, whereas democratic influences will not have a significant effect.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is conducted in one industry and findings may not be generalizable. As opinions on country image are affected by discussions in the media or temporary situations between EU countries and Turkey, the study should be repeated at regular intervals. Official bodies need to make sure that reforms made in the democratic arena are well communicated to business communities. Also, business communities can promote implementation of democratic adjustment efforts by joining democratic establishments.\nOriginality/value: - Most previous studies on country of origin (COO) effects were conducted with high risk or very low risk product groups. In this paper, a mid-level risk product category, furniture, is examined with respect to country image.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An empirical examination of the ecological and cognitive active commuting framework: A social marketing formative research study
|
[
"Exercise",
"Primary schools",
"Schools",
"Children",
"Physical activity",
"Social marketing",
"Walking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Walking to school, as a unique but significant source of physical activity for children, has decreased over the past 30 years, globally and in Australia (Mammen et al., 2014; Crawford and Garrard, 2013), despite known psychological, physical, and environmental merits associated with walking to school (Dollman and Lewis, 2007; Reilly and Kelly, 2011; Moodie et al., 2011). Queensland has been identified as one of the most inactive states in Australia. Queensland Health (2016) indicated that only 5 per cent of Years 1 and 5 children engaged in different forms of active school travel (AST) such as walking or cycling to school on a daily basis. Approximately half of all primary school aged children (47 per cent) in Queensland travel from/to school only by car (Queensland Health, 2012). This low level of AST and physical activity contributes to high levels of obesity in Queensland (Australian Department of Health, 2016). According to the Australian Department of Health (2016) and Queensland Health (2016), 59 per cent of Queensland children are not active for at least one hour per day, and 40 per cent of Queensland children did not participate in sport in the previous week. Queensland Health (2016) recommends children to be physically active for at least three hours each day. Therefore, programs such as AST, Brisbane City Council, and Healthy AST, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, have been initiated to increase physical activity levels and promote AST among Queensland primary schools.\nMethods: Participants and procedure\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: This study aimed to test the most inclusive theoretical model to specifically explain walking to school behaviour among Queensland primary school children. The ECAC framework, which had not been empirically examined previously, guided this enquiry. The current study examined factors that may be preventing Queensland children from walking to school, using the ECAC framework.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Evidence indicates that active school travel (AST) including walking can effectively lower levels of obesity among school-age children. Yet Queensland has been identified as one of the most inactive states in Australia where only 5 per cent of Years 1 and 5 children engaged in AST on a daily basis. The purpose of this paper is to explain walking to school behaviour among Queensland children by investigating the explanatory potential of the ecological and cognitive active commuting (ECAC) model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey of 537 carers in Queensland, Australia was conducted to collect data about demographics and the variables in the ECAC model. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the ECAC model and the pathways between variables.\nFindings: The results indicate that the ECAC model explained 53.4 per cent of the variance in walking to school. Social norms are the dominating factor in the model. Distance to school affects how the ECAC model works by moderating the associations among walking to school behaviours, perceived risks, and social norms.\nPractical implications: Changing carers' social norms and lowering the perceived risks they associate with walking to school should increase the incidence of walking to school in Queensland.\nOriginality/value: Although the ECAC model was proposed as a comprehensive framework to explain walking to school behaviour, to date, it has not been tested empirically. Informed by a modified ECAC framework this study aims to empirically explore the factors that may be preventing or facilitating Queensland children from walking to school.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring the relationship among affective loyalty, perceived benefits, attitude, and intention to use co-branded products
|
[
"China",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Credit cards",
"Banks",
"Department stores",
"Loyalty",
"Perceived benefits",
"Attitude",
"Intention",
"Co‐branding"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Research background: 1.1 Co-branding\n2 Hypotheses development: 2.1 Perceived benefits and attitude\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Measures and instruments\n4 Results: 4.1 Sample characteristics\n5 Discussion and conclusion: 5.1 Discussion of results\nAcknowledgements: The research paper was supported by research grant from University of Macau (Ref. No. MYRG011(Y1-L1)-FBA12-LTC)).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among affective loyalty, perceived benefits, attitude towards co-branded products and the intention to use such products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 433 valid responses were collected from active bank/department store co-branded credit card holders, from four major Chinese cities. Regression and t-test analyses were used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: - The findings revealed that affective loyalty to the bank and the department store, as well as perceived credit card benefits, all positively influence consumers' attitude toward bank/department store co-branded credit cards. Additionally, results showed a positive relationship between attitude and intention. Moreover, gender differences were also found to be significant in affective loyalty to the bank and the department store, as well as with the intention to use co-branded credit cards.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes to the co-branding literature by gaining a better understanding of co-branded partners in symbiotic marketing collaboration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Moneychangers: an appraisal of their service
|
[
"Service industries",
"Money",
"Customer satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Identifying ways of improving the service of firms continues to be an important topic for researchers and service providers because of its link to business performance. Providing a superior service increases retention rates and the number of new customers who are attracted through, for example, positive word of mouth (Buzzell and Gale, 1987; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Rust and Zahorik, 1993; Rust et al., 1994, 1996; Zahorik and Rust, 1992).Our study aims to identify how to measure the service of moneychangers and, after developing appropriate dimensions, to illustrate which aspects of their service can be improved. Moneychangers are an interesting type of retail business to study as they continue to be successful in competing with major commercial banks in providing a currency exchange service. In the David and Goliath scenario which exists, natural questions to ask are: \"what is it that moneychangers do so well; and, in what ways can they improve the service they provide?\" In responding to these questions, our study develops a model for appraising the service of moneychangers.In the next section, we provide readers with background information about the market for exchanging currency at the retail level in Singapore, where the present research was conducted. This section not only familiarises readers with the setting in which the study was conducted but also provides features of the moneychanger service. Because consumers have made a decision to select a moneychanger business, our analytical framework relies on literature which defines the way consumers select a financial service provider. The methodology section describes how we designed a set of attributes for measuring the moneychanger service and how we used a factor analysis procedure to create dimensions for modelling the service of moneychangers. Our results illustrate where and to what extent the service of moneychangers exceeds and falls short of customer expectations and how the proprietors of moneychanger businesses can improve their service.\nThe market for exchanging foreign currency at the retail level in Singapore: There are about 400 licensed moneychangers (private correspondence with the Central Bank) in Singapore, excluding the major hotels which are also authorised to exchange foreign currencies. At the retail level, these 400 moneychangers compete with those banks, which are classified as full-licence banks.Singapore has three local full-licence banking groups and 22 foreign full-licence banks. (The Annual Report of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (2002) (MAS) and the MAS's web site www.mas.gov.sg provide information about these banks.) The holding companies of the local full-licence banks are quoted on the stock exchange of Singapore. The foreign full-licence banks, such as Standard Chartered Bank and ABN Amro, are registered on their own domestic stock exchanges. The MAS, irrespective of a full-licence bank's domesticity, has given authority to all these banks to exchange currencies. A combination of local banks' annual reports and the Yellow Pages, show that the local banks have some 220 branches, while the foreign banks have about 100 branches. The marketplace thus consists of some 400 moneychanger business units and some 320 branches of retail banks. As moneychangers and banks have a physical presence both inside and outside the central business district (CBD), the two types of business compete against each other all over the island state of Singapore.Being family owned businesses, moneychangers can choose when to open and close. Most moneychangers begin to offer their service late in the morning and remain open until either the early or late evening. Those moneychangers who remain open during the evening are able to serve consumers when they are going home from work or as they do their evening- or night-time shopping.All moneychangers operate from small-sized premises and have low operational costs. With limited operational costs, moneychangers have the opportunity to offer relatively narrow buy/sell spreads for the currencies they trade. Those business units, which are located in modern shopping centres, benefit from an air-conditioning system that serves the entire shopping centre. A proportion of those in the downtown area and many of those located in older-style shopping centres are exposed to the prevailing weather conditions. Banks offer their currency exchange service from within their air-conditioned branches.Bank staff who serve customers are predominantly female and they wear specially designed outfits, a consequence of which is that bank front line staff have a largely uniform appearance. A mix of females and males who dress far more casually staffs moneychangers. To improve the skills and knowledge of staff, banks have many in-house programs which their employees are obliged to attend. Moneychangers, because they are invariably very small businesses, appear to have neither the facilities nor the capabilities to create in-house training programs.The above illustrates observable features of the moneychanger service and some key features of full-licence banks with whom they compete in offering a currency exchange service at the retail level.\nAnalytical framework: A search of the literature failed to identify any studies which had been conducted using moneychangers as the service provider. With this point in mind, when seeking to identify an appropriate analytical framework, we initially recognised that consumers would have selected a specific moneychanger for exchanging currency. Although there are no known studies defining how consumers select a moneychanger, we were aware that the marketplace for exchanging currencies consists of moneychangers and banks and that, in respect of banks, there is a very well developed bank selection literature (some of the various studies being Anderson et al., 1976; Martenson, 1985; Tan and Chua, 1986; Yavas, 1988; Erol et al., 1989; Sudhin et al., 1994; Holstius and Kaynak, 1995; Thwaites and Vere, 1995; Zineldin, 1996; Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997; Almossawi, 2001; Devlin and Gerrard, 2004). Because of the competitive relationship which exists between the two types of business entity, we chose to use the bank selection literature as an analytical framework. While this literature may not be perfect, by critically appraising it, it is possible to gauge its appropriateness to our study and, thus, its ability to provide useful insights about the moneychanger service. Upon reviewing the extensive bank selection literature, we identify eight selection dimensions, these, in alphabetical sequence, being: appearance of tangibles, convenience, external influences, pricing, product range, risk, service delivery and staff qualities. Immediately below, these dimensions are appraised in order to establish their relative usefulness in providing a framework for measuring the service of moneychangers.* Appearance of tangibles. Appearances, in the selection literature, refers to the interior and exterior of buildings, the appearance of the equipment which is used and sometimes the appearance of staff who deliver the service (Sudhin et al., 1994; Almossawi, 2001). The same tangibles are visible during service encounters with moneychangers. People patronising a moneychanger see the inside and outside of the business premises, the area immediately surrounding and the member of staff who serves them. Customers, through the security screen which separates them from the member of staff, are able to see the tangibles associated with the service provision, such as note counters, PCs, fax machines and calculators. Customers are, thus, ideally placed to view the relative tidiness and cleanliness of the interior and exterior of the premises and the modernity of the supporting equipment. It may be that the appearance of tangibles is a useful dimension for measuring the service of moneychangers.* Convenience. Convenience, in the selection literature, refers to geographical proximity (Thwaites and Vere, 1995; Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997; Almossawi, 2001). Moneychangers have a presence in a wide variety of locations in Singapore. Their widespread presence allows customers to get their business premises fairly quickly, thereby providing time savings. The convenience offered by moneychangers may, thus, be a relevant measure of their service.* External influences. The parties who are identified as exerting external influences in the selection literature are family, friends and marketers (Tan and Chua, 1986; Sudhin et al., 1994; Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997). Influences, though, do not relate to the service of a firm per se and, thus, we consider that such influences are irrelevant to our study which aims to develop a model for measuring the service of moneychangers.* Pricing. Pricing, in the selection literature, refers to interest rates paid, interest rates charged and fees imposed (Anderson et al., 1976; Sudhin et al., 1994). The interest rate paid in the traditional banker-customer relationship is the one given to customers to attract deposits from them, while the interest rate charged is the one that is imposed on borrowing customers. The difference between the two rates is called the interest rate spread. The exchange rate spread in the moneychanger service (i.e. the difference between a moneychanger's buying exchange rate and a selling exchange rate) is roughly equivalent to an interest rate spread in the bank-customer relationship. Pricing, on the face of it, appears a service feature of moneychangers.* Product range. Product range, in the selection literature, refers to the variety of products offered (Anderson et al., 1976; Almossawi, 2001). This dimension appears less relevant because the moneychanger service is more focused (i.e. that of exchanging currency). However, we can suggest that \"product range\" may be considered in relation to the range of currencies which a moneychanger trades. In the context of such a definition, \"product range\" appears a service feature of moneychangers.* Risk. Risk, in the selection literature, is associated with the likelihood of financial loss (Anderson et al., 1976; Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997; Almossawi, 2001) - the loss relating to a bank being liquidated and the customer not being able to recover the whole of their bank balance in due course. This type of risk is absent from the moneychanger service because the service is instantaneous: an amount in one currency is exchanged for an amount in another currency at one point in time. The meaning of risk, as appearing in the selection literature, suggests this dimension is irrelevant to our study.* Service delivery. Service delivery, in the selection literature, refers to service performance including the waiting time in queues and the time taken to be served (Thwaites and Vere, 1995; Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997; Almossawi, 2001). The same features are present in the moneychanger service meaning that service delivery may be a relevant dimension.* Staff qualities. In the selection literature, staff qualities are measured in terms of the pleasantness, politeness and/or knowledge of those who serve customers (Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997; Almossawi, 2001). The same staff qualities may be relevant for assessing the service of a moneychanger.In sum, with the exception of external influences and risk, we consider that the remaining six selection dimensions form a useful starting point for developing measures appropriate for studying the service of moneychangers. While these dimensions were sourced from the bank selection literature, a critical appraisal of them, in respect of their appropriateness for our study, suggests only two of them are irrelevant. It is unlikely, though, that all relevant service dimensions are represented in the bank selection literature and, consequently, there is a need to seek qualitative information. Such information would aim to not only identify measures specific to the moneychanger service, but also provide evidence of the extent to which the bank selection literature represents a useful framework.In relation to the framework above, the following research questions were created with the aim of satisfying the objectives of our study.RQ1. Which service dimensions are useful for measuring the service of moneychangers and predicting the overall quality of service they give?\nResearch methodology: This study grew out of an interest in developing a better understanding of the service of moneychangers, a type of financial service provider which has not been studied previously and which is an integral member of the financial services' sector in various countries.Research design\nResults: Overall performance\nImplications for researchers and the owners of moneychanging firms: Implications for researchers\nConclusions and further studies: The model, which represents the service of moneychangers, contains six factors, these emerging from the factor analysis of attributes developed through sourcing the bank selection literature and qualitative feedback obtained from interviewing a number of consumers who had just completed a currency exchange. The methodology was valuable in identifying measures which were unique to the moneychanger service, a type of business which has not been studied in the past.The overall service of moneychangers neither exceeded nor fell short of customer expectations. It was satisfactory. This finding, relating to the experiences of consumers, implies that moneychangers could improve their service. To focus on specific aspects of the moneychanger service which most need improving, it is necessary to view how the respondents rated each of the service dimensions, especially those which failed to meet customer expectations.Proprietors should consider how they can make their premises, both inside and outside and the other tangibles visible during service encounters, more appealing thereby improving the appearance of their tangibles.It additionally appears advisable for those who serve customers to improve their interpersonal skills. This is probably best achieved though attending external training courses. It may be that some proprietors do not consider there is a need to improve such skills because, at best, consumers irregularly use their services. But, interpersonal skills seem to be a critical in determining whether a moneychanger has or has not satisfied a customer during their service encounter. Seeking out and attending courses which aim to improve the interpersonal skills of those staff who serve customers should improve the service given. Financial benefits may accrue to those moneychangers who decide it is advantageous to improve both the appearance of their tangibles and skills of staff who serve customers, especially their helpfulness.Further studies\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to develop a set of dimensions for measuring the service of moneychangers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Attributes for measuring the moneychanger service were created from exit interviews and a review of the literature, and then administered a survey to consumers who had just completed a currency exchange. Respondent feedback was factor analysed, creating six service dimensions: \"appearances of the tangibles\", \"cost of service\", \"interpersonal skills\", \"service delivery\", \"administrative matters\" and \"display board\".\nFindings: - The \"service delivery\" and the \"cost of service\" dimensions exceeded customer expectations; the \"appearances of tangibles\" and the \"interpersonal skills\" dimensions fell short of expectations; \"administrative matters\" and the \"display board\" dimensions merely met expectations. A general finding of this study is that moneychangers, even though they are small businesses, are able to effectively compete with corporate giants (i.e. banks) in exchanging currencies; they achieve this through more than meeting customer expectations in respect of their service delivery and costs.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Based on this research, it is recommended that researchers who conduct studies in service areas might first take steps to identify measures which are specific to the type of business being investigated.\nPractical implications: - From a practical viewpoint, if the proprietors of moneychanger businesses want to improve their service, they should take steps to upgrade the interpersonal skills of the staff who serve customers and the appearances of those tangibles which are visible during service encounters.\nOriginality/value: - Develops a set of dimensions for a specific type of business.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Motives of mergers and acquisitions by state-owned enterprises: A taxonomy and international evidence
|
[
"M&As",
"Privatization",
"State-owned enterprises",
"Nationalization",
"Shareholder value maximization",
"L32",
"L33",
"G34"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of academic publications on contemporary state-owned enterprises (SOEs)[1] and their differences from, and similarities to, private firms. The growing attention is motivated not only by the expanding size of SOEs[2], but also by the significant changing dynamics that have shaped their contemporary features and role. In fact, contemporary SOEs have been strongly reorganized in terms of governance rules, regulatory framework, business re-engineering, accountability and transparency standards, and they have become more mixed enterprises, with enhanced competitive capabilities and facing similar issues and challenges to those faced by private enterprises (Cuervo-Cazurra et al., 2014; Florio, 2014; Bruton et al., 2015; Lebedev et al., 2015; Musacchio et al., 2015; He et al., 2016; Peng et al., 2016). In addition, contemporary SOEs more and more frequently play a relevant function in promoting research and innovation, in fostering long-term and/or high-risk capital-intensive projects (Millward, 2011; De Olloqui, 2013; Eslava and Freixas, 2016) and in channeling funds to long-term societal challenges (Mazzuccato and Penna, 2016).\n2. M&A rationales in the corporate firm literature: Since Manne's (1965) seminal paper, a substantial academic literature on M&A activity has developed. This extensive literature collects contributions from different academic fields - including finance, management, industrial organization and business administration - and analyzes the phenomenon from multifarious viewpoints, such as stock market reactions and pre- and post-merger accounting performance (Agrawal and Jaffe, 1995; Andrade and Stafford, 2004; Rhodes-Kropf and Viswanathan, 2004; Breinlich, 2008; De Young et al., 2009), differences between domestic and cross-border deals (Rossi and Volpin, 2004; Bris et al., 2008; Coeurdacier et al., 2009; Ferreira et al., 2010; Erel et al., 2012; Karolyi and Liao, 2017), waves clustered by industries (Mitchell and Mulherin, 1996; Andrade and Stafford, 2004; Harford, 2005; Hackbarth and Miao, 2012) and impact on competition, economic growth and innovation (Piscitello, 2004; Cassiman et al., 2005; Carow et al., 2006; Craig and Hardee, 2007; Wand and Wong, 2009). All these different analyses have contributed to the elucidation of a crucial underlying relevant question: why do firms enter into M&A deals?\n3. The data set: Our data set was obtained by combining the firm-level information from two sources: Zephyr and Orbis (Bureau Van Dijk)[3]. Zephyr contains information about the type, year and reported rationales of M&A deals. Additionally, for each acquirer, vendor and target involved in each deal, Zephyr provides information on the country, the NACE sector and the GUO[4]. However, since the GUO provided by Zephyr refers only to the latest available year, rather than the year when the deal occurred, we needed to develop an algorithm to extract only those observations for which neither the vendor nor the acquiring company involved in a deal (at time t) figure as target companies in a subsequent deal (at any time t+j)[5]. We have been able to identify 3,550 deals performed by SOE acquirers from the evidence available for the time span 2002-2012. We then matched Zephyr data with financial statement information provided by Orbis in order to have accounting data on the acquirers, and finally dropped deals without adequate accounting data or a description of the rationale.\n4. Reported rationale for M&As performed by SOEs: selected examples: In this section, we focus on deal motivation which is our main research interest in this paper. For each deal in our sample, Zephyr reports the motivation using several sources, among others declarations by the management of the firm involved in the agreement. We analyzed on a case-by-case basis all the rationales of our sample, and we classified them into several categories with the aim of identifying differences and similarities compared to private firms[7].\n5. Empirical analysis: In this section, we analyze the evidence that we have collected. First of all, Table VI highlights the distribution in the sample of the different groups of rationales according to our taxonomy.\n6. Concluding remarks: The recent literature on SOEs tends to contradict earlier widely held assumptions about their role in the economy in terms of objectives and performance. The traditional literature tended to look at SOEs as captured by politicians and overall underperforming in comparison to private firms. Some authors, however, most notably, for example Musacchio and Lazzarini (2014), point to the emergence of a new form of state capitalism, where SOEs compete with the private firms with similar strategies and objectives. This paper contributes to this debate through a novel perspective. We look at SOEs from the angle of the MCC and we analyze in detail the reported rationales of a sample of 355 M&A deals performed by SOEs as acquirers over the period 2002-2012; our aim, after having creating a taxonomy of deal rationales, is to empirically test two alternative hypotheses: deviation vs convergence of M&A deal rationales between public and private enterprises.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper looks at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from the angle of the market for corporate control and analyzes in detail the reported rationales of a sample of 355 mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals performed by SOEs as acquirers over the period 2002-2012. The purpose of this paper, after having created a taxonomy of deal motivations, is to empirically test two alternative hypotheses: deviation vs convergence of M&A deal rationales between state-owned and private enterprises.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data set is obtained by combining firm-level information from two sources, Zephyr and Orbis (Bureau Van Dijk). A recursive algorithm is developed to infer the ownership nature of the enterprises at the time the deal took place and then the authors double-checked the identity of the global ultimate owner by visual inspection of all the available information. Motivations are analyzed through a case-by-case analysis and classified into several categories, thereby providing a taxonomy of rationales behind SOE M&As and discussing their differences and similarities relative to private firms.\nFindings: More than 60 percent of the deals performed by SOEs as acquirers are driven by \"shareholder value maximization\" motives, similarly to private enterprise acquirers. The other 40 percent of deals are almost equally spread among three rationales that specifically relate to the role of modern state capitalism in the economy. \"Financial distress\" motivation, which is the only one clearly deviating from the objectives of profit maximization typical of private ownership, is far less important than the others.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper does not analyze the case studies in detail. Neither does it correlate the evidence with the quality of corporate governance or the quality of institutions in the country. This would be interesting in order to discover whether the alignment of objectives between public and private enterprises is enhanced by certain features of public sector management, as suggested by the OECD (2015) Guidelines.\nPractical implications: The paper suggests some policy implications in terms of reforms of the corporate governance of the SOEs and accountability of their management against clearly stated public missions. It also calls for the need for citizens to be informed in a transparent way about the rationales of major M&A deals when a SOE is on the acquirer side, and the consistency of such rationales with the mission assigned by governments to the enterprises they own. Finally, it underlines that regulatory concerns raised in many countries by the rise of cross-border SOE M&As are in most of the cases unfounded.\nOriginality/value: Existing literature has mainly focused on private corporate M&A deals or has just disregarded the ownership status of the acquiring firm. This paper focuses on the motivations for SOE deals in order to elaborate a taxonomy of SOE deal rationales and to identify the differences and similarities between private corporate firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Needs of beneficiaries related to the format and content of food parcels in Ghent, Belgium
|
[
"Belgium",
"Needs",
"Donation",
"Economically deprived consumers",
"Food parcel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One third of the food produced in the world ends up being lost or wasted (Schneider, 2013). With food losses and waste we mean the decrease of edible food mass fit for human consumption. In Belgium about 4 million ton a year is lost or wasted (Interdepartementale Werkgroep Voedselverlies, 2015). In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, the food losses and waste are ranging between 1.94 million and 2.29 million ton a year (Interdepartementale Werkgroep Voedselverlies, 2015). Food losses can take place at production or in postharvest storage or further processing. Food waste occurs at the end of the food chain: at retail and final consumption (Gustavsson et al., 2011; Parfitt et al., 2010). Food donations combat food waste by distributing food surplus to those in need (Garrone et al., 2014). This surplus consists for example of food products with damaged packages, wrong labels or a limited shelf life. A study issued by the European Commission in 2010, Preparatory study on food waste across EU 27, states that food redistribution programmes are very effective at preventing food losses and waste and are able to adapt to local circumstances and business opportunities. Food redistribution activities account for 10 per cent of the instruments used to prevent food waste in the EU; others are research programmes (24 per cent) awareness campaigns (21 per cent), regulatory instruments (11 per cent), logistical improvement (11 per cent), etc. (Bio Intelligence Service, 2010). Through food donations the value of the wasted food keeps maintained. If the food is not used for (human or animal) nutrition, the value declines. However, the primary goal should be to prevent food waste (Bio Intelligence Service, 2010).\n2. Methods: 2.1 The food donation system in Belgium\n3. Findings: 3.1 The food donation system in Belgium\n4. Discussion and concluding remarks: The format and the content of the food parcels differ by charity. The format might be a fixed food parcel, a food parcel with options with or without a point system or a food parcel with choice but for a small price. When compared to each other some freedom of choice is preferred by all, based on this research but this was also noted in a study by the federal public service for Social Welfare in Belgium (Belleflamme et al., 2012). That is why on a national level the traditional form of fixed or pre-prepared parcels was renounced in several projects: \"these parcels are often not adjusted to the needs of the families, and many products prove undesirable\" (Belleflamme et al., 2012). The option to choose between the food products might also lead to less food waste, because the clients can leave the products that they do not want or need behind. However, in the present study in Ghent it was noted that there are still charities distributing fixed food parcels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As food aid is still for a great part dependent upon the donation of food surplus and as the number of persons relying on food charities is increasing, it is important to further investigate which donation system responds best to the needs of the beneficiaries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the needs regarding the format and content of the food parcels in a selected social service in Ghent, Belgium. The \"format\" relates to how the food parcels are distributed, the \"content\" to the usability of the food products and whether additional products currently not offered are required by the beneficiaries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research is based on a qualitative study at a selected food charity in Ghent, using a semi-structured in-depth interview with 30 respondents who receive food parcels.\nFindings: The food parcel beneficiaries report the need for freedom of choice regarding the offered food products (format). Fixed food parcels should be avoided. Also a need for more vegetables, milk, fresh (halal) meat and meat products was expressed (content), even though the charity purchased a great deal of additional \"standard\" food products to provide nutritious and varied food parcels. It should be further investigated whether other donation systems such as social groceries or restaurants meet the needs of the beneficiaries to a greater extent, or whether certain adjustments such as purchasing even more standard food products are possible to uphold.\nOriginality/value: To the authors' knowledge this research is one of the first scientific studies addressing the needs of food parcel receivers in Belgium. It forms a basis for investigating which type of food donation answers best to the needs of the beneficiaries in Belgium or in other countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Reconciling temporal conflicts in innovation ambidexterity: the role of TMT temporal leadership
|
[
"Top management team",
"Temporal conflict",
"Innovation ambidexterity",
"Institutional support",
"Market dynamism",
"TMT temporal leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Contemporary firms are confronted with great challenges and tensions when it comes to achieving innovation ambidexterity, which refers to an organization's ability to pursue both explorative and exploitative innovation simultaneously (He and Wong, 2004; Lubatkin et al., 2006). In adapting to environmental changes, firms must enhance their flexibility through explorative innovation by exploring new ideas or processes and developing new products and services for emerging markets; at the same time, they need to maintain their stability through exploitative innovation to efficiently leverage their current capabilities and gradually refine and improve their existing products and services (March, 1991; Raisch et al., 2009). Although this is challenging, successful firms tend to be ambidextrous and are able to perform and balance exploratory and exploitative innovation simultaneously (De Clercq et al., 2013; He and Wong, 2004). Given both the tensions and benefits associated with innovation ambidexterity (Turner et al., 2013), a considerable number of studies have been devoted to addressing the question of how firms can achieve it.\nLiterature review: Leadership and innovation ambidexterity\nStudy hypotheses: Top management team temporal leadership and innovation ambidexterity\nMethods: Sample and data collection\nResults: Table 2 presents the means, standard deviations and correlations for all variables. Ordinary least squares regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The maximum value of the variance inflation factor from the analyses was 2.39, which is substantially below the general cutoff of 10, suggesting that the likelihood of multicollinearity being a problem is minimal.\nDiscussion: Theoretical contribution\nConclusion: In conclusion, this study sets out to investigate the role of TMT temporal leadership in enabling innovation ambidexterity. The study proposes a moderated mediation framework that considers how and under what conditions TMT temporal leadership promotes innovation ambidexterity of SMEs. The results show that TMT temporal leadership has a positive effect on the innovation ambidexterity of SMEs by reducing temporal conflict. Additionally, the indirect effect of TMT temporal leadership is contingent on market dynamism and institutional support. The study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the temporal aspects of innovation ambidexterity as well as the role of upper echelons in shaping firm innovation strategies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to extend the temporal perspective on ambidexterity by investigating how and under what conditions top management team (TMT) temporal leadership improves innovation ambidexterity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a questionnaire survey, data were collected from 165 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China. Ordinary least squares regression models were applied to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The findings show that TMT temporal leadership has a positive effect on innovation ambidexterity and temporal conflict mediates this relationship. Market dynamism and institutional support moderate the indirect effect of TMT temporal leadership on innovation ambidexterity.\nPractical implications: Managers wishing to promote exploration and exploitation simultaneously should pay attention to the temporal aspects of their innovation strategy and improve their temporal leadership activities.\nOriginality/value: This study highlights the temporal conflicts in ambidexterity and clarifies the enabling role of TMT temporal leadership. It contributes new insights to the research on organizational ambidexterity and strategic leadership.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do manufacturing firms need informality in ERP post-implementation? A study of Chinese manufacturing sites
|
[
"China",
"Hybrid model",
"Enterprise resource planning",
"Informality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Many organisations have achieved benefits from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, including improvements in efficiency by reducing process cycle time, producing documentation quickly, eliminating errors and removing duplicated processes (Moon and Phatak, 2005). However, there is an increasing awareness of the shortcomings of ERP systems because many companies are confronted by risks at the post-implementation stage when using, maintaining and enhancing their systems. This has led to an emphasis on the critical role of making ongoing improvements of systems by frontline employees in the ERP post-implementation stage (Gallagher and Gallagher, 2012; Peng and Nunes, 2009). These improvements are based within what Krackhardt and Hanson (1993) define as the informal organisation. This is an organisation in which work is undertaken within social networks that involve employees from across functions and divisions working together to accomplish tasks quickly. The benefit of informality is that it involves employees and leads to increased flexibility in meeting business needs (Morand, 1995).\n2. Literature review: Most research in the area of ERP implementation is focused on how to increase production performance, rather than the issue of the effect on social interactions. However there is evidence that manufacturers suffer from rigidly designed ERP systems. For example these systems generate production plans through a manufacturing requirements planning (MRP) system, which has a fixed lead time to plan for purchasing order and production order, and cannot flexibly respond to changes in lead time (Moon and Phatak, 2005). These features of an ERP can result in material shortage, over-ordering or over production (Chen, 2001).\n3. Research methods: 3.1. Research design\n4. Case studies: Table II shows context information of each case, including ERP implementation and organisation type. The sample includes manufacturers of food, display, water heaters and electronic goods located in China. Company A is a Chinese local manufacturer and the remaining companies are subsidiaries of international companies. Most of them are middle and large sized firms with more than 1,000 employees with their scale of production having motivated all of them to implement ERP systems. All the firms have long established ERP systems with company A and C having improved their ERP systems in the 2000s.\n5. Findings: A major outcome of this research is to conceptualise the concept of informality for manufacturers implementing ERP systems. This is achieved by an analysis of the case study data in relation to the three characteristics of informality defined from the literature of organisation structure, communication method and leadership approach. The outcome of this analysis is a conceptualization of informality using four dimensions relevant to the context of implementation of ERP in the manufacturing companies.\n6. Discussion: The above case studies present different attitudes towards adopting an ERP in an informal working context. The analyses of diversified perspectives is on the basis of STS system (Bostrom and Heinen, 1977b) which illustrates the emerging propositions related to the benefits and challenges of implementation of the ERP and informality from technical, socio-organisational and socio-cultural dimensions:\n7. Conclusion: Unlike existing research, which is focused on enterprise system project implementation, this paper contributes on revealing the stories after the ERP system is implemented and how the manufacturing companies use the system to cope with the production uncertainties in China.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are limited due to their operation around a fixed design production process and a fixed lead time to production plan and purchasing plan. The purpose of this paper is to define the concept of informality and to describe the notion of a system combining informality and ERP systems, based on empirical research from four manufacturing case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The case studies present a range of applications of ERP and are analysed in terms of the three characteristics of informality, namely, organisation structure, communication method and leadership approach.\nFindings: The findings suggest that systems consisting of informality in combination with ERP systems can elicit knowledge from frontline workers leading to timely improvements in the system. This is achieved by allowing users to modify work procedures or production orders, and to support collaborative working among all employees. However it was found that informality is not required for manufacturers with a relatively stable environment who can deal with uncertainty with a proactive strategy.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study was carried out in China, with four companies as unit of analysis. Future work can help to extend this study across countries.\nOriginality/value: The use of Four dimensions of informality that relate to manufacturers implementing ERP are defined as \"technology in practice\", \"user flexibility\", \"trusted human networks\" and \"positive reaction to uncertainty\". This is a new construct not applied before to ERP implementations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Manager stimulation of employee self-regulated learning
|
[
"Skill development",
"Coaching",
"Self-regulated learning",
"Skill charting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper promotes the idea that a manager-as-coach, using appropriate skill-building tools, can help employees behave in ways to exhibit self-regulating learning (SRL). Recent research has shown that self-regulated learners reflect a growth mindset and are more likely to engage in performance improvement, change and innovation (Dweck, 2006; Yeager et al., 2014). These personal characteristics are highly valued by most managers and organizations. Researchers have strongly suggested that a preponderance of employees who embrace a growth mindset, and are self-regulating learners, may provide a competitive advantage for organizations (Pousa and Mathieu, 2015).\nManager-as-coach: Coaching of employees can be delivered in several formats including peer, internal, and external coaching. There is also executive coaching in which an external coach works with upper-level organization executives in a variety of areas. The focus of this paper is on the coaching work of line managers who interact directly with the employees they supervise. Given this particular relationship, there is some concern regarding the lack of independence of a coach who also evaluates employee performance and may be influential in decisions that affect an employee's career. On the other hand, a manager who coaches is usually in a position to: view employee performance/behavior over a lengthy period of time, understand the context in which the employee functions, and share with the employee meaningful observations that reflect employee performance, change, and growth (Sue-Chan and Latham, 2004).\nSRL: a desirable situation: SRL is a relatively new concept although self-regulation as a concept has been studied for many years. SRL is an individually focused, active, deliberative process whose core includes motivation, goals, and the systematic control of effort. Typically, goal attainment is a critical feature. SRL makes use of monitoring behavior, making judgments about results attained and, finally, adjusting actions in order to succeed and reach goals. Younger, less experienced employees may have a limited understanding of SRL while experienced employees may have developed effective patterns of behavior for self-regulation.\nThe phases of SRL: Although the phases of SRL are presented here in an ordered sequence, the employee may loop back to a prior phase at any time for adjustments grounded on their learning (see Bandura and Lyons, 2017, in press). Note that these phases or parts are not announced or made obvious to employees. They are unseen and overlay the skill-charting (problem-solving) approach the manager uses with the employees. The phases represent the learning dynamics of SRL that we want the employees to internalize (see Figure 1):\nSC: springing SRL to life: This segment attempts to fully express the skill/performance improvement tool, SC, which serves as a manager's vehicle for assisting employees by: encouraging SRL, developing specific skills and attitudes, and obtaining a clear focus on some problem or issue currently facing management and employees, in order to improve performance.\nTheory grounding for SC: The SC approach is grounded on basic concepts of social constructivism as related to employee learning and change. It is an active process in which employees are invited to construct new knowledge over a foundation of prior learning. As Lyons (2005) put it, if what we discover in taking on new learning activities confronts what we already \"know,\" we have choices to make about behaving and performing differently. A lot of important knowledge construction takes place in our interactions with others. Drath and Paulus (1994) said it succinctly, \"[...] people make meaning socially - they construct their experience together so they can communicate and cooperate and agree about what is happening. They can interpret, anticipate, and plan together\" (p. 3). As suggested by Jonassen (1994), a constructivist approach to learning is a good match for skill learning and development because we can emphasize authentic tasks in organizational contexts that most employees can understand. In skill learning, the elements of a performance need to be specified, made known, and understood; meaning and reality need to be viewed in a personal sense. This line of reasoning is found in psychological research of situated cognition where the individual or persons in a particular context are the main foci (Wilson and Myers, 2000). Here, with the SC approach, we are linking constructivist learning methods in training with skills creation and improvements in order to stimulate SRL and performance.\nThe design of SC: SC as a training and performance enhancement tool is often used in organizations to identify domains of knowledge, skills, and abilities. The activities created by the tool embody and invite SRL (see Figure 1). Employees, using direction and guidelines, map the competencies. An actual chart results from a process of discussing, researching, and listing critical skill and knowledge elements of a task, job, role, or unit. The chart documents an initial demonstration, or discovery, of what is needed for successful performance (Lyons, 2005). Identities and listings are followed by activities that seek to create refinements of skilled behavior, standards for measuring skilled performance, and related activities.\nDesign process: The following steps describe the processes and uses of SC. Typically, the process is undertaken by small groups; however, it could be used with a manager or supervisor and an employee in a one-to-one relationship. This constructivist approach connects directly with SRL. The activities required in SC serve as opportunities for personal growth and individual and team learning.\nSome issues concerning the SC tool: First, use of this tool may assist managers and supervisors in learning about the transferability of skills from one job task to another. Second, as an instructional tool with employees, SC could be used in a single work session with employees with regard to some less complex activity that could be performed with greater care and/or competence. However, experience with the approach indicates that a few sessions normally are required to create a useful product. Third, research with the tool has revealed that employees find its use of value and they express both enthusiasm and satisfaction in using it (Lyons, 2003). Fourth, use of the skill chart is not representative of training-as-usual because it relies upon high-levels of participation from the employee group. While it is likely not very practical for a manager to use SC with only one or two employees at a time, it is also not practical for a manager to use the tool with more than 10-15 employees in a group. Finally, a manager who undertakes the use of a SC with employees needs to understand that not all employees desire to be involved with a hands-on project such as this. There may be some resistance, although research has indicated that employee resistance is generally slight (Lyons, 2007).\nConcluding remarks: The purpose of this work was to combine three areas: line manager coaching of employees with a tool, SC, to enable SRL. As set forth above, these three elements when combined are intended to create several positive benefits for participants. These benefits include but are not limited to: more knowledgeable managers and employees, improved employee performance, attainment of new, possibly transferable, skills that would enhance performance, and, with practice and repetition, employee internalization of processes of SRL. It is not difficult to discuss the attributes of SRL in abstract terms. It is another matter entirely to offer concrete, employee-centered training tools that support behavior aimed at improved learning. At the least, this work starts the conversation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential benefits of integrating self-regulated learning with skill charting, a training and development tool. The following areas are examined: manager-as-coach, self-regulated learning, and skill development through skill charting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This discussion of manager stimulation through the integration of self-regulated learning and skill charting is based on an extensive literature review of recent research as well as that done by the authors.\nFindings: There are many practical opportunities for managers to enhance self-regulated learning of employees using skill charting. Because self-regulated learners tend to reflect a growth mindset they are more likely to engage in performance improvement, change and innovation. These personal characteristics are highly valued by most managers as they may provide a competitive advantage for organizations. Managers, acting as coaches with individuals or small groups, can be instrumental in helping employees to internalize self-regulating learning practices at the same time the employees participate in learning important job skills. The approach offered here also encourages team-building skills, knowledge acquisition, and employee engagement.\nOriginality/value: This fresh look at an integration of self-regulated learning with the skill-charting approach offers specific, practical suggestions for manager stimulation of self-regulated learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Challenges and opportunities for cross-border acquisitions by Chinese construction enterprises
|
[
"China",
"Construction industry",
"Acquisitions and mergers",
"International business"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: As an important strategy for internationalization which brings to the acquiring enterprises various advantages, the concept of cross-border acquisition has attracted increasing academic interests recently (Vaara, 2002; Shimizu et al., 2004; Deng, 2009). Previous researches concentrate on the objectives of cross-border acquisitions. Sarala (2010) claimed that acquisition is an important mechanism through which firms grow and gain access to new resources. Shimizu et al. (2004) concluded the objectives of cross-border mergers through a theoretical perspective and argued that the objective of acquisitions can be viewed:1. as a mode of entry/diversification in a foreign market;2. as a dynamic-learning process; and3. as a value-creating strategy.These objectives can be seen as the drivers behind cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As).Although the objectives of cross-border acquisition claim to benefit the enterprises, especially the purchaser, researches have shown that cross-border acquisitions often failed to achieve their objectives and as a result of which the success rate of cross-border acquisitions is relatively low (Colombo et al., 2007; Meyer, 2008; Barmeyer and Mayrhofer, 2008). Some studies have ascribed the low success rate to the problems of integrating separate organizations with different organizational cultures and management process systems (Quah and Young, 2005). These factors can turn out to be impediments for cross-border acquisitions that need to be considered during the preparation stage. When preparing for an acquisition, the purchaser should view it as an investment of capital (cash or stock) in the target, which is expected to produce a stream of cash flows. Consequently, an acquirer must forecast revenues, costs, assets and liabilities of a target firm (Very and Schweiger, 2001).Nevertheless, researches on the application of a theoretical framework relating to, and the process for cross-border acquisitions are few and far between (Very and Schweiger, 2001; Duncan and Mtar, 2006), especially in the context of the Chinese construction industry. Over the past years, many construction firms have grown extremely large through expansion of services and acquisitions (ENR, 2010). Nonetheless, large Chinese construction enterprises, in particular, have not successfully garnered any significantly large-scale cross-border acquisitions yet although some have tried to adopt cross-border acquisitions as part of their strategic plans. The current status of cross-border acquisitions therefore needs to be investigated. The objectives of, and impediments faced by Chinese construction enterprises in cross-border acquisitions should be identified.This study is therefore to gain a better understanding of the strategies of Chinese construction enterprises relating to cross-border acquisitions and to identify their corresponding motivations and impediments. The research is developed as follows: first, the theoretical perspectives on the objectives and preparation for cross-border acquisitions will be reviewed. Second, the context of China in relation to cross-border acquisitions will be analyzed. Third, a survey will be conducted to investigate the objectives of, and impediments faced by Chinese construction enterprises in cross-border acquisitions.\n2 Objectives of cross-border acquisitions: Cross-border acquisition has often been seen as foreign direct investments (FDI) or a mode of entry. Historically, economic perspectives such as transaction cost economics (TCE) and ownership-location-internalization (OLI) framework have provided dominant theoretical foundations on which cross-border M&As research studies were based (Shimizu et al., 2004). The OLI paradigm posits that the extent, geography and industrial composition of foreign production undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) are determined by the interaction of three sets of interdependent variables, namely the ownership advantage (O-advantage), location advantage (L-advantage) and internalization advantage (I-advantage), or known more commonly known as the eclectic paradigm (Dunning, 1993, 2000). The O-advantage derives from the resource-based view (RBV) (Barney, 1991), which as one of the motivations behind the acquisition, is to search for firm resources to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. In some cases, the strength of a firm can be pursued through extremely strong specialty advantages in just a few specialized fields. For this reason, specialty factors should also be considered, which then completes the paradigm as the OLI+S paradigm (Low et al., 2004). Dunning's (1993, 2000) theory was proposed based on transnational corporations, but can also be applied to MNEs in the developing countries, especially Chinese outward direct investments firms (Zhao and Pablos, 2010). The TCE showed that vertical acquisitions can be explained in terms of the customer's need to reduce the risk of opportunistic behavior by a supplier who owns assets that are specific to the buy-sell transaction (Dalziel, 2008) in the perspective of microeconomics. This stream of work emphasized the minimization of the risks and inefficiencies in entering the foreign markets in which transaction costs played a key role (Shimizu et al., 2004). Larsson and Finkelstein (1999) claimed that strategic, organizational and human resource management should also be considered simultaneously to explain for successful M&A.Previous researches on organizational-learning theories have argued that cross-border acquisition is a dynamic-learning process. The organizational-learning process produces new knowledge that in turn can result in competitive advantage and improved firm performance (Hitt et al., 2000; Collins et al., 2009). The process of cross-border acquisition involves multiple activities, such as target selection, negotiation and post-acquisition integration. While successful experiences on these activities can turn out to be knowledge for the firm, lessons learned from previous failures can also help the firm to avoid similar mistakes. The knowledge gained can then guide future strategic actions; hence strategic management research suggests that learning associated with a firm's prior acquisition experience increases the likelihood of subsequent international acquisitions (Collins et al., 2009). Thus, activities in both previous domestic and cross-border acquisitions contribute to the future acquisitions.In the perspective of the acquiring firms, value creation can be defined as the realization of the potential to fulfill the expectations of the stakeholders. Historically, according to the theory of TCE, cross-border acquisition can create or destroy value for the stakeholders (Shimizu et al., 2004). Based on the RBV, Seth et al. (2002) suggested that value creation in cross-border M&A can be different when driven by different motivations. Meyer (2008) suggested the potential to create value in M&A rests on the premise that a firm can supplement or complement its core skills and resources through synergistic or value-creating combinations with other firms.To sum up the various strands of theories, cross-border acquisition is an important strategy of MNEs' oversea activities (Table I). Nevertheless, researches specifically in construction enterprises remain few especially in the context of China. These theories have also not been tested in the context of the Chinese construction industry before. This research identifies and analyzes the driving forces and impediments of cross-border acquisition in the Chinese construction industry.\n3 Background of the Chinese construction industry: 3.1 Expanding internationalization\n4 Research method: Although evidence had shown that a few cross-border acquisitions in the Chinese construction industry had been successfully implemented to-date, it remains difficult to acquire the relevant data directly. The need for business privacy had also increased the difficulty level in securing the necessary data for analysis. For this reason, the research method was designed to focus on the largest Chinese construction enterprises which had the ability to participate in such cross-border acquisition activities. Under this circumstance, the enterprises in the ENR top 225 international contractors list formed the main source for the research sample because the list was compiled based on the international revenues of global construction enterprises. In addition, some enterprises which were identified to have strong intentions for cross-border acquisitions were also included in the sample to be more representative of the industry practices.The pilot survey involved three managers working in different companies in the list of ENR top 225 international contractors. Following the pilot survey, an industry-wide questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data between June and August in 2010. Based on the literature review, the objectives of cross-border acquisition were the primary issue of cross-border acquisition. In addition, according to the current situation in China, the intention and pre-acquisition activities of cross-border acquisition needed to be investigated. Likewise, the obstacles that hindered cross-border acquisition should also be analyzed to understand why there was no successful cross-border acquisition by large Chinese construction enterprises to-date. Hence, the questionnaire was divided into four parts and with 14 open-ended questions to include the objectives, intentions, preparations and impediments of Chinese construction enterprises for cross-border acquisitions. Of the survey questionnaire, 82 copies were sent by e-mail to senior managers, functional managers and managers in relevant departments who were personally involved in oversea activities of the enterprises.\n5 Results: In total, 34 respondents completed and returned the questionnaire with a response rate of 41.5 percent. One return was excluded because of incomplete information. About 33 questionnaires from 24 enterprises were analyzed. These were completed by eight senior managers, 13 functional managers, 11 managers from relevant departments and one from other position. While the sample is not exceedingly large, it remains representative because 63.6 percent of the respondents come from the top 225 international contractors in the ENR list, which have large international revenue and are representative of the Chinese international construction enterprises. In addition, 66.7 percent of the respondents are senior managers or functional managers who participated in the decision making of the acquisition activities of the company. This further ensures the reliability and correctness of the survey results.5.1 Cross-border acquisition objectives\n6 Conclusion: Cross-border acquisition is a complex and risky domain in business strategy for Chinese construction enterprises. Chinese construction enterprises have strong drivers as well as pressures to implement cross-border acquisitions, especially for those large enterprises engaged with international projects. Most large construction enterprises have attached importance to this issue under the motivation of entering into a larger market and improving the industrial structure, which appears to be different from the other industries, e.g. automobile industry. They appeared to have initiated cross-border cooperation and seemed prepared for cross-border acquisitions. Nevertheless, a lack of experience and management skills seems to hinder them from venturing further. Most Chinese construction enterprises did not seem to have a specific target for acquisition or have failed to find an appropriate acquisition target.To break out of this doldrums, Chinese construction enterprises should consider the necessity for cross-border acquisitions before setting a strategic plan. It is significant to understand the objectives for the cross-border acquisitions in tandem with this necessity. When preparing for the cross-border acquisition, over and above the post-acquisition issues, the decision maker should also consider the nature of the construction industry and the development stage of the Chinese construction industry to increase the success rate for cross-border acquisitions.Cross-border acquisition is still new to most Chinese construction enterprises. Although many practitioners have shown interests and intentions in this area, it remains difficult to acquire valid information for this study because of the sensitivity relating to confidentiality issues. While 33 completed questionnaires were received and analyzed in this current study, the data collected are representative because of the predominately high profile and seniority of the respondents. Most respondents were senior managers or executives who played an important role in strategic decision making and who were from among the largest construction enterprises in China. They have a general knowledge of cross-border acquisitions and have an influence on the organization strategy of the enterprises.This research contributes to a better understanding of the current status of cross-border acquisitions by Chinese construction enterprises, which provides the impetus for future in-depth case studies on cross-border acquisitions in the Chinese construction industry as well as other industries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In recent years, several high-profile cross-border acquisitions made by Chinese enterprises have attracted the world's attention. However, none of these acquisitions were related to Chinese construction enterprises despite their expanding role in the international construction market. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the objectives and impediments faced by Chinese construction enterprises in cross-border acquisitions based on existing theories and research studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on a literature review and the analysis of the current status of cross-border acquisitions in China, an industry-wide questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the objectives and impediments of cross-border acquisitions faced by Chinese construction enterprises.\nFindings: - The main objective of Chinese construction enterprises towards cross-border acquisitions is to create new markets and to optimize the industrial structure. Although a majority of the construction enterprises demonstrated an intention for cross-border acquisitions which is driven by their past and current overseas activities, their preparation for cross-border acquisitions is impeded by concerns over post-acquisition issues and a lack of knowledge and experience.\nOriginality/value: - The paper originally contributes to a better understanding of the current status of cross-border acquisitions by Chinese construction enterprises based on an analysis of their objectives and impediments, which will be useful for researchers and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Linking task and goal interdependence to quality service: The role of the service climate
|
[
"Hospitals",
"Service climate",
"Israel",
"Service behaviors",
"Task interdependence",
"Goal interdependence",
"Health organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The overall growth of the service economy and increased competition among service providers has forced organizations to focus on the quality of services they provide (Liao, 2007). Thus, a widespread consensus that \"satisfied customers are power\" has spread widely, including into the healthcare industry (Drach-Zahavy, 2009). In response, managers must create work environments that support service quality, by developing a positive \"service climate\" (Schneider et al., 2009), in which employees share the perception that providing high quality service is what really counts (Schneider et al., 2002). Empirical research consistently finds positive relations between service climates and quality service behaviors (Dimitriades, 2007; Salanova et al., 2005). Considering the importance of a service climate as a means to provide both the motivation and the capability to exhibit quality service behaviors (Liao, 2007), this field study focuses on the concept of a service climate, including its antecedents, its moderators, and its consequences.\nBackground and hypotheses: Service climate\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Confirmatory factor analysis\nDiscussion: This study provides insights into the relations of perceived interdependence, service climate level and strength, and quality service behaviors. These issues are important, considering the modern organizational focus on providing excellent service, as a strategy for achieving a competitive advantage over rival organizations, cutting costs, and gaining customer loyalty (Liao, 2007; Salanova et al., 2005). Seeking a better understanding of how a service climate can be developed and maintained thus is a timely task. Our findings contribute to service literature in several respects.First, we demonstrate the relationship of service climate to healthcare employees' quality service behaviors. By accounting for different dimensions of service climate (i.e. level and strength), we shed light on the debate about the role of service climate strength for service quality delivery (Dawson et al., 2008; Potocnik et al., 2011). Among our sample of hospital nurses, service climate strength moderated the link between service climate level and quality service behaviors: they were highest when the level and strength of the service climate were both high, lowest when the level of service climate was low and its strength was high; and medium when the level and strength were low. These findings are significant for healthcare organizations; as important as healthcare managers are for service delivery in this industry, paradoxically, the nature of care provision grants them little control over service quality, compared with their counterparts in manufacturing or other service organizations (Schneider et al., 2009). In this setting, \"it pays to be positive if you are going to be strong!\" (Schneider et al., 2002, p. 227).Second, our findings broaden understanding of how to create a service climate. Previous research has focused largely on the consequences of service climates in terms of improved service behavior, customer satisfaction, and loyalty, such that investigations of climate antecedents have lagged (Schneider et al., 2000). Our findings emphasize the importance of structural arrangements in the unit - including the joint effects of high task and goal interdependence - as key elements that determine the service climate. Apparently, assigning tasks to the whole unit, rather than to individuals, such that unit members must rely on one another for information, materials, and support (high task interdependence), while also setting goals for the unit and not for the individual (high goal interdependence), promotes a unit-wide, shared perception of the importance of service. Without sufficient interdependence, this perception instead suggests the low priority of service quality in the unit, resulting in diverse role behaviors.Because the interaction between task and goal interdependence represents a progression, from a wholly independent task to a wholly interdependent, or seemingly interdependent, task (Comeau and Griffith, 2005; Wageman, 2001), our findings suggest that any task that requires the use of a collective or interdependent work effort probably increases the amount of service behaviors in the unit too; any collection of workers engaged independently on a task likely will engage in decreased service behaviors (Comeau and Griffith, 2005). This trend concurs with recent findings advocating teamwork as a key factor for improving the quality of care (Drach-Zahavy, 2004; Poulton and West, 1999; Shortell et al., 2004). Policy reports and research findings both emphasize the importance of teamwork, if the health and social care provided to patients are to be of the highest quality and efficiency. These teams play essential roles in identifying health needs, planning, and coordinating and delivering care, which enables a more integrated and effective approach to managing and improving service quality (Poulton and West, 1999). Our findings augment calls in prior literature, by emphasizing the importance of task and goal interdependence configurations for the development and validation of the shared perception that service is what counts in the unit, to promote service behaviors.These findings are especially important for hospital units, as they shift toward more teamwork to improve the quality of care (Nembhard and Edmondson, 2006). The success of this process will remain limited though, as long as the fit between goal and task interdependence is lacking. As is evident from our findings, mean perceived task interdependence was significantly higher than mean goal interdependence (t=6.10; p<0.001). If nurses' main task was to work interdependently with others to provide quality service for clients (high task interdependence), and they have individual accountability for the impacts of their caring (low goal interdependence), incongruence probably fosters differentiation and conflicts within units, which might adversely affect the creation of a service climate and quality behaviors.Implications for practice\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - With a twofold aim, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the service climate, including its antecedents, consequences, and a moderator. First, it examines whether task- and goal-interdependent configuration facilitates the level of service climate; second, it tests the strength of the moderating role of service climate between service climate levels and service behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Among 54 nursing units at six hospitals, the data were collected using multiple methods (surveys, observations, administrative data).\nFindings: - Mixed-linear model analyses indicated that the joint effects of task and goal interdependence related significantly to service climate level. Service climate strength moderated the relationship of service climate level to quality service behavior.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research approach may diminish the generalizability of the research results. Further work should test the propositions in other research contexts.\nPractical implications: - Quality service behaviors and the service climate could be promoted through well-designed task- and goal-interdependence structures within units. Assimilating a service climate in units is not enough. To promote high quality service behaviors, managers must direct their efforts toward finding agreement among team members with regard with the importance of service in their unit.\nOriginality/value: - The paper's findings offer empirical support to the persistent social interaction explanation of climate formation and point to the important role of interdependence for creating and maintaining service climate levels and promoting service behaviors in units.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Modelling age based replacement decisions considering shocks and failure rate
|
[
"Failure rate",
"Age-based replacement",
"Log linear process (LLP)",
"Non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP)",
"Shock process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Replacement policy is an important issue that has been widely applied to the actual production settings. In general, there are two major policies, maintenance policy and replacement policy. Maintenance policy implies that an optimal maintenance time is based on mean down time or average working time. Replacement policy implies that an optimal replacement time interval exists after the long-time running of the system. Thus this means that in the real production, we should find out the optimal change time to make the loss of the system minimum (Jiang and Meng, 2012). Age-based policy is quite common and easy-to-implement in practice. Under a basic age-based replacement (ABR) an operating system is replaced at particular age or at failure, whichever occurs first (Barlow and Hunter, 1960). In the literature, developments on replacement models based on the shock have provided satisfactory results for the maintenance operation. But in these researches, shock is not considered as an independent parameter of failure. In this paper, shock process is unavoidable and plays an important role in determining the optimum replacement age and simultaneously with the failure rate used in the modeling. The main contribution of this paper is developing shock process and failure rate with age-based models by considering the structure of systems. These models are applied to industrial equipment like cutting tools, hydraulic structure, compressor blades, electronic boards and other similar equipment. This paper constructed as follows: literature are briefly reviewed and then model description such as shock process and maintenance model is given and then assumptions and notations are explained, also numerical examples for proofing model optimization and analyses are given, finally conclusions are drawn.\nLiterature: Barlow and Hunter (1960) presented the early works in the domain of replacement policies which are known as the classic ones. Following them, researchers studied interval-focussed and ABR problems. In these studies the systems are exposed just to failure. Some of studies have focussed their analysis on modeling shocks based on Poisson processes. One of the most recognized papers with this orientation is that of Esary et al. (1973), which studied a system exposed to failures due to probable shocks. In this study and the survival probability analyzed regarding shocks as the homogeneous Poisson process. Two of early studies in this case have been done by A-Hameed and Proschan (1973) and Boland and Proschan (1983). The contribution of A-Hameed and Proschan (1973) was considering a non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) and Boland and Proschan (1983) proposed the periodic replacement policy for a system subject to shocks and derived the sufficient conditions for the existence of the optimal policy. Recent researches have extended these early models with more realistic assumptions without considering shocks as the immediate defeat factor. The comprehensive review done by Marquez (2007) presents a basket of researches restricted by this simplifier assumption of regarding shocks just as the causal variable to explain failures. He explained total replacement models such as constant interval replacement and ABR models as well as shock-based replacement, partial replacement, replacement with imperfect maintenance and inspection models. Also Guo et al. (2007) have provided a new general repair model based on the number of repairs that considers the cumulative repair effects and the time trends simultaneously. Jong Kim and Makis (2010) have used a semi-Markov decision framework with the optimality criterion that minimizes the long-run expected average cost per unit time and they developed a new computational approach that is computationally preferable to the standard policy iteration algorithm when determining the optimal maintenance policy for systems with many states. The other orientation in the literature studies the other factors for failures beside shocks. For instance, Huynh et al. (2011) have studied age-based maintenance strategies with minimal repairs for systems considering degradation and shocks. In this way of thinking, Chen (2012) presented an optimal bivariate preventive maintenance policy determined by two different NHPP shock and cumulative damage models. Recently, some researches applied new processes to demonstrate shocks, yet as the factor resulted in failure. Guo et al. (2013) have proposed a maintenance optimization for systems exposed to risks by using of log linear process (LLP). Sheu et al. (2013a, b) have studied an extended replacement policy for a system subject to non-homogeneous pure birth shocks by using non-homogeneous pure birth Poisson process, and developed the model to optimize the number of repairs before replacement, as well. Also recently have discussed warranty models by considering NHPP and renewal process. For instance Gonzalez-Prida et al. (2014) have studied two stochastic failure models that provide estimation for warranty period and are useful models for a maintenance company or a manufacturer's after-sales division. As well Gonzalez-Prida et al. (2012) have discussed a review, a framework and a practical application of the framework for the management of warranty contracts, including a maturity assessment or evaluation. In these researches, as discussed before, shocks are not intended as an independent and immediate defeat factor. Therefore, evaluation of shock and failure rate has not been performed simultaneously which is the main contribution and target of this study. In addition, comparison between partial preventive replacement and ABR systems in this paper will be done in the innovative arrangement of considering shocks as an independent factor.\nModel description: Importance of models\nModel assumptions and notations: Assumptions\nNumerical examples: Single unit system under shocks and failure rate\nAnalyses and comparison of models: In single unit system under shocks and failure rate, the optimal replacement cycle is Ps=0.6 with C(Ps)=520.8183 and reliability rate at this time is R(Ps)=0.6639. When in this system adds delay time optimal replacement cycle is Ps=0.6 with C(Ps)=529.5052 and reliability rate at this time is R(Ps) =0.6639. When we consider two identical parallel units, the optimal replacement cycle is Ps=0.5 with C(Ps)=950.9925 and system reliability rate at this time is R(Ps)=0.9679.\nConclusions: In this paper, an optimal ABR policy by considering shock process and failure rate are presented and studied. This policy is extended for two systems with different structures. We have shown optimal replacement time through numerical examples. Also, analyses are provided by considering different assumptions (delay time and preventive maintenance) and structures. The models in this paper will assist in replacement policies decision making by considering internal defeats and external shocks and will help managers to achieve the lowest cost by considering reliability rate. In fact, by using data mining documentation for maintenance of a system and fitted to suit the cumulative function and its parameters and estimate of maintenance costs, through the use of proposed models the best time to get a replacement system. Besides, these models can use for warranty period time determining when a system is new or after an overhaul maintenance. Future research can formulate models with the addition parameters such as degradation or corrosion and also expand models application by considering other cumulative distributions and structure of components.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present age-based replacement models subject to shocks and failure rate in order to determine the optimal replacement cycle. As a result, according to system reliability, maintenance costs of the system are to be minimized.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, the modeling with respect to assumptions and two major factors (shocks and failure rate) is done. Second, by using of MATLAB the optimal parameters are obtained. Finally, analysis of results and comparison of models are done.\nFindings: Analysis of results shows all models provide optimal replacement cycle and at this time, cost rate of the system by considering the reliability rate is minimal. Also with an increase of one unit to two units, reliability rate increases much higher than the rate of cost.\nOriginality/value: This work provides models that in addition to considering the failure rate (internal factors), also shocks as an external factor have been considered. By considering these two factors more comprehensive and adaptable models have been proposed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Text recommender system using user's usage patterns
|
[
"Internet",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Usage",
"Web sites",
"Data analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In recent years, advances in internet technologies have fostered the development of various e-businesses. As more web sites are developed, it is becoming harder for web companies to survive. Meanwhile, internet users have an ever-increasing number of web sites to choose from, including e-commerce and content sites (e.g. news sites). To survive in this competitive environment, companies need new marketing strategies, such as one-to-one marketing and customer relationship management. A typical solution incorporating such strategies is the recommender system (Berson et al., 2000; Lawrence et al., 2001; Sarwar et al., 2000; Yuan and Chang, 2001; Blanco-Fernandez et al., 2008; Yo and Zhou, 2003). Recommender systems help users to find products and content that they would like by providing recommendations based on their preferences.Two models of recommender system are commonly used: content-based filtering (CBF) and collaborative filtering (CF). In this study, we have developed a text recommender system using CF and CBF methods based on user keyword preferences and usage patterns. The system provides a framework for numerically calculating a user's keyword preferences from text clicked by a user and for detecting usage patterns, such as a user's tendency to frequently click on popular texts or on texts that contain similar keywords. Then CBF and/or CF are conducted based on a user's usage patterns and keyword preference levels. The result is a flexible recommender system based on each user's keyword preference levels and usage patterns, thereby overcoming the shortcomings of CF and CBF in the context of implicit rating.To illustrate and assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an empirical study was conducted by constructing an experimental news site. Then, the relative performance (i.e. prediction accuracy) of the proposed recommender system was compared with that of conventional CF and CBF systems. The results from the experimental study clearly show that the proposed hybrid method based on user keyword preferences and usage patterns is superior to conventional methods that use only CF or CBF.The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, relevant literature on recommendation approaches and applications is reviewed. In Section 3, details of the proposed method are presented, and the results of the experimental study are described in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 presents conclusions and potential future research directions.\n2 Related works: Recommender systems typically suggest items (e.g. products or documents) that are of interest to users according to user demographics, item features, and/or user preferences (Wei et al., 2008). As mentioned above, there are two models of recommender system: CBF and CF (Kim et al., 2005).CBF recommends products to a user based on the products' similarity to the user's historical preferences (Basu et al., 1998; Krulwich and Burkey, 1996; Lang, 1995). Therefore, CBF may not be suitable for recommending some products frequently sold on e-commerce sites, such as music, art, movies, audio, photographs, and videos, because the relevant attributes of these products can be difficult to determine (Balabanovic and Shoham, 1997; Shardanand and Maes, 2000). CBF is known to work well for recommending content for which informative content descriptors exist, such as news, web pages, and books. Traditional CBF methods are highly dependent on term indexing (Grossmman and Frider, 1998), so they have little applicability to multimedia collections unless metadata are generated by human indexers or image analysis techniques (Shyu et al., 1995; Sun et al., 2003). However, the procedures involved in metadata generation can be prohibitively expensive for large collections (Ioannou et al., 2000). Although text or multimedia may have descriptive metadata, such metadata are usually manually generated, and they seldom describe the content and structure of the text or multimedia (Bollen et al., 2007).In contrast, CF recommends products based on similarities between the preferences of a group of users known as neighbors (Hill et al., 1995; Resnick et al., 1994; Shardanand and Maes, 2000). CF is known to work well when users explicitly show their preferences for specific products, for example, by rating videos. However, CF usually does not work well with binary data (e.g. \"click\" or \"no click\" data), which is the most common type of web site data (Hayes et al., 2001). To overcome this problem, recent studies have proposed methods that relate the users' navigational and behavioral patterns to their preferences (Claypool et al., 2001; Kelly and Belkin, 2001; Lee et al., 2000, 2001; Morita and Shinoda, 1994; Nichols, 1997; Rafter and Smyth, 2001). Instead of explicitly acquiring users' ratings for specific products, these \"implicit rating\" methods passively monitor the navigational and behavioral patterns of users (Nichols, 1997) and determine their preference levels, or implicit ratings, by analyzing the clickstream data (Claypool et al., 2001; Kelly and Belkin, 2001; Rafter and Smyth, 2001). Shih et al. (2002) proposed a browsing-oriented approach to represent the on-line behavior of the user, and then discovered relationship among customers based on user classification and purchasing patterns. Shapira et al. (2006) analyzed the relationship between implicit indicators and explicit ratings, finding that a certain combination of implicit indicators achieved a higher correlation with the explicit ratings than any individual indicators.One novel CF-based recommender system was developed by using the navigational and behavioral patterns of users on e-commerce sites (Kim et al., 2005). This system analyzed data captured from the navigational and behavioral patterns of users, estimated the preference levels of a user for the products viewed but not purchased, and conducted CF using these preference levels to make recommendations. Chiu et al. (2010) developed a blog content recommender system for mobile phone users using CF. The proposed system used browsing histories to calculate keyword appearance frequencies in a read document to determine user interests in specific themes, grouped individuals according to similar interests using CF, and then recommended documents using human experts instead of automatic methods, such as page raking or link click rates. That is, the actual recommendations were not carried out by automatic methods. Liu and Lee (2010) developed a way to increase recommendation effectiveness by incorporating social network information into CF. Combining nearest neighbors and social network information greatly improves prediction accuracy. In other research, Jeong et al. (2009) proposed a novel generative rating method, referred to as \"iterative semi-explicit rating,\" that extrapolates unrated elements with neighbor ratings. By visiting all the unrated elements and iteratively extrapolating them, a full preference matrix was constructed.Recommender systems cover a wide variety of applications, such e-learning recommender systems (Bobadillar et al., 2009; Hsu, 2008; Mangina and Kilbride, 2008), knowledge recommender systems for enterprises (Zhen et al., 2010a, b), and TV program recommender systems (Yo and Zhou, 2003; Barragans-Martinez et al., 2010).However, these studies have not completely overcome the shortcomings of CF and CBF. First, CF suffers from problems such as the cold-start problem and the sparseness problem. The cold-start problem is caused by new users or items in the systems that have not submitted or obtained any previous ratings. If a new item appears in the database, no means are available to recommend it to a user until more information about it has been obtained through other users, who rate it or specify other items to which it is similar (Balabanovic and Shoham, 1997). The sparseness problem describes how it is common for the user-item ratings matrix to be sparsely populated, again making it difficult to confidently identify similar users and items, due to a lack of ratings overlap (Barragans-Martinez et al., 2010).The primary drawback of CBF systems is their tendency to over-specialize the item selection and recommend only items very similar to previous items selected by the user (Balabanovic and Shoham, 1997; Barragans-Martinez et al., 2010). When CBF can only recommend content or products scoring high against a user's profile, the user is restricted to seeing content or products similar to that which they have already rated (Kim et al., 2005). User studies have shown that users find online recommenders more useful when they recommend unexpected items (Mobasher, 2007). Because of this shortcoming, conventional recommender systems do not commonly implement CBF.In addition to CF and CBF, hybrid methods have been suggested to improve the performance of recommendation algorithms (Choi et al., 2010). However, most previous research into hybrid methods requires the availability of user profiles and their explicitly solicited opinion on the targeted products or items (Bose, 2009). These methods have been difficult to apply to real-life problems, because the additional information is hard to get (Bose, 2009; Choi et al., 2010). That is, the hybrid systems do not work well in the context of implicit ratings.In this paper, a novel hybrid recommender system is proposed for overcoming the problems of CF, CBF, and previous hybrid methods in the context of implicit ratings.\n3 Procedure for proposed recommender system: 3.1 Overall procedure\n4 Experimental evaluation: 4.1 Datasets\n5 Conclusion: In this article, a novel recommender system based on usage patterns and keyword preferences is presented for sites with various types of content, such as news pages, e-commerce sites, and so on. Unlike conventional approaches of CF and CBF, the proposed approach analyzes the data captured from the navigational and behavioral patterns of users and estimates user the popularity and similarity levels among the clicked content. In other words, it determines the frequency with which a user reads popular texts and texts that contain similar keywords. Based on this information, content is recommended to each user using appropriate recommendation methods such as CF and/or CBF.In this study, the cold-start and sparseness problems of CF approach are solved using CBF techniques and popular text recommendation methods. The proposed method allows a user to encounter new content that has not yet been rated, given that the system is capable of matching the characteristics of the news text against relevant features in the user's profile, such as usage patterns and keyword preference levels. Additionally, even in the case when the user-item ratings matrix is sparsely populated, the proposed system can recommend a news text to a user using CBF. Moreover, the combination of CF and CBF allows the elimination of the over-specialization problem incurred by pure CBF, as mentioned in Section 2. Users can receive recommendations of unexpected news texts, which they may find more useful and meaningful.The effectiveness of the proposed approach was assessed by applying the F1 metric to an experimental news site. This application yielded the following results:* the proposed method consistently outperformed the conventional CF and CBF methods;* CF outperformed CBF in almost all the cases considered; and* the proposed approach performed best when the number of recommended items and the neighborhood size were both small.The contribution of this research is as follows. First, this is the first study to analyze user usage patterns and thereby determine appropriate recommendation algorithms for each user. Second, the novel hybrid methodology can overcome the problems incurred by pure CF or CBF. Third, a set of keywords can be regarded as the representative of contents, and therefore metadata dose not needed to be generated by human indexers or image analysis techniques. Finally, the proposed recommender system provides greater prediction accuracy than conventional systems.The above findings are based on data captured from a relatively small experimental site, and further verification using a variety of actual content sites is necessary. A promising area for future research may be the application of the proposed approach to making recommendations in user-created content environments, such as blog sites and video upload sites, where users can actively participate as both writers and readers. In addition, future studies should investigate user sequential patterns to develop better recommender systems.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel and flexible recommender system based on usage patterns and keyword preferences using collaborative filtering (CF) and content-based filtering (CBF).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The proposed system analyzes data captured from the navigational and behavioral patterns of users and estimates the popularity and similarity levels of a user's clicked content. Based on this information, content is recommended to each user using recommendation methods such as CF and CBF. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an empirical study was conducted by constructing an experimental news site.\nFindings: - The results of the experimental study clearly show that the proposed hybrid method is superior to conventional methods that use only CF or CBF.\nPractical implications: - The above findings are based on data captured from a relatively small experimental site, and they require further verification using various actual content sites. A promising area for future research may be the application of the proposed approach to making recommendations in user-created content environments, such as blog sites and video upload sites, where users can actively participate as both writers and readers.\nOriginality/value: - Unlike the most research on recommender systems, this is the first study to analyze user usage patterns and thereby determine appropriate recommendation algorithms for each user. The proposed recommender system provides greater prediction accuracy than conventional systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An empirical investigation of critical success factors and performance measures for green manufacturing in cement industry
|
[
"Process management",
"Critical success factors",
"Green manufacturing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Green manufacturing (GM) is no more a buzz word, which used to be heard in boardrooms and corporate meetings, rather has become a challenging reality. Today, it is being discussed as a philosophy, a framework and an integrated manufacturing management approach which covers much more than minimising resources consumption, energy, wastes, emissions and pollution. GM embraces the use of eco-friendly design, raw materials, packaging, distribution and even reuse/retreatment after the useful life of a product. It is a term used for describing practices that do not harm the environment during any part of the manufacturing and includes recycling, conservation, waste reduction management, environmental protection, regulatory compliance, pollution control and allied issues (Jabbour et al., 2015; Jeyaraman and Kee Teo, 2010; Drohomeretski et al., 2014; Rehman et al., 2016).\n2. Literature review covering CSFs, PMs and GM: The purpose of this review is twofold, first to extract and tabulate the PMs and CSFs using select studies and second to indicate gap areas in the existing studies, so as to justify this research.\n3. Research framework for study: Figure 1 represents the major activities and components of research methodology. While carrying out research, it was necessary to understand and make use of gaps in literature review, CSFs, PMs along with feedback of cement industry executives in the research instrument to ensure the capturing of important research messages and empirical relationships. These inputs were taken while deciding the contents for research instrument. Further refinements in the form of fine-tuning of questions and removing redundancy were based on pilot study along with statistical checks to ensure statistical validity. Authors after extracting CSFs, chose to link them with other studies (Cummings and Holmberg, 2012; Jeyaraman and Kee Teo, 2010) and with the feedback by cement industry experts so that key aspects influencing management commitment, human-factors and process aspects could be included in research by properly aligning instrument.\n4. Data analysis: For data analysis, the authors used SPSS 20.0 and relied on valid responses received from the industry executives. The authors began with different type of statistical analyses like reliability, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) tests, along with factor analysis using the recommendations of Nunnally et al. (1967), Ehie and Muogboh (2016), Fadly Habidin and Mohd Yusof (2013) and Chen and Lyu (2009).\n5. Regression analysis for modelling: Regression analysis is a statistical method for determining the relationships among number of independent variables and dependent variable. For investigating the effects of factors (predictors) on various organisational PMs, regression analysis was performed (shown as model summary for the concerned PM), so that the effect and impact of various factors could be understood. The symbols used for regression modelling follow standard terminology and have standard meaning and interpretations (Tables VIII-XIII).\n6. Discussion of results: This study empirically discusses GM for the Indian cement industry linking PMs (dependent variables or criteria) and CSFs (independent variables or predictors) in the form of a modelling-based framework. Based on the inputs from Hair et al. (2006), the authors used regression analysis for analysing the relationships between dependent (criterion) variable and several independent (predictor) variables, so that the value of dependent variable could be predicted. To ensure maximal prediction from the set of independent variables, each independent variable is weighted by the regression analysis. The weights denote the relative contribution of independent variables to the overall prediction and facilitate interpretation, indicating the influence of each variable. R2 or co-efficient of determination, which ranges between 0 and 1, indicates how the model is applied and used for estimation. A higher value indicates greater explanatory power and also signifies better prediction. In this model, authors also worked out adjusted R2 which covers CSFs (as independent) and sample size. With the addition of independent variables, R2 will rise but adjusted R2 may fall depending upon the added independent variables have little explanatory power and/or if the degrees of freedom become too small. The authors after ensuring standardisation also worked out coefficients (b-coefficients) so that the relative effect of each CSF on chosen PM (dependent) could be directly compared.\n7. Conclusions and implications of research: The PMs and performance measurement become meaningful if it is linked with appropriate CSFs, indicating contemporary interests of corporate and priority areas. According to Neely et al. (2005), researchers and practitioners are generally dissatisfied with conventional backward-looking accounting system-based PMs. Throughout the world, both communities are busy in developing and using balanced and multi-dimensional PMs-based frameworks. These new models and frameworks place emphasis on non-financial, external and future looking PMs duly linked with CSFs. According to authors, it will be in the interest of both researchers and practitioners to focus on using contemporary CSFs and PMs right from the early stages of GM framework design and its developments. There are few empirical studies which discuss this challenging area, and there is a growing need for \"holistic or total GM frameworks\" which ensure alignment between PMs and CSFs along with regular updating of PMs and continuous scrutiny of CSFs.\n8. Limitation and future scope: This research has certain limitations which are commonly observed in survey-based studies, for example, some subjectivity from the experts about their opinions towards GM-based data cannot be ruled out. In this analysis model, authors got experts' comments as positive, and an urgency was felt towards comprehensive GM implementation, which requires some more validation through process industry-based GM studies. This study establishes the relationships but does not ensure that the variables chosen are optimised or not. Lack of use of simulation also affects the scenario-generation needs for GM investigation. Scholars may try approaches like artificial neural networks for this requirement. While developing regression modelling, the authors did not consider the interrelationships between multiple dependent and multiple independent variables, and researchers may try canonical correlation which takes into account this complexity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to aim for the development and analysis of green manufacturing (GM)-based framework on the identified critical success factors (CSFs) and performance measures (PMs) in the context of the Indian cement industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research follows survey method for data collection. For framework development, it uses factor analysis on the identified CSFs and regression along with the appropriate measures for checking statistical consistency and validity.\nFindings: This is the first research towards GM framework for the Indian cement industry. Till date, no framework is available which could guide researchers and practitioners of this environment unfriendly industry. Study exposes lack of connectivity between CSFs and PMs for a GM framework and highlights weaknesses of cement industry in this regard. It offers a generalised GM framework linking PMs with top management, human resource management, organisational culture, green practices, process management and supply chain management.\nPractical implications: The framework is expected to help both researchers and practitioners from cement, construction and other industries who are serious towards GM implementation and are looking for appropriate mechanism. This framework if implemented properly will result in enhanced productivity.\nOriginality/value: This work is one of the few and pioneering efforts to investigate GM linking CSFs and PMs in Indian manufacturing sectors and the first in cement industry. Not many studies are available in the context of cement industry, which is the lifeblood of infrastructure and construction sectors. The importance of the work increases as it is conducted in the Indian context, which is undeniably an important economy of the world.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investing in work: exclusionary inclusion in Austria, Belgium and Norway
|
[
"Social inclusion",
"Social investment",
"Social exclusion",
"Poverty",
"Social policy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nSocial investment: new rights, new duties: Since the early 2000s, Europe's welfare states have largely followed a social investment approach (Bonoli and Natali, 2012; Cantillon and Vandenbroucke, 2014; Morel et al., 2012). In contrast to \"passive\" or \"reparative\" social protection schemes, the approach intends to act as a \"trampoline\" rather than a \"safety net\" for social welfare clients (Jenson, 2012) and aims to be preventative, \"integrative\", \"empowering\" and \"preparative\" (Hemerijck, 2014; Morel et al., 2012). Its reforms target the individual level in order to achieve the projected macro-level effect of economic growth and social inclusion. To evaluate the success of these reforms we must therefore consider both micro and macro-level outcomes. This paper is a contribution to our understanding of the evolution of social investment approaches. We provide evidence to the growing rhetoric surrounding social investment as a model that reduces social exclusion.\nThe emotionality of social investment reform: poverty and shame: Beyond a focus on economic inclusion, we may also ask if social investment also improves the social position of those who are marginalised. In this sense, our metric for gauging movement out of poverty should include focus on social deprivation as well as on income poverty (Allman, 2013; Chakravarty and D'Ambrosio, 2006). While social exclusion and inclusion have emerged as predominant ideas within European social policy discourse (Levitas, 2006; Percy-Smith, 2001), scholars have suggested that the emerging discourse has been \"informed and reinforced by an acceptance of existing and normative social relations reinforced by neoliberal rationalities\" (Horsell, 2015, p. 2; Peck, 2010). Such a focus has, it is argued, failed to acknowledge and challenge pre-existing social relations and the role of emotions in the development of social policy (Stenner and Taylor, 2008). An alternate focus would consider the place of feelings, self-esteem and one's socioeconomic status as much as economic inclusion.\nMulti-level assessment: While EU social investment policy has largely focussed on economic integration, it also aims for reduced social exclusion. Economic and social inclusion relates to the individual, the relational and the structural. To account for these, we compare Austrian, Belgian and Norwegian coordination reform at the micro, meso and macro-levels, highlighting the experiences of social assistant claimants in our assessment of activation policies and inclusionary and exclusionary impacts of the reforms. Our analysis is innovative in its reach across the three levels.\nOur cases: three distinctive coordination settings: Our three cases share several characteristics: They fit a Nordic model (Morel et al., 2012), whereby the state has provided the new offers - at least rhetorically - in addition to pre-existing social protection schemes. They are rich countries with a two-tiered system of welfare, in which the second tier (social assistance) represents a small (2 per cent of the general population) and often highly marginalised and diffuse client group.\nProspects and futility: The coordination initiatives in the three settings variably succeeded to integrate a fragmented social security system, a broader social investment tool for preparing and integrating claimants into the labour market. Within each setting, interview respondents described their experiences in the work activation schemes that had been introduced.\nDifferent coordination yields different micro effects: Coordination and activation strategies have aimed at integrating state level employment approaches into local or regional social assistance, to better enable clients to enter the labour market. The project of merging different governance agencies has been challenged by a climate of weak capacity, especially in the wake of the financial crisis. This is especially challenging to the establishment of comprehensive activation programmes, which are expensive and resource intensive enterprises (Heidenreich and Aurich, 2013). Our findings suggest that coordination models hoping to integrate various levels of governance do not necessarily result in cohesive services and may instead lead to increasingly rigid forms of work conditionality (Minas, 2014).\nConclusions: Social investment reform aims to address the needs of clients \"furthest\" away from the labour market through increased coordination and labour activation programming. Yet our analysis suggests that reform mostly failed to produce conditions to enable a \"human capital\" citizen to respond to incentive- and rational-choice driven strategies. With new institutional expectations and limited resources, these citizens were, rather, struggling with and against new forms of conditionality. At the micro level, social investment reform, indeed, contributed for most to a further sense of exclusion from viable work activity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of two social investment strategies (labour activation and governance coordination) targeted to social assistance clients within three different welfare-system coordination cases, with focus on social and economic inclusion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors focus on the impact of reform at micro (individually experienced impact), meso (impact across settings) and macro (socio-structural impact) levels.\nFindings: While social investment reform has given some clients new opportunities, in no study case were clients fully able to use the incentive-driven strategies. Reforms have led to a \"Matthew effect\": the better resourced reap the largest benefit from new services on offer while the less resourced have their marginal socioeconomic position reinforced. Clients may internalise their relative activation success. Intimate connections between macro- and micro-impacts may have heightened the sense of social and economic exclusion, stigma and shame experienced by those who are most vulnerable.\nSocial implications: Social investment reform (labour activation) may not be a model that reduces social and economic exclusion and it may, instead, reify socioeconomic marginalisation, enhancing sense of stigma and shame and reducing self-efficacy.\nOriginality/value: Scholars have assessed social investment according to its economic performance, but there has been a lack of research considering impact of reform on socioeconomic inclusion.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An exploratory investigation of factors shaping electronic commerce practices in Iran : Benchmarking the role of technology and culture
|
[
"E-commerce",
"Benchmarking",
"Iranian organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: At a time of financial and economic difficulties, organizations across the globe are struggling to maintain a customer focus at affordable operational cost. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) offers these organizations an efficient business model to respond to the increasing demands of customers.\nBackground and relevant literature: The Islamic Republic of Iran (from here on referred to as Iran) with a population of more than 70 million and the GDP of about $270 billion is the second largest economy in the Middle East. With a relatively strong economic growth (about 4.8 percent) and diverse industries, Iran offers a great potential in e-commerce in the future. Although there are still some major infrastructural issues related to the expansion of the high speed internet services in the country, Iran has the largest number of internet users in the Middle East (Internet World Stats, 2007). Until recently, the government monopoly on information technology (IT) infrastructure controlled by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology resulted in high cost and poor quality of internet services; thus limiting the ability of small and medium size companies to take advantage of e-commerce. Realizing that the lack of e-commerce has been stifling to internal as well as international competitiveness and also contributed to isolation from the global economy (Ministry of Commerce, Islamic Republic of Iran, 2005), the government has loosened the tight control and monopoly of internet providers in recent years. Today, there are several internet service providers (ISPs) offering ADSL and wireless services at a more affordable prices in all major cities and expanding rapidly to smaller cities as well (Abbasi, 2007).\nUsage and outcome of e-commerce: Globally, economic functions are enabled by IT and the internet. Hence, e-commerce has the potential of providing opportunities for enhanced strategic effectiveness as well as improved operational efficiency. It is often helpful to view the external functions in the context of a transparent supply chain and the internal functions as key value producing processes for the company or organization. Four perspectives defined by Kalakota and Whinston (1997, p. 8) are helpful in assessing opportunities for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. These perspectives are: communications, business process, service, and online perspectives, with the latter perspective being unleashed by the power of IT and the Inter and Intranets. Hence, in the broadest sense, all buying and selling of information, products, and services (Nath et al., 1998; Gunasekaran et al., 2002; Poon and Swatman, 1999; Chang et al., 2002; Phan, 2003; Cockburn and Wilson, 1996; Ngai and Wat, 2002; Foley and Sutton, 1998; Vieyra and Claycomb, 2001; M2 Communications Ltd, 2000) are included, as well as aspects of trading such as commercial market creation, ordering, and money transfer (Gunasekaran et al., 2002; Sharma, 2002). In the context of a transparent supply chain, the internet offers a valuable means for building stronger relationships with suppliers, employers, partners, customers, and other stakeholders (Decina and Trecordi, 1999; Dutta and Segev, 1999; Hoover, 1999; Poon and Swatman, 1999; Chang et al., 2002; Phan, 2003; Sharma, 2002; Cockburn and Wilson, 1996; Ngai and Wat, 2002; Wilson and Abel, 2002; Moad, 1999; Foley and Sutton, 1998; Vieyra and Claycomb, 2001; Gunasekaran et al., 2002; Singh et al., 2001). Organizations may find value stream mapping, lean thinking and six sigma principles helpful in evaluating the potential of e-commerce for their value creation processes. See Category 6.1 and the supporting notes from the 2006 Baldrige National Program Criteria for Performance Excellence (www.baldrige.nist.gov).\nMethod: Instrument and sample\nResults: Factor analysis procedures with varimax rotations were utilized to extract the factor solutions relevant to the different facets and practices of e-commerce. In all cases, these factor solutions explained close to 65 present of the common variances. The Cronbach a's were all higher than 0.78.\nReasons behind e-commerce implementation: Table II shows the extracted factors based on the factor analysis procedure. The five factors extracted underscore the relevance of industry, competition, suppliers, and customer as forces behind the e-commerce effort of the organization. These factors were similar to those of US organizations (Yasin et al., 2007). In both cases the motivation for e-commerce was strategic in form of improved competitive advantage, as well as operational in form of more efficiency. It is to be noted the suppliers and customers were pressuring Iranian organizations to implement e-commerce. This served as added pressure to shift to an e-commerce based business model.\nModifications for e-commerce implementation: The factor solution in Table III resulted in five factors. These factors tend to indicate that the organization went through systematic restructuring and reengineering in preparation for e-commerce. The reengineering effort included procedures, policies, processes related to internal operations and relationships with customers and suppliers. To facilitate this new orientation, the organizations had to make facility-related investments. Again, for the most part these modifications appear to be similar to those undertaken by US organizations (Yasin et al., 2007). One exception stands out in this case, Iranian organizations appeared to have invested more on employee training. Perhaps this reflects the difference in e-culture readiness in both business cultures. US organizations on the other hand paid more attention to the integration of different technologies than their Iranian counterparts. In this context, US organizations were emphasizing more integrated systems and solutions. On the other hand, Iranian organizations appeared to be approaching the e-commerce effort incrementally and discreetly.\nHindering factors of e-commerce implementation: The factor solution in Table IV shows the factors which tended to hinder e-commerce implementation. These factors tended to be related to the organization itself such as lack of qualified staff, rushing the implementation and lack of technological resources. In addition, suppliers and customers lack of cooperation also tended to hinder the implementation effort. These factors were, for the most part, very similar to those reported by US organizations (Yasin et al., 2007). In both cases the lack of planning and lack of management support appears to be an important hindering agent to effective e-commerce implementation. Again, the lack of qualified employees and technological resources is noted, as more vivid in the case of Iranian organizations relative to their US counterparts.\nPatterns of utilization: The factor solution in Table V underscores the actual organizational utilization of e-commerce after implemented. As the table shows, the factors tended to stress the organizational use of e-commerce to strengthen internal and external communication. In addition, e-commerce is helping the organization reach new customers and markets and in the process facilitate purchasing. These factors reflect the actual use of e-commerce in these organizations. It is to be noted that US organizations are using e-commerce for similar purposes (Yasin et al., 2007). Considering both cases, it appears that improved internal and external communications appear to be a significant by-product of e-commerce implementation. This increased connectivity is allowing for strategic gains in terms of new markets and customers. In addition it is strengthening strategic alliances with suppliers.\nConclusions and implications: Using a sample of 49 Iranian organizations, this study sought to uncover the relevant factors related to the e-commerce implementation process. When comparing the factor analysis results from the Iranian sample to US study (Yasin et al., 2007), the findings appear to be more similar than different. This leads one to conclude that the e-commerce philosophy and related technology present similar opportunities and challenges to organizations regardless of their e-business cultures or lack of. Therefore, these organizations stand to benefit from organized, systematic benchmarking efforts before initiating the e-commerce business model and related planning and organizational modifications. The lack of access to technology and the qualified human resource appears to represent a unique challenge to the Iranian business culture when compared to the US business culture. In this context, employee training will help. However, the lack of the appropriate technological hardware and software is a long-term problem, which might not allow the Iranian organizations to reach the full potential of e-commerce. In this context Iranian executives must encourage internal know-how through training and professional development in order to overcome restriction due to the embargo. Benchmarking the e-commerce practices of other developing countries might reduce the learning cycle for Iranian organizations. Such benchmarking effort will eliminate the waste associated with a trial and error approach to e-commerce deployment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper it to examine Electronic commerce (e-commerce) practices of Iranian business organizations, as a \"traditional\" business culture, as it compares to a \"developed\" business culture such as the one existing in business organizations in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Executives from a sample of 50 business organizations in Iran were interviewed and asked to complete the research questions pertaining to e-commerce practices in their organizations. A factor analysis procedures with varimax rotations is used to analyze the data collected from these organizations.\nFindings: Comparing the result of this study with an earlier study on a sample of business organization in the USA shows more similarities than differences. Based on the results of the study, it appears that e-commerce practices and related technology present similar opportunities and challenges to organizations regardless of their business culture. Lack of appropriate technological hardware and software, however, is identified as a hindering factor preventing Iranian business organizations from reaching their e-commerce potentials.\nOriginality/value: This research provides a rare insight into the Iranian business culture. The collection of data through personal interviews and the empirical nature of the study represent a unique opportunity to validate findings from other business cultures. This allows for a better practical understanding of the opportunities and constraints associated with e-commerce adoption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Variety seeking by wine consumers in the southern states of the US
|
[
"Market segmentation",
"Segmentation",
"Customer loyalty",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Survey research",
"Discriminate analysis",
"Variety seeking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: With estimates of almost 8,000 wine brands and over 21,000 distinct wines available for sale in US retail establishments (Brager, 2014), wine is often seen as a very confusing product and many consumers are overwhelmed by the vast choices (Constellation Wines US, 2008). At the same time, there are consumers that appear to relish the wide variety of styles, varietals and national origins of wine. These consumers are often referred to as \"variety-seeking consumers\". Variety seeking is an important construct for wine marketers, as it can present a challenge when attempting to create brand loyalty, while providing opportunities to introduce new or little known wine products.\n1. Review of the literature: 1.1 Origins and evolution of the variety-seeking construct and its measurement\n2. Research hypotheses: From a marketing segmentation viewpoint, it is important to understand how consumers approach wine from a variety-seeking perspective. The results can assist wine marketers in developing more focused promotions, as well as to provide directions for future wine business research. Based on the review of the literature, several research hypotheses were developed with a focus on US wine consumers.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Creation of market segments based on variety-seeking behavior.\n4. Results: 4.1 Variety-seeking behavior in wine\n4. Discussion: 4.1 Support of previous research studies\n5. Limitations and future research: There are several limitations to this study. The first involves the sample of those selected (i.e. sample selection bias) or invited to complete the survey. In a non-random, convenience sample, one must be cognizant of the fact that those who were invited to complete the survey may not be representative of the general wine consuming population. A second limitation is the self-selection bias of those who chose to complete the survey. Specifically, among those who were invited to complete the survey, the respondents may not be representative of general wine-consuming population. Both sample selection bias and self-selection bias can limit the generalizability or external validity of our results to the overall wine-consuming public.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate variety-seeking behavior among US wine consumers to determine if there are differences in their personal characteristics, values and relationship with wine.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design uses a quantitative research study using data from an online survey of 401 US wine consumers. The Schwartz Value Inventory and the VARSEEK scale are used as measurement instruments. Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, ANOVA and discriminate analysis.\nFindings: The results illustrate strong differences between high variety-seeking consumers compared to moderate variety-seeking and variety avoiders. High variety seekers are younger, hold values favoring stimulation and tolerance of risk, pay more for wine, purchase wine in more locations, prefer more varietals and consider themselves more wine knowledgeable and involved than the other two segments.\nPractical implications: The results provide implications for wine marketers targeting high variety-seeking consumers, including offering wine brands with a wider array of varietals, wines from different countries, various price tiers and include creative packaging and sustainable messages in their presentation.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents research addressing an important construct for wine marketers attempting to introduce new products and build brand loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Six principles for shared management: a framework for the integrated economy
|
[
"Strategic management",
"Innovation management",
"Management innovation",
"Shareconomy",
"Shared value",
"Sharing economy",
"Strategy process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A management innovation refers to the invention and implementation of a novel management practice, technique, process or structure (Birkinshaw et al., 2008). As such, it involves a change in the form, state or quality of a company's management activities. In recent years, many firms have introduced several management innovations, which have substantially changed their management approaches and business strategies. For instance, companies rely on big data to apply more analytical management techniques than in the past. In addition, many firms put a stronger emphasis on achieving a dynamic competitive advantage by continuously innovating their products, services, processes and management tools. In the past, companies placed relatively more emphasis on securing their current competitive position rather than being open to cannibalizing their own products by continuously offering new models and solutions. Several of the trends refer to a \"sharing economy\", which involves the collaborative production and consumption of goods and services by different persons and organizations. Ultimately, these trends may help adaptable companies thrive, whereas others will face severe problems. Currently, many firms struggle to profit from these trends, which are partly based on new technological advances and partly on the evolution of markets and societies.\nThe shared management framework: The concept of shared value suggests that firms may focus on the connections between societal and economic advances to generate and profit from the next wave of growth on a global scale. Specifically, shared value denotes a firm's policies and practices that enhance competitiveness while simultaneously strengthening the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates (Pfitzer et al., 2013). While the concept of creating shared value focuses on linking economic and societal progress in firms' core business, many companies have recently transformed their business activities in several other ways. The variety of these transformations indicates that the logic of sharing extends to multiple business activities beyond connecting economic and social issues in the shared value concept.\nImplications: The importance of the six principles of shared management continues to grow because of a variety of environmental trends, which contribute to an increasingly shared approach to management and strategy. Hence, firms developing new management principles continue to build on the logic of sharing - components, products, ideas, technologies, reputation, etc. Accordingly, the underlying trends and drivers strengthen six different management principles, which are unified by their focus on sharing and which involve substantial management innovations. The shared management framework acknowledges the relevance of these trends and helps companies reap their particular benefits. As such, it contrasts with several established recommendations for managing businesses and developing strategies (Table I). The distinction of conventional management approaches and shared management approaches is not a clear-cut separation but rather a continuum, with many firms located between the two extremes for some of the dimensions. Nonetheless, there seems to be a clear trend toward shared management principles.\nConclusion and outlook: Managers may follow a step-by-step approach to changing their firms' management principles to facilitate the implementation of shared management and to profit from the variety of environmental trends driving the need for management innovations. The five-step procedure in Figure 2 does not detail all necessary activities, but it presents an overview of the most critical activities, and it applies to implementing shared management principles in a variety of firms. First, managers need to analyze the relevant environmental trends to assess the need for changing their firms' management principles. Second, managers have to examine the necessary changes for each of the six principles of the shared management framework. Third, companies have to acknowledge the interdependencies among the six principles to plan the overall changes for the organization. Fourth, managers implement the changes by adapting their companies' management principles. Here, the actual changes of the management tools, procedures and techniques take place. Fifth and finally, managers need to ensure a regular control and potential adaptation of the management principles.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to suggest the framework of shared management, which comprises six major principles. These principles indicate that essential strategy guidelines of firms have been transformed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper, which draws on recent management innovations and transformations of management practices. Thus, the paper builds on prior academic and practitioner contributions.\nFindings: Management recently has become more SHARED, i.e. sustainable, holistic, analytical, relational, entrepreneurial and dynamic. Each of these principles covers one central dimension of management that has recently been affected by a new logic of sharing. Real-life examples of selected companies are given, and many other firms' managerial challenges in applying and profiting from these principles are described.\nOriginality/value: The six principles indicate that the idea of sharing applies to multiple facets of management, which challenge conventional strategy wisdom. They play a particularly important role in a sharing economy, which involves the collaborative production and consumption of goods and services by multiple persons and organizations. Altogether, the principles provide the basis for the shared management framework, which may serve as a step toward an up-to-date picture and realistic guideline for today's management in many organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Impression management for corporate brands over mobile media
|
[
"Impression management",
"Consumer attitude",
"Mobile media"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The advent of social media and mobile marketing has made a large impression on today's communications (Grewal et al., 2011; Hazlett, 2014). Brand management has evolved beyond the traditional one-way mass communications of newspaper and television media (Hazlett, 2014). Now, consumers are in constant contact with firms and brands through social media and mobile devices (Ghodeswar, 2008). Digital media usage has increased by 35 per cent, a chance driven by the rise of mobile (ComScore, 2017). Easier access through mobile technology has allowed this trend of increasing social media use to proliferate (Lawer and Knox, 2006).\n2. Literature review: According to research from Microsoft Corporation, the average attention span of consumers has decreased from 12 s in the year 2000 to 8.25 s in 2015 (McSpadden, 2015). The shortening attention span is a challenge as firms not only need to obtain consumer attention but also sustain it long enough to persuade a consumer to purchase or promote a brand, its products or its services. Fortunately, the use of social media has become a growing platform for organizations to reach the consumer in a fast and effective manner. According to recent research, people in the USA check their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts 17 times a day, meaning once every waking hour (Chang, 2015). Organizations need a way to use these mobile media platforms in a way that captures attention with the constraint of the average consumer attention span. Short text limit messaging (popularized by Twitter, which set its 140-character limit so content could be easily read over mobile phones) is one method for impression management to gain the attention from the consumer. As consumers digest more content on mobile platforms, communicating effectively using short messages is likely to become increasingly important for marketers and organizations.\n3. Hypotheses development: 3.1 Research model\n4. Method: 4.1 Design, participants and procedure\n5. Results: We divide the results by two sections: first, we test the implications of the perception-attitude-intention model for impression management (IM) tactics using short messages (H1-H3). We then turn to testing how impressions management tactics differentially influence perceptions, attitudes and intentions (H4-H6).\n6. Discussion and conclusions: Currently, brands are facing more hurdles than ever before. The digital age has brought forth increasingly shorter consumer attention spans, while at the same time, consumers are able to download ad-blockers to insulate from intrusive brand messages (Stein, 2016). Mobile media, especially through short messaging, has become a new method of capturing consumer interest. The results of this study suggest that mobile media impression management tactics differ in how they are perceived and how they impact attitudes and intentions. Various examples exist with organizations using a specific tactic only to cause issues with brand management. For example, Bing ran a campaign to raise funds for Japan earthquake victims and used exemplification via twitter. Their tweet read \"How you can #SupportJapan - http://binged.it/fEh7iT. For every retweet, @bing will give $1 to japan quake victims, up to $100K.\" Many consumers perceived this as an exploitative marketing campaign only for the selfish pursuits of a company. Following this, a Twitter user promoted a hashtag for people to use to insult the brand (Bhasin, 2012).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As organizations increasingly engage with consumers over mobile devices, there is a growing need to understand how consumers react to impression management over platforms with limited textual content. The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess how different impression management tactics can be used in mobile media to enhance consumer perception-attitude-intentions toward a corporate brand.\nDesign/methodology/approach: We surveyed 670 consumers and estimate structural equation models and repeated-measures ANOVAs to determine how short passages employing alternate impression management tactics influence consumers' perceptions, attitudes and purchase intentions.\nFindings: Results reveal that each impressions management tactic (i.e. ingratiation, intimidation, organizational promotion, supplication and exemplification) influences consumer perceptions, attitudes and intentions. The authors compare differences in how the impressions management tactics influence each stage of the perception-attitude-intentions model and find evidence that initial differences in perceptions favoring ingratiation and exemplification appeals become magnified for purchase intentions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Recent calls for research focus on an understanding of how consumers process information on reduced-content platforms of small-screened mobile devices. These results provide empirical evidence of the use of impression management and the difference between five impression management tactics on enhancing consumer perception-attitude-intentions model.\nPractical implications: The results of this study will provide marketers with insights to optimize communications and corporate brands with consumers over mobile media.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to the nascent yet vital literature on mobile marketing by focusing on how impression management tactics influence perceptions, attitudes and intentions through the short message characteristic of mobile platforms. The authors develop a framework for how corporate brand management can strategically use impressions management tactics in this novel domain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A framework for development of advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems in glass container industry
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Supply chain management",
"Decision support systems",
"Spreadsheets",
"Production planning and control"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems arose from join efforts of researchers and software developers to answer the challenges imposed by limitations of classical enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (Lupeikiene et al., 2014). Such limitations include the absence of extended enterprise functionality, the lack of flexibility and of advanced decision support capabilities (Helo et al., 2014).\n2. APS software market: Entrup (2005) points that planning activities for different industries can vary noticeably, therefore, industry-specific planning solutions have to be developed to mid and short-term planning functionalities of APS systems. Kilger and Wetterauer (2015) reinforce this requirement by stressing that industrial expertise consists in an important selection criterion for APS systems. However, these authors give an overview of the industrial focus of main APS vendors showing that the supported sectors are still restricted. Table I shows such an overview.\n3. Mathematical programming background: The engine of APS systems lies on their optimization or constrained-based planning backgrounds, which are both based on mathematical programming (Hvolby and Steger-Jensen, 2010). In constraint-based planning, no plan optimization objectives are considered (only constraints). In contrast, the production plan optimization is based on a cost perspective that leads to an optimal plan under a financial viewpoint (Hvolby and Steger-Jensen, 2010).\n4. SCOR model: In agreement with the modern concepts of SCM, an effective APS system must not only produce optimized plans under an operational view but also have to generate plans aligned with the strategic management of the underlying supply chain (SC). In this sense, evaluating the real benefits gotten with such systems cannot be a trivial task.\n5. The proposed framework: The concept behind the proposed framework is to simplify a complex mathematical programming application making it available for glass container managers and information technology specialists. In this sense, such a framework is grounded on concepts of end-user computing (Taylor et al., 1998). Since the spreadsheets are the most commonly used tool in this context (McGill and Klobas, 2005), the framework provides a guide for the development of an APS system in probably the most popular spreadsheet platform - Microsoft Excel. By following our guide, practitioners should be able to implement production planning models using a mathematical modeling language combined with the programming language Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) or with the SolverStudio add-in (http://solverstudio.org). The result will be an Excel spreadsheet that consists in an APS system for glass container industry. With such an aim, we propose the following main steps:\n6. Case study: In order to carry out the framework validation, it was applied to develop an APS system for the glass bottle factory studied by Fachini et al. (2017). A vast data collection was performed in this plant ranging from the ERP (SAP R/3) database to interviews with the glass making specialists. The factory contains one furnace able to melt 360 tons of glass per day and three bottle-forming machines able to produce 31 different types of bottles of the company portfolio. Moreover, the industrial installation stock capacity is about 18,000 tons of bottles. The production planners have practiced the monthly production planning, which was obtained through a manual and empirical process.\n7. Conclusions and future studies: With the purpose of helping glass industry managers and practitioners to solve their complex production planning problem, this work provides a simple and effective framework for the development of APS systems based on concepts of end-user computing and MIP. The framework contains eight steps and allows practitioners developing valuable systems in a well-known spreadsheet platform - Microsoft Excel. Besides that, the framework gives guidelines for a low-cost system implementation, in which the only mandatory investment is a mathematical programming solver license.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a new framework for designing and implementing simple but effective advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems in glass container industry by means of spreadsheets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The conceptual framework for APS system design is developed by integrating principles of end-user computing and mixed-integer programming (MIP). This framework comprises the APS implementation and its integration with enterprise resource planning systems. Such a proposal is applied in a real-world glass bottle manufacturer and its performance assessment is carried out by using metrics of the well-known supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model.\nFindings: The case study shows that the framework application can improve the responsiveness of glass container supply chain (SC) as well as reduce significantly SC planning costs. A further assessment of the end-user computing satisfaction highlights the general acceptance of the framework.\nPractical implications: The proposed framework can assist glass industry managers and practitioners to solve their complex production planning problem since custom solutions are not available for this sector. Another important implication is the possible generalization of the framework given that MIP models for production planning are currently available in the literature for different industries.\nOriginality/value: On the one hand, the new framework successfully integrates concepts of end-user computing and MIP bridging the gap between theory of aforementioned areas and their practical applications. On the other hand, the paper contributes to the scarce literature on performance evaluation of APS systems and their impact on production system performance. The novel APS gain analysis based on SCOR metrics ensures that the system potential benefits are aligned with the modern concepts of supply chain management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Universities as the engine of transformational sustainability toward delivering the sustainable development goals: "Living labs" for sustainability
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Living labs",
"Sustainable development goals",
"Change and transformation",
"University and higher education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: We face global environmental, social and economic challenges, approaching a tipping point that threatens to overstep our planetary boundaries. In 2015, 193 countries came together to define and adopt the sustainable development goals (SDGs) - the first agreed actionable agenda by the global community for all citizens comprising a suite of objectives and targets for worldwide sustainable development by the year 2030 to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). With higher education institutions being locally rooted and globally connected, they offer significant opportunities to deliver against the SDGs, working with faculty, staff and students, as well as their wider stakeholder community and alumni body (Findler et al., 2019; Trencher et al., 2014; Cortese, 2003). As Jeff Sachs (Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network) said \"Advancing the SDGs is the 'moon shot' for our generation.\" (Sachs, 2018). Sustainability is a goal for today, with the SDGs a compass in a world defined by volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions, and universities have a critical role to play as change agents.\n2. Materials and methods: A multiple case study approach (Stake, 2013; Eisenhardt, 1989) was adopted given its usefulness in obtaining an in-depth appreciation of an issue or area of interest in its natural real-life context. While comparison among universities is difficult, using the mission as a parameter is an established approach (Purcell et al., 2016). Different ways of strategizing sustainability as the overall aim, with the SDGs being the means to that end, were examined in a university setting experienced first-hand and over time by one or more of the authors with the lead author connected to each case: in the UK (Plymouth University [PU] by WP); in mainland Europe (American University in Bulgaria [AUBG] by WP and JS); and in the USA (Harvard University [HU] by HH and JS). The review of each case was undertaken in 2018 with a different timeframe for each case as follows: PU 2007-2015; HU 2010-2018; and AUBG 2017-2018. The case study approach was selected as it allowed the dynamics of each situation to be explored, with multiple levels of enquiry undertaken within a single study. Through the examination of archival materials (PU), interviews (PU, AUBG), visits (AUBG, HU), observations (PU, AUBG, HU) and experience (PU, AUBG, HU), key insights in each case have been drawn out to identify any common patterns and/or relationships across the cases; the lead author provides a connectivity across each of the three cases offering oversight in arriving at a common view of the observations. It is not an intention of the account to advertise the universities concerned, rather, each of the three cases has been selected to illustrate the journey toward sustainability, at a strategic level, using the SDG framework to support actions that move toward delivering sustainable development. Each case is different in terms of scale, whether pan-institutional (PU), a collaborative project with external partners (AUBG) or driven centrally by a professional services unit working with students and faculty (HU). Common themes emerging across various dimensions from each instrumental case study have been determined, noting that PU is a retrospective change program (2008-2015), AUBG is a relatively new change initiative (2017-date) and HU a mature one (2010-date).\n3. Results: Each of three \"living lab\" case studies are described, highlighting key benefits realized and leadership and governance insights relevant to change and transformation in adopting strategic sustainability as an aspirational agenda for transformation secured by change projects delivering toward the SDGs. The framework adopted to review these cases relates to our conceptual model of how the senior management hierarchy (SMH; the bounded executive command-control system) interacts with the more agile unbounded community of social networks (CSN; groups that convene around shared purpose projects, including standing committees, task and finish groups and informal assemblies) (Purcell et al., 2017).\n4. Discussion: Universities operate in a global market with increasing pressure to attract students, undertake world-class research and be impactful through innovation and their work in communities, as well as meeting the rising expectations of students and other key stakeholders demanding quality, value and a lifelong return on investment (Purcell et al., 2016). Using a multiple case study approach to examine three different sustainability-led transformations in a university setting, key features of the change process together with illustrative outcomes were explored to secure insights relevant to leaders effecting change as a route to sustainable development and delivery toward the SDGs (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). The conceptual leadership and governance framework (Purcell et al., 2017) was used to draw out common themes and relationships among the cases as these universities move beyond the so-called \"third mission,\" where teaching and research are taken as the first and second missions with any applied works in either sphere considered \"other\" or third (Trencher et al., 2014; Konig and Evans, 2013). While comparison among universities is difficult, using the mission as a parameter is an established approach (Purcell et al., 2016).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Universities can do more to deliver against the sustainable development goals (SDGs), working with faculty, staff and students, as well as their wider stakeholder community and alumni body. They play a critical role in helping shape new ways for the world, educating global citizens and delivering knowledge and innovation into society. Universities can be engines of societal transformation. Using a multiple case study approach, this study aims to explore different ways of strategizing sustainability toward delivering the SDGs are explored in a university setting with an example from the UK, Bulgaria (Europe) and USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The first case is a public UK university that adopted enterprise and sustainability as its academic mission to secure differentiation in a disrupted and increasingly marketized global higher education sector; this became a source of inspiration for change in regional businesses and the local community. The second case is a business sector-led sustainability-driven transformation working with a private university in Bulgaria to catalyze economic regeneration and social innovation. Finally, a case from the office for sustainability in a major US research university is given to show how its engagement program connected faculty and students in sustainability projects within the institution and with external partners.\nFindings: Each case is in effect a \"living lab,\" positioning sustainability as an intentional and aspirational strategy with sustainable development and the SDG framework a means to that end. Leadership at all levels, and by students, was key to success in acting with a shared purpose. Partnerships within and with universities can help accelerate delivery of the SDGs, enabling higher education to make a fuller contribution to sustaining the economic, environmental, cultural and intellectual well-being of our global communities.\nOriginality/value: The role of universities as the engine of transformational sustainability toward delivering the SDGs has been explored by way of three case studies that highlight different means toward that end. The collegiate nature of the higher education sector, with its shared governance models and different constituencies and performance drivers, means that sustainability at a strategic level must be led with leaders at all levels acting with purpose. The \"living lab\" model can become a part of transformative institutional change that draws on both top-down and bottom-up strategies in pursuit of sustainable development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Greening of a campus through waste management initiatives: Experience from a higher education institution in Thailand
|
[
"Thailand",
"Recycling",
"Campus sustainability",
"Higher education institution",
"3R",
"Packaging waste"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Consumerism and convenience following a buy-use-dispose system (or a linear approach) accelerate resource use. Presently, there has been an increase in waste generation in most of the developing countries. This has resulted in a large volume of municipal solid waste (MSW) being discarded into landfills (Ngoc and Schnitzer, 2009). Total MSW generation in Thailand in 2013 was about 26.8 million tonnes. About 5.2 million tonnes were recovered and recycled and only 7.4 million tonnes were suitably handled, while the rest of the MSW was unsuitably disposed (Pollution Control Department, 2013). Packaging waste in Thailand accounts for a major proportion of municipal solid waste. The proportion increased due to lifestyle changes. In 2001, of the 14.1 million tonnes of waste discarded, 3.4 million tonnes (24 per cent) were packaging waste. This number rose to 31 per cent in 2004 (Chulalongkorn University, 2004). There has so far been no updated data available on packaging waste in MSW. However, it is projected to increase as MSW volumes in Thailand have been rising by about 10 per cent annually (Mungcharoen, 2006).\n2. Methodology: 2.1 Context of study area\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Existing situation of waste quantity and characteristics\n4. Conclusions and recommendations: 3R solid waste initiatives have positive effects on environmental attitudes and consciousness of the need to avoid producing waste in a highly educated community. The presence of 3R initiatives creates an accurate understanding about options in sustainable waste management. However, these initiatives did not affect recycling and waste disposal behavior. Three barriers to good recycling practices were inadequate recycling infrastructure, inconvenience, and a lack of specific and clear information about what can and cannot be recycled. Results of the current study demonstrated that in the context of developing countries, environmental attitudes, awareness and knowledge do not affect recycling behavior. This finding is in contrast to responses of people in developed countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to describe the effects of 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) waste management initiatives on a campus community. It ascertains the environmental attitudes and opinions of the residents and investigates their behavioral responses to waste management initiatives. Practical implications for enhancing sustainable waste management are discussed in this paper.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Demonstration projects on waste segregation and recycling, as well as waste a reduction campaign, were set up on the campus to ascertain people's attitudes and investigate their behavioral responses toward 3R practices. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey, observations, interviews and the project's document review. A waste audit and waste composition analysis was carried out to assess waste flows and actual waste management behaviors and measure the change in the recycling rate.\nFindings: 3R waste management initiatives had positive effects on people's attitudes about resources, waste management and consciousness of the need to avoid waste, but these initiatives did not affect recycling and waste management behavior. A voluntary approach-only cannot bring about behavioral change. Incentive measures showed a greater positive effect on waste reduction to landfills. Nevertheless, the demonstration projects helped to increase the overall campus recycling from 10 to 12 per cent.\nOriginality/value: This paper addresses a literature gap about the 3R attitudes and resulting behavior as part of campus sustainability of higher education institutions in a developing country. The authors' results revealed hurdles to be overcome and presents results that can be compared to behavioral responses of people from other developed countries. These findings can be used as a guide for higher education institution's policy-makers, as they indicate that voluntary instruments alone will not yield effective results, and other mechanisms that have an impact on people's behavior are required.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Can leader humility enhance employee wellbeing? The mediating role of employee humility
|
[
"Employee well-being",
"Leader humility",
"Employee humility",
"Perceptions of leader effectiveness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the context of an uncertain and complex global marketplace, nobody will ever have all answers, which calls for the emergence and development of bottom-up leadership. Humble leadership as the core of the bottom-up leadership style has attracted the attention of entrepreneurs and leadership researchers (Owens and Hekman, 2012). Leaders with humility are willing to view themselves accurately, appreciate others' contributions and learn from others (Owens et al., 2013). Research has shown that leader humility can have several beneficial outcomes for followers, such as work engagement, job satisfaction, job performance, trust in the leader and identification with the leader (Owens et al., 2013; Nielsen et al., 2010). However, prior studies have barely touched on the effectiveness of leader humility in boosting employee well-being holistically. This is problematic because well-being plays a vital role in improving work performance and the functioning of an organization (Inceoglu et al., 2018; Zheng et al., 2015). In fact, employee well-being is attracting increased attention from researchers and managers (Zheng et al., 2015).\nTheory and hypotheses: Employee well-being\nMethods: Participants and design\nResults: Preliminary analyses\nDiscussion: The main research goal is to explore how and when leader humility fosters employee well-being. Few studies have explored the influence of leader humility on employee well-being. Based on the framework of SIP (Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978), this study helps to fill this gap by introducing employee humility as the mediator and using perceptions of leader effectiveness as a critical boundary condition. The current findings help to expand understanding of the positive influence of leader humility.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between leader humility and employee well-being. Based on social information processing (SIP) theory and previous literature concerning leader humility, this paper identifies employee humility as the mediator and suggests that perceived leader effectiveness moderates these relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employed a survey involving 228 employees to test the hypothesized moderated-mediation model.\nFindings: Leader humility is positively related to employee well-being. Employee humility mediates leader humility and employee well-being, except for emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the effect of leader humility on employee humility and the indirect effect of leader humility on employee job satisfaction and work engagement are stronger under high perceptions of leader effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: Based on the framework of SIP theory, this paper contributes to the literature on humble leadership and employee well-being by treating employee humility as the mechanism and perceived leader effectiveness as the moderator. Few previous studies have investigated the influence of leader humility on employee well-being.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Generic behavioural criteria of managerial effectiveness: An empirical and comparative case study of UK local government
|
[
"Management effectiveness",
"Partnership",
"Research",
"Local government",
"Behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Despite various calls in the US and UK literatures for \"evidence-based\" approaches to HRD practice (see Brewerton and Millward, 2001; Hamlin and Ash, 2000; Hamlin and Stewart, 1998; Holton, 2004; Leimbach and Baldwin, 1997; Russ-Eft et al., 1997; Short, 2006a; Swanson, 1997) limited progress has been made in closing the much talked about HRD research-practice gap. Nevertheless, an effective means for HRD practitioners to become evidence-based is through the \"HRD Professional Partnership\" concept as originally defined in the USA by Jacobs (1997) and strongly advocated in the UK by Hamlin (2001, 2002a; 2007a). In this type of \"partnership-research\" HRD scholars and HRD practitioners jointly conduct a programme of collaborative research, but do so with their own mutually exclusive yet complementary goals. Maintaining the integrity of both sets of goals for the common good is considered important. Thus, there is a dual goal to improve the organization through the application of academically rigorous applied research whilst at the same time advancing the empirical base of HRD general knowledge.\nProblem statement: This section outlines the various organizational and theoretical issues of concern that have respectively informed the choice of focus and design for the study.Organizational context\nResearch goals and questions: The present \"WCCSC\" study is an example, in part, of design science research as advocated by van Aken (2005). It was conducted by the authors within an HRD Professional Partnership arrangement as defined by Jacobs (1997), and part replicated the managerial and leadership effectiveness study of Hamlin et al. (1998, 1999) which had been carried out within a central government setting, namely the then Anglia Region of HM Customs & Excise (HMCE). Although the focus, subject, methodology, and the primary research method adopted for data collection were the same, qualitative methods rather than quantitative factor analytic methods were used for the data analysis. Consequently, the \"WCCSC\" research was a \"near replica\" and not a \"full replica\" of the \"HMCE\" study.. Its primary aim was to identify the type of managerial behaviours exhibited by \"WCCSC\" managers and managerial leaders as perceived and judged by people within the organization to be examples of either \"effective\" or \"ineffective\" management and managerial leadership practice. However, bearing in mind a longer term aim of one of us to use the \"WCCSC\" findings as an added case for a planned multiple cross-case study designed to compare and contrast the results of a wide range of other \"near replica\" studies in search of evidence of the \"universality\" of management, the present study was also informed by the public sector based \"near replica\" research of Hamlin (2002b) and Hamlin and Cooper (2005, 2007). The goal of the HRD practitioner in the \"WCCSC\" professional-partnership (Serventi) was not only to use the findings for testing and further grounding the \"focus group\" derived \"Leadership and Management Framework\", but also to gain a better understanding of the existing \"WCCSC\" management culture. In contrast, the goal of the HRD scholar (Hamlin) was to identify the existence of commonalities and relative generalizations (if any) between the \"WCCSC\" findings and those of other comparable UK public sector studies, in particular the \"central government\" study of Hamlin et al. (1998). His aim was to obtain, if at all possible, additional empirical evidence that might support or challenge the generalizability and transferability of Hamlin's (2004) public sector orientated \"generic model\" of managerial and leadership effectiveness. To achieve these goals the study addressed the following research questions:1. How are the manager and managerial leader behaviours of middle and front line managers manifested within the UK public sector setting of the WCCSC Department?2. Which of these behaviours are perceived and judged by people within WCCSC to be examples of \"effective\" or \"least effectiveness/ineffective\" management and managerial leadership?3. To what extent are the results from (i) and (ii) consistent with the findings obtained from the equivalent \"central government\" study of Hamlin, Reidy and Stewart (1998)?\nMethodology: This section describes the methods used for conducting the research and the approaches deployed for ensuring internal consistency and external \"validity\".Research methods\nResults and findings: A total of 50 discrete behavioural items were identified by the initial Stage 1 and 2, research of which 25 were examples of effective (positive) behaviour and 25 of ineffective (negative) behaviour as set out in Table I. The number of critical incidents that comprised each behavioural item ranged from a minimum of three to a maximum of seven.The two sets of identified positive (effective) and negative (ineffective) behavioural items (BIs) as listed in Table I were then analysed and juxtaposed into matched pairs of \"polar opposites\". In cases where there was no corresponding BI to form a matched pair the HRD practitioner created an \"artificial\" behavioural statement, the meaning of which was directly opposite to that of that particular BI. For example, the negative BI: \"Rude and shows anger when things go wrong\" was turned into a positive BI which read:\" \"Is supportive and helpful when things go wrong\". Similarly, the positive BI \"Effectively models good practice and leads by example\" was turned into a negative BI which read \"Is a poor role model to others\". Each \"artificial\" BI thus created was then paired against its \"polar opposite\". As a result of this transposition of negative BIs into positive statements of behaviour the overall the number of positive BIs available for application within \"WCCSC\" was increased from 25 to 34The Stage 3 research compared the 50 BIs identified by the \"WCCSC\" study against the 83 items resulting from the \"central government\" study as reported in Hamlin et al. (1998, 1999). The commonalities and relative generalisations so identified are presented in Tables II and III. These comparative analyses revealed high degrees of overlap and commonality with 92 per cent of the \"WCCSC\" positive (effective) and 96 per cent of the negative (ineffective) behavioural items being either the same as, similar to, or containing some unit of congruent meaning with the \"central government\" behavioural items, as indicated in Table IV.The two positive and one negative behaviours that did not have any explicit or implicit congruence of meaning with any of the \"HMCE\" behavioural items, and which appeared to be the only \"negative cases\" (Gibbs, 2007) pertaining to the specific context of \"WCCSC\", were as follows: \"Demonstrates consistency in applying rules and regulations\"; \"Manages conflict assertively and fairly\" and \"Breaches confidentiality in public places\".\nDiscussion: This section discusses the results of the present \"WCCSC\" professional partnership-research from the perspective of the HRD practitioner and HRD scholar respectively, and also highlights the limitations of the study.HRD practitioner perspective\nConclusion and recommendations: The \"WCCSC\" study has not only replicated a significant part the \"central government\" study, but is a significant addition to several other added UK public and private sector \"replica\" studies (Hamlin 2002b, 2006; Hamlin and Cooper, 2005; Hamlin and Bassi, 2006, 2008) that have been used to test, ground and refine Hamlin's (2004) \"generic model\" of manager and managerial effectiveness (Hamlin, 2007). Furthermore, it is an example of \"collaborative research between academics and practitioners which integrates action and knowledge creation\" as called for by Brannick and Coghlan (2006).In our view the study demonstrates the benefits to be gained when HRD practitioners and HRD scholars engage in HRD Professional Partnership research. In particular, it illustrates how organizationally relevant research with strong academic credentials can become an essential counterpart to practice as claimed by Jacobs (1997), and how practitioners can advance their professional practice through practice-based \"backyard research\" as advocated by Swanson (1997). Additionally, it addresses the call for HRD practitioners and HRD scholars to work in partnership on workplace learning and performance projects (ASTD, 2005; Short, 2006b). In light of the win-win benefits resulting from the study we strongly commend HRD Professional Partnership research to other practitioners and scholars.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a \"partnership-research\" study of effective and ineffective managerial behaviour within the \"local government\" setting of the Wolverhampton City Council Social Care Department, and to describe how the research supports and challenges the organisation's existing \"leadership and management behavioural competency framework\". Additionally, it reveals and discusses the extent to which the results are consistent with equivalent and comparable findings from an equivalent study within a \"central government\" department.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Concrete examples of effective and ineffective managerial behaviour were collected using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) of Flanagan, and the obtained data were analysed using content and thematic analytic methods.\nFindings: - The paper finds that from a total of 218 usable critical incidents 50 discrete behavioural items were identified, of which 25 were examples of \"effective\" and 25 of \"ineffective\" behaviour. A comparison against equivalent findings from the \"central government\" study revealed high degrees of overlap with 92 per cent of the \"effective\" and 96 per cent of the \"ineffective\" behavioural items being the same as, similar to, or containing some congruence of meaning.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although the number of CIT informants (n=40) falls at the top end of the typical sample range for qualitative research, it is possible that data collection \"saturation\" has not been reached. Whereas the subject of the present \"local government\" study was first line and middle managers, the focus of the compared \"central government\" study also included senior managers.\nOriginality/value: - The results of this replica research lend additional empirical support to those who believe in \"generic\" and \"universalistic \" explanations of managerial and leadership effectiveness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring the moral and distributive levers for teacher empowerment in the Finnish policy culture
|
[
"Distributed leadership",
"Moral leadership",
"Policy culture",
"Teacher empowerment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is a broad consensus among scholars and practitioners that teachers' empowerment, defined as \"the opportunities a person has for autonomy, responsibility, choice, and authority\" (Blase and Blase, 1996, p. 137), is a consistent characteristic of high-performing schools (Heck and Hallinger, 2009). As noted, \"in the high-performing schools, democratic processes were the vehicle for school decision-making, and teachers focused their empowerment on the core technology of schools: teaching and learning\" (Marks and Louis, 1999, p. 708). Moreover, a number of studies have shown that, in schools with high-quality teaching and learning, distributed leadership is a stable pattern that manifests in teachers and school leaders interacting regularly with each other in the performance of leadership tasks (Harris, 2013; Spillane et al., 2009). In this conceptualization, \"the principal is responsible for providing her/his staff with opportunities for participating in decision making, working with them as partners and devolving authority and power, thus building leadership capacity for all\" (Sarafidou and Chatziioannidis, 2013, p. 180). In its theoretical origin, the concept of distributed leadership represents a more radical reframing of how leadership is understood and sees leadership as an emergent phenomenon that arises through complex, interactive processes involving formal leaders and non-leaders across groups of the school organization (Bolden, 2011; Woods and Woods, 2013).\n2. The Finnish policy culture in primary education: Since the first OECD-PISA report in 2001, which measured performance for 15-year-old students in literacy, mathematics, and science, the Finnish primary school system has consistently performed well (OECD, 2010, 2013). Finnish basic school performance has been characterized by a narrow achievement gap within a student cohort, in terms of a relatively small portion of variation between the highest and lowest performing achievement categories. Correspondingly, the between-school variances on the PISA achievement scales have been significantly small (Sahlberg, 2010), which mirrors a policy culture that values high equity in the students' educational outcomes (Silander and Valijarvi, 2013; Simola, 2005).\n3. Theoretical framework and hypotheses development: 3.1. Teacher empowerment\n4. Method: We conducted a non-experimental, theory-based, evaluative correlation design (Shadish et al., 2002) of a single-level unit model (Kozlowski and Klein, 2000), with the individual teacher as the unit of analysis. The data collection instrument was a manually collected survey in a school setting. A field sample of 246 individual teacher responses from 10 schools was examined in order to test the hypotheses. The average age of the respondents was 42.7 years, and 73 percent were men. All participants were asked to evaluate the behavior associated with our model.\n5. Results: Descriptive statistics is provided in Table I. All inter-correlations are moderate, with 0.46 between distributed and moral leadership as the maximum.\n6. Discussion: Several scholars have highlighted the complexity involved in the decisions that teachers have to make in their daily classroom work, and that students' learning conditions are affected by the teachers' capacity to correctly judge these issues. As noted, \"the capacity to judge and judge well depend on the ability to make decisions in situations of unavoidable uncertainty when the evidence or the rules aren't categorically clear\" (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012, p. 93). Moreover, this ability to draw valid inferences applicable to complex problems is enhanced by empowerment: \"Empowerment is, therefore, not important in isolation but as part of a cluster of school-development characteristics that, when focused on the quality of student learning, have demonstrable payoff at the classroom level\" (Marks and Louis, 1999, p. 729). Finnish teachers typically expect their school principals to show them professional respect, to demonstrate authentic leadership practices, to promote a future-oriented culture (Metsamuuronen et al., 2013), and to include them as professionals in participative decision making about pedagogy as equal network partners (Lahtero and Risku, 2014).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between school leadership practices and teacher empowerment in the Finnish policy culture. Specifically, moral leadership and distributed leadership enacted by school principals are tested in a simultaneous design as predictor to two distinct yet related aspects of teachers' sense of empowerment, respectively, in their work domain and their classroom domain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study investigated a field sample of 246 individual teachers from ten Finnish primary schools. Hypotheses were developed and tested by structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The results indicate that moral leadership exerted by school principals support teachers' sense of empowerment both in work domain and classroom domain. Distributed leadership, in the meaning of sharing instructional leadership tasks with teachers, supported work domain empowerment but did not predict classroom domain teacher empowerment. Taken together, the model show the value of school principals facilitating teachers in decision-making processes paired with showing a strong moral basis in their relationship with teachers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study reinforces the importance of moral leadership and distributed leadership as conjoint drivers for teachers' sense of empowerment. It would be highly valuable to replicate this study in various multi-level settings.\nPractical implications: The findings recommend school leaders to put emphasis on facilitative, ethical, and authentic practices in immediate relationships with their teachers.\nOriginality/value: The study provides empirical evidence regarding the partial relationships between principal leadership practices and teacher empowerment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure and quality of life
|
[
"Built environment",
"Social environment",
"Social sustainability",
"Quality of life",
"Social infrastructure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social infrastructure plays an important role in people's everyday life. The facilitating living elements, such as physical home characteristics, safety neighbourhood, proximity to schools, public transports, parking and green spaces in neighbourhood, increase peoples' satisfaction with their real estates and affect their quality of life. In the contrary of research that focus on relationship between users and built infrastructure, our study is among the rare which are narrowed to the relationship between users and social infrastructure that facilitates their everyday life and increases their quality of life and satisfaction with life in the chosen neighbourhood. Our ambition is to plant a theoretical model of social sustainability which would clearly integrate the two crucial elements: social infrastructure and quality of life. For this reason, clear concepts definitions should be stated, which is not an easy task. As Salas-Zapata and Ortiz-Munoz (2017) pointed out, the ambiguity and lack of clarity about the concept of sustainability is the recurring obstacle to sustainability research. And the same can be said for the concept of social infrastructure and quality of life. The absence of the definition may also lead the researcher into studying the topic rather than social sustainability (Salas-Zapata and Ortiz-Munoz, 2017). Grieller and Littig (2004) found that the selection of social sustainability indicators frequently is not grounded in theory but is rather a reflection of practical situations and current political orientations. Therefore, a clear links between such concepts are covered by unclear definitions and consequently these concepts are difficult to identify and connect into the frame of social sustainability.\n2. Theorization of main concepts: 2.1 Social infrastructure\n3. Methodology: The methodology used in this paper is the desk research. Our theorization is based on the conceptual analysis method of Jabareen (2009). As Jabareen (2009) pointed out, the method is a grounded theory technique that aims to generate, identify and trace a phenomenon's major concepts, which together constitute its theoretical framework. Eizenberg and Jabareen (2017) added, that each concept possesses its own attributes, characteristics, assumptions, limitations, distinct perspectives and specific function within the conceptual framework. We follow their methodological steps in the building of conceptual network:\n4. The conceptual network of social sustainability: A basic principle of the academic and the scientific writing is the definition of its own terms. This means each manuscript should define its own concepts. When the concepts of social infrastructure, quality of life, sustainability are analysed according to the use that researchers make of the term, it loses ambiguity and its meanings become less diverse and numerous than those reported by other authors (Balaceanu and Apostol, 2014; Bolis et al., 2014; Salas-Zapata and Ortiz-Munoz, 2017).\n5. Conclusion: Social sustainability studies often seek to provide the policymakers with the relevant information. So, does the social sustainability discourse, as produced by social sciences, actually influence policy making? (Jacobsen and Delaney, 2014) Has it, for example, managed to open up basic discussions of where we want to go? (Davidson, 2009) Such studies often respond to a range of concerns emerging as a response to current developments be it a specific policy or general \"unprecedented charge\" (Jacobsen and Delaney, 2014). There are often ambitions to let the concept of social sustainability function as a tool to monitor policies and inform decision makers. In the article, we build the model which could help us to make an overview of existing resources and help us to find out the lack of resources in the particular building environment. The answers to the questions could be positive only when we have overall picture of co-benefits between social infrastructure and quality of life.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is a lack of theoretical and empirical studies regarding concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure. The idea of understanding this paper is that quality social infrastructure leads to the general quality of people's life in the built environment and that is rounded up to social sustainability. This paper aims to integrate these concepts into the network, hereinafter referred to as a social sustainability model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology used in this paper is desk research. The authors follow methodological steps in the building of conceptual network: setting up a research problem; choice of databases; reviewing the literature and categorizing the selected data; identifying and default conceptual definition; integrating the concepts; synthesis and making it all make sense; and assembly and validating the concept. Through that, a large volume of bibliographic materials was scanned, and a limited number of documents have been reviewed and critiqued. The documents have been selected from varied disciplines, including social infrastructure, quality of life, social sustainability, urban sociology, housing policy as among the articles.\nFindings: The result is the model which represents the links between social infrastructure (utility equipment, public infrastructure, vital objects and fundamentals) and further between factors inside quality of life structure (users, quality of life, reflections). The result is the model which representing the links between social infrastructure (utility equipment, public infrastructure, vital objects and fundamentals) and further between factors inside well-being structure (users, quality of life, reflections).\nResearch limitations/implications: There is a potential risk of errors arising from the use of assumptions, limited desk reviews and data from secondary resources.\nOriginality/value: The authors portray the development of social sustainability model. Within this model, the authors can critically observe all levels within the existing built environment: user responses to the built environment, their satisfaction, social inclusion, health, etc. Within this model, they can observe the links between existing research, their frequency, capture, direction and not least to determine which areas have not been explored and where the lacks of research are. The conclusion outlines the framework and its main concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure and well-being, including their theoretical premises and components.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Making sense of customer service experiences: a text mining review
|
[
"Customer experience",
"Multisensory",
"Sensory",
"Leximancer",
"Text mining",
"Review",
"Servicescape",
"Service research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With rapidly changing service landscapes, the need to understand, manage and design better customer service experiences (CSE) becomes inevitable for service managers and researchers alike (Roy, 2018). In total, 81 per cent of global marketers' report that they mainly compete on the basis of customer experience (Gartner, 2018). An increasing interest in this topic from both an academic and a managerial perspective has led researchers to recognize CSE as a research priority in contemporary services and marketing literature (Bolton et al., 2018; Jaakkola et al., 2015). A plethora of studies have recently emerged in services literature which identify CSE as a complex, multi-layered concept (Berry et al., 2002; Gentile et al., 2007; Helkkula, 2011; Klaus and Maklan, 2012; Lipkin, 2016; Pine and Gilmore, 1998; Schmitt, 1999) and recognize CSE as a cornerstone of marketing (De Keyser et al., 2015). Recent conceptual research on CSE defines it as a multidimensional construct consisting of physical, social, cognitive, affective and sensorial elements that encompass customers' direct or indirect interactions with a (set of) market actor(s) during the entire (purchase) journey (De Keyser et al., 2015; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016).\nCustomer service experiences and its underlying dimensions: Multiple definitions of CSE exist across the services and marketing literature. This article focuses on the current, most accepted definition that considers CSE to consist of physical, social, cognitive, affective and sensorial dimensions (for further discussion, we refer to Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Understanding the multidimensionality of CSE is a central focus of the emerging bodies of services, marketing and management literature (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Although there is widespread contemporary agreement on the importance of the concept of CSE, there are still divergent views on what constitutes CSE. In the past few decades, various research disciplines have presented an increasing number of scholarly articles showing different perspectives on (re-) defining, analyzing and capturing CSE (De Keyser et al., 2015; Helkkula, 2011; Klaus and Maklan, 2012; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Lipkin, 2016; Roy, 2018).\nMethodology: CSE has gained prominence in the services and marketing discipline over the past years, with a broad set of published studies (Bustamante and Rubio, 2017). To consolidate scholarly understanding about the concept and its underlying foundations, certain initial papers reviewed the concept; however, either they did not follow a systematic approach or they based their analyses on manual coding (Lipkin, 2016) which might be subject to researcher bias (Wilden et al., 2017). The current study uses a systematic text mining and machine learning approach with the aim of expanding the scale and scope of existing CSE reviews. Text mining is a form of unstructured ontological discovery (Randhawa et al., 2016) that consolidates concepts and themes across a large set of articles in a rigorous, automated and systematic way, particularly suitable for studying complex phenomena in an unbiased and content-driven format (Biesenthal and Wilden, 2014).\nFindings: Evolution of themes and concepts in customer service experience research\nDiscussion and implications: This study identifies pathways for developing CSE research via its central concepts and dimensions (Bustamante and Rubio, 2017). In particular, the sensory dimension in the CSE research remains a key challenge for researchers and practitioners alike (Scott and Uncles, 2018). The text mining analysis offers a novel approach in analyzing diverse contributions to CSE research over time and identifies three distinct research areas: service system architecture, servicescape and outcome measures.\nManagerial implications: This article analyses the scholarly body of CSE literature, yet, it also holds implications for service managers. First, the findings show the trending themes within CSE, i.e. service system architecture, servicescape, outcome measures and their underlying concepts. Service managers may acknowledge this as the state-of-art CSE to reflect and seize opportunities to improve their services and organizations. An example of such reflections might be the extent in which implemented customer experience measures include the shift from satisfaction and brand perceptions toward emotions and senses. Second, senses are instrumental for customers to capture service perception to gain information and knowledge. Thus, zooming into the sensory dimension enables service managers to identify, understand and design sensory stimuli to establish more value-creating and meaningful experiences. The relative scarcity of CSE literature capturing the sensory dimensions suggest that interested managers can seek guidance in recent CSE literature or even outside the field of service marketing, for example in psychology, design, or cognitive science. Third, the societal transition from offline to online services is also reflected in our findings, indicating a strong impact on the multi-dimensional role of senses. An online servicescape might not transport all sensory stimuli and their perceptions (e.g. smell), which might in turn be an opportunity for developing better experiences in offline retail settings. At the same time, digital technologies can be advantageous for service providers as they offer enhanced possibilities to test, control and manage sensory stimuli (Trevinal and Stenger, 2014), e.g. eye-tracking. Fourth, the findings of this study point managers toward a more active customer role in the service system, thus helping the co-design of multisensory rich CSE. Service design as an emerging approach offers novel methods such as service blueprinting and sensory ethnography that can facilitate these processes.\nConclusion: In summary, the present study provides a comprehensive review of CSE literature across leading services and marketing journals over a course of 24 years. By means of a novel systematic, text mining approach, the paper not only presents the status quo in CSE research in the service domain but also presents key avenues for future research that:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the concepts and theories underlying customer service experience (CSE) and its underlying five dimensions (physical, social, cognitive, affective and sensorial). In this research, the contribution of the sensorial dimension to CSE research is emphasized. Senses are especially important in forming perceptions within servicescapes that are typically rich in sensory stimuli.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study systematically identifies 258 articles published between 1994 and 2018 in services and marketing journals. The analysis uses a text mining approach with the Leximancer software to extract research concepts and their relationships.\nFindings: The results demonstrate a shift from CSE research focused on brands and products toward value and interaction, around three focal areas: service system architecture, with its value creation processes; servicescape, with an increasingly digital interaction interface and outcome measures, with a stronger focus on emotional and relational metrics. In CSE research, the physical, social and cognitive dimensions are mostly researched in the focal areas of servicescape and outcome measures. Although important in practice, the sensorial dimension is the least investigated CSE dimension in service marketing research. Text mining insights demonstrate rich opportunities for sensorial research, particularly in studies on servicescape.\nPractical implications: The synthesis will inform managers and service providers which elements of CSE are most relevant to customers when forming perceptions. These insights help service providers to control, manage and design (multi)-sensory stimuli that influence how customers will make sense of the servicescape.\nOriginality/value: This research is one of the first studies to examine the conceptual structure of CSE with a text mining approach that systematically analyzes a large set of articles, therein reducing the potential for researchers' interpretative bias. The paper provides an assessment of the role of the largely neglected but crucial sensorial dimension, and offers future research suggestions into this emerging topic.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sustainable production indicators at factory level
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Performance indicators",
"Sustainable production",
"Shop floor"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Manufacturing firms are using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to control and follow up their operations, and to drive improvements. Different types of indicators are used to follow up and to run the firm in the direction guided in the strategic objectives of the company. These objectives are based on requirements from customers, owners, government, and other stakeholders. The indicators are a part of a company's performance measurement systems (PMSs). The development of PMS has been frequently discussed in literature, and Neely et al. (1995) presented a literature review and research agenda addressing the design of performance measures and actions related to measures. In the last decades it has become more and more important for manufacturing firms to be more sustainable in their operations. To achieve sustainable development (SD) of manufacturing firms, sustainability aspects need to be included in companies' manufacturing strategies (Johansson and Winroth, 2010), which in turn makes it necessary to have sustainability KPIs incorporated in the manufacturing companies' PMS. To achieve this, increased knowledge of and insight in drivers to achieve sustainability on shop floor level is required. Therefore, the study in this paper will focus on Sustainable Production (SP), which is a subset of SD, developed and launched at the UN conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development, 1992). There are numerous definitions of SP; the following definition is relevant for the purpose of this paper:\n2. Literature review of SPI frameworks: The literature review is limited to frameworks designed to drive sustainability pertaining to production. Keywords used for the search have been combinations of sustainable, indicator, framework, and production.\n3. Methods: To answer the research questions and to address the research gaps, a process comprising two phases was adopted. The first phase was based on the existing literature on indicator frameworks for SP. Initially a selection of SP frameworks, with a potentially strong relevance for use at factory level, was made. All indicators presented in these frameworks were assembled in a gross list separated into the three sustainability dimensions. This gross list was then systematically evaluated to identify the indicators with the strongest relevance on factory level. Details on how the evaluation was performed are presented in Section 4.1. The result of the selection and evaluation process was a net list of potentially relevant SPIs. For the second step in the effort of identifying a relevant list of SPIs, the operations management literature was visited with the purpose of identifying potential factory level KPIs already in use in the manufacturing industry, that could be interpreted as SPIs. These two literature surveys, together with the selection procedure, resulted in a net list of potential SPIs, assembled from both sustainability and operations management literature, that would be potentially relevant for use at factory level.\n4. Compiling a list of sustainability indicators: 4.1 Systematic evaluation of SPIs\n5. Survey - results: The total response rate in the survey was 10 percent. The respondents who finalized the survey were active mainly within the SNI codes 20-30, which include the chemical industry, polymers, metal, electronics, machinery, engines, and vehicle industry. Within this range the response rate was in fact about 20 percent. Most answers were received from metal industry, polymers, machinery and engines. There were however in total 23 respondents who did not state their industry. The questionnaire contained the proposed list of 52 indicators, and the responses were compiled and tested by means of a kh\n6. Discussion: The survey shows that there is a clear focus on economic SPIs, at least on the statistically significant level. The proposed social indicators were less significant, but eight out of 14 were statistically significant (Table IV). However, only 30 percent of the environmental indicators were significant. This indicates that companies focus primarily on economic measures, which is in contrast to the scarce appearance of this dimension in literature. Second, the survey shows that SMEs do care about their employees, since the important social SPIs not only concern legal indicators but also aspects such as equality, employee turnover, and health. The number of statistically significant indicators related to environment was quite few, but more were found relevant below the significance level. Also, when studying the significant environmental indicators, many of them also have a considerable financial impact despite their focus on environmental issues. Energy use, material use, scrap rate, etc., all involve either costs or benefits for the company. One surprising discovery in the list of tested SPIs is that not all companies considered environmental accidents relevant, since Swedish law strictly regulates the reporting of any accident that may cause hazard to humans related to soil or to water (The Swedish Environmental Code, 1998:808). The respondents might have taken this aspect for granted when responding to the survey.\n7. Conclusions: From the literature review of frameworks for SPIs we can conclude that there is a lack of relevant sustainability indicators at factory level for the economic and, to some extent, for the social sustainability dimensions. Most indicators, presented to the Swedish production managers, were found to be relevant. Out of these 47 indicators, 16 belong to the environmental dimension, 18 economic, and 13 social dimensions. Thus, there is a fairly good distribution among the three sustainability dimensions and, compared to the list of indicators found in existing frameworks, the number of relevant indicators has been considerably expanded, in particular regarding the economic dimension. This list of 47 relevant indicators may constitute a starting point for companies, striving to develop a PMS, or improve their existing system, by including sustainability aspects into a smorgasbord of suggested SPIs. These results are also highly relevant to include in master classes at technical universities, thus providing future production managers with knowledge on how to design their PMSs to include sustainability aspects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Sustainable production (SP) is a very broad area and the awareness and communication of the concept differ between varying levels in a company. The supposition is that the awareness and improvement of sustainability on shop floor level would improve, if a suitable set of indicators for measuring sustainability was available. The purpose of this paper is therefore to identify a list of performance indicators relevant for a production manager.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper presents a two-step analysis, where the first step is a literature review with the purpose of compiling a gross list of sustainability indicators relevant on shop floor level. In the second phase, the relevance of this list for production managers in Swedish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is tested in a questionnaire survey.\nFindings: The conclusion from the survey is that 27 out of 52 proposed indicators were relevant with statistical significance and that another 20 indicators were supported by at least 50 percent of the respondents. The respondents found the economic indicators to be most relevant for their purpose. However, the economic field seems to need more indicators in order to be more useful for daily operation.\nPractical implications: This set of indicators may be beneficial for companies seeking relevant indicators to drive sustainability improvements.\nOriginality/value: This paper takes a new perspective on SP, as it focusses on shop floor production, which is possible to influence for a production manager.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comparison of spindle and stomacher efficacy for detaching biofilms from stainless steel, PVC, and green leafy vegetable surfaces
|
[
"Food safety",
"Bacteria",
"Food processing",
"Food testing",
"Food technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Biofilms are usually defined as a microorganism community embedded in exopolysaccharides (EPSs) which provide a physical barrier to environmental stresses such as antimicrobial substances, and thus contribute to protecting microorganisms (Kim, Jeong and Kang, 2018; Kim, Park and Kang, 2018). Due to these properties, pathogens embedded in biofilms have greater resistance. Thus, compared to planktonic cells, it is difficult to inactivate biofilm-forming pathogens (Chavant et al., 2004; Frank and Koffi, 1990; Stewart and Costerton, 2001). Among foodborne pathogens, Escherichia. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhimurium are major causal agents of foodborne diseases, also known to form biofilms (Dewanti and Wong, 1995; Dhir and Dodd, 1995; Helke et al., 1993; Kim, Jeong and Kang, 2018; Kim, Park and Kang, 2018). These foodborne pathogens are able to form biofilms not only on food production surfaces but also on green leafy vegetables.\nMaterial and method: Bacterial strains\nResults: In this research we investigate the efficacy of the spindle to detach biofilms. In a preliminary study, we compared the detaching efficiency of the stomacher, spindle and cotton swab. No significant difference in the population of E. coli O157:H7 was observed between stomacher and spindle (p>0.05), but the recovered population by swabbing was less amount than the other two methods (p<0.05) in both abiotic surfaces as shown in Table I. The populations of E. coli O157:H7 detached from stainless steel by the stomacher, spindle and sterile cotton swab were 8.27, 8.28 and 6.15log CFU coupon-1, respectively, while populations recovered from PVC were 7.89, 8.22 and 679log CFU coupon-1. Also, Table I shows that S. Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes had a similar trend. There was no significant difference between stomaching and spindle (p>0.05), but swabbing showed less effectiveness to recover biofilm-forming cells in both abiotic surfaces (p<0.05). Figure 2 confirms these results. For stainless steel, most bacterial cells subjected to the stomacher or spindle were detached, whereas many cells treated with a cotton swab remained on the surface.\nDiscussion: Our laboratory has recently designed a new apparatus, the \"spindle,\" for detachment of biofilm from various surfaces. In this study we assessed the efficacy of the spindle apparatus in comparison to stomacher. Our results of preliminary study indicate that the spindle is comparable to the stomacher for detaching biofilm-forming cells, while swabbing is less effective for recovering bacterial cells from biofilm. Figure 2 also shows how effectively the spindle can detach biofilm-forming cells from the abiotic surfaces compared to the stomacher and cotton swabbing. Since swabbing was less effective, we conducted a further study only for comparison between the stomacher and spindle.\nConclusion: This study shows that the spindle can be applied to detach biofilm-forming microorganisms from the surface of stainless steel, PVC and green leafy vegetables. There was no significant difference in separation ability between the stomacher and the spindle. Also, the suspension produced by the spindle was clearer than that generated by the stomacher. In addition, the spindle is more time-efficient as it has four compartments. Thus, the spindle which can be used under various conditions is a useful instrument for detachment of biofilms and high potential to be used for fresh produce washing system in industry.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Biofilms are bacterial communities embedded in exopolysaccharide, enhancing the difficulty of detaching bacterial cells from surfaces. Due to structural properties, it is difficult to detach biofilms. Many removal methods have been developed, but there are still some limitations such as sample size and reproducibility. \"Spindle\" was developed, producing a higher quality suspension which can be used for further study. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors compared the enumeration of biofilm-forming cells detached from the spindle and stomacher in various surfaces. First, the authors chose stainless steel and polyvinyl chloride to attach biofilms and to be subjected to stomacher and spindle for up to 2 min. Also, the authors evaluated the efficiency of detachment from vegetable surfaces.\nFindings: In a comparative experiment of abiotic surfaces, the spindle showed identical effectiveness for detaching biofilm-forming cells compared to the stomacher, recovering the population by 8-log for Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes. The spindle also showed no significant difference from the stomacher in the number of recovered cells which is 4-log from vegetable surfaces. However, turbidity after spinach was subjected to spindle was 4.37 NTU, while it was 99 NTU for stomacher, which was in accord with visual result about clearance.\nOriginality/value: This study demonstrated that the spindle is a useful to separate biofilms from surfaces without destructing structure, and thus it can be used for analysis in food laboratories as well as utilized for vegetable washing step in the food industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Determinants of Chinese consumers' organic wine purchase
|
[
"Purchase intentions",
"Symbolic value",
"Health benefits",
"Emotional assessments",
"Organic wines"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Wine has become one of the most dynamic products in the global economy, shifting the growth for both old-world wine countries (e.g. Italy, France, Spain and other European nations) and the new-world ones (e.g. USA, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand) (Festa et al., 2016). As an essential component of consumers' dining and travel experiences, wine contributes to the viability of hospitality and tourism businesses including restaurants, bars, nightclubs, full-service hotels and the burgeoning wine tourism (Thanh and Kirova, 2018). In recent years, studies have shown a central role of wine in driving tourists' destination experience (Thanh and Kirova, 2018), events participation (Liu et al., 2017) and wine tourism participation (Kim and Bonn, 2016), as a core strategy for destination development. Scholars have, thus, called for continuing pursuit of wine research to advance existing hospitality and tourism literature (Bonn et al., 2018).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Chinese wine consumers and organic wines\n3. Methods: 3.1 Procedure and measures\n4. Results: 4.1 Profile of the consumer sample\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the primary determinants of Chinese consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions of imported organic wines.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a multi-stage data collection via multiple sampling techniques. Data were collected from close to 2,000 Chinese wine drinkers across 33 provincial-level administrative units in China. The consumer data were subject to a two-step structural equation modeling analysis.\nFindings: Chinese consumers express favorable attitudes and are interested in making a purchase. The results also reveal distinct influences of cognitive and emotional determinants on consumers' positive attitudes and purchase intentions of organic wines. Health benefits and symbolic value positively influence consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions. Emotional assessment of organic wines, despite exhibiting a positive effect on attitudes, does not drive Chinese consumers' purchase decisions.\nOriginality/value: China has become a world leader in consuming wines, especially wines imported from traditional wine producing countries. The increasing health concerns have also prompted Chinese consumers toward favoring organic products. Despite the evident shift in Chinese consumers' travel expenditure toward food and wines and the growing wine consumption while dining out, existing research is scant in explaining the decision drivers of Chinese consumers' organic wine purchase. A greater and deeper understanding of Chinese consumers' purchase decision of organic wines not only provides marketing intelligence for countries exporting wines to China but also is meaningful for international destinations to capture a lucrative market to support local attractions and hospitality businesses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Shopping environment preferences of Hispanic consumers in the U.S.: Development of a scale
|
[
"Retailing",
"Materialism",
"Hedonic shopping motivations",
"Hispanic consumers",
"Scale construction",
"Store environment preferences"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Due to rising personal mobility, many nations are characterized by growing levels of multiple ethnicities (Tung, 2008). The USA is not an exception. Although the USA is experiencing immigration from a number of nations and cultures, the largest percentage of immigrants is arriving from Latin American nations, primarily Mexico (Ueltschy, 2011). Indeed, individuals of Hispanic origin represent the largest minority group in the USA (Rizkallah and Truong, 2010). With the high rate of immigration along with higher birth rates, the Hispanic population in the USA is growing more than ten times faster than the general population and will comprise 30 per cent of the US population by 2050 (Ueltschy, 2011). Consequently, the total purchasing power of the Hispanic market in the USA is experiencing significant growth (Fowler et al., 2007).\nThe Hispanic market: Within many nations, there exist groups of individuals possessing cultures which materially differ from the dominant culture. Distinctiveness theory advances that a person's ethnicity, like culture, is a trait that affects and differentiates behaviour between groups (Torres and Briggs, 2005). Members of ethnic groups often retain norms and beliefs from their home cultures, resulting in each ethnic group holding unique cultural values (Lee et al., 2002). Consequently, ethnic groups in the USA likely differ attitudinally and behaviourally from the majority.\nShopping environment preferences: Retail stores offer a unique ability to appeal to their customers. Called atmospherics, the cues offered by a store's environment can provide stimuli that affect the attractiveness of the stores and the resulting patronage decisions of consumers. Atmospherics can facilitate product engagement (Ballantine et al., 2010), influence consumers' shopping behaviors (Morrison et al., 2011), and affect attitudes towards a retail store (Vaccaro et al., 2008). Indeed, a store's environment has the ability to attract customers, to entice purchases, and to encourage repeat visits (Sharma and Stafford, 2000). Consequently, store environment is considered to be an important retail attribute.\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Scale development\nDiscussion: With the high population growth rates occurring among the Hispanic population in the USA, many US retailers are finding they can no longer ignore the desires of Hispanic consumers (Seock, 2009). As a distinct group, the wants and needs of many Hispanic consumers differ from those of the majority population. These differences, however, have received relatively little research attention, particularly in the area of shopping environment preferences.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and begin to validate a scale to assess the shopping environment preferences of Hispanic consumers in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample consists of 160 Hispanic consumers attending a Hispanic festival in the southeast USA. A questionnaire contained items to measure shopping environment preferences and scales to measure materialism, hedonic shopping motivations, and perceived discrimination.\nFindings: The findings suggest a second-order model where three factors (familiarity, price, and experience) load onto a single second-order construct of shopping environment preferences. The result is a scale consisting of three factors permitting the exploration of the retail environmental preferences of Hispanic consumers in the USA.\nPractical implications: The study develops a scale that can be applied by US retailers to gain additional knowledge of their Hispanic consumers, thus enabling strategies to be developed that potentially enhance their engagement in retail environments.\nOriginality/value: Given the size of this segment and its increasing impact on the retail market, surprisingly, Hispanic consumers in the USA have received relatively little research attention.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Inclusion and exclusion of sexual minorities at organisations: Evidence from LGBT NGOs in Turkey and the UK
|
[
"NGO",
"LGBT",
"Workplace",
"Sexual minority",
"Inclusion/exclusion",
"Turkey and the UK"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sexual minorities have come to light as a (in)visible strand of diversity management in the organisations that are mostly in large public, private and voluntary sectors in developed countries for more than 20 years (Colgan et al., 2009; Colgan, 2011). LGBT research, however, is mostly based on exploring the experiences and social relations of LGBT individuals in the workplace context. For this reason, many researchers (Rumens, 2016; Rumens, 2011; Wright et al., 2011; Colgan and McKearney, 2012) focus on the workplace context by considering individual levels of analysis. On the other hand, some researchers (e.g. Ozturk and Ozbilgin, 2015; Colgan, 2011) consider the organisational and/or macro levels of analysis through visibility, voice and activism in organisations and adopting institutional perspective which was specified such as military and workplace regarding sexual minorities. The mainstream management literature has largely neglected the issue of sexual minorities inclusion in the workplace which is an indication of the fact that more critical research is required towards sexual orientation and gender identity diversity in organisations. Consistent with this view, Ozturk and Tatli (2015) state that further studies are necessary in different historical and cultural contexts, and also in developing countries. Thus, this research aims to make a noteworthy contribution to the equality, diversity and inclusion literature with a comparative approach amongst a developed and a developing/emerging country case based on the unique experiences of the members of LGBT organisations. To date, the existing literature overwhelmingly has focussed on the discriminatory experiences of LGBT employees in the private and public sectors (Rumens, 2016; Ozturk, 2011; Colgan et al., 2007; Wright, 2015; Bell et al., 2011) higher education institutions (Ozturk and Rumens, 2014) and trade unions (Colgan, 1999; Colgan and McKearney, 2012) with a limited attention on LGBT non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The aim of the current study is, therefore, as one of the first scholarly investigations on LGBT NGOs in both country settings is to explore in-depth experiences of sexual minorities. The research question developed in this paper is as follows:\nLiterature review: We adopt a comparative approach between Turkey and the UK in order to explore how LGBT organisations understand and perceive the inclusion and exclusion of LGBT individuals at work based on their unique experiences. The major reason why the research has been undertaken in both contexts, namely, Turkey and UK, stems from their distinctive features in relation to their state structure and legislative/regulative framework in the area of LGBT rights.\nResearch method: This research has aimed at having the nature of flexibility and specificity instead of standardisation and generalisability. Hence, this nature has been given through qualitative orientation (Marshall and Rossman, 2016). The empirical dimension of this study was invigorated by thematic analysis of interviews that composed of the individuals who work in LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK as members, semi-structured, in-depth, face to face interviews were conducted with 40 individuals (20 in Turkey and 20 in the UK). Table I\nFindings: We report data under three headings: The first, inclusion and exclusion at work, refers to the challenges of being LGBT and the consequences of being visible at work. In this heading, we both share positive and adverse situations of LGBTs. The second, inclusion and exclusion at politics, refers to the practices of LGBT organisations to be engaged in politics. This heading comes only from Turkey's case and we provide the reason in discussion section. Lastly, the third, inclusion in LGBT organisations, demonstrates the involvement of both straight and LGBT individuals to the organisations that have also been considered as a workplace (Hernik, 2008). We will introduce the case of Turkey and the UK, respectively, and the discussion based on the reported findings will be examined in the following section.\nTurkey case: Inclusion and exclusion at work\nThe UK case: Inclusion and exclusion at work\nDiscussion and conclusion: The theme of inclusion and exclusion were divided into three sub-themes for the Turkish context and into two sub-themes for the UK context. \"Inclusion and exclusion at work\" and \"inclusion and exclusion in LGBT organisations\" are common themes for both countries. We firstly consider these two common categories before examining the additional theme, in the context of Turkey, of LGBT \"inclusion and exclusion in politics\". As Colgan (2011) states, inclusion can be encouraged by trade unions given that they are proactive in negotiating issues of equality - which is, in the case of this research, related to sexual orientation. Whereas the trade unions in the UK (e.g. Unison) work actively to negotiate LGBT rights with the government, they do not do so in Turkey; this stems from the illegitimacy of LGBT individuals in the country. Ibhawoh (2014) posits that the obstacles which LGBTs face in terms of inclusion primarily stem from religious, socio-cultural and institutional reasons. So, even though Turkey has a secular ethos (Uygur and Aydin, 2015), the main obstacles which the LGBT individuals in that country face come from the three reasons which Ibhawoh (2014) stipulates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the inclusion and exclusion of LGBT individuals at organisations towards providing evidence from LGBT non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Turkey and the UK.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to achieve this aim, 40 semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews (20 in each country) were conducted. The empirical dimension of this study was invigorated by thematic analysis of interviews that composed of the individuals and members who work in LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK.\nFindings: The significance and the role of context in shaping public discourse, policies and practices of LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK were explored in greater details. Based on the coding and thematic analysis of the interviews, three main findings were presented, which are \"inclusion and exclusion at work\", \"inclusion and exclusion in politics\" and \"inclusion in LGBT organisations\".\nOriginality/value: The originality of this research comes from its unique nature with a comparative approach on the contrary of current LGBT research that mostly focusses on an individual level of analysis and workplace discrimination. Research evidence demonstrates that there are a number of complexities, contradictions and tensions based on the specific characteristics of each country setting where various cultural, societal, political and legislative/regulative forces come into play in LGBT inclusion at organisations. Consequently, this research provides valuable insights for the inclusion of sexual minorities drawing on the evidence from LGBT NGOs in Turkey and the UK.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Life coaching and the law
|
[
"Coaching",
"Local government",
"Stress"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: These days, the concept of strategic planning and objective setting plays a pivotal role in the corporate world. Almost every department of every business has an agreed plan with goals outlined at the start of the year and penalties or bonus schemes to motivate staff to achieve those aims within a certain timeframe.\nLife coaching: Life coaching may provide a practical answer to the work-life dilemma that so many UK employees now face. A coach can offer staff an ally that believes in the abilities of the individual but can also help set clear goals towards achieving milestones a particular person wants out of life.Once these objectives are identified a life coach will help prioritise them and encourage the individual to believe they really are achievable. This can vary from improving health and fitness, stress management or personal finances, for example.Life coaching encourages, supports and motivates individuals to realise their potential, helping them to achieve their aspirations and goals. By assessing the current status and establishing objectives, it empowers people to achieve what they want by helping overcome thoughts and circumstances that hold people back.The benefit for employers encouraging or providing this type of coaching is that if these aspects of an employees life are addressed then they are free to become more effective and ultimately, productive in the working environment.In fact, many local government law departments are now offering their staff additional benefits to help them manage the stressful environment they work in; this leads to reduction in absences for sickness and other stress related illness, improves staff retention rates and makes for a more productive working environment. Staff benefits may include massage, gym memberships, counselling and now in some cases coaching.\nWeekend school for local government lawyers: At the 46th Annual Weekend School for Local Government Lawyers that took place at the University of York between 14-17 April 2005 the life-coaching concept was put into practice.The major annual training event for local government lawyers that takes place each year during the Easter break and focuses on the needs of the profession. The weekend school is constantly developing its agenda to respond to changing aspects of the industry and for the first time this year it recognised the impact of work-life balance on employees by holding a coaching workshop. The idea was to offer an \"alternative\" session amongst the varied legal based sessions available to the delegates.The workshop attracted a variety of delegates, both male and female, from different levels including trainee solicitors to practice managers who work for local authorities in addition to individuals from a range of other bodies associated with the local government across the UK.By devising a completely different workshop the session offered delegates an opportunity for self discovery and development that was not specifically based around the law and legal issues.The environment also provided the opportunity to bring greater awareness to the practice of life coaching to the forefront of the legal industry as part of such a high-profile national event.The two hour session was an excellent opportunity for the delegates to experience life coaching first hand and see the impact it can have immediately, by creating momentum to commit to taking action and overcoming the any hurdles in order to move forward either in their personal lives or at work.The seminar covered an overview of life coaching based on the co-active coaching model. The co-active model is a holistic approach to coaching developed by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sundahl and is founded on collaboration and interactive participation between the client and the coach. The focus is totally on the client and what he/she wants to have in their life and how to help achieve it.The foundation of the co-active coaching model has four essential components:1. the client is creative resourceful and whole;2. co-active coaching addresses the client's whole life;3. the agenda comes from the client; and4. the relationship is a designed alliance.Being creative, resourceful and whole means that the clients have the answers, or alternatively, the clients can find the answers for themselves. The co-active coaching concept believes that the client is whole and not broken nor needs to be fixed.Addressing the client's whole life acknowledges that the decisions and choices we make impact on creating a life that is more (or less) fulfilled. Whenever we say yes to something we are saying no to something else. So if a client says yes to spending more time with their family, he/she might have to say no to working late at the office for example.The fact that the agenda comes from the client is essential. The clients have their own goals that they want to achieve and the coach's role is to focus solely on helping reach them. The relationship between client and co-active coach is designed to ensure it meets the client's needs and is an important aspect of the relationship allowing the client to declare how they wished to be coached. It is all about what the client wants and is based on mutual responsibility and trust.So many things in our lives impact on each other, finances influence our leisure time and our jobs, work frustrations can get taken home and into our most precious relationships and when we put effort in to our personal growth it impacts on both our family and career. The co-active model not only looks at the bigger picture but brings attention to specific action plans bringing greater fulfilment and quality to life.The workshop itself was a two hour session consisting of a number of different sections. It began with setting the \"space\" by using a couple of rules that allow the participants of the workshop to feel safe; rule number one - nobody gets to be wrong and rule number two; agreeing that whatever is said in the space remains confidential within the group.A brief overview of the course was presented then there was an opportunity for each delegate to introduce themselves to the rest of the group and sharing a little bit about themselves. The atmosphere in the room was very cautious as most of the people had never experienced a similar type of workshop were unsure about what would take place. However, as usual in a training environment once the introductions were over everyone seemed to relax.The workshop was broken down into a number of sections with a variety of scenarios of from individual work, triad groups, small groups and the whole group. The initial session was an opportunity to share a dream each delegate had with three different individuals. This was completed in pairs and allowed the delegates to really get in touch with their hearts' desires.Telling another individual about a dream really starts to establish it as a goal, the more people that are told the more established it becomes and you embellish the dream with greater and greater detail. It goes from being a dream to a fully detailed goal.The result of this exercise was an energised room full of forward thinking individuals who were starting to see the possibilities that were available to them. For example, a number of delegates focused on establishing a firm direction for development towards promotion over the next ten or 20 years and looking at how that progress would effect the future, owning a retreat in Portugal, retiring early or buying a sailing boat and cruising in the Mediterranean.\nListening: Listening is a core skill for life coaches and bringing a great understanding with both colleagues and clients. Within the small groups the members took it in turns to talk briefly about something that reflected their values. The other participants of the group were asked to listen carefully so that they could establish what these values were from what was said implicitly rather than explicitly.Listening at this level is deeper than just hearing the words it involves hearing the meaning behind the words and the emotions it creates. Many delegates expressed surprise at what others did and did not share and how they were able to pick out the things that their colleagues valued most in their lives.They were also surprised how differently they felt as they deliberately listened to another's thoughts and feelings. Many discussed how this would have a direct affect on their relationships both in and out of work, making them more able to appreciate the \"unsaid\" things that lay behind others responses.\nStress in the workplace: The consensus of the whole group was that legal work life was extremely stressful. So we also spent time working on perspectives of situations. By changing how they viewed specific difficulties, the delegates were given a fresh chance to approach these challenges in a more empowered way.One delegate chose to see difficult tasks as elements of a meal, so that they could break the task up into the meat, vegetables, potatoes, desert etc. and thereby choose which parts of the task to tackle first and what to leave out until all else was achieved so that there was something pleasant to finish the task with. How one thing is left will impact on how the next thing is approached, and so the delegates were encouraged to find positive aspects of the work in front of them as they completed it. Much time was spent agreeing how various aspects of their work was viewed, and again the group's mood was improved as they shared frustrations and successes.The session ended with a commitment from all to take an action towards achieving a goal that would move them further towards their ultimate life aims. Some of the delegates' commitments included completing their training and one delegate even considered changing their career direction altogether.The mood at the end was positive and energised. Delegates were inspired and appeared to be motivated by both the workshop and their interaction with their previously unmet peers.The benefits to of life coaching to individuals is plain. It provides a practical vehicle to help people achieve specific goals in both their personal and professional lives that will result in a happier more fulfilled being. Ultimately, for employers the advantages of a motivated and satisfied individual include increased effectiveness and productivity. So perhaps is it time to introduce strategic plans for staff well being to augment the departmental objectives that are already in place in the work environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To deliver an \"introduction to life coaching\" workshop to local government lawyers and the benefits they could get from life coaching.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The nature of the interactive workshop is outlined and the responses of the delegates examined.\nFindings: - The findings of the paper focus on the benefits to the delegates at both personal and professional levels. The holistic approach of life coaching impacting on how difficulties are viewed and the consequent reduction in stress.\nOriginality/value: - A case study on the experiences of delegates exposed to life coaching. This paper will be of value to HR in local government and high stress business environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Document delivery through domestic and international collaborations: the KISTI practice
|
[
"Document supply",
"South Korea",
"Resource sharing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Document delivery is a core service in the library that allows resource sharing within a limited budget. Libraries participate in document delivery services because they cannot purchase every item that is published or produced with limited funds and space constraints. A library can support the research, teaching and even commercial needs of each member of its community by expanding the availability of scholarly and academic materials through a document delivery service beyond the physical and electronic collections of each library.According to the US Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Statistics 2007-2008[1], interlibrary borrowing activity in the USA has increased dramatically over the last 23 years (Figure 1). The average annual interlibrary loan borrowing increase rate of 103 ARL member libraries is 6.4 percent. Furthermore, as seen in Figure 2, interlibrary loan borrowing activity has increased by 168 percent since 1991, and this rate is the fastest among library services. However, this picture is rather different in most other countries where Big Deals, Open Access and retrospective conversion of serial back files have had a big impact on document supply - 50 percent and more declines have been experienced in some countries.Nonetheless, document delivery remains a core library service. Even though large numbers of electronic journals and other online full-text content are filling potential document delivery requests, it is still the case that no library can have on hand every resource needed by an institution's researchers.The British Library, which is one of the largest libraries in the world, also has a major document delivery service and has collaborated with more than 146 university libraries to fulfill its users' requests. The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technological Information (CISTI) also has formal arrangements in place with several international libraries to complement its strength in science, technology and medicine, although there have been dramatic changes recently with Infotrieve taking responsibility for its document delivery service.Regional, national and international cooperation schemes facilitate document delivery among libraries, and the experience of Korea is described in this article.\nOverview of KISTI and NDSL: The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) is the national information center, which has comprehensively collected, analyzed and managed science and technology information resources for the country since 1962. As the government-supported research institute under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, KISTI also conducts its own research on technology, policies, and standardization regarding information management and dissemination. KISTI has contributed to the increase in national R&D productivity and industrial competitiveness by building a supercomputer infrastructure for national R&D. Its major three functions are identified below (Figure 3). One major function is to provide the NDSL (National Digital Science Links; see www.ndsl.kr) service and operate the Korean Electronic Site License Initiative (KESLI) consortium explained in this section.KISTI collects cutting edge science and technology information at home and abroad to support researchers with timely and necessary information. It creates metadata so that researchers can search NDSL which is an STI (Science and Technology Information) integrated search service platform provided by KISTI.NDSL contains papers, patents, technical reports, trend analysis reports, standards, human resources and scientific data (Figure 4). These are collected by purchase, agreement between KISTI and publishers or organizations, production by KISTI, open access data, etc. It has three major characteristics:1. integrated search functions for the various contents;2. links to specialized services; and3. personalized service based on Web 2.0.NDSL provides one-click total information services for both electronic and printed journal/proceeding papers to nationwide researchers by building a comprehensive metadata base in collaboration with libraries and publishers. Over 53,000,000 TOCs and abstracts of scholarly papers from more than 60,000 journals and 200,000 proceedings are available through the NDSL. Researchers can research and access the full text of most scholarly papers published in Korea free of charge.NDSL's 480,000 users include business and industry, medical professionals, S&T policy makers, government officials, students, researchers and other scholars and members of the general public (Figure 5).Most of the search and full-text services are free of charge to the individual user. However, the accessible content may vary according to the affiliation of the user; KISTI may not have the rights to transmit, may not be available free of charge, etc. If the user does not have the right to access the full text online, they can request the document through KISTI NIDS, a document delivery service operated by KISTI. Individual users are only charged for the actual postal fee of the full-text photocopy. A fee-based document delivery service provides a way of opening up the library's collection to individuals who are not affiliated with any particular library. Without a fee-based service, libraries frequently have to refuse requests from individuals or companies who need articles or book chapters not available from the library's own collection, (Luzius and King, 2006).\nKISTI Document Delivery Service: KISTI NIDS: KISTI, as the national science and technology information center, is the largest document delivery organization in Korea, supplying journal articles, proceeding papers, technical reports, standards, etc. to the public. It delivered almost 300,000 documents in 2008 using its holdings as well as in collaboration with domestic and overseas institutions.The document delivery service is called KISTI NIDS, and comprises three categories - inNIDS, netNIDS, and globalNIDS - as described below.Holding service: inNIDS\nGlobal service of national S&T information: According to the 2009 World Competitiveness Yearbook, Korea is ranked third among 57 other countries for science competitiveness[2]. The number of articles by Korean authors listed on Web of Science in 2007 totalled 25,494, ranking twelfth in the world (see Figure 11).However outstanding the national research product might be for foreigners, the language barrier and having no channel to access the content are the main problems. Thus KoreaScience (see http://koreascience.kr) was launched in January 2008 by KISTI to provide easier access to Korean science and technology information for foreigners.KISTI is a member of the WorldWideScience alliance, which provides access to the data of KoreaScience. WorldWideScience.org is a global science gateway connecting users to national and international scientific databases and portals. It enables anyone with internet access to launch a single-query search of 32 national scientific databases and portals from 44 countries, covering six continents and nearly half of the world's population. Users of WorldWideScience.org can search more than 200 million pages of science and technology information not typically accessible through popular search engines[3] (Warnick, 2010).KoreaScience provides access to journal papers and news; technical reports, patents, and human resources are planned. Most of the content comes from information generated from public organizations such as governments, universities, R&D institutes, scholarly associations and S&T news media. KoreaScience collects resources available in English; it is an open access site, providing metadata, abstracts, electronic full-texts and external linking to electronic full-texts of references. As of July 2009, it had approximately 80,000 papers from over 200 scientific, technical and medical journals. Everything from searching to use of full-text is free and no log on is required. After registering, the user can use personalized functions, such as personal configuration setting and saved search histories and queries. Book publishers and web database companies may use this site as a linking source for Korean scholarly articles.Since KoreaScience was launched, the demand for Korean science and technology information has increased. The ten most highly requested ten journals from overseas researchers and information centers during 2007-2008 are shown in Table I. Of journals requested by foreign researchers 67 percent are written in English; however, 27 percent are in Korean only (Figure 12).\nFuture plans: Swift advances in information technology have allowed researchers to receive information on their digital media via the web. Document delivery service by post is inconvenient and makes users dissatisfied in this digital era and the trend is to electronic document delivery. Web-based document delivery, however, allows the possibility of massive reproduction and distribution, so copyright holders' rights need to be protected (Yoo and Choi, 2006).Effective electronic document delivery requires preceding copyright clearance. KISTI, as the national S&T information center, needs to negotiate agreements with copyright owners and copyright-related groups such as copyright collection management societies, authorized licensing bodies and publishers. As part of this effort, KISTI has tried to enter into agreement with the Korea Reprographic and Transmission Rights Association (KRTRA), which will clear copyright of Korean publications managed by KRTRA. KRTRA is the only national Reproduction Rights Organization (RRO) in Korea and is a member of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO)[4].However, most of the delivered documents in Korea are copyrighted works published in foreign countries and KRTRA has not yet made an agreement with the USA, Britain, or Japan for the use of copyrighted works published in those countries. So the other way that KISTI tries to clear copyright of publications from these countries is to negotiate with the copyright holders directly. However, it is presumed that the transaction cost would be tremendous and even if the negotiations were successful, royalties would be high. Therefore KISTI continues to develop relationships with global institutions in order to share resources. Thus to attain the vision of KISTI, \"creating the value for customers with STI [Science and Technology Information] service innovation\", national and international cooperation is both necessary and essential.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to introduce the KISTI document delivery service, to describe its collaboration with national and international institutions, and to explore the way KISTI develops and extends international cooperation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article describes the work of KISTI and draws on the transaction data of documents delivered by KISTI.\nFindings: - Resource sharing through national and international cooperation is becoming of increasing importance in Korea. KISTI operates its document delivery service at three levels: inNIDS, netNIDS, and globalNIDS. KISTI is the focal point in Korea for the delivery of domestic knowledge to other countries.\nOriginality/value: - One of the few articles to deal in detail with the services provided by KISTI - the Korean global document delivery service.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Measuring performance of linear assets considering their spatial extension
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Maintenance",
"EMaintenance",
"Dependability",
"Linear assets",
"Railways"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Maintenance costs can represent a significant portion of the business cost in asset-intensive organisations. Non-availability and downtime of an asset will have impact on the asset capacity, product/service quality and cost of production. Performance measurement and condition monitoring is a multi-disciplinary process; it provides critical support to heavy and capital-intensive industries by keeping assets, e.g. machinery and equipment, in a safe operating condition. Furthermore, in a global business environment, asset utilisation and performance optimisation can assist asset managers to remain competitive.\n2. Performance measurement: Organisations are using scorecards to manage their strategy over the long term in a number of critical processes (Kaplan and Norton, 1996), such as the following:\n3. Methodology: Linear, or continuous assets, such as roads, railways, electrical grids and pipelines, are large, geographically spread out technical systems. However, linear assets commonly comprise point assets as well, like stations for service or energy transformation. Therefore, linear assets can be divided into linear and point assets; this distinction is required in data analysis if the technical density per unit of length differs between linear and point assets.\n4. Case study: A case study has been carried out on railway infrastructure to verify the methodology. Analysis of other linear assets, such as electrical grids and pipelines, will not yield the same result, but the methodology for assessing performance is similar.\n5. Discussion: The methodology presented is built on three prerequisites: analysis and performance are presented as a function of two variables, i.e. the spatial extension and a second generic variable; analysis distinguishes between the linear parts and the point parts, and it includes both organisational and asset levels.\n6. Conclusions: This study presents a methodology for assessing performance and dependability of linear assets with consideration to their spatial extension; for linear assets, space is an equally generic dimension as time is for assets in general. The methodology also considers the asset structure and organisational levels. As linear assets actually are combinations of linear and point assets; separate analysis of these assets is a prerequisite.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how performance of linear assets can be analysed and displayed, considering both the technical asset and the user context, to simplify cognitive tasks of planning and decision making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Linear, or continuous assets, such as roads, railways, electrical grids and pipelines, are large, geographically spread out technical systems. Linear assets are comprised of system, subsystem and component levels. Thus, asset managers are involved with each level of the linear asset; asset management has strategic, tactical and operational levels. A methodology is developed to link together the technical and organisational levels and to measure asset performance considering their spatial extension. Geographical location and time are used as independent variables.\nFindings: For performance measurement of linear assets, it is found that the spatial extension is an equally generic dimension as time is for technical assets in general. Furthermore, as linear assets actually are combinations of linear and point assets; separate analysis of these assets is a prerequisite. Asset performance has been studied in a case study in terms failures and cost; the results indicate that the methodology visualise poor, as well as good, performance in an easy to interpret manner. Besides, the results indicate that other parameters related to dependability can be presented in a similar way.\nPractical implications: This study highlights the importance of including the spatial or geographical extension of linear assets in infrastructure managers' performance measurement. It is believed that the methodology can make planning and decision making more effective by pointing out improvement areas in technical assets, in a way that is appealing to both technicians and managers.\nSocial implications: As infrastructure managers are improving their analysis and visualisation of performance, the public's interest of following the information increases, which in turn contributes to the connection between infrastructure managers and the public.\nOriginality/value: The presented methodology and case study analysed performance in function of both the technical and organisational levels, including the spatial component. It is believed that the methodology for analysing and visualising performance of linear assets is distinctive.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
International advertising strategy: the standardisation question in manager studies: Patterns in four decades of past research and directions for future knowledge advancement
|
[
"Advertising",
"Advertising standards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground and rationale for this study: The decision whether to standardize or localize marketing and advertising across countries is seen as fundamental within international marketing strategy (Walters, 1986; Jain, 1989; Boddewyn and Grosse, 1995; Terpstra and Sarathy, 2000; Hollensen, 2004). The origin of the standardization idea has been traced back to the 1920s (Agrawal, 1995; Ryans et al., 2003) and since then a plethora of studies has been published dealing with the feasibility and desirability of standardization, most commonly in relation to advertising (Walters, 1986; Jain, 1989; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1999). Recent literature reviews in the area (Taylor and Johnson, 2002; Melewar and Vemmervik, 2004; Waheeduzzaman and Dube, 2004; Taylor, 2005) as well as empirical studies in the international marketing (Ozsomer and Simonin, 2004; Chung, 2005) and specifically advertising fields (Griffith et al., 2003; Samiee et al., 2003; Taylor and Okazaki, 2006) show that the issue is, even after all these years, still topical for academics. Moreover, the fact that major multinational companies (MNC) like Hewlett Packard (Burrows, 2006), Heineken (Barns, 2006) and Bacardi (Media Asia, 2006) are currently seeking to achieve global standardization of advertising shows that this topic is also highly relevant for practitioners.Despite the evidently strong interest in the topic, progress in the study of the area has been characterized as limited. Ryans et al. (2003, p. 589), for instance, criticize \"... a status of stagnation in thought and action related to the topic\" and call for more research. Yet, based on this past experience. it seems evident that new research will still be running the risk of remaining equally unsubstantial in its contribution to knowledge as long as it remains unclear in which way it must differ from research conducted in the past.A recent study of advertising standardization suggested that \"relatively few empirical studies have examined the standardization of advertising from the perspective of managers\" (Taylor and Okazaki, 2006, p. 99). Indeed, although reviews of the literature on international advertising standardization in general have been undertaken (Agrawal, 1995; Taylor and Johnson, 2002) there appears to be no review dealing specifically with international advertising standardisation (IAS) studies of managers. This is a surprising gap given that major issues within the IAS field such as company motivations for companies to pursue IAS (Dunn, 1976; Hite and Fraser, 1988), the analysis of the company benefits derived from standardization strategies (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Okazaki et al., 2006), as well as process standardization issues (Walters, 1986; Solberg, 2002) can only be addressed through studies of managers.Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide the needed review of past research by conducting a systematic analysis of empirical advertising standardization studies that are based on studies of managers. The rationale for such a study is derived both from the importance of such studies for the general field as outlined above and from the call for future research in the area to make more substantial contributions to the body of knowledge. Thus, this study's first objective is to provide a state-of-the-art review of the standardization field using studies of managers both in terms of the conceptual issues analyzed as well as the methodologies employed. Based on this analysis, this study's second aim is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field (as called for by Ryans et al., 2003) by providing guidelines on how substantial contributions may be made, both from a conceptual as well as a methodological perspective.The next section of this paper describes the methodology employed in this study. Subsequently, results of the conceptual and methodological analysis of previous studies in the field are presented and discussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn and implications for future research developed.\nMethodology: We decided to search the most influential international business, marketing, and advertising journals in order to identify studies of managers in the advertising standardisation field. The method chosen for the literature review is content analysis, a phenomenological research method \"... for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication\" (Berelson, 1952, p. 18) that gained importance in marketing research after Kassarjian's (1977) seminal article. This approach has already been used in similar studies in the fields of international marketing (Nakata and Huang, 2005) and international advertising (Royne Stafford, 2005; Zou, 2005).The selection of journals to scrutinize was carried out based on their quality and impact as assessed by previous reviews in the field, a procedure already used by literature reviews in the international marketing area (Nakata and Huang, 2005; Royne Stafford, 2005; Zou, 2005). Thus, we chose the most important journals in the marketing field as identified by Hult et al. (1997): Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, and Marketing Science. Furthermore, we added the most highly regarded international business journals based on DuBois and Reeb's (2000) categorization: Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business (formerly Columbia Journal of World Business), International Marketing Review, Journal of International Marketing and Management International Review. Subsequently, a selection of advertising journals was made based on Henthorne et al. (1998) as well as Royne Stafford (2005) which further added the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising (formerly called Current Issues and Research in Advertising) as well as International Journal of Advertising to the list of journals of interest. This gave 17 journals to target. Table I gives an overview of the journals analysed.In order to identify the relevant articles, several broad keyword searches (e.g. \"marketing AND standardisation\" \"advertising AND standardisation\") were carried out in the EBSCO host and Proquest databases. This led to the recognition of over 300 articles. Subsequently, the papers were scrutinized in order to eliminate studies that either did not directly relate to the standardisation field, studies that were not based on the manager perspective, or marketing standardisation studies that did not analyse advertising specifically. This analysis rendered 33 articles whose texts were subsequently scrutinised in order to identify further papers cited that might have escaped the systematic search of the databases. As this additional search did not lead to the identification of additional relevant studies, the analysis was conducted based on the initial 33 papers.The 33 papers were subsequently content analysed with the aims of firstly identifying conceptual and methodological patterns in past research and secondly deriving from these patterns fruitful avenues for future research. Conceptually, our goal was to find out which main research questions have been addressed in past studies as well as how the research foci varied over time. Additionally, we were interested in analysing what progress has been made specifically in relation to those issues within standardisation that can exclusively - or most effectively - be addressed through studies of managers, such as organisational and process issues. In relation to the methodologies employed, our analysis wanted to shed light on the geographic dimension of past studies, i.e. on issues like respondent base and geographic focus of analysis. Results of the analysis are presented in the next section.\nResults: Results of the analysis show that the first study was published in 1969 while the most recent one appeared in 2006, making thus 38 years of studies of managers in IAS.Conceptual issues in past research\nDiscussion: Conceptual issues\nConclusions: This review of the advertising standardisation literature from the manager perspective, to the best of our knowledge the first of its kind, has identified 33 empirical studies over a period of almost four decades. In conceptual terms, three major findings of our study should be highlighted. Firstly, our results have shown that the lack of agreement regarding how to define and measure advertising standardisation has posed a serious barrier to the comparability of results and thus to the advancement of knowledge in the field (as proposed by Ryans et al., 2003). Secondly, our analysis also showed that the relationship between advertising standardisation and company performance has only seldom been studied. However, recent work addressing this question represents a promising step forward in the study of standardisation phenomena in general as it focuses on the question of what constitutes \"good practice\" (Harris, 1994; Harris and Attour, 2003) as opposed to merely describing what the status quo in terms of company practices is. Finally, results brought forward in past research in relation to the company benefits and motivations associated with advertising standardisation reaffirm earlier doubts on the objectivity of managers involved in the standardisation decision and, as a consequence, on the decision itself. Thus, the specific analysis of subjective elements involved in the standardisation decision may be a fruitful area for future research. Methodologically, future research on standardisation using studies of managers would benefit from the analysis of managers at subsidiary level as well as those based in regions that have remain un- or under-researched such as Central and South America, Africa and large parts of Arab Asia.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper's objectives are firstly to systematically analyse patterns of research in international advertising standardisation (IAS) conducted among managers and secondly to suggest fruitful paths for future research in this area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Content analysis of academic papers published in major marketing, advertising and international business journals.\nFindings: - Results show that overall future research would benefit from a unified definition of and measurement procedures for advertising standardisation as only these can ensure the advancement of knowledge in the field. Additionally, more research is needed in order to further explore process issues in advertising standardisation, especially a newly proposed perspective related to the implementation process of the standardisation decision. Finally, an interesting avenue for future research relates to the study of the subjectivity involved in the standardisation decision.\nResearch limitations/implications: - As with all literature reviews, this paper is limited to analysing works in a selection of the top academic journals in the field. However, a careful choice of the most important journals has been made, providing a good reflection of knowledge in the area.\nOriginality/value: - This paper appears to be the first literature review focusing on manager studies in the field of IAS.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Employer of choice: does gender matter?
|
[
"Gender",
"Employee relations",
"Employers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Nowadays organizations strive to attract, keep and motivate individuals who can make a difference (Zhang et al., 2014). The challenge for organizations is twofold:\nLiterature review: Employer of choice\nThe role of gender: According to gender role theory (Eagly and Karau, 1991), male and female individuals are socialized in totally different ways, prescribing their choices, to a great extent, based on behaviours that are expected and acceptable. In this way, gender participation reflects similar cognitive schemas to those an individual him/herself can and/or could do and what others can and/or could do based on gender identity. For instance, women are raised to become good mothers, wives and daughters while men are raised as bread-winners (Dick, 2006). With regards to personality, women tend to be more people oriented whereas men tend to be more ambitious and dominant (Eagly, 1987). These socially appropriate roles for male and female individuals are brought into the working context (Lester, 2008), supported by organizational processes and practices (Acker, 1990) and organizational culture (Acker, 1998). As Ely and Meyerson (2000) indicate, the construction of divisions, symbols and cultural images, informal social interactions and organizational narratives are responsible for the imbalance and inequity within organizations. This is why \"gender is a foundational element of organizational structure and work life\" (Britton, 2000, p. 419) and the need for separate gender investigation of the genders is vital (Eagly et al., 1995).\nResearch methodology: Sample and procedures\nStatistical analysis and results: The first step of our statistical analysis included an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the underlying pattern behind the items used. Given the large number of items, EFA revealed 18 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. This is not surprising, as the number of components retained by eigenvalues is commonly between one-third and one-sixth the numbers of items included in the correlation matrix (Zwick and Velicer, 1986). In an attempt to limit the number of factors to those that really make sense, we proceeded with parallel analysis (PA), as suggested by Watkins (2000) (Table II).\nDiscussion of findings: The present study suggests that the delineation of the EOC construct is critical for both creating a holistic overview of what individuals value and desire as employees and facilitating organizations in their search and attainment of the most skilled, talented and willing employees. Realizing however that not all individuals are the same, we went a step further and examined potential differences in the view of EOC between men and women. Several interesting conclusions can be drawn regarding the EOC dimensions that emerged. Our results confirm the multi-dimensionality of the concept, identifying (in order of priority) quality of workplace relationships, working prerequisites, satisfying work setting, employee growth and development opportunities, successful organizational profile, work-life balance, social responsibility, internal customer orientation and participative decision making as EOC components. These dimensions have been identified by previous researchers (Batt and Valcour, 2003; Gibbons, 2006; Hull and Read, 2003; Kuhnel et al., 2009; Leary-Joyce, 2004; Molineux, 2012; Woodruffe, 2005) with the exception of two, namely, successful organizational profile and working prerequisites. The identification of two new EOC dimensions supports the suggestion of Martin et al. (2011), who insisted that the profile of the EOC needs to be extended.\nResearch limitations and directions for further research: To place this study in its scientific context, a number of limitations should be noted. First of all, although gender still plays the primary role among social identity parameters in the literature on identity, its role should be further investigated, taking into consideration the concurrent effect of other demographic characteristics, such as age, level of education and family status, that are significant in the employment relationship, in line with intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989). Besides, as Acker (2012, p. 214) posits, \"theorizing gender has become much more complicated because of intersectionality\".\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to set out to add to extant knowledge by delineating the content of employer of choice (EOC) regardless of sector and shedding light on the role of gender in the EOC profile. Becoming an employer of choice (EOC) is a strategy that can help organizations manage current and prospective employee expectations of their employment relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Responses were gathered from 896 working adults. The questionnaire was developed by the researchers to reflect the employment experience. Parallel analysis and factor analysis were used to analyze the content of the EOC, and t-tests compares EOC factors between male and female individuals.\nFindings: The results verify the multi-dimensionality of EOC and enrich its content. The most important facets of EOC for employees are the quality of workplace relationships, work prerequisites and satisfying work setting as the most important. With regards to how male and female employees perceive the EOC, both differences and similarities were found.\nResearch limitations/implications: Key limitations pertain to its cross-sectional design, the fact that gender is examined in isolation of other forms of identity that may interact with gender, and the fact that all respondents were Greek and white-collar.\nPractical implications: The findings can support HR and marketing managers in their effort to attract talented individuals and retain and activate talented employees.\nOriginality/value: Existing evidence identifies the profile of EOCs within specific sectors, while we construct an EOC profile that crosses sector boundaries. Moreover, it is the first time that research into EOC takes gender into consideration in a structured way to offer a clearer understanding of what is valued by individuals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Change and stability interaction processes in SMEs: a comparative case study
|
[
"Change",
"Stability",
"ISO 9000 series",
"Case studies",
"Small firms",
"Mexico",
"Change management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Economic and social development dynamics view Small Businesses as agents of change (Audretsch, 1995; Audretsch and Thurik, 2001). Scholars have argued that organizational change process is very complex and difficult to manage successfully (Li and Mitchell, 2009). One cause may be that, inside companies, complementary \"logics\" are in opposition (Alter, 1996; Mbengue, 1997; Sutton-Brady, 2008; Stoltzfus et al., 2011). These authors uphold that change and stability are opposed, but also, complementary.Our literature review shows that change and stability are two inseparable concepts of organizations' life (Lewin, 1947; Snow and Hambrick, 1980; Mbengue, 1997; Leana and Barry, 2000). In spite of this, most authors in management study change and stability as two separate concepts, thus building two visions of organizations that confront each other: organizational change and organizational stability (Dunbar, 1983; Quinn and Cameron, 1988; Van de Ven and Poole, 1995; Mbengue, 1997; Sutton-Brady, 2008; and Reschke and Kraus, 2009). These researchers polarize their representation of organizations into two opposing perspectives (change and stability).Kolb (1997) identifies two parallel perspectives in quality systems (ISO 9000); the first one emphasizes innovation, creativity and processes of continuous improvement, and concentrates on change. The second one is based on ISO norms with the objective to certify that the company's products and/or services are produced according to international norms. This second perspective concentrates on stability.Kolb stresses that the implementation of quality systems (ISO 9000) in small and medium size businesses is especially interesting. Since it is a deep transformational process, it implies defining and specifying concrete objectives, functions, and work methods.Despite some interest in the literature to examine the relation between change and stability (Quinn and Cameron, 1988; Van de Ven and Poole, 1995; Mbengue, 1997; Leana and Barry, 2000; Lusher and Lewis, 2008; Reschke and Kraus, 2009) few empirical studies analyze change and stability interaction (Feldman and Pentland, 2003; Sutton-Brady, 2008), and they both call for more research in this field.By addressing this gap, our research question is focused on understanding how change and stability interact during the implementation of a specific change initiative (ISO 9000)? This research question contributes to previous research by exploring the different ways in which change and stability can interact in small businesses. Notwithstanding the increasing interest to understand small businesses' change management (Nicholls-Nixon et al., 2000), we still know relatively little about how change and stability interact. We found only one study that focused on this issue (Costello, 2000).Consequently, the objective of this study is to propose a theoretical model to illustrate the success/failure factors influencing ISO certification process. It will be constructed in two steps. First, a preliminary model including change and stability variables is developed from the literature review. Second, through an empirical study based on the comparative analysis of nine case studies emerging from six small businesses in Mexico engaged in the same change initiative, the preliminary model will be modified. Thus, we hope to provide new insights into how organizations manage change and stability, especially in small businesses.This paper is organized into five sections. Following the introduction, section 2, describes the components of our preliminary theoretical model derived from a literature review. Some implications are developed for small businesses. The methodology is outlined in section 3. Section 4, addresses the research results in terms of change and stability interaction. The discussion is presented in section 5; it considers the revised models that emerged from our findings. Section 6 concludes with managerial and theoretical implications for managing change and stability.\n2. Preliminary theoretical model: factors influencing ISO certification process: Our literature review identified five clusters of relevant factors that can have an impact on ISO certification process: Contextual Factors, Triggers of ISO Certification; Resistance of Change (Stability); Characteristics of Change Initiative and Expected Results of ISO Certification Process. This literature led us to create a preliminary model that integrates the five groups of factors and illustrates our research propositions; this is shown in Figure 1. This approach is consistent with Yin (1989, 1994); Sabino (1992); and Wacheux (1996) who argued that case studies should be guided by theoretical propositions that could be refined and improved by the development of the cases. This preliminary model helps us identify relevant factors in terms of change and stability influencing ISO certification as addressed in the following discussion.Contextual factors influencing ISO certification process\n3. Research methodology: Process research is interested in how and why some significant temporally evolving phenomenon unfolds over time (Bizzi and Langley, 2012, p. 225). These authors suggest that process research is helpful to understand processes in the past or follow them in real time. Leonard-Barton (1990) suggests that combining retrospective and real-time analysis is an effective way to handle the tradeoff between these two research designs. Even if this author does it at the same time, most of process studies do this sequentially. Retrospective research design generally starts from knowledge of an outcome, and works backwards to understand how it came about. These approaches are particularly useful to study how change and stability interact during ISO 9000 execution process and to understand the factors influenced the outcome (certified and non-certified firms).Bizzi and Langley (2012) argued that process researchers should manage key challenges associated to the identification and selection of specifc cases to study, the right people to talk to and the time periods to focus on. This means that process researchers need to think purposefully about how their sampling selection might affect the information-richness of their findings (Patton, 1990, 2002).Sampling selection: multiple case studies\n4. Results: This part of the paper provides empirical evidence to answer our research question: how change and stability interact during the implementation of ISO 9000? Our findings show that change and stability interaction is different for certified and non-certified cases. For this reason, we reorganized the five propositions of our preliminary theoretical model within the empirical categories of data displayed in Table II and in Figure 2. Thus, the five preliminary research propositions will not appear in the order they were originally presented. Italicized comments represent actual quotations from the sources of information mentioned in the methodology section. To facilitate understanding and avoid unnecessary repetitions we contrast certified and non-certified cases inside each stage of ISO certification process.Stage 1: ISO 9000 Pre-implementation\n5. Discussion: Three revised models from ISO 9000 as a change initiative for SMEs\n6. Conclusions: Rethinking the relationship between change and stability is therefore critical for new theory building and for deriving implications for guiding modern organizations' practices. Our research findings show that stability variables can influence the successful results of a specific change initiative (certified cases). The three theoretical models represent one of the first proposals that integrate both perspectives (change and stability) into a pragmatic frame for entrepreneurs, owners, consultants and managers of small businesses. The models pictured in Figures 2-4 provide a contribution to the change management and entrepreneurship literature by showing small business managers the three processes and the relevant variables to take into account when they consider implementing ISO 9000. The models answer our research question by explaining how change and stability interact. A key finding that emerged from our comparative case studies is that change and stability are not necessarily in opposition.A theoretical insight that emerges from this research is that the three revised models mentioned previously also show a process of change that could be complementary to those of the literature (Lewin, 1947; and Kotter, 2007). From this perspective, the contribution of this research to change theory is to integrate, in the same framework, change and stability. Even if our conclusions are limited to the SMEs that execute ISO 9000, as a change initiative, this point could make reference to companies of all sizes and we need to analyze other change initiatives in order to generalize the use of this change process proposition. This issue should concern future research.Future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to explore interactions between change and stability during the implementation of a specific change initiative (ISO 9000). It attempts to develop a theoretical framework on change and stability management in small firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research uses a process approach based on retrospective comparative case study methodology. Data collection in the six companies lasted over a year. This gives the opportunity to contrast failed change initiatives against successful ones.\nFindings: - Two models emerged from this approach; they support the notion that change and stability could be complementary during the different phases of the change initiative the authors analyzed. The findings show that total absence of stability variables in the change initiative could have negative effect on results.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research is based on a multiple case study approach, which limits the generalizability of the findings.\nOriginality/value: - This is one of the first studies that applies and empirically tests the change and stability relation in small firms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The might of the brand: A comparative analysis of brand prevalence in an emerging market setting
|
[
"South Africa",
"Experiment",
"Empirical study",
"Perceived quality",
"Private label",
"Brand name"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The influence of the brand on perceived quality, as an area of research, can be traced back to the 1940s, where two researchers conducted a sighted vs unsighted experiment on Coke and Pepsi (Bowles and Pronko, 1948). The results of their experiment found that respondents were unable to correctly identify brands based solely on taste. This implied that any preference to either Coke or Pepsi was a result of the label, in addition to intrinsic attributes. This sparked an array of studies, each using different product categories in an attempt to replicate and validate these findings (Kaswell, 2007).\nConceptual overview: The importance of perceived quality in the consumer's decision process\nMethodology: Research design\nResults of phase I: the experiment: The findings from the experiment (H3, H4, H5a and H5b) are initially discussed below and, thereafter, followed by the results of the conceptual modeling process:\nResults of phase II: conceptual model: The conceptual model developed within this study attempts to empirically test whether brand name influences perceived quality (i.e. H1) and whether day-to-day interaction with the brand moderates this relationship (i.e. H2). In this section, initially the measurement model is tested for reliability and validity and, thereafter, the structural model is analyzed.\nDiscussion: Insights gleaned from phase I: the experiment\nManagerial implications: This study underscores the importance of creating, and managing, powerful private label brands. Unfortunately, this is considerably easier said than done.\nLimitations and areas of future research: This research was limited to the consideration of a single product category, that of orange juice. This was deliberately chosen as a low risk, low involvement and low price product category, conducive to private label brand adoption. The results will almost certainly differ across different product categories, particularly those that fit a different profile pertaining to the criteria listed above.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study examined the influence of supermarket brand name on the perceived quality of its private label merchandise. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the fascia brand of a retail chain has the power to positively or negatively skew prevailing opinions concerning the quality of its own merchandise range, beyond the set of product-specific intrinsic benefits.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A within-subject two-phase research design was adopted, intially using an experimental approach and thereafter modeling the cognitive effect with the inclusion of a moderator variable (brand interaction). Paired sample t-tests were used to assess differences in mean ratings and partial least squares analysis was implemented in order to test the hypothesized relationships.\nFindings: In the experiment phase, both products were rated equally at the outset in unsighted conditions, however, ratings diverged when brand name was introduced. Here, the high-end private label brand was scored considerably better than in its unsighted condition, while the low-end brand suffered a marginal decline in rating. In the modeling phase, two iterations of the conceptual model were run, considering the high-end and low-end brands seperately. The results were mutually reinforcing. A strong relationship, significant at the one percent level, was found to exist between brand name and perceived quality for both the lower- and higher-end brands, whereas no moderation effect was found to exist. This suggests that entrenched views of the brand strongly determine the perceived quality thereof, with operational and day-to-day fluctuations having little bearing on this.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study focusses solely on South Africa, an emerging market within the BRICS consortium. To this end, the results are not transferable to other markets. The context of the study pitted a top tier retail brand against a mid tier retail brand. In accordance with this eventuality, lower income consumers, and retail chains catering to this market segment, do not constitute components of this particular study.\nOriginality/value: While the relationship between store image and perceived quality of private label merchandise is well documented, this study considers the effect through an experimental design. Here, perceived quality was measured both with and without brand cues evident. Thus, the results are likely to be more accurate than those acquired through strictly survey research. As a defining feature, the study points to the brand name as being a supremely powerful extrinsic cue, and hinting at the fact that it is long term influences that create a distinct brand aura, with these being largely undisturbed by short term fluctuations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The influence of organisation culture on E-commerce adoption
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)",
"E-commerce adoption maturity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: E-commerce adoption refers to \"an establishment of a company web site to share information, maintain relationships and conduct transactions using electronic networks\" (Zwass, 1996). Implicit to this definition is that SMEs can widely benefit from e-commerce because time and space barriers can be removed by an internet-based platform. In general, SMEs may gain fundamental benefits from e-commerce in terms of reduction of costs for office establishment and operating costs (e.g. personnel and equipment). That is, the low operating costs and low technology requirements of e-commerce enable SMEs to offer reasonable prices and an effective service to not only the domestic but also the global market (Phillips, 1998). In particular, for developing countries like Sri Lanka, e-commerce adoption can contribute to economic growth, improve trade efficiency and even facilitate the integration of the countries into the global economy (Annan, 2002). Sri Lanka is a developing country situated in a South Asia region and the population is 20.33 million. Like other developing countries it possesses less ICT infrastructure across the country. But developing countries have the potential to achieve rapid and sustainable economic development by building ICT-enabled small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector (UNDP, 2004). SMEs play a critical role in economic development, and Sri Lankan SMEs are no exception. The emergence of the internet has allowed Sri Lankan SMEs to implement e-commerce initiatives and compete effectively in both domestic and international markets.\nRelated work and research framework: There is no universally accepted definition of organisational culture (Leidner and Kayworth, 2006). Kilman and Saxton (1985) stated that organisational culture is the \"shared philosophy, ideology, values, assumption, beliefs, hope, behaviour and norms that bound the organisation together\". George and Jones (2002) defined it as an \"informal design of values, norms that control the way people and groups within the organisation interact through each other and with parties outside the organisation\". Several information systems (IS) researchers linked organisational culture to the success of IS adoption (whereby e-commerce is also considered as a type of IS implementation) (Balthazard and Cooke, 2004; Harper and Utley, 2001; Kanungo, 1998; Klein and Sorra, 1996; Ruppel and Harrington, 2001). Leidner and Kayworth (2006) provided an excellent overview of the role of culture in IS adoption and implementation. Klein and Sorra (1996) suggested that implementation effectiveness is a function of the strength of an organisation's climate for the implementation of that innovation, and the fit of that innovation to targeted users' value. Gold et al. (2001) proved that an organisational knowledge-sharing culture and structure can affect the effectiveness of knowledge management through creating better organisational capacity and infrastructure. Based on the Competing Value Framework, McDermott and Stock (1999) examined how different culture types (market, adhocracy, clan and hierarchy) are linked to different IT benefits, including satisfaction, operational, organisational and competitive benefits. Two of the conclusions reached are that market culture is positively related to competitive benefits, and adhocracy culture is positively related to IT satisfaction.\nResearch method: The data for this research were gathered through a questionnaire survey. The research population consisted of SMEs in Sri Lanka. This study defines SMEs as companies that are privately held and with less than 250 employees (Gamage, 2003). A sampling frame was acquired from the registered SMEs in Colombo (the largest city and the commercial, industrial and cultural capital of Sri Lanka) through the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. The reason for selecting only Colombo is that e-commerce usage by SMEs is negligible in the rest of the country and the fact that Colombo has greater ICT infrastructure. The samples for this study were then chosen using a stratified random sampling technique based on the business type of the SMEs. From the sampling frame, a total of 200 SMEs were chosen as the sample and this represents more than 50 per cent of the population. The questionnaire was mailed to 200 SMEs in Sri Lanka in 2010. A total of 87 organisations responded to this survey. However, responses from six organisations were dropped as they were incomplete. Hence, a sample of 81 organisations was retained for further analysis. This gave a response rate of 42 per cent. Statistical analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS 21 software. Regression and cluster analysis methods were used to analyse the empirical data.\nResult and discussion: Among the 81 responding SMEs, 53.1 per cent of participating firms had fewer than 50 employees (i.e. small-sized firms), and the rest had between 50 and 249 employees (i.e. medium-sized firms). The data analysis indicates that medium-sized enterprises possess a higher level of e-commerce adoption (i.e. mean value of 51 per cent) as compared to small-sized enterprises. In order to determine the e-commerce adoption maturity level of the responding SMEs, a cross-tabulation of the responses by maturity cluster for each activity, according to Daniel et al.'s (2002) e-commerce maturity classification, is presented in Table II. A kh2 analysis of the responses for each activity indicates significance for all activities (significance <0.0001), showing that the clustering technique adopted is able to produce four major clusters that are distinct for all listed e-commerce activities. Thus, this finding supports Daniel et al.'s (2002) four-staged maturity model for e-commerce adoption.\nConclusion and implication: This paper empirically examines the influence of different organisational cultures on e-commerce adoption maturity in SMEs in Sri Lanka. Through a questionnaire survey method, the research finding reveals the significance of organisation culture and its influence on e-commerce adoption maturity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the influence of different organisational cultures on e-commerce adoption maturity in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data for this study were gathered using postal survey questionnaire and analysed using quantitative analysis methods.\nFindings: The result indicates a positive correlation between adhocracy culture and e-commerce adoption. However, those firms with hierarchy cultural characteristics indicate a negative correlation in relation to e-commerce adoption. The organisational culture differences explain these issues.\nResearch limitations/implications: The analysis is conducted in a single country (i.e. Sri Lanka). Initial findings provide a basis for further research in other country.\nPractical implications: This research reveals the significance of organisational culture and how it influences e-commerce adoption maturity, both positively and negatively. The research findings are useful for SMEs that are planning or are in the process of implementing or reviewing their e-commerce, as well as for SMEs policy makers and business support community that engaged with e-commerce initiatives.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to research the influence of different types of organisational cultures on e-commerce adoption maturity. It fills the research gap by advancing the understanding between the association of organisation cultures and e-commerce adoption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
From initiatives to employee-driven innovations
|
[
"Innovation",
"Activity theory",
"Power relations",
"Path creation",
"Transformative agency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovations research over the years has concentrated on both ends of an innovation process, namely ideas generation and ideas realisation. Ideas generation and creativity require the innovative behaviour of employees. Several studies have focused on this starting point of the process (Amabile, 1996; Mumford, 2000; Ohly et al., 2006). Innovations implementation has also been explored in the research literature: what are the key factors that facilitate the successful implementation of an innovation (Klein and Knight, 2005); what is the role of the management in innovations implementation (De Jong and Den Hartog, 2007; Michaelis et al., 2010); and what is the impact of the organisational climate (Baer and Frese, 2003). Thus, innovations research has overlooked a crucial part of the innovations process - how initiatives turn to innovations. This study focuses on the grey area that has often been overlooked.\n2. Innovation, path creation and power relations in work organisations: Innovation is a multi-dimensional concept that has been approached from several perspectives. Different definitions exist in the literature (e.g. West and Farr, 1990, p. 9; Klein and Sorra, 1996, p. 1057; LePine and Van Dyne, 1998, p. 865). Central to these definitions is that an innovation can be an idea, a process, a product or a procedure that challenges former practices, and leads to better accomplishment of goals. Furthermore, an innovation is new to its developers and potential users, regardless of whether it has been invented and implemented in other organisations. Thus, innovation is often examined in a local context where it is developed and processed. We apply this broad definition of an innovation to this study. According to Meeus and Edquist (2006), innovations can be small continuous changes in an activity or major discoveries or breakthroughs in a particular field. Incremental changes focus on modifications and improvements in products, processes or current practices. Radical innovations can bring earth-moving changes to ways of acting and possibly lead to massive shifts in technology and the creation of new businesses. As Fenwick (2003) points out, opportunities for innovative initiatives appear in everyday problem-solving situations.\n3. The setting and the data collection: The site of this research is a work unit called Solution Services at one of the sorting centres of the Posti Corporation in Finland, where we conducted a CL intervention during the Winter of 2010-2011. Posti is a service provider of postal, logistics and e-commerce services, owned by the state of Finland. The activity system of the work unit comprised eight blue-collar employees, four senior and four junior members. Four of the employees were female and four male. The names used in this paper have been changed to protect their identities. The role of the employees was to handle deviations that might occur during the sorting process at the sorting centre or in other phases of the delivery process within the company. The employees did not engage in trouble-shooting activity individually (Orr, 1996), but collectively. The work was carried out by utilising several traditional and information technology tools. The work unit was part of a community consisting of other sorting centres and customer service departments in the company.\n4. Methods of analysis: In this study, we have applied three different classification methods to answer the four research questions. The coding categories for each method are summarised in Table I. The categories for RQ1 and RQ4 are presented in regular font, for RQ2 in bold, and for RQ3 in italics.\n5. Profiles of initiative paths: Our first research question is:\n6. Types of innovation and dynamic relationships among the initiatives: We now turn to our second research question:\n7. Factors contributing to the implementation of an initiative: In this chapter, we focus on our third research question and discuss, with three examples from the data, which factors supported the implementation of an initiative and which led to a situation where an initiative was terminated. The role of power relations is a focus of our analysis. The four fields in Figure 4 show the number of initiatives in which the factor in question influenced implementation or termination.\n8. The sustainability of initiative and innovation implementation: The researcher interviewed the participants in the CL during the Summer and Autumn of 2013. Major changes had taken place since the Spring of 2012. The original group had consisted of eight employees and now there were ten workers. Moreover, the supervisor had changed. Despite the increase in the number of employees, human resources were insufficient to meet the demands of the increased amount of work. The employees faced the continuous challenge of efficiency in daily work. The work had become more monotonous. The idea of a multi-skilled employee, which had been regarded as important in the CL, had been set aside as it did not support an efficient performance of duties.\n9. Discussion and conclusions: In this study, we have examined the production of initiatives by the employees at a work unit during a special CL intervention and longitudinal follow-up period. Over the years innovations research has highlighted the two ends of the innovations process - ideas generation and creativity and ideas implementation. This study has focused on the path from initiatives to innovations. Our overall research question was: how are the initiatives turned into innovations, developed and implemented, or terminated? To answer this question, more specific questions were needed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the generation of innovations by employees and the creation of initiative paths, and to discover which factors contribute to the implementation of an initiative.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on longitudinal qualitative research, the study explores the profiles of initiative paths and the types of innovations and relationships among the generated innovations.\nFindings: It was found that, to become an innovation, an initiative followed different paths along which the processing and outcomes varied, as did the time needed for experimentation. The creation of initiative paths required the transformative agency of the actors involved. Power relations had an impact on the generation of initiatives and implementation of innovations.\nOriginality/value: Innovations research has concentrated on the generation of ideas and the implementation of innovations. This study focuses on the process path along which ideas become innovations and on the role of power relations in the innovations process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Revisiting IT readiness: an approach for small firms
|
[
"Strategy",
"Small firms",
"Project management",
"Manufacturing",
"IT readiness",
"Organizational capability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: While numerous studies attest to a difficult and dichotomous relationship between small firms and (IT) adoption, far fewer studies have explored the role played by IT currently in use by the firm and how this influences further IT use. This is of concern because small firms risk being locked out of increasingly (electronically) integrated supply chains by investing only in basic IT applications and infrastructure (Giannakouris and Smihily, 2013). Some scholars have begun to use the term \"IT readiness\" to cast new light on how the firm's ability to exploit and derive benefit from their existing technology profile conditions future use (e.g. Iacovou et al., 1995; Haug et al., 2011).\n2. Conceptual development of IT readiness: Reflecting its relative youth, the concept of \"readiness\" has yet to be consistently defined or applied. \"Readiness\" for example has been applied at the national, international, and firm level in various different guises such as ecommerce, sustainability and egovernment (e.g. Dutta and Mia, 2011; Chen et al., 2006; Molla et al., 2011; Koh et al., 2008 ). Molla et al., (2011) points to the \"readiness\" literature having two distinct viewpoints: as a precursor for change; and as a capability for building, rebuilding and upgrading. In the former, antecedent conditions within the firm in terms of IT infrastructure are thought to impact on the implementation of future change initiatives (Guha et al., 1997). This relates to the drivers and barriers to IT implementation discussed within the IT adoption literature. In the latter, IT supports the firm in renewing capabilities and adapting to changing external conditions (Johnston and Carrico, 1988). This is more reflective of the resource based view which explores capability development and renewal at the firm level. In this paper, the focus is on IT readiness as a capability at the firm level.\n3. Conceptual framework: Our primary theoretical orientation is that of the resource based view of the firm which stresses the role played by a firm's distinctive capabilities in sustaining competitive advantage (Peteraf, 1993). This view argues that deploying existing internal skills in new ways (innovation) provides the best strategic response to exploiting opportunities. Firm capabilities are built through the integration of a firm's resources and skills base which are firm specific and path dependent (Penrose, 1959; Wernerfelt, 1984). Such resources display characteristics of being rare, not easily traded (immobile), not easy to copy (non-substitutable) and valuable (Barney, 1991). Organisationally, these resources include human skills through the accumulation of knowledge and expertise and non-human resources such as technology assets, finance, buildings and location (Kay, 1993). Our secondary theoretical orientation is to incorporate insights from the IT maturity literature to introduce into IT readiness a consideration of IT technology infrastructure. This gives attention to the path dependent nature of IT investment and the capability to pursue value creation opportunities. By IT readiness this study explicitly recognises the technological context in the following definition: the capability to pursue value creation opportunities through IT based on a set of strategic, organisational and technological pre-conditions. In the following sections, the key elements making up the strategy, organisation and technology constructs are further discussed in relation to the small firm.\n4. Methodology: An online questionnaire was submitted to a selected sample of manufacturing small firms in the UK. The questionnaire measured the three constructs of the IT readiness framework: IT strategy, IT process, and technological complexity. The first two constructs were explored by multi-item scales, whereas technological complexity was assessed with a single item. Factor scores of the emerging factors were then used as classifying variables in a cluster analysis to identify groups of firms showing a similar level of IT readiness. Finally, the resulting clusters were also interpreted with respect to descriptive variables.\n5. Results: The survey yielded a net response rate of 7.8 per cent (13.3 per cent gross) or 117 firms, comparable with other studies on IT and small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (e.g. Pickernell et al., 2013). Table IV provides general profiling demographics for the sample, showing that the majority of small firms have been trading for more than ten years and just over half of the sample is engaged in the manufacture of machinery and equipment.\n6. Discussion: Recently, Cragg et al. (2011) argued that SMEs could enhance their economic contribution if they could establish ways of identifying significant gaps that limit their deployment of IT. This study suggests that these inconsistencies, at least for small manufacturing firms in the UK, reflect disparities in the antecedent conditions for IT which can be characterised as differing states of IT readiness. Table VIII summarises the comparative IT readiness profile for each cluster, suggesting the small firms surveyed differed in their capability to derive value from IT investments. Small firms in the \"proactive\" cluster appear most ready to extract value from IT because they score comparatively highly on three out of the four constructs. In contrast, firms in the \"ill-equipped\" cluster appear poorly positioned having scored low or very low in three out of the four constructs. Firms in the \"constrained\" cluster offer the most varied profile having scored highly in two constructs, averagely in one and comparatively very low in the remaining construct.\n7. Conclusion: This study presents a contingent view of small firms which indicates the differing profiles that materialize as the contexts of strategy, organisational processes, project management and IT investments vary. Conceptually, this paper extends the notion of IT readiness to incorporate the influence of technological complexity on the firm. Empirically, this study not only establishes the validity of combining the key framework elements but also suggested a further refinement in distinguishing between organisational processes and project management skills. In doing so, this study partially addresses Haug et al.'s (2011) call for further empirical refinement of the framework of IT readiness. This helped to clarify that IT readiness requires both the building of some internal IT capability and operational skills in project management to meet strategic IT expectations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing from the literature, the purpose of this paper is to offer an empirically validated framework for examining information technology (IT) readiness in small firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual framework of IT readiness for small firms is developed and validated empirically using a quantitative survey of 117 UK manufacturing small firms to identify distinct clusters of firms according to their states of IT readiness.\nFindings: The survey responses are grouped according to three distinct profiles that display varying degrees of IT readiness depending upon their strategic motivation, IT processes, project management and technology complexity.\nResearch limitations/implications: Prior studies examining IT readiness in small-and medium-sized enterprises have not offered a differentiated understanding of small firms that is grounded in quantitative data. The varying profiles of small firms discovered indicate potential paths of IT readiness which offers a basis for further research using longitudinal case studies.\nPractical implications: Managerial motivation is not a sufficient condition for achieving IT readiness; it requires both strategic and operational capabilities that have significant implications for training and skills development in small firms. Understanding the level of IT readiness of their organisation can help managers identify areas needing improvement in their use of IT.\nSocial implications: Findings suggest differentiated policy support is required for various small business clusters identified in the study.\nOriginality/value: The novelty of the conceptual model differs from the prior literature on IT readiness by explicitly recognising the potential effect of IT maturity on the capability of the firm to respond to opportunities in its external environment. The paper also distinguishes between internal IT processes and project management skills.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding performance management in schools: a dialectical approach
|
[
"Appraisal of teachers",
"Classroom observations",
"Headteachers",
"Learning walks",
"Performance management of teachers",
"Professional autonomy of teachers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Performance management in schools in the UK is a relatively recent phenomenon, arriving in 2000 (DfEE, 2000) in a formalised and mandatory form. For the first time teachers became subject to the human resource practices of the private sector, a means to enjoin the needs of the organisation with the needs of individuals for the sake of school effectiveness. The world's biggest performance-management system (Mahony and Hextall, 2001), the success of schools was envisioned as the inevitable result of introducing appraisal and the measurement of competence to teachers. However, the effectiveness of the policy itself was mixed with too little understanding of the concepts and practices of performance management (Brown, 2005). The solution was the introduction of new regulations in 2007 (TDA, 2007) that required schools to make explicit the links between organisational improvement and the performance of individual teachers via the collection of evidence including up to three hours of teaching observation per year, staff training and the scrutiny of pupils' work (Morton, 2011).\nMethodology: This aim of this research was to examine headteachers' interpretation of the 2013 performance-management reforms and its impact upon the procedures of evaluation and judgement of teachers. Interviews were held with ten headteachers across three local authorities, five in secondary schools and five in primary schools. Purposive sampling was used to select schools in a range of settings in terms of socio-economic context. There were four female heads in total, three in primary and one in secondary and all schools came under the local authority apart from two secondary academies. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews of between 60 and 107 minutes that were recorded and transcribed in full and analysis was via open coding to identify the major themes before selective coding took place. As well as interviews, I was given a guided tour in three schools that included taking me into lessons as part of impromptu learning walks, walking through newly built open plan learning spaces and glass-encased classrooms. Field notes from these walks were written as soon as I left each of the schools and analysed in tandem with the interview transcriptions.\nResponsibility to pupils and responsibility to teachers: The first dialectical tension to be considered is one of responsibility to pupils and the responsibility to teachers:\nExternal accountability and professional autonomy: The second tension is between external accountability and the professional autonomy of teachers. Throughout this research the spectre of Ofsted loomed large and external accountability was to them rather than to other stakeholders such as parents:\nDiscipline and support: The third tension is between performance management as a means of discipline and as a means of support. Once the methods of data collection on teacher performance have enabled school managers to make a judgement of quality, this tension moves to the fore. With the General Teaching Council for England abolished and incompetence managed at the organisational level rather than regulated at a national level, performance management provides the tools for poor teachers to be disciplined. Formally such discipline is found in capability procedures:\nFormal processes and informal practice: The final dialectic is between the formal processes of performance management and the more improvisational informal practices of performance management. Teaching observations, appraisals, pupil feedback and capability mechanisms are clearly delineated and formal, fixed both in terms of process and timings: teachers are aware when their appraisal will be and who will conduct it and formal teaching observations are usually scheduled in advance, often in negotiation with teachers. These fixed processes also included \"learning walks\" where senior school leaders or their delegates would walk along corridors and go into classrooms for short periods to observe practice. In most of the schools such learning walks were fixed - in Sue's primary school learning walks were weekly; in Keith's secondary school learning walks happened every lesson with senior leaders operating on a rota system.\nDiscussion: Performance management in schools is far more than a set of policies and procedures and any reductionist approach to the subject should be avoided. Too often performance management is considered through a binary lens as a means of achieving school and student success on one hand or a means of subjugating and de-professionalising the teaching workforce. Instead, performance management in schools should be seen in dialectical terms, as a series of tensions and contradictions that are enacted within the school community affecting students, teachers and senior leaders equally. A dialectical perspective can embrace learning walks as a means of driving up standards as a moral imperative while at the same time acknowledging the impact of surveillance upon a professional workforce; it can recognise that performance management may assist in achieving good or better in an Ofsted inspection while simultaneously eroding a sense of professional autonomy in the classroom; it can foreground the tension between disciplining a poorly performing teacher who is negatively affecting the success of their students while at the same time offering a means of supporting struggling teachers keen to improve; finally it can recognise that performance management may be informed by the formal processes of lesson observations and data analysis while concomitantly being informed by the informality of \"drop-ins\" and discussions with students. By viewing performance management as series of dialectics, we can move beyond the traditional dialectic of manager and managed to explore the complexity of pragmatics and power.\nConclusion: Performance management in schools has become truly embedded within organisational practices, a means of achieving the success of students and the requirements of Ofsted and the Department for Education. Yet the binary consideration of performance management suggests that it retains the character of its source (the private sector), analysis remaining largely within the opposition of manager and managed, the subjugator and the subjugated. Such a reductionist approach fails to adequately capture the complexities and tensions of performance management in schools that are a direct consequence of schools' difference from the private sector. A dialectical perspective not only allows us to problematise performance management, it also allows us to understand performance management in schools as distinct from other sectors, especially business sectors. It allows us to understand teaching as distinct from other jobs, as more than a role of production that can be enhanced through scientific management processes. A dialectical perspective on performance management, by highlighting complexity and tensions, provides a reminder of the highly skilled nature not only of teaching but being a teacher.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a dialectical framework for the examination of performance management in schools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based upon a qualitative study of ten headteachers that involved in-depth semi-structured interviews.\nFindings: The findings identified four dialectical tensions that underpin performance management in schools: the responsibility to teachers and the responsibility to pupils; external accountability and professional autonomy; discipline of teachers and support of teachers; fixed processes and improvisational practices.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper provides a means of examining the performance management of teachers from an alternative perspective, one that embraces tensions and contradictions and gives headteachers a richer understanding of how teachers are evaluated and judged.\nOriginality/value: This paper moves beyond the traditional perspective of performance management in schools as a means of subjugation and control and offers an original dialectical framework within which to examine the phenomenon.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention strategies
|
[
"Retention",
"Framework",
"Work-life balance",
"Human resource management",
"Talent management",
"Retention strategies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Retaining good staff in the hospitality industry is a constant source of concern for practitioners and a continuing area of interrogation for hospitality academics (Yang et al., 2012; Davidson and Wang, 2011). A key element in the research on employee retention is the need to retain talented staff, and a number of strategies to this end are explored in the literature such as maintaining a work-life balance (WLB) (Qu and Zhao, 2012) and increasing job satisfaction, organisational commitment and other employee attitudes (Ilies et al., 2009).\nLiterature review: Talent management\nDiscussion: The review of literature relating to the management of talented staff clearly indicates that the variables that were identified in the earlier review Deery (2008) as being key indicators of job satisfaction, organisation commitment and other personal dimensions such as stress and exhaustion remain important. This suggests that the basic elements of Figure 1 are still important drivers, although issues such as presenteeism which was a key area of concern in the earlier review of 2008 appeared less often in the literature after this time. This may mean that staff are working long hours but are not staying at work merely \"to be seen\". Even though the issue of WLB was identified as a factor in the earlier review, the review of the literature since 2009 undertaken for the current paper has a much stronger focus on WLB than was previously the case. This may indicate that WLB has either become a larger issue within the industry or that hospitality researchers have perceived it as a more pressing issue in the industry.\nConclusions: The review conducted of the more recent literature in the field of employee retention and talent management confirmed that the issues identified in the earlier literature as being the key drivers of staff retention remain important. However, the importance of managing WLB has been identified as essential to retaining staff, especially the more talented in the later literature. Although WLB was identified as an issue in the earlier review, it was not recognised as a key driver of staff turnover/retention.\nImplications for the workplace: It is critical that organisations introduce workplace policies that are strongly endorsed by staff if retention rates are to be increased. As employee's needs vary from one organisation to another, each individual organisation must engage with their staff to identify the policies that are likely to have the most traction.\nFuture research: Given the importance of WLB as a factor driving retention or turnover, it is important that more research be undertaken to identify in more detail the strategies that can be developed to address WLB issues and the factors impacting their success. It is also important to determine the decision-making processes that lead to higher employee intention to leave an organisation or for the employee to remain in the organisation with commitment and job satisfaction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the themes of talent management, work-life balance (WLB) and retention strategies in the hospitality industry. The study was undertaken through an analysis of the key themes in the most recent literature. The paper uses a framework incorporating organisational and industry attributes, personal employee dimensions, work-life conflict and organisational strategies and examines these in relation to whether job satisfaction, organisational commitment and employee retention improve.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses employee turnover literature to underpin a discussion of successful talent management. Using a key word search in both the hospitality literature and more mainstream management research, it divides the literature into four themes, namely, employee attitudes, personal employee dimensions, WLB and organisational strategies for employee retention.\nFindings: The key findings emerging from this examination of the literature show that WLB appears to have become one of the key variables when addressing issues of employee management and retention. In the recent literature, the link between employee attitudes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, personal dimensions, such as stress and alcohol abuse, and WLB have become closer and intertwined. These links assist in gaining more focussed strategies to assist in retaining talented staff.\nResearch limitations/implications: The meta-analysis of relevant literature provides an understanding of recent thinking in the area of WLB, talent management and the retention of talented staff. The article reframes the key issues in light of changes in the work environment and presents a new framework for future research and industry application.\nPractical implications: Given that WLB has become such an important factor, it is critical that managers regularly monitor the levels of WLB being experienced by staff. As staff are not always aware of WLB being a problem until it is too late, managers will need to find appropriate methods for assessing the presence of problems in this area.\nSocial implications: The development of WLB strategies within the hospitality industry will assist in providing a healthier lifestyle for employees. This will then positively impact on family and social relationships.\nOriginality/value: The meta-analysis of relevant literature provides an understanding of recent thinking in the area of WLB, talent management and the retention of talented staff. The article reframes the key issues in light of changes in the work environment and presents a new framework for future research and industry application.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How firms can attract top talent: The growing influence of non-financial rewards
|
[
"Recruitment",
"Knowledge workers",
"Talent attraction",
"Total rewards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nTalent and success: The late Steve Jobs once said that hiring the best people was a massive factor in his own success. Indeed, the Apple co-founder admitted going to \"exceptional lengths\" to get the right talent on board. Few will question the rationale of such an approach. After all, plenty evidence shows that talented employees invariably play a considerable role in organizational success.\nWorker recruitment in a competitive business world: Consequences of this nature put talent attraction even more firmly in the spotlight. To some extent, greater choice for potential employees means that the boot is now on the other foot. Firms have to come up with employment packages that will help entice the best talent available.\nWhy money isn't everything: Monetary incentives obviously still have a considerable amount of appeal. It would be folly to argue otherwise. But the evident shift in priorities has given rise to the notion that companies need to focus on \"total rewards\" in which both financial and non-financial benefits are incorporated. The task facing companies is to create packages in ways that maximize appeal to potential employees while meeting cost-related objectives. In view of achieving the latter, non-financial benefits help enormously in the face of strong pressure to slash costs.\nComment: The review is based on \"Attractiveness of non-financial rewards for prospective knowledge workers: an experimental investigation\" by Anton Schlechter, Nicola Claire Thompson and Mark Bussin. Schlechter et al. (2015) provide an informative account in which the role of non-monetary rewards in attracting highly skilled workers to an organization is explored. Specific non-financial elements are identified as being particularly influential. The authors recommend that these elements are incorporated into the total rewards package offered to prospective employees and are effectively highlighted within job advertisements.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: The late Steve Jobs once said that hiring the best people was a massive factor in his own success. Indeed, the Apple co-founder admitted going to \"exceptional lengths\" to get the right talent on board. Few will question the rationale of such an approach. After all, plenty evidence shows that talented employees invariably play a considerable role in organizational success. Engaging and retaining key workers figures prominently on the agenda of many firms. That's hardly surprising. But the increasingly global nature of business means that its importance has become even greater. More and more competitors are entering the fray and stretching an already limited talent pool. Companies able to boast such assets have to pull out all the stops to keep hold of them.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cigarette smoking and anti-smoking counseling practices among physicians in Wuhan, China
|
[
"Smoking cessation",
"China",
"Training",
"Medical professions",
"Cigarettes",
"Personal health",
"Medical personnel",
"Counseling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: China is the largest producer and consumer of tobacco products in the world. Although smoking prevalence among adults aged 15 years and older in China has gradually declined in the past decade (Yang et al., 1999; Yang et al., 2005; Ministry of Health, 2009), recent research suggests that around 48.0 percent of Chinese men and 2.6 percent of Chinese women still smoke. Furthermore, Chinese smokers now consume more cigarettes per day than before (Ministry of Health, 2009). The health consequences of smoking in China are substantial. It is estimated that each year approximately one million deaths in China are associated with tobacco use (Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, 2007). If the current level of smoking continues, it is expected that two million people will die from smoking-related diseases and at least 50 million who are alive and smoking today will die prematurely by 2025 (Yang et al., 1999).Physicians, the symbol of good health, are counted upon for helping patients quit smoking. It is therefore important to study their cigarette smoking behavior. Data from the National Tobacco Surveys revealed that the prevalent rates of cigarette smoking among male physicians were 59.9 percent in 1996 and 56.8 percent in 2002 respectively (Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, 1997; Yang et al., 2005). Data from another small-scale survey indicated that although there was some decrease in smoking prevalence among physicians, 40.7 percent of male physicians were smokers in 2005 (Jiang et al., 2005). The rates of tobacco use among Chinese physicians are much higher than physicians in many other countries. For example, smoking rates among physicians in the US dropped from 40 percent in 1959 to about 3 percent by the mid-1990s (Garfinkel, 1976; Garfinkel and Stellman, 1986; Nelson et al., 1994a, b; Lee et al., 2004; Smith and Leggat, 2007). A similar downward trend was observed in other western countries and Japan (Dekker et al., 1993; Kawakami et al., 1997; Josseran et al., 2000; Josseran et al., 2005; Kotz et al., 2007).China has devoted certain efforts to tobacco control in the past two decades, including the efforts after ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by the World Health Organization in 2003 and the implementation of a set of tobacco control campaigns since 2005. Under FCTC, one important task that the Chinese government has taken is the Smoke-Free Hospitals and Smoke-Free Doctors Movement (Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, 2007; Bland, 2009). In response to this rigorous anti-smoking campaign, the number of people who support smoking-ban in hospital settings increased from 61.1 percent in 2002 to 90 percent in 2006 (Yang et al., 2005; Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, 2007). However, it remains unclear whether and to what extent the smoking rates among Chinese physicians have been declined.Physicians, because of their special professional and social status, play a critical role in affecting tobacco use among patients as well the general population. Smoking physicians are poor role models for patients and the general public. Dawley and coworkers reported that physician smoking was associated with increased likelihood of patient smoking in hospital settings (Dawley et al., 1981). Pierce and colleagues documented that decline in smoking among physicians was associated with reduction in cigarette smoking in the general population (Pierce, 1989).Physicians as health professionals have advised and assisted patients to quit smoking. Research findings have demonstrated the success of physicians in promoting smoking cessation among smoking patients through clinic-based anti-smoking counseling (Orleans et al., 1990; Li et al., 1999; Gorin and Heck, 2004; Li et al., 2007; Stead et al., 2008; Demers et al., 1990). Even a brief and simple advice from physicians may lead to increased likelihood of successful quitting, and prolonged duration of abstinence after quitting (Lancaster and Stead, 2006).However, not all physicians in all hospitals provide anti-smoking counseling to patients. First of all, the smoking status of a physician significantly affects his or her intention to provide anti-smoking counseling. Researchers have reported that compared to non-smoking physicians, smoking physicians are less likely to ask their patients about smoking and to advise patients to quit smoking (Saeed, 1991; Li and Rosenblood, 1996; Kawakami et al., 1997; Nardini et al., 1998; Zhou et al., 2007; Li et al., 2008). Secondly, physicians' knowledge and skills regarding tobacco cessation may also play a role. If a physician had very little knowledge of the specific health hazards smoking does to the human body and also lacks counseling skills, he/she would be less likely to practice anti-smoking counseling. Because physicians who believe in their ability to help patients quit smoking are more likely to ask patients about their smoking status and more likely to advise smokers to quit (Li and Rosenblood, 1996; Kawakami et al., 1997; Jiang et al., 2007). Two surveys of physicians in Chinese cities reported that more than 20 percent of the physicians said that they did not have sufficient knowledge of the specific harm smoking does to the human body, and they did not think they had the necessary skills to perform cessation counseling (Wang et al., 2006; Xu et al., 2010). These findings should draw our attention that to promote Smoke-Free Hospital and Smoke-Free Doctors in China, it is necessary to educate physicians about the consequences of cigarette smoking and to train physicians how to conduct tobacco cessation counseling. However, to the best of our knowledge, few reported studies, if any, have documented that this kind of training has ever taken place.The main purpose of the study is to document levels of tobacco smoking among Chinese physicians in order to provide insight to this question: are Chinese hospitals smoking free? In addition, we also asked physicians about their antismoking counseling practices, as well as their perceived skills regarding such counseling.\nMethods and materials: Participants\nResults: Demographic characteristics\nDiscussion: In this study we reported a study on cigarette smoking, anti-smoking counseling practice and factors influencing the provision of anti-smoking counseling among a sample of physicians randomly selected from various types of hospitals in Wuhan, China. Findings of this study update our knowledge about the levels and patterns of tobacco use among Chinese physicians, the number of physicians who provided anti-smoking counseling and factors associated with the provision of anti-smoking counseling. These findings provide useful data for public health policy-makers to assess the current status of tobacco use among physicians in China and to devise programs to reduce tobacco use among physicians and to encourage more physicians to provide anti-smoking counseling services.We have found that cigarette smoking remains highly prevalent among physicians. Data from our study demonstrate that the prevalence of 30-day cigarette smoking among physicians was 31.6 percent for males and 0.9 percent for females. These rates are only slightly lower than 48 percent and 2.6 percent, the rates for general male and female Chinese population respectively (Ministry of Health, 2009). Although the prevalence rates of cigarette smoking observed in this study was lower than the rates (50.9 percent for male and 4.5 percent for female) in 1987, and the rates (61.2 percent for males and 12.2 percent for females) in 1996 from previous studies conducted among physicians in Wuhan (Li and Rosenblood, 1996) (Li et al., 1999), approximately 80 percent of male smoking physicians smoked more than ten cigarettes per day, much higher than the amount reported from the previous studies conducted in Wuhan (Li and Rosenblood, 1996; Li et al., 1999). Moreover, the majority of smoking physicians smoked for more than five years, and 63 percent of these smoking physicians never tried quitting, and only about a quarter expressed a desire to quit.In addition to the high prevalence and lower desire to quit as described above, findings from our study indicate that almost half of the smoking physicians smoke indoors, approximately eight out of ten smoked on duty, and 15 percent smoked while talking with patients. The number of physicians smoking in front of a patient in our study is about twice as high as the number observed in another study conducted in six cities in China (15 vs 8.5 percent) (Jiang et al., 2007). All of these indicate that physicians in China do not set a good role model for not smoking. These would be a huge challenge to anti-smoking campaigns in China. Much has to be done to achieve the goal of smoking-free hospitals and smoke-free doctors as a key part of China's ratification of FCTC of the World Health Organization (Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, 2007).Two characteristics of smoking behavior of the Chinese physicians in our study have certain epidemiological significance. First, the prevalence rate of cigarette smoking tends to increase with age. This trend, although similar to the findings from previous studies conducted among physicians in China (Smith et al., 2006; Jiang et al., 2007; Li et al., 1999; Smith et al., 2006; Sotiropoulos et al., 2007; Yao et al., 2009), differed from cigarette smoking patterns reported among physicians in other countries, such as Greece where smoking prevalence peaked at younger age groups (Sotiropoulos et al., 2007). Second, the physicians' smoking patterns in our study differed across the three types of hospitals with the highest rate among physicians working in the secondary (2-A) hospitals (primarily at the district level), particularly among male physicians (38.4 percent). This finding should have profound implication for future anti-smoking strategies geared toward quit-smoking efforts of male physicians in this type of hospitals, if the goal of smoke-free doctors are to be achieved.We have found that fewer physicians in our sample provided anti-smoking counseling than physicians in other parts of China (Jiang et al., 2007), including Hong Kong (77 percent) as well as countries outside of China, including the US (about two-thirds of all visits) (Thorndike et al., 1998; Abdullah et al., 2006). We have also found that receiving anti-smoking training was the only independent predictor of physicians' anti-smoking frequency, evidencing that physicians who had received training were significantly more likely to ask patients about smoking and to advise patients to quit smoking. This result implies that training physicians could be one of the best strategies for promoting smoke-free hospitals and smoke-free doctors in China. Other studies have shown that compared to non-smoking physicians, smoking physicians reported that they lack of knowledge related to tobacco use (Zhang et al., 2006; Ceraso et al., 2009), and receiving anti-smoking training substantially increased the likelihood for physicians to provide anti-smoking counseling (Cummings et al., 1989). We highly recommend that as part of the FCTC program, Chinese Ministry of Health allocate more resources to train physicians for tobacco control. Physicians' contributions can not be underestimated given that there are about 5 million physicians in China (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2010). Our study has found that less than 20 percent (121/676) of the physicians ever attended such training, indicating a huge need for such training.Limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to report data on cigarette smoking, anti-smoking practices, physicians' receipt of anti-smoking training, and the association between receipt of the training and anti-smoking practice among physicians in Wuhan, China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Participants were selected through the stratified random sampling method. The questionnaires were completed by the sampled physicians and the response rate of the survey was 98.1 percent.\nFindings: - Among the total sample, 11 percent were current smokers. Significantly more male physicians than female physicians were current smokers (31.6 vs 0.9 percent, p<0.001). In total, 41 percent of physicians always or often asked patients about smoking habits, and 61 percent of them often advised patients to quit. Receiving anti-tobacco training significantly increased the likelihood for physicians to ask patients about smoking (odd ratio=2.55, p<0.001) and to advise patients against smoking (odd ratio=4.05, p<0.001) with and without controlling gender, age, education, type of hospital and medical services specialty.\nPractical implications: - More effort should be devoted to training for physicians with focus on anti-smoking practice and smoking cessation counseling in addition to assist physicians themselves to quit smoking.\nOriginality/value: - The findings of this study update the data regarding cigarette smoking among physicians in Wuhan, China, and their practice of anti-tobacco counseling. It indicates that it is very important to provide the training regarding anti-smoking counseling among physicians.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factorial analysis of lifting task to determine the effect of different parameters and interactions
|
[
"Steelmaking",
"Occupational health and safety",
"Materials handling",
"Lifting parameters",
"Lifting index",
"Interactions performance management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Lower back pain is the most susceptible part of the musculoskeletal system from injury point during manual material handling (MMH) tasks in all industries. The prevalence of back pain has been of concern to medical and research community for quite some time. Manual handling of material is an expensive industrial problem considering that industries pay not only for workman's compensation, but also spend billion of dollars on tests, treatments, claims and surgeries. MMH creates problems for workers around the world. Workers engaged in lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing and pulling of heavy materials increases the rates of musculoskeletal injuries. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed a lifting equation in 1981 and revised in 1991 uses a series of lifting multipliers (parameters) to calculate corresponding recommended task weight limits. The load constant recommended in the NIOSH equation depicts that young Korean males are well protected (Lee et al., 1996). The NIOSH equations horizontal distances are positively related to box width and here was also a significant interaction between box width and starting height (Potvin and Bent, 1997). Lifting index (LI), an index of relative physical stress, can be used to identify hazardous lifting tasks. Although the 1991 equation has not been fully validated, the recommended weight limits derived from the revised equation are consistent with or lower than those generally reported in the literature. NIOSH believed that the revised 1991 lifting equation is more likely than the 1981 equation to protect most workers (Keyserling, 1989; Waters et al., 1993). Three criteria used in establishing NIOSH psychophysical, biomechanical, and physiological were validated for manual lifting against the data published by different researchers in the subject literature. Results of the cross-validation for psychophysical criterion confirmed the validity of assumptions made in the 1991 NIOSH revised lifting equation. However, the results of cross-validation for the biomechanical and physiological criteria were not in total agreement with the 1991 NIOSH model (Vincent, 2005; Hidalgo et al., 1995). A review of the existing literature failed to come up with a detailed description of procedures for obtaining the equation variables at a worksite and a systematic approach for data collection was therefore proposed (Hashemi et al., 1997; Jager and Luttmann, 1997). Multiple regression analysis revealed that lifting repetitiveness contributed to the occurrence of LBP (Xiao et al., 2004). The detailed description of the procedure for measuring the variables of the Revised NIOSH lifting equation were adopted during the evaluation of a lifting and lowering task (Okimoto and Teixeira, 2009). The asymmetry multiplier incorporated in the 1991 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lifting equation adequately controls the biomechanical spine loads during asymmetric lifting (Lavender et al., 2009). The present paper examines the effect of object weight, twisting angle and lifting frequency and their interactions on lifting index both at origin and destination of the lift.\n2 Materials and method: In the study ergonomic acceptable limits according to the NIOSH method for an industrial lifting station of a steel rolling mill have been evaluated. Subjects with no history of chronic or acute illness, not having hypertension or any other major health issues, and not under any prescribed medication were selected for the study. Five male workers, having at-least six years of working experience were included in the study. In this study the effect of three lifting frequencies (2, 3, 4 lifts/minutes), three load weights (10, 15 and 20 kg) and three asymmetric angels (0deg, 30deg, 45deg) were considered. The maximum reach point was identified as the highest location to which the subject could lift the load without hyper flexing the body, and generally it was near the eye-ear line level. The other parameters like horizontal distance of load 35 cm, vertical distance 120 cm, fair coupling, and moderate lifting duration of 2 hours were kept constant. Subjects were doing lifting following free-style posture. The lifting index (origin and destination) were considered as the response variables. Lifting index (LI) is associated with an estimate of the level of physical stress associated with a particular manual lifting task. By brainstorming through a cause and effect diagram, the lists of factors of interest that may have an impact on the lifting index have been identified (Table I). The design of the experiment and selection of orthogonal array depends upon the number of factors and interactions of interest and the number of levels for the factors of interest. The minimum required DOF in the experiment is the sum of all the factor and interaction. In the present experimental setup there are three levels for all three factors. The number of degree of freedom associated with these three factors and three two-level interactions is 18. As the degree of freedom required for the experiment is 18 so the orthogonal array that is to be selected should have degree of freedom higher than 18. The most suitable orthogonal array that can be used for this experiment is L27. The assignment of main factors and the desired interactions could be easily done by using linear graphs. In this experiment, the assignment of factors and interactions was carried out using MINITAB software. The data is than analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA). It is a common statistical technique to determine the percent contribution of each factor for results of the experiment. It has also decided to study the effect of interactions between the main factors, i.e. object weight vs twisting angle (AxB), object weight vs lifting frequency (AxC), twisting angle vs lifting frequency (BxC). To examine the influence of the independent variables, repeated measures ANOVA has been conducted with an alpha level of 0.05 was used for all statistical tests, and conformation tests were conducted at optimized conditions. In the study dependent variables are lifting index (origin and destination) and independent variables are the twisting angle, object weight and lifting frequency.\n3 Results and discussion: The effects of the three independent variables (lifting frequency, load weight and twisting angle) and their interactions were evaluated using ANOVA and factorial design analysis. In addition, plots of the significant factors and interactions were developed to show significance in the statistical procedure to calculate the contribution of different parameters based on the individual sum of square values. The purpose of the ANOVA and significant factors plot was to identify the important parameters in prediction lifting index at origin and at destination. The data were analyzed using MINITAB statistical analysis software. The results wherein the two response variables for each of 27 trials conducted are shown in Table II. The ANOVA analysis has been conducted for analyzing the influence of object weight, twisting angle and lifting frequency on lifting index (origin and destination). The experiments were conducted for each combination of factors as per the selected orthogonal array. It is observed from ANOVA of lifting index (origin) that object weight, twisting angle and lifting frequency are significant (p<0.05) whereas the interactions between object weight MINITAB statistical analysis software. The results wherein the two response variables for each of 27 trials conducted are shown in Table II. The ANOVA analysis has been conducted for analyzing the influence of object weight, twisting angle and lifting frequency on lifting index (origin and destination). The experiments were conducted for each combination of factors as per the selected orthogonal array. It is observed from ANOVA of lifting index (origin) that object weight, twisting angle and lifting frequency are significant (p<0.05) whereas the interactions between object weight and twisting angle, object weight and lifting frequency were found to be significant (p<0.05) and needs further analysis. Further, it has been observed from ANOVA of lifting index (destination) that object weight, twisting angle and lifting frequency are significant (p<0.05) whereas the interactions between object weight and twisting angle and object weight and lifting frequency were found to be significant (p<0.05) and needs further analysis. The interaction between twisting angle and lifting frequency comes out to be less significant for lifting index (origin and destination). It has been observed that lifting task with load weight of 15 kg (at 2, 3, 4 lifts/min and 30deg and 45deg) lies between 1.62 and 2.21 clearly indicating that the task at origin and destination would be physically stressful for some of the industrial workers. Further, the load weight 20 kg (at 2, 3, 4 lifts/min and 0deg, 30deg and 45deg) lies between 1.95 and 2.98 indicates that the task would be stressful for almost all industrial workers. The findings have been reflected in Figures 1 and 2 (Table III).\n4 Conclusion: The goal of this study was to determine ergonomic acceptable limits according to the NIOSH method for an industrial lifting station. The data collected demonstrates that object weight, lifting frequency and twisting angle are the factors effecting lifting task. Results of the study show that several factors require examination to determine an ergonomically correct lifting station. Each of these factors (multipliers) is summarized into lifting index. In case of lifting index at origin the interactions between object weight, lifting frequency and twisting angle were found to be significant and needs further elaboration. Further, the interactions between object weight and lifting frequency, object weight and twisting angle were found to be significant and needs further elaboration where as interaction between lifting frequency and twisting angle was found to be insignificant. An examination of the lifting index reveals areas of concentration in order to reduce overall task stress and lower back related injuries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of main parameters and their interactions on the workers' Lifting Index in a steel rolling mill.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting equation has been used to evaluate the risk of lifting tasks with respect to low back injury under varying load (10, 15, 20 kg), frequency (2, 3, 4 lifts/min), and twisting angle (0, 30, 45 degree).\nFindings: - The level of importance of the parameters on lifting index at origin and destination has been determined using analysis of variance (ANOVA).The analysis draws on lifting parameters and uses both main effects and interactions to describe the variation in Lifting Index and to identify the social influence associated with back injury. The interactions between object weight and twisting angle and object weight and lifting frequency turn out to be significant (p<0.05), whereas the interaction between twisting angle and lifting frequency is less significant (p=0.061).\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study includes a specific location (steel rolling mills located in Jammu region of India) only.\nPractical implications: - The findings suggest that focus should be made on all lifting parameters, rather than sole emphasis on the load to be lifted.\nOriginality/value: - The paper supports the view that load, twisting angle and lifting frequency greatly influence the physical stressfulness of the task. It is suggested that the workplace should be designed for negligible twisting and moderate lifting frequency, so as to have minimum Lifting Index.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Prioritizing lean management practices in public and private hospitals
|
[
"Operations management",
"AHP",
"Hospital management",
"UAE",
"Healthcare",
"Lean management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With health care costs continuing to rise, a variety of process improvement methodologies have been proposed to address the reported inefficiencies in health care delivery. Lean production is one such method. The management philosophy and tools of lean production come from the manufacturing industry, where they were pioneered by Toyota Motor Corporation, which is viewed as the leader in utilizing these performance improvement methods. Lean has already enjoyed tremendous success in improving quality and efficiency in both the manufacturing and the service sector industries. The lean concept of \"waste minimization\" for process improvement is no longer limited to the automotive or manufacturing companies but services such as healthcare is one of the major sectors in which lean methodology is being considered and adopted as an improvement program.\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Introduction to lean methodology\n3. Hierarchical model and data collection: The purpose of the research is to identify, prioritize lean management practices in public and private hospitals of UAE. Therefore, this research is designed by composing multi criteria attributes of lean management principles. The hierarchy of the AHP model for evaluating the lean practices in a healthcare setting is depicted in Figure 2. The multi-criteria attributes are organized in a hierarchical with the highest level of the hierarchy being the overall goal, i.e. to identify and prioritize the lean improvement opportunities in the public hospitals. The seven wastes of lean healthcare are represented as the criteria in level 2. Each healthcare waste is further divided in level 2 into three types (sub-criteria) to illustrate common manifestations of the respective waste (criteria).\n4. Analysis and discussion: The next step in the AHP is to determine pair-wise comparison among the criteria applied. For defining pair-wise comparison, Saaty (2012) has suggested a nine point scale (Table IV). For example, if an evaluator identifies that motion (MOT) is moderately more important than defects (DEF), then the former is rated \"3\" and the latter as \"1/3\" in this comparison and so on.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: Nonetheless, there is a global consensus that lean is critical for healthcare process improvement, the full deployment of lean principles was reported to be as low as 4 percent for the US hospitals with 53 percent of the hospitals reporting only some level of lean implementation (ASQ, 2009). This is not surprising given the complexity and the range of healthcare operations and the fact that lean healthcare is still a relative new phenomenon with limited literature support for a consolidated lean deployment strategy. This paper addresses this gap in the body of literature and proposes a framework of lean management for health care system of UAE. Few studies have explored the extent of lean implementation for waste minimization either in public or in private hospitals. However, this study presents a comparison of lean implementation as a tool for waste minimization in public and private hospitals of UAE. The seven wastes of lean healthcare have been identified (criteria) and each healthcare waste is further divided into three types (sub-criteria) to illustrate common manifestations of the respective wastes (criteria). This was achieved by using AHP which strength lies in transforming the qualitative judgment of senior healthcare personnel into quantitative data in a structured way to help rank the waste minimization opportunities for the UAE public hospitals. The formulation of the AHP hierarchy was followed by the data collection from the main public and private hospitals of UAE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to prioritize 21 healthcare wastes in public and private hospitals of United Arab Emirates (UAE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Seven healthcare wastes linked with lean management are further decomposed in to sub-criteria and to deal with this complexity of multi criteria decision-making process, analytical hierarchical process (AHP) method is used in this research.\nFindings: AHP framework for this study resulted in a ranking of 21 healthcare wastes in public and private hospitals of UAE. It has been found that management in private healthcare systems of UAE is putting more emphasis on the inventory waste. On the other hand, over processing waste has got highest weight in public hospitals of UAE.\nResearch limitations/implications: The future directions of this research would be to apply a lean set of tools for the value stream optimization of the prioritized key improvement areas.\nPractical implications: This is a contribution to the continuing research into lean management, giving practitioners and designers a practical way for measuring and implementing lean practices across health organizations.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this research, through successive stages of data collection, measurement analysis and refinement, is a set of reliable and valid framework that can be subsequently used in conceptualization, prioritization of the waste reduction strategies in healthcare management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Incivility toward managers: gender differences in well-being outcomes
|
[
"Well-being",
"Leadership",
"Sex and gender issues",
"Incivility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Past research has demonstrated the potential ill effects of being on the receiving end of workplace incivility. For example, work attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction, commitment), behaviors (e.g. turnover, deviance) and well-being (i.e. psychological and physical) suffer (Schilpzand et al., 2016). The majority of workplace incivility research has examined employee experiences generally and, for the most part, has not differentiated effects based on the source or the target of mistreatment (Schilpzand et al., 2016). Newer research in this domain, seeking to understand the experiences and impacts of incivility based on the group membership (e.g. gender, race, job role) of recipients, observers, and perpetrators, has supported such a nuanced approach (e.g. Cortina et al., 2013; Gabriel et al., 2018; McCord et al., 2018; Miner and Cortina, 2016).\nWorkplace incivility defined: Uncivil behaviors are those that are low in intensity, ambiguous in their intent to harm, and violate norms for respectful interactions at work (Andersson and Pearson, 1999). Incivility can be contrasted with psychological aggression, which reflects higher intensity behaviors with a clearer goal of inflicting harm (Schat and Kelloway, 2005). For example, typical manifestations of incivility include failing to consult with someone when you would be expected to do so, being slow to respond to emails or other communications, and doubting someone's judgment on a matter about which they are knowledgeable (Cortina et al., 2001; Martin and Hine, 2005). In contrast, psychological aggression would involve actions such as yelling or cursing at an employee or calling the employee incompetent (Neuman and Baron, 1998; Schat and Kelloway, 2005). Although uncivil behaviors are low in intensity, research suggests that they can lead to significant deleterious effects nevertheless (e.g. Schilpzand et al., 2016), perhaps due to their high frequency (Porath and Pearson, 2010) leading them to be viewed as a chronic stressor (Cortina, 2008; Lim et al., 2008).\nGeneral effects of incivility: Since Andersson and Pearson's (1999) seminal paper on workplace incivility, researchers have sought to understand its forms (e.g. Martin and Hine, 2005) and antecedents (e.g. Blau and Andersson, 2005) as well as document its links to employee and organizational outcomes. Schilpzand et al.'s (2016) review highlights the broad potential outcomes of incivility, such as impacts on work attitudes (e.g. commitment, intentions to turnover, job satisfaction), behaviors (e.g. deviance) and physical and psychological strain. Although the majority of research in this domain is correlational in nature, more recent experimental work supports the causal impact of incivility on varied outcomes (Francis et al., 2015; Giumetti et al., 2013).\nSources of incivility: Although the norm has been to collapse across sources of incivility when examining its potential consequences, researchers are beginning not only to examine new sources of incivility (e.g. customers; Kern and Grandey, 2009; Wilson and Holmvall, 2013) but also to isolate and tease out potential differential effects of incivility based on the characteristics of perpetrators. As Schilpzand et al. (2016) review, however, very little research has examined differential effects related to the source of incivility, especially for well-being outcomes. As such, we also draw on work in the related domains of conflict and aggression to inform our hypotheses.\nThe selective nature of incivility: Cortina (2008) developed a model of selective incivility, noting that while more overt forms of discrimination, sexism and racism may be declining in part due to laws and social pressures, incivility may represent a more subtle and still persistent form of discrimination that serves to exclude targeted groups from full access to, and benefit from, organizational life. Drawing on seminal work by French and Raven (1959), Fiske and Berdahl (2007) review research and theory on social power, and note that demographic characteristics, including gender, are associated with different levels of status and power. Similarly, Cortina notes that women and visible minorities are still viewed as having lower social status relative to majority groups.\nMethods: Design\nResults: Data screening\nDiscussion: Our study is among the first to examine the multi-source incivility experiences of those in management positions in organizations. Those in positions responsible for guiding and directing the work of others are most often treated as the perpetrators, rather than the recipients, of uncivil treatment (Schilpzand et al., 2016). Contrary to the selective incivility literature (e.g. Cortina et al., 2013), we did not find that women reported greater incivility compared with men. In fact, males reported greater co-worker incivility relative to females. This latter finding is counter to Reio and Sanders-Reio (2011) who found that women reported greater co-worker incivility than men. We note that the variances within each gender on co-worker incivility were significantly different, however, and as such this finding should be interpreted with caution. That we did not see differential rates of incivility for men and women for higher-up and subordinate incivility may be due to a number of factors (in addition to a true null effect): Participants were asked to consider their experiences only over the past two weeks; it is possible that differential rates may be seen if incivility is measured over a longer timeframe. Moreover, research by Gabriel et al. (2018) suggests that women, especially those who are more agentic, report greater incivility from other women (rather than from men). We did not assess the gender breakdown of the incivility sources in the current study; it could be that more nuanced patterns emerge if we had done so.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing on selective incivility theory (Cortina, 2008) and the literature on gender and leadership (e.g. Vial et al., 2016), the purpose of this paper is to investigate well-being outcomes of often neglected targets of incivility - those who manage or lead the work of others. The authors examined links between managers' experiences of incivility from those to whom they report and five well-being outcomes, controlling for co-worker and subordinate incivility.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used a cross-sectional correlational design to test the hypotheses, with a sample of 50 employees (28 females, 22 males) who supervise, manage or lead the work of others.\nFindings: Male and female managers reported similar levels of incivility from subordinates and higher-ups; males reported greater incivility from co-workers. Significant interactions were also found: the relationship between incivility from those higher up and positive affect (high and low intensity) and perceived impact were significantly stronger for female (vs male) managers.\nResearch limitations/implications: Women did not experience greater workplace incivility than men, albeit the two-week timeframe of measurement may be too short to capture differences. The authors did, however, find evidence that well-being implications of experienced incivility from those higher up are generally stronger for female leaders.\nOriginality/value: The study investigates multi-source incivility directed at those in leadership/managerial positions and contributes to a growing literature seeking to understand the experiences of women in these roles. Although women in management roles may experience similar levels of incivility as men, they may interpret the behavior in a more negative light, in line with the persistence of sexism in the workplace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A review of selected neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks using the Bellagio STAMP
|
[
"Sustainability indicators",
"Bellagio STAMP",
"Consensus approach",
"Sustainability assessment frameworks",
"Sustainable neighbourhood"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sustainability discourse has continued to take the central stage in academic, professional and government conferences (Komeily and Srinivasan, 2015). This is as a result of the urgency to ensure that, at all levels of spatial developments, there are places where people can live, work and enjoy good quality of life, without any negative impact on the environment (Roberts, 2009). Undoubtedly, the constraints of climate and demographic changes coupled with changes in social needs, and a decline in both natural and physical resources are also the driving forces in this campaign (Deakin and Curwell, 2004; Girardet, 2015; Lehmann, 2015). Consequently, the sustainability crusade birthed several initiatives, one of which is sustainability assessment which is a tool to direct decision towards sustainability (Hacking and Guthrie, 2008). Since its emergence for use at the neighbourhood scale of spatial development, it has been the front banner in the campaign for urban sustainability in various context (Cashmore and Kornov, 2013; Berardi, 2013).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Sustainability assessment and the evolution of neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks\n3. Methodology: Data required for this study were obtained primarily from the technical manuals of selected assessment frameworks through document analysis. The selected assessment frameworks are: BREEAM communities 2012; LEED-ND V4; PCRS; and Green Star communities. The choice of these frameworks is as a result of their geographical locations. BREEAM communities used in the UK (Europe); LEED-ND in the USA (North America); PCRS in UAE (Asia); and Green Star communities in Australia.\n4. Results: This section presents the result of the review of the selected neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks using the Bellagio STAMP.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This paper reviewed selected neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks using the Bellagio STAMP. Although, none of these assessment tools were tailored to suit the Bellagio STAMP in the process of their development, they align satisfactorily well with the principle. However, some weaknesses were discovered. The principle of broad participation (i.e. engagement with stakeholders) was not thoroughly considered in the selected assessment frameworks. The normative effectiveness of sustainability assessment (Bond et al., 2013) which canvassed for knowledge sharing and social learning can only be enhanced, where there is a forum for engagement and dialogue among various stakeholders. This broad participation ensures striking a balance and harmonising the diverse needs of the stakeholders.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks through which a proposed neighbourhood development can be evaluated against an array of sustainability indicators began to gain prominence in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, how these frameworks align with the Bellagio STAMP is an area yet to be examined by existing studies to inform their better development and usage in the delivery of sustainable neighbourhoods. The purpose of this paper is to review selected neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks using the Bellagio STAMP with the aim of identifying areas for improvement, while also exploring the possibilities of adopting the Bellagio STAMP as a consensus approach and reference to sustainability assessment at the neighbourhood level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Adopting document analysis as a data collection method, the paper reviews BREEAM communities, LEED Neighbourhood Development, Pearl community rating system and Green Star communities using the Bellagio STAMP.\nFindings: Findings from the study revealed that some of the selected assessment frameworks align partially with the Bellagio STAMP in their development, while areas for improvement were identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study recommends that the Bellagio STAMP could offer helpful guidelines and procedure in conceptualising sustainability assessment at the neighbourhood level especially in developing countries where such a framework is yet to be conceived.\nOriginality/value: This study adds to the sustainability assessment literature by operationalising the Bellagio STAMP leading to its better understanding and application in sustainability assessment either in practice or in theory.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Causes and prevention of symptom complaints in office buildings: Distilling the experience of indoor environmental quality investigators
|
[
"Air",
"Hazard prevention in buildings",
"Heating and ventilation services",
"Office management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Complaints by occupants in offices and commercial buildings of health symptoms, discomfort, and odors (sometimes called \"sick building syndrome\" or building-related symptoms) have been documented for almost 30 years. These problems have persisted despite decades of investigation and increasing scientific research. Occurrence of these building-related symptoms has been estimated to cause important reductions in performance among the occupants working in these buildings (Fisk, 2000; Mendell et al., 2002b).Available scientific information is too limited to identify the specific indoor exposures (such as particular chemicals or microorganisms) that cause building-related symptoms in occupants of office buildings, much less to establish what levels of these exposures are safe. Thus, setting documented health-protective indoor exposure standards (i.e. reference levels that should not be exceeded, and below which these adverse effects in building occupants would not occur) has not been possible in these buildings. Nor, in the absence of documented indoor exposure standards, has scientific research documented a set of building-related practice standards that have been shown to prevent occurrence of building-related symptoms (i.e. ways of designing, operating, or maintaining buildings that prevent these health effects in occupants without measurement of specific contaminants).In the absence of exposure or practice standards scientifically demonstrated to protect health, the most effective current strategies for preventing building-related symptoms rest on empirically based concepts of \"good building practice\" rooted in the experience of building professionals. This experience has provided input for some formal consensus guidelines, such as current ventilation standards.For many aspects of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), however, no formal process exists for distilling professional experience into guidelines for protecting occupants. Although a variety of building professionals such as facility managers have experience of this kind, the most concentrated experience regarding successful and unsuccessful building practices and features exists among those professionals who investigate buildings with occupant health, comfort, and odor complaints. We will refer to these professionals as IEQ investigators.The goals of the current project were to utilize the practical knowledge and experience of leading IEQ investigators to:* identify the most important environmental factors leading to IEQ problems and the resulting complaints of building-related symptoms, discomfort, and odors in office workers; and* develop a set of key recommendations for preventing these building-related problems and their adverse effects on health, comfort, and productivity, suitable for use by those who buy, lease, or manage office space.The project brought together six experienced IEQ investigators with decades of combined problem-solving experience in thousands of buildings. A group process gathered and summarized their knowledge about the key environmental factors causing building-related symptoms in office buildings, and the key strategies for preventing these problems. The results were compared to current scientific knowledge, and summarized for use in developing practical guidelines for maintaining good IEQ.\nMethods: This project used a structured multi-day workshop, involving a sequence of exercises and discussion with voting, to achieve consensus among a group of leading IEQ investigators in the USA The workshop gathered opinions from the investigators on the following questions:1. Environmental causes:* Based on your experience as an IEQ investigator, what are the most important environmental causes or risk factors for building-related symptoms and discomfort complaints in US office buildings?* Why have you selected these as the most important risk factors?2. Prevention strategies* What are your top recommended specific measures for preventing these health and comfort problems in office buildings (e.g. aspects of design, commissioning, operation, maintenance, or management)?* Why do you recommend these measures?Participating IEQ investigators considered the risk factors and prevention strategies in these categories:* building, initial (design, location, construction, commissioning);* building, ongoing (operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, housekeeping); and* behavioral/organizational (management IEQ approach, occupant behavior).Staff from the Indoor Environment Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) planned, conducted, and summarized the workshop, without contributing answers to the questions presented. After the workshop, LBNL staff, based on their familiarity with the current scientific literature, informally summarized risk factors for building-related symptoms identified in the scientific literature, compared these to risk factors identified by the IEQ investigators, and produced a summary report of the overall process.IEQ investigators at the workshop included four in private practice and two federal government employees. These investigators provided and prioritized ideas during the workshop, and reviewed and helped revise several draft versions of the summary report.\nResults: During the workshop, the participating IEQ investigators developed a prioritized list of building-related problems (Table I) that, based on their collective experience, included the most important causes of building-related symptom complaints in office buildings. They defined \"importance\" of causes primarily by their frequency of causing problems requiring investigation (the additional factor of the severity of health problems caused, although in the original workshop concept, was dropped). The top three problems identified were:1. excessive building moisture related to either water leaks in the building envelope or plumbing, inadequate control of humidity in the outdoor air brought in by HVAC systems, or infiltration of water vapor through the envelope;2. inadequate amount or quality of outdoor air provided in the building, resulting from improper design, operation, or maintenance of the HVAC systems; and3. excessive dust in the building from improperly managed renovations, inadequate housekeeping, or poor selection of interior materials.The next environmental problem identified was:4. pollutant gases and odors in the indoor environment, resulting from outdoor air intakes improperly located near sources such as idling vehicles or traffic, improperly managed renovations, or lack of local exhaust venting for activities that generate substantial indoor pollutants.The last key environmental problem identified was:5. inadequate thermal control, resulting in thermal conditions outside an optimal range or even the broader range recommended for acceptable conditions.Causes for this problem included inadequate thermal control by the HVAC system, excessive airflow, radiant heat loss to windows, and the difficulties of using uniform thermal conditions to satisfy individual occupants with a range of thermal preferences. The final problem identified was:6. failure of building management to recognize the importance of adverse effects of IEQ and to implement preventive strategies.This problem stemmed from management decisions on design, operation, and maintenance focused on immediate costs but not on proactively maintaining good IEQ, lack of awareness of or effective responses to environmental dissatisfaction of employees, and lack of open communication on IEQ issues.For each of these problems, the IEQ investigators then developed a set of top recommended prevention strategies (listed in Table I), related to known causes of each problem. For instance, for problems of excessive building moisture, caused by either water leaks in the building envelope, inadequate control of humidity in the outdoor air brought in by HVAC systems, or infiltration of water vapor through the envelope, they recommended water management at the building exterior, humidity control by the HVAC system, and management of water vapor transmission through the building envelope.They then ranked the entire list of recommended strategies by relative importance in preventing building-related symptom complaints. The top ranked strategies (listed in Table II) included water management at the building exterior; ensuring provision of adequate outside air, by operating the HVAC per the original design intent, and also by providing at least the recommended minimum amount of outdoor air at each air handling unit; and maintaining indoor temperatures within a narrow range of optimal comfort around 72degF (22degC).Risk factors for building-related symptoms for which support exists in the scientific literature were summarized and organized to correspond with the building-related problems identified by the investigators (Table III). For each environmental category of investigator-identified building-related problems, at least one scientifically documented association was available. For instance, the scientific literature has shown that symptoms are more common in office buildings with lower ventilation rates (Seppanen et al., 1999), with higher temperatures even within the conventional comfort envelope (Jaakkola and Heinonen, 1989; Mendell et al., 2002a), and with building moisture damage (Park et al., 2004). Additional literature is available documenting such associations in buildings other than office buildings, such as residences and schools, particularly for dampness (Bornehag et al., 2001). No scientific documentation was available of symptoms caused directly by inadequate management attention to IEQ, although clearly many indoor environmental deficiencies could result from such inattention.\nDiscussion: This project has attempted to condense and summarize valuable aspects of the empirical knowledge of IEQ investigators about the causes of building-related symptom complaints. This knowledge has not been formally summarized, although it is informally reflected in some prior guidelines for building managers, e.g. \"Building air quality\" (US Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1991). As is often the case, the empirical knowledge of practitioners offers more guidance for choosing health-protective strategies than current science, although the efficacy of empirically based strategies often has not been confirmed.There was remarkable agreement among the IEQ investigators, despite their experience with buildings in extremely diverse climatic regions. Perhaps most striking was that for all investigators, including one from the very moist climate in Florida and one from the relatively dry climate of New Mexico, the highest priority problem was excessive building moisture, and the highest priority prevention strategy was managing water at the building exterior. Furthermore, There was also substantial overlap between the empirically based and scientifically based lists of problems.Because most health studies of risk factors for causing building-related symptoms do not estimate how commonly the risks occur or the relative importance of specific effects, such studies do not themselves support prioritized recommendations for prevention strategies. Separate descriptive data is available on the high frequency of some building-related risks in representative US office buildings, from the US Environmental Protection Agency's Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation (BASE) study (Brightman and Moss, 2000). For instance, 85 percent of office buildings studied had past water damage, including roof leaks in 50 percent; 43 percent had current water damage (unpublished analyses, MJM). Also, calculations with BASE data suggest that, at the time of study, 23 percent of BASE buildings were providing less than the minimum rate of outdoor air specified in current ventilation standards. During hot weather conditions, when ventilation systems would likely be providing their lowest rates of outdoor air ventilation, approximately 32 percent of the BASE buildings would provide less ventilation than provided in current standards (unpublished analyses, WJF). Available evidence thus suggests that following the recommendations presented here would improve indoor environments in a large number of office buildings in the USA.\nLimitations of study: These results were produced by a small group of IEQ investigators, primarily industrial hygienists or engineers, during a two-day meeting, through consensus based on years of experience rather than through scientific research; however, this exercise has been useful in summarizing an important source of information on how inadequacies in buildings can adversely affect the health of occupants. The IEQ investigators in this project suggested prevention strategies. Although much of their work involves suggesting remediation strategies for existing problems and prevention strategies for future problems, the investigators have few opportunities for follow-up to evaluate the efficacy of their recommendations.\nConclusions and implications: IEQ investigators from across the USA showed considerable agreement on the most important causes of building-related symptom complaints in office buildings and the key methods for preventing these problems. These recommendations are generally consistent with available research findings, and provide useful practical guidelines for those who own, manage or maintain office buildings. Critical tasks for preventing occupant symptoms in office buildings include managing moisture at building exteriors, providing adequate ventilation, and controlling indoor thermal conditions. It will be important for scientific research to better document causes and effective prevention strategies for building-related symptoms, but health-protective actions cannot and should not always wait for scientific certainty.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The goal of this project was to develop practical strategies for preventing building-related symptoms in office buildings, based on the experience of those who investigate buildings with health complaints, and suitable for use by those who own, lease, or manage office space.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Ideas from six experienced building investigators on primary causes and key prevention strategies were gathered and prioritized through consensus and voting in a structured, multi-day workshop.\nFindings: - IEQ investigators from diverse climatic regions agreed on the most important problems causing symptom complaints in office buildings, and the key strategies for prevention. The top ranked problems identified were, in priority order: excessive building moisture, inadequate outdoor air, excessive dust, pollutant gases and odors, inadequate thermal control, and inadequate attention by management to indoor environments. The highest priority recommended prevention strategies for building-related symptoms were: managing moisture at building exteriors, operating ventilation systems per design intent, providing at least the minimum recommended ventilation rates, and maintaining indoor temperatures at 72degF+-2deg (22degC+-1deg). Available scientific findings were generally consistent with these recommendations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Validity of these findings, from a subjective synthesis of empirical knowledge, not from scientific research, has not yet been scientifically confirmed.\nPractical implications: - These recommendations, including managing moisture at building exteriors, providing adequate ventilation, and controlling indoor thermal conditions, provide practical, empirically based guidelines for those who own, manage, or maintain office buildings.\nOriginality/value: - The empirical knowledge of practitioners, concentrated and synthesized here, offers more direct guidance for health-protective strategies in office buildings than current science.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Leadership in action: student leadership development in an event management course
|
[
"Individual behaviour",
"Leadership",
"Development",
"Students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Search the term \"leadership\" in any database and thousands of related titles will likely emerge. Articles range from topics such as characteristics of leaders (e.g., see Goleman, 1998) to leadership styles or personality traits (e.g., see Rudman, 2008; Strang and Kuhnert, 2009). Although the writings about leadership are numerous and the term may carry slightly different connotations to the reader, there appears to be consensus that leadership is important in all context areas of one's life - work, home, school, and community (Love, 2005).\nLiterature review: Leadership theories, models, and studies\nMethod: Instrument\nResults: The sample consisted of traditional college-aged students. Participants in the study ranged from 18-32 years with 94 percent between the ages of 19 and 23. The majority of the students were female, representative of the greater student body of the apparel program. The number of credits taken in the spring semester of enrollment in the event management course ranged from 3 to 21 credits. The average number of credits taken was 14.9, typical of students in the department. Spring semester grade point averages (collected from the Registrar's Office following the semester) ranged from 1.6 to 4.0, with an average student GPA of 3.28.Quantitative results\nDiscussion: This study assessed the leadership development of students enrolled in three semesters of an event management course. Reliability results indicated a high level of internal consistency in measurement of the practice areas, which implied the S-LPI performed its intended role very well and that the results of statistical hypothesis tests were solid. Results from this study suggested that leadership development as measured by the S-LPI increased as a result of participation in the event management course. According to the quantitative results, student scores from the pre- to the post-test increased on every measure of the S-LPI, encompassing the dimensions of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, encouraging the heart, challenging the process, and enabling others to act. The mean scores for the practice areas changed significantly over time and changed at different rates across areas. The means of the five practice area scores were not impacted by semester grade point average, credits taken in spring semester, ACT scores, SAT math scores, or age. These results were encouraging, informing the authors' that participation in the event management course could contribute to increased student leadership practice scores regardless of student demographics.In their qualitative comments, students provided examples of leadership behaviors that they exhibited during their participation in the event management class. Many of these reflective statements indicated a conscious decision to \"do\" leadership. Similar to Eich's (2008) findings, students in this study seemed to discover and learn about their leadership identities by interacting with others within the event management class. The opportunities provided to them in the class allowed the students the opportunity to experiment with their leadership and then to reflect on their experiences, a hallmark of leadership development (Posner, 2009a). Similar to the findings of Hay and Hodgkinson (2005), many of the students in the present study, discussed leadership behaviors emerging from difficult situations that involved the skills of negotiation, conflict resolution, and communication. In their reflective statements, students wrote about modeling positive behaviors \"even when they did not feel like it\" and making decisions that would inspire a shared vision even when these decisions went against their individual preferences and personalities. Students also realized, often by enduring negative circumstances, the importance of encouraging and enabling one another to work effectively as a team.The learning leadership model (Heifetz, 1994), in which the leadership concept is applicable to all people, not just leaders with positional authority, was utilized in the event management class. Each student was given the responsibility and duty to work effectively as an individual and as part of a team to complete their committee's goals for the fashion show event. These opportunities facilitated students to learn and to demonstrate leadership, an important skill for present and future personal and professional career paths.\nLimitations: The sample included college students enrolled in an event management course at one university, thus results may not be generalized to all students. While student responses to the S-LPI were anonymous, student reflective comments were not. Thus, students may have completed written statements that reflected positively on themselves, rather than an objective analysis of their learning and actual behaviors. The S-LPI is one tool to assess student leadership practices and behaviors. Other evaluative tools may be utilized to assess students' leadership. A longitudinal assessment of students' leadership behaviors, as measured by the S-LPI following completion of the event management course, would provide additional information regarding the lasting impact of leadership training. Likewise, an experimental design whereby students are randomly assigned to a treatment group (partaking in the Event Management course that planned the fashion show) or control group (textbook learning only), would provide additional data for evaluation of student leadership development.\nImplications for practice: Results of this study suggest that involvement in an event management course in which students were engaged and responsible for the outcomes of their learning may have positively impacted these students' leadership behaviors. Providing a variety of experiences focused on building leadership skills may provide students with the opportunities and experiences necessary to thrive in the global world. In the words of May, an alumni relations and hospitality director:Balancing my daily priorities on top of fashion show priorities was challenging at times. Having said that, these [event management] experiences I have taken away will help me to be better prepared for the future. These experiences are priceless.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the leadership practice scores and leadership behaviors of students before and after participation in an event management course.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A mixed methods approach was utilized. The Student-Leadership Practice Inventory (S-LPI) was administered to a sample of 184 students in three semesters of an event management course. Students completed the S-LPI at the beginning and at the end of the course. The students also wrote reflections of their leadership behaviors and understandings.\nFindings: - Results of the study showed that students' mean leadership scores increased significantly for all practice areas between pre and post. Also, all correlations between pre and post scores were statistically significant, indicating that responses at pre and post followed similar patterns, with students who scored higher on the pre-test also tending to score higher on the post-test. Reflections from students demonstrated significant understanding of effective leadership behaviors and learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample was college students enrolled in an event management course at one university; therefore results may not be generalized to all students.\nPractical implications: - Results of this study suggest that involvement in an event management course in which students were engaged and responsible for the outcomes of their learning may have positively impacted these students' leadership behaviors.\nOriginality/value: - This paper furthers the knowledge base and understanding of students' leadership growth through involvement in a university course as measured by the S-LPI.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A stage-oriented model (SOM) for e-commerce adoption: a study of Saudi Arabian organisations
|
[
"Information systems",
"E-commerce",
"Technological innovation",
"Technology implementation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: B2B electronic commerce (hereafter \"e-commerce\") has enabled many organisations to share information, cooperate with business partners and collaborate across geographical boundaries. Indeed, e-commerce offers unique opportunities to both developing and developed countries. In the short term, the gains are likely to be concentrated in developed countries but, in the long term, developing countries have more to benefit (Terzi, 2011). In fact, e-commerce and its adoption has gained much interest from practitioners, scholars and policy makers alike over recent decades resulting in various models to help explain the facilitators and inhibitors of e-commerce adoption in organisations (Dilworth and Kochhar, 2007; Kshetri, 2007; Molla and Licker, 2005a, b; Zhu et al., 2003). E-commerce adoption in developing countries is more complex due to challenges such as insufficient regulatory environments and inadequate infrastructure; and so there is a particular need to study less developed countries. The aim of this study is to provide a validated model of e-commerce adoption for SA and develop a clear understanding about the different factors that support and or impede the adoption process.\n2. E-commerce factors in developing Arab countries: It has been shown that there are significant differences between how e-business matures successfully in developed countries (such as the USA, Canada, and western Europe) and less developed countries (Hawk, 2004). Thus, theories and management practices originating from developed countries in the west need to be re-examined in the context of developing countries to better fit the cultural context of the recipient nation (Hofstede, 1980). In fact, studies conducted in western countries tend to embody the values, attitudes, and beliefs of the west, which are different from those of non-western cultures (Marasini et al., 2008; Hafeez et al., 2006). Moreover, issues which might seem trivial for developed countries may play an important role for e-commerce adoption in developing countries. For instance, in most developing countries, e-commerce adoption has been constrained by an insufficient regulatory environment and an inadequate or inaccessible information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.\n3. Conceptual modelling for e-commerce adoption: Innovation is a fundamental concept of economic growth and is often an enabler for achieving sustainable competitiveness for organisations. Innovation adoption and diffusion has been studied since the early 1940s and researchers have identified factors that affect organisational innovation adoption in order to enhance its usage. Several theoretical models and frameworks have their roots in information systems, psychology and sociology (Venkatesh et al., 2003).\n4. Research methodology: In order to empirically test the research hypotheses, a survey method was used. Initial versions of the survey were pilot tested with experts (academics, consultants and managers) and revised accordingly. The English version was translated into Arabic using Brislin's (1986) back translation method and repeated until both versions converged. All independent constructs were measured on a Likert five-point scale, from 1 (\"strongly disagree\") to 5 (\"strongly agree\") enabling respondents characterise their organisation. The dependent variable, namely e-commerce adoption, was measured as a dichotomous variable within three groups, i.e., adopters of non-interactive e-commerce, adopters of interactive e-commerce, and advanced adopters. The final items used to measure each construct are presented in Appendix.\n5. Testing the structural model: Multiple discriminant function analysis (MDFA) was conducted to test the research model and the proposed hypotheses. MDFA is used to predict membership in two or more groups with respect to two or more independent variables simultaneously. Moreover, it is an appropriate technique when the dependent variable is categorical (either dichotomous or multi-chotomous) and the independent variable is interval (Hair et al., 1995). Discriminant loading (aka structure correlation) measuring the simple linear correlation between each predictor variable and the extracted discriminant function is used to determine the significance of the variables. Independent variables (constructs) with factor loadings greater than or equal to +-0.30 were identified as significant contributors to the discriminant power of the function at p<0.10 (Hair et al., 1995). By analysing the data missing values were eliminated and a 5 per cent (a=0.05) significance level was maintained. Three separate models were generated for the three groups of e-commerce adoption: non-interactive adoption, interactive adoption and stabilisation.\n6. Discussion and implications: This study proposed and empirically tested a new SOM of e-commerce adoption for organisations in SA which could be verified for other similar Arab countries. The empirical evidence supported the idea that the considerable variability between \"non-interactive\" adopters, \"interactive\" adopters and \"stabilisation\" of e-commerce was due to significantly different technological, organisational and environmental determinants.\n7. Conclusion: This study has successfully delivered a new SOM for e-commerce adoption which includes three different stages (non-interactive, interactive and stabilisation) and three types of factors (technological, organisational and environmental) which has not previously been constructed or applied to any data set before. The testing of the model reveals that it is a valid model that it can be used reliably in this context. The model revealed similar findings on some factors and levels of adoption with other studies using less sophisticated models, further showing its validity. The benefit of this new SOM is that it can measure both stage and factor effects simultaneously whereas other models on which it is partially founded cannot.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to construct a new e-commerce innovation and adoption model that takes into account various stages of e-commerce adoption (interactive, non-interactive and stabilised) and covers technological, organisational and environmental factors. This was tested using data collected from manufacturing and service companies in Saudi Arabia (SA) to reveal inhibitors and catalysts for e-commerce adoption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses new data from surveys from 202 companies and then uses exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling for analyses.\nFindings: This study shows that the new stage-oriented model (SOM) is valid and can reveal specific detailed nuances of e-commerce adoption within a particular setting. Surprising results show that SA is not so very different to developed western countries in respect to e-commerce adoption. However there are some important differences which are discussed in detail.\nResearch limitations/implications: A new SOM for e-commerce adoption is provided which may be used by other IS adoption researchers.\nPractical implications: Managers responsible for the adoption of e-commerce in SA, the Middle East and beyond can learn from these findings to speed up adoption rates and make e-commerce more effective.\nSocial implications: This work may help spread e-commerce use throughout SA, the Middle East and to other developing nations.\nOriginality/value: The results add to the extremely limited number of empirical studies that has been conducted to investigate e-commerce adoption in the context of Arabic countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Virtual dual sourcing" of specialized goods: Lessons from supply chain disruption of Riken and Epson Atmix
|
[
"Information visualization",
"Business continuity planning",
"Design information portability",
"Product/process architecture",
"Supply chain disruption",
"Virtual dual sourcing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Manufacturing firms today need to build their resilience by preparing for supply chain disruptions caused by natural disasters; they must also improve competitiveness in their supply chains in order to withstand global competition. Manufacturing is defined as \"managing and processing flows of value-carrying design information to the customers\" (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991; Fujimoto, 1999, 2007). More recent studies argue that information visibility or sharing system is important for supply chain management (Goswami et al., 2013; Klueber and O'Keefe, 2013). This means manufacturing firms can improve their competitiveness by smoothing the design information flow. Thus, supply chain risk management should include view of information flow (Tang and Musa, 2011), but still such a point of view has seldom presented in literatures. More recently, according to the view of design information flow, firms can achieve resilience by restoring essential design information either at the point of disruption or on alternate production lines. This approach is called \"virtual dual sourcing\" (Fujimoto, 2012; Fujimoto and Park, 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Supply chain risks\n3. Research methods: Manufacturing firms recovering from supply chain disruptions should improve their robustness against future disasters only after securing and strengthening their international competitiveness. This is not always easy because the human mind tends to be occupied inevitably by \"disaster mentality,\" rather than \"competition logic,\" in the aftermath of a catastrophe. To examine how Japanese firms responded to natural disasters such as the GEJE, we made extensive site visits to major Japanese export industries (such as automotive, electronics, chemicals, etc.). The firms were carefully selected based on two criteria: they had suffered major disaster-related damage; their senior executives were willing to share their experiences and allowed the research team to visit the sites. The research team focused on learning about how these firms reconstructed the stock of critical design information (e.g. stamping dies, tools, programs, processes, photo masks, etc.) in the damaged processes (i.e. the technical cores) or alternative locations.\n4. Case study: 4.1 EPSON ATMIX\n5. Concluding remarks: Both EPSON ATMIX and Riken employ specialized production processes for certain products. In other words, these processes and product designs usually comprise integral architecture. The BCPs and recovery actions of such companies face the issue of design information portability. EPSON ATMIX solved this problem by visualizing key parameters when a new plant was built. These firms' solutions were not limited to the physical but also extended to the design information measures that could deal with supply chain disruptions. The new plant of EPSON ATMIX is not simply physical backup measure. If so, investment for new plant should be costly BCP, and hence it can have limited effect for competitiveness. Building the new line with carefully identifying key parameters enables balancing between competitiveness and effective BCP at the same time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Japanese firms who make customized goods respond to supply chain failure caused by natural disaster, and shows the process and problem to build virtual dual sourcing with relation to product/process architecture.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two case studies of Japanese manufacturing firm have been discussed. The research team had extensive site visits of major Japanese export industries (such as automotive, electronics, chemical and so on). The firms were carefully selected based on three criteria: the firms had major disaster-related damages; the senior executives of firms were willing to share their experiences and allow the research team to visit the sites; selected firms were notified in advance about the research perspective of how best to resume the flow of design information to customers speedily and effectively.\nFindings: The main finding of this research is that visualizing design information of products is an essential step for virtual dual sourcing strategy or effective recovery from supply chain disruption, even if there is limitation because of its product/process architecture. Substituting other production line is not an absolute condition for contingent action. Balancing contingent activity and competitiveness is important for firms and building \"virtual dual sourcing\" system is one of the effective ways of business continuity plans (BCP).\nResearch limitations/implications: The researchers would imply that if product/process architecture is modular, visualizing design information for virtual dual sourcing is not so difficult. If product/process architecture is integral, visualizing design information for virtual dual is likely to be incomplete because it needs tacit knowledge for operation. Specifying and smoothly dispatching key persons with tacit knowledge would be effective for recovery from supply chain disruption. However, there still remain limitations in this research, for it is uncertain how much visualizing design information and virtual dual sourcing are effective in response to product/process architecture.\nPractical implications: The researchers would imply that key persons with tacit knowledge should be dispersed for compensation of visualization of design information.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this research shows supply chain risk and recovery from the design information view of manufacturing. With real cases of the two companies having experience of natural disaster, this paper shows the process and problem to build virtual dual sourcing system, and shows balancing competitiveness and contingent activity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge sharing as an intervention for Gen Y employees' intention to stay
|
[
"Affective commitment",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Gen Y",
"Competency",
"Intention to stay"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's competitive and ever-changing business environment, retaining and developing talent is central concern of organizations. Workforce mobility has become a frequent phenomenon. One of the reasons is atypical characteristics of present workforce, comprising of Baby boomers (1946-1960), Gen X (1961-1980) and Gen Y (1981-2000). Baby boomers are nearing retirement and Gen X would be retiring in another few years. By 2030, 75 percent of the global workforce will comprise of Gen Y. They are future workforce around the globe with inherently different personality, attitude, behavior, and work values from baby boomers and Gen X (Howe and Strauss, 2000). Therefore, motivational needs of Gen Y needs examination for designing interventions for their retention through intense scrutiny of extant literature.\nLiterature review: Understanding knowledge sharing\nConceptual framework and propositions: Knowledge sharing and competency development\nDiscussion and implications: The extant research reveals that never before has there been much emphasis placed on talent development and retention. Information processing capacity developed through observing, questioning, listening, suggesting, interpreting the role models reinforce a knowledge sharing culture within organizations. The process of knowledge sharing generated through collecting and donating knowledge both in explicit and implicit forms create an urge for learning and competency development among employees. Gen Y employees have creative, carefree, and risk-taking personality characteristics. They have dominant growth needs and are enticed by knowledge sharing strategy. In particular, Gen Y employees, by their inherent nature are prone to job switching. One of the catalysts behind this is the changing nature of psychological contract wherein job security and life-time employment are replaced by multitasking, flexibility and employability skills. In addition, global competition is forcing organizations to continuously develop their workforce in order to stay sustainable and offset any future contingencies.\nLimitations and suggestions for future research: The model proposed in this paper is a conceptual work and has not yet been empirically tested. This paper serves as a stepping stone for further exploration of knowledge sharing in the given context. There are some directions to work upon in future research. First, future work in this domain is meaningful as evidence on suggested relationships is lacking. Therefore, empirical studies will confirm our suggested conceptual model Second, qualitative and quantitative research will be beneficial to elucidate the concept in organizational context. Finally, it will be prudent to design a scale to measure competency development, affective commitment and intention to stay from the perspective of Gen Y employees as most available scales on these constructs are developed in different context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between knowledge sharing, competency development, affective commitment, and Gen Y employees' intention to stay.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on a review of extant literature and using social exchange, and social constructivist approach, this study develops a theoretical rationale behind developing a conceptual framework to retain employees of the Gen Y segment.\nFindings: Knowledge sharing in the organization has a great potential to foster competency development and generate a sense of affective commitment and intention to stay of employees of Gen Y.\nResearch limitations/implications: A conceptual framework of knowledge sharing for competency development could assist HR managers in fine-tuning their retention strategy for Gen Y employees. The future work should carry out the empirical validation of the suggested conceptual framework.\nPractical implications: Organizations should focus on knowledge sharing to enhance absorptive capacity, which fosters competency development. The framework suggests an approach of generation-specific retention strategy.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature in human resources pertaining to knowledge sharing as a competency development intervention and develops a linkage between knowledge sharing and Gen Y employees' intention to stay. The study is one of the first of its kind to address knowledge sharing and competency development in the context of Gen Y retention.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Left isn't always right: placement of pictorial and textual package elements
|
[
"Packaging",
"Package design",
"Visual attention",
"Visual perception",
"Eye‐tracking",
"Pictorial elements",
"Textual elements",
"Preference",
"Retail environment",
"Design",
"Perception",
"Optical information processing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Packaging plays a key role in customers' purchase decisions (Deng and Kahn, 2009; Hanzaee and Sheikhi, 2010; Kuvykaite et al., 2009; Orth and Malkewitz, 2008; Rettie and Brewer, 2000; Silayoi and Speece, 2004, 2007; Underwood and Klein, 2002). Packaging can be regarded as a silent salesman (Pilditch, 1973), and most customers make their purchase decisions solely by looking at the front of the package (Urbany et al., 1996). Given the similarity in package design between many products within a category, selection of a specific product may depend on if it captures the customer's attention and conveys the right message within a very limited time (Judd et al., 1989). Thus, everything that facilitates communication of the intended message on a product's packaging is crucial at point of purchase (POP). A poorly designed package with a disorganised layout can cause confusion, giving customers a negative perception of the product.Few studies have investigated the communicative effects of product packaging, as well as the link between packaging and consumer attention (Underwood et al., 2001). Nevertheless, even the slightest change in attention can have a significant impact on brand memory (Wedel and Pieters, 2000), perception (Pieters and Warlop, 1999) and sales (Janiszewski, 1998). Even though capturing attention is not always enough for brand selection (Janiszewski and Warlop, 1993), visual attention is crucial for purchase selection. People choose with their eyes (Clement, 2007), which means that unseen items are unsold items. Therefore, a customer's buying behaviour will be affected by visual stimuli (Pieters and Warlop, 1999; Reutskaja et al., 2011).Text and pictures are important package characteristics. Researchers often classify these into separate categories, such as verbal and visual (Rettie and Brewer, 2000), or informational and visual package elements (Silayoi and Speece, 2004, 2007). Pictorial elements are central for capturing and retaining customers' attention (Childers and Houston, 1984; Pieters and Wedel, 2004; Underwood et al., 2001), and textual elements have a large impact on consumers' choices (Pieters and Wedel, 2004). For instance, Feiereisen et al. (2008) showed that words, more than pictures, generally enhance comprehension of new products.The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence that positioning has on visual attention toward textual and pictorial elements; two major design components of packaging. More precisely, the aim is to explore detection time for these element types, when located on the right- or left-hand side of a package. The definition of package, as given in Ampuero and Vila (2006), is a container that is in direct contact with the product itself, facilitating handling and commercialism, and protecting, preserving and identifying the product. In the present article, this term will exclusively refer to packaging for retail products. The research has impact on where these elements should be positioned on a package in order to be noticed. As far as can be ascertained, no one has addressed this research question previously.The next section of the article contains a general discussion regarding package elements. Since textual and pictorial package elements tend to be processed in different regions (hemispheres) of the brain, attention turns to the laterality of the human brain. This is followed by a review of related research on textual and pictorial elements, mainly for packaging, and with brain laterality as an underlying theoretical framework. The paper will then develop two pairs of research propositions in parallel with this concept. Finally, focus shifts to the present study, its methodology, results, and implications.Package elements\nMethod: Visual attention was measured by means of eye-tracking; a technique of recording eye movements. The video-based pupil and corneal reflection method was used to estimate where on the stimulus the observer was looking (for details, see Duchowski, 2007). This method records the pupil centre and a reflection spot on the cornea to measure the position of the eyes. The corneal reflection is caused by an infrared light source located in front of the observer (Holmqvist et al., 2011). Previous eye-tracking studies have revealed a connection between attention to verbal package elements (brands) and decisions made in-store (Wedel and Pieters, 2008), and have also investigated visual attention during brand choice under time -pressure and task motivation (Pieters and Warlop, 1999).Design and stimuli\nResults: A two-way ANOVA with location (left, right) and stimulus-version (Clover symbol, Win 100,000, New) showed no statistically significant main effects in TTFF, either for location (F(1, 112)=0.08, p=0.79) or stimulus version (F(2, 112)=.61, p=0.55). However, the interaction locationxstimulus version was statistically significant [F(2, 112)=3.35, p<0.05], which indicates location-related differences in the perception of textual and pictorial package elements (see Figure 2). Both textual elements were detected faster when they were on the left side of the package, whereas the reverse applied for the pictorial element. In other words, participants noticed the clover symbol faster when it was positioned on the right side of the package. See Table II for means and standard deviations.A Pearson's chi-square analysis was conducted to determine whether the seen and unseen elements in the different experimental groups were randomly distributed. Six categories were created on the basis of stimulus-version (Left Clover symbol, Right Clover symbol, Left Win 100 000, Right Win 100 000, Left New, and Right New) and AOI hit (seen, unseen). An AOI hit states that the coordinates of a fixation is inside the AOI (Holmqvist et al., 2011).The chi-square value was statistically significant (kh2(5)=24.67, p<0.0005, V=0.365). Standardised residuals were calculated to determine which stimulus versions were major contributors to the significance. A standardised residual with an absolute value greater than 2.00 is regarded as a major contributor (Hinkle et al., 1994). The chi-square analysis revealed that only the Left Clover version was a major contributor (standardised residuals (seen, unseen)=-2.4 and 3.2 respectively). Thus, significantly fewer participants saw the symbol in the Left Clover version than could be assumed in a random distribution, and those who saw the symbol detected it slower than participants in the Right Clover version.\nDiscussion: The results of this study show that the positioning of package elements significantly affects detection. This study must be considered exploratory because previous studies of visual attention have not examined detection time for certain structural package elements, and existing related research has shown conflicting results. Textual elements are detected fastest when they are located on the left side of a package, whereas pictorial elements are detected fastest when they are located on the right side. Moreover, the chances of detecting pictorial package elements are largely influenced by positioning. Only a small number of participants managed to detect the pictorial element (the clover symbol) on the left side. They also detected it more slowly than participants who saw it on the right side. This indicates that participants who did not see the pictorial element on the left were unable to do so within the time limit of 7.0 seconds. Further, this proves the importance of proper element organisation. A \"wrong\" location may leave a salient package element unseen.Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to investigate how the positioning of textual and pictorial design elements on a package affects visual attention (detection time) toward these element types.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study has a 3x2 (stimulusxlocation) between-subjects design. One pictorial and two textual package elements, located on the top right- or top left-hand side of a package, were used as stimuli. Visual attention was measured by eye-tracking. A total of 199 university students participated. The data were analysed using a two-way ANOVA and a Pearson's chi-square analysis with standardised residuals.\nFindings: - The results show that in order to receive the most direct attention, textual elements should be on the left-hand side of a package, whereas pictorial elements should be on the right-hand side. This is inconsistent with previous design directions (based on recall), suggesting the opposite element organisation.\nOriginality/value: - Previous research has focused on recall (whether respondents remember having seen package elements) or preference (whether respondents prefer a package based on element positioning). The focus of the present study determined whether respondents actually saw the different elements on a package, and how long it took them to detect such elements. Detection time for certain element types can be viewed as a new and complementary way of evaluating the position of package elements. The paper also addresses whether preference is a result of easy information acquisition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Why Sen's interpretation of the liberal tradition matters and is also problematic to understanding his social economics
|
[
"Freedom",
"Distributive justice",
"Development",
"Welfare economics",
"Well-being",
"Liberalism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Political theorizing, especially about distributive justice, is not without practical policy implications. Sometimes, as in the case of Amartya Sen, these implications are intended to be robust and are indeed robust. The Human Development Index (HDI), which is a composite statistic measuring life expectancy, education, and income per capita, was developed by Sen and the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in the early 1990s as an algorithm for measuring and comparing the well-being, as opposed to merely using per capita income, of member states of the United Nations. The HDI, which is based on the capabilities approach developed by Sen, assumes that well-being is not identical with per capita income. The latter captures extremely crudely how well individual lives are going and therefore is a very blunt instrument for measuring and comparing international development[1]. Sen, then, more than any other contemporary economist and much in the spirit of Adam Smith and Karl Marx from whom he has drawn motivation, sees economic theorizing as simultaneously acutely philosophical in part. In other words, for Sen, economic development is inherently normative. Measuring it presupposes value criteria. So economic thinking, then, is explicitly philosophical for Sen which is to say that philosophy has considerable practical use.\nOwing \"immense\" philosophical debts: Mozaffar Qizilbash has insisted that Amartya Sen's capability approach \"emerged\" out of his critique of utilitarianism in part. But the kind of utilitarianism that Sen has found so unsatisfactory looks back to Bentham primarily, and presumably Sidgwick as well, rather than to Mill[2]. Mill's utilitarianism, by contrast, according to Qizilbash, is \"very close to Sen's capability approach.\" Indeed, the \"relationship between capabilities, opportunities and happiness in Mill's writings suggests that he held a substantive view of human flourishing which involves the development and exercise of certain capabilities.\" Mill's utilitarianism is therefore \"consistent with the thrust of Sen's capability approach\" (my italics) (Qizilbash, 2006, pp. 20 and 32).\nIdentifying with a distinctive philosophical tradition: The more compelling the political theory, particularly regarding distributive justice, grounding one's policy recommendations is, the more likely these recommendations are to be taken seriously. Policy recommendations grounded on bizarre or overly abstract \"metaphysical\" political theory are unlikely to get very far. Moreover, the extent to which one's grounding political theory is part of a widely shared philosophical tradition, the more compelling it will seem and thus the more seriously it will be taken and the better chance it will have of being put into practice.\nMinimal and substantive freedom: I should now like to begin with Sen before turning to similarities he seems to share with Mill. Sen has famously distinguished between well-being and advantage. Whereas well-being concerns a person's achievements or how well he or she is doing, advantage refers to the real, substantive opportunities to achieve that he or she actually has. These substantive opportunities include elementary capabilities like being able to avoid starvation and premature mortality, being literate and being able to enjoy political participation and engage in free speech. Advantage is \"closer to the notion\" of meaningful \"freedom to achieve well-being\" (Sen, 1999a, p. 3). Freedom to achieve is therefore a conceptual component of, but not identical to, what contemporary political philosophers, thanks primarily to Isaiah Berlin's well-known 1958 \"Two concepts of liberty,\" mean by positive freedom. And by contrast, \"freedom to act\" is more impoverished though no less important and what we typically think of as negative freedom also thanks to Berlin. As Sen puts it in the first of his 1991 Arrow Lectures:There are two quite distinct ways of seeing freedom. One is the \"freedom to act,\" for example, a person's autonomy in the form of being able to do what she wants, and her immunity from interference by others. In assessing a person's freedom in this perspective, the concentration has to be on what a person is free--and permitted--to do, and not on what she manages to achieve. But, in contrast, the \"freedom to achieve\" relates to what a person is free to have or achieve--on the basis of her own actions and those of others. A person's \"achievement\" may, of course, include her achievement in being able to \"act\" in a certain way, but the list of achievements can go well beyond the actions undertaken (Sen, 2002a, pp. 596-597).\nFrom Sen to Mill and back: As suggested above, by identifying with Mill's version of liberalism so enthusiastically, Sen puts our esteem for Mill to his advantage, making the capabilities approach more worthy of our attention and gripping. But that is not all. By identifying with Mill so strongly, he also invites us to use Mill in helping make sense of the capabilities approach. And as we have begun to see regarding Sen's account of freedom, there are plenty of similarities between them, which focusing on Mill in more detail now should bring to light. I follow Jonathan Riley's account of Mill not just because I think it is correct but because Riley was Sen's former student and because his account of Mill makes plainer the similarities between Mill and Sen.\nRights to physical nourishment and basic education: As noted previously, by advantage Sen means real, substantive opportunities to achieve well-being, namely being able to opt for or even opt out of what makes life go well. Again, these substantive opportunities include elementary capabilities like being physically well nourished, being able to live a normal lifespan, being literate, and being able to participate in politics and engage in free speech. (Though Sen generally hesitates to call these achievement opportunities natural rights, Martha Nussbaum is quite comfortable in doing so on occasion).\nFrom Sen to T.H. Green and back: Notwithstanding how precisely Sen interprets Mill, he is nevertheless Sen's philosophical hero if he can be said to have one. Mill is certainly, at least, one of the \"very great people\" constituting that strand of the liberal tradition that Sen sees himself as working within and identifying with. As previously noted, Sen generally though not always consistently, sees the liberal tradition as consisting of three other strands in addition, namely traditional classical utilitarianism, libertarianism, and Rawlsian constructivism. Assuming he considers Bentham and Sidgwick traditional classical utilitarians, Mill would then amount to a non-traditional classical utilitarian whose non-traditional turn was, historically speaking, a critical change of direction. In identifying explicitly with this change of direction, then, Sen effectively concedes just how much he owes to the evolution of nineteen-century classical utilitarianism. And instead of concluding as Qizilbash does that \"the strong contrast which Sen sometimes makes between classical utilitarianism and his capability view is overdone,\" perhaps it would be more precise to say that Sen overemphasizes his differences with classical utilitarianism only insofar as he can be said on occasion to lump incautiously Mill into the same category as traditional classical utilitarians like Bentham and Sidgwick[5]. But given Sen's acknowledged debts to Mill, thanks to Qizilbash's astute observations elsewhere, we should be surprised if Sen ever really intends lumping Bentham, Sidgwick, and Mill together as traditional classical utilitarians.\nConclusion: The capability approach has generated considerable empirical research in recent years and has been the driving theoretical impetus behind the annual Human Development Reports issued by the United Nations. As philosophy, its practical impact has therefore been remarkable. It has created a more meaningful measure of well-being and the point of economic development. Probably no other modern substantive political theory comes close to generating such real-world relevance, which is to say that no policy agenda for combatting world poverty as the HDI is so discernibly political theoretical, which both Sen and Nussbaum's philosophizing makes clear.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Sen has recently acknowledged his \"immense\" debts to the liberal tradition of J.S. Mill and, to much lesser extent, to T.H. Green. This essay explores how identifying himself so enthusiastically with Mill sheds light on one's understanding of Sen's defense of the capabilities approach. But trying to understand him through the lens of Mill can be a double-edged sword. Sen not only risks causing his readers to append too much Mill to capabilities liberalism, but he also risks encouraging them to misinterpret Mill. These implications naturally bear significantly on how compelling readers find both Sen's conception of distributive justice and the public policy recommendations based on it. Besides exploring some of the problematic implications of Sen's readily identifying with Mill's liberalism in particular, this essay also speculates on what it means to identify with any political philosophical tradition and how such identification colors and adds momentum to both one's political theorizing and practical recommendations. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Textual interpretation.\nFindings: As noted above, this paper examines how Sen's esteem for J.S. Mill sheds light on the capabilities approach. It also suggests that using Mill to understand Sen better is fraught with difficulties.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper also speculates on what it means to identify with a particular political philosophical tradition much as Sen identifies with Mill's liberalism.\nPractical implications: This paper also explores how such identification with a particular political philosophical tradition colors and adds momentum to both one's political theorizing and practical recommendations.\nOriginality/value: Using Mill to understand Sen better is certainly worthwhile. On the other hand, doing this sort of thing risks distorting Mill and even Sen.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sourcing in global health supply chains for developing countries: Literature review and a decision making framework
|
[
"Personal health",
"Preventative medicine",
"Sourcing",
"Supply chain management",
"Developing countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Humanitarian aid has attracted much attention in recent years due to different factors such as the ever rising issue of social and environmental comebacks of corporation processes, which has caused their social counterparts to expect action (Austin, 2000; Mohr et al., 2001). It has also been estimated that due to environmental degradation, rapid urbanization and the spread of HIV/AIDS in the developing world, humanitarian aid will face an even larger number of disruptions in the coming years (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005).\n2 Methodology: This paper consists of an extensive literature review followed by an explorative investigation of the vaccine supply chains within humanitarian aid networks. The literature review was conducted first by a thorough review of three SCM/logistics/purchasing journals: Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. These journals were reviewed to investigate the relevant studies done on the subject of this study. The findings, as summarized in Table I, indicated the scarce number of studies done on sourcing in humanitarian aid contexts and also on vaccine supply chains within these networks. This review was followed by a thorough keyword search on the leading journals of Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, International Journal of Logistics Management, Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistic Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Omega, International Journal of Production Economics, Decision Science, and European Journal of Operational Research.\n3 Prior research: 3.1 The concept of strategic sourcing\n4 Vaccine supply chains in humanitarian aid network: Humanitarian aid networks are supply chains with facets such as inefficient physical and communications infrastructure, lack of transport, poorly functioning governments, presence of vulnerable individuals, looting and pilfering, and the threat of violence. Studies have characterized the humanitarian aid context as one of voluntary contributions of finance and labor, in which the beneficiaries are not part of any commercial transaction, and are usually located in regions with poor logistics infrastructure, and with sensitive and unstable political and environmental foundations (Pettit and Beresford, 2009; Olorotunba and Gray, 2002; Long and Wood, 1995). Here, logistics plays an important role and accounts for a considerable part of the operations, from procurement to transport and delivery of supplies in the region (Van Wassenhove, 2006; Thomas and Kopczak, 2005). Humanitarian aid practitioners should seek methods of approach to minimize both the sensitivity of the chains and the instability of the environments, especially due to concepts of lost sales and backorders being translated to loss of life and livelihood (Balcik et al., 2008; Beamon and Kotleba, 2006), e.g. provision of required medicine to developing regions with limited procurement capacities. Furthermore, humanitarian aid is not only about the mere distribution of these goods. The bigger picture is assisting beneficiary communities to build their infrastructures to reach sustainable growth. Thus, procuring goods locally will help communities develop their economies and livelihoods as well as provide other benefits coming from shorter distances in transportation of goods at lower amounts and costs of resources.\n5 A decision making framework for strategic sourcing: The findings from the proposed two-phase investigation set the ground for developing a framework for sourcing vaccines in humanitarian aid networks as shown in Figure 3. The framework was developed based on the strategic criteria in making sourcing decisions for the context of the paper, i.e. quality being the most important for vaccines, availability of physical and cultural infrastructure for global sourcing, and local capacity building for humanitarian aid. Sourcing from the local market of supplies in case of availability is emphasized due to advantages such as shorter lead times, reduced risk, better compatibility, reduced transportation costs, supporting the development of local markets, and reducing the negative consequences of the natural environments in relation to transport, among others. These criteria emerged from the investigation in Sections 3 and 4. The nature of vaccine supply chains within humanitarian aid networks, as presented earlier, suggests that the re-configuration of the supply base is about finding ways to improve the availability, quality, innovation, and accessibility of the product in a more secure market at affordable prices for the developing nations. This can be achieved through enabling new suppliers to enter the market in order to sustain a healthy market on the one hand, and assisting on where and how to source from this existing and potential market of supply on the other.\n6 Discussion and propositions: Hereby, a set of propositions is also introduced as a foundation for future studies on sourcing within the humanitarian aid networks with special emphasis on vaccines:\n7 Conclusions: Through the findings from literature on strategic sourcing, the criteria important in making supplier selections were extracted and the developed models in utilizing these criteria to make strategic sourcing decisions were investigated. It was concluded that no one strategy could be labeled best. In order to choose best strategic sourcing practice, the product, organization, and country factors should be investigated. Hence, the nature of the vaccine supply chains within the humanitarian aid networks in developing countries was reviewed. The results indicated that a limited number of suppliers form the upstream of these networks, while the beneficiaries within the developing countries and their governments are at the other end. A decision making framework for sourcing vaccines in humanitarian aid networks is proposed, connecting literature and the context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although noticeable improvements have been made in global health in recent years, the distribution is uneven throughout the world and many developing and low-income countries lack access to required medicine and vaccines. Thus, a model to strategically source vaccines for these nations can contribute a great deal. This paper aims to present an extensive review of strategic sourcing literature, and to identify the criteria and available models in making strategic sourcing decisions. The purpose is to develop a decision making framework for future empirical study of humanitarian aid networks, more specifically, sourcing and distribution of vaccines in developing countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A thorough review of several purchasing and supply chain management (SCM) journals was conducted to identify the strategic criteria in making sourcing decisions, hence \"strategic sourcing\". In line with this, a number of sourcing strategies were reviewed to find the relevant strategic criteria. Secondary data from practice were also investigated for special characteristics of vaccine supply chains in humanitarian aid networks. Articles were then scrutinized and results categorized in order to develop a framework for future empirical studies.\nFindings: The findings show the historical development of strategic sourcing and the criteria in making strategic sourcing decisions. More recent studies, while taking a look back in history, have revealed a mix of strategies for more flexible models. Quality has been noted to be a strategic criterion for sourcing vaccines and this has caused the supply market to be dispersed on a global scale.\nResearch limitations/implications: Considering the extensive number of academic publications, due to the focus of this study being sourcing within humanitarian aid networks, a number of academic journals in logistics/SCM/sourcing were reviewed.\nOriginality/value: A decision making framework is presented for sourcing vaccines within the humanitarian sector. The criteria in making strategic sourcing decisions are further re-evaluated and a base model proposed. The framework will be used for further research on sourcing in the humanitarian aid sector as well as practical implications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Community care reaches out for the mobile moment
|
[
"Benefits",
"Service redesign",
"Community nurses",
"Mobile working",
"Public health time bomb",
"Mobile communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Have you had a \"mobile moment\" today? Maybe it was just one or may be your life revolves around a myriad of these so-called moments? You may have checked your weather app about the need for an umbrella. Or the train app for any delays. Or your preferred news app to catch those headlines. Booking those cinema tickets could not be easier and as for tracking the whereabouts of that book from Amazon, not a problem. Latest scores of whatever sport takes your fancy - that will be an app on your mobile device.\nThe rise of mobile and the mobile moment: The mobile device is dramatically changing the ways we interact with each other, both at home and at work. One estimate suggests, that every day there are more mobile phones sold than babies born (Erbs and Duffey, 2014), while a recent study reports that across 30 countries, people spend an average of 147 minutes using a smart phone (Millward Brown, 2014). Not surprisingly, research suggests 92 per cent of adults have their mobile device within arm's reach day and night.\nThe public health time bomb: The success of modern medicine over the last 50 years has resulted in a healthier longer living population. Combined with the relatively untapped opportunity of genetics and personalised medicine, it would appear the future of healthcare could not be in better shape. However, longevity is not all it seems and huge challenges have become clearly visible on the health professional's radar.\nThe role of community services: Community services are the foundation, providing healthcare, well-being and care services from childhood through to the end of life and supporting some of the most vulnerable people (Department of Health, 2013a, b, c). They are a large part of NHS activity, with around 100 million community contacts each year (Edwards, 2014). The breadth of these services range from universal public health functions such as health visiting and school nursing to targeted specialist interventions in musculo-skeletal services, chronic disease management and intensive rehabilitation.\nThe opportunity for service redesign in the community: The King's Fund Report emphasises the importance of service redesign. It states that \"a simpler pattern of services should be developed, based around primary care and natural geographies and with a multidisciplinary team. These teams need to work in new ways with specialist services - both community and hospital based, to offer patients a much more complete and less fragmented service\" (Edwards, 2014).\nThe mobile technology challenge in the community: Over the last ten years, healthcare has had mixed fortunes automating its processes using digital technology. Although primary care has made good progress with secondary care somewhat hit and miss, information technology to support healthcare workers in the community has been limited. This has resulted in labour intensive paper-based documentation both in the field and back at base. Communication with other provider organisations such as hospitals and GP practices has also been paper driven.\nThe community mobile moment: What is a \"mobile moment\" for a remote working healthcare professional on their device? It could simply be receiving the updated day's schedule with pre-calculated journey times. It could be a notification that the 3 O'clock has been cancelled due to an emergency admission to hospital. Perhaps the community psychiatric nurse is visiting a potentially violent patient at home and the care team back at base can monitor the arrival and departure times to ensure there has been no untoward incident. Or a community physiotherapist has access to the patient's progress notes made by a hospital physiotherapist colleague prior to discharge. A district nurse can document a Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool assessment and chart the trends at the tap of the screen. And share progress with the patient. Likewise photographic comparisons clearly show improved healing after a recent change in treatment for a tricky pressure ulcer. The HCP no longer needs to return to base or find a connection to document full and comprehensive visit reports and results as all this information is captured during the visit. Plus all this information automatically updates the various record systems of the organisation. And each week, administration tasks such as submitting mileage expenses, booking leave and ordering supplies can be done seamlessly and submitted from the device.\nThe healthcare organisation app platform: According to Ted Schadler, \"the technology invested in PCs and the web will not stretch to handle mobile moments. These systems were built for employees sitting at desks all day tending complex processes. They do not handle the intuitive, task orientated, contextual requirements of an app used in a mobile moment\".\nThe evidence for mobile in the community: The Department of Health's Transforming Community Services (TCS) programme was completed in March 2011 and recommended changes to community services that would provide better health outcomes for patients, families and communities (Department of Health, 2011). The Mobile Health Worker Project formed part of the TCS programme and collected information for a 15-month period (Department of Health, 2013a).\nBristol community health benefits (Bristol Community Health, 2014): 60 per cent reduction in time spent updating back office systems;\nVirgin care community benefits (Virgin Care, 2014): 30 per cent increase in face to face time with patients;\nConclusion: Community services have a pivotal role to play but need a radical makeover if they are to achieve a shift of care out of hospital into the community. To support such a major redesign, mobile working using modern communication technology will play a key role delivering a smarter healthcare solution. So if industries such as travel, banking and leisure can be transformed, then now is the time for healthcare to lift itself out of the doldrums and embrace this new way of working.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the quite extraordinary way the phenomena of mobile communication has gripped our society and the opportunities this provides for healthcare.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It describes the ticking public health time bomb surrounding long term conditions and dementia and the need to radically overhaul how community services are delivered. It dissects the opportunities and challenges of providing a mobile health and social care service in the community and explores what a mobile moment means for these professionals.\nFindings: It stresses that the answer is NOT to simply provide an organisation's IT back-office environment in the field and describes the concept of a dedicated organisation app platform tailored to meet this need.\nOriginality/value: The paper concludes by reviewing recent evidence about the benefits and opportunities for health and social care organisations to embrace mobile working.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining the influence of strategic profit emphases on employee engagement and service climate
|
[
"Employee engagement",
"Social exchange theory",
"Service climate",
"Strategic profit emphases",
"Organizational engagement",
"Job engagement",
"Revenue enhancement",
"Cost containment",
"Service employee"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Current strategic priorities for service organizations include identifying ways to develop and maintain service climates that promote superior customer experiences and better understanding how to more effectively engage service employees (Bowen, 2010; Ostrom et al., 2010; Schneider and Bowen, 2010). Service climate refers to \"employee perceptions of the practices, procedures and behaviors that are rewarded, supported and expected by a service organization with regard to customer service and service quality\" (Schneider et al., 1998, p. 151). Research indicates that service climate favorably influences employee performance (de Jong et al., 2004), firm performance (Schneider et al., 2009) as well as customer perceptions of service quality (Schneider et al., 1998; Schneider et al., 1998). A recent study also shows that customer perceptions of service quality are greatly affected by service employee engagement (Menguc et al., 2012). Yet, although many organizations realize that how they treat employees critically affects customer service quality (Bowen, 2010; Lusch et al., 2007), high levels of employee engagement are rare in service provision contexts (Ashill and Rod, 2011; Menguc et al., 2012).\nBackground: Kahn's (1990) conceptualization of employee engagement incorporates three conditions that must be present for engagement to occur: meaningfulness, safety, and availability. Drawing on Kahn's notion of work-related \"meaningfulness,\" Shuck et al. (2013, p. 6) state that employee engagement is contingent on \"contextually sensitive levels of meaningfulness [...] as well as the adequacy and availability of work toward a given work task.\" Subsequent research also elaborates on Kahn's conceptual definition to characterize employee engagement as the amount of discretionary effort exhibited by employees in their jobs (Frank et al., 2004) and employees' passion for their work (Truss et al., 2006). Indeed, Zigarmi et al. (2009, p. 302) discuss engagement and passion for work, interchangeably describing the construct as an \"energetic state of involvement with personally fulfilling activities to enhance one's sense of professional efficacy.\"\nMethod: Sample and data collection\nResults: LISREL 8.8 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 2006) is used to test the measurement and structural models. A confirmatory factor analysis is conducted to test the measurement model. Overall, this analysis yields adequate fit for the hypothesized five-factor model (kh2 (364)=1063.95 p < 0.01). While chi-square values are typically significant for samples of this size, several other key fit indices demonstrate that the measurement model has good fit (Kenny et al., 2006). For example, the mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) is 0.062, the non-normed fit index (NNFI) is 0.97, the incremental fit index (IFI) is 0.98, and the standardized RMR is 0.047. The error covariances of one pair of items from organizational engagement and two pairs of items from service climate are allowed to correlate within the same scales since items within the same scale are expected to be correlated with one another (Gerbing and Anderson, 1984). Each of the standardized factor loadings is significant (p < 0.01).\nDiscussion: Our research addresses current strategic priorities for service organizations by linking variables from the fields of strategy and organizational behavior to examine how firms may exploit strategic profit emphasis to encourage work environments that engage service employees and stimulate service climate. The study findings indicate that alternative strategic profit emphases differentially affect employee engagement and service climate, and that service climate is driven by organizational engagement rather than job engagement. These findings further illustrate the diverse effects of organizational revenue enhancement and cost containment emphases highlighted by Marinova et al. (2008) and extend several other research themes in the services and employee development literatures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research suggests that employee engagement favorably influences the provision of customer service, that high levels of service employee engagement are rare, and that firms' strategic profit emphases affect engagement and service climate. This study responds to calls for research that identifies drivers of employee engagement and foundational issues that promote effective service climates within service organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey method is utilized to assess data from 502 key informant service employees from multiple service industries.\nFindings: The findings indicate that service organizations' revenue enhancement and cost containment strategic profit emphases differentially influence employee engagement, and that organizational and job engagement differentially influence service climate.\nResearch limitations/implications: Data comprised of individual service employees' perceptions of their firms' strategic profit emphases and service climates are utilized. Although it is conceivable that some respondents' perceptions of these variables may be misguided, the study findings are based on a large sample of experienced service employees from multiple service industries.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that the most effective approach for promoting effective service climate is to hire service employees with a track record of job engagement and then focus on encouraging organizational engagement by creating working environments that support, value, and reward service quality.\nOriginality/value: Managers increasingly realize that how firms treat service employees critically affects customer service quality. However, relatively few studies examine service employees' perceptions of their own engagement and their organizations' working environments. This research incorporates social exchange theory and concepts from the fields of strategy and organizational behavior to assess service employees' perceptions of their organizations' strategic profit emphasis and its influence on engagement and service climate.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluation of Australian industry superannuation fund performance; asset allocation to property
|
[
"Asset allocation",
"Property",
"Superannuation",
"Modern portfolio theory",
"Diversification options",
"Portfolio construction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In Australia, superannuation or \"pension fund\" is an important source of retirement income arrangement for its aging and growing population. Superannuation funds are savings vehicles used by employers and employees with the objective of providing members the benefit of future retirement income. In the 1980s, it became clear to the Australian government that the country's demographic trends could not forever sustain a retirement income system reliant upon the taxpayer-funded pension schemes, and that Australians would need to set aside part of their current income to fund their own retirement. Superannuation contributions became a compulsory requirement in July 1992, when the Australian government introduced the current superannuation guarantee system. The initial compulsory contribution rate was 3% and has since gradually increased to 9.5% (APRA, 2015; Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2009).\n2. Literature review: Superannuation funds valued at AU$2 trillion (PS961 billion) are the dominant institutional property investors in Australia and provide a good measure of institutional allocation to the property sector. Most superannuation funds would set strategic targets to meet the long-term goals of the fund and its members. Because property investments are long term and provide regular income and capital growth, most superannuation funds have some exposure to property. As at 30 September 2015, the Australian superannuation industry's allocation to property was AU$112 billion. Property asset allocation for the industry funds, the largest segment of the institutional superannuation funds sector, averages 10 per cent. However, the overall superannuation industry (including small self-managed funds) demonstrate waning appetite for property assets, with allocation declining from 16 per cent during December 1989 to 8 per cent as at June 2015 (APRA, 2015; Rainmaker Group, 2012).\n3. Data and methodology: The research covers a 20-year timeframe (1995-2015), and uses ex-post quarterly total return asset benchmark data and the industry superannuation fund balanced investment option asset allocation data. The Markowitz (1952) classical mean-variance portfolio selection model serves as the starting point for constructing optimal asset allocation models. In practice, the Markowitz mean-variance framework is altered with various types of constraints that follow the institution's investment guidelines and investment objectives. This is because the classical mean-variance portfolio optimisation can often result in extreme allocation in specific assets. Therefore, in addition to the SAA policies, industry superannuation funds also formulate a range of permissible investable asset weights as a primary risk management tool. Including holding constraints leads to a more industry practical application of the mean-variance optimisation problems. Table II illustrates the assumed predetermined weight constraints for industry superannuation fund balanced portfolios.\n4. Results: Table VI details the performance of the different asset allocation strategies using the Sharpe ratio as the risk-adjusted return comparison. Other performance comparison measures include b, a, tracking error and information ratio analysis. The ten alternative portfolio results are benchmarked against the performance of the industry superannuation funds' Strategic balanced portfolio, as produced by the APRA (2015) and Rainmaker Group (2012). The CAPM is used to measure the portfolio systematic risk (b), separating fund manager skills from the exposure to the market (a).\n5. Conclusion: The research examined the Australian industry superannuation fund conventional strategic balanced investment option performance and asset allocation to property against ten alternative passive and active techniques. The empirical analysis covered a sample period of 20 years (1995-2015), comprising 81 quarterly data points involving the industry superannuation fund's seven benchmark asset classes including cash, Australian fixed, international fixed Australian equities, international equities, property and alternatives asset class. The historical analysis of the balanced portfolio showed variances in industry superannuation fund benchmark asset allocation and performance data:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Property is a key investment asset class that offers considerable benefits in a mixed-asset portfolio. Previous studies have concluded that property allocation should be within the 10-30 per cent range. However, there seems to be wide variation in theory and practice. Historical Australian superannuation data shows that the level of allocation to property asset class in institutional portfolios has remained constant in recent decades, restricted at 10 per cent or lower. This is seen by many in the property profession as a subjective measure and needs further investigation. The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of the AU$431 billion industry superannuation funds' strategic balanced portfolio against ten different passive and active investment strategies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis used 20 years (1995-2015) of quarterly data covering seven benchmark asset classes, namely: Australian equities, international equities, Australian fixed income, international fixed income, property, cash and alternatives. The 11 different asset allocation models are constructed within the modern portfolio theory framework utilising Australian ten-year bonds as the risk free rate. The Sharpe ratio is used as the key risk-adjusted return performance measure.\nFindings: The ten different asset allocation models perform as well as the industry fund strategic approach. The empirical results show that there is scope to increase the property allocation level from its current 10-23 per cent. Upon excluding unconstrained strategies, the recommended allocation to property for industry funds is 19 per cent (12 per cent direct and 7 per cent listed). This high allocation is backed by improved risk-adjusted return performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: The constrained optimal, tactical and dynamic models are limited to asset weight, no short selling and turnover parameters. Other institutional constraints that can be added to the portfolio optimisation problem include transaction costs, taxation, liquidity and tracking error constraints.\nPractical implications: The 11 different asset allocation models developed to evaluate the property allocation component in industry superannuation funds portfolio will attract fund managers to explore alternative strategies (passive and active) where risk-adjusted returns can be improved, compared to the common strategic approach with increased allocation to property assets.\nOriginality/value: The research presents a unique perspective of investigating the optimal allocation to property assets within the context of active investment strategies, such as tactical and dynamic models, whereas previous studies have focused mainly on passive investment strategies. The investigation of these models effectively contributes to the transfer of broader finance and investment market theories and practice to the property discipline.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Older employees' postretirement work planning: an application of the theory of planned behavior
|
[
"Postretirement work",
"Bridge employment",
"Work planning",
"Older workers",
"The theory of planned behavior"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The average age of the workforce is getting older, and the population of older workers is expected to continue increasing (Shultz and Wang, 2011). To support older adults during a longer retirement and to sustain retirement systems, one promising way is to encourage postretirement work (PRW) (or bridge employment; Beehr and Bennet, 2015; Fasbender et al., 2014; Feldman, 1994), which also serves as a smooth transition to full retirement (Feldman and Beehr, 2011; Wang and Shultz, 2010). PRW includes part-time or full-time employment after retiring from one's major career job, either in the same or in a different career field (e.g. Beehr and Bennett, 2015; Wang et al., 2009). As a relatively new career stage of its own (Wohrmann et al., 2013), PRW has attracted increasing attention from researchers from various areas (e.g. Akkermans and Kubasch, 2017; Lim and Feldman, 2003; Wang and Wanberg, 2017).\nTheoretical framework: TPB suggests that attitude, subjective norm and perceived control lead to one's intention to perform a behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991, 2002, 2011). And intention to perform a behavior influences the likelihood of actual behavior (Ajzen, 1991). The effects of attitude, subjective norm and perceived control are mediated by intentions. This theory has been used to predict early retirement (Van Dam et al., 2009) and retirement planning (Griffin et al., 2012) but, as yet, not planning for PRW. Drawing on TPB, the current study examines the effects of older workers' attitude and control beliefs regarding PRW on their PRW intentions and consequently actual planning for PRW. And the surrounding social norm, such as significant others' engagement in and support of older employees' engagement in PRW, is also examined.Attitude\nMethods: Participants and procedure\nResults: Confirmatory factor analyses\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Based on the theory of planned behavior, this study aims to examine antecedents of older workers' intentions to engage in postretirement work (PRW) and actual planning for PRW.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey design was used. About 469 nurses (>=45 years old) from Midwestern United States completed an online survey containing various self-reports on attitude, perceived control, subjective norm, intentions to engage in PRW and actual planning for PRW.\nFindings: Results found that attitude and subjective norm (but not perceived control) were positively related to older employees' intentions to engage in PRW. Perceived control was positively related to actual planning for PRW. PRW intentions mediated the effects of attitude and subjective norm on older workers' actual planning for PRW. Finally, perceived control enhanced the positive effect of PRW intentions on actual planning for PRW.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the research by testing the application of the theory of planned behavior to the literature on PRW, further increasing our knowledge of the roles of individuals' attitudinal and cognitive factors in predicting older employees' PRW intentions and actual planning for PRW.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessment of fire hazard in Pakistan
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Fire",
"Risk assessment",
"Fire hazard",
"Vulnerability",
"Damage",
"Life loss",
"Capacity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The urbanisation of big cities has increased many folds in the under-developing countries owing to a rapid population influx. The development process, which is triggered by this rapid population growth, prompts various types of construction in order to cater for the needs of this population. Commercial, industrial and residential buildings typically constitute a significant proportion of the overall construction. Historically, these are very vulnerable to several possible hazards like earthquakes, floods, high winds, fire, etc. However, fire is considered one of the biggest threats to both the building occupants and its contents (Salleh and Ahmad, 2009).The causes of fire in urban areas include accidental fire, antisocial activities, criminal acts, industrial accidents and, at present, terrorism. Building fire incidents result in significant life and economic losses. In the UK, nearly 800 people are killed in fire incidents annually whereas direct material damage reaches to PS1,200 million each year (Ramachandran, 1999). High-fatal fire incidents are normally associated with high poverty rates, poor housing, undereducated populations and sole parenting (Fire Research Report, 2000). Apart from the famous London fire of 1666 and fire in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, there is a marked increase in the number of structures involving fire exposure within the last couple of decades in major cities of the world. For instance, there are more than 40,000 accidental house fires in England every year resulting in about 285 deaths and 9,000 injuries (Communities and Local Government, 2006). Similarly in the USA, 83 per cent of fire deaths are resulted from residential structure fires which accounted for 64 per cent of direct economical losses (Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 2008). More than 75,000 fire incidents were reported in Delhi during 1995-2000 which resulted in 1,825 deaths and 7,600 injuries (Environmental Information System (ENVIS), 2003). In Malaysia, 70,276 fire incidents were recorded during 2005-2007 which claimed 221 lives and injured 268 people (Salleh and Ahmad, 2009). Unfortunately, reliable statistics of fire hazard are not available in Pakistan. Consequently, fire hazard in Pakistan is poorly characterized.Many cities in the developing countries face a disparity between available space and large population (Bilham, 2009). The city of Karachi presents a typical example of this disparity and its consequences. This city is a fast growing metropolis and one of the major urban centres of Pakistan. It is an industrial city which, with time, has become a hub of Pakistan's commerce and industry. The growth rate is around 6 per cent (Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 2008), which is twice the national growth (Shamsi and Ahmed, 1996). Such an intense growth rate has boosted the development process of the city. Consequently, construction has become the biggest and most flourishing business (Kazmi, 1996).Karachi has an approximate population of 14 million. The city has been divided into 18 municipal towns and five cantonment areas (Figure 1). The area of each town (Master Plan Group of Offices (MPGO) - CDGK, 2007) and expected population in 2010 (JICA, 2008) is given in Table I. Although Karachi has now become a mega city but it has been developed without a master plan. Since the pace of development in the city was derived mainly by the pressing needs of people very little, if any, planning was done for fire prevention in the building infrastructure.Construction activities in Karachi are monitored and controlled by Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA). Although KBCA regulations provide provisions for fire safety for different building types these are generally not followed. Bilham et al. (2007) noted that building code was never enforced effectively in Pakistan. Moreover, uncontrolled and unmonitored construction is also common in Karachi owing to partly corrupt behaviour of KBCA officials. In Karachi, corruption has effectively replaced governance (Bilham, 2009). As a result, sufficient provisions to control fire spread are either overlooked in the design or are not implemented during construction.Although fatal fire incidents do not occur randomly they occur more frequently (Fire Research Report, 2000). A number of incidents of building fires have been recently reported in Karachi. As a result, fire has become but one of a spectrum of risks which endangers the businesses and population in the city. This is further aggravated by the lack of facilities and capacity of Fire Brigade Department (FBD) to deal with the fire incidents effectively. This paper presents the details of a study that was conducted to assess the extent of fire hazard in Karachi. Data of fire incidents in the city have been collected and causes of fire spread are identified. The level of service and capacity of FBD has been assessed and discussed in relation to the available resources. However, determination of causes of fire outbreak is beyond the scope of this work. In the end, a conceptual framework for dealing with fire hazard is also presented and its aspects are discussed.\nMethodology: A survey of the fire-exposed buildings and sites, in different parts of Karachi, has been conducted for this study in order to identify the causes of fire spread and associated damages. A total of 13 sites were visited and interviews were conducted to gather information on fire-related damages at these sites. Fire incidents at the visited sites took place over the span of two years during 2007-2008 and represent recent data. Meetings and interviews with the officials of FBD were arranged and statistics of fire incidents and resulting human and economic losses in the city were collected. These provided a broader picture of fire hazard in the city. A critical facilities analysis of the fire fighting resources available with FBD was carried out and an inventory was prepared to assess the capacity of FBD to deal with fire hazard in Karachi. Although the presented data are collected only in Karachi the situation may not be different in other cities of Pakistan.\nResults and discussion: Analysis of FBD capacity\nFire risk management framework: It is evident in the previous discussion (Table III, and Figures 5-7) that fire incidents, and economic and life losses associated with them are continuously increasing. The burden of these losses is often shifted to the poor people of the society. These people are considered the most vulnerable group of the society as they suffer more from hazards than the rich people (Blaikie et al., 1994; Yohe and Tol, 2001). These people become victims either directly by loosing life and/or property or indirectly by loosing employment owing to a closure of fire-affected business.It was mentioned earlier that the development process of the city is carried out without any planning and the existing construction lacks fire prevention measures. Consequently, huge stock of buildings remains vulnerable to fire risk. This deficient construction puts extra burden on FBD. At the same time, a lack of resources and infrastructure facilities with FBD to provide effective services was identified on the basis of the interviews and data analysis. Keeping the above-mentioned factors in view, the development of a comprehensive fire risk management model for the city is crucial to reduce the level of this particular threat. The concept of risk management has grown up recently within insurance and industrial organisations (Crockford, 1980) and the need for an effective fire safety management can hardly be overemphasised which is considered essential for public safety (Howarth and Kara-Zaitri, 1999). Based on the findings of this study, a proposed conceptual fire risk management model is illustrated in Figure 8. This is a global model which is based on the contemporary emergency management principles of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery (Emergency Management Australia (EMA), 2004). The model has two major components, which are aimed at reducing fire risk of not only new construction in future but also the fire risk associated with the existing built environment. The former task is dealt with the block that branches off the main tree to the right and is entitled \"Building Fire Safe Environment\". The initial four steps of the tree that immediately follow the main task of Fire Risk Management are aimed at the assessment of fire risk of existing vulnerable elements which is a vital component in any risk management model. Each of the sub-tasks in both components of the model may need separate process flow diagrams at a micro-level. The reader is suggested to study other risk management models also such as those suggested by EMA (2004), Australian and New Zealand Standards (2004), New South Wales Government (1993) and Australian Capital Territory Insurance Authority (ACTIA) (2004). Various stages of the proposed model are briefly described as under.Fire hazard maps\nConclusions: Fire hazard is inadequately characterized in Pakistan owing to a lack of reliable statistics related to fire incidents and losses. Mushroom growth of poorly designed and/or constructed structures has increased their vulnerability to damages from fire. This paper presents the results of a study, which was conducted to assess fire hazard in Karachi which is one of the largest cities of Pakistan. The survey of fire-damaged structures indicated that major causes of fire spread included negligence, poor design and construction, violation of building codes, lack of awareness and training. The data of fire incidents in the city showed that these incidents were increasing exponentially and were causing significant human and property losses. This study identified that the FBD is not adequately equipped to carry out an effective job of fire fighting. A conceptual framework model for fire risk management is also presented and discussed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - There is an acute shortage of infrastructure to deal with fire hazard in big cities in Pakistan. Consequently, fire hazard poses a serious threat to economic and social activites in these cities. Unfortunately, the scale of this threat is not fully recognised in Pakistan despite the fact that recent fire incidences in different cities of Pakistan have resulted in considerable economic and life losses. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey which was conducted in one of the largest cities of Pakistan to determine the nature and level of this threat. A critical evaluation of available resources with the Fire Brigade Department (FBD) to deal with the fire hazard in the city confirmed a lack of infrastructure facilities and adequate training. A conceptual framework model for fire risk management is proposed to reduce the level of this threat.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study is based on a survey of fire exposed buildings in Karachi (one of the largest cities of Pakistan) and the analysis of available resources and infrastructure of FBD. A total of 13 sites were visited and interviews were conducted. Fire stations in the city were visited and an inventory of available resources was prepared. The data of fire incidents and human and economic losses were collected and analysed. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework model was suggested for fire risk management in the city.\nFindings: - The survey of the fire exposed structures indicated that negligence, violation of building codes, unawareness of safety measures, carelessness, and lack of training were the major causes of fire incidents. An acute shortage of facilities and infrastructure for fire fighting was noted. The recording mechanism of data related to fire incidents was found to be inadquate.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is a small but original contribution to identify a potential hazard which is faced by the businesses and community in the city. This is the first attempt (to the best of authors' knowledge) to mitigate the effects of fire hazard.\nPractical implications: - The suggested model can be employed by the authorities as a guideline to mitigate fire hazard in the country.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides valuable information on the fire incidents and human and economic losses in Pakistan. The suggested model can become helpful in reducing fire hazard in Pakistan.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The influence of social media marketing activities on customer loyalty: A study of e-commerce industry
|
[
"Social media marketing",
"Social media",
"Customer loyalty",
"E-commerce",
"Customer equity drivers",
"E-commerce sites"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social media marketing (SMM) is a prominent research stream over the past decade, which delineates the varying aspects of customer relationships. Its prominence among users could be endorsed by 2.27bn and 1.49bn monthly and daily active users, respectively, on Facebook as of September 2018 (Facebook, 2018). These statistics prove that more than 50 percent of the internet users (4.15bn as per Internet World Stats, 2018) are active users of Facebook. This huge customer base makes social media quite popular not only among users but also among the companies, which utilize social media as a marketing communication medium (Hood and Day, 2014; Yadav and Rahman, 2016). The majority of the companies have integrated links to social media sites in order to communicate and build better customer relationships (Choi et al., 2016; Yadav et al., 2016). As per Honigman (2012), more than a million of marketing websites have integrated Facebook. In addition, the pervasive acceptance of social media is evident from the fact that 93 percent of users of these platforms believe that all firms should ensure their presence in social media (Pham and Gammoh, 2015; Yadav and Rahman, 2017b). It also provides companies various prospects to connect with customers in distinctive ways. Whether it is about addressing customers' complaint, encouraging an exclusive instantaneous chat with the celebs of a TV event or merely sending out promotional coupons, social media is a doorway to initiate prompt and often, instant value and enhance equity. Hence, social media offers marketers an opportunity to connect directly with customers, strengthen their communication and pitch supreme value proposition to their top customers irrespective of their locations.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 The S-O-R model\n3. Conceptual framework and hypotheses (Figure 1): 3.1 The impact of perceived SMMA on CED\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Sample and data collection\n5. Analysis and results: To analyze the data and examine the hypotheses of the present study, we employed SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 22.0. SPSS was utilized for descriptive inquiry and \"exploratory factor analysis\" (EFA). Amos 22.0 was utilized for \"confirmatory factor analysis\" (CFA) and test the consistency and validity of the model. Finally, SEM was applied to examine the hypotheses of the study.\n6. Discussion and implications: The findings from the analysis supported the various conclusions. First, SMMAs of e-commerce comprise five dimensions, namely, interactivity, informativeness, WOM, personalization and trendiness. Second, perceived SMMAs of e-commerce have significantly and positively influenced all the drivers of customer equity. These findings are in conformance with previous studies (Kim and Ko, 2012; Srivastava et al., 1998) that support that marketing activities enhance CED. Hence, SMMAs of e-commerce are an integrated marketing communication tool that delivers superior value to consumers in terms of authentic information from actual buyers, recommendations, reviews, etc., as compared to traditional media, which in turn enhances VE. Social media delivers customers a social space to exchange authentic and trendy information, interact with the company and/or other customers, also it offers customers a \"voice\" as WOM, regarding the products and services in e-commerce. The above phenomenon eventually enhances all the CED. Since the objective of any marketing program is to augment CED and customer relationships, SMMAs are an effective marketing communication medium. As e-commerce endeavors to deliver enhanced customer value, employing social media for marketing is a pertinent medium to build and preserve customers for e-commerce.\n7. Limitations and future research: As no research is impeccable, the present research also possesses some limitations that recommend research opportunities. First, the findings of the existing study cannot be generalized as it is limited to e-commerce industry, future research should validate its finding in various other industrial context. Also, as e-commerce is internet-centered industry, further replications could assess the appropriateness of SMMA across offline or non-internet industries employing longitudinal data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of perceived social media marketing activities (SMMAs) on customer loyalty via customer equity drivers (CEDs) in an e-commerce context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study surveyed 371 students from a large university in India. The data were analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis and the research hypotheses were examined using SEM.\nFindings: The study revealed three key findings. First, perceived SMMAs of e-commerce comprise five dimensions, namely, interactivity, informativeness, word-of-mouth, personalization and trendiness. Second, perceived SMMAs of e-commerce have significantly and positively influenced all the drivers of customer equity (CEDs). Third, the CEDs of e-commerce exhibit a significant and positive influence on customer loyalty toward the e-commerce sites.\nPractical implications: This study will help e-commerce managers to boost customer loyalty toward the e-commerce sites through perceived SMMA.\nOriginality/value: The study is the first to identify five dimensions of e-commerce perceived SMMA. The current study also introduces the stimulus-organism-response model as a theoretical support to connect perceived SMMAs of e-commerce to customers' loyalty via CEDs. This is supposed to be the first study to examine the impact of perceived SMMA on customer loyalty toward the e-commerce sites via CEDs in the e-commerce industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate governance and Shariah non-compliant risk in Islamic banks: evidence from Southeast Asia
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Indonesia",
"Islamic bank",
"Corporate governance",
"Shariah committee",
"Shariah governance",
"Shariah non-compliant risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The topic of risk and corporate governance in banks has received significant attention from regulators, bank managers, customers and academics due to the nature of high leverage, great opacity and the complexity of banking assets and activities, especially following the recent financial crisis. Evidence suggests that banks with poor governance engage in excessive risk-taking and do so even more during a crisis (Kirkpatrick, 2009; Chen and Lin, 2016; Diaz and Huang, 2017). Potentially, the risk exposure may be different and more complex when the agency relationship and governance setting deviate from their conventional form.\n2. Shariah principles, Islamic banking and risks: Starting in the 1970s, from an urge to provide financial services to Muslims who would not deal with interest due to religious beliefs, Islamic banking has become a significant sector in many jurisdictions. The key distinguishing feature of Islamic banks is the adherence to Shariah rules and principles. The Islamic guidelines prohibit engaging in sinful activities such as alcohol, pornography, casinos, pork-related products, etc., (El-Hawary et al., 2004; Ullah et al., 2018; Usmani, 1999). At the contract level, Islamic commercial law forbids riba (literally meaning 'excess'), gharar (legal ambiguity or excessive risk) and maysir (gambling) in transactions. While riba is usually translated as interest, it has wider connotations such as prohibition of sale of debt. Similarly, contemporary derivatives (forwards, futures, swaps, etc.) are not permissible as they have elements of both riba and gharar (Ayub, 2007, Usmani, 1999).\n3. Related literature and hypotheses development: 3.1 Agency theory, governance and Shariah non-compliant risk in Islamic banks\n4. Data, main variables and model specification: The paper examines the role of corporate governance on SNCR in Islamic banks of Indonesia and Malaysia. Islamic banking in Indonesia started in 1992 with the establishment of Bank Muamalat Indonesia. The Islamic banking assets constitute 5.78 per cent of the total banking assets with 13 Islamic banks and 21 commercial banks with Islamic business units operating among a total of 118 banks in 2017 in the country (IMF 2017 and OJK 2017). Islamic banking started in Malaysia with the enactment of Islamic Banking Law in 1983 and the establishment of Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad in the same year. with a supportive legal and regulatory environment, Islamic banking sector has grown significantly in the country with 16 Islamic banks compared to 27 conventional banks. With a share of 30 per cent of the total banking assets in 2017, the Islamic banking sector has become systemically significant in the country (BNM, Bank Negara Malaysia, 2018, IFSB, Islamic Financial services Board, 2017).\n5. Empirical findings: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Conclusion: This study represents one of the first attempts to study the relationships between corporate governance and SNCR. Although the corporate governance literature is quite developed, no prior study examines the link between corporate governance mechanism and SNCR which is unique for Islamic banks. Also, to the extent that the finance literature has examined corporate governance mechanisms at the board level, this study extends the literature by including the SC characteristics (size, financial expertise, meeting frequency and compensation). We perform our investigation on Islamic banks from Malaysia and Indonesia over the period 2007 to 2017.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and Shariah non-compliant risk (SNCR) that is unique for Islamic banks. The study examines the roles of Shariah committee along with the board of directors in mitigating SNCR.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper empirically investigates the implications of characteristics of board of directors and Shariah committee on the SNCR by using a sample of 29 full-fledge Islamic banks from Malaysia and Indonesia over the period 2007-2017. All data is hand collected from the Islamic banks' annual reports with the exception of country-level data collected from the World Bank database.\nFindings: The results show that banks with a smaller board size and higher proportion of independent board members are likely to have lower SNCR. The findings also indicate that the financial expertise and higher frequency of Shariah committee meetings reduces the SNCR. Collectively, the analysis shows that banks with strong corporate governance environments reduce SNCR.\nPractical implications: The findings of the study shed light on the relationship between corporate governance practice, Shariah committee characteristics and SNCR. The results can be used by different stakeholders such as policymakers, boards of directors and senior management of Islamic banks to mitigate SNCR.\nOriginality/value: This study extends the literature on corporate governance and risk-taking by including additional dimensions of governance and risk type. The corporate governance mechanism at the board level is complemented by including the Shariah committee characteristics and SNCR which is relevant to Islamic financial institutions is examined.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Beta risk estimation of companies listed on the Ghana stock exchange
|
[
"Ghana",
"Beta factor",
"Financial risk",
"Companies",
"Stock exchanges"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) by Sharpe (1964) explains how the capital market sets share prices and values investments with expected returns, and provides additional insight into the nature of risks.The CAPM describes the relationship between risk and expected return, and serves as a model for the pricing of risky securities. In equilibrium, the CAPM asserts that the expected return of a security or a portfolio equals the rate of a risk-free security plus a risk premium. In particular, it defines risk using the concept of beta, which measures the risk associated with one particular asset in relation to the overall market. Beta is defined as the covariance of the returns of the stock and the market divided by the variance of the returns of the market. Beta has been used by many practitioners for estimating the cost of capital and determining risk and valuation models, among other things.The estimation of beta cannot be ex ante as it is not possible to record people's expectations (Damodaran, 1997). Thus, beta is measured using past observations of actual values of both the return of the individual company's shares and that of the overall market.The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for sometime has lost its tempo for trading. The 32-membership has been stagnant for some time. Some investors have expressed misgivings about the failure of the GSE. Therefore, this research estimates the beta risk in various forms of the companies enlisted on the GSE.This study into the estimation of beta risk of companies listed on the GSE is one of the first in the country and will inform investors, which stocks to invest in base on their risk values and expected returns.The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 reviews related literature on the various issues. Section 3 looks at the methodology while Section 4 discusses the results of the study. The conclusion is drawn in Section 5.\n2. Literature review: In theory market, capitalisation weighted indices are preferred to equally weighted indices, because they are superior proxies and consistent with the true market portfolio. However, the use of an equally weighted index as a proxy for the market was very popular, because it is easy to calculate. Roll (1977) argues that a proxy must be used, because it is difficult to construct a true market portfolio. According to Stambaugh (1982), the CAPM tests are generally insensitive to the choice of market proxy used. However, others believe that the broader the selected indices the better the market proxies. In the UK market, the two main indices used are the FT100 and FT All Shares Index. The FT100 is made up of the top 100 companies and FT All Shares Index is made up of all companies traded on the exchange.The length of estimation periods is also important in the estimation of beta. Bradfield (2003), states that estimation based on many years of historical data may be of little relevance. This is because the nature of business risks undertaken by companies may have changed significantly over a long period such as 20 years. Betas based on daily returns may differ significantly from betas based on monthly returns even if the betas were estimated over the same calendar period.The sampling intervals are usually daily, weekly and monthly. According to Hawawini (1983), the beta of a security may vary depending on the length of estimation period used, for example, whether daily, weekly or monthly.Betas of securities with a smaller market value than the average of all securities are expected to decrease as the return interval is shortened and vice versa. Hawawini (1983), suggests that this will make the betas measured over return interval of arbitrary length biased and make securities of small market value companies appear less risky and vice versa.Thin trading is a declaration about the level of trading frequency in a particular stock. Beta estimates are often biased when shares are traded infrequently. Non-synchronous trading becomes a problem when stocks are thinly traded. According to Dimson (1979):[...] the major source of bias is the tendency for prices recorded at the end of a time period to represent the outcome of a transaction which occurred earlier in or prior to the period in question.Also widening of the bid-ask spread and an increase in measurement errors can result in estimation bias. According to Dimson (1979), infrequently traded securities have a beta estimate which is biased downwards while that of frequently traded securities is upward biased.Evidence suggests that beta is not the only factor that affects the pricing security returns, but seasonality and firm size are other factors. It has been noted that seasonality is an explanatory factor of risk-adjusted returns. Brailsford et al. (1997), gave examples of large returns in January and low returns on Mondays and Tuesdays. The effect of seasonality can be removed by including dummy variables in the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Draper and Paudyal (1995), found that the UK stock betas have day of the week or day of the month effect when using weekly or monthly observation, respectively. They also noted that the variation in the estimates is often statistically significant and that estimates from weekly returns calculated on Monday or at the end of the month were significantly different from those derived for other days of the week or selected days of the month. Draper and Paudyal (1995), suggested that the variation in beta could affect the estimates of companies, cost of capital and other uses of beta that involve no portfolio pooling effect.The evaluation of the relative strengths of asset pricing models is usually by the estimation of the factor premiums and testing whether it captures some of the persuasive economy wide risk, or whether its factor mimicking portfolio carries a significant risk premium.This existence of influential observation is a positive outcome since it provides evidence for a link between economic activity and cross-sectional variation in average returns. According to Brailsford et al. (1997), \"non-normality can occur when sample contains outlier observations that are extreme by virtue of their absolute size\". Also outliers can crop up due to errors in the data or actually extreme observation. Brailsford et al. (1997), gave the observed October 1987 return as an example. It is not always easy to identify outliers; however, plotting the data will make them more obvious. Outliers can be treated by OLS estimation or contained within the OLS estimation. The outlier can be excluded from the sample and a dummy variable included to reflect the consequence of the outlier.It has been noted that the existence of only few influential observations poses a critical problem - the robustness of estimation. According to Fama (1976) and Roll (1977), it is always possible to find a factor in sample that generates a perfect linear relation between average returns and covariance.According to Bradfield (2003), detecting the beta stability is clouded by the fact that only estimates of beta are observable and that changing estimates do not necessarily imply stable underlying betas. Bowie and Bradfield (1997), found that the tests of beta stability are difficult to interpret on their own. Gombola and Kahl (1990), advocate that an OLS estimate of beta requires an estimation period during which the relationship between stock return and market return is stable. Without this stability, they suggested that an alternative for forecasting a time-varying relationship such as the general Bayesian adjustment process will be required.\n3. Methodology: In this study, the market index model was used in estimating beta through OLS regressions. The market index model (the market model) by Sharpe (1963), postulates a linear relationship between the return on a stock and the return on the market and can be used to decompose total risk into diversifiable and non-diversifiable risk-components. Our choice is based on two considerations: first, by its nature is more appropriate for the study of the stock risk, and second, it is much easier than the CAPM with no less explanatory power, at least for the purpose of our study, though it has its own limitations. The market model is used in the estimation of beta and is given as: Equation 1 where:Rit is the realised return on asset i for the period t.t is the measurement interval and t=1, 2, [...], T.T is the number of measurement intervals.ai is the intercept term for asset i.bi is the sensitivity measure of return on asset i to market.Returns assumed to be constant through time.Rmt is the realised return on the market index for period t.eit is the residual term for asset i in period t.Some of the beta estimation techniques used included Scholes-Williams' beta, Dimson's beta, and Fowler-Rorke's beta. A regression run to estimate the market model involves only one explanatory variable, and thus, the returns on a given asset is regressed on the market returns.This study was based on observed daily share prices on 32 GSE listed companies from January 1993 to December 2006.In the market model, historical stock returns were regressed on historical returns from a proxy for the market portfolio. The GSE All Shares Index was used as the market index. The sample size was reduced to 19 and the estimation period being six years for consistency. This is, because only these 19 companies had consistent data. The regression was run on log or continuous monthly returns.\n4. Data analysis: 4.1. The return measure\n5. Conclusion: Beta has occupied centre stage in both risk management and risk measurement since the concept was introduced by Markowitz (1959). Beta parameter is used in finance in the form of the market model to estimate systematic risk. Although such betas are assumed to be time invariant, considerable evidence shows that beta risk is not constant over time. Beta estimation has been traditionally achieved by running a market model regression. It is also common to measure beta by estimating the market model using OLS in obtaining the beta estimates. The beta of a stock is important in a variety of contexts, ranging from the cost of capital, asset pricing theory, to hedging using index derivatives.The main aim of this study was to consider models of beta estimation and their ability to estimate beta parameter. This study was based on a sample of 32 Ghanaian companies selected from the period January 2001 to December 2006. The results showed that there was not much difference between the three measures of return and the choice of market index used. The results for the effect of using different market proxies could not be tested because GSE has only one proxy. Although the results obtained for varying the length of the estimation period showed substantial change in betas, the more rigorous t-test showed that the differences are not statistically significant. Evidence showed no impact on beta estimates by varying the sampling interval from monthly to quarterly. The effect of outliers (September 2006 to December 2006 energy crisis in Ghana) was substantial on beta estimates. Most companies obtained values for excess kurtosis, which were significantly different from zero. The values for skewness also showed figures that were significantly different from zero with the exception of 19 companies.A departure from the normality assumption suggested another choice of estimation technique. The robust technique used here was the Trimed Regression Least Square at 5 and 10 per cent levels. The t-test for the results suggests that these two procedures compared with the OLS betas were not statistically different from each other. There were substantial variations between the Scholes-Williams' betas and the Fowler-Rorke's betas. However, the t-test suggests that these differences were not statistically significant.The results for the effect of thin trading was consistent with the conclusions of Dimson (1979) that most frequently traded stocks have upward biased betas and less traded stocks have downward biased OLS betas. However, not all stocks in the sample were consistent with this rule of thumb. Results also showed evidence of beta instability. This supports the literature that beta risk is not constant over time. Castagna and Matolcsy adjustment confirms Blume's (1975) evidence that individual stock betas have regression tendency towards the grand mean of unity. On the issue of seasonality, the different beta estimates obtain for the days of the week conforms to Draper and Paudyal findings that Ghana stock betas have the day of the week effect when using weekly observation.The estimation beta is central to the implementation of the CAPM and the market model for both financial economists and practitioners. Jesev and Brailsford (1996) advocate that, it is well known that a variety of beta estimates can result for one stock depending on factors such as the calculation of returns, choice of market index, sample period and the length of estimation period. Also a further set of considerations involve the assumptions and the interferences such as the problem of thin trading, market segmentation and the stability of beta.Following from the findings of the study, some recommendations are proffered: the GSE should consider having a second proxy for comparison. For example, \"Ghana Club 100\" (GC100).Investors (companies) should hedge using index derivative while considering, cost of capital and asset pricing theory. Investors should trade in infrequently traded stocks, because beta risks are not constant overtime. That is to say that, they change overtime.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to estimate the Beta Risk Coefficient of 32 listed companies (shares), which are included in the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE All Share Index).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research investigated some of the issues that can affect beta estimates (the measurement of returns, the choice of market index used, the length of estimation period, the sampling interval, the issue of normality, autocorrelation, the effect of thin trading, seasonality and stability) by using 32 listed companies. The methodology used was the Market model and some of the beta estimation techniques used included Scholes-Williams' beta, Dimson's beta, and Fowler-Rorke's beta.\nFindings: - The empirical results generally confirm the evidence by various researchers in the literature reviewed. However, the tests for the effect of thin trading and the effect of seasonality reject the null hypothesis (Ho: bMonday=bTuesday=bWednesday=bThursday=bFriday).\nOriginality/value: - The study has about 95 per cent originality since the authors went into the field to gather all the data needed and did all the analysis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Maximizing online bookings through a multi-channel-strategy: Effects of interdependencies and networks
|
[
"Hotels",
"Billboard effect",
"Multiple channel strategy",
"Online booking platforms",
"OTA"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Competition among online distribution and sales - problems of transparency, bargaining power and transaction costs\n2. Literature review: The literature review is straightforward. It compares the two main approaches with their corresponding, underlying theories:\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Measurement construct\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive analysis\n5. Discussion and implications: 5.1 Practical implications\n6. Conclusion: As the study in this paper has an exploratory character, there are several limitations that point to further research. First, we have only looked at the percentage of online bookings, that is, we have not looked at how offline channels affect online sales and vice versa. An extension of the research into the connection between online and offline channels, particularly from the viewpoint of the consumer, may lead to a more differentiated, richer picture of how the number of channels affects the final outcome (i.e. which bookings on which channel). In addition, an understanding of the role and linkages of the still dominant direct booking channels (from customer to hotel) in the information space of the customers might provide additional insights into the distribution mechanisms and substitution effects among existing channels. Second, the study looks at the booking volume per channel, not the monetary sales volume or even the profit. A study that quantifies not only the volume of bookings but also the total profit or at least the contribution to profit per channel may be a challenging but not impossible undertaking. The results of such a study could help improve the understanding of how costs in general have an impact on the overall strategy. Finally, looking particularly at costs, the quantification of transaction costs per channel is one area that could be improved in further studies. For this, researchers must estimate:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Hotel managers are being challenged by the increasing multitude of distribution and sales channels. Online travel agencies (OTAs) in particular generate a great deal of uncertainty: Which are the best ones? Which ones offer the best conditions? How many channels are optimal for my hotel? How can I evaluate costs versus benefits? These and other questions concerning the optimal online distribution channel strategy have produced different reactions in practice. The aim of this paper is to challenge the need for an over-optimization of channel strategy by proposing that the consumer, at the end, deals with a network of information presented on one networked environment, including the Web. Hence, the network effect of the numerous online platforms is what drives consumer choice and, finally, bookings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A series of multiple regressions with representative samples of hotels in Switzerland from the years 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 was performed to estimate the importance of the number of platforms against other independent variables. Additionally, further multiple regressions with samples from the years 2011 and 2012 using the most important platforms (first-tier channels) shows again that the number of platforms is more important.\nFindings: The analyses show that the estimated number of online bookings by the respondents in the hotels is a result of the number of channels, not the type of channel. This is particularly true for non-categorized establishments and one- and two-star hotels. The analyses do not confirm the billboard effect, according to which particular platforms (first-tier channels) increase the probability of bookings. Thus, the survival strategy is to maximize share of shelf and to build on interdependencies and network effects.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study looks only at online bookings. Additional research into the connection between online and offline channels, particularly from the viewpoint of the consumer, will provide further insights. The study looks at the booking volume per channel, not the monetary sales volume or the profit. A study that quantifies not only the volume of bookings but also the total profit or the contribution to profit per channel could quantify the benefits of the multi-channel strategy.\nOriginality/value: The multiple online channel strategy seems to be the more effective approach to maximizing bookings online, regardless of the platforms chosen. Results of the study challenge the current opinion among practitioners that the multitude of distribution channels forces them to choose among single online channels and, therefore, drives the search for criteria to assess these channels or even to disregard them. The consistent results across 2009-2012 show that even in the turbulent phase of the advent of OTAs in the travel industry, hotels can adopt a winning strategy. Finally, the results suggest that the intermediation of online distribution of hotel beds has approached the condition of perfect competition, causing the OTA business model to be cannibalized.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Strategies for Asia's new competitive game
|
[
"Asia",
"Management strategy",
"Multinational companies",
"Competitive strategy",
"Localization",
"Innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A fundamental strategic rethink is now required by Asian companies and Western multinationals operating in Asia alike, because Asia's competitive environment is undergoing a sea change. Repeating what worked in the past is unlikely to succeed in the face of these new realities. Change is being driven by the rapid development of China, the cumulative impact of gradual but sustained deregulation and trade liberalization across Asia, and the implications of a new generation of economic, demographic and social forces that is beginning to reshape Asia's future. These are all long-term trends, but until now their impact on the Asian competition has been arrested by the fact that many Asian companies have been shackled by the after-effects of the 1997 financial crisis. Only recently have these shackles been removed as debt restructuring is completed or loans finally repaid, giving these Asian corporations the capital and the elbow-room to respond to the pent-up pressures for change. Faced with this new economic environment in Asia and re-invigorated Asian competitors, Western multinationals will need to chart new strategies if they are to win a share of the new round of Asian growth that is now underway. Rather than cloning their global strategies or reluctantly adapting them to Asia, successful Western multinationals will adopt innovative strategies in the Asian market that allow them to more accurately pinpoint, and then to fully exploit, their own unique strengths.\nFour major shifts in the Asian competitive environment: Understanding the drivers of change in the Asian environment and what they mean for the way Asian competition will work in the next round is the first step towards creating the new kinds of strategies and companies that will succeed in the future. Four shifts occurring in today's Asia are particularly significant: the demise of asset speculators; China's scattering of the pattern of orderly Asian \"flying geese\" development; the breakdown of national economic \"baronies\"; and the decay of \"me-too\" strategiesThe demise of the asset speculators\nStrategic responses: The fundamental changes in Asia's competitive environment described above together demand new strategies. Clearly there is no single recipe for winning the new competitive game in Asia. But the new reality of Asia demands that managers stake out their territory based on four core ingredients: improved productivity; local brand and service; innovation; and internationalization that is designed to reshape the Asian playing field and reap cross-border synergies. Figure 1 lays out the strategic options.A new productivity drive\nAsia's new competitive game: There should be no doubt that it will take a different kind of company to succeed in Asia's next round of competition. Unquestionably this will require determined efforts among multinationals operating in Asia to raise their game in the four key areas of strategy discussed above: a new productivity drive, renewed focus on brand building and service quality, reaping cross-border synergies and driving consolidation, and innovating in Asia. The mix of these strategies will vary by industry and individual company. But whatever route a company chooses to take into Asia's future, the new reality of competition in Asia is unavoidable: Amid renewed opportunity, there will be a sharper divide between the winners and losers. Only one question remains: In which group will your company end up?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To explore the implications of the fundamental forces that are reshaping the competitive playing field in Asia and the strategies required to win in the future.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is draws on detailed fieldwork and consulting assignments with Asian companies, backed by the author's 20 years of experience working in Asia to analyze the key competitive changes and provide a framework for developing successful strategic responses.\nFindings: - Four fundamental changes are underway that are reshaping the competitive game in Asia: the demise of asset speculators; the rapid development of China scattering the traditional \"flying geese\" pattern of development; the breakdown of barriers that traditionally protected Asia's national economic baronies; and the decay of \"me-too\" strategies. New strategies are therefore called for.\nPractical implications: - In the new Asian competitive environment, successful strategies will include the following elements: a new productivity drive; renewed focus on brand building and service quality; reaping more cross-border synergies and driving industry consolidation; and re-locating innovation activities into in Asia. Although the mix of these strategic options will vary by business, it will take a different kind of company to succeed Asia's next round of competition.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a forward-looking perspective on how to compete in one of the world's most dynamic regions and lays out the strategic options for companies in the new competitive game that has begun.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of community engagement in building sustainable health-care delivery interventions for Kenya
|
[
"Kenya",
"Access",
"Quality of care",
"Community engagement",
"MHealth",
"Community health worker",
"Mobile clinic"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and purpose: The objective of this review is to examine the literature on effective methods used in low- to middle-income countries such as Kenya to engage the community in healthy behaviors through identification, evaluation and summarization of available evidence. The ultimate goal is to provide a specific, practical, effective and sustainable model that will improve health behavior for health professionals and for patients seeking care through community engagement for low-resource and low-income countries. The proposed model focuses on fringe stakeholders and encompasses several solutions that focus primarily on community engagement and empowerment strategies.\nResearch methodology: A general review of literature covering community engagement, access to health services and quality of health services was performed for low-resource countries within the African continent, with a focus on Kenya. To best understand these topics, it was necessary to first understand the general health of the people of Kenya. Thus, literature was reviewed to complete a general health analysis of Kenya. The proposed intervention models are relevant to all low-resource and low-income areas. Some information was gathered pertaining to low-income countries outside of Africa, but was not considered relevant because of the demographics of the studies. Relevant articles were retrieved from Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCOhost, JSTOR and various government and nongovernment agency websites. To begin, it was necessary to collect information concerning the cultural background of Africa, and specifically Kenya, and to consider how these diverse backgrounds affect the culture of health-care decision-making in present day. Each article was selected on the basis of its relevance to community engagement and the goal of building sustainable health-care delivery. Literature that addressed why populations seek health care, how populations make health-care decisions and some current health-care delivery models was collected. Models were required to be applicable to low-income settings, and applicable to the health-care market of Kenya. Finally, literature explaining the role of the community health worker (CHW) in low-income settings was collected. Information regarding the CHW was collected after realizing their importance to the health-care culture in Kenya and other low-resource settings in community engagement.\nFindings and discussion: Health-care concerns throughout Kenya\nBarriers to community engagement in health-care utilization: Cost of health care\nPractical implications: The literature presented thus far has provided factors important to focus on for community engagement interventions. Yet, to effectively develop health interventions which properly engage the community, it is important to first define the community and determine the goals for the community. Once the community is defined with a clear population of peoples, engagement strategies can be considered. Some important factors in facilitating community engagement are proposed. First, the CHW is presented as an important factor responsible for engaging the community. Second, the use of mobile clinics is considered for engagement throughout Kenya.\nConclusion: The health of Kenyan communities can be enhanced through proper planning of community engagement techniques, and through the use of CHWs, mHealth technologies and mobile health clinics. Kenya's growing health-care demands require an affordable and sustainable health delivery model that is accessible to all populations. By appropriately defining communities with similar health issues, and engaging with key stakeholders and institutions as well as with members of the community, communities will be empowered to overcome common health concerns and take responsibility for improving their own health. Because of the diversity of communities in Kenya, recommended methods include integrating CHWs via community leaders, religious leaders or traditional healers. Within Kenyan communities, seeking eager respondents to coalesce with the traditional healers of communities will be a doorway to increase awareness of illness severity as well as an opportunity to introduce modern medicine through a trustworthy source. The implementation of mobile health clinics will serve to provide easily accessible care at a reduced cost, effectively overcoming access barriers that are prevalent in the rural areas of Kenya. The utilization of community engagement is a solution that will use primary prevention as a strategy to decrease long-term health-care costs in Kenya. The implementation of these strategies will contribute to an environment that promotes health and wellness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide a general review of the health-care needs in Kenya which focuses on the role of community engagement in facilitating access and diminishing barriers to quality care services. Health-care concerns throughout Kenya and the culture of Kenyan's health-care practices care are considered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A comprehensive review covered studies of community engagement from 2000 till present. Studies are collected using Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCOhost and JSTOR and from government and nongovernment agency websites. The approach focuses on why various populations seek health care and how they seek health care, and on some current health-care delivery models.\nFindings: Suggestions for community engagement, including defining the community, are proposed. A model for improved health-care delivery introduces community health workers (CHWs), mHealth technologies and the use of mobile clinics to engage the community and improve health and quality of care in low-income settings.\nPractical implications: The results emphasize the importance of community engagement in building a sustainable health-care delivery model. This model highlights the importance of defining the community, setting goals for the community and integrating CHWs and mobile clinics to improve health status and decrease long-term health-care costs. The implementation of these strategies contributes to an environment that promotes health and wellness for all.\nOriginality/value: This paper evaluates health-care quality and access issues in Kenya and provides sustainable solutions that are linked to effective community engagement. In addition, this paper adds to the limited number of studies that explore health-care quality and access alongside community engagement in low-income settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Influence of prior acquaintance with the ratee on rater accuracy and halo
|
[
"Performance appraisal",
"Assessment",
"Cognition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Although acquaintance is fundamental to the rating process, there has been surprisingly little research on its impact on performance rating accuracy or rater errors, probably because managers have long been advised to make sure that raters have adequate opportunities to observe. Authors and researchers frequently advise organizations to ensure supervisors are knowledgeable about the job and have adequate opportunity to observe the ratee's performance before rating it (Guilford, 1954; EEOC et al., 1979). However, these recommendations are sometimes disregarded. For example, in the case of assessment centers, outside experts or managers from another part of the organization are often asked to serve as raters, in the hope that they will provide fairer and more objective ratings. The assumption is that a rater who has never come into contact with a participant would have no reason to rate the person higher than was deserved, and, thus, there would be no pre-existing rater-ratee affect to influence ratings (De Nisi et al., 1984). On the other hand, the use of raters who are unacquainted also may be a liability. Raters who have no prior information about a ratee may find it harder to judge a person's performance accurately based on a very limited sample.\nAcquaintance and ratings: There are at least two important ways in which ratings by acquainted raters differ from those by unacquainted raters. First, unacquainted raters have only a single snapshot of information upon which to base their ratings. In comparison, acquainted raters should have accumulated a larger, more varied, and potentially more representative sample of behavioral information. Having more information should improve a rater's ability to distinguish between a ratee's level of performance in different dimensions and lead to more accurate overall ratings (Cooper, 1981). Thus, acquainted ratings should be more accurate and less susceptible to the influence of outliers (i.e. uncharacteristic behaviors) that may distort ratings (Motowidlo, 1986).The consensus is that raters who are more knowledgeable about the specific tasks to be assessed should be better able to judge ratee performance accurately. The problems are how to improve the accuracy of performance ratings; and how to interpret results showing that correlations among dimensions within an exercise are stronger than correlations among measures of the same dimension across exercises in such arenas as assessment centers (Fleenor, 1996; Kolk et al., 2002; Sackett and Dreher, 1982; Robie et al., 2000). In particular, this indicates potential problems with the construct validity of assessment center research. Lance et al. (1994) provide evidence that rater's general impressions of ratees influence ratings across task dimensions.Wherry and Bartlett (1982) have argued that the quality of ratings depends on the relevance of the rater's information about the ratee. Although task-related information is the most relevant, performance information from other settings might also contribute to accuracy or bias. This information would be especially valuable early in the rater-ratee relationship when the rater's sample of information is limited (Kingstrom and Mainstone, 1985).Although non-task-related contacts are not likely to provide raters with samples of the ratee's performance on specific tasks, they could present raters with behavioral signs associated with successful or unsuccessful performance (Wernimont and Campbell, 1968). Ratees may be able to exercise more discretion in non-task settings and thereby reveal more about their job-relevant skills, knowledge, and abilities. Thus, informal contacts at work and in other settings could improve the rater's ability to distinguish between a ratee's level of performance in different job-related dimensions and could improve overall rating accuracy.The second difference between acquainted and unacquainted raters has to do with the cognitive processes used in evaluation. Cognitive models of performance appraisal (De Nisi et al., 1984; Feldman, 1981) view ratings as the culmination of a process of observation, encoding, storage, and retrieval. The process starts when the rater first comes into contact with the ratee and begins to form an impression. Upon encountering a new ratee, raters use controlled processing which is accurate but cognitively demanding. They attempt to match salient behavior and other characteristics exhibited by the ratee with a prototype representing the main features of a category of similar persons. After initial categorization, the rater shifts to more efficient, but less accurate, automatic processing. In this mode, the cognitive category associated with the ratee acts as a filter that influences perception and judgment (De Nisi et al., 1984; Feldman, 1981). Rating errors occur when raters infer that a ratee possesses characteristics or behaves in ways that are incorrect, but consistent, with this cognitive filter. For example, if a ratee is seen behaving in a way the rater associates with the prototype of a \"good employee,\" the rater may infer that the employee also would act in other ways consistent with that prototype.Incorrect inferences occur because initial categorization of a new ratee is not totally appropriate or complete (Cardy and Dobbins, 1994; Feldman, 1981; Woehr et al., 1995). Correct categorization depends partly on observance of prototypical behaviors or characteristics that represent a cognitive category and the person being observed. At first contact, raters have limited information and may be over-influenced by atypical but salient behavior. As more information becomes available, category-inconsistent information triggers changes in category assignment that improve the match between observed characteristics and category features (Feldman, 1981; Srull and Wyer, 1979).Woehr et al. (1995) argued that raters form general impressions of unfamiliar ratees quickly, using whatever information is available. Gaps in their knowledge are filled in with category-consistent material. Accordingly, unacquainted raters should be less accurate than acquainted raters. There would be more gaps in their knowledge about the ratee, and inferences used to fill the gaps would be based on the initial, and possibly crude, cognitive categorization.Category assignment also depends on accessibility of a cognitive \"person\" category that closely matches the ratee's salient characteristics. At first contact, unacquainted raters may not have access to an appropriate cognitive category. Therefore, a new ratee may be initially assigned to a very generic and inexact category. Category-inconsistent information plays a key role in triggering creation of new categories that can accommodate finer distinctions between ratees. The new category would be accessible in subsequent encounters. Refinement may also occur later, but the largest changes are expected to occur early in the ratee-ratee relationship (Feldman, 1981; Srull and Wyer, 1979). Thus, acquainted raters are likely to produce ratings that are more accurate because they have a larger sample of information about the ratee and their use of more appropriate cognitive categories helps them make more accurate inferences when called to do so in the rating process.Halo error also appears to be associated with acquaintance (Kingstrom and Mainstone, 1985). Halo error occurs when a rater's general impression of a subordinate blurs true differences in the subordinate's performance on various dimensions of the job. An unacquainted rater with little direct knowledge about the ratee would have no choice but to rely on general impressions in the rating process (Cooper, 1981). Opposite arguments could be made, that acquainted raters have more information to draw on and are more likely to make halo errors. Unacquainted raters have no information and are more likely to make ratings based on current (and relevant) information. For example, a ratee who performs well on one task may be assumed to perform at the same level on other tasks that the rater has not observed.Traditionally, halo has been viewed as a source of error in ratings. We focus on two sources of halo. One occurs when raters are not able to observe a complete sample of performance. In this situation raters are expected to use whatever information they do have as estimates of the information they do not have. However, because their general impressions are based on incomplete samples of performance, accuracy should suffer. The other type of halo occurs when acquainted raters form an overall impression of the ratee that is partly based on behaviors that were observed in other settings and may be irrelevant.Studies have raised questions about the role of halo in the rating process. Murphy et al. (1993) suggest that there may be one type of halo that increases accuracy and another that decreases accuracy, which would be exhibited in the ratings given an individual. Consistent with this view, we expect the halo exhibited by acquainted ratings to be more strongly related to accuracy than the halo exhibited by unacquainted ratings. In the former case, raters' general impressions are based on a larger sample of performance information and, therefore, are more likely to hit close to the mark.\nMethod: Subjects\nResults: Subjects were included in the acquainted group if they indicated any previous contact with the ratee. As discussed previously, our measure of acquaintance was not meant to be a surrogate for familiarity. Our hypothesis is that the cognitive processes used to produce ratings are different for raters who have had no prior contact with a ratee and raters who are acquainted with a ratee.Rating favorability\nDiscussion: Our study shows that both acquainted and unacquainted raters are capable of producing valid ratings. It also highlights some differences between the two groups of raters that have implications for assessment of performance. It appears that acquainted and unacquainted raters are each affected by halo, but acquainted raters produce more favorable and more accurate ratings. The results for dimensional accuracy show that acquainted raters distinguished between dimensions better than unacquainted raters. The average distance between acquainted ratings and true scores was smaller, and overall ratings were also more accurate. The results support our view that acquaintance is an important variable in the rating process and provides some evidence that information obtained outside of the rating situation setting can improve accuracy.The idea that rater familiarity might produce biased ratings is the conventional wisdom. If it is correct we would expect to find three results:1. differences in the mean levels of ratings;2. less dispersion of ratings across task dimensions (more halo); and3. lower levels of rating accuracy.By definition, the most accurate ratings contain the least bias and are the fairest ratings. Research provides evidence that affect for the ratee (Tsui and Barry, 1986), and familiarity influences mean ratings and reduces the dispersion in ratings. However, results have often contradicted the idea that more halo (i.e. less dispersion in ratings across dimensions) is associated with lower levels of rating accuracy (e.g. Jacobs and Kozlowski, 1985; Kozlowski et al., 1986; Nathan and Tippins, 1990). Therefore, we have an interesting situation in which results that appear to be more biased are also more accurate.We offered two explanations for why acquainted raters might be more accurate than unacquainted raters. The first involved the difference in the amount of information available to the two groups of raters. Having more information, and more varied information, should facilitate finer distinctions between different elements of performance, even if that information is not directly task-related. Finding that increased variance in ratings was associated with more accurate ratings would have supported this position.The second explanation posited that acquaintance impacts the rater's cognitive processes by triggering refinement of initial category assignments. More appropriate categorization is expected to lead to better overall ratings by helping raters make more accurate inferences (Feldman, 1981). In this case, decreased variance (or increased halo) could be expected to be associated with increasing overall accuracy. Results support this view most strongly.Our argument is that halo is just as likely to occur when raters have no prior acquaintance with ratees as when raters are acquainted, but for different reasons. In the case of undersampling, raters who have only observed a ratee's performance on one dimension may assume the ratee's performance is the same on the dimensions that have not been observed. On the other hand, a rater who has had prior contact with the rate might be able to draw on that information to produce more accurate ratings. Information that might be somewhat irrelevant to task performance should be better than no information at all.We found similar levels of halo in both acquainted and unacquainted ratings. Halo was also correlated with dimensional accuracy for both groups (Table III), but acquainted ratings were more accurate (Table II). Since the unacquainted raters had no prior contact with the ratees, and rated the briefings immediately after viewing them, priming or memory-based errors are unlikely to have generated halo in this study. In addition, differences in rating standards or task familiarity are unlikely to have affected the results. Participating raters averaged about six years of experience as managers in the organization, and nearly all of them (98 percent) reported giving briefings in previous Air Force jobs. Because of this common background, the participants seem likely to use similar standards for judging the design, delivery, or overall effectiveness of a briefing.Finding that ratings of unacquainted raters contained substantial halo supports Woehr et al.'s (1995) suggestion that raters fill gaps in their knowledge with schema-consistent material. Finding that ratings were affected by halo to about the same degree as acquainted ratings but were less accurate generally supports the idea that cognitive categories are fine-tuned as raters gain more information through their contacts with the ratee. It is true that knowledge of a ratee's irrelevant behavior, such as behavior that occurred in non-work settings might influence a rater's judgments. The question is whether this information would make task performance ratings more accurate or less accurate. Colvin and Funder (1991) found students who were acquainted and unacquainted with ratees, who were also students, produced equally valid ratings of the ratees' performance in a five-minute video tape. The results suggest that it may be useful to distinguish between the kind of halo that helps raters make inferences that contribute to the accuracy of their judgments (i.e. \"good halo\") and the kind of halo that detracts from accuracy (i.e. \"bad halo\").Implications and further research directions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of acquaintance on performance rating accuracy and halo.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - After expert ratings were obtained, US Air Force Officers (n=104) with an average of six years experience rated the performance of four officers who delivered 6-7 minute briefings on their research projects; 26 raters reported being acquainted with one or more of the briefers. Raters were randomly assigned to use a rating format designed to encourage between-ratee comparisons on each dimension or a format in which each ratee was separately rated on all dimensions.\nFindings: - Ratings made by acquainted raters were more accurate than ratings by unacquainted raters. Accuracy was positively correlated with halo for both sets of ratings. Rating format had no discernible effect on accuracy or halo.\nResearch limitations/implications: - One limitation of this study is that the measure of acquaintance was not designed as a surrogate for familiarity. Development of a multi-item, psychometrically-valid measure of acquaintance should be the first step in pursuing this research. The use of a laboratory design where only a small percentage of the sample was acquainted with those being rated also limits the study's generalizability.\nPractical implications: - The results show that prior acquaintance with the ratee results in more accurate ratings. Ratings were also more positive when raters had prior contact with the person they rated.\nOriginality/value: - The hypothesis is that the cognitive processes used to produce ratings are different for raters who have had no prior contact with a ratee and raters who are in some manner acquainted with a ratee. In the past, a positive halo effect from acquaintance between raters and ratees has been a concern. However, this limited study indicates that acquaintance may actually result in more accurate ratings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Preparing graduates for work readiness: an overview and agenda
|
[
"Graduate work readiness",
"Stakeholder perspectives",
"Contextual meaning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nEmployability and graduate work readiness: In 1997, the European Employment Strategy made individual employability central to combatting youth and long-term unemployment (Winterton and Haworth, 2013). However, employability as a concept is both pervasive and contested. It is pervasive in that employers, policy makers and academics have adopted the term, particularly in discourse concerning the work readiness of graduates, but there is arguably no agreed definition. Following an extensive review of the literature, three definitions capture the current focus of employability, each focussing on the supply-side and individual characteristics. The Department for Education and Employment defined employability as \"the capacity to move self-sufficiently within the labour market to realise potential through sustained employment\" (Hillage and Pollard, 1998, p. 11). A report informing the committee of vice-chancellors and principals defined \"employability skills\" as comprising traditional intellectual skills like critical evaluation; key skills like communication and IT skills; personal attributes including motivation; and knowledge about organisations (Coopers and Lybrand, 1998). The Confederation of British Industry described employability as \"the possession by an individual of the qualities and competencies required to meet the changing needs of employers\" (CBI, 1999, p. 1).\nDifferent perspectives within the Triple Helix: Etzkowitz (2003) coined the phrase \"Triple Helix\" to describe a transformation in the relationships between university, industry and government whereby entrepreneurial activities to support innovation increasingly cause an intertwining and blurring of the respective roles of the three stakeholder groups. The new relationships promote capitalisation of knowledge and the creation of new forms of human, social and intellectual capital and in so doing form tri-lateral networks and hybrid organisations at the intersection of the three groups. In this context, different perspectives of the leaders of the three groups of institutions can limit the effectiveness of the \"Triple Helix\" and different interpretations of what makes a graduate ready for employment are no exception to this.\nDisruptive changes with Industry 4.0 and an agenda for future research: The difficulties described above in identifying what skills the labour market expects graduates to have and of predicting future skills needs inevitably become even more challenging in a context of rapid and profound technological change. Hwang (2003) demonstrated that with the diffusion of information and communication technologies, skill requirements inevitably shifted from motor skills to cognitive skills but warned that technological changes are so complex in nature that skill changes are multi-faceted. We can expect the challenges posed by Industry 4.0 to be far greater because of the pervasive nature of this latest wave of technologies and the speed of their development. From what we know about the effect on skill requirements of recent technological changes (Autor et al., 2003), it is anticipated that developments in artificial intelligence will have a profound effect on knowledge-intensive work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the concept of graduate work readiness (GWR) from a stakeholder perspective. The research attempts to pull together the various multidisciplinary themes from the literature into a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between graduates and the labour market, considering the international dimension of what is a global phenomenon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The critical review is divided into four distinct sections, the first is to contextualise the concept of GWR and graduate employability taking into account recent academic discussion, particularly in the EU and ASEAN; second, to explore the different perspectives of stakeholders in the \"triple helix\" of universities, governments and the corporate world; third, critically to assess the arguments that educational provision is poorly aligned with labour market needs; and finally, to investigate the implications of the fourth industrial revolution for graduate jobs and skills and propose an agenda for future research.\nFindings: Despite the apparent consensus between stakeholders over the central importance of graduate employability, there is considerable diversity in how each imagines GWR is best assured.\nResearch limitations/implications: Any review is limited by the extant literature and whilst it is not uncommon that most research has been done in North America, Western Europe and Australasia, this is a serious limitation. GWR is a global concern and this review shows the need for more research that extends beyond the dominant geographical focus and its attendant paradigms. The implication is that geography is important and local research is needed to develop solutions that fit specific cultural, economic and institutional contexts.\nPractical implications: The paper highlights the need to reconcile different stakeholder perspectives on GWR and ensure that they work together on shared agendas to improve graduate transition to the labour market. At the same time, the profound changes being brought about by the fourth industrial revolution suggest that more attention should be paid to the employability of existing employees.\nOriginality/value: This review should prove useful to both academics and practitioners because it emphasises the need to treat GWR as a concept that varies according to context and stakeholder interests, rather than a homogeneous phenomenon.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A machine-learning based approach to measuring constructs through text analysis
|
[
"Machine learning",
"Text mining",
"Construct measurement",
"Text scraping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Despite living in a world populated with online data from social media, reviews and websites, most firms still rely on traditional surveys to garner information on consumer sentiments and opinions. Even though consumers dislike surveys and typically require incentives to complete them, firms use surveys, as they provide structured data. Survey data is structured in that they comprise items from existing marketing scales using continuous numeric scales. This means that survey data can easily be compared and tested statistically. Conversely, text data from social media, reviews, and open-ended questions is messy, typically requiring manual coding or the use of specialized software and either a proprietary (e.g. IBM's Watson) or effortfully-created dictionary (e.g. WordStat). Even so, there is no guarantee that such methods provide data equivalent to that of traditional scales. Imagine if a solution existed that could:\n2. Literature review: Textual data can be numerically analyzed through a variety of different methods, ranging from manual to more automatic. We describe each of these methods next.\n3. Scale-directed text analysis: The first step involved in scale-directed text analysis is to generate a dictionary for each dimension of a chosen marketing construct. Words from each dimension's scale items are used as stems from which to automatically build dictionaries using semantically-similar thesaurus words. Second, a set of initial data for machine-learning calibration is collected. This data must include paired free-form written text and Likert-scale response data, both of which assess the focal marketing construct. Third, this initial data is randomly divided into training and holdout samples. Text data from the training data set is then analyzed against the dictionary developed for each of the dimensions of the marketing construct being analyzed. Phrases that match each dimension are compiled and, in a fourth step, are evaluated for sentiment. This information is then used to calculate overall raw scores for each of the evaluated dimensions. Next, these raw text scores are compared against the paired Likert-rating data to develop standard conversion values that equate both scores. Finally, the entire approach is tested using the holdout sample. This involves running the holdout text data through the dictionary and then converting the raw text scores using the conversion values derived from the training data. The resulting EMSS can then be tested against each participant's AMSS (Likert-scores). If there is no significant difference between the estimated and AMSS, then the scale-directed text analysis process is considered successful; the technique can then be used on text data alone going forward.\n4. Discussion and future research: This study develops and validates an innovative method called scale-directed text analysis to assess marketing constructs using text analysis techniques. Our method builds on existing automatic analysis methods by introducing: a means of automatically generating dictionaries and a means of transforming metrics to be equivalent to values from measurement scores from Likert-scales. The method we propose has the potential to enable firms and academics to garner aggregate data, equivalent to that collected via surveys, from any form of text. This facilitates the analysis of vast amounts of online consumer opinions of products and brands they consume. Social media postings, such as those made to Facebook, are also often plentiful and range from simple mention of products and brands to more subjective expressions of feelings or experiences that consumers might share (Chen and Xie, 2008). From a qualitative analysis perspective, comments gathered from social media can be viewed as candid responses to open-ended questions. While this type of data is unstructured, the method detailed in this paper has the potential to provide rich descriptions of respondent reality (Erickson and Kaplan, 2000). At an even broader level, the method we propose could supplement or even replace complex and costly data collection using traditional questionnaires. Respondents could simply be asked to write or with speech-to-text software simply just speak, a few lines describing their reaction to a service experience. Our method would then, in many cases, automatically analyze that data against an established construct and provide data equivalent to that derived from a traditional survey.\n5. Conclusion: As competitive pressures increase for companies, those firms, which are able to quickly and efficiently process and use information provided by consumers will gain a competitive advantage. The adoption of a more automated data collection and analysis process is likely to be beneficial. The proposed scale-directed text analysis method enables companies to carry out real-time monitoring of dynamic changes in consumer feelings, attitudes and perception. Such real-time monitoring is particularly useful to firms as it can be conducted throughout the entire consumer journey (prior, during and after purchase) and adapted quickly to map sentiment. Such analysis is a step-change from more reflective research methods, which collect data and react to problems after the event, rather than in the moment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop a novel and generalizable machine-learning based method of measuring established marketing constructs through passive analysis of consumer-generated textual data. The authors term this method scale-directed text analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method first develops a dictionary of words related to specific dimensions of a construct that is used to assess textual data from any source for a specific meaning. The method explicitly recognizes both specific words and the strength of their underlying sentiment.\nFindings: Results calculated using this new approach are statistically equivalent to responses to traditional marketing scale items. These results demonstrate the validity of the authors' methodology and show its potential to complement traditional survey approaches to assessing marketing constructs.\nResearch limitations/implications: The method we outline relies on machine learning and thus requires either large volumes of text or a large number of cases. Results are reliable only at the aggregate level.\nPractical implications: The method detail provides a means of less intrusive data collection such as through scraped social media postings. Alternatively, it also provides a means of analyzing data collected through more naturalistic methods such as open-response forms or even spoken language, both likely to increase response rates.\nOriginality/value: Scale-directed text analysis goes beyond traditional methods of conducting simple sentiment analysis and word frequency or percentage counts. It combines the richness of traditional textual and sentiment analysis with the theoretical structure and analytical rigor provided by traditional marketing scales, all in an automatic process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The bright and dark sides of humorous response to online customer complaint
|
[
"Online reviews",
"Corporate image",
"Humour",
"Social media",
"Service recovery",
"Customer complaints"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In May of 2012, a young man posted a complaint via Twitter asking Sainsbury's, a UK grocery chain, why the chicken sandwich he purchased at their store tasted as if it had been \"beaten to death by Hulk Hogan\". Sainsbury's promptly replied to the inquiry by promising to \"replace Mr. Hogan with Ultimate Warrior on our production line immediately\" (Griner, 2012). When another young man shared on Ikea's Norwegian Facebook page a comedic but painful negative experience he had while sitting nude on an Ikea stool in the shower, he received a humorous reply to his complaint from Ikea in which the company offered some facetious advice on how the customer might avoid such embarrassing bathroom incidents in the future, such as using the stool to display a beautiful vase instead of sitting nude upon it, or perhaps just putting on some pants (Romano, 2016). Similar instances abound on social media of firms offering humorous responses to customer complaints, especially complaints that are also humorous, yet little is known about the way onlookers reading these exchanges perceive humour in the seemingly inappropriate context of service failure and recovery.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Humour\nOverview of the studies: Three experimental studies examine the effects of humorous response on corporate image perception from the perspective of onlookers (Study 1-3), the process at work (Study 2), humorous complaint as a boundary condition (Studies 1 and 2), and the different effect of the types of humour used (Study 3). Each study uses a different service context: a restaurant (Study 1), a mobile service provider (Study 2) and a hotel setting (Study 3) within an online review site (Studies 1 and 3) and a microblogging website (Study 2) as the communication medium between the firm and the complainant, through which respondents observe the interaction online. Further, both a non-student (Studies 1 and 3) and a student sample (Study 2) were drawn for data collection.\nStudy 1: Study design and participants\nStudy 2: Study design and participants\nStudy 3: Study design and participants\nGeneral discussion: The main objective of this research was to examine the influence of humorous response to service failure on corporate image from the consumer-as-onlooker perspective in the context of social media. Results from three experiments suggest that using humour in service recovery is a double-edged sword for managers of service organizations, and its effects are also dependent on the tone of the customer complaint and the type of humour used. These findings have several implications for theory and practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Displaying a sense of humour provides various interpersonal benefits including reducing tension and promoting conflict resolution, but should a firm use humour in response to publicly viewable online customer complaints after a service failure? The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that a firm's use of humour in response to negative online consumer reviews has both positive and negative effects on perceptions of corporate image from a customer-as-onlooker perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three experimental studies are conducted and analysis of variance is used to empirically test the hypotheses.\nFindings: Although humorous responses have an unfavourable influence on perceived trustworthiness of the firm, they have a favourable influence on perceived excitingness of the firm. The former influence is tied to lower perceived firm sincerity, whereas the latter is tied to higher perceived firm innovativeness and coolness. Furthermore, humour within the customer complaint itself is shown to moderate the influence of humorous responses on perceptions of the firm. Finally, regardless of the type of humour used (i.e. affiliative or aggressive humour) in the humorous response, the positive effect of humorous response remains strong, although aggressive humour further aggravates the negative impact of humorous response on trustworthiness.\nResearch limitations/implications: The experimental set-up may limit external validity of the study, and the research is limited to the variables examined.\nPractical implications: Humorous response is identified as a non-traditional approach to online customer complaints that poses a double-edged sword for managers of service organizations. Firms should avoid using humour in online service recovery if perceptions of trustworthiness are critical or if complaints are written in a neutral tone. However, such responses may be successfully used when a firm wants to position itself as exciting and if complaints are also humorous. Finally, firms are advised to avoid aggressive humour.\nOriginality/value: The present research represents one of the few studies in marketing to examine the potential of injecting humour into complaint management and service recovery. In addition, this study considers the consumer-as-onlooker perspective inherent in social media.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer trust, perceived security and privacy policy: Three basic elements of loyalty to a web site
|
[
"Internet",
"Trust",
"Data security",
"Privacy",
"Customer loyalty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The increasing use that organizations are making of new technologies, aimed at obtaining and processing data regarding consumer characteristics and behavior, has meant that consumers are very concerned about the use, treatment and potential transfer of their private data, as well as security in information systems (Harris Interactive, 2002; European Commission, 2004; Kelly and Erickson, 2004). Furthermore, the constant references in the media that call into question the supposed security of the internet (e.g. the spreading of viruses or hacker attacks) only serve to aggravate the already low confidence that consumers have with regard to online purchasing (Consumers Union, 2002; Emarketer, 2004). For example, over 40 percent of consumers feel that their privacy is jeopardized, with over 45 percent believing that the laws currently governing the internet do not go far enough. This concern regarding the possible lack of privacy in online transactions is becoming a major obstacle to the spread of e-commerce (Lardner, 1999), due basically to the loss of control perceived by the user over the use of personal information supplied to the seller (Hoffman et al., 1998).The problems of privacy, security, and their effect on trust and loyalty on the internet have been analyzed in various research studies (Kruck et al., 2002; Gavish and Gerdes, 1998). This work analyzes the influence exercised by consumer-perceived privacy and security on the trust shown to a web site, as well as the role of these variables in loyalty. First, there is an explanation of the main attributes of the concepts examined, with special attention being paid to the multi-dimensional nature of the variables and their relationships. This is followed by an examination of the validation processes of the measuring instrument (the measurement scales are shown in the Appendix, Table AI). The proposed hypotheses are tested. The work concludes with a discussion of the main managerial implications, as well as the future research lines.\n2 Analysis of the concept of trust: 2.1 Trust in marketing\n3 The influence of privacy and perceived security on internet consumers' trust and loyalty: This work proposes a model that relates trust, privacy and security with the loyalty shown to a web site. With this in mind, we also shall review the concepts of privacy and security, which are two of the aspects most often related to trust in online relationships. We shall then analyze the close link between them and the influence they have on web site users' trust and loyalty.3.1 Privacy\n4 Working hypotheses: Several authors have analyzed the precursory factor of online trust. For example, Lee and Turban (2001) suggest that merchant integrity is a major positive determinant of consumer trust in internet shopping, and that its effect is moderated by the individual consumer's trust propensity. In view of the possible connection between trust and the perceived private data handling security construct, a direct relationship might be established between the two concepts. In fact, recent studies suggest a possible link between the low level of trust in relationships established over the internet and the high level of concern regarding consumers' privacy and security. For example, a recent study conducted in the European Union (European Commission, 2004) showed that only 23 percent of European online purchasers fully trusted the internet as a purchasing channel. The figures are particularly alarming for countries such as Spain and Portugal, with only 9 and 13 percent, respectively, showing a complete degree of trust. The subjects clearly showed that security when paying was the aspect that most concerned them, with levels reaching 48 percent. Similar figures are to be found in the USA, with a study by Harris Interactive (2002) showing that the three main sources of distrust are:1. that companies might transfer personal data to others without express consent;2. transactions might not be secure; and3. hackers might steal personal information.Without a doubt, this connection between the concepts of trust and perceived security in personal data handling is plausible and worthy of examination in greater detail. Thus, we propose that perceived privacy and perceived security are antecedents of trust developed due to the nature of the internet. With the aim of testing whether this connection is widespread, the following hypothesis is proposed:H1. The greater consumers' perception of security with regard to the handling of their personal data, the greater their trust in a web site.\n5 Validation of the measuring scales: Data were collected through a web survey using Spanish-speaking subjects. This group of internet users is relevant due to the fact that Spanish is the fourth language on the internet after English, Chinese and Japanese (see www.internetworldstats.com). In order to obtain the responses several banners and posts were included on heavy traffic online media web sites, e-mail distribution lists and well-known electronic forums. The selection of the media to promote the research was founded on:* the level of awareness among the Spanish-speaking community;* traffic level; and* availability.To value the level of awareness and traffic, we collected the opinion of four experts on e-marketing (two well-recognized practitioners and two academics specializing in new technologies and electronic commerce) and the rankings offered by the specialized firm Nielsen//NetRatings and Google. The experts compounded the promotional medium set according to the three criteria above, the mentioned rankings and their experience in the field. One of the most important Spanish online newspapers was selected. Moreover, we posted in several Usenet groups and electronic forums, all of them well-known, visited frequently by the Spanish-speaking community and related to different topics, such as purchasing, leisure, social networks or professional activities. Banners were published for one month. Posts were realized twice in a month. Potential interviewees were linked to a specific web site where they could obtain all the information about the research project. Questionnaires were to be returned by e-mail, fax or mail. Likewise a raffle was held among participants who returned the questionnaire correctly.We followed the recommendations of Roberts et al. (2003) - to allow subjects to choose the web site to analyze - due to the fact that the objective of this work was to understand online consumer behavior regardless of what type of product or service was being distributed. However, it was required that the subject had made acquisitions through the web site selected several times per month during the previous year. The results obtained were satisfactory, with approximately 400 responses, which, once sifted because of the existence of repetitions, atypical cases or empty responses, were reduced to 354. In qualitative terms, the representativity of the sample was high, due firstly to the great variety of product categories analyzed (financial services, auctions, books, music, travel, hardware and software, news, clothes, food) and second, to the fact that the average profile of the subjects coincided with the results of other research studies (Forrester Research, 2001). The subjects were mostly male (67.2 percent), aged between 25 and 34 (53.1 percent), with a high level of education (81.2 percent had pursued tertiary studies), over 5 years' experience in the use of computers (87.5 percent), somewhat less in the use of the internet (44.5 percent), and a high frequency of access to the web (83 percent logged on several times a day). These data are similar to the sociodemographical characteristics of the Spanish internet user (AECE, 2005; AIMC, 2005).We used the statistical analysis packages SPSS v. 13 and EQS v. 6.1. Cronbach a data were satisfactory (honesty=0.916; benevolence=0.893; competence=0.852; privacy=0.926; security=0.953; loyalty=0.767). The descriptive data of the items are shown in Table I.5.1 Confirmatory factor analysis\n6 Testing of hypotheses: In the testing of the structural model, each of the dimensions corresponding to trust and perceived SHPD was replaced by its arithmetical mean (method of parceling). This is a common practice among researchers (Roberts et al., 2003), which can only be done provided the correct fit of a second-order factorial model has been checked.With regard to the results of the structural model, we saw that the direct effect of perceived security in private data handling (the SHPD variable in Figure 1) on consumer trust was significant (level of 0.01) and positive, and so hypothesis H1 was accepted. Moreover, the R2 for trust was particularly high. Second, we observed that trust had a clear positive effect on loyalty to a web site, and so hypothesis H2 was accepted. However, hypothesis H3 had to be rejected because although the estimated parameter had the expected sign, it was not statistically significant (level of 0.01). This result showed us the mediating role played by trust in the relationship between perceived security in private data handling and loyalty to a web site. Finally, mention should be made of the notable fit obtained in the structural model (Table IV).\n7 Conclusions, managerial implications and future research lines: In previous literature, several authors have distinguished the important role of consumer trust for the success of electronic commerce (Fung and Lee, 1999; Chircu et al., 2000). Thus, Chircu et al. (2000) investigate how the degree of online consumer trust in an electronic commerce intermediary and the level of expertise that the consumer needs in order to be able to use the intermediary affect the intention to adopt the electronic commerce intermediary. In addition, Lee and Turban (2001) describe a theoretical model to study the four main influences on consumer trust in internet shopping: trustworthiness of the internet merchant, trustworthiness of the internet as a shopping medium, infrastructural (contextual) factors (e.g. security, third-party certification), and other factors (e.g. company size, demographic variables). However, considering the significant importance of this topic, more empirical research is needed in this area.The results of this research allow to remedy, to a certain extent, the scarcity of empirical studies that have designed and validated measuring scales for the concepts of privacy, security, trust and loyalty on the internet, as well as testing the relationships between them. Specifically, in this study, we have seen that an individual's loyalty to a web site is closely linked to the levels of trust. Thus, the development of trust not only affects the intention to buy, as shown by previous researchers (Jarvenpaa et al., 2000), but it also directly affects the effective purchasing behavior, in terms of preference, cost and frequency of visits, and therefore, the level of profitability provided by each consumer. In addition, our analyses show that trust in the internet is particularly influenced by the security perceived by consumers regarding the handling of their private data by the web site.7.1 Implications for public sector management and private companies\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of privacy and perceived security on the level of trust shown by the consumer in the internet. It also aims to reveal and test the close relationship between the trust in a web site and the degree of loyalty to it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, there is an explanation of the main attributes of the concepts examined, with special attention being paid to the multi-dimensional nature of the variables and the relationships between them. This is followed by an examination of the validation processes of the measuring instruments.\nFindings: - Specifically, the study reveals that an individual's loyalty to a web site is closely linked to the levels of trust. Thus, the development of trust not only affects the intention to buy, as shown by previous researchers, but it also directly affects the effective purchasing behavior, in terms of preference, cost and frequency of visits, and therefore, the level of profitability provided by each consumer. In addition, the analyses show that trust in the internet is particularly influenced by the security perceived by consumers regarding the handling of their private data.\nPractical implications: - The results of this study provide several managerial implications for companies in this sector. Suggestions are offered for national and international organizations involved in regulating these markets.\nOriginality/value: - The results of this research remedy, to a certain extent, the scarcity of empirical studies that have designed and validated measuring scales for the concepts of privacy, security, trust and loyalty to the internet, as well as testing the relationships between them.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A multi-level approach to organizational learning: Factors to increase its effectiveness
|
[
"Multi-level learning",
"Time",
"Communication",
"Trust"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The volatile nature of the operating environment means that learning has become more critical than ever for the vast majority of firms. And with technology evolving at a rapid rate, the volume and flow of information continues to rise exponentially.\nWhy organizational learning is complex: If they haven't done so already, businesses should make learning a top priority. A key part of this ensuring that learning takes place at different levels of the company. To maximize its impact, leaders must ascertain the conditions in which learning can travel between individual, group and organizational levels. Different scholars have noted the importance of effective interaction between these respective levels. However, limited consideration has been given to the cross-level alignment that must exist in order for it to occur.\nCase study: Analysis of learning within an unnamed large UK housebuilding firm offers insight into a multi-level approach. At the time, the organization was implementing a program of change that included revision of its Quality Management (QM) processes.\nHow time, communication and trust affect learning cycles: Evidence form this particular organization suggests that time, communication and trust are factors with the greatest potential to influence multi-level learning cycles. Time is partially determined by the number of people partaking in the \"collective sensemaking\" efforts. More people equals slower cycle speed and necessitates adjustment to timing so that levels are back in synch.\nComment: The review is based on: \"Development of a multi-level learning framework\", by Morland et al. (2019) published in The Learning Organization. Firm performance can be optimized when learning occurs at different levels and can be transferred between them. The authors deploy a case study approach to illustrate the importance of relationships to learning and identify factors that determine the alignment between learning cycles and the effectiveness of subsequent knowledge transfer.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: Firm performance can be optimized when learning occurs at different levels and is then transferred between them. Relationships help facilitate learning and along with time, communication and trust determine the alignment between learning cycles and the effectiveness of subsequent knowledge transfer.\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"
}
] |
Artisan entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review and research agenda
|
[
"Artisan",
"Entrepreneurs",
"Cultural and Creative Industries",
"Craft",
"Entrepreneurship",
"Small firms"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Artisan entrepreneurship makes significant contributions to the economy and society (Al-Dajani et al., 2015; Luckman, 2015) and has thus generated sustained interest from scholars (Bhagavatula et al., 2010; Kuhn and Galloway, 2015), practitioners (Holmes, 2015; Svejenova et al., 2007) and policies makers (Bouette and Magee, 2015; McAuley and Fillis, 2005). Prior research has shown that artisan entrepreneurs find creative ways to discover and exploit opportunities (Bruni and Perrotta, 2014; Ramadani et al., in press), which often involves turning their hobbies and passions into sustainable businesses (Biraglia and Kadile, 2017; Danson et al., 2015). Artisan entrepreneurs also create social value through work in the community and engaging in prosocial business practices (Cater et al., 2017; Pret and Carter, 2017). Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of artisanal products (Barlow et al., in press; Ranganathan, in press; Verhaal et al., 2015) and their impacts on regional competitiveness and tourism development (Ramachandran et al., 2012; Teixeira and Ferreira, in press; Thomas et al., 2013). At the same time, research has shown that the motives and goals of artisan entrepreneurs are diverse (Fillis, 2004; Tregear, 2005) and that their practices can vary significantly depending on the contexts in which they are embedded (Drakopoulou Dodd et al., in press; Pret et al., 2016). As such, it is important to delineate the existing body of research. To date, there is no comprehensive overview of the literature on the subject. This study therefore seeks to advance knowledge by systematically reviewing and critiquing research into artisan entrepreneurship.\nMethods: This study employs an SLR approach, which is well-established in entrepreneurship research (Henry and Foss, 2015; Korsgaard, 2013) and appropriate for consolidating literature published across a range of disciplines. Following the guidelines of Tranfield et al. (2003), this study performed the steps outlined in Figure 1 to systematically analyse the artisan entrepreneurship literature. Compared with traditional, ad hoc literature reviews, the adopted approach significantly increases the validity, rigour and generalisability of resulting findings (Wilson et al., 2017). First, research objectives and conceptual boundaries were set. As the principle aim of this study was to analyse and critique extant research on artisan entrepreneurship, it set out to evaluate themes and trends in the perspectives, methods, contexts and findings of this dispersed literature. To achieve this goal, a large range of disciplines and journals were investigated. Given that crafts cover many different fields, an inclusive definition was adopted. Drawing on Tregear (2005), this study defines artisan entrepreneurs as individuals who produce and sell products or services which possess a distinct artistic value resulting from a high degree of manual input. This conceptualisation accounts for a broad range of makers, from those \"whose household income is only partially supported by selling craft work\" (McAuley and Fillis, 2005, p. 503), to full-time producers, who craft products of consistently high quality, allowing them to establish a reputation for their work (Svejenova et al., 2007). Once artisan entrepreneurs start up and develop their own businesses, they are understood to engage in artisan entrepreneurship.\nDiscussion of findings: The results of this SLR are presented in this section. First, general trends in the literature are described, including publication distribution, research methods and approaches, and contexts and perspectives (see Appendix for an overview of the 32 articles included in this review). Second, the core themes identified in the literature are discussed, ordered according to their degree of coverage, as illustrated in Table II.\nConclusion and research agenda: Artisan enterprises are an integral part of the cultural industries (Hirsch, 2000; Pret, 2017), which \"account for 1,600 billion dollars of commerce annually, representing 3.4% of global national product\" (Le Breton-Miller and Miller, 2015, p. 1354). Consequently, a broad range of studies have explored entrepreneurship in this sector from a variety of perspectives, such as marketing (Beverland, 2005; Clemons et al., 2006), tourism (Popelka and Littrell, 1991; Teixeira and Ferreira, in press) and strategy (Mathias et al., in press; Verhaal et al., 2017). However, a comprehensive overview of the literature on the subject has, thus far, been missing. This SLR contributes to knowledge by systematically reviewing and critiquing research into artisan entrepreneurship. Moreover, based on this analysis, it draws a number of conclusions from the extant literature and offers an agenda for future research, which includes a list of potential research questions that are worthy of investigation (see Table III).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the extant body of literature on artisan entrepreneurship and to develop a research agenda for future studies based on the identified trends and themes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review (SLR) was undertaken across 96 journals ranked by the Association of Business Schools. The initial search yielded 86 papers. Further scrutiny of these studies led to the development of exclusion criteria, resulting in a refined list of 32 articles which advance understanding of artisan entrepreneurship. Using an open coding approach, this SLR then identified seven core themes and 16 sub-themes which the extant literature examines.\nFindings: This SLR finds that artisan entrepreneurship research contributes to understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour, context, motivation, development, resources, diversity and classification. It provides timely insights into coopetition practices, the reciprocal relationship between place and entrepreneurship and the coexistence of social and economic goals. It also reveals characteristics which facilitate venture development, discovers the mutability of various forms of capital, highlights the necessity of studying diverse experiences and identifies benefits and limits of typologies. Main elements of the resulting research agenda include calls for more quantitative research, further attention to context and more holistic treatment of a wider variety of stories.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents the first SLR of craft and artisan entrepreneurship research. It not only identifies, analyses and critiques the main streams in the literature, therefore providing an overview of the state of the field, but also highlights areas where this scholarship contributes to understanding of entrepreneurship and upon which future research can build. Artisan entrepreneurship is thus established as worthy of investigation in its own right and as an appropriate context in which to explore entrepreneurial processes. Furthermore, this SLR presents an agenda for future research to advance understanding of artisan entrepreneurship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Green marketing: a strategic balancing act for creating value
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Market",
"Differentiation",
"Competitive advantage",
"Environment",
"Green marketing",
"Image",
"Sustainable",
"Functional",
"Green product"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The business world is rife with misguided attempts to market green products. Traditional environmental marketing, which focuses on garnering a price premium for greener attributes, has often struggled to meet the expectations of hopeful marketers. Some even argue that the concept of environmental marketing should be discarded in the same trash bin as the strategies that failed to deliver results (Makower, 2011). Indeed, when practiced poorly, environmental marketing can lead to disappointing outcomes, or worse, consumer backlash. While some companies have been able to build successful product lines and businesses that cater to the traditional green buyer, this segment appears to be small as a percentage of total consumers, and the demand seems to rise and fall with the vagaries of the economy and the pressures from low-price products (Clifford and Martin, 2011).\nFive strategies for environmental marketing: Environmental (or green) marketing adapts traditional marketing functions to consider environmental benefits in the development, promotion, distribution and/or pricing of products and services (Miles and Covin, 2000; Ottman, 1998). It is typically implemented through a differentiation strategy based on superior product attributes that can help firms achieve competitive advantage (Reinhardt, 1998).\nEnvironmental marketing for the future: While some argue that the marketing of green products has lost its effectiveness, innovative companies have found ways to capture market share and increase profits through environmental marketing. These companies have redefined the practice of environmental marketing to transcend traditional tactics. They have accomplished this through a variety of strategies for positioning green products and services. The implementation of these strategies requires a more individualized approach to environmental marketing that better pairs the benefits of green offerings with the drivers of customer value and a company's overall mission.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to illustrate that when practiced correctly, environmental marketing can represent promising opportunities for value creation and market growth. For many companies, the practice of environmental marketing has delivered disappointing results.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Building from examples of companies that have successfully transcended traditional environmental marketing, we create a model for strategic product positioning. We rely on illustrations from companies in a variety of industries that target both consumer and business markets.\nFindings: We describe five strategies that are built upon value drivers for green products such as image, status, functionality and brand management through authenticity and superior offerings. We also emphasize the importance of strategies that target commercial markets for green products, which represent valuable opportunities for growth.\nOriginality/value: Companies often confront the challenge of positioning the green attributes of their products or services. Lessons from the past have shown that this task must be carefully executed. Understanding the strategies presented here is critical for the success of new products or new marketing initiatives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of cognitive apprenticeship on the perceived growth of junior doctors
|
[
"Workplace",
"Cognitive apprenticeship",
"Medical doctor",
"Perceived growth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In various fields and trades, learning is accomplished through apprenticeships (Collins, 2006; Collins et al., 1991; Hosenfeld et al., 1996). Traditional apprenticeship is an on-location reality-based training method where experienced workers demonstrate, observe and support less-experienced individuals (so-called apprentices) so that the latter can achieve their goals (Billett, 2014; Collins et al., 1991; Saadati et al., 2015). However, the apprenticeship model has limited utility with respect to effectively imparting higher-order problem-solving skills (Collins et al., 1991; Greer et al., 2016).\nLiterature review on cognitive apprenticeship: Cognitive apprenticeship, i.e. cognitive and metacognitive learning guided by experienced colleagues, does not simply focus on physical skills and processes, but rather is a model of instruction in which implicit thought processes are made visible (Collins et al., 1989, 1991). The model of cognitive apprenticeship has adopted the paradigm of \"situated learning\" in which learning is embedded in activities and practices (Brown et al., 1989; Lave and Wenger, 1991). This approach can be applied to work processes that are less observable and to apparently abstract tasks, for which the transfer of skills is required (Collins et al., 1991).\nMethods: Procedures and study sample\nMeasures: We assessed methods of cognitive apprenticeship using the 24-item scale, developed by Stalmeijer et al. (2008). We did not use the MCTQ (Stalmeijer et al., 2010) because its five dimensions (modeling, coaching, articulation, exploration and the learning environment) do not precisely correspond to the cognitive apprenticeship model. As this study was performed in the context of hospitals rather than a medical school, we changed \"clinical teacher\" to \"clinical supervisor\" in the questions. Sample items were as follows: \"the clinical supervisor demonstrated how different tasks should be performed (modeling);\" \"the clinical supervisor observed me while I was performing a task (coaching);\" \"the clinical supervisor adjusted his/her teaching activities to my level of experience and competence (scaffolding);\" \"the clinical supervisor asked me to explain my reasoning and arguments (articulation);\" \"the clinical supervisor stimulated me to think about my own strengths and weaknesses (reflection);\" and \"the clinical supervisor stimulated me to formulate my own goals (exploration).\" Each of the six survey dimensions included four items and all items were measured using a five-point Likert scale (5 = strongly agree; 1 = strongly disagree).\nResults: We conducted a confirmation factor analysis using the 24 items in the cognitive apprenticeship survey. The model fit indices (kh2/df = 1.33, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.92, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.054 and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.054) indicated high discriminant validity of the measurements. As shown in Table 1, Cronbach's alphas of all constructs were above the threshold of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978), indicating high reliability.\nDiscussion: Cognitive apprenticeship has been widely adopted in a variety of educational settings (De Bruin, 2019; Lyons et al., 2017; Peters-Burton et al., 2015; Stalmeijer et al., 2008, 2010; Tsai et al., 2012), while there has been little research regarding its effects on professional development in the workplace. This study was performed to examine the influence of cognitive apprenticeship on the perceived growth of junior doctors mentored by clinical supervisors using a retrospective survey design. The findings suggested that the six dimensions of cognitive apprenticeship had positive impacts on the perceived growth of junior doctors regardless of their clinical domain or period of supervision. The results also indicated that junior physicians tended to receive more coaching and scaffolding, as well as encouragement to engage in articulation and reflection, from their supervisors compared to junior surgeons.\nConclusions: Using a retrospective questionnaire survey, this study confirmed that the six dimensions of cognitive apprenticeship enhanced the perceived growth of junior doctors, regardless of their clinical domain or period of supervision. This was the first quantitative study to show the effectiveness of cognitive apprenticeship in developing professionals in the workplace. Junior physicians tended to receive more coaching, scaffolding and more opportunities for articulation and reflection from their supervisors than junior surgeons, suggesting that the workplace domain influences the characteristics of cognitive apprenticeship.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although cognitive apprenticeship has been widely used in various educational fields, few empirical studies have examined its effectiveness in a workplace context. This study aims to investigate the effects of cognitive apprenticeship on junior doctors' perceived professional growth in hospitals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A retrospective questionnaire survey was performed that asked surgeons (n = 87) and physicians (n = 92) to recall how they were instructed by their supervisors during the first five years after graduation from medical school.\nFindings: The results of multiple regression analyzes showed that all dimensions of cognitive apprenticeship (modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration) had positive effects on each doctor's perceived growth, regardless of the type of clinical practice (surgeon vs physician) or the period of supervision. It was also found that physicians experienced significantly more coaching and scaffolding, and opportunities for, articulation and reflection, than surgeons.\nResearch limitations/implications: Some of the data were collected through snowball sampling, and this study used a retrospective survey in which respondents were asked to recall past experiences.\nPractical implications: Clinical supervisors in hospitals should adopt a cognitive apprenticeship model when supervising junior doctors. Surgical supervisors need to be more conscious of the benefits of cognitive apprenticeship.\nOriginality/value: This study confirmed that the six dimensions of cognitive apprenticeship had positive influences on the perceived growth of junior doctors, regardless of their clinical domains or period of supervision and that clinical domains influence the implementation of cognitive apprenticeship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Trailing organizational knowledge paths through social network lens: integrating the multiple industry cases
|
[
"Social network analysis",
"Knowledge flow",
"Knowledge map",
"Knowledge brokerage",
"Knowledge network",
"Knowledge node"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Comprehending knowledge networks is of great importance to organizations trying to create and sustain their competitive advantage through knowledge management (KM) (Phelps et al., 2012). Without understanding how and where knowledge flows or stops among organizational members and across organizational units, it is difficult for managers to effectively support knowledge sharing and creation among employees or sharing and transfer of cross-organizational knowledge in their companies. Traditionally, most managers presuppose that knowledge and information flows mainly along the formal organizational hierarchy as evidenced by the reporting lines of their organizational charts. However, several studies show that informal social networks among organizational members comprise a more potent source of organizational knowledge (especially tacit knowledge) and collaboration (Chung and Jackson, 2013; Schweer et al., 2012; Whelan et al., 2011). And social network analysis (SNA) enables managers to discover where and how knowledge flows or stops within organizations (Cross et al., 2010). Accordingly, there have been various studies about knowledge network based on SNA but most of them seem to provide few explanations about the following questions concerning knowledge network in practice, which this study aims to answer:\n2. Literature review: Knowledge network is defined as \"a set of nodes - individuals or higher level collectives that serve as heterogeneously distributed repositories of knowledge and agents that search for, transmit, and create knowledge - interconnected by social relationships that enable and constrain nodes' efforts to acquire, transfer, and create knowledge (Phelps et al., 2012, p. 1117)\". This definition points out that knowledge network has no room for its existence without social relationships because knowledge network itself is based on the interconnections by social relationships within an organization. SNA is very useful in making an effective analysis about the interconnections by social relationships (Cyram, 2008), which makes SNA indispensable to knowledge network research. The major findings, unit of analysis, and industrial contexts of the SNA-based knowledge network research are summarized in Table I. However, they seems to be limited in the following three aspects:\n3. Research methodology: In order to explore the existence and patterns of various organizational knowledge paths in different industry settings, the authors conducted a comparative case study. Among the 50+ member firms of the university-affiliated KM consortium in Korea, six organizations from six industries (Alpha: oil refinery, Beta: mobile and tele-communication, Gamma: shipbuilding, Delta: investment and securities, Epsilon: hospital, Zeta: food manufacturing) participated. From the six organizations, a total of 2,208 business people at five management levels (employee, assistant manager, manager, associate general manager, general manager) initially agreed to participate in the study, ranging from 115 (Delta) to 456 (Alpha) participants. Among those, 1,794 (response rate of 81.3 percent) finally answered the network survey from August 13, 2009 to August 13, 2010. The authors first conducted the within-case analysis of the six firms, followed by the cross-case analysis for comparison and synthesis of commonly observed knowledge flow network patterns.\n4. Findings from multiple case studies: 4.1 Knowledge flow paths within Alpha\n5. Discussion: Through multiple case studies in six different industries, this study sheds a new light on how to comprehend the features of knowledge flow and the role-specific nodes in knowledge networks by applying SNA to practices as follows:\n6. Conclusion: This study, based on multiple cases, provides important implications for managers and KM scholars. As the implication for managers, this study suggests that managers should have a solid grasp about knowledge flows and knowledge node roles in their organization in order to facilitate the knowledge transfer and eliminate the knowledge link lapse among organizational members. Through the knowledge flow network map in the authors' analysis, managers can clearly figure out the knowledge flow similar to the way doctors diagnose their patients with x-ray films. The structural analyses and blockmodeling analysis can be very useful to identify and assess the knowledge flow paths and the analyses about the knowledge node can help managers to comprehend the features of the role-specific nodes in organizational knowledge networks.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims at analyzing the features of knowledge flow and the role-specific nodes in knowledge networks among individuals and business units of six organizations in different industries, and suggesting prescriptions to prevent the organizational knowledge sclerosis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research conducts multiple case studies on the organizational knowledge paths of six companies in the multiple industries through social network analysis (SNA) tool developed by the authors of this paper.\nFindings: This study provides four major findings which shed a new light on how to comprehend the features of knowledge flow and the role-specific nodes in knowledge networks in organizations: the within-business unit knowledge flows are more dominant over the inter-business units knowledge flow; the downward knowledge flows are dominant over the horizontal and upward knowledge flows in the management levels; distributions of knowledge owners and providers are like L-shape and the gap between knowledge owing and providing expands as the management levels go up; and the top 20 percent people in an organization dominate over a large portion of the knowledge brokerage activities.\nResearch limitations/implications: Cultural difference issue might arise because data collection was limited to Korean organizations. Therefore, the findings from this study needs to be cautiously interpreted considering the cultural difference/deeper understanding of the organizational knowledge paths through social network lens can make it possible for more context-specific KM strategies (e.g. suitable for a specific functional unit, management level, or industry type) to be identified and implemented.\nPractical implications: Managers can have a solid grasp about knowledge flows and knowledge node roles in their organization through social network analysis in order to facilitate the knowledge transfer and eliminate the knowledge link lapse in organizations.\nOriginality/value: This study could be a stepping stone for further empirical research since it expanded the level of organizational knowledge network analysis from individual and team to inter-unit and inter-management level through the block modeling analysis of knowledge network.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Fight fire with fire: the ultimate active defence
|
[
"Active defence",
"Botnets",
"Emerging threats",
"Malware"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The threats in the internet are rapidly evolving, becoming more difficult to defeat. Malware writers are improving their code, making their malware and botnets more resilient and robust (Bailey et al., 2009; Rossow, 2013). A bot is software installed on the victim's machine. After installation, the bot joins a network of bots, which is called botnet. The botnet is managed by an operator, which is able to issue commands to the bots for several types of actions. The machine from which the commands are issued is called the command-and-control (C&C). The malicious operations consist in personal-data harvesting, distributed denial-of-service attacks, sending of spam, distributed password cracking, and so on (Holz et al., 2008; Andriesse and Bos, 2013).\nRelated work: The related works discussed in this section are the building blocks and the basis of our contributions, setting the ground for the rest of the document.\nOur approach: Based on the evolution outlined above, of some of the major malware observed in the wild, we argue that defenders need to be equipped with more powerful offensive security tools. Figure 1 depicts our approach and the stages needed to set it in place. In this section, we will explain in more detail all the phases and give a better insight about their feasibility.\nCase study: To understand how this approach can be effective against epidemic spreading and malware countermeasure, we briefly present applications of our approach to real-world malwares. We envision the result of our approach by discussing the steps that can be followed to take down three resilient botnets.\nDiscussion: In this section, we consider limitations and press on ethical and legal controversial issues related to the presented technique.\nConclusions: In this paper, we motivated the use of active defence by the defenders to mitigate malware epidemics. Opposing malicious software spreading and fighting criminals in the cyber world are asymmetric challenges. Attackers can easily develop simple and compact codes to obtain their illegal intents. On the contrary, defenders have to develop significantly more intricate and complex tools to oppose and track down these attackers. Moreover, attackers are improving their malicious software and architectures to be significantly more resilient to take down attempts. For this reasons, in the future, defenders will need active defence and offensive security tools to fight back malware and infections. We presented a structured technique to turn a malware binary into an antidote, which leverages the malware characteristics to counterattack the infection. We further described the application of our technique to mitigate Sality and Zeus P2P, two resilient botnets. Finally, we proposed a discussion about the technical limitations of our approach and the ethical and legal concerns that arise from the presented approach.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper proposes an approach to deal with malware and botnets, which in recent years have become one of the major threats in the cyber world. These malicious pieces of software can cause harm not only to the infected victims but also to actors at a much larger scale. For this reason, defenders, namely, security researchers and analysts, and law enforcement have fought back and contained the spreading infections. However, the fight is fundamentally asymmetric.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors argue the need to equip defenders with more powerful active defence tools such as malware and botnets, called antidotes, which must be used as last resort to mitigate malware epidemics. Additionally, the authors argue the validity of this approach by considering the ethical and legal concerns of leveraging sane and compromised hosts to mitigate malware epidemics. Finally, the authors further provide evidence of the possible success of these practices by applying their approach to Hlux, Sality and Zeus malware families.\nFindings: Although attackers have neither ethical nor legal constraints, defenders are required to follow much stricter rules and develop significantly more intricate tools. Additionally, attackers have been improving their malware to make them more resilient to takeovers.\nOriginality/value: By combining existing research, the authors provide an analysis and possible implication of a more intrusive yet effective solution for fighting the spreading of malware.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Questioning the corporate responsibility (CR) department alignment with the business model of the company
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Leadership",
"Cognitive mapping",
"Business enterprise"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The Response Report (2007) - that focused on the degree of alignment between companies and their stakeholders - points out several findings that were decisive to consider the current study. First, in the above report, it shows the existence of a gap between managers' and stakeholders' understanding of what constitutes the company's social responsibilities\". Second, they highlighted that the aftermath of this lack of consensus has implied an absence of tangible results concerning the management of the stakeholders of the companies. Third, the internal circumstances of the organizations have an influence to favor such an alignment as some studies (Pruzan, 2001; Robin and Reidenbach, 1988; Smith, 2003; Stewart, 2006) have tried to propose some frameworks to embed CR into the organizations without complete success until now however. These are the reasons that led us to privilege a study that endeavors the internal dimension of CR.\nRole of the CR Department and interactions between the CR manager with the CEO: Before questioning these issues, the role and scope of the CR department within the organization as well as the interaction and dynamics between the CR manager and the CEO will be studied.The role and the scope of the CR Department imply the moral duty to consider internal and external stakeholders (Evan and Freeman, 1988), which means addressing the concerns of \"any individual or group who can affect or is affected by the actions, decisions, policies, practices or goals of an organization\"(Gatewood and Carroll, 1991, p. 673). However, the agendas of these organizations may vary and be conflicting. Therefore, the development and the implementation of the CR policy will depend on the organization ability to discern the essential interactions among stakeholders (Ilmolaa and Kuusib, 2006, Maignan et al., 2006).The place of the CR manager/director acquires in that sense more responsibility in the organization because they have to \"think about and discuss relationships with stakeholders in relation with the common good, along with their behavioral disposition with respect to the fulfillment and achievement of these roles and relationships\" (Basu and Palazzo, 2008).The ability of the CR manager to interpret the signals sent by the environment (Hegarty and Tihanyi, 1999) and to determine the resulting organizational responses (Mitchell et al., 1997) will depend in a large measure from:* personal values and beliefs that play a consequent role at the moment of establishing priorities and corporate vision or mission for the CR agenda (e.g. Drumwright, 1994; Swanson, 1995; Fineman and Clarke, 1996; Menon and Menon, 1997; Thomas and Simerly, 1994); and* organizational values linked with CSR corporate commitments that are extensively \"maintained, nurtured and advanced by the people who manage them\" (Quazi, 2003, p. 822).Hence, it is possible to conclude that good interpretations of external and internal stimuli have a direct impact on performance, be it positive (Hegarty and Tihanyi, 1999; Miller, 1993) or negative (Milliken, 1990).Perceptions are therefore fundamental in the exercise of the CR manager function. Some change in terms of CSR focus from the \"why\" (i.e. reasons for CSR engagement) and \"what\" (i.e. defining the CSR construct) to \"how\" best to adopt strategies and processes that support CSR decisions within organizations (Smith, 2003) set in relief the always more strategic role the CR manager has in the organization; what fosters the necessity to question the role of the CEO in determining the propensity of firms to engage in these activities and to align CSR goals to the rest of the organization.CEOs are influenced as well by their values and beliefs (e.g. Daft, 2002; Jones, 1995), what impacts the image and the reputation of the company, above all if they put the emphasis on CR (e.g. Ben Cohen of Ben's & Jerry's). However, their main responsibility remains the design of the corporate strategy of the organization. Therefore, there are some risks of trade offs between:* transactional leaders (i.e. short term oriented and single transactions) versus transformational leaders (i.e. long term oriented and ongoing exchange) with a major focus on economic value creation at the expenses of a much more complex value creation process that encompasses as well social and environmental values;* between transactional CEOs versus CR manager with a focus on long term; and* between transformational CEOs with CR managers with a focus on implementation and process; which are going to be examined in this paper.\nUsing a cognitive approach: The interest to use a cognitive approach comes from the fact it is in line:* with depicting the central influence of managers' perceptions and interpretations when designing strategic agendas in CR (as mentioned above); and* with the study of the internal capabilities of the firm throughout the resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 2001; Ulrich and Barney, 1984; Ulrich and Smallwood, 2004) and the knowledge-based view (Nonaka, 1991; Spender, 1996).The Kase et al.'s (2005) framework seems particularly adapted to explore this issue because it is one of the few that consider the cognitive perspective, analyzing top executives. Kase et al. (2005) and Kase and Jacopin (2007) illustrated the validity of this framework for Japanese and Spanish companies such as Nissan, Sony, Santander and BBVA through two approaches. Kase et al. (2005) stress that neither of the two approaches is superior.The first one refers to the Proto Image of the Firm (PIF). This situation happens \"when a firm's CEO has a clear image of what his firm stands for [...]. It may be a personal theory but can be codified and transmitted to others. The personal and professional experience of the CEO influences the vision of the firm. Organization culture helps to configure a PIF\" for a new CEO or a new employee (Kase and Jacopin, 2007).The second approach refers to the profit arithmetic (PA). \"CEOs with a PA approach guide their decision-making on the possibility of making profit. Their minds tend to be more analytical and rational than the PIF CEOs. [...]. A PA CEO knows what profit levers should be pulled [...] and will only demand the relevant information\" (Kase and Jacopin, 2007). Basically, their past experience helps them to constitute their own \"theory of the business\" (Drucker, 1994).The PIF approach is useful (provided the firm's financial position is solid) in a more mature business environment or with a predictable pace of change whereas the PA-approach is particularly efficient when the firm is in jeopardy and its survival questionable. At this point, the short-term approach can be assimilated to a PA one while the long-term approach can be considered as a PIF one.Summing it up, when the cognitive processes are value-laden, culture-bound and long-term oriented, the approach is considered as proto-image of the firm (PIF). On the contrary, the search for the cash-flow generation, matter-of-fact, and rather short-term surviving is associated with a profit-arithmetic (PA) approach.Table I provides a comparative vision of the PIF and the PA approaches according to its main variables.We have decided to adapt this model from management to CR because the original Kase et al. (2005) framework points out some insights that can be both valued for the top management cognitive processes and for the CR manager cognitive process.First, the duality existing between the PIF and PA approaches at the CEO level can easily be transposed to the CR universe with the existence of two models based respectively on the holistic perspective and the long term considerations of CR (ahead considered as CR-PIF), and on the focus to operationalize CR through processes and short term results (ahead considered as CR-PA).Second, the consequence of the implementation of the CR-PIF model implies therefore qualitative results and the quest for value creation that is quite similar to the PIF model with its aims on innovation and a consequent level of cash flow. Similarly, the CR-PA is linked with quantitative results and the minimalization of the reputational risk; which is comparable to the focus of the PA model on the survival in time of crisis.Third, the constituting factors can be analyzed through the importance given to some specific stakeholders because the recent creation of the CR Departments was due in majority to the corporate scandals at the eve of the XXI century and the subsequent pressure of the stakeholders to force a change in the company patterns. A holistic view of the mission of the CR Department implies wide concerns about the external stakeholders, which is similar to a good cultural knowledge of the stakeholder values. On the contrary, an approach based on the internal stakeholders will give the priority to an internal recognition of the CR Department actions and the elaboration of metrics, which is similar to the elaboration of processes to satisfy the management of the company. Implication of the top management is much more necessary is the second case than in the first one because the management instructions have to be explicit in a PA model, which is not the case in a PIF model.In that sense, we can use Table II to have a comparative vision of the CR-PIF and CR-PA frameworks with their main variables.The analysis of the cognitive process of the CEO first and the analysis of the cognitive process of the CR manager second, give the opportunity to cross the results of a possible alignment of the strategy of the CR Department with the strategy of the rest of the organization through the following matrix as resumed in Table III.The creation of such a matrix constitutes a new tool to approach the embeddedness of the CR Department within the company because:* it enables the positioning of a company using predefined criteria in Tables I and II respected to its actions in CR;* it favors some dynamics elements to show the path of the CR Department over time;* it provides some elements of comparisons within the same sector of activity or with other sectors; and* it sets in relief various explanations concerning the alignment or misalignment of the CR department with the rest of the organization, aspect we will deepen in the following section.\nAlignment or misalignment: a much more complex situation than it appears: The same result in the matrix concerning the alignment or misalignment of the strategy of the CR department with the strategy of the rest of the organization may occur for different causes. Therefore, these causes have to be discerned to find out if a CR department should focus on the long run and if an alignment between the strategy of the CR department with the rest of the organization is necessary or not.Case A\nConclusions and limitations: The aim of this paper was to question the alignment of the CR department with the rest of the organization through the elaboration of new tools to embed the CR department strategy in the organization.First, we managed to adapt an original framework designed for the study of the cognitive process of the CEOs to the study of the cognitive process of the CR managers.Second, as our aim was to understand better the alignment or misalignment of the CR Department strategy with the strategy of the rest of the organization, we decided to cross the original framework concerning the cognitive process of the CEOs with the one we adapted specifically to the CR managers into a matrix. This new tool provides new insights concerning the CR deepening.If the CR department should obey a priori to long-term considerations, the implementation of the CR policy is much more complex because it gives to the CR managers the option to choose between an approach based on processes or an approach based on a vision. Moreover, the possibilities of alignments and misalignments are far more important as they may appear at first sight, what suggests the existence of several obstacles to embed CR and what prevents the replication of good practices from occurring in this field.The question of which business model facilitates/prevents the implementation of a successful CR organization remains at this stage without answer because this was a conceptual paper.However, the next stage of this paper will be the empirical check out of the CR-PIF and CR-PA framework as well as the use of the alignment/misalignment of the CR vs business model matrix with the Spanish Ibex 35 companies. It will enable to check out the robustness of these tools.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to question the corporate responsibility (CR) department alignment with the business model of the company to provide some insights concerning the strategic focus of the CR department, the necessity or not to align the CR department to the business model of the company, and the ability to incorporate CR into the organization as competitive advantage from a specific business model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The capacity to discern some key success factors between the alignment of the CR department with the rest of the organization is done in three stages. The methodology sets the emphasis first, on the cognitive process approach of CEOs as strategists and second, on the cognitive process approach of the CR department using in both cases the Kase et al. framework. The third stage consists in crossing the results of the two first stages in a matrix where the alignment and misalignment cases are studied.\nFindings: - The findings show that embedding CR into the organizations is one of the most challenging issues CR faces today. The question of aligning the CR Department with the business model of the organization can be an option to elapse current obstacles in the deepening of CR.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides a new framework to analyze the cognitive process of the CR managers and a new matrix to study the alignment of the CR Department strategy with the rest of the organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Logistics integration processes in the food industry
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Food industry",
"Logistics data processing",
"Integration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Integration along the supply chain is a topic of interest and importance among logistics managers and researchers because it has been considered a source of better supply chain performance (Shapiro, 1984; Scott and Westbrook, 1991; Byrne and Javad, 1992; Gustin et al., 1994; The Global Research Team at Michigan State University, 1995; Christopher, 1998; Cooper, 1993; Ellram and Cooper, 1993; Christiansee and Kumar, 2000) and competitive advantage (Christopher, 1998). However, few empirical studies analyse the integration process (Stank et al., 2001; Gimenez and Ventura, 2003).During the 1990s, some companies initiated an integration process through the implementation of the SCM approach. SCM is:... the integration of key business processes from end-user through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders (Lambert et al., 1998).This integrative philosophy involves internal and external integration. Internal integration refers to the coordination, collaboration and integration of Logistics with other functional areas, while external integration refers to the integration of a firm's logistics activities with those of their customers and suppliers (Stock et al., 1998).Stevens (1989) suggests that companies integrate internally first, and then, extend integration to other supply chain members. Companies usually follow an integration process that goes through three different stages. In Stage I, there is no integration. In Stage II companies are internally integrated: their logistics activities are integrated with the activities of other functional units, such as purchasing, production and marketing. And, in Stage III, the internal integration achieved in Stage II is extended to other supply chain members, such as customers and suppliers.The objectives of this paper are:* to analyse the integration process (internal and external integration);* to compare the integration in the logistics-production interface with the integration in the logistics-marketing interface; and* to explore the integration stage of Spanish food manufacturers.Our contribution to the existing body of knowledge on integration topics is to describe the integration process, comparing two levels of internal integration (logistics-marketing and logistics-production) and analysing the relationship between these internal integration levels and the level of external integration. In the literature, many studies consider internal or external integration from the logistics point of view, but very few consider both levels of integration simultaneously. Our study differs from the existing literature in the fact that we explore the sequence of integration stages in an integration process.The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 briefly examines the literature on logistics' integration topics; Section 3 describes the research methodology; Section 4 presents the research results and Section 5 draws the conclusions and managerial implications from this work.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Previous logistics' integration research\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4 Results: 4.1 Internal integration\n5 Conclusions and managerial implications: Only 30 per cent of the companies in the sample have implemented SCM (there are only 15 companies in Cluster 1 which have externally integrated relationships). However, there are many companies on their way to implement this philosophy. Firms have realised that enhanced competitiveness requires that companies ceaselessly integrate within a network of organizations - firms ignoring this challenge are destined to fall behind their rivals.As their future survival lies on integration, a good understanding of the integration process is a key aspect. And, in this subject, our study has a main implication for managers pursuing integration: in the integration process, firms must achieve a relatively high level of collaboration among internal functions before initiating any external integration. A prerequisite for successful SCM is internal integration (Lambert et al., 1998). Internal integration refers to the collaboration and coordination of logistics with other functional areas, such as production and marketing. Such collaboration and coordination means that these functional areas must have formal teamwork and share ideas, information and other resources. Integration also means that there is a joint planning to anticipate and resolve operative problems, a joint establishment of objectives, a joint development of the understanding of responsibilities and a joint establishment of decisions about how to improve cost efficiencies.Managers pursuing integration have to take actions to promote this sharing of information and joint planning. These actions cover a wide range of aspects: first, there is the need to change the organisational structure, including:* the establishment of the key business processes to be managed by formal cross-functional workteams; and* the modification of the criteria on which functional managers are evaluated.One way to coordinate activities within the firm is to identify the key business processes and manage them using cross-functional teams. Cooper et al. (1997) extensively describe the key business processes that could be linked across the firm and the supply chain. Another way to promote integration is to change the criteria on which managers are evaluated. Gimenez (2004) describes some examples where an incorrect manager evaluation system led to cost-inefficient purchasing decisions (in terms of total cost of ownership).Secondly, there is the need to train people on the benefits that integration can bring. Change management and people training play a key role in an integration process, as they are crucial to minimise the barriers to implementing SCM.Our study suggests that Spanish food manufacturers seem to initiate integration by coordinating logistics and production. As stated before, this might be due to the fact that, in Spain, logistics has been considered an area under the operations and production domain. This finding does not imply that companies have to implement SCM by integrating first in this interface. Firms should initiate integration in the interface where it is easier and where integration benefits can be obtained early. This will encourage further integration efforts.The results also show that the highest levels of external integration are associated to companies with the highest levels of integration in the logistics-production and logistics-marketing interfaces. This implies that although integration has been started only in the logistics-production interface, when higher levels of external integration are pursued, there is the need to integrate also in the logistics-marketing interface. Therefore, managers pursuing supply chain integration need to pay attention to all internal interfaces.Another implication for managers is how to approach external integration. The results have shown that sharing information (about sales, sales forecasts and stocks) and joint planning and development of logistics processes continue to play a key role in the integration process. This implies that there is the need to move from an arm's length type of relationship to more of a partnership approach, in which trust and information sharing are vital.Our study has contributed to the existing knowledge by providing a description of how Spanish food manufacturers are approaching integration. However, our paper has some limitations: one of them is in the analysis of external integration. Here, we have only considered one side of the manufacturer-retailer relationship. Another limitation is the reduced number of cases in each cluster, which made a statistical comparison of means impossible.Further research should investigate the integration processes in other industries and countries and with a longitudinal perspective. It should also consider other internal interfaces, such as logistics-purchasing and production-purchasing, and investigate the business processes that are critical and/or beneficial to integrate and manage within and between firms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper sets out to empirically analyse the integration process that firms follow to implement supply chain management (SCM). This study has been inspired by the integration model proposed by Stevens.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Uses the survey method.\nFindings: - The results show that there are companies in three different integration stages. In stage I, companies are not integrated. In stage II, companies have a medium-high level of internal integration in the logistics-production interface, a low level of internal integration in the logistics-marketing interface, and a medium level of external integration. And, in stage III, companies have high levels of integration in both internal interfaces and in some of their supply chain relationships.\nResearch limitations/implications: - First, only one side of the manufacturer-retailer relationship was considered, and, second, there was a reduced number of cases in each cluster.\nPractical implications: - As firms' survival lies on integration, a good understanding of the integration process is a key aspect. In this subject, this study has a main implication for managers: in the integration process, firms must achieve a relatively high level of collaboration among internal functions before initiating any external integration.\nOriginality/value: - The contribution of this study is to describe the integration process, comparing two levels of internal integration (logistics-marketing and logistics-production) and analysing the relationship between these internal integration levels and the level of external integration. Many studies consider internal or external integration from the logistics point of view, but very few consider both levels of integration simultaneously. This study differs from the existing literature in the fact that it explores the sequence of integration stages in an integration process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Nurses' work practices in design: managing the complexity of pain
|
[
"Professional practice",
"Learning",
"Pain",
"Self-monitoring application",
"Design ethnography",
"Nurses",
"Managing complexity",
"Information Technology",
"Workplace learning",
"Technological change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study explores activities in nurses' work practices in relation to the design process of a self-monitoring application. Currently, many self-monitoring applications are being developed and adopted in the healthcare domain (Piras and Miele, 2017; Schwennesen, 2017; Kaziunas et al., 2017). In recent years, we have seen significantly increased interest in designing, developing and using self-monitoring applications that produce data to support nurses' work (Grisot et al., 2018; Islind et al., 2019). One of the key challenges during the process of designing such applications is the shift from working with qualitative phenomena that are hard to capture and quantify such as patients' narratives of their chronic disease experiences and translating them from their situated expressions to abstract forms. While research exists on the use of self-monitoring data in nurses' work, little attention has been paid to the implications for nurses' work practices in relation to the design process of such tools. Workplace professional learning is \"not only a formation of collective routines; it is also tool-creation and implementation that expand prevailing routines\" (Engestrom and Kerosuo, 2007, pp. 16-17). When professionals participate in a design process, it may change their existing work practices, which, in turn, affects the particular professionals' learning (Reich and Hager, 2014) because such learning requires formulating implicit practice aspects or designing new applications to be used in the practices, changing the practices themselves (Islind and Snis, 2017).\nTheoretical concepts and related work: The notions of practice and learning are key to understanding the origins of professional development. Nurses' work activities are situated in their work practices, i.e. where professional learning takes place (Nicolini, 2012). We view \"practice\" as the ordering mechanisms that organize existing resources for social actions (Gherardi, 2009). The importance of the practice concept is that it refers to a group of individuals whose organized activities constitute their practices but, at the same time, whose activities are constituted by the way the practice is organized (Schatzki, 2012). \"Resources\" are the socio-material environment, involving people, ideas and materials (Feldman and Worline, 2016). It is through these mechanisms that knowing is produced and reproduced. In turn, \"knowing\" is an activity that is collective, distributed and situated in time and space within work practices (Gherardi, 2009). \"Learning\" is the process of becoming part of these practices (Lave and Wenger, 1991). By participating in the design of tools meant to support work, design participants engage with different modes of knowing: practical, diagnostic and technical (Nygard et al., 2013). When professionals engage with different modes of knowledge, they can change their existing work practices, affecting their professional learning (Reich and Hager, 2014).\nMethod and setting: This paper is based on data collected from a cancer rehabilitation clinic (blinded for review). This clinic aims to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors who received cytostatic and/or radiation treatment in the lower abdominal region, many of whom suffer from treatment-induced problems frequently associated with pain in the lower abdomen and related areas such as severe bowel disorders. Three nurses lead the rehabilitation clinic, providing the main support and advice to their patients over the telephone or face-to-face. These nurses need to inquire about the details of the patients' symptoms to be able to help them. However, many patients experience problems recalling their symptoms in sufficient detail, which makes the nurses' work demanding. Therefore, the researchers involved in the project suggested a solution: a self-monitoring application that could help the patients report their symptoms in a more systematic way. Because the primary purpose of the self-monitoring application was to support the nurses' work, the nurses' knowledge and expertise became the base of the elicitation of the self-monitoring application's requirements. However, because the patients would use the application to collect data about themselves, they were considered the primary end-users. For example, every time a patient experienced pain, they could open the application and answer several questions about their pain experience. In turn, the nurses would get access to data on how patients' pain experiences developed over time rather than a retrospective verbal report based on their memories.\nManaging: Pain complexity and application simplicity: In the following, we present excerpts from three of the design sessions with the designers, researchers and nurses. During the first session, the pain issue emerged as a highly relevant topic, particularly the need to visualize the locations of pain. During the second design session, a first, simplistic visual representation was presented, and the nurses explained how it did not adequately represent the complexity of pain. In the third session, a more complex visual representation was presented that was simple enough to be packaged into the application but sufficiently complex for the nurses to see it as useful for their practical purposes.\nDiscussion: This study explored activities in nurses' work practices in relation to the participatory design process of a self-monitoring application. We presented findings from a design ethnography of how nurses, developers and researchers collaborated in the design of a self-monitoring application, aiming to capture the complex issue of pain experiences of cancer survivors. To sum up, our analysis displayed how the nurses identified pain as a relevant issue; how they conceptualized it in terms of intensity, characteristics and duration; and how they identified body visualization as a useful way to enable patients to localize their pain. Furthermore, when the first version of the application was presented, the contrast between the complexity of pain and the simplicity of the body representation in the application became salient. The complexity of pain experience was then incorporated. The body visualization needed more detail not only to localize pain but to represent aspects of it such as its duration, its characteristics and its causes. Finally, in the last session, when another mockup of the app was presented, the developers and nurses agreed that the application adequately captured all these aspects of pain. In this sense, this final version reached a balance between the complexity of pain and the simplicity of the self-monitoring application.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the activities in nurses' work practices in relation to the design process of a self-monitoring application.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A design ethnographic approach was applied in this study.\nFindings: To solve the problem of translating highly qualitative phenomena, such as pain, into the particular abstract features of a self-monitoring application, design participants had to balance these two aspects by managing complexity. In turn, the nurses' work practices have changed because it now involves a new activity based on a different logic than the nurses' traditional work practices.\nOriginality/value: This study describes a new activity included in nurses' work practices when the nurses became part of a design process. This study introduces a novel way on how to gain a deeper understanding of existing professional practice through a detailed study of activities taking place in a design process. This study explores the possible implications for nurses' professional practices when they participate in a self-monitoring application design process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Testing alternative models of property derivatives: the case of the City of London
|
[
"Risk management",
"Real estate",
"Hedging",
"Financial innovation",
"Property derivatives"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Real estate is well known for its overwhelmingly idiosyncratic risk structure stemming from heterogeneous assets traded on illiquid markets with asymmetric information. The search for efficient risk management tools applicable to private commercial real estate assets has attracted researchers' interest for many years, albeit with few concrete results.\n1 City of London's office property market: market characteristics and risk factors: 1.1 Market characteristics\n2 Data and methodology: 2.1 IPD database of City office properties\n3 Empirical feasibility study: 3.1 Research questions\nConclusion: The study of City office properties over the period 1981-2007 shows that existing property derivatives, i.e. EUREX futures contracts and IPD index-based over the counter derivatives, do not address the hedging needs of individual property owners. Factor hedges and combinative hedges proposed by Lecomte (2007) are significantly more effective than index-based derivatives. However, their effectiveness is not systematic but rather depends on a case by case basis. For some buildings, they enable hedges to become highly effective whereas in other cases, they have no significant positive impact. Generic patterns can be inferred to determine optimal hedges. The study proposes a simple typology applicable to individual City office buildings as well as portfolios of such properties.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper aims to conduct an empirical study of three models of property derivatives: index-based derivatives, factor hedges, and combinative hedges based on index and factors. The objective is to test whether the latter two models introduced by Lecomte dominate the index-based model used for existing property derivatives such as EUREX futures contracts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on investment property database (IPD) historical database covering 224 individual office properties from 1981 to 2007, the study assesses ex ante hedging effectiveness of the three models. Nine simulations are run under different hypotheses involving individual buildings and portfolios. The 17 factors included in the study cover both macro-factors (e.g. macroeconomic indicators) and micro-factors linked to the properties (e.g. age).\nFindings: Atomization and periodic rebalancing of property derivatives' underlying make it possible to substantially increase hedging effectiveness for a large majority of buildings in the sample. However, combinative hedges are overall superior to factor hedges owing to the overriding role played by IPD indices in capturing risk.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to confidentiality requirements inherent to the use of property level data, the study downplays the role of micro-factors on real estate risk at the property level.\nPractical implications: The paper introduces a typology of optimal hedges aimed at individual property owners and portfolio holders in the City office property market.\nOriginality/value: This is the first time a comprehensive analysis of different models of property derivatives is conducted. The value of the paper stems from the use of property level data.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
University of Alberta Libraries Interlibrary Loan Department - Creating new relationships, locally and globally
|
[
"Academic libraries",
"Collaboration",
"Consortia",
"Document supply",
"Delivery services",
"Interlibrary lending"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPart 1: NEOS centralized interlibrary loan service: \nIntroduction: Libraries are naturally inclined to work within collaborative partnerships with other libraries due to the fact that together they are stronger, they can provide more services and make available more collections to a greater number of people. Therefore, almost every library is part of a local consortium and, in the case of academic libraries, often part of multiple consortia spanning large regions (Potter, 1997). Consortia enable the sharing of expertise among a group of libraries, but also the sharing of technological infrastructure, and services.\nDescription: This section will cover a description of the NEOS Centralized ILL Service and an overview of how the centralized ILL service went through the stages of proposal to implementation to post-implementation.\nDiscussion: The NEOS Centralized ILL Service demonstrates that a single point of intake and processing of ILL requests is possible for a group of academic libraries. A consortium that already has set up a shared catalogue and a resource sharing delivery system between its members will have a strong advantage. An environment that contains pressure to gain efficiencies and cost-savings will be beneficial. Furthermore, a centralized service within a consortium requires partners to let go of full control over the service, which requires strong collaboration in the development of the service and a thorough understanding of service limitations and expectations.\nConclusion: Resource sharing between libraries is an important feature of library consortia and continues to evolve to improve access to information for all patrons. Although the main focus has been to share collections and technological infrastructure, the NEOS Centralized ILL service has demonstrated that a group of academic libraries can also share an ILL department, including the staff. A single intake point for ILL requests has several advantages as identified by the Task Group, including faster turnaround of requests, reduced technical infrastructure and upkeep, redeployment of ILL staff or managing with fewer staff due to cuts, professional request forms for patrons, etc. These benefits greatly outweighed any potential drawbacks from giving up full control over one's ILL services. The NEOS Library Consortium has the distinct advantage of a shared ILS, which has facilitated the ease of developing this service by having access to patron data and the supports for moving items around the Consortium. However, there has been strong interest in the Service and libraries external to the Consortium are considering the Service as an option when contemplating changes in how they operate their ILL services. Therefore, future steps will explore the possibility of leveraging technology, such as NCIP, to enable libraries external to the Consortium to take advantage of the Centralized ILL Service.\nPart 2: ILL service for Can Tho University, Vietnam: \nIntroduction: Resource sharing between libraries transcends borders, providing scholars access to collections that have strengths unimaginable to replicate in other countries. Yet, international borrowing is an activity that comes with many challenges. The RUSA Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS) International ILL Committee identified citation verification, technology, communications and costs as barriers to international ILL (STARS, 2009). The barriers for libraries in disadvantaged countries would be magnified, lacking access to lending infrastructure or the funds to pay the fees associated with international interlibrary loan (ILL).\nDescription: Description of the service\nDiscussion: The main concern about providing a free article delivery service to an academic library in a disadvantaged country was the volume of requests that may be generated and whether it would place a strain on the resources of the ILL department. However, it should be recognized that such strain would occur at both institutions, as not only does it take time to provide the item but it also takes time to receive and check the requests from patrons and input them into the request form. From this perspective, it is unlikely that a situation would arise where the volume would be so large that the service is unsustainable. For those that are risk averse, it could be useful to think about what volume would be acceptable and suggest a limit on the number of requests to ensure that demand could be met. However, for the purpose of this pilot study, no limits were set and as the numbers have shown, it did not pose any problems.\nConclusion: The University of Alberta is committed to \"uplifting the whole people\", a phrase that is associated with Henry Marshall Tory, the University of Alberta's first president. As a public institution, it is called upon to not only make a difference in the lives of those who walk through its doors but also to allow all to benefit from its presence in our society. The UAL has a strong focus on international relationships that allow us to share our knowledge and expertise. The pilot project described in this case study has been successful in providing an academic library in a disadvantaged country with access to free copies of articles from the UAL collections. The service did not impose significant demands on the resources of the UAL ILL department; therefore, the pilot has been extended for one more year. This pilot has also shown that the value of an ILL service goes beyond the articles that are supplied and provides an institution with greater insight into their patrons' information needs and challenges in finding local materials. There are many libraries that could use similar assistance and those that have the means are strongly encouraged to establish partnerships similar to the one described above.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the value and benefits from newly developed relationships between the University of Alberta Libraries' Interlibrary Loan Department and other institutions through the delivery of new services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is a descriptive review of the new services provided, including a centralized interlibrary loan service for members of the NEOS Consortium and an article delivery service for Can Tho University Library (Vietnam), an overview of the implementation of the services and a discussion of the value and benefits created.\nFindings: A single-point of intake for interlibrary loan requests for a group of academic libraries can be implemented successfully with few drawbacks, providing benefits to all the participants. An article delivery service to an institution that provides no interlibrary loan services provides value through access to new resources and demonstrates not to be a burden on the provider; yet, this paper demonstrates that the primary value is in learning about their patrons' needs.\nPractical implications: Other institutions could replicate these services and relationships.\nOriginality/value: Single-point of intake for interlibrary loan in academic consortial environments has neither been demonstrated in the literature nor has any component of interlibrary loan been described to support international initiatives to assist libraries in disadvantaged countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ethics in third sector-school partnerships: a conceptual framework
|
[
"Ethics",
"Schools",
"NGOs",
"Third sector",
"Cross-sector partnership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In recent decades, third sector organizations have begun playing an active role in public education in the west. Third sector-school partnerships are a relatively new phenomenon in education, therefore the ethical aspects of these partnerships have not been discussed at length to date. As a result, educational research lacks a theoretical framework that permits in-depth understanding of the ethical aspects of third sector-school partnerships. The present work addresses this gap by building on the general literature on stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory, cross-sector partnerships (CSP) and strategic alliances, and on previous empirical studies on partnerships between schools and the third sector. Our review aims first and foremost to conceptualize ethical conduct in these partnerships and to breakdown their antecedents and potential pitfalls. Specific, we offer formal propositions that can be used to advance future research. We intend to stimulate interest and reflection on ethics in third sector-school partnerships.\nAnalytic approach: CSP can be explained by several highly relevant theoretical perspectives, such as stakeholder theory, CSR, CSP, and strategic alliances. Note that we do not argue that these theories and domains are the only relevant bodies of knowledge, but rather that they represent different perspectives on partnerships that are useful for our purpose. First, we aspired to define what ethical conduct of organizations and between organizations is, turning our attention to management research, which contains a vast literature on this topic. We used a series of electronic searches with Google Scholar engine by combining terms such as \"stakeholder theory,\" \"corporate social responsibility,\" \"CSP\" and \"strategic alliances\" with the word \"ethics.\" Thematic analysis assisted us in identifying the distinct dimensions of ethical conduct (i.e. aggression, transparency, opportunism, accountability, deviance) as well as certain antecedents of ethical conduct in partnerships (i.e. trust, goals, power, formalization, ideology, environment). Figure 1 contains an explanation for each theory or research domain, and its view of ethics, and the main ethical conduct dimensions that each theory underlines.\nModel of ethics in partnerships between schools and the third sector: Based on the literature review, we outline a conceptual framework to discuss the ethical conduct in third sector-school partnerships (Figure 2). First, we suggest that ethical conduct in partnerships between schools and the third sector contains five dimensions: low aggression, transparency, low opportunism, accountability and absence of organizational deviance. Second, we discuss the role that the nature of the partnership (trust, goal congruence and symmetry of power between partners) plays in predicting ethical conduct. The nature of the partnership serves as a proximal antecedent of ethical conduct. Third, we address two groups of distal variables that can serve as antecedents to ethical conduct in these partnerships: organizational characteristics (formalization, organizational ideology), and environmental characteristics (environmental turbulence). Proximal antecedents are factors that are temporally adjacent and directly responsible for changes in the outcome variables, distal antecedents are factors that contribute more indirectly to explaining changes in the outcomes. Proximal and distal antecedents are common when conceptualizing multistage processes to better depict complex phenomena in social studies (e.g. Van Iddekinge et al., 2009), as in the case of ethics in third sector-school partnerships. We suggest further that the nature of the partnership mediates the relationship between organizational and environmental characteristics on one hand, and ethical conduct on the other. Finally, we argue that environmental characteristics moderate the effects of organizational characteristics on the nature of the partnership.\nThe five dimensions of ethical conduct in CSP as identified in the literature: Low aggression\nThe nature of the partnerships as a proximal antecedent of ethical conduct in CSP: Having outlined the dimensions of ethical conduct in CSP, we proceed to explore the proximal antecedent of ethical conduct in partnerships. We identified three central variables in the literature related to ethical conduct: trust, goal congruence and symmetry in the balance of power between partners. Note that these variables may be influenced by other factors. For example, the duration (long-short-term) of the partnership may increase the dependence between parties, thereby destabilizing the symmetric power relations in the partnership and ultimately, its ethical conduct. This may be further affected by the partners' (dis)agreement on the content of instruction (technical and ideological). In their study on CSP in education, Eyal and Yarm (2018) found that the main factor characterizing the ability of schools to maintain their obligation to public ethos was the level of mutuality between parties, rather than the time span or the content of the partnership. Therefore, it appears that the aforementioned proximal antecedents are the key determinants of ethical conduct in partnerships.\nOrganizational and environmental characteristics as distal antecedents of ethical conduct in CSP: The nature of the partnership and ethical conduct in partnerships are influenced by both organizational and environmental characteristics. Review of the literature suggests that the partners' organizational formality and ideology, together with environmental turbulence, affect ethical conduct in CSP. These variables affect ethical conduct directly and indirectly, as they help explain the nature of the partnership. For example, Saxton (1997) noted that \"although relationship characteristics alone appear to be better predictors of a firm's initial satisfaction with an alliance [...] the combination of both relationship characteristics and partners' characteristics [has] superior explanatory power for predicting sustained benefits to partners in an alliance\" (p. 454). Next, we will elaborate on several key organizational and environmental antecedents of ethical conduct in CSP.\nConcluding remarks: The purpose of this conceptual paper is to outline a comprehensive model of ethical conduct in school-NGO partnerships, grounded in prior theory and empirical research on general partnerships and education. The paper makes two main theoretical contributions. First, although previous research did address distinct aspects of ethical conduct in CSP (see, for example, Figure 1), it failed to chart the multi-dimensional scope of ethical behavior. The present paper expanded this line of exploration by converging multiple theories (stakeholder theory, CSR, CSP and strategic alliances) in a way that allow us to identify the diverse properties that make up what can be seen as a mosaic of ethical conduct in partnerships. This has the potential to stimulate future investigation and to expand our knowledge on ethical conduct in third sector-school partnership. Second, the present model identifies several key antecedents of ethical conduct related to the nature of the partnerships, and to the organizational and environmental characteristics reflecting the complex relations between these factors and ethical conduct. Thus, unlike previous descriptive works that addressed mainly few factors and did not adopt a process orientation, the present study offers a multistage model that combines distal and proximal variables in explaining ethical conduct. Therefore, the present study can offer a theoretical framing through a multiple causal model, which in turn can serve as the basis for further investigation of ethical conduct in CSP in education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In recent years, third sector-school partnerships have become more common and received increasing research attention. Yet, the ethical aspects of third sector-school partnerships have not been discussed in-depth. As a result, the field lacks a conceptual framework that makes possible in-depth understanding of the ethical characteristics involved in partnerships between public schools and the third sector. The purpose of this paper is to fill this lacuna.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An integrative review of the general literature on stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, cross-sector partnerships (CSP) and strategic alliances, as well as of empirical studies on partnerships between schools and the third sector, offers insights on ethical conduct in these partnerships and their antecedents.\nFindings: Based on the general literature on CSP and the educational literature on third sector-school partnerships, the authors offer a conceptual model and propositions about ethical conduct in these partnerships and its antecedents.\nOriginality/value: The innovative conceptual model makes possible a re-evaluation of existing knowledge on third sector-school partnerships, and can support direct research of ethical aspects in these partnerships. In addition, the model provides conceptual language for administrators for managing practical ethical dilemmas in these partnerships.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quality moderates market competition: evidence of Taiwanese service industry
|
[
"Public accounting firms",
"Performance",
"Audit service quality",
"Market concentration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The 2001 Enron event leads to the demise of the then largest public accounting firms in the USA, Arthur Andersen. Investing community casts doubt on the quality of financial reporting and the effectiveness of audits. To respond to the challenge, the US Congress passes the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which creates the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to oversee the public accounting firms. The PCAOB establishes auditing and quality control standards for audits of public company, and performs inspections of quality controls at public accounting firms rendering those services. Through regular inspections, the PCAOB evaluates the quality of auditing tasks on a specific engagement and reviews the practices of public accounting firms, operating policies, and auditing procedures related to audit quality. The inspections also apply to foreign public accounting firms offering services to companies issuing the American Depositary Receipt. For example, the 2008 and 2011 PCAOB inspection reports on two Taiwanese international firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, indicate that the inspection team did not identify anything considered to be a quality control defect that warrants discussion in its inspection report. Further, PCAOB focusses on the assessment of professional competency of auditors, assignment of responsibility, and continuing professional education programs. These inspections clearly indicate that human resource management is an important determinant of audit quality. In addition, the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) (2006) identifies some relevant drivers behind audit quality. In light of the recent developments, regulators, academics, and the investing public have become increasingly concerned about audit quality from the perspective of auditors in public accounting firms.\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: Audit service quality\nMethodology: Data\nResults: Descriptive statistics of variables\nDiscussions and conclusions: This study examines the effects of audit service quality and audit market concentration on public accounting firm performance. We use audit market concentration to proxy audit market competition and find a positive and significant effect on firm performance. Next, relationship between audit service quality and performance is positive. Empirical results above confirm the S-C-P paradigm in the industrial organization literature. Further, the interaction term between audit market concentration and audit service quality is positive, implying that audit service quality moderates the relation between market structure and performance. This documents that human capital is the core resources in public accounting firms which could enhance performance through higher audit service quality under intense market competition. Specifically, facing increasingly competitive audit market, public accounting firms response to the hostile situation by employing auditors with higher educational level, more work experience, with professional licenses, and taking more continuing professional education. Audit market concentration in different practice markets provides regulators and practitioners useful information. For example, prior studies indicate that post-merger Big firms have the higher concentration than pre-merger ones. This study finds that audit firms in a more concentrated market produce better financial performance. Further, under the higher audit market concentration, audit firms enhance their financial performance by providing higher audit service quality. Yang et al. (2012) report that Taiwanese audit market structure is similar to that in the USA and in most other western countries. Findings above are managerial implicative for practitioners in Taiwan, USA, and other western countries in their operating decision-making.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and interactive effects of audit service quality and audit market concentration on performance of public accounting firms in Taiwan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical data of this study come from registered public accounting firms in Taiwan, an industrial data. From the perspective of industrial economics and based on the structure-conduct-performance paradigm (Cowling and Waterson, 1976), this study use OLS to test the linear regression equation.\nFindings: Empirical results indicate that both audit service quality and audit market concentration have positive effects on performance. The interaction terms between audit service quality and audit market concentration are positively related to performance.\nPractical implications: This documents that human capital is the core resource in public accounting firms which could enhance performance through higher audit service quality under intense market competition. Specifically, facing increasingly competitive audit market, public accounting firms response to the hostile situation by employing auditors with higher educational level, more work experience, with professional licenses, and taking more continuing professional education.\nOriginality/value: Few previous researches consider the effects of either market concentration or audit service quality on firm performance. This study simultaneously examines the relation among audit service quality, audit market concentration, and performance of public accounting firms. With the results, this study contributes knowledge to human resource and quality management-related literatures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comparative human development thresholds for absolute and relative pro-poor mobile banking in developing countries
|
[
"Mobile communications",
"Mobile banking",
"Empirical study",
"Inequality",
"Poverty",
"Information",
"Information sharing",
"Quality of growth",
"G20",
"O40",
"I10",
"I20",
"I32"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information technology has been shown to be beneficial in a plethora of ways, notably in changing society (Kreps and Kimppa, 2015; Tatnall, 2015; Lennerfors et al., 2015; Patrignani and Whitehouse, 2015; Lahtiranta et al., 2015; Aricat, 2015) and in improving human development (Venable et al., 2011; Kautz, 2011; Hossain and Quaddus, 2011; Watts and Wyner, 2011; Johri and Nair, 2011; Gripenberg, 2011). The mobile money market is burgeoning, with estimates suggesting that by 2019, total annual transactions will be about US$1.3 billion from US$655.8 million in 2014 (Caulderwood, 2015). This represents substantial opportunities of financial inclusion which are needed for business development and for improvement in the living standards of a fraction of the population that hitherto has been excluded from formal financial activities. This position is further substantiated by evidence from the Global Findex Inclusion Database which indicates that the benefits of mobile banking are crucial because only 23 per cent of adults in developing countries surviving on less than US$2 a day possess a bank account.\n2. Theoretical highlights and literature review: 2.1 Theoretical highlights\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1 Data\n4. Empirical results: Tables I and II show results corresponding to poverty and inequality in that order, whereas panel A of both these tables provides findings on \"mobile phones used to pay bills\", the results of panel B are related to \"mobile phones used to send/receive money\". Before discussing table-specific results, it is important to clarify two concerns in order to improve readability. Most particularly, we explain the nature of signals and expected signs of thresholds for inclusive development. First, poverty and inequality are negative inclusive development signals. Second, for mobile banking to stimulate inclusive development, negative thresholds from the modifying variable are required to influence poverty and inequality for the absolute pro-poor and the relative pro-poor, respectively.\n5. Concluding implications, caveats and future research directions: In developing countries, economic opportunities are being progressively improved with the conversion of mobile phones into pocket banks to facilitate financial access to a substantial bulk of the population hitherto excluded from mainstream financial institutions (Demombynes and Thegeya, 2012). Our results have shown that at certain thresholds of the HDI, financial access by means of mobile banking is positively related to inclusive development. Specifically, we have established the following: First, a greater use of mobiles to pay bills is negatively correlated with: poverty in LMIC, UMIC and LA countries, respectively, at HDI thresholds of 0.725, 0.727 and 0.778 and inequality in UMIC and LA with HDI thresholds of, respectively, 0.646 and 0.761. Second, increased use of the mobile phone to send/receive money is negatively correlated with poverty in LMIC, UMIC and CEE countries with corresponding HDI thresholds of 0.631, 0.750 and 0.750 and inequality in UMIC, CEE and LA at HDI thresholds of 0.665, 0.736 and 0.726, respectively.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the correlations between mobile banking and inclusive development (poverty and inequality) in 93 developing countries for the year 2011.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Mobile banking entails the following: \"mobile phones used to pay bills\" and \"mobile phones used to receive/send money\", while the modifying policy indicator includes the human development index (HDI). The data are decomposed into seven sub-panels based on two fundamental characteristics: regions (Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East and North Africa) and income levels (upper middle income, lower middle income and low income).\nFindings: The results show that at certain thresholds of the HDI, mobile banking is positively linked to inclusive development. The following specific findings are established. First, the increased use of mobile phones to pay bills is negatively correlated with: poverty in lower-middle-income countries (LMIC), upper-middle-income countries (UMIC) and Latin American (LA) countries, respectively, at HDI thresholds of 0.725, 0.727 and 0.778 and inequality in UMIC and LA with HDI thresholds of, respectively, 0.646 and 0.761. Second, the increased use of mobile phones to send/receive money is negatively correlated with: poverty in LMIC, UMIC and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with corresponding HDI thresholds of 0.631, 0.750 and 0.750 and inequality in UMIC, CEE and LA at HDI thresholds of 0.665, 0.736 and 0.726, respectively.\nPractical implications: The findings are discussed in the light of current policy challenges in the transition from the UN's Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals.\nOriginality/value: The authors have exploited the only macroeconomic data on mobile banking currently available.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A culture of employee engagement: a strategic perspective for global managers
|
[
"Culture",
"Sustainability",
"Strategy",
"Competitive advantage",
"Employee engagement",
"Global managers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Engaged employees work to improve the overall performance of the organization and uphold its values. A great deal of research has focused on employee engagement in organizations. However, little research has focused on the global managers charged with the responsibilities of developing and creating a culture of employee engagement as an important strategy for the competitive advantage of organizations. A 2012 global work force study conducted by the consulting company Towers Watson found that 72 per cent of respondents reported difficulty finding and keeping the high-potential employees essential to boost their global competitiveness. Employee engagement has been a topic of interest for researchers and leaders of academic institutions and various other global organizations. There is an unprecedented change in the global market, as organizations are able to exist without boundaries. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important for organizations to attract, engage, develop and build loyalty among their employees to gain a competitive edge in today's global marketplace. The critical challenge for organizations is that the overall global average employee engagement index dropped to 56 per cent in 2010, according to a 2011 AON Hewitt report (AON Hewitt, 2011). This decline is mainly attributed to the economic climate as a result of the economic downturn that started in 2008. A 2013 AON Hewitt report noted that there was an increase in the global engagement level to 60 per cent in 2012, which is slightly up from 2010 with the largest increase in the employee engagement index in Europe (57 per cent) (AON Hewitt, 2013). At the global level, this increase looks like a modest improvement, but the employee index is fluctuating substantially around the world. In 2013, the AON Hewitt global engagement meter conducted a longitudinal analysis of five-year employee engagement levels at companies and found that engagement levels range from 72 per cent and above for companies in the top quartile to 46 per cent and below for companies in the bottom quartile. Increased employee engagement is important for the long-term survival of the organization because it enables them to achieve performance excellence and to be successfully positioned globally.\nChallenges and recommendations: The term \"employee engagement\" means different things to different organizations. Some associate it with such factors such as job satisfaction, job commitment, emotional commitment and job contribution (Employee Engagement Research Report, 2013). The biggest challenge for organizations is to align employees' values, goals and aspirations with those of the organizations to achieve sustainable employee engagement at the global level. Some of the global challenges include:\nConclusion: Employee engagement needs to be a part of the organizational culture, as it will help organizations achieve business success through transformation. Organizational leaders should establish a foundation of employee engagement and drive engagement vertically and horizontally throughout their respective organizations. They need to build commitment between organizational goals and drivers of employee engagement to manage processes and teams. Efforts should be made to equip employees at all levels within an organization and at the global level. In addition, a requirement is an organizational culture which can align and integrate drivers of engagement with the strategic priorities of the organization. Organizational leaders need to make sure that they are creating a culture of engagement at the global level.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that identifies the strategies that have the ability to create a culture of employee engagement for global managers in making the tactical adaptations necessary to develop and implement global strategy in an increasingly complex and dynamic marketplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors focused on the global managers charged with the responsibilities of developing and creating a culture of employee engagement as an important strategy for the competitive advantage of organizations.\nFindings: Employee engagement should be viewed as a long-term commitment between the employees and the organization, each supporting the other in an era of increasing international operations. In fact, employee engagement is an important strategy for long-term organizational sustainability in international markets.\nPractical implications: Employee engagement is critical to the management and retention of talented employees in the organization. It can be achieved by managing global mobility in increasingly complex global workplaces; talent so that it enhances business results; training and development; rewards, recognitions and engagement; manager/employee communication and interaction; and leadership and development.\nOriginality/value: In today's global society, it is critical for organizational leaders to focus on creating a culture of employee engagement to attract and retain quality employees in an increasingly competitive market. Engaged employees are more committed to their work and feel connected to the success of their organization. In addition, they are more likely to believe in their organization's values, mission and vision. The increasing utilization of boundary less organizations poses a challenge for leaders who strive to create and maintain employee engagement within an organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Servitization and remote monitoring technology: A literature review and research agenda
|
[
"Research agenda",
"Review",
"Servitization",
"Remote monitoring technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The term servitization was first introduced by Vandermerwe and Rada (1988) to refer to the phenomenon by which some manufacturers change their underlying business offers by adding value to their core products through services. Thus, servitization is premised on an idea that customers reap benefits from products only when they are accompanied by services which collectively deliver value-in-use (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008). This resonates with Levitt who supposedly once said, \"People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!\" Servitization, therefore, is all about change in emphasis, from \"drills\" to \"holes\", i.e. change from selling a product to selling its output or use instead.\n2 Review strategy: Remote monitoring technology is widely perceived as consisting of a combination of hardware, for example, sensor and wireless technology infrastructure, and software, for example, data acquisition, transmission and processing algorithms technologies. Although it may appear to be a relatively recent development, the technology itself is at least four decades old. Thus, Kussel et al. (2000) report how US machine tool manufacturer Kearney and Trecker, in the mid-1970s of the last century, designed a data-transmission system in order to reduce travelling costs of its service department. Until recently, the research in this area focused mainly on techniques, tools, methods and technology implementations (for an overview, see Isermann and Balle (1997), Leonhardt and Ayoubi (1997), Jardine et al. (2006), Kothamasu et al. (2006), Heng et al. (2009)). Therefore, in order to identify papers relevant for this study, an appropriate review strategy had to be devised. Although relevant in helping to build an understanding of technical aspects of remote monitoring technology, this and similar literature was excluded from the analysis. Our aim was not to conduct a complete review of servitization and remote monitoring technology literature, but only of those works which are at the intersection of these two domains. The scope of the literature review included papers published in academic literature which specifically deal with organisational, business, management and/or technical implications on those of using remote monitoring technology to support service-oriented business models and strategies of high-value product manufacturers. The review strategy adopted consists of three steps:\n3 Servitization and remote monitoring technology research - analysis: 3.1 Key characteristics of research\n4 Discussion and conclusion: Servitization centres on the transfer of risks from the customer to the manufacturer or service provider. The biggest risks are non-availability and suboptimal product performance. By providing real-time information about current and predicted health of a product in the field, remote monitoring technology can mitigate some of those risks. Although recognised as one of the key enablers of servitization, the mainstream servitization research community has treated this matter in a rather colloquial manner. Hence, the aim of this paper was to identify and critically analyse research contributions in the area of remote monitoring technology and servitization. As such it qualifies as the first attempt in consolidating research relevant to this topic. Our literature review reveals very limited interest in this phenomenon from the mainstream servitization research. Twenty papers were identified and reviewed, but only a handful (Kuschel and Ljungberg, 2004; Allmendinger and Lombreglia, 2005; Jonsson et al., 2008; Brax and Jonsson, 2009; Kuschel, 2009; Grubic et al., 2011; Westergren, 2011) address the topic of using remote monitoring technology to support servitized strategy more explicitly. This shows that research on remote monitoring technology as enabler of servitization is very limited. Therefore, we encourage researchers to make more efforts towards contributing to this important domain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Servitization centres on the transfer of risks from the customer to manufacturer. By providing real-time information about current and predicted health of a product in the field, remote monitoring technology can mitigate some of those risks. Although recognised as one of the key enablers of servitization, the mainstream servitization research community has shown very little interest in this topic. The aim is to identify and critically analyse relevant research addressing the topic of remote monitoring technology and servitization and, based on this analysis, propose an agenda to guide future research in this area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology adopted is literature review consisting of three steps: define purpose and research questions, select keywords and databases, and identify and analyse relevant papers.\nFindings: Ten findings have been made, which characterise current state of research under categories of examples, benefits, and challenges of using remote monitoring technology to support servitized strategies. Several areas that call for further research are suggested, but general impression is that the understanding about the role and contribution of remote monitoring technology in service delivery and strategy is still in its infancy and much greater effort will have to be invested to change this. It is also suggested that this technology holds a great potential for service and business model innovation; hence, more research is needed to further the knowledge about these topics.\nOriginality/value: This paper qualifies as the first attempt to consolidate and analyse relevant research at the intersection of servitization and remote monitoring technology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Multi-context research on strategy characteristics of knowledge sharing in organization based on dynamic cooperative game perspective
|
[
"Knowledge sharing",
"Dynamic cooperative game",
"Multi-context"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Global economy is converting from recession to recovery at present, and there are a lot of uncertain factors in the complex and varied market environment. This means an unpredictable and high velocity circumstances for the organizations. In these conditions, the possession of valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resources (Barney, 1991) must not lead to competitive advantage, although by building dynamic capabilities for the company. Dynamic capabilities are the combination of organizational assets to create valuable product or services for customers and it includes three activities of sensing, seizing and transforming knowledge (Teece, 2011; Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). All of these initiatives are highly dependent on the cooperation and knowledge sharing of organizational member, and the strategies of business or R&D should highly focus on cooperation and hardworking in the organization rather than only on individual's knowledge or intelligence. Undoubtedly, competitiveness of enterprise comes from sustaining and efficient organizational cooperation, and the core essence of organizational cooperation is knowledge cooperation, which means activation, conversion and integration of organizational knowledge resource, it is a necessary premise for an enterprise to implement innovation strategies. Nevertheless, to great extent, it is still an appearance without essential meanings, though knowledge cooperation's role in promoting innovation and performance of organization has been well accepted (Szulanski, 1996; Tsai, 2001; Lee, 2005). According to study of Okhuysen and Eisenhardt (2002), although communication between employees provides the premise and the possibility of knowledge sharing, sharing may not happen exactly as intended and what is shared may be information instead of knowledge, which will not have significant influence on integration of knowledge. Okhuysen's research illustrated the existence of strategic behavior within the knowledge cooperation. In fact, the tacit knowledge transferring could be viewed as the most classic representative of this strategic behavior; nevertheless, tacit knowledge has a crucial influence on the success of innovation processes in companies (Hu and Randel, 2014), but there are many barriers to hinder the sharing of tacit knowledge. For this, it is very necessary to analyze the micro-interactive mechanism of knowledge sharing from perspectives of technology, psychology and institution that will offer a vital theoretical reference for organization to improve the performance of knowledge sharing.\n2. Explanation of study methodology: 2.1 Enlightenments of literature reviewing\n3. Dynamic cooperative game model of knowledge sharing: 3.1 Explanation for model and variables\n4. Perfect dynamic game's Nash equilibrium analysis: In the research, we first consider the organization staff's knowledge sharing game situation in the context of perfect information. More typical industrial technical characteristics are similar to the enterprise's sales team; in the team, every member's target is mainly to win more market share, the exchange of knowledge between members related to demand information, customer information and marketing methods and strategies. For instance, in a company which applies the conventional technologies, the relevant professional knowledge between Player 1 and Player 2 is usually close to perfect information for each other, for example, whether the other side contributed valuable knowledge or information, whether the other side obtained the revenue by using provided knowledge S1(rth2) and S2(bth1), all the things are clear for each other (see the definition of b and r in Section 3.1)\n5. Harsanyi transformation of non-perfect dynamic game equilibrium analysis to knowledge sharing: In this paper, another dynamic game context of knowledge sharing is considered, that is imperfect information knowledge sharing mechanism among employees. We can find typical knowledge sharing behavior under imperfect information context, such as accounting firms or the company's R&D centers. For these organizations, although members will exchange knowledge and information among each other under the organizational constraint mechanism, nevertheless, because of the independency of knowledge application and to maintain the competitiveness of individuals, despite cooperation could undoubtedly strengthen the knowledge competitiveness of organizations, the exchange of knowledge among members showed a strong strategic character. Therefore, whether the output of knowledge and information was valuable or the adoption of others' knowledge could gain incremental benefit, is known by the players themselves.\n6. Conclusions: 6.1 Research discoveries\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the characteristics of strategic behavior during knowledge cooperation in organization and compare the differences in strategy choice between knowledge transferor and knowledge receiver under intricate context consisting of two different objective orientations (organizational and individual) and two different information conditions (perfect and imperfect information) that represent different knowledge application contexts (conventional and available knowledge and intricate and personalized knowledge). Moreover, this paper also wishes to develop a new analysis paradigm of dynamic cooperation game to the micro-interactive mechanism research on individuals' knowledge sharing in organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through comparing and referring to previous literatures, and considering the authentic knowledge cooperation practice, this paper first suggested that the behavior characteristics of knowledge sharing between individuals in organization should be observed from the perspective of dynamic cooperation game that would accurately describe the \"coopetition\" essence of knowledge sharing. Further, an intricate multi-analysis context including two different objective orientations and two different information conditions was constructed. Under this multi-analysis context, the objective functions of knowledge transferor (knowledge output) and knowledge receiver (knowledge returning) were established respectively. Lastly, according to the revenue optimum principle of organizational and individual the strategic choice characteristics were analyzed through the Nash equilibrium to analyze objective functions.\nFindings: \"Knowledge transaction\" motive is classic strategic characteristic of individuals' knowledge cooperation, and to increase competitiveness of knowledge sharer is a crucial prerequisite for knowledge sharing under any analysis context combination (no matter organizational or individual objective, no matter perfect or imperfect information). Knowledge sharing appears more conservative and stringent under imperfect information condition, and the effort level of knowledge transferring is strategically adjusted according to the value assessment of received knowledge. The institutional constraints and incentives have little effect on the promotion of knowledge sharing under the imperfect information condition where professional knowledge is more intricate, personalized and implicit, because organization members are more sensitive to knowledge competitiveness.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a knowledge sharing study with a new analysis paradigm from micro-interactive perspective by aiming at the \"coopetition\" essence of knowledge cooperation in organization. This analysis paradigm chooses the way of dynamic cooperation game to reveal the strategic characteristics of knowledge sharing among individuals (knowledge transferor and knowledge receiver) and to assess the role of institutional constraints and incentives in promoting the knowledge sharing. At the same time, the establishing of multi-context model with two different perspective dimensions (objective orientation and information condition) make research closer to the authentic circumstance of knowledge cooperation in organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
User analysis in the Borrow Direct marketplace
|
[
"User studies",
"Library users",
"Academic libraries",
"Consortia",
"Demand",
"Interlibrary lending"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nOverview of Borrow Direct: Borrow Direct [1] is an unmediated library resource sharing partnership encompassing twelve Ivies Plus* academic institutional library systems. It was founded in 1999 by Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. The partnership expanded to seven member institutions in 2002 with the addition of Brown University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and Princeton University. In 2011 Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined the partnership; the University of Chicago in 2013, Johns Hopkins University in 2014 and Duke University in June 2015. The combined holdings available through Borrow Direct are around 70 million volumes.\nA resource sharing marketplace: Borrow Direct is like interlibrary lending in the same way that Amazon.com is like a store. Library resources are exchanged between institutions, but the mechanism for facilitating these transactions is akin to an online marketplace. Just as an online marketplace aggregates products from third party suppliers, Borrow Direct aggregates the library holdings from these twelve massive research libraries.\nWho needs Borrow Direct: The twelve institutional library systems that participate in Borrow Direct are each in their own right great academic research libraries with collections ranging from approximately 2.5 million volumes at Dartmouth College Library to 18.9 million volumes in Harvard University's library system. With such massive local collections, the need for expedited resource sharing might seem superfluous. A look at the numbers quickly eclipses this assumption (Figure 2).\nThe Borrow Direct customer: Borrow Direct is available to faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, university employees, and a variety of affiliated scholars and researchers associated with each institution. For purposes of analysis, these categories have been reduced to: faculty, graduate, undergrad, staff, and other. Looking at use of Borrow Direct over the last five academic years, the number of users from each demographic seems to be in proportion to their numbers at the institution. But comparing user status with the number of requests submitted paints a quite different picture (Figure 3).\nConclusion: By joining together to create a platform for searching, requesting, and management of interlibrary lending, the twelve Borrow Direct partner institutions have created one of the largest collective collections in the world. Utilizing principals of the online marketplace, the Borrow Direct software serves as access point and inventory control management system for the collective collection. Material circulated through Borrow Direct integrates seamless with the local user experience at each library.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper is an analysis of user demographics in the Borrow Direct resource sharing service. The paper looks to determine who uses the service and to what extent.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Five years of user data was culled from the system and analysed by user status and number of transactions.\nFindings: Borrow Direct is a core service for supporting graduate level research across the twelve partner institutions.\nOriginality/value: This analysis indicates that resource sharing remains a vital resource, particularly for graduate level research, even at top-tier academic libraries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Generational differences in job engagement: a case study of an industrial organization in Iran
|
[
"Generational differences",
"Job engagement",
"Organizational behaviour",
"Generational groups"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Generational differences in the workplace have been the topic of a number of academic research papers. Studying his subject in work-related constructs would have implications for managers and business practices such as engagement, retention and motivation strategies, stress and performance management strategies, workforce planning, job design and broader organizational goals and expectations.\nGenerations and generational groups: A generation is an aggregate of all people born over roughly the span of a phase of life who share a common location in history and, hence, a common collective persona (Strauss and Howe, 1997). Another definition of a generation is a group of people that share a set of experiences that exhibit a shared worldview which they carried throughout their entire lives. The length of a generation will be roughly from the birth of the group of people to the time they come of age and start having their own children (Codrington, 2011).\nGenerational groups in western countries: The workforce of the USA have been comprised of four distinct generations, namely, the Traditional generation, the Baby Boomers, the Generation X and Generation Y (Tolbize, 2008). The precise definition of these groups, in terms of the years in which they were born, exhibits some variation between studies. However, in each case the grouping of individuals within these four generations is motivated by the belief that they each share a different set of values and attitudes, as a result of shared events and experiences (Parry and Urwin, 2011).\nGenerational groups in Iran: Academic literature and conceptualization of the western generational groupings do not apply to some Asian cultures. The majority of the current literature has been conducted in the USA, UK and Canada and focuses on the four main generational groups: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. These generational groupings are only valid in societies where the same social and economic events have occurred and shaped society (Srinivasan, 2012). Other societies may have different generational groupings more appropriate to their own political, social and economic and technological events and culture.\nGenerational differences: Work values are defined as what people believe to be fundamentally right or wrong in a work setting. Managers' response to differing values of employees can affect organizational values, which in turn can affect corporate issues such as ethics and culture (Smola and Sutton, 2002).\nJob engagement: Work engagement is defined as an energetic connection that exists between employees and their jobs (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2003). As a result, engaged employees are more effective and equipped to cope with demanding situations in the workplace. Whilst some schools of thought position engagement as the opposite of burnout (Maslach and Leiter, 1997), the work of Schaufeli and Bakker views engagement as an independent construct, which presents as an enduring state of mind (Schaufeli et al., 2002).\nResearch description: It has been arrived at that the individuals across generations differ in their value sets and beliefs which consequently impact their approaches toward work (Twenge et al., 2010). Understanding and managing generational differences can bring a set of benefits and perspectives to the workplace, such as improved talent attraction, retention and engagement, enhanced workplace productivity, increased competitive advantage that keep customers loyal and an expanded view of succession planning and building leadership bench strength, reports another research of relevance (Perry, 2009).\nDemographic statistics: Data used in this research were collected from 367 employees of an industrial organization that voluntarily completed a survey distributed during work hours with the support of the organization.\nData analysis: To begin the data analysis, the mean scores for job engagement were compared across the generations using independent samples t-tests. The results are presented in Table III. Employees from different generations had significant different levels of engagement. This simple finding in itself is a practical concern for managers.\nResearch findings: Data analysis reported significant differences between generations in job engagement and it is constructs. The most differences were found between Generation A and Generation C, and also Generation A and Generation D, although differences were found between other generations as well. The least differences were found between Generation C and Generation D. The main constructs which differed between generations were job engagement and dedication.\nConclusion: Each generation has its own characteristics, work values and attitudes based on events that shaped their lives. Therefore, diversity management must become a priority plan in HRM practices for all organizations. Due to the fact that most organizations consider diversity mainly as an issue of compliance with legal requirements and recruiting ethnic minorities, there is a great need for improved HR diversity strategies focusing on appreciating and making use of diversity, especially in the field of generations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Understanding generational differences are important because generational diversity can affect work relationships and the effectiveness of communication, engagement and performance management strategies. On the other hand, organizations should be concerned about employee engagement, considering all the positive outcomes that engaged employees could bring to the workplace. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The purpose of this study is to examine employee engagement of different generations in Iran. Four hypotheses were proposed regarding job engagement and its constructs: vigor, dedication and absorption. The study utilized ANOVA tests to detect statistically significant differences between generations.\nFindings: The results revealed not only a number of significant differences among generations, but also some similarities. The study shows the value of generational analysis as a useful segmentation criterion in organizational behavior researches.\nOriginality/value: To distinguish between different generations in relation to job engagement, also better understanding the behavior of generational cohorts that affect the success of organizations. It helps managers to find and resolve the conflict among persons and groups in the organization and also to achieve the benefits of diversity, creativity and energy of generations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Are "skills" all there is to learning in organizations? The case for a broader framework
|
[
"Skills",
"Workplace training",
"Knowledge management",
"Ethics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Knowledge and skills: Most organizational practitioners are aware that just knowing about something doesn't mean you know how to do it. A manager can provide an erudite answer to an MBA exam question on leadership but display little ability to be an effective leader.Of course knowing things can be useful - and the emphasis on knowledge management, for instance, may be helpful. To have valuable knowledge is a useful attribute: for example if you are a corporate lawyer, knowing the law is important. But we also recognize that such lawyers need to communicate effectively to others, to work in teams, and so on. And all these factors bring with them the idea of the need for skills.Governments such as that in the UK have wanted to promote a more skilled workforce. On the surface this seems very sensible. If you are hiring a plumber or a carpenter you want to be sure that they are skilled at their jobs. These practical skills are clearly vital in modern societies. My question here, though, is whether, from a learning point of view, we should just keep our focus on skills. A subsidiary question is whether in areas of human relationships, for instance, the use of a skill agenda can be narrowing and ultimately less effective.\n2 Learning and skills: Educational institutions and Government agencies in many countries have been concerned about assessing and accrediting skills. Given that we don't want unskilled plumbers or surgeons, this emphasis has its merits. My case is that we may want more. The growth of interest in ethics is clearly one arena of great importance. A British doctor called Harold Shipman used his medical knowledge and skills to murder more than a hundred people - one of the worst serial killers in history. He was obviously a disturbed man who should not have been allowed to practice - and not from the point of view of his knowledge or skills.This case ought to bring home the need for a wider ethical consideration of learning activity. But it also points to issues in education. Just providing knowledge and skills to a trainee doctor along with some lectures about ethics clearly is inadequate.Government-sponsored research in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) (Department of Health Expert Group, 2000) has shown that the very approach to learning taken with trainee doctors itself produces many practitioners who are poor at learning from those around them (especially those they see as inferiors, such as nurses) and poor at reflecting on their practice with professional colleagues (the culture is one of covering up mistakes and hence not learning from them.)Here are just a few of the figures that the researchers quoted:Research suggests that an estimated 850,000 adverse events might occur each year in the NHS hospital sector, resulting in a PS2 billion direct cost in additional hospital days alone; some adverse events will be inevitable complications of treatment but around half might be avoidable.The NHS paid out around PS400 million in clinical litigation settlements in the financial year 1998/9 and has a potential liability of around PS2.4 billion from existing and expected claims; when analysed many cases of litigation show potentially avoidable causes.Over 6,600 adverse incidents involving medical devices were reported in 1999, including 87 deaths and 345 serious injuries.At least 13 patients have died or been paralysed since 1985 because a drug has been wrongly administered by spinal injection (p. 5).(NB \"adverse incidents/events\" in the above mostly means someone screwed up, often with disastrous consequences!)The report goes on to say:There is little culture of individual self-appraisal. The education of NHS professionals depends to a variable, but generally significant, extent on clinical apprenticeship - that is, on learning by example. Yet for the NHS to learn effectively from experience, these individuals must be able to admit that perfection is not always attained: firstly to themselves, and then to their fellows. Where the ability to self-appraise openly and frankly is absent, the negative effects of the \"blame culture\" will be reinforced (p. 77).The report summarizes its case by saying that the UK's National Health Service is not a learning organization. This brings us then to the social context of learning. The current emphasis on developing human capital and individual skills misses out on issues of social capital. Again the research is clear that in contexts where people share their learning, organizational effectiveness is enhanced. Hence a narrowly individualistic educational agenda that puts the emphasis on knowledge and skills can be limited - and limiting.The re-awakening interest in organization development is a welcome antidote to purely individualistic learning. We need to create learningful organizations. It is no accident that Toyota is so successful with its emphasis on people at all levels having a learning orientation to their work. Indeed where a few hospitals have applied the principles behind the Toyota approach to their work there has been a marked improvement that benefits patients.\n3 Attitudes and personal qualities: In the past the training profession used the acronym KSA - meaning that the issue was to develop:*knowledge;*skills; and*attitudes.At one level we could be returning to an interest in the third part of KSA - attitudes.In many organizations the \"attitude\" piece has gone missing. Skills and competences have been dominant. To be fair many organizations have competence lists which have hidden within them what could be seen as attitudinal and ethical factors. But the overall emphasis is still on what a person can do.This leads into the next issue, namely the distinction between: doing and being.There is an old Zen saying:To do a certain kind of thing you have to be a certain kind of person.This may well be too stark a statement in practice but it does challenge us to think of the difference between who a person is and what they do. However one example that supports this saying is where I was involved in organizing a Self Managed Learning program for a large retail company. The HR Director said that many people already had the knowledge and skills to address real company problems but they didn't have the courage to take action - and that the program had given many people the courage to tackle long-standing difficult problems, often through challenging more senior managers.\"Courage\" is only one of what could be a long list of personal qualities that might be important in organizations. Others are:*self confidence;*initiative taking;*resilience;*caring for others; etc.Note here that I am favoring the notion of \"personal qualities\" rather than \"attitudes\". One reason for the earlier interest in attitudes was the belief amongst psychologists that you could readily measure attitudes. Quantitative measures of personal qualities are more problematic, though proponents of personality tests make claims to do this. The problem with many of the psychologists who push the measuring of personality is that there is a tendency to see these qualities as relatively unchanging. This can encourage less interest in learning and is an example of a limiting model. The fact is that people can change and can learn, for instance, to be more courageous, more self confident and more resilient. The evidence from Self Managed Learning programs, such as the one quoted above, is that the development of these qualities is seen by many participants as more of a benefit than the skills and knowledge that they have also gained.\n4 Entrepreneurs: One area where these personal qualities are most obvious is with entrepreneurs. It is often the case that a successful entrepreneur has a low level of education and skills but has the personal qualities that allow them to take risks and to learn from their mistakes. Indeed it is commonplace for successful entrepreneurs to be well aware that they have made many mistakes along the way. I once listened to a senior academic from a business school where they had done significant research on entrepreneurs. He admitted that the last thing a budding entrepreneur should do is take one of their courses as it might encourage caution and analysis-paralysis.\n5 Communities of practice: In case my approach seems to apply only to leaders, managers and professionals, I can quote the now well known evidence on communities of practice. The research suggests that people carrying out tasks from clerical work to copier technicians rely a great deal on work colleagues to develop the real abilities that they need to do their jobs. Off-the-job training and education might show them what is needed but they learn the realities of how to be effective in a community of practice where there is not just a sharing of skills but an ethic about what is needed to perform well. This is the case with Toyota and other companies that keep this wider focus on their learning and development activities.\n6 Conclusion: I have proposed that we need to take a broader, more holistic and systemic view of learning needs in organizations. An individualistic approach is favored by educational institutions as that is what they can provide. However organizations are social entities and the problems that they face cannot be neatly segmented into the curricula that schools, colleges and universities offer. Just switching attention from a knowledge to a skill orientation does nothing to address these problems. Organizations need to drive the learning agenda themselves based on their needs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an antidote to a narrow focus on skills and to show how learning for organizational development needs a broader framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The article is based on work done in a variety of organizations as well as published sources.\nFindings: - Governments and educational bodies too easily keep attention at the level of individual learning and also address only short-term needs: organizations need to take a broader view.\nPractical implications: - The article has real practical implications for leaders/managers and learning and development professionals. Organizations need to consider learning from a more holistic perspective and not just pay attention to short-term skill needs.\nOriginality/value: - The article will be of value to managers and learning specialists as it raises important issues about the need to focus on this under-explored problem.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dynamic due date assignment method: A simulation study in a job shop with sequence-dependent setups
|
[
"Simulation",
"Job shop",
"Scheduling rules",
"Dynamic job shop scheduling",
"Sequence dependent setup",
"Due date assignment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: Scheduling is an important function in production planning and control in which the production-related activities are projected on a time scale. A job shop production system specializes in low-to-medium volume production. Job shop production equipment is usually of a general purpose nature in order to provide the flexibility necessitated by the variation in size, shape, quantity, precision, and type of product. Usually, similar machines are grouped into work centers, and originally each machine can perform a variety of tasks. The job scheduling problem consists of determining the order or sequence in which the machines will process the jobs so as to optimize some measure of performance. Setup time is the time spent in preparing a job for processing on a machine (Nicholas, 2001). It includes time to replace fixtures and attachments on a machine and to adjust the machine until it starts processing an operation. Setup activity is a non-value-added activity. Naderi et al. (2009) stated that in many real-life situations, such as chemical, printing, pharmaceutical, and automobile manufacturing, the setup operations, such as cleaning up or changing tools, are not only often required between jobs, but they are also strongly dependent on the immediately preceding process on the same machine (i.e. sequence dependent). The consideration of sequence-dependent setup time (SDST) is gaining increasing attention among researchers in recent years (Allahverdi and Soroush, 2008; Allahverdi, 2015). The motivation behind this consideration is to obtain tremendous savings when setup times are explicitly included in scheduling decisions. The present research takes into account SDSTs in scheduling jobs on machines.\n2. Background and review: Due date performance is becoming increasingly important in today's competitive environment. According to Hill (1991), there are two aspects of due date performance: delivery reliability and delivery speed. Delivery reliability is the ability to constantly meet promised delivery dates. Delivery speed is the ability to deliver orders to customers with short lead times. Philipoom (2000) stated that customers are less willing to accept long-promised lead times.\n3. Description of the job shop system: A job shop system similar to a real-world system configuration has been developed for investigation in the present study based on the configuration of job shops considered by various researchers (Rangsaritratsamee et al., 2004). The job shop system consists of six non-identical machines. Each machine can process different types of jobs by changing the setup. In generating the job data, the guidelines provided by Hall and Posner (2001) have been taken into consideration. The following are the assumptions made:\n4. Due date assignment methods: 4.1 Dynamic total work content (DTWK) method\n5. Job scheduling decision rules: When a machine becomes free, a scheduling rule is used to assign to each of the waiting jobs, a priority value. The job having the highest priority, which is defined by the smallest priority value, is selected for processing next. In the present study, two scheduling rules which are modifications of the existing scheduling rules are used in addition to four scheduling rules from the literature. These scheduling rules are described as follows:\n6. Simulation model: For describing the operation of the job shop, a discrete-event simulation model is developed using the C programming language. The entities in the job shop are jobs and machines. The operation of the job shop is conceptualized as a succession of events centering on the jobs to be processed. In the simulation model, the initial status of the job shop is assumed to be empty and idle. The arrival time of the first job is determined by sampling the interarrival time from an exponential distribution with a specified mean. The simulation clock is advanced to the time of occurrence of this arrival. After the arrival of a job, its attributes, such as number of operations, machine required for the operations (routing), processing times and due date, are determined. The job is then released for processing. When a job is released, the machine required for the first operation is identified. If that machine is idle, it processes the job. Otherwise, the job waits in the input queue of the machine. After the completion of processing of an operation of a job by a machine, the input queue of the machine is examined. If there is no job in the machine queue, the machine is idle; else, a job is selected from the machine input queue based on a scheduling rule and then the machine starts processing that job. When all the operations of a job are completed, flow time, tardiness and other relevant statistics for the completed job are determined. Then, the job leaves the shop. The simulation is run for a sufficiently long period after the shop reaches the steady state. For the purpose of identifying the steady state of the job shop, Welch's method described in Law (2008) is used. The simulation outputs corresponding to the initial transient period are not considered for the computation of the performance measures.\n7. Performance measures: The performance measures evaluated in the simulation experiments are mean flow time, mean tardiness, percentage of tardy jobs, mean setup time and mean flow allowance. These measures are described as follows:\n8. Experimentation: In the present research, DTWK method and DPPW method are used for assigning due dates of jobs. Six scheduling rules are used for the scheduling decision. The mean interarrival time is set at two values, namely, 27 and 29 minutes. The mean setup time is set at two values, namely, 6 and 12 minutes. Hence, there are four factors in the simulation experiments. There are 48 simulation experiments arising out of the combination of two due date assignment methods, six scheduling rules, two values for mean interarrival time and two values for mean setup time. Ten replications are performed for each experiment. The simulation for each replication is run for 2,000 job completions. Jobs are numbered on arrival at the system and the simulation outputs from jobs numbering 1 to 300 (corresponding to the transient condition of the system) are discarded. The outputs for the remaining jobs are used for the computation of the performance measures.\n9. Results and analyses: The simulation results are subjected to statistical analysis using the ANOVA procedure in order to study the effect of due date assignment methods, scheduling rules, mean interarrival time and mean setup time on the performance of the job shop system considered. Four-factor ANOVA-F test has been carried out to determine whether the treatment means are significantly different from each other. The null hypothesis (Ho) is that all the means are equal. The alternative hypothesis (H1) is that at least two means are significantly different. The test is conducted at 5 percent level of significance. The ANOVA results are presented in Table I.\n10. Regression-based analytical models: The simulation results obtained are used to develop regression-based analytical models. The regression metamodel concept proposed by Madu and Chanin (1992) is adopted for this purpose. Friedman and Pressman (1998) defined the term metamodel as \"any auxiliary model which is used to aid in the interpretation of a more detailed model.\" According to the researchers, the advantages of metamodels in post-simulation analysis include \"model simplification, enhanced exploration and interpretation of the model, generalization to other models of the same type, sensitivity analysis, optimization, answering inverse questions, and providing the researcher with a better understanding of the behavior of the system under study and the interrelationships among the variables.\"\n11. Conclusion: In this research study, the effects of due date assignment methods, mean interarrival time, mean setup time and scheduling decision rules on the performance of a typical dynamic job shop operating in a SDST environment have been analyzed using a discrete-event simulation model. The statistical analyses of the simulation results reveal that there is a significant interaction among these factors. In essence, the results can be summarized as follows:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the interaction between dynamic due date assignment methods and scheduling decision rules in a typical dynamic job shop production system in which setup times are sequence dependent. Two due date assignment methods and six scheduling rules are considered for detailed investigation. The scheduling rules include two new rules which are modifications of the existing rules. The performance of the job shop system is evaluated using various measures related to flow time and tardiness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A discrete-event simulation model is developed to describe the operation of the job shop. The simulation results are subjected to statistical analysis based on the method of analysis of variance. Regression-based analytical models have been developed using the simulation results. Since the due date assignment methods and the scheduling rules are qualitative in nature, they are modeled using dummy variables. The validation of the regression models involves comparing the predictions of the performance measures of the system with the results obtained through simulation.\nFindings: The proposed scheduling rules provide better performance for the mean tardiness measure under both the due date assignment methods. The regression models yield a good prediction of the performance of the job shop.\nResearch limitations/implications: Other methods of due date assignment can also be considered. There is a need for further research to investigate the performance of due date assignment methods and scheduling rules for the experimental conditions that involve system disruptions, namely, breakdowns of machines.\nPractical implications: The explicit consideration of sequence-dependent setup time (SDST) certainly enhances the performance of the system. With appropriate combination of due date assignment methods and scheduling rules, better performance of the system can be obtained under different shop floor conditions characterized by setup time and arrival rate of jobs. With reductions in mean flow time and mean tardiness, customers are benefitted in terms of timely delivery promises, thus leading to improved service level of the firm. Reductions in manufacturing lead time can generate numerous other benefits, including lower inventory levels, improved quality, lower costs, and lesser forecasting error.\nOriginality/value: Two modified scheduling rules for scheduling a dynamic job shop with SDST are proposed. The analysis of the dynamic due date assignment methods in a dynamic job shop with SDST is a significant contribution of the present study. The development of regression-based analytical models for a dynamic job shop operating in an SDST environment is a novelty of the present study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Modeling and performance evaluation of agility coupled with sustainability for business planning
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Sustainability",
"Business planning",
"Agility",
"Graph theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: Due to globalization, volatile markets, intensive competition, shrinking product life cycle, stringent quality and delivery requirements, coupled with increasing environment awareness, many companies' survival depends on their ability to simultaneously improve agility as well as sustainability (Flumerfelt et al., 2012). Manufacturing systems have to respond to continuous changes and sustainability requirements. In recent years, the manufacturing paradigm has shifted from mass production to lean production and now is heading toward agile manufacturing (Kuehnle, 2007). Agile manufacturing systems work in a volatile environment with frequently changing customer preferences. This requires products with modular design facilitated by means of postponement and differentiation mechanism. The concept of mass customization, which enables fulfilling niche customer needs, is an important characteristic of agile manufacturing (Pawlowski and Pawlowski, 2015). Further increasing concerns raised by increasing global temperature, pollution and depletion of non-renewable resources, sustainability has become as an important manufacturing strategy. Management within organizations should not consider these aspects in isolation although they denote conflicting characteristics. Tradeoffs between these management paradigms may help organizations simultaneously to become more competitive and sustainable.\n2. Literature review: Companies are operating today in a global environment under fierce competition that requires flexible resources in realizing changing customer demand. Another important issue that companies face is improving the triple bottom line objectives that pertain to economic, environmental and social impact. However, both agility and sustainability are conflicting problems. Agility emphasizes adaptability in meeting needs, while sustainability focuses on minimizing the adverse impact in fulfilling those needs. In view of addressing agility and sustainability aspects, the authors conducted a literature review on agility, sustainability and agility incorporated with sustainability. Hartwick (1977) and Solow (1986) stated that consumption will be either constant or increasing with decreasing levels of non-renewable resources only if consumers further find benefits for investing in renewable sources. Costanza and Daly (1992a) established that a minimum necessary condition for sustainability is a factor of amount consumed. Thus, there are differentiated rules for renewable and non-renewable resources. The two combined rules will result in forming a single goal in improving system performance. Norgaard (1994) found that organizations can address only one objective for improvement at a point of time. Hence, it is necessary to model only one objective for improving sustainability. Durning (1992) advocated the need for organizations and society in general to accept levels of consumption with better societal and health benefits as the outputs. Thus, organizations must increase consumption until it does not hamper these factors.\n3. Research gaps: The literature review suggests that researchers have focused on the areas of sustainability and agility individually, but they have not explored how these could complement each other and help organizations become more efficient and competitive. Sieger et al. (2000), Xie et al. (2001) and Aggoune et al. (2011) explored sustainability and agility with respect to product and process characteristics. Examining the available literature from various research databases suggests that researchers to date have primarily focused on process and product aspects, rather than the business component. The research has failed to establish and connect the two dimensions for business capabilities and thus it is necessary to address this.\n4. Methodology: Researchers hold conflicting views regarding the characteristics that comprise agility and sustainability. While some argue that each characteristic shares common aspects, they also differ. However, for the purpose of this study, the author identified criteria based on the literature review that show that there are mutually compatible characteristics that simultaneously enhance both agility and sustainability. The methodology consists of selecting case organization, identification of agility-sustainability criteria, modeling using graph theory (GT) and then evaluation and scenario analysis. Figure 1 illustrates the methodology that the authors adopted in this study.\n5. Modeling and evaluation of agility coupled with sustainability: The authors conducted the study in a manufacturing organization that operates on an ad hoc basis depending on projects that are available. The organization manufactures pumps which it supplies to original manufacturers for assembling into equipment and heavy machines. The demand is uncertain along the life cycle of products which is continuously shrinking. The amount of products in each lot has a large variance, thus imposing a constraint on the organization to utilize the resources for a large variety of products in a smaller time frame.\n6. Results and discussions: The study demonstrates the application of an integrated framework for modeling, assessment and finally, decision making in the context of an integrated agile-sustainable concept. The study deals with identifying mutual areas that address both agile as well as sustainable aspects. The conceptual model comprises a framework with three levels of enablers, criteria and attributes.\n7. Practical implications and limitations: With increasing competition and globalization, infused with more demanding customer preferences, organizations in today's society must be more competitive. Organizations must become more adept at handling varied customer demands by utilizing the concept of mass customization and postponement. Environment sustainability relates to an energy efficient route to achieve optimization. Economical sustainability deals with reducing cost and improving market shares with better management, planning and execution systems. Societal sustainability focuses toward improving traffic management, better infrastructure operation, coupled with more safety and security.\n8. Conclusion and future scope: Agility is the ability of an organization to meet rapidly changing marketplace demands in a timely manner. By incorporating agility with sustainability, today's organizations can meet customer needs by utilizing resources in a viable manner. The conceptual model integrates both concepts to form a competitive and practical entity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Agility and sustainability are different manufacturing paradigms. Ideally, companies should merge the two concepts so as to enhance competitive advantage. Agility, which has evolved from lean manufacturing, is the ability of an enterprise to respond quickly to a wide range of customer demands. On the other hand sustainability is a condition in which a company optimizes economic, social and environmental factors by taking into account indirect and long-term consequences. Merging the two concepts could result in holistically improving the system, by fulfilling performance without depleting available resources. Thus, identifying and simultaneously improving two areas with common goals could lead to developing a successful and an emerging enterprise. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors identify agility-sustainability criteria which complement each other from amongst a set of differentiating criteria. The conceptual model is built by integrating five enablers with 25 criteria and 75 attributes. The combined criteria are modeled using graph theory which considers interdependencies and contributing factors on the organization. Within each enabler, the authors investigate the interdependencies between criteria and focus further on those that have potential to improve overall score. The methodology was applied in a manufacturing organization that operates on ad hoc basis depending on projects' availability.\nFindings: The model determines a range of values for extreme scenarios under theoretical and practical situations, along with the current level of business. The scenarios are tested for assessing performance by identifying the gaps in the weaker areas.\nResearch limitations/implications: Approach can serve as a managerial tool for monitoring performance of the organization along agility and sustainability dimensions. Further, government entities can use the approach in devising policy for improving economies by considering holistic approach rather than only environmental aspect. Biased and conflicting opinions of experts might deter chances for comprehensive and consistent decision.\nOriginality/value: The study integrates a framework for modeling and performance evaluation for a system that incorporates agility and sustainability characteristics. The study will enable practicing managers and decision makers to identify suitable characteristics that would simultaneously improve an organization's agile performance by considering aspects of sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.