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Effects of individual and job characteristics on hotel contact employees' work engagement and their performance outcomes: A case study from Poland
|
[
"Work engagement",
"Job performance",
"Polychronicity",
"Affectivity",
"Task significance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Due to their boundary-spanning roles, frontline employees differ from others in an organization (Karatepe et al., 2012), and their management determines the service quality and customer satisfaction and loyalty (Kusluvan et al., 2010). The quality of their performance is highly expected in the hospitality workplace (Karatepe, 2015b). It is underlined that \"engaged and well performing employees (...) become a key element in maintaining service excellence\" (Li et al., 2012, p. 1059).\nLiterature review: As a motivational construct, work engagement (W_E) can be defined as both positive and fulfilling state of mind related to work, characterized by dedication, vigor and absorption (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004). Dedicated individuals engage in their work with pride and enthusiasm (Chen and Chen, 2012) and they experience a sense of significance, inspiration and challenge (Bakker and Demerouti, 2009; Salanova et al., 2005; Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004). Vigor refers to their energy and mental resilience during work (Bakker and Demerouti, 2009). Finally, absorbed individuals are strongly concentrated and happily engrossed in their work (Chen and Chen, 2012; Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004).\nResearch method: The Pomeranian Voivodeship as the study setting\nResults: Measurement model\nDiscussion: Conclusions\nLimitation and future research: As many prior studies, this study also has limitations, some of which could be treated as basis for future research. Firstly, collection of the data only from selected hotels in Northern Poland prevents generalization of the study results. Thus, it would be worth replicating it with both larger samples and in different hospitality settings. Secondly, this study used cross-sectional data, hence causality cannot be determined (Karatepe, 2013a). Therefore, using longitudinal data might allow drawing more definitive conclusions in future research (Karatepe and Uludag, 2008). Thirdly, because the study data were collected through self-report questionnaires, CMB could potentially affect the empirical findings (Chen et al., 2014). Although owing to the taken measures, CMB was not problematic here, using multiple sources of data (Karatepe and Uludag, 2008) and collecting them with time lag is recommended in future studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of individual and job-related characteristics on employees' work engagement and its influence on their performance outcomes. This study develops and tests the research model where the impact of positive affectivity, polychronicity and task significance on employees' work engagement is investigated, and its consequences for employees' job performance are analyzed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The relationships between study constructs were tested using the structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 222 hotel contact employees from the Pomeranian Voivodeship, a tourist destination of northern Poland.\nFindings: The study findings confirmed that positive affectivity and polychronicity, as personality characteristics and task significance as a job characteristic exert a significant and positive impact on hotel employees' work engagement, which in turn enhances the level of their job performance. Additionally, polychronicity was significantly related to hotel employees' job performance. Of all the analyzed predictors, task significance appeared to be the strongest driver of hotel employees' work engagement. A direct relationship between polychronicity and hotel employees' job performance was also confirmed by this study.\nPractical implications: Hotel organizations are recommended to modify the standards of their recruitment and selection process and incorporate additional techniques to be more successful in hiring employees with an adequate personality profile (high in positive affectivity and polychronic tendency). The recruited suitable candidates should be guided effectively with appropriate human resource management practices, especially those that increase hotel employees' experience of work meaningfulness. Therefore, they should be constantly assured, through a variety of management actions, about the influence and importance of their roles and the contribution to the service and organizational success.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between personality and job characteristics among frontline hotel employees, extending the study results to the context of East-Central Europe, where, to the best of the author's knowledge, studies on simultaneous effects of individual and job-related factors on hotel employees' work engagement and its behavioral consequences are still limited.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Glass ceilings, glass cliffs or new worlds? Revisiting gender and accounting
|
[
"Accountancy",
"Gender",
"Sexual discrimination"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The catalyst for this special issue of Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal was our reaction to a conference paper using gender-as-a-variable. This paper purported to show that there was now no gender gap in remuneration, but that differences were the result of the fact that women tended to work in smaller companies where the salaries for men and women alike were less. Our reaction to this was mixed. The paper raised more questions than it answered, not least as to why women are located predominantly in this sector of the economy. Instead of moving forward, this paper suggested we are simply revisiting previous concerns:1. Why had we not moved on?2. Why had the ground-breaking work that had appeared in the literature earlier, for example in the special issue of Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal in 1992, not been built on and replicated?3. Why was the matter of gender still seen as a sub-area and not an issue to be integrated into our everyday work?4. How was it that accounting researchers were still able to examine fundamental questions in the discipline without at least asking themselves if and how gender might impact upon both the questions they were asking and the understandings they were seeking?5. How was it that accounting researchers were still able to examine fundamental questions in the discipline without at least asking themselves if and how gender might impact upon both the questions they were asking and the understandings they were seeking?These lacunae in the literature and an emphasis in the work being undertaken on gender-as-a-variable, led us to pursue this further. This is the reason for this special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to set out some contextual issues in relation to the achievements of women accountants and academics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is a discussion paper that uses academic and professional experiences as a basis from which to draw out an agenda for further study.\nFindings: - It is found that, despite changes over the last 30 years, the lived experience of women in accounting and academia is evidence that their academic and professional opportunities are still constrained. Two papers in this special issue offer feminist approaches to enrich study in the area, and it is argued that gender is an element that should be embedded in research in accounting.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This editorial is a selective review and is not intended as a comprehensive review of research in the field.\nPractical implications: - The paper seeks to re-ignite more research in the field, using a richer range of approaches.\nOriginality/value: - The paper sets an agenda for research and provides an argument as to why the agenda needs to be pursued.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Manufacturer-supplier relationships and service performance in service triads
|
[
"Abductive case study",
"Service performance",
"Relationship influences",
"Service triads"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In Business-to-Business (B2B) settings, a manufacturer adopting a service-based business model (e.g. servitization - Baines et al., 2009) often assigns service delivery to suppliers (e.g. Cohen et al., 2006; Van der Valk and van Iwaarden, 2011). Thus, the manufacturer, its customer, and the service supplier become interlinked. Each actor has direct contact with the other two, forming a service triad (Wynstra et al., 2015). In such structural arrangements, an actor can influence (and be influenced by) the relationship between the other two actors (e.g. Choi and Wu, 2009). An implication of this interdependence is that the supplier, with its service performance toward the customers, can affect customer satisfaction, and consequently, the manufacturer-customer relationship and customer loyalty (Li and Choi, 2009). Hence, ensuring that the supplier performs to desired standards becomes an issue of importance to the manufacturer (Pawar et al., 2009).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Service performance and the influence of inter-firm relationships\n3. Methodology: To address the objectives of this study, an abductive case-research approach was adopted. Case studies are appropriate when the environment under study is complex, such as when the boundaries between the phenomenon of interest and the context are unclear (Hartley, 2004). By documenting practices and behaviors, and the meanings that participants ascribe to them (Voss et al., 2002), case studies can also help the researcher to provide an in-depth understanding of the nature and inherent complexity of the phenomenon. The rationale for adopting an abductive approach is that it allows the researcher to cycle between theory and empirical data through \"systematic combining\" (cf. Dubois and Gadde, 2002). In that way, the research was neither constrained by theory, nor overwhelmed by data without an initial lens through which to view the data. Abduction allows one to anchor his or her findings to an initial theory that is then developed - and possibly extended - through each round of data collection and analysis (Kovacs and Spens, 2005). Theory development and data collection and analysis are therefore symbiotically linked.\n4. Findings: 4.1 Within- and cross-case analysis\n5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Theoretical contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the manufacturer-supplier relationship in service performance within service triads.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An abductive case-research approach was adopted, using three embedded cases and 26 interviews in complex, multilevel manufacturer-supplier relationships within the same service network. Cannon and Perreault's (1999) multidimensional relationship framework was deployed to achieve granular and nuanced insight.\nFindings: This study corroborates the idea that relational relationships within service triads and servitization improve performance. The role of each relationship dimension in service performance is discerned and their interplay is captured in an analytic model. Information exchange, supplier relationship-specific adaptations, and the degree of formalization of the relationship directly influence performance, while cooperative norms and operational linkages are further back in the causal ordering. The study also highlights the importance of contingent factors (the size of the service site, the proportion of its revenues coming from service contract activities) and how they affect the relationship dimensions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The work was conducted in one network and the findings were generalized to theory rather than additional empirical settings.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to derive a contextualized causal ordering of the Cannon and Perreault (1999) framework of relationship connectors and link it with service performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Members of the Scottish Parliament on Twitter: good constituency men (and women)?
|
[
"Internet",
"Social media",
"Twitter",
"Constituency service",
"Information provision",
"Members of the Scottish Parliament"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: When the Scottish Parliament[1] was being established in the late-1990s, an expert panel on Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) recommended that the parliament should focus upon the contribution that new technologies might make in enabling greater openness and transparency and in assisting the democratic process. The panel believed that the Scottish Parliament should \"aspire to be an example of best practice in parliamentary information systems, both in terms of external communications and internal efficiency\" (Consultative Steering Group on the Scottish Parliament, 1998, section 3.6, para. 21). During the first two sessions of the Scottish Parliament (i.e. 1999-2003 and 2003-2007), studies of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) found that they were \"intensive and competent users\" of ICTs (Smith and Webster, 2004), and that ICTs had \"become a cultural norm of contemporary parliamentary life\", where MSPs and their assistants used them constantly in order to fulfil their legislative, oversight and representative roles (Smith and Webster, 2008). Smith and Webster's studies took place before the emergence of Facebook and Twitter; but the potential value of these social media as information provision and communication tools has since become recognised within the Scottish Parliament, where it is acknowledged that they \"can increase the accessibility of MSPs and offer new ways in which to engage constituents, stakeholders and the wider public\" (Scottish Parliament Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, 2012).\nLiterature review: The constituency role of the parliamentarian in Britain\nMethodology: In order to enable a meaningful comparison, this research was conducted along similar lines to those of the authors' previous analysis (Baxter and Marcella, 2013a) of Scottish parliamentary candidates' Twitter use. The existence of MSPs' Twitter accounts was established largely by examining the Current MSPs pages of the Scottish Parliament website (www.scottish.parliament.uk), which generally provide links to members' personal websites and social media sites. To ensure comprehensiveness, searches were also conducted on Google and on Twitter's search engine. With these approaches, it was established that 105 (81.4 per cent) of the 129 sitting MSPs[5] had an active Twitter account.\nResearch results: Extent of MSPs' Twitter use\nConclusions and further research: This paper has examined the use of Twitter by MSPs during a four-week period in early-2014: a period that might normally be regarded as \"peacetime\", but which also occurred during the Scottish independence referendum \"long campaign\". The study discussed here sought to explore MSPs' Twitter use from a constituency service perspective, and to establish if the nature and extent of their Twitter use differed from that identified when they were parliamentary candidates in 2011.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of Twitter by Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) for the provision of constituency-related information, or in support of their constituency service work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Content analysis of 10,411 tweets sent by the 105 MSPs on Twitter during four weeks in early-2014.\nFindings: While there was some evidence of MSPs on Twitter acting as a promoter of local community interests and as a conduit for information on local policy issues and events, their tweets were dominated by the wider, national, political agenda and by the Scottish independence debate. Compared with their online behaviour as parliamentary candidates three years earlier, MSPs placed an even greater emphasis on the one-way broadcast of information to their followers. They were reluctant to respond to contentious local policy questions, or to enter into any visible, meaningful, political debate with their constituents.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the research was conducted seven months before the Scottish independence referendum on 18 September 2014, the independence debate still dominated proceedings on Twitter. It might, therefore, be appropriate to revisit MSPs' use of Twitter at some point during a truer \"peacetime\" period.\nOriginality/value: This is the first systematic content analysis of tweets sent by all MSPs on Twitter. It allows the authors to compare their actual Twitter use with that envisaged by the Scottish Parliament, as a way of MSPs communicating about their work and engaging with their constituents.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Benchmarking of hospital activity data: an international comparison
|
[
"Health services",
"Hospitals",
"Benchmarking",
"New Zealand",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is becoming increasingly common for hospitals to wish to benchmark their activity, not only with similar institutions within their own country, but also across national boundaries. This is true of both large and small institutions. A large tertiary institution in Sydney may face a case mix that deals with a smaller number of highly complex areas, and may find that it has more in common with teaching institutions in London, Auckland or Toronto than with its neighbours in the same state or country. Smaller institutions may wish to benchmark with organizations in other countries that service similar economic groups or have expertise in particular areas - for example indigenous health.There are clearly large barriers to doing such international comparisons, however. As Pollitt et al. (1994) note:... the problem is that unless inputs can be controlled for or standardized in some way, the logical basis for comparing the performance of one organization against the benchmarked outputs of another is flawed.Within the health care sector there will be issues around the coding systems used, the methods of coding and use of case notes, differences in information systems - in short, the problem of whether we are comparing like with like. The aim of this study was to see whether such barriers could be overcome and to examine the feasibility of doing such comparisons. To look at this, a study was carried out which sought to compare activity from a New Zealand Hospital with a peer group of similar hospitals in the UK. It is hoped that this work will allow further studies to take place that would allow robust comparisons to be made internationally. Having said that, it should be noted that this exercise was a preliminary exercise to investigate the key problems that would be encountered. Any results given are tentative and are subject to further work being carried out.\nBenchmarking in health care: Benchmarking is now a commonly accepted practice within the health care sector. The majority of studies and investigations concentrate on comparing the activities of the providers of health care (for example clinicians, departments or hospitals). Less emphasis has been placed on benchmarking of funders of care (such as Health Boards), and such studies normally use provider performance as a proxy for purchaser performance (see Press, 1996, for a discussion of some of these issues).The benchmarking of health care providers can be done for a variety of reasons:* To compare practice that will ultimately lead to \"best practice\" guidelines being developed that can then be adopted as a standard across different organisations.* To look at specific issues of performance. In recent years there has been a number of studies looking at the incidence of adverse events or medical error within hospitals (see, for example, Weingart et al., 2000; Davis et al., 2001).* To give consumers of health care information on the effectiveness of different hospitals or even individual physicians. This has been done for a number of years in the US and such \"league tables\" are now more popular in the UK, although as Jacobsen et al. (2003) point out, they need to be interpreted with care. In particular, the wide context within which the care is provided needs to be considered and the degree of severity of the case mix needs to be taken into account.This last point is particularly important. Benchmarking within health care should be seen as indicating areas that may be looked at in further detail. The benchmarking is not the end of the story, merely the beginning.\nMethodology: In most Western countries, large amounts of data are collected on the characteristics of a patient's stay in hospital. In New Zealand, hospital activity data are routinely collected by the New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS). Inpatient data sets based on a National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) are submitted by each hospital (both public and private) for each publicly funded inpatient hospital discharge. Each dataset contains fields containing diagnostic and procedure information, and administrative and demographic information. The data also contains a single unique identifier - the National Health Index (NHI). The NMDS is used for a variety of purposes, including a hospital benchmarking programme run by NZHIS, policy formation, performance monitoring, research and review. It provides statistical information, reports and analyses about the trends in the delivery of hospital inpatient and day patient health services, both nationally and on a provider basis. It is also used for funding purposes.Within the UK a common minimum dataset (CMDS) is collected for each finished consultant episode (FCE). As with the NMDS in New Zealand, the CMDS contains a variety of information related to the patient stay, including diagnostic and procedure information. An FCE relates to the time spent under the care of a named single consultant, and it is possible that within an individual's stay in hospital that the person may come under the care of a number of different consultants and thus accumulate a number of FCEs. In New Zealand this would be still counted as a single discharge. This dataset contains similar information to that collected within the New Zealand dataset. CHKS Ltd is a commercial organisation that collects minimum dataset information from 140 hospitals across the UK. Individual patient identifiers are removed from the CMDS prior to CHKS receiving data from individual hospitals.For the purposes of this study data from a single New Zealand hospital (chosen randomly) were compared at an aggregate level to a peer group of hospitals from the United Kingdom that showed similar a case mix. A total of 8,494 discharges from a single hospital in New Zealand were compared against a peer group of 492,368 FCEs from the UK. The New Zealand Hospital that was included in the study was a tertiary hospital, and as such had a more complex case mix than that of other secondary hospitals in New Zealand.There were immediate problems encountered within the comparison, which related to different conventions within the two countries. New Zealand diagnosis codes were coded using ICD-10-AM (International Classification of Diseases Version 10, Australian Modification, 2nd edition), while the UK records used ICD 10. Procedures in New Zealand were coded using MBS-E (Medicare Benefits Schedule for Fees - Extended). UK procedures are coded using OPCS 4 (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys release 4) procedure codes. For the purposes of this study, all procedure codes were mapped to ICD9 CM to ensure consistency. Because of the different coding systems used, a large number of the diagnosis and procedure codes from New Zealand were rejected as invalid. This reduced the number of discharges that could be used within the comparisons.A further problem was with the definition of day cases that was used. The appropriate comparison to make across the two countries would be a \"day case\" in the United Kingdom and an \"intended day case\" in New Zealand. In both countries the intent of a day case is that it is a length of stay of less than one day that is planned in advance. If a patient enters hospital as an inpatient and does not have an overnight stay, then that patient is counted as a zero length of stay. Unfortunately the coding system used was not able to differentiate for the New Zealand data, and so all New Zealand day cases were counted as zero length of stay cases. For this reason it has not been possible to compare day case activity across the two countries.Despite these problems it was possible to continue with the analysis, and some of the results are given below. It should be noted when considering these results that the data from New Zealand were drawn from a single hospital while those from the UK peer group were drawn from a variety of hospitals across the UK.\nResults: This section summarises some of the key results that came out of the comparison.Hospital-level results\nConclusions: It was the intent of this study to look at the feasibility of carrying out international benchmarking at a hospital level. The study has shown that there are considerable barriers to carrying out such work, in particular:* different classification systems require mapping to be undertaken;* different definitions of patient events need to be reconciled;* ensuring similarity of case mix across comparative hospitals; and* matching benchmarking practice (i.e. ensuring that the underlying philosophy of the benchmarking approaches are aligned).Many of these issues are not insurmountable and would require effort being put into technical processes to ensure like is being compared with like. A larger issue is the degree to which hospitals within different countries can find value within international benchmarking. It is our belief that cross-country comparisons are valuable, particularly in light of the increasing complexity of work being carried out and the opportunity such benchmarking offers to compare performance. It would be particularly interesting in this instance to further investigate the lower lengths of stay coupled with the higher levels of severity found in New Zealand, as well as coding differences that exist between the two countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of the study is to examine the feasibility of comparing hospitals internationally and to highlight some of the barriers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Comparative analysis of anonymised patient-level data from hospitals in New Zealand and the UK.\nFindings: - Comparisons were made of aggregate statistics. For example, it was found that average length of stay and death rates in New Zealand were lower than in the UK, although average severity was higher. Adverse reactions were higher in the New Zealand sample than in that of the UK.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There were data limitations associated with different coding conventions in the two countries. There may also be different coding conventions used when classifying data. The research attempted to correct for this, but some may remain.\nOriginality/value: - There are few cross-national comparisons of hospital performance. This paper shows that such analysis is possible. It is hoped that further effort can be put into addressing some of the data issues described above to further refine the results.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Do real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates' employability skills? Perspectives from multiple stakeholders
|
[
"Employers",
"Real estate",
"Graduates",
"Employability skills",
"Course directors",
"Human resource managers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Graduates' employability has been a major concern for the UK higher education sector for several decades as it is expected to be a major contributor to economic growth and competitiveness. Government reports, such as Robbins (1963), Dearing (1997) and Leitch (2006), have repeatedly highlighted the issues of employability. Browne's Review (2010) also raised concerns on employability and emphasised the importance of university courses preparing graduate students for employment. The report issued a stark warning: \"courses that deliver improved employability will prosper; those that make false promises will disappear\" (Browne, 2010, p. 31). Higher Education Funding Council for England (2011) also commented that \"embedding employability into the core of higher education will continue to be a key priority of Government, universities and colleges, and employers\" (p. 5). Apart from the warning, Lord Browne recommended substantially increased university tuition fees up to PS9,000 per annum from 2012. Degree applicants, therefore, are likely to become more concerned about their employability after graduation because of the larger financial commitment. Similarly, universities should also pay more attention to graduates' employability as it is a major selection criterion for students when choosing a university or course.\n2. Aim of this paper: The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) accredited real estate courses in the UK equip real estate graduates with sufficient, relevant employability skills to embark on a career in the profession. The employability skills identified in this paper are knowledge, skills and attributes, similar to the approaches taken in the existing literature such as (CBI, 2010; HEA et al., 2012; McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005; Rae, 2007; Ward, 2006; Yorke and Knight, 2006). The RICS-accredited courses are vocational professional qualifications. The usual career path for a graduate of a RICS-accredited course is to become a chartered surveyor. In other words, they usually have a clear career focus.\n3. Employability skills for real estate graduates: Several research studies have investigated the employability - that is, knowledge, skills and attributes - of real estate graduates across the world over the last two decades. There has also been no lack of studies indicating the need to re-evaluate the course curriculum, acknowledge the stakeholders' concerns and incorporate improvements in order to equip the graduates to become more able to address the needs of the industry.\n4. Research methods: A mixed research approach was adopted for this study. It involved data collection using questionnaire surveys completed by real estate employers and recent graduates of real estate courses, as well as interviews with course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses, and with human resource managers in major real estate surveying firms.\n5. Research findings: 5.1 Real estate employers' and graduates' views on the development of the required graduates employability skills\n6. Discussion of findings: The four stakeholders identified, namely, the employers, real estate graduates, human resource managers and RICS-accredited real estate course directors, have different views on the extent to which real estate courses equip graduates with the necessary employability skills. The employers and the graduates tend to think that the real estate courses are not sufficiently equipping graduates with employability skills, as reflected in the low mean values (see Section 4.1). This issue can be addressed, however, if the employers and universities interact better (see Pine et al., 1995). For example, the employers could serve on Advisory Boards and as external examiners for university real estate courses, in order to have input into course development and curriculum enhancement.\n7. Conclusion: This research has identified 72 employability skills required by real estate graduates. They are categorized into 31 knowledge areas, 20 skills and 21 attributes. This paper also investigated four stakeholders' views, that is, the employers', human resource managers', course directors' and graduates' views, on whether the UK RICS-accredited real estate courses equip graduates' sufficiently well with the appropriate employability skills.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited real estate courses in the UK have equipped real estate graduates with sufficient relevant employability skills to embark on a career in the profession. This paper considers the perspectives of four stakeholders - employers, human resource managers, graduates and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses - in the UK.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The results of a mixed-methods study, involving two online surveys with real estate employers and recent graduates of RICS-accredited real estate courses, and two sets of interviews with human resource managers of real estate surveying firms and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses, are presented.\nFindings: The employers and graduates of the RICS-accredited real estate courses do not think the courses sufficiently equip graduates' with employability skills. On the other hand, the human resource managers are very impressed with graduates' technical skills but have concerns about their soft skills and attributes. Human resource managers and course directors of RICS real estate courses commented that commercial awareness is an important employability skill but graduates are not well developed in this area. Course directors also noted that practical experience is vital to employability, commenting that students can only obtain real-life practical experience if employers offer them opportunities.\nOriginality/value: This paper makes an original contribution to the existing literature on employability skills for real estate graduates. It describes pioneering research considering the perspectives of four types of stakeholders and evaluates whether real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates' employability skills.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Brand trust and brand extension acceptance: the relationship
|
[
"Brands",
"Trust",
"Brand extensions",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: Brand extensions, \"the stretch of the established franchise to a different product class\" (Aaker and Keller, 1990) have become an increasingly popular way of gaining growth (Springen and Miller, 1990). Brand extensions, delineated from \"line extensions\", which tend to offer modifications to existing products or services in the same product class (e.g. flavour, size), are typified by examples (Webster, 2000) such as Calvin Klein (from jeans to dishes and bed sheets); Starbucks (from coffee to ice-cream and CDs); and Ralph Lauren (from clothing to glasses and house-paint).Although, intuitively, brand trust seems, to the researcher, a logical influence on the evaluation and usage of brand extension activities, particularly where there is an increased level of risk associated with a purchase (Jacoby and Kaplan, 1972; Selnes, 1998), and while a large amount of academic research, seeking to isolate the key components of successful brand extension, has taken place over the last 10-15 years, as yet, only indirect or partial linkages have been made between brand trust and brand extension (Keller and Aaker, 1992; McWilliam, 1993; Hem et al., 2000; Smith and Andrews, 1995).The structure of this paper is as follows. First, we discuss brand extension and various prior, validated, influences on its success. Next, we discuss the construct of trust, the various contexts in which it has been emphasised, and consider any actual or perceived linkages in the two literature bodies. Next, we develop the hypotheses about the relationship of brand trust with brand extension acceptance. Then, we describe the research methodology and test our hypotheses on data collected from consumers in the UK. Finally, we discuss the limitations of our research and the implications of our findings.\nBrand extension literature: Given the large literature on brand extension success factors, and as an aid to review, these various components are grouped as:* parent brand characteristics;* brand extension characteristics; and* consumer characteristics.Parent brand characteristics\nTrust: The trust construct is variously defined as: \"a generalised expectancy held by an individual that the word of another can be relied on\" (Rotter, 1967); \"the extent to which a person is confident in, and willing to act on the basis of the words, actions, decisions of others\" (McAllister, 1995); and, uniquely in the consumer domain, \"the willingness of the average consumer to rely on the ability of the brand to perform its stated function\" (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001). Seen as multidimensional in the majority of marketing studies (Raimondo, 2000), trust is reported to be: involved, as part of \"brand credibility\", in brand extension acceptance (Keller and Aaker, 1992); fundamental to the development of loyalty (Berry, 1993; Reicheld and Schefter, 2000); as critical in maintaining successful agency-client relationships (Labahn and Kohli, 1997); as a component of brand equity (Dyson et al., 1996); and as essential in building strong customer relationships on the internet (Urban et al., 2000), and \"perhaps the single most powerful relationship marketing tool available to a company\" (Berry, 1995). There is, generally, a paucity of trust-related research in the consumer domain, although several recent publications focus on the consumer's \"relationship\" with brands (e.g. Aaker, 1997; Fournier, 1998), and some, as yet rare, studies consider the dimensionality of consumer-brand trust (e.g. Fletcher and Peters, 1997; Sirdeshmukh et al., 2002). On these rare occasions the correlates of brand trust tend, in the main, to be regarded as two dimensional, and Reast (2003) for example, provides more support, via factor analysis, for a two component, cognitive and conative, model of the correlates of brand trust, founded on \"credibility\" and \"performance satisfaction\", the model having strong explanatory power, with an adjusted R2 of 0.670 (see Figure 1).\nPerceived linkage between trust and brand extension: While the brand extension literature makes little mention of brand trust, there are, however, a few direct or implied exceptions. In a consumer context, Keller and Aaker (1992), using fictitious brands, report a significant association between \"company credibility\" (via its \"expertise\" and its \"brand trustworthiness\") and brand extension acceptance.Keller and Aaker (1992), conducting laboratory-based experiments with fictitious brands within the potato chip (crisp) category (\"Crane's\" and \"Medallion\") in order to evaluate the impact of the perceived quality of the core brand, and the number, success and similarity of intervening brand extensions, on the evaluations of proposed new extensions, also evaluate the impact of brand breadth and credibility of the brand on extension evaluation. The researchers operationalise credibility as the average of the \"perceived expertise\" and the \"perceived trustworthiness\" of the company/brand providing the extension. Keller and Aaker (1992) state that:... in particular, a company will appear more expert and trustworthy if it already has successfully introduced new products or brand extensions.The findings of the Keller and Aaker (1992) study are summarised as: high quality brands stretch further than average quality brands; successful intervening extensions improve evaluation of a proposed extension for average quality brands; and perceived company credibility (expertise and trustworthy status) and fit appear to mediate effects of intervening extensions on evaluations of a proposed extension. It is interesting to note that the authors find more support for the \"company credibility\" dependent variable than \"fit\" variable within the experimental setting used. In support of Keller and Aaker (1992), McWilliam (1993) finds that, in the view of marketing practitioners, consumers are willing to try brand extensions, as long as the brands are highly trusted and regarded, and the explanations are sufficiently plausible, and Hem et al. (2000), report that consumer knowledge of and \"belief in strong brands\", when evaluating brand extensions, may compensate for a consumer's lack of direct product knowledge. \"Belief in\" these strong brands appears to overlap closely with the many definitions of trust. Also, Reast (2003) conducting UK research on real and fictitious brands within low involvement products and services categories, finds that brands with higher trust ratings tended to have significantly higher brand extension ratings for line, related and unrelated extension concepts, relative to same category lower trust rated rivals. Smith and Andrews (1995), in a business to business context, find that the relationship between \"fit\"; and brand extension evaluation is mediated by \"customer certainty\", or, \"belief in\" a company's ability to deliver a product that meets his/her expectations, and Selnes (1998) notes the importance of trust in reducing perceived risk and thereby facilitating \"relationship enhancement\" in buyer-seller interactions. On the basis of the prior research, we hypothesise that:H1. Brand trust, measured via two correlate dimensions, \"credibility\" and \"performance satisfaction\" will be significantly and positively associated with measures of brand extension acceptance.\nMethodology: Sample and data collection\nResults: Two brand trust correlate components and brand extension response\nDiscussion: Association levels between the prior validated two component model of brand trust and brand extension response measures are found to be moderate, but significant, and stronger than those produced by the single item perceived \"quality level\" of the parent brand (Keller and Aaker, 1992). Analyses by brand extension relatedness shows that the association levels stay relatively stable for close in line extensions and moderately disparate brand extension, but fall to very low (but significant) levels for wholly unrelated brand extensions. The results, which provide an overall adjusted R2 of 0.140 (p < 0.001) for the \"Likely to try\" response (Ext. 1+2+3 aggregated), and an adjusted R2 of 0.251 (p < 0.001) for the \"Trust to provide\" brand extension (Ext. 1+2+3 aggregated), show moderate but significant associations between the variables in what is a complex field, with many competing variables. The association levels for the TTP variable are higher than for the LTT variable, since respondents were merely being asked about whether the brand could be reasonably trusted to provide such a product/service, rather than whether they personally would try the extension. The LTT dependent variable appears to place more emphasis on \"Performance satisfaction\" as a predictor variable, whereas TTP places equal emphasis on both independent variables.While the association levels might be seen, by some, as weak, they need to be put into the context of a complex situation with many variables, such as perceived \"quality level\" of parent, exerting influence upon the brand extension evaluation. In a similar but unrelated vein, Pincott (2002), of Millward Brown, recently analysed, based on a sample of 100 brands over a three-year period, the association level between media weight (raw GRPs) and brand share, finding an association level (R2) of only 0.05, this increasing to an R2 of only 0.20 where \"share of voice\" is used as the measure of GRPs. The author does not claim, here, to present the single most important variable within the brand extension evaluation arena, but claim to provide support for an additional variable, brand trust, of which brand owners should be aware. Figure 2 depicts the integration of brand trust with some of the key brand extension \"success\" variables from the literature.\nManagerial implications: The results of this study are of relevance to managers involved in developing brand strategy, since brand trust levels are associated in past academic studies with brand equity, brand loyalty, and now with brand extension acceptance. The results suggest that brands with higher trust profiles will benefit in brand extension strategies relative to less trusted rivals. In an environment in which new product launch failures can be as high as 42 per cent (Barclay and Benson, 1990), and as many as eight out of ten new product launches undrtaken via brand extension strategies (Ourusoff et al., 1992), it should be reassuring to brand owners that investments in brands and the consumer-brand \"relationship\", securing higher trust ratings, should, subject to other criteria being met, deliver a future pay-off in the ability to leverage the brand name in new categories. Having considered the broad relevance of this study to practitioners, and in an effort to provide practitioners with an insight into the variables relevant to brand trust development, attention is now drawn to the two correlate dimensions of brand trust:1. credibility; and2. performance satisfaction.Emphasis is placed here on the correlate dimensions since while trust levels have been measured by many brand-owners for many years, this has generally been a unidimensional single item measure of brand trust and not a multidimensional measure as depicted here.Credibility reflects the honesty and standing of the brand in terms of product or service claims delivered in advertising, packaging, or other forms of brand communication, including personal interaction. The dimension also reflects the extent to which a brand is perceived to be sincere and fair in its dealings with its customers, showing concern for its customers, and the extent to which the values portrayed or perceived regarding the brand (and brand owner) reflect those of the customer. These variables are seen to relate to the credibility of the brand in terms of its good (or poor) character, but the dimension also includes other category-based credibility measures such as the extent to which the brand is believed to be \"competent\" or \"expert\" in its field. Reputation is clearly a key element within this dimension.Performance satisfaction reflects many variables concerned with the \"delivery\" of the product or service. The extent to which quality is consistent and meets expectations, and the extent to which the brand is dependable or can be \"relied on\". The dimension also revolves around the extent to which customers have had (or consider that they are likely to have) satisfactory experiences with the brand. These perceptions regarding satisfaction may come from the customer's personal experience, the experiences of \"trusted others\" (Doney and Cannon, 1997), and the extent to which customers consider that their expectations concerning the brand and its products and services have been fulfilled. This dimension is testimony to the powerful influence exerted on brand trust by word of mouth communication, and also the need to manage customer expectations so as to avoid disappointment with product or service delivery.\nLimitations and future research directions: While this research extends the literature on brand extension and trust, since prior studies have typically utilised fictitious brands, a potential limitation of this study is the selection of low involvement, low risk, low complexity goods and service categories, to gain high brand familiarity among potential respondents. Since trust is associated with risk reduction in decision making (Selnes, 1998), the role and nature of trust and its correlates may be different in higher involvement, high risk/complexity goods and services, and the widening of brand trust research into other product/service categories is recommended.The research, conducted among 368 northern UK consumers, may be subject to cultural influence (Harris and Dibben, 1999) and thus the study of brand trust in other countries and cultures is an obvious future direction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This UK-based research aims to build on the US-based work of Keller and Aaker, which found a significant association between \"company credibility\" (via a brand's \"expertise\" and \"trustworthiness\") and brand extension acceptance, hypothesising that brand trust, measured via two correlate dimensions, is significantly related to brand extension acceptance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Discusses brand extension and various prior, validated influences on its success. Focuses on the construct of trust and develops hypotheses about the relationship of brand trust with brand extension acceptance. The hypotheses are then tested on data collected from consumers in the UK.\nFindings: - This paper, using 368 consumer responses to nine, real, low involvement UK product and service brands, finds support for a significant association between the variables, comparable in strength with that between media weight and brand share, and greater than that delivered by the perceived quality level of the parent brand.\nOriginality/value: - The research findings, which develop a sparse literature in this linkage area, are of significance to marketing practitioners, since brand trust, already associated with brand equity and brand loyalty, and now with brand extension, needs to be managed and monitored with care. The paper prompts further investigation of the relationship between brand trust and brand extension acceptance in other geographic markets and with other higher involvement categories.\n",
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Entrepreneurship education in Germany and Sweden: what role do different school systems play?
|
[
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Education",
"Government policy",
"Germany",
"Sweden",
"Schools"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, three main arguments have been advanced in Germany to substantiate the need to promote entrepreneurship: The foremost motivation to promote entrepreneurship is the difficult employment situation (European Commission, 2004a). Many companies respond to the growing competitive pressures either by reducing their workforce or by relocating the business to other parts of the world. Thus, Germany needs new, innovative enterprises that are able to withstand the competitive pressures and create new jobs. Secondly, it is estimated that every third entrepreneur will retire within the next ten years (European Commission, 2002a). At the same time, the number of business transfers within the family is decreasing. If the retiring entrepreneurs fail to find appropriate successors, an estimated 70,900 German enterprises and 680,000 jobs are at risk every year (Freund, 2004). Thus, we need young people with entrepreneurial abilities willing to take over these enterprises. Thirdly, the transition from the industrial to the modern knowledge and information society entails significant changes regarding the structure of the labour market: A business environment which is increasingly marked by flat hierarchies poses new challenges to the workforce requiring them to co-operate across department boundaries and take independent decisions (Boston Consulting Group, 2002). Thus, the German business sector needs employees that display a high degree of entrepreneurial spirit in their workplace and are willing to face these new challenges.Yet despite the efforts to promote entrepreneurship in Germany, up to date both the propensity towards entrepreneurship (i.e. the number of people considering self-employment as an occupational option) and the percentage of people currently involved in a start-up process is considerably lower here than in many other Western countries (European Commission, 2004c)[1]. Furthermore, significant demographic changes are likely to widen the entrepreneurial gap even more in the near future: Eurostat, for example, estimates that the age group most frequently involved in entrepreneurial activities, i.e. people aged 24-34, will be most affected by the general decrease in the population (Eurostat, 2004). By the year 2040 their percentage of the total population will have decreased from 25 to less than 20 per cent. Taking these developments into account it is obvious that serious efforts have to be made in the near future in order to enhance entrepreneurial activity in Germany. In this context the adoption of the \"European agenda for entrepreneurship\" points in the right direction (European Commission, 2004a): The agenda identifies ten important steps (key actions) to be taken towards a more entrepreneurial society, the first of which is headed: \"Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through school education\"[2].Picking up the discussion at this point in this paper we will analyse to what extent compulsory school education in Germany facilitates a more entrepreneurial way of thinking among pupils. In particular, we will focus on the question whether teachers manage to communicate specific contents of entrepreneurship education to their pupils. Our empirical analysis will concentrate on Germany. Yet, for reasons of comparison, we will additionally analyse the situation in Sweden. A comparison with Sweden appears promising because Sweden has considerably intensified its endeavours to foster entrepreneurship education in recent years.The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we will briefly sum up the relevant research literature and specify important components of entrepreneurship education. Section 3 describes the data collection and presents empirical results. Section 4 sums up our results and discusses policy implications.\n2. Brief survey of the literature: Up to today, the lack of an unambiguous, universally accepted definition of the term \"entrepreneurship\" is frequently criticized (Blanchflower and Oswald, 1990). Originally limited to the exercise of an independent business activity, over the centuries a much wider understanding of entrepreneurship has evolved (e.g. Lackner, 2002; Malek and Ibach, 2004). When the term \"entrepreneurship\" was first introduced into an economic context in the seventeenth century, it was associated with risk-taking and own initiative. Over the following centuries, the significance of innovation in an entrepreneurial context has increasingly been emphasized (Schumpeter, 1968). \"Creative destruction\" has come to be associated with entrepreneurial activity, obviously restricting the concept of entrepreneurship to innovative businesses and excluding established companies no longer striving for innovation. Innovative business activity, however, is not necessarily exercised by the business owner alone but is often initiated by employees (\"intrapreneurship\").Thus today, entrepreneurship has come to be perceived as a \"mindset\", a combination of specific entrepreneurial qualities (e.g. Dahlgren, 1999). This approach is independent of the business context and suggests that everybody can think and act in an entrepreneurial way. Accordingly, the European Commission defines entrepreneurship as \"a general attitude that can be usefully applied in all working activities and in everyday life.\" From this definition three main objectives in respect to entrepreneurship education can be derived:1. Encouraging and developing personal enterprise (enterprise education);2. raising people's awareness of and propensity towards self-employment as an occupational option; and3. conveying knowledge about how to start and run a business (European Commission, 2002b; European Commission, 2004b).Unfortunately, the decisive role of compulsory schooling in entrepreneurship education has long been neglected. Until recently it was considered sufficient to provide education in entrepreneurship in universities (especially in the area of Business Administration) or in the form of special courses for people who consider starting their own business. Compulsory education was not thought of as an appropriate platform to convey knowledge about how to start and run a new business. It was argued that most pupils at this stage neither have the maturity nor the experience needed to understand the complexities of business management (Johannisson and Madsen, 2000). Today, the perspective has shifted. Involving compulsory schools into the entrepreneurship education process is seen as an important objective for the following reasons:1. The innate entrepreneurial attitude of younger children must be preserved. Younger children tend to display an entrepreneurial attitude in everything they do - they are usually very creative, straightforward and unconcerned with the potential risks inherent in their actions. It is therefore crucial to encourage entrepreneurial behaviour as early as possible[3].2. Many \"entrepreneurial\" skills and qualities are today considered as key competencies every employee should possess (Eurydice European Unit, 2002). Against this background, general education schools are often criticized for not responding to the changing demands of the economy quickly enough and hence failing to prepare pupils for their professional careers.3. Last but not least, whilst it is neither possible nor desirable to convince all pupils to become self-employed, self-employment should be an occupational option for everybody, irrespective of educational background. Hence, education in entrepreneurship must not be restricted to certain fields of study[4]. Compulsory education must strive to convey as complete a picture of the labour market as possible. Otherwise, brilliant business ideas might remain unexploited just because its \"owner\" never considered self-employment as an occupational option (Hynes, 1998). This is the more important considering that it is mainly persons with merely compulsory education who are forced to found their own business for lack of occupational alternatives (GEM, 2003). Accordingly, the European Commission points out that entrepreneurship education in schools is important and should focus on:* fostering pupils' entrepreneurial qualities;* creating a positive attitude towards self-employment amongst the pupils and raising their awareness of self-employment as an occupational option; and* facilitating early knowledge and contact between school and business world (European Commission, 2002b).Now, before empirically examining the performance of German and Swedish schools with regard to these different objectives, it still must be discussed what exactly is to be understood by entrepreneurial qualities (see Figure 1)[5]. In literature opinions on this matter diverge. It has even been argued that entrepreneurial attitude and behaviour are innate and cannot be fostered through school education. Yet, the prevailing opinion today is that, whilst this might be true for some exceptional individuals, an adequate educational environment can and should encourage an entrepreneurial attitude in young people (Johannisson and Madsen, 2000).According to Dahlgren (1999) the \"lowest common denominator\" is that entrepreneurs have a clear \"vision\" of what they want to achieve in life, that they are willing to implement this vision at any cost (\"volition\") and that they have the necessary knowledge and skills (\"tools\") to do so (see Figure 1). In order to increase the learner's self-confidence, internal locus of control and sense of responsibility he should be given the opportunity to actively participate in the decision-making process whenever possible.Also, the teaching and learning processes should be adapted to each learner's individual needs, strengths and weaknesses. The learner should be encouraged to make independent decisions and be given a lot of freedom in his actions. Beside the obvious benefits of counteracting each learner's individual weaknesses, an individual approach will also conduce to the learner's self-awareness and own initiative. Furthermore, entrepreneurship education is only effective in an environment that challenges the learner to exploit his full potential, regards mistakes as learning opportunities instead of failure, and encourages critical thinking by means of constructive criticism[6]. Not only will this increase the learner's readiness to take risks, it will also raise his awareness of his personal strengths and weaknesses and call upon his creativity. Given the importance of personalizing information in an entrepreneurial context, enterprise education must be practiced in an environment that encourages active forms of learning. Instead of simply ruminating what he has been told, the learner should strive to actively search for new information and understand that learning is, in fact, a lifelong process.It is also strongly recommended to take a holistic approach to enterprise education (e.g. Grant, 1994; Carrier, 2000). In order to foster his creative thinking and flexibility the learner should be encouraged to transfer acquired knowledge and skills to new contexts and to understand how different matters are linked with one another. Networking and communication skills have been identified as important features of entrepreneurial people (Lackner, 2002). Consequently, the educational context should place greater emphasis on interaction with others.\n3. Empirical results: In the following empirical section, the practical implementation of entrepreneurship education in German and Swedish schools will be compared. We will examine whether the working atmosphere as well as the working methods applied in class are in line with the prerequisites for effective enterprise education. Our empirical work is based on a large and unique random sample of 500 German and 500 Swedish pupils in grades seven, eight and nine[7]. The data were collected in an e-mail survey conducted in Swedish and German schools between October and December 2004. In either country, approximately 300 headmasters were contacted and asked to distribute the questionnaires to their pupils. In order to ensure comparability, the survey was restricted to general public schools[8]. In the next section we will start our analysis by comparing the extent to which the German and Swedish school systems respectively boost the decision making process and individualization.3.1 Decision-making process and individualization\n4. Conclusion and policy implications: The results presented clearly suggest that schools do not succeed very well in presenting self-employment as an attractive alternative to dependent work. In its Agenda for Entrepreneurship the European Commission calls upon the member states to take a holistic approach towards entrepreneurship education, e.g. by explicitly integrating enterprise education into their school curricula. Unfortunately, the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) rejected this request saying that educational matters fall into the responsibility of the federal states[11].Yet, in the wake of the increasing attention given to entrepreneurship education in recent years, several promising programmes aiming at encouraging an entrepreneurial attitude amongst the pupils have been set up both at national level and in the federal states[12]. In Sweden, the government recently passed a National Programme for Entrepreneurship which is to complement and support the numerous regional and local initiatives in the country[13]. A serious problem in both countries is that interaction between and information about the different initiatives is often insufficient. Even if different organizations have now begun to bundle the information and make it available on their websites, the initiators of the different programmes should increase their efforts to spread information about their work.Furthermore, interchange and co-operation across national borders should be intensified. In order to increase teachers' readiness to co-operate with the business world and foster entrepreneurship in general, the government should consider offering incentives to those who actually do so. This might include either financial incentives or extra time for preparation and additional training. Considering that the overwhelming majority of initiatives and support programmes are geared towards the schools themselves whilst hardly any organization offers support to enterprises willing to intensify their contacts with the education system, extra support to enterprises might also have positive effects on co-operation.Yet, the results presented also raise a number of questions for future research on entrepreneurship education. It is not clear, for example, which of the educational methods discussed actually affects the propensity of pupils to become self-employed. Thus, future research should concentrate on the question whether and how school education influences pupils' attitudes toward self-employment in a more direct manner. To investigate this question longitudinal research is needed.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The question arises whether entrepreneurship education will be able to facilitate the entrepreneurial attitude in the near future. Unfortunately, the decisive role of compulsory schooling has long been neglected in this context. Until recently it was considered sufficient to provide education in entrepreneurship in universities (especially in the area of Business Administration) or in the form of special courses for people who consider starting their own business. Picking up the discussion at this point, the purpose of this paper is to analyse to what extent compulsory school education in Germany and Sweden facilitates a more entrepreneurial way of thinking among pupils.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, the paper briefly summarises the relevant research literature and specify important components of entrepreneurship education. Second, it discusses what exactly is to be understood by entrepreneurial qualities and present a holistic approach based on a model by Dahlgren. Third, it describes the unique data and presents some empirical results. The empirical analysis concentrates on Germany. Yet, for reasons of comparison, it additionally analyses the situation in Sweden. Finally, the paper summarises the results and discusses the policy implications.\nFindings: - The results presented clearly suggest that German schools do not succeed very well in presenting self-employment as an attractive alternative to dependent work. Swedish pupils generally show a higher preference for self-employment than their German counterparts. Furthermore, the results suggest that German schools diminish rather than encourage pupils' ambitions to become self-employed as the pupils become older.\nOriginality/value: - To the authors' knowledge this is the first empirical study which compares the effect of different school systems on entrepreneurial attitude simultaneously (i.e. with the same questionnaire and at the same point of time).\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Ba virtual and inter-organizational evolution: a case study from a EU research project
|
[
"Communities of practice",
"Open innovation",
"Knowledge creation",
"Knowledge management systems",
"Virtual community"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nonaka's modern conception of knowledge management has stressed the subjective nature and the relativity of knowledge concept. It depends on individuals that hold and create it, but also on contexts and spaces that hold and frame it (Nonaka and Toyama, 2005; Polanyi, 1967).\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Nonaka's ba\n3. Methodology: This paper pursues its aim of inquiring into the virtual evolution of spaces for knowledge creation, contextualizing the SECI model within a Web platform for open innovation.\n4. The knowledge creation process within BIVEE: The knowledge circle establishes the knowledge exchange interface between the BIS and the VPS and also describes how ideas are enabled as long as knowledge is advanced iteratively (Rossi et al., 2012, p. 14). It is based on Nonaka's SECI model, the process coming from Socialization, Internalization, Combination and Externalization carried out in both spaces.\n5. Learning history: the Flumen innovation project: To understand how the platform works and how the waves can be contextualized within the SECI model, an example of an innovation project is described hereafter. This is a project developed in a realistic industrial scenario and conducted through the BIVEE environment.\n6. Discussion: Nonaka's SECI model is the cornerstone of the modern knowledge management. It moved the emphasis onto individuals and their tacit and implicit knowledge. Nevertheless, the numerous contributions by Nonaka stop at an intra-organizational level of analysis; little do they analyse about inter-organizational epistemological, and even less do they take into account the modalities of the implied interactions.\n7. Conclusions: The BIVEE project developed a methodology showing how virtual spaces can be used to effectively enhance and support all the phases of SECI knowledge creation processes at the inter-organizational level. Specifically, the project shows that the socialization phase can also be supported by rich media in virtual spaces.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Taking Nonaka's SECI model as the main reference, this paper aims to offer reflections on the virtual evolution of ba, the places for knowledge creation. Indeed, looking at the current scenario, widening the knowledge spiral to the inter-organizational epistemological level is inevitable. To this aim, information technology tools and virtual communities can establish effective interactions to exchange knowledge, making ba evolve congruently.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper takes the exemplary case of a platform developed during a European research project called \"BIVEE: Business Innovation in Virtual Enterprise Environments\". The investigative approach chosen is participatory action research (PAR), with two researchers conducting PAR in real time, and two others involved ex post.\nFindings: The paper shows that the virtual evolution of ba can lead the SECI model towards an inter-organizational level. Moreover, through a learning history, it describes how all the phases of the SECI process, even the Socialization one, can take place or be supported in virtual spaces.\nResearch limitations/implications: Taking into account just one single exemplary case study provides a rich, contextualized understanding of phenomena, while allowing only some theoretical generalizations.\nOriginality/value: This paper contextualizes the SECI model within a Web platform for open innovation, to investigate whether the knowledge creation process can take place entirely within a virtual environment linking subjects from different organizations. In so doing, it applies the SECI model to the phases of the innovation process, called waves.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effect of the internet on researcher motivations, behaviour and attitudes
|
[
"Research",
"Attitudes",
"Motivation (psychology)",
"Individual behaviour",
"Peer review",
"Information exchange"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Changes in researcher behaviour, motivations or influences are likely to affect the whole value chain of scholarly communication. Wide-ranging and key decisions are being made about the future of scholarly communication in an environment where there has been little systematic research. This large-scale study, which is based on a number of responses greater than any previous similar survey, provides evidence to help inform these decisions.The intention of this study was to identify what effects, if any, the move from the print form of scholarly communication to the electronic form, particularly the advent of the world wide web has had on researchers, notably changes that have occurred over the last decade.Furthermore, the study seeks to place these results in the context of possible future changes in scholarly communication, and examine how current attitudes are likely to affect future scholarly communication.Previous studies in this area were conducted prior to researchers realising the full potential of the internet and too UK centric (Swan and Brown, 1999), or were too small in nature and not representative of all the major disciplines (Swan and Brown, 2003).The authors collaborated with NOP, a leading research agency in the UK, to conduct a survey of over 6,000 researchers. This formed the principal stage of the research upon which the main findings of this paper are based. Researchers were asked to respond to a number of provocative statements, which concerned an attitude or motivation, affecting one of the four fundamental functions of scholarly publishing: registration, certification, dissemination and the archive (Merton, 1973, Ravetz, 1973, Ziman, 1968).\nMethodology: The study was split into three phases:1. Understand the issues affecting researchers (focus groups and interviews).2. An online survey of 6,000+ researchers measuring attitudes.3. Digging deeper into issues, telephone interviews to understand differences between different groups.Phase 1\nResults: Motivations for publishing\nDiscussion: This study was undertaken to investigate whether, and how, the advent of the world wide web and wide-spread use and availability of electronic journals might change the behaviours and attitudes of scholars. Many commentators have stated, not always with strong backing, that \"the internet changes everything\" and that even in the conservative world of scholarly communication huge shifts of behaviour and practice could be expected (Gates, 1999; Arnold, 1995).The world wide web-based electronic journal debuted in 1993 (Keyhani, 1993). By 2005 when our study took place, full text electronic journal platforms such as ScienceDirect, Synergy, SpringerLink and Wiley Interscience were accessed by 92 per cent of the research institutions in the world (PCG, 2005, p. 17), and for many key institutes had been a fixture of scholarly literature for nearly ten years.In 2005, easy-to-use electronic journal systems were the norm and electronic workflow solutions for researchers becoming commonplace, certainly for the scientific, technical and medical communities. In the light of this, we believe it is reasonable to posit that the responses to our survey instrument are representative of a community at early stage digital maturity with experience in using and getting the best out of electronic publishing systems, and that the views expressed are more representative of mature opinion than of initial experience.A key aspect of our study was to compare and contrast the results obtained at early digital maturity with the results obtained from a major, highly respected study published in the last year of the paper-based scholarly communication era (Coles, 1993). One particular aspect of the Coles study, a series of questions relating to publishing motivations of authors particularly lend themselves to analysing the extent to which authors still attach importance and value to the traditional drivers of publication. In essence there has been no substantive shift in secondary motivations (which we argue above are more likely to represent the covert or \"underlying\" motivators) as the community moved from a fully paper-based environment to a virtually fully electronic one.An examination of primary motivations shows that not only has \"dissemination\" remained the most important primary motivation but its standing has actually increased. When combined with increases in the importance of the secondary motivations \"establishing precedence\" and \"recognition\", this suggests that researchers are feeling overwhelmed with the increasing quantities of research available through electronic sources, and the perceived extra amount of competition, and are focusing more on maintaining their own position.Overall, our results indicate that the fundamentals of formal scholarly communication steadfastly remain the same. Researchers need to publish research articles in order to further their own career. There is no overarching motivation to over-publish at the expense of quality. Moreover, researchers need to assure the value of their work to secure \"future funding\" via the platform of peer reviewed journals. Peer review, will continue to be the lynchpin of formal scholarly communication. Articles will need to be disseminated to the appropriate people and date-stamped to ensure the researcher can protect discovery rights. Finally, researchers want their research to be in a permanent archive, so it can be referenced, and become the building block for future science. All the intrinsic elements of the scholarly journal: dissemination, certification, registration and the archive remain present and important, even in this radically changed world of digital scholarship. Although there have not been any similar studies with such a large and international sample set, there have been some reports that echo our results. In 2007 the University of California (2007) surveyed its faculty and found very conservative behaviour patterns matching the results we describe here. Most recently, the studies of RIN (2009) and of Harley et al. (2010) have found very similar results.However, our study also shows that many less fundamental behaviours and opinions are in a state of flux. Clearly, in recent years there have been a number of improvements in the manner in which scholarly information is exchanged. The advent of the world wide web has facilitated a range of new processes, ultimately making the submission of manuscripts and access to research articles much easier and more time efficient. As one of us has written elsewhere (Mabe, 2009), there are new tools but they are for the same old purposes.Interestingly, though, none of the advances just mentioned have yet to affect the fundamental form of the formal scholarly article. Why this should be the case is complex and outside the scope of this article, but is discussed by one of us in a recent paper (Mabe, 2010).The majority of researchers now submit their manuscripts online. Most reviewers log-on to review a peer's research rather than wait for it to arrive by post. Behaviour at this level will likely continue to change and develop as novel tool sets become available. The electronic version of the journal will become even more pervasive in all fields. Researchers will continue to make more use of technology, accessing their colleagues' work from wherever they are: home or office. They will find novel ways of collaborating and sharing data, but likely only share data that will not disadvantage their own careers.While the mechanisms that drive research behaviour are fundamentally unchanged, the conclusions presented here do not mean that scholarly publishing will be un-affected by technological development. New economic models are and will continue to emerge. New technologies will find a place if they allow scholars to conduct their business easily and quickly. At the fundamental level of drivers, though, there is little discernable change. It is clear that however the scholarly communication system develops in the coming years, it will only be successful if it satisfies the needs of the researcher and minimises the time spent on preparing materials for publication as well as the time spent finding and retrieving articles.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to understand how the migration from the print world to the electronic environment has affected the motivations, attitudes and behaviours of researchers in scholarly communication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes the form of an investigation that is both quantitative and qualitative. The study was split into three phases: understand the issues affecting researchers (focus groups and interviews); an online survey of 6,344 researchers measuring attitudes and digging deeper into issues: telephone interviews to understand differences between different groups change. Differences in opinions were examined across discipline.\nFindings: - While there has been some change in the behaviour of researchers, there has been little change in their motivations for publication. Researchers want other researchers' data but are less inclined to share their own. Researcher attitudes towards repositories are very mixed. Researchers highly value peer review. The pressure to over-publish at the expense of quality is exaggerated.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further research is required to measure the impact on researcher motivations and attitudes of external pressures that were emerging at the time of this study. This includes the growing influence of funding bodies, the economic downturn and its impact on institutional budgets, as well as subsequent advances in the digital revolution.\nPractical implications: - This research suggests that, while technology may have positively impacted the efficiency of scholarly communication, the drivers behind scholarly information exchange remain relatively unchanged. Moreover, changes to the scholarly information business model will only be successful if they continue to satisfy the underlying motivations and needs of researchers.\nOriginality/value: - This paper fulfils an identified need to measure the motivations of researchers towards the core functions of scholarly communication on a global level.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Scenario based evaluation of a cost risk model through sensitivity analysis
|
[
"Risk assessment",
"Scenario analysis",
"Sensitivity analysis",
"Construction management",
"Simulation",
"Cost estimates"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In construction projects, success is measured through specific criteria related to quality, safety, functionality, time and cost (Griffis and Farr, 2000; Halphin and Woodhead, 1998; Oberlender, 2000). Cost estimation and cost risk analysis are among the main tasks which must be carried out to achieve success in construction projects. Various risk-factors such as fluctuating labor productivity, unexpected weather conditions, unknown underground conditions, etc. influence the construction projects. Depending on this, actual costs frequently deviate from the estimated costs in favorable or adverse direction. For this reason, not only estimation of costs but also the analysis of risks is required to make right decisions. Traditional and deterministic cost estimation methods do not take the uncertainty and correlation effects into account.\nBrief description of the model: In order to develop the model, MS Excel and @Risk programs have been utilized. @Risk, which is an add-in of MS Excel, is a risk analysis software and it enables conducting MCS on Excel spreadsheets. Main capabilities of the risk analysis/MCS software packages such as @Risk, Crystal Ball and Risk Solver are providing an intuitive interface and a good base-set of probability distributions from which to choose, running thousands of cases, permitting the analyst to examine the likelihood of extreme or tail events, modeling statistical interdependence between uncertain variables (correlated random draws), identifying the uncertain variables that most affect the variation in the results distribution, clearly displaying the results and addressing optimization under uncertainty. The main limitation of @Risk with respect to Crystal Ball and Risk Solver is the slower processing speed values observed in comparative simulation tests (Sugiyama, 2008).\nComputation procedure of the model: In this section, the computation procedure of the model is introduced in order to clarify the mathematical relationship between the parameters and user-dependent variables described in the previous section. The description consists of three parts with headings: \"Probabilistic representation of costs,\" \"Uncertainty distribution\" and \"Production of correlated costs for simulation and computation of total cost.\" Once more, it would be more comprehensive if the description is followed in parallel with the flowchart given in Figure 1.\nEvaluation of the model: This section introduces the detailed evaluation of the model through scenario and sensitivity analyses. The evaluation process consists of three scenarios with three sensitivity analyses in each and 28 simulations in total. During applications, the model's important parameter, the mean proportion coefficient, has been modified and the user-dependent variables like influence degrees have been changed to observe the response of the model to these modifications. Besides the proposed model, MCS was applied on the same data to compare the results. The uncertainty analyzing and correlation capturing capabilities of the model have been evaluated in a comparative manner.\nConclusions: This paper introduces the detailed evaluation of a simulation-based Cost Risk Analysis Model previously proposed by Okmen and Oztas (2010) through scenario and sensitivity analyses. The model, named as the correlated cost risk analysis model, has been developed to enable evaluating the uncertainty effect on construction costs in case of correlated costs and correlated risk-factors. The evaluation process introduced in detail through this paper consists of three scenario applications with three sensitivity analyses in each and 28 simulations in total. The aim of these applications is to examine the indirect, two-sided and qualitative correlation capturing algorithm of the model. The parameters and user-dependent variables have been modified during applications to observe the response of the model to such modifications. The results of the applications have been compared not only within each other, but also with the results of MCS. Instead of arriving at general conclusions, risk analysis capability of the model has been evaluated in a comparative manner. The findings have shown that the proposed model is capable of capturing the correlation between the costs and between the risk-factors, and operates in accordance with the theoretical expectancies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Actual costs frequently deviate from the estimated costs in either favorable or adverse direction in construction projects. Conventional cost evaluation methods do not take the uncertainty and correlation effects into account. In this regard, a simulation-based cost risk analysis model, the Correlated Cost Risk Analysis Model, previously has been proposed to evaluate the uncertainty effect on construction costs in case of correlated costs and correlated risk-factors. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the detailed evaluation of the Cost Risk Analysis Model through scenario and sensitivity analyses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The evaluation process consists of three scenarios with three sensitivity analyses in each and 28 simulations in total. During applications, the model's important parameter called the mean proportion coefficient is modified and the user-dependent variables like the risk-factor influence degrees are changed to observe the response of the model to these modifications and to examine the indirect, two-sided and qualitative correlation capturing algorithm of the model. Monte Carlo Simulation is also applied on the same data to compare the results.\nFindings: The findings have shown that the Correlated Cost Risk Analysis Model is capable of capturing the correlation between the costs and between the risk-factors, and operates in accordance with the theoretical expectancies.\nOriginality/value: Correlated Cost Risk Analysis Model can be preferred as a reliable and practical method by the professionals of the construction sector thanks to its detailed evaluation introduced in this paper.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Relative advantage of interactive electronic banking adoption by premium customers: The moderating role of social capital
|
[
"Social capital",
"Channel choice",
"Relational capital",
"Electronic channel",
"Cognitive capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Information technology has been a major driver of business competitiveness, as evidenced by the rapid growth of IT-enabled businesses in the past several decades (Zammuto et al., 2007). This situation is particularly prevalent in the banking industry, where banking services delivered via electronic channels account for a significant majority of banking transactions compared to those undertaken via traditional channels, such as branches (Ernst and Young, 2015). While the adoption of electronic channels by general customers in the banking industry has significantly increased in the past decades, it has received scant attention in the premium customer market, which encompasses an affluent segment of customers whose financial needs are more sophisticated and who are often time-deprived and highly mobile (Sia et al., 2016). Nonetheless, the great proportion of revenue that this segment represents and the needs of banks to reduce costs via launching electronic channels can motivate banks to tailor their electronic channels to increase adoption rates by premium customers. Although the number of studies on electronic banking channel adoption has grown substantially, a review of the literature shows limited findings regarding the influences of customer attributes on their adoption behaviours. This suggests the need to explore different stages of the whole service delivery process and its potential moderators when explaining customer adoption of electronic channels (Hoehle et al., 2012).\nTheoretical foundations: Electronic channel adoption in the banking industry\nResearch model and hypotheses: To address the research questions, we first theorize the RA of IEC based on channel choice theory. We then explore the moderating role of the three dimensions of social capital at different stages of the IEC purchase process by incorporating social capital theory and Choudhury and Karahanna's (2008) model (Figure 1).\nResearch methodology: To validate the research model, we collected data using a field survey at a large international bank in Hong Kong, which is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations. The bank launched LIVEConnect for customers in Hong Kong and elsewhere as an innovative means to replicate the branch experience in supporting the needs of retail banking customers over the internet.\nMeasurement model: To test the measurement model, we examine the reliability and the convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs (Carmines and Zeller, 1979; Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Table III shows that the composite reliability of each latent variable exceeded 0.7, thus suggesting good reliability (MacKenzie et al., 2011). The results demonstrate good convergent validity due to the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct was greater than the recommended level 0.5 (Table III) (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), and all the items had cross-loadings greater than the recommended 0.7 (Table IV).\nStructural model: The research model was tested across the different stages of the purchase process (i.e. pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase). The results indicate that the model with all stages combined provides a relatively higher explanatory power, with an R2 value of 0.811 for all stages combined, and decreases in the order of the pre-purchase stage (R2=0.757), the purchase stage (R2=0.703) and the post-purchase stage (R2=0.684). While the explanatory power of the model depends on its complexity and discipline of the research, an R2 value of 0.75 or 0.5 can be respectively described as substantial or moderate (Hair et al., 2011). Hence, this research model can be regarded as having substantial explanatory power.\nDiscussion: This study starts by addressing the practical problem of banks introducing an IT service delivery channel, which is an IEC that particularly focuses on the unique premium customer segments. A review of the literature on channel choice suggests important research gaps regarding the adoption of such an IT service delivery channel for affluent customers and the roles of customers in value creation. Drawing on channel choice theory and social capital theory, we develop a research model that incorporates the RA of an IEC over established channels and the moderating effects of social capital to understand the role of customer collaboration with RMs in value creation. There are some interesting findings that differ from prior studies (H1b), where the related H2 and H3 are not supported\nConclusions: This research examines the factors affecting customers' choices of channels in conducting their financial services and whether the relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital influence the adoption of an IEC in financial services of a major bank. Results confirm that channel choice, convenience, trust and efficacy of information acquisition had differing effects during the individual stages - pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase - of the IEC purchase process. More importantly, the results of this study suggest that only the cognitive dimension of social capital had a very significant weakening effect on the way that information acquisition efficacy was related to adoption. Meanwhile, the relational dimension had a significant weakening effect over trust on adoption at the post-purchase stage. Contrary to the original expectations of the study, the relational dimension did not have a significant effect on the way that convenience was related to IEC adoption.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a nuanced understanding of premium customers' intent to adopt an interactive electronic channel (IEC) and the moderating role of social capital on perceived relative advantage (RA) in adoption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Study findings are based on a field survey that investigates the launching of an IEC by a leading international bank in Hong Kong.\nFindings: Among social capital dimensions, cognitive capital significantly weakens the relationship between efficacy of information acquisition and IEC adoption, while relational capital enhances the relationship between trust and adoption.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper provides a theoretical lens based on social capital theory for evaluating the moderating effects of social capital on the relationship between RA and IEC adoption by premium customers in the banking industry.\nPractical implications: Findings provide insights for the practice of banks when trying to deliver financial services via an IEC to the premium customer segment.\nOriginality/value: This research extends the channel choice theory to the context of banking channel adoption of premium customers; provides a better understanding of the IEC and its adoption in the more complex setting of financial consultation services; and offers insights for a better understanding of fragmented findings on the relationships between adoption intention and its antecedents in response to calls for studies on contingent factors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Shooting the goose that lays the golden egg: the case of UAE employment policy
|
[
"United Arab Emirates",
"Emiratization",
"Employment quotas"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: Countries around the world have provided economists and policy analysts with a plethora of interesting examples of programs and policies that, though often adopted for admirable reasons, have gone astray and produced unintended and counter-productive results. In recent years, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)[1] have adopted labor quota policies designed to boost employment of their own nationals in the private sector workforce. These policies appear to be a good candidate for inclusion in this list of counter-productive policies and, despite virtually universal adoption by countries in the GCC, have largely escaped serious economic analysis.\nII. Emiratization policy: The UAE is a small country, in both income and population, which has grown rapidly over the last few decades. Prior to the financial crisis of 2008, the UAE regularly exceeded 7 percent annualized GDP growth (CIA). Oil exports, which yield extraordinary revenue, have been the primary engine of this growth. However, the limited skills and work experience of Emirati workers has meant that migrant labor has been required to achieve the country's high rate of growth.\nIII. The UAE labor market: Before addressing the consequences of Emiratization, it is perhaps worth noting a few stylized facts about the UAE labor market that constitute the context for our analysis. First, expatriate labor is essentially permanent. Residence visas for expatriate workers are issued for periods of three years, but are renewable and expatriate workers can stay as long as they keep their jobs. Expatriate workers who return to their home countries are readily replaceable.\nIV. Related work: Other countries in the Gulf region face a similar problem and have adopted domestic labor market regulations similar to those adopted in the UAE. However, previous work on private sector employment mandates for national labor is scarce. Russell (1989) observes that in Kuwait, a country moving forward with Kuwaitization, migrants have become \"deeply embedded\" in the Kuwaiti society and labor force. As a result, they have amassed significant job-specific capital, and so the costs of replacing them with nationals are high.\nV. The model: To study the impact of the Emiratization quota on Emirati employment, we consider a model where a representative firm uses a production function with three inputs: capital (K), native Emirati labor (N) and expatriate labor (E). The production function F(K, N, E) is assumed to be continuous, twice-differentiable and everywhere strictly concave. For ease of exposition, we here assume that the representative firm is small and is a price-taker in both output and input markets. The appendix extends the analysis to the case of market power in both the product market and in the input markets; the qualitative nature of the results is the same. The Emiratization quota requires that a fraction r of the labor used in the production of the final good be Emirati labor. Letting P denote the product price, r the price of capital, w\nVI. A policy alternative - taxation and Emiratization: The Emirati employment quota embedded in the Emiratization program has at least three major flaws. First, the 55 percent target set for Emirati employment appears to be arbitrary. Second, the program targets employment rather than productivity. Third, the policy has been implemented without apparent consideration for differences in production technologies across domestic industries. As a direct consequence of these flaws, the increased costs associated with meeting employment quotas will reduce overall labor usage and that will, at least in part, offset the higher proportion of jobs allocated to Emiratis. Further, the relationship between Emirati and expatriate labor could feature either substitutability or complementarity. If Emirati and expatriate labor are substitutes, then jobs for Emiratis can be created by reducing the expatriate labor force. However, it may also be the case that relatively low-wage expatriate workers sustain jobs among the Emirati population in some industries.\nVII. Conclusion: There is no question that increasing private-sector employment among UAE nationals is an important policy goal for the rulers of the UAE; improving standards of living for their people keeps their support intact. However, a structural change of this nature will be effective and sustainable when it arises organically from market-based conditions - it cannot permanently remain the product of government mandate without the kinds of negative consequences that accompany regulation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This is a policy paper that analyzes the economic impact of mandated employment quotas for citizen workers among firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the nature of the efficiency losses associated with these quotas, and then explore a workable policy alternative that can achieve the same employment objectives with lower efficiency loss.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper begins with an extensive discussion of UAE labor policy, together with some data and salient features of the UAE labor market. The authors use this discussion to motivate and analyze a theoretical model of the way in which labor quotas impact firm production, input employment and efficiency. The authors then extend this model to the proposed policy alternative.\nFindings: The UAE's labor quotas create inefficiencies on a number of fronts, including productive inefficiency, higher product prices and the possibility of reducing the number of jobs available to citizen workers. The proposed policy alternative has the potential to ameliorate these efficiency losses, while still creating jobs for citizens.\nOriginality/value: Labor quotas for citizen workers are a unique brand of labor regulation that has largely escaped economic analysis. Understanding their implications is informative in the context of labor market regulation generally, and particularly for countries with large expatriate labor forces that struggle to provide job opportunities for citizens.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Holistic approach to human resources and organizational acceleration
|
[
"HRM practices",
"Occupational stress",
"Human energy",
"Human potential",
"Organizational acceleration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The success of an organization, understood as its survival, depends on the ability to implement anticipatory and adaptive changes (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1997; Huy and Mintzberg, 2003) as has been mentioned by researchers and practitioners since the 1990s (i.e. De Geus, 1988; Narayandas and Rangan, 1996). Contemporary management fashions indicate that organizations should be resilient (Hamel and Valikangas, 2003) or agile (Fliednerand and Vokurka, 1997; Roberts and Grover, 2012), which means that organizations should be capable of meeting the changing expectations of stakeholders (especially clients) by implementing changes regularly. Besides that, time pressure turns out to be an additional challenge for managers, as above average performance is the result of a high velocity of action, i.e. the speed of decision making, adjusting activities and responding to customer needs (i.e. Stalk, 1988). The time pressure that results from environmental acceleration escalates the dynamics of organizational activities, and in consequence, organizations may run into the acceleration trap - to do more, faster, faultlessly (Bruch and Menges, 2010) - and as a result, fall into crisis (Probst and Raisch, 2005) as they begin to function unreflectively, without time for combining, internalizing and implementing the new knowledge created in the process of change (Schoeneborn et al., 2013).\n1. The organizational acceleration phenomenon: The problems of time pressure and acceleration on an organization are caused by the acceleration perceived in the business environment. Basing on the observations and reflections of German sociologist H. Rosa (2003) concerning the phenomena of social acceleration, he identified three categories of that acceleration (technological acceleration, the acceleration of social change and acceleration of the \"Pace of Life\") which interact with each other to cause the acceleration cycle. We propose that in business a similar acceleration is observable. Technological acceleration (technical, technological and process innovations) improves organizational capacity and causes numerous changes in the behaviours and expectations of employees, customers and other market players (acceleration of changes in the business environment). These two types of acceleration lead to acceleration of the pace of competition (acceleration of the \"pace of organizational life\"), because the reactions of organizations to the innovations and behavioural changes of the market players need to be implemented more rapidly than the competitors do (Stalk, 1988; Suarez and Lanzolla, 2007). Moreover, the growing pressure of hyper-competition intensifies the perception of a scarcity of time, and finally forces acceleration in the organization.\n2. Employee stress as a consequence of organizational acceleration: Recently, the hazard connected with occupational stress seems to be so serious that WHO acknowledged stress as one of the biggest dangers of the twenty-first century. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work indicates that in Europe stress issues are ranked very highly among health problems emerging from performing occupational duties, and the stress problems concern millions of European employees in all sectors (EU-OSHA, 2002; European Commission, 2014). Moreover according to Eurobarometer research almost 1/3 of employees claims that for previous year their working conditions had deteriorated because of occupational stress, depression and anxiety in the workplace (European Commission, 2014).\n3. The individual resources of employees: Focusing on the individual resources of employees comes not only from the fact that their condition may cause negative effects under organizational acceleration (above mentioned occupational stress and burnout) but also that employees and their resources are the success factors of successful companies, especially those functioning in knowledge-intensive sectors (Bontis and Fitz-enz, 2002; Fitz-enz, 2000). Organizations are under environmental pressure to be more productive and innovative, which converts to the level of employee exploitation and puts pressure on individual productivity and innovativeness. However, the capacity of individuals is limited within the level of the individual resources they have to use in the work process.\n4. HRM and holistic approach to individual resources of employees: Generally personnel management practices are concentrated on employee competences (skills, abilities, knowledge - intellectual potential) by such actions as staffing, work design, training and appraisal, in order to provide all the competences necessary for achieving organizational goals (e.g. Armstrong, 2006; Ivancevich, 1998). Moreover, managers use rewards, participation and communication to raise motivation and develop positive emotions (attitudes) towards work and the organization, and eventually prevent from strong change resistance. Wilkinson et al. (2001) observed that one common managerial practice is the short-term approach to people management in organizations, concentrated to a greater extent on human resources exploitation and terminating the exploited (used) individuals. It is not a common practice that organizations build, maintain and develop their total employee capacity (Schwartz, 2007), i.e. manage the individual resources of employees. However, for the last several years there have been some noticeable changes in the approach towards personnel management connected mainly with the concept of sustainability. The turning point, especially in high developed and knowledge-intensive economies, was observing that not only natural resources but also human resources are limited or scarce (e.g. Ehnert and Harry, 2012).\n5. HR practical implications: An organization that is willing to develop its own people management practices, directed towards sustaining individual resources of employees, should pay particular attention to the following issues. First, there is a need for assessing the level of individual resources of employees at all four potentials (physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual) and performing regular audits of these resources. This enables a diagnosis of shortages in the four potentials, and will show the range of problems with the individual resources of employees as well as the risks connected with those problems. In such an assessment we propose measuring the level of the most important features of each of the four potentials (sample features are in Table III) using a semantic differential scale. The results of such an assessment may be used for preparing standardized HR policies and practices for the company or department (if there is a common potential problem among employees), or immediate individualized HR intervention (if there is a problem with a single individual). This assessment approach proposed by us differs from those proposed by Schwartz (2007) or Bruch and Menges (2010, p. 86), who rather concentrate on the evaluation of the degree of behaviours or activities that could decrease individual energy of employees or evaluate only how well-rested employees are during the employee-supervisor feedback. We propose to concentrate on the resources per se not the antecedents of the level of the resource. Nevertheless we predict some objectivity problems in such an assessment.\n6. Conclusions: There are several concluding findings and directions for future research. The problem of organizational acceleration due to revolutionary or frequent changes and dynamic organizational growth have been discussed in literature, especially taking into account the organizational perspective. In our work, we wanted to contribute to that field but concentrate more on the individual perspective - how the organizational acceleration influences employees and how to help them. It seems that as competitive pressure and the pace of work in the future is rather going to increase even more, the consequences of organizational acceleration will be seen more frequently. Therefore we assume that managers in public, private and administration organizations need to understand how to deal with that acceleration in order to overcome the negative consequences for individuals, the organizations, as well as society. This needs changing the approach of perceiving employees - their capacity, roles and needs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose holistic approach to human resources in the situation of organizational acceleration. Authors are postulating that the holistic approach to HR helps in maintaining sustainable individual resources of employees in the situation of continuous organizational changes and time pressure that further can prevent from the individual resources exhaustion.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper builds on the problem of occupational stress that is connected with organizational acceleration. Authors define stress as the individually perceived inability to match expectations caused by the deficiency of individual resources. They conceptualize the individual resources of employees basing on the concepts of human capital and the individual energy at work and propose a framework of individual resources of employees that enables holistic view of an individual in an organization.\nFindings: In the situation of organizational acceleration HRM function plays important role in sustaining individual resources of employees in order to minimize threat of occupational stress and further burnout. HR practices should apply multidimensionality of individual resources and threat it holistically aiming at sustaining all four potentials - spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical.\nResearch limitations/implications: Authors indicate that managers need to understand how to deal with the acceleration in order to overcome the negative consequences for individuals. There is still need for identifying HR practices that are the key success factors in the situation of organizational acceleration.\nOriginality/value: Authors take up the current problem of organizational acceleration from the individual perspective. They propose a concept of individual resources of employees and connected to it holistic approach to HR in the times of great time pressure, work overload, occupational stress and burnout threat.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Multi-level analysis of knowledge transfer: a knowledge recipient's perspective
|
[
"Social networks",
"Social capital",
"Knowledge transfer",
"Multi-level analysis",
"Dyadic level"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge is the resource most critical to a firm's competitive advantage (Grant, 1996). Active knowledge transfer among employees enables a firm to make the best use of its internal knowledge, fostering its survival and prosperity (Argote and Ingram, 2000; Szulanski et al., 2004). However, knowledge transfer has many motivational and cognitive barriers, or \"stickiness\" (Sun and Scott, 2005; Szulanski, 1996). For instance, employees may resist accepting new knowledge from other teams or departments because it is not related to their prior knowledge. This inward-looking bias may lead to the \"not-invented-here\" (NIH) syndrome at the organizational level (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). To help firms overcome these barriers, researchers in organizational learning and knowledge management have explored the many facilitators of knowledge transfer (Argote et al., 2003; Chang et al., 2012; Reinholt et al., 2011; Rhodes et al., 2008).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Social capital and knowledge transfer\n3. Research model and hypotheses: This study's research model explores the multi-level antecedents of knowledge transfer from the knowledge recipient's perspective. The impact of a recipient's social capital at an individual level and the effect of the direct relationships between a knowledge source and a recipient at a dyadic level are examined in the context of knowledge transfer. In addition, the moderating influence of a recipient's social capital on the power of the dyadic relationships in knowledge transfer is also explored. Figure 1 depicts the study's multi-level research model.\n4. Methodology: To validate the abovementioned multi-level research hypotheses, hierarchical linear modeling (Raudenbush et al., 2004) was used. The dyadic-level variables were measured by a social network survey (Wasserman and Faust, 1994), and the individual network variable was calculated using Ucinet 6 (Borgatti et al., 2002). Other individual-level variables were measured through a general attribute survey.\n5. Results: 5.1 Reliability and validity\n6. Discussion: The results of the analysis supported five of the seven research hypotheses (Table VII). At an individual level, the relational dimension of a recipient's social capital (i.e. trust) showed a significantly positive effect on knowledge transfer, indicating that a knowledge recipient's trust in his or her group members can lead to successful knowledge transfer even without a dyadic relationship with a source. Trust in colleagues seems to allow a recipient to risk exposing his or her ignorance to and accept knowledge from a source even in the absence of a strong dyadic relationship with it.\n7. Conclusion: By adopting a multi-level analysis from the recipient's perspective, this study has attempted to broaden the current understanding of the influence of the three dimensions of social capital in knowledge transfer and explore social capital's cross-level moderating effect on the impact of dyadic-level relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to adopt the recipient's perspective to explore multi-level antecedents' effects on knowledge transfer using social capital and social network theories.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Social network and general attribute survey responses from 331 employees were analyzed through hierarchical linear modeling to verify the study's multi-level research model and hypotheses.\nFindings: A recipient's trust in colleagues positively influences knowledge transfer and company tenure has a negative impact. At a dyadic level, the perceived expertise of a source, in addition to strength of ties, exerts a positive effect on knowledge transfer. Additionally, a recipient's network centrality moderates the effects of dyadic relationships on knowledge transfer.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study deepened the current understanding of the role of social capital in knowledge transfer from a recipient's perspective. Three dimensions of a recipient's social capital respectively showed significant, but different types of influence on knowledge transfer. Interaction effects between individual and dyadic level antecedents should be considered as well.\nPractical implications: Both a strong tie at a dyadic level and a diverse network at an individual level should be nurtured to facilitate knowledge transfer. In addition, bi-directional knowledge transfer between seasoned employees and new employees should be promoted.\nOriginality/value: Most studies have focused on motivating a knowledge source, assuming that a recipient is always ready to adopt a source's knowledge. To reduce this bias, the current study examined social capital's role in knowledge transfer from a recipient's perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Self-initiated expatriation and migration in the management literature: Present theorizations and future research directions
|
[
"Expatriates",
"Migrant workers",
"Self‐initiated expatriation",
"Migration",
"International mobility",
"Job mobility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While still a relatively under-researched expatriation category in management studies, theories on self-initiated expatriation (SIE) have been bourgeoning and published in leading specialized (e.g. Career Development International and International Journal of Human Resource Management) and general (e.g. Academy of Management Journal and British Journal of Management) management academic journals. The interest in this topic comes with the recognition by academic scholars, business, and policy-makers that SIEs are valuable international human resources that benefit organizations and economies (Dickmann and Baruch, 2011). In this regard, in 2011 the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs' Population Division estimates that in 2010 there were 214 million individuals who were undertaking an international mobility. This represents an increase of 58 million since 1990 and about 3.1 percent of the total world population. This same report explains that for the period of 2010-2050, the number of individuals moving from developing to more developed regions is expected to be 96 million. Among these individuals, self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) will continue to represent important international human resources for organizations for various reasons. For example, SIEs might have a good understanding of local and international markets, languages, and cultures. They would cost less than traditional corporate expatriates in terms of travel and living costs, salaries, and taxation among other financial issues. All these reasons make it important for companies to understand the nature and management of SIEs.Despite the growing interest in SIE (e.g. Al Ariss, 2010; Cerdin and Pargneux, 2010; Crowley-Henry, 2012; Richardson, 2009), it remains unclear how it is theorized in management studies compared to other forms of mobility. Berry (2009) and Berry and Bell (2011) have worked on this topic. This paper fills this important knowledge gap by positioning key present theories and future directions for management research on SIE. By doing so, we respond to an important call in this special issue regarding moving towards a more theoretically-grounded understanding of SIE.For the purpose of this paper, we define SIE as denoting internationally mobile individuals, who have moved through their own agency (rather than through an organizationally-assigned expatriation) to another country for an indeterminable duration. Inkson et al. (1997) are credited with initiating discussion on the previously un-explored category of \"self initiated foreign work experience\" (SFE), which Suutari and Brewster (2000) developed further in comparing SFEs with organization assigned expatriates. The nomenclature (SFE) has since converged to the widely accepted \"SIE\" category of international assignee. Nonetheless, the heterogeneity within the SIE category continues to amass attention (Suutari and Brewster, 2000; Al Ariss and Syed, 2011). This paper focuses on SIE theorizations in order to enable a more critical and multi-perspective development of SIE research and knowledge.Our paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, we introduce the methodology of our review. In the second part, we address the question: How is self-initiated expatriation theorized in the management literature? We answer this question by revealing key problematic facets of the management theorizations on SIE compared to migration. The third part focuses on explaining where future research needs to go with respect to what has been done on SIE to date. We respond to this question by proposing a research map that helps researchers meet the challenges of studying SIE. Our paper offers a unique contribution to the management literature on SIE by offering much needed clarity regarding what we know and where research needs to go in the future.\nMethodology: To provide a review of the management literature, we conducted a series of searches using the ISI Web of Knowledge database, which includes all journals having an impact factor and listed in the Social Science Citation Index. This is important as it allows understanding how self-initiated expatriation is conceptualized in management journals that are recognized to have an impact in the management field. Using the keywords of \"self-initiated expatriation\", \"self-directed travel\", \"self-initiated foreign experience\" and \"migration\" we searched for peer-reviewed journal articles and reviews. The initial research returned 260 articles in social science fields. We then limited the coverage only to articles in the field of management and to journals whose aim and scope had a managerial approach. We chose English as the articles' language and searched for papers available without limiting the date of publication. This reduced the number of studies to 96 articles. Furthermore, using ABI/INFORM complete database, we undertook an additional search in journals (identified in Appendix under the title \"Other\") that are recognized as important in our field and that were not found in our initial search. The journals that were included and the frequency of their articles on the topic of self-initiated expatriation are listed in Appendix at the end of the paper. In total, we read 110 articles, excluded those that did not link to the topic of self-initiated expatriation, and identified common thematic issues among the remaining ones.\nThe theorization of self-initiated expatriation in the management literature: The term \"SIE\" is used in the management literature to refer to individuals undertaking an international career experience on their own initiative. Nevertheless, there is an ambiguity in the literature regarding the connection between SIE and migration. In order to elucidate this ambiguity, we attempt to explain how both terms are employed. We delve into the management literature in order to answer two important questions:1. How are SIEs portrayed compared to migrants?2. What do we know about SIEs compared to migrants?In this section, we answer these two questions bringing therefore a much-needed clarity to how SIE is theorized in the literature.How are SIEs portrayed compared to migrants in the management literature?\nA research map for future studies on self-initiated expatriation: Our review demonstrates four important issues that are lacking in the existing research on SIE. In this section, we present these knowledge gaps and propose a map for future direction on SIE research. These gaps are:1. Focus is on the most privileged individuals in terms of their ethnicity, education, and professional positioning. Our research map calls for diversity-informed research on SIE.2. SIE research lacks contextualization. For example, there are several key topics that need further exploration, including understanding the national contexts of the home and host countries of self-initiated expatriates, establishing a deeper comprehension of the relation between self-initiated expatriation and migration policies in the host country, taking into account the history of migration and migration groups in the host countries and its relation with self-initiated expatriation, and exploring transnational links of SIEs with their home countries. We suggest that SIE studies need to be more context-specific and emphasize the multilevel nature of expatriation.3. More broadly, the SIE scholarship often employs the term \"SIE\" and \"migrant\" without fully questioning their meanings and the implication of their use. This leads to enhancing an image of the expatriate who is full of agency, able to make free career choices, while enforcing an image of migrants as \"second-class expatriates\" who are subject to exclusion and structural barriers. We call for more reflexive approaches on SIE that question and critique the central assumptions of this area.4. Few SIE studies employ both qualitative and quantitative methods and use multiple data sources. Our map builds on the utility of triangulated approaches that enhance our knowledge of this topic. Figure 1 highlights the four dimensions of our research map.Research on SIE informed by diversity in the workplace\nConclusions: While there is an increasing interest in understanding SIE, a comprehensive framework for theorizing and researching this area is lacking in management studies. This paper addresses this gap in that it presents a critical review of management literature to date on SIE and migration. From a systematic review of the existing management literature in this area, it pushes the boundaries of the research on SIE by synthetizing its key debates, comparing it to migration, and proposing a more relational and inclusive model for future studies. Rather than postulating a narrow focus on SIE, the paper argues that the theoretical weaknesses concerning this topic could be better addressed through a research agenda that is more inclusive in nature.Specifically, the paper contributes to career and management studies on SIE by setting out a research framework that has four important dimensions. These dimensions are:1. diversity-informed;2. context-specific;3. reflexive; and4. methodologically triangulation-sensitive.We suggest that, in order to better understand the SIE group, including their experiences, motivations, and implications for organizations, a more comprehensive research framework is required. Therefore, our review and framework engages with a more diverse analysis of SIE from different theorizations and from different research approaches.A deeper understanding of SIE for management scholars, would ultimately, in turn, lead to better inclusive practices across the organizational and national spectrums for accommodating individuals on international mobility. The benefits of these meso-organizational and macro-national contributions would also enhance the micro-individual experience of SIEs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to offer a critical review of how self-initiated expatriation (SIE) is theorized compared to migration in the management literature and to indicate venues for future research on SIE.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A systematic review has been conducted using the ISI Web of Knowledge database as well as ABI/INFORM in order to include key journals in the management field.\nFindings: - Despite the importance of present theorizations on SIE, the authors show that the literature presents a narrow focus on the most privileged of self-initiated expatriates and presents some important knowledge gaps. In order to fill these gaps, the authors propose a research map for future research on SIE. This map includes four key dimensions. These are: diversity-informed research on SIE; context specific and multilevel understanding of SIE; reflexive approaches to SIE; triangulated methods to studying SIE.\nResearch limitations/implications: - By proposing a research map with theoretical and methodological implications, this paper increases our understanding of SIE. It offers a guide for future research on SIEs.\nPractical implications: - Research on self-initiated expatriation needs to be more inclusive and critical in terms of studying the diverse human resources in our contemporary societies.\nOriginality/value: - The paper indicates how research on self-initiated expatriation can become more developed in terms of its theorizations. Furthermore, it proposes a research map for future studies on SIE that is reflexive, relational, diversity-informed, and methodologically-triangulated.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Chinese students' group work performance: does team personality composition matter?
|
[
"Higher education",
"Group work",
"Assessment task",
"Learning method",
"Personality mix"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Group work is a commonly used method of learning and teaching in higher education in Western countries with benefits well noted in many studies (Burke, 2011; Fearon et al., 2012; Hammer Chiriac, 2014; Johnston et al., 2000; Mantzioris and Kehrwald, 2013; Mello, 1993). It facilities cooperative and collaborative learning by enabling students to leverage one another's capabilities to complete a complex project through effective communication and collective problem solving (Dolly, 2008; Felder and Brent, 2007; Oakley et al., 2004). The current thinking is that without working together with peers as a group, individual student will not be able to achieve a complex task single-handedly due to limitation in capabilities and resources (Johnson et al., 2014; Kuh et al., 2007; Qin et al., 1995). Furthermore, most university graduates will work in teams with colleagues in business firms and other organizations when they join the workforce upon graduation (Attle and Baker, 2007). From a practical point of view, group work training that students received in their tertiary education can provide them with the necessary experiences to work with others and equip them with the skill set required by the professional world (Caruso and Woolley, 2008; Finelli et al., 2011; Hodgkinson-Williams et al., 2008; Jackson et al., 2014; Lave and Wenger, 1991; Mannix and Neale, 2005). Other benefits of group work may include enhancement of social skills and interactions, opportunity to learn from other students, generation of alternative ideas and points of view and getting the opportunity to work on large projects (Ford and Morice, 2003; Mantzioris and Kehrwald, 2013; Ruel et al., 2003). Using evidence from more than 400 studies, Johnson and Johnson (1998a, b, cited in Mahenthiran and Rouse, 2000) show that group work can impact positively on students' achievement, interest in the subject matter, self-esteem, attendance and ability to work effectively with others. Therefore, group work is generally seen as a valuable and critical method of learning in higher education in Western countries frequently adopted by many undergraduate programs. For teaching, group work can significantly reduce marking load, thereby giving the teaching staff more time to improve the content and delivery of the subject (Davies, 2009).\nLiterature review: Personality traits and team performance\nMethodology: Instrument\nData analysis: Internal consistency and statistics of measures\nDiscussion: The findings of this study have revealed some enlightening observations. First of all, in the education setting, research conducted in the Western countries generally suggests a positive relationship between TPE in some of the Big-Five factors, such as extraversion and agreeableness, and group effectiveness although the findings vary from case to case (Kramer et al., 2014; Peeters et al., 2006). In this study, TPE in none of the Big-Five factors is found to be related to team performance at all (Table III). That is, overall magnitude of the team in extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness, has no effect on the academic performance of the group. Whether a team as a whole is particularly strong in any of the five major personality traits is not associated with the team's overall effectiveness and none of them can be used as a predictor of team accomplishment. Another finding relating to TPEs reveals that agreeableness and openness are positively correlated. Such observation suggests that a group tends to be more open-minded when its team members are more agreeable. This may encourage the adoption of new approach to complete the group work but such initiative does not necessarily improve team performance.\nConclusions and implications: Noting that research on the relationship between team personality composition and group performance of university students is limited particularly in Asian countries where cultural background and learning method are different from that of the Western countries, this study investigated such association through a questionnaire survey of student personality traits based on the Big-Five framework and a post hoc linkage of team personality composition with group performance. A total of 166 undergraduate students of a Chinese university in Shanghai participated in the survey and the findings on personality traits were aggregated using elevation and diversity indices before linking them to the performance of 30 groups. Analyses of the data reveal that mean values of team personality in the five major traits have no relationship with group effectiveness. As for diversity of team personality, only similarity in emotional stability of team members is found to be positively related to group performance but the association is weak. These outcomes suggest that there are factors moderating the relationship, one of which may be the traditional learning method of the Chinese students. This conclusion aligns with the view that the emphasis on rote learning and individual effort in the traditional learning approach may limit the effectiveness of group work in the classroom in China (Chen and Hird, 2006; Johnson et al., 1998; Thompson, 2004).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate if team personality composition has any effect on group work performance of undergraduate students in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a questionnaire based on the Big-Five framework to collect data on personality traits, this study investigated whether in the Chinese education setting overall effectiveness of university students working in groups was related to the different personalities of the group members. Students of two undergraduate business programs jointly run by an Australian university and a Chinese university in Shanghai participated in the research.\nFindings: The findings reveal that aggregated personality traits have no effect on team effectiveness but homogeneity in emotional stability among group members does have a positive impact on group performance. Based on a comprehensive review of studies concerning the Chinese education approach, it is believed that the outcome of this study may reflect to a certain extent the influence of traditional learning method on how university students interact with team members in group work hence affecting group performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has surveyed 166 undergraduate students on their personality traits and performance in group work. A larger sample size can help improve the generalizability of the findings.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study shed light on how group work can be used more effectively in learning through proper assessment task design and guidance from the facilitator.\nSocial implications: The outcome of this research also provides insight on how group work in higher education can better prepare students for the Chinese workforce.\nOriginality/value: While studies on relationship between personality mix and team effectiveness in business setting are plenty, there is relatively little research on how team personality composition can impact on group performance in education especially in Asian countries. This study is one of the first attempts to supplement the inadequacy in this regard.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Sustainable farming entrepreneurship in the Sunraysia region
|
[
"Coopetition",
"Innovation",
"Sustainable management",
"Sustainable entrepreneurship",
"Farming"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Farmers are a heterogeneous group but for the purposes of this paper I refer to them as owner managers. Vesala et al. (2007, p. 51) define farmers as \"those occupied on a part or full time basis on a range of activities, which are primarily dependent on the farm and by agriculture, by which is meant the practice of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock as the main source of income.\" In the globally competitive marketplace, more farmers are diversifying their businesses through entrepreneurship and the adoption of new technologies (Morris et al., 2017). Diversification is an important way farmers can entrepreneurial by engaging in new business practices (McElwee and Wood, 2017).\nSustainable entrepreneurship: There is a lack of consensus about how to define sustainability due to the various academic, political, and public views about its meaning. This has led to sustainability being defined broadly as economic, environmental, and social responsibility in the global business world. By taking a holistic approach to business practices, sustainability enables better economic and social prosperity in the long run. Pinkse and Groot (2015, p. 634) define sustainable entrepreneurship by focusing on opportunity recognition as \"the discovery, creation and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities that contribute to sustainability by generating social and environmental gains for others in society.\" Another definition by Poldner et al. (2017, p. 215) defines sustainable entrepreneurship by stressing the creation of business ventures as \"the creation of new ventures that aim to achieve the triple bottom line of financial, social and ecological performance\" and this definition is adopted in this paper.\nTheoretical framework: Schaltegger et al. (2016) proposes that sustainable entrepreneurship can be understood utilizing evolutionary economics as the theoretical framework. This is due to evolutionary economics focusing on the dynamics and organic change that occurs in markets. The economy is a fluid structure that is not deterministic but changes to suit market conditions (Volberda and Lewin, 2003). From an evolutionary economics standpoint, the market adapts based on societal needs that enables it to be progressive but also responsive to change. This means an emphasis is placed on entrepreneurship and innovation as it influences market dynamics. Evolutionary economics provides a way to understand the continually evolving nature of sustainability as it is shaped by societal trends. This includes the examination of sustainable entrepreneurship as not a predictable process but as new environmental innovations change existing market patterns.\nCoopetition: Coopetition is a form of syncretic rent seeking behavior as it allows a number of firms to work together for competitive reasons in the marketplace (Lado et al., 1997). This enables a network of firms to limit their weaknesses by using the strengths of other firms. Coopetition is a simultaneous activity in which firms compete but also collaborate. Normally, the firms in coopetitive relationships are in the same or related industries (Chiambaretto and Dumez, 2016). Coopetition has been referred to as a dyadic relationship as it involves value created from firm networks (Bengtsson and Raza-Ullah, 2016). This means that industry ecosystems are often dependent on business models that facilitate competition. The dynamic nature of many industries means that firms merge and form alliances in a way to compete. Game theory is often used to describe coopetition as it enables an analysis of firms involved and their relationships (Nalebuff and Brandenburger, 1997). This has led to firms wanting to use coopetition as a way to directly or indirectly share knowledge (Ho and Ganesan, 2013). Sometimes this means there is tension amongst firms in a coopetitive relationship as they potentially share market sensitive information. Coopetition involves different stakeholders negotiating about market information as part of their competitiveness (Stamboulis, 2007). The joint effort of firms in cooeptition means that the net value should be higher compared to firms acting independently (Vapola et al., 2008).\nFarm sector: The farm sector is characterized by the high number of multiple income generating activities (Alsos and Carter, 2006). This has been referred to as pluriactivity meaning \"the phenomenon of farm households engaging in gainful activities in addition to farming\" (Alsos et al., 2003). Pluriactivity is necessary in farming due to the economic uncertainty of agricultural crops that makes it important to have continual revenue streams. Farmers have survived by being entrepreneurial and developing new business ventures. McElwee (2008, p. 428) defines pluriactivity as \"any business activity that the farmer engages in which is off-farm activity.\"\nMethods: To explore the sustainable entrepreneurship intentions of farmers, a qualitative and interpretative methodology was utilized. This was due to qualitative methods providing a more in-depth description about processes that enable a better analysis of the role of environmental contexts (Neuman, 2006). The data were collected through archival and semi-structured in-depth interviews with farmers and stakeholders in the Sunraysia community. There were seven farms that formed the basis of the case study analysis but interviews were conducted with the manager of each farm in addition to other employees and stakeholders who had relationships with the farm. In total, 36 interviews were conducted in the Sunraysia region for this study. The interviews were conducted through e-mail and face-to-face communication based on an interview guide developed from the literature review. This enables a probing of the issues under investigation in this study and included open-ended questions enabling respondents to explain more about sustainable farm entrepreneurship. Open-ended questions were utilized to provide a more informal atmosphere and to delve deeper into the reasons for sustainable farming methods in the Sunraysia region. As a result more descriptive data were obtained from the interviewees.\nFindings: Place attachment was an important component of sustainable entrepreneurship in the minds of most interviewees. This was due to the Sunraysia region being well known for its agricultural industry and the reason most of the farms were located in this region. Many farmers expressed the view that the place in terms of being located in the Sunraysia region meant that they had to focus on sustainable farming due to community concerns about environmental degradation particularly around the Murray river region. This meant that the place in terms of being located near a river and in a farming community was important for most farmers. This is evident in the following quotes that demonstrate the importance of the Sunraysia region to the farming sector:This region is the premier place to grow fruit and vegetables. Most of the fruit and vegetables from Australia come from here. Most farmers associate the place of Mildura with being the region for sustainable farming methods. Mildura as part of the Sunraysia community is at the heart of where all sustainable farming methods occur(Interviewee 1).We are located in this region due to the climate and quality of the soil for our crops(Interviewee 5).\nSummary of findings: types of farm entrepreneurs: Overall, most of the farmers interviewed considered themselves as entrepreneurial due to their need to look at future trends in order to stay competitive. This meant that most of the farmers studied as part of the case study analysis took different approaches to entrepreneurship depending on the context of the economic environment. For some of the farmers this required focusing on the place where their farm was located in order to gain cooperation from local authorities and other farmers about potential new business opportunities. For other farmers, place was not so important as they were focused more on export markets as a way of increasing financial revenue. This led to more attention to be placed on sustainability due to the interest of international consumers on the growing conditions of fruit and vegetables. The interviewees were categorized according to their reason to be a farm entrepreneur. The main reasons were pluriactivity, sustainability, and coopetition as seen in Table I. Each of these categories had specific linkages to farm entrepreneurship as a source of inspiration and business goals.\nManagerial implications: The results of the case study analysis suggest that managers of farms can utilize coopetition as a way to increase their sustainable farming methods and increase regional competitiveness. Hence, there are two major practical suggestions for sustainable farm entrepreneurs. The first suggestion is to recognize that being attached to a place can be utilized to encourage collaboration about sustainability. Managers of farms should link in with regional government authorities more to gain education and knowledge about successful sustainable farming methods. In addition, farm entrepreneurs can utilize their social networks to facilitate communication based on their attachment to a particular regional location. This can include emphasizing the emotional attachment farm entrepreneurs have to the land. The second suggestion is to focus on the farm as a place for innovation. This suggests that farm entrepreneurs who are able to utilize innovation for sustainability reasons will be able to influence further innovative activity. This will help regions achieve a sense of innovation legitimacy as a way of fostering coopetition.\nPolicy implications: For public policy planners and local government officials, it is important to emphasis the legitimacy of innovation as a way for farmers to increase their income levels. McElwee (2008, p. 474) states that policy issues about farm entrepreneurship include \"income guarantees, but also the protection of the landscape, the maintenance of a rich ecology, the restriction of land development for residential purposes.\" This can be conducted by policies aimed at helping farmers cooperate with others to make more sustainable products and services. The findings of the data analysis revealed that farmers engage in entrepreneurship due to financial motivations, to environmental considerations, and to increase the success of the region. Policy makers need to focus on these reasons to encourage farmers to cooperate and innovate. First, in terms of financial motivations, policy makers can utilize educational technologies to show how coopetition can increase profitability in the long term for farmers. This can be conducted by providing examples of how farmers can collaborate in terms of sharing machinery, staff and land in order to achieve better long-term performance. Examples of successful farmers who have internationalized by piggybacking or sharing resources from other farmers would be helpful in order to promote coopetition. Second, for environmental considerations as protection of the landscape is important for tourism and the local economy, governments can give funding to initiatives around place attachment that lead to sustainable entrepreneurship. This ensures the ecology is maintained but there is environmentally friendly policies toward land development. Funding that make farmers collaborate on joint projects about sustainability and the environment can foster coopetition. Governments can require that the funding is dependent on successful collaboration that is measured in terms of output. Third, in terms of regional competitiveness a practical model that policy makers can foster is to create an office or space that farmers can get together to discuss potential collaborations. This can be in the form of a weekly speaker series that has a local farmer discussing the innovative methods that have utilized in their farming or new business models they are engaging in. By having a forum for discussion and a meeting place, this can encourage farmers to share ideas and gain knowledge about the benefits of coopetition, particularly in regional communities.\nFuture research: Future research is encouraged to focus more on how farm entrepreneurs are acting sustainable through coopetition and innovation. Sustainability is often associated with environmental concern but has business implications for farmers who are looking at diversifying their businesses. This means that more research is required to understand the processes that farmers take to become sustainable in order to develop their regional competitiveness. For instance, a focus on the role of other businesses being sustainable through entrepreneurship needs to be examined to see how it established innovation legitimacy. This would help to understand the linkages between businesses in the farming community to serve as a way of facilitating sustainable entrepreneurship. A call for more blending of conceptualizing of sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation is put forward as a way to understand the creative roles of farmers. This would help to address how a sustainable farmers attachment to a place makes them be entrepreneurial. Hopefully, the research conducted in this paper proposed three types of farm entrepreneurs that will be replicated in other geographical settings. This would help to understand the role of government policy in impacting sustainable methods of farm entrepreneurship. As more farmers focus on sustainability, there are exciting research avenues about innovation legitimacy, place attachment, and coopetition.\nConclusion: This paper has focused on sustainable farming entrepreneurship in the Sunraysia region of Australia. This area is known for being one of the largest producer of fruit and vegetables in Australia and is an important component of the regional economy. The theoretical frameworks of coopetition and evolutionary economics was discussed in order to understand how sustainable entrepreneurship is applied in a farming community. This enabled a case study methodology to be utilized in terms of understanding coopetitive behavior, innovation legitimacy, and place attachment in farm entrepreneurship. The findings of the research suggest that farmers are motivated to be sustainable when they are interested in developing the rural community, have an interest in the environment, and want to be innovative. Suggestions for farm managers were stated in addition to policy considerations for rural communities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Sustainable entrepreneurship is crucial for the ongoing viability and growth of rural economies. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of farm entrepreneurs in the sustainable development of rural regional areas by focusing on the Sunraysia farming community in Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The theoretical framework of evolutionary economics is utilized to understand the process of sustainable entrepreneurship for entrepreneurs in rural areas and a case study design is utilized to build theory linking place attachment, innovation legitimacy, and coopetitive behavior to sustainable farm entrepreneurship. The case studies are analyzed using an inductive approach to make theoretical contributions to rural and sustainable entrepreneurship.\nFindings: The key findings are that coopetition is necessary amongst sustainable farm entrepreneurs in order to induce a culture of innovation.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study focuses on the Sunraysia region of Australia so might be limited in scope and replication to other geographic areas.\nOriginality/value: This study focuses on the role of rural regional areas and the special entrepreneurial characteristics of the Sunraysia region due to immigration and location advantages.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
New principals, accountability, and commitment in low-performing schools
|
[
"Principals",
"Leadership",
"Accountability",
"Teachers",
"Administration"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Over the last two decades, the move toward standards-based accountability has been one of the prevailing trends in education, shifting the central focus of schools from managing inputs to improving student outcomes (Clotfelter and Ladd, 1996; Elmore, 2004). School leaders have responded to school accountability by altering organizational routines to increase their monitoring of teachers, promote standardization of instruction, and make teachers' instruction more transparent (Hallett, 2010; Spillane et al., 2011). As standards-based accountability has promoted increased control over the core work of schools, another approach to school improvement has emphasized that relational trust and professional community among school staff are central aspects of effective schools, and particularly crucial to improving low-performing schools (Bryk and Schneider, 2002; Bryk et al., 2010; Louis et al., 1996; McLaughlin and Talbert, 2001).\nTheoretical framing: Accountability, control, and commitment\nResearch methods: Data\nFindings: This remainder of this study develops and supports two assertions. The first assertion is that, prior to the school year, principals' conceptions of the relationship between accountability and commitment varied in two dimensions: first, on the degree of opposition they saw between the two areas, and second, on the degree of separation they saw between them. The second assertion is that during their first year as principals, most principals' conceptions of the relationship between accountability and commitment did not change; however, some principals' conceptions of the relationships between these two areas did change, generally moving toward an increased separation of accountability and commitment over time.\nDiscussion: This study finds that the tension between accountability and commitment is an important concern for new principals that take over low-performing urban schools. This should perhaps not be surprising, given prior findings on the disruptions that sometimes result when accountability is implemented by school principals (Hallett, 2010), as well as research establishing the importance of commitment, particularly for new principals in low-performing urban schools (Bryk et al., 2010). This study is the first, however, to explore new principals' sense-making about the relationship between these two aspects of their work with their teachers, as well as the ways that new principals' sense-making about their work in these two areas changes during their first year on the job.\nImplications: Taking over a low-performing, highly pressured school is challenging work for any principal, let alone a novice. Trust, cohesion, and professional community are crucial to long-term school improvement, but accountability pressures are often urgent and demand immediate attention. The findings of this study suggest that although the tension between accountability and commitment may be inherent to principals' work in low-performing schools, not all principals experience this tension to the same degree. Findings also suggest that some remedies may exist that could decrease the tension between accountability and commitment for at least some new principals. One possible remedy is to ease the accountability pressures on new principals, at least for a time, in order to allow them the space to build the commitment of their teachers (at least of those they plan to retain). Such a change to accountability systems, however, might delay much-needed change in some schools. Another approach is to use principal preparation, induction, and mentoring to help preservice and novice principals reflect on the tensions between accountability and commitment, and make plans to address them, a particularly important task for the principals that work in (or plan to work in) low-performing schools. Helping principals understand and plan for these tensions may ease some of the challenges new principals encounter in their early efforts with their teachers under highly pressured circumstances. With urban school districts increasingly relying on new principals (Stoelinga et al., 2008), helping novices think through these tensions may be a worthy task in preparing principals to take over the lowest-performing, most highly pressured schools.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine first-year principals' sense-making about two potentially conflicting demands as they take over low-performing urban schools: the demand to exert control over their teachers' practice, and the need to build their teachers' trust, collegiality, and commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study draws on a series of surveys and interviews with 12 first-year principals that took over some of the lowest-performing public schools in one large urban district.\nFindings: Some principals begin their first year seeing their work to build accountability and commitment as complementary, while others see these two areas as in tension. Principals remain relatively consistent in these approaches over their first year on the job, although some principals change their views, generally coming to see these two areas as increasingly separate over time.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future work should examine principals' work to balance the demands of accountability and commitment in a variety of organizational contexts.\nPractical implications: Principal preparation may benefit from training principals on the particular challenges they may face as they work with teachers in low-performing schools. Accountability systems may also seek to alter the demands placed on novice principals.\nOriginality/value: Despite the centrality of principals to school improvement, the prevalence of high-stakes school accountability, and findings on the importance of commitment to school success, little empirical research has examined how principals make sense of the potentially conflicting demands of accountability and commitment in highly pressured circumstances.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Linking peripheral vision with relational capital through knowledge structures
|
[
"Absorptive capacity",
"Relational capital",
"Peripheral vision",
"Technology knowledge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Relational capital (RC) represents the value derived from the relationship between a business and its external stakeholders (Onge, 1996). The current business environment is characterised by a shift from customer acquisition to a value creation process whereby firms continuously evaluate and seek to enhance the value of their RC (Nieto and Quevedo, 2005). In their efforts to do so, managers are expected to detect, interpret and act on often ambiguous signals present in their environment and its periphery (Day, 1994, 2000; Day and Schoemaker, 2006). Identifying peripheral activities and events may lead to new value-adding opportunities and provide new perspectives before these are perceived by the competition. The alternative perspectives available only in the periphery may add significant value to the firm's RC. Furthermore, a well-developed RC allows for a better interpretation of such peripheral, alternative perspectives (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). As Day and Schoemaker (2006) also point out, lack of awareness of peripheral signals can affect the competitive position of the firm as competitors may benefit from those opportunities. When organisations ignore the events unfolding on the periphery of their businesses they are likely to incur significant costs and additional risks (Fairclough, 2005).\n2. The proposed research model: 2.1 RC\n3. Method: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: Since PLS makes no distributional assumptions in its parameter estimation, traditional parameter-based techniques for significance testing and modelling are used for this study (Chin, 1998). The structural model is evaluated based on the algebraic sign, magnitude and significance of the structural path coefficients, the R\n5. Discussion: The first contribution of this research has been the study of the relationship between PV and RC in a series of relationships represented in the model in Figure 1. The relative importance and significance of T-knowledge and ACAP as mediators of the relationship between \"RC\" and \"PV\" has also been examined. The results achieved support the argument made, that most of the managerial perceptions on the knowledge generated by the PV are channelled through T-knowledge and ACAP. A possible explanation for this is that improvements in the organisation's PV may lead not only to the identification of a wider range of opportunities. It can also help organisational members diagnose and work to resolve operational issues which, in turn, are expected to have a positive effect on the firm's knowledge and knowledge structures. Under this framework, the knowledge provided by the periphery of an organisation's vision can lead to rapid reconfiguration in response to a wide range of opportunities potentially leading to innovation and successful adaptation to technological change (Haeckel, 2004).\n6. Concluding remarks: This paper has made a contribution to the understanding of the potential relationships between PV, as applied in an organisational context, and the two knowledge structures focus of this study. The relative importance and significance of ACAP and T-knowledge as mediators between \"RC\" and \"PV\" has also been examined through an empirical investigation of 125 employees from the banking sector. The study has concluded that the creation of RC by employees from the banking sector depends to a significant extent on how managers acquire, analyse, interpret and apply new external knowledge. The results of the study also indicate that the effects of the knowledge generated by the PV on RC are mediated by ACAP and T-knowledge. A possible explanation would be that whilst ACAP and T-knowledge are fostered among employees in the banking sector, their managers can capitalise on existing opportunities to strengthen and enhance RC through new and potential customers. Therefore, although PV brings with it potential knowledge related to the nature of new market opportunities, new customers and emerging customer needs, this knowledge needs to be channelled though the right structures for appropriate action.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Peripheral vision (PV) or side vision refers to that which is visible to the eye while being outside of its central area of focus. PV enables organisms to detect movement and potential threats in their environment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the concept of PV in the business environment, as well as its relationship with knowledge structures in the form of technology knowledge and absorptive capacity. The relative importance and significance of technology knowledge and absorptive capacity as mediators between \"relational capital\" (RC) and \"PV\" are also examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reports an empirical investigation involving 125 employees from the banking sector. Data collected was statistically analysed using PLS-graph software version 03.00. Results of the data analysis show relationships uncovered in the existing literature.\nFindings: The creation of RC by employees from the banking sector relies to a large extent on managers' ability to perceive, analyse and understand activity that is often outside the focus of their attention.\nPractical implications: Managers who explicitly value their RC have a wider vision of their environment. In turn, a wider understanding of the activity in the environment drives the strengthening of the organisation and its RC.\nOriginality/value: PV can have a direct impact on the organisation's appetite for the development of its technology knowledge base, thus contributing to enhance the firm's absorptive capacity as well as the extent, quality and value of its RC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Education for sustainable development in Pakistani higher education institutions: an exploratory study of students' and teachers' perceptions
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Students",
"Perceptions",
"Education for sustainable development",
"Teachers",
"Sustainability consciousness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sustainable development (SD) continues to be a major global challenge. The most critical issue of our period is sustainability - how to protect the planet's natural environment and resources while creating prosperity and well-being for a growing population (United-Nations, 2014; Holden et al., 2017). Under the leadership of the United Nations (UN), the international governments have showed their willingness in the past few decades to collectively resolve SD.\n2. Literature review: ESD has developed into a central idea that aims to address poverty, environmental damage and social injustice through education. It is considered as a tool to change people's behaviors, values and lifestyles by communicating awareness of sustainability, thus ensuring SD for people around the world (Biasutti and Frate, 2017; Kalsoom et al., 2018; O'Flaherty and Liddy, 2018). Moreover, in an increasingly complex and interconnected world with a very real existential threat such as climate change, there is a growing demand for education that goes beyond acquiring knowledge and skills to find jobs (Leicht et al., 2018). The UN declared 2005-2014 as the DESD, which promotes the ESD agenda by organizing advisory meetings and conferences around the world. Since then, a number of studies have been published to advocate and promote SD education, including books, toolkits, research articles, reports and success stories, at the level of policy, research and pedagogy (McKeown et al., 2002; Wals, 2012; UNESCO, 2014a, 2014b; Uvalic-Trumbic and Daniel, 2016; Rieckmann, 2017). Education systems around the world have been repositioned to include ESD specifically after DESD (Sharp, 2002; UNESCO, 2012; McKeown, 2013; Dhindsa, 2017). For example, all Swedish educational institutions must teach sustainability; Finland has adjusted its curriculum to incorporate sustainability content; and Manitoba (Canada) has included sustainability in the province's mission statement (McKeown, 2013).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Results and discussion: Our primary goal is to assess the extent of holistic and pluralistic ESD being implemented in Pakistani universities. We measured this variable by using seven items that document students' perceptions of ESD levels. Students were asked to rank their perceptions according to the five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = never to 5 = very frequent, and intermediate 3 = neutral (rare). The results are shown in Table 2 and Figure 1. The results of the study show that, overall, in Pakistan, university students believe that holistic and pluralistic ESD is relatively high because the average response is greater than the medium (neutral) category.\n5. Conclusions: High illiteracy rates are one of the main obstacles to a country's development path, while slow economic growth is another obstacle to reduce education budgets. Illiteracy and poverty are leading to inequalities in access to resources and hindering the pace of development. Most people rely on natural resources leading to their uncontrolled use and environmental degradation. However, in developing countries, there is a need to promote education that leads to environmental protection and SD. This poses a challenge to curriculum developers and policymakers as they attempt to match the target of numeracy and literacy rates while raising awareness of the path to SD (Dhindsa, 2017). The realization of a healthy, equitable green economy to support sustainable international movements requires the support of environmental policies, green economies and assessment of sustainability commitments and measures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to determine the current state of implementation and effectiveness of education for sustainable development (ESD) in Pakistani higher education institutions (HEIs) using students' and teachers' perceptions of sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey on teachers and students was conducted in public and private universities in Punjab, Pakistan. Data from 1,915 students and 120 teachers were collected through semi-structured questionnaires implemented during face-to-face interviews. Students were asked to rank social, environmental and economic indicators of sustainability consciousness (SC) on a five-point Likert scale. Structural equation model and regression model are used to analyze the data. The perceptions of students and teachers were assessed from their knowledge of sustainability.\nFindings: The occurrence of ESD in Pakistani HEIs is low and teachers have inadequate knowledge of sustainability. The holistic approach to ESD has a more pronounced effect on students' SC as compared to the pluralistic approach to ESD. Also, there is a correlation between the students' grades/class and the effectiveness of ESD. There is a need to pay more attention to implement ESD for undergraduate students in Pakistani HEIs.\nOriginality/value: The study stands out for using cross-sectional data from public and private universities of Pakistan. Furthermore, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study in Pakistan which attempts to investigate the effectiveness of ESD in terms of students' SC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Analyzing and forecasting the reliability for repairable systems using the time series decomposition method
|
[
"Time series analysis",
"Reliability management",
"Forecasting"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Reliability prediction is increasing important for companies. The reliability prediction model for failure data of a repairable system can be constructed in two ways. The first way is to select an appropriate probability function as the reliability growth model in advance, then use this model to predict future system reliability. However, a predetermined probability function may fit the failure data well, but the prediction result may not be good in practice. Also, it is often difficult for a reliability engineer to select an appropriate probability function from many existing mathematics probability functions (Liang and Afzel, 2006; Liang, 2008; Tong and Liang, 2005).The second approach to constructing a reliability prediction model involves time series analysis. Ascher and Feingold (1984) suggested that powerful time series analysis techniques are available for repairable systems. Time series analysis techniques have limited applicability to system reliability. However, it is still worthwhile to consider the usefulness of these techniques (Ascher and Feingold, 1984). Time series methods aim to recognize recurring patterns and nonlinear relationships (Azoff, 1994). Examples of traditional time series methods are the exponential smoothing method, the moving average (MA) method, the autoregressive integrated-moving average (ARIMA) model, the seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA) models and the time series decomposition method. Box and Jenkins (1976) developed ARIMA and SARIMA models to analyze time series data. The ARIMA and SARIMA models have been shown to be effective in time series prediction. The advantage of the SARIMA model over the ARIMA model is that the SARIMA model can deal with data involving trends and seasonality. A time series, exhibiting significant seasonality, should be analyzed, by the SARIMA model, rather than the ARIMA model. The exponential smoothing and MA methods, as well as the ARIMA and SARIMA models, were used to predict repairable system reliability (Healy, 1997; Liang and Tong, 2001; Singh et al., 1994; Singpurwala, 1978).The neural network model is also employed to forecast reliability because it can analyze and predict time series data. Numerous studies of reliability prediction have utilized neural networks for repairable systems (Ho et al., 2002; Liang, 2008; Tong and Liang, 2005; Xu et al., 2003).Additionally, the time series decomposition approach is extensively adopted for prediction, but rarely used for reliability engineering. Jiang and Xu (2007) used the time series decomposition method to model and analyze software aging and software failure. Liang (2009) first tried to use the time series decomposition approach to forecast the reliability of repairable systems. However, Liang (2009) did not explain explicitly and discuss sufficiently the proposed method. Liang (2009) also did not compare other reliability prediction methods such as the ARIMA model and neural networks.The numerous factors influencing the reliability of repairable systems include machinery, operating condition, maintenance conditions and intra-structural facilities (Ebling, 1997; Rajpal et al., 2006). These factors, which are interactive, affect the reliability of repairable systems (Chen, 2007; Rajpal et al., 2006). By adopting the time series decomposition method to decompose the reliability of repairable systems into numerous components (Delurgio, 1999), engineers and managers can evaluate these components and eventually make an accurate method for predicting the reliability of repairable systems.Therefore, this study develops a novel method of effectively predicting the reliability of repairable systems by using the time series decomposition approach. Results in this study can provide a valuable reference for engineers when constructing quality feedback systems for assessing current quality conditions, providing logistical support, correcting product design, facilitating optimal component-replacement and maintenance strategies, and ensuring that products meet quality requirements.\nLiterature overview: Non-homogeneous Poisson process and graph method\nResearch method: This study employs NHPP to model the failure data. Initially, Nelson's graph method (Nelson, 1988) is employed to estimate the mean number of repairs and the MCRF value for the repairable system. Second, employ time series decomposition approach to predict the mean number of repairs and MCRF values. Every step of the proposed model is detailed in the following.Estimating the mean number of repairs and MCRF values\nValidation of experimental results: Liang (2009) first adopts the time series decomposition method to predict the reliability for a repairable system using Wang's (1991) failure data. Wang's (1991) study, samples 36 months real failure data from an electronic system designed and manufactured by suppliers of the Chrysler Corporation. However, Wang's failure data are a specific data and it is the failure data with seasonality. Liang (2009) also did not compare other reliability prediction methods such as the ARIMA model and neural networks.To further confirm the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method, this study assume the following Weibull process and the failure rate (the mean repairs) for repairable systems m(t)=lbtb-1, l=200 and b=0.5. The failure data for repairable systems are simulated using statistical software from t=200 to 2,200. The simulation begins from the 1 January 1988. Figure 1 shows the data.The time series decomposition method is used to construct a prediction model based on 201 failure data. Figure 2 shows the plot of simulated failure data and the predicted failure data by the time series decomposition method. Figure 3 reveals the plot of the seasonal factor (S) of the mean number of repairs. Figures 4 and 5 separately reveals the plot of the trend cycle (TC) and the irregular factor (I) of the mean number of repairs.Finally, compares the prediction results obtained from the time series decomposition approach with the prediction results obtained by ARIMA model and neural networks, using the simulated failure data.During analytical process, notably, the simulated failure data shows no strong seasonality, the ARIMA model is employed for predicting the failure data, not the SARIMA model. According to the analytic steps, the ARIMA(0,1,2) model is selected as the most suitable ARIMA model.The input data are the previous failure data. The neural network model is employed to analyze and predict the simulated failure data-based the neural network analytic steps. The number of hidden layer is 1, the number of hidden neurons is 4 and the transfer function sets sigmoid on the neural network model. The RMS of training data are 0.111595. The correlation of training data are 0.576378.The prediction results obtained from the ARIMA model and neural networks exhibits Figure 6. Table I summarizes the prediction results. From MAE and RMSE, the proposed method outperforms ARIMA model and neural networks in predictive accuracy. After the Wilcoxon signed-rank test in Table II, at a significance level of 5 per cent, the time series decomposition approach is significantly different with the ARIMA model and neural networks in predictive power.\nConclusion: The proposed method developed herein makes the following contributions to predict the reliability of a repairable system:* The proposed method can analyze and predict the reliability for repairable systems. It can analyze the combined effect of trend-cycle components and the seasonal component of the failure data.* In the simulation study, the proposed method is better than the ARIMA model and neural networks in predictive accuracy for forecasting repairable system reliability.* Based on the analytical results achieved by the proposed method, engineers or management authorities can perform follow-up actions to improve the provision of logistical support, implement correct product design and ensure that products meet quality requirements.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to propose the time series decomposition approach to analyze and predict the failure data of the repairable systems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study employs NHPP to model the failure data. Initially, Nelson's graph method is employed to estimate the mean number of repairs and the MCRF value for the repairable system. Second, the time series decomposition approach is employed to predict the mean number of repairs and MCRF values.\nFindings: - The proposed method can analyze and predict the reliability for repairable systems. It can analyze the combined effect of trend-cycle components and the seasonal component of the failure data.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study only adopts simulated data to verify the proposed method. Future research may use other real products' failure data to verify the proposed method. The proposed method is superior to ARIMA and neural network model prediction techniques in the reliability of repairable systems.\nPractical implications: - Results in this study can provide a valuable reference for engineers when constructing quality feedback systems for assessing current quality conditions, providing logistical support, correcting product design, facilitating optimal component-replacement and maintenance strategies, and ensuring that products meet quality requirements.\nOriginality/value: - The time series decomposition approach was used to model and analyze software aging and software failure in 2007. However, the time series decomposition approach was rarely used for modeling and analyzing the failure data for repairable systems. This study proposes the time series decomposition approach to analyze and predict the failure data of the repairable systems and the proposed method is better than the ARIMA model and neural networks in predictive accuracy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
From female leadership advantage to female leadership deficit: A developing country perspective
|
[
"Gender",
"Culture",
"Middle East",
"Leadership",
"Institutional theory",
"Religion",
"Arab countries",
"Female leadership advantage",
"Female leadership deficit",
"Institutional pluralism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and theoretical background: Business leadership around the world shows a female deficit in that men hold substantially more than 50 percent of senior leadership positions. For instance, Catalyst (2015) reported that women presently occupy 4.6 percent of CEO positions at S\nGender research in leadership: Early research rested on an unstated assumption based on women leaders working in a North American context (Fagenson, 1990). Subsequent theorizing made the assumption of human universals explicit. For instance, Sidanius and Pratto (1999) gathered evidence to support their contention that all human societies subordinate women relative to men. Evolutionary psychologists argue that differentiation of gender roles in human societies is based on genetically heritable traits (Buss and Schmitt, 2011). Eagly's (1987) social role theory argued that from infancy, males and females are subject to different sets of rewards and sanctions. A more nuanced view was later posited which includes the combined impact of heritable human universals and learned gender socialization. The biological imperatives of reproduction place material restrictions on women's economic contributions compared to men's (Wood and Eagly, 2002). As technology develops, the range of economic activities enacted during pregnancy and lactation expands, allowing a loosening of gender-based restrictions on women's roles.\nInstitutional framework: We examine the level of disadvantage in contexts where prejudicial evaluations of women are still prominently institutionalized. Any female advantage in leadership style might be offset by disadvantage flowing from prejudice (Eagly and Carli, 2003). These suggestions highlight the importance of contextual considerations (Figure 1). In contexts fostering equal opportunity (such as Nordic countries), women reap benefits from this small advantage (Scenario C - Figure 1). This study assesses contexts plagued by prejudicial forces, where disadvantage in evaluation biases trumps the advantage in leadership (Scenario B).\nGeneral institutional context: Lebanon is an Arab country with observed patriarchal structures (Jamali et al., 2005; Karam and Afiouni, 2014). Lebanon is dominated by family businesses mostly headed by men (Sidani et al., 2009). Political and economic conditions have prompted lots of people, mostly men, to migrate for better earnings opportunities. This has increased employment of women but they still have a low labor force participation rate (23 percent; 71 percent for men) and their estimated earned income is only 25 percent of men's (Hausmann et al., 2012).\nMethod: Setting\nFindings: Our findings lend strong support to two propositions. Most interviewees demonstrated a positive \"theoretical\" attitude toward women leaders. Fifty three respondents asserted that women can indeed become leaders. When looking at interviewees' descriptions of \"who is a leader\", we were alert to any stereotypically feminine or masculine traits mentioned (Williams and Best, 1990). Most respondents (39/60) referred to both masculine (dominant, assertive, etc.) and feminine (sensitive, warm, etc.) traits. A leader who demonstrates feminine traits was not perceived to be deficient.\nDiscussion: We discuss how the above contribute to extant theorizing about FLD from an institutional perspective. Several institutional roadblocks emerged, yet some more salient than others. This is a clear case of institutional pluralism creating inertia where competing powers make change less feasible. We offer below a broader discussion before exploring how institutional pluralism could be used a source of positive change.\nContributions to theory and practice: The gender advantage model (Eagly and Carli, 2003) describes women's accomplishments where changing societal roles, leadership roles, and organizational practices are causing a demand for a leadership style more typical of women. Women are getting more educated, share in stereotypically male roles, and are exposed to a friendlier regulatory environment, as well as an increased access to role models. All of this, of course, is relative to other world regions. Our findings suggest females in other contexts face a leadership deficit shaped by forces which intertwine together to foster a context unwelcoming and unappreciative of their leadership potential.\nLimitations: One important limitation of this study is that we do not make cross-national comparisons, choosing to focus on data from a single country. The reason for this was that Lebanon is under-studied, such that the context is not well understood in the field of management. As such, we had to provide a detailed institutional background in order to presenta comprehensible analysis of the interview data. Another important limitation is use of interviews rather than questionnaires with previously validated quantitative survey measures of perceptions of women in leadership. As such, we cannot make quantitative comparisons with data from other sources, nor can we distinguish respondents' implicit theories about women in leadership from their actual experiences. However, using previously validated measures would not have allowed us to identify themes specific to the Lebanese context. As such, quantitative survey measures would not have allowed us to examine data relevant to our research question. Hence, the rationale for choosing an interview methodology was to gather data linking various institutional forces to women's business leadership opportunities and experiences.\nConclusion: Universalistic perspectives on women's business leadership are insufficient for explaining differences among countries in the FLD. By focussing on societal institutions, as perceived by Lebanese respondents, we link women's leadership to cultural-cognitive, normative, and regulatory forces. Analysis of data from interviews with 60 participants indicated that women in Lebanon face a set of cultural-cognitive assumptions based on a firmly entrenched patriarchal order. Normative views of leadership placing value on feminine behaviors such as providing support and caring about followers do not enhance women's leadership chances, because logics affirming inherent differences between women and men can be and are used to disqualify women from leadership positions. Regulatory forces restrict geographic movement and focus on family above career for women, also limiting women's leadership opportunities. When women do attain leadership positions, they are frequently and harshly criticized, either for the way they attained the position, for their actions as leaders, or both. Altogether, several institutional forces in Lebanon present substantial impediments to women's leadership. In cultures that feed the stereotype that women cannot isolate their family roles from their work roles, prejudice against women leaders become all that obvious. The situation becomes worse when institutional arrangements operate in a way that only feeds the disadvantage ratio referred to above. This disadvantage ratio is eventually reflected in a further deficit in leadership trumping any assumed \"modest\" leadership advantage.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper takes an institutional approach to identify cognitive, normative, and regulatory factors affecting women's business leadership in an under-studied traditional society. The purpose of this paper is to assess how such forces work to create a case of female leadership deficit (FLD) in Lebanon.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors analyze interview data to identify themes linking women's leadership with societal institutional forces. The qualitative analysis provides an understanding at the societal level of analysis which is only partially tempered through organizational structures.\nFindings: Misalignments among cognitive, normative, and regulative pillars inhibit real change. Organizational structures are not highly salient as the most important factors affecting women's leadership. Rather, patriarchal structures, explicit favoring of males over females, and assignment of women to nurturing roles within the private sphere of the family are the major limiting factors impeding women's ascension to leadership.\nResearch limitations/implications: A promise of the institutional approach is enhancing the capacity to make meaningful comparisons between societies. This opens the door to uncovering whether documentable changes in regulations, cognitions, values, and norms regarding women in business leadership, will lead to observable changes in the size of FLD.\nOriginality/value: This study presents a case of institutional pluralism where a positive force in one direction (regulatory) is sometimes opposed by other forces (cognitive and normative) limiting meaningful change. This study helps to explain why societies differ in the size of the FLD and to identify factors that predict within societal changes in the size of this deficit over time.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Education for sustainable development: an exploratory study in a Portuguese University
|
[
"Portugal",
"Higher education",
"University",
"“Education for sustainable development” (ESD)",
"Course units"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: At the beginning of the twenty-first century, over seven billion people occupy a planet of limited space and finite resources, a planet characterised by inequality and marked by multiple deep social and environmental problems felt at both local and government levels. Problems such as demographic growth, the uneven distribution of the world population, asymmetries in patterns of consumption and general environmental, social and economic impacts characterise the situation of planetary emergency we now face (Gil-Perez and Vilches, 2001, 2005).\nConceptual framework: One of the basic tools for creating conditions for the human population to contribute to an effective SD is education (Tilbury and Wortman, 2004; UNECE, 2011; Gadotti, 2013). The establishment of the importance of education to achieving the goals of SD can be traced to 1992 and to the moment when Agenda 21 delegated part of the necessary action for SD to education (Burmeister and Eilks, 2013). The DESD, launched by UNESCO in 2005, aimed to:\nMethodological framework: Two main types of paradigm have been identified in educational research (Erickson, 1986): the positivist and the interpretative, the former focussing on behaviour and on controlling and predicting phenomena and the latter centred on action and trying to understand educational realities and modify understandings through intervention (Boutin et al., 1990; Coutinho, 2006). In the light of this general guiding principle and given the objectives of this study, we can conclude that it is situated within the interpretative paradigm. This, as its name indicates, aims to interpret - a process according to which human beings construct knowledge (Boutin et al., 1990) - and has among its principle distinctive characteristics, following Guba and Lincoln (1991), a preference for qualitative methods.\nResults: The search for key expressions in the online descriptions of the UA CU using the search instrument identified 15 results, as presented in Table I.\nConclusions and implications: On the basis of these results, we can say that the answer to our first research question is yes because, according to the analysis of the CU, it was possible to find direct matches with key ESD expressions in 15 of them. In addition, nine CU were identified in the second stage of analysis, of the teacher training master programmes. These numbers (small given the number of CU which exist at UA) support the conclusion that the ESD approach is not yet common practice in this institution.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The research aims to evaluate whether this educational approach is being implemented in a Portuguese public university and looking for explicit references to education for sustainable development (ESD) in the online descriptions of course units (CU).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design adopted for this qualitative research follows the principles of a case study with exploratory, multiple and collective features.\nFindings: It was possible to find direct matches with key ESD expressions in fifteen of CU. In addition, nine CU were identified in the second stage of analysis of the teacher training master programmes.\nResearch limitations/implications: One of the limitations of this study which the authors identified, and which was responsible for considerably reducing the probability of finding matches, was that only results in which the key expressions appeared in the description of the CU in exactly the same form as in the research instrument were recorded.\nPractical implications: The need for an educational programme for teachers to be developed and implemented in the near future.\nSocial implications: A training workshop will be proposed with the main aim of supporting teaching staff in making the necessary shift in their pedagogical practices to include a ESD orientation in their CU.\nOriginality/value: The instrument eveloped that appears in Appendix - Analysis Tool with key ESD expressions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Clique and elite: inter-organizational knowledge sharing across five star hotels in the Saudi Arabian religious tourism and hospitality industry
|
[
"Knowledge sharing",
"Game theory",
"Grounded theory",
"Coopetition",
"Oligopoly theory",
"Prisoner’s dilemma"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This study focuses on knowledge sharing practices from an inter-organizational perspective in the Saudi Arabian religious tourism and hospitality industry. This is a context where organizations engage simultaneously in competitive and cooperative relationships. The study addresses the paradoxical competitive-cooperative environment of the tourism and hospitality industry within an informal clique of five-star hotels within the Saudi religious tourism and hospitality industry and the need for theories to understand the nature and role of knowledge sharing practices in this area. It argues that, similar to successful strategies within the prisoner's dilemma model, hotels choose to cooperate because it is a better long-term strategy than seeking to divide the market through competition. The result is a theory of knowledge sharing practices among five-star hotels in the religious tourism and hospitality industry of Saudi Arabia. The study identifies the existence of a cooperative-competitive tension. A theoretical contribution of the model is the use of oligopoly theory and of game theory to explain the way in which inter-organizational knowledge sharing occurs within this particular market context. The following section examines the literature of inter-organizational knowledge sharing and competitive-cooperative contexts.\n2. Inter-organizational knowledge sharing and competitive-cooperative contexts: The image of an organization as an autonomous entity within a competitive environment has long been replaced with one in which a number of organizations work together to develop and strengthen their competitiveness within that environment. As a result, the conduct of business relies on interdependent relationships between actors in an industry (Grangsjo, 2003; Grangsjo and Gummesson, 2006) often adopting a cooperative-competitive approach, also referred to as coopetition (Brandenburger and Nalebuff (1996), where two or more organizations \"work together to collectively enhance performance by sharing resources and committing to common task goals in some domains [...]. At the same time, they compete by taking independent action in other domains to improve their own performance\" (Luo, 2004, p. 11). There is a fine line between competition and cooperation, but such inter-organizational relationships give rise to the view that cooperation between competitors is mutually beneficial. This results in a strategic interdependence between competing organizations, and a state of tension where they must explore different options concerning the practices that will give them individual advantages and those that will benefit the industry as a whole. The tourism industry, particularly at the destination level, is often characterized by this paradoxical relationship wherein which the same organizations compete and collaborate simultaneously (Bolinger and Smith, 2001; Gronau, 2002; Scott and Laws, 2006). For example, collaborative efforts shape decisions on how to collectively market their destination and are intricately linked to how they determine individual benefits versus common benefits that will be advantageous to both the destination and the individual businesses. As highlighted by Carayannis et al. (2014), coopetition is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, marked by tensions, and does not follow pre-defined patterns or strategies.\n3. Research design and methodology: The research design of the study is based on an adaptation of the grounded theory methodology. The selection of this approach is based on the exploratory nature of the research, as this particular methodology aims to develop a theory around issues where there is limited documentation (Glaser, 1998; Pauleen et al., 2007, Goulding 2007). Glaser and Strauss (1967) developed grounded theory to create an approach based on three foundations:\n4. Cooperative practices and informal association among five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia: Tourism is Saudi Arabia's third largest industry after energy and manufacturing, and it is important to note the major role of religious tourism within the national economy. This form of religious tourism is defined by specific features that give it a unique identity. First, the immense number of pilgrims converging on the two holy cities, Makkah and Madinah, in short spans of time for the annual Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages makes these gatherings the largest on Earth and place particular pressures on the hospitality industry at these times. Second, the duration of the visits is of significance, as many pilgrims who attend are in the cities of Makkah and Madinah well beyond the time required by the religious practice. The third characteristic of religious tourism in Saudi Arabia is that it is not greatly affected by the international economic situation or by changing environmental conditions, as pilgrims will still aim to attend in poverty or in misfortune. The hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia has therefore become a major target for investors at the international level. Some international chains have more than one hotel in the same area, with the distance between them only a few meters. Although this destination has recently become a focus of interest in terms of business and investment, it is neglected in terms of research. Similarly, there is still limited research in exploring aspects related to the management of knowledge in the Saudi Arabian business context (Abukhader, 2016).\n5. Discussion: clique and elite inter-organizational knowledge sharing among competing five-star hotels: This study identifies a phenomenon of significance for industry networks: the formation of a clique, \"a subset of members who are more closely identified with one another than they are with the remaining members of their group and who exchange something among themselves (this exchange can be referred to as the content of the relationships and may be information, affect, friendships, and so forth)\" (Tichy, 1973, p. 197). In the hospitality industry, such cliques can be identified based on three primary features: similarity, competition and status. Thus, an examination of the features of the five-star hotel clique will be of value to an understanding of the knowledge sharing practices in the hotel industry. The relationships among these hotels can be described, based on the interview data, as informal. Informality refers mainly to the fact that such relationships are not established nor maintained by any written agreement and that these organizations are inherent competitors, balancing competition with the sharing of knowledge. Although five-star hotels constitute an informal clique, membership is not arbitrary and entry is determined by the three aforementioned key factors of similarity, competition and hotel status.\n6. Conclusions: The conclusions drawn from the findings can produce a theory that focuses on industry issues from an inter-organizational perspective. Cooper (2006) calls for this type of theorizing in the tourism and hospitality field because the conventional view that knowledge management is only applied within a single firm, rather than also being applicable across organizations, is outdated. An additional and significant contribution of this research is a proposed knowledge sharing model, addressing the tension between cooperation and competition, a major aspect of the relationships between interdependent firms within an oligopolistic market structure. These interdependent firms form a clique that is based on their shared experiences and similarities (Rowley et al., 2004). Such a finding is significant because the proposed theoretical model of this research explains how hotels which are involved in such competitive-cooperative relationships use their shared knowledge in two ways: collectively, to gain common benefit (which reflects the cooperative aspect of their relationships), and individually, to gain private benefit (which reflects the competitive aspect of their relationships).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to offer a theoretical and practical explanation for the nature and reasons for inter-organizational knowledge sharing across an informal clique of competing five-star hotels in the Saudi Arabian religious tourism and hospitality industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology is an adapted form of the grounded theory approach deploying a four-stage research design using qualitative interviews with key players in the industry to inform the analysis of the knowledge sharing approaches.\nFindings: The findings illustrate the features of the knowledge sharing approaches across the five-star hotels studied. In particular, the findings highlight the existence of a cooperative-competitive tension in the relationships and knowledge sharing between the hotels. This illustrates the existence of a tacit strategy that cooperation can lead to long-term benefits for the competitor hotels.\nOriginality/value: The study is unique in its focus on the cooperative-competitive tension of five-star hotels in the Saudi Arabian religious tourism and hospitality industry and on this influence on the inter-organizational knowledge sharing across hotels within an oligopolistic market structure. The study also has value in using elements of oligopoly theory and of game theory, particularly, the prisoner's dilemma, in explaining how inter-organizational knowledge sharing occurs within this market context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Get group agreement fast
|
[
"Facilitation",
"Team working",
"Project management",
"Decision making"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Collective intelligence has been called the process of enhancing the group IQ and, as such, is an attractive proposition for managers and leaders. But how do you mine this intelligence? In principle we know that we can achieve more when we work together with others - but in practice how can we make it happen?\nRapid consensus: So what exactly do you do as a facilitator?Facilitation depends on the context. There is no set script. You have to be able to respond to whatever is going on, in the moment, with the people in the room. However, if you are a manager and you want to get the best out of your team so that everyone is contributing, you will need to:*Develop great listening skills ... listening for everything that is said and not said; listening for intent, for commitment, for purpose.*Learn how to speak powerfully, timing your remarks so that they encourage, support, challenge or inspire people.*Know how to ask penetrative questions that open up discussions or shine a light on issues where people are stuck.*Be able to challenge people either directly or through feedback.*Be able to value people so that they feel acknowledged and encouraged to speak out.*Be a great observer, watching everything that is happening and bringing what is important to the attention of the group.*Be able to contain people. This means holding the boundaries for the group and keeping the team on track.By using such skills, you can facilitate teams and groups to deal with the invisible factors that often bedevil projects. But facilitation can be much more specific that this, and a new approach for facilitators has been developed that focuses on how to get people to collaborate and reach consensus fast.This is especially relevant because decision making can often be slow and, sometimes, the decisions made do not make much sense to those who have to implement them. This is very frustrating for everyone concerned. So RapidConsensus was developed to help people in teams to make good decisions, own those decisions and take action based on those decisions in order to accelerate projects.The key principles behind the model are straightforward. It helps people to understand exactly where they are now and where they want to be. Following that, it gets the whole team to consider what the options are and to identify what actions are needed to get there. But its real strength lies in getting people actually to work through each of the stages together. When a team does this, instead of hurrying through the decision-making process, it gets everyone involved and mines their intelligence.As for the end result - the outcome is people who own what they have helped to create. And this is completely different from traditional styles of management, where decisions are typically imposed or communication is one way.So how does RapidConsensus ensure people's engagement? One method used derives from the facilitator helping group or team members to identify the future that they want to create. What this means in practice is getting people to articulate as powerfully as possible where they want to be. This is important because there are many more creative possibilities in the future than there are in the present. To paraphrase Einstein: \"You cannot solve problems with the same level of thinking that got you here.\"Another technique used is to split the team into sub-groups and have them all consider the same issue concurrently. Simple methods like this ensure that everyone has the opportunity to contribute.The approach does not take long, but it does require exceptional facilitation. During this process the facilitator must listen to everything and defend nothing. He or she must remain neutral and feedback what everyone has said to the whole group. People come into the room from many different viewing platforms - for example production, marketing, sales, maintenance and administration. All see the world and the problems within it through their own lens. However, it is the combination of all these perspectives that can provide the foundation for agreement.\nSpeed and quality: I also suggest that the speed of this process contributes directly to the quality of the team's decisions.People have different speeds of thinking and interacting, yet we all have a rapid cognition capability that works best under time pressure. The first intuitive response is, most times, much better than a long drawn-out analytical thinking process. As the room becomes a safe place to explore ideas, the ability of people to process complex information and make decisions also speeds up. Well-facilitated groups surprise themselves with the speed with which they can collectively process information and make decisions. And experience has shown us that the quality of these decisions is high, as continued progress and breakthroughs are made after the workshop.In essence, the promise of RapidConsensus is that it helps to address one of those seemingly intractable business issues -how to make good, fast decisions that the whole team can get behind. It does this by getting everyone to start together and talk together in the same room. As economic guru John Kay said: \"Despite the internationalization of markets, despite air travel, despite information technology, there are still things done best by people who find themselves in the same room.\"More from illumine on +44 (0)1753 866633 or visit www.illumine.co.uk\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to consider how facilitation can be used specifically in teams when consensus is required.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper discusses how facilitation can be used in teams.\nFindings: - Finds that teams which mine for the collective intelligence of all members engage people and come to decisions that team members own.\nPractical implications: - Suggests that hurried or imposed decisions will fail to get the support of the team. In this way, management is contributing to its own failure. Points out that facilitators need both a set of generic skills and specific techniques which they can apply to group decision-making.\nOriginality/value: - Argues that the skills of facilitation in ensuring that people are heard and valued equally are essential to such decision-making.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Do you know your valuable customers?
|
[
"Motivation",
"Strategic management",
"Customer knowledge management",
"Customer typologies",
"Entrepreneurial firms",
"Strategic customers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: New challenges have surfaced for enterprises due to the perpetual environmental changes, globalization developments as well as the transition to a knowledge society (Zack, 1999; DiMaggio, 2001; Myers, 1996). It is therefore even more important than ever to handle scarce resources such as knowledge strategically as these constitute the decisive competitive advantage for knowledge-intensive companies (Drucker, 1964). Existing internal knowledge resources are utilized for strategic planning whereas the customer is mainly neglected as an external fragment (Zack et al., 2009). It therefore seems to be sensible to deal with one's external counterparts by, for example, entering strategic alliances and including customers in parts of the value chain in today's economy (Desouza and Awazu, 2005; Dyer et al., 2001; Gibbert et al., 2002; Gulati, 1998; Hood, 1998). Customers can represent important external sources as they possess knowledge and skills, which they have acquired through experience. They have also collected suggestions for improvement from their day-to-day activities and therefore embody the best source for further value adding activities (Handlbauer and Renzl, 2009; Gibbert et al., 2002). In order for the enterprise to generate and sustain this competitive advantage, they must possess the ability of recognizing the value of new external knowledge and fitting it to the company. The capability to acquire knowledge has been described as \"absorptive capacity\" (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990).\n2 Theoretical background: 2.1 Customer knowledge management\n3 Research methodology: Considering the aim of our study, an explorative qualitative research approach appeared to be more appropriate. The qualitative approach allows us to get close to participants and their thinking in order to scrutinize the research problem as a whole (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994).\n4 Presentation of findings: 4.1 Definition and identification of strategic customers\n5 Conclusion: The present work concerns itself with the question of what role CKM takes on in \"entrepreneurially-oriented smaller firms\". It also briefly discusses the research questions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Customer knowledge has not yet been recognized as a possible source of strategic competitive advantage in expansion of the knowledge-based view. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to gain initial insights into the strategic dimension of customers knowledge in order to enable companies to define, identify and motivate the right customers and work with them together on a strategically successful level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The following single case study is based on semi-structured interviews with nine employees and strategic customers as well as a document analysis in an entrepreneurially oriented smaller firm equipped with limited resources.\nFindings: The findings demonstrate that strategic customers take on a valuable position within the company. It appears that the strategic customer is more aware of his/her value than the company itself. A definition and first criteria of strategic customers could be determined and a systematic identification of strategic customers is possible with the help of this study.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper is an empirical contribution to the existing customer knowledge management literature and aids in gaining further insight into the definition, identification and motivation of strategic customers. A definition is derived based on a literature study and developed further through the results of the empirical analysis. An additional result of the empirical study showed that customer oriented knowledge management is a promising bridge between the knowledge- and market-based view.\nOriginality/value: The apparent lack of resources in entrepreneurially oriented smaller firms can be overcome through the addition of external knowledge resources, which the paper refers to as strategic customers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Returns of REITS and stock markets: Measuring dependence and risk
|
[
"Real estate",
"Portfolio investment",
"Returns",
"Stock markets",
"Risk analysis",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the last decade, also in Australia the market for real estate investment trusts (REITS) has shown substantial growth rates. REITS were originally a tax design for corporations investing in real estate assets in order to reduce or eliminate the corporate income tax. Overall, the REIT structure was designed to provide a somehow similar vehicle for investments in real estate markets as mutual funds provide for investments in stocks. Australian real estate investment trusts (AREITS) are a unitized portfolio of property assets, listed on the Australian stock exchange, which allows investors to purchase a share in a diversified and professionally managed portfolio of real estate. There are now about 70 listed ASX-REITS with market capitalization of around $85 billion. The sector currently represents around 6 percent of the market capitalization of the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Overall, the market can be classified by offering four different types of REITS (Davidson et al., 2003):1. Equity trusts where the assets are invested in ownerships claims to various types of properties like, e.g. residential, commercial or industrial property.2. Mortgage trusts where the assets are invested in claims where interest is the main source of income like for example mortgages.3. Hybrid trusts that invest in both equity and mortgages, offering the advantage of offsetting interest income against depreciation of the property.4. Specialized trusts that invest for example in development and construction or are involved in sale and lease-back arrangements.Earlier studies on the topic have shown that in general REIT returns were lower than the returns of both small and large capitalization stocks (Hartzell et al., 1999). On the other hand, the literature also reports that returns were less volatile than those of equity markets (Mueller et al., 1994; Ghosh et al., 1996; Chen and Peiser, 1999; Clayton and MacKinnon, 2001). This is not really surprising, since for AREITS by regulation 95 percent of the income must be paid out as a dividend. Therefore, a lower volatility of AREITS returns could be expected, see, e.g. Tien and Sze (2000).Another focus is usually set on investigating the correlation between returns from investments in REITS and stock markets, see, e.g. Brueggeman et al. (1984), Chen and Peiser (1999), Clayton and MacKinnon (2001), Hudson et al. (2003) or Chen et al. (2004) just to mention a few. This is of particular interest, since such an analysis determines the diversification effect of REITs in portfolio of multiple assets. While earlier studies on the topic have shown the significant negative correlations between the REITS and other assets (Brueggeman et al., 1984), more recent studies often report weak but positive correlations between investments in REITS and shares (Chen and Peiser, 1999; Hartzell et al., 1999; Clayton and MacKinnon, 2001). Still, it can be assumed that diversification can be achieved by inclusion of REITS in a portfolio. Hudson et al. (2003), analyzing the reasons for considering real estate investments, suggest the reduction of overall risks of the portfolio as the most prominent one. Moreover, Chen et al. (2004) examine the economic significance of including REITS into an investment portfolio, and show that the mean-variance frontier can be augmented and the investment opportunity set can be enlarged. However, due to changes in the correlation structure, it may be difficult to determine diversification effects and constructing the Markowitz optimal portfolio through time. Glascock et al. (2000) find time-varying correlations and suggest that since structural changes in the early 1990 s REITs behave more like investment in stocks and less like bonds. Inspired by Engle (2002) and his work on dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) models, also the changing nature of the dependence between REITS and other investments has been investigated. Huang and Zhong (2006) apply Engle's model for portfolio constructing with REITS, and the authors find that the DCC model outperforms other correlation structures such as rolling, historical and constant correlations.However, recently, there has been some criticism towards the assumptions underlying the DCC model, in particular with respect to the assumptions of multivariate normality for the joint distribution of asset returns and the use of a covariance matrix as the natural measure of dependence between the assets. As shown in various studies, see, e.g. Cherubini et al. (2004), Jondeau and Rockinger (2006), Junker et al. (2006), Luciano and Marena (2003) or McNeil and Frey (2003), the use of correlation does not appropriately describe the dependence structure between financial assets and could lead to inadequate measurement of the risk. The authors suggest the application of copula methods for modelling the dependence structure of the asset returns in order to overcome this problem. For an excellent overview on copula methods in finance, see Cherubini et al. (2004), where the range of applications of copula methods in finance includes various topics such as portfolio analysis, derivative pricing, interest rates or credit risk analysis.With respect to analysing the dependence structure between different financial assets, the methodology of copulas as alternative to the DCC model has the advantage that it doesn't require the assumptions of joint normality for the distributions. Instead it allows joining arbitrary marginal distributions into their multivariate distribution allowing for a wide range of dependence structures by using different copulas. So the multivariate joint distribution can be decomposed into marginal distributions and an appropriate functional form for the dependence between the asset returns.In this paper we apply copula models in order to investigate the dependence structure between returns of AREITS and the Australian stock market. Hereby, we contribute to the literature in several dimensions. To our best knowledge this is one of the first studies to thoroughly investigate the nonlinear relationship between AREITS and returns of the Australian stock market. Further, this is a pioneer study on applying and testing different copula models in real estate markets. Finally, we provide a risk analysis comparing linear and non-linear copula models with respect to the quantification of the risk for a portfolio combining investments in real estate and stock markets.The remainder of the paper is set up as follows. Section 2 provides a review of different copula models in comparison to the traditional multivariate normal approach generally suggested for portfolio and risk management. In particular we review approaches for copula estimation, model testing and risk analysis. Section 3 describes the considered models and data and provides an empirical analysis to a time series consisting of an Australian REIT and equity index. Section 4 concludes and provides suggestions for future work.\n2. Copula models - estimation and goodness-of-fit tests: 2.1 Copula functions\n3. Empirical analysis: 3.1 The data\nConclusion: This paper provides an investigation of the dependence structure of monthly returns from Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (AREITS) and the All Ordinaries Index (AOI) for the time period 1980 to 2009. In the last decade, the investment in REITS has shown substantial growth rates, since they enable investors to purchase a share in a diversified and professionally managed portfolio of real estate. We apply different copula models including the Clayton, Gumbel, Gaussian and Student t copula in order to investigate the dependence structure between real estate and equity returns. To our best knowledge this is one of the first studies to apply and test different copula approaches in real estate markets.The copula models are estimated and goodness-of-fit tests are conducted in order to determine which of the copulas families yields the best fit to the empirically observed dependence structure. Among the examined models, in particular the Gaussian and Student t copula provide an appropriate description of the dependence structure between the two return series. For the Archimedean Clayton and Gumbel copula results are not that convincing, as the appropriate fit of the copula families is rejected by the conducted goodness-of-fit tests.We also provide a risk analysis for the different models with respect to the quantification of the risk for a portfolio combining investments in real estate and stock markets. Our findings suggest that the usually applied multivariate normal or variance-covariance model is not able to measure the complex dependence structure between the returns of the two asset classes. The approach leads to a significant underestimation of the actual risk for the portfolio. The estimated Value-at-Risk is exceeded significantly more often than suggested by the model. The nature of risk is better captured by the copula models. In particular, a model using non-parametric estimates for the return series in combination with a Student t copula, due to the implied tail dependence, is suitable to also model joint extreme losses for the two asset classes.Overall, our work shows that copula functions provide a powerful tool for modelling the dependence structure between financial asset variables and accurate measurement of the Value-at-Risk for portfolios that contain investment in real estate and other markets. Our findings further suggest that ignoring the complex dependence structure in favor of a simple multivariate normal model leads to a significant underestimation of the actual risk. This is of particular importance for portfolio or risk managers dealing with real estate investments. With respect to an appropriate risk management of the portfolio, not only the expected return and variance should be considered, but also the nature of the downside risks and extreme losses in their portfolio. In particular for this task the application of copula models should prove as a superior alternative.Since the study is mainly based on the bivariate case, future research must be done to extend this type of applications to the multivariate case and higher dimensions. Further, the changing structure of dependence through time should be investigated with a conditional approach involving a time-series models like ARCH or GARCH for the marginal distributions and dynamic correlations and copula functions for the dependence structure.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the dependence structure between returns from real estate investment trusts (REITS) and a stock market index. Further, the aim is to illustrate how copula approaches can be applied to model the complex dependence structure between the assets and for risk measurement of a portfolio containing investments in REIT and equity indices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The usually suggested multivariate normal or variance- covariance approach is applied, as well as various copula models in order to investigate the dependence structure between returns of Australian REITS and the Australian stock market. Different models including the Gaussian, Student t, Clayton and Gumbel copula are estimated and goodness-of-fit tests are conducted. For the return series, both the Gaussian and a non-parametric estimate of the distribution is applied. A risk analysis is provided based on Monte Carlo simulations for the different models. The value-at-risk measure is also applied for quantification of the risks for a portfolio combining investments in real estate and stock markets.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that the multivariate normal model is not appropriate to measure the complex dependence structure between the returns of the two asset classes. Instead, a model using non-parametric estimates for the return series in combination with a Student t copula is clearly more suitable. It further illustrates that the usually applied variance-covariance approach leads to a significant underestimation of the actual risk for a portfolio consisting of investments in REITS and equity indices. The nature of risk is better captured by the suggested copula models.\nOriginality/value: - To the authors', knowledge, this is one of the first studies to apply and test different copula models in real estate markets. Results help international investors and portfolio managers to deepen their understanding of the dependence structure between returns from real estate and equity markets. Additionally, the results should be helpful for implementation of a more adequate risk management for portfolios containing investments in both REITS and equity indices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Fairness and the fast food employee: Using organizational justice to enable performance management
|
[
"Performance management",
"Employee satisfaction",
"Training needs",
"Mystery shoppers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nReview: Is the customer always right? This somewhat hackneyed phrase is still trotted out by many managers when seeking to underline the importance of customer service. Of course, all employees should aim to give the best service they are able to within the parameters of their role, but sometimes the customer may not be all they seem to be, and employee behavior has to be understood more widely. After all, we all have seen customer behavior that lacks any kind of respect for retail employees. We may even have been guilty of this ourselves.\nMystery machines: One method as old as the hills is the use of mystery shoppers. Going into a retail or service environment and posing as real customers is a common practice and has been developed over the years with increasing measures of sophistication. However, no two service environments are the same, and learning from both different situations and different service cultures can help with ensuring the optimal adoption of this practice. One such example is the study by Pashkina and Plakhotnik (2018) in their article \"Mystery shopping through the lens of organizational justice.\"\nAnd justice for all?: For their study, the authors focused on the broad concept of justice for their survey of Russian \"chef-cashiers.\" Chef-cashiers work in the fast food chain both on the till and in the kitchen as and when required, with a supervisor overseeing them. Their bonuses are based on scores from four mystery shopper visits per month, with points applied to various aspects of the restaurant. The aim is clear from a management perspective - provide a consistently high standard of service on a weekly basis, and the whole team benefits. Let standards slip, and you let your colleagues down.\nTwin outcomes: By discussing the findings of their study, Pashkina and Plakhonotnik derive two major learning points that can have positive implications for other managers seeking to use mystery shopper systems of evaluation. First, by using the perspective of organizational justice - that is, by looking through the eyes of employees to understand their perceptions of fairness or otherwise of processes and systems through the four specific forms of justice identified above - the findings can be used to develop and refine those systems. For example, the lack of an appeals procedure seems short-sighted on behalf of the management, and introducing this will garner higher satisfaction, as will being seen to listen to employees' concerns.\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 paper is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: Is the customer always right? This somewhat hackneyed phrase is still trotted out by many managers when seeking to underline the importance of customer service. Of course, all employees should aim to give the best service they are able to within the parameters of their role, but sometimes, the customer may not be all they seem to be, and employee behavior has to be understood more widely. After all, we all have seen customer behavior that lacks any kind of respect for retail employees. We may even have been guilty of this ourselves.\nPractical implications: This paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The paper 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"
}
] |
Paternalism and professionalism at BCI and ABN Amro: Banks accommodate Latin American cultural traits in modern HR policies
|
[
"Contracts of employment",
"Banking",
"Culture",
"Organizational performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Modern economies have come a long way since employee/employer, worker/owner relationships were based on arrangements such as serfdom or paternalism, by which protection and security were offered in exchange for loyalty.\nConflict avoidance means managers do not say what they expect: Chileans tend to be anxious to avoid conflict, which can manifest itself in a reluctance explicitly to state performance expectations to subordinates. From the workers' point of view good HR practices consist of having good social relationships, which are friendly, understanding of personal issues, not very demanding and avoiding conflict.Managers may feel that openly to state their expectations would amount to opening conflicts. Messages would be misunderstood, reinterpreted, and the standards questioned - not because of a technical disagreement, but because the cultural gap is too wide to allow for mutual understanding. The result is one of managers and professionals viewing their support staff as unsupporting and operatives being inoperative.There is also distrust of supervisory authority, which tends to be viewed as unreliable, capricious and discretionary. This is a result of social patterns in the family where paternal control tends to be assertive and somewhat aggressive and unpredictable. Favoritism is the main source of blatant distrust of management. Decisions by managers tend to be seen as motivated by self-interest, not taking into account subordinates' needs, and jeopardizing the social harmony of the working group.All is not lost, however. As two Chilean banks - Bank of Credit and Investments (BCI) and ABN Amro - have demonstrated, cultural traits can be successfully accommodated into modern HR policies and practices to allow the establishment of sound labor relationships that allow enterprises successfully to face up to competition. Although their approaches are different, the banks have been equally successful in attaining a more loyal, self-reliant and highly productive workforce.The similarity of both banks' benefit packages demonstrates the influence of past agreements with labor unions and current workers' expectations. However, the banks differ in the rhetoric they employ to frame their values and the policies that follow from them. While BCI emphasizes a family metaphor to depict labor relationships, the international bank ABN Amro underscores professionalism, indicating more reliance on self-regulation, and establishing more detailed procedures to administer the labor relationship. In this respect, the international bank shows a more depersonalized and rationalized understanding of the social bond.The main differences between the new paternalistic outlook and of the contractual one do not lie in the different components of compensation, such as benefits, but in the corresponding behavior that employees need to show in order to attain them. Both stress performance, but BCI's message is coated with a more familial protective meaning.At one time BCI operated with a very paternalistic outlook, but as banking's complexity and the workforce increased, maintenance of an informal, personalized behavior became less feasible and was formalized in a \"statement of principles\".\nTwo-tier mix of older and younger workers reduces job-security fears: When rapid professionalization of banking threatened the paternalistic job security that older, less-educated workers had come to rely on, the bank desinged a two-tier arrangement of mixing older employees with younger professionals, and introduced training opportunities for both. Written performance agreements stressed the need for teamwork and to maintain a good working environment. If an employee harms that environment, even if achieving good financial results, his or her promotion prospects are lowered. The family-style approach to HRM resulted in an accolade as one of the \"Best Places to Work\" for women.In Chile the international bank ABN Amro focuses on corporate customers. Human-resource policies and practices are of a modern, contractual type, but tailored to Chilean culture. Most benefits are contractually guaranteed and there are detailed procedures for establishing salary levels and compensation, such as bonuses and participation in profits.The \"perk\" benefits are extensive and include health and other expenses, as well as bonuses for Christmas and Chilean Independence Day. Vacancies are filled from outside the company only if there is not an appropriate internal candidate.Adapting HR policies to the local setting by including workers' expectations is advisable for international banks when they establish themselves in foreign countries. The establishment of clear procedural rules provides a framwork of rights and duties, stabilizes expectations and provides the necessary trust for the development of the social bond in labor relationships.Chilean workers are increasingly learning to take responsibility for their careers but remain reluctant to trust the enterprises or the executives they work for. An important challenge for human-resource management is to build solid bases of trust. They need to ensure their organizations provide a work environment in which managers and workers have clear functional relationships and explicit performance expectations. HRM must emphasize the development of listening skills to stay aware of workforce expectations, and how employees interpret what the company is telling them.\nComment: This review is based on \"Latent premises of labor contracts: paternalism and productivity. Two cases from the banking industry in Chile\", by Dario Rodriguez and Rene Rios. With paternalism still widespread in Latin America, the article compares the HR polices and practices of two Chilean banks.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper shows how two banks - Bank of Credit and Investments (BCI) and ABN Amro - have taken the paternalism widespread in Latin America into account in designing their HR policies and management practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper reveals, through case studies of the two banks, how different contractual premises represent different sets of cultural expectations.\nFindings: - The paper emonstrates that the two approaches differ widely, but neither bank has compromised on performance.\nPractical implications: - The author contends that HR policies and practices need to be consistent with the premises underlying the labour contract and social bond in order to allow for productivity increases.\nOriginality/value: - The pape advises organizations not to work against the paternalism that continues to exist in business in Latin America, but to acknowledge and accommodate it.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Positioning and differentiation by using brand personality attributes: Do mission and vision statements contribute to building a unique corporate identity?
|
[
"Corporate identity",
"Brand identity",
"Mission statements",
"Switzerland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The problem confronting many companies today is that they sell products and services similar to those of their competitors. Gaining a competitive advantage has become increasingly complex and difficult, because every successful innovation in terms of sales tends to be quickly copied by competitors (Ehrenberg et al., 1997). Rivalry is not a question of price or advantages within the range of physical, financial, and human resources any more. Several authors have come to the conclusion that a company should try to differentiate itself by other competitive resources and thus establish a position of non-price differentiation (Davies et al., 2003; Deephouse, 1999; Karaosmanoglu and Melewar, 2006; Leitch and Motion, 2007; Melewar et al., 2005; Rubinson, 2005; Trout, 2000). The aim is to be desirable, unique, and highly valued (Sharp and Dawes, 2001). Therefore, corporate reputation and the stakeholders' perception of the organization (Balmer, 2001) plays an important role regarding competitiveness.By communicating its identity, \"the underlying 'core' or basic character of the firm\" (Barnett et al., 2006, p. 33), a company can try to positively influence its reputation and thus position itself within its marketplace (Chun and Davies, 2001; van Riel and Balmer, 1997). One of the main concepts of the corporate identity management process is corporate personality, which consists of corporate philosophy and values (Stuart, 1999). Mission and vision statements are discussed as an important medium for conveying these values and emphasizing uniqueness and difference (Leuthesser and Kohli, 1997; Yamauchi, 2001). These statements are often included in the corporate web site - and are thus accessible to all stakeholders at any time (Chun, 2004) - and form their online brand personality.As online brand personality is imperative for any firm regarding long-term brand equity (Okazaki, 2006), it is important to analyze companies' self-presentation and particularly the ways in which they achieve a competitive position. The main objective of our study, therefore, is to analyze the use of brand personality attributes in mission and vision statements across several sectors and industries in Switzerland. As all present studies focus on US firms, for the first time our study will gain insights into whether the results of the previous studies could be applied to Western European countries. Referring to Peyrefitte and David (2006), who revealed industry institutionalization regarding the inclusion of David's (1989) nine components, this study investigates whether statements from different sectors or industries contain different brand personality elements:RQ1. Do companies belonging to a cross-section of industries and/or sectors use brand personality elements in different ways in their mission and vision statements?Furthermore, the study is based on Chun and Davies (2001), who investigated mission and vision statements published on the web sites of large US firms. Findings show that companies position themselves within their marketplace using brand personality elements in their mission and vision statements. Our purpose is to analyze how companies in Switzerland position themselves in their mission and vision statements:RQ2. Do companies use their mission and vision statements on their corporate web sites to position themselves within their marketplace?\n2 Literature review: 2.1 The management of corporate identity\n3 Research methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4 Research findings: 4.1 Accessibility\n5 Discussion: The purpose of this study was to examine the current state of mission and vision statements and to analyze differentiation strategies through the use of online brand personality attributes in Switzerland as an example of a European approach. The results provide persuasive support for several conclusions.First of all, the investigation of the accessibility revealed that the time taken to find the mission and vision statements on corporate web sites was much shorter than it was for Chun and Davies (2001). Moreover, the lengths of the statements have increased. Nevertheless, web presence has not improved in every aspect, as a considerable number of the firms still do not include any mission and vision statement at all. Our results show that Aaker's (1997) framework could successfully be extended to a final scale of 130 terms.The investigation of the inclusion or exclusion of the five brand personality categories in mission and vision statements clearly showed similarities between industries and sectors and consequently H1 and H2 could be supported. That outcome stands in line with the results of Peyrefitte and David (2006), who investigated the inclusion of the statement components, defined by David (1989), and corroborated their hypothesis proposing that norms of statement content vary little by industry. The reason for the detected similarity might be that brand personality is more concerned with the actual or desired perception of the company or corporate brand held by stakeholders. Hence, the company approaches them on an emotional level and not by means of its actual business.The results of the frequency analysis and the ensuing correspondence analysis revealed that every company shows its own individual profile. Even though the personality profiles are often positioned close to each other on the diagram, they do not lie exactly at the same place. With a few exceptions, most companies emphasized the same brand personality attributes, namely \"competence\" and \"successful.\" Nevertheless, they differ to some extent regarding their use of the other attributes.Chun and Davies (2001, p. 329) called such dominant elements \"table-stakes,\" by definition attributes, which the majority of companies position themselves against. They are \"the cost of competing in the market rather than something which can usefully differentiate the players.\" Consequently, in the first instance, these attributes are used to attain competitive position and to approach the stakeholders.All in all, in the American (Chun and Davies, 2001) and in the current Swiss study the results regarding the usage of brand personality attributes in mission and vision statements were about the same. The scatter-plots of correspondence analysis showed that in their \"frame of reference\" (Chun and Davies, 2001) companies do position themselves by communicating personality profiles in their mission and vision statements. In spite of the restrictions regarding the interpretation of row-to-column distances, certain conclusions about the proximity to brand personality categories could be drawn. H3, about the content of mission and vision statements on the corporate web site and its compatibility with the concept of positioning the organization within its marketplace, is thus supported.The findings are interpreted with reference to the statement by Whitlark and Smith (2001, p. 26), who found that managers \"may want to increase the distinctiveness of their brand by emphasizing what the brand does best\". It might be difficult for a company to do so by communicating its character traits. The human metaphor is more appropriate for a company wanting to achieve closeness to its stakeholders by presenting itself as a person or even as their partner (Aaker and Fournier, 1995). The company can provide confidence by doing this effectively, but it is difficult to attain uniqueness by presenting a personality that is totally different to others. Consequently, H4 - stating that companies do not differentiate themselves by using brand personality attributes - could be supported.On the whole, the company management must be aware of the difficulties concerning formulation of mission and vision statements (Bart, 1997). First, the aims might not be clearly put into words or they might simply not be achievable. Second, the mission statement can either fail to express the company's goals exactly or it can even be wrong. The existence of mission and vision statements thus requires a company's culture to be in accordance with its strategy (Campbell and Tawaday, 1990). Third, mission statements can be used improperly and might not involve or address the right stakeholders. Lastly, another problem might be the similarity to other companies' statements regarding corporate brand personality. In view of the findings of this study, managers could consider a position other than \"competent.\"\n6 Limitations and future research: It must be considered that in this study only written material published on web sites in English was investigated, as that language is of major importance in business nowadays. Any visual aspects, which certainly play an important role regarding self-presentation on the web site, were not taken into account.Another important limitation concerns correspondence analysis. It is imperative to acknowledge the restrictions of that statistical technique. When working with the two-dimensional solution, it is important to consider the loss of quality due to the exclusion of the remaining dimensions. It is also important to note that the results show only the relative, not the absolute positioning of the firms.Since this study focused on positioning amongst the biggest firms competing in the marketplace, future research could look at the positioning of small and medium-sized businesses. The selection of other industries could also provide an opportunity for further studies, as could the research of the same industries in another country.\n7 Conclusion: On the whole, claims that companies do present corporate brand personality by communicating respective attributes through mission and vision statements published on their web site could be supported. However, the brand personality categories are largely used in similar ways by all industries; no noteworthy sector or industry differences could be revealed, reflecting that elements of mission and vision statements might have become institutionalized (Peyrefitte and David, 2006). The reason for that might lie in institutional forces, through coercive, normative, and mimetic pressure on the one hand (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) and in mutual adoptions because firms watched one another and had interlocking board relations (Scott, 2001) on the other.The findings of this study show that through the medium of brand personality a competitive position can be achieved. However, most examined firms emphasize the same characteristic, namely competence, which brings out relatively similar positions. In doing so, the companies approach the mass of stakeholders rather than any minority group.To sum up, the conclusion can be drawn that companies neither gain competitive advantage by selling unrivalled products and services, nor by conveying a unique brand personality. Strictly speaking, they position themselves rather than differentiate themselves by communicating personality attributes via mission and vision statements. It can be said that conveying a brand personality is not sufficient to stand out from one's competitors. Brand personality might be important in terms of stakeholders' confidence in the respective company, but the achievement of uniqueness must be based upon other aspects. Stallworth Williams (2008) found out that the emphasized values and the targeted goodwill-recipients of high-performing firms differ from those of low-performing firms, while the corporate identity is quite similar. Another link between corporate web sites, reputation and brand equity was proposed by Argyriou et al. (2006); this is worth addressing in future research. Moreover, company activities, which impact differentiation, might be found in the field of corporate social responsibility amongst others (David et al., 2005). However, our study shows that managers should not predominantly orient the formulation of their mission statement to the norms of their industry (Peyrefitte and David, 2006), nor to their stakeholders in order to demonstrate responsiveness. The challenge will be to develop a mission statement comprising both.In all, we found good reasons to advise managers to closely consider these developments and take up the challenge to communicate uniqueness. Certainly, further exploration of these possibilities to improve corporate reputation in future will be worthwhile.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of mission and vision statements on corporate web sites and to analyze differentiation strategies through the use of online brand personality attributes in order to find if and how the attributes are effectively used to build up a unique corporate identity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Content analysis is used to investigate similarities and differences between sectors and industries in Switzerland, based on the brand personality scale of Aaker. Also, the paper focuses on the impact of the communication of brand personality elements, in terms of positioning and differentiation, using correspondence analysis.\nFindings: - The claim that companies do present brand personality by frequently communicating respective attributes through mission and vision statements published on their web site are supported. However, top management does not seem to be geared towards industry norms when phrasing the statements, as a considerable similarity in statement content is found across industries. The results show that companies position themselves using their competitors as a frame of reference.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results may lack generalizability to small and medium-sized businesses and other industries.\nPractical implications: - As most companies in the study position themselves using the same attributes and specifically emphasize \"competence,\" the results include practical implications for the need to develop uniqueness and differentiation by other means.\nOriginality/value: - This paper discovers a gap between the claim that organizations seek uniqueness in their personality attributes and the reality of their involvement in mutual coorientation when defining their identity, forcing them to adapt to each other.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Profiling information behaviour of nursing students: part 1: quantitative findings
|
[
"Information seeking behaviour",
"Learning styles",
"Personality",
"Self‐efficacy",
"Information literacy",
"Information retrieval",
"Students",
"Nurses",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Handling information is a key aspect of nursing care - from informal patient counselling through formal recording of care to reflection on practice, which increasingly requires appraisal of the research evidence. Library services have developed various information literacy initiatives for nursing students but many of these are based on assumptions of what this large group of students should do, not what they do, and why they do it. With a large student cohort of around 170,000 nursing students enrolled at higher education institutions in the UK in 2007/2008 (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2009), a validated model of the information seeking behaviour (ISB) for this group would inform design and evaluation of information support services for this diverse student group, composed of mature students as well as school-leavers. Factors that affect the way nursing students search may be as important as being taught how to search. Personality, learning styles and self-efficacy may all have a role to play in the success or otherwise of student information seeking behaviour.This paper presents quantitative findings of a mixed-methods study on the development of information seeking profiles among nursing students, based on personality, self-efficacy and learning style.\nLiterature review: Many conceptual models of ISB have been formulated including Wilson (1981), Ellis (1993), Wilson (1999), Ingwersen (1996), Kuhlthau (1993) and Saracevic (1996). Some of these models have been tested subsequently and each of these models focuses on a \"process\" of information seeking which has a series of defined stages notably Ellis, Kuhlthau, although the more recent models do incorporate elements of \"looping\" and \"feedback\". A lack of testing means it is unclear whether these models are over complicated and how closely related the different aspects of the models are. A more contemporary model formulated by Foster (2005), from grounded theory research with academics suggests that information seeking is substantially non-linear, in the sense that there is not a series of steps or stages, rather those seeking information begin and end at different points depending partly on various cognitive factors. For the purpose of this article, information seeking behaviour is defined as what takes place when an individual (or group) identifies an information gap and purposefully tries to fill it; whilst information searching includes the physical acts of looking for information. Logically, studies of information seeking may include elements of searching as indicated in Wilson's (1999) nested model.From the data obtained from a longitudinal study of the use of electronic information services among academic staff and students in the UK, a model was derived of the mediating factors that influenced student use of electronic information services (in particular) (Urquhart and Rowley, 2007). This model embraced not just the factors associated with individuals but some of the contextual factors as well. The specific (micro) factors were information literacy (defined in terms of skills and knowledge that students could bring to searching), searching strategies (the type of searching routines normally adopted), academics' information behaviour (and their influence as role models for students), discipline, pedagogy (approach adopted to learning and teaching), and support and training (provided partly by library services, perhaps acting in co-operation with academic staff). The macro (wider contextual) factors included availability and constraints on access, information resource design, technology infrastructure, organisational leadership, policies and funding. For UK nursing students, important policies include the impact of clinical governance, and the need to demonstrate evidence based practice. Much of nursing education involves education on placement in clinical settings where supervisors act as role models. In the academic setting, variations on problem-based learning are the norm, with emphasis on reflection in, and on practice.Information seeking within healthcare\nEthical approval: The research was granted ethical approval by Cambridgeshire 3 Research Ethics Committee, Faculty of Health and Social Care at Anglia Ruskin University. In addition the Research and Development departments of the 13 local NHS organizations granted approval.Purpose and research questions\nMethodology: A concurrent embedded quantitative dominant mixed-methods approach was used on a sample of nursing students enrolled on courses at a Higher Education Institution. Creswell (2009) summarizes the usefulness of this type of strategy in that it allows either the comparison of the two data sources or for them to reside side by side as \"two different pictures that provide an overall composite assessment of the problem\" (Creswell, 2009, p. 214). He goes on to suggest that the researcher can use this approach to address different research questions as is the case in this study and summarizes the attractions and limitations of this strategy as follows:1. Attractions:* Data can be collected simultaneously.* Advantage of using both types of data.* Researcher gains differing perspectives from the two methods.2. Limitations:* Data needs to be transformed in some way to allow integration.* If data is compared, discrepancies may occur.* Unequal status between the methods leads to disadvantages when interpreting the results.By addressing different research questions integration of the data is reduced and little comparison is required. In addition by specifying research questions for each method a separate focus is provided allowing analysis to be concentrated on each type of data. As such the following research questions were formulated for the other phases of the study which although not reported here are given to provide a holistic view of the research:Phase 2: Qualitative:* Why do users search the way they do?* What are the preferred methods of information seeking?Phase 3: Mixed:* How do the qualitative data inform the development of the information seeking behaviour profile?Despite the current controversy both for (Johnson et al., 2007, Morgan, 2007) and against (Giddings, 2006, Symonds and Gorard, 2008) mixed methods as a legitimate research methodology both from an epistemological/ontological and a semantic perspective, the technique has been used in an ever increasing number of research projects (Lipscombe, 2008; Bryman, 2008). The view here is that by using both quantitative and qualitative methods a deeper, richer understanding of the ISB process could be attained. This is in line with the Johnson et al. (2007) definition of mixed methods as offering \"a powerful third paradigm choice that often will provide the most informative, complete, balanced, and useful research results\" (Johnson et al., 2007, p. 129).The quantitative aspect of the research revolved around a five part questionnaire which included an information seeking element (discussed in more detail in the next section), three other research tools, and collection of demographic data for the respondent. Pre-validated research tools for:* personality (Mini-Markers) (Saucier, 1994);* learning styles (ASSIST) (Entwistle, 1997); and* self-efficacy (Kurbanoglu et al., 2006) were used to enhance validity and reliability of those aspects of the questionnaire.These tools were selected in part due to their brevity as the overall questionnaire length needed to be manageable. Approval for use of the Learning Styles questionnaire (shortened version) was obtained from original developer (Noel Entwistle); approval for 17-item version of Self-Efficacy scale was obtained from the developer (Serap Kurbanoglu); the Mini-Markers tool is available online for educational use, although permission for use was granted by developer (Gerard Saucier). The qualitative aspect was a semi-structured interview with the focus on a critical incident and not reported in this paper.A total of 261 individuals were invited to participate in the quantitative analysis with 194 (74 per cent) filling in the questionnaire fully. The sample was a snapshot of several cohorts at different stages in their programme, and of different \"types\" of student, e.g. undergraduate, postgraduate, continuing education nurses etc. Students were approached by the researcher in the classroom (tutor cooperation granted), initially to be informed about the research and provided with a letter of invitation and an information sheet outlining the research. A week later, after a period of reflection, the students were seen again in the classroom to complete the questionnaire and sign consent forms.\nQuestionnaire development: Foster's model\nResults: Of the 194 students completing the questionnaire in full the vast majority were on the three year undergraduate nursing programme (n=139), with 35 doing a Continuing Professional Development module, 12 on the Masters course, and seven were undergraduate midwifery students. Overall there were 72 first year students, 44 second years, and 43 third years. Those doing the modules were not classed as in a particular year as the modules were less than a year in length. Student age was broken down as follows:* 31 were under 20 years old;* 75 were between 21 and 30;* 46 between 31 and 40;* 35 were 41-50; and* 7 were 51-60.Self-efficacy\nDiscussion: Questionnaire development was a key aspect to this research. By using pre-validated scales for personality, learning styles and self-efficacy, the validity and reliability of the overall questionnaire was enhanced. The formulation of single juxtaposed statements encapsulating the essence of the micro-processes in Foster's model could be contentious, but it did provide the opportunity for quantitative analysis.The link between Advanced self-efficacy, a Deep learning style and the Openness personality trait suggests these characteristics may be related to intelligence and perseverance. Being prepared to put effort into the learning process and having confidence in your information literacy level does imply a higher degree of these traits. As Kurbanoglu et al. (2006, p. 731) states \"individuals with a high self-efficacy perception expect to succeed and will persevere in an activity until it is completed\" The higher odds for Deep learners of Breadth Exploration, Browsing, and Sifting supports the notion of students being willing to explore during their ISB process and is in line with Heinstrom's (2003) study.A Strategic learning style is also linked to Advanced self-efficacy, but has a much higher proportion of Intermediate students. This suggests that a lower confidence level requires a more deliberate and calculated style of learning and searching. A high level of Conscientiousness (Table V) supports this notion of wanting to be well organized to facilitate learning - again in line with Heinstrom (2003). Higher odds for Keyword Searching, Problem Definition, Identifying the Shape of Current Research, Knowing Enough, and Refining for Strategic learners is thus to be expected, but Serendipity and Eclecticism do not appear to fit. It would not be expected that a Strategic learner would want to collect anything and everything, nor that they would expect relevant information to be chanced upon. Later research on the validation of the Foster model (Foster et al., 2008) suggested some of the micro-processes were best viewed as a cline. Eclecticism might have been appropriate as a description for the academic researchers on which the model was based, but for a less sophisticated group of information seekers, Collecting would be more appropriate. The combination of Serendipity and Eclecticism for the strategic learners could be interpreted as a willingness to do a bit of collecting, but in the hope that they find something quickly, by happy chance.Surface learners have lower self-efficacy than other learner types suggesting a link between low confidence and the way students learn. Kurbanoglu's (2003, p. 639) ascertain that \"individuals with low perception of self-efficacy anticipate failure and are less likely to attempt or persist in challenging activities\" clearly links with the Surface learner type. The positive link to Networking and Reviewing may indicate that students prefer to ask others and to stick with what they have found before rather than search either for themselves or afresh. Surface learners link with Extraversion is counter to Heinstrom (2003) who found a positive link to Neuroticism.The links between micro-processes (and core processes) and information literacy self-efficacy (Table VIII) may have some implications for information literacy programmes. One interpretation is that the advanced group can confidently enter and leave information seeking at any point and can switch between the core processes with ease. However, the intermediate group need to get oriented first, and Identifying the shape of current research may simply be an expression of getting some bearings on the literature for a particular topic.One of the emerging themes in the research is, hopefully, a better understanding of information behaviour, or perhaps information practice in the sense that habits of information seeking are important. The qualitative part of the research will help to explain how students and staff view information literacy in terms that make sense to them for learning more about nursing knowledge and practice.\nConclusion: It is clear there are relationships between students with differing attributes and aspects of Foster's ISB model. Deep, Advanced learners put more effort in and link to those processes that meet that requirement, whereas Strategic learners - less confident in their ability, but also more Conscientious - are more purposeful in their ISB. Surface learners with low confidence try to avoid literature searching, preferring to ask others or use what they already have. It may be that knowledge of which attributes students have, would enable tailored ISB instruction to different students. Analysis of the interviews will hopefully provide some pointers to those aspects of this research that at first glance appear rather contradictory.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to profile the information seeking behaviour of nursing students, according to learning style, personality and self-efficacy in information literacy. Such profiles should help students to reflect on their information seeking, and should help librarians in designing information literacy programmes that are targeted to student needs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire using existing validated scales for learning styles, personality, and information literacy self-efficacy was developed. The information seeking portion was based on an information behaviour model with core processes (opening, orientation and consolidation) and corresponding micro-processes. The questionnaire was administered to nursing students (n=261, response rate 74 per cent, 194/261) at one UK university.\nFindings: - Neither information literacy self-efficacy, nor learning style on their own appeared to change as students progressed. There is a significant association between learning style and self-efficacy. There appears to be some associations between personality and learning style, and between personality, learning style and preferred information seeking processes. Odds ratios analyses were used to help in preliminary development of profiles. Students with a higher degree of confidence about their information literacy are more likely to: think about their search; work out strategies; and build and adapt their searches. Deep learners take a broad, exploratory approach to searching and score highest for the openness personality trait; whilst strategic learners think about their search, adapt as they progress and score highest for conscientiousness and emotional stability. Surface learners do less planning. Additionally, personality traits (which are essentially stable over time) are positively or negatively associated with various aspects of information seeking.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample size limits the extent of statistical analyses and possible generalizations. The planned qualitative research may help in confirmation of the information seeking profiles.\nOriginality/value: - The research extends existing research evidence on the impact of personality and learning style on student information behaviour by including an information literacy scale and information seeking micro-processes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Small business growth: strategic goals and owner preparedness
|
[
"Australia",
"Growth",
"SME",
"Perception",
"Motivation",
"Success",
"Matrix",
"Policy",
"Strategy",
"Small business"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Small business growth strategies proposed by advisors, and policies to encourage growth, are destined to fail if small business owners (SBOs) are not prepared or willing to grow their firm. The challenge is, therefore, to first identify the SBOs who are strategically prepared to grow their business. Consequently, this paper establishes a strategy identification matrix intended to support that process. The matrix was developed from a study which identified SBOs preparedness to grow their business and their self-perceptions of success. The matrix has some similarity with the earlier work conducted by Miles and Snow (1978), but it is reformulated through empirical data to fit the realities of the small business environment, where growth is not always the SBOs desired outcome.\nMethodology: The study utilised 340 responses from a cross-sectional small business benchmarking survey. Perceived success of the SBO participants was established using a previously validated four-item, five-point Likert scale that accounted for the owners' sense of achievement concerning personal, business and financial goals (for scale development detail, see Weber and Carlsen, 2012). The four items that constitute the perceived success scale are reproduced below:\nResults: The sample is diverse, including representation from every Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification industry sector (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006), apart from quasi-government entities. The average number of full-time equivalent employees in each SME was 4.66, with a standard deviation of 8.39, ranging from a minimum of zero employees to 48 full-time staff. These SBOs had been in their business an average of 13.67 years. Annual turnover ranged from A$1,000 to A$9 million, with an average of A$1.47 million.\nM&S prospector (UP: upside potential): This quadrant represented 40 SBO respondents who wanted to continue to grow their business to be as large as possible and who already considered themselves to be successful. Given prospector-type firms are described as being entrepreneurial, innovative and new opportunity oriented (Morgan et al., 2003), it is not surprising that this quadrant was in the high growth-preparedness/high-perceived success category. The upside potential of these businesses refers to the mean FTE of 4.78 and annual turnover of A$1,110,000. Clearly, these SBOs have tasted success and want more growth, potentially requiring growth in their number of employees.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to identify and empirically test whether growth preparedness and success perceptions are important, discriminating small business owner (SBO) characteristics that influence strategic direction. The intended outcome was to create a strategic typology that resonates with the realities of small business owners, their advisors and policy makers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical data were collected online and by postal survey from 340 small businesses from multiple industry sectors across Australia. Analysis is correlational resulting in the development of a 2 x 2 matrix of strategy types.\nFindings: This paper provides evidence that although a majority of SBOs are not preparing for growth, many still perceive their business as successful. Further, the empirical data demonstrate that growth preparedness and perceived success can be used to classify SBOs into distinct strategic types. While the categories developed show some similarities with the Miles and Snow (1978) typology, they also highlight divergent qualities. Consequently, this paper identifies circumstances where small business strategy must be treated differently from the larger enterprises for which the Miles and Snow typology was developed.\nPractical implications: By providing a concise tool for inclusion in surveys, researchers and practitioners can identify varying strategic types within their own targeted business cohorts.\nOriginality/value: The growth/success matrix is original, the value for policy makers and other professionals assisting and supporting SBOs lies in its simplicity as a tool for identifying strategic types in any small business population. Specifically, the matrix provides a valid and reliable empirical analysis tool where none previously existed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluating the individual- and country-level variations in tax morale: Evidence from 35 Eurasian countries
|
[
"Economic development",
"Informal economy",
"Tax morale",
"Taxation",
"Eurasia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: All modern societies collect taxes to fund the provision of collective public goods and services such as transport, defence, healthcare, and education systems. However, all societies also suffer from a significant level of non-compliance so far as paying taxes owed are concerned. In Eurasia, for example, Schneider and Williams (2013) estimate that the shadow economy whereby people evade taxes is the equivalent of some one quarter of GDP. Unless such tax non-compliance is addressed, therefore, this will not only limit the public finances available to fund public goods and services but there will also be unfair competition for legitimate businesses, which will put pressure on those playing by the rules to not do so (Andrews et al., 2011; ILO, 2015; OECD, 2012).\nTax morale: a review of the literature and hypotheses development: Conventionally, tax non-compliance has been explained using a rational economic actor approach. The origins of this approach lie in the classic works of both Jeremy Bentham (1788/1983) and Cesare Beccaria (1986/1797) whose classic utilitarian theory of crime portrayed citizens as rational actors who evaluate the opportunities and risks confronting them and act in a non-compliant manner if the expected penalty and probability of being caught is small relative to the benefits of flouting the law. When studying crime, this rational actor approach became popularised by Becker (1968) during the late 1960s who argued that by increasing the risks of detection and sanctions confronting those disobeying the law, compliant behaviour would become the rational choice for citizens. During the early 1970s, in a seminal paper, Allingham and Sandmo (1972) applied this rational actor approach to the issue of tax non-compliance, viewing the non-compliant as rational economic actors who evade tax as long as the pay-off from evasion is greater than the expected cost of being caught and punished. The goal was therefore to change the cost/benefit ratio confronting those engaged or thinking about participating in non-compliance. Akin to the study of crime, it was argued that this should be achieved by increasing the actual and/or perceived penalties and risks of detection. This was subsequently widely adopted (e.g. Grabiner, 2000; Job et al., 2007; Richardson and Sawyer, 2001; Williams, 2014a).\nMethodology: Data and sample\nResults: To evaluate first, whether the variations in tax morale across socio-demographic and socio-economic groups are significant when other characteristics are taken into account and held constant (H1), and second, the validity of the explanations for the cross-national variations in the level of tax morale (H2-H3), we here report the results of a staged multi-level logit regression model. This utilises the hierarchical nature of the data (individuals within countries).\nDiscussion and conclusions: This paper has sought to evaluate the variations in tax morale across Eurasia both at the individual- and cross-national levels. This has revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between age and tax morale, showing that middle-aged individuals are more likely to have higher tax morale. It has also revealed that married people, with children, who own their own home, those with a university degree and employed people have significantly higher tax morale than unmarried people, people without children, those buying or renting their home, those without a university a degree, and those in self-employment and unemployed. However, no significant relationship has been identified between tax morale and gender.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Recently, a small but burgeoning literature has argued that tax non-compliance cannot be fully explained using the conventional rational economic actor approach which views non-compliance as occurring when the pay-off is greater than the expected cost of being caught and punished. Instead, a social actor approach has emerged which views tax non-compliance as higher when \"tax morale\", defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, is low. To advance this social actor model, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the individual and national heterogeneity in tax morale, which is crucial if tax compliance is to be improved.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To do this, the authors report data from the 2010 Life in Transition Survey on tax morale in 35 Eurasian countries.\nFindings: Logit econometric analysis reveals, on the one hand, that there is higher tax morale among middle-aged, married, homeowners with children, with a university degree and employed, and on the other hand, that there is higher tax morale in more developed countries with stronger legal systems and less corruption, and higher levels of state intervention in the form of both taxation and expenditure.\nResearch limitations/implications: Rather than continue with the rational actor approach, this paper reveals that how an emergent social actor approach can help to more fully explain tax non-compliance and results in a different policy approach focused upon changing country-level economic and social conditions associated with low tax morale and thus non-compliance.\nPractical implications: These results display the specific populations with low tax morale which need targeting when seeking to tackle tax non-compliance.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides a new way of explaining and tackling tax non-compliance in Eurasian countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Empirically testing some factors affecting HMS usage
|
[
"User participation",
"Healthcare management systems",
"HMS usage",
"User conflict",
"User training",
"User/developer communications"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The importance of computer technology to improve hospital operations and administration has been widely recognized (Lluch, 2011; Martikainen et al., 2014). Specifically as a support tool for nurses, many researchers have found that while far from perfect, the technology is viewed positively if implemented more carefully (Waneka and Spetz, 2010; Pramilaa, 2013; Daniel and Oyetunde, 2013). Gough et al. (2014) have studied the importance of technology for nurses in high vs low dependency wards and found how technology is important in both arenas. This study is focussed on healthcare management systems (HMS) which are very important to most hospitals because they are designed to provide support to many clinical and administrative health care provider activities/tasks in a wide variety of hospital areas such as radiology, anesthesia, pathology, emergency medicine, billing services, appointment scheduling, insurance billing, refunds, etc. Within each of these areas the HMS may be used to also support a wide variety of tasks. For example, in radiology alone it may be used for electronic downloads of patient demographic data and to download radiology reports into HMS billing software, on-line coding of transcribed radiology reports, claim submission, posting of remittance notifications, etc. While some hospitals develop some HMS components in-house, most acquire integrated collections of various HMS software/service components commercially available from many vendors. Therefore in a given hospital the comprehensiveness of the HMS support can vary widely; and so can the difficulty of implementing such systems if managers are not careful about the potential implementation problems (Glaser, 2011; Yamazaki et al., 2011). As hospitals' dependence on information systems increases, so does the need to ensure that they perform according to specifications and/or user needs and wants.\nThe theoretical background and hypotheses tested: The dependent variable HMS and its proposed determinant variables comprising the research model used for this study are graphically shown in Figure 1. Success for any systems development is heavily dependent on the people who will use the system, those who help develop it, and the hospital environment for systems development. The independent variables selected for this study encompass characteristics of these three entities which have been deemed important by the literature available. All the independent variables are viewed through the eyes of the system users (the nurses), including the HMS training available at the hospital, any conflicts about the HMS development process, perceive user influence over the process, in communication of the HMS developers.\nMethodology: Sampling and data collection\nResults: Table II reports Cronbach's a coefficient of internal reliability for each of the constructs in the research model. Cronbach's a should exceed 0.7, which it does for all scales in Table II indicating adequate reliability. Despite the fact that the psychometric characteristics of the constructs and measures used in this study are widely known, their discriminant validity was assessed once again by conducting exploratory factor analysis with all the items from all the constructs. As expected a clear pattern of factors emerged. Each item loaded unambiguously on the intended factor/construct with the items having acceptably low cross-loadings (i.e. all items did not load higher on any factor other than its target construct). These findings confirm good discriminant validity among the constructs, indicating that the questions used in this study tap into the meaning of the intended construct, while not substantially tapping into the meaning of any of the other constructs. To eliminate the potential effects of multicollinearity among the independent variables, the results from the multivariate regression analysis for the research model are summarized in Table III.\nDiscussion and managerial implications: The main objective of this study was to test a set of hypotheses regarding HMS user characteristics proposed by various authors as important determinants of system usage. The data shows that while the level of system usage on average can be seen as acceptable, the large standard deviations for HMS usage, and its major determinants studied here, indicate that HMS development and implementation effort and success as measured by its usage varies considerably from hospital to hospital. The primary reason for choosing nurses' level of HMS usage as the measure of system success is because without use a system can provide no benefit. On the other hand, to insure HMS usage, project managers must insure that the development process promotes the success factors studied here. Needless to say a high level of user conflict during system development/implementation is likely to lead to user system avoidance. Therefore, managers must watch for signs of conflict as measured in this study and take steps to mitigate as much as possible the issues that may arise. Further, to increase nurses' HMS usage, the importance of nurse (user) participation in the system development/implementation process, user training, user communication with the system developers/implementers, and user experience has been strongly corroborated. User participation in the HMS development process is particularly critical because without it user/developer communication, will be ineffective or restrained. User developer communication in turn, it has been found to be important in reducing user conflict regarding the HMS project.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Without use the expected benefits from healthcare management systems (HMS) cannot be derived. Thus, while use alone may not guarantee success, one can safely assume that the more use the better. HMS has been instrumental in facilitating care providers' work. However, many hospitals have encountered usage problems and some user-related factors have been recognized in the literature as potentially important to make HMS more successful. The purpose of this paper is to test the importance of the factors proposed in the literature as important determinants of HMS usage measured by the number of hours used and the frequency of use.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Several user-related variables such as user participation, user expertise, and user training previously studied separately by different authors are brought together into an integrated model to be tested empirically. Data from 213 nurses using their hospital HMS have been used to test proposed relationships between the independent variables and HMS usage results.\nFindings: The results confirm the importance of these factors and provide the basis for managerial recommendations. Hospital managers can use the resources validated by this study to improve their own operations and improve the likelihood of success implementing HMS. Future research projects may identify other possible factors important for HMS implementation success to improve the model proposed here.\nOriginality/value: HMS is a very widely used and an important system for hospitals, but has been neglected in research. This is one of the first rigorous studies of HMS, and the results provide new practical insights for hospital administrators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A signaling theory approach to relationship recovery
|
[
"Trust",
"Signaling theory",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Brand familiarity",
"Signal strength",
"Relationship repair",
"Relationship violation",
"Signal frame",
"Willingness to reconcile"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of building and maintaining customer relationships has received much attention in academic (Elbedweihy et al., 2016; Itani et al., 2019; Palmatier et al., 2006) and managerial literature (Kappel, 2017; Kulpa, 2017) over the past several decades. In the management literature, establishing and retaining long-term relationships with customers has proven to be a rewarding strategy for firms (Chi and Chen, 2019; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002). As is the case with any relationship, problems do occur. Customers may perceive a relationship violation due to many issues, including service failures, faulty products, breaches of confidentiality, customer deception or when the firm intentionally or unintentionally breaks the law. Research has shown that relationship violations decrease customer trust and loyalty (Sajtos et al., 2010) and failure to adequately recover following a relationship violation can also lead to customer rage (Surachartkumtonkun et al., 2015), which may result in retaliation toward the firm (Loureiro et al., 2018).\n2. Signaling theory: Signaling theory is comprised of four primary aspects, namely, the signaler, the signal, the receiver and feedback (Bergh et al., 2014). In a relationship violation context, the signaler represents the offending firm, which sends a signal to receivers (affected customers), who, in turn, provide feedback through their perceptions and resulting behaviors (defection, continuation, WOM, etc.). The signaler has inside information regarding the relationship violation, the firm's plans for resolving the issue and whether/how they will communicate this to their customers (Connelly et al., 2011; Karasek and Bryant, 2012), resulting in information asymmetry.\n3. Relationship violations: Relationship violations in a customer context have been researched extensively from a number of different perspectives including service failures, brand transgressions and product harm crises (Khamitov et al., 2019). While there exists a vast literature studying these issues from various theoretical foundations, to the best of our knowledge, none of the existing research has approached the recovery effort from a signaling theory perspective. This is not to say that signaling theory does not apply to existing research, but rather that specific components of signaling theory have not been intentionally studied prior to this research. The most appropriate application of signaling theory in this context is in studying intentional firm communications following any type of relationship violation. For example, when firms issue product recalls, they generally make a public statement or pay for advertising to communicate the product issue and explain the process for the recalled product (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000). Similarly, when firms attempt to recover from a brand transgression, there is generally an acknowledgment of the transgression that has occurred along with a message regarding the firm's stance on the issue (Puzakova et al., 2013, 2016). The most commonly implemented application of signals lies in a firm's service failure and recovery communication efforts.\n4. Study 1: 4.1 Sample and procedure\n5. Signal frame: While signaling theory literature argues a cost must be associated with the signal to be strong (Connelly et al., 2011), the theory currently does not provide an ample explanation on the nature of this cost or how that signal should be framed. For example, a strong signal could include the resource cost to the firm of fixing the problem (as in Study 1) or the cost could be framed as a direct benefit to the customer (e.g. full refund or discounted future orders).\n6. Study 2: 6.1 Sample and procedure\n7. Brand familiarity: Brand familiarity is defined as the totality of customers' direct and indirect experiences with a brand (Velasco Vizcaino and Velasco, 2019; Kent and Allen, 1994). Customers with more experiences with the brand have higher levels of brand familiarity and as a result, have more well-developed knowledge structures or brand schemas. Customers with fewer experiences have lower levels of brand familiarity based on more sparse knowledge structures (Sirianni et al., 2013; Park and Lessig, 1981).\n8. Study 3: 8.1 Sample and procedure\n9. Discussion: Despite being widely cited within related business disciplines to examine firm communication (Connelly et al., 2011; Karasek and Bryant, 2012), signaling theory has not seen direct application to the marketing recovery literature. In response, this research shows that signaling theory plays an important role in explaining how a firm should communicate with its customers following a relationship violation. Appropriate signaling strategies can lead to greater relationship outcomes for the firm, but such positive results are dependent on several factors including: the type of violation that occurs, the strength of signal communicated by the firm, the manner in which the signal is framed and the level of customer brand familiarity. Based on the findings of this research, contributions to both marketing theory and practice are identified, as well as limitations and directions for future signaling theory research in marketing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing on signaling theory, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the strength and framing of firm signals sent to repair relationships following relationship violations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three 2 x 2 scenario-based experiments (total n = 527) manipulate signal strength x violation type (Study 1); signal frame x violation type (Study 2); and signal strength x brand familiarity (Study 3) to examine their dynamic impacts on relationship recovery efforts.\nFindings: Stronger signals are more effective at relationship repair and are especially important following integrity (vs competence) violations. Signals framed as customer gains (vs firm costs) lead to more favorable relationship outcomes. Finally, brands that are less (vs more) familiar see greater benefits from strong signals.\nResearch limitations/implications: The three experiments were scenario-based, which may not replicate real-life behavior or capture participants' actual emotions following a violation, thus future research should extend into real-world recovery efforts.\nPractical implications: Managers should send strong signals (communicating the level of resources invested in the recovery efforts) framed as benefits to the customer, rather than costs to the firm. Strong signals are especially important when brand familiarity is low or an integrity violation has occurred.\nOriginality/value: This is the first research to directly apply signaling theory to the relationship recovery process and contributes to theory by examining the role of signal strength; framing of the signal as a customer gain vs firm cost; and the interplay of signal strength and brand familiarity on the relationship recovery effort.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Community's knowledge need and knowledge sharing in Wikipedia
|
[
"Wikipedia",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Knowledge codification effort",
"Others need",
"Utility interdependence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Wikipedia seeks to \"create a web-based, free content encyclopedia of all branches of knowledge\" (Wikipedia, 2016). As of September 2017, Wikipedia has more than 43 million articles in more than 250 languages (Wikipedia, 2017). The comprehensiveness and accessibility of Wikipedia have made it a popular collaborative knowledge repository. Wikipedia has been consistently ranked among the ten most-visited websites globally, with more than 500 million unique visitors a month (Alexa, 2016).\nConceptual background: This section first reviews the conceptualization and research on others' knowledge need in studies of Wikipedia. This is followed by a description of the concept of utility interdependence as an important theoretical basis of the proposed model.\nHypotheses development: This study's objective is to model and empirically assess utility interdependence as a potential mechanism through which others' knowledge need influences one's knowledge sharing intention. We focus on knowledge sharing intention, because the evaluation of utility function is a cognitive process that affects intention more directly than it affects behavior. Behavioral intention is a strong predictor of actual behavior, as observed in prior studies of wiki-based communities (Liu, 2010), as well as Wikipedia (Yang and Lai, 2011).\nResearch method: The proposed model was assessed with data collected through a survey. We chose survey over other methods because the key constructs in our model (i.e. awareness of community's knowledge need, perceived forgone benefit of free riding, knowledge codification effort and knowledge sharing intention) focus on the perception of Wikipedia users (i.e. what they think), which is best measured through the survey method (Denscombe, 2014). Although a survey is cross-sectional and does not allow us to establish the temporal order of constructs in our model, the relationships are hypothesized with support from the theoretical concept of utility interdependence and related research. As explained earlier, the awareness of others' need is necessary to activate, and, therefore, naturally precedes, one's cost-benefit analysis of volunteering and subsequently behavioral intention. With regard to the hypothesized relationships involving the level of knowledge, there is a lack of sound theoretical rationale for expecting that the relationships would reverse - that one's level of knowledge would change following cost-benefit analysis of knowledge sharing or the formation of knowledge sharing intention. To control for potential confounding factors, the data analysis accounted for the effects of demographic variables as well as factors that have been found significant in prior studies, as detailed in the data analysis section.\nData analysis and result: The sample's demography was first analyzed, followed by tests of the proposed model and hypotheses. In the model analysis, we controlled for the effects of demographic variables and other factors that have been found to significantly affect knowledge sharing of Wikipedia users in prior studies (see Appendix AI for a summary).\nDiscussion: The survey results support the proposed model - Wikipedia users who perceive a greater knowledge need in the community tend to perceive less forgone benefit of free riding and have a stronger knowledge sharing intention. In sum, others' need influences one's knowledge sharing due to utility interdependence. The finding that others' knowledge need is significant also indicates that it is important to account for the other-oriented aspect of altruism in knowledge sharing. As shown in our review of prior studies, although being other-oriented is a key aspect of altruism, studies on the aspect have remained limited. Unexpectedly, the results showed that level of knowledge (as resource available) did not have any significant effect on knowledge sharing intention. This and other unexpected findings are considered next, followed by a discussion of this study's theoretical and practical implications.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In practice, showing the community's need for knowledge (e.g. listing requests for new articles) is used to drive knowledge sharing in Wikipedia. Yet, theoretical understanding of how it influences one's knowledge sharing is still lacking. The aim of this study is to develop a model of the influence and show that one takes others' utility into account (utility interdependence).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed model was tested with data collected in a survey of 323 Wikipedia users.\nFindings: Others' knowledge need affects one's perceived forgone benefit of free riding (i.e. a cost of knowledge sharing) and, thereby, increases the intention to share knowledge.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to research by identifying utility interdependence in knowledge sharing. For practice, the findings provide empirical support for the general belief that showing others' knowledge need is useful for promoting sharing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Drivers and barriers to re-use Open Government Data (OGD): a case study of open data initiative in Philippines
|
[
"Philippines",
"Open Government Data"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Governments across the globe have been undertaking the Open Government Data (ODG) initiative to further citizen engagement, transparency and public accountability (Janssen et al., 2017; Susha et al., 2014; Zuiderwijk et al., 2014). OGD helps in bringing about efficiency in administration. Concomitantly, there is a need for deriving public value out of the open data sets by re-using them (Downie, 2007; Sataslaatten, 2014; Tough, 2011). Primarily, OGD may refer to variegated data sets spanning across diverse socio-economic or political sectors like health, economy, transportation, education, technology, climate, etc. (Davies, 2012). Also, there are many stakeholders (like journalists, citizens, software developers, etc.) who are directly or indirectly involved in the design, implementation and usage phases of OGD rollout (for an overview of the conceptualization on OGD, please refer to Bertot et al., 2010; Blakemore and Craglia, 2006; Chandler, 1998; Hansen et al., 2013; Hossain et al., 2016; McDermott, 2010; Neuroni et al., 2013; van Veenstra and van den Broek, 2013; Zhang et al., 2005; Zuiderwijk et al., 2014). There is a demand-supply equation between the government and the users of the data sets. While the government supplies the data sets, the users create demand for the data sets. However, mere publication of data sets is not sufficient (Bertot and Jaeger, 2006; McDermott, 2010), and it is pertinent to ensure that the data sets are re-used as well (Janssen, 2011; Napoli and Karaganis, 2010; Serra, 2014; Zuiderwijk et al., 2016). At the same time, there are several barriers in re-using the data sets which are incomprehensive, incomplete or of poor quality.\n2. Facilitating the re-use of data sets: The OGD initiative is designed around the principles of citizen participation, transparency and public accountability. It is also implied that the data sets are released in public such that they are user-friendly and interpretable. Finally, data sets should be complete in all respects with the required metadata and description about the data set, and there should be options for conducting analysis and improvisation on the same. Furthermore, government authorities should be forthcoming and proactive in ensuring that the data sets are published in accordance with stipulated norms. For instance, the release of any data set is prohibited if it is linked with revelation of personal information of the users or sensitive for country's security. As such, five challenges of OGD publication have been underscored in the extant literature:\n3. Citizen engagement models proposed by Sieber and Johnson: Because our study is premised on underscoring the extent of re-use of data sets, we invoke the citizen engagement models proposed by Sieber and Johnson (2015) which underline that user engagement in the OGD initiative is facilitated by the re-use of the data sets. Four models have been forwarded which deal with the \"nature of (OGD) delivery (which) shapes the way the data is used\" (Sieber and Johnson, 2015, p. 310). Table II summarizes the four models.\n4. Research approach: For the present purpose, documentary analysis is being adopted as a research approach for investigating the OGD portal of the Philippines[2]. The entire analysis was covered from December 20, 2016, until August 4, 2017. Documentary analysis seeks to produce evidence for substantiating the research claims. Specifically, documentary analysis is defined as \"a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents-both printed and electronic (computer-based and internet-transmitted) material\" (Bowen, 2009, p. 27). Furthermore, documentary analysis facilitates one to \"categorize, investigate and identify [...] written documents, whether in the private or public domain (personal papers, commercial records, or state archives, communications or legislation)\" (Payne and Payne, 2004, p. 60). In the present study, the application of documentary analysis is evidenced in terms of our investigation of the website (national OGD portal) in terms of select criterion as detailed in Section 4.2. Finally, we limited our focus on appreciating the drivers and barriers to re-use the data sets provided on the online OGD portal of the Philippines.\n5. Limitations and indicators for further research: The present study sought to investigate the national OGD portal of the Philippines only. Further research is called for to undertake a comparative approach and appreciate the differences in OGD initiatives of a group of countries so that lessons may be derived for improvising the OGD initiatives. Second, research may be conducted to ascertain the differences between the OGD initiatives of developed versus developing countries. Such a study would help in understanding the reasons as to why some countries are way ahead in terms of the implementation of OGD initiatives in comparison to others. Also, further studies are required to assess the degree of privacy and confidentiality which is being monitored by the OGD initiative of the country (Thornton and Thornton, 2013). Finally, evaluation architecture may be sketched for the OGD initiative of the Philippines, wherein the actual re-use of data sets and the challenges in realizing the same may be investigated.\n6. Implications of the study: There are practitioner implications vis-a-vis our study. First, it is important that policymakers realize the overarching goals of an OGD initiative and encourage government authorities to further the OGD initiative by releasing more data sets. Second, value generation may be possible if the data sets are recent and updated. Therefore, a robust IT infrastructure with proper human resource planning should be done to ensure that all technical glitches are removed instantly. Third, the OGD portal of the Philippines precludes mapping exercises or even coarse statistical analysis. By conducting promotional activities in the form of workshops or contests, users and other stakeholders may be invited to contribute towards the OGD initiative in an adequate manner. Fourth, citizen engagement may be furthered by providing them the opportunity of contributing to the existing data sets. Finally, efforts should be made to provide real-time data in future which would complement with the real-time contributions of the users to provide sustainable solutions to the country's problems.\n7. Conclusion: In terms of the civic engagement models proposed by Sieber and Johnson (2015), the OGD initiative of the Philippines would be best classified as \"Data over the wall.\" This is because apart from providing data sets on the national portal, there are no attempts at soliciting contributions from the users or inviting other stakeholders to contribute toward the improvisation of the existing data sets. Conceding that the OGD initiatives are spearheading across the globe, it is important that government authorities further their OGD initiatives to ensure that the aims of such initiatives in terms of transparency, civic engagement and public accountability are realized (Robinson et al., 2009). The role of infrastructure elements in facilitating easier and faster OGD usage has been underlined in a conceptual form (Zuiderwijk et al., 2016). Furthermore, it is important that for the sustainability of the OGD initiative of the Philippines, more government authorities should get involved in this initiative. Citizen engagement should be promoted by active promotion of the OGD initiative through social media channels or promotional events so that the users may contribute toward the OGD initiative. For deriving economic and social value out of the data sets, it is important that the data sets be complete and recent. Our study has underlined that the Philippines' commitments as envisaged in its National Action Plan (2017-2019) require a more focused approach. Presently, users may find it difficult to use these data sets owing to structural and functional constraints. It is anticipated that more data sets will be added on a regular basis and the contributions of the users would be accorded the due value for ensuring that the re-usability of the data sets results in innovation and public value generation. At present, the OGD initiative of the Philippines is at the \"Data over the wall\" stage, therefore, efforts should be made to make a transition to the \"Participatory open data\" model (Sieber and Johnson, 2015) in due course of time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Given that the Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives of any country are founded on principles of transparency and accountability, it is important that the data sets permit a user-friendly interface for the data sets to be re-used. This paper aims to underline the major drivers and barriers to re-use the data sets in the context of the Philippines.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In line with the model proposed by Sieber and Johnson (2015), the paper invoked an investigation of the national OGD portal of the Philippines following a documentary analysis research approach.\nFindings: The OGD portal of the Philippines permits data search and sharing via social media. Data sets are available in user-friendly formats with a detailed description of the data set itself in the form of metadata. At the same time, the OGD portal of the Philippines has many barriers to re-use. Data sets are not current, and no attempts have been made at updating the records. While the provision of data mapping is provided, the same is not effective as of now. Conducting statistical analysis is not possible online and some of the links are not active. Finally, users' suggestions are acknowledged, but the contribution of users toward the existing data sets is not permitted as of now.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given that only a single country's OGD initiative has been investigated in the study, further research is warranted to undertake a comparative analysis of OGD institutionalization across different countries.\nPractical implications: Government authorities are encouraged to be more proactive in furthering the OGD initiative. Policymakers and practitioners may appreciate the underlying barriers in re-using the data sets and seek to address these concerns.\nOriginality/value: The OGD initiative of the Philippines has not been investigated so far despite the rising tide of the OGD initiatives across the globe. Given that most of the research on OGD is focused in developed countries, the present study seeks to contribute toward the extant literature by investigating the OGD portal of the Philippines and underlining the major drivers and barriers in re-using the data sets available via the portal.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Satisfaction emotions and consumer behavioral intentions
|
[
"Customer satisfaction",
"Behaviour",
"Surveys",
"Statistical analysis",
"Switzerland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: There is no doubt that significant scholarly attention has been devoted to the area of customer satisfaction (Fournier and Mick, 1999; Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; McQuitty et al., 2000; Oliver, 1999). Unfortunately, while the focus of many satisfaction studies has been on the relationships between satisfaction and other constructs, such as loyalty and service quality (see Athanassopoulos, 2000; Colgate and Stewart, 1998; Lee et al., 2000; McDougall and Levesque, 2000; Mittal et al., 1999; Mittal et al., 1998; Shemwell et al., 1998; Yoon and Kim, 2000), basic understandings and definitions of satisfaction as a construct have yet to be established and commonly accepted, thus making it difficult, if not impossible, to compare results across studies (Giese and Cote, 2000; Lee et al., 2000; Yu and Dean, 2001). As a consequence of this inconsistency, the development of satisfaction measurement has yet to reach the mature stage (Athanassopoulos, 2000).Rather than treating satisfaction as a simple one-dimensional construct, some researchers' have attempted to study satisfaction at a deeper level, arguing that satisfaction was multi-dimensional, and incorporated cognitive elements related to beliefs and expectations of a product/service, and affective elements that included emotions (e.g. Athanassopoulos, 2000; Liljander and Strandvik, 1997; Stauss and Neuhaus, 1997; Yu and Dean, 2001), although much more work is still needed in this area. Fournier and Mick (1999), for instance, suggested that most research still focuses on the cognitive aspects of satisfaction and that the emotional component has been underrepresented in the literature.In light of the fact that only a relatively small portion of satisfied customers return to the same service or product (Oliver, 1999; Stauss and Neuhaus, 1997), satisfaction researchers should really be thinking more seriously about exploring the role of emotions in the satisfaction-behavioral intention relationship before conclusions can be reached as to whether the impact of satisfaction on behavioral intentions is significant or not. The aim of this study is to develop and refine the conceptual framework underpinning consumer satisfaction emotions and re-examine the emotions/behavioral intentions relationship.\nLiterature review: What is consumer satisfaction?\nMethodology: Instrumentation\nResults: The emotion items were subjected to a principle components analysis and a three-component solution that explained 69.45 percent of the total variance of the scale is presented in Table II. The K-M-O measure of sampling adequacy was 0.799 and Bartlett's test of sphericity was high and significant. All the positive emotions loaded on the first component and the second component contained all the negative emotions with the exception of anger and disappointed that formed a component in their right and from now on will be referred to as bi-directional emotions. The alpha coefficients for the three emotion components were 0.81, 0.75 and 0.68 respectively.Table III displays the results of a principle components analysis and a four-component solution was generated for the behavioral intentions scale. Components with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted and the K-M-O measure of sampling adequacy was 0.766 and Bartlett's test of sphericity was again high and significant. One item, complain to staff, was removed prior to the analysis because of low inter-item correlations. The final solution explained 73.25 percent of the overall scale variance and the alpha coefficients for the four components were 0.91, 0.64, 0.50 and 0.52 respectively. The first component included positive word of mouth intentions, the second component included intentions related to complaining, the third component included both switching items and the negatively signed \"continue if prices increased\" item, and the fourth dimension related to positive intentions.The variable, \"continue if prices increase\", negative sign indicated that the variable was moving in the opposite direction to the others loading on that component. For example, as the propensity to switch or change increased, the willingness to continue if prices increase, would decrease (Hair et al., 1998). For the purposes of distinguishing between the components, the first will be labeled positive word of mouth (positive WOM), the second, complaining behavior, the third switching behavior and the fourth, willingness to pay more.Table IV displays the Pearson product moment correlations between the summated item component scores of the emotion and the behavioral intention scales. Skewness and kurtosis statistics indicated that no extreme values were present in the data set and while scatter plots for dimension scores did indicate weak relationships among some variables, there was no evidence of a curvilinear effect between any combinations of variables. Therefore the assumptions of linearity and normality have not been violated. Interestingly, while there was no significant relationship between complaining behavior and negative emotions, there was however a strong and significant association between bi-directional emotions and complaining behavior.In order to isolate the effects of the two additional items, regret and disappointment, further analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between them and the four dimensions of behavioral intentions. It is evident that the emotion of regret was not significantly related to complaining behavior but had a stronger negative relationship with positive WOM than disappointed. It is also clear that disappointed was significantly related to complaining behavior.\nDiscussion: RQ1. Will the inclusion of regret and disappointment into an existing satisfaction emotion framework provide support for a two dimensional conceptualization of the satisfaction emotion construct?\nConclusion and implications: The significant role of consumer loyalty in explaining market share and relative price is well documented (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001) and the recent concentration of research on satisfaction emotions suggests that this construct is a better predictor of loyalty behaviors than traditional cognitive measures. To date however, a statistically significant relationship between emotion dimensions and consumer complaining behavior has not been established and it was proposed in this paper that the scales used previously have not adequately represented the emotion construct. In order to overcome this limitation the emotions of regret and disappointed were added to an existing emotions scale developed by Liljander and Strandvik (1997) and the results reported here have advanced theoretical understandings of the satisfaction emotion/behavior relationship in two important ways. First, it was demonstrated that satisfaction emotions can be conceptualized as a three-dimensional construct of positive, negative and bi-directional emotions, and second, there was a statistically significant relationship between the bi-directional component and consumer complaining behavior.\nImplications for practitioners: It is clear, that after reviewing many of the studies discussed above, that emotions play an integral part in influencing consumer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Practitioners responsible for gathering such information should certainly consider incorporating the emotions framework that was tested in this study, into their existing satisfaction measurement strategies. The emotions scale used here has demonstrated strong reliability and validity and an additional nine items may not be such a high price to pay if one considers the potential benefits associated with understanding a consumer's emotional reaction to a service or product.From a managerial perspective and for purposes of segmentation, these findings suggest that practitioners should focus on developing the aspects of their offerings that stimulate positive emotions, because customers in this segment are highly likely to say positive things about the firm, be more willing to pay more for the services they receive and be less likely to switch. In order to do this, the interplay between a consumer's cognitive and emotional experiences, need to be understood and managed. For example, if there were strong associations between a consumer's perception of the physical environment where the service was consumed, a hotel lobby for example, and their positive emotions, then resources could be directed toward this particular aspect of the offering in order to stimulate the desired emotional response.In many respects the bi-directional component requires as much attention as the positive emotions component because of the unfavorable significant correlations it has with all of the behavioral intentions dimensions. In terms of complaining intentions, if this segment's propensity to complain was directed toward the company then it would make them easily identifiable and allow employees or complaint handlers the opportunity to recover lost ground. Unfortunately, as the item complain to staff was removed from this analysis, and the items representing complaining behavior related to complaining to outside agencies and other customers', more work is necessary to clarify whether they would in fact complain to the firm or just switch to a competitor without announcing their dissatisfaction. Despite this uncertainty, complaining to others, be they customers or external sources is not at all desirable, and managers should do their utmost to open up opportunities and channels, within the organization that encourage and direct customer complaints to internal sources for resolution.Given the importance of positive WOM behavior, particularly for services that are largely intangible, managers should also pay careful attention to bi-directional, and to a lesser extent, negative emotion segments because of the significant negative relationship between these components and WOM. Such attention may involve examining the firm's communication strategy, as overpromising or creating unrealistic expectations may stimulate the emotions of disappointment and anger. At the same time, managers should recognize that unresolved service shortfalls experienced by consumers may also stimulate these emotions, and training employees to promptly recognize and take responsibility for reducing the frequency and intensity of these emotions, will be important in encouraging positive WOM, and reducing the propensity to switch.Considering that the bi-directional component has a significant and stronger relationship with all the behavioral intention components, than the negative emotion component, one may question whether there is a need to identify a negative emotion segment at all. That is to say, it may be possible to omit emotions such as guilty, humiliated, regretful and depressed and just use anger and disappointed in conjunction with the positive emotions. However the fact that the relationship between negative emotions and complaining behavior and willingness to pay more was not significant, may suggest that there are some distinctive characteristics of this component that managers should consider.For instance, given that this segment is less likely to complain to other customers or external agencies, suggests that there is not the urgency to act, as there would be for the bi-directional segment, in order to reduce the possibility of complaint behaviors. Moreover, they may be easier to appease than bi-directional segment, more likely to pay more and more willing to return to the organization, and as such recovery strategies could be different than those used for the bi-directional segment and likely to cost less.\nRecommendations for future research: Although this study established the relationship between bi-directional emotions and complaining behavior, it is important to note that the study was undertaken \"during\" the service provision, and according to Zeelenberg and Pieters (1999), what is established during consumption may be different from the post consumption experience. Moreover, Zeelenberg and Pieters' (1999) study measured the \"amount\" (how much) of regret and disappointment that was experienced, and this study measured the frequency (how often) of occurrence, and while some recent research has examined this issue, it is unclear how different descriptors influence results, and more work is needed to gain deeper understandings of these issues.Future research could also examine the influence that the service context, or kind of service, has on the types of emotions that are evoked and whether the relationship between emotions and behavioral intentions alter as a result. For example, this study focused on an education provider and in the vast majority of cases, the participants did not actually pay for the service, this was done by their parents or another party, and intuitively, this is likely to influence some aspects of the emotion/behavioral intentions relationship.As it is currently not known whether the same types of emotions and behavioral intentions are consistent across cultures and gender, further investigation of these issues would make an interesting extension to this study. Finally, while the behavioral intentions scale that was used in this study is the most comprehensive available, issues of low reliability and inconsistent factor structure weaken the ability to make firm conclusions and future research could focus towards developing a more stable behavioral intentions model.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to develop and refine the theoretical framework underpinning consumer satisfaction emotions and re-examine the emotions/behavioral intentions link.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A quantitative research design was adopted for this study. An extensive and critical review of literature related to consumer satisfaction emotions and consumer behavioral intentions led to the identification of two research questions. A self-completion questionnaire was developed and administered to hospitality management graduates in Switzerland.\nFindings: - The PCA suggested that satisfaction emotions were best conceptualized as a three-dimensional construct that included positive, negative and what the present authors have labeled \"bi-directional\" emotions. Moreover, a positive statistically significant relationship between \"bi-directional\" emotions and consumer complaining behavior was established through correlation analysis.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The respondents were studying at a private institution in Switzerland, and as such, the socio-economic background of the respondents may not be representative of education consumers generally, and of consumers of services in industries other than education.\nPractical implications: - The findings reported in this paper indicate that the emotions framework that was developed could provide a valuable resource for managers as segmentation tool, and as an instrument for measuring and monitoring consumer behavioral intentions.\nOriginality/value: - This paper has identified a relationship between specific satisfaction emotions and consumer complaining behavior. As a consequence, a more comprehensive satisfaction emotions scale has been developed that captures a broader range of consumer behavioral intentions. This information should benefit practitioners and researchers alike.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and process capability (PC) measures: A relationship analysis
|
[
"Performance measures",
"Production processes",
"Manufacturing systems",
"Process analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The information gathered from the performance evaluation of production processes and manufacturing systems lead directors and managers to take better decisions about how to manage their production systems more effectively and efficiently. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish appropriate metrics for measurement purposes (Nachiappan and Anantharam, 2006). Two of the most important and used metrics of performance in manufacturing are productivity and quality. Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a quantitative metric that has been increasingly used in industry not only for controlling and monitoring the productivity of production equipment but also as an indicator and driver of process and performance improvements. In this context, OEE is able to measure performance, identify development opportunities and direct the focus of improvement efforts in areas related to equipment or process utilization (availability), operational rate (performance) and quality.On the other hand, process capability (PC) is a measure of quality performance that occupies an important place within online quality control as it helps to determine the suitability of a process to meet the required quality standards. According to Deleryd (1998), since the development of this measure in the 1980s its use has increased considerably. Deleryd (1998) mentions that a factor that has contributed to increase the application of PC is its request by quality systems and improvement methodologies like ISO 9000 and Six Sigma. In addition, Jagadeesh and Babu (1994) mention that nowadays it is not quite logical to proceed with full-scale production without conducting a PC analysis.It can be argued that the selection and use of measures of performance such as OEE and PC is determined by the priorities of an organisation. For example, in the case of OEE, it is normally used in high volume processes where capacity utilisation is a high priority and stoppages or disruptions are expensive in terms of the capacity lost. On the other hand, PC is normally implemented when the control of variability in a particular quality characteristic of a product is of high relevance. However, although these measures are traditionally applied separately and with different measurement objectives, the efforts directed to improve, for example, PC may have a direct effect on the OEE of a machine or process. Therefore, a relationship between both measures of performance is assumed to exist. This paper aims to investigate that relationship, how OEE and PC interact and impact each other, and the possible effect that this relationship may have on decision making. To do this, the paper briefly reviews the OEE and PC. Then, a discrete-event simulation model of an automated bottling line is developed in order to source the data to design a set of experiments using a range of product characteristics and machine conditions. Finally, graphical trend and impact analyses are performed in order to establish the OEE and PC relationship and the impact of PC on the overall effectiveness of machine or process.\n2 Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) measure: OEE was proposed by Nakajima (1988) as an approach to evaluate the progress achieved through the improvement initiatives carried out as part of his proposed total productive maintenance (TPM) philosophy. Nakajima (1988) defines OEE as a metric or measure for the evaluation of equipment effectiveness. Accordingly, OEE attempts to identify production losses and other indirect and \"hidden\" costs, which according to Ericsson (1997) are those that contribute with a large proportion of the total cost of production. These losses are formulated as a function of a number of mutually exclusive components (Huang et al., 2003), namely: availability (A), performance (P) and quality (Q). In essence, OEE is the result achieved by multiplying these three factors together as shown by equation (1): Equation 1 OEE factors\n3 PC measure: The capability of a process is defined by Wetherill and Brown (1991) as the inherent ability of a process to produce similar parts for a sustained period of time under a given set of conditions. Evaluating the capability of a process is important since it allows quantifying how well a process can produce acceptable products (Wetherill and Brown, 1991). As a result, managers and engineers can prioritise needed process improvements and identify those processes that do not need immediate attention.The evaluation of PC is carried out through a framework called process capability analysis (PCA). PCA is defined by Deleryd (1999) as an improvement method where a product characteristic is measured and analysed in order to determine the ability of the process to meet the specifications for the characteristic studied. Although the capability of a process can be assessed through several measures and methods such as capability ratios, percent tolerance consumed by capability or from a control chart or histogram analysis, the most common way of doing it is through the capability indices (CI). CI are specific measures that compare the actual process output with the specification limits for a certain characteristic (Deleryd, 1999). In other words, they show the ability of a process to meet its numerical requirements through its pattern study. Among the most \"famous\" CI are Cp and Cpk.Cp index\n4 Simulation model development and process selection: Although experimenting in a real manufacturing environment, factory or shop floor would be more desirable, this approach of investigation and analysis would however be expensive, time-consuming, disruptive, unpractical or dangerous to reproduce directly. Simulation is a computer model-based experimental technique, which in this context can bring more benefits in comparison with the experimentation on real systems. In simulation the system modelled can be examined under controlled and selected conditions, which are clearly not practicable with most real systems, and without the risk to the real system's viability that such experiments may pose (Aghaie and Popplewell, 1997). Therefore, for this investigation, simulation was used to reproduce the environment from where the data used to make the experiments was created.Simulation intends to accurately represent, through a computer model, a \"real\" or \"imaginary\" system. In the case of this investigation, since OEE and PC can be used to measure the performance of a wide variety of manufacturing processes, a decision to focus the study and investigation of those measurement systems in a particular process was taken. Based on the fact that bottling processes are extremely common in manufacturing industry, a decision to model the bottling process of beer in an automated production line was taken. The bottling process used as the basis for the simulation model and investigation is performed by one of the bottling lines of a local company located in Stockport, UK. The process is carried out in an automated flow line that is composed of a sequence of machines that are integrated using transfer conveyors and work in process buffers. The equipment used by this line is highly automated and sophisticated and it operates at high speed under carefully controlled conditions. This production line is used by the brewery for bottling its own products as well as products for other breweries under sub-contract arrangements. The precise details of the bottling line featured in this investigation are proprietary information though the process is shown in Figure 1.Computer-based simulation can take many forms, but generally the technique is applied by developing a computer model using either a simulation language, package, tool or integrated environment system. In particular, discrete-event simulation, \"the modelling of a system as it evolves over time, by a representation in which the state variables change instantaneously at separate points in time\" (Law and Kelton, 1991), has been widely and successfully used in manufacturing industry.A conceptual model was first developed from an extensive literature review of bottling processes and then checked, corroborated and corrected taking as a base the bottling line described above. The data collection was done via interviews with staff from the main site and observing and timing the different operations involved in the process. The conceptual model was then translated into a computer model using Flexsim 3.0 simulation software. There are a number of discrete-event simulation packages available in the market today, but based on the manufacturing process that was to be simulated and after an evaluation of several software packages, Flexsim 3.0 was selected. Flexsim is an object-oriented software environment used to develop, model, simulate, visualize and monitor dynamic flow process activities and systems (Nordgren, 2003). The model is described in terms of five interrelated elements: workstations, input and output buffers, conveyors, entities (bottles) and process plan. It mainly consists of nine workstations, several conveyors that work as input and output buffers with finite but different capacities, and two accumulation tables. The resulting model was animated when the simulation was run, showing the movements of parts and resources with elapsed time. The simulation can be interrupted at any stage and a comprehensive reporting system can be viewed, either in graphical or tabular form. The reliability in the results generated by a simulation model is an important aspect of any successful simulation study. Therefore, any model must be verified and validated to ensure that it behaves as expected. The bottling simulation model created was verified and validated using a combination of several techniques such as visual check, trace validity, degenerate test, fix values and factory physics (Sargent, 2000; Standridge, 2004). Figure 2 shows \"zoomed\" portions of the simulation model display.\n5 Experiment design: The design of simulation experiments is of paramount importance, as the success of the simulation hinges on the effectiveness of these experiments in analysing the system (Rohrer, 1996). For this investigation, the use of Taguchi method, in the form of orthogonal arrays (OAs), was selected to design the experiments (Peace, 1993; Ross, 1996). The reason for selecting this experimental tool is its efficiency in obtaining only a relative small amount of data and being able to translate it into meaningful and verifiable conclusions. Furthermore, the design of experiments using OAs is basically simple to understand and the guidelines are simple to follow.Experiment structure\n6 Investigation analyses: Relationship analysis\n7 Conclusion and implications: The investigation presented in this paper has helped to establish how the OEE and the PC of a machine interact with and impact each other. The investigation has established a relationship, between both measures of performance, which is linked through the quality factor of OEE. The relationship established indicates that the capability impacts in a direct and positive way the OEE of a machine. Therefore, any improvement made in the capability measure will have a positive impact on OEE.However, the investigation has also revealed, through the impact analysis, that the PC impact on the quality factor is only significant when the Cp/Cpk values are under 0.8. In this case, actions to improve the Cp/Cpk value over 0.8 will not have a major impact on the quality factor and therefore on the overall effectiveness of a machine. On the other hand, any action taken to improve the Cp/Cpk under the 0.8 value will have a significant impact on the quality factor and therefore, on the overall effectiveness of a machine. In terms of OEE, this suggests a Cp/Cpk of 0.8 as the \"ideal\" value to be targeted by production or process managers and it may be considered a \"breaking point\" that indicates the limit to where improvements in PC may still be considered efficient. Therefore, this analysis challenges the idea of considering the Cp/Cpk value of 1.33 as the \"ideal\" target in terms of OEE.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and process capability (PC) are commonly used and well-accepted measures of performance in industry. These measures, however, are traditionally applied separately and with different purposes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between OEE and PC, how they interact and impact each other, and the possible effect that this relationship may have on decision making.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper reviews the OEE and PC background. Then, a discrete-event simulation model of a bottling line is developed. Using the model, a set of experiments are run and the results interpreted using graphical trend and impact analyses.\nFindings: - The paper demonstrates the relationship between OEE and PC and suggests the existence of a \"cut-off point\" beyond which improvements in PC have little impact on OEE.\nPractical implications: - PC uses the capability indices (CI) to help in determining the suitability of a process to meet the required quality standards. Although statistically a Cp/Cpk equal to 1.0 indicates a capable process, the generally accepted minimum value in manufacturing industry is 1.33. The results of this investigation challenge the traditional and prevailing knowledge of considering this value as the best PC target in terms of OEE.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents a study where the relationship between two highly used measures of manufacturing performance is established. This provides a useful perspective and guide to understand the interaction of different elements of performance and help managers to take better decisions about how to run and improve their processes more efficiently and effectively.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Impact of diversity, quality and number of brand alliance partners on the perceived quality of a new brand
|
[
"Brand equity (Consumer)",
"Brand evaluation",
"Brand alliances"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In promoting a new service, it is often difficult to communicate service quality because of its intangible nature. In such cases, firms attempt to make the brand tangible via signaling through elements of the marketing mix - advertising, testimonials, celebrity endorsements, price and co-branding. Co-branding (also referred as brand bundling or brand alliance) has been around for years and \"[...] occurs when two or more existing brands are combined into a joint product or are marketed together in some fashion\" (Keller, 2013b, p. 241). However, over 70 per cent of the brand alliances fail (Lindstrom, 2005) and past research has identified reasons for this, including product fit, brand fit and quality level of partner. Despite the high failure rate, co-branding is popular because, when successful, it adds significantly to sales growth compared to single-brand units (Enz, 2005; Hadjicharalambous, 2006) and marketing alliances increase firm value (Mani and Luo, 2015). Recently, co-branding has been studied in service industries such as tourism (Aarstad et al., 2015) and higher education (Naidoo and Hollebeek, 2016). A study of Interbrand's Best Global list (Dutordoir et al., 2015, p. 44) showed \"[...] significant stock price reactions on brand value announcement dates, with magnitude of abnormal stock returns increasing in the brand value change\". Brand equity is akin to a brand's social capital in the marketplace (Coleman, 1988) as it leads to \"[...] obligations and expectations, information channels, and social norms\". Brands and their perception impact firm value (Keller, 2013b, p. 8; Rust et al., 2004). Aaker and Jacobson (1994) showed that more favorable brand perceptions - higher brand equity and product quality - lead to higher stock returns. While we know that consumers' perception and interpretation of the alliance partnerships determine the success of brand alliances, there is no consensus on what works and in what conditions? Marketers, therefore, need to better understand brand alliances so that their success rates can be improved and enhance their impact on firm value (Gammoh and Voss, 2011).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Signaling theory\nHypotheses development: Consumers use brand strength - the favorability of brand-related associations such as perceptions of quality (Aaker and Keller, 1990; Rao and Ruekert, 1994; Smith and Park, 1992) and brand names (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987; Gammoh et al., 2010; James, 2006) - to reduce perceived risk in their decisions by inferring the product quality. Below, we develop hypotheses for the impact of characteristics of brand alliance on the perceived quality of the primary brand.\nMethod: In the next section, we first discuss a series of pretests for the selection of primary product category, target brand name, secondary product categories and manipulations, followed by a description of the design, procedure, dependent variables and covariates used in the experiment.\nResults: Hypotheses tests\nDiscussion and conclusions: The impact of firm and marketing alliances on firm value creation has been extensively studied (Swaminathan and Moorman, 2009; Mani and Luo, 2015). This body of research has looked at the network effects of alliances (Gulati et al., 2000a, 2000b) and the nature (Goerzen and Beamish, 2005; Shah and Swaminathan, 2008) and quality (Swaminathan and Moorman, 2009) of these alliances on firm performance. Marketing alliances, defined as formalized collaborative arrangements between two or more organizations that focused on downstream value chain activities (Swaminathan and Moorman, 2009), increase firm value. Some reasons enumerated for this value increase are access to markets (Bucklin and Sengupta, 1993), products/services or brands and/or skills and knowledge (Rindfleisch and Heide, 1997). In this study, by extending signaling and attribution theories, we have shown how the nature of brand alliances (a subset of firm/marketing alliances) impacts the perception of the primary brand. This improvement in brand perception, in turn, should lead to increased firm value.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Co-branding is popular with partnerships between well-known and new brands. In a laboratory study, this paper aims to examine the effects of a single ally and multiple allies on quality perception of a brand. The results suggest that the quality perception of the new brand depends on the co-branding strategy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For dual-brand alliances, a single-factor design was used, with secondary brand quality level (high, medium and low) as the independent variable. Three advertisements were created by manipulating quality levels of the single partner. For multiple-brand alliances, a 2 x 3 between-subjects factorial design was used in the experiment. The two factors were diversification (homogeneous vs heterogeneous) and quality levels of the alliance (high-end, mixed and low-end).\nFindings: The results suggest that the number of brand partners significantly affected the perceived quality of the primary brand. For both dual- and multi-brand alliances, the quality level of the secondary brand positively influenced the perceived quality of the primary brand. For multiple-brand alliances, even though the highest quality perceptions of the primary brand are in the heterogeneous conditions, the heterogeneity of partners (partners across different product categories) did not affect the quality perception of the primary brand.\nResearch limitations/implications: One limitation of the current study is that it only addresses one type of brand alliance: co-promotion. The generalization of these findings to other forms of brand alliances (e.g. ingredient branding: Intel with IBM, Dell and HP) merits further investigation. Also, in this study, respondents processed the information in a relatively low-involvement condition (note that the target ad was presented along with filler ads). They were more likely to use brand names as heuristic cues to form their judgments. Because an alliance partner also assumes risks, future research should consider the effect of the alliances on the secondary brand.\nPractical implications: Understanding brand alliances (especially multiple-brand alliances) is critical for new product managers and marketers. Introducing a new brand has higher risk and failure rates. Companies may lower these risks by co-branding with established brands. However, they should carefully consider the diversification and quality level of the partners. If brand managers position their product as \"high quality (luxury)\" or \"low quality (budget)\", they should choose high- (or low-) quality partners from different product categories (heterogeneous high-end or low-end alliances) because diversification strengthens the primary brand. For a single-partner alliance, the secondary brand should be of high quality.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the brand alliance literature beyond single-partner to multiple-partner alliances. With multiple partners, one can explore several critical aspects of an alliance, e.g. quality variance and product class diversity across the partners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effects of team diversity on project performance in construction projects
|
[
"Organization",
"Diversity",
"Construction",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Conflict",
"Construction project",
"Management",
"Performance",
"Project management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The last decades have witnessed a growing level of attention on team diversity in the field of project management due to its implications. Mixed results were reported by existing studies in terms of the direct effect of team diversity on the performance. Some studies pointed out that the interaction between diverse teams can lead to the introduction of new knowledge and solutions that improve performance (Yi et al., 2017). In contrast, other studies suggested that diversity could lead to conflicts that are detrimental to performance (Lovelace et al., 2001). Furthermore, some studies proposed that team diversity may affect performance in an inverted U-shaped manner (Jetten et al., 1998).\nLiterature review: Dimensions of team diversity\nHypotheses development and theoretical model: Hypotheses development\nVariable measurements, questionnaire items and data collection: Variable measurements and questionnaire design\nData analysis and results: Validity and reliability\nDiscussions: Effects of value diversity on conflicts\nConclusions: The mechanism of how team diversity affects performance in construction projects is explored in this study. This study revealed that team diversity affects project performance through the paths of task and relationship conflict. Team diversity impacts performance along two paths. The effects of the direct path (diversity-performance) were not statistically significant. The effects of the indirect path (diversity-conflicts-performance) on project performance can be mediated by task conflict and relationship conflict. The influence coefficient of the indirect path through task conflict was 0.256, while the influence coefficient through relationship conflict was -0.352. The detrimental effects of diversity on performance were greater than the beneficial effects. Project teams with diversity contribute to both task and relationship conflict, thus adding both beneficial and detrimental effects on performance. This provides a useful reference for project managers, allowing them to take advantage of the beneficial effects of task conflict and avoid the detrimental effects of relationship conflict.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is fourfold: first, to investigate the effect of team diversity on different types of conflicts; second, to determine if team diversity is significantly correlated with project performance; third, to investigate the mediating effect of project conflicts on the relationship between team diversity and project performance and fourth, to examine the relationship between different types of conflicts and project performance in construction projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A theoretical model was developed and a questionnaire survey was conducted with 246 professionals. The structural equation modeling technique was applied to analyze the data.\nFindings: The results showed that: team diversity was positively associated with project performance; the introduction of conflicts significantly weakened the effect of diversity on performance; conflicts have both constructive and destructive effects on project performance; and team diversity affected project performance through the mediating effects of task conflict and relationship conflict, thus adding both positive and negative effects on performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: There are other factors which may affect conflicts and project performance such as communication, trust and contract. Future research could be conducted to determine the role of these variables in determining the effects of team diversity on performance.\nPractical implications: It is necessary to reduce the relationship conflict whereas maintaining a \"healthy\" level of task conflict. In light of this, the conclusions of this study highlight practical implications as follows: project teams should attach importance to diverse partner selection and select cooperative partners whose value orientations are similar; when implementing a construction project, the structure of diverse project teams should keep relatively stable, avoiding too many teams entering or exiting the project in a short period; project teams should make greater efforts to deal with destructive conflicts via relational governance such as trust and communication.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature in three areas. First, this study investigated the dynamic mechanism between team diversity, conflicts and performance in construction projects. Second, this study contributes to the body of knowledge on validating the mediating effects of conflicts on the relationship between team diversity and performance. Third, this study validated the positive and negative effects of team diversity on performance with different types of conflicts as mediation variables in construction projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Measuring social performance: reconciling the tension between commercial and social logics
|
[
"Microfinance",
"Malaysia",
"Institutional logics",
"Developmental financial institutions",
"Social performance management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Questions are intensely debated around whether social-oriented institutions or those that provide social programs should engage in measuring social performance and in evaluating the social impact of their services (Copestake, 2007). One of the underlying concerns of such questions is that measuring social performance and the impact of social businesses, including microfinance institutions (MFIs), is problematic because social performance assessment lacks clarity as compared to the measures of assessment for financial performance (Arena et al., 2015; Copestake, 2007; Ebrahim and Rangan, 2014; Woller, 2007). Indeed, it is not cost effective for MFIs to measure social performance because the financial and human resources used for this purpose would distract them from their core management activities (Woller, 2007). Copestake (2007) argues that measuring social performance and the impact of microfinance programs should be left to external parties who can make recommendations for policy improvements. Various scholars have also argued that the purpose of measuring social performance is not only to ensure outcomes are achieved, but also to improve internal organizational processes (Arena et al., 2015; Copestake, 2007; Woller, 2007). The achievement of an organization's mission and strategic objectives requires that the mission and objectives are translated into coherent programs and activities that have measurable targets (Bhimani and Willcocks, 2014; Otley, 1999).\n2. Microfinance programs in Malaysia: MFIs have played a vital role in developing the Malaysian economy in improving income and in upgrading the standard of living of the poor in both rural and urban areas (Abdul-Halim et al., 2014). The government has promoted microfinancing in an effort to ensure that disadvantaged groups have greater access to financing, in view of the many \"drawbacks\" in the conventional banking system, such as high interest rates, and the need for guarantors and collateral to secure loans. The microfinance industry has moved from initially relying on government support, in developing microfinance through government-aided microfinance packages and programs, toward a market-oriented approach. Since then, the government has strengthened the industry by introducing several initiatives to alleviate poverty and develop the economy so as to maintain the relevance of microfinance in the country. In 2003, the government announced a stimulus package to provide further financial services to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to boost domestic investment (Yow, 2006). In this package, the government disbursed a total of RM1 billion, a large proportion of which (RM800 million) was disbursed to two DFIs; the remaining RM200 million went to AIM (Yow, 2006).\n3. Literature review: Microfinance can be conceptualized as \"the provision of a broad range of financial services, such as deposits, loans, payment services, money transfers, and insurance, to poor and low-income households and their microenterprises\" (Asian Development Bank, 2000, p. 2). A MFI refers to \"a single organization (e.g. a nongovernment organization providing microfinance) or a unit whose primary business is microfinance within a diversified institution (e.g. a microfinance unit within a commercial bank)\" (Charitonenko et al., 2004, p. 53). MFIs may either provide a mixture of financial services with minimal non-financial services or provide a comprehensive range of services by integrating both (Ledgerwood, 1999). MFIs are also described as institutions that are customer-centric and that aim to incorporate their customers' needs into their marketing strategies and strategic plans (Woller, 2002).\n4. Research method: The data for this study were collected through interviews during two focus group sessions with key personnel involved in the three DFIs' microfinance programs. The selected DFIs are entrusted with providing microfinance services, as stated in the Microfinance Institutional Framework. Prior to the interviews, letters were sent to the heads of these DFIs, asking them to identify the key representatives for the focus groups. At the beginning of these sessions, the researchers presented the purpose of the study. This was followed by approximately three-hour in-depth interviews with the key representatives, as listed in Table I. The interview sessions were taped and video recorded for ease of data transcription. On completing the interviews, each microfinance officer made a formal presentation of his/her organization's microfinance program, the system used to measure performance and the issues faced in providing microfinance services. As shown in Table I, all of the participants had vast experience and were the key officers responsible for their DFIs' microfinance program.\n5. Findings and discussion: The section explains how the three DFIs manage and measure the social performance of their microfinance programs. This involves analyzing these respective program's intent and design, internal processes, and evaluation measures. It also presents an analysis of the reasons why these DFIs do not use social measures, and also the ways in which they reconcile the dynamic tensions that exist between social and commercial objectives.\n6. Conclusion and policy implications: This paper explores the internal processes of microfinance programs of three DFIs in Malaysia. It specifically focuses on how they measure and manage the social performance of their programs. Since the introduction of the Microfinance Institutional Framework, the DFIs have introduced and implemented microfinance programs in a more formal manner and have continued to be strategically involved in providing microfinance services. It seems that the DFIs have adopted an institutionalist approach in that their microfinance programs are commercially driven, with an objective to make profits. This can be observed in the way they charge interest at market rates to ensure program sustainability and to compensate for the higher risks and costs associated with administering these types of loans on a broad and inclusive basis. As the focus of their programs is on the breadth of their outreach, this has an impact on their financial performance; it also acts as a strong predictor of social performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of microfinance programs in three Malaysian development finance institutions (DFIs). Its main concerns revolve around how these DFIs measure and manage their social performance and how they reconcile their competing social and commercial objectives which are driven by particular logics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper analyzes the ways in which the DFIs selected for this study measure and manage their social performance. The data were acquired from two sessions of focus group interviews, a series of semi-structured interviews, and extensive reviews of documentaries. The institutional logics perspective is used to explore the interplay between social and commercial logics in shaping the view and use of social performance measures in the three studied DFIs.\nFindings: Although these DFIs have consistently offered formal microfinance programs to designated target groups, their ultimate focus has been on measuring financial as opposed to social performance. Hence, performance appraisal is mainly aligned with the breadth of outreach, rather than its depth. Nevertheless, there appear to be conflicts between the need to accommodate both breadth and depth, due to the competing demands of the two objectives. The rivalry between these two competing demands, which represents the interplay between social and commercial logics, is resolved through reconciliation, that is, by making one objective compatible with the other.\nOriginality/value: This paper examines the ways in which the DFIs in the study measure and manage their social performance, a topic that is, currently, not widely explored. This study contributes to advancing the knowledge on the link between institutional logics and organizational practices, particularly in understanding the extent to which the Malaysian DFIs assign importance to social performance when designing and offering microfinance programs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
International borrowing: roads less traveled
|
[
"Document delivery",
"International ILL",
"OCLC",
"Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue",
"National libraries",
"East Asian Gateway Service",
"Global ILL Framework (GIF)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Global resource sharing is an idea whose time has come\" (Frederiksen et al., 2012), and a variety of factors have contributed to the trend. A plethora of union catalogs and readily accessible verification tools, the ease of direct Interlibrary Loan (ILL) requesting, system interoperability, electronic delivery of journal articles and, in some cases, ebooks, and convenient payment methods have all played a role in the growth and convenience of international ILL. The most important of these factors, however, is the abundance of excellent discovery tools, which allow the ILL practitioner to search the globe with relative ease for the book or article a patron needs.\nInternational ILL through WorldCat: The poster child for OCLC libraries that make international ILL easy for the practitioner is the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, or Bavarian State Library. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is an outstanding library of nearly 10 million volumes, and the decision was made to play a more active role in international sharing. In 2007, it added approximately seven million records to WorldCat, and in March 2009, it became an OCLC supplier using the symbol GEBAY. Between March and December 2009, 16, 000 international requests were received from 25 different countries (OCLC, 2010). I can personally attest to the importance of the Bavarian State Library to the University of Notre Dame. Since it became a supplier on OCLC, we have borrowed more from them than from any other library abroad - more even than from the British Library with whom we have a longstanding account. Of course, how much one borrows and from whom is relative; however, the fact that over the past few years, we have borrowed nearly 400 times from the Bavarian State Library speaks volumes (no pun intended).\nLibrary to library: In any case, visiting another library's Web site to determine how to initiate an interlibrary loan is always an adventure. Web sites vary a great deal; the spectrum runs from interfaces that are reasonably transparent and easy to use to those which are fiendishly difficult. One example of a good library Web site and a good library for international ILL transactions is that of the National Library of Spain, the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana[1]. The Web page is all very intuitive; converting the Spanish to English is fairly obvious. With a glance over the options, \"services\" and \"interlibrary loan\" are easy to find on uncluttered pages. First-time users need to register; once registered, they are provided a username and password. Upon login, there is another simple set of options:\nGateways and consortia: Depending on the nature of the request, when there is no OCLC supplier, it is sometimes possible to avoid the problems occasionally encountered when going directly to another library's Web page. For example, an ILL practitioner with a request for an article in Chinese which cannot be found through any WorldCat or OCLC supplier could go to the East Asian Gateway Service, run by the University of Pittsburgh[2]. The service was established by a grant from the US Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services and now is supported by the University of Pittsburgh Library System. The gateway has a partnership with 16 academic and research libraries in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The request form is simple and easy to use. If a serial cannot be found in a North American library, submit the form to the East Asian Gateway Service and staff there will search the holdings of such libraries as Beijing Daxue, Fudan Daxue, Shanghai Jiaotong Daxue, Sichuan Daxue and others. One of the added bonuses of this service is that it is free for individual researchers and for non-profit organizations. Articles are delivered electronically, and the turnaround time is relatively good, approximately a week.\nMore challenging ILL scenarios: The last scenario to touch on is the situation when the library Web site does not readily yield any information on interlibrary loan. For example, I had occasion to need a couple of pages from a treatise published in Caracas, Venezuela. I was unable to find any holders except for the National Library of Venezuela, so I consulted the library's Web site[5]. This is a Spanish-only Web site; however, after consulting with the Latin American Studies librarian at Notre Dame and after using the Web translation tools, I settled on \"Reproduccion\", where I found a form and an e-mail address: referencia@bnv.gob.ve. But after filling out the form and sending the e-mail, I received no response. I searched the Web site for another promising e-mail address, sent another e-mail, but once again with no success.\nConclusions: In conclusion, international interlibrary loan is improving, but there is still a long way to go before true global resource sharing is realized. Everyone of us can contribute to this improvement. If we are not involved in organized efforts on digitization projects or such problematic issues as copyright, we can at least support as liberal an international ILL policy as possible in our own library. And if we are not in a position to weigh in on the formulation of policy, we can always answer that e-mail from a library abroad as promptly and as generously as possible.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to highlight the characteristics of the bibliographic discovery and delivery processes that can either facilitate or impede attempts to borrow materials from overseas libraries. The experiences described represent the perspective of a typical Interlibrary Loan (ILL) practitioner in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author draws on his own personal experience with interlibrary borrowing at a major private university research library in the USA.\nFindings: From a US perspective, the ideal means of obtaining materials from overseas libraries is to locate a potential supplier in Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) WorldCat and use the same system to manage the entire ILL request process. Large union catalogs such as the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue are suitable alternatives, as are services specializing in publications from certain countries or regions such as the East Asian Gateway Service or the Global ILL Framework (GIF). The least desirable option is to search and request materials directly through an individual library's Web site, although the experience can be greatly enhanced through the use of well-designed English language interfaces, easy payment options such as International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) vouchers or credit cards and electronic delivery whenever possible.\nOriginality/value: This article would be of value for any ILL practitioners in the USA who are involved in borrowing or would like to borrow materials from overseas libraries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of the chief process officer in organizations
|
[
"Top management",
"Business process management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Top managers play an important role in driving the behavior and performance of organizations (Hambrick, 2007). However, if responsibilities are not clearly defined among members of the top management team, conflicts are very likely, and they may have negative performance effects (Simons and Peterson, 2000). Such conflicts can also affect an organization's capability to manage its cross-functional processes - business processes - whose design and operation is an important determinant of organizational performance (Kohlbacher and Reijers, 2013). When organizations decide to develop a business process management (BPM) capability, they often assign the BPM accountability to a specific member of the senior executive team. Some organizations assign this accountability to their chief operating officer (COO) or chief information officer (CIO), whereas others appoint a chief process officer (CPO) position (Lohmann and zur Muehlen, 2015). Such a constellation is intriguing because CPOs do not head a value-adding corporate function, whereas the CIO heads the IT function and the COO oversees an organization's operations function. The literature suggests that the responsibilities of CPOs may be overlapping with those of other C-level executives (CXOs) (Robertson, 2013). Having the COO, CIO and CPO role assigned to different individuals may raise problems from an accountability perspective in case of conflicts and unsuccessful change. Anecdotal evidence shows that up to 70 percent of such change initiatives do not deliver benefits or fail (Beer and Nohria, 2000). Hence, an important question is whether CPOs add value to the top management team or whether they make process change even more complicated because of increased coordination effort. Further, a look into the literature revealed a lack of theory and joint understanding regarding the specific skills of CPOs compared to other C-level roles. While research provides insights into the roles and skills of C-level positions such as the COO, CIO and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the CPO has not yet been investigated thoroughly (Bennett and Miles, 2006, Kappelman et al., 2016, Kaplan et al., 2012). To better understand the CPO role and the rationale of organizations to appoint this position, we conduct an explorative empirical study based on the career backgrounds and skill sets of individuals appointed as CPOs. Further, we compare the skill sets of CPOs with those of other C-level roles that commonly share responsibility for the design, implementation or execution of business processes, i.e., COOs, CIOs and chief technology officers (CTOs). Such an explorative approach is necessary due to the missing literature on CPOs. This leads to the following research question:\n2. Background: Regarding the roles and competences of executives, some scientific contributions provide insights into the skills of executives in general, while others focus on skills related to executives in certain business areas. However, academic research on the CPO role is very limited, and industry sources suggest that the CPO is a leadership role that provides strategic oversight as well as direction for governing and leading business process improvement initiatives (Robertson, 2013). Common responsibilities ascribed to the CPO are the monitoring of external and internal environmental opportunities and threats, keeping an eye on emerging IT trends that affect how the business operates, the championing of business improvement and innovation in a process-oriented manner and the assessment of how IT enables and prohibits business process designs (Franz and Kirchmer, 2012; Kirchmer and Franz, 2014; Robertson, 2013).\n3. Research method: We performed an explorative content analysis to add structure to the textual content of job resumes (Krippendorff, 2004). We also developed specific coding schemes for the different sections of job resumes. Content analysis is a common approach for the analysis of concepts from unstructured text and has already been successfully applied in the BPM literature (Muller et al., 2016; Lohmann and zur Muehlen, 2015). We sampled job resumes in their digital form between December 2016 and February 2017 from LinkedIn.com, which considers itself the world's largest professional online social network. LinkedIn.com allows its members to manage their professional identity. Members can document their work experience, education, skills and interests, among other traits. Whether individuals possess the skills enlisted in their resume can be confirmed by other members in form of endorsements. The number of endorsements is shown next to the skill. Members can also reveal their current and past work experience, augmented with information about their job title, the respective organization or institution, their tenure and a description. To obtain a picture about the CPO role that is as complete as possible, we complemented the quantitative results with rich qualitative insights from semi-structured interviews and triangulated the results.\n4. Findings: To understand the skills and responsibilities of CPOs in organizations and how they differ from those of other CXOs, we structure the analysis around several exploratory questions: What educational background do CPOs have? What is the functional background of CPOs? Which positions do CPOs hold before and after their CPO appointment? We capture these three questions in chapter 4.1. How do the skill sets of CPOs compare with those of other senior executive roles? How do the skill sets of CPOs compare to other process leadership roles? We dedicate chapter 4.2 to these questions. What are the core skills of CPOs? What are the contingent skills of CPOs over industry and organization size? We address these last two questions in chapter 4.3. We complement the findings with insights interpreted and validated through our expert interviews.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: We analyzed the CPO role and compared it with other C-level and process leadership roles across different organizational dimensions. This analysis helped answer our research question. First, we examined the educational background, functional background, and career paths of CPOs. Second, we compared the skill set of CPOs with those of other C-level and process leadership roles based on LinkedIn.com job resumes and provided an overview of CPOs' core and contingent skills. We triangulated the quantitative data collected in our study with qualitative in-depth insights from current and former CPOs through expert interviews to validate our results and gain further insights into the role.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The design and execution of business processes are important drivers of organizational performance. Organizations design their operations around cross-functional processes adopting business process management (BPM) methods, tools and systems. This often involves assigning BPM accountability to senior executives such as the chief operating officer (COO), chief information officer (CIO), or chief technology officer (CTO). Some organizations appoint a chief process officer (CPO), a phenomenon raising important questions about the skills and responsibilities of this position within the top management team. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an empirical study to explore the skills and responsibilities of CPOs and differences to other executives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an exploratory content analysis of job resumes from LinkedIn.com to investigate the skills and careers of individuals appointed as COO, CIO, CTO and CPO in organizations from different industries and sizes. The content analysis was complemented with expert interviews of CPOs to obtain rich insights into their perception of the responsibilities of this position.\nFindings: CPOs possess a unique skill set to serve as change agents. Their skills enable them to serve as integrators and influencers across managerial ranks and corporate functions. COOs, CIOs and CTOs possess more specialized skills related to their corporate function, whereas CPOs are more generalists who facilitate process-oriented strategy and execution, driving cultural change throughout the organization. These findings are consistent across industry and size.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper to examine the CPO position in relation to other senior executive positions. Hence, it addresses an important gap in the BPM literature which can help organizations to make informed decisions whether they need a CPO position or have it become a part-time role of one of their existing C-level positions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Stress of underworked and overpaid: Rooting out the causes of damaging absenteeism
|
[
"Public sector",
"Absenteeism",
"Stress",
"Job characteristics",
"Reward"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Overworked and underpaid! That is often the response - usually jocular, but sometimes with a suggestion of truth - from an employee when an acquaintance asks: \"How are things at work\"?\nChronically ill employees are more likely to hold positions lower in work demand: On the other hand, there will be those conscientious employees who have such weighty job demands that they feel there are just not enough hours in the working day to get through what needs to be done. Stressed as they might feel, they are likely to reject any temptation to take time off because they want to complete their tasks.\nJob crafting enables employees to actively shape their role: The results of this research imply that, while there may indeed be a detrimental effect of high effort on employee mental or physical health, the behavioral implication is that these employees may not actually engage in withdrawal behaviors. The result suggests that employees with significant workplace demands cannot afford unnecessary time away from work. As a symptom of job strain, absenteeism appears to potentially be a poor indicator of the reality of working conditions and their influence on employees.\nComment: This review is based on \"An application of an extended effort-reward imbalance model to police absenteeism behaviour\" by Allisey et al. (2016). Among the findings of a study of police officers in Australia, the authors found that low workload was associated with a higher frequency of absenteeism. The findings also indicated that there was a strong influence of social rewards, such as social support and recognition in the workplace, on officer absenteeism rates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Frequent absences from work can be highly disruptive, while also potentially indicating problematic working conditions that can lead to increased withdrawal behavior. The purpose of this paper is to test the predictive capability of an expanded effort-reward imbalance model on employee absenteeism within the context of policing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three separate reward systems are identified by the effort-reward imbalance model. In this study, the authors assessed these individual components for their contribution to officer withdrawal behavior in the form of absenteeism frequency. Data were gathered from officers within a large Australian police agency.\nFindings: Findings indicate that there was a strong influence of social rewards, such as social support and recognition in the workplace on officer absenteeism rates. Low workload was associated with a higher frequency of absenteeism, suggesting a potential underloading effect. There were a number of significant interactions providing support for the effort-reward imbalance mechanism and the separation of the reward construct. Security rewards were particularly influential and significantly moderated the relationship between effort and absenteeism.\nOriginality/value: This paper considers an expanded model of worker strain and contributes a longitudinal assessment of the association between perceived effort and reward systems and worker absenteeism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Global financial crisis and cyclical co-movements of Asian financial markets
|
[
"Global financial crisis",
"Contagion",
"Coherence",
"Asian asset markets",
"Cross-spectral analysis",
"Public real estate"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this study we employ a unique weekly data set that includes the US and ten Asian economies (both developed and emerging) over the period from June 28, 2000 to June 27, 2007 (pre-crisis period) and from July 4, 2007 to July 2, 2014 (crisis/post-crisis period)[1] to evaluate whether there is greater co-movement post-financial crisis and whether the observed higher asset market co-movements can be attributed to integration or contagion by using a frequency approach to compare cross-spectral of Asian public real estate, stock and bond for the two sub-samples. Contagion is defined as a temporary increase of short scale co-movements within the frequency domain context.\n2. Brief literature: This study, which is an academic research on the cyclical co-movement of stock, real estate and bond markets of Asian countries, is related to the large body of theoretical and empirical knowledge on asset market co-movement, integration and contagion during financial crises (Cheung et al., 2007; Yiu et al., 2010). We recognize that most of studies employed the time domain approach which includes correlation analysis, co-integration, causality and multivariate GARCH models to detect cross-market co-movements, integration and contagion. As this literature has been well established and could be easily located, it is not our intention to review for brevity reason.\n3. Data sample and descriptive statistics: We include public real estate, stock and bond returns of ten Asian economies: developed: Japan (JP), Hong Kong (HK), Singapore (SG) and Korea (KR); emerging: China (CH), Indonesia (IND), Malaysia (MY), Philippines (PH), Taiwan (TW) and Thailand (TH); as well as the US markets. While the US market is predominant REITs, many Asian public real estate markets are dominated by property developers and construction activities. Therefore, the cash flows of their business and consequently the equity returns are more volatile in contrast to REITs, where rental investments dominate. The pre-crisis sample runs from June 28, 2000 through June 27, 2007 (366 weekly returns) and the crisis/post-crisis period runs from July 4, 2007 to July 2, 2014 (366 weekly returns). This 14-year period includes the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, stock market downturn in October 2002, the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Chinese stock market decline in February 2007, the 2007-2009 subprime and GFC and the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis, etc. all of which had clear observed effects on volatilities of international financial markets. We focus on the GFC crisis. The return data are denominated in local currency to avoid any impact from exchange rate volatility.\n4. Methodology: This study conducts a cross-spectral analysis of stock, real estate and bond returns for the pre-crisis and crisis/post-crisis samples. Co-spectral analysis transforms time domain data in the frequency domain, with the spectral plot used to identify periodic behavior in tine series. The \"frequency\" in x-axis denotes the cycle length per period and captures the variation of the series as a whole into periodic components of different frequencies. Smooth series have stronger periodic components at low frequencies that correspond to longer investment horizons (\"long\" run); in contrast random variation (white noise) spreads the component strength overall frequencies. Using this model-free approach (Granger, 1966), the relative importance of cycles of different frequencies is evaluated to explain the financial market co-movements among the ten Asian economies examined for the two sub-samples, in the long run (low frequencies) and short term (high frequencies), respectively.\n5. Empirical results: This section reports the results for the various groups of markets based on the analysis of co-spectral densities, coherence and covariance for the pre- and post-crisis periods.\n6. Conclusion: The contribution of this research is largely empirical. The frequency domain analysis conducted in this paper adds to the understanding of public real estate, stock and bond markets' co-movement, integration and contagion dynamics, as well as the Asian cross-asset factor and US-Asian asset factor relationships in global mixed-investing environment. Our aim was to examine whether the 2007-2008 GFC has caused greater cyclical movements and whether these observed increased co-movements measure the outcomes of contagion or integration by comparing the cross-spectra of real estate/stock/bond of ten selected Asian economies in the pre-crisis and crisis/post-crisis periods and focussing on their co-spectral densities, coherence and covariance. Previous studies have examined one single asset class at a time; in contrast our line of three asset inquiry in public real estate/stock/bond has not appeared in any studies before. Real estate investments show low correlation with stocks and bonds and therefore, have appropriate characteristics contributing to portfolio optimization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-spectra of stock, real estate and bond of ten selected Asian economies in the pre- and post-global financial crisis periods to detect whether there is greater cyclical co-movement post-financial crisis, and whether any observed increased co-movement measures the outcomes of contagion or integration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Co-spectral approach is the proper econometric tool to deliver economic insight for this research.\nFindings: Results indicate that Asian stock markets, and to a lesser degree, bond and real estate markets are more correlated post-financial crisis. Similarly, Asian financial markets have experienced increased co-movements with the US financial markets post-financial crisis. Moreover, these observed increased co-movements measure the outcomes of contagion in some cases of within-asset and cross-asset classes, as well as for some cross-US-Asian asset factor relationships along the high-frequency components of between two and four weeks. The stock markets are the most contagious, followed by the real estate markets and bond markets.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results provide short-term investors with additional co-movement information at higher frequencies in order to identify short-term fluctuations of different asset classes. The empirical study also underscores the role of Asian real estate in investment portfolios in a mixed real estate, stock and bond context from a frequency domain perspective.\nPractical implications: The practical implication of this research is that benefits to investors from international diversification may not be as great during the present time compared to previous periods because financial/asset market movements have become more correlated. However, it does not imply the complete absence of diversification benefits. This is because although cyclical correlations increase in the short run, many of the values are still between low and moderate range, indicating that some diversification benefits may still be realized.\nOriginality/value: In advancing the body of knowledge in international financial markets, this research is probably the first study to consider a multi-asset class portfolio context that includes stock, real estate and bond across the ten Asian economies and the USA in a single study. The frequency domain analysis conducted in this paper adds to the understanding of real estate, stock and bond market co-movement, integration and contagion dynamics, as well as the Asian cross-asset factor and US-Asian asset factor relationships in global mixed-investing environment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Challenging, flexible - and out of the way of office politics: Interim management could help more women to get into the boardroom
|
[
"Interim management",
"Women",
"Flexible labour",
"Senior management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: At 36 years of age, Sarah Hadley has an impressive CV. She has worked in the UK business of Australian insurance company AMP, and at Arthur Andersen, Zurich Financial Services, Royal Sun Alliance and NM Rothschild.\nBetter work-life balance and more stimulating work: Achieving a better work-life balance and the opportunity to take on more stimulating work are the top attractions for women who become interim managers, according to a survey of 700 female interim managers, commissioned by Russam GMS, a UK interim-manager provider. Surprisingly, financial reward is not such a high priority, and few have left permanent employment to earn more money or take on a more senior position.But while interim management brings flexibility, it does have drawbacks. Assignments can come up at different locations across the UK and travel away from home is often part of the role. Around a quarter of respondents are unhappy about working away from home.Another negative factor, for some, is the constant pressure to perform. A third of women who took part in the survey dislike the feeling that there are higher expectations on them than on permanent staff.That is not a problem for Rachel Youngman, though. A general manager and chief executive, she started her interim career in 2003 when she was looking for a new challenge and for more variety in her working life. She had enjoyed a high-flying career for many years working as a deputy executive director for an international charity. Although her job had involved overseas travel, was financially very rewarding and had even given her the opportunity to meet well-known people such as Nelson Mandela, she felt it was time for a change.\"I wanted a less-predictable working life, to learn more and to be really challenged and pushed. I was approaching 40 and had many years of experience behind me, so the time seemed right to take the big decision to become a self-employed consultant and interim manager,\" she explained.She decided that consultancy work, combined with taking on interim assignments, would give her enough work and the variety she was looking for. It would also help her to avoid the \"feast or famine\" situation that is commonly suffered by the self-employed.\nHit the ground running: \"As an interim, it is essential you hit the ground running as you are paid to deliver from day one,\" she said. \"There is no grace period or settling-in time for interims so it is not for everyone, but I personally love the challenge.\"Rachel Youngman has deliberately chosen to work in different industries to get the variety she craves. She was a consultant at the Cabinet Office and is currently part-time chief executive at the British Youth Council, where she reports to a board of directors all in their 20s.\"It is a wonderful way of working and I couldn't be tempted into returning to a permanent role. After all, I had a great permanent role. This way of working just suits me better,\" she explained.Meanwhile, marketing director Janet Morris has never been without an assignment since she started her interim-management career seven years ago, at the age of 34. Each one typically lasts between six and nine months. She often acts as a portfolio interim manager and works on two part-time assignments at the same time.\"I work with my clients to put together my job briefs, so my deliverables are completely clear and I understand my goals from day one,\" she said. \"Having such clarity and focus is liberating and this differs completely from a permanent role where goals are often a bit hazy. I know what I am responsible for and what I have to deliver and while this adds an element of pressure, I thrive in this kind of environment.\"She also likes the fact that she avoids office politics.\nNot a soft option: She has worked for organizations such as the Energy Saving Trust, Ordnance Survey, Air Miles, and the Queen's lawyers, Farrer & Co. She is currently the only female director at family-owned construction firm Osborne. Her roles have ranged from handling large branding projects, managing strategic-marketing assignments, through to setting up or restructuring marketing departments as well as crisis management.\"Interim management gives me choice of whom I work for and on what, and a more flexible working life,\" she said. However, it is not a soft option. \"The job is challenging and can be stressful at times. Also, anyone who is thinking of a career in interim management needs to be ready to be completely flexible and willing to travel. For example, I used to commute from London to Southampton every day for one assignment - travel is part of the job.\"She admitted that working as the only interim manager at a senior level in a company can feel isolating at times, which is why she stresses the importance of making the effort to network with other interims.Russam GMS chairman Charles Russam said: \"There is a huge talent pool of women on the market who have not yet considered interim management as a solution to balancing a career with a more flexible working life which, as our research clearly showed, is a top priority.\nSupport network launched: \"With more men taking joint responsibility for the family and domestic commitments, there is more opportunity than ever for women to pursue more interesting and challenging career options,\" he continued. \"We sometimes come across husbands and wives who job share - dividing up the responsibility of child care and taking it in turn to build their respective careers. Interim management can offer a highly effective route into this kind of career sharing and could ensure job fulfilment for men and women.\"Research by PriceWaterhouseCoopers recently highlighted a sharp fall in the number of women at senior board level in FTSE 350 companies. While interim management has traditionally been male-dominated, Charles Russam believes that more women and young people are now being attracted to the work.Russam GMS has launched a network, Interim Women, to support women working in the industry. It is a forum where women working as interim managers can come together to network at events, share best practice and meet like-minded individuals. A website, www.interimwomen.com, provides a calendar of forthcoming events, news and advice for getting the most out of an interim career.The company hopes to attract more women into the profession and provide a forum for them to share best practice.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the advantages and disadvantages of an interim-management career for women.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Describes the interim-management experiences of three women, and reports on the results of a survey of 700 other women interim managers in the UK.\nFindings: - Reveals that work-life balance and challenging work are the top attractions for interim managers, pay is a relatively low priority and working away from home is the main disadvantage.\nPractical implications: - Contends that interim management could be one way of getting more women into the boardroom.\nOriginality/value: - Provides a female perspective on interim management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Leadership toward creativity in virtual work in a start-up context
|
[
"Creativity",
"Leadership",
"Coaching",
"Virtual work",
"Start-up",
"Assertiveness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business is increasingly global, dispersed and virtual; information society and its manifestations, such as social media, present many challenges. The winners in business can foresee developments, react creatively and collaborate effectively in global networks. \"Virtual work\" refers to people working in different geographical locations using information and communication technology (ICT) to manage business processes, and \"virtuality\" to a context for companies to work together with customers, users and interest groups in networks. In the future, virtuality and mobility will become natural prerequisites for work conditions and productivity. This requires better understanding of creativity in the interaction between technology and human creative processes. It requires finding ways how to use ICT in organizational learning, leadership and collaboration effectively, and how to foster creativity to contribute to healthier and happier coworkers, offer a broader ability to see things in new ways and to understand the potential effects of these technologies to the leadership dynamics (Avolio et al., 2014; Nemiro, 2004).\n2. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework is based on previous research on leadership in virtual work, creativity, collective creativity and creative-conductive leadership approaches.\n3. Research context and methodology: This study was conducted as a qualitative research (Charmaz, 2006; Miller and Glassner, 2011) aiming to understand better how the key persons in a start-up experience the learning challenges of leadership toward creativity in virtual work and the measures to meet them. Understanding requires an interpretivist approach, where the researcher gets close to the people and the process under study (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2006; Newton Suter, 2012). To understand the role of collaboration between key persons and the changing context in the start-up, the complexity leadership approach was used to interpret the data by paying attention to interaction and collaboration between the key players (Lane and Down, 2010).\n4. Findings and discussion: To sum up, the results underline the importance of a co-creative and assertive leadership and collaboration to foster creativity in a start-up context. Such leadership and collaboration resembles coaching, which Hawkins (2012) defines as a form of leadership and management development combining different fields of expertise, know-how and skills to reach win-win targets. Coaching supports the learning of people and whole organizations, strategic and commercial development and the way of doing business with interest groups. Figure 2 combines the most important learning challenges derived from the learning themes and the measures in leadership to meet them.\n5. Conclusions: This study gives empirical evidence in a start-up context about combining leadership and creativity, which have so far remained separate within the virtual work research. The results suggest the importance of co-creative and assertive coaching leadership for start-ups in virtual work. Leadership that fosters creative and inspiring utilization of virtuality and ICT from the early stage of a company and utilizes multiliteracy skills and critical reflection can promote such success stories where both people and businesses can flourish in the digital economy. Moreover, by integrating business and pedagogical knowledge, it is possible to gain a broader understanding of leadership and collaboration in virtual work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to better understand how to lead toward creativity in virtual work in a start-up context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study investigates the participants' experiences about the learning challenges in leadership toward creativity in virtual work in a start-up company and the meanings attributed to their experiences, and the measures they see to meet those challenges. The data have been gathered on a Finnish partnership start-up company through interviews capturing peoples' personal perspectives and experiences. This study uses a qualitative research study approach to better understand leadership toward creativity in virtual work in a start-up.\nFindings: The results underline the importance of co-creative and assertive coaching leadership in a start-up to foster creativity and create new shared value. Key persons' multiliteracy skills and lobbying are means to manage social and physical distances in virtual work.\nPractical implications: The study suggests collaborative coaching leadership and assertiveness for start-ups to minimize mistakes in virtual work. Practitioners must unlearn old courses of action to learn to operate in a start-up environment and utilize information and communication technology in a smart way.\nOriginality/value: The paper gives empirical evidence in a start-up context about combining leadership and creativity within the virtual work research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supply chain strategies of manufacturers in Ethiopia
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Supply chain",
"Strategy",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's competitive age, many companies have not succeeded in maximizing their supply chain's (SC) potential because they have often failed to develop the performance measures and metrics needed to fully integrate their SC (Gunasekaran et al., 2004). The main problems in SC performance measurements are: having a large number of metrics which makes it difficult to identify the critical few among trivial many; failing to connect the strategy and the measurement; having a biased focus on financial metrics and being too much inward looking (Gunasekaran et al., 2004; Gunasekaran and Kobu, 2007); and ignoring social and environmental aspects while dealing with economic aspects in greater depth (Cuthbertson and Piotrowicz, 2011). Clearly, the right choice of performance measure is critical to the success and competitiveness of the firm in the era of globalization (Caplice and Sheffi, 1994; Bhagwat and Sharma, 2007). This is particularly difficult as companies nowadays face a series of challenges like shrinking product life cycles, the proliferation of product variants, and increasing uncertainty on both the demand and the supply side. Dealing efficiently with uncertainty is one of the most crucial points in SC design (Davis, 1993). These uncertainties are demand and supply uncertainties. To reduce uncertainties, proper SC design is needed (Davis, 1993; Lee, 2002). Reducing these uncertainties improves SC performance (Davis, 1993; Mason-Jones and Towill, 1998; Geary et al., 2002; Yang et al., 2004; Prater, 2005). Due to these uncertainties, different SC strategies emerged. Because of these different types of strategies, it is practically impossible to develop a single performance measurement model that applies to all strategies. There is no \"one size fits all\" approach for successful management of the SC, but different performance measures are appropriate for different strategies. Hence, setting the right SC strategy is mandatory for companies competing in the market (Fisher, 1997; Lee, 2002; Thun, 2005; Chopra and Meindl, 2007; Narasimhan et al., 2008).\nTheoretical background and research hypothesis: The studies of SC strategies and SC measures are not new. However, the right measures for the SC strategies have not yet been identified. Besides, there is clear classification of the SC strategies based on the types of companies. The majority of strategies are not tested empirically using large samples. The most common SC strategies identified by Fisher (1997) have been tested and validated by different researchers (e.g. Selldin and Olhager, 2007). Similarly, the classifications based on lean and agile have also been tested (e.g. Qi et al., 2009). But, the classification proposed by Lee (2002) has not been validated empirically; as far as we know. Furthermore, matching SC measures to the classifications is not studied. Hence, using the theory developed so far and adopting Lee (2002) classification, the classification and the match to their respective SC measures has been tested. To do this the research map is developed as shown in Figure 1. First companies are identified and classified according to their adopted SC strategy which is captured in the first hypothesis followed by identifying the SC measures for the strategies which are captured under the second hypothesis.\nResearch methodology: In this research, data are collected through mail survey and distribution by personal contact with the respondents. The survey focused on those manufacturing companies with more than 100 employees. The target respondents within each company were managers whose work directly affects SCM practice. A questionnaire survey is used in the research. The surveyed companies are categorized as: raw material manufacturer (named as raw material suppliers), component manufacturer (components suppliers) or finished goods manufacturer (manufacturer) with more than buyer-seller relationships. In this study the researchers tried to achieve reliable data by finding respondents who were well informed about the topics asked in their respective organizations. Thus, the survey instrument has been given to middle and top managers who are responsible for SCM in their organizations - including, general managers, factory managers, operation managers, product design and development managers, marketing managers and SC managers. These managers are selected because it is believed that they have enough knowledge to answer the questions asked in the questionnaire, specifically the questions concerning the SC strategies and SC measures exercised by their respective companies.\nResults and discussions: Using cluster analysis and scree plot, the significant number of factors for SC characteristics were identified. Figure 2 shows us that there could be up to five factors to be used for SC characteristics. But since the eigenvalues increase abruptly at the forth factor, the number of factors is considered four.\nConclusions and future work: In this study, it is found that there is distinct matching of companies to SC strategies based on the classification given by Lee (2002). Regarding types of companies matching SC strategy, it is found that food and beverages, glass, ceramics and plastics and consumer products match with efficient SCs. Companies in textiles, clothing and leather companies and metals and machinery are suited in agile category, while chemicals and construction company categories fall under risk-hedging SCs. Wood, paper and furniture and transportation equipments are categorized under responsive SC strategy. Regarding the other background and profile data, private and joint venture companies favor efficient and responsive SCs, respectively, and manufacturers favor agile SC. Small and large companies favor the efficient and responsive SCs, respectively.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test the supply chain (SC) strategies and the linking of SCs to SC strategies in line with Lee's (2002) model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper used an empirical survey of 134 large industries to test the hypothesis suggested and strengthens the existing theories.\nFindings: Companies and SC measures are matched distinctively to their respective SC strategies.\nResearch limitations/implications: Even though the research is only one of the few on case considered, it is not without limitations. The benefits from matching SC measures to the SC strategies are not quantified. Besides, continental wise survey is needed to come with further improved theory.\nPractical implications: Different SC types require typical SC measures in order to increase competitiveness. Linking SC performance to the respective SC strategy is compulsory.\nOriginality/value: The research can be considered the only one of the few in the continent in general and a case country in particular. It is also the first of the type in the world in testing Lee's model as far as the authors' knowledge concerns.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Coverage of climate change information in Tanzanian newspapers
|
[
"Content analysis",
"Tanzania",
"Newspapers",
"Coverage",
"Climate change",
"Attention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Climate change is a global threatening phenomenon caused by various activities such as deforestation, industrialization, transportation, electricity production and agriculture. These activities lead to the production of greenhouse gases that contribute to increased temperatures which in turn lead to global changes in climatic conditions (IPCC, 2007). Generally, all countries face the consequences of climate change, though they may be affected at different levels. Tanzania has felt the impacts of climate change such as recurrent and prolonged droughts, floods and erratic heavy rainfalls. These have in turn resulted into disease outbreaks, destruction of settlements and infrastructure, deaths of people and animals and land resources degradation, among many other effects (IPCC, 2007; URT, 2012; URT, 2013). As a result, climate change has received attention by various actors including governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), politicians, researchers and scientists, particularly on how to establish adaptation and mitigation strategies.\nMethods: This study used content analysis method to systematically analyse the occurrences of climate change issues and how these occurrences were distributed in six Tanzanian newspapers. Attention was then calculated as the number of articles mentioning climate change as a proportion of the absolute number of articles published in a given newspaper for all 10 years. The population of this study was 39 newspapers published in Tanzania between January 2006 and December 2015. The units of analysis were climate change articles that contained key terms associated with \"climate change\" or \"mabadiliko ya tabia nchi\" in Kiswahili, and many other terms which were translated and indigenised to reflect climate change.\nResults and discussion: The study findings in Table III indicate that there were a total of 81,162 articles in all six newspapers for 10 years. The Guardian had the highest (24,816; 30.57 per cent) proportion of all articles followed by Daily News (22,234; 27.39 per cent) and Mwananchi (18,297; 22.54 per cent). This Day had the lowest (623; 0.77 per cent) number of articles followed by Rai (556; 0.68 per cent). The results indicate that these six Tanzanian newspapers had very few (684; 0.84 per cent) articles on climate change which is an average of 68.4 articles per year. Much attention was given to entertainment (24,331; 30 per cent) followed by miscellaneous issues such as environment and socio-economic issues (19,413; 24.0 per cent) and advertisements (18,112; 22.3 per cent). The Pearson's chi-square test indicates that there was a significant difference in kh2 = 21,765, p-value < 2.2e - 16 between the level of coverage of climate change articles on other topics in the selected newspapers. These findings show that Tanzanian newspapers did not pay adequate attention to climate change issues. That is to say, Tanzanian newspapers did not effectively play their role of informing, educating and enlightening people about climate change.\nConclusion and recommendations: Based on the premise that media play a crucial role in the dissemination of information, research was carried out to analysis the level of attention given to climate change information by Tanzanian newspapers between 2006 and 2015. Despite the fact that climate change is among the threatening phenomena in Tanzania that would commensurate a significant attention in the media, the findings of this study indicate that the volume of coverage devoted to climate change by the newspapers in Tanzania is very low and disproportionate to the level of threat. This leaves a question on the Tanzanian newspapers' dedication to reporting climate change information.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study was conducted to analyse the extent at which Tanzanian newspapers paid attention to climate change information over the period of 10 years between January 2006 and December 2015.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Six Tanzanian newspapers were quantitatively content analysed for frequencies of coverage to climate change information.\nFindings: The results indicate that of total six Tanzanian newspapers had very few (684; 0.84 per cent) articles on climate change which is an average of 68.4 articles per year. Much attention was given to entertainment (24,331; 30 per cent) followed by miscellaneous (19,413; 24.0 per cent) and advertisements (18,112; 22.3 per cent). The Pearson's chi-square test indicates that there was a significant difference in kh2 = 21,765, p-value < 2.2e -16 between the level of coverage of climate change articles on other topics in the selected newspapers.\nResearch limitations/implications: Scanning the sampled six newspapers for climate change information and recording the results in the code sheet for the period of 10 years was a tedious and time-consuming exercise which demanded researchers and coders to be extremely careful. Also it is possible that the sampling strategy used led to missing some data that would have resulted into different conclusions about each newspaper's coverage on climate change. However, the systematic sampling strategy was applied for a long period, that is, 40 months for each newspaper that increased the reliability and accuracy of the results and conclusions about the overall trends in each newspaper's coverage of climate change information.\nPractical implications: These findings imply that, as the disseminators of information, Tanzanian newspapers did not pay adequate attention to climate change issues. The study concludes that contrary to the fact that climate change is among the threatening phenomena in Tanzania that would commensurate a significant attention in the media, the findings of this study indicate that the volume of coverage devoted to climate change by the newspapers in Tanzania is very low and disproportionate to the level of threat. This leaves a question on the Tanzanian newspapers' dedication to reporting climate change information. It is therefore recommended that newspapers' media owners, editors and journalists should be environmental nationalistic enough to frequently report climate change information, and the scope of the government-owned newspapers should be revisited to ensure more coverage of climate change information in their publication which can be done by having a section specifically dedicated for climate change issue.\nOriginality/value: This study has therefore contributed to the growing body of analytical research knowledge on the role of newspapers in the dissemination of climate change information in Tanzania. This study has also highlighted the importance of taking into account newspapers coverage of climate change information which can further be used for policy recommendations to improve the climate change information communication system through the use of newspapers and show the credibility of the newspapers in creating awareness of climate change in Tanzania.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Creative workplace: instrumental and symbolic support for creativity
|
[
"Workplace",
"Office layout"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Physical space can be a powerful tool for companies to support their strategy and improve performance (Levin, 2005; Lindholm and Levainen, 2006). A creative workplace can be seen as the spaces and places that support people working on their creative endeavours. This article provides insight in the contribution of the physical workplace to creativity by reviewing the literature and discussing the results of in depth interviews with ten creative leaders.\n2. Approach/method: The following model (Figure 1) helps to investigate possible relationships between the physical workplace and creativity. Scientific research indicates that the physical workplace can in general contribute to:* performance;* process; and* peopleof the organisation by:* cost saving, risk control, environmental sustainability and contributing to the corporate image both towards customers and employees;* supporting work processes, supporting communication; and* supporting or changing organisational culture, improving employee satisfaction, attraction and retention of staff, supporting and providing organizational flexibility (de Jonge 1996 in Krumm, 1999; Van der Voordt, 2003; Becker et al., 2003; Lindholm and Levainen, 2006; Haynes, 2007; de Vries, 2007).The effects of the physical workplace on organisational performance are realised through (many) different variables and are depending on the starting point, context and culture of the organisation. As performance is influenced by multiple factors at the same time cause and effect chains stay unclear (de Vries, 2007). Causal relations should not be considered absolute but serve a pragmatic purpose to gain further insight in socially constructed reality.First the paper defines what creativity is, what activities contribute to creative performance and what the determinants of creativity are. Therefore business management and psychology books and articles on creativity were consulted.It then goes on to describe how the physical workplace is linked to these concepts of creativity. A structured approach was followed using keywords and keyword combinations (creativity or creative with: workplace, physical workplace, physical work environment, office or office design) to search available scientific literature databases (ScienceDirect, Web of Science and JSTOR) and publishers (Emerald). Due to the limited results this was followed up with snowball sampling: searching for relevant references in the literature and from websites from authors working on similar topics.To further define the relationship between creativity and the physical workplace, ten in depth interviews were held with creative leaders: people within creative industries, who are considered to have achieved eminence in their industry. This is a recognised measure of creativity (Weisberg, 2006, p. 451). The interviews provided insight in the role of the physical environment to their personal creativity and how creativity is spatially organised within their companies.Finally based on the literature and fieldwork an elaborated model is proposed for understanding and researching the relationship between creativity and the physical workplace.Selection criteria:1. Industry:* part of a growing creative industry (more percentage value of BBP, number of jobs) in EUR, UK or NL; and* part of an industry where work is mainly knowledge intensive, complex and where creativity is required to be successful. (according to research, this is where the future of work is heading).2. Interviewee:* is an achieved eminence in one of the creative industries (e.g. prize winning);* heads a company or team in one of the creative industries that is outperforming due to their valuable new products or services; and* is both a creative person and managing creativity.The sample consisted of mostly London based architects all above 50 years old, leading established firms. Next to six architects, the sample included a film producer (age 30), one agent/concept developer (25) for media, campaigns and events (both London based) one consultant (38) and one industrial designer (40) (subsequently Rotterdam and Amsterdam based). They were leading an organisation and in a position to shape their own workspace (see Table I).Only one interviewee is female. The companies vary in size. The consultancy and film production company have five employees, the architectural companies varied between 32, 40, 54, 57 and 70 and one of 151. The Industrial design firm contained 17 members. The creative agency contained nine employees, but organisational boundaries were fluid with number of workers varying.The interviews were semi-structured, with open questions based on the literature. General questions where asked on what creativity was to them and what activities represent creative behaviour. Specific questions about creativity were where they executed this creative behaviour, if and how the work environment could support or inhibit creative behaviour and creativity, and what environment they provided their staff to be creative.\n3. Findings from the literature: Creativity\n4. Findings from interviews: The interviewed creative people found that the workplace does stimulate creativity, but mainly in a indirect way. All interviewees expressed that the physical workplace can inhibit creativity, through noise, high temperatures or not enough space, e.g. for a project team to work together.Supporting creative process\n5. Conclusions and discussion: The physical workplace can support the creative process, activities and their changing intensity. It is very important that the physical workplace does not hinder creativity, its processes and activities, for example by too high temperatures or too much noise, or not enough space to host the number of people. The interviews reinforced the literature on a number of occasions. Especially stimulating a creative culture through expressing the organisation's creative identity seems important. Multiple sources recognise the symbolic dimension of the physical workplace to creativity, for sharing and developing of knowledge, and supporting creative culture. Elements of expression are managers working in the same open plan, presentation of their work (visuals and models) and a buzzing atmosphere with activity: people interacting and moving around. These expressions are not only valuable for employee's but can also contribute to customer experience.Facilitating creativity will require different spatial settings, not just for different activities and cognitive intensity but also for different personal preferences. The functionality of the creative workplace is very much about the ability of workers to control the physical environment to meet the required level of solitude, interaction, noise and temperature. Control of the environment can be met by the ability to choose the right place for the task at hand or the ability to alter the environment to suit the task. Somebody's mental ability to exclude the environment is also a form of control over the environment.The relation between creativity and the physical workplace is complex and shows similarity with previous research on the \"knowledge workplace\". One has to recognise the specific processes and activities involved and especially their cognitive side.It is important to realise that the physical workplace has a social-psychological dimension. People can have different conceptions of the same physical workspace. This means that the social-psychological dimension and its effect on staff can vary from irrelevant to highly motivating. Future research has to recognise the variables between people which affect this relationship. These variables include but are not limited to user data on age, gender, education, introvert or extrovert, tasks and role in the organisation, and also previous experiences and current perceptions on office environments.Furthermore, it is essential to recognise a language that represents the social-psychological aspects of space. That way future research can start to relate user-data and physical aspects to spatial experiences as freedom, security, control, warmth, ownership, encouraging identity and single minded or multi-interpretative space. It is necessary to define their meaning and construct these variables into a working theory, before gathering any empirical data. The following model based on relationships described in this article can be used as a starting point (see Figure 2).We can conclude that creative thinking leading to insight is more likely with a prepared mind in a mentally relaxing environment where freedom, security and control are deeply experienced. Further research might improve our understanding of the importance of a moment and place for relaxation or taking a walk after a period of intense work. These insights could make the case for game rooms, relax lounges and green space, inside or near offices. Managers could also stimulate employees to go out for a walk during the day to escape the pressure of sitting and creating (e.g. write, design, etc.) in one place.Supporting flow is also something which needs further research. Psychology research could tell us more about this mental state and how it is arrived. Concentrated work is easier with views of nature and no interruptions. Again it is important to include user-details. Research suggests that introverts' performance on complex cognitive tasks is more negatively affected by distracters, e.g. music and background television, than by extraverts' performance (Furnham and Strbac, 2002).Creative processes can be supported in different phases by facilitating the different team sizes, and changing dominant activities. It would be interesting to investigate how space provides both flexibility and effective support to the activities taking place. Is the commonly used open workspace with additional meeting and relax spaces the most optimal solution or are other design solutions just as good or better.Buildings can be seen as a structure of control (Baldry, 1998 in Cairns, 2008). Which seem valid for these creative companies. Interviewees promoted working in the office to stimulate the free flow of ideas between colleagues, but also to value these ideas and make sure they are pursued.An organisation of five will use and perceive their organisational space different than an organisation of 25, 50, 110 or over 250 (Becker, 2007). The two firms younger than three years old, did work in a more low budget workplace with a messy character due to cheap collected furniture. Their revenue streams are uncertain, and as start up they do not have to live up to any high expectations of visiting customers. The sample of creative companies was too small and diverse and no users were questioned, to draw conclusions about the relevance of the physical workspace compared to the organisation's development stage and size. Questioning more office users working within the same environment is also a recommendation for further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the relationship between the physical workplace and creativity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper summarises literature from business management, psychology, environmental psychology and facility management to define creativity, creative process and determinants of creativity, and their subsequent relations with the physical workplace. It describes a set of interviews with creative professionals on their understanding of the creative workplace.\nFindings: - The review of the literature reveals knowledge gaps and fragmentation in research about the relation between creativity and the physical workplace. The interviews provide further insight into the relationship between creativity and the physical workplace, showing its plurality and complexity.\nOriginality/value: - Most of the literature about creativity and physical workplace reports on supporting communication. Creativity research is broad and recognises culture, process and activities as creative thinking and moments of insight, which can be supported with the physical workplace.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Entrepreneurial attitudes in the structure of students' economic minds
|
[
"Entrepreneurial intention",
"Entrepreneurial orientation",
"Psychology",
"Entrepreneurship education"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The recovery of the national economy is usually characterized by the growth of entrepreneurial activity. At present, favorable conditions for the development of entrepreneurship are being created in Russia. Policymakers are introducing tax privileges, simplifying the system of registration of small businesses and the control and verification measures by supervisory bodies, allocating state subsidies and grants for innovative development and production, and favoring the creation of business incubators.\nBackground: The notion of an attitude became a part of psychology in the first three decades of the twentieth century and is still actively used. The most relevant definition for this study is Rokeach's (1986), who defines an attitude as \"a relatively enduring organization of beliefs around an object or situation predisposing one to respond in some preferential manner\" (p. 112). Conventionally, there are three components in the structure of attitudes - cognitive, affective and behavioral factors (Smith, 1986) - which are closely related (Dinauer and Fink, 2005; Harding et al., 1954; Huskinson and Haddock, 2006; Krech and Crutchfield, 1948; Rosenberg, 1960), and may contradict one another (Armitage and Conner, 2000; Chaiken and Yates, 1985; Conner and Sparks, 2002).\nDesign, method and participants: The study comprised three stages. At the first stage, with the support of theoretical constructs (Deyneka, 1999), there were 40 statements formulated to express the degree of consent (disagreement) on a seven-point Likert scale (where \"7\" means \"totally agree\" and \"1\" means \"completely disagree\"). In order to comprehensively characterize the field of economic attitudes of personality, it included various spheres of economic behavior of the owner (attitude to money, property, saving and investment behavior), the consumer, the entrepreneur and the employee. The statements designed for the questionnaire covered these spheres of economic reality with a certain degree of completeness and included a description of the cognitive, affective and behavioral components of attitudes (Smith, 1986).\nResults: An exploratory factor analysis reveals the structure of the interrelation between economic attitudes of young people and entrepreneurial attitudes. The results allowed identifying four factors in the structure of students' economic minds, which together account for 46.5 percent of the total variance (Table I).\nDiscussion: The results of the analysis of the relationship between entrepreneurial attitudes and other economic attitudes partially confirm the data available in literature. In particular, studies by Deyneka (1999) and Warneryd (1998) suggest the interrelation of an active position in the economic sphere, risk-taking and attitudes to entrepreneurship. The literature also describes entrepreneurship as a means for self-realization among young people (e.g. Rubin, 1992). As a whole, the results are in line with the strategic adaptation perspective (Begley, 1995), that is, deciding on whether and how to start a business.\nConclusion: The results of this study allow drawing important conclusions and outlining a number of prospects for further research. First, this study identifies two paths to adapt students to a market economy. Some of the students show a tendency to entrepreneurship and investment activity, whereas others reveal negative emotional attitudes toward the actors of market economy. As the second adaptation path implies a negative trend of mistrust in financial institutions, social denial, closeness and unwillingness to help others in economic life, which can become a barrier to accepting positive changes in the economic sphere of modern society.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how students' entrepreneurial attitudes are related to their economic attitudes regarding business, investments, savings and consumption. The study presents a new research tool to analyze the characteristics of the economic mind - the economic attitudes questionnaire.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method consists of a multiple-factorial questionnaire, a verification of reliability and internal validity (exploratory and confirmation factor analyses), a quantitative survey and a correlation analysis.\nFindings: Two main ways of preparing students for a market economy are identified: one is connected to entrepreneurship, and the other to rational investment and financial planning. The complex nature of economic attitudes' interaction is confirmed: by the direct relationships between entrepreneurial attitudes of students and investment activity, and between risk and satisfaction and consumer opportunities, as well as by the negative relationships between entrepreneurial attitudes and the level of mistrust to banking structures, unwillingness to make savings, unwillingness to share and financial pessimism. The economic attitudes questionnaire was developed and it showed sufficient validity and reliability on samples of student youth.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was limited to Russian students.\nOriginality/value: Adapting the questionnaire to other cultures will allow conducting cross-cultural research of entrepreneurial attitudes, which may be relevant in the global economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Highly skilled migrant women: a career development framework
|
[
"Highly skilled migrant professionals",
"Career development",
"Women career success",
"Self‐initiated expatriate women",
"The Netherlands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The aging workforce and declining population in Europe is increasing the need for talented employees who are willing and able to work. A study by Alphametrics (2005) stresses the implications of these changing demographics for both policy makers and employers as the demand for talented, highly educated employees will continue to increase. Indeed, forecasts suggest that by 2018 there will be a general shortage of employees with high-level qualifications in Europe (Trinczek, 2010).Women migrants and women self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) remain largely unseen and underresearched by the management community (McKenna and Richardson, 2007; Myers and Pringle, 2005; Vance et al., 2011). Little is known about their career-related behaviours and expectations (Al Ariss and Ozbilgin, 2010; Biemann and Andresen, 2009). Vance et al. (2011) emphasises the need to explore the role of having a local partner/spouse in the host country as a moderator for adding stability and support to the longer-term career track of a woman SIE. Iredale (2005) claims that this untapped talent pool of highly skilled, highly educated women professionals is largely neglected by local HR departments and policy makers in host countries. These women could potentially form an essential resource in sustaining an organisation's competitive advantage and responding to the labour shortages posed by an aging population (Cole and McNulty, 2011).The definition of a \"migrant\" provided by Mahraum (2002) is used to refer to the sample group in this paper - it is a broad definition encompassing both permanent and temporary international sojourners, including managers and executives, technicians, academics and scientists, entrepreneurs and students. In particular, this study sought to explore the experiences of \"western\" migrants and self-directed expatriates in order to seek a basis for the comparison of experiences amongst them.One country in Europe that underutilises women is the Netherlands, which lags behind the rest of Europe with regard to employing women in higher management positions, because many women in the Netherlands choose to work part time, or interrupt their careers when they have children (Wust, 2009). Despite the growing need for international talent (Cole and McNulty, 2011), gender stereotyping and discriminatory practices against women continue to erect barriers to women's career advancement (Wood, 2008). In addition, many organisations are reluctant to \"praise and reward individuals\" who pursue flexible career paths, such as protean or boundaryless careers, which are typically pursued by women (Volpe and Murphy, 2011, p. 62).The phenomenon of women opting out of a traditional career (leaving the workforce on a temporary or permanent basis) has been a point of interest in career research on women in their home countries (Volpe and Murphy, 2011), but this phenomenon has not yet been explored in the context of women living and working abroad for an extended period. Women who sojourn abroad of their own accord may be said to opt out of their pre-migration careers before continuing their career paths in their host countries. Apart from traditional barriers to returning to the workforce, the expatriation experience provides an extra layer of complexity to returning to the workforce (Tharmaseelan et al., 2010).The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for the understanding of especially the pre-migration and post-migration career development of women and to explore and interpret the career experiences of highly skilled professional women (SIEs and immigrants), with special reference to the Netherlands. In addition, the study aims to contribute to an understanding of the experiences of SIEs with spouses/partners in the host country in response to Vance's et al. (2011) suggestions for further research.\n2. Background: Forecasts indicate that the ageing population in the Netherlands, coupled with declining population growth, will lead to a situation where population growth from immigration will be higher than growth from natural births (Trinczek, 2010).The Dutch government's vision is for the Netherlands to become one of the top five knowledge economies in the world (Van Oort and Raspe, 2005), which drives the aim to develop students with international savvy who will be able to work abroad and engage in international business activities (Mahraum, 2002), and, second, to attract international top talent through fiscal incentives for knowledge migrants (Dumont and Lemaitre, 2005). However, just as in other European countries (see, e.g. Al Ariss, 2010), labour policies and practices still give preference to native employees and make it very difficult for employers to hire talent from outside the EU.Furthermore, the official distinction that is made between western and non-western migrants (Merens et al., 2010), fosters the development of stereotypes and prejudices against foreigners, which may pose further barriers to the career development and the availability of opportunities (Al Ariss, 2010). As a result, a psychological form of \"brain waste\" leads to the underutilisation of the human capital of foreigners (Tharmaseelan et al., 2010, p. 233).The focus on migrant research in the Netherlands has been mainly on the so-called \"non-western\" immigrant, paying little attention to western immigrants (it is assumed that westerners will face less discrimination and fewer career barriers) and SIEs. However, the underrepresentation of women (both native and foreign) in the upper echelons gives rise to concern that gender discrimination may go beyond the country of origin (and in some cases, may be worse than in the country of origin).2.1 Organisational and socio-political barriers to women expatriates\n3. Research methodology: This exploratory study used an interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) research design and process. IQA combines the tradition of phenomenology with systems theory (Sanchez, 2007). Northcutt and McCoy (2004, p. 40) link phenomenology and systems theory by describing social systems as \"systems in which human interpretation of meaning is involved\" - as is the case in this study. This approach is highly relevant to aiding our understanding of the career development of women, because structuring a career is also a system based on the way individuals shape, and are shaped by, their social contexts (Hartl, 2004, p. 42). According to Patton (1990, in Sanchez, 2007, p. 1240), the central question that systems theory aims to address is how and why a particular system functions as a whole.Participants were recruited via the professional social networking site LinkedIn, using snowballing, and purposively selected by their biographical profile. A total of 21 highly skilled women migrants in the Netherlands, aged between 26 and 53, participated in the study.Two focus groups were hosted in the Netherlands during the course of 2010. The first focus group consisted of 12 and the second group of nine participants. The groups were large enough to generate interesting discussion, but small and intimate enough to provide a \"safe\" platform to explore relevant themes (Hartl, 2004, p. 42). Aliases were used in the final analysis of transcripts and company names were removed in discussions to protect identity. The demographics of the sample groups are illustrated in Table I.\n4. Data collection: Data were collected through two interactive focus group sessions by following the same protocol: begin with a mental imagery warm-up exercise (brainstorming); then participants reflected silently on their experiences of living and working in the Netherlands and their professional migration experience. After the warm-up exercise, participants were asked to individually write down their thoughts, feelings and migration experiences on note cards, which were shuffled and taped to a wall in the meeting room. All note cards, reflecting anything about their migration, were read out loud. After listening to the reflections, participants were invited to add any missing or additional thoughts, feelings and experiences on cards to the wall. The final set of cards set the agenda of themes for discussion and analysis.\n5. Data analysis: The focus group transcripts were subjected to thematic content analysis to identify emergent themes and their relationships (Anderson, 2007). Further in-depth analysis of data and comparison of emergent themes was done using the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis system Nvivo Xsight 2. A deductive approach was followed (Saunders et al., 2007, p. 488), using the conceptual framework developed and presented in Figure 1 to aid the analysis. Initial insights were gained into the potential utility and applicability of the framework on career development proposed in Figure 1.\n6. Findings: Findings are reported in line with Figure 1, citing individual responses to illustrate the various aspects of the proposed framework.6.1 Pre-migration career (refer to Figure 1, part A)\n7. Conclusions and recommendations: This study aimed to contribute to the current discourse about the career development and opportunities for highly skilled women as migrants with special reference to the Netherlands.We recognise that findings in this paper correspond with previous research on expatriate acculturation (Iredale, 2005, p. 165; Al Ariss and Ozbilgin, 2010, p. 278). However, aspects such as status and identity seem to be significant moderators for women who decide to migrate for family-building reasons. The fact that women opt out of existing professional careers for their spouses/partners in the host country seems to automatically place them in a lower status category than their company transferred counterparts (Lee et al., 2009). The role of language in the expression of identity is of specific interest, especially considering the fact that women's career choices are much more strongly influenced by their identity development than their male counterparts (Shortland, 2009).A theme that emerged from this study, which has not yet been explored in the expatriate research is the role of age and life phase development on the international career development of women. For younger women, the crisis of establishing a clear identity that is rooted in either the host country (being a foreigner for life) or the home country (where these women may no longer fit in any longer) significantly influences their career choices. Older women in the 35-40-year age group who have already established a career identity that is embedded in their home country's social networks may find themselves at a double crossroads when opting to move abroad to join a partner or spouse.Moving to another country means that these women not only have to re-establish their lives in terms of general practicalities, they also have to replace life-long support structures that no longer exist. Thus in a life phase during which a woman would usually seek stability and rootedness, she has to start re-building herself. Despite the relative confidence and success that participants experienced prior to their expatriation, adaptation to the host country has had a big influence on the further identity formation and self-esteem of formerly successful professionals. Existing feelings of uncertainty may be worsened by external barriers and a lack of positive reinforcement.A major theoretical contribution of this study is the resultant integrative, conceptual pre- and post-migration framework for understanding the possible factors influencing the career development and success for professional women migrants. Despite the relative confidence and success that participants experienced prior to their expatriation, adaptation to the host country has had a big influence on the further identity formation and self-esteem of formerly successful professionals. Existing feelings of uncertainty may be worsened by external barriers and a lack of positive reinforcement.On a practical level the value of this study is especially significant for recruiters and HR policy makers. Considering the high level of motivation and drive for achievement of women migrants (and their willingness to do what it takes to get to the top) provides an alternative source of diverse talent - a gap that many Dutch women (who prefer to work part time) would prefer not to fill. Recruiters should be aware of the fact that high potential talent may be ignored due to the impact of early adjustment experiences and identity crisis on women's performance on competency assessments. There is a need to re-assess the current thinking of careers and what they mean for women, in order to leverage the unique strengths they bring into the workplace. Women should be supported in establishing their career identities in the host country by educating managers and helping the women to re-frame their expectations of subjective career success. Career counsellors and mentors (both male and female) could play a critical role in helping women develop strong and embedded career identities in the host country (Volpe and Murphy, 2011).The value of this study is the development of an integrative approach and framework for understanding the career development decisions of professional and highly skilled migrant women who are also self-initiated (SIE). Furthermore, insight is provided into the personal adjustment and professional developmental experiences, as per framework, of this underresearched group of women whose career development is growing in importance in a turbulent global economic environment where talent is sought. This research can be especially linked to the emergence of work-family life patterns for women from different cultures as well as the crucial role that identity construction and coping strategies play in the adjustment of SIE women. These themes have not yet been explored by the management research community.\n8. Limitations and further studies suggested: Given the small sample size, the generalisability of the findings is limited and needs to be further explored in other countries. This paper aims to initiate further discourse and research to validate the framework provided and to strengthen the theoretical underpinnings of these findings. The challenges faced by the women (both from western and eastern European countries) in this study suggest the need for further investigation of the complex factors that influence migrant women's career success in the host country. We also suggest a further exploration of the impact of migration on the life phases and career development of professional women.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore and interpret the pre-migration and post-migration career development and success of highly skilled professional migrant women with special reference to The Netherlands.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An exploratory approach rooted in a phenomenological perspective was followed. Two in-depth Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) focus group sessions were held with a total of 21 self-initiated expatriate (SIE) women.\nFindings: - An integrated career development framework proposed in this study indicates that individual drivers such as identity, social support and life phase play a role in women's pre-migration and post-migration career success or exits. Identity embeddedness, host country culture, openness to foreigners and existing prejudices and stereotypes against women seems magnified for women from outside the host country.\nResearch implications/limitations: - The research results may lack generalisability, therefore more research is encouraged to further test the proposed framework.\nPractical implications: - Organisations should re-think existing systems for retaining highly skilled women migrants. Specific personnel management requirements and practical recommendations are provided for HR policy development with regard to migrant women.\nOriginality/value: - An integrative approach and framework for understanding the career development decisions of professional and highly skilled migrant women who are also self-initiated (SIE) is proposed. Insight is provided into the personal adjustment and professional developmental experiences of a group of women often overlooked by the research community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Role of experience and knowledge in early internationalisation of Indian new ventures: A comparative case study
|
[
"India",
"Experience",
"Small firm/new venture strategy",
"Internationalisation",
"Learning",
"Knowledge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: International new venture (INV) has been defined as \"a business organisation that, from inception, seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries\" (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994, p. 49). INVs are different from traditional multinational companies in a way that they enter foreign markets very early during their life-cycle unlike the internationalisation path laid down by Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 1990, 2009). The last two decades have seen a significant rise in qualitative as well as quantitative empirical research on the INVs (e.g. Autio et al., 2000; Chetty and Campbell-Hunt, 2004; Coviello and Munro, 1997; Knight and Cavusgil, 2004; Yli-Renko et al., 2001).\nTheory and propositions: Indirect effect of experience on new venture internationalisation\nMethodology: This study uses a multiple case analysis of six Indian INVs to investigate the propositions developed in the previous section. Several qualitative methodologists have suggested that multiple case study research can be ideal for theory development or to empirically test previous theories (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Gerring, 2007; Yin, 1989). Comparative case analysis has been commonly used in INV research (Knight and Cavusgil, 2004; Rialp et al., 2005). Researchers argue that such methodology is appropriate in the context of INVs because it allows the use of replication logic and helps to obtain internal as well as external validity (Rialp et al., 2005). Internal validity was ensured by using several sources of information. External validity was obtained from triangulating the information collected during the two stages of interviews.\nFindings: The key objectives of this study were to examine the role of entrepreneurs' experience in knowledge accumulation and motivating them to internationalise; and to examine the moderating role of market and technological knowledge in new venture internationalisation. The findings of case analysis are discussed below.\nDiscussion: Wiedersheim-Paul et al. (1978) proposed a model which showed that pre-export activities of firms are key drivers of internationalisation. Overall, the findings of this study have been in favour of this proposition. This study examined the role of two such pre-internationalisation factors in the internationalisation of Indian new ventures - experience and knowledge of entrepreneurs. The findings and previous literature related to these factors are discussed here.\nConclusions: This study has examined the role of intangible assets of the firm in its internationalisation process. Evidence points out that knowledge resources are important to firm internationalisation but at varying degrees. The most important factor driving new firms' internationalisation is the motivation to internationalise. As such, this study makes several theoretical contributions and points out key implications for managers. The key contributions, limitations, and implications of this study are highlighted are outlined below.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role played by knowledge and experience of the entrepreneurs in early internationalisation of small- and medium-sized Indian new ventures. Using the theory of international new ventures (INV) and knowledge-based view (KBV); the conceptual framework of this study develops three propositions. First, it has been suggested that experience of the entrepreneurs motivates them to internationalise. Second, experience of the entrepreneurs increases their market and technological knowledge. Finally, it has been suggested that without market and technological knowledge, new ventures find it difficult to expand beyond national borders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs a comparative case analysis research design to investigate the propositions. The key constructs are drawn from prior empirical research and the relationships are tested using qualitative analysis.\nFindings: Key findings of this study suggest that along with experience and knowledge, entrepreneurs' education background is positively associated with new venture internationalisation. It was found that importance of knowledge resources varies across nature of business and industry in which INVs operate.\nResearch limitations/implications: Findings of this study contribute to advancing the literature on INV and KBV. The findings provide a framework to entrepreneurs to help them improve their decision-making logic and increase the speed of international growth.\nOriginality/value: Very few studies have investigated the internationalisation of new ventures from India. The knowledge is limited on the ways in which entrepreneurs acquire experience and assimilate knowledge in internationalising their operations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Design re-use: critical application of healthcare building design evidence
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Design management",
"Project management",
"Healthcare built environments",
"Design re-use",
"Critical application of evidence",
"Design evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: They say that \"all design is redesign\". An average designer, whether consciously or subconsciously, draws from an ensemble of internal and external previously designed artefacts or components (Fruchter and Demian, 2002; Gunduz and Yetisir, 2016). Designers retrieve existing solutions that historically solved similar problems, examine such existing design solutions and reflect on how they could be applied to the current design problem under scrutiny (Sonmez, 2018) through various means, to ultimately adopt, adapt with major or minor revisions or even reject the proposed solutions (Maher and Pu, 1997; Yu et al., 2012). Design scholars refer this process as \"design re-use\". Researchers have claimed that design re-use is more cost effective than recreating similar designs for new design problems, as it facilitates the dissemination of innovative solutions and sharing best practices (Wanigarathna, 2014) and is an effective approach to increase design productivity levels (Gunduz and Yetisir, 2016). Furthermore, the engineering construction sector has a culture of re-using standards components throughout the supply chain, precisely to increase efficiency and productivity (Edum-Fotwe et al., 2004).\nLiterature review: Evidence-based design and design re-use\nResearch methods: Research design\nData analysis: Interview data from all sources was transcribed and collated with other supplementary data to compile and create \"element stories\" for each of the 78 design elements.\nResults: Extent of design re-use\nDevelopment of the framework and discussions: The results above highlight that design re-use should be entailed with a multi-faceted evaluation criteria as discussed above, and supported by evidence collected and evaluated via multi-stakeholders. These include the hospital's care provision strategy, related information gathered from senior managers (patient types and requirements, care models of the hospital), evidence gathered on the functionality-related aspects of the design features (local departmental needs, culture of users) from medical professionals, and evidence on the success of design features during the facility operational phase gathered from facilities management staff. In many instances, designs were evaluated against multi-criteria; however, it was noted that some of the design features and related decisions could have been improved as the design team adopted a multi-criteria approach and gathered evidence from a larger number of stakeholders. For instance, single-bed patient rooms in children hospitals work well in terms of providing accommodation and time for the family to visit children (patient requirements - senior managers). However, in shared-bed ward, mums/carers can learn how to care for speciality need patients observing and talking to similar patients and carers in the ward (local departmental needs - medical staff). There were instances in which solutions identified were evaluated for patient type, patient requirements and local departmental needs but failed to evaluate design feature for facilities management-related aspects. Reasons for this could be associated with the reduced involvement of those parties during the design requirement formulation and design evaluation. Furthermore, in some instances, particularly for new hospitals, facilities management professionals are not appointed at the time of the designing.\nConclusions: There is a significant level of design re-use within healthcare built environment designs. Designers then reflect on these design solutions, along with evidence from the original design within the context of the new design problem, before they adopt or reject the solutions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The re-use of good design solutions is a key source of evidence and knowledge in the design of healthcare buildings. However, due to the unique nature of healthcare built environments, the critical application of this evidence is of paramount importance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the features of such critical application and identify the aspects that need to be considered during the re-use of good designs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from three case studies of hospital designs in the UK were used to explore the processes behind the adaption and re-use of design solutions during the design of healthcare buildings. Data were thematically analysed to distinguish the aspects that should be carefully compared and contrasted during design re-use.\nFindings: Existing designs of healthcare buildings should be captured and evaluated along with: patient demographics, care models of the hospital, other local departmental needs and facility operational aspects in order to ensure the effectiveness of re-use. In addition, properly introducing the design to the users is also a part of successful design re-use.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of this research were integrated into a framework to support healthcare designers on the effective re-use of good designs. This data-driven framework could be validated further with design practitioners. Further, this research relied on memory recall of the interviewees and the accuracy and completeness of documentary records.\nPractical implications: This research provides details of how healthcare built environment designs are embedded in project-unique circumstances. The results could therefore be used to develop meaningful and informative evaluation mechanisms for new and re-used healthcare building design features.\nOriginality/value: This research extends the understanding of the critical application of healthcare design evidence, by explaining how healthcare design solutions should be evaluated during the design process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managing customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) - insights from the frontline
|
[
"Customer-to-customer",
"Qualitative research",
"Service encounter",
"Service recovery",
"Frontline service employees"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many services are characterised by the simultaneous presence of customers. Interactions between service customers present in the service setting are increasingly the focus of service management research (Colm et al., 2017; Heinonen et al., 2018). A wide range of insights into customer-to-customer interactions (CCI) have been generated given its impact on the customer experience. Empirical studies of CCI have, however, focussed overwhelmingly on the customer perspective. There is limited empirical work investigating CCI from the perspective of the frontline employee (FLE). This is surprising given that customer recall of CCI often mentions FLE presence (Nicholls, 2010), and that FLEs are frequently identified in the literature as a key resource for CCI service recovery (McQuilken et al., 2017). This paper seeks to contribute to redressing this research deficit by providing information based on the views of employees who are regularly involved in managing CCI.\nTheoretical background: Customer-to-customer interaction\nStudy context: This study was conducted in a CCI-rich service environment: The Hive - a large library in Worcester, UK. There is quite a substantial literature on libraries and how they are used, which includes coverage of CCI-related issues (Hunter and Cox, 2014; Lange et al., 2016). In recent years, attention has been drawn to a range of wider societal changes which are re-shaping how libraries are conceived. The increasing availability of information in an electronic form has fostered a debate about the role of libraries in the modern world. In the context of university libraries, there have been discussions about the prevalence of group assignments and the consequent need for library spaces to provide for group work without disturbing those working individually (Bryant et al., 2009). Another theme has been the challenge of accommodating the technologies, such as mobile phones, which some desire to use in libraries (Heaton and Master, 2006). The above discussion demonstrates that CCI is a relevant issue in library environments. As posited by Rowley (1995, p. 8):\nMethodology: The study uses qualitative research given the need to explore in-depth FLE awareness, perceptions and reflections on CCI through a flexible and adaptable research approach (Hennink et al., 2011). This helps to deconstruct the social and business implications of CCI incidents through the insight of subjects (FLEs) who are viewed as \"social actors\". The study does not aim at generalising its findings but rather at using them to develop propositions for examination in future studies. The use of focus groups (FGs) and in-depth interviews to delve into the underlying occurrence and meaning of CCI situations allows participants to think of and analyse situations, observations and episodes thus aiding rich data collection (Bryman, 2016), in addition to offering their own interpretations through a sense-making discourse. Triangulation using FGs and in-depth individual interviews provided a more comprehensive understanding of the issues in focus (Patton, 1999) and ensured validity through the convergence of findings from different methods.\nFindings: The data generated useful and deep insights into the CCI environment at The Hive. Five main themes emerged under three key categories: FLE engagement with CCI and the ability to identify antecedent customer perceptions and conceptualise CCI levels of variability and complexity; FLE feelings about dealing with CCI; and FLE management of CCI. The themes are discussed below, and Figure 1 depicts the analysis results via a thematic mapping of the codes and initial themes that subsequently led to the emergence of the main themes and propositions, summarised in Table III. The themes are discussed by reporting the range of views related to each, evidencing these with paraphrased and verbatim quotes, and comparing findings to previous studies. Care was taken to achieve a balance between revealing the data and interpreting the data (Pratt, 2009).\nDiscussion: Rowley (1995) explained that it might be instinctive for service providers to assume that CCIs is something beyond their control. But in many leisure and educational environments customers often spend several hours, so \"the significance of customer-to-customer interaction is greater, and perhaps, more significant than the customer-to-service agent interact\" (Rowley, 1995, p. 8). The implication is that those interactions not only need be attentively observed, but also proactively managed by the FLE. If FLEs are actively engage with such interactions and are mindful in managing them, they may be able to find innovative means of transforming the service experience for the customers involved, thus raising satisfaction and loyalty.\nLimitations and future research: This study has several limitations. Based on exploratory research, it focuses on a single organisation using FGs and in-depth interviews. The study identifies new themes in the field of CCI, paving the way for a larger scale study that further examines them for relevance. The number of interviews conducted are acceptable for an exploratory study and follow the rule of data saturation and checking for variability till the latter diminishes (Guest et al., 2006; Saunders and Townsend, 2016).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the capacity of frontline employees (FLEs) to provide insights into customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) and its management in service organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This exploratory study used focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews with FLEs to investigate their experiences and reflections in dealing with CCI in a complex service setting in the UK.\nFindings: FLEs are able to recall CCI encounters, both positive (PCCI) and negative (NCCI), with ease. They are capable of conceptualising and exploring complex nuances surrounding CCI encounters. FLEs can distinguish levels of seriousness of negative CCI and variations in customer sensitivity to CCI. FLEs vary in their comfort in intervening in negative CCI situations. Whilst FLEs draw on skills imparted in an employee-customer interaction context, they would benefit from CCI-specific training. Propositions are advanced for further empirical testing.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors studied FLE views on CCI in a customer-centric service organisation in the UK. Future research should further address the FLE perspective on CCI in less service-driven organisations and in other countries. A wide range of themes for further research are proposed.\nPractical implications: The insights presented will assist service managers to assess the CCI context of their own organisation and develop strategies and guidelines to support FLEs in detecting, understanding and responding to CCI encounters.\nSocial implications: The paper highlights and discusses the complexity of intervening in negative CCI encounters in socially inclusive service environments.\nOriginality/value: Based on FLE-derived perceptions of CCI, the paper contributes conceptually to CCI knowledge by identifying the existence of \"concealed CCI\", distinguishing between gradual and sudden CCI intervention contexts and exploring the human resource development consequences of this distinction, with original implications for service management. The study also contributes to extending the scope of research into triadic service interactions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumer likelihood of purchasing organic cotton apparel: Influence of attitudes and self-identity
|
[
"United States of America",
"Social values",
"Attitudes",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Cotton",
"Clothing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The organic apparel market is growing every year as consumers, whose appetites have been whetted with organic foods, are seeking to expand their organic lifestyle to include apparel. Sales of products made from organic cotton, the most widely available organic fiber, have jumped to $1.07 billion in 2006 and apparel manufacturers and retailers, eager to capture a piece of this growing consumer segment, have been producing organic textiles and apparel for every budget (Lipke, 2007). While the demographics and motivations of organic food consumer have been examined in academic research, little has been published on the psychology of organic apparel consumers.A study of consumers for blended organic cotton apparel, garments that contain less than 100 percent organic cotton, found that consumers willing to consider moderate percentage blends (45 percent-70 percent) in their purchase decisions did not differ demographically from consumers for whom organic cotton content was not a determinant attribute (Hustvedt and Dickson, forthcoming). The lack of relationship between interest in organic apparel and demographics is not surprising, given that a meta-analysis of 128 studies of environmental behavior found no significant relationship between any of the socio-demographics variables and environmental behavior (Hines et al., 1986). Other more recent studies have found that organic food consumers are presently not much different from the general population in terms of their demographics.Standards for organic apparel products have been evolving over the past several decades. Organic cotton, as opposed to conventionally produced cotton, has been produced using methods that are free from most synthetic chemical inputs such as pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers (Myers and Stolton, 1999). Organic cotton produced around the world can be certified under various standards, depending on the needs of the producers and buyers. The International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), founded in 1972, accredits organic certifiers who inspect cotton crops around the world (Rundgren and Hagenfors, 1999). Cotton sold in the United States as organic must be certified by inspectors registered with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in order to use the USDA organic logo, regardless of where the cotton is grown (Lackman, 2005). Unlike processed food products, the USDA organic standard, however, does not cover the certification of fiber processed into apparel products. Europe, Japan, India, and Australia all have organic standards that cover the production of organic cotton, but over the decades to answer consumer concerns, standards that cover organic processing of cotton into textiles and garments have been created by a wide variety of organizations around the world (Lackman, 2005).In an effort to reduce consumer and manufacturer confusion caused by a wide variety of standards, a consortium of global organic experts and organizations was formed in 2002 to develop the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). Participating organizations in the International Working Group on Global Organic Textile Standard (IWGGOTS) included the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in the United States, the Soil Association in the United Kingdom, the International Association Natural Textile Industry (IVN) in Germany, and the Japan Organic Cotton Association. Each of these organizations already had voluntary standards that defined organic textiles and organic apparel created from organic fibers and worked closely with the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) to develop a standard that harmonized with IFOAM standards (IGGWOTS, 2006). The first version of GOTS, completed in 2005, covers every step of apparel production, from fiber to finished product and includes social responsibility criteria along with the environmental criteria (IWGGOTS, 2005, 2006). GOTS also includes a number of exceptions to the standards, such as an increase in allowed spandex content, specifically for products marketed in the United States. in order to satisfy the concerns of US retailers.GOTS does not allow the blending of conventional and organic fibers of the same fiber type. For this reason, blended organic products are not certifiable under GOTS. The organization Organic Exchange, formed with the long term goal of increasing organic land used for fiber production by 50 percent every year, has recently drafted a standard for blended organic cotton products which they define as \"any combination of organic cotton and natural or conventional fibers\" (Organic Exchange, 2007). Companies that produce a large amount of cotton apparel are blending small amounts of organic cotton (3-10 percent) with conventional cotton to deal with supply challenges organic cotton market. Blending allows the available quantity of organic fiber to be spread thinly across all products and allows a more gradual and predictable expansion in organic cotton use without commitment to 100 percent organic cotton products (Boone, 1999).The purpose of this study was to further understanding of consumers who may be interested in purchasing apparel products made with a percentage of organic cotton by creating a profile of their attitudes, beliefs, and self-identity. An understanding of the attitudes and beliefs of organic cotton apparel consumers can help both apparel manufacturers and organizations that advocate for organic farming to target their marketing and create communication about organic apparel that connects with these consumers.\nLiterature review: Organic food consumers\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: The number of returned questionnaires that were at least partially complete was 422 out of 2,846 questionnaires that were delivered (response rate of 14.9 percent). Of the 422 questionnaires, 377 (89.3 percent) appropriately completed the conjoint task and were used for the analysis presented here.Respondent profile\nAnalysis of segment differences: Analysis of variance for of the psychographic variables showed that only the means for Self-Identity, Altruistic Behavioral Beliefs, and Benefit Related Outcomes did not differ significantly between the two market segments of organic cotton apparel consumers (see Table V).Environmental and clothing attitudes and self-identity\nConclusions: The psychographic profiling of a market segment that uses organic content in their purchasing decisions reveals several main themes. These consumers are motivated by their beliefs about the beneficial outcomes of the purchase, for themselves, the organic industry, and the environment. One outcome of purchasing organic cotton apparel that consumers in both segments found important was \"improving my health or the health of my family\". Unlike organic food producers, organic cotton apparel manufacturers and retailers do not typically make health related claims about their products. Nonetheless, these results suggest that organic cotton apparel benefits from the aura of health associated with organic food products. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the Self-Centered Behavioral Beliefs, which included this health related item, had a higher mean for both segments than Altruistic Behavioral Beliefs.Another conclusion that can be drawn from the evaluation of the behavioral beliefs is that supporting organic farming in general was more important to consumers than supporting organic cotton farmers in particular or supporting pro-environmental apparel companies or retailers of organic products. This suggests that consumers would be receptive to marketing messages that place an emphasis on how the purchase of organic cotton apparel supports not just cotton farmers, but also the growth of organic farming in general. And because respondents agreed that organic farming is good for the environment, it is clear that marketing about how organic cotton apparel supports organic farming is another way to market the environmental benefits of purchasing organic cotton apparel. Finally, it is encouraging to producers of organic apparel products that even consumers in the Non-User segment agreed that the purchase of a quality product was an outcome of their organic cotton apparel purchase, given the importance of quality to consumers.The main contribution of this study is the creation of a psychographic profile for specific market segment of consumers interested in purchasing blended organic cotton apparel. Consumers in the segment that used organic cotton content to form their purchase intentions had positive attitudes toward organic and sustainable agriculture and were more concerned about the impact of clothing production on the environment than other consumers. They also preferred to \"buy locally\" and had a strong self-identity as environmental, organic, and socially responsible consumers.Future research should focus on the exact nature of the health related benefits that consumer believe they and their families derive from the use of organic cotton apparel products, given that while general health related benefits are being touted by some retailers, of infant wear for example, there is not currently any objective research showing that organic apparel conveys health benefits to anyone beyond the producer and the producers' family and community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the organic apparel consumer. Is the recent upsurge in organic cotton products another fashion trend or is there a segment of consumers genuinely interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel based on the benefits of organic agriculture to the environment?\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected with a mail survey of US health and natural foods consumers. Conjoint analysis revealed salient product attributes and cluster analysis identified segments of consumers with different attribute preferences. Factor analysis uncovered latent variables from among the large number of items and the clusters were examined for differences in their psychographic profiles.\nFindings: - It was found that the 38 percent of consumers who found used organic cotton content salient had positive attitudes toward organic and sustainable agriculture, preferred to \"buy locally\" and had a strong self-identity as environmental, organic, and socially responsible consumers.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample of US health and natural foods consumers means that the results cannot be generalized too widely. Research is currently under way to relate the self-reported purchase behavior of organic apparel consumers discussed here to actual purchase behavior.\nPractical implications: - Survey respondents interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel agreed that organic farming is good for the environment, suggesting that consumers would be receptive to marketing messages that place an emphasis on the environmental benefits of purchasing organic cotton apparel.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides insight into the attitudes and motivations of environmentally concerned US consumers of organic apparel and provides information on focusing marketing to these consumers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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It's not all about function: investigating the effects of visual appeal on the evaluation of industrial products using the example of product color
|
[
"Aesthetics",
"Product design",
"Attitude",
"Product management",
"Sensory perception",
"Symbolism",
"Color",
"Functionality",
"Industrial products",
"Visual appeal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Industrial markets are generally associated with rational customer behavior and objective decision-making[1], where hard facts, such as expected return of investments, cost reduction, and functional product features, are of primary importance (Moon and Tikoo, 2002; Bonoma and Johnston, 1978). However, whether decision-makers are acting for themselves or for a firm, they are nevertheless individual people, and as such, even the most rational are affected by their own subjective perceptions (Kotler and Pfoertsch, 2006; Leek and Christodoulides, 2011). Therefore, to succeed in competition, companies in industrial markets should not only consider rational concerns but also address emotional aspects and individual preferences (Lynch and De Chernatony, 2004). Recent research in the context of consumer goods has highlighted the importance of sensory design elements in effectively appealing to the consumer and increasing the overall product evaluation (Krishna, 2012). The impact of product color is especially well-documented in consumer research literature. Even though product color generally provides no functional value, it often represents a main driver of the consumer's product-related emotions and hedonic value (Labrecque et al., 2013). Accordingly, the use of sensory cues, such as product color, to evoke positive emotions and increase value and sales may also be a promising approach for companies in the industrial market (Noad and Rogers, 2008; Soars, 2009).\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: Effect of product color\nMethodology: Pre-test\nFindings: Effect of product color (H1)\nDiscussion and implications: General discussion\nLimitations and further research: This paper lays the foundation for future research activities on the perception of industrial products. First, the study is specific to the dental market. It shows that soft facts such as visual and haptic appeal and color as specific non-functional design elements actually affect the perception processes of dentists. Dentists without a doubt fall into the category of business customers who purchase industrial products; however, they feature a fairly high degree of personal involvement in their business. Therefore, they were suitable to test the proposed hypotheses for the industrial context in a first attempt. Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that the findings may also be true for other industrial sectors. Consequently, for future research, it would be interesting to investigate the effects of non-functional design elements for further industrial products to broaden the understanding of the opportunities such as sensory marketing in the field of industrial markets. In addition, for the given product of treatment chairs, only the visual design in terms of product color, more precisely only the hue of color, was manipulated. However, further research could specifically examine differences or similarities in the effects of a broader range of colors on the customer's attitude. In particular, it would be insightful to explore if and why some colors may generate a more favorable attitude toward the product than other colors or also non-colors such as black and white in a given context. Moreover, with regard to sensory appeal outcomes, only the visual and haptic appeal were examined because acoustics, scent and taste were not relevant product characteristics in this case. In different industrial sectors, additional or other senses may be of crucial importance (e.g. acoustics in machinery, scent in retailing, taste in catering, or all five senses in the context of trade fairs). In addition, systematically leveraging different forms of stimuli presentation (e.g. not only in the form of a picture that is presented online) would be expedient. Thus, it would be insightful to analyze the associated effects for the specific product and to identify which sense is the most effective with which to appeal to the customer. Hence, to support management practice, academic marketing research should engage in further investigation to explain existing and non-existing relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Industrial markets are generally associated with objective decision-making in which rational and functional product benefits are central. Recently, however, subjective aspects of decision-making, such as visual appeal, are attracting research attention. The purpose of this paper is to examine, first, the effect of product color as a non-functional design element on attitude toward the product and, second, the underlying causal relationships of this effect in the context of industrial products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an online quasi-experiment in the dental market with a sample of 300 dentists. The product stimulus was a picture of a treatment chair that varied in color. An analysis of variance tested the effect of product color on attitude. Structural equation modeling investigated the underlying effects of product evaluation.\nFindings: The results indicate that product color affects attitude toward the product. Further, the authors find an insightful causal chain of direct and indirect effects on attitude. The most effective path runs via visual appeal and aesthetics, while haptics and functionality are of minor importance.\nOriginality/value: This paper is one of the first to provide empirical evidence for the effect of non-functional design elements such as product color on the evaluation of an industrial product. The results provide valuable insights into the effects on attitude in this context and stress the great importance of visual appeal and aesthetics in the product evaluation process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Teaching, learning and assessing HRD: Findings from a BMAF/UFHRD research project
|
[
"Human resource development",
"Learning",
"Assessment",
"Teaching",
"Research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This article is drawn from a research project, which explored how academics teach, learn and assess human resource development (HRD). The project was funded by the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) Business, Management, Accountancy and Finance subject centre (BMAF) and the University Forum for HRD (UFHRD). It focused on the challenges and opportunities for teaching, learning and assessing in HRD at all levels in Higher Education. The aims of the project were:* to establish the quantity, nature and location of current research focused on improvement of teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) in HRD and related subjects both within and outside the UK;* based on the above, to identify and establish gaps in knowledge and research priorities for research on TLA in HRD and related subjects; and* to utilise the findings of above to inform the establishment of a Special Interest Group (SIG) for HRD within the joint remit of UFHRD and BMAF.While there was no specific question related to innovation we began the research with a premise that innovation is likely to be associated with research projects. In other words, research projects commonly focus on assessing and evaluating innovations and/or findings of research projects commonly result in innovations. Hence, we started from a point that knowing more about current research will also tell us more about innovation and in particular where innovation might be needed.Our focus here is on the first two aims. We adopted a mixed methods approach to achieve the aims and the research methods included: a critical review of literature in national and international educational journals focused on reporting research on TLA but also encompassing HRD and related journals; an electronic questionnaire survey of academics involved in teaching and learning HRD predominantly in the UK, The purpose of the questionnaire survey was to identify what TLA is currently provided, what is needed, and what could be offered to develop a comprehensive HRD-specific TLA web site and resource. Due to a low response rate to the electronic survey, a focus group was convened at the 2007 UFHRD/AHRD annual European conference. The discussion employed the questionnaire to gather additional data from six HRD academicsMore detail on each of these methods is given in the following sections where we describe and discuss our findings. For the purposes of this article we include only the critical literature review and the electronic survey. The focus group confirmed in general the findings of the survey. Our findings and conclusions suggest a need for more research into TLA on HRD programmes, more dissemination activity for research currently being done and finally that our understanding of \"innovation\" needs to encompass the context specific nature of its meaning.\nMethods: Our first method was a comprehensive search of all relevant literature sources. Key words used included: teaching, learning and assessing, HRD, learning and development, training and development, education. The search interrogated databases including Ingenta, Google Scholar, EBSCO databases which included Business Source Premier and Academic Search Premier. The search produced very few results. For example, in a search using the terms - HRD and teaching in Title AND HRD and teaching in Full Text, published January 1997 to April 2007 in the following selected journals: Active Learning in Higher Education, Adult Education Quarterly, Advances in Developing Human Resources, American Educational Research Journal, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, Educational Researcher, Health Education Journal, History of the Human Sciences, Human Relations, Human Resource Development Review, Journal of Career Development, Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, Journal of Management Education, Journal of Studies in International Education, Journal of Transformative Education, Leadership, Management & Organizational History, Management in Education, Management Learning, Organization, Organization Studies, Review of Educational Research, Review of Research in Education, Small Group Research, Theory and Research in Education, Urban Education, Work and Occupations, and Work, Employment & Society. The result was \"matched zero articles\".As indicated above our main empirical method was a questionnaire survey and we now turn our attention to the results of applying that method. We do, though focus on those results of most relevance to the topic of this special edition and so do not provide all findings from all parts of the questionnaire.Data collection tool\nFindings and results: We begin our description of the results with those of the literature review. This suggested limited research has been conducted in this area and confirmed the need for our project. A similar conclusion and argument is advanced by Kuchinke (2001a, b), although interestingly subject matter research, or in other words a focus on curriculum content but not TLA, was identified as one of three priorities. Institutional characteristics and arrangements were also identified as a priority and this suggestion is supported by Hopfl (2000).Kuchinke's call for research into subject matter is also interesting in the context of a continuing and recent expansion in research on the meaning and professional practice of HRD. Most of the articles found through our search referred to HRD in the workplace, particularly within the corporate sector, and not the educational/HEI environment (see Clarke, 2004, for example). Some of the issues faced within the workplace are relevant to the content of HRD courses and may also be relevant to the processes of teaching, learning and assessing HRD within higher education. An example of this dual relevance is where research looks at HRD methods and techniques used by practitioners. Similar methods and techniques can be used in teaching and learning in the HE sector and a specific example here is the use of ICT. Work such as that by Marquandt (1996) is one example but there are many others. However, we did not find any work specifically related to use of ICT in HRD TLA. This is perhaps surprising for at least three reasons. First, use of ICT in professional practice is likely to be a significant part of curriculum content and so it is strange its use as part of the TLA process is not more widely researched. Second, the lack of research indicated by the lack of literature suggests that HRD academics are not early adopters of innovations in their own professional practice. Third, personal experience and anecdotal evidence shows increasing interest in use of ICT in HEIs more widely. Why then is it that those who are supposed to be experts in learning are not at the forefront of this interest and not leading innovation?Additional key themes to emerge from our review included:* defining HRD (Cascon-Pereira and Valverde, 2006; Garavan and Morley, 2006);* curriculum content (Trehan et al., 2006, Truty, 2004, Fenwick, 2004);* modules are mainly within HRM programmes (Manning, 2007, Wilson, 2007);* undergraduate level - part of broader business and management education;* postgraduate level - advanced practitioners, critical reflection (Corley and Eades, 2006), critical management studies (CMS) (Monaghan and Cervero, 2006, Scott, 2006), CIPD (tensions between educational and professional needs), workbased learning (Clarke, 2004; Morse, 2007); and* international perspective - European Masters programmes (Manning, 2004), comparison of UK and US programmes (Kuchinke, 2001a, b, 2003), international HRD (Metcalfe and Rees, 2005, Flannery and Shattuck, 2006); and* links between HEI and HRD/OL (Hodgkinson, 2000; Hopfl, 2000; Iles and Yolles, 2002; Mavin et al., 2007).We now examine each of these themes in more detail.Defining HRD\nDiscussion: It is clear from our findings that TLA in HRD is complex. The curriculum is not easy to define as the subject continues to evolve and to adopt different concepts. HRD is clearly concerned with professional practice and so needs to be open to and reflective of that context. Teaching the subject in HE though is also about influencing and shaping practice. This relationship can be represented by the very simple model below, in Figure 1. This shows that research draws on practice and yet research also shapes practice.There is clear evidence that research in HRD as a subject or discipline is healthy and that there is much to draw on in determining curriculum content as well as TLA. A paradox to some extent is that much of the research and theorising in HRD is about facilitating learning of individuals, groups, organisations, communities and even societies and yet it seems from our project that while HE is seen as a context of RDHRHRD practice, there is little attempt to apply the results of research in that context. Put another way, this means that research is published about the practice of HRD in for example work organisations but, with a few exceptions, research on TLA in higher education as HRD practice; for example the use of ICT, action learning or mentoring; is not focused on HRD programmes and courses. It is either focused on general business and management programmes or HE more widely. This seems to us a strange disconnect between \"theory and practice\" and one that perhaps denies opportunities for more innovative TLA practice in HE HRD programmes.This paradox is perhaps explained by the interest of HRD researchers to study outside of their own context. Business and management academics in other disciplines; marketing, accounting and economics for example; are taken out of their professional context when they research and study TLA of their subject. They are in fact engaging in researching HRD. For HRD academics, researching TLA is researching their professional practice and it may be that to do so within the context of HRD educational programmes is both less interesting and seen as somehow incestuous. The lack of such research demonstrated by our literature review and supported to some extent by our survey does in any case show that such research is not done to any significant extent.Additional issues arise from our findings. Among the most significant are firstly the connection with CIPD standards and awards in HRD teaching, learning and assessment. The latter might be considered to be an obvious connection given the need to satisfy the CIPD specifications for assessment but there are clearly other important connections such as the titles of courses (reflecting the wider HR remit of CIPD qualifications), curriculum content (with HRD being part of general HR modules) and prevalent use of associated resources such as CIPD textbooks. The latter point reflects also the general prevalence of books as a major teaching and learning resource. This is reflected in the wide range of titles quoted by respondents and also in the fact that many respondents listed a number of titles. That fact is perhaps encouraging in that lecturers do not rely on only one text and so encourage wider reading, a factor also indicated by the number and range of journal titles. Some of those though were surprising to us;, e.g. those that focus on industrial relations. Some resources and methods will be difficult to disseminate and share because of their nature. We have in mind here particular approaches, methods, activities and exercises that reside in the tacit knowledge of lecturers and which are applied without much or any support material. This is of course a common problem in spreading innovation and one, which may be inherent in the term; e.g. innovation is commonly (always?) defined in relation to context (see conclusions below).Second, our findings suggest that there are no major problems in teaching and assessing HRD. In addition, respondents seem in agreement that TLA in HRD differs little from TLA in any other subject. That being the case, we can expect lessons on good practice in other disciplines to be transferable into TLA in HRD. However, an interesting, related point raised is that teaching and learning in higher education constitutes HRD and is therefore an example of its practice. Given that, students may expect that that practice be exemplar as well as an example. This might create particular pressures for staff teaching HRD.Finally, our findings clearly show a dearth of published research on practice in the TLA of HRD. They also though suggest that there is more innovation than is apparent from published sources. This in turn suggests that HRD academics need to be more active in and focused on researching and publishing their practice.\nConclusions: We can draw a number of useful conclusions from the project. It confirms that there are a small number of HRD-specific courses and these are almost exclusively at postgraduate level. Within that context, there is a larger number and diverse range of HRD or related modules, with HRD also featuring in broader HRM modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. There is therefore significant TLA activity, which draws on a wide range of resources. While the professional body is a major factor in influencing both curriculum content and approaches to and methods of TLA we found examples of innovative as well as what is judged by our respondents to be \"good practice\". These are primarily methods, which seek and require the active involvement of students in all aspects of TLA.One final conclusion is not directly apparent from our data but is implicit and supports the interpretation of data arrived at in an earlier piece of work (Tjepkema et al., 2002). This is simply that the notion of \"innovative\" is context specific. It seems to us that some of the examples given by respondents are taken by them to be good practice but otherwise \"normal\" or \"usual\" methods of TLA. Examples of these might be self and peer assessment, student led workshops and action learning. It is though certainly possible if not probable that in other institutions such methods will be considered innovative as they have not been used before. So, in our view any approach or method is potentially innovative depending on the particular context of its use.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to analyse and explore the results of a research project, which aimed to identify recent and current research on TLA within HRD programmes. From that base the project also intended to identify areas for future research and a basis for establishing a Special Interest Group.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A comprehensive review of the literature was undertaken and an electronic questionnaire survey was conducted of academic members of the UFHRD, EHRHD and AHRD databases. This provided coverage of widespread international population.\nFindings: - Findings suggest that while research into HRD as a subject and academic discipline is very healthy, there is a dearth of research into the TLA of HRD educational programmes or at least research that is published. They also suggest that academics involved in delivering HRD programmes would welcome support in TLA through additional and new resources as well as ideas on innovative approaches and methods of TLA. TLA in HRD, though, is subject to some constraints, including the role of the professional body in the UK and parts of Europe, the status of HRD in relation to wider business management as a subject and HRM in particular and the size and diversity of student groups. Respondents to the survey, however, were confident that these problems can be addressed.\nPractical implications: - A key conclusion drawn is that innovative practice in the TLA of HRD is probably more widespread than is evident from the literature. In addition, the notion of \"innovative\" does not have a fixed meaning and is context specific. This means that TLA practice, which is considered normal or usual in one context could and probably would constitute an innovation in different contexts.\nOriginality/value: - Provides the first overview of research into the TLA of HRD educational programmes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Explanations: if, when, and how they aid service recovery
|
[
"Explanations",
"Service recovery",
"Justice",
"Attributions",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Australia",
"Service failures"
] |
[
{
"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.Who hasn't experienced a service failure at some time? Whether it be a rude waiter, an overbooked flight, or a hotel room not ready on check-in, as consumers we experience dissatisfying service events with alarming frequency. Following such failures, customers report strong desires to receive an explanation of what went wrong (McColl-Kennedy and Sparks, 2003). But what kind of explanation should service employees and managers give? Should they apologize, claim innocence, downplay the problem, or resolutely defend their actions? Are some of these types of explanations more effective than others? If so, under what conditions, and through what processes, do these effects occur? The current study sought answers to these questions.\nUsing explanations to recover from service failure: Drawing on the work of Bies (1987) and Folger and Cropanzano (1998), four types of explanations can be distinguished:1. excuses, i.e., those that invoke mitigating circumstances in order to absolve the service organization of responsibility for the adverse outcome;2. justifications, i.e., those that involve admission of responsibility, but which legitimize the service organization's actions on the basis of shared needs and/or higher goals;3. referential (or reframing) accounts, i.e., those that seek to minimize the perceived unfavorability of the failure by invoking downward comparisons (e.g., with those who are worse off following the service failure); and4. apologies, i.e., those involving an admission of failure and an expression of remorse.As Folger and Cropanzano (1998, p. 143) have noted, there is currently \"no complete theory of when and why some explanations produce beneficial effects\". Research comparing different explanation types has yielded inconsistent results (Bobocel and Zdaniuk, 2005). For example, Shaw et al.'s (2003) meta-analysis of 36 studies - most of which were conducted in organizational contexts - concluded that excuses are more effective than justifications. Several studies investigating service failures have, however, cast doubt on the generalizability of this conclusion. In particular, surveys of aggrieved customers (e.g., Tax et al., 1998) typically find that excuses are viewed negatively. Similarly, Conlon and Murray (1996) found that explanations in which companies accepted, rather than avoided, responsibility (e.g., justifications, rather than excuses) resulted in the most favorable consumer evaluations. Our own past research (Bradley and Sparks, 2009) found that the use of apologies resulted in greater customer satisfaction than did the use of referential accounts. In general, however, apologies and referential accounts have not been widely studied, and the few available findings are also inconsistent (Bolkan and Daly, 2009; Conlon and Murray, 1996; Conlon and Ross, 1997; see also Bobocel and Zdaniuk, 2005). Given this limited and inconsistent past research comparing explanation types, we proposed and tested a non-directional hypothesis:H1. Customer responses vary with explanation type.\nModerators of the explanation-recovery relationship: Bobocel and Zdaniuk (2005) urged researchers to investigate factors that moderate the effects of explanations. One type of moderator relates to qualities of the service failure itself - its nature, timing, frequency, intensity, foreseeability, and so on. A potentially important variable is the magnitude of the problem. Bobocel and Zdaniuk (2005) reviewed the evidence, concluding that the influence of explanations generally increases as the event being explained becomes more serious. This is consistent with the so-called \"fair process\" effect: as outcomes worsen, process factors (e.g., the provision of an explanation) play an increasingly influential role in fairness (and other) judgments. To further examine this issue, we manipulated service failure magnitude, and tested the hypothesis that increases in magnitude enhance differences in the efficacy of the explanation types.The second set of factors that may moderate the impact of explanation type relates to the other strategies adopted to recover from service failure. One commonly used strategy is to offer compensation. Not surprisingly, past research (e.g., Baer and Hill, 1994; Goodwin and Ross, 1992; Levesque and McDougall, 2000; Webster and Sundaram, 1998; Wirtz and Mattila, 2004) reveals that post-failure customer reactions become more favorable with increasing amounts of compensation. Other research (e.g., Sparks and Callan, 1995) has found that the effects of explanations vary with levels of compensation. We predicted that explanation type would be a stronger determinant of customer evaluations when compensation is low than when customers are generously recompensed. Our rationale was that customers who receive little or no compensation have scant information, other than the explanation, upon which to base their evaluation. Customers' assessments are thus greatly influenced by the specific features of the explanation they receive. In contrast, when compensation is generous, explanation content carries less weight.The third category of potential moderators is the quality of the explanation itself. Following Folger and Cropanzano (1998), Sitkin and Bies (1993) and others, we conceive explanation quality as involving two facets: adequacy (detailed, informative, clear) and sincerity (honest, truthful). The meta-analysis by Shaw et al. (2003) concluded that the quality of an explanation directly affects attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. We expected to replicate this main effect, and further predicted an enhancing effect to be associated with explanation quality, that is, the influence of explanation type will increase as quality improves. The reasoning here is that, because aggrieved customers are in a dissatisfied state, they are unlikely to accept any explanation, regardless of type, unless it meets some minimum quality threshold. Past research (e.g., Bies et al., 1988; Shapiro, 1991) supports the proposition that explanations must be of moderately high quality to have an effect. We extend the logic behind these past findings in predicting that as quality increases beyond this threshold, aggrieved customers will become increasingly attuned to content differences between explanation types:H2. Customer evaluations are more favorable when (a) the service failure is of low (vs high) magnitude, (b) the offer of compensation is high (vs low), and (c) explanation quality is high (vs low).H3. The effects of explanation type on customer evaluations are moderated by failure magnitude: larger differences between explanation types occur under conditions of high (vs low) magnitude.H4. The effects of explanation type are moderated by compensation level: larger differences between explanation types occur when compensation is low (vs high).H5. The effects of explanation type are moderated by perceptions of explanation quality: larger differences between explanation types occur when explanation quality is high (vs low).\nMediators of the effects of explanations: Folger and Cropanzano (1998, p. 144) noted that the \"process by which social accounts exert their beneficial influences is a complicated one. Much more research is needed\". Two main theoretical perspectives - justice theory and attribution theory - provide clues as to the processes through which explanations impact consumer evaluations.The first of these perspectives, justice theory (e.g., Adams, 1965; Greenberg, 1993; Thibaut and Walker, 1975), suggests that the effects of explanations are mediated by perceptions of justice or fairness. Several types of justice are distinguished: distributive (i.e., fairness of outcomes), procedural (i.e., fairness of formal procedures used to allocate outcomes), and interactional (i.e., fairness of interpersonal treatment during the process). Interactional justice can be further divided into interpersonal, which relates to the extent to which the parties are polite, courteous, and respectful of each other, and informational, which relates to the extent to which appropriate and relevant information is communicated between the parties.Under the justice framework, service failure and recovery affect customer evaluations by altering customers' sense of whether they have been treated fairly. Thus, for example, following a service failure, the use of apologies has been shown to lead to increases in interactional (or interpersonal) justice (Goodwin and Ross, 1992; Wirtz and Mattila, 2004), which in turn helps sustain satisfaction. Referential accounts (of the kind \"your outcome is better than that received by other customers\") may impact customers' sense of distributive justice and thereby reduce dissatisfaction. Similarly, justifications (i.e., provision of reasoned arguments in support of the firm's actions) may enhance customers' sense of informational justice. Finally, excuses, by asserting that the firm's own systems and policies were not to blame for the problem, help safeguard customer faith in procedural justice.According to the second perspective, attribution theory (e.g., Weiner, 2000), all events - particularly, unexpected ones - trigger searches for meaning. Attributions may be of several kinds, including locus (what caused this event?), stability (will it persist?), and controllability (is it preventable?). Service failures, like other unexpected events, may be attributed to a variety of causes (e.g., management, service providers, customers, luck), and may be regarded as more or less stable, and more or less controllable. Failures are most likely to give rise to negative customer evaluations when they are attributed to the firm (they caused it!), and are thought to be both stable (they always do!) and controllable (they could have avoided it!). According to some researchers (e.g., Conlon and Ross, 1997; Sparks and Callan, 1995), explanations affect customer satisfaction by changing these attributions. Excuses, in particular, shift the locus of causation away from the service firm, and increase the likelihood that the customer will believe the failure was uncontrollable. Similarly, attributions of stability may be weakened by apologies, because an apology may suggest that such lapses are infrequent and unexpected.On the basis of justice and attribution theories, we thus propose that the effects of the different explanation types are mediated by distinctive cognitive processes, with seven different pathways (four paths through justice perceptions, and three through attributions) mediating these effects. Specifically, we propose that adverse customer reactions can be reduced by each of the explanation types by way of the cognitive pathways specified in our sixth hypothesis.H6. Unfavorable customer reactions to service failure are reduced by (a) apologies by way of changes in perceptions of interactional justice and changes in stability attributions, (b) justifications though changes in perceptions of informational justice, (c) referential accounts through changes in distributive justice perceptions, and (d) excuses through changed procedural justice perceptions, locus attributions and controllability attributions.\nThe current study: In their landmark review, Bobocel and Zdaniuk (2005) identified several imperatives that will set the agenda for future research on explanations. These include the need to explore the effects of apologies more systematically, to investigate the psychological mechanisms through which explanations have their effects, and to identify contextual factors that influence how people construe explanations. The current study contributes knowledge in each of these areas. We tested main, moderated and mediated effects of four explanations types on customer evaluations. Participants responded to one of 32 written scenarios depicting a service failure in a restaurant setting. Three independent variables (explanation type, failure magnitude and compensation) were experimentally manipulated in the scenarios, and a further variable, explanation quality, was measured and treated as a fourth between-groups factor in the main analyses. Key variables, and relationships between these variables, are depicted in Figure 1.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Preliminary factor analyses and descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: Explanations are often used as a strategy to recover from service failures, yet research into consumer responses to alternative types of explanations is limited and has yielded inconsistent results. The current study examined if, when, and how four widely-used explanation types impact customer evaluations. The issues of \"if\" (main effects), and \"when\" (moderated effects), explanations impact these outcomes are discussed prior to an examination of \"how\" (mediated effects) they occur.Main and moderated effects of explanation type\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to investigate if, when, and how the use of four different types of explanations affect customer satisfaction after a service failure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study used written scenarios of a hypothetical service failure to manipulate explanation type, failure magnitude and compensation offered. Participants were randomly assigned to read and respond to one version of the scenario, whilst imagining they were the customer experiencing the service failure.\nFindings: - The paper finds that explanation type, explanation quality, failure magnitude and compensation each had significant effects on customer evaluations. Explanation type and explanation quality interactively affected the extent to which customers were satisfied with service recovery: Apologies and excuses yielded higher satisfaction levels than did justifications and referential accounts but only when the explanations were perceived to be of high (vs low) quality. Specific types of attributions and forms of justice were shown to mediate the effects of three of the explanation types.\nPractical implications: - The study shows that customer evaluations following service failure vary with the type of explanation provided. Service firms need to provide an explanation in such circumstances, preferably a high quality excuse or apology, and need to understand the \"process variables\" that determine whether the explanation will satisfy aggrieved customers.\nOriginality/value: - This is one of very few studies that have compared the efficacy of different types of explanations in service situations. The research sheds light not only on what types of explanations work best, but also on how they have their effect.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Utilisation patterns of privately funded mental health services in Australia
|
[
"Mental health",
"Insurance",
"Policy",
"Data collection",
"Private sector",
"Health services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Some people living with a mental health condition require care over a long period of time provided by health professionals in both hospital and community settings, due to the chronic and persistent nature of the condition. The term \"mental health condition\" refers to a diverse spectrum of disorders including anxiety, depression, substance use disorders and schizophrenia. These conditions vary in their severity, duration and prevalence in the general population. Australia has a mixed public-private health insurance and service delivery system in which mental health care is funded by both government sources and private sources through private health insurance and patient contributions. Internationally, mental health care may also have mixed funding sources or limited insurance coverage (Sharfstein, 1995) and there is often a clear distinction, and resulting lack of integration, between psychiatric and other forms of medical care (Vladu et al., 2016).\nMethods: Data sources and study population\nResults: Demographic and hospitalisation characteristics of patients with mental health-related hospital claims\nDiscussion: In this sample of privately insured patients, the group of patients with mental health-related hospital claims only accounts for 1.4 per cent of all patients with a hospitalisation. The group with mental health-related hospital claims is significantly younger and has significantly higher levels of hospital utilisation compared to the group of patients with claims for other types of hospitalisations. Access to, and use of, appropriate care should be encouraged for this group. The type of mental health-related hospital claims varies across the insured population. Rather than most patients accessing both overnight admissions and same-day visits as would be expected if same-day visits were primarily provided as follow-up care in conjunction with treatment provided during overnight admissions, this study finds three distinct groups of service users - same-day visits only, overnight admissions only and a combination of same-day visits and overnight admissions. More than half of the patients with a mental health-related hospitalisation only claim for overnight admissions in the two-year study period and only one-third of patients make an additional mental health-related private health insurance claim within 28 days after discharge from their first overnight admission in the study period.\nConclusion: Utilisation patterns and performance information on mental health services delivered by the Australian private hospital sector is lacking, despite increasing activity over the last decade. Examining insurance claims data from a sample of private health insurance funds shows that although the proportion of the insured population claiming for mental health-related hospital services is small, hospital resource utilisation for this patient group is much higher than for patients with claims for other types of hospitalisations. Examining the potential factors contributing to patterns of mental health-related hospital claims, such as the large proportion of patients that only claim for overnight admissions, is challenging due to the scope of claims data and the regulated role of the Australian private health insurance sector in paying benefits for health care. The factors contributing to trends in mental health service utilisation in private hospitals, and the performance and outcomes of care, needs to be better understood given the government is a significant funder of these services. Linking multiple data sources on service use and outcomes is required as insurance claims data only provide information on a limited part of service utilisation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to present patient-level utilisation patterns of hospital-based mental health services funded by private health insurers; and second, to examine the implications of the findings for planning and delivering private mental health services in Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Analysing private health insurance claims data, this study compares differences in demographic and hospital utilisation characteristics of 3,209 patients from 13 private health insurance funds with claims for mental health-related hospitalisations and 233,701 patients with claims for other types of hospitalisations for the period May 2014 to April 2016. Average number of overnight admissions, length of stay and per patient insurer costs are presented for each group, along with overnight admissions vs same-day visits and repeat services within a 28-day period following hospitalisation. Challenges in analysing and interpreting insurance claims data to better understand private mental health service utilisation are discussed.\nFindings: Patients with claims for mental health-related hospitalisations are more likely to be female (62.0 per cent compared to 55.8 per cent), and are significantly younger than patients with claims for other types of hospitalisations (32.6 per cent of patients aged 55 years and over compared to 57.1 per cent). Patients with claims for mental health-related hospitalisations have significantly higher levels of service utilisation than the group with claims for other types of hospitalisations with a mean length of stay per overnight admission of 15.0 days (SD=14.1), a mean of 1.3 overnight admissions annually (SD=1.2) and mean hospital costs paid by the insurer of $13,192 per patient (SD=13,457) compared to 4.6 days (SD=7.3), 0.8 admissions (SD=0.6) and $2,065 per patient (SD=4,346), respectively, for patients with claims for other types of hospitalisations. More than half of patients with claims for mental health-related hospitalisations only claim for overnight admissions. However, the findings are difficult to interpret due to the limited information collected in insurance claims data.\nPractical implications: This study shows the challenges of understanding utilisation patterns with one data source. Analysing insurance claims reveals information on mental health-related hospitalisations but information on community-based care is lacking due to the regulated role of the private health insurance sector in Australia. For mental health conditions, and other chronic health conditions, multiple data sources need to be integrated to build a comprehensive picture of health service use as care tends to be provided in multiple settings by different medical and allied health professionals.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes in two areas: patient-level trends in hospital-based mental health service utilisation claimed on private health insurance in Australia have not been previously reported. Additionally, as the amount of data routinely collected in health care settings increases, the study findings demonstrate that it is important to assess the quality of these data sources for understanding service utilisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The possible inclusion of legal provisions in Islamic banking and finance: The case study of the Mozambican regulatory framework
|
[
"Mozambique",
"Islamic banking and finance",
"Legal and regulatory framework",
"Potential adoption"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Islamic banking and finance (IBF) is hitherto present in more than 50 countries worldwide, providing wide opportunities for Muslims to participate in mainstream business activities in Shari'ah compliant manners. Unlike its conventional counterparts, Islamic financial institutions (IFIs), although accepting depositor's money in the savings and investment account, do not offer loans to finance business activity. Instead, they provide financing facilities using several underlying Islamic transaction contracts, such as sale, leasing as well as joint ventures and business partnerships. In the spirit of ensuring economic and social justice, the IBF forbids any unjust accumulation of wealth while upholding the basic prohibitions in the Islamic commercial law including avoidance of riba (interest), gharar (excessive uncertainty and speculation) and maysir (gambling) as well as other prohibited elements, such as pork and alcohol-related business activities and Shari'ah non-compliant entertainment (Laldin, 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Mozambique's socio-economic and cultural aspects\n3. Critical review of Mozambique's banking laws and regulations: 3.1 Overview of the legal framework for the financial sectors in Mozambique\n4. Findings: Based on the critical review of the present regulatory framework applicable to the credit and financial institutions, this section highlights the conflicting as well as enabling or similar features of the Mozambican financial laws and regulations in comparison to the Islamic transaction principles. This is highly important to assess the adaptability of the current Mozambican regulatory frameworks towards adopting IBF practices.\n5. Conclusion: Undoubtedly, several lacking areas that need to be further explored through a series of field studies to facilitate the successful implementation of IBF in Mozambique. In contributing to that, this research paper, despite representing a limited perspective, certainly paves the ways for future studies and initiatives to be made to encourage both decision makers and policymakers and other stakeholders of the Mozambican financial system to appreciate and hence become more inclined towards the adoption of IBF. This study has demonstrated that while some legal provisions in the current legal and regulatory framework are conflicting with the Shari'ah principles such as the definition of loans and the concept of interest, there is also a certain number of enabling features that can be immediately explored, including deposits (with no interest), leasing operations, investment funds or venture capital. The contributions of this paper also lie in those valuable recommendations made by the insertion of Islamic principles in the current regulatory framework as well as to assist in overcoming some of the conflicting aspects in the medium to long term. As a way forward, Mozambique should explore and benefit from the experience and lessons learned by the neighbouring countries, which have successfully adopted the IBF practice. In addition, we would suggest the Central Bank establish a \"task force team\", comprising of multi-skilled professionals and experts in Islamic finance from various internal areas ranging from licensing to supervision together with Shari'ah scholars and representatives from the Muslim Community. This team must be given the mandate to supervise the entire process of adopting the IBF since the inception stage and form the advisory board for the Central Bank.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to thoroughly examine the extent to which the current legal and regulatory framework is inclusive towards Islamic banking and finance (IBF) practices in the attempts to introduce IBF as a significant component in the Mozambique's financial system. This is achieved by providing a critical review on the Mozambican current legal and regulatory framework including the court and arbitration system, as well as the country's financial institutions law and regulations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology used in this study is the qualitative approach. The analysis made is based on descriptive and analytical approach whereby the study examined and critically analysed the banking regulations in Mozambique with the purpose of finding the legal gap in the existing legal and regulatory framework that allows the introduction of IBF in the country.\nFindings: This study finds that whilst some legal provisions in the current legal and regulatory framework are conflicting with the Shari'ah principles such as the definition of loans and the concept of interest, there is also a certain number of enabling features that can be immediately explored, including deposits (with no interest), leasing operations, investment funds or venture capital.\nResearch limitations/implications: At present, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt ever made to assess the compatibility of the existing Mozambican commercial laws with the Islamic principles hence identifying the challenges that might arise due to the implementation of IBF practices in Mozambique.\nPractical implications: This paper has several practical implications in the sense that it helps the financial market authorities in Mozambique to be able to foresee possible inclusion of provisions on Islamic transactions in the country's existing financial regulations.\nSocial implications: The contributions of this paper lie in the valuable recommendations made on the insertion of Islamic principles in the current regulatory framework as well as assisting in overcoming some of the conflicting aspects in medium to long term. Mozambique should explore and benefit from the experience and lessons learned by the neighbouring countries that have successfully adopted the IBF practice. It is recommended that the Central Bank should establish a \"task force team\", comprising of multi-skilled professionals and experts in Islamic finance from various internal areas ranging from licensing to supervision together with Shari'ah scholars and representatives from the Muslim Community, to study the required process for adoption of IBF in the country.\nOriginality/value: There is no other study on IBF in Mozambique, particularly on legal and regulatory aspects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managing reputation equity
|
[
"Management strategy",
"Banking",
"Competitive strategy",
"Boards of directors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone (Bill Cosby, 1988).\nWhat is a reputation improvement plan?: A \"reputation improvement plan\" is a critical document for the board of directors. The process of producing it forces management to think through the issues related to a particular reputation and how to address them. The document itself summarizes the reputation's competitive position and guides the implementation of strategic initiatives.In banks (such as Goldman Sachs) that do them well, reputation improvement plans are typically produced annually, prepared by the board of directors with significant input from stakeholders (for instance, important customers), revised in a series of iterations with management before being agreed, and linked to other functional plans (e.g. operations, sales, R&D plans, etc.) ensuring that all the bank's activities are focused on achieving common goals.In practice, reputation improvement plans vary enormously in terms of structure, format and content. There is no \"right\" way of producing a reputation improvement plan but this article summarizes what content should ideally be included. It has been derived in part from the reputation improvement plans of (investment) banks and in part from my own experience as a non-executive director.It is important to remember that reputation improvement planning is just one component of the process - the other components are implementing the plan, monitoring progress (the process of measuring whether the plan is achieving its goals) and auditing the reputation's situation. And, although the focus is often on the document, it is the process of drafting, discussing, agreeing and using it that is important. The document facilitates discussion and decision making and can then be used as a guide to action.\nWhat goes into a reputation plan?: In this section, we go through the ideal components of the reputation improvement plan, explaining for each component what should go into it and why it is needed:Summary\nUnlocking the value of reputation: A successful reputation improvement plan and program will only occur when at least the following combined forces are effective: a vision of something better (a clear target embedded in a plan) and a few practical first steps to achieve (to launch the process). Reputation is not a gift, but really hard work.It invariably pays to recognize the nature of the barriers the executive faces. These barriers represent, first and foremost, both a lack of skills and a lack of will due to management inertia and widespread cynicism to take the requirements of a reputation improvement program. Faced with such challenges, the bank leader's have a difficult job to motivate the will to implement a reputation improvement plan, overcoming barriers and build widespread commitment to the reputation improvement objectives.Reputation is a priceless commodity. Today, great banks invest a great deal of money in developing, improving and supporting their reputation. Their organization is often structured around their reputation, capitalizing their reputation with the intention of reducing their vulnerability. Character is all about retaining a strong identity and reputation.Reputation is a key intangible asset that helps to create economic value. It has a strong impact on profits. The \"reputation-profits\" effect may operate in both directions: a bank's financial performance affects its reputation and its reputation affects its financial performance. Therefore, banks will become increasingly focused on managing their reputations over the next decade. Reputation is their most important currency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The article aims to elaborate on the importance of \"managing reputation equity\" in the banking industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This article has been derived in part from the reputation improvement plans of investment banks and in part from the author's own experience as a non-executive director.\nFindings: - The most critical and strategic asset a bank possesses is its reputation. A \"reputation improvement plan\" is a critical document for the board of directors. In practice, reputation improvement plans vary enormously in terms of structure, format and content. This article summarizes what content should ideally be included. Furthermore, it is important to remember that reputation improvement planning is just one component of the process - the other components are implementing the plan, monitoring progress and auditing the reputation's situation. And, although the focus is often on the document, it is the process of drafting, discussing, agreeing and using it that is important. The document facilitates discussion and decision making and can then be used as a guide to action.\nPractical implications: - The process of producing a \"reputation improvement plan\" forces management to think through the issues related to a particular reputation and how to address them. The document itself summarizes the reputation's competitive position and guides the implementation of strategic initiatives. In banks (such as Goldman Sachs) that the board of directors with significant input from stakeholders (for instance, important customers), revised in a series of iterations with management before being agreed, and linked to other functional plans (e.g. operations, sales plans etc.) ensuring that all the bank's activities are focused on achieving common goals. A successful reputation improvement plan and program will only occur when at least the following combined forces are effective: a vision of something better (a clear target embedded in a plan) and a few practical first steps to achieve (to launch the process). Reputation is not a gift, but really hard work.\nOriginality/value: - Reputational capital is a vital strategic resource. Reputations reflect a bank's relative success in fulfilling the expectations of multiple stakeholders. They are crucial because they \"work\" for banks. Therefore, establishing a great reputation is a key element of organizational strategy. Banks will become increasingly focused on managing their reputations over the next decade. The article is about unlocking the value of reputation through reputation improvement planning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Evaluation of a resilience intervention for Filipino displaced survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan
|
[
"Disaster",
"Resilience",
"The Philippines",
"Typhoon disaster",
"Displacement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The development and evaluation of disaster interventions is particularly relevant in countries located within the Pacific Ring of Fire. A study reported that in the past 100 years, nine of the ten worst natural disasters occurred in Asian countries (Udomratn, 2008). One of these countries is the Philippines, a country that is frequently hit by earthquakes and as many as 10-20 typhoons a year (Conde, 2004). In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan struck several provinces in the central Philippines, resulting in over 6,000 deaths and affecting 16 million people. Six months post-disaster, there were still two million survivors without adequate housing and 26,000 displaced survivors (Internal Displacement Center, 2014). Given the devastation, the World Health Organization (2014) estimated that 80,000 Haiyan survivors were at risk for mental health disorders and called for urgent scaling up of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions.\nResilience: The conceptualization and study of resilience has evolved in various disciplines, such as ecology and psychology, which are concerned with the adaptation and recovery of complex systems when faced with major threats. Social scientists in particular have investigated how individuals, families, and communities cope with or recover from the harmful effects of severe adversity (Masten and Narayan, 2012). In psychology, the history of resilience research is closely tied to clinical psychopathology and developmental science. For instance, pioneering resilience research emerged from the traumatic experiences of children who experienced the Second World War; with respect to natural disasters, the collapse of the dam in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia in 1972, and the Australian Bushfire of 1983, provided early insights into the longitudinal course of recovery and resilience from mass-traumatic events (Masten, 2014).\nResilience interventions: Recognizing the importance of resilience has led to a growing number of psychosocial interventions to build resilience. The majority of these interventions have been implemented in high-income countries (HICs) and are founded on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). For example, Skills for Psychosocial Recovery (Berkowitz et al., 2010) was designed to help survivors hone skills in information and prioritization, problem solving, identifying positive activities, managing reactions, helpful thinking, and promoting healthy connections. A self-help online program called My Disaster Recovery (Steinmetz et al., 2012) builds adaptive coping skills. Resilience and Coping Intervention for college students aims to improve levels of stress and depression and increase coping skills and hope (Houston et al., 2017). The World Health Organization (2016) also launched Problem Management Plus, an individual intervention utilizing problem-solving therapy and behavioral strategies that aims to address psychological and practical problems through modules on managing stress and problems, strengthening social support, and staying well and planning for the future (Hamdani et al., 2017).\nKatatagan: a resilience intervention for Filipino survivors: The design process for the creation of Katatagan began with a needs analysis of Super Typhoon Haiyan survivors. Three months after Typhoon Haiyan, the Psychological Association of the Philippines brought together psychologists from various regions that were affected by the disaster to discuss their needs. The needs analyses revealed somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms typical of disaster survivors. Beyond these, Filipino disaster survivors narrated spirituality-related outcomes such as questioning the presence of God or believing that the disaster was a punishment from God. Other vulnerabilities included a lack of resources, poor inter-agency coordination, and \"turf wars\" among government institutions. Survivors also reported slow delivery of services and a lack of information among survivors on how to access these services. In the hardest-hit areas, the basic survival needs of survivors were still not met six months post-disaster (Hechanova et al., 2015).\nThe present study: This study sought to address the gap in evidence-based resilience interventions in LMICs and make three contributions to the literature on disaster prevention and management. First, it utilized a quasi-experimental and longitudinal design to provide a more robust assessment of the efficacy of the program. Second, in keeping with the goal of focused non-specialized interventions, it sought to examine the effectiveness of the resilience intervention when delivered by trained paraprofessionals. Third, it focused on displaced survivors who were still living in temporary resettlement areas a year-and-a-half after the disaster.\nMethod: Research design and participants\nResults: Baseline demographic and outcome scores\nThemes from FGDs with survivors: The FGD results that were conducted after six months (T4) revealed that participants reported attempts at adaptive coping such as managing thoughts and emotions, either by thought stopping (I do not dwell on what happened) or self-talk (I have to make myself strong so we will live!). However, they also reported difficulties in the lack of basic needs because the temporary resettlement area had limited potable water, food, livelihood, and electricity. Water was particularly problematic as the community only had one water source and water came in trickles. Residents had to line up at all hours of the day to get water they needed to survive. They also had to deal with issues of crowding in their makeshift homes and environmental degradation of the site. Security was also an issue as crime was rampant and snakes abound. Survivors coped by giving and providing social support. Moreover, the resettlement site was far from their workplace or school, and transportation to and from their location was expensive. Many residents, in fact, traveled to the city during the week to become informal settlers there only to return to their resettlement community on weekends or occasionally.\nDiscussion: This study evaluated a resilience intervention program that aimed to strengthen the resilience, adaptive coping, and well-being of displaced disaster survivors. Results suggest that the intervention decreased anxiety and increased resilience of displaced disaster survivors compared to those in the comparison group. Although previous studies have shown the effectiveness of group-based interventions among children (Barron et al., 2013; Berger et al., 2012; Giannopoulou, et al., 2006; O'Donnell et al., 2014) and displaced adolescent survivors (Bolton et al., 2007), there is a dearth of studies on evidence-based interventions for adult survivors. Thus, a major contribution of this study is that it presents evidence that the Katatagan program can enhance emotional well-being and the resilience of displaced adult survivors. Furthermore, in keeping with the advocacy of IASC (2007), it provides evidence of the effectiveness of a resilience intervention delivered by trained lay facilitators. In line with IASC guidelines for MHPSS interventions to be contextually relevant and culturally sensitive (IASC, 2007), another contribution of this study is that the intervention was designed for a Southeast Asian and LMIC setting.\nLimitations and future directions for research: A major limitation of the study was that the intervention and comparison groups were not randomly assigned to treatments (RCT). Another challenge was sample attrition because of the migration of residents out of the resettlement area and the inability to locate them. For example, it is possible that movement out of the community was a form of problem solving and thus a manifestation of adaptive coping. Possible systematic bias in the results may have been minimized if we had conducted an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis, but the missing data were too substantial and possibly nonrandom. Given several issues in the evaluation design, researchers should validate the effectiveness of the Katatagan intervention in other sites and with larger samples, using RCT and an ITT analysis. It must be noted that conducting evaluation research post-disaster, and in a poor and unstable community, presents real constraints that eclipse scientific rigor. This first effort informs future researchers about what is possible in intervention research in such challenging environments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of a community-based resilience intervention for Filipino displaced survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The researchers used a quasi-experimental and mixed-method design comparing a treatment group with a control group across three time periods: before, immediately after, and six months after the intervention.\nFindings: Results showed significant improvements in survivors' anxiety scores and resilience scores compared to those who did not undergo the program. However, although there was an increase in adaptive coping of participants immediately after the program, there was a reduction in adaptive coping behaviors for all groups six months after the program. Focus group discussions revealed this might be due to significant environmental challenges among displaced survivors.\nResearch limitations/implications: A limitation of the study was the lack of randomization and a small sample size due to attrition.\nPractical implications: The study highlights the positive effects of culturally adapted group interventions.\nSocial implications: The results suggest the importance of a systemic approach to enabling the recovery of displaced survivors in developing countries.\nOriginality/value: This study provides evidence for a resilience intervention developed in a low-middle income country in Southeast Asia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Agro-biotechnology and organic food purchase in the United Kingdom
|
[
"Biotechnology",
"Food safety",
"Organic foods",
"Consumer behaviour",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Studies have shown that consumers' selections of foods are influenced by many factors including health concerns (Rimal et al., 2000; Makatouni, 1999; Latacz-Lohmann and Foster, 1997; Steenkamp, 1997), convenience (Kinsey and Senaur, 1996), and environment (van Ravenswaay, 1986). Recent incidents of foot-and-mouth disease and Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy (BSE) disease have further increased consumers' food safety considerations when selecting food items (Verdurme et al., 2002). In a separate study, more than 54 percent of the respondents in Georgia, USA perceived pesticide residues to be a serious or extremely serious food safety threat (Rimal et al., 2001). Growth hormones, animal drug residues, bacteria, food additives, irradiation, and naturally occurring toxins followed pesticide residues. Growing public concern over agro-biotechnology has further added to the debate of food safety. From the beginning of the commercialization of biotech seeds, European consumers have voiced intense health and environmental concerns about foods containing genetically modified (GM) organisms (Zechendorf, 1998; Gaskell et al., 1999). For example, Gaskell (2000) showed that Greece, Austria, and Luxembourg belonged to the group least supportive of agro-biotechnology (14-30 percent), and the Netherlands, Spain, and Finland were most supportive (69-75 percent). The UK was in the middle group along with Germany and Belgium (47-50 percent). Public perceptions of food safety issues including use of GM organisms, pesticide residues and hormones are likely to affect markets for foods produced by alternative processes such as organic and integrated pest management (IPM). In a separate study, Frewer et al. (1995) concluded that the most important determinant of consumer acceptance of GM food was the perceptions of benefit resulting from application of the technology.Consumption of organic food products has grown significantly throughout the industrialized world. Sale of organic foods in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan has exceeded $114.5 billion (Makatouni, 2002). In the USA, organic products are available in nearly 20,000 natural foods stores, and are sold in 73 percent of all conventional supermarkets (Dimitri and Greene, 2002). The organic food market in the UK has been growing rapidly with a 30 percent annual sales increase (Makatouni, 2002; Mintel, 1999). The primary reason behind the consumption of organic foods is the health concern (Latacz-Lohmann and Foster, 1997). Consumers perceive organic foods to have lower pesticides and fertilizer residues and be free of \"growth hormones\". Given the on-going debate regarding the use of GM organisms in food production, a study analyzing the relationship between agricultural biotechnology and organic food purchase is timely.Application of biotechnology in agriculture and medicine has produced a growing number of organisms and products. Along with the increasing commercial success of application of biotechnology, a widespread debate focusing on the ecological, human health and socio-economic effects of biotechnology is taking place at the national and international level. This study adds to the debate by investigating whether consumers' perceived risks and benefits of agro-biotechnology have any influence on their choice of organic food. In addition, a consumers' general purchase behavior, knowledge of GM technology, and socio-demographic variables are examined in relation to their impact on organic food purchase.\nMaterials and methods: Data collection\nResults and discussion: Purchase of organic food\nSummary and conclusions: Ongoing debate about the risks and benefits of agro-biotechnology has highlighted the role of food safety as one of the important considerations in making food purchase decisions. As the perceived risks of GM technology dominate the positive aspects, consumers are likely to look for alternative food sources including organic foods. This study investigated whether consumers' perceived risks and benefits of agro-biotechnology had any influence on the purchase of organic food. Consumers' general purchase behaviors, knowledge of GM technology, and socio-demographic variables were examined in relation to their impact on organic food purchase.The empirical findings established that the risks of agro-biotechnology played a dominant role in influencing organic food purchase decisions among UK consumers. Lack of marketing efforts by agro-biotech firms to openly communicate with the public about the benefits of GM foods before their introduction in the early 1990s may have accounted for prevailing public concern and attitude about agro-biotechnology in some consumer segments, particularly female and higher income consumers. The study showed that consumer awareness of generally negative attributes of agro-biotechnology has further enhanced the market potential for organic food products.Although premium prices of organic foods were of concern to many consumers, food safety was the most important considerations while making organic food purchase decisions. Therefore, as long as the most common belief about organic food (safer than conventional foods) prevails growth in organic market will continue.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The objective of this paper is to evaluate the role of consumers' perceived risks and benefits of agro-biotechnology in shaping the purchase pattern for organic food among UK consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An on-line household survey of UK consumers was conducted using household panels maintained by the National Panel Diary (NPD) group. The data included organic food purchase pattern, perceived risks and benefits of agro-biotechnology, and socio-demographic information about the respondents. A regression model was used to examine the impact of consumers' general purchase behavior, perceived risks and benefits of GM technology, and socio-demographic on organic food purchase.\nFindings: - Only 4 percent of the respondents purchased organic foods all the time, while 26 percent never purchased. Perceived risks of agro-biotechnology played a dominant role in influencing organic food purchase decisions. As the risk perception increased consumers were likely to buy organic food more often. Although premium prices of organic foods were of concern to many consumers, food safety was the most important consideration when making organic food purchase decisions. Household income positively influenced consumers' likelihood of buying organic food. Female respondents were likely to purchase organic foods more often than their male counter parts. Older respondents were less likely to buy organic foods compared to younger respondents.\nPractical implications: - The results of this study provide valuable information in formulating short and long-term marketing programs for organic producers. Following the study results, food safety concern and perceived risks of GM food products need to be the overall theme of marketing programs for organic products.\nOriginality/value: - The study uses a large sample size in examining the relationship between perceived risks of agro-biotechnology and organic food purchase. The results are more robust and representative.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The consequences of the heritage experience in brand museums on the consumer-brand relationship
|
[
"Consumer–brand relationship",
"Intimacy",
"Brand museums",
"Heritage experience",
"Supportive behaviors"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The number of brand museums is constantly growing, whether they are local or global brand museums; in 2016, for example, both an IKEA museum in Sweden and a Nestle museum in Switzerland opened their doors. While maintenance costs can be sufficiently high and several brand museums have closed in recent years, including France's Musee De La Moutarde Amora and England's Jaguar Heritage Museum, Italy's Museo Storico Alfa Romeo, which closed in 2011, reopened in 2015 with a new name referencing the heritage's ability to transcend time: the Museo Alfa Romeo - La macchina del tempo[1]. Broadly speaking, a brand museum refers to a \"corporate facility with tangible objects and/or exhibits, displayed in a museum-like setting, that communicates the history, operations, and/or interests of a company to employees, guests, customers and/or the public\" (Danilov, 1992, p. 4).\nLiterature review: Heritage-oriented branding experiences\nMethodology: To answer RQ1, we used two extended case studies; such research is particularly appropriate when the goal is to obtain an in-depth understanding of a contemporary phenomenon within a real-life context (Burawoy, 1998; Yin, 2013). Data were collected in two French brand museums: the Fallot Mustard Mill and the House of the Laughing Cow (Appendix). The food industry as a whole has significant enthusiasm for brand museums, given the strong relationships among food products, heritage, and cultural identity (Tellstrom et al., 2006). We selected our two brands specifically because of their differences; Fallot is a niche product marketed to connoisseurs, while the Laughing Cow is an industrial cheese product with a global presence and international notoriety. By exploring the heritage making of their respective brand museums, we were able to develop a comparative analysis to validate our findings, while accounting for the contextual effect of our case studies.\nFindings: The analysis of our data suggests the existence of two main relational consequences following the visit of a brand museum: intimacy and supportive behaviors.\nDiscussion: By investigating the heritage experience in a brand museum, this research finds striking evidence of how this experience contributes to the emergence/strengthening of the consumer-brand relationship. For our informants, brand museum experience is characterized by intellectual stimulation, esthetic pleasure and emotional heritage (Chen, 2008; Heinich, 2011). As the results show, visitors perceive these spaces as real museums. They do not perceive the brand museum as a place developed by the brand for extrinsic material benefits. Visitors recognize the heritage values of the brand museum and in consequence the brand as a heritage artifact (Chaney et al., 2018). Consequently, the heritage experience resonates strongly with consumers, who develop a more intimate relationship and thus support the brand. The contribution of this work is the identification of a clear linkage between the heritage experience lived in the brand museum and the engagement of consumers in a close relationship with the brand through intellectual, physical, social, spiritual intimacy and supportive behaviors (commercial support, ambassadorship and volunteering).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the consequences of the heritage experience in brand museums on the consumer-brand relationship. By highlighting its heritage within a museum, the brand proposes a specific experience that deserves attention because it is based on memory and communal identity, thus creating or strengthening a relationship with consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Ethnographic case studies were conducted through direct observation and extensive interviews with 72 visitors at two brand museums, the Fallot Mustard Mill and the House of the Laughing Cow.\nFindings: The results highlight the emergence/strengthening of the relationship between consumers and the brand through the development of intimacy with the brand and the emergence of supportive behaviors toward the brand in the form of commercial support, ambassadorship and volunteering.\nResearch limitations/implications: By characterizing and articulating the different relational consequences of visiting a brand museum, this research contributes to the literature dedicated to heritage experiences in consumption contexts and to the literature dedicated to consumer-brand relationships in servicescapes.\nPractical implications: The study shows the necessity of grounding \"heritage\" in the physical setting of the brand museum to create a meaningful experience for visitors and, in turn, a deep relationship. Managers should treat brand museums as a relational tool in the marketing strategy of the brand and approach them from the perspective of long-term profitability.\nOriginality/value: While the literature has examined the spectacular and esthetic experiences brand museums offer, this study is the first to characterize the heritage experience and to document its consequences in terms of the consumer-brand relationship.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Instagram: its influence to psychologically empower women
|
[
"Perceptions",
"Gender",
"Digital divide",
"Electronic mediated environment",
"Collective efficacy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The internet has been found to create opportunities for empowerment for individuals and groups (Amichai-Hamburger, 2008; Pinkett and O'Bryant, 2003). Much of the research on the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) for empowerment remains heavily focused on economic growth, which has been deemed too limiting to capture the impact of ICT (Kleine, 2010). Our research therefore contributes, first, to widening the impact of ICT by testing its effects on psychological empowerment. Second, it does so by investigating the use of more recent technologies, in this case Instagram, a social media platform. We chose Instagram because it is the most used platform after WhatsApp in Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), (2016) and has 58 times the engagement rate of Facebook (Jackson, 2015). Despite the phenomenal growth of the use of social media as new information communication technology (e.g. Facebook has 1.87bn users worldwide, and Instagram has 600m (Statista, 2017), there is a dearth of research on the impact of these new media on women's empowerment, especially in view of the inequality existing between genders in access to information and communication technologies (Huyer and Sikoska, 2003). These inequalities are more pronounced in Middle Eastern countries, where culture greatly influences the role of women (United Nations, 2015). Despite increases in the use of social media among Arab women, they only constitute about one-third of users in their countries whereas globally the distribution is more or less 50-50 (Mourtada and Salem, 2014). Finally, the empowerment theme has gained increasing relevance in marketing. There are several examples of brands using female-empowered ads to challenge gender norms and empower women, e.g., Dove's \"Speak Beautiful,\" L'Oreal \"Women of Worth,\" Benneton's \"United by Half,\" and Always' \"Like a Girl\" (Monllos, 2015). According to Susan Wojcicki (2016), the CEO of YouTube, women aged 18-34 are twice as likely to think highly of a brand that makes and shows an empowering ad, and nearly 80 percent more likely people will like, share, comment and subscribe after watching one.\nBackground and literature: In the more than 40 years since the concept of empowerment originated from community psychology (Eylon and Bamberger, 2000), social science researchers have used different terminology to describe it, such as \"the ability to make choices\" (Kabeer, 2005, p. 13), \"increasing poor people's freedom of choice and action to shape their own lives\" (Narayan, 2005, p. 4), or \"as an increase in agency\" (Samman and Santos, 2009, p. 4).\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Sample\nDiscussion: This study tested the effects of Instagram use, such as posting photos, captions and other short texts on different topics (fashion, personal and social, among others) on psychological empowerment. The general framework for our analysis, which was based on the resource theory, sociocultural constructionism, and social cognitive theories, posited that the effects would be through two mechanisms, namely, sense of (virtual) community and perceived self-efficacy. The results of this study provide support for theories of empowerment through Instagram use. Instagram facilitates active participation in a virtual community through the user's posts and allows women to express themselves, sometimes even challenging their cultural constraints. In this sense, the use of Instagram helps develop self-efficacy, which occurs particularly well in a cultural context where women are restricted in their roles because of their gender. Furthermore, our results show significant indirect effects of the use of Instagram on psychological empowerment. This suggests that Instagram posts can have influences beyond individuals' perceptions of their capability to execute (self-efficacy) and impact others through the medium.\nImplications of the findings: Our study suggests viable options for performing psychological empowerment intervention. First and foremost, our study implies that Instagram is an appropriate channel for empowering women. Second, since empowerment develops through two means, namely, self-efficacy and SOC, this implies that women can be helped by influencing their perception of self-efficacy as well as by helping them participate in virtual communities.\nLimitations: Despite its contributions, there are limitations of this study. First, care must be taken when extrapolating our findings to other women in other parts of the world, since Arab Muslim women live a context very different from, e.g., women in the west. Future research could survey women from other regions and use a different social media platform to test more widely the ability of social media to empower users. Second, our sample did not allow us to discern between those who put up only personal posts from those who post general and non-personal topics. The distinction may be interesting, especially in a society where the \"selfie\" has become more prevalent and technology allows for this exhibition of the private to be shared with millions in public. Third, our study is based on one group of people, namely, women, however, we know that the new media also empower men. An interesting extension of the study would perhaps be to see how Instagram empowers people to achieve various goals, such as entrepreneurship. Instagram is being used by women in the region where this study took place to promote their businesses, although this may be different in other parts of the world, where Instagram may play a less instrumental or commercial role. Last, we did not make a distinction between the impacts of different topics on empowerment, because of the diversity of topics would reduce our sample size and hamper statistical analysis. This is certainly an opportunity for future research.\nConclusion: In studying social media platforms such as Instagram, important questions arise to whether such platforms contribute to women's psychological empowerment, and if so, how does it occur. Our study is among the few studies to empirically test the use of Instagram to empower women. We hypothesized in our study that the use of Instagram would positively affect users' perception of SOC and self-efficacy, or sense of mastery, and through these two mechanisms women would become psychologically empowered.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether posting on Instagram contributes to empowerment and through what mechanisms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 372 women instagrammers from Kuwait participated in the survey. LISREL 8.2 was used to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, employing the maximum likelihood estimation method.\nFindings: Instagram posts have direct and indirect effects on psychological empowerment. The indirect effect appears through two perceptual mechanisms: sense of self-efficacy and sense of community (SOC). The former provides women with a sense of mastery and control and the latter gives them the perception of belonging to a community that equips individual participants with a collective efficacy. Of the two mechanisms, the SOC plays a more significant role in creating psychological empowerment. Having a sense of virtual community, as opposed to participating in real ones, can act as catalyst in creating empowerment.\nOriginality/value: This study investigates the impact of a recent new technology, namely, Instagram, in regions where women are marginalized for generations. Instagram is important, because images, photo captions, short texts and hashtags are vital elements of communication in the present day. Furthermore, women are twice as likely to think highly of a brand that makes an empowering ad and are more likely to share, comment and like the ads.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Firm performance: is organizational learning capability the magic wand?
|
[
"Firm performance",
"Organizational learning capability",
"High-performance HRM practices",
"Retail SME"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This study explores how retail SMEs can leverage organizational learning capability (OLC) in the human resource management (HRM) and firm performance relationship. OLC is conceptualized as \"the capability of an organization to process knowledge - in other words, to create, acquire, transfer, and integrate knowledge, and to modify its behavior to reflect the new cognitive situation, with a view to improving its performance\" (Jerez-Gomez et al., 2005a, p. 2). For large organizations, it is very likely that improving OLC will spearhead frontier technology and enhance innovation. But what about the retail SMEs - SMEs in the retail sector? With the increasing popularity in online shopping in the retail subsector, companies that do not move toward digitalization will certainly be left behind. To reduce the gap between large organizations and SMEs in adopting new technologies, knowledge exchange is necessary (Mahalingam, 2018). Hence, enhancing OLC in retail SMEs could possibly promote knowledge exchange to counter current developments in the retail sector.\n2. The Malaysian context: In the Malaysian context, certain factors are beyond the control of employees, and therefore, defining HRM practices as a bundle may not give a true reflection of its impact. For instance, in most cases, PA is just for formality as power distance in Malaysia is high. Hence, employees may be affected by unfair PA, but not other HRM practices in the study. Similarly, the culture of job switching is prevalent in Malaysia, and inadequate IR alone might instigate behavioral changes. Juhdi et al. (2013) indicated that the main reason why top managers in Malaysia switch jobs is because of better offers elsewhere. The demand for talent is high; a bundle of HRM practices may not be enticing enough to retain top talents.\n3. Theory and hypotheses: 3.1 High-performance human resource management practices and firm performance\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Sample and procedure\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics, correlations and discriminant validity\n6. Discussion: The main purpose of this study was to address the issues in the literature by analyzing the effects of HP-HRMP on retail SME performance with OLC as the mediator. Different from previous research that focused on larger entities, the current study examined the concepts of HP-HRMP and firm performance in the retail SMEs in Malaysia to enrich knowledge on the theoretical and practical implications of the concepts. Indisputably, researchers in other countries have conducted a wealth of research on HP-HRMP and firm performance, but the impact on the SMEs in general, and the retail SMEs in Malaysia, in particular, is still ambiguous. Specifically, the results of this study contribute to the existing literature in several ways. The following will elaborate the theoretical contributions of the study and offer some managerial implications.\n7. Limitations and future directions: The results of this study should be interpreted in the light of its limitations, and provide directions for future studies in the area. Future studies should be cautious to provide a better insight of the relationship between HP-HRMP, OLC and firm performance, particularly, in the SMEs. One limitation of the present study is the relatively small sample size collected at a single point in time. Future studies should use a larger sample to explore these relationships in a longitudinal model to truly understand these linkages profoundly. The generalizability of this study's findings is also limited to retail SMEs in Malaysia. Future work should cover a broader cross-section of industries and different levels of employees to generate an in-depth understanding of its effects. In addition, the black box in-between needs to be analyzed further to identify other potential mediators in the HP-HRMP-firm performance relationship. Future studies may also choose to include moderators or a combination of mediating and moderating components in the relationship. Research on similar issues may also be extended to larger organizations. Additionally, future research could focus on the impact of applying information technology or knowledge networks on organizational learning capabilities.\n8. Conclusion: It is believed that HP-HRMP has an impact on OLC, which, in turn, will affect firm performance. The results of this study support OLC as the dynamic capability that can enhance retail SME performance. Though the significance of each HP-HRMP on each dimension of firm performance in retail SMEs in Malaysia is still inconclusive, the present study has provided an insight on some distinctive HRM practices that affect retail SMEs performance. Except for MD and teamworking on EPER, all the other HP-HRMP are significant on firm performance. Specifically, it indicates that IR and ES are crucial HP-HRMP that impact firm performance. With globalization and increased young talent worker mobility, unfavorable HP-HRMP would likely instigate the intent to switch jobs. As competition for talented managerial staff is rather fervent, appropriate HP-HRMP is of paramount importance if organizations were to retain these workers. Moreover, it may be critical to keep these workers to stay competitive.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on human resource practices contribution to retail SMEs performance through its role in developing organizational learning capability (OLC).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional design was adopted, where data were collected from a sample of 214 managers of retail SMEs, utilizing a survey questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.\nFindings: The results indicate that incentive reward has the strongest significance on firm performance with a stronger influence on economic performance. Performance appraisal has the greatest effect on system perspective, followed by the impact of employee selection on managerial commitment (MC). MC strongly affects firm performance while openness and experimentation influences satisfaction performance. Additionally, OLC fully mediates the relationship between high-performance human resource management (HRM) practices and firm performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: It did not include large organizations nor consider other SME contextual variables which may otherwise exert significant impact on OLC.\nPractical implications: A profound understanding of distinctive high-performance HRM practices effect on firm performance and the needed employee capabilities that would assist organizations to implement strategies to attain sustainable competitive advantage.\nOriginality/value: The study advances knowledge on HRM practices among SMEs by proposing that distinctive high-performance HRM practices can leverage OLC to enhance firm performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Variations on the death of a grandparent: an analysis of youth memoir
|
[
"Memoir",
"Youth",
"Literacy and identity",
"Curriculum English",
"English language arts",
"Writing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: When all hope was lost, John lifted my father's body from the ground and over his left shoulder, just like Daddy did when I was a little girl. I would scream and giggle as the blood rushed to my head. \"Sack of potatoes,\" he called it, careful not to drape me over his wound. \"Again, again!\" I would beg.\nTheoretical framework: Our questions and corresponding methods are guided theoretically by the Youth Lens, through which Petrone et al. (2015) explore \"how texts reinforce and/or disrupt various figurations of adolescence and youth\" (p. 511). We are particularly interested in two analytic points of the Youth Lens (YL): age and adult-based normativity and sociocultural expectations for youth.\nLiterature review: As Mintz (2004) noted, overarching narratives about youth have traditionally served adult needs and purposes. For example, youth and young adults have historically been asked to step into adult workforce and household roles during times of war, but the same age group is often regarded as childish when marketing forces want them to buy products. Mintz's observations are certainly in line with the YL's tenet of adult and age-based normativity in that adults have often selected the norms dictating grand narratives about youth. Centering and studying youth memoir is one way to disrupt adult normativity and allow youth to establish, author and share their own norms within their own narratives.\nMethodology: Positionality\nFindings: Memoir genre conventions\nDiscussion and significance: In framing the YL, Petrone et al. (2015) emphasize that \"many young people have radically different experiences of adolescence\" (p. 509), a point underscored in our analyses of youth memoir, which further demonstrated \"youth as complex, contradictory individuals, not fully determined by the body\" (p. 508). Repeatedly as we read and analyzed, we were reminded that there is no typical adolescence in the USA and that one of the few commonalities demonstrated in our sample was that of youth navigating and negotiating a complex blend of identities, events and influences. This realization is even more reason that youth memoir, along with other youth-generated writing and media, should be considered for curricular inclusion alongside YAL written and curated by adults.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to argue for the curricular inclusion of youth-generated young adult literature (YAL) alongside canonical literature and adult-generated YAL. The authors support this argument with the results of a qualitative analysis of youth memoir published in The Best Teen Writing. They strive to inform the debate between educators who value memoir as part of the secondary curriculum and critics who question the ability of youth to write purposeful, meaningful narrative. Additionally, the authors also present memoir as a unique genre for youth to document and process adolescence, and for youth to speak to issues which they deem important.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Informed theoretically by the Youth Lens, which considers how texts reinforce and/or disrupt various figurations of adolescence and youth, this study uses a multistage qualitative analysis of 83 youth memoir published in nine volumes of the Best Teen Writing from 2010 to 2018. First, the authors conducted a Labovian plot analysis to consider what themes and topics were present as well as what this sample could teach us about youth. Next, they analyzed the sample for genre hallmarks specific to creative nonfiction and memoir to consider the question of quality of youth memoir.\nFindings: The findings suggest that there is no typical adolescence and that youth are balancing complex, intersectional identities, which they write about skillfully through memoir. These findings directly contrast with critics of youth memoir. Rather than cliched, the memoirs the authors analyzed show youth as intercultural, capable of thoughtful reflection, capturing the transitory state of their youth (knowing they are not children anymore and lightly speculating about their future), skillfully integrating memoir genre hallmarks, and recording important events and perspectives with appeal to a broader readership. Furthermore, these findings position youth memoir as worthy of curricular inclusion alongside adult-generated YAL.\nOriginality/value: If the critics of youth memoir are the loudest voices, youth memoir will be, at best, relegated as examples for writers rather than seen as valid additions to curricular canon. This work gives due credit to the quality of published youth memoir to showcase their potential for curricular and canonical addition. This study builds on smaller-scale case studies and personal accounts to make an argument for curricular inclusion of youth voices and youth memoir in the secondary canon.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Optimal location of a multinational corporation resulting from knowledge transfer: The general mathematical formulation
|
[
"Knowledge transfer",
"Tacit knowledge",
"Performance management",
"Multinational companies",
"Localization",
"Explicit knowledge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A multinational corporation (MNC) consists of units called subsidiaries in different countries which exchange either raw materials, either finished products or not, either knowledge. Thus MNCs can use foreign locations as a source of new knowledge (Dunning, 1994) or from the recombination of existing knowledge in a MNC and new localized knowledge (Grant, 1996; Regner and Zander, 2011). The most valuable knowledge includes a high degree of tacit knowledge (Nonaka, 1994). The fact that this knowledge is embedded in tacit local organizational knowledge practices makes it difficult to successfully transfer since it first requires the adaptation and integration of routines and organizational practices, allowing the knowledge linked to various functions (production, marketing, design) to be transferred and exploited.\n2. Conceptual model: 2.1 Component knowledge and architectural knowledge\n3. The mathematical model: The knowledge to be successfully transferred from the new subsidiary to another unit of the MNC is selected in order to maximize the global performance (Buckley, 2009) associated with the amount of successfully transferred knowledge Ka (architectural knowledge) and Kc (technological component knowledge), i.e. the total level of performance achieved by the MNC, deriving from all the transfers conducted as a result of the new localization. In this section, we first elaborate the performance function that results from knowledge transfer in concordance with first, six assumptions from Section 1, and second, the works of Cohen and Levinthal (1989), Asmussen et al. (2013) who were the first authors to propose such a mathematical function for managerial studies.\n4. Discussion and conclusion: The present paper examines technological component knowledge transfers incorporated in relational practices (architectural knowledge) resulting from the location of a MNC within a cluster. The conceptual model adopted suggests that there is an optimal architectural distance beyond which the exchange of knowledge is optimized and then the performance is also optimized: when the architectural distance is too great, the players are unable to adequately share the architectural (Tallman and Chacar, 2011) and component knowledge necessary to ensure knowledge transfer from the cluster to the location of the MNC.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A multinational corporation (MNC) looking to locate within a cluster is mainly interested in gaining access to scarce and highly valuable tacit knowledge. The transfer of such resources first requires sharing a certain degree of architectural and component knowledge. The social, organizational, cultural, institutional, technological, and physical distances between a MNC and the new subsidiary, as well as its local partners, offer a good indication of the way the architectural and technological knowledge is shared. The purpose of this paper is to examine the transfer of systemic technological expertise (component tacit knowledge) that is incorporated into organizational practices (architectural knowledge).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The mathematical expression of localization performance is inferred from a conceptual research that formulates hypotheses regarding the impact of these variables on knowledge transfer. The MNC chooses its location in such a way as to maximize this performance.\nFindings: This research contributes to a better understanding of how knowledge transfer effects may interact with local effects, while explaining a subsidiary's performance with regard to location.\nResearch limitations/implications: In order to apply this model, one would need to numerically compute the variables of this model and the performance in order to obtain a numerical estimation of the variables, by the econometric methods, which intervenes in the performance. Then one could use this numerical expression of the performance as a specific criterion of localization. Indeed it would be sufficient to evaluate both architectural and component knowledge which could be exchanged as well as different distances and the motivation for each of possible localizations and to select the one which gives the maximal numerical value for the performance.\nPractical implications: The authors deduced from the mathematical model a simple decisional criterion for a manager in search of an optimal location.\nOriginality/value: This research provides an interpretation of the concept of knowledge embeddedness by showing that the effective transfer of architectural and component knowledge involves the prior sharing of a certain amount of this knowledge.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Six Sigma vs TQM: some perspectives from leading practitioners and academics
|
[
"Quality",
"Six sigma",
"Management strategy",
"Business excellence",
"Total quality management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Six Sigma as a powerful management strategy has evolved from being exclusively about the original goal of a target of less than 4 failures or defects or errors per million opportunities, to encompass a broad range of approaches for incorporating quality into products and services from the early design and development stages and throughout their lifetimes. Many companies world-wide (manufacturing companies, service oriented companies, small and medium sized enterprises, etc.) have implemented Six Sigma and achieved remarkable improvements in their market share, customer satisfaction, product reliability, service quality etc. with impressive financial savings. TQM is a broad management philosophy embracing all activities through which the needs and expectations of the customer and the objectives of the organisation are satisfied in the most efficient and cost effective way by maximising the potential of all employees in a continuing drive for improvement. Many academics and practitioners of TQM strongly argue that there are no critical differences between these two approaches to quality management. This paper illustrates the point that TQM and Six Sigma are not the same. Although there are many commonalities between these two philosophies, there are some real and critical differences between them. A panel of academic experts and practitioners were chosen to discuss the topic \"How would you compare Six Sigma with TQM?\"\nDr Rick L. Edgeman, Professor and Chair, Department of Statistics, University of Idaho, USA: I would say that SIX SIGMA is: \"A highly structured, information-driven strategy for product, system and enterprise innovation and design\". In contrast I would say that TQM \"seeks to satisfy customer needs continuously by providing what they desire at the lowest possible cost as a result of involving a critical mass of the organization's human resource.\"Both can be effective and it is at times difficult for me to say \"THIS is Six Sigma but THAT is TQM\". However, Six Sigma's strong ALGORITHMIC approach...e.g. ... it provides a ROADMAP for getting things done is a very important aspect separating Six Sigma from TQM. A second distinguishing characteristic is the SUPERIOR ABILITY of Six Sigma to logically integrate/coordinate use of various tools/techniques/strategies that are commonly used in isolation as it progresses through DMAIC or DMADV applications. ADDITIONALLY, the algorithms are sufficiently flexible as to allow - even encourage - borrowing of useful methods from other fields.\nDr Matthew Hu, Vice President of Robust Sigma Technology, USA: Facts:*TQM implementation had limited success. Low probability of success deterred many organizations from trying TQM. Instead, many organizations opted for ISO 9000. ISO 9000 promises not world-class performance levels, but \"standard\" performance. TQM offered a mushy set of philosophical guidelines and no way to prove that one had accomplished their quality goals.*Six Sigma has demonstrated success by clearly providing a roadmap and process for the business management (not only quality).It may be fair to compare Six Sigma with TQM based on the following criteria:*Leadership involvement.*Business priorities alignment with focus on customer requirements and bottom line financial results.*Opportunity for everyone's involvement across the company to join the game.*Data driven decision-making and problem solving based on the project execution.*Flexibility to fit any type of business, e.g. transaction or manufacturing issues.Six Sigma is proven to be a better business strategy than TQM for the following reasons:*It gets the top leadership involved in Quality and demands their personal time and commitment. TQM was run by \"Quality techies\".*Six Sigma ties in projects with big business priorities aligned with customer's requirements and also with bottom line financial results (and that is why the top bosses love it!).*Six Sigma makes it easier for organizations to succeed by providing a clear roadmap to implementation and deployment. Organizations are more willing to invest the effort if they know that a pot of gold awaits them at the end.\nDr Roger Hoerl, GE Global Research, USA: Six Sigma borrows much from TQM: a process viewpoint, a focus on variation reduction, and the use of statistical methods, to name a few. However, Six Sigma also strives to address several of the shortcomings of TQM, such as lack of a bottom-line orientation, lack of dedicated resources, an informal and uncoordinated project selection process, and use of \"whoever is available\" to conduct projects. The addition of a bottom-line orientation, dedicated resources that represent the organization's top talent, and coordinated projects selected by management that deliver results in three to four months have significantly enhanced Six Sigma relative to TQM. It is unlikely that anyone will go back to TQM once they have seen Six Sigma in action.\nDr Tom Pyzdek, Pyzdek Consulting, USA: The primary difference, in a word, is management. Unlike TQM, Six Sigma was not developed by techies who only dabbled in management and therefore produced only broad guidelines for management to follow. Six Sigma was created by some of America's most gifted CEO's, people like Motorola's Bob Galvin, AlliedSignal's Larry Bossidy and GE's Jack Welch. These people had a single goal in mind: making their businesses as successful as possible. Once they were convinced that the tools and techniques of the quality profession could help them do this, they developed a framework to make it happen: Six Sigma. More information can be obtained from the following link: www.qualitydigest.com/feb01/html/sixsigma.html\nProfessor T.N. Goh, National University of Singapore, Singapore: Six Sigma provides a clear roadmap for improvement and is meant to be rigorous in personnel development and implementation. Statistical thinking is the cornerstone of Six Sigma. Six Sigma does not depend on the TQM framework but it empowers an organization implementing TQM.\nProfessor Amitava Mitra, University of Auburn, USA: As a philosophy, there are similarities between Six Sigma and TQM. There are three major themes in TQM, namely the customer, process, and employees. At the core of TQM are the company vision and mission and management commitment. This core attempts to integrate the components of customer, process, and people.Six Sigma utilizes these foundations as well. As discussed previously, senior management commitment is essential to the success of Six Sigma. Further, customer focus is firmly integrated into the Six Sigma approach. The prioritizing of problems to tackle is strongly impacted by customer needs. Process improvement (manufacturing, business processes, service operations) is the backbone of Six Sigma. Recommended changes in processes are evaluated in terms of performance metrics that can be measured (say, for example, proportion nonconforming). Additionally, through the usage of cross-functional teams, Six Sigma has a common theme of empowerment as does TQM.While the above points demonstrate similarities between Six Sigma and TQM, there are some differences in terms of the approach and emphases. First, there is a more structural approach in Six Sigma. The Define (D), Measure (A), Analyze (A), Improve (I), and Control (C) phases solidify this point. Using such a structural approach assists the problem-solving process and in some sense is helpful in setting up milestones to monitor progress on the project. By specifying methodologies and tools for each of these phases, it assures transition from one phase to the next and thereby timely completion.While continuous improvement is a theme in both Six Sigma and TQM, in TQM there was not necessarily an outcome measure, with financial implications, related to each project undertaken. This could have been a reason for the decaying degree of support from top management.Usually, in Six Sigma projects, while a team-leader is identified (say, a Black Belt), there is also a Champion, who serves as a major link for top management. With such representation from senior management, that was not necessarily the case in TQM, the chances of commitment from top management, project completion, and implementation are enhanced.\nProfessor Sung Park, National Seoul University, South Korea: I believe that Six Sigma is more process-oriented, project-oriented and profit-oriented than TQM. Six Sigma is clearer than TQM in many aspects for quality innovation. Six Sigma fits in to the knowledge-based information society than TQM. Recently, in Korea, more companies adopt Six Sigma than TQM for their management strategy.\nProfessor S.N. Neogy, Indian Statistical Institute, India: The Six Sigma vision or approach seems to cover a wider front in tune with the TQM approach as presented in the existing literature. Six Sigma has succeeded in presenting a more integrated package or product with required statistical and other available non-statistical tools. Nevertheless, the package is quite large as ever! It is not the same story as TQM being told once again in a different format. The goal is to achieve Six Sigma product, Six Sigma services and Six Sigma suppliers. On the organizational side, new graphic and easy to visualize roles like champions, black and green belts are introduced for driving home an aggressive implementation approach to combat the ever present resistance to change or even to the current new Six Sigma concept. A major deficiency of TQM approach is the absence of real project for driving the improvement vehicle.\nProfessor Jiju Antony, Director, Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Excellence (CRISSPE), University of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK: In my personal opinion, Six Sigma builds on many of the aspects of previous continuous improvement initiatives, in particular TQM. TQM often lacked a deployment process and the associated managerial and leadership components needed to drive fundamental change in an organization.Some of the traits of TQM that are copied in Six Sigma are:*a customer-centric approach;*a process view of work;*a continuous improvement mindset;*improving all aspects and functions of the organization;*data-based decision making; and*the use of statistical tools on a broad basis.Six Sigma has both a \"deployment\" aspect and a \"methods and tools\" aspect. Most of the Six Sigma methods and tools were applied in TQM initiatives, so they are not really new. It is the systematic and disciplined integration of powerful problem solving tools and techniques into the DMAIC framework has been the most important addition of Six Sigma. Such an integrated approach was sorely missing in most TQM implementations, where practitioners often floundered trying to wade through a diverse set of statistical and problem solving tools.Six Sigma provides the needed leadership, organizational culture and infrastructure to enable the methods and tools to be successfully deployed across the business. This aspect was totally missing in TQM philosophy. There is no clear infrastructure for the deployment of TQM in any business. I also believe it would take much more time to realize any benefits from the implementation of TQM as opposed to Six Sigma. Fortunately, three major success factors in Six Sigma - committed leadership, top talent and supporting infrastructure - enables Six Sigma to deal with these deficiencies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present the fundamental and critical differences between two of the most powerful philosophies of modern quality management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach taken was to form a panel of leading academics and practitioners who are familiar with both the Six Sigma and Total Quality Management (TQM) topics.\nFindings: - The findings of the panel discussion were quite stimulating in the sense that the paper demystifies the myth that Six Sigma is an old wine in a new bottle or that it is another hot topic or flavour of the month. The author believes that this will be extremely useful to many practitioners and researchers in these fields.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The viewpoints expressed here are based on many practitioners and academics in a few countries such as the USA, Singapore, India, the UK and Korea. It is essential to collect data on this topic from a number of leading researchers and practitioners in the field from other countries and to set out a research agenda in the future.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides an excellent resource for those people who are currently carrying out research in Six Sigma. Moreover, it is equally useful to practitioners and academics to understand the critical differences between these two powerful approaches to quality management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Centres for Leadership: a strategy for academic integration
|
[
"Evidence-informed decision making",
"Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs) are healthcare organizations with tripartite academic missions, including excellence in research, clinical practice, and education (Dzau et al., 2010). This paper describes the ten-year journey of an AHSC towards greater integration of research, teaching, and practice through an initiative called Centres for Leadership (CfL). Leadership is essential to becoming an exemplary learning organization with a commitment to improving health through advancing, applying, and sharing knowledge (Grumbach et al., 2014).\nOperational structures and mechanisms to enhance academic integration: There is recognition of the importance of structures and mechanisms to further the vision of AHSCs as learning organizations (Dzau et al., 2010), yet little is known about how to create operational mechanisms to enhance academic integration. Collaboration requires an organizational and resource infrastructure - it needs to be planned for, prompted, and promoted (Rycroft-Malone et al., 2016). The literature generally considers organizational structures that focus on integration, such as centres of excellence or institutes (Wright et al., 2011), rather than operational processes to facilitate integration. Reflecting a process-oriented perspective, there has been a recent call for descriptions of initiatives that integrate clinical practice and research through the process of co-creation (Jackson and Greenhalgh, 2015). Co-creation refers to collaborative knowledge generation by academics working with other stakeholders (Greenhalgh et al., 2016). Co-creation is linked to an ecological approach to optimizing research impact, where solutions fit the local context materially, historically, and culturally (Jackson and Greenhalgh, 2015).\nSuccess factors for organizational transformation in AHSCs: Determinants of the successful organization of AHSCs include strong leadership, shared vision, organizational culture, and management systems committed to transparency and accountability for performance (Dzau et al., 2010; Enders and Conroy, 2014). The complex nature of AHSCs requires the ability to manage complexity, and thus strong leadership is necessary to become an exemplary learning health system (Grumbach et al., 2014). Research also points to the importance of organizational values in furthering the academic mission (Ovseiko et al., 2015) and a supportive organizational culture for the adoption of innovation in research, clinical practice, and education (King et al., 2016), with innovation considered to be a core success strategy for AHSCs (Wright et al., 2011).\nCfLs at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital: Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital (Holland Bloorview) is Canada's largest pediatric rehabilitation teaching hospital, dedicated to advancing clinical care, research, and education. Holland Bloorview's mission is to provide specialized programmes and clinical care for children and youth with rehabilitation and complex care needs, enabling them to participate in life to the fullest. Over a ten-year period (since 2007), Holland Bloorview has invested in CfLs in key service delivery areas of the hospital.\nArticle objectives: The aim was to present a descriptive case study of how one AHSC created and operationalized an initiative (CfLs) to move towards the integration of research, education, and clinical care. The specific objectives were:\nObjective 1: evolution of the CfLs: The CfLs have evolved significantly in their structure and operations since their beginning in 2007. Figure 1 shows key points in the evolution, including planning and funding of a series of CfLs. In the following sections, we discuss evolution in leadership and management structure over a ten-year period (2007-2016), and then changes in operational structures and targeted activities.\nObjective 2: benefits of the CfL initiative: Here we consider CfL outputs, utilization, and mid-term impacts (Currie et al., 2005). Outputs refer to direct outcomes of CfL functioning, such as numbers of CfL-related research presentations or knowledge exchange workshops. Utilization refers to the use of materials and resources provided by the CfLs, such as information on the uptake of clinical guidelines (Currie et al., 2005). Mid-term impacts refer to enhancements in stakeholders' knowledge and/or capacity, use of information for service delivery, influences on planning and policy, or development of community capacity (Currie et al., 2005). Long-term impacts refer to changes to organizational culture or community wellness, which accrue over longer time periods.\nObjective 3: transformational learnings: Initially, there was lack of clarity about the nature, aims, and processes of the CfLs. Working through these challenges led to emerging coherence and an understanding of the need to embrace a process-oriented perspective in moving forward, and also enhanced our ability to articulate the organization's leadership values.\nChallenges encountered: Initial CfL challenges reflected a lack of clarity in scope, governance, support for clinician engagement, and roles of clinicians, researchers, co-leads, and the manager. There was a lack of common understanding (and no clear definition) of the term \"integration\", which took time to reflect on and negotiate. Staff throughout the organization wondered how the CfLs fit into the broader organizational structure. An early decision not to fund a CfL manager created some delays in rolling out activities for the CfL and giving it a presence within the organization. Changing leadership in the different CfLs created discontinuities and likely contributed to lack of clarity in scope and aims, although we realize in hindsight that the role of the CfLs was evolving and could not be fully known at the outset. There was lack of clarity around where the funding for clinician time in CfL activities would come from, and inconsistencies in the level of support given to clinicians across hospital programmes. In addition, tensions existed between interest in strategic clinical questions that would benefit from a research lens, and researchers driving questions of importance to their programmes of research. This issue of \"who is leading\" is common in clinical organizations with research aspirations (King et al., 2008).\nMain messages: This paper has described how the CfL initiative evolved structurally and operationally, the tangible value it added (i.e. benefits in terms of outputs, utilization, and impacts), and how the CfLs have enhanced understanding of collaboration, built capacity for innovation, and contributed to emergent leadership values. This descriptive case study, therefore, provides an understanding of key parameters (operational structures, processes, desired outcomes) for others to consider.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how an Academic Health Science Centre, providing pediatric rehabilitation services, research, and education, developed a Centres for Leadership (CfL) initiative to integrate its academic functions and embrace the goal of being a learning organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Historical documents, tracked output information, and staff members' insights were used to describe the ten-year evolution of the initiative, its benefits, and transformational learnings for the organization.\nFindings: The evolutions concerned development of a series of CfLs, and changes over time in leadership and management structure, as well as in operations and targeted activities. Benefits included enhanced clinician engagement in research, practice-based research, and impacts on clinical practice. Transformational learnings concerned the importance of supporting stakeholder engagement, fostering a spirit of inquiry, and fostering leaderful practice. These learnings contributed to three related emergent outcomes reflecting \"way stations\" on the journey to enhanced evidence-informed decision making and clinical excellence: enhancements in authentic partnerships, greater innovation capacity, and greater understanding and actualization of leadership values.\nPractical implications: Practical information is provided for other organizations interested in understanding how this initiative evolved, its tangible value, and its wider benefits for organizational collaboration, innovation, and leadership values. Challenges encountered and main messages for other organizations are also considered.\nOriginality/value: A strategy map is used to present the structures, processes, and outcomes arising from the initiative, with the goal of informing the operations of other organizations desiring to be learning organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Control valve stiction compensation by dynamic inversion: a comparative study
|
[
"Adaptive inverse control",
"Differential evolution (DE)",
"Finite impulse response (FIR)",
"Stiction compensation",
"Valve nonlinearity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: Among the different controllers used in process industries, proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is the most common type. PID provides several attractive features such as simplicity, tuning capability and acceptable performance. A typical chemical process plant may contain thousands of control loops that could be interacting together. Any fault or failure in a given loop may upset downstream or upstream loops and thus propagate through the interacting loops to create a plant-wide disturbance (Zang and Howell, 2006). In addition, poorly performing loops may cause the console operator to switch to manual operation, in which the system is loose. In such a condition, the recovery of the optimal performance is difficult and puts the system in a situation of high risk. Recently, the study of Desborough et al. (2001) shows that only approximately 30 percent of the control loops are working within the acceptable response limits. These loops suffer from oscillations, poor disturbance rejection, poor set point (SP) tracking and bad controller tuning.\n2. Proposed method: 2.1 Adaptive inverse control (AIC)\n3. Results and discussion: 3.1 Simulation validation\n4. Conclusion: A new compensation method based on adaptive filtering and intelligence control theories has been proposed. The intelligent algorithm always guarantees the optimum tuning of the FIR filter to produce the best estimate of the inverse stiction dynamic. A comparative study between three different valve stiction compensation methods had been presented. The efficiency of the three methods has been validated using simulated and experimental tests. Test results showed excellent performance of the DE-FIR compensator compared to other dynamic inversion methods in terms of minimizing process variability, energy saving and valve SA. However, compensation ability for all compensators reduces with the increase of stiction severity, thus the over shoot case always shows the worst result. In future work, other optimization techniques will be explored to find the appropriate technique that can extend the FIR model size with smallest computation time that can improve the performance of the compensator in over shoot case. In addition, the estimation of the valve residual life based on the level of stiction and effort required by the controller should be considered. Additionally, implementation of such a technique on an industrial-sized valve with a positioner may reveal the possibility to implement such method in various industrial applications.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to improve the performance of control loop suffering from control valve stiction. Control valve stiction is considered as of one of the main causes of oscillation in process variables, which require performing costly unplanned maintenance and process shutdown. An adaptive solution to handle valve stiction while maintaining safety and quality until next planned maintenance is highly desirable to save considerable cost and effort.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper implements a new stiction compensation method built using adaptive inverse model techniques and intelligent control theories. Finite impulse response (FIR) model, which is known to be robust, as a compensator for stiction. The parameters of FIR model are tuned in an adaptive way using differential evolution (DE) technique. The performance of proposed method is compared with other two compensation techniques.\nFindings: The new method showed excellent performance of the DE-FIR compensator compared to other dynamic inversion methods in terms of minimizing process variability, energy saving and valve stem aggressiveness.\nResearch limitations/implications: The compensation ability for all compensators reduces with the increase of stiction severity, thus the over shoot case always shows the worst result. In future works, other optimization techniques will be explored to find the appropriate technique that can extend the FIR model size with smallest computation time that can improve the performance of the compensator in over shoot case. In addition, the estimation of the valve residual life based on the level of stiction and effort required by the controller should be considered.\nOriginality/value: The presented approach represents an original contribution to the literature. It performs stiction compensation without a need for a prior knowledge on the process or the valve models and guarantees a smooth control of the stem movement with a low control effort. The proposed approach differs from previous adaptive methods as it uses stable FIR models and DE to find the appropriate parameters of the inverse model and handle nonlinear behavior of stiction.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Impact of governance structures on environmental disclosures in the Middle East and Africa
|
[
"Board characteristics",
"Corporate governance structures",
"Environmental disclosures",
"Middle East and Africa"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Middle East and African (MEA) region has a rich array of natural resources. In 2017, it had 55% of the world's oil reserves (43% of global production), 48% of gas reserves (24% of global production) and 1.4% of coal reserves (4.1% of global production) (British Petroleum, 2018). These rich natural resources have increased the region's strategic importance and have led to rapid economic transformation and development (Al-Rawashdeh et al., 2015). However, these major changes have raised serious concerns about environmental and public health in the MEA region. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2016), air pollution is the main cause of various deadly illnesses (especially stroke and heart disease) and MEA countries are among the worst affected by air pollution, while the World Bank ranks seven MEA countries among the 20 experiencing the highest per capita CO2 emissions from energy consumption (World Bank, 2014). Nevertheless, positive actions have been taken by MEA countries to address these issues and improve environmental governance, management, policies and regulations. For example, South Africa's National Environmental Management Act, 2008 aimed to enhance environmental governance and management practices and the Environmental Protection Agency in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched a strategic plan to increase the use of renewable sources to 50% by 2050 (The Official Portal of the UAE Government, 2018). MEA countries have also started to work closely with the US Environmental Protection Agency to improve \"environmental governance, water pollution and water security, clean fuels and vehicles, public participation and pollution prevention\" (Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2018). However, so far very little academic research on environmental governance and management has been conducted for the MEA region (Gerged et al., 2018). This study examines the impact of governance structures (composite governance index and board characteristics) on the environmental disclosures of publicly listed firms in the MEA region, using theoretical insights from the efficiency and legitimation perspectives of neo-institutional theory.\n2. Theoretical background: This paper responds to a need to extend neo-institutional theory using more current explanations of power, interests and value perceptions to critically analyse organisational change and innovation (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Greenwood and Hinings, 1996; Scott, 2001; Damayanthi and Gooneratne, 2017). While conventional institutional theory emphasises inertia and path dependence, neo-institutional theory seeks to identify the determinants of organisational flexibility and change, reflecting a range of coercive and consensual strategies to achieve change across an organisational field (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). However, full and uncontested institutionalisation is rare and interests and power play a role in determining how organisations adapt to their institutional environments. For example, Oliver (1991) notes that because institutional environments are not always unitary and organisations are not always passive, organisations respond to institutional pressures according to their resource dependencies. Goodstein (1994) suggests that organisations respond strategically to institutional pressures, depending on their motivations, resource dependencies, idiosyncratic constraints and incentives. Thus, structural isomorphism has fundamental implications for profitable organisations, as it may signal effective and productive structures and processes with diffused best practices (Damayanthi and Gooneratne, 2017).\n3. Empirical literature and hypothesis development: MEA countries have developed and transformed rapidly over recent years, mainly through oil, gas and coal production (Al-Rawashdeh et al., 2015), but at the expense of environmental and public health (World Bank, 2014; World Health Organisation (WHO), 2016). In response to these serious environmental and social threats, MEA countries have undertaken positive actions to improve environmental governance, management, policies and regulations. For example, South Africa issued new environmental protection laws and guidelines in 2008 and Egypt in 2009. However, lack of enforcement has led to poor implementation of these environmental reforms and measures (Shahbaz et al., 2015), so corporations may need to strengthen their internal governance structures, for example, by appointing efficient corporate boards of appropriate size, diversity and independence.\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Data and sample\n5. Empirical results and discussion: 5.1 Descriptive statistics and univariate tests\n6. Conclusions: This paper investigates the extent to which internal governance structures influenced the environmental disclosure practices of 121 MEA firms over the period 2010-2017. It contributes new evidence from 11 MEA countries, and thus, extends the limited studies previously conducted in this region. Unlike previous research, which focuses mainly on the effects of a small number of internal governance mechanisms on environmental disclosure practices, this study considers the impact of various, largely unexamined internal governance mechanisms on firms' environmental disclosure practices, and hence, presents empirical results from a more comprehensive model. The study also offers new insights into the relationship of interest by integrating the efficiency and legitimation perspectives of neo-institutional theory.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance structures on environmental disclosure practices in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research model uses a panel data set of 121 publicly listed (non-financial and non-utility) firms from 11 MEA countries over the period 2010-2017, uses alternative dependent variables and regression techniques and is applied to various sub-groups to improve robustness.\nFindings: The empirical results strongly indicate that MEA firms with high governance disclosures tend to have better environmental disclosure practices. The board characteristics of gender diversity, size, CEO/chairperson duality and audit committee size impact positively on MEA firms' voluntary environmental disclosures, whereas board independence has a negative influence.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study advances research on the relationship between corporate governance structures and environmental disclosure practices in MEA countries, but is limited to firms for which data are available from Bloomberg.\nPractical implications: The results have important practical implications for MEA policymakers and regulators. The positive impact of board gender diversity on firms' environmental disclosures, policy reforms should aim to increase female directors. MEA corporations aiming to be more environmentally friendly should recruit women to top managerial positions.\nOriginality/value: This is thought to be the first study to provide insights from the efficiency and legitimation perspectives of neo-institutional theory to explain the relationship between MEA firms' internal governance structures and environmental disclosures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluating the state of enterprise training for postgraduate researchers in the UK
|
[
"Enterprise education",
"Higher education institution",
"Postgraduate researchers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite significant growth in policy calls and initiatives concerned with fostering entrepreneurial universities and enterprising graduates (BERR, 2008; BIS, 2010a, b, 2011; Wilson, 2012), the main attention so far has been given to encouragement of entrepreneurship within undergraduate and master's courses with very little focus on the development of enterprising skills for those undertaking research degrees (McKeown et al., 2006). There is currently little published information on the state of enterprise education provision and the needs of postgraduate researcher (PGR) students in relation to enterprise and entrepreneurship education, and few accessible examples of good practice (Phillips, 2010; Zalevski and Swiszczowski, 2009).\nMethodology: The framework for evaluating impact training of developing researcher skills\nAnalysis and discussion: Five case studies were developed through the use of interviews from the lead educators responsible for postgraduate enterprise training programmes as described above. Table II presents a summary of each programme broken down into each of the Rugby Team Impact Framework levels. A description of each programme is provided below.\nConclusions: Despite the limited experience of some of the initiatives presented in this paper, the case studies allow us to draw some valuable lessons which could be taken forward in the future enterprise training programmes for PGRs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the state of enterprise education and skills training at postgraduate level at UK higher education institutions (HEIs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case-study research strategy was used to address the lack of existing research on enterprise training for postgraduate researchers (PGRs). The initial task was to identify those UK universities which provide enterprise and entrepreneurship training for their PGRs. Based on this desk exercise, five universities were selected according to the nature and structure of their training programmes and geographical spread such that one university was included from Wales, Scotland, South of England, Midlands and North of England. The next stage of the research focused on gaining in-depth understanding of the enterprise training available to PRGs at selected universities through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with key personnel responsible for the design and management of PGR enterprise education programmes. The data collected were analysed using the Rugby Team Impact Framework to explore the training and development provision and structure, internal and external profile raising and awareness, staff and skills required, research-based practices, the reaction of participants, behaviour and outcomes, stakeholder engagement and on-going strategy.\nFindings: The paper highlights the current best practices in enterprise education for PGRs. It identified key factors contributing to the success of selected programmes including the development of objectives, the modes and pedagogy of delivery and the involvement of stakeholders.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of the research enable universities across the UK to drive the development of a suite of learning opportunities tailored to the needs of the PGR population in order to overcome barriers to engagement and best promote entrepreneurial activity - both within employment and as new venture creation - as appropriate career options.\nOriginality/value: The paper contributes to the limited literature concerning the state of enterprise training for PGRs which provides a detail analysis of current provisions useful for benchmarking and planning purposes and which can be useful to researchers and enterprise education providers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Partner management - managing service partnerships in the supply chain - a systemic perspective
|
[
"Partnership",
"Performance",
"Incentives",
"Case study",
"Systemic thinking",
"Performance management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Value creation within companies has been decreasing over time and today many business activities (business processes) have been outsourced. While members and organizational units of a company have a natural incentive to improve their business processes over time because improvements benefit the organization and themselves, service providers outside the new organizational boundaries created via outsourcing may only have limited incentives for improvement (Novak and Stern, 2008) and latest research revealed that they are not very innovative (Busse, 2010). However, such improvements and adaptations are necessary for the outsourcing company to remain competitive in an ever-changing global business world.In this domain, partnerships and especially incentives are said to be key to such sustained improvements and since the start of the 1990s, the concept of business partnerships has been attracting strong attention as a key enabler of higher performance in manufacturing companies (Ellram, 1991; Lambert et al., 1996; Mohr and Spekman, 1994; Peters, 1991). Consequently, partnership as a concept has been comprehensively discussed by academics and practitioners alike (Brennan, 1997; Langley, 2010; Lambert et al., 1996; Mentzer et al., 2000; Peters, 1991).Despite the consensus in the literature on the high importance of partnerships, only a few studies so far have addressed the \"how-to issues\" (i.e. implement and manage) of partnerships in practice and criticism has emerged that neither the partnership nor the performance measurement concepts were fully understood. Meanwhile, partnership in practice had become and unfortunately remains a managerial buzzword (Fawcett et al., 2008; Lemke et al., 2003).Over the years, researchers have adopted various perspectives to gain further insights into the partnership idea (e.g. from relationship marketing, transaction cost economics and resource based view (RBV)) (Binder and Clegg, 2007; Duffy and Fearne, 2004; Knemeyer et al., 2003). Recent research analyzing the aspects of partnership revealed that a broader set of antecedents is relevant for enabling partnering behavior (Binder and Clegg, 2007; Hofer et al., 2009). With respect to some issues of partnership, it appears that the early stages of implementing well performing business processes have become rather easy. On the contrary, improving the performance in the later stages of the relationship remains a challenge. When the full operational stage is reached, deficits remain and too little is known about how to further foster improvements (Vitasek et al., 2010; Wiendahl et al., 2005). At this stage, the perceptions and practical experiences of organizational actors are critical to gain further insights into the phenomenon. Additionally, researching this phenomenon in a real-life context seems promising and especially valuable because of the scarcity of cases that encompass the possibility to disclose the critical information needed.The aim of this action-based research (AR) was to adopt a \"standard\" approach for performance-oriented partnerships, enhance the approach where shortcoming became present and understand how elements of partnerships interact in order to provide a basis for an enhanced performance management framework.The paper covers the experiences and findings of a four-year action-based field project with a focal company and distinct partners. The picture of the emerging performance framework revealed unexpected surprises. Thus, to improve the understanding of the research results, a post hoc analysis was performed, in which interviews with service provider executives with widespread partnering expertise were conducted. This revealed further surprising insights regarding the service providers' perception of the importance and presence of certain elements of a partnership system. The findings are presented in five sections starting with a literature review. The subsequent methodology section presents the logic for the case design and gathering of evidence. The case observation section is organized in two subsections, starting with the implementation of a standard partnership approach, followed by the application of an enhanced, systemic perspective to a subset of partnerships. In the discussion section, the case observations and post hoc interview findings are synthesized. Finally, conclusions are drawn.\n2 Literature review: The literature review presents the main concepts related to the research issue. These are, first, the definition of what characterizes partnerships where we adopt a widely known definition; second, the formalization of the performance idea in partnerships, where we substantiate the above definition in one critical aspect; and finally and most important, we introduce the systemic perspective which is core to this research as it overcomes the limitations of traditional approaches in analyzing complex problems.2.1 Defining partnerships\n3 Research methodology: Many concerns about the rigor of AR have recently been expressed (Lunnan and Haugland, 2008). This study closely follows the proposals of Yin (2009) toward a single case with multiple embedded units. Regarding the process steps for the case design, data collection, and analysis, it follows the proposal of Naslund et al. (2010) (see Appendix 1). Finally, for the analysis, the systemic thinking approach of Vester (2007) is applied.3.1 Case design\n4 Case observations: 4.1 Stages 1 and 2 (preliminary results derived from partner implementation)\n5 Discussions and implications: First, the application of a standard partnering approach has shortcomings regarding the financial performance of business relationships analyzed in this research. This shortcoming could partially be overcome by intervening in distinct areas of several partnerships (focal group). Second, the results of the AR presented in this paper make clear that causes and interdependencies between distinctive elements in a partnership-framework are critical for the design of a successful partner-performance management. Applying a systemic thinking approach, the systemic character and role of the elements becomes much clearer. For the purposes of a successful performance orientation, some elements can be used more effectively than others can. This insight is confirmed by the post hoc interviews, explicitly for the enablers vision and joint activities, which are seen to be highly efficient to foster performance. The interviews also confirmed the importance of the governance related elements for the successful development of performing partnerships. Interestingly, different from the former two the gap between importance and presence was the lowest for this category. This casts an interesting light on the interpretation of the role of governance elements in general. The low gap indicates that the governing rules of partnerships in general are perceived to be satisfying and thus the interviewees do not expect any further (performance) improvement induced by \"more governance\". Insofar, the cross-functional design of the partner management in the standard approach, which was highly rated by the partners, deems to be adequate to implement a good governance framework that is important for the development of partnerships. However, it also implicates that the standard approach that mainly relied on the implementation of governance concepts in the early stage of the research did not yield the aimed performance improvements because these elements alone are not sufficient and are not the most effective drivers of partnership performance. Summarizing, post hoc interviews confirm that governance in a systemic interpretation is \"only\" an indicator and not an accelerator for performance. The insight that the adherence to norms is necessary but not sufficient for a performing partnership has also been confirmed in recent empirical research (Palmatier et al., 2007). On the contrary, the financial success of the enhanced approach, hinted by the role allocation model and interviews, built much more on interventions which aim to create vision, hence commitment, and joint activities, hence create relationship specific investment (RSI). The latter effect, also confirmed by the role allocation model may be even leveraged by structural elements, for example a close production link and high asset specificity (Dyer, 1997). This insight is confirmed by the research of Palmatier et al. (2007) who similarly found that commitment and RSI are key drivers for performance in seller-distributor relationships. Our results would indicate that this finding also holds for manufacturer-service provider partnerships.Contrastingly, permanent interventions in the partnership development process may be a double-sided coin. Feedback from partner employees revealed that frequent interventions from the focal company and a close production link may turn out to be undermining the partners independence and hence its entrepreneurial spirit down to the workforce. This is a facet of dependence which points to a similarly undesired feedback like in the above-mentioned example for wrong incentives (p. 23). To the best of our knowledge, this is rarely discussed in literature but deserves special attention when designing the role model of partnership.Most surprising are the various facets of the benefit concept. Counter-intuitively to economic principles the systemic analysis revealed that they do not exert strong influence on the performance of partnerships. In contrast to this finding interviewees think that benefit concepts have a very high importance and, even worse, saw a high gap between importance and presence of this enabler. Still more confusing, \"incentive\" mechanisms in practice are deemed to be highly unfair regarding the distribution of benefits and risks. Interviewee no. 1: \"sharing rules suggested by the focal companies often are an affront to the sense of fairness\". They claim that mechanisms usually miss reward opportunities. Interviewee no. 2: \"budget driven thinking is a serious obstacle to the implementation of reward systems\". Customers have a problem with \"over-performing service providers\" or, even worse, they are seen as hidden tools for additional cost reductions for the customer side as mentioned by interviewee no. 1. Thus, benefit concepts sometimes suffer from counterproductive attitudes or arrangements and become ineffective. This confirms the long existing reality: the mere existence of an agreement does not guarantee the alignment of partners and therefore the desired results. It even can be counterproductive as was shown above in the two examples. The \"wrong\" feedback loops in the examples partially illustrate this fact because strong incentive agreements might even lead to pre-calculation of future expected benefits, which is counterproductive for a competitive partnership. Partners even may be risk-averse and would prefer to live without any incentive agreement at all and rather rely on fixed payments. The agreement itself might not be much more than a lip confession under the pressure of the customers' wishes and expectations as it was hinted in some expert interviews. As a consequence, of this multi-faceted characteristics, the systemic analysis has probably rightly relativized the role and potential influence of benefit concepts on partnership performance. The above insights also support the understanding that partner management in practice is not where it expected itself to be. While the promised benefits of partnerships are far from being fully exploited major obstacles for the successful implementation of financial performance oriented partnerships still exist.\n6 Conclusions: 6.1 Practical and theoretical contribution\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the research is to shed light on the question of how elements of a partnership system interact to provide a basis for an enhanced performance management framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A structured literature review is followed by a longitudinal case study (action research), which combines qualitative and quantitative analyses. Observations over time, documents such as contracts, joint agreements, meeting agendas and minutes, personal conversations and in-depth interviews were mainly used, with quantitative measurement of operational and relational performance. For an in-depth analysis of interdependencies, a systemic perspective based on an interaction analysis of relevant elements of the partner management system was adopted.\nFindings: - The paper draws upon real-life data from service partnerships in the automotive industry. Combining a longitudinal multi-dyadic approach with action-based research makes it a unique opportunity to reveal insights into the development of performance-based partnerships. The paper illustrates enablers, limitations, and conflicting circumstances in partnering highlighting the role of incentives and derives propositions for a comprehensive framework for a performance-oriented partner management.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Owing to the limited number of case studies, this research is considered mainly exploratory. The presented case study is an essentially illustrative example of the implementation and development of performance-oriented partnerships. The insights provide a better and deeper understanding of the dynamics of forming partnerships in reality, especially limitations and pertinent expectations regarding performance management in partnerships. There remains a need for further research for success-related dimensions and antecedents of partnering concepts in a general industry approach.\nOriginality/value: - The paper draws upon real-life data from service partnerships in the automotive industry. Combining a longitudinal multi-dyadic approach with action-based research makes it a unique opportunity to reveal insights into the development of performance-based partnerships. The paper illustrates enablers, limitations, and conflicting circumstances in partnering highlighting the role of incentives and derives propositions for a comprehensive framework for a performance-oriented partner management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using storytelling to elicit tacit knowledge from SMEs
|
[
"Elicitation",
"Expert review",
"Grounded theory",
"Knowledge management",
"Stories",
"Storytelling",
"Subject matter expert",
"Tacit knowledge",
"Taxonomy",
"South Africa"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: People born in the post 1939-1945 World War, commonly known as the \"baby-boomers\" are retiring and are leaving a large gap in the knowledge base of many large organisations. This is particularly true in South Africa where the incoming pool of mostly black managers, who because of apartheid, have been disconnected from the leavers of power for over a generation, creating a knowledge deficit that the country has been struggling to overcome since majority rule. Today many corporate organisations are losing people who are subject matter experts (SMEs), who have accumulated years of expertise (or tacit knowledge) and built extensive information networks.The challenge for many of these organisations is to devise strategies and systems for eliciting tacit knowledge from subject matter experts (SMEs). Since tacit knowledge in not easily measured and quantified, the approaches for diffusing it are many and varied. Among them are examples such as, interviewing (Karhu, 2002), repertory grid (Jankowicz, 2001), knowledge exchange protocols, (Herschel et al. 2001), analogies and metaphors (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) and narrations or storytelling (Linde, 2001).Why storytelling? Reamy (2002) suggests that storytelling is arguably the best way to transfer tacit knowledge, in that you are able to convey information and context in a form that easy for people to understand. According to Leblanc et al. (2006), stories make information meaningful, tacit knowledge more explicit and allow information to be organized into learnable chunks. Reamy (2002) further suggests that the human brain is wired to easily organize information into stories. In fact, telling stories is what people do naturally and in the African context has a rich history in oral tradition as a means of conveying indigenous knowledge.For the organisation at the centre of this study, the objectives were two-fold:1. Investigate storytelling as a means of eliciting tacit knowledge from SME's and thereby help stem the loss of expertise to the organisation through retirement.2. Create a knowledge taxonomy of stories that is a classification, a thesauri and a knowledge base in its own right (Gilchrist, 2001; Connelly, 2011). Senior managers hoped through this taxonomy, to create a common repository where knowledge could be shared across the highly diversified pan-African company.In the organisation it was well understood that for knowledge to be shared effectively within a diversified organisation there needs to be a common language (Howard and Longstaff, 1998; Grant, 1996) and that by using a knowledge management framework for arranging stories from SMEs would be one way to provide that common language.The objectives of the research gave rise to two research questions:1. Can storytelling be used to elicit tacit knowledge from SMEs?2. Can these stories be used to create a KM taxonomy of organisational stories?One Petroleum Ltd, (not the actual name of the organisation used in this study), is a South African-based energy group focused on the refining and marketing of petroleum and petroleum-based products. It has offices in 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and is one of the top five petroleum companies on the continent.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Knowledge - tacit and explicit\n3. Research methodology: We remind the reader that the study's primary objective was to investigate storytelling as a means of eliciting tacit knowledge from retiring subject matter experts (SMEs) within a large South African organisation.The research was empirical characterised by the fact that knowledge or theory was derived from the results of observations or testing. It was rooted in the interpretive approach in that it aimed to formulate an understanding whether storytelling can be used to elicit tacit knowledge from SME's within an organisation. It is important to remember that interpretive is not a synonym for qualitative (Klein and Myers, 1999; Walsham, 2006), as qualitative research may well or may not be interpretive, depending upon the underlying philosophical assumptions of the researcher (Myers, 1997). Although the research focuses on one organisation, Walsham (2006), suggests one can make generalisations from one organisation, as \"generalisations can take the form of theories, concepts, rich insights or specific implications\", as was done in this study.Sarantakos (1993) asserts that purposive sampling is a technique where researchers, \"choose subjects who, in their opinion, are relevant to the project\". Creswell (1998) argues \"purposeful selection of participants represents a key decision point in qualitative study\". In accordance with Trochim (2001), an advantage with purposive sampling is that the researcher selects the participants based on the purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to collect as many stories as possible from a wide range of SME's. In total 64 stories were collected from various departments across the organisation, from individuals identified by the Human Capital Division as SME's in their respective divisions.The research made use of the grounded theory (GT) methodology (Strauss and Corbin, 1990), as it was focused on making sense of the data collected and giving it a structure (Parker and Roffey, 1996). Grounded theory (GT) techniques were used to analyze the storytelling/interview data, because consistent with Strauss and Corbin (1990), grounded theorizing is complementary to capturing the interpretive experiences of SMEs and developing theoretical propositions from them. The methodology allowed us to develop a theoretical interpretation of an organisational phenomenon as expressed through stories. Consistent with Parker and Roffey (1996), grounded theory aspires to categorize \"many ideas which have emerged from analysis of the data through systematic analysis of the documents, interview notes, or field notes by continually coding and comparing data to produce a well-constructed theory\". Goulding (1998) suggests grounded theory is a method that has been utilised to offer a fresh slant on existing knowledge or to create theory where little is previously known. We hoped to identify a fresh slant on the existing knowledge pertaining to storytelling.Orlikowski (1993), in her seminal work successfully used grounded theory to analyze organisational changes. She connected GT derived from the data with aspects of existing formal organisational theory. We likewise have connected GT from data with existing knowledge management concepts using the Delphi technique to validate classifications. This important adaptation of the GT process was applied because, as stated earlier, the research aimed to identify in stories three things:1. a common language or taxonomy for classifying organisational stories;2. a taxonomy that was KM specific; and3. industry agnostic.Stories were gathered from SMEs by way of semi-structured interviews. The content of stories were analysed using the Delphi technique (expert review) to create secondary classifications of stories using a knowledge management frame.The Delphi method has been applied by many authors as a research tool in the Information Systems sphere, (e.g. Dexter et al., 1993; Doke and Swanson, 1995; Hayne and Pollard, 2000; Lai, 2001; Mulligan, 2002; Akkermans et al., 2003; Yeoh et al., 2008; Sharma et al., 2008; Kim and Kim, 2008; Lin and Chang, 2008). The research followed a series of steps which were embedded in the Grounded Theory process (adapted from Strauss and Corbin, 1990) and are as follows in Table I.Table I demonstrates that the steps of a classical grounded theory methodology were followed closely in this research. In the Results section of this paper is a detailed discussion of steps 2 to 5 of this process.\n4. Results: 4.1 Storytelling interviews (Step 2)\n5. Discussion: This research considered two questions:1. Can storytelling be used to elicit tacit knowledge from SMEs?2. Can these stories be used to create a KM taxonomy of organisational stories?The following is a discussion of our findings in response to these questions.5.1 Using storytelling to elicit tacit knowledge from SMEs\n6. Conclusions: This study has used storytelling (interviews) and an interpretive research approach to provide an organisation with a mechanism to represent tacit knowledge of SMEs and make it explicit to others within the organisation. Employing the principles of grounded theory the data have been collected and inspected for patterns that has been utilized to construct theory that is grounded in the data (Creswell, 2002) and create a KM taxonomy for organisational stories. We suggest that by using the KM taxonomy to cluster organisational stories according to KM content, allows for the opportunity to create or reuse knowledge across organisational boundaries in exciting new ways.Finally, Walsham (2006) suggests the following quality tests for any research article; the intended audience for this research are KM researchers and managers grappling with the problem of the loss of tacit knowledge within the corporations. The work suggests a way in which organisations can begin to arrest this loss of organisational knowledge. The paper is aimed at the KM literature in particular that relating to stories and storytelling as a means of conveying tacit knowledge within organisations, the main contribution of the research is a first attempt at constructing a KM taxonomy for organisational stories. However, it is recognized that a study of one organisation no matter how diversified presents a limitation on the generalizability of the findings. So clearly the 14 final constructs offered in this research needs to be tested in other organisations and industries. Finally, the authors hope that the use of this research will spark further debate and research into stories and storytelling and their contribution within the organisational context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to report on research investigating storytelling as a means of eliciting tacit knowledge from retiring subject matter experts (SMEs) within a large South African organisation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 64 stories were collected over a 12-month period covering a varied range of technical disciplines and were analysed using grounded theory principles combined with expert reviews.\nFindings: - Despite the diverse nature of the stories they were able to be coded and categorised into 21 knowledge management constructs which were further refined by expert review down to 14 final constructs.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main limitation of this study is the generalisability of the findings, which may be limited by the fact the study was conducted in one large South African organisation.\nPractical implications: - A common language is a key prerequisite for sharing knowledge. Every discipline within an organisation has its own language by which it communicates with insiders; this is particularly true of the ICT field. Through the common language of KM, tacit knowledge from SMEs can be elicited and classified for future access by people of all levels within the organisation.\nOriginality/value: - To the authors' knowledge this is the first attempt at classifying organisational stories using a knowledge management (KM) frame. The work presented in this paper is a step towards a KM taxonomy of organisational stories.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Places in names: an investigation of regional geographic brand congruency
|
[
"Country image",
"Brand name",
"Place image",
"Consumer brand equity",
"Product origin",
"Geographic brand congruency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Because brand names are associated with numerous characteristics and deeper meanings in the memories and imaginations of consumers (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993), one of the most important first steps in marketing involves naming one's product/service. Some noteworthy characteristics of branding include choosing the right quality symbols (Rao et al., 1999), providing suitable credibility cues and information about products (Erdem and Swait, 1998), communicating tangible assets (Simon and Sullivan, 1993) and fittingly imparting desired consumer perceptions about the product (Fournier, 1998). Beyond cues of quality, safety, nutrition, health and environmental responsibility, consumers in the marketplace are also keenly aware of (if not actively searching for) geographic brand associations (Dimara and Skuras, 2005).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Geographic equity\n3. Hypotheses: 3.1 Brand trust\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Overview\n5. General discussion: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the effects of regional geographic brand congruency (GBC) on brand trust, brand parity, perceived value, brand honesty and purchase intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research uses an experimental method in two studies to test hypotheses derived from the literature.\nFindings: This research conceptualizes GBC as the relationship between products/services and geographic regions that are authentic, credible and fitting. Results from the two studies support the hypothesis that brands with regional GBC have higher levels of consumer evaluation compared to brands with geographic incongruence or with no geographic reference at all.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research offers insight into the decision to name a brand. If one is going to associate a product with a regional geographic location, it is more effective to use a location that is fitting as it applies to that product; otherwise, it would be best to avoid a geographic association in a brand name.\nOriginality/value: The exploration of regional geographic brand congruency in relation to outcomes of brand trust, brand parity, perceived value, purchase intentions and honesty offers new insights into the nature and role of place images.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Larsen
&
Toubro strides out strategically on talent management: Big rise in performance following the introduction of 360-degree feedback
|
[
"Motivation",
"Leadership development",
"Career development",
"Talent management",
"360-degree feedback"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A system of 360-degree feedback combined with thorough-going management training is helping India's largest engineering and construction company to recruit and retain top talent.\nClearly defined succession plans: The 360-degree feedback system also helps to ensure that the best employees are in the best position for any promotion or development opportunities that may arise. Feedback lies behind a series of clearly defined succession plans that also help to ensure that workers are motivated and engaged.\nFive steps to leadership development: Leadership development at Larsen and Toubro is a five-step process:\nLeadership-development academy: The company has its own leadership-development academy at Lonavla, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Formerly known as the management-development center, the new name reflects the company's ambition to develop the establishment into a corporate university along the lines of several western corporate universities.\nTalent-management interventions: Talent management at Larsen and Toubro is considered to be closely aligned with its strategic goals. The company follows a 360-degree talent-management approach with a five-step process:\nTalent engagement: Talent engagement plays a key role at Larsen and Toubro; it involves:\nBetter understanding of existing talent: Talent-management programs at Larsen and Toubro are customized to build a pipeline of key managers. This is done through the Pace (Program for Account Management Excellence) program.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Describes how, in a highly competitive environment, Larsen\nDesign/methodology/approach: Researches the firm's various talent-management and leadership-training strategies.\nFindings: Reveals that 360-degree talent management is necessary to empower employees and to develop leadership capacities.\nPractical implications: Presents a framework for talent management and leadership development in a manufacturing business which can be recast to suit different organizational set-ups.\nSocial implications: Explains that the company recruits many of its workers from rural India. Employees are recruited for their potential as much as for their existing skills.\nOriginality/value: Describes a new dimension of talent management being practiced and its success in a manufacturing business.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumer susceptibility to credit card misuse and indebtedness
|
[
"Debt",
"Measurement scale",
"Consumer vulnerability",
"Credit card",
"Susceptibility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In today's vogue toward a cashless society, using credit cards as \"plastic\" money is now for most people the dominant payment form to replace cash money (Feinberg, 1986; Soman, 2003). Credit cards are regarded as a spending stimulus that allows greater ease of spending than cash. Hence, they elicit certain unique purchasing attitudes (Feinberg, 1986; Prelec and Simester, 2001; Soman, 2001) and are more likely to set some individuals on a path toward indebtedness and personal bankruptcy (Pirog and Roberts, 2007; Szmigin and O'Loughlin, 2010). Research in credit card psychology and behavior has shown how some consumers display greater willingness to spend and make greater value purchases on their credit cards (a phenomenon called \"credit card premium\"), have weaker recollections of past credit expenses, and overvalue their available funds when using credit cards than cash in an otherwise identical purchase situation (Chatterjee and Rose, 2012; Feinberg, 1986) - the phenomena we call as the \"credit card effect.\" It is beyond doubt that early monitoring and gauging consumers' extent of the psychological inclination to the credit card effect is crucial for preventing them from suffering the consequences. Extant literature reveals lack of research in conceptualizing and measuring credit card users' exposure to the credit card effect. To bridge this gap, we present a new psychological concept of susceptibility to credit card misuse and indebtedness (SCCMI) and its measurement scale, which provides a sound means for measuring this vulnerable psychological inclination and facilitating prevention of negative credit card usage.\nEffects of payment mechanism on consumer transaction behavior: Prior investigations concerning the psychological effects of payment mechanisms suggest that the use of a particular payment type influences their present and future spending behavior (Hirschman, 1979; Soman, 2001; Tokunaga, 1993). Indeed, payment mechanisms are imbued with cues that affect purchase evaluation. For example, lack of transparency in a payment format contribute to greater willingness to pay (Soman, 2003), while the presence of temporal separation between payment and consumption affect future purchase behavior (Gourville and Soman, 1998; Soman, 2001). While there is substantial evidence to support the negative impacts of credit card cues on purchase evaluation, little has been done to transform such knowledge into an informative tool for people to assess their likelihood to submit to the psychological effects of payment mechanism.\nCredit card effect: Extant literature shows that the psychological effects of credit card usage manifest in: first, a greater spending level when using credit cards than other payment mechanisms (known as credit card premium) (Feinberg, 1986; Prelec and Loewenstein, 1998; Prelec and Simester, 2001); second, the difficulty to recall past credit card expenses (Soman, 2001); third, the tendency to overestimate available income when deliberating a credit card purchase (Soman, 2001; Soman and Cheema, 2002), or all these jointly (Soman et al., 2011).\nSCCMI: The previous discussion of the typical manifestations of the credit card effect lends strong support to the view that consumers are often unable to objectively valuate money in light of different payment systems. Yet little is known about how some consumers become more susceptible to credit card temptations than others and how credit card bearers can strive to address their potential susceptibility to credit card effect. In addition, information on how to identify individuals who are susceptible to credit card effect is lacking. Soman (2001) showed that only 35 percent of students who had just paid by credit card could recall the exact amount they had spent, in comparison to 66 percent who paid by cash. This suggests that some of the youth population is more likely than others to experience credit card effect. Overall, this warrants further investigations of consumers who are susceptible to credit card effect and what might need to be done to help them.\nMethodology: Research context\nDiscussion and conclusion: Prior studies examining the psychological effects of payment mechanisms indicate that the cues inherent in the payment methods affect current and future spending decisions (Gourville and Soman, 1998; Soman, 2001). In particular, credit card has been shown to exhibit spending cues that elicit greater spending levels, trivialization of past credit card payments and overestimation of available income. Yet, such knowledge has not been passed to the consumers' financial education, as we witness a rise in predatory credit card targeting toward youths across countries (Burton et al., 2004; Szmigin and O'Loughlin, 2010) and policy intervention that limits the young consumers' choice and rights to financial freedom (Braunsberger et al., 2004; Pechmann et al., 2011; Wood, 2010). Critiques of the current reform designed to protect young consumers advocate that policy developments should: first, not marginalize the life quality of vulnerable consumers (Pechmann et al., 2011); and second, be accompanied by additional behavioral interventions to empower vulnerable consumers to reduce their risky credit card behavior and make optimum purchase decision with their credit cards (Burton, 2008; Soman et al., 2011). The conceptualization of SCCMI makes a unique contribution to effective protection and behavioral interventions by providing the psychological attributes that entail negative consequences of credit card abuse.\nFuture research: Further studies may analyses the generalizability of SCCMI scale across genders, age groups or across taxonomic factors such as education level. Since SCCMI may also be related in predictable ways to other consumer-related phenomena, it can be treated as an antecedent or moderator with some critical factors in certain behavioral issues in future research. Future research may investigate the effects of various cultural elements on SCCMI, which extends the cross-country applicability of this measure. For example, because of the Islamic prohibition of interest, future research may focus on the determinant effect of Islamic religiosity on the consumers' SCCMI. This will inform how culture- and religion-specific attitudes toward debt affect credit card ownership and usage behavior.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Prior research suggests that payment mechanisms are imbued with cues that affect purchase evaluation and future spending behavior. Credit cards are distinguished from other payment mechanisms as they elicit greater willingness to spend, prompt weaker recollections of past credit expenses and overvaluation of available funds - a phenomena the authors call as \"credit card effect.\" Little is known about the individuals' differential exposure to the credit card effect. The purpose of this paper is to present a new concept and measure of susceptibility to the credit card misuse and indebtedness (SCCMI).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study focussed on young credit card users (aged 18-25) from Malaysia, Singapore, and the UK as they represent varying levels of credit card issuance and consumer protection regulations. The authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis and invariance tests to assess the validity, reliability and parsimony of the proposed scale in the three countries. Further, the authors examined the prediction power of SCCMI on consumer tendency to become a revolving credit card debtor.\nFindings: Results show that the SCCMI scale is valid, reliable and parsimonious across the multi-country context. The paper provided additional validity support through known-group comparison among various payers of credit card bills.\nResearch limitations/implications: The convenience sampling used for the study is the main limitation. The findings bear important implications for more socially responsible marketing practice and better public policies in credit carder regulation for protecting young credit card users.\nPractical implications: The new concept and measurement scale can be used for identifying the vulnerable individuals in credit card use, assisting consumer knowledge training, improving policies for credit card regulation, and helping credit card providers in socially responsible marketing practice.\nSocial implications: The cross-country validity of the SCCMI scale provides a unique contribution for monitoring and auditing consumer vulnerability in credit card misuse in Asian and European market conditions.\nOriginality/value: SCCMI offers an original concept that is distinct from previous research in that SCCMI focusses solely on the state of likelihood to commit credit card abuse rather than the behavioral manifestations of credit card misuse. SCCMI provides a new tool for marketers and public policy makers for ethically responsible credit card marketing and regulation to protect youths' benefits.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consequences of corporate sustainability reporting: evidence from an emerging market
|
[
"Earnings quality",
"Firm value",
"Sustainability reporting",
"Transparency in financial reporting",
"Value-enhancing theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Corporate sustainability reporting, also known as corporate citizenship reporting, has become the central concept in the corporate disclosure field over the recent decades. It has drawn much attention around the world as a result of the recent scandals that have occurred in the corporate sector in several countries. Those notorious corporate scandals that rocked across the world appear to have persuaded the big business entities to behave henceforth in a more socially acceptable manner (Giannarakis, 2014). Quite apart from corporate scandals, there are other compelling reasons too for working towards a sustainable future. Presently, ecological degradation has become a serious challenge to human survival, calling for the progressive society to remind all individuals and organizations to behave in a more socially responsible manner.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: Greater transparency and accountability, as insisted upon by a larger set of stakeholders, have now become essential requirements for corporate success. Corporate sustainability has become an integral part of corporate life and corporate strategy (Kend, 2015) and is of paramount importance in creating a transparent environment within the business. In this context, SR is acknowledged as an important practice that contributes towards fulfilling stakeholders' diverse demands (Hahn and Kuhnen, 2013). In the same vein, Adams and Zutshi (2004) note that firms use social responsibility reporting as a channel for conveying environmental and social issues to their stakeholders. They further emphasize the importance of ethical conduct as a means of ensuring the firms' long-term survival. On the other hand, the corporate sector is being urged to behave in an environmentally and socially responsible manner as active members of society, in order to meet the profound challenges resulting from sustainable development and climate change (Murray et al., 2010). Consequently, stakeholders' awareness of socially responsible behavior has been aroused and their attitude towards social and environmental concerns has improved in recent decades (Khan, 2010; Kim et al., 2012), and in fact, is continuing to improve (Adams et al., 2014).\n3. Research methods: 3.1 The sampling\n4. Results and discussions: 4.1 Relationship between sustainability reporting and firm value\n5. Conclusion: Consequences of sustainability disclosure have been widely researched by many scholars in recent decades, yet more empirical evidences are needed to arrive at firm conclusions. More specifically, examination of more than a single economic consequence in any of these studies is rare, suggesting that the topic is still under-researched; it was this dearth of findings that provided the motivation for this study. Based on the value-creating theory and transparent financial reporting perspectives, this study examined the influence of SR on market value and earnings quality. Taking Tobin's Q as the proxy for the firm value, it found that SR was positively and significantly associated with the firm market value. This finding implies that SR is an effective value enhancing strategy, suggesting that being sustainable causes firms to increase their market value. This leads to the conclusion that a firm that engages in sustainable activities is more likely to be rewarded by investors who will put a higher valuation on it in the capital markets. The result proves itself as robust from the use of several control variables. The investors are willing to pay a premium in the financial markets for the firms that perform in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, compared to firms that disregard these issues. Taken together as a whole, the result is consistent with the value-creating hypothesis of sustainable development strategies, as opposed to the shareholder expense theory.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discover whether corporate sustainability disclosure has a potential impact on the market value and earnings quality of firms in an emerging market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 220 companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in Sri Lanka during the period 2012-2016. Firm value proxies by Tobin's Q, while earnings quality proxies by discretionary accruals (DAC). The study is premised on value-enhancing theory for firm value and transparent financial reporting perspective for earnings quality. Regression analyses are executed on the panel data to achieve the study objectives.\nFindings: The results reveal a positive relationship between sustainability reporting (SR) and firm market value, accepting the value-enhancing theory while rejecting the value-destroying theory. This finding suggests that investors pay a premium in the financial markets for firms that perform in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, compared to firms that do not perform in a similar manner. In the same vein, the results reveal that sustainability disclosure and DAC are negatively and significantly associated, resulting in high-quality earnings. The result is consistent with the transparent financial reporting hypothesis, which is also in line with the managers' integrity motivation.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study investigating the consequences of SR that is specific to the Sri Lankan context. Owing to the sparse studies on consequences of SR, this study contributes significantly to the extant literature by broadening the geographical coverage to include a developing country setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Development of the 3D dome model based on a terrestrial laser scanner
|
[
"Modelling",
"Accuracy",
"3D",
"Scanner",
"Terrestrial"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Modelling techniques used for obtaining the 3D models can be divided into two main categories, namely terrestrial imagery and aerial imagery. Under terrestrial category, there are three more sub-techniques known as geometric modelling, photogrammetric method, and laser scanning (da Silva et al., 2014). Geometric modelling is the classical approach where the surveyor uses conventional surveying techniques to acquire terrain details, digital cameras to get colour information and basic 3D modelling software. This is different from the photogrammetric method where 3D object coordinates are calculated by bundle adjustment with simultaneous camera calibration, and it includes additional geodetic measurements (Abellan et al., 2010; Cuartero et al., 2010; Staiger, 2003). During its introduction, terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) has been widely used for the scanning of pipelines at the oil platforms. Currently, TLS has been implemented for the following applications such as as-built measurement of structure, heritage building conservation, slope measurements, road-accident mapping, forensic mapping, environmental studies and much more (Frohlich and Mettenleiter, 2004; da Silva et al., 2014). The 3D TLS is a good ground base technique that captures the position and dimension of objects in a 3D format. It collects data in point cloud from millions of laser pulses or distance measurements using a stationed laser scanner and a digital single lens reflex camera. The output in 3D point cloud is stitched by target coordinates. The accuracy of the merging process is enhanced by increasing the number of the target. The data are then transferred to a high-resolution computer and converted into 3D models. The high quantity and precision of the measured points generate a more realistic 3D illustration of objects (Al-Kheder et al., 2008; Jorda et al., 2011; Cosarca et al., 2010).\nMaterial and methods: The research methodology consists of four phases, namely Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. The first phase is about the preliminary study, while the second phase is about the data collection which discusses on how the data were collected and gathered. The third phase is about the data processing using Cyclone software. The last phase focuses on the result and data analysis. This study is about the full procedure in handling the construction of 3D models and 2D plan of Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah (SAAS) Mosque main dome using TLS project in collaboration with the Geodata Systems Company. The equipment used for the 3D TLS at the SAAS Mosque includes laser scanner that features extremely fast scan rates up to 50,000 points per second. The importance of this study is to investigate the defects of the mosque's main dome, since it was built in March 1988. From the data gathered, the 3D model will be built, and each shape and characteristic of the dome surface can be determined. The scanning was done outside the mosque and at the four minarets.\nResults and analysis: The results are obtained using the Cyclone software. In the analysis part, the result will focus on the comparison between the high- and low-scanning outputs. The analysis is based on the mathematical model using the RMSE analysis method. The last part is the result of 3D dome modelling after being completely processed.\nConclusions and future work: After following all the procedures during the data processing, the 3D model is successfully built using the Cyclone software. Cyclone is a very user-friendly software that almost eases the processing flow and leads to the best outcome result. There are many ways to develop the 3D model and based on this study, the less complex ways also produce the best result. In the future, laser scanning will be the main component in the surveying systems. In the final consideration, based on the excellent laser scanning performances, the high-definition survey will shorten the time taken to finish a large-scale project, reduce the labour cost and increase the efficiency of surveying works.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Laser scanning technique is used to measure and model objects using point cloud data generated laser pulses. Conventional techniques to construct 3D models are time consuming, costly and need more manpower. The purpose of this paper is to assess the 3D model of the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque's main dome using a terrestrial laser scanner.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A laser scanner works through line of sight, which indicates that multiple scans need to be taken from a different view to ensure a complete data set. Targets must spread in all directions, and targets should be placed on fixed structures and flat surfaces for the normal scan and fine scan. After the scanning operation, point cloud data from the laser scanner were cleaned and registered before a 3D model could be developed.\nFindings: As a result, the reconstruction of the 3D model was successfully developed. The samples are based on the triangle dimension, curve line, horizontal dimension and vertical dimension at the dome. The standard deviation and accuracy are calculated based on the comparison of the 21 samples taken between the high-resolution and low-resolution scanning data.\nOriginality/value: There are many ways to develop the 3D model and based on this study, the less complex ways also produce the best result. The authors implement the different types of dimensions for the 3D model assessment, which have not yet been considered in the past.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Project manager-project (PM-P) fit and project success
|
[
"Managers",
"Personality",
"Project management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The notion of fit, or congruence, between individuals' characteristics and the characteristics of the situation has long been an important part of the explanation for the differences between people in terms of job performance and job satisfaction (Parson, 1909; Caldwell & O'Reilly, 1990). According to the interactional perspective, aspects of both individual and situation combine to influence individuals' responses to a given situation. Hence, in order to understand and predict behavior, both person and situation must be considered (Chatman, 1989).Person-environment (P-E) fit has been described as \"so pervasive as to be one of, if not the, dominant conceptual forces in the field\" (Schneider, 2001, p. 142). Despite, or perhaps because of, the simplicity of the definition of P-E fit, several types of fit have been the focus of research attention including: P-culture fit (O'Reilly et al., 1991), P-vocation fit, P-group fit, P-supervisor fit, P-job fit and P-organization fit (Kristof, et al., 2005). Most research attention has focused on person-job (P-J) fit and person-organization (P-O) fit (Sekiguchi, 2004).P-O fit refers to the compatibility between a person and an organization based on their shared or similar characteristics (Kristof, 1996). According to P-O fit theory (Caplan, 1987; Kristof, 1996), such fit occurs when there is a match between the characteristics/requirements of an organization and the characteristics/expectations of the person working in that organization. Individuals tend to prefer organizations that have the same \"personalities\", norms and values as they do (Cable & Judge, 1994; Chatman, 1989; Judge & Bretz, 1992). Organizations enhance P-O fit by selection and socialization (Chatman, 1989). Research suggests that the closer the match between individuals' and organizational attitudes, values, skills and personality, the greater the individuals' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, the better their performance and the lower their turnover rates (O'Reilly , Chatman & Caldwell, 1991).The current study extended P-O fit theory to the fit between project managers' (PMs) and the projects they manage, based on the premise that projects are temporary organizations, or organizations within an organization.The choice to be a PM for a certain project is a two stage process: First, PMs choose and are chosen by the organization, based on the fit between their traits, values and preferences and the organization's culture and needs (Edwards et al., 1998); Second comes the choice of work on a particular project. Since projects are temporary, choosing an organization is a long-term decision, while the choice of a PM for a project may occur every few years or even months.The current study focused on the relationship between P-O fit and project success. Project management literature has dealt extensively with factors affecting project success (Might & Fischer, 1985; Pinto & Slevin, 1988; Tishler, et al., 1996; Cooke-Davies, 2002; Jugdev & Muller, 2005). Studies have shown that different types of projects should be managed differently to assure their success (Shenhar & Dvir, 1996; Tishler et al., 1996; Balachandra & Friar, 1997; Dvir, et al., 1998; Shenhar, 2001). Within this context, the psychological qualifications of managers and the effects of their psychological profiles (Kets de Vries, 1991; Zaleznik, 1991) seem very relevant. Nevertheless, until the current series of studies, the fit between PMs' personality and the type of projects they manage has never received research attention.This study is one of a series of interdisciplinary studies on managers (Pines, et al., 2002; Pines, Ozbilgin, & Burke, 2008) and on PM-P fit (Dvir, et al., 2006; Sadeh, et al., 2007). While previous studies on PM-P fit examined it from a project management perspective, the current study approached it from a psychological perspective that focuses on the PM.Project classification\nThe current study: Hypotheses\nMethod: Project managers: In total, 289 Israeli PMs who managed projects performed in Israel during the years 2002-2007.Projects: The projects ranged in budget from several hundred thousands dollars to over a billion dollars and were performed in various industries including construction, agriculture, defense, commercial high-tech, software, and chemistry. Some of the projects were R&D, while others were implementation projects including the construction of a large-scale airport terminal.Procedure: The projects were chosen randomly by students who were collecting data for their final project in college, using strata sampling. The strata were selected based on types of organizations as proposed by Ibbs and Kwak (2000). The strata were selected based on types of organizations as proposed by Ibbs and Kwak (2000). The most common types of projects in Israel were selected based on the list of Israeli industries published by the Manufacturers Association of Israel. Given the sampling method and the random choice of projects within each stratum, it was assumed that the projects chosen represent the population of projects in Israel.Instrument: A self report questionnaire that was developed in the pilot study (Dvir et al., 2006) was used. It is included in the Appendix, and incorporated three sections:1. Project classification.2. PM's personality traits.3. Project success.Project classification\nResults: After reviewing the descriptive statistics (Table II), the first stage of data analysis involved correlation matrices between the personality traits of PMs, project profiles and project success indicators.Several correlations were found both between certain personality traits and certain project types, and between certain personality traits and project success.Correlations between PMs' personality traits and their project types\nDiscussion: The current study is part of a series of interdisciplinary studies that bring together three areas of research: Project classification, PMs' personality and project success. Much research attention has been paid to each of these areas, but very little research has addressed the relationships among them. While two studies in the series (Dvir et al., 2006; Sadeh et al., 2007) examined the topic from the perspective of the project, the current study, the first full scale study, examined it from a psychological perspective that focuses on the personality of the PM.Extending P-O Fit theory to the case of PMs and their projects, it was hypothesized that PMs will be more successful managing projects that fit their personality and that this will be manifested in the relationships between the PMs' personality and their projects' profiles and between the PMs-P fit and project success. It was further hypothesized that projects managed by PMs whose personalities match their projects' profiles will be more successful than projects managed by PMs whose personalities do not match their projects. Findings supported, at least in part, all these hypotheses.In all cases, PMs whose personality profiles were close to the ideal PM were more successful (both in terms of Impact on the customer, in terms of benefit to the organization and in terms of overall, success) than PMs with personality profiles far from the ideal.It is important to note that the personality traits chosen as characterizing the ideal PMs were aimed at high levels of Novelty and Technology, and consequently they focused on such traits as openness to experiences, risk taking, and being an inventor, investigative and enterprising. Not surprisingly, the strongest findings emerged in the high-tech projects that are also characterized by high Novelty and Complexity. The differences between the PMs were found to be correlated mainly with Impact on the customers and benefit to the developing organization. Some of the correlations were even higher when combining the Impact on customer and Benefit to the organization in the overall, success measure (which reflects mainly the customer's point of view).In smaller, simpler and less innovative projects, these personality traits had a smaller effect. This is probably why the differences in success levels were not significant, although even in these groups, PMs who possessed traits characterizing the ideal PM achieved higher levels of success.Examining the Impact on the customers of projects managed by PMs who resemble the ideal PM as compared to projects managed by PMs far from ideal, it appears that for four out of five project types, the differences were significant (Table V-b). Furthermore, all projects managed by PMs with more than three desired traits, achieved higher success levels in all project types.Examining the benefit to the organization of projects managed by PMs close to the ideal, as compared to PMs far from it, it appears that only for one project type (PAL), the difference was significant (Table V-c). For two project types (PSL, PSH), the difference was almost significant (p = 0.09 and 0.10, respectively). The benefit to the developing organization in the DAL projects was even slightly higher in the Low than in the high group. As noted earlier, DAL and DSL projects are simple and un-innovative and the measures used in the study did not focus on them. One major difference between these two types and the other three project types is that the latter are all Platform projects that produce more innovative products. It is conceivable that such projects have higher impact on the organization, as can also be deduced from the higher impact when moving from the simplest (DAL) to the most innovative and complex (PSH) projects. Thus, PMs who are more suitable to manage Platform projects, tend to contribute more to the organization.When examining the overall, success of projects managed by PMs with ideal traits, as compared to PMs far from the ideal, the picture is very similar (Table V-d). Projects managed by PMs closer to the ideal were more successful. Here, again, there was no significant difference in DAL projects due to their simplicity and small scale, as well as the inappropriateness of the personality measures used in the study. A previous study (Lipovetskey et al., 1997) indicated that the dominant measure contributing to overall success is the impact on the customer, which explains the similarity in the results in Tables V-b and V-d.Projects managed by PMs farther from the ideal met planning goals better than PMs closer to the ideal. This can also be explained by the observation that the ideal PM in the current study is characterized by traits relevant to more complex and innovative projects, where responsiveness to customers is of the utmost importance. This type of PM is likely to take more risks, make more changes in product specifications and in project plans, and try new ideas during the project course to satisfy his customers, and as a result is more likely to harm the project's efficiency. In simpler, less innovative projects, such changes are usually not required and therefore PMs farther from the ideal are more likely to be more efficient than the more \"open-minded\" PMs.PMs who have managerial and entrepreneurial traits tend to choose more complex and innovative projects (PSH type projects). The trait that contributes positively to the management of almost all types of projects is an entrepreneurial personality. The only project type that being entrepreneurial does not help is the DAL type, the small, simple and routine type of project in which a PM being too entrepreneurial may even hurt performance.In summary, the hypothesis that projects managed by PMs whose personality matched their projects' type will be more successful than projects managed by PMs whose personality didn't match their projects' especially with regard to Impact on the customers and benefit to the organization, was fully supported. The data also indicate that PMs tend to prefer to manage projects that fit their personality. An alternative explanation is that top management tends to assigns PMs to projects that they think will suit their personality.The study had several advantages. One was its interdisciplinary perspective, the other the robust sample used (289 projects), which enabled the comparison of five project types and rigorous hypotheses testing. It was possible to place all projects in the study on three orthogonal dimensions (Novelty, Complexity and Technological uncertainty) and each project type differed from the other types along at least one dimension.Nevertheless, the study had a number of limitations that need to be addressed in future research. One is the classification method used, which analyses projects at their starting point. Projects may change during project life-cycle when the uncertainty gap is closed, the design is frozen and the project plan becomes more clear and certain. Lewis, et al. (2002) have shown how success is enhanced when PMs switch between planned and emergent PM styles depending upon the situation at a particular point in a project. Initially, emergent approaches may help teams work through the more creative phase of a project, whereas planned activities provide a sense of direction and order. Later in the process, more subtle managerial activities may serve a supportive role, helping teams cope with varying levels of uncertainty and pushing projects toward completion. Future research should take into account the changes in project characteristics during project execution and study the possibilities of adopting a more dynamic PM style, or even replacing the PM with one better fitting the project's needs after requirement and design freeze.Another limitation involves the personality measures used in the study. As noted several times throughout the paper, the measures chosen focused on high levels of Novelty, Technology, and Complexity, rather than the low levels of these dimensions. The results of the current study demonstrate the appropriateness of a number of these personality dimensions and the inappropriateness of others for other types of projects.Yet another, more obvious, limitation involves the use of a self-report measure and a cross-sectional design with all the problems inherent in this methodology and research design.Despite these limitations, the findings have important theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical standpoint, the study introduces a new concept to project management literature: PM-P fit, it provides support for P-O fit theory, adds to our understanding of how different PMs' personality traits impact project success and demonstrates the value of collaboration between project management and personality psychology scholarsFrom a practical standpoint, the study provides evidence for how project classification can be utilized to enhance project performance by assisting organizations in selecting, whenever possible, the best PM for a particular project. The findings of the study can be translated into guidelines for managers on how to strive for the best possible fit between PMs and the projects assigned to them and thus assure greater project success. Given the finite resources available to organizations, such guidelines can help management maximize the potential of success with the available resources.Future studies should add other methodologies (e.g. interviews, case analyses, long-term observations) to enable in-depth investigation of the trends revealed in this study. In addition, in future studies, the personality measures that did not prove useful in the current study should be eliminated and additional measures tested. Future studies should also apply the findings of the current study to other types of projects in other cultural, industrial and organizational settings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of a fit between project managers' (PMs) personalities and the \"personalities\" of their projects, for project success; taking a psychological rather than a project management perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In total, 289 Israeli PMs responded to a specially designed questionnaire that classified projects along three dimensions: Novelty, Complexity and Technological Uncertainty, analyses PM's personality traits that were identified as relevant to these dimensions and assessed the projects' success. It was hypothesized that the greater the PM-P fit, the greater the projects' success.\nFindings: - Results supported the hypothesis: PMs whose personality profile was close to the ideal PM profile for a particular project type were more successful in impact on the customers, benefit to the organization and overall success.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A cross-sectional design and a self report measure.\nPractical implications: - The findings can be translated into recommendations for improving the fit between PMs and the projects assigned to them to increase project success.\nOriginality/value: - The study extends Person-Organization (P-O) fit theory to the case of projects, viewing projects as temporary organizations. It also introduces to project management the psychological perspective on PM-P fit and demonstrates its relevance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Predicting Users' willingness to diffuse healthcare knowledge in social media: A communicative ecology perspective?
|
[
"Knowledge transfer",
"Social media",
"Trust",
"Mobile communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Healthcare knowledge communication is becoming popular and has been proven to be important for public health promotion such as preventing chronic disease. For example, according to Fox (2014), 41 percent of HIV patients report a reduction in risky behaviors thanks to online support and education by PatientsLikeMe, a health data-sharing platform. Moreover, healthcare knowledge plays an important role in improving the public's health literacy and ultimately their health and wellness (e.g. through esteem improvement, opinion verification and personal goal obtainment), especially in early intervention and adjuvant therapy (Park et al., 2013). However, the influence of healthcare knowledge cannot be realized unless it is diffused from experts to the population at large. Previous research has proven that the wide diffusion of healthcare knowledge is an effective way to influence and change people's health attitude and behaviors (Park et al., 2013; So et al., 2016).\n2. Research background: 2.1 Healthcare knowledge diffusion via social media\n3. Research model and hypotheses: By drawing on the CET framework, we propose a research model (as shown in Figure 1) based on the three layers of communicative ecology in healthcare knowledge diffusion via WeChat. The hypotheses are presented and justified below.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Sample and data collection\n5. Results: This study used the partial least squares (PLS) technique to estimate the reliability and validity of the measurement model and examine the proposed hypotheses in the structural model. Specifically, SmartPLS 2.0 was used for data analysis because of its capability to deal with research models that include both single and multi-item constructs as well as both formative and reflective measures.\n6. Discussion: This study aimed to develop a theoretical model to explain individuals' healthcare knowledge diffusion in WeChat. By extending CET to the WeChat context and healthcare communications, we identified the discursive, social and technological factors that explain WeChat users' likelihood to diffuse healthcare knowledge. With all the hypotheses supported, our study reveals several interesting findings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate why users are willing to diffuse healthcare knowledge in social media by drawing on the communicative ecology theory (CET) and prior research on interpersonal communication.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper conducts a large-scale scenario-based online survey in WeChat (the most popular social media platform in China) to test the proposed research model and hypotheses. The final data set consists of 1,039 useful responses from WeChat users.\nFindings: The results indicate that interestingness, emotionality and institution-based trust are the strongest antecedents in predicting healthcare knowledge-diffusing likelihood, followed by usefulness, source credibility and positivity. Further, the relationship between institution-based trust and healthcare knowledge-diffusing likelihood is partially mediated by source credibility.\nPractical implications: Healthcare practitioners who seek to motivate individuals to disseminate healthcare knowledge need to phrase or frame healthcare knowledge in a way that draws greater interest, evokes stronger emotion, increases perceived usefulness or reflects positively on themselves. Healthcare organizations should also pay attention to strengthening users' trust in the platform and source-related information that can indicate source authority.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first to investigate the dissemination of healthcare knowledge in the context of social media (WeChat in particular). Compared with other types of information, healthcare knowledge is more scientific and professional to the extent that most laypersons do not have relevant expertise to directly evaluate whether the content is credible and of high quality. Rather, their sharing likelihood is dependent more on other factors than perceived information quality and credibility; those factors include platform-related factors that may play an important role but has been overlooked in prior literature on interpersonal communication. By combining CET with interpersonal communication-related research and including institution-based trust as an important determinant of healthcare knowledge dissemination, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of healthcare knowledge diffusion process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What is happening just below the CEO?
|
[
"Culture",
"Leadership",
"Executives",
"Australian executives",
"Social desirability",
"OCP"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Executive research has largely focussed on the chief executive officer (CEO) ignoring the significant leadership role played by executives just below them. The current study aims to focus on these just below CEOs executives, in order to build a further understanding of their use of leadership behaviors, in two ways, how their need to be socially accepted by others moderates their perceived use of leadership behaviors; and by investigating what aspects of culture are influencing their perceived use of leadership behaviors. This study positions the organizational level, cultural, and social contexts, in which these executives lead, as the primary source of investigation and information, and seeks to understand what is influencing the choice of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors by these executives. While a few studies have investigated the impact culture has on transformational leadership (Byrne and Bradley, 2007), research on how culture influences leadership at the second most senior organizational level is even sparser. This study seeks to address and overcome the unexpectedly little amount of empirical research that determines or predicts leadership behaviors observed by Lim and Ployhart (2004).\nLiterature review: The CEO is not the only executive operating at the pinnacle of their organization, who plays a key leadership role. Such executives differ from CEOs by being more directly involved with the integration of various business units and the forming of strategies and policies. Our understanding of these executives is limited. Research into what happens at different organizational levels has largely been overshadowed by the motivation to understand what occurs when we take organizational hierarchical roles and responsibilities of executives out of the performance equation (e.g. shared leadership, teamwork, and a flatter organizational structure). However, these executives have survived their non-inclusion in performance and organizational studies and now constitute a \"forgotten\" and unrepresented group of key individuals within organizations. Even though impression management has been shown to be important during organizational decline (Chng et al., 2015), leader member exchanges (Weng and Chang, 2015), the creation of reciprocity among corporate leaders (Westphal et al., 2012), and the strengthening of the association between prosocial motives and affiliative citizenship (Grant and Mayer, 2009). Why is this study important? According to Flinkelstein et al. (2009), how executives recognize and shape their image is one of the most promising and interesting areas of research that has previously been dominated by content analysis research methods (e.g. Abrahamson and Park, 1994).\nMethod: Participants\nConstruct validity: The current study investigated the constructed validity of the OCP, and identified a robust four OCP structure (kh2=324.10, df=147, GFI=0.94, CFI=0.95, TLI=0.93, RMSEA=0.05, kh2/df=2.21). The validity of this factor structure was further tested by randomly splitting the sample, which produced adequate fit indices (Sample A=kh2=267.99, df=147, GFI=0.91, CFI=0.93, TLI=0.91, RMSEA=0.06, kh2/df=1.82, n=242; Sample B=kh2=232.73, df=147, GFI=0.92, CFI=0.95, TLI=0.94, RMSEA=0.06, kh2/df=1.58, n=259). A series of confirmatory factor analyses supported the construct validity of the social desirability scales' two factors, i.e., impression management and self-deception (kh2=33.90, df=18, p=0.01, GFI=0.98, CFI=0.90, TLI=0.84, RMSEA=0.07, kh2/df=1.88). The validity of this factor structure was further tested by randomly splitting the sample which produced adequate fit indices (Sample A: kh2=30.15, df=18, p=0.04, GFI=0.97, CFI=0.79, TLI=0.89, RMSEA=0.05, kh2/df=1.68, n=247; Sample B: kh2=30.53, df=18, p=0.03; GFI=0.97, CFI=0.89, TLI=0.83, RMSEA=0.05, kh2/df=1.68, n=254).\nResults: Table I presents the means, standard deviations, and correlations. This table demonstrates that executives perceived that they used a higher level of transformational leadership behaviors than transactional leadership behaviors. This finding appears to confirm the role theory idea (Katz and Kahn, 1978) that executives should be more focussed on the transformational leadership behaviors (i.e. articulates vision) and less on reward and punishment (i.e. transactional leadership behaviors). An examination of the correlations between factors identified no evidence of multicollinearity, which suggests that undertaking multi-regression was appropriate (Tabachnick and Fidell, 1996).\nDiscussion: The current study examined the impact of how the context, in terms of social desirability and culture, influenced the use of leadership behaviors by executives at just below the CEOs. The current study identified the need of executives to self-deceive themselves about their use of a range of leadership behaviors, with the exception of high performance expectations. This finding demonstrates the influence of context, in terms of the social dynamics of organizations and the need to believe that your behavior are socially accepted by others, no matter which ever level you inhabit. Executives' provision of individual support was uniquely influenced by only three characteristics of executives (i.e. gender, age, and education), all other leadership behaviors were not influenced by these personal demographics.\nImplications for research and practice: While senior executive research is dominated by North American samples (Hambrick, 2007), this study offers a uniquely different context in which the relationships among social desirability, culture, and leadership constructs has been investigated. Therefore, while the findings obviously require further investigation in different countries, the study does add to the literature by investigating the construct validity of factors and inter-relationships outside a North American context. Several concerns about the MCSDS need to be mentioned. It is a non-conventional instrument that unlike others, indirectly measures it's constructs, i.e., self-deception and impression management (Paulhus and Vazire, 2007) and has not previously been used to investigate culture or leadership. Social desirability is not culturally neutral (Crowne and Marlowe, 1960; Dunn and Shome, 2009) and the study assumes that all constructs are equally influenced by national culture.\nLimitation and future research: While this study provides new insight into how executive leadership is influenced by social desirability and cultural dimensions at the pinnacle of Australian organizations, it is not without limitations. For example, the use of an Australian sample does raise concerns about whether the findings are generalizable to other countries. The cross-sectional design obviously inhibits the generalization of the findings of this study; however, this study does provide new insights into a very important but neglected organizational level, and places context at the center of investigation. The self-assessment design of the research limits the investigation into the perceptions of executives. Future research could incorporate 360 degrees, longitudinal and cross-cultural design elements but the major hurdles of confidentiality and accessing a large number of executives with their superiors, peers, and subordinates, would need to be overcome.\nConclusion: The current study adds to the limited literature on executives at senior level by investigating how the cultural and social need contexts they experience influence their own perceived use of leadership behaviors. The study identifies that the executives who run departments, work in a context that requires them to deceive themselves about their use of leadership behaviors, but does not really require them to engage in impression management about their use of leadership behaviors to others. The current study confirms the impact that culture has on executives' leadership behaviors, however, this influence was not consistent across the range of behaviors examined. An unexpected finding was the negative effect that emphasis on rewards had on several transformational leadership behaviors, which suggests that this type of cultural influence can act like a substitute for leadership among executives at this organizational level. The study also identified how executives might use a combination of behaviors to respond to issues influenced by innovative aspects of culture; furthermore, the cultural dimension of performance orientation was linked to executive role modeling behavior. Finally, several leadership behaviors were not influenced by any cultural dimension. The current study provides new insights into the impact of cultural and social needs on executives' leadership and should be the first among many to advance our understanding of this under represented body of knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The executives, just below the chief executive officers represent an important but rarely investigated senior executives. The purpose of this paper is to investigate their need for social acceptance and the impact of culture on the perceived use of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional, multi-instrument design was used to investigate 439 Australian executives at the apex of their organization.\nFindings: The results suggest that these executives identified a prominent need to self-deceive themselves when assessing their perceived use of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors. In addition, the cultural dimensions, such as supportiveness and performance orientation, were identified as influencing specific leadership behaviors, in order to produce competitive advantages. However, the cultural dimension of emphasis on rewards uniquely decreased the perceived use of several leadership behaviors (i.e. articulates vision, fosters the acceptance of group goals, and provides an appropriate role model).\nResearch limitations/implications: The study provides further evidence of how the social context impacts on leadership behaviors and thinking\nPractical implications: The development of executive requires insights into how their personal need for social acceptance and culture alter their use of leadership.\nOriginality/value: Social desirability and specific culture dimensions do not uniformly influence the perceived use of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Illusio and overwork: playing the game in the accounting field
|
[
"Habitus",
"Compliance",
"Accounting firms",
"Illusio",
"Overwork",
"Pierre Bourdieu"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: I really became a robot. I thought it was normal. It shocked me when everyone around me, my husband, my parents, and friends asked me, \"Are you crazy?\" I replied, \"No, it's normal.\" It's like brainwashing. You are in a kind of mental system where you are under increasing demands, and you say to yourself that it doesn't matter, that you will rest afterwards, but that moment never comes (Yvonne, ex-Big Four).\n2. Overwork and autonomy in accounting firms: The phenomenon of overwork in the accountancy sector needs to be understood in the context of studies of domination and subjugation and professional's persistent belief in their autonomy. This section, therefore, briefly reviews each of these concepts in turn.\n3. Illusio and the accountancy field: Malsch et al. (2011) call for a more comprehensive use of Bourdieusian theory in accounting research. To date, accounting scholars have focused on Bourdieusian concepts such as field, capital, and habitus. By contrast, we seek to highlight a less familiar yet core Bourdieusian concept, illusio. Illusio describes the phenomenon whereby individuals are invested in and \"taken in and by the game\" (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, p. 116). Here is not the place for detailed explication of Bourdieusian theory - for a comprehensive and systematic application of Bourdieusian concepts to the field of accounting firms see Carter and Spence (2014). We begin, however, with a simple summary of some foundational Bourdieusian concepts.\n4. Research context: playing the game in the accounting field: Bourdieu's notion of the field allows us to conceptualize accounting as part of the economic field but one that is still separate and governed by its own rules. As a field, accounting functions very much like a \"game\", from a Bourdieusian perspective. Winning the game involves the accumulation of capital, primarily economic, cultural, social, and symbolic. Accounting firms, and especially the Big Four, seek to convert all forms of capital into economic capital, through billable hours and profit-sharing between partners (Carter and Spence, 2014). As demonstrated below, capital is unequally distributed among the accounting firms in the field, and among the graduate recruits seeking to enter the field.\n5. Research methods: The empirical material reported on in this study is drawn from a wider research project exploring identity construction and work-life balance among professional accountants in France. This broader study spanned a wide range of firms of different sizes. It engaged over 80 accountants in formal semi-structured interviews and focus groups and included numerous site visits. The issue of overwork was not a main focus of this broader research project, but emerged as a leitmotif in the lives of professionals. As such, the data reported in this paper represents the results of an exploratory investigation into the emerging theme of overwork.\n6. Experience of overwork among professionals: This section addresses the question of how experienced male and female accounting professionals experience overwork before examining the explanations for overwork and the phenomenon of illusio in more detail in the following section. We highlight two core themes that have emerged from our analysis: feeling helpless and trapped, and the experience of bodily subjugation. Previous research conducted on junior accountants has shown how the periodicity of accounting work (the alternating cycles of intense work and slacker periods) makes it easier for them to adjust to overwork (Lupu, 2012). Our study of more experienced accountants shows that, once they have accepted the phenomenon of overwork, i.e. been taught how to play the game, the alternating cycles of overwork and slack work become replaced by sustained overwork:\n7. Explanation for overwork among professionals: In seeking to explain overwork we examine the autonomy paradox and identify factors likely to contribute to an individual's predisposition to engage in illusio.\n8. Discussion and conclusions: Our study has asked: how and why do experienced professionals, who perceive themselves as autonomous, comply with organizational pressures to overwork? We have found that, long after they have achieved relatively high status within their firms (and the considerable economic rewards that go with it) and in spite of their levels of experience, success, and seniority, professionals describe themselves as feeling helpless and trapped, and experience bodily subjugation. But why do people who apparently have choice about their working conditions, allow themselves to become \"robotized\", \"audit machines\", and \"cyborgs\"? Our explanation of the overwork practice in accounting firms has been grounded in Bourdieu's concept of illusio.\nAcknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the three editors of this special issue and the six anonymous reviewers whose challenging comments pushed to refine the ideas. A special thanks goes to the Cass Business School\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand: how and why do experienced professionals, who perceive themselves as autonomous, comply with organizational pressures to overwork? Unlike previous studies of professionals and overwork, the authors focus on experienced professionals who have achieved relatively high status within their firms and the considerable economic rewards that go with it. Drawing on the little used Bourdieusian concept of illusio, which describes the phenomenon whereby individuals are \"taken in and by the game\" (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992), the authors help to explain the \"autonomy paradox\" in professional service firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research is based on 36 semi-structured interviews primarily with experienced male and female accounting professionals in France.\nFindings: The authors find that, in spite of their levels of experience, success, and seniority, these professionals describe themselves as feeling helpless and trapped, and experience bodily subjugation. The authors explain this in terms of individuals enhancing their social status, adopting the breadwinner role, and obtaining and retaining recognition. The authors suggest that this combination of factors cause professionals to be attracted to and captivated by the rewards that success within the accounting profession can confer.\nOriginality/value: As well as providing fresh insights into the autonomy paradox the authors seek to make four contributions to Bourdieusian scholarship in the professional field. First, the authors highlight the strong bodily component of overwork. Second, the authors raise questions about previous work on cynical distancing in this context. Third, the authors emphasize the significance of the pursuit of symbolic as well as economic capital. Finally, the authors argue that, while actors' habitus may be in a state of \"permanent mutation\", that mutability is in itself a sign that individuals are subject to illusio.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Food professionals' opinions of the Food Studies curriculum in Australia
|
[
"Australia",
"Food literacy",
"Secondary school",
"Food Studies curriculum",
"Food system professionals"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Promotion of the public's interest in food and the food system (i.e. food production, food processing, food distribution and marketing, food consumption, and waste management) is timely (Colatruglio and Slater, 2014; Gallegos and Vidgen, 2010). Recently the concept of \"food literacy\" has emerged in an attempt to re-define interactions people have with the food system (Colatruglio and Slater, 2014; Gallegos and Vidgen, 2010). In the literature, food literacy has long been considered as a component of health literacy. Recently Vidgen and Gallegos (2014) have defined food literacy as \"the scaffolding that empowers individuals, households, communities or nations to protect diet quality through change and strengthen dietary resilience over time. It is composed of a collection of inter-related knowledge, skills and behaviours required to plan, manage, select, prepare and eat food to meet needs and determine intake\". However, some others have acknowledged that the broader aspects such as the environmental, social, cultural, economic, historical, employment aspects of food system should be included in the food literacy and they argue that health is only one among these aspects. For an example, Cullen et al. (2015) suggest, \"Food literacy is the ability of an individual to understand food in a way that they develop a positive relationship with it, including food skills and practices across the lifespan in order to navigate, engage, and participate within a complex food system. It's the ability to make decisions to support the achievement of personal health and a sustainable food system considering environmental, social, economic, cultural, and political components\". In accordance with this broad approach, the concept of food literacy includes: the food system from production to waste, the effect of food on health and well-being; the wider context of the food system including social, economic, cultural, environmental, and political factors; and the skills and behaviours required to plan, manage, select, prepare, and eat food (Bellotti, 2010; Cullen et al., 2015; Fordyce-Voorham, 2015).\nMethods: Design\nResults: The themes and the accompanying subthemes are described below.\nDiscussion: There has been little research about food system professionals' opinions of senior secondary school food literacy education in Australia or elsewhere. Moreover, this type of extensive consultation had not been conducted on the new \"Food Studies\" curriculum. Unlike other studies which have investigated the opinions of experts from a fairly narrow range (e.g. experts from the education sector), we recruited professionals from a much wider range of food- and nutrition-related areas, which allowed us to explore wider perspectives. This inclusion of informants from a broad range of backgrounds across the food system makes our study unique and consequently difficult to compare with the literature.\nStudy limitations: We recruited professionals for our study based on their sector, position, and experience in the food system. However, we did not consider their expertise in education. Therefore, they differed sometimes in their levels of understanding and interpretation of the new curriculum. Moreover, each professional is an expert in a particular field and may not be able to comment on all the areas of the new curriculum. They can still, however, provide valuable insights into food-related senior secondary school curriculum. As employers or tertiary educators in the food sector, they are aware of food-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes school leavers should possess. The present study did not include secondary school food teachers, as we will be exploring their opinions of the new curriculum in a separate study.\nConclusions and implications: The new curriculum was appreciated for its comprehensiveness and the food system approach taken, but some suggestions for improvement were made. These included placing less emphasis on the history of food, and giving more emphasis to primary food production, health and nutrition awareness, food equity, environmental sustainability, and practical activities related to each of these areas.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food system professionals' opinions of a new senior secondary school food literacy curriculum named Victorian Certificate of Education Food Studies in Victoria, Australia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A purposive sample of 34 food system professionals from different sub-sectors within the Australian food system was interviewed individually in late 2015 and early 2016. Interviews were analysed using the template analysis technique.\nFindings: Most participants appreciated the extensive coverage of food literacy aspects in this new curriculum. However, many suggested amendments to the curriculum including pay less emphasis on food history-related topics and pay more focus on primary food production, nutrition awareness and promotion, and food security, food sovereignty, social justice, and food politics.\nPractical implications: A well-structured, comprehensive secondary school food literacy curriculum could play a crucial role in providing food literacy education for adolescents. This will help them to establish healthy food patterns and become responsible food citizens. The findings of this study can be used to modify the new curriculum to make it a more comprehensive, logical, and feasible curriculum. Moreover, these findings could be used to inform the design of new secondary school food literacy curricula in Australia and other countries.\nOriginality/value: The exploration of perspectives of professionals from a broad range of food- and nutrition-related areas about school food literacy education makes this study unique. This study highlights the importance of food professionals' opinions in secondary school food-related curricula development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Towards the design and operation of fire safe school facilities
|
[
"Design",
"Operations management",
"Fire",
"Schools",
"Risk assessment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Schools are a distinctive type of buildings that accommodate a large number of occupants under confining circumstances, for the purpose of learning. The majority of school occupants are children and youth who can easily panic and become difficult to manage in case of emergencies or crises. Damages are enormous when a school catches fire. The damages constitute lose of life, property, operation of schools. In USA, an average of 190 children are killed or injured, every year (Cunningham, 2003). The non-financial damages far exceed the financial damage. The disruption of school operation, psychological damage to students, families and teachers after a fire will impair the learning environment.The provision of, and the regular upkeep of fire safety systems in schools is an essential concern to ensure the safety of school occupants. Fire safety may be defined as \"the reduction of the potential for harm to life as a result of fire in buildings\" (CWC, 2000). Fire safety is defined as:... an objective to reduce the probability that a person in or adjacent to a building will be exposed to an unacceptable fire hazard as a result of the design and construction of the building (NBCC, 1995).There are three major fire safety objectives. The first objective \"prevent ignition of building materials and contents\" involves controlling ignition sources; controlling fuel characteristics; and controlling fuel/heat interaction by maintaining adequate separation. The second objective \"control fire development\" involves detecting fires by means of heat, smoke and flame detectors; controlling combustion; and limiting the rate of development and spread of fire. The third objective \"protect the exposed\" involves notifying occupants of the building; providing avenues for egress; protecting the in-place occupants (Watson, 2000).Designers and school operators must ensure that appropriate levels of safety measures are provided and properly maintained. They must do so with knowledge of the occupancy profiles of their facilities and develop fire safety plans accordingly. Schools need to be designed and operated in such a manner that can reduce the chance of fire occurring, or if the worst does occur, keep looses to a minimum.The objectives of this paper is to present an assessment of the consideration of fire safety during the design phase of school facilities in Saudi Arabia; and to present the development of a fire risk assessment survey tool whereby existing school facilities can be evaluated for the purpose of identifying and eliminating fire hazards, and meeting the minimum requirements of current legislation. For the purpose of this study, the author found it necessary to investigate the factors that make school facilities a high-risk type of buildings to fire, causes of fires in schools and identify potential high-risk areas to fires in school facilities. The paper also investigates design and operation factors controlling fire severity. This paper is of practical value to design professionals, school staff and facilities managers responsible for the day-to-day operation of school facilities.\nSchools as a high-risk type of facilities to fire: Schools are distinctive buildings. They constitute a high-risk type of buildings to fires. This is mainly due to the combination of two risk factors. The first factor is type of the majority of occupants found in schools. School occupants, mostly untrained children on evacuation drills, are at a risk of incurring high rate of fatalities and/or injuries in the case of fire mainly because they may be less able to take the quick action necessary. They would require the help of an adult to escape during a fire emergency. Further, an individual state of panic among children and youth is all what is needed set a general state of panic and chaos among the large population of children and youth in a school. Such state could impair judgment and hamper evacuation efforts. The second contributing factor is the design configuration of the majority of school buildings. Most schools are multi-storey buildings, occupants in classrooms located in upper floors could experience escape problems due to the crowdedness and the chaos found at exit routs and while going down stairwells.\nCauses of fire in schools: Fires can occur in schools at any time and from a number of causes. Although not a conclusive list of causes, possible causes of fires in schools include:* Arsons through the deliberate start of small fires during the day or night, in temporarily or permanently unsupervised locations in the school. Such locations could include school grounds or classrooms. While these deliberate fires would not initially spread beyond the locations where the fire began, these fires if not extinguished immediately could spread to neighboring locations in a matter of few minutes.* Lack of safety awareness attitudes: absence of fire prevention notices as a reminder to both teachers and students to check, at the end of the lessons, that electric plugs have been removed from their sockets, and equipments and gas supplies in laboratories have been switched off.* Faulty electrical systems: equipment may impose heavy demands on the school electrical system, especially in old schools. Overloaded electrical outlets or extension cords due to heavy demands constitute a fire hazard.* Poor housekeeping standards: since schools can generate a lot of waste, rubbish bins full of paper-based waste in classrooms constitute a fire hazard. Rubbish must not be allowed to accumulate and should not be stored in the school overnight.* Smoking: many schools have a no smoking policy or restrict smoking to specially designated areas; however, few children will always try to imitate adults by smoking cigarettes. Smoking could be one of the major causes of fires in schools.* Storing combustible materials or flammable liquids in, or in close proximity to, the school buildings, which act as a ready-made fuel supply for a fire.\nPotential high-risk areas to fires in schools: For a proper deployment of fire prevention and protection measures in schools, it is essential to understand the locations of high-risk areas to fires. Potential high-risk areas to fires in schools may be divided in two categories. These areas are:* Teaching areas such as classrooms and science laboratories. Classrooms are usually crowded and, if left unsupervised during the school-day may contribute a higher than normal fire risk factor due to the number and age of the students present. Gas shut-off valves should work properly. Dangerous chemicals and flammable liquids in science laboratories should be properly stored away from heat sources. Equipment also should be free from excessive accumulation of oil, grease, and debris.* Non-teaching areas such as playgrounds, kitchens, offices, storage rooms and mechanical/electrical rooms.* Displays close to heat sources. Corridors in schools often have displays along their entire length. Displays are often suspended from ceilings and light fittings. The cardboard, paper and plastic materials that go into these displays can be a means of rapid-fire spread. Displays should not be placed down stairways which are part of a designated fire escape route, and should be kept away from exits.\nDesign and operation factors controlling fire severity: Designers while formulating a design solution to respond to the technical, functional and behavioral elements of performance that exist in schools, should think through a series of issues to allow people to escape before being overcome by the effects of fire. Some of these issues include:* how the fire might develop;* fire ignition growth and spread in schools;* how smoke will be generated and could spread;* how the smoke and fire might affect people;* the location of people in the school and their state;* how people will become aware of a fire and what they might do;* how quickly people can evacuate the school;* how the building materials will respond to the fire;Fire severity may be defined as the condition of a fire in a building which is related to the maximum temperature reached and the duration of burning (Butcher and Parnell, 1983). There are two main factors controlling the behavior of fire, and thus the severity of fire. These two factors relate primarily to the combustible contents of the building and the design of that building.Factors relating to the contents of buildings\nConsideration for the design of fire safe school facilities: In this paper, the author has undertaken the task of investigating the consideration for fire safety in the design phase of public school facilities in Saudi Arabia. The author conducted an interview with a staff member representing the projects and maintenance department, at the Eastern Province branch of the Ministry of Education. This staff member has experience of more than 12 years in school's design reviews and construction. The interview indicated that:* Fire safety is one of the design approval criteria for the design of new schools.* Fire safety design (i.e. sprinkler network, alarm system, etc.) are require to be submitted in separate for approval.* Life safety regulations by Civil Defense Authority are available for the design of school facilities; however, designs of school facilities are not submitted to Civil Defense for fire safety approval.* The number of stories of the school facility impacts the design for fire safety.* The Ministry of Education is active in providing the designs of school facilities with fire detection and notification systems including smoke detectors and fire alarms; fire suppression and extinguishing systems including automatic sprinkler systems, standpipe and hose system and portable fire extinguishers; and means of egress and evacuation systems including exit doors, emergency lighting and directional signs.\nFire safety risk assessment guide for school facilities: This section presents the development of a fire risk assessment survey tool, as illustrated in Table I, whereby existing school facilities can be evaluated for the purpose of identifying and eliminating fire hazards, and meeting the minimum requirements of current legislation. The objective of conducting the fire safety risk assessment survey is to ensure that design professionals, school staff and facilities managers are meeting their responsibilities under the legislation and that the facility is fitted with satisfactory fire safety installations that are maintained in an operational condition. The risk assessment survey included 61 items to assess, in seven main divisions, including fire protection equipment; exitways and stairs, interior decorations and interior finish integrity; fire hydrants and Lanes; electrical wiring; laboratories; and fire safety management and maintenance measures. The risk assessment survey tool aims at identifying fire safety areas which would be considered most critical to safety and that offered the most potential for violation.\nConclusions: School principals should establish and implement fire safety programs that place a strong emphasis on fire safety education and prevention procedures. These programs should provide students the opportunity to apply fire safety concepts that they have learned. School principals in consultation with the local fire safety department, and in cooperation with teachers, housekeeping staff should carry out the following fire safety management duties:* Establish procedures for the identification and elimination of fire hazards.* Conduct fire safety inspections, preferably every term and make more frequent informal checks to confirm that the fire safety rules are being followed.* Designate particularly trained staff members to act as fire wardens and perform duties relating to fire safety.* Ensure that regulations pertaining to fire safety are communicated to staff and further ensure that the staff adheres to these regulations.* Develop evacuation routes for the building, require teachers to discuss them with the students, and ensure that these routes and fire exit doors/passageways are unobstructed and doors operate correctly.* Conduct frequent fire drills that teachers would participate in along with their students, and keep full records of these drills kept, including building clearance times.* Ensure that the building is provided with frequently tested fire detection and notification systems, fire suppression and extinguishing systems.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The objectives of this paper are to present an assessment for the consideration of fire safety during the design stages of school facilities in Saudi Arabia; and to present the development of a fire risk assessment survey tool whereby existing school facilities can be evaluated for the purpose of identifying and eliminating fire hazards, and meeting the minimum requirements of current legislation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper classifies the factors that make school facilities a high-risk type of buildings to fire; reviews causes of fires in schools and identifies potential high-risk areas to fires in school facilities; and reviews design and operation factors controlling fire severity.\nFindings: - Investigating the consideration for fire safety in the design phase of public school facilities in Saudi Arabia indicated that the design office at the Ministry of Education is active in providing the following fire safety requirements: fire detection and notification systems including smoke detectors and fire alarms; fire suppression and extinguishing systems including automatic sprinkler systems, standpipe and hose system and portable fire extinguishers; and means of egress and evacuation systems including exit doors, emergency lighting and directional signs. The fire risk assessment survey tool developed in this paper consists of 61 items to assess fire protection equipment, exitways/stairs, interior decorations/interior finish integrity, fire hydrants and lanes, electrical wiring, laboratories, and maintenance measures.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides practical value to design professionals of school projects and school staff and facilities managers responsible for the day-to-day operation of school facilities.\n",
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] |
Shaping the future of a globalized world: A qualitative study of how undergraduate international students' everyday cross-cultural experiences were impacted by university diversity initiatives
|
[
"Globalization",
"Cross-cultural interactions",
"Intergroup contact",
"International higher education",
"National HRD",
"Student adjustment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalization has shaped business, non-governmental organizations and institutions of higher education in recent years. Human resource development (HRD) must deal with the \"reality and challenges of a highly heterogeneous society\" (Lynham and Cunningham, 2006, p. 117) in which globalization brings both positive and negative consequences (Marquardt and Berger, 2003). This calls for the field of HRD to reflect deeply on cultural issues related to globalization (Ruona et al., 2003). The international community is struggling with increasingly interdependent economies in which national tensions and cultural conflict are readily apparent. Increasingly, discussion of national HRD (Cho and McLean, 2004; Lynham and Cunningham, 2006; McLean, 2001) focuses the field on education systems as a means to improve intellectual and cultural capital in the global economy. There is no one definition of national HRD, but it includes general knowledge and employment skills that are often part of how higher education prepares students for the workforce. Indeed, some have cautioned that there is an overlap between national HRD and human development (Wang, 2008). National HRD draws attention to what has been termed the higher education to workforce development continuum (Bennett et al., 2012), especially given the express expectation of employers that a bachelor's degree in the USA is important preparation for many professional jobs. The continuum is important for preparing young adults for professional careers and to thrive in a global economy; this includes addressing cross-cultural issues.\nConceptual framework: The conceptual framework that informed this study was a convergence of elements of Dixon et al.'s (2005) social psychological perspective of intercultural contact and Russell and Petrie's (1992) adjustment model, which emerged from the field of counseling psychology. Dixon et al.'s (2005) perspective served as a lens for exploring the everyday cross-cultural interactions of undergraduate international students, including the meanings and constructs they used to make sense of these interactions. Russell and Petrie's (1992) adjustment model provided a framework by which formal institutional intervention programs - in the case of this study, university diversity initiatives - were understood and assessed. Diversity initiatives were defined as programs and/or policies created by an HEI to encourage cross-cultural, cross-national and/or cross-racial interactions. Given that adjustment and persistence are critical to international students' success, this conceptual framework facilitated an understanding of how participants constructed meaning from their everyday cross-cultural interactions. It also guided an exploration of how social and/or environmental factors and institutional interventions may have affected both cross-cultural interactions and adjustment.\nResearch question and methods: This article reports the findings for the research question: How do undergraduate international students describe the impact of university diversity initiatives for promoting everyday cross-cultural interactions? The study used a basic qualitative approach (Thomas, 2006; Merriam, 2009) that sought reflection (Maxwell, 2005; Seidman, 2006) and depth of insight (Merriam, 2009). A basic qualitative study is interpretive, inductive and comparative, and findings are presented through rich description (Merriam, 2009). This study was designed within the philosophical perspective of intepretivism, which recognizes that people interpret and make meaning of their experiences in the context of their personal perspectives (Williams, 2000). Because international students' descriptions of diversity initiatives were of interest, the primary sources of data came from semi-structured in-depth interviews that were audio-recorded and transcribed. Additional sources of data included campus observations and relevant documents.\nFindings: In answer of the research question, the study found three thematic categories for how undergraduate international students described the impact of university diversity initiatives for promoting everyday cross-cultural interactions. These were:\nDiscussion: The first conclusion of this study is that formal university initiatives at Eastern fostered recognition of international students, but their impact on everyday cross-cultural interactions was both positive and negative. The intention of cultural events was to promote cultural awareness and appreciation; they were not specifically designed to promote everyday intercultural interactions. However, Eastern was a structurally diverse campus, and the by-product of contributing to a campus culture that values and respects this diversity is an atmosphere conducive to diverse intercultural interactions in the everyday. When asked what programs or events the University had to promote communication among people of other cultures, participants' responses centered on formal university events that were designed to occur on a single day and/or on an annual basis, not programs designed to encourage interactions in an everyday context. Participants described a sense of pride and confidence in their cultural backgrounds because they felt valued as a result of the events; this value stemmed from investments made by the university in the form of time and money. Everyday intercultural interactions did not necessarily result from an event itself; rather, they were shown to result, in part, from the increased sense of cultural authenticity, confidence and familiarity the events helped provide among internationally diverse students. When asked how they would design an ideal program for encouraging cross-cultural interactions in an everyday context, participants' suggestions focused on events based on shared interests or goals (e.g. sports, food, dialogue sessions, event planning).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how everyday cross-cultural interactions affected the adjustment of undergraduate international students attending a private university in the northeastern United States of America.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected primarily through interviews with nine international students and observations at \"Eastern University\". Students were purposively selected to balance gender and world regions. Analysis used constant comparison until findings emerged, which were member-checked with study participants (Merriam, 2009).\nFindings: Findings show that the impact of university diversity initiatives for promoting everyday cross-cultural interactions is described as creating an us/them divide, promoting solidarity and establishing a cultural presence. It is concluded that formal university events foster recognition of the campus diversity international students help provide, but their impact on everyday cross-cultural interactions is both positive and negative. Additionally, the mode by which undergraduate international students are introduced to their US campus affects their integration and future interaction patterns.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research is needed to explore higher education institutions (HEIs)' connection to human resource development (HRD) for shaping the future global arena. Studies that address the continuum from higher education to the workforce are needed to prepare the next generation of professionals for a global world. This study is limited due to small sample size. Findings are not generalizable in a statistical sense, but HRD professionals in HEIs may compare the details in this study with their own institutions.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the discussion of national HRD by addressing international students and their insights into how diversity programs impact adjustment in an American setting. Additionally, organizational and faculty development initiatives in academic institutions can be improved by understanding the insights found in this study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effect of entrepreneurial orientation variables on business performance in the SME industry context
|
[
"Performance",
"Innovation",
"Learning orientation",
"Market orientation",
"Competence of knowledge",
"Entrepreneurial orientation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In Indonesia, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a big role when it is related to economic and domestic social issues such as high poverty rates, unemployment, inequality distribution, uneven processes and urbanization problems with all the negative outcomes. It can be interpreted that the existence and the development of SMEs are expected to give significant contribution to repair the problem.\n2. Literature review and development of conceptual framework: 2.1 Business performance\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample\n4. Result and discussion: 4.1 Direct effect of structural model\n5. Conclusion and recomendation: 5.1 Conclusion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide new practical and theoretical insights into how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adjust and further develop business competencies, innovations and performance by using market orientation, learning orientation behaviors and entrepreneurial orientation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data was collected from manufacturing SMEs of textile products that had a number of employees between 5 and 99 people in the province of Bali, Indonesia, in 2016. Bali province was chosen as a research location because Bali was one of the tourism centers in Indonesia and even in the world was considered suitable for this research. It was because it had textile product industries that contributed in the fulfillment of the needs of tourism clothing, national economy, the fulfillment of fashion needs and foreign exchange contributors from non-oil exports (Industry and Trade Service of Bali).\nFindings: Based on the results of descriptive and inferential analysis that has been conducted, it can be concluded that the answer to the problems and objectives that have been determined is market orientation, learning orientation and entrepreneurial orientation affect business performance through knowledge competence and innovation directly and its influence is significantly positive. But market orientation, learning orientation and entrepreneurial orientation do not directly have a significant positive effect on innovation through knowledge competence. Market orientation, learning orientation and entrepreneurship orientation indirectly have a significant positive effect on business performance through knowledge and innovation competencies.\nOriginality/value: The lack of studies in the existing literature underscores the potential contribution of this subsequent study. The novelty of the research is first to develop a concept of learning orientation that is linked to competence of knowledge, which this link has not been much expressed in the context of industry SMEs; second, to build the concept of innovation development of small and medium-sized industry of textile industry based on market orientation by strengthening the mediation role of competence of knowledge.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Fallout and miss in journal peer review
|
[
"Information science",
"Evaluation",
"Information management",
"Serials",
"Peer review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: In Bornmann and Egghe (2012), we described already some imperfections of journal peer review (based on the assumption that bibliometric measures can be used to assess the quality of manuscripts). This may be caused by the fact that peer review is a human activity where different referees might have different perceptions on a paper, leading to different advice on the acceptance or rejection of a paper - see, e.g. Bornmann and Daniel (2009), Egghe (2010) and Schultz (2010). As a consequence of this, the final decision on acceptance or rejection by the editor of the journal is not always perfect. Most of the strong (good) papers will be accepted and most of the weak (bad) papers will be rejected but it can well be that a strong paper is rejected and that a weak paper is accepted.In this paper, we further exploit the analogy between journal peer review and information retrieval. Fallout rate and missing rate are put in relation with the hitting rate and success rate.Let us fix a set of submitted papers to a journal (in a certain time period). It is clear that the accepted papers are known, but how to determine the strong (good) papers? This is done (see Bornmann and Daniel, 2010) by normalised citation counts of the accepted papers as well as the rejected ones but which are published elsewhere. Normalised citation counts for a single paper are its citation counts divided by the average number of citations per paper in the field under consideration. The papers above a certain threshold of this indicator are defined as qualified (Q). Throughout this paper the term \"qualified\" will be used instead of the adjective \"strong\" or \"good\" paper.Let us define O as the set of submitted papers to a journal that are accepted for publication in this journal or rejected by this journal and published elsewhere. So this is the set we can study on the qualifiedness or non-qualifiedness of the papers (in the definition given above). Ideally, all accepted papers are qualified and all rejected papers (but published elsewhere) are non-qualified but in reality we have four sets of papers:1. The set of accepted and qualified papers.2. The set of accepted and non-qualified papers.3. The set of rejected (but published elsewhere) and qualified papers.4. The set of rejected (but published elsewhere) and non-qualified papers.Hence these four sets constitute a partition of the set O. Sets 1 and 4 represent correct editorial decisions while sets 2 and 3 represent wrong editorial decisions. As in Bornmann and Egghe (2012) we can compare the above situation with an information retrieval process: interpret the accepted papers as \"retrieved\" and qualified papers as \"relevant\" (the papers that we want) in the \"database\" O.Bornmann and Daniel (2010) give a concrete example of the above situation: 615 papers submitted to the journal Angewandte Chemie-International Edition (AC-IE) in the year 2000. These papers have review scores: 12,11, ... ,1,0 (12 is the best judgement). So we can arrange these papers in decreasing order of these scores and, if review scores are the same, we order the papers randomly by manuscript identifier. For each of these papers we can determine if they are qualified (Q) or not (N), based on normalised citation scores and a threshold (cut-off) value (as described above).For each n=1,2,3,...,615 we only consider the first n papers. We consider these papers as \"accepted\" (A) and, as said above, for each paper we can determine if it is qualified or not. The papers on ranks n+1,n+2,... are considered as \"not accepted\" (rejected).In Bornmann and Egghe (2012) we applied a classical information retrieval (IR) evaluation technique by calculating the analogue of precision and recall: precision is the fraction of retrieved papers that are relevant and recall is the fraction of relevant papers that are retrieved. Denote by AQ the number of accepted and qualified papers, by AN the number of accepted and non-qualified papers and by RQ the number of rejected and qualified papers. Then the Success rate S, defined in (1), is the analogue of precision: Equation 1 and the hitting rate H, defined in (2), is the analogue of recall: Equation 2 So, for each n, we have a point (S,H): this forms the S-H curve which is the equivalent of the precision-recall curve in IR (see also Salton and McGill (1987)). This curve shows which \"price\" we have to pay in Hitting rate when we want the Success rate to be higher and vice-versa (since the S-H curve in general is decreasing).In IR, two other evaluation measures exist: fallout (F) and miss (M), see Egghe (2007, 2008). In IR terminology, F is the fraction of non relevant papers that has been retrieved and M is the fraction of not retrieved papers that are relevant. In the next section we will interpret these measures in our framework. In the same way as described above we will also produce the curves linking any two of the measures S, H, F and M and give interpretations in terms of the journal decision process.\nFallout and miss rate and their relations to success and hitting rate: The analogue of F in our framework of accepted (A), rejected (R), qualified (Q) and non-qualified (N) papers is: F is the fraction of non-qualified papers that is accepted. The analogue of M in our framework is: M is the fraction of rejected papers that are qualified. Denote by AN the number of accepted and non-qualified papers, by RN the number of rejected and non-qualified papers and by RQ the number of rejected and qualified papers, then we have the following formulae for the calculation of F and M: Equation 3 Equation 4 F and M are \"negative\" measures since, the lower they are, the better our editorial process is (contrary to S en H which are \"positive\" measures: the higher they are, the better is our editorial process).We can again use the data from Bornmann and Daniel (2010): 615 papers submitted to AC-IE, arranged in decreasing order of review scores and, if review scores are the same, we order the papers randomly by manuscript identifier. For each of these papers we know as well if they are qualified (Q) or not (N) as described above. For each n=1,2,3,...,615 we only consider the first n papers as \"accepted\" and the other ones as \"rejected\". So, for each n=1,2,3,...,615 we can calculate the values of S, H, F and M and hence the (24)=6points (H,S), (F,M), (F,H), (M,H), (S,F) and (S,M) yielding (because of the n-dependence) six scatterplots. The one (H,S) (the \"recall-precision\" curve in IR) appeared already in Bornmann and Egghe (2012). We add it here the five other curves in Figure 1 for the sake of completeness.The H-F curve is close to a concavely increasing curve as predicted in Egghe (2008). The (almost) concavely decreasing H-M curve was predicted in Egghe (2008) as well while it was mentioned there that the M-F curve, F-S curve and M-S curve are irregular, which is also the case here.These curves show some imperfections of the journal peer review process - if bibliometric measures are used to assess the quality of manuscripts. Take, e.g. the H-F curve. We see that a H of 0.20 (i.e. 20 per cent) yields a F of about 0.10. To require a H of 0.60 lets the F increase to around 0.40. Similarly, for the H-M curve, a H of 0.40 corresponds to a M of around 0.30. Only a slight increase of this number lets a H drop to 0.20. All this is due to the fact that the reviewers' ratings are not the same as the qualification ratings (measured by citation counts), just as in IR where the relevant documents are not always ranked on top in a retrieval ranking.\nDiscussion: Journal peer review can be interpreted as an IR-process where accepted papers play the role of retrieved papers and where qualified papers play the role of relevant papers. Hence the analogue measure of precision, recall, fallout and miss can be defined. They are called here Success rate (S), Hitting rate (H), Fallout rate (F) and Miss rate (M).On a dataset of Bornmann and Daniel (2010) on 615 submitted papers to AC-IE we can determine the accepted papers as well as the rejected papers but published elsewhere. Note that it is not easy to determine the latter ones since they are only known by the editorial office of the journal. They gave the permission to study the peer review process. It follows the difficult task to determine in both sets the qualified papers (defined as the papers with a normalised citation score above a certain threshold).The 615 papers are ranked in decreasing order of reviewers' ratings (and randomly - according to manuscript identifier - if reviewers' ratings are the same). For each n=1,2,...,615 we consider the first n papers as \"accepted\" so that for each n we can determine S, H, F and M and hence the curves relating any two of these measures. Hereby we quantify imperfections of the journal peer review process, just as in the IR-case where we quantify the imperfection of the retrieval process. Thus we have information on how much is one measure changing if another one changes with a certain amount.The curves relating any two of the measures S, H, F and M are not easy to obtain (as described above). In addition to this we underline that, to the best of our knowledge, these curves are produced for the first time (even when interpreted in the IR field itself). This is so because of the following developments: Egghe (2004) re-introduced the measure miss (M) (before that we had to go back more than 25 years to find a few references to M, and they were not in English). None of these references study curves relating M to any other measure and even after the publication of Egghe (2004) we are not aware that such curves have been constructed (except for the recall-precision curves). The only article dealing with these curves is the theoretical paper of Egghe (2008) where, e.g. the shapes of the S-H, H-F and H-M curves are predicted. Figure 1 is hence the only graph that gives practical evidence for the shapes of these curves (and is interpreted in the journal peer review framework). That we could generate these curves is basically due to the paper of Bornmann and Daniel (2010) who were able to determine the qualifiedness of a set of submitted papers.\nConclusions: Against the backdrop of these developments we encourage researchers to construct other curves relating any two of these four measures, in IR or in journal peer review or in any other field where the IR analogy can be made.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The authors exploit the analogy between journal peer review and information retrieval in order to quantify some imperfections of journal peer review.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors define fallout rate and missing rate in order to describe quantitatively the weak papers that were accepted and the strong papers that were missed, respectively. To assess the quality of manuscripts the authors use bibliometric measures.\nFindings: - Fallout rate and missing rate are put in relation with the hitting rate and success rate. Conclusions are drawn on what fraction of weak papers will be accepted in order to have a certain fraction of strong accepted papers.\nOriginality/value: - The paper illustrates that these curves are new in peer review research when interpreted in the information retrieval terminology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Understanding technology mediation and new service provider roles in health care
|
[
"Services marketing",
"Service providers",
"Role enactment",
"Technology mediation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The traditional service encounter is fundamentally changing (Bitner et al., 2000; Fisk et al., 2018; Schumann et al., 2012). With the infusion of technology, services have become more dynamic and new ways of delivering services have emerged, e.g. the provision of separated services (Green et al., 2016; Keh and Pang, 2010). The way that service providers interact with consumers has also seen a profound transformation. For example, the rise of self-service technologies has replaced in many instances dyadic service encounters between providers and consumers (Blut et al., 2016; Glushko and Nomorosa, 2013).\nLiterature review: Role enactment\nMethodology: To derive our theoretical interpretations, we focused on health-care service providers' discretionary use of technology, such as the use of mobile applications (apps) in the context of health-care services. Specifically, we focused on mobile apps that support clinical decision-making (i.e. diagnosis, investigation, treatment, monitoring and management of diseases) (Free et al., 2010). Our informants used a range of mobile apps designed for health-care professional use; such as the British National Formulary (BNF) app that offers information about medicines, the Mersey Micro app that helps in antibiotic prescription and the Mersey Burns app that provides assessments for fluids prescription for burns injuries, amongst others. Although some mobile apps were used by the majority of our informants (e.g. the BNF app), others were specialty-specific (e.g. the Mersey Burns app). We chose to focus on discretionary technology use because in contrast to the use of technology introduced at an organizational/firm level, the use of mobile apps, although encouraged to an extent by organizations, rests on the discretion of individual health-care service providers (Daskalopoulou et al., 2019). Hence, it does not follow a specific pattern or script. Also, there are no clear role expectations (Solomon et al., 1985; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987) associated with discretionary technology use either from the patient perspective or the organizational perspective. For these reasons, we find that service providers have a unique role in the way that technology use is introduced in service delivery, and thus service providers can be instrumental in supporting and encouraging it. As such, we find that this context is ideal for understanding the emergence of new service provider roles.\nFindings: The analysis of our data confirms that health-care service providers espouse the roles of enabler, differentiator, innovator and coordinator as previously conceptualized in the literature (Bowen, 2016; Lariviere et al., 2017). We also identify one additional service provider role that is, acting as a sense-giver. The range of activities that constitute each new service provider role is elaborated upon (see Figure 2 for summary), and linkages are drawn between new roles and impact on a service delivery level, a peer-to-peer level and an organizational level (Figure 1). As suggested by the arrows in Figure 1, we find that there is indeed a reciprocal influence across levels.\nDiscussion: The aim of this paper was to enhance understanding of the new service provider roles that emerge due to the increase of technology mediation in services. In doing so, we examined the new service provider roles that emerge in a health-care setting due to the changing nature of the context in which services are delivered (Ostrom et al., 2015). Our findings illustrate that by adopting the role of enabler and differentiator, service providers can have a direct impact on a service delivery level, by adopting the role of coordinator and innovator, service providers can have a direct impact on an organizational level and by adopting the role of sense-giver, service providers can have a direct impact on a peer-to-peer level (Figure 1). However, by adopting new roles, service providers can also have an indirect impact across levels. For example, by being involved in the development of new technology as innovators, service providers can influence service delivery when their innovations are used in their departments. In essence, our analysis revealed the necessity of taking up new roles to be able to positively influence technology-mediated service outcomes (Schumann et al., 2012).\nPractical implications: This study holds a number of implications for practice. From a practical perspective, the use of mobile apps introduces a range of opportunities and obstacles for service organizations (Newman et al., 2018). As such, we believe that the first step for service organizations should be to identify the new service provider roles that emerge within their organization, and consequently identify the service providers that are espousing new roles (e.g. those who are involved in innovation) (Gottfridsson, 2014). Second, organizations need to produce guidelines that set the new standards of role behavior (Mohr and Bitner, 1991) in light of the increase in technology mediation (Bitner et al., 2000). For example, in our context, the management and information governance team launched a \"mobile device use\" policy with the aim of regulating the use of technology by informing their staff of what they could and could not do with mobile devices. Adding some governance in place can offer service providers a detailed overview of the preferred model of behavior, they should enact in the organization (Pratt, 2000). We believe that it is important to have a common understanding between organizations and service providers about new role expectations to ensure that service providers are aware of what is considered appropriate within new roles (Solomon et al., 1985), and what are the common objectives of new roles (Broderick, 1998).\nResearch limitations and future avenues: This study is not without limitations. We conducted an in-depth qualitative study; however, our theorizations are drawn from the UK health-care context. Although health care shares many similarities with other professional service contexts (Berry and Bendapudi, 2007), future research should investigate other service industries and countries. This study has focused on uncovering service providers' perspective of emerging new roles due to the increase of technology use in services. However, we have not delved into to the potential changes in self-definitions that may be produced by adopting new roles (Ibarra, 1999). A promising area for future research is to examine how new skills, behaviors and interactions associated with espousing a new role affect service providers' professional identity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Service research holds that as services become more technology dominated, new service provider roles emerge. On a conceptual level, the potential impact of different roles has been discussed with regard to service provider readiness, job performance and overall experience. However, as yet, there is sparse empirical support for these conceptual interpretations. The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the new service provider roles that emerge due to the increase of technology mediation in services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study follows a qualitative methodology. Insights are drawn from in-depth interviews with 32 junior and senior health-care service providers (across 12 specialties) and 5 information governance/management staff.\nFindings: This analysis illustrates that new service provider roles include those of the enabler, differentiator, innovator, coordinator and sense-giver. By adopting these roles, health-care service providers reveal that they can encourage, support and advance technology mediation in services across different groups/audiences within their organizations (e.g. service delivery level, peer-to-peer level, organizational level). This paper further shows the relationships between these new service provider roles.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to theory in technology-mediated services by illustrating empirically the range of activities that constitute each role. It also complements prior work by identifying that service providers adopt the additional role of sense-giver. Finally, this paper provides an understanding of how by taking on these roles service providers can encourage, support and advance technology mediation in services across different groups/audiences in their organization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceptions and attitudes of tourism students in Turkey
|
[
"Tourism",
"Students",
"Perception",
"Turkey"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Numerous books and research papers have been published on the tourism industry, yet little research has been undertaken to define industry views of tourism curricula or tourism students' perceptions of the industry. Many positions within the industry involve low-skilled work; there are opportunities for entry into the industry for individuals with little experience and low skills (O'Mahony and Sillitoe, 2001, p. 22). Casado (1992) investigated the basic expectations of students in the tourism sector, and found their expectations to be \"fairly realistic\" before their graduation period. Purcell and Quinn (1995) undertook research with a sample of 704 students and identified that students complained of problems in developing their managerial skills.\nResearch methodology: Variables used in the study\nResults and discussions: Profile of the sample\nConclusion: The results of the study generally show negative perceptions and attitudes towards the tourism industry, but some positive perceptions and attitudes are also apparent. These positive attitudes were usually shown by students who had chosen the Tourism and Hotel Management School within their first three rank order in the university entrance exam, who had chosen the school willingly, who had carried out practical work experience outside Turkey, and who indicated that practising abroad had had an important effect on their opinion about the tourism industry.The majority of students chose the Tourism and Hotel Management School in Akdeniz University willingly, and knew of the reputation of and practical work experience opportunities arranged by the school. Despite these positive indicators, attention might be drawn to the 47.6 percent of students who answered \"no\" to the question \"Would you still prefer studying tourism if informed before taking the university exam?\".During their university education, the negative perception of this unsatisfied group may be causal to their low success. Some of the factors criticized by the respondents included low pay and low stability of work, which arguably might be solved by government and sectoral policies. However, offering acceptable conditions for work experience is a key function of the organizations in the sector and tourism schools. Many of the concerns identified by students with regard to resources and working conditions might be alleviated if due attention was drawn to the conditions and duration of practical work experience undertaken by the students who worked abroad (12.3 percent). The majority of the respondents (80.2 percent) indicated that practising abroad is important and positively affects their opinion of the tourism industry.Taking into account both the research results and the contemporary structure of the Turkish tourism industry, the important task of overcome the problems should be the responsibility of government officials, academics, tourism professionals and the tourism students. Government officials must make essential corrections suitable for the needs of students in Turkish Work Law. At the same time, tourism professionals must give the same value and interest to students as they do to their customers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To investigate the main expectations of students from the tourism industry who are studying at the Akdeniz University School of Tourism and Hotel Management in Antalya.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire containing 16 closed questions and a multi-item attitude scale was used for 689 students ranging from the first class to the fourth class.\nFindings: - The results generally show negative perceptions and attitudes toward the tourism industry, but some positive perceptions and attitudes are also apparent. Positive emotions were usually mentioned by students who had chosen the tourism and hotel management school within their first three rank order in the university entrance exam, who had chosen the school willingly, and who had carried out their practical work experience outside Turkey.\nResearch limitations/implications: - It is not possible to generalize the findings to other tourism schools, but the findings can be evaluated as a useful source of information regarding the perceptions and attitudes of the sampled tourism students in Antalya, Turkey.\nOriginality/value: - The findings are of value for government officials, academicians, tourism professionals and also tourism students.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Simple step-stress model for an extension of the exponential distribution with type-I censoring
|
[
"An extension of the exponential distribution",
"Step-stress test"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today's many products are designed to operate without failure for years. Thus, few units will fail in a test of particular length at normal operating conditions. A simple way to accelerate the time to failure of such products is to run them at higher level of stress. Generally, information from an accelerated life test is extrapolated to obtain lifetime characteristics estimates at normal operating conditions. Some key references in the area of accelerated life testing include Nelson (1990), Meeker and Escobar (1998) and Bagdonavicius and Nikulin (2002). The stress loading in an accelerated life test can be applied by various ways. A common way is step-stress loading wherein a unit is first subjected to a specified constant stress x\n2. Application of the NH distribution in reliability: Here, we present two real data sets (complete and censored) to illustrate the application of the NH distribution in life testing.\n3. NH step-stress model: Some basic assumptions are considered as followings:\n4. MLEs and CIs: The test is conducted as follows. All test units are initially placed on low stress x\n5. Simulation studies: We conducted a simulation study to evaluate the method discussed in previous section for estimating the parameters of model. Following algorithm generates a data set from NH step-stress model under type-I censoring:\n6. Conclusion: In this paper, we present a simple step-stress test under cumulative exposure model and type-I censoring for a NH model, a more flexible one than the exponential model. Two real examples show the application of NH model in life testing problem. For this model, the MLE of the parameters as well as the Fisher information matrix are derived. A Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to examine the performance of the method.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to design a simple step-stress model under type-I censoring when the failure time has an extension of the exponential distribution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The scale parameter of the distribution is assumed to be a log-linear function of the stress and a cumulative exposure model is hold. The maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters, as well as the corresponding Fisher information matrix are derived. Two real examples are given to show the application of an extension of the exponential distribution in reliability studies and a numerical example is presented to illustrate the method discussed here.\nFindings: A simple step-stress test under cumulative exposure model and type-I censoring for an extension of the exponential distribution is presented.\nOriginality/value: The work is original.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Identifying and mapping stakeholders: an industry case study
|
[
"Annual reports",
"Chief executives",
"Corporate communications",
"Stakeholder analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nContext and research questions: The corporation's role as a social institution, with responsibilities extending beyond its shareholders, has been argued in the management literature for decades (Davis, 1960; Drucker, 1946; Gao and Zang, 2006; Harrison and Freeman, 1999). Employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and society at large among others may be included in this broader focus. Thus, an array of internal and external relationships must be recognized and managed as the organization pursues its mission. \"The stakeholder view of the firm,\" according to Kim and Nofsinger (2007) \"does not focus on the maximization of shareholder wealth but rather an optimization of the sustainable economic wealth of all stakeholders.\" Central to this process is the identification of the people and groups (i.e. stakeholders), followed by the consideration of some form of engagement with them. Corporate decision-making processes are proprietary; therefore, it is unclear to other than corporate insiders who the organization has identified as its stakeholders.This study seeks to identify stakeholders by examining the recognition chief executive officers' (CEOs) give to groups, organizations, and individuals. Though they may have been recognized publicly by corporate officials, they have not necessarily been identified formally as stakeholders. Building relationships with those inside or outside the firm is at once a critically important and time-consuming task. The demands placed on CEOs' time limits the attention they can pay to persons or entities inside or outside the firm (Davenport and Beck, 2001). Consequently, they must make choices about to whom they pay attention. Knowing the objects of that attention provides clues to the firm's corporate strategy and to other issues requiring management attention that may ultimately be of interest to other firms in the industry.Stakeholders\nMethodology: The sample consisted of all 19 public restaurant franchisors, ranked by worldwide sales, on the Franchise Times (2007) top 200 list as shown in Table I. Also indicated is the number of units or stores the company franchises to others, the number it owns and operates itself, and the number of the company's shareholders, the primary audience for the CEO's letter which is examined in this study. The 19 companies were further divided into two groups: international franchisors (IFs) comprised of those having more than ten percent of their units outside the US and DFs having less than ten percent of their units outside the US The ten percent threshold suggests a significant level of commitment on the part of the company and indicates the presence of stakeholders in more than one country.CEOs' annual report letters for 2007 were analyzed using two features of AntConc (Anthony, 2007) text analysis software: word list and keywords. The word list feature, in which target files are scanned, was used in answering the first research question: what groups, organizations, and individuals do CEOs recognize in annual report letters? References were identified and listed in groups by category.Mapping, the focus of the second research question, is the identification and categorization of references to groups, organizations, and individuals. References identified by word list analysis were mapped according to the four-linkage model: functional linkages (inputs and outputs), normative linkages, diffused linkages, and enabling linkages (Grunig and Hunt, 1984; Rawlins, 2006). To facilitate the analysis as well as the discussion, functional linkages is treated as two categories, one for inputs and one for outputs, rather than as one.Do the two franchisor groups differ in the groups, organizations, and individuals they each recognize? In answering the question, the IF and DF reference lists will be compared and conclusions will be drawn.To answer the fourth research question, international and DFs were compared in their recognition of references to groups, organizations, and individuals. Using AntConc's keywords feature, words appearing in the target files were compared to words appearing in a reference corpus. In conducting the analysis, IFs comprised the target files and DFs comprised the corpus files. Continuing the analysis, these positions were reversed with DFs as target files and IFs as corpus files. Keywords (i.e. the references) were ordered according to Keyness, the statistical significance of their frequency in target files in comparison to a corpus. The statistical measure used to assess the Keyness of target file words is log likelihood where G2 is the value calculated. As an operational definition, references to groups, organizations, and individuals reaching statistical significance are considered stakeholders.\nDiscussion of research results: What groups, organizations, and individuals do CEOs recognize in the annual report letters? CEOs in the study sometimes used more than one term in recognizing what are essentially the same stakeholders of their organizations. For example, buyers of the companies' products or services were identified different ways. IFs spoke of consumers, customers, guests, households, and maniacs (people with a special fondness for the firm's menu items). DFs added boomers (i.e. baby boomers) to the list. Some references were unique to one franchisor group. Banks are a case in point, having been mentioned only by DFs. Likewise, only the DFs made specific reference to CEO, chairman, and leadership, while only IFs used the term countries. Through frequent references to them, both groups recognized the franchisees in their organizations. Compared to all other words used, franchisees was used with the highest frequency among DFs and was tied (with shareholders and team) for the second highest frequency of use among DFs. In total, IFs and DFs combined used 44 different terms in making 658 references to groups, organization, and individuals. Specifically, and as shown in Table II, IFs used 32 terms in making 281 references while DFs used 34 terms in making their 377 references.What does the mapping of potential stakeholders indicate? Ifs tended to focus on outputs while DFs attended more to inputs. Of the number of references made by IFs, the highest linkage in rank-order was functional output. It should be noted that frequency counts are not otherwise compared between the two groups because of the disparity in sample sizes. Those in the functional output group depend heavily on franchisors for the products or services they supply.Customers and franchisees are among the entities included. Next in order is the functional input group, known for having high levels of involvement with the company. Team (i.e. employees and/or managers) and executives are among those included here. For DFs, functional input ranked highest followed by functional output. The rank order for the remaining linkages was the same for IFs and DFs. Compared to IFs, DFs used a wider variety of different terms in referring to functional inputs.Do international and DFs differ in their recognition of groups, organizations, and individuals? Some differences were observed between the two groups. As noted in Table II, IFs used the following references that were not used by DFs: countries, ad agency, officer, staff, households, joint venture, maniacs, owners, and hunger agency. Terms used only by DFs were stockholders, bank, applicants, associates, brewers, CEO, chairman, leadership, and servers.Which groups, organizations, and individuals could be considered stakeholders? In other words, which references in the lists rise above all others and indicate a statistically significant difference? Likely stakeholder candidates are the groups, organizations, and individuals identified by keywords as shown in Table II. Keywords were determined as being significant at either p<0.01 or p<0.05. Stakeholders for IFs, when compared to DFs, were executives, customers, competition, and competitors. Stakeholders for DFs, when compared to IFs, were board, shareholders, stockholders, management, partners, and media.\nSummary and conclusions: The study found that CEO letters in annual reports include widely varying and extensive references to groups, organizations, and individuals, all of whom may be potential stakeholders of the organization. IFs and DFs used a variety of references with many of them in common, such as the word franchisees. At the same time, each group has a unique set of references not used by the other. Additionally, IFs tended to focus on customers and other output links while DFs attended more to management, employees, and other inputs links. Finally, through the application of a Keyness test, it was determined that ten of the 66 different references were statistically significant. These ten references met the operational definition of stakeholders.Research implications of this study include a proposed methodology for using text analysis software, such as AntConc, to identify the groups, organizations, and individuals CEOs refer to in annual report letters. The study further suggests that those references can be mapped using a classification scheme such as the four-linkage model (Grunig and Hunt, 1984; Rawlins, 2006).Future research studies with larger sample sizes, to yield more robust results, and using text analysis methodologies are recommended. The present study was focused on a single industry. Expanding the scope to include firms in other sectors of the economy and other means of communication in addition to annual reports could provide additional understanding. The research design should be modified to allow for Keyness tests in addition to comparing only IFs and DFs to each other as in the present study. Finally, attempts should be made to validate that references to groups, organizations, and individuals meeting the operational definition of stakeholders are, in fact, stakeholders.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to identify and map groups, organizations, and individuals chief executive officers refer to in annual report letters, and propose a method for identifying those appearing to be stakeholders. Identifying who those stakeholders are could provide clues to competitors' corporate strategies or other issues drawing the attention of executive managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Annual report letters of all 19 public restaurant franchisors on the 2007 Franchise Times top 200 list were analyzed with concordance software. Stakeholders were identified and mapped according to their linkages with franchisors.\nFindings: - Significant differences were found between international and domestic franchisors. An industry-specific approach was used.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A small sample, focused on a single industry, was used. The study could be replicated using the procedures discussed.\nPractical implications: - Groups, organizations, and individuals referred to in annual reports are identified and mapped.\nOriginality/value: - A method for determining which groups, organizations, and individuals are stakeholders is presented.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
School discipline, investment, competitiveness and mediating educational performance
|
[
"Mediating effect",
"PISA",
"Competitiveness",
"Education investment",
"Educational performance",
"School discipline"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Educational performance, school discipline and competitiveness are all issues discussed regularly in the global press (Banchero, 2013; Donnelly, 2013; Mullich, 2013). This study proposes to combine these seemingly unrelated \"real world\" issues to gain better understanding of how educational policy could be reformed and how changes could be made to the way schools are run in order to achieve the best possible academic performance. Could increasing discipline lead to increasing educational outcomes as well as helping nations to become more competitive?\nContribution of the study: The purpose of this study is to examine the links between everyday school operations that result in various levels of school discipline, national financial investment in education, academic performance measured every three years globally by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment, and national competitiveness levels. The study is structured to reveal how the various dimensions of school discipline - namely students listening well, noise levels, teacher waiting time, students working well and class start time - and PISA academic performance in reading, math and science all relate to competitiveness. If a nation would change its school operations in such a manner as to increase one of the five school discipline dimensions, would educational performance improve and, in turn, would the country's competitiveness increase? Could it be that educational performance should be viewed as a mediating factor for global competitiveness levels? Understanding how the mechanics work and how various dimensions are linked is very important for the future as it is the responsibility of every nation to ensure that young generations are work ready, and that nations remain competitive.\nLiterature review: School discipline\nTheory development and hypotheses formulation: Over recent decades, various mechanisms have been used to find links between education and economic growth, and to model economic growth theoretically. Solow (1956) proposed in his first Growth Model that output of economy is a direct function of the labour and capital in an economy. The role of education in the production function was discussed in The Technological Diffusion Theories, which dealt with growth through adoption of new technologies (Nelson and Phelps, 1966) and The Endogenous Growth Theories focussed on the role of education and on creating new ideas and technologies in order to increase innovation in an economy (Lucas, 1988). Subsequently, Neoclassical Theories of Growth expanded the analysis of economic growth by adding education into the equation (Mankiw et al., 1990). What all these approaches have in common is that they believe in education having a positive effect on economic growth.\nOverarching hypotheses: HM1. Discipline has a significant impact on competitiveness mediated by educational performance.\nDiachronic perspective: School discipline\nModel and data sources: School discipline data\nData harmonisation: The data harmonisation process was crucial for this study due to the fact that there were three different data sources, and the data set had to be validated for completeness, accuracy and consistency of data entry to ensure that the most complete data set was obtained in order to later conduct the subsequent analysis. The analysis in this study was based on the final 2012 list of 65 PISA study participants, and therefore some data for the previous three years of testing might have been missing, as smaller number of countries participated in each round.\nMethodology: This study focusses on combining four variables, namely school discipline, education investment, educational performance and competitiveness, into one model as a result of identifying a gap in the literature that called for developing a combined conceptual framework. The study draws on publicly available data in PISA discipline dimensions, PISA scores for math, science and reading, as well as educational expenditure and countries' competitiveness levels. The data used for this research are cross-sectional secondary data and, for the purposes of this study, the strategy was to use a quantitative technique to analyse the data.\nResults: The purpose of this study is to examine the relative importance of the effects of school discipline in comparison to education investment on global competitiveness, as mediated by educational performance. First, results of the baseline model for the 2012 data are discussed to confirm if the assumptions in this study work overall; second, results of the longitudinal analyses are provided. The first set of analyses, the PLS model, demonstrates the relative importance of school discipline and education investment in the formation of educational performance and global competitiveness. The longitudinal analyses demonstrate the impact of levels of school discipline, education investment and educational performance in the past, namely in 2003 and 2009, on competitiveness in 2012. The section concludes with a summary of both the supported and unsupported hypotheses.\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to examine the relative importance of the effects of school discipline in comparison to education investment on global competitiveness. Educational performance was modelled as the mediator between school discipline, education investment and competitiveness. Importantly, the study was also designed to test for effects of education dimensions on competitiveness over time.\nFuture research directions: This study has put forward a new conceptual framework combining school discipline, education investment, educational performance and competitiveness into one model for the first time, and the subsequent testing of the overall model has provided empirical support for the proposition that school discipline has indirect impact on competitiveness. What remains to be investigated are likely differences in levels of discipline between geographic regions, as different geographic regions were found in prior research to have differing attitudes towards school discipline (Baumann et al., 2012) and educational achievement (Baumann and Winzar, 2016). Future PISA data should also be included in subsequent research to further verify our findings, especially with a focus to broaden the time horizon of the analysis.\nLimitations: No study is without limitations and this study is no exception. In the latest PISA assessment, for example, 790 schools and 17,800 students participated in Australia, 200 schools and 6,100 students in the USA, 550 schools and 12,600 students in the UK and 150 schools and 5,000 students participating in South Korea (OECD, 2013). Due to the sheer number of PISA participants and the variance in the number of schools, students in participating countries, limitations of the PISA assessment, such as socio-economic inequality, will be inherent in findings of this study; and, thus, cross-country differences in the quality of educational systems and other influences such as family background cannot be neglected (Hanushek and Woessmann, 2010).\nConclusion: This study makes unique contributions in three distinct ways. First, the study demonstrates the substantially higher explanatory power (roughly 88 per cent) of school discipline in explaining educational performance in comparison to education investment with only 12 per cent. Second, this study demonstrates the mediating effect of educational performance on competitiveness, linking school discipline and education investment. The overall model explains 23 per cent of competitiveness based on three explanators. Third, diachronic testing was applied to better comprehend how school discipline and education investment link to competitiveness. It was demonstrated that school discipline indeed is associated with competitiveness over time, specifically a nine-year effect for the students listen well dimension, and a three-year effect for students working well, explaining a remarkable 4-14 per cent of competitiveness in 2012. Time effects were also found for educational performance ranging from 31-45 per cent, with reading demonstrating a nine-year effect and math a six as well as a three effect. The results of this study support the previously established temporal effects shown by Baumann and Winzar (2016), i.e. education really boosts competitiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to combine seemingly unrelated factors to explain global competitiveness. The study argues that school discipline and education investment affect competitiveness with the association being mediated by educational performance. Crucially, diachronic effects of discipline on performance are tested to demonstrate effects over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Partial least square (PLS) modelling is used to analyse the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. The study further draws from World Bank data on Government Expenditure and World Economic Forum data on competitiveness. Five PISA dimensions of school discipline (students listening well, noise levels, teacher waiting time, students working well, class start time) are hypothesised to affect academic performance in reading, math and science, and to ultimately impact competitiveness.\nFindings: Findings confirm the relative importance of school discipline (88 per cent) in comparison to education investment (12 per cent) on educational performance, with both variables also being found to be significantly associated with competitiveness directly.\nOriginality/value: This study demonstrates the time effects of discipline, more specifically that discipline dimensions (students listen well in 2003 and students work well in 2009) are associated with competitiveness in 2012. Implications for school policy and further research are discussed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Do local politicians really want collaborative governance?
|
[
"Citizen participation",
"Local government",
"Collaborative governance",
"Democratic innovation",
"Interactive governance",
"Local politicians"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In Western Europe, political-party membership has been in decline, electoral turnout has fallen, public disaffection has spread and it has been claimed that people hate politics (Norris, 2011). It appears that representative democracies do not necessarily satisfy citizens' needs, and citizens have expressed a growing interest in debating the failures of prevailing democratic institutions since the wake of new social movements in the 1960s and 1970s (Joas, 2012) - a debate that is becoming ever more pertinent with the rise of populism and dissatisfaction with current political elites and systems, both at the international and local levels. Democracy is a variable, not a constant (Newton, 2012, p. 3); thus, it needs to adapt to changing conditions and expectations in society. The debate about the health of democratic institutions has resulted in many efforts to expand citizen participation. Increased public engagement can help achieve key democratic values, such as legitimacy, social justice and effectiveness in governance (Fung, 2015, p. 514); thus, it has been argued that citizens can and should be able to exert more influence than is possible in current forms of liberal representative models (Pierre and Peters, 2000). Increased citizen participation can improve the quality of democracy, but such participation is commendable for several other reasons.\nCollaborative governance: what is at stake?: The numerous manifestations of collaborative governance examined in extant academic literature - ranging from the role of networks to public-private partnerships, collaborative public management and community-based collaborations - mean that conceptual confusion is a real danger (Kooiman, 2003). However, collaborative governance generally entails trends that lead away from hierarchical modes and towards power sharing and collective decision making together with other kinds of actors (Johnson and Osborne, 2003). Collaborative governance can be defined as \"a governing arrangement where one or more public agencies directly engage non-state stakeholders in a collective decision-making process that is formal, consensus-oriented, and deliberative and that aims to make or implement public policy or manage public programs or assets\" (Ansell and Gash, 2008, p. 544). It is described as a new paradigm for governing in democratic systems (Emerson et al., 2012).\nMethodology: The empirical findings come from an ongoing project about democratic innovation, the primary objective of which is to understand local politicians' \"experiences\" and what they think about the needs and conditions for collaborative governance. Municipalities reported their interest in joining the research project, and their participation was anchored in municipal councils. The overall research design contains some elements of action research; the lead academic behind the study helped municipal administrations in planning and facilitating several seminars to give elected politicians insight into scientific knowledge pertaining to democratic innovation. The municipalities in this study are not a representative sample of Norwegian municipalities, as they have expressed an interest in political innovations and wished to participate in the project. Thus, I expect them to have a more positive attitude towards innovation than the average municipality. The overall study's goal is to examine and understand the institutional prerequisites for democratic innovations from politicians' perspective, so I chose to apply qualitative methods in my research.\nCitizen involvement: advantages and challenges: The analysis specifically focused on mapping two dimensions: what are local politicians' attitudes towards extended, direct citizen involvement? and what challenges do local politicians highlight in that regard?\nAttitudes related to realisation of democratic ideals: In discussing the general features of representative democracy from an institutional perspective, Smith (2009) highlights four \"democratic goods\" that are fundamental to most theories of democracy, namely inclusiveness, popular control, considered judgement and transparency. The first concerns who participates and how: citizens need to represent different perspectives or interests, and participation must be both inclusive and meaningful to be democratic. In addition, participation should ensure that a climate for deliberation exists, that citizens are enlightened and that perceived legitimacy is improved (Geissel, 2013). Both Smith (2009) and Geissel (2013) state that efforts to enhance citizen participation should also improve the effectiveness of governance (an institutional good) through more accurate decision making, i.e., identifying and achieving collective goals and output in line with public interests. Collaborative governance seeks to realise these democratic ideals by sharing power with citizens in collective, deliberative and consensus-oriented decision-making processes. The challenges identified in this paper create barriers to realising Smith's (2009) four democratic goods (Table II).\nAn obstacle to collaborative governance?: Collaborative governance processes might bias decisions towards citizens with greater resources (Purdy, 2012), and the risk always exists that collaboration is a way of advancing self-interested goals (Huxham et al., 2000). However, as noted in the introduction, many contradictory arguments exist. From a participatory perspective on democracy, participation provides several functions: it encourages civic skills and virtues, contributes to individual citizens' inclusion and leads to deliberation and increased legitimacy of decisions (Michels, 2011). Innovation theories also support the idea of interactive governance, i.e., the capacity to innovate is strengthened when different actors work together in the search for, and realisation of, new solutions. Not only might collaborative governance strengthen legitimacy and justice within the political process, but it also can contribute to increased efficiency and real outcomes.\nConcluding remarks: In theory, there is potential to strengthen the capacity for public innovation by implementing interactive modes of governance. Collaborative governance implies deliberation, mutual learning, a high level of shared decision-making authority and processes that are linked to decision-making outcomes. A constructive exchange between different heterogeneous actors is a key driver for developing new and innovative policy ideas. Citizen participation can bolster legitimacy, but if participatory processes' outcomes are not used to inform formal procedures, there is a risk that citizens will not take political engagement seriously.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess, empirically, the opinions of local politicians concerning citizen participation in collaborative governance processes. Elected politicians play a key role as gatekeepers when it comes to the political impact of participatory initiatives, and by examining their attitudes, it is possible to get an understanding of perceived challenges from the perspective of elected representatives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical findings come from an ongoing project studying democratic innovation, the primary objective of which is to understand how local politicians think about efforts to increase or deepen citizen participation in political decision making. The source of data is interviews with 29 members of the executive boards of four Norwegian municipalities.\nFindings: Although most of the politicians acknowledge that good reasons exist to facilitate greater citizen involvement, they are particularly worried about figuring out how to realise \"inclusiveness\" and \"popular control\" as two democratic goods. They appear to think most people are not motivated to participate; thus, they do not think it is possible or desirable to interact more directly with citizens in collaborative processes to develop shared recommendations for new solutions to public problems.\nResearch limitations/implications: The municipalities in this study are not a representative sample of Norwegian municipalities, as each has expressed an interest in democratic innovation. Thus, they would be expected to have more positive attitudes than the average municipality.\nOriginality/value: Given that elected representatives decide whether and how to involve citizens in political decision-making processes, their attitudes are crucial to understanding and explaining collaborative governance efforts in western democracies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Explaining consumers' intention to use menu labels: a structural equation modeling analysis
|
[
"Calorie estimation",
"Health consciousness",
"Attitudes",
"Menu labels",
"Intention",
"Structural equation modeling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Close to 40 percent of adults and 19 percent of youths under the age of 20 in the United States (US) are obese (Hales et al., 2017). Obesity is a risk factor for many chronic diseases, is considered to be a preventable cause of death, and is associated with other undesirable outcomes, including poor mental health status and low quality of life (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2018). The costs associated with obesity are high, accounting for 21 percent of total annual healthcare costs in the US, or $344 billion (National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2010). Obese individuals also spend 42 percent ($1,429) more on medical bills than non-obese individuals (Finkelstein et al., 2009).Many factors can lead to obesity, making it a complex multifactorial health condition. In addition to sedentary lifestyles, increased food consumption away from home has been identified as an antecedent to this epidemic (Tandon et al., 2010; Wardle et al., 2000). The average annual food-away-from-home expenditures of US households, though, increased by about $600, from $2,505 in 2010 to $3,154 in 2016 (Statista, 2017). Foods prepared away contain more calories per dining occasion and have higher fat, saturated fat, and sodium per calorie than home-prepared food (Guthrie et al., 2002).Menu labeling is the practice of listing calorie information on menus and menu boards in retail food establishments (US Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2018). Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments with 20 or more locations have been required to post calorie information for standardized menus on menu boards since December 1, 2016 (FDA, 2018). Customers must also be provided with additional nutritional information about menu items, if requested. Consumers have been shown to eat excess calories due to a lack of awareness of food calorie content (Elbel, 2011), so this law is expected to help consumers make more informed food selection decisions.Despite the use of various methods to examine the influence of menu labeling on calorie consumption and purchase intention, the results are inconclusive (Arsenault et al., 2014; Burton et al., 2009; Krieger et al., 2013). The inconsistent in results might be because consumers respond to menu labeling differently depending on variables such as demographics, motivation level, and nutrition knowledge (Cooke and Papadaki, 2014; Ek, 2013; Ellison et al., 2013; Grunert et al., 2012; Misra, 2007; Ollberding et al., 2011; Taksler and Elbel, 2014). This research was designed to expand prior findings on calorie estimation by studying a range of the favorite foods of consumers across the US Specifically, this study investigated (1) whether consumers reasonably estimate US consumers' top 10 favorite foods; (2) how calorie disclosure relates to future consumption intention; and (3) how antecedents (health consciousness, calorie knowledge, and attitudes toward menu labeling) influence consumers' intention to use menu labels.\nLiterature review: Obesity and food consumption away from home\nMethod: The Human Participants Ethics Committee of a university located in the southeast region the United States approved the research protocol before the study was conducted (Protocol #17-024 EX 1702). All the participants provided informed consent before proceeding with the survey.Survey instrument development\nResults: Demographics of the participants\nDiscussion: The association between dining out and the high prevalence of obesity calls for attention to regulations that enable consumers to make informed decisions about food purchases. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires chain restaurants to display nutrition information, with the aim to help consumers make more informed food selection decisions (FDA, 2018). However, the evidence for the effectiveness of menu labeling remains inconclusive. This current study provides insights into the accuracy of Americans' calorie estimations and the influence of calorie disclosure on future consumption intention for the top 10 US consumers' favorite foods. SEM also examined the antecedents of consumers' intention to use menu labels. The findings of this research have significant practical and theoretical implications for restauranteurs, policy makers, healthcare professionals and consumers.The results show that most of the participants in this study were able to estimate the calories of appetizers and entrees within the acceptable range of +-30 percent, but they also tended to underestimate the calories in hamburgers and to underestimate the calories in steak. The literature showed that most consumers underestimated food calories while eating out and were not good judges of the calorie content of the least healthy foods (Bates et al., 2011; Guthrie et al., 2015). Block et al. (2013) reported that underestimation of calorie content was common, with almost a quarter of the participants underestimating calories by at least 500 kcal (Block et al., 2013). Underestimation of calories may be contributing to the obesity epidemic (Chandon and Wansink, 2007) by encouraging consumption of larger meals; therefore, nutrition education is needed to increase awareness of nutrition content. However, the participants mostly overestimated calories in desserts, including vanilla ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, possibly because they were familiar with typical sizes of these \"sweets\" larger than the serving sizes they were asked to estimate. These findings may indicate a need for education to help consumers better understand typical serving sizes and the use of such information to determine their total amount of calories consumed.There are mixed results in the literature on whether calorie information affects food consumption and purchase decisions (Arsenault et al., 2014; Burton et al., 2009; Dumanovsky et al., 2011; Elbel, 2011; Krieger et al., 2013; Pulos and Leng, 2010; Tandon et al., 2010; Yamamoto et al., 2005). Systemic reviews on the influence of menu labeling on food ordered and purchased by consumers concluded that the effects of menu labels were marginal, weak, or inconsistent due to the differences in settings in which the studies were conducted, methodologies, or length of the data collection (Harnack and French, 2008; Swartz et al., 2011; Kiszko et al., 2014). Overall, the findings of this study show that disclosure of calorie information impacts food consumption patterns. Once the participants realized they had underestimated the food items' calories and that the actual calories of a piece of pizza, for example, were higher than they expected, their intention to consumption this food item decreased. Even consumers who estimated the calories within the acceptable range reduced their consumption frequency once they were aware of the food items' actual calorie content. These findings are consistent with Yoon and George (2012), who showed that consumers were less impressed by a menu item once they noticed its calories and nutritional information. They concluded that the nutritional information presented on menus could influence consumers' decision-making in restaurant settings (Yoon and George, 2012). A previous study on US consumers in quick-service restaurants showed that disclosure of caloric data decreased unhealthy food selections, especially when the calories exceeded the participants' expectations (Burton et al., 2009).However, the present study results also show that consumers will increase their future consumption frequency if they find that they have overestimated food calories, and the food items have fewer calories than expected. Combining these findings, it can be implied that calorie disclosure does influence consumers' decision-making and consumption behaviors in both directions. The importance of disclosing calorie information is further supported by research in which approximately 50 percent of global consumers stated that fast food restaurants and another 41 percent stated that sit-down restaurants should always make nutrition information available (Frighetton, 2012). Consumers have a right to understand the nutritional value of the food they purchase and should receive clear disclosure of this information (Pomeranz and Brownell, 2008). For restauranteurs, it may mean they may advocate the disclosure of food calories, ad creatively manipulate the text colors, font and menu size and position of the calorie information to make such information more noticeable and identifiable to the consumers (Dallas et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2012; Panitz, 2000).The SEM results show that health consciousness and knowledge of food calories positively influence intention to use menu labels; the participants who were more interested in engaging in health behaviors and more accurately estimated the calories of food items had higher intention to read menu labels in the future. These findings are consistent with studies conducted by Cooke and Papadaki (2014); DiPietro et al. (2016); Misra (2007), but was opposite of Ellison et al. (2013). These study results, therefore, indicate that strategies and inventions should be initiated to increase health consciousness and knowledge of food calorie because equipping individuals with these two key characteristics might facilitate intention to use menu labels. Such strategies may include improving consumers' access to various health- and nutrition-related information and messages via channels such as the Internet, websites, and fitness apps (Hill, 2017).The study results further reveal that attitudes positively affected intention to use menu labels, as found by Delvarani et al. (2013) and Kim et al. 02013). Individuals who perceive menu labels as beneficial opt to read them for various reasons, such as disease prevention and maintenance of physical health (Gracia et al., 2007; Jeong and Ham, 2018). Additionally, this study show that individuals who demonstrate more positive attitudes toward menu labeling more accurately estimate calories. These findings provide useful insights for future nutrition interventions, suggesting that improving attitudes toward menu labels might be a crucial step to increase calorie knowledge of various foods and encourage future intention to use menu labels.\nLimitations and recommendations for future studies: This study has a few limitations. Although evidences have supported the benefits of using AMT as a data collection platform (i.e. low cost, broader insights and reliable, accurate results), some have argued that the participants can be motivated by financial incentives, and the participant pool can also be small (Paolacci et al., 2010; Rand, 2012; Shank, 2016). This recruitment method, therefore, could limit the generalizability of the results and the results should be interpreted with caution.To evaluate whether consumers realistically estimate the caloric content of Americans' 10 favorite foods, pictures and descriptions of the food items were presented to the participants, but their images of the food could have differed based on their previous experience. Take, for example, a plain hotdog in a bun without condiments. Based on their familiarity with the food, the participants may have considered a regular hotdog, gourmet hotdog, or beef, pork, or Turkey dog. To be more realistic, future studies should use experimental settings with actual food items. It is also possible that some of the participants have never been exposed to or tasted the food items they were asked to estimate, due to their cultural and religious backgrounds and dietary restrictions, and therefore were unable to provide a more accurate estimation of the food calories. These questions could be added to future survey instrument to provide a more comprehensive understanding on factors that affect the accuracy of calorie estimation. Furthermore, this study measured future intention to read menu labels, which might not translate to actual behaviors. A follow-up, observational study maybe conducted to investigate if intention to read menu labels transforms into real behaviors among the participants.The theoretical model of this study included three key constructs (health consciousness, calorie knowledge and attitudes toward menu labels) identified in previous research as good antecedents of intention to use menu labels. However, these three constructs explained 55 percent of intention to use menu labels. Future studies could include other constructs such as general nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy at reading menu labels to more broadly investigate factors in consumers' menu label use intention. Other variables, such as demographics of the consumers, weight and health status that have been identified in previous literature as factors that affected behaviors related to menu label reading (Elbel, 2011; Ellison et al., 2013) may also be included in future studies to more provide a more holistic picture on factors that affect intention to use menu labels among consumers. Additionally, subjective norm and perceived behavior control, which are two other constructs that are commonly investigated simultaneously with attitudes (Kim et al., 2013) may also be included in the future study to enhance the theoretical framework of this study.\nConclusions: The study results show that almost half of the participants were able to estimate the calories in 6 of the 10 food items within the acceptable range of +-30 percent of actual calories. However, the participants tended to overestimate the calories in dessert items, such as cookies and ice cream. Disclosure of actual calories had varying effects on future consumption intention, depending on whether the consumers overestimated or underestimated the food calories. Using SEM, the study found that variables including health consciousness, food calorie knowledge and attitudes toward menu labels positively affected consumers' future intention to use menu labels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study investigated whether consumers have reasonable estimates of the calorie content of Americans' top 10 favorite foods, explored the effects of calorie disclosure on United States consumers' future consumption frequency of these food items, and examined the effects of health consciousness, food calorie knowledge, and attitudes toward menu labels on intention to use menu labels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey was developed, pilot tested, and distributed through Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT). The overall model fit and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).\nFindings: The results from 1,005 completed surveys showed that the accuracy of calorie estimations varied across food items. Most consumers could not estimate the calories of steak, hamburgers, chocolate chip cookies, and vanilla ice cream within the acceptable range. Disclosure of calorie information did affect future consumption frequency of the food items. The SEM results showed that health consciousness, food calorie knowledge, and attitudes toward menu labels positively affected consumers' future intention to use menu labels.\nOriginality/value: This study points to a need to educate consumers about food calories and suggests plausible ways to encourage consumers' intention to use of menu labels.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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The angel-halo effect: How increases in corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility relate to firm performance
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Angel-halo effect",
"Corporate social irresponsibility",
"Devil-horn effect",
"Financial and firm performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: We live in a world of increasing paradox; consider the following examples. Wealth in the stock market has reached an all-time high, yet the number of homeless people, and most alarmingly children, living in homeless shelters is also at an all-time high. Where there is an obesity epidemic in developed countries and millions of starving people in developing countries. Where we have more knowledge and technology than ever before matched with increasing social inequality and uncertainty. We have a growing need for government involvement to regulate financial markets and greenhouse gas emissions, yet increasing animosity toward governments across the world with large-scale growth in militias, protests and civil disobedience. Where more than 50 million displaced people across the world (the most since the Second World War) are fleeing persecution in their countries, yet neighboring countries are hardening laws to make it harder for people to enter their countries.\nCorporate social responsibility and irresponsibility, and firm performance: Although researchers have been examining the relationship between CSR and firm performance for decades (summed up nicely by Margolis and Walsh, 2003; Orlitzky et al., 2003), the direction of the relationship remains unclear. Correspondingly, there have been calls for a deconstruction of CSR and its relationship to firm performance, as it has become clear that a one-size-fits-all theoretical approach aiming to explain the relationship is neither feasible nor advisable (Barnett, 2007). More specific to this paper, researchers have also called for a deconstruction of CSR and CSiR, where they are not viewed as a zero-sum game but as separate constructs that can occur simultaneously (Strike et al., 2006; Tench et al., 2012).\nData and methods: Data\nResults: Table I presents descriptive statistics for the dependent and explanatory variables used in the study. Our data indicate that, on average, 27.1 per cent of the firms increase their CSR, whereas 20.1 per cent of the firms increase their CSiR, relative to the level in the previous quarter. Table II presents the correlations among key variables. We find that the correlations among our control variables are less than 35 per cent, and thus, multicollinearity is not a concern.\nDiscussion: We developed and tested three hypotheses in this paper; in this section, we discuss each of them in turn. The first investigated how increases in CSR related to firm performance. Results were consistent with our hypotheses in all three measures of firm performance. Within our five-year (2009-2013) study based on quarterly financial data that occurred immediately after the Great Recession in 2007-2008, it appeared that increases in CSR were positively related to higher profitability (ROA), improved efficiency (asset turnover) and improved market valuation (Tobin's Q). Such improvements are consistent with past literature (Ambec and Lanoie, 2008; King and Lenox, 2001; Margolis and Walsh, 2003; Orlitzky et al., 2003). However, to our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that increasing levels of CSR are related to profitability, efficiency and market value. This suggests a dominating role for CSR on firm performance. Given that our study took place four years after the Great Recession, CSR may have had a particular influence on firm performance in a highly competitive and constrictive environment. In addition, our longitudinal study examined a post-recessionary environment (2009-2010), followed by a period of slow but substantial regrowth (2011-2013). Of interest is that regardless of the macro economic cycle, CSR was related to all three measures of firm performance.\nImplications: Theoretical implications\nLimitations: Our study has two main limitations, both related to the generalizability of our main finding, the angel-halo effect. First, our results were based on a sample of US firms. Therefore, to what extent our findings on the angle-halo effect could be generalized to firms in other countries was beyond the scope of this study and is worthy of future exploration. For example, researchers have noted that the consciousness of CSR is less developed in China than in developed countries, suggesting that we might not find evidence of the angel-halo effect (Yang and Crowther, 2012). Second, our sample period covers 2009 to 2013, during which the economic recovery was slow and weak, and was venerably impacted by several macro shocks, such as the US sovereign debt rating downgrades by S&P in August 2011 and the European sovereign debt crisis in 2011-2012. Whether the angel-halo effect observed in our paper persists in a normal economic environment is an important question to pursue in future research.\nConclusion: In this study, we found that increasing levels of CSR are related to improved profitability, efficiency and market value, and that increasing levels of CSiR are marginally related to decreased profitability. Our research question asked how do increases in CSR (CSiR) while CSiR (CSR) is present relate to various measures of firm performance? We found that increasing levels of CSR when CSiR is present are related to improved efficiency and market value, and that increasing levels of CSiR when CSR is present are related to improved profitability and efficiency.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine how increases in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR) relate to firm performance. Further, this paper investigates how increases in CSR (CSiR) while CSiR (CSR) is present relate to three measures of firm performance: profitability, management efficiency and market valuation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using over 10,000 observations from 2009-2013 and combined data from Sustainalytics and Compustat, this paper examines how increases in either CSR or CSiR relate to firm performance.\nFindings: The paper finds that increased CSR significantly relates to increased firm performance in all three measures, and that increased CSiR significantly relates to decreased profitability only. Furthermore, increased CSR when CSiR is present relates to increased efficiency and market valuation. Finally, increased CSiR when CSR is present relates to increased profitability and efficiency. The results suggest that CSR dominates the relationship to firm performance, as it was positively related to all three measures of firm performance, and when CSR and CSiR exist simultaneously, CSR has a dominant positive effect.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study sample consists of US firms only from 2009-2013, thus the generalizability of the results to other countries and periods is unknown.\nPractical implications: The results demonstrating differing effects based on the measure of firm performance suggest that managers should be specific with which measures are used to gauge the impact of CSR and CSiR. In addition, managers would be wise to invest in CSR, as the results suggest that they can improve profitability, efficiency and market value. Even further, the empirically identified angel-halo effect suggests that investments in CSR may counter any potential negative effects from CSiR. Finally, the latter results suggest that firms can \"get away\" with some degree of CSiR when CSR is present.\nOriginality/value: By examining changing levels of CSR and CSiR independently and conjunctly across various measures of firm performance, this paper found a dominating role for CSR, which is labeled as the angel-halo effect.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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