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Social media usage in hotel human resources: recruitment, hiring and communication
|
[
"Hotels",
"Recruitment",
"LinkedIn",
"Social media",
"Hiring",
"Human resources"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Social media (SM) is changing human interaction and the way in which individuals access personal information in the expanding online environment. SM is an example of a discontinuous innovation - a new product that establishes new behavior patterns (Assael, 1984) - and is influencing the way human resource (HR) professionals recruit, screen, hire and terminate employees (Brandenburg, 2008; Brown and Vaughn, 2011; Clark and Roberts, 2010; Davison et al., 2011; Slovensky and Ross, 2011). As noted by Davidson et al. (2011, p. 1), \"Technology is now set to revolutionize the way HR management is conducted\". Preliminary research suggests that despite growing use and interest in SM platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, there is ambiguous understanding of the term \"social media\". Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) describe SM as a group of Internet-based applications that operate on the foundations of Web 2.0 and user-generated content (UGC). Driven by the technical (e.g. increased hardware capacity and access to Internet), economic (UGC creation tools) and social (e.g. Generation Y engagement with technology) influences of Web 2.0 (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), the adoption of SM has been exponential. Recent data show the majority of Internet using males (63 per cent) and females (75 per cent) are using an SM platform (Pew Internet, 2012). Although SM applications were originally developed for social reasons, businesses are now using these applications to interact with customers and potential employees in the online space.\nLiterature review: As an emerging field, there is little previous academic research or empirical study focusing on SM in an HR context, and even less in the hotel industry. For this reason, the literature review focuses more on SM in an HR context than looking at it from a hospitality context. Of the few studies accessed, one had a broader scope addressing SM use for tourism business purposes with a small focus on SM for HR (CTHRC, 2011), whereas another looked at the phenomena from the job candidate's perspective versus an employer's perspective (Madera, 2012). Current research mainly illustrates the prevalence, benefits and detriments of SM and HR as a trend related to the recruitment and screening process of potential employees. According to the SHRM (2011b) survey, responding HR professionals indicated use of LinkedIn (95 per cent), Facebook (58 per cent) and Twitter (42 per cent) for recruitment purposes, primarily targeting non-management salaried employees (82 per cent) and other management positions, excluding upper management (77 per cent). Furthermore, of the 18 per cent of HR professionals using SM to screen candidates, 30 per cent reported using information from SM to disqualify a candidate. These HR professionals also reported using LinkedIn (85 per cent), Facebook (78 per cent) and Twitter (11 per cent) to screen candidates for upper management (41 per cent) and non-management salaried positions (26 per cent) (SHRM, 2011b).\nMethod: Given the nascent stage of SM and HR research in the hospitality field, this exploratory study used an online survey. This allows for breadth of data collection to create a picture of the current situation by engaging a large number of HR professionals from across North America to participate in a timely, efficient and confidential manner. A combined directory of Canadian and American hotels consisting of 300 or more rooms (N = 1711) served as the sampling frame. The hotel directory was provided by Smith Travel Research (STR), a leading supplier of data for the hospitality industry. The sampling frame excluded economy hotels and those under 300 rooms on the rationale that hotels of that size and service level would not have a dedicated HR manager and, thus, would not be eligible to participate in the study, which was borne out in the pilot testing that included all hotels classes with a minimum of 250 rooms.\nFindings and discussion: Profile of respondents\nConclusion: This is the first empirical study about SM and HR practices in the North American hotel industry. The conceptual cornerstones of this research are threefold. First, it draws upon the benefits and risks of SM use in HR generally. Second, it situates in the context of hotels and their unique market classifications and operational characteristics. Third, it considers attitudinal as well as sociodemographic and professional (i.e. years working in HR) as potential influences on use/non-use and usefulness of SM in HR. This research has both practical and theoretical implications.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the use and non-use of social media (SM) by North American hotels for human resource (HR) activities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This exploratory study used an online survey and a sampling frame of 1,711 North American hotels with 300 or more rooms, excluding economy properties. With a response rate of 17.1 per cent and a defined population, data were weighted to reflect the midscale, upscale and luxury market classes.\nFindings: Slightly more than half of North American hotels use SM for HR activities. Higher service level hotels are related to SM HR use generally; midscale properties report higher usage for internal communication. Use of SM in hotel HR is more focused on marketing versus recruitment activities.\nResearch limitations/implications: The generalizability and, therefore, implications are limited to North American hotels, midscale or higher with 300 or more rooms. Future research should complement this broad-based study by delving more deeply into rationale for HR communication over hiring functions for SM and its overall adoption for HR in the hospitality industry.\nPractical implications: This study provides an understanding of how SM is being used and its perceived usefulness across a variety of HR activities. The findings will inform the application of SM for hotel HR purposes.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical study about SM and HR practices in the North American hotel industry.\n",
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] |
France's new economic regulations: insights from institutional legitimacy theory
|
[
"Legitimacy theory",
"Environmental disclosure",
"NRE law"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Legitimacy theory has inspired many studies on voluntary social and environmental reporting (Deegan, 2002). By and large, these studies used a strategic view of legitimacy to assess how corporate managers draw on social and environmental reporting strategies to respond to legitimacy threats and gain support from relevant audiences, demonstrate that the firm is fulfilling its social contract, and justify its continued existence (e.g. Moerman and Van der Laan, 2005; Tilling and Tilt, 2010).\nLegitimacy theory in social and environmental accounting research: Legitimacy theory has inspired many studies on social and environmental reporting (Chen and Roberts, 2010), most of which investigated voluntary reporting through this lens.\nThe context of the study: Article 116 of the NRE Law of 2002: The environmental part of the NRE Law relates to a single article - Article 116. It may be straightforward to present the content of this article of law, but it is significantly more difficult to uncover its rationales. This is the first question we address in the following section.\nMethod: The empirical approach\nFindings: 2001-2002 impact\nDiscussion of findings and conclusion: The findings of our study show a significant improvement in the quality and quantity of environmental disclosure from 2001 to 2002. The shift from an average environmental score of 9.269 in 2001 to 16.846 in 2002 confirms this progress. Our extended analysis covering 2001 to 2011 also shows that this improvement was enduring and not ephemeral. This law stimulated a stark and positive lasting change in the way that French companies account for their environmental information.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper seeks to adopt an institutional view of legitimacy to examine how a sample of French companies reacted to the introduction of the \"New Economic Regulations\" in French law in 2001 requiring that publicly listed companies disclose environmental information.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach used in the paper is both quantitative and qualitative. A content analysis of environmental disclosure provided in annual reports, environmental reports and web sites by 26 French companies listed in the CAC 40 is performed throughout the period 2001-2011.\nFindings: The findings of this study show a significant and enduring improvement in the quality and quantity of environmental disclosure from 2001 to 2011. Even in the absence of penalties for non-compliance, the NRE law stimulated a stark and positive lasting change in the way that French companies account for their environmental information. These findings are consistent with the institutional view of legitimacy theory whereby legislation provides corporate managers with a representation of relevant audiences' perceptions about social and environmental reporting, prompting them to comply with the law to ensure organizational legitimacy.\nOriginality/value: Social and environmental reporting studies generally adopt a strategic view of legitimacy to examine how organizations use social and environmental reporting to respond strategically to legitimacy threats. This study provides early empirical evidence about the relevance of institutional legitimacy theory in explaining environmental reporting.\n",
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Branding employment related public policies: evidence from a non-western context
|
[
"Nationalization",
"Public policy branding",
"Promoting labour nationalization",
"Attitudes",
"Perceptions",
"Expatriates",
"United Arab Emirates"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For many years, nationalization programmes aimed at increasing the inclusion of citizens in the workforce have been in place in all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, i.e. Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The governments of these countries not only display a preference towards the employment of nationals, but also provide legislative and informal support for firms employing nationals. In addition to discouraging the employment of foreign workers when nationals are available and willing to take jobs, governments actually invest in and support nationals in order to build their skills and enhance their employability. Although the success of these approaches is debatable, some studies suggest that informal incentives were found to be more effective than laws and regulations in encouraging the adoption of job nationalization policies, particularly among multinational companies (Forstenlechner and Mellahi, 2011). Legal pressures, on the other hand, are often met with only small-scale compliance gestures (Harry, 2007), since many companies are still able to find legal loopholes that allow them either to postpone compliance or to dodge the policy entirely.The outcome of these workforce nationalization schemes seems to differ across sectors. For example, workforce nationalization in the UAE has been largely successful in the public sector, which is already saturated (Al Ali, 2008) since it has had to absorb a larger number of nationals, especially after the Arab Spring: the UAE employed 6,000 nationals at once, while Oman employed 50,000 nationals following major protests. However, the schemes have been a virtual failure in the private sector, which is where the majority of jobs are expected to be created in the future.Although the particular sector and the use of formal and informal incentives are usually referred to when assessing the policy, the success of the scheme is influenced by another potent factor that has so far been neglected, namely the branding of the policy itself and how it has been presented to stakeholders. In this study it is proposed that since these policies are in reality an offering, or a \"product\" offered by the government, they should be treated and marketed as such. In the author's opinion, approaching the topic from this angle will uncover an area of inquiry that has remained largely untouched. This paper analyses and discusses the image and perceptions of the policy among individuals affected by problems with the policy branding in relation to the integration of UAE nationals into the workforce (Godwin, 2006; Mellahi, 2007; Rees et al., 2007; Forstenlechner, 2008). It also puts forward a set of recommendations that aim to create a more positive perception of the scheme, its underlying motivations, and its envisioned outcomes.Finally, throughout the paper the researchers adopt a positive perspective and propose a way forward on the issue: there are no offenders and no victims, and there is no finger pointing. At the same time, the researchers acknowledge that there are hindrances delaying effective implementation, the government could do more to sell these policies, expatriates have legitimate fears, unemployed citizens have a legitimate hope of employment, and the government needs to create jobs.\nStudy background: Like other regional nationalization initiatives, such as Saudization and Omanization, Emiratization has been defined in many ways. While Toledo (2006) simply defines it as a programme designed to achieve a target ratio of domestic to foreign workers employed by the private sector in the UAE (Farrell, 2008; Randeree, 2009). Rees et al. (2007) define it as the recruitment and development of UAE nationals to increase their employability, thus reducing the country's dependence on the expatriate workforce. Furthermore, their definition views Emiratization as a multi-level process through which dependence on the expatriate labour force is reduced and nationals are made ready to occupy jobs that are currently occupied by expatriates. Such preparation entails enabling nationals to perform their jobs as well as, if not better than, expatriates, within the shortest possible timescale. Godwin (2006) sees Emiratization as an affirmative action quota-driven employment policy that ensures UAE nationals are given employment opportunities in the private sector.These definitions highlight four unique attributes of Emiratization, in the sense that each focuses on specific aspects. These attributes describe the policy's nature as a programme, its scope in terms of the sectors targeted, its magnitude in terms of preparing nationals and their readiness, and its aim as a replacement scheme.Nature of policy: Emiratization is a programme composed of specific steps that need to be implemented before the desired outcome can be achieved. Therefore, the sequence, practicability, and timing of each of these steps will determine the success of the programme as a whole.Scope of policy: Emiratization is a policy established by the government to be implemented in both the private and the public sectors. There is an assumption that implementation in the public sector can be achieved with little overt resistance; the same cannot be said for the private sector, where negative stereotypes of the national workforce prevail (Alserhan et al., 2010), and where the policy has been viewed as a workforce substitution decree and a form of taxation (Forstenlechner and Rutledge, 2010).Magnitude of policy: these definitions also stress the importance of workforce preparation and employment readiness. They envisage that nationals should be trained and equipped with skills that increase their readiness for employment, regardless of the sector of employment. Their skill level should be sufficient to enable them to perform jobs at least as well as expatriates. However, reviewing the policy does not reveal how exactly this preparation should be achieved.Aim of policy: replacing expatriate labour with national labour is a clearly stated objective of the policy. However, the aim is not related to replacement per se, but to finding jobs for UAE citizens. The policy in no way foresees that at some point in the future the UAE will be expatriate-free. Once the UAE approaches full employment of its citizens, there will be no further need for replacements; expatriates will still be needed, assuming continuing economic prosperity and regional stability.Challenges facing workforce nationalization\nResearch methodology: The discussion in the previous sections, which focused on the challenges facing the implementation of workforce nationalization policies, clearly revealed a serious image problem. No efforts have been made to create a specific preconceived image of the policy, and no attention has been paid to the management of shareholder perceptions. In other words, policy branding was not an issue to be considered, and it seemed irrelevant to talk about \"selling\" a government policy to the people in the Middle East, where authority and decrees have always been enough to ensure compliance. As such, little or no care was taken with creating positive brand associations, and it was left to others to create their own associations, which they did: locals associated the policy with citizenship rights - \"this is my country and thus the job is mine\" - while expatriates viewed it as a threat to their livelihoods. In other words, Emiratization was associated with the controversial notion of workforce replacement or substitution, with nationals having the legitimate right-by-birth to take up jobs currently occupied by expatriates. Such self-acclaimed right was based on an interpretation of the policy that names citizenship, rather than actual skills, as an undisputed criterion for employment. It is this perceived, rather than actual, notion of substitution that has led to both covert and overt resistance to policy adoption among expatriates. These misgivings have created unreasonable hopes and expectations among nationals and, at the same time, triggered a nationalization phobia among expatriates.To be more specific, the key assumption guiding this research is that labour nationalization schemes, regardless of all other factors such as ethicality or correctness, have been overshadowed by flawed perceptions, and that these perceptions are key barriers preventing successful implementation of the schemes. These flawed perceptions are fostered by an institutional failure to recognize the importance of managing perceptions in the public and private sector as well as among others concerned. In particular, this study aims to identify these perceptions, describe Emiratization as a brand and explain where that brand has failed, and identify the core components of a policy branding strategy that corrects perceptions, enhances the scheme's image and promotes its acceptance.In order to achieve these objectives, an exploratory-descriptive research design was used. Semi-structured interviews followed by structured questionnaires represented the main data collection tools and were conducted with a cross-sectional sample of 120 Emirati graduates, CEOs, HR directors, and upper-level managers. The questions in the study focused on perceptions of employment in the private sector and perceptions of the success of the Emiratization policy.The sample individuals were chosen using a snowball method starting with personal contacts, and hence the sample cannot necessarily be described as random.Results show that the sample is balanced as far as the key demographics are concerned, i.e. gender balance as well as place of origin, balance across citizens and expatriates, and industry sector demographics.\nAnalysis: The study results show that in order to positively brand the Emiratization policy, a \"brand Emiratization\" needs to be created. The central factors of such a brand are correcting the policy of the image among decision makers, correcting the image of the private sector among national jobseekers, communicating the policy, correcting the attitudes of nationals towards employment, addressing the image of national workforce, correcting the image of nationalization among private businesses, fostering corporate social responsibility (CSR), promoting opportunities in the private sector, and correcting the image of private sector workers.Perception of Emiratization among decision makers\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - While the legislative side of workforce nationalization as a key target area for public policies has been extensively studied and scrutinized, the marketing side has not. It remains mostly overlooked, leaving both researchers and practitioners with little or no information to begin with. This \"marketing\" information gap represents the focus of this paper and it is exactly what the author aims to bridge.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A thorough analysis of how nationalization policy has been perceived by the UAE workforce was carried out and the results of that analysis were used to identify the core components of a balanced strategy that aims at enhancing the image of Emiratisation as a public brand, or a public offering, and hence improving the implementation of the policy i.e. increase the employability of citizens and, at the same time, retain the much-needed expatriate workforce.\nFindings: - The study, which consisted of 180 interviews collected in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), revealed that workforce nationalization as a government offering has been inadequately branded by stakeholders and the government did not engage the branding process at any level. The branding part of the policy was not addressed at all. In effect, the policy was left on its own in that regard. As a result, \"brand Emiratisation\" now stands for mutual private-public distrust, implementation difficulties, and serious misgivings about the nature of the policy.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study internationally to address labor nationalization policies from a marketing perspective. As such the results and discussions therein have wide implications for the employment decisions in organizations, particularly as the number of countries imposing restrictions on the employment of foreign workers continues to rise.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managing the survivor syndrome as scenario planning methodology ... and it matters!
|
[
"Performance management",
"Scenario planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Foresight has become one of the latest management buzzwords, rising above many other tools of strategic competitive advantage, particularly in times of uncertainty and environmental turbulence. Principally, the ability to incorporate into the present decisions of organizations (organizational foresight) or specifically into the strategic decisions (strategic foresight), the expectations of future conditions, foresight is the capacity to think systematically and develop as individuals and as an organization to prepare for those future eventualities. More elegantly put, \"foresight is a unique and highly-valued human capacity that is widely recognized as a major source of competitive advantage and cultural renewal within nations and corporations\" (Chia, 2002, p. 5). However, how exactly foresight can be practiced remains at the forefront of researchers' agenda, and has offered a variety of answers, not the least one involving the use of scenario planning methodology.\nWhat are foresight and scenario planning, and why they matter?: They matter, at least for foresight, as in the words of Chia (2002: p. 5) \"[...] the ability to read, interpret, foresee and redefine emergent global socio-political and economic trends [...] are all important assets that no forward-looking nation or organization can afford to ignore.\" While it is generally agreed that foresight is a capacity of individuals and firms with which to develop a competitive advantage, the exact way this is achieved has been heavily disputed. In this section, these key propositions are reviewed and discussed in the light of our argument for how it matters for firms considering downsizing strategies as a strategic option during an economic crisis, as a way to remain forward-looking and competitive. Foresight is a metaphor in this sense because of its importance in considering future eventualities, but is only possible in knowing the counterfactual of a strategic downsizing decision, which can only be obtained from those who were placed in a vulnerable position of that decision and \"survived\" it and can subsequently tell their stories and comment on that apprehension.\nThemes relating to the survivor syndrome: The following themes were identified from an extensive review of the extant literature relating to feelings of employees who survived a redundancy round at their place of work, although \"survivor syndrome\" was not the only phrase used in the paper search (other keywords included \"feelings,\" \"aftermath,\" \"redundancy,\" etc., among others). Other related issues that emerged from the literature review were broadly fitted into the themes given below to minimize the number in total, so that the themes could be used collectively as a simple framework with which to ask questions during interviews with other survivors as part of an organization's strategic foresight (particularly, scenario planning) exercise.\nSurvivor interview framework in use: The following practice insights were obtained on each of the themes derived from the above section relating to the survivor syndrome, after interviewing survivors. The insights offer a practice perspective in relation to the private and public organizations, in which only brief differences are presented. They are of a nature that is rich and otherwise difficult to obtain had the principal research subjects not been these survivors, which might be the case in other scenario planning methodologies.\nProliferation of scenario planning methodology: Literature from human resources management was used to understand how the survivor syndrome can be better managed, and if more accurate \"scenarios\" are better presented, an improved tool is conceived to carry out scenario planning. In this way, foresight is a metaphor for the implications of the survivor syndrome. The nature of the above observations and their deviation from the extant literature meant they would not have been possible to obtain had interviewing not been conducted with \"survivors.\" For example, rich characteristics like feelings of fairness, support and shock would have been difficult to hypothesize from scenario planning participants had they not been close to redundancy themselves. Similarly, the lack of communication and lack of confidence in management are post-experiences actually felt and difficult to gauge if scenario planners were to bring them up as possible scenarios. In the same way, the traps and pitfalls explained earlier in this paper have been better controlled for: bias, for example, would not exist as the views are from genuine participants who would otherwise not be affected, which in turn, overcomes the issue of relevance, and of course, establishing greater plausibility.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The importance of foresight is discussed in relation to why traditional scenario planning methodology is problematic at achieving it. The \"survivor syndrome\" is borrowed from the human resources literature and presented as a metaphor for foresight to illustrate how better \"scenarios\" can be achieved by understanding the syndrome better. A practice perspective is given on the use of a seven-theme framework as a method of interviewing survivors. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws from an empirical research that took place during the 2008 global financial crisis to illustrate the richness of the insights that would otherwise not be obtainable through scenario planning methods that do not involve \"survivors.\" In that research, semi-structured interviews were employed with key personnel at multiple levels of one private and one public organization that had undergone a redundancy process at the time of the crisis to explore its effect on the remaining workforce.\nFindings: The \"survivor syndrome\" itself would be minimized if managers consider the feelings of survivors with more open communication. Survivors in private firms were found generally to experience anxiety, but are more likely to remain more motivated, than their counterparts in the public sector. These detailed insights create more accurate \"scenarios\" in scenario planning exercises.\nOriginality/value: Organizational performance can be better enhanced if the survivor syndrome can be better managed. In turn, scenario planning, as a form of organizational foresight, is better practiced through managing the survivor syndrome. Scenario planning methodology has proliferated well in the human resource management literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Improving integrated reporting: A new learning and growth perspective for the balanced scorecard
|
[
"Systems thinking",
"Balanced scorecard",
"Integrated reporting",
"Integrated thinking",
"Intangible asset disclosure",
"Learning and growth"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) recently sought feedback about the enablers, incentives and barriers to implementing its International integrated reporting framework (<IRF>). Inspired by this call, we present a proposal that shows how an improved balanced scorecard (BSC) might remove some barriers preventing companies from implementing the<IRF>while improving the disclosure of intangible assets (see also Dumay et al., 2017).\n2. Linking the concepts: Before developing our essay, we define core concepts to ensure the reader uses the same terms and meanings as we do. For example, we use the term \"intangible assets\" instead of \"intellectual capital\" for three reasons. First, the term \"intangible assets\" is often used interchangeably with the terms intellectual capital, intangible resources, intangible capital and intellectual property, even though they are not synonymous (Eccles and Krzus, 2010; Giacosa et al., 2017). Second, practitioners use the term intangible assets more frequently than intellectual capital, and its use outside academia is growing (Cuozzo et al., 2017). Additionally, the IIRC (2013) refers to \"knowledge-based intangibles\" to describe intellectual capital, which is more closely related to structural capital in the tradition tripartite intellectual capital model (Dumay, 2016, p. 175). Additionally, most practitioners will use the IIRC's definition of intellectual capital, rather than the tripartite definition used by academics (Cuozzo et al., 2017). Arguably, stakeholders, including investors, need open, transparent and comprehensive information about a company for evaluating its economic and business activities (Nielsen and Madsen, 2009). IAD is one of several activities companies undertake to communicate with their stakeholders (Cuozzo et al., 2017). Within these communication processes, Dumay (2016, p. 178) distinguishes between reporting and disclosure by outlining that reporting is a \"detailed periodic account of a company's activities, financial conditions, and prospects that is made available to shareholders and investors\" typically found in the summarised information provided in financial and non-financial reports. Disclosure, on the other hand, reveals information about a company's assets and resources that was previously secret or unknown. Thus, when dealing with disclosure, we are interested in new, rather than previously known company information.\n3. Reconceptualising organisational learning: This section presents a new conceptual model for the BSC that redefines integrated thinking to improve<IR>. In doing so, it builds on Yongvanich and Guthrie's (2006) method for combining elements of different bodies of research. The new model addresses the BSC's abstractness in inputs and outputs and aligns those metrics with contemporary business models. The result is a platform for theorising about the practice of IAD and identifying opportunities for case study research that creates value by understanding how organisations develop and use intangible assets (Guthrie et al., 2012).\n4. Redefining integrated thinking through integrated governance and culture: The goal in developing a new version of the BSC's learning and growth perspective is to improve the<IRF>by redefining the concept of integrated thinking, while also addressing criticisms of vague concepts and measures in the BSC and the<IRF>. The initial foundations of integrated thinking define it as a strategy that connects governance, past performance and prospects with functional departments (World Intellectual Capital Initiative, 2013). Therefore, redefining integrated thinking for the<IRF>must involve the relationships between organisational units and the capitals used or affected within the context of decision making to create future value. As Dumay and Dai (2017) rightly point out, there cannot be a separation of integrated thinking from management control and culture. The IIRC (2013, p. 25) recognises the connection when defining its governance principle:\n5. Conclusion: 5.1 Summary of findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a new learning and growth perspective for the balanced scorecard (BSC) that includes more specific measures of integrated thinking and value creation to help improve integrated reporting (<IR>). Practical, relevant definitions of these historically vague concepts may improve intangible asset disclosures (IAD) and increase uptake of the<IR> framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is conceptual. The authors use organisational learning to theorise about the learning and growth perspective of the BSC, within the context of the practice of IAD.\nFindings: Several criticisms of IAD, the<IR>framework and the BSC have acted as barriers to implementing the<IR>framework. The improved version of the BSC's learning and growth perspective, presented in this paper, addresses those criticisms by redefining the concept of integrated thinking (learning) and more fully connecting that learning to future value creation (growth). The model is designed to be used in tandem with the<IR>framework to operationalise integrated thinking. A new BSC strategy map illustrates how this revised learning and growth perspective interacts with the other three BSC perspectives to create long-term shareholder value through the management and growth of knowledge within an organisation.\nResearch limitations/implications: Organisational learning is an important source of competitive advantage in the modern knowledge economy. Here, the authors encourage further debate on how to report and disclose information on intangible assets, driven by a new conceptual strategy for organisational learning that fully supports the BSC's capacity to help integrated thinking and future value creation for the<IR>framework.\nPractical implications: From its roots as a performance measurement system, the BSC has become a widely used strategy execution tool. The<IR>framework has struggled to gain traction, but still has value in exploring intangible assets and its disclosure from a systems thinking perspective. The model is designed to bring an explicit understanding of how to improve integrated thinking for the<IR>framework facilitating better measurement, management and reporting of human and structural capital. By doing so, the new model enables a firm to use the BSC to engage with<IR>more effectively, which should also be useful for practitioners given the widespread use of the BSC.\nOriginality/value: The analysis of the BSC's learning and growth perspective reveals two dichotomies - one between resources and growth, and another between systems and capability. The revised perspective resolves these dichotomies with clear, forward-focused measures of learning and intangible asset growth, and multiple vertical and horizontal connections between the perspective's four constructs. The authors demonstrate practical paths to value creation through a range of strategic impacts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Managerial control mechanisms and their influence on project performance: an investigation of the moderating role of complexity risk
|
[
"Formal control",
"Informal control",
"Project performance",
"Complexity risk",
"Construction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of construction projects is growing significantly due to the rapid increase in the urbanization of developing countries (Banihashemi et al., 2017; Kang et al., 2018). It is largely accepted that the world is becoming complex day by day and the number of complex situations faced by project managers is increasing enormously (Daniel and Daniel, 2018). As a result, the demand for assimilation of information, human resource, finance and logistics has increased. Owing to this, the magnitude of complexities associated with projects has increased as well (Tenhiala and Helkio, 2015). Previous research indicates that the majority of projects have underperformed due to poor control and risk management practices (Liu, 2015a; Maqsoom et al., 2020). This is the reason why ineffective project performance remains a major area of concern for project managers and researchers across the world (Setia and Patel, 2013).The research proposes two approaches to improve project performance: one based upon control theory which justifies the significance of formal control; and the other embraces risk-based interpretation and highlights the importance of dealing with critical shortcomings (Keil et al., 2013; Tse et al., 2019). However, the consolidation of these two approaches has failed to address the complexity of the construction projects. The deficiency in research is reasonably astonishing as complexity innately arises in the development of projects, and as such researching the area of project performance by encompassing the notion of complexity risk is of paramount importance (Goldbach et al., 2018; Tse et al., 2019).There exist three research deficiencies that have been identified in previous studies on control mechanisms. First, several studies have concentrated on the selection of control modes during the development of projects (Goldbach et al., 2018; Kirsch et al., 2002, 2010). However, there is a need for studying the relationship between control modes and project performance. Previous research has put forward four approaches of control: behavior, outcome, clan and self-control. Formal control is a commendable approach taken by managers to measure the performance of subjects under control (also called controlees) based upon their observance to suggest techniques for a particular activity (Kirsch et al., 2010). Informal control shows means of self-management that enhance the effective implementation of objectives in terms of both the controllers and the controlees (Choudhury and Sabherwal, 2003; Ford, 2019). Some scholars claim that project performance can be increased by utilizing different kinds of control measures (Keil et al., 2013; Tiwana and Keil, 2009). In contrast, other scholars have observed the opposite (Liu, 2015a; Malik et al., 2019). Therefore, further investigation is essential to clarify the ambiguity.Secondly, the effectiveness of the control mechanism often gets affected by project risks. Qazi et al. (2016) claim that it is the main goal of project planning to assess the risks that may jeopardize project execution. In this regard, careful assessment of control and risk can amplify project success (Guo et al., 2014; Tse et al., 2019). Although the previous research has explored the mutual effect of risk and control, an in-depth study of the effect of complexity risk is not reported (Liu, 2015a; Malik et al., 2019). Complexity risk is a critical project risk (Liu et al., 2010) and its investigation can provide insights about its effective management strategies.Thirdly, there is inadequate evidence to prove that a particular control method is more effective than others in the presence of risk (Malik et al., 2019; Stouthuysen et al., 2012). This is particularly valid in the case of complexity risk since neither it can be sufficiently predicted, nor it produces a negative effect. Many scholars claim that the presence of high complexity risk is an opportunity: it may enhance the profit during product development if there exists an effective mechanism to manage complexity (Jacobs and Swink, 2011). Moreover, various control modes have various characteristics. Behavior control focuses on anticipated performance, while self-control is malleable and permits substantial evaluation (Goldbach et al., 2018). Contrary to behavior control and self-control, clan control and outcome control are primitive and balance the degree of control and growth (Chua et al., 2012). Since the usefulness of each control method changes in the presence of complexity risk (Tse et al., 2019), it is critical to investigate how complexity risk changes the relationship between control modes and project performance.Based on this motivation, the current study investigates the influence of control modes on project performance and assesses the moderating role of complexity risk on the relationships between control modes and project performance. The outcomes of the study will be effective to comprehend the significance and influence of formal and informal control mechanisms in the construction projects. In addition, an examination of the combined influence of complexity risk and control modes on performance will allow managers to effectively adopt different forms of controls to manage complex situations in various kinds of service sector projects.This paper is structured in six sections. The first section provides the background, research gap and objectives of the study. The second section reviews the existing literature on managerial control, complexity risk, project performance and the associated theory. It also presents the research model and develops the research hypotheses. In the third section, details of the methodology are provided. SMART PLS has been used for testing the hypotheses on the basis of the survey data from 171 construction projects. The results of the hypotheses testing and the discussion on inferences drawn from the research findings are presented in the next two sections, respectively. Finally, the conclusions, implications and areas for future research are presented in Section 6.\n2. Theoretical development: 2.1 Control theory\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results: 4.1 Structural model estimation\n5. Discussion: In this study, it was hypothesized that control mechanisms positively influence project performance of construction projects. Four hypotheses (H1, H2, H3 and H4) were developed and tested. It was found that there is a positive and significant relationship between behavior control and performance of construction projects. Therefore, hypotheses H1, H2, H3 and H4 have been accepted which leads to the conclusion that formal and informal control mechanisms have a positive influence on project performance. Furthermore, this study has combined the risk-based assessment of complexity theory and different modes of control mechanisms and studied the alteration caused by complexity risk on the association of control and project performance. Scholars have suggested that the adoption of control modes in complex situations generates better outcomes (McCarthy et al., 2006). Therefore, the moderating effect of complexity risk was studied by developing four hypotheses (H5, H6, H7 and H8). The analysis of data obtained from the construction industry showed a mixed role of complexity risk on the association of formal and informal control mechanisms and project performance. The outcome and clan controls showed positive results in the presence of complexity risks. However, behavior control and self-control are negatively associated with project performance when complexity risk is high. Following is the complete discussion on the results of each hypothesis.The first hypothesis of this study posits that behavior control has a positive influence on project performance. The results show that behavior control affects the performance of the construction projects in a positive manner and results are significant at a 95% confidence interval. These results are in line with the findings of the previous studies that report a positive association between behavior control and performance (Liu, 2015a; McCarthy et al., 2006). The results imply that if predetermined policies, procedures, rules and techniques are systematically and conscientiously followed, it is highly likely to achieve improved performance in construction projects.The second hypothesis posits that outcome control has a positive influence on project performance. The results, in line with the previous research (Klein et al., 2006; Liu, 2015a; Tiwana and Keil, 2009), reveal that outcome control is positively linked with the performance of construction projects. This shows that if a system for identification of the required outcomes and measurement of performance on those outcomes is in place, project performance will enhance. It is noteworthy that rewards to achieve the required outcomes must also be aligned with the desired outcomes.The third hypothesis posits that clan control has a positive influence on project performance. The analysis supports this hypothesis at a 95% confidence interval. This implies that if the construction industry can develop a system of shared beliefs and values, it will lead to enhanced project performance. Kirsch et al. (2010) claimed that performance is the product of supportive relationships with mutual customs and principles. The results are in line with the previous research (Choudhury and Sabherwal, 2003; Gopal and Gosain, 2010; Kirsch et al., 2010; Liu, 2015a; Tiwana and Keil, 2009).The fourth hypothesis posits that self-control positively influences project performance. The analysis supports this hypothesis at a 95% confidence interval, suggesting that self-control positively affects the performance of construction projects in Pakistan. This implies that it is important to empower employees for better performance as self-control inspires and motivates the individuals to devise their own goals for certain tasks, set their own monitoring mechanism and reward or sanction themselves accordingly. These results are also in agreement with the study of Liu (2015a).The fifth hypothesis posits that complexity risk moderates the relationships between behavior control and project performance. The negative path coefficient of the interaction of behavior control and complexity risk shows that if complexity risk is higher, it will negatively moderate the association of behavior control and project performance. These results are significant and are in agreement with previous literature (Chien et al., 2007; Chou and Yang, 2012; Liu, 2015a). This implies that as the project environment becomes complex, the number of possibilities that must be defined increases; such intensification results in volatile control outcomes. Furthermore, a rise in complexity risk makes it more difficult to precisely define appropriate behavior making behavior control less effective (Chua et al., 2012). Chien et al. (2007) also suggested that behavior control prevents from promptly and effectually reacting to issues arising from the complexity risk.The sixth hypothesis posits that complexity risk positively moderates the relationships between outcome control and project performance. The analysis revealed a positive path coefficient for the interaction of complexity risk and outcome control, suggesting that a higher complexity will positively affect the relationship between outcome control and project performance. As opposed to behavior control, in the presence of complexity risk, outcome control can be strengthened to achieve both tractability and managerial predictability and consequently improve project performance. Achieving project goals is vital in outcome control, which propagates flexibility and focuses on goals (Keil et al., 2013). Furthermore, in the presence of complexity risk, the client is careful about the progress of the project and frequently measures the standing and outcomes of the project so that project deliverables are in agreement with strategic implications (Sabherwal and King, 1995).The seventh hypothesis posits that complexity risk positively moderates the relationship between clan control and project performance. The analysis revealed that the path coefficient for the interaction of clan control and complexity risk is positive and significant. This implies that the presence of complexity risk strengthens the clan control and project performance relationship. This suggests that shared knowledge should be produced by means of interaction, negotiation and learning to attain mutual understanding of technicalities and managerial practices for achieving project goals (Chua et al., 2012). Mutually beneficial relations with shared norms and values result in increased performance (Kirsch et al., 2010). Being the subcategory of informal control, clan control comes into the act when shared vision, norms, values and common beliefs determine the behaviors. Clan control is generally evident from the increased level of cohesion and homogeneity in the interactions between individuals (Kirsch et al., 2010; Ouchi, 1979).The eighth hypothesis investigates the negatively moderating role of complexity risk over the relationship between self-control and project performance. Although the path coefficient is negative for the interaction of self-control and project performance, the value is not significant at a 95% confidence interval. Therefore, H8 has been rejected due to a lack of evidence. This implies that in case of a high complexity risk in the construction sector of Pakistan, stakeholders tend to follow the written rules and do not exercise self-control. Overall from the above results, it is evident that managerial control helps in improving project performance. However, complexity risk alters this relationship and self-control loses its significance in the presence of high complexity risk, as illustrated in Figure 2.\n6. Conclusion and implications: The current study concludes that the use of control mechanisms varies with the level of project complexity. It is, therefore, recommended for the professionals to be absolutely aware of the dynamics of their respective organizations. This can enable them to effectively choose between the efficient control modes to address the complexity. Furthermore, the effects of formal and informal control mechanisms have been studied as part of one research model. It has been found that all four modes of control explain significant variation in project performance and have a positive relationship. However, in the presence of complexity risk, outcome control and clan control are the best suited for project managers. Furthermore, behavior control showed a negative association with project performance when complexity risk is high and self-control is found as statistically insignificant in the case of high complexity risk. This implies that project managers should be careful in the selection of a control mode such that the right strategies are developed to counter situations evolving out of complexity risk. Furthermore, it should be considered that all risks do not have a negative influence as some of them present areas for greater opportunities. For example, the adoption of new technologies is, on one hand, a contributor to complexity risk but on the other hand, it helps organizations to develop and competitively position their brand in the market. 6.1 Implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Despite the efforts of project managers and the widespread use of project management methodologies, most of the projects remain unfulfilling in terms of delivering targeted performance. This for most part can be attributed to the inability of an organization to implement control mechanisms and ineffective management of complexity risk. Keeping in view the aforementioned problem, the objective of this study is to investigate the association between control modes and project performance. Moreover, this study also examines the moderating role of complexity risk on the association among various control modes and project performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 171 construction projects through a postal questionnaire survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was utilized for testing the hypothesized relationships of the research model.\nFindings: This study found significant positive relation between formal and informal control mechanisms and project performance. It is found that complexity risk significantly moderates the relationship between control modes and project performance. The results indicate that complexity risk positively moderates the relationship between outcome control and clan control with project performance. Furthermore, complexity risks negatively moderates the relationship between behavior control and project performance. However, the association between self-control and project performance is found insignificant in the presence of complexity risk.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first attempt to study the relationship of control mechanisms, complexity risk and project performance in the construction industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Offshore outsourcing: a managerial framework
|
[
"Services",
"Purchasing",
"Outsourcing",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nBackground: Outsourcing occurs when an organization subcontracts a product or process to an outside supplier (Drezner, 2004). Reduced communication costs and standardized software packages have made it attractive for organizations located in the US to outsource business processes such as call centers, information technology, document management, and tax preparation to suppliers located outside of the US. This current outsourcing trend is known as offshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization outside the firm's country of origin to perform some or all business functions (Overby, 2003). There is much controversy surrounding offshore outsourcing because of expected job shrinkage and monetary loss to the American economy (Drezner, 2004). However, there can also be an overall economic benefit of offshore outsourcing in terms of higher quality products, greater customer satisfaction, and higher levels of productivity (Farrell, 2003).Because services generally have high labor content and are not considered a core competency, they are a prime candidate for outsourcing to low labor cost regions (Elmuti and Kathawala, 2000; Purcell, 1998). For example, approximately 65 percent of a call center's operating expenses are labor, making them a likely target for offshoring (Armony and Maglaras, 2004). Many American industries that take advantage of labor arbitrage choose India as their predominant geographic area for offshore outsourcing of call centers.The purpose of this article is to present a managerial framework for successful supplier selection and ongoing management for purchasing services from offshore suppliers. The managerial framework is grounded in transaction cost economics (TCE) and developed based on findings from case studies of six Fortune 500 firms with experience in offshore outsourcing. Viewing the establishment of offshore outsourced services buyer-supplier relationships as strategic in nature helps these organizations ensure quality and low cost in their service delivery.\nRelevant literature: The amount of money that businesses spend on services continues to grow with the increase in outsourcing and offshoring (Ellram et al., 2007). Organizations are increasingly focusing on the services spend because of the large dollar value and growing importance to the organization. When purchasing materials and components, the supply management department has historically been tasked with negotiating to get the right materials, at the right time, in the right quantity, from the right source, at the right price (Baily et al., 1994). However, the characteristics of services: heterogeneity, intangibility, perishability, and inseparability (for example see Lovelock, 1983) make the purchasing of services more difficult than the purchasing of goods (CAPS Research, 2006). The lack of tangibility makes the specification of the service less precise and more difficult to measure, as there is no physical product to flow through the receiving and inspection process. Simultaneously, the trend towards decreasing the supply base and developing closer, more reliant relationships with the remaining suppliers (Burt et al., 2003), makes supplier relationships even more strategic. Offshore outsourced service suppliers present an additional level of risk and complexity due to geographic and cultural differences. The following section presents relevant literature on buying business services, portfolio management and transaction cost theory.Purchasing business services\nMethodology: This research involves a context-specific analysis of a contemporary phenomenon. The overall research question explored here is, \"How are offshore outsourced services being purchased and managed today?\" The ultimate goal is to determine how the purchasing process can be improved and assess the results of offshore outsourcing of purchased services. A multi-case research strategy is therefore the appropriate methodology (Yin, 2003; Eisenhardt, 1989; Ellram, 1996). A purposeful sampling technique was used to identify firms that purchase business services from independent service providers located in India. For this study, multiple informants were interviewed from six large Fortune 500 organizations, which requested anonymity (see Table III). Open-ended interview protocols were used to determine the process for selecting, managing, and evaluating offshore suppliers. A copy of the interview protocol is included in the appendix.Data collection\nResults: The intent of this research is to develop a managerial framework for successful supplier selection and ongoing management for purchasing services from offshore suppliers. It includes consideration of who was involved in the purchase including the role of supply management.Overview of purchasing process\nDiscussion: Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present a managerial framework that facilitates successful supplier selection and ongoing management for purchasing services from offshore suppliers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research is grounded in transaction cost theory and developed using data from case studies of six Fortune 500 firms that have a minimum of three years experience purchasing services from suppliers located in India.\nFindings: - Viewing the selection and management of suppliers for the purchase of offshore outsourced services as strategic in nature helps organizations ensure quality and low cost in the service delivery and also reduces complexity and associated risk to the organization.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The overarching limitation is the number and size of the companies being researched.\nPractical implications: - This research presents a framework to guide managers in reducing risk and improving performance in these complex service purchases. Formalizing the selection and management of offshore outsourced services and investing in supplier improvements/measurement was found to improve operating relationships and enhance the business-to-business relationship.\nOriginality/value: - This research provides a supply management perspective on a relatively new phenomenon. There has been little academic research on business process offshoring and few theoretical insights to guide managers in the purchase of services from suppliers located in different geographies with different cultures and operating structures. This paper looks at this phenomenon from a US-based perspective and provides guidelines for managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Climate change adaptation in the management of public buildings: an Indonesian context
|
[
"Australia",
"Indonesia",
"Risk management",
"Climate change adaptation",
"Asset management",
"Public asset"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Climate change is a growing challenge for Indonesia. Also, the country is the world's fifth largest in terms of greenhouse gases emissions, mostly through the result of deforestation, forest fires and changing land use (Reid, 2012). The National Action Plan on climate change adaptation (CCA) (RAN-API) stated that the threats of climate change in Indonesia are on the increase in relation to ground and sea surface temperature, changes in rainfall and sea-level rise (BAPPENAS, 2013, 2014). Furthermore, BAPPENAS (2014) noted that the most vulnerable cities in Indonesia due to climate change are Jakarta and Semarang.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The climate change frameworks\n3. Research methodology: This two-phase research study used appropriate sources of evidence to collect empirical data, including semi-structured interviews involving participants from Australia and Indonesia and to document reviews of PAM and CCA policies in both countries. The review provided insights on the current development of PAM and CCA in terms of concepts, strategies, institutional arrangements, legal frameworks, as well as challenges in PAM and CCA.\n4. Results from Phase I and discussions: The interview results from Phase I identified nine elements to be considered in the integration of CCA in PAM as follows.\n5. Results from Phase II and discussions: The emerging categories and themes are discussed with reference to and reflection of the literature. The nine elements from Phase I (Table I) were discussed with interview participants from Indonesia in Phase II. The results from the semi-structured interviews provided an indication about elements that would work well in the context of Indonesia. The interview participants expressed their comments and suggestions, from which the authors gained feedback in order to improve the effectiveness and completeness of elements of CCA in PAM, resulting in modification of these elements.\n6. Reconciling the results from this study to the framework: The framework in this study was developed based on qualitative responses received from the semi-structured interviews in Phases I and II of this research and document analysis as well as critical review of literature. Table I shows the outcome of the analysis was the identification of concepts or elements to be considered in the framework for CCA for incorporation in PAM. Further adjustments were considered to adopt and adapt to Indonesia context (see Table II). The systematic process of reconciling and developing a framework for CCA for incorporation in PAM according to guidelines published by the Australia Greenhouse Office (AGO, 2006) and the process used in AS5334, ISO31000 as well as KRAPI will be further explained. A risk-based approach to CCA in Indonesia is known as KRAPI or CCRAA. However, this approach needs to be extended to cover the public asset sector because CCA in PAM has not been specified.\n7. Conclusions: This study was designed to identify elements that need to be considered in developing a framework for CCA for incorporation in PAM and included findings from the analysis of semi-structured interviews of participants from Australia and in Indonesia and reference to and reflection of the literature. In this research study, analysis was used as a complementary tool for triangulation of the results from data collection through interviews in Australia and Indonesia. This triangulation also involved cross-checking the data from other sources such as informal conversations with key persons. This paper synthesises information from a range of sources provided by three levels of government in Australia and Indonesia. In addition, it provides dialogue between CCA and PAM, as the two groups have worked separately in Indonesia, to identify elements to be considered for reduction in climate change risks and improving decision making in relation to PAM.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a strategy to integrate climate change adaptation (CCA) in public asset management (PAM) in Indonesia. This paper focusses on public buildings as part of a public asset.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As an archipelagic country, Indonesia is very vulnerable to sea-level rise as a result of climate change. The outcomes of a qualitative analysis of interviews with relevant stakeholders were used for the development of the CCA framework in an Indonesian context.\nFindings: The study identified that the integration of CCA in PAM in Indonesia requires the incorporation of nine key elements. These are as follows: recognition of climate change; risk management and insurance schemes for assets; integrated asset management and planning; asset use and knowledge; reliable, accessible and understandable data set on climate change; leadership, government commitment and incentives; involvement of research and private entities; community engagement; and coordination of relevant agencies.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper informed only the key elements required on the development of framework which integrate CCA in PAM.\nPractical implications: The integration of CCA to a PAM framework will support the development of policies and procedures for better-informed decisions.\nSocial implications: The framework increases opportunities for stakeholders and community engagement in policy development and decision making in relation to CCA for public assets.\nOriginality/value: This paper synthesises CCA and PAM using knowledge from the three levels of governments in Australia and Indonesia. CCA and PAM groups work separately in Indonesia and integration will reduce climate change risks and improve decision making in PAM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Audit and feedback in mental healthcare: staff experiences
|
[
"Evidence-based practice",
"Quality improvement",
"Audit",
"Clinical guidelines",
"Self-assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines aim to secure and improve care for clients, patients and service users, and are produced at a fast pace in mental health services (Shekelle et al., 2012; Barbui et al., 2014). They are, however, not easily translated into practice (Grol, 2008; Girlanda et al., 2017) and a gap between evidence summarized in guidelines (what is known) and what is adopted in practice (what is done) exists (Sederer, 2009). In recent years, more research on how to close the gap has emerged (Grimshaw et al., 2012), but we still lack knowledge about how to choose the most appropriate strategies for guideline implementation (Gagliardi and Alhabib, 2015). One research field is the various implementation strategies believed to affect either practitioner behavior or patient outcome. One intervention is audit and feedback (A&F), an implementation strategy targeting healthcare professionals (Grimshaw et al., 2012; Mazza et al., 2013; Effective Practice and Organisation of Care, 2015). A&F, a well-established intervention that aims to improve healthcare quality, used in different healthcare settings, may positively influence compliance with desired practice (Foy et al., 2005; Burgess, 2011; Hysong et al., 2006; Ivers et al., 2012; Ivers, Grimshaw, Jamtvedt, Flottorp, O'brien, French, Young and Odgaard-Jensen, 2014). A&F are used for heterogeneous interventions and involve developing clinical performance summaries (audit) over a specific time, and subsequently providing a summary (feedback) to individual practitioners, teams, or healthcare organization managers (Brehaut and Eva, 2012). A&F are often the basis for quality improvement (QI) or implementation projects, and can be described as a circular process, an audit cycle or A&F cycle (Burgess, 2011; Potter et al., 2010; Dixon et al., 2011) (Figure 1).\nMethod: Study design\nFindings: Themes evolved around three areas in the interview guide. The first was A&F usefulness and how staff experienced A&F, which was experienced as meaningful and reassuring. The second area was experience around the actions schema and the actions taken to implement Guideline recommendations; staff experienced poor follow-up on actions and poor prioritization. The last area was broader experience; staff felt they did not own the full A&F cycle.\nDiscussion: We found that staff felt accepting and were mainly positive in the initial A&F cycle stages, were willing to participate in the audit survey, and implementation, but everyday life in the DPC units interfered with completion. Plans were often not fulfilled owing to organizational deficiencies and poor follow-up, and thus lacking A&F cycle ownership. Auditing raised practice awareness about dual diagnosis patients, in line with A&F intentions (Ivers, Sales, Colquhoun, Michie, Foy, Francis, and Grimshaw, 2014; Jamtvedt et al., 2006) - an important recognition by mental health staff.\nConclusion and recommendations: Exploring staff experiences provides valuable information regarding A&F cycles. This information may be used when planning and tailoring further implementation projects. We found a process that was formally decided at high management levels in the organization, taken on by local managers and given support in the initial phase. The A&F cycle was well planned and set out. Our main findings are that staff felt enthusiastic in the A&F cycle's initial stages, but that everyday life in the DPC units interfered with the process and good intentions were often not fulfilled owing to organizational deficiencies and poor follow-up. This study shows that it is probably hard to hold on to a full A&F cycle without designated facilitators even when tools for implementation are ready at hand. For healthcare organizations, this gives valuable insight into staff needs and facilitation. Our study is relevant for leaders and managers in specialist mental health services using A&F as tool to implement guidelines and promote evidence-based practice. We suggest exploring how unit leaders in mental health services experience the process and complete an A&F cycle. We recommend more naturalistic studies in specialist mental health services to understand A&F processes in real life.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Audit and feedback (A&F) often underlie implementation projects, described as a circular process; i.e. an A&F cycle. They are widely used, but effect varies with no apparent explanation. We need to understand how A&F work in real-life situations. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to describe and explore mental healthcare full A&F cycle experiences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a naturalistic qualitative study that uses four focus groups and qualitative content analysis.\nFindings: Staff accepted the initial A&F stages, perceiving it to enhance awareness and reassure them about good practice. They were willing to participate in the full cycle and implement changes, but experienced poor follow-up and prioritization, not giving them a chance to own to the process. An important finding is the need for an A&F cycle facilitator.\nPractical implications: Research teams cannot be expected to be involved in implementing clinical care. Guidelines will keep being produced to improve service quality and will be expected to be practiced. This study gives insights into planning and tailoring A&F cycles.\nOriginality/value: Tools to ease implementation are not enough, and the key seems to lie with facilitating a process using A&F. This study underscores leadership, designated responsibility and facilitation throughout a full audit cycle.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Re-visiting the supply chain: a communication perspective
|
[
"Corporate communications",
"Communication processes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study develops an exploratory \"communicational view\" of the supply chain (SC), providing a preliminary conceptual mapping of communication roles, forms and tools supporting SC processes. It is aimed at highlighting how communication facilitates SC management, emphasising how relationships and processes are fostered by communication flows and exploring how SC performance may be enhanced through coordinated management of interpersonal and internet-mediated communication forms.\nSC phases, relationship-based processes and performance dimensions: The SC indicates the flow of products and information crossing through a company that is managed to achieve linkages and coordination among business processes (Christopher, 2011).\nCorporate communication and relationship-based processes: Corporate communication has been identified as a primary business function that coordinates the mutual exchange of information and product flows, and relationship-based resources among business partners (Argenti, 2007; Cornelissen, 2008). As a \"glue\" of each business process, communication has a notable impact on the social dimension of the relationship, creating and maintaining trust between parties (van Riel and Fombrun, 2007). In business relationships the interactive dimension of communication, defined as the main relational vector between the firm and its environment (Johansen and Nielsen, 2011), allows the activation of mutual adaptation processes among the actors, supporting the continuity of the relationship in the long period (MacMillan et al., 2000; Phillips, 2006). Communication is thus identifiable as a variable of relationship development and coordination within and beyond organisational boundaries (Mohr et al., 1996; Ledingham and Bruning, 2000). Communication has been also viewed as a fundamental embedded component of each business process facilitating the relational exchange among the actors, as well as a strategic dimension supporting all corporate decision-making activities having an impact on stakeholder relationships (Johansen and Nielsen, 2011).\nResearch questions, objectives and method: From our literature review stem the following basic research questions:\nFindings: The role of communication in strategic supply chain management\nDiscussion: The evidence of our study suggests that communication plays a primary role in the identity management and image building phases of the SC that represent strategic activities sustaining all other SC processes: these phases are based on communication and depend on the firm's ability to enhance the exchange of information flows with intra-firm and inter-firm stakeholders (Balmer and Gray, 1999; Grunig et al., 2002). In particular, communication seems critical in creating, settling and spreading the SC culture inside the firm (Gambetti and Giovanardi, 2013; Linke and Zerfass, 2011) (i.e. culture sedimentation and diffusion), that is the awareness shared inside the firm of SC values and contribution to corporate performance, as well of its success drivers. Thus, the SC mission and vision should be built and shared first among all SC employees (Holtzhausen and Fourie, 2009) and then among other business functions and units.\nConclusions: How does communication support SC processes?\nManagerial implications: The evidence of our study also raises some significant managerial implications related to the importance of managing SC processes taking advantage of communicational assets. Although communication is widely perceived by SC managers as a strategic tool to enhance intangible SC assets, our evidence suggested that a consistent and mature SC culture is currently still lacking. Managers' self-awareness of the SC function is still low, often resulting in an underestimation of its contribution to corporate value creation on the part of top management. The SC, being considered a cost-optimisation function, sometimes finds it difficult to have its requests prioritised by top management. This underlines a partially inadequate use of communication by SC managers that apparently prevents enhancing the role and the consideration given to the SC in the firm. In this case, ongoing face-to-face communication between the SC director and top management executives might be able to emphasise - especially in this period of global economic downturn - how the SC can be not only a cost-optimisation function, but also a revenue-driving one (Hammervoll, 2009).\nLimits and future research developments: As for the limits of our study, it is exploratory and thus cannot be indiscriminately generalised. It needs to be consolidated through a wider range of interviews with SC managers both of focal companies and of partner companies operating globally. However, we believe that the conceptualisation we proposed may be heuristically relevant serving as the starting point for a further reflection on the relevance of exploring the role of communication moving away from traditional, functional approaches, to discover the value of communication flows embedded in cross-functional processes, which are primarily responsible for corporate value creation and competitive advantage. In this regard, we are currently carrying out further in-depth interviews with SC managers according to a cross-industrial perspective. This in order to strengthen our research propositions, consolidating them into research hypotheses to be consequently verified in the future through a survey on an extensive sample of global companies in the fast-moving consumer goods market.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study is aimed at revisiting the supply chain (SC) of a company, highlighting how communication supports SC management, emphasising how SC relationship-based processes are fostered by communication flows, and exploring how SC performance may be enhanced through coordinated management of interpersonal and internet-mediated communication forms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study follows a two-step qualitative methodological approach encompassing the building of a preliminary conceptual mapping, and preliminary testing, integration and revision of the conceptual mapping.\nFindings: The findings highlight communication's primary role in identity management and image building of the SC, and its supporting role enhancing strategic and operational SC processes. Communication seems to act as a \"cultural glue\", a \"trade-off and compensation\", a \"knowledge creation and dissemination\", a \"relationship development and maintenance\", and an \"alignment and integration\" activity along the SC, fostering knowledge, managerial, relational and competitive SC performance dimensions.\nPractical implications: The combination of SC and corporate communication academic knowledge with field SC managerial expertise allows the proposal of a preliminary conceptual framework illustrating the potential links among SC processes, communication and SC performance. The study provides also a set of research propositions to guide both future research and managerial practice in communication management along the SC.\nOriginality/value: This study offers a first exploratory \"communicational view\" of the SC, which beyond analysing communication in the corporate locus of the typical communication function explores the value of communication that is embedded in manufacturing processes and routines at the basis of corporate performance by developing a cross-functional communication approach.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
New ways of promoting equality and diversity in the workplace: The role of the union equality representative
|
[
"Trade unions",
"Employee representatives",
"Work place",
"Equal opportunities",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: On the 9th of February 2009 at Congress House, London, the headquarters of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC), the first trade union conference was held to report and reflect specifically on the role of a new type of equality activist in the workplace. The conference showcased the work of the TUC equality representative project, in terms of developing training material, promoting the role and sharing good practice. It also highlighted the innovative work that equality reps from a number of affiliate unions are already doing in workplaces around the UK. As a delegate to this key equality initiative, my report outlines the contributions of the keynote speakers, the work reported on and discussed at the conference around the equality agenda and the views of the 135 delegates who attended the event in terms of the key equality and diversity themes that arose during the day.Although not wholly a new concept, the role of an activist specialising in supporting employees and employers in the area of equality has found greater prominence in recent years in the pioneering work of the TUC and following a government sponsored commission to look into the continuing inequality experienced by women in the British workplace (DfCLG, 2006). The Women and Work Commission, amongst other recommendations, advocated the need to fund a network of union equality reps to support women and other disadvantaged workers. To this end, the government's union modernisation fund, established around the same time (BERR, 2009), and which provides general support for unions to modernise and develop their services to members, has provided funding for a number of unions to start to train and organise this new cadre of representatives in the workplace. The following account will focus on the early experiences and successes of a number of these projects.The conference was well organised with a programme designed to encourage participation and interaction with a number of question and answer sessions throughout the day. Delegates from a cross section of new and potential equality representatives, trade union officers and activists and others interested in equality issues were welcomed by the conference chair, Sarale Veale, the head of equality and employment rights at the TUC, who outlined the aims and objectives of the event.Unfortunately, the TUC equality rep project co-ordinator, Teresa Daly, could not address the conference due to a recent injury but was applauded by the Chair for her work so far. In her absence, Sally Brett, TUC national equality officer, gave an informative account of the project's progress so far, its objectives and the milestones that had been achieved. She reported that, with the aid of further government supported funding, the project has now been extended to the end of 2009. The key aims of the project are to produce training material for a three-day course, promote the role amongst affiliate unions and share good practice. To date, twelve courses have been run in the regions and 149 equality reps have been trained. An on-line course was also launched in January with 67 students enrolled. Furthermore, in order to measure the success of all the projects, the TUC has commissioned an independent consultant to evaluate the projects. Brett stressed that the long-term aim of the project was to be self-sustaining as more tutors are trained and courses become part of the TUC Unionlearn mainstream programmeThe first of the two keynote speakers was Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour Party and Minister for Women and Equality. The Minister opened by announcing that the government was going to clamp down on pay inequality and discrimination against women in the financial sector. Capturing well people's current dismay at the role of senior management in the finance sector in relation to the current economic crisis, in a sector that employs more women than men but remains highly vertically segregated in terms of gender, she told the conference that, \"huge bonuses for city bosses are not the only thing wrong with pay in the financial services industry. They are also top of the list for treating women employees unfairly. The gender pay gap in financial services is worse than in manufacturing, retail or any other sector\". As she further argued, \"I just don't believe women are less committed, less hard-working or less able than men. So they shouldn't be paid less. As well as this enquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission..[into equal pay in the financial sector]..there will be some tough measures in the new Equality Bill which will help further narrow the gender pay gap\".Having set out her commitment to greater equality, Harman then turned specifically to the role of the equality representative. She opined that, \"equality and an absence of discrimination are hallmarks of a modern society, as well as important for the economy so that it can draw on the talents of all\". She continued, \"until now, the labour market has been valuing the wrong things. That's evident from the millions paid in bonuses to those who have failed. But we are now turning away from risk-taking and greed, and recognising qualities and experience that women bring to the workplace. There is a pressure for change in the workplace, and equality reps can be a catalyst for this change\".An opportunity for questions and answers then followed where a number of delegates voiced their concern over the activities of the far right in the UK. Harman noted and shared the concern of the delegates and stressed that the government, through its economic and equality strategies, would continue to challenge and negate the influence of these parties. She also acknowledged the clear contribution of the unions to this end. Turning specifically then to the focus of the day, a couple of delegates asked the Minister if the forthcoming Equality Bill would give the equality rep the legal status currently granted to union health and safety reps and union learning reps. In answer to what was to be a key theme of the conference, the minister replied that she expected that a proposed amendment, sponsored perhaps by the trade unions, would ensure that this point would be part of the debate on the final content of the Bill.Delegates then asked about the equality duties of public organisations incorporated into the new Bill. The Minister stressed that the intention was to see an extension of current public sector bodies' equality duties, for instance, through consideration of the equality policies and procedures of private companies when they tender for work. She also stated that there was a clear duty of all public bodies to promote social mobility in all that they do in order to help to narrow the current gap between rich and poor.Brendan Barber, the General Secretary of the TUC, then took the platform. Endorsing the commitment of Minister Harman as \"a great friend of the trade union movement\" he reiterated the her message stressing that, \"today is a great opportunity for all of us to focus on one of the most exciting developments in contemporary trade unionism - the creation of a network of equality reps\". Setting the initiative in the context of today's economic difficulties, Barber reflected that, \"some people say that during a severe recession, equality should take a back seat. That when jobs are being lost and businesses folding, it is a luxury we somehow cannot afford. But they are wrong, wrong on every count. When times are tough, the need to encourage fair chances, to unlock the talents of everyone in our society, to tackle the gross inequality that lies at the heart of so many of our problems, is quite simply greater than ever\". In this context, the general secretary noted the increasing diversity of the British workforce and the continued inequality in terms of pay and lack of opportunities at and into work suffered, for instance, by women, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Afro-Caribbean workers, disabled people, both older and young people and by people because of their sexuality. He concluded that the long-term aim of the unions is, \"a more systematic, movement-wide approach to equality in the workplace, through a network of equality reps who will: build capacity, spread best practice and secure equal treatment for our members\". Crucially for Barber, to this end, and \"to make our movement an even more powerful champion of equality\", statutory recognition for the equal representative remained a core objective for the TUC.After a short break the conference focussed on the reports from two national project workers on the progress of their equality reps projects so far (TUC, 2009a). Siobhan Endean from the Unite union reported that they were well on the way to achieving their target of 400 trained equality reps and, to that end, the aims of the project were to set up a network of reps, to transform workplaces through facility and recognition agreements and to disseminate their experiences. She stressed that demographic change had necessitated the development of this new type of representative, adding, however, that there is not one definition of an equality rep. They could be a dedicated equality rep or have a dual role, for instance, as also a shop steward or learning rep. Crucially, Endean reported that time off to train, to get facility time and to be able to negotiate on equality issues remained key issues. In the absence of statutory rights, they have had to make their new reps shop stewards as well, in order to be able to carry out their equality role. In closing, Endean stressed that the equality rep is now, through the Unite rulebook, seen as an integral part of the whole union branch structure.Diana Veitch of UNISON concurred with Endean that the new role is being embedded within their union branch structure. Veitch explained that UNISON currently has dedicated equality officers in each branch but saw the equality reps as crucial support for \"overworked branch officers\". She highlighted that a significant percentage of lead officers' work can be around equality issues, help through the knowledge and skills of the equality representative could alleviate these pressures. The UNISON officer also raised a key practical point about the role of equality reps in branches, noting that depending whether the branch is a single or a multiple employer organisation will impact on equality rep recruitment. That is, in the case of the latter the goal will be to get an equality rep in every employer who will then be coordinated by the branch equality officer.In order for delegates to learn more about the actual challenges faced in the workplace during the projects, equality reps Sharon Harding, GMB, Gerard McGrath, Unison, Majorie Brown, PCS and Anne Cockram, Unite joined Endean and Veitch on the top table to share their experiences of the new role. The reps gave various accounts of how they are working with members and employers on a range of equality issues. In respect of the barriers they face in their new role, Harding reiterated the earlier point that because of the lack of recognition she had to become a shop steward in order to carry out her role as an equality rep, and then only got the right to represent members on equality issues. Despite these barriers, Brown stated that the training has been \"the best three days I've ever done\", adding that, \"the course will change your life, to know what you're doing and do it better\". She saw her role as monitoring the employer and \"pushing them in the right direction\".In the question and answer session that followed, members of the panel were asked by a delegate, in the context of the initiative's contribution to increased membership, how many of the equality reps they had recruited were \"new\" reps. The UNISON representatives reported that at least three people on every training course run were new to union activism. For UNITE, the representatives reported that over 50 per cent were new activists. However, the project officer emphasised that it is more than mere numbers. It was about empowering members to choose to be the type of representative that they wanted to be, and for many this was to support their colleagues as an equality representative.It is of note that the role as outlined by the project workers and equality reps may vary across affiliate unions. For instance, in PCS, the civil service union, the role is as a branch equality officer, whereas in other unions they are workplace representatives. Crucially, their generic role is captured well in the TUC training manual launched at the conference: to identify equality issues, to raise awareness of the equality agenda in their union, to encourage employers to include equality and diversity in the collective bargaining agenda, to support and advise other reps and members on equality issues, and to monitor equality and diversity policies and procedures in the workplace and their impact (TUC, 2009b). It was also apparent that key themes of the conference were the barriers to the equality representative fully carrying out their proposed duties. In particular, the need for statutory recognition to undertake those duties was seen as a crucial element in the success of the initiative.The afternoon comprised of a series of informative workshops run by TUC equality policy officers on a range of topics relating to different equality strands recognised under law in the UK: women, disability, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, black and ethnic minorities and age discrimination. In addition, Sally Brett, TUC national equality officer, gave an insightful review of the Single Equality Bill due to go before Parliament for its final reading in April 2009. She reported that the intention of the Bill is to bring together current law covering all equality strands within the UK under once piece of legislation. Furthermore, key changes to current equality law include an extension to the protection against discrimination on the basis of age in purchasing goods, facilities and services. The equality duty incumbent on public organisations to positively promote the rights of disadvantaged groups will be extended to all equality strands as recognised by law. In addition, enforcement powers in terms of investigation, possible hearing of multiple discrimination cases and recommendations by tribunals to change practices following the hearing of an individual case have been strengthened under the new legislation.In providing all delegates with a written report on the equality reps projects and the TUC equality rep's training manual (TUC, 2009a, b), it was also announced that fifty-six more courses would be run in 2009 in venues across England. This reinforced the earlier stated intention of the TUC that the training and support of the equality representative project is designed to be sustainable beyond the initial funding provided by the Union Modernisation Fund.Reflecting on the conference, and this author's previous knowledge of the initiative, there is much to suggest that the equality rep is a new role within the trade union movement whose time has come. The striking endorsement by Minister Harman, the commitment of the movement's leadership and the impressive and heart warming accounts from the project officers and equality reps at the conference all confirm that conclusion. However, as the key theme of the conference has also highlighted, it will take more than the hard work and dedication of this new band of activists to really start to address the inequalities that still confront many workers in the UK today. It is the legal status and recognition demanded by officers and delegates alike that will make the difference, and from this a genuine recognition by employers of the role that this new type of union representative can play in their organisation to the benefit of themselves and their employees. As noted above, this could well be a key debate in terms of final amendments to the Single Equality Bill in April and will certainly see union sponsored support for such discussions in Parliament. Whether it is achieved during this debate or at some later date, as an academic and union member, my hope is that the overwhelming need to accord such status to the equality rep, if we are to derive the full potential of this new and exciting role, will win the argument.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to report on the discussions that took place and the key themes raised at a conference focusing on the role of the union equality representative, held at the British Trades Union Congress (TUC), London, in February 2009.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The conference was structured around the contribution of a number of keynote speakers, reports back from project workers and question and answer sessions with delegates. The paper is based on observation, summary notes and conference documents.\nFindings: - The conference demonstrated the potential for a new type of union representative to help address inequality and discrimination in the workplace, with clear examples of early successes reported by unions participating in the project. However, it also highlighted barriers that may still remain until the equality rep has the same legal rights and status accorded to other union representatives in the UK.\nOriginality/value: - This report highlights a key new initiative from the British trade union movement in addressing equality and diversity issues at work through the recruitment, training, organising and ongoing support of a network of specialised union equality representatives.\n",
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Service provision for co-creation of value: Insights from exchange- and production economy perspectives
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Service dominant logic",
"Buyer seller relationship",
"Craftsmanship",
"Inter-organisational relationships",
"Production proficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: This paper considers inter-organisational issues in supply chain relationships (SCRs) with a view to advance research on co-creation of value in the service dominant logic (SDL) field. Following Vargo and Lusch (2004a), instead of \"marketing to\" buyers and other partners, organisations should \"market with\" them, and value creation should be treated as emerging from an interactive process between a buyer and seller (Chen and Watanable, 2007; Tokman and Beitelspacher, 2011).\n2 Exchange and production economy perspectives: SDL scholars criticise the traditional view of the primacy of goods (operand resources), arguing that relationships, service and operant resources deserve more focus (Vargo and Lusch, 2004a). Operant resources are the skills and knowledge required for providing service (Lusch et al., 2007). Co-creation of value is commonly understood either in terms of the value created by the object of exchange (services and/or goods) or as the value created in the process of exchange (Lindgreen and Wynstra, 2005), from the buyer\n3 Service provision in an exchange economy perspective: According to Williamson (1985, p. 1), \"a transaction occurs when a good or service is transferred across a technologically separable interface. One stage of activity terminates and another begins\". The co-creation of value in SCRs under the exchange economy perspective refers to successful completion of transactions between the buyer and the seller.\n4 Service provision in a production economy perspective: Under the exchange economy perspective, the important service provided in a SCR relates to different obstacles that might prevent desired transactions from occurring. Transactional content is not questioned - it is threatened as fixed, but what about firms\n5 Conclusion: Vargo and Lusch (2004a) argue that marketing should shift from \"market to\" to \"market with\" buyers and other partners. They call for the development of a new field of research that focuses more on aspects of co-creation and less on the goods exchanged and distributed in the supply chains. In response to this call, this paper has explored service provision aimed at co-creation of value building on insights from the purchasing literature and two different perspectives on inter-organisational relationships. In all, six types of service provision are suggested. First, the exchange economy perspective explains information sharing, adaptation and commitment are important for co-creation of value. Second, the production economy perspective explains how service provision can improve the object of exchange, by means of production proficiency, craftsmanship, and entrepreneurship.\n6 Further research opportunities: In many cases buyers depend on supplier service provision in terms of accomplishing production proficiency, craftsmanship and entrepreneurship in order to remain competitive. On the basis of the insights gained in this paper, future research in the SDL-tradition can approach the study of co-creation of value taking a wider approach. Linking the SDL perspective more firmly to the production economy perspective is one way of advancing further conceptual and empirical work. The three types of service provision - production proficiency, craftsmanship and entrepreneurship - merit attention in future SDL research as they operationalize Vargo and Lusch (2004a) and Lusch and Vargo\n7 Implications for practise: The different types of service provision identified in this paper are useful to managers for their assessment of their SCRs. First, the six suggested types of service provision can be used as a check-list, and support managers use it in their decisions as to which SCRs to invest in, maintain or divest. If the SCR is viewed through the exchange economy lens, collaboration consists of exchanging information, adapting and committing to the exchange partner. From a production economy perspective, the collaborative challenges are fundamentally different: learning by doing in production (production proficiency), craftsmanship and entrepreneurship.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider inter-organisational issues in supply chain relationships (SCRs) with a view to advancing research on co-creation of value in the service dominant logic (SDL) field.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study presents a conceptual analysis of current ideas on purchasing and SCRs with special emphasis on inter-organisational collaboration as viewed from exchange- and production economy perspectives. Important types of service buyers and sellers provide in order to co-create value in SCRs are explored.\nFindings: Both exchange- and production economy perspectives offer useful insights for the study of co-creation of value in SCRs. The exchange economy perspective recognises service provision in terms of information sharing, adaptation and commitment, while the production economy perspective recognises service provision in terms of production proficiency, craftsmanship and entrepreneurship.\nResearch limitations/implications: SDL researchers should recognise the relevance of both exchange- and production economy perspectives in further study of co-creation of value in SCRs. Future research should consider how specific types of service provision are affected by operant resources as well as other important SDL concepts, such as trust, buyer involvement and relational orientation.\nOriginality/value: This paper considers specific types of service provision in SCRs for the purpose of co-creation of value.\n",
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Three poems on organisation, control and exchange
|
[
"Workflow",
"Child welfare",
"Exchange"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Putting out work: Centuries gone by,we had a loom at home.Every week we got instructions:what to produce, how much, for whom.We were given our wool and toolsand all our materials,so that we could weave your cloth.We were regularly checkedto confirm we were working to order.Today, in the Knowledge Age,computers have come home,Every hour we get instructions:what to create, how much, for whom.We are given our own data, disks,and all the peripherals,so that we can weave ideas.We are regularly checkedto confirm we are working to order.Once more, as so long ago,capital has come home.Instructions are by constant e-mail.We obey; never act alone.We are given what we needbut not all that we would want.Ever the weavers, we think,as we are checked, hour by hour:'Is this what we worked so hard to achieve?'\nII. The happiest days of your life: It is noon time.The children have workedsince six thirty a.m.Nimble and quickthey pluck, turn,examine, then sort,multi-coloured soiled rags.Every two hoursthey have a break,celebratedby a cigarette.They are 'sick' today -lessons, and selves, neglected.They work in a back-street garage.This is Blantyre.1805?No, 2005.Blantyre, Malawi?No, Blantyre, Scotland.Schooldays are, as ever,the happiest days of your life.\nIII. The exchange: I pass them each morning,loitering by the boats,as I go for a pot of tea,before returning to my hutto finish what I hopeis an honest day's work.Nkopola is sunny every daynestling by the bright blue ribbonthat is Lake Malawi.The boys are teenagers,rumbustious, joyful,keen to sell their carvings.Every day, I protest'I have no money'as carvings are offered:a giraffe, a gazelle;a humorous hippopotamus.Fine work; but I say 'No'.After weeks, discouraged,they say, 'What do you want?'I go to the wet sandand scratch an outline fish:just two crossed curves -up and down,down then up.'We'll do it' they chant together.I show them more:names to be inscribedon the side of each fish -one for each of my children,Eilidh, Annabel, Kenneth.Amicably, price yet un-quoted,we agree a delivery time:next morning as I pass,going for my pot of tea.As promised, we meet.They have the carved fish:gills almost breathing,eyes alert, staring,mouths gaping, as for food.A small pierced hole(to take a key ring)makes them functional;but their art transcends mere function.The boys sense my keen admirationas I handle the fish, enchanted,so they quote their first price high,very high. Already they chuckleat my expected reaction.'Too much, too much'I gasp, 'A week's rent!'.We haggle intensely,but without resolution.I wonder what they really want.Then one boy speaks up.'What size are your feet?'he asks with quiet focus.I sense a hand being revealed.I reply, 'Size Ten'. 'Perfect',he says, pointing down,'We'd like your shoes'.On my feet are new shoes,sports trainers, latest design,bought especially for this trip.I look again at the fish,and unlace my shoes.The boys are wreathed in smiles.I pad back to my hutbarefoot and happy,the three fish in my hand.The boys set off cheerfully,one of them wearing my trainers.We have not traded.We have exchanged gifts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To express and illustrate in verse ubiquitous problems of organizational, auditing and trading malfunctions, thereby stimulating the imagination to contemplate alternative approaches.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Poetic expression of the following design: I. \"Putting out work\". Three nine-line stanzas of syllabic verse, mythic in tone, otherwise of irregular, free form. Expression approaches prose poetry. II. \"The happiest days of your life\". Three seven-line stanzas of free verse, mythic in tone. III. \"The exchange\". Twelve six-line stanzas in free verse; a narrative prose poem.\nFindings: - I. Asks whether the discredited putting-out system is not lurking yet in modern \"home-working\", but with more subtle drawbacks, and even closer control. II. Finds that pressures to permit labour abuses are persistent, even in alleged \"advanced\" economies - its incidence and its form are just more surreptitious. III. Develops an alternative metaphor for North-South economic relations, and suggests exploring an ethics of \"gift exchange\", in contrast with the so-called \"anonymity of the market\".\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitation of verse in this context is that it is a stimulus to the imagination, but not a vehicle for empirical investigation as such. However, what verse does here is to suggest three areas for research that are novel and challenging, but may otherwise be neglected without this stimulus.\nOriginality/value: - I. Finds an emerging \"new putting-out system\" II. Shows how the motivation for child labour is persistent, even in \"advanced\" economies. III. Points to an alternative approach to exchange, as a mutual process of gifting.\n",
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Partnering for change: How a health authority, physicians, and communities work together to transform primary healthcare services
|
[
"Integration",
"Partnering",
"Primary care",
"Qualitative research",
"Organizational innovation",
"Rural health services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Primary healthcare reform initiatives have been created to serve as the cornerstone of a transformed health system (Starfield et al., 2005). Specific components include community involvement (Farmer and Nimegeer, 2014), new primary care organizations (Katz et al., 2017), changes in service delivery approaches (Gilbert et al., 2015), and interprofessional teams (Reay et al., 2013). There remains, however, little evidence to guide the \"how\" of wide-scale transformation in primary healthcare, that is, how individuals and organizations within and across jurisdictions can work together to effect change. This is a critical oversight as effective primary healthcare relies on the interconnected contributions of individuals, groups and organizations that are not formally integrated through ownership or administrative hierarchy (Rummery, 2009).\nThe health system context, partners and transformation objectives: Geographical context: Northern British Columbia\nMethods: The study focused on how the changes were undertaken, that is, how relationships were established and evolved, and how NH, physicians and municipalities (communities) worked together to change health services over time and within specific contexts and places. A longitudinal case study (Stake, 1995, 2005) was undertaken using an interpretive qualitative approach. The case was bounded by the geography of NH and the time of organizational changes from 2010 to the end of data collection in 2015. Ethical approval was received from the researchers' universities and NH's Research Review Committee.\nFindings: transforming a system of care through partnering: Comparing initial and end-of-research interviews, participants reported varying degrees of change in primary healthcare. Early transformations were evident in changes in service provision, involvement of a wider range of healthcare professionals in care, and willingness of partners to design and implement changes in service provision. For example, a revised process for perinatal care was created, which resulted in 100 percent (compared with a previous 50 percent) of women being seen in the first trimester by public health nurses. The result was increased comprehensiveness and continuity of care, and better service provision for women with financial, social, alcohol, and smoking concerns:[We made major changes.] When a pregnant woman phoned the physician's office to make that [first] appointment, the physician's office would [immediately] book their appointment with public health nurses. So non-NH staff was booking for NH's Public Health [which was revolutionary] [...]. And then when they left the public health nurse, our clerk set up their appointment with the physician's office for their first prenatal assessment [...] usually they see them a week to two weeks later [...].(Nursing Coordinator, Year 3)\nDiscussion: The goal of this study was to explore how a health authority, municipalities and physicians worked together in a process designed to transform primary healthcare in order to improve the health of the population. A critical overarching requirement was to find new ways of providing services rather than rearranging parts of the existing system. Four strategies with nine approaches were identified. Instead of setting strategies with fixed dimensions, the processes of transformation could more aptly be characterized as an ongoing, iterative process in which partnering plays a major role. Northern Health, municipal leaders, and physicians have been taking a deliberate, thoughtful approach to change, keeping the end-in-view, addressing as many contingencies as possible, but not letting the need for certainty retard the progress of change. Change has been both strategic and opportunistic. All partners are changing individually as they work together.\nConclusion: In sum, Northern Health, northern physicians, and communities continue to be in the process of transforming the system of care as an outcome of re-orienting health services to focus on the health of the population and patient-centered care. Instead of creating new work-arounds and adding layers of services, NH, with its partners, has been altering primary healthcare by focusing on patients, families and communities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Despite many calls to strengthen connections between health systems and communities as a way to improve primary healthcare, little is known about how new collaborations can effectively alter service provision. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a health authority, municipal leaders and physicians worked together in the process of transforming primary healthcare.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A longitudinal qualitative case study was conducted to explore the processes of change at the regional level and within seven communities across Northern British Columbia (BC), Canada. Over three years, 239 interviews were conducted with physicians, municipal leaders, health authority clinicians and leaders and other health and social service providers. Interviews and contextual documents were analyzed and interpreted to articulate how ongoing transformation has occurred.\nFindings: Four overall strategies with nine approaches were apparent. The strategies were partnering for innovation, keeping the focus on people in communities, taking advantage of opportunities for change and encouraging experimentation while managing risk. The strategies have bumped the existing system out of the status quo and are achieving transformation. Key components have been a commitment to a clear end-in-view, a focus on patients, families, and communities, and acting together over time.\nOriginality/value: This study illuminates how partnering for primary healthcare transformation is messy and complicated but can create a foundation for whole system change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The gender pay gap of STEM professions in the United States
|
[
"United States of America",
"Chemistry",
"Scientists",
"Sex and gender issues",
"Pay"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A decade ago, Congress created the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development to address gender and racial diversity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions (BEST, 2001). Their first report suggested that the United States was failing to develop the STEM workforce, and recommended greater efforts to increase representation of women and minorities in STEM professions. A recent report from the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) shows that although the proportion of women in STEM occupations has increased since 1983, it remains substantially below women's proportion of the general workforce - 26 percent for STEM professions compared to 47 percent overall in 2003 (Ellis, 2005). CPST also reports that the gap between men's and women's pay has increased in recent years for the STEM professions - pay for women was 81 percent of men's in 1995, but decreased to 78.7 percent in 2003. The gender pay gap is one of the factors responsible for the slow improvement in diversifying the STEM workforce.There are two general explanations for gender differences in pay: gender differences in human capital and labor market structure (Blau and Kahn, 2000). Research that focuses on labor market structure emphasizes regional variations in the labor market, unionization and occupational segregation as determinants of the gender wage gap (Huang, 1997). Human capital explanations suggest that gender differences in pay reflect differences in productive characteristics of men and women, especially education and job experience (Tomaskovic-Devey, 1993; Kalist, 2002). To the extent that gender differences in pay is not fully accounted for by human capital and labor market structure, employer discrimination offers an explanation. Employers recognize that generally women have lower levels of human capital than men and therefore they discriminate against women because they believe they are less productive. Employers may also make hiring and promotion decisions based on the similar considerations. From this perspective, differences in men's and women's earnings reflect employer discrimination.Several studies have examined highly skilled and traditionally male-dominated occupations such as computer software writers (Heywood and Nezlek, 1993), lawyers (Wood et al., 1994), accountants (Schaefer and Zimmer, 1995), engineers (Morgan, 1998, 2000) and physicians (Bashaw, 2001), but few studies examine the gender pay gap among scientists. This research examines the gender gap in earnings in one STEM profession: chemistry. The primary purpose of this research is to determine the relative effects of human capital, labor market structure and employer discrimination on the gender pay gap of chemists. In other words, this study attempts to explain earnings differences by examining whether male chemists have more productive characteristics than female chemists (greater human capital and favorable labor market conditions) or receive more compensation per characteristic (employer discrimination).\nMethodology: Many studies of the gender gap in earnings use economy-wide measures. While economy-wide measures are useful, examining the gap within a single occupation helps control for specialized education, job training and other wage determinants often lost in large cross-sectional estimates. Data for this study were obtained from the American Chemical Society 2000 census of its membership (over 29,000 cases - chemists working in academics were not examined). The final sample consisted of 22,081 chemists working full time in industry. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents were male, 22 percent were female. The age of the chemists ranged from 21 to 69, with a mean of 44. Eighty-six percent of the chemists were white, 6 percent were Chinese, 3 percent were Asian Indian, 2 percent were African American and 3 percent were of other races.The dependent variable was log of salary. There were two components of human capital in the study: education and experience. Experience was measured by the number of years since the award of a bachelor's degree and by years squared. The years-squared adjustment has the effect of slowly reducing the size of each year's increase, so that results resemble the smoothed maturity curves long used by compensation analysts who examine pay scales for technical professionals. Pay rises most rapidly in the early years and gradually begins to plateau for mature workers (for whom the effect of another year of experience is somewhat less significant). Education was measured by the highest degree obtained by the respondent.Labor market structure was measured by a set of dichotomous indicator (dummy) variables that were coded to reflect the presence or absence of certain labor market characteristics:* 20 work specialties, including several common non-chemical specialties for chemists;* 33 employer industry sectors;* Seven employer sizes;* 15 types of job functions (such as analytical services or R&D management);* Six levels of employee supervision;* 23 metropolitan areas plus nine geographic regions for persons not in any of the specified metro locations; and* Two types of employment disruption - hiatus in career and unemployment.The model also included dummy variables for relevant family characteristics, including marital status, children and elder care. Categories for marital status were single, widowed, divorced, married to a chemist, married to a scientist and married to a non-chemist. A variable for children was measured by whether the respondent had dependent children and a similar dummy variable was created for elder care.The model\nFindings: Descriptive statistics\nConclusion: An earnings gap between male and female chemists persists today. Most of this gap is explained by differences in human capital. Although these findings are consistent with human capital theory, it is important to consider whether the career and family choices women make are determined by the structured inequalities in the United States. Gender barriers in a patriarchal society make it difficult for women to attain the same levels of human capital as men. Second-shift responsibilities may prevent women from attaining education and job experience. Consequently, choices available to women are often between relative deprivations - a better job or caring for children. Differences between men's and women's human capital may also be the consequence of discrimination outside the labor market in other social institutions. For example, research shows that gender inequality in science education contributes to the disparity between men's and women's science interests and achievements (Sanders and Nelson, 2004).Nearly 20 percent of the earnings gap is likely due to employer discrimination. This amounts to an average of just over $3,000 less income per year for female chemists. Most of the difference reflects the fact that men receive a greater return on each year of job experience than women. This may reflect both personal and statistical discrimination. On the one hand, employers may discriminate due to personal prejudice against women. On the other hand, it may be that employers use group data on women to predict productivity of individual women - women are more likely to have shorter and more discontinuous work careers, therefore they are a more costly investment. Either way, the cost of discrimination to women and society is substantial.Public and private efforts to recruit women into STEM professions will meet with limited success as long as there is a substantial wage gap between male and female scientists. One viable approach to achieving gender pay equity in STEM professions is to provide a federal tax incentive for compliance with federal pay equity standards. Firms could be encouraged to voluntarily collect data on pay equity and report it annually to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Firms meeting, or making progress toward, federal standards could be given a tax credit. Each year the EEOC could monitor progress by analyzing industry-wide data, and if necessary, could push for mandatory collection and reporting of data. If the United States is to be successful in recruitment and retention of women in STEM professions it must put as much effort into achieving gender pay equity as it puts into education and training of female scientists.Opens in a new window.Table I\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the gender gap in earnings in one science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) profession: chemistry. The primary purpose of this research is to determine the relative effects of human capital, labor market structure, and employer discrimination on the gender pay gap of chemists.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data for this study are obtained from the American Chemical Society (ACS) 2000 census of its membership (N = 22,081). According to the ACS census, male chemists earned 30 percent more than female chemists in 2000. This earnings gap is decomposed by modeling earnings as an exponential function of gender, education, work experience, work function, type of employer, size of employer, region of work and a variety of family and demographic characteristics.\nFindings: - The analysis shows that 83 percent of the gender gap is explained by differences in productive characteristics and 17 percent is due to discrimination or other unmeasured factors. Experience and education account for much of the gender gap - on average, men have higher levels of experience and education than do women. Work function and employer also help account for the pay gap - women are more likely to hold positions in lower paying chemistry positions.\nPractical implications: - This paper suggests that workplace diversity in STEM professions is not likely to occur without wage parity between men and women in STEM professions. One viable approach to achieving gender pay equity in STEM professions is to provide a federal tax incentive for compliance with federal pay equity standards.\nOriginality/value: - This paper shows the level of employer discrimination in one important STEM profession (chemistry), and its implications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Condition monitoring of aluminium electrolytic capacitors using accelerated life testing: A comparison
|
[
"Condition monitoring",
"Reliability",
"Thermal stress",
"Failure prediction",
"Accelerated life testing",
"Electrolytic capacitor",
"Life prediction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Electronic Industry is the lifeline of today's society. From daily life applications to critical safety applications, from toys to radar, the use of electronic components is growing on an exponential rate. As the devices and components become more compact day by day, their reliability becomes a critical issue. There are two key parameters to judge the credibility of the component: the high reliability and low cost. In many electronic applications, the lifetime of an electronic product depends upon the lifetime of an electrolytic capacitor (elcap) inside (Bengt, 1995). While launching a component in the market, the manufacturer often releases a component data sheet which states its different characteristics and expected lifetime. But when the component comes into practical use, there are lot many factors that affect its lifetime, which may reduce its efficiency as well as actual life.\n2. Failure mode of electrolytic capacitor: The electrolytic capacitor is widely used due to its low cost and small size. But the main problem with electrolytic capacitors is capacitor plague. During 1999--2007, Taiwanese manufacturers experienced this problem a lot, it was related to the failure rate of capacitor much higher than the expected rate, which results in deteriorate reputation and increased replacement and repairing cost of the components (IEC-60068-1, 1988). The corrosion and rupturing of the case are the resultants of capacitor plague.\n3. Condition monitoring of electrolytic capacitor using experimental approach: 3.1 Materials and methods used\n4. Condition monitoring of electrolytic capacitor using various theoretical methods: To estimate failure time of a capacitor, we used the experimental method. The industry uses different standards to find the failure time, based on various rules. Some methods are based on military handbook MILHDBK-217, FIDES, RIAC 17 plus. There are other theoretical methods which are based on the failure of physics and theory of overstress (Saha et al., 2009; Ma and Wang, 2005; Held and Fritz, 2009). In this paper, three various methods were used for calculating the failure time and then a comparison was done with the practical results (Figure 7).\n5. Error analysis using theoretical and experimental methods: After analysing the lifetime values using all three theoretical methods, a comparison has been explored with the practically achieved failure time. The percentage error has been calculated for all the three methods with respect to practically calculated value for capacitive, ESR and weight loss failure time. It has been analysed that out of these three, the combined effect of temperature and voltage on lifetime has more impact on lifetime and it is more accurate to the practical results:\n6. Proposed method for lifetime calculation: After analysing the result of all the theoretical methods with practical obtained result, the most accurate method proves to be method-B, where the collaborative effect of temperature and voltage has been considered. But still it has an average accuracy of 54.9 per cent for group-A and 67.16 per cent accuracy for group B. So, further to improve the accuracy level of theoretical methods, the study of humidity on capacitor performance has been considered and a new method has been proposed, where the lifetime calculation does not only depend on temperature and voltage effect but also humidity impacts a lot (Figure 8).\n7. Results and discussion: All the theoretical methods have been analysed for the calculation of electrolytic capacitors lifetime. Then, these values were compared with experimental obtained results. This has been tabularised in Tables V and VI.\n8. Conclusion: Being excessively used and having a larger value of capacitance, the health prognostic of electrolytic capacitors is the main priority of this paper. Lifetime has been analysed using experimental and theoretical methods. Reduction in capacitance, increase in ESR and weight loss is the main indicators of the failure of an electrolytic capacitor. It has been analysed that capacitors having larger diameter fail accidently as compared to capacitors having a smaller size. At last, an enhanced lifetime forecast calculation was proposed which predicts the capacitor health conditions using combined effect of temperature, voltage and humidity. The proposed prediction method proves to be a more reliable method and it has an average accuracy rate of 92 per cent.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: An electrolytic capacitor is extensively used as filtering devices in various power supplies and audio amplifiers. Low cost and higher value of capacitance make it more well known. As environmental stress and electrical parameters increase, capacitors degrade on accelerated pace. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper focusses on the impact of thermal stress on electrolytic capacitors using accelerated life testing technique. The failure time was calculated based on the change in capacitance, equivalent series resistance and weight loss. The experimental results are compared with the outcome of already available life monitoring methods, and the accuracy level of these methods is accessed.\nFindings: The results of all the three methods are having maximum 55 per cent accuracy. To enhance the accuracy level of theoretical methods, modifications have been suggested. A new method has been proposed, whose outcome is 92 per cent accurate with respect to experimentally obtained outcomes.\nPractical implications: To assess the capacitor's reliability using an experimental and modified theoretical method, failure prediction can be done before it actually fails.\nOriginality/value: A new method has been proposed to access the lifetime of capacitor.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors influencing organic food purchase in India - expert survey insights
|
[
"Organic foods",
"Buying behaviour",
"India"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Consumers worldwide are becoming increasingly concerned about nutrition, health and the quality of their food (Gil et al., 2000). One of the key ways that environment and health consciousness is getting reflected is through consumers' increased interest in organic food (von Alvensleben, 1998). More than 140 countries are now producing certified organic food with 32.2 million hectares of agricultural land being managed organically globally by more than 1.2 million producers (Willer and Kilcher, 2009). Global sales of organic products have reached US $46.1 billion in 2007 (Willer and Kilcher, 2009).Schlegelmilch et al. (1996) indicate that the increase in environmental consciousness has had profound impact on consumer behavior whereby the green product is expanding at a fast pace. Organic food markets are evolving at markedly different rates. Fotopoulos and Krystallis (2002) indicate that Greek organic market although more mature than earlier is still lagging a decade behind the rest of the developed organic markets. In the same vein, British and German markets have developed at different pace though consumers there appear to hold very similar attitudes and beliefs regarding organic foods (Baker et al., 2004). This necessitates the need to study key aspects of organic food purchase in an emerging market like India given that about one-third of world's organically managed land is in developing countries (Willer and Kilcher, 2009).India is one of the countries with the largest area under organic management along with Argentina, Brazil, China and Uruguay (Willer and Kilcher, 2009). The size of organic agricultural land has reached 1.03 million hectares in India in 2007, of which 455,568 hectares are fully converted and the rest is under conversion (Menon, 2009). Local markets have taken off in many of the big cities of south and eastern part of Asia, and Delhi and Bangalore are some of the Indian cities which are witnessing enhanced internal consumption of organic products (Willer and Kilcher, 2009). The domestic market is driving organic production in India and 96.7 per cent of India's 5,85,000 MT of certified organic products produced in 2007-2008 is used in domestic markets. An eight-city survey in 2006 has indicated a potential demand to the tune of INR 5.6 billion for organic products in India (Mukherjee, 2008).Country-specific research indicates that Indians are amongst the top ten buyers of foods with health supplements globally but lack access to organic food products (ACNielsen, 2006). It highlights that Indians are keen to purchase organic food for their children but the category suffers from poor availability and premium price perception. Organic food market in India is still at a nascent stage, however, some research has been carried out to understand buying behavior of organic food purchasers. Researchers in Indian context have identified that relevant personality constructs and associated dimensions and key purchase motivations and attitudes may be used effectively in consumer survey to understand purchase behavior in an environment-friendly category like organic food (Chakrabarti and Baisya, 2007, 2009).The introduction section in this paper is followed by state-of-the-art (literature) and conclusions for further surveys (gaps). The literature part is very compact and has been confined to what is relevant for the focus of the survey with clear conclusions about what is known and highlighting subsequently what are the deficits (gap) that justify the new survey. This is followed by the discussion of the experimental part.\nState-of-the-art literature: The brief literature review highlights below linkages between food category purchase and different relevant variables in line with what has been explained in Chakrabarti and Baisya (2007, 2009) papers in detail.Linkages with personality constructs and associated dimensions\nGaps from consumer surveys and scope of the expert survey in India: There is lack of research in India on the expert opinion front about the relative importance attached by the experts to the chosen metric explanatory variables in the consumers' purchase process of organic food. There is a need to carry out an expert survey in the area that may attempt to integrate with the relevant consumer survey findings (Chakrabarti and Baisya, 2007, 2009). This can be quite relevant for marketers given India has one of the highest numbers of organic producers among all the countries (Willer and Kilcher, 2009).The correlation of importance attached to conviction of the consumer about the utility of organic food with number of categories purchased is significant and positive for occasional buyers (Chakrabarti and Baisya, 2007). Also, the rating for conviction about utility of organic food is the strongest among the three mentioned attitudes considered for both regular and occasional buyers (Chakrabarti and Baisya, 2007). Hence, there is a need to understand in expert survey the ways marketers may create desirable level of awareness among the consumers of this category.As the number of categories purchased by regular buyers is highly correlated with domain-specific innovativeness score, the main marketing effort of retailers should be targeted at the innovators and early adopters of the category (Chakrabarti and Baisya, 2009). However, there is lack of an in-depth understanding about the focus areas for marketers for targeting the innovators and opinion leaders of the category.Also, consumer research has found that the affective commitment level of regular buyers is higher than that of occasional buyers in a statistically significant manner and this construct is the most important differentiator between the two groups of regular and occasional buyers (Chakrabarti and Baisya, 2009). This indicates that marketers have to develop a detailed understanding about antecedents of the affective commitment of regular buyers though very little research is available internationally in this area.Perceived performance risk has been included as an important variable in the consumer research for the organic food purchase in India (Chakrabarti and Baisya, 2009). Expert survey needs to focus on the importance of specific marketer action points that can mitigate the perceived performance risk of consumers.There is lack of expert survey about the parameters limiting more regular usage of organic food and about the associated marketer action points. Hence, based on the research gaps, this paper focuses on obtaining expert opinions in the category on:* understanding the relative importance attached to the chosen metric explanatory variables (as identified in Chakrabarti and Baisya (2007, 2009) research) in the consumers' purchase process in organic food;* marketer action points for awareness generation among purchasers;* marketer action points for targeting innovators and opinion leaders;* marketer action points for creating affective commitment among regular buyers;* marketer action points for mitigating performance risk; and* understanding the factors constraining more regular usage in the category.\nMethodology of expert survey: The relative importance attached to the chosen metric explanatory variables in the consumers' purchase process in organic food is provided through rating of experts (expert opinion). This list of experts has been prepared by including the ones who are regular and well-known speakers in different agri enclaves and summits and who are members of different food industry bodies. Experts have been contacted through judgmental sampling method. Feedback on the expert questionnaires (provided in the Appendix) has been collected from July to October 2007 from 33 highly knowledgeable senior experts primarily through face-to-face personal surveys and through e-mail surveys. A few of the respondents have given their responses through telephonic surveys also.The breakup of expert responses consists of three people from government sector (two from the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and one from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority). Seven respondents have been chosen from large agro business companies/agro divisions of diversified companies like ITC Ltd, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd, AWB (Australian Wheat Board earlier) India Ltd, E.I. Dupont Ltd joint venture The Solae Company, Nunhems India Ltd, The Global Green Company and Global Agri Systems. Respondents also include six consultants working on agro businesses from different companies like Rabo India Finance, International Food Policy Research Institute, All India Food Processors' Association, The Energy and Resources Institute, etc. Other respondents include four brand management consultants knowledgeable in agro industries, four people from academics and research including Ex Advisor - Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and consultant from National Horticulture Mission, five respondents from small and medium food processors like Grewal's Organic, Atik Organics, etc. and four experts from food retailing business of Fabindia, Whole Foods and Pantaloon Retail.The questionnaire for the expert interview has involved a mix of structured (standardized) and open, half-structured questions. Questions 1 and 2 together have asked from the experts about their evaluations of the relative importance of mentioned 19 variables in the consumers' purchase process on a 1-5 scale. Experts in the category have attempted to address action points for marketers. Expert opinions have been sought on the platform for awareness creation among buyers (question 3) and on the need to target innovators and opinion leaders in the category (question 4). Expert feedback has been gathered about focus areas for marketers for building affective commitment among regular buyers (question 5), about action points for mitigating performance risk (question 6) and about factors constraining more regular usage in the category (question 7). The interviews have been analyzed to depict mean and standard deviation figures for structured questions and the essence of the qualitative replies of the majority of the experts has been highlighted for open, half-structured questions.\nExpert survey results: Experts provide rating and feedback (expert opinion) about the relative importance of the chosen 19 metric explanatory variables in the consumers' purchase process in organic food. It is displayed in Table I in the descending order of average rating of metric variables. The ratings provided for variables on 1-5 scale (1 - very unimportant; 5 - very important) include average rating of the experts' opinion and standard deviation.Importance placed on health motivation has the highest average rating of 4.7 and one of the lowest standard deviations (Table I). Experts view the importance of the three mentioned attitudes (conviction, reputation and certification), organic food-specific consumer innovativeness, organic food-specific consumer opinion leadership, WOM (activity), WOM (praise) and affective commitment (along with health motivation) to be high in the consumers' purchase process and these variables get an average rating of 4.0 or above. Opinion leadership gets higher rating and lower standard deviation compared to the same for innovativeness in expert survey. Variables like curiosity and the motivation of need to look after unwell people have received average ratings of less than 3.0 and are not considered that important by experts in the consumers' purchase process.The expert survey provides major action points for marketers in the areas of awareness creation, targeting innovators and opinion leaders, finding out the antecedents of affective commitment of regular buyers, mitigating perceived performance risk and identifying factors constraining more regular usage in the category. These areas of expert survey are mentioned in detail below.Creation of awareness about the category for consumers\nConclusions: The expert survey in organic food category involving 33 senior and knowledgeable experts from the agri and food industry delivers some new and significant information for India. It helps to better understand consumers' attitudes towards the purchase and consumption of organic food. The findings are relevant for the future development of organic food markets in India and can help to better position organic food products among consumers. It highlights the relative importance attached by the experts to key explanatory variables in the consumers' purchase process of organic food. It has attempted to integrate with the relevant recent consumer survey findings published in India in the category.Importance placed on health motivation has the highest average rating and one of the lowest standard deviations. Experts view the importance of the three mentioned attitudes (conviction, reputation and certification), organic food-specific consumer innovativeness, organic food-specific consumer opinion leadership, WOM (activity), WOM (praise) and affective commitment about the store from where purchase is normally made to be high in the consumers' purchase process. Opinion leadership gets higher rating and lower standard deviation compared to the same for innovativeness in expert survey.The expert survey provides major action points for marketers in the areas of awareness creation, targeting innovators and opinion leaders, finding out the antecedents of affective commitment of regular buyers, mitigating perceived performance risk and identifying factors constraining more regular usage in the category.The experts in the survey overwhelmingly agree about the need to create awareness about the category in the market. Majority of experts in this research specifically cite about health and nutrition platform when asked about the platform of awareness creation. Majority of experts have also responded positively to the need to tap innovators and opinion leaders in this category. Experts view that health advisors like doctors and nutritionists may act as the professional opinion leaders for the category and they may exert formal influences upon patients in WOM conversation.The key marketer action points for creating affective commitment among regular buyers include better price competitiveness with conventional food through negotiation with farmers, personalized attention, regular availability, organic choices in more food categories, keeping an exclusive section with prime display in diversified food supermarkets and service reliability primarily through trained and knowledgeable sales people.The performance risk in the category can be addressed through the reliability-related issues and the three major dimensions of reliability cited in this context are certification, quality consistency of supply and dependability of regular supply. Experts think high price and limited availability are primarily responsible in limiting more usage of organic food by regular buyers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to document the findings of an expert survey in the organic food category in India. It seeks to highlight the relative importance attached by the experts to key explanatory variables in the consumers' purchase process of organic food. It attempts to integrate with the relevant consumer survey findings published in India in recent times in organic food category.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The list of experts was prepared by including regular and well-known speakers in different agri enclaves and summits and who are members of different food industry bodies. Experts were contacted through judgmental sampling method. Feedback on the expert questionnaires was collected from July to October 2007 from 33 highly knowledgeable senior experts primarily through face-to-face personal surveys and through e-mail surveys.\nFindings: - Importance placed on health motivation has the highest average rating and is one of the lowest standard deviations among the explanatory variables in the expert survey. Experts also rate the importance of the three mentioned attitudes (about conviction about utility of organic food, reputation of store and certification process-related information), organic food-specific consumer innovativeness, organic food-specific consumer opinion leadership, word of mouth (WOM) (activity), WOM (praise) and affective commitment about the store to be high in the consumers' purchase process.\nOriginality/value: - The novelty of the paper lies in the fact that it addresses the key issues facing the organic food category in India from an expert survey point of view.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A critical assessment of work and family life of female entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some fresh evidence from Ghana
|
[
"Sub-Saharan Africa",
"Women entrepreneurship",
"Ghana",
"Work and family life"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Global economic, social, and environmental upheavals continue to create uncertainties in various economies around the world. Amid the confusion, entrepreneurs have been largely acknowledged as agents of economic growth and development, who despite such challenges can generate the spark needed for economic growth through innovation and creativity (Dzisi, 2008; Galindo and Mendez-Picazo, 2013; OECD, 2004; Quaye and Acheampong, 2013).\nLiterature review: Overview of women entrepreneurship\nMethodology: A qualitative approach to research was adopted for this study since the aim was to obtain a more detailed and in-depth knowledge on the concept of women entrepreneurship and family life in the Ghanaian context. Phenomenology was selected as a design for this study to help gain deeper understanding of lived experiences of women entrepreneurs with respect to their work and family life within the Ghanaian context. Little is known about work-life balance issues of Ghanaian women entrepreneurs hence the qualitative nature of inquiry that helps to explore the issue (Creswell, 2012). As Cooper and Schindler (2001) explain, this method adopts several approaches which include in-depth interviews, participant observation, case studies, films, photographs, and video tapes which make data richer for accurate interpretations as employed in this study. The study adopted a multiple case study strategy, in-depth interviews, and participant observation in collecting data relevant for evaluating how work and family roles influence women entrepreneurs in Ghana.\nResults/findings: The demographic data below revealed that the prime age for women to engage in entrepreneurship in this study is between 41 and 50 years since half of these women fell within that range. Majority of the women have more than four children. This is so crucial in that it may well have impact of their entrepreneurship activities and family life. Far more than half of them have been in business for more than five years and about a half is in the service industry.\nDiscussion: In Ghana, women entrepreneurs play varied roles in the family which is a strategic network agent to the success of their businesses. Such roles include being a wife to their husbands, a mother to their children, an in-law to her husband's family, and an extended family member where she could be an auntie, niece, cousin, or grandmother, and so on. These roles come with a number of responsibilities which could be social and financial. On one the hand, the social responsibilities stem from the areas of childcare, home management (household chores and cooking), spending time with spouse, accepting an extended family member to live in with you, and visiting especially aged extended family members and in-laws. Whilst on the other hand, financial responsibilities stem from the areas of paying for utility bills, school fees, medical bills, rent, and at taking full financial responsibility of the upkeep of a family member.\nConclusions: The study sought to answer four key research questions, namely, What are the specific roles women entrepreneurs assume towards their families?; How does the combination of work and family roles influence their family life?; What are the effects these roles have on specific business performance?; Are there any support derived from family members that encourages their business operations? From the analysis, the findings from this study bring to light that the family as a network agent is as vital as any other critical issue that determines the success or failure of women entrepreneurs in Ghana. Whilst some ventured into entrepreneurship to provide a means of combining these roles, majority of these women also strategically located their businesses either at home or close to home to aid the combination of both roles. It is crucial to state that these women support the family with the income they generate from their business and will not even sacrifice extra time at work or opening another branch at the expense of their childcare and home management. Notwithstanding, majority of these women believe that the roles they play to the family do have a negative impact on the growth of their businesses as Kuada (2009) identified, but in cases where these women were supported by these family members especially their husbands, such roles had more of a positive than negative effect. It can therefore be argued that the network agents (family members) have both positive and negative influence on business reinvestment and its commensurate growth.\nImplications for policy and practice: Since women form greater part of the country's population, their contributions to the country's workforce and socio-economic development has been identified as vital (Adom, 2015). Ghanaian women entrepreneurs have the capacity to perform their family roles and business lives equally successfully without undermining one or the other. This has become evident in the increase in the number of professional and business women, which may be attributed to efforts on the parts of government and other stakeholders to empower women across Ghana. The introduction of gender mainstreaming, affirmative action, financial support policies, and programmes, and the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs have contributed to the advancement of women and their families. Based on this, the study proposes for even more provisions to specifically address issues and remove societal and cultural norms that restrict opportunities for women. Existing policies and programmes must be strengthened to offer more opportunities to women. Specifically, this study identified financial constraints and childcare as major challenges faced by entrepreneurial women. We therefore recommend that financial institutions should be encouraged to provide \"soft loans\" and other needed services to assist women who go into entrepreneurship. Also, additional childcare facilities should be provided to provide care for children during working hours. Finally, there is the need to embark on public education, which will highlight the potential that women possess to contribute the socio-economic development of the nation.\nResearch limitations: The following limitations should be noted for further research in this field. First of all, the study focused solely on the work and family life of women entrepreneurs. Other critical issues that affect women entrepreneurs can also be addressed with respect to their income, number of branches, and number of employees to bring to light how these challenges affect business performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate how work and family lives of female entrepreneurs in emerging Sub-Saharan countries including Ghana influence their business performance, with focus on criteria such as income, number of outlets, and number of employees the entrepreneur controls.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A phenomenological qualitative approach to research was adopted for this study to help the researcher gain deeper understanding of experiences of Ghanaian female entrepreneurs with respect to their work and family life and its influence on business performance. With a purposive sampling technique, 25 active women entrepreneurs with family responsibilities were sampled for the study. A multiple case study strategy, in-depth face-to-face interviews, and participant observation were used to solicit responses from participants included in the study.\nFindings: The study revealed that a majority of female entrepreneurs involved in the study believe that their roles and responsibilities to their families have a negative impact on both the income they generate from their business and their willingness to expand their outlets. However, it has a positive impact on their willingness to employ additional employees in their businesses. As a consequence, this study reveals that quality family life is essential to these female entrepreneurs and they are willing to put the well-being of their families first, even at the expense of their business growth.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study focused solely on the work and family life of women entrepreneurs and its influence on their business performance in Ghana. However, there exist other critical issues that affect women entrepreneurs in the Sub-Saharan region that can be explored to provide more insight on this subject or in different contexts.\nOriginality/value: As a first of its kind in the Ghanaian context, little is known in extant literature until now with regard to work and family life of female entrepreneurs and its influence on their business performance. This study therefore seeks to bridge this gap.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Impacts of media richness on network features and community commitment in online games
|
[
"Online game",
"Media richness",
"Commitment",
"Community",
"Structural equation modeling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Online games provide various revenue sources to game makers, including the sale of game software (Cheung et al., 2015), advertising within games (Choi, 2019) and purchases of in-game content (or items) (Bae et al., 2019a, 2019b; Beltagui et al., 2019; Hamari et al., 2019). These revenue sources indicate the importance of retaining online gamers.The literature on online gaming has verified that gamer retention can be effectively achieved by enhancing gamers' participation in and commitment to gaming communities (CGC) (Teng, 2018), which is defined as the willingness to engage in and contribute to gaming communities (Teng, 2018), indicating the relevance of CGC. The reason may be that such participation and commitment form subjective norms (Hamari and Keronen, 2017) and foster a sense of community, thus giving rise to relational switching costs (Tseng et al., 2015). Relational motivation is also key to the intention to play (Molinillo et al., 2018). Another reason may be that community users' engagement enhances the impacts of peers' opinions and behaviors on users' own decisions (Cheung et al., 2014). Hence, more research is needed into how best information systems (IS) could be designed to enhance CGC.The literature has identified antecedents to community commitment, including self-presentation desire of online identity, trust (Park and Chung, 2011), satisfaction (Hashim and Tan, 2015), perceived support for member communication, perceived recognition for communication and perceived freedom of expression (Yang et al., 2017). These antecedents require effective communication, indicating its importance in fostering users' community commitment. Communication is highly recognized and strongly encouraged by online communities (Yang et al., 2017). Moreover, online gamers engage in direct communication to facilitate gameplay while playing, justifying the examination of direct communication during gameplay as our focus. Communication can be effective when communication media support users to convey rich information, which is defined as enhanced media richness.Media richness provides social rewards (\"pleasure, satisfaction, and gratification individuals derive from participating in interpersonal interactions,\" e.g. respect and companionship), encourages individuals to engage in self-disclosure (Jiang et al., 2013, p. 582) and delivers functional and social values to users (Tseng et al., 2017). Media richness also satisfies electronic commerce users and encourages purchases (Chen and Chang, 2018). The reason may be that media richness helps reduce uncertainty in making purchase decisions. Such positive effects of media richness in reducing uncertainty, encouraging self-disclosure and delivering social values exhibit the potential of media richness to strengthen gamers' CGC. However, little is known about how media richness helps strengthen gamers' CGC, demonstrating the research gap.Research addressing this gap is important for online game makers as it assists them in enhancing users' CGC, which can help produce enormous revenues, indicating the practical importance of the research. Moreover, research addressing this gap ascertains the value of media richness to online gaming studies for explaining gamers' community commitment, indicating the academic impact of the research.Hence, the purpose of the study is to examine how the four elements of media richness impact network features, that is, network convergence and interdependence, thus subsequently fostering users' CGC. Overall, this study contributes to online gaming research by proposing the four elements of media richness as novel means to build strongly connected communities. The findings also answer the theoretical question exploring which elements of media richness could most effectively enhance gamers' commitment. The findings guide game makers in effectively allocating resources for enhancing system affordances to strengthen users' CGC.\nTheory and prior research: Online games and commitment to gaming communities\nResearch model and hypotheses: Figure 1 depicts the research framework. Guided by MRT, this study identified the antecedents and mediators, that is, the four elements of media richness. The research framework describes that the four elements of media richness assist users to form overlapping and mutually influential social networks, that is, network convergence and interdependence. Consequently, such complex network features strengthen users' CGC. We argue that network features could be mediators in the relations between media richness and CGC. The reason is that media richness helps gamers exchange messages with rich meanings, thus facilitating the establishment of their online relationships, that is, in terms of shared friends (network convergence) and decision dependency (interdependence). The two features make the in-game social network much more important to gamers, thus strengthening their intention to engage in and contribute to gaming communities, that is, enhancing CGC. The framework is new in examining how the four media richness elements form social networks and contribute to community commitment in online games. All the hypotheses in the framework are new to the literature. This study also includes six control variables, namely, gender, age, education, annual income, and years and weekly hours spent playing the game. These control variables are frequently used in pertinent studies in the online context (Chong et al., 2018; Liao et al., 2016; Teng, 2019; Wong et al., 2018), justifying their inclusion in this study.Prompt transmission and receipt of responses via the media is defined as immediate feedback (Daft and Lengel, 1986). Such prompt transmission and receipt of responses enable users to quickly obtain information, fueling information sufficiency. The perception of information sufficiency in interpreting messages may reduce users' hesitation in posting messages, encouraging message dissemination via friendship networks. Messages introduced by friends' friends would likely be accepted. Receivers that tend to accept the messages would know more about, tend to agree with and tend to make friends with the message senders. This would increase the overlap of friendship networks, that is, enhanced network convergence (Parks and Floyd, 1996). Thus, this study hypothesizes H1a.H1a. Immediate feedback is positively related to network convergence.Immediate feedback offers users the ability to deliver their messages immediately. Such immediate delivery is an important element of service quality, which could promote satisfaction (Liu et al., 2016; Xing et al., 2019). Satisfaction in relationships means the relationships can create value and opportunity for future cooperation. Online cooperation indicates that community members depend on each other to achieve common goals, that is, enhanced interdependence (Parks and Floyd, 1996). Thus, this study hypothesizes H1b.H1b. Immediate feedback is positively related to interdependence.Language variety is helpful for delivering self-expressive value to users (Tseng et al., 2017), because such variety represents a range of meanings expressed using language symbols in media channels (Daft et al., 1987). Language symbols with rich meanings can encourage message dissemination via friendship networks. Message dissemination creates opportunities for interactions between communication partners. Frequent interactions establish new connections and increase the degree of overlap in friendship networks, that is, enhanced network convergence (Parks and Floyd, 1996). Hence, this study hypothesizes H2a.H2a. Language variety is positively related to network convergence.As previously mentioned, language variety can deliver self-expressive value to language users. Expressing meanings via language symbols provides enjoyment and facilitates personal interactions (Huang et al., 2008) and the intention to play (Merhi, 2016). Enjoyment in interactions can produce satisfaction with member relationships, facilitating member cooperation. Cooperation requires members to depend on one another to achieve common goals, that is, interdependence. Hence, this study hypothesizes H2b.H2b. Language variety is positively related to interdependence.Personal focus describes how messages can be designed according to the situations of the receivers, that is, creating personalized messages (Daft and Lengel, 1986). Personalized messages are usually appealing to the receivers due to their personal relevance. They enrich mutual understanding through more interactions, which help clarify the messages and make them easy to understand. Easy-to-understand messages could increase the opportunity of dissemination in the community (Jose-Cabezudo and Camarero-Izquierdo, 2012). Message dissemination increases member interactions that may establish friendship between members, introducing new common friends between already-established member relationships. Friends shared by community members indicate network convergence (Parks and Floyd, 1996). Hence, this study hypothesizes H3a.H3a. Personal focus is positively related to network convergence.Personal focus that enables the crafting of easy-to-understand messages could also enhance receivers' perception of the trustworthiness of the message sources (Elsbach and Elofson, 2000). Trustworthiness strengthens cooperation in groups with a specific goal, for example, project teams (Ferrin et al., 2008). For cooperation, partners need to consult one another to make decisions. The degree to which individuals depend on one another to make decisions is defined as interdependence (Parks and Floyd, 1996). Hence, this study hypothesizes H3b.H3b. Personal focus is positively related to interdependence.Multiple cues describe the ability of media to compose messages using multimedia features (Daft and Lengel, 1986), including emoji, which are known for their impacts on the expression of sentiment (Li et al., 2018) and effective communication (Li et al., 2019). Multimedia environments promote breadth of information sharing, which has a strong and positive effect on decision quality (Miranda and Saunders, 2003). Increased breadth of shared information fosters the making of friends in the community, which can result in friends shared between community members. Common friends are the core element of network convergence (Parks and Floyd, 1996). Hence, this study hypothesizes H4a.H4a. Multiple cues are positively related to network convergence.Messages with multimedia representation could be more understandable, that is, providing various modalities for receivers to decode the messages, thus making the messages easy to understand. This can further enhance receivers' perceived trustworthiness of the message sources (Elsbach and Elofson, 2000). Trustworthy peers represent communication partners who can be depended upon. The degree to which individuals depend on one another to make decisions indicates interdependence (Parks and Floyd, 1996).H4b. Multiple cues are positively related to interdependence.Shared friends (network convergence) are intuitively the social capital that helps fuel in-game interest (Korkeila and Hamari, 2020) and commitment (Wu and Li, 2018). Shared friendships foster a sense of community (Tseng et al., 2015), motivating continual engagement in gaming communities (Huang et al., 2018) and providing help to peers (Tseng et al., 2015). Helping peers requires contributions of one's own resources, for example, time and expertise. Active engagement, helping peers and contribution to peers are core to CGC (Tseng et al., 2015). Hence, this study hypothesizes H5a.H5a. Network convergence is positively related to CGC.Online gamers depend on one another to overcome challenges (Teng et al., 2012) and achieve their mutual goals. Interdependence facilitates interactions, thus enhancing trust in groups. Trust further strengthens members' community commitment (Park and Chung, 2011), building the positive link between interdependence and CGC. Moreover, interdependence encourages continuance use among community members, that is, enhanced engagement in the gaming communities (Huang et al., 2018), that is,. CGC (Tseng et al., 2015). Hence, this study hypothesizes H5b.H5b. Interdependence is positively related to CGC.Network convergence is defined as the extent to which friendship circles are shared (Parks and Floyd, 1996). This closeness implies that an enhanced degree of network convergence envisions online gamers viewing the entire community as their friends. This view would amplify the sense of community (Tseng et al., 2015), supporting the strong impact of network convergence on CGC. On the other hand, interdependence refers to the extent to which friends are consulted before decisions are made (Parks and Floyd, 1996). But as one cannot consult the entire community, the impact of interdependence on CGC would be reduced. Hence, this study hypothesizes H6.H6. Network convergence (compared with interdependence) has a stronger relation to CGC.\nMethod: Participants and data collection process\nResults: Participant profile\nDiscussion: Main findings and contributions\nConclusions: This research contributes to online gaming literature by using the MRT perspective to offer guidance on the allocation of resources for strengthening gamers' community commitment. Specifically, immediate feedback and multiple cues have strong impacts in on developing commitment, while language variety and personal focus have only selective impacts. This research contributes to MRT by extending it to networked communication. This extension would impact the MRT literature by envisioning future community studies to use MRT to explain how to design community platforms to successfully build online communities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Online gamers form communities and offer game makers various revenue sources. Gamers' continual revenue contributions should depend on their commitment to gaming communities (CGC), where they rely heavily on communication media that carry rich information or provide enhanced media richness. However, no study has yet examined how to use the four elements of media richness to fuel gamers' CGC, revealing a research gap. Seeking to fill this gap, this study constructs a research framework and formulates hypotheses based on media richness theory (MRT).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study obtained responses from 1,971 online gamers and applied structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: This study finds that the four media richness elements have selective impacts on network convergence and interdependence that result in CGC. Moreover, compared with interdependence, network convergence has a stronger impact on CGC.\nOriginality/value: The findings offer online game makers insights that will enable them to design the communication functions in games to support the formation of strongly connected gamer communities. Moreover, the findings advance MRT by showing its ability to explain the formation of online gaming communities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Citizens' intention to use and recommend e-participation: Drawing upon UTAUT and citizen empowerment
|
[
"Technology adoption",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Partial least squares",
"E-government",
"E-democracy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: E-participation is defined as a branch of e-government with special focus on citizen engagement for deliberation and decision orientation (Welch, 2012). For instance, the online participatory budgeting platforms (Sintomer et al., 2013) allow citizens to decide on how to spend a part of the public budget managed by local governments. Engaging citizens in consultation and decision-making has a prominent importance to promote a more efficient and inclusive society (Saebo et al., 2008), citizen participation in digital governance (Sanford and Rose, 2007), transparency, efficiency and quality of public services (Royo and Yetano, 2015). Electronic consultation and decision-making tools are considered at the highest level of e-participation from the perspective of empowering citizens. However, the implementation of e-participation is still very challenging and vulnerable to failure due to the risk of low adoption rates on the part of citizens (Omar et al., 2017; Kersting, 2016). The literature does not provide a strong theoretical basis to support successful implementations and adoption of e-participation.\n2. Background and hypothesis development: 2.1 Contextualising e-participation adoption\n3. Research method: 3.1 Research model\n4. Data analysis and results: We assess the research model using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method (Hair et al., 2014). We use SmartPLS 3.0 software (Ringle et al., 2015). PLS is a variance-based technique, which is data driven and suitable for predictive analysis to test the causal relationships that were theoretically derived as hypotheses and using empirical data (Hair et al., 2011). Although the study does not use longitudinal data, the participants that answered the electronic questionnaire have previously experienced the online participatory budgeting platform (Hibberts et al., 2012). Our model complies with several considerations stated in Hair et al. (2014) for choosing the PLS method: the goal is to predict key drivers of e-participation adoption; the structural model is complex, comprising 11 constructs (empowerment as second-order construct) and its 31 indicators; and the sample size (n=210) fulfils the rule of being at least ten times more than the largest number of paths directed to a construct in the model; in this case the largest number of structural paths is five.\n5. Discussion: The current study builds and evaluates a model to understand the drivers of the intention to use and recommend e-participation. This model is based on UTAUT and psychological empowerment. We found that in addition to two of the UTAUT constructs, namely, performance expectancy and facilitating conditions, psychological empowerment also influences the intention to use e-participation. Our results also reveal that women are more willing to use e-participation than men, and younger citizens are more willing to recommend e-participation than older citizens (see Table V). Our model explains 44.0 per cent of the variance in the intention to use, and 46.1 per cent of the variance in the intention to recommend e-participation (see Figure 2).\n6. Conclusions: This paper provides insights on how citizens' perceptions of empowerment can influence the intention to use and intention to recommend e-participation systems, using a novel theoretical model. The model integrates UTAUT and psychological empowerment theory. It was evaluated based on data from 210 citizens in Portugal. Performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, and empowerment were found to be significant on the intention to use e-participation. Psychological empowerment significantly impacts intention to use and recommend e-participation. These findings can help the public sector to design strategies to promote and diffuse e-participation amongst the citizenry for a long-term use; for instance, keeping and reinforcing the perception of empowerment in citizens who use e-participation tools. The model offers researchers a basis for future examination of inner motivations of citizens to adopt e-participation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how citizens' perception of empowerment can influence the intention to use and intention to recommend e-participation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A research model is evaluated using structural equation modelling. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 210 users of e-participation.\nFindings: The results show that psychological empowerment influences the intention to use and recommend e-participation. Performance expectancy and facilitating conditions were the strongest predictors of intention to use; effort expectancy and social influence had no significant effect on the prediction of intention to use e-participation.\nResearch limitations/implications: The use of psychological empowerment as a higher-order multidimensional construct is still insufficiently researched. Future research may explore the effect of each dimension of psychological empowerment in different scenarios of e-participation adoption. Caution is needed when generalising our findings towards the adoption of e-participation in different locations or with different participants.\nPractical implications: The findings can help the local governments to design strategies for the promotion and diffusion of e-participation amongst the citizenry. Those strategies should focus on citizens' perception of empowerment, thereby creating a positive attitude towards intention to use and recommend e-participation.\nOriginality/value: An innovative research model integrates the unified theory of acceptance, use of technology and psychological empowerment; the last as a higher-order construct.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Learning as an apprentice in Sweden: A comparative study on affordances for vocational learning in school and work life apprentice education
|
[
"Work-based learning",
"Apprenticeship curriculum",
"Employed apprentices",
"Upper secondary apprenticeship education",
"Vocational education and training (VET)",
"Workplace curriculum"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Swedish vocational education and training (VET) system is intended to prepare students for working life (GY, 2011), via one of several routes (SFS, 2010, p. 2039). One is via a three-year upper secondary education program that provides preparation in a school environment, supplemented with at least 15 weeks of training in workplaces. Another is via a three-year upper secondary education program, called upper secondary apprenticeship education (USAE), in which half of the time is spent at workplaces. In 2014, approximately 100,000 pupils entered upper secondary school. One-third of these pupils were registered in a vocational program (The National Agency for Education, 2015) according to the structure mentioned above. However, according to Akkerman and Bakker (2012), the knowledge acquired in school has questionable transferability to working life, while knowledge developed through work is directly related to the affordances for learning provided in the workplaces. So, \"different outcomes will likely result from learning vocational tasks in an environment that provides authentic vocational experiences\" (Billett, 2005). Thus, learning through apprenticeship education will be developed \"through authentic workplace activities [...] because it provides authentic working life experiences\" (Billett, 2005).\n2. Research approach: 2.1. Comparing the cases\n3. Findings: This section outlines the findings according to the workplace educations' correspondence to educational goals, guidance, and support for the learners and provision of activities that enhance learning. The statements that are outlined are displayed in order to show examples from both educational contexts. Consequently, the empirical examples that are displayed through the use of citation can be seen as a way to highlight the core results in this comparative study.\n4. Discussion: This final section discusses the affordances for vocational learning in school and working life apprentice education in the light of the findings. The comparison of the contrasting VET systems with different educational goals shows that despite apparent differences they share a common core of workplace goals, which guide the learners' activities rather than the educational goals stated in official steering documents. The main reason for this is that performance of work-related tasks is tightly geared to the workplace demands, and affordances. This is consistent with Billett's (2001a) workplace curriculum framework, in which learning and developing knowledge depend on access to workplace goals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare, and identify both similarities and differences in, affordances for vocational learning in two contrasting education systems, for construction worker and shop salesperson apprentices, in Swedish contexts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through interviews and observations in two research projects, each addressing relevant aspects of one of the focal educational systems. A framework consisting of identified goals, activities and guidance was applied in the analysis.\nFindings: The results show that the affordances for learning in the examined educational systems are dependent on the learners' access to, and participation in, workplace activities. A conclusion is that workplace demands override educational goals in both cases. Thus, the affordances for learning related to both individual and educational goals are dependent on the access to guidance during workplace activities.\nOriginality/value: The study highlights constraints between educational goals and workplace affordances in both apprenticeship systems, which largely develop vocational competencies related to specific workplace demands and activities. A presented model regards apprenticeships as vocational and educational training in workplaces is outlined that enable a deeper understanding of the correspondence between individual, educational and workplace goals that forms the type of activity which leads to a learning outcome.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Moving pains: Problems for female expats
|
[
"Gender",
"Awards",
"Networking",
"Expatriates",
"Career"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: Looking at business trends in the 2000s, one of the most dominant themes has been the use of evidence-based decision-making. This is not to say that all twentieth century business decisions were done on the fly with little use of the data available - although shows like Mad Men may make you think otherwise - but the computer and internet age that dawned in the 1980s and 1990s, and the knock-on effect for business school teaching that this had, has meant that the mantra of evidence-based decision-making is now a staple of any sensible firm.\nGender divide: The lack of movement toward a more equal workforce is particularly stark in industries such as oil and gas - traditionally male-dominated firms requiring skill sets in engineering or chemistry where female participation has been traditionally less than that of men. One might think that movement might be quicker here to close the divide but that seems not necessarily to be the case. So, what's going on? This is the question posed by Shortland (2018) in her article Female expatriates' motivations and challenges: the case of oil and gas.\nGetting under the skin: This challenge was met by interviewing in-depth a number of female expats and HR professionals, and surveying a wider number from two major oil and gas firms. By analyzing these interviews and questionnaires, and also looking through documentation shared by the firms, the author was able to build a detailed picture of expat life and opportunities for female workers, and the kinds of decisions and considerations they had.\nFuture implications: For HR managers and executives in male-dominated industries, what the findings mean firstly is that whatever has been believed to be true in the past, it is simply not borne out now and all potential expats need to be understood in a more open, honest way than before. For women, it is clear that they should be encouraged to apply for expat selection as pro-actively as possible to support their journey overseas, and in taking their decision to move they will seek to maximize both work and home advantages. In addition, while expat policies are typically equal for men and women, more thought can be given to supporting childcare and schooling, and to promoting female expat role models within the business.\nComment: The article Female expatriates' motivations and challenges: the case of oil and gas by Shortland (2018) is a valuable case study in both how to promote, and how not to promote, women as expats in a traditional male-dominated industry. Sadly, the \"how not to promote\" section comes in the shape of much of the research done in this area in the past, which seems outdated and lacking in any positive push for women to play strong roles overseas. Thankfully, more articles like Shortland's will break down this negative thinking, and will offer firms a much stronger picture of how to manage all employees overseas.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: Looking at business trends in the 2000s, one of the most dominant themes has been the use of evidence-based decision-making. This is not to say that all twentieth century business decisions were done on the fly with little use of the data available - although shows like Mad Men may make you think otherwise - but the computer and internet age that dawned in the 1980s and 1990s, and the knock-on effect for business school teaching that this had, has meant that the mantra of evidence-based decision-making is now a staple of any sensible firm.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer loyalty towards locally certified low-input farm products
|
[
"Consumer attitude",
"Environment-friendly farming",
"Frequent buyer program",
"Local food system",
"Low-input product"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interest in locally produced organic and low-input food has grown remarkably as consumers have become more aware of the health and environmental effects of pesticides, genetically modified organisms, food safety, and ethical concerns. According to Gold (2007), \"organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation\"; food produced in this manner is certified to be organic. On the other hand, low-input food products do not fully comply with organic certification standards, and they offer limited quality features linked to the use of pesticides or synthetic fertilizers in crop production (Jassen et al., 2009). Local food travels only short distances or is marketed directly by the producers. Local food attracts consumers who are concerned about the increasing non-transparency caused by the greater distances between the points of production and consumption (Holloway et al., 2007).\nConceptual framework: Consumers' attitude and purchase decisions\nStudy area and methodology: Higashiosaka City\nResults: Segmentation of respondents based on normal purchase of food\nConclusion: This paper examined how a loyalty program that provides economic rewards for highly priced, value-added farm products influences the consumers' behavior of repeated purchase by focussing on the consumers' motivations and characteristics. This study was based on actual purchase data obtained in a practical study conducted in Japan. The case used in this study is unique because this particular FBP was introduced only for fresh, locally certified low-input farm products; generally, such programs are used for all the products of a brand or in a particular shop.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal how a loyalty program that provides economic rewards for locally produced low-input farm products influences the consumers' behavior of repeated purchase by focussing on the consumers' motivation and characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on data from a questionnaire survey and actual purchase data obtained from a practical study conducted in Japan. The data were analyzed using regression analysis.\nFindings: Consumers who gain economic rewards by purchasing locally produced low-input fresh food are not likely to purchase these products exclusively for the economic rewards of the program; rather, they do so to get safe and good quality food and to support local farmers and local farm conservation. The most remarkable finding is that the scheme that provides economic rewards makes such products more affordable for consumers from lower-income households.\nOriginality/value: This study is of academic value and of value to policy makers and practitioners in the local food supply chain. The study suggests that for increasing and stabilizing the demand for environment-friendly farm products, institutions for creating, designing, and supporting a new market for potential consumers are needed, together with suitable certification systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Transculturality as a drive for the SDGs achievement
|
[
"Partnership",
"Sustainable development goals",
"International projects",
"Transculturality",
"UN PRME"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2007, the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative started as an educational arm of the UN Global Compact (GC) to help educational institutions develop globally responsible leaders. Currently, the PRME is structured with a headquarters in New York and 14 chapters all over the world[1].\nTransculturality in education: Before discussing transculturality, it is important to understand the differences between the concepts of multiculturality, interculturality and transculturality. Most dictionary define multiculturality as a reference to cultural plurality, while interculturality is about the interaction and synergy between different cultures. Transculturality considers the changes these interactions generate.\nGlobal integration in Principles for Responsible Management Education projects: To evaluate how transculturality contributes to enrich projects developed between PRME members, this research explores three different projects. The first one addresses the CR3+ Conference, a project that brings together schools from Brazil, Australia, France and Finland. In the face of geographical distances and cultural differences of these institutions, the case involves sharing different experiences and perspectives.\nDiscussion: partnership as main tool for sustainable global development: The PRME initiative was set to inspire leaders of business schools to act on behalf of globally responsible leadership. Its constant challenge is to broaden the initiative's scope by expanding the network of signatories - factor that represents the institutions' engagement to the cause.\nConclusion: With the GC and PRME initiatives, the main focus of the UN is to create a network of businesses and schools that act according to the precepts of sustainable development. By establishing principles for the network of signatories, the UN seeks to align speeches with a focus on achieving the 17 global goals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to assess how transculturality can potentiate projects developed between UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) signatories' institutions by emphasizing on the advantages for teams with people from different nationalities. Besides, it addresses a well-discussed topic among the signatory schools of PRME as the initiative strongly encouraged integrated research, attributing it value and applicability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis focuses on three projects developed in partnership between institutions from Brazil and other countries, considering significant cultural differences, number of countries involved and the interaction between the academia and the companies. The discussion seeks to understand the value of projects and what they mean in terms of partnerships and mobilizations between PRME's signatories schools.\nFindings: The paper provides empirical insights about the necessity of understanding transculturality as a key factor to the development of multicultural projects, especially with regard to projects aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, launched by the UN in 2015.\nOriginality/value: The discussion reinforces that a multifaceted vision has the potential to overlap cultural differences to develop projects with a high degree of replicability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Estimating the effect of entrepreneur education on graduates' intention to be entrepreneurs
|
[
"Entrepreneurial intention",
"Career choices",
"Entrepreneur education",
"Graduate entrepreneur"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In line with national transformation, Malaysia sees entrepreneurship as a catalyst to transform the country from a middle-income to a high-income economy by 2020 (Yeng Kiat and Shuhymee, 2012). Thus, it is not surprising that academicians, practitioners and policy-makers need to increase their efforts to cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset among the society (Davey et al., 2011). For instance, Malaysian public universities such as Universiti Utara Malaysia, have developed niche areas of research and teaching in entrepreneurship and offers a bachelor program in entrepreneurship since 2004 (Zuhairah et al., 2014; Berma et al., 2012; Malaysia Qualification Register (MQR), 2009).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Intention to be an entrepreneur\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1. Data\n4. Analyses and results: 4.1. Sample characteristics\n5. Discussion and conclusion: From the findings, it is clearly that graduates who are exposed to entrepreneurship education (formal and informal) have huge potentials to become entrepreneurs. This result is consistent with previous studies (Eraut, 2004; Heinonen and Poikkijoki, 2006; Shelly and Seung, 2008; Lautenschlager and Haase, 2011; Shariff and Norenzayan, 2011; Amran et al., 2013; Zuhairah et al., 2014). Its implication is indeed that entrepreneurship can be cultivated through education, whether through formal and informal entrepreneurship education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Previous studies on the effect of entrepreneur education are not comprehensive. Thus, estimating the effect of entrepreneur education is imperative. According to the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MoE), only 1.7 percent (as of 2013) of university graduates are self-employed, that is managing one's own business or known as graduate entrepreneurs. Consequently, a huge gap exists between what is targeted by the government (5.5 percent by 2015) and the reality (a small number of graduate entrepreneurs). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing a graduate's choice to be entrepreneur, particularly the effects of different entrepreneur education, either formal or informal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 2,300 graduates from Universiti Utara Malaysia participated in this study.\nFindings: The findings showed that the majority of the respondents are consistent in terms of their intent to become entrepreneurs.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to time and resource constraints, the data are limited to only one university in Malaysia. It is suggested that future studies include more universities, especially entrepreneurial universities. Although it is believe that public universities' undergraduates population are highly homogeneous, it is good that the findings of the present study to be further validated by future studies using larger sample that consists of varies of public universities.\nPractical implications: This paper supports government policies in terms of cultivating educated entrepreneur such as promoting the entrepreneurship education among higher institutions of education (MoE, 2007). However, there are negative relationships among higher academic achievement of graduates toward their intention to be entrepreneurs. It is indicated that high academic achievements are negatively related to becoming entrepreneurs. Thus, it is suggested that entrepreneurship education in terms of both formal and informal education be implemented into the curriculum in order to cultivate entrepreneurial intentions.\nOriginality/value: There is still much more to be learned to fully understand the processes that leading to the decision to become an entrepreneur. Nevertheless, the results presented in this paper provide some understanding of the factors influencing the decision to become an entrepreneur among university students and graduates using a convenience sample. Thus, the results are exploratory and subjected to validation by future studies using more representative samples. Nevertheless, the study makes a contribution to the effort to predict and develop entrepreneurs in the country.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Impact of strategic decision making for outsourcing on managing manufacturing
|
[
"Decision making",
"Outsourcing",
"Manufacturing systems",
"Operations management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The reasons to include outsourcing in manufacturing strategies have been extensively elaborated in academic literature (Kremic et al., 2006, p. 467). Many have related outsourcing confidently to the performance of manufacturing organisations; for example, Gorzig and Stephan (2002, p. 12) positively associate outsourcing to profits and Gorg and Hanley (2004, p. 283) relate it to profitability and plant size. In that respect, more recently, there are signs that outsourcing is not all rosy. First of all, Leiblein et al. (2002, p. 829) present evidence and infer that outsourcing or internalisation does not make a difference. This is supported by Rothaermel et al. (2006, p. 1052) who stipulate that vertical integration and outsourcing should be carefully balanced. Furthermore, Barthelemy (2003) refers to seven deadly sins for outsourcing, like hidden costs, losing control over the outsourced activity and failing to plan an exit strategy. Broedner et al.'s (2009) study points out that outsourcing has a detrimental effect on labour productivity in German firms. Finally, there is a trend to insourcing (Caputo and Palumbo, 2005) to meet criteria of flexibility and responsiveness. Kinkel et al. (2008, p. 255) note a similar trend for German companies, with flexibility, capacity bottlenecks, quality and coordination costs motivating backsourcing decisions. That all points into the direction that although we generally perceive outsourcing as a positive move for companies, factually, we know little of what impact (strategic) decision making about outsourcing of manufacturing activities has.Research objectives\nLiterature review of existing theories: This paper starts with discussing main theories that have dominated academic thinking on outsourcing: transaction-cost economics, resource-based view and the notion of core competencies. Other theories resemble the theory of transaction-cost economics, like the agency theory (Logan, 2000), or fall in the category of Nassimbeni's (1998, p. 539) remarks about contractual aspects and social dynamics of inter-organisational relationships; hence, these have been excluded given the focus of this study. The review of the theories is necessary to establish later to what extent issues arising in operational control are explained by inappropriate alignment between theory and practice.Transaction-cost economics\nResearch methodology: After establishing the hypotheses, this section elaborates on the research methods chosen and the data collection. Particularly, the explorative character of the research requires some deliberation.Research rationale\nEmpirical research: In this section, the case studies will be presented with a brief description of the companies, the challenges they faced and solutions put forward. Please note that for engineering-to-order and to a certain extent make-to-order, the outsourcing decision typically results in purchasing activities since each order is unique with different requirements for products, parts and processes. Since the focus is on the impact of strategic decision making on operational control that should not be confused with purchasing; the analysis only considers those activities that were previously performed in-house and are now outsourced (except for case D where the company at start-up made a strategic decision not to manufacture parts in-house). The descriptions will be followed by the analysis against the model for continuous decision making on outsourcing (Dekkers, 2000), see Figure 1 with a more detailed explanation; no integral view seems present in literature other than this model covering strategic, tactical and operational decision making. After the analysis against this model the evaluation of the propositions will follow.Five case studies\nDiscussion of findings: The analysis reveals the strategic intents for outsourcing often work out differently when operational control and performance management are considered. In that sense, it might be questioned to what extent managerial decision making, industrial practices and current theories cover these issues.Strategic decision making\nConcluding remarks: Outsourcing has been driven by insight from management science that has mainly relied on three theories: transaction-cost economics, resource-based view and core competencies approach. Some of the companies have clearly underestimated the necessary control mechanisms for managing outsourcing, even though they have followed implicitly or explicitly the three theories for strategic decision making.Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The theories of transaction-cost economics, the resource-based view and the core competencies approach have been used extensively to justify the rationale behind strategic decisions on outsourcing, but their validity has not been investigated yet in comparative empirical research. Additionally, no study has examined the operational effects of these decisions in-depth. The purpose of this paper is to fill these two gaps in the academic literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A literature review confirms the existence of these gaps and informs hypotheses based on the three theories. Additionally, the model for continuous decision making on outsourcing is used to systematically collect data from five cases studies. The cases - all make-to-order or engineering-to-order - have been analysed on effects for operational performance and control resulting from strategic decision making on outsourcing.\nFindings: - From this evaluation, it appears that these companies perform weakly on the control of the outsourced activities. Furthermore, it seems that the (manufacturing) strategy is disconnected from outsourcing practices and that outsourcing hardly contributes to competitive advantage. Moreover, from some of the case studies it appears that the decision for strategic outsourcing is irreversible. Finally, traditional criteria and behaviour during decision making prevail, i.e. a cost-driven perspective, which does not address contemporary challenges.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Despite being explorative and based on only five cases, these findings indicate that strategic decision making on outsourcing based on the three theories insufficiently accounts for operational issues that emerge later during manufacturing; it might be necessary to revise the theoretical base for outsourcing to include management of outsourced manufacturing activities.\nPractical implications: - The findings imply also that managers in companies, in any case those firms that operate on the basis of make-to-order or engineering-to-order, should be less \"rushed\" into strategic decision making on outsourcing that has adverse effects. Rather, outsourcing requires integral decision making in contrast to factual decision making that displayed signs of bounded rationality (particularly expressed through the focus on cost savings).\nSocial implications: - The dominant, one-sided view of the cost perspectives contributes to the notion that the shareholders' interests for short-term profitability conflict with long-term organisational health (apparent through the impact on operational management of outsourcing activities).\nOriginality/value: - Stakeholders involved in strategic decision making might use this research to evaluate fundamentally decisions that cover outsourcing. At the same time, for consultants and practitioners it offers insight that is complementary to the often one-sided strategic decision making with its focus on cost reductions. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the limited validity of current theories that underpin strategic decision making on outsourcing and provides an impetus for academics to develop more appropriate theory.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The life security system for Chinese families in compliance with the family planning policy
|
[
"China",
"Government policy",
"Population policy",
"Social security",
"Family planning",
"Life security",
"One‐child family"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Background: The policy of the family planning has been heated discussed since its birth. It generally was regarded as the \"one-child\" policy due to its original purpose of the control of the population growth. However, the specific contents of the family planning are different during each period of time as a result of varying social, economic, demographic patterns. The idea of \"the control of population quantity, the improvement of population quality\" dates back to the 1950s, when Ma, Yinchu wrote \"New Population Theory\". His idea received little attention until the 1970s, when a \"later-longer-fewer\" program, instituted to promote later childbearing, longer birth intervals and fewer births, was implemented but not limit \"only one child per couple\". Afterwards, China experienced a rapid decrease in total fertility rate (TFR) from six children at the end of 1960s to approximately three in the mid-1970s. The program, in broad sense, primarily differs from so-called \"one-child\" policy but later, in 1979, transferred to a strict regulation that all couples only bear one child (Table I).It can be clearly found that the \"one-child\" policy successfully curbs the increase in the population quantity, and contributes to the socio-economic development. However, the decline in the number of young labor forces, sex imbalance of newborn, population ageing and other issues have caused continuous questioning about whether the policy should be further implemented or continue to be carried out and when should it be put to an end. As a \"basic policy\", the relationship between the family planning and other relevant policies, such as the system of market economy, may as well be supplementary to the population policy. In the mid-1990s, it was time to adjust the \"one-child\" policy, which involves social assistance, medical and health services, employment, education, protection of women and children, more rights of the disabled, etc.\n2 Literature review: Based on survey data collected in 1996 and 1998 from women in three provinces with widely differing conditions, Hardee et al. (2004) conclude that women view the family planning as a means of helping them have better ability to focus on earning for the family, especially for children's schooling and housing. Cai et al. (2006) discuss private transfers respond to low household income of retired workers which are consistent with an altruistic motives for transfers at low levels of household income. Yang (2003), however, proposes the necessity and feasibility of the shift of the interest orientation of the family planning to social security supply from the macro-economic point of view, suggests the distribution ways of family planning input and output should be adjusted. Along with the policy, the maternity insurance - a kind of social security system provided for bearers of reproductive responsibilities - compensates the income loss caused by maternity leave and medical services. Pan (2003) refers to its history and current status; on the other hand, Tan (2004), elaborates on the coverage which not limits to urban female workers but also takes all women into account; the rights of men participating into the maternity insurance. Turn to rural endowment insurance, Tao (2003) put forward some measures such as the strategy of \"the policy proposed by the government is implemented by market-orientation\", the establishment of risk fund in dealing with unexpected accidents, the closed management of the insurance fund that differs from the general commercial insurance. Zhao (2004) proposes variable rate to adjust interest based on fully consideration of the change in price in order to achieve the payment balance of endowment insurance fund.Starting with some typical problems associated with the family planning policy, we present three main corresponding life security programs. For example, due to the strict limit of \"one child\", the preference for son may get stronger that result in the sex imbalance. The \"Care for Girl\" was promoted to encourage the female birth. However, the relevant issues such as narrow coverage in fact, do not relate to the family planning policy itself, but can be handled with increasingly appropriate funds management as well as more reasonable measures. The life security at three different levels is then concentrated discussed.\n3 The new issues of the population and the family planning: 3.1 The adverse selection of population quality under the circumstance of unbalanced fertility rate of the total urban and rural populations\n4 The status and problems of life security system for one-child families: 4.1 The status of life security system for one-child families\n5 The integrated planning of life security system for Chinese urban-rural one-child families: 5.1 The idea of the resolution concerning the new issues of the population and family planning\n6 Conclusion: The issue of population is a quite comprehensive complexity. The contribution of the family planning to the population control is unquestionable. Dated to March 2000, Document No. 8, Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Enhancing Work of Population and Ensuring Stable and Low Level of Birth, \"three unchangeable\" were clearly stated: no change in the present policy, no change in the already set population target and no change in the connection of local governments and party to the family planning performance. However, a growing concern of relevant policies - the security aiming at both younger and older generation - is no doubt, worth making joint efforts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - During the early 1970s, faced with the serious demographic situation, China began to fully implement the policy of family planning in urban and rural regions. Nowadays, the problems of pension and medical care for aged parents confronted by the first generation of the one-child family have begun to gradually appear. Meanwhile, China's population and the family planning are also faced with some problems that are difficult to solve, including unbalanced fertility rate of urban and rural population, the gender imbalance, the difficulty of the risk diversification in a one-child family, as well as the profound contradiction between the stability of the family planning policy and the drive of administrative measures. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the integrated-scheduled life security system of the one-child family in urban and rural areas, in order to overcome the problems and to promote the transformation of the family planning policy. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the life security system for China's one-child families.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The life security system for the one-child family proposed by this paper consists of three issues: the basic security based on the level of social security, the additional security of the policy insurance and the supplementary security of the commercial insurance. The paper begins with the history of the family planning policy in the first section and then go through some relevant articles regarding complementary measures such as maternity insurance, rural endowment insurance that only focused on one aspect of issues associated with the family planning. In section three, four typical problems are listed for the purpose of following discussion of corresponding solutions which are full of deficiency in section four. In part five, the integrated planning of the life security system for Chinese one-child family is elaborated with risk and fund management. In the last part, we conclude that the family planning policy maintains stable, whereas measures to be taken are adjusted along with changeable new problems.\nFindings: - The policy insurance plays an increasingly important role in dealing with the life security of older people in one-child families. It may be better to promote the kind of insurance.\nOriginality/value: - The paper comprehensively discusses the life security system for Chinese families in compliance with the family planning policy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Green community entrepreneurship 2.0: Collective response or individual adaptation strategy to funding cuts in Canada (2006-2012)
|
[
"Resilience",
"Transition",
"Transformation",
"Social entrepreneurship",
"Organizational adaptation",
"Green community entrepreneurship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Government cancellations of funding to social and environmental programs are a common challenge to non-profit organizations that operate in the social economy. The environmental services sector is part of the social economy because of the social benefits accrued through the delivery of environmental services, as well as the recognition that many environmental services cannot be delivered without a subsidy to offset the market failure that created the environmental externality being addressed (Hussen, 2013). Despite their value to society, non-profit environmental service organizations (ESOs) are periodically forced to reinvent themselves in order to carry on offering services such as advice, education, and support to help communities reduce their ecological footprint. This paper examines entrepreneurial responses (e.g. the creation of new services) to this challenge to gain insights and share lessons with others interested in the dynamics of the social economy.\nContext: Canada's ESOs have faced a series of threats over time to the funding of their main energy evaluation, outreach, and community engagement services, as well as their overall survival. For example, the mid-1990s saw provincial government cuts to the environmental services sector in Ontario (Dart and Zimmerman, 2000). The previous provincial government had launched the Green Communities Initiative to help communities reduce waste and improve energy and water efficiency (Ministry of Environment and Energy, 1994). This program was part of the Ontario Green Industrial Strategy, which was designed to create a market for green services with the help of community-based organizations. Although this strategy aimed to achieve environmental objectives, it also focussed on generating economic benefits such as green employment. The initiative began in 1991 and by 1994 16 communities had joined with each organization responsible for delivering Home Green-Up services to teach homeowners how to live in a more sustainable way. More than 10,000 green home visits were conducted, saving homeowners an average of 10-15 percent on their energy bills and 20-30 percent on their water bills, as well as achieving a 30 percent reduction in solid waste (Ministry of Environment and Energy, 1994). The national association, GCC, was formed in 1995. Despite these early successes, a government change in 1995 led to the cancellation of the Green Communities Initiative, threatening the survival of these ESOs and resulting in half of them closing (Toronto Green Community, 2012).\nLiterature review: Green community entrepreneurship represents an important type of adaptive response to changes in the funding environment. It includes three types of activities: the creation and implementation of new services, the accelerated development or implementation of an existing idea, or the expansion of an existing service to enter a new market (Gliedt and Parker, 2007). However, these actions can also be set within a broader context of organizational and community adaptation responses to external shocks illustrated in the natural hazards literature (Chamlee-Wright and Storr, 2010; Linnenluecke et al., 2012), the climate change adaptation literature (Adger, 2003; Adger et al., 2005), and the corporate and organizational change literature (Burgelman, 1991; Chakravarthy, 1982; Judge and Douglas, 2009; Lepoutre, 2008; Staber and Sydow, 2002; Uhlenbruck et al., 2003). These studies describe cases of adaptation to unexpected shocks, and identify factors that were deemed important in facilitating the adaptation. Resilience capacity (Lengnick-Hall and Beck, 2005) and adaptive capacity (Engle, 2011) are identified as critical combinations of resources and capabilities that help organizations or communities respond to external changes. What are lacking, however, are empirical studies of adaptation to a sequence of external shocks to see if responses change over time. This would allow for a comparison of adaptation and innovation processes within the same set of organizations.\nMethod: In order to thoroughly understand how ESOs use green community entrepreneurship to adapt to external changes, this study compares the rate of entrepreneurship in the immediate post-shock period after the 2006 EnerGuide for Houses cut, to a second period of funding and institutional stability (2007-2009), and then again to a third period immediately after the 2011 ending of the ecoENERGY program. This allows for an assessment of the means and the extent to which an ESO successfully (or not) adapted to multiple external changes. Following Engle (2011), if the organization adapted successfully, then it is assumed to have had adaptive capacity.\nResults: The ESOs used different approaches to adapt to similar external shocks that occurred at different points in time. This suggests that some level of learning occurred, which influenced a change in strategy. In response to the previous shocks in the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, the ESOs relied on partnerships with local organizations and service diversification to survive (Dart and Zimmerman, 2000; Gliedt and Parker, 2007). The initial interview findings from the post-shock period in 2006 (Gliedt and Parker, 2007) support the model of emergency entrepreneurship (Johannisson and Olaison, 2007) where an urgent crisis spurs higher levels of entrepreneurial activity as an adaptive response to the shock. A follow-up survey of the same ESOs conducted during the second period characterized by funding stability (Gliedt and Parker, 2010) discovered that the return of government funding to support the core energy service can reduce the level of creativity directed toward new services.\nDiscussion: The type of adaptation pursued by ESOs can be classified based on their chosen activities. After the 2006 EGH cancellation, the top priority for most ESOs and the GCC was to maintain the core residential energy evaluation service. This involved a public relations campaign that included lobbying for its return, informing the community of its cancellation to increase pressure on public officials, and gathering support from local governments who in-turn pressured the federal government to bring back the program. The second priority was to create new services, most of which were energy related and to use the existing skill-sets of these organizations: communication, education, and engagement. The result was that ESOs wanted to return to the pre-shock state in both the type of services they offered as well as the skill-set they used to deliver them. The ESOs in 2006 were therefore following a resilience adaptation strategy according to the Pelling classification.\nConclusion: ESO responses to the 2011 termination of the ecoENERGY program that stimulated demand for their primary energy evaluation service differed from their response to the previous funding shock in 2006. The decision by GCC to offer a social entrepreneurship training program to member organizations did not stimulate a new level of green community entrepreneurship by ESOs. Instead, ESOs rated the program low in terms of importance, although the skills and tools presented during the program were valued as being useful. Overall, the preference of the executive directors would be to maintain their established residential energy efficiency service; however, they did not expect much demand for the service that was the core of their operations prior to 2011. ESOs recognized that larger organizational changes were required than in 2006, given that there was no expectation that the energy program would come back at the federal level, and that most provincial support for the energy efficiency service had also been cancelled or allowed to expire. Several ESOs used their entrepreneurial skills to create other sustainability services, including water, food, and new energy services. In order to deliver different types of services, ESOs needed to develop new skill-sets including financing, consulting, business development, and general contracting.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate a second round of intensive green community entrepreneurship, a form of social entrepreneurship, by a set of environmental service organizations (ESOs) facing the loss of their largest revenue source (the ecoENERGY program), to see if it differed from responses to a similar funding cut five years earlier. In particular, the study compared green community entrepreneurship rates and types to those of the previous program (EnerGuide for Houses) cancellation and examined the perceived importance of various factors, including a social entrepreneurship training program offered by the national association.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Interviews were held with executive directors who had led their organization through both periods of financial crisis. Information was collected on changes in revenue, staffing, residential energy evaluations conducted, service creation, and the perceived importance of organizational factors. The adaptation strategy undertaken by each ESO was classified as resilience, transition, or transformation focussed.\nFindings: First, green community entrepreneurship is accelerated when needs are heightened, such as when ESOs face funding cuts. Second, only some of the new services or activities launched were financially successful and remained viable over a five-year period. Third, green community entrepreneurship is an important initiative for ESOs to implement their adaptation strategy (resilient, transition, or transformation strategy). Fourth, a higher perceived difficulty of adaptation to funding cuts is associated with the launch of more new services by the ESO.\nOriginality/value: The original contributions of the paper include the verification of repeated increases to the rate of entrepreneurship undertaken in response to sudden funding cuts, as compared to the rate of entrepreneurship during a stable funding period. This accelerated creation of new services can be directed to achieve various adaptation strategies from creating new services in the established area of energy expertise, to initiatives in new areas of sustainability services, such as water, food, or finance. The importance of collective innovation is highlighted with the use of both local and national networks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Delays in new product introduction: Experiences of a food processing company in a developing economy
|
[
"New product development",
"Developing countries",
"Process management",
"Delivery"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The current business environment is faced with the pressure of competition. This is because customers, lately, are asking manufacturers and service providers to provide more value through their goods and service offerings. The ability of a competitor to offer the required value to customers, relative to other firms in the same industry, invariably spells doom for those other firms. In today's business environment, the capacity to respond quickly to customer needs is getting more important. This is forcing most firms to develop time-based strategies to effectively compete on the market (Jones, 1992; Kulwant et al., 1994). Competing with a time-based strategy requires a firm to be able to offer new products to the market quicker or in a timely manner (Kulwant et al., 1994; Jacobs and Chase, 2011). Rapid introduction of new products is likely to enhance a firm's competitive advantage and increase profits (Oakley, 1996). On the other hand, delays in new product introduction have economic consequences. While rapid introduction provides some advantages for firms, some firms still suffer the negative effects of delays in new product introduction. There are a number of studies (Takeuchi and Nonaka, 1986; Stalk, 1988; House and Price, 1991; Smith and Reinertsen, 1991; Millson et al., 1992; Griffin, 1997; Ittner and Larcker, 1997) which emphasise the economic consequences and the magnitude of impact of delays in new product introduction (Hendricks and Singhal, 2008). For example, Cohen et al. (1996) posits that in many industries, there appears to be fixed window of opportunity beyond which a product depreciates in value. In this era where product life cycles are shortening, delays in the introduction of new products further reduce the window of opportunity and eventually depress overall sales (Hendricks and Singhal, 2008; Ishikura, 2001). Potentially, delays in the introduction of new products can lead to products going obsolete due to rapid changes to customer needs. Such a phenomenon coupled with customer cancellation of orders due to delays in new products introduction can increase the stock levels and inventory holding costs along the supply chain. Still on the consequences and impacts of delays in new products introduction, Kulwant et al. (1994) argue that such delays can extend or delay the breakeven point; prevent the opportunity to command premium prices and lose the opportunity to \"hook\" customers before the competition and develop their loyalty so as to increase the market share. Additionally, delays in introducing new products to the market can necessitate reinvesting in marketing and advertising campaigns as well as paying of pre-agreed penalties to customers (Robinson and Fornell, 1985; Urban et al., 1986).\nLiterature review: Time-based competition appears to be dominating winning strategies in most business environments (Rosas-Vega and Vokurka, 2000; Bharadwaj et al., 2013; Ferrarese and de Calvalho, 2014). Thus, introducing new products, in a timely manner, can enhance the competitive position of firms. In the search for distinctive competitive advantage, speeding the introduction of new products has gained much attention (Ku, 2013). Compressing new products introduction times (from concept generation, prototype completion, volume production to final delivery to the market) has a positive effect on the market share of firms (Datar et al., 1997; King et al., 1992). Besides, Hendricks and Singhal (1997) argue that delaying the introduction of new products can reduce firms' market share, lower revenues and margins, increase costs and ultimately affect the bottom lines of firms negatively. They studied 101 firms that did not meet product introduction deadlines and found that delays averagely decreased market share by a value of 5.25 per cent ($119.3 million, measured in 1991 dollars). Incidentally, the views on the effect of delays in new products introduction, on firm performance, are somehow divided in literature. Some argue that delaying the introduction of new products does not have negative consequences; instead there can be positive economic consequences. It is further argued that in some instances, like standard product differentiation, delaying new products can be deliberate. The work of Wang and Hui (2012) shows that a monopolistic seller would delay the introduction of a new product when old and new products affect each other adversely. However, there is a consensus among both researchers and practitioners that the negative consequences of delays in new products introduction outweigh the positive consequences (Hendricks and Singhal, 1997; Chryssochoidis and Wong, 1998; Hendricks and Singhal, 2008).\nMethodology: Company background\nResults discussion and managerial implications: The 5 most important causes of delays in new products introduction, especially in the food processing industry, as indicated by the respondents and as shown in Table III were: high number of projects running concurrently (RII=97.54 per cent), lack of project management process (RII=96.84 per cent), lack of consistent project management structure (RII=96.14 per cent), high workload on project team (RII=95.09 per cent) and delays caused by external laboratory (RII=93.68 per cent).\nConclusions: This study sought to investigate detailed underlying causes and nature of delays in new products introduction with specific reference to the food processing industry in a developing economy environment - Ghana. The study was fact-finding in nature and focussed on a food processing firm in Ghana in understanding the underlying causes and nature of delays in new products introduction in the food processing industry. A two-staged survey approach first drew up a list of 20 detailed factors or causes of delays in new products introduction through an interview section and subsequently had the 20 detailed factors ranked by respondents who belonged to a project team responsible for new products introduction in the firm. The 20 detailed factors were further grouped into five delay categories as process-related factors, external-related factors, labour-related factors, communication-related factors and product design-related factors. Out of the 20 detailed delay factors, the five most important causes of delays in new products introduction, especially in the food processing industry, as indicated by the respondents were: high number of projects running concurrently (RII=97.54 per cent), lack of project management process (RII=96.84 per cent), lack of consistent project management structure (RII=96.14 per cent), high workload on project team (RII=95.09 per cent) and delays caused by external laboratory (RII=93.68 per cent). By the five main delay categories, the most important category in causing delays in new products introduction was labour-related factors (RII Average=92.98 per cent) with product design-related factors being the least important category in causing delays in new products introduction (RII Average=70.18 per cent). Therefore, it is argued by this study that for firms, especially in food processing and related industries, to avoid delays in the introduction of new products, there should be emphasis on building the project management capabilities of the firms as wells as project teams responsible for new products introduction.\nLimitations of study and further studies: The findings of this study are largely based on the experiences of only one large food processing firm in a developing economy's environment. As a result, the application of the findings might be limited. Hence, it suggested that future studies further test these indicated delays factors and their relative importance from the perspectives of other food processing firms in developing and developed economy environments to broaden the consensus. Again, the recommendation for managers and executives of food processing firms to establish strategic partnerships with public institutions involved in testing and regulating new products - in order to avoid delays in new products introduction - would require further research to fine-tune its effectiveness in developing economy's environments. This is necessary because bureaucracies in public institutions could act as levers to drive inefficiencies embedded in the systems of most developing economies. Hence, further research should particularly focus on the antecedents of such strategic partnerships between the food processing firms and the public testing institutions, making reference to the peculiar conditions in developing economies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Speed to the market is becoming a key competitive priority in developing countries' environments even though lack of technology, poor skilled labour and under-developed infrastructure remain daunting challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the causes and relative importance of delay factors in the introduction of food products to the market in the era of time-based competition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employed a case study approach in understanding the phenomenon in its natural settings and making sense of it through process and participants observations. Again, a two-stage approach (first, interviews and second, questionnaire) was used in collecting data from the respondents who work in a project team for a large food processing firm. The data was analysed using the relative importance index technique.\nFindings: The results show that the most important causes of delays in new products introduction, especially in the food processing industry, are: high number of projects running concurrently; lack of project management process; lack of consistent project management structure; high workload on project team and delays caused by external laboratory.\nOriginality/value: This study sought to identify detailed delay factors in the introduction of new products with respect to the food processing industry and more importantly established the relative importance of these delay factors as a decision support system for managers in the food processing industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of the customer contact person's age in service encounters
|
[
"Customers",
"Customer relations",
"Age groups",
"Finland"
] |
[
{
"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: Individuals value things differently over the course of their lives. As a result, the perception of a service encounter by a younger customer is likely to be different from that of an older customer. However, although the 50+ age group is growing more rapidly than any other demographic group in the Western world (Treguer, 2002) and although the increasing consumption of services is most prevalent among older consumers (Alalaakkola, 1996), research on the link between age and service encounters is scarce.It is apparent that the ageing of the population has resulted in service providers being faced with a greater proportion of older customers. Moreover, the ageing of the population has also changed the characteristics of the workforce (Moschis et al., 1997), with an increasing proportion of customer-contact persons also belonging to the 50+ age group. These demographic changes have implications for service providers. In particular, the question arises as to whether older customer-contact persons have a better understanding of the service needs of older customers and, conversely, whether younger customer-contact persons have a better understanding of the service needs of younger customers. In other words, do customers perceive that customer-contact persons of a similar age to their own provide better service?The objective of the present study is to expand knowledge with respect to these issues. The specific purposes of the study are to ascertain whether:* older customers prefer older customer-contact persons; and* younger customers prefer younger customer-contact persons.The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The next section presents a theoretical discussion of service adaptation and age. Thereafter, the methodology of an empirical study is described, the findings are presented and discussed, and the conclusions of the study are drawn. Finally, limitations are acknowledged and suggestions for further research are presented.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Service adaptation\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection and sample\n4. Findings: 4.1 General findings\n5. Discussion: Older customers preferred older customer-contact persons to younger customer-contact persons in all the studied service settings. Younger customers preferred younger customer-contact persons to older customer-contact persons in all the studied service settings, with the exception of services high in credence qualities - in which they preferred older customer-contact persons.The findings provide support for the first hypothesis (that older customers experience older customer-contact persons more favourably than younger customer-contact persons in all types of service settings). In general, older customers did tend to experience service offered by older customer-contact persons more favourably in all service settings.In contrast, the second hypothesis (that younger customers experience younger customer-contact persons more favourably than older customer contact persons in all types of service settings) was negated. Although younger customers did, in general, tend to favour service offered by younger customer-contact persons, this did not apply to all aspects of services high in credence qualities (banking and dentistry services). A possible explanation for this finding might be that services high in credence are difficult to evaluate; in these circumstances, the customer-contact person's experience, competence, and trustworthiness are of greater importance (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996). Older age might be taken by customers as indicators of such qualities. In the present study, both younger customers and older customers preferred older customer-contact persons in some aspects of banking services and dentistry services.In terms of other service settings, although clothing retail (high in search qualities) and hairdressing services (high in experience qualities) have different quality attributes, both can be considered to be age-sensitive - because both are \"trend sensitive\" and both affect the physical appearance of the customer. Age was confirmed as a relevant factor in these service encounters in the present study: both younger customers and older customers preferred customer-contact persons of a similar age to themselves in both settings. The finding with respect to clothing retail contradicts the findings of Kang and Hillery (1998), who found that both younger customers and older customers preferred older customer-contact persons when shopping for clothing. Cultural and time differences between the studies are likely to be the explanation for the contradictory findings: the study of Kang and Hillery (1998) was conducted in the USA almost a decade ago, whereas the present study was conducted in Finland in 2007.Although the retailing of electronic appliances is a service high in search qualities, it is also characterised by information intensity. The service involves the offering of a large selection of products with short life cycles, which implies that the customer-contact person's role in providing advice and information is especially important. Younger customers in the present study demonstrated a strong preference for younger customer-contact persons, whereas older customers were more neutral, although they tended to prefer customer-contact persons closer to their own age. Indeed, some of the older respondents commented in their questionnaire responses that they did not want \"too much\" information and that they therefore preferred older customer-contact persons who were better at adapting their message to the needs of older customers.\n6. Managerial implications: This study has shown that the age of customer-contact persons is a relevant factor for managerial consideration in three aspects of service encounters:1. the recruitment of customer-contact persons;2. organisation of work; and3. adaptation of service to older customers.With regard to the recruitment of customer-contact persons, service providers who offer services high in credence should be aware that the perceived trustworthiness of the customer-contact person is important; persons who convey a mature image should therefore be recruited for the workforce of such a service provider. Service providers who offer services high in search qualities and/or experience qualities should be clear about their primary target group when recruiting customer-contact persons; younger customers tend to prefer younger customer-contact persons, whereas older customers tend to prefer older customer contact persons.With regard to the organisation of work among customer-contact persons, service providers who offer services high in search qualities and/or experience qualities should seek to ensure that their customer-contact persons are of a similar age to their customers. If the service provider offers services high in credence qualities, managers should be aware that customers prefer to be served by older customer-contact persons. If possible, these preferences should be taken into account when assigning staff members to specific service encounters and/or key customer accounts.When adapting service to older customers, it is important that managers are aware that older customers might perceive younger customer-contact persons to be knowledgeable, but they might also consider that these younger customer-contact persons are unable to adapt their communication to suit the needs of older customers.\n7. Limitations and future research: The findings of the present study should be considered in light of certain acknowledged limitations. First, the sample of 134 respondents (80 older respondents and 54 younger respondents) might be considered small. Second, the sampling procedure was not random; nonetheless, the sampling procedure did ensure a satisfactory response rate and did facilitate the collection of reliable data from respondents of various backgrounds from different parts of Finland.With regard to avenues for future research, gender could be included as an independent variable in the analysis; interesting differences between older/younger males and older/younger females might be discovered. The present study did undertake some indicative testing of gender differences, which suggested that females (both younger and older) were more sensitive to the age of the customer-contact person than were males - especially in the retail-clothing and hairdressing settings; however, these findings are not reliable because the sample was too small for a proper statistical analysis. Moreover, more age breaks and more types of services could be included.The role of age in service encounters would also be better understood if an in-depth qualitative study were undertaken in future research. Qualitative interviews could explore the differences in preferences in greater detail and seek reasons for such phenomena as younger customers preferring older customer-contact persons in services with credence qualities. Moreover, greater insights could be gained into general issues - such as what older and younger customers value in service experiences.\n8. Conclusions: Two general conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, age is a relevant factor for customers' evaluations of service encounters. Second, the role of age differs in different service settings.Service providers therefore need to:* take age into account in service design;* adapt their service offerings according to the age of the clientele; and* consider having both younger and older customer-contact persons in their workforce.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether older customers prefer older customer-contact persons and whether younger customers prefer younger customer-contact persons in a variety of service settings with different search, experience, and credence qualities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study is based on a statistical analysis of data from a survey of younger and older Finnish customers using a structured questionnaire.\nFindings: - Older customers prefer older customer-contact persons to younger customer-contact persons in all the studied service settings. Younger customers prefer younger customer-contact persons to older customer-contact persons in all the studied service settings, with the exception of services high in credence qualities - in which they preferred older customer-contact persons.\nPractical implications: - Age is a relevant factor in service design. Service providers therefore need to: take age into account in service design: adapt their service offerings according to the age of the clientele; and consider having both younger and older customer-contact persons in their workforce.\nOriginality/value: - Research into the role of age in service encounters is scarce. This study contributes to the field of services marketing by investigating this issue. The study provides empirical support for the commonly accepted presumption that customer-contact persons closer in age to the customer are perceived by the customer as being better at adapting service.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
From rhetoric towards a model of practical knowledge management systems
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Diffusion",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As a result of the changing marketplace (from capital assets market to knowledge economy), competition, and the rapid development of technology, organizations have started paying more attention to maximizing their knowledge-based assets. More and more companies are starting to realize that knowledge is an organization's most important asset, and knowledge-related assets will be the base of sustainable competitive advantage and the foundation of success in the 21st century (Wiig, 1997). Organizations are understanding and accepting the fact that the most important source of wealth and basic economic resource in contemporary society - the \"knowledge society\" as Drucker (1993) calls it - is knowledge (uit Beijerse, 1999). When a business faces competitors that perform well in areas such as planning, marketing, products and services, structure, attention to customers, organizational resources management, etc., effective management of knowledge may be the only weapon for beating the competition (Davenport et al., 1998).Many researchers (Drucker, 1993; Sveiby, 1997; Wiig, 1993; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Davenport and Prusak, 1998) have said that knowledge and intellectual capital are organizations' primary sources of production and value, while tangible assets such as land, plants, and equipment are rarely their most valuable assets. Through successful knowledge management (KM), organizations are able to act intelligently to sustain their long-term competitive advantage by developing, building, and deploying their knowledge assets (Wiig, 1999). According to Wareham (1999), a study by the International Data Corporation shows that Fortune 500 companies would lose US$ 12 billion in 1999 resulting from poor KM, and the losses could reach US$ 31.5 billion by 2003. As a result of a lack of tools and processes for effectively capturing, managing, and connecting organizational expertise, an estimated 3.2 per cent of corporate knowledge becomes incorrect or obsolete every year, and another 4.5 per cent of knowledge becomes unavailable because of employee turnover, information mismanagement, and knowledge hoarding. At the same time, there are reported gains from KM. Some examples include: in 1998 BP brought US$ 260 million to its bottom line - a documented savings attributed to KM; Buckman Labs increased its new-product sales by 50 per cent; The Dow Chemical Company saved US$ 40 million a year in the reuse of patents; the Ford Motor Company saved more than US$ 600 million in the past three years; Hewlett-Packard reduced its cost by 50 per cent; Rank Xerox reduced its dispatches by 15 per cent; Roche sends out its products for FDA approval six months faster; Sequent registered 10 per cent higher sales for new sales representatives after six months (The Conference Board, 2000).There has been a dramatic growth of KM activities in organizations all over the world. According to Bonner (2000), in early 1999, about one-half of US companies had some form of KM activities in place. The author also mentions that corporate America's spending on KM activities jumped almost ten times from US$ 410 million to US$ 4.5 billon from 1994 to 1999. KPMG's research report on KM also reflects the popularity of KM in organizations (KPMG, 2000). According to the report, KM is currently pursued by the great majority of leading organizations. Among the 423 companies surveyed in Europe and US, about four-fifths (81 per cent) had, or were considering, a KM program. In Australia too there had been a major shift from a resource-mining economy to a knowledge-based economy (Sveiby, 1995; Guthrie et al., 1999). For example, by the end of 1998, only two of the Australia's ten largest companies were resources-based companies; the remaining eight were knowledge-based companies. The same trend can also be observed in the top 20 Australian companies (Guthrie et al., 1999) (Table I).This paper investigates the factors impacting on the diffusion (spread and sustained use) of knowledge management systems (KMSs) - a topic that has not been well explored in the literature. Although KMSs have been studied widely over the past several years, the literature (Gray, 2000; Cortada and Woods, 1999, 2000; Alavi and Leidner, 2001) suggests that there is a scarcity of empirical studies on KMSs. This study thus addresses the following research questions (on which there are no comprehensive studies available):* What factors are important in the adoption and diffusion of KMS?* What must be done to adopt or establish a KMS?The paper examines the above questions in the context of some Australian organizations, ultimately leading to the development of a comprehensive KMS diffusion model. The foundation of the study is the comprehensive literature review about the adoption and diffusion of generic innovations and technologies. We adopted qualitative field study as the research method and used semi-structured interviews to collect the relevant information.In the following sections, we first present relevant background literature on knowledge, KM, adoption/diffusion, followed by the research design and results, respectively. Finally, we make conclusions and suggest future research directions.\nBackground: Much of the Knowledge of the Greeks and Persians was preserved in Arabic translations, following the fall of these empires to the expanding Islamic Empire. This knowledge eventually reached the monasteries of Europe where monks, who could be termed knowledge specialists, preserved and translated these works for contemporary scholars and future generations (Duke et al., 1999, p. 23).The above quote highlights the fact that the practice of KM is not new. Human civilization has been preserving and passing knowledge from generation to generation for better understanding of the past and thus progress to the future. In today's dynamic and complex business environment, the thirst for knowledge has increased even more and the scope and content of knowledge have changed dramatically, often spreading outside the organization. Information technology and the internet have brought new challenges in creating, preserving, and managing knowledge.Knowledge\nResearch design: Qualitative research paradigm\nResults and implications: Demography\nConclusions and future study: Taking the approach of qualitative field research, this study produces a comprehensive model to examine the factors and variables of KMS diffusion in organizations. Six companies took part in the study, which resulted in eight interviews with key person(s) in the companies. The participating companies were in various stages of KMS diffusion. The interviews were transcribed by the researchers and the contents analyzed using a structured process. The content analysis resulted in 17 factors and 72 unique variables. Company-specific individual diffusion models were first developed which were then combined to develop a comprehensive KMS diffusion model.This study contributes to the KMS literature by taking a qualitative research approach to develop the comprehensive model. The research was thus exploratory in nature. This paper explains how the combined model can be used to undertake further research and how it can also be used for practical applications in companies that are embarking on KMS adoption and diffusion. The next step is to study the combined model further using a structural equation modelling approach. This part of the research will use a quantitative approach, which will test a number of hypotheses and the model itself. The immediate action needed is to develop a questionnaire and do the pilot-test before the large-scale national survey.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of knowledge management systems (KMSs) in Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative field study was undertaken, in which six Australian organizations of various sizes, all in various stages of KMS adoption and diffusion, were studied via face-to-face interviews with key personnel in the organizations.\nFindings: - A comprehensive combined model of adoption and diffusion of KMS was developed and is presented in detail.\nPractical limitations/implications: - This paper explains how the combined model can be used for practical applications in companies that are embarking on KMS adoption and diffusion.\nOriginality/value: - This study contributes to the KMS literature by taking a qualitative research approach to develop a comprehensive model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The ethics of professional accountants: an Aristotelian perspective
|
[
"Aristotle",
"Flourishing",
"Professional ethics",
"Character",
"Virtue ethics",
"Excellence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The ethics of professional accountants (PAs) is a topic of continued interest and relevance. Although there is a wide range of ways in which accounting ethics can be investigated and conceptualised, the regular accounting scandals and misstatements that are reported in the media suggest that the question \"what does it mean for a professional accountant to be ethical?\" remains of immediate importance. The profession addresses this question (in response to a variety of social and political pressures) through its Code of Ethics, supported by the incorporation of ethics in the education and training of prospective accountants, yet there has been little academic consideration of how particular philosophical perspectives could provide support for or critique this approach. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Aristotle's ethics can be applied to the ethics of PAs, in relation to the approach adopted by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), and to consider the reasons that justify the Aristotelian approach. It argues that the Aristotelian perspective addresses a number of the ongoing problems evident in IFAC's approach and provides a more comprehensive and adequate philosophical basis for the ethics of PAs.\nIFAC and the ethics of PAs: Traditionally, professions have been understood as a \"combination of independent individual practice with some type of collective association [...] [that] usually involved specialized education, examination or licensure, service fees, and some sort of autonomous discipline\" (Abbott, 2001, p. 12166). This image of professions has been complicated where, for example, regulation of professionals has increased, there has been an increase in salaried professionals as well as greater internationalisation, and where sociological research has identified the importance of power and control in the development and maintenance of professions (Johnson, 1972; Larson, 1977). Work in the sociology of the accounting profession has documented many of these aspects (Poullaos, 2009; Suddaby et al., 2009; West, 2003; Willmott, 1986), and in recent decades there have been strong moves towards an accounting profession that is more globally integrated (Carmona and Trombetta, 2008; Loft et al., 2006).\nArticulating the Aristotelian perspective: Of Aristotle's substantial corpus, his views on how society ought to be structured and how we ought to live are articulated in the Politics, The NE and the Eudemian Ethics (EE)[1]. While the Politics is devoted to questions regarding the appropriate structuring of the good society (and is thus more applicable to issues associated with the institutionalisation of accounting rather than the ethics of the PA), both the NE and EE deal with the good for the individual. These two works on ethics overlap considerably, with many scholars believing the NE to be the later and more definitive work (Bobonich, 2006; Brown, 2009; Hughes, 2013; Kraut, 2014; although see Kenny, 1978 for an alternative view). As a point of comparison with IFAC's approach (as articulated in the Code and IAESB publications) that provides guidance for individual accountants (addressing the question \"what does it mean for a professional accountant to be ethical?\"), it is consequently the NE that is most applicable and that is the focus of this analysis.\nJustification, the common good and implications: Having examined how Aristotle's moral philosophy can be applied to the ethics of PAs, we now turn to a consideration of the reasons why such an approach should be adopted. The remainder of this section discusses four reasons why this Aristotelian approach provides a suitable philosophical basis for the ethics of PAs, followed by a brief discussion of the \"common good\" and a consideration of the implications of this perspective.\nConclusion: Velasquez (2002) notes that \"a theory of virtue differs from an ethics of principles in the perspective from which it approaches moral evaluations\" (p. 140) and that \"an ethic of virtue, then, covers much of the same ground as an ethics of principles, but from a very different standpoint\" (p. 141). This paper has articulated and justified an Aristotelian perspective on the ethics of PAs that presents a substantially different interpretation on what it means for a PA to be ethical. This perspective provides both a counterpoint and complement to the approach taken by IFAC.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how Aristotle's ethics can be applied to the ethics of professional accountants (PAs), in relation to the approach adopted by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), and to consider the reasons that justify the Aristotelian approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper outlines IFAC's approach and identifies several weaknesses. Three themes of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics are applied to the work of PAs. Reasons why this perspective is more suitable for PAs are then articulated.\nFindings: Several aspects of Aristotle's ethics can be fruitfully applied to the ethics of PAs. These include the relationship between function, goals and the good, an awareness of the human goal to achieve eudaimonia, the development of both excellences of character and of intelligence, and the significance of non-rational aspects of morality, including emotions, will, responsibility and choice.\nResearch limitations/implications: This perspective provides an alternative conceptualisation of the ethics of PAs. Although it does not provide concrete guidance regarding what the ethical approach to specific situations may be, it presents a useful counterpoint to existing approaches that are largely deontological and utilitarian.\nPractical implications: This paper provides accountants in practice with a more comprehensive and adequate perspective on what it means for a PA to be ethical, and raises several issues related to how ethics is included in the education and training of accountants.\nOriginality/value: Investigating the philosophical basis for professional ethics approaches professional codes of ethics in a way that it is not typically considered. The paper also provides a more comprehensive application of Aristotelian ethics than previous work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining the role of emotional intelligence between organizational learning and adaptive performance in Indian manufacturing industries
|
[
"Emotional intelligence",
"Organizational learning",
"Adaptive performance",
"Indian manufacturing industries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Adaptive performance is pretty significant to organisations that are facing uncertainty (Mossholder et al., 2000), volatility and complex business conditions (Skinner et al., 2002). The diverse workforce of the twenty-first century demands organisations for offering a sustainable learning environment to adapt and gain advantage over its competitors. For this reason, in recent years, determining organisational variables as a precursor to attitudinal variables of employee performance has become the central topic of investigation. Existing literature have suggested indicating the antecedents of employee performance (Campbell et al., 1996; Viswesvaran and Ones, 2000; Sackett, 2002); however, there is no research as of date exists for examining the association among organisational variables and adaptive performance together.\nOrganisational learning and adaptive performance: Learning enables an organisation to remain productive and competitive in turbulent business environment. Organisations practicing \"continuous learning as a vital element for its survival and growth\" are defined as learning organisations. Organisational learning is much broader than learning organisation, as the former is a kind of developmental process that takes place in an organisation (Lundberg, 1995). Organisational learning is a process introduced through learning organisation and connotes activities intended for organisational development, for example, participation in decision-making (Arthur and Aiman-Smith, 2001). The significance of individual learning from organisation learning is apparent and subtle, as organisational learning takes place through the aspirations and corresponding action plan of its employees. Individual learning is grounded on personal development, whereas organisational learning addresses the intra- and interpersonal dynamics among its members to address the changing requirements of the business market. Organisational learning is versatile in nature and is drawn from disciplines of cultural anthropology, psychology, sociology, management strategy and human resource development (Easterby-Smith, 1997).\nEmotional intelligence, learning organisation and adaptive performance: Researchers and practitioners have accorded the importance of intelligence (cognitive and emotional perspectives) and its contribution for organisational development (Besharat, 2005; Pradhan and Jena, 2016). They have emphasised while equating emotions from cognition that emotional intelligence has a wider significance to ascertain productivity. For the first time, Salovey and Mayer (1990) brought the concept of emotional intelligence, stating it as \"a kind of information processing which includes proper evaluation of emotions and adaptive regulation of emotions\". Goleman (1995) popularised the construct while dissecting it into internal and external elements. Internal elements are in the form of awareness, objective assessment, decisiveness and capacity of self-actualisation, whereas external element embraces compassion, interpersonal affiliation and owning responsibility for self and others. Emotional intelligence harnesses coping ability and is an important set of behavioural traits for succeeding in uncertain environmental pressures (Bar-On, 1997). Emotionally intelligent people are positive and optimistic, enabling them to concentrate on solutions rather than cribbing with the cause of failures (Besharat, 2005). Emotional intelligence strengthens mental health, coping ability and adaptability to situations while reducing interpersonal hitches (Jahanian, 2010). Emotional intelligence is positively related with self-efficacy, which is a component of psychological capital. One such study carried out in Indian manufacturing sector indicates that psychological capital enhances organisational commitment (Sahoo and Sia, 2015). Committed employees would have a higher adaptive performance. Thus, we can assume that emotional intelligence would enhance the level of adaptive performance.\nMethods: Participants and procedures\nResults: Before testing our proposed hypothesis, we have examined two important aspects of the data: whether all the items of the three scales are measuring the latent construct and did the items have construct and discriminant validity among them. Therefore, keeping the 49 items representing three measures (organisational learning, emotional intelligence and adaptive performance), we have carried out through structural equation modelling using linear structural model (LISREL 8.72) software (Joreskog and Sorbom, 2008). The initial full model with 49 items have revealed a marginal fit basing on the pre-determined fit index (kh2 = 1,481.32, df = 406, RMSEA = 0.07, CFI = 0.82, GFI = 0.84, TLI = 0.85, NFI = 0.85). Regardless of sample size, Stevens (1992) has recommended with a cut-off value of 0.4, whereas Tabachnick and Fidell (2007) suggested for exercising cut-offs with 0.32 (poor), 0.45 (fair), 0.55 (good), 0.63 (very good) and 0.71 (excellent). Because of low factor loading (LFL) in our present study (below 0.32), the factor analysis suggested for removing four items (one from organisational learning: interaction with external environment dimension and three from adaptive performance: two from reactivity in the face of emergency dimension and one from training effort dimension of adaptive performance).\nDiscussion: The first objective of the study was to examine the role of organisational learning on promoting adaptive performance among employees. Based on theoretical foundations of earlier studies, it was argued that the perception of organisational learning has a role in enhancing adaptive performance. The results of the present study showed a positive and significant correlation (Table I) between organisational learning and adaptive performance, and hence, it can be inferred that an increase in organisational learning leads to promotion of employee adaptability in changing business circumstances. The unpredictable working environment compels the organisations to focus on suitable learning mechanisms for deriving employees' confidence (Hashim, 2013). The present findings have confirmed that organisational learning is a remarkable mechanism to improvise the attitude of employees. Finally, the findings of the first hypothesis of the study is in line with the earlier research in providing suitable learning opportunities and participation during change interventions for facilitating better adaptation (Dunphy and Stace, 1990; Korunka et al., 1995).\nManagerial implications and scope for future research: The present study throws light on the significance of organisational learning assisted with emotional intelligence for promoting adaptive performance among executives of manufacturing industries. The findings revealed that managerial-level employees of manufacturing industries possess above-average level of emotional intelligence. Apparently, manufacturing industries are process based, and group dynamics plays an important role to adapt and handle day-to-day work assignments. While interacting with middle and senior management functionaries during our survey, we have found that majority of them are good in understanding and managing emotions of self and others. The positive and significant correlation with emotional intelligence and organisational learning states that emotional intelligent employees have a positive attitude to explore new ways to handle issues, actively participate in decision-making, create a dialogue with cross-functional team members and interact with external environment in continuous basis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between organisational learning and adaptive performance. Furthermore, the study investigates the moderating role of emotional intelligence in the perspective of organisational learning for addressing adaptive performance of executives employed in manufacturing organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The participants were selected through purposive sampling. The study has used established scales on organisational learning, emotional intelligence and adaptive performance to collect data from the respondents. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling using linear structural model (LISREL 8.72). Moderated regression analysis was carried out through a series of hierarchical models to test the hypotheses. The authors have followed the interaction graphs recommended by Aiken and West (1991) to check the moderating effect of emotional intelligence.\nFindings: The result of the study indicates a significant relationship between organisational learning and adaptive performance. The significant moderation effect was observed in the interaction graph, wherein it was found that the relationship between organisational learning and adaptive performance was stronger among the executives with high levels of emotional intelligence and weaker for those having low levels of emotional intelligence.\nOriginality/value: The present study gains significance through highlighting the role of emotional intelligence in the perspective of organisational learning and, thus, offers insights to practitioners for addressing adaptive performance of employees.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A neuro-computing approach to the thermal profile control of the second-side reflow process in surface mount assembly
|
[
"Neural nets",
"Technology led strategy",
"Printed circuits",
"Solder"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Surface mount technology (SMT) is the most important development in the assembly of sophisticated electronics devices in modern electronics (Danielson, 1995), and has become the major means of manufacture in the printed circuit board (PCB) assembly industry. The assembly process uses a stencil-printing machine to form a patterned solder-paste coating on the surface of a PCB. Electronics components are then placed on the board surface according to the printed patterns. Finally, the solder-reflow process heats the board until the solder is melted. It melts the solder particles, wets the surfaces to be joined, and then solidifies the solder. Its main purpose is to form strong metallurgical bonds through heat transfer without changing the initial mechanical and electronic characteristics of the PCB components (Lau and Pao, 1997; Hutchins, 1995; Coombs, 1995).When components are mounted on only one side of a PCB, it is defined as a Type I assembly. Type II assemblies have components mounted on both sides of the board. When the second side of a Type II board has only surface-mount components and requires a reflow process, it is referred to as a Type II-B board. Type II-C is a more complicated assembly type that has mixed mounting technologies, such as SMT and plated through hole (Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronics Circuits, 1993). Figure 1 illustrates a Type II-B assembly.The infrared (IR) radiation/forced-air convection oven is the most commonly used tool for the solder-reflow process (Lee, 1999). Given the same oven set-up, the reflow thermal profile is a function of the type and density of the mounting components. The thermal profile is one of the key determinants of the SMT production yield (Prasad, 2002). Figure 2 illustrates a thermal profile that is divided into six heating zones.In Figure 2, each heating zone has its associated heating rate and elapsed time. Solvent is evaporated from the board surface in zone T1. With increasing board temperature the applied chemical flux helps reduce potential metal oxidation in zone T2. Solder particles become fluid in zone T3. The connection between components and board surface is formed during zone T4. Finally, the board cools down in zones T5 and T6. The total reflow time is about 4-5 minutes.A typical reflow oven has 4-6 independent heating sources (heaters) that work in conjunction with other control parameters to generate an adequate thermal profile. There are substantial uncertainties and complexities in the generation of a good thermal profile. A good reflow thermal profile is dependent on the reflow method, assembly design, board configuration, solder-paste composite, and reflow oven setting (Johnson and Kevra, 1989; Lau and Pao, 1997; Su et al., 1997). Reflow process control is a complicated procedure due to the non-linear nature of interactions among these control factors. The Type II reflow process adds complexity to the Type I process due to the existing primary-side components (Hui and Ipyn, 2000).The relationship between the primary and the second-side thermal profiles is not properly defined in either the literature or in practice. For example, the best thermal profile for the second-side reflow can cause components to fall from the primary side (due to gravity effects), and this can cause severe defects. Furthermore, given the same oven setting, the thermal profile for the second side can be different, depending on the presence of the primary-side components. If the thermal profile is not adequately controlled, potential soldering defects are introduced into various aspects of the reflow process (such as solder balling, tombstoning, skewing, opens, component cracking, inadequate fluxing activity, and so on) (Lee, 1999, Manko, 1995).An experienced process engineer usually adopts a trial-and-error approach to adjust the oven parameters iteratively until an acceptable thermal profile is obtained. This procedure is often time-consuming - sometimes taking more than an hour. Thus, process engineers tend to perform the set-up only if there is an obvious need - such as in the case of a major product change. This practice results in an inappropriate thermal profile in some instances (Prasad, 2002).By using a case study, the present research first demonstrates that the presence of the primary-side components has significant effects on the second-side thermal profile. A neural-network based predictive model is proposed to model the second-side thermal profile with a view to facilitating the oven set-up procedure and improving production yield. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed methodology is illustrated by a practical case study.\n2. Literature review: It is important to monitor continuously the thermal profile of the reflow process to ensure soldering quality (Kazmierowics, 1993; Soto, 1998). To reduce set-up time, Soto (1998) employed a two-dimensional mathematical model to predict the thermal profile. However, this approach is often prohibitively expensive because of the extensive data-collection process required and the complicated modeling that it entails (Sarvar and Conway, 1998b).Lau and Yeung (1997) adopted the Taguchi method to investigate the important factors involved in the reflow process. They investigated both stencil printing and the solder reflow process to find a robust parameter design to improve production yield. Sarvar and Conway (1998a) developed a knowledge-based predictive model to provide \"what-if\" analysis in achieving adequate soldering performance at the product and process design phases. Su et al. (1997) developed a reflow thermal profile identification system by considering board configuration, board gap, and paste thermal constraints. For these approaches, human interaction is required, and the techniques are thus prone to error.Artificial neural networks (ANNs) mimic the ability of biological neural systems in making a decision. In recent years, ANNs have gained considerable attention in solving problems in functional approximation, adaptive sensor processing, and controls (Tsoukalas and Uhrig, 1997). Its non-linear mapping capability can approximate multiple inputs into multi-output relationships through a knowledge-learning process (Cherian et al., 2000). There are several advantages in using a neural network to solve complex manufacturing problems. The advantages are:* processing speed through massive parallelism;* learning and adapting by means of efficient knowledge acquisition;* robustness with respect to fabrication and different failure; and* a compact processor for space-constrained and power-constrained applications (Barschdorff and Monostori, 1991).The basic concept of a neural network is a neuron with input connections and a single output value. The signal flow of the inputs, xi, and output, o, is considered unidirectional, as shown in Figure 3. An ANN consists of a number of neurons, which are distributed in a number of hierarchical layers.The neuron output signal is given by equation (1) through a transfer function (f):Equation 1 where w represents the weight vectors, w[?][w1, w2, ... , wn] and x represents the input vectors, x[?][x1, x2, ... , xn].The selection of the transfer function typically depends on the nature of the network output. The most typical continuous transfer function is sigmoidal, as shown in equation (2):Equation 2 The back-propagation network (BPN) is a popular supervised technique that adjusts randomized weights during the data-learning phase according to the steepest gradient along the error surface (Rumelhart and McClelland 1986).ANNs have been successfully applied to solve many prediction, classification, and control-type problems. Twomey et al. (1995) developed a slip-resistance predictive model by using a BPN model to predict the dynamic coefficient of friction. Cherian et al. (2000) developed a neural-based model to select the process parameters for powder metallurgy part manufacturing. Chen (2001) presented an integrated ANN system for blast furnaces to predict silicon content in pig iron. May et al. (1998) employed a time-series ANN model to develop a surface-mount chip-shooter preventive and corrective maintenance scheduling system by estimating the mean time between failure for nozzle and feeder.Ko and Cho (2000) combined the ANN algorithm and knowledge-oriented fuzzy-based reasoning rules to detect the curved and tiny reflective surface of solder joint for soldering quality assessment. Guh et al. (1999) developed an ANN-based online statistical process control system that can automatically recognize control-chart patterns, and provide corrective actions through its integration with an expert system. Although a significant proportion of the literature has been devoted to discussion of the problems of surface-mount assembly process planning and control (Yang and Tsai, 2002), the present authors are not aware of any research literature dedicated specifically to a discussion of the problem of second-side reflow thermal-profile control. This is therefore the focus of the present research.\n3. The case study: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Conclusions and future research opportunities: The problem of soldering quality is a major contributor to productivity loss in surface-mount assembly. The solder-reflow process is one of the least understood SMT manufacturing segments, and is a key factor in production yield.An orthogonal array was used to collect structured data for both thermal profile analysis and BPN model training. The empirical results of this research showed that a variant oven-setting strategy for the second-side reflow process that takes into account different primary-side configurations is important to ensure reflow soldering quality. A BPN was then proposed to model the second-side thermal-profile prediction problem, given the presence of primary-side components. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed BPN model can facilitate the reflow oven setup procedure - a procedure that is often time-consuming if undertaken by a trial-and-error approach.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - A neural-network-based predictive model is proposed to model the second-side thermal profile reflow process in surface mount assembly with a view to facilitating the oven set-up procedure and improving production yield.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study performs a 38-4 fractional factorial experimental twice to collect the thermal-profile data from a second-side board. The first experiment has components on the second side only, while the second experiment also has additional components on the primary side. A back-propagation neural network (BPN) is then used to model the relationship between control variables and thermal-profile measures.\nFindings: - Empirical results illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed BPN in solving the second-side thermal-profile prediction and control problem.\nOriginality/value: - There is no study dedicated to the investigation of the second-side thermal-profile variance with and without the presence of primary-side components. The study suggests that a variant oven-setting strategy for the second-side reflow process is important to ensure reflow-soldering quality.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Enterprise risk management: a capability-based perspective
|
[
"Dynamic capabilities",
"Enterprise risk management",
"Resource-based view",
"Risk-management capability",
"Risk-management theory",
"Risk resilience"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Risk management is an important topic in management research and practice (Bromiley and Rau, 2016). This study defines risk management as the firm's processes to cope with risks to minimize the volatility of returns and to ensure the firm's survival. Risk-management processes involve the identification, assessment and management of threatening events as well as the underlying internal communication, decision-making and monitoring processes that make dealing with those events possible. Enterprise risk management (ERM) adds a holistic perspective to a firm's risk-management processes, whereby risk management becomes an integral part of a firm's governance and strategy (Bromiley et al., 2015).\nTheoretical foundations of risk management: According to Dubin's (1976) framework, a \"theory\" needs to consist, first, of clearly defined units; second, of causalities among those units; and third, of contingency factors that create boundary conditions for the causalities. Weick (1995) proposes a differentiation between the process (theorizing) and the product (theory). The latter cannot exist without data, hypotheses or without being rooted in the analysis of literature.\nPriorities in ERM: toward a resource-based view: A firm faces an unlimited amount of risk. Each resource relates to a number of risks, e.g. being simply unavailable (Manuj and Mentzer, 2008), representing sunk costs (Clark and Wrigley, 1997) or being wrongly applied (Scott and Vessey, 2002). Similarly, each action relates to risks, e.g. due to information asymmetry, moral hazard or hidden action (Ferraro, 2008), or by not being applied or applied in a wrong manner under unsuitable conditions. Therefore, the interaction of resources and actions is also risky (e.g. the notion of secondary risks by Baker (1997)). Furthermore, the individuals that take or do not take action, e.g. by being \"boundedly rational\" (Simon, 1979) and by default having the wrong perceptions and making false evaluations of the situation, should be acknowledged. A lack of motivation and job satisfaction (Ilardi et al., 1993) and other aspects represent behavioral risks. A complete list of risks a firm can face is impossible to create and every strategic action is subject to unforeseeable blind spots (Burisch and Wohlgemuth, 2016). Identifying \"all possible risks\" and subsequently assessing them according to their probability and impact is thus not feasible.\nERM in dynamic environments: toward risk resilience: Risk management is a dynamic process (Fehle and Tsyplakov, 2005). To be able to respond to changing risks caused by the dynamism of VRIN resources, firms need to develop routines or a specific capability, since a simple set of tools and techniques might not be sufficient anymore. To sustain one's competitive position in dynamic environments, a firm has to develop a risk-management capability for top tier management:\nOperational risk management: application of the dynamic capability perspective: Strategic long-term risks and operational short-term risk do not necessarily share the same characteristics (Bromiley et al., 2015). Consequently, risk-management processes and routines at both levels differ due to the incommensurability of the levels of analysis. Nevertheless, the operational level of risk management should be integrated into the proposed framework by introducing a risk-management hierarchy. There should be systematic strategic choices in place that create a systematic treatment of risks (Strobl, 2016).\nBoundary conditions: Boundary conditions are one of the main aspects of theorizing. The proposed framework draws mainly on the resource-based view and its extension, i.e. the dynamic capability perspective. Accordingly, similar boundary conditions should apply. First, the important underlying pillars of the resource-based view are the heterogeneity of resources among firms and firms' striving for (sustainable) competitive advantage (Barney, 2001). A firm's resources only meet the VRIN criteria in case they are not possessed by others. Thus, firms in a competitive parity situation, in which competitors possess similar resources, might not be able to rely on the proposed prioritization scheme as they simply do not possess VRIN resources. The same applies for firms that do not strive for VRIN resources in the future, i.e. a (sustainable) competitive advantage (Kraaijenbrink et al., 2010).\nDiscussion and limitations: This study contributes to the literature and practice of risk management in different ways. First, as a theoretical contribution, it integrates ERM into the broader resource-based view and dynamic capability framework. This study did not intend to reduce the role of ERM, but to open up ERM to insights from the dynamic capability perspective, e.g. the role of management during adaptation (Martin, 2011), the role of routines (Wohlgemuth and Wenzel, 2016), and the impact of environmental uncertainty (Bogodistov and Botts, 2016). The dynamic capability literature also benefits from this integration - dynamic capabilities are criticized for their vague nature (Arend and Bromiley, 2009). The inclusion of risk management on both strategic and operational level makes the concept of dynamic capabilities more precise. This study intends to stress this notion because it is opening new avenues for dynamic capabilities operationalization (Arend and Bromiley, 2009; Burisch and Wohlgemuth, 2016). The inclusion of ERM into the concept of dynamic capabilities strengthens the latter one. It allows for incorporating dozens of years of experience of risk-management research and the more recent holistic perspective of ERM.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to enhance the existing enterprise risk-management (ERM) theory by introducing both a resource-based view and a dynamic capability perspective. These strategic management concepts might resolve several theoretical shortcomings in the field of risk management. The concept of risk-management capabilities is proposed as an explanation of a firm's risk resilience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is conceptual in nature. For illustrative purposes, the paper refers to practical examples.\nFindings: First, the resource-based view provides a framework that helps to set priorities in risk management. Second, the dynamic capability perspective illustrates how firms can handle unforeseen events. Third, it is proposed that dynamic capabilities are needed to allow a constant reassessment of the impact of specific resources and, consequently, of ERM priorities. Fourth, a risk-management capability, as an integral part of a dynamic capability, allows firms to develop risk resilience in turbulent environments.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper develops an enhanced framework for ERM within specific boundary conditions. It shows how priorities at the strategic level are to be set, and how these priorities influence the operational level of risk management.\nPractical implications: The framework provides clear guidelines on setting priorities in ERM and implementing a risk-management process within firms.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the theoretical literature on ERM by enhancing it through a new framework. The resource-based view and dynamic capability perspective benefit through insights from risk-management literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does social currency matter in creation of enhanced brand experience?
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Brand evaluation",
"Brand communities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Developing a strong brand identity and communicating it to consumers is a key challenge in brand management (Keller, 2007; Da Silveira et al., 2013; Phillips et al., 2014a, 2014b). Today, brands no longer have full control over their images. As consumers continually interact with each other, they conjointly shape the brand image and modify the brand associations (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010; Lin and Sung, 2014). Indeed, the speed and the extent of consumer-to-consumer interactions have largely increased over the past few years due to the popularity of digital communications and the prevalence of social media platforms (Miller et al., 2009; Bugshan, 2014; Franklin et al., 2014). As a result, consumers are now able to diffuse and gather information about the brands (e.g. recommendations, critics, opinions, etc.) openly and instantly.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Social currency\n3. Model development: As Schmitt (1999b) suggests, experiences are mostly induced rather than self-generated. This study proposes that social currency could contribute to the enhancement of brand experience in the context of cosmetics consumption. Similar to the purchase of automobiles explored in the original study of Lobschat et al. (2013), consumption of cosmetics usually entails a high degree of visibility and inspires extensive opinion exchange between consumers. The concept of social currency could thus have a major impact on consumer behaviour in this product category. We suggest that extensive consumer-to-consumer interactions and social benefits derived from them transform an ordinary brand experience into a superior experience. More precisely, we hypothesize that social currency positively impacts each of the four dimensions of brand experience suggested by Brakus et al. (2009), i.e. sensory, affective, intellectual and behavioural. As described by Brakus et al. (2009), the sensory experience appeals to the five senses and has aesthetic nature, while the affective experience targets one's moods and emotions. In this view, the intellectual experience engages consumers at both convergent/analytical and divergent/imaginative levels. Finally, the behavioural experience inspires certain actions and potential changes in one's behaviour.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Sample and data collection\n5. Results: 5.1 Measurement model\n6. Discussion and implications: The current study confirms the importance of the newly developed concept of social currency in creation of brand experience for cosmetics. Empirical data from a survey provided strong support for all our four hypotheses. Results show that social currency positively impacts all four dimensions of brand experience suggested by Brakus et al. (2009), i.e. sensory, affective, behavioural and intellectual experiences.\n7. Limitation and future research: Certain limitations of the current study should be acknowledged. The first category of limitations deals with measurement issues and questionnaire design. Indeed, the questionnaire focused on one's favourite brand of cosmetics, and what one could remember from his/her most recent consumption of that brand. Therefore, the quality of our data depends on the richness of the information that respondents could retrieve from their memories. Furthermore, we used self-administered questionnaires, which allow for little correction of possible misinterpretations and confusions. As we used a single version of each of our measures, our results might also have been affected by the mono-method bias. Indeed, certain issues such as ambiguity of items, response formats, etc., could cause potential threats to construct validity by making it difficult to capture the entire essence of the construct (Mackenzie and Podsakoff, 2012). To make sure that we correctly measure our intended variables, we would need to combine a variety of methods. Future research could thus increase the robustness of our findings through adding other data sources such as expert panels and in-depth interviews. Outcomes of these methods could be triangulated with the findings of our survey to provide a better overview of the results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to demonstrate the importance of the newly developed concept of social currency as an antecedent of brand experience in the context of cosmetics consumption. In other words, the authors suggest that social currency could act as a brand experience provider.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data collection was made through a paper and pencil survey. The sample consisted mostly of undergraduate and graduate students recruited on a voluntary basis at a large northeastern university. Self-administered questionnaires were filled by 373 participants, who were instructed to think about their favourite brand when it comes to buying cosmetic products for themselves.\nFindings: Results showed that social currency positively impacts all four dimensions of brand experience, i.e. sensory, affective, behavioural and intellectual experiences. The findings also suggest that conversation, advocacy and affiliation are the three significant dimensions of social currency when it comes to the consumption of cosmetics.\nOriginality/value: This study reveals, for the first time, how the concept of social currency could enhance a fundamental component of brand equity, i.e. brand experience. Another important contribution of this research is the establishment of higher levels of validity for the newly developed concept of social currency. This study would also contribute to the investigation of brand experience antecedents, which have been little addressed in the literature on the emerging paradigm of experiential marketing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Management innovations in a Chinese hotel company: the case of 7 Days Inn
|
[
"China",
"Hotels",
"Organizational culture",
"Strategic advantage",
"Management innovation",
"7 Days Inn"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper discusses the case of a Chinese hotel firm, 7 Days Inn, which pursued innovative management practices to compete in a highly competitive economy hotel market in China. Since the development of the first economy hotel brand of Jinjiang Inn in China in 1997, the economy hotel market has matured to include both domestic brands such as Jinjiang Inn, Home Inn and 7 Days Inn and international brands such as Super 8 and Ibis. 7 Days Inn, founded in 2005, has become the second largest economy hotel brand in China. This case study examines the unique characteristics of 7 Days Inn in relation to innovation in hospitality management.\n2. The study of management innovation: Management innovation is defined as \"the invention and implementation of a management practice, process, structure, or technique that is new to the state of the art and is intended to further organizational goals\" (Birkinshaw et al., 2008, p. 825). The sources and types of management innovations have been extensively examined in the management literature (Von Hippel, 1994; Tidd, 2001; Birkinshaw and Mol, 2006; Oke, 2007; Mol and Birkinshaw, 2009). As the service industry has grown in scale in the national economy of many countries, researchers have attempted to determine whether service firms innovate at all. Sundbo (1997) reported that service firms do not typically engage in research and development activities, and innovation is characterized as an unsystematic search-and-learn process. However, its increasingly important role has been recognized and emphasized in the service economy, as evidenced in the significant increase in research on innovation in service activities since 2000 (Miles, 2008; Vence and Trigo, 2009; Castro et al., 2011; Toivonen and Tuominen, 2009; Sundbo, 2009).\n3. 7 Days Inn: Founded by Boquan He and Nanyan Zheng, the cochairmen of the company, 7 Days Inn has experienced substantial growth since its inception in 2005. The company had five hotels in China in 2005 and grew to 1,345 by the end of 2012, which led to its ranking as the 14th largest hotel firm in the world measured by room counts (Hotels, 2013). It is ranked number 2 in China's economy hotel market, a segment driven by growing domestic travel demand, which started in the late 1990s. According to the China National Tourism Administration (2013), the Chinese domestic tourist market increased from 640 million people in 1996 to 2.96 billion in 2012; domestic tourism expenditures increased from RMB163.8 billion in 1996 to RMB2,270.6 billion in 2012; and the average expenditure per person/trip was a low RBM768 ($128). These statistics explain the demand for economy lodging facilities, as most rooms are priced less than RMB200 ($32) per night.\n4. Methodology: This study followed an idiographic approach to examine a case study in the hospitality service industry. A case study method allows researchers to obtain concrete material and organization-specific insights through direct observations and in-depth interviews with members of the organization tasked with varying responsibilities. This method leads to a thorough and deeper exploration through the collection of both primary and secondary data characterized by quality, variety and richness. Case method has been effectively used in examining innovations in hospitality management in different countries (Enz and Siguaw, 2003; Walsh et al., 2003; Jones, 1996; Phan, 2007; Vignali and Mattiacci, 2006).\n5. Findings: 5.1 Management innovations in 7 Days Inn\n6. Discussion and implications: The forces that have shaped the structures and practices of modern business organizations are not technological innovations, but rather management innovations, such as divisional structure, balanced scorecards and modern assembly lines, just to name a few. Enz and Siguaw (2003) also identified management innovations practiced in the US hotel industry, including self-directed teams, empowerment and sabbaticals. However, management innovation is a relatively underresearched form of innovation, and more research is needed (Birkinshaw et al., 2008; Hjalager, 2010; Williams and Shaw, 2011). Research in this area is particularly scarce relating to companies from developing countries and Eastern cultures such as China. We know little regarding the \"what, how and why\" of management innovation in other countries. In fact, in their illustration of management innovation examples, Birkinshaw et al. (2008) provided no examples from developing countries. This study fills the lacuna in innovations in hospitality management in the Chinese context and provides a case study illuminating some salient characteristics of innovative management practices by a fast-growing Chinese hotel firm. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the following sections.\n7. Research limitations and future research directions: This study has several limitations that need to be acknowledged. Owing to the limitation of a single case method, the findings may not be generalizable to other Chinese hotel firms. In addition, as 7 Days Inn is a firm of economy hotels, its management innovations may not be applicable to hotel firms operating in the luxury and mid-market tiers due to the considerably large scale of the organizational structure. This case study, however, sheds new light on management innovations in the hospitality industry in China. These insights can be construed for research hypotheses that may help to structure future studies, such as a quantitative examination of the relationship between management innovations and top leadership behaviors by sociocultural and leadership style dimensions, the effect of management innovation on firm performance and a comparison of innovative management by international and domestic firms in China.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to analyze management innovations developed by a homegrown Chinese hotel company aimed at sustaining its growth and reveals some unorthodox management practices in the lodging industry in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A theoretical sampling process was used to choose 7 Days Inn as a single case study. Semi-structured in-depth personal interviews of 15 informants with varying responsibilities were conducted to obtain organization-specific insights. Content analysis of the transcripts was performed to analyze interview data. Secondary data and interviews of managers in competing hotels were also used to support the findings.\nFindings: This study identified seven major innovative management practices developed by 7 Days Inn. Most of these innovations arose from the company's idiosyncratic collective mindset. The company created a different approach to thinking about the basic issues regarding business and management - including managerial roles, mistakes and change - that constituted the cornerstones of its management innovations.\nResearch limitations/implications: Owing to the limitations of case method, the findings may not be generalizable to other Chinese hotel companies.\nPractical implications: As little is known about innovative management practices by homegrown hotel companies in China, this study sheds new light on a creative and distinctive management system in the Chinese hotel industry. Introducing management styles that differ significantly from those of Western companies will benefit both management researchers and practitioners.\nOriginality/value: This study extends previous findings in management innovation by uncovering indigenous innovation influenced by traditional Chinese cultural values in China's hospitality industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intrusion detection and the role of the system administrator
|
[
"Computer security",
"Information management",
"Computer networks",
"Intrusion detection systems",
"Intrusion detection",
"System administrator",
"System administration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: When system administrators monitor the security of computer network(s) they often use an intrusion detection system (IDS). The IDS examines events (in network traffic, operating systems, etc.) and raises an alarm if the events are believed to be symptoms of an intrusion. A number of studies investigate IDSs from a technical perspective. These studies typically investigate the technical quality of different solutions in terms of variables such as the probability of attack detection, probability of false alarm, performance constraints or attack coverage (Mell et al., 2003; Biermann, 2001). In practice, however, the IDS is not a standalone entity which makes decisions, but a tool used by system administrators. The IDS administrator monitors the IDS output to filter out false alarms and attempts to verify if compromise has occurred, for example, by investigating the affected system directly (Werlinger et al., 2010). Hence, in operational environments the output of an IDS is processed by an administrator who tries to detect and respond to attacks.IDSs used in practice are tools to support system administrators. However, there are few research efforts that investigate intrusion detection that include system administrators in the investigation. Branlat (2011) studied system administrators under attack during a security exercise and identified a number of issues concerning attack detection in this context, e.g. to identify or guess the intentions of the attackers. Werlinger et al. (2008, 2009, 2010) have acknowledged the important role of administrators and have through interviews explored both usability issues and the need of expertise and human interaction qualitatively. Similar research has been performed by Goodall et al. (2004, 2009). The findings in Goodall et al. (2009) are that the work of administrators of IDSs require expertise in computer networks and security as well as a high degree of situated expertise and problem solving ability.For an intrusion detection solution to be effective, it is of course important that it detects attacks that are made, i.e. it should have a high P(Alarm=True | Attack=True). However, it is also important that it has a usable Bayesian detection rate. The Bayesian detection rate is the probability that an alarm which is raised corresponds to an actual attack (Axelsson, 2000), i.e. P(Attack=True | Alarm=True). False alarms will introduce costs (e.g. due to unnecessary actions taken by IDS administrators) and reduce the faith in the alarms correctness (which might lead to real attacks being overlooked). Hence, the Bayesian detection rate cannot be too low for an effective detection processes.The high ratio of false positives is a problem with IDSs available today and several ideas that are aimed at reducing the false alarm rate have been presented (Sourour et al., 2009; Spathoulas and Katsikas, 2010). However, the effectiveness of such solutions in operational scenarios remains unclear. Werlinger et al. (2008, 2009, 2010) and Goodall et al. (2004, 2009) have through qualitative studies found that the expertise of system administrators play an important role for the effectiveness of an IDS when they are used in operational settings. In other words, it is believed that a substantial amount of human involvement and expertise is required to produce a high detection rate and at the same time keep the Bayesian detection rate at acceptable levels. Thompson et al. (2007) has assessed how different types of visualisation support a system administrator. However, the authors of this paper are not aware of any quantitative results that test if a system administrator who use and interpret the output of an IDS will produce a higher Bayesian detection rate. Furthermore, no previous work has been found concerning the influence a system administrator's filtering and analysis have on the probability of detection. This paper examines two hypotheses concerning the effectiveness of an IDS in comparison to an IDS plus an administrator:H1. A competent administrator using an IDS will have a significantly higher Bayesian detection rate than the IDS that is used.H2. A competent administrator using an IDS will have a significantly lower probability of detection than the IDS that is used.H1 is based on the idea that administrators will use their expertise to filter the output of the IDS. H2 is an expected consequence of the filtering process. The idea behind H2 is that when the administrator filters alarms a portion of the true alarms will be incorrectly dismissed as false alarms.The research question investigated in this paper stems from the qualitative studies of Goodall et al. (2009) and concern the type of expertise required to use IDSs effectively. It is: which types of expertise does the administrator use when correct, respectively, incorrect judgments are made? Of particular interest is the use of domain expertise (in intrusion detection, security and computer networking) and situated expertise (i.e. local knowledge grounded in the analyst's environment).Data for this study were obtained through a four-day-long experiment where a system administrator used an IDS to monitor a set of computer networks under attack by security professionals. From this test it was possible to assess and compare the effectiveness of a system administrator analysing the IDS output to the raw output of the IDS. Section 2 describes the experiment setup in more detail. Section 3 describes the result. In Section 4 the result is discussed. Finally, in Section 5 conclusions are drawn.\n2 Data collection and analysis: The target system used in the experiment is described in Section 2.1, the attackers and their attacks are described in Section 2.2 and the IDS solutions used in the experiment is described in Section 2.3. Section 2.4 describes how quantities were measured and Section 2.5 describes how these quantities were compared to test the two hypotheses. Finally, Section 2.6 describes how the system administrator was interviewed concerning the use of expertise in decision made during this experiment.2.1 Target system\n3 Results: Results of the two hypothesis tests are described in Section 3.1. The qualitative results from the interviews are described in Section 3.2.3.1 The performance of the administrator and IDS\n4 Discussion: The primary findings of this experiment are described in Section 4.1. This experiment has several limitations and its result should therefore be interpreted with care. Some issues with making broad generalizations from this experiment are described in Sections 4.2 and 4.3 and some recommendations for further work are given in Section 4.4.4.1 Primary findings\n5 Conclusions: This experiment confirms earlier findings concerning the importance of expertise in the use of IDSs. In this experiment the IDS administrator achieves a significantly better Bayesian detection rate than the IDS, and the administrator's detection rate is not significantly different from the IDS. An administrator can achieve this effective filtering by using situated expertise, computer networks expertise, computer security expertise and knowledge about what the threat agent is capable of. Some of these filtering capabilities appear to be possible to implement directly into an IDS.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The expertise of a system administrator is believed to be important for effective use of intrusion detection systems (IDS). This paper examines two hypotheses concerning the system administrators' ability to filter alarms produced by an IDS by comparing the performance of an IDS to the performance of a system administrator using the IDS.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An experiment was constructed where five computer networks are attacked during four days. The experiment assessed difference made between the output of a system administrator using an IDS and the output of the IDS alone. The administrator's analysis process was also investigated through interviews.\nFindings: - The experiment shows that the system administrator analysing the output from the IDS significantly improves the portion of alarms corresponding to attacks, without decreasing the probability that an attack is detected significantly. In addition, an analysis is made of the types of expertise that is used when output from the IDS is processed by the administrator.\nOriginality/value: - Previous work, based on interviews with system administrators, has suggested that competent system administrators are important in order to achieve effective IDS solutions. This paper presents a quantitative test of the value system administrators add to the intrusion detection solution.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Adding value through the use of internet-based testing
|
[
"Psychometric tests",
"Internet",
"Testing conditions",
"Personality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nTechnology and testing enterprise: Applied testing[1] is one of psychology's greatest successes. Within organisations the use of psychometric testing is extensive and ever increasing, with applications spanning the entire employee lifecycle from sifting and recruitment, through coaching, individual, team and organisational development and change, and outplacement and redundancy counselling. A recent CIPD survey revealed that 72 per cent of organisations use ability testing and 56 per cent personality testing when recruiting for at least some roles (CIPD, 2007). Exact figures for other applications of tests are more difficult to obtain, but their widespread use in emerging areas such as coaching (e.g. Passmore, 2008) indicates their increasing use in aiding development. Their use is also not without justification as research continues to demonstrate, for example, that ability measures are the single best predictor of job performance and success on work-related training programmes (Bertua et al., 2005; Schmidt and Hunter, 1998).For the majority of their history, psychometric tests have been delivered as paper-based tools, and most tests are still available in this format. Test publishers have invested considerable effort into the development and presentation of their test materials and, in the UK at least, the majority have worked to British Psychological Society (BPS) guidelines to ensure that the materials they produce have appropriate psychometric properties. Capitalising on the increasing affordability of computers, test publishers looked to how technology could enhance the use of tests in organisations during the 1980s. Some of the first developments involved expert reporting systems which produced narrative reports from multi-scaled assessments of personality, so saving users the considerable time required to prepare reports from these paper-based tests. Subsequently, tests themselves were adapted for computer delivery, bringing a number of advantages including greater standardisation of instructions, simplified presentation of questions (one at a time rather than a page at a time), automated scoring and reporting, and often facilities for managing test data.Computers have undoubtedly brought very significant changes to testing in organisations, although it is a specific aspect of this technology - the internet - that has really revolutionised the use of tests. Though superficially computer- and internet-based tests may appear more similar to each other than they do to traditional paper-based tools, it is the potential accessibility of internet tests that presents the most significant challenges to effective test use. Debates around internet-based testing have not slowed its growth - with around 30 per cent of organisations now using internet-based tests for recruitment (CIPD, 2007) - but they do raise significant issues that need to be addressed if test users and their respondents are to get the most value from testing opportunities. Against this backdrop of the increasing acceptance and use of the internet as a platform for testing, this paper identifies the significant challenges facing users of internet tests, presenting potential solutions and highlighting examples of effective test use through case studies.\nInternet-based testing: Internet-based testing offers all of the advantages of computer-based assessment, but adds to this the element of accessibility. Instead of the need to bring respondents to a specific location where the testing is to take place, the internet takes the tests to them. Assuming that respondents have access to the internet - and a 2007 survey from the Office of National Statistics indicates that 61 per cent of UK households do now have access - respondents can then complete tests without the need to travel. For those without internet access at home, it is likely to be available through work or other readily accessible locations such a libraries, educational establishments or internet cafes.Remote testing is a good example of what the internet does best; gathering together information and making it available to those who need it at in a timely fashion. Assessors want to understand more about the people they are working with - whether this is in a selection, development, guidance or coaching context - and the internet allows them to obtain this information through remote testing systems. So far so good, but internet testing does not come without pitfalls. These can be summarised under three main headings: the quality of the tests themselves, the quality of administration and the validity of the test results. Let's take each of these in turn.Test quality\nGetting the best out of the internet: Most users of internet-based testing see it as a highly positive development offering considerable organisational benefits, despite the concerns identified above. While many established users see internet testing as a valuable addition to a toolkit of primarily paper-based assessments, a new generation of practitioners and test developers are increasingly relying on internet technology. Regardless of background, field of application or experience, it is always valuable to reflect on how we can use our tools to add most value to our activities. The remainder of this paper encourages readers to do just that, using as a starting point for reflection the author's experience of internet-based testing in selection, training and development contexts, and illustrating practical applications of internet testing through brief case studies.Selecting the right tools\nIllustrations of internet-based test use: The following case studies illustrate how internet-based tests may be used to effectively address a range of organisational issues.Case study 1 - team development\nSummary and conclusions: From a practitioner's perspective, psychometric tests have the potential give an invaluable insight into the qualities and characteristics of test takers. Such information can significantly contribute to decision making and has been empirically proven to lead to more effective outcomes including job performance and success on job-related training courses. Tests equally offer respondents a significant opportunity for learning about themselves which they can then use as a springboard for increasing self-awareness and personal development.The recent appetite for psychometric tests shows no sign of declining. Technology, especially the internet, is partly responsible for the growth in test use as it vastly simplifies the administration, scoring and reporting of tests. The potential benefits of psychometrics are, however, unlikely to be realised if the effects of technology are not fully appreciated by test users. Core to any test process is the relationship between the test users and respondent. Technology is best used to facilitate the testing process but must not become a barrier to developing effective interpersonal relationships that lead to understanding, development and personal growth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to describe the impact of internet technology on psychometric testing and the issues this raises for best practice in test use.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach draws on best practice in the field of psychometrics and the author's experience in using the internet for test delivery.\nFindings: - The internet offers may significant advantages for the delivery and application and psychometric tests, but also poses a number of significant challenges to good test use, particularly in terms of the quality of test materials, effective administration and the authenticity of test results. These challenges, however, need not undermine the effectiveness of tests when they are used sensitively and with due regard for the issues raised by remote testing through the internet. Engaging respondents in the testing process is identified as key to all parties getting the maximum value from the applications of tests, as is a developmental mindset which identifies the value to both test users and respondents of participating in any testing process.\nPractical implications: - Users of internet-based tests need to be aware of how to evaluate the quality of test materials and how to administer tests effectively. Although issues around respondent authenticity remain, these can be significantly overcome by helping test takers seen how they will benefit from test completion. Guidelines are given to test users on effective test administration.\nOriginality/value: - This paper offers practical guidance on how to maximise the effectiveness of the increasing number tests that are available for internet delivery.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Reframing implementation as an organisational behaviour problem: Inside a teamwork improvement intervention
|
[
"Evaluation",
"Training",
"Health education",
"Learning",
"Teamwork",
"Qualitative research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: An implementation problematic\nMethods: Selection of participants\nResults and discussion: Characteristics of participants\nConclusion: All in all, we have found that implementation of a training intervention can have a flow-on effect in propagating team skills in healthcare. This method of diffusion could be harnessed to provide maximum impact on organisational learning in an environment of constrained resources. For optimum chances of success, this \"bottom up\" approach to organisational culture change and facilitation would need to be coupled with a \"top down\" organisational training strategy endorsed by management. Hospital executives could sanction and resource a framework that allows for training and processes to be modified by clinicians to meet their needs for safe and effective care in the complex and changing healthcare environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a process evaluation of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) intervention study that tested the effectiveness of classroom- and simulation-based crew resource management courses, alone and in combination, and identifies organisational barriers and facilitators to implementation of team training programmes in healthcare.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The RCT design consisted of a before and after study with a team training intervention. Quantitative data were gathered on utility and affective reactions to training, and on teamwork knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours of the learners. A sample of participants was interviewed at the conclusion of the study. Interview responses were analysed, alongside qualitative elements of the classroom course critique, to search for evidence, context, and facilitation clues to the implementation process.\nFindings: The RCT method provided scientifically robust data that supported the benefits of classroom training. Qualitative data identified a number of facilitators to implementation of team training, and shed light on some of the ways that learning was diffused throughout the organisation. Barriers to successful implementation were also identified, including hospital time and resource constraints and poor organisational communication.\nOriginality/value: Quantitative randomised methods have intermittently been used to evaluate team training interventions in healthcare. Despite two decades of team training trials, however, the authors do not know as well as the authors would like what goes on inside the \"black box\" of such RCTs. While results are usually centred on outcomes, this study also provides insight into the context and mechanisms associated with those outcomes and identifies barriers and facilitators to successful intervention implementation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Constructive usage of WhatsApp in education sector for strengthening relations
|
[
"Students",
"WhatsApp",
"Education sector",
"Non-teaching staff",
"Teaching staff",
"W-CRM"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social media has become an essential part of our life, especially among students who known as Generation Next (James and Levin, 2015). As a user of social media, we can share pictures and videos, choose to likes and comments on others' contents and create our own stuff on the same platform (Statista, 2015). Due to the phenomenal growth of social media, the dominance of the social customer relationship management (CRM) system is growing on the traditional CRM system (Malthouse et al., 2013). Nowadays, a study on social media-based CRM practices is one of the most emerging research areas among the scholars and academicians (Ahani et al., 2017). Based on the existing literature, social CRM can be defined as using at least one kind of social media such as Facebook, Hike, Instagram, LINE, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Viber, WeChat, WhatsApp, etc., to build and maintain a long-lasting relationship with customers (Ainin et al., 2015). In fact, many service firms and institutions across the world have been attracted toward social media-based CRM practices for dealing with different business issues (Abedin, 2016). This paradigm shift in business society opens a gate to harvest this opportunity for all of us.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development: 2.1 WhatsApp\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Survey instrument\n4. Data analysis and results: SPSS 23.0 and SmartPLS 3.0 statistical software packages were employed to analyze the data.\n5. Conclusion: The current study is exploratory in nature to explore a constructive use of WhatsApp as w-CRM. Moreover, it aims to investigate the key role of w-CRM in strengthening the relationships in the education industry. The study identified various indispensable constructs of w-CRM and investigated its impact on the important stakeholders of education sector namely students, teaching and non-teaching staff. It is well supported that the adoption of w-CRM is the strongest indicator of students' involvement. It shows the enthusiasm of students toward WhatsApp and its usage in their daily life. Further, the analysis of the study disclosed that participation of the teaching and non-teaching staffs can also be enhanced through w-CRM. Not only students are positive about the use of WhatsApp in the education sector, but also have a hope that teaching and non-teaching staff's participation can be increased. Most interestingly, the findings of the study unveiled that the relationships between students and teaching staff, students and non-teaching staff, and teaching and non-teaching staff can be strengthened by the adoption of w-CRM. With the recent advancements in WhatsApp instant messenger and its increases, massive acceptance in our society has unlocked new opportunities for service firms (Karapanos et al., 2016). In the same vein, the study revealed that the students' interaction gap with their faculty members and non-teaching staff can be understood and managed effectively through w-CRM. Simultaneously, the communication gap between teaching and non-teaching staff can be managed by the same. Based on the study findings, it is said that w-CRM can be an effective and efficient tool for managing the relationships among the stakeholders of the education sector. In addition, the study revealed different key dimensions within this domain and delineates gaps in the existing knowledge of w-CRM that requires further managerial and research attention. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that WhatsApp can be an inevitable tool to emerge with traditional CRM system for facilitating the advance implementation of w-CRM in the service industry.\n6. Managerial implication: Schools, institutes and universities are the creator of budding managers in its premises. Students learn the management lessons from their teaching and non-teaching staff's participation apart from the theoretical subjects. As much as the teaching and non-teaching staff will actively participate in their workplace, students will learn more practically about co-ordination and co-operation lessons. Eventually, both teaching and non-teaching staff interact with students to achieve successfully the goals of an institute. This interaction should be in a manner which can build a harmonious and long-lasting relationship among the partners. During the survey, it has been observed that there is some untold latent in the heart of the students to their teaching and non-teaching staff. They admitted that faculty members and non-teaching staff keep a distance from students. Usually, these people believe to make less contact with students. Even students highlighted that sometimes during the working hours, both staff who reside within institute or university campus with their family is not found in their working places. Especially, students blamed that residential faculties come to the office when they have classes or any work. These staff members do not cooperate with students to solve their problems. All these are serious issues which should be concerned if they really exist in our education system. Not only it is harming our education system, but also presenting the services sector wrongly. What can be done to fill this service gap in the education industry is the present study all about it.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the key role of WhatsApp as WhatsApp-customer relationship management (w-CRM) for strengthening the relationship in the education sector. The paper is exploratory in nature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A self-administered questionnaire was developed with 20 items for four latent constructs. The data were collected from the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Sri Sri University, Cuttack (Odisha), India, based on convenience sampling. The hypotheses were tested through regression and correlation analyzes.\nFindings: The findings of the study unveiled that the relationships between students and teaching staff, students and non-teaching staff, and teaching and non-teaching staff can be strengthened by the adoption of w-CRM.\nPractical implications: WhatsApp can be an inevitable tool to emerge with traditional CRM system to facilitating the advance implementation of w-CRM in the service industry.\nOriginality/value: Although the present study is limited to one of the service sectors, i.e. education, it unfolds the scope of implementation of w-CRM in different services. Especially, small and medium enterprises can implement this tool hand to hand to maintain strong relationships with customers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Is the edulcorate power of two intense sweeteners sucralose and stevia same in ice cream and frozen desserts?
|
[
"Milk",
"Ice cream",
"Carob",
"Coconut",
"Magnitude estimation",
"Soybeans",
"Cashew nut",
"Frozen dessert"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The food industry is constantly developing products to meet consumers' demand and dietary restrictions. Frozen desserts are in great demand and consumed by all age groups (Wrobel and Teixeira, 2017). Of the frozen desserts, chocolate-flavoured ice cream is the worldwide favourite (Konstantas et al., 2019). However, for those for whom chocolate is not an option due to cocoa intolerance or because of its stimulant properties compounds such as theobromine, caffeine and theophylline (Hurst et al., 2002), carob, whose scientific name is Ceratonia siliqua L (Sabatini et al., 2011), is a very attractive alternative in frozen dessert formulations (de Freitas-Junior et al., 2017). Carob has a cocoa-like flavour and is the fruit of the carob tree. It is commonly used as a powder, which is obtained by roasting and milling its dry seeds (Sabatini et al., 2011). According to de Freitas-Junior et al. (2017), carob is also a healthy alternative due to its nutritional properties. Carob acts as an antioxidant, prevents high cholesterol and reduces the incidence of diarrhoea and ulcers, among others (Medeiros and Lannes, 2009; Papagiannopoulos et al., 2004).\n2. Materials and methods: 2.1 Materials\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Ideal sweetness\n4. Conclusion: In the frozen desserts tested, the dispersion matrix influenced the perception of sweet taste of sucrose. The frozen desserts made with cashew nut beverage and coconut drink had a sucrose addition rate close to standard ice cream, which was made with milk as a dispersion matrix. This was not observed for frozen dessert made with soy drink, which required a higher rate of sucrose addition in the final product.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Carob has been proposed as a healthy, stimulant-free alternative to chocolate in frozen desserts. In order to make carob a viable and attractive alternative, food producers need to know how it interacts with sweeteners and frozen dessert dispersion matrices. The purpose of this paper is to find the optimal sweetener concentration in three plant-based frozen desserts and carob-flavoured milk dispersion matrix ice cream.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The ideal sucrose concentrations (per cent) were determined through an affective test using the \"just-about-right\" scale for carob-flavoured frozen desserts made with cashew nut, coconut and soy beverage, as well as milk dispersion matrix. The sweetness equivalence of artificial sweeteners relative to sucrose was determined by the magnitude estimation test.\nFindings: The authors identified the concentrations of sucrose, stevia and sucralose that produced ideal sweetness in carob-flavoured frozen desserts. Concentrations for soy-based frozen desserts differed from the other dispersion mediums tested. Plant-based frozen desserts exhibited a higher ratio of sweetening power of stevia and sucralose to sucrose compared to milk-based ice cream by a factor of 1.18 and 1.14, respectively.\nOriginality/value: This study undertook a comprehensive survey of a dairy-free and chocolate-free alternative to chocolate ice cream and found new sweetener interactions with dispersion matrices in carob-flavoured frozen desserts. The findings in this study can be applied in the development of carob-flavoured soybean-, coconut-, cashew nut- and milk-based frozen desserts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Disasters, hope and globalization: exploring self-identification with global consumer culture in Japan
|
[
"Japan",
"Hope",
"Terror management theory",
"Global consumer culture",
"Global brand purchase intention",
"Mortality salience"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Global brands are available under the same name in multiple countries with generally similar and centrally coordinated marketing strategies (Ozsomer and Altaras, 2008). Global consumer culture reflects a group of consumers cutting across international boundaries that tends to consume global brands (Appadurai, 1990). The consumption of global brands helps these consumers identify as cosmopolitan, knowledgeable, and/or modern \"citizens of the world.\" Such consumers appreciate common sets of \"consumption-related symbols\" shared around the world, including common consumption activities, product categories and global brands (Alden et al., 1999). For these consumers, such symbols strengthen self-esteem via the purchase of global brands.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses: 2.1 IDGCC and its antecedents\n3. Method: 3.1 Study design\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model assessment\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n6. Limitations and future research directions: Three limitations of this study should be recognized. First, the consumer ethnocentrism scale adapted from Shimp and Sharma (1987) did not produce the expected results in this study. This finding may be observed because this scale has not been thoroughly validated in Japan; thus, construct equivalence has not been achieved. While local researchers endeavored to ensure an accurate translation of the scale, we wonder whether equivalence issues may be affecting the results (Douglas and Nijssen, 2003). Likewise, despite prior evidence from terror management research, earthquake-induced mortality salience did not have any direct effect on global brand purchase intention. Second, the study used an explicit death prime that could encourage the respondents' conscious information processing or proximal defense. In essence, this research was based on a scenario where the results were recorded within a limited period (though we did introduce a delay) rather than under real-world conditions. In the context of death and mortality salience in particular, this type of experimental study is common and consistent with the literature. Nonetheless, the setting could place limits on external validity. Third, we did not control for a few other factors that may influence global brand consumption (e.g. English proficiency and international experience) and mortality salience (e.g. the level of previous exposure to earthquakes and preparedness for such disasters).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: An unconscious concern regarding one's inevitable death, known as mortality salience, may affect consumers' brand choices in the aftermath of disastrous events, such as earthquakes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of self-identification with global consumer culture (IDGCC) in global brand purchase intention in response to disasters that heighten mortality salience. The roles of materialism, consumer ethnocentrism, cosmopolitanism and hope in this this process are also explored.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online experiment was conducted with a large sample of Japanese consumers. Japan was selected because it had recently suffered from a series of devastating earthquakes. Participants' mortality salience was primed with an earthquake scenario. All measures were adapted from prior research. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses and validate the model.\nFindings: The results reveal that IDGCC is a direct predictor of global brand purchase intention when mortality salience is high. It appears that identifying with global consumer culture and buying global brands enhances self-esteem and reduces anxiety for those with high IDGCC. As predicted, materialism and cosmopolitanism positively influence IDGCC, whereas consumer ethnocentrism does not impede IDGCC. Hope directly and positively affects global brand purchase intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: Some consumers who experience traumatic events may resist mortality salience and experience a heightened sense of global citizenship. Meanwhile, those with lower IDGCC may revert to in-group favoritism, whereas those with higher IDGCC tend to purchase global brands. Using a scenario to simulate the mental state evoked by a disaster limits generalizability.\nPractical implications: The findings illuminate how firms should modify their international marketing strategies in the face of traumatic global events when targeting consumers with high vs low IDGCC in terms of framing messages about global brands. Additionally, using global brands that emphasize an optimistic outlook may help global marketers capture attention from consumers high in IDGCC.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to address traumatic events and hope, relating these concepts to IDGCC and global brand purchase intention in an international marketing context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining consumers' usage intention of contactless payment systems
|
[
"Usage intention",
"Consumer brand engagement",
"UTAUT2",
"Near-field communication",
"Contactless payment systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the introduction of near-field communication (NFC) technology in 2002 (Coskun et al., 2013), retail payment methods have been revolutionized by making them more convenient and easier to use. \"Contactless payment\" is a term that is widely used to explain the phenomenon of making secure retail payments at any merchant outlet, such as via an NFC-enabled payment card by holding the card close to the point-of-sale (POS) terminal (which carries the contactless wave symbol) without using the personal identification number (PIN) code (Nordea Bank, 2019). NFC technology (where no internet connection is required) allows customers to use their NFC-enabled payment cards and smartphones for over-the-counter payments instead of dipping or swiping the card at the POS terminal, inserting the PIN code or paying with cash. Considering the relatively high risk of misuse and/or skimming of payment cards, banks and other service providers have allowed a maximum contactless payment limit of up to EURO 50 per transaction. Other forms of contactless payments require the pre-loading of debit or credit card information onto an NFC-enabled cell phone. During the early days of contactless payment systems, the use of mobile phones required the attachment of an NFC sticker onto a mobile phone that lacked the NFC function.\n2. Contactless payments in Finland: There has been a rapid growth of contactless payment systems and their usage in Finland since they launched in 2013. As per The Taxpayers Association of Finland (2019), over 500m contactless payment transactions were performed in Finland during 2018 via payment cards (i.e. around half of all card transactions), which is in line with those of Europe, on average (Statista, 2019). As per Finance Finland (2019), almost all adults (18 years and older) in Finland possess a debit and/or credit card, and about 85 percent of these cards are NFC enabled (i.e. they contain a contactless payment option).\n3. Research model and hypotheses: The research model, which is presented in Figure 1, is divided into three sections. The first section - the CBE model - comprises four latent variables, including PR, CBE, brand commitment and overall satisfaction, which are all related to the user's evaluations of the contactless payment system service provider. The second part of the model, which is labeled UTAUT2, utilizes four UTAUT2 variables, including PE, EE, HM and habit, to predict consumer intention to use contactless payment system. The third part of the model consists of the dependent variable continuous usage, which is measured by the behavioral intention to use and the actual use of the contactless payment system.\n4. Methodology: All the scales that were used to measure the study variables were derived from prior studies as follows: PR (Featherman and Pavlou, 2003), brand engagement (Hollebeek et al., 2014), brand commitment (Keiningham et al., 2015), overall satisfaction (Mittal and Frennea, 2010), PE, EE, HM, habit, intention to use and use (Venkatesh et al., 2012). Table II lists all the items and their measurements.\n5. Results: A total of 71.2 percent of the respondents were male. Regarding age, around half (55.4 percent) the respondents were between 36 and 50 years old. Around one-fifth (21.7 percent) were between 51 and 65 years old. The remaining were either between 18 and 35 (15.9 percent) or over 66 years of age (7 percent).\n6. Discussion and implications: This study examined the consumer usage intention of the contactless payment system in a developed country context. Using a CBE model and a modified UTAUT2, 11 hypotheses were developed and tested.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual model that combines the modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) with a consumer brand engagement (CBE) model to predict consumers' usage intentions toward contactless payment systems in a developed country.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors cooperated with a contactless payment service provider in Finland and reached out to 22,000 customers, resulting in 1,165 usable responses. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The study shows that the UTAUT2 and the CBE model together explain approximately 70 percent of the variance in usage intention. Of the predictors, habit and consumers' overall satisfaction have the strongest influence on usage intentions. The model also confirms the positive relationship between intention and use.\nPractical implications: Understanding the reasons for both the intention to use and the continued use of contactless payments is important for merchants, banks and other service providers. This study shows which technology adoption factors drive both the intention and the use of contactless payments. The finding that intention is mainly driven by habit and overall satisfaction and not by hedonic reasons indicates that such behaviors are difficult to change.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first to examine contactless payment usage in a developed market, where over half of all point-of-sale transactions are executed using contactless payment cards and/or cell phones.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"This degrading and stealthy practice": Accounting, stigma and indigenous wages in Australia 1897-1972
|
[
"Indigenous Australians",
"Stigma",
"Accounting history",
"Aborigines",
"Accounting controls",
"Stolen wages"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: For countless years Aborigines were employed as housemaids, nannies, cooks and drovers - we thought our money was being 'saved'. But governments used Aboriginal money to fund developments and no 'savings' were left over. How dare they take our land, use our labour and then spend our hard-earned money! Did this degrading and stealthy practice occur within their white society? If it happened to them recompense would have been immediately. For so-called compensation they are offering a lousy $4,000 Is the oldest culture really worth that much? Why are Aborigines still living in increasing squalor? If Australia is such a 'lucky' country, why is government's 'compensation' offer so very paltry?(Cassidy, 2005).In 2010, the State Government of Queensland, Australia offered compensation of $4,000 to each indigenous worker who could demonstrate, with a level of proof acceptable at law, that their past wages had been \"stolen\" by the government. The term \"stolen wages\" refers to the denial of access of indigenous Australian workers to their wages (Rudd, 2008). Since this term has been used in government inquiries in Australia (Government of Victoria, 2009; Queensland Government, 2010) and has entered the vernacular, we adopt this term throughout this research. Our research examines stolen wages between 1897 and 1972 because this matches the period covered by government inquiries into this practice, even though these abuses are known to have occurred prior, and subsequent, to this period (Kidd, 2007). The total period during which this abuse occurred is not known due to the inadequacy of accounting records (Government of Victoria, 2009).\nBackground: The indigenous population of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders comprises approximately 2 per cent of the Australian population or approximately 459,000 people (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009), and is thought to have lived in Australia for 50,000 years (Elkin, 1964). From white settlement in 1788, this population group suffered institutionalised racism, commencing with Britain declaring Australia Terra Nullius, a legal doctrine that translates as \"unoccupied territory\" and meant that only British law was recognised in Australia (Elkin, 1964; Seed, 2007). Under the doctrine of Terra Nullius, neither indigenous systems to determine rights, obligations and disputes within and between tribal groups nor traditional land ownership were recognised by the British colonial administration of Australia (Fitzmaurice, 2007): under the British law, all land title in Australia came under government control (Borch, 2001).\nAccounting failures: Despite an array of recordkeeping requirements contained within the Aborigines legislation in other States, problems such as incomplete and complex financial and administrative records make it difficult to compile a complete history of an individual's financial dealings with the State, and to prove cases of accounting maladministration(Government of Victoria, 2009, p. 3).In addition to the finding quoted above, the State Government of Victoria also found that when accounting records were unavailable; it was generally because they had never been made. According to this enquiry, maladministration cannot exist if accounting records are not available to prove that maladministration. It is a very odd understanding of the term \"maladministration\" when absence of records required by law, and evidence that those records were never made, is not prima facie proof of maladministration. The enquiry has been criticised, not for this finding but for failing to take testimonial evidence from indigenous Australians (Hartland et al., 2009). Although the process of enquiry of the State Government of Victoria is questionable, its primary findings matched those of other inquiries at State and Federal Government level. All inquiries found there was a lack of accounting records, or records were too incomprehensible to follow, and this was evidence of discriminatory disregard for indigenous financial interests in the management of indigenous wages (Government of Victoria, 2009; Queensland Government, 2010). In this section, we examine the failure of accounting and maladministration in regard to the cash component of indigenous wages and the component of indigenous wages held in trust. In this research, evidence of abuses, improprieties and maladministration is primarily taken from evidence submitted to, and findings of, government inquiries into stolen wages and government-commissioned reports into stolen wages (Brennan, 2006; Department of Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 2010; Franks, 2006; Gardiner-Garden, 1999; Government of Victoria, 2009; Gray, 2008; Greer, 2006; Healey et al., 2006; Kidd, 2007; Queensland Government, 2010). To demonstrate the lack of accounting, we include the legal requirements in each area before describing actual accounting practices.\nConclusion: Choudhury (1988, p. 550) discusses the importance of focussing on the areas where we expect to find accounting but instead, find negative spaces, stating that \"the aim of knowledge is not only to systemize that which exists but to rationalize that which does not\". Accounting for stolen wages is an example of negative space where accounting functions were not performed, or not performed as we might expect. In an organisational context, Choudhury (1988) described a situation where accounting controls are in place but are not followed, creating negative space. The protection acts did not create a negative space. They contained a detailed regulatory framework for the recording, reporting, communicating and auditing of financial information. It was the failure to implement the regulatory framework that created a negative space.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to make visible the relationship between accounting and stigma in the absence of accounting. This research examines how failure to implement mandatory accounting and auditing requirements in the management of indigenous wages contributed to stigmatisation of indigenous Australians and led to maladministration and unchecked financial fraud that continued for over 75 years. The accounting failures are by those charged with protecting the financial interests of the indigenous population.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An historical and qualitative approach has been used that draws upon archival and contemporary sources.\nFindings: Prior research has examined the nexus between accounting mechanisms and stigma. This research suggests that the absence of accounting mechanisms can also contribute to stigma.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research highlights the complex relationship between accounting and stigma, suggesting that it is simplistic to examine the nexus between accounting and stigma without considering the social forces in which stigmatisation occurs.\nSocial implications: This research demonstrates decades of failed accounting have contributed to the ongoing social disadvantage of indigenous Australians. The presence of accounting mechanisms cannot eradicate the past, or fix the present, but can create an environment where financial abuse does not occur.\nOriginality/value: This research demonstrates that stigma can be exacerbated in the negative space created by failures or absence of accounting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The influence of personal values and demographic variables on customer loyalty in the banking industry
|
[
"Loyalty",
"Demographics",
"Survey",
"Bank customers",
"Personal values"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Academic studies on loyalty have a long history in the marketing literature (Han et al., 2008; Homburg and Giering, 2001). For example, a number of studies have investigated how customer loyalty is associated with other constructs such as customer satisfaction (Mittal and Kamakura, 2001), service quality (Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000; Koutouvalas and Siomkos, 2006), perceived value (Johnson et al., 2006), trust and commitment (Ndubisi, 2006; Roy and Shekhar, 2010). In this context, loyalty is usually analyzed by different stages - cognitive, affective, conative and action (Oliver, 1997; Harris and Goode, 2004; Fraering and Minor, 2013; El-Manstrly and Harrison, 2013).\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1. Loyalty\n3. Method: In order to investigate the relationship between personal values and loyalty phases, taking into account the demographic variables, we have followed three stages: two exploratory ones (i.e. a literature review and a quantitative study) and the main survey study.\n4. Results: 4.1. Sample profile and descriptive results\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The investigation conducted in this study linked the theories of human values and consumer studies. The study attempted, by means of a theoretical model, to investigate the influence of personal values on loyalty phases, taking into account the moderating effect of demographic variables. Personal values and loyalty dimensions were measured by adapting scales from previous studies and purifying the items in two exploratory studies. Statistical tests supported the reliability and the convergent and discriminant validity of these scales, demonstrating their adequacy for measuring the proposed concepts.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Even though personal values are considered an important variable in consumer studies, rarely has it been related to customer loyalty, especially in the banking context and considering the different loyalty phases. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of personal values on loyalty phases in the private banking industry, taking into account the moderating influence of demographic variables.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After developing a theoretical framework based on the relevant literature, a research model is proposed and empirically tested with data from a survey with 891 bank customers from Brazil. Hypotheses of moderation were tested using structural equation modelling technique.\nFindings: Results suggested that customers that place more importance on growth and achievement as personal values are less loyal to their bank, considering all four stages of loyalty. Moreover, this effect was more pronounced for female, older and high-income consumers, supporting the moderating effect of these demographic variables.\nResearch limitations/implications: One of the limitations was that the sample was not probabilistic. To compensate this issue, the authors have used the approach of splitting the sample and use one for calibration and other for estimation. Another limitation was the small subgroups of high and low education, which might be responsible for the nonsignificant finding, due to low statistical power in the z-test. Future studies should consider using quota samples in order to have sample size greater than 150 cases in each category of variables such as age, education and income.\nPractical implications: This study emphasizes the relevance of personal values, especially the dimensions of growth/achievement and security/social affiliation, and demographic variables when considering customers' loyalty in the private banking industry. Managers should give different treatment for customers in distinct loyalty stages and with different demographics, thus increasing the customer orientation and segmentation efficacy.\nOriginality/value: The study tests a theoretical model that analyses the influence of two dimensions of personal values on loyalty, with originality on the loyalty phases (from cognitive to action) and the contingent effect of demographic variables, such as gender, age, education and income. Moreover, the model is tested in a sample of private banking customers from an emerging market, i.e., Brazil.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Effect of nature of the game on ad-persuasion in online gaming context: Moderating roles of game-product congruence and consumer's need for cognition
|
[
"Internet marketing",
"ANOVA",
"Advertising",
"Communication",
"Online operations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Suppose you are at your office doing tiring computer work, to beat the boredom for a while you have decided to play an online game. While playing an online car-racing game, you have noticed that a brand logo is embedded in the side track, which is a well-known brand but it is not related to the game. In this scenario, it is very likely that the game-specific features are likely to influence the processing of the information related to the brand embedded in the game during the game play. Moreover, as the product presented in the ad is not matching with the game, it seems reasonable to infer that you may feel surprised about the brand logo which is embedded in the side track of the car-racing game and more likely that you start thinking about the embedded brand and hence, develop a higher brand recall. Further, this processing of information also varies with people to the extent to which they engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. This study explores the possibility of the effect of game-specific features on ad-persuasiveness and the conditions which determine this effect.\n2. Literature review: In a quest to increase interaction with consumers, marketers are deploying newer advertising methods which engage customers more effectively than their traditional counterparts (McCrindle, 2006). Advergame is one such communication tool that offers various benefits over traditional advertising media (Alina, 2013; Sharma, 2014). Unlike traditional advertising media, advergames integrate brands with the gaming environment, resulting in higher involvement with the brand (McCrindle, 2006; Kinnard and Hartman, 2013), create constructive brand images (Rosado and Agante, 2011), effectively convey subtle associations, familiarity and experiences (rather than a solitary factual point) (Lee et al., 2009) and the embedded interactivity of advergames induces an experience of fun and escapism (Refiana et al., 2005; Lu and Wang, 2008). Chen et al. (2012) and Ipe (2008) indicate that the smart features of advergames including \"easy adjustability,\" \"cost-effectiveness\" and \"viral marketing ability\" differentiate it from other communication media. In addition, displaying advertisements in the background of the games gives a feeling of realism to the customers (Marti-Parreno et al., 2013), resulting in higher consumers' involvement with the brand (Kretchmer, 2004). Also, Ipe (2008) observed that on an average, customers spend about 7-30 minutes on advergames which is significantly higher than the time spent on TV advertisements.\n3. Theoretical development: 3.1 Nature of game\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Development of stimulus materials\n5. Data analysis and results: 5.1 Manipulation checks\n6. Discussion: By taking the insights from the LCM, this study demonstrated that the nature of game differently (speed of the game: high vs low) affects gamers' information processing. This is because of the fact that to play a fast-paced game the gamer requires more amounts of mental resources, therefore, he/she is left with less attention capacity to focus on ad placed in an advergame, this in turn results in less persuasion toward the ad. On the other hand, gamers playing slow-paced advergames would utilize less mental capacity to play the game, hence remaining with more attentional capacity to use for processing in-game brand placements as they would be able to pay more attention to embedded brands in games. Hence, playing slow-paced advergames results in higher ad-persuasion than fast-paced advergames. This finding is found to be consistent with the recent literature (cf. Vashisht and Sreejesh, 2015a), that low speed games resulted in high brand recall, as availability of spare capacity would be sufficient to process in-game brand messages than high-speed games wherein most of the attentional capacity would get used up in game-playing task itself and hence the remaining spare capacity would not be high enough to process in-game advertising information.\n7. Theoretical and managerial implications: 7.1 Theoretical implications\n8. Limitations and recommendations for future research: Since this research was conducted on Indian gamers, findings of this study can be extended and further tested on different countries' gamers as usage of non-traditional advertising media by companies in different countries are not same. Also, it would be much interesting to elicit a comparison between countries with higher levels of usage of non-traditional advertising media, such as USA and UK and those with lower rates of non-traditional advertising media, for instance developing nations. Another possible limitation of this research could be that only four kinds of advergames were selected for this study. Findings can be extended and generalized in future studies by taking other genres of advergames like adventure, riddle, intellectual, racing, action and arcade. Another limitation of this study could be that it tested the moderating effect of NFC on gamer's ad-persuasion, however, roles of some other new variables, such as game-playing frequency, game involvement and brand-familiarity in determining gamers' ad-persuasion can be examined in future research studies. Moreover, the effect of advergame-speed, game-ad congruence and players' NFC on various other dependent variables such as brand memory, brand attitude, purchase intentions and recommendations to others can be tested in future research work. Also, the moderating effects of gamer-specific factors such as persuasion knowledge, opinion leadership and culture can be examined in future advergame investigations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of nature of advergame and moderating roles of game-product congruence and need for cognition (NFC) on gamers' ad-persuasion from attention and elaboration perspectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A 2 (nature of game: fast or slow)x2 (game-product congruence: high or low)x2 (NFC: high or low) between measures design is used. In total, 224 graduate students participated in the study. A 2x2x2 between subjects ANOVA is used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: The results show that slow-paced advergames result in high persuasion than fast-paced advergames. A 2 way-interaction indicates that for a slow-paced advergame, low game-product congruence result in high persuasion than in high game-product congruence. Furthermore, findings reveal that for a slow-paced advergame with low game-product congruence, subjects with high NFC report high persuasion than subjects with low NFC. For a fast-paced advergame with low game-product congruence, subjects with high NFC report high persuasion than subjects with low NFC.\nPractical implications: The findings of the study are very important for advertising practitioners as selection of media that fit the advertised product with reference to the content of the media is a planning strategy that has been widely used by media planners. Thus, if high brand recall and recognition is the primary goal for advertisers, then, slow-paced advergames with low-congruent brand placements can be considered a better media strategy for in-game advertising. Furthermore, advertising managers can design advergames by taking into account NFC factor to make sure that the implementation has the strongest positive effect on consumers' persuasion. Furthermore, advertising managers can design advergames by taking into account NFC factor to make sure that the implementation has the strongest positive effect on consumers' persuasion.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to the literature of non-traditional online advertising, specifically advergaming context by exploring the impact of nature of game and game-product congruence on gamers' ad-persuasion. Also, this study is the first attempt toward understanding the moderating role of NFC on gamers' ad-persuasion in the context of online advertising.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding the UK's productivity problems: New technological solutions or a case for the renewal of old institutions?
|
[
"Productivity",
"Inequality",
"Collective bargaining",
"Artificial intelligence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Developed economies and the UK in particular have experienced what has been labelled a productivity problem since the financial crisis of 2008. That is, real productivity growth has been historically low with consequent effects for economic growth, real wage growth and tax revenues. The UK faces a further problem that its recent nominal productivity, measured in current price terms, is one of the lowest of the industrialised countries (ONS, 2018a).\n2. Productivity and its relationship to income growth: Workers, consumers and politicians all have an interest in productivity growth as it increases real incomes with attendant benefits for consumption and taxation. As Krugman (1994) puts it, \"Productivity isn't everything, but, in the long run, it is almost everything\" (p. 8).\n3. From productivity growth to the distribution of rents: Following the \"power over rents\" framework outlined in the previous section, rents are subsequently laid claim to by stakeholders, including workers, shareholders and government in the form of taxes. From the perspective of workers, collectively and sectionally as groups with particular skills or occupations, their capacity to share in the economic surplus generated determines their nominal wages, while the extent to which real productivity growth across the economy is passed on as falling prices increases the purchasing power of those wages. Similarly, the capacity for governments to generate tax revenues from sectors generating surplus will influence the degree of re-distribution that can occur. This is the framework adopted by Brown et al. (2009), when discussing the extent to which increased competition removed the economic basis for collective bargaining. In contrast to that interpretation of events, a number of recent commentators have expressed concern over a corporate and financial governance system that prioritises rent seeking over real productivity growth. For example, Stiglitz (2012), Pierson and Hacker (2016) and Schwartz (2016) are concerned by the consequences of rent seeking by corporations, their senior management and financial investors, upon inequality, economic growth and political stability.\n4. The UK's twin productivity problems: Developed economies and the UK in particular have had a problem with productivity growth since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, with real productivity growth historically low. This means that the volume of goods and services produced per worker or worker hour has not increased significantly for the last decade (see Figure 3) As discussed, this is important because it underpins economic growth, which broadly raises living standards across economies and also increases tax revenues.\n5. New technology as the solution to the UK's productivity problems?: Large-scale, sustained productivity increases require the industrialisation of sectors of the economy, mass producing goods and services at low enough cost that a large number of the population are able to consume them (Broadberry, 2006). This has depended upon the standardisation and codification of activities and the division of labour supported by automation (Braverman, 1998). Following the previous waves of industrial revolution based upon steam and water power in the nineteenth century and electrification in the twentieth, the application of computerisation since the 1980s has allowed the gradual automation of \"cognitive routine\" tasks, whilst robots have allowed some \"manual routine\" tasks to be automated, such as repetitive assembly, sorting and picking in controlled environments (Autor et al., 2003). Software packages, notably enterprise resource planning, supply chain management and customer relationship management systems that standardise the background processes which organisations undertake and the way they interact with suppliers and customers have now been around for decades, moving downstream from implementation in large companies to SMEs, through the provision of lower cost services through the \"cloud\". Such software allows companies to reduce the number of workers required to perform processes, outsourcing some to lower labour cost locations, and more tightly controlling and performance managing those workers who remain (for an assessment of their impact upon work in the retail sector, see Evans and Kitchin, 2018). One consequence of this has been a \"hollowing out\" of work, while the inequality of earnings has also dramatically increased (see section 2).\n6. Discussion and conclusions - beginning to address the UK's productivity problems: We have highlighted in this paper the twin productivity problems which the UK faces: low real productivity growth and lower nominal productivity than comparable countries. We have argued that the reasons for these issues are multiple, and cannot be resolved by recourse to a single exogenous solution such as technological innovation. Real productivity growth involves the complex interplay of aggregate supply and demand. Nominal productivity levels are determined by the choices and strategies of individual firms compared to overseas competitors. The two are ineluctably linked. Macro-economic conditions are both a consequence of, and influence upon, the behaviours of individual firms. Firms face choices over their business models including investment in capital equipment, the management and training of staff and the distribution of rewards. The strategies available are influenced by supranational and national institutional systems (Hall and Soskice, 2001), which, in turn, provide the context in which labour and capital interact. Beginning to try and address the UK's twin productivity problems requires recognising the interconnected issues involved at different levels of analysis, which we outline further below.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature, causes and consequences of the UK's productivity problems and whether these may be addressed through the new technologies of artificial intelligence (AI).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper reviews the literature on productivity to explain how it relates to earnings within different theoretical frameworks, advocating a \"power over rents\" framework as most realistic. It explains the UK's twin productivity problems and reviews their potential causes, critically assessing the capacity for new technologies of AI to address them. It highlights the enduring importance of distribution and the design of work to improving the UK's productivity.\nFindings: The authors find that the UK's productivity problems will not be solved by AI technologies due to technical and socio-technical challenges which will require the significant re-design of work. The authors highlight the importance of aggregate demand, which has been inhibited by the shifting distribution of income towards capital and rising inequality of earnings. These issues suggest an important role for trade unions and a renewal of the institutions of employment regulation and collective bargaining. While reversing recent trends raises considerable challenges, the authors observe renewed interest in trade unions from previously hostile thinktanks and international institutions including the IMF and OECD.\nOriginality/value: This paper advocates adopting a \"power over rents\" theoretical framework to understanding productivity and the distribution of gains. This provides a clear rationale for the role of trade unions, employment regulation and collective bargaining in improving distributional outcomes, raising firm-level productivity and achieving real productivity growth at an aggregate level.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Emerging masculinities in Chinese luxury social media marketing
|
[
"China",
"Masculinity",
"Marketing in China",
"International advertising",
"Social media marketing",
"Luxury fashion brands",
"Hegemonic and hybrid masculinity",
"Male gender roles",
"Luxury fashion marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Gender portrayals in international advertising continue to interest marketing scholars (Behm-Morawitz, 2017; Furnham and Lay, 2018; Grau and Zotos, 2016; Matthes et al., 2016; Paek et al., 2011; Shaw and Tan, 2014). Much of their research has examined female portrayals (Grau and Zotos, 2016; Furnham and Lay, 2018). Of the limited research on male portrayals in advertising, most focuses on advertisements targeting general audiences viewing major television network programs (e.g. Fowler and Thomas, 2015; Gentry and Harrison, 2010) or reading popular magazines (e.g. Kolbe and Albanese, 1996; Vokey et al., 2013). Male portrayals targeting privileged (wealthy and upper-middle class) audiences, such as those in luxury fashion advertising, remains uninvestigated, especially in Asia. However, other aspects of advertising images targeting such audiences differ from images targeting mass-market audiences (Kim et al., 2016; Ko et al., 2019; Seo and Buchanan-Oliver, 2015).\nTheoretical background: Social media and luxury fashion brands\nStudy 1: male portrayals in USA vs Chinese social media posts: Study 1 applies quantitative content analysis to brand-sponsored sites on similar visually-oriented social media platforms - Instagram (USA) or Weibo (China) - for two men's and two women's fashion magazines that publish both US and Chinese editions - Vogue (Vogue Fu Shi Yu Mei Rong ), Cosmopolitan (Shi Shang Cosmo), GQ (Zhi Zu GQ) and Esquire (Shi Shang Xian Sheng ). The social media posts (n=371) selected for analysis met the following criteria: depicted at least one male whose physical appearance characteristics a coder could ascertain (i.e. not in the distance or a crowd), and published between January 1 and December 31, 2015.\nStudy 2: male portrayals in Chinese social media marketing: Study 2 was a field study combining quantitative content analysis of Weibo posts, similar to the Chinese data collected for Study 1, with observations of Chinese consumers' responses to these posts - likes, comments and reposts. (Note: Weibo is China's primary visually-oriented social media platform.) To extend generalizability, Study 2 examined masculinities in brand-sponsored Weibo posts for luxury-fashion-clothing brands, whereas Study 1 examined brand-sponsored posts promoting luxury fashion magazine brands.\nGeneral discussion: The studies summarized here explored social media marketing messages for luxury fashion brands and represent an initial exploration of two emerging East Asian hybrid masculinities - \"Little Fresh Meat\" (LFM) and \"Old Grilled Meat\" (OGM). Hybrid masculinities incorporate characteristics associated with other gender (e.g. androgynous or feminine), racial or cultural groups. This exploratory research describes the prevalence of LFM and OGM-associated characteristics as well as the prevalence of and consumers' responses to these hybrid masculinities vs global and regional hegemonic masculinities in social media posts for luxury fashion brands. Global hegemonic masculinity portrays men as physically strong, rugged, tough, danger-seeking, aggressive, independent, self-confident, and in control of their emotions and environment while avoiding feminine behaviors and attributes. Regional hegemonic masculinities dominate within certain geographically proximate or culturally connected countries. East Asia has two regional hegemonic masculinities that the Chinese term Wen (Wen ) and Wu (Wu ). Wen is civilized, scholarly and cultured. Wu is physically strong and action-oriented.\nContributions and implications: The current studies, which applied hegemonic and hybrid masculinities to male portrayals in social media marketing for luxury fashion brands, have important implications for cross-cultural advertising, luxury fashion marketing and sociological constructs associated with masculinity. As it becomes more pervasive, social media marketing increasingly defines, portrays and influences masculinity (Hall, 2015). Furthermore, social media marketing messages for luxury fashion brands are often at the forefront of evolving gender portrayals (Paoletti, 2015).\nConclusion: The current research explored the characteristics, prevalence and response to different masculinities in Chinese social media for luxury fashion brands and provides initial evidence for two emerging hybrid masculinities. These masculinities, called \"Little Fresh Meat\" (LFM) and \"Old Grilled Meat\" (OGM) by Chinese, increased social media likes, comments and reposts relative to hegemonic masculinities traditionally associated with male power in China (i.e. Wen and Wu). These emerging hybrid masculinities, which pervade Chinese social media posts promoting luxury fashion magazine and apparel brands, have counterparts in other East Asian countries. Relative to Wen or Wu, LFM and OGM encourage more favorable responses to social media marketing. LFM is now the most effective male portrayal in luxury fashion advertisements on Chinese social media, especially for brands targeting younger or female consumers. International marketers who ignore these emerging male portrayals will miss opportunities to attract young Chinese consumers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate masculinity in Chinese social media marketing for global luxury fashion brands through two studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Study 1 compares physical characteristics of males in visually oriented US (Instagram) and Chinese (Weibo) social media posts promoting global luxury fashion magazine brands (e.g. Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ and Esquire). Study 2 examines the prevalence of and Chinese consumers' responses (reposts, comments and likes) to different masculinities depicted in luxury fashion brand-sponsored Weibo posts.\nFindings: Male portrayals for Chinese audiences feature more characteristics associated with emerging East Asian hybrid masculinities - \"Little Fresh Meat\" (LFM) and \"Old Grilled Meat\" (OGM) - than associated with global or regional hegemonic masculinity (i.e. the scholarly Wen and action-oriented Wu). Wen remains common in social media posts for luxury fashion goods, but LFM and OGM engender more consumer responses.\nPractical implications: Chinese luxury fashion marketing depicts masculinity more similarly to other East Asian marketing than to Western marketing. Some luxury fashion brands are struggling for acceptance among Chinese youth. Luxury fashion marketers should incorporate hybrid rather than hegemonic masculinities to prompt more favorable responses among Chinese consumers, especially younger female target markets.\nOriginality/value: Growing female occupational and consumer power and shifting male employment from blue-collar to white-collar jobs have influenced media portrayals of masculinity. Social media marketing for luxury fashion brands demonstrates the prevalence and appeal of hybrid masculinities in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Smartphone use by students for information seeking
|
[
"Academic libraries",
"Students",
"Information seeking",
"Smartphone",
"Social science",
"Mobile device"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, are essential for students in their academic life. These devices also dominate their daily life (Hossain and Ahmed, 2016) by providing relevant (Dukic et al., 2015), timely (Morris and Maynard, 2010) and accessible (Burford and Park, 2014) information. Information can be retrieved from a mobile device via applications (apps), search engines, news portal, social media sites and/or electronic resources, such as e-books and e-journals. Mobile devices are used to engage in online recreational and social networking activities (Lo et al., 2016) and to connect with information resources (Haque et al., 2016).\nLiterature review: Information seeking can be defined as the process of obtaining information in response to a need; in this process, the individual may satisfy his/her information needs by using manual systems or computer-based systems (Wilson, 2000). The emergence of mobile learning resources and mobile libraries has enhanced the value of smartphones for students-seeking information in an academic setting. They use smartphones as their primary tool for accessing academic information (Lee and Song, 2015, p. 153). Burford and Park (2014) noted that access to mobile devices created significant shifts in the information-seeking behavior of young adults. The increasing use of mobile device use by students has challenged academic libraries to change their services (Lee and Song, 2015).\nResearch objective: Prior to initiating this study, we defined five questions of interest intended to characterize smartphone use for information seeking by students from Kuwait University's College of Social Sciences:\nMethodology: Participants\nResults: Sample demographics\nDiscussion: In general, the frequent use of smartphones for information seeking among students from Kuwait University's College of Social Sciences was consistent with the results of previous study conducted in other locales (Al-Emran et al., 2016 [Oman and United Arab Emirates]; Dukic et al., 2015 [Hong Kong and Japan]; Ebiye, 2015 [Nigeria]; Hossain and Ahmed, 2016 [Bangladesh]; Lee and Song, 2015 [USA and South Korea]; Liu et al., 2014 [China]). No cultural differences were noted in this regard.\nConclusions: Despite the widespread availability and use of mobile devices (and particularly smartphones) among students, many questions remained regarding a student's information-seeking behavior using these technologies. This study provided further insight into smartphone use for information seeking by students and considered smartphone use, information needs, information-seeking impediments and characteristic differences among smartphone users. Students from Kuwait University's College of Social Sciences participated in this study by completing a survey questionnaire.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the use of smartphones by undergraduate students for information seeking. Aspects include frequency of use, purposes, types of activities, impediments and characteristic differences by grade point average (GPA), major or collegiate level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire is administered to social sciences students, and 240 responses are analyzed.\nFindings: Students reported using smartphones most often for social networking or entertainment; accessing academic information ranked fifth among seven purpose categories. A lack of knowledge regarding smartphone use for academic information was commonly reported as an impediment encountered. The hypothesis that statistically significant differences in smartphone information-seeking behavior exist among students based on their GPA, major or collegiate level was partially supported.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research will consider the use of a more diverse sample of students comprising different disciplines and statistical modeling methods, which would indicate the magnitude and direction of effect for various academic variables.\nPractical implications: The results indicate a need for student awareness programs and an adaptation of library resources and services to accommodate smartphone technology.\nOriginality/value: The results of this study contribute to the state of knowledge regarding the use of smartphones for information seeking. This knowledge will assist libraries and information-related institutions worldwide in accommodating and exploiting this technology and related behaviors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A framework for reporting and dealing with end-user security policy compliance
|
[
"Information security management",
"Human factors",
"User behaviour",
"Compliance management",
"Information security policy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: An information security policy is defined as a set of rules and regulations that describe how to make information technology safe and protect it from potential threats (Cosic and Boban, 2010), or in others words, it informs users what their responsibilities are, what they must to do and what they must not to do. There is a wide belief that compliance of users with information security policies is the foundation of securing an organisation's information assets (Al-Omari et al., 2011; Cosic and Boban, 2010; Kirlappos et al., 2015). Traditionally, information security policies have been used by organisations as a basis to manage their information security in which that users are expected to comply with. However, organisations are now having some issues regarding the extent of employee adherence to the information security policies. A significant proportion of researchers and security professionals consider end users or the human factor as a weakest link in the information security chain[5] (Cushing, 2012; Bashorun et al., 2013; Da Veiga and Eloff, 2010). An information security survey conducted by HM Government (2015) implied that most large organisations have now implemented their own documented information security policy (98 per cent). Therefore, this is a good indication that the majority of organisations are aware of the significance of having an information security policy. However, having such a policy in place is not a guarantee that users will adopt the desired behaviour, they may not behave as they are expected, whether due to an intentional behaviour to violate the policy, or even a lack of understanding of its contents. Non-compliant employees or those who are unaware of information security policy have become major concern to organisations, as they pose a threat to a computing environment security. In Ernst and Young (EY's) Global Information Security Survey (EY'S Global information Security Survey, 2013), 57 per cent of the surveyed organisations considered their employees to be the biggest threat to an information security, while 38 per cent indicated that unaware or careless employees pose the greatest threat. This claim is strongly supported by HM Government (2015), which indicates that 75 per cent of large organisations suffered a staff related breach and nearly 31 per cent of small organisations had a similar occurrence. As a result, the problem of employees being unaware or ignorant of their responsibilities in relation to information security is still an open issue (Alotaibi et al., 2016).\n2. Theoretical background: An information security policy is considered to be the cornerstone of information security management and an organisational approach that mitigates potential threats from employees in relation to dealing with information assets in a secure manner (Peltier, 2016). In the workplace, all employees should be made aware of acceptable and unacceptable user behaviour, and the first step to achieving this is to implement a formal information security policy.\n3. A framework for reporting and dealing with end-user security policy compliance: In this study, we have designed a novel model that provides a comprehensive framework for raising the level of compliance amongst end-users, by monitoring, measuring and responding to users' behaviour with an information security policy (Figure 2). In addition, a scoring system (compliance points) is used to apply supplementary rules within the proposed model. The goal of using the compliance points system is to motivate users to be compliant with the policy, as well as measuring their compliance rate with the security policy or any element of it. By using this model, each element of the security policy is measured, which provides organisations with a clear vision about their security policies. For example, an organisation can determine which element of its policy is operating most or least effectively (e.g. based upon then minimum or maximum number of violations during a certain period).\n4. Prototype implementation of the proposed model: Having offered a theoretical explanation of the model used for monitoring users' security policy compliance in the previous section, the next phase of the research concentrates upon developing a prototype system that simulates the proposed model and describe how to score security policy compliance and violations along with a taxonomy for the response strategy. The MATLAB environment was selected to develop the prototype system. With the purpose of operating the prototype system, some scenarios of the potential behaviour of users in relation to the information security policies of their organisations need to be assumed and simulated. Therefore, several scenarios were created and used during the simulation process, thus helping to explain the prototype system and how it works. As such, the scenarios of the potential behaviour of the users in relation to security policies were used to feed the prototype system (as an input for the prototype) in order to obtain a result and understand how it would work in a real environment.\n5. Evaluation of the proposed model: In addition to the practical simulation of the proposed model, a further qualitative evaluation method was carried out. The main objective behind this evaluation was to gain feedback received from experts from different sectors including industry and academic. The internet was used to search for the appropriate experts, and the selection criteria were made based on the following points:\n6. Conclusion and future research: The main objective of this research was to define and propose an advanced model or approach that able to provide a comprehensive framework for raising the level of compliance amongst end-users, with the aim of describing a framework how to score security policy compliance and violations along with a taxonomy for the response strategy. This objective was achieved by investigating the current state of the art to define the gap as regards the information security policies and users' behaviours, by carefully reviewing the possible and most appropriate approaches to tackle the problem. From the perspective of the authors, the proposed framework can assist an organisation to gain insight into two different aspects regarding the security policy itself and users' behaviour. Gaining insight on an implemented security policy. It is important for any organisation to know the extent of success of the implementation of its security policy. As such, the proposed framework attempts to fulfil this aim. Some examples of how an organisation might gain insight on its security policy are listed below:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: It is widely acknowledged that non-compliance of employees with information security polices is one of the major challenges facing organisations. This paper aims to propose a model that is intended to provide a comprehensive framework for raising the level of compliance amongst end-users, with the aim of monitoring, measuring and responding to users' behaviour with an information security policy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed model is based on two main concepts: a taxonomy of the response strategy to non-compliant behaviour and a compliance points system. The response taxonomy comprises two categories: awareness raising and enforcement of the security policy. The compliance points system is used to reward compliant behaviour and penalise non-compliant behaviour.\nFindings: A prototype system has been developed to simulate the proposed model and work as a real system that responds to the behaviour of users (reflecting both violations and compliance behaviour). In addition, the model has been evaluated by interviewing experts from academic and industry. They considered the proposed model to offers a novel approach for managing end users' behaviour with the information security policies.\nResearch limitations/implications: Psychological factors were out of the research scope at this stage. The proposed model may have some psychological impacts upon users; therefore, this issue needs to be considered by studying the potential impacts and the best solutions.\nOriginality/value: Users being compliant with the information security policies of their organisation is the key to strengthen information security. Therefore, when employees have a good level of compliance with security policies, this positively affects the overall security of an organisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
User conceptualizations of derivative relationships in the bibliographic universe
|
[
"User studies",
"Cataloguing",
"Ontologies",
"Metadata",
"Linked data",
"FRBR",
"Bibliographic systems",
"Information modelling",
"Mental models",
"Conceptualizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: At the time of writing, science fictions fans battle in heated debates over whether the new Alien and Blade Runner movies are part of the same fictional universe. The final season of the television series Game of Thrones has been launched well ahead of the remaining volumes in the book series that initially inspired it. Another anticipated television series is an adaptation of the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which itself is a mash-up of Jane Austen's classic novel with the zombie craze in contemporary pop culture. Such entities seem to orbit each other in a bibliographic universe, \"just as the physical universe reels with gravity and physical forces that propel, impel, and propel planets, stars, asteroids, and other bodies to exist in relation to each other\" (the ideas of Wilson, 1968, as interpreted by Smiraglia, 2014, p. 10). In practice, these entities can cover the same topics or even transmedial storylines, share author and fictional characters, and belong to families of works related through various types of derivations.\n2. Background: In bibliographic systems, relationships are indirectly applied based on descriptive metadata expressing shared characteristics (Tillett, 2001) about responsibility, topicality, and publishing events. Other bibliographic relationships, such as adaptations and non-trivial derivations, cannot be applied in as a straightforward way but are included as elements in existing bibliographic models. These include the Library Reference Model (LRM) (Riva et al., 2017), the latest formalization of models belonging to the so-called FRBR family[1]. The LRM includes the original FRBR entities for works, expression (of works), and manifestations (of expressions). Together, these W/E/M[2] entities enable representing both successive derivative relationships, such as new marginally changed editions (enforcing a new manifestation entity), and more significant modifications, such as a translation (enforcing a new expression entity). In addition, the LRM provides derivative relationships directly between works, for example, in cases when one work has served as inspiration for another.\n3. Theoretical framework: The vision of the semantic web and the Linked data principles introduced to guide its realization have become the driving theoretical framework of recent developments in bibliographic metadata (van Hooland and Verborgh, 2014; Willer and Dunsire, 2013). This framework promotes interoperability through the establishment of a global network of metadata, facilitated by the use of standards (Berners-Lee, 2006; Hyland et al., 2014). Such standards may be more or less technical and tailored to support the network structure, such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF), or they may be ontologies that reflect the conceptual structures of the entities and relationships constituting a particular domain. Although an RDF-like network is part of the present research design, as described in Section 5, the main concerns of this study are ontologies and their conceptual building blocks[3].\n4. Previous research: As pointed out, the existing bibliographic models are based on theoretical constructs, not empirical data reflecting end users' understanding of bibliographic entities. Some researchers, though, have matched users' preferences with the FRBR model or tested interfaces for systems built upon the model. Yee (2005) evaluated the search facilities of four FRBRized catalogs and found that they were designed neither to take into account how existing bibliographic records can exploit the FRBR model nor to understand the original purpose of these records.\n5. Method: 5.1 Concept mapping\n6. Analysis: 6.1 Cluster analysis\n7. Discussion: As described in Section 4, previous research has been concerned with verifying FRBR structures. Although the present study was designed to avoid an initial influence from particular bibliographic models, it is interesting to reflect on the findings in light of bibliographic entities, as they are outlined in Section 3.2. In particular, the significant presence of a central node that signals a form of abstraction leads toward multi-entity structures like the W/E/M entities. In cluster E, two documents (the movie and the book on which the movie is based) are related through a collocating central node. The third document node (the music document not directly based on the book but strongly related to the movie) is related not to the central node but directly to the movie node. Hence, in the conceptualizations of cluster E, the central node organizes two cultural artifacts with strongly related content but excludes a third that is obviously related but also has quite different content. This recalls the logic behind W/E/M entities that conceptually collocates and separates varieties of cultural products based on similarities in content. Although cluster D does not directly contain ordinary W/E/M entities, several of its factors are also reminiscent of FRBR logic. According to FRBR (e.g. in the form of LRM relationships between an agent and its W/E/M entities; Riva et al. (2017), pp. 66-67), information about primary responsibility \"for the creation of the intellectual or artistic content\" is linked to the work entity, while the translators or the record company is linked to the expression or the manifestation. Information about responsibility for elements other than the content mostly is linked directly to the document nodes of cluster D. Thus, in the conceptualizations of cluster D, an FRBR-like chain of entities which includes almost half of the concept maps can be sensed.\n8. Limitations and further research: Although the distinction between the two main clusters of drawings is evident, some of the five sub-clusters are rather small. Further research with more participants is therefore necessary to provide deeper insight.\n9. Concluding remarks: A bibliographic universe comprises \"the totality of things over which bibliographical control is or might be exercised\" (Wilson, 1968, p. 6). Wilson (1968) further described two distinct kinds of control. Descriptive control provides the means, traditionally by cataloging, to create (arbitrary) lists that enable retrieval of all the entities characterized by certain attributes (\"All plays by Ibsen\"). Exploitative control, in contrast, is the ability to procure the best entities available serving a specific purpose. The first kind of power is evaluative neutral; the second involves appraisal by the user (Wilson, 1968, p. 22). According to Wilson (1968), exploitative control is more important, but descriptive control is a precondition for achieving exploitative control; to identify the best entities, these entities must be known, and to be known, they must be described. The same is true for the gravitational forces in the bibliographic universe manifested by relationships between entities. The present study shows that users conceptualize such relationships quite differently. Some utilize attributes that describe the shared characteristics of the documents - the traditional apparatus of descriptive control. Others directly relate documents by applying accurate derivative links. The majority of participants, however, apply a multi-entity model in which document entities are related through nodes at a higher level of abstraction describing the characteristics of a bibliographic family or a shared fictional world. Such information is essential to exercise exploitative control in an ever-expanding bibliographic universe containing the storylines of transmedia franchises and the derivative accumulations of popular bibliographic families.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Considerable effort is devoted to developing new models for organizing bibliographic metadata. However, such models have been repeatedly criticized for their lack of proper user testing. The purpose of this paper is to present a study on how non-experts in bibliographic systems map the bibliographic universe and, in particular, how they conceptualize relationships between independent but strongly related entities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on an open concept-mapping task performed to externalize the conceptualizations of 98 novice students. The conceptualizations of the resulting concept maps are identified and analyzed statistically.\nFindings: The study shows that the participants' conceptualizations have great variety, differing in detail and granularity. These conceptualizations can be categorized into two main groups according to derivative relationships: those that apply a single-entity model directly relating document entities and those (the majority) that apply a multi-entity model relating documents through a high-level collocating node. These high-level nodes seem to be most adequately interpreted either as superwork devices collocating documents belonging to the same bibliographic family or as devices collocating documents belonging to a shared fictional world.\nOriginality/value: The findings can guide the work to develop bibliographic standards. Based on the diversity of the conceptualizations, the findings also emphasize the need for more user testing of both conceptual models and the bibliographic end-user systems implementing those models.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Codification and creativity: knowledge management strategies in KIBS
|
[
"Standardization",
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge‐intensive business services",
"Creativity",
"Design"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Studies on knowledge management have addressed knowledge codification as a strategy able to increase the efficiency in knowledge management at the organizational level and to support knowledge transfer across individuals and firms. On the contrary, personalization strategy is more useful where sticky knowledge is involved and interaction becomes the easiest process for knowledge exchange (Brown and Duguid, 2000).The trade-off between codification and personalization is particularly interesting to explore when services are concerned. Studies on services highlighted the opportunities of standardization of service provision to overcome the limits of low productivity (Baumol and Bowen, 1966). Through standardized services firms can increase their efficiency based on codified processes that lead to codified outputs. The discourse of service standardization is justified by the fact that services have been usually described by high levels of customization, where interaction between provider and its customer is fundamental for service provision and, above all, for service innovation (Gadrey and Gallouj, 1998). Hence, codification may appear to be a negative strategy that reduces the capability of the service provider to face customers' demand and to innovate through interaction.This issue is even more interesting to explore when considering knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). In fact, the value of KIBS firms lies in their capacity to offer tailored services to face their client's needs concerning access to technical, commercial, or scientific knowledge (Muller and Doloreux, 2009). According to the literature, it is in the nature of KIBS firms to differentiate their offering to suit their client's requirements (Den Hertog, 2000). Literature on KIBS has stressed the opportunities to create new knowledge and to transfer it from KIBS to customers specifically due to interactive mechanisms.However, bespoke service provision can reduce the chances to exploit codification related to standardization for efficiency achievement. Scholars have in fact stressed the advantages of service standardization and specifically of KIBS (Tether et al., 2001). Through standardization, the service provider can increase productivity and adopt an industrial model of production similar to manufacturing firms, oriented to offer standard services for mass markets. From a knowledge management point-of-view, the service provider can invest towards codification to exploit the advantages of high levels of replication of knowledge developed (innovation) through standard (codified) services. Consequently, the process of co-production changes its nature and becomes unnecessary unless service provision involves modularity (Voss and Hsuan, 2009).In case of creative services - that is services dealing with creative outputs (Caves, 2000) - this problem of trade-off between codification and personalization is even more important, since the creative content in the service production process, and especially in the service output is very high. Clients of such KIBS ask for original solutions and creative input for their innovation and marketing activities (Verganti, 2009). Can KIBS combine the advantages of knowledge codification with creativity processes? How can KIBS, specialized in creative services, structure their knowledge management processes to take advantage of higher efficiency?Even though this debate has been partially explored in the literature on services (Gadrey and Gallouj, 1998), there is the need for further analysis on the trade-off between codification and personalization in knowledge management processes in the domain of KIBS, specifically for creative services. This article aims at analyzing knowledge management strategies of KIBS specialized in highly creative outputs, such as design and communication, to explore whether it is possible to overcome the trade-off between codification and personalization related to bespoke services. In the authors' view, KIBS can arrange specific working methods that are codified processes oriented towards managing projects on the basis of procedures, routines, and techniques with a view to developing, collecting, sharing and exploiting knowledge in their customized service provision.The next section of the paper describes the theoretical debate on codification and personalization in knowledge management and implication for KIBS, specifically in the services related to creative processes. The third section discusses two case studies of KIBS specialized in design and communication services. The final section concludes with managerial implications and future research issues.\n2. Theoretical considerations: 2.1 Knowledge management between codification and personalization\n3. Empirical section: case studies of creative KIBS: The authors carried out qualitative research based on case studies in order to analyze the working methods implemented by KIBS specialized in design and communication services. The authors wanted to compare two firms coming from different economic and social contexts and with different approaches to design. One is Hangar Design Group (HDG): a 30-year-old Italian design firm with an international projection that works with companies that are familiar with the concept of design and communication (Italian and international clients). HDG is one of the largest design firms in Italy and has been recognized as a leader in the design field. As a matter of fact, in 2011 HDG was awarded with the prestigious Italian and international design award \"Compasso d'Oro\" for the design project of a mobile house. On the contrary, Idiom is a five-year-old firm and the largest design firm in India. As HDG, also Idiom has been awarded several times, especially for their works on retail and experience design. India is an emerging economy and firms specialized in design and communication are now developing more intensively there than in western countries.The authors selected both cases because both are leaders and well-known players in their markets. The authors wanted to compare design and communication firms coming both from developed (HDG) and emerging (IDIOM) economies and in different phases of development (HDG is a well-established firm, IDIOM is a new-born firm) in order to verify whether the codification of a working method is related to the evolution of design and communication practice and to the features of the economic and social context, or if it is based on the search of increasing productivity and profitability in creative services. The case studies are not intended to be representative of the design service industry as a whole, but only to illustrate specific features that lead to a superior performance (Siggelkow, 2007).Information for these case studies was collected in various ways:* from repeated in-depth interviews with founders, managers and designers of the design firm, carried out in between May 2010 and January 2011 (Table I);* from an analysis of in-house documents produced by the firm; and* analysis of external resources (newspaper articles, online articles, books, etc.) relating to the firms.Based on a structured questionnaire developed for quantitative analysis on KIBS (see Bettiol et al., 2011), the following variables have been used to explore the case studies:* the structure and organization of the process of creative production;* the use of information and communication technologies; and* the approach to knowledge management.In particular, the case studies aimed at pointing out the features of the working method used by the KIBS and at showing how this method has been developed.3.1 Idiom: introduction\n4. Discussion: Although HDG and Idiom's creative methods are unique, the authors can identify several domains where they can analyze the elements characterizing the company's working method (Table II).The first element is related to how the creative method was defined. Both companies deliberately developed their creative method as an active research in order to solve the trade-off between originality (in each creative proposal) and recognizable style (their signature). In both cases, the development of the creative method was driven by two elements: the long-term experience of the founders and the \"learning by doing\" approach. HDG and Idiom started their research looking for well-established creative methods adopted by creative firms and industries. Idiom analyzed methods used in world-known design firms or discovered by scholars. HDG started from the method used in the advertising industry where there is a clear division of labor (account, creative and creative director) and precise hierarchy. Both HDG and Idiom tried to use those methods but were not satisfied with the results they gathered; therefore they decided to develop their own creative method. It is not the result of a once-and-for all plan but of a step-by-step process composed of marginal improvements and changes. From this point-of-view, the working method is the cumulative result of a unique experience and practice path aimed to offer differentiated services.The second element concerns the knowledge management strategy. It is interesting to notice that in both cases, a formal knowledge management process was developed but did not produce the expected results. Although creatives were forced to use discipline in their work and to codify what they were doing, they did not use database or past projects as an inspiration for their creativity and instead relied on social interaction and tacit knowledge. The failure in the adoption of formal knowledge management strategy based on codification has driven both firms to explore new paths. In consideration of the tacit nature of the creative process, HDG and Idiom decided to focus on a middle ground between codification and personalization. They invented the method as a form of codification of the values and approaches that characterize their take on the design field and inform their creative process. The creative method is intended to drive the production of personalized, original and customized outputs (projects). Codification concerning principles, guidelines and working styles cannot be considered as a fixed set of rules but have to be interpreted and adapted by people working in the firm. In fact, employees need to learn and adapt their work to the creative method. Creatives are welcome if their creativity is in line with the methods of the firm.The third element characterizing the working method is the firm's operating principles, which guide the actions of its creatives in the production of creative outputs. They shape the way employees approach a creative project and how they develop it. Operating principles are more concrete and practical than values: they help people on the ground in their daily work. Comparing the two cases, there are several points that they have in common, although each firm has its own mix of operating principles.The operating principles refer to a fourth element: the division of cognitive labor. In order to be effective, the operating principles must have a specific way of distributing the workload amongst the employees. Idiom, for example, has multidisciplinary teams that follow the operating principles to produce creative outputs: these teams are fairly independent, although they have to report to the founders who supervise their work. In the case of HDG, multidisciplinary teams, organized at international level, compete on the same proposals and usually work under time pressure.The fifth element relates to the degree of codification of the creative process. Idiom has a highly codified working method comprising several phases with a defined output and a specific decision process. In particular, at Idiom the process is iterative, until the founders and the client judge the result to be satisfactory. At HDG, the process is less codified, although it is not tacit, and it is redundant. Several teams work concurrently at the same proposal and each team is involved in several projects a week. At the same time, the creative method requires several review cycles and can be applied recursively.\n5. Conclusions: This paper discusses knowledge management strategies of KIBS specialized in creative outputs. Authors' analysis shows that KIBS can increase their ability to produce and share knowledge oriented to innovative outputs through the development of a codified working method. This process of codification is neither related to the codification of knowledge exchange among individuals within the organization or with customers nor to the codification of the KIBS' output. Instead, in the authors' view this form of codification can be seen as a new, additional way of codifying knowledge without compromising the value related to creative, customized services. From this perspective, the paper contributes to enriching the theoretical analysis on knowledge codification, specifically in complex and dynamic contexts. Moreover, this study provides further elements describing how knowledge can be managed within organizations.In order to achieve and maintain the level of service quality strategically defined by the KIBS and sustain its competitive advantage, KIBS invest in a codified working method that ensures to reach the target quality of the output. In these firms, knowledge flows among creatives through socialization and face-to-face interaction. A codified working method can guarantee a cognitive alignment of the human resources involved in the creative process to the strategic direction given by entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, to be really effective, this codified working method requires that human resources go through learning-by-doing processes related to the firm-specific creative method and share cognitive experiences that enhance the feasibility of the working method itself. The working method is important also to ensure the continuity of the firm's output and the coherence with the brand positioning developed by the KIBS.The originality of the authors' work lies both in its theoretical perspective and in the empirical analysis. From a theoretical point-of-view, the authors contribute to research on the KIBS industry by exploring the relationship between codification and creativity and the relationship with customization strategy. The authors' results show that with the aid of a working method, customization can be pursued effectively and efficiently, beyond modularization that reduces the level of creativity in the output offered. On the other hand, customization can be obtained also beyond co-production with the customer, where the KIBS can instead propose alternative solutions to the customers based on the exploitation of its internal experience and effective knowledge development.From an empirical standpoint, this research based on qualitative case study analysis adds to scholars' understanding of KIBS firms' knowledge management strategies and to their impact on the processes of service provision and innovation. Managerial implications of this work refer to the opportunity also for creativity-based firms to exploit the advantages of efficiency in innovation processes, related to the development of appropriate and coherent working methods that can speed the process of innovation, without limiting creativity. This result is particularly interesting for KIBS but also for manufacturing firms dealing with creative outputs. With an internal firm-specific working method the firm benefits from a more systematic and cost-effective use of resources, being flexible enough to cope with the variables in customers' demand.Further research should explore how the codification of the working method can be affected by changes in the entrepreneurial roles and strategic approaches of the KIBS. Additional research may also consider how co-production is really structured between KIBS and its customers during the whole process of service provision. Another research analysis should be devoted to compare the production process of knowledge-intensive services with the process of new product development of manufacturing firms to see commonalities and differences in their managerial approaches to innovation (Marr et al., 2004). The authors are aware that this research has some limitations, mainly related to the specificity of the cases and of the KIBS' specialization that the authors considered. The authors acknowledge the need to compare different KIBS firms belonging to other industries with a view to reinforcing and generalizing the results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to analyze the relationships between standardization and creativity in the process of service innovation in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), specifically in those specialized in highly creative outputs (KIBS in design and communication). Studies on knowledge management and on service management emphasize the opportunity to gain efficiency through a standardization of services and organizational processes. However, creative activities are characterized by informality and difficulty to be standardized.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study adopts a qualitative research approach. Two case studies of medium-size KIBS specialized in design and communication, localized in Bangalore (India) and in Treviso (Italy) are developed to identify how KIBS approach knowledge management both internally and externally and how firms structure the innovation process.\nFindings: - KIBS can use a suitable knowledge management strategy to balance creative outputs with standardization based on a working method. Standardization can refer to the way the creative effort is organized and managed internally through appropriate organizational processes, with the approach confirmed empirically.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Main limitations are related to the case study and the industry selected. The authors acknowledge the need to compare firms belonging to other industries to strengthen the results.\nOriginality/value: - From a theoretical point of view the paper enriches the research framework concerning knowledge management in services by exploring the relationship between standardization and creativity. From an empirical point of view, the research is able to deepen understanding on the KIBS knowledge management strategies and their impacts on processes of service provision and innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Computer self-efficacy in the information society: Design of learning strategies, mechanisms and skill areas
|
[
"IT skills",
"Community context",
"Learning strategies",
"Learning mechanisms",
"Experience‐based learning",
"Situated learning",
"Internet",
"Computers",
"Skills",
"Communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As we keep technologizing public, and other services, like voting, banking, or socializing, and networking, people without necessary computer skills (and access), may risk being excluded, as has recently been debated at length in the literature regarding the digital divide (e.g. Norris, 2001; and Warschauer, 2003), digital exclusion (Cushman and Klecun, 2006; Cushman and McLean, 2008; Klecun, 2008), and digital inequality (Zheng and Walsham, 2008; Klecun, 2008). Powerful interests are vested in the provision of e-services and the deterioration of off-line services is to be expected (Klecun, 2008). This, in turn, increases the cost for those excluded (Cushman and McLean, 2008). Digital inclusion is a desirable social goal both at a community as well as at an individual level, giving all-the-more reason to continuously consider how digital inequality can be decreased between disadvantaged and more advantaged groups also in developed countries (Cushman and Klecun, 2006; as in Cushman and McLean, 2008; and in Klecun, 2008).\"Computer literacy\" has been one way of conceptualizing IT skills, coupled later with terms like \"information literacy\" and \"IT literacy\" (e.g. Gripenberg, 1998) and e-literacy (Klecun, 2008). As this area is evolving, new concepts emerge as well. A recent addition is \"digital literacies\" (Carrington and Robinson, 2009) where the plural form is appealing as it supports the idea that there is not one but many kinds of literacies needed, and where \"digital\" refers to all sorts of information and communication technologies (ICTs), like computers, mobile phones, IPods, car navigation systems, and their combinations. As, for example, media communication is becoming a more important feature of ICT use, media or multimedia literacy has become one kind of literacy in its own right (e.g. Livingstone, 2004; Multimedia Literacy, 2009). In addition, literacies for being part of the information society may include (Cushman and McLean, 2008): print literacy (reading, writing, spelling), technical literacy (or \"technacy\" (Multimedia Literacy, 2009)), and numerical literacy (numeracy), and they depend much on the context and purpose of the use of ICTs. Practicing safe computing (e.g. Aytes and Connolly, 2004; Anderson and Agarwal, 2010) could also be included in current necessary digital literacies. Nevertheless, digital literacies are becoming vital skills to survive in the complex, multimodal contexts of the information society where physical, virtual, social and digital bodies, identities and texts cohabit and thus form a prerequisite for being included in the information society.In addition, inclusion in the information society require a number of different societal resources, like physical, digital, human and social (Zheng and Walsham, 2008). As the technology keeps changing and converging, so do necessarily the skills and the ways to learn them. Keeping up to date with IT, thus, also requires considerable and continuous intellectual, emotional, and financial resources on an individual level (Klecun, 2008), as well as the determined activity of the (adult) learner (Selwyn, 2003). Further, as circumstances change, a person may fall out of the development after once having been \"digitally included\" (Klecun, 2008).Recent literature on learning IT-skills outside the school and educational systems are found mainly in the literature on information systems implementation and use in organizational contexts (e.g. Huang, 2002, Boudreau and Seligman, 2005, Spitler, 2005, Korpelainen and Kira, 2010). Earlier literature in this area, was concerned with forms, and content of computer training, and trainer behavior in more general terms (e.g. Davis and Bostrom, 1993; Sein et al., 1999; Huang, 2002; Compeau, 2002, see also more recent work in Coulson et al., 2010; Oinas-Kukkonen et al., 2010); individual traits, and antecedents for learning computer skills (Bostrom et al., 1990, Thatcher and Perrewe, 2002, Hasan and Ali, 2004); and skill needs of both end-users and IS professionals (Benbasat et al., 1980; Cheney and Lyons, 1980; Nelson, 1991; Lee et al., 1995). More recent literature has explored online learning and online task support (e.g. Piccoli et al., 2001; Mao and Brown, 2005; Chu and Robey, 2008); the quality of computer use (Auer, 1998, Boudreau and Seligman, 2005, Burton-Jones and Straub, 2006); and the variety of mechanisms and learning strategies that supports IT learning in work contexts (Spitler, 2005; Korpelainen and Kira, 2010). This is an important, and well-researched area of study, that has brought a deep understanding of learning IT-skills in the organizational context.Taken as such, however, neither training IT skills at school or at the work place can grant inclusion in the information society for all. In particular, there are adults who do not need nor do receive computer training at work and these people are at the risk of being excluded from the information society. Further, in both educational and organizational contexts there are usually technical experts, even departments, taking care of and aiding in security issues, trouble-shooting, upgrading of software and hardware etc. while in the home context, or as self-employed, unemployed, or retired, adult users are supposed to master everything on their own - even without any technical background at all. How can lessons learned in the organizational context on adult learning of IT skills be applied outside that context to promote computer self-efficacy for the information society?The paper draws on recent literature (further explicated in the following) on learning IT-skills in the organizational context and applies them in a non-organizational context with the aim to design an IT-project that promotes self-efficacy in computer use in a community setting. Experiences from the resulting research and development project called the IT-families are described and analyzed as an extensive case study, with a focus on how various \"digital literacies\" could be learned and supported and inclusion in the digital information society thus enhanced in practice, outside both the organizational and traditional educational contexts. The project included the design of community services, courses and other learning mechanisms, grounded in the ideas of experience-based and situated learning (Kolb, 1984; Lave and Wenger, 1991) and the idea of \"scaffolding\" the learning process until the learner is able to manage on his/her own (e.g. Koh, 2008)1.The IT-families project was a as a longitudinal development and research project carried out in collaboration between the town of Loviisa and the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki over a period of two years. The aim of the project was to develop and increase IT-skills in a rural town and to explore how individual IT-skill and knowledge development in the home could be supported at a community level. The project was part of a larger development effort aiming at developing business structures and local know-how around IT and its application in the southeast area of Finland. The larger effort was initiated in collaboration between national and local authorities, whereas the mayor in the town of Loviisa initiated the local project. The project also received funding from the European Regional Development Fund2. The IT-families consisted of 50 families who received a PC, printer, and internet connection as well as a training program, technical support and various information and social events in exchange for sharing information with the research team on how they used and learned to use their PC. Using the experiences gained in the project as a case study the research questions that this paper attempts to answer are:1. How can computer self-efficacy be promoted in a non-organizational context?2. How, in terms of learning strategies and mechanisms, can the quality of computer use be enhanced within a diverse set of users with varying resources, initial skill-levels, computer needs, and goals for computer use?3. Within the project, is it possible to detect common patterns in learning strategies and learning outcomes that could be applied elsewhere?In more detail, the paper focuses on interpreting and describing the learning strategies and mechanisms as well as the contents of IT related knowledge and skill areas that seem necessary in order to enter and remain part of the information society.\n2. Theoretical underpinnings and implications for project design: This section outlines the theoretical underpinnings that guided how the research and development project was designed. It also reviews relevant literature and previous research on learning IT-skills in the information systems research area. It concludes by explicating the implications of the framework for the project design.2.1 Experience-based and situated learning\n3. Project set-up and data-gathering: This section first describes the research site and participating families in more detail. Following that a description of how the project was set up in practice and how data were collected using electronic means is provided.3.1 Research site and participants\n4. Analysis and results: The data were analyzed as an extensive case study (see Yin, 1994)10, combining the multiple sources of data gathered throughout the two year period to get a rich description of how participants' computer use and skills developed and to understand how learning strategies and mechanisms supported this in the real-life context of the participants. The analysis reported here, mainly considers Q1, Q2 and Q3 (reflecting usage patterns, and learning strategies), and E1 and E2 (reflecting changes in perceptions) in addition to interactions with the local instructor, the technical support person, and participants during training sessions and social events11,12. The analysis, first, focuses on changes in computer perceptions and use seen as a result of the learning process. It then turns to focus on IT related learning strategies and mechanisms that supported learning to occur. The analysis ends with an effort to summarize the results.4.1 Changes in computer perceptions and use as a result of learning\n5. Conclusions and practical implications: This project considered how young families could learn how to use information technology and be part of the information society. The paper attempted to answer the questions of how computer self-efficacy can be supported outside the organizational and traditional educational context where users have various resources, needs, goals, and initial skill-levels. It further attempted to summarize the findings to see if any common patterns in learning strategies and knowledge and skill development could be detected.The paper drew on extant literature on learning IT skills in the organizational context and applied it in a non-organizational context. The learning strategies and mechanisms for learning IT skills did not seem to be different between the two contexts, suggesting that providing a set of strategies including both formal and informal means is important for learning to occur. The challenge was to include a learning community that is naturally found in the organizational setting, also in a non-organizational setting. This challenge was overcome by including the whole family in the process and to increase social interaction between participants in the project. Another challenge was to ensure availability of master users in this non-organizational context that could support participants learning and trouble shooting. This challenge was met by providing technical support and a help-line to participants, but, it could also have been enhanced, by forming teams of skilled vs non-skilled participants. However, over time members of the families also took the role of master users, especially as learning advanced, but when this was not enough the technical support was still there as back up.A main challenge in the organizational, but in particular in the non-organizational context, is the development of general technology understanding, that is necessary to survive in the information society. This is knowledge, which does not seem to fit that well into the traditional format of computer training courses that focus more on the applied knowledge. In the project, this was tackled by providing information events of various kinds, like phone and bank services in relation to the internet, computer security, and computers and children. The technical support also to some extent served as a resource for this kind of knowledge in particular in the beginning of the process.In generating the framework and summarizing model (see Table IV), for developing IT skills, in three identified knowledge and skill areas, and how learning in these areas could be scaffolded. The results give direction to how communities and towns; public institutions; private organizations; as well as schools and other learning facilities can support the developing of IT-related skills by not only providing applied knowledge, but by providing general technology knowledge and understanding and by giving technical support. The model is general enough to be used also as technology changes and converges over time, however, the specific contents of the three skill areas, in particular applied knowledge, may need to be redefined as technology changes. The results further confirmed the importance of a variety of learning scaffolds, and in particular, how important technical support is in the initial take-into-use phase and how manuals often are the last resort to solve IT-related problems. The results also indicate how important it is to create a learning community, as help is often needed while practicing or encountering problems while using IT.5.1 Practical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - IT related skills are vital for becoming and remaining a citizen in a digitally supported information society - also for adults who are no longer in school; do not use IT in their work; are unemployed, self-employed, or retired; or otherwise without the technical support, possibilities for training, and availability of a community of practice and \"master users\" that are common in organizational contexts. The paper aims to draw on literature on learning IT skills in the organizational context and to apply this in a non-organizational, community context. The paper seeks to explore how individual IT-skill and knowledge development could be supported using formal and informal learning strategies, including community services, training courses, information events, learning community and other learning mechanisms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is empirically grounded in a research and development project with 50 participating families who received a PC, printer, and internet connection, as well as training, technical support, and information events over a period of two years. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered throughout the project. Data are here analyzed as an extensive case study.\nFindings: - Based on experiences from the project the paper describes how \"digital literacies\" could be learned and supported and inclusion in the digital information society enhanced in practice. The paper develops a framework that shows how different learning strategies and mechanisms support different kinds of computer knowledge and skill areas; describes three interlinked areas of IT knowledge and skills; and suggests a number of practical implications on how computer self-efficacy could be supported in a non-organizational context.\nOriginality/value: - The paper draws on extant knowledge about learning and developing IT-skills in the organizational context, and applies this knowledge in a different context in order to explore how this knowledge can be used also outside organizations to support adults to be part of the digitally supported information society.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A case study in institutional repository content curation: A collaborative partner approach to preserving and sustaining digital scholarship
|
[
"Collaboration",
"Institutional repository",
"Content recruitment",
"Digital scholarship",
"Digital preservation",
"Content curation",
"Data management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Open access and institutional repositories are commonplace today in the university setting. More and more academic libraries are taking on the roles of leading such efforts on campus (Palmer et al., 2008; Soo et al., 2007). Deciding on technical needs (including software options, server space, backup measures and staff expertise), data management, development procedures, data management and outreach initiatives are all vital to the success of an institutional repository (IR). Once the software is decided (e.g. DSpace, Digital Commons), installed and test items uploaded by the library, the IR is ready for the campus to get involved. But how is that done? Faculty and staff are busy with their own agendas. How does the library encourage the uploading of submissions directly from the faculty and staff? How does the library promote the IR when university emails are already over-pouring inboxes with other announcements that people often overlook due to time constraints?\nLiterature review: Most literature defines IR partnerships, as this author describes it, as a partnership between one or more of the big three: information technology division (ITD), college or office of graduate studies and the library. The studies describing campus partnerships often involve forming committees to investigate solutions to a campus initiative and in addition to the big three partners can include the office of sponsored programs, student services offices, university archives, the Provost's Council and other advisory groups (Walters, 2007; Gilman and Kunkel, 2010; Li et al., 2013). But these types of collaborations are typically for the launch of an IR and not the content recruitment or curation of the collection.\nBackground: This partner approach started with the University Honors College (Honors College) at MTSU. One of eight colleges at MTSU, the Honors College brings academic excellence to a higher level with its 750+ undergraduate students learning in an environment of a small, select liberal arts college within a major university setting - one that includes 26,000+ students. This is partly the reason why the Honors College was chosen first, the academic integrity it requires of its students and the nurturing environment it provides those students to succeed beyond graduation is the right mindset for an academic partnership. The Honors College also had an established relationship with the Library already, both having received donations from the former alum and Nobel Prize winner James M. Buchanan (Sparkman, 2013). In addition to that connection, the Library also physically houses the bound paper copies of the Honors Thesis Collection submitted by their graduates each year. The cost associated with binding and printing multiple copies of the theses became no longer economical and the Honors College was looking at alternative options. This gave the Library a chance to introduce the Honors College to the IR as a no-cost solution to the thesis preservation issue, in addition to helping on entirely different projects such as the preservation of the Honors College's bi-annual magazine, bi-annual lecture series, student journal publications and faculty publications.\nThe partner approach process: Step 1.1\nAnalysis and discussion: The process described above in Steps 1-3 illustrates the importance of content assessment for IR curation. However, the partner approach does more than just content recruitment. Additionally, this has helped the Honors College with easy access to content that was previously not possible or extremely time-consuming to locate. The Honors College staff have seen an increase in student engagement since implementing the IR as a resource and practice, especially from the rise of the theses being discoverable online. \"Increasing visibility will increase credibility [...] and [we] are extremely pleased with JEWLScholar's [IR] impact on our program and publications\" (Powers, 2016).\nConclusion: The partner approach used to increase IR content creates a connection between the College and the Library, campus connections growing with each new partner. However, these ties between campus groups can help develop more than just IR content, it can also develop a community of practice within an institution. Examples of this include the Information Accessibility Plan as described earlier. Others include cohesive partnerships with units that share similar missions, which at MTSU includes the Library's formation of the Digital Partners[8], ETD submissions with the College of Graduate Studies, university-wide exhibitions with the Office of Research Services, among others.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to illustrate how a university library collaborated with a specific college to preserve scholarship with a sustainable approach. The practical process described is recommended for increasing content submissions in a newly established institutional repository. Of the eight colleges at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), the Honors College was selected as a case study for a library-college collaboration on content curation for the institutional repository that is maintained by MTSU's Walker Library.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Concept of shared and divided responsibilities for the upload, maintenance and sustainability of institutional repository submissions based on a particular case study and aided with literature on data management, digital publishing, library publishing and preservation research.\nFindings: The partner approach, the sharing and division of responsibilities, is instrumental to the growth and sustainability of a library publishing program and for the preservation of university scholarship.\nPractical implications: The (college) partner approach not only educates campus units about a new resource (e.g. institutional repository), but also encourages campus units to rethink other current and outdated practices that need to adapt to technological changes that support the unit and its students. This approach will help the library with campus outreach after an institutional repository is implemented and offers guidance on a collaborative approach to repository submission growth.\nOriginality/value: This paper suggests a (college) partner approach that mutually benefits the College and its students, departments and the library that maintains the institutional repository on behalf of the university. During the implementation process of this case study, an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)/accessibility compliance issue of repository items surfaced and allowed for a new course of action to be taken campus wide which adds to the originality of this case study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Ethically minded consumer behaviour in Vietnam: An analysis of cultural values, personal values, attitudinal factors and demographics
|
[
"Long-term orientation",
"Consumer ethics",
"Spirituality",
"Attitude",
"Emerging markets",
"Collectivism",
"Ethical consumption",
"Subjective norms",
"Love of money"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research into consumer ethics appears to have proliferated since the development of Muncy and Vitell's (1992) Consumer Ethics Scale (CES). The CES is conceptualised as consumers' ethical judgments, which are the extent to which the consumer perceives ethically questionable practices as being either right or wrong (ethical or unethical) across situations (Muncy and Vitell, 1992; Vitell and Muncy, 1992). Nonetheless, attitudinal scales such as ethical judgments may not reliably predict ethical consumption (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001; Carrington et al., 2014; Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher, 2016). For example, the Nielsen Global Survey of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability found that 26 per cent of consumers indicated that they wanted more eco-friendly products but only 10 per cent said that they purchased such products (Nielsen, 2015a). To address this disparity, well documented as the attitude-behaviour gap, some researchers argue for consumer ethics to be assessed in terms of behaviours rather than attitudinal judgements (Carrigan et al., 2011; Carrington et al., 2016; Caruana et al., 2016). In the light of this, Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher (2016) recently developed an \"ethically minded consumer behaviour\" (EMCB) scale, based on Roberts' (1993, 1995) prior work on socially responsible consumer behaviour, to measure consumption choices with regard to environmental issues and corporate social responsibility. The EMCB scale comprises five separate dimensions capturing a variety of ecological/social and purchase/boycott behaviours (Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher, 2016).\nLiterature review: Consumer ethics and theoretical foundations\nMethodology: Sample and procedure\nResults: Confirmatory factor analyses\nDiscussion: The results of the SEM approach reveal the effects of examined variables on the dimensions of EMCB, except Recycle. The low reliability and the exclusion of Recycle reflect the unpopularity of recycling concepts and recycled products in Vietnam (de Koning et al., 2015). Some consumers might consider that the recycled or reusable products are unavailable in the marketplace or are unsure about the concept.\nConclusions: This study explores the EMCB in Vietnam, by conducting an extensive investigation based on cultural and personal factors and demographic information. Most of the previous research in this area has been conducted on Western countries and has mostly focussed on analysing ethical beliefs and judgements. As the first study to fully investigate dimensions of consumer's ethical behaviour, particularly in Vietnam, this study therefore significantly contributes to the body of knowledge regarding consumer ethics in Asia. Moreover, this is one of the first studies that explores the EMCB based on five dimensions that are relevant to wider social considerations, as compared to previous studies focussing on extensively specific aspects (e.g. green purchase or digital piracy). This could provide initial findings to understand how the popular factors which have been concluded as relating to ethical beliefs have impacts on different aspects of ethical consumption behaviour. In addition, evidence from the research adds validation to the EMCB scale.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Consumer ethics in Asia has attracted attention from marketing scholars and practitioners. Ethical beliefs and judgements have been predominantly investigated within this area. Recent research argues for consumer ethics to be measured in terms of behaviours rather than attitudinal judgements, due to a potential pitfall of attitudinal scales, which researchers often refer to as an attitude-behaviour gap. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of ethically minded consumer behaviour (EMCB) in an Asian emerging market context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of 316 Vietnamese consumers was conducted to investigate their ethically minded behaviours.\nFindings: The SEM analyses reveal a significant impact of long-term orientation on EMCB, whereas spirituality has no impact. Collectivism, attitude to ethically minded consumption and subjective norms are found to influence the dimensions of EMCB. Age, income and job levels have effects on EMCB dimensions, but gender, surprisingly, has no effect.\nPractical implications: The study can be beneficial to businesses and policy makers in Vietnam or any similar Asian markets, especially in encouraging people to engage with ethical consumption. Furthermore, it provides practitioners in Vietnam with a measurement instrument that can be used to profile and segment consumers.\nOriginality/value: This is among the first studies utilising and examining EMCB, especially in Vietnam where research into consumer ethics is scant. It contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a greater understanding of the impact of personal characteristics and cultural environment on consumer ethics, being measured by the EMCB scale which has taken into account the consumption choices. Furthermore, this study adds further validation to the EMCB scale.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The main factors determining effective operation in case of a family business
|
[
"Family firms",
"Entrepreneurship",
"Knowledge",
"Human capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In order to achieve an efficient business operation, enterprises must harmonise corporate structure with organisational structure and administrative systems, which can be achieved by the strategic development of the organisation. Forecasts concerning the development of key external and internal factors help the enterprises in reaching different organisational goals. To be able to define parameters which determine the operation of the enterprise we have to know the capability of the enterprise, the technology applied in the enterprise, the enterprise knowledge base and the luck factor influencing the operation of the enterprise.\nTheoretical framework: On the basis of our preliminary research, we can state that three main factors, knowledge, luck and communication between generations determine the successfulness of the long-term operation of a family-owned business. Starting the research with conducting expert interviews, we formed our question framework around the three main factors stated just stated. Among the questions asked during the interview for example, there was the following: how much percentage the head of the family contributes to knowledge, luck and generation as efficient operational characteristics. Table I contains the most important topics and questions of the expert interview.\nMethodology: There are several publications, models and theoretical approaches concerning the operation of family businesses. The chosen methodology for this paper is \"The Best Practice model\" prepared by The Solutionist Group (2015) (Figure 1). The model presents the characteristics of family businesses and illustrates how the process of sustainable enterprise differs in different fields concerning family and non-family businesses. The eight key factors that are identified are: focus areas; inform, asses, report; urgent response; define share and plan; structures, governance; system, policies, documents and agreements; regular review, meeting and education; and sustainability, all of which are interdependent.\nResults: The selected family-owned business is presently operating in the northeastern area of Hungary. Master Good Group is engaged in integrated fodder production, poultry breeding, hatching, cramming and processing of broiler chicken. The group of companies is owned 100 per cent by the Barany family. The family has been engaged in poultry breeding for 100 years extending to four generations, so that it is the oldest poultry breeding dynasty in Hungary. The first generation which began the tradition was the manorial poultry breeder of the Counts Szechenyi. The commitment to the profession represented by him was transferred from generation to generation. The key of the present successes of the Group also originates from this heritage.\nConclusion: Five other Hungarian family-owned food industrial enterprises were interviewed in the framework of the study. Figure 2 illustrates where these enterprises (La Fiesta LLC, Heimann LLC, AquaPlastech LLC, BoldAgro LLC and Szamos LLC) are in the process of generation succession. According to the dimensions regarding degree of responsibility and the process of generation succession, the interviewed enterprises are in different stages. The reason for this that they have other strategic objective to reach the different stages.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the experience, successful management and the succession of generations in a Hungarian corporation in the food industry through the \"Best Practice\" model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The chosen methodology for this paper is \"The best practice model\" prepared by The Solutionist Group. The model presents the characteristics of family businesses and illustrates how the process of sustainable enterprise differs in different fields concerning family and non-family businesses. In applying this model, the experience, successful management and the succession of generations will be presented in the case of a large Hungarian enterprise which has a determining role in the Hungarian food industry. The results are based on the question framework of the expert interviews.\nFindings: The history of family-owned firms shows that in order to maintain appropriate business succession activity the family management has to plan in advance. Passing the baton to the next generation successfully is a complex and long-term family management role and it has strategic importance. To ensure business continuity, the successor has to take over the business and operate it well. That is why the sharing of knowledge, the innovation performance and the best practice are important parts of family company's culture, and they consequently play an important part in the pass the baton project within family-owned firms.\nOriginality/value: This paper expands the knowledge about the succession of family businesses.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Family ownership and firm performance: evidence from Taiwanese firms
|
[
"Family ownership",
"Performance management",
"Endogeneity",
"Panel data",
"Taiwan",
"Companies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Family firms are common in advanced economies, such as Europe and the USA, and are even more popular in Taiwan and other Asian countries. La Porta et al. (1999) used listed companies in 27 countries around the world as samples and find that 68 per cent of the sampled companies have controlling shareholders; in addition, they find that family firms are the most common type of economic organization in these countries. Anderson and Reeb (2003) studied 403 companies in the S&P 500 industries and claim that more than one-third of these are family firms. Barontini and Caprio (2006) examined 675 listed companies in 11 European countries and find that with 10 per cent voting right as the control threshold, the firms controlled by families account for 53 per cent of the sampled companies. Claesens et al. (2000) studied 2,980 listed companies in nine countries in East Asia, and discover that at a 10 per cent control threshold, the companies controlled by families account for more than 50 per cent of the companies studied. Yeh et al. (2001) examined 208 listed companies in Taiwan, and find that at a 10 per cent control threshold, 81 per cent of the listed companies are controlled by families. If a 20 per cent voting right is used as the control threshold, 51 per cent of these firms would be considered family firms.Whether the family firm is an effective business model remains an issue of ambiguity, presenting challenges to researchers in their efforts to generate a consensus. Anderson and Reeb (2003) claim that family firms perform better than do non-family firms in both profitability-based and market-based measurement. James (1999) proposes that family firms have a long-term vision in investments and yield better returns. Barontini and Caprio (2006) sampled European companies and argue that family control does not hamper family performance. In contrast to the previously-mentioned findings, Faccio et al. (2001) studied family firms in Europe and Asia, and find that family-owned companies managed by non-family members perform worse than those managed by family members. Holderness and Sheehan (1988) show that the Tobin's Q values of family firms are lower than those of non-family firms. Miller et al. (2007) find that Fortune 1000 firms that are owned by families, or employ relatives, as managers never exhibit superior performance. Hence, the issue of whether family firms actually perform better than do non-family firms warrants further investigation.In Taiwan, corporate control is concentrated to a large extent in the hands of family members; such ownership provides family members with considerable incentive to maximize firm value. However, the benefits that family members acquire may come at the expense of firm performance. Therefore, this paper aims to understand how family ownership influences firm performance. Another important issue that we focus on is determining under what percentage of family control can the performance of a firm be strengthened? This subject matter is important given that family firms are common in Asian countries.In the discussion of whether family ownership affects firm performance, family ownership itself may be an endogenous variable because family member-owners have more internal information than do minority shareholders. Hence, the presence of family control may signal positive prospects for the firm and enable easier decision-making regarding company holdings. Therefore, firm performance may also influence the willingness of a family to exercise control over a firm. Demsetz and Lehn (1985), Himmelberg et al. (1999), and Morck et al. (1988) all indicate that without considering endogeneity, the discussion of the correlation between equity ownership and performance may lead to measurement bias. More recently, Adams et al. (2009) showed that founder CEO status is endogenous in performance regression. Disregarding the endogeneity of founder CEO status leads one to underestimate its effect on performance [compared with standard ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions]. Hence, statistical bias may plague most of the previous studies, which fail to address the endogeneity issue when examining the relationship between family ownership and performance.This paper is the first to examine the relationship between family ownership and firm performance while simultaneously addressing the issue of endogeneity and identifying the optimal levels of family ownership in Taiwanese firms. Empirical results suggest that firm performance and family ownership influence each other. An increase in family ownership can improve firm performance, and better firm performance can lead to higher ownership holdings by a family. We also find that a non-linear relationship (inverse U shape) exists between family ownership and firm profitability when endogeneity is considered. This finding indicates that the percentage of family ownership should not exceed 30%, otherwise, the profitability of the firm would be diminished.\nFamily ownership and firm performance: Advantages and disadvantages of family firms\nMethodology: Sample selection and data sources\nEmpirical results: Table II lists the descriptive statistics of the key variables for the sampled companies, with Tobin's Q, ROA (NI), and ROA (EBITDA) as the firm performance variables. For market value performance indicators, the maximum value of Tobin's Q is 6.57, the minimum value is 0.28, and the mean (median) is 1.20 (1.04). For accounting performance indicators, the maximum value of ROA (EBITDA) is 42.84 per cent, the minimum value is -238.16 per cent, and the mean (median) is 7.14 per cent (7.31 per cent). The maximum value of ROA (NI) is 40.05 per cent, the minimum value is -165.54 per cent, and the mean (median) is 3.07 per cent (3.08 per cent). These figures indicate that significant variations are observed among the performance indicators of the sampled companies. Variables of family ownership, R&D/Sales, long-term debt ratio, return volatility, firm size, firm market value, dividend yield, and institutional ownership, have mean values of 21.03, 1.73, 8.59, 2.58 per cent, NT$ 22.81 million, NT$ 22.27 million, 0.76, and 1.8 per cent, respectively.Table III shows the differences in mean values in each key variable for family and non-family firms. The differences in mean values are also tested to observe whether these differences are significant. Return volatility, firm size, market value, and institutional ownership in family firms are significantly smaller than in non-family firms. However, family and non-family firms do not have significant differences in R&D/Sales, long-term debt ratio, and dividend yield. With regard to performance, family firms significantly function better than do non-family firms in three firm performance variables at a 1 per cent significance level.This study uses a simultaneous equation to solve the measurement bias resulting from the existence of endogeneity in family ownership and firm performance. Based on the method proposed by Kelejian (1971), this study uses all predetermined variables as instrument variables, and employs the 2SLS technique to examine the regression results. We also use panel data models with fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity2.Tables IV and V show the results of the simultaneous equations for family firms. Table IV shows that regardless of whether the dependent variable is ROA (EBITDA), ROA (NI), or Tobin's Q, the coefficients of family ownership are all positive and statistically significant. As shown in Table V, when family ownership is a dependent variable, the coefficients of ROA (EBITDA), ROA (NI), and Tobin's Q are also positive and statistically significant. This confirms the jointly endogenous relationship between family ownership and performance of firms. These two factors influence each other. The increase in family ownership improves performance, and better performance leads to higher family ownership.Empirical findings show that when ROA (EBITDA) and ROA (NI) are the performance indicators, the coefficient of family ownership is positive and the coefficient of the square of family ownership is negative. This result indicates that performance initially improves along with the increase in family ownership. When family ownership is approximately 30.41 and 30.44 per cent, ROA (EBITDA) and ROA (NI) reach their peak. However, afterwards, profitability (ROA) begins to drop accordingly with increasing family ownership. A non-linear relationship (inverse U-shaped curve) exists between family ownership and firm performance (profitability). When Tobin's Q is used as the performance indicator, firm performance (valuation) exhibits a significantly positive correlation with family ownership; however, it shows an insignificantly negative correlation with the square of family ownership. Therefore, determining the optimal family ownership to maximize a firm's market value is not possible.This result may be caused by the high volatility of the Taiwan stock market in our sample period. During this period, Taiwan was experiencing the severe acute respirotory syndrome (SARS) outbreak and the 2004 Taiwan presidential elections debacle. These two extraordinary events significantly influenced investor psychology, thereby generating remarkable fluctuations in the Taiwan Weighted Stock Index (TWSI). The percentages of difference between high and low points for TWSI are 45 per cent in 2002, 48 per cent in 2003, 35 per cent in 2004, and 42 per cent in 2005-2006. As argued by Demsetz and Villalonga (2001), Tobin's Q is buffeted more strongly by investor psychology in relation to forecasts of numerous world events. The absence of a non-linear relationship when firm performance is measured by Tobin's Q may be attributed to this phenomenon. Hence, we prefer to look at what management \"has accomplished\" rather than \"will accomplish\" in analyzing the effect of family ownership on firm performance3. Based on these results, family ownership of up to 30 per cent in a Taiwanese family firm is associated with better performance (profitability). This figure exceeds the average ownership level of 22.58 per cent observed in our sample. The finding also suggests the need to increase family shareholdings for listed family firms in Taiwan.Table IV shows that firm size is positively correlated and long-term debt ratio is negatively correlated with firm performance. Both signs are consistent with our expectations. Dividend yield carries a significantly positive sign, indicating that high-dividend stocks are preferred during periods of weak economy4. The relationship between institutional ownership and performance is statistically nonsignificant, suggesting that institutional investors undertake no active external monitoring. Efficient monitoring hypothesis does not exist in Taiwanese family firms. R&D carries a negative sign and is statistically significant with ROA. This result differs from those reported in US data (Morck et al., 1988; McConnell and Servaes, 1990); however, it is consistent with the study of Chen et al. (2003) on Japanese firms. Chen et al. (2003) offer possible explanations for the previously-mentioned results, proposing that a short timeframe makes reflection of R&D results in net incomes impossible. Therefore, the recognition of R&D costs as expenses lowers profitability. The marginal productivity of R&D is highly susceptible to the effects of economic conditions. When the economy struggles through a slowdown, the marginal productivity of R&D may be negative.Table V shows a negative correlation between long-term debt ratio and family ownership, suggesting that less internal monitoring occurs in family firms. The positive relationship between return volatility and family ownership indicates that volatility may increase the value of family ownership because uncertainty makes monitoring managerial contributions to firm performance much more difficult. Our study uncovers only weak evidence of a positive effect of market value on family ownership. Dividend yield has no effect on family ownership.\nConclusions: This study considered endogenous issues and used simultaneous equations to study the influence of family ownership on firm performance. Whether a profitability indicator (ROA) or a valuation indicator (Tobin's Q) is used, family ownership positively affects firm performance. Our findings elucidate why a family firm is one of the most important business development models in Taiwan and other Asian countries. Empirical results also show a jointly endogenous relationship between firm performance and family ownership. An increase in family ownership enhances firm performance, thereby driving family ownership even higher. The concentration of family ownership in Taiwan indicates that the wealth of a family is closely related to firm performance, in which the family has stronger incentive to maximize firm performance. Therefore, family ownership affects firm performance. Compared with other shareholders, family members have more internal information and can foresee the prospects of a given firm more easily. This advantage allows family members to make sound decisions on whether to reduce or increase their holdings. In other words, firm performance also influences the changes in family ownership.With regard to family-ownership levels that are most beneficial to firms, the results of our study show that the profitability of a firm (ROA) initially increases with an increase in family holdings, and reaches its peak when family ownership is approximately 30 per cent. However, profitability begins to decline when family ownership increases further. The relationship between firm profitability and family ownership appears to take on an inverse U-shaped curve. Therefore, if family ownership is maintained at approximately 30 per cent, the alignment between family interests and firm profitability reaches its highest level. At this point, family members have greater incentive to maximize the profitability of the firm through supervision and management, but fewer motives to entrench the profitability of the firm for the benefits of the family.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Using the panel data of 465 Taiwanese listed companies and taking into consideration endogeneity issues this paper aims to examine the influence of family ownership on firm performances.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The use of a panel data set encompassing a five-year period enables one to examine both cross-sectional and within-firm variations in the relationships between family ownership and firm performances. The paper also uses a simultaneous equation system to account for the endogeneity between family ownership and firm performances, and apply the quadratic equations to identify the percentage of family ownership that maximizes firm performance.\nFindings: - When either a profitability indicator (ROA) or a valuation indicator (Tobin's Q) is applied, the empirical results show that family ownership positively affects firm performance. The results also show that the profitability of a firm (ROA) first increases and then decreases with family ownership. In other words, when families have more than 30 per cent control of the firm, the potential for entrenchment and poor performance becomes greater.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first to examine the relationships between family ownership and firm performances, while simultaneously addressing the issue of endogeneity and identifying the optimal level of family ownership in Taiwanese firms. The finding that family ownership positively affects firm performance elucidates why a family firm is one of the most important business development models in Taiwan. Meanwhile, the finding that the percentage of family ownership should not exceed 30 per cent to avoid the occurrence of poor performance also suggests that excessive family shareholdings may not be necessarily healthy for a family firm in Taiwan.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Forecasting the development of wine tourism: a case study in Chile
|
[
"Wines",
"Tourism",
"Forecasting",
"Chile"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Wine tourism has been defined as \"visits or tours to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals and wine shows for which wine tasting and/or experiencing the attributes of a grape wine region are the prime motivating factors for visitors\" (Hall et al., 2000). Wine tourism in Australia, New Zealand, United States and South Africa has flourished (Carlsen, 2004; Mitchell and Hall, 2006). Chilean small and medium wineries face an opposite situation. First, the tourism industry in Chile is not as developed as the ones in the northern hemisphere or Australia and New Zealand. Chile has received 2.02 million foreign tourists in 2005 compared with 4.74 millions in Australia (UNWTO, 2006). Only 237,000 visitors have visited all Chilean wineries in 2005 compared to eight million in California, 5.3 million in Australia, 5.5 million in New Zealand or 5.2 million in South Africa (Mitchell and Hall, 2006; Table 6). In total, 67 per cent of the wine visitors to Chilean wineries were foreign tourists (Chilevid, 2006) compared to an average of 20 per cent in Australia and New Zealand (Mitchell and Hall, 2006). All figures clearly show an opposite situation between Chile and highly developed wine tourism countries.Five years have passed since Sharples (2002) offered a glimpse of a number of initiatives in Chilean wine tourism. During the last five years, Chilean wineries have developed infrastructure for wine tourism but the number of wine tourists is still small. In well-developed wine tourism regions, most tourists are domestic visitors and a substantial proportion comes from within or in close proximity to the wine region itself (Mitchell and Hall, 2006) rather than internationally. Moreover, Chile wine tourism will not benefit from an increase from foreign visitors alone since most of them are regional tourists, i.e. Argentina already has an important wine industry and Brazil tourists depend on favorable exchange rates. Therefore, the difficulty on increasing foreign visitors and the relative few local wine tourists suggest the importance on focusing on the development of local wine tourists in the Chilean market. The variables influencing wine tourism are wide ranging and complex, as Mitchell and Hall (2006) suggest, but we can group them in two main themes: wine tourism as product (infrastructure related issues) and winery visitors (size of the market, segments and behavior issues). Initially, the paper reviews aspects related to wine tourism as product. Second, this paper presents a forecast of Chilean wine tourism market size based on local tourists' behavior.\nChile wine tourism: a review of infrastructure aspects: Wine tourism as product is comprised by wineries, their staff and the exploitation of the setting where wineries are located through wine routes. Chile has 13 clearly identified wine regions located in a range of 1,000 km (see Figure 1), from North to South: Elqui Valley, Limari Valley, Aconcagua Valley, Casablanca Valley, San Antonio Valley, Maipo Valley, Cachapoal Valley, Colchagua Valley, Curico Valley, Maule Valley and the south region comprising Itata Valley, Bio Bio Valley and Malleco Valley (Knowles and Sharples, 2002). However, the majority of Chile's premium wines are made in the wine regions of Maule, Maipo, Aconcagua, Cachapoal and Colchagua, which are attractive destinations for the tourist market because of their closeness to Santiago, Chile's capital city and rich cultural aspects (Sharples, 2002). Six of the 13 wine regions have established a wine route: Aconcagua Valley, Casablanca Valley, Cachapoal Valley, Colchagua Valley, Maule Valley and Curico Valley (Sernatur, 2006). Maipo Valley is the most visited wine region with more than 116,000 visits in 2005 - 49 per cent of all visits, followed by Casablanca Valley with 21 per cent and Colchagua with 14 per cent approximately (Chilevid, 2006).Wineries' cellar door activities development and strategic positioning\nChile wine tourism: a review of tourist level aspects: International tourists arrivals into Chile (the only reliable data that exist about local tourism industry) have grown more or less steadily up to an approximate two million annually (UNWTO, 2006). However, half of foreign tourists are from neighboring countries (Peru, Bolivia and Argentina). Moreover, Argentina has a large wine industry which makes it a direct competitor to Chile in wine tourism for foreign long haul tourists, especially with favorable exchange rates.Most of wine tourists in Chile are foreigners (67 per cent of total tourists) according to the latest study in wine tourism (Chilevid, 2006). This figure is the opposite picture with regard to countries like Australia where only 25 per cent of wine tourists are international (Tourism Australia, 2005) or New Zealand with 20 per cent on average (Mitchell and Hall, 2006). The actual number of international tourists doing wine tourisms may look a good number, 9 per cent of the total international tourists visiting Chile, when compared with Australia where the percentage of international visitors to wineries is 10 per cent of total international visitors (Tourism Australia, 2005). However, the actual motivations of foreign visitors to visit a winery are generated because a visit to a winery is part of any traditional package offered to any visitor in Chile and the significant distances mean that foreign wine tourists essentially choose destinations close to Santiago like Concha y Toro, which is the largest winery in Chile.Therefore, the high percentage of foreign tourists in the wine tourism market, as well as the motivations of foreign tourists to visit destinations close to Santiago, imply the importance of focusing on the potential number of local wine tourists to sustain the diverse wine tourism initiatives established outside Santiago.Local wine tourist\nForecasting the development of wine tourism: This section presents a research study to identify the potential size of the market of domestic wine tourists and its development path. There are many studies that quantified wine visitation in terms of number of visitors (see Table 6 in Mitchell and Hall, 2006) but there is no agreement on a specific method. Forecasting the potential size of a market represents a different challenge than previous studies since forecasting implies a development path of future consumer behavior rather than capturing actual consumer behavior like the studies mentioned in Mitchell and Hall (2006). Therefore, the method employed and the results obtained will differ from previous studies in this area. Two parts comprise this section: the results of surveys employed to obtain the data for the forecasting model and an explanation of the forecasting model employed.Survey results\nConclusions: Developed wine tourism regions receive mostly local wine tourists, in some cases 80 per cent (Mitchell and Hall, 2006). In Chile, the percentage is only 30 per cent so there is ample room for domestic visitors development. The lack of historical data about wine visitors implies the need to look for methods that can help the industry to visualize the future size of the market. This paper presents a forecasting model to identify the future size of the local wine tourists market. To populate the model, I performed surveys to identify the approximate number of potential local wine tourists and their consuming behavior. The survey found that people would visit wineries only once so no further word-of-mouth would be generated hindering the development of the potential wine tourism market (see Figure 3). The forecasting model confirmed the ideas expressed in Dodd (1999), who suggested that winery managers should embrace relationship marketing to encourage repeat visitors and foster the development of word-of-mouth. However, this is not a simple process since winery managers must address a number of challenges explained in the following paragraphs.First, in the case that the visit to a winery is only part of an overall holiday in, or near to, a wine region, it is important to understand the context of the visit to the winery so as to really assess the existence of a wine tourist market (Carlsen, 2004). Focusing on this concept, Chile can combine wine with its natural beauties to conform a solid image as international tourism destination for European and North American tourists, but this approach may not be convenient for attracting local tourists who are able to return and repeat the visit to the region without visiting wineries. Therefore, winery managers should identify the dimensions of wine region equity that are driving the consumer preferences so they can tailor the benefits sought to each consumer lifestyle (Orth et al., 2005).Second, Mitchell and Hall (2004) found that an important percentage of domestic visitors to New Zealand wineries made a following visit in a short period after their visit. When compared with international standards, Chile appeared to have completed opposite figures. Chile wine tourism is considered mostly a wine testing only once event, except few wineries that incorporated restaurants. Well-crafted campaigns can encourage local tourists living in Santiago to visit wineries frequently by offering incentives and special events.Third, another important aspect is the efficiency of cellar door operations to satisfy visitors' expectations. While there are facilities and wine routes organized, this paper did not evaluate the actual visitors' perceptions about their experience. In order to promote return visits, it is essential that management engage in programs aimed at satisfying customers' experienced during visits (Jaffe and Pasternak, 2004; Correia et al., 2004, Getz and Brown, 2006; Thach et al., 2007; O'Neill et al., 2002), which is still an issue in the Chilean wine industry (Kunc, 2007).Finally, the visit to a winery should address the education of the visitor. Wine education plays a key role in converting the occasional wine drinker to a consumer who appreciate wine and drink more of it in the future, and well-developed tasting rooms help to deliver wine education and brand loyalty (Ali-Knight and Charters, 1999). However, education should be seen as part of an overall experience in the winery rather than a simple information transfer. A simple information transfer does not encourage visitors to return to the cellar, but when the visit is transformed into a good experience it will encourage repeated visits and confirm the behavior of a good percentage of the local tourists. The model confirmed the benefits for the whole industry if there are a good percentage of repeat visitors since they will spend more money on each visit (Dodd, 1999).To summarize, survey data suggests a large potential market size for wine tourism but wineries have to engage proactively to realize it. Since survey data showed that people forget about their wine experience, people will not generate word-of-mouth unless they are reminded through newsletters or receive incentives to go to the winery with friends again, as Figure 5 shows.Limitations and future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The number of wine tourists in Chile is still small even though investment in infrastructure, like cellars and wine routes, has been made in the last five years. A question is important to be answered at this point: is there a market for wine tourism in Chile, did the industry overestimate its potential? The lack of historical data impedes an evaluation of these questions. The purpose of this paper is to forecast the size of the local wine tourists market in Chile and provide with recommendations to its development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper consists of the application of a diffusion model to forecast development paths for Chilean wine tourism market. The model is populated with information obtained through surveys to those demographic segments identified as more closely involved with wine tourism based in Charters and Ali-Knight.\nFindings: - Chilean wine industry has been developing its infrastructure in wine tourism for a number of years, but the number of wine tourists is still very low. Behavioral factors like local consumers' behavior, especially the high level of forgetting (an average wine visitor will perform only one visit to a winery) that reduces the effect of word-of-mouth, hinders the development of wine tourists. Wineries should aim to maintain a constant level of awareness among wine tourists in order to obtain repeated visits and encourage word-of-mouth as suggested in Dodd.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Forecasting models depend on the variables employed. Consequently the results are affected by the certainty of the values of the variables, as well as their level of exactness. Even though surveys are employed to obtain the values of the variables for the model, there are no historical data to validate the results.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents a forecasting model to identify the development of wine tourism instead of only reporting actual or past results. Therefore, the paper adopts a forward-looking perspective for analyzing wine tourism market size differently than previous approaches (see Mitchell and Hall for a review). The model also supports policy recommendations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Opportunity recognition in sustainable entrepreneurship: an exploratory study
|
[
"Motivation",
"Sustainable entrepreneurship",
"Opportunity recognition",
"Prior knowledge",
"Entrepreneurial knowledge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Meet(ing) the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, para. 1) has become an important task for politicians, businesses, and consumers. Sustainable entrepreneurs are considered to play a crucial role in this regard (Brown, 2006; Hall et al., 2010; Homer-Dixon, 2006; Lovins et al., 2004; Vaitheeswaran, 2003), as their companies \"contribute to sustainable development by doing business in a sustainable way\" (Crals and Vereeck, 2005, p. 2). Sustainable entrepreneurs are not only concerned with making financial profits, but also with creating social and environmental value. They are therefore said to address the three Ps (\"People\", \"Planet,\" and \"Profit\"), or the triple bottom line (TBL), which are the axioms for businesses to equally consider financial, environmental, and social aspects of their business decisions and performance (Elkington, 1997).\nConceptual model and literature review: As outlined above, Patzelt and Shepherd (2011) propose a conceptual model and a set of propositions that suggest how sustainable entrepreneurs recognize opportunities in practice. According to this model, the recognition of sustainable opportunities is affected by prior knowledge of natural and communal environments; motivation for personal gain (perception of threat); motivation to develop gains for others (altruism); and moderated by entrepreneurial knowledge. This model is presented in Figure 1 and explained in further detail below.\nMethod: This study adopted a qualitative research approach consisting of semi-structured interviews with sustainable entrepreneurs. The reason for this choice was linked to the exploratory nature of this research and in consideration of the previously published research by Choongo et al. (2016) and Munoz and Dimov (2017), who empirically tested the conceptual model proposed by Patzelt and Shepherd (2011) using quantitative methods with disparate results.\nResults: As described in the previous sections, Patzelt and Shepherd (2011) suggest that recognizing opportunities for sustainable entrepreneurship is influenced by prior knowledge of natural and communal environments; motivation for personal gain (perception of threat); motivation to develop gains for others (altruism); and entrepreneurial knowledge. The interviews addressed each of these factors, and the results are presented in the following sections.\nDiscussion: As stated in the introduction, the research question addressed in this study is:\nConclusion: All in all, this study found substantial support for the model of Patzelt and Shepherd (2011) and furthermore identified some relevant details such as possible sources of prior knowledge of natural and communal environments and entrepreneurial knowledge. The findings lead to the following implications for policy and practice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The recognition of opportunities for sustainable development is considered to be an essential part of sustainable entrepreneurship, but studies that address this phenomenon are scarce. A conceptual model which aims to explain the factors that lead to the recognition of sustainable opportunities was proposed by Patzelt and Shepherd (2011), but published research that tests this model empirically is limited. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the sustainable entrepreneurship literature by empirically exploring Patzelt and Shepherd's conceptual model in order to shed light on how sustainable entrepreneurs recognize opportunities for sustainable businesses in practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a qualitative research approach to address the aims of the study. In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight sustainable entrepreneurs based in Berlin. The data were analyzed by means of thematic analysis.\nFindings: The findings indicate that sustainable entrepreneurs are influenced in their identification of sustainable opportunities by their knowledge of natural and communal environments, by their motivation to develop gains for themselves and others, and by entrepreneurial knowledge. These findings largely support the model proposed by Patzelt and Shepherd (2011). Furthermore, they extend this model by shedding light on some of the factors that comprise its components, as this study found that spending time abroad and socialization enhance entrepreneurs' knowledge of natural and communal environments; a desire to be self-employed, aspects of one's personality and one's personal circumstances are sources of motivation, while prior jobs and prior projects create entrepreneurial knowledge.\nOriginality/value: Only two other studies have empirically tested Patzelt and Shepherd's (2011) model, and these have led to disparate results. The first was conducted by Choongo et al. (2016), who did not find any evidence to support this model. The second was carried out by Munoz and Dimov (2017), who addressed the model partially. This paper therefore makes four major contributions. First, it is the first to offer preliminary empirical support for each component of Patzelt and Shepherd's (2011) conceptual model. Second, it extends their model by identifying some of the factors comprising its components. Third, it reflects on possible reasons why extant research has led to disparate findings. Fourth, it proposes avenues of research to resolve the unanswered questions arising from these studies. This paper therefore makes a contribution to the literature on sustainable entrepreneurship and serves as a stepping stone for further theory development and empirical research on sustainable opportunity recognition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Examining brand origin recognition accuracy in Indonesia
|
[
"Indonesia",
"Brand origin",
"Brand origin recognition accuracy",
"Foreign brands",
"Laptop",
"Local brands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Country of origin (COO) is one of the most essential extrinsic cues used by consumers in evaluating a brand or a product (Han and Terpstra, 1988; Magnusson et al., 2011; Roth and Romeo, 1992). Empirical research have indicated that COO affects consumer perception of product quality (Han and Terpstra, 1988; Laroche et al., 2005; Schooler, 1965; Steenkamp et al., 2003), consumer product evaluation and choice (Ahmed et al., 2004; Han, 1989; Johansson et al., 1985; Liu and Johnson, 2005), customer-based brand equity (Rappu et al., 2006; Sanyal and Datta, 2011), consumer attitude (Batra et al., 2000; Nijssen and Douglas, 2004; Sharma et al., 1995; Zhang, 1996), consumer preference (Agbonifoh and Elimimian, 1999; Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2004), and purchase intention (Dagger and Raciti, 2011; Good and Huddleston, 1995; Roth and Romeo, 1992; Steenkamp et al., 2003). Not only COO is considered one of the most popular research topics in consumer behavior, marketing, and international business (Herz and Diamantopoulos, 2013; Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2002; Peterson and Jolibert, 1995; Pharr, 2005; Wang et al., 2012), it was also suggested as an additional element of the marketing mix (Al-Sulaiti and Baker, 1998).\nLiterature review and hypotheses development: In making buying decisions, consumers often use secondary cues, such as COO, BO, distribution outlets, or an endorser of a brand, to build an association of the product or brand image (Keller, 2012). According to Johansson et al. (1985), COO refers to a country where the corporate headquarter of the company marketing the brand is located, regardless of the place in which the brand in question is manufactured. Samiee (1994) defined COO as the country in which a firm is associated. Other definitions include the country where the product was produced (COM), the country where the product was assembled (COA), or the country shown on the \"made-in\" label (Bilkey and Nes, 1982). Another concept emerged in the COO literature is COD, emphasizing the country where the design and development of the products took place (Nebenzahl et al., 2003/2004).\nResearch methods: The present study focuses on BORA and its relationships with brand evaluation and purchase intention of laptop brands in Indonesia. Balabanis and Diamantopoulos (2008) focused on BORA in the microwave oven category in the UK and recommended a study in another product category and country setting. Therefore, laptop was chosen as the product context in the present study for five reasons. First, a single product category was selected to \"minimize confounding effects in the consumer classification process emanating from differences in marketing practices, involvement, and other extraneous factors\" (Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2008, p. 42). Second, Indonesia is the largest laptop market in the Southeast Asia region, contributing to over a third of the 4.9 million units sold in the first three quarters of 2014 (GfK, 2014). Laptop purchases in Indonesia were dominated by students aged between 15 and 24 years (Grazella, 2013b). Similarly, young Indonesians (aged between 18 and 28 years) were the main buyers of personal computers (Grazella, 2013a). Therefore, laptop may represent a highly familiar product category. It is consistent with advice offered by Josiassen and Harzing (2008, p. 266) that \"high-quality research designs in the study of COO knowledge should only ask consumers for information on products that they would actually consider using.\" Third, it is considered as high involvement and durable goods where consumers base their purchase decisions not only on price, performance, quality, and salesperson advices, but also on brand image and BO. Fourth, laptop is a high-tech product, where consumers tend to use BO as an indicator of product quality and brand image. Fifth, there is a mix of both local and foreign brands in the product category. Also, the number of laptop brands available in the Indonesian market is relatively few, so it is feasible to cover in a survey.\nFindings and discussion: BORA\nConclusions and implications: The present study found support for one hypothesis. It can be concluded that consumers are more likely to misidentify than correctly identify a true BO. Both BORA scores for foreign and local brands were equally low, i.e. 31.21 and 22.82 percent, respectively. This finding is consistent with previous studies of Samiee et al. (2005) and Balabanis and Diamantopoulos (2008).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Brand origin (BO) has been suggested as an important determinant of brand evaluation and purchase intention. However, previous studies have indicated that consumers have limited knowledge and ability to recognize national origin of brands. The purpose of this paper is to assess brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) and its relationships with brand evaluation and purchase intention in the Indonesian laptop market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A convenient sample of 195 people in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta participated in the survey. They were given a list of 18 laptop brands (four local and 14 foreign brands) and were asked to identify their actual national origins.\nFindings: The study found that consumers are more likely to misidentify than correctly recognize a true BO. This limited ability also has contributed to the low BORA scores for both local and foreign brands. Brand evaluation was found to be positively correlated with purchase intention. However, the current study could only find partial supports for the relationship between BORA scores and brand evaluation as well as purchase intention.\nPractical implications: Many Indonesian consumers are unaware of the laptops' BO, whether it is foreign or local. Companies need to inform, educate, and/or remind consumers of their brand's true origin and avoid being associated with a weaker country image. Furthermore, despite all four Indonesian laptop brand names seem to use non-Indonesian names, only one brand gains a slightly better brand evaluation from favorable misclassification. It may suggest that the effectiveness of foreign branding strategy in the Indonesian laptop market is debatable.\nOriginality/value: This is one of the few studies examining BORA in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country and the largest laptop market in Southeast Asia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Data, information and knowledge in regional innovation networks: Quality considerations and brokerage functions
|
[
"Quality",
"Knowledge management",
"Information networks",
"Information brokers",
"Finland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: purpose and approach: The present techno-economic paradigm emphasises collective learning processes in generating innovations. Information is said to be the most important production factor and learning the most important process in today's world. At the regional level, a lot of focus has been put on regional innovation systems or regional milieux, where different kinds of actors are involved in innovative processes, profiting from the emerging externalities during the cooperation.In this study, the main focus is set on investigating data, information and knowledge quality as well as their relation to knowledge management in regional innovation networks. The research questions are:RQ1. What are the special characteristics of regional innovation networks in the context of data, information and knowledge?RQ2. How do explicit, tacit and self-transcending knowledge and related data and information interact within regional innovation networks?RQ3. How can a knowledge management framework be built for a regional innovation network?RQ4. How can quality of data, information and knowledge be taken into account within the knowledge management framework?RQ5. How could knowledge acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation processes (absorptive capacity) be aided in regional innovation networks by means of knowledge management?The present paper is primarily a theoretical undertaking discussing regional innovation networks and data, information and knowledge quality. In building the knowledge management framework, empirical experiences from regional innovation networks of Lahti region, Finland, were utilised.\nBackground: regional innovation networks and systems: Metafora: a regional innovation network - like a football team\nFrom data to knowledge and further: A brief look into the theoretical basis and distinction of data, information and knowledge remains to be taken to clarify the background. Definitions of information have followed two patterns, either:1. focused on information (and knowledge) being fundamentally different from data (which is called the hierarchical view); or2. emphasised that some knowledge is needed before data and information can be created.In many studies data, information and knowledge are used interchangeably (Melkas, 2004). Huang et al. (1999) note that in practice, managers tend to differentiate information from data intuitively.Data - numbers, for instance - are the factual content of information. Only meaningful information can be the basis for purposeful action. When data are put in a meaningful context and processed, they become information (Lillrank, 1997, 2003). Information transforms into a component of knowledge, when it is analysed critically and its underlying structure is understood in relation to other pieces of information and conceptions about how the world works (cf. Miller et al., 2001). Tuomi (1999), again, argues that information can be created only after there is knowledge. Information theories emphasise that information is a message's characteristic (Aberg, 2000). Wiio (1989) analysed the concept of information from the point of view of systems theory - as an act and a process.Between information and knowledge, there is also considerable conceptual unclarity. Some researchers emphasise that despite their difference, the relationship between information and knowledge is interactive (English, 1999; Huang et al., 1999). The situation is further complicated by different types of knowledge - explicit, tacit and self-transcending (see, e.g. Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Scharmer, 2001; Pierce et al., 2006).Scharmer (2001, pp. 68-69) introduced the concept of \"self-transcending\" knowledge, or \"tacit knowledge prior to its embodiment\". It is the ability to sense the presence of potential, to see what does not yet exist. Scharmer describes different types of knowledge with examples from quality management. When measuring outcomes of quality, managers need explicit knowledge. When improving process management, the overall focus is on knowledge in use - tacit knowledge. When improving qualities of thought and customer experience, self-transcending knowledge is needed. (Scharmer, 2001, p. 70.) It is thus a relevant concept within regional innovation networks.Drawing the lines between the various concepts is quite problematic even theoretically - not to talk about practice - but such discussions are crucial to form a basis for the integration of quality considerations into knowledge creation and management within regional innovation networks. For instance, within knowledge management, a clear distinction is traditionally made between explicit and tacit knowledge. These are not independent of each other - rather, they are mutually complementary, which is once again illustrated in the case study of this article.Those treating information and knowledge as different but relatively equal have not been particularly numerous until these days. One reason for the general confusion occurring in conceptual discussions may be caused by a \"chaining process\" that takes place in organisations (Miller et al., 2001). Some explicit knowledge may be treated as data by higher level processes. Explicit knowledge also may be sent to decision-makers who view it as information. Certain information may likewise be treated as data by higher level processes. Miller et al. emphasise that recognising and understanding this chaining process may contribute to perceiving the complexity of the field. The terminologies in question have been summarised as follows by Miller et al. (2001, p. 365):* Data: A representation of an object.* Information: The aggregation of data into something that has meaning (semantics) through interpretation by human or automated processes.* Knowledge: That which is derived and inferred from assimilating information against perceived context, experience or business rules.* Decision: A process for arriving at a solution to a problem, using knowledge to assess and judge information.* (Situational) awareness: The assessment of information into decisions and actions, guided by knowledge of the contextual domain.Quality issues for data, information and knowledge\nThe case study: The Lahti region\nDiscussion and conclusions: This article investigated:* special characteristics of regional innovation networks in the context of data, information and knowledge of different types;* interaction of the latter within regional innovation networks;* building of a knowledge management framework for a regional innovation network with considerations of quality of data, information and knowledge; and* aiding absorptive capacity in regional innovation networks by means of knowledge management.It thus responded to a need to study matters related to knowledge management and data, information and knowledge quality in such relatively new environments. A lot of emphasis has been put recently on regional innovation systems, where various kind of actors are involved in innovative processes. The approach in the present article was to discuss regional innovation networks and data, information and knowledge as well as research on them at a theoretical level. Thereafter, a knowledge management framework for a regional innovation network was introduced. The framework has been built utilising an existing innovation network of the Lahti region, Finland, as a pilot environment. The article showed how the framework developed is based on established knowledge management literature and practice.The discussion in the article confirms that - in addition to knowledge - data and information quality need to be addressed systematically in regional innovation networks. Conventionally, information quality has been described as how accurate information is, but in recent years, the view of it has widened considerably. It is intertwined with knowledge management and network management. This is, first, because knowledge controls and guides decision-making and other processes through assessment of information. Awareness, again - necessary for activities in future-oriented innovation networks - occurs only after both information and knowledge have been assessed and judged against situations and experience. Second, while it has been found that quality of information cannot be improved independently of processes that produced this information and of contexts in which information consumers utilise it, the same applies vice versa - contexts and processes of regional innovation networks, for instance, cannot be improved independently of quality of information - and of data and knowledge.The knowledge management framework described in this article incorporates, apart from information quality considerations, also future-oriented self-transcending knowledge as well as knowledge vision and knowledge assets. The framework is based on Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) work. They set their focus on \"knowledge conversion\" in networked innovation processes. Traditionally, knowledge management programmes and considerations have not been combined with considerations of the hierarchy of data, information and knowledge as well as their quality. It seems essential that knowledge management programmes of the future are combined with management of such quality - otherwise their foundation remains incomplete. The view of information quality in this article is mainly based on the so-called quality dimensions based approach advocated by, inter alia, Wang and Strong (1996).According to the practical experiences in the Lahti region, knowledge does not get absorbed between the two subsystems of the regional innovation system (generation and diffusion; application and exploitation) by itself. Following the theoretical discussions in the beginning of the article, the basic factors to be understood are that a regional innovation process is actually about: absorptive capacity in a very diversified environment (two sub-systems with Mode 2 knowledge production, weak ties and structural holes, etc.) setting demands for special measures of knowledge management in the innovation system that take into account quality issues related to data, information and knowledge. Without taking into account the above-mentioned factors, in this kind of an environment - following our metafora on football - \"the information and knowledge passes\" are prone to get too long and inaccurate to reach the receiver.However, a special feature of regional innovation networks is the need for these long passes over the playground. The difference in knowledge interests between the innovating partners is often so big that a special interpretation function is needed - \"information brokerage in the structural hole\". This is often done - or at least should be done - by intermediate organisations of the regional innovation system, such as regional science and technology parks as well as business development organisations and technology transfer organisations of universities and research centres.Emphasis in regional innovation networks needs to be on combining, on the one hand, loose innovation network development and, on the other hand, an explicit, systematic approach to planning and working on data, information and knowledge-related matters within the network. Specifications, careful planning and monitoring may not necessarily be possible, but some systematisation is vital in addition to innovative freedom. Even appointment of a \"chief information and knowledge officer\" for the network or its sub-process could be considered. This person would concentrate on planning and monitoring as well as keeping these topics in the actors' minds - but very importantly, without making this systematic approach an end in itself in the innovation environment.Limitations of the knowledge management framework developed will be assessed in future studies. The present article combines in a novel way research fields that have previously barely been combined - data, information and knowledge quality; knowledge management; and regional innovation networks. By doing this, it provides new insights into a societally important theme and shows possible avenues of further research. Innovation-related activities are not routine tasks, and it is therefore particularly important for them to be able to benefit from a comprehensive and good quality basis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to investigate data, information and knowledge in regional innovation networks. Emphasis has been put recently on regional innovation systems, where various actors are involved in innovative processes. The article responds to the need to study matters related to knowledge management and information quality in such environments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Regional innovation networks and data, information and knowledge as well as research on them are discussed at a theoretical level. An existing innovation network of the Lahti region, Finland, was utilised as a pilot environment when building the knowledge management framework that is introduced. The framework is based on established knowledge management literature and practice.\nFindings: - The results confirm that the aspects of data, information and knowledge need to be addressed systematically in regional innovation networks. They are intertwined with knowledge management and network management. The knowledge management framework introduced incorporates, apart from information quality considerations, future-oriented self-transcending knowledge as well as knowledge vision and knowledge assets. Considerations of absorptive capacity and information brokerage in the regional knowledge environment are emphasised.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The limitations of the framework will be assessed in future studies. This will also improve understanding of practical implications. Research implications are related to data, information and knowledge quality - as well as absorptive capacity between the two subsystems of the regional innovation system.\nOriginality/value: - The article combines in a novel way research fields that have previously barely been combined - information quality, knowledge management and regional innovation networks. It provides new insights into a societally important theme and shows possible avenues of further research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A different and simple approach for comparing sampling methods in quality control
|
[
"Statistical process control",
"AATS",
"ANSIC",
"ARL",
"Life-cycle costs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Shewhart (1930) introduced the quality control charts giving a simple, but powerful statistical tool, to assess and monitor the performance of a production process. However, the Shewhart type control charts for averages are slower than the CUSUM and EWMA charts to detect small and moderate changes in quality.\n2. Some assumptions about the system considered: Let T be a non-negative random variable expressing the lifetime of a system, that is, the time interval between the instant when the system begins to work on new state (may be after a possible repair) and the instant when the system fails. In this study we consider that T follows a Weibull distribution with probability density function given by:\n3. The FSI, VSI and PSI sampling methods: Let RL be the random variable that represents the number of samples needed to analyze before a false alarm or a failure, regardless the sampling scheme used. Then:\n4. A different approach for comparison sampling methods: In literature, traditionally, the performance comparisons of sampling methods are made through AATS. In this paper, and following the idea of Carmo (2004), we considered exactly the opposite: match the AATS of the reference method (the PSI method in this study) with the AATS of the method that we want evaluate.\n5. Discussion of results from an economic perspective: In this paper, a model adapted from the one used in Carmo (2004) and Rodrigues Dias (2009) is considered, based on a comprehensive economic approach presented in the literature, including some studies where it is considered the Weibull as the lifetime distribution, like in Banerjee and Rahim (1988) and Otha and Rahim (1997), but having always the practical usefulness in mind.\n6. Conclusions and future work: Besides the conclusions previously drawn, we can even infer that PSI is always more effective than the FSI methodology for systems with increasing hazard rates. For great magnitudes of the mean shifts, d1.75, the performance of the PSI method is always better.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the performance of a sampling method through the average number of samples drawn in control.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Matching the adjusted average time to signal (AATS) of sampling methods, using as a reference the AATS of one of them the paper obtains the design parameters of the others. Thus, it will be possible to obtain, in control, the average number of samples required, so that the AATS of the mentioned sampling methods may be equal to the AATS of the method that the paper uses as the reference.\nFindings: A more robust performance measure to compare sampling methods because in many cases the period of time where the process is in control is greater than the out of control period. With this performance measure the paper compares different sampling methods through the average total cost per cycle, in systems with Weibull lifetime distributions: three systems with an increasing hazard rate (shape parameter b=2, 4 and 7) and one system with a decreasing failure rate (b=0, 8).\nPractical implications: In a usual production cycle where the in control period is much larger than the out of control period, particularly if the sampling costs and false alarms costs are high in relation to malfunction costs, the paper thinks that this methodology allows us a more careful choice of the appropriate sampling method.\nOriginality/value: To compare the statistical performance between different sampling methods using the average number of samples need to be inspected when the process is in control. Particularly, the paper compares the statistical and economic performance between different sampling methods in contexts not previously considered in literature. The paper presents an approximation for the average time between the instant that failure occurs and the first sample with the process out of control, as well.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Looking at leaders: a conjoint analysis
|
[
"Research",
"Leadership",
"Leadership development",
"Assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Leadership remains one of the most talked about and written about areas of organisational life. However, it appears we are no closer to understanding leadership than we were thousands of years ago when leadership was first discussed in biblical and Egyptian texts (Bass, 1990). Leadership remains one of the most vexed areas of management research, with many unresolved problems (James, 2001). Indeed, Cole (1999) has argued that, despite decades of empirical research that has produced a mass of findings, we do not have an integrated understanding of leadership. Further, while few would deny the importance or the impact of leadership on organisational success, it is clear that many organisations find it difficult to provide strong leadership or to understand what their employees see as strong leadership.The issue has become even more important as today's organisations operate in increasingly complex environments in which there are fewer potential employees and people who are employed demand real career challenges and an appropriate work-life balance. In this environment, old leadership frameworks seem to be increasingly less useful. Consequently, a better understanding of the way in which employees (or followers) view leaders and leadership is an important first step in deciding on appropriate changes in leadership paradigms and development programmes and the present study attempted to obtain such an understanding by examining the value followers placed on a number of leader attributes that past research has suggested impact on leader effectiveness.A \"halo effect\" problem makes it difficult to determine the key attributes that affect followers' perceptions of their leaders as, often, a leader is seen as good at everything or good at nothing. This problem has been recognised in a number of other areas (especially in marketing) and a trade-off approach has been suggested in such cases, as it is likely to provide more useful insights than are the direct ratings tasks that are commonly used in research (Aaker et al., 1995) and, indeed, are the most common approach leadership researchers use to obtain data (Lord et al., 1978; Singer and Singer, 1990; Bass et al., 2003; Sosik, 2005).It was therefore decided to examine the usefulness of a trade-off approach when looking at leadership. A trade-off approach, often undertaken using conjoint analysis methods (Green et al., 2001), provides information about the importance of the (in this case, leadership) dimensions included in an analysis and identifies how people trade off between these dimensions. The method makes it impossible for people to assign high weights to all aspects, as is often the case when people are asked to rate objects (in this case, leaders) on a set of Likert-type scales. By forcing followers to choose between a set of leadership dimensions and levels (or aspects) of those dimensions, the trade-off approach estimates the importance followers place on each attribute and can provide additional insights into the way leaders are evaluated.However, there is a challenge even before setting up such a study, as the mass of information on leadership must be examined in some way in order to choose the aspects that are the essence of leadership as, otherwise, it would be impossible to determine the leadership dimensions to include in a trade-off analysis. Thus, the present study was undertaken in two phases. The first phase used a qualitative approach to better understand the dimensions that might be included in the second phase. In the second phase, a conjoint analysis approach was used to understand the importance followers attached to these leadership attributes and how they traded off between them. The process through which this was done is discussed in subsequent sections. However, before doing this, as conjoint analysis, the method used for this purpose, has not been previously been used in leadership research, the method is discussed in more detail in the following section.\nConjoint analysis: Conjoint analysis has been widely used in marketing to find out how buyers make trade-offs when considering purchase decisions (Green et al., 2001). While conjoint analysis has also been used in a number of service industries, particularly health care (Gaeth et al., 1999; Markham et al., 1999; Ryan and Farrar, 2000), hospitality (Hu and Hiemstra, 1996), education (Baker and Mcgregor, 2000; Soutar and Turner, 2002), distribution (Wetzels and De Ruyter, 2000) and total quality management (Gustafsson et al., 1999), the technique has not been used previously in the leadership area. However, it is an attractive alternative as it enables an exploration of the trade-offs followers make when they assess their leaders.Conjoint analysis assumes that people do not evaluate alternatives one attribute at a time. Rather, they are assumed to evaluate a bundle of attributes simultaneously (Beall and Perttula, 1991), which means we need to assess people's decision making processes in different ways. Conjoint analysis enables such evaluations to be examined and provides a way to extend prior leadership research as past research has suggested respondents would not, or could not, discriminate between leadership attributes when they were asked in a traditional Likert-type scale way (Ridley et al., 1998).\nThe research questions: As already noted, the aim of the present study was to identify the leadership dimensions that followers believed were important in the performance of their leaders. More specifically, the following research questions were examined:RQ1. Do followers trade-off between attributes when making evaluations of their leaders?RQ2. If so, what are the relative importances given to various leadership attributes?RQ3. What is the \"value\" of a respondent's current leader?The study that was undertaken to answer these questions is discussed in the subsequent section.\nThe present study: As already noted, the present study attempted to examine leadership in a different way by using a conjoint approach to see whether followers' trade-off patterns could be estimated. As with all conjoint studies, four major steps were undertaken within the study, namely:1. A relevant set of attributes and levels (or aspects) for each of the attributes is identified, in this case through a preliminary qualitative phase that is discussed later in this section. From this process a set of hypothetical profiles can be developed that people can evaluate.2. As this usually results in a very large (some hundreds) number of profiles, an orthogonal experimental design is used to reduce the number of alternatives that respondents needed to assess to a manageable number.3. The set of profiles suggested by the design is presented to respondents and they are asked to indicate their preferences for each of the profiles within the set.4. Conjoint analysis is then used to estimate respondents' part-worth utilities for the various aspects of the attributes and, from these utilities, the relative importance they attached to the various attributes is determined (Dubas and Strong, 1993).The set of attributes and levels was developed through an extensive literature review and from three focus groups that included participants with expertise in management and leadership. More than 200 references of mostly contemporary research and views of leadership were examined to identify the themes and constructs that are central to modern business leadership.Focus groups, which included business leaders and practitioners, were also used as they were seen as an effective way to reduce the large number of leadership attributes evident in the literature review to a number that was practical and relevant to contemporary leadership. Each focus group was given an initial list of 27 attributes (shown in the Appendix) that was obtained from suggestions made by seven prominent leadership writers and researchers. Six of the writers are internationally recognised, while Alistair Mant (1997), is a well-known Australian leadership researcher. The other writers from whom suggestions were taken were Kouzes and Posner (1987), Kotter (1990), Conger (1999), Bass and Avolio (1990), Bennis and Nanus (1985), and Handy (1999). Each of the attributes were summarised with a short explanation to ensure there was a common understanding of each attribute and the groups were asked to reduce the list to between six and eight overall attributes that summed up these suggestions. In doing this, participants were asked to consider future leaders, to take a follower's perspective and to focus on behaviours that can be changed, rather than on people's innate characteristics.As a result of the literature review and the focus group discussions, a set of eight attributes with varying levels was developed, which led to a possible 576 different hypothetical leader profiles. Clearly, people cannot be asked to assess all of these profiles but an orthogonal (uncorrelated) and balanced (each level appears an equal number of times) experimental design can be used \"to reduce the number of stimulus descriptions that a respondent sees to a small fraction of the total number of (possible) combinations\" (Green et al., 2001, pp. S57-8). Such designs enable each respondent's parameters to be estimated on the basis of their responses to a small subset of all the potential profiles and these designs are widely used in conjoint analysis studies (Mankila, 2004). In the present study, such an orthogonal design was obtained from Bretton-Clark's (1993) \"Conjoint Designer\" programme, which reduced the leader profiles presented to respondents to a manageable number (18 profiles in this case) and respondents were asked to assess these profiles, as outlined subsequently.The questionnaire\nThe results obtained: As noted previously, conjoint analysis estimates part-worth utility estimates for each respondent and those with low adjusted R2 statistics (less than 0.30) were excluded from subsequent analysis. Those responses with an adjusted R2 score of less than 0.30 did not provide ratings in line with the underlying conjoint model. Consequently, 225 of the 342 obtained responses were used in this phase of the analysis. Within these 225 responses, the adjusted R2 statistics ranged from the minimum of 0.30 to a maximum of 0.94, with a mean adjusted R2 of 0.59.The part-worth utility scores\nConclusions: The importance attached to the various leader attributes and attribute levels can be seen in the estimated part-worth utilities. The results support the usefulness of conjoint analysis in leadership research as the results provided a clear picture of the way followers perceived their leaders. The favourable responses for the positive levels for each dimension were expected but, given the newness of this approach in the leadership field, it provided valuable validation about these attributes.The results from the two leadership attributes with three levels were particularly interesting. The motivation dimension included a level without direct leader action, as followers were left to determine their own actions. This position was seen by respondents as more positive than a discouraging approach, which was the least preferred approach, but it was less positive than inspiring and empowering followers. This suggests the saying that, \"if you don't have a good thing to say, then doesn't say anything at all\" is wise advice.The communication dimension also had three levels, but provided a very different result. Infrequent communication and communication on an as needs basis were seen as about equally negative, suggesting infrequent and less than open communication were seen as equally bad leadership behaviours. More communication was better, with clear, two-way and open communication being seen as the most preferred option.It was found that many respondents did not seem to follow the suggested model that underlay the conjoint design as their responses did not fit very well, with adjusted R2 values of less than 0.30.The average score for current leaders was of 4.51 out of a possible ten, which is less than half way up the scale, suggesting opportunities for improvement. While the average score is low, there were some very good results, which opens the opportunity for further research into those leaders who scored very highly to understand how they behave as leaders. This is an important outcome and should be considered when interpreting the other results. It is conceivable that the trade-offs made by this group could be different to people who scored their leaders more highly, although there was sufficient variation within the present sample to suggest that this might not be the case.More than one-third of respondents indicated that their current leaders allowed followers to pursue conflicting goals, had poor knowledge of the tasks required and were mistrusted by followers. Similarly, less than one-half of the respondents felt their leaders inspired and empowered or maintained clear two-way communication. These are worrying results, especially when put alongside the earlier results that indicated trust, motivation and communication were the most important attributes. Respondents clearly indicated their preferences and have flagged a significant failing on the part of their leaders to deliver against these preferences.Despite this pessimistic view of current leaders, and as noted earlier, the distribution of current leader value was normally distributed. Some leaders were seen as exemplary by their followers, with high scores across all of the eight dimensions, while others were rated at the opposite extreme, with the lowest possible score across all of the dimensions. Although a spread of scores was anticipated, it was expected that, given respondents came from organisations willing to invest in their professional development, results would have been more positive than negative. It would be reasonable to suggest organisations willing to send their staff to training and development programmes at AIM would have better trained managers and leaders and would have a better understanding of the issues that influence leadership effectiveness.If this is true, followers' perceptions of their leaders in the general business community must either be exceptionally low, or the level of sophistication of the organisations understanding of leadership does not have a direct effect on the behaviour of leaders or followers' perceptions. Further research needs to be undertaken to explore this issue.One of the most pleasing outcomes of the research was the usefulness of the conjoint analysis approach, which overcame difficulties found in earlier research, in which respondents often do not, or cannot, discriminate between leadership attributes and evaluate their leaders as \"all\" or \"nothing\". By forcing respondents to choose between attributes, the current research focused attention on a subset of attributes as being important. This does not dismiss other attributes as unimportant, but the analysis allowed greater emphasis to be placed on some attributes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Conjoint analysis is a useful research technique, but has not been used in the leadership area. This study aims to examine its relevance in exploring the trade-offs followers make about leaders and the value of the leadership attributes examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Eight leader attributes were obtained from three focus groups. Past research and a sample of followers indicated their preferences for a number of leader profiles developed from the attributes, as well as assessing their present leaders on the same attributes. This enabled an estimation of the trade-offs followers made in assessing leaders and the computation of a value \"score\" for their leader.\nFindings: - The study finds that participants traded off leader attributes sensibly, providing useful information about the attributes' value. Inspiration, trust and communication were the most valued leader attributes. However, most leaders were not viewed positively.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Respondents were participants in development programmes, which may have impacted on the responses, but the results suggested the approach had merit. Research with more general samples of followers and a wider range of leadership topics is needed.\nPractical implications: - Future development programmes should focus on the \"valuable\" attributes and organisations also need to consider such attributes when selecting and evaluating leaders.\nOriginality/value: - This paper uses a conjoint approach that has not been used in the leadership area. The results provide additional insights into the way followers view leaders and enabled a leader \"score\" to be computed, giving insights into the state of leadership within the group from which responses were obtained.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Can vague brand slogans promote desirable consumer responses?
|
[
"Advertising",
"Brands",
"Persuasiveness",
"Meta-model",
"Precise",
"Slogans",
"Vague"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\n1. Introduction: Slogans - phrases singled out for emphasis in advertisements - have been used extensively since modern brand messaging began. At their best, brand slogans command attention. Ideally, slogans inspire lasting impressions and favorable memories about specific attributes or values delivered by the associated brand (Brierley, 2002). There was a time when announced changes in brand slogans could actually materially impact stock valuations for sponsoring firms (Mathur and Mathur, 1995). Carefully framed brand slogans often close print advertisements (Lamons, 1997). Typically, slogans are part of creative messaging aimed at building branding power or recall. These creative messages are developed either in-house or through external agencies.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Theoretical background\n3. Identifying vagueness in brand slogans: An initial consumer-oriented brand population was developed by perusing various Web sites, magazines and newspapers with the intent of identifying and capturing 2,000 unique brands over a six-month period during 2012-2013. One of the main sources of the slogan collections is the Web site of \"database of advertising slogans\" (Texart, 2011). This source has offered the categorization of the brands' products which was also used as the main categorization of products in the current study. After a further assessment was conducted by the two authors themselves, 569 brands were removed from further analysis because they appeared duplicative of other brands. At that point, a content analysis of the remaining 1,441 consumer-oriented brands was conducted to evaluate and classify the presence of vagueness in the print slogans.\n4. Hypothesized relationships: Despite the presumed disadvantages of vague brand messages, utilization of purposefully vague slogans may actually enhance brand recall. People use words to achieve specific purposes in accordance with two basic language principles: cooperation and least (lowest possible) effort. Consequently, exposure to the same \"word text\" often inspires different interpretations among different consumers (Fuertes-Olivera et al., 2001).\n5. Methodology: 5.1 Study 2\n6. Analyses and results: 6.1 Covariates\n7. Discussion: The last two studies (Study 2 and 3) yielded three discrete values. First, this research generates novel insights about print advertising slogans, a traditional topic that remains relevant to contemporary theorists and practitioners alike. Specifically, this study produces original theoretical insights about how and why several desirable branding outcomes are likely to result when vague, rather than precise, advertising slogans are deployed under certain manageable conditions. These conditions relate to the word length of slogans. This study also suggests that theorists investigating the effects of vague or precise advertising slogans might benefit from enlisting Bandler and Grinder's (1976) meta-model (hereafter, \"the model\") in their efforts. The model proved useful in terms of its ability to capture the genuine and complete meanings of brand slogans. The model, likewise, demonstrated considerable utility in terms of its ability to explain whether recipients will deem a given slogan as vague or precise. Thus, the model should prove useful in contexts where either theorists or practitioners sought to purposefully develop vague or precise brand slogans. The model similarly yielded useful insights about why and how three desirable communication outcomes (i.e. enhanced cognitive responses, more favorable brand attitudes and greater slogan persuasiveness) were and could be generated. Specifically, the model proved useful in terms of its ability to predict - subject to manageable \"precise versus vague and longer versus shorter slogan word-count\" conditions - the cognitive, attitudinal responses of recipients, as well as the degree to which slogans are likely to persuade them.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects associated with the strategic use of vague, as opposed to precise, advertised brand slogans on various consumer responses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A content analysis study was conducted to explore the pattern of vagueness in advertising slogans from 1,441 consumer-oriented brands. Based on the resultant delineation/definition of vagueness, two experimental studies followed. Vignette advertising slogans were manipulated to achieve different level of vagueness. The initial 2 x 2 factorial between subjects design engaged vagueness level of brand slogans and consumers' need for cognition as factors. Brand recall functioned as the dependent variable. The second experiment featured another 2 x 2 factorial design that used vagueness level and length of brand slogan as factors. Brand attitude, persuasiveness and purchase intention functioned as dependent variables.\nFindings: Vagueness level of advertising/branding slogans did not significantly affect brand recall. Interactions between vagueness level and length of advertisement slogans exercised significant effects on evoked thought, brand attitude and persuasiveness but not on purchase intention. At net, this study generated original theoretical and managerial insights about how and why desirable branding outcomes can be generated by managing the vagueness and word count of brand slogans, and a platform from which future research on this topic could be based.\nResearch limitations/implications: First, the sample was limited to the southwestern USA. Second, in the slogan vignettes that were used, other cues were deliberately eliminated. A brand slogan essentially devoid of other cues may have been perceived as less realistic by respondents, thus reducing the relevance of their responses. However, a similar tradeoff always exists between more realistic states and controlled conditions.\nPractical implications: This study produces original theoretical and managerial insights about how and why several desirable branding outcomes are likely to result when vague, rather than precise, advertising slogans are deployed under certain manageable conditions. Each insight just referenced ensues from a study that itself was grounded in an extensive content analysis of contemporary print advertising slogans. This content analysis generated a substantial amount of practical and actionable insight about the treatment and use and management of slogans. This study demonstrates that the vagueness, precision and/or word count of slogans can be manipulated in ways that yield three communication outcomes that redound directly to the marketing interests of brand and advertising managers.\nOriginality/value: The findings provide unique insight into how vagueness level of advertising slogans can be managed and how such a level can affect consumers' perceptions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The structural characteristics of innovation ecosystem: a fashion case
|
[
"Creative industries",
"Open innovation",
"Social capital",
"Ecosystem",
"Brokerage effect"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper aims to provide the empirical evidence of interaction mechanism in open innovation system specific to aesthetic innovation in the creative sector. Strategic alliance and social capital are key theoretical underpinning of this research. This is a response to previous research stating that the link between open innovation and social capital is underdeveloped despite the line of inquiry regarding strategic alliance from a network perspective drawn substantial research attention (West et al., 2014), as well as a follow-up theoretical inquiry regarding developing linkage between open innovation and innovation ecosystems (Adner, 2006).\n2. Literature review: This section aims to examine the existing line of inquiry regarding the structural interactions between innovation creator and innovation seekers, as well as the negotiation role of a broker in the context of open innovation.\n3. Methodology: This research intends to analyse the inter-organisational level and focusses on beyond-dyadic relations between the ego and its main imitator. The main objective here is to explore the mechanism of innovation creation and seeking between these two actors in a highly creative environment. Network research spans multiple disciplines and manifold levels of analysis (Borgatti and Foster, 2003). At the individual level, studies of how social networks influence individual creativity have been conducted in the fields of sociology, psychology and management research (Burt, 2004; Perry-Smith, 2006). Proceeding next to the group level, management scholars have investigated how social network structure within and beyond organisations influences or facilitates innovation performance (Rass et al., 2013). Prior research has also scoped its analysis unit within organisations and suggested that more innovations can be produced when organisational divisions occupy central network positions that provide better access to new knowledge developed by other units (Tsai, 2001). Finally, at the inter-organisational level, strategic management research has explored how the network structure of strategic alliance influences firm innovation (Schilling and Phelps, 2007).\n4. Result: The result of this study identifies the structural interaction mechanism between aesthetic innovation creators and seekers in the open innovation system, as well as suggests the role of a broker in negotiating such relationship.\n5. Discussion: The aim of this study is to provide better understanding of the interaction mechanism in the open innovation system, with particular focus on the relationship between innovation creator and innovation seekers via the brokerage effect. Extending previous research findings with implication focussing on technological innovation (Faems et al., 2010; Miles and Green, 2008; Stoneman, 2010), this research suggests an alternative interaction mechanism derived from the aesthetic innovation endeavour. The theoretical contribution of this paper adds to the line of inquiry regarding the structural dimension of the open innovation system and suggests a critical role of a broker in realising a one-way information diffusion from innovation creators to innovation seekers at the system level.\n6. Conclusion: This study draws its research attention to aesthetic innovation and contributes to the understanding of the implicit innovation-imitation relationship embedded in the open innovation system with particular focus onto the structural construct. Empirical evidence from this study provides insights into how aesthetic innovations are generated within the open innovation system and widen the application of the network theory to a wider sector beyond technological innovation. The result demonstrates complex interaction mechanism which comprises innovation flows beyond dyadic, bidirectional co-creation. Given the asymmetric flow evident in the findings, this research highlights the controlling function of a broker when it comes to open innovation realisation and the associated negative effect on knowledge spillover that may result from a broker's role in negotiating relationship from a bridging view.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of open innovation mechanism specific to aesthetic innovation. Prior research have drawn its research attention to technological innovation and focussed on the biopharmaceutical and technological sectors as the main research contexts. Thus, to gain a wider picture of the structural characteristics of innovation ecosystem, this paper aims to complement the existing technological-centred literature and provides understanding of aesthetic innovation by focussing on exploring the role of actors and intermediaries in either facilitating or inhibiting innovation in the creative sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is an exploratory study and the qualitative method was employed. With aim to explore aesthetic innovation in the creative sector, this research grounded its context in the UK designer fashion sector, which is part of the creative industries. Data were collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with respondents being purposely selected so as to ensure representativeness. A wider range of participants within the designer fashion sector was covered. Such multiple-sourced data collection approach allowed this research to triangulate data so that research trustworthiness was enhanced.\nFindings: The result suggests the role of a broker in beyond traditionally facilitating knowledge exchange. This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the critical role of a broker in shaping the open innovation mechanism when it comes to aesthetic innovation. A broker in fact occupies a strategic position that allows it to negotiate relationships among the connected organisations and thus to govern the interaction mechanism of the innovation ecosystem as a whole. Given the empowered broker in such setting, the relationship between innovation creators and innovation seekers is controlled by a broker, which leads to risk that an innovation creator may not fully appropriate the value that it creates.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is its specific context, that is, the UK designer fashion industry. Such focus limits the scope of generalisation particularly its application to the entire creative sector. Thus, it is suggested that future research may consider to explore other creative industries so that the understanding of the open innovation mechanism from a structural perspective applied to aesthetic innovation can be enhanced.\nOriginality/value: This paper outlines the structural mechanism of open innovation applied to aesthetic innovation. The result contributes to the literature by complementing the findings derived from technology-centred research. Also, empirical evidence of this study is particularly of value to policy makers in the aspect of creative sector development. The suggested implications provide strategies of innovation ecosystem that could benefit individual actors involved in this open innovation setting and ensure prosper of the sector as a whole.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Are altruistic leaders worthy? The role of organizational learning capability
|
[
"Leadership",
"Organizational performance",
"Altruism",
"Altruistic leader behaviours",
"Organizational learning capability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: At the end of the last century, most extant leadership theories assumed a hedonistic leader, rather than an altruistic one (House and Aditya, 1997). The concept of altruism was rarely associated with the organizational world, mainly due to the competitive environment in which firms tend to operate, and the capitalist, individualist and Protestant roots on which they were based (Kanungo and Conger, 1993).\n2. Literature review and hypothesis: 2.1. Altruistic leader behaviors\n3. Research methodology: 3.1. Data collection\n4. Results: 4.1. Descriptive statistics and psychometric properties of the measurement scales\n5. Conclusions: The study of organizational learning capability has grown in importance over recent years. However, one of the key issues for organizations has received little research attention, namely, how to generate environments that have a high capacity for organizational learning. Perez Lopez et al. (2005, p. 239) suggest it would be useful to study the influence that variables such as organizational structure or leadership have on organizational learning. Although in recent years some studies have linked leadership with organizational learning (e.g. Garcia Morales et al., 2006), few research has addressed the concept of altruistic leader behaviors (e.g. Sosik et al., 2009), which has received scant mention in the literature (e.g. Singh and Krishnan, 2008) despite its importance in a number of leadership styles, such as transformational or servant leadership, and its relevance today as an alternative to the egotistic leader.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between altruistic leader behaviors, organizational learning capability and organizational performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The sampling frame consists of several databases or listings of business that consider people as a key element of the organization and are considered by their employees to be good firms to work for or organizational environments where human resources management has high priority (n=251). The authors use structural equation modeling to test if the relationship between altruistic leader behaviors and organizational performance is mediated by organizational learning capability.\nFindings: Results suggest that organizational learning capability fully mediates between altruistic leader behaviors and organizational performance. Thus, organizational learning capability plays a key role in explaining how altruistic leader behaviors affect organizational performance, essentially because it facilitates the creation of a creative, participatory and dialogue-based environment that promotes organizational learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: The database used in the study is very heterogeneous. Future research might delimit the database by organization size or sector. Qualitative studies may also improve our understanding of the relationships studied and enable other concepts to be included.\nPractical implications: This study provides evidence of the positive relationship between altruistic leaders and performance. However, recruiting and fomenting altruistic leaders is not sufficient on its own to improve performance, and should be accompanied by implementing other facilitating factors of organizational learning such as dialogue or experimentation.\nOriginality/value: In recent years some studies have linked leadership with organizational learning. However, this is one of the first studies to concentrate on altruistic leader behaviors as such, a concept that has received scant mention in the literature despite its importance in a number of leadership styles, and its relevance today as an alternative to the egotistic leader. The authors offer empirical evidence of the role of altruistic leader behavior as an antecedent of organizational learning capability and subjective measures of performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Unlocking library search committees at ARL public universities: Techniques and best practices for getting hired
|
[
"Academic libraries",
"Employment",
"Hiring practices",
"Job seeking",
"Negotiating",
"Search committees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and Literature Review: Applying for academic librarianship positions can be challenging. In a study analyzing job advertisements posted to the American Libraries Association Joblist, Yang et al. (2016) found that 62 per cent of the jobs posted from 2009 to 2014 were positions originating in academic and college libraries. After a position is posted and accumulates applicants by the submission deadline, the job advertisement is closed, and the applications are ready for review.\nApplication materials: all about the candidate: The job seeking process can be time-consuming and stressful. Tailoring a cover letter to the position announcement can be challenging. The applicant should ensure each qualification of the position description is addressed. Some institutions prefer brevity so a one-to two-page cover letter will be sufficient, while others may entertain multi-page cover letters for senior-level positions. Candidates should identify why a position description would be of interest when compared to any other job. Above all, the applicant's cover letter should emphasize his or her fitness for this position.\nApplication materials evaluation: comparing candidates: Cover letters and CVs are important application materials that help the search committee determine which applicants have met the minimum qualifications of the job announcement. The success of an application throughout the process is determined by the information included in the cover letter and CV. Search committees refrain from making jumps in logic or filling in the blanks when reviewing application materials. Search committees make their determinations based on the information provided. If you do not discuss your qualifications, your application may not move to the next hiring phase. Some search committees may use a rubric to establish ratings to help distinguish the required and desired qualifications of the candidates (Figure 1).\nFirst-round screening interviews: surviving the first cut: After all the application materials have been reviewed by the members of the search committee, candidates regarded as the best fit for the position will receive an invitation to participate in a screening interview. Such interviews are often a traditional telephone call, but video technology (e.g. Skype) is becoming more prevalent. Most search committees will have prepared a list of questions to be asked of all candidates. At many institutions, the interview process is exactly the same for all applicants to ensure fair treatment. The search committee will be using questions to gather additional information from you that may not have been included in your application materials. Schedule a time and place for your screening interview in a quiet place, with no background noise or distracting objects behind you if doing a video interview. Ensure that your connection is clear and the search committee can hear you. Have a contact number in case you are disconnected.\nCampus visit: in-person interview: An individual invited to campus is one of only a few people who have made it to this stage in the interview process. This invitation should help build confidence in the applicant. Once they have made it to this stage, the likelihood of getting an offer is closer. Search committees invite only those who might be a successful candidate and future colleague. This interview phase intensifies the scrutiny of the applicant's experience and skills so it is in the best interest of the candidate to be well prepared. At Association of Research Library (ARL) institutions, candidates should expect at least one full day of interview, which will likely include meals, meetings and usually a presentation (Figure 2). Other types of libraries may prefer an abbreviated schedule and choose to use a multi-day schedule for only highly placed positions. While executive search firms can be used in a variety of environments, this process is less common within academic librarianship recruitment.\nReceiving an offer: expectations and negotiations: Following the on-campus interviews, the search team will meet to review the feedback from colleagues and references and then formulate a recommendation for the library dean or director. If you are contacted about the position, ask yourself if you really want this position, at this institution, in this town. If no, thank the committee for the opportunity and let them know you have decided to withdraw your name from consideration. If yes, then listen to the entire offer and make sure you understand everything included and write it down. Let them know you are interested in this position. Ask any additional questions you may have about the position, institution or benefits, and request some time to consider the opportunity. Always ask if the offer is negotiable. The institution expects that you will want to negotiate the initial offer but will not share that information unless asked directly. In most cases, you do not need to provide an answer immediately if you will accept the initial offer or not. Depending on the desired timeline for the start date of the position, you can ask for a day up to a week to consider the offer. Plan to speak again after you have had time to consider.\nConclusions: As candidates navigate the search committee process, the recruiting institution wants the candidates to be successful. Seeking a candidate who will be the \"best fit\" is essential to the library's time and commitment they have put into reviewing applicants. Doing research at every stage of the application process will assist job seekers in gaining knowledge and relating to the institution's primary goals in recruiting for the potential position. If selected for interviews, the candidate needs to prepare questions to demonstrate genuine interest about the position and hiring department. Candidates need to remember that the search process is time-consuming and can take several months. Institutions often allot several weeks or months to coordinate schedules for in-person interviews.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer insights into the hiring process for candidates seeking entry-level and mid-range librarian positions at ARL public university libraries. Whether a recent librarian graduate, a seasoned librarian seeking a different academic institution or a librarian transitioning into academia from a different library environment, an understanding of how search committees function and the importance they contribute to identifying the best candidate can be beneficial to any job seeker.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper offers universal best practices, techniques and \"keys\" to unlocking the secrets of the recruitment process from the candidate's perspective to help librarians seeking employment in an Association of Research Libraries (ARLs) public university environment. The scope of this paper is for entry level and mid-range librarians, but some ARL's do use executive search firms for upper level administrative positions.\nFindings: This paper describes the search process, offers insiders' perspectives and provides techniques along with best practices on how to be a successful applicant and candidate.\nPractical implications: As experienced professionals who have served on search committees, this paper explains the \"keys\" to best practices and how to enhance one's resume and curriculum vita.\nOriginality/value: This paper walks potential job candidates through the process of how to apply and what to expect during an ARL Library Search Committee application review.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Do they stay or do they go? A longitudinal study of intentions to leave and exclusion from working life among targets of workplace bullying
|
[
"Bullying",
"Employee turnover",
"Norway",
"Employee behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It has often been assumed that bullying is a precursor of turnover as well as subsequent exclusion from working life, even though few studies have investigated these assumptions explicitly. For example, Leymann (1992, 1996) claimed that bullying at work lead to exclusion from working life, where those heavily exposed is forced to leave the workplace, be it through sick leave, disability pension, discharge or relocation. Alternatively, the victim will experience his or her working conditions as so difficult that he or she decides to leave \"voluntarily\". The latter may involve internal relocation, as well as external relocation through change of employer. Thus, we may expect bullying at work to lead to different types of exclusion, be it from one's current position, from the organisation as such, or from working life in general.In line with Leymann's (1992, 1996) claim, that bullying at work leads to exclusion from working life through health impairment, several studies have documented that being exposed to bullying at work is related to health problems like psychosomatic symptoms (Einarsen et al., 1996; LeBlanc and Kelloway, 2002), anxiety and depression (Einarsen et al., 2003; Hansen et al., 2006; Mikkelsen and Einarsen, 2001), and even symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (Leymann and Gustafsson, 1996; Mikkelsen and Einarsen, 2002). Health problems like anxiety and depression caused by bullying were also found to be related to sickness absence in a qualitative study by Hallberg and Strandmark (2006). Similarly, a study among hospital employees in Finland showed that bullying was related to an increase in sickness absence (Kivimaki et al., 2000). However, the study of Hallberg and Strandmark (2006) also showed that some victims changed employer, moved to another department or went back to school, indicating workability rather than deteriorated health.According to Leymann (1992), another route to exclusion from the organisation may be the general deterioration of the working environment caused by the bullying in that the victim appraises the work situation to be so difficult that he or she decides to leave work \"voluntarily\". Several studies have documented that various psychosocial factors such as role conflict and role ambiguity (Einarsen et al., 1994; Hauge et al., 2007; Jennifer et al., 2003), interpersonal conflicts (Hauge et al., 2007), low decision latitude (Vartia, 1996; Vartia and Hyyti, 2002; Zapf et al., 1996), job dissatisfaction and burnout (Mathisen et al., 2008) are related to bullying. Mathisen et al. (2008) also found lower job engagement and a higher intention to leave work among victims compared to non-victims. A study in Finland by Vartia (1996) showed that 46 per cent of the employees exposed to bullying considered leaving their work, while a study by Djurkovic et al. (2004) showed that bullying was associated with negative affect, which in turn was associated with physical health problems and an increased desire to leave the organisation. Although several studies have showed higher intention to leave the organisation among victims of bullying as compared to non-victims (Djurkovic et al., 2004; Mathisen et al., 2008; Vartia, 1996), few have examined whether they also actually leave the organisation.Traditional models of turnover include two major categories of predictor variables, one tradition emphasising job attitudes (job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job involvement) (Hom and Griffeth, 1995; Mobley, 1977; Steers and Mowday, 1981), and the other emphasising perceived ease and desirability of turnover (including perceived job alternatives and job search behaviour) (March and Simon, 1959). However, research show that job satisfaction, organisational commitment and job alternatives only play minor roles when it comes to the actual decisions of leaving the organisation, at least in non-bullied samples (Griffeth et al., 2000; Hom and Griffeth, 1995; Maertz and Champion, 1998).According to the unfolding model of employee turnover, a \"shock\" is more often the immediate cause of turnover as compared to job dissatisfaction (Holtom et al., 2005). The shock may be experienced as neutral, negative or positive, and be expected as well as unexpected. A shock may be a job offer, a marital status change, a job transfer, or goal conflict between the employee and the organisation that may trigger the enactment of a pre-existing script that results in either the search for alternative job opportunities or the decision to stay on. Bullying may represent such a shock, either of a repeated nature or as a major shock the day the target realises the predicament he or she is in. The shock and the surrounding circumstances are evaluated in the light of the individual's values, plans for the future and degree of goal attainment, and if incompatible, thoughts of leaving will occur. A decision to leave the organisation does not then necessarily involve organisational commitment, and job satisfaction is not, necessarily, a relevant factor to the decision.However, neither job-dissatisfaction nor a shock leads to actual quitting the organisation. According to Mitchell et al. (2001), whether an employee actually leaves the job also depends on how embedded he or she is in their organisation, that is, how compatible the person perceives oneself to be in respect to the organisation's goals, values and future career opportunities, the number of close relationships to colleagues and how many costs and sacrifices are associated with quitting. Thus, the more one has to give up, the more difficult it is to leave the organisation (Mitchell et al., 2001). People who are strongly embedded in their jobs and organisation have a lower intention to leave, and do not leave as readily, as those who are less embedded (Mitchell et al., 2001). Hence, victims of bullying may have many and strong reasons for staying on, even when exposed to bullying. Further, many report that the perpetrator rather than themselves should be the one to leave the organisation (Kile, 1990). For some, leaving may enact feelings of betraying themselves in the lifelong \"battle\" of protecting their own reputation, identity and self-esteem. Hence, even if bullying may be experienced as a shock leading to increased turnover intentions, it may not necessarily make a victim actually quit, at least as long as their health is reasonably good.In this study, we will test Leymann's (1992, 1996) assumption, that workplace bullying is a strong precursor to turnover and exclusion from working life. However, as few have studied this hypothesis with a proper design, we employed a longitudinal, prospective two-wave design, based on a representative sample of Norwegian employees. Exclusion from working life can, according to Leymann, both occur as a result of the health consequences that bullying causes, and as a result of a work situation so difficult that one chooses to find a new job. We therefore expect that employees exposed to bullying have a higher intention to quit their job than do employees not exposed to bullying (H1). Further, we hypothesise that employees exposed to bullying change employer more often than employees who are not exposed to bullying (H2). We would also expect that employees exposed to bullying will more often than non-exposed employees be on sick leave, rehabilitation or disability pension (H3). The time lag chosen for the study is two years, as both the development of health problems as well as the search for a new job does take some time.\n2. Method: 2.1 Design\n3. Results: 3.1 Relationships between bullying and intention to leave the organisation\n4. Discussion: The purpose of this study was to test Leymann's assumption that workplace bullying leads to turnover and exclusion from working life. In this regard it was assumed that employees exposed to bullying would have a higher intention to leave their organisation, and that they would actually change employer more often than do non-bullied employees. Lastly, we hypothesise that exposure to bullying leads to a risk of becoming excluded from working life due to the often observed health deterioration among victims of bullying, leading to a relationship between bullying and subsequently being on either sick leave, rehabilitation or disability pension.In line with results from previous studies (Djurkovic et al., 2004; Mathisen et al., 2008; Vartia, 1996), we found that exposure to bullying was indeed related to increased intention to leave the organisation at both measurement points. Hence, being bullied is associated with an increased intention to leave the organisation that persists over time. According to Leymann (1996), bullying involves activities that deteriorate the individuals' professional and social life at work; hence they will probably start questioning their career in the company and whether it is in their best interest or even wise to stay on. Our findings may here be seen in light of research showing that bullying affects the work engagement and organisational commitment of victims (Hitlan et al., 2006; Mathisen et al., 2008), thereby deteriorating their sense of obligation to stay.Further, the results showed that targets of bullying behaviours had changed employer more often than those not exposed to bullying behaviours over that two year period. This finding supports Leymann's assumption of external relocation due to bullying, and also the research findings of Hallberg and Strandmark (2006) showing that some victims do try to find a new job, move to a new department, or start studying. Correspondingly, our findings imply that some victims of bullying see it as necessary to find a new job to avoid further harassment. In line with this, in a review of workplace victimisation, Aquino and Thau (2009) claimed that the most effective coping strategy may be to avoid the perpetrator or to find a way to leave the situation.However, most of the respondents who report exposure to bullying in the present study were still in full time or part time job two years after the first bullying occurred, and mainly so in their original position. This is illustrated by the fact that most of the victims at time 1 had not changed employer at time 2. According to Maertz and Griffeth (2004), this could be due to the various motivational forces, both affective and rational, that come into play when a person makes judgements about actually staying in or leaving a job. Even though being bullied obviously creates emotionally discomfort (LeBlanc and Kelloway, 2002), and we therefore may expect victims of bullying to leave, rational calculations of the possibility and advantages of maintaining important values and goals through continued membership in the organisation comes into play.Another factor of importance is how embedded the individual is in his or her job or organisation (Mitchell et al., 2001). For employees who strongly identify with their organisation it may be hard to leave, as this may mean the loss of valued colleagues, meaningful work tasks, organisational commitment, a predictable income, and other benefits. In addition, not all exposed to bullying may have a realistic opportunity to find a new job because of an unfavourable labour market. In this regard education level and age may play important roles. E.g., it may be difficult for elderly employees to be re-employed, and it may be harder for them to face new work-related challenges, especially if they have been employed in the same company for a very long time. Another important factor may be that of mobility, to relocate may not be as easy for employees in established social networks.However, we also found some support for Leymann's assumption of bullying leading to exclusion from working life through health deterioration in the form of sick leave and rehabilitation/disability pension. However, depending on how we measured exposure to bullying, bullying was only partly related to sick leave, where employees exposed to bullying behaviours were likely to be on sick leave more so than employees not exposed to such bullying behaviours. Individuals exposed to a high level of bullying behaviours were more likely to be on rehabilitation or disability pension than those not exposed. In this regard it is important to notify that rehabilitation and disability pension are only proxy measures of health deterioration. In fact, these arrangements are intended to improve the employee's health. To the extent that some of the respondents were on disability pension because of bullying, this would mean that the follow-up and treatment they eventually received did not work. This makes the measured outcomes not only measures of poor health, but also measures of the follow-up and treatment they have received.4.1 Methodological strengths and weaknesses\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to explore relationships between exposure to bullying at work and intention to leave the organisation, actual leaving the workplace, and exclusion from working life through sick leave or rehabilitation or disability pension.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A prospective design with two surveys of a national representative sample of the Norwegian work force was used (n=1,775). The response rate at the first data collection in 2005 was 56.4 per cent, and 70 per cent at the second data collection in 2007. Bullying was measured using two measurement methods: self-labelled victims of bullying and exposure to bullying behaviour, respectively.\nFindings: - This study shows partial support for Leymann's assumption that bullying at work will lead to exclusion from working life. Logistic regressions showed that victims of bullying considered leaving their work more often than did individuals who were not bullied, on both measurement times. The results also showed that victims have changed employer more often than non-victims. However, most victims are still working full time or part time two years later.\nPractical implications: - Prevention of workplace bullying must be handled through procedures on an organisational level. Rehabilitation programs and reintegration must be offered for employees unable to stay in their job. Counselling should be available for those who experience bullying or consider leaving their job.\nOriginality/value: - To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study examining bullying, intention to leave, turnover and exclusion from working life with a prospective longitudinal design.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding online knowledge community user continuance: A social cognitive theory perspective
|
[
"Self-efficacy",
"Social cognitive theory",
"System quality",
"Knowledge quality",
"Outcome expectation",
"Online knowledge communities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Online knowledge communities provide places for users to share their knowledge, expertise, experience and insights between each other (Yan and Jian, 2017). Compared to traditional communities, knowledge communities are more professional and users can exchange knowledge related to specialised topics such as health, academics and software development. A typical example is Quora, which represents a question and answer (Q&A) community. Users can seek professional knowledge from other members in the community (Jin et al., 2015). They can also contribute their knowledge to those who need it. In addition to sharing knowledge, users can conduct social interactions with other members. They can tag and vote to their interested persons and topics. Besides these Q&A communities, there are other types of knowledge communities such as discussion boards and forums. According to a recent report, 58.3 per cent of users expect to obtain knowledge and help on social networking communities, whereas 54.8 per cent of them expect to share their knowledge (CNNIC, 2016). This suggests that knowledge sharing and acquisition has been popular among community users.\n2. Research model and hypotheses: 2.1 Online knowledge community user behaviour\n3. Method: The research model includes seven reflective factors. Except continuance usage, other factors were measured with multiple items. All items were adapted from extant literature to ensure the content validity. When the instrument was developed, it was sent to three e-commerce researchers for their suggestions. Then, according to their comments, we revised a few items to improve the clarity and understandability. The final items and their sources were listed in the Appendix. Each item was measured with a seven-point Likert scale, which ranges from strongly disagree to strongly agree.\n4. Results: Data analysis includes two steps. First, we examined the measurement model to test reliability and validity. Then, we examined the structural model to test research hypotheses.\n5. Discussion: As show in Figure 2, except H1 and H6, other hypotheses were supported. Outcome expectation, system quality and knowledge quality affect continuance intention, which, in turn, affects continuance usage. We did not find the effects of self-efficacy and social interaction ties on continuance intention.\n6. Theoretical and managerial implications: From a theoretical perspective, this research draws on the social cognitive theory to examine users' continuance of online knowledge communities. Although previous research has examined online community user behaviour from multiple perspectives such as the social exchange theory and the motivational theory, it has seldom tested the interaction between personal cognitions, environmental factors and user behaviour. This research fills the gap by adopting a social cognitive theory perspective. The results enrich extant research and advance our understanding of online knowledge community user behaviour. Second, we found that both personal cognitions (outcome expectation) and environmental factors (knowledge quality and system quality) have significant effects on continuance intention. Among them, knowledge quality has the largest effect. This indicates that environment plays an important role in shaping user behaviour. Future research needs to take environmental factors into consideration when examining online community user behaviour. Third, we did not find the effect of social interaction ties on user continuance. This may be due to the Chinese culture that highlights the friendship group. Future research can validate the results in other western cultures.\n7. Conclusion: Based on the social cognitive theory, this research identified the factors affecting users' continuance of online knowledge communities. The results highlight the important role of environmental factors such as knowledge quality in affecting user behaviour. Thus, service providers need to encourage users to contribute quality knowledge in the community. This may help create a trustworthy community environment and facilitate users' continuance. It may also build good reputation among users and promote their participation. Then, service providers can expand the user base and achieve advantages in the intense competition.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to draw on the social cognitive theory to identify the determinants of online knowledge community user continuance, which reflects a user's continued use.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the 271 valid responses collected from a survey, structural equation modelling was employed to examine the research model.\nFindings: The results indicated that the cognitive factors of outcome expectation and the environmental factors of system quality and knowledge quality significantly affect a user's continuance intention, which, in turn, affects continuance usage.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results imply that service providers need to enhance community platforms and improve knowledge quality in order to retain users and facilitate their continuance.\nOriginality/value: Although previous research has examined online knowledge community user behaviour from multiple perspectives such as the social exchange theory and the motivational theory, it has seldom explored the relative effects of personal cognitions and environmental factors on user behaviour. This research fills the gap.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigating linkages between online purchase behaviour variables
|
[
"Electronic commerce",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Internet shopping",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Online consumer behaviour is currently an emerging theoretical body of research. The initial focus developed exploratory motivational and attitudinal studies of online consumer behaviour (Dholakia and Uusitalo, 2002; Kim and Park, 2005; Sorce et al., 2005). Recent online consumer behaviour literature has attempted to develop basic frameworks linking intervening constructs such as information search with purchase intention. This paper takes this approach one stage further, by attempting to bridge the gap between the initial motivational variable studies with the more recent studies examining the constructs of information search and attitude. An attempt is made in this paper to propose developments of current online consumer behaviour literature into a coherent conceptual base. This analysis is proposed as a framework inter-linking the constructs of attitude, online motivations and online information search with online purchase intention.Online shopping is a fast growing phenomenon which has been adopted by rapidly increasing numbers of consumers, online spending grew by 28.9 per cent in 2005-2006 outstripping overall retailing spending which grew by 1.5 per cent (Verdict, 2000-2006). Retail sales (10 per cent) now take pace online (IMRG, 2005). UK consumers have been identified as the most enthusiastic online shoppers in Europe (IMRG, 2005). It is therefore becoming increasingly important for UK e-retailers to develop an in-depth understanding of UK online consumer behaviour. This paper attempts to provide a framework to fulfill this need.Online researchers have proposed that online consumer behaviour is likely to be affected by three major factors. These include:1. attitudes towards online shopping (Kim and Park, 2005; Shim et al., 2001);2. motivations, such as price, convenience and hedonic motivations (Fenech and O'Cass, 2001; Bhatnagar et al., 2000); and3. online information search (Rowley, 2000; Wright and Jayawardhena, 2001).The purpose of this research is to investigate the relative impact of these three major factors on online shopping consumer decision-making processes.\nLiterature review: Online shopping motivations\nResearch method: A quantitative self-administered online questionnaire was developed in order to investigate the effects of motivations, attitude and information search constructs on online consumer behaviour. The scale items used in the survey were derived from a combination of noteworthy research (Engel et al., 1982; Howard and Sheth, 1969; Kim and Park, 2005; Joines et al.'s (2003); Nicosia, 1966; Shim et al. 2001) in both traditional and online shopping consumer behaviour contexts with the purpose of providing meaningful data to aid the understanding and analysis of consumers' online shopping behaviour. The scale items and their derivations are outlined in the Appendix. In this research seven point Likert scales were applied to measure the scale items.The sample consisted of students in a large northern England university. Verdict, 2000-2006 has noted that the 15-24 age group is the third most frequent online shopper segment behind 25-34 year olds and 35-44 year olds. The 15-24 age range has also increased purchasing frequencies for three years running (2005-2007), and are consequently an important segment for analysis but by no means the most frequent online shoppers, nor are they a representative segment of the online shopper profile as a whole. However, they are skilled users of the internet (Verdict, 2000-2006) and their behaviour is likely to predict the future behaviour of the largest segment of the online shopping market, which is the next age segment. This paper postulates that when the most skilled users (15-24) enter into an increasingly time pressed life stage (24-35), they then become the most frequent online purchasers. This sample is proposed as a judgemental and purposive sample, in which theory testing is conducted, however adding further samples containing the other two largest age ranges are also required for further insight and full theory testing. A survey embedded in an email was sent to the university research volunteering site with an incentive, in June 2007. In addition, 300 students were targeted for self administered questionnaires. Responded (100) to the self-administered survey and 406 responded to the online survey. In all 506 respondents participated in this research, and the response rate was 5.49 per cent overall. The methodology adopted consisted of data analysis utilising a quantitative approach, and using a selection of prevailing statistical techniques to explore possible factors and investigating their relationships to aid the understanding of online shopping consumer behaviour theory. First of all a descriptive analysis was developed to provide some basic descriptions of the data gathered. Then reliability analysis tested the reliability of the scale data obtained. Canonical analysis was then used to explore relationships between components explored to provide evidence that supports or does not support the proposed hypotheses the online shopping consumer behaviour framework, as well as to explore any other possible association in order to effectively structure an online shopping behaviour model. (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2001), to provide evidence that supports or does not support the proposed hypotheses the online shopping consumer behaviour framework. A canonical correlation is the correlation of two canonical (latent) variables, one representing a set of independent variables, the other a set of dependent variables (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2001); each set may be considered a latent variable based on a set of measured indicator variables in its set. Canonical correlation was performed between one set of variables and another set of variables from the data obtained using SPSS CANCORR.\nResults: Primary analysis\nDiscussion and conclusion: The results generated from the statistical analysis have supported H1, H3 and H4; however, H2 had a weaker association and consequently new tests were run that indicated that attitude has a stronger relationship as an antecedent variable influencing online shopping behaviour. These results suggest that the initial hypothetical structure of the proposed online shopping consumer behaviour model should be adjusted and reformed, due to less significant relationships between attitude towards online shopping and online information search. The extra outcome obtained suggests that attitude towards online shopping is linked as an antecedent variable to online shopping motivations. Therefore, the prototype online shopping consumer behaviour model can be reconstructed as shown in Figure 3.The correlations between factors formulating the reconstructed model of online shopping consumer behaviour suggest that attitude towards online shopping should be regarded as an antecedent variable rather than a intervening variable since has its strongest relationship in this form. This finding supports the theoretical frameworks developed Shim et al. (2001) and Kim and Park (2005) to the extent that attitude is considered as an antecedent variable, in contrast to the traditional consumer behaviour literature where attitude is denoted as an intervening variable. It is interesting to note that there was also a significant relationship with attitude as an intervening variable. This could be interpreted as a result of the relatively nascent stage that online shopping finds itself in currently. Over time, as consumers become more confident perhaps attitude will have a more direct influence on information search and less on motivations to shop online. The results obtained have supported the hypotheses that suggested that within the developing online shopping consumer behaviour theory, attitude towards online shopping is an antecedent variable which significantly affects consumer's online shopping motivations, this rejects Howard and Sheth's (1969) theory of buyer behaviour in which attitude is considered to be an intervening variable; the finding also rejects Kim and Park's (2005) and Shim et al.'s (2001) arguments with regard to the relationships between attitude and purchase intention, and between attitude and online information search.Online shopping motivations including utilitarian motives and hedonic motives have significant effects on online information search and online purchase intention. The correlation found between online shopping motivations and online purchase intention was the second most significant correlation, further research is required to identify which motivational variables are the most significant; nevertheless, this result corroborates the findings of Joines et al. (2003), Fenech and O'Cass (2001), Bhatnagar et al. (2000) and Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001). An in-depth investigation of the effects of online shopping motivations to other variables affecting online shopping behaviour is now required. The results obtained also suggest that online information search and evaluation considerably influences consumers' purchase intention via the internet, this supports the view of Shim et al. (2001), Wright and Jayawardhena (2001), Watchravesringkan and Shim (2003) and Kim and Park (2005), in their approaches explaining the effects of online information on online purchase behaviour.\nUnexpected findings and comparisons between the findings and offline consumer behaviour models: The unexpected findings include the finding that attitude towards online shopping is in fact an antecedent variable rather than an intervening variable as suggested in the offline consumer behaviour models of Engel et al. (1982) and Holbrook and Hirschman (1982). The comparison with the Howard and Sheth (1969) model is even stronger whereby attitude is treated as an output/outcome variable. Attitude towards online shopping has a significantly different impact on the online consumer process than attitude has in the offline consumer process. It is hypothesised that is simply due to the lack of maturity of online shopping and will over time develop along similar lines to offline shopping. It is worth noting here that attitude has also moved between antecedent - intervening and outcome variables over time in the offline consumer models.Comparison between online and offline consumer models is difficult to fully realise at this nascent stage of development of the online consumer behaviour models. Offline consumer behaviour models have been in development since the 1960s while Online Models have been in existence since the late 1990s. Online consumption models have concentrated on developing reliable motivation, intention and attitude constructs. This process still requires several further iterations before meaningful comparisons can take place. At this point identification of the relative strengths of the antecedent, intervening and the outcome variables have been notionally indicated by this research. The intervening variables have been identified as having the strongest influence on the online consumer behaviour process and it is these constructs that are worthy of further study. For example, further developing the motivation constructs.\nResearch limitations: Two research limitations have been identified with this paper. The data focused on UK respondents, and these consumers are still maturing in their online behaviour, further longitudinal studies are required to increase validity. The generalisability of this paper to US or Asian consumers is questionable. The attitude towards online shopping variables could include more measures to enhance the validity of the attitude construct, for example adding more product specific online shopping attitude measures, or context dependent online attitude measures (i.e. time constaints). These limitations are not judged to impair the overall reliability of the paper.\nFurther research: Further research could gather qualitative data in order to explore new factors that affect online shopping behaviour. Further primary quantitative and qualitative data could be collected and analysed to aid the development of a new online shopping consumer behaviour model. Further research could be conducted to examine the significance and the effects of motivation variables in the international context. Further research could investigate and conceptualise factors affecting online shopping motivations in more detail, for example, hedonic motivations require further in-depth investigation; other factors could also be added in further research, such as situational factors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between the online consumer behaviour constructs of attitude, motivations and information search in order to develop an online consumer behaviour framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An email survey collected data from 577 UK respondents and canonical correlations are applied to examine the relationships.\nFindings: - The results provide empirical support that attitude is an antecedent variable, and that motivation variables have a significant causal relationship with information search variables.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Two limitations are identified. Firstly, the data collected focussed on UK respondents, consequently the generalisability of these results is in question and further research is required. Secondly, the attitude measure could include more items to further aid reliability.\nOriginality/value: - This research advances the development of the Online Consumer Behaviour literature by adding knowledge on the nature of the relationships between online behaviour constructs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cross-border document delivery: the convenience and perils of sharing articles around the world, in the cloud
|
[
"Academic libraries",
"Document delivery",
"Copyright law",
"Copyright",
"Interlibrary lending",
"Delivery services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interlibrary loan has a long history of using technology to supply photocopied or scanned articles, beginning with fax machines in the 1980s, when the machines became cheap enough for libraries to purchase. A lending library would retrieve a journal from the shelves, make a photocopy of the article requested and fax it to the requesting library's fax machine using a telephone line. Staff at the borrowing library would notify the end user that the item was available for pick up.\nAbout Article Exchange: Originally developed by OCLC's Innovation Lab[1], Article Exchange was an outgrowth of OCLC's initial explorations into cloud computing. The idea was first discussed in April 2011, and the service was announced as an experimental service at the ALA Annual Conference in June 2011. OCLC users were excited about the pilot service because, as Collette Mak, from the University of Notre Dame, commented, \"It really fills a need\". By this time, many libraries were struggling with Ariel: it was not compatible with Windows 7, which was becoming increasingly prevalent. Within a few months, libraries were uploading an average of 350 documents per day using Article Exchange. On 17 January 2012, the service moved out of its experimental phase and became an OCLC service, made available to all OCLC interlibrary loan\nHow it works: Using any Web browser, a lending library can upload a copy of an article that they either already have as an image file or have scanned for a borrowing library. Once uploaded, the file is stored in the cloud where the borrower can access it. When the lender has completed the upload process, Article Exchange generates a unique URL and password which is used by the borrowing library to access the file. All Article Exchange transactions use a shortened URL (oc.lc) so that the borrower knows the source is trusted.\nAlternatives: An alternative to Ariel is Odyssey. Odyssey and ILLiad are developed by a company named Atlas Systems that has an exclusive sales and marketing agreement with OCLC. For the 1,200 libraries (predominantly in the USA) that use ILLiad software, the Odyssey software offers tightly integrated, peer-to-peer document delivery, which works in a similar way to Ariel. It is worth noting that ILLiad integrates very tightly with OCLC ILL. However, OCLC ILL is used by some 8,000 libraries around the world, and while a stand-alone version of Odyssey was available at no cost, it was neither straightforward to install nor to use. For non-ILLiad libraries, Article Exchange therefore came at exactly the right time, given the issues with Ariel and Windows 7. Every library with a subscription to the OCLC ILL service has access to Article Exchange at no additional cost.\nElectronic journals, licenses and secure electronic transmission: With the introduction of electronic journals in the late 1990s, and therefore the introduction of licenses, the landscape has changed significantly. For many years, many libraries would not fill a request for a title held electronically. This is for a number of reasons. First, lack of knowledge about the terms of the institution's licenses, and second, the lack of an efficient workflow. This is slowly changing, with many library staff now working out their own workflows or using tools that are now available to them, such as OCLC's Knowledge Base and/or functionality available in ILLiad for example.\nArticle Exchange and licenses: In many legal jurisdictions, a license between, for example, the publisher and library, regarding access to an electronic resource, carries more weight than the law. So the library has to adhere to what they have agreed to in the license, rather than what copyright law might say. Often, it is said that a license \"trumps\" the law. There are moves in the UK to change this around.\nCopyright in the USA: The first-sale doctrine in the USA enables libraries to lend books and other resources. This is codified in Section 106(3) of the Copyright Act of 1976. In US copyright law, \"fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holder\"[4].\nCopyright in Canada: Copyright legislation in Canada has gone through some significant changes in the last few years. \"Current copyright law was established by the Copyright Act of Canada, which was first passed in 1921 and substantially amended in 1988, 1997 and 2012\"[7]. The 1997 amendment \"created a number of problems for libraries\" (Tiessen, 2012) and specifically prohibited the making of digital copies. The legal situation changed in 2004 when CCH Canadian Ltd sued The Great Library of the Law Society of Upper Canada for copyright infringement. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Law Society, and as a result, Canadian libraries could choose to interpret the law as it stood prior to the 1997 amendment under fair dealing.\nCopyright and the European Union: European Union (EU) directives:\nCopyright in the UK: UK copyright law is focused on the notion of \"library privilege\" whereby the users of UK-registered organisations can use resources for the purpose of a non-commercial nature or private study.\nCopyright in Germany: In contrast to the UK, and the USA where there are no legal constraints on the supply of electronic documents, the position in Germany is very different.\nConclusion: In conclusion, it is important that libraries are aware of their own local copyright laws and license terms. It is important for ILL staff to work closely with the librarians who negotiate license terms so that language such as secure electronic transmission is incorporated and that for libraries outside the USA, terminology regarding CONTU guidelines is not included in their license terms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe Article Exchange - OCLC's cloud-based document delivery service.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, Article Exchange is described in detail.\nFindings: Article Exchange has proved popular with OCLC users with more than 50,000 documents uploaded in January 2013 alone by more than 1,000 libraries.\nPractical implications: The new service facilitates improved delivery of documents electronically.\nOriginality/value: This article is useful for all librarians who are concerned with delivering documents electronically in an increasingly complex technical and legal environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Optimal periodic inspection policy for systems generating environmental damage over a finite time horizon
|
[
"Condition-based maintenance",
"Environmental degradation",
"Finite horizon",
"Periodic inspection",
"Wiener process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: In complex equipment, components failures can be either self-announcing or non-self-announcing. In the first case, they are detected rapidly. However, in the second case, failures can generally be detected only through inspection. In several situations, from the instant of failure until the inspection that reveals it, the component may generate damage to environment. Indeed, many kinds of components degrading with time generate damage directly or indirectly to environment. For example, in a nuclear power plant, the degradation of the mechanical shaft seal of the refrigeration compressor induces toxic refrigerant leakages (Chouikhi et al., 2014). Also, the degradation of machine tools causes an increase of energy consumption which can be converted to carbon emission (Jihong and Dingguo, 2010).\n2. The degradation process modeling: 2.1 Wiener process\n3. The maintenance policy: We consider a system with a finite operational time requirement [0, H]. During this finite period, the system generates damage to environment as it degrades and gets older. It is assumed that the environmental degradation process follows a Wiener process. In order to limit this potential damage, the environmental degradation level associated with the degradation level of the system is monitored through periodic inspections. Whenever an inspection reveals that the environmental degradation level exceeds a given critical level L\n4. The total expected cost model: Considering the proposed maintenance policy, the objective is to determine simultaneously the optimal number N* of inspections to be performed and the optimal FT threshold level\n5. Numerical example: 5.1 System description\n6. Conclusion: This paper presented a condition-based maintenance policy with periodic inspection for systems which generate damage to environment as they get older. The work focuses on equipment with a finite operational time requirement. Thus, the proposed maintenance strategy is defined, modeled and optimized over a finite time span. The environment degradation process due to the system's degradation with time is modeled by a Wiener process. During a predefined finite horizon, periodic inspections are performed to measure the environmental degradation level. A CM action is carried out and a penalty cost is incurred following any inspection that reveals the exceeding of a known critical level of environmental degradation. In order to prevent such situation, a PM consisting in a FT is conducted whenever the measured environmental degradation is found higher than a FT threshold level and lower than the critical level.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The authors consider systems that generate damage to environment as they get older and degrade. The purpose of this paper is to develop an optimal condition-based maintenance strategy for such systems in situations where they have a finite operational time requirement. The authors determine simultaneously the optimal number of inspections and the threshold level of environmental damage which minimize the total expected cost over the considered finite time horizon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The environmental degradation level is monitored through periodic inspections. The authors model the environmental degradation process due to the equipment's degradation by the Wiener process. A mathematical model and a numerical procedure are developed. Numerical calculations are performed and the influence of the variation of key parameters on the optimal solution is investigated.\nFindings: Numerical tests indicate that as the cost of the penalty related to the generation of an excess damage to environment increases, inspections should become more frequent and the threshold level should be lowered in order to favor preventive actions reducing the probability to pay the penalty.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the complexity of the cost function to be minimized, it is difficult to derive analytically the optimal solution. A numerical procedure is designed to obtain the optimal condition-based maintenance policy. Also, the developed model is based on the assumption that the degradation follows a process with stationary independent increments. This may not be appropriate for all types of degradation processes.\nPractical implications: The proposed optimal maintenance policy may be relevant and very useful in the perspective of green operations. In fact, this paper offers to decision-makers a comprehensive approach to implement a green maintenance policy and to rapidly understand the net effect of the maintenance policy with respect to environmental regulation requirements.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution consists in the modeling and optimization of the condition-based maintenance policy over a finite time horizon. Indeed, existing condition-based maintenance models over an infinite time horizon are not applicable for systems with a finite operational time requirement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Adding value with learning agility: How to identify and develop high-potential employees
|
[
"Career variety",
"Careers",
"High potentials",
"Learning agility",
"On‐the‐job learning",
"Potential appraisal",
"Talent management",
"Workplace learning",
"Employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There was a time when employees who had worked for many different organizations over various industries might have had their rich experience counted against them when applying for a new position. \"Seems he/ she can't stick at a job\" or \"They don't seem to have made up their mind what they want to do\" are typical of those blinkered attitudes.\nAbove and beyond a baseline prediction by job performance: The fast-changing demographic and employee engagement trends characteristic of the post-recession economy has forced organizations to acknowledge that developing employee learning agility is crucial due to the unpredictability of the end-state competencies that will be needed to cope with future business challenges. The question remains whether and how they incorporate this factor into their daily activities and assessments.Nicky Dries of the University of Leuven's Research Center for Organization Studies, Belgium, and Tim Vantilborgh and Roland Permans, both of the Department of Work and Organizational Psychlogy at the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, maintain that it is in organizations' best interests to incorporate some form of learning agility assessment in their high potential identification and development processes. Their study examined the extent to which a measure of learning agility is able to predict being identified as a high potential above and beyond a baseline prediction by job performance. In short, the added value of learning agility over job performance in assessments of employee potential (Dries et al., 2012).In practice individual job performance is still the cornerstone of high potential identification processes in many organizations. Few would argue, however, that potential can be detected from current performance in an area the person already knows well. Many managers and executives derail because they tend to depend largely on the same skills that got them promoted in the first place rather than learning new ones - leading to the view that all high potentials are high performers, but not all high performers are high potentials. Nicky Dries et al. conclude that \"although high performance may be a precondition to being identified as a high potential, learning agility is an overriding criterion for separating high potentials from non-high potentials.\"\nEssential to ensure high employee commitment: Organizations need to make sure that not only the performance and the learning agility of their high potentials is high, but also their commitment. In order to achieve high commitment, organizations need to establish an employment relationship with their high potentials based on mutual benefit. Previous studies on talent management have outlined the following perceived benefits of being identified as a high potential:* having high job security;* advancing more quickly than peers;* having a more successful career in the traditional sense (i.e. pay and promotions); and* receiving preferential treatment.Organizations need to keep these motivators in mind in the design of their talent management systems. If high potentials' achievements are to result in sustained competitive advantage for their employing organizations, then these employees must be willing to stay where they are.With regard to the advantages of career variety, the authors maintain that if organizations want to establish a workforce high in learning agility, introducing HRM interventions to increase their employees' career variety might be the way forward. For instance, organizations can boost the degree of institutional variety within their workforce by deliberately hiring people who have worked for many different organizations over various industries, or by allocating their current employees to stretch assignments that span multiple organizations.\nEnd-state competency assessments in performance appraisals: Likewise, they might enhance their employees' functional variety by assigning them to job-rotation schemes or cross-departmental task forces. Furthermore, organizations need to become more aware of the fact that they themselves can create barriers to learning, even in their high potential programs. Being forced into a development track that moves either too fast or too slow, a lack of developmental opportunities, and constraints in terms of time, space and budget have all been mentioned as barriers hindering the transfer from learning agility to on-the-job learning behavior in high potential development programs.The relative value of \"regular\", end-state competencies in predicting employee potential is strongly dependent on the degree to which they will still be relevant several years after assessment, as well as on the degree to which they can be developed, and over what period of time. A suggestion is to use end-state competency assessments in performance appraisals and learning agility assessments in high potential identification procedures. This might help organizations nominate better candidates, as it reduces the risk of the \"hallo bias\" effect.\nComment: This review is based on \"The role of learning agility and career variety in the identification and development of high potential employees\" by Nicky Dries, Tim Vantilborgh and Roland Pepermans. Their study, conducted in a sample of seven best practice organizations in the field of high potential identification and development, examines the extent to which a measure of learning agility is able to predict being identified as a high potential above and beyond a baseline prediction by job performance. They also investigate whether employee learning agility can be developed by organizations by building on the literature about career variety and employee adaptability.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds his own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: - There was a time when employees who had worked for many different organizations over various industries might have had their rich experience counted against them when applying for a new position. \"Seems he/ she can't stick at a job\" or \"They don't seem to have made up their mind what they want to do\" are typical of those blinkered attitudes.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ownership structure and analysts' forecast properties: a study of Chinese listed firms
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Corporate ownership",
"Information"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The question of the determinants of analyst forecast properties, such as forecast accuracy and dispersion, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting and finance literature. Most prior studies have focused on the factors relating to analysts' compensation and expertise/reputation, analysts' commission income, analysts following, forecast horizon, earnings volatility, firm size and growth opportunity (Francis and Philbrick, 1993; Lang and Lundholm, 1996; Brown, 2001; Duru and Reeb, 2002; Gu and Wu, 2003; Karamanou and Vafeas, 2005; Cowen et al., 2006; Ali et al., 2007; Jacob et al., 2008; Barniv, 2009, Firth et al., 2013; Xu et al., 2013). However, the association between ownership structure mechanisms and analysts' forecast properties, especially in emerging markets, remains understudied.\n2. China's corporate governance system: In accordance with the economic liberalisation and reform policy introduced by the Chinese government in the late 1970s, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges were established in early 1990s, aiming to modernise ailing SOEs. Therefore, many Chinese listed firms were created by carving out a part of the assets of SOEs for listing, while the rest of assets were left in unlisted parent firms. After the listing, the unlisted parent firm and listed subsidiary continue to trade with each other as a group, and the corporate structure of such groups normally has multiple layers and many firms in each layer (Piotroski and Wong, 2013). In this way, the government can still maintain its control over \"large and crucial\" listed firms. However, such complex ownership structure can result in conflicts of interest between the controlling shareholder (the state and its agencies) and outsider investors (Su et al., 2008). Moreover, although La Porta et al. (2008) classify China's legal system as being of German-civil-law origin, a unique feature of China's legal tradition is that the judicial system is not independent from the government's administrative system, and politics and adjudication are often mixed (Chen, 2003). Indeed, private property rights were recognised by China's legislative system for the first time in March 2004 during the second session of the 10th National People's Congress Meeting. However, the definition and explanation of private property rights within listed Chinese firms remain \"fuzzy\", and the violation of private property rights by the government, especially at the local government level, remains relatively common (Sanders and Chen, 2005; Deng, 2009).\n3. Literature review and hypotheses developments: The separation of ownership and control is arguably the most distinguished feature of modern business corporations. In such corporate settings, the principal (owner) engages the agent (manager) to perform services on behalf of the principal who involves the delegation of some decision-making authority to the agent. Once the contractual relationship is established, the agent obtains information on the environment that will determine which effort level is the most adequate (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). However, the agent's effort is either difficult to observe or, even if it is observable, it is difficult for the principal to know whether it is optimal. Because of information asymmetry, the agent may act in his/her own best interests, rather than those of the principal. This can cause the problem known as \"moral hazard with hidden information\" (Macho-Stadler et al., 2001). The principal, therefore, establishes various monitoring and control mechanisms, such as corporate governance, to mitigate the information asymmetry problem.\n4. Data and research design: 4.1 Sample collection\n5. Empirical results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. Summary and conclusion: This paper examines the association between ownership structure mechanisms and the properties of analysts' forecasts in China's unique corporate setting. It finds that analysts' forecast accuracy is higher for listed firms with more foreign ownership and managerial ownership. These findings are in line with arguments that the demand for high-quality corporate disclosure by foreign investors leads to more effective monitoring and control, and managerial ownership can be a useful means to align the interests between managers and shareholders, resulting in more informative corporate disclosure and, hence, less forecasting complexity (Nasir and Abdullah, 2004; Bhat et al., 2006; Barniv, 2009; Brown et al., 2011). However, analysts' forecast accuracy tends to be lower for firms with complex pyramidal ownership structure, supporting the view that extra pyramidal layers in ownership structure could make corporate disclosure less transparent, because self-interested managers may withhold their private information to conceal their non-value-maximising behaviours (Aghion and Tirole, 1997; Baker et al., 1999; Fan and Wong, 2002). Moreover, the influence of state ownership on analysts' forecast properties - accuracy and dispersion - is likely to be non-linear, with an inflection point around 45 per cent. This suggests that if the level of state ownership is lower than 45 per cent, then the state could act effectively in enhancing the internal mentoring and control mechanisms and, then, reduce information asymmetry (Tian and Estrin, 2008); however, higher levels of state ownership impede the efficiency of internal monitoring and control mechanisms, making the corporate information environment less transparent (Firth et al., 2007; Armstrong et al., 2010). Furthermore, this study fails to find any significant association between analysts' forecast accuracy and institutional ownership. Also, analysts' forecast dispersion is not significantly correlated with various ownership structure mechanisms, including pyramidal structure, foreign ownership, institutional ownership and managerial ownership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between ownership structure and the properties of analysts' forecasts in China's unique corporate setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multiple regression models were used to examine the influence of ownership structure mechanisms on analysts' forecast properties for listed Chinese firms during the period 2008-2012.\nFindings: The paper finds that analysts' forecast accuracy is higher for listed firms with high levels of foreign ownership and managerial ownership. However, the complex pyramidal ownership structure could make corporate information less transparent and then increase the complexity of forecasting; hence, it results in less precise analysts' forecasts. Interestingly, the relationship between state ownership and analysts' forecast properties appears to be non-linear (an inverted U-shape), and the inflection point at which the relationship becomes negative occurs at state ownership over 45 per cent.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first to investigate the influence of ownership structure mechanisms on the properties of analysts' forecasts in an emerging market, and the findings provide some insight on how the properties of analysts' forecast might be shaped by certain ownership and control features in the context of concentrated state ownership and complex pyramidal ownership structure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Teams as a sub-process for knowledge management
|
[
"Teams",
"Team performance",
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Knowledge transfer",
"Knowledge creation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"While an organization's 'data' resides in its computer systems, its 'intelligence' is found in its social system\" (Spitzer, 2007, p. 255). Knowledge management provides a means to capture and store an organization's data while individuals and teams generate the knowledge for the organization - the organizational intelligence. The merger of the intelligence generating functions of teams with the knowledge capturing and distributive functions of knowledge management systems becomes a powerful tool for organizational innovation.Teams are the building blocks of organizations and aid in the institutionalization of new knowledge into the organization (Li et al., 2011). Salas et al. (2008) noted that advances have been made in team research, but emphasized the field must keep pace with continuing demands of the workplace. Knowledge management is one such place for the increased utilization of teams. Most research findings in the knowledge management literature focus on the inner workings of teams and how knowledge management principles positively influence the performance of teams. This conceptual review looks at the reverse, where utilizing the benefits of current research from teams and small groups can benefit the discipline of knowledge management. In today's complex work environment incorporating teams as a sub-process of knowledge management, further supporting knowledge creation, storage, and transfer within the organization, makes economic sense with most organizations already incorporating the use of teams at some capacity.Knowledge management can be defined in multiple ways. Gao et al. (2002) identified knowledge management as a process requiring purposeful activities to be initiated. Sun (2010) recognized knowledge management as a process due to the disciplines continued growth. In some instances knowledge management is referred to as a technical platform used to retain and deliver knowledge (Liebowitz, 2004; Marshall and Brady, 2001; Randeree, 2006) while others view it as a people-embodied activity (Datta and Acar, 2010; Mohamed et al., 2006). Viewing knowledge management as a people-embodied activity the incorporation of teams as a sub-process to knowledge management would be a natural pairing - further enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, and production of organizations.Lastres (2011) defined knowledge management as \"the leveraging of the organizations' collective wisdom (know-how) by creating systems and processes to support and facilitate the identification, capture, dissemination and use of the organization's knowledge to meet its business objectives\" (p. 23). Many organizations have realized that this collective wisdom lies in the intellectual capital of its employees. The creation of processes, as identified in this definition of knowledge management, is the focus of this manuscript, utilizing teams as a sub-process for knowledge management to obtain organizational objectives.Knowledge management is more than just information management. It also includes activities designed to extract implicit knowledge and to manage explicit knowledge while developing a supportive culture that uses knowledge management as an instinctive part of everyone's thought process (Lai and Taylor, 2011; Liebowitz, 2004). Knowledge management is a multi-discipline field that spans the disciplines of \"economics, information systems, organizational behavior and theory, psychology, strategic management, and sociology\": (Argote et al., 2003, pp. 571-572), to name only a few. Knowledge is the leverage point of learning and performance and can be viewed as a vital organizational resource. It is important for organizations to understand how to identify processes for its management. In the same way that knowledge management processes can be used within an organization, teams can be used as a central process for knowledge management.Argote et al. (2003) identified a framework for organizing the literature on knowledge management. This framework involved organizing knowledge management into two critical dimensions: knowledge management outcomes and knowledge management context.The critical dimensions outlined by Argote et al. (2003) will be identified along with support from the literature demonstrating how teams can be used as a vehicle to achieve knowledge management goals. Prior to viewing the literature on teams and how they can support the proposed framework from Argote et al. (2003) we will first take a brief look at teams.\n2. Teams: Davenport and Grover (2001) stated that it is critical to develop knowledge-oriented cultures in which the exchange of shared and unshared knowledge among individuals is provided. One way to achieve a knowledge-oriented culture is through the use of teams, groups, and learning communities within the organization.Composed from various definitions of teams, research from Cohen and Bailey (1997) defined a team as \"a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes [...] embedded in one or more larger social systems\" (p. 241). Identifying knowledge management as the organizations social system, teams can be incorporated as a process of knowledge management to help obtain organizational goals and outcomes. Other definitions of team are provided by Kozlowski and Bell (2003) where a team is defined as a:Collective who exist to perform organizationally relevant tasks, share one or more common goals, interact socially, exhibit tasks interdependencies, maintain and manage boundaries, and are embedded in an organizational context that sets boundaries, constrains the team, and influences exchanges with other units in the broader entity (p. 334).Here, knowledge management becomes the organizational entity setting the boundaries for the team to operate in. Ilgen et al. (2005) identified teams as \"complex, dynamic systems, existing in larger systemic contexts of people, tasks, technologies, and settings\" (p. 519).Teams are used to streamline tasks, resolve complicated problem- solving activities, develop new innovative products, and perform a number of other critical tasks that could not be completed in a timely manner by any one individual. Work required by organizations today has become more complex, requiring the capabilities of teams in order to collaborate and work effectively toward solving complex problems (DeChurch and Mesmer-Magnus, 2010). Salas et al. (2008) stated that organizations use teams when faced with complex and difficult tasks. Additionally, as tasks become too complex for any one individual, organizations have to rely on teams or dyads.Teams are often referred to as groups. For purposes of this article, teams can be used interchangeably with groups. Teams are usually made up of two or more individuals that have a common purpose or goal; two members are often defined as dyads. Some researchers view dyads as part of the team phenomenon, while others view them as a separate phenomenon.Not all team members have an equal reward or punishment structure, however they all have a common purpose or task at hand. Team members work interdependently as well as individually. Each individual within the team brings to the table a different set of skills, knowledge, life experiences, as well as a different perspective based on the individual's level within the hierarchy of the organization. These skills, knowledge, and experiences are shared through problem identification, task achievement, and team member interactions as the team works toward their common goal. It is here that the creation, retention, and transfer of knowledge takes place and knowledge management critical dimensions are manifested.\n3. Knowledge management critical dimensions: Argote et al. (2003) introduced a theoretical framework for organizing the knowledge management literature. Knowledge management outcomes include knowledge creation, knowledge retention, and knowledge transfer whereas knowledge management context involves properties of units, properties of the relationships between units, and properties of knowledge (Argote et al., 2003).In the following sections, each of these critical dimensions are expanded showing how the use of teams can be used as a process to support knowledge management objectives. The first of these two dimensions to be discussed is knowledge management context.\n4. Knowledge management context: Knowledge management is explained by where the context occurs. Argote et al. (2003) identified three properties where knowledge management occurs: properties of units, properties of the relationships between units, and properties of the knowledge itself. The following three sections identify how teams embedded within the organization, as a sub-process of knowledge management, can enhance each of the identified knowledge management contexts introduced by Argote et al. (2003). Table I identifies current research relating teams to the knowledge management context.4.1 Properties of units\n5. Knowledge management outcomes: Knowledge management outcomes are categorized as:* knowledge creation;* knowledge retention; and* knowledge transfer (Argote et al., 2003).Knowledge creation refers to how new knowledge is created in organizations, knowledge retention refers to how knowledge is embedded in an organization's memory, and knowledge transfer refers to how knowledge generated in one domain can affect another domain within the same organization (Argote et al., 2003).In the following three sections each of these knowledge management outcomes will be discussed further with an emphasis on teams as a knowledge management sub-process. Table II identifies current research relating teams to the knowledge management outcomes.5.1 Knowledge creation\n6. Conclusions: Knowledge management provides a means to capture and store an organization's data while individuals and teams generate the knowledge for the organization - the organizational intelligence. Organizations in every arena are striving for new processes, methods, frameworks, and best practices to better understand and leverage their most important human resource - knowledge. Teams are one such strategy that allows companies to successfully leverage human capital and intellect, meeting customer demands in a competitive global environment. This conceptual article identified two areas where teams benefit the organization: teams can be utilized as a sub-process to knowledge management, and teams can effect organizations through knowledge management functions.The frameworks and theories surrounding teams and knowledge management have many similar benefits and knowledge structures. Nonaka (1994) indicated that the self-organizing nature of teams is essential to the creation of new knowledge in which teams are capable of creating deeper knowledge through more focused investigation and investment. In congruence with this viewpoint, the theoretical model introduced in this manuscript identifies teams as a process for knowledge management providing better utilization of knowledge creation, transfer, and storage.Practitioners in the field of knowledge management can easily incorporate teams as a first step in creating a knowledge management culture. The advantages of knowledge utilization experienced from teams can be expanded to the larger organization as a systematic process toward implementing knowledge management functions. Some limitations may be experienced through these efforts depending on the type of teams incorporated. For instance, it would be easier to implement a local team where team members are able to function fact-to-face as opposed to a virtual team where team members are forced to communicate across information technology systems.Future research could focus on transferring knowledge from team to team and from team to department within the knowledge management framework. Does the utilization of teams provide better knowledge creation, transfer, and storage for the organization compared to operating without teams? When viewing teams as a sub-process to knowledge management research could be conducted to identify what outputs are desirable to the process of knowledge management. Once these desired outputs have been identified the appropriate inputs to the sub-process of teams could be explored to determine how to best obtain the desired outputs for the process of knowledge management.Knowledge management and information systems often ignore the complex and nested nature of team knowledge acquisition and sharing. Liang et al.'s (1995) study indicated that teams who were trained together recalled more information compared to being trained individually. By training the team together it was believed that teams had the time to develop transactive memory systems, thus improving their information storage and providing better recall of information (Liang et al., 1995). This complex system of team knowledge management can benefit greatly from the capability of information technology systems that leverage the learning and performance complexities of teams. This is a rich area of research that leverages theories and frameworks from knowledge management, information science, human resource development, psychology and management toward the goal of learning and performance innovation for the individual, team, and organization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Within the expansive body of literature on knowledge management, very little research is found that examines the use of teams as a sub-process for knowledge management. This article addresses this limitation by seeking to provide a theoretical framework that examines the similarities between the benefits of incorporating teams into the workplace and incorporating knowledge management principles. Recognizing that knowledge management has several critical dimensions, the framework that ties workplace teams to each of these knowledge management dimensions is built. Knowledge management and teams in the workplace are viewed at the individual, team and organizational level of analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is a conceptual paper that reviews current literature on teams and matches the functions of teams to those of knowledge management critical dimensions as outlined by Argote et al. knowledge management context and knowledge management outcomes.\nFindings: - The deficit in current literature is identified by placing teams as a sub-process for knowledge management. Additionally, the benefits teams can have on an organization within the knowledge management process are identified.\nOriginality/value: - The research contributes to the field by offering a framework that can serve to further the research on utilizing teams as a sub-process to knowledge management. Teams are identified as a sub-process to the knowledge management process within an organizational framework.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The changing relation between CEOs and shareholders: A case study on Royal Philips NV, 1971-2001
|
[
"The Netherlands",
"Investor relations",
"Financial markets",
"Principal-agent theory",
"Chief executive officer (CEO)",
"Shareholder communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the twentieth century, stock markets had become an increasingly important institution in economies. A key feature of the exchange-listed companies is that professional managers run the corporations owned by shareholders, which can freely enter or exit as financiers. From the late 1970s, the seminal work of Jensen and Meckling (1976) has strongly influenced the societal perceptions of the roles of managers and financiers in the Western world. Jensen and Meckling depart from the corporation as the dominant organizational form for large-scale business, where managers are hired as agents by shareholders acting as principals. From this principal-agent framework, where managers may act in their own interests, which are only partially aligned with shareholder interests, an awareness has grown among shareholders about the fiduciary duties of professional managers (Davis and Thompson, 1994; Useem, 1996; Bendickson, Muldoon, Liguori and Davis, 2016).\n2. Background: In this section, we discuss selected literature as a background to our case description. The international development of financial reporting rules and conventions, corporate governance and M&A and restructuring has received ample attention already. The development of the agency logic, which is an important motivation for our study, will first be discussed (Section 2.1). Next in this section, we will discuss the developments in investor relations and the role of the CEO therein (Section 2.2). Then, we will elaborate on the Dutch setting on investor relations and the CEO (Section 2.3) and corporate governance (Section 2,4).\n3. Analyses and sources: We provide a description of strategic decisions and share price reaction of Philips over the period 1971-2001, based on publicly available information. The core of our description is all public announcements of major strategic decisions over the 30 years and the share price reactions to these announcements. To control for the changing characteristics of Philips in terms of size, performance, financial reporting quality, stock trading volume and analyst following, we provide additional statistics of the firm. In terms of analysis, we do not define hypotheses or impose a causal structure on our data.\n4. The history of Philips until 1971: Philips started in 1891 as a partnership with Gerard Philips and his father. Soon Gerard's brother Anton joined the venture. Initially, Philips focused on the production of light bulbs and by the turn of the century Philips was the third light bulb producer in Europe (Sluyterman, 2003). Because of this single-product focus, Philips was able to invest heavily on a continuous basis in modern production assets and facilities. Philips also invested significantly in research and created technological advances, which enabled the firm to generate a healthy financial fundament (Bartlett, 2001). From 1900 onwards, Philips penetrated foreign markets through exports. From 1912, local sales organizations were set up, while all non-sales functions remained at the corporate headquarters in Eindhoven. Since 1912, Philips has been listed at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Philips has been a family firm since its foundation. Although the family has sold off most of its shares, they have always held so-called priority shares with special rights (Metze, 1991, p. 55). The special rights allotted to the family pertained to the binding nomination of the members of both the management board and the supervisory board. Through this mechanism, the Philips family could maintain control[5].\n5. Philips, 1971-2001: In this section, we present a chronology of events from 1971 until 2001, where for each CEO, the relevant developments will be described and discussed.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: Our aim with this case study is to investigate the relation between communication of a firm's strategy by CEOs with shareholders, and to document shareholder price reactions over time, for the case of Philips. We provide insights that empirical studies have not addressed: the price aspects of investor communication around major restructuring announcements in a setting where over the course of time the perception of appropriate investor relations has changed dramatically. Our research question is how Philips CEOs have adapted communication about their strategy to changing demands of the shareholders. We have investigated how Philips under various CEOs has communicated strategic announcements to the exogenously changing markets and we measured the markets' reaction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to present case study evidence on the changes in the relations between chief executive officers (CEOs) of large firms and shareholders in the past three decades of the twentieth century. In line with insights from agency theory, the CEOs have experienced increased scrutiny from their principals, the shareholders. This development has affected financial communication and investor relations as well as stock market prices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Dutch electronics firm Royal Philips NV in the transition period of 1971-2001 has been studied using publicly available disclosures and stock market prices. A descriptive case study approach is combined with event study methodology.\nFindings: It was observed that the increased emphasis on shareholder interests has affected the interactions between Philips' respective CEOs and the shareholders' reactions to strategic decisions as measured by stock price changes. Around the beginning of the twenty-first century, clarity and openness in CEO communication was the norm and deviations were punished with volatile stock prices.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study relies on publicly available data.\nOriginality/value: The case study of Philips can be extrapolated to other exchange-listed firms in the late twentieth century, which faced changed expectations about the role of the CEO, investor relations and the CEO's accountability toward shareholders. This transition is relevant not only as a historical observation, but also as a background to studies in finance and management about top management and financial markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
"The great divide": skill gap between the employer's expectations and skills possessed by employees
|
[
"Skills",
"Jobless growth",
"Skill gap",
"Young workforce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The prosperity of any nation is dependent on its human capital. The economic development of any nation is intrinsically linked to the quality of its human capital and their intellectual abilities. Usually, the companies visiting colleges for campus recruitments' cite that the students do not possess necessary skills matching the needs of the job market making them unemployable in various sectors of the industry. Studies reveal that there is a dearth of students with good technical and soft skills required for the ever changing environment. The world has become a global village due to reduced international barriers to trade and investments leading to a more integrated economy. As a result employers today operate in turbulent environment that demands new and constantly developing skills in order to retain global competitiveness.\nSkill gap in India: Population of 1.3 billion, of which about 0.8 billion is in the working age group - India in 2020 is surely something the world can look forward to(CII, Peoplestrong and Wheebox, 2013).\nPerspective analysis of emerging sectors (FICCI and NMIMS): The biotechnology sector in India is growing at a rate of 37.5 per cent annually. This has led to enormous job opportunities for the bio science students. However, the development of human resources in this area is not up to the mark putting a challenge in the career path for biotechnology students. The drugs and pharmaceutical industry at the global level has grown at a rate of 7 per cent while India's drug sector grew by 10 per cent but a vast population of this segment lacks the necessary skills required. The Indian IT/ITES has created three million job opportunities as it is the top most destination for IT/ITES outsourcing firms but having manpower shortage due to the core issue of skill gap. The requirement of different skill sets in 2022 is shown in Figure 1.\nReasons for skill gap: India's talent shortage is hitting the bottom line of business leading to an increase in demand for skilled and semi-skilled manpower in various industry sectors. There is a tremendous increase in the number of young graduates passing colleges but the skill set is on a declining trend.\nRecommendations: For industry\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to emphasise on demand supply skill gap of human resources in India which would help generate reasons for the same and the necessary steps to be taken to improve the situation and bridge the skill gap helping maximum number of the students becoming employable. It will put an impact on various stakeholders about the steps to be taken in bridging the gap in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of available literature was done in order to understand the reasons behind the increasing skill gap despite a vibrant and abundance of young population.\nFindings: The findings of the paper implicitly point out that a vast skill gap is prevailing in the Indian labour market and there is a dearth of human intellectual capital in India. Also it emphasises on the role of various stakeholders in bridging the skill gap by investing in workforce of today for a better tomorrow.\nOriginality/value: Based on literature review, the paper makes specific recommendations to various stakeholders (industry, academia, and government) in bridging the skill gap and would serve as a roadmap for companies guiding them to follow certain strategies to improve skills of future workers by investing in them and growing their own talent pool; and is an attempt to highlight the fact that India's jobless growth is not going to reap the demographic dividend and certainly the increasing skill gap needs to be bridged ASAP.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Internet banking service quality and its implication on e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Internet banking",
"E-Customer loyalty",
"E-Customer satisfaction",
"E-Service quality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Internet banking has customers who interact through network technology, whereas traditional banking interacts with customers on non-website-based settings. However, internet banking services have unique characteristics that traditional banking services do not possess. For example, internet banking provides the customers to carry out a range of banking activities electronically at any time and place with low handling cost (Angelakopoulos and Mihiotis, 2011; Narayanasamy et al., 2011; Nor and Pearson, 2008; Weir et al., 2006; Yoon and Steege, 2013). In this way, internet banking plays an important role in reducing operating and fixed costs (Chen et al., 2012; Fonseca, 2014; Zhao et al., 2010) and helps the bank in building better relationship with their customers (DeYoung et al., 2007; Ribbink et al., 2004; Rod and Ashill, 2010; Rod et al., 2009). In Malaysia, the development of internet banking has a great potential and has grown significantly along with the use of smart phones and tablets; and the penetration rate of internet is half of the country's population. As per March 2014, the number of internet banking subscribers is 52.9 percent over the 15.9 million (Bank Negara Malaysia Report, 2014). Despite the increasing number of internet banking users, the customer adoption of internet banking has not yet reached the expected levels. One of the common concerns that have been emphasized about the adoption of internet banking is poor service quality and customer dissatisfaction (Calisir and Gumussoy, 2008; Li-hua, 2012; Zhao et al., 2010). In fact, the main barrier for customer intention to use internet banking services is relate to the user habits. Additionally, customers are struggling to change their habits, behaviors, the way they interact with its internet banking services offer (Alsajjan and Dennis, 2010; Chemingui, 2013; Chen and Teng, 2013; Hanafizadeh et al., 2014; Khalil et al., 2010; Nor and Pearson, 2008). The potential customers' readiness to adopt the technology is also a significant factor (Al-Ajam and Md Nor, 2015; Al-alak, 2014; Chiou and Shen, 2012; Giordani et al., 2014; Harrison et al., 2014; Rezaei et al., 2014). Interestingly, Karjaluoto et al. (2002) found lack of consumer skills and experience with computers and technologies, which influence the consumer attitude toward internet banking. In addition, interpersonal, social network, security concerns (Hasim and Salman, 2010), habit and personality traits (McNeish, 2015) are the main criteria which influence customers to use internet banking. In fact, the lack of awareness and understanding of the benefits of internet banking services is also a notable issue (Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006; Harrison et al., 2014; Laforet and Li, 2005; Liu et al., 2005; Suzanne Harrison et al., 2014; Thakur, 2014; Wu et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2008).\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Internet banking service quality\n3. Hypotheses development: 3.1. Internet banking service quality and e-customer satisfaction\n4. Methodology: 4.1. Data collection process\n5. Measurement model: The purpose of a measurement model is to describe how well the observed indicators serve as a measurement instrument for the latent variables. To assess the measurement model, two step analysis processes were employed in this study. First, a confirmatory factor analysis was employed to specify the pattern by which each measure loads on a specific factor (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988; Byrne, 2013; Hair et al., 2010). Second, the squared multiple correlation was conducted to measure each indicator and how well an item measures a construct (Amin and Isa, 2008; Hair et al., 2010; Holmes-Smith, 2001). A first-order of CFA model for internet banking service quality was conducted to examine the measurement model using AMOS 19. The first-order CFA result showed that the goodness-of-fit was moderately satisfied. The results show that the kh2 is significant (kh2=161.269, kh2/df ratio 2.273, r=0.000). Meanwhile, the GFI value is 0.957, RMSEA value 0.05, and CFI value 0.982. By checking the squared multiple correlations for each measurement item, no items were deleted as the R2 values were more than 0.5 (Holmes-Smith, 2001). As a result, the measurement model retained 14 observed indicators from the original that were derived to estimate the model fit. Accordingly, the second-order CFA was run in order to examine the parameter. The measurement model result shows that the goodness-of-fit was moderately satisfied. The kh2 shows is significant (kh2=163.051, kh2/df ratio 2.234, r=0.000). Meanwhile, the GFI value is 0.956, RMSEA value 0.04, and CFI value 0.982. Table II shows the results of the first-order and second-order CFA for internet banking service quality. Thus, the results show that 14 items of the second-order CFA model of four dimensions fitted the sample data. Similarly, a CFA was employed to examine e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty. The results of CFA show that the goodness-of-fit was moderately satisfied. The kh2 is significant (kh2=276.388, kh2/df ratio 6.428, r=0.000). Meanwhile, the GFI value is 0.902, RMSEA value 0.10, and CFI value 0.942.\n6. Structural equation modeling: A structure equation modeling of internet banking service quality, e-customer satisfaction, and e-customer loyalty were conducted to estimate the parameters. Figure 1 shows the effect structural model of internet banking service quality on e-customer satisfaction and e-loyalty (p\n7. Discussions and managerial implications: The purpose of this study is to examine the internet banking service quality and its implication on e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty in the context of Malaysia internet banking. The results confirm that the all four dimensions (personal need, site organization, user friendliness, and efficiency of website) are distinct constructs. The results also indicate that internet banking service quality consisting of four dimensions has appropriate reliability and each dimension has a significant relationship with internet banking service quality. The internet banking service quality dimensions identified in this study are associated to technology based-banking industry. Therefore, in order to maintain a high level of internet banking service quality, the internet banks should pay attention to all four dimensions identified. In this study, the efficiency of website is found to be the key driver of internet banking service quality, followed by site organization, user friendliness, and personal need, respectively. It means that customers are looking for banks that provide services that can complete a transaction quickly on website, and easily accessible. In other words, customers are paying more emphasize on the efficiency of website dimensions than other dimensions as key factor in establishing relationship with their banks. Therefore, internet banking is required to focus on strategic choice in increasing consumer awareness and acceptance of new technology (banking system) in order to gain competitive advantage. This finding was in consistent with Herington and Weaven (2009) and Sohail and Shaikh (2008) who stated that efficiency of website is the most influencing factor in user's evaluation of internet banking service quality and the online banking customers are more focussing on download speed and completing a transaction quickly. Findings of the present study support the results of research by Ho and Lin (2010) on online banking, customers expect to complete their transactions correctly, on time, and have their e-mails response quickly. Similarly, Thaichon et al. (2014) suggests that by enhancing service quality, firms can influence customers' satisfaction, value, trust and commitment, which are important for firms' long-term sustainability. Therefore, the internet banking has to make sure that these expectations are met accordingly. For example, if a customer has a bad experience in regards to the interactivity of functionality of the internet banking website, then a customer might make overall internet banking service quality judgment before a transaction took place. In order to provide a good quality of internet services, internet banking should provide their customers with effective and efficient website in a suitably presented environment and update the technology development (Chemingui, 2013; Chen and Teng, 2013; Collier and Bienstock, 2006; Herington and Weaven, 2009; Ho et al., 2012; Jayawardhena, 2004). For this reason, Ho et al. (2012) emphasizes more the importance of physical (system functions and interface) and psychological attributes (services, information, attitudes) in understanding the dynamics of online customer behavior. Additionally, Ho et al. (2012) discover that quality plays an important part on internet searching behavior in two ways: improving the effectiveness and efficiency of websites, and users' acceptance of the website systems. Nowadays, customers are easily to find a large number of alternative banking sites, therefore, the main drivers of internet banking are depend on banking websites functionality and user interface (Vatanasombut et al., 2008).\n8. Limitations and future research: There are some limitations in this study. The total number of internet banking, sample size and covered areas of the study should be increased in order to achieve a proper result. For future research, additional internet service quality dimensions should be investigated such as interactivity and website services ability. In addition, as suggested by Dahlstrom et al., 2014; Yu et al. (2015) that perceived risk and trust constructs should be incorporated as determinant of e-customer satisfaction and loyalty for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the internet banking service quality and its implication on e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed for internet banking customers and 520 were returned (resulting 52 percentage of response rate).\nFindings: The results confirmed that the all four dimensions (personal need, site organization, user friendliness, and efficiency of website) are distinct constructs. The results also indicated that internet banking service quality consisting of four dimensions has appropriate reliability and each dimensions has a positive significant relationship with internet banking service quality. The efficiency of banking website is the important aspect of internet banking service quality. The finding found that the relationship between internet banking service quality, e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty are significant.\nPractical implications: The results show that the higher level of internet banking service quality significantly impacts to e-customer satisfaction and consequently leads to e-customer loyalty and a lower intention to leave the relationship with bank.\nOriginality/value: This study proposes a model to understand the effect of internet banking service quality on e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty in developing country. The constructs truly reflect the dynamism of customers' banking relationship and a better understanding the attitude on internet banking will help the bankers in implementing more effective marketing strategies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A framework for management control research
|
[
"Management development",
"Organizational change",
"Control"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, many organizations have experienced numerous changes in their organizational structures and business processes as a result of the changing business environment. In response, patterns of management control in organizations are also changing and management theorists are paying increasing attention to the changes in management control systems. These changes have opened new avenues for researchers and created an opportunity to study the nature of management development. Empirical research plays an important role in studying the changes in management development.This paper develops a framework that can be used to explore the patterns of management control in a business organization. The management control system in any organization defines a set of role prescriptions and values for the entire organization. The expected outcomes of any control system as a whole are the survival and growth of the organization and the job satisfaction and personal development of its participants. This whole necessarily includes managers as well as subordinates and they are normally evaluated in terms of organizational effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness largely depends upon the existing control system characteristics. Research reveals that different control systems may be used for the achievement of different types of organizational performance (Carlos, 1988). This paper develops a conceptual framework that synthesises past research on management control.The next section is devoted to a detailed review of management control literature. Based on the literature reviewed, in the following section four patterns of management control systems are conceptualized. In the next section, the proposed framework of management control is presented. In the final section, a summary of the research is given.\nLiterature review: Management is the \"the process of using organization resources to achieve organizational objectives through the functions of planning, organizing and staffing, leading, and controlling\" (DuBrin, 2000, p. 3). Each of these functions of management needs careful and detailed managerial attention (Sather, 2004). As the purpose of the current paper is the development of a framework for managerial control, a detailed review of management control literature is essential.Nature of control\nManagement control systems: Management control systems, as the name suggests, include three concepts:1. management;2. control; and3. systems.Many theorists agree that the term \"management control systems\" has numerous meanings and it gives different ideas and meanings to different people depending on the context in which it is applied or discussed. If these three words are taken separately, each has a problem of defining itself because they all belong to a wide discipline, which has developed over the last 40-45 years. Machin (1983, p. 24) pointed out:Management was a subset of those things, which went on in an organization. Control was a subset of the total range of managerial activity (planning, motivating, coordinating, staffing, directing, controlling etc., the precise number of discrete subjects depending on the author). Systems was the subset of organizational systems which included only formal, systematically developed, data-handling system (original emphasis).The notion of \"management control systems\", which is a combination of those three concepts, thus lacks a definitive explanation (Nandan, 1996). The word \"management\" represents one of the activities carried out by managers in an organization. The variables involved in the activity of management seem to be increasing in modern complex organizations. Equally, it is becoming clear that management as an activity is not restricted solely to \"what managers do\" (Machin, 1983, p. 36). In the management literature, the activities performed by managers have been broken down into many categories. Common among these categories are objective setting, strategy formulation and implementation, performance measurement, and control (Fayol, 1967; Anthony, 1965; Mintzberg, 1973; Merchant, 1985). Although the functions of managers cannot be separated with distinct demarcation lines, both theorists and practitioners agree that control is the final function in the process of management. The terms management accounting (MA), management accounting systems (MAS), management control systems (MCS), and organizational controls (OC) are sometimes used interchangeably (Chenhall, 2003, p. 129).The uttermost focus of the approaches to traditional management control systems is on the goals, and the co-ordination and evaluation of the processes used to achieve the established goals. Anthony (1965) set boundaries between three types of planning and control decisions in an organization. Traditional management control theorists hold the view that management control is internal to the organization and structures and strategies play important roles in control. Anthony et al. (1989) clarified the nature of management control:Management control is a tool for managers, who use it in their interaction with one another and with subordinates. It is a people-oriented process. Line managers are the focal points in management control. They make the plans for implementing strategies and attaining goals, and they are the people who must influence others and whose performance is evaluated (p. 12).Anthony's approach means that management control is contrasted with the ideas of strategic planning, concerned with setting goals and objectives for the whole organization over the long term, and operational control, concerned with ensuring that immediate tasks are carried out (Berry et al., 1998, p. xv). Anthony and Dearden (1980) maintain the view that management control is \"the process by which management assures that the organization carries out its strategies effectively and efficiently\" (p. 7). Thus, the process of management control expects to ensure that the daily tasks performed by those involved in the activities of the organization are coordinated. Similarly, the traditional view maintains that resource allocation has a prominent position in the control system (Maciariello, 1980). According to Anthony and Govindarajan (2004), \"Elements of management control systems include strategic planning; budgeting; resource allocation; performance measurement, evaluation, and reward; responsibility center allocation; and transfer pricing\" (p. 1).This rational approach to control \"concentrates on the structural mechanisms dominated by systems thinking, to secure order and effective co-ordination and control in organizational interaction\" (Nandan, 1996, p. 346). It implies that optimal control systems can be designed and operated for any circumstance in any organization given the ability to control its inherent complexity (Hopper and Powell, 1985). Traditional viewers of control systems have focused on the constraint aspect of control practices.For many decades, traditional views of management control have been considered fundamental principles of management control among academics and practitioners. The basic means of achieving control were through the systematic use of rules and regulations designed for different managerial and functional levels of the organization. As Whitley (1999, p. 507) noted, \"much of traditional literature on management accounting and management control was founded on the belief that economic activities in the developed industrial societies were organized into clearly distinct and well-bounded corporations in which managers coordinated work and sub-units through systematic rules and procedures\". The traditional approach to management control focused on providing information, more specifically accounting information, to keep things on track. Mainstream work in management control has set off down a path which is characterized by its emphasis on accounting information, individual responses to that information, and defensive strategies designed to cope with the situations in which it was used (Otley, 1996, p. 1).Many researchers have criticized the conventional aspects of management control for being more restrictive and less concerned with the behavioural aspects of the organizational participants (Whitley, 1999; Berry et al., 1995; Macintosh, 1994; Nandan, 1996; Otley et al., 1996; Chua et al., 1989; Lowe and Puxty, 1989; Lowe and Machin, 1983; Hofstede, 1978). For example, Whitley (1999, p. 508) explained:In the past few decades, however, the traditional management control approach has been severely criticised for being too narrow, for assuming managerial consensus over objectives, for taking worker acquiescence and passivity for granted, and for generating universal - or at least highly general - recipes when it has become increasingly clear that patterns of work organization differ greatly across sectors, regions, and countries.Otley et al. (1996, p. 6) justified their criticisms of Anthony's approach as follows:The first problem is concerned with defining strategies, goals and objectives. Such procedures are typically complex and ill defined, with strategies being produced as much by accident as by design. It is clear that Anthony was aware of these problems of ambiguity and uncertainty when he located them in the domain of strategy but he then avoided their further consideration. The second problem concerns the methods used to control the production (or service delivery) process, which are highly dependent upon the technology in use, and which differ markedly from one type of organization to the next. Anthony conveniently relegates these control issues to the realm of operational control! An important oversight which may have affected both practice and theory.Traditional views of management control emphasized mere internal processes or actions taken within organizations. Lowe and Puxty (1989) articulated the nature and effect of this emphasis:It is of course true that these actions will affect the relationship of the organization to its environment, but this relationship is not made explicit and the specific ways in which it should be governed are not discussed. The result is an inward-looking philosophy of control, which by concentrating on a small part of the control process, ignores the most important part. As a result, control is seen as a feedback process only (pp. 18-19).Dissatisfied with the traditional theory and practice of management control, Machin and Lowe (1983, p. 3) were convinced of the necessity of developing new perspectives in management control:Now is an appropriate time to review the myths and traditions of management control systems design and practice, because the subject is rapidly approaching a theoretical and practical watershed. The key elements in the study of such systems are all facing profound changes simultaneously.One focal point of these differing views of control is that when the actual performance does not match with the standard, a system is said to be out of control. In this case, measures are taken to bring the system under control either by changing the actual outcome or by revising the standard. From an organizational point of view, control promotes coordination both across functional departments and among managerial levels. On the one hand, the process of control helps to align individuals' incentives with those of the organization. On the other hand, it reduces risk by offering warnings of potential problems and damages in advance and providing the opportunity for corrective action. In this modern information driven world, it is imperative that social and behavioural aspects of control be taken into account in managing complex organizations and their participants. The traditional views of management control have failed to pay due attention to these aspects.The debate over the nature of control systems needed by the future managers and organizations has reached to a crucial point. The monograph edited by Lowe and Machin (1983) turned the attention of researchers and practitioners of control in a new direction (Chua et al., 1989; Otley, 1996). More and more researchers have been actively engaged in this debate. For example, Chua et al. (1989), in their monograph Critical Perspectives in Management Control emphasized the need to consider the broader social and/or moral conditions, which affect the design and practice of control systems. The work of Chua et al. (1989) \"concentrated heavily on the application of critical theory to control\" (Otley, 1996, p. 3). Otley, further, maintained:The central concept of management control is perhaps that of accountability, both between individuals in a managerial hierarchy and at a higher level of analysis between people in a society attempting to regulate the institutions they have created, perhaps better termed governance (original emphasis) (Otley, 1996, p. 3).Awakened by rising debate on management control, many researchers have paid increased attention to different aspects of control. Robson and Cooper (1989), for example, have contrasted the functionalist and subjectivist approaches to control as follows:Management control is conventionally regarded as a set of practices designed to ensure that individuals, organizations and societies satisfy their goals (Robson and Cooper, 1989, p. 79).Whereas the subjectivist approach focuses on the exercise of power, the integration approach to power is concerned with the \"power to do\" (Robson and Cooper, 1989, p. 87).This paper develops a theoretical framework of management control that can be employed in analysing empirical research data. The proposed model is based on the literature reviewed.\nConceptualization of management control: In this paper, the term \"management control\" will mean any actions, activities, procedures or norms activated in an organization to influence the probability that organizational participants' behaviour will lead to the attainment of negotiated levels of objectives. Using the classification provided by Otley et al. (1996), \"control\" in this research is classified into four groups.A conceptualization of control as a set of rules, practices and procedures, and as a feedback process\nA framework of management control: In Figure 1, a schematic representation of the framework of management control derived from the literature review is shown. As illustrated in Figure 1, the proposed framework consists of two major dimensions:1. management control system; and2. achieving organizational goals and objectives.These two dimensions are considered to be interacting with each other in a two-way relationship, shaping and reshaping the behaviour and performance of the organization and its participants.In Figure 1, the dimension of the organizational management control system is represented by a series of interacting triangles, which are bounded by a rectangle. The innermost triangle comprises the \"core control package\". The core control package represents the core control practices and mechanisms of the organization. The surrounding three triangles represent the other components of the control system: corporate strategy and structure, corporate culture, and management information systems. Organizational structure consists of the organizational hierarchy, rules and regulations and reporting relationships while strategy represents the organizational goals and objectives and the ways of achieving them. Corporate culture is a collection of values, beliefs, norms, and the patterns of participant behaviour, which characterise the organization. Management information systems consist of the formal and informal systems of information for managers. As shown in Figure 1, the core management control package is linked with the other three components of the management control system by feedback and feed forward loops. The elements of the control system, namely organizational structure and strategy, corporate culture, management information systems, and core control package, are bounded by the environment of the organization. The components of the management control model are viewed as an integrated system.Furthermore, if any of the components are not compatible with the other four, \"the result will be an ineffective management control system\" (Teall, 1992, p. 31). As the overall framework depicts, there is a direct relationship between control and the achievement of organizational goals and objectives as they are articulated by both feedback and feed-forward loops.Components of the proposed framework of management control\nSummary: This paper has proposed a framework for management control research. The framework is developed based on four components of the management control system, namely:1. organizational structure and strategy;2. corporate culture;3. management information systems; and4. core control package.These four components are consistent with a large body of management control theory. Based on the framework developed by Otley et al. (1996) four perspectives of management control, which are considered the elements of the core management control package were identified. They are rules, regulations, and procedures; contextual factors; behavioural control mechanisms; and dynamic cultural values and norms. This framework can be substantiated using an empirical study to validate its real world use.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework that can be used in studying the changing nature of management control in organizations. It is based on four components of the management control system, namely: organizational structure and strategy; corporate culture; management information systems; and core control package.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A range of published works is reviewed to explore the nature of management control.\nFindings: - The conceptual framework developed in the paper can be used in studying the changing nature of management control in organizations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is not an empirical investigation of management control.\nOriginality/value: - The framework presented in this article is useful to both practitioners and researchers of management control.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Tourism and hospitality marketing: fantasy, feeling and fun
|
[
"Marketing",
"Tourism",
"Hospitality management",
"Postmodernism",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Brands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Experiential marketing has become a cornerstone of many recent advances in areas such as retailing, branding and events marketing, however, marketing in the tourism and hospitality sectors does not appear to have explicitly engaged the theoretical issues involved. This raises the question what, if anything, does experiential marketing have to offer marketers in the disciplines of tourism and hospitality? In this paper, I will seek to introduce the experiential marketing debate and demonstrate how the questions raised by the concept are crucial to an understanding of marketing theory and research within the tourism and hospitality sectors.Marketing and promotion is clearly essential for successful tourism and hospitality development, however, it is often overlooked or simplistic in nature (Hannam, 2004). Indeed, Morgan et al. (2002) argue that conventional tourism marketing tends to focus on confirming the intentions of tourists, rather than persuading them to consume differently. In addition the marketing of tourism and hospitality products has become increasingly complex, being associated not only with conveying an image of a place, but with attempting to sell an experience of a place through relating it to the lifestyle constructs of consumers. For many years we have discussed the characteristics of tourism and hospitality products, which suggest that marketing within the sectors is different to many other industries, as purchase decisions are made on the basis of projected and perceived images, rather than prior experience. However, despite the amount of literature being written on these perceived differences, most marketing in the sector relies heavily on traditional marketing concepts, and it is often difficult to discriminate tourism and hospitality approaches to marketing from those advocated for other consumer products.Tourism and hospitality has become a major economic activity as expectations with regard to the use of our leisure time have evolved, attributing greater meaning to our free time. The evolution of tourist behaviour encourages both change and the emergence of new meaning (Bouchet et al., 2004). This results in marketing having potentially a greater prominence in tourism and hospitality, than in other industries. Potential that is not always fully achieved (Morgan and Pritchard, 2002). The key reason for this failing is that in the main marketing for tourism and hospitality has been focussed not on the consumer, but on the destination or outlet, with marketing strategies being related to the products offered (Williams, 2000, 2002). As marketing within this sector has evolved however, the offer has become increasingly less important due to the enormous heterogeneity of consumer motivation and behaviour. The result is that firms and destinations within this sector need to redefine their strategies to reflect these changes.Studying the behaviour of consumers has become increasingly complex, and it is fair to argue that tourism and hospitality by its very nature, should be in the vanguard of research into contemporary consumers (Williams, 2002). Tourism and hospitality offers a multitude of venues in which people can consume. Bars, restaurants, hotels, theme parks, casinos and cruise ships all operate as \"Cathedrals of consumption\" (Ritzer, 1999) offering increasingly complex consumption opportunities to increasingly complex consumers. Tourism and hospitality has developed into one of the most important global economic activities, due in part to a combination of a transformation of offers and increasingly postmodern demand. These changes mean that tourism and hospitality consumption has evolved to become more qualitative, more demanding, and more varied (Bouchet et al., 2004).Anecdotal evidence delivered through media coverage, would suggest that contemporary consumers are self-indulgent, pleasure seeking individuals, easily dominated by marketers and advertisers, who act like sheep in the ways they mimic referent others. However, the reality is obviously much more complex than such a scenario suggests. Contemporary consumers are as likely to be driven by thrift as to they are to be hedonistic, they use consumption to make statements about themselves, they use consumption to create their identities and they develop a sense of belonging through consumption. For many people it is through consumption that relationships are formed, for example, colleagues enjoying a drink after work or children hosting their birthday parties at McDonalds, enabling them to define their circle of friends. Consumption also plays a part in finding fulfilment, developing creativity and expressing their individual abilities. Clearly such a complex phenomena cannot be easily understood.Recent arguments have been sounded that aspects of contemporary tourism and hospitality consumption have reflected the phenomena of postmodernism. Whilst many believe postmodernism to be a meaningless intellectual fad, inaccessible to many involved in marketing within our sector, others agree that there are worthwhile insights to be gained from the debate on the post-modern condition and its consequences for tourism and hospitality consumption and marketing. I do not intend to discuss at length the use of post-modern discourse in tourism and hospitality marketing as I have exercised it in previous work (Williams, 2000, 2002). The term postmodernism refers to a break in thinking away from the modern, functional and rational, and during the last couple of decades it has spread across all domains of knowledge, including marketing. The key concepts of post-modern marketing are fragmentation, indeterminacy and distrust of universal discourse, but by eschewing modernism it introduces a radically new and different cultural movement which coalesces in a reconceptualisation of how we experience and explain our world. In terms of experiential marketing two aspects of the post-modern discourse are most relevant, hypereality and image.Hypereality is one of the most discussed conditions of postmodernism, and refers to the argument that reality has collapsed and has become image, illusion, simulation and simulacra (copies for which no original exists). Hyperreality refers to a blurring of distinction between the real and the unreal in which the prefix \"hyper\" signifies more real than real. When the real is no longer a given but is reproduced by a simulated environment, it does not become unreal, but realer than real, to the extent it becomes what Baudrillard (1993, p. 23)refers to as \"a hallucinatory resemblance of itself\". In postmodernism, with the advent of hyperreality, simulations come to constitute reality itself. This scenario is exemplified throughout the tourism and hospitality industry. Baudrillard himself used the example of Disneyland, arguing it is more real than the USA itself. A point reinforced by Venturi (1995, p. 67) who suggested \"Disneyland is nearer to what people want than what architects have ever given them. Disneyland is the symbolic American utopia\". In postmodern society people have become fascinated by signs and as a result, they exist in a state where signs and images have become more important than what they stand for. The result is that today's consumers consume imagery and do not focus on what the images represent or mean. As Miller and Real (1998, p. 30) argue \"we live in a world where the image or signifier of an event has replaced direct experience and knowledge of its referent or signified\".While it is accepted that there are problems with investigating tourism and hospitality marketing through a postmodern orientation, it clearly encompasses a broad range of consumer experiences. In addition it has the potential to reframe our thinking about marketing practice in an increasingly fragmented global marketplace. A better understanding of the underlying macro forces and micro behaviour, associated with postmodernism, can be leveraged by marketers to obtain competitive advantages in the increasingly dynamic, unpredictable, unstable and competitive tourism and hospitality environment.Traditional marketing provided a valuable set of strategies, implementation tools and methodologies that tourism and hospitality firms could use in an earlier age. As Schmitt (1999, p. 55) argued \"traditional marketing was developed in response to the industrial age, not the information, branding and communications revolution we are facing today\". In a new age, with new consumers we need to shift away from a features-and-benefits approach, as advocated by traditional approaches to consumer experiences. We need to consider new concepts and approaches which capitalise on the opportunities offered by these new consumers. One such approach is experiential marketing; an approach which in contrast to the rational features-and-benefits view of consumers, takes a more postmodern orientation and views them as emotional beings, concerned with achieving pleasurable experiences.\nExperiential marketing of tourism and hospitality products: The transition to an experience economy\nConclusions: Experiential marketing is a relatively new orientation, which is gaining ground in western and other developed economies and which provides a contrast to traditional marketing. Whereas traditional marketing frameworks view consumers as rational decision-makers focussed on the functional features and benefits of products, experiential marketing views consumers as emotional beings, focussed on achieving pleasurable experiences. These experiences are achieved through \"experience providers\" (Schmitt, 1999) such as communications, visual and verbal identity, presence and media. As Schmitt (1999, p. 53) argues \"the ultimate goal of experiential marketing is to create holistic experiences that integrate individual experiences into a holistic Gestalt\". The difference between traditional and experiential marketing can be highlighted in a number of ways. Firstly, the focus is on customer experiences and lifestyles, which provide sensory, emotional, cognitive and relational values to the consumer. Secondly, there is a focus on creating synergies between meaning, perception, consumption and brand loyalty. Thirdly, it is argued that customers are not rational decision-makers, but rather driven by rationality and emotion. Finally, it is argued that experiential marketing requires a more diverse range of research methods in order to understand consumers. What are required, it is argued, are methods which are new and subjective and which look for difference and uniqueness rather than similarity and pattern (Williams, 2000).Underpinning experiential marketing is the notion of a fourth economic stage of development. One which goes beyond our current pre-occupation with services marketing, to a stage where experiences are central to consumption activity. The identification of an experience economy points up the need for marketing to respond, which it has with experiential marketing. Tourism and hospitality marketing, too often grounded in positivistic assumptions, viewing consumption as an internalised state, has to begin to respond to alternative orientations. When rival tourism and hospitality offerings become more alike than different, in the concepts that dominate their design and operations they find their business commodified. They are then purchased on the basis of price. Experiential marketing helps firms to avoid the commodification trap. If firms are to be effective in the highly competitive tourism and hospitality industries, it is imperative that they understand contemporary markets and consumers. Referring back to the question with which I opened this paper, I would argue that experiential marketing offers tourism and hospitality marketers two things. Firstly, it offers a more meaningful insight into the ways in which consumers perceive or view tourism and hospitality's eclectic range of offers. Secondly, experiential marketing offers us the opportunity to consider a new approach to marketing; one with which to capitalise on the unique nature of tourism and hospitality products.As Schmitt (1999, p. 53) argues \"from now on, leading-edge companies, whether they sell to consumers or businesses, will find that the next competitive battlefield lies in staging experiences\". The tourism and hospitality sectors cannot be seen to be immune to such fundamental changes in the orientation of marketing. Innovative experience design will become an increasingly important component of tourism and hospitality firms core capabilities. Those who go beyond service excellence and market experientially will lead the creation of value in the sector.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Experiential marketing is arguably marketing's most contemporary orientation, but as with many marketing innovations it has been largely overlooked by those involved in tourism and hospitality marketing and promotion. Whilst in many industries companies have moved away from traditional features and benefits approaches, to putting experiential marketing centre-stage, marketing in the tourism and hospitality sectors does not appear to have explicitly engaged the theoretical issues involved. This raises the question what, if anything, does experiential marketing have to offer marketers in the disciplines of tourism and hospitality? In this paper, I will seek to introduce the experiential marketing debate and demonstrate how the questions raised by the concept are critical to an understanding of marketing theory and research within the tourism and hospitality sectors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Following the authors previous publications which sought to investigate alternative paradigms for studying hospitality consumers, this research attempts to consider the practical applications of one such model.\nFindings: - The tourism and hospitality sectors cannot be seen to be immune to fundamental changes in the orientation of marketing. Innovative experience design will become an increasingly important component of tourism and hospitality firms core capabilities. Those who go beyond service excellence, and market experientially will lead the creation of value in the sector.\nOriginality/value: - Provides a framework as to how organisations might usefully implement an experiential marketing strategy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The elephant in the room: exploring the motivational antecedents of servant leadership
|
[
"Servant leadership",
"Self-determination theory",
"Motivation to serve",
"Motivation to lead"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Servant leadership (SL) has seen a surge of research attention in the past 20 years (Parris and Peachey, 2013). SL is defined as \"an other-oriented approach to leadership manifested through one-on-one prioritizing of follower individual needs and interests, and outward reorienting of their concern for self towards concern for others within the organization and the larger community\" (Eva et al., 2019, p. 4). SL research has proved fruitful, leading the concept to be associated with a broad range of outcomes. Findings suggest that SL is positively related to employee engagement (Van Dierendonck et al., 2014), employee performance (Liden et al., 2008) and team performance (Hu and Liden, 2011), among others. However, research so far has focused on evaluating the outcomes of SL, leaving our understanding of the antecedents of SL severely limited (Eva et al., 2019; Van Dierendonck, 2011).In the light of this research gap, the present study evaluates the role of psychological need satisfaction (PNS) in relationship to SL theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000), placing PNS as an antecedent to SL, mediated by the motivation to serve (MTS) (Duffy and Raque-Bogdan, 2010) and non-calculative motivation to lead (MTL) (Chan and Drasgow, 2001). Self-determination, for which PNS provides the fundamental nutrients (Deci and Ryan, 2000), has been positioned as an essential condition for SL, in the sense that enhanced leader self-motivation and mental health follow from this sense of self-determination (Van Dierendonck, 2011). As individuals learn that some behaviors satisfy their psychological needs more than others, they subsequently internalize those behaviors (Gagne and Deci, 2005). Moreover, self-determination theory (SDT) uniquely treats behavior as agentic and coming from intrinsic motivations (Deci and Ryan, 2000). SDT assumes that individuals are capable of, from their own volition, deciding what behaviors to exhibit, thus emphasizing the role of PNS in an individual's behavioral change. As SL theory assumes a self-deterministic process in the leader's prioritization of others' needs over their own, SDT is, therefore, well-equipped to enhance our understanding of this complex assumption of agency underlying SL.Though a promising construct in relationship to SL, PNS has not yet been studied empirically as an antecedent to SL. This lack is indicative of a dearth of research on the antecedents of SL more broadly (Eva et al., 2019). It represents a broader failure of researchers to reconcile leadership theory with rigorous psychological theories to attain a more nuanced understanding of the development of leadership behavior (Eva et al., 2019; Hunter et al., 2007). More specifically, the lack of research into PNS as an antecedent to SL contributes to the enduring ambiguity with regard to the underlying psychological mechanisms by which servant leaders are motivated (Eva et al., 2019; Van Dierendonck, 2011). As such, there is a major gap in the SL literature concerning its psychological and motivational antecedents (Liden et al., 2014; Barbuto, 2005). This problem is well established in the SL literature, with numerous authors calling for studies to examine the antecedents of SL (Beck, 2014; Van Dierendonck, 2011; Liden et al., 2014; Eva et al., 2019). The SDT-informed perspective as developed in the present study enables these ambiguities to be alleviated and thus contributes to a clearer understanding of the emergence of SL behavior as a consequence of intrinsic motivational processes.Considering the organizational expenses involved in leadership development practices (Day, 2000), this ambiguity not only is problematic theoretically but also has negative economic implications, as organizations remain uncertain about how to identify SL potential during recruitment and about how to train managers to become servant leaders (Barbuto et al., 2014). Insights into the antecedents of SL are highly relevant to such practices, as they enable human resource management/development practitioners to screen individuals for their SL potential effectively and thus increase the success rate of their leadership development practices as well as reduce their cost (Day, 2000). Specifically, understanding how PNS operates as an antecedent to SL can help organizations to develop more effective leadership development programs by emphasizing a positive psychological approach.As the level of PNS can help explain what goals people pursue and why they pursue them (Gagne and Deci, 2005), this study investigates the role of the MTS and non-calculative MTL as mediating individual difference constructs in the relationship between PNS and SL. Since its conceptualization in the 1970s, the central tenet of SL has been that the servant leader is a servant first, with the MTL stemming from this \"need to serve\" (Greenleaf, 1970). To date, however, both the \"motivation to serve\" and \"motivation to lead\" aspects of SL have only been conceptualized, than being tested empirically (Liden et al., 2014; Van Dierendonck, 2011). Nevertheless, this exact idea underlies most of the philosophy at the basis of SL theory (Greenleaf, 1970; Liden et al., 2014). Consequently, the present study seeks to extend the SL literature by examining the roles played by MTS and non-calculative MTL as antecedents of SL, testing some of the most integral assumptions SL research is based upon. Combined with our study's focus on PNS, this SDT-informed perspective advances the ongoing debate as to why certain individuals demonstrate SL behavior. In this light, the present study was guided by the following research question: RQ1. To what extent do the MTS and non-calculative MTL mediate the relationship between the leader's PNS and SL?This study is designed to contribute both theoretically and empirically to the SL literature, making two primary contributions. First, this study aims to demonstrate how leadership can also be understood from a self-determination perspective, fitting with recent calls to investigate the potency of SDT as a framework to understand why people engage in SL (Eva et al., 2019). Despite the emergence of a sizeable body of leadership research, the vast majority of this research assumes that leaders themselves are motivated. By exploring the relationship between PNS and SL, this study enhances our understanding of leadership behavior as self-determined, and how this feeling of self-determination can relate to particular leadership behaviors.Second, this study aims to advance our understanding of the antecedents of SL, which have so far gone largely unexplored within the nomological network of SL theory. As such, this study is one of the first to respond to several calls by researchers to study the antecedents of SL (Barbuto, 2005; Eva et al., 2019; Liden et al., 2014; Brown and Bryant, 2015). Moreover, the examination presented of the interplay between MTS, non-calculative MTL and SL is a direct investigation into the validity of the foundational premise of SL that \"servant leaders are servants first\" (Greenleaf, 1977). Being arguably the most important premise of SL (Greenleaf, 1970), the idea that servant leaders are \"servants first\" implies that they prioritize other's needs over their own. Exploring the extent of calculation involved in taking up a SL position therefore is a direct investigation of the validity of this premise.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Servant leadership and its antecedents\n3. Methods: 3.1 Research design and sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Confirmatory factor analysis\n5. Discussion: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between PNS and SL, as well as the motivational antecedents of SL behavior. Whereas both are important parts of SL theory's foundation, so far these relationships have received very little academic attention (Van Dierendonck, 2011). The results of this study indicate that a leader's PNS is positively related to SL. This suggests that when individuals feel psychologically satisfied, their intentions for leadership behavior become more aligned with SL. Moreover, this relationship is explained by MTS and non-calculative MTL, which were found to be mediating constructs. As such, individuals who prioritize service to others and make the decision to take up leadership positions without engaging in cost-benefit analyses are more likely to develop as servant leaders. This supports the conceptual work by Liden et al. (2014) and Van Dierendonck (2011), which places these motivations at the heart of the SL philosophy. Moreover, the present study extends current ideas about the antecedents of SL, by emphasizing the importance of the individual's level of PNS in developing as a servant leader. Through these findings, our study contributes to the newly emerging body of research on the antecedents of SL and leader-centric motivation, by employing SDT to evaluate how psychological well-being affects the development of leadership behavior (Gilbert and Kelloway, 2018; Eva et al., 2019). 5.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine how psychological need satisfaction (PNS) relates to the display of servant leadership (SL) behavior through the motivation to serve (MTS) and non-calculative motivation to lead (MTL).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected using an electronic online questionnaire completed by 125 individuals from various organizations and industries. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and regression analysis.\nFindings: PNS, MTS and non-calculative MTL were found to relate positively to the display of SL behavior. Moreover, both MTS and non-calculative MTL were found to mediate fully the relationship between PNS and SL.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to investigate the motivational antecedents of SL. Moreover, it is the first to empirically study PNS as an antecedent of SL. The findings emphasize the importance of a leader's PNS in their motivation to display SL behavior, implying that a positive work environment is conducive to SL.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Adaptation and international students' perceptions of on-campus foodservice
|
[
"Service quality",
"Acculturation",
"Food and drink products",
"Schools",
"Students",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Expatriates"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: The US National Center for Education Statistics (2010), projects that college and university enrollment will continue to increase from fall 2010 through fall 2018. While 2010/2011 numbers are not yet available, the projected fall enrollments for the current 2010/2011 academic year were 19.7 million, higher than in any previous year (Institute of International Education, 2009). A significant segment of college and university campus enrollments are international students. According to the Institute of International Education (2009), 671,616 international students were enrolled in US colleges and universities during the 2008-2009 academic year. This was the highest recorded enrollment ever, up 8 percent since the previous year. The top countries sending students to the USA currently include: India, China, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Turkey, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia (Institute of International Education, 2009).International students not only comprise a large segment of US university and college student populations, they benefit institutions of higher learning in several ways. Economically, international students bring $17.8 billion to the US economy through their expenditures on tuition and living costs and 65 percent of the students support this spending through personal financial resources (Institute of International Education, 2009). Additionally, international students enrich campus environments by exposing US students to a variety of cultures which prepares them to enter the diverse workforce (Salomone, 2004). According to Lu (2001), the exchange of international students is a primary way to enhance relations between nations.Research that targets the special needs of international students on college and university campuses has been varied and has addressed areas of academic concern such as learning styles and language barriers in the classroom, as well as support service issues such as financial aid, library services, career planning, and student health facilities (Hsu, 1996; Ladd and Ruby, 1999; Lu, 2001). Others have further examined the importance of socialization and acculturation towards the success, satisfaction, and ultimately, retention of international students (Abadi, 1999; Dato-on, 2000; Goyol, 2002; Joo, 2002; Zhou et al., 2008; Zimmerman, 1995). One area that has had limited attention has been the role of on-campus foodservice in the well being of international students.On-campus foodservice and international students\nII. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to add to the current foodservice and cross-cultural service quality literature by addressing the questions that arose during the instrument development process conducted by Ruetzler (2007). This research was guided by one primary objective: \"To investigate whether length of time spent in the US impacts the perceptions of international students studying in the US regarding service and food quality of on-campus foodservice operations\".While acculturation is a very complex, multidimensional process that is defined in numerous ways, time in a host country has been an important and significant factor associated with assimilation of the host country's culture (Dato-on, 2000; Wallendorf and Arnould, 1988; Zimmerman, 1995). As shown by Edwards et al. (2010), it can also influence students' acceptance of foods and dietary habits.\nIII. Methodology: Sample\nIV. Results: A total of 283 international students responded to the survey resulting in a 16.2 percent responses rate. A total of 38 surveys were removed from the data analysis due to incomplete responses, resulting in a final count of 245 surveys. Descriptive statistics for each of the service factor scores based on the length of time the students had been in the USA and their respective universities are presented in Table II.MANOVA testing indicated that there was a significant difference between length of time in the USA and the ratings of the service factors, Wilks' lambda=0.882, F(18,656)=1.687, p=0.037. Tests of between subjects effects indicated that significant differences existed in the \"Service and sanitation\" factor, F(3, 237)=4.116, p=0.007. Tukey's LSD post hoc test revealed that the differences existed between the participants that had been in the USA for less than six months and the two groups that had been in the USA for more than one year to three years and more than three years. Results are presented in Table III. The group that had been in the USA for less than six months (M=3.10) rated the \"Service and sanitation\" factor higher than the group of students who had been in the USA for more than one year to three years (M=2.93) and more than three years (M=2.99). The group of students that had the least amount of time in the USA was much more satisfied with the \"Service and sanitation\" levels.\nV. Discussion: The adaption process and the U-curve\nVI. Conclusions and future research: The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether time spent in the USA impacted international students' service quality perceptions of on-campus dining. The results showed that one of the six factors in the study; \"Service and sanitation\" was rated significantly higher by the students that had been in the USA for less than six months than the students that had been in the USA for over a year. This indicates that the U-curve model of cultural adaption may play a role in perceptions of on-campus foodservice. Additionally, the interaction and socialization provided by the on-campus dining experience may be an important step of the adaption process for international students. As discussed earlier, many studies have looked into the adjustment of international students studying abroad; however, food is a large part of international student well being as well (Locher et al., 2005). In a time when increased recruitment and retention is a primary focus for US colleges and universities, foodservice operators may want to consider the important role their facilities play in the adaption period for international students.From a service quality and satisfaction analysis perspective, campus foodservice operators who do not take into consideration that new international students tend to score service factors higher due to the \"euphoric\" stage of adaptation, food service evaluations may skewed. Perceptions of students later in their stay would be a better indicator of their satisfaction levels. Conversely if a food service operator can identify what causes and extend the \"euphoric stage\", they may be able to increase customer satisfaction levels using the same ideologies as extending the product life cycle. However, these findings may not be generalizable to all international students because the study was conducted at only two universities and the sample sizes were relatively small.Given the findings regarding the difference in length of time in the USA and at the university, significant follow-up research could be performed to determine the interaction effects of culture of origin and acculturation levels of students on satisfaction with not only university foodservice, but other types of foodservice as well. A validated acculturation instrument could be applied. Similarly, using the food neophobia and dietary acculturation scales could provide valuable insights into the interaction of food preferences and dietary habits with satisfaction. Additionally, a study that looked not only at time in the USA, but also examined specific cultural groups such as Asian, Latino, European etc. along with time in the USA may provide greater insight whether home culture plays a role is speed of adaption. A study that included American students for comparison would help clarify if the \"euphoric' effect is a cultural factor or as Meyer (2000) and Kremmyda et al. (2008) investigated an effect of being away from home and in a new environment overall. Lastly, using qualitative research could uncover more in-depth reasons and constructs explaining the relationships between all the factors listed above.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to investigate whether length of time spent in the USA impacts perceptions of international students studying in US schools regarding the service and food quality of on-campus foodservice operations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The researchers surveyed international students at one Southeastern and one Southwestern university in the USA regarding their perceptions of university foodservice, divided into six factors, i.e. service and sanitation, food dislikes, selection and taste, drinks, value, and crowding. A two-way MANOVA test was performed using SPSS Version 17.0 to identify any significant differences between the six factors, time in the USA, and universities.\nFindings: - MANOVA testing indicated that there was a significant difference between length of time in the USA and the ratings of the service and sanitation factor. The group that had been in the USA for less than six months rated the service and sanitation factor higher than the group who had been in the USA for over a year.\nResearch limitation/implications: - Campus administrators and food service operators need to consider that the interaction and socialization provided by the on-campus dining experience may be an important step of the adaption process for international students.\nOriginality/value: - The study applies theoretical concepts regarding service quality and adaptation that have not been used previously to study international students and their on-campus foodservice preferences.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Touring destination and intention to consume indigenous food: A case of Kadazan-Dusun food in Sabah
|
[
"PLS-SEM",
"Sabah",
"Consumption behaviour",
"Tourists",
"Indigenous food"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tourism is integral to a human way of life. It provides new experiences outside of one's routine, it reduces tension and increases one's happiness in life. It has been generally agreed by scholars and practitioners that tourism is axiomatic to the economy. Across many countries, tourism is the key driver in contributing toward a country's gross domestic product, which in the process, reducing unemployment and improving the social development of the locality (Tan et al., 2019).\nContext of the study: Sabah, a state in the east of Malaysia has a population of 2.52m (Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, n.d.). In Sabah, there are more than 30 indigenous groups conversing in more than 50 languages and 90 dialects (Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, n.d.). The largest indigenous group in Sabah is Kadazan Dusun which makes up 33 percent of the state's population (Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, n.d.). Owing to the rich natural resources in Sabah and the 40 sub-indigenous groups of Kadazan Dusun, indigenous dishes such as the Hinava, Ambuyat, Jeruk Bambangan, Tuhau, Lihing, Pinasakan and Bosou are distinctive and reflective of the traditions, cultures and practices of the Kadazan Dusun.\nLiterature review: Theoretical framework\nConsumption of indigenous food: According to Sanger and Zenz (2004), indigenous food represents food that is produced locally or signature food that echoes local identity. It reflects a legacy, heritage or culture which are processed by utilizing the information or knowledge of the resources and local ingredients. The studies of consumption of indigenous food are enormous in the literature (e.g. Arce and Marsden, 1993; Wolf, 2002; Haven-Tang and Jones, 2005; Kivela and Crotts, 2006; Okumus et al., 2007).\nSensory appeal: Prior study has found that people from the UK and New Zealand rated sensory appeal as important in their food selection (Prescott et al., 2002). It has been described that the sight, smell, taste and texture of the food serves as the key important determinant in the choice of food consumption (McCrickerd and Forde, 2016). These hedonic characteristics direct individuals toward the food source that guides \"individual's preferences, selecting on the portion size, the experience of fullness after consumption and the facilitation of dietary learning\" (McCrickerd and Forde, 2016, p. 18). Align to these arguments, Ting et al. (2017) found a positive relationship between sensory appeal and intention to consume indigenous food among Malaysians who do not belong to the indigenous community. Similarly, the sensory appeal has a positive influence among the Belgians and French toward traditional food consumption (Pieniak et al., 2009). However, when all European countries are investigated, the sensory appeal is found to has an insignificant relationship toward traditional food consumption (Pieniak et al., 2009). While these findings are important, it contradicts one another. Additionally, little is known on the impact of sensory appeal toward the intention to consume Kadazan Dusun food among tourists in Sabah. On this premise, it is, therefore, noteworthy to assess the relationship between sensory appeal and intention to consume Kadazan Dusun food:\nMethodology: This paper employed purposive sampling on tourists from China, Europe and Malaysians who are non-Sabahans (Memon et al., 2017). Data were collected from the main tourist attractions in Sabah. In addition, we sought assistance from inbound travel agencies to distribute our survey forms to their travelers. The sample size for this study was determined using the G*power software. At the power of 95 percent, an effect size of 0.15 and with six predictors, the required sample size is 146. With 254 responses collected, it represented the power of 99.8 percent which is well above Cohen (1988) recommendations, thus justifying the sufficiency of the sample size to proceed with the analysis.\nResults: Respondents profile\nDiscussion: The results demonstrate both clear similarities and differences in the factors that are important in determining ethnic food consumption among tourists from China, Europe and Malaysia. The most interesting similarity is between China and Europe where food familiarity appears as not an issue toward Kadazan Dusun food consumption. This study corroborates with the findings by Prescott et al. (2002) and Januszewska et al. (2011). Both previous studies investigated the food choice among Europeans and reported that food familiarity is not important in determining their food choice. Meanwhile, a report showed that Chinese tourists are eager to try new products and would like to experience local cultures (Trivett, 2013). In addition, the influence of international cultural mix in European countries results in low rates of food neophobia in Europe (Barcellos et al., 2009) and, consequently, generate a willingness to try new food.\nImplications and conclusion: This study contributes to the discourse on the gastronomic field of study. It extends the understanding of earlier works such as Kim et al. (2011), Ting et al. (2017) and Szakaly et al. (2018) by investigating the effect of the various hedonic and utilitarian predictors on the consumption of Kadazan Dusun food. Our study demonstrates that different profile of tourists has different motivators and inhibitors to consume food. Given the growth potential of this segment of the industry, our results provide insights on how Sabah can leverage to effectively communicate and to promote itself, thereby strengthening its competitive advantage and its identity as a venue of gastronomic haven among the tourists from China and Europe as well as the non-Sabahans.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing Sabah's indigenous food consumption, namely Kadazan-Dusun food, among tourists from China, Europe and Malaysia (non-Sabahans).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey forms were distributed to tourists from China, Europe and Malaysia using purposive sampling at tourist spots in Sabah, Malaysia. In total, 254 responses were collected, and the data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).\nFindings: The findings demonstrate that tourists from China and Europe possess some similarities in consuming indigenous food in Sabah. They enjoy trying indigenous food even they are not familiar with the food. Additionally, our findings also show that tourists from China regard sensory appeal as an important aspect of food choice. Meanwhile, it is found that convenience and mood influence Malaysian's choice of indigenous food.\nOriginality/value: This study provides insights regarding Sabah's Kadazan-Dusun food consumption from foreign and domestic tourists' perspectives. As such, it also provides direction to the local eateries and relevant tourism authorities to better promote indigenous food to foreign and domestic tourists.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
On the role of SMS for transaction confirmation with IVR telephone banking
|
[
"Telephone banking",
"Service industries",
"Automation",
"Interactive devices",
"Mobile communications systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The continuing widespread advances in computer technologies have encouraged many banks to adopt new methods of interacting with customers to improve customer service, to lower costs and to maintain competitive advantage; and from a customer point-of-view, to offer more convenient methods of banking. Banks are now committed to making available customer services that have traditionally involved interacting with branch staff, using different digital channels such as interactive voice response (IVR) telephone banking or internet banking, encouraging customers to contact them using such digital (direct) channels, rather than by person-to-person contact. Banks also seek to identify strategies for 'next call avoidance' that might eliminate situations where the customer telephones the bank purely to seek reassurance in confirming that a recent transaction has indeed been processed. One such potential new technology is mobile phone banking (m-banking) and this paper offers results from a controlled experiment, involving integrating short message service (SMS) features with an existing IVR telephone banking service as a new way of delivering (secure, out-of-band) transaction confirmation messages. The aims of the experiment were to investigate the impact on customer attitudes and the impact on customer relationship of introducing SMS confirmations after IVR telephone banking transactions in order to build a business case for deployment; and to gather data on the acceptability of integrating an SMS channel with an existing IVR digital banking channel.1.1. Mobile banking\n2. Method: 2.1 Experiment design, independent variables\n3. Results: 3.1 Customer attitudes scores\n4. Discussion: It was anticipated that there would be differences in customer attitudes towards the three different versions of the IVR telephone banking service, but this did not prove to be the case. Based on the questionnaire results overall, attitudes were the same whether or not the participant received an SMS confirmation after a transaction (H0-1). Overall, SMS confirmations did increase scores for the attributes \"confident transaction was completed\", \"voice clarity\" and \"efficiency\" compared to the existing IVR version without confirmation. This was not the case for the version of the IVR with updated balance. However, when measured with the quality metric, the existing IVR version without confirmation was rated significantly lower than the versions with SMS confirmation and lower than the version of the IVR with updated balance. There were no differences between the versions with SMS confirmation and the IVR version with updated balance, but reducing the quality ratings to rank order preferences indicated a preference for the versions with SMS confirmations (H0-2). Customers clearly judged the utility of a version that confirms the transaction to be higher than one that does not. From a management decision point of view, whilst there is evidence that customers would prefer use of SMS and usability data confirm that SMS would boost confidence that transactions had been were completed, the fact that there was no significant difference in quality scores between the IVR with confirmation added into the call flow, and the IVR with SMS confirmation, was seen as limiting the business case argument, given that the addition of transaction confirmations in the call flow was a cost-effective first step and operational performance could be monitored before addressing the move to SMS confirmations.From the qualitative comments made by the participants it is clear that some form of confirmation is considered to be a good idea, whether it is an SMS confirmation or an updated balance within the IVR. Participants were positive about an SMS confirmation and the confidence and reassurance it gave, but this was similar picture for an updated balance in the call. A minority (18 per cent) of customers expressed concerns about security regarding SMS confirmations.The scope for CRM and the ability to send SMS confirmations after banking transactions can be seen as one of this channel's strengths, especially for monetary transactions on an account, where instant confirmation is required and indeed, the results here seem to suggest that for transactions involving payments SMS feedback is desirable, likely to be because of the speed and convenience of SMS. However, a recent survey found that that customers still prefer traditional print mail compared to e-mail communication from their bank (InfoPrint, 2007), and more would revert back to print if it had less of an environmental impact. Other research (Liljander et al., 2007) found that customers for an airline had a \"take it or leave\" it response to mobile CRM.No effects on usability for customer age group were found (H0-3); unlike in previous research (Peevers et al., 2008). This may suggest usability issues only arise when older participants have to interact with the mobile handset more and instigate the transaction in a pull service. For a push service with actions instigated by the bank, users do not have to interact so much by composing, keying and sending an SMS - they just receive the SMS. It has been argued that some older users of mobile phones can panic when they receive an SMS because they find it intimidating to retrieve the message (Kurniawan, 2008), but this was not indicated in the data presented here. The use of SMS in this context is also more similar to SMS use in general, whereas SMS transactions (Peevers et al., 2008) are a more novel use of SMS.Although the experiment method described in this paper attempts as much as possible to create a realistic scenario in which the user experiences the various version of the service, with participants assuming personae and scenarios to undertaking prescribed (realistic) tasks, the limitation remains that real-world use of a telephone banking service may differ from the experimental condition in the tasks that customers are attempting when they call and therefore, how well the results transfer into the real world. The confirmation text was programmed to arrive with a delay of 30 seconds which might not always happen in real life.The experiment was set in ideal, quiet conditions. Confirmation within the IVR call flow may not prove so effective in noisy/out and about environments.The effectiveness of the service would also depend on the willingness of customers to supply their mobile number to the bank, and the bank keeping accurate records of this over time as numbers change. Also, attitudes might be different when the customer's own account and own money is involved.Participants were asked to make only one funds transfer with each version in the experiment. A further study involving repeated use to account for learning and familiarisation effects would be of interest.The experiment failed to deliver any data on the effectiveness of either confirmation method in terms of avoiding next calls (behaviour).From a management viewpoint, the data reported here fail to provide evidence to support a convincing business case for deployment of SMS as a confirmation channel. In consequence, the business case was only developed by the case bank as far as inclusion of transaction confirmation within the IVR call itself, and not extended to use of SMS. With increasing customer mobility the role of SMS can be expected to continue to gain momentum and importance as a business tool for CRM. An important consideration is that in the short- to medium-term, the mobile channel can be expected to become a key part of multi-channel strategies emerging for the banking sector, establishing the need for more research in the field.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to deliver empirical results on the effects of (out-of-band) short message service (SMS) confirmation messages after transactions have been completed in an automated interactive voice response (IVR) telephone banking service. The research seeks to discover if SMS confirmations have a positive effect on customer relationship to furnish evidence for a proposed business case for a multi-channel banking service. The paper aims to offer results on customer attitude on the role of SMS with IVR as a multi-channel customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in digital banking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology is an empirical study based on a controlled laboratory experiment using bank customers as participants. Questionnaires and user observation techniques were employed to collect quantitative and qualitative data, which were analysed using repeated measures ANOVAs.\nFindings: - Transaction confirmation is shown to be important to customers - whether by an SMS message or within the IVR telephone call itself. Customers judged the role of SMS for CRM as highly desirable after monetary transactions; they prefer the version of the IVR banking service that provides (out-of-band) SMS confirmation compared to one that does not - and they judged it significantly higher for quality. However, there were no significant differences detected between customer attitude scores for usability of IVR calls involving funds transfers with, or without, an SMS confirmation. As a consequence, the business case was only developed as far as inclusion of transaction confirmation within the IVR call itself, and not extended to use of SMS.\nPractical implications: - Implications from the results are offered as management insights for the financial services sector in seeking integrated mobile CRM strategies, or \"next call avoidance\" strategies.\nOriginality/value: - The paper reports findings from a controlled experiment with 116 participants that was based on extension of an existing IVR telephone banking service with which they were all familiar as users.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A study of turbulence in the Swedish payment system - is there a way forward?
|
[
"Innovation",
"Research methods",
"Financial services",
"Scenario planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Background/introduction: The field of payments in Europe is facing great uncertainty concerning how the system will look like in the future. This uncertainty makes actors - industrial as well as policy-making agencies - passive and reluctant to take needed steps that may realize a new playing field for payments. The aim of this article is to explain why this happen and propose a way forward for the field of payments given that it benefits from avoiding turbulence and competitive action that causes races to the bottom by instead realizing an innovative reframing of a new system.\n2. The field of payments: 2.1 The field of payments in Sweden\n3. Turbulence in the field of payments?: To test the idea if the field of payments in Sweden is characterized by turbulence, I will model and study it as a hyper environment (Selsky et al., 2007) and will use casual texture theory (Emery and Trist, 1965) or a socio-ecological perspective (Emery and Trist, 1973; McCann and Selsky, 1984; Baburoglu, 1992; Emery, 1999; Selsky et al., 2007) to, first, understand which situation the field is facing and, then, to build an understanding of how to overcome potential challenges.\n4. Methodology for understanding and possibly handling turbulence: I study how contextual factors - such as social, economic, political, technological, ecological and legal - influence the payment system in Sweden. By necessity, this implies that I do not isolate the discussion to actors already operating in this field but also include relevant factors and actors originally active in other industries. The study focuses on forces in the contextual environment and in the payment system that together influence the field of payments. It is a study of how these forces in the field of payments are connected and how this affects the future of the field. The objective is to understand how the future payment system may evolve to avoid turbulence and thus realize some of the potential economic gains we discussed in the introduction.\n5. Is there turbulence in the field of payments in Sweden?: This section tests the proposition that the field of payments in Sweden may face turbulence.\n6. Scenarios as tools to understand and possibly overcome turbulence: The illustrations of how the field may develop if turbulence persists, as well as how a renewed common ground leading away from turbulence may look like, will be derived from a scenario-based study of the field of payments in 2017 (Arvidsson, 2009). The conclusions from the pre-study will, in this article, be used as tentative illustrations of, first, a plausible result of continued turbulence and, second, an illustration of an idealized design (Ackoff, 1974; Normann, 2001) of a new field that is stable. Based on this analysis, I will then identify critical challenges and obstacles in the work toward a renewed and stable payment system. This means that this section - Section 6 - is presenting material from the interviews and workshops in this study combined with the findings in a previous study (Arvidsson, 2009) with the aim of illustrating critical characteristics of a payment system that has overcome turbulence.\n7. Discussion and reflections: This article has discussed and shown how the payment system is facing a state of turbulence, which in itself may become a self-reinforcing process. The seemingly rational competitive actions that firms take may make the situation worse. To meet and maneuver around this challenge, the article has advocated the need that critical actors collaborate to develop a new understanding - or common ground (Ramirez et al., 2010) - of a future payment system. This serves as a tool to identify obstacles and challenges, develop action and formulate agendas for different actors in and around the system. Based on a new common ground, actors are then free to formulate their own strategic agendas in a new competitive landscape in the field of payments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand turbulence in the field of payments in Europe and which future challenges this bring. The objective is to enable actors - industrial as well as policy-making agencies - to avoid becoming passive and reluctant to take needed steps that may realize a new playing field for payments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The article uses scenario analysis methodology to propose a way forward if the field of payments is to move away from turbulence and instead embrace renewal. It is based on a literature study, interviews and workshops.\nFindings: This article discusses and shows how the payment system is in a state of turbulence, which in itself, may become a self-reinforcing negative process. The seemingly rational competitive actions that firms take in this situation may make the situation worse. The article also outlines critical action that must be taken to avoid this negative process.\nResearch limitations/implications: There is a need for research that integrates studies on innovation and renewal in the critical industries - banking, telecom and the system driving industries - to improve our understanding of possible synergies and/or obstacles to integrated, cross-industry innovation efforts. Such insights may also lay the foundation for the creation of a way to overcome turbulence.\nPractical implications: The article advocates the need that critical actors collaborate to develop a new understanding - or common ground - of a future payment system. This will serve as a tool to identify obstacles and challenges, develop action and formulate agendas for different actors in and around the system. Based on the new common ground, actors are then free to formulate their own strategic agendas in a new competitive landscape in the field of payments.\nSocial implications: If the turbulence is to be avoided, national governments in the euro area and the European Union Commission must work hard to avoid national exemptions and adaptations (often caused by strong lobbying by companies from each country in question). Innovation agencies must work so as to stimulate renewal. Another task could be to educate consumers on the social and economic benefits of moving away from a cash-based payment system.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this paper is to test the idea that turbulence and the consequential inertia in the payment system is a result of the institutional set-up of the industry. In addition, the article uses causal texture theory and scenario analysis to understand turbulence and inertia in the payment system. This has, to my knowledge, not been done before.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Criteria for adoption of e-books in libraries in the context of the paradigm of cloud computing
|
[
"Libraries",
"Electronic books",
"Collection development",
"E-book - criterion and indicators",
"E-book 2013 adoption",
"Library - Paradigm of the clouds computing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: E-books are already realities in the collections of libraries throughout the world. The adoption of e-books involves, among other factors, control of the content acquired by libraries exercised by vendors based on digital rights management (DRM) via a technology platform. This control imposes certain restrictions that affect rights that have historically been present in the relations between libraries and their users.\n2. literature review: 2.1 The application of cloud computing in libraries\n3. Materials and methods: The research was conducted in Brazil from July to December 2016.\n4. Results and discussion: In this section, the results of the application of the questionnaires and the proposed criteria and indicators for the adoption of e-books by libraries are presented and discussed.\n5. Implications for practice and research: This article provides library managers and e-book vendors with important insights for decision-making in their particular environments.\n6. Conclusion: There is emerging research in library environments regarding the need for changes in assessments of collections and development policies in the context of the intensive use of electronic devices, digital content and cloud computing. In particular, this research proposed criteria and indicators that can guide library managers in the process of adopting e-books.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to propose criteria and indicators for the adoption of e-books in libraries in the context of the cloud computing paradigm.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper carried out bibliographical and documentary research and the application of a questionnaire. Sampling focused on five library managers and five e-book vendor managers.\nFindings: A proposal is presented containing a set of three criteria and their respective indicators. The technology platform criterion consists of seven indicators: patron data privacy, patron data security, availability of services, accessibility of information in e-books, interoperability of the technology platform, digital preservation and portability of e-books. The criterion for the acquisition of e-books involves three indicators: forms of commercialization, acquisition models and selection of e-book titles. The criterion for the circulation of e-books is divided into two indicators: unlimited and limited use. In the unlimited use mode, there are no limits on the use of e-books. In limited use, there are 11 levels of permissions: available copies, number of loans under each license, duration of the license, interlibrary loan, reading only in digital format, reading online via streaming only, download on the patron's device, content printing, loan according to the patron's identity, reservation services and renewal services.\nPractical implications: This paper provides a set of criteria and indicators that can aid in the construction of policies and the development of collections, programs and projects directed toward the use of e-books in libraries.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes socially by presenting a proposal that can support policies of evaluation and development of collections, projects, programs and actions around the adoption of e-books in different types of libraries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Signaling corporate values: consumers' suspicious minds
|
[
"Corporate image",
"Trust",
"Social responsibility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While different streams of management literature agree in the fact that corporate social responsibility is positive related with corporate performance, the reasons to expect this relationship are not clearly articulated. Stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984), and specifically its instrumental aspects, has been focused in the proposition that corporations practicing stakeholder management will, all things being equal, be relatively successful in conventional performance terms (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). Jones (1995) makes a theoretical case for the general proposition that if firms contract (through their managers) with their stakeholders on the basis of mutual trust and cooperation, they will have a competitive advantage over firms that do not. Nevertheless, instrumental stakeholder theorists stop short of exploring specific links between cause (stakeholder management) and effect (corporate performance) in detail (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). This problem is most apparent in the research linking measures of corporate social performance (e.g. Fortune Reputational Index, KLD ratings) with financial performance (e.g. ROI, ROA, and so forth) (Jawahar and McLaughlin, 2001).Reputation literature is also concern about corporate social responsibility. Fombrun and Shanley (1990) found that one significant dimension that signals constituents about firms' prospects and generate reputations is social responsiveness. The instrumental argument is that social responsiveness generates goodwill from employees, consumers, and other publics that enhances the long-run profitability and viability of firms. This argument is related with the general assumption that the strategic importance of reputation resides in the fact that corporate audiences routinely rely on the reputations of firms in making investment decisions, career decisions, and product choices (Dowling, 1986).These two positions have some common and important assumptions related with the way in which the firm responds to its non-economic agenda and the effect of these actions on the quality of the relationships with their stakeholders. While stakeholder theory argument is focused on the development of relations on the basis of mutual trust and cooperation, reputation literature is focused on the generation of goodwill from different stakeholders. One common, and underlying pattern, is the importance assigned to firm's non-economic behavior as a way to signals firm's moral properties, and the positive effect of these signals in their economic activities. This convergent point is related with the importance of firm trustworthiness as a source of competitive advantage. The argument is that trustworthy and cooperative firms will be sought after as partners in economic relationships that require trust and will be offered opportunities that firms lacking these traits will not (Barney and Hansen, 1994). Nevertheless, trustworthiness, and the organizational attributes that create trustworthiness (corporate culture and values, and associated control systems) are difficult to observe directly (Barney and Hansen, 1994). One possible way to identify trustworthy partners can be through the use of signals of trustworthiness (Spence, 1973). It is in this linkage where stakeholder theory and reputation literature have some convergent, but still unclear, assumptions about the role of non-economic behavior (social responsibility) as a signal of firm's ethical standards and values, the way in which stakeholders interpret this signals and construct firm's reputation, and the consequent effect on performance.The present research is an attempt to answer a couple of questions related with these issues:* Does corporate social responsibility affect consumers' perceptions of firm trustworthiness?* How does corporate social responsibility affect the different attributes that create trustworthiness?To answer these questions, concepts like corporate culture, corporate reputation, and trustworthiness, are included in the research design.The study consists in four parts. In the first instance is presented an overview of corporate culture, corporate reputation, trustworthiness, and their links. Secondly, the hypotheses and the methods used to investigate the possible effects between these concepts will be described and explained. Thirdly, the results of the investigation are presented and analyzed. Finally, conclusions, limitations, and a discussion of managerial and academic implications will be provided.\nLiterature review: Corporate culture\nResearch design: Hypotheses\nData analysis and results: The correlation matrix of the above mentioned items obtained from the pooled data is presented in Table II. The purpose of the correlation analysis is to assess the convergent validity of four indices representing corporate ability, benevolence, integrity, and corporate trustworthiness, as well as the discriminant validity between the first three constructs. As can be observed in Table II, the coefficients of correlation within indices (varying from 0.320 to 0.562) are generally greater than those between the first six indices (varying from 0.006 to -0.188) with the exception of the correlation between BEN1 and INT2 (0.465). The indices used to measure trustworthiness are not comparable in these terms with the first six indices, because a relationship is expected. These coefficients of correlation show that the validity of these measures is relatively acceptable, considering the sample size.To test the hypotheses proposed, it is necessary to compare the judgments in each characteristic (i.e. ability, benevolence and integrity) and in the overall trustworthiness of the company in presence and absence of cause commitment information.In order to select the appropriate procedure to test these hypotheses, normality tests were conducted to determine if the values were normally distributed. The results of the tests (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, and Shapiro-Wilk) revealed that just one of the eight variables was normally distributed (p>0.10). Then, a non-parametric test was selected as the most appropriate way to compare the means. Considering the sample size, the Mann-Whitney U test for means comparison is considered the best way to compare the two populations.The descriptive statistics and the results of the Mann-Whitney U test for means comparison are presented in Table III. As can be observed in Table III, the groups had significant differences (p<0.05) only in two of the eight indices used. One of these variables was related with benevolence (\"I believe that this company is concern about the wellness of its partners\") for which the group with company environmental commitment information shown a better perception of the company than the group without this information. For the other variable, related with ability (\"I believe that this company has the ability to produce products according to market requirements\"), the group with the company environmental commitment information shown a lower perception of the company than the group without the information. For the other indices, the differences were not statistically significant. Therefore, H1, H3 and H4 were rejected, and H2 was partially confirmed.\nConclusions, limitations and discussion: The experiment demonstrates that consumer's knowledge about company's environmental commitment can affect the consumer's perception of company trustworthiness, but this effect is not strong and not present in all the variables that are considered as sources of company trustworthiness.Perceived benevolence seems to be the more sensitive variable. The positive and significant effect of company cause commitment in one measure, and the also positive (same difference between groups) but not significant effect (p<0.20) on the other seems to indicate that this type of signal is relevant in respondents' assessment of company benevolence.The fact that one of the measures of company's perceived ability was affected, but in a negative way, by the knowledge of this type of commitment opens an interesting discussion. First, why the effect is negative? A possible answer can be that respondents perceive these activities as \"deviation of resources\", and if the company assigns too much resources to this activities, then some other activities, more important for consumers, would be performed in a deficient way. Therefore, a possible answer is that respondents perceive a \"trade-off\" of resources. The second question is related with the previous one; if the effect on perceived ability is negative, what is the optimal trade-off between an increase in perceived benevolence and a decrease in perceived ability? The more reasonable answer is that this trade-off depends on the type of risks associated to specific relationships. As Sheppard and Sherman (1998) suggested, it is possible that trustworthiness means different things, depending upon the nature of the risk being assumed in the relationship. On one hand, when the risk of unreliability is present (i.e. when exists the risk that the trustee will not be able to fulfill the trustor requirements), competence has been emphasized as a feature of trustworthy partners (Butler, 1991; Cook and Wall, 1980; Good, 1988; Mishra, 1996; Sitkin and Roth, 1993). On the other hand, when the potential for abuse or neglect exists, benevolence is a desirable quality in trustworthy partners (Larzelere and Huston, 1980).The absence of effect in perceived integrity is an unexpected result. Further investigation must be recommendable to check for the possible causes, if the effect is really not significant.Finally, the almost inexistence effect of company's cause commitment on company's perceived trustworthiness is also an unexpected result. Possible explanations for this result can be associated with the sample characteristics, the product category used in the research, and the relationship among the three variables that are considered as sources of company trustworthiness.An important limitation of the present research is related with the sample size. The number of respondents considered was small, and therefore the statistical analysis, specially the validity analysis of measures, must be taken with caution.The fact that respondents were all males is another point to take into consideration. While this sample characteristic makes possible test the hypothesis without controlling for gender effects, also limits the conclusions. In this direction, future research can be oriented to identify differences, in size and orientation, produced by this type of company's signals in different genders. Following the same line of thinking, the effect of this type of signals in consumers' perception can be an interesting topic for cross-cultural research.The evaluation of positive or negative effects caused by the company commitment with more controversial causes may be another interesting issue to be tested. In this line of study, the incorporation of personal values and the level of agreement or disagreement with the cause can be considered as moderators of the effects, and a formal model can be proposed and tested.An important managerial implication is related with the environmental commitment of firms. Increasingly, companies are considering environmental differentiation as a basis for their competitive strategy (Roy and Vezina, 2001). The central discussion related to the implementation of this type of strategy has been centered on the appropriate signal device for different groups of stakeholders, assuming that the environmental commitment content of the signal is always perceived as positive feature of the company. The results of the present research seem to indicate that this content, in some contexts, can have a negative impact on stakeholders' perception of the firm.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - While managers and researchers recognize that corporate social responsibility is positively related to some corporate performance measures, the instrumental reason for this linkage is still unclear. The present research proposes that this relationship can be better understood if the concept of trustworthiness is included.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using an experimental design, the present research presents a study in which the presence or absence of environmental commitment information in a company profile is manipulated and presented to consumers, and reports the differences in the measures of consumers' perceptions of company trustworthiness and its sources originated by this manipulation. The analysis of these differences provided evidence of significant positive effects on perceived benevolence and negative effects on perceived ability measures.\nFindings: - The findings of the present research seem to indicate that, in some contexts, companies' cause commitment can have different (positive and negative) effects on consumers' perception of firms' trustworthiness.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The small sample size is the principal limitation of the study. Also the exclusion of personal and cultural values as moderators of the effects is a limitation. Therefore, results should be analyzed carefully because they could vary if the study is replicated in a different culture. Future research should include these personal and cultural variables in a more comprehensive model.\nPractical implications: - Managers must manage carefully this type of company commitment and the communication of these corporate activities to stakeholders.\nOriginality/value: - This paper tries to analyze from the individual behavior perspective the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate trustworthiness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How related are technical and subjective measures of building conditions? The case of Norwegian public schools
|
[
"Education",
"Maintenance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The condition of public buildings has received much attention in the Norwegian public debate in recent years. Several studies have concluded both that local government buildings are, in general, not sufficiently maintained (NOU, 2004, Multiconsult and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2008), and that many public schools are in an unsatisfactory condition due to inadequate maintenance over long periods (Riksrevisjonen, 2004-2005\n2. Background: Mechanisms: how can school building conditions affect achievement?\n3. Research method and data: The quantitative investigation in this paper involves the study of the coefficient of correlation between a technical measure of the condition of school buildings and students' satisfaction with their school's buildings. If the correlation is significantly positive (and preferably with a large coefficient of correlation) this indicates that there is a relationship between objective technical conditions and the characteristics of a building that the users care about[10]. If this is the case, technical measures also serve as a good measure for user satisfaction and one should not expect the results from studies such as Hopland (2012) to be sensitive to the choice of measure.\n4. Findings: Main results - the correlation between technical and subjective school building conditions\n5. Conclusions: After labor, buildings (and facilities in general) are likely the most important input factor in production of public services. Poor public facilities may thus have adverse consequences for the production of important welfare services. Recently, a few large scale empirical investigations regarding the link between school facilities and student achievement have emerged. Interestingly, the results indicate that the link between facilities and achievement is not particularly strong in wealthy countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between technical school building conditions and student satisfaction with the school buildings. Learning more about the relationship between the measures will be useful for researchers who are studying the effect from physical work conditions on student achievement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper aims to study the correlation between technical condition and user satisfaction with school buildings using two different data sources. The first source is administrative data, where the local governments have reported the condition of their school buildings to a national investigation of school building conditions. The second source is survey data where students in Norwegian primary schools report their satisfaction with their learning environment, including the school buildings. Combining the two data sources provides a unique data set for a large number of Norwegian primary schools.\nFindings: The measures of technical and subjective condition are significantly correlated, but the correlation is far from 100 percent. Hence, it will be of great interest for researchers to look more into potential effects from subjective measures of building condition.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides an investigation of the link between two different measures of building conditions that can both be relevant to use in studies of how school buildings affect student performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A knowledge-based view of people and technology: directions for a value co-creation-based learning organisation
|
[
"Information technology",
"Human resources",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Surveys",
"Learning organization",
"Knowledge management phases",
"Technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social and economic dynamics pose a continuous and dynamic set of challenges to both researchers and decision markers (Miles, 1993; Mittelman, 1996; Castro Laszlo and Laszlo, 2002; Schweitzer et al., 2009). The opportunities and risks that are emerging from the changes in the relationships among social and economic actors require an increasing degree of efforts to build and apply models, instruments, and approaches able to better support the understanding and managing of increasing social and economic complexity (Andersen et al., 2006; Barile and Saviano, 2010, 2011; Kuhn, 2012).\n2. Theoretical and conceptual background: 2.1 Knowledge management\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection and sample\n4. Findings: 4.1 Unidimensionality, reliability and convergent validity\n5. Discussion: The results of empirical study show that all the hypotheses were confirmed. More specifically, from the results of the structural equation modelling it emerges that there is a positive relationship between firms' approach to knowledge creation' and their profit levels (H1). This finding can be considered aligned with previous studies in KM (Sullivan, 1998; Bontis et al., 1999; Schulze and Hoegl, 2006). In fact, as Tsai (2001) found, there is an evident correlation between the ability of companies to create knowledge and their competitive advantages. In the same domain, Teece (1998) found that the ability of organisations to create knowledge by identifying relevant connection between existing knowledge becomes a source of competitive advantage. In line with the empirical results and also with previous theoretical and empirical contributions the firms' ability to create new knowledge can be considered a relevant pillar towards efforts to establish themselves as learning organisations (Zack, 1999) and to maximise the advantages for companies to invest in the creation of a large and shared knowledge framework (Minsky, 1974; Del Giudice and Maggioni, 2014).\n6. Final remarks and future lines of research: The current socio-economic environment is characterised by an unprecedented need for organisations to both access information from external sources and deliver the right information to their customers; an increasing willingness of customers and other stakeholders to remain involved in the companies' pathways and strategies; and a growing relevance for companies to be aligned with social and economic dynamics to survive. In such a dynamic environment, knowledge becomes a critical resource for organisations to create a sustainable competitive advantage (Spender, 1996; Mathews et al., 1999; Gintis, 2005). Paradoxically, a clear understanding of the possible levers on which to act to maximise the impact of knowledge on the delivery of the firms' strategy is still needed (Hansen et al., 1999; Del Giudice et al., 2010; Pfeffer and Sutton, 2013; Saviano and Caputo, 2013). This paper has aimed at contributing to the current debate on the subject of KM by highlighting potential relationships between the phases of knowledge, the role of companies' ICT stocks, the HRs willingness and training to collaborate and co-create value and the effects of all of these on the companies' profit levels. In this direction, our main goal has been identifying the possible role of people and technology in supporting the emergence of value co-creation in learning organisations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the potential of knowledge management (KM) as a discipline in helping understand and manage social and economic complexity. The paper highlights some of the potential relationships between KM in organisations and their economic performance. Finally, the authors assess the role of human resources and technological infrastructures in the relationship between organisation's approach to KM and their performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The hypotheses are tested via a survey on a sample of managerial-level employees of information technology organisations located in the city of Brno in Czech Republic. The data collected are analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) to study the relationship between KM; the workforce's willingness and ability to collaborate and co-create value; and the organisations' economic performance.\nFindings: The research found that there is a direct and positive relationship between an organisation's approach to KM and its economic performance. This study also shows that the workforce's behaviour and the technological infrastructure of the organisation have a direct effect on business performance. Finally, the authors proposed that a link between human resource management and technology orientation must be established and supported by a KM strategy.\nOriginality/value: This paper offers a new perspective to the approach to KM in organisations. Reflections and empirical results underline the need for organisations to invest in the implementation of KM strategies that involve both the human resources and technological infrastructure as a way to improve the impact of knowledge on the companies' economic performances.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Auditing management practices in schools: Recurring communication problems and solutions
|
[
"Communications",
"Auditing",
"Problem solving",
"Decision making",
"Secondary schools",
"The Netherlands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past ten years, high schools in The Netherlands have had to deal with drastic curriculum reforms and organizational changes. In the late 1990s, the Dutch government initiated a nationwide modernization of high-school curricula, including a revised examination program, the introduction of student profiles, and major didactical changes (see Van den Akker, 2003). In the implementation phase, managers and teachers had the problem of how to make it all work in everyday practice. At roughly the same time, many high schools merged, mainly for budgetary reasons. Small-scale specialized schools merged with other institutions to form large school organizations offering the full range of educational levels. This resulted in complex organizations, often with facilities in different locations. These changes led to an increased distance between school management and employees (teachers, administrators, janitors, etc.), not only physically, but also because more organizational layers were introduced between management and employees. The communication structures within schools were inevitably formalized, and employees had to get used to this.As a result, the communication systems in Dutch high schools have experienced increased pressure. Communication has become a serious topic for school managers. When recurring signals indicate that something may be wrong with the communication, it is worth conducting a communication audit to evaluate (aspects of) the communication system and to identify and diagnose communication problems (Tourish and Hargie, 1998). This is how we became involved in three research projects, designed to evaluate the communication of high schools, both from a micro perspective (the communication satisfaction and experiences of employees) and from a macro perspective (the communication structure and the functioning of communication lines).\nResearch methods: To audit communication practices within three schools, we interviewed 165 employees of the schools (49, 53 and 63 employees, respectively). We used three data collection techniques, each of which highlighted different communicative aspects. Data were collected in individual interview sessions, lasting between 45 minutes and two hours.First, we collected data for a network analysis. Network analyses are used to map the (communication) relationships among employees, and, hence, the organization's communication structure (Zwijze-Koning and De Jong, 2005). This may uncover information blockages, and allow new communication structures to be developed (Downs and Adrian, 2004). During the interview, respondents were given a roster on which they had to indicate with whom they had contact in their school, about which topics (coordination, strategic issues, or personal ones), and how often (x times a day/week/month/year). The resulting networks were visualized, and several network measures were calculated using the UCINET package (Borgatti et al., 2002).Next, we investigated specific communication events, using the critical incident technique (CIT). The CIT involves respondents' communication experiences (Hunt et al., 2000). Respondents were asked to mention specific events that represented outright positive or negative communication experiences. The interview thoroughly explored respondents' recollections of events, as well as their views on possible causes and consequences. In total, we gathered 745 critical incidents: 207 positive and 538 negative events. The qualitative analysis of the critical incidents aimed to identify underlying and recurring sources of communication satisfaction (and dissatisfaction) within the schools.Finally, we asked the respondents to fill out the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ). The CSQ investigates employees' satisfaction with ten dimensions of the communication system, such as their relationship with their supervisor, or the communication climate (Clampitt and Downs, 2004; Zwijze-Koning and De Jong, 2007). Items were measured on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). In the analysis, we computed mean scores and confidence intervals per dimension.\nFindings: Below, we will discuss the most important clusters of problems employees of the three schools were confronted with. When describing the problems, we will first indicate how the problem came to light; after that we will discuss the problem in more detail, together with its main consequences. Where possible, examples are given of respondents' own descriptions of the problems.Lack of participation in decision making\nConclusion: The mergers these schools experienced, combined with simultaneous enforced curriculum reforms, significantly affected the communication system of these organizations. Communication at the organizational level, in particular, frequently made employees dissatisfied. Organizational communication seemed to be characterized by a strong focus on control by top management and a lack of responsiveness. In this way, communication within these schools as a whole made respondents feel as if they were not important to the organization; the communication did not motivate and stimulate them to work for the organization. Because of this unsatisfactory organizational communication, employees usually did not identify with the organization as a whole. Instead, they identified with small groups at different locations, their direct working environment. In this way, the schools had developed an unhealthy communication climate, which hindered the development of new ideas and the evolution of identification and commitment with anything beyond the employees' immediate working environment.\nRecommendations: Because of the many changes in the educational system and governmental pressure to adopt new teaching methods quickly, it is not surprising that the top managers of these schools took a strong lead in implementing new plans. During these turbulent times, it was desirable that upper management carry substantial responsibility for school affairs, in order to be able to react to external influences quickly. At the time, this provided the equilibrium and efficiency these schools needed (Tsai and Beverton, 2007). However, this culture of top-down management does not seem to be adequate any longer. In order for plans and changes to be sufficiently adjusted to the work floor, employees need more opportunities to participate in the organization's decision-making process. There are various ways in which an organization can institutionalize participation in the decision-making network (Miller, 2006). One way is to set up quality circles, in which employees from specific departments or sites are invited to give their opinion on important concerns. Other forms of participation, such as self-directed work teams or site-based management, ensure that managers and employees work together more closely on new organizational policies. In some cases, employees are given a budget and a mandate to spend this money, according to their own insights. In this way employees can even implement decisions without the approval of the top management team. More bottom-up management practices such as these could significantly improve these schools' effectiveness and make implementing decisions easier, and it can increase employees' sense of empowerment as well (San Antonio and Gamage, 2007).Institutionalizing participative decision making in these organizations would also address the second most urgent communication problem, namely the long communication lines and the lack of response from higher management. However, these steps alone cannot solve the lack of response to bottom-up communication initiatives, since part of the problem lies in the indifference of supervisors to such initiatives. On the basis of our findings, we tried to make supervisors more aware of bottom-up initiatives, which usually cost employees a lot of effort and with which they are often deeply involved. We stressed the importance of these initiatives for the efficient functioning of the organization, and recommended that supervisors express their appreciation of the efforts an employee had put into the initiative. In addition, we stressed the need for follow-up, if only for the well-being of the employees in question. We recommended that supervisors should always give an honest opinion on what could be expected from the initiative, as well as giving feedback on what was finally done with it and why.The lack of empathy on the part of managers is a different problem. When conferring with the management teams about this problem, we stressed that employees should feel supported and cared about and that the manager's own communicative behavior (verbal and non-verbal) can affect this message. We emphasized that empathy on the part of managers makes employees feel appreciated:, e.g. when managers show enthusiasm about the employees' work, greet employees, or engage them in small talk. We encouraged managers to interact with teachers and staff members during their visits to different sites and to be aware of the interests and needs of employees at such times. In addition, we also stressed that they could express their sincere feelings and thoughts about the matters they would then discuss. Finally, managers' social skills and empathy could be considered during the selection and training process, since research has shown that training can be used to increase an individual's level of empathic skills (Stephan and Finlay, 1999).Many employees in these organizations felt unimportant and under-appreciated. This attitude, and the degree to which communicative incidents led to lessened self-esteem, was typical of the communication climate in these schools. Staff members, in particular, mentioned their heavy workload, low social status, and lack of financial rewards (see Miles et al., 1994). Of course, this communication problem is not easy to solve. We did, however, encourage supervisors and top managers to communicate with staff members respectfully, including them in location-wide information exchange or informing them about the latest issues concerning students. In our report and subsequent meetings, we also highlighted staff members' extensive coordination tasks and pointed out that their contribution to making things run smoothly at every site is invaluable. By explicitly focusing on their efforts, we hoped that managers would recognize the inferior position of staff members and take a more respectful attitude towards them.Finally, to improve the communication between different sites, meetings could be held with teachers who teach the same course at different sites. In these meetings, teachers could inform each other about their approach to the course and show some of their students' work. In this way, teachers could exchange materials and ideas, which could improve their teaching; in addition, they can get to know each other better and start to build more enduring relationships.In this article we have discussed a wide range of communication problems that are faced by large high schools in The Netherlands. We conclude that some of these problems need to be addressed structurally over the long-term, while others are less drastic and can be solved by creating more awareness of the communication process. We hope that educational managers will become aware of possible communication problems that may exist within their institutions and that we have provided them with strategies to improve these practices and achieve a more positive working and communication climate.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Over the past ten years, most Dutch high schools have been confronted with mergers, curriculum reforms, and managerial changes. As a result, the pressure on the schools' communication systems has increased and several problems have emerged. This paper aims to examine recurring clusters of communication problems in high schools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multi-method communication audit was conducted within three large high schools in The Netherlands. Data were collected using network analysis, the critical incident technique, and the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire.\nFindings: - The communication audits uncovered six major clusters of communication problems that require management's attention. These problems vary from a lack of participation in decision making to employees feeling under appreciated. While some of these problems could be solved by creating more awareness within the organization, others require more structural changes and long-range planning.\nOriginality/value: - The study identifies specific problem areas in the organizational communication of high schools. Educational managers may use the findings to optimize the communication in their schools.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Brand awareness: revisiting an old metric for a new world
|
[
"Portfolio management",
"Brand awareness",
"Brand management",
"Market share",
"Top-of-mind awareness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalisation of markets is on the increase, and with it a rise in the global management of brands as more companies enter more countries (Lee et al., 2008; Godey and Lai, 2011). As a result, a great deal of attention has been placed on how brand strategies differ across markets (Alashban et al., 2001; Shrum et al., 2012; Fetscherin et al., 2015) because managers might need to devise strategies for a brand that is well established in one country, but still nascent in another. These circumstances lead to the question:\nMeasuring brand awareness: Operationalisation of a concept is a crucial part of testing, and Aaker (1996) suggests brand equity metrics should be sensitive enough to pick up change, be transferable across brands and reflect the construct being measured. For example, in PepsiCo and Frito-Lay's brand equity system, metrics were chosen to balance sensitivity, to detect changes, with stability, to avoid spurious effects (Kish et al., 2001). Therefore, understanding the underlying response patterns highlights variation and variance across contextual factors such as categories, countries and brands, which aid in appropriate measure selection - whether stability or sensitivity is the objective (Rust et al., 2004).\nResearch method: For this research we draw on data collected as part of a global brand tracking study in the whisky market. Data were collected via telephone or face-to-face by trained market research interviewers. Three international markets, UK, Greece and Taiwan were included, to represent a diverse set of countries in terms of market maturity and history with whisky. The UK is a mature whisky market with a strong tradition from Scotland and neighbouring Ireland. While Greece is also a mature whisky market, there is no local history in the category and Taiwan is an Asian emerging market where whisky is growing as a category, and so is more dynamic in nature and represents the type of market most whisky companies are trying to successfully enter.\nResults - underlying structure of brand awareness scores: The first stage of results was to replicate the analysis conducted by Laurent et al. (1995) on one wave in each of the three countries. Following the procedure outlined, we plotted the raw figures and found that as in the Laurent et al. (1995) paper there was a curvilinear relationship between aided/unaided and top-of-mind/unaided brand awareness. An example (from the UK) of the raw data and its curvilinear relationship is shown in Figure 1(a).\nResults - brand-level analysis: In addition to examining cross-sectional results, where one brand is compared to other brands in the marketplace, brand managers want to track brand awareness over time, which is articulated in RQ2. Therefore, we examine the issue raised by Romaniuk et al. (2004), which focuses on tracking awareness over time for brands of different market shares. Therefore in this stage of analysis, we examine brands in three market share brands (Big = above 60 per cent annual usage penetration, Medium = 30-60 per cent annual usage penetration and Small = fewer than 30 per cent annual usage penetration). The same first stage transformations and linear regressions were conducted and the results compared at brand level (Table II).\nOverall discussion and implications: The aim of this paper was to update an old metric, brand awareness, for current global brand management situations. This is achieved by providing a more detailed insight into the underlying structure of different brand awareness scores, and how this might apply in a global context. This research highlights the importance for global brand managers to consider brand market share when selecting brand equity metrics. Christodoulides et al. (2015), noted the need for further research that allow meaningful comparisons across countries. We show the importance of adjusting brand awareness metrics to market conditions, that is, taking into consideration the brand's market share - rather than simply a one-size-fits-all approach. The best metric is the one that takes into account the brands' market share in that market, and so depending on this, global brand managers might need to be sufficiently flexible to monitor different metrics for the same brand, and also adjust those metrics if there are major changes in the brands' market share.\nLimitations and further research: The limitations of this paper are predominantly to do with scope. It is limited to one product category across three countries. Additional testing in categories with differing market structures would further test the generalisability of the results. This research also relied on asking the same people all three questions (i.e. within-subjects condition). It would be useful to examine if these results hold when different samples of people are asked only one of these measures (i.e. between-subjects condition). This research did not address the question of what causes the random fluctuations in one measure but leaves another largely unaffected. Is it because different measures have a different propensity to be affected by marketing activities? This should be a subject of future research. Despite the longevity of brand awareness, and its foundation status in many brand equity and behaviour models, it appears that there is still considerable research and development that needs to be done.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Brand awareness is a pivotal, but often neglected, aspect of consumer-based brand equity. This paper revisits brand awareness measures in the context of global brand management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on the method of Laurent et al. (1995), this cross-sectional longitudinal study examines changes in brand awareness over time, with sample sizes of approximately 300 whisky consumers per wave in three countries: United Kingdom, Taiwan and Greece.\nFindings: There is consistency in the underlying structure of awareness scores across countries, and over time, extending the work of Laurent et al. (1995). Results show that a relevant operationalisation of brand awareness needs to account for the history of the brand. Furthermore, the nature of the variation of brand awareness over time interacts with a brand's market share.\nResearch limitations/implications: When modelling the impact of brand awareness researchers need to consider two factors - the brand's market share and whether a more stable or volatile measure is sought. This avoids mis-specifying the country-level contribution of brand awareness.\nPractical implications: Global brand managers should be wary of adopting a \"one size fits all\" approach. The choice of brand awareness measure depends on the brand's market share, and the desire for higher sensitivity or stability.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides one of the few multi-country investigations into brand awareness that can help inform global brand management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The paradoxical food buying behaviour of parents: Insights from the UK and Australia
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Parents",
"Children (age groups)",
"Obesity",
"United Kingdom",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2003) childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions in some areas and is rising rapidly in others. It is estimated that there are more than 17.6 million children under five that are overweight worldwide (WHO, 2003). Childhood obesity is a disease that can have both physical and psychological consequences. As with adults, obesity in children has been associated with such conditions as hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, asthma and sleep disordered breathing. Studies also show detrimental psychosocial consequences with obese children being stereotyped as unhealthy, academically unsuccessful, socially inept and lazy, overweight children as young as five years old have been reported as developing a negative self-image (Davison and Birch, 2001; Medeiros-Neto et al., 2003).The current rise in childhood obesity has been associated with an increase in \"obesogenic\" environments (Swinburn et al., 1999, p. 568): that is, environments that promote obesity through their impact on the quality and quantity of food eaten and the level of exercise undertaken. Obesogenic environments are the result of changes in our social, cultural, physical and economic conditions over the past several decades. According to Catford and Caterson (2003) obesogenic environments are multifactorial, with a host of factors contributing to the current level of childhood obesity, including:* changes in family structures and dynamics, including play time with children;* changing patterns of family eating and physical activity;* attractiveness of television, videos and computer games amongst children;* lack of time for cooking because of competing work and other social priorities;* decline in cooking skills for healthy eating in schools and homes;* increased food serving sizes along with price incentives to eat more;* heavy marketing of high energy foods, drinks and takeaways that encourage children to pressure parents to buy unhealthy foods;* greater availability of high-energy convenience foods, takeaways, and soft drinks; and* misleading or inadequate food labelling and consumer information.As the food choices of pre-school children are largely determined by parents (Campbell and Crawford, 2001), attention must be paid to the factors shaping parents' decisions. Parenting style (Morton et al., 1996), time pressures (Mothersbaugh et al., 1993) as well as cultural and socio-economic background (Marquis, 2004) have been found to be important. While some studies find that parents' nutritional knowledge is also an influence in food choice and preparation (Variyam et al., 1999), other studies suggest that the majority of parents know which foods are \"healthy\" and \"unhealthy\" (Variyam, 2001; Hesketh et al., 2005). This implies the existence of an apparent paradox in parents' food choices: that is, why do parents who are aware of what represents \"healthy\" food regularly purchase, prepare and allow their children to eat \"unhealthy\" food?This paper explores this apparent paradoxical behaviour of parents in two ways. First, it reports the findings of a UK study that utilised focus groups to identify and examine the barriers confronting parents of pre-school children when attempting to encourage their children to consume more vegetables. Second, it reports findings of an Australian projective technique study designed to identify the motives of parents in the purchase of \"healthy\" and \"unhealthy\" food for their pre-school children both generally and in the context of a supermarket shopping experience. Identifying the issues surrounding the purchase, preparation and consumption of \"unhealthy\" and \"healthy\" foods by pre-school children has significant implications for future interventions in the area of childhood obesity as well as the more general areas of childhood nutrition and good health.\nMethodology: (a) Focus group study\nResearch findings: (a) Focus group study\nDiscussion: Although the two studies had different foci and utilised different research methods they were conducted in countries of similar cultural backgrounds and together they provide a more complete picture of the purchase, preparation and consumption of \"unhealthy\" and \"healthy\" foods by pre-school children with similarities in the sets of findings being evident. Respondents in both studies were aware of the nutritional implications of providing their children healthy and unhealthy food, as well as what represents these two categories of food. Therefore, a lack of nutritional knowledge cannot be used to explain why some parents purchase unhealthy food for their young children, and why children are allowed to eat meals which parents know are lacking a healthy balance. This finding supports the view of other researchers that improving knowledge may be insufficient to achieve behavioural change because nutrition knowledge and behaviour are often poorly related (Variyam, 2001; Donovan and Henley, 2003; Rasanen et al., 2003). Given that lack of knowledge is not the issue, messages stressing the health benefits of children eating more vegetables and fewer sugary sweets are likely to do little other than make parents feel worse about a situation which already causes anxiety and stress.In both studies a shortage of time emerged as a factor in the purchase, preparation and consumption of unhealthy food. This finding is consistent with other studies (e.g. Videon and Manning, 2003; Inglis et al., 2005) that suggest a perceived shortage of time contributes to the increasing intake of convenience foods and a decline in the time spent preparing family meals. This is exacerbated by decreased confidence in traditional food preparation skills (Stead et al., 2004).However, both studies suggest that parental action is influenced by more than a perceived shortage of time or food preparation skills. Interestingly, tensions emerged around the concepts of \"good parenting\" and \"quality time\". In the projective technique study, good parenting and quality time were identified as motivating influences for the healthy food selection, but the focus group study suggested that a desire for harmonious family mealtimes and for children to feel pleasure in connection with eating - for food not to be \"an issue\" - could also lead parents to buy and prepare unhealthy foods. Other qualitative research has found that protecting the \"social aspect of mealtimes\" can take priority over concerns with the nutritional quality of children's food (e.g. Hart et al., 2003). Perhaps most importantly, the two studies suggest that decisions relating to the purchase and consumption of \"unhealthy\" foods are often underpinned by a need to solve problems (a lack of time and/or guilt) or avoid future problems (conflict avoidance in the supermarket or at meal time).Traditional strategies to address childhood obesity have utilised conventional dietary interventions in conjunction with a reduction of sedentary behaviour. More recently, the use of parents and adult caregivers as the agents of change, what are often labelled as \"family-based approaches\", has received extensive support in the literature (Golan and Crow, 2004). This emphasis on targeting parents and caregivers would seem to be appropriate given their potential influence on the emotional and physical environment in which a child's obesity may or may not be encouraged. Family-based intervention strategies often involve instructional sessions on altering a family's sedentary lifestyle, the provision of a \"healthy\" diet and decreasing the family's exposure to food stimuli (Golan et al., 1998). The findings from these studies suggest that family-based approaches to addressing childhood obesity could benefit from \"practical\" sessions on problem solving and conflict avoidance/resolution in the context of what the projective technique study labels as \"good parenting\".More fundamentally, this research demonstrates the importance of understanding the complex and often contradictory factors which underpin consumers' food decisions, and the barriers or competition to making and enacting healthy choices. In both studies, parents were motivated by perceived non-dietary benefits (such as pleasurable mealtimes and treat-giving), and competition to buying and serving healthier food for children was found in the form of expediency and the desire to avoid conflict. Even within the notion of good parenting, different aspects of the concept (being a good parent by buying healthy food vs. being a good parent by making family mealtimes pleasurable) posed competition to healthier behaviour. Future interventions to encourage healthier food purchasing and preparation need to acknowledge the complex reality of parenting, and to recognise that parents' decisions are driven by more than simple nutritional concerns. Messages about the long-term benefits of feeding children healthily are likely to be less motivating, and less effective, than interventions which are based on a real understanding of what it is like to go shopping with and consume meals with a pre-school child, and which offer practical help in these everyday stressful situations (Hart et al., 2003).Programmes using social marketing principles may be a particularly promising approach (McDermott et al., 2005) to addressing the complex and contradictory factors underpinning parental food decisions. Social marketing interventions are based on a detailed understanding of and empathy with consumer needs and motivations (\"consumer orientation\"), use strategies to minimise competition to the desired behaviour change, and offer the target group meaningful benefits (\"exchange\") in return for making the change (Andreasen, 2002). In the context of this study, addressing the \"competition\" might include building parents' repertoire of skills for dealing with conflict during shopping and mealtime experiences. Similarly, meaningful \"exchange\" might involve showing parents how to incorporate treats and family pleasure - attributes of being a good parent which were valued by most respondents - into healthier meals and shopping trips, by, for example, involving children in the choice and preparation of vegetables.The findings from the projective technique study that parents perceive shopping with children as stressful, and that the desire to minimise parent-child disagreement and conflict can lead parents knowingly to make unhealthy purchase decisions in the interests of keeping the peace, is supported by other research (e.g. Stoneman and Brody, 1982; Taras et al., 1989). As a consequence, a suitable target for \"upstream\" intervention is the retail environment itself (BMA, 2005). Policy interventions such as removing confectionery from checkouts and other prominent positions can potentially reduce temptation and parent-child conflict (Hastings et al., 2000), while marketing actions such as packaging and displaying fruit and vegetables in supermarkets in ways that are attractive to children, or offering children the opportunity to taste fruit and vegetables while shopping, may increase the appeal of healthier foods for children while also potentially making food shopping more enjoyable.\nConclusion: This paper has presented findings from two separate studies in the UK and Australia that provide qualitative insights into the food decision choices of parents of pre-school children. Taken together, the results of the two studies show that despite being aware of what constitutes a \"healthy\" diet, parents regularly purchase and allow their children to eat unhealthy foods. The desire to minimise stress and conflict, both in the supermarket and at mealtimes, competes powerfully with the desire to feed children healthily.We argue that the findings of these two studies suggest that campaigns designed to educate parents and children of the nutritional value of different foods and recommended dietary intakes alone will not significantly address the childhood obesity epidemic. We advocate a broad, integrated approach that assists parents to address the underlying socio-cultural motivations for their behaviour whilst promoting the positive aspects of healthy food choice. Interventions should address the complex reality of parenting and seek to make parents feel better, not worse, about their food choices. Practical solutions which focus on minimising conflict when shopping and during mealtimes are likely to be more motivating and effective than messages about nutritional benefits. In addition, interventions need to target the wider social surroundings in which food choices are made, particularly the retail environment.Both studies contain several limitations that need to be acknowledged and suggest the possibility of further research. First, inappropriate generalisations should not be made from the findings reported in this paper as this was an exploratory study of the paradoxical food purchase and preparation of parents. Second, the findings only relate to the contextual environments of the respondents in these two studies. More detailed formative research needs to be conducted to investigate this issue so as to more fully inform any social marketing intervention. Further research could take the form of a broader quantitative study or additional qualitative studies in geographic, cultural and socio-economic locations beyond those employed in the two studies reported here.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to explore the apparent paradox between the nutritional knowledge of parents of pre-school children and their actual food purchase and preparation behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Two separate qualitative data collection exercises were conducted, an exploratory focus group study in the UK and a projective technique study in Australia.\nFindings: - The UK study found that, despite believing that vegetables were good for children's health, mothers also perceived that it was extremely difficult to encourage children to eat them. The results of Australian study suggest that the purchase of unhealthy \"treats\" or \"bribes\" is explained through the concept of \"expediency\" whereas what this study labels as \"good parenting\" emerged as the main motivational force leading to the purchase of healthy food.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The authors caution on any inappropriate generalisations being based on the findings of this study. Further qualitative and quantitative empirical research is suggested in settings different to those of this study.\nPractical implications: - The authors suggest that information- and education-based campaigns, which simply emphasise the benefits of \"healthy\" food and the disbenefits of \"unhealthy\" food for children will have limited impact on childhood obesity. Instead, future interventions need to acknowledge the complex reality of parenting and the barriers and competition to healthy food choices, and to offer parents meaningful help in food purchasing and preparation. An approach suggested by the authors that acknowledges this complexity is that of social marketing.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides new insights into the food purchase and preparation behaviour of parents and suggests alternative strategies for addressing the current childhood obesity epidemic.\n",
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What is, could be better: Swedish women's perceptions of their intrapartal care during planned vaginal birth
|
[
"Maternity services",
"Childbirth",
"Quality",
"Perception",
"Sweden"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The goal for maternity care is twofold; care should result in a healthy mother and infant with as few interventions as possible and in a positive birth experience for the mother and significant others (World Health Organization, 1996). The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have declared that care in childbirth should be evidence-based. This includes that women should be encouraged to participate in decisions that apply to their care, partner/significant others should be encouraged to partake in the birth process and staff should be supportive, understanding, encouraging and stimulate skin-to-skin contact and early breastfeeding (International Confederation of Midwives, 2005; World Health Organization, 1996, 2006).However, studies continue to show that intrapartal care is only partly evidence based (Mead, 2004; Downe et al., 2001; Sandin-Bojo et al., 2006, 2007; Sandin-Bojo and Kvist, 2008; Wagner, 2001) and that care continues to follow the medical model (Sandin-Bojo and Kvist, 2008). A national survey of English women's experience of maternity care (Redshaw et al., 2006) showed that 65 percent of women had a non-instrumental vaginal birth in 2006 and that the episiotomy rate was 24 percent. It has also been shown that there are few differences in the care given to women at low-risk and high-risk (Sandin-Bojo et al., 2006, 2007) and that Intrapartal care differs from hospital to hospital (Mead, 2004; Rosenblatt et al., 1997; Sandin-Bojo and Kvist, 2008).Other studies have investigated women's satisfaction with intrapartal care and their birth experience and show that women's satisfaction or opinions on care are usually high (Bluff and Holloway, 1994; Hundley and Ryan, 2004; van Teijlingen et al., 2003; Sandin-Bojo et al., 2008). This appears to be the case regardless of the care organization (Morgan et al., 1998).Women's experience and satisfaction with the care they receive in connection with childbirth are important aspects of quality of care. Women with a negative experience of their first birth refrain to a greater extent from subsequent children or have a longer interval to the second baby (Gottvall and Waldenstrom, 2002). Risk factors identified for not being satisfied with intrapartal care are lack of support from the midwife, little involvement in decision making (Hodnett, 2002; Lavender et al., 1999; Waldenstrom et al., 2006), dissatisfaction with the birth environment (Waldenstrom et al., 2006), operative delivery, infants transferred to neonatal care, augmentation of labour, lack of support during labour and administration of obstetric analgesia (Waldenstrom et al., 2004).Concerns have been raised about the complexity of measuring experiences or satisfaction with care because women may not be aware of how care in childbirth might be and thus researchers evaluate the status quo (van Teijlingen et al., 2003; Sandin-Bojo et al., 2008). Others question whether it is even possible to evaluate overall experiences of multidimensional phenomena such as childbirth (Mander, 2007; Waldenstrom et al., 2004; Soafer and Firminger, 2005). Questionnaires most often require answers about how care was delivered but Wilde-Larsson et al., (1994) have shown that it is also important to simultaneously measure the subjective importance that the respondents accord the care given.Differences in women's perception of intrapartal care could be ascribed to individual womens' characteristics such as age and education (Rudman et al., 2007; Waldenstrom et al., 2006; Sandin-Bojo et al., 2008). However, no clear patterns of women's opinions have been found regarding these variables (Brown and Lumley, 1994; Hodnett, 2002; Rudman et al., 2007; Sandin-Bojo et al., 2008; Waldenstrom et al., 2006). Other studies have shown that primiparity and mode of delivery can affect women's satisfaction. Primiparous women and women delivered by emergency cesarean section are less satisfied with their care (Bryanton et al., 2008; Rudman et al., 2007). One recent study showed that women ascribed great subjective importance to the care they received whether or not the care was recommended by WHO (Sandin-Bojo et al., 2008).Rudman et al.(2007) investigated women's opinions of intrapartal care along three distinct dimensions simultaneously (interpersonal care, information and involvement in decision making, and physical birth environment) and found nine clusters of women with different profiles of satisfaction / dissatisfaction. The results showed that only 47 percent of women were satisfied with at least one dimension and none of the nine clusters were satisfied with all three dimensions (Rudman et al., 2007).The aim of this study was to describe how Swedish women, planned for vaginal birth, perceive the quality of intrapartal care that they receive and the subjective importance they ascribe to their care.\nMethod: Design\nResults: A total of 739 (63 percent) of the 1,173 women who agreed to take part in the study returned their questionnaires. Of those who provided an e-mail address 37.1 percent answered the questionnaire and of those who requested a paper version 62.9 percent answered, which was statistically significant (p<0.001). Of all responders, 30 women were planned for birth by elective caesarean section and were incorrectly sent a questionnaire and were therefore subsequently excluded. Finally 709 questionnaires were analyzed. The women's mean age was 30.4 years (SD 4.7), 98 percent were co-habiting/married, and education levels were as follows: elementary school 5 percent, high school 43 percent and university 52 percent; 91 percent were Swedish, 44 percent primiparous, the gestational week for birth was distributed as follows: <37 weeks 5 percent, 37-42 weeks 88 percent and >42 weeks 7 percent. For mode of birth the figures were: 84 percent had a spontaneous vaginal birth, 9 percent a ventouse or forceps birth and 7 percent had an emergency caesarean section.Quality of general care\nDiscussion: Result discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this study is to describe how Swedish women, planned for vaginal birth, perceive the quality of intrapartal care that they receive and the subjective importance they ascribe to their care.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study was nested within a Swedish national survey of intrapartal care. The women whose care was investigated were invited to participate in the current study by the midwife who attended the birth. A total of 1,173 women agreed to answer a questionnaire about \"quality of general care\" and \"quality of specific intrapartal care\" at two months postpartum. The questions were posed in two ways, the perceived reality (PR) of care given and the subjective importance (SI) the women ascribed to this care.\nFindings: - A total of 739 women (63 percent) returned their questionnaires. Scores for PR and SI for \"quality of general care\" were in the main high (PR range 2.98-3.81; SI range 2.85-3.85, out of a possible 4) and also for \"quality of specific intrapartal care\" (PR range 3.15-3.86; SI range 3.23-3.86, out of a possible 4). A total of 12 items showed statistically significantly higher scores for SI than for PR. Of the women, 81 percent agreed fully or mostly that the birth of their child was a positive experience.\nOriginality/value: - The way in which women answer questions about intrapartal care reflects the way in which the questions are posed. This study therefore has asked not only how care was perceived but also what importance individual women ascribed to different areas of their care. The questionnaire used in this study allows identification of areas where \"what is, could be better\".\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Supply chain management: a structured literature review and implications for future research
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Literature",
"Research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, the area of supply chain management (SCM) has become very popular. This is evidenced by marked increases in practitioner and academic publications, conferences, professional development programs and university courses in the area. While interest in SCM is immense, it is clear that much of the knowledge about SCM resides in narrow functional silos such as purchasing, logistics, IT and marketing. At least partly as a result of this, there appears to be little consensus on the conceptual and research methodological bases of SCM. This has contributed to the existence of a number of gaps in the knowledge base of the field. Firstly, from a conceptualization perspective, the definition of the term is unclear and the impact of theoretical diversity is such that it is doubtful SCM is based on a coherent theory. Secondly, from a research methodology perspective, it is unclear how the research methods employed have shaped SCM concepts. Thirdly, from a meta-analytical perspective, the impact on consolidating knowledge gathered along narrow functional disciplines raises issues as to whether SCM has a coherent, overarching philosophy of knowledge framework.We contend that in order to develop a better understanding of the above-mentioned issues, a systematic review of relevant literature is needed. While there have been several review articles published recently, these appear to only partially address conceptual issues and do not address research methodology issues at all. For example, Lummus et al. (2001) and Mentzer et al. (2001) focus specifically on the definition of SCM. Ho et al. (2002), Giannakis and Croom (2004) and Chen and Paulraj (2004) take a strategic management perspective to address theory development in the SCM area. Likewise, New (1997) provides a thematic overview of the SCM literature. Some of the reviews are narrowly based along functional lines; for example, Skjoett-Larsen's (1999) review is focused on the logistics discipline whilst Larson and Halldorsson's (2002) review is based on the purchasing literature. As yet, there does not appear to be a review that has considered the SCM area from a broader organizational perspective. As far as research methodological issues are concerned, none of the reviews appears to have systematically examined the range of methodological approaches employed. Also, the majority of reviews have used convenience samples of articles and the analysis is mostly thematic. There appear to be no structured and systematic reviews.In this paper, the results of a structured review of SCM literature are presented. A systematic process was used to classify the literature along salient conceptual and research methodological dimensions. The results from this review were then used to generate a meta-analysis of the philosophy of knowledge that could be used to guide future SCM research.For the term \"supply chain management\" there appears to be little consensus on its definition (New, 1997; Lummus et al., 2001; Mentzer et al., 2001; Kauffman, 2002). Kathawala and Abdou (2003, p. 141) conclude that SCM \"has been poorly defined and there is a high degree of variability in people's minds about what is meant\". Mentzer et al. (2001) attempted to overcome this state of affairs by proposing a definition that is broad, not confined to any specific discipline area and adequately reflecting the breadth of issues that are usually covered under this term. We decided to use this definition to guide our research:Supply chain management is defined as the systemic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole (Mentzer et al., 2001, p. 18).However, we have not dogmatically adhered to all the nuances expressed in this definition. Given that an important aspect of this review is to explore how SCM is conceptualized, we have used this term in a fairly \"liberal\" manner throughout the paper, hoping to ensure the scope of the research parameters was sufficiently broad to capture a wide range of definitions.The sections which follow provide details of how the review was conducted. First, the methodological aspects of the literature review are presented. This is followed by the results section. Then, a discussion of conceptual and research methodological issues is presented. Leading from this discussion, future research possibilities and developments are proposed. The paper concludes by summarizing the key findings of the review, highlighting the contributions this study makes to the body of SCM knowledge, and identifying the implications of the findings for practitioners and researchers.\nReview methodology: Selection of articles\nResults: Descriptive features of SCM literature (grouping 1)\nDiscussion: Based on the findings of this review, it is possible to address a number of contentious issues, such as how best to conceptualize the field and assess the impact of the distinct trends in literature on the development of the field. These issues are discussed with close reference to the four groupings and 11 dimensions of the analysis framework described in Table I.Descriptive features of SCM literature (grouping 1)\nProposed future research directions: SCM meta-analysis based on analysis framework\nConclusions: This paper, through a systematic and structured review of literature, provides insights into the conceptualization and research methodological bases of the SCM field. The review enables us to succinctly describe SCM, suggest how it should be described from a philosophy of knowledge perspective, and chart an agenda for future research.The review shows that the SCM is a relatively \"young\" field with exponential growth in interest from researchers. However, a set of dominant characteristics was found. Most notably there is: a reliance on the manufacturing and consumer goods industries for empirical as well as analytical illustration; a conceptual framing of SCM mostly as a process; a predomination of transaction cost economics and strategy-based competitive advantage theoretical grounding; the presence of mostly descriptive-type theories; strong positivist paradigmatic stances in the research methods employed; and, the utilization of analytical conceptual, as well as empirical statistical sampling and case study methods. These dominant characteristics appear to have prevented plurality of ideas in terms of how the area is conceptualized, theoretically described and researched, making the development of the field a narrowly concentrated one. This, in turn, has prevented wider dissemination and greater acceptance of ideas outside the functional areas that SCM has traditionally been associated with. As a consequence, the soundness and robustness of the ideas underpinning SCM have not been fully tested. If this pattern continues, then there is a risk that SCM will get confined to a narrow intellectual base. This could lead to SCM being considered unworthy of serious scholarship by the broader academic community.How can a more encompassing approach be achieved in developing the field? The answer to this, at least partially, is provided by the meta-analysis presented earlier. From the philosophy of knowledge perspective, the Lakatosian research program may be the best way to conceptualize the SCM body of knowledge as it could assist in overcoming the \"operations management - manufacturing - process - positivist\" dominance while also being able to integrate research designs that are outside of these focal points.If the present trend continues, then one implication is that doing more of the same type of research will most likely produce more of the same order of results. Given that SCM appears to be \"struggling\" to develop a coherent body of knowledge, such an approach seems both illogical and wasteful of scarce resources. SCM needs to rapidly expand the methods of inquiry if it wishes to speed up its rate of knowledge development. As it is, SCM stands at the crossroads. The choices are either to retreat to the narrowly defined operations management approach, or to expand the research framework to embrace the rapidly emerging protection belt. The former is not a feasible option if the area is to develop broad appeal. The Lakatosian approach provides a viable way forward for SCM which can both embrace the emerging challenges of SCM, and assist in resolving the present conceptual and research methodological confusion.While we feel that the discussions presented in this paper provide useful insights into SCM body of knowledge, we feel that even greater insights are possible. One possible avenue for achieving this is through the further development and improvement of the analysis framework presented in this paper. This could be in the form of including additional disciplines, intellectual traditions, theoretical perspectives, practitioner activities and historical trends associated with SCM. Another possibility is through further inquiries into SCM in the form of content analysis and cross-tabulations of data reported in this paper. Finally, the accuracy of the findings reported in the paper can be confirmed by other researchers who can independently classify the set of articles, choose larger samples, use databases other than ABI/Inform Global Proquest and include articles that are not limited to the English language. These inquiries will need to test the findings of this study and thus facilitate the development of knowledge in a manner by which researchers might better adjudicate the different claims of those seeking to cover SCM. Accelerated knowledge development should also follow such endeavors which in turn will assist industry to determine if SCM is a serious subject which warrants on-going investment or if it is a fad which should cease to be supported by scare resources that can be more effectively used elsewhere.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The field of supply chain management (SCM) has historically been informed by knowledge from narrow functional areas. While some effort towards producing a broader organizational perspective has been made, nonetheless, SCM continues to be largely eclectic with little consensus on its conceptualization and research methodological bases. This paper seeks to clarify aspects of this emerging perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 100 randomly selected refereed journal articles were systematically analyzed.\nFindings: - A number of key findings emerged: the field is a relatively \"new\" one; several disciplines claim ownership of the field; consensus is lacking on the definition of the term; contextual focus is mostly on the manufacturing industry; predominantly \"process\" conceptual framing prevails; research methods employed are mostly analytical conceptual, empirical surveys or case studies; the positivist research paradigmatic stance is prevalent; and theories related to transaction cost economics and competitive advantage dominate.\nOriginality/value: - This review identifies various conceptual and research methodological characteristics of SCM. From a philosophy of knowledge perspective, it is suggested that SCM be framed as a Lakatosian Research Program, for this has the best potential to assist in the development of SCM body of knowledge in a sustainable way into the future.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Brand switching of high-technology capital products: how product features dictate the switching decision
|
[
"Switching costs",
"Business-to-business marketing",
"Brand switching",
"Internal capabilities",
"Medical imaging industry",
"Product features"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nLiterature review: When users switch from one product to another they are clearly indicating either that the original product is no longer satisfying their needs or that another product being offered by a competing firm is more attractive (Xavier and Ypsilanti, 2008). Brand switching means that users abandon one service provider or business supplier for another (Wathne et al., 2001; Keaveney and Parthasarathy, 2001; Kau et al., 1998; Rundle-Thiele and Bennett, 2001). Most research has shown that user retention plays a vital role in both increasing a firm's revenues and reducing costs. Peters (1987) shows that it is more profitable to retain a user than to attract a new one, that acquiring a new customer costs five times as much as retaining an existing one. According to Bolton and Lemon (1999), existing customers make greater use of a firm's services or products than would new customers, and therefore retaining existing customers automatically increases market share and hence firm revenue. In addition, loss of an existing user may damage a firm's reputation or even a firm's brand image - all leading, perhaps, to a reduction in the firm's future chances of acquiring new customers or to an increase in the costs of doing so (Lopez et al., 2006). For those reasons, it is vital that a firm understand the reasons behind the switching decisions of its users - to build a successful buyer-seller relationship.\nResearch model and hypotheses: After reviewing the literature on brand switching of high-technology products, we develop a model and related hypotheses about the factors that might influence brand switching in the context of high-technology capital products. Our model is similar to that used by Al-kwifi and McNaughton (2011) for high-technology lead users, as we are investigating brand switching on a similar industry; however, our model contains fewer variables because initial interviews and discussions with decision makers demonstrate that the factors included in the evaluation process are fewer than those suggested by Al-kwifi and McNaughton (2011). This is due primarily to the process of utilizing a technology and achieving a competitive advantage. For example, Al-kwifi and McNaughton (2011) point out that in the case of lead users of medical technology, the \"competitive advantage\" is associated with being at the leading edge of science and has consequences on publishing research papers, getting grants and earning a reputation in the scientific community. In our study, mass-market users of medical technology achieve a \"competitive advantage\" by diagnosing various diseases with lower operating cost. In the sections that follow, we explain how each variable may influence the likelihood of switching, and we recapitulate this with a testable hypothesis.\nMethod: Industry case\nResults: Table I shows the nature of the medical centers participating in our study, where the number of clinics and medical laboratories represent the majority of the sample, which is normal because their number in reality exceed the number of hospitals. The number of switchers is higher for large hospitals and decreases with the decreasing size of the medical center, which is smallest for clinics and medical labs.\nDiscussion: The objective of this study is to examine the factors behind brand switching by users of high-technology capital products. Table I demonstrates that all large hospitals undergo brand switching to maintain their technology at state-of-the-art quality, especially, given that large hospitals conduct numerous medical operations that require advanced technologies (Krieg, 2004), which might not be available from one supplier. The output of the logistic regression from Table II confirms that product features is the most important factor in the decision to switch between competing technologies. We argue that product features reflect product capabilities that encourage users to switch to renew organizational capabilities and develop or sustain competitive advantage in the medical community. These advantages are manifested by the ability to accurately diagnose numerous diseases to define the appropriate treatment method. Another reason that could explain why all large hospitals have experienced brand switching is their sound financial status, which enables them to manage effectively the high switching costs and related consequences. This outcome is consistent with previous research that suggests product features as the most influential factor in the process to replace outdated high-technology products (Al-Kwifi and McNuaghton, 2011; Tholke et al., 2001).\nTheoretical implications: This research has some important theoretical implications. First, it contributes to the literature on business-to-business marketing by confirming the importance of product features on the decision to switch between high-technology products. Most of the previous research on B2B brand switching put more emphasis on other antecedents as the dominant factor behind switching behavior - such as word-of-mouth promotion (Money, 2004), product price (Wathne et al., 2001), service price (Williams et al., 2011), situational factors (Heide and Weiss, 1995) and switching costs (Low and Johnston, 2006). The selection of different factors is a result of the contexts in which switching are studied. For example, in competitive markets, product features are hard to differentiate (Low and Johnston, 2006; Wathne et al., 2001) and switching costs are relatively low. This research demonstrates that users of high-technology products concentrate mainly on product features that offer distinctive capabilities for their organization (Al-Kwifi and McNuaghton, 2013); therefore, they are prepared to handle the high switching costs so as to operate the new technology effectively to improve or sustain a competitive advantage (Hogan and Armstrong, 2001). Second, the extant literature reveals that there is no comprehensive model that explains or predicts brand switching, whereas each study assumes diverse independent variables to describe this behavior for a specific industry (or product). This research provides a model that explains brand switching of mass-market users of high-technology capital products. Such model enriches our knowledge of switching behavior for rapidly changing technologies in which product features play a significant role to encourage switching to a more capable technology.\nPractical implications: Because no single model can forecast brand switching, managers should conduct market research to investigate the antecedents behind brand switching for their products and for each market segment (Allaway et al., 2011). This study demonstrates that antecedents of brand switching can be different for two market segments of the same industry (e.g. lead users and mass-market users). This indicates that managers cannot depend on their assumptions and experience to predict these antecedents. Research demonstrates that antecedents of switching can be perceived differently even between technology users and suppliers (Wathne et al., 2001), emphasizing that determining the key factors behind switching is vital for managers (Leingpibul et al., 2013), especially in the stage of defining the proper strategy to expand their market share or keep it from eroding.\nResearch limitations: Although our objective was to verify that country of origin has no effect on the decision to switch a high-technology capital product, which is the reason we conducted this study in only one country, one needs to be cautious about interpreting the findings to other countries because there may be variations in the process of evaluating the technology that are not applicable to some countries. These variations might relate to how the medical system is funded in different countries. For example, in some countries with universal health care, the government might have an influence on decisions about purchases of major equipment. However, similar studies for different countries might support the findings of the research presented here and thereby enhance our understanding of the process of brand switching for advanced technological products. We also recommend caution in generalizing the findings to other industries with similar characteristics, such as the aircraft and advanced manufacturing industries, where the influence of product features on switching decisions can be obvious, but where other factors can have different effects on the final decision. Such variations across other industries can be verified by repeating this research for new industries to increase the generalizability of the findings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that underpin brand switching of medical imaging products by mass-market users. Most of the literature on brand switching is focused on competitive market products, for which switching costs are manageable. However, little consideration is given to brand switching of high-technology capital products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The conceptual model is developed based on the existing literature on B2B brand switching. An online survey was developed and distributed to decision makers involved in purchasing medical imaging technology.\nFindings: The results confirm the expectation that product features is the most influential factor underpinning brand switching. Product features are critical for medical organizations who want to maintain their competitive advantage. The findings suggest that the set of factors that influence the decision to switch is unique for users of different market segments in the same industry (e.g. lead users and mass-market users). This difference stems from technology utilization of each market segment.\nResearch limitations/implications: In high-technology markets, managers should develop a reliable strategy to evaluate the antecedents behind brand switching that are specific to their industry. Knowledge of the major factors that cause users to switch is essential to allow firms to determine the strategy needed to prevent the erosion of their market share.\nOriginality/value: Although the literature reports considerable research on brand switching, this study is a first-of-its-kind in that it demonstrates that the factors underpinning brand switching vary within the same industry, based on the characteristics of each market segment. This paper develops new knowledge on the factors that influence the decision of users of high-technology capital products to switch between brands to renew or improve their internal capabilities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Student voice in secondary schools: the possibility for deeper change
|
[
"Students",
"Secondary education",
"School change",
"School reform",
"Leadership",
"Organizational change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: To address the alienation of young people and to strengthen school improvement efforts overall, a growing effort is focusing on increasing student voice in schools. These reforms are needed because adolescents frequently describe their school experiences as anonymous places in which they have no voice and no one cares about them (Cook-Sather et al., 2015; Earls, 2003; Heath and McLaughlin, 1993; Pope, 2001). In fact, alienation results in the majority of students being disengaged from high schools (Cothran and Ennis, 2000). Disengaged students attend school less, have lower self-concepts, achieve less academically and are more likely to drop out or be discharged from school (Fullan, 2016; Lukes, 2015; Noguera, 2002).\nDefining student voice: This paper reviews the most recent work showing how student voice can impact change, with a particular focus when possible on urban secondary schools to fit with this special issue as the breadth and depth of research in this review will show, the field of student voice has established itself as a legitimate focus of study, and therefore \"existence proof\" studies are not as needed. It updates a previous review of the field conducted ten years ago (Mitra, 2006). Before beginning this review, however, it is important to understand how student voice varies across global contexts.\nOutcomes for classroom change: Rethinking instruction\nOutcomes for organizational change: Research from student voice efforts and also from youth involvement in nonprofit and after-school programs finds that youth input can improve organizational visioning and strategic planning for change (Brasof and Spector, 2016; Kirshner et al., 2003; Eccles and Gootman, 2002; Zeldin, 2004; Zeldin et al., 2005). In particular, young people often are willing to raise issues that adults might not see or avoid. Students not succeeding in the current system, including those failing subjects or at risk of dropping out, can offer particularly insightful advice on problems with school structure and culture (Smyth, 2007). Struggling students tend to cite structural and classroom procedures that hamper learning, the lack of opportunities to build caring relationships with adults, and blatant discrimination as being the actual problems (Colatos and Morrell, 2003; Nieto, 1994; Soohoo, 1993).\nStudent voice and power: The intention of student voice is a restructuring of relationships, pushing against the expected power dynamics to create \"radical collegiality\" (Fielding, 2004) - creating counter-normative ways of acting between young people and adults. The positioning of young people must be a critical focus of how adults interact within partnership, and how young people view their roles affects any work that can be accomplished (Balakrishnan and Claiborne, 2017; Conner and Rosen, 2015; McNae and Cowie 2017; Mayes, 2016, 2017; Mitra, 2005, 2008; Nelson, 2016; York and Kirshner, 2015).\nLooking ahead: Improving secondary schools, like democracy itself, does not happen by chance. Historically, the USA is rooted in a tradition of action, and its system of public school was founded on a democratic and civic mission. In a climate that pushes schools to obey, master facts and compete, this paper shows how young people can be agents of change in schools. Even when the work might not be enough to transform injustices into justices, schools can be sites of engaged communities of critical agency, and administrators can be the champions of this work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of student voice in secondary school reform.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through a literature review, it defines the concept of student voice within bodies of research on youth participation internationally.\nFindings: It notes the ways the USA is distinct and lagging behind. It then looks at the broadening scope of ways that young people have become involved in change efforts. It considers ways that student voice can deepen implementation efforts and strengthen classroom practice. It breaks this discussion into: outcomes for classroom instruction, organizational change, and the relationship between student voice and power. The paper ends with a discussion of the importance of attending to issues of power in youth-adult relationships, including ways to avoid the co-optation of young people.\nOriginality/value: This paper reviews the most recent work showing how student voice can impact change, with a particular focus when possible on urban secondary schools to fit with this special issue. It updates a previous review of the field conducted ten years ago (Mitra, 2006). Before beginning this review, however, it is important to understand how student voice varies across global contexts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Identifying and predicting the factors affecting end-users' risk-taking behavior
|
[
"Risk analysis",
"Information security modelling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: People around the world rely heavily on the internet and its services for carrying out their everyday activities. This is evident as most homes have one or more computing device connected to the internet, where more than 3.8 billion users used the internet in 2017 compared to 2.9, 3.1 and 3.4 billion in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively (InternetLiveStats, 2017). With this growing internet popularity, comes an increase in information security threats such as social engineering, hacking and malware. Regardless of the common use of security methods to protect information technology (IT) systems, such as biometrics and antivirus software, the threat landscape is continuously revolving. For instance, more than 7.1 billion identities were exposed in data breaches since 2010, which is equivalent to one for every person in the world. More than 1.1 billion identities were exposed in 2016 compared to over 563 million in 2015 (almost the double). In these data breaches, the percentage of lost financial information such as credit or debit card details was 32.9 per cent in 2015 and increased by 10 per cent to 42.9 per cent in 2016 (Symantec, 2017). However, costs of such breaches can extremely damage businesses and individuals with an average cost to business from $38,000 to $551,000 (Kaspersky, 2015).\n2. Related work: It is widely observed that end-users practice IT security differently, and those who exercise bad IT security actions would put the IT system into a more risky situation than those who carry out good IT security behaviors. It is inevitable that end-users will behave differently due to their varied factors (e.g. backgrounds and experiences). If the reason why end-users exhibit certain behavior could be learnt, adequate strategies (e.g. customized IT security training program) can then be developed, and hence, the overall IT security can be improved. With the aim of investigating the relationship between end-users' characteristics and their IT security practices, a number of survey studies have been designed and conducted. An analysis of these studies is presented as follows.\n3. Methodology: With the aim to investigate the relationship between various user factors (including personalities) and their security behavior[1], the following research questions were created:\n4. Survey findings: An analysis of the demographic questions from the 538 responses was initially conducted. Regarding gender, age, education and IT proficiency, the data are skewed toward men (71 per cent), 18-35 age range (77 per cent), with a degree (68 per cent) and experienced in IT (80 per cent). This was somewhat expected due to the authors' availability and access to participants. However, it was notable that 53 per cent participants are non-IT professionals. Despite this phenomenon does not weaken the results, it is important to highlight the participants' usage in technology, and/or their security behavior would be higher than the ones from the general population. Based upon the results from prior studies, this also suggests they are likely to exhibit better security behaviors than one would expect from a wider population.\n5. Significance testing on the relationship between user factors and the risk-taking behavior: With the aim of exploring the relationship between various user-oriented factors and the risk level of their intended security behaviors, the survey data were examined using the bi-variate Pearson two-tailed correlation. The correlation output of the risk level across 28 security behaviors and nine user-centric factors (including personalities and demographics) is presented in Table II.\n6. A model to predict risk based upon behavior, age, gender and information technology proficiency: The survey results and correlation analysis have shown and reaffirmed that users are still undertaking risky decisions across a range of security-related behaviors - even acknowledging the skew within the population sample - which would suggest that participants exhibit better rather than poorer security behavior. The significance testing in particular has assisted in identifying the specific relationship between behaviors and various user-oriented factors. While this is both relevant and interesting, the ability to use this knowledge in a proactive manner and individualized manner could help organizations in managing and mitigating their risk posture from a people perspective. For example, predicting an individual's risk-taking behavior during recruitment could help ensure that an organization has the right mixture of employees. Alternatively, better understanding individuals could also enable organizations to provide more targeting training or put in place increased monitoring.\n7. Conclusion and future work: The study has sought to further investigate the relationship between users' behavior (or specifically behavioral intent) and various user-oriented factors. A more complete set of analyses across a wider set of behaviors and factors has provided a more appreciable understanding of what significant relationships exist. Conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness play a role across two-thirds of all behaviors. The study has also reaffirmed that age and self-claimed proficiency (both IT and usage) also have an impact on behavior.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The end-user has frequently been identified as the weakest link; however, motivated by the fact that different users react differently to the same stimuli, identifying the reasons behind variations in security behavior and why certain users could be \"at risk\" more than others is a step toward protecting and defending users against security attacks. This paper aims to explore the effect of personality trait variations (through the Big Five Inventory [BFI]) on users' risk level of their intended security behaviors. In addition, age, gender, service usage and information technology (IT) proficiency are analyzed to identify what role and impact they have on behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors developed a quantitative-oriented survey that was implemented online. The bi-variate Pearson two-tailed correlation was used to analyze survey responses.\nFindings: The results obtained by analyzing 538 survey responses suggest that personality traits do play a significant role in affecting users' security behavior risk levels. Furthermore, the results suggest that BFI score of a trait has a significant effect as users' online personality is linked to their offline personality, especially in the conscientiousness personality trait. Additionally, this effect was stronger when personality was correlated with the factors of IT proficiency, gender, age and online activity.\nOriginality/value: The contributions of this paper are two-fold. First, with the aid of a large population sample, end-users' security practice is assessed from multiple domains, and relationships were found between end-users' risk-taking behavior and nine user-centric factors. Second, based upon these findings, the predictive ability for these user-centric factors were evaluated to determine the level of risk a user is subject to from an individual behavior perspective. Of 28 behaviors, 11 were found to have a 60 per cent or greater predictive ability, with the highest classification of 92 per cent for several behaviors. This provides a basis for organizations to use behavioral intent alongside personality traits and demographics to understand and, therefore, manage the human aspects of risk.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Principals' evidence-based practice - findings from German schools
|
[
"Educational leadership",
"Data wise leadership",
"Data-driven school improvement",
"Schools in challenging circumstances"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The educational reform agenda in many countries reflects a growing emphasis on school autonomy as well as schools' accountability for their outcomes. In Germany, instruments of a standards-based school reform have been implemented, for instance, statewide exams or school inspections. Although there have been fundamental changes toward more output orientation, there are no sanctions for chronically low-performing German schools; these schools cannot be put \"on probation\" (Mintrop, 2004). Therefore, in Germany, principals' working environment is data-rich for school improvement purposes in a rather low-stakes test-regime with increased accountability, even though accountability is still low from an American perspective. Especially schools in deprived areas, which are amongst other things characterized by a high percentage of students from poorly educated families with or without a migrant background, achieve lower results in central examinations than schools located in more favorable areas. Data richness and strategic use of data have been classified as key characteristics of effective and improving schools (Muijs et al., 2004). Against this background, the need for principals to demonstrate progress in achieving standards for all students has become more pressing. Considering the sustained use of data, a special role comes up to school leaders, as they can provide favorable conditions for data-driven school improvement, for instance, by putting in place data teams (Rolff, 2007).\nData-driven school improvement: The increased importance of output control and accountability in the educational system led to a greater focus on data-driven school improvement. Grounding decisions and actions on evidence should enhance the efficiency and effectiveness on all levels of the educational system. Evidence can be obtained either internally or externally. There are various types of evidence and data, respectively, focussing on different levels of the educational system (system, school, or teacher/classroom level) (for an overview see also Demski, 2014). In the sense of an organizational double loop learning (Argyris and Schon, 1996), schools should use this feedback not only for solving problems but for scrutinizing underlying values and objectives. Against this background, schools ought to draw on several kinds of data. To improve lessons, teachers and school leaders can use student feedback or collaborative measures such as sitting in on each other's classes. For evaluating student achievements in comparison to other schools, results from standardized tests can be used, for instance.\nData-driven school improvement in schools in challenging circumstances: Schools are shaped by their social and socio-spatial contexts, for example by the students' sociocultural backgrounds (composition effects; see Baumert et al., 2006; Faber, 2013) or the social structure of the areas which they are located in (see also Ditton, 2013). On the one hand, this can open up opportunities (e.g. in terms of high educational aspirations and positive role models, who promote learning); on the other hand, the school's composition and context can entail certain restrictions, for example due to a lack of parental support or a (perceived) lack of prospects for the future because of the difficult job situation in the respective region as well as due to the fact that some children grow up in poverty (see Groh-Samberg, 2009).\nData wise leadership: Nowadays, an effective use of externally as well as internally generated data, also known as data wise leadership, is considered to be a key competence of any successful principal (e.g. Knapp et al., 2007; Mandinach and Honey, 2008). Following the concept of data-informed leadership, data should serve as guiding knowledge for principals and should inform their decisions and actions in order to improve instructional quality and thus student achievement.\nData-driven leadership in schools in challenging circumstances: With reference to (improving) schools in challenging circumstances, (inter)national findings indicate that principals play a very important role in the multilevel school system - especially given the new framework conditions of educational policy (Reynolds et al., 2001; Harris et al., 2006; Brauckmann, 2012). Moreover, principals at improving schools in challenging circumstances usually put forth an effort to create a positive school culture and focus on teaching practices, while administrative tasks are not at the center of their attention. International findings show that with regard to quality assurance and quality development, principals at improving schools in challenging circumstances use internal and external evidence systematically (Hopkins, 2001; Reynolds et al., 2001; Leithwood et al., 2010; Racherbaumer et al., 2013). However, principals' data use strategies at German schools in challenging circumstances have not yet been examined. This is striking given the fact that it is a major objective of educational policy to counteract the ascertained interrelation between students' socioeconomic background and their educational performance.\nMethodology: In the following section, the survey's methodology is outlined. After specifying the underlying research questions and the research design, the sample, data collection procedures, instruments applied, analysis strategies, and limitations of the study are described.\nData analysis: In a first step, we looked at descriptive statistics, considering the usefulness, the reflection upon, and the use of information sources by school leaders. The face-to-face interviews were transcribed and analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2007) with the program MAXQDA. The categories were formed deductively based on results of international research on educational leadership at schools in adverse conditions.\nResults: With the limitations of our study in mind, the results of the survey and the face-to-face interviews are presented in the following section. Differentiating between various information sources, we report on the availability of, the perceived usefulness of, as well as the extent of reflecting upon, and using the data. Thereafter, we present findings from the interview study.\nConclusion and discussion: This paper has tried to shed some light on data-informed leadership. Principals in one federal state in Germany were surveyed by means of standardized questionnaires asking for the perception, reflection, and use of data. This study was supplemented by face-to-face interviews with school leaders of schools in deprived areas.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In Germany, principals' working environments are data-rich for school improvement purposes in a rather low-stakes test-regime. An effective use of externally as well as internally generated data, also known as data wise leadership, is considered to be a key competence of successful principals. The purpose of this paper is to describe data use practices in German schools, especially focussing on schools facing challenging circumstances.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on findings from two projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. A standardized questionnaire study was conducted to measure the usage of available data for school improvement quantitatively. The perceived usefulness, the reflection upon, and the use of information sources by principals were measured. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with school leaders from schools in deprived areas were conducted, transcribed and analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis.\nFindings: The results showed that internal sources of information were used frequently while (international) student assessment, statewide comparative tests, and school inspections proved to be of relatively little use for the principals' professional practice. Moreover, there was a discrepancy between the perceived usefulness of information sources and the actual use of the data.\nOriginality/value: In contrast to the USA, for example, research on educational leadership and principals' data use - particularly at schools in challenging circumstances - is rather limited in Germany. This paper seeks to take up this desideratum.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Service-learning: An experiment to increase interpersonal communication confidence and competence
|
[
"Gender",
"Empirical",
"Oral communication",
"Service-learning",
"Self-efficacy",
"Interpersonal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nService-learning defined: In the continual quest for and refinement of pedagogical methods to engender learning, the concept and practice of what has become known as service-learning emerged to integrate the potential benefits of experiential learning and community service (Eyler and Giles, 2007). Service-learning is considered an important and vibrant educational method, proposed to fulfill various educational goals. These include academic learning, shifting the instructor's role to facilitator, teaching ethics and social responsibility, teaching interdependence and partnership within society and creating positive academic, personal and civic outcomes (Bringle et al., 2016). Most definitions of service-learning stress similar characteristics. An example is, \"a learning experience where students actively participate in service experiences that meet a real community need; the service enhances what is taught in the classroom and is integrated into the students' academic curricula; and the program provides structured time for a student to think, talk or write about what the student did and saw during the actual service activity\" (Yorio and Ye, 2012, p. 10).\nThe service-learning literature: contributions and limitations: Service-learning articles generally fall into one of five categories. One kind is conceptual: a description of benefits of service-learning based on anecdotes or logic. These articles emphasize the narrowness of higher education and argue how service-learning can expand students' experience through a broader, more robust educational activity (Godfrey et al., 2005). Service-learning is thought to increase students' knowledge, skill and social/civic natures, and provide pro-bono service to help needy people, organizations and communities (Dipadova-Stocks, 2005; Papamarcos, 2005).\nService-learning and interpersonal oral communication: As described below, the behavioral skill of interpersonal oral communication was chosen because of its supreme importance within companies, its theoretical connection to service-learning and some initial but limited research supporting those claims. For quite a while, personnel professionals have indicated that oral communication skills are among the most important competencies employers need and look for when hiring (Maes et al., 1997). More recent research has also validated oral communication as the number one broad-based competency sought-after by employers (Schleel and Harich, 2010). Due to the flattening of organizational structures and increased empowerment, this is even the case for new hires, who can be coordinating with people from other departments, brainstorming with team members and interacting with clients and suppliers. In fact, oral communication leads the list of applied skills and attributes most requested for entry-level jobs (85 percent), and becomes even more important for higher-end jobs (92 percent) (Schleel and Karns, 2017).\nSelf-efficacy and skill competency: Students have specified that one of the greatest needs to improve their oral communication is to help them develop more self-confidence, i.e., self-efficacy (Reinsch and Shelby, 1996). Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1982) describes four primary sources from which people acquire information to formulate judgments of their ability in given areas. These include enactive mastery or actual experience, modeling or observing and reflecting upon others' successful behaviors, verbal persuasion or receiving comments regarding a person's competence, and individuals' attributions of what their physiological states signify about their ability. Researchers have suggested ways to create interventions that use these sources to attempt to raise persons' self-efficacy (e.g. Bandura, 1997; Gist and Mitchell, 1992). Based on a review of that literature, it seems that service-learning projects could augment students' interpersonal communication self-efficacy through oral communication mastery experiences and opportunities to view and emulate positive, similar-to-self models.\nGender as a moderator: Some studies suggest that student characteristics may influence their attitudes and behaviors related to service-learning. In particular, research has acknowledged that females may respond differently than males in service-learning projects. This includes being more predisposed toward getting involved in service, having a greater desire to help children, and believing service-learning experiences increase their attractiveness as a job candidate (Astin and Sax, 1998; McCarthy and Tucker, 1999). Also, for women, helping others, addressing community issues and \"volunteering\" are socially acceptable and rewarded behaviors. Thus, Davila and Mora (2007) found that female students tend to be more civically engaged than males having performed more volunteer work in the preceding five years. This familiarity may assist women in taking fuller advantage of a subsequent service-learning experience.\nMethods: Sample, measures and design\nResults: To ascertain pre-treatment similarity between students in the control and intervention groups, each of the Time-1 variables was regressed on the treatment. None of the coefficients were significant, which demonstrates the similarity of the control and intervention groups at the beginning of the semester. Next, to test for any differences among classes, an ANOVA of the Time-2 variables was run among the three classes within each condition. Again, none of the differences was significant; therefore, any end-of-study differences were not due to any \"class effect.\" The descriptive statistics, reliabilities and intercorrelations among the study variables are reported in Table II. The main effect hypotheses were tested using intercorrelations between the service-learning intervention and the dependent variables and effect-size calculations. The moderator hypothesis was tested through hierarchical moderated multiple regression (Evans, 1991). To interpret the interactions, the independent variables were centered using their means before calculating the interaction term (Stone, 1988); and the illustrative figures were created by analyzing students high and low (+-1SD) on the proposed moderator (Aiken and West, 1991).\nDiscussion: This section highlights some of the pedagogical and practical contributions and implications of the present study, along with limitations and directions for related future research. As outlined above, the majority of previous service-learning articles have been exploratory anecdotal accounts of the benefits of service-learning projects. Thus, one of the primary contributions of the present paper is adding to the relatively small empirical literature testing potential student benefit outcomes from service-learning. Specifically, it tested the broader generalizability of multiple kinds of service-learning projects, the impact on important previously untested oral communication constructs (oral communication domain self-efficacy, and interpersonal communication self-efficacy and competence) and the moderating effect of gender.\nConclusion: Researchers have suggested that to successfully build students' level of efficacy, faculty need to do more than just provide encouragement (Tucker and McCarthy, 2001). In fact, in his treatise on self-efficacy theory, Bandura (1997) indicated that educators need to design course components in ways that raise students' confidence and bring success. The results of the present experiment showed that service-learning projects can be such a pedagogical tool. Through the experience of service-learning, the students in this study used creativity, planning, organizing, group interaction and problem-solving to complete some wonderful projects. Students benefitted through increased oral communication self-efficacy; and female students also benefited through increased confidence and competence in interpersonal communication. All then, became better prepared for the job market, and received a great feeling from having done something meaningful for others.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test whether engaging in course service-learning projects can impact interpersonal oral communication confidence and skill development beyond that of traditional course research projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three sections of a university management course were randomly assigned to have a service-learning team project, while the other three retained the traditional research team project. All projects were student-generated. Survey data were collected at the beginning of the semester and at the end four months later.\nFindings: Results indicated that service-learning produces greater oral communication self-efficacy. For female students, service-learning projects also increased their interpersonal communication self-efficacy and interpersonal communication competence (but not for males).\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample was limited to students in a management course, service-learning projects were only completed by groups and the study did not examine outcomes beyond four months. Future research could examine outcomes from projects by individuals, and examine what service-learning components create differing results between men and women.\nPractical implications: Oral communication confidence can be bolstered through service-learning. Benefits may depend upon participant characteristics (like gender). Inasmuch as different service-learning projects positively impacted oral communication, students can be given flexibility in the kinds of projects they undertake.\nOriginality/value: This study answered the widespread calls for empirical data to support the claims of service-learning as a beneficial pedagogical tool. The experimental and measurement design overcame the limitations of some previous research. In addition, the study examined the crucial skill area of interpersonal oral communication.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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