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Female online shoppers: Examining the mediating roles of e-satisfaction and e-trust on e-loyalty development
|
[
"E-Loyalty",
"E-Satisfaction",
"E-Trust",
"Female online clothing shoppers",
"Perceived online privacy",
"Perceived online security"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: e-Loyalty has become one of the critical issues for online business partly because customers can easily switch from one online store to another and partly because they can easily compare similar items across different online stores (Lu et al., 2013). In other words, online customers can freely visit different online stores and purchase items without needing to remain with one specific online store for all purchases. As a result, low customer loyalty frequently occurs in the online context, creating difficulty in realizing a sustainable and long-term profit for online businesses (Yen, 2010).\nTheoretical development: Customer loyalty\nLiterature review and hypotheses development: e-Satisfaction\nMethod: Procedure\nResults: Respondents' demographic information\nConclusions and discussion: The contributions of this study are threefold. First, this study focusses on an important but previously neglected group in the context of online clothing stores: female online clothing shoppers. Given that, on the basis of the literature review, female online shoppers have rarely been discussed in the context of online clothing stores, the findings close the research gap and provide new insight into female online shoppers by understanding how their e-loyalty is formed. Second, the results indicate that mitigating online consumer concerns (i.e. online privacy and online security) and enhancing online consumer experiences (i.e. delivery efficiency and web site design) can generate female shoppers' e-trust and e-satisfaction, respectively, which in turn form their e-loyalty. These findings contribute to academia and to future research by aiding in understandings of the importance of online concerns and experiences of female online clothing shoppers and by suggesting that future research pay more attention to the impacts of online concerns and experiences on the female group. Finally, the present study also enhances previous studies' findings (e.g. Valvi and West, 2013; Rai and Medha, 2013) by delineating a more detailed relationship between e-trust, e-satisfaction, and e-loyalty. Specifically, e-trust and e-satisfaction serve as mediators in e-loyalty development. Also, e-satisfaction positively influences e-trust in the context of online clothing stores for female online clothing shoppers.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: As the number of female customers shopping in online clothing stores increases, understanding how female customers' e-loyalty is formed and fostered in this type of online store becomes very pivotal. Yet, despite its importance, little research has been done on this issue. The purpose of this paper is to focus on female online clothing shoppers and aim to examine the mediators of e-loyalty in the context of online clothing stores: e-satisfaction and e-trust.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 482 subjects who are female and have online clothing store shopping experience in Taiwan were obtained and structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the measurement and structural models.\nFindings: The results show that both perceived online privacy and security are positively associated with e-trust, whereas web design is not. Furthermore, perceived delivery time and web site design are positively associated with e-satisfaction. Both e-trust and e-satisfaction in turn positively influence e-loyalty for female online clothing shoppers.\nResearch limitations/implications: On the basis of the literature review, there is a lack of theoretical knowledge of the relationships between e-loyalty, e-satisfaction, and e-trust among female online clothing shoppers. The research fulfills this important theoretical gap by extending prior studies on e-loyalty to further examine the factors that form e-satisfaction and e-trust, and how they, as mediators, influence the development of female customers' e-loyalty in the context of online clothing stores. The result provides a model that contributes to understanding the formation of female customers' e-loyalty.\nPractical implications: The results of this study are helpful to online store managers in increasing their customers' loyalty. Specifically, online clothing store managers have to create quick item delivery methods and friendly online shopping web sites that provide all necessary information and are easy to navigate and use so as to increase customers' e-satisfaction. They also need to establish reliable and trustworthy web sites by letting their customers easily perceive the web sites' privacy and security features to enhance customers' e-trust. As e-satisfaction and e-trust increase, e-loyalty is fostered.\nOriginality/value: The contributions of this study are threefold. First, this study focusses on an important but previously neglected group in the context of online clothing stores: female online clothing shoppers. Second, the authors' investigation extends the literature on e-loyalty by identifying important mediators (e-satisfaction and e-trust) and probing into their relationships to e-loyalty in the context of online clothing stores. Third, the findings contribute to academia and to future research by increasing understandings of the importance of the concerns and experiences of female online clothing shoppers and by suggesting that future research pay more attention to female online shoppers.\n",
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Developing healthy cities with urban facility management
|
[
"Facility management",
"Urban facility management",
"Healthy cities",
"Urban planning",
"Healthy workplace",
"Abduction",
"Cross-overs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for 71% of all deaths globally (WHO, 2018a). NCDs cannot be transferred from person to person and tend to be of long duration. Europe is the region that is most affected (WHO, 2017a). The four major NCDs, which are diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, account for more than 80% of all premature NCD deaths (WHO, 2018a). These NCDs are associated with common risk factors related to lifestyle, including unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and obesity and also with environmental factors (WHO, 2017a). Physical inactivity is a key risk factor for NCDs and an important cause of overweight. Globally one in four adults is not active enough, which increases their risk of death with 20%-30% (WHO, 2018b). Furthermore, in 2016, 39% of adults were overweight and 13% were obese (WHO, 2020). Important environmental risk factors include ambient and indoor air pollution, high noise levels and stressful working conditions. Of the 12.6 million deaths caused yearly by the environment, almost two thirds are due to NCDs (WHO, 2017c).\n2. Evolvement of the role of the facility manager: The definition of FM, as formulated in the standard ISO/FIDIS 41001:2018, states:\n3. Methods: In this paper, the principles of abductive reasoning were followed. Folger and Stein (2017) argue that abductive reasoning should not be considered as stages of a process, but that it can rather blur together in ways other than what might be conveyed initially. Abduction can be a good first phase of scientific investigation. It merely suggests that something may be (Peirce, 1934). In this sense, abduction can be understood as a broad kind of reasoning that integrates scientific and non-scientific thinking in the context of problem-solving, according to Rodrigues and Emmeche (2019). They also argue that this method consists in attentive observation of phenomena within the context of a scientific community. Cunningham (1998) considers abduction to be the appropriate method for making sense of new or unknown situations. However, there must be a reason to suspect that the conclusion of an argument is worthy of pursuit (Folger and Stein, 2017). Abduction is the process of inferring facts or laws that render some sentence plausible or explain some phenomenon or observation (Boutilier and Becher, 1995). Many intelligent tasks, including medical diagnosis and scientific discovery, have been characterized as abduction (Lin and You, 2002). According to Peirce (1934), abduction is the only logical operation that introduces any new idea. What is most significant about abductive conjectures is that they are conceptualizations that can frame future investigations (Shearer, 2015). Moreover, an abduction-based design framework provides a proactive tool for connecting basic research to applied research, for exploring and exploiting in a new and innovative way (Patokorpi and Ahvenainen, 2009).\n4. Facility design for healthy workplaces: The WHO defines a healthy workplace as a place in which workers and managers collaborate to use a continual improvement process to protect and promote the health, safety and well-being of all workers (WHO, 2010). Many experiments have been done at organizations seeking to create a healthy workplace, for instance, by seducing office workers to adopt a healthier lifestyle. However, this turned out not to be easy, as was shown by Engbers et al. (2007, 2014). In their first FoodSteps project they investigated the effects of spatial interventions, such as footsteps from entrance to stairs, text encouragements for stair use on elevator doors, stimulating texts and facts at the stairs and the provision of healthy food in canteens and at vending machines. These interventions resulted in workers taking the stairs three times more often than the control group and in a decrease in their cholesterol level (Engbers et al., 2007). In the follow-up FoodSteps project, the researchers also placed information posters at stairs and in elevators and footsteps towards the stairs, and added other interventions, including a scale in the elevator and a pedometer competition. However, this study showed no effects on stair or elevator use, nor on the sales of lettuce and fried snacks. Support from senior management and sufficient budget and time for the project leader, as well as the prevention of slacking of the project focus turned out to be vital, but were apparently lacking in this case (Engbers et al., 2014).\n5. Urban design for healthy cities: The WHO healthy cities movement has been striving for healthier urban settings since the 1980s, with the UN Healthy Cities programme starting in 1986. Following Healthy City initiators Hancock and Duhl (1988) and De Leeuw (2012), qualities of a healthy city are:\n6. A synthesis: To elucidate the relations and cross-overs between health-directed design interventions in offices and cities, the results of the preceding sections have been summarized in Table 1. The first four columns give an overview of a selection of relevant health-related design parameters and design interventions at both the facility and urban level. The fifth column contains a number of universal design parameters that are relevant in the context of urban facility design. The content of this column was inspired by the four preceding columns.\n7. Discussion: Table 1 elucidates that there are many possible cross-overs which offer opportunities for urban planners and facility managers to learn from and reinforce each other. As Lindkvist et al. (2019) already pointed out, the FM sector has much expertise on how people use or want to use buildings, which can also be deployed to examine what services are required in a neighbourhood. To design cities that take account of the needs and desires of citizens, urban planners should incorporate the FM sector early in the design process (Temeljotov Salaj et al., 2018). Furthermore, by taking care of the maintenance of an area, FM can contribute to the attractivity and safety of the neighbourhood and prevent the broken windows theory from becoming reality (Wilson and Kelling, 1982; Keizer et al., 2008).\n8. Conclusion: The purpose of this paper was to introduce an analogy between urban design and facility design and explore whether health-directed design interventions in cities and facilities are related and whether there are applicable cross-overs and emerging new research areas that are of interest for the development of the FM profession on the urban level. It has been shown that there are many possible cross-overs which offer opportunities for urban planners and facility managers to learn from and reinforce each other. These cross-overs offer several interesting market opportunities for the further development of urban FM. To take advantage of these opportunities, the FM sector should be incorporated early in the urban design process. Furthermore, by taking care of the maintenance of an area, FM can contribute to the attractivity and safety of the neighbourhood. Moreover, FM can respond to the growing need for tailor-made home services for older people.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: Most people live in cities and work in offices, two contexts offering many lifestyle-related and environmental health risks. To advance their health, this paper aims to introduce an analogy between urban design and facility design to explore whether health-directed design interventions in cities and facilities are related and to look for applicable cross-overs and opportunities to develop the facility management (FM) profession on the urban level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The principles of abductive reasoning as a first phase of scientific investigation were followed, by introducing a new idea and attentively observing phenomena in the communities of FM and urban design. The method was desk research, in the context of discovery.\nFindings: Many possible cross-overs exist which offer opportunities for urban planners and facility managers to reinforce each other and interesting market opportunities for the further development of urban FM. However, more systematic research is needed on efficacious and effective interventions. Furthermore, experiences and capacities of the FM sector should be unlocked and applied within a city context, as the knowledge and experiences of facility managers and urban planners can create synergy.\nPractical implications: The findings are directly applicable to facility and urban design practices and to FM education by involving students in city design practices.\nOriginality/value: Cross-overs between facilities and cities are new and can inspire both facility managers and urban planners to work together more closely for the benefit of citizens and employees.\n",
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Postmoney theory: value function in the domain of postmoney
|
[
"Value function",
"Cryptocurrency",
"Block barter chain",
"Future of money",
"Postmoney theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For centuries, the money paradigm has been frozen in the timeframe of classical economics despite the complex context of socio-economic developments. The standard economic theory and its notable authors, such as Law (2013), William Jevons, Adam Smith (Smith, 2009), John Locke, John Hicks (Hicks, 2001), Joseph Schumpeter, Paul Samuelson (Samuelson and Nordhaus, 2010) and many others, defined money as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value. Equally, money function is characterized as having \"universal acceptability for payment, exchange and measure of value\" (Seaford, 2004). Historically and ethnographically, the role of money is much more complex than the explanation of the normative theory of classical economics. Money has been used for various purposes - some of them being fundamentally different from purely economic aspects, making it impossible to understand money as a measure of value in the case of \"Compensation for people killed; to purchase slaves and sexual services; as a dowry and compensation for the lost labor force in the family of the bride; for the sale of a son or daughter as farmhand laborers and soldiers; for magic spells and sacrificial offerings; to finance bribes and the remission of sins; and to purchase social status and public rank. Today it is also used for drug distribution, to finance of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and attempts to upgrade the human body and achieve immortality\" (Davies, 2002). That is to say - the concept and origin of money cannot be perceived as solely an economic phenomenon. Even the widely spread and solid beliefs of the academics that money emerged as a result of the development of the barter economy, are successfully questioned by numerous economists, anthropologists, historians and ancient documents, as is described by Martin (2015) and Graeber (2011).Thus, we may agree with Glyn Davies that \"Money originated very largely from non-economic causes: from tribute as well as from trade, from blood-money and bride-money as well as from barter, from ceremonial and religious rites as well as from commerce, from ostentatious ornamentation as well as from acting as the common drudge between economic men\" (Davies, 2002). Hence, based on the historical evidence, money emergence and existence - in the realm of scarcity of goods and services and its usage as a measure of objective market values - goes far beyond the simple understanding of money as a tool for exchange, storing the universal and intertemporal value.\nPostmoney survey: This survey will exemplify the evolving qualitative changes in the individual perception of money as Postmoney, involving a national representative survey in Bulgaria, specifically designed and conducted for the purpose of the PMT.\nConclusions: The objective and qualitative reasons offered by the PMT for the transformation of money into Postmoney, are related to the being of temporality, as well as to technologization and the sixth factor of production, scientific exponentiality and mental changes in the human being. The value function and prospect theory claim that the increase of money quantity and the status quo shift, lead to a diminishing sensitivity of money gains and losses. Scientific development and the possibility of \"buying\" more years of life (or even immortality in next 30 years), is changing the perception and psychological evaluation of humans towards money. A current Postmoney survey gives a strong base to believe that the perception of money's intrinsic value changes for the respondents, in the environment of Postmoney and possible future scientific achievements in prolonging life. The perceivable future of money belongs to the domain of Postmoney. The perception of an intrinsic value of Postmoney changes the shape of a value function - from logarithmic to linear or even stochastic. This is the reason to believe that increasing of a Postmoney quantity will lead to a qualitative transformation and psychological increase of a Postmoney sensitivity.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to research the latest quantitative and qualitative transformations of money and its interaction with the market economy and societies in terms of their influence on the inner nature of money and its transformation from a simple tool to an aim per se, i.e. postmoney. Transforming the perception of the intrinsic value and \"soul\" of the money into the postmoney, influenced by the rising longevity and wide expectation for the ability to scientifically prolong the human life, will be discussed. This transformation will be confirmed by analysing the results from a national representative sociological survey (panel study with sample size n = 1,000).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author uses the following philosophical methodological approaches - comparative-constructive, phenomenological, cognitive and deconstructive analysis.\nFindings: The objective and qualitative reasons offered by the postmoney theory (PMT) for the transformation of money into postmoney, are related to the being of temporality, as well as to technologization and the sixth factor of production, scientific exponentiality and mental changes in the human being. A current postmoney survey gives a strong base to believe that the perception of an intrinsic value of postmoney changes the shape of a value function - from logarithmic to linear or even stochastic. This is the reason to believe that increasing of a postmoney quantity will lead to a qualitative transformation and psychological increase of postmoney sensitivity.\nResearch limitations/implications: The author intends to expand the postmoney survey on the international level so to confirm local findings.\nPractical implications: Postmoney survey might be used as a powerful tool in creating and legalizing non-monistic money based on blockchain technologies and philosophical and socio-economic research of the postmoney issue.\nSocial implications: The future of money is of great importance for the exponentiality of the socio-economic environment and societies. Social impact of the money will be inevitably rising in the domain of postmoney perception.\nOriginality/value: The author of the current paper coined for the first-time notion of postmoney and now is expanding research developing PMT. As per the best knowledge of the author, shape of the curve of value function was not questioned and believes it might be of help to better understand the money phenomenon.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Exploring collaboration between sales and marketing
|
[
"Sales",
"Marketing",
"Business performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Significant research efforts have been devoted to considering co-operation and collaboration between functional departments in organisations, based on the premise that interdepartmental collaboration is linked to improving business performance. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the interdepartmental relationship between sales and marketing as compared to other functional relationships with marketing. Kotler et al. (2006, p. 78) state:Every company can and should improve the relationship between sales and marketing.\nConceptual development: The term \"collaboration\" between sales and marketing has been selected for this study based in Kahn's (1996) work on R&D and marketing, which indicated that the collaborative elements of integration, e.g. collective goals, mutual understanding, informal activities, shared resources and esprit de corps have a greater impact on performance than the interaction component of integration (physical activities and cross-functional training). In addition, the term \"integration\" indicates a need to create a single function/process and combine the parts into a whole (Oxford University Press, 1993). However, combining sales and marketing functions may not be desirable, as they have necessarily different activities performed by different people who are appropriate for each function (Shapiro, 2002). By contrast, collaboration is defined as working together (Oxford University Press, 1993) and indicates the need to build bridges between two culturally different entities with the aims of creating opportunities for learning and improving functionality to the benefit of business performance. The contention is that sales and marketing more often need to collaborate as opposed to integrate.A number of writers have explored the interface between sales and marketing and some have conceptualised the relationship (Cespedes, 1993; Dewsnap and Jobber, 2000; Rouzies et al., 2005; Kotler et al., 2006). These researchers have generally found evidence to suggest that while sales and marketing are both independent and interdependent, they are not always seen as working collectively or collaboratively (Rosenbloom and Anderson, 1984; Alldredge et al., 1999; Lorge, 1999; Dawes and Massey, 2005; Kotler et al., 2006). Other writers describe the relationship between sales and marketing as exhibiting a lack of understanding, distrust, poor co-operation and being in conflict (Anderson, 1996; Strahle et al., 1996; Dewsnap and Jobber, 2000; Rouzies et al., 2005; Kotler et al., 2006).There are a number of reasons cited for the lack of collaboration between sales and marketing, including different philosophies and backgrounds (e.g. experience and education) (Ruekert and Walker, 1987; Cespedes, 1994; Griffin and Hauser, 1996; Shapiro, 2002; Kotler et al., 2006). Salespeople appear to be intuitive, whilst marketing people are more creative, and there is evidence to indicate that they are culturally differentiated (Cespedes, 1993). Furthermore, sales and marketing may be set different goals by senior management, leading to lack of coordination of activities (Strahle et al., 1996; Colletti and Chonko, 1997; Anderson et al., 1999; Olson et al., 2001). Several writers have also highlighted the difficulties created by the short-term orientation of sales goals conflicting with the long-term orientation of marketing (Montgomery and Webster, 1997; Olson et al., 2001). Lack of collaboration may be aggravated by poor communications (Anderson, 1996; Strahle et al., 1996; Lorge, 1999; Kotler et al., 2006), and sales and marketing functions may not exchange information effectively to improve performance. Senior management may not be focused on establishing coordination between these two areas (Workman et al., 1998; Piercy, 2006). Some sales and marketing departments may experience role ambiguity and a lack of understanding of each other's roles (Cespedes, 1993; Kotler et al., 2006). There have also been examples of sales and marketing teams blaming each other for sales failure (Colletti and Chonko, 1997; Shapiro, 2002).Tension may be created between the need to retain the distinctiveness of sales and marketing (because they perform differentiated tasks), while facilitating a collaborative stance (to coordinate efforts around organisational goals) (Shapiro, 2002; Piercy, 2006). It has been suggested that under some circumstances, conflict between groups, like sales and marketing, can be beneficial if it is associated with improved performance (Barclay, 1991; Montgomery and Webster, 1997). There is also danger in creating excess emphasis on increasing inter-group interaction - the result may be to overburden personnel with meetings and information (Kahn, 1996; Labianca et al., 1998) and a number of writers have warned that increasing communication between groups may be detrimental to efficiency (Child, 1985; Kahn and Mentzer, 1998). Nonetheless, there appears to be some general agreement that the sales and marketing interface frequently appears to be poorly coordinated and lacking collaboration, and that improvements in this relationship should be beneficial to the organisation in terms of improved business performance (e.g. Cespedes, 1993; Dewsnap and Jobber, 2000; Rouzies et al., 2005; Kotler et al., 2006). For example, Tjosvold (1988) found that collaboration between departments led to improved productivity and competitiveness. Improvements in collaboration, interdepartmental relations, and communication quality may enhance the formulation of strategy, as well as reducing conflict (Menon et al., 1996). Correspondingly, Morgan and Turnell (2003) found that improvement in customer satisfaction leads to improvements in market performance. There is some evidence that a strong relationship between the internal collaboration of functional areas leads to greater customer satisfaction, operational efficiency and improved business performance.The extant literature suggests that the relationship between sales and marketing does not always operate efficiently or effectively and that their actions are not always well coordinated or collaborative. This lack of collaboration may be caused by lack of understanding of each other's roles, role ambiguity, poor communication, a culture of blame, different perspectives and poor alignment of activities and goals. There is considerable evidence to indicate that improvements in collaborative behaviour between sales and marketing can have benefits in enhanced business performance.\nResearch study: To allow the development of a conceptual framework, exploratory case studies were conducted to clarify the relationship of the various elements influencing collaboration between sales and marketing. This approach was relevant because case studies are appropriate when the \"theory base is comparatively weak and the environment under study is messy\" (Harrison, 2002, p. 158). The interface between sales and marketing is complex, and the literature examining the relationship between sales and marketing is limited. By adopting exploratory case studies, the framework can be developed from both existing literature and contextual field data (Parasuraman et al., 2004).Research sites\nDeveloping the conceptual framework: The selection of variables for the conceptual framework was guided by the extant literature, which identified a number of themes as influencing the relationship between the sales and marketing functions, and was developed through the exploratory case studies. The variables selected to analyse the data from the exploratory case studies were: management attitude towards coordination of activities, rewards, conflict of interests, frequency of meetings, organisational learning, marketing planning and cross-functional training. However, it was unclear how these variables would interrelate or their relative importance. The literature review further revealed that the collaboration of marketing with other functional areas appears to contribute to improved business performance in many organisations.The framework was refined through the exploratory case studies, which indicated that the variables should be categorised into three groups: integrators and facilitators of collaboration, and management attitudes towards coordination of activities. Integrators are those activities that take longer to develop and \"cement\" the inter-group relationship through changing culture. Integrators are controllable activities that may be used by senior management to improve the sales and marketing interface. Facilitators are considered to be physical mechanisms that can be put in place quickly to provide interaction and coordination of activities. However, facilitators can be detrimental to collaboration between sales and marketing if over-employed. They are time consuming and may create greater conflict if they are viewed as obstructive to achieving departmental goals. Management attitude towards coordination of activities has become the central construct that influences integrators and facilitators, as well as collaboration between sales and marketing directly. From the exploratory case studies, it has become clear that the direction of the variables in the conceptual framework should proceed from the organisational factors influencing coordination to collaboration between sales and marketing, and then to business performance (see Figure 1).Integrators\nDiscussion and conclusions: The study has identified nine antecedents to collaboration between sales and marketing and indicated that eight of these antecedents may be grouped into those that need to be developed over the longer term (integrators) and those that may assist in improving collaboration (facilitators). The most significant antecedent was management attitudes towards coordination, as senior manager's attitudes not only affect collaboration between sales and marketing, but also influence the integrators and facilitators. There is an implication for senior managers that, without their support, collaboration between sales and marketing may not be capable of being improved (a conclusion supported by literature and evidence from the consumer goods organisation).The exploratory case studies found that sales and marketing staff frequently work closely together and sometimes believe that they are working collaboratively. However, there was evidence to suggest that the sales and marketing staff did not always understand each other's contribution to the organisation's overall aims. Sales staff were frequently excluded from marketing planning activities and often their short-term goals forced them to focus on objectives that conflicted with those of marketing. Therefore, even if sales and marketing staff are working closely together and have good informal communication, they may not be working collaboratively.The insights from practitioners have given a different framing of the sales and marketing interface from those developed by Dewsnap and Jobber (2000) and Rouzies et al. (2005). The study found that there was very limited support for the proposition that aligned rewards will improve collaboration between sales and marketing, since sales and marketing staff accept that there will be a difference in their rewards. Some short-term benefits may be accrued from aligned rewards as part of a programme of improving collaboration, but this needs further investigation. Additionally, although all three organisations had the same structure with separate sales and marketing departments, they experienced differing levels of collaboration, indicating that structure may not be a key element of collaboration. Finally, the study supports the contention that the attitude of senior management is important in improving the sales and marketing interface (Dewsnap and Jobber, 2000; Kotler et al., 2006), but this study demonstrates the central role this factor plays. Further, we support the concept of integrators as outlined by Rouzies et al. (2005), but believe that it is a role that should be played by senior managers rather than staff members. The study also highlights the importance of reducing conflict of interests when aiming to improve collaboration between sales and marketing. As this study has focussed on the internal relationship of establishing collaboration between sales and marketing, rather than the concept of integration favoured by the other studies, the external elements have not been considered. This study provides a new framework (see Figure 1) that has been developed with data from practitioners as well as through a literature review.The least collaborative organisation (consumer goods) was found to have poor formal communications, a poor management attitude towards coordination, little learning, no market intelligence system and a high level of conflict of interests. Neither did they employ any of the facilitators of collaboration. The most collaborative organisation (publisher) exhibited a positive management attitude towards coordination, good communication, shared goals, joint marketing planning, had low levels of conflict and employed some integration mechanisms. The third organisation (industrial manufacturer) demonstrated a reasonable level of collaboration between sales and marketing, had a good management attitude towards coordination, was improving their market intelligence system and had good communications, but exhibited some conflict of interests. This organisation did not employ any of the facilitators of collaboration. These results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the identified antecedents and collaboration between sales and marketing.Future research\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The study seeks to explore the antecedents and implications of collaboration between sales and marketing and further to identify whether there are benefits in terms of business performance of improving collaboration between sales and marketing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Three exploratory case studies and a review of the literature are used to examine the antecedents to collaboration between sales and marketing. The case studies allow this fuzzy and undefined area to be clarified and existing theories to be empirically tested.\nFindings: - The study identifies that there are three types of factor influencing collaboration between sales and marketing: integrators, facilitators, and management attitudes towards coordination. The exploratory case studies establish that senior management plays a pivotal role in creating and improving collaboration between sales and marketing, and that there is a positive correlation between collaboration between sales and marketing, and improved business performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitations of this study are that it is qualitative in nature and the conceptual framework needs be tested through a large-scale survey. In addition, the study considers only large UK organisations and, therefore, future research should consider expanding the study to overseas organisations.\nPractical implications: - There appears to be an established relationship between the level of collaboration between sales and marketing and business performance. Further, the attitude of senior managers to improving coordination is critical to influencing collaboration between sales and marketing.\nOriginality/value: - This study contends that sales and marketing need to collaborate rather than integrate and uses exploratory case studies to support the development of the framework.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Exploring incomplete information in maintenance materials inventory optimization
|
[
"Inventory optimization",
"Maintenance materials",
"Service-level sensitivity",
"Spare parts",
"StockOptim"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Intensifying competition and modern management philosophies drive companies to find ways to reduce working capital tied to business operations, including maintenance materials inventories (Eroglu and Hofer, 2010). The maintenance function is developing rapidly, and the progress of maintenance concepts over the years can described as follows (Ahuja, 2009):\n2 Literature review: In the early 2000s, the focus of the maintenance materials logistics research was on how it differed from conventional logistics. At that time, the research focused on identifying the special characteristics of the phenomenon. The characteristics of maintenance materials were identified to include, for example, high service-level requirements, sporadic demand, and their high price (Huiskonen, 2001). Recently, many studies have focused on the demand generation process and on developing models for multi-attribute criticality classification instead of one-dimensional ABC-classification (Wang and Syntetos, 2011; Molanaers et al., 2011; Bacchetti and Saccani, 2011).\n3 Research process: The study's research process is shown in Figure 1. At the start of the study, the relevant literature was reviewed. Then, the empirical study was planned, and the data for the optimization and analysis were gathered. The optimization results and analysis together with the theoretical and managerial implications are presented, and then followed by the conclusions of the research.\n4 Results: 4.1 Optimization results\n5 Discussion: The study shows that the input data used in the stochastic simulation and optimization includes a margin of error that has a significant impact on service level (Figure 4). Without taking this into account during optimization, the statistical error in the input data causes a remarkable risk of being out of critical stock items. Another finding is that the margin of error and its impact on the service level are both item specific.\n6 Conclusions: In this study, the sensitivity of the maintenance materials inventory service level was examined by using StockOptim optimization software with real data and focusing on the variables of demand and lead time. The study shows that by relying only on historical data when forecasting future demand patterns and supply characteristics, the optimization model jeopardizes the required service level for critical maintenance materials. In this paper, the quality of the data has proven to be a relevant issue in maintenance materials inventory optimization and cannot be ignored in the related literature.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Ensuring the sufficient service level is essential for critical materials in industrial maintenance. This study aims to evaluate the use of statistically imperfect data in a stochastic simulation-based inventory optimization where items' failure characteristics are derived from historical consumption data, which represents a real-life situation in the implementation of such an optimization model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The risks of undesired shortages were evaluated through a service-level sensitivity analysis. The service levels were simulated within the error of margin of the key input variables by using StockOptim optimization software and real data from a Finnish steel mill. A random sample of 100 inventory items was selected.\nFindings: Service-level sensitivity is item specific, but, for many items, statistical imprecision in the input data causes significant uncertainty in the service level. On the other hand, some items seem to be more resistant to variations in the input data than others.\nResearch limitations/implications: The case approach, with one simulation model, limits the generalization of the results. The possibility that the simulation model is not totally realistic exists, due to the model's normality assumptions.\nPractical implications: Margin of error in input data estimation causes a significant risk of not achieving the required service level. It is proposed that managers work to improve the preciseness of the data, while the sensitivity analysis against statistical uncertainty, and a correction mechanism if necessary, should be integrated into optimization models.\nOriginality/value: The output limitations in the optimization, i.e. service level, are typically stated precisely, but the capabilities of the input data have not been addressed adequately. This study provides valuable insights into ensuring the availability of critical materials.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The influence of organisational commitment on employees' work-related use of online social networks: The mediating role of constructive voice
|
[
"Tricomponent attitude model",
"Organisational commitment",
"Commitment theory",
"Constructive employee voice",
"Social information systems",
"Work-related use of online social networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Online social networks (SNs) (e.g. Facebook and Instagram) have become popular owing to the widespread usage of smartphones and other developing technologies worldwide (Martin et al., 2015). Although online SNs were initially used by people outside the business environment, employees with various work- or non-work-related motives now widely use this type of IT-based instrument (Johannsen, 2018). However, the use of SNs by employees has been challenging and contentious (Moqbel and Kock, 2018) to the extent that some organisations have forbidden the use of SNs in the workplace. They believe that employees' personal use of SNs is time-wasting (Ali-Hassan et al., 2015); it has also been referred to as cyber-loafing (Akbulut et al., 2017). However, if organisational managers were cognisant of the active work-related use of SNs and its benefits, the use of such platforms in the workplace would not be prohibited. The extant literature shows that employees' work-related use of SNs involves numerous benefits, such as strengthening trust-based collaboration (Pee, 2018), facilitating knowledge sharing (Leftheriotis and Giannakos, 2014), facilitating the development of group working (Pee, 2018), improving employees' performance and agility (Cao et al., 2016), enhancing job satisfaction (Olfat et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2019) and reducing staff turnover (Zhang et al., 2019). Thus, organisations that have prohibited the use of SNs in the workplace are therefore losing these potential benefits. Conversely, organisations that do not ban the use of SNs are seeking to convince their employees to harness this technology to ensure an optimal level of efficiency. Hence, rather than prohibition, organisations should seek methods to reinforce the active or automatic use of SNs in the workplace to maximise the potential benefits. Nevertheless, SNs create several challenges in the workplaces, given their multifunctional and arbitrary nature. Thus, although the use of SNs can have a positive and constructive impact, they can also be accused of wasting employees' time and consequently reducing their efficiency (Chin et al., 2015). Managers should, therefore, strive to convert these challenges from potential threats to actual opportunities (Rezvani, Khosravi and Dong, 2017). If organisational managers can identify factors that predict and enhance employees' work-related use of SNs, they will be able to constructively shape their use in the workplace. An investigation into such factors is therefore required.\n2. Theoretical background and hypothesis development: 2.1 Employees' work-related use of online SNs\n3. Research method: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Data analysis: 4.1 Evaluation of the measurement model\n5. Discussion and implications: The direct relationship between organisational commitment and employees' work-related use of information systems is consistent with the findings of previous studies (e.g. Kim et al., 2016; Li et al., 2006). Based on commitment theory, employees with high organisational commitment are seeking to provide the best performance in their work (Moqbel et al., 2013). SNs serve as a tool that facilitates work-related social interaction and information seeking (Hu et al., 2017). Thus, it seems that employees with high organisational commitment take more advantage of SNs for work-related motives. This finding contributes to commitment theory by advancing our knowledge of the effect of organisational commitment in the context of using SNs.\n6. Conclusion: In conclusion, the results of this study show that organisational commitment among employees has a direct positive impact on their work-related use of SNs directly and an indirect impact via the mediating role of constructive voice. This provides businesses with a positive perspective on employees' work-related use of SNs. Based on commitment theory and tricomponent attitude model, two key predictors (organisational commitment and constructive voice) are essential in this regard. Furthermore, this study has highlighted the role of organisational commitment in predicting SNs use through constructive voice among employees. It is, therefore, extends the boundaries of knowledge with regard to the challenge posed by SNs in contemporary organisations. Put simply, they can convert this challenge from a potential threat into an actual opportunity by reinforcing the key factor of \"organisational commitment.\"\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although online social networks (SNs) (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram) have been used by employees for various work- or non-work-related motives, there has been lack of research on the use of such networks in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to draw on commitment theory and the tricomponent attitude model to explain the role organisational commitment plays in predicting the work-related use of online SNs and the mediating role a constructive employee voice may have in this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research was conducted among the employees of seven different companies within seven different industries. The validity of the measures and structural models was evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).\nFindings: The results indicated that organisational commitment promotes employees' work-related use of online SNs directly and also indirectly via the mediating role of a constructive voice.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the few studies which have used the tricomponent attitude model to investigate employees' behaviour in the workplace, in particular work-related use of online SNs. In terms of theory, this study contributes to expanding the boundaries of knowledge as SNs are considered a challenge in contemporary organisations. Organisations can convert this challenge from a potential threat to an actual opportunity by reinforcing \"organisational commitment\".\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Success stories on non-formal adult education and training for self-employment in micro-enterprises in South Africa
|
[
"Experiential learning",
"Self-employment",
"Adult education",
"Micro-enterprise",
"Non-formal training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: The main discussion concerning the provision of adult non-formal education and training (NFET) today is on the question, \"How can a graduate from NFET programmes start his/her own micro-enterprise after a short period of training?\" On 25 September 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations recognised adult education and training (AET) as having a significant role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goal four is to \"Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all\" (United Nations, 2015, p. 17). This paper relates to the operational target 4.4 of goal four dealing with adult education for employment which states that \"By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship\" (United Nations, 2015, p. 17). In the context of SDGs, skills acquired from NFET programmes should enable adults to become self-reliant and to earn a better living.\nTheoretical framework and literature review: The study used experiential learning theory by David Kolb (1984) as a theoretical framework. The \"experiential learning\" theory stresses the significant role that experience plays in the learning process (Kolb et al., 1999). By participating in real-life activities, learners are able to efficiently transform the knowledge learnt from the classroom and textbooks into their understanding. The theory describes learning as \"the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience\" (Kolb, 1984, p. 4). Kolb noted that adult learning is more effective when learners are more directly involved rather passively receiving knowledge transmitted by educators. Experiential learning is known as \"learning by doing\" or \"hands-on learning\". Herod (2012) argues that experiential learning includes a process of the deep level of knowledge and skills through practical experience, reflection, experimentation and application in the real world of work. Kolb developed the \"experiential learning cycle\" in which there are four distinct stages of learning. While there is no order for the starting of the stage of the cycle, all stages are required in order for learners to learn successfully (Herod, 2012). Kolb (1984, p. 41) describes the learning cycle as follows in Figure 1:\nResearch methodology: The research design was multiple case studies which are an approach in which a particular instance or a few carefully selected cases are studied intensively (Gilbert, 2008; Rule and John, 2011). The main reason behind choosing the multiple case study design is that it helped to make a comparison across self-employed graduates and the nature of their micro-enterprises (Nieuwenhuis, 2012). Case studies also comprised some observations of activities in their small businesses.\nFindings: The duration of the adult training was from six months to one year depending on the type of the centre (public or private) and objectives of the training (for wage and/or self-employment). Nevertheless, in five centres out of 21 centres investigated, the graduates continued to attend workshops on a quarterly basis as a post-training support and business incubation process. Centre managers reported that their centres aimed at producing entrepreneurs who could work independently. Depending on the geographical area, human and material resources, the centres under investigation offer from three to five courses to unemployed and unskilled adults. Common courses are agricultural technology, ancillary health care, small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMME), information and computer technology, craft, sewing and fashion skills, poultry, co-operative, basic paramedic and beauty training. The presentation of the findings starts with short descriptive stories of five participants.\nDiscussion and relation to previous research: The training delivery approach was a transforming factor in fostering the utilisation of acquired skills in micro-enterprises. The approach consisted of \"learning by doing\" in the workshops or in the real world of the work environment. Moreover, the integration of technical skills with business skills motivated trainees to start micro-enterprises after graduation with the small financial resources they possessed. This training approach is in line with the experiential theory (Kolb, 1984). The theory suggests that learning activities should clearly demonstrate to adult trainees where they would utilise the acquired skills in jobs. Thus, the training had an immediate usefulness to the trainees' lives (Hudson and Whisler, 2007).\nConclusions and recommendations: It is evident from the findings that two major transforming factors enabled the utilisation of acquired skills in micro-enterprises at the individual level. First, by integrating technical skills and business skills, the approach of training delivery based on \"experiential learning\" theory enabled the utilisation of acquired skills in self-employment. Second, forming groups of micro-entrepreneurs helped graduates to work in a collaborative way by forming a cooperative or partnership. In other settings or countries, it can also facilitate a drafting of a business plan required for business registration and funding because a group of entrepreneurs is more credible to the funders than an individual.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way the adult non-formal education and training (NFET) centres motivated and empowered graduates to start their own micro-enterprises as individuals or as a group. The specific objectives are as follows: to find out the transforming factors fostering the utilisation of acquired skills into self-employment in micro-enterprises; to investigate challenges encountered in starting and managing micro-enterprises and to investigate short-term impact of the NFET programmes and micro-enterprises on living conditions of graduates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design was multiple case studies. Semi-structured interviews and field observations were used for data collection in the qualitative study. In the context of non-probability sampling, the study used the purposive sampling method to select five out of 20 self-employed graduates for one-on-one interviews. Case studies also comprised some observations of activities in their small businesses.\nFindings: The main findings reveal that \"learning by doing\" training approach and forming groups of entrepreneurs while being on the programme were major factors fostering the translation of acquired skills into micro-enterprises.\nPractical implications: The adult NFET is a tool to enable poor disadvantaged people to improve their well-being. However, this can be achieved if the livelihood skills training is combined with the creation of conducive environments to allow adult trainees become micro-entrepreneurs and self-reliant.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the knowledge of effective entrepreneurial training programmes by demonstrating the importance of involving stakeholders from the local communities and designing post-training support mechanisms for self-employment prior to the training delivery. The centre managers should also motivate trainees to start micro-enterprises in groups or co-operatives while still on the training programmes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Enhanced company performance through the development of network alliance management skills: a four-point framework
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Alliances",
"Engagement and learning",
"Management development",
"Networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nApple and IBM announce strategic alliance: smiles, but for how long?: It was all smiles when Apple and IBM announced their strategic alliance in July 2014, but just how long will that joy last? The prevalence of corporate alliances has increased significantly in the past 25 years and, according to an Accenture survey, Fortune 500 companies have an average of 50-70 alliances each (The Economist, 2009). However, such coalitions do not always produce the required results - a problem that is exacerbated when several partners are involved.\nBest practice in the management of network alliances: One successful example is that of Star Alliance. Created in 1997 by five airlines, the mission of the alliance was to provide for code sharing between members and joint management of certain services such as airport lounges. This allowed the airlines to expand their value proposition to their customers while maintaining a control on costs. Star Alliance formed multi-organizational management teams (which were also multinational) while a sharing of best practices between airlines was actively encouraged. Formal decision-making committees were set up to monitor progress (Lazzarini, 2008) and report back to each airline to assist the learning process and thus strengthen the alliance for the future. This was formalized in 2000 with the creation of a full-time Alliance Management Team. As trust developed, more ambitious projects were created such as StarNet, (Star Alliance, 2015), a sophisticated IT platform to link up the computer systems of all member airlines. In this manner, they were able to gradually accept new members to the alliance, expanding to 27 members today. The network now covers nearly 20,000 flights daily to 1,300 airports.\nConclusion: Some 42,000 alliances were created over the past decade. However, negative results (i.e. lack of value creation) were typically more prevalent than positive ones (Greve et al., 2013). Many studies show that companies who habitually succeed at strategic alliances have developed superior management teams. Despite this, few companies actively encourage training or even set best practices for alliance management. If organizations dedicated more time and funds to training staff in the efficient management of alliances, they would considerably increase the likelihood of their success. Other methods for developing communication and trust within an alliance would include such things as coaching (both inter and intra-organization) and encouraging internal communication on the mission and need for the alliance. Social media platforms to share best practice and progress updates would also make a contribution. Joint task forces can be particularly useful in helping members of the different organizations get to know each other. To begin with, this may be for small-scale projects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The prevalence of corporate alliances has increased significantly in the past 25 years. However, such coalitions do not always produce the required results - a problem that is exacerbated when several partners are involved in a network alliance. Part of the difficulty is that, often, firms do not recognize all of the key issues in the successful management of an alliance. This paper aims to outline a four-point model that can be used to help companies develop their employees and work more effectively within network alliances.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is a conceptual paper that draws in examples from Apple and IBM as well as research from the automobile, oil and higher education industries. It then offers a practical ABCD framework to assist companies in developing their staff to work effectively within network alliances.\nFindings: Many studies show that companies who habitually succeed at strategic alliances have developed superior management teams. Despite this, few companies actively encourage training or even set best practices for alliance management. Given the high cost of establishing alliances and the excessive failure rate, it would seem logical that companies would invest time in the development of skills for personnel, thereby facilitating alliance success. If organizations dedicated more time and funds to training staff in the efficient management of alliances, they would considerably increase the likelihood of their success.\nOriginality/value: This paper gives a practical framework that can be referred to when developing company employees to work more effectively within a network alliance. This framework is based on analysis from a broad range of industries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An exploratory study of the results of the implementation of EFQM in private Spanish firms
|
[
"Cluster analysis",
"Factor analysis",
"Business excellence",
"EFQM",
"Financial results",
"Non-financial results"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: According to Chang and Sinclair (2003), performance measurement offers companies a systematic feedback of the results of the processes accomplished in the company, which is used to manage and improve efforts toward those areas that present improvement needs. The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model is an operative and non-prescriptive model, and it is currently being used by over 800 organizations throughout Europe. The main aim of the model is to support organizations in order for them to attain business excellence through continuous improvement, learning, innovation and the deployment of key processes (Eskildsen et al., 2001; Wongrassamee, 2003). Furthermore, organizations must not consider EFQM merely as an assessment tool (Farris et al., 2011). It is based on nine criteria, grouped into two parts: five enabler criteria (leadership, people, strategy, partnerships and resources, and processes, products and services), and four results criteria (people results, customer results, society results and business results). The enablers represent the way the organization operates, and the results concentrate on achievements relating to organizational stakeholders (EFQM, 2013).\n2. Literature review: In order to identify previous studies of the results of the implementation of EFQM, a systematic review of the literature was conducted, following an explicit, rigorous and transparent methodology. The search phase was performed according to the following criteria (Fink, 2005): first, only studies that focused on the results of the implementation of the EFQM excellence model were selected; and, second, the review was limited to the academic literature, excluding articles that had not been peer reviewed. The online database Web of Science was used because it is a prestigious and internationally well-known database, and it stores the abstracts and full texts of the majority of ISI management journals. Literature was selected from the period 1992-2015. This period was chosen since the EFQM excellence model was introduced at the beginning of 1992 as the framework for assessing applications for The European Quality Award. An expansive list of search terms and combinations that should be included in the article, title, abstract or keywords[1] were used. After doing the search, 296 articles were found and revised to check that they were not included twice and 123 articles were obtained. In the next step, articles were excluded if the main focus was not related with EFQM excellence model (61 articles). This list, which is formed by 62 articles, was narrowed to specifically relevant articles by applying a strict criterion, and articles were included in the final list only if they explicitly examine the results of the implementation of the EFQM. The final list was integrated by nine scientific articles published in nine different scientific journals.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive analysis\n5. Conclusions, implications and future lines of research: The purpose of this paper is to explore the main results of the implementation of the EFQM excellence model in private Spanish firms. A literature review was carried out identifying that there are both financial results, which are related to the economic aspects of the implementation, such as improving corporate profits and the price-cost ratio of the products, sales growth and increased market share, and non-financial results which are related to internal improvements in the company (quality, productivity, communication and efficiency), and to human resources (motivation, participation, satisfaction and improved work environment) of EFQM implementation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The implementation of business excellence models is becoming a key competitive priority for companies, but the type of results they obtain by implementing such models and the importance of such results remain open issues. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the results obtained by companies that implement the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model, with a focus on their importance and nature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An empirical study was conducted in 68 Spanish firms that were immersed in the process of implementing EFQM. The methodology consists of a descriptive analysis and factor analysis in order to determine which groups of results are the most important. Finally, clusters of firms are analyzed to establish their profile in relation to these groups, using cluster analysis.\nFindings: This study shows that the main results of the implementation of EFQM are an improvement in the external image of the company and an increased efficiency of internal processes. In addition, the results can be grouped into internal results, human resources results and economic results, with the first group being the most important. Finally, the results show that there are three groups of firms, categorized according to their results orientation: highly results-oriented, moderately results-oriented and minimally results-oriented.\nPractical implications: Companies are in a better position to anticipate and solve the problems that may arise during the implementation process if they understand the results of the implementation of EFQM, along with the motivations for and barriers to the implementation. Also, this research shows that the bodies promoting and motivating quality should make a special effort to emphasize the importance of non-financial results in companies that implement EFQM.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the knowledge in the field of business excellence models by developing an instrument to measure implementation results from the perspective of quality managers who were specifically appointed to lead the implementation of the EFQM excellence model in companies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Searching for the holy grail of management development and sustainability: Is shared leadership development the answer?
|
[
"Managers",
"Management development",
"Leadership",
"Shared leadership",
"Self leadership",
"Sustainability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recent scandals involving executive leadership have significantly contributed to the topic of sustainability becoming one of the most important concerns of the management literature in the twenty-first century (Gitsham et al., 2009). The antithesis of sustainability is embodied in executive exploitation for short-term gains at the expense of other stakeholders, i.e. unsustainability. Accordingly, most treatments of sustainability have focussed on glorifying top executives for their sustainability efforts or vilifying them for their lack thereof. We propose that this perspective is oversimplified and flawed. We propose that broadening management development across all levels of the organizations, along the lines of shared leadership theory (Pearce and Conger, 2003), will likely produce a more robust management system more capable of facilitating organizational sustainability.Sustainability is gaining increasing attention in the literature (Gitsham et al., 2009; McWilliams and Siegel, 2001; Matten and Moon, 2005; Pava and Kruausz, 1996; United Nations Global Compact and Accenture, 2010). We define sustainability as organizational approaches aimed at achieving a balance between short-term organizational goals and long-term enterprise and social responsibility. Unfortunately, several recent cases of top corporate executives seeking personal gain, at the expense of other organizational employees and stakeholders, spotlights sustainability as a major management challenge in the twenty-first century. Research has begun to uncover factors that undermine sustainability and manifest most ethics breeches, executive exploitation and corruption (Anand et al., 2004; Ashforth and Anand, 2003). Philosophical perspectives on these issues have focussed on the role of moral behavioral standards, while psychological views take more of an agent's perspective with emphasis on individual differences for examining abhorrent behavior (Singer, 2000). Several factors including level of cognitive moral development (Kohlberg, 1969) have been linked to involvement in anti-social activities capable of eroding organizational sustainability.Consequently, in exploring the concept of sustainability, we draw on research findings from the domain of ethics to more fully understand forces that can promote or undermine sustainability. In this respect, we opine that the influence of leadership is particularly important. Prior to recently visible corporate scandals that implicated key corporate officers, surveys of Harvard Business Review readers indicated \"behaviors of superiors\" as the top ranked factor associated with lower level unethical decisions (e.g. Brenner and Molander, 1977). Ashforth and Anand (2003) pointed out that leaders play a potentially major role in the institutionalization of corrupt behavior because of their modeled behaviors including ignorance, and condoning or even providing rewards for negative behaviors. As legitimized agents of their organization, leaders, particularly those in top management positions, have been found to be in positions to authorize corruption and the unsustainability it entails (Ashforth and Anand, 2003).Balance of power is a concept that has been used to guide international dynamics and nation building: checks and balances have been purposely built into nearly all aspects of our social systems ranging from civic endeavors to the creation and administration of the laws that govern our lands. To wit, even our militaries are founded on checks and balances (Shamir and Lapidot, 2003). Simply put, our business organizations are the last frontier of our social lives where there is a dearth of checks and balances, at least for the majority large-scale multinationals.One cannot argue, however, that there are no checks and balances at the top of organizations. There are, for example, boards of directors, whose role includes oversight of top management activities. A glib observation of the composition of the boards of the Fortune 500 firms, nonetheless, is that it is an unsettling situation. A non-trivial percent of board of director seats are occupied by members of the respective firms' top management team (TMT). Moreover, many boards are chaired by the CEO who is coincidentally the very person that the board is usually charged to review. Even beyond the consideration of direct membership of members of the top management in their own boards is the issue of \"interlocking directorates\" (Monks and Minow, 2001), where the members of TMTs of various organizations serve on each others' boards. As such, it appears that leadership is often rather centralized, without much in the way of checks and balances, in today's modern industrial organizations. Thus, what can one do to inoculate organizations against such forces against sustainability efforts?\nReviewing sustainability in relation to managerial malfeasance: Managerial malfeasance and sustainability-type concepts are gaining closer attention by both scholars (Giacalone and Greenberg, 1997) and practitioners (e.g. United National Global Compact and Accenture, 2010). Multiple terms, including corruption (Ashforth and Anand, 2003), anti-social behavior (Giacalone and Greenberg, 1997), delinquency (Hogan and Hogan, 1989), anti-citizenship behavior and deviance (Robinson and Greenberg, 1998) have been used to describe types of behavior related to managerial malfeasance and the majority of research on these types of issues in organizations has focussed on the lower echelons of personnel.Research on deviant employee behavior has identified a wide-ranging variety of forms of such behavior, including sabotage (Giacalone et al., 1997), theft (Greenburg, 1997), retaliation (Skarlicki and Folger, 1997), litigation (Lind, 1997), aggression (Newman and Baron, 1998) and even humor. The common thread that binds these behaviors is their detriment to the sustainability of an organization.Many surveys have found that offensive or abusive leader behavior served as a necessary justification for employees' engagement in anti-sustainable activities (e.g. Tepper, 2000). For instance, Baron (1988) found that management destructive criticism of followers led to greater anger, tension, resistance, avoidance and lower performance goals. Ball, Sims and Likewise, the perception of provocation has been linked to aggressiveness (Mantell, 1994). Moreover, Ashforth (1997) found petty tyranny to lead to organizational dysfunction. Finally, Pearce and Giacalone found leader micro-management as a significant predictor of anti-citizenship behavior in teams. Though most of these studies focussed on the lower levels of organizations, no evidence exists to suggest the absence of similar and possibly weightier effects from the upper echelons of organizations, because top managements set tones for entire organizations. Robinson and O'Leary-Kelly's (1998) research on modeling effects clearly supports this logic.\nHierarchical leadership and managerial malfeasance: Conger and Kanungo (1998, p. 142) contended that \"the 'visionary leader' is more mythology than reality,\" while Pearce and Manz (2005), more recently, claimed that \"Traditionally, organizations have focused on a top-heavy, heroic model of leadership in order to extract work-product from their employees. We believe this model is a myth.\" Given that many authors have questioned the viability of the top heavy, centralized leadership model (e.g. Pfeffer, 1977), why is it still persistent in contemporary organizations? Lord and Mather, 1991 suggest that we all possess prototypes of how we believe leaders should behave, that these have been shaped by history, and that they are very resistant to change. Sims and Gioia (1986) further articulated the social conception and sharing of the Lord and Mather prototypes.Strong, centralized leadership ideas survived the twentieth century and continue to exist in contemporary organizations (Pearce and Manz, 2005). In other settings, a prototypical leader of the same description is termed the \"strong man\" leader or the \"directive\" leader (e.g. Manz and Sims, 2001; Pearce et al., 2003). The strong, centralized leadership model depends on command and control in order to obtain compliance, often based on fear and intimidation by the leader upon the followers. In addition, other forms of leadership, for example, transactional leadership - founded on the leader offering rewards and incentives in exchange for follower compliance - emphasize a one-way influence course of leaders over followers.Even where leadership models rely on influence factors like unifying vision and inspiration: visionary, charismatic and transformational types of leadership (e.g. Bass, 1985, 1998; Conger, 1999; House, 1977) the leader is still the primary focus and source of thinking, ideas and decision making. The centralized view of leadership that is reinforced by historically embedded leadership prototypes (e.g. Lord and Mather, 1991), absent necessary checks and balances afforded by shared leadership, is a primary problem for sustainability of contemporary organizations.\nShared leadership: toward corporate sustainability: Though empowering leadership may aid the creation of potential for decentralizing executive leadership, shared leadership helps to create the requisite leadership \"checks and balances\" in a system, what Cox et al. (2003, p. 172) describe as \"a more robust, flexible and dynamic leadership infrastructure.\" Though a relatively new concept in organizational literature, shared leadership has recently became the subject of several serious and rigorous studies (see Wassenaar and Pearce, 2012 for a review). Initial evidence, encompassing a wide variety of contexts, indicates that shared leadership may exert powerful effects on sustainable group and organizational outcomes, as outlined below.At least three empirical studies have directly compared the effects of centralized, vertical leadership to the effects of decentralized, shared leadership on several important group outcomes. First, Pearce (1997) and Pearce and Sims (2002) studied 71 change management teams (CMTs). These teams were cross-functional, highly interdependent and semi-permanent. These studies found that shared leadership is a better predictor of several team variables, including effectiveness, over vertical leadership. Pearce (1997) also found that decentralized, shared leadership is more effective than centralized, vertical leadership in attenuating the dysfunctional influence of employee anti-citizenship behavior.Second, Pearce et al. (2004) studied 28 virtual teams of community revitalization experts assembled from across the USA as participants in an executive education program. The action-learning projects for these teams involved the development of a community revitalization plan for a small city in the mid-Atlantic USA. Each team was carefully constituted to ensure that team members were not co-located in the same geographic location, i.e. teams were as heterogeneous as possible. The participants were given ten weeks to develop the community revitalization plan via e-mail, groupware, fax and telephone. The results of this study also indicated decentralized, shared leadership as a better predictor of several team outcomes including problem solving, over centralized, vertical leadership.Also, Ensley et al. (2006) conducted a two-sample study of TMTs. The first sample comprised 66 entrepreneurial TMTs from the Inc 500, a group of privately held firms that constituted the fastest growing in the USA. The second sample consisted of 154 firms that were randomly drawn from the US national sample of entrepreneurial firms in the Dun & Bradstreet Database. Both samples indicated that decentralized, shared leadership was a better predictor of firm growth rates than centralized, vertical leadership.Together, these studies suggest that shared leadership may indeed provide a more robust leadership system than centralized, vertical leadership. Importantly, the Ensley et al. (2006) study demonstrates that decentralized leadership is applicable at TMT levels. Finally, the Pearce (1997) study directly links shared leadership to the potential for dampening unsustainable practices.\nManagerial development vs managerial malfeasance: We view two broad strategies for managerial development efforts to guard against the corruptive influence of managerial malfeasance. The first strategy has to do with selection while the second has to do with the edification of those already in place.Management development through selection\nSummary: We advocate both selecting and edifying for shared leadership as a fundamental mechanism for enhancing overall organizational capacity for sustainability. Selection is perhaps the best management development approach for sustainability but edification through training and skills enhancement should be ongoing and integrated if sustainability is to be sustainable, so to speak.\nImplications: There are varied noteworthy implications from our manuscript. First is what Bass et al. (1987) described as the \"falling dominoes effect.\" They found that followers tend to copy the management behavior that they experienced from above, and used the phrase to capture that effect. Pearce and Sims (2002) observed this effect regarding both less and more desirable types of leadership, finding that the best predictor of follower aversive leadership - the use of threats and intimidation - was the aversive leadership of the designated leader, while the best predictor of follower empowering leadership was the empowering leadership they experienced from above. Robinson and O'Leary-Kelly (1998) also found that work groups mimetically influenced the behavior of individuals. Schein (1992) sharply observed that leadership and culture are inextricably linked. Thence, managerial selection is extremely important if an organization must be immunized against the potential for unsustainable business practices. Second, ongoing development efforts are essential for sustained, sustainability efforts.In addition to the two major implications highlighted above, several other implications are raised for future research. One of our primary objectives was to shine some light on the importance of management in unleashing or curtailing the potential for sustainable practices. We have proclaimed that shared leadership offers important potentially positive influences on sustainability. Thus, more research directly examining the relationship between shared leadership and sustainability is highly desirable. Further, studies on the methodology of the development of shared leadership capability is also necessary.Shared leadership deserves further theoretical and empirical attention, both as an important under-researched leadership perspective and as a promising approach to encourage organizational sustainability. Such work may ultimately reveal that it is time to move beyond the moribund myth of heroic, top-heavy leadership and the unsustainability it entails.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the linkage between leadership and sustainability. Recent scandals involving executive leadership have significantly contributed to the topic of sustainability becoming one of the most important concerns of the management literature in the twenty-first century.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors' approach is to review the extant literature and develop a theoretical model of the connection between leadership, in its many forms, and sustainability.\nFindings: - Most treatments of sustainability have focused on glorifying top executives for their sustainability efforts or vilifying them for their lack thereof. The authors claim that this perspective is oversimplified and flawed.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The authors develop several readily testable propositions to guide future research.\nPractical implications: - The practical implications of the authors' model are focused on the engagement of employees at work: the philosophical perspective espoused in the model is one founded on empowerment and active involvement.\nSocial implications: - The model purports mechanisms through which organizations can develop more robust systems that ultimately can translate into more sustainable organizational practices.\nOriginality/value: - The presented model is original in that the authors propose that broadening management development across all levels of organizations, along the lines of shared leadership theory, will facilitate organizational sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A fuzzy integrated approach for project selection
|
[
"Information systems",
"Project selection",
"Fuzzy analytical hierarchical process",
"Fuzzy multi-objective linear programming",
"Multi-criteria decision making"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Increase in competitiveness, well informed and demanding customers, increasing demand for customized products/services and as well as requirements for worldwide markets make managers, academicians and researchers attach great importance to project selection decision. In order to develop an efficient project selection process, it is required to deal with uncertainties, constraints of the projects, growing complexity and uniqueness also size of projects, etc. Therefore, organizations have to focus on improvement of project selection process coping with various multiple criteria, objectives and various goals that usually conflict with each other in terms of completion time, project budget and number of workers, etc.\n2. Project selection problem in IS sector: In the scope of IS sector, project selection is a famous sub category for decision makers. Project selection in IS sector is a process of determination of candidate projects for maximizing the profit and make resources allocated efficiently under some constraints (Sanathanam and Kyparisis, 1995). A successful project selection makes companies utilize resources at optimal level and provides increase in advantages obtained from evaluation processes (Cheng and Li, 2005). The establishment of a systematic project selection methodology by deciding on \"which investments are made on which projects\" is a critical issue to ensure operations efficiently and to increase the performance of enterprises. Therefore the managers and researchers attach too much importance to project selection problem area. The methods used in problem selection can be mainly collected into two main groups: single criteria analysis and multiple criteria analysis. Single criteria analysis is developed by using a basic ratio such as cost/benefit. On the other hand, multi-criteria analysis is developed by using ranking models, scoring models or evaluation methods (Lee and Kim, 2000). In real life, problems have a multi-faceted structure, therefore multi-criteria analysis is more appropriate to be used for solution. However, the major drawback of multi-criteria decision techniques is they do not provide optimal solution that is obtained by considering resource constraints. When a project is found as advantageous after some negotiations with experts, it does not mean that its requirements such as time and budget will be met in all cases. These kinds of results are mostly limited with views of decision makers. In order to struggle with this problem, optimization techniques can be used additionally. From opposite perspective, multi-objective optimization models are sufficient for project selection and resource allocation problems, but the priorities of objectives are defined according to opinions of decision makers. That can make the system have more conflict in the model. In order to overcome this drawback, a MCDM model is required to define the weights and priorities of objectives confidentially (Lee and Kim, 2000).\n3. The integrated approach to the project selection problem: The paper proposes an integrated approach to assist the managers in making an effective decision on IS project selection. The approach combines two multi-criteria decision-making methods to evaluate and select the projects with regard to multiple conflicting criteria and objectives: analytic hierarchy process evaluation and multi-objective linear programming under fuzzy environment. The proposed approach using the methods is consisted of mainly three stages as follows:\n4. Sensitivity analysis: This part of the study deals with the sensitivity analysis which is performed to observe if there is a change in the solution of the project selection problem. In the study, the developed model is solved by applying different method called preemptive priority model as suggested in the study of Chen and Tsai (2001). In the study, following respective achievement degrees for the goals are added to the model as constraints instead of desirable achievement degrees:\n5. Conclusions remarks and future research directions: Project selection in information system has significant importance because costly, intense and complex IS projects are implemented with the limited resources pool in the companies. Despite most of managers use financial factors to evaluate the projects traditionally; determining which projects to fund is a MCDM considering large number of attributes. The objective of this study is to propose an integrated fuzzy-based approach for ranking the project alternatives within IS context, and making selection from various competing project alternatives. In order to do this; actual projects are provided from the Turkish IS company for prioritizing alternative projects. Considering managerial, technical, project management and organizational performance-related criteria, alternative projects have been evaluated by utilizing FAHP. The findings of this stage indicate that the most important criteria considered in IS project is \"organizational performance related criteria\" that consist of sub-criteria such as increased market share, productivity improvement, reduced process failure, improved quality of information and on time delivery.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a systematic and comprehensive project selection model utilizing fuzzy multi-objective linear programming (FMOLP) that deals with the imprecise data in IS projects and uncertain judgment of decision makers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, projects are prioritized by considering both quantitative and qualitative factors. A fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (FAHP) is used in order to obtain weights of each project that indicates their priorities. At the second step, project selection decision is completed by using FMOLP. Then, the sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate the robustness of the proposed integrated model.\nFindings: The result of this study indicates that an integrated approach utilizing FAHP and FMOLP can be used as a supportive tool for project selection in IS context. It decreases the uncertainty caused from uncertain judgment of decision makers.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future studies are suggested to design models having fuzzy constraints such as budget and resources. Moreover, for future studies, non-linear membership functions can be used.\nPractical implications: Actual projects are provided from the Turkish IS company for prioritizing process and a hypothetical mathematical model is demonstrated using illustrative data.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the relevant literature by proposing a comprehensive model considering many conflicting ideas of decision makers on quantitative and qualitative criteria, and evaluating projects in an integrated way including FAHP and FMOLP.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Moving beyond the descriptive: The grounded theory of mitigating risk and the theorisation of information literacy
|
[
"Information literacy",
"International students",
"Time",
"Affect",
"Information practices",
"Information creation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information literacy has consistently been undertheorised (Limberg et al., 2012; Lloyd, 2005, 2017; Tuominen et al., 2005). While \"literacy\" has been identified as a growth word within the Library and Information Science (LIS) literature (Lariviere et al., 2012) and there has been a steady increase in information literacy dissertations (Webber and Johnston, 2017, p. 163) and peer-reviewed articles (Sproles et al., 2013), it was not until 2017 that the field was able to point to its first theory (Lloyd, 2017). There are many potential reasons for this lack of theorisation. On the one hand, information literacy has been dominated by conceptualisations that draw upon normative professional practice and policy-making approaches rather than analytically driven research-based understandings (Pilerot and Lindberg, 2011). On the other hand, the field may have been distracted from theory building by the prolongation of (often acrimonious) discussions regarding the shape and purpose of information literacy, which has variously been described as a skill, a habit of mind or a social practice (Hicks and Lloyd, 2016). A lack of theorisation may also reflect issues within the broader field of LIS, which has been critiqued by North American library historian, Wayne Wiegand (1999), for neglecting to engage beyond its discursive formations. However, as Lloyd (2017, p. 91) points out, a continued failure to engage in theory-building challenges our ability to situate information literacy within LIS research as well as to translate and \"champion\" its benefits within workplaces, broader communities and funding agencies.\n2. Theorising information literacy: Information literacy, which falls under what Bates (1999, p. 1048) refers to as the social question within the field of Information Science or how people relate to, seek and use information, is a complex phenomenon that is further complicated by the array of understandings that scholars and librarians use to conceptualise the field. Most generally, information literacy constitutes a field of research that centres on \"theoretical understandings of information, learning and knowledge\" (Limberg et al., 2012, p. 95). The key role that learning and information play within complex social worlds illustrates the importance of interpreting and conceptualising information literacy in more detail. However, the tendency to position information literacy as a teaching rather than as a learning object (Limberg et al., 2012, p. 94) has limited the construction of theoretical understanding about how it is shaped and mediated as well as how it relates to the connected areas of information behaviour (Julien and Williamson, 2010), information seeking (Limberg and Sundin, 2006) and information practices (Lloyd, 2010). Even the employment of more rigorous phenomenographic, sociocultural or discourse analysis perspectives, which form three of the most common lenses through which information literacy has been explored (Limberg et al., 2012, p. 95), has failed to lead to sustained interest in the theorisation of information literacy. The use of grounded theory as a method of inquiry has similarly tended to stop short of information literacy theory building (Hicks, 2018a).\n3. The language-learner study: The grounded theory of mitigating risk was produced through doctoral research that explored the information literacy practices of language-learners who were engaged in work or study abroad as a part of their undergraduate degree. This period of time overseas is often interpreted as a highlight of the modern language degree, a chance to connect the classroom with \"authentic\" activity. However, despite the acknowledgement that language-learning during this time is intricately linked to the development and modification of knowledge (Lantolf and Thorne, 2006, p. 5), the role that information plays in helping students to build meaning within a new context as well as to mediate these changes in educational circumstances has rarely been considered. To this end, the original study was driven by the following research question:\n4. The grounded theory of mitigating risk and information literacy: These research findings were subsequently conceptualised through the lens of the study's theoretical framework as well as the theoretical constructs of cognitive authority and affordance to produce the emergent grounded theory of mitigating risk. The grounded theory of mitigating risk states that the risks that are produced through engagement within a new information environment catalyse the enactment of the information literacy practices that mediate transition to and within a new setting. This theorisation, which emerges through the application of constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014), is interpretive and centres on the production of abstract understanding about participant realities rather than forming a decontextualised generalisation, as is found in a positivist definition of theory (Charmaz, 2014, p. 229). The important role that the construction of new information landscapes plays within the theorisation of the study's findings means that the grounded theory of mitigating risk has a number of implications for our understanding of information literacy.\n5. Discussion: The grounded theory of mitigating risk constitutes an interpretive and emergent conceptualisation of the ways in which newcomers rebuild understanding within an unfamiliar information environment. Its implications for information literacy illustrate the value in theorising the information activities in which learners participate as well as the importance of continuing to develop increasingly sophisticated insight into the ways in which they construct their information landscapes.\n6. Conclusion: This paper has conceptualised information literacy through the lens of the grounded theory of mitigating risk (Hicks, 2019). Providing a localised theorisation of language-learner activity overseas, the grounded theory of mitigating risk illustrates how information literacy forms a complex social practice that is catalysed and shaped through the concept of risk. In offering a theoretical interpretation of the social dynamics of this period, as well as students' goals and motivations for their time overseas, the grounded theory of mitigating risk also uses shared and participatory experiences to create emergent and practical insight into temporal, situated, affective and creative dimensions of information literacy. Findings from this paper consequently illustrate the importance of continuing to build theoretical understanding in relation to how information literacy is manifest. Given that practice theory is under-utilised within information literacy research, findings also point to the key role that this theoretical framework can play in facilitating information literacy theory building, as well as the need to explore these ideas further. While the grounded theory of mitigating risk needs to be examined within other contexts to determine its use in explaining transitional activities, it is clear that an emphasis on theory building leads to a rich and complex set of understandings about the multitude of ways in which information literacy impacts upon the coherence of social life.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Information literacy has been consistently undertheorised. The purpose of this paper is to contribute in the ongoing theorisation of information literacy by exploring the meaning and implications of the emergent grounded theory of mitigating risk for information literacy research and practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The grounded theory was produced through a qualitative study that was framed by practice theory and the theoretical constructs of cognitive authority and affordance, and employed constructivist grounded theory, semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation methods to explore the information literacy practices of language-learners overseas.\nFindings: This paper provides a theoretically rich exploration of language-learner information literacy practices while further identifying the importance of time, affect and information creation within information literacy research and practice as well as the need for the continued theorisation of information literacy concepts.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper's constructivist grounded theorisation of information literacy remains localised and contextualised rather than generalisable.\nPractical implications: The paper raises questions and points of reflection that may be used to inform the continued development of information literacy instruction and teaching practices.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to an increasingly sophisticated theoretical conceptualisation of information literacy as well as forming a basis for ongoing theoretical development in the field.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Exploring the benefits and challenges of learning analytics in higher education institutions: a systematic literature review
|
[
"Higher education",
"Data analytics",
"Educational data",
"Benefits",
"Academic analytics",
"Learning analytics",
"Literature review",
"Challenges"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Several actors in the external environment, including technological advances, have forced major changes to organizations including higher education institutions. According to Ward (2013), some of the changes in higher education are irreversible. Some of these changes include the increasing demand on higher education intertwined with limited capacity to meet demand, a continuous evolution of quality definition in higher education, declining educational quality (Kovtun and Stick, 2009), increasing need for efficient use of resources (Gamboa and Melao, 2012), increased accountability (Kai, 2009) and the revolutionary influence of technology on students learning experiences, teaching and learning and managerial issues and decision-making in higher education. In recent years, the teaching paradigm is shifting from teacher-centered to learner-centered (Kivunja, 2014). To meet the objectives of the twenty-first century learning, students are expected to develop critical thinking, adoption of technology, teamwork and self-regulated learning.\n2. Literature review: Previous literature reviews focused on explaining learning analytics as a term in comparison to other terms (Romero and Ventura, 2010; Ferguson, 2012), methods of learning analytics (Romero and Ventura, 2010; Baker and Yacef, 2009; Avella et al., 2016) and objectives of learning analytics (Papamitsiou and Economides, 2014). The majority of studies highlighted the importance and challenges of learning analytics as one of the side points within their main research topics resulting in a dispersed effort across learning analytics literature (Arnold and Pistilli, 2012; Papamitsiou and Economides, 2014; Rogers et al., 2016). The current research focuses on particular issue pertaining to learning analytics by synthesizing its opportunities and challenges scattered in various studies and classifying in relevance with several stakeholders in higher education including education mangers, academics and researchers.\n3. Method: Hallinger (2013) highlighted that despite of the fundamental role of research reviews in advancing the body of knowledge, review of research is underappreciated. Review of the literature reflect the various streams of research and the developments within particular areas of investigation. Review of research potentially identifies under-researched areas, uncovers inconsistencies in the literature and highlights future research directions. Consequently, as pointed out research reviews earns more attention and focus than what currently exist, and therefore, the current research adopts a systematic literature review approach in answering the research questions. Until 2010 that big data and data analytics area started witnessing a rapid growth as a result of massive data availability and proliferation of mobile and other digital devices (Argwal, 2014), and hence, it important to examine the extant literature in attempt to identify the current state of research in the field of learning analytics and uncover future research directions. The critical role of research reviews, the relative newness of learning analytics in addition to the exploratory nature of the research questions justify the use of a systematic literature review.\n4. Data analysis: Based on the inclusion criteria, 40 articles were selected after careful examination. The articles were classified based on the type of research into three categories conceptual, empirical and systematic literature review. It is found that 20 research papers are empirical, 12 conceptual and 8 systematic literature review (Figure 1). Empirical studies are further classified according to the domain relevant to higher education including: teaching and learning-related, education management-related and research-related domains (Figure 2). Teaching and learning related articles include curriculum development and evaluation, assessments, students' learning styles and learning processes, students' performance and all other activities related to teaching and learning. Education management related articles involve research necessary for decision making, processes, policies and other issues that affect the educational institution strategically. Research related domain includes the methods used to analyze educational data.\n5. Findings: Empirical studies represent 50 per cent of studies under investigation, conceptual studies represent 30 per cent, while systematic literature review represent only 20 per cent reflecting a limited attention given its importance. Findings indicate that benefits and challenges are more emphasized in teaching and learning (55 per cent) as compared to management- (32 per cent) and research-related (13 per cent) domains.\n6. Discussion and implications: Because of benefits reported by many empirical studies, the field of learning analytics can attract researchers and educators, but its success is subject to dealing with the challenges mentioned in the current research. Among the challenges facing learning analytics is analyzing unstructured text such as discussion boards, blogs and tags. Therefore, there is an increased need for qualitative research methods for a remarkable improvement in educational research. McNamara et al. (2014) highlights the importance of conducting discourse and content analysis utilizing natural language processing and text mining methods as means to support qualitative research. Concerns that relate to privacy protection, ethical use of data and data security (Wang, 2016) is a serious challenge. Clear institutional privacy protection policies should be in place, communicated and enforced, while the value of learning analytics is promoted.\n7. Limitations and future research direction: The current research used peer reviewed articles as a source for identifying relevant studies. Including other sources such as conference papers, dissertations, book chapters could have enhanced the comprehensiveness of the study. An exhaustive systematic review entails going through a wide range of resources (Murphy, 2008; Robinson et al., 2008). Additionally, learning analytics draws concepts and theories from different disciplines such as business administration and computer science, accordingly the inclusion and use of articles from various disciplines can reflect a holistic view on the topic, uncover areas of attention in these different disciplines and, therefore, fosters interdisciplinary research for the advancement of learning analytics.\n8. Conclusion: The benefits of learning analytics continue to support and develop higher education different domains of higher education within which challenges simultaneously exist. In this research, a typology related to educational domains is developed and used to classify dispersed efforts addressing benefits and challenges of learning analytics into management-, teaching and learning- and research-related domains. The typology suggested in this research brings to the attention of relevant stakeholders the value of using learning analytics and the challenges expected to be faced within their respective domain leading to a higher adoption and utilization of learning analytics. Based on the systematic literature review conducted, more research efforts need to be directed to studying learning analytics that addresses research-related issues for enhancing applied and pure research in learning analytics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The potential capabilities and benefits that learning analytics can provide are not fully utilized. A current stream of research suggests that learning analytics has more to offer for continuous improvement of higher education institutions. This study aims to explore the opportunities that data analytics stand to offer higher education and the challenges that plays down its role, adoption and usage in different areas of higher education institutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopts a systematic literature review approach in answering the research questions. The critical role of learning analytics and the exploratory nature of research questions justify the use of systematic literature review. The current study used systematic research process adapted and presented by Hallinger (2013) to be used in social sciences in general and in educational leadership and management in particular. A standard process of finding relevant articles and examining reference lists is followed using articles from higher education which is the research context.\nFindings: An examination of the literature showed that the majority of studies within the sample of articles are empirical representing 53 per cent, 32 per cent are conceptual, while only 15 per cent of the articles are a systematic literature review. Results also show that 58 per cent of the articles are teaching and learning related, 34 per cent are management related, while only 8 per cent are research related. Several challenges and opportunities of learning analytics in the three areas highlighted are presented and discussed.\nOriginality/value: The benefits and challenges of learning analytics are numerous and scattered in the literature. In this study, a typology related to different educational domains is developed to shed light on the benefits and challenges of learning analytics within particular higher education areas that are relevant to specific stakeholders. Benefits and challenges of learning analytics are classified into being management related, teaching and learning related and research related.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumer purchase intention for organic personal care products
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Value analysis",
"Purchasing",
"Personal hygiene"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\n1. Introduction: Awareness of the destruction of natural resources has raised the issue of environmental protection, which in turn has created eco-friendly consumption called \"green consumerism\" (Moisander, 2007). As the issue of environmental protection has gained attention, environmental ethics has had an impact on US consumers' activities (Kangun et al., 1991; Martin and Simintiras, 1995; Todd, 2004). Specifically, US consumer demand has led to the increase in diversity of green product categories, such as laundry detergents, personal care products, and energy saving electronics (Martin and Simintiras, 1995; Schlegelmilch et al., 1996). As green products have gained popularity in the market, more consumers have looked for greener products (Nimse et al., 2007). Following the food sector, the personal care sector accounted for the second largest portion of sales in the US organic industry (Organic Trade Association, 2006). D'Souza et al. (2006) claim that consumers' ecological concerns may be key factors in the marketing of cosmetic products.Although the fast growth in sales of organic and natural care products has intrigued researchers' interests, most existing research on the organic personal care industry has dealt with marketing strategies rather consumer behavior. Without in-depth understanding of consumer behavior for this product category, it is difficult to devise effective marketing strategies. Furthermore, although there are numerous studies regarding consumers' attitudes and purchase behaviors of green products (Chen, 2007; Magnusson et al., 2001; Padel and Foster, 2005; Zanoli and Naspetti, 2002), these studies have focused mainly on organic food products and were conducted outside of the USA.Thus, the primary objective of this study is to examine US consumers' purchasing behavior of organic personal care products base on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by Ajzen (1985). Specifically, this study considers consumer values as an antecedent of attitude and consumers' past experiences as a predictor of purchase intention. Additionally, the moderating influence of perceived behavioral control on the attitude-purchase intention relationship is examined.\n2. Theoretical framework: The TPB, which has been applied previously to predict green consumer behavior, and robustness of the theory has been confirmed (Bamberg, 2003; Chan and Lau, 2001; Kalafatis et al., 1999), is used to explain the antecedents of intention to buy organic skin/hair care products. Specifically, this study considers consumer values as an antecedent of attitude, consumers' past experiences as a predictor of purchase intention, and perceived behavioral control as a moderator of the attitude-purchase intention relationship (see Figure 1).2.1 Consumer values and attitude\n3. Method: A California company specializing in online marketing research recruited online participants for this study. A quota sample was used in terms of age (18 years or older) and residence in the USA. Of the 207 responses collected, 202 valid responses were used for the empirical analysis. 53.5 percent of the respondents were females and the mean age was 44.3 years.3.1 Measures\n4. Results: 4.1 Preliminary analysis\n5. Discussion: Turning first to the findings of the relationship between consumer values and attitude, environmental consciousness and appearance consciousness rather health consciousness were found to be important in predicting consumers' attitudes toward organic personal care products. This result provides a difference in consumer purchase behavior regarding organic foods and organic personal care products. Moreover, the results showed that all TPB predictors are significantly correlated with purchase intention for organic personal care products. The findings of this research revealed that an individual's past experiences with other organic products have a significant impact on purchase intention for organic personal care products, which provides evidence that an organic lifestyle is reflected in an individual's consumption pattern. Furthermore, this study extended an application of the TPB by examining the moderating influence of perceived behavioral control on the relationship between attitude toward buying organic personal care products and purchase intention for them.Based on the findings of this study and the study's limitations, several suggestions for future research are made. First, although an online survey provided the sample from various geographic locations in the USA, only people who had access to a computer and the internet were able to participate in this study. Thus, future research could use both methods, an online and offline survey such as a mall-intercept method, to compensate for the weakness of each method. Second, the findings of this study may not be applicable to other product categories of organic personal care products or to other organic products even though the results revealed there were no product differences in attitude and intention between the two products. Therefore, further study needs to obtain greater generalizability with a variety of product categories. Finally, it would also be valuable to explore the factors that influence consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions toward stores offering organic products. Future research might help organic product retailers understand how consumer values influence attitude toward the stores. It could suggest that establishing a positive attitude toward stores might play an important role in increasing consumers' store purchases as well as enhancing store preferences.\n6. Managerial implications: This research provides valuable insights for organic personal care product retailers and manufacturers by indicating attitude is the most important determinant of purchase intention among the four predictors.The findings of this study suggest that creating a positive attitude toward buying organic personal care products may be a significant consideration for retailers to increase consumers' purchase intentions for the products. As a result, this study suggests that retailers develop effective marketing strategies emphasizing ecological beauty or product safety to satisfy the values of potential consumers. In addition, this research shows the significant moderating role of perceived behavioral control on the relationship between attitude and purchase intention and hence, it suggests that retailers might try to change consumers' perceptions of higher prices to affordable prices using marketing strategies (e.g. discount, advertisement, new product development), which would make consumers believe that they are capable to buy organic personal care products. Furthermore, over 70 percent of respondents who had experiences with organic products have purchased organic foods. The findings of this study suggest that organic personal care product retailers might attract potential consumers by displaying their products near the organic food sections at a grocery store. Or organic personal care product retailers might develop combined management activities called co-marketing with organic food product retailers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine the effects of consumer values and past experiences on consumer purchase intention of organic personal care products, this study aims to consider further the moderating effect of perceived behavioral control on the attitude-intention relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An online survey was conducted with 207 online panel members, and multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationships among the variables.\nFindings: - The results indicate that environmental consciousness and appearance consciousness positively influence attitude toward buying organic personal care products. The addition of past experiences as a predictor of purchase intention and perceived behavioral control as a moderator of the attitude-purchase intention relationship yielded an improvement on the TPB model.\nPractical implications: - This study suggests that retailers can develop effective marketing strategies emphasizing ecological beauty, product safety, and affordable prices to increase consumers' intentions to buy organic personal care products.\nOriginality/value: - This study provides valuable insight into US consumer behavior regarding organic personal care products by examining the factors that influence consumers' attitudes toward buying organic personal care products and consumers' purchase intentions for the products. Furthermore, this study extends an application of the TPB by examining the moderating influence of perceived behavioral control on the attitude-intention relationship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Board structure and financial distress in Brazilian firms
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Board of directors",
"Financial distress",
"U-shaped format"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The board of directors (BD) exercises a key position in the corporate governance system and its role has grown over the years (Hermalin and Weisbach, 2003; Jensen, 1993; Lipton and Lorsch, 1992). Its role in different economic scenarios and cases of distress is regularly investigated (Manzaneque, Merino and Priego, 2016; Manzaneque, Priego and Merino, 2016; Mselmi et al., 2017), but one question remains unanswered: can the BD exert influence and have the commitment to help firms during period of distress, and thus, align the agents' interests in highly concentrated ownership environments?\n2. Theoretical framework: This section recounts some theories of FD and corporate governance, in particular, the BD's influence in financially and non-financially distressed firms and presents our hypotheses.\n3. Data and method: The sample is composed of Brazilian non-financial firms listed in the B3 from 2010 to 2016, with available data taken from the following sources: Economatica database (for financial statements) and Brazilian Securities Commission (CVM; for details about BD composition). The beginning period is based on the initial adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards[2] (IFRS) by Brazilian firms.\n4. Results and discussions: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusions: This paper aimed to evaluate what board characteristics affect firms in periods of FD. The sample comprises data from 2010 to 2016 of non-financial Brazilian public firms. Using a conditional logistic regression and a pair-matched analysis to create groups of distressed firms and non-distressed firms, we examined a sample composed of 298 matched observations (149 firms for each group).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate what board characteristics affect companies in periods of financial distress (FD) among non-financial Brazilian firms and examine which model best fits to predict FD.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sample comprises data from 2010 to 2016 of the non-financial Brazilian firms listed on the Brazilian Stock Exchange. To measure this relationship, a conditional logistic regression is performed.\nFindings: A U-shaped relationship between the size of the board of directors (BD) and FD is found in all models, indicating an optimal number of six members in the BD during the period of FD. However, board characteristics (related to composition and directors' independence) are insufficient to align the shareholders' interests and unsuitable for avoiding or even reducing FD in firms when other factors are neglected. Furthermore, the results reveal what variables provide the best-fitting models to predict FD.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that investigates how the composition of the BD affects the FD likelihood in the Brazilian context. The findings are potentially of interest to researchers and practitioners since this paper contributes to the growing literature on the influence of corporate governance mechanisms in periods of FD and the understanding of its prediction models.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Tapping into the wearable device revolution in the work environment: a systematic review
|
[
"Benefits",
"Systematic literature review",
"Mobile communications",
"Occupational health",
"Work environment",
"Wearable devices",
"Business process improvement",
"Wireless technology",
"Work performance",
"IT-enabled social innovations",
"Wearable technologies",
"Wearable robotics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The evolution of technologies, such as computers and smartphones, has dramatically reshaped the work environment in recent decades. Many job descriptions have changed because work has shifted from manual labour to predominantly physically inactive duties (desk jobs, automated assembly lines, etc.) (Engbers, 2008). Potentially, this shift could have enormous effects on the physical well-being of employees, increasing the likelihood of occupational injuries and illness (Dembe et al., 2005). Working long hours for long periods of time is associated with depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, chronic heart disease (Bannai and Tamakoshi, 2014) and chronic stress disease (Muaremi et al., 2013). According to Baka and Uzunoglu (2016), \"Occupational accidents still occur, despite technical developments in the occupational safety field at large\" (p. 69). Potential injuries occur in industrial environments because of complex, hazardous conditions (Kenn and Burgy, 2014; Kritzler et al., 2015; Baka and Uzunoglu, 2016) and fatigue. Studies conducted by various researchers and managers have generally recognised that health and well-being can negatively affect both workers and organisations (Danna and Griffin, 1999). Companies often suffer significant financial losses because of the illness and poor health of their employees (Kritzler et al., 2015). Baka and Uzunoglu (2016) further stated that, \"costs include lost production, negative impacts on staff morale, bad publicity, legal costs and the costs of replacing employees or equipment\" (p. 76). Therefore, there is a need to improve health and safety to benefit both a company and its employees.\n2. Related work: This section details both the benefits and negative implications of wearable technology discussed in recent years by other researchers. Dunne et al. (2007) suggest wearable devices can beneficially improve health, safety and well-being in the work environment. Many researchers' currently conducting studies have focussed exclusively on evaluating commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or proof of concept (PoC) wearable devices to understand their advantages compared to existing programmes.\n3. Methods: This study adopts and applies a SLR approach based on the guidelines provided by Kitchenham and Charters (2007) and the recommendations of Petersen et al. (2008). Kitchenham and Charters (2007) define a SLR as a \"means of identifying, analysing and interpreting all available data relevant to the particular research question (RQ) or topic area, or phenomenon of interest\" (p. 3) in an unbiased way. Steiger et al. (2015) assert that, \"conducting a systematic literature review is an efficient way to select the best available research and facilitates research approaches by identifying current existing research gaps and study limitations\" (p. 21). The guidelines suggest that researchers should utilise three phases to streamline the SLR approach: planning the review, conducting the review and reporting the review. In this study, reporting the review is mentioned as result instead. The following section explains how this SLR adopted this approach.\n4. Results: Petersen et al. (2008) recommend researchers do SLRs to investigate and make use of alternative ways of presenting and visualising their results. The results of the present review were consolidated from the relevant articles and are presented in this section in the form of graphs and tables with analysis.\n5. Discussion and research agenda: Having healthy employees is important for companies and being healthy is obviously desirable. As research reviewed in this work indicates, monitoring can be used to determine the causes of stress and to limit them by understanding the general feeling of the work environment at any given time without explicitly asking any employees (Zenonos et al., 2016). By monitoring physical changes in the body, it may be possible to detect illnesses (Chan et al., 2012) and obtain proper treatment before those illnesses progress. The use of wearable devices can improve the safety of work environments (Baka and Uzunoglu, 2016) and increase productivity. However, this SLR revealed that challenges - technological (i.e. usability, technology readiness and security), social (i.e. privacy and adoption), policy-related, regulatory, economic and data-related - remain.\n6. Conclusion: Utilising wearable technology in the work environment to improve the health and safety of employees is a relatively new concept, but the research has gained significant momentum over the last few years. This paper is the first SLR on the topic. The strength of this work lies in its attempt to analyse relevant earlier studies and identify current research trends, while also examining the future potential of wearable technology in the workplace. This review reveals that wearable technology is not only appropriate for personal use but also has the potential for use in the work environment. These devices may be used for real-time monitoring, tracking, designing and other purposes. Previous studies have described some of the potential benefits of using wearable devices in the workplace, including monitoring and improving employees' psychological and physiological health, enhancing operational efficiency and collaboration, promoting work-environment safety and security and implementing industrial design. Potential negative implications and challenges of wearables in the work environment are also discussed. Many of these wearables, including exoskeletons and smart clothing, are still in the initial stages of development, but initial indications show they may revolutionise the work environment for the mutual benefit of employees and employers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand current knowledge about the recent trend of wearable technology to assess both its potential in the work environment and the challenges concerning the utilisation of wearables in the workplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After establishing exclusion and inclusion criteria, an independent systematic search of the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect and Web of Science databases for relevant studies was performed. Out of a total of 359 articles, 34 met the selection criteria.\nFindings: This review identifies 23 categories of wearable devices. Further categorisation of the devices based on their utilisation shows they can be used in the work environment for activities including monitoring, augmenting, assisting, delivering and tracking. The review reveals that wearable technology has the potential to increase work efficiency among employees, improve workers' physical well-being and reduce work-related injuries. However, the review also reveals that technological, social, policy and economic challenges related to the use of wearable devices remain.\nResearch limitations/implications: Many studies have investigated the benefits of wearable devices for personal use, but information about the use of wearables in the work environment is limited. Further research is required in the fields of technology, social challenges, organisation strategies, policies and economics to enhance the adoption rate of wearable devices in work environments.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies indicate that occupational stress and injuries are detrimental to employees' health; this paper analyses the use of wearable devices as an intervention method to monitor or prevent these problems. Introducing a categorisation framework during implementation may help identify which types of device categories are suitable and could be beneficial for specific utilisation purposes, facilitating the adoption of wearable devices in the workplace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Futures of new post-truth: new research frontiers on disturbingly fascinating pathologies affecting information dissemination and knowledge production
|
[
"Social media",
"Fake news",
"Academic responsibility",
"Age of deception",
"Futures of truth",
"Post-truth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act\" - George Orwell\nConclusions: There is an ambitious future outlook, 'a reasonable utopian' idea, one of a world where truth reigns. This study raised the question: How do the threats of new post-truth affect our sociological construction of the world's futures of truth and knowledge creation and what must the response of academia be? We have argued that there is no such a thing as post-truth per se, but new untruth based on miseducation, misinformation and mass deception. This is because intergenerational lack of truth on almost all the major issues in global governance, economics, politics, education and religion never ended, to start with. As a vocabulary, post-truth tends to misleadingly suggest that there was truth whose era has now ended. What is true, however, is that each generation in different contexts has had to deal with its own troubling forces of deception and battle with different forms of organized hypocrisy and social engineering systems (Bauman, 2006). This is a battle that is no longer fought with force but with thoughts (Chomsky, 2003), sophisticated deception and an overload of information.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore in depth the anatomy of post-truth in the quest to set a new research agenda. The author interrogates knowledge production/dissemination and the political positions of those behind them. This study diagnoses and challenges existing claims of supremacy of certain hegemonic epistemological and ontological orthodoxies that have been weaponized.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study philosophically engages with different worlds of credible 'pluriversal' knowledge(s) and leads to the exposure of historically 'taken-for-granted' definitions of the nature and composition of acceptable truth and how it is deeply entrenched in interest group politics.\nFindings: Each generation in different contexts has had to battle with specific troubling forces of deception and organized hypocrisy. Here, both new social actors and incumbents influence the disgruntled, deceive the gullible or connect with the enlightened masses at the emotional level whilst strongly undermining the rules-of-logic and fact-based discourses using disruptive social media technologies. The author specifies how the five P's: political power, profits, populism, politics and the private visions of technologists and scientists will continue to play very influential roles in how knowledge production will affect future policies and global governance.\nSocial implications: Based on historicized explanations, the author argues that deception and mass ignorance as weaponized features of global governance and its capitalist order are typical Machiavellian strategies for gaining control over knowledge production/information dissemination. Massive changes are not expected in the future unless society and academia introduce novel science, technology and political platforms for engaging society and policy-makers.\nOriginality/value: The author provides ample historical illustrations to support the claims made in this study that public insights into the postulated structures of post-truth remain extremely superficial, making people insufficiently informed to engage in crucial discourses about knowledge production and dissemination that affect their futures. This study provides several ingredients for stimulating further debate.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Tackling psychological disengagement in older workers
|
[
"Older workers",
"Employee development",
"Prejudice",
"Motivation (psychology)",
"Mentoring",
"Organizational culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many older workers spend their last few years of employment just treading water, putting little in, their job commitment whittled down to just turning up. Their motivation to get involved has been sapped by a whole raft of workplace issues. They are suffering from terminal dissatisfaction. Why should we invest in these people, aiming to renew their motivation, rather than just letting them quietly serve their time?Age diversity is a key issue for employers in the UK and across Europe. Older people have an increasingly important part to play in our workforce of the future. We are already facing skill shortages amongst young professionals and capturing the grey talent is one of the keys to our future economic success. Many of today's older workers still have 10-20 years of useful working life ahead of them.Yet research shows that there are serious issues in maintaining engagement with the older workforce (Willis and Daisley, 2006). The company line is that we want and need our older staff. The reality of the situation is that culture, policies and working practices combine to make them feel redundant and under valued. Many cannot wait for retirement day to arrive, keep their heads down and do not make a fuss.What are the issues at the root of this psychological disengagement and how can training and development address them?\nAge and motivational theory: There is no work on age effects on general motivation. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is deemed to apply whether you are 18 or 80. There are, however, a small clutch of reports looking at age-related factors and workplace motivation. These have been recently reviewed by Kooij et al. (2008).There are a variety of definitions of workplace motivation. A list of qualities encompassed by the term might include possessing energy, having direction and purpose, wanting to be involved, being a self starter and self driven, having clear outcomes or goals, keeping going when necessary and knowing when its the right time to move on or stopBefore the UK credit crunch there was a steadily growing pool of older workers in a secure financial position, mortgages paid off. They will seek to have their higher order motivational needs met by the workplace. Work will continue to satisfy the hygiene needs of the less fortunate. This provides a challenge for Learning and Development professionals.There is a direct relationship between increasing calendar age and falling workplace motivation because many of the policies and practices are designed to help older workers out of the door, into retirement. L&D departments are left to pick up the fallout from this yet have few tools to help. Older workers are motivated by engaging in activities that help to develop others. Although only 62 per cent of UK firms use mentoring (Adecco Institute, 2008) it is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to build co-operation, allow knowledge transfer and develop empathy for older colleagues. However most mentoring schemes focus on status, using more senior staff as mentors. A focus on age or length of service would bring into play a larger pool of mentors. This would also have the secondary effect of increasing the motivation level of the older staff, making then feel valued, meeting their higher order needs.The life stage of older workers (single, having young children, empty nest etc) did not seem to affect their motivation to remain in employment. However they were less likely to retire if their spouse or partner was still working and with the increase in the relative value of their leisure time they did want to spend less time at work. This illustrates the importance of data in managing development for older workers. Many UK employers do not even know the age profile of their staff. They therefore cannot hope to have formal data about whose partners are due to retire and therefore which employees might be at risk of suddenly falling into a motivational hole, wanting to cash in their chips and leave.\nLearning and development culture: The age profile of the public sector is older, 50 per cent are over 50 compared to around 10 per cent in the private sector. Maybe because of this it is seen to be more proactively addressing the issues of its aging workforce. In delivering specific older workers development programmes 85 per cent of our clients have been in the public sector. There is a perception that this sector maintains a more supportive culture (Armstrong-Stassen and Schlosser, 2008) where development and training are seen as important. Our public sector clients are keen to point out that it is not a box ticking exercise, but they want to do something positive to address the issues faced by their older workers.Staff whose work is central to their lives were more likely to be motivated and show a commitment to the organisation if they perceived that their job role offered development opportunities (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008). These people were also more likely to then take part in development opportunities.The Forum of Labour Market Ministers (2002) in Canada recommended that the provision of lifelong learning was the most effective way of retaining older workers.These data indicate that it is important for L&D departments to both facilitate a culture of learning and offer development to workers throughout their working lives. In the DWP Research Report (McNair et al., 2007) there was a mixed response to investing in the development of older workers. Although some employers had seen the benefit of removing formal age bars to training, other still questioned the value of investing in those \"close\" to retirement age.In focus group surveys older staff claimed to feel \"invisible\" and that their employer had no development to offer them, even in the public sector (Willis and Daisley, 2006). When targeted development was delivered for this cohort of staff the results showed greater motivation and energy, sharing of knowledge and more willingness to take on new roles and challenges. When organisations indicate commitment to their older workers through the provision of specific development programmes this creates a psychological contract with the worker. The reciprocation is greater commitment in the form of loyalty, longer retention and greater contribution.Older workers often feel isolated and Willis and Daisley (2006) found that they really appreciated being brought together in their focus groups. It was an uplifting and encouraging experience even though it was purely a research exercise rather than a training or development course. Motivation can suffer if you are feeling isolated, its hard to keep going alone. Any sort of forum, training or development, or networking initiative aimed at bringing older workers together will raise their energy and help to renew their commitment.The situation for those working in smaller businesses appears to be more positive. Here older workers may make up a greater proportion of the workforce, simply due to the smaller numbers of employees. Their job competence is highly valued and they are more likely to be engaged in informal mentoring (Tikkanen, 2002). They are more often viewed as contributors rather than being in need of training. The valuing of their skills and experience leads to greater motivation. This is particularly true when they are given the opportunity to contribute to strategy and take control of their own development. This reflects Maslow's higher order motivational needs, developing self esteem and self actualisation. Reproducing this learning organisation atmosphere in larger organisations could be important for motivation and retention of older staff.\nStereotyping: You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. Offering programmes for older workers is only part of the solution. They have to take part in and engage with the programmes in order for the organisation to reap the rewards. The stereotypical beliefs about older workers and their willingness and ability to engage in development are well known and often quoted. McNair et al. (2007) reported that most employers said that older workers were less likely to want to want to train than younger ones. They are stereotyped as being unwilling to change, having less potential for development, being less able to grasp new ideas as well as being less motivated or inclined to engage in learning activities.Whatever the rest of the world thinks about them, there is very little research looking at the beliefs of older workers themselves. It is well known that stereotypes can influence behaviour so understanding older workers views of the older workforce is important in understanding their workplace motivation.Following a survey of 350 respondents (average age 53) Maurer et al. (2008) showed that those who believed that older workers lacked the ability and desire to develop were more likely to favour retirement and less likely to engage with learning and development activities. This stereotype was reversed in those who actually had experience of working with older staff and therefore grasped their abilities and interest in development.This gives clear guidance to L&D professionals. To get the most out of older workers the stereotypes that they hold about themselves must be challenged. If they become disillusioned at their perceived inability to change and develop then they will be lose motivation. The use of positive role models is useful in affecting stereotypes as is exposure to examples of those who have changed their stereotypical beliefs. In our programmes we use case studies of older workers who have undertaken development or completely changed tack at late ages. Many participants say that they find these inspirational; helping them change their own ideas about what might be possible for them.Practical recommendations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Older workers are an increasingly important part of the workforce yet their job motivation can be low. This paper sets out to look at the possible reasons for this and to suggest how their disengagement can be addressed through development and training.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A range of research and other relevant literature is reviewed. Real life experiences with older workers' development are reported and practical suggestions made for implementation.\nFindings: - Motivation and engagement are affected by organisational policies and culture as well as self stereotyping and perceptions of others. Engagement can be significantly improved through a range of measures including targeted development.\nPractical implications: - The main implications are that addressing psychological disengagement is not a quick fix. L&D staff will need a wide influence across the organisation and time to see the measures take effect.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first report bringing together a disparate range of data around older workers' engagement and relating these directly to training and development. It will be of value to HR, L&D and Equality professionals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do different approaches to clinical governance development and implementation make a difference? Findings from Ireland and New Zealand
|
[
"Surveys",
"Clinical governance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Clinical governance (CG) has been shown to be an important foundation for a high-performing health care system (Bohmer, 2009; Dorgan et al., 2010; Goodall, 2011; James and Savitz, 2011). Studies, including those cited above, have variously found that hospitals and health systems which support and develop CG have superior performance in areas such as finance and quality of care. Arguably, this is as health care professionals are integrally involved in organisational leadership and decision making, which is a core goal of CG, as described in more detail below.\nMethods: This paper draws upon data from the 2012 New Zealand study and the 2013/2014 Irish replication (Health Service Executive, 2015).\nResults: The NZ survey had 10,303 respondents (25 percent of the eligible workforce) from the 19 DHBs, while the Ireland survey of 41 hospitals attracted 4,700 respondents (9.4 percent of the eligible workforce). Of the NZ survey respondents, 5,860 (57 percent) were included in these analyses after the harmonisation process had been applied. The equivalent figure for the Ireland data was 1,873 (40 percent). Four hospitals were removed from the Ireland data set for having fewer than ten respondents (no DHBs were removed from the NZ data set). Table II features response data, including by workforce category.\nDiscussion: Main findings\nConclusions: CG is an important foundation for high-performance health systems. This study used a comparative analysis of CG development in Ireland and NZ to consider whether a national or devolved approach to implementation is more supportive. It found Ireland's performance on CG development to be slightly better than NZ's, raising questions over whether devolution is an effective policy and implementation strategy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Clinical governance (CG) is an important foundation for a high-performing health care system, with many countries supporting its development. CG policy may be developed and implemented nationally, or devolved to a local level, with implications for the overall approach to implementation and policy uptake. However, it is not known whether one of these two approaches is more effective. The purpose of this paper is to probe this question. Its setting is Ireland and New Zealand, two broadly comparable countries with similar CG policies. Ireland's was nationally led, while New Zealand's was devolved to local districts. This leads to the question of whether these different approaches to implementation make a difference.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from surveys of health professionals in both countries were used to compare performance with CG development.\nFindings: The study showed that Ireland's approach produced a slightly better performance, raising questions about the merits of devolving responsibility for policy implementation to the local level.\nResearch limitations/implications: The Irish and New Zealand surveys both had lower-than-desirable response rates, which is not uncommon for studies of health professionals such as this. The low response rates mean the findings may be subject to selection bias.\nOriginality/value: Despite the importance of the question of whether a national or local approach to policy implementation is more effective, few studies specifically focus on this, meaning that this study provides a new contribution to the topic.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Organizational culture of the Croatian construction industry
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Human resource management",
"Croatia",
"Management effectiveness",
"Construction industry",
"Employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While organizational culture is a traditional concept, the research interest has shifted to focusing on its industry-specific characteristics. It is interesting that, to an extent, it has been the professionals who have spurred on such research, thereby awakening the interest of researchers in the subject.\nBackground study: Definitions and typologies\nResearch methodology: Measures\nResults and discussion: The core part of this empirical research is derived from the OCAI, and follows its measurement methodology as described earlier. The average scores for all the participants, i.e. the overall sample, indicating current culture types and culture types that are preferred for the future, are shown in Table II.\nConclusion: This paper presents empirical evidence from the construction industry in Croatia. The national sample of construction companies was studied using Cameron and Quinn\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As a transitional country and the newest EU Member State, Croatia is facing a more turbulent business environment, which imposes a need for change of companies seeking to achieve a competitive advantage. Being a labour-intensive business, adaptation of construction companies' strategy strongly depends on the underlying values of their employees. The purpose of this paper is to determine cultural profiles within the construction industry in Croatia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research has been conducted using inferential analysis based on primary and secondary data sources. After an extensive literature review, the empirical research was conducted based on a national sample. In all, 108 managers working in construction companies were surveyed using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument. Reliability of variables was tested by calculating Cronbach a reliability coefficients. Differences among identified mean scores were examined by ANOVA analysis.\nFindings: The results were analysed in respect of the size, core business, regional orientation and ownership of the respondents' employing companies. The findings show that, on average, construction companies in Croatia currently function with domination of the hierarchy type of organizational culture, which insufficiently responds to the increasingly competitive environment. Additionally, the study identified the clan as the preferred culture type in Croatian construction companies.\nOriginality/value: The paper offers insights into the organizational culture of Croatian construction companies, which has not been studied before. The value of the paper is the novelty of findings regarding existing and preferred cultural profiles, which have the potential to improve team cohesiveness, team leading, communication among the main stakeholders and efficiency of performance in this transitional country's construction industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Scrapping new product development efforts: when to keep going, when to fold
|
[
"Business strategy",
"Project management",
"New product development",
"Innovation process",
"Strategic alignment",
"Research and development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A systemic approach to analyzing technological change is not new. Innovation systems are defined in a variety of ways and include physical dimensions, geographic focus and technological systems and along industrial sectors. The concept of innovation continues to be covered in a number of publications, resulting in a wide variety of theoretical frameworks and empirical studies. In each case, the discussion surrounds the creation, use and diffusion of knowledge. The focus of this article is on the innovation system within a company that results in the production of new products. We examine the impact that irrational commitment can have on the new product development process.\nTheoretical lens: In reviewing the literature on innovation systems theory, we use the Abernathy-Clark model of innovation to determine the type of innovation that the product development process is attempting to cultivate (Abernathy and Clark, 1985).\nThe innovation challenge: Baregheh et al. (2009) combed through 60 definitions of innovation, going back as far as 1934 for a common definition of innovation. One of their conclusions was that each discipline required its own specific definition of innovation but there were common elements. They developed the following: \"Innovation is the multi-stage process whereby organizations transform ideas into new/improved products, service or processes in order to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace\" (p. 1,334). Along this line of thought, this paper defines innovation as the process the organization uses to transform ideas into new or improved commercialized products in the market where the organization competes to obtain a competitive advantage.\nNew product development: New product development has been described as a set of information processing and problem-solving activities in which the output of the process is to ensure the end-product's ability to meet customer expectations. In essence, this is the process of bringing a new product to market, from idea to happy end-user. This is becoming increasingly more complex with recent time-to-market pressures, the need to manage portfolios of development projects and increased reliance on component suppliers. In this paper, we focus on three major activities:\nIrrational escalation of commitment in new product development: This section examines several ways in which irrational commitment occurs. In the new product development area, irrational commitment results in the commitment of continued resources in a project that is doomed to failure. New product development projects differentiate themselves from more conventional decision-making within a firm due to the lack of marketing and technical knowledge and the pressure put on these projects to perform. It is this combination of lack of complete knowledge and pressure to perform that makes new product development efforts unique. It also provides fertile ground for irrational commitment, as imperfect information often leads to poor decision-making, where the seeds of irrational commitment are planted (Figure 2).\nThe cost of irrational commitment: Keil (1995) asserts that irrational commitment at the project level occurs whenever negative information is received and ignored, resulting in the project moving forward. As an example, the author conducted a longitudinal study of a large information technology project, finding self-justification in managers associated with the project for a long time who were looking to save face. Prospect theory held true for those managers who continued to believe there was too much invested in the project to quit. Agency theory applied to managers who concealed negative information about the project from their superiors knowing that their career or status would be adversely affected. These same characteristics of irrational commitment occurred in other large information technology projects, such as a US Department of Health and Human Services project ($32 million) and a California Department of Motor Vehicles project ($34.6 million), which failed for the reasons explained by the theories discussed above (Keil et al., 1994). In each instance, the costs of continued commitment to a failed project were measured by millions of dollars lost, millions of work hours squandered and tarnished company and agency images.\nConceptual model for evaluating potential irrational escalation of commitment: Our literature review indicated three major factors that contribute to irrational commitment in the new product development process:\nConclusion: While an increasing commitment to a new product development project can be healthy, a commitment to failing new product development efforts can be time-consuming and costly. By their very nature, new product development projects deal with a variety of unknowns, especially in the areas of dynamic markets, improving technology and the competencies and capabilities of the firm looking to bring new products to market. Several underlying theories explain the causes of this irrational commitment and include emotional ties to the project, managerial fear of delivering bad news to superiors, having committed substantial resources in the past and hoping for a better outcome and managers not having sufficient knowledge to understand the ramifications of their poor decisions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The innovative process of new product development remains unique within most organizations. This uniqueness stems from the requirements of the new product development manager to grapple with both the universe of emerging technologies from which a new feature or improvement must be found and to simultaneously maintain a constant awareness of the requirements of an ever-changing customer base. Amongst all of this uncertainty, there is still a time when new product development managers choose to ignore the warning signals that a project is failing and continue to commit resources. This paper refers to this as irrational commitment. This paper aims to examine the uncertainty of new product development and the reasons for this irrational commitment to failed projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper used a structured systematic review of literature to identify the most common types of irrational commitment in new product development and their impact on the corporation.\nFindings: The paper provides insights into the causes and effects of management irrationally committing to new product development projects that are doomed to failure. It suggests that the three major areas of knowledge that need to be better integrated into the decision-making process are technology trends, marketing knowledge and the capabilities of the company itself.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because of the chosen research approach of using a systematic review of literature, primary research needs to be conducted in the future to validate and refine the findings of the paper.\nPractical implications: The paper provides leadership with guidelines to avoid irrationally committing to failed new product development efforts.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to the literature on innovation systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Driving impact through base of the pyramid distribution models: The role of intermediary organizations
|
[
"Market development",
"Social value creation",
"Social impact",
"Base of the Pyramid",
"Intermidiaries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The main claim of the base of the pyramid (BoP) literature is that businesses in these markets are capable of mutual value creation - simultaneously creating profit and alleviating poverty (London et al., 2010; Prahalad and Hammond, 2002). However, many practitioners and academics question whether BoP ventures can fulfill such promises (Smith et al., 2016). Literature points to numerous challenges which can hinder these enterprises from achieving mutual value creation (London et al., 2010). Some of the main external challenges are due to the institutional voids in BoP markets (Stephan et al., 2015). The internal challenges originate from the lack of relevant knowledge and skills of entrepreneurs and small, medium and large firms (Smith et al., 2016). Within BoP markets, companies in particular face significant challenges related to supply chain design and operation (Karamchandani et al., 2011). First, firms face weak infrastructure and almost non-existent formal institutions which traditionally support product, labor and capital markets (Parmigiani and Rivera-Santos, 2015). Second, companies need to balance standardization approaches (to enable economies of scale) with localization approaches (to ensure adaptations to local culture and social norms) (Fawcett and Waller, 2015). Specifically, the lack of adequate infrastructure in rural communities or urban slums, where most BoP population live, makes it challenging for large firms to adopt the traditional large-scale distribution models focused on economies of scale and stocked shelves (Fawcett and Waller, 2015).\nLiterature review: Distribution models in BoP markets\nMethodology: Research strategy: embedded case study\nFindings: This chapter outlines main insights gained from each of the four projects and the interventions of the intermediary, based on the analytical constructs outlined by the IVC model.\nThe role of intermediary organizations in driving social impact in BoP distribution models: The role of intermediaries in BoP distribution models design and operation\nConclusion: This study investigates an independent hybrid intermediary which provides business development services to BoP initiatives. Our embedded case study contributes with a different perspective on international distribution strategies, one focused on informal markets, non-traditional partners and soft issues. In these settings, trade-offs between cost effectiveness and social aspects are key decisions affecting the design and operation of distribution networks.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to answer the following research question: how can intermediaries contribute to social impact creation through their interventions at different levels of distribution networks in the base of the pyramid (BoP) markets?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper adopts an embedded case study of an intermediary organization. The analysis focuses on the intervention of the intermediary on the distribution stages of supply chains in four different projects in the food sector in Ethiopia, Benin, Nigeria and Bangladesh.\nFindings: The embedded case study reveals essential formal and informal roles undertaken by the intermediary organization to develop decentralized distribution networks based on local micro-entrepreneurs. The study proposes that efforts undertaken by the intermediaries toward knowledge sharing and capacity building among partners can enable the adoption of pro-poor strategies across the supply chain. Moreover, hybrid intermediaries can act as \"guardians\" of the mutual value creation approach since one of their key roles is to advocate the needs of the BoP.\nResearch limitations/implications: Important implications for improving nutrition and food security in the BoP markets are developed based on the empirical findings. The findings open avenues for further research into the antecedents of retention rates in distribution networks based on local micro-entrepreneurs.\nPractical implications: Findings have implications for different types of BoP initiatives by highlighting how intermediary organizations intervene to develop distribution models with a special focus on social impact.\nOriginality/value: This paper fills an important research gap by discussing social impact aspects in BoP supply chains by adopting the perspective of intermediary organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Analyzing critical success factors of total quality management by using fuzzy cognitive mapping
|
[
"Total quality management",
"Simulation",
"Critical success factors",
"Fuzzy cognitive mapping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: TQM is a process and philosophy to achieve customer satisfaction in long term by improving the products, processes and services effectively and efficiently. Joseph Juran (1951), one of the founders of the philosophy, emphasized customer satisfaction focusing on management and technical methods in his most influential book; Quality Control Handbook. TQM term \"total\" referring to participation of everyone associated with the company in continuous improvement (including its customers and suppliers if feasible), \"quality\" is as the expressed and implied requirements of the customers to be met fully and \"management\" can be described as fully commitment of executives (Ho, 1997). Firms employ TQM to increase profits, market share and competitiveness and to be able to respond to changing competitive demand in today's business world. TQM approach also affects other business functions. Loukis et al. (2009) investigate the moderating effects of TQM with business process reengineering on the business value generated for firms by their information and communication technologies investment. Hemsworth et al. (2005) examine the effects of quality management practices in purchasing on purchasing performance.\n2. Literature Review: 2.1 Prior research on CSFs of TQM\n3. Proposed methodology: The proposed FCM in this paper considers determining the most affecting and affected factors that influences a successful TQM implementation. After elimination among the most commonly extracted factors across the 92 studies between the years 1989-2007, 9 remaining factors were determined (Table I). Although it is planned to analyse 18 extracted factors, some CSFs are eliminated based on the risk of an increase in the possibility of biased and misevaluated data collected from experts. Since the number of factors increase, the determination of existing relationships and the degree of effects require much time, attention and more variables to consider. To collect more reliable evaluation from experts, there is a need to limit our model.\n4. Research synthesis: 4.1 Theoretical contribution\n5. Conclusion: Total quality management (TQM) is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes. The CSFs of TQM can be used to gain a better understanding of the practices of an effective quality management. FCMs are used in this study to explore the CSFs by denoting the relations and interactions between them. The key findings of the study are:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Total quality management (TQM) is a process and philosophy to achieve customer satisfaction in long term by improving the products, processes and services effectively and efficiently. TQM implementation is turning into a complex practice due to the increasing number of effective factors and key elements labelled as critical success factors (CSFs). The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relations between CSFs of TQM and to provide decision makers has a clear picture of relations by determining the most affecting - both the number of CSFs which this factor affects and the its effect degree on relevant CSFs are higher comparing to other factors - of this factors affected factors - both the number of CSFs and their effect degree on these factors are higher - that influences a successful TQM implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper refers to fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) that allow dynamic modelling of a system in consideration of a complex network structure and the effects of factors to each other. The method demonstrates causal representations between CSFs under uncertainty to represent the relations and interaction between them and performs qualitative simulations to analyse the factors that have the highest impact on continuous improvement of quality management process. The evaluations are performed by five academicians whose professions are on both the areas of TQM and FCM.\nFindings: FCM analysis shows how the most affecting and affected factors influence the other CSF in order to manage a successful TQM implementation.\nOriginality/value: The critical factors of TQM implementation are in the focus of most of the empirical studies in the literature. However, none of them considers the dynamic interactions between the factors. This study employs FCM to explore the CSFs that influence the TQM implementation process considering the relations among them to observe the most affecting and affected factors based on the changes of determined CSFs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Life restoration degree following minimal repair and its application for maintenance decision optimization
|
[
"Life restoration degree",
"Maintenance decision",
"Minimal repair",
"Shape parameter",
"Unconditional mean residual life"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A minimal repair restores a failed item to nearly the same state just before the failure so that the failure rate keeps unchanged after the repair (e.g. see Barlow and Hunter, 1960; Muth, 1977). Many maintenance policies involve minimal repair (e.g. see Tadj et al., 2011) and can be roughly divided into three categories (Ouali et al., 2011): age-based replacement policy or simply T-policy, failure counting replacement policy or N-policy, and their combination or (N, T)-policy, where T is the age to replacement and N is the number of repairs before replacement.\n2. LRD following minimal repair: 2.1 Properties of minimal repair process\n3. Relationship between LRD and shape parameter: The LRD given by (13) can be used to answer the question whether minimal repair can be used. In this section, we focus on r\n4. Critical value of shape parameter: We consider the problem whether minimal repair should be used for an item. The LRD given by (13) is appropriate for addressing this issue. Based on a cost criterion we derive a critical shape parameter as decision criterion.\n5. Optimal stopping condition of a minimal repair process: When minimal repair can be used and an item is (equivalently) positive aging (see Jiang et al., 2003), the minimal repair process should be stopped at a certain appropriate moment. The stopping condition of a minimal repair process depends on the replacement policy implemented. We consider the following three replacement policies with minimal repair:\n6. Illustration: 6.1 Problem and solution\n7. Conclusions: In this paper, we have developed the notion of LRD following minimal repair and defined three different LRDs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the issues whether or not minimal repair is effective for a repairable item with a known life distribution and when the minimal repair process should be stopped.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The life restoration degree (LRD) following minimal repair is defined and related to the shape parameter of the distribution so that a choice between minimal and perfect repairs can be made based on the shape parameter. Three replacement policies with minimal repair are considered and the corresponding decision rules are derived to determine when the minimal repair process should be stopped.\nFindings: Main findings are: first, the LRD of minimal repair is inversely or approximately inversely proportional to the shape parameter, second, the effectiveness of minimal repair increases as the cost ratio of perfect and minimal repairs increases and the shape parameter decreases, and third, the unconditional mean residual life equal the mean time between the first and second failures.\nOriginality/value: The results can be easily used for maintenance strategy selection and maintenance decision optimization of repairable items.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The socio-economic determinants of maternal health care utilization in Ghana
|
[
"Socio‐economic determinants",
"Maternal health",
"Care",
"Utilization",
"Socio‐economic regions",
"Health care",
"Maternity services",
"Ghana"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The principal aim of maternal health care is early recognition and management of women at risk of complicated pregnancy (Van den Heuvel et al., 1999). However, it is estimated that over half a million women in developing countries die each year from complications arising from pregnancy and childbirths (Addai, 2000). Maternal mortality rates are estimated around 480 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in developing countries. Whilst, in some developing countries, one woman in ten dies from a pregnancy-related cause over the course of her child-bearing years, the chances average around one in 4,000 women in industrialized countries (UNFPA, 1999). In sub-Saharan Africa, poor living conditions and inadequate nutrition and health care, coupled with high fertility rates often expose women of all ages to high risk of pregnancy-related illness and death (Graham, 1991). In Ghana for instance, it is estimated that over 130,000 Ghanaians, mostly women and children, die each year due to preventable causes and the majority of such deaths are related to maternal and child mortality (Addai, 2000). Maternal mortality rates are still high, ranging from 214 to 700 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births with some rural communities showing even higher rates (Ghana Health Service Annual Report, 2005).Maternal health services is said to play a vital role in achieving improved reproductive outcomes in various societies. Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are said to cause more deaths and disabilities than any other reproductive health problem (EC/UNFPA, 2000). This situation is further exacerbated in developing countries, especially, Ghana where there is poor access to health care services (geographic and financial) coupled with poor utilization rates. It is essential to acknowledge that making rapid improvements in such environments constitutes a major challenge to policy makers. Hence, the success or failure of policy makers depends on their ability to evolve the right interventions targeted at the vulnerable. This assertion may only be possible if policy makers have an appreciable knowledge of the factors that influence utilization in the case of maternal health care services.It is important to acknowledge that there have been some ground-breaking studies in Ghana (Martey et al., 1995; Addai, 1998, 2000) that sought to build on the understanding of factors influencing utilization of maternal services. There still remain gaps in the literature, considering the concentration of these studies. The study by Martey et al. (1995) was limited to a particular district in Ghana. Other Ghanaian studies focused on the utilization of health services in general (Buor, 2003, 2004a, b). Addai (1998), using data from the 1993 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, investigated the demographic and socio-cultural determinants of utilization of maternal health services. In a similar study, Addai (2000) used data from the 1993 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey to examine sociodemographic and cultural factors determining the use of maternal-child health services in rural Ghana. Overbosch et al. (2004), using the Ghana Living Standard Survey 4, investigated the determinants of antenatal care use in Ghana.The study by Martey et al. (1995) is limited to the extent that it analyzed purely district-level data. Though the two studies by Addai (1998, 2000) were based on national-level data, analysis excluded the use of important services such as the timing of antenatal care, tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccine and postnatal. Traditionally, the demographic literature on maternal health services utilization has concentrated on the decision to use or not to use. Majority of studies use the World Health Organization (WHO) minimum requirement of four visits per pregnancy and categorizes all visits below four as equivalent to not having attended adequate health care during pregnancy. Using this approach limits one's ability to analyse the marginal benefit associated with each visit (intensity of use) especially for services such as antenatal care where necessarily the woman must make a certain number of visits per pregnancy. The motivation for this study originated within this context and aims to fill the gap in the normative and empirical literature. Thus, the study models the socio-economic determinants of maternal health services use (prenatal care, antenatal care, use of tetanus toxiod vaccine, place of delivery and postnatal care) and the intensity of use of antenatal care services in Ghana using the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey data.The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 discusses the existing literature. Section 3 describes the method employed. Section 4 discusses the findings of the study, and finally Section 5 concludes.\n2 A review of related literature: 2.1 Conceptual framework\n3 Estimation strategy: Given that the health alternatives are mostly in a binary choice form, the probability that a mother would choose a particular health care form can be estimated as: Equation 1 where for instance Vj=1, if maternal care was received based on definition of the variables in Section 4.2, and Vj=0 if otherwise. X represents a vector of explanatory variables-individual/household and socio-economic characteristics and b are the coefficients to be estimated.However, since number of antenatal visits is in an ordered discrete choice form, the probability that a mother chooses any of the alternatives will increase with utility derived. Assuming there are I possible outcomes or health choices facing a mother, a set of threshold coefficients or cut points {k1,k2, ... ,kI-1} is defined for k0=-[?] and k0=[?] and the demand for maternal health care for the jth mother may estimated as: Equation 2 where the probability that individual j will choose outcome i depends on the attributes of antenatal health care and those of the individual/households (Xjb) falling between (i-1). X represents a vector of explanatory variables-individual/household and socio-economic characteristics and b are the coefficients to be estimated. The cut-points for the maternal health care choices will be based on ordering of the number of visits made to the health centre (i.e. 1, 2, 3 and 4+).Thus, equation 2 (probit form equation) is therefore used to estimate demand for maternal health care where maternal health care options are in a binary form, whilst equation 2 (ordered probit) models demand for antenatal health care in an ordered discrete form. Indeed, we are also able to infer the intensity of usage (number of visits) of antenatal health care from the ordered probit equation. In order to estimate the determinants of maternal health service use, we focus on both users and non-users. In examining factors which influence intensity of usage, we focus on only mothers who used the service.3.1 Sources of data\n4 Empirical results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics of the socio-economic characteristics\n5 Conclusion and implications: The study examined the socio-economic determinants of maternal health services utilization in Ghana. The results generally indicate that most women in Ghana undertake the required visits for antenatal services (70.63 percent for those attending 4+) and also take all the two doses of the TT vaccine (82.28 percent for those using) as required by WHO. This is really commendable especially when compared to figures from the 1998 DHS where only 62.3 percent of the sample had 4+ antenatal visits during pregnancy and 52 percent of mothers received all two doses of the TT vaccine. Several reasons could be responsible for the relative success concerning these two maternal health services (i.e. policy focus with respect to maternal health services and socio-economic characteristics of women). It is however puzzling that, at a time that Ghanaian women seem to be doing very well in terms of number of antenatal visits and required doses of the TT vaccine, use of prenatal care (i.e. only 18 percent using), delivery at a health facility (i.e. only 43.18 percent) and postnatal care (43.8 percent using) looked very disappointing. Indeed, both prenatal and postnatal care could be vital in dealing with preconception and post-birth complications, whiles delivery at a health facility ensures access to emergency obstetric care to deal with complications during labor. Is it perhaps the issue that, good adherence to the number of required visits as well as taking in the right doses of the TT vaccine might have put most mothers out of the risk zone and therefore may not need that much of prenatal and postnatal care and delivery at a health facility? Irrespective of how one looks at the issue, it still remains that the low usage of these services, has major implications in terms of birth and health outcomes for mothers. There is clearly an urgent need to develop innovative strategies that will help upscale intervention especially for improvement in the use of these services by women in Ghana.The regression results reveal that utilization of maternal health services and intensity of use of antenatal services are influenced by age of mother, type of birth, education of mother, ethnicity, economic status, geographic location, residence and religious affiliation all point to positive relationships with utilization of maternal health services and intensity of use of antenatal services. Obviously, this suggests that more than medical factors are responsible for the differences in the decision to use maternal health services by women in Ghana as well as the decision on the number of visits to undertake with respect to antenatal visits. The findings of this study provides a platform for evidence on the current levels of utilization of maternal health services in Ghana as well as socio-economic factors influencing usage and intensity of use. Indeed, this knowledge is a requisite material for policy options in addressing the challenges that Ghana faces in its bid to ensure improvement in maternal and child health through improved utilization of maternal health services.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The study aims to examine the socio-economic determinants of maternal health services utilization in Ghana.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Probit and ordered probit models are employed in this study.\nFindings: - The results generally indicate that most women in Ghana undertake the required visits for antenatal services and also take both doses of the tetanus toxoid vaccine as required by World Health Organization. However, the results show low levels of usage in terms of the other maternal health care services (i.e. prenatal care, delivery at a health facility, and postnatal care). There is clearly an urgent need to develop innovative strategies that will help upscale intervention especially for improvement in the use of these services by women in Ghana. The regression results reveal that utilization of maternal health services and intensity of use of antenatal services are influenced by age of mother, type of birth, education of mother, ethnicity, economic status, geographic location, residence, and religious affiliation. Obviously, this suggests that more than medical factors are responsible for the differences in the use of maternal health services by women in Ghana as well as the decision on the number of visits to undertake with respect to antenatal visits.\nOriginality/value: - The findings of this study have important implications for health policy formulation targeted at improving maternal health care service utilization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The winning personality: Impact of founders' personality traits and firms' network relationships on Chinese apparel new venture performance
|
[
"New venture",
"Personality",
"Founder",
"Firm’s network"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In light of the unique market characteristics of the Chinese apparel industry, more and more research has been focused recently on Chinese apparel new ventures (Li, 2014). There were over 130,000 apparel enterprises operating in China in 2014 (Li, 2014). According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, during the first quarter of 2016, China's textile and apparel industry realized a total profit of 348.2 billion yuan (US$54 billion), representing an increase of 4.4 percent over the first quarter of 2015 (Ni, 2016). Meanwhile, the consumption patterns and preferences of Chinese apparel consumers have also evolved, showing an increasing desire for diversification and differentiation (Cao et al., 2014). Many new apparel ventures have been born and perished as Chinese consumer demands and preferences have changed. It has been estimated that two-thirds of today's apparel output are produced by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and most of those SMEs are new ventures (Feng, 2008).\nLiterature review: Founder's personality\nTheoretical foundation and hypothesis development: Based on the literature review, a basic conceptual model was developed to show the links between the personality traits of founders, the quality of the network relationships of firms, competitive advantages, and the performance of Chinese new apparel ventures. By breaking down and assessing each of the Big Five personality traits of the founders, as each of them may affect different contextual performances of an organization (Hogan and Holland, 2003), a hypothesized model was developed (see Figure 1). The next section discusses how each of the Big Five factors could affect the quality of the network relationships of a firm, which in turn affects competitive advantage and the performance of new ventures.\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussion: The results of this study illustrate that openness to experience, emotional stability, and agreeableness positively affect the quality of the network relationships of firms. That is, H2-H4 were supported. Among the three personality traits, openness to experience showed the greatest weight in the model in predicting the quality of firm's network relationships. This was consistent with Lau (2002), who showed that openness to experience had a strong impact on founders' achievements. Although Lau (2002) did not discuss the size of the effect, his study showed that openness to experience had the strongest effect, which contributed to the literature on the setting of Chinese apparel new ventures. Even though openness is not encouraged in traditional Chinese culture (McCrae et al., 1998), this study found that openness is a relevant construct for the taxonomy of personality traits in modern Chinese culture, especially for founders of apparel firms. However, some items were deleted due to low loadings, such as \"I have a rich vocabulary\" and \"I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas.\" One explanation is that these items might converge with some of the facets of the extraversion factor (Cheung et al., 2008). Future research may be necessary to explore openness to experience as a personality factor in Chinese culture.\nConclusions and implications: To fill the gap in our knowledge as to why, within their first five years of incorporation, certain new ventures in apparel are successful and others are not, this study investigated the relationships among the personality traits of ventures' founders, the quality of their business relationships, competitive advantages, and the performance of Chinese apparel new ventures. The results of 210 responses from Chinese founders and founding team members of new ventures in apparel to an online survey showed several implications and contributions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Grounded in Barney's (1991) resource-based view of the firm and social network theory, and utilizing the Big Five factors as outlined by McCrae and Costa (1997), the purpose of this paper is to investigate how founders' personality traits impact the quality of a firm's network relationships, its competitive advantages, and the performance of Chinese apparel new ventures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey was conducted, employing a purposive sampling technique. Founders or members of a founding team currently operating a business in the apparel industry in China who have been in business for five years or less were chosen for this study. The survey yielded 210 usable responses, which were used for further data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was first conducted to find a better model for the measurement of each latent variable. Structural equation modeling in AMOS 24 was then used to test the study's hypothesized model.\nFindings: The most notable finding was that three of the personality traits studied - openness to experience, agreeableness, and emotional stability - had statistically significant influences on the quality of firms' relationships with supply-chain partners, but for the traits of extraversion and conscientiousness no influence was found. Further, perceived quality of firms' network relationships helped enhance competitive advantages and firm performance. The findings identified unique personality traits that founders must possess for successful network relationships and are critical for the performance of Chinese apparel new ventures.\nOriginality/value: This is one of a few studies that simultaneously evaluate the impact of the personality traits of founders and the network resources of firms on the performance of new ventures in China. Its findings may help those who are interested in starting new ventures in the Chinese apparel industry to manage the external network relationships that are critical for new venture success. Supply-chain partners could also utilize these findings to create appropriate strategies for improving relationships with Chinese apparel new ventures to cope with the critical business challenges of globalization and collaboration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Market moods: an investor sentiment event study
|
[
"Behavioral forecast",
"Market returns",
"CAPM",
"Holidays",
"Disasters",
"Sports",
"D8",
"G4"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This research study examined how a country's current state of mind may impact market returns. Using the event study framework, 64 reoccurring events from 2007-2016 were examined in six unique Asian nations (410 total occurrences). Those nations were Japan and South Korea from East Asia and Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand from Southeast Asia. The use of three developed and three developing markets aided in the robustness of this study. The finding of a result in just one market could be of spurious nature, but finding that result throughout six distinct economies would be more meaningful.\nTheoretical motivation: This paper relied on the psychology literature determining that affective states can generate mood-congruent biases in risk-based decision-making.\nData and methodology: The evidence in favor of inefficient financial markets is far more compelling than that in favor of efficient ones.-Subrahmanyam (2007)\nResults: Today's sentiment may be used to predict tomorrow's returns with great accuracy. -French (2017a)\nResults per event category: Calendar events\nConclusion and implications: Behavioral finance research uncovers what fallacies to avoid and what strategic moves will likely generate alpha. International diversification has had great success for both big and small investors alike. Unfortunately, international holdings no longer promise improved portfolio performance. Choosing the right market at the right time to invest in has been an ongoing problem. Being aware of events that create inefficiencies in the market from behavioral biases may improve forecasting, as demonstrated in this paper. Within the field there existed cynicism on whether mood could indeed impact returns. This paper presents an extensive empirical reconciliation to help close this gap. Past studies relying on macroeconomic risk factors, direct (survey) sentiment factors, APT and EMH theory (semi-strong form) had been hard pressed to find a significant link between mood and returns. Market-based sentiment measures used in this study were found to explain market returns.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insight to practitioners who wish to forecast market returns based on event occurrences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using 64 distinct events that reoccurred from 2007 to 2016 in six different nations of both developing and developed economies, this study used an event study methodology to test whether or not sentiment impacted market returns.\nFindings: This study found that investor sentiment did impact market returns. Furthermore, events that were in developed economies or were negative impacted the market returns more than events that are in developing economies or positive. The study also provides important information on the speed of price adjustment to new information. The events selected include festive holidays, bombings, natural disasters and sports matches, among other events which had been found to alter mood. This paper also found no empirical difference between using the statistical mean and economic capital asset pricing models. However, the Wilcoxon rank test did provide more significant events than the more conservative Corrado rank test.\nOriginality/value: Most comprehensive investor sentiment impact on market returns paper using an event study methodology. The results have implications for those who wish to forecast market returns based on event occurrences.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Hispanic vs non-Hispanic response to online self-service tasks: implications for perceived quality and patronage intentions
|
[
"United States of America",
"Hispanics",
"Consumers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: The rapid adoption of the internet has been accompanied by a similarly rapid shift toward online service provision, the latter of which is now seen as an essential element in services marketing and related strategy and research (Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000; Rust, 2001). The internet's role in services marketing is evident in several areas, including actual service provision, payment for and management of service relationships, communication and feedback regarding the service encounter, explicit evaluations of service provision, and the promotion of both online and face-to-face services.One key advantage of online service provision is the ability of service marketers to shift service transactions to the care of the consumer, creating online self-service encounters (Meuter et al., 2000). However, online self-service encounters markedly differ from face-to-face service encounters in that they most often take place in the absence of the interpersonal contact that has been so widely studied by service researchers (e.g. Bettencourt and Gwinner, 1996; Butcher et al., 2003; Goodwin, 1996; Hartline and Ferrell, 1996; Namasivayam and Hinkin, 2003). This difference, as well as the potential for online self-service encounters to yield low-cost, but high-fulfillment service provision (cf Rust and Lemon, 2001), makes them of particular interest to service industry managers.Unfortunately, extremely little research has examined online self-service encounters, much less considered how various consumer groups perceive different tasks inherent in their facilitation. To remedy the lack of study in this area, we present an examination of how different online self-service tasks affect various consumer perceptions of the service experience, as well as intended patronage behavior. Our focus is on a market that represents the fastest-growing consumer group in the US, and which has recently experienced dramatic increases in internet usage, namely, the US Hispanic market (Case and Freeman, 2003; comScore Media Metrix, 2003).In the following sections, we present conceptual arguments for how the Hispanic and non-Hispanic markets may differ in their reactions to task types in online self-service encounters. We then present the methods and results of a research study that uses consumers from the field. Finally, we explain the implications for service industry managers and for the field of services marketing.\nConceptualization and hypotheses: Face-to-face customer service encounters with frontline employees involve both the service provision element and various communication elements that most often result from interpersonal contact between the service employee and the consumer (Bitner, 1990; Goodwin, 1996). Although online self-service encounters also involve service provision and communication elements, interpersonal contact is eliminated from the experience (Meuter et al., 2000). This inherent difference in these two forms of service provision - i.e. the presence versus absence of interpersonal contact - likely affects different consumers in different ways. Our focus here on the Hispanic market is entirely pertinent to the issue of interpersonal contact and how the lack of that contact in the service encounter may influence how certain tasks are perceived and evaluated.The Hispanic market, interpersonal contact, and service provision\nMethodology: The hypotheses were tested in the context of an online banking self-service encounter. Online banking is a particularly appropriate context in that it is a service that:* Has been largely successful in its move from face-to-face to an online environment;* Can easily require either an information acquisition or a transactional task; and* Is well known to many consumers.This context is also particularly relevant in light of our examination of the Hispanic market. Despite their general preference for greater interpersonal contact, Hispanics have dramatically increased their internet usage in the past few years - over a 30 percent increase from 2002 to 2003, and their use of the internet for financial services has increased at a rate 250 percent faster than the general market (comScore Media Metrix, 2003).Experimental procedure and measures\nResults: To test for H1a-H1c, a series of two-way (Hispanic identification vs task type) analyses of covariance were executed. (Evidence that technology anxiety can affect satisfaction and intentions related to self-service technologies (Meuter et al., 2003) led to a decision to include frequency of internet usage as a covariate in all the analyses to control for potential experience differences.) For each dependent variable (i.e. evaluations of the web site quality, customer satisfaction, and intentions for repeat patronage), it was expected that an interaction would be statistically significant, with the task type effect being stronger for the non-Hispanic group than for the Hispanic group. Table I shows the cell means for each of individual cells (Hispanic identification crossed with task type) for the three dependent measures. As expected, there was a significant interaction between task type and Hispanic identification on evaluations of web site quality (F=7.91, p<0.01), on satisfaction (F=8.08, p<0.01), and on repeat patronage intentions (F=8.58, p<0.01). Moreover, as shown in Figure 2, while the information acquisition task resulted in higher evaluations of web site quality, customer satisfaction, and repeat patronage than the transaction task for the non-Hispanic group, this effect was much smaller or non-existent for the Hispanic group. Thus, H1a, H1b and H1c were supported.Similar analyses were used to examine the interactive effects of Hispanic identification and task type on the communication perceptions of communication interface, communication effectiveness, and social presence. Cell means are shown in Table II. The interaction effects demonstrated were as expected for communications interface (F=8.79, p<0.01) and communication effectiveness (F=4.62, p<0.05), with stronger effects for the non-Hispanic group than for the Hispanic group, supporting H2a and H2b. However, there was no interaction effect for social presence (F=0.93, n.s.), indicating that the Hispanic and non-Hispanic groups did not differ in their reactions to task type for this variable. This lack of support for H2c is discussed in more detail later.Finally, a series of regression analyses provided evidence that the communication perception variables mediated the impact of Hispanic identification and task type on each of the key dependent variables (i.e. evaluations of the web site quality, customer satisfaction, and intentions for repeat patronage). As shown in Table III, the beta coefficients for Hispanic identification and task type, which were significant when entered into the regression equations alone, were reduced to non-significant levels with the addition of the communication perception variables to the equations. In addition, the communication medium perception variables were shown to have significant positive effects on the key dependent variables. Specifically, communication perceptions significantly affected web site quality evaluations (F=166.17, p<0.01), customer satisfaction (F=122.27, p<0.01), and repeat patronage intentions (F=57.03, p<0.01). All of the nine individual beta coefficients were significant at the 0.01 level except one (social presence in the customer satisfaction equation was insignificant; t=1.65, p=0.10). As a whole, the results show strong support for H3.\nDiscussion: Overall, the results support the hypotheses concerning the interactive effects of task type and Hispanic identification on the key dependent variables. That is, for non-Hispanic consumers, performing an information acquisition task led to higher evaluations of web site quality, consumer satisfaction, and intended repatronage than did a transaction task. However, this task difference was attenuated for Hispanics, as expected. In addition, there was an interactive effect of task type and Hispanic identification on the scales measuring communications perceptions such that the information task led to higher communication perceptions than did the transaction task for non-Hispanics, while there was little difference for Hispanics.These results provide further support for the notion that more complex (transaction) tasks can lead to lower evaluations than less complex (information) tasks (Lassar and Dandapani, 2003), while also providing some limiting conditions to this result. Primarily, the results showed that the task differences on evaluations of web site quality, satisfaction, and repeat patronage intentions, as well their effects on the perceptions of this communications medium, were attenuated for Hispanic consumers as compared to non-Hispanic consumers. In addition, there was support for the hypothesized mediation effects, in that the interactive effects of task and Hispanic identification on the dependent measures of quality, satisfaction, and intended patronage were mediated by the communications perceptions.Interestingly, one of the hypotheses, H2c, which stipulated an interactive effect of task type and Hispanic identification on the social presence communication perception, was not supported. This is not completely surprising in that social presence has been defined as the ability of the communications medium to convey the psychological presence of the communicator (Chidambaram and Jones, 1993; Short et al., 1976). Although it was hypothesized that the Hispanic group would be less sensitive to the task effects for all three communication perceptions, it appears that both the Hispanic and the non-Hispanic groups rated the more complex task (i.e. the transaction task) as less able to convey this communicator presence than the simpler task (i.e. the information acquisition task). Thus, although Hispanics are generally more dependent on personal interaction, and it was hypothesized that this dependence would attenuate the effect of the task/technology fit which is important to non-Hispanic groups' evaluations, perhaps, instead, it makes them equally sensitive to judgments of the potential of a medium to communicate social presence. Interestingly, some research has found that it is possible for online environments to serve as relational outlets for some groups of consumers (Mathwick, 2002). Clearly, this is an area ripe for future research. While this lack of support for hypothesis H2c presents an opportunity for future research in examining the intricacies of how communication perceptions are weighted in their mediation of task effects, the essential results regarding task type and Hispanic identification effects on perceived quality, satisfaction, and intended patronage still stand.Implications for service managers and researchers\nConclusion: Technology advances have increasingly moved much consumer behavior to direct, but impersonal channels such as kiosks, automated teller machines, telephone response systems, and the internet. Consumers use these channels not only to search for product information, but also to conduct transactions on their own. Clearly, an information acquisition task would require different attributes in the online service environment and would likely elicit a different consumer response than would a transaction task (e.g. Lassar and Dandapani, 2003). The present research took that notion a step further and investigated the role of communication perceptions in determining the evaluations of web sites under these differing task conditions, as well as a potential moderator of one form of consumer type (Hispanic identification).We found variation in responses across task types and across consumer groups. The results of the current study showed the following:* Information acquisition tasks. An online information acquisition task was shown to result in higher overall perceived quality, satisfaction, and intended patronage than a transaction task. Thus, for service providers wishing to move customers to more online self-service delivery, it is important to recognize that simple information acquisition tasks seem to fit this medium better than more complex tasks. Indeed, some past research has found that consumers definitely want more choice and more control in conducting their own service activities, but not so much that they have to do it all themselves (Moon and Frei, 2000).* Transaction tasks. Transaction tasks were rated lower in overall perceived quality, satisfaction, and intended patronage than information acquisition tasks, but this difference was particularly pronounced for non-Hispanic consumers. Hispanic consumers in the study did not drastically reduce their evaluations when performing the transaction task as compared to the information acquisition task, as did the non-Hispanic group. These results should be quite interesting to online service providers who wish to have consumers performing not just information search tasks but transactions online as well. Clearly, consumer type can be a potential moderator of the effect of the task type on quality evaluations, and strategies for online services marketing should consider not just task type, but consumer type as well.* Hispanic consumers. Previous research has primarily looked at the effect of task type, product type, or consumer traits on evaluations of the online service encounter. The present research advances this line of inquiry by specifically investigating the moderating role of Hispanic self-identity. The rationale for an interaction effect was based on research showing that Hispanic consumers respond differently to various marketing efforts than non-Hispanic consumers, and that Hispanic markets are more likely to desire interpersonal contact in service transactions - a feature lacking in online self-service encounters. Evidence supporting the proposed interaction effects of Hispanic identification and task type on perceived quality, satisfaction, and intended patronage was provided using a sample of online consumers. Service providers should be quite interested to note that the Hispanic market, rapidly growing in its online presence, responds differently than the non-Hispanic market, and in particular, rates transaction tasks nearly the same as information acquisition tasks.* Communication perceptions. Additionally, the mediating effects of the communication perceptions of communications interface, communication effectiveness, and social presence were also demonstrated. That is, the effect of task type on the quality, satisfaction and intended patronage evaluations was shown to operate through the perceptions of the ability of the web site to facilitate communication and social interaction. Marketers would be well served by understanding the important role these perceptions of media communications play in consumers' attitudes and intentions.In summary, the results suggest that services firms should consider not only the environment in which the service encounter will be performed, but the type of service task, the type of consumer, and the potential interaction between them. The results also show the usefulness of communications medium perceptions in explaining these interactive effects.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Although internet growth has allowed producers to shift control of service transactions to the customer, little research has examined the effects of this shift. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how the performance of different task types differentially affects consumer responses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a field study using online data collection to examine the US Hispanic market, the fastest-growing consumer group in the US as well as one of the fastest growing online user groups.\nFindings: - The paper finds that Hispanic consumers were less affected by the type of task than non-Hispanic consumers, in terms of perceived quality, satisfaction, and intended patronage. Using constructs from the communications literature, task effects on three communication perceptions were shown to explain the differences.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results provide support for the notion that more complex (transaction) tasks can lead to lower evaluations than less complex (information) tasks, while also providing some limiting conditions to this result.\nPractical implications: - The results in this paper suggest that services firms should consider, not only the environment in which the service encounter will be performed, but the type of service task, the type of consumer, and the potential interaction between them. As service organizations move from face-to-face to online service provision, they must consider how, online service provision is evaluated by consumers', and how this affects patronage intentions.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows the usefulness of communications medium perceptions in explaining the interactive effects of service task and consumer type. It is pertinent to service providers, academic researchers, and consumer groups.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The values and visions of the professional department head: not so different from the past?
|
[
"Leadership",
"Values",
"Norway",
"Visions",
"Academic leaders",
"Norwegian higher education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Universities and colleges have in many countries been exposed to reform processes during the last 20 years (Amaral et al., 2002; Kyvik, 2009). The reforms have focussed on the relationship between the institutions and the state (Christensen and Laegreid, 2002; Maassen, 2009), as well as how universities and colleges should be organized and led internally (Fumasoli and Lepori, 2009; Breznitz and Feldman, 2012). As part of these reform attempts, academic leadership have been highlighted as a key element for the transformation of the sector (Askling and Stensaker, 2002; Musselin, 2006; Toma, 2010).\nTheoretical framework: Studies of academic leadership can be characterized as quite fragmented with respect to perspectives and approaches applied (Middlehurst, 1993). Academic leadership is still much associated with heroism, charisma and personal characteristics of the leader (Birnbaum, 1992), even though many studies also show how academic leaders are embedded in cultural traits and institutional traditions influencing how leaders think and act (Wildavsky, 1992; Keller, 2001). It is, of course, the latter studies that have inspired reforms where academic leaders should come from the outside and be more independent of the people s/he are intending to lead. The logic associated with having appointed department heads is that they should have their loyalty toward the institutional leadership and the overarching strategy, contribute to the transformation of the organization and that they should be less linked to established means and ways of doing things (Ramirez, 2006).\nData and methods: The methodological approach in this study is guided by several assumptions: first, that changes and initiatives in higher education often emerge from departments and faculties rather than from the institutional level. Next, that these units have distinctive disciplinary and cultural differences which have important implications for how academic leadership at departmental and school level could or should work (Gibbs et al., 2009; Becher and Trowler, 2001). Third, the focus of attention is on what leaders actually do rather than on what they are like or what their leadership styles were.\nEmpirical results: In this section, key findings from the interviews with the department and faculty heads are highlighted with a particular emphasis on their perceptions of their own possibilities of conducting academic leadership, and what tasks and issues they prioritize in their job.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Although the number of interviews makes it impossible to draw firm conclusions, the study contributes to the ongoing debate on the promises and perils of the new appointed professional leaders in higher education. Not least, our findings shed some lights on which areas and responsibilities the new professionals are prioritizing in their job. Most of them agreed that an important task for them was to create a collegial environment and structure for staff to support their teaching and research and to protect their autonomy. Another feature of their work was their insistence of collaboration and consultation with staff before important decisions were made. None of these finding are original, Bryman (2007) found some of the same facets of leadership in his overview of effective leadership in higher education. What is interesting in a Norwegian context is that these findings point to a more traditional and collegial ideal of academic leadership compared to the more official expectations of appointed leaders that they should be more involved in strategies and implementing decisions from the institutional level. In many ways, the quote by Larsen (2003, p. 85) that \"academic leaders are defenders of democratic processes in desicion-making [...] and central leadership tools in Norwegian higher education are still consultation and persuation rather than the use of incentives,\" seems still valid - also when the department heads are no longer elected. For elected academic leaders in general, the loyalty is primarily to staff and their department. For appointed leaders in this study this was still the main loyalty but in addition they experienced the expectations for loyalty to both senior leaders and their institutions. An interesting question is how appointed departmental leaders learned to live with this dilemma which has no definitive solutions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze how appointed leaders in Norwegian higher education perceive their role and influence, and their discretion as academic leaders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper applies strategic, cultural and political perspectives on leadership to investigate the understanding and perceptions held by academic leaders regarding their own work. The study applied a qualitative strategy based on a cross-sectional design. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 18 purposefully selected academic leaders.\nFindings: The findings reveal that appointed academic leaders are struggling with traditions and cultures and current governing structures and funding mechanisms on the other. The paper argues that this dilemma limits the potential for academic leaders to instigate change and that leadership perhaps has been overemphasized as a factor driving transformation of higher education.\nOriginality/value: The paper suggests the heated debates in Norway about whether academic leaders should be elected or appointed has limited relevance for understanding how academic leadership is performed in the actual daily work of leaders. The paper suggest that the current interest in selection of leaders perhaps should be downplayed in favor of a perspective focussing on the cultural factors framing current leadership practices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Post-surgery length of stay using multi-criteria decision-making tool
|
[
"Multi-criteria decision making",
"Length of stay",
"Hospital",
"Analytic hierarchy process",
"Multiple stakeholders"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Hospitals represent the highest proportion of healthcare expenditure (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2013), which is expected to rise with increasing ageing populations (Bloom et al., 2011; Pammolli et al., 2012). Over the past decade, the European Commission (EC) has acknowledged the need to monitor health systems' performance. Indeed, EC's country-specific recommendations on health systems within the European Semester focus on curtailing public spending through reduction in hospital beds and in-patient days, as well shifting from in-patient to daycare and primary care (Azzopardi-Muscat et al., 2015). Inappropriate admissions and prolonged length of stay (LOS) are among the leading sources of hospitals' inefficiences (Etienne et al., 2010). Optimal decisions in this area can reap substantial cost benefits by enhancing patients' satisfaction and reducing cost. Hospital LOS is expected to vary between countries, hospitals and across settings, due to variability in procedures and practices. What remains consistent worldwide is the target of reducing LOS (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2013; Clarke and Rosen, 2001), though this is not a straightforward undertaking. While a shorter stay will decrease the cost per discharge (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2013), a short LOS may be associated with adverse health outcomes and higher readmission rates, thereby increasing costs per illness episode (Husted et al., 2008). On the other hand, a prolonged LOS not only increases costs, but is also associated with adverse events and complications (Senthilkumar and Ramakrishnan, 2012; Lim et al., 2006). Therefore, the right balance must be found between ensuring healthcare quality and cost saving. Improvements in LOS could release capacity by way of beds and staff time (National Health Service, 2008). However, understanding the complexity of factors underlying LOS is crucial before one pushes forward realistic targets.\nMethodology and results: Setting\nDiscussion: Hospital LOS is an important measure of quality and efficiency within hospitals, and recent emphasis has been put on reducing LOS across countries. Some healthcare settings have adopted surgical protocols such as ERAS with the aim of improving post-surgical outcomes. While such protocols show a measure of improvement in LOS, implementation and adaptation have been slow as focus still remains on clinical care factors. Without a comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making model that engages all stakeholders, the ownership and adoption of policies and protocols may not be sustainable. A paradigm shift is therefore needed to ensure that decisions are made based on a strong evidence base; moving away from decisions that are arbitrarily taken by individual clinicians (Hollnagel et al., 2013). This study has developed and applied a holistic model to determine optimal LOS. It outlines four major criteria to consider when developing LOS benchmarks within hospitals--medical, social, financial and risk. The model shows how health managers and clinicians need to consider all four criteria when determining the best policy alternative to ensure a balance rather than a trade-off between healthcare quality, efficiency, costs and LOS. The application of the model through an objective analytical tool yielded three policy alternatives for the surgical procedures considered which compare well with the average LOS found at the country level internationally.\nConclusion: Multi-criteria decision-making tools enable management to optimize resource use through the application of a scientific management technique with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders. The model developed and applied is flexible and can be adopted across different settings. It allows for the development of context-specific criteria, ranked and scored based on stakeholder preferences and objective statistical data. Future studies can apply this method to other interventions across healthcare settings to demonstrate its applicability within the broader healthcare context (Figure 4).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Length of stay (LOS) in hospital after surgery varies for each patient depending on surgeon's decision that considers criticality of the surgery, patient's conditions before and after surgery, expected time to recovery and experience of the surgeon involved. Decision on patients' LOS at hospital post-surgery affects overall healthcare performance as it affects both cost and quality of care. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for deriving the most appropriate LOS after surgical interventions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts an action research involving multiple stakeholders (surgeon, patients/patients' relatives, hospital management and other medics). First, a conceptual model is developed using literature and experts' opinion. Second, the model is applied in three surgical interventions in a public hospital in Malta to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model. Third, the policy alternatives developed are compared to a selection of current international standards for each surgical intervention. The proposed model analyses three LOS threshold policies for three procedures using efficiency and responsiveness criteria. The entire analysis is carried out using 325 randomly selected patient files along with structured interactions with more than 50 stakeholders (surgeon, patients/patients' relatives, hospital management and other medics). A multiple criteria decision-making method is deployed for model building and data analysis. The method involves combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for verbal subjective judgements on prioritizing the four predictors of surgical LOS--medical, financial, social and risk, with pairwise comparisons of the sub-criteria under each criterion in line with the concerned interventions--the objective data of which are obtained from the patients' files.\nFindings: The proposed model was successfully applied to decide on the best policy alternative for LOS for the three interventions. The best policy alternatives compared well to current international benchmarks.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed method needs to be tested for other interventions across various healthcare settings.\nPractical implications: Multi-criteria decision-making tools enable resource optimization and overall improvement of patient care through the application of a scientific management technique that involves all relevant stakeholders while utilizing both subjective judgements as well as objective data.\nOriginality/value: Traditionally, the duration of post-surgery LOS is mainly based on the surgeons' clinical but also arbitrary decisions, with, as a result, having insufficiently explicable variations in LOS amongst peers for similar interventions. According to the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to derive post-surgery LOS using the AHP, a multiple criteria decision-making method.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Library and information science and sustainable development: a structured literature review
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Sustainable development",
"Library and information science",
"Publications",
"Bibliometrics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: On January 1, 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations went into effect. These 17 goals are intended to \"end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all\" (United Nations, 2015, para. 1). A sustainable development can be described as a \"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\" (WCED, 1987, p. 37). Inspired by the triple bottom line (Elkington, 1997), three main dimensions of sustainable development can be identified: social, economic and environmental sustainability. Similarly, the SDGs include targets regarding different aspects of sustainability, from ending poverty to protecting the planet and improving education. Whereas prior formulations of similar goals - like the Millennium Development Goals - focused on advancements in developing countries, the SDGs demand involvement of all countries (United Nations, 2016). Hence, this is a matter for all of us. Today, we can already observe several initiatives supporting a sustainable development, like a growing interest in the sharing economy (Hamari et al., 2016). The question arises, how scientists can contribute to a sustainable development. Igbinovia (2017) emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary research in order to achieve the SDGs. Thereby, library and information science (LIS) as a highly interdisciplinary field should not be excluded. And \"since information forms an integral part of every development and innovation, sustainability should become a mainstream research topic within information studies\" (Chowdhury, 2013, p. 617).\nMethods: This paper attempts a mapping of publications in LIS directly dealing with sustainability and sustainable development. Part of this is a bibliometric analysis of scholarly articles on sustainability and sustainable development. A structured literature review then focuses on the contents and methodological approaches of publications in the field of LIS. The presented work might not only help to get an overview over sustainability research and activities in the LIS field but additionally potential research gaps may be identified. The items included in the analysis were obtained from the Scopus database. Figure 1 describes the approach for attaining a set of articles for the analysis. As Scopus does not provide a subject area in the field LIS, the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) was used in order to identify relevant sources (SCImago, 2007). As assumed by Leydesdorff (2009) the SJR can be used as an alternative to the Journal Impact Factor. Beside journal articles, conference proceedings can be included in the ranking. All sources in the first two quartiles were chosen, which added up to 102 items in February 2018.\nResults: In total, we analyzed 81 publications, which are distributed over 37 sources (journals and conference proceedings). With each seven items, most articles were published in the journals Government Information Quarterly, Scientometrics and The International Journal of Geographical Information Science. This is followed by five articles in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology and four articles in Information, Communication and Society. The articles are authored by 155 different persons, whereby Gobinda Chowdhury and Amanda Spink are the most frequent authors with five and three articles, respectively. While publications by Amanda Spink shape early thoughts on the intersection of sustainability and LIS research from 1995 to 1999, articles by Gobinda Chowdhury on this topic were published since 2010. In two theoretical articles, Spink (1995b, 1999) discusses the general role of information science for a sustainable development. Spink (1995a) further emphasizes the need of consolidating research on sustainable development and digital libraries. Chowdhury actually connects these topics. He especially focuses on the carbon footprint of the knowledge sector as well as sustainability of digital libraries and information services and proposes methods to measure environmental costs of digital libraries (Chowdhury, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016). Chowdhury and Koya (2017) further conducted an analysis on four UN policy documents and the importance of information-related concepts embedded in these. Considering the SDGs, information access and information sharing seem to be of particular importance.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Awareness on and importance of sustainability in all aspects of our lives is becoming more and more important. And as \"we move towards 'knowledge societies' [...] the promises of information and media have increased manifold. This opens new horizons for every woman and man to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion, expression and access to information - to be actors in, and beneficiaries of, sustainable development\" (Engida, 2015, p. 9).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Awareness on and importance of sustainability in all aspects of our lives is becoming more and more important. The question arises, how - not if - scientists can contribute to a sustainable development. As information plays an important role for development, information scientists should be included in this debate. However, is there a sustainable information science or an information science of sustainability? The purpose of this paper is to perform a mapping of publications in library and information science (LIS) directly dealing with sustainability and sustainable development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A structured literature review was conducted, enhanced by bibliometric analyses. For this purpose, 102 LIS journals and conferences were considered. The authors identified 81 publications dealing with sustainability and sustainable development and analyzed the concrete contents and methodological approaches of these.\nFindings: A large proportion of articles could be found dealing with sustainable development and libraries. Other publications focus on information and communication technology or information systems. Only few articles deal with further topics like government, urban development or scientific output.\nResearch limitations/implications: Sustainability and sustainable development are complex topics. This work only considers literature whose title or keywords contain the string sustainab*.\nOriginality/value: The presented work helps to get an overview on sustainability research and activities in the LIS field and additionally, potential research gaps may be identified. The authors call for more research in this area and concrete ideas to help develop a sustainable future.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Does lean cure variability in health care?
|
[
"Health care",
"Continuous improvement",
"Lean management",
"Buffers",
"Field research",
"Variability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Process, and particularly flow, improvement has become an important aspect of healthcare activities. One of the more popular approaches to improving flow is Lean management. This popularity is reflected in the growing number of studies focusing on Lean in health care (e.g. Chiarini and Bracci, 2013; Papadopoulos et al., 2011; Papadopoulos, 2012; Poksinska, 2010; Poksinska et al., 2013). Most of these healthcare-oriented studies report successful outcomes (e.g. Breslin et al., 2014; Chiodo et al., 2012; Raab et al., 2006; Yousri et al., 2011). Hence, the adaptation of Lean ideas to healthcare environments seems promising.\nTheory: Samuel et al. (2015) note that a general Lean theory is still lacking. However, one can identify key aspects in the literature. Reducing \"unnecessary\" waste in order to increase the value or \"value-added\" for customers is often considered central to Lean (Holden, 2011). However, many scholars, such as Hasle et al. (2012), argue that Lean is about more than direct or \"obvious\" waste reduction, and that reducing buffers and variability should be part of a Lean approach.\nMethodology: Our study adopted a field research approach in that it can be typified by the collection of qualitative and quantitative data from a real-life setting (Edmondson and McManus, 2007). Field research allows one to \"explore the implementation of managerial norms and solutions as well as the practical validity of theoretical models\" (DeHoratius and Rabinovich, 2011, p. 372) and is thus an ideal approach for exploring and validating the focus of Lean interventions. Since we were also interested in possible changes to the focus over time, we required in-depth data over several years. Further, we required numerous Lean interventions because we wanted to establish their main focus. This combination of criteria is difficult to meet, and therefore we studied a single case. This approach is generally seen as effective when the case is treated as unique, when the study is longitudinal, and when in-depth insights are required (Yin, 2009). We triangulated our study through the combination of data sources as advised by various scholars (e.g. Voss et al., 2002; Barratt et al., 2011).\nAnalysis and results: The raw data in the form of archival records amounted to a total of 324 Lean interventions, i.e. all the documented interventions from the laboratory in the period 2009-2013. After data cleaning, 284 (88 percent) interventions where seen as suitable for further analysis. The removed data consisted of documents that did not specifically report on interventions, e.g. double entries, undated documents, or appendices.\nDiscussion: Our main questions were how the focus of existing Lean interventions should be classified, whether and how this focus developed over time, and whether knowledge on buffers and variability influenced the focus of interventions. In terms of the first research question, we found that the interventions tended to be heavily focused on simple practical improvements that would reduce waste. This accords with the suggestions of many authors that identifying and reducing waste is the first step in a Lean transition (e.g. Hopp and Spearman, 2004; Shah and Ward, 2007). Further, the pattern in health care of improving quality and safety (Stelfox et al., 2006; Weiner et al., 2006) is reflected in the focus of the Lean interventions. Most of the interventions in the laboratory focused on reducing direct waste, with half linked to eradicating defects or boosting quality.\nConclusions: We have executed an in-depth case study including an exploratory field-quasi-experiment to determine how the focus of Lean interventions could be classified, whether and how this focus changed over time as Lean experience grew, and how knowledge on buffers and variability played a role in the intervention focus. Our research has made the following contributions:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles that employee-initiated Lean improvement projects play in health care. Lean ideas are introduced to improve flow in health care. Although variability is detrimental to flow performance, it is unclear whether Lean initiatives set out to reduce this variability and the associated buffers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Longitudinal field research is combined with an exploratory field-quasi-experiment. First, a large set of Lean interventions were explored and their focus classified. Semi-structured interviews with practitioners supported the initial findings regarding the focus. Second, this study investigated whether a knowledge deficiency could explain the identified focus through a quasi-experiment in which the authors' stimulated knowledge on the roles of variability and buffers and then classified subsequent interventions.\nFindings: The results reflected a narrow application of Lean, with most interventions directed at reducing direct waste. A quasi-experiment demonstrated that a small investment in knowledge enables the focus to shift toward buffers and variability issues - i.e. toward a more complete Lean approach.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research supports the commonly held view that there is a tendency to focus on waste. Furthermore, a lengthy experience of Lean does not guarantee interventions will focus on buffers and variability, issues with arguably a higher complexity compared to obvious waste. However, small investments in knowledge can broaden the focus of practitioners' interventions.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to research the focus of Lean interventions through a data set spanning several years. The results are based on a unique data set covering a large number of documented Lean interventions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Management by objectives and corporate social responsibility disclosure: First results from Italy
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Voluntary disclosure",
"Corporate social reporting",
"Environmental",
"Social and governance disclosure",
"Management by objectives",
"Non-financial information"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Background: The recession now affecting the global economy has focussed attention on various aspects of the strategic management of companies, including the idea that corporate social responsibility (CSR) has taken on a key role in the process of rebuilding confidence in the markets and in economic stability (McGuire et al., 2003; Ducassy, 2013; Alniacik et al., 2011).\n2. Regulations and relevant guidelines: The content of such documents has, moreover, been a subject of particular interest to European Community legislators, who have introduced the requirement to include non-financial information specifically pertaining to the environment and personnel in the management report (Accounts Modernisation Directive (AMD)), and to include in the remuneration report details of the criteria used to determine salary and bonuses paid and of the relevant remunerative policies (EC recommendations 2004/913 and 2009/385), though without making specific reference to environmental and social issues.\n3. Propositions and literature review: The research is part of a scientific debate covering a number of themes and to which scholars have made numerous contributions based on different theoretical approaches. Listed below are certain specific propositions shared by the authors and against the background of which this paper should be seen. It goes without saying that the theories to which we refer are not specific subjects of analysis but constitute starting points for discussion of CSR and the various issues connected to it:\n4. Methodology: The preliminary aim of this research was to establish which of the 328 companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (as of 31.12.2011) included sustainability indicators for their variable remuneration scheme for staff in their 2011 sustainability report.\n5. Results: 5.1. ESG information in the comparison between the sustainability report and the remuneration report\nConclusions: This work, following on from a number of studies which have established that it is essential for businesses to fully integrate CSR into their operations, and starting from the proposition that in order to achieve this full integration it is necessary to take action on management incentive schemes, has as its main aim the comparison of the quality of more specific information on sustainability provided in connection with listed companies' remuneration policies and the quality of more general information on sustainability provided in the main obligatory and voluntary company reports. The starting point for this was the 328 (as of 31 December 2011) Italian companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, from which 44 firms were then selected, as they had voluntarily published their own sustainability report (for the year 2011) on their own company web sites; of these, 22 stated that they had used sustainability parameters in their incentive schemes for managers and directors. The method employed to measure the levels of compliance of the sustainability information provided had previously been used in another study (Mio and Venturelli, 2013), and it confirmed a total lack of consistency between the information given by the 22 companies in their own sustainability reports and that provided by those same companies both in their remuneration reports and their management reports. The latter documents, like the sustainability reports, are those for the financial year 2011 (although the remuneration reports also make partial reference to wage policies for 2012).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between remuneration for the achievement of objectives and sustainability, and - more specifically - the amount of attention that listed companies in Italy devote to defining, and consequently to communicating externally, sustainability as a criterion in establishing the wage levels of managers and directors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It was decided to ascertain whether the quality of information regarding sustainability provided in connection with the remuneration policies of listed companies tallies with the general quality of information regarding sustainability provided through companies' main (obligatory and voluntary) reporting procedures.\nFindings: The results of this research show that the inconsistency between the information provided in voluntary and obligatory reports (between reports on sustainability and remuneration reports) extends to the levels of information provided in the two types of obligatory report (the reports on remuneration and on management); there is also a discrepancy between the levels of information provided in these reports and the evaluation of that information by an external assessor.\nResearch limitations/implications: One of the limitations of this research is that as the data examined were gleaned from public documents, it is not necessarily an accurate reflection of all the information that firms have at their disposal on questions of sustainability and remuneration policies. The existence of internal documents containing other information, and therefore leading to different results, cannot be ruled out.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first in Italy to examine the question of how limited companies report issues relating to management by objectives-corporate social responsibility. It does this through the introduction of a mixed system for ESG information, which counteracts the subjective limitations of the internal evaluation provided by the research group by adding in the authoritative evaluations of an external assessor.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Slow burn: Understanding the role of social support during organizational changes
|
[
"Burnout",
"Employee well-being",
"Work engagement",
"Social support"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: How cynical are large organizations? The charge often laid at their door is that, in fact, they are very cynical indeed, and human resources (HRs) house some of the most conceited maneuvers known in the corporate world. Surely not, you might say - is not modern HR practice employee-focused with huge attention to well-being? Well, that is what many observers would point out makes it so cynical, as some claim operations are purposefully created to appear to be the epitome of a caring, sharing organization when, in fact, they are simply an attempt to deflect attention from the cold, hard facts of their operation.\nSafety net: Maybe this is a view from the dark ages, or at least a view from a society not represented in the modern world. But while this may not be occurring at an organization-wide level, what is true is that firms depend a huge amount on the ability for individuals to mutually support each other through times of change. Whether it be major organizational change as a result of industry consolidation, merger and acquisition, or restructuring - firms will to a greater or lesser degree need vulnerable employees to be supported by their workmates in addition to any formal support the HR function can offer.\nUnhealthy environment: The study was undertaken in the public administrative sector in Italy, with the following twin aims:\nKey findings: First, the research team found that concerns about change did indeed impact on the well-being of employees in respect to burnout and levels of engagement. Key to this was a feeling on behalf of employees of a sense of loss of benefits and resources in the workplace. This manifests itself in a loss of control, loss of cohesion in a group or the feeling of powerlessness. All of these can lead to a kind of emotional exhaustion that causes burnout in employees.\nSupport role: When it comes to the role support plays in the early stages of organizational change, the researchers were able to confirm that when anxiety increased, those who received more support from colleagues were able to mitigate the effects. What is important in this study was that not only this support but also the feeling of anxiety over future loss of resources for the organization were confirmed in the present study. And this, in a nutshell, is the key learning point from the research and one that will resonate for many people who despair over the activities of their organizations when they fail to deal with speculation about wholesale changes.\nComment: The article \"Concerns about change and employee well-being: the moderating role of social support\" by Guidetti et al. (2018) offers confirmation for a number of issues for many people working in large organizations. The fact that major change, or even the hint of major change, can cause burnout or severely erode employee wellbeing will not come as a surprise. But the fact that this has been identified in a major study in public administration will hopefully focus the minds of leaders when to comes to taking the well-being of their employees seriously and not just as the latest HR fad.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is 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: How cynical are large organizations? The charge often laid at their door is that, in fact, they are very cynical indeed, and human resources (HRs) house some of the most conceited maneuvers known in the corporate world. Surely not, you might say - is not modern HR practice employee-focused with huge attention to well-being? Well, that is what many observers would point out makes it so cynical, as some claim operations are purposefully created to appear to be the epitome of a caring, sharing organization when, in fact, they are simply an attempt to deflect attention from the cold, hard facts of their operation.\nPractical implications: This paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: This 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"
}
] |
South African community in Auckland: Natural hazards and the resilience to a potential disaster event
|
[
"Natural hazards",
"Resilience",
"Capacity",
"Community",
"Disaster risk",
"South Africa"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The need to assess community resilience to fundamental challenges has become necessary for two reasons. The first reason is the expected impact of climate change and, second, is the increasing rate of human vulnerability as a result of development and urbanisation. Although a significant disaster has not recently impacted Auckland, recent activities regarding volcanic and seismic activities amongst other hazards have made it imperative to investigate the short-term coping capacity and long-term resilience of urban communities to natural hazards. This study examines the resilience of the South African population to potential natural events in Auckland. In achieving this objective, this research seeks to answer the following sub-questions:\n2. Resilience: a conceptual development: Although resilience has been in existence over many centuries ago, Alexander (2013) credited Holling (1973) for the adoption of resilience from mechanical and scientific perspectives to ecological sciences. In his seminal work, Holling conceptualised resilience regarding bounce back and returned to the initial equilibrium. Subsequent literature, i.e., Leitch and Bohensky (2014) has argued that resilience is not about returning to the former equilibrium or dysfunctional state of vulnerability, but the opportunity provided by a disaster event for system renewal and the formation of a new trajectory to meet the current challenges. Although resilience has progressed as an attribute of the biophysical system (Holling, 1973), socio-attribute of a social system (Adger, 2000), as a socio-ecological attribute (Folke, 2006) and recently, as an attribute of a place (Cutter et al., 2008), it is still saddle with consensus definition, measurement and application problems. Aside, the debates surrounding the relationship between vulnerability and resilience, the place of adaptive capacity in resilience has continued to shape the conceptual development of resilience. While this research acknowledged that both resilience and vulnerability have some antithetical characteristics, they are not oppositional as both concepts exist side by side in a given community (Kelman et al., 2016; Weichselgartner and Kelman, 2015). Suffice to say that there is no community with absolute zero resilience or vulnerability. However, it is difficult to define an acceptable relationship between these concepts because of disciplinary and epistemological variances. Moreover, it is also because of definitional overlapping between vulnerability and resilience (Manyena, 2006; Kelman et al., 2016). Weichselgartner and Bertens (2000) definition of vulnerability is a case in point. Although the exact nature of the relationship between the concepts is difficult to establish because of inter-disciplinary usage, a consensus exists that resilience and vulnerability are contextually related (Weichselgartner and Bertens, 2000) and conceptually linked (Cutter et al., 2008) by an adaptive community capacity (Engle, 2011). Adaptive capacity encompasses the use of social learning and existing resources to manage current challenges (Longstaff et al., 2010), and it is pivotal in resilience, vulnerability and disaster recovery. Notwithstanding the importance of adaptive capacity in resilience, it is one element in resilience (Tierney and Bruneau, 2007). Also, reducing the sensitivity and exposure of elements at-risk are essential in resilience (Murray and Ebi, 2012). While a community with a high adaptive capacity could be viewed as resilient, the distribution and access to resources among the population are fundamental in resilience (Klein et al., 2003).\n3. Construction of CRI: 3.1 Resilience domain and indicator selection\n4. Data collection method and analysis: 4.1 The South African Community in Auckland\n5. Findings and discussion: The research presented the socio-demographic results of the survey data in Table I.\n6. Conclusion: The overarching purpose of this paper was to investigate the resilience of the South African community to natural hazard event in Auckland. The current resilience baseline condition was a high average, 2.81 on a five-point Likert scale. The current resilience baseline condition suggests an intervention to enhance indicators with low resilience and a change in the community attitude towards risks. Intervention regarding diversification of income would assist the community to cope with challenges, improve savings and purchase a disaster-related insurance policy. Community social network, local resilience agency and insurance providers could be a veritable tool for promoting these initiatives. Encouraging the community on the importance of community as a first responder would assist in DRR. The recommendation is against the background of the lack of interest in pre-disaster and response activities in the community. Community persuasion by ethnic community liaison officers, para-military agencies and community heads to participate in social activities and disaster reduction exercises could assist in these endeavours.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the resilience of the South African community in Auckland to a potential hazard event.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research collected data from both primary and secondary sources. The research used parametric and non-parametric analytical procedures for quantitative data and a general inductive approach to qualitative data analysis and a three-step coding cycle for interviews. A content analytical process of theme formation was used to analyse secondary materials. The research discussed findings in line with related studies on community resilience.\nFindings: The aggregate community resilience index was above average on the scale of 1-5. The highest and lowest contributions to the resilience of the South African community came from communication and information and physical capacities of the community. Although the highest contribution came from the communication domain, there is a need to sensitise the community on the importance of real-time information for resilience. Community ability to respond as a first responder and to access diverse sources was low because of a lack of interest in disaster risk reduction activities and membership of associations. Intervention in the economic domain and affordable housing is needed to assist low-income earners in coping with a potential disaster and enhance future resilience.\nResearch limitations/implications: The practical resilience of the community is limited to the time of this research. The state of resilience might change in longitudinal research due to changes in resources and ecosystem. The research did not consider institutional and natural domains because its focus was to predict resilience at the individual level.\nPractical implications: At-risk societies could enhance their resilience through a periodic audit into its resources, identify indicators of low resilience and carry out interventions to address potential vulnerabilities. Besides the importance of resource in resilience, the research illuminates the need to address the question of who is resilient and resources distribution in the community. The issues are imperative in community resilience as they underpinned the personal ability to preparedness, response and recover from a disaster.\nOriginality/value: Although the research provides insight into the resilience of the South African community, it constitutes preliminary research towards a further understanding of the resilience of the South African community in Auckland.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Paediatric tonsillectomy: Impact assessment using a validated patient reported outcome measure (PROM)
|
[
"Tonsillectomy",
"Patient reported outcome measures",
"Tonsillitis",
"Quality of life",
"Children (age groups)",
"Surgery"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2009 a report commissioned by the Department of Health (DH) (2009) recommended that a PS20 billion reduction in National Health Service (NHS) spending be made by 2014. It was suggested that one of the ways in which this would be achieved would be through a reduction in spending on non-essential procedures and operations. In April 2011 a report published by the NHS audit commission (Audit Commission, 2011) summarised that reducing Primary Care Trusts (PCT) spending on \"low clinical value\" treatments, would save the NHS about PS500 million annually. It suggested that individual PCT's identify \"low clinical value\" treatments within their area and reduce spending on these. Tonsillectomy was subsequently identified as a low clinical value treatment and the National institute of health and clinical excellence (NICE) suggested that the published evidence did not support its long-term effectiveness. In June 2011 Central Lancashire PCT (NHS Central Lancashire, 2011) published strict criteria for commissioning tonsillectomies, under the Elective Use of Resources (EUR) Criteria. Other PCT's have taken a firmer approach, with a blanket refusal to commission tonsillectomy procedures, regardless of the underlying clinical indication.In total 51,259 Tonsillectomies were performed in the UK in 2009-2010, of which 28,677 were on children (HES on-line, 2009). The published evidence in support of the procedure is equivocal, relying on a handful of studies focusing on objective outcome measures with a short follow-up period. In 2008, the Cochrane Collaboration (McKean, 2011) reviewed four published trials and summarised that adenotonsillectomy when performed in children with severe recurrent tonsillitis (Paradise criteria), reduces the number of attacks of sore throat in the first year following surgery by three. It did not find any benefit from tonsillectomy in children with mild-moderate disease. The drawbacks of the studies they reviewed were that they used only objective outcome criteria and had a short follow-up period. Their finding however, has been corroborated by the well designed, multi-centre, north of England and Scotland study of tonsillectomy and adenotonsillectomy in children (NESSTAC) (Wilson et al., 2010). Based on these findings the usefulness of Tonsillectomy has been questioned and the funding for it within the National Health Service curtailed.Quality published data on the natural history of Tonsillitis in the medical literature is lacking and one must rely on data generated from randomised control trials set up to look at the benefits of tonsillectomy. Within these historical trials, the cohort randomised to medical management has shown a decreasing frequency of infections/year over the limited study period, more pronounced in those with mild to moderate disease (Paradise et al., 1984; Mawson et al., 1968; Paradise et al., 2002; Van Staaij et al., 2004). The most common medical complication of tonsillitis is peri-tonsillar abscess (quinsy) but the true incidence of this in children remains largely unknown. Other rarer complications such as acute glomerulonephritis and rheumatic fever secondary to infection with group A b-haemolytic streptococcus are now rare in the developed world due to easy access to penicillin (Georgalas et al., 2009).Goldstein et al. (2008) using both disease specific and global quality of life measures, have shown that adenotonsillar disease has a significant negative impact on the quality of life of affected children and that their QOL scores are comparable to those of children suffering with chronic asthma and juvenile arthritis (Goldstein et al., 2008). Recurrent tonsillitis may also result in repeated General practice and A&E attendances, hospital admissions for intravenous fluids and antibiotics, time off school and community prescriptions, yet the overall burden of disease and cost of management remains unknown. Also, very few studies exist which evaluate the effect a tonsillectomy has on the QOL of children suffering with tonsillitis.The \"NHS next stage review\" (Darzi, 2008), suggests that the success of a treatment should be measured and reported using subjective, Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROM), which give a patients perspective on the success of their surgery and quality of care that they have received. In 2009, guided by the developing political climate in a cash deprived NHS; we prospectively started to administer PROM's in children undergoing a tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis.This study aims to prospectively evaluate the effect a tonsillectomy has on the quality of life of children affected by recurrent infective tonsillitis, using a qualitative PROM.\nMethod: The study was performed prospectively between December 2009 and January 2011 at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital. All children aged 16 and under, undergoing a tonsillectomy for recurrent tonsillitis were enrolled into the study. To be included, the children had to fit the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines (2010), which stipulate that the child must have seven or more clinically significant sore throats in the year preceding the listing or five or more episodes over the two preceding years or three or more such episodes in the three preceding years. In-depth detail of subgroup breakdown was not collected.The Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument (TAHSI) is a PROM specifically designed for children with adenotonsillar disease, living in America (Goldstein et al., 2008). It is a 15 item scale, where each question is scored 0-4. 0 represents no problem, 1 very mild problem, 2 moderate problems, 3 fairly bad problems, 4 severe problems. The clinical audit and practice advisory group of ENT-UK modified the TAHSI and published the 14 item Paediatric Throat Disorders Outcome Test (PTDO) for use in a UK population (Hopkins et al., 2010). Three of the original questions: presence of streptococcal sore throats, cost of medical care and prescriptions and poor weight gain, have been replaced by - day time sleepiness and frequent ear infections. The modified PTDO scores each question from 0-5. 0 represents no problems, 1 very mild problem, 2 mild or slight problems, 3 moderate problems, 4 severe problems, 5 problem as severe as it could be.The 14 item PTDO was administered to children in whom the decision to treat had already been made and was completed by the parents of the enrolled children on the day of surgery itself. The form was then posted out to the parents for completion, six months post-operatively. If a response was not received within two weeks, the parents were telephoned by a member of the team as a reminder.We contacted our regional Research and Ethics committee (NRES) in October 2009 and were advised that formal ethical approval was not necessary as we were auditing our current practice.Statistical comparison between the overall means scores and individual pre and post-operative scores was performed using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test and confirmed using the paired t-test. The power calculation was calculated using the simple paired t-test (5 per cent significance level). To detect a difference of 10 or more, 52 subjects were required for an 80 per cent power.\nResults: * 67 children were recruited into the study.* Age range three to 14 years, mean age 7.5 years.* 39 female (62 per cent) and 24 male (38 per cent).For personal reasons, four parents asked to be excluded from the study after the first round. In total, 63 questionnaires were posted out six months post-op, 54 (86 per cent) completed questionnaires were received. One had to be excluded as it was incomplete.The mean total score for the PTDO test was 31.29 (SD 9.66) pre-operatively and 7.41 (SD 10.8) post-operatively (p-value < 0.001).The mean scores for questions 1 and 2 did not significantly change post-op. However, the mean scores for Q3-Q14 were all significantly lower post-op (see Table I)\nDiscussion: In this study, we have prospectively examined the effect a tonsillectomy has on the quality of life of a child, suffering with recurrent infective tonsillitis. Our study suggests that there is a significant improvement in subjective QOL in these children post-operatively, with a marked reduction in the overall symptom score (p<0.001). We have also noticed a statistically significant improvement after the surgery in the number of throat infections incurred, courses of antibiotics required, number of visits to the G.P, time required off school, episodes of ear ache and loss of appetite. Although snoring and apnoea remained unchanged, there was also a significant improvement seen in day-time sleepiness and noisy breathing after the surgery. This corroborates the results found by Goldstein et al. (2008) and Hopkins et al. (2010) but with a much better response rate (86 per cent vs 63 per cent and 69 per cent respectively) (Goldstein et al., 2008; Hopkins et al., 2010).The results of this study have added to a growing body of evidence showing that a surgical tonsillectomy, when performed on the correct cohort of patients, can be extremely effective in improving their quality of life. Labelling Tonsillectomy as a \"low clinical value treatment\" and withdrawing its funding, based on limited published evidence, is perhaps short-sighted and also risks an increase in the number of GP visits, emergency admissions and time needed off school. It also acts to reduce patient choice and drive tonsillectomy provision into the private sector.Global QOL scores for children with recurrent tonsillitis are comparable to those seen in other chronic paediatric illnesses such as asthma and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (Goldstein et al., 2008) and as we have shown, may be markedly improved by surgery. Decreasing the burden of a chronic illness not only has a positive impact on the mental and physical wellbeing of the ill child itself, but also on that of his or her carers. As surgeons, we must move away from measuring the success of treatment based solely on objective outcome measures and combine these with \"quality of life\" and \"patient reported outcome\" measures. Only then will we get a true picture of overall disease burden and the effectiveness of our treatments on global health.Furthermore, following the publication of Lord Darzi's NHS next stage review, NHS trusts have been encouraged to regularly collect and publish information regarding patient's health-related quality of life, collected using PROMS, which are administered before and after a treatment. At present this is only mandatory for four surgical procedures (hip and knee replacement, varicose veins and hernia) but may soon apply to a larger range of medical and surgical treatments. These published \"quality measures\" may dictate payment for services or procurement of services by commissioners and survival of the service in the free market.It is interesting to note that Goldstein et al. (2008), noted similar findings to ours but on a cohort of children with less severe symptoms (three episodes of tonsillitis/year for the 12 months preceding surgery as opposed to seven episodes of tonsillitis/year or three episodes/year for three consecutive years) (Goldstein et al., 2008). In England, these children would not fit the operative criteria and would not receive funding for their surgery. We feel that this is an area for future research and are currently enrolling patients into a trial examining QOL scores in children with mild-moderate recurrent tonsillitis, who do not fulfil the local EUR criteria.\nConclusion: The absence of published evidence in support of a tonsillectomy does not mean that the procedure is not valuable in a carefully selected cohort of patients. Our study demonstrates that performing the procedure in children with severe tonsillar disease, significantly improves their QOL, as observed using a disease specific, validated PROM.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The published evidence in support of a tonsillectomy is equivocal relying on historical studies using objective outcome measures. Based on this, NICE have suggested that tonsillectomy is a \"low clinical value treatment\" and its funding curtailed by PCTs. This paper aims to prospectively evaluate the effect of a tonsillectomy on quality of life (QOL) of children affected by recurrent infective tonsillitis using a qualitative patient reported outcome measure (PROM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Parents of children under the age of 16, undergoing a tonsillectomy, were enrolled. Parents completed a paediatric throat disorders outcome (PTDO) test prior to their child's surgery and then six months post-operatively. Results were analysed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The power of the study was 0.8 to detect a difference of 10 in a total score of 70.\nFindings: - A total of 63 children participated and an 86 per cent response rate was received at six months. The mean total score improved from 31.29 pre-op to 7.41 post-op (p<0.001). The mean score for the first two subgroups remained static but for the remaining 12 sub-groups significantly improved post-op.\nOriginality/value: - The study demonstrates that performing tonsillectomies in a carefully selected cohort of children, significantly improves their QOL. It adds to a growing body of evidence that tonsillectomy is not a \"low clinical value procedure\" and has a substantial impact on the patients' symptoms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Mentoring in the rail context: the influence of training, style, and practice
|
[
"Training",
"Mentoring",
"Workplace learning",
"Knowledge acquisition",
"Rail industry",
"Train driving"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The mentoring process is often viewed as a strategy that enhances training, advances career prospects and encourages professional and personal development (Greene and Puetzer, 2002; Jewell, 2007). In workplaces where training occurs on-the-job, mentoring is used to support the development of skills and knowledge. The education, health and transportation sectors all utilise mentoring, but it generally occurs in an authentic workplace setting rather than in the classroom. Here, mentoring can be used as a guided learning approach (Billet, 2000), assisting in transition from theory or book knowledge to practical application in formal situations. However, while mentoring is often viewed as a solution, its effectiveness can vary (Eby et al., 2000), mainly because it is a formal relationship and typically implemented by people with vested interests (Gilbreath et al., 2008).\n2. Methodology: 2.1 Research context and study design\n3. Findings: Three themes emerged from the data. These were - training, individual style and mentoring practices. Although the data were initially categorised according to the focus of the questions (route knowledge, training, driving challenges and assessment), the three themes were identified in each set of questions. Participants were direct in their responses and identified what worked and what did not work for them, and in each instance, identified with each theme. Figure 3 illustrates the themes that were identified, and consistent with the type of analysis adopted, clarifies each theme with subcategories. The next sections present the finding associated with each of the themes with excerpts from these data.\n4. Discussion: The first two objectives were to investigate the prevalence of mentoring in rail and how mentoring was understood in the context of learning to become a train driver. These were revealed within the themes. While mentoring was not a formally implemented process in any of the organisations from which data were collected, trainers and trainees liked the idea, and there was evidence that it was occurring incidentally. In this respect, the themes and findings provided a basis for why mentoring should be a part of the learning process during the training.\n5. Conclusions: In conclusion, this study supports the observation that mentoring programs are being used sparingly or ineffectively as interventions that enhance learning in Australian rail. The driver-learning model currently used by the industry may be enhanced with mentoring; however, the organisation will need to take steps to implement mentoring practices with their employees. In conclusion, the rail industry has much work to do in order to create successful workplace training that promotes quality-learning experiences for new recruits.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace learning in the context of the rail industry, specifically for the type of learning required to become a train driver. It examines the impact of changes to the traditional learning model, and explores the potential of mentoring in the learning/training model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses a participative research approach to examine training experiences with trainee drivers and driver trainers (n = 61) in six Australian rail organisations. The data are synthesised based on an inductive thematic analysis from focus groups, interviews and cab-rides.\nFindings: Current driver-learning approaches contain a number of haphazard elements that provide an unfavourable learning experience. Mentoring practices appear to be happening incidentally, despite train drivers wanting mentoring experiences.\nPractical implications: In the designing and planning of new driver-learning frameworks, it is important to identify the unintended consequences of implementing a condensed \"classroom\" curriculum. The condensed and accelerated driver-learning model currently used could be enhanced through the incorporation of a mentoring process.\nOriginality/value: The article fills an important research gap in the space of workplace learning and mentoring in the rail industry. The themes and findings provide a basis for why mentoring should be integrated as part of the training process. It draws attention to the importance of the situational context, and contributes to communities of practice by outlining important considerations for a holistic model of mentoring in the rail industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Emotional labour at work and at home among Greek health-care professionals
|
[
"Family",
"Psychology",
"Greece",
"Doctors",
"Nurses",
"Communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Although the role of emotional experiences in our physical and psychosocial well-being has long been recognized, it has only recently received consideration within the broader framework of organizational behaviour (Brief and Weiss, 2002). An area that is receiving increased research attention is emotional labour, a construct first defined by Hochschild (1983, p. 7) as the \"management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display\". To date, the issue of emotional labour has been studied both qualitatively (James, 1989; Rafaeli and Sutton, 1990; Stenross and Kleinmann, 1989; Sutton, 1991; Tolich, 1993) and quantitatively (Brotheridge and Grandey, 2002; Brotheridge and Lee, 1998; Mann, 1999; Morris and Feldman, 1996; Wharton, 1993), but the present authors have not identified any articles that studied the relationship between emotional labour (specifically) and work to non-work interference.\nTheoretical background: Grandey (2000) provides a comprehensive review of the theories underlying emotional labour, and defines emotional labour as the process of managing both the experience and expression of feelings to support or achieve organizational goals. Typically, the majority of literature has positioned emotional labour as a stressor, but is important to note that some research has also found positive associations. Zapf et al. (1999) found that the requirement to express positive emotion was associated with both personal accomplishment and emotional exhaustion. The present study will treat emotional labour as a stressor, in agreement with the view of Hochschild (1983) that the management of emotion requires effort.In terms of linking emotional labour to WFI and FWI, emotional labour can be conceptualised within the rubric of two frameworks:1. emotional suppression; and2. emotional regulation for social interaction.Within the first framework, several studies have shown that inhibition of emotions is associated with increased physiological arousal, which if it becomes chronic can have an adverse effect on health and well being (Gross and Levenson, 1997; Panagopoulou et al., 2002). Based on this research paradigm, hostility and anger suppression have been related to essential hypertension and coronary heart disease (Redford and Barefoot 1988; Wedner et al., 1989). More recent studies have linked inhibition of emotions to worsened psychological and physical functioning in patient populations (Schwartz and Kline, 1995; Stanton et al., 2002; Zakowski et al., 2004). In organizational terms, this corresponds with the need to suppress the display of negative emotions in order to accomplish the task on demand (e.g. a nurse of doctor who represses anger towards a difficult patient). Alternatively it corresponds to the need to suppress the experience of negative emotions in order to protect one's boundaries (e.g. a doctor working in an oncology unit suppressing feelings of sadness for his/her patients).According to the second framework, the regulation of emotion for social interaction can lower behavioural activity and increase autonomic nervous system activity (Gross, 1998a; Pennebaker, 1985). In effect, the continued management of emotions for social situations can be toxic. Gross (1998a, b) has proposed a process model of emotion regulation, whereby emotional regulation can occur at two points in the process; antecedent-focused and response-focused. According to Grandey (2000), these processed correspond with the emotional labour concept of surface acting. In organizational terms, such inhibition can take the form of surface acting or \"faking\", whereby individuals conform to display rules by simulating emotions that are not actually felt (e.g. sympathy towards a patient). Such a perspective has been outlined by the dramaturgical perspective of Hochschild (1983), which suggests that through surface acting, an actor manages emotion and regulates emotional expression. In this conceptualisation, surface acting is concerned with modifying expressions and is postulated as processes of emotional control that can reduce the feelings of emotional autonomy from the employee. To date, empirical evidence indicates that surface acting, the process whereby employees modify and control their emotional expressions, is related to stress outcomes (Brotheridge, 1999; Brotheridge and Grandey, 2002; Erickson and Wharton, 1997; Pugliesi, 1999; Pugliesi and Shook, 1997).Consistent with the two frameworks, the present study will examine the direct relationship between surface acting and hiding negative emotions with WFI/FWI. In this sense, emotional labour is postulated as a stressor in this study and this is consistent with the research by Brotheridge and Grandey (2002), who argue that emotional demands and display rules are stressful because they create the need to manage emotional states.\nEmotional labour as a predictor of WFI/FWI: In general, the role of WFI as an outcome of various job-related demands has been suggested by many studies (Frone et al., 1992; Bakker and Geurts, 2005; Geurts et al., 1999; Kinnunen and Mauno, 1998; Montgomery et al., 2003; Parasuraman et al., 1996; Stephens et al., 1997). Additionally, but less frequently, the role of FWI has been also identified as an important outcome of home-related demands (Frone et al., 1992; 1997; Kirchmeyer, 1992; Parasuraman et al., 1996).However, the link between emotions and WFI/FWI has not been clearly indicated to date. Such a situation can be explained somewhat by the fact that while there is broad acceptance that employers have the right to ask employees to perform physical behaviours or engage in cognitive activities, emotional behaviour might be outside what employers can reasonably demand (Briner and Totterdell, 2002). Therefore, the fact that health care professionals are socialized in the development of appropriately controlled affect (Smith and Kleinman, 1989) makes it more likely that there will be emotional spillover from work to family and vice versa. Empirically, this is indicated in the work of Schulz et al. (2004), which demonstrated negative emotional spillover on a daily basis. Consistently, Maslach (1982) pays special attention to making the transition from work to home by introducing the scuba-diving notion of \"decompression\", which for divers represents a gradual transition out of a high pressure underwater environment to avoid physical damage. Maslach uses this metaphor to argue that people working in an emotional and demanding environment need to \"decompress\" before moving into the normal pressure of their private life. Accordingly, Maslach argues that people working in an environment of high emotional pressure (e.g. healthcare) need to \"decompress\" before moving into the normal pressure of their private life. Such decompression refers to activities that allow an individual to relax and unwind before moving from work to one's private life. Additionally, Grandey (2000) views emotional labour and display rules as a proximal predictor of stress, and this is consistent with the idea that people bring the emotional stress from work to home.The WFI/FWI literature highlights the idea that both domains are important with regard to employee performance. For example, Geurts et al. (1999) found that WFI was related to burnout, psychosomatic complaints and sleep deprivation among a sample of medical residents. Equally, Frone et al. (1997) have suggested that FWI have a greater impact on an individual's health over time (compared with WFI). Therefore, an innovation of the present study was to also assess emotional labour at home and assess its impact with regard to FWI. In this sense, the decompression of emotion needs to happen in both directions. In the present research, it follows logically that WFI/FWI are important variables that are influenced by the ability of individual to \"decompress\" from the work domain to the home domain, and vice versa.H1a. Surface acting at work will relate positively with WFI.H1b. Hiding negative emotions at work will relate positively with WFI.H2a. Surface acting at home will relate positively with FWI.H2b. Hiding negative emotions at home will relate positively with FWI.\nMethod: Participants and procedures\nResults: Confirmatory factor analyses\nDiscussion: The current research made the following contributions:1. it expanded upon our knowledge of the relationship between emotional labour, WFI and FWI;2. it illuminated the differential influence of emotional labor both at work and at home; and3. it examined the different impact of emotional labour on doctors and nurses.For health care professionals, SAW was significantly related to the spillover that can occur from work to family (doctors) and SAH was significantly related to spillover from family to work (nurses). Such a result is consistent with the research literature (Brotheridge, 1999; Brotheridge and Grandey, 2002; Erickson and Wharton, 1997; Pugliesi, 1999; Pugliesi and Shook, 1997), which has found surface acting to be significantly related to job-strain outcomes. The consistent relationship between surface acting and WFI/FWI confirms that idea that surface acting represents a way of detaching from others, modifying emotions and controlling emotional expression. For example, doctors may enhance or fake a smile when in bad mood or interacting with a difficult patient, and congruently, nurses may be masking difficult emotions from their home domains. No gender differences were found within both doctor and nurse groups, but the fact that the majority of nurses were women may be consistent with Wharton and Erickson (1993), that women are more likely to manage emotions at home. Indeed, it may be reflective of a gender role difference that women are socialised to deal with emotions at home and men are socialised to deal with emotions at work. Equally, it may represent an occupational difference that doctors are expected, more than nurses, to develop an appropriate professional detachment (Smith and Kleinman, 1989).The fact that the need to hide negative emotions was not a significant variable in this study is contradictory to previous literature showing the negative impact of emotional suppression on physical and psychosocial outcomes (Panagopoulou et al., 2002). In an organisational context it is consistent with the mixed support in the literature. Brotheridge and Grandey (2002) have found that the need to hide negative emotions is related to strain, but Bulan et al. (1997), in a sample of bank and hospital workers, found that the requirement to be friendly was unrelated to feelings about work. Additionally, the qualitative work of Tolich (1993) indicates that while some forms of emotional labor can be tiring, they can also be rewarding. It may be that for Greek doctors and nurses repressing negative emotions (e.g. anger and hostility) are perceived as more organizationally normative when compared with the need to surface act. At the process level, a potential explanation is that surface acting requires \"twice\" as much work as hiding negative emotions. To surface act, individuals must repress and express a fake emotion, so it can be considered as being one step extra to hiding negative emotions.Emotional labour as a demand\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The emotionally taxing nature of health-care work has been increasingly recognized. In parallel, the field of work and family has been searching for more specific antecedents of both work interference with family (WFI) and family interference with work (FWI). The current study aims to examine the relationship between surface acting and hiding negative emotions with WFI and FWI among Greek health-care professionals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research is a cross-sectional study of 180 Greek doctors and 84 nurses using self-report measures.\nFindings: - Results indicated that, for doctors, surface acting at work was positively related to WFI and, for nurses, surface acting at home was positively related to FWI.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The respondents were sampled on a convenience basis and the non-random procedure may have introduced unmeasured selection effects. The present study is cross-sectional and thus the postulated relationships cannot be interpreted causally.\nPractical implications: - Emotional management training and opportunities for emotional decompression for Greek health-care professionals should be explored. In terms of medical education, the need to train students to understand and cope with emotional demands is an important first step. This research highlights the need for communication-skills training courses facilitating emotional awareness and emotional management.\nOriginality/value: - These findings position emotional labour as an important antecedent of both WFI and FWI.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Where do we go from here? The future of B2B governance research
|
[
"Governance",
"B2B marketing",
"Value chains",
"Transaction costs",
"Value networks",
"Value shops"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. Maslow (1966, p. 15)\nRelationship governance across different value systems[1]: Value chains\nCross-value systems opportunities and challenges: The institutional environment affects governance of transactions (North, 1990; Williamson, 2000). Value networks and the institutional structures they embody represent an important part of the institutional environment (North and Wallis, 1994). Rapid and sweeping innovations currently taking place in value network services are resulting in both a reduction in the costs of transacting and in the emergence of new ways of organizing. Prominent examples include Jack Ma's initial B2B exchange service (alibaba.com), which enabled massive sourcing from Chinese suppliers, and InnoCentive \"enabling creative minds to solve problems that matter\" (innocentive.com/). Such network service innovations for buying and selling physical goods and sourcing innovations, have implications for how firms interact. They reduce transaction costs related to sourcing of both physical goods and complex services. In addition to impacting the costs of sourcing, new networking services enable large scale multi-party alliances in both innovation and operations. Examples include Blade.org (Snow et al., 2011) and RosettaNet (Malhotra et al., 2005). Blade.org (www.blade.org) was a purposefully designed nonprofit community of more than 250 firms dedicated to the development, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of products based on the blade technology invented by IBM in the 1990s. The Blade.org community as a whole took on the product commercialization functions. The community consisted of firms that complemented each other with respect to the different capabilities required to develop the blade server market. Blade.org was largely a self-governing community, but had a principal office that provided infrastructure services and strategic initiatives that benefitted the community as a whole (Snow et al., 2011). RosettaNet (www.rosettanet.org) is a nonprofit consortium of IT, electronic components, semiconductor manufacturing, telecommunications, and logistics enterprises working to create and implement industrywide, open electronic business process standards for supply chain collaboration (Malhotra et al., 2005). The standards form a common e-business language, aligning processes between supply chain partners on a global basis. Such value network service innovations serve to change the boundaries of the firm and the way transactions are governed; they involve the governance of common resources shared within the community (Benkler, 2002; Ostrom, 2010).\nImplications for B2B governance research: We suggest two main categories of future research on governance of B2B marketing relationships. First, marketing researchers should broaden the scope of B2B transactions studied, and increase work on transactions related to interlinking network service providers as well as inter-firm relationships related to problem solving services. Interlinking service providers are already prevalent across network industries (e.g. transportation, financial services, and telecommunication) and are increasing in importance as the services become digitalized. Furthermore, the rise of platforms for collaborative problem solving have expanded companies' set of external collaborative problem-solving relationships and the scope of solution development approached in a collaborative manner. Second, there is a great need for studies on how network service innovations, i.e. the introduction of digital exchange platforms in B2B markets broadly defined, affect transaction cost, emergence of new institutions and interorganisational relationships.\nConclusion: We have sought to identify what we believe are promising areas for future B2B governance research. As we see it, there are great opportunities for governance researchers in marketing to improve our understanding of B2B relationships in problem solving and networking services. Moreover, rapid innovations taking place in networking services are changing the institutional environment across all forms of value creation. This in turn impacts how we understand the nature and governance of relationships in the broader economy. In their recent review of the past 25 years of scholarship on marketing organization, Moorman and Day (2016) make the observation that \"advances in knowledge are barely keeping up with profound transformations in practice [...] enabled by more open, networked organizational structures\" (p. 6). We agree and see a bright future for governance researchers in marketing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to identify promising areas for future business to business (B2B) governance research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses a theoretical approach.\nFindings: Most governance research in marketing is conducted within the context of value chains (Porter 1985). There are great opportunities for governance researchers in marketing to improve the understanding of B2B relationships in problem solving and networking services. Moreover, rapid innovations taking place in networking services are changing the institutional environment across all forms of value creation. This in turn impacts how the nature and governance of relationships in the broader economy are understood.\nOriginality/value: The literature on B2B relationship governance is primarily rooted in one particular form of value creation, namely, the \"value chain\" (Porter, 1985). The authors examine whether the current conceptualization of B2B relationship governance is equally applicable for firms that have a different value creation logic and therefore engage in exchange relationships that differ in their object of exchange.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The devil's dictionary of business strategy, volume II
|
[
"Lexicon",
"Dictionaries",
"Strategic terms",
"Management strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: absolutely adv. Not a chance in hell.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to humorously define various common business and strategy terms to amuse and illuminate.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes the form of a lexicon.\nFindings: - Man's search for meaning can end up with one's nose in a dictionary. Again.\nResearch limitations/implications: - No research, hence no research limitations. No implications beyond any humour that might be found within.\nPractical implications: - Practical implications have been brought as close as possible to absolute zero. Purely humorous.\nSocial implications: - \"Hey, this one is kind of funny. But I really don't get this one\".\nOriginality/value: - The paper is a diversion.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
When will consumers be ready? A psychological perspective on consumer engagement in social media brand communities
|
[
"Brand loyalty",
"Recognition",
"Self-efficacy",
"Consumer engagement",
"Social media brand community",
"Community identification"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social media has seen vigorous growth as it became a ubiquitous part of daily life (Kuem et al., 2017). Many firms begin to employ social media platforms, such as Twitter or micro-blogs, to reach their customers and achieve their brand marketing goals (Pentina et al., 2013). Firm-sponsored social media brand community (SMBC), defined as a firm-initiated community built around a brand on a social media platform (Laroche et al., 2012), is receiving increasing attention as a potential way to leverage social media for firms' marketing purpose (Lopez et al., 2017). With SMBCs, firms can keep in touch with consumers, post brand-related information and gather valuable insights into potential opportunities for product improvement and new product development (Tsai et al., 2012). At the same time, consumers in SMBCs can interact with one another and maintain relationships with preferred brands (Kamboj and Sarmah, 2018). However, while SMBCs have been found to be easy to establish and consumers are easy to attract as members of these communities, many SMBCs are poor with respect to fostering consumer engagement (Ray et al., 2014). Existing research considers consumer engagement a key indicator of brand marketing performance in terms of brand loyalty (e.g. Brodie et al., 2011; Vivek et al., 2012). Thus, exploring what determines consumer engagement in SMBCs and subsequently enhancing brand loyalty is a critical issue in strengthening understanding of SMBCs value for brand marketers.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 Consumer engagement in SMBCs\n3. Research methodology: The research context was set to Sina Weibo. Created in August 2009, Weibo is one of the most popular social networking sites and the biggest microblogging platform in China. Weibo allows both individuals and firms to create a profile and publish messages with a maximum of 140 characters. Firm users can sponsor brand communities in the form of fan pages to collect and post brand-related information, help consumers to solve problems and encourage consumer interaction, while individual users can follow the brand's fan pages, and interact with others to share information and make friends (Zhang et al., 2017). By the end of 2016, 1.3m firms had launched their fan pages on Weibo, and the number of brand page followers had reached 660m (SINA, 2016). Recently, many studies have chosen Weibo to investigate consumer behaviors in online brand communities (e.g. Zhang et al., 2015; Dessart et al., 2015; Zhang and Luo, 2016).\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model\n5. Discussion: This study found that consumer engagement can act as a key driver for brand loyalty. This finding is consistent with the proposition of Vivek et al. (2012) that engaged individuals may develop more positive attitudes toward the brand and consequently more loyalty to the brand. Further, consumer engagement in SMBCs was found to be affected by recognition, community identification and self-efficacy. This shows that Kahn's (1990) personal engagement theory holds in the context of SMBCs. In addition, the moderating role of self-efficacy was found to be significant. Self-efficacy strengthens the effects of recognition on consumer engagement whereas it dampens the influence of community identification. This paper therefore concurs with the opinion of Lopez et al. (2017) that a tension exists between consumers' need for affiliation and their need for distinctiveness in an SMBC. Here, community identification might reflect consumers' affiliation whereas recognition symbolizes consumers being, to some, differentiated (Hornsey and Jetten, 2004). Thus, when the level of self-efficacy is high, consumers believe that they are capable of promoting other consumers' decisions and of co-creating with sponsor firms to improve the brand. In this case, consumers' needs to be recognized increase, while the necessity to purposefully affiliate to the whole community decreases (Hogg, 2001). Conversely, with low levels of self-efficacy, consumers are eager to affiliate to the community so that they will not be categorized as outsiders (Bagozzi et al., 2012). This means that community identification will be more important than recognition for those with a low level of self-efficacy because the need to affiliate dominates their engagement. Finally, regarding the moderating role of SMBC type in the relationship between recognition and consumer engagement, the hypothesis was not supported. The possible explanation is that consumers in utilitarian Weibo fan pages might be more inclined to read posts than reply, making the experience of recognition less important for their engagement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explain whether consumer engagement in social media brand communities (SMBCs) motivates consumer brand loyalty; and second, to explore the antecedents of consumer engagement by developing a model based on personal engagement theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Online survey data from 279 brand community members of Weibo (one of the most popular social media websites in China) were used to test the proposed model. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was performed to test both the measurement model and the structural model. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the interaction effects.\nFindings: The findings show that three factors, namely, recognition, community identification and self-efficacy, had significant positive effects on consumer engagement in SMBCs, which consequently enhanced brand loyalty. Self-efficacy moderated the effects of both community identification and recognition on consumer engagement. The impacts of three factors on consumer engagement are contingent upon the type of SMBCs.\nOriginality/value: This study extends and advances the literature on consumer engagement by explaining consumer engagement in SMBCs from a new theoretical lens. This study also enriches personal engagement theory by investigating the effects of the interaction between different conditions of engagement. In addition, this study contributes to brand loyalty literature by providing empirical evidence of the impact of consumer engagement on brand loyalty. Finally, this study contributes to the online brand community study by introducing personal engagement theory into SMBC context, and examining the moderating role of SMBC types.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Mediator analysis of job embeddedness: Relationship between work-life balance practices and turnover intentions
|
[
"Retention",
"Turnover intention",
"Conservation of resources theory",
"Talent management",
"Job embeddedness",
"Work-life balance practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Attracting and retaining talented people is becoming increasingly difficult as a result of specific demographic and psychological trends(Dries, 2013, p. 273).In the knowledge era, employees have become a source of competitive advantage (Glen, 2006; Lumley et al., 2011). In order to survive and thrive, organisations need to attract the best talent and make every effort to retain them (Vidal-Salazar et al., 2016). Cost and negative impact of turnover is sufficiently explored in the literature (Allen et al., 2010). A significant amount of literature exists on \"why people leave\" (turnover); however, scholars have pointed out that there is scarce literature on \"why people stay\" (Kilburn and Kilburn, 2008; Zhao and Liu, 2010; Karatepe, 2013). Mitchell et al. (2001) introduced the concept of job embeddedness, which focusses on why people stay and describes the feeling of being stuck or enmeshed in a social system due to various external or contextual forces. This study attempts to expand this work by testing if job embeddedness is a mediator of the relationship between work-life balance practices (WLBP) and employees' intentions to stay (ITS).\nPurpose and need: The purpose of this study is to propose a model that examines whether AWLBP, CWLBP and FWLBP influence turnover intentions indirectly through job embeddedness. Specifically, this study aims to test the impact of AWLBP, CWLBP and FWLP on job embeddedness and job embeddedness as a mediating variable between WLBP and ITS.\nTheoretical framework and hypothesis development: WLBP and ITS\nResearch methods: Sample\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nHypothesis testing: Mediation\nDiscussion: This study aimed to examine the relationship between AWLBP, CWLBP, FWLBP and job embeddedness, and job embeddedness as a mediating variable between WLBP and ITS. The results presented above show that job embeddedness fully mediates the relationship between AWLBP, CWLBP, FWLBP and ITS, which means that access to these practices, their usage and possibility of using them in the future create contextual and perceptual forces that embed employees in the organisation, thus making it more difficult to leave the organisation. This study used COR theory as the underlying theory to synthesise the job embeddedness and WLBP literature. The results demonstrated that AWBLP, CWLBP and FWLBP fostered job embeddedness, which was in line with COR theory. This finding is in line with a study conducted by Harris et al. (2011), which also used the COR theory to find that the relationships between leader-member exchange and job satisfaction and turnover intention and actual turnover were mediated by job embeddedness. An abundance of literature has shown that WLBP is associated with job satisfaction and withdrawal intention (Kanwar et al., 2009; Scandura and Lankau, 1997; Batt and Valcour, 2003). However, this study demonstrated that job embeddedness is an intermediary mechanism that explains how WLBP affects ITS. Drawing from COR theory, WLBP are resources that embed employees in the organisation and encourage them to stay in order to accumulate and avoid loss of resources.\nLimitations and areas for future research: This study used cross-sectional data; therefore, future research scholars may choose to conduct longitudinal studies to establish causal relationships and may use actual turnover or tenure data to substantiate their findings. Furthermore, this study analysed the overall effects of WLBPs on job embeddedness. Future studies may analyse the effects of individual practices to determine what practices are most effective at embedding employees. Further analysis using marital status, gender and responsibility for dependents could be conducted to gain information that is more detailed. Since this study adopted a global measure of job embeddedness, future studies could consider analysing the effect of WLBPs on different dimensions (link, fit and sacrifice) for on- and off-the-job embeddedness. These studies may choose to control for established predictors of turnover intentions, such as job satisfaction, organisation commitment and job alternatives since prior literature has found a significant relationship only in the case of off-the-job embeddedness (Lee et al., 2004). Researchers could also examine the effects of additional areas of HR practices on job embeddedness, such as being identified as a high-potential employee, socialisation tactics among existing employees, strategic HR practices, team climate, etc. Finally, McDonald et al. (2013) highlighted a gap between promises and practices. Qualitative studies in this area may be helpful for identifying why this gap exists and suggest solutions to close it. Scholars may also choose to look at these practices through different theoretical lenses in order to draw new conclusions and conduct further research in the area of retention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of job embeddedness on the relationship between work-life balance practices (WLBP), which include accessibility (AWLBP), current utilisation (CWLBP) and perceived future use (FWLBP) of these practices, as well as employees' intentions to stay (ITS). This research is based on conservation of resources theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a survey method and a structured questionnaire to collect data from people working in diverse industries. A regression analysis is used to measure the direct effects of the hypothesised relationships. The Sobel test and Baron and Kenny mediation analysis were used to measure the indirect effects of the hypothesised relationship.\nFindings: AWLBP, CWLBP and FWLBP are found to foster job embeddedness and turnover intention. Job embeddedness fully mediates the relationship between AWLBP, CWLBP, FWLBP and ITS.\nPractical implications: Human resources (HR) managers should introduce WLBP to create a web of contextual and perceptual forces that embed employees in the organisation and encourage them to stay. Factors that affect employee attraction and retention change with time, career and life stage; therefore, it is important to assess the future needs of employees to augment retention. HR managers should proactively attempt to enhance embeddedness by offering customised WLBP and by dealing with the signs of low embeddedness before it results in voluntary turnover.\nOriginality/value: This study attempts to integrate two streams of research (job embeddedness and WLBP), which, despite being similar in focus, have developed independently of each other. This is one of the first studies to incorporate access to, utilisation and perceived future use of these practices in a single study. It also adds to the literature by investigating antecedents of job embeddedness and analysing it as a mediator between WLBP and ITS, which has been highlighted as a gap in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The future multiple
|
[
"Ontology",
"Scenario planning",
"Actor-network theory",
"Maritime industry",
"Multiplicity",
"Science and technology studies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Our hidden-in-plain-sight research question is: \"Why is the future in futures studies plural?\" We review extant answers from futures studies and then posit another - not necessarily alternative - answer. Coming from the small world of science and technology studies (STS), our research question is motivated by the post-actor-network theory (post-ANT) sensibility toward inquiry known as \"multiplicity\". In brief, multiplicity sensitizes readers to the ontological character of objects that seem singular, but when they are observed in practice, they appear to multiply. Through a case study of scenario planning (SP), we examine the possibility that rather than being alternatives to one another, plural futures and the singular future might co-exist in practice, and, thus, constitute a multiplicity. We learn that while futures appear to be the preferred alternative to speaking about the future in futures studies, such an eclipse can only ever be partial. We hazard a few concluding remarks about what this logical reality implies for scholars in a field whose moniker is conspicuously associated with futures and consciously distanced from \"the future\".\n2. On futures: Common sense tends to favor the notion that there is only one future (i.e. the future). Experts in futures studies, however, do not subscribe to such a view. They prefer to pluralize the future; they prefer futures. While we do not dispute the validity of pluralizing the future, we still inquire: why is the future in futures studies plural? A literature review yields three answers.\n3. On multiplicity: Our entry point into ontology is through STS and literature from post-ANT on multiplicity. The earliest actor-network theorists are well known for their then-unorthodox insistence on the human-like agency of inanimate objects during the 1980s (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987; Law, 1987), and for the heated debates they participated in during the 1990s (Callon and Latour, 1992; Collins and Yearley, 1992). During those formative decades, however, ANT was used in so many and occasionally contradictory ways that its utility as an approach to inquiry was called into question - even by some of its progenitors (Law, 1999). As a reaction to the infelicitous use of ANT, scholars initiated a post-ANT literature to - somewhat awkwardly - renew original insights from ANT and guide future research in the tradition. One insight, while counter-intuitive, is that the ANT is not a theory, and, as such, it cannot simply be applied to a case or tested against another theory (Latour, 1999). Instead, in post-ANT, the actor-network approach constitutes a \"postplural attitude\" toward inquiry and \"a nonhumanist disposition\" during analysis, with special - although not exclusive - emphasis on multiplicity, ontology and the enactment of objects in practice (Gad and Jensen, 2010, p. 56)[5]. Therefore, a post-ANT scholar can legitimately pose a readymade research question from a field - beyond STS, as we have - and possibly generate a novel answer based largely on using analytical techniques from post-ANT rather than by adopting a strong theory or strict set of concepts, which ANT scholars generally caution readers against (Latour, 1999). Thus, according Gad and Jensen (2010, p. 55), with these precautions and guidelines in mind, \"it is possible to 'go beyond ANT', without leaving it entirely behind\", and now we turn to multiplicity.\n4. On planning and ontology: In The Art of the Long View, the point of SP, Schwartz (1998, p. 14) states:\n5. On method, data, and analysis: Our ethnographic approach is based on observing object ontology as enacted in practice. Our post-ANT attitude toward inquiry is based a \"postplural attitude\" toward inquiry, which specifies that we enter the field with sensitivity toward the ontological status of objects and \"a nonhumanist disposition\" during analysis, which specifies that we explore nonhuman objects in the field - in our set-up so far, with emphasis on the singularity or plurality of the object under study and, thus, the possibility of multiplicity (Gad and Jensen, 2010, p. 56). Our post-ANT sensibilities position us between two dominant ways of thinking about ethnography, namely, the prospects of entering the field with a theory or developing theory based on observations from the field.\n6. On ontological politics: In our object-oriented ethnographic account, we observe:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper asks \"Why is the future in futures studies plural?\" The attitude toward inquiry, based on post-actor-network theory (ANT) literature, positions philosophical questions about the ontological character of the future within the context of \"planning\" for it (i.e. in practice). Multiplicity, as a post-ANT sensibility, helps one make sense of the empirical materials. This paper examines the possibility that rather than being alternatives to one another, plural futures and the singular future might co-exist in practice, and, thus, constitute a multiplicity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this case study, \"planning\" is narrative scenario planning. The second author facilitates dialogue-based long-term strategic scenario planning processes, primarily in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and contributes a wealth of professional experience to the project. The first author, an academic, shadows the second author. This paper examines experiential and observational data for evidence of the ontological character of the future. Elements of a typical scenario planning process, in this case, about the possibility of crewless (i.e. unmanned) shipping vessels are demonstrated - although, insight into the crewless ship is submerged by our analytical attentiveness to the ontology of the future.\nFindings: The findings bear on what sort of \"object\" the future is. Practices associated with planning for the future appear to transform it so that one future becomes many, and, without irony, managing the growing number of futures seems to be a core function of planning for the future. The implication is that neither plural futures nor the singular future is - individually - satisfactory to capture what is found in practice. It is both plural and singular; ontologically, it is the future multiple.\nOriginality/value: The original contribution is in demonstrating how plural futures and the singular future co-exist in practice. Thus, an eclipse of the future by futures can only ever be partial. For \"futures\" to be conceptually potent, \"the future\" must be at least provisionally believable and occasionally useful. Otherwise, if \"the future\" were so preposterous an idea, then \"futures\" would cease to be a critical alternative to it. Futures needs the future; they are relationally bound together in a multiplicity. This paper considers what such a logical reality implies for a field that distances itself from the future and self-identifies with futures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A conceptualization of corporate social (ir)responsibility and moral intensity in the supply chain
|
[
"Corporate social irresponsibility",
"Supplier relationships",
"Moral intensity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There is continued pressure on businesses to demonstrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) to their key stakeholders (Sheth and Sinha, 2015). Practitioners are challenged to show that their operations support environmental sustainability and their pursuits of profits are fair, ethical and for the good of society. In contrast to the concerted efforts of many firms to accept this challenge and behave responsibly, British Petroleum, Volkswagen and Wells Fargo are only a few of the more prominent examples of firms that have behaved irresponsibly as it relates to environmental harm and/or fraudulent business practices. Many of these irresponsibly behaving firms have faced penalties for their social and ethical transgressions in legal, financial and reputational terms. The notoriety of irresponsible behavior has drawn the attention of watchdog groups and non-governmental organizations, raising the stakes even further (Leppelt et al., 2013). Moreover, businesses' competitors are practicing and promoting their CSR activities as a competitive advantage (Muller et al., 2017) and, importantly, end-users (i.e. consumers) around the globe are aware of, influenced by, and demanding more in terms of corporate behavior (Blenkhorn and MacKenzie, 2016; Johnson and Chattaraman, 2018; McEachern, 2015).\nCorporate social irresponsibility and moral intensity: CSR encompasses a wide-array of topics that span various disciplines. As a result, CSR is difficult to define (Pai et al., 2015). Nevertheless, McWilliams and Siegel (2001, p. 117) define the concept as those:\nA framework of moral intensity in the supply chain: The moral intensity framework can be applied to the supply chain context and serve as a guide for seeking empirical evidence. Moreover, it could be useful as it relates to expanding knowledge of CSI in the broader B2B marketing area. In particular, our proposed conceptual model focuses on the need to expand perspectives regarding the potential antecedents and effects associated with CSI and buyer-seller exchange relationships within the supply chain. Specifically, (ir)responsible behavior can be viewed as emerging from multiple situational factors associated with buyer-seller social interactions, and CSI influences end-user perceptions of fairness, trustworthiness, and ultimately end-user behavior.\nGeneral discussion: The importance of CSR in the supply chain arena is a critical area of B2B marketing based on studies linking CSR with important B2B marketing issues like corporate reputation, brand equity, and brand performance (Lai et al., 2010). However, unethical, unfair and irresponsible corporate behavior (i.e. CSI) that could prove to be harmful to various stakeholders (Lin-Hi and Muller, 2013) has received limited attention in B2B research (Grappi et al., 2013; Wagner et al., 2008). The current research addresses multiple gaps in the literature by conceptualizing CSI in a supply chain context (Price and Sun, 2017). In particular, it focuses on social and relational factors, the most under-researched of the three CSR/CSI factors (i.e. environmental, economic, social) (Esper et al., 2015), and proposes the moral intensity framework (Jones, 1991) as a tool to help supply chain managers avoid the consequences of CSI behaviors. The discussion now turns to the theoretical and managerial implications of the research while also providing directions for future research in the area of CSR/CSI in supply chains.\nTheoretical implications: Several theoretical contributions arise from considering the conceptual discussion provided in this research. First, this article provides a response to B2B calls to recognize that, \"CSR is an overarching concept which includes several dimensions such as economic, social, and environmental\" and for research that can \"deconstruct these elements and inquire into their separate effects\" (Pai et al., 2015, p. 693). The moral intensity framework offered in the discussion focuses on the social dimension and offers six situational factors than can influence perceptions of supply CSI. These factors serve as the basis for a series of propositions offered to guide future research and managerial practice related to supply chain management.\nManagerial implications: The moral intensity conceptual framework provides the basis for offering guidance to supply chain managers. One recommendation relates to the types of consequences associated with B2B CSR/CSI. For example, consider that key indicators of success associated with CSR/CSI in B2B markets can be determined by employee surveys and press mentions (Levy, 2010). While these indicators may be important, they omit end-user related indicators identified in this research such as perceptions of fairness and consumer advocacy. Including end-user metrics in studying B2B CSI phenomena is important because the end-user perspective provides B2B marketers with a more accurate and overarching understanding of the impact of CSR and CSI beyond what is currently referenced in the trade press.\nFuture research: Future research in this area might consider empirical research featuring actual retail procurement managers, additional stakeholders (e.g. experienced consumers, special interest groups, suppliers and vendors), multiple methodologies, and various real-world contexts for manipulation. The six factors of the moral intensity framework require further conceptualization and verification in B2B markets. For example, Tesco procurement managers' assessment of proximity likely impacted Tesco's engagement in the treatment of suppliers. Also, it is likely that other stakeholders' assessment of moral intensity impacts stakeholders' (e.g. end-users, trade associations) responses to the retailer's behavior. For example, the GCA post hoc assessment of the magnitude of consequences of Tesco's treatment of suppliers resulted in judgements of unfairness and negative word-of-mouth about Tesco's behavior (Foster, 2016). Future research could look at these relationships within a dyadic context (e.g. retailer (ir)responsible behavior effects on end-user perceptions) or from multiple perspectives (e.g. moral intensity effects on retailer decisions and moral intensity effects on end-user perceptions). Below is a sample of future research topics from the moral intensity framework and suggestions for how empirical research might address each.\nConclusion: A review of CSR literature indicates that there is a relatively rich stream of research related to environmental and economic factors at the expense of the social factor. The purpose of this research is to highlight the social factor of CSI within supply chain exchanges and particularly as it relates to relationships with upstream and downstream stakeholders. The contributions, therefore, include drawing attention to the treatment of supply chain partners, suggesting that abusive behavior is not only irresponsible but potentially damaging to end-users (i.e. consumers). To deter irresponsible behavior, moral intensity could be an effective framework to assist managers as they seek a balance between tough decisions associated with pursuing aggressive business objectives and far reaching consequences.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) within the supply chain. The discussion focuses on the social component of social responsibility and explores its effects on end-users. Moreover, this paper presents moral intensity, a construct introduced in the ethics literature, as a potential guide to managers who struggle to navigate the gray area between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CSI.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper conceptualizes CSI within the supply chain and offers a framework and propositions for understanding and preventing irresponsible behavior from a moral intensity perspective.\nFindings: The moral intensity framework provides a normative approach with the potential to guide managers who face choices involving decisions that might lead to irresponsible behavior in interorganizational settings.\nOriginality/value: This paper draws attention to business-to-business CSI and the limited research that focuses on the social aspects of CSR, rather than the environmental and economic factors emphasized in prior research. It also introduces the moral intensity framework to the supply chain literature and highlights the end-user's (i.e. consumer's) role in influencing the performance of the overall value chain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Collaborative benchmarking, transparency and performance: Evidence from The Netherlands water supply industry
|
[
"Public administration",
"Benchmarking",
"The Netherlands",
"Economic performance",
"Water industry",
"Public sector organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The past two decades have seen a surge of interest in the transfer of private sector management practices to the public sector. Benchmarking is one of the imports (Dattakumar and Jagadeesh, 2003; Dorsch and Yasin, 1998). Whereas, the public sector has wholeheartedly embraced benchmarking, it is not obvious how benchmarking affects public sector organisations. In part, methodological issues are responsible for the gap between the theory and practice of public sector benchmarking. It is quite difficult to isolate the effects of benchmarking on change over time in organisational behaviour. Moreover, how is one to know whether benchmarking enhances organisational performance when comparative metrics for non-benchmarking \"control\" organisations are, almost by definition, unavailable?Public sector benchmarking research is also complicated by the co-existence of two disparate scientific literatures. One school of thought presents benchmarking as a solution to the pervasive problem of performance assessment in the public sector. Asserting that benchmarking creates opportunities for the establishment of managed competition (Wynn-Williams, 2005), this literature presents benchmarking as a tool that helps national governments control public service providers (CPB, 2000). A second literature envisages benchmarking as a vehicle for collaborative learning among public sector organisations. In this bottom-up perspective, benchmarking promotes organisational learning and enhances the transparency and accountability of service providers (Bolli and Emtairah, 2001). The collaborative benchmarking literature is sceptical of prospects for managed competition, arguing that a top-down imposition of benchmarking may inhibit learning and aggravate rather than solve problems of performance assessment (Wait and Nolte, 2005).This paper addresses the question whether collaborative benchmarking can boost the performance of public sector organisations. This question is of interest because it is affirmed by the collaborative benchmarking literature but denied by the managed competition literature, which asserts that performance will only improve under competitive benchmarking imposed by a regulator.The Netherlands drinking water supply industry offers an appropriate test case. For one, a substantial literature prescribes yardstick regulation - an extreme form of managed competition - for the water supply business. For another, between 1989 and 1995 about half of the population of Dutch water utilities engaged in a spontaneous annual benchmarking exercise. From 1997 on, virtually all utilities participated in a second benchmark series. Both benchmarks are well documented. This sequence of events is serendipitous from a methodological viewpoint because it allows for the comparison of a \"treatment\" group of collaborative benchmarkers with a control group of non-benchmarking utilities.Specifically, the paper tackles three questions:1. How and why did The Netherlands water industry take to collaborative benchmarking?2. Did collaborative benchmarking make water utility management more transparent?3. Did collaborative benchmarking enhance the economic performance of water utilities?The paper is structured as follows. The following section addresses theory and hypotheses. Section 3 discusses data and research design. Section 4 describes the evolution of benchmarking in The Netherlands water industry. The next two sections present evidence on changes in transparency and economic performance. The final section summarises findings and draws out implications for the theory and practice of public sector benchmarking.\n2 Literature review and hypotheses: The past two decades have seen a proliferation of benchmarking initiatives in the public sector, from managed competition regimes for utilities (CPB, 2000; Vogelsang, 2002) to environmental benchmarking campaigns by local authorities (Bolli and Emtairah, 2001; Parkinson and Roseland, 2002) and the creation of league tables for health and education providers (Goldstein and Spiegelhalter, 1996; Wait and Nolte, 2005).An accompanying scientific literature asserts that benchmarking has significant potential for application in the public sector. According to Magd and Curry (2003, p. 262), \"benchmarking is a powerful vehicle for quality improvement and a paradigm for effectively managing the transformation of public-sector organisations into public-sector organisations of quality\". Dorsch and Yasin (1998, p. 109) posit that \"(b)enchmarking has the potential ... to enhance organizational efficiency and effectiveness for organizations in both the public and private sectors\". Ammons (2001, p. 7) asserts \"(c)ity governments need performance benchmarks, if they are serious about the efficient delivery of quality services\" and Conley Tyler (2005, p. 219) states that \"benchmarking has great potential benefit for the non-profit sector\".For all this optimism, there is no consensus as to how to realise the potential of benchmarking. Two divergent viewpoints can be discerned. In what follows, I will refer to these as collaborative benchmarking and managed competition. These reflect, on the one hand, an inherent tension between collaboration and competition in the benchmarking concept (Northcott and Llewellyn, 2005; Wolfram Cox et al., 1997). On the other hand, they echo the longstanding debate among public administration specialists about the prospects for, and limits of, performance assessment in the public sector (Donahue, 1989; Moss Kanter and Brinkerhoff, 1981).The collaborative benchmarking literature focuses on information sharing and the positive effect this has on the quality and quantity of information about what public sector organisations do and how well they do it (Ammons, 2001; Bolli and Emtairah, 2001; Kouzmin et al., 1999; Osborne and Gaebler, 1992):H1. Benchmarking makes what public sector organisations do more transparent, thereby enhancing their accountability.The collaborative benchmarking literature does not spell out a recipe for successful benchmarking. Rather, it suggests that benchmarking should develop organically out of the perceived needs of stakeholders. Benchmarking might arise as a grass-roots initiative among public sector managers or public sector associations, possibly (but not necessarily) with some coaxing by external stakeholders such as consumer panels or oversight agencies (Magd and Curry, 2003). Nor does the collaborative benchmarking literature specify the intended users of the information flows generated through benchmarking. Public sector managers themselves might benefit from benchmarks but so might central government organisations or consumers. Finally, this literature is careful not to specify an unequivocal cause and effect relationship between benchmarking and organisational performance. In fact, many authors worry about the methodological soundness of ongoing benchmarking efforts in the public sector. As Wait and Nolte (2005, p. 445) observe with regard to the health industry, \"(s)everal methodological challenges remain in the field of benchmarking, many of them related to the selection and quality of indicators used\".Contributors to this literature warn against the dangers of competitive benchmarking. They observe that league table benchmarking may invite unwanted target-chasing behaviour on the part of public sector managers and stymie the learning processes that benchmarking is supposed to engender. \"The transparency and collegiality that benchmarking relies upon do not sit easily alongside its use for comparative league tables and star ratings,\" as Northcott and Llewellyn (2005, p. 431) put it.For these reasons, the collaborative benchmarking literature prescribes no measures beyond making benchmarking outcomes available in the public domain:H2. Benchmarking will enhance organisational efficiency and effectiveness, but is more likely to do so when benchmarking outcomes are publicised.The collaborative benchmarking perspective contrasts with that of the managed competition literature. The latter literature examines public service providers from the commanding heights of central government. Rather than highlighting its methodological pitfalls, the managed competition literature suggests that benchmarking is a tool that may \"help overcome some of the problems of performance assessment in the public sector\" (Wynn-Williams, 2005, p. 482). This is why the managed competition literature endorses competitive benchmarking in the shape of league tables, star performer ratings, and other rankings.Regulatory economics takes the managed competition idea to its extreme. Regulatory economists engineer market-mimicking regimes in which water, waste and other utilities compete against one another under regulatory arbitrage (CPB, 2000; Jamasb and Pollitt, 2001). Yardstick regulation \"makes the prices the utility can charge dependent on the performance of other firms\" (Vogelsang, 2002, p. 9). Participating utilities \"are forced to compete with a \"shadow-firm\" whose performance is determined by average or best practices in the industry\" (CPB, 2000, p. 11). This application of benchmarking was pioneered in the USA and Britain (Helm, 1995; Shleifer, 1985).Yardstick regulation exemplifies the managed competition approach to public sector benchmarking. Benchmarking is an instrument of control; it is imposed on public sector providers; and organisational performance is measured with help of a limited set of economic indicators, most important of which is the cost of a standard unit of service. Accordingly, yardstick theorists hypothesise that:H3. Competitive benchmarking enhances the economic performance of public sector organisations.Under yardstick regulation, the effects of benchmarking can become manifest in two ways. In the first place, the performance of benchmarkers should, over time, become more and more tightly spaced around the industry average:H3a. The economic performance of benchmarking organisations will converge over time.In the second place, the average performance of benchmarkers should improve relative to that of non-benchmarkers:H3b. Over time, the economic performance of benchmarking organisations will increase relative to organisations that do not benchmark.Finally, yardstick theorists posit that these effects will only occur if central governments embed the benchmark in a system of financial penalties and rewards:H4. Benchmarking will not enhance economic performance unless embedded in a regime of yardstick regulation.\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Data\n4 Chronology of water industry benchmarking: 4.1 Evolution of benchmarking: the 1989-1995 series\n5 Results: benchmarking and transparency: 5.1 Benchmark series 1989-1995\n6 Results: benchmarking and economic performance: 6.1 Univariate analysis: convergence effects 1989-1995\n7 Conclusions: This paper has investigated the benchmarking experience of The Netherlands water industry as a case of collaborative benchmarking in the public sector. Its aim was to address the contesting claims regarding benchmarking effects espoused by the managed competition and collaborative benchmarking literatures.The first-half of the 1990s saw a sub-set of Dutch water utilities experiment with collaborative but confidential benchmarking. In 1997, the water industry conducted a first all-industry benchmark and published its results. It repeated this exercise in 2000. Investigating the impact of these collaborative benchmarking initiatives on transparency on the one hand, and on economic performance on the other hand, this paper finds support for three out of four hypotheses.H1. Benchmarking enhanced transparency. Benchmarking information rippled outward from utility managers to governing boards (1992) and the public at large (1997). Benchmarking data put boards of governors in a better position to judge the performance of utility managers and enabled customers to judge the effectiveness of their water services providers.H2. Benchmarking did not affect utility performance until benchmarking results entered the public domain. The performance of utilities participating in the 1989-1995 confidential benchmark did not converge nor did benchmarkers gradually outperform non-benchmarkers. A pattern of convergence became visible only after the shift to public benchmarking in 1997.H3. Benchmarking did enhance the economic performance of water utilities but only after 1997. Why this delay in benchmarking becoming visible in utility performance? One possible explanation of this lag is that it took utility managers several years to become accustomed to benchmarking and learn how to translate the lessons from benchmarking into operational reforms. An alternative, but not necessarily incompatible, explanation is that utility managers became serious about internal reform only when benchmarking information was publicised.H4. The test results presented here do not offer support for the managed competition proposition that yardstick regulation is necessary for benchmarking to make an impact on economic performance. This evidence, although obviously limited by its single-industry scope, is good news for public sector managers. Collaborative benchmarking can enhance transparency and performance; managed competition is no sine qua non for performance enhancement in the public sector. For researchers, the case presented here suggests a closer examination of how long it takes public sector organisations to adopt benchmarking, as well as additional tests of the managed competition and collaborative benchmarking theses.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how benchmarking affects transparency and economic performance in the public sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper applies a quasi-experimental method to 1989-2000 time series data on benchmarking and non-benchmarking water utilities in The Netherlands.\nFindings: - Benchmarking immediately enhanced transparency, but only affected utility economic performance after benchmarking information entered the public domain. This confirms that benchmarking enhances transparency and performance. The findings do not support the yardstick regulation hypothesis that utility managers will only tighten financial discipline when benchmarking is embedded in a regime of managed competition.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitation of this study is its single-industry scope. Further testing of benchmarking effects in other public services is needed to validate its findings.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents evidence from the Dutch water supply industry focusing on transparency and performance in collaborative benchmarking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Distant relations: limits to relational contracting in domestic violence programmes
|
[
"Contractualism",
"Relational contracting",
"Programme evaluation",
"Human services",
"Domestic violence",
"Contracting out",
"Public administration",
"Private companies",
"Social welfare",
"Australia",
"Service delivery"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: From the 1980s onwards, the contracting out or commissioning of human services delivery by government departments to non-government welfare organisations (NGOs), both not-for-profit and for-profit, has been a common feature of social policy in many countries around the world. The rationale has been that state-run services are both inherently expensive and ill-equipped to respond quickly to changing service user and service delivery needs, whereas contracting out introduces market efficiency and a greater degree of flexibility in how services are delivered. In addition, proponents argue that contracting out provides an opportunity for government departments to specify what should be delivered, thereby offering a high level of control over service delivery, without having to directly run the services.Some practice and service delivery consequences of programmes contracted out to NGOs are illustrated in this paper through a case study approach which describes a multi-site evaluation of programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence delivered in Australia. The programmes were being run by not-for-profit non-government welfare organisations, with the common intention of increasing women's and children's safety and reducing men's use of domestic violence. All of the organisations were subject to the same formal contract requirements but in this paper we document and discuss the variations in practice that were observed between the different providers, and the extent to which the programmes conformed to their self-described models. Before doing so, a brief history of domestic violence perpetrator programmes, along with a discussion of contracting out in the human services in Australia, is presented to provide a context for the analysis.Contractualism\nContracting out domestic violence perpetrator programmes: In Australia, and other countries, the earliest specialist services responding to domestic violence were those which were developed to support women and their children escaping domestic violence. Such programmes, centring on the provision of emergency accommodation, remain the first line of specialist response. In the 1980s there was concern that, in addition to legal remedies, there should be direct work undertaken with men using violence against their female partners. Scholars and practitioners have been sceptical about their effect, which has resulted in calls for their evaluation (Babcock et al., 2004; Feder and Wilson, 2005; Laing, 2002).Commonly these programmes involve group-delivered interventions for perpetrators that are psycho-educational in approach, although a number of different models are employed (Day et al., 2009). These include interventions which focus on intra-psychic behaviour change, particularly anger management and emotional self regulation, to approaches which place more emphasis on the context in which gendered violence occurs and focus on the need for multi-agency and co-ordinated service provision. In practice, many contemporary perpetrator programmes represent a blend between these two approaches, delivering interventions that target individual problem awareness and the development of skills that can improve self-control and also acknowledge the importance of integrated community responses or multi-agency working approaches to effective risk management[2]. The best documented and most often replicated of these latter models, in Australia at least, is the Duluth model (Shepard and Pence, 1999).The Duluth model advocates that men's domestic violence perpetrator programmes should only be one element of an integrated domestic violence community response, and specifies that programme providers should seek contact with women partners/ex-partners as a means of ensuring that accounts of abusive behaviour are not reliant solely on perpetrator self-reports. Furthermore, it requires processes to be in place for programme providers to have contact with the police and other services so that risk management procedures are in place, should concerns for women's and children's safety arise. Thus the approach is an integrated response whereby information is shared, agencies have an agreed understanding of domestic violence, joint protocols for action are agreed, and the role of each of the agencies in stopping domestic violence and promoting safety is clearly articulated and understood.The Department of Corrections funds the programmes for legally mandated perpetrators but these are delivered by agencies that often also deliver programmes for non-mandated participants. One complication for the contracting out process in domestic violence services is that for some time there has been a national shortage of professionals available to run domestic violence perpetrator programmes in Australia. Whilst this absence of workers is not a consequence of the contracting process, it can lead to situations where programmes are disrupted and discontinuous. This is not unique to domestic violence perpetrator programme delivery as various areas of community services where professionals are dealing directly with complex situations of violence and abuse, such as child safety, have difficulty recruiting, retaining and experienced staff (Healy et al., 2009). When workers are scarce and often change, however, this increases the case for strong explicit contracts, oversight and clear programme standards.In the area of contracting for domestic violence perpetrator programmes, however, the nature of the service delivery, and the limited availability of trained staff and supervisors, makes such a case difficult to satisfy.The agencies and programmes being evaluated\nFindings: Intra-organisational factors\nContractualism and quality assurance: the need for workforce development in contracted agencies and hollowed-out government departments: A dilemma in this situation was that the familiarity of the department staff with staff in the chosen agencies at the time of offering the contracts led to an insufficient amount of detailed contractual negotiations and subsequent contract management and accountability, rather than too much, as is more commonly reported in the literature. This poor monitoring was then exacerbated by subsequent staff turnover in both the government department and the contracted organisations, without adequate succession planning or handover. Since the commencement of contracts, staff changes in both the department and the agencies meant that an initial underlying commitment to workforce development, trust and good-will were made increasingly irrelevant. This is common in the human services in Australia, and in this situation it was particularly problematic for practice. Distant relations are fine to invite to a birthday party but not as the premise for effective contracting of human service programmes!Although it is not an issue commonly discussed in the literature about service delivery, quality assurance, we suggest is important for commissioning departments to give increased attention to the implications for human resources within the department, the administrative burden of the resulting implementation strategies and the demands of the ongoing management of programmes.The practices of the commissioned agencies in question varied in accordance with organisational culture as much as the distinctiveness of the model deemed to underpin each programme or the location of the agency. In terms of the effect on direct practice the evaluation showed that the pre-existing organisational cultures and practices for managing contracts directly impacted on the quality of services provided.Attempts to identify the implications of different programme models in operation were confounded by the fact that, at an organisational level, agencies had differing arrangements and standards about who was recruited to conduct the programmes. Notwithstanding published standards of practice for domestic violence programmes, a range of professionals from differing disciplinary backgrounds were involved in the work and brought differing approaches to practice. In addition to variable employment practices, the level of experience, training and supervision varied considerably across agencies, adding further to the variation in programme practice. Those agencies that employed people on a longer term and permanent basis tended to have experience in domestic violence and exposed the workers to new training and developments as permanent members of staff. By contrast, those who were employed on casual contracts in some cases did have experience in working in domestic violence but this was not universal and opportunities for further development or even participation in case reviews or case conferences were not made evident during interviews with managers.The variation that related to both organisational cultures and service delivery models raises questions about the discretion of agency managers responsible for the implementation of the contracts and individual practitioners working in these situations and, in particular, their interpretations of (organisational) policy and what constitutes good practice in domestic violence service delivery. This observation resonates with Lipsky's (1981) seminal analysis of \"street-level bureaucrats\", even though in this case the street level bureaucrats were employees of non-government welfare agencies responsible for the implementation of State policy through their contracted organisation/employer. Evans' (2010) recent work highlighting the role of discretion amongst managers in welfare was starkly evident from the data we collected, highlighting wide variation in contract interpretation and consequently practice standards in programmes.At the micro level of professional practice it is evident that there is professional discretion which practitioners have in their approach to their work (Evans and Harris, 2004; Evans, 2010). In running programmes for domestic violence perpetrators, there are choices that each practitioner makes between confronting, persuading, cajoling, and motivating clients towards some form of agreement with the basic goal of non-violence. The standards of practice which different workers may in reality adhere to also highlight the place of discretion. In this evaluation, some practitioners in agencies did not adhere to standards of practice associated with female partner contact, some would consider this discretion, and others would view it as poor practice. Discretion is often restricted or bounded by the agency's standard of practice and these aspects of practice will be influenced by all of the above mentioned factors, as well as the discretion of the facilitators running the programme. Discretion is neither good nor bad, but in the case of domestic violence perpetrator programmes the issue of victim safety is paramount and some contact with victims should not be optional.All of these intra-organisational factors, compounded by the discretion of managers and practitioners, demonstrate why variations occur between agencies with same mandates and responsibilities, and why the commissioning process will not necessarily produce similar practices and outcomes in implementation. In a context of limited quality assurance and monitoring by the agencies and the commissioning department, this can pose problems for people's safety. We have highlighted the issues that are typically emphasised in \"implementation gap\" and \"street-level bureaucrat\" analyses, but we have been at pains to emphasise the importance of capacity to monitor these issues by the commissioning department as being critical for any relationship between the department and the contracted agencies.In terms of contract monitoring, these emerging variations in agencies' programmes were not identified either by the routine data collection processes (which were part of the contract requirements), or by monitoring of the agencies by the commissioning department. Careful monitoring and quality assurance did not seem to have occurred in the situations being investigated here, best characterised as distant relations. There was little expectation that agencies' practices would change at either the managerial or service delivery levels. Rather agencies signed the contracts and began provision of programmes with limited advice, interference or monitoring from the state. All of these aspects can cumulatively compromise the programme goal of promoting victim safety. However, as the contracts and the contracting out process did not involve sufficiently rigorous documenting of programme elements to be delivered, nor of programme outputs, there was considerable discretion for the agencies to implement the programmes. This meant that at a later stage insufficient evidence that the department could use to make a confident assessment of how the programme was promoting the safety of victims.Given the current limited numbers of agencies available as potential contractors to deliver domestic violence services, and the lack of workers available to run the perpetrator programmes, the State was left at the mercy of the human services market, especially in rural areas, where the State had to purchase what was available. But we conclude that, despite the literature asserting that relational contracting is the most suitable mechanism for such situations as these, where services that are hard to quantify and assess or agency capacity to supply specialised services is limited, what was needed in this situation was greater specificity in the contract, as well as more carefully monitored implementation, to assure the safety of victims of violence.Public servants in the commissioning departments, with limited experience in writing contracts, continue to be part of the teams responsible for the preparation of tenders and contracts in the human services. In the present study, there was strong evidence of a need for the commissioning department to develop performance agreements that have more clarity and precision about what constitutes contract compliance, the consequences of non-compliance and the scope and mechanisms for review or renegotiation of contract conditions. This is not an indictment of the applicability of relational contracting theory in all cases, but it is an illustration of how the level of complexity of the programme/intervention being contracted is critical (not uncommon in human services) and the limitations of relationship building in the situation of depleted resources in government departments. Where this is the case, it points to a need to question the fashion for contracting-out as a cheap alternative to capacity development in the government departments.\nWhen distant relations undermine relational contracting and limit quality assurance: A key to the various arrangements for service delivery observed in this study was whether the funded programme had been incorporated into the agency's core business or treated as a relatively discrete service delivery arrangement. A critical fact for an assessment of contractualism was the extent to which the agencies continued to operate in relatively autonomous ways. This was diametrically opposed to much of the critique of contracting out as being overly restrictive because of onerous reporting and accountability requirements.In this case, incomplete contracting was not well managed by relational contracting, contrary to suggestions in the literature. Allowing agency discretion (by default), and the associated worker variability in service delivery, generated practices that raise concerns about compromising the quality of the service. In the particular case of domestic violence perpetrator programmes under investigation here, this is not just an issue of a policy implementation gap or professional discretion, but, most importantly a safety issue, where the knowledge of safety of victims and their children should not be left to worker or agency discretion.Detailed contracts and contract monitoring can contribute to public accountability, but many authors in the literature express concern that it should not stifle innovation and appropriate use of discretion. However, the commissioning of relatively complex forms of service delivery to meet standards of practice which promote women's and children's safety cannot be easily addressed by only these relational commissioning activities in the absence of capacity development in the commissioning departments. A prerequisite is that commissioning managers need to be knowledgeable and well informed about the types of services they are commissioning in order that agencies contracted have appropriate staffing levels and qualifications to try and ensure programme standards and outcomes for service delivery are met.Relational contracting practices did not help solve this problem, and indeed, we argue that they exacerbated it. In cases such as those investigated here where government department resources have been depleted, the preference for contracting community service agencies to deliver services continues highlights the need for greater specificity and monitoring in the contract arrangements, to potentially increase consistency and impose more precise standards of practice than were in evidence.At a time where the significance of evidence based practice is understandably being emphasised, contracted out programmes pose a challenge to the development of such knowledge, as the contracted organisations will not be funded or necessarily see it as their role to open their programmes to the scrutiny of researchers. Thus community services generally, and domestic violence perpetrator programmes in particular, will struggle to develop a large scale and sound evidence base. In the particular case of domestic violence perpetrator programmes under investigation here, this is not just an issue of a policy implementation gap but, most importantly a safety issue, where the knowledge of safety of victims and their children is patchy at best and unknown at worst.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to assess the applicability of relational contract theory in situations where government departments contract with non-government welfare organisations to deliver human service programmes. Its limits are highlighted by an assessment of programmes for domestically violent men that epitomise \"management of incomplete contracts\" central to the theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on an evaluation of contracted-out programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence in Australia that set out to compare and contrast distinct models of service delivery by documenting programme logic, service delivery effectiveness and effects on programme participants. It reflects on the difficulties of monitoring such programmes and considers the implications of this for contracting theory and for human service practice.\nFindings: - In contrast to critiques of contracting-out in a neo-liberal environment that emphasise how accountability and reporting requirements limit the autonomy of contracted agencies, this paper highlights considerable variation in how programmes were managed and delivered despite standardised service delivery contracts developed by the government department funding the programmes. This leads to a consideration of \"incomplete contracts\" where service delivery outcomes are hard to measure or there is limited knowledge of the contracted agencies by the contracting government department.\nOriginality/value: - The paper highlights a situation in which the recommendations of relational contracting theory can exacerbate the difficulties of quality assurance rather than minimise them. It then argues a need for workforce development in the government departments and the contracted agencies, to enable a nuanced monitoring of the programmes' service delivery and promotion of quality assurance processes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Saudi Arabian university students' perceptions of health risk behaviours
|
[
"Behaviour",
"Health",
"Risk",
"Students",
"Universities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Health risk behaviours (HRBs) can be defined as the detrimental actions of people that not only cause impairment of their physical and/or mental health, but also death (Asarnow et al., 2014; DiClemente et al., 2009). DiClemente et al. (2009) suggest HRBs can directly or indirectly put at risk the social and psychological well-being as well as physical health of individuals. These behaviours can be exacerbated by any frequent or intense activity that increases the risk of diseases or injuries (French et al., 2010).\nMethods: Research instruments\nMain findings: The findings are presented under each HRB explored in the questionnaire and the interviews. Quantitative and qualitative data are included in each section.\nDiscussion: The integration of quantitative and qualitative findings investigating six HRBs resulted in a more comprehensive picture on the HRBs of students at University X in Saudi Arabia. In answer to RQ1, the findings have established the prevalence of these seven key HRBs among a significant proportion of the student population and have shown gender differences between male and female students that answers RQ2. The research has also highlighted emerging perspectives on why young adults engage in risky behaviours in answer to RQ3. These features of the research have not been explicitly investigated before in a single study in the context of Saudi Arabia. The research therefore offers original insights into the engagement of HRBs by students in Saudi Arabia including some inconsistencies between the findings in this investigation and those of previous studies (Aleissa, 2001). These are discussed below.\nConclusion and implications: This research draws attention to the perspectives of university students regarding the multiple types of health risk behaviours that they engage in, particularly reckless driving, indulgence in violence, tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse, unhealthy dietary behaviours, physical inactivity and unprotected sexual encounters. It had provided an important basis for understanding the key factors which potentially influence such behaviours. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicated that HRBs are related to social, economic, structural and individual factors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why Saudi Arabian students engage in specific health risk behaviours (HRBs), and if there are gender differences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to find out the situation regarding university students in Saudi Arabia, quantitative data were collected by administering questionnaires to 722 respondents, and qualitative data were collected using a series of interviews with 17 students.\nFindings: The findings of this mixed methods sequential explanatory study suggest that lifestyle and personal factors, as well as economic, social, policy and other aspects of the environment played a significant role in influencing students' HRBs. Recommendations for mitigating HRBs among these students and other youth in the Saudi Arabian context are provided.\nOriginality/value: This paper addresses an important gap in the research on HRBs among university students from the perspectives of students.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Brand negativity: a relational perspective on anti-brand community participation
|
[
"Brand community",
"Brand relationships",
"Anti-brand community",
"Anti-branding",
"Brand negativity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The proliferation of collective consumer movements, rooted in anti-consumption (Hogg et al., 2009) and the accompanying rise in negative emotions toward brands, are key features of the contemporary branding landscape (Romani et al., 2012). Research approaches brand negativity or negative brand relationships, using terms such as brand avoidance (Gregoire et al., 2009; Japutra et al., 2018), rejection of brand hegemony (Cromie and Ewing, 2009), brand dislike (Demirbag-Kaplan et al., 2015; Dalli et al., 2006), brand boycott (Balabanis, 2013) or brand hate (Bryson et al., 2013; Zarantonello et al., 2018; Fetscherin, 2019). With very few exceptions (Wong et al., 2018), this research focuses on negative emotions and behavior against products and services that consumers express as independent individuals and as members of a collective separately. From the brand management perspective, the different themes share a concern about the harmful potential of anti-brand emotions and behaviors and studies emphasize negative consequences including consumer revenge (Hegner et al., 2017), brand sabotage (Gregoire et al., 2009) or loss of brand strength (Cova and D'Antone, 2016).\n2. Negative brand emotions and behaviors: Negative brand emotions can manifest through rejection, dislike or hatred depending on the strength of the emotion and possible associated actions or behavioral intensions (Alvarez and Fournier, 2016). In terms of the terminology adopted to explain the negative emotions and in particular negative brand relationships, there is no clear consensus in the literature. Some researchers use the term brand hate to capture various negative emotions from simple \"distancing\" or \"devaluation\" of the brand to \"frustration\" and intense \"anger\" (Kucuk, 2018). Others argue that brand hate can take an active or passive form incorporating, on the one hand, anger, contempt and disgust and, on the other, fear, disappointment, shame and dehumanization of the brand (Zarantonello et al., 2016). Brand hate has also been conceptualized as one emotion incorporating multiple sub-dimensions and overall rejection of the brand (Hegner et al., 2017). Recent studies have used the label \"negative brand emotions\" to encapsulate various negative sentiments, namely: sadness, sorrowfulness, distress, irritation, anger, annoyance, offense and depression (Wong et al., 2018). Other conceptions of negative relational emotions have highlighted the level of negative passion and suggested that negative emotions can take the form of brand dislike or brand hate (Fetscherin et al., 2019). Brand dislike, is the feeling of displeasure, antipathy or aversion toward the brand (Demirbag-Kaplan et al., 2015) and is negative emotion with limited passion (Fetscherin et al., 2019). Brand hate is a stronger, passionate and more complex negative feeling (Fetscherin and Heinrich, 2014; Bryson et al., 2013; Fetscherin et al., 2019), the extreme negative emotion that consumers feel toward a brand (Bryson et al., 2013). Where all the literature tends to agree is that the strength of emotions can vary for different individuals; furthermore, the same person can go through different emotional states and their negative feelings toward a brand may evolve over time (Zarantonello et al., 2018; Fetscherin, 2019; Fetscherin et al., 2019).\n3. Anti-brand communities: Empowered consumers can form anti-brand collectives that criticize, parody and expose the actions and intentions of brands (Fournier and Avery, 2011). Embedded in the wider anti-branding movement (Holt, 2002), anti-brand communities are groupings of people who have negative feelings toward a brand and who join together to voice their disapproval of corporate actions. Such groupings emancipate consumer activists (Kozinets, 2002; Thompson and Arsel, 2004) and frequently target top global corporate brands (Kucuk, 2015; Wong et al., 2018; Osuna-Ramirez et al., 2019) such as Starbucks (Thompson and Arsel, 2004), Wal-Mart and McDonald's (Hollenbeck and Zinkhan, 2006), Nike or General Electrics (Kozinets and Handelman, 2004). Endemic to the rise of empowered consumers, anti-brand communities allow consumers to express and share negativity toward brands (Awasthi et al., 2012).\n4. Research focus: The current study builds on the concept of negative brand relationships (Veloutsou and Guzman, 2017), derived from consumer-brand relationships research. Specifically, the study elaborates on Park et al. (2013) who expand the traditional notion of positive brand relationships (attachment), to include the negative side (aversion). Relationships with negative valence depend, in part, on the emotions felt by consumers toward brands and can be represented by negative emotions (Fournier and Alvarez, 2013; Zarantonello et al., 2016; Hegner et al., 2017; Fetscherin et al., 2019). To address the multidimensional aspect of individual negative brand relationships the paper uses the Veloutsou (2007) conceptualization of consumer-brand relationships, which draws from social psychology, philosophy and marketing, and suggests that the consumer-brand relationship has two aspects: emotion and communication. The emotional aspect involves the negative feelings toward the brand and communication is the willingness to engage in two-way interaction where consumers receive communications from and send communications to the brand (Veloutsou, 2007).\n5. Hypotheses development: Negative emotions in brand relationships are likely to generate increased oppositional loyalty, that is, loyalty to brands competing with the object of hatred (Japutra et al., 2018). Oppositional loyalty entails the premise that love and opposition go hand in hand, that love for a brand increases the propensity to oppose competing brands and there is recent evidence that brand communities reinforce such feelings (Kuo and Hou, 2017; Marticotte et al., 2016) and research implies that this could be the case for anti-brand community members (Popp et al., 2016). One consequence of a negative relationship is the preference for the competition, as examples of alter-brand communities or counter-brand communities suggest (Cova and White, 2010; Cromie and Ewing, 2009). Having negative feelings for and interactive communication of a negative nature with a brand can, thus, lead to increased loyalty to another brand. There are reasons to expect that the more consumers interact with the negatively-evaluated brand, the more they find out about it, the more they have material to fuel and reason their negativity and develop a higher loyalty for the competing brand (Thompson and Sinha, 2008). Recent findings on the formation of oppositional loyalty suggest that having more information and feedback about one of the rival brands positively influences the likelihood of developing oppositional loyalty to a competing brand (Marticotte et al., 2016). The existence of the willingness to communicate with the brand as part of their relationship with it is, thus, expected to generate more interest for competing brands:\n6. Methodology: A total of 30 items capture the seven constructs used in the study (Table 3) and all items are measured using seven-point Likert-scales. Negative brand relationships are operationalized using two constructs (emotional connection and communication) that measure an individual's relationship with a brand. The scale was adapted from Veloutsou (2007) and, to reflect the negative emotional connection, the study has reversed the originally positively valenced emotional connection scale. Items that measure the communication part of the relationship have been adopted from the same source, retaining the positive valence. Social approval is operationalized using Veloutsou and Moutinho's (2009) scale. Three concepts are adopted from Algesheimer et al. (2005), namely, (1) community engagement; (2) community identification; and, (3) the two dimensions of community recommendation intention. To adapt measures, the researchers first extensively discussed the wording and then asked for feedback from five academics.\n7. Results: The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS (Byrne, 2013). The empirical model includes seven constructs measured with 30 indicators linked by 11 hypotheses. Analysis followed a two-step procedure where the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) precedes SEM and where model fit, validity and reliability are assessed using a range of statistics including parameter estimates and fit indicators such as comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker Lewis Index (TLI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and normed chi-square (CMIN) (Bagozzi and Yi, 2012).\n8. Discussion: The current paper aimed to empirically examine how individual negative brand relationships translates into their participation in communities and community dynamics in anti-brand communities. The study uses a unique set of primary survey data collected from members of anti-brand communities dedicated to the negativity toward multinational technology brands and hosted on Facebook. The findings depict a complex set of relationships and indicate that participation in an anti-brand community, focused on a technology brand, strongly depends on the individual influences of negative consumer-brand relationships. In particular, the results highlight the role of the negative relationship with the brand on community participation. These relationships feed into anti-brand community participation and identification through the mediating role of social approval and oppositional loyalty to another brand. Anti-brand community members are motivated to recommend the community to non-members, which might help contribute to the growth and sustenance of the community.\n9. Managerial implications: From a practical standpoint, the study provides insight into the attitudes and behaviors of technology brand opposers, what drives them to engage in collective participation and their ensuing recommendation behavior. Similar to love, hatred may be conceived as a broader social phenomenon that extends beyond the individual consumer-targeted brand nexus. Negative emotions and anti-brand behaviors are shared and social and the sharing of hate in an online collective setting has a higher viral potential and harm for the brand (Kahr et al., 2016). This has implications for technology brands wishing to understand and possibly control negative WoM in anti-brand communities, and thus, the proliferation of negative comments. The findings suggest that negative brand relationships can also be of an emotional nature and dependent upon the information communicated across channels, that is, not controlled by the brand. An emotional and communication aspect of a relationship can exist and lead to anti-brand community behavior, even when a hater does not consume a brand. Considering management's inability to fully control the reputation of a brand online (Fournier and Avery, 2011) and given that non-consumers can lead the discussion around brand hate, brands need to take action to monitor existing negative relationships and assess their likelihood to transform into group participation and recommendation. Moreover, given the impact of oppositional loyalty, brands with strong competitive positioning and market presence may be more prone to be the objects of negative brand relationships and negative brand-related behaviors (Awasthi et al., 2012; Rogers et al., 2017). The role of social approval in the negativity toward the brand process is also noteworthy and impactful. As the findings highlight that affiliation with an anti-brand community is strengthened by social approval seeking, brands are advised to control for social influence because when a brand falls out of favor, the influencing consumers might have a wider impact over consumers that are less strong-minded.\n10. Limitations and future research directions: The study has several limitations. In terms of the data collection, by focusing only on technology brands, the study's scope is limited and future research may extend the findings to other product categories to assess potential idiosyncrasies within the technology sector. Indeed, research on brand negativity in brand communities is still in early stages. There is some work in the sports (Popp et al., 2016), retail (Hollenbeck and Zinkhan, 2010) and food and beverage industries (Thompson and Arsel, 2004), on the broad topic of brand hate, negative experiences and negativity. Studies have also investigated several types of hated brand categories together (Hegner et al., 2017). At this stage, there is little understanding if the type of product, service or industry has any influence on negativity and if there would be industry-related idiosyncrasies in anti-brand community participation. Further investigation of this parameter is thus warranted.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to focus on the phenomena of negative brand relationships and emotions to evidence how such relationships transpose into the willingness to participate in collective actions in anti-brand communities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey was carried out, targeting Facebook anti-brand communities, dedicated to sharing negativity toward technology products. A total of 300 members of these communities participated in the study.\nFindings: The study shows that the two dimensions of negative brand relationship (negative emotional connection and two-way communication) lead to community participation in anti-brand communities, through the mediating role of social approval and oppositional loyalty. Anti-brand community growth is supported by members' intentions to recommend the group and is the result of their participation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study's focus on technology brands calls for further research on other brand types and categories and the inclusion of other independent variables should be considered to extend understanding of collective negativity in anti-brand communities.\nPractical implications: The paper provides insight to brand managers on the ways to manage negativity around their brand online and understand the role that brand communities play in this process.\nOriginality/value: The paper proposes the first integrative view of brand negativity, encompassing emotions and behaviors of consumers as individuals and as members of a collective, which allows the understanding of the dynamics of anti-branding and highlights the mechanisms that facilitate anti-brand community expansion.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
More product, more process: metadata in digital image collections
|
[
"Digital collections",
"Resource description",
"Digital libraries",
"Metadata",
"Archival processing",
"Image collections"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Resource description is one of the most important aspects of organizing information. How information professionals describe resources directly impacts users' ability to find them. Description is even more important in digital collections. As in the analog environment, metadata assigned to digital resources directly affects those resources' findability and accessibility. In the online arena, metadata also contributes to discoverability. Having terms that describe each item allows those materials to be found by users, whether within the digital collection site or the larger web. Recently, though, there has been debate over the necessity of item-level description. Theories such as \"More Product, Less Process\" (or MPLP) advocate mass digitization and pushing out more material in exchange for spending less time processing in the name of increasing access (Greene and Meissner, 2005; Meissner and Greene, 2010). These less-is-more approaches support collection-level description as an acceptable substitute for individual resource description in the name of conserving resources. This idea has influenced the digital world, producing an increasing number of digital collections without item-level metadata. The following study was designed to examine how description levels in digital collections impact resource discovery. Tags and subject headings from two iterations of a New York Public Library (NYPL) digital image collection were collected and tested for retrieval efficiency. The results revealed that a lower level of description for digital image collections can hinder retrieval of information resources. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of metadata in digital image collections and reveals the problems that occur when it is lacking.\nLiterature review: Description levels and discovery\nMethodology: Analyzing a digital image collection revealed the issues with digitizing mass quantities of materials and assigning limited metadata. This study was created to analyze resource description and the effect on retrieval. The study aimed to answer two research questions:\nFindings: Results\nConclusion: This study was designed to assess how different levels of description affect retrieval of digital resources. It is clear that without item-level metadata, resources are much harder to find which can discourage and turn away users. \"More Product, Less Process\" claims to prioritize users, and in a way, it does. Processing more archival material to decrease backlogs and increase the amount of accessible material is an important goal that needs to be accomplished. At the same time, though, resources do little good if they cannot be found. More product is no good alone - sometimes, products need more process.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications of current theories that advocate for minimal levels of description in digital collections. Specifically, this paper looks at the archival theory of \"More Product, Less Process\" and its encouragement of collection-level description. The purpose of the study was to analyze how levels of description impact resource retrieval.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study analyzed 35 images from a New York Public Library (NYPL) digital collection present on the NYPL website and on Flickr. The methodology was designed to reflect users' information seeking behavior for image collections. There were two research questions guiding this study: what are the descriptive terms used to describe items in digital collections? and what is the success rate of retrieving resources using assigned descriptive terms?\nFindings: The results of this study revealed that the images from the NYPL collection were more difficult to find on the institution's website as compared with Flickr. These findings suggest that lesser levels of description in digital collections hinder resource retrieval.\nResearch limitations/implications: These findings suggest that lesser description levels hurt the findability of resources. In the wake of theories such as \"More Product, Less Process\", information professionals must find ways to assign metadata to individual materials in digital image collections.\nOriginality/value: Recent research concerning description levels of digital collections is several years old and focuses mostly on the usefulness of collection-level metadata as a supplement to or substitute for item-level metadata. Few, if any, studies exist that explore the implications of description levels on resource retrievability and findability. This study is also unique in that it discusses these implications in the context of less-is-more theories of archival processing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Shared leadership, diversity, and information sharing in teams
|
[
"Leadership",
"Diversity",
"Team performance",
"Teams",
"Information Sharing",
"Shared leadership",
"Groups"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Today organizations are faced with uncertainty and fast-changing environments, and work tasks are becoming increasingly complex. Increasingly, organizations have adopted team-based work structures to respond to these challenges (Day et al., 2004, 2006; Morgeson et al., 2010a). With a shift to teams, however, the issue arises regarding the suitability of traditional models of hierarchical leadership. According to Pearce and Conger (2003, p. 1), a potentially more effective approach to team management is shared leadership defined as: \"a dynamic interactive influence among individuals in groups for which the objective is to lead one another to the achievement of group or organizational goals or both.\" The importance of shared leadership has been found to be particularly appropriate in managing teams composed of knowledge workers (Carson et al., 2007; Hmieleski et al., in press; Morgeson et al., 2010b). Having said that, limited research attention has been devoted to examining the moderating and mediating variables of the shared leadership and team performance association (Pearce and Conger, 2003).\nTheoretical background: Research on shared leadership\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Means, standard deviations, and correlations are provided in Table I.\nDiscussion: The primary objective of the present study was to investigate moderating and mediating variables of the shared leadership and performance relationship. Consequently, the results contribute to the shared leadership literature by suggesting that information sharing represents one mechanism through which shared leadership operates, together with diversity to enhance team performance. Further, shared leadership is actually more likely to correlate with team performance under high than compared to low levels of team diversity. Conversely, shared leadership was less strongly associated with team performance when diversity was low.\nConclusion: The widespread adoption of team structures to organize and complete organizational tasks is one of the major changes in work and organizations that has occurred during the last 50 years. In 1959, when individual work characterized organizations, Peter Drucker (1959) predicted the movement toward team structures in future organizations along with the emergence of the \"knowledge-worker,\" a term he coined at the time. Implicit in the adoption of teams is the need for management of teams as well as an understanding of the relevance of different management approaches to enhance team performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Shared leadership is increasingly important in today's organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between shared leadership and team performance, the moderating role of demographic diversity and the mediating role of information sharing on this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research used a field study design, quantitative data of employees from two different organizations. Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling analyses.\nFindings: Shared leadership was positively associated with team performance and this association was mediated by information sharing. Demographic diversity moderated the relationship between shared leadership and team performance, such that shared leadership was more strongly associated with team performance in more diverse teams and less in less diverse teams.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results found support for moderating and mediating variables, explaining under what conditions and how shared leadership is associated with team performance in organizations.\nPractical implications: The findings highlight the importance of nurturing shared leadership, in particular as teams tend to grow more diverse in our todays' work settings. They also highlight the importance of diversity in how shared leadership unfolds its potential.\nSocial implications: The research highlights that shared leadership, diversity, and information are increasingly important in today's organizations and should be considered from a more positive standpoint.\nOriginality/value: This research explored the association between shared leadership, demographic diversity, and information sharing with team performance. It represents a first step in examining the moderating and mediating variables of the shared leadership and team performance association.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring comparative efficiency and determinants of efficiency for major world airlines
|
[
"Competitive strategy",
"Benchmarking",
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Airlines",
"Tobit regression analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The global airlines industry represents the epitome of challenge for academic researchers. Attempts to analyze and comprehend the complexity of strategic issues facing this industry are compelling. Dynamic and unpredictable changes confronting this industry are unprecedented and disruption has become the norm. Both external environmental changes (e.g. 9/11, SARS, heightened travel security, fuel prices, recession, technological advances, etc.) and changes from the industry environment more specifically (e.g. entry of low-cost niche players, global market competition, formulation of strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions among competitors, etc.) have resulted in difficult strategic choices and challenging market realities for airline companies around the world. In organizational theory terms, this industry is described as \"turbulent,\" facing unfamiliar changes at an accelerating rate. Two aspects of coping mechanisms that stand out include strategy and operations. The intense rivalry facing the competitors in this industry command sophisticated research methods in order to analyze and interpret the drivers for strategic change. Strategies have emerged marking significant departure from previous choices in terms of operating efficiencies. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and statistical analysis, this paper measures and benchmarks comparative operating efficiencies of global airlines in three geographical market segments for strategic and competitive insight.\nStrategic issues in the global airlines industry: Since deregulation of the US airline industry in 1978 and liberalization of the European airline industry in 1986, a dramatic restructuring of the global airlines industry has occurred, including a new competitive threat from Asian airlines. The pressures resulting from both the general external environment and from the industry environment more specifically have resulted in difficult strategic choices and demanding market responses for airline companies around the world.\nMeasuring operating efficiencies for strategic insight: Operating efficiencies can be affected by additional strategic issues; one in particular related to our research. Comparative advantage is an advantage one firm, or group of firms, gains based on geographic location (e.g. improved cost management, better product or service quality, fewer regulations, and so on). In addition to the business strategies discussed above, comparative geographic advantage motivated our research on the operating efficiencies of the three most prominent regions of global airline competition: Europe, Asia, and North America.\nResults and discussion: Before we ran DEA models, we tried descriptive statistics on Revenues, which could be a proxy measure of a company's size. Table II exhibits results by regions.\nSummary and conclusion: This research has presented the development of the models to measure and benchmark comparative operating efficiencies in the global airlines industry to gain insight on the future strategies and competitive efforts of these airlines. From a strategic perspective, insight is gained to compare efficiency ratings of specific airlines with other strategic performance measures. In this study, we found that the airlines in Europe were less efficient than the airlines in other regions. It might be due to the abolition of cabotage among the countries in European Union, which removed the protection of domestic businesses among the countries. Because we can merely speculate as to the causes of our findings, it is necessary to measure further the efficiency of airlines in their domestic operations. For the determinants of efficiency, we identified that revenues and expenses were significant for explaining operating efficiency scores of airlines. Although other variables such as number of passengers, revenues per kilometer, and LFs were closely related to revenues, they were not significant in Tobit regression analysis. Accordingly, it was possible to conclude that revenue management or pricing was important to improving operating efficiency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: For strategic and competitive insights, this paper aims to measure and benchmark comparative operating efficiencies of major airlines in Asia, Europe, and North America.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors employ data envelopment analysis for measuring the relative efficiency of 90 airlines in Asia, Europe, and North America. In addition, the authors use Tobit regression analysis for finding determinants of the efficiency.\nFindings: Results indicate that the efficiency of the airlines in Europe is the lowest among the airlines in these three regions. Efficiency differences between the airlines in Europe and the airlines in the two other regions (Asia and North America) are statistically significant in terms of technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency, but not significant between the airlines in Asia and North America. For the determinants of efficiency, the authors identified that revenues and expenses were significant for explaining efficiency scores of airlines.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is needed to explain the findings that airlines in Europe were less efficient than airlines in Asia and North America. In addition, including variables on customer satisfaction in a future study is desirable.\nOriginality/value: Major contributions of this study include measuring the comparative efficiency of major airlines in Asia, Europe, and North America and finding determinants of the efficiency for strategic insights.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Mathematics maybe, but not money": On balance sheets, numbers and nature in ecological accounting
|
[
"Value",
"Arithmetical and geometrical ontologies",
"Biodiversity offsetting",
"Natural capital accounting",
"Nature-beyond-the-human"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: [...] capitalism cannot be fully attained or practiced [sic] until [...] we have an accurate balance sheet [that places] natural capital on the balance sheets of companies, countries, [...] [and] the world(Hawken, 1999, p. xiii).\nIntroduction[1],[2]: The title of this paper, \"Mathematics maybe, but not money\", comes from a presentation by the Reverend Canon and environmental philosopher Nigel Cooper, delivered at a workshop on Natural Environments and Cultural Services in which one of us (Sullivan) was a participant (Cooper, 2014, p. 4). Cooper's paper highlights the discontinuities of resemblances (Latour, 2013) created by the transitions and translations required in ecological accounting. These transitions move from real material natures, to human uses and experiences of these, to numerical abstractions used to denote these uses and experiences, and to monetised values used to \"account for\" these uses and experiences (see Castree, 2003; Fourcade, 2011; Sullivan, 2012, 2014; and the special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability (26(5)) published in 2013).\nThe balance sheet of nature? UK monetary estimates of natural capital: A global consolidation of ecological accounting, and particularly natural capital accounting, is taking place. This consolidation is part of a concerted effort to make nature values visible and legible economically, both as stocks of \"natural capital\" and as associated flows of \"ecosystem and/or environmental services\" (for review see Bateman et al., 2011; Read and Scott Cato, 2014; Sullivan, 2014, 2017a; Coffey, 2016; Nadal, 2016). These innovations extend an older social accounting and \"full cost accounting\" impetus to account for those social - and now environmental - costs that have conventionally been considered external to financial transactions (see discussion in Milne, 2007; also Grey and Bebbington, 2001). Through mutually supportive discourses, institutional assemblages and calculative devices, this multiscalar movement towards natural capital accounting is creating conditions in which beyond-human-natures - or, at least, numbers considered to represent these - are further enroled into the formal economic sphere (Sullivan, 2014). This \"economisation\" (Caliskan and Callon, 2009, 2010) formally values the presence and generative powers of diverse beyond-human-natures in economic terms, thereby bringing natures valued as such closer to the realm of commoditised exchange value (see empirical cases worked through in Robertson, 2006; Pawliczek and Sullivan, 2011; Sullivan, 2013b; Carver and Sullivan, 2017). As John O'Neill (2007, p. 106) writes, \"[t]he fact that the metaphor of natural capital lends itself to monetisation is neither accidental nor [...] surprising\".\nThe economics of the last resort: a case of BDO in England: BDO is a conservation methodology widely promoted as capable of mitigating impacts on species populations and habitats caused through the material transformation of localities due to built infrastructure developments (see review in Benabou, 2014; also Tregidga, 2013; Reid, 2012). BDO claims to facilitate maintenance of the \"natural capital\" of biodiversity in aggregate (Helm, 2015), even though habitat losses at specific sites have occurred due to economic development. In this section we offer a brief case study illustrating the operation in practice of a specific calculative device developed to facilitate BDO. This is the BDO metric devised by DEFRA for use in the English BDO pilot scheme which ran from 2012 to 2014[9].\nConcluding reflections: on the nature of numbers, and the numbers of nature: Through the two case analyses above we have elaborated some mechanisms whereby nature conceptualised and qualified as service-providing capital is being quantified, accounted for and exchanged as such. Similar enactments of numbering, aggregate rules and exchangeability have been highlighted for different scales of analysis, and for different environmental units to which frequently subjective evaluations are applied that nonetheless purport to create numerical comparability and commensurability. These numbering practices involve combinations of:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider and compare different ways of using numbers to value aspects of nature-beyond-the-human through case analysis of ecological and natural capital accounting practices in the UK that create standardised numerical-economic values for beyond-human natures. In addition, to contrast underlying ontological and ethical assumptions of these arithmetical approaches in ecological accounting with those associated with Pythagorean nature-numbering practices and fractal geometry. In doing so, to draw out distinctions between arithmetical and geometrical ontologies of nature and their relevance for \"valuing nature\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: Close reading and review of policy texts and associated calculations in: UK natural capital accounts for \"opening stock\" inventories in 2007 and 2014; and in the experimental implementation of biodiversity offsetting (BDO) in land-use planning in England. Tracking the iterative calculations of biodiversity offset requirements in a specific planning case. Conceptual review, drawing on and contrasting different numbering practices being applied so as to generate numerical-economic values for natures-beyond-the-human.\nFindings: In the cases of ecological accounting practices analysed here, the natures thus numbered are valued and \"accounted for\" using arithmetical methodologies that create commensurability and facilitate appropriation of the values so created. Notions of non-monetary value, and associated practices, are marginalised. Instead of creating standardisation and clarity, however, the accounting practices considered here for natural capital accounts and BDO create nature-signalling numbers that are struggled over and contested.\nOriginality/value: This is the first critical engagement with the specific policy texts and case applications considered here, and, the authors believe, the first attempt to contrast arithmetical and geometrical numbering practices in their application to the understanding and valuing of natures-beyond-the-human.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sexual harassment: A costly affair for employers
|
[
"Gender",
"Legislation",
"Equality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Two recent decisions of the full Federal Court of Australia (FCAFC) have substantially changed the sexual harassment landscape in Australia and shows that courts are prepared to award successful plaintiffs tens of thousands of dollars for hurt and humiliation.\nSexual harassment beyond work premises: In the case of\nNew benchmark for compensation: In\nLessons for employers: Both cases serve to warn employers that to minimize exposure to such claims, a comprehensive sexual-harassment policy is necessary that is compliant with Australian legislation. Training procedures must be revisited to ensure that they comply with legislative standards. Only then will employers be better placed to defend sexual harassment claims or at least limit their liability in relation to such claims The consequences of failure in this respect can result in significant costs to the employer.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Highlights the risks faced by Australian employers as a result of sexual harassment by employees and contractors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Considers the types of approach that are necessary to prevent sexual harassment by employees and contractors in the workplace and events outside the workplace sanctioned by employers.\nFindings: Explains that employers should ensure that they have robust policies that comply with Australian law and should provide adequate training to protect themselves against costly compensation claims.\nPractical implications: Guides employers in preventing loss arising from claims of sexual harassment from employees.\nSocial implications: Draws attention to the risks associated with conflict of interest at work.\nOriginality/value: Raises the issue of organizational preparedness to undertake the challenges potentially posed by employees and contractors who may consider sexual harassment as acceptable in the workplace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of servant leadership in fostering inclusive organizations
|
[
"Inclusive leadership",
"Inclusive practices",
"Stewardship",
"Servant leadership",
"Climate for inclusion"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Contemporary work environments necessitate policies aim at promoting inclusive workplaces, in which diverse groups are afforded the opportunity to realize their potential in alignment with organizational goals (Da Rocha, 2009). Leadership plays an important role in enhancing positive diversity outcomes, primarily in supporting a climate respectful of differences, as well as affirming the intrinsic worthiness of diverse employees. Despite an increasingly diverse work environment, leadership theories have not adequately taken into consideration inclusion issues. Chin (2010) underscores this paucity of research by suggesting that being attentive to diversity concerns requires a fundamental paradigm shift in leadership theorizing that would allow the respective theories to become more inclusive. Inclusive leadership bears multiple connotations involving incorporation of diversity dimensions in leadership theory, explanations of how these dimensions shape our understanding of leadership, as well as investigation of the mechanisms through which diverse followers' perceptions of diverse leaders affect leadership development. In Chin's (2010) view, leadership theories should be expanded to address social equality and inclusion issues made salient amidst rapidly changing societal and organizational contexts. Wasserman et al. (2008, p. 180) argued that \"building a culture of inclusion involves a new set of leadership qualities and skills including flexibility, fluidity, self-awareness and mindfulness, courage and the capacity to be vulnerable in a powerful way.\"\nInclusion, inclusive climates and inclusive leadership: Inclusion: conceptual dimensions\nServant leadership as inclusive leadership development: Servant leadership is a multi-dimensional construct that encompasses multiple aspects of both leaders and followers and more specifically, the relational, ethical, emotional and spiritual ones (Hale and Fields, 2007). The term was first coined in an essay by Greenleaf (1977), focussing on the leader's role as a servant. Servant leadership is connected to ethics, morality and virtues (Irving and Longbotham, 2007). It is about influence, caring, listening, creating a climate of love, simplicity and consciousness, as well as contributing to a stronger sense of interactional justice, optimistic attitude and commitment to change (Choudhary et al., 2013; Kool and van Dierendonck, 2012).\nAn integrative model of servant leadership and climates for inclusion: As already noted, servant leadership focusses on service rather than self-interest; it assimilates meaning-seeking, higher levels of ethical behavior, trust, fundamental values, a compelling vision but above all, the decision to serve others. A servant leader can help diverse others grow and succeed by placing subordinates first, espousing diversity-friendly attitudes. Furthermore, by demonstrating genuine concern for the needs of followers, as well as by exhibiting caring attitudes for subordinates, including those experiencing the pernicious effects of discrimination, a servant leader is expected to advance inclusiveness pursuits. In this respect, and in conformity to van Dierendonck's (2011) framework, we may argue that:\nDiscussion: The paper is intended to provide a rationale for servant leadership's potential in fostering climates for inclusion. In so doing, a conceptual model was elaborated and a set of propositions was advanced (see, Figure 1). We argued that inclusive practices promoted through servant leadership will mediate the moderated effect of servant leaders' inclusiveness beliefs on the relationship between servant leadership and climate for inclusion. More specifically, we demonstrated that van Dierendonck's (2011) servant leaders' attributes are invested with a potential of prompting practices that foster perceptions of inclusion among social identity groups. Servant leaders will encourage equitable and socially responsible practices, as well as interventions that reduce tensions between sub-groups, that are in turn expected to nurture followers' feelings of belongingness. Equally importantly, we underscored the role of servant leaders in supporting empowering practices that embody more humane rationales, thus encouraging followers to bring their genuine selves into the workplace by satisfying their need for uniqueness. In this respect, servant leadership will trigger feelings of both belongingness and uniqueness that shape a climate for inclusion, in accordance with Shore's et al. (2011) framework. Concomitantly, the contribution of this paper is twofold: to fill the existing gap in the servant leadership literature regarding servant leaders' inclusiveness, as well as to expand on specific issues situated at the intersection of leadership and inclusion streams of literature and research.\nConcluding comments: The aim of the paper was to provide rationales for servant leadership behaviors that are germane to designing and implementing inclusive practices. We posited that the salience of inclusiveness beliefs espoused by servant leaders will moderate the effect of servant leadership on inclusive practices that in turn will mediate the servant leadership and climate for inclusion relationship. Servant leaders are efficacious in communicating specific rationales for inclusion that harmonize concrete business initiatives with more humane objectives, thus providing incentives for inclusive practices supportive of inclusive climates. Servant leadership fosters inclusion in a way that addresses the needs of multiple stakeholders, fact that generates positive expectations for both in-group and out-group members interacting in and benefiting from inclusive work environments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative framework of servant leadership and employees' perception of inclusion. The authors argue that servant leadership embodies an inclusive leadership philosophy that is in a position to facilitate feelings of belongingness and uniqueness among diverse employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A theoretical model capturing the effect of servant leadership in shaping climates for inclusion, is developed. The authors elaborate on research streams focussing on climates for inclusion, and examine servant leadership as a potential predictor of inclusion. In this respect, the authors posit that inclusive practices mediate the servant leadership and inclusion relationship, while leaders' inclusiveness beliefs moderate the servant leadership and inclusive practices relationship.\nFindings: The model introduces mediating mechanisms that intervene in the indirect relationship between servant leadership and climates for inclusion. In so doing, the authors seek to identify how organizational practices supported through servant leadership behaviors address employee needs for belongingness and uniqueness. The model predicts multi-level beneficial outcomes for social identity groups.\nPractical implications: The paper identifies a bundle of organizational practices facilitating employees' perceptions of inclusion, by placing an emphasis on how servant leaders can enact and implement practices in view of attaining inclusiveness pursuits.\nSocial implications: Servant leadership is inclusive by empowering diverse employees and fostering equitable and more humane workplaces, as well as by being more sensitive to various societal expectations.\nOriginality/value: The paper is intended to explore precisely how servant leadership can help inclusive ideals to thrive in diverse work environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
SME internationalization research: past, present, and future
|
[
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Resources",
"Research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Internationalization is a phenomenon researched intensively over the last few decades from a variety of viewpoints, including: organization theory, marketing, strategic management, international management, and small business management. Issues such as international decision-making and management, the development of international activities, and factors favoring or disfavoring internationalization have been studied for both large as well as small businesses.The focus of this study is on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their strategic internationalization and export behavior. Given the nature of today's marketplace, SMEs are increasingly facing similar international problems as those of larger firms. For many SMEs, especially those operating in high-technology and manufacturing sectors, it is no longer possible to act in the marketplace without taking into account the risks and opportunities presented by foreign and/or global competition. As a result, discussion of internationalization in this study needs to cover to some extent, aspects of general internationalization of both large and small firms, while focusing on the internationalization of SMEs.\nInternationalization - the evolution of the concept: In previous international business literature, mature multinational corporations played a dominate role, whereas SMEs (and especially their internationalization) have only recently attracted broader interest (Miesenbock, 1988). This reflects the fact that several countries, particularly those experiencing balance of payment deficits, have attempted to increase the international activities of their SMEs in order to boost economic growth, cut unemployment and create potential mini-MNEs in the future.Internationalization is a synonym for the geographical expansion of economic activities over a national country's border. The term started to be used when the phenomenon gradually replaced imperialism as the dominant organization principle framing cross-border interaction between market economies starting in the 1920s. The economic internationalization process accelerated in the post-second-world-war era and appeared unrivalled until the early 1970s, when a new phenomenon of globalization started to emerge (Gjellerup, 2000).Globalization usually refers to a stage in which the firm's operations are managed on a global scale, not in just a few selected countries. It is characterized by the worldwide integration of ever more competitive markets and companies facing global competition. Traditional exports are increasingly coming under pressure while the conditions for marketing and production are changing rapidly. As a result, today's companies, including SMEs, have to respond to markets at an increasingly faster pace (Pleitner, 2002). Globalization also includes the functional integration of geographically dispersed economic activities. It means something more in terms of the scope, content and intensity of mutual connections, capital and management involvement (Svetlicic, 1996) and is therefore a qualitative extension of internationalization (Gjellerup, 2000).It is generally agreed that three forces are driving the globalization of business (Acs et al., 2001; Gjellerup, 2000). The first is the explosive growth of low-cost technology connecting people and locations. Better information-processing and communication technology is creating a greater awareness of international economic opportunities. The second force behind the globalization of business is the steady dismantling of trade barriers and financial deregulation. Free-trade agreements have generated a more level playing field for innovative firms. The third force motivating the globalization of business is the widespread economic restructuring and liberalization that followed the fall of socialism in Russia and Central/Eastern Europe, as well as the geographical expansion of markets in Asia, particularly China. These previously closed areas are now new markets and magnets for investment, opening further opportunities for growth and investment.However, despite all these driving forces of globalization, internationalization has not been replaced, and many observations on internationalization remain valid today. The fact is that globalization's impact on the SME sector is likely to be more profound than on the already highly internationalized large corporate sector. While previously SMEs were considered passive victims rather than active players, evidence indicates that this view is no longer valid. In the last few decades, many SMEs have successfully set up activities beyond their home markets and their role is increasingly crucial in contributing to future growth (Gjellerup, 2000).Globalization and the attendant issues have only recently been introduced in small firm development and research (Madsen and Servais, 1997). Ruigrok (2000) proposed that the term \"global\" should be reserved for those companies and phenomena that really deserve this label. Traditionally, SMEs restricted their activities to the region of their location, or stayed within their national boundaries (Pleitner, 1997). Today many are active in one or two world regions and are therefore international or regional players. Following Ruigrok (2000), the term internationalization will be used to refer to SMEs' outward movement of international operations, while globalization will refer to the international connectivity of markets and the interdependence of national economies strongly affecting all SMEs' activities.Internationalization also means a changing state. The growth of the firm provides a background to internationalization and to some degree the concepts of internationalization and growth are intertwined (Buckley and Ghauri, 1993). However, some features are unique to internationalization or, at least, there are significant degrees of difference between growth at home and growth internationally.As is indicated in Table I, existing research has focused on SMEs' internationalization mainly from the point of view of the firm's international activities or operations by applying product, operation, and market analyses (e.g. Luostarinen, 1979) or network analyses (e.g. Johanson and Mattson, 1993). There is a tendency in small firm research to view the process of internationalization as evolutionary (Luostarinen, 1979; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975) through which companies become increasingly committed to, and involved in, international activities, but at a certain point can also become inverted and result in de-internationalization (Calof and Beamish, 1995). In Nordic countries the internationalization of SMEs has traditionally been defined as \"the process of increasing involvement in international operations\" (Welch and Luostarinen, 1993, p. 156) and this process has often been understood as gradual and sequential, consisting of several stages.In a network context, Johanson and Mattsson (1993, p. 306) described internationalization as a \"cumulative process, in which relationships are continually established, maintained, developed, broken and dissolved in order to achieve the objectives of the firm\". This view, however, seems somewhat fragmented as it focuses exclusively on relationships. Assuming that SMEs operate within their natural context, the view of Johanson and Vahlne (1990, p. 20) developed from Johanson and Mattsson (1993) appears more promising. They define internationalization as the \"process of developing networks of business relationships in other countries through extension, penetration, and integration\".In their definition, Lehtinen and Penttinen (1999) try to summarize the fundamental characteristics of the internationalization process based on the Nordic research findings. Their definition also covers two concepts occasionally applied in the context of internationalization, namely international orientation and international commitment. International orientation refers to a firm's general attitude towards internationalization, thus representing an evaluative dimension. Reid (1981) defined it as a measure of the perceived difference between foreign markets and the home market space along economic, cultural, political, and market-strategic dimensions. International commitment is basically associated with the requirements of the operation modes chosen and the size of international business. The latter seeks to position firms somewhere between the extremes of no involvement (domestic firm) and full commitment (a firm with a realized foreign direct investment).Generally, the overall research focus has shifted from the definition and analyses in terms of international activities to the resources needed for internationalization. With reference to the resource-based perspective, Ahokangas (1998) proposed a definition of SME internationalization in terms of resources within the natural context (e.g. within a firm's network). An internationalizing firm can be viewed as mobilizing unique and interdependent resource stocks that enable and contribute to the firm\"s internationalization activities within its natural context. This definition thus implies that internationalization is \"the process of mobilizing, accumulating, and developing resource stocks for international activities\", regardless of the actual content of the international activities themselves.A company's involvement in international business might arise when a company sells its products to foreign markets, buys products from abroad or starts to cooperate in some area with a foreign firm. This implies that international operations can be divided into \"inward\", \"outward\" and \"cooperative\" operations, which shows the \"holistic nature of internationalization\" (Korhonen, 1999). Although internationalization is a multidimensional phenomenon, this study focuses on SMEs' outward internationalization, due to the following. First, more than inward operations, outward operations can in the long term increase the competitive advantage of a company, organization or a country. Second, at the firm level outward internationalization benefits may also be evident in the form of product and process innovation, better utilization of capacity, skill development and a generally improved business performance (Morgan and Katsikeas, 1997a). Third, at the country level outward internationalization induces several favorable outcomes for productivity performance, labor market employment levels, foreign exchange accumulation and related externalities such as industrial welfare and societal prosperity. Fourth, the intensifying competition, integration and liberalization seen in international markets have forced firms to begin considering outward international activities as a key factor in their future growth, profitability and even survival. Finally knowledge of the outward internationalization process and related operations is more complex than that for inward internationalization.\nSelected internationalization theories and models: In terms of the individual firm, the basis of internationalization research can be found in the behavioral theory of the firm proposed by Cyert and March (1963) as well as in different decision-making theories. From a market perspective, trade theories can also provide a lens on internationalization research.Havnes (1994, cited in Ahokangas, 1998) argued that any of the models of small firm internationalization can be seen as presenting either a market, firm or entrepreneurship perspective. The market perspective of internationalization has mainly been restricted to studies on internationalization or the diversification strategies of large firms conceived within the context of strategy research with roots in economics (e.g. Dunning, 1988; Mahoney and Pandian, 1997). The firm perspective, which includes the stage models of internationalization, provides the bulk of available literature on SMEs' internationalization, whereas the number of studies based on the entrepreneurship perspective is much less (e.g. Cavusgil and Naor, 1987).In the current research, there is a difference in focus for large versus small businesses. Although global strategies, strategic international alliances, and problems of diversification and control are concepts frequently encountered, the discussion focuses almost exclusively on large firms or the so-called multinational enterprises (MNEs). Small entrepreneurial business research is more concerned with various stages (or export development models) of internationalization. In spite of the gap between the two lines of research, both build on the foundations of organization theory, although significant differences have resulted. Attempts to apply theories developed for or based on large firms may lead to relatively awkward results when applied to smaller businesses as ideas developed for large firms do not necessarily work in a small business setting (Chen and Hambrick 1995, cited in Ahokangas, 1998).Internationalization theories focusing on MNEs\nConclusions and implications: With the global integration of economic environments and different factors driving globalization and internationalization of companies with SMEs becoming the pillars of economic growth and change, SME internationalization research will remain one of the most important areas. Theories underpinning their research will have to adapt and follow this development. This study contributes to SMEs internationalization development theory with the conceptual integration of various SME internationalization theories into a new emerging area of international entrepreneurship. This study contributes to theory by proposing a redeveloped theoretical integrative conceptual model of international entrepreneurship centering on four internationalization properties (mode, market, product, time) plus internationalization performance as well as key antecedents (environmental, firm, and entrepreneur's characteristics) and consequences of internationalization (firm performance).This study advances SME internationalization research by clarifying the new emerging area of international entrepreneurship and its theoretical basis within internationalization research. International entrepreneurship places more importance on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs (and their characteristics), widely considered as the main variable in SME internationalization research. Second, it gives more importance to the time dimension, with the increasing number of SMEs operating internationally from their inception making time one of strategic dimensions of internationalization.The proposed international entrepreneurship model shares limitations noted by Antoncic and Hisrich (2000) in their initially developed conceptual model; the model is comprehensive but not exhaustive, and it does not specifically address interactions among constructs. Another limitation identified concerns the antecedents of internationalization, especially companies' and entrepreneurs' characteristics. By identifying such factors some limitations may arise. Did the antecedents of internationalization (companies' and entrepreneurs' characteristics) determine the degree of internationalization or the opposite? A longitudinal research design may clarify this issue.An important implication of the model for practitioners is that they need to constantly evaluate different elements related to internationalization. Especially crucial are the skills, competencies, and management know-how the entrepreneur needs to develop in order to be successful in the process of internationalization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to understand the similarities and differences in the internationalization of SMEs and MNEs and the specific factors affecting them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The relevant literature was reviewed particularly in the context of the major theories of internationalization.\nFindings: - The positive and negative aspects of each theoretical approach to internationalization are present to form the basis of a new model of international entrepreneurship.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The newly developed conceptual model has not been empirically tested.\nOriginality/value: - A redeveloped theoretical integrative conceptual model of international entrepreneurship is proposed based on four internationalization properties (mode, market, product, and time), internationalization performance, and key antecedents and consequences of the internationalization process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The value of food resources
|
[
"Marketing strategy",
"Economics",
"Regression analysis",
"Value analysis",
"Business analysis",
"Pricing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food resources (FRs) might be defined as all substances that originate from plants or animals and could be processed into edible foods which can be taken into human body and are capable of sustaining or nourishing the living being. For example, staple foods, oils, vegetables and fruits can be regarded as FRs.\nLiterature review: It seems difficult to find reports on the real value of FRs in the literature. Since the real value of FRs greatly affects the economic value of FRs, it is worth being analyzed.\nMethodology: Extensive literature search was carried out to analyze the value of human life. The association of FRs function with human life was established according to nutritional knowledge. Then, the real value of FRs was estimated by analyzing the nutritional function of FRs followed by value engineering method.\nThe real value of FRs: The real value of FRs originates from that FRs contain essential nutrients for human life. Therefore, FRs can be classified as life resources. They are the material basis of the continuity of human society. In other words, nobody could survive without them. Without human life, any other aspect of human society could not exist on the earth.\nThe economic value of FRs: The economic value of FRs reflects on several reasons. First, the production or cultivation of FRs needs the input of labor, money, energy, etc. Second, people have great demands on FRs for their survival and are willing to pay for obtaining them. Third, some people work on production and trade of FRs to earn money.\nDiscussion: Since the real value of FRs can be regarded as priceless life resources, their supply is therefore associated with social stability. Decisions on administrative policies as well as people's or consumer's motivation to purchase are normally determined on the real value of FRs. It is also believed that the real value of FRs gives the economic value of FRs in both macro- and micro-economics.\nConclusion and implications: It is therefore concluded that the real value of FRs is priceless (or uncountable) since they are life resources. This feature distinguishes FRs from other kinds of products or resources in the world.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to help understanding the value of food resources (FRs). This may raise global awareness on their importance in macro- and micro-economics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The relationship of FRs with human life was analyzed through literature review to illustrate their real value. Association of FRs production with the probability of becoming a high income country was estimated by analyzing the relevant data published by FAOSTAT, World Bank and United Nations to illustrate their value in macro-economy. Analyzing the interrelationship of prices with their attributes through literature review and the correlation of the relevant data published by FAOSTAT and OECD was undertaken to create a mathematical model for pricing FRs.\nFindings: The real value of FRs is unaccountable, which makes their economic value (price) be not always determined on market. Increase in the probability of becoming a high income country with increase in FRs production indicates that their shortage may bottleneck macro-economic development. A mathematical model has been created for estimating the economic value of FRs.\nPractical implications: These findings are applicable for managing (or administrating), pricing or evaluating FRs, analyzing their economic status, developing business and predicting tendency in micro-economy. They are also vital for managing or developing macro-economy. The findings should be useful for farmers, food companies, governmental agents, individuals, etc.\nOriginality/value: This is the first to report these findings. This is a significant progress in FRs research and valuable for education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Clinicians' and managers' responses to patients' complaints: A survey in hospitals of the Milan area
|
[
"Complaints",
"Quality",
"Health services",
"Legal action",
"Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Patients' complaints are said to be only the tip of an iceberg (Allen et al., 2000). What makes patients complain and, in some cases, start legal proceedings against their doctors? The reason seems to be dissatisfaction with health care, particularly the poor outcome of medical treatment (Beckman et al., 1994; Vincent et al., 1994). Another concept, that of a \"personal identity threat\", was identified which offered additional insights into the meaning of untoward experiences in health care (Coyle, 1999). Yet not all \"unfavourable avoidable events\" result in litigation, and not all bad clinical outcomes result in compensation (Studdert et al., 2000).On the other hand more than one barrier is erected at handling complaints efficiently (Allsop and Mulchay, 1995). Written responses do not satisfy the public. The process is too slow: people are not kept informed of progress. When an investigation takes place, and the complainant receives a written reply, he/she feels this is inadequate.Complaints and legal claims in Italy\nCase histories and methods: We surveyed 359 complaints and accounts of presumed untoward events presented by people to a Voluntary Patients Agency (\"Cittadinanzattiva\"=active citizenship) in Milan. Cittadinanzattiva helps citizens with advices and, when appropriate, with medicolegal expert review, but the organisation is not allowed to discuss the complaints content directly with the hospital boards. The agency helps the complainants to draft an initial complaint without recourse to a lawyer. A total of 210 complaints had been sent to the hospital management or board, to the public relation office or to the consultants. A total of 155 hospitals or doctors answered the letter (almost all written responses). Four responses have been eliminated for insufficient documentation. Finally the content of 151 responses has been examined.In the first section we reported:* age and sex of the patient, and if it was a patients' representative who lodged the complaint;* the reasons for reporting the event according to the citizen (declared openly in the written complaint); and* the nature of the complaint according to the expert revue (categorised according to the poor quality of care: technical and/or perceived), adopting a simplified classification from Wilson et al. (1995).An expert physician examined all the clinical records produced and identified when an \"avoidable adverse event\" was present (\"adverse event\" was an injury or complication caused by medical management that prolonged the hospital stay or produced lasting disability or death; \"preventable adverse event\" was an adverse event judged as unlikely to have occurred if the individuals or system involved in delivering care had followed practices regarded at the time as accepted or \"standard of care\").In the second part we analysed the written replies of the hospital management or board. An our expert independent physician assessed:* the complaints \"process\";* the involvement of the clinicians and of the insurance company;* if the complainant observations about the \"perceived quality\" were considered; and* if the hospital managers or board invited the service users to manage the case in a meeting between them and the accountable physicians.\nResults: The patients were mostly females and over 30 years old (Table I). According to the complainant letters, reasons for complaining are shown in Table II. In 83 (55 per cent) out of 151 cases the request was financial compensation for injury or pain. Occasionally the patients, or their relatives, reported advice and opinions given by the doctors (or other health personnel) who visited the patient after the supposed harmful event.According to the medical revue (Table III), in 54 (35.7 per cent) cases, the main themes emerging from the complaints were those of \"perceived\" poor quality of service (communication breakdown, violations of patients' rights, failures of informed consent, poor attention, rudeness). A total of 57 per cent of the patients complaining of poor quality of service were holder than 65 years. Together with these issues, or alone, were present problems of bad \"technical\" quality of care (inadequate or incompetent treatments and nursing care, wrong or delayed diagnosis or treatment).In 29 (19.2 per cent) cases the medical reviser considered a \"preventable adverse event\" was present.The complaints (Table IV) had often been dealt with directly by the \"Direzione Sanitaria\" (hospital health authority = medical managers) (62 per cent), sometimes (27 per cent) after talking through the complaints with the consultant involved, or (21 per cent) sending only a copy of the consultant's report to the complainant, without undertaking a systematic investigation. In 48 (31.7 per cent) cases (all requests for financial compensation) it was the legal managers or the insurance company who replied, without giving evidence to support that the events had been discussed with the clinicians. In 10 (6.6 per cent) cases, the \"manager\" or the consultant tried to sort out the problem by meeting the complainant. The complainant always refused the invitation.In four (2.6 per cent) cases the medical manager acknowledged a poor technical quality of care and in 17 (12 per cent) cases problems with perceived poor quality. In only four cases was the patient satisfied with the response. In 136 (90 per cent) cases the patients were openly unsatisfied and asked our association for a medico-legal opinion.\nConclusion: It is impossible for the results to have a statistical value, but they can show us a trend: this is because the review of the letters and the clinical records, carried out by only one expert, is extremely subjective.The modest percentage of letters, addressed both to the association and to the providers, confirms public scepticism in Italy towards the complaint procedure to the hospital bodies - whether oral or written. Italian research showed that only 27 per cent of the patients' sample interviewed openly addressed the problems they found in making use of the hospital to various authority: 12.7 per cent of them to the health authority, 7.6 per cent to the consumer organisations, and 4.6 per cent to the judicial authority.As stated by Allsop and Mulchay (1995), a complaint shows that the complainant is annoyed in some way. It reflects their subjective feelings about a perceived failure in the provision of care.Typically, letters of complaint take the form of a narrative that draws up a list of the events and makes justification for complaining (Vincent et al., 1994).Most complaints contain a number of allegations, some of which are expressed and others implied. These can vary considerably in severity: from allegations of poor care leading to death (rarely corresponding to the reality, at least in our case series), to complaints on presumed allergy from contact with the linen. Many complainants have suffered some form of loss, even if only to their dignity. A common complaint is that their concerns have not been listened to. Others feel that they have paid out good money for an unsatisfactory result. In some claims, the doctor is accused of incompetence: patients believe that a disaster has only been avoided by their own efforts.Procedure and character of the response\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the analysis of complaints lodged by patients and how the complainants' letters are handled by health boards and clinicians.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A retrospective analysis of patients' complaints lodged with an independent voluntary citizens' association in Milan and, at the same time, against the hospital administration offices or the consultants and responses returned by the hospitals in reply to the patients. The authors assessed: the reasons for the complaints according to the citizen; the nature of the complaint according to a medical expert revue; and the handling of the complaint process by managers.\nFindings: - For 83 of 151 people (55 per cent), the reason was compensation for injury or pain. According to the medical review, in 54 cases (35.7 per cent), the main themes emerging were mainly \"perceived\" poor quality of care. Together, or alone, were problems of \"technical\" quality of care. A total of 94 complaints (62.2 per cent) had been dealt with by the Health Boards, but 48 cases (31.7 per cent) were dealt with by the legal office or the insurance company who replied without showing evidence that they had discussed events with clinicians. Many times the managers did not undertake a systematic investigation, leaving complainants dissatisfied with the process and the outcome.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first to report the results of an assessment process of complaints lodged via an independent citizens' association in Italy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Delphi-based strategic issue management: crafting consumer goods supply chain strategy
|
[
"Delphi method",
"Supply chain strategy",
"Consumer goods industry",
"Corporate foresight",
"Strategic issue management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Supply chains (SC) for consumer goods have experienced significant change since global companies, such as Benetton, Zara, and WalMart, demonstrated how innovative SC concepts can contribute to performance. Consequently, SC management (SCM) has become a mainstay in (corporate) strategy. However, in times of high uncertainty and complex challenges, traditional strategic planning approaches are being more carefully scrutinized for their effectiveness (Camillus and Datta, 1991) and flexibility, adaptability, and timely investments are essential (Christopher and Holweg, 2011).\nLiterature review: SIM\nThe Delphi method in SCM: The Delphi technique is a systematic, multi-level survey procedure based on three fundamental principles (Rowe and Wright, 1996): it assumes that expert opinions provide more exact results than the judgments of non-experts, groups achieve better results than an individual person, and controlled feedback of group opinion facilitates a structured group communication process. The anonymity of Delphi participants is supposed to minimize biases, such as pressure to conformity (Dalkey and Helmer, 1963). This provides decision makers with ambivalent information about the discussed (strategic) issues, and encourages conflicts in cognition, which improves decision making (Amason, 1996). For example, Graefe and Armstrong (2011) demonstrated that structured group processes improve the outcome of individuals in judgmental tasks.\nStrategic issues in the consumer goods SC: A company's SC strategy includes its interaction with suppliers and customers as well as the configuration of SC processes (Narasimhan et al., 2008). Since SCM is becoming increasingly important in corporate strategic activities (e.g. Stank et al., 2005), having a SC strategy is becoming more important. Narasimhan et al. (2008) elaborated on six SC strategy typologies, showing the link between the general business environment and challenges for SCM. Furthermore, the cross-organizational nature of SCM suggests that issues external to the company must be taken into account.\nSIM and the Delphi method: Plambeck and Weber (2010) determined that the degree of ambivalence among decision makers is positively related to companies' capability to pursue both new and existing business opportunities, also referred to as their ambidexterity. Tushman and O'Reilly (1996) argued that ambidextrous companies are more likely to renew themselves and therefore last longer. Therefore, Bodwell and Chermack (2010) deduced that foresight activities are beneficial to achieving ambidexterity in organizations.\nThe Delphi-based SIM: Consumer goods SCs are based in an environment which is characterized by change, complex structures, and high competition (Ogden et al., 2005; Ganesan et al., 2009). To reflect uncertainty and ambiguity, we designed an approach that integrates elements of the Delphi technique in all three phases of SIM (Table I).\nPhase 1: information collection: We followed a phase-based process for obtaining a list of strategic issues. To include a diverse mix of stakeholder perspectives in the information collection phase, a group of eight experts was recruited for individual environmental scanning. After consolidating their scanning results, the facilitator team prepared a briefing document that served as input for a series of three workshops. First, each issue was discussed separately to avoid similar issues under different labels. We identified 172 external issues. As internal issues of a company are unlikely to be discussed industry-wide (Preble, 1984) for confidentially reasons, they were excluded. Subsequently, the expert's prioritizations were merged into 28 strategic issues.\nPhase 2: strategic issue assessment: We used the structured communication process of the Delphi survey to evaluate the projections along the dimensions of expected probability of occurrence, impact and desirability. The selection of the experts for the Delphi survey is considered to be a crucial determinant for the validity and reliability of the results (Preble, 1984; Rowe and Wright, 1996). The inclusion of stakeholders external to the reference companies' SC maximizes the diversity of viewpoints. We aimed to involve expertise from all levels of the consumer goods SC as well as outside perspectives for three reasons: to increase accuracy in group decisions (Preble, 1984; Kerr and Tindale, 2011), to provide decision makers with holistic information, and to include multiple perspectives on the contextual and transactional environments in SIM (Houghton et al., 1994). Therefore, the majority of experts contacted was not from the reference company. To reach designated experts only, the focus was on CEOs, decision makers in strategy development, category management, or logistics departments of consumer goods companies. While the method is globally applicable, we limited the geographical scope to Germany in order to guarantee high explanatory power of the data, thus not being too generic and superficial in conclusions.\nPhase 3: strategy development: The Delphi method distinguishes between strategic issues with a high impact and certainty and those that are either uncertain or less important can be enabled by the Delphi method. This can be done based on results from SIM phases 1 and 2. The Delphi data is particularly suitable for developing long-term strategies (Landeta, 2006). Therefore, strategists may follow a proactive or a reactive strategy in phase 3 with a rather long-term focus (Oomens and Bosch, 1999): that is being a first mover or rather a follower in reacting to upcoming issues.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Managers considering strategic issues might feel overwhelmed by the variety and complexity of topics which are relevant for the future of their business. With Delphi-based SIM, we propose a structured approach of how to select, assess, and further proceed with strategic issues. The approach guided a management team through the process of collecting information, assessing strategic issues, and supporting strategy development. Table VI presents the Delphi-based SIM, and explains the benefits of the approach.\nLimitations and future research: SIM demands holistic and environmental scanning, covering the entire corporate environment (Murphy, 1989). However, the number of strategic issues addressed was limited to avoid research fatigue among participants. Consequently, there are more strategic issues than can be covered by one single survey, for instance strategic issues which arose in the arguments provided by the experts were not included in the evaluation process. In future research, additional strategic issues should be examined. The discussion of internal issues in an industry-wide Delphi survey might be fostered by modifying the survey procedure, for instance warning participants at the beginning of the survey that confidential information should not be provided. Also, future research might consider the power dimension and behavior of managers throughout SIM since strategic issues are discussed and decided upon among individuals. The Delphi technique balances certain biases, but relationships and power dimensions are still likely to have a significant influence on the decision processes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumer goods supply chains (SCs) are characterized by continuously changing customer trends. Early detection of these trends is crucial for deriving successful long-term SC strategies. The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic process to support decision makers in assessing future-relevant issues and developing strategies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to contribute to the quality of long-term decision making for SC strategy, we combine strategic issue management (SIM) and corporate foresight methodology. The authors develop a procedure that integrates the Delphi technique and SIM to empirically demonstrate how \"Delphi-based SIM\" can support SC strategy development.\nFindings: The paper demonstrates how to craft a strategy for consumer goods SCs supported by Delphi-based SIM. The authors are able to include and evaluate uncertain and ambivalent future developments. Pertinent strategic issues for the consumer goods SC include: consumer demographics, automated ordering, city supply, and concept stores. For the reference company, five different strategic paths were created and evaluated.\nPractical implications: It is challenging for companies to be well prepared for dynamic business environments and to successfully establish a robust SC strategy. The authors develop a systematic Delphi-based SIM for detecting and evaluating signals and integrating them into SC strategy development.\nOriginality/value: To date, a structured approach to integrate uncertain and ambivalent issues into SC strategy development is missing. With SIM and corporate foresight, the authors provide novel methods for strategy development in the consumer goods SC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perks and pride to retain the talent: Why a happy workforce is good for everyone
|
[
"Employee attitudes",
"Job satisfaction",
"Organizational effectiveness",
"Performance management",
"Recruitment",
"Retention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nMotivation, trust, praise - and maybe some extended leave: There was a time when you would see little notices in some workplaces saying \"You don't have to be mad to work here but it helps\". Maybe some are still around, or maybe political correctness has required their removal. Ironically, the people who enjoy that sort of humor are probably happy in their work and their supervisors and employers go along with the joke. Many people like to moan about their work but if you demanded a serious answer to the serious question: \"Do you enjoy your work?\" many of the moaners would admit that, on the whole, they do. It is just that admitting you love your job tends to be harder than having a good old grumble about it. Just look at the number of people who count down the days to retirement and then find themselves wishing they still had the motivation, companionship and pride which their employment offered.Not everyone likes their job. Many are thoroughly unhappy. Perhaps the majority are happy with some aspects of the job and unhappy with others. But does any of this matter? Well, of course, it does. Employers need efficient, effective employees and the chances are that those who are happy will be more efficient and effective than those who are not.While some employees recognize their own limitations and accept that they are fortunate to have a job of any description, talented employees can usually shop around for a suitable employer even in a global economic downturn. Competition among organizations is not just about customers, it is about hiring the best people. They need to be tempted and trusted, and hiring them is just the beginning. Their talent has to be nurtured and managed - and moulded into a form which is an exact fit with the organization's strategic aims.It is well understood that job satisfaction leads to enhanced job performance, and vice versa. Once you get satisfied employees performing well, their motivation and pride-in-work leads to greater satisfaction - a sort of perpetual \"win win\" situation. But you have to work at it as the circle can easily be broken. Also well-understood is the role of affective commitment in tying employees to a workplace emotionally, and organizational commitment reflecting an employee's identification with the company's values and goals and encouraging increased effort to help in its success.\nSo how are the employees doing?: Getting a fit between organizational goals and employee performance is one way to make everyone feel happy. Achieving it involves something that is often lacking in even the best of organizations - communication. Greeting an employee with a cheery \"Good morning. How are you doing?\" might be a daily habit but sometimes the words have to have meaning. How are the employees doing? Is there an opportunity for them to say? It is incredible how some employers go to great lengths to attract the most talented staff and seldom speak to them again, except perhaps for an annual or bi-annual formal assessment.Talking to people in a respectful way which recognizes their importance to the organization can be the make or break issue which leads a person to feel either that they are valued or that they are not and might as well find employment elsewhere. Failing to retain valued people can be disastrous especially if they are taken on by a competitor - which, if they are talented enough, they most likely will be.Keeping them informed is also of the utmost importance. If something bad (or even good) has happened or is about to happen to the organization, which will inevitably affect the employees, they should be told at the earliest opportunity. If they are not and find out by other means (which they probably will) any employer/employee trust that has been built up will be lost.Trust between managers and employees is the primary defining characteristic of the very best workplaces, according to The Great Place to Work Institute, a US research and management consultancy. They define a great place to work as where employees \"trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with\". What is important is the quality of three interconnected relationships: between employees and management, between employees and their jobs/company, and between employees and other employees.\nThe boss who orders his employees to take a sabbatical: Firms take pride in achieving mention in \"Best place to work\" listings, which is good not only for their own employees but acts as an example for other companies. Not every organization can be as generous as the outstanding examples which appear in lists such as the Fortune \"100 best companies to work for\" but so long as they are doing what they can, their employees will appreciate it.Ric Edelman, CEO of Virginia-based Edelman Financial Services Inc., orders his employees to take a four-week paid sabbatical after they have been with the company for seven years. Not every company will feel it can afford paid sabbaticals, especially in a global economic downturn. But what of unpaid leave? Elizabeth Pagano, co-founder of yourSABBATICAL, a research and consulting firm that helps clients deploy sabbatical programs, says: \"At first glance, business leaders may think that sabbaticals are managerial insanity, particularly in times like these. However, once they take a deeper look, they understand that the benefits of sabbaticals far outweigh the perceived unorthodoxy.\"John Bremen, practice manager for compensation at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a global human-capital consulting firm based in Arlington, says offering even paid sabbaticals can be less of an extravagance than it may first appear if it aids retention and reduces the costs of hiring and training new employees.There can be several positive outcomes from encouraging sabbaticals. At a time when pay increases are less likely than they were, a sabbatical may be offered instead. But on an organizational development level, the temporary absence of a key player can give others within the organization an opportunity to show their worth. Some people will not want to take a sabbatical because they will think the company, or department, will surely fail without them. Convincing them that they are not indispensible, but without frightening them into thinking they might be considered superfluous, can only be a benefit which not only encourages more teamwork within the organization, but is an aid to succession planning.\nWe all like praise. It is often what motivates us: The key is to be fair to everyone involved. Any benefits of allowing people to take extended leave - perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something adventurous, care for a relative, or take a college course - will be diminished if the people left behind to do the work feel they are being taken for granted. Instead, their experience of taking on the different, and probably more challenging, role of the person who is missing should be part of their career development, providing them with an opportunity they would otherwise have had to wait for, or find employment elsewhere to achieve.Hiring and hanging onto talented staff in economically-trying times might be tough, but it can be invigorating. It is not all about providing perks such as healthcare or furloughs though. Recognizing good work is as important as it ever was. Equally important is telling people on a regular basis that their work is good. We all like praise. It is often what motivates us, gives us a sense of belonging, of being \"part of the team\". True, being at work is not supposed to be like being at home with the family or spending time with friends. But, just as family and friends might be expected to know your interests - sport, music, cycling or whatever - the boss at work would be well advised to also take an interest. Quite apart from making good economic sense, in adding to that all-important job satisfaction, it is courteous and shows the organization has a \"human\" face. Many Human Resource Department staff could do with reminding from time to time just why they have that name and that those human beings they are dealing with have complex lives, and problems no doubt, away from the working environment.\nComment: This review is based on \"The virtues and challenges of a long break: firms find sabbaticals are worthy investments\", by Pagano and Pagano (2009), \"Organizational commitment of records management personnel in Nigerian private universities\", by Popoola (2009), and \"How does satisfaction translate into performance? An examination of commitment and cultural values\" by Zhang and Zheng (2009). Elizabeth Pagano and Barbara Pagano advocate the benefits of sabbaticals, claiming they are appropriate for any size of firm. Sunday O. Popoola studies socio-economic factors in Nigerian private universities' records management which may influence job satisfaction and commitment. Jin Zhang and Wei Zheng report on how job satisfaction influences job performance in China, where culture tends to dictate that employees accept status differences more than so than in the West.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - Hiring and hanging onto talented staff in economically-trying times might be tough, but it can be invigorating. It is not all about providing perks such as healthcare or furloughs though. Recognizing good work is as important as it ever was.\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Insights on integrated marketing communications: implementation and impact in hotel companies
|
[
"Culture",
"Italy",
"Croatia",
"Satisfaction",
"High-quality hotels",
"Integrated marketing communications (IMC)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the current marketing environment, most communication managers would advise an organization to make efforts toward the ideal of integrated communications (Christensen et al., 2009). The integrated marketing communications (IMC) approach stands for coordination and synergies of marketing communications tools and channels to achieve the maximum impact. This new practice embraces the holistic perspective of marketing communications to deliver a consistent message through the integration of all elements of promotional mix (Kliatchko, 2009). Although IMC is established as the appropriate response to the changing market conditions (Kim et al., 2004), some recent voices called for further empirical evidence and new contributions to consolidate the concept (Delgado-Ballester et al., 2012; Seric et al., 2013).\nConceptual framework: Basic principles of IMC\nResearch hypotheses: The literature review suggests that to mitigate the weaknesses of definitional acceptability and lack of evidence regarding IMC evaluation, academics should be able to measure IMC implementation and potential by a cross-cultural comparison. In particular, comparisons are useful, as they can provide insights among different companies and countries investigated, seeking to understand how the perceptions about IMC differ not only among firms located in different countries (Kitchen et al., 2008) but also from different points of views, that is managers' versus customers'.\nMethodology: Data collection\nAnalysis and results: To assess the managers' and guests' perceptions of IMC, descriptive statistical analysis and non-parametric tests were performed using SPSS software (version 19). To test the first research hypothesis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was first performed to check the normality of data distribution in both studies. The results showed that the data were not normally distributed, as almost all items had critical values lower than 0.05. Therefore, the Mann-Whitney U test was completed, comparing two independent samples, as it is a non-parametric method that should be performed when data do not show normal distribution. This test was used to determine whether the obtained differences between Italian and Croatian hotels are statistically significant.\nImplications, conclusion and future research: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insights on integrated marketing communications (IMC) by empirically examining the concept in a new context, that is hotel companies, and comparing its implementation and impact in Italian and Croatian hotels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses survey methodology to assess IMC, approaching managers and guests in high-quality hotels.\nFindings: From the manager's point of view, both Italian and Croatian hotels show a high level of IMC implementation and significant differences regarding some items. From the guest's point of view, significant differences are obtained between the two hotel groups. In addition, IMC is found to influence positively and significantly customer satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is limited to the Italian and Croatian hotel context. Future studies should approach a greater number of hotels to obtain more representative results.\nPractical implications: Managers need to adopt a holistic vision of marketing communications and regularly analyze consumers' opinions to understand if their campaign works.\nOriginality/value: This paper makes several original contributions, thus filling the existing gap in the literature. First, IMC is analyzed in a new environment, that is high-quality hotels. Second, the study is conducted in Italy and Croatia, where research on IMC is rather neglected. Third, in addition to managers' opinions, guests' perceptions are assessed, thus highlighting that consumers need to be considered as true \"co-managers\" of business strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Age and sustainable labour participation: studying moderating effects
|
[
"Age",
"Employability",
"Workload",
"Vitality",
"Work ability",
"Sustainable labour participation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent decades, demographic changes and public employment policy changes have taken place in nearly all developed countries and, as a result, sustainable labour participation (SLP) has become an urgent theme (Miles, 1999). This study is focusing on SLP in the Netherlands, particularly, the Dutch central government. The Dutch situation regarding demographic and public employment policy changes is similar to other Western European countries (Van Dalen et al., 2010). More specifically, the younger age groups are shrinking, whereas the older age groups are growing (Bradshaw and Mayhew, 2003). In this respect, Busse et al. (2003) estimated, for OECD countries, that the old age dependency ratio will increase from 37 per cent of the working people in 1995-72 per cent in 2050. Therefore, funding pensions is becoming increasingly burdensome and it is seen as necessary that the older employees should continue working (Bloom et al., 2011). As a result, in European countries an increase in employment rates of older workers can be witnessed (Anxo et al., 2012). This is also the case within the Netherlands where the official retirement age has increased from 65 to 67 and three months in combination with an austerity of measures to retire early. This has consequently led to a new group of older workers who did not always choose voluntary to work longer.\nTheoretical background: Sustainable labour participation\nMethod: Procedure and participants\nQuantitative results: Table I shows the means, standard deviations and correlations of the collected data. When interpreting the means and standard deviations of the various variables, it is important to note the different scales which were used to measure these variables. Therefore, the scales used are placed between parentheses. Furthermore, Table I shows that most variables are significantly correlated with at least some of the other variables (p<0.01). The first observation is that age has significant negative relationships with motivation, employability and work ability. However, age is not significantly correlated with two aspects of vitality: energy and resilience. Further, mental workload does not significantly correlate with energy or with internal and external employability, while emotional workload does not show a significant correlation with either motivation or external employability. Additionally, the first component of physical workload (WL1) is not significantly correlated with energy, motivation, resilience, internal and external employability and work ability.\nQualitative results: Further to the quantitative analyses, 12 employees were interviewed. The intention was not to further test the hypotheses, but to get a greater sense of the quantitative output.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Fuelled by the demographic shift, SLP is high on the agenda of HR managers (Froehlich et al., 2014). SLP is in this research distinguished in vitality, employability and work ability. The research reported here provides fresh insights into the relationship between age and SLP by including moderating effects of workload in the analysis. Overall, this research answers the following research question:\nPractical implications: The first practical implication relates to the finding that older employees feel that their employability is lower than for younger employees. That is, they have the feeling that they have fewer opportunities within their work than their younger colleagues and feel they will not be able to find a job elsewhere. The interviews provided the insight that the older employees feel left out or even excluded. Therefore, it is important to give them the same opportunities. In addition, improved communication is needed for both employers and employees since the widely held stereotypes do not always hold.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research findings are ambiguous regarding the effects of age on sustainable labour participation (SLP), defined as the extent to which people are able and willing to conduct their current and future work. The purpose of this paper is to contribute by examining age effects on SLP by focusing on the moderating role of workload.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixed-method study was conducted in 2018. First, a survey was distributed among a sample of 2,149 employees of the Dutch central government. Second, 12 interviews with public sector employees took place to gain greater insight into the quantitative data collected.\nFindings: Three components that reflect an employee's SLP were studied: vitality, work ability and employability. The quantitative results, in general, showed that SLP decreased with ageing. However, in contrast to the hypothesis, the results showed a significant positive relationship between age and energy. Moreover, relationships between an employee's age and certain aspects of their SLP were moderated by workload. The interviews helped to interpret these results.\nPractical implications: The findings demonstrate that some of the older worker stereotypes are unfounded, and the important practical implications of these are discussed.\nOriginality/value: Earlier research has produced conflicting findings regarding the relationship between age and (aspects of) SLP. By investigating several aspects of SLP in separate regressions within this research, the specific influences of age have become clearer. Furthermore, the research provides fresh insights into the relationship between age and SLP by including moderating effects of workload.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Everyday narratives: CEO rhetoric on Twitter
|
[
"Leadership",
"Twitter",
"Rhetoric",
"CEO communication",
"Corporate narratives"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: One of the key skills highlighted among CEOs is the ability to be communicative - to manage the media and reach out to target groups. In a survey from IBM it is even argued that \"if you don't have a social CEO, you're going to be less competitive\" (Fidelman, 2012); a statement that emphasises the changing conditions for communication that are emerging with new technology. A similar survey offered by the social media branding firm BRAND fog shows, according to Alghawi et al. (2014, p. 184), that a majority of the employee respondents in the USA and UK \"believe that CEO engagement on social media helps to communicate company values and shapes a company's brand reputation\". Over the last few decades, storytelling and other narrative skills and techniques have been put forward as tools for successful leadership. In the popular management literature there are plenty of examples such as The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-era Organizations by Stephen Dennings (2001) and Leadership Storytelling by Jack Harris and Kim Barnes (2006).\nLiterature review: corporate narratives in a digital age: In the digitised media landscape, Twitter stands out as one of the most powerful platforms for communication between organisations and their stakeholders (Alexander and Gentry, 2014) and is described as \"a real-time global newswire for individuals and organizations\" (Gruber et al., 2015, p. 168). Journalists and communication professionals have been singled out as key groups that are particularly active on Twitter (e.g. Russell et al., 2015). Increasingly other groups, not the least various leaders, are using it as a platform for reaching out and engaging in dialogue.\nMethod and data: In order to understand the everyday social media narrative of a CEO, we searched for someone that we could expect to be representative for the emerging generation of \"social\" CEOs, as framed in the introductory paragraph. Hakan Nygren is CEO at one of the most digital banks in Sweden; a bank that is not only challenging established norms and rules on how to conduct banking business and what kinds of services are suitable, but is also enthusiastically using what the digital age brings in terms of communication possibilities. Nordnet is a fully-fledged news producer and provider online and as Nyberg himself states when entering the Twitter world and setting up a Twitter account: a digital company needs a digital CEO.\nResearch setting: Nordnet - digital bank and news producer: Nordnet has business in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland and calls itself a \"digital bank\" that particularly values innovation (Nordnet, 2016). The bank states on the website that it was founded 1996 as \"a reaction to the outdated structures in the banking business\". As traditional banks and pension companies dominate the Nordic saving markets, Nordnet did and still does play the role, alongside a few competitors, of the challenger. Right from the start the bank offered customers the opportunity to trade and invest over the internet and still, as they frame it themselves, \"the core focus is still to make trading easy and accessible for anyone\".\nThe Twittering CEO: Nyberg's trajectory on Twitter began on 10 April 2013, when he tweeted \"After pressure from colleagues @JanNordnet [Jan Dinkelspiel, at the time innovation manager] and @gunthermarder [Gunther Marder, at the time savings economist], I now connect to #CEOtwitter. Who will be the next CEO?\" Nyberg argued that a digital company, such as Nordnet, needs a \"digital CEO\" - using Twitter as one tool for being and marketing himself as digital.\nThe overall narrative of the CEO tweets: Based on our content analysis, we have developed three key characteristics of Nyberg's narrative rhetoric on Twitter. The characteristics provide insights on CEO communication in social media that challenge much of the established notions of personalised messages and interactions: limited scope of actors and content - the internal and local Nordnet sphere, formal tone in the tweets - corporate information and presentation, and few examples of dialogue - limited number of voices outside of Nordnet.\nConclusions and discussion: A common understanding of social media is that it opens up for personal communication and encourages engaging in dialogue. In literature on corporate communication and digitisation, organisational crises have been in the centre of attention due to the growing number of examples from the corporate world when Twitter has been used to manage and deconstruct critical voices and rebuild trust and reputation. The analysis proves that the role of social media such as Twitter must be understood more broadly and as playing multiple roles and changing over time. The data set of CEO Nyberg's Twitter feed over more than two and a half years without any major events or crises for Nordnet paints a picture of a rather non-personal CEO with few friends and with limited ideas and issues to discuss to share online.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper investigates the everyday CEO communication in social media, with particular focus on Twitter. The purpose of this paper is to contribute with insights into how expectations on corporate leaders to be present in social media are translated into everyday communication practice and thereby add to literature on narrative leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A content analysis of the Twitter feed of Hakan Nygren, the CEO of the Swedish digital bank Nordnet. In order to answer the question - what are the stories and the rhetoric of a CEO in the banking sector an ordinary day? - the data set covers the totality of tweets by Nygren from 10 April 2013 to 31 December 2015.\nFindings: The everyday Twitter narrative of Nyberg challenges established ideas of social media about personalised tone and interactions by highlighting three characteristics: limited scope of actors and content including the local Nordnet sphere, a formal tone in the tweets mainly based on corporate information and presentation, and few examples of dialogue and a limited number of voices outside of Nordnet. The data set of Nyberg's Twitter feed during a period without any major events or crises for Nordnet paints a picture of a rather non-personal CEO with limited ideas on his mind to share online and with few friends.\nOriginality/value: Studies on social media and corporate communication have largely focussed on organisational crises. This study focuses on everyday narratives of managers and proves that the role of social media must be interpreted more broadly and as playing multiple roles, and that these roles are changing due to time and situation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An assessment of digital literacy skills and knowledge-based competencies among librarians working in university libraries in Africa
|
[
"Digital literacy",
"Africa",
"Competencies",
"Skills"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The information environment in which modern libraries operate is becoming increasingly complex. It therefore calls for information professionals to acquire digital literacy skills to be able to function properly. Libraries all over the world have been faced with the evolving technological advancement, globalization, and digitization of information. These have led to library automation, digital and virtual libraries, virtual conference, Web-cast, pod-cast, community and online learning, Web 2.0, and Library 2.0 (Baro and Godfrey, 2015). According to Bawden (2008) digital literacy is the set of attitudes, understanding and skills to handle and communicate information and knowledge effectively, in a variety of media and formats. In their own view, Bell and Shank (2008) stated that:\nResearch questions: RQ1. What is the level of digital literacy skills possessed by librarians working in University libraries in Africa?RQ2. To what extent do librarians working in University libraries in Africa possess knowledge-based competencies?RQ3. To what extent do the librarians possess digital competencies to apply security measures to protect digital contents?RQ4. Through what means do librarians working in University libraries in Africa acquire digital literacy skills?RQ5. What are the challenges encountered by the librarians during acquiring digital literacy skills?\nLiterature review: Digital literacy skills possessed by librarians\nMethodology: The study covered librarians practicing in university libraries in Africa. An online questionnaire was designed to collect data using SurveyMonkey software (www.surveymonkey.com/r/F9ZPLNQ). The link to the questionnaire on SurveyMonkey was forwarded to e-mail addresses of librarians working in various universities in Africa. Their e-mail addresses were collected from the various university websites.\nResults: Out of the 214 respondents, 119 (55.6 per cent) indicated as females, while 95 (44.4 per cent) indicated as males (Table II).\nDiscussion of findings: Level of digital literacy skills possessed by librarians\nConclusion: Based on the analysis, the study found that librarians working in university libraries in Africa rated their database search skills; uploading documents to online platforms; skills in using different social media; sending and receiving e-mails skill; digital library development skills; skills in applying new technologies into library services; ability to create different file formats; and ability to use open source software as very high. While, metadata development skills; and library website development skills were rated to be moderate and low. This calls for library associations in the region and other library related professional bodies like IFLA to provide training workshops to equip librarians with the knowledge and competencies needed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess digital literacy skills possessed by library and information professionals working in university libraries in Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Online questionnaire was developed to collect data from 214 librarians working in various university libraries in English-speaking countries in Africa.\nFindings: The study found that librarians working in university libraries in Africa rated their database search skills, uploading documents to online platforms, skills in using different social media, sending and receiving e-mails skill, digital library development skills, skills in applying new technologies into library services, ability to create different file formats and ability to use open source software as very high. While, metadata development skills, and library website development skills were rated to be moderate and low. Overall, the librarians rated their level of digital literacy skills possessed to be moderate, and differences emerged between librarians in Nigeria and South Africa with regard to digital literacy skills possessed.\nPractical implications: This study attempts to identify skills that are central to librarians working in university libraries. The study will be useful for trainers who want to arrange training for academic librarians in Africa and other developing countries. For some library schools, it may help them to review their curriculum in accordance with the required skills and competencies for academic librarians in the market.\nOriginality/value: Findings will be helpful to explore the skills and competencies needed by information professionals and to act as a guideline for competency development and curriculum update in library schools in developing countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceptions and effects of cross-national corporate reputation: The role of Hofstede's cultural value approach
|
[
"Hofstede",
"Corporate reputation",
"National cultures",
"Multilevel structural equation modelling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: National culture is a common set of values that describe a society as a whole and is expressed within a nation through similar values and beliefs (e.g. de Mooij, 2013). In marketing research, the approach of Hofstede (1980) is by far most often used to explain international differences in consumer behaviour[1]. Although this approach (which was published when scholars began to analyse country interactions and has been claimed to be validated; e.g. Sondergaard, 1994; Tang and Koveos, 2008) is the most criticised one (e.g. de Mooij, 2013; McSweeney, 2013), scholars seldom use alternative approaches (e.g. Jin et al., 2008; Steenkamp and Geyskens, 2006; Swoboda et al., 2016). We therefore theoretically and empirically address the relative importance of Hofstede's five main cultural value dimensions (power distance (PD), uncertainty avoidance (UA), individualism, masculinity and long-term orientation (LTO)) for consumers' perceptions and effects of corporate reputation (CR), whereas most scholars select one or two dimensions, i.e., assume no relationships between additional cultural dimensions and the analysed dimension. CR is defined as consumers' overall evaluation of a firm's responsibility, strength or offer quality (Berens et al., 2005; Swoboda et al., 2016; Walsh and Beatty, 2007) and is an important signal that is increasingly used by multinational corporations (MNCs) in foreign countries to attract consumers (for further target groups, see Fombrun and Shanley, 1990). Focusing on CRs is crucial because of their importance for product brands and strategic importance for MNCs and because they are a CEO's responsibility (e.g. Mascarenhas, 2009).\n2. Hypothesis development: 2.1 Conceptual framework and theory\n3. Empirical studies: 3.1 Sample\n4. Discussion and implications: This study contributes to cultural value research in marketing by deepening our understanding of the roles of the different cultural dimensions of Hofstede's approach for MNCs across nations. Second, this study supplements consumer-centred CR research by providing novel insights into culturally based differences in CR perceptions and effects across nations. In particular, our results support the idea that cultural dimensions explain different country-level variances in models on CR perceptions and CR-loyalty relationships. Moreover, the results are stable when we observe individual cultural dimensions and when we incorporate all dimensions into one model. Because our study consciously builds on extant research (allowing comparisons with, e.g. recent studies by Deephouse et al., 2016; Swoboda et al., 2016) and covers a single industry, it has major implications for both research and managers.\n5. Limitations and further directions: Our study is not without limitations, and thus further research is required to better understand cultural effects on CR. Here, we highlight several issues of this nature.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Few scholars have analysed the corporate reputation (CR) of multinational corporations (MNCs) internationally, but both CR perception and effect are likely to differ across nations. Most studies have compared a few countries, linked differences to selected dimensions of Hofstede's cultural approach, and reported ambiguous results. The purpose of this paper is to address the important role of all Hofstede's cultural dimensions that may influence CR perceptions and effects by applying an appropriate method.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By integrating signalling theory and each cultural dimension, hypotheses are proposed and tested using consumer surveys of a German MNC in 37 countries. Multilevel structural equation modelling (SEM) showed whether and how all cultural value dimensions - the predominant approach in marketing - affect CR perceptions and effects.\nFindings: Individual CR perceptions and effects are strongly attributable to national culture, which explains up to 62 per cent of country-level variance; however, the explanatory powers of the cultural dimensions differ between CR perceptions and effects. Not all dimensions affect both. The results are stable in alternative models.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results enhance extant research because the relative importance of Hofstede's dimensions and not only a possible role in country comparisons is shown. Hofstede's approach explains considerable country-level variances. MNCs learn which cultural dimensions are core antecedents of CR perceptions (individualism and power distance explain >30 per cent variance) and core moderators of CR effects on loyalty (masculinity, individualism and uncertainty avoidance).\nOriginality/value: This study provides novel insights into the role of national cultural differences on CR perceptions and CR effects using the still novel multilevel SEM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigating the online social network development through the Five Cs Model of Similarity: The Facebook case
|
[
"Information society",
"Partial least squares",
"Human computer interaction (HCI)",
"Social network analysis",
"Facebook",
"Model of similarity",
"Social networks development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a highly digital world, the extensive information technologies (ITs) have shifted social relationships out of localized contexts and have dramatically reconfigured the way individuals create and develop their social networks. As IT and social landscape become inseparable, individuals' self-conceptions and behavioral patterns have been pervasively challenged, giving way to \"new concepts that embrace social-technological intertwinement,\" and to derivative implications for people and communities (Carter and Grover, 2015, p. 391). It follows that new constructs and correlations are needed to interpret the dynamics of human behavior and, thus, the patterns of social networks development.\nLiterature review: Methodological aspects of the systematic literature review\nMaterial and method: Sample\nAnalysis of the PLS-SEM results: Measurement model evaluation\nDiscussion and conclusions: Summary of the results\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of five dimensions of similarity (i.e. condition similarity, context similarity, catalyst similarity, consequence similarity and connection similarity) on Facebook social networks development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted with 245 Romanian college students. SmartPLS 3 statistical software for partial least squares structural equation modeling was chosen as the most adequate technique for the assessment of models with both composites and reflective constructs.\nFindings: More than 52 percent of the variance in social network development was explained by the advanced similarity model. Each dimension had a positive effect on Facebook social networks development, the highest influences being exerted by condition similarity, context similarity and consequence similarity.\nResearch limitations/implications: The current approach is substantively based on the homophily paradigm in explaining social network development. Future research would benefit from comparing and contrasting complementary theories (e.g. the rational self-interest paradigm, the social exchange or dependency theories) with the current findings. Also, the research is tributary to a convenience-based sample of Romanian college students which limits the generalization of the results to other cultural contexts and, thus, invites further research initiatives to test the model in different settings.\nSocial implications: Similarity attributes and mechanisms consistently determine the dynamics of online social networks, a fact which should be investigated in depth in terms of the impact of new technologies among young people.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first research initiatives to approach similarity structures and processes within an integrative framework and to conduct the empirical analysis beyond US-centric samples.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effectiveness of management development in Pakistani corporate sector : Testing the D'Netto model
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Management development",
"Banks",
"Corporate strategy",
"Telecommunications industry",
"Effectiveness",
"Top management",
"Corporate sector organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today the industrial nations of the world face enormous challenges and opportunities. The business environment is turning more and more volatile and competition is growing stronger. In such an environment capable and talented managers are crucial to organizations' success in gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage (Kirwan and Birchall, 2006). The need for good managers is greater than ever. The development of these managers is traditionally the domain of management development (MD) (Vloeberghs, 1998). Desimone et al. (2002) define MD as \"an organizations' conscious effort to provide its managers (and potential managers) with opportunities to learn, grow and change, in hopes of producing over the long term cadre of managers with the skills necessary to function effectively in that organization.\" In the early years of the activity, MD was generally seen as an extension to succession planning. The successor or a candidate had to be trained for the next post, the criteria for which often emphasized formal qualifications such as professional experience and education (Vloeberghs, 1998). But now this view has given way to a more developed one, which links MD with overall management of an organization.Brown (2005) argues that for more than 15 years it has been contended that MD has a strategic role to play in organizations. MD should be an integral part of strategic plans and strategic change. In several recent articles, the enduring successful performance of winning companies has been explained by their ability to make MD a central means of doing business (Fulmer et al., 2000). This means that in these companies a close linkage between MD and strategic management has been successfully formed and retained over time.Benefits of effective MD are prevalent in past research. The Pakistan Institute of Management was established by the Government of Pakistan in 1954 to promote MD in the country. MD programs are integral part of overall development plans of all the progressing organizations in Pakistan. However, traditional Pakistani organizations have been criticized for their passivity, bureaucratic and hierarchical cultures, in these organizations turnover is high and organizational commitment is low (Khilji, 2002). Khilji (2002) in her study has also concluded that managers are ready to depart from traditional organizational cultures and practices, despite the fact that not all organizations are. One possible reason of the poor quality of Pakistani organizations may be the ineffectiveness of MD. So far no comprehensive research or study has been carryout to measure the effectiveness of MD in Pakistani organizations. In this study we conducted a comprehensive analysis of key aspects of MD in Pakistani organizations and tried to fill the gap in literature available from Pakistan.\n2. Nature of MD effectiveness: D'Netto et al. (2008) defined MD effectiveness as \"extent to which management development programs have yielded desired outcomes.\" Effective MD enhances organizational performance, achieving its goals and it will lead to beneficial outcomes for the organization (Meldrum and Atkinson, 1998). Organization also benefits from higher productivity, lower absenteeism and better customer services (D'Netto et al., 2008). Prime purpose of MD is effective managerial behavior (Mumford, 1994). MD programs help organization grow and adjust to changing environmental and business circumstances (Meldrum and Atkinson, 1998). Effective MD should results in higher job satisfaction, lower turnover, less stress resulting from skill inadequacies, preparing employees and managers for greater responsibilities, more awareness and helping them to manage their own and others' careers.2.1 Evolution models\n3. Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study was to test the D'Netto model of MD in Pakistani corporate sector. Testing was comprised investigating whether or not the factors and their relationships exist in practice here in Pakistan. This study enhanced the generalizability of the D'Netto findings and also supported the past research on training and development. Literature on MD from Pakistan is rare to find, this research also tried to fill this gap in literature. This research specifically measured MD effectiveness, assessed the current state of MD in Pakistan and identifies ways in which MD can be made more effective in Pakistani corporate sector.\n4. Research process: 4.1 Sample and procedure of data collection\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Implications for future research: There are several implications for the future research. The model we used for this study was developed by D'Netto et al. (2008). D'Netto model was based on first and third stage of the MD process. Researchers can consider all the three stages of MD process and can include variables of second stage in the model. Based on our findings and literature researchers can also increase or change the causal relationships among the model's constructs to increase its goodness of fit. Future research can use longitudinal data with more industries and increased sample size to test the model.\n7. Limitations: Although this study led to some important results, several limitations should be noted. Our sample was very limited, including only 20 banks and three telecom organizations situated in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In addition the respondents were fairly young (see Table I) and had relatively limited job tenure. Generalizability of the findings of the study is reduced because the study was conducted in Pakistan only.\n8. Conclusion: MD is playing its role as a strategic tool for organizations that enhances organizational performance. MD has been and will continue to be, a valuable tool for attracting and retaining talented employees. MD programs are integral part of overall development plans of all the progressing organizations in Pakistan. Pakistani organizations provide the best opportunities to their managers to learn and grow. Although participants of the study were very hopeful regarding bright future of MD in Pakistan yet the current quality of MD effectiveness is fairly low. To conclude, Pakistani organizations ask themselves these critical questions whose answers to which will greatly influence the quality of MD in Pakistani corporate sector:* Do we have a proper learning culture where learning proceeds continuously over time, changing from the informal to the more formal modes?* Do we have proper written documents which state our policy of MD?* Does MD is fully systematic and reinforce the corporate strategy?* Are our HR departments fully involved during strategic planning process?* Do we provide proper opportunities to our trainees to utilize knowledge and skills gained through training in the workplace?* Does our senior management give high priority to MD interventions and provide sufficient training and development budget and properly reward the trainees?* Does our top and middle management ensure that MD programs are designed in such ways that meet the actual needs of our managers?Pakistani organizations are experiencing large-scale changes in a very competitive environment. To be leaders in global economic race Pakistani organizations will have to create strong link between their MD efforts and their corporate strategies. Encouraging aspect of our research is that it broadly supports the work of D'Netto et al. (2008). D'Netto model of MD effectiveness has a good fit in Pakistani corporate sector and is an effective tool to measure the effectiveness of MD in Pakistani corporate sector. To enhance the return on training and development investments it is crucial to focus on MD effectiveness. As D'Netto et al. (2008) argue that only effective MD programs will justify a significant investment in management development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to assess effectiveness of management development (MD) programs in the Pakistani corporate sector and investigate relationship among various factors that affect MD practices in Pakistan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research employed a blend of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. D'Netto's model of \"MD effectiveness\" provided a framework for measuring MD effectiveness. The sample consisted of managers from 55 corporate branches of 20 banks and three telecom organizations using a \"self-reported rating\" survey questionnaire and interviews, which resulted in 102 completed responses and ten in-depth interviews.\nFindings: - Although Pakistani managers have a positive attitude towards MD, yet little attention has been paid to create a strong link between corporate strategy and MD. Properly planned MD programs and relevant course contents are necessary for the effectiveness of MD. D'Netto's model of \"management development effectiveness\" has a good fit and is applicable to the corporate sector in Pakistan.\nResearch limitations/implications: - As a qualitative study, there are limitations on account of generalization of findings. Further research is recommended.\nPractical implications: - Top management should assign higher priority to MD. MD programs should be properly planned, executed, monitored and evaluated. Utilization of newly learned skills, risk taking and new ideas should be encouraged. The reward system needs revising and a continuous learning environment ought to be established for effective MD in Pakistan.\nOriginality/value: - This study, for the first time, assessed the current state of MD in Pakistan and contributes to the present stock of knowledge and understanding of the subject by contextualising the concept of \"management development effectiveness\" in the Pakistani corporate sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Data quality comparison between computers and smartphones in different web survey modes and question formats
|
[
"Data quality",
"Survey mode",
"Interviewer",
"Smartphone",
"Computer-assisted self-interview",
"Computer-assisted personal Interview"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Surveys have been widely used as a data collection method for both academic and market research (Ha et al., 2015; Evans and Mathur, 2018). Different modes of conducting surveys have been created and continuously developed based on technological development (Groves, 2011). With the fast-growing penetration of smartphones and other mobile media, survey researchers face the challenge of how to use them in surveys while ensuring high response quality and minimizing bias in the coverage of the population (Watson et al., 2015). It is especially important to note that web surveys are now displayed on different devices with different screen sizes and response entry methods. Therefore, how data entry devices affect response quality is another important question for survey researchers.Although web surveys, usually delivered via e-mails, are increasingly used as a mode of survey data collection (Evans and Mathur, 2018), low response rates of web surveys, the inability to distinguish between refusal and no response, and privacy issues such as traces of the IP addresses of respondents are common problems (Dillman et al., 2014). In addition, computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) also commonly use a web survey form for data entry. Yet CAPI still has the typical problem of interviewer bias (Biemer, 2010; Couper, 2011). In this study, we tested whether changing the role of interviewers to recruiters for self-administered web surveys as computer-assisted self-administered interviews (CASI) is a good alternative or supplement to CAPI and e-mail delivered surveys as well as how response entry devices affect response quality in different question formats.\nSignificance of study: There have been experiments using audio computer-assisted self-interviewing in which the respondents entered the survey by themselves but questions were read to them with recorded audio. The result of audio computer-assisted self-interviewing was much better than face-to-face interviews for sensitive questions (Perlis et al., 2004; Brown et al., 2013). There is no published study to compare response quality of CAPI with CASI. Both CAPI and CASI use interviewers. However, the interviewer's role is very different between the two, with the interviewer as an active prober of the respondents in CAPI versus the interviewer as simply a recruiter and provider of technical support in CASI. E-mail delivery of web survey, though a very commonly used survey mode, suffers from low cooperation rate. CASI may overcome the lack of cooperation in e-mail survey with interviewer presence. By showing the response quality difference, this study helps researchers to decide which mode to use interviewers in survey research. Hence, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examines both the effect of web survey delivery mode (face to face vs self-administered/e-mail vs interviewer recruitment) and response entry device (computers vs smartphones) on response quality.In this study, mobile phones, specifically smartphones, were conceptualized as a visual questionnaire display device rather than a telephone (e.g. De-Bruijne and Wijnant, 2014; Link et al., 2014). We compared responses entered on smartphones with laptop computers, which are the more standard device we expect respondents to fill out web surveys. We also examined the quality of responses from self-administered web surveys using interviewers to recruit respondents and provide them assistance as needed (the CASI mode in this study) versus web survey delivery via e-mail. Thus, the CASI is similar to a paper and pencil survey on location in the past but now with respondents entering data online directly by themselves. Although some large-scale government surveys, such as the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n.d.), have practiced CASI with cash compensation to the participants, whether CASI is better than CAPI in terms of response quality and how response device may affect the results between these two modes have not been published to the best of the authors' knowledge. Link et al. (2014) argued that the mobile survey favors younger and well-educated population. If smartphones deployed by interviewers are shown to be a viable alternative method with similar response quality and higher response rate, then mobile survey will not be confined to young and well-educated people. Mobile survey can also provide people without regular access to computers an equal chance to complete web surveys.\nLiterature review: Advantages and limitations of web surveys\nMethod: Our study compared the response quality of CASI with CAPI and typical self-administered web survey delivered via e-mails. Aside from comparing the co-operation rates of different survey modes, five indicators of response quality were used as outcome variables: (1) item completion for each type of question format, (2) likelihood of providing socially desirable responses, (3) undifferentiated answer (straightlining) and (4) time spent on the survey and (5) overall item completion. We conducted two field experiments to compare the interviewer's presence (survey mode) and device effects on response quality.Research design\nMeasures: Independent variables\nResults: Study 1 results\nDiscussion: This study compared the effect of different survey data collection modes and response devices on response quality. We found that CASI as a data collection mode was better than CAPI in almost all aspects of response quality (higher item-completion rate of both open-ended and close-ended responses) with identical cooperation rate. Even in those items that we hypothesized CAPI would be better than CASI such as overall completion rate and item completion rate of close-ended and open-ended questions, CASI still performed better than CAPI. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in item completion rate between CASI and CAPI on matrix questions. The higher occurrence of undifferentiated response in CASI means that researchers should avoid matrix questions if using CASI instead of CAPI.As shown in Study 2, co-operation rates differed tremendously between CASI and e-mail delivered only web surveys for the same survey and identical populations. The cooperation rate with interviewer presence was 25 times better than simply e-mail delivery. Co-operation rates were equally high in both modes in Study 1 and higher than CASI in Study 2 because Study 1 had interviewer presence and conducted at the comfort of the respondent's residence. Hence, the clear advantage of interviewer presence in terms of co-operation rate is undeniable.When the interviewer was not present as in the e-mail delivered web survey in Study 2, we can see clear positive interviewer presence's effects on overall completion. This shows a big advantage of using interviewers: the mere presence of the interviewer indeed creates pressures or expectancy to participants that they need to answer as many questions as they can (Pinder, 2008).Our results show that self-paced web survey did not result in more time devotion of respondents to complete the survey in both Study 1 and Study 2. The presence of interviewers also did not influence significantly on the completion time of the three survey modes. In Study 1, although CAPI needed 0.4 min more to complete the survey than CASI, we should account for interviewers reading every question to the respondents regardless of respondents' understanding of the questions and the additional task of entering the responses. In CASI, the respondents consciously knew that they needed to return the device to the interviewer. This explained why the completion time was not long. In Study 2, contrary to our expectation, the respondents in the CASI mode completed surveys spent 0.77 min more than e-mail delivered web survey on finishing the survey. A possible explanation could be that participants were more inclined to read and answer questions more carefully because of interviewer presence than in the situations without interviewers. Contrary to common assumption, the self-paced e-mail delivered web survey did not result in respondent spending more time completing the survey. What matters in survey is the sense of obligation to respond to the questions. The human interviewer presence seems to be conducive to creating such sense of obligation. In fact, our regression analysis in Study 2 showed that completion time was a significant predictor of item completion.Balancing composition of respondents would bring better accuracy (Sarndal and Lundquist, 2014). CASI, with either a cluster or a quota sampling method, helps to bring more balanced composition of respondents, which can reduce bias introduced by the imbalance resulted from self-selection in e-mail delivered web survey. In terms of collecting data, sampling design is always an issue. Based on Lohr and Brick's (2014) study and the results of our study, this type of mixed survey method should be able to achieve higher coverage. Noncoverage and nonlocatable elements may be concerns for CASI because individuals may not appear in a location every day. E-mail delivered web survey can be a good complementary procedure.Implications on survey mode selection\nConclusion: It is ironic that in this era of computer and mobile technology, we are proposing to bring back interviewers to web survey. The problems of self-select panels, low response rates and privacy concerns for e-mailed delivered surveys need to be overcome through capitalizing on the advantages of human interviewers such as CASI. The human advantage is confirmed in the study.The interviewer's role in CASI will be limited to recruiting and providing technical support to participants on demand to minimize interviewer bias. The CASI survey mode combines the strengths of the web survey method as a self-paced self-administered method with high privacy protection and the compelling, hard to refuse interviewer recruitment in face-to-face interviews. Respondents will not be afraid of being identified because the response is not from their own device as no traces of their identity can be found. This method is superior in privacy protection to email-delivered web surveys (Hoonakker and Carayon, 2009). Another strength of CASI is that it achieves high co-operation rates by adding a sense of urgency and awkwardness of turning down a request for help in front of the interviewer (a stranger). Trust can be fostered through the self-identification of the interviewer. CASI's higher completion rate than e-mail delivery in both open-ended and matrix question formats shows it can boost response quality.We understand that the CASI method can work well only under the following conditions: (1) The interviewing locations must have Internet access or at least cellular data Internet access; (2) The sample is geographically concentrated so that it is economical to deploy interviewers and (3) The respondent must be comfortable to enter answers on a smartphone or computer. This means the CASI method works best in college campuses, urban areas that have either Wi-Fi or cellular data coverage and among people who use smartphones or computers.Limitations and suggestions for future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Low response rates in web surveys and the use of different devices in entering web survey responses are the two main challenges to response quality of web surveys. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of using interviewers to recruit participants in computer-assisted self-administered interviews (CASI) vs computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) and smartphones vs computers on participation rate and web survey response quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two field experiments using two similar media use studies on US college students were conducted to compare response quality in different survey modes and response devices.\nFindings: Response quality of computer entry was better than smartphone entry in both studies for open-ended and closed-ended question formats. Device effect was only significant on overall completion rate when interviewers were present.\nPractical implications: Survey researchers are given guidance how to conduct online surveys using different devices and choice of question format to maximize survey response quality. The benefits and limitations of using an interviewer to recruit participants and smartphones as web survey response devices are discussed.\nSocial implications: It shows how computer-assisted self-interviews and smartphones can improve response quality and participation for underprivileged groups.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to compare response quality in different question formats between CASI, e-mailed delivered online surveys and CAPI. It demonstrates the importance of human factor in creating sense of obligation to improve response quality.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Parenthood and employment: the impact of policies and culture on gender inequality in Switzerland
|
[
"Employment",
"Switzerland",
"Working hours",
"Cantons",
"Gender inequality",
"Time use"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The transition to parenthood is one of the most important events in the life course. It still is one of the major reasons for gender inequality in employment (Stier et al., 2001; Blossfeld and Hofmeister, 2006). While women in Europe mostly reduce their working hours or exit the labour market, the employment of men does not change or even increases with the transition to parenthood (OECD, 2002). However, there are large differences regarding the gender gap of parents' employment rates. In 2000 it varied between 3.5 percentage points in Denmark and 44.7 percentage points in Spain (OECD, 2002). But even in countries with small employment gender gaps, mothers mostly work part time, fathers still work full time. Research identified political, economic, cultural, and demographic factors as relevant for differences across countries (Fuwa, 2004; Hantrais and Ackers, 2005; van der Lippe et al., 2011; Orloff, 2009). Especially important is the welfare state (van der Lippe and van Dijk, 2002; Lewis, 2002; Daly and Rake, 2003). Policies influence individual behaviour and can therefore increase or hinder parents' employment (Gornick and Meyers, 2004; Lewis, 2002). The political setting in turn (as well as individual behaviour) is partly shaped by gender roles and norms about work and care giving (Orloff, 2009).\nTheoretical approach and hypotheses: In what follows we describe theoretical approaches and hypotheses on social policy, culture, and individual employment behaviour.\nData and method: The analyses are based on the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS) for 2010 containing information about the structure of the labour force and employment behaviour, household composition, and demographic characteristics. The sample is restricted to men and women of prime age (25-49) who are Swiss or have a foreign citizenship with a residential permit for at least one year. Respondents who work at least one hour per week for money (or without payment in family businesses) are classified as employed (Federal Statistical Office (FSO), 2004). Two dependent variables measuring the employment behaviour are used: the employment itself (yes or no), indicating whether a respondent is (self-)employed, and the individual weekly working hours of employees. Models were estimated separately for women and men with and without at least one child aged zero to three living in the same household. To study the effect of parenthood, the models for women and men with infants are contrasted with the models for women and men without children under the age of 15 (in the following: non-parents)[4]. This strategy of analysis accounts for the fact that gender inequality in paid work (in Switzerland) is especially pronounced among parents with young children (Levy and Ernst, 2002). The operationalisation of the independent individual and cantonal variables is summarised in Table I.\nResults: For reasons of space and clarity, the tables do not show the null models that contain only the constant and no independent variables. Those so-called intercept-only models provide information about the variance components. In all estimated null models, the between-variances (cantonal level) prove to be significant. Thus, multilevel analysis seems to be adequate as the employment rates and working hours differ significantly between the cantons. The intra-class correlation provides the proportion of total variance (individual plus contextual variance) attributed to the cantonal level (Hox, 2010). In the models for the employment decision, it varies between 0.4 per cent in the models of women with children and 1 per cent for women without children, respectively, 2.4 per cent in the models of men without children and 4.4 per cent for men with children. Regarding the employment intensity, it varies between 0.5 per cent in the models for women without children, 1 per cent in both models for men and 7 per cent in the model for women with small children[6]. Finally, the models containing only individual variables are not displayed, as the values and significances do not differ when including contextual variables.\nDiscussion and conclusion: The gendered effect of parenthood on employment is a principal driving force for gender inequality in general, as well as for the potential of a more equal division of housework and family work. The empirical findings presented here address the question whether these gendered effects are influenced by cantonal social policy and cultural contexts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of cantonal social policies and cultural settings (in Switzerland) on women's and men's employment behaviour. Special consideration is given to the transition to parenthood.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS) this paper conducts multilevel analyses to test individual and cantonal effects on the probability of employment and on working hours. To analyse the effect of parenthood, models for women and men with children under three are contrasted with models for women and men without children or with older children.\nFindings: The paper documents the persistence of gender inequality in employment linked to parenthood. How the reconciliation of work and family life can be realised for women and men strongly depends on a set of policies and cultural conditions. Moreover, individual characteristics such as education or marriage are important predictors.\nResearch limitations/implications: A shortcoming of this study is the focus on the individual employment use and not on household-level division of labour. This disadvantage is due to the design of the SLFS, which is (at present) the only available survey to allow regionalisation at the cantonal level. However, the paper adds important results to the debate about gender inequality and parenthood in Switzerland as previous research has focused only little on cantonal diversity.\nOriginality/value: The paper connects to previous cantonal comparative studies of female employment but extends their analyses in three important ways. By analysing cantonal differences in policies and culture this paper takes the diversity of framework conditions in Switzerland into account. Furthermore it simultaneously analyses male and female employment behaviour to get a better understanding of gender inequality and parenthood.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A hybrid approach to achieve organizational agility: An empirical study of a food company
|
[
"Quality function deployment",
"Balanced scorecard",
"House of quality",
"Organizational agility",
"Enterprise agility",
"Agile organization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Uncertainty and change have always been significant issues in the rapidly changing business environment (Zhang and Sharifi, 2000). The beginning of the twenty-first century was coincided with increasing customers' dynamic demands and deterioration of economic circumstance in many countries which has changed the marketplace into \"battlefield\" (Yusuf et al., 1999). Since then, \"business turbulence\" and \"change\" have been recognized as the main causes of failure in many industries (Small and Downey, 1996), even among giant organizations. This fact has forced enterprises to efficiently respond to the market changes in a quicker and more flexible way.\n2. Literature review: This section reviews the literature of organizational agility with the focus on methodological studies. Since most of these studies, as well as our paper, use specific agility metrics such as agile attributes and agile enablers, we first elucidate these metrics and briefly review the literature around them. Then, we review and compare the main methodological papers about organizational agility.\n3. The proposed approach: The proposed approach in this study is grounded on the earlier study by Bottani (2009a). The general procedure of the proposed methodology is described in the following. The stages of the methodology and the methods used at each step are presented in Figure 1. The methodology starts with defining the appropriate indicators for evaluating the organizational performance. These indicators will be selected by means of comparing and analyzing information obtained from first, mission, vision, and values (MVV), strategies, and overall objectives of the company; and second, from a pool of indicators, which is extracted from the existing literature of organizational performance assessment. The company's MVV, strategies, and overall objectives provide the criteria for short listing and selecting the KPIs under four major perspectives inspired by BSC: financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. Then, the importance of each KPI and the performance gap between the existing performance level and the desired one will be measured based on the opinions of experts in the company by means of questionnaire within a two-stage process. Criteria are prioritized not only based on the gap analysis, but also their importance in order to ensure that both KPI's performance gap and importance are taken into account. To this end, we have deployed fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), which is a well-known method in multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM), to rank all the indicators based on the \"importance of the indicator\" and \"level of performance gap.\" As a rule of thumb, the upper quartile (the highest 25 percent of KPIs) is chosen as the CSFs of the company for achieving its strategic objectives, since they all have high importance and yet large gaps in between their current and desired performance levels. Nonetheless, the percentage of CSFs to be chosen out of KPIs is relative to several issues such as top managers' dedication and willingness, and assigned budget, resources, and time.\n4. The empirical investigation: 4.1 Description of the case\n5. Discussion and limitations: This section discusses the findings from the application of our proposed methodology. Then, we move to the limitations of our work suggesting the future research directions. We start with elucidating the main findings of our study: looking at CSFs (Figure 8), out of 13 CSFs, 6 of them were related to \"Learning and Growth\" perspective, 5 of them to \"Financial\" perspective, and 2 of them are related to \"Customer\" perspective. High number of CSFs related to \"Learning and Growth\" perspective states that human resource management should become the foci of the company. Bringing issues such as employees' training, knowledge and skills, motivation, and productivity to the center of attention propels the company toward achieving its strategic goals and benefitting from a higher level of agility. On the other hand, none of the identified CSFs belongs to \"Internal Processes.\" Also, the first 3 indicators of \"Internal Processes\" among the 50 KPIs are ranked 22nd, 30th, and 38th, considerably far from the CSFs (top 25 percent of KPIs). This implies that the organization is performing well with respect to its internal processes. The main internal processes of the organization concern production of milk nutrition products as mentioned earlier. Given the high expertise and high level of technology used for the production, scoring high for internal processes was not far from expectations.\n6. Conclusions: This study aims at improving organizational agility by integrating some operations management techniques from the domains of decision making, quality engineering, and organizational performance assessment. It proposes a new approach at strategic management level for achieving macro organizational goals in competitive industries. To this end, upon evaluating organizational performance using BSC technique, the importance level and existing gap in each of the performance indicators, extracted from macro and strategic long-term goals of the organization, were identified. Then, using fuzzy TOPSIS from MCDM domain, all indicators were ranked to identify the indicators with highest priorities, called as the organizational CSFs. Later, using QFD technique in fuzzy environments, the following three objectives were simultaneously pursued:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In today's intense global competition, agility is advocated as a fundamental characteristic for business survival and competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical methodology to achieve and enhance organizational agility based on strategic objectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the first step, a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) of the organization being studied are recognized and classified under the perspectives of balanced scorecard (BSC). Critical success factors are then identified by ranking the KPIs according to their importance in achieving organizational strategic objectives using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). In the second step, three houses of quality (HOQs) are constructed sequentially to identify and rank the main agile attributes, agile enablers, and improvement paths. In addition, in order to translate linguistics judgments of practitioners into numerical values in building HOQs, fuzzy logic is employed.\nFindings: The capability of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by applying it to a case of a multi-national food company in Iran. Through the application, the company could find the most suitable improvement paths to improve its organizational agility.\nResearch limitations/implications: A limited number of KPIs were chosen due to computational and visual constraints related to HOQs. Another limitation, similar to other agility studies, which facilitate decision making among agility metrics, was that the metrics were more industry-specific and less inclusive.\nPractical implications: A strong practical advantage for the application of the methodology over directly choosing agility metrics without linking them is that through the methodology, the right metrics were selected that match organization's core values and marketing objectives. While metrics may ostensibly seem unrelated or inappropriate, they actually contributed to the right areas where there were gaps between the current and desired level of agility. It would otherwise be impossible to choose the right metrics without a structured methodology.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes a novel methodology for achieving organizational agility. By utilizing and linking several tools such as BSC, fuzzy TOPSIS, and quality function deployment (QFD), the proposed approach enables organizations to identify the most appropriate agile attributes, agile enablers, and subsequently agile improvement paths.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Simultaneous effects of multiple cues in restaurant reviews
|
[
"Involvement",
"Customer reviews",
"E-WOM",
"Marketing decision-making",
"Service expectations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Service quality is one of the most commonly discussed factors in the services management literature (Cetin and Walls, 2016; Stauss and Mang, 1999). Customers' perceptions of service quality before the service experience determine satisfaction with the primary service after it is provided (Wakefield and Blodgett, 1994) and consequently influence loyalty (Cai and Chi, 2018; Ittamalla and Srinivas Kumar, 2018; Tanford, 2016). In the modern merchant setting, customer reviews create a vicious circle between pre- and post-service attitudes. Online reviews based on prior service experience render service expectations for future experiences (Lee and Ro, 2016). Customers feel satisfaction if the service quality exceeds expectations and dissatisfaction if it falls short (Stauss and Mang, 1999). Consumer satisfaction may not be reflected in overt behaviors such as tipping (Lynn, 2001). Consumers rather express their post-service attitudes by sharing opinions on online review sites.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The influence of customer reviews\n3. Method: 3.1 Design\n4. Results: 4.1 Manipulation checks\n5. Discussion: The purchase decision process requires considering multiple cues simultaneously. This research demonstrates how consumers process primary cues and subsequent cues simultaneously when they make a purchase decision online. Specifically, the research examines the effects of priming (prototype valence), effort (distance) and involvement (occasion) on a dining out decision in the context of a restaurant online review site. Rather than focus on whether multiple cues influence a simple decision of \"dine or not dine\", this study discovered that each cue influences different outcomes. It is an unexpected finding because each cue was initially expected to influence either all of the decision outcomes or none of them. Each outcome represents a different stage of the purchasing process (restaurant evaluation: pre-choice; likelihood to choose: choice; and willingness-to-drive and willingness-to-pay: post-choice). Consumers are differently motivated by the stages of the purchasing process, which may result in simultaneous cues influencing different outcomes (Shen et al., 2014). Specifically, priming, defined as a positive or negative prototype, primarily influences restaurant evaluations and likelihood to choose. Effort, defined as distance, influences willingness-to-drive. Involvement, defined as a special or casual occasion, influences willingness-to-pay. However, these cues do not operate in isolation; rather, they are moderated by the presence of simultaneous cues. To that end, priming and involvement have stronger effects under high effort conditions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how consumers simultaneously process multiple cues for different dining occasions when making a restaurant decision.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper investigates the influence of priming (review prototype), effort (distance) and involvement (occasion) on restaurant evaluations, willingness to drive and willingness to pay for a restaurant meal. A 2 (prototype: negative, positive) x 2 (distance: close, far) x 2 (occasion: casual, special) between-subjects factorial design was used.\nFindings: The paper finds that each variable influences a different outcome, whereby people rely on a review prototype for restaurant evaluation and choice, a distance cue for willingness to drive and a dining occasion for willingness to pay.\nPractical implications: This paper suggests that restaurant marketers can highlight exemplary service through online reviews, increase profitability by promoting special occasions and geographically expand their market by attracting people to drive for a special dinner.\nOriginality/value: This paper evaluates the simultaneous interactive effects of multiple cues in service settings. It demonstrates that situational cues moderate the effect of primary cues in online reviews.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What most attracts potential candidates? Innovative perks, training, or ethics?
|
[
"Training",
"Ethics",
"Recruitment",
"Applicant attraction",
"Innovative perks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The recruitment of talented employees constitutes a critical issue for organizations (Allen et al., 2010). Major workforce trends such as shifting demographics and rising global mobility have contributed to increasing both practitioners' and researchers' awareness of the importance of organizational attractiveness to potential candidates. Consequently, multiple research avenues have been developed (see Chapman et al., 2005). This study focuses on one specific research avenue, which is organizational attributes as potential determinants of organizational attractiveness to potential candidates. Compared to job attributes, these attributes \"are more broadly reflective of the organization\" (Chapman et al., 2005, p. 929).\nTheoretical background: Organizational attractiveness vs applicant attraction\nMethodology: Participants\nResults: Manipulation check\nDiscussion: Our study aimed to test the degree to which two instrumental organizational attributes, namely, innovative perks and training opportunities and one symbolic organizational attribute, namely, ethics, influenced an organization's ability to attract potential candidates. Our results first showed that a significant and positive direct effect was found for the three attributes under study. However, these attributes differ significantly in their effect size. Ethics and training both have a large effect on applicant attraction, whereas perks only has a small effect. Two significant interaction effects were also found between innovative perks and training as well as between innovative perks and ethics. These latter two findings brought out nuances in the direct effect of innovative perks. In the situation where a firm has a low training offer, offering innovative perks helps to compensate, whereas in the situation where a firm has a high ethics offer, offering innovative perks helps to improve the ethics offer.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of two instrumental organizational attributes (innovative perks and training) and one symbolic organizational attribute (ethics) on applicant attraction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a sample of business undergraduates in their final year (n=339) and a policy-capturing approach, the authors tested a 2 (absence/presence of innovative perks) x2 (few/many training opportunities) x2 (ethics is not very important/is important) quasi-experimental design using ANCOVA.\nFindings: In regard to main effects, results show that all attributes have a significant effect on applicant attraction, the \"ethics\" organizational attribute having the strongest direct effect followed by \"training\" and then \"innovative perks.\" In regard to all interaction effects, findings are only significant for two two-way interaction effects: \"innovative perksxtraining\" and \"innovative perksxethics.\" Specifically, results indicate that offering innovative perks only had a positive and significant effect on applicant attraction when: a firm offered few training opportunities and ethics was important for the firm.\nOriginality/value: This study compared three key organizational attributes where most studies only tested one. Understanding which organizational attributes have the greatest influence on potential candidates' attraction can help organizations optimize recruiting. The results suggest that developing an organizational brand that focuses particularly on ethics and training constitutes a winning recruitment strategy. This experiment is the first to provide causal conclusions on the relationship between innovative perks and attraction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Against all odds: refugees bricoleuring in the void
|
[
"Business development",
"Sustainable entrepreneurship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the twenty-first century, global migration is a key factor and has become a major economic, political, social and cultural issue. While about 90 percent of the world's migrants usually move for economic reasons on a voluntary basis, the remaining 10 percent seek refuge and asylum, having fled their countries in an escape from persecution and violence (Heilbrunn and Iannone, 2018). Although host countries are looking for strategies aimed to improve the situation of refugees, millions of displaced individuals across the globe are among the most marginalized of groups, exposed to discrimination, unacceptable living conditions and high rates of unemployment (Bloch, 2008, 2014; Lyon et al., 2007; Phillimore and Goodson, 2006). The question of how to integrate refugees arises with increasing urgency, and therefore strengthening the livelihood and economic self-reliance of refugees is considered as priority (Jacobsen, 2002). Entrepreneurship is perceived as a potential alternative path for the integration for refugees, since structural employment challenges often impede their entering labor markets in host societies. Due to shortages of formal employment opportunities in their places of asylum, many refugees are even obliged to become entrepreneurs (Easton-Calabria and Omata, 2016). Notwithstanding, asylum seekers and refugees have not been in the limelight of entrepreneurship research to date, and existing academic studies are limited, are primarily country- and context-specific, and essentially draw upon theoretical models from the field of migrant and ethnic entrepreneurship.\nAfrican refugees and detention in Israel: Since 2005, Africans started to arrive in Israel via its border with Egypt, in the South. Most of them came from Sudan and Eritrea, seeking asylum and refuge in Israel[1]. The arrival of approximately 60,000 East Africans since the second half the 2000s mainly from Sudan and Eritrea has caused a revisiting of the policies and approaches of the Israeli state toward non-Jewish entries, exposing a hitherto underdeveloped asylum system[2]. In line with international law and the United Nations' call not to deport people to Eritrea and Sudan, the Israeli government granted \"group protection\" to asylum seekers from these countries, providing them with temporary resident permits (Sabar and Posner, 2013). These permits prevent Eritreans and Sudanese from applying for asylum. Furthermore, they do not receive the rights associated with the official refugee status. Summing up their situation, Raijman and Barak-Bianco (2015) have highlighted that the legal situation in Israel leaves asylum seekers only with the right, \"not to be deported,\" but prevents them from receiving welfare, social rights or long-term permits to work.\nInstitutional voids and bricolage entrepreneurship: The literature on entrepreneurship and institutional voids has enabled us to examine contexts of challenging institutional environments in which existing institutions are insufficient and/or inadequate to guiding actors' behaviors (Mair et al., 2012). More specifically, institutional voids are defined by Mair and Marti (2009) as \"situations where institutional arrangements that support markets are absent, weak or fail to accomplish the role expected of them\" (Mair and Marti, 2009, p. 409). Characterized by poorly structured and highly fragmented arrangements, institutional voids often allow powerful actors to exploit opportunities and gain access to resources (Mair et al., 2012) thereby weakening already marginalized groups. In line with these authors, voids are environments in which present institutions are insufficient rather than lacking, suggesting a perspective consisting of many competing institutional arrangements rather than an \"empty\" institutional space (Mair et al., 2012, p. 822). Institutional voids have also been described as opportunity spaces and as spaces where formal and informal institutions can be reconciled (McKague and Oliver, 2016).\nMethodology: In December 2015, Hilo Glazer, a journalist of the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz published a five-page article on a site of market-like activities of inmates of Holot, a so-called \"open\" detention camp for asylum seekers in Israel, where detainees were engaging in the selling of food and drinks and recreational activities. In March 2016, I visited the site for the first time myself, in order to observe and understand this very particular kind of activity. What I witnessed definitely corresponds with Betts, Bloom and Weaver's (2015) statement that even under the most challenging constraints, people find ways to engage in creative problem solving. I met entrepreneurial asylum seekers from Africa, inmates of the so-called \"open\" detention camp in the southern desert of Israel, selling products and services in an improvised market site of tents and huts, deconstructed by the government and reconstructed by the entrepreneurs, a number of times.\nFindings: The context\nDiscussion: Walking around the entrepreneurship market in the Negev desert, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, one definitely gets a sense of what \"refusal to be constrained by economic detour\" actually means. Outside the Holot detention camp, it is via bricolage that entrepreneurs address the economic detour in the unique context of an intentional institutional void. At a place which is designed to make asylum seekers leave Israel by coining them \"infiltrators\" (Campbell et al., 2013) and by \"making their lives miserable\" (Simpson, 2014), bricoleurs attend to their own and the needs of fellow detainees, providing goods and service and a community space. In line with the literature (Dacin et al., 2010; Davidsson et al., 2017; Di Domenico et al., 2010; Fisher, 2012; Stephan et al., 2015), the void is the reason why they are entrepreneuring. Additionally, for many, the entrepreneurs give their lives meaning that nevertheless is suspended between destruction and despair. The \"open detention camp\" is in itself an oxymoron (Glazer, 2015): a place of infinite sadness. Nonetheless, the entrepreneurship market outside the camp is a space of mutual responsibility, solidarity and generosity. Following Gaddefors and Anderson (2017), the market is an entrepreneurial milieu, a place where bricolage entrepreneurship is taking place. The initiators of this space exhibited more engagement and appeared to be less depressed than other detainees (see also Glazer, 2015 and Rozen, 2015). The findings of the multiple stories milieu case study exemplify the features of bricolage entrepreneurs (Baker and Nelson, 2005; Davidsson et al., 2017; Harper, 2011; Stenholm and Renko, 2016). Following Desa (2012), it is possible to state that for these entrepreneurs, bricolage is probably the only possible strategy within such an extreme institutionally restricted environment and in line with Mair and Marti (2009, p. 420) the entrepreneurs exemplified sense-making and the inherently political nature of bricolage. Above and beyond \"making do,\" improvisation and a refusal to being constrained by limitations imposed by an institutional environment (Di Domenico et al., 2010), \"bricoleuring\" here includes making sense of one's situation by entrepreneuring as an emancipating process (Rindova et al., 2009), creating a plausible narrative, an active doing under totally impeded social and economic circumstances (Al-Dajani et al., 2015). Doing something provides \"opportunities to express the self, to create an identity\" and any context that denies participation in occupation threatens the maintenance of identity (Christiansen, 1999, p. 552). Thus, echoing refugee women from Burma engaged in traditional weaving in order to keep a sense of identity (Stephenson et al., 2013), Adam and his friends engage in bricolage entrepreneuring not only to make a living but also in order to make sense of their situation, themselves and others.\nConclusion: The subject of refugee entrepreneurship has mainly been investigated in western contexts such as Belgium (Wauters and Lambrecht, 2006, 2008), the UK (Sepulveda et al., 2011), the USA (Fong et al., 2007) and Canada (Roth et al., 2012), among others. These studies did not report about intentionally created institutional voids established by institutional players that are aimed to discourage refugees from entrepreneuring. In currently published cases, some institutional arrangements that provide for the needs of refugees exist, either via social security payments, labor market integration or legal pathways to self-employment. In contrast, this paper contains a distinctive lens of investigating refugee entrepreneurship within a unique contextual environment. The Holot detention camp provides a site to understanding how refugee entrepreneurs overcome institutional voids by drawing upon bricolage.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In an extreme and intentional institutional void, African refugees in Israel are bricoleuring by building an entrepreneurship market next to an \"open\" detention camp. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how refugee entrepreneurs overcome institutional voids through bricolage in an illegal marketplace outside the detention camp.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to deal with the question of why and how people act entrepreneurial under extreme circumstances, the interpretive/social constructionist paradigm is applied in form of the multiple stories milieu case study pattern. Data were gathered via official reports, interviews and observations.\nFindings: Outside the detention camp it is via bricolage that entrepreneurs address the economic detour in the intentional institutional void. At a place which is meant to make asylum seekers leave Israel by coining them \"infiltrators\" and by \"making their lives miserable,\" bricoleurs attend their own and the needs of fellow detainees providing goods and service and community space.\nOriginality/value: By contextualizing entrepreneurial practices, the paper contributes to the understanding of refugee entrepreneurship by demonstrating how refugees - within the pressure and constraints of context - initiate entrepreneurial activities. Theoretically the paper extends knowledge of minority entrepreneurs who are acting as bricoleurs, explaining how their entrepreneuring can be a kind of space creation process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Towards usable privacy policy display and management
|
[
"Internet",
"Online operations",
"Privacy",
"Data security",
"Web site design",
"PrimeLife Policy Language",
"Usability",
"Privacy policy interfaces",
"Credential selection"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The number of services available on the internet has increased considerably in the last decade and it is expected to continue rising in the following years. When requesting internet services, users tend to distribute great amounts of personal information at various sites, leaving data traces that can be easily tracked and compiled into extensive personal profiles without them even being aware of it. Article 10 of the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC requires that users are informed about the way their data are handled by different online service providers, implying that users should have the possibility to make conscious informed decisions about the release of their personal data. However, the way service providers express their privacy statements today, usually consists of long texts with complicated legal terms that are often not read or not understood by users (Kelley et al., 2010).The PrimeLife EU PF7 project (Privacy and Identity Management for Europe for Life, www.primelife-project.eu) aims at developing privacy-enhancing identity management systems for technically enforcing user control and information self-determination. An important prerequisite for supporting users' control in this context is to present transparent and understandable privacy policies. For achieving better transparency, the PrimeLife Policy Language (PPL) allows users to define and adapt their privacy preferences declaring under which conditions they would like to release what types of data. PPL also has the capability of comparing the users' preferences to the privacy policies of service providers, so that users can be informed about the extent to which their privacy preferences will be satisfied.However, for ordinary computer users, defining and adapting their privacy preferences for properly protecting their privacy online are complex and error-prone tasks which usually require some level of expertise on basic legal privacy concepts and principles. Besides, it is not reasonable to assume that users are willing to spend their time and effort on configuring privacy preferences, since security and privacy protection are rarely the users' primary tasks (Whitten and Tygar, 1999). In an offline world people manage their privacy preferences more or less automatically, making unconscious choices about the pieces of information they disclose according to the contexts in which they find themselves in at particular times. For example, a person intuitively knows which information is suitable to share with her doctor, but which would be inappropriate to share with her colleagues at work. Thus, the challenge lies in how to translate that instinctive understanding and management of personal privacy to the digital world.For simplifying the management of privacy preferences, our work in PrimeLife has suggested the novel approach of providing users with predefined standard privacy settings which can be customized \"on the fly\" (i.e. can be modified and saved as an online transaction takes place) and to assist them at the moment of selecting certifying attributes that verify their identity. We present the prototype for the \"Send Data?\" dialog, a browser extension designed to meet the complex requirements imposed by PPL. The prototype displays the core elements of a service provider's privacy policy in a user-friendly manner and lets users know the extent to which their privacy preferences match the privacy policy of a service provider in situations when their personal data is being requested. We also report about the lessons learned during the design process and recommendations for the design of other usable policy interfaces.In this paper, we first discuss previous related work on privacy policy management interfaces and on support for users' informed consent in Section 2. Section 3 introduces the capabilities of PPL and the requirements that we identified as important to consider when developing privacy policy management tools for this language. Section 4 describes the design process and usability testing of the \"Send Data?\" prototype. Discussions and lessons learned are presented in Section 5. Finally conclusions are drawn in Section 6.Note that throughout this paper we use the terms privacy settings and privacy preferences interchangeably. Privacy preferences is a well established termed used in Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) and PPL vocabularies; nevertheless a study has shown that privacy settings is better understood by users in general (Graf et al., 2011). Thus, we consistently used the term privacy settings in our interface.\n2 Related work: For making privacy policies more understandable and transparent, Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (2004) has recommended providing policy information in a multi-layered format. A short privacy notice on the top layer must offer individuals the core information required under Article 10 EU Directive 95/46/EC, which includes at least the identity of the service provider and the purpose of data processing. In addition, a clear indication must be given as to how the individual can access the other layers presenting the additional information required by Article 10, such as information on whether the individual is obliged to reply to the service provider's questions, and on the legal rights of the data subject.Previous related work has been done on the usability of P3P user agents. For instance, the work presented by Cranor et al. (2006) outlines some of the challenges when designing interfaces for online privacy management, such as the difficulty of users to articulate their privacy preferences and to understand some terminology, as well as the complexity in which the combination of privacy preferences can be presented. The researchers presented a P3P client called \"Privacy Bird\" and made recommendations for the design of other privacy agents. Reeder (2008) and Reeder et al. (2008) suggest a visualization technique for displaying P3P-based privacy policies based on a two-dimensional grid, declaring an improvement from previous interfaces. Similarly, Kelley et al. (2009) propose a \"Nutrition Label\" for P3P privacy policies based on the idea that people already understand other nutrition, warning and energy labelling, and claim that their proposed privacy label allows users to find information more accurately and quickly. Nevertheless, P3P has several restrictions, such as the lack of support for downstream data sharing, missing support for stating obligation policies (i.e. policy statements that the service provider promises to fulfil), missing support for anonymous credentials (such as IdeMix credentials (Camenisch and van Herreweghen, 2002)), as well as the inability to handle policies from more than one service provider.Other related work includes the research done by Johnson et al. (2010) on policy authoring and templates, and the work done by Friedman et al. on applying value sensitive design to get informed consent from users when managing cookies in web browsers (Millett et al., 2001; Friedman et al., 2002). However, these approaches are not fully applicable to European regulations, and only cover some aspects of displaying and managing full privacy policies.The approach within the PrimeLife project proposes the PPL, which addresses the limitations imposed by P3P, and for which our interfaces have been designed. The work presented in this paper is greatly based on the initial proposals and requirements identified during the PRIME project (Pettersson et al., 2005), and on the previous design iterations presented in PrimeLife deliverables (PrimeLife WP4.3, 2010; PrimeLife WP4.1, 2011). To the best of our knowledge, no other related work offers standard predefined privacy settings which can be customized semi-automatically \"on the fly\", assisting users to state their preferred level of privacy depending on the scenario of the transaction. More information about the PrimeLife project, requirements for PPL and other PrimeLife prototypes can be found in Camenisch et al. (2011).\n3 Designing for privacy policy management with PPL: The following section briefly presents some of the features provided by PPL and explains the challenges and requirements for designing interfaces for the complexity of this language.3.1 The challenge of designing interfaces for PPL\n4 Designing the \"Send Data?\" browser extension: Having identified the requirements listed above, a prototype for privacy policy management called the \"Send Data?\" dialog was conceptualized and developed as a Firefox plug-in. An iterative process of design was adapted in which users' feedback was considered at every iteration cycle. Based on the results from usability tests of the sixth iteration cycle (Figure 1) presented in Angulo et al. (2011b), we present a redesign and an alternative design corresponding to the seventh iteration cycle in the following sections (shown in Figure 2 and Figure 5, respectively). More detailed descriptions of earlier iterations and the evolution of the dialog have been presented by Pettersson et al. (2005), PrimeLife WP4.3 (2010), PrimeLife WP4.3 (2011) and Angulo et al. (2011a).4.1 UI elements and rationale behind design decisions\n5 Discussions and lessons learned: From our various iterative cycles of the design of the \"Send Data?\" dialog we consider the following factors as important when designing interfaces for privacy policy display and management, which supplement our previously identified requirements presented in Section 3.2.First of all, the idea of being able to manage their privacy \"on the fly\" seems to be appealing for users and also easy to grasp. This feature helps users protect their privacy by making it easier for them to change their levels of privacy, which is a task that users seldom want to be bothered with.Congruent with the observations from Kelley et al. (2009), the use of textual descriptions in an interface made for privacy policy display brings little value to its usability. Using visual representations when appropriate, such as suitable icons and symbols, is encouraged. However, finding the right visual representations that most users will understand is not always a trivial task. Our evaluations showed that users tended not to look at areas where plenty of text was displayed, but they also became overwhelmed if many icons were clustered together, as was the case when placing arrows and logotypes inside a cell in the table.If used appropriately, the subtle use of colour can help convey meaning in a good way. In our earlier versions of the \"Send Data?\" dialog the use of red and blue coloured icons were used inside each cell to represent that data would be sent or not (PrimeLife WP4.3, 2010). In that case, the table captured the users' attention immediately, making them alarmed when too many red icons were displayed and stealing their attention from the other parts of the interface. In our latest design suggestion (Figure 5) discrete coloured stripes were used, achieving better results and conveying the desired meaning.Moreover, the representation of obligations in the interface is still a challenge. Our suggestion of placing a column besides the table to represent obligations created confusion among test participants, probably due to the fact that users are not familiar with the concept of obligations in privacy policies. A better and more intuitive way to display these kind of mismatches is still needed that can help no-privacy expert users understand this concept.Throughout our different iterations, it was observed that users need some time to interact with the \"Send Data?\" interface before grasping the idea that it is trying to convey. When being presented with the dialog for the first time, test participants tended to be confused by the different aspects of the interface, but by the end of the usability test they were able to understand its purpose and benefits to their privacy. This might be due to the fact that users are still unfamiliar to interfaces that try to protect their privacy, but short explanations and analogies are enough to help them get the idea of the dialog. Therefore, conveying one-time informative hints on the different aspects of the interface might help users understand the elements of the program and how it can help them protect their privacy.\n6 Conclusions: The PPL provides very powerful features, but at the cost of added complexity when it comes to usability. Arguably, applying user-friendly interfaces for this language is more complicated than for other policy languages, such as P3P. Our results from usability testing show that users understand the core aspect of the \"Send Data?\" dialog proposed hereby, and that improvements to its interface have been achieved at every iteration cycle. Nevertheless, some improvements are still necessary in order to make the interaction and representation of information more intuitive. From our results, it also became clear that the use of colours in a two-dimensional table is a good approach towards representing mismatches of the users' privacy preferences and service providers' privacy policies, corroborating to some extend the findings by Kelley et al. (2009). Moreover, the novel concept of \"on the fly\" privacy settings seems to be understood and appreciated by users, as well as the selection of credentials using a card-based approach clearly grouped by rows. From our experience working through the different design cycles of the dialog we have reported our lessons learned and suggestions for designing other privacy policy interfaces.Despite the improvements made so far, there are still challenges to be tackled, especially when thinking about future interaction paradigms, such as displaying user-friendly privacy policies in mobile smart devices with restricted screen sizes, or obtaining informed consent from users in the era of ubiquitous computing where interconnected devices will be practically invisible and interaction might occur without the use of visual interfaces. These are issues that should be address in order to provide privacy-friendly online services in the near future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present the approach taken within the PrimeLife project for designing user-friendly privacy policy interfaces for the PrimeLife Policy Language (PPL) and report on the lessons learned when designing interfaces for privacy policy management and display.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Taking an iterative process of design, the authors developed the interface of the \"Send Data?\" prototype, a browser extension designed and developed to deal with the powerful features provided by PPL, and having the purpose of helping users to make conscious decisions on the dissemination of their personal information. The proposed interface introduces the novel features of \"on the fly\" privacy management, predefined levels of privacy settings, and simplified selection of anonymous credentials. The last iteration of the prototype has been tested using a cognitive walkthrough approach.\nFindings: - Results from usability tests show that users understood and appreciate most of the features contained within the interface and they perceived their benefit for protecting their privacy online. However, improvement is still needed in order to make the display and management of privacy policies more intuitive and seamless. Showing privacy mismatches inside a two-dimensional table was preferred by users in general.\nOriginality/value: - The paper introduces the novelty of \"on the fly\" privacy management, which lets users adapt and organize their own privacy preferences whilst an online transaction takes place, Also, it allows users to select credentials to identify themselves in a simpler manner.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effects of ethical framing on consumer price perceptions
|
[
"Ethics",
"Pricing",
"Consumers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Marketers have shown considerable interest in ways to influence consumer purchase decisions. An element that has been of interest is the ethical behaviors of producers. Some consumers have shown a high level of interest in ethical production and some are beginning to seek out firms that create products in a way congruent with consumers' values (Catrin, 2006).\nFraming: One way to attract the attention of potential customers is by the framing of promotional materials. The effects of framing were presented by Tversky and Kahneman (1981), who showed that preferences can be changed through framing of the problem. Frames are ways of presenting a message so that individuals are able to label and identify occurrences and making those occurrences meaningful (Snow et al., 1986). The frame functions by organizing experiences and guiding action. Frame alignment refers to linking those frames to individual's interests, values or beliefs (Snow et al. 1986). When the frame is aligned to the individual's interests or values, the frame is likely to be more persuasive in decision making situations.Framing marketing efforts in a way that creates a value proposition for the consumer is critical to success. The framing of a firm's marketing may have an impact on cognitive judgments (Biswas and Grau, 2008; Kahneman and Tversky, 1979), and thus the mental prices formed by the consumer.Framing is used to shape perceptions by activating information already held in memory (Nelson et al., 1997; Scarabis et al., 2006) rather than by trying to persuade consumers to change their opinions, as in typical persuasion efforts. Consumers are regularly called on to evaluate products and services and weigh the competing good and bad attributes. For example, hybrid cars save on gas and reduce dependence on oil producers. However, the higher initial cost of the car may offset the savings on gas over the lifetime of the car, depending on the price of gas. Each potential consumer must consider the competing costs and determine which are more important. Framing may be used to activate this knowledge and help to define the relevant benefits of one perspective or another. The frame used in marketing efforts may help consumers with that process.Levin et al. (1998) proposed three types of framing effects that are distinguishable in terms of their operational definition, typical results, and likely underlying processes:1. risky choice framing;2. goal framing; and3. attribute framing.Risky choice framing refers to actual risks and how solutions might be framed in either a negative or positive manner. Positive framing emphasizes benefits while negative framing emphasizes risks (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979).Goal framing refers to a frame that focuses on negative consequences of not enacting a certain behavior. Negative consequences have been found to be more persuasive than positive consequences in taking a specified action. Examples are common in health promotions, where the consequences of not having screening tests for diseases have been found to be much more persuasive than when presented with the gains of having screening tests (Levin et al., 1998).Attribute framing relates to the characteristics of objects or people that are accentuated or ignored (Hannah and Cafferty, 2006). This study uses attribute framing to investigate what value consumers may place on ethical behavior by presenting the products with an attribute frame that emphasizes the firm's ethical behavior. A marketer may encourage sales by using a positive ethical frame. Research has shown that consumers may reward firms for treating their workers and the environment in an ethical manner (Forte and Lamont, 1998).\nMental prices and price perception: The heightened interest in price perceptions is evident in the sheer number of articles about pricing. Marketers have seen margins eroded by consumers' fixation on getting the best deal. Some product categories are more affected than others, but every firm feels the pressure to keep prices in line with consumers' expectations.There are a number of mental prices developed as consumers shop for products. These mental prices may be conceptualized as of two types: market-framed and personal (Garbarino and Slonim, 2003). A market-framed price is one that uses information about the market place as a frame of reference. One such market-framed internal price is termed reference or expected price, referring to the price that consumers expect to pay for the product at some future time (Thaler, 1985). Reference price is impacted by past purchasing experience, but also by contextual variables such as store atmosphere and the firm's ethical behaviors (Kalwani et al., 1990). This price may be influenced by the ethical frame presented to consumers. Firms have long professed that the firm searches for the least expensive way to produce goods, which included off-shore sourcing to control costs (Taplin, 2006). Thus, consumers may have come to expect that goods produced in an ethical manner will be more costly:H1. Employing a positive ethical marketing frame will increase expected price.A second market-framed price is fair price, that is, what the consumer thinks the product ought to cost. This mental price is based on the concept of dual entitlement, that is, a price that gives a reasonable profit to the producer and a reasonable price for the consumer. Fair price for ethically produced goods may be perceived as higher because of the perception that ethical producers pay higher wages, invest more in protecting the environment or use more costly testing methods (Pollin et al., 2004; The Future of Ethical Sourcing, 2009). Consumers buy many products that they think should cost less than current prices, but continue to buy because there are limited choices available. Thus, fair price will impact purchasing but not necessarily define the limits:H2. Employing a positive ethical marketing frame will increase fair price.The third type, reservation price is the maximum price that a consumer will pay for a product. This mental price is formed from personal preferences. The more desirable the product is to the consumer, the higher the reservation price should be. These mental prices are used by consumers to react to retail prices. The goal of marketers is to raise these mental prices through marketing efforts. Ethical framing may be one way to raise the reservation price, particularly for those who are concerned with ethical issues in production of consumer products.H3. Employing a positive ethical marketing frame will increase reservation price.\nStudy 1: Data collection\nResults of study 1: Study 1 used prices that are typical for mass merchants for each of the products. Prices began at $2.19 and rose in 20 cent increments to $3.39. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests, descriptive statistics, Chi Square, and ANOVA.The hypotheses predicted that consumers would be willing to pay more for products that did not use slave labor or animal testing in production. Paired t-tests results were significant for each of the price perceptions over both issues. Fair (t=-4.62, p < 0.005), reservation (t=-3.046, p < 0.005) and reference (t=-3.927, p < 0.005) price perceptions were significantly higher when the products were ethically framed (see Table I). Thus, H1, H2, and H3 were supported.Compared issues\nStudy 2: In order to determine whether the same effect would be seen in similar but much more expensive products, study 2 was developed.All the stimuli were the same as in study 1, with the exception of the fictitious web site and the prices presented. The web site was named e-Luxury.com and was purported to be a high-end site. The prices presented were substantially higher, starting at $14 and ending at $32. Prices were in $2 increments. All other elements of the experiment were identical to study 1. In total, 61 participants completed the second online questionnaire. Snowball sampling was again used to identify potential respondents. All respondents were female ranging in age from 19 to 72 years. Altogether, 62 percent of the participants had annual incomes between $20,000 and $50,000, again reflecting the overall income distribution for the US population (Census Bureau, 2003). The samples in both studies were comparable.The hypotheses predicted that consumers of luxury products would be willing to pay more when there was no use of slaves or animal testing in production. The results for the luxury products were much the same as for the more accessible products. Paired t-tests results were significant for each of the price perceptions over both issues. Fair (t=-4.20, p < 0.005), reference (t=-4.04, p < 0.005), and reservation (t=-2.83, p < 0.005) price perceptions were significantly higher after reading the ethical frame. Again, H1, H2, and H3 were supported (see Table II).Respondents considering luxury products thought that products produced without slavery or animal testing would cost more, by approximately $8 (kh2=19.5, p < 0.05) and also thought it would be worth more, approximately $12 (kh2=48.8, p < 0.05), to ensure no slavery or animal testing was used in production. As in study 1, eliminating slavery from production was perceived as adding more cost (F(1,59)=4.763, p < 0.05) than eliminating animal testing. Again, there was no significant difference by issue (F(1,59)=1.068, p > 0.05).\nDiscussion: Marketing is concerned with influencing not only what is said about a product or service but also how it is said. Framing is a device used to present truthful information in the way the marketer would like it to be presented. This study investigated how using an ethical frame to market two products might change the potential consumers' price perceptions.\"Corporate accountability may be too abstract a concept to capture the attention of the majority of the public\" (Tallontire et al., 2001). More specific ethical issues may be easier for consumers to understand. Thus, this study used two controversial topics, human slavery and animal testing, to investigate the impact of socially responsible corporate behavior on price perceptions. These two issues have come to the forefront of social responsibility activism and have passionate groups advocating for changes in the ways cocoa is harvested and products are tested. These were chosen as being clear issues that participants would understand.In this study, attribute framing of marketing did emerge as an important factor in consumer price perceptions. When presented with information that accentuated the unethical practices used by some firms in producing consumer goods, participants indicated a willingness to pay somewhat higher prices for ethically produced goods. This group of participants was willing to engage in positive ethical purchase behavior and potentially reward a firm for ethical practices.Participants in this study indicated that products that were produced in an ethical manner would probably cost 30 percent to 40 percent more than products that were not produced ethically. Industry data shows that prices would only need to increase between 2 and 6 percent to ensure higher wages for workers (Pollin et al., 2004). Clearly, this group of consumers is unaware of the real costs of ethical production in terms of a percentage increase in price. However, when asked how much they would expect to pay, their reference price perceptions are aligned with real costs. Overall, the most they indicated they would be willing to pay would barely cover the price increases necessary to ensure ethical production.Further research should investigate other ethical issues. The two selected were of high importance and were easily understandable. However, less clear cut issues may leave consumers confused and unwilling to change perceptions or behaviors due to message framing. Thus, how marketers can use ethical framing needs further investigation.\nConclusions and implications: This exploratory study is important in understanding the ways in which consumers respond to messages touting the ethical behaviors of the firm. While consumers are somewhat concerned with the ethical behavior of firms, it is not evident that they are always willing to pay additional moneys to the firm for their ethically produced products. This experiment used snowball sampling to select American consumers. Consumers from other parts of the globe may have quite different perceptions. Thus, the results of these experiments should be viewed with caution. Further studies of other income and geographic locations should examine this issue.While being socially responsible is an end in itself, it may not allow the firms to increase prices to cover the increased costs of production. It is not apparent that consumers fully expect to share in the cost of a socially responsible global economy.\nProblems and challenges: The choice of an online experiment with US participants limits our ability to generalize to every population. In both studies, the promotional material made a strong case against human slavery and animal testing. While it might be assumed that American consumers would be opposed to human slavery, attitudes toward animal testing are less clear. The story pointed out that animal testing was no longer necessary to ensure safety in beauty products. Thus, the stories may not have been precisely equal in weight.The level of information concerning these issues also impacts the results. While some consumers are well aware of these two issues, others are not. This group varied widely in their interest in and attitudes toward ethically produced products. It is not possible to know if this level of information is universal or specific to this group.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate one of the potential cues that may influence the price consumers are willing to pay for products. This paper seeks to investigate the use of ethically framed marketing efforts in influencing price perceptions among consumers of health and beauty products\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The exploratory online experiment was completed in two parts: the first with 84 participants and the second with 61 participants.\nFindings: - Results show that consumers expect prices to be much higher when the product is produced under ethical conditions but they are willing to pay only slightly more for ethically produced products.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The participants were a convenience sample and thus the results are not generalizable. While being socially responsible is an end in itself, consumers may not allow the firms to increase prices to cover the increased costs of production. It is not apparent that consumers fully expect to share in the cost of a social responsible global economy.\nOriginality/value: - The study offers insight into the difficulty firms have in producing products in an ethical manner and passing those costs to their customers. Considering the global financial conditions in 2008/2009, it may be even more difficult for firms to maintain ethical production methods.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Rent review 2014
|
[
"Arbitration",
"Commercial property",
"Contractual interpretation",
"Rent review",
"Serious irregularity",
"England and Wales"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Rent review cases have fallen away sharply in recent years, reflecting both market conditions and a continuing reduction in average lease terms. As shorter lease terms become more common, the need for rent review diminishes. However, that does not mean that rent review has ceased to be an essential feature of the commercial property market. Longer lease terms require a mechanism to accommodate the changing value of money over time. Statutory renewal of leases protected by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is also likely to replicate the review provisions contained in the original lease. Further, parties may continue to prefer a rent review provision that adjusts the rent to reflect open market changes, rather than adopting a mechanistic clause that increases rent in line with a measure such as the retail prices index (RPI) or the consumer prices index (CPI). Indexation inexorably increases the rent. Open market review may not.\nContractual interpretation: In Bywater v Oswestry Town Council (2014) the court had to rule on the construction of a rent review clause in a lease granted during the 1960s. Rent reviews were to take place every 25 years. The rent was reviewed, and increased, in 1988. In 2013 it was apparent to the landlord that there would be no rent increase, and that the rent was in fact likely to be lower than the 1988 level.\nBroken machinery: In Furlonger v Pettorelli (2014) EWHC 37 (Ch) the court had to interpret a rent review clause that limited increases in the ground rent of residential premises to two-thirds of the rateable value. A key question was whether that limit could be applied given that it referred to a valuation list that was no longer used by the local authority for the purpose of collecting domestic rates. Since the lease was granted the domestic rates regime had been wholly replaced by Council Tax.\nChallenge to third-party determinations: Where there is no realistic scope for challenging the interpretation of the rent review clause itself, a disappointed or disadvantaged party might be tempted to resist the outcome of a rent review by challenging the third-party determination. Whether the third party is an expert or an arbitrator, few challenges succeed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this legal update is to examine the recent case law relating to rent review in England and Wales. The paper argues that as rent terms have reduced in length, and as market conditions have tended to produce nil-uplifts, there have been relatively few review cases before the court. Cases that reach court tend to fall into two broad categories: contractual interpretation and challenges to third-party determination.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Review and analysis of case law in England and Wales.\nFindings: There are no special rules for interpreting rent review clauses. The court's approach to contractual interpretation follows House of Lords and Supreme Court rulings culminating in Rainy Sky SA v Kookmin Bank (2011). There are also very limited circumstances in which the court will set aside an arbitrator's award, informed by a policy that favours upholding arbitration awards as a quick and cost-effective way to settle rent review disputes.\nPractical implications: Rent review clauses must be interpreted in accordance with the normal rules of contractual interpretation. The court is unlikely to be swayed by submissions asserting the \"general purpose\" of rent review.\nOriginality/value: This is an original analysis of case law.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Reciprocity and gift-giving logic in NPOs
|
[
"Motivation",
"Reciprocity",
"Bootstrapped multiple mediation",
"Organizational behaviour",
"Non-profit organizations",
"Gift giving"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Managerial psychology scholars have studied volunteerism and charitable organizations to understand how motives, attitudes, and intentions affect overall organizational success (e.g. Clary and Snyder, 1999; Clary et al., 1992; Stoner et al., 2011). Volunteers work in various for-profit, non-profit, and hybrid charitable organizations in sectors such as health, arts, culture, education, human services, and sports. Consequently, a wide range of managers will find relevance in research revealing how to recruit, incentivize, and retain volunteers (Bussell and Forbes, 2002), especially in how to encourage intentions to stay with organizations (Clary et al., 1998; Webb et al., 2000). However, only studies of commitment and prosocial attitudes have investigated the micro-mechanisms linking individual motivations to volunteer and intentions to stay with organizations (Jain, 2016; Webb et al., 2000).\nVolunteerism and intentions to stay with the organization: Volunteerism is defined as \"the unpaid help provided in a structured way to entities or causes whom the worker has no 'formal' obligations\" (Agostinho and Paco, 2012, p. 249; see also Jain, 2016). That is, volunteers donate free time, know-how, and expertise to charitable organizations without pay (see Kemp et al., 2011; Stoner et al., 2011). The management literature has traditionally recognized that volunteers are a unique and critical human resource for charities (Bussell and Forbes, 2002) and have thus devised market-oriented strategies aimed at strengthening recruitment and retention (see Webb et al., 2000). For example, research has focused on understanding volunteers' needs, motivations, and behaviors as crucial in recruitment and retention strategies, mainly because motivations to volunteer predict intentions to stay with non-profit organizations (Bussell and Forbes, 2002, p. 244; see also Clary and Snyder, 1999; Jain, 2016). Intentions to donate are also related to volunteers' intentions to stay. That is, \"attitudes toward charitable giving are important for academicians, policy makers, and practitioners alike [...] to develop effective and efficient marketing strategies to attract and retain donors\" (Webb et al., 2000, p. 300). Moreover, research on the determinants of donation behavior is significant for testing volunteers' attitudes toward charities and volunteering activities (LaTour and Manrai, 1989, p. 327). Hence, intentions to donate are essential for organizational commitment and engagement.\nThe role of gift giving and reciprocity: We contend that reciprocity and intentions to donate are micro-mechanisms explaining why volunteers become engaged with and committed to organizations. We focus on the logic of gift giving to show the impact on intentions to stay. Particularly, the main gift-giving mechanisms and motivational aspects are crucially relevant to understand how motivations interact with intentions to donate. The logic underlying gift giving originates with Marcel Mauss (1950; for a review, see Caille, 1998) who argued that the gift-giving logic differs from the equivalence or synallagmatic (mutual agreement) market logic. In the gift-giving process, the act of giving triggers a cycle of reciprocity, but those who trigger the cycle do not know whether, when, and how much they will receive. The value lies in the relational aspect rather than the economical aspect; relationships and ties among people are the priority (Faldetta, 2011). Both givers and reciprocators are donors, so reciprocity does not balance the relationship. Hence, the gift-giving logic argues that reciprocity drives the actors (Gouldner, 1960).\nTheoretical framework and hypotheses: Gift-giving motivations and intentions to stay\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Sample characteristics and reliability analysis\nDiscussion: The empirical analysis showed that volunteers' motivations are positively associated with their gift-giving intentions. The finding is consistent with the volunteer (Clary et al., 1998; Okun et al., 1998; Omoto and Snyder, 1995) and gift-giving literatures (Caille, 1998; Jain, 2016) showing that self-oriented and other-oriented motivations relate to donation intentions. Interestingly, we find that reciprocal attitudes and gift-giving intentions significantly mediate the relation between motives and intentions to stay. Particularly, the key role of motivation as predicting gift giving and intentions to stay is consistent with the literature on reciprocity (Hu et al., 2011; Keysar et al., 2008) and gift giving (Mauss, 1950; see also Faldetta, 2011; Gouldner, 1960), suggesting that the managers of NPOs should encourage within-organization reciprocal attitudes.\nLimitations and further research: Our subjective self-reported questionnaires may have influenced the measurement accuracy of the analyzed variables. However, we pre-tested the questionnaire for clarity of definition and meaning with people involved in the volunteering sector, perhaps strengthening the accuracy. In addition, management distributed the questionnaires and strongly supported participation, which may have further reduced limitations. One problem is that we sampled only volunteers in Tuscany, perhaps limiting generalizability. However, the Tuscan area represents excellence in volunteerism in the socio-healthcare sector of Italy, and may offer insights into best practices.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through the lens of the gift-giving theory, volunteers' motivations for intending to stay with organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 379 volunteers from 30 charitable organizations operating in Italy's socio-healthcare service sector. Bootstrapped mediation analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships.\nFindings: Volunteers' reciprocal attitudes and gift-giving intentions partially mediated the relationship between motives and intentions to stay.\nPractical implications: Policy makers of charitable organizations are advised to be more responsive to behavioral signals revealing volunteers' motivations, attitudes, and intentions. Managers should appropriately align organizational responsiveness with volunteers' commitment through gift-giving exchange systems.\nOriginality/value: The findings reveal that reciprocity and gift giving are significant organizational variables greatly influencing volunteers' intentions to stay with organizations. Signaling theory is used to explain how volunteers' attitudes are linked with organizational responsiveness. Furthermore, this study is the first to use an Italian setting to consider motives, reciprocity, and gift giving as they relate to intentions to stay.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What makes fashion consumers "click"? Generation of eWoM engagement in social media
|
[
"Indonesia",
"Fashion",
"Social media marketing",
"Brand community",
"Electronic word-of-mouth engagement",
"Perceived exposure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social networking sites heavily influence consumer culture, bringing the notion that consumption becomes an exchange of information (Beer and Burrows, 2010). Fashion companies and brands have quickly embraced social media, driven by the potential benefits of the new marketing channels, such as rapid identification of trends and direct engagement with customers. Fashion is a concept that reflects style and material possession (O'Cass, 2004); thus, fashion consumption is influenced by symbols and images, affirming identity and social belonging (Altuna et al., 2013). Social media are vehicles for self-expression (McCrea, 2013); therefore, they are appropriate tools for fashion brands to engage with consumers online. As a result, fashion and apparel brands currently have the largest median audience size across all industries in social media (White, 2016). Social media facilitate fashion promotion, and practitioners concur with the view that the future of fashion is democracy, acknowledging the ability of the industry to adapt to - and together with - consumers (Conlon, 2016).\nTheoretical background and research questions: Consumers' exposure to social media marketing actions\nResearch design and methods: Sample demographics and data collection\nResults: Perceived exposure to fashion brands' social media marketing actions\nDiscussion: Save for a few subtle differences, mentioned earlier in the results section, the findings of this study in the Indonesian context share common views with generic fashion consumers and substantiate the proposal and findings of Ananda et al. (2017) on the topic of consumers' perceived exposure to SMM actions.\nResearch implications: Theoretical implications\nConclusions and future research: Social media are perfect vehicles for generation and propagation of eWoM. SMBCs are gaining relevance as marketing strategy platforms and they have proven their usefulness for eWoM generation (Hutter et al., 2013; Barreda et al., 2015). Social media marketers and practitioners focus on the importance of eWoM engagement metrics as key SMM strategy performance indicators (Wong, 2014). Nevertheless, the relation between SMM strategies and generation of eWoM engagement is still largely understudied, in particular within the fashion industry. Moreover, this dearth of research is especially alarming in Indonesia, one of the emerging markets where social media have contributed to the rapid emergence of important and new marketplaces. From a local view, the implications of this study might be critical for the development of social commerce in Indonesia, where society and consumers are experiencing a deep transformation enabled by the growth of online retailing and social commerce activities (Chadha, 2016; The Jakarta Post, 2017).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived exposure of fashion consumers to different types of fashion brands' social media marketing (SMM) actions in social media, and its relationship with the intention to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical study uses a survey conducted on a stratified random sample of 241 Indonesian members of fashion social media brand communities (SMBCs). The research design includes 19 types of SMM actions and 3 types of eWoM engagement behaviors, and investigates their relationship using point-biserial correlation.\nFindings: Generation of intention to engage in \"pass-on\" and \"endorsement\" eWoM has different drivers and serves different purposes. The findings suggest that endorsement engagement is contingent on the consumer's perceived exposure to marketing action stimuli, while pass-on engagement is driven by cognitive-inducing actions.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study extends current theory on SMM strategy and its relationship with eWoM engagement with a theoretically grounded conceptualization of eWoM engagement behaviors through the use of one-click social plug-ins.\nPractical implications: The study offers guidelines for fashion brands to effectively design their SMM strategies by identifying specific drivers of consumers' intention to engage in eWoM.\nOriginality/value: This study identifies sources of generation of eWoM engagement behavioral intention from a fine-grained analysis of marketing actions across various fashion SMBCs. Besides, it extends the applicability of the \"mere exposure\" effect to the SMM context. The research pioneers the study on fashion consumers' eWoM engagement behaviors in Indonesia, a country with one of the largest social media populations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Brand-related user-generated content on social media: the roles of source and sponsorship
|
[
"Social media",
"Brand-related UGC",
"Causal attribution",
"Content sponsorship",
"Source"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Brand-related user-generated content (UGC), any content about a brand created by a user of the brand designed to be shared with others (Tang et al., 2014), is inundating social media and has become a crucial source of product information for consumers (Ewalda et al., 2016). According to eMarketer (2016), about 80.7 percent of US internet users considered product reviews influential when making a purchase decision. As the power of brand-related UGC in influencing consumer purchase decisions is increasing on social media, marketers use brand-related UGC as a type of marketing practice (Lu et al., 2014; Rossmann et al., 2016).\nSources of brand-related UGC: Information source is an important factor in message acceptance on social media (Boerman and Kruikemeier, 2016; Chiou et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2012). The most noticeable source of brand-related UGC that consumers encounter on social media is their friends. Friends account for a major portion of one's social circles on social media because maintaining existing offline relationships is one of the primary reasons that people use social network sites (Ellison et al., 2007). Previous studies have demonstrated that friends influence consumer purchase decisions via referent power (i.e. people want to identify themselves with their friends), reward power (i.e. people perceive their friends are able to reward them), and coercive power (i.e. people perceive their friends can punish them) (Goodrich and Mangleburg, 2010; Wang et al., 2012). Apart from traditional marketing venues, friends are the most powerful influence on consumers' purchase decisions on social media (Klena and Puleri, 2014). Almost 60 percent of consumers indicated that friends' posts on social media affected their purchase decisions (Klena and Puleri, 2014).\nSponsorship of brand-related UGC: Traditionally, it is believed that peer-to-peer product conversations occur naturally. However, with the emergence of WOM marketing practices on the internet, some people post product information for material rewards (e.g. money, free product samples, or gift cards) provided by marketers. Brand-related UGC can be classified into two types depending on sponsorship type: organic and sponsored. Organic brand-related UGC occurs naturally and with no expectation of compensation (Kozinets et al., 2010). In contrast, sponsored brand-related UGC is initiated and rewarded by marketers (Wood and Burkhalter, 2014).\nInteraction between source type and sponsorship of brand-related UGC: We further expect that the aforementioned source effects (close friends vs celebrities) will be bounded by content sponsorship (organic vs sponsored). Specifically, when UGC about a utilitarian product is organic, consumers will generate more information-sharing attributions and less monetary-gain attributions if it comes from close friends than if it comes from celebrities. For sponsored UGC about a utilitarian product, however, the effects of the source will be attenuated. Financial compensations the source received for the brand-related UGC will cause consumers to infer a monetary-gain motive regardless of the source. Additionally, consistent with the discounting principle, the information-sharing motive will be discounted for the sponsored brand-related UGC regardless of who provides it. Consequently, the source of sponsored UGC (a close friend or a celebrity) will not differentially influence a consumer's attitude toward the brand or intention to comply with the recommendation. Thus, we hypothesize:\nMethod: To test the proposed hypotheses, a 2 (source: a close friend or a celebrity) x2 (content sponsorship: organic or sponsored) between-subjects experimental design was employed.\nResults: Manipulation check\nDiscussion and conclusion: Brand-related UGC has emerged as an essential source of product information and has frequently been shared on social media. Given the rising popularity of UGC on social media, both researchers and practitioners are interested in identifying the conditions under which brand-related UGC is effective in enhancing consumer evaluations of a product or motivating consumers to take action (Zhu and Zhang, 2010). As a further investigation, we examined how the source (a close friend or a celebrity) of UGC about a utilitarian product interacts with content sponsorship (organic or sponsored) to influence persuasion via causal attributions in the context of social media.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the source of brand-related user-generated content (UGC) (a close friend vs a celebrity) interacts with content sponsorship (organic UGC vs sponsored UGC) to influence consumer causal attributions, brand attitude, and intention to comply with the recommendation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In all, 285 college students participated in a two (source: a close friend vs a celebrity) by two (content sponsorship: organic vs sponsored) between-subjects online experimental design.\nFindings: Results showed that recommendation from a close friend generated more information-sharing attributions and less monetary-gain attributions than did recommendation from a celebrity when the brand-related UGC was organic. In contrast, source type did not influence causal attributions differently when the UGC was sponsored. Further, this study demonstrated that both information-sharing and monetary-gain attributions mediated the effects of source type and content sponsorship on brand attitude and intention to comply with the recommendation.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to examine the effectiveness of celebrities as a source of brand-related UGC. Also, this research extends the existing knowledge about source effects by examining the relative effectiveness of two sources of product information, close friends and celebrities, who have both been found to be individually effective in the traditional marketing context. Additionally, the findings of this study that the relative effectiveness of source type depends on whether brand-related UGC is sponsored or not add a further insight into how source type influences the effectiveness of brand-related UGC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Comparing antecedents of voluntary job turnover among majority and minority employees
|
[
"Employment",
"Diversification",
"Discrimination",
"Ethnic minorities",
"Career development",
"Job satisfaction",
"Cultural diversity",
"Minority employees",
"Job turnover",
"Turnover intention",
"Job satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to global migration patterns, the cultural composition of many western societies has changed. For instance, in the Netherlands, the percentage of citizens of non-western descent has increased from 2 percent in 1975, to over 11 percent in 2014 (CBS, 2014). Participation in the labor market has a positive effect on the position of immigrant groups within the host country. In practice, however, the percentage of minority employees often lags behind what would be expected from their respective share in the overall workforce (Van Tubergen, 2006).\nStudy 1: The first study was conducted to understand why minority members in the Netherlands' public service display higher rates of voluntary turnover than majority members, and aims to identify specific job domains which may account for this effect. A comparison is made between turnover motives of a sample of voluntarily resigned minority and majority members, asking respondents to which degree the specific job domains influenced their decision to quit. We will also examine whether the respondents' decisions were due to push- or pull-factors.\nStudy 2: In study 1, we examined the differences in turnover motives of minority and majority employees of the Netherlands public service, and their relationship with resignation due to push- or pull-factors. In study 2, we will examine both groups' satisfaction on the seven job domains used in the previous study, and subsequent relationship to turnover intentions, among individuals still employed in the same organization.\nGeneral discussion: Earlier studies have reported that minority employees in organizations often display lower job satisfaction, and higher rates of (voluntary) turnover than majority employees (Dagevos, 1998; Mckay et al., 2007; Tsui et al., 1992). So far, the question remains which specific aspects of the job are responsible for this effect. In the present research, we presented two studies which have provided new insights toward answering this question, by comparing which job domains affect voluntary turnover of minority vs majority employees. Two main aspects of the work environment can be identified on which minority and majority members differ significantly across both studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Cultural minority employees often display higher rates of voluntary turnover than majority employees, which reduces organizations' ability to benefit from diversity in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to identify specific job domains which are responsible for this difference.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Study 1 compares actual turnover motives of voluntarily resigned minority and majority employees, based on seven job domains. Study 2 compares satisfaction with the same domains, and the subsequent relationship with turnover intentions, of remaining employees within the same organization.\nFindings: The two studies provided consistent results, revealing that minority employees experience more negative social interactions in the workplace, and experience less opportunities for career advancement. Both factors are shown to be more predictive of turnover intentions as well as actual turnover decisions among minority employees.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research makes use of a distinction between several broad job domains, two which are shown to predict turnover of minority employees. Future studies should focus on uncovering more specific factors involved in these two particular domains.\nPractical implications: Based on the results, the authors advise organizations to pay specific attention to reducing negative social interactions between cultural groups and fostering inclusion, for example, through interventions aimed at intercultural leadership and establishing a strong diversity climate. These activities may also support career advancement of minority employees, but more specific interventions aimed at equality in career perspectives could also help reduce minority turnover.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first to directly compare turnover motives and predictors of turnover intentions between majority and minority groups in the same organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The relationship between work-family conflict, stress, and work attitudes
|
[
"National cultures",
"Employee attitudes",
"Employee behaviour",
"Organizational"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In recent decades, changes to the spheres of work and family have necessitated research into the interactions between them. In the realm of family, women in general and mothers of young children in particular have joined the work force. As a result, many families have become dual-earner couples, as opposed to previously prevalent single-earner families (Neal and Hammer, 2007). In addition, the nature of parenting has changed - parents (men and women) spend more time looking after their children (Bianchi et al., 2006). For example, Hook (2006), analyzing time use data across 20 countries and covering the years 1965-2003, found an average increase of 6 hours per week in employed, married men's time in the home. Moreover, increased life expectancy, manifested by the aging of society and of the work force, has raised the number of dual-earner couples that care for both their children and their aging parents. Neal and Hammer (2007) refer to these couples with multiple family care giving and work roles as the \"sandwiched generation.\"\nOCB: Organ (1997) defined OCB as \"contributions to the maintenance and enhancement of the social and psychological context that supports task performance\" (p. 91). OCB is a discretionary behavior, which is neither formally recognized nor rewarded. It is considered a highly valuable contribution to the effective functioning of an organization. Social exchange theory (Blau, 1964 (suggests that positive perceptions about employment will lead to beneficial work behaviors through the process of obligatory reciprocation.\nOrganizational justice: Research literature has consistently shown that perceptions of organizational justice or injustice are a key factor affecting the attitudes and behaviors of individuals in organizations (Cole et al., 2010). The construct \"organizational justice\" generally refers to three specific components, namely, distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. Traditionally, the notion of distributive justice is based on a general theory of fairness. In particular, Adams (1965) argues that individuals determine a value for the ratio between the outcomes of their work (material and non-material compensation) and the inputs they invest. The cardinal aspect of distribution is that the individual worker believes that fairness exists in the allocation of rewards or organizational resources.\nOCB and perceived justice: In the first place, research has shown that perceived justice affects attitudes towards work (e.g. Bobocel and Hafer, 2007). Specifically, research has consistently pointed to a positive association between perceptions of organizational justice and OCB, indicating higher OCB manifestations among employees who perceive that the organization and its leaders treat them fairly (e.g. Colquitt et al., 2001; Niehoff and Moorman, 1993). Workers who perceive organizational decision making and implementation processes as fair consequently benefit the overall efficiency of the organization through informal and \"extracurricular\" behaviors.\nJob stress: Job stress has received extensive theoretical and research attention. Once employees perceive any work situation as presenting demands that threaten to exceed their capabilities and resources for meeting them - or as being too costly if not met - they are expected to assess the situation as stressful. These perceptions are, of course, very subjective; stress is \"in the eye of the beholder.\" Moreover, job attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction) influence the perceptions of job stressors (Chen et al., 1995).\nOCB and stress: Stress at the workplace has become an important issue because high levels of it can impair workers' performance and result in negative behavioral and attitudinal work outcomes (Oplatka, 2009). Of interest, recent studies have also shown that despite a positive relationship between OCB and satisfaction, high levels of OCB can have a negative impact on the individual (Bergeron, 2007; Bolino and Turnley, 2005; Bolino et al., 2010).\nWork-family conflict: Workers tend to be torn between demands at home and pressures at work. One of the major concomitants of this conflict is the difficult challenge of dividing one's resources - especially time - between the demands of work and family.\nWork-family conflict and stress: Recent research has given much attention to the relationship between the work-family conflict and stress. Indeed, there is much evidence that the work-family conflict has a significant impact on the individual's physical, behavioral and cognitive-emotional well-being (Kirrane and Buckley, 2004), with one of the most significant negative outcomes expressed as increased stress at work (Frone et al., 1992). Also Dewe et al. (2010, p. 95) focus on work-life conflict as \"one particular kind of stressor.\" Likewise, Friedman (2006) describes how the conflict itself generates pressure and stress.\nSummary of research hypotheses: The following hypotheses are based on the above literature review and derive from it. They generate an explanatory model:\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Harman's one-factor test (Podsakoff et al., 2003) was used to assess the degree to which intercorrelations among the variables might be an artifact of common method variance. The first general factor that emerged from the analysis accounted only for 24.3 percent of the explained variance. While this result does not rule out completely the possibility of same-source bias (CMV), according to Podsakoff et al. (2003) less than 50 percent of the explained variance accounted for by the first emerging factor indicates that CMV is an unlikely explanation of our investigation findings.\nDiscussion: This paper reviews the relationships between organizational justice, OCB, stress, and work-family conflict, as they were expressed by a corpus of Israeli-Arab respondents. In particular, we sought to examine how specific factors in the organizational realm affect work-family conflict.\nConclusions and recommendations for future research: The results of the research model indicate that there is a positive relationship between organizational justice and OCB, a negative relationship between OCB and stress, and a positive relationship between stress and work-family conflict. We recommend performing similar studies that continue to examine the relationships between these variables. However, in future research, the following factors should be considered:\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: Work-family conflict is a rapidly developing field of research, considering the changes that have occurred in the structure of the family and of work in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a wide theoretical framework that encompasses the relationships between organizational justice, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job stress, and the work-family conflict. The authors suggest an explanatory model that associates those variables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The explanatory model was empirically examined by means of structural equation modeling. In all, 120 Israeli-Arab employees responded to the research questionnaires.\nFindings: As hypothesized, organizational justice was found to relate positively to OCB, and stress was found to relate positively to the work-family conflict. However, contrary to the hypotheses, OCB was found to relate negatively to job stress and work-family conflict. Namely, the higher the OCB, the lower the job stress.\nResearch limitations/implications: Theoretical implications and suggestions for possible future research were advanced.\nOriginality/value: Organizations that want to avoid the negative implications of the work-family conflict should encourage OCBs, which reduce the workers' job-related stress and consequently reduce the conflict between the realms of family and work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A comprehensive internal quality assurance system at University of Minho
|
[
"Quality culture",
"Internal quality assurance systems",
"Quality assurance in higher education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Quality assurance (QA) in higher education stays high in the agenda of the European Higher Education Area, as it plays a key role in the Bologna process. A fundamental principle of QA is that institutions themselves hold the main responsibility for ensuring the quality of their activities. This is also an underlying principle of the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) adopted in Bergen, which call upon higher education institutions to take up a systematic approach to internal QA. However, the follow-up reports on the Bologna process show that, in many cases, there is still no holistic approach to quality enhancement within institutions.\n2. The European and Portuguese contexts of internal QA: The systems for the QA in higher education play a crucial role in the prosecution of the goals stated in the Bologna Declaration, for their potential contribution towards the mutual recognition of degree awards and periods of study and the subsequent portability of academic and professional qualifications which is so essential to a true and meaningful mobility of the European citizens. According to Harvey and Williams (2010), citing Westerheijden (2001), the aim of the Bologna process was indeed to increase transparency of European higher education, thus encouraging clearer QA processes.\n3. The early stages of QA at UMinho: Since its beginning, in 1975, the UMinho has in place an innovative process for the coordination and management of teaching that considers each degree programme as an \"educational project\" with its own coordination structures, which include the degree committee and the degree director. The degree committee includes a student (delegate) for each curricular year and an equal number of professors. A Degrees Council (presently, a Pedagogical Council) was also created for each scientific area, to coordinate common aspects of different programmes (e.g. the engineering degrees council, for the whole set of Engineering programmes). This was quite a novelty, since the coordination of teaching in Portugal, at the time, was mainly performed in a fragmented way, at subject level (the Chairs or Cathedras), by the Chair holders, and students had no participation in it. This structure proved to be useful to keep track on the quality of teaching and promote improvement.\n4. Moving towards a comprehensive internal QA system: As confirmed by the external reviews, in 2009 UMinho had already in place most of the usual instruments to monitor the quality of teaching and take appropriate action towards its improvement. The same was true for research activities, as the university applied the criteria used by the Foundation for Science and Technology to monitor the performance of its research units.\n5. Perceptions on impact: The impact of SIGAQ-UM on the pedagogical component of the institutional mission is particularly visible in aspects related to the organisation and coordination of teaching, as mentioned before. In effect, the integrated approach of all the dimensions and aspects connected with teaching, including the integration of the different areas of UMinho's information system, has brought to light the existing problems of articulation between sectors, as well as issues of information organisation, allowing for the respective characterisation and treatment, with several visible improvements namely in the quality and timely availability of the required information.\n6. The certification of SIGAQ-UM: In late 2011 the Portuguese Agency A3ES set up an institutional audit process with the objective to \"assess and certify the internal quality assurance systems developed by the institutions\" (A3ES, 2013a) and invited higher education institutions to express their interest in participating in the first experimental exercise of applying the audit model. Fourteen institutions responded to the request, but only five met the requirements, namely the existence of a quality manual formally approved and with a minimum of one year's effective application.\n7. Conclusion: The ultimate goal of an internal QA system should be the embedment of a quality culture in all the academic community, \"in the understanding that quality assurance activities are not activities which run parallel to the life of the institution, as the responsibility of only one or several specific people, but rather the responsibility of each and every member of the community, in a concern with quality which should be present in all the activities of the institution\" (Santos, 2011. p. 39). Key factors for the development and consolidation of such a quality culture, as identified in the concluding report of the EUA Quality Culture Project 2002-2006, are adequate strategic planning, proper organisational structures, adequate internal evaluation processes and feedback loops, committed institutional leadership, active participation of academic and administrative staff, involvement of students and of external stakeholders, and an integrated information system for data collection and analysis (EUA, 2006).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) for quality assurance (QA) adopted at the Bergen Ministerial Meeting in 2005 in the scope of the Bologna process call upon higher education institutions to take up a systematic approach to internal QA. Standard 1.1 of the ESG establishes that institutions should have a policy and associated procedures for the assurance of the quality and standards of their programmes and awards. University of Minho (UMinho) has a longstanding experience on innovative methods for the coordination and management of the teaching and learning processes, including, since 1991, systematic mechanisms for the evaluation of teaching. However, to fulfil the new demands raised by the ESG UMinho felt the need to define a formal institutional quality policy, building upon the existing procedures and mechanisms in order to set up a comprehensive internal QA system (SIGAQ-UM) fully compatible with the ESG. The purpose of this paper is to present the distinctive features of SIGAQ-UM, the procedures involved in its certification by Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), as well as on the perceived impact on the university's activities, including some comments on the difficulties to develop and consolidate a quality culture embedded in all the academic community.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Case study approach.\nFindings: SIGAQ-UM is a fully operational comprehensive internal QA system certified by the Portuguese Agency A3ES in January 2013, with considerable impact on the university's operation.\nOriginality/value: Disclosure of best practices on QA in higher education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Internationalization of higher education institutions: the underestimated role of faculty
|
[
"Cross-border education",
"Faculty internationalization",
"International education",
"Internationalization of higher education",
"Internationalization of the academy",
"Scientific mobility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper deals with the topic of internationalization of higher education institutions (IHEI), especially in their research dimension. The main motivation for the study is to understand the role of researchers in the internationalization of the institutions in which they work through the academic activities they perform. It was assumed that the determinants of the IHEI process are strongly related to the role played by the faculty.\nConceptualization of IHEI: The IHEI has been gaining prominence in academic research, mainly due to the accelerated pace of globalization after the 1980s. Knight (1994), a seminal author on the subject, observed that IHEI means different things to different people, and these differences all the more evident with the increase in the number of surveys. Teichler (2003) suggested another reason for concept heterogeneity. The author argued that research related to internationalization and globalization is shaped by the values of the researchers involved, and that much of the research in the area is financed by agencies that promote internationalization. In other words, each institution tends to bring its own concept and vision of what internationalization means in the context of higher education. Indeed, this phenomenon is reflected in the research on the subject, insofar as the various definitions are motivated according to the various purposes (De Wit, 2002; Knight, 2004).\nDimensions of IHEI: If, on the one hand, the authors differ in relation to the definitions and models of IHEI, on the other, there seems to be a consensus in the literature as to the activities that involve the process of internationalization. Dewey and Duff (2009), for example, classified activities according to four different types: faculty research and teaching, involving, for example, participation in networks and events, such as academic conferences, international publications and visiting professorships; curriculum, through the introduction of international standards in the teaching plans of the institution's courses; overseas study programs; an activity that may involve partnerships with other HEIs for courses that allow exchanges among those involved, sometimes in both directions; and other areas of activity: in this category are activities such as student exchange, partnerships involving former students of HEIs working abroad and research groups between institutions.\nIHEI levels of analysis: Two decades after the publication of her seminal work, Knight (2004) proposed a multi-level definition of IHEI in order to clarify the understanding of the subject and to garner increased attention and support from policy makers and academic leaders with respect to these activities, which, according to her, have been neglected by these groups, given the importance that internationalization strategies have for their institutions. The author's main criticism at the time was based on the argument that without a precise definition of IHEI, there is a practical difficulty in its operationalization (Knight, 2004). From these arguments, she brought, for the first time, a multi-level definition for IHEI:What is critical is that the international dimension refers to all aspects of education and to the role it plays in society [...] internationalization at the national/sectoral/institution levels is defined as the process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of post-secondary education.(Knight, 2004, p. 2)\nDeterminants of IHEI: barriers and enablers: In the IHEI literature, a recurrent sub-theme refers to the barriers, which are found mainly at the institutional and individual levels, according to Table III.\nMethod and data: This qualitative study adopted in-depth interviews as the main method, with an intentional sample and semi-structured script. This approach made it possible to reflect on the concepts, relationships and categorizations on the IHEI, through the triangulation of data analysis between the literature on internationalization of higher education, the responses of interviewees who experience this phenomenon, and our perception as authors and professors who also seek this internationalization, following the methodological precepts proposed by Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2007).\nResults: conceptual model of IHEI based on the role of researchers: As a result of the study, the cross-referencing of the theoretical and empirical data pointed to four main categories of IHEI catalysts in their field of research: international academic experience; integration into collaborative networks; international co-authoring; and the research experience acquired by the researcher.\nFinal remarks: In view of the potential contribution of studies on higher education institutions to theories of international business, and the role of researchers (which although widely recognized in the literature as fundamental for this purpose, has been neglected by IHEI studies and conceptual models), in this paper we analyzed the impact of researcher characteristics on the internationalization of their HEIs. To do this, we performed an analytical review of the literature and conducted interviews with Brazilian researchers with a history of internationalization, to be able to triangulate the data analysis and provide a theoretical and empirical basis for a proposed conceptual model based on four fundamental catalysts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to deal with the topic internationalization of higher education institutions (IHEI), in terms of the research they engage in. The main motivation for the study is to understand the role of researchers in the internationalization of the institutions in which they work through the academic activities they perform. Based on the assumption that each of the researcher's internationalization activities leads, to some extent, to a greater internationalization of HEI in which it operates, the following question was proposed: Do researchers' personal characteristics and academic activities affect the internationalization of their (higher education) institutions?\nDesign/methodology/approach: This qualitative study adopted as main methods a review of the literature on internationalization of higher education and in-depth interviews based on a semi-structured script with an intentional sample. A sample of 16 researchers was selected for interview using the snowball technique of sample selection.\nFindings: The paper provides theoretical and empirical insights into the characteristics of researchers that influence the internationalization of HEIs. These include the researchers' international academic experience; insertion in international collaboration networks; international co-authorship; and experience in international publications. These are the four main factors that emerge at the individual level (researcher) that positively impact IHEI.\nOriginality/value: The paper responds to a gap found in the literature on the underestimated role of researchers in the internationalization process of HEIs in which they work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investor relations via Web 2.0 social media channels: A qualitative study of Middle Eastern corporations and investors
|
[
"Middle East",
"Social media",
"Power",
"Qualitative study",
"Conceptual model",
"Investor relations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Investor relations (IR) have been at the forefront of recent discussions, as it is one of the under-researched topics of the corporate reporting community (Macnamara and Zerfass, 2012; Ragas et al., 2014). Social media is a new tool that allows fast and convenient distribution of information, thus a potential tool for IR (Macnamara and Zerfass, 2012). Interestingly, different societies have a different standpoint regarding such media, as the recent Brunswick survey has found (Golz and Zivin, 2014). In general, social media has spread rapidly across different markets and countries, amongst which are the Middle Eastern (ME) countries (Askool, 2013). For instance, social media significantly supported the rise of the Arab Spring movement, and YouTube, Facebook and Twitter enjoy great popularity in the various ME societies (Askool, 2013; Shirazi, 2013). The current study investigates investors' and corporations' perceptions of adopting social media for IR, extracting the perceived outcomes, and highlighting societal and organizational developments that support or hinder the adoption and utilization of such applications.\n2. Literature review: IR play an important role for corporations (Marston and Straker, 2001), as well-maintained relations can support capital raising, create a good reputation for the organization and can significantly affect a corporation's ratings by financial experts, as illustrated by de Jong et al. (2007). IR are important to gain the support of important financial advisors and analysts, and may influence equity market valuation and potential investor decision making (Dolphin, 2004). They are an important part of a corporation's communication strategy (Dolphin, 2004; Hoffmann and Fieseler, 2012). These relations are defined as \"the link between a company and the financial community, providing information to help the financial community and the investing public evaluate the company\" (Marston, 1996, p. 477). This includes continuous, strategic activities to maintain the relationship between a company and its existing and potential investors, financial analysts and stakeholders (Dolphin, 2004). Maintaining these relations effectively can contribute to an organization's competitive advantage (Dolphin, 2004). Traditionally, IR include the distribution of corporate reports (Clarke and Murray, 2000), the arrangement of the annual general meeting and conferences, and the provision of answers to inquiries (Bollen et al., 2006). Recently, non-financial factors in general and corporate social responsibility activities in particular have increased in importance (Gates, 2013; Hoffmann and Fieseler, 2012; Hockerts and Moir, 2004). The internet can support the traditional tasks for IR but can also provide a new form of communication given its particular technological features (Deller et al., 1999; Hassink et al., 2008; Kim and Kim, 2014). Furthermore, it changes existing investor relation techniques and activities, regarding one-way information sharing and two-way interactive communication (Kelly et al., 2010; Kuperman, 2000). The proportion of shares available to individual shareholders, corporate size, level of internationalization and disclosure environment positively influence internet-based IR (Bollen et al., 2006).\n3. Theoretical background: The theoretical background of the current study engages various concepts. As the current study has adopted a qualitative, explorative approach, the discussed theories support and guide the analysis but do not limit findings and theory development solely to these theoretical concepts.\n4. Methods: The current study seeks to investigate the uses of Web 2.0-based social media technology for IR in the ME, the perceptions and attitudes of potential and existing investors and corporations, and their reasons for supporting or rejecting IR via social media. To this end, it employs a qualitative approach. The qualitative research methodology chosen is used to answer why and how research questions, such as the current study seeks to determine how investors and corporations perceive IR via Web 2.0-based social media applications, and why they prefer or reject such form of IR. An additional point to be explored is whether IR via social media affects corporations' and/or investors' perceptions of power relations.\n5. Results: The analysis' results raised several concepts related to the phenomenon of social media-based IR. Importantly, all interviewees were aware of the phenomenon under study, and addressed relevant and important concerns. The findings are related to each other, as is presented in Figure 1, which will be discussed in the remaining part of the section. First, the three main research questions will be addressed, according to which the four high-level categories have been developed. Finally, the model will be discussed comprehensively.\n6. Discussion: The overarching themes of social media-based IR reflect factors that support and hinder adoption and the anticipated outcomes that motivate adopting social media for IR. As the extant literature illustrates, ME corporations have not fully adopted social media for IR (Golz and Zivin, 2014), which reflects the findings of the current study. Preferred applications are Twitter and YouTube, which supports Macnamara and Zerfass (2012), all of which contribute to the creation of big data that can be used for efficient IR and other financial and integrated reporting practices. However, corporations are also considering the implementation of their own, \"in-website\" social media applications, as suggested by Bonson and Flores (2011). Thus, the current state of social media-based IR in the ME supports the existing literature and projected developments. Furthermore, in line with traditional disclosure theories, IR via social media are anticipated to maintain their voluntary character, with information being provided willingly to send positive signals to the market. A further element of the theoretical framework is the facilitating condition of cultural anchorage, which reflects the supportive structures of the ME culture regarding utilization of social media. Culture can be either supportive of such technology adoption or be hindering (Lee et al., 2013), but in the current context, the willingness of engaging in social-media based IR is high, since social media has contributed significantly to the recent developments of the ME (Askool, 2013; Shirazi, 2013). Importantly, no significant differences among the participants of the five countries were noted, regarding the perceptions of social media-based IR, which suggests that the homogeneous characteristics in the sample prevail in the context of the curre\\nt study.\n7. Conclusion: The current study has investigated ME investors' and corporations' perceptions of social media-based IR. The findings of the current study highlight the changing effect of social media on society in general and organizations in particular. Willingness to engage in social media-based IR is high, as long as related risks (loss of control and influence) are calculable and associate benefits outweigh risks, as far as corporations are concerned. Investors are expecting IR to become more interactive, and seek to enhance their relative power position in the investment community. Empowerment readjusts power distribution, as information is disseminated among the mass of the investment community. In the ME, cultural support of utilizing modern technology in all aspects of life is strongly developed, which facilitates the adoption of social media for IR as well. The findings of the current study have also shown that power is not one-dimensional or reflective of one theoretical approach but can be multi-faceted. The findings have shown that while power would be distributed among the investment community in a postmodern manner, sovereign power clusters remain, reflecting the powerful positions of particular investors or corporations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of Web 2.0-based social media for investor relations (IR), in the Middle Eastern (ME) context. IR is one of the under-researched topics of the corporate reporting subject area. This study seeks to contribute by investigating social media for IR in a ME context. It researches the perceptions of corporations, and individual and institutional investors regarding the phenomenon of social media for IR, given the particular cultural context. A conceptual model guiding future research is developed out of the analyzed data.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research approach is qualitative and exploratory in nature, as the aim is to analyze perceptions and opinions of participants, in order to develop a theoretical argument based on these. To this end, the study employs a qualitative methodology and interview data collection. Data are analyzed using qualitative research coding styles.\nFindings: Primary findings are encompassed in the theoretical framework, which theorises the adoption of social media for investor relation in particular but addresses voluntary corporate reporting in general. The study determines that there are various factors that support and hinder adoption, such as willingness to adopt social media for IR and potential risks and benefit, and that there are anticipated outcomes, such as improved communications between investors and corporations and a related power adjustment. The new element regarding IR that transpired out of the current study is the notion of investor empowerment and the directly related fear of lack, or essentially loss, of control.\nOriginality/value: The ME societies are very interested in social media applications, and utilize these in a broad range of their daily work and private activities. IR, as part of voluntary reporting, have been subject of recent debate, as little guidance is available and corporations' practices vary. The current study highlights these factors in a largely under-researched market, the ME, and focuses a broader knowledge contribution based on the current findings. Finally, the concept of power is investigated in both its conventional and postmodern sense.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
History-of-management-thought about social responsibility
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Stakeholder theory",
"Management history"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Organizations have historically faced persistent demands imposed upon their resources by their constituents (i.e. stakeholders). At the heart of this friction point is a call for social responsibility (SR) by many stakeholders, those constituents, which affect and are affected by an organization (Freeman, 1984). The SR of business has attracted not only the attention of contemporary researchers (see Carroll and Shabana, 2010 for a review) but also has been increasingly examined from the historical point of view (e.g. Asongu, 2007; Carroll, 2008; Hoffman, 2007; Marens, 2008). For example, Marens' (2008) research focuses on the historical evolution of this literature beginning in the 1950s, whereas Hoffman (2007) looks at the origins of social responsibility as far back as the 1920s, while Asongu (2007) traces SR roots back to Ancient Mesopotamia in 1700bc. Curiously though, none of these studies examines the SR of business through a history-of-management-thought perspective.\nHistorical evolution of the social responsibility concept: While the concept of SR was not formally defined until the mid-twentieth century (e.g. Bowen, 1953), the seeds of SR emerged thousands of years ago and have grown with the evolution of commerce. Acknowledging \"that the past exists in a reciprocal relationship with the present\" (Bedeian, 2004, p. 93), we briefly highlight some of the ancestry of SR starting with the Code of Hammurabi drafted in 2250bc. This Code was a very early example of established laws governing business relationships with the public, including applicable pay rates and the conduct of business merchants (Luthans and Hodgetts, 1972). One law of the Code stipulated that \"if a wine merchant allows riotous men to assemble in his house and does not expel them, he shall be put to death\" (Luthans and Hodgetts, 1972, p. 3). This punishment illustrates a precedent for imposing penalties against a business for failing to adhere to established societal codes of conduct.In the medieval times, the idea of SR was advanced in the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a thirteenth-century theologian, who proposed that all trade transactions had a \"just price\" (Wren and Bedeian, 2009). During the Renaissance Age when the volume of commerce was significantly growing, Friar Johannes Nider scripted the first printed literary work of business ethics - De Contractibus Mercatorum, or translated, On the Contracts of Merchants (Nider, 1468/1966, p. 4), which contained precepts to govern the \"transfer of possession of the goods of one owner to another.\" Friar Nider proposed trade rules for buying and selling justly, establishing the market value of goods, merchant security, and just and unjust contracts.Social responsibility during the Industrial Revolution\nThe modern era of CSR and the emergence of stakeholder theory: Roots of stakeholder theory\nManagement thought and corporate social responsibility: a historical analysis: How the intricate relationship with society is managed is a critical task as it affects the firm's viability. Several prominent management thinkers in the early- to mid-twentieth century recognized these complexities. Our review of history reveals three common management philosophies:1. recognition of the external environment;2. the need for collaboration; and3. the need for a shared understanding.These philosophies were not explicitly articulated as such in any particular work, rather these management practices are consistent themes we see evident across time. Exploring these historical contributions lays the foundation for a deeper understanding of more recent contributions that are focused specifically on managing the stakeholder relationship in regards to CSR.Early management philosophies of social responsiveness toward stakeholders\nConclusion: Our foremost contribution is to provide the first history-of-management-thought perspective on the SR of business by tracing changes in the conceptualization of this concept, including the related stakeholder paradigm, to their roots in the works of renowned management thinkers. The principles expressed by today's CSR scholars are conceptually linked to management thought from the early twentieth century. Strong similarities are evident in areas of organization-stakeholder collaboration, revealing how forces such as control of resources sway this relationship and influence an organization's stance toward social responsibility. Also, classic management thought emphasizes a need for shared understanding supported by collaboration, relationships based on trust, and open communication with the objective of establishing common goals and cooperative relationships.Implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to examine the development of the social responsibility (SR) of business concept and related management philosophies through the history-of-management-thought perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The history-of-management-thought approach to social responsibility (SR) is grounded in the paradigm of continuing progress exemplified by the contributions of great management thinkers (e.g. Fayol, Taylor, Follett, Barnard). A historical evolution of the SR concept is provided, together with tracing the development of stakeholder theory in its attempt to depict the relationship between stakeholder management and SR.\nFindings: - Three management philosophies (recognition of the external environment, a need for collaboration, and a need for a shared understanding) emerge from both classical and modern management thinkers. Recent conceptualizations have added depth by clarifying the meaning of social responsibility and in addition, detailing the nature of firm-stakeholder relationships. Despite voluminous literature, achieving collaborative integration between firms and stakeholders in practice appears elusive.\nPractical implications: - These management philosophies can help organizations navigate the intertwined relationship between business and society. Business leaders need to consider the vital role of trust in building more collaborative relationships.\nOriginality/value: - The unique contribution of this paper is to provide the first history-of-management-thought perspective on the social responsibility of business by tracing changes in the conceptualization of this concept, including the related stakeholder paradigm, to their roots in the works of renowned management thinkers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An integrated view of human, organizational, and technological challenges of IT security management
|
[
"Data security",
"Communication technologies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Recent research has recognized that technological factors are not the only key to the effectiveness of information security controls; there is also a need to understand the impact of hubman and organizational factors (Beznosov and Beznosova, 2007; Botta et al., 2007; Rayford et al., 2001). While there have been studies of specific challenges of IT security management (Koskosas and Paul, 2004; Knapp et al., 2006; Audestad, 2005) or sets of challenges along one of the factors (Kankanhalli et al., 2003; Chang and Ho, 2006), none have provided a comprehensive integrated overview of the challenges faced by security practitioners. A better understanding of how different human, organizational, and technological elements interplay could explain how different factors lead to sources of security breaches and vulnerabilities within organizations (Kraemer and Carayon, 2007).This paper reports on the challenges that security practitioners face within their organizations. We used qualitative methods to understand factors that affect the adoption of best security practices within organizations. Our final data set consisted of 36 interviews with security practitioners from 17 different organizations, both academic and non-academic (private, government). Our results not only validate and extend other studies that address challenges facing security practitioners, but also provide an integrated framework that classifies these challenges. This framework can help organizations identify their limitations with respect to implementing security standards and determine if they are spending their security resources effectively. It also provides a way to understand how different factors interplay, for example, how the culture of the organization and decentralization of IT security trigger security issues that make security management more difficult. We also elaborate on several opportunities for researchers and developers to improve the technology and processes used to support the adoption of security policies or standards within organizations. To illustrate, we found that security processes should consider that IT security practitioners have to effectively communicate security issues to other stakeholders who have different perceptions of risks and do not have security as a first priority within the organization. This paper is an extension of a earlier version based on the first 27 interviews (Werlinger et al., 2008a).We first present related work (Section 2) on IT security challenges. We then describe our methodology (Section 3), including our research questions and participant profiles. We present results (Section 4) as an integrated framework of human, organizational, and technological challenges. We discuss the interplay between the challenges, ground our findings in prior research, and discuss opportunities to address the challenges through improvements to tool design and processes (Section 5). We end Section 5 by discussing limitations of our approach and opportunities for future research on challenges and provide final conclusions in Section 6.\n2 Background: Our results build upon prior work that addresses a subset of the human, organizational, and technological elements that challenge the adoption of IT security within organizations. We define human aspects as those related to cognition at the individual level, as well as culture and interaction with other people. Organizational aspects are those related to the structure of the organization, including size and managerial decisions around IT security. Technological aspects involve technical solutions such as applications and protocols. Our definitions of human, organizational, and technological aspects were adapted from Beznosov and Beznosova (2007) who define technical, human, and social aspects of IT security.2.1 Human factors\n3 Methodology: A better understanding of real-world conditions and constraints during the adoption of security practices would help developers and designers make secure systems more usable (Flechais and Sasse, 2007). None of the studies described in the related work provide a comprehensive, integrated overview of the challenges faced by security practitioners; the goal of our study is to help fill this gap. For the analysis reported here, our primary research questions were:1. What are the main challenges that security practitioners face in their organizations?2. How do these challenges interplay?3. What are the implications of these challenges for future research?Our analysis of security challenges is part of the ongoing HOT Admin project (Hawkey et al., 2008), whose long-term goal is to construct a set of guidelines for evaluating and developing tools used for managing IT security. In order to learn about the human, organizational, and technological aspects of IT management, we evaluated the use of work shadowing, contextual interviews (Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1998), and semi-structured interviews. The first two instruments would give us fine-grained data on the work of security practitioners and their challenges, whereas the third would reveal the goals that they had in mind. Recruiting security practitioners can be difficult (Kotulic and Clark, 2004), and none that we contacted were willing to engage in work shadowing or contextual interviews. Therefore, our data consists of in situ semi-structured interviews.A graduated recruitment strategy was employed; this is described in detail in Botta et al. (2007). The project obtained 39 completed questionnaires that led to 21 interviews with IT professionals with security responsibilities; the remaining participants were recruited directly through contacts and referrals. When available, the questionnaire provided demographic information, while the semi-structured interviews covered various aspects of IT security. For those participants who did not complete a questionnaire, we requested demographic information during the interview. During the semi-structured interviews, participants answered questions about their tasks, the tools they use, and the challenges of implementing security controls. To reduce interviewer bias, two researchers conducted each interview. This approach ensured coverage of interview questions and allowed the interviewers to probe for details from different perspectives.In total, we conducted 36 interviews with 36 security practitioners from 17 unique organizations (3 academic, 14 non-academic). We refer to interview numbers rather than participant numbers, as some interviews contained two participants (I1, 17, I6, I22). In these interviews, one participant was the primary interviewee, while the other added details or confirmed recollections of events. From two of those interviews (I1, I17), the secondary participant was recruited for an individual interview about their own experiences (I3 and I18, respectively). Furthermore, we re-interviewed two participants (I9, I24) several months later to gather additional details about their challenges during the deployment of an intrusion detection system. We indicate throughout the results whether the challenges were discussed during the initial interview (I9A, I24A) or the follow-up interview (I9B, I24B).It is important to note that, due to the nature of semi-structured interviews, not all topics were discussed at the same level of detail with all participants. In 32 of the interviews (30 + the 2 follow-up interviews), participants explicitly discussed challenges (see Table I for their profiles). We have omitted I6, I13, I13, and I26 from the table as those participants did not directly discuss challenges of IT security management.The interviews were analyzed using qualitative description (Sandelowski, 2000) with constant comparison and inductive analysis of the data. We first identified instances in the interviews when participants described the challenges they faced implementing security controls within their organizations. These situations were coded iteratively, starting with open coding and continuing with axial coding. Results were then organized by the types of challenges (e.g. lack of resources to implement security controls). Posterior analysis was based on further elaboration of \"memos\" (Charmaz, 2006) written during the coding process. Following a theoretical sampling approach, interview questions were adjusted three times (before interviews 15, 22, and 27), in order to validate emerging theories. For the overall project (Hawkey et al., 2008), five researchers performed the analysis, each focusing their analysis on different themes. The challenges theme had a considerable degree of overlap with other themes (e.g. sources of errors for security practitioners); this made triangulation of analysis possible at the researcher level.\n4 Building an integrated framework of challenges: Our participants described a variety of factors that made it difficult for them to implement security controls in their organizations. We classified these challenges as human, organizational, or technological using the definitions described in Section 2. Given that some challenges are multi-dimensional and can be classified in different ways depending on the particular interpretation of the researcher, our emphasis is on understanding the different types of challenges that affect the work of security practitioners. Table II provides a summary of these challenges and their distribution across academic and non-academic organizations. We next describe in more detail the human, organizational, and technological challenges identified by our participants. Where appropriate, we illustrate the more general challenges with specific aspects discussed by participants.4.1 Human factors\n5 Discussion: We discuss our results from three different perspectives:1. We describe the interplay among challenges.2. We ground our results in prior research and discuss research opportunities to address the challenges by improving security tools and processes. Where possible, we propose characteristics that these tools and processes should have to support security practitioners in real contexts.3. We discuss limitations of our approach, particularly with respect to our ability to perform a cross analysis of the challenges described by participants, considering their organizations and positions.We also discuss the future work required to validate and refine the framework of challenges.5.1 A holistic view of challenges and their interrelationships\n6 Conclusion: We have used empirical data and prior work to provide an integrated view of the various human, organizational, and technological challenges that security experts face within their organizations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to provide a comprehensive list of these challenges in the context of information security. This framework is intended to provide guidance for those organizations and security practitioners that need to identify their limitations in implementing security policies, and determine what is relevant when making decisions regarding IT security. We have discussed how the different challenges interplay, and have suggested various research opportunities for addressing these challenges through improvements to security processes and technologies, considering their human and organizational factors. More research is needed to fully understand how security challenges interplay, as this interaction affects the improvements organizations can make in their management of IT security. In this vein, we are currently developing a survey to administer to security practitioners that will help us refine and generalize our results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to determine the main challenges that IT security practitioners face in their organizations, including the interplay among human, organizational, and technological factors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data set consisted of 36 semi-structured interviews with IT security practitioners from 17 organizations (academic, government, and private). The interviews were analyzed using qualitative description with constant comparison and inductive analysis of the data to identify the challenges that security practitioners face.\nFindings: - A total of 18 challenges that can affect IT security management within organizations are indentified and described. This analysis is grounded in related work to build an integrated framework of security challenges. The framework illustrates the interplay among human, organizational, and technological factors.\nPractical implications: - The framework can help organizations identify potential challenges when implementing security standards, and determine if they are using their security resources effectively to address the challenges. It also provides a way to understand the interplay of the different factors, for example, how the culture of the organization and decentralization of IT security trigger security issues that make security management more difficult. Several opportunities for researchers and developers to improve the technology and processes used to support adoption of security policies and standards within organizations are provided.\nOriginality/value: - A comprehensive list of human, organizational, and technological challenges that security experts have to face within their organizations is presented. In addition, these challenges within a framework that illustrates the interplay between factors and the consequences of this interplay for organizations are integrated.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Role of gender on acceptance of mobile payment
|
[
"Trust",
"Risk",
"Ease of use",
"Mobile commerce",
"Mobile payment",
"Moderation effect of gender"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: adoption of the internet and electronic commerce in business to consumer trade: In recent years, developments in the field of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the important business applications derived from them, have created significant economic progress in terms of profitability, productivity, competitiveness and economic growth for both companies and countries (Dehning and Stratopoulos, 2003). Scientific literature includes mobile commerce (m-commerce) as a part of electronic commerce (e-commerce) as it differs only due to the business channel application.\n2 New payment methods in B2C e-commerce: ICTs develop new payment systems to improve management of business transactions between companies and their customers and to solve certain problems associated with managing physical money (Tamayo, 1999).\n3 Research proposal: antecedents of intention of use with m-payment: The objective of this research is, from a holistic perspective, to develop a behavior model to define the intended use of a new payment tool used via mobile phones among population users. Our mobile payment technology acceptance model (MPTAM) integrates factors from different existing models and theories, to respond to the acceptance of these new payment tools.\n4 Research methodology: 4.1 Data collection\n5 Results: 5.1 Reliability and validity of measurement items\n6 Discussion and conclusions: 6.1 Main conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the research is to try to explain the intention of adopting a new mobile payment (m-payment) system in a country where this type of payment systems does not have a presence. More exactly, to propose and test an integrative theoretical model that allows to determine the relative influence of the determining factors (external influences, ease of use, attitude, usefulness, trust and risk) for the acceptance of a new m-payment system and to analyze the eventual moderating effect of the gender of the consumer in the use of these tools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To carry out this research, a web experiment based on a general population sample was put in place, in order to analyze the proposed behavioral model towards a new m-payment system.\nFindings: The empirical results show that the proposed behavioral model was appropriately adjusted, thus proving that the gender of the user introduces significant differences in the proposed relationships between ease of use and usefulness of the new system, between usefulness, attitude and intention to use, as well as between users' trust and a favorable attitude towards its use.\nPractical implications: The conclusions and implications for management provide alternatives and segmentation strategies to consolidate this new business opportunity under the new technological developments.\nOriginality/value: This paper is a pioneer study about the acceptance of m-payment, analyzing at the same time the importance of the moderation effect of users' gender.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Risk-based maintenance and remaining life assessment for gas turbines
|
[
"Gas turbines",
"Remaining life",
"Repair",
"Replacement",
"Risk of failure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The complexity and demand of the safety and integrity of ageing assets require an advanced approach to manage asset integrity in safe and cost effective manner. The asset integrity ensures that the asset performs its intended function according to the design requirements.\n2. Proposed risk-based maintenance and remaining life assessment model: 2.1. Risk of failure under preventive maintenance (PM)\n3. Application of the proposed model to ageing gas turbine: Gas turbines that have been driving the pumps of a cross-country pipeline since 1981 are considered in this application. While these gas turbines have been considered very reliable, they have experienced a steady rise in failure rates over the last years. Making the matter more challenging is the fact that the turbine manufacturer, suspended aftermarket support including the manufacturing of critical spare parts. Some replacement parts are reconditioned components that were previously used. These have clocked thousands of cycles of fatigue prior to their installation yet it is difficult to quantify the degree to which these parts are contributing to the increasing failure rates. The proposed risk-based model has been applied to make a well-informed decision on the viability of continued operation with the old turbines (Option I) vs replacement with new gas turbines (Option II).\n4. Conclusion: A quantitative model for risk-based maintenance and remaining life assessment is proposed for aged gas turbines. The total risk is estimated as sum of replacement cost, repair cost, operation cost, risk of failure and remaining value. The optimum maintenance option is made based on the total risk. The risk-based remaining life is determined at the crossover point of different suggested maintenance options. After the crossover point, the selection of the optimum maintenance option changes to maintain the total risk as minimum during the operation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a quantitative model for risk-based maintenance and remaining life assessment for gas turbines.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed model uses historical failure and repair data from the operation of gas turbines. The time to failure of gas turbines is modeled using Weibull distribution.\nFindings: The total risk is estimated considering replacement cost, repair cost, operation cost, risk of failure and turbine remaining value after a specified period of time.\nOriginality/value: The model is an effective tool to make optimal decisions regarding maintenance strategy (repair or replacement) and to assess the remaining life based on a comparison of the total risk. The literature review focusses on developing different models to make risk-based decisions regarding the selection of a maintenance strategy and maintenance interval, however, literature is silent regarding risk-based assessment of the equipment remaining life, which is the focus of present work. The model is tested and applied to ageing gas turbines in a cross-country pipeline.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Inclusive versus exclusive learning: the secret ingredient to creating a truly "lean" and "learning" culture
|
[
"Organizational learning",
"Inclusive learning",
"Lean strategy",
"Learning attitudes",
"Personal leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since the term was coined two decades ago, \"lean\" has become a mainstream management concept, widely used in all industries, from goods manufacturing to Internet start-ups, or from fast-moving consumer goods to healthcare. Yet, those of us who have been involved in studying Toyota's unique management method (the roots of lean), in experimenting with CEOs to create lean cultures and in adopting lean within our own companies, feel there is little lean about what many people now call \"lean\".\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is a first-hand study of lean improvement programs that has led the authors to distinguish two different forms of learning intent: exclusive learning versus inclusive learning. These two forms of learning reflect two different attitudes to learning. With exclusive learning, the executives expect to learn by themselves and then apply this learning to the organization - and then reap the benefits. With inclusive learning, the executives intend to learn with others and from their own learning efforts - and share the benefits. The authors argue that these learning attitudes account for a large part of the difference between the success and failure of lean initiatives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on over 25 years of research studying Toyota - where the term \"lean\" was first used to describe their particular way of working - together with working with hundreds of other organizations around the world across all sectors.\nFindings: To implement a lean strategy that brings long-term, effective change requires senior executives to start with their own personal learning journey and to create an inclusive learning culture within their organization.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides a succinct summary of how a different mindset is required from senior executives if they are to create and implement a truly lean strategy for their organization. Their behaviors enable or inhibit what the authors describe as an \"inclusive\" learning environment which will create and maintain a sustainable shift to a lean culture.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of expectations on consumer interpretation of new information
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Services",
"Expectations",
"Behavioural intentions",
"Updating"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper examines the role of expectations and their antecedents in shaping consumer evaluations and behavioral intent toward a service organization. It does so by studying the effect of a piece of news about the firm, specifically information about its corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Firms are facing increasing pressures to both maintain profitability and market share, as well as to be socially responsible (Korschun et al., 2014; Du et al., 2010). Surveys of public expectations consistently show an organization's social responsibility matters (e.g. Epstein-Reeves, 2010; Cone, 2013). Epstein-Reeves (2010) demonstrates that consumers expect companies to achieve their corporate objectives while improving society and the environment in which they operate. Imagine the CEO of a services firm. She knows that expectations shape the way in which consumers evaluate her service, but she does not know the total nature of those expectations, whether expectations operate by the consumer evaluating news about the firm differently or by directly operating on beliefs and attitudes, and what factors lead to those expectations. We aim to address those issues.\n2. Expectations and their antecedents: 2.1 Expectations\n3. Conceptual model and hypothesis development: To develop a conceptual model of how expectations influence evaluation and behavioral intentions, we draw on Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior and extend Boulding et al.'s (1993) model of service quality. Our model highlights the sources of knowledge on which expectations are based, as well as the outcomes that these expectations have been shown to influence. As advocated by Urban and Karash (1971), we adopt an evolutionary approach to model development. The three stages of our model, illustrated in Figure 1, consist of: a base model of information integration; the incorporation of expectations; and the inclusion of the antecedents of expectations.\n4. Data and methods: To calibrate expectations and their antecedents, and to develop appropriate stimulus materials, we employed a mixed method approach: semi-structured interviews, pre-testing and a pilot study, followed by the main study (online survey). Air traveler expectations of the focal corporation, QANTAS Airways, were elicited and tested[1]. QANTAS is a leading airline based in Australia with strong domestic and international networks. An airline provides an ideal context for testing our model in a service industry. Within the commercial aviation industry, air travelers' expectations are important drivers of repeat airline choice. As the competition between airlines intensifies, identifying the service expectations that matter most to airline customers is an important factor in creating a competitive advantage in performance (Danaher et al., 2011; Parasuraman et al., 1994; Sachdev and Verma, 2002). Some of the key attributes to delivering superior airline service quality include reliability in maintaining flight schedules, a good safety record, perceived social responsibility, and helpful employees. Moreover, beliefs gained through their personal experience greatly affect perceptions, attitude and repeat purchase (Goldsmith et al., 1994; McKercher et al., 2003).\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive results\n6. Discussion: Although expectations are widely acknowledged to be an integral part of CSR, their role has not previously been empirically tested in a systematic manner. This study distinguishes three expectation standards - would, could and should - to develop a full model of expectations, explore direct and indirect relationships among expectations, attitude toward news and updated beliefs (and subsequent attitude and behavioral intentions) in a service industry, and identifies the key antecedents of different types of expectations. Previous studies have typically categorized expectations either as predictive or normative standards (Boulding et al., 1993; Cadotte et al., 1987; Swan and Trawick, 1980). However, very few comparative studies look at how consumers may also weigh up the firm's resources and external market conditions to deduce its possible performance when evaluating it (Barney, 1991). Our study takes a step toward resolving this gap by harnessing insights from RBF, and extends the expectations literature by presenting a third set of expectations - could expectations, providing a mechanism by which perceived resources can affect evaluation, as proposed by Hart (1995). Could expectations offer a vehicle for examining how consumers assess resource and external environmental constraints to come up with what a firm would do in the formation of expectations. We have demonstrated the explanatory power of could expectations. Models incorporating all three forms of expectation clearly outperform those with only two (should and would) which in turn outperform the use of one generalized expectations construct. This provides a fundamental challenge to marketing managers to manage consumer perceptions of different expectations' antecedents (both internal resources and the external environment) in order to gain the most advantageous benchmarks against which their performance will be judged.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of consumers' expectations and their antecedents on beliefs, attitude and behavioral intentions when they respond to new corporate social responsibility (CSR) information about a service firm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirically, the authors measure prior beliefs, and then calibrate how those beliefs change in response to a piece of news. The authors develop a conceptual model articulating the nature and antecedents of three types of expectations: would, could and should. The authors use structural equation modeling to test how these expectations influence the consumer evaluation process.\nFindings: The results show that the effect of could expectations on the evaluation process is felt via their influence on would expectations; that is, would expectations fully mediate the relationship between could expectations and attitude toward news. Similarly, attitude toward news fully mediates the relationship between would and should expectations and updated beliefs about the firm.\nResearch limitations/implications: In the selected service industry, the findings show that expectations are mediated by the new information that consumers receive when they are updating their prior beliefs. The authors demonstrate the ability to understand the antecedents of expectations, which provides a vehicle by which the organization can influence the consumer evaluation process.\nPractical implications: In practice, managers can identify the antecedents of consumer expectations and thus influence the reference points against which those consumers will evaluate news about their product.\nSocial implications: CSR has important implications for multiple stakeholders and the authors calibrate the determinants of how news about the organization's performance on it may affect consumer decision processes.\nOriginality/value: The paper introduces \"could\" expectations into the services literature, examines the antecedents of the different types of expectations, and studies how their effect is felt through the evaluation process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Incorporating privacy in the design of cloud-based systems: a conceptual meta-model
|
[
"Privacy",
"Information security modeling",
"Cloud computing",
"Requirements engineering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The goal of the modern and innovative technological era that we live on is to make users trust the services provided by raising their awareness when selecting to use one service and by revealing the technical aspects that, when implemented, will ensure the safety of the system. The factors for formulating trust are many, and one of the most important ones is privacy.\n2. Related work: Privacy has attracted much attention recently, especially as a design criterion that needs to be considered early during system design phase. Thus, a number of software engineering methods supporting the elicitation and modelling of privacy issues have been proposed.\n3. Proposed meta-model: This section presents the basic privacy-aware cloud concepts along with the proposed conceptual model, which extends the PriS method, presented in Kalloniatis et al. (2005, 2008, 2009).\n4. Illustration of the meta-model: This section illustrates the proposed meta-model with the use of a real case study. The aim is to prove the ability to use the proposed meta-model as an initial stage for capturing all necessary organisational and privacy-related concepts to assist privacy engineers in reasoning about the design of privacy-aware systems in the cloud environment. As the goal of this section is the illustration of the meta-model, it is important to examine its usefulness in a real case irrespective of the cloud service model or the layer of services provided.\n5. Conclusions: Privacy is one of the most important factors that raise users' trustworthiness over a system or service they intend to use. Cloud computing has brought a number of innovative services in our everyday online activities. However, along with the innovation, a number of privacy threats came along that create uncertainty because they hinder a number of potential privacy violations in the users' data.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend PriS (privacy safeguard), a privacy requirements engineering method for eliciting and modelling privacy requirements during system design, with the addition of privacy-aware cloud-based concepts to assist analysts to reason and model about privacy in cloud environments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An analysis of previous findings on the file of cloud privacy based on previous work has been conducted and a set of privacy-related concepts that need to be considered during privacy analysis for cloud-based systems have been revealed. These concepts were used for extending the conceptual model of PriS.\nFindings: The main finding of the paper is the design of a new, novel conceptual model that assists analysts and designers in reasoning about privacy in cloud environments. A new template using the JSON (Javascript notation object) format has been introduced for better expressing the privacy requirements along with the related concepts presented through the conceptual model, thus letting the developers to better understand the findings during the design stage and better guide them to the implementation of the respective solution.\nResearch limitations/implications: The design of a cloud-based process that will guide analysts in detail for eliciting and modelling the identified privacy-related requirements is the limitation and in parallel the next step of the specific work presented here.\nPractical implications: The conceptual model has been applied on a real case scenario regarding its efficiency on capturing and mapping all necessary concepts for assisting analysts proceed with the design of the privacy-aware system. The results were positive, all concepts were easy to use and totally understandable from the design team and the stakeholders and the use of the JSON template received very positive comments, especially from the developer's team.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a novel conceptual model for reasoning about privacy requirements in the cloud. The applicability of the proposed model has also been tested on a real case study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigation of the volitional, non-volitional, emotional, motivational and automatic processes in determining golfers' intention: Impact of screen golf
|
[
"Theory of planned behavior (TPB)",
"Intention",
"Desire",
"Golf",
"Model of goal-directed behavior (MGB)",
"Screen golf"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For the past few decades, active participation in golf has steadily increased. According to Wheeler and Nauright (2006), golf is today one of the most popular participation sports in the world and one of the top in terms of monetary expenditure. Thus, an urgent trend in the hospitality marketplace is the expansion of golf tourism, the fastest-growing segment in the sport-tourism industry today (Fjelstul and Tesone, 2008; Hudson and Hudson, 2010; Kim et al., 2008; Kim and Ritchie, 2012; Sinclair and Boger, 2006). Along with the growth of golf tourism and individuals' interest in golf as leisure/sport activity, the market for \"screen golf\", which is a virtual form of the traditional game using high-tech sensors, screens and projectors to replicate a real golf-course experience, has also consistently expanded. For instance, in the Republic of Korea, more than 200,000 citizens play this virtual simulacrum of course-based golf on a daily basis (Choe, 2008), and about 20,000,000 Korean citizens engage in the virtual game per year. This virtual form of leisure activity is becoming one of the country's most participated-in sports and is a social and sporting phenomenon imperiling the traditional Korean golf industry (Yi, 2009; Shin and Yoon, 2010).\nConceptual framework: Socio-psychological theory and model of goal-directed behavior\nMethods: Measures\nResults: The measurement model\nDiscussion and implications: Deepening the MGB, this study was designed to better explicate golfers' decision formation regarding playing golf on traditional golf courses by considering the moderating impact of their outcome beliefs about the playing of screen golf. The SEM for the proposed model effectively predicted golfers' intentions to play real golf at traditional golf courses, explaining significant amounts of the total variance in intention. Desire played a significant mediating role in the proposed theoretical framework. The prominent roles of positive anticipated emotions and subjective norms were also identified. The metric-invariance model and a series of modeling comparisons verified the criticality of the subjects' outcome beliefs related to the playing of screen golf as a moderator in determining golfers' favorable intentions to play real golf. In sum, the research objectives were all achieved, and the robustness of the proposed conceptual framework was verified. Further, the applicability and effectiveness of the MGB in a golf context was made evident. The present research contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the golf industry by developing and providing important evidence of the specific role of volitional, non-volitional, emotional/affective, motivational and automatic processes in the formation of golfers' decision that can be used in the subsequent research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study was designed with the aim to examine the formation of golfers' intentions to play golf on traditional golf courses by considering the moderating impact of their outcome beliefs regarding the playing of screen golf. Other goals in this research were to test the mediating impact of desires and to identify the relative importance of study variables in generating intention within the proposed conceptual framework. The Model of Goal-directed Behavior (MGB) was utilized to make a precise prediction of golfers' intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The dataset was developed by distributing surveys in person at screen-golf cafes. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the fit of the proposed model and assess the hypothesized relationships. Tests for metric invariance were used to examine the moderating impact of outcome beliefs.\nFindings: Results from the SEM revealed that the proposed model predicted golfers' intentions well, explaining significant amounts of variance. Desire acted as a significant mediator in the proposed conceptual framework. Compared to other study variables, both positive anticipated emotions and subjective norms had superior ability in generating golfers' intentions to play real golf. Moreover, results from the test for metric invariance indicated that the intensity of golfers' perceived benefits of playing screen golf affected their decision formation as a moderator, decreasing their intention to play real golf.\nOriginality/value: Research considering the impact of screen golf on golfers' decision-making processes is rare in the golf industry. Filling this gap, the present study successfully demonstrated that golfers' decision formation is sufficiently explained by the MGB, and their perceived outcomes from playing screen golf represent a possible threat to the traditional golf industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Collaboration in a circular economy: learning from the farmers to reduce food waste
|
[
"Collaboration",
"Supply chain",
"Food waste",
"Circular economy",
"Farmer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study aims to understand farmers' current food waste management practices and analyse how they manage their stakeholder relationships in the supply chain from a circular economy (CE) perspective. Food waste management is well established in the sustainability literature; however, there has not been an investigation into how collaborating with supply chain stakeholders can support its management in the CE framework, especially from the farmers' perspective. Wasting food is not only economically inefficient, but also environmentally and socially damaging, with rising greenhouse gases (FAO, 2017), depletion of natural resources, such as water and energy (Darlington et al., 2009), and food insecurity becoming increasing concerns (Jurgilevich et al., 2016; WRAP, 2017). According to WRAP (2017), 7.3m tonnes of food and drink were wasted in 2015 in UK households, representing a 4.4 per cent increase compared to 2012 figures; avoidable food waste represents 60.2 per cent of that figure. Globally, roughly one-third, or 1.3bn tonnes, of food is wasted (FAO, 2017).\nLiterature review: This section examines the body of literature concerned with collaborative relationships in the context of closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs), collaboration and food waste management. These are used to understand the implications of collaborative supply chain relationships for food waste management in the context of the CE.\nConceptual framework and theoretical underpinnings: Theoretical underpinnings\nMethodology: This section illustrates the adopted research strategy, data collection process and limitations of the present study. The research philosophy adopted takes an interpretivist, axiological approach. Interpretivism describes research where the researcher takes an \"empathetic stance\" (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 116) and seeks to understand the subject's point of view, taking a non-positivist approach. The axiological approach accepts that values are a guiding tool to human action (Heron, 1996): therefore, the researcher's values are used to make judgements about the way in which the research is conducted. This approach is most commonly used when undertaking qualitative research, using small samples to conduct in-depth investigation (Saunders et al., 2009). Contrastingly, a positivist approach assumes a theory-neutral stance to observation and adopts the ontological assumption that the researcher is separate from reality (Weber, 2004). Furthermore, it neglects the importance of acknowledging the effects of one's own biases and assumptions on one's research, although both philosophies seek to enhance one's understanding of the world, despite contrasting approaches to reporting research (Weber, 2004).\nFindings, analysis and discussion: This section focusses on the main themes derived from the interviews; the analysis and discussion focus on how the information gathered corroborates or deviates from extant literature.\nConclusion and contribution: The most prominent themes identified were collaboration as a foundation for working within the CE framework; knowledge seeking and geographic proximity as catalysts for collaboration; and the need to derive shared value for the formation of successful collaborative relationships. These are in line with the proposed conceptual framework; specifically, they reiterate that factors identified in IE, IS and CLSCs studies are applicable to the CE literature. In particular, the research findings corroborate existing literature, reinforcing the recurring argument that collaborative relationships are essential to transitioning towards more sustainable supply chains (Chertow, 2007; Posch, 2010; Boons et al., 2011; Lombardi and Laybourn 2012; Sarkis et al., 2011; Bell et al., 2013; Matopoulos et al., 2015). Additionally, the findings echo Genovese et al.'s (2017) argument that CE provides a platform where shared value enables collaborative relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Given the lacuna in sustainability studies which investigate collaborative supply chain relationships in the context of the circular economy (CE), the purpose of this paper is to explore how farmers manage stakeholder relationship in the supply chain to reduce food waste within the CE framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews is used to collect primary data for this research. Interviews are conducted with farmers across different farming types in the UK. A thematic analysis is used to discuss the most prominent themes.\nFindings: The findings extend previous research investigating collaboration in sustainability settings. Farmers adopt collaborative relationships to manage exchanges of food waste and to share knowledge of waste management practices. However, contrary to extant literature, the study finds that geographic proximity is still relevant in the CE framework, although its importance is determined by the type of exchange: i.e. physical or non-physical.\nPractical implications: Based on the study's findings, recommendations for further research are proposed. The study also advises on practical considerations for supply chain managers wishing to adopt collaborative relationships to support circular models of supply chains.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the sustainability literature by adding new knowledge to the relatively new theory of the CE. It demonstrates that factors of collaboration identified in previous sustainability research are still relevant in the CE framework, and thus require further investigation into the significance of collaboration. The study is also of relevance to supply chain managers wishing to adopt the CE framework in the transition to more sustainable supply chains.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Peer-to-peer accommodation services in the sharing economy: Effects of psychological distances on guest loyalty
|
[
"Construal level theory",
"Customer loyalty",
"Sharing economy",
"Peer-to-peer accommodation",
"Psychological distances"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The emergence of the sharing economy has transformed the tourism and hospitality industry. For example, the rise of peer-to-peer accommodation platforms such as Airbnb has been described as a \"disruptive innovation\" because of the company's innovative internet-based business model that connects strangers through collaborative consumption and its unique appeal to tourists in the digital age (Guttentag, 2015). Specifically, through peer-to-peer accommodation, individuals (hosts) rent a living space they own to other individuals (guests) who seek accommodation on a short-term basis (Ert et al., 2016). Such a peer-to-peer accommodation model is changing resource allocation, business models and consumer behavior in the tourism and hospitality industry (Puschmann and Alt, 2016) and its dynamics (Cheng, 2016).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The sharing economy\n3. Method: 3.1 Data and measures\n4. Results and findings: Table IV presents the estimation results. We implement the analysis using probability regressions with random effects estimations (Models 1-3). The probability regression models predict whether a repeat purchase is influenced by the host-guest psychological distances in peer-to-peer accommodation. We first start the estimation with standard errors (Model 1), followed by robust standard errors (Model 2) and robust standard errors clustered at the guest level (Model 3). While robust standard errors allow for heterogeneity on the error term, clustering such error terms within individual guests increases our confidence intervals. This is because we allow not only the independence of observations across different guests but also the correlation of observations within guests for their different times of stay (Sarzosa, 2012). Thus, robust standard errors clustered at the guest level is leveraged to reduce heteroscedasticity concerns (Greenwood and Wattal, 2017). Results estimated in models with different specifications can validate the consistency and robustness of the results.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Conclusion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to focus on peer-to-peer accommodation services in the sharing economy. Adopting construal level theory as the theoretical foundation, this study investigates the main and interaction effects of social and spatial distances on guest loyalty toward peer-to-peer accommodation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a secondary source of online observational data archived on Xiaozhu, a leading peer-to-peer accommodation sharing platform in China. It consists of 2,612 observations of 1,304 unique travelers who stayed at 559 listings managed by 281 hosts in four major metropolitan areas of China over four years from August 2012 to August 2016. Non-linear binary choice panel models of probability regressions were used to estimate the effects of psychological distances (social and spatial) between hosts and guests on the likelihood of repeat purchase. The software used for the econometric analyses is STATA 14.\nFindings: The results indicate that social distance negatively affects guest loyalty toward the listing hosts, while spatial distance has a positive influence on guest loyalty. The results also show significant interactions between the two psychological distance dimensions in influencing loyalty. The findings provide important insight into the influences of psychological distances on travelers' repeat purchase behavior toward peer-to-peer accommodation providers.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that supports the importance of psychological distances in forming a loyal relationship between hosts and guests in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector of the sharing economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dynamic risk management system for the modeling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system
|
[
"Risk management",
"Manufacturing resource planning",
"Computer applications",
"Project management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The complexity that characterizes information systems along with the capability of use of particularly powerful computing systems has led to the development of applicable and effective procedures for the support of modeling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system (Laudon and Laudon, 1999).An ERP is constituted of many sub-systems, which collaborate with the aim of complete cooperation and interaction of the enterprise departments and at the smoothing of the company operations. Generally, the complete installation of ERP and the start of the usage of ERP adjust the modeling and the optimal adaptation to the needs of the enterprise. On the whole, the complete installation of the ERP is very important project management and IT work. An effective method for achieving the desired installation is Goal Directed Project Management. Goal Directed Project Management is a comprehensive philosophy, process and method for managing projects, and has proven applicable to all kinds of projects ranging from behavioral change to large technical endeavors. The big difference between GDPM and other PM methods is its simple and scalable approach. It fits for large programs as well as for small projects.A vital procedure of project management (Cleland and Ireland, 2000) and goal directed project management (Anderson et al., 1995) is risk management. Risk management contributes in avoiding problems during a project, which can lead to deviation from project goals, timetables and cost estimation. So, an application for managing risks is very crucial for the success of a project such as the implementation of an ERP system.\n2. An overview of risk management: In order to manage risks we have to understand the meaning of risk within a project. Risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project's objectives (Project Management Institute, 2000). A risk is characterized by the following (Hall and Hulett, 2002):* it is a future event that may or may not occur;* the probability of occurring is between 0 per cent-100 per cent; and* the consequence must be unexpected or unplanned for.Risk management is any activity that identifies risk and takes action to remove, reduce or control deviations from the requirements.A generally accepted approach to risk management comprises a series of steps (Ritchie and Marshall, 1993), as listed below:1. Define the context and risk management criteria.2. Identify the risks.3. Assess the significance of those risks.4. Identify, select and implement risk treatment options.5. Perform monitoring, review and corrective options.Each step is a convenient milestone for reporting, reviewing and action taking. Each subsequent step depends on the work completed in the previous step. It provides an evolving understanding of the issues and development of progressively more robust risk management actions.\n3. Overview of existing systems: In most cases of modeling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system, risk management is conducted. There is not a certain and structured methodology or application in order to avoid pitfalls and omissions during the risk management process.For that reason, some ERP vendors such as SAP and Baan have tried to provide certain methodologies and applications as to conduct successful risk management.Specifically, SAP has a risk assessment application. The application's purpose is to provide an objective measure of the degree to which the organization believes the R/3 implementation is credible and profitable to the organization, and to individuals. In addition, this application shows the change team how they could strengthen the credibility and perceived benefits of the R/3 implementation. This intelligence will be used to drive the change management initiative (SAP White Paper, 2003).Baan provides a risk manager with which the project manager can conduct a risk assessment. In response, the system calculates the risks that may appear and provides mitigation strategies.With the support of such systems, the project manager makes a more realistic cost and time estimation. This defines in a more accurate way the goals and the desired outcome and avoids possible future problems, which may end in unwanted results. But SAP and Baan, along with other ERP vendors, which have certain methodologies, have designed these applications for the needs of their own ERP systems. These risk management applications are not generic and thus cannot be used at the implementation of any ERP system. For this reason, and for some other desired functionalities such as network access and dynamic content, the development of a dynamic and generic risk management application is necessary.\n4. Methodology and functionalities: The main purpose of this system is to be a useful and necessary application for a project manager and the people who are involved in the modelling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system.The main users of the system should be the project manager and his/her team, the consultants and, of course, the administrator of the system.The demand for continuous and direct communication between the project manager and the consultants, urge the application to be accessible via network, intranet or Internet. Due to the fact that every project has different risks, the proposed application should have a wide spectrum, should be dynamic and should offer safety. Its spectrum should have a large variety of risks and at the same time should be able to manage the risk management data. Additionally, the user should be able to manage the risk management data only if his/her role allows it.The proposed application should have the following functionalities:* Risk assessment. There should be forms with questions and possible answers in order to identify the possible risks. The questions should be generic and the user should have the capability not to choose an answer, if this is not suitable for the specific project.* Risk scoring. There should be a calculation and presentation of the risk percentage per category and in total.* Graphical presentation of the scored risks. There should be a graphical presentation of the percentage of the identified risks per category.* Risk impact and mitigation strategy. According to the identified risks, the system should dynamically present their possible impact and strategies to mitigate them.* Print. The system should provide to the user the capability of printing the reports and results.* Data management. There should be an application, with which the users could manage the risk data.\n5. Architecture of risk management tool: For the development of the proposed application, ASP pages (Ricard and Asbury, 2000) and Microsoft Access 2000 were used. With the use of these platforms, the application becomes dynamic and accessible via a network.The system consists of three sub-systems: the risk management system, the data management system and the database system. As mentioned before, the application will support three groups of users: project manager, consultants and system administrator. The first two groups have access only to the risk management system, while the administrator has access to the data management and to the database system.Database sub-system\n6. Results: This paper presented a risk management (RM) application for the modeling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system. The application was tested with the operations and capabilities of the ERP commercial package \"SINGULAR Enterprise (SEn)\" of the Greek Software House DELTA-SINGULAR S.A. The functional result of this application was proved to support considerably the management of risk within the implementation of the ERP system (Table I).The RM application was applied without the need of any adaptations to the specific ERP package. As a result of its usage, the services provided by the company were upgraded and the project work was improved in the fields of time, objectives, communication and procedure. The project manager was able to keep up with the milestones, for the progress of each task separately and the progress of the project overall. The work of the consultants was absolutely controlled and the resources were best allocated. It resulted in the improvement of the image of the company that applied it.With the use of the application by the company, an increase in the quality of the procedure of the implementation of an ERP system is expected.With the development of this application, the authors achieved the following goals:* a structured procedure to manage risk within the implementation of the system;* knowledge repository on managing risk, through the dynamic structure of the application;* immediate communication for the team's members through the web;* certainty on the success of the implementation and the expected results;* completion of the project on time;* creation of a required resources planning; and* control and reduction of cost of implementation.\n7. Conclusions: As was mentioned, this paper presented a RM application that is an important part of the procedure of implementation and optimal adaptation of an ERP system to the needs of an enterprise. This application was connected to, and tested with, the operations and capabilities of the ERP commercial package \"SINGULAR Enterprise (SEn)\" of the Greek Software House DELTA-SINGULAR S.A. With the use of the RM application and a structured implementation methodology, an increase in percentage of success in implementation and optimal adaptation of ERP systems is expected.To the best knowledge of the authors there is no other current generic research in this technological field concerning small or medium sized enterprises. With the development of this application, the following goals were achieved:* creation of a risk management application, which is simple in use;* an application, which has a dynamic content;* an application, which is flexible;* a risk management tool, which is generic;* a risk management application, which is available over a network;* a reliable application, which provides safety;* an application able to cover almost all aspects of project risks;* a risk management application friendly to users;* an application with the ability to add value to the system for the modeling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system;* a helpful tool to avoid pitfalls and dangers, through an implementation project;* a helpful procedure to have a realistic cost estimation of the entire project; and* an application which will contribute in optimizing time planning.From all the above, it derives that its use should be mandatory in order to have successful management of a project and to gain the best from it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to deal with the development of a risk management application for the modelling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper presented a risk management application for the modeling, optimal adaptation and implementation of an ERP system. The application was tested with the operations and capabilities of the ERP commercial package \"SINGULAR Enterprise (SEn)\" of the Greek Software House DELTA-SINGULAR S.A.\nFindings: - The functional result of this application was proved to support considerably the management of risk within the implementation of the ERP system.\nOriginality/value: - To the best knowledge of the authors there is no other current generic research in this technological field concerning small or medium-sized enterprises. With the development of this application, the goals mentioned in the conclusions were achieved.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Internal and external determinants of banks' profitability: The Portuguese case
|
[
"Financial crisis",
"Corporate finance and governance",
"Banking profitability",
"Macroeconomic factors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A financial intermediary stands between the lender-savers and the borrower-spenders helping to transfer funds from one to the other. Banks constitute one of the most important groups of financial intermediaries. In addition, in several financial systems, banks are more important than markets in channeling funds from savers to spenders, or are equally important. Several studies have attempted to identify the major determinants of bank profitability. However, the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers, in September of 2008, threatened the worldwide banking sector (Nanto, 2009). Therefore, in this environment of huge financial crisis, studying the banking sector profitability is most important.\n2. Literature review: It was not until recently that the 2008 financial crisis was studied with the purpose of finding out its impact on banks' profitability or if the expected behavior of the independent variables studied so far as determinants of profitability remained constant during the crisis period. Dietrich and Wanzenried (2011) and Konstantinos (2012) have analyzed the impact of some variables since 2008 and have concluded that some of the results were not altered by the financial crisis, but others, like the ones related to equity over total assets (EOTA), funding costs (FC) and real GDP growth, were. Banks' profitability is usually measured by the return on average assets (ROAA), representing the ratio of net profits to average total assets expressed as a percentage. However, two other measures of banks' profitability can be used: the return on average equity (ROAE) and the net interest margins (NIM). Hence, research on the determinants of bank performance has frequently adopted one of these measures as dependent variables.\n3. Methodology: The choice for both dependent and independent variables used on our empirical analysis follows the recent literature trend. Hence, in order to study the impact on banks' profitability, we adopt the three alternative dependent variables: the ROAA, the ROAE and the NIM.\n4. Data analysis: The data sources are the BankScope - Bureau Van Dijk, the Central Bank of Portugal (BdP) and the Eurostat. We used data for banks that have branches in Portugal between 2002 and 2011. From the 78 banks registered in BankScope that operate in Portugal, we have considered 27, both domestic and foreign. We excluded the holdings, the subsidiaries, the Central Bank of Portugal (BdP), banks that had no business in Portugal in 2011 and banks that had no commercial business.\n5. Results: Table VI reports the empirical results of the estimation of the three versions of the model for the two periods 2002-2011 and 2008-2011. We conclude that several variables are statistically significant at 1, 5 and 10 percent level.\n6. Conclusion: In this paper we aim to analyze which and how bank-specific factors and macroeconomic and industry-specific factors affect Portuguese banks' profitability. The role of banks is central in financing economic activity. Therefore, a profitable and sound banking sector is a most important economic objective. The analyses of bank profitability is, in this context, a relevant issue for academic research as well as for bank management and bank supervisors, especially in a context of major transformations in the operating environment of the banking sector (Pasiouras and Kosmidou, 2007). Following recent literature, this paper focus attention in the banking system in Portugal, thus being included in the research undertaken on profitability of individual countries' banking systems, considering both internal and external determinants.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the profitability of 27 universal banks in Portugal over the period from 2002 to 2011.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper conducts ordinary least squares estimations with fixed effects using three measures of profitability: the return on average assets, the return on average equity and the net interest margin. Several independent variables were included concerning both bank-specific and macroeconomic and industry-specific characteristics which have not been considered in previous studies. In addition, the sub-sample between 2008 and 2011 was considered for comparative analysis.\nFindings: The authors concluded that the independent variables selected, with few exceptions, behaved accordingly to what was expected.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first attempt to examine determinants of banks' profitability in Portugal, both internal and external, using time series data, which have not been considered in previous studies.\n",
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Driving the internet and e-business technologies to generate a competitive advantage in emerging markets: Evidence from Egypt
|
[
"Competitive advantage",
"Business models",
"Adoption",
"E-marketing",
"Online shopping",
"Services operation and management",
"Barriers to e-business",
"E-business modes",
"Internet and e-business applications",
"Electronically driven customer relationships management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The environment of conducting business and competition has been changed throughout the last three decades. Worldwide, a significant amount of transactions and business operations are increasingly conducted via the use of electronic networks such as the internet, intranet and extranet (Ifinedo, 2011; Song and Walden, 2007). Globally, business transactions and operations have been accelerated in volume and value done via business to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), B2B2C, G2C forms of e-commerce and also, across different countries worldwide. E-commerce statistics confirm the explosive pace at which this industry has developed as worldwide B2C e-commerce sales was amounted to more than $1.2 trillion in 2013 and is expected to score $2.356 trillion in 2018. Besides, B2C e-commerce sales as percentage of the gross domestic product worldwide is expected to increase from 0.92 in 2009 to 1.61 percent in 2018 (Statista, 2015). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has claimed that on average 96 percent of its sample firms in certain countries had used the internet and 69 percent had their own websites in 2011 (OECD, 2012). In total, 175m of internet users are accessing the internet in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and a significant number of those users are shifting their use of desktop computers to smartphone and tablets (Tabaza, 2015). This, in turn, creates a productive environment for firms operate in MENA region to deploy a set of online business models. A range of industries began to benefit from this evolving trend such as the media, food and beverage, food ordering and restaurant reservation, transportation and travel, automotive, education, cleaning and retailing (Tabaza, 2015). This new nature needs to be reflected in the way a business organization is run to gain a competitive advantage. Reviewing the literate available on the subject indicates that there is little, and in some extreme situations, no attention is provided by Egyptian scholars in the field to examine the shift made by Egyptian firms to conduct their business operations online and how such a shift impacts their competitive capabilities.\n2. Conceptual background and related work: 2.1 The evolution of new business models\n3. The emerging conceptual framework and hypotheses development: The above discussion indicates that e-business is growing dramatically in emerging economies throughout the last two decades. For instance, by the end of 2015, 3.2bn people have internet access, of which 2bn are from developing countries (ITU, 2015). Between 2000 and 2015 developing countries' internet user population grew by more than 500 percent (400m-2bn), increasing their global share of all internet users from 25 to 62.5 percent (ITU, 2015). Internet bandwidth has also been expanding at a fast pace, the share of developing countries in total international bandwidth increased from around 9 percent in 2004 to almost 30 percent in 2013. What this growth means for e-business uptake is difficult to determine because the data for developing countries is virtually absent and sketchy.\n4. Research method: 4.1 Development of instruments\n5. Data analysis and results: Table II indicates that the widely used form of e-business is the model number one (M1), which is representing a minimum degree of online transactions. This model is adopted by 154 (50.9 percent) firms out of 302 firms surveyed. This e-business model focuses on providing clients a firm's specific information as well as allowing those clients an opportunity to send feedback information and comments to such a firm. The model that has shown little interest by the Egyptian firms surveyed is the model number nine (M9). Only 16 (8.9 percent) firms out of 302 firms surveyed adopt this type of online business. This is a far-too complex type of e-business models that requires company alert to both internal and external business interactions. Table II also shows that 111 (36.6 percent) of the surveyed firms adopt the model number two (M2). This model main focus is on the marketing functions conducted by the firm via online channel to target both existing and potential clients. The attractiveness and design of a firm's website contributes significantly to the success of such a particular model.\n6. Discussion and implications for research: Previous research suggests that information and communication technology and its applications in the developing countries might be under-utilized and, as a result, might not provide a significant contribution to improving and supporting individual and organizational performance. There is an obvious limitation of e-business research in the MENA emerging markets, and the empirical evidence in the developing world, in general, lags behind empirical and theoretical development. Therefore, there have been calls for research on developing country-based firms e-business strategies (Kshetri, 2007). We have integrated several streams in the literature and come out with an interesting integrated model. This model rests on unique and modified measures that are not deployed before in the Egyptian market. Its constructs were validated by employing different statistical techniques and hence, the evolving model advances our understanding of the unique features of e-business in such an emerging market.\n7. Limitations: This study may suffer from several limitations that generally relate to measurement and survey. First, the generalization of the findings of this study is limited by the context of e-business in Egypt: all of the observations were from Egypt and e-business adoption drivers in other countries and cultures may not resemble those in Egypt. New investigation in other countries and cultural settings can deepen our knowledge about the factors that explain the adoption of e-business and the factors that may hinder this adoption. Second, because of the cross-sectional nature of the current study, causality cannot be inferred based on the study findings. Any statements and/or conclusions about the causal relationships were based on a theoretical foundation rather than the empirical evidence of the study. Finally, the motivation for adopting e-business to create competitive advantage could be related to many variables. Although important variables were included based on theoretical and empirical foundations, integrating other factors or other theories may extend our understanding of how these factors, independently and/or interactively, explain the adoption of e-business and its merit to create distinctive competitive advantage. Thus, future research may contribute to knowledge by accounting for the unexplained variance in the research models by extending and integrating (or substituting) other factors that may increase the explanatory power.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically examine a comprehensive model that attempts to identify the factors that explain competitive advantage of implementing electronic business (e-business) in an emerging market. It seeks to fulfill an inevitable lack of conducting rigorous and intensive empirical studies on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in which the internet use and e-business applications are on the rise.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is descriptive in nature where a quantitative research methodology is deployed. Data are collected using both interviews and e-survey for a sample of 302 Egyptian companies serving in diverse industries. A multivariate partial least squares technique is employed to analyze the collected data.\nFindings: This study explores various e-business modes and applications widely employed in the MENA region. It also addresses a set of e-business-driven competitive advantages that are mainly generated from supportive ICT environment, major market forces and strategic opportunities, and at last, from electronically driven customers' relationship initiatives. A number of e-business barriers are claimed to moderate the relationship between those forces and the resulting competitive advantages.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although this research main framework incorporates important variables based on theoretical and empirical foundations, integrating other factors may extend understanding of how these factors, independently and/or interactively, explain the adoption of e-business and its merit to create distinctive competitive advantage.\nPractical implications: This work helps managers and e-business experts alike to comprehend the ways through which firms target the applications of e-business technologies to realize a competitive edge in MENA region. It also helps practitioners and professionals comprehend the interrelationship between the type of forces drive e-business based competitive position and key barriers that deteriorate such a connection in emerging markets.\nOriginality/value: A model that enables scholars to better understanding the e-business phenomenon in MENA market is developed and validated. This model rests on e-business experts' perspectives, reflections and it is evidently substantiated by past works in the areas.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The role of personalization, engagement, and trust in online communities
|
[
"Behaviour",
"Brands",
"Community",
"Online shopping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A brand community is a specialized community with no geographical limitations, and is based on a structured set of social relations among people who like particular brands (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). Understanding online brand communities enables a firm to achieve a competitive advantage in terms of marketing their products and services (Jang et al., 2008). Munizand and O'Guinn (2001) define a brand community as the social relations among people who like certain brands. Furthermore, the community is not restricted geographically. Thus, a brand community, a key tool for managing customer relationships, is a special community for a particular brand. This tool allows members to share feedback on related products and to form a sense of community (Shin, 2013). At the same time, brand communities affect people's attitudes toward themselves and to the brands. Such communities attract highly loyal customers and boost member loyalty through community integration and other mechanisms (McAlexander et al., 2002; Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001).\nBrand community: Brand communities are either physical or virtual spaces in which people attracted to particular brands socialize (McAlexander et al., 2002; Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). A number of reasons exist for using such communities, including obtaining information, developing one's knowledge and skills with regard to particular products, and enjoyment or socialization (Zaglia, 2013).\nC2C interaction in brand communities: In brand communities, interactions play a crucial role. In fact, active interactions seem to determine the existence of brand communities. The internet has facilitated interactions among numerous people around the world. As a result, many customers' decisions are influenced by their group or society in a virtual space, such as a brand community. Thus, they are more likely to be influenced by members with similar interests, which indicates that they rarely make decisions independently (Bruhn et al., 2014; Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). In addition, previous studies suggest that these interactions affect their loyalty to the communities (Chen et al., 2009).\nBrand community engagement: Engagement involves cooperation and interactions, which bring positive results to a brand community. Brand community engagement leads to the formation of strong ties with a brand, products, other customers, and the corporation (Habibi et al., 2014). Community engagement refers to the entire process in which members encourage and support other members to participate, allowing each member to achieve his or her own goals (Algesheimer et al., 2005; Jang et al., 2008; McAlexander et al., 2002; Nambisan and Baron, 2007). This study introduces factors such as perceived personalization and perceived familiarity among community members with regard to brand community.\nMethod: Sample\nResults: Measurement scale assessment\nDiscussion: This study proposes an integrated framework to conceptualize the relationships between perceived personalization, familiarity among community members, and community engagement, with C2C quality as a mediating variable and brand community trust as a moderating variable. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, with regard to the relationship between personalized service and brand community engagement, perceived personalization has a significant positive effect on brand community engagement. Given the development of communication technology and the internet, we assume that customers today can freely express their experiences and opinions in the virtual brand community (Wang et al., 2013). Then, according to Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006) participation in community activities refers to social interaction with other members, which then enhances the understanding of brands and products. In contrast, this study shows an inverse relationship, given that interaction affects engagement in community activities. Previous studies on personalized service focus on service in e-commerce. However, this study suggests that personalized service is also an important factor in community sites, because it shows that personalized service affects the outcome variable (engagement) of brand communities positively.\nImplications: This study provides the following implications. First, it contributes to customer marketing research by empirically testing the important role of C2C in brand community engagement. C2C interactions mediate the impact of the two independent variables of perceived personalization and familiarity among members engaging in a brand community. The two brand community characteristics affect C2C interactions, which influence the brand community engagement of customers. Despite the importance of personalized services, not many studies have examined the antecedents and consequences of personalized services, especially in terms of online communities. Moreover, few studies have determined why personalized services are not as effective as other services on the internet (Liang et al., 2012). Obviously, the reason is that customer empowerment has increased through the internet and major social media platforms (Powers et al., 2012).\nLimitations and future research: The limitations of this study and are as follows. First, the study sample consists of individuals in their 20s who use online brand communities. Therefore, stating that the sample reflects all age groups who use brand communities is incorrect. To generalize the findings of this study, future studies need to conduct a direct online survey of users who use a broader spectrum of online brand communities. However, this limitation is not significantly problematic for the following reasons. This study focussed on only two areas: the mediation process of C2C interactions and the moderating effects of brand community trust with regard to the impact of brand community attributes on brand community engagement. In addition, the data of this study may create bias because they were collected in a single country. Thus, data from various countries need to be collected to generalize the results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore whether brand community characteristics (perceived personalization and familiarity among members) affect brand community engagement through customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey questionnaire was distributed to members of online brand communities to test the research hypotheses.\nFindings: The findings showed that the relationships among the brand community constructs are significant. C2C interaction mediates the relations between the characteristic variables and brand community engagement. Furthermore, the findings revealed that brand community trust moderates the effects of perceived personalization on the quality of C2C interaction and on brand community engagement. It also moderates the relations between perceived familiarity among community members and each of brand community engagement and the quality of C2C interaction.\nPractical implications: Marketers should utilize a brand community's C2C interaction for its marketing strategies. Moreover, managing brand communities by focussing on perceived personalized service and the familiarity of members can also ultimately increase community engagement by enhancing the quality of C2C communication.\nOriginality/value: This study argues that firms need to manage online brand communities intuitively in order to increase members' community engagement. To do so, they need to allocate spaces in which C2C communication can actively occur within brand communities, for example, in a discussion forum.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Achieving organisational resilience through inbound logistics effort
|
[
"Resilience",
"Supply chain",
"Elements",
"Dairy industry",
"Inbound logistics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Disruptions in the flow of goods, services and/or information are sudden and can lead any organisation and its supply chain to fail. In the food sector, this is even more critical, considering the influence of the long lead-times and logistics problems on these flows, and their impact on food quality. In this sense, organisational resilience is seen by Kamalahmadi and Parast (2016, p. 121) as \"the dynamic capability of an enterprise [...] to embrace and respond to changes\" to help them to deal with supply chain disruptions, by returning operations to normal performance and consequently reducing the financial and social impacts (Hohenstein et al., 2015).\nLiterature review: Resilience in organisations\nFindings and discussion: Group analysis was used to identify existing relationships (Krippendorff, 2013) between EoR and IL activities. In terms of the main findings, two IL activities emerged from the case study analysis: transportation mapping/routing; and training for logistics procedures. Both Lait and Milk develop activities on transportation mapping and routing by using GPS systems, as it helps in finding alternative routes in the case of supply disruptions. Furthermore, both companies provide frequent training for suppliers and distributors to deal with disruption problems that can reduce the product's quality in transportation. In terms of EoR, trust emerged as a key element from the interviews with both companies. According to the interviewees, suppliers that normally meet the deadlines are important assets in avoiding possible disruptions and are also more proactive when facing disruptions.\nCross-case analyses and proposed framework for organisational resilience: Through the content analysis results, some differences as well as similarities between Milk and Lait were observed (Table V).\nConclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically investigate existing relationships between EoR and IL activities, which represents the study's theoretical contribution. Previous empirical studies (Ali et al., 2017; Ambulkar et al., 2015; Blackhurst et al., 2011; Pereira and Silva, 2015; Scholten and Schilder, 2015) do not investigate existing relationships between elements, and theoretical studies (Kamalahmadi and Parast, 2016; Pereira et al., 2014; Pettit et al., 2010; Stone and Rahimifard, 2018) only briefly explore the relationship between these elements. The proposed framework of this study contributes to a more in-depth understanding of the existing relationships between EoR, while considering the influence of IL activities in an empirical study of a food supply chain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify how the relationship between inbound logistics (IL) activities and elements of resilience (EoR) can contribute to organisational resilience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two in-depth case-based studies were conducted in the dairy industry. After identifying EoR and IL activities through a systematic literature review, relationships among them have been empirically discussed in six groups (emerged content analysis results): supplier and response capability; transportation; security; quick response to disruption; logistics management; trust and knowledge.\nFindings: A framework was developed describing the contribution of these six groups to organisational resilience by highlighting and discussing three aspects: rigidity of the hierarchy, type of relationship and geographical dispersion. These aspects emerged from the process of content analysis and are related to the companies' characteristics.\nPractical implications: The proposed framework can assist managers to decide which group of EoR and IL activities they should prioritise, depending on the company's characteristics and needs.\nOriginality/value: Although some studies have discussed the IL contribution to generating resilience in companies, none of them have explored in detail the relationship between EoR and IL activities, and their contribution to organisational resilience. The proposed framework shows the contribution of the EoR to three different organisational aspects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Developing local talent in international subsidiaries: the importance of trust and respect in Toyota
|
[
"Employee development",
"Automotive industry",
"Thailand"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThainization philosophy: As part of its international expansion strategy, Toyota Motor Corporation realized that in manufacturing plants and subsidiaries around the world, low labor costs alone are not sufficient to enable it to achieve its global market penetration goals. Besides lowering the cost, the global supply chain system of Toyota must have capabilities to manufacture and deliver products that meet international standards. Such capabilities depend largely on deepening the role of local employees working in plants and subsidiaries of Toyota.Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT), the first overseas subsidiary of Toyota, initiated the Thainization philosophy (Petison and Johri, 2006), whereby the subsidiary has been increasingly managed by Thais rather than Japanese employees. The challenges that it has faced in transforming this philosophy into practice, and the solutions it has found, provide a valuable case study for other international companies seeking to expand the role of local employees in their overseas operations. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with Japanese expatriates and Thai managers at TMT and with Mr. Imai Hiroshi, the former executive vice president of TMT, who is the architect of the Thainization philosophy (Imai, 2006). We identified several challenges faced in the process of deepening the role of Thai employees.\nChallenge 1: Local employees did not trust promotion decisions taken by Japanese managers: TMT tried to expand the role of Thai employees through internal promotions. Initially, only Japanese expatriates had complete control regarding promotions. Thai employees did not trust the decisions, because they doubted the fairness and transparency of the process. Those who did not work closely with Japanese expatriates were concerned that those who worked closely got special favor in the promotion process, and newly promoted managers were not respected and accepted by subordinates.Solution\nChallenge 2: Thai employees were dissatisfied with job rotation: TMT wanted potential management candidates to broaden their perspective and acquire more varied knowledge and skills before being promoted. TMT introduced the practice of job rotation to develop candidates' all-round capabilities and prepare them for higher positions. However, Thai employees often did not understand the purpose of job rotation and objected to it for several reasons. When some engineers were moved to managerial positions, they viewed the managerial role as inferior to the engineering role. They perceived less of a challenge and viewed it as demotion and asked to be moved back. Some Thai engineers feared that the new team would not accept, trust, and support them when they were rotated to a field that was different from their current job, such as from engineering to finance or human resources. In other cases, Thai employees were unsatisfied because their new supervisors were often younger, less educated, or from a lower-status family - all sensitive local cultural issues in Thailand.Solution\nChallenge 3: Thai employees refused to accept promotion: When TMT first implemented this plan, a few Thai employees initially refused promotions for two reasons. First, most were not used to having power under their long habit of top-down management system, so they lacked confidence. This is especially problematic in Thailand, where making a wrong decision can cause loss of face and trust from one's team. Second, some Thais were afraid that they would earn less, despite having more responsibility, because they would no longer be eligible for overtime pay.Solutions\nChallenge 4: Japanese managers lacked confidence in the competence of the Thai managers: Some Japanese managers did not trust the competency of newly trained and promoted Thai managers and refused to delegate full power to them, keeping some tasks to themselves and holding onto final decisions, in opposition to the Thainization philosophy.Solution\nChallenge 5: Newly promoted Thai managers misused their power: Some new Thai managers initially misused their power and some became dictatorial, causing dissatisfaction among both Thai and Japanese team members and resulting in team conflicts. Others showed off by providing confidential information, such as new product development, to outsiders, which could have caused leaks of information to competitors. Some delegated the majority of their work to subordinates, which resulted in reduced quality of work.Solution\nChallenge 6: Demands of the union and erosion of team culture: In a profitable year, the union claimed relatively higher wages. However, the management team rejected the demand on the basis that excess profits should be set aside to maintain salary levels during less profitable times. The management emphasized the need for a good relationship, sharing the growth and development of the individual as well as the company.Solution\nConclusion: TMT discovered that deepening the role of local employees was initially characterized by strong display of distrust and high risk perception by Thai as well as Japanese managers. Therefore the challenge was embedded in managing the emotions of employees about how and why of job rotation, promotion, delegation and team spirit. In meeting these challenges TMT used a humane developmental approach involving 4 stages: Show Respect-Build Trust-Collaborate-Find Solutions. This approach emphasized that to find rational solutions the management had to overcome the distrust that existed between Japanese and Thai employees. The unilateral command and control approach followed by Japanese managers in the early stages of TMT had contributed to formation of distrust. In latter stages when the management adopted the Thainization philosophy in TMT, the management had to demonstrate respect for local employees and build trust between Thai and Japanese employees. Once the employees related to each other on basis of mutual respect and trust, it was relatively easy to collaborate and find solutions. By achieving mutual trust, TMT was able to implement its step-by-step program of developing local employees' competencies, beginning with transparent selection and proceeding through job rotation, shared responsibility between locals and expatriates, and eventual delegation of complete responsibility to local managers. Many international companies are struggling with this important issue of building capabilities of local employees for leveraging their global competitiveness. The successful implementation of Thainization philosophy of TMT offers a major breakthrough in this direction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To analyze the challenges and solutions in developing local employees for managing subsidiaries - the implementation of Thainization philosophy at Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In-depth interviews were conducted with Thai and Japanese employees, and Imai Hiroshi, one of the architects of Thainization philosophy.\nFindings: - For successful implementataion of Thainization philosophy in TMT, the management had to demonstrate respect for local employees and build trust between Thai and Japanese employees. Once the employees related to each other on the basis of mutual respect and trust, it was relatively easy to collaborate and find solutions.\nPractical implications: - CEOs of multi-national companies, particularly Asian subsidiaries, can learn how to cope with challenges in developing local employees, building their technical and managerial capabilities.\nOriginality/value: - Many international companies are struggling with the important issue of building capabilities of local employees for leveraging their global competitiveness. The successful implementation of Thainization philosophy of TMT offers a major breakthrough in this direction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Conceptualizing a path-to-purchase framework and exploring its role in shopper segmentation
|
[
"Framework",
"Behaviour",
"Segmentation",
"Bibliometric",
"Path-to-purchase",
"Shopper"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Individuals actively engaged in making a purchase begin down a \"path-to-purchase\" (PtP), a decision making process to solve an occasion-specific purchase need (Shankar et al., 2011). This active engagement shifts an individual's orientation from consumer to shopper (hereinafter referred to as \"shopper mode\"). \"Shoppers\" (individuals engaged in shopper mode) are likely behaviourally distinct from individuals engaged in one or more stages of the classic consumption process (Engel et al., 1968). Recent research indicates that when shopper mode is engaged, assessments of items which may solve the purchase need, alter significantly. As a result, a shopper's final purchase decision is often markedly different from decisions made whilst engaged in other stages of the traditional consumption process (Bell et al., 2010). Both the shopper mode and PtP processes are particularly different from pre- and post-purchase consumer behaviour (Levy and Weitz, 2007) and therefore, consideration of these differences are important to both scholars and practitioners. Thus, this paper addresses \"shopper\", as conceptually distinct from the traditional conceptualization of \"consumer\". Following a review of the extant literature regarding shoppers, we provide a clear conceptual definition of shopper, allowing for clear delineation vis-a-vis consumers.\n2. Literature review methodology: To facilitate the development of the framework, the academic literature is explored for salient behaviours identified as specific to shoppers. The comprehensive literature review begins with the introduction of the shopper to the literature and the following 60+ years of research. The aim is to provide a theoretically grounded understanding of the shopper and his/her unique behaviour, by connecting the fragmented and little-used literature.\n3. Shopper literature, framework development, and hypotheses: Stone (1954) notes that interactions with sales-associates is unique to shoppers, and may have a significant impact, and identifies the first element which may generate a unique shopper. Bliss (1960) highlights actions and environments as differential, and is the first to note that active engagement in purchase acquisition drives the differences between shopper and consumer behaviour at retail. Specifics associated with the purchase need cause, product/service required to satisfy that need, and location to execute the purchase, are all clearly defined by the shopper, as opposed to consumers who are shown as information seeking about future acquisition targets (Gardial et al., 1993). Each occasion initiating a PtP, therefore provides parameters which frame potential purchase solutions (Lewin, 1936; Sorrentino et al., 1988). For the shopper, we label this first stage as \"occasion-driven need recognition\", in effect the first stage in the shopper's PtP.\n4. Research methodology for an initial examination of the PtP framework: The intent of this research was to devise a framework that would allow more rigorous testing to aid in shopper segmentation. Towards that end we devised a research study to test the framework. As seen in Figure 2, the study will examine the framework from recognition through targeting. While not explicitly examining the final purchase and assessment, the exploration through targeting has significant implications related to segmentation and framework functionality.\n5. Discussion and managerial implications: This study set out to provide insight into several gaps within the shopper literature by developing a theory based understanding of how the shopper navigates the PtP. Through an examination of over 60 years of literature a PtP framework is proposed including a definition of shopper appropriate for framework. Grounded in the shopper literature, the framework highlights substantial differences the shopper exhibits from the traditional consumer paradigm which supports the need for a theoretically based shopper behaviour framework. The PtP framework provides a substantial tool beneficial in the development of more productive shopper segmentation which has been difficult to develop owing to the complexity of the shopper. The PtP framework proposed is uniquely oriented towards specific shopper elements as opposed to consumer orientations, making for a more reliable foundation for shopper segmentation. Lastly, through an empirical examination, key elements of the framework are tested along with moderators which may be suited for shopper segmentation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore a conceptualization of shopper as behaviourally distinct from consumer. The authors seek to identify elements foundational to shopper behaviour, using insights from the extant literature. A path-to-purchase framework is proposed, and tested. The framework is further explored as a method for improving shopper segmentation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Over 308 articles associated with the shopper are examined using a bibliometric methodology. The literature review provides the foundation for a path-to-purchase (PtP) framework. An experimental design online study is undertaken to validate the framework. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data. Moderation testing of importance in the model is explored.\nFindings: The findings reveal five stages through which shoppers' progress in pursuit of purchase resolution. The exploratory study reveals the positive influence of each stage one on another. Additionally, shopper perception of the importance of the recipient and the occasion moderate relationships associated with purchase outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research may be limited by the selection of literature assembled from over 60 years of research, and the online methodology.\nPractical implications: The framework is suited for both industry and academia to better address shopper needs. The framework is specific to shopper behaviour relieving some of the conflicting messages which result from the overlay of consumer behaviour on a shopper. The framework describes the processes in purchase pursuit allowing brands and retailers to better support the shopper. Importance as a moderator is explored allowing for new and perhaps better ways to segment shoppers.\nOriginality/value: This theory building research provides a comprehensive exploration of the shopping literature to propose a PtP framework. The framework provides academicians and practitioners a more detailed method for examining and segmenting shoppers. Through the framework elements specific with each stage can be examined for their suitability as better segmentation tools for brands and retailers to deliver enhanced shopper satisfaction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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