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From deep-level similarity to taking charge: The moderating role of face consciousness and managerial competency of inclusion	[ "Taking charge", "Face consciousness", "Managerial competency of inclusion", "Supervisor-subordinate deep-level similarity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizations and the work environment are increasingly complex and demanding. For organizations to be effective and productive, employees need to perform well, stay motivated, and more and more often, employees must be proactive and take charge in order to meet increasing demands of the work environment.\nLiterature review and hypotheses: S-S DLS and taking charge\nMethods and results: Samples and procedures\nResults: Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA)\nDiscussion: Employee proactivity in the form of taking charge can enhance desirable organizational outcomes via enhancing task performance, encouraging voice for improvement, and by encouraging role spanning (Grant et al., 2011; Morrison and Phelps, 1999). Understanding the conditions under which taking charge is more likely to happen can be useful to scholars and practitioners. The results of our study are a contribution insofar as they shed light on the psychological forces that drive taking charge behaviors. We found that S-S DLS positively predicted employee taking charge. Moreover, both employee FC and MCI moderated the relationship between S-S DLS and employee taking charge behaviors. It was found that the S-S DLS to employee taking charge relationship was stronger when employee FC was high. Likewise, the S-S DLS to employee taking charge relationship was stronger when employees perceived lower MCI.\nStudy limitations: This study is not without limitations. First, as the design of our study was cross-sectional, the analyses and the results in this study are correlational, as such, inferences about causality are not possible. We cannot exclude alternative explanations for our results. For example, employees who engage in taking charge behaviors might earn more trust from supervisor, and facilitated higher quality interaction with supervisor, which will foster S-S DLS. We acknowledge that the relationship between S-S DLS and taking charge may be reciprocal or cyclical. A causal relationship between variables needs to be further tested by future longitudinal studies and possibly via experimental and quasi-experimental methodologies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between supervisor-subordinate deep-level similarity and employee taking charge behavior. Face consciousness (FC) and managerial competency of inclusion (MCI) are examined as moderators.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Responses from 193 employees and 51 supervisors were examined using hierarchical linear analysis to assess the relationship between the study variables because employee responses were nested within supervisor.\nFindings: Supervisor-subordinate deep-level similarity is positively associated with employee taking charge behavior. Employee FC moderates the relationship between deep-level similarity and taking charge. MCI also moderates the relationships between deep-level similarity and taking charge.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is cross-sectional; longitudinal studies are needed to examine the relationships among study variables over time. This work should also be extended to the western context. The findings highlight deep-level similarity as predictive of taking charge while also identifying MCI and FC as important for understanding what predicts taking charge.\nPractical implications: The findings can be used to develop managerial training programs that foster competency of inclusion. It is possible to develop organizational interventions (selection and training) to maximize employees and manager congruence/fit.\nOriginality/value: This study is a novel contribution that investigates facet of proactive behaviors. Examining the moderating roles of FC and MCI further elucidates how similarity fosters taking charge behaviors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Global financial crisis: dharmic transgressions and solutions	[ "World economy", "Social welfare economics", "Economic depression", "Global financial crisis", "Dharma", "Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction - an overview of the crisis: The financial crisis which rocked the global economy during 2008 and 2009 is considered as the most devastating economic event since the great depression of the 1930s (Papademos, 2009). The after effects of the crisis are still being felt across the world, with the Greece and Ireland crisis being the latest of its manifestations (Vocke, 2010). The global crisis was initially founded on a low interest rate regime combined with large inflows of foreign funds fueling a housing construction boom and encouraging debt-financed consumption in the USA. The US Federal Government made it possible for almost everyone to own a home by giving a 1 percent rate on mortgages. Loans including mortgages were granted to almost everybody without checking the borrower's credit worthiness.Lenders were keen and confident to grant \"risky subprime\" loans because of financial innovation. The loans were aggregated and sold to investment banks which in turn bundled these loans into higher yielding mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and sold to investors around the world. Such financial innovation enabled institutions and investors around the world to invest in the US housing market. However, credit rating agencies and investors failed to properly price the risk involved with mortgage related financial products. As housing prices declined, major global financial institutions that had borrowed and invested heavily in subprime MBS reported significant losses. Falling prices also resulted in homes worth less than the mortgage loan, providing a financial incentive to enter foreclosure. This crisis peaked towards the end of 2008.Several financial institutions and banks in the USA and Europe failed due to this crisis. The governments had to bail out institutions which were considered too big to fail. Economies worldwide including Asia, Africa and Latin America slowed as credit tightened and international trade declined. Several market-based and regulatory solutions were implemented to contain the risk but significant risks continue to remain for the world economy till the current time (Chossudovsky and Marshall, 2010; Smith, 2010).\nEconomic crisis or ethical crisis? A review of linkages: Several scholars studied the ethical issues related to the global financial crisis from various perspectives. Buiter (2007) pointed out that the crisis was the product of a perfect storm bringing together a number of microeconomic and macroeconomic pathologies. Among the microeconomic systemic failures were wanton securitization, fundamental flaws in the rating agencies' business model, the procyclical behavior of leverage in much of the financial system, privately rational but socially inefficient disintermediation and competitive international de-regulation. Among the macroeconomic pathologies that contributed to the crisis were excessive global liquidity and an ex-ante global saving glut.Researchers analyzed the failure of ethics which caused and fuelled the crisis. While Wesberry (2009) linked the crisis to ethical and cultural decline, Longstaff (2008) showed that negative values of lying, cheating, using power oppressively and financial dishonesty had distorted the free market leading to the crisis. Gilani (2009) stated that the compensation-defined culture of Wall Street led to the crisis. These researchers called for a stronger values system to prevent such crisis. Benton (2009) in this regard emphasized that it is necessary to empower employees to stand in opposition, to question, to push, and to think morally about ways to meet corporate goals in order to create an ethical financial system. The need of the hour is to develop a better work ethic, reduce greed and be conservative (Robinson, 2008).Scholars analyzed the impact of greed on the crisis and highlighted its consequences (Knights, 2009; Poon, 2008; Robinson, 2008). Nielsen (2008, p. 3)commented that one of the important results of the subprime crisis was the transfer of wealth from ordinary people to financial institutions. This has led to a situation of \"private profits and socialized risk\". Lo (2009) studied the impact of greed on asset bubbles while Birch (n.d.) analyzed the distortions in risk taking due to greed. These negative outcomes can be curbed only when the financial system is based on more inclusive goals and objectives. The importance of inculcation of inclusive social goals in the financial world was stressed by Keynes as early as 1929 at the inception of the great depression:[...] it will take 100 years before the economy reorganizes itself on more positive values, such as solidarity and understanding towards the most unfortunate and the needy, placing human beings at the top of every economic activity and establishing ethical finance to be at the service of human and social progress (Triquell, 2009, p. 21).Sen (2009) argued that the crisis raised concerns whether capitalism in its current form needs revision. The crisis necessitated economic organizations to go beyond providing short-term solutions to enabling creating a more decent world.Scholars also analysed the importance of an economic system based on trust and stewardship to handle such crisis. Subbarao (2009) in this regard stated that the term credit derives from the Latin word credere, meaning to believe. Trillions of financial transactions take place everyday based on trust. Without broad based trust and presumption of honest behavior, it will not be possible for the financial sector to grow in importance. Similarly Bogle (2010, para 10) emphasized that true reform of financial markets will not be found until financial professionals turn their focus away from the salesmanship that produced so much of the excess of the recent era, and embrace the stewardship that their profession demands.Ultimately, Rhodes (n.d.) stated that financial crisis has highlighted a spiritual void in modern society and therefore it is necessary to turn back to spiritual values to put back the world economy on track.\nFacets of dharma - the philosophy of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba: Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who is worshipped by millions as a foremost spiritual leader has expounded on the concept of dharma on several occasions. (More information about Bhagavan Baba can be had at www.srisathyasai.org.in). Baba (2008, p. 238) describes that \"dharma is a power-packed term epitomizing an entire philosophy and a way of life\". At the level of performing actions dharma means:[...] being careful not to offend propriety or the canons of good nature; not playing false to the promptings of the inner voice; being prepared at all times to respect the appropriate dictates of conscience; watching ones steps to see whether they are in someone else's way and being ever vigilant to discover the truth behind all the scintillating variety (Baba, 2003, p. 5).Dharma at a rule-based level can be observed in the golden rule, \"Do unto others what you wish them to do unto you; do not do unto others what you do not wish them to do unto you\" (Baba, 2005, vol. 2, p. 252). Other rules that can be derived from dharma include (Baba, 1999, vol. 30; 1999, vol. 25; 2002, vol. 16):* Misuse of money is a great evil.* It is better to aspire for goodness than greatness.* Destroying anger, one is free from grief.* By conquering desire, one becomes unselfish.* Conquering greed, one realises happiness.* When duties are discharged properly, rights will be secured of their own accord.According to Baba, dharma is integrated with several other values. \"Dharma is imbued with truth and justice\" (Baba, 2003, p. 109). The attributes of dharma are justice, sense control, sense of honour, love, dignity, goodness, meditation, sympathy, nonviolence (Baba, 2003, p. 28). Dharma is selfless. Baba (2004, p. 250) explains, \"it is only when selfishness is removed while doing an act, can that act be described as an aspect of dharma\". Dharma is expressed in love filled acts. Baba (1999, vol. 14, p. 335) elaborates, \"dharma must flow through the triple channel of love, mercy and detachment, in order to feed the roots of service\". Respect is the main lesson that dharma teaches. Gratitude is the spring which feeds that respect (Baba, 2005, vol. 4).Dharma is intimately spiritual in nature. According to Baba, the goal of dharma is the merging of the self in the over-self. To become intoxicated with the nectar of union with over-self; that is the ultimate goal of dharma and of action inspired by dharma. The aim of dharma is to make individuals give up attachment to external nature and the illusion that it causes and to make individuals realize their reality or rather, unrealize what they have now taken as real so that they may stand revealed in their genuine identity (Baba, 2003).Dharma is the foundation for social welfare states Bhagavan Baba (2005, vol. 4, p. 18). Baba (1999, vol. 25, p. 46) exhorts:[...] entertain the sacred feeling that the society's good is also individual's good. There can be no nobler feeling than this. The true mark of a human being is the cultivation of a broad outlook.The various facets of dharma as outline above show that Baba's philosophy is quintessentially \"Sanathana Dharma\" (eternal dharma). The current paper is therefore an endeavor in understanding the relevance of Bhagavan Baba's philosophy in diagnosing and providing solutions even to complex global problems like the financial crisis. The focal thrust of the paper is to emphasize that the practice of Baba's philosophy of dharma could have avoided the crisis and all its devastations in the first place and show that through the practice of dharma, every sphere of activity including finance, banking and investments can ultimately promote social welfare.\nDharma for social welfare - new insights and applications: The philosophy of dharma as propounded by Baba has found its applications in several projects and institutions which promote social welfare. These projects encompass a wide variety of areas like medical care, education and social care. The uniqueness of these projects is that the benefits of all these projects are offered to all beneficiaries without any distinction absolutely free of cost This has resulted in the creation of a values-based institute of higher learning (Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning), a super specialty hospital and a water supply project which helps a population of more than a million (Chaden, 2004). The institute of higher learning has the vision of imparting values-based education creating citizens who have zeal to promote social welfare (Arweck and Nesbitt, 2007). It is interesting to note that alumni of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning have joined several financial institutions promoting the practice of dharma (Aitken, 2004). The new insight gained from all these projects of Bhagavan Baba is that practice of dharma must ultimately result in social welfare.\nDharmic transgressions and the global crisis: Several dharmic transgressions triggered and fuelled the global financial crisis. These have been discussed below, in the light of the philosophy of Bhagavan Baba.Greed\nSolutions: The most important behavioral flaw which triggered and fuelled the crisis was self-centered behavior of the concerned players without any regard for social welfare. As discussed earlier, the philosophy of dharma of Baba stresses the importance of promoting social welfare in every sphere of activity. Therefore, the solutions to prevent a crisis of this magnitude in the future would be to inculcate dharmic values and implement practices guided by dharmic injunctions. These solutions would specifically stress the need to contain self-centered behavior and explicitly contribute towards larger social welfare. The suggestions will include the following.For investors\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The 2008-2009 global crisis was not only a financial calamity, but also a major ethical disaster. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the dharmic transgressions that took place in connection with the crisis using the philosophy of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, a world spiritual leader and teacher.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper initially gives a brief overview of the unfolding crisis, its devastation of the world economy and a review of related literature. The paper then outlines the concept of dharma which, as expounded by Bhagavan Baba, must ultimately result in social welfare. The paper goes on to analyze the factors that created, triggered and fuelled the crisis from this perspective. The paper also outlines solutions based on Baba's philosophy to prevent such a crisis from occurring in the future.\nFindings: - The fundamental finding of the paper is that the global financial crisis was triggered and fuelled by factors which were transgressions of dharma. Thus, the solution to prevent such a crisis is adherence to dharma.\nPractical implications: - The paper gives several recommendations to investors, institutions and regulators to act in a way to prevent such crises in the future.\nSocial implications: - If the principles of dharma are adhered to, they will not only prevent occurrence of financial crises, but will also make the financial system work for the welfare of the entire society.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows the relevance of the teachings of Bhagavan Baba which are quintessentially the philosophy of \"Sanathana Dharma\" (eternal dharma) in solving current economic problems and contributing to social welfare.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
HPWS and climate for inclusion: a moral legitimacy lens	[ "High-performance work systems", "Climate for inclusion", "Moral legitimacy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: We have reactionary, negligent individuals on all levels at the university level on our campus and at the university system level, and so their job descriptions explicitly say that they're supposed to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all students [...] But when we have issues of sexual assault, when we have issues of racism, when we have issues of homophobia, the campus climate continues to deteriorate because we don't have strong leadership, willing to actually make change(Student Association Representative (The) Washington Post).The above excerpt refers to recent protests that occurred in a campus about the failure of a university to provide an inclusive work environment for both students and faculty. An inclusive work environment--or, a work climate that encourages a sense of belongingness and uniqueness among employees (Shore et al., 2011)--is purported to address the challenge of managing a diverse workforce that comprises individuals who have a broad range of visible and non-visible differences (Chhokar et al., 2012). Employees from underrepresented groups frequently report experiencing discrimination (Goldman et al., 2006). In response to this problem, organizations have dedicated resources toward developing inclusive environments to improve organizational effectiveness (Shore et al., 2009). For example, in attempt to address protests, the university referenced in the above excerpt took several steps one year later that resulted in a resource allocation of $50 million to inclusion initiatives (Rosenberg, 2015). This is one practical example that highlights how human resource (HR) policies, practices and procedures that function together as a larger system--also known as high-performance work systems (HPWS) (Becker and Huselid, 1998), of which are inclusion oriented, appear to play an important role in facilitating inclusive environments.\nLiterature review of diversity climate research: Diversity and inclusion scholars have devoted considerable effort toward understanding the construct of diversity climate that, notwithstanding the considerable variation in definitions inherent within the extant literature, can broadly be defined as: \"[...] perceptions of fairness and inclusion within organizational settings\" (McKay and Avery, 2015, p. 224). However, researchers have noted that there remains misalignment between the definitions and conceptualizations of diversity climate-related constructs (Dwertmann and Boehm, 2016). We adopt the broad notion of diversity climate that is in line with McKay and Avery's conceptualization that suggests these climates focus primarily on fairness and inclusion.\nTheoretical development: a moral legitimacy lens: Moral legitimacy theory is derived from institutional research (Suchman, 1995) that explains how organizations evolve and change in a domestic and global context (Ferner et al., 2005). Institutional theorists argue that embedded schemas, rules, norms and routines in organizational systems are to establish authority over social behavior (Deephouse and Suchman, 2008). In other words, institutionalization occurs when organizational practices gain acceptance or legitimacy from organizational members, and thus these practices represent the predominant way in which people conduct business (Meyer and Rowan, 1977). Tyler (1997, p. 323) defined legitimacy as \"the belief that authorities are entitled to be obeyed.\" That said, legitimacy is obtained by organizations that conform to these institutional practices, thereby demonstrating they have the right to exist.\nDiscussion: In response to Shore et al.'s (2011) call for more research on the antecedents of CFI, this paper advances the argument that HPWS are critical in shaping perceptions of CFI based on the perceived moral legitimacy of such systems. Drawing on moral legitimacy theory (Suchman, 1995), HPWS coverage (structural legitimacy), HPWS implementation (procedural legitimacy), HPWS reputation (consequential legitimacy) and HR leadership within HPWS (personal legitimacy) were explored for effects on perceptions of the moral legitimacy of HPWS and indirectly on CFI. In contrast to most legitimacy research, this research sought to expand our understanding of how employees' perception of moral legitimacy differs by examining moral identity as a moderating variable at the individual level. This research further posits that the convergence of individual-level perceptions of CFI to the collective level is contingent on the uniformity of perceptions between majority and minority groups.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply insights from the moral legitimacy theory to understand how climate for inclusion (CFI) is cultivated at the individual and collective levels, thereby highlighting the influence of employee perceptions of inclusion-oriented high-performance work systems (HPWS) on CFI.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A multi-level conceptual framework is introduced to explain how employee perceptions develop about the moral legitimacy of inclusion-oriented HPWS and the subsequent influence on CFI.\nFindings: CFI is theorized to manifest when employees perceive inclusion-oriented HPWS as morally legitimate according to four unit-level features. Employees with a strong moral identity will be particularly attuned to the moral legitimacy of each of the unit-level HPWS features, thereby strengthening the perceived HPWS and CFI relationship at the individual level. The convergence of individual-level perceptions of CFI to the collective level will be strongest when climate variability is low for majority and minority groups.\nPractical implications: Organizations seeking to develop CFI should consider the role of HPWS and the perceived moral legitimacy of such systems. This consideration may involve policy amendments to include a broadened scope of HPWS.\nOriginality/value: This paper explores how employee perceptions of the moral legitimacy of HPWS can help or hinder CFI, thereby offering a novel framework for future inclusion and human resource management research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementation of a quality management system according to 9001 standard in a hospital in the home unit: Changes and achievements	[ "Hospital in the Home", "Quality care", "ISO standard", "Patient care", "ISO 9000 series", "Hospitals", "Spain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, there has been growing interest in quality and safety in health care. Many hospital departments have implemented a Quality Management System (QMS) to improve efficiency and quality of care.Hospital in the Home (HIH) is an alternative to conventional hospitalization which allows patients with conditions that would otherwise require inpatient care to be treated in their own home (Leff et al., 2005; Shepperd and Iliffe, 2005). Most of the activities carried out are similar to those performed in hospital. However, transferring care to the patient's home requires management of certain specific services (provision of oxygen therapy, staff travel, etc.).Some Hospital in the Home Units have implemented a quality system. The standards used ranged from generic international standards (ISO 9001), through national sector specific standards, standards developed by relevant professional bodies to state-based standards for this type of service.The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was founded in 1947 to provide standardization of technical specifications for products traded in the international marketplace. The ISO 9001 family of quality management system standards can be applied to any type of organization aimed at the production of goods or services. Some authors have reported their results implementing a QMS according to ISO standard in Hospital Departments (Beholz et al., 2003; Van den Heuvel et al., 2005; Miana Mena et al., 2007; Kanold et al., 2008).This study was undertaken to describe our experience implementing a QMS according to ISO-9001 in a Hospital in the Home Unit.\n2. Materials and methods: The Hospital Clinico San Carlos is a 1000-bed tertiary hospital located in the city of Madrid, Spain.The Hospital in the Home Unit is composed of 16 staff members. Patients with different pathologies (infectious diseases, thromboembolic diseases, heart failure, exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, post surgical care and palliative care) are admitted to our Unit each year.Nurses travel daily to the patient's home to administer intravenous treatments and draw a blood sample when appropriate. The physician conducts two to three home visits per week, depending on the patient's clinical course. On admission, the patient is provided with a phone number to contact the Unit if any problem arises requiring an urgent home visit by the HIH staff.In October 2007, we began to implement a QMS assisted by the Hospital Quality Management Department without hiring an external consultant. All personnel were informed about the quality management implementation process and the benefits of working with a QMS. Several protocols were elaborated (see Table I).It was necessary during the implementation process:* Describe the way the QMS is established, documented, improved and maintained (Requirement 4).* Provide evidence of management commitment (Requirement 5).* Define and provide the human and material resources required by the QMS (Requirement 6).* Identify our patients' requirements to provide the best medical care (Requirement 7).* Control, measure and improve the QMS (Requirement 8).Table II shows main changes carried out as a result of QMS implementation.The processes established by our Unit were (see Figure 1):2.1 Core processes, related directly with patient care\n3. Management process: 3.1 Management reviews\n4. Results: The implementation process lasted one year. Few months after implementation International Certification Body SGS audited and awarded HIH Unit ISO-9001 certification in June 2008 with non-conformities found at certification audit. Since then, our quality system is assessed by SGS once a year.The results obtained after two years of implementation are (see Table IV).1. Increase in patient satisfaction: In June 2008, assessment of the quality of care provided by our staff was scored at 4.7 (on a 1 to 5 scale). Patient satisfaction rate was 92 per cent. Two years later, the evaluation of quality of the care has increased until 4.96, and patient satisfaction has reached 98.8 per cent. 100 per cent of patients admitted to HIH would use the service again if the opportunity arose and would recommend HIH to others. A 36 per cent survey response rate was obtained.2. All patients who made an urgent consultation during their admission to the HIH Unit, as they presented a clinical event or a query in their treatment considered that the problem was resolved satisfactorily.3. No complaint from our patients has been received.4. Twenty one compliments in writing has been received.5. There were not medical equipment failures.6. The percentage of unscheduled returns to Hospital has decreased from 7 per cent to 3 per cent (47 out of 1,570 patients admitted this year).7. The external suppliers' performance has improved. At present, 100 per cent of patients who require oxygen or aerosol therapy have it at their home by the time they return from hospital. It was not possible two years ago. Therefore, discharge from Hospital had to be delayed. After several meetings with this supplier this goal was achieved.8. All the material and medication needed by staff was in their bag when necessary.9. The number of referring physicians and admissions has increased. Two years after implementation the number of patients admitted to HIH has increased by more than 20 per cent reaching 1570 patients this year. Percentage of patients admitted from Department of Surgery has increase from 5 to 16 per cent.10. Compliance to protocols: in 97 per cent of cases protocols has been followed.11. Our percentage of inappropriate referrals has decreased from 18 to 8 per cent. The most common causes of inappropriate referrals were nature of care not appropriate for HIH delivery and lack of 24-hours carer support. Patient refusal to HIH care was very uncommon (0.5 per cent).12. Mean stay is 9.8 days. This result has not changed in these years. One possible explanation is the increase in number of admissions for long intravenous treatment (endocarditis, abdominal abscess, etc) and the rise of patients admitted from the Emergency Department (treatment entirely at home).13. Six medication-related incidents were detected. In two cases the incidents were not due to error (one patient experienced myoclonias with the correct dose of ceftazidime and other patient suffered hallucinations after the start of opioid therapy). In the other four cases, error could be detected before reaching the patient (one prescription error was detected during staff meeting and three preparing errors checking \"medication list\" at home).\n5. Discussion: Until we know this is the first article describing the implementation of a quality management system according to ISO 9001 standard in a Hospital in the Home Unit.Several authors have reported better outcomes including higher patient satisfaction after implementing an ISO quality management system in different Hospital Departments. (Beholz et al., 2003; Van den Heuvel et al., 2005; Miana Mena et al., 2007; Kanold et al., 2008).Quality in Health organizations is very important because the quality of care delivered by clinicians depends substantially on the capability of the departments where they work. Doctor-patient relationship is essential to patient satisfaction, but there are other factors that very significantly influence the quality of care provided. These factors range from ensuring that medical equipment works correctly to the establishment of protocols that lead to a reduction in variability among staff.There is not a Spanish national system for HIH accreditation. Then, we decided to implement an international standard. It has been very useful in multiple aspects.Process map has allowed us to unify criteria among staff. The process defines and controls the work that should be done and explains how it should be done and who should do it.Continual improvements are achieved by carrying out audits, analyzing data, setting objectives and implementing corrective and preventive actions.A very important aspect of ISO standard is to considerer all customers' satisfaction. Referring physicians are HIH customers. Their satisfaction is especially important because the utilization by clinicians is an essential factor for the viability of HIH.Patients treated at home are usually satisfied (Montalto, 1996; Ojoo et al., 2002, Leff et al., 2006). Different surveys and interviews reflect an index satisfaction over 90 per cent. Our patient satisfaction index score has increased, reaching 98.8 per cent. This result is remarkable because an anonymous postal survey was used to measure satisfaction instead of telephone interview. It is suggested than postal survey may return a higher rate of negative responses.An essential aspect to provide high quality of care is supplier control to ensure that suppliers meet their contractual commitments. Standards for the procurement of services and criteria used for evaluating must be established. Ambulance service and oxygen supplier are our most important suppliers. Their performance has improved significantly after implementation.It is mandatory to develop a set of quality indicators that can be used for both quality assurance and quality improvement.Some general indicators can be used in HIH: number of admissions, mean stay, number of complaints and compliments, percentage of satisfied/very satisfied patients, compliance to protocols and equipment malfunction.It is necessary to implement specific HIH indicators. Montalto et al. (1999, pp. 413-18) developed some clinical indicators for HIH care: unplanned returns to hospital during HIH admission, unexpected patient telephone calls, unscheduled staff call-outs and refusal to consent to HIH treatment. Unplanned return to hospital is the most important indicator because it may be caused by poor initial choice therapy, misdiagnosis or inappropriate admission to HIH.Montalto et al. (1999, pp. 413-18) found that 7.3 per cent of patients admitted to HIH had an unplanned return to Hospital. The same group reported recently that 143 patients out of 3,423 admitted to HIH from 2000 to 2007 (4.2 per cent) experienced unplanned return to Hospital (Montalto et al., 2010).After implementation our unscheduled returns to Hospital rate has decreased from 7 to 3 per cent. Admission protocols for specific illness and standardization of action criteria among staff have been very important to achieve this objective.We have established other specific HIH indicators: inappropriate referrals rate, number of referring physicians and urgent telephone calls considered solved by patients rate.HIH staff must evaluate if referred patient fulfils HIH admission criteria. This process usually takes nearly 30 minutes. A low percentage of inappropriate referrals allow saving time for admitting more patients in HIH program. In our study to refer patients which do not require hospital level care or do not have 24-hours caregiver were the main causes of inappropriate referral. Patient refusal to HIH care was very uncommon, only 0.5 per cent of patients did not accept treatment at home. This low rate is influenced by the availability of frequent medical visits and call-out ability.More admissions can be obtained by increasing the number of referring physicians. This is very important because more patients benefit from being treated at home and savings in hospital bed days increase. We have expanded our relationship with Department of Surgery. Of patients admitted to our Unit this year 16 per cent have been referred from this Department.We encourage our patients to make a telephone call as they present a clinical event or a query in their treatment. It is important to know if the patient considers that the problem has been solved. If so, the patient probably will use the service again if opportunity arose.Adverse events are an important problem in health care (Barker et al., 2002; Winterstein et al., 2004). It is impossible to avoid them completely. But error can be detected before reaching patient by introducing changes in the organization.Montalto et al. (1999, pp. 413-18) described only one medication error in HIH among 759 patients attended over a three-months period. Liu and Taylor (2002, pp. 400-5) reported six adverse events among 357 patients admitted to the HIH Unit from Emergency Department. Our results are very similar. Four medication-related errors could be detected before reaching patient thanks to daily staff meeting and checking of \"medication list\" at patient's home.In our experience implementation of a quality management system according to ISO standard allows to improve quality of care and patient satisfaction in a Hospital in the Home Unit.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe changes and results obtained after implementation of a quality management system (QMS) according to ISO standards in a Hospital in the Home (HIH) Unit.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper describes changes made and outcomes achieved. This took part in the HiH Unit, Clinico Hospital, Madrid, Spain, and looked at admissions, mean stay, patient satisfaction, adverse events, returns to hospital, no admitted referrals, complaints, compliance to protocols, equipment failures and resolution of urgent consultations.\nFindings: - In June 2008, HiH Unit, Clinico Hospital obtained ISO certification. The main results achieved are as follows. There was an increase in patients' satisfaction - in June 2008, assessment of the quality of care provided by staff was scored at 4.7 (on a scale of 1 to 5); in 2010 it has been scored at 4.96. Patient satisfaction rate has increased from 92 percent to 98.8 percent. No complaints from patients were received. Unscheduled returns to hospital have decreased from 7 percent to 3 percent. There were no medical equipment failures. External suppliers' performance has improved. Material and medication needed by staff was available when necessary. The number of admissions has increased. Compliance to protocols has reached 97 percent. Inappropriate referrals have decreased by 8 percent. Six medications-related incidents were detected; in two cases the incident was not due to an error. In the other four cases error could have been detected before reaching the patient.\nOriginality/value: - Implementations of an ISO quality management system allow improved quality of care and patient satisfaction in a HIH Unit.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Clustering or interacting for knowledge? Towards an entangled view of knowledge in regional growth policy	[ "Policy", "Network", "Cluster", "Knowledge", "IMP", "Economic geography" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The starting point of the goal of creating a \"Europe of regions\" and stimulating innovation in these regions is often considered to be the Maastricht Treaty of 1991 and the establishment of the Committee of Regions. This subsequently gave birth to the notion of a \"Europe of regions\" implementing regional administrative structures and post-national planning actions (Andresen, 2011; Veggeland, 2000). The policy development later gave rise to the Lisbon Strategy (2000-2010) and its ambitious goal to make the EU the world's most competitive, dynamic and knowledge-based economy. The EU's main tools to accomplish this strategy are the structural funds.\n2. Literature review of knowledge in regional growth policy: In order to facilitate regional economic growth the European Union has promoted the design of more than 1,000 cluster initiatives in Europe (Solvell, 2009). These cluster initiatives rest on the belief that business agglomeration and closer interaction between business, academia and public officials will spur knowledge dissemination and innovation within a region. In order to understand this phenomenon it is important to understand the conceptual underpinnings behind the cluster policy and its view on knowledge.\n3. Research design: In-depth case study research is a well-established methodology in industrial marketing and IMP network research (Visconti, 2009) and plays an \"important role in theory development within industrial marketing and the industrial networks paradigm\" (Wagner et al., 2009, p. 6). As stated by Borghini et al. (2010), the principal objective of case study research is \"a deep understanding of the actors, interactions, sentiments, and behaviors occurring for a specific process through time.\" According to Henneberg et al. (2010), the methodological challenge for current business marketing research is to conceptually integrate the perceptions and cognitions of the manager or actor into the industrial network approach and to capture the interaction between these actors.\n4. Case description: 4.1. The ECEI cluster quality indicators\n5. Analysis: Discussions of the cluster management with the managers of FPX have indicated that the evaluation process of the ECEI has had a large influence on the managers' work. When asked about their general strategies in managing the cluster initiative their wording is often implicitly, but also explicitly, influenced by the ECEI documents. As a consequence, the evaluation of the FPX organization is described as focussing on number of contacts initiated and new members gained. A FPX manager describes their goals:\n6. Discussion: 6.1. Clustering for knowledge\n7. Conclusion: This paper presents two different conceptual foundations on how to conceptualize knowledge, an \"entangled\" and a \"disentangled\" view. The entangled view sees knowledge as a contextually limited and practical activity that is enacted when heterogeneous resources are combined in producer-user interfaces. Hence, the value of knowledge is \"entangled\" in the specific context in which that knowledge is being simultaneously enacted and produced. The disentangled view, however, sees knowledge as universal and cognitive and therefore possible to \"disentangle\" from the context in which the knowledge was initially produced. Hence, the value of the knowledge is not context specific and consequently it is not transferable between varying contexts through spillover effects and dissemination of its abstract elements.\n8. Implications for regional policy: There seems to be a mismatch between how policy wishes to promote knowledge creation through cluster initiatives and how knowledge is actually being created and enacted within such initiatives. Thus, a mismatch between policy incentives and the practical value generated from cluster initiatives risks distorting the usefulness of such endeavors. Lundvall (1992) agrees that indicators of \"the efficiency and effectiveness in producing, diffusing and exploiting economically useful knowledge\" are \"not well developed today\" and the OECD admits that \"the NIS approach has too little operational value and is difficult to implement\" (OECD, 2002, p. 11). These shortcomings may to some extent adhere to the conceptual misperception regarding how knowledge is defined and enacted. Assessing \"the circumstances in which\" as well as \"between whom\" knowledge spillover occurs instead of analyzing \"how\" knowledge is enacted in practice risks directing the focus away from the value creating mechanisms of knowledge. The data presented in this paper seem to suggest that contemporary policymakers need to reconsider their approach toward evaluating cluster initiatives. It is imperative to steer the focus away from achieving dissemination of disentangled knowledge by encouraging the production and enactment of knowledge entangled in its context-specific resource structures. Innovation is created in interaction among specific companies and/or organizations (Waluszewski, 2011), and this paper clearly shows that this tenet also extends to knowledge creation. Thus, having policy that ignores the interactive aspect of knowledge is surely problematic. Expressing this through a more customary analogy it would be like \"measuring the success of a restaurant by the number of chefs working in the kitchen, instead of assessing the quality of the food produced or the number of customers being served.\"\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The European Union has an ambition to become the world's most competitive and knowledge-based economy, which entails investments in cluster initiatives. Most researchers, however find that such investments have had limited impact. The notion of creating industrial clusters is influenced by the discourse within new economic geography in which research interests are geared toward facilitating knowledge exchange between industry, university and government. In order to understand how knowledge is created and enacted within a cluster initiative the purpose of this paper is to investigate the interactions between actors participating in a specific innovation process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The studied cluster initiative is one of the 55 clusters designated as demonstrating highly sophisticated cluster management by European Union officials, making it an interesting case study for knowledge creation in such environments. The case study entails semi-structured in-depth interviews of 24 respondents.\nFindings: The cluster approach encourages a \"disentangled\" view of knowledge where knowledge is seen as universal and cognitive and therefore possible to disentangle from the context in which it was initially produced. However, my findings suggest that in practice knowledge is \"entangled\" in the specific context in which it is enacted and produced.\nOriginality/value: Thus, in practice knowledge is a contextually limited and practical activity that is being enacted when heterogeneous resources interact in producer-user interfaces. This mismatch between strategy and outcome may subsequently help to explain the limited impact of policy on regional growth.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Assistive technologies for aged care: Comparative literature survey on the effectiveness of theories for supportive and empowering technologies	[ "Behavioural theories", "Technology adoption", "Literature review", "Adoption" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The world's population is ageing rapidly and the cost of caring for older people is also rising (Marino et al., 2016). In 2012, 6.9 percent of the world population was more than 65 years old, and this is estimated to increase to around 20 percent by 2050 (OECD, 2012). This has resulted in a push to develop innovative approaches in the aged care sector in order to reduce the cost of care (Magnusson et al., 2004). One approach could be the use of assistive technologies to provide efficiencies in patient care and to lower costs. There are two main arguments for this approach. First, seniors traditionally like to live independently and preferably in their own homes (Leeson et al., 2004; Magnusson et al., 2004; Porteus and Brownse, 2000). Second, it is commonly believed that the healthcare system, particularly the aged care sector, will soon face a huge shortage in qualified workers (Australian Nursing Federation, 2012; OECD, 2012; Yusif et al., 2016). In addition, in remote and regional areas, even basic healthcare services require patients to travel long distances to get treatment and this is further exacerbated as the elderly often have transport issues such as restricted movement and an inability to drive (Khosravi and Ghapanchi, 2016). Recent advancements in information technology (IT) have resulted in low-cost off-the-shelf products that have the potential to assist older people in their daily life activities at their home (Leeson et al., 2004). These products have been categorized as assistive technologies as they are designed to assist older people in their normal living.\n2. Methods: In our work, we have customized the guidelines for systematic review laid down by Keele (2007). These have been extensively used by researchers such as Vichitvanichphong, Kerr, Talaei-Khoei, Ghapanchi (2013) and Vichitvanichphong, Talaei-Khoei, Kerr, Ghapanchi (2013). The systematic method proposes four main steps to carry out a literature review, namely; first, an exploratory background search to identify the relevant keywords and databases, second, a search for the initial list of studies, third, a relevance appraisal and fourth, data extraction and analysis.\n3. Theoretical perspectives: The major theories used to research the adoption of assist technologies among seniors as shown in the literature are listed below (note that appropriate referencing to the theory itself is also shown):\n4. Taxonomy of factors influencing adoption of assistive technologies among seniors: theoretical support for empowering vs supportive technologies: Our findings suggest that adoption of assistive technologies among seniors is a complex issue and is influenced by a variety of factors as shown in Figure 5. After arriving at 48 distinguishable determinants, this paper has classified them into the six main categories of individual, psychological, technology, environmental, intervention, support and training factors.\n5. Summary, discussion and outlook: The presented systematic literature study looked at adoption research in the context of assistive technologies for seniors, which requires attention in three main perspectives: What are the empirically significant antecedents for the elderly's adoption of assistive technologies, What theoretical perspectives have been utilized to explain the empirical evidence, and What are the differences in terms of theoretical supports for supportive and empowering technologies. These were our research questions that will be discussed below.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: One may categorize assistive technologies for aged care into two types, namely, supportive (helping the elderly with their everyday activities) and empowering (obtaining physical or educational training to help seniors to maintain their capabilities). This paper looks at the impact of this perspective in the adoption of technologies that are used to aid already declined functions in comparison with technologies that are used to empower an elderly person's capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to extract the factors that influence adoption of assistive technologies among seniors and the theories used in this context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted on relevant peer reviewed papers. A preliminary exploratory search was conducted to identify keywords and online databases for the search. A total of 104 papers published since 2000 were analyzed after title, abstract and full text filtering.\nFindings: The study summarizes and categorizes the factors impacting the adoption of assistive technologies among seniors. The paper analyses the theoretical support utilized by literature and maps the empirical evidence for supportive and empowering technologies.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research like any other literature review is limited to the search keys. However, the keys have brought to this work from a preliminary search.\nPractical implications: The work informs nursing professionals on the process to adopt technologies among seniors. The paper also helps technology developers to design technological products that are easier to adopt for older adults.\nOriginality/value: It was found that existing adoption theories are able to handle supportive technology adoption mainly because of the direct link between usage and improved functionalities. However due to the indirect effect of empowering technologies, elderlies lag in benefit realization for empowering technologies. This opens avenues of research and requires future work and utilization of new theoretical approaches in this area. The paper indicates propositions, claims and suggested questions for future research in both supportive and empowering technologies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Getting value for money from workplace trainers: Do subject specialists have what it takes?	[ "Workplace training", "Competences", "Qualifications" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Continuing professional development is a crucial strategy in all successful organizations. The exponential rate of knowledge generation in the modern world practically ensures that any new graduate's specialist subject knowledge is dated before the ink on the diploma has dried. How then, can employers make sure that their workplace education and training plugs the gaps in the most cost-effective fashion?\nSubject specialists: the most effective workplace trainers?: Understandably, many employers turn to subject specialists for the provision of workplace training. Specialists can usually be identified from among the existing workforce and therefore, may be perceived as a cost-effective option. Indeed, this reliance on subject specialists has a long history. As early as 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act (USA) stated that vocational teachers required trade competencies rather than teaching qualifications. This is a view upheld by some modern trainers who are themselves subject specialists rather than qualified educators. In a recent Australian study, workplace trainers without educational qualifications identified subject specialist knowledge as the most important attribute of an effective trainer (Gauld and Miller, 2004). The same study highlighted the fact that the less experienced a trainer is in his or her educational role, the more they value specialist knowledge. However, when the views of experienced trainers are reviewed, the picture changes. Only 31 percent of trainers with more than ten years experience indicated that subject knowledge increased their effectiveness as workplace educators. Other authors point out that up to a year's training may be required to educate specialists in the knowledge and techniques required to teach their specialist subject. With US companies spending over $60 billion annually on workplace training and Australian firms investing around $5 billion, it is important that outcome matches investment. This may not be the case if employers rely on subject specialists to provide work-based education for their staff. The cheap option may be costly in the long term.\nIdentifying the competencies required by effective workplace educators: So how can employers identify the best trainers for their needs? Interestingly, there has been little empirical research into the attributes of an effective trainer. While there is an extensive body of literature on educational theory, most of this derives from observation, experience and intuition. Perhaps because of this, there appears to be little consensus about the competencies required by an effective adult educator. A review of competencies identified by acknowledged educational experts from the 1930s up to the present demonstrated that although 27 competencies made up the list, some experts felt that only between two and four of these were required by a good educator. Other experts indicated that as many as 14 competencies were needed. It could be argued that Lindeman shot straight to the heart of the matter in 1938 when he identified the three essential competencies as: understanding training and development, attending to individual differences and responding to learner needs. In another example of how great minds simplify what lesser mortals complicate, Knox, writing in the 1970s and 1980s, believed that the only two essential competencies for a good educator were an ability to build relationships and the provision of positive reinforcement!\nContrasting Australian and US experience of workplace training: In the USA the importance of a training-related educational background seems to be accepted as the majority of trainers have educational or social psychology qualifications. However, Australian employers have some catching up to do. Although Australia has a minimum vocational standard for trainers in the \"Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training\", as recently as 2000, only one-third of workplace trainers surveyed were aware of the national competencies. Interestingly, in Gaud and Miller's study, workplace trainers with this qualification rated their own ability in the categories from satisfactory to excellent. In contrast, the only trainers who rated themselves as unsatisfactory or poor did not hold the certificate. This would seem to indicate that trainers themselves recognize the importance of some minimum level of teaching knowledge, as well as valuing their specialist subject knowledge.\nDevelopment of a professional identity for workplace trainers: Based on the US model of trainers with educational qualifications and on the self-assessment of Australian workplace educators, it would appear that workplace trainers should be identified as a professional group in their own right. Employers may consider it cost effective to ask employees with specialist knowledge to add teaching to their current roles and responsibilities. However, unless based on a sound knowledge of adult educational principles and assessed teaching practice, the transmission of knowledge could founder. The most cost-efficient method of ensuring that employees receive well planned and evaluated instruction tailored to their individual needs is by employing educational specialists as workplace trainers. These changes may be instituted more easily by recognizing the value that employers place on subject specialization. It is obvious that if an employer wishes (for example) to introduce a new IT package to the workforce, the ideal trainer is one who has an in-depth understanding of the software. However, the resident \"techie\" may not be the right person. A trainer with both the educational experience to introduce an IT solution clearly and logically to less technically-expert employees and the specialist knowledge about the package may be the more expensive option in the short term. In the long term, a workforce with the ability to confidently utilize sophisticated technology will justify the initial outlay for the most effective training. Employers need to forget the old adage of \"those who can, do, those who can't, teach\" and welcome professional trainers who can both do and teach!\nComment: This is a review of \"The qualifications and competencies held by effective workplace trainers\" by Darryl Gauld and Peter Miller. Gauld and Miller address the lack of empirical research into the competencies required by adult educators through a study that attempts to correlate competencies and qualifications of workplace educators with their self-assessed effectiveness. The authors acknowledge one limitation of the research is its potential lack of generalizability to other (non-Australian) settings and suggest that a longitudinal study of workplace trainers might produce enhanced data about their effectiveness.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Scans the top 400 management publications in the world to identify the most topical issues and latest concepts. These are presented in an easy-to-digest briefing of no more than 1,500 words.\nFindings: - Continuing professional development is a crucial strategy in all successful organizations. The exponential rate of knowledge generation in the modern world practically ensures that any new graduate's specialist subject knowledge is dated before the ink on the diploma has dried. How then, can employers make sure that their workplace education and training plugs the gaps in the most cost-effective fashion?\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: - The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Consumers' luxury value perception in the Brazilian premium beer market	[ "Surveys", "Consumer behaviour", "Luxury", "Structural equation models", "Brewing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globalization and the spread of technology, combined with the segment of sophisticated and savvy consumers, have transformed the business landscape, requiring trades to restructure and identify new market segments, which enables the inclusion of small business (Murray and O'neill, 2012; Thome and Soares, 2015). A growth in consumers' interest for differentiated products has been observed for the past years (Stolzenbach et al., 2013) and special beers are included in this scenario. Due to the structural changes observed in the North American beer market, there was a concentration of macro breweries. This concentration, according to Tremblay et al. (2005) generated a homogenization of brewing, enabling changes in demand and starting the rise of local market niches. These local market niches were filled by micro-breweries, producing the so-called premium[1] or craft beers. Thus, premium beers have emerged as a way to diversification and differentiation market, offering consumers who are willing to pay a higher value, for a differentiated product with a higher quality. Therefore, the increasing number of outlets and the expansion of the craft industry demonstrated that differentiated products and market niche are now becoming increasingly relevant to the demanding consumer (Murray and O'neill, 2012).\n2. Literature review: According to Wiedmann et al. (2007), luxury is defined as the highest level of prestigious brands covering some physical and psychological values. While the word \"luxury\" is used when referring to a certain lifestyle, there is an underlying construct's definition: consumer and specific situation (Chattalas and Shukla, 2015). Buying a product that represents value to both individuals and their reference groups involves the conception of luxury products and that luxury goods enable consumers to satisfy both psychological and functional needs (Wiedmann et al., 2007, 2009). This can be observed on remarks by Yeoman et al. (2006) on personal development and how it is becoming increasingly relevant since luxury goods and services are responding to the desire for experiences and self-fulfillment.\n3. Method: This paper analyzes the consumers' LVP in the premium beer market testing the model proposed by Wiedmann et al. (2007) in a Brazilian context.\n4. Results: Using the conceptual model proposed by Wiedmann et al. (2007) and applied by Hennigs et al. (2012) and Shukla and Purani (2012), the luxury value is divided into four independent dimensions:\n5. Conclusions: This paper aims to analyze consumers' LVP in the premium beer market. To achieve this goal, we proposed the usage of the conceptual model proposed by Wiedmann et al. (2007, 2009), which was developed by Hennigs et al. (2012) and Shukla and Purani (2012).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the consumers' luxury value perception in Brazilian premium beer market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data from a survey of 418 Brazilian consumers were used to test the research model. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modeling was used to analyze the consumers' luxury value perception.\nFindings: The analytical results showed that the dimensions of social, individual and functional values featured items with high significance. For the fourth dimension (financial value), just one item presented relevance. Along with it, correlation between dimensions was analyzed. All four dimensions have higher significance and great estimates.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research was executed in a single country environment.\nPractical implications: Results suggest that the only significant item to the consumers' luxury value perception in the dimension of financial value is the higher price of premium beers. Other dimensions are well fit for the premium beer market.\nOriginality/value: To present date, marketing literature in the beer issue approaches its consumption as an economic phenomenon. This paper develops a notion that beer consumption can also be approached in a luxury consumption perspective. The framework developed in this paper can assist future researchers to consider consumption of different types and levels of beer, based on luxury value perception.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Poster child and guinea pig - insights from a structured literature review on Airbnb	[ "Literature review", "Airbnb", "Platform economy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A growing body of research from various domains investigates questions revolving around the accommodation sharing platform Airbnb. With over three million listings in almost any country worldwide, Airbnb has grown to be the most important peer-based platform for accommodation sharing (Airbnb, 2018). Ten years after its foundation in 2008, Airbnb's market evaluation ranges in the league of large hotel groups and metasearch platforms such as Expedia and Booking.com (Forbes, 2017; McDermid, 2017). Airbnb operates a two-sided market, matching supply (hosts) and demand (guests) for peer-based accommodation. The variety offered through the platform is large, including urban apartments, guest rooms and vacation homes - and also more exotic listings such as tree houses, castles, igloos, and houseboats (Forbes, 2016). Airbnb addresses both private and business customers and facilitates everything from day trips to stays of several months (Mittendorf and Ostermann, 2017). The platform's role as a marketing channel is undeniable, as hosts generate an average additional income of $924 per month (Earnest, 2017). Importantly, platforms such as Airbnb enable access to a resource within the private sphere of the provider. Hence, these are required to deliberately accept incoming booking requests. Note that this constitutes a fundamental difference to other accommodation platforms (e.g. Booking.com) and also to other C2C platforms (such as eBay). Further, it renders design artifacts of reputation management and user representation on Airbnb especially important as here, both providers and consumers need to market themselves (Tussyadiah, 2016b; Karlsson et al., 2017).\n2. Method: The literature search and selection process follows common methodological suggestions (Webster and Watson, 2002). As the existing literature on Airbnb is highly interdisciplinary, we queried several databases (i.e. ACM Digital Library, AIS Electronic Library, EBSCOhost, Emerald Insight, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, ProQuest, ScienceDirect/Scopus, Web of Science) using the search term \"Airbnb\" in title, abstract, or keywords (vom Brocke et al., 2009). After removing duplicates, this yielded 243 articles. We then analyzed each article's title and abstract and excluded those that did not focus on Airbnb in particular. This concerned articles on the overall development of platform business models where in many of these cases, the paper refers to Airbnb in a sequence along with other platforms such as Uber. Moreover, in this step, we excluded redundant papers (e.g. multiple versions), early-stage drafts, and non-scientific publications (e.g. press releases). This resulted in a set of 86 articles. Following that, we conducted successive backward and forward search resulting in 32 additional relevant articles, yielding a total of 118. A summary of all articles is provided in Table I.\n3. Airbnb in research: Representing a poster child of the broader platform economy landscape, Airbnb has emerged as a frequently studied application, as it allows examination on both macroeconomic and socio-psychological levels. To provide some structure and overview, we use the seven identified themes to discuss, summarize, and synthesize the retrieved publications. First, we take a look at motives for people to use Airbnb in the first place (either as hosts, guests, or both). This stream of research naturally extends to the identification of different user types and their characteristics. Next, we consider the paramount factors of trust and reputation. As Airbnb deliberately \"designs for trust\" (Gebbia, 2016), these are reflected by a variety of artifacts such as star ratings, text reviews, self-descriptions and profile images. We then conflate research on how prices (on Airbnb) emerge, that is, the tangible economic value of various exogenous and user-related factors - and what this means for hosts' pricing decisions. Next, we review work on Airbnb's impact on the hotel industry and the housing market. We then take a look at work on how Airbnb has been received by the public and the media. Ultimately, we take a look at legal and regulatory aspects around Airbnb, including matters of housing legislation, taxation, liability, consumer protection and platform competition and data ownership.\n4. Correlation of themes, methods, foci and domains: We now analyze the different themes, methods, foci, and domains of the reviewed studies in greater detail. Considering the general occurrence of different themes, the role of profile photos has experienced rather little research attention (9 studies) while user types and their motives to use Airbnb have been subject to much more extensive investigation (45 studies). Moreover, we consider the occurrence of combinations of these factors to derive first insights into possible research gaps. To do so, we use make use of correlation analysis for the outlined measures (see Figure 1).\n5. Discussion and conclusion: We have taken a look at the research landscape around Airbnb and some fundamental data on the listings supplied through the platform. Airbnb represents a poster child of the platform economy and likewise serves as a guinea pig in a variety of contemporary studies in the domains of Information and Management, Tourism/Travel/Hospitality, Law, and Economics. Along the dimensions of user motivation, trust and reputation, prices, economic and media impacts and legal and regulatory aspects, we provide a structured overview on this timely and emerging field of research. We argue that studying Airbnb represents a highly worthwhile endeavor as the platform represents more than a simple booking portal, but rather a blueprint for an entire category of novel business models - setting de facto standards for web design, trust and reputation management, and for the social and behavioral norms of user interaction - also outside the domain of travel and tourism. From this analysis there emerges a set of overarching stylized facts and implications for both research and practice.\n6. Conclusion: Studying Airbnb is due even beyond the questions and issues directly related to the platform as it serves as a template for various other ventures, reflected in many startups' claim to represent \"the Airbnb of ...\" (Horton and Zeckhauser, 2016). In addition, many of the mechanisms and design elements used by Airbnb (e.g. star ratings, text reviews, profile images) are being used by most other platforms too. Given the increasing importance of two-sided markets, platform business models, the associated economic, social, and regulatory upheavals, and Airbnb's function as a poster child and role model make it worth studying all the more. In summary, our study provides an overview of work on the accommodation sharing platform Airbnb. The prevalence of personal host-guest interactions - both online and, importantly, also offline - distinguishes the platform from traditional accommodation markets (i.e. hotels) and charges the used IT design elements and mechanisms with particular social and economic meaning. As a highly diverse and steadily growing community of scholars investigates the phenomena surrounding Airbnb, this review can only represent a first step in view of the necessity to sort, structure, and review the vast amount of literature. We hope that researchers and practitioners alike will find this review useful as a reference for future research and as a guide for the development of innovative applications based on the platform's peculiarities and paradigms in e-commerce practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A growing body of research from various domains has investigated Airbnb, a two-sided market platform for peer-based accommodation sharing. The authors suggest that it is due time to take a step back and assess the current state of affairs. This paper aims to conflate and synthesize research on Airbnb.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To facilitate research on Airbnb and its underlying principles in electronic commerce, the authors present a structured literature review on Airbnb.\nFindings: The findings are based on 118 articles from the fields of tourism, information and management, law and economics between 2013 and 2018. Based on this broad basis, the authors find that: research on Airbnb is highly diverse in terms of domains, methods and scope; motives for using Airbnb are manifold (e.g. financial, social and environmental); trust and reputation are considered crucial by almost all scholars; the platform's variety is reflected in prices; and the majority of work is based on surveys and empirical data while experiments are scarce.\nPractical implications: Based on the present assessment of studied topics, domains, methods and combinations thereof, the authors suggest that research should move toward building atop of a common ground of data structures and vocabulary, and that attention should focus on the identified gaps and hitherto scarcely used combinations. The set of under-represented areas includes cross-cultural investigations, field experiments and audit studies, the consideration of dynamic processes (e.g. based on panel data), Airbnb's \"experiences\" and automated pricing algorithms and the rating distribution's skewness.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a comprehensive overview of work on the accommodation sharing platform Airbnb, to the best of the auhtors' knowledge, representing the first systematic literature review. The authors hope that researchers and practitioners alike will find this review useful as a reference for future research on Airbnb and as a guide for the development of innovative applications based on the platform's peculiarities and paradigms in electronic commerce practice. From a practical perspective, the general tenor suggests that hotel and tourism operators may benefit from: focusing on their core advantages over Airbnb and differentiating features and aligning their marketing communication with their users' aspirations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examining hedonic and utilitarian motivations for m-commerce fashion retail app engagement	[ "Motivation", "Fashion retailing", "Consumer behaviour", "Hedonic", "E-commerce", "Utilitarian" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The online retail industry is a fast-growing part of the fashion sector, encompassing both national and international retail elements (Hu and Xie, 2014; Mintel, 2014a). The importance of mobile commerce (m-commerce), a portable device specific branch of electronic commerce (e-commerce) to the UK's economy should not be underestimated, equalling 11 per cent of the all retail (Mintel, 2014a), and making the UK the most valuable e-commerce market in the G8 (Ecommerce Europe, 2014). Meanwhile, 87 per cent of smart device users (e.g. iPhone, Android, iPad) have reported to use their device as an fundamental aspect of their shopping experience and behaviours (Neilsen, 2014). While these figures are highly encouraging, the fact that 89 per cent of retail is not e-commerce based highlights the potential for future growth, that can only be achieved through more advanced interaction design driven by consumer behaviour insights.\n2. Background literature: 2.1 Fashion retail and shopping experience\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results and analysis: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Research aim 1: consumer motivations for m-commerce engagement\n6. Conclusions: In contrast to previous research that emphasized the importance of hedonic stimulations of m-commerce retail, this study demonstrated that utilitarian elements of \"efficiency\" (including \"convenience\" were the most important influential factors on for customers' motivation to shop for fashion items through m-commerce retail apps. To this, \"personalized services\" and \"convenient operation process\" as the functions within the m-commerce retail apps that facilitate effective and convenient use for customer were shown to be dominant factors. Secondary to this, gratification shopping when in times of stress and social sharing were shown to be highly influential. However, the most important element of social sharing was closed (e.g. person to person) rather than open (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) interactions. To this, fashion retail needs to be considered as a unique experience in e-commerce, connected to but apart from general e-commerce (e.g. books, groceries, etc.). In order to best capitalize on the potential of fashion e-commerce, fashion retail e-commerce specific research is required, with specific design approaches, languages, and approaches adopted.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivations of consumers engage with fashion retail applications (apps) from a consumer motivation perspective to inform the design for fashion retail apps. This is an area with increasing economic significance, yet of limited academic research to date.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through 18 in-depth qualitative interviews, utilitarian stimuli was identified as primary motivating factor to attract customers to shop for fashion garments through m-commerce retail apps.\nFindings: Results from thematic analysis identified that the utilitarian elements of \"efficiency\" and \"convenience\" were two of the most important motivators for engagement, with \"personalized services\", and \"convenient operation process\" also dominant functions to attract customers to shop on m-commerce retail apps. While \"Social\" shopping was shown to be a motivating factor for consumer behaviour, participants showed greater preference to interpersonal communications channels than to social media.\nResearch limitations/implications: Findings from this study reveal the utilitarian focus of fashion retail apps within an industry often focussed on experiential interactions, and provide a focus for fashion retail m-commerce app designers to tailor their products for higher consumer engagement. Future apps should be designed specifically with this in mind to increase the chance of consumer engagement.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides original insight into the hedonic and utilitarian value motivations most prevalent to users of m-commerce fashion retail apps. This is distinct from previous research that has focussed on physical retail environments or general e-commerce interactions (e.g. non-fashion web stores accessed through a PC/laptop).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Public service productivity: how to capture outputs?	[ "Public sector organizations", "Performance measurement (quality)", "Productivity rate", "Finland" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is increasing pressure for public sector organisations to improve their performance and demonstrate progress with effective performance measures. The task of the public sector is to produce a selected set of services within the limits of budget constraints. Thus, it is important to be able to turn those financial inputs into high-quality service outputs using effective and efficient processes. \"Productivity\" is traditionally defined as the ratio between output (e.g. the quantity of products or services produced) and input (e.g. the time needed for production) (Sink, 1983). Productivity is regarded as a key success factor of organisations. Productivity measurement can potentially be a useful tool for monitoring productivity development and for guiding improvement efforts. However, finding useful productivity measures in the public sector has proved problematic.Even though the origin of productivity research is in the processes of the manufacturing industry, it surely also has great potential in other fields and industries. However, there seems to be a lack of studies related to public service productivity. Many of the studies examine the issue at a macro level, and therefore factors related to operational productivity remain unknown. On the other hand, similar issues have been discussed in the literature on public sector performance, while issues related to service productivity (in general, not in the context of public sector) have been studied for years.This paper investigates in detail the challenges inherent in the micro-level (managerial) measurement of service productivity in the context of public services. One of the key challenges in measuring service productivity has been related to the intangible nature of services, and this paper is focused particularly on the issue of understanding and capturing the elements of service output.This paper proceeds as follows. First, the current knowledge on the issue is discussed in light of the literature on service productivity and public sector performance. Then, experiences gained during a case study are described to illustrate a new approach (described later on in the paper) for dealing with the challenges of public service productivity measurement. The case study deals with the city of Helsinki, Finland, in which the authors have been engaged in a development project.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Public service productivity\n3. Case study: 3.1 Data and research methods\n4. Conclusions and discussion: The literature review revealed the lack of empirical examination of the measurement of public service productivity at the micro level. The qualitative approach used in the paper proved appropriate for obtaining a detailed empirical understanding of the problems of defining service outputs. The case study demonstrated that the intangible output aspects can also be defined in a way that enables the design of performance measures. The illustration of the output definition is proposed as a starting point for a new approach to measure the productivity of a large public organisation providing various kinds of services.Validity is one of the key criteria of sound performance measurement and refers to how precisely a measure succeeds in measuring the object that it is intended to measure (Emory, 1985). As discussed in the case study, public service productivity is a complex phenomenon consisting of many different output elements. Since the approach presented in this study aims to capture many of the relevant elements of productivity it is potentially more valid than many of the methods currently in use. The approach is also relevant from the point of view of the operative management of different public services by providing more detailed information on productivity in a specific context. However, the approach is not without problems since it may need substantial work in order to be properly applied. The most challenging phase in applying the approach may be the design of measures for the identified intangible output elements. The aggregation of the different output measures is possible with methods that are already available. Nevertheless, more empirical research is needed in order to understand the applicability of the approach.The contribution of this paper is the detailed analysis and description of the productivity measurement challenges of a public service organisation. In particular, the findings add to the existing understanding about issues related to service output definition. Our research showed that the challenges related to service output definition vary depending on the service type and organisational level in question. Finally, the research suggested a disaggregated approach for designing valid and relevant productivity measures for public services. This approach has been mentioned in prior research but the present study has demonstrated how it can be applied to practice.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to investigate the micro-level (managerial) measurement of service productivity in the context of public services, in particular, the role of different output elements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Current knowledge on the issue is summarised based on the existing literature on service productivity and public sector performance. Measurement challenges and potential solutions are studied in four different services of the city of Helsinki, Finland.\nFindings: - The case study demonstrates that complex service outputs can be divided into components (both tangible and intangible) that can be utilised in designing more sophisticated productivity measures. The findings add to the existing understanding about issues related to public service output definition.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study provides knowledge to support the application of a disaggregated approach to service productivity measurement. However, more research is needed in order to fully utilise this approach in practice.\nPractical implications: - The findings of the study may help managers identify service output components in public/social services. This can be used as a starting point for developing novel productivity measures.\nOriginality/value: - A key challenge in examining service productivity relates to the intangible nature of services; it is especially difficult to define the actual outputs produced. The challenges seem to be most severe in the public sector due to its specific characteristics. Many of the existing studies examine the issue at macro level. In large multi-service organisations there is a managerial need to gather micro-level information on productivity. This paper demonstrates how a disaggregated approach presented in the earlier literature can be operationalised. The approach yields a detailed understanding of different output components, which is a necessary step in designing relevant productivity measures for operative-level management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Nutritional intake of university employees'	[ "Diet", "24h recall", "Nutritional intake", "University workers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food intake adequacy can be estimated by the evaluation of population nutritional intake, identifying possible deviations to their needs (Pinhao, Poinhos, Afonso, Franchini, Teixeira, Moreira, Durao, Pinho, Silva, Reis, Verissimo, Almeida, Correia, 2012). Portuguese daily intake was estimated to be about 2,056 Kcal, corresponding to 19.1 percent of proteins, 45.8 percent of carbohydrates and 31.3 percent of total fat. An average of 349 mg of cholesterol, 2180 mg of sodium and 1993 mL of water intake has been reported by Pinhao (2014).\nMethods: From 3,400 employees (2013), 513 workers were randomly selected. Informed consent was obtained and the purpose of the study was individually explained. Data were obtained through the application of a questionnaire including a 24 hours recall and questions about socio-demographic characteristics.\nResults: Socio-demographic characterization\nDiscussion: Main findings of this study\nConclusion: Most individuals presented intakes above recommendations for protein, carbohydrates and sodium. The average of energy intake observed in UP employers was lower than data reported by others for Portuguese general population.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Excessive high caloric and nutritional intake has been associated with weight gain which is linked to an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and several types of cancers. The purpose of this paper is to characterize the nutritional intake pattern of the population in terms of energy, macro and micronutrients.\nDesign/methodology/approach: There were assessed 513 workers of the University of Porto (UP) randomly selected. The Food Processor Plus was used to convert foods into nutrients and, to assess nutritional intake adequacy. Data were compared to Dietary Reference Intakes and with recommended ranges by the World Health Organization.\nFindings: The intake of most individuals was above recommendations for protein, carbohydrates and sodium. The average of energy intake observed in UP employees was lower than data available for Portuguese general population. The protein, carbohydrates, total fat and water intake, cholesterol, saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fatty acids and sodium intake were found to be significantly higher for men. Significant differences were found for vitamin D and calcium between age ranges; Carbohydrates, sugar, monounsaturated fatty acids, cholesterol, water and vitamin K was significantly different between teachers and non-teachers.\nOriginality/value: According to nutritional intake analysis, food consumption of this population was unbalanced, attending to high protein, carbohydrates and sodium intake.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Dimensions of food choice process of older consumers in Brazil	[ "Food retail", "Food purchase habits", "Food retailing supermarkets", "The elderly" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The social transformations that occurred in the twenty-first century introduced the population to a new lifestyle and, consequently, to new eating habits, such as a growing consumption of ready-to-eat and semi-ready food (Monteiro et al., 2013). Globalization has caused a homogenization of consumption standards to such an extent that, in some markets, very similar habits can be observed in different regions of the planet (Ritzer, 2006).\n2. Dimensions of food choice process: 2.1 Consumer characteristics\n3. Method: 3.1 Participants\n4. Results: 4.1 Consumer characteristics\n5. Discussion: To analyze the dimensions of food choice among older consumers, their personal characteristics, consumption habits, food and context characteristics were studied. Two market segments were identified: \"Older with a restricted diet\" and \"Younger and better educated.\" The results also highlighted four factors related to food characteristics: appearance, price, packaging and quality, and four related to the store's context/environment characteristics: staff characteristics, external shopping environment, internal store environment and ease of access.\n6. Conclusion: 6.1 Research contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess dimensions of the food choice process among older consumers. Based on Gains' model (1994), the study focuses on the dimensions: consumer, food and context, and investigates these consumers' heterogeneities through the identification of possible market segments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative study was conducted with 401 respondents in Brazil. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis.\nFindings: The results highlighted four factors related to characteristics of food (appearance, price, packaging and quality), and four related to characteristics of the context/environment of the store (staff characteristics, external shopping environment, internal store environment and ease of access). The results also showed that older consumers liked to make food purchases, even though their options were restricted by health issues. Two segments were identified. \"Older with a restricted diet\" comprised consumers with lower education levels. They had fewer daily meals (three) and chose food with more regard to health. The second segment \"Younger and better educated\" comprised respondents with higher education levels and higher income. They had more daily meals, and health was less of a restriction on food choice than it was for the first cluster.\nOriginality/value: This study applies Gains' three dimensions' food choice model, with the variables adjusted in detail to enable a description of the purchasing behaviors of older adults in Brazil.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Longitudinal analysis of online community dynamics	[ "Information sharing", "Online community", "Social network analysis", "Centrality", "Time series analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The internet has provided us with a variety of brand new experiences. The most notable change in our daily lives is the way people interact and communicate with each other. The internet has helped many of us communicate more effectively and economically on a two-way basis and has resulted in the formation of online communities. An online community can be defined as a group in which individuals come together around a shared purpose, interest, or goal on the internet (Preece, 2000). In the past, online communities merely served as an unofficial, passive form of media to share trivial concerns or rumors among individuals. However, they have developed to take a more active role in inviting public opinion and promoting discussion about various socio-economic issues that used to be discussed by using traditional media such as newspapers, television, and radio (Chua et al., 2007; Xu and Zhang, 2009). Now online communities do not merely function as a platform for the free exchange and sharing of personal information and knowledge, but also as a social network that exerts massive influence in various parts of society including politics, economy, and culture. The influence of online communities derives from the facilitation of online communication among individuals in their daily lives, empowered by the growing use of social networking services such as Facebook or Twitter, online discussion groups such as Google or Yahoo, and a variety of message boards. Now, governments and companies begin to recognize the importance of online communities. In order to respond to online communities effectively, they need to understand online communities as complex evolving social networks in which connections between individuals are established and changed over time (Panzarasa et al. (2007)). In other words, they need to understand the complex social behaviors that take place in online communities from a dynamic rather than static view.\n2. Dynamics of online communities: In an offline-based community, the presence of physical and restricted space among participants has played an important role in building more active and vibrant communities. To form a community in an offline setting, every participant has to be close to each other in the same place at the same time. In an online community, the basic principle of physical space no longer applies, because communication on the internet goes beyond temporal and spatial limits, prompting more active interactions among a greater number of participants than in an offline setting. Lea et al. (2006) define an online community as \"a place where a group of people drawn together by an opportunity to share a sense of community with like-mined strangers having common interest.\" If an online community supports interactions that provide valuable information, the community's participants are going to feel a strong sense of community, thus devoting much their time and effort in the online community (Butler, 2001; Jones, 2000). However, as many new entrants join and start making mass interactions in an online community, the quality of information might decrease. Consequently, the participants lose a sense of community and ultimately leave the online community. Under the given situation, maintaining a sense of community among participants can prove to be very difficult (Jones, 2000). In order to investigate methods to maintain a sense of community, several studies have conducted to understand the dynamics within online communities.\n3. SNA and model development: In order to examine the interactions among online community participants and their changes, this study uses SNA to examine a large amount of user-generated online messages. SNA was first conceived and developed in the 1930s by social science scholars, it but did not receive much scholarly attention until the late twentieth century when numerous notions, such as Sociometry, Graph Theory, Dyads, Triads, Subgroup, and Blockmodels, were theorized. Currently, SNA is applied to a wide range of studies including sociology, business administration, and economics (Kane and Alavi, 2005; Mutuswami and Winter, 2002). The primary concern of SNA-related research has been the \"interpersonal connections\" through \"interactions.\" Researchers have attempted to quantitatively analyze the structure of such connections, mostly using Graph Theory that describes the links (interactions) among the nodes (participants) within a network. This theory enables researchers to explain the structure of social networks by transforming them into numerical indicators showing the various graphical features displayed by the push and pull between the nodes and the links (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). SNA helps us to have a better understand of participants' interactions and information sharing activities (Sitko-Lutek et al., 2010). Table I is a summary of the social network indicators at the level of individual and network.\n4. Research methodology: The communication structure within online communities keeps evolving, driven by the constant interactions among the participants. Online communications in the communities primarily take the form of commenting on an internet bulletin board. An analysis of the commenting process offers a better grasp of the interactive characteristics of the community participants. Therefore, this study looks closely into the commenting behaviors among the online community participants, exploring how their behaviors change over time.\n5. Data analysis: (1). Number of participants\n6. Conclusions and implications: This study tries to understand the dynamics from a social network perspective. In particular, it focusses on identifying who lead and show one creates the dynamics. The study finds that, as the discussion progresses, interactions among participants rapidly change. In addition, it demonstrates that participants actively interact with others in the beginning, but most interactions converge among a few active participants eventually. Interestingly, it shows that certain participants emerge to lead the dynamics of online communities by actively participating in information sharing.\n7. Limitations: This study has two limitations. First, it focusses on examining two online communities on a Korean portal site. Although the research site is one of the largest and the most popular sites in Korea, the study still has the problem of generalizing the findings of this research. Cultural factors could possibly affect the attitude of participants in sharing their opinions on the internet (Jiacheng et al., 2010). Therefore, we can generalize the findings of this study in a very limited way and scope.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of an online community by examining its participants' centrality measures: degree, closeness, and the betweenness centrality. Each centrality measure shows the different roles and positions of an individual participant within an online community. To be specific, this research examines how an individual participant's role and position affects her/his information sharing activities within an online community over time. Additionally, it investigates the differences between two different online communities (a personal interest focussed community and a social interest focussed community), in terms of the interaction patterns of participants.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For this research, the authors collected log files from Korean online discussion communities (cafe.naver.com) using a crawler program. A social network analysis was used to explore the interaction patterns of participants and calculate the centrality measures of individual participants. Time series cross-sectional analysis was used to analyze the effects of the roles and the positions on their information sharing activities in a longitudinal setting.\nFindings: The results of this research showed that all three centrality measures of an individual participant in previous time periods positively influenced his/her information sharing activity in the current periods. In addition, this research found that, depending on the nature of the discussion issues, the participants showed different interaction patterns. Throughout this research, the authors explored the interaction patterns of individual participants by using a network variable, the centrality, within a large online community, and found that the interaction patterns provided strong impact on their information sharing activities in the following months.\nResearch limitations/implications: To investigate the changes of participant's behaviors, this study simply relies on the numbers of comments received and posted without considering the contents of the comments. Future studies might need to analyze the contents of the comments exchanged between participants, as well as the social network among participants.\nPractical implications: Online communities have developed to take a more active role in inviting public opinions and promoting discussion about various socio-economic issues. Governments and companies need to understand the dynamics which are created by the interactions among many participants. This study offers them a framework for analyzing the dynamics of large online communities. Furthermore, it helps them to respond to online communities in the right way and in the right time.\nSocial implications: Online communities do not merely function as a platform for the free exchange and sharing of personal information and knowledge, but also as a social network that exerts massive influence in various parts of society including politics, economy, and culture. Now online communities become playing an important role in our society. By examining communication or interaction behaviors of individual participants, this study tries to understand how the online communities are evolved over time.\nOriginality/value: In the area of online communities, many previous studies have relied on the subjective data, like participant's perception data, in a particular time by using survey or interview. However, this study explores the dynamics of online communities by analyzing the vast amount of data accumulated in online communities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Motivations of employees' communicative behaviors on social media: Individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors	[ "Employee behaviour", "Social media" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As brand representatives of organizations, employees generally talk about their company, either positively or negatively, with people outside of their organization, such as friends or family members. Recognizing the strategic importance of these employee behaviors, scholars and practitioners have begun to increasingly investigate employees' communicative behaviors (ECB), their voluntary information sharing or forwarding of their company's strengths and/or weaknesses (Kim and Rhee, 2011; Lee and Kim, 2017). In the present digital era, employees use their voices within their private personal network and engage in social media to create, share, and distribute company-related information (Miles and Mangold, 2014). Given that these behaviors may either improve or worsen corporate reputation, scholars have attempted to explain the importance of employees' social-media-related behaviors, motivations, and other relevant factors (van Zoonen et al., 2018; Walsh et al., 2016).Meanwhile, another line of research on ECB in social media (sECB) emphasizes the anonymous characteristics of social media channels. Employees often share company-related content on their personal social media pages, such as Facebook or Twitter, without hiding their identity. At the same time, they also choose anonymous or deidentified outlets for sharing information about their company, without revealing their personal identity (Krishna and Kim, 2015; Ravazzani and Mazzei, 2018). Given the different characteristics of social media channels, namely, anonymous or nonanonymous, employees may have different motivations for engaging in communicative behaviors on different platforms. Nevertheless, few studies have specifically provided a comprehensive explanation for the motivations of ECB in diverse social media environments.In fact, sECB is a unique phenomenon that requires scholarly attention. First, unlike other organizational stakeholders such as consumers or investors, employees, as internal members of an organization, are a special type of stakeholders because they are highly involved in organizations' daily practices. Thus, employees are often treated as knowledgeable and influential sources of organizational information (Zottoli and Wanous, 2000). Second, individuals have a variety of motives for engaging in social media behaviors, particularly brand- or organization-related motivations (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Muntinga et al., 2011; Yap et al., 2013). Aside from organizational factors, employees' online behaviors are also highly affected by their traits or habits of using social media as well as perceived online communities (e.g. online social capital) (Huang and Liu, 2017). In other words, various motives interplay in encouraging or discouraging employees' company-related social media behaviors. Therefore, individual and contextual factors should be considered concurrently to understand the dynamics of employees' motivations for social media behaviors. Although several studies have examined employees' social media behaviors from various perspectives, few studies have provided a holistic description of such behaviors, especially by considering the valence of their message, whether positive or negative.Given the complexity of individuals' motivations for their behaviors on social media, the present study seeks to understand employees' social media behaviors by utilizing the socioecological model (SEM), which can suggest the factors related to one's behaviors at diverse levels. This study draws on the literature of several disciplines, including online and organizational behaviors, consumer psychology, and social network and proposes an integrative model to understand the motivations of employees' company-related social media behaviors. This approach considers individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors simultaneously and offers a comprehensive insight into what and how employees are engaging in social media.\nLiterature review: Employees' communicative behaviors on social media (sECB)\nMethod: Participants\nResults: Preliminary data analysis\nDiscussion: The current study links individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors by using a sociological approach to understand employees' behaviors in social media environments. This study provides significant insights into the theory and practice of online behaviors of employees.Theoretical implications\nLimitations and future research: This study contains some limitations. First, a self-reported survey used in the current research may cause social desirability bias for the respondents, even though the survey was anonymous. Given that online behaviors, especially negative ones, are considered as sensitive and private information of individuals, it is likely that the participants answered the questions in an insincere manner. Thus, the data may not accurately represent individuals' \"real\" online behaviors. Future works could address this issue by using qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews to gain more in-depth and contextualized details of when and why employees are engaging in positive and negative ECB on the diverse social media environment. Second, although the current study examines the effects of various factor levels simultaneously to explain the motivations for sECB, intertwined effects among the factors may also exist. For example, organizational-level factors (e.g. OER) may either increase or decrease interpersonal-level factors (e.g. venting negative feelings). Interpersonal-level factors (e.g. online bonding) may likewise affect individual-level factors (e.g. enjoyment) (Lin and Lu, 2011). Therefore, future studies should examine the interplay among the factors affecting sECB. Lastly, future studies should also investigate whether the effects of the diverse factors differ depending on the content to enhance the understanding of sECB. According to Krishna and Kim (2015), employees are likely to create content regarding their job, boss/supervisor, and management. Therefore, considering the diverse aspects of organizations and employees' experiences, the distinct effect of intrapersonal-, interpersonal-, and organizational-level factors on their motivations for sECB should be examined.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Given that an increasing number of social media platforms allow employees to share company-related information, the present study seeks to understand their complicated motivations for social media behaviors. Specifically, this study explores the antecedents of employees' positive and negative company-related information-sharing intentions on two distinctive social media platforms, personal (e.g. Facebook) and anonymous social networking sites (e.g. Glassdoor).\nDesign/methodology/approach: An online survey was conducted with 419 full-time employees in the United States from various industry sectors.\nFindings: Individual (enjoyment, venting negative feelings, and self-enhancement), interpersonal (bonding and bridging ties), and organizational (organization-employee relationship and perceived external prestige) factors are considerably and distinctly associated with employees' behavioral intentions on different social media platforms.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first to understand employees' communicative behaviors on social media (sECB) by linking diverse levels of motivational factors: individual, interpersonal, and organizational using a theoretical framework of socioecological model (SEM). This study also provides significant practical guidelines for organizational leaders and platform operators by explicating the dynamics of employee motives in engaging in a variety of social media platforms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Lean design for Six Sigma: An integrated approach to achieving product reliability and low-cost manufacturing	[ "New product development", "Research and development", "Design for Six Sigma", "Industrial experimentation", "Lean design for Six Sigma" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The dominant theory about new product development (NPD) is promoted by Rosenthal (1992), Cooper (2000), Crawford and Di-Benedetto (2002) and Swink and Song (2007), their research is consistent to propose stage-process to develop new products conveying customer needs to new product in the market as a result of a business case evaluation. In these previous researches the common factor is product testing, however, the scope is limited to reach zero-faulty product because there are missing tools such like: reliability and finite element analysis, design of experiments and design for Six Sigma (Gremyr and Fouquet, 2012).\n2. Theoretical background: Some organizations have identified the role of NPD as the one of the top three activities inside the company, reason why it has received the most attention as discussed by Goetsch and Davis (2010); furthermore, Handfield et al. (1999) and Afonso et al. (2008) have discussed NPD role and its success factors, on the other hand, Plambeck (2011) indicates the need of systematic approach to maximize its benefits based on cross-functional teams throughout the whole NPD process (Rasli Muslimen et al., 2012).\n3. Methodology: 3.1. The use of Lean design for Six Sigma tools into NPD\n4. Results: This approach focusses on reducing the risk priority number (RPN) while reducing the opportunity of failure occurrence. As a result of the application of this Lean design for Six Sigma tools the RPN has been able to be reduced from 240 to 48 as shown in Table II.\n5. Discussion: This study presented the theoretical background on the NPD process and related functions in today's organizations as it relates to competition. NPD was identified as one of the top priorities of every firm, reason why the NPD process must be optimized and oriented toward customers to ensure the quality and reliability of products while minimizing manufacturing costs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss new product development (NPD) based on a traditional stage-gate process and to examine how NPD tools, such as Lean design for Six Sigma, can accelerate the achievement of the main goals of NPD: reliable product quality, cost-effective implementation, and desired time-to-market. These new tools must be incorporated into a new approach to NPD based on the Advanced Product and Quality Planning methodology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research paper is based on the theoretical background presented in peer-reviewed scientific research papers during the period 1990-2012. In the second section of this study, the author provides examples of the proposed tools and of advanced techniques to show evidence that validates the hypothesis.\nFindings: This study presented the theoretical background on the NPD process and related functions in today's organizations as it relates to competition. NPD was identified as one of the top priorities of every firm, which is why the NPD process must be optimized and oriented toward customers to ensure the quality and reliability of products while minimizing manufacturing costs. The effect on timing and cost is greatly appreciated by top management, and it is well known throughout the firm when a strong, reliable product is launched that it is flawless.\nResearch limitations/implications: To fully deploy all NPD tools requires basic steps such as the following: marketing and planning, design, process, product process validation and the integration of operations from a concurrent engineering standpoint.\nPractical implications: This research paper provides step by step guidance in order to apply Lean Sigma tool in NPD process in order to achieve Six Sigma quality level in manufacturing.\nSocial implications: Promoting the practice of Lean design for Six Sigma and its tool enables firms to increase their competitiveness since they will make more reliable products delivered to its consumers.\nOriginality/value: The approach of this research paper combines proven statistical tools to be applied in an original sequence in order to design robust product to match manufacturing capabilities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
E-government and service orientation: gaps between theory and practice	[ "Public administration", "Research" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Throughout the world, governments and public-sector authorities are increasingly using information and communication technology (ICT) to provide agencies that are accessible to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The term \"e-government\" has been introduced into practice and research to describe these developments. The European Union (Commission of the European Communities, 2003) has defined \"e-government\" in the following terms:The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in public administrations combined with organisational change and new skills in order to improve public services and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies.Some scholars have argued that the emergence of e-government represents a paradigm shift in the organisation of the public sector that will have a profound effect on public administration in terms of technology, cost-efficiency, risks, and benefits to the public (Ho, 2002; Reschenthaler and Thompson, 1996; Criado and Ramilo, 2003).The present study focuses on the propensity of e-government to encourage a so-called \"service orientation\" in public administration. For the purposes of the study, the term \"service orientation\" is defined as a set of organisational policies, practices, and procedures intended to foster the creation and delivery of service excellence. In undertaking a review of previous research into service orientation in the field of e-government, the study has identified five (somewhat overlapping) areas that are worthy of note:1. Service design.2. Service systems.3. Service encounters.4. Human-resource management.5. Service leadership.The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The following section presents a conceptual analysis of service orientation; this serves as a framework for the literature review that follows. This conceptual analysis is followed by a presentation of the methodology used in the present study. The paper then provides a review of the previous conceptual and empirical research into service orientation in the field of e-government. Finally, the wider implications of the findings are discussed by drawing on institutional theory, together with a presentation of the major conclusions and contributions of the study.\nConceptual analysis: Service orientation\nMethodology: To identify the literature related to e-government and service orientation, a systematic search was undertaken (using the keyword \"e-government\") in the following databases:* Business Source Elite;* Emerald; and* ISI.These databases were chosen because they tend to contain articles, which are a synthesis of many separate disciplines such as human resources and change management.The articles revealed in this initial search were briefly reviewed to identify those that were most relevant to the objectives of the present paper. Articles that were clearly connected with \"information-system research\" were discarded. As mentioned above, empirical articles published before 2000 were also disregarded because \"e-government\" was at an early stage at that time. This \"first selection\" resulted in a total of 70 articles, which were read and analysed. Of these, 28 were deemed to be especially relevant to the present study. Allowing for articles that appeared in more than one database, this \"final selection\" was reduced to a total of 20. Table I summarises the numbers of articles identified by this selection process.The literature search then continued with a scan of the references cited by the 20 articles. This resulted in an additional seven articles being added to the \"final selection\" of 20. It also validated our selection of articles, since we cross-checked it with the references utilized in previous research. In all, 27 articles were thus carefully reviewed and analysed. Table II provides a summary of these articles. Apart from the articles three relevant research monographs one edited volume were reviewed.\nFindings: The conceptual literature goes far in its prediction of the changes that the introduction of e-government might result in. The empirical literature, on the other hand, displays a more restrained attitude concerning e-government introduction and the changes that have actually taken place. Service design, service systems, service encounters, service leadership, and human resource management are sub categories of service orientation and is used to structure this literature review section.Service design and e-government\nDiscussion: It is apparent from this literature review that the largely positive predictions regarding the potential benefits of e-government from a conceptual perspective have not been supported by empirical research. It is possible that it is still too soon to evaluate the full effects of e-government initiatives on service orientation in the public sector. It is also possible that the empirical research conducted to date has been too shallow and has lacked a clear focus on service orientation. In particular, simply asking customers or citizens in an unstructured way about their views on service orientation is insufficient. The present authors contend that deep qualitative research, including participatory observation and interviews, as well as well designed surveys is required.Moreover, the present authors contend that the gap between prescriptive and empirical research could be understood by drawing on institutional theory (Meyer and Rowan, 1977; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). This theoretical perspective has already been drawn on by Fountain (2001) in her analysis of the organizational role of information technology in the (US) public sector. Fountain (2001) focuses primarily on organizational change as an effect of enactment of information technology in this way contributing to elaborate on institutional theory in a novel fashion. Since our review show that the predictions in the conceptual e-government literature to a great extent have not been realized, we use institutional theory to understand the reasons to this inertia. Analyzing inertia is usually seen as the main strength with institutional theory.Institutional theory should be seen as an alternative to rational organization theory. The latter, which the bulk of research into e-government is founded on, has conceived of organisations as consisting of rational actors (e.g. Taylor, 1911) or at least actors that have the ability to reach bounded rationality (Cyert and March, 1963; March and Simon, 1958). According to this paradigm, management are given the role of developing goals and formal organizational structures designed to support goal attainment. The personnel are expected to act in accordance with the goals and the prerogatives embedded in the formal structure. In contrast, institutional theory argues that organisations are embedded in the environments that shape them including their formal structures (Scott, 1995). According to this view, organisations must obtain \"legitimacy\" from their environments if they are to survive. However, the environment is often characterised by conflicting demands, making it problematic for organisations to adjust their operations in accordance with all the various demands placed upon them. In order to deal with this conflict, a central argument of institutional theory is that organisations adapt their formal structures to external demands, in this way gaining legitimacy from the environment. But institutional theory also holds that formal structures and real activities are \"de-coupled\" (Meyer and Rowan, 1977; Oliver, 1991). According to this view, an organisation gives the impression of having adapted to its environment, while simultaneously carrying out its activities as it did before - thus avoiding the conflicting demands imposed upon it by the environment. In this regard, Abrahamson (1996) has used the term \"organisational fashion\" to describe the phenomenon whereby change processes appear to affect organisations profoundly, whereas the reality is that these apparent changes are only a facade.From an institutional perspective, e-government is an \"institutional pressure\" in the environment of public organisations. To be considered \"legitimate\", organisations are expected to adapt to these demands, and the conceptual literature can thus be understood as a summary of the demands being made upon public-sector entities in terms of organisational design, implementation, and expected effects. The disappointing results reflected in the empirical research can be interpreted, from an institutional perspective, as indicating that e-government is only loosely coupled to organisational action. According to this view, e-government has thus far served as a means of legitimising the survival of public organisations and can be treated as an \"organisational fashion\" (Abrahamson, 1996) rather then \"organizational action\". If so, the talk of a \"paradigm shift\" (Kuhn, 1962) is at best inappropriate, and at worst misleading. The problem with some research into e-government is that it is guided by a rational view of organizations thus holding that the formal organization really affects organizational action.\nConclusions and contributions: The most important contribution made by the present paper is the literature review on service orientation in the field of e-government. The conclusion of this review is that there is a gap between empirical and conceptual research in this area. This gap has several dimensions:* many of the writings in the field of e-government and service orientation are of a normative and predictive nature;* presumptions concerning a paradigm shift (as predicted in the conceptual literature and alluded to in this paper) receive very little support in fact (as reported in the empirical literature);* the empirical literature reveals changes other than those proposed in the conceptual literature; and* empirical research into service orientation in the field of e-government is scarce.It is apparent that more empirical data are needed to understand the effects of e-government on organisations, and the present authors contend that comprehensive case studies or well-designed surveys might be suitable for this purpose.In addition to this, the present paper contrasts the rational conceptualization of organisations that predominates research into service orientation in the field of e-government with institutional theory. This is not original as such since Fountain (2001) already has applied institutional theory to the analysis of the role of informational technology in the public sector. Nevertheless, institutional theory illuminates on the reasons to the gap between conceptual predictions and empirical results of implementation of e-government initiatives. Furthermore, most research is still informed by narrow rational views on organizations despite of the excellent work of Fountain (2001). This theoretical myopia prevents a deep understanding of the effects of e-government initiatives on organizations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to review selected literature on e-government service orientation and highlight differences between academic theory and empirical findings. To date, there has been little support for predictions made in the e-government conceptual literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is a conceptual framework for a literature review of e-government and service orientation is presented. A systematic database search is then undertaken to identify the literature related to e-government and service orientation. Suitable papers are selected, carefully read, and systematically analysed according to the conceptual framework. A discussion and relevant conclusions are then presented.\nFindings: - The paper finds that a gap appears to exist between conceptual literature and empirical findings. For example, conceptual research claims that e-government will result in a reduction of staff, yet no empirical findings have proven this. The present study applies institutional theory for understanding the fundamental reasons to this gap.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is based on a literature review of 27 articles, three monographs and one edited volume focusing on service orientation and e-government. It does not attempt to examine the full range of the literature available within the field of e-government.\nOriginality/value: - This review paper uniquely considers the gaps between the theory and practice of e-government service orientation, and identifies where they exist. Some possible explanations for the gaps are explored which can be of interest to both academics and practitioners working in the field.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Extending relationship value: observations from a case study of the Canadian structural wood products industry	[ "Value analysis", "Customer relations", "Supplier relations", "Competitive strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and purpose: The concept of relationship value (RV) emerged in the mid-1990s from research on customer-perceived value in the context of relationship marketing when researchers became interested in value creation through relational dimensions rather than merely the physical product (Lapierre, 2000; Ravald and Gronroos, 1996). Research on the RV concept is seen as one of the most recent and potentially the most promising stream for understanding value creation in business exchange (Payne and Holt, 2001; Ulaga, 2003). Operationalizing the RV concept into a construct to support empirical research has been challenging since the way in which value creation in business relationships should be measured has long been an unresolved issue (Blois, 2004; Simpson et al., 2001). The difficulty emanates mainly from the need to measure intangible assets in relationships, embedded in psychological, behavioral, and strategic dimensions (Wilson and Jantrania, 1993). Problems also arise from the fact that perceived value is subjective, individual in nature, and evolves over time. For instance, a customer may evaluate the same product offering differently on separate occasions (Lapierre, 2000), which is to say that value will be given various meanings depending on \"who is the judge\", the business context, the stage in the relationship life cycle, and so on.Combining qualitative (grounded theory approach) and quantitative (structural equation modeling) research, Ulaga and Eggert were the first to successfully propose and validate a measure of RV in industrial markets (Eggert and Ulaga, 2002, 2004; Eggert et al., 2006; Ulaga, 2001, 2003; Ulaga and Eggert, 2002, 2005, 2006). Adopting the \"trade-off\" approach to value, they have operationalized RV as a higher-order construct formed by two first-order dimensions (benefits and costs), six second-order dimensions related to benefits (i.e. benefits related to: products, services, delivery, innovation/know-how, time-to-market, personal interactions), and three second-order dimensions related to sacrifices in relationships (i.e. direct costs, acquisition costs, and operation costs). In one of their latest studies, they conducted a large scale survey in multiple industries about routinely purchased components that established statistically significant differences between customers' value perceptions of their best and next best supplier relationships. With this type of application, the construct of RV is of specific interest to suppliers seeking to understand the value dimensions that they can use to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This is notably the case for Canadian wood products manufacturers who are currently struggling in a difficult business environment and looking to develop more customer-oriented marketing approaches (further presented in the background of this paper).The objective of this study is therefore to adapt and develop Ulaga and Eggert's (2006) measure of RV in order to investigate the delivery of superior value in customer relationships as a means to enhance organizational competitiveness. To be used for this purpose, the RV construct needed to be extended in several directions. First, the measure had to be adapted to integrate a supply perspective since the objective of this study was to investigate value creation in relationships with customers (and not in relationships with suppliers). Additionally, the co-production and shared distribution of value between buyers and sellers has been increasingly shown to be a characteristic of successful business relationships (Prahalad and Venkat, 2004). This further calls for an integration of suppliers' views in studies of RV. Second, we needed to find ways to actually evaluate relationship value since the supporting literature has not clearly demonstrated how an overall evaluation of relationships should be computed from RV dimensions (e.g. subtracting costs from benefits or calculating a ratio?). Finally, the measure needed to be adapted for evaluating a small number of relationships on one hand (in order to investigate RV within organizations when sample size issues may limit quantitative data analyses), and all types of customer relationships on the other hand (in order to analyze entire customer bases and not just \"key relationships\"). In summary, to meet the objective of this study, the RV construct needed to be extended by considerations of scope (i.e. integrating suppliers' views), computational techniques (i.e. calculations of the overall values of relationships), range of applications (i.e. types of relationships evaluated), and scale of measurement (i.e. number of relationships evaluated).The first section of this paper provides background information on the relationship value (RV) concept, its links with organizational competitiveness, and on the rationale for framing this study within the Canadian structural wood products industry. The next section describes the case study design and the methodological developments undertaken to extend the measure of RV. The final sections include a presentation and discussion of findings, with emphases on their theoretical and managerial implications.\n1. Background information: In the 1990s, a stream of literature anchored both in marketing (customer-oriented approach to value) and in strategy (role of value in creating a competitive advantage) emphasized the linkages between \"customer value\" and organizational profitability, performance, and competitive advantage (e.g. Desarbo et al., 2001; Srivastava et al., 2001; Woodruff, 1997). The ability of a company to provide superior value to its customers has been increasingly shown as a means of differentiation and a source of sustainable competitive advantage (Beverland and Lockshin, 2003; Ravald and Gronroos, 1996).1.1 From customer value to relationship value\n2. Methods: 2.1 Research design and case selection\n3. Results: This section is structured as follows. First, we present the insights gained from the interviews with supplier informants about the \"value of customers\" when considering relationship value (RV). Next, opinions of interviewed suppliers and customers are compared regarding the \"value for customers\" in RV, as well as the relative importance of its dimensions. Finally, this section examines how the interviewed suppliers believe they compare to the competition on their value offerings in the 58 selected customer relationships. It should be noted that, while the results of this study summarize the opinions of customer and supplier informants regarding the dimensions of RV, the evaluation of RV is based only on data provided by supplier informants.3.1 Value of customers\n4. Discussion and implications: This multiple-case study aims to adapt and develop Ulaga and Eggert's (2006) measure of relationship value (RV) in order to investigate the delivery of superior value in customer relationships as a means to enhance organizational competitiveness. It was contextualized in the case of the Canadian wood products manufacturers who are currently in need for such understanding.4.1 Using RV to understand competitive advantage sources\n5. Study limitations: This research was conducted in the Canadian wood products industry and findings may not reflect dynamics of business relationships in other industrial or service sectors. Furthermore, the sample of structural wood products suppliers and buyers selected for this study does not represent the population of manufacturing or purchasing companies in the wood products industry. That said, as with any qualitative approach, findings were not intended to be representative, but were meant to provide insight and a deeper understanding of the phenomenon under scrutiny, relationship value (RV). However, the RV construct, as well as the methodological tools developed in this research are transferable to any other industrial or services sector with appropriate adaptation. Findings (e.g. characterization of \"strategic\", \"supportive\", \"promising\", and \"questionable\" customer relationships) and their implications (e.g. the development of a value-driven relationship management philosophy is likely to be an important source of improved performance and competitiveness) can also be theoretically generalized[4] to any other business context.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present how the construct of relationship value (RV) has the potential to help suppliers understand how to create superior value in their customer relationships and ultimately improve their competitiveness. Nowhere is this truer than in the Canadian wood products industry, where sales to its most important market, the USA, have recently been dwindling. The paper seeks to present how RV was adapted in this research context and extended over elements of scope, range of potential applications, scale of measurement, and computational techniques.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multiple-case study was undertaken and consisted of the evaluation of 58 customer relationships for three wood products manufacturers.\nFindings: - Findings highlight the necessary distinction between \"value for\" and \"value of\" customers when measuring relationship value from a supply perspective. Based on the value and orientation of exchange, a new segmentation of customer relationships emerges which differentiates \"questionable\", \"supportive\", \"promising\", and \"strategic\" relationships.\nOriginality/value: - The case study will serve in the development of value-driven relationship management approaches, which are likely to become a major source of competitive advantage, not only in the wood products industry, but in business in general.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
When gut feelings skew hiring decisions: Beware of premature biases in interviews	[ "Selection", "Cognitive model", "Job interview" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: We're all familiar with the notion that prospective employers can make up their minds about a job candidate within seconds, or even a fraction of a second, of meeting them at the interview. It is a pity really because first impressions can often be wrong. However, people do check each other out at lightning speed even before a word is said. Then there is the handshake. The \"wet fish\" type can definitely be a turn-off and a firm, rather than crushing, one is reckoned to be best.\nAppearance does not correlate with subsequent job performance: He says: \"Some degree of gut feel will be present during any interview but such feelings should not dictate hiring decisions. It is important to create meritocracies in which job candidates with requisite skills and values are selected, rather than those who just happen to interview well\".\nInterview judgements are swayed by candidates' body language: Stage 2 begins when the interviewer offers coffee or exchanges pleasantries. It gives both parties time to settle in. Practitioners can use the time to change gears from their busy schedules. While engaging in small talk, a mismatch in non-relevant values can bias interviewers. Inadvertent comments by candidates can provoke interviewers' deeply-held values (e.g. religious, political persuasion) and act as knock-out factors before candidates can prove themselves in Stages 3 and 4.\nIt is more difficult to pose a good question than to answer one: Notwithstanding the superior effects of structured interviews, in practice interviewers have historically used the unstructured approach and continue to do so today. Typical questions are, \"So, tell me about yourself. Why do you think you'd be good for this position?\" \"Why should I hire you?\" and \"How would you describe yourself?\" Unstructured interviews create several problems. Interviewers who use applicants' resumes to drive interviews are unable to compare multiple candidates against a common yardstick afterwards.\nComment: This review is based on \"The four stages of the employment interview. Helping interviewers put two and two together\" by Wiersma (2016), who notes the transition of an interview through naturally occurring stages: the initial impression, the rapport-building; the body of the interview and the close when the candidate is invited to ask questions. He makes suggestions about how practitioners might improve their interviewing skills and warns of problems which might affect the accuracy of their decisions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: An interview transitions through four naturally occurring stages: the initial impression formed in the first few seconds when the candidate and interviewer first lay eyes on one another; a rapport building stage of several minutes to help each party settle in; the body of the interview in which job skills and culture-fit are assessed; and the close, when the interviewer asks if the candidate has any questions about the job or company.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Are multiple brand endorsements economically effective?	[ "Celebrity endorsement", "Advertising", "Brand performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Brands are important intangible assets that contribute significantly to firms' performance (Ailawadi et al., 2001; Capron and Hulland, 1999; Sullivan, 1998). Most firms have a brand portfolio and use different strategies to manage this portfolio (Aaker, 2004; Dacin and Smith, 1994; Sevel et al., 2017). However, extant literature provides scant evidence on how brand portfolio management strategy affects firms' performance (Morgan and Rego, 2009). In this regard, portfolio management strategies such as number of brands (Bordley, 2003) and complementarity between brands (Kumar, 2003) have been examined to some extent, but the impact of advertisement strategies largely remains unexplored. Celebrity endorsement is one of the most common forms of advertising. Although firms possess different brands in their portfolio, not all of their brands are endorsed by celebrities. Does brand portfolio performance increase when firms endorse multiple brands through celebrities? As endorsement is a resource-intensive and expensive form of advertisement, investors may penalize firms for incurring too much cost on endorsements, if they believe that benefits may not outweigh the cost associated with multiple brand endorsements. On the other hand, if investors perceive that benefits of multiple endorsements have the potential to outweigh cost through enhanced sales potential they might reward the firm for multiple brand endorsements. Extant literature presents mixed results with regard to the positive impact of single brand endorsement on firm's performance (Agarwal and Kamakura, 1995; Elberse and Verleun, 2012; Knittel and Stango, 2014; Jaikumar and Sahay, 2015), implying that the impact of multiple brand endorsements could be even more challenging. As implications of single brand endorsement cannot be extended to multiple brand endorsements, it becomes vital to explore the impact of multiple brand endorsements on firm's valuation. Furthermore, attributes of celebrities associated with brand endorsements could also influence firm's performance. For instance, reputation and experience of the celebrities endorsing the brand portfolio of a specific firm could influence the performance of the firm. Here again, highly reputed celebrities are more likely to raise the endorsement cost, which may not equivalently enhance firms' performance. Thus, again implications of celebrity attributes for single brand endorsement could not be extended to situations where firms endorse their multiple brands through different celebrities.\nLiterature review and hypothesis: Celebrity brand endorsement and firm valuation\nMethodology: To test the proposed hypotheses, in the present study, India was selected as the country for investigation. Choosing India as a context of study was for several reasons. First, as India is one of the fastest growing emerging markets (Gillespie, 2015), multinational firms intending to launch brands in India can profit immensely by knowing the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement in the country. Second, celebrities appear in over 50 per cent of the advertisements in India, (Winterich et al., 2012), making endorsements a business with a value of $321m (Mithel and Hector, 2013). Third, endorsement is a culturally sensitive phenomenon (Lunardo et al., 2015), thus raising its significance in countries with high power distance such as India where celebrities are even worshiped (Choi et al., 2005; Winterich et al., 2012). In addition, consumers in India tend to remember 86 per cent of the celebrity-endorsed advertisements, which reflects their affinity towards celebrities (Bansal, 2008).\nResults: Table I presents the descriptive statistics, Tables II and III reflects results of regression using instrumental variable technique. To ensure that multicollinearity is not a problem, variance inflation factor was also calculated. For explanatory variables, VIF ranged between 1.19 and 2.65, which was much below the value of 10, considered as indicator of multicollinearity (Neter et al., 1983). As can be observed in Table I that on an average each firm endorsed 41 per cent of its brands through celebrities. Furthermore, the average experience of these celebrities was 11 years. Similarly, average celebrity reputation was 0.83 (with the maximum possible value of 1), implying that on average firms hire reputed celebrities for brand endorsement. Model 1 of Table II contains only control variables. Model 2 contains the independent variables and Model 3 contains the interaction effect along with other independent variables.\nConclusions and implications: This study is an attempt to explore how celebrity endorsement as brand portfolio management strategy affects firms' performance (Morgan and Rego, 2009). Moreover, this study presents evidence from a high power distance country, India, as celebrity endorsement is much more frequent in these countries compared to low power distance countries. Findings from the study indicate that as the proportion of a firm's brands endorsed by celebrities increases, firm market valuation also increases. These results are consistent with several extant studies in which endorsement announcements raised firm stock prices (Agarwal and Kamakura, 1995; Elberse and Verleun, 2012). Positive gains were expected, as credible celebrities echo the fundamental values of a culture, and their endorsements elicit a sense of public approval of the endorsed products (Choi et al., 2005). As endorsement is a highly resource-intensive advertising strategy, endorsing too many brands could have resulted in the deterioration of firm valuation because of cost implications. However, the current study results indicate that this did not happen, but rather multiple brand endorsements raised the market valuation of Indian firms. Though multiple brand endorsements enhanced firm value for Indian firms, same may not happen in low power distance western countries such as the USA and the UK. As cultural differences influence the effectiveness of endorsements (Money et al., 2006), investors may also vary in their response to multiple brand endorsements by celebrities.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of multiple brand celebrity endorsement strategies on firms' performance and different attributes associated with celebrities on firms' performance. In this regard, the present study specifically explores the role of celebrity reputation and experience, as well as social media as a promotion platform in influencing the economic effectiveness of multiple brand endorsement strategies, i.e. proportion of brands endorsed in a firms' brand portfolio.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Study is based on instrumental variable regression analysis approach and is conducted in one of the emerging markets, i.e. India.\nFindings: The findings indicate that firms' market valuations increase as its proportion of brands endorsed by celebrities increases. Furthermore, popularity reputation of celebrity also influences market valuation, and relationship is positively moderated by celebrity's experience.\nOriginality/value: Extant studies have considered one endorsement news of a firm at a time. However, how total proportion of firms' brand endorsed by celebrities impacts its performance has not been investigated. Furthermore, impact of celebrity traits has been examined only in consumer behavior studies and has been rarely investigated in context of firms' economic performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
From principal cognitive complexity to teacher intent to leave: Exploring the mediating role of school absorptive capacity and teacher commitment	[ "Absorptive capacity", "Principals cognitive complexity", "Teachers affective commitment", "Teachers intent to leave" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research has consistently shown that teachers leave their job because of dissatisfaction and burnout (Fore et al., 2002; Hale-Jinks et al., 2006), which decrease their motivation and organizational commitment (Conley and You, 2009). Teachers' intention to leave is becoming a primary target for school administrators because of its considerable cost to human resource management (Harris et al., 2005). Furthermore, teachers' intent to leave poses a problem with unique organizational and pedagogical implications. In general, the teachers who intend to leave are the more qualified ones, thereby jeopardizing the school's teaching standards (Ingersoll, 2012). Intent to leave can damage a school's reputation and the faculty's cohesion, consequently impairing school effectiveness (Schaefer et al., 2012).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Leader CC\nMethods: The context of the study\nResults: Correlations for the study variables are reported in Table I.\nDiscussion: This study examined the theoretical paths along which school principals' CC can eventually influence a teacher's intent to leave through its effects on schools' ACAP and a teacher's affective commitment. Our model integrates topics from relatively diverse domains, including leadership, learning and teachers' attitudes toward withdrawal behavior. The main results of this study are that principals' CC decreases a teacher's intent to leave through his or her affective commitment and schools' ACAP. To decrease a teacher's intent to leave, principals need differentiation, abstraction and integration abilities, which can produce a climate in which teachers acquire, assimilate, transform and exploit external knowledge for the school's internal processes, and increase their affective commitment.\nLimitations and future research: Several limitations of this study warrant further research. First, principals filled the CC questionnaire. These self-reported data might be subject to bias and common method variance. However, in line with the recommendations of Podsakoff et al. (2000), participants were explicitly assured anonymity and were told that there are no right or wrong answers, thereby reducing common method variance.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study are important for policy makers and school superintendents, both of whom are responsible for training new principals or providing advancement courses for leadership development. In particular, leadership programs should focus on helping leaders develop a \"growth mindset\" in the face of organizational complexities. Such a mindset can be acquired through reflective collaborative analyses with a mentor or coach. Moreover, monthly meetings between school leaders and their supervisors might also contribute to promoting CC. The supervisor (or an external counselor, guide or coach) might initiate workshops with school leaders in which complex cases are introduced to acknowledge multiple perspectives, seeking out the varied information that will increase leaders' thinking complexity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test an innovative model for exploring the direct and indirect relationships between principals' cognitive complexity (CC), schools' absorptive capacity (ACAP), a teacher's affective commitment and a teacher's intent to leave.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from a survey of 1,664 teachers at 107 Arab elementary schools, randomly selected from the database of the Israeli educational system. To test the proposed model, multilevel structural equation modeling was conducted.\nFindings: The analysis confirmed that schools' ACAP and a teacher's affective commitment are prominent mediators between principals' CC and a teacher's intent to leave.\nPractical implications: Understanding the factors that contribute to a teacher's intent to leave could help school principals and policy makers retain effective teachers in today's schools.\nOriginality/value: This study adds to the body of research directed at identifying school principals' characteristics, as well as work-related factors, which may decrease a teacher's intent to leave and are amenable to leadership intervention.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effects of URLs in traditional media advertising in China	[ "China", "Internet", "Advertising", "Brand awareness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past decade, internet market penetration has increased dramatically, especially in Asia. The world wide web has emerged as an indisputable advertising medium, and many companies now use it to reach, appeal to and build relationships with their consumers (Geiger and Martin, 1999). Although international advertisers especially have considered internet-enabled communication and interaction, there has been a great deal of confusion and speculation about the web's role in marketing efforts and how it will affect buyer behavior (Berthon et al., 1996; Bush et al., 1998; Lee and Park, 2004). This highlights the need and importance for understanding buyers' beliefs and perceptions about the effects of the web in marketing and advertising.Many studies have examined the beliefs and perceptions of internet users toward web advertising and the value of a web presence (Brackett and Carr, 2001; Ducoffe, 1996; Bruner and Kumar, 2000; Gong and Maddox, 2003; Schlosser et al., 1999; Wolin et al., 2002). But, little scholarly attention has been paid to whether web addresses in mass media ads are noticed and what effects they have (Maddox et al., 1997) and little is known about the media strategies that advertisers use as they incorporate the web into their media mix (Pardun and Lamb, 1999).In 1997, Peterson (1997) reported that advertising practitioners were beginning to think strategically about when to include a web address in an ad and where to put it. From the IMC point of view, Faigin (1997) suggested that the web addresses be present on all media messages \"to drive consumers to the web.\" Maddox et al. (1997) reported important findings on the branding potential of web addresses in advertising among both users and non-users of the internet in the US. Pardun and Lamb (1999) looked into the relationship between traditional print advertising and the internet. Their findings indicated that web addresses had begun to replace traditional toll-free numbers in print ads as a way for advertisers to extend their accessibility to consumers. Their research also suggested that certain categories of advertisers were more likely to include URLs. It was observed that 98 percent of the car ads included a URL while only 10 percent of the ads for office equipment had one.No doubt, this line of inquiry into the role of URLs in advertising and marketing activities warrants more in-depth investigation as companies are increasingly looking to the web to build public relations, enhance advertising media impressions and increase marketing opportunities, domestic and overseas. With this in mind, this study presents a first look at effects of URLs in mass media advertising in China.It is hoped that the results of this study enhance the global understanding of the role the web can play in advertisers' strategies and how the inclusion of a URL in a mass media ad affects noticeability, perceptions and behavior of both users and current non-users of the internet.\nRelevant literature review: Advertising in China\nThe study: This study uses these traditional advertising effectiveness measures to investigate the perceived effects of including a URL in traditional mass media advertising. It contributes to the literature on the role and effects of URLs in advertising and offers insights into the manner in which international advertisers may capitalize on the rapid diffusion of this interactive medium in China. It examines Chinese consumers' perceptions about brands and advertisers with URLs in their advertising. Such a study is particularly relevant in view of the fact that China is emerging as one of the key growth areas for internet usage and a leading player in global e-commerce (Steiner, 2004).This first investigation into the role and effects of URLs in Chinese advertising adds to the scant but growing body of literature on internet advertising in China. It also contributes to the global understanding of the role and effects of URLs. While the study is admittedly exploratory in nature, it serves as a springboard for future research in this area.The study done in the US by Maddox et al. (1997) revealed that URLs in advertising were noticed by both users and non-users of the internet. Respondents reported different perceptions about advertisers who included URLs in their advertising than those who did not. Therefore, it is interesting to see whether these findings hold true among both users and non-users of the internet in China and what the potential of a URL for branding is in China. Specifically, based on the above literature review, the following research questions are posed:* Are URLs noticed by users and/or non-users of the internet in China and does noticeability differ by medium and product/service categories?* Do Chinese consumers say that a web address in an advertisement affects their awareness of and perceptions about the brand or company?* Do Chinese consumers believe that advertisers who include a URL in a mass media advertisement are different from those who do not?* Will Chinese consumers use the URL advertised in traditional mass media to make further inquiries online about the product or company and/or use the information from the web site to make purchase decisions?\nMethodology: This study was a replication of previous research conducted by Maddox et al. (1997) and used the same methodology. The questionnaire was identical except that two questions relevant to the Chinese market were added. Random telephone interviews were conducted in China during a two-week period as they were in the previous study.Sample size and profile\nResults: Noticeability of web addresses in advertising\nDiscussions and implications: This research shows that both users and non-users of the internet in China notice URLs in mass media ads. Web addresses are seen most in television. This is not surprising given the virtually national coverage of the medium and its dominance in advertising in China.Newspapers, radio and magazines are the next three media that garner high noticeability among the Chinese respondents. Print's chief advantage is its credibility in the eyes of Chinese consumers - particularly younger urban readers. Newspapers and magazines tend to lead all media in terms of authority, authenticity and depth of information (China Contact, 2002). As such, marketers and advertisers should take advantage of Chinese consumers' confidence and advertise their URLs more in these media because readers do notice them. For radio, most Chinese (734 million) are regular listeners and a large population (75 million) regards it as their primary source of information (China Contact, 2002). The high noticeability of URLs in ads on radio suggests that marketers can benefit from this kind of widespread reach. As outdoor advertising and direct marketing are gaining more popularity, many Chinese consider the inclusion of a URL on them important. New outdoor spots include bus sidings, shelters and depots, highways and buildings. Direct mail has become much more apparent in the major cities in recent years and direct marketing may soon realize its potential as more companies build up banks of customer data from loyalty cards and clubs. The beauty of direct mail in China is that it is personal, or at least seems so to the customers. Chinese consumers like to feel that companies offer them a personal service, and value each consumer as an individual. As such, marketers should definitely include URLs more often as they increase the use of well-crafted mail campaigns to build customer loyalty in the increasingly competitive retail market in China in the years to come (China Contact, 2002).URLs in ads for telecommunications and auto products and services are most likely to be noticed. This is consistent with previous research in the US URLs were also noticed in education ads. Education has always been a high priority for Chinese. URLs in ads for entertainment may also be noticed due to their increasing accessibility in the growing Chinese economy. As noted by Yoon and Kim (2001), very few studies have looked into this issue of product-media matching with the purpose of determining the best fit between them. Our study contributes to this effort. The findings from this study point to the need for media executives to carefully develop integrative media strategies targeting different product categories.Consistent with the previous study in the US, this study revealed that the mere inclusion of a URL in advertising enhances the image of advertiser. Compared to those without URLs in their ads, advertisers with URLs are perceived more positively by Chinese consumers in all the attitudinal attributes examined. Moreover, nearly half of the Chinese respondents expect advertisers currently without URLs to include one in their ads and 62 percent think advertisers should include URLs in their advertising.This information is important in strategic planning and in accountability measurement. Advertisers have traditionally measured the effectiveness of advertising that included a URL by whether or not consumers clicked on it. This research points to the need for better accountability metrics that include measures of awareness, perceptions, image and product and brand interest. The results of this study suggest that there is a \"halo\" effect associated with the URL whereby an advertiser enhances its image because its internet connection. Even nonusers of the internet are affected positively by being merely exposed to an advertisement with a URL. Such exposures can transform into favorable perceptions and thus enhance the image of the advertiser.Moreover, the results of the study suggest that advertisers who use the internet and advertise it by including URLs in their mass media advertising are actually drawing non-users of the internet to the medium. Nearly 38 percent of the current nonusers said they were likely to log on to the internet and visit an advertised web site within the next month. This is in line with the exponential growth of the internet population in China. As internet usage grows and more people get online, it is imperative for marketers to not only include URLs in their mass media ads, but to understand the image building benefits. The study shows that, in general, respondents from different demographic segments reported favorable perceptions towards the inclusion of a URL in mass media advertising.The implications for marketers and advertisers are obvious. With such a fast-growing internet population in China, it is imminent for marketers, domestic or foreign, to establish a web presence and include a URL in their advertising. However, as we all know, with the clutter of today's advertising messages, advertisers need to fight all the way for consumers' attention. One more element in an ad is one more potential reason that the audience will not read it (Peterson, 1997). As such, when to include a URL in an ad, where to put it, or how long it should be shown on the screen so as not to undercut a clever concept or marring an arresting picture are the biggest challenges facing creative directors and media buyers.As shown in the study, consumers need a compelling reason to come to a site. Besides the intrinsic interest in a particular product/service category or a particular brand that will draw consumers to a certain web site, creative ads can be a major attraction for enticing the Chinese to an advertiser's web site. Therefore, marketers and advertisers should invest in improving creativity and thus the entertainment value of their advertisements.However, since advertising are not always trusted by urban Chinese (Zhou et al., 2002), international marketers should also be cognizant of the importance of clarity, quality, and trust in developing a web site. This behooves marketers and advertisers to not only invest in developing creative ads, but also living up to consumers' expectations once they get onto the website. Otherwise, the longevity of the positive image evoked from the URL as well as the future of the web as an advertising medium may be negatively affected.To formulate a sound URL strategy, marketers, especially international marketers, need first identify a unique brand name and work at all its variants. Owing to linguistic differences between English and Chinese, it is very likely that Chinese consumers may misspell the brand or company name. As such, marketers should register as many permutations of the name as possible, for example, using a variety of misspellings and homonyms, inserting hyphens, etc. so as to optimize the valuable traffic. Secondly, marketers need make sure the URL is highly visible but never stands alone. It should always be tagged with a proposition that teases potential visitors and inspires them to visit the web site. Thirdly, marketers can increase their brand awareness and online traffic by \"creatively\" posting their URLs on all pieces of information that leave their office in print or online, including brochures, envelopes, letterheads, flyers, shipping labels, business cards, and even tee-shirts, so as to maximize potential exposures.Results from this research strongly indicate that Chinese consumers have high expectations for advertisers without URLs in their advertising to include one within the next six months. Our findings seem to suggest that a URL may be considered as a standardized advertising element for international advertising. Future studies could investigate the role of URLs in advertising in other countries so that more insightful conclusions could be drawn.As with most research, there will always be limitations. Here are some issues to consider. First, the overall response rate of 19 percent is low, thus it is likely that those who did not participate in the survey to show different responses from those who participated. Because of this, we cannot generalize the results found to the entire population of Chinese. Second, the study investigates the effects of URLs based on self-reported data. It is suggested that future research use experimental design to more accurately pinpoint the potential effects of URLs in branding. Lastly, the study did not examine the influence of general differences among users and nonusers of the internet on their perceptions of ads with URLs. It would be interesting for future studies to look into the possible impact of such variables on the effects of URLs.Despite these limitations, results from this study are interesting and important. It adds significantly to the knowledge of web advertising in China and suggests that marketers consider how an implied web presence affects advertising noticeability and brand image. Moreover, the similarity of the results to earlier results in the US suggest that advertisers in countries where internet usage is still developing may benefit from establishing and advertising a web presence early. URLs in mass media ads positively impact both users and non/future users of the internet. Moreover, the mere presence of the URL helps expand internet usage.This research suggests the need for similar research in other markets. It also suggests the need for replication of the research in the US and in China in the future to determine if the image enhancement of URLs in mass media ads remains as internet usage grows.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This research examines how URLs in Chinese mass media advertising affect noticeability, perceptions and behavior among internet users and non-users.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - It uses advertising effectiveness measures to investigate the perceived effects of URLs in traditional media advertising. Six hundred and twenty-seven random telephone interviews among adult internet users and non-users were conducted in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai.\nFindings: - Results showed the inclusion of a URL in an ad enhanced brand perceptions and increased consumers' likelihood to visit the web site.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Limitations include a low response rate, self-reported data, and limited analysis of internet users and non-users. Future research could use an experimental design and update data as web presence and internet usage grows.\nPractical implications: - This research adds to knowledge about web advertising in China and suggests that marketers may benefit from an early web presence.\nOriginality/value: - It suggests that marketers need to be more strategic about how web presence affects brand perception among users and non-users of the internet.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An exploration of the fruit and vegetable "foodscape" in a university setting for staff: A preliminary study	[ "Health promotion", "Fruits", "Vegetables", "Consumer choice", "Work" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: A current determinant of EU health is the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed by the population where it is recognised that intake is low. The Second Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Policy 2007-2012, specifically recommended a daily intake of more than 400 g, identifying these foods as key components for the prevention of chronic disease (Jeurnink et al., 2012). An increased consumption of fruits and vegetables could reduce, at population level, the risk of obesity, hypertension, coronary heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Despite several initiatives designed to increase consumption, the UK has one of the lowest fruit and vegetable intakes in Europe (258 g), with more than two in five consumers struggling to eat the recommended five portions daily, particularly those aged 16-24 (Mintel, 2012).\nMethods: The research for this study was carried out at a university in the south of England and included a mapping exercise of fruit and vegetable availability and qualitative response gained from two focus groups conducted with staff and two interviews with foodservice managers. Observations were conducted and confirmed by photograph of the range of fruit and vegetables provided at the foodservice outlets on campus. This included fruit and vegetables presented as discrete items and also those incorporated into a composite dish. Studies do not always use a comparable definition for vegetables, therefore for the purpose of this project, the \"eat well plate\" criteria was taken as a guide (Food Standards Agency, 2012) and excluded potatoes, tubers, pulses and nuts.\nResults: Foodscape mapping within the university\nDiscussion: The results of this study demonstrate that fruit and vegetable selection and intake in a work environment is a complex process and includes a number of cues which may influence choice. Increasingly efforts are being made to re shape the environment in which consumers make their food decisions. The concept of \"nudging\" has been gaining in popularity, partly because as an intervention it is relatively easy to implement but also because it allows consumers to maintain their liberty of choice (van Kleef et al., 2012) and, along with other factors, individual influence emerged as a strong influencer on fruit and vegetable intake in this research.\nConclusion: Any initiative provided by staff restaurants that informs and encourages better decision making among motivated employees could play a large role in a healthier workforce. Providing a positive foodscape to enhanced availability of fruit and vegetables may be challenging but helpful towards health promotion. Nevertheless, no \"nudging\" can control choice made by individuals, the responsibility for a healthy selection must always remain personal. Knowledge gained by this pilot study will add to the body of literature and evidence base for further research. Any health promotion strategy needs to be fit for purpose to deliver the improvement in diet for all the population through engaging everyone responsible for shaping and providing food within the workplace setting. Making the physical environment more conducive to healthy behaviour is an important part of health promotion, where the CA approach could be central to achieving health behaviour change. Further research is needed to confirm this causal pathway and to evaluate whether consumers' claimed importance of composite dishes leads to a healthier food choice. In addition, understanding the food association with \"coffee\", for example could be explored further and have implication for foodservice practice.\nLimitations: It is acknowledged that the sample size for this study is small and that results depended on self-report. An inherent limitation of the methodology used is that potentially the research could suffer from social desirability bias, which in itself could deviate from actual behaviour. Notwithstanding, participants were recruited in a real life setting as they came for lunch and the focus group conducted as they ate, a sample representation that is appropriate and relevant.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The potential for the foodservice industry to be part of a public health strategy has led to a new understanding of this sector's role in a wider interdisciplinary health environment. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of the foodscape on fruit and vegetable choice by staff in a higher educational setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Foodscape mapping of fruit and vegetable provision on campus was conducted to provide context. Two focus groups with staff and two interviews with foodservice managers took place to gain depth of understanding. Thematic analysis was conducted to allow for pattern and meaning to emerge.\nFindings: Results demonstrate two main overarching themes; personal influence and food operator influence that impact on fruit and vegetable choice. In addition connectivity, perceptions of freshness, food quality and display seemed to be strong categories emerging from the data. Interestingly, this research indicated that consumers were more likely to eat fruit and vegetables when part of a composite dish than if served separately.\nPractical implications: Providing a positive foodscape to enhance availability of fruit and vegetables may be challenging but helpful towards health promotion. Nevertheless, no \"nudging\" can control choice made by individuals, responsibility for healthy selection must always remain personal.\nOriginality/value: Knowledge gained by this pilot study will add to the body of literature and evidence base for further research while contributing to foodservice strategies which may promote increased fruit and vegetable consumption.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Visionary leadership and employee creativity in China	[ "China", "Goal orientation", "Leadership", "Creativity", "Collectivist culture", "Knowledge sharing", "Visionary leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Employee creativity is the basis for organizational creativity, an organization's core competency and ultimately an organization's competitive advantage (Woodman et al., 1993). Hence, many organizations have been looking for various ways to foster employee creativity, including examining the use of different leadership styles (e.g. Amabile et al., 2004; Mathisen et al., 2012; Bai et al., 2016). However, while some studies have found that leadership style plays an important role in promoting employee creativity, limited empirical research has been conducted in non-western contexts. In China, as in many transition economies, in order to compete globally and as a result of western education, many Chinese organizations have adopted western management practices. However, the applicability of western management theories to vastly different cultures such as China is increasingly being questioned. For example, it has been shown that leadership behaviors in China show evidence of cultural, political and economic influences (Fu and Tsui, 2003) and influences of Chinese philosophies such as Confucianism and Daoism (Ma and Tsui, 2015). Cross-cultural leadership researchers have long argued that in cultures such as China, which show high power distance and collectivism, directive leadership plays a much more important role compared with western cultures (Dorfman et al., 1997). For example, Hui et al. (2004) showed that in contrast to western cultures where directive leadership tends to be viewed as stifling creativity, in some Asian cultures, highly directive leadership may have a positive effect on creativity. There is also some evidence that national culture may affect employee knowledge sharing and goal orientations. Knowledge sharing has been argued to be stronger in collectivistic cultures (Chen and Choi, 2005) and some studies have shown that learning goal orientation is stronger in certain cultures (Tweed and Lehman, 2002). However, the relationships between leadership style and employees' knowledge sharing, goal orientation and creativity in Chinese organizations have not been investigated.\nConceptual framework and hypotheses: Visionary leadership and employee creativity\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Correlations among study variables\nDiscussion: Our findings confirm the strong relationship between visionary leadership and knowledge sharing in Chinese high-tech organizations. This supports Amabile et al. (2004) who found that perceived leader support has a positive influence on creativity. Our findings support the view that visionary leaders foster creativity by serving as good role models, supporting, inspiring and encouraging subordinates (Amabile et al., 2004). However, our findings contrast with the study of Ma et al. (2014) who found no significant effect of leadership style on knowledge sharing in their study of Chinese organizations. This may be explained by their study sample, which was drawn from firms in the construction industry where knowledge sharing is arguably less significant than in high-tech industries. Our study also contradicts their original hypothesis that a democratic leadership style would be positively related to knowledge sharing while an authoritarian leadership style would be negatively related to knowledge sharing. While this may be true in individualistic cultures, in collectivist cultures, where group interests are more important than individual interests, our study shows that employees may respond more positively to a more directive leadership style. This emphasizes the importance of considering the cultural context when examining the effects of leadership styles.\nConclusion: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how visionary leadership influences employees' creativity in R&D teams in China, and the role of employee knowledge sharing and goal orientation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted on 331 professional technical engineers in R&D departments of 62 high-tech corporations in China. Hierarchical regression was used to model the relationships between visionary leadership style, employee goal orientations, knowledge sharing and employee creativity.\nFindings: The results show that visionary leadership is positively associated with employee creativity in Chinese organizations and the relationship is positively mediated by employee knowledge sharing. Furthermore, employee \"learning goal\" orientation strengthens the relationship between visionary leadership and employee knowledge sharing, whereas employee \"performance-avoid goal\" orientation weakens the relationship between visionary leadership and employee knowledge sharing.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature on the effects of leadership on employee creativity by showing that, contrary to western organizations, where a less directive leadership style is generally recommended to enhance employee creativity, in Chinese organizations, visionary leadership is positively associated with employee creativity, but the effect is contingent on employees' goal orientations and knowledge sharing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Slawek Magala's view on management of meaning and organisational change: An essay in honour of Slawek Magala	[ "Hierarchy", "Equality", "Imminent change", "Management of meaning", "Paradigm change", "Robust theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organisational change can arise from opportunities and threats, from new entrepreneurial visions, from changes in the political and social environment, but also from insolvency threats. Thus, if a generic theory of organisational change should be feasible, it has to be viable independently of the ultimate causes and types of change. Steps towards such a theory were offered by Larry Greiner (1972, 1998) who initially assumed that dependent on firm size only certain business models are viable, but owners or managers alike tend to cling too long to outdated business models. Thus, Greiner observed alternate periods of growth and crisis as firms grow. However, trying to sustain an outdated business model for too long is not the only reason for firm crises. As can be seen from insolvency statistics, sources of firm failure can be found within organisations, but also in the business environment of organisations.\nCrises emerging in organisations: Larry Greiner (1998), in his article on \"Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow\", reasserted major findings of his 1972 article, namely, that organisations as they grow also pass through a series of developmental phases. \"Each phase begins with a period of evolution, with steady growth and stability, and ends with a revolutionary period of substantial organizational turmoil and change\". As firms age and grow over a long period, they may pass through certain stages of evolution, each of which will end in revolution, as \"a major solution in one period becomes a major problem in a later period\". He originally, in 1972, distinguished five pairs of evolution-revolution, and added a sixth feature in 1998:\nCreating a robust theory based on Magala's model of management of meaning: According to Steven Wallis (2014) a robust theory implies that all each element (construct) of a theory is explained through a causal link to at least two other elements. All elements of a theory are concatenated.\nDiscussion - challenges of defining and researching \"organizational change\": While it seemingly is possible to frame Slawek Magala's perceptions of management of meaning in a way to meet the standards of a theory, if not a robust theory (Wallis, 2014) numerous issues are emerging when one attempts creating comparable and valid information in a research process.\nConclusion: We think that Slawek Magala's views on management of meaning in organisations have laid the foundations for a profound and robust theory, which significantly goes beyond the view that \"change\" can be identified by comparison of two different situations. In our assessment his theoretical approach could be adapted and converted into a theory of organisational culture change. By that Larry Greiner's stage model of firm growth could be complemented and converted in a more robust theory.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that Slawek Magala's theory of management of meaning in organisations can be considered as a step towards a generic theory of organisational change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors are integrating Slawek Magala's views on the processes, which play a role in changing organisations (i.e. framing, reflecting, negotiating, and seeking new windows of opportunities) with the related types of narratives as developed by David Boje (2001, 2008) and with further extensions by Fink and Yolles (2012), which are based on a model of paradigm change.\nFindings: The authors develop a theoretical framework, which might serve as a basis for analysis of change processes emerging from different contexts within or outside a firm and offer some reflections about comparing research into issues of organisational change.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a theoretical viewpoint paper.\nPractical implications: The extension of Magala's model offers a practical guide for research into organisational change processes.\nSocial implications: Magala's model offers a deeper understanding of actual change processes.\nOriginality/value: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time where a concept about emergent causality deriving from interaction between two conflicting agents (i.e. involved parties as, e.g. managers and subordinates) is applied to emerging stages in change processes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Why do employees speak up? Examining the roles of LMX, perceived risk and perceived leader power in predicting voice behavior	[ "Risk", "Leader–member exchange", "Organizational citizenship behaviours" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: When employees speak up with constructive ideas to improve work procedures, they demonstrate behaviors that enhance both their individual performance and the long-term effectiveness of the organization. Until now, a great deal of research has been conducted to understand what leads employees to demonstrate (or not) such voice behaviors (Cai et al., 2019; Morrison, 2014). One of the key findings that has emerged from previous research is that leaders, through their behaviors or through their relationships with employees, play a critical role in fostering voice behaviors (Cai et al., 2019; Morrison, 2014). Of importance, leader-member exchange (LMX), which reflects the extent to which employees hold a high-quality, social exchange-based relationship with their leader, has been found to influence voice behaviors (e.g. Burris et al., 2008; see also Chamberlin et al., 2017).\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: Social information processing between LMX, perceived risk and employee voice\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nData analysis: Data were analyzed at the individual level because leaders only rated the voice behaviors of one of their employees.\nDiscussion: The present study sought to better understand why employees speak up. We demonstrated that perceived risk of voicing mediated the positive LMX-voice behavior relationship. In addition, we demonstrated that the relationship of LMX to perceived risk of voicing and, indirectly, to voice behavior was stronger when perceived leader power was high. We now discuss the implications of our study as well as directions for future research.\nConclusion: Speaking up entails risks for employees, yet it contributes to organizational performance. Thus, it is important to know how to help employees overcome the barriers associated with speaking up. Using a two-wave design and data collected from employees and their leaders, the present study demonstrated that voice behavior is predicted by LMX and that this positive effect operates through reduced perceived risk of voicing. Furthermore, this study showed that perceived leader power strengthened the relationship between LMX and perceived risk of voicing, and, through perceived risk of voicing, between LMX and voice behaviors. These relationships were stronger when perceived leader power was high (vs low). We hope that this study's findings will help researchers and practitioners better understand why employees speak up and help to generate further interest in voice behavior research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand better why employees voice. Drawing on social information processing theory and insights derived from the literature on power, the authors suggest that leader-member exchange (LMX) fosters voice by reducing the perceived risk of voicing. The authors further contend that high perceived leader power will strengthen this mediated relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors relied on a sample of 265 employee-supervisor dyads collected from Chinese organizations to test the study hypotheses.\nFindings: Results indicated that perceived risk of voicing significantly mediated the positive LMX-voice behavior relationship. In addition, perceived leader power strengthened the effect of LMX on voice behavior via perceived risk of voicing. The relationship of LMX to perceived risk of voicing was more negative, and the indirect effect of LMX on voice behavior was more positive when employees perceived that leader power was high.\nPractical implications: Organizations seeking to promote voice behaviors should support leaders to develop high-quality relationships with employees. Organizations should also ensure that leaders are sufficiently empowered to fulfill their roles, and ensure that employees are aware of their leaders' influence.\nOriginality/value: Findings suggest that, in the context of high quality leader-member relationships, employees' perceptions of their leaders' power may help to overcome barriers associated with speaking up. Thus, this study helps explain the conditions that encourage employees to voice.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sustainable institutional entrepreneurship in practice: Insights from SMEs in the clean energy sector in Tuscany (Italy)	[ "Business model", "Sustainable development", "Renewable energy", "Sustainable entrepreneurship", "Institutional entrepreneurship", "Sustainable innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Environmental degradation is causing society to reconsider how we live. Since companies are considered as key agents of both the problem and solution, they are required to reduce their environmental impact while still being able to make a profit. Given the social desirability of sustainable goals, industrial policies frequently try to transform the so-called \"green economy\" from a niche into a mainstream economy. Although the scarcity of public resources often involves the introduction of only a few priorities in industrial policies (i.e. the direction of development), the search for sustainable and profitable solutions generally covers a wide range of innovations. Sustainable entrepreneurs (SEs) are thus recognized as being crucial in fostering sustainable development. SEs are expected to introduce environmentally and socially friendly products and services in order to initiate a transformation toward more environmental and socially sustainable markets (Cohen and Winn, 2007; Hockerts and Wustenhagen, 2010). However, when the institutional environment does not support these business activities, SEs need instead to act also as institutional entrepreneurs in order to change the existing business environment, including the regulations, societal norms and values (Shepherd and Patzelt, 2011; Thompson et al., 2015). Thus, SEs need to couple sustainable innovation (SI) with changes at a broader societal level in order to foster sustainable development (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011) in a process that we call \"sustainable institutional entrepreneurship.\" Although sustainable entrepreneurship studies recognize this potential for institutional change, an integrated theoretical perspective between sustainable and institutional entrepreneurships has scarcely been presented (Thompson et al., 2015).\n2. Literature review: Companies can play a significant role in triggering a societal transformation toward sustainable development, with new entrants often considered as best suited to triggering this change than the incumbents (Hockerts and Wustenhagen, 2010; Pacheco, Dean and Payne, 2010; York and Venkataraman, 2010). In this field, increasing attention has been paid to sustainable entrepreneurship, which is a new research stream embracing the studies on environmental and social entrepreneurship (Shepherd and Patzelt, 2011; Tilley and Young, 2009). Unlike environmentally oriented entrepreneurs, who aim to make a profit while contributing to solving environmental degradation (Schaltegger, 2002), and social entrepreneurs, who aim to contribute by solving societal problems and creating shared value (Prahalad and Hart, 2002; Zahra et al., 2009), SEs integrate both aspects (Hockerts and Wustenhagen, 2010; Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011). In other words, SEs contribute to solving societal and environmental problems through entrepreneurial activities. Thus, sustainable entrepreneurship \"is focused on the preservation of nature, life support, and community in the pursuit of perceived opportunities to bring into existence future products, processes, and services for gain, where gain is broadly construed to include economic and non-economic gains to individuals, the economy, and society\" (Shepherd and Patzelt, 2011, p. 142).\n3. Methods and data: We developed an exploratory case study (Yin, 2009) on exemplary SEs that have successfully developed and applied SI in a conservative context. We performed a three-phase process to explore how selected SEs have changed the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions to trigger a transformation toward a more sustainable market. Phase 1 was aimed at identifying the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutional barriers; phase 2 involved identifying exemplary SEs and the related SI. Finally, phase 3 was designed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between SI and institutional barriers. Following the approach of Bettini et al. (2015), these phases were designed to be iterative. A content analysis of the gathered data gave rise to a storyline. The interpretation of cross-cases and theoretical patterns helped to shed light on the relationship between institutional barriers and entrepreneurial dynamics (Eisenhardt, 1989).\n4. Findings: In Italian energy planning, natural gas plays a key role, in part because of the lock-ins introduced with the huge investments in the distribution network in the twentieth century, and in part because the competitive prices applied by foreign suppliers. Instead, GHP systems not only remained marginal, but have also been covered directly and indirectly by regulations from different sectors, e.g. mining and geothermal, water, renewable energy and energy efficiency regulations. Different local authorities are responsible for issuing permits depending on the kind of GHP system. Such competences vary from region to region, therefore heterogeneous regional regulations lead to a disorienting business environment for installers and other professionals. Our interviewees often mentioned the complexity and significant costs of the required procedures (V2, V5). These regulatory uncertainties and heterogeneity in authorization procedures are barriers for installers and other market players who want to operate in different regional and local contexts to reach the critical mass of customers required to justify internal investments in this technology. In addition, the absence of regulative procedures or good practice recommendations for GHP systems is another significant problem because it leads to conflicts of use, space conflicts and design defaults. Both in national and, even more so, in regional planning, GHP systems have had a very limited role, if at all, compared to other renewable energies (e.g. geothermal for electricity production) (V1). Economic incentives have been introduced only recently by the national government; however, they seem to be insufficient and ineffective compared to the incentives provided for the development of renewable energies for electricity production, and are inadequate in overcoming the barriers to the diffusion of GHP systems (N1).\n5. Discussion: In this paper, we have explored how SEs in Tuscany in the heating and cooling sector foster the sustainable transformation of markets and institutions through SI. Our findings provide a clear picture of the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutional barriers that a clean and disruptive technology faces at a systemic level when it lacks clear institutional support.\n6. Conclusions: In this paper, we have explored how SEs have developed and used SI to trigger a change in the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions toward a more sustainable development, and have thus acted as SIEs. Our findings provide a clear picture of the institutional barriers that a clean and disruptive technology faces at a systemic level when it still lacks institutional support and is hindered by opponent parties. We have shown that in such a context, SIEs implement sustainable institutional entrepreneurial practices as a means of legitimate SI, which first triggers a change in the normative and cultural-cognitive institutions, and subsequently in the regulative institutions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how sustainable entrepreneurs (SEs) address the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutional pillars when operating in conservative contexts. It aims to study in depth the use of sustainable innovation (SI) as a means of increasing legitimacy within the institutions, thus triggering an institutional change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper opted for an exploratory study on the Tuscan geothermal heat pumps market, which presents a promising but still largely unexploited sustainability potential despite its low institutional support, using the open-ended approach of grounded theory. The data include interviews and archive data, such as newspapers, magazines.\nFindings: The paper provides empirical insights on how sustainable institutional entrepreneurs (SIEs) have developed innovative business models based on direct relationship with the final customers and strategic partnerships as a means of increasing legitimacy within the normative and cultural-cognitive institutions, and subsequently in the regulative institutions, through: innovative value propositions aimed at changing industry norms and social beliefs; increasing the private benefit of innovative sustainable business models in order to trigger imitation dynamics; inter-sector strategic partnerships sharing the same sustainability objectives; the inclusion of the relevant actors in relation to the social norms and cultural-cognitive barriers in a value proposition. On the basis of these findings a model has been developed.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study enriches the sustainable entrepreneurship research stream by providing empirical evidence on how SEs foster changes in the three institutional pillars with SI. It also contributes to the institutional entrepreneurship research by extending the results of previous studies regarding institutional tactics.\nPractical implications: The paper could help SIEs prioritizing changes in value propositions and strategic partnerships to create market-based coalitions, as a means of institutional legitimization for SI.\nOriginality/value: The study illustrates the relationship between the sustainable institutional entrepreneurial practices and each institutional pillar, including the cultural-cognitive institutions, which have been neglected in previous research. This allows formulating five key propositions that guide SEs in succeeding as both sustainable and institutional entrepreneurs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
National origin as a means of customer segmentation - an analysis of mobile communications users in a GCC country	[ "Customer segmentation", "Expatriates", "GCC countries", "Mobile telecommunications", "National origin", "Service usage behaviours" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Currently, the markets for mobile telecommunications services in many countries of the world are saturated to a point at which the share of mobile subscribers per inhabitant well exceeds the 100 per cent threshold (GSMA, 2016). At the same time, mobile network operators (MNOs) are confronted with stagnating or declining revenues, while mobile broadband traffic increases (ITU, 2016). MNO core services are the transmission of mobile voice (MV), text messages (short message service = SMS) and data independent of a user's abode within their license areas. These offerings are more or less homogeneous across providers. Therefore, they leave only little leeway for differentiation. As a consequence, when choosing a mobile communications services (MCS) contract, a customer's decision for or against a particular MNO is heavily influenced by the respective price she has to pay for her desired service set. Nevertheless, to counter unidimensional \"price-centric\" customer perceptions, MNOs still try to tailor offerings to specific customer needs/segments to acquire new accounts or to prevent customers from churning (Gerpott et al., 2015). However, because of their large customer bases, MNOs cannot afford to match customer needs on an individual level. Instead, MNOs have to find means to divide their customers into segments, which exhibit consistent usage patterns which may in turn be related to demographic or psychographic customer (background) characteristics. Thus, the identification of such segments and the design of targeted offerings remain key issues in MNOs' market servicing considerations.\n2. Expatriates in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries: The general background for the large expatriate workforce in the studied as well as in the remaining five other GCC countries is that since the early 1920s, an increasing industrial crude oil production in the GCC region sparked off the flow of labor immigration from relatively poor and politically unstable Arab neighbor countries to Gulf countries, which in turn lacked a qualified national workforce. Beginning in the early 1980s, the influence of Arab expatriates on the GCC country cultures and ideological conflicts, such as secularism and communism, worried reigning authorities in the GCC region. Consequently, policies were implemented to replace parts of the Arab workforce with (South) Asians that accepted relatively lower wages, were easier to lay off and were often considered to exhibit more submissive behaviors toward their supervisors (Kapiszewski, 2004). In April 2016, an average of 49.6 per cent of the total residents in GCC countries were expatriates, ranging from 32.7 per cent in Saudi Arabia to 88.5 per cent in the UAE (Gulf Research Center, 2016; see Table I).\n3. Literature review and research questions: From a methodological perspective, prior empirical work on segmenting tele-communications service customers can be grouped into two research streams. First, there are \"bottom up\" or post hoc studies which use behavioral, psychographic and demographic descriptors of customers as a starting point for construing sub-groups of consumers for which the within-group segment heterogeneity in terms of the descriptors at hand is as small as possible and the between-group dissimilarity is as large as possible. Typically, such studies use cluster and/or factor analysis as statistical methods to identify customer segments. Second, there are \"top down\" investigations with ex ante ideas on potential segments which search for variables that take significantly different values in the suspected segments. In general, the second class of studies relies on discriminant or regression analysis as statistical procedures to detect variables helping to profile the various segments or predict MCS use differences.\n4. Sample generation and variable measurements: To deal with the research questions, we analyzed a data set that was extracted from the billing system of a large MNO active in one of the GCC countries. As part of a non-commercial research collaboration, the carrier provided us with access to the calling records of a random sample of 31,500 postpaid residential MCS customers. The records contained monthly usage information for each of the 13 months within the observation period, which ran from July 2014 to July 2015. We also obtained data base entries on the individuals' national origin (= citizenship) and a total of four socio-demographic, contractual and device-related variables as of July 31st, 2015.\n5. Results concerning the research questions: The research questions were addressed with univariate ANOVA, multivariate discriminant and OLS regression analysis techniques.\n6. Discussion: The present work analyzed whether and how a person's national origin can serve as a basis for customer segmentation for an MNO active in one of the GCC countries. To examine the impact of individuals' national roots on their MCS usage behaviors, we used the national citizenship of 4,982 residential customers of a cooperating MNO to divide subscribers into three groups:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In the field of mobile communications services (MCS), it is of importance to segment MCS users to support operators in better tailoring their offers to the needs of specific customer groups. This paper analyzes the suitability of national origin of MCS subscribers to segment residential customers into groups with significantly diverging usage behaviors in a sample living in one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states with a large share of expatriates in its population, particularly from South Asian countries. If MCS use patterns vary considerably between nationals, South Asian migrants and other foreign nationalities, it makes much sense to segment customers at least into these three groups.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The investigation applies discriminant and regression analysis on a sample of 4,892 residential postpaid MCS customers in a GCC country. The sample comprises individual usage data of 2,446 national citizens and an equal number of non-nationals between July 2014 and July 2015, living in the focal country. The data set was extracted from the billing and customer management systems of a collaborating mobile network operator (MNO).\nFindings: The results imply that national origin is a highly significant predictor of individual MCS usage. Nationals and all expatriates primarily differ in international voice and SMS usage but not in established national MCS and mobile internet use intensity. Among expatriates, South Asians consume more national and international voice minutes than migrants originating from other foreign nations.\nResearch limitations: The analysis is based on objective MCS usage data retrieved from an MNO's data warehouse. It lacks information on customer perceptions of the utility of various MNO service categories and on other individual characteristics, such as the customers' level of education or language proficiency. To overcome this limitation, empirical research is needed that incorporates additional objective customer descriptors as well as subjective perceptual constructs.\nPractical implications: MNOs are well advised to develop service bundles and tariff portfolios specifically designed for nationals and for different groups of expatriates.\nOriginality/value: The paper extends the literature on MCS usage behavior in Arab states in general and on customer MCS usage segmentation based on individuals' national citizenship in particular.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Saving a semester of learning: MIT's emergency transition to online instruction	[ "Higher education", "Online learning", "Emergency instruction", "Online instruction", "Online tools", "Supporting faculty" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: On March 4, 2020 a group of faculty, administrators, and staff from across MIT's campus gathered to begin discussing how best to maintain academic continuity in response to the spreading COVID-19 health emergency. As it turned out, March 12 was the last day of on-campus teaching and by March 30 MIT's campus was shut down, including most research facilities; all of the spring semester courses at MIT had transitioned to an emergency remote structure. This transition required an enormous effort across multiple units within MIT. These units were brought together under the umbrella of the COVID-19 Planning Team, which was coordinated by Suzanne Blake (Director of MIT Emergency Management). Within this broad response team were six working groups tasked with achieving various goals. One of these working groups was focused on Academic Continuity and was led by Ian Waitz, MIT's Vice-Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education.\n2. Theoretical frameworks: 2.1 Instructional approaches\n3. Units and responsibilities: Key to the subgroup membership was representation from across a number of units that have traditionally served the instructional mission of MIT. Two units came from within the Office of the Vice Chancellor. First, the Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL) has a stated mission \"to partner with MIT educators, staff, and administrators to create an educational environment where students are academically challenged, actively engaged, and personally supported.\" Led by Janet Rankin, the work of the TLL has primarily focused on more traditional modes of instruction (face-to-face lectures, recitation and lab classes taught using active learning strategies) facilitated through workshops, community events, and formal TA and instructor training programs and maintaining a website of resources. Second, Lauren Pouchak is the Director of Special Projects and in the context of this work she and two colleagues were responsible for developing an entirely new Student Success Team consisting of 550 coaches for more than 5000 MIT students.\n4. Goals and implementing key decisions: To better understand how decisions and collaborations unfolded, data in the form of firsthand accounts, emails, internal documents and publicly available materials were compiled and used to retroactively capture the work completed. Based on those materials, Aaron Kessler created an initial document of goals, decisions, actions, and communication categories. This document was shared across all authors for input and refinement before a final version of the document was prepared. This iterative process allowed for group members to reflect on the experience and provide evidence and justification for critical decisions.\n5. Conclusion: It is critically important to point out the role of the subgroup was and is to catalyze, galvanize, cajole, advise, nudge, encourage, support and applaud the work of teaching done within MIT's departments. The members of the subgroup provided departments and individual faculty with the encouragement, in fact the insistence, that they figure out their own plans, which they have been improving and optimizing continuously since the beginning of remote instruction on March 30, 2020. It is the departments, the individual faculty, and the students that come first when thinking about the outcomes associated with remote teaching and learning for this semester.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Prior to March 4th, 2020 only a handful of MIT courses had ever been delivered exclusively online. The purpose of this paper is to detail how over a 25-day period (March 4th-March 30th) approximately 1,250 spring term courses transitioned to being remote online offerings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout that time five groups on MIT's campus - the Office of Open Learning (OL), the Office of the Vice Chancellor (OVC), including in particular the Teaching + Learning Lab (TLL), Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) and Sloan Technology Services (STS) - were primarily responsible for supporting the transition of residential courses to remote online delivery.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Together these groups were able to engage in new communication processes and collaborations, initially established by the university's Academic Continuity working group, to address three: support all faculty and instructors in transforming residential courses to remote online instruction, support all students in transitioning to remote online learning, and support teaching assistants as they transitioned to online instruction.\nFindings: This paper describes the organizational structure (both distributed and centralized) that allowed for such collaborations. Critical decisions made by the group are described and connected with the key goals they addressed. Finally, examples of specific tools and supports that were implemented during the transition period are highlighted.\nOriginality/value: Certain factors existed to allow MIT to make such a massive instructional transition (e.g. scaled lecture capture capabilities, members of the digital learning lab embedded within a number of departments and an extensive library of previously created open and free online resources), the overarching process and decisions presented within are likely to resonate across institutions. The potential impact of these changes and future community opportunities are also discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Drivers and outcomes of consumer engagement: Insights from mobile money usage in Ghana	[ "Ghana", "Consumer behaviour", "Continuous usage", "Consumer engagement", "Mobile money" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Innovative service technologies have transformed how individuals, firms and organizations function today. These developments exert a far-reaching global impact on performance, outreach, competitiveness and resilience for all industries, including banking and payment services. Inspired by these developments, the services sector, including banking, is witnessing changes in the technological environment with its attendant new business models, which are currently disrupting traditional service elements. Smartphones, phablets and tablets are facilitating dramatic changes in both service consumption and how consumers interact with different service providers. These portable devices are now in continuous use by consumers when performing different tasks, such as communicating, browsing for information and news, entertainment, banking and payment services, social networking, and shopping (San-Martin et al., 2016). Unlike entertainment, using portable devices to conduct banking and payment transactions (e.g. sending and receiving money) is ascending in many developing and emerging countries, which often have inadequate branch-oriented banking services network.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Mobile money within and outside Africa\n3. Conceptual model and hypotheses development: In accordance with Mollen and Wilson's (2010) conceptualization, we have based our investigation of the antecedents and consequences of consumer engagement on psychological factors. Although we did not hypothesize the effects of perceived risk (see Figure 2), we included perceived risk in the model due to the important role that risk plays in the adoption of mobile-based innovative technology products and services. We also controlled for usage experience, usage frequency, education, income and age.\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Research setting\n5. Analysis: The measurement model was evaluated via the PLS technique using SmartPLS 3.0 (Ringle et al., 2015). First we examined the items' internal consistency and scale reliability by using Fornell and Larcker's (1981) composite reliability index. Here, we found that the composite reliability values for all constructs used in this study exceeded the acceptable value of 0.7 (Hair et al., 2016). From Table I, the factor loadings are all significant (p<0.001) and greater than 0.70, except the indicator NOM3, which had a loading of 0.653. We also assessed the measurement model in regards to convergent and discriminant validity. We evaluated convergent validity based on the average variance extracted (AVE) approach (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), where a value of 0.5 and above indicates an acceptable level. The AVE - by our measures - ranged from 0.69 to 0.83, which were above the acceptable value of 0.5. In addition, we assessed the discriminant validity of the latent variables in the PLS path model using the heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio of correlations (Henseler et al., 2015). Our analysis showed that the HTMT values were all below 0.85, which shows that discriminant validity was established between any two of the constructs (Hair et al., 2017, 2018; Henseler et al., 2015).\n6. Results: 6.1 Structural model assessment\n7. Discussion and conclusion: Mobile-based financial delivery systems and technologies are quite common and popular on the African continent. The introduction of mobile money to the Ghanaian economy has played a key role in the push for financial inclusion (Ghana Banking Survey, 2016) and provided several benefits to the remotely located population in a myriad of ways. For instance, providers of the service in Ghana do not require the user to open a formal bank account. Mobile money provides a cheap and relatively safe means of transferring money, shortening transaction times and reducing transaction costs to the poor and unbanked (Ghana Banking Survey, 2016).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers of consumer engagement and its consequences via the experiences of mobile money services' users in Ghana and to discuss its implications for the society, financial service innovation, delivery and operations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A pre-tested survey instrument was used with a sample of 595 mobile money services users in Ghana. SmartPLS application was used to analyze the data and report findings.\nFindings: The study shows that perceived risk, consumer empowerment, subjective norm, performance expectancy and effort expectancy influence the affect component of consumer engagement and explain around half of its variance. The effect of perceived risk on consumer engagement was counterintuitive. Perceived risk was significant and positive for cognitive processing, whereas the effect was significant but negative for affect. The authors found support for the positive effect of cognitive processing on advocacy intention but no support for its effect on continuous usage. By contrast, affect strongly influenced both advocacy intention and continuous usage of mobile money services.\nPractical implications: The authors highlight the implications of mobile money services to business and marketing/service managers, policy makers, non-banking entities (such as telecoms and financial technology firms) and to the society in general. The authors provide important insights into how service providers can manage consumer engagement process and formulate marketing strategies to target and promote this simple, but innovative service to consumers. Moreover, the authors discuss the societal implications of the study in Ghana, a developing country. The authors recommend several options for future studies in order to stimulate the research agenda on mobile financial services in general.\nOriginality/value: The present study shows that although mobile money was initially introduced to help consumers who hitherto have no access to formal banking services, this form of banking has become increasingly popular among various consumer segments as its usage and adoption has increased multifold largely in emerging and developing countries. The main contribution of this study is the development and testing of the \"mobile money customer engagement model.\" Moreover, this study shows the key factors that influence the engagement process and the effects of these factors as analyzed within the context of a developing country.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Advancing grassroots climate change awareness in Botswana: BCA campus greenhouse gas baseline inventory	[ "Higher education", "Sustainability", "University", "Botswana", "Greenhouse gas inventory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although climate change education is important to all education levels, from primary schools to universities, it is in the higher-education sector that the need to tackle it in a systematic way is particular acute. For university students will pursue careers in various professions, thus the need to be conscious of the likely impact of their professional actions both on the environment as a whole and on the climate in particular (Filho, 2010). The objectives of climate change education at university include motivating students to take action both during their time as students and later on as professionals. Breyman (1999) and UNESCO (2009) noted that the value and relevance of sustainable initiatives as a whole, and on climate change education at universities in particular, is beyond dispute. While Rappaport and Creighton (2007) and Eagan et al. (2008) highlighted climate change activities at universities.\nMaterials and methods: Study area\nResults: Table I shows quantity of each emission source, for the year 2009. The college used 368 of 45-kg, each, propane gas cylinders, amounting to 16,560 kg of propane; 200 of 50-kg, each, bags of NPK fertilizer (2:3:2), with 15 per cent of nitrogen content each; and 100 of 50-kg, each, bags of urea, each comprising 4.5 per cent nitrogen. A total of 136 loads each 288 tons of solid waste were collected on campus, while a total amount of 55,662 litres of fuel, comprising 33,050 litres of gasoline (petrol) and 22,612 litres of diesel, was used by the college vehicle fleet in 2009.\nDiscussion: The agricultural activities of the college emitted the highest amount of GHGs through the use of organic and inorganic fertilizer. Ahmed et al. (2008) noted that ammonia volatilization from surface-applied urea fertilizer reduces N fertilizer use efficiency by crops. Therefore, ammonia volatilization in this high-temperature environment could have led to less N uptake by plants and subsequently the need for repeated applications. While Smith et al. (2007) highlighted that the reactive nitrogen added into the soil through fertilizer and manure greatly influences the GHG balances, as some is released into the atmosphere as the GHG, N2O. IPCC (2010) noted that the use of nitrogenous fertilizers, manures and nitrogen-fixing legumes increases N2O emission. Solid waste emissions were the second highest from the college campus. Ken (2008) observed that when solid waste is discarded into landfills, the organic portion decomposes and generates landfill gas that contains about 55 per cent CH4 and 44 per cent CO2, with the remainder composed of moisture and trace organic compounds. Mathew and John (2010) agreed and stated that solid waste is one of the largest primary contributors to GHG and CH4 emission attributed to solid waste accounts for more than 2 per cent of the global total emissions.\nOptions for decreasing campus emissions: To minimize loss of nitrogen (N) as ammonia gas (NH3), known as volatilization, fertilizers should be placed below the soil surface (basal dressing) as opposed to top dressing. In situations where top dressing is necessary, fertilizer should be cultivated into the soil to avoid exposure to heat, as high temperature increases volatilization. Approximately 6-13 mm of rain is necessary to dissolve N fertilizer and move it into the soil to a depth where volatilization is no longer a concern. Therefore, rainfall amounts less than 6 mm will likely encourage volatilization, as there is not enough moisture to move the fertilizer into the soil. Therefore, for irrigated crops, application of nitrogenous fertilizers should be followed by irrigation. Recycling of solid waste should be considered.\nConclusion: The aim of the paper was to report on the results of a case study in Botswana, aimed at raising awareness on climate issues. Total GHG emission from the college was 3,432.66 MTCOe, with fertilizer use being the highest emitter. On a global basis, the college was the second highest emitter probably due to low resource use efficiency such as high fertilizer applications to compensate losses due to volatilization. Emission from fertilizer use can be reduced through efficient use of fertilizer, and also through practicing other farming techniques, such as organic farming (Mathew and John, 2010). Solid waste emission can be reduced by collecting and storing the biogas produced for heating and also electricity generation (Ken 2008).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to report on the results of a case study in Botswana, aimed at raising awareness on climate issues. Higher-education institutions play a leading role in sustainability efforts, as their research role often lays the groundwork for social transformation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The Clean Air-Cool Planet (CACP) campus calculator was used to calculate emissions from various sections within the college.\nFindings: Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the college is 3,432.66 metric tons CO2e resulting in per capita GHG emissions of 3.20 metric tons CO2e, which is high compared to other universities. Options for reducing emissions are proposed.\nPractical implications: The procedure in carrying out the study provided learners with an opportunity to appreciate emissions from developing countries and also gain technical skills in conducting a GHG inventory. It also sensitized campus administrators about the scale of emissions and possible ways of reducing them.\nOriginality/value: This paper is original in that it provides campus greenhouse inventory within a developing country, a unique undertaking. Furthermore, it highlights the fact that developing countries also produce significant emissions, hence the need for mitigation measures.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of servant leadership on rewards, organizational culture and its implication for employee's performance	[ "Organizational culture", "Servant leadership", "Rewards", "Employee’s performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The growth of a bank is highly dependent on customer service and the level of employees' commitment to the company. One strategy to retain competent employees is creating loyal and committed employees. An employee is someone who works in an organization using skills (physical and mind) and obtains remuneration in accordance with the regulations and agreements (Hasibuan, 2005). Employees whose needs have been will have a commitment to the organization (Mathis and dan Jackson, 2001).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Leadership servant theory\n3. Material and method: This study was conducted in BTN throughout Indonesia. This study was specific to Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) areas, considering that 60 per cent of employees of BTN, who were also the study population, resided in the Jabodetabek areas. This study was conducted for a month in 2016. By using the representative sample, the results could be generalized. The criteria of representative sample depended on two inter-related aspects, i.e. accuracy and precision. Based on Slovin's formula, samples of 166 respondents were obtained. A quantitative research approach was used with GSCA as the analysis tool (Solimun, 2013).\n4. Result and discussion: 4.1 Linearity assumptions\n5. Conclusions: On the basis of the analysis results, it can be concluded that the structural model showed that servant leadership (X1) significantly affected rewards (Y1) and organizational culture (Y2), but it had no significant effect on employee performance (Y3). Other results showed that there was a significant effect of rewards (Y1) on organizational culture (Y2) and employee performance (Y3), and there was a significant effect of organizational culture (Y2) on employee performance (Y3). The results also showed that there was a significant indirect effect of human servant leadership (X1) on employee performance (Y3) through rewards (Y1) or organizational culture (Y2). The positive coefficient means that the higher the human servant leadership (X1), the higher the employee performance (Y3) through rewards (Y1) or organizational culture (Y2). A significant indirect effect was also found of rewards (Y1) on employee performance (Y3) through organizational culture (Y2). A positive coefficient means that the higher the rewards (Y1), the higher the employee performance (Y3) through organizational culture (Y2).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine factors that affect employee performance at Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quantitative research approach was used with generalized structure component analysis (GSCA) as the analysis tool. This study was specific to Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) areas, considering that 60 per cent of employees of BTN, who were also the study population, resided in the Jabodetabek areas. This study was conducted for a month in 2016. By using the representative sample, the results could be generalized.\nFindings: The results of the analysis suggested that the structural model showed that the servant leadership (X1) significantly affected rewards (Y1) and organizational culture (Y2), but it had no significant effect on employee performance (Y3). Other results showed that there was a significant effect of rewards (Y1) on organizational culture (Y2) and employee performance (Y3), and that there was a significant effect of organizational culture (Y2) on employee performance (Y3).\nOriginality/value: Russell and Stone (2002) studied the servant leadership in a review of servant leadership attributes, and McCann et al. (2014) studied servant leadership, employee satisfaction and organizational performance in rural community hospitals. Thereby, the originality of this paper is shown on servant leadership variable for relationship between rewards, organizational culture and employee's performance. The method used is GSCA and the location of this research is at BTN throughout Indonesia, where there are no previous research studies that have discussed the same topic on these locations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Workers' compensation insurance prices: evidence from Portugal	[ "Insurance", "Data analysis", "Determinants", "Employees", "Compensation", "Employers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In Portugal, employers are responsible for covering for the consequences of work accidents suffered by their employees, the so called workplace injuries. According to Law No. 98/2009, this coverage includes workers and their families. Insurance companies assume employers' responsibilities and in return are paid a premium - insurance price. Once the responsibility is assumed, naturally there is no certainty regarding the occurrence of an accident, neither of its severity, nor of the associated costs. Therefore, when the insurers determine the premium, they must ensure an estimate based on the probability of an accident occurring, besides ensuring their own profit margin. The risk premium is the compensation that the insurer receives from the insured to cover the present value of the expected loss during a certain period. The determination of this premium is based on two factors: the exposure measure and the premium rate. Insurers, through a uniform policy, should follow the principle of graduation of insurance premiums, depending on the forecast degree of risk of an accident, the nature of the activity, and the work place safety conditions (Article 81).\nLiterature review: Since the late 1980, the financial system has been reformed towards liberalisation, globalisation, and conglomeration. Following the trend of other financial services, the major reason for explaining the important growth of the insurance system is the increase of risk and uncertainty. Das et al. (2003) found that, mainly through mergers and acquisitions, the total assets of insurance companies have grown more rapidly than the assets of banks. Similarly, in Portugal, many insurance companies of today are the result of mergers and acquisitions. Cummins et al. (2008) estimate the effect of mergers and acquisitions in the European and US insurance industries on value creation for shareholders through the stock price effect over the period 1990-1997. Overall, their findings support the general contention that mergers and acquisitions are more likely to create value for target firms, rather than for acquiring firms, although the results are mixed.\nInstitutional setting: Work accident insurance aims to protect employees and their families, as well as self-employed workers. In Portugal, this insurance is mandatory, and it intends to cover damage from work accidents, and also disease at work. All employers and self-employers assume this obligation. Law 98/2009, which regulates workers' compensation in Portugal at present time, defines a work accident is being one that occurs at the workplace and during worktime, or that is directly related to the employment contract and which results in bodily injury, functional disorder, or disease that causes reduction in work capacity, or gain or death[1]. However, the first law goes back to 1913. At that time, only Germany, France, Spain, and Belgium had a similar law designed to protect workers. This first law is intended to protect workers by establishing that the responsibility of risk lies with employers, who have the possibility of transferring this risk to an insurance company.\nData: The empirical work uses a sample from the SABI (Iberian Balance sheet Analysis System) database[3]. The sample criterion was the size of the firms operating in Portugal (medium and large). In order to have robust results, some adjustments were made. All companies with missing data or extreme values (outliers) were eliminated[4]. Finally, a balanced cross-section panel data set was obtained, with a total of 1,435 firms over the period between 2010 and 2012, totalling 4,305 observations for each variable. In addition, to disentangle the impact of the firm size on the premium determination, a split of the sample was done according to firm size.\nMethodology: Multiple regression analysis[9] was conducted through the estimation of three models. Model (1) considers the first three independent variables, namely: payroll, number of employees, and incidence rate, as follows:(1)\nEmpirical results: In general, the explanatory variables are statistically significant (Tables VII-IX). When the categorical variables are added to the model, some variables decrease their significance, namely, number of employees and incidence frequency. Indeed, the R2 of regressions show that premium is explained, at least by 60 per cent, by the models. R2, as a quality measure of the statistical model, allows us to conclude that the observations fit well in the estimated regression (Verbeek, 2004; Wooldridge, 2012).\nConclusion: In this paper, the determinants of the price of workers' compensation insurance in Portugal were examined. The sample used imported from the SABI database includes data of 1,435 medium and large companies based in Portugal over the time horizon of 2010 to 2012. This period coincides with the post-financial crisis of 2008, as well as an increasing unemployment rate and a decreasing GDP per capita, in addition to a significant decrease of production in the workers' compensation insurance market.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of workers' compensation insurance prices in Portugal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multiple regression analysis was used to study the insurance price determinants. The independent variables considered are: payroll, number of employees, and incidence rate. In addition, three categorical variables were used: region, classification of economic activities, and enterprise size. A cross-firm panel data sample from the SABI database of 1,435 firms was considered, over a time horizon from 2010 to 2012. Furthermore, the sample split criterion was the enterprise size.\nFindings: As expected, the results suggest that payroll and number of employees are related with workers' compensation insurance prices. Furthermore, incidence rate, region, type of economic activities, and enterprise size have a positive and significant influence on premiums.\nResearch limitations/implications: More panel data are needed to allow a greater focus on the impacts of GDP fluctuations and sectoral consolidation on insurance pricing. Further research could also include the impact of capital/reserving cycles, which can be driven both by economic shocks and the competition cycle. It is well known that insurers tend to reduce reserving standards when under pressure, and this can result in inadequate pricing.\nPractical implications: The process of workers' compensation insurance price formation is disentangled. The results suggest that the workers' compensation insurance premiums behave as expected, especially under periods of economic strain. Therefore, workers' compensation rate regulation should take this evidence into account, specifically through the establishment of minimum rates, which will protect the insurer, the employer, and the employees alike.\nOriginality/value: The paper is part of a considerable literature on insurance pricing in workers' compensation, most of which has centred on private markets in the USA. This paper is the first empirical work that employs private market data for Portugal.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of multi-level factors on MNEs' market entry success in a small emerging market	[ "Thailand", "Multinational companies", "Market entry", "Emerging markets", "Market potential", "Country risk", "Cultural distance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Smaller, fast-growing emerging markets such as Thailand are important destinations for foreign investors because of their location, market size and minimal interference from government (Pornpitakpan, 2000). Thailand is widely accepted as a strategic location serving as a gateway for businesses and investors to the large growing markets of China, India and ASEAN countries (Lambertson, 1994). Thai Government support and incentives make Thailand an attractive regional location for multi national enterprises (MNEs). Despite this, much of the extant research has been focused on market entry modes and foreign investment strategies of MNEs in larger emerging markets such as China (Luo, 1998) and India (Johnson and Tellis, 2008). MNEs are increasingly pursuing opportunities in emerging markets in which the growth of consumer demand is being driven by industrial development and the emergence of significant numbers of new middle class consumers. This is being fueled by the increasing saturation in many developed markets and the effects of their economic woes and faltering growth (Wall Street Journal, 2010). Although they do not have the market size of China, India, Russia or Brazil, smaller emerging markets potentially have less intense competition and therefore also offer high growth potential. Thus, we believe that our research context will provide practical recommendations for MNEs as well as contribute to the knowledge of the influences on market entry strategies in smaller emerging markets.\nConceptual framework: multi-level factors: Firm level: mode of entry and firm size\nMethodology: To address the questions and propositions raised above, we carried out a historical analysis using archival data, examining companies who entered Thailand between 1996 and 2008. After looking at various secondary data sources, we identified 139 foreign firms' from which we were able to collect most of the data relating to the above mentioned factors. To ensure validity of our archival data, we followed the guidelines suggested by Golder and Tellis (1993) who recommend that data must have five traits to ensure validity including:\nResults: Once the data was collected and the measures included, a multiple regression analysis was run to see the predicting power of the above factors in driving success. Table II provides the descriptive statistics of companies studied in this paper.\nDiscussion, conclusions and future research directions: This research focuses on predicting the drivers of success in smaller emerging markets such as Thailand. While earlier research has mostly focused on larger emerging markets, the results of this study provide insights into the differences an MNE to be successful in a small emerging market. Our findings suggest that success in these markets is significantly dependent on both market potential and cultural distance. The results are in sharp contrast to earlier findings which have focused on large emerging markets where factors such as mode of entry, country risk, openness and firm size have been found to be the key drivers (Anderson and Gatignon, 1986; Johnson and Tellis, 2008; Rasheed, 2005).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Whilst earlier studies of market entry success factors have mostly focused on large emerging markets such as China or India, limited attention has been given to smaller emerging markets. The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of firm-level (i.e. entry mode and firm size), country-level (i.e. market potential, country risk and openness) and cultural distance on successful market entry strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a smaller emerging country (Thailand).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using archival data from 1996-2008 and a survey of 139 firms, the results reveal significant influence of both market potential and cultural distance on successful market entry.\nFindings: Overall, the findings demonstrate a cautionary approach when generalizing the results of studies focusing on large emerging markets to smaller emerging markets. Smaller emerging markets such as Thailand offer very different market-space than large emerging markets and therefore the overall determinants of success may differ substantially.\nPractical implications: Market potential appears to be the most significant variable in entering the Thai market. The findings also suggest a negative and significant relationship between cultural distance and market success in Thailand. This reveals that foreign firms that enter small emerging markets which are culturally close to their home countries can enjoy a greater possibility of success.\nOriginality/value: This study is a first step towards sensitizing corporations and policy makers in understanding the differences in market entry success factors between larger and smaller emerging markets and strategizing accordingly.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Training Ukrainian military in job creation and job taking	[ "Entrepreneurship education", "Quality of life", "Life satisfaction", "Course effectiveness", "Job training", "Ukrainian military" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sitzmann and Weinhardt (2018) define training effectiveness as the extent to which training produces the intended results. The first purpose of this study is to investigate the degree to which training of military personnel and their family members in Ukraine reaches its objectives with regard to the transfer of course participants to the civilian society. Such transfer takes place when former course participants are able to find a civilian job or become business owners. We examine civilian job taking and job creation among 1,077 participants in 40 different courses that took place in Ukraine between 2015 and 2018. The second purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which transfer to the civilian sector is associated with benefits for the individual. We do this by comparing groups of former course participants with regard to different indicators of quality of life, including a measure of life satisfaction. The two research questions addressed are:\nThe setting: The training program\nLiterature review: The basic premise of the Ukrainian training program is that it will increase the career adaptability of participants and ultimately lead to employment or self-employment in the civilian sector. Savickas and Porfeli (2012, p. 662) define career adaptability as \"a psychological construct that denotes an individual's resources for coping with current and anticipated tasks, transitions, traumas in their occupational roles.\" High levels of career adaptability are positively associated with preparations for future career tasks, responsibility for career development, the exploration of career opportunities and the confidence in the ability to solve career-related problems (Savickas and Porfeli, 2012). According to career construction theory, individuals' adaptivity positively influences their career adaptivity, which again positively influences adapting responses and adaptation results (Savickas, 2013). In the present study, the desired adapting responses are employment or self-employment in the civilian sector, and the desired adaptation result is increased quality of life. In a recent meta-analysis of 75 studies relating to career construction theory, Rudolph et al. (2017) found a positive relationship between education, adapting responses and ultimately adaptation results such as satisfaction with job, career, life and income.\nMethodology: Selection of course participants\nResults: Bivariate analysis\nDiscussion: The first research question concerned the identification of courses associated with higher odds of civilian employment and business ownership. The results show that 15 of the 40 courses offered are effective with regard to the odds of finding civilian employment and that ten of the courses are effective with regard to the odds of becoming a business owner. Four of the courses appear to be effective with regard to both job taking and job creation, but only two of these courses have more than 30 respondents to our survey. The multivariate analysis essentially confirms the results from the bivariate cross-tabulation.\nConclusion: With few exceptions, the courses offered in this training program are either effective with regard to job taking or job creation. The safest option is therefore probably to distinguish clearly between courses designed for job taking and job creation. To be effective, courses preparing participants for taking jobs should be designed based on the demands in the labor market. Course participants should be selected based on their interests and suitability for the jobs and occupations in question. When offering courses primarily associated with obtaining civilian employment, organizers can increase the effectiveness of their courses by selecting middle-aged course participants who do not have a former military background and by localizing such courses to areas where more jobs are available. The effectiveness of course designed for obtaining jobs will probably, to a large degree, depend on characteristics of the demand in the labor market. The findings with regard to the effectiveness job creation courses, however, may be generalizable to other countries. The present study suggests that courses in entrepreneurial management, sustainable entrepreneurship, small business management and entrepreneurship in specific industries are not very effective with regard to new business start-ups. Our findings suggest that more general courses in entrepreneurship and conducting own business are more likely to result in new business formation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of courses offered to Ukrainian military personnel and their families to facilitate transfer to the civilian society, and to investigate the extent to which transfer to the civilian sector is associated with increased quality of life.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 1,077 former course participants by handing out a structured questionnaire at different locations in Ukraine.\nFindings: Among the 40 courses arranged, 15 proved to be effective with regard to the odds of obtaining a civilian job, and 10 with regard to the odds of becoming a business owner. Business owners and civilian employees scored higher than military employees with regard to different indicators of quality of life. Individuals who are unemployed or not members of the workforce score lower on quality of life than any other group.\nOriginality/value: This study evaluates the courses offered in a large educational program where the Norwegian and Ukrainian government cooperate to facilitate transfer of military veterans in Ukraine to the civilian sector.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Immigration to the European Union from its neighborhoods: Testing welfare-chasing and related hypotheses by spatial gravity	[ "Data analysis", "Welfare", "Immigration", "Economic growth" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) is an experiment in stabilizing the European Union's eastern and southern perimeter. Its aim is to institutionalize economic, political and social relations between the EU countries and their neighbors in the areas of trade, investment, immigration and political and legislative co-operation. EU \"neighbors\" can be divided into countries with accession agreements still to be implemented, countries anticipating accession, and countries without any prospects of EU membership. The ENP is directed at the latter group. It signals the maximum level of integration to which they can aspire on the one hand and a slew of benefits (such as removal of trade barriers, political co-operation, participation in EU programs, cultural, scientific and environmental agreements, legislative harmonization) on the other.\n2. Determinants of migration to the EU: The determinants of immigration can be broadly grouped into three classes (Hooghe et al., 2008). Economic- and labor-based theories posit that income and employment differences between origin and destination are likely to motivate immigration. If immigrants are positively selected (Borjas, 1987) they are likely to earn more where wage inequality is greater, in which case they will be attracted by countries in which there is more wage inequality. Cultural and linguistic explanations put weight on the ability of immigrants to acculturate (Chiswick and Miller, 1992, 2002; Dustmann and van Soest, 2002). Finally, networks explanation attaches importance to the role of social ties, chain effects and familial linkages in promoting immigration (Munshi, 2003; Patel and Vella, 2012; Pedersen et al., 2008). Within these broad groupings the relative weights of pull factors at the destination and push factors at the origin is an empirical issue.\n3. Methodology: 3.1. Bilateral gravity\n4. Data: 4.1. The dependent variable\n5. Results: We begin by estimating Equation (5) by OLS, which ignores spatial dependence within origins and destinations. The baseline specification, which appears in Table VII, is obtained following a specification search in which levels (for 2000) and changes (between 2000 and 2010) of variables discussed in Section 4, such as GDP per head in origins and destinations, are specified in an unrestricted model, which subsequently is nested down using the general-to-particular methodology to the restricted model that features in Table VII. The restricted baseline model is intentionally \"lenient\" in that it includes covariates with t-statistics below standard levels of statistical significance. These sub-marginal variables have been retained in face of the possibility that in spatial specifications their statistical significance might increase. Therefore, we are on the side of caution in the baseline specification. However, numerous variables such as GDP per head in EU destinations do not appear in the baseline model because they were clearly statistically insignificant.\n6. Conclusion: We have used cross-section data during 2000-2010 to investigate the determinants of immigration to the EU14 from three main geopolitical groups. These include countries from the European Neighborhood, accession countries or candidates to join the EU, and mainly Eastern European countries which joined the EU during the study period. Apart from income differentials, unemployment rates and other standard variables hypothesized to determine immigration, we have focussed attention on welfare-chasing as well as measures to enforce immigration policy. We have also investigated whether tests of these hypotheses are robust with respect to spatial misspecification.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of immigration from European Neighborhood (EN) and new member states to the EU core countries over the period 2000-2010. Apart from income differentials, unemployment rates and other standard variables hypothesized to determine immigration, the paper focusses attention on welfare-chasing as well as measures to enforce immigration policy. Using a variant of the gravity model, the paper investigates whether tests of these hypotheses are robust with respect to spatial misspecification.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The determinants of migration from the European Neighborhood and new member states to the EU core countries is estimated using a spatial variant of the gravity model. The methodology is used for both multilateral and spatial flows. Gravity model estimations are presented for immigration into the EU core destinations using standard, non-spatial econometrics, as well as spatial econometrics for single and double-spatial dynamics.\nFindings: Immigration to EU core countries varies directly with the change in social spending per head in the destination. This result stands out in all the models, both OLS and spatial. Immigrants are attracted by economic inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. However, in this case it is the level that matters rather than its change. No evidence is found that the threat of apprehension at the destination deters migrants from the European Neighborhood and other countries.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors assume multilateralism is spatial. This means that everything else given, destinations are closer substitutes the nearer they are, and that immigration shocks are likely to be more correlated among origins the closer they are. This implicit assumption is restrictive because multilateralism is just spatial.\nSocial implications: While immigration to EU core countries varies directly with the change in (not level of) social spending per head. If a given country becomes more benevolent it attracts more immigration. The results suggest that if during 2000-2010 social spending per capita grew by 1 percent, the immigration rate increased by between 1 and 2 percentage points relative to the number of foreign-born in 2000. This is a large demographic effect.\nOriginality/value: Uniquely, this paper does not assume immigration flows are independent and stresses their spatial and multilateral nature. A series of new non-spatial and spatial (single and double-spatial lag) models are used to empirically test hypotheses about the determinants of immigration to the EU core countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How to best promote my product? Comparing the effectiveness of sensory, functional and symbolic advertising content in food marketing	[ "Food marketing", "Product design", "Food products", "Advertising effectiveness", "Product evaluation", "Advertising design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Advertising is one of the most important means of appealing to consumers (Sethuraman et al., 2011) and providing product information (Nelson, 1974; Koetz et al., 2017). In marketing practice, there is often uncertainty concerning whether advertising is used most effectively (Aaker and Carman, 1982; Tellis, 2003). Additionally, in the marketing literature, the effectiveness of advertising is a popular topic (e.g. Frazer et al., 2002; Gallagher et al., 2001; MacKenzie et al., 1986; Petty et al., 1983; Woodside, 2016), particularly in the field of food products (e.g. Kareklas et al., 2014; Parker, 2003; Schifferstein et al., 2013; Theocharous, 2015; van Kleef et al., 2005; Vlachvei et al., 2009; Zandstra et al., 2017). One key recurring question in advertising design relates to the content of ads. The content forms associations with the product (Lane, 2000) and is thus essential for the evaluation of the product. By establishing effective advertising messages, firms may improve the perceptional and attitudinal components of product perception (Olney et al., 1991) and may elicit actual purchase behaviours (Resnik and Stern, 1977). Nonetheless, what kind of advertising messages are most effective in the context of food products?\nTheoretical background: Recent elaborations in the field of product design suggest that people essentially value a product's appearance based on three different design dimensions. In detail, these design dimensions are perceived aesthetics, functionality and symbolism (Brunner et al., 2016; Candi, 2007; Homburg et al., 2015; Ulrich, 2011). Aesthetics relates to the perceived beauty of a product and the general hedonic pleasure that a consumer receives from its sensory attributes (Desmet and Hekkert, 2007). Functionality indicates the perceived utilitarian value of a product's design (Bloch, 2011). Symbolism captures all aspects of the meanings, messages and associations that the design of a product transfers to the consumer (Kumar and Noble, 2016). With regard to food products, all of these dimensions are essential in a consumer's product perception and product choice, as recent research showed (Grunert et al., 2000). First, appearance is very important for the holistic evaluation of a food product (Imram, 1999). Accordingly, Michel et al. (2014) showed that the perception of a food product's beauty and attractiveness can be a relevant factor for food product evaluation. Second, the functional aspects of food are considered to be very important from a consumer perspective and have been the focus of several past studies. For instance, van Kleef et al. (2005) provided insights into the impact of functional food benefits on consumers' food evaluations. Moreover, Siro et al. (2008) wrote a review paper on functional foods that highlighted the impacts of functional benefits on food product perception. Finally, symbolic benefits are significant for food product evaluation as well (Zandstra et al., 2017). For instance, Robinson and Higgs (2012) showed that social information about how much a popular group likes a specific orange juice influences consumers' expectation of whether they will like that orange juice. Moreover, Magnier et al. (2016) demonstrated that food packaging that is associated with sustainability leads to higher perceived product quality. Additionally, in her overview paper on the decisive factors for food product evaluations, Jaeger (2006) identified symbolic aspects, such as branding and social issues.\nMethodology: Research design\nResults: Study 1\nDiscussion and conclusions: Discussion of the results\nConclusion: The aim of this paper was to determine whether there are significant differences among sensory, functional and symbolic advertising designs with regard to food product evaluation. When considering text as the only advertising element (study 1), the findings show no significant differences among the three groups. Because the product evaluation was generally positive, all three product design dimensions were found to be important in the case of food products. When a picture of the product was added to the advertisement (study 2), however, significant differences were found among the three text conditions. More precisely, the data analysis indicated that the effectiveness of the advertisement increases with the complementarity of the two advertising elements, the text and the picture. Accordingly, alongside the primarily sensory picture, the symbolic text providing the most new information led to the best evaluation of the food product, whereas sensory text that was redundant to the picture scored the worst. To conclude, an intelligent combination of a picture and text is essential to optimise the effectiveness of food product ads. In marketing practice, a visual impression of the product is frequently present. Therefore, the findings emphasise the importance for marketers to be aware of the messages that non-textual cues transfer to the consumer. Based on this knowledge, it is possible for marketers to use advertising text effectively to provide consumers with additional information about product benefits. In addition, pictorial information is much easier to process than textual information. Hence, the integration of a product picture is a valuable means of efficiently communicating further relevant information about the product that may be crucial to the consumer decision process. Through this approach, firms can improve consumer perception in terms of the expected taste, the perceived product experience and quality and the overall attitude towards the product. Finally, consumers will likely show much stronger intentions to purchase the product, which ultimately contributes to market success.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Advertising is one of the most important components of food marketing. However, there is uncertainty over the optimal means of convincing consumers to buy a product. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of advertising content comprising text (sensory, functional and symbolic messages) and pictures (product image) on food product evaluation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two online experiments investigating strawberry advertisements were performed. Study 1 incorporated only text, whereas study 2 investigated combinations of text and pictures. Analyses of variance were conducted to determine any significant differences among the three texts (sensory, functional and symbolic) and among the combinations of text and pictures.\nFindings: Study 1 revealed no significant differences. All three texts were well received, which shows the relevance of all the product benefits - sensory, functional and symbolic - for food products. In contrast, study 2 identified significant differences. The data analysis indicated that advertising effectiveness increases with the complementarity of the text and picture. Notably, the combination of the product picture and symbolic text was scored the highest for effectiveness.\nOriginality/value: The findings provide new insights into advertising design that food firms can use to enhance consumer product evaluations in terms of expected taste, perceived experience and quality, overall attitude and purchase intention. Further, the results contribute to the research stream of food product benefits by highlighting the relevance of sensory, functional and symbolic design elements.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determinants of employee trust during organisational change in higher institutions	[ "Communication strategies", "Higher education institutions", "Merger", "Employee trust" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Mergers and acquisitions are a common occurrence in the business and commercial domain, and as a result, corporate mergers and their inherent benefits have become a focus for many organisations, from global to national and regional levels. Although this strategic business decision is frequently justified by the drivers and seen in a positive light by the majority of stakeholders, the word \"merger\" attracts the attention of both officials and business commentators who may be dubious of the variance of perceived benefits vs actual benefit (Gautam, 2016). Outside the corporate world, this scepticism may be even more evident.\n2. Research gaps: The viewpoint that a merger will increase profitability has continued to be the driving force and business appeal for many organisations despite the ostensibly high risks involved (Kumar and Bansal, 2008). The human aspects of a merger and the impact they have on employee health, well-being and trust, has received little research attention (Bansal, 2016; Sparks et al., 2001; Jones et al., 2008). Key practical issues include how to ensure trust in equality of treatment across the two legacy institutions, particularly with employees on individual employment contracts (Dasborough et al., 2015; Bryson, 2003). For instance, merger literature from UK, Australia and New Zealand has established certain negative implications due to rapidly increasing individualisation in employment contracts (Dasborough et al., 2015; Bryson, 2003). Hence, while union support may be present during this critical time, it is often tactically ignored by the employee, based on both perceptions of inherent personalised financial benefits, and a belief in the judgement of the organisation's human resource management (HRM) team (Dasborough et al., 2015; Bryson, 2003). Naturally, such a response weakens a sense of collectivism and commonality. One suggestion is that unions need to adopt relevant professional approaches that will encourage cooperation and community citizenship between the employees of the merging organisations Guest (1995). Thus, robust communication initiatives are required to counter existing individualist HRM approaches so that the individual and collective rights of the employees can be protected.\n3. Theoretical model: Based on the theoretical framework used in the study presented by Bansal (2016), this research focused on three key organisational practises and their relationship to employee trust, a model that is grounded in organisational justice theory (OJT). OJT is described as a lens to understand and better explain employees' perceptions of fairness and trust in the workplace (Komodromos, 2013). Thus, because organisational justice research agrees that employee perception of effectiveness of communication initiatives is significantly related with employee trust during merger (Bansal, 2016; Komodromos, 2013), this theory suits the current empirical research.\n4. Methodology: For this study, the researchers adopted a descriptive research design through a cross sectional approach where data were collected in one single period. The data were analysed with a quantitative approach to establish relationships among variables. The population size for this particular study is 1,000 potential respondents compromising all employees from the two legacy institutions. Using a simple random sampling technique, the researchers invited 1,000 respondents to participate and were able to achieve 139 usable responses. This is a 13.9 per cent response rate and exceeds both the \"rule of thumb\" participation numbers requirement often used for business research (Roscoe, 1975) as well as Cochran's (1977) formula that estimates 106 as the expected sample size for a population of 1,000 with an a =0.05 and t=1.96. In this study, both non response and response bias was tested using t-tests to statistically examine two population means. Based on the discussion above, this study has categorised 80 respondents as early responders and 59 as late responders. The researchers tested the demographic variables using Levene's test for equality and a descriptive test. For the demographic data, the descriptive test established the means, standard deviation and standard error between the two groups of respondents. Results indicated that there were no significant statistical dissimilarities in the demographic data. Therefore this study concludes that there is no response bias that could impact the study. As a result all 139 responses were used for data analysis.\n5. Analyses and results: 5.1 Measures\n6. Discussion, conclusion and implications: 6.1 Discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The researchers in this study aim to understand the impact of a recent merger between two high performing institutions, on employee trust and well-being. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively test the relationships between communication initiatives, human resource management initiatives, and cultural congruence and their impact on employee trust during organisational change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To empirically validate these hypothesised relationships, 139 employees of the organisation were surveyed; the data were analysed using structural equation modelling.\nFindings: The results indicate that HR planning and successful communication by the organisation are vital if a merger is to achieve the gains envisioned at its inception.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research may explore longitudinal study to establish time of how employee trust are affected from the early merger announcement stage, during the merger-related activities and most importantly the post-merger period. The researchers are of the opinion, that understanding the impacts of change and how employee trust is affected during change is vital. The scope of this study permitted only three independent variables, consideration should be given for further research to explore the influence other activities may have on trust such as policy, government restraint, governance and internationalisation.\nPractical implications: These results further establish the need for educational and commercial organisations to focus on internal and external relationship management and on communication strategies that can affect employees before, during and after a merger.\nSocial implications: Understanding factors that will influence employee vulnerability is important for any organisation as it is possibly the first step to understanding what planning needs to take place to foster change and consider contingencies pre, during and post-merger related change. Considerable thought and planning should be given to the re building of culture and regaining of lost trust post-merger.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical research that quantitatively test the relationships between communication initiatives, human resource initiatives, cultural congruence and their impact on employee trust during organisational change in higher academic institution. This particular study has further add value to change management research, particularly from New Zealand perspective where there is little literature on the current Institute of Technology and Polytechnic sector merger.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Profitability and marketability efficiencies of Vietnam manufacturing firms: An application of a multi-stage process	[ "Fractional regression model", "Two-stage DEA", "Vietnam manufacturing sector" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The manufacturing sector has contributed significantly to Vietnam economic growth recently. The World Bank (2019) statistics shows that the percentage of exported manufacturing products over Vietnam total exported commodities increased from 44 per cent in 1997 to 83 per cent in 2017. With the competitive advantages of low employment costs, large consumer population, better investment policies and improving infrastructure conditions, Vietnam is considered as one of the most attractive destinations in Southeast Asia to relocate manufacturing operations from China (Lim, 2017).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Two-stage DEA process measuring profitability and marketability efficiencies\n3. Non-parametric and parametric research approaches: This study consists of multiple analytical approaches. First, the study uses the bootstrap two-stage DEA, a non-parametric method to evaluate Vietnam listed manufacturing firms' efficiency levels. Second, the study adopts FRM, a parametric approach to assess the influences of financial and non-financial factors on firms' DEA efficiency scores.\n4. Data collection: The study collects annual data of 102 manufacturing firms listed on Vietnam stock market over 12 years from 2007 to 2018. Since all of the 102 firms have similar production attributes and financial goals, with identical inputs and outputs under the same conditions of Vietnam market, the data satisfy the homogeneity requirement of DEA technique (Golany and Roll, 1989). Moreover, the total number of the investigated firms is larger than 50, that is sufficient for the study to employ the bootstrap method to guarantee the precision and unbiasedness of the estimators (Chernick, 2008).\n5. Results: 5.1 Bootstrap two-stage DEA process results\n6. Conclusions and recommendations: The manufacturing sector plays an increasingly pivotal role in the development of Vietnam economy. The establishment of AEC in 2015 has offered numerous promising opportunities for Vietnam manufacturing firms to increase profits and boost their market values. This study adopts bootstrap two-stage DEA and FRM methods to investigate 102 manufacturing firms listed in Vietnam stock market. The study draws several conclusions and suggestions to enhance the profitability and marketability efficiencies of Vietnam manufacturing enterprises as follows.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure profitability and marketability efficiencies as well as examine the efficiencies' determinants of listed manufacturing firms in Vietnam.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs a bootstrap two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to investigate the profitability and marketability efficiencies of 102 listed manufacturing firms on Vietnam stock market from 2007 to 2018. The study also applies fractional regression models (FRM) to identify the determinants of Vietnam manufacturing firms' efficiencies.\nFindings: The results reveal that Vietnam manufacturing firms obtain higher average profitability efficiency scores (0.888) than marketability efficiency scores (0.527) from 2007 to 2018. The high-tech firms achieve better profitability and marketability efficiencies than the traditional (resource-intensive and labour-intensive) Vietnam manufacturing firms in recent years (2016-2018). Further, the financial and non-financial factors have heterogeneous impacts on Vietnam manufacturing enterprises' profit and market valuation efficiencies.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to the nature of DEA technique that requires every decision-making unit to have available data of all inputs and outputs, the listed Vietnam manufacturing firms that have incomplete data or go public after 2007 are not included in the data set.\nPractical implications: This study provides a reference for Vietnam manufacturing managers to position their firms competitively in the market as well as make wise operating, financing and management decisions.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that attempts to combine bootstrap two-stage DEA and FRM, which are considered advantageous methods for DEA scores' measurements and determinant evaluations in the current literature.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Involving the public in NHS service planning	[ "Scotland", "National Health Service", "National Standards" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a clear commitment in Scotland reflected in the \"Patient Focus and Public Involvement\" (PFPI) policy initiative to involve the public in health service planning (Scottish Executive, 2001, 2004). It is now a statutory requirement for NHS Boards to directly involve patients and the public at \"all levels of their ongoing work - from individual care planning to major service redesign\" (Scotland Bill, 2004). The Scottish Health Council (SHC) was established in April 2005 and together with Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) is now charged with assessing NHS Boards against PFPI performance standards. All NHS Boards in Scotland (including Special Health Boards) are required to complete an annual PFPI self-assessment framework (Scottish Health Council Workplan, 2006).\"Public involvement\" basically refers to attempts on the parts of organisations such as Health Boards to include a range of (often unspecified) individuals and community groups and organisations, and the \"public at large\", in their activities. The SHC regards the National Standards for Community Engagement (Communities Scotland, 2005a) as applicable to Health Boards that serve a whole region of potential and actual users of health services (Scottish Health Council Workplan, 2006).\nPublic involvement policy: Despite, or perhaps because of the current prominence of policies promoting public involvement, a number of tensions and ambiguities relating to this policy have not been well explored. Discussion of public policy is increasingly characterised by references to \"governance\", a concept that is employed both descriptively and normatively (Pierre and Peters, 2000). Descriptively, \"governance\" is opposed to \"government\"; it signifies the recognition that traditional assumptions about top-down government from Whitehall or Edinburgh are empirically inaccurate. Policy outcomes are rather the result of a wide range of interactions between a much wider range of actors, including organisations, pressure groups, and elite networks. Normatively, governance may be the subject either of disapproval, on the grounds that it can bypass the accountability arrangements of representative democracy (Rhodes, 1997) or (more frequently) of approval as signifying more direct or participative democracy (Held, 1996). Contemporary statements of formal government policy frequently take the positive stance, and the Scottish NHS is no exception: \"To develop options for change with people not for them, starting from the patient experience and engaging the public early on to develop solutions rather than have them respond to predetermined plans conceived by professionals\" (Scottish Executive, 2005c)Yet there are obvious policy tensions that imply that these policy aspirations cannot simply be taken at face value. First, the NHS constitutes a system of \"third party payment\" (Harrison and Moran, 2000) in which neither patients nor health professionals have any immediate incentive to restrict the services that are provided. Rather it is the third party payer (central government in the case of the NHS) that faces this incentive, implying that policy cannot simply consist of \"giving people what they want\". Second, such \"consumer moral hazard\" is likely to be compounded by the sort of demand-side factors such as demographic shifts (though there is a debate about whether an ageing population necessarily implies rising demands), technological development, the tendency to \"medicalise\" more human and social problems (Moynihan and Smith, 2002), the phenomenon of conservative preferences relating to service provision (Hundley and Ryan, 2004) and perhaps also generally rising expectations. Third, involvement policy is in tension with another major plank of health policy: evidence-based health care. Crudely, what people want may not be what the research says is effective (Harrison et al., 2002). One high-profile example of this is the case of Interferon Beta for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, where there was no consensus about the implications of the cost effectiveness evidence of the drug reviewed by the National Institute for Clinical Effectiveness (ref needed).\nPublic involvement policy in Scotland: There are five key policy changes that set the scene for public involvement policy in Scotland:1. Raising the PFPI profile: the Scottish Parliament has placed a legal duty on NHS Boards to involve and consult the public and promote/encourage equal opportunities.2. Local Health Councils (LHCs), which used to serve as \"the voice of the public\" were abolished in 2005.3. Substantial health service changes have been proposed in recent SE policy documents.4. The policy emphasis in relation to public involvement is now placed firmly on \"Early involvement\" in the identification of problems and development of possible solutions, as opposed to \"End-stage involvement\" in the acceptance of a particular change.5. The establishment of Community Health Partnerships and their developing Public Partnership Forums. Public Partnership Forums will be a key vehicle for Community Health Partnerships and NHS Boards to engage with their wider communities.It is impossible to appreciate the implementation issues concerning PFPI without paying some attention to the broader pressures and dynamics in the Scottish health care system. For example, there have been proposals for significant changes in the way services are delivered, including shifting the balance of care away from hospitals to community care. There has been substantial public reaction to some of these, particularly in relation to hospital or service closure (Scottish Executive, 2005a, b).\nPerformance measurement and public involvement policy in Scotland: NHS Boards' PFPI activity has been assessed since 2002/2003. During this time and prior to the existence of the SHC, the assessment of NHS Boards' public involvement activities was undertaken by Scottish Executive Health Department's \"Involving People\" Team, which included a self-assessment by NHS Boards and latterly a report from the former Local Health Councils. As an organisation at arms-length from the SEHD, the SHC will fulfil its assessment function by reviewing the annual self-assessments that NHS Boards provide of their achievements on PFPI against a set of performance assessment quality indicators, and by using national guidance and standards, such as the draft guidance on Informing, Engaging and Consulting the public (Scottish Executive Health Department, 2004) and the National Standards for Community Engagement (Communities Scotland, 2005b). The quality indicators for PFPI at the start of this project were set in the context of a broader Performance Assessment Framework (PAF). This framework has now been replaced by Health, Efficiency, Access and Treatment (HEAT) that captures planned performance against these 32 key performance measures which relate to an agreed core set of 28 key targets (Chief Executive Report, 2006).\nStudy objectives, design and methods: The overall aim of the present study was to inform discussions about the development of a framework of assessing public involvement in NHS Scotland.More specific project objectives were to:* Identify potential criteria and methods for assessing public involvement in the planning and delivery of health services; and* Consider the suitability of the identified criteria and methods for assessing public involvement for the particular case of Health Boards' efforts to involve their publics in decisions about the planning and delivery of services\nStudy design and rationale: There are three main components to address these aims and objectives:1. A series of key stakeholder interviews to gather key issues; and identify potential assessment criteria and concerns about their application.2. A focused literature review of existing tools for assessing public involvement.3. A focused \"case study\" of health service redesign in the Scottish context with the view to considering further how public involvement can appropriately be assessed.This paper reports on numbers 1 and 3.\nInterview methods: An initial literature search of published policy documentation on public involvement in the UK provided us with a starting point for identifying our key stakeholders in the Scottish policymaking community as well as the broader research community. From this list, we identified individuals by considering who were \"actively engaged\" and \"close to central debates\", and could therefore provide us with rich insights relating to criteria and methods for the assessment of public involvement. We conducted 14 interviews: ten informants were Scottish NHS policymakers, planners, voluntary sector and consumer representatives who had been involved in either informing, designing or using previous assessment frameworks; and four were academic experts with a close knowledge of public involvement issues. The interviews aimed to explore a challenging set of key issues including the desirability of public involvement assessment in the absence of clear, measurable criteria; weaknesses and strengths of existing criteria and methods for Public involvement; the larger constraints posed by specific features of the policy context; organisational processes, structures and resources in the Scottish context; and a sense of \"direction\" for a Scottish assessment framework.The interview schedule was informed on the basis of a wider understanding of the literature and from discussions with colleagues familiar with the policy context of the NHS in Scotland.Given informants' time constraints, the interview schedule was used flexibly and tailored to suit the individuals' roles and responsibilities.\nBackground to case study: This \"case study\" is set in the context of a series of public involvement activities relating to proposed changes to re-organise health services in a \"remote and rural\" part of Scotland. The time period covers 2002-2005 and makes reference to two landmark events: the commissioning of the West Highland Project and following from this, the formation of a Solutions Group. Both events were born out of a recognised need for health service change and therefore officially initiated a number of Public involvement activities. However, latterly, public involvement took place as part of a reaction against the emerging outcomes of these events.The issue at large, also expressed in the literature as a historical issue for rural and remote areas of Scotland is the sustainability of services (see RARARI in the following section). Although some informants disputed that the origins prior to 2002 were founded in this context, for the purposes of our period of examination, we found the related issue was:How to sustain 24-hour consultant emergency cover in the face of pressures from within the health care system (e.g. recruitment and retention of consultant staff), and from outside the health care system (e.g. European Working Time Directive (EWTD)).The following discussion reports mainly on our stakeholder interviews and our focused case study, and sensitises the reader to the policy context by probing the views of a range of stakeholders who have been involved in either informing, designing or using previous assessment frameworks; and those with a close knowledge of public involvement issues. During the lifetime of this study, we took advice from Scottish policymakers and representatives of key institutions through workshop discussions and individual interviews. This advice was used to identify our key stakeholders for the initial interviews, and focus on an appropriate \"case\" study of health service redesign.\nMethods: Case study method\nCase study findings: In line with our findings from the first series of stakeholder interviews, our case study informants predominantly argued in terms of what they saw as a \"good\" and \"necessary\" process- and desirable outcome features or principles. Informants did not unanimously argue that good process features could ensure a desirable outcome, although two informants suggested that there was a causal link. One informant stated:The West Highland research group exercise before the Solutions Group was probably consultation at its best. It involved people, but the Solutions Group came about because of the furore that arose from the decisions that were made.The final decision, when accepted by the public is what most of our informants saw as crucial to measuring a successful outcome of public involvement:People want to see that they have been listened to.Definition of criteria\nSummary and Conclusion: We have not identified any objective criteria for measuring public involvement, and have not found it was possible to conceive of a universally applicable approach to measuring the \"success\" of public involvement from the data collected in this research. Although there is support among key stakeholders for the assessment of NHS Boards' public involvement activities, there is no consensus and significant uncertainty about how this assessment should be undertaken. This reflects a lack of clarity among the respondents about both the purpose of the assessment and, more fundamentally, about the purpose of public involvement and what matters about it.\nThe purpose of assessment: Assessment may be undertaken for a variety of reasons, and may be intended to facilitate improvement more or less directly via a variety of mechanisms. Assessment approaches may need to be tailored to achieve particular purposes. For example, if it is important that those who monitor NHS Boards' performance to be able to show whether all Boards have achieved a satisfactory level of performance in relation to public involvement, and/or to rank Boards in order of achievement, then they will need a standardised metric that can capture what matters about involvement.If it is more important that those who monitor NHS Boards' performance can be reassured that those Boards are working continuously to improve their performance in relation to public involvement, then a qualitative check to ensure that more flexible (and participatory) self-assessment processes are taking place may be more appropriate.The findings from our stakeholder interviews highlighted a tension between a prescriptive and standardised assessment process as opposed to a flexible approach that could facilitate participatory approaches and that stress the need for success criteria to be determined locally. Most of our informants recognised that prior assessment indicators were used like a \"tick-box\" and therefore, may have deterred NHS Boards from focusing on the underlying purpose of public involvement.\nThe purpose of involvement and what matters about it: Any assessment of involvement will reflect a socially constructed notion of what matters about involvement. Both our key informant interviews and our case study tended to confirm that there is a diversity of opinion about this if we focus on specific processes or features of involvement.However, there is a broad consensus that it is not acceptable for NHS Boards to pay lip service to consultation and facilitate only tokenistic involvement. Rather, they should aspire to \"genuine and meaningful\" involvement of the public in service planning decisions. Genuine and meaningful involvement is difficult to characterise, but it seems to incorporate both process-quality and outcome considerations. It requires, for example that people are informed and engaged in a meaningful dialogue and listened to. It should also aim to achieve public understanding and acceptance of decisions that are made about service design.Our case study showed that in the absence of certain process features such as \"listening\" and \"early involvement\". There was also an assumption that \"being listened to\" and \"creating a meaningful dialogue\" are constituent parts of a \"good outcome\". However, it is not clear what could be considered sufficient evidence for \"listening\".\nLevels of public influence: Any assessment framework also relies on a clear notion of the level of influence the public should have. It is useful to consider Arnstein's ladder of participation (Arnstein, 1969), which illustrates the different levels of influence the \"public at large\" may have on decisions regarding health service planning. If decision-makers seek an \"active\" partnership with the public at large, there needs to be a discussion around a common understanding of partnership, and the \"effective\" mechanisms for this to happen.In consideration of the overwhelming positive response from our informants as to the desirability of public involvement assessment, the publics' views must be a clear feature of future decisions. In the absence of objective criteria, improving public involvement quality is currently promoted through a self-assessment model. This approach may be preferable to an external assessment model that would seek a formulaic measure for public involvement performance, but not support NHS Boards in keeping the goal of \"genuine involvement\" in focus. In fact, genuine involvement may only be achieved if Boards themselves are able to take ownership of the Public involvement assessment process through greater reliance of self-assessment and culturally determined Public involvement assessment criteria.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study that examined the development of an assessment framework for public involvement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper has adopted a multi-method approach that includes: a focused review of literature relating to tools that might be used to provide valid and reliable assessments of public involvement; key informant interviews with people with experience from various perspectives of efforts to involve the public in the planning and development of health services; and a detailed study of a specific public involvement initiative involving a range of \"stakeholder\" interviews.\nFindings: - The paper finds that there are uncertainty and a lack of consensus about how assessment of public involvement should be undertaken. The findings emphasise the need to recognise the diverse nature of public involvement, which may require assessment to be employed flexibly at each individual NHS Board level.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is a small-scale study, in which it was only possible to probe a limited number of stakeholders' views due to practical and time restrictions.\nOriginality/value: - The paper adds value to the discussions taking place at Scottish Government level as to the best approach in assessing public involvement in health service decision making.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How do business-level strategies affect multiple market servicing modes in the foreign country?	[ "SME", "Business-level strategy", "Market servicing mode", "Strategic choice model" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There are many studies that deal with foreign market entry selection (e.g. Brouthers and Hennart, 2007; Buckley and Casson, 1976; Dunning, 1988). However, the market servicing modes (MSMs) in a foreign market that follow the initial entry modes are rather under-researched. As the first-time entry mode choice of firms may not be a \"perfect landing\", it is rather unknown what factors affect subsequent MSMs in the host country. In line with Young et al. (1989), we define the MSM as the firm-level arrangement through which enterprises service a single foreign market with their value-adding activities. Post-entry MSMs are important because they are likely to have a considerable effect on the long-term evolution and performance of the firm in the foreign market. Efficient servicing mode selections may minimise the overall cost of internationalisation (Buckley and Hashai, 2005). Effectively post-entry MSMs can be a major aspect that characterises the enterprise's internationalisation pattern following its initial entry into a particular foreign market (Jones and Coviello, 2005; Young et al., 2003).\n2. Literature review and research hypotheses: 2.1 MSM choices\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research context\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Results\n5. Conclusions: This study has explored BLSs from a sample of international Greek SMEs in a three-year period and their effect on the MSM selection in the subsequent year. The evidence suggests that all three examined BLSs influence the firm's selection between multiple and single MSMs. The effect of BLSs on the adoption of servicing modes strengthens the validity of the strategic choice model (Child, 1972; Cyert and March, 1963) positing that, following the initial entry, the use of appropriate BLSs is associated with the adoption of an \"effective package\" of MSMs. BLSs and MSMs are seemingly characterised by a strong association in the SME internationalisation process.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: There is considerable literature on the firm's market servicing mode (MSM) when it enters the foreign country. However, scant research has been conducted to examine how business-level strategies (BLSs) affect internationalised firms to choose a multiple rather than single post-entry MSM. The purpose of this paper is to test the effect of three BLSs on firms' selection of multiple MSMs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Survey responses of 165 internationalised Greek small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were collected capturing the types of BLSs they used during 2008-2010 and their number of MSMs in a particular foreign country in 2011. The data were analysed using logistic regression.\nFindings: The findings suggest that firms that implement collaborative and differentiation strategies are more likely to use multiple rather than single MSMs. Firms that implement penetration pricing strategies are more likely to use single MSMs, although this effect is marginally significant. Overall, the validity of the strategic choice model regarding the choice of multiple MSMs is confirmed.\nOriginality/value: Despite its importance, the effect of BLSs influencing MSMs has not seemingly been investigated, especially in the context of internationalised SMEs as opposed to large multinational enterprises; and, for post-entry as opposed to initial modes. The findings underline the BLS significance on internationalised SME adoption of multiple vs single MSMs in the host country.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Global business services: Increasing specialization and integration of the world economy as drivers of economic growth	[ "Global business services", "Outsourcing", "Offshoring", "Resource-based view", "Property-rights theory", "Entrepreneurial theory of the firm", "Non-ownership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBusiness services as engine of economic growth: Structural change and the importance of the service sector in the world economy\nThe globalization of business services: International services trade and the contribution of business services\nGBS: contributions of the non-ownership perspective: The rise of the service economy has spurred an intensified debate about the conceptual foundations of services. GBS are a case in point: with a growing supply of tradable KTI business services, the lines between services and manufacturing are increasingly becoming blurred as firms are gaining access to capabilities and assets without the necessity of owning them (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2011). In such settings, commonly used definitions of services may result in confusion. For example, researchers traditionally tended to use specific characteristics of services like intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability (also referred to as IHIP) to distinguish goods from services (Zeithaml et al., 1985). However, the IHIP categorization does not capture important subsectors of business services such as rental, outsourcing or leasing (Lovelock and Gummesson, 2004; Wittkowski et al., 2013). For instance, the outsourcing of support functions represents a division of labor and the introduction of a new organizational interface (between the firm and an external service provider) as internal operations are substituted by an externally sourced service. The result is that the firm (which now becomes the client) has delegated assets, processes, responsibility and managerial control to an independent external service provider. One of the latest examples can be seen in the development of new marketplaces (e.g., Skilbridge.com, HourlyNerd.com) that allow startups and small businesses to hire consultants and freelance MBAs by the hour (Zlomek, 2013).\nTheories of the firm: linking division of labor and specialization to the rise of business services: A casual perusal of industry histories suggests that firms undergo periods of integration, followed by disintegration, perhaps followed again by re-integration (Jacobides and Winter, 2005). One of the key questions in this context is, what drives the emergence of new ways to organize an industry's value chain? Why is it beneficial for firms to outsource services in addition, or as an alternative, to their own operations? Or, in ecological terminology, what enables the \"speciation\" of new vertical participants along an industry's value chain (Jacobides and Winter, 2005)? And in a global context, what drives the recent growth of services offshoring? In economics, this question has led to several research streams within the wider field of the theory of the firm. We discuss in the following subsections three interrelated streams of research that shape the core topics and challenges of that realm (see Table II).\nSummary, conclusions and implications: Over the past decades, the progressive liberalization of cross-border transactions, dramatic advances in ICTs, and improvements in transport logistics and services have provided firms with greater incentives to fragment production processes and to geographically delocalize them (Nicita et al., 2013). These developments have lead to the widespread outsourcing and offshoring of services we see today. That is, supporting and ancillary operations which were previously done in-house (intra-firm) are increasingly delegated to outside contractors (Eurostat, 2009; Woelfl, 2005). In recent years, outsourcing and offshoring have expanded to a range of knowledge-intensive business services such as IT applications, finance and accounting, engineering, R\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of global business services (GBS) to improve productivity and economic growth of the world economy, which has gone largely unnoticed in service research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors draw on macroeconomic data and industry reports, and link them to the non-ownership concept in service research and theories of the firm.\nFindings: Business services explain a large share of the growth of the global service economy. The fast growth of business services coincides with shifts from domestic production toward global outsourcing of services. A new wave of GBS are traded across borders and have emerged as important drivers of growth in the world's service sector.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper advances the understanding of non-ownership services in an increasingly global and specialized post-industrial economy. The paper makes a conceptual contribution supported by descriptive data, but without empirical testing.\nOriginality/value: The authors integrate the non-ownership concept and three related economic theories of the firm to explain the role of GBS in driving business performance and the international transformation of service economies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A farewell from the editor to Interlending and Document Supply	[ "Academic libraries", "Document delivery", "Interlibrary loan", "Open access", "Journal publishing", "Scholarly communications" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: I have edited Interlending and Document Supply (ILDS) since 2002 with a short break. From the next issue, it will change its name to Information Discovery and Delivery. This name change reflects the need to widen its scope from what used to be a significant part of a library's activities and is now much less so, although ILL remains an essential service to all libraries. After all, one of the enduring myths of this electronic age is that \"everything is available immediately on the Web\" - and indeed free. I can find no research on the amount of material that has not yet been digitised and hence \"not free on the Web\", so I did some quick and dirty research myself and came up with the surprising, nay and staggering, result that over 90 per cent of both journals and books have not been digitised! Thus, there is much scope for the ILL of older material as well as less-used material of any age. That is quite apart from the fact that the document supply of born digital articles can be fast and cheap, and the enormously expensive elephant of the Big Deals generates more and more anger within the library community. Suffice it to say in this introduction that I strongly support the change of scope of the Journal and send my best wishes to the new, and indeed first, editor of the new journal. At the ripe old age of 75, I will move onto pastures new!\nPast and future: I moved from the British Library in London to its Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa, Yorkshire, in 1976, rather reluctantly, but gradually warmed to the challenges presented and to the wonderful staff. After retirement at the age of 60, I edited ILDS from which I retire as the editor with this issue.\nThe fundamental conflict: To understand our world of resource sharing and document supply, we must stand back from the churn of the day-to-day and look at the underlying forces. The key one is global capitalism, specifically the global network of public limited companies. Their goal is to maximise profits. The individual firm achieves this in a number of ways, all of which seek to dominate their particular market. Product innovation, price management and cost reductions are the main instruments. This drive to maximise profit never stops, and new ways are always being sought to achieve this goal. This is very crude, but it is an essential truth which helps us to understand the forces operating in the world of scholarly communications. Elsevier is only concerned with scholarly communications insofar as it furthers their goal.\nOpen access: OA presents both threats and opportunities to document supply librarians, so let us take a closer look. First, just two short definitions:\nThe current situation: On the one hand, there is reduction in ILL staffing - caused by a reduction in demand and also by technical changes to the document supply process, removing the need for much manual intervention; examples of which are the widespread acceptance of copyright signatures, the use of link resolvers to populate request forms, electronic searching including Google and automatic searching of the library's own catalogue for material already held.\nSo what of the future?: Well, predictions are always difficult, especially about the future - a quote I think from that well-known academic - Yogi Bear.\nSome further reading: \n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to reflect on developments in document supply and scholarly communications and to look into the future of the service.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study provides an informal overview.\nFindings: The results of this study indicate that Interlending and Document Supply (ILDS) as a service has a long future ahead of it albeit at a lower level than in the recent past.\nOriginality/value: As a farewell to ILDS, it is inevitably original; its value will be judged by the reader.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
What's organization knowledge management strategy for successful change implementation?	[ "Organizational learning", "Organizational change", "Personalization", "Codification", "Knowledge management strategies", "Organizational change cynicism", "Readiness for change" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The business world today is changing more rapidly than ever before. Given the extra pressures of changing markets, dynamic technology and global competition, companies are increasingly encountering the need for strategic level transformation (Aslam et al., 2015). This transformation encompasses all parts of a business, its structure, resources, technology, processes and its culture. Technological developments, expanding markets, financial constraints, new philosophies, restructuring and mergers, and government legislation are putting pressure to change and stay dynamic (Aslam et al., 2016). Success goes to those who can visualize how markets are changing, identify new configurations of service or delivery and \"change the rules of the game.\" Yet the process of change is far from easy, and implementing it successfully makes considerable demands on the managers involved. Several studies have found that 70 percent of change efforts are unproductive (Balogun and Hailey, 2004; Burnes, 2004). A study highlighted that 90 percent of change programs have failed (Decker et al., 2012). Therefore, it is important to investigate how the change initiatives can be successful in the dynamic business world.\nLiterature review: Organizational learning\nResearch model: Research methodology\nResults and discussion: Although, previous literature gives evidence that KM strategies have a direct effect on different organizational outcomes (Chen et al., 2009; Earl, 2001), but rare work has yet been done regarding KM strategies in relationship with organizational learning, change readiness, change cynicism and organizational change. In the current study, researchers empirically investigate the organizational change model through KM strategies, organizational learning and successful organizational change. In addition, this study also contains information on how organizational learning and readiness for change is helpful to reduce the injurious effects of change cynicism on successful organizational change.\nConclusion: Change becomes the norm for vital and growing organizations. Organizations are continuously adopting numerous methods to initiate change for the betterment of organizational outcomes, i.e. changes in processes, technology, culture, infrastructure, intellectual capability and management. Banking sector of Pakistan is currently forming a new shape by providing extensive services to its customers that are market driven and are aligned with international norms. Many banks are going to change their ERP system for facilitation of their valued clients. Meanwhile, organizations are facing the organizational change cynicism that causes the failure of overall change process. The results of the current study concluded that success in organizational change can be enhanced by adopting KM strategies, personalization and codification. Through these strategies, the optimal level of organizational learning can be grasped that will ultimately be helpful to reduce the change cynicism.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: In recent times, progression of technology and growing demands of customers have substantially influenced the services sector to introduce fast real-time mechanisms for providing up-to-mark services. To meet these requirements, organizations are going to change their end-user operating systems but success rate of change is very low. The purpose of this paper is to address one of the practitioners' complaint \"no one tells us how to do it\" and uncovers the indirect effects of knowledge management (KM) strategies: personalization and codification, toward organizational change via organizational learning and change readiness. The current study also highlights how organizational learning and change readiness are helpful to reduce the detrimental effects of organizational change cynicism toward success of a change process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Temporal research design is used to get the appropriate responses from the targeted population in two stages such as pre-change (Time-1) and post-change (Time-2). In cumulative, 206 responses have been obtained from the banking sector of Pakistan.\nFindings: The results of the current study are very promising as it has been stated that KM strategies have an indirect effect on successful organizational change through organizational learning and change readiness. Moreover, change cynicism has a weakening effect on a change process and can be managed through effective learning orientation of employees and developing readiness for change in organizations.\nResearch limitations/implications: Change agents have to use an optimal mix of personalization and codification strategies to develop learning environment and readiness for change in organizations that are beneficial for implementing a change successfully. Moreover, change readiness and organizational learning in the context of change are equally beneficial to reduce organizational change cynicism as well.\nOriginality/value: This study is introducing a unique model to initiate a change with the help of KM strategies, organizational learning and readiness for change.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Mayors' leadership roles in direct participation processes - the case of community-owned wind farms	[ "Case study", "Citizen participation", "Leadership roles", "Community energy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and research objective: Due to its link to effectiveness, the design of participation processes has become a focal point for research and practice. Public managers must be equipped with knowledge on \"[h]ow to design participat[ion] processes to achieve desirable outcomes\" (Bryson et al., 2013, p. 23), such as meeting legal requirements or higher quality policies. Process design relates to questions of input (who participates, when, why, how) and transformation (leadership roles, sequencing of activities) (Roberts, 2004) and thereby influences both process and outcome levels of participation processes (Bryson et al., 2013).\nLeadership roles for mayors in direct participation processes: Ongoing challenges in the public sector enhance the need for mayors as public managers to take on leadership roles (Pedersen and Hartley, 2008). This is crucial as \"leadership shapes the future; management [only] delivers it\" (Broussine and Callahan, 2015, p. 180). Thus, public managers need to both manage and lead (Kronenberg and Khademian, 2009). The latter is related to the question of power. Thereby, mainly hierarchy-based formal authority is only one source of power (Broussine and Callahan, 2015) as leadership in any organization can also be of informal nature (Ryan, 2001; Shaughnessy et al., 2017). Moreover, in the public sector, the distinction between political and non-political leaders is crucial (Lane and Wallis, 2009). Reform trends point to a reduction of direct political influence in service delivery, nevertheless \"politicians may work closely with managers in some countries and managers may even be directly elected by the population on a political mandate\" (Lane and Wallis, 2009, p. 107). Moreover, emerging literature emphasizes role sharing between elected officials and administrators by referring to a complementarity rather than a dichotomy of the political-administrative relationship (Demir and Reddick, 2012). Against this background, mayors as both public managers and political leaders face the need to take on leadership roles in participation processes as adequate leadership influences the effectiveness of participation processes (Bryson et al., 2013; Roberts, 2004). They must ensure responsiveness and are held accountable for outcomes of participation processes (Bryson et al., 2014).\nMethod: Research design and sampling\nFindings: Finding 1: mandated and non-mandated forms of citizen participation complement each other\nDiscussion and conclusion: Adapting adequate leadership roles has been discussed as being crucial for the effectiveness of participation processes. This study's second and fifth finding show that besides the current emphasis on collaborative roles (Bryson et al., 2013), legally mandated direct participation in particular calls for a traditional guarantor role of mayors as public managers. Traditional decisional responsibilities of public administrations (Harmon and Mayer, 1986) as well as distinct features of public managers (Rainey, 1989) are decisive for citizens' perception of the legitimacy of a participation process. In addition, mayors' responsible behavior leads to increased awareness, less opposition, perceived responsiveness and mobilization of citizens. Thus, exclusive role exercise by mayors as public managers influences the perceived quality and perceived procedural fairness as elements of a participation process' legitimacy (Quick and Bryson, 2016). This finding on traditional administrative roles to be exercised by mayors strengthens the dual position perspective on these actors (Lane and Wallis, 2009; Reichard, 2003). This allows for partial inference of this finding to public managers as executives of administrations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The design of participation processes influences their effectiveness. In light of processes which include both mandated and non-mandated direct participation and take place in collaboration with other actors, adequate leadership roles are an indispensable but challenging process element. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how mayors exercise leadership roles in such processes and how this relates to effective participation processes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Applying a qualitative comparative case study design (n=7), this study investigates mayors' leadership roles relative to other actors' roles in the process of establishing a community-owned wind farm. Data collection relied on 21 semi-structured interviews, triangulated with documentary analyses and nine field-level expert interviews.\nFindings: Findings reveal mayors' exclusive roles of guarantor, formal convener, facilitator, and sponsor based on authority. Mayors' various shared roles relate primarily to non-mandated participation. Mayors face tensions in their role exercise due to citizens' expectations and their personal involvement. They experience a positive impact of shared leadership on the effectiveness of the participation process.\nPractical implications: Mayors need to exercise specific leadership roles relative to other actors to effectively manage participation processes. Adequate role exercise relates to sensitization and mobilization for the issue, weakened opposition, and project adjustment to citizen demands. A strategic approach to process design can support mayors in their leadership efforts.\nOriginality/value: This paper adds to the knowledge on mayors' leadership roles in participation processes and concretizes tensions and effectiveness of collaborative leadership. The paper reflects on the inference of findings for administrators as compared to mayors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Towards a sustainability assessment model for affordable housing projects: the perspective of professionals in Ghana	[ "Affordable housing", "Low‐cost housing", "Public housing", "Sustainable housing", "Criteria", "Success Index", "Assessment criteria", "Indicators" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The role of the construction sector in delivering infrastructure facilities to the society is indispensable. However, in achieving this role, a prodigious amount of unrenewable resources is consumed. Besides, large amount of carbon dioxide is consequently emitted. It has been estimated that the total amount of carbon dioxide emission from the global construction industry in 2009 was 5.7 billion tons. This contributed to about 23% of the total carbon dioxide emissions from the global economic activities (Huang et al., 2018). Moreover, the operation of most of the constructed facilities further contributes to the depletion of non-renewable energy and carbon dioxide emission. Among the facilities, housing facilities require much attention.The housing sector is a major consumer of the global energy and a contributor to CO2 emissions. Heating and hot water provision among private households in Europe account for 40% of the total energy consumption and 25% of greenhouse gas emissions (Lechtenbohmer and Schuring, 2011). Similarly, Asumadu-Sarkodie and Owusu (2016) estimated that about 54% of electricity is used to run homes in Ghana. Based on these problems, sustainable housing is the hypothetical solution. However, study shows that the poverty level recorded in both urban and rural areas were 43 and 59%, respectively, among African countries (Obeng-Odoom, 2010). These statistics partly show the high number of low-income earners in Ghana, who cannot procure sustainable technologies for their housing or cannot afford sustainable housing. Therefore, to curb the detrimental impact of the housing sector, sustainability attainment in affordable housing for low- and middle-income earners is essential (Sullivan and Ward, 2012; Adabre and Chan, 2019).Affordable housing facilities could be termed as social housing, public housing or cooperative housing based on the country and income level of the target household (Zeng et al., 2019). For instance, social housing in the case of England are houses that are allocated based on income of households or housing needs of the households while affordable housing facilities are provided as facilities below market rent/price but above the rent or price level of social housing. However, social housing is mostly termed as affordable housing in the case of Italy (Czischke and van Bortel, 2018). Cooperative housing facilities are owned by a corporation or a cooperative that seeks to provide low-cost housing to its members. In the case of Ghana, the distinction among these forms of housing is not clear. However, affordable housing, which is often termed as public housing, serves as shelter to civil servants who may be low- or middle-income earners. Additionally, affordable housing could yield optimum benefits when they are made sustainable. Sustainable affordable housing (SAH) is \"housing that meets the needs and demands of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their housing needs and demand\" (Pullen et al., 2010 p. 13). SAH ensures optimum economic, social and environmental benefits of housing for a low- or middle-income household.Accordingly, studies have been conducted on various strategies for improving sustainability in affordable housing (Roufechaei et al., 2014; Casquero-Modrego; Goni-Modrego, 2019; Adabre and Chan, 2019; Ansah et al., 2020). Considering the varied studies on measures for SAH, it is worth reiterating the two questions posed in Sustainable Cities International (2012) with regard to affordable housing: (1) how to ascertain the current level of sustainability? and (2) how to know whether we are on an acceptable path towards sustainable development? In their rejoinder, Haider et al. (2018) affirmed that such questions could clearly be answered by employing a calculable approach or model for sustainability assessment.A sustainability assessment model (SAM) is an essential tool for guiding initiatives and for achieving sustainable development goals. Yet, there is noticeably inadequate coverage on a comprehensive model for assessing sustainability in affordable housing (Mulliner et al., 2013; Chan and Adabre, 2019). Studies on assessment model for affordable housing mostly focused on housing price/cost criterion (Stone, 2006). However, housing cost only reflects an aspect of economic sustainability, but does not evaluate the other sustainability aspects including environmental and social sustainability (Liu, 2014; Adabre and Chan, 2018). According to Mulliner et al. (2013) and Chan and Adabre (2019), in addition to the economic criterion, the non-economic criteria, namely, social and environmental criteria are equally crucial in evaluating sustainability attainment in such facilities. Subsequently, green building rating systems (GBRSs) have been established to improve general assessment for sustainable development in projects including housing. Yet, GBRSs have been criticized in many studies for some lacunae (Zuo and Zhao, 2014; Hamid et al., 2014; Awadh, 2017; Illankoon et al., 2017; Mattoni et al., 2018). Most GBRSs have broadly concentrated on assessment criteria for environmental sustainability with scant assessment criteria for social sustainability and economic sustainability (Hamid et al., 2014; Atanda, 2019).Thus, while an affordable housing facility that is assessed using housing price/cost criterion could be economically sustainable on one hand, it might not be environmentally or socially sustainable on the other hand. Likewise, an affordable housing facility that is assessed by most of the GBRSs could be environmentally sustainable but not economically or socially sustainable. \"Consequently, there is a possibility of acquiring a green certification that only accomplishes one particular criterion although all the other key assessment criteria are overlooked\" (Illankoon et al., 2017 p. 218). Therefore, the sustainability - a holistic achievement of economic, environmental and social aspects - of most affordable housing facilities is open to question vis-a-vis some global housing problems such as poor-quality designs and high levels of residential turnovers or low take-up rate of affordable housing facilities (Winston, 2010; Teck-Hong, 2012; Mulliner et al., 2013; Adabre and Chan, 2018).Appropriately, developing an assessment framework for an all-inclusive evaluation of sustainable development in affordable housing is crucial. This study seeks to do so from the Ghanaian perspective. The study's findings will aid policy makers and practitioners in defining performance targets for SAH. Besides, they could aid policy makers and practitioners to comprehensively and objectively assess and compare sustainability performance of affordable housing facilities. This could facilitate efficient allocation of scarce resources during green retrofitting for attaining sustainable development goals in affordable housing. The remaining of the study is organized as follows: An extensive literature review was conducted in Section 2. Then, in Section 3, the research methodology is presented. Furthermore, statistical analysis of the survey responses and results are presented in the penultimate section, Section 4. Finally, Section 5 presents the conclusion and recommendation.\n2. Literature review: Success is the ultimate goal of every project. It is the realization of some externally observed set of goals (Ashley et al., 1987). To appropriately assess the attainment of sustainable development goals in affordable housing, a set of ultimate standards or assessment criteria (indicators) has to be specified. Assessment criteria or indicators are the set of principles or standards through which judgement can be made (Lim and Mohammed, 1999). They play essential roles in projects by enabling policy makers and practitioners to measure the success level of their projects (Chan et al., 2002). Furthermore, they guide construction practitioners and policy makers to appropriately plan resource allocation (Cox et al., 2003). Moreover, assessment criteria are key for benchmarking the performance levels of comparable projects (Osei-Kyei and Chan, 2017). As such, various assessment criteria have been suggested in the literature. While general assessment criteria may apply to all construction projects (Atkinson, 1999; Chan and Chan, 2004), specific assessment criteria are required to evaluate sustainability performance in affordable housing (Ezennia and Hoskara, 2019; Saidu and Yeom, 2020). 2.1 Housing price to income ratio (PIR) as an assessment criterion\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Pilot survey and data collection\n4. Data analysis results: 4.1 Results of mean score ranking\n5. Discussion of results: In subsequent subsections, a discussion is presented on the various criteria together with their indicators and how each criterion could be assessed. 5.1 Housing and transportation (H + T)\n6. Conclusion: This study established a comprehensive model for assessing sustainability performance in affordable housing from the Ghanaian perspective. The sustainability model is an evaluation tool which accounts for the economic, social and environmental goals for sustainable low-cost housing. Through an extensive literature review, it was concluded that there is no assessment model for evaluating the various aspects of sustainable development in affordable housing in the Ghanaian construction industry. Besides, some of the key indicators that are relevant for developing a SAM were identified from the literature review. Subsequently, a set of indicators for SAH were established for data collection using a questionnaire survey.Through a questionnaire survey among respondents in the Ghanaian housing sector, data were collected and analysed using mean score ranking and FSE. The research findings revealed that though environmental-related indicators (e.g. energy efficiency and eco-friendliness of housing facilities) are important, social sustainability indicators (i.e. end-users' satisfaction of housing facility, functionality of housing facility, safety, quality of housing) and economic sustainability indicators (i.e. price / rental cost of housing facilities) are rated higher concerning affordable housing. Besides, the indicators were used to develop a SAM. The model consists of four main indices: housing and transportation (H + T) index, household satisfaction index, efficient stakeholder management index and quality-related index. These indices account for 25.3%, 26.3%, 23.6% and 24.9% of sustainability attainment in affordable housing, respectively. Among these indices, household satisfaction index accounts for the highest contribution to sustainability attainment in affordable housing from the Ghanaian perspective. A combined linear and additive model was developed to provide a composite sustainability index for SAH.This study has some limitations which are worth stating. Data were collected from only respondents in the Ghanaian housing market. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to other developing and developed countries. Besides, the views of households on public housing facilities were excluded. Therefore, future study could provide a comprehensive view from the perspective of households concerning the various sustainability indicators. This could resolve problems of information asymmetry in the Ghanaian housing market. Finally, the manual computation of the criteria's indices is laborious. Future study could develop a software to expedite the computation process in determining the various indices. Like CASBEE-UD in which the weighted scores of sub-criteria are aggregated to give the total score of the criteria, future study could determine weights for the sub-indicators towards developing the final scores for the criteria.Albeit the study's limitations, its findings have some practical applications worth stating. Unlike the HQE2R and Ecocity, the model developed in this study could provide an aggregate index of sustainability attainment in affordable housing. The estimated index could provide a snapshot of the sustainability level of an affordable housing facility; it could also serve as a decision-aid tool for evaluating policies on SAH and slum communities. The model could help developers and housing authorities in assessing affordable housing facilities before and after embarking on green-retrofitting. Both stages could then be compared by using the assessment model to calculate their sustainability indices. This could inform decision making on subsequent retrofitting activities on projects. Moreover, public housing authorities and real estate developers could deploy this model to measure, to monitor and to effectively allocate resources for upgrading current sustainability performance of housing facilities. Finally, the model could serve as a point of reference for future study to develop the utmost SAM for affordable / public housing projects and for upgrading slums. Using the model, future study could also deploy case studies of public housing facilities in the Ghanaian construction industry to assess their sustainability attainment.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper presents a sustainability assessment model to holistically guide sustainable construction and green retrofitting of affordable housing from the Ghanaian perspective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A comprehensive review was carried out, which yielded 16 sustainability indicators. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted among respondents in the Ghanaian housing sector. Forty-seven valid responses were received and analysed using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) technique.\nFindings: A four-index model was developed that includes: Housing and Transportation (H + T) index, household-satisfaction index, efficient stakeholder-management index and quality-related index. These indices account for 25.3%, 26.3%, 23.6% and 24.9% of sustainability attainment in affordable housing, respectively. Accordingly, household-satisfaction has the greatest contribution to sustainability attainment in affordable housing.\nResearch limitations/implications: Due to challenges in obtaining responses to the questionnaire, the study was conducted with relatively small number of responses.\nOriginality/value: The model serves as a tool that could be used to objectively and comprehensively assess sustainability performance in affordable housing. Besides, it could be used as a baseline to calibrate future projects and for benchmarking success levels of comparable housing projects. Finally, the estimated indices are applicable in decision making for optimum resource allocation for sustainable low-cost housing in the Ghanaian perspective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Survey of the international evidence on the causal relationship between energy consumption and growth	[ "Energy consumption", "Economic growth", "Time series analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The relationship between energy consumption and economic growth and the policy implications of the empirical findings has been extensively examined within the energy economics literature. Earlier work by Griffin and Gregory (1976), Berndt and Wood (1979), and Berndt (1980, 1990) emphasize the substitutability or complementarity between energy and the factors of production and the interplay with technical progress and productivity within a neoclassical theory of economic growth while Bergman (1988), Jorgenson and Wilcoxen (1993), Kemfert and Welsch (2000), and Smulders and de Nooij (2003), among others, explore the role of energy within a general equilibrium framework. On the other side of the spectrum, ecological economics questions the role in which technical progress and the substitutability between energy and the factors of production impact growth (Cleveland et al., 1984; Stern, 2004)[1]. While the work cited above has been important in understanding the role of energy in the economy, there has been a growing literature on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth utilizing a variety of time series econometric techniques. This line of inquiry stems, in part, from the earlier oil shocks of the 1970s to the more recent interest on energy prices and the impact of the Kyoto protocol agreement by a number of industrialized and developing countries to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse emissions.The task of this study is to provide a survey of the empirical literature on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth[2]. Section 2 will set forth the hypotheses examined within this literature. Section 3 addresses the various methodological issues pertaining to the literature: country coverage, variables selected, and model specification, and econometric approaches. Section 4 provides concluding remarks and directions for future research.\n2 Hypotheses on the energy consumption-growth nexus: The relationship between energy consumption and economic growth and corresponding policy implications have been set forth in a number of testable hypotheses by researchers[3]. First, the \"growth\" hypothesis asserts that energy consumption plays an important role in economic growth both directly and as a complement to labor and capital in the production process. In the context of Granger-causality, the \"growth\" hypothesis is supported if an increase in energy consumption causes an increase in real gross domestic product (GDP). The policy implications of the \"growth\" hypothesis suggest that energy conservation-oriented policies may have a detrimental impact of economic growth. Alternatively, if an increase in energy consumption has a negative impact on real GDP, a number of interpretations emerge. For example, the situation may be one in which a growing economy requires a decreasing amount of energy consumption as production shifts toward less energy intensive service sectors. Alternatively, the negative impact of energy consumption on real GDP may be attributed to either excessive energy consumption in unproductive sectors of the economy, capacity constraints, or an inefficient energy supply.Second, the \"conservation\" hypothesis implies that energy conservation policies, such as the reduction in greenhouse emissions, efficiency improvement measures, and demand management policies, designed to reduce energy consumption and waste may not adversely affect real GDP. The \"conservation\" hypothesis is supported if an increase in real GDP Granger-causes an increase in energy consumption. However, it is possible that a growing economy constrained by political, infrastructural, or mismanagement of resources could generate inefficiencies and the reduction in the demand for goods and services, including energy consumption. If such is the case, an increase in real GDP may have a negative impact on energy consumption.Third, the \"neutrality\" hypothesis views energy consumption as a small component of real GDP and therefore energy consumption should not have a significant impact on economic growth. In this instance, energy conservation policies (as in the case of the \"conservation\" hypothesis) may not adversely impact real GDP. Support for the \"neutrality\" hypothesis is provided by the absence of Granger-causality between energy consumption and real GDP. Fourth, the \"feedback\" hypothesis suggests that energy consumption and real GDP are interdependent and may serve as complements to one another. In this case, increases (decreases) in energy consumption result in increases (decreases) in real GDP, and likewise, increases (decreases) in real GDP result in increases (decreases) in energy consumption. In this case, the \"feedback\" hypothesis is supported by evidence of bi-directional Granger-causality between energy consumption and real GDP. Thus, an energy policy oriented toward improvements in energy consumption efficiency may not adversely affect real GDP.\n3 The causality literature on energy consumption-growth nexus: As one might expect, the empirical results on the energy consumption-growth nexus have yielded mixed results in terms of the aforementioned hypotheses. The absence of any clear consensus on the relationship between energy consumption and growth can be attributed to the heterogeneity in climate conditions, varying energy consumption patterns, the structure and stages of economic development within a country, the alternative econometric methodologies employed, the presence of omitted variable bias along with the varying time horizons of the studies conducted (Yu and Choi, 1985; Ferguson et al., 2000; Toman and Jemelkova, 2003). Table I provides a chronological list of the literature examining the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth by country, methodology, variables included in the analysis, and empirical results. Please note in the discussion when a large number of studies are cited, the number of the specific study from Table I will be referenced for the sake of brevity and readability.A. Country coverage, variable selection, and model specification\n4 Concluding remarks: Understanding the impact of energy consumption on economic growth is an important consideration in the formulation of both energy and environmental policies. This survey of the empirical literature on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth has attempted to synthesize the results to date and provide avenues for future research. First, as mentioned at the outset of this survey, there is no consensus with respect to a particular country or groups of countries considered to be energy-dependent or energy neutral. This lack of consensus can be attributed to the heterogeneity in climate conditions, varying energy consumption patterns, the structure and stages of economic development within a country, the alternative econometric approaches, the presence of omitted variable bias along with the varying time horizons of the studies conducted.Future research in this area could benefit greatly by investigating the following areas:* assuming the data is available and reliable, attempt to eliminate the omitted variable bias in the majority of the studies by examining the energy consumption-growth nexus within a production model and/or demand model framework;* attempt to bridge the energy consumption-growth literature with the literature on the relationship between growth and emissions (i.e. environmental Kuznets curve) by incorporating measures of greenhouse gas emissions in the analysis as recently undertaken by Soytas et al. (2007) and Soytas and Sari (2008);* analyze not only aggregate energy consumption but also disaggregated measures of energy consumption to ascertain the differential impact of disaggregated measures of energy consumption and by sector on economic growth;* as a check on the robustness of the results employ several econometric approaches to test the causal relationship and in the case of multi-country analysis also examine the countries within a panel framework;* differentiate countries according to energy consumption patterns and/or stages of economic development, grouping countries together with similar consumption patterns/level of development to examine similarities and differences; and* to fully understand the causal relationship examine the coefficients with respect to both the sign (positive or negative) and magnitude of the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in order to provide more concrete recommendations for energy and environmental policy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to survey the empirical literature on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The four major hypotheses (growth, conservation, neutrality, and feedback) are briefly outlined with respect to the energy consumption-growth nexus and corresponding policy implications of each. The survey focuses on country coverage, variables selected and model specification, econometric approaches, various methodological issues, and empirical results.\nFindings: - Though there is no clear consensus on the results for a specific country or groups of countries, directions for future research are discussed.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research surveyed may be dated by the time of publication given the ongoing research in this area.\nOriginality/value: - This paper serves as a reference for researchers on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Task-technology fit analysis of social media use for marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry: a systematic literature review	[ "Social media", "Tourism and hospitality industry", "Task-technology fit theory", "Fit", "Literature review", "Marketing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: To sustain their development, organizations in the highly competitive tourism and hospitality industry must successfully adopt and implement new marketing mechanisms to add value. In this environment, social media is a cost-effective digital platform for attracting potential customers and for promoting tourism products and services through direct interaction with customers (Styven and Wallstrom, 2019; Alalwan et al., 2017). The tourism and hospitality literature reveals a growing interest in the adoption and use of social media for management and other business activities, particularly marketing. Previous studies in the tourism marketing literature have explored and explained various aspects of social media use in this field, including effects of social media on tourist behavior, social media use by tourism organizations (e.g. by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and by travel agencies), social media use for co-creation of value and social media use for tourism service personalization and brand management (Aurora et al., 2018; Stephanie et al., 2013). These studies have improved understanding of social media use in tourism marketing.\n2. Task-technology fit theory: Goodhue and Thompson (1995) conceptualized TTF as the fit between current technological capability and the demands of a given task. That is, a TTF is directly tied to a performance outcome. Figure 1 shows the five main constructs of TTF theory, namely, task characteristics, technology characteristics, TTF, technology use and performance impacts. Goodhue and Thompson (1995) further defined task characteristics as the actions that individuals must perform to convert inputs to outputs. Technology characteristics are defined as the characteristics of the devices that individuals use to perform their tasks. The TTF refers to the degree to which technology supports individuals in carrying out their portfolio of tasks. Technology use refers to the behavior of using technology to complete a task. A performance impact is defined as the outcome obtained when the technology is used to achieve a portfolio of tasks. Notably, TTF mediates the effects of task characteristics and technology characteristics on technology use and performance outcomes (Howard and Rose, 2019).\n3. Methodology: To provide insight into social media use in tourism-related marketing, we performed a descriptive cumulative review of the relevant literature in the six stages suggested by Templier and Pare (2018) as follows: formulating the problem, searching the literature, screening for inclusion, assessing the quality, extracting the data, analyzing the data and synthesizing the data.\n4. Analysis and results: This section describes the results of our review of the literature on social media use and tourism marketing. First, the analytical frameworks and research methods applied in the reviewed studies are discussed. Next, the five main constructs of TTF theory (i.e. task characteristics, technology characteristics, TTF, technology use and performance impacts) applied in the studies are discussed. Finally, the proposed integrated framework is presented.\n5. Discussion: This study performed a descriptive cumulative review of 99 related studies published in tourism and hospitality journals from 2010-2019. The review was expected to identify the most important relevant phenomena discussed in the past decade.\n6. Conclusions: The study made three main contributions to the literature as follows: it identified and classified important variables of the five main constructs of TTF theory as applied in the context of social media use for tourism marketing; it analyzed trends in social media marketing research, including analytical frameworks, research methods and mediating and moderating variables; and it integrated TTF theory in an analytical framework for social media use in tourism and hospitality marketing. Tourism development can contribute to economic growth through job creation, increased destination tax revenues and improved social welfare (Dogru and Bulut, 2018). This research presents a snapshot of the current literature on social media use in tourism and hospitality marketing. Hopefully, this review will inspire further works by researchers and practitioners in tourism and hospitality marketing.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Research in tourism and hospitality industry marketing has identified many highly effective applications of social media. However, studies in the existing literature do not enable a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon because they lack a theoretical foundation. Therefore, this study systematically reviewed the literature from the perspective of the task-technology fit (TTF) theory. The purpose of this paper is to map out what is known about social media use in tourism and hospitality marketing and what areas need further exploration.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A descriptive cumulative review of the literature obtained 99 articles published in tourism and hospitality journals from 2010 to 2019.\nFindings: The analysis suggests that to understand social media use in tourism marketing, researchers and practitioners in the industry must clarify the following four issues: the control variables, longitudinal analyzes and TTF concepts that should be used in future studies; the fitness of social media platforms for tourism marketing; how various social media platforms differ in terms of performance outcome; and the digital divide in the use of social media for tourism.\nOriginality/value: An integrated framework was developed to identify constructs and to understand their relationships. Recent studies in this domain are discussed; theoretical and practical suggestions and implications for future research are given.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Leadership and organizational ambidexterity	[ "Ambidexterity", "Exploration", "Exploitation", "Transactional Leadership", "Transformational leadership" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Exploitation (incremental innovation) and exploration (discontinuous innovation) are critical to organizational prosperity and long-term survival (March, 1991). Ambidexterity refers to the ability of an organization to both exploit and explore (Tushman and Reilly, 1996). In other words, to deliver efficiency, control, and incremental improvements, while embracing flexibility, autonomy, and experimentation. Maintaining appropriate balance between exploitation and exploration is critical since too much innovation may produce an excess of immature technologies, whereas too much refinement may lead to a reduction in variability (increased reliability) at the expense of discovery of better alternatives (Yukl, 2008); i.e., a competency trap (Levitt and March, 1988). Achieving ambidexterity can be difficult as innovation and refinement compete for finite organizational resources (March and Simon, 1953) as well as stand in relative tension. For instance, short-term benefits may not necessarily be advantageous in the long term and vice versa (March, 1991).\nLiterature review: Transformational leadership, the most frequently studied established leadership theory in recent times (Dinh et al., 2014; Marques, 2015), emphasizes the motivation and inspiration of followers (Von Krogh et al., 2012), and has been defined in terms of intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, idealized influence, and inspirational motivation (Bass, 1999). Transactional leadership, on the other hand, focusses on leader-follower exchanges (Von Krogh et al., 2012), and has been defined in terms of contingent reward and active management by exception (Bass, 1999).\nMethod: While most previous research on leadership has relied on questionnaires (usually administered to subordinates), given the complexity of the problem, it has been argued that a qualitative approach with multiple leaders may be able to provide a richer insight (Yukl, 2009). Accordingly, in order to explore how leaders may promote organizational ambidexterity (i.e. exploitation and exploration), and how such behaviors relate to transactional and transformational leadership styles, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the Chief of Defence Force and ten other senior leaders in Australian Defence (see Table I). The semi-structured approach provided the authors with the flexibility to refocus questions, or prompt for more information, when an interesting or novel topic emerged (Baskarada, 2014). All interviews were transcribed and reviewed for accuracy by the respective interviewees.\nResults: How leaders promote exploitation\nDiscussion: Exploitation and exploration have traditionally been associated with management and leadership, respectively (Bass, 1985; Zaleznik, 1977). This paper provides further support that different leadership styles (transactional and transformational) may also be associated with exploitation and exploration, respectively. Accordingly, ambidextrous leadership may promote organizational ambidexterity.\nConclusion: This paper answered calls for more research on how leaders may promote organizational ambidexterity and how such behaviors relate to transactional and transformational leadership styles. Based on semi-structured interviews with 11 senior leaders in Australian Defence, this paper identified three organizational mechanisms that leaders rely on to promote exploitation and five behaviors that leaders rely on to promote exploration. It was shown that these mechanisms and behaviors closely match transactional and transformational leadership styles, respectively. As a result, this paper provides support for the leadership ambidexterity construct and the thesis that transformational leadership is appropriate in the context of exploratory innovation, while transactional leadership is appropriate in the context of exploitative innovation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to answer calls for more research on how leaders may promote organizational ambidexterity (i.e. exploitation and exploration), and how such behaviors relate to transactional and transformational leadership styles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The findings presented in this paper are based on semi-structured interviews with 11 senior leaders in Australian Defence.\nFindings: This paper identifies three organizational mechanisms that leaders rely on to promote exploitation, and five behaviors that leaders rely on to promote exploration. These mechanisms and behaviors closely match transactional and transformational leadership styles, respectively.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides support for the leadership ambidexterity construct, and for the thesis that transformational leadership is appropriate in the context of exploratory innovation, while transactional leadership is appropriate in the context of exploitative innovation.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of experiential value in online shopping: The impacts of product presentation on consumer responses towards an apparel web site	[ "Consumer behaviour", "Electronic commerce", "Experience", "Internet shopping", "Product design" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: E-commerce sales in the USA continue to grow. Within e-commerce retail sales, apparel sales accounted for $18.3 billion in 2006 and replaced computer hardware/software as the largest online retail category (E-marketers, 2007). The growing importance of e-commerce and the maturation of Internet technology have led to rapid development in a variety of product offerings, web site designs, services, and information quality, which have increased the ease of use, usefulness, security, and playfulness of web sites (Elliott and Speck, 2005; Liu and Arnett, 2000; Lohse et al., 2000; Yang et al., 2005). Retailers continue to offer improved web site features to enhance the shopping experience, differentiate between shopping sites, and further increase online sales, (Hess, 2005; Lohse et al., 2000). Research supports the influence of these features on consumer experiences and their resulting effects on consumer attitude and behavioral intentions towards a product or store (e.g., Fiore et al., 2005a, b). Offering enhanced visual images of apparel products on a web site is important because product presentation has been found to facilitate positive consumer responses resulting from both experiential (hedonic) or utilitarian value (e.g., Fiore et al., 2005b; Park et al., 2005).Current consumers increasingly expect engaging experiences and not just a process to purchase goods and services (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Postrel, 2003), which suggests the growing importance of web site features that not only facilitate the purchase decision process, but also provide an enjoyable shopping experience. Research supports the influence of these features on experiential value and positive consumer responses towards products and web sites (e.g., Demangeot and Broderick, 2006). However, research is needed to better understand the nature of engaging experiences. Pine and Gilmore (1999) proposed that consumption experiences are enhanced by the 4Es (entertainment, educational, escapist, and esthetic experiences) and fostering all of the 4Es leads to the most desirable consumption experience, termed the \"sweet spot\". However, other than one study of bed and breakfast patrons (Oh et al., 2007), we have found no research that examines the role of all 4Es simultaneously. According to the authors (Oh et al., 2007), their study was the first to develop a scale to measure the 4Es, but their study was conducted in the tourism setting. Given the dearth of academic research regarding the influence of all 4Es on consumer responses towards online products and retailers, there is a clear need for further study. Thus, the present study will be the first to examine the experience economy concept in the online shopping setting. Accordingly, using a 4E scale designed for the present study we have explored whether:* the 4Es were affected by web site features;* the 4Es affected consumer emotional components of pleasure and arousal; and* resulting pleasure and arousal led to enhanced web site patronage intention.Hence, the present study contributes to research on experiential aspects of online shopping and their effect on consumer behavior.\n2. Literature review: Stimulus-Organism-Response framework\n3. Methodology: Sample\n4. Findings: Preliminary analysis\n5. Discussion: The present study adds to the growing body of S-O-R literature that has examined shopping environments by identifying new Organism variables affecting emotion and subsequent Response variables. Specifically, participants exposed to product presentation features offering rich sensory information and lifestyle-oriented information (e.g., the zoom feature and view on a model feature) were more likely than participants exposed to simpler product presentation features to have entertaining, escapist and esthetic experiences, which in turn affected pleasure and/or arousal. Educational experience was significantly affected by product presentation, but contrary to what was hypothesized, educational experience did not influence emotion. Perhaps respondents perceived the educational experience to be a logical process usually connected to the prosaic textual information, where emotional experience is limited or downplayed. Therefore, educational experience would not result in an emotional experience for the respondents. In support of previous research, pleasure and arousal affected patronage intention towards the web site. Interestingly, entertainment and esthetic experiences had direct effects on patronage intention. In support of Mathwick et al.'s (2001) findings, these two experiences may have affected utilitarian aspects of consumer experience by providing additional product or brand information to assist consumers engaged in rational (emotion-neutral) information processing (Babin et al., 1994). Consequently, the utilitarian aspects rather than emotional experience may have enhanced patronage intention (e.g., Sherry, 1990).Past research has not looked at the effect of web site features on the 4Es. The present study found that level of product presentation features had a positive effect on all of the 4Es. That is, product presentation providing a high level of experiential value enhanced entertainment, educational, escapist, and esthetic experiences. However, the amount of variance explained was modest (R2<0.12), which suggests that there were other elements of the web site or its use that affected the 4Es. Perhaps textual elements of the site and its navigation affect the 4Es.The results show that entertainment, escapist, and esthetic experiences had strong direct effects on pleasure. To increase pleasure, an important contributor to positive consumer responses towards products and retail settings (Eroglu et al., 2003; Sweeney and Wyber, 2002), these three experiences should be strengthened through careful selection and testing of various web site features. Among the 4Es, esthetic experience had the strongest influence on pleasure and arousal, which suggests its salience when designing apparel web sites.Because the present study is seemingly the first study to empirically test the effects of the 4Es on consumer responses in a retail setting, it is important to note that the results failed to support Pine and Gilmore's (1999) proposition that all of the 4Es should be offered to create a \"sweet spot\" leading to the most positive consumer experiences. Our results were consistent with Oh et al.'s (2007) finding that consumer behavior is not significantly affected by all of the 4Es. Thus, the sweet spot does not appear to be applicable to all product and service offerings.Present findings revealed that arousal had a stronger effect than pleasure on patronage intention. This is inconsistent with previous research (Eroglu et al., 2003). Perhaps the 4Es fostered a higher level of arousal than in previous research by engaging consumers in more active cognitive and physical process, such as manipulating the zoom feature to see certain details. This higher level of arousal may have had the needed potency to surpass pleasure's effect on patronage intention.Limitations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Pine and Gilmore's four experience realms (4Es) are affected by web site features; the 4Es affect consumer emotional components of pleasure and arousal; and pleasure and arousal lead to enhanced web site patronage intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - For the main experiment, two stimulus web sites reflecting high experiential value and low experiential value were developed. Data were collected in a laboratory setting from 196 participants. An analysis of the causal model was conducted using the maximum-likelihood estimation procedure of Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) for hypotheses testing.\nFindings: - Using AMOS, the results indicated that web site features affected the 4Es and three of the 4Es (entertainment, escapist and esthetic experiences) influenced pleasure and/or arousal. Pleasure, arousal, entertainment, and esthetic experiences had direct effects on web site patronage intention.\nPractical implications: - The results present an effective way to offer experiential value, which enhances web site patronage intention, to online retailers.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first empirical research to investigate the holistic process of the effects of product presentation on consumer responses towards an apparel web site that there is a clear need for further study.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Critical reflection in leadership development	[ "Critical reflection", "Leadership development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The significance of critical reflection in learning has long been recognized (Brown, 2004; Mezirow, 1990; Mezirow, 1985). Mezirow (1990) writes, \"By far the most significant learning experiences in adulthood involve critical self-reflection-reassessing the way we have posed problems and reassessing our own orientation to perceiving, knowing, believing, and acting\" (Mezirow, 1990, p. 13). Critical reflection is an important dimension of transformative learning (Mezirow, 2009; Cranton, 2006; Brown, 2004; Kegan, 2000) as it creates space and opportunity for individuals to understand their way of making meaning of the complex realities in the world. For Fletcher et al. (2010), self-reflection goes on to include intense scrutiny of one's assumptions, values and beliefs. According to Brown (2004), herein lies critical reflection, which merges the dimensions of self-reflection and critical inquiry. He writes that critical reflection entails \"the examination of personal and professional belief systems, as well as the deliberate consideration of the ethical implications and effect of practices\" (Brown, 2004, p. 91).\nMethodology: This study is an integrative literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles on critical reflection in leadership development. An integrative literature review paper \"reviews, critiques, and synthesizes the representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated\" (Torraco, 2016, p. 404).\nCritical reflection in the literature: Critical reflection has emerged as an important part of the leadership literature. The major leadership theories that capture or explicitly emphasize critical reflection are transformative leadership (e.g. Briscoe, 2013; Wood and Govender, 2013; Muir, 2014; Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2016) and authentic leadership (such as in Densten and Gray, 2001; Wilhelmson et al., 2006). Transformative leadership includes four major factors: \"idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration\" (Bass and Avolio, 1994, p. 3). In developing authentic leadership, the ways leaders conceptualize their experiences help them to gain self-knowledge and clarity into their identities (Shamir and Eilam, 2005). Additionally, participating in critical reflection on one's major life events may spur individuals to develop further as leaders (Luthans and Avolio, 2003). Herein lies the key connection between critical reflection and leadership development. More recently, Yeo et al. (2015) offer a \"practice-based understanding of leadership\" (p. 285) where \"leaderful inquiry\" into problem, action and experience serves as the foundation of the practice (p. 291).\nCritical reflection: definitions: Terms such as \"critical inquiry,\" \"critical reflection,\" \"critical analysis\" and \"reflective practice\" are used interchangeably in the literature to refer to the concept and process of critical reflection. For Dewey (1933), critical reflection is distinct from other types of thinking because it entails \"(1) a state of doubt, hesitation, perplexity, mental difficulty in which thinking originates, and (2) an act of searching, hunting, inquiring to find material that will resolve the doubt, to settle and dispose of the perplexity\" (p. 12). This fits with Brookfield (1995) who claims that the simple task of reflecting on one's experiences or beliefs is not necessarily critical reflection. Rather, critical reflection is a more probing exploration into one's metaphysical assumptions about the nature of reality (Brookfield, 1995). Critical reflection in leadership development, then, would involve leaders and aspiring leaders deeply reflecting on the role of power dynamics in leadership contexts and how certain practices may or may not contribute to those existing power structures. Schon (1983) puts the emphasis for critical reflection in the ability of leaders to embrace complexity and writes that \"reflection-in-action\" is \"the development of a capacity beyond technical expertise which invites professionals to respond to uncertain and complex circumstances\" (as cited by Densten and Gray, 2001, p. 122).\nCritical reflection processes: Even a cursory look at the literature reveals the fact that critical reflection processes appear to come in threes. This section outlines Brookfield's (1991) three processes, Kim (1998) and Cardiff's (2012) three phases, Fook and Gardner's (2007) three sessions and Austin et al. 's (2012) three processes.\nDiscussion: Several important points of discussion emerged from analyzing the findings. First, reflective practice is commonly used and has been found effective in leadership development. Second, the definition and application of critical reflection in leadership development vary. One of the ways that reflective practices vary is in terms of the degree to which they are considered critical. And, as Brookfield (1995) noted, scholars and practitioners need to be mindful that not all reflection is by nature critical. Third, with regard to outcomes, there are different uses of critical reflection in leadership development and thus their outcomes vary. These outcomes ranged from creativity to systemic thinking, from increased understanding to changed behaviors, and from personal improvement to team effectiveness. On the one hand, these varied outcomes are the result of each study being designed to measure different desired outcomes. On the other hand, however, the multiple outcomes in the studies reviewed reveal a lack of agreement as what to the outcomes of critical reflection in leadership development actually are. This implies that more narrowing of the conceptualization, purpose and outcomes desired from critical reflection is needed.\nImplications of the integrative model: Instead of viewing critical reflection as a static ability which one either \"has\" or \"does not have,\" this model of critical reflection in leadership development captures the developmental and probing nature of critical reflection across the levels and stages. Critical reflection and leadership development are both emerging processes. When facilitators - or individual leaders - incorporate critical reflection into their daily lives, it can act as a catalyst for developmental change first in the interpersonal level, then in interpersonal contexts, and finally in public leadership settings.\nImplications for leadership research and practice: To understand these constructs more and how they are interdependent, there are several important areas of consideration for researchers and practitioners in these circles. First, as with all conceptual models, researchers and practitioners are encouraged to test the model by designing critical reflection activities across the stages and testing outcomes using a variety of data collection and analysis tools. It may also be the case that a series of evaluation studies could aid in understanding leadership development programs that rely on critical reflection. These could be done in a variety of ways, but the authors suggest a focus on longitudinal methods that would allow the impact of critical reflection to unfold.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper explores the role of critical reflection in the context of leadership development and how it is measured. The purpose of this paper is to review theoretical and empirical research that captures the application of critical reflection in leadership development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is an integrative literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles on critical reflection in leadership development. The search revealed 172 peer-reviewed journal articles based on the search terms. The authors conducted a staged review of the abstracts and identified a final sample of 27 empirical articles and 12 non-empirical articles for review.\nFindings: The findings of this review show that critical reflection is an essential tool for leadership development and has been utilized in a variety of ways and through multiple theoretical perspectives. Despite being relied on heavily in leadership development, the measurement for critical reflection is not well established in the literature.\nOriginality/value: The researchers propose a conceptual model that integrates the phases and levels of critical reflection as well as the desired outcomes in leadership development. Implications for leadership development are also discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Diaspora, social entrepreneurs and community development	[ "India", "Entrepreneurs", "Economic theory", "Social capital", "Community development", "Philanthropy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Diaspora's interest in ancestral places is a universal phenomenon. Indian Punjabi diaspora, numbering about five million, is no exception. Their active involvement in the rural Doaba region of Punjab, an area of heavy emigration, can be traced back to early settlers in North America in the nineteenth century (Walton-Roberts, 2005). Earlier, most of them were happy just making monetary contributions with only a few travelling to and fro as social leaders. However, diaspora's emotional links with home places have become more diversified and pronounced recently due to better communication facilities and their enhanced wealth status. This has drawn the attention of both researchers and policy makers (Dhesi, 2008, 2009).\nProfiling social entrepreneurs: Increasing popularity of the concept of social entrepreneurship notwithstanding, it has meant different things to different people. In addition to not-for-profit activities, social entrepreneurship has been associated with business ventures geared to serve social purposes (Dees, 1988). \"Still others use the term when referring to business enterprises that integrate social responsibility into operations\" (Dees, 1988). Broadly one may also distinguish between European/UK and US models of social entrepreneurship in the literature. The focus of the US models is on exceptional individuals aiming at large-scale top-down impact (Waddock and Post, 1991), whereas the relevant UK model's prime concern is with mobilisation of communities to meet local needs[1] (Wilson, 2009).Community development requires involvement of social entrepreneurs who exhibit a set of behaviours that are exceptional. In addition to their monetary contributions, social entrepreneurs are able to mobilize community resources. They work with the community unlike donors who just donate. So a philanthropist is not a social entrepreneur if her/his participation in a social entrepreneurial activity is confined to monetary contributions even though both philanthropists and social entrepreneur may share altruistic motives or pro-social behaviour. However, everyone with pro-social behaviour is not a potential social entrepreneur. Such behaviour is a necessary but not sufficient condition for someone to be a social entrepreneur. Nevertheless, a philanthropist may give impetus to social entrepreneurial activity if her/his action complements efforts of social entrepreneurs.A social entrepreneur is like a business entrepreneur with some basic differences. Both apply their minds with discipline, innovation and determination to achieve their social goals. Similarly, they always dare to exceed their limits if it helps them to achieve their mission. A process of continuous innovation, adaptation and learning characterizes their modus operandi (Dees, 1988). But unlike business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, risk their monetary contributions and efforts and mobilize resources for investing in communities without expecting monetary returns (Couto, 1997).The key difference between the two types of entrepreneurs lies in their end-values. Both social entrepreneurs and philanthropists have a value commitment to benefit the community, thus strengthening it. However, an ideal social entrepreneur enjoys synergistic, reflexive, ethical relations with other members of community. She/he is not only able to inspire others to contribute to the social good but also creates more social entrepreneurs in the process. Social entrepreneurs add to community's moral resources besides producing social goods. However, much social entrepreneurial activity involves collective action that can be problematic in the absence of active social connectivity underlined by shared-values, expected behaviour and a sense of trust among community members (Dhesi, 2000). Such social connectivity fosters trust by providing opportunities for interaction, low-cost communication, thus facilitating the emergence of norms of reciprocity, and convergence of expectations. In other words, active social connectivity is source of social capital that facilitates social action[2]. A successful social entrepreneur contributes to transformation of local social conditions by restoring or increasing social capital by investing social goods and moral resources in the community. By raising awareness of shared interests and identity through social entrepreneurial activity, social entrepreneurs strengthen community. Consequently, a community can be expected to move to a higher development path.However, by making her/his contribution to social good, a social entrepreneurs expresses her/his identity as a caring, moral person (Wuthnow, 1991). So, compassion, concern for others' well-being may be regarded as distinguishing attributes of a social entrepreneur. Nevertheless, disposition for social entrepreneurial activity may be manifestation of one's early socialization process-influence of family, peers and associations.Theoretical back drop\nMethodology and data: The controversy regarding quantitative versus qualitative research notwithstanding, they often complement each other (Lancaster, 1962; Miles and Huberman, 1994; Clark and Fast, 2008). However, the underlying concepts and procedures clearly differentiate the two approaches. In simple language, qualitative research means a non-numerical data collection and explanation based on source of data. Unlike the traditional economic model, it does not assume complete rationality and information to estimate deviations of the actual behaviour from the model behaviour. The focus is on critical rationalism.The two main branches of economics are economic theory and econometrics (Piore, 1979). The basic economic model, underpinned by Cartesian rationalism, is often reduced to constrained maximization of some objective function under conditions of complete information and certainty. The aim of econometrics is to obtain quantitative estimates of deviations from the model behaviour by using individual observations. The criticism of qualitative research is against the standard of econometric theory (Piore, 1979). However, to cope with the difficulty of obtaining precise values under conditions of uncertainty and incomplete information, econometricians seek escape route in economic theory that attributes to individuals intuitive knowledge about the structure of the world and values of the variables. In any case, quantitative research based on statistical analysis of numerical data may sometimes amount to \"forcing data or people into categories that might not make much sense\" (Miles and Huberman, 1994).There have been varied responses to meet challenge posed by the failure of traditional theory to track reality. The broader field of behavioural economics is, indeed, a result of intellectual endeavours to meet this challenge. For example, Simon's (1957) assumption of bounded rationality gave rise to \"theory of procedural rationality.\" Similarly, satisficing as a rational rule, strategic-decision-making and recursive deliberations have been outcomes of other attempts to develop new theories for providing general orientations for action in difficult situations (Kerstenetzky, 2009). Kahneman's (2002) prospect theory incorporating cognitive biases to explain action is another example. According to him, in decision under risk, evaluation of decision outcomes is reference-dependent, and the source of deviations from expected behaviour is the reference point. The preferences, observes Kahneman (2002), seem to be determined by attitudes to gains and losses, defined relative to a reference point. Earlier, Latsis (1972) underlined the significance of agent's cognitive status in overcoming psychological gap between her/his situational appraisal and decision. This is particularly the case, according to him, in conditions of less than perfect knowledge, fuzzy or inconsistent preference maps. The agent's actions may depend on more or less idiosyncratic rules or stable rules relating personality traits, social background or other such factors (Latsis, 1972).The aim of recent research in mainstream economics with focus on incomplete information and uncertainty also has been to meet the challenge posed by difference between the social practices of real world and the world of economic theory, especially its parsimonious, formal version (Piore, 1979, 2004). The qualitative research is another way of meeting this challenge. It aims at understanding behaviour in many dimensions and at many levels. The qualitative research is holistic and contextual rather than reductionist and isolationist.The most commonly used qualitative research technique is based on grounded theory or situational logic that permits examination of individual action objectively in its social context. It allows more diversity in responses as well as flexibility to examine issues that may emerge during the course of research. The approach assumes the existence of multilogics world in which maximizing behaviour does not exhaust the set of possibilities.The qualitative research involves analysing the situation of agents to explain actions from within. The individual is considered neither an autonomous \"psyche\" nor an atom. She/he is socially situated, and social is structured by institutions, formal and informal, to provide framework for individual actions and interactions. Thus, unlike in traditional economic analysis, independent influence of institutions on behaviour is not ignored (Dhesi, 2009).Further, each situation is assumed to have its own logic, articulation of which indicates the basis for action. First, the key elements of the problem situation are identified through informal interactions with agents. These elements form the basis of rational reconstruction of the situation to identify its logic with the use of rationality principle (Kertsenetzky, 2009). Thus, solution to the problem lies in description of the situation. But every solution is subject to critical analysis. The objectivity of the method is in its inbuilt openness to rational criticism. This facilitates the identification of mistakes on the part of agents or theoretician.However, qualitative research works as it seeks information directly from agents about their motivations and behaviour, revealing structure that reflects reality (Piore, 1979, 2004). The informal interviews are ways of discovering thought processes of agents. The traditional economic model overlooks these processes as they provide answers to problems assumed away by it. The qualitative research thus can facilitate further development of economic theory.But a qualitative researcher has to keep in mind that it is quite easy to ignore the larger picture by focusing too closely on individual responses. She/he also needs to pay some attention to issues relating to validity of results. Some of the important ways of establishing validity include interview corroboration, peer debriefing, prolonged engagement, conformability, etc.Data\nFindings: Ranked on a scale from 1 to 4 (college=4, higher secondary=3, lower secondary=2 and below lower secondary=1), all social entrepreneurs are well educated with college education in India and/or abroad. Based on a similar scale for family income/wealth status (high=4, middle=3, lower=2 and low=1), all of them enjoy high-wealth status. Adding these two ranking to get an approximate indicator of socio-economic status, they are found to have high-socio-economic status. Based on their self-assessment of health, all social entrepreneurs perceive themselves as having good functional health. Interestingly, all of them have had some exposure to community work in their host countries and about 40 per cent have had similar experience before emigration. All of them had gone through early socialization process conducive to pro-social dispositions. Some elders in their families or the peer groups were actively involved in community work when they were young. Incidentally, all social entrepreneurs belong to traditionally established families of their communities and still maintain considerable properties there. All of them have retired permanently and have accumulated sufficient wealth to lead a comfortable life. However, majority of them (90 per cent) go back abroad to spend summer months there. All of them have made significant monetary contributions to social entrepreneurial activity, in addition to devoting their time. Another important characteristic of social entrepreneurs is that they are reasonably successful in mobilizing sufficient contributions from their village folks abroad and in some cases also from other donors to get the matching grants from the Punjab Government.However, only 50 per cent of philanthropists are college graduates with the remaining being high-school graduates. But all of them enjoy high-wealth status. On the basis of both educational attainment and wealth status, only 50 per cent have a high-socio-economic status.About 45 per cent have exposure to community work in their host countries and about 20 per cent have had a similar experience before emigration. Early socialization, conducive to developing altruistic dispositions, was experienced by 60 per cent with the remaining having grown in neutral environment in this respect. It also came out during discussions that persons in the last category make donations with a view to raise social status of their families. Those having gone through pro-community socialization process expressed least concern with achieving such objectives through donations. In contrast with social entrepreneurs, only about 60 per cent philanthropists belong to traditionally established families of their communities, and 30 per cent philanthropists reported some health problem. Majority of them (75 per cent) are actively engaged in business or full-time jobs with the remaining having been retired[6]. Almost all philanthropists, whether working or retired, come to India regularly on short visits in connection with ancestral properties or family functions, etc. However, both social entrepreneurs and philanthropists can be considered as trusting persons in view of responses to questions in this respect[7].It seems that the key factors differentiating social entrepreneurs and philanthropists are early socialization experience, involvement in community work, educational attainment and functional health. There is hardly any difference in their economic status. However, a significant percentage of philanthropists do not belong to traditionally established families before emigration and made good abroad. The key factor distinguishing the two groups is their method of intervention in community development. Most of the philanthropists (60 per cent) are happy to give donations to village councils. Only about 40 per cent prefer to support social entrepreneurs in their social projects. The difference in backgrounds of social entrepreneurs and philanthropists seems to influence the level of their community involvement.What makes a successful social entrepreneur?\nConclusion: The morally driven social entrepreneurial activity is quite demanding but crucial for sustainable community development. But it cannot be explained in the neoclassical framework of analysis that largely bypasses the normative aspects of behaviour. Classicists, however, recognized individual's concern for others' well-being and self-interest as equally strong motives for her/his actions.However, outcomes of a social entrepreneurial activity are contingent on a community's social capital. In view of it having been weakened in rural communities due to schism between formal local institutions and informal local institutions, effectiveness of a social entrepreneur depends on her/his social skills to realign different interests and articulate common concerns. By investing moral and material resources in a community, social entrepreneurs vitalize it by augmenting its social capital. In contrast, philanthropists, though also altruistically motivated, may inadvertently strengthen deeply entrenched vested interests in the countryside, especially if they opt to operate through largely dysfunctional village councils. In view of the crucial role social entrepreneurs may play in modernising traditional communities, they need to be encouraged[8]. Their activities should be facilitated by removing various bureaucratic and institutional hurdles through appropriate policy measures.In particular, there is need to encourage local voluntary organizations embedded in informal local institutions. Such organizations often enjoy close relationships with different segments of local communities and engender social capital. By bridging the gap between informal and formal local institutions they can contribute to effectiveness of local governance (Dhesi, 2000, 2009). Further, the innovative, institutional mechanisms outside the existing rigid administrative framework that meet the accepted standards of accountability and transparency would also facilitate the social entrepreneurial activity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - In view of significance of social entrepreneurial activity for community development, the purpose of this paper is to attempt to identify attributes of social entrepreneurs and philanthropists among returning successful diaspora in North Indian villages. Philanthropists are defined by the fact that they only invest money, whereas the social entrepreneurs invest their activities as well. An attempt is also made to ascertain key determinants and processes influencing outcomes of social entrepreneurial activity with a view to facilitate it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Emphasis is on qualitative analysis based on interviews of scientifically sampled respondents. However, the paper suggests that the rational choice approach is inappropriate to address the issue of community development. An approach based on a broader view of man in works of some classical economists like Adam Smith is more useful.\nFindings: - The results of empirical analysis suggest that there exist substantial factors, such as early socialization, experience in community work, education and health, that differentiate social entrepreneurs and philanthropists. Salience of relationship between formal and informal institutions, personal traits and social skills of social entrepreneurs in influencing outcomes of social entrepreneurial activity is indicated. By investing moral and material resources in communities, social entrepreneurs augment social capital and facilitate social action. In contrast, philanthropists may add to distortions in community functioning, especially if they opt to operate through largely dysfunctional formal local institutions due to structural impasse in rural areas.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper pertains to Indian Punjab, an area with a long history of emigration. However, researchers need to take into account distinct socio-economic conditions in Punjab when designing studies for other areas.\nPractical implications: - Policy measures addressing hurdles in the way of social entrepreneurial activity can speed up the modernization of traditional communities.\nOriginality/value: - The paper adds to understanding of what motivates human behaviour in economic analysis of community development. Further, it makes an important distinction between the roles of the philanthropist and the social entrepreneur in community development. The paper would be useful to researchers desirous of doing similar exercises in other areas.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Media usage of evacuees in a multichannel environment	[ "Media effects", "Evacuation", "Disaster communication", "2016 Kumamoto Earthquake", "Disaster evacuees", "Disaster information dissemination", "Information and communication system", "Multichannel media environment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Information dissemination plays a key role in disaster management from promoting preparedness (Kirschenbaum et al., 2017) to organising evacuations (Taylor et al., 2009). Government authorities, media organisations and telecommunication service providers in many countries have devoted great resources to secure different channels to disseminate disaster information to the public. However, in the chaotic aftermath of a disaster, is it really the more, the better?\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Multichannel media environment\n3. Theoretical model and hypotheses: Using the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake as the case study, a set of hypotheses is established. First, the evacuees' \"usage of media channels\" for obtaining disaster news while they were in evacuation is set as the dependent variable. It is divided into seven variables representing the following seven main media channels that were available during the disaster: 1 - broadcast TV; 2 - internet TV; 3 - video sharing websites; 4 - internet radio; 5 - internet homepages; 6 - SNS; and 7 - community radio (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, 2017).\n4. Methodology: This study employed structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses because the model consisted of multiple dependent and independent variables. Operationalisations of the variables are summarised in Table I. The data were collected from an original questionnaire survey in Japanese conducted on 7 and 8 April 2017. This time frame was chosen because it was almost one year after the disaster and thus, most of the affected should have settled down. The survey was carried out by a professional survey company. Samples were drawn from the company's nationally representative survey panel, which has more than a million registered respondents across Japan (Macromill Inc., n.d.).\n5. Results: The data were analysed with IBM SPSS version 24 and AMOS version 24. Results of the survey questions are summarised in Table I.\n6. Discussion: The results show that the two main factors that affected the evacuees' usage of the media channels are \"types of media terminals\" and \"evacuation reason\". That is, the more types of media terminals the evacuees had access to, the higher their usage of the media channels was. At the same time, those who were evacuated mandatorily used more of some media channels than those who evacuated voluntarily. On the other hand, \"evacuation location\" and \"evacuation duration\" had no significant influence on the respondents' usage of any of the media channels. Based on these observations, three key findings are derived.\n7. Conclusion: Using the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake as the case study, this study has found that multichannel is an effective means for disseminating disaster information that traditional broadcast and internet-enabled media can complement each other. The practical implication is that as now the channels are becoming more disaster resilient, the following step is to ensure the quality of the information being disseminated over different channels. This is particularly important in today's age of fake news, in which post-disaster rumours are also spreading rapidly online (St Michel, 2018). That said, this is not a simple task for small media organisations that do not have the necessary resources. Thus, to take full advantage of today's multichannel media environment, both infrastructural and informational supports from the government are essential.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine structural and psychological factors that may affect disaster evacuees' usage of different media channels in a multichannel media environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present study uses the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake in Japan as the case study. It adopts a quantitative approach using structural equation modelling with data collected from an original questionnaire survey (n=744).\nFindings: The results show that the evacuees' usage of almost all media channels is positively related to the number of different types of media terminals they had. That said, those who were evacuated mandatorily tend to utilise internet-enabled media channels more. It is also found that traditional broadcast and internet-enabled media channels complement each other instead of displacing. Thus, multichannel appears to be an effective means for disseminating disaster information. However, it is also found that having access to a particular media channel does not necessarily mean that people will utilise it.\nPractical implications: To fully utilise the multichannel media environment for disaster information dissemination, governments and media organisations also need to focus on the quality of the information being disseminated over both traditional broadcast and internet-enabled media channels.\nOriginality/value: Few studies have empirically examined factors that affect disaster evacuees' usage of different media channels in a multichannel media environment. This study fills this gap and the findings may help governments and media organisations in utilising multiple media channels to disseminate disaster information.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Financial development, FDI and economic growth: evidence from Sudan	[ "FDI", "Sudan", "Economic growth", "Financial development" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The development of the financial sector is an important factor that helps to achieve sustainable economic growth and development. Although the supply-leading[1] school of thought believes that the development of an economy leads to the demand for more financial products, and hence promotes financial sector growth. The demand-following[2] school of thought argues that the development of the financial sector is the main factor that promotes economic growth. Despite the notion of the supply-leading hypothesis, financial development remains one of the most important factors that determine the growth of an economy. Foreign direct investment (FDI) no doubt is among the most vibrant foreign inflows that promote economic growth and financial development in various economies more especially in less developed countries. It provides not only the financial resources but rather, it leads to the transfer of foreign technology into the host countries through the absorptive capacity approach. Since commercial banks were unable to give sufficient credits in developing countries in the 1980s, most countries attracted FDI through the reduction of taxes and provision of subsidies with a view to sustaining foreign capital (Aitken and Harrison, 1999; World Bank, 1997a, b).\n2. Literature review: There are a large number of studies that have been conducted investigating the relationship between FDI and economic growth. For example, Chakraborty and Nunnenkamp (2008) assessed industry-specific FDI and economic growth in India. Their findings of the Granger causality revealed that output growth is caused by the manufacturing sector in the long run. Moreover, the cross-sector causality test has shown that the services sector's FDI has promoted output in the manufacturing sector through the spillover effect. In addition, Shahbaz and Rahman (2012) investigated the impact of FDI, imports and financial development on economic growth in Pakistan. Their findings revealed that FDI, imports and financial development were positively related to the GDP growth of Pakistan. Also, the causality results have shown a bi-directional causation among the variables. Moreover, Pegkas (2015) examined the impact of FDI on economic growth in some European countries. The results of the panel data analysis revealed a positive and statistically significant relationship between FDI and economic growth. Similarly, Sunde (2017) found evidence indicates that the economic growth of South Africa is strongly affected by FDI. Also, the findings of Tiwari and Mutascu (2011) supported the FDI-led growth hypothesis in the case of Asian countries.\n3. Methodology and data: 3.1 Model specification\n4. The empirical findings: Since most of the macroeconomic variables are non-stationary, there is the high possibility of spurious results existing. Therefore, the unit root test is an essential pre-testing procedure that identifies the variable's order of integration. We started the analysis by conducting unit root tests. Table I shows the results of the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) unit root tests. The ADF test assumes the presence of a unit root under the null hypothesis and the alternative of otherwise (no unit root). However, the KPSS test, which has more power compared to the ADF, has a null hypothesis no unit root. The findings of the ADF test revealed all of the variables to be non-stationary I(1). Though the results provided by the KPSS test showed that all of the variables are I(1) except GDP and K, where the null hypothesis was rejected in level as well as in the first-difference. Although the KPSS test has more power over the standard ADF test, both tests may lose power when a structural break exists in the series (see, e.g. Perron, 1989; Hobijn et al., 2004). As a result, we employed the Perron (1997) unit root test with a structural break test that accounts for the potential of an endogenous structural break in the series. Table II contains the results of the Perron (1997) unit root test. The test showed that all the variables at level failed to reject the null hypothesis of no unit root with a structural break, whereas the null was rejected after taking the first-difference. Thus, we concluded that all of the variables are integrated of order one. After finding all the variables to be I(1), we proceeded to the cointegration test to verify the existence of a meaningful relationship among the variables. We adopted the standard Johansen (1988) cointegration test and the Gregory and Hansen (1996) cointegration test with a structural break. Table III reports the findings of each test. Both tests showed the existence of a long-run cointegration relationship among the variables. Although the Gregory-Hansen test showed weak evidence of cointegration that was only significant at the 10 per cent level, we included a dummy variable to capture the structural break in 1980. The economic meaning of a structural break normally signifies a major shift in government policy or any unexpected economic shock. Therefore, the structural break in 1980s could be due to the implementation of the Islamic financial system (Tables I-III).\n5. Conclusion: This study examined the impact of financial development and FDI on economic growth in Sudan using annual data from 1970 to 2014. The unit root and cointegration tests were used with and without accounting for a potential structural break in the data. The FM-OLS and D-OLS estimators were employed to obtain a less biased estimation for the long-run model. Moreover, the marginal effect was calculated in order to explain the indirect relationship between financial development and FDI on economic growth. The cointegration tests provided evidence that a long-run relationship exists among variables even after accounting for a structural break. The results showed that financial development and FDI are positive and significant in explaining economic growth in Sudan. However, financial development is found to be more beneficial to growth than FDI. The findings revealed that FDI led to better economic performance through financial development. This indicates that the development of the financial sector is one of the prerequisites for the country to benefit from FDI inflows. Interestingly, the study found that FDI played a positive role in enhancing the effect of financial development on economic growth. This implies that more FDI inflows increase the size and the efficiency of the financial sector and generate a positive effect on the Sudanese economy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth is widely believed to be contingent on the development of the financial sector. Nevertheless, as the possibility that the effect of financial development on growth being contingent on FDI has been neglected in existing literature, the authors have investigated it in this paper. In general, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of financial development and FDI on economic growth in Sudan using annual data from 1970 to 2014.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Since most of the macroeconomic variables are subject to unit root problem, the time series data are assessed using unit root and cointegration tests with/without structural break. Moreover, the study uses the fully modified ordinary least squares and the dynamic ordinary least squares techniques to estimate the long-run model.\nFindings: The results of the cointegration tests provide evidence that a long-run relationship exists among variables even after accounting for the structural break. The results show that financial development and FDI are positive and significant in explaining economic growth in Sudan. Financial development is found to be more beneficial to economic growth than FDI. Moreover, the findings reveal that FDI leads to better economic performance through financial development. Interestingly, the findings of the study show that the effect of financial development on economic growth is further enhanced by the inflows of FDI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The government should focus on promoting FDI in more productive sectors. In addition, further cooperation with multinational enterprises is needed to increase FDI in the country.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper that empirically examines both the interlinked impact of FDI on growth through financial development and the impact of financial development on economic growth through FDI in Sudan using appropriate econometric methods.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corporate cash holding during crisis and beyond: what matters the most	[ "Determinants", "Financial crisis", "Emerging markets", "Business groups", "Corporate cash holding", "G21", "G23", "G31", "G34" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Cash is the lifeline of a firm. Firms accumulate cash for their transaction, precautionary and speculative motives to avoid costly external financing (Habib and Hasan, 2017; Chauhan et al., 2018; Al-dhamari and Ku Ismail, 2015). Transaction motive ensures the availability of enough cash in the firm to make necessary payments, whereas precautionary motive relates to unexpected cash requirements. Speculative motive encourages firms to hold cash for an exceptional, potentially profit-creating set of circumstances. Recent studies report growing levels of cash holding across firms around the world (Kalcheva and Lins, 2007; Pinkowitz et al., 2012). Researchers have empirically examined and confirmed the widely held motives of cash holding by firms (Baumol, 1952; Mulligan, 1997; Opler et al., 1999; Harford, 1999) and its various determinants (Ferreira and Vilela, 2004; Chen and Chuang, 2009; Duchin, 2010; Al-Najjar, 2013; Chauhan et al., 2018). However, the existing literature is largely silent on the issue of what happens to corporate cash holdings (CCH) during a crisis when the credit supply in the financial system dries up significantly. Moreover, whether the widely accepted predictors of CCH are consistent through certain types of periods (i.e. stable, crisis and recovery) and certain firm classifications (i.e. group affiliate and financially constrained) also remain scantly explored.\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: Owing to the importance of the cash holding policy of firms and its dynamics in relation to firm value and various characteristics shaping the level of cash held by a firm, our study develops hypotheses around the following possible linkages.\n3. Data and variables: 3.1 Data\n4. Empirical methods and results: We examine the levels of cash during crisis compared to stable and recovery periods, as well as the consistency of broadly accepted determinants of CCHs in a multivariate regression framework. We employ the following form of regression:\n5. Conclusions: This paper identifies the levels and the determinants of cash holding during financial crisis and examines their consistency during financial crisis and beyond (across the time periods of stability and recovery) in a multivariate regression framework. The analysis is conducted using dummy variables for sub-periods and firm categories in a panel regression setting along several controls. Using all firms listed on stock exchanges in India for the period of 2001-2015, we report that Indian firms on average keep higher levels of cash during crisis periods compared to other times. Further, we observe that CCH for business group firms is lower than that of standalone firms. Promoters' stake in Indian firms is found to affect cash holdings positively and consistently.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the cash holding of firms during a crisis and test the widely accepted determinants of corporate cash holding (CCH) for their consistency across periods of crisis, stability and recovery, and across firm categories, in the emerging market context of India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employs panel data and Fama-Macbeth regression techniques on publicly listed firms during 2001-2015, amid controls for idiosyncratic factors. Further empirical analysis is carried out through the disaggregation of firms based on group affiliation, controlling stake of promoters, financial constraints and firm size.\nFindings: The study reports that cash levels are significantly higher during crisis periods for Indian firms. Moreover, promoter holding is observed to be a strong predictor of CCH, which is an addition to the list of predictors in existing literature. Additionally, most of the predictors of cash holding turn out to be consistent through periods of financial crisis, stability and recovery. A firm's age and growth prospects do not determine cash levels for Indian firms; however, cash-flow volatility, firm size, leverage and non-cash working capital requirements help to determine the cash levels of the firm consistently through different periods. Group-affiliated firms are less likely to engage in cash accumulation as opposed to firms that are large and financially constrained and have high promoter stakes.\nOriginality/value: The study is unique because it examines the consistency of determinants of cash holding across good and turbulent times and across firm classifications. Moreover, the study uses a broad sample of firms and investigates the topic for a relatively long period in an emerging market setup.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementation of NICE guidelines: Standards of methylphenidate prescription by GPs	[ "Drugs", "Medical prescriptions", "Standards", "General practitioners", "United Kingdom" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to the National Statistical Office (2005) 1 per cent of children in the UK have Hyperkinetic Disorder. Hyperkinetic Disorder has a much more stringent definition than Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. NICE (2000) recommends that only such cases may be treated with methylphenidate. Stimulant medication, most commonly methylphenidate, is recommended for the treatment of ADHD (Spencer et al., 1996). In clinical trials two-thirds of children have shown benefit (Ottenbacher and Cooper, 1983). However this medication has potential for serious side effects and has implications on both growth and development of the child. NICE issued guidance on management of ADHD in October 2000. In Chorley and South Ribble (Lancashire) local general practitioners (GPs) were concerned about methylphenidate prescribing due to GPs issuing repeat prescriptions for methylphenidate without any systems in place for the monitoring. This was largely due to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) functioning below its capacity prior to 2002. As a result children were also receiving care from community paediatricians and independent practitioners.\nAim: The study was undertaken to establish baseline data that would facilitate the formulation and implementation of the shared care guidelines for the treatment of Hyperkinetic Disorder.\nMethod: A proforma was developed based on NICE guidelines following consultation with the Chorley CAMHS and the Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust (Lancashire, UK). The following data were collected using the proforma:* age, gender, person who made the diagnosis, who initiated the treatment, who monitors the patient;* dose of methylphenidate and the frequency of monitoring;* physical aspects such as blood pressure, pulse, height and weight; and* documentation of symptom improvement, psychosocial intervention, educational interventions and treatment interval.The 19 GP practices that prescribed methylphenidate in the year 2002 were identified via the Primary Care Pharmacy IT system and they agreed to participate in the study.PM and VS visited the practices collecting data from patient medical records and where appropriate individual cases were discussed with the GPs.\nResults: It was estimated that there were more than 50 subjects on methylphenidate across this region at that time. Our study found that there were 25 children on repeat methylphenidate prescription from their GPs. The majority had their initial diagnosis and treatment initiated by either child psychiatrist or community paediatricians. A total of 22 (91 per cent) children were regularly monitored and only one child was monitored by the GP. The frequency of this monitoring ranged from one to six months. The standards of monitoring varied widely between different monitoring agencies, One-third of the subjects had no data on physical monitoring of height, weight and blood pressure. A total of 17 (70 per cent) had no data on monitoring of Full Blood count. There was documentation of symptom improvement in all but one case. Of the subjects, 15 (62 per cent) had received some form of psychosocial intervention. Educational intervention was offered to only ten (41 per cent) of the subjects. None of the children who were monitored by private practitioners had documentation to suggest they received psychosocial or educational interventions. Treatment interval (withholding of medication to monitor progress) was followed in only seven (29 per cent) of the subjects.\nDiscussion: The findings of this study shows that the monitoring standards of children on repeat prescriptions for methylphenidate by GP, fell short of NICE recommendations.All the children in this area being prescribed methylphenidate by their GPs were included in this study. The results showed that none of the subjects under private practitioners had any psychosocial or educational intervention whilst the majority of the children under community paediatricians and child psychiatrists had their physical parameters monitored and received both psychosocial and educational interventions.The findings from this study further highlight the need for a centralised service. A centralised service would enable regular monitoring to assess effectiveness of treatment and side effects.Where provisions exist for shared responsibility for monitoring of children with Hyperkinetic Disorder, checks should be in place to ensure that this monitoring is done on a regular basis and this should be clearly documented. There should be a named person who has overall responsibility to ensure that monitoring is being carried out at specified intervals. The findings may be relevant to those areas of the country where there is no fully functioning CAMHS.\nLimitations of the study: The study was conducted in a small geographical area and the findings may only be locally applicable. Although the sample size was small it included all the children prescribed methylphenidate by their GPs across this region.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to assess the monitoring standards of methylphenidate prescribed by general practitioners (GPs) against the NICE guidelines.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data on methylphenidate prescribing by GPs in Chorley and South Ribble were collected using a custom designed proforma from patient records held at GP surgeries and interviews with GPs. The data were then analysed using descriptive statistics.\nFindings: - The study finds that the majority (96 per cent) of the subjects who were on methylphenidate prescription from GPs were monitored by specialist services. This included both the National Health Service and the private sector. Only 62.5 per cent had documentation on physical monitoring and psychosocial intervention.\nPractical implications: - The results of the study showed that the monitoring of children on methylphenidate did not conform to the NICE guidelines. This highlighted the need for clear communication of responsibility of monitoring across the services. This is more important in regions where there are not optimal functioning child and adolescent mental health services.\nOriginality/value: - As far as the authors know this was the first audit of its kind assessing the standards of methylphenidate prescribing done by general practitioners.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
3D internet and enterprise: emergence of virtual worlds and serious games in the workplace	[ "Communication technologies", "Internet", "Video games" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The emergence of the 3D internet has significant potential for business. Borderlines are fast breaking down, specifically how virtual worlds, video games and serious games are converging and merging with work platforms. This is creating a more immersive internet based on a variety of technologies originating in games and virtual worlds linked to an increasingly social web.The relevance to business leaders is the range of exciting possibilities for competitive advantage and business transformation, together with the associated challenges of deploying these new business applications. The growing number of 3D applications is the next phase of the internet's revolution and is likely to have the same impact as the first web explosion. These converging technologies are changing substantially the way we live, work, play and learn because of their powerful capacity to engage people in new ways.The key challenge is to do business based on technology and services that have been developed for a different purpose - those with widespread consumer appeal - and tailoring the capabilities to the needs of enterprises. The speed of uptake in leisure contexts, particularly among the young, has big implications for organizations. This paper argues that to fully exploit the benefits, businesses should realize that applications are not only relevant for training and learning strategies but also for how the whole enterprise works.\nWide range of applications: Through 3D virtual worlds and serious games the internet is becoming increasingly co-creative, live and engaging with more realistic and human interactions. The quality of images, haptics, sight and sound are powerful differentiators from the text-based web.These capabilities are now spawning new approaches to collaborative learning and working. The technology is enabling richer, more visual meetings, training and development, communication, sharing, brand building, demonstrations, selling and recruitment.This 3D space now provides a natural way to organize multiple, simultaneous conversations. Meetings in virtual worlds provide an excellent example to improve productivity and displace some travel, e.g. stimulating innovation through brainstorming creative tasks.For training, virtual worlds provide highly visual environments with repeatable, engaging simulations and scenarios where trainees are represented by three-dimensional avatars. Such simulations have the potential to replace much real-life, hands-on training by being more immersive or for those receiving remote training.3D simulations are increasingly using serious games to support learning. These applications use the characteristics of video games to create engaging learning experiences and deliver specified learning goals. Training and development are the primary goals rather than simply entertainment. Being \"serious\" does certainly not mean the game should be less innovative or fun.\nOpportunities and potential: Both business surveys and academic research demonstrate the need for business leaders to take increasing notice of the potential business value of 3D environments.A 2009 study by ThinkBalm (http://thinkbalm.com/2009/05/26/thinkbalm-publishes-business-value-study/) probed how success in the consumer virtual world and video game markets is driving experimentation with such immersive technology in the workplace.Based on a survey of 66 internet 3D practitioners and 15 in-depth interviews, the results show that 90 percent of the survey participants either saw a positive return on their investment in 2008 (40 percent) or are expecting to see positive returns in 2009 (50 percent). The top three business applications mentioned were learning and training, meetings and conferences.3D technology won out over a variety of alternatives (mainly web conferencing, in-person meetings, phone calls) primarily due to low cost and the increased engagement delivered. Nearly 60 percent indicated that such technology was less expensive.Findings from the academic literature1 demonstrate the pedagogical benefits of these 3D technologies. This emphasizes the positive impact on learning skills and collaborative working from the deployment of virtual worlds and serious games. Most effective methods of learning constitute doing the real thing. These technologies directly support a far greater \"real\" experience and memory retention through the use of multiple sensory inputs, e.g. audio-visual and virtual touch.\nCase studies: IBM\nManagement and technology challenges: The technical, cultural and governance challenges of deploying virtual worlds and serious games in enterprises are wide ranging.Mass market adoption of virtual worlds is probably about five years away. Virtual world applications for enterprise use will grow into an industry earning USD8 billion to USD10 billion in annual revenue by 2014, according to a report by GigaOM Pro published in October 2009.Technical experts reckon that much of the development focus will be on:the systems platform (e.g. processing power requirements enabling simultaneous use of a user's computer for other applications);communication (e.g. network readiness); andpresentation (e.g. enhanced user navigation and the automatic, real-time conveyance of non-verbal communication such as gestures and expressions).For serious games, more training and simulation systems will become increasingly feasible and cost-effective as technology infrastructure (bandwidth, processing, graphics) improves.Return on investment will often be a deciding factor for adoption of serious games. Specifically, this is about demonstrating the level of immersiveness, the scale of deployment and frequency of use. The potential for enhanced organizational effectiveness (e.g. boosting performance, skills, innovation) and efficiency (e.g. more value for money compared with other training approaches) needs to be balanced against the costs of development on games platforms.By contrast, virtual worlds provide more flexibility. They are often cheap enough to \"play\" with in enterprises, offering immediate commoditisation, low barrier to entry, are global from day one and can run as a perpetual \"beta\".Culturally, many younger consumers are ahead of companies in virtual worlds and video games. The generation growing up with these tools are now entering the workforce. Being used to a games and social culture, these \"digital natives\" will be impatient with the rules of traditional corporate Information Technology policies and departments. The trade-offs between letting employees increasingly collaborate in these new environments with the risks of security and interoperability will need to be carefully managed.The regulatory challenges include data privacy and retention, copyright and intellectual property, e-money, libel, \"griefers\" (saboteurs). Technology and business model innovation will probably continue to outpace any legal frameworks.\nConclusions: The advent of more immersive, 3D technologies based on virtual worlds and serious games will have a major impact on business and deliver real value.This is new media driving new experiences, opening up scope for new modes of:collaboration inside and outside the enterprise;learning and training; andengagement with customers.The pace of innovation driven mainly by the entertainment industry is accelerating. Enterprise strategies should involve experimenting now with the capabilities and so capitalize as they enter the business mainstream.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe the transformative impact that 3D technologies rooted in entertainment, e.g. games and virtual worlds, are beginning to have on the business environment for the development of enterprise applications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This briefing draws on wide, firsthand experience of the policy, research and commercial implications of new digital technologies.\nFindings: - The paper finds that these technologies and the resulting applications have significant potential to increase learning and development, realize productivity gains and boost Return on Investment (ROI) across a wide range of enterprise functions.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides strategic insights, including case study references on how the widespread adoption of 3D internet technologies by consumers is poised to shape the workplace. Some of the technical, cultural and regulatory challenges are also addressed.\nOriginality/value: - The paper encourages decision makers in organizations to consider how these new technologies can be applied to deliver value. This includes stimulating innovation, personal development, effective meetings, new channels for customer engagement and recruitment.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Trends in turnaround maintenance planning: literature review	[ "Maintenance management", "Shutdown maintenance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Turnaround maintenance (TAM), or shutdown maintenance (SM), is a planned stoppage of production for conducting a comprehensive maintenance of plants and equipment with the purpose of restoring the processes to their original state. In addition, TAM provides a unique opportunity for the maintenance department to conduct some preventive maintenance activities that cannot be done under normal production conditions. During the TAM period, a large amount of work is scheduled into a relatively short period of time that might extend to several weeks, resulting in a considerable loss in production capacity. Lost capacity is restored over the long run by preventing future unscheduled shutdowns, improving process safety and quality and extending the facility life cycle. Hence, TAM is critical for maintaining a reliable process over its lifespan.\n2. TAM management and planning: The literature on TAM management and planning covers organizational structure, planning and scheduling, risk analysis, execution, performance measure, reporting and learning.\n3. Long-term and strategic planning: A finalized schedule of activities for the turnaround event should incorporate elements from both a long-term and short-term plans. Long-term planning for TAM that covers the time span of the plant is often neglected in planning for maintenance operations in manufacturing systems. The objective of long-term planning is to align maintenance planning with the organization strategic plan. A recent trend in the literature spots the importance of viewing the maintenance function as a strategic activity that extends the life of the asset and adds value to the production system in quality and quantity.\n4. TAM best practices: Many experiences related to TAM implementation in different industries are reported in the literature. Such experiences help in sharing knowledge and identifying areas for further research and development. In this section, published experiences of TAM in different industries, including chemical processing, oil refining and electricity generating, are reviewed. These industries share common requirements for TAM but each has its own collective experiences and best practices. The review is aimed to explore best practices in business-wide global TAM planning and identify issues that need to be further developed.\n5. Summary of TAM literature: In the literature and current industrial practices, TAM seems to be treated as a normal project that needs to meet a certain deadline where some of the major components in the plant can be replaced. However, very valid traits can be noticed in such kinds of projects. Determining the scope of TAM is not an easy task to do. A steering committee should be allocated to manage the project and decide the level of maintenance renovation. This can be based on safety, reliability, risk management and quality assurance. It is also needed to allocate manpower and financial resources. Challenges can be faced such as lack of technical knowledge, and delay in spare parts availability. The main objective of the management is to optimize the TAM planning which includes minimizing TAM duration or manpower cost. This is usually achieved by proper project planning that includes critical path method or optimal manpower scheduling through mixed-integer programming. Project crashing techniques can be always used where management can decide to trade off cost with duration. Table I summarizes TAM literature.\n6. Research trends: In the literature and current industrial practices, TAM is viewed as a large-scale project that needs to meet certain deadlines with limited resources. The main objective of the management is to optimize TAM execution which includes minimizing TAM duration and manpower cost. This is achieved using proper project planning and management tools, including critical path method and project crashing techniques. Various tools are developed and used for optimal resource planning and scheduling. At the practical level of implementation, a steering committee is devoted to manage the TAM project and share information and best practices between different units within the organization. Challenges can be faced such as lack of technical knowledge and delays in spare parts availability. Lately, a system view of TAM is being utilized for developing new methods and best practices for higher levels of planning and execution. The system is shown in Figure 1.\n7. Future research directions: The research on the major aspects of TAM planning and execution is comprehensive and quite elaborate. This includes planning and scheduling, risk analysis, execution and controlling, measuring performance, learning and improvement at the plant level. It is clear from the reviewed literature that the last aspect, learning and improvement, needs more attention at the practical level, and exploring more effective feedback and learning methods at the research level. At the strategic and long-term planning level, the need for more integration between different functions of the organization utilizing new technologies and methods is quite clear.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Turnaround maintenance (TAM) is a planned stoppage of production for conducting a comprehensive maintenance of equipment or plant with the purpose of improving plant availability and performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate trends in the operation and management of TAM, as reported in the literature, and identify gaps, in the context of a system approach that views a plant as part of a network of a supply chain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This literature review is based on over 80 subject-relevant papers and uses content analysis. The literature subjects are classified into several managerial areas that include organization, planning, scope and risk analysis, execution, performance measurement and learning. The gap in the literature is identified in light of the proposed system view for TAM.\nFindings: The system view of TAM opens new opportunities for new research areas for improving the operation and management of TAM. These areas include optimizing TAM scheduling and developing methods for managing risks along the entire business supply chain. In addition, new approaches for collaboration, sharing knowledge, best practices and expertise within the supply chain become necessary for effective TAM planning and control.\nOriginality/value: This paper reviews the literature and provides a new classification of TAM. It adopts the system view for TAM that has brought new insights in the operation and management of TAM. New trends for research in the area of TAM are identified.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effectiveness of seismic strengthening to repeated earthquakes in historic urban contexts: Norcia 2016	[ "Cumulative damage", "Heritage urban centres", "Vulnerability assessment", "Strengthening measures" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The heritage town of Norcia, in the Umbria region, is strictly linked to the inclusions, on the tentative list for nomination as world heritage sites, of the \"Cascata delle Marmore and Valnerina: Monastic sites and ancient hydrogeological reclamation works\" (http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/2031/) and of \"The cultural landscape of the Benedictine settlements in medieval Italy\" (https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6107/). Historically, Norcia has been a prominent cultural and economic urban centre of Valnerina and the birth place in 480 of St Benedict of Nursia, founder of the homonymous monastic system and the Rule (McCann, 1937). According to Fry (1981), after the establishment of the first monastery, which ruled upon the territory in political, economic and religious terms (Kennedy, 1999), similar institutions started spreading throughout Western Europe: monks became landowners, responsible for the welfare of the people living in the area of influence of the monastery, therefore influencing not only the growth of the Christian community but also the diffusion of culture at a wider scale.\n2. Seismic events and changes in codes and regulations: Although the first urban settlement dates back to the Neolithic age, according to Galli et al. (2005), \"Nursia\" was first permanently inhabited by the Sabins in the fifth century BC and bounded within the ancient walls after the Etruscan attempt of military invasion. Coeval to this period is the first urban plan of the town, which was designed according to two main roads oriented SW-NE and NW-SE (Reale et al., 2004; Montanari, 2016).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Analysis of cumulative damage\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Damage progression across the seismic swarm\n5. Conclusion: The analysis of the cumulative effects of damage to the urban historic fabric of Norcia due to the 2016 Central Italy earthquake sequence, and the qualification of the effects of strengthening measures applied over time, has been discussed in light of the evolution of antiseismic building regulations and standards. The provisions of the 1860 Royal Decree were quite bold in terms of changing the appearance of the fabric by introducing buttresses and demolishing floors. They also put emphasis on connections of orthogonal walls and floors to ensure the so call \"box behaviour\". While they were not explicitly concerned with issues of authenticity and preservation of historic character, the use of technologies and materials substantially homogeneous to the original ones delivered good seismic response and contributed to the urban character to the extent that these features today represent the characteristic heritage value of the town. Conversely, the approach to strengthening developed during the twentieth century as highlighted in D'Ayala (2014) and discussed in Section 2 was possibly more preoccupied with issues of preservation; however, the strengthening interventions were substantially driven by concrete technology and structural engineering concepts relating to frame behaviour rather than masonry wall response. Ring beams and concrete slabs replaced traditional wooden floors and ties. Traditional appearance was maintained by introducing fake wooden roof rafters. Evidence of the drawbacks of these interventions in terms of seismic capacity is discussed in D'Ayala and Paganoni (2011). From the stand point of enhancement or preservation of the heritage value, it is worth considering that such interventions are conceived to not alter the building \"character\", while allowing to improve economic and continued use values. However, the large numbers of severe damage and collapse which can be associated to such interventions in L'Aquila, Amatrice and Accumoli bring into question their validity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the dynamics of the evolution of damage to the residential buildings within the city walls of Norcia during the six-month seismic swarm that hit Central Italy in the period 24th August 2016 to end of January 2019. This is accomplished by comparing the damage recorded by the Italian Civil Protection usability form (AEDES form) during this period after each event.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, these outputs are compared with a qualitative assessment conducted by means of omnidirectional camera (ODC) imagery collected on site by the authors, to explore the ability of this technology to support post-earthquake damage assessment. The damage level attributed with these two techniques is then further compared with the output of the analytical vulnerability assessment method FaMIVE, which allows to correlate damage to vulnerability. Specifically, the objective is to investigate the efficacy and performance of historic and recent strengthening interventions.\nFindings: Results show that there is a good correspondence between AeDES and ODC assessments for low to medium damage grades (DG). Discrepancies in higher DGs are discussed in light of the different levels of information that can be recorded by using the two tools. The efficacy of strengthening is also well captured by the FaMIVE method. The procedure estimates a decrease of almost 40, 25 and 20 per cent of the total number of buildings failing out-of-plane, respectively, for the three seismic events considered, when restraining elements are in action.\nResearch limitations/implications: The analysis conducted in this work make use of deterministic values of Norcia's masonry fabric characteristics that have been found in literature, thus implying that neither the probabilistic aspects nor the related uncertainties have been properly investigated and addressed. However, this limitation is to be considered within the more general context of the legislation for the preservation of historic buildings which limits substantially any type of semi-destructive tests, hence limiting the reliability of the values available in literature. This in turn affects the decisions informing the design and implementation of strengthening interventions which can be confidently considered reliable and effective.\nOriginality/value: The paper addresses for the first time a systematic investigation of damage progression in historic masonry structures, part of urban aggregates in heritage cities. The current urban fabric is discussed in view of historic building codes as the basis for determining the present seismic vulnerability of the historic city centre of Norcia. The study provides new data sets for the city of Norcia and develops a statistical correlation between cumulative damage and analytical vulnerability functions for heritage buildings exposed to a swarm of earthquakes. The analytical assessment of the effect of historic strengthening is totally novel.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Wheels of change in higher education: A collaborative, multi-stakeholder project as a vehicle for sustainability education	[ "Campus operations", "Place-based learning", "Sustainable transport", "Authentic learning", "Bike hub", "Education for sustainability (EfS)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is growing recognition that human activity is placing strains on the capacity of the planet to support life, and transformative changes are needed to deliver better social, economic and environmental outcomes from communities around the world (Brown and Lambert, 2013; Hughes et al., 2013; van der Leeuw et al., 2012). Higher education institutions the world over are being implicated as both critical players and key stakeholders in engaging global debate and action to address the growing number of sustainability challenges we face. This imperative is exemplified by the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), which encourages higher education institutions to \"provide leadership by practicing what they teach through sustainable purchasing, investments and facilities that are integrated with teaching and learning\" (UNESCO, 2006, np). In Australia, the government has committed the tertiary sector \"to expand its work by achieving a culture of sustainability in which education for sustainability is reinforced by continuous improvement in the sustainability of campus management\" (DEWHA, 2009, p. 21). Higher education institutions themselves are also making commitments to sustainability, through such actions as signing the Talloires Declaration, which is the pledge to incorporate sustainability into institutional operations and learning (University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, 1999).\nThe Academic Operations Sustainability Integration Program (AOSIP): The AOSIP responds to calls for sustainability to be more thoroughly embedded in universities through the integration of research, service and teaching (Moore, 2005; Scott et al., 2012; ULSF, 1999). It aims to link teachers and university operations across all of the UTAS campuses. The AOSIP was developed by the sustainability team in Commercial Services and Development, a centrally positioned non-academic unit focusing on operational management of the University. In line with the UTAS Environmental Management Plan, the team identifies a set of \"campus sustainability goals\" that are used to engage disciplinary stakeholders in the design and implementation of campus-based sustainability projects. Through the AOSIP, students and staff engage in authentic learning activities (Lombardi, 2007) to learn about and interact with UTAS's infrastructure and operations in an effort to enhance institutional sustainability performance. In effect, university campuses become living laboratories.\nSolutions and recommendations: Through governance and policy commitments such as the UTAS Environmental Management Plan and the signing of the Talloires Declaration and a Sustainability Policy, UTAS has committed to ensuring its operations as well as its research and teaching are directed towards sustainable outcomes. However, the challenge to follow through on this commitment will require broad institutional support and a cultural shift towards re-conceptualizing education for sustainability as a holistic, whole-of-institution approach. This case study reiterates the findings of numerous other studies that highlight the critical role played by a centrally located staff leader for identifying, integrating and achieving sustainability outcomes (Barlett, 2004; Brinkhurst et al., 2011; Norgaard, 2004; Jahiel and Harper, 2004). Based on the challenges of securing continued funding and support of the AOSIP as a truly integrative programme, the ongoing employment of staff whose job is specifically to integrate sustainability initiatives with learning, teaching and research on campus is critical to the success of such an initiative.\nFuture research directions: This case study highlights that students are highly motivated to engage in real-life experiences they can visibly link to their learning. However, there is more work to be done to document student outcomes in both the short and long term. For example, it would be of great benefit to evaluate whether and to what impact students thought that their AOSIP involvement was useful in their working life. It could be that the activity helped make their studies more engaging without providing much in the way of skills or networks that were useful once they finished their studies. It could also be that such projects do deliver the authentic assessment opportunities that build the skills often identified by employers as lacking from a purely theoretical educational experience. This follow-up information would be difficult to collect but would be possible with the involvement of enough students and careful tracking of their contact details on leaving the University.\nConclusions: The Australian higher education sector is attempting to build resilience to what seems to be a string of budget cuts from the federal government. Simultaneously institutions continue to commit to global and national initiatives to work towards a more sustainable future. In such an unpredictable and stretched climate, programmes like the AOSIP emerge as potential vehicles through which economic, environmental and educational goals can be met. As is often the case, it is sometimes hard for people to \"see the forest through the trees\", and there is a significant amount of work to be done before activities such as those described in this article are recognised as core business of the University.\nAcknowledgments: The authors would like to extend special thanks to Anna Lyth who authored the Sustainable Transport Strategy and supervised the student work on the movement analyses. Thanks also to the team within Commercial Services and Development and in particular to our senior operational staff Matt Smith and Jacinta Young for supporting the enabling framework as first developed by Kamal Singh, the University's previous sustainability manager. Thank you to Joan Rodrigues for overseeing the contracting details; Ken Steele for managing the site construction works; Mark White for assiduously working out the electrical connections required for the photovoltaic panels, LED lighting and e-bike charging stations; Graham Lord and Tom Beattie for swiftly completing the landscaping in time for the official launch; Heather Knibbs for organizing the locker hiring scheme; and Rowena Zwart as the all-rounder sustainability officer that helped fill in the student data collection roster gaps. Special thank you also to Christie Denman, Architect from the Launceston Assistance and Research Centre (LARC) who worked with students from the School of Architecture and Design on the delivery of this project.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to profile the development of a bicycle parking hub at the University of Tasmania to illustrate how the Academic Operations Sustainability Integration Program promotes real change through the engagement of stakeholders from across an institution to deliver campus sustainability. This case study outlines one example of how place-based learning initiatives focused on campus sustainability challenges have delivered authentic education for sustainability in the Australasian higher education setting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This case study outlines the process through which a cross-disciplinary place-based learning initiative was designed, implemented and evaluated over a three-year period. The evaluation of the project was designed to assess the impact of this education for sustainability approach on both operational and student learning outcomes, and to make recommendations on the continuation of place-based learning initiatives through the Academic Operations Sustainability Integration Program.\nFindings: This case study illustrates how learning can be focused around finding solutions to real world problems through the active participation of staff and students as members of a learning community. This experience helped the authors to better understand how place-based learning initiatives can help deliver authentic education for sustainability and the success factors required for engaging staff and students in such efforts.\nOriginality/value: The case study highlights an example of an education for sustainability initiative that was mutually driven by the operational and learning objectives of an institution, and specifically the ways in which the engagement of staff and students from across an institution can lead to the successful integration of these two often disparate institutional goals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Harvesting the competitive advantage of respectful engagement: Moving the needle on both affective organizational commitment and employee task performance	[ "Affective commitment", "Job engagement", "Task performance", "Respectful engagement", "Organizational respect", "Dynamics of respect" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: On a global scale, the depressingly low reported levels of workplace engagement are cause for employers to attempt to re-engineer solutions to boost people's emotional commitment to their organizations by reexamining the base level sources of engagement behaviors. A research paper by Basit (2019) aims to reveal whether respectful engagement (RE) within an organization impacts employees' task performance and affective commitment to the organization. A secondary focus is whether job engagement influences the above interrelationships. Data for the study were collected from the self-reported online survey responses of 185 employees working at a large export-orientated hosiery manufacturing firm in Punjab, Pakistan.\nThe fundamental dynamics of respect: Organizational respect can be understood as being a recognition of an employee's worth and contribution, which individuals value more highly than other work aspects like their salary or promotion prospects. RE refers to a stimulation of respectful conduct within the workplace through a sustained promotion of supportive behaviors like patient listening, attentiveness, and the appreciation of others. Moving away from the mainstream understanding of engagement, it can be conceptualized as a systematically applied confluence of emotional, physical, and cognitive energies that fuels individual action in a positively productive direction.\nModeling the survey results: Survey respondents were prompted to rate their agreement or disagreement with statements like \"Organizational members are always available to hear out and listen to each other,\" \"I exert my full effort to my job,\" and \"I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organization.\"\nAn onward trajectory for action: From its focus on Pakistan, the study delivers value by broadening insights about workplace-related engagement beyond western economies. Based on the results the author makes the following recommendations to managers:\nCommentary: The review is based on 'Examining how respectful engagement affects task performance and affective organizational commitment' by Basit (2019), published in Personnel Review. This research paper concentrates on the organizational role of respectful engagement (RE) based on survey data gathered from employees of a big hosiery manufacturer in Pakistan. It was revealed from these responses that RE had a significantly positive direct impact on individuals' task performance and on their affective commitment to the employer, and also that increasing job engagement factors like enthusiasm and concentrated effort positively influenced these RE-related relationships indirectly and significantly. Respect, overall then, was revealed to be a key source of engagement.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This research paper concentrates on the organizational role of respectful engagement (RE) based on survey data gathered from employees of a big hosiery manufacturer in Pakistan. It was revealed from these responses that RE had a significantly positive direct impact on individuals' task performance and on their affective commitment to the employer, and also that increasing job engagement factors like enthusiasm and concentrated effort positively influenced these RE-related relationships indirectly and significantly. Respect, overall then, was revealed to be a key source of engagement.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An extended conceptual framework to understand information and communication technology-enabled socio-economic development at community level in Bangladesh	[ "Digital divide", "Community", "Developing countries", "Information" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is being argued that information and communication technologies (ICTs) (e.g. internet and computers) can act as catalysts for the socio-economic development of a country if it is supported by appropriate national development strategies (Alam and Mamun, 2017; Heeks and Molla, 2009). ICT developments, such as IT outsourcing in developing countries not only provide opportunities in providing employment for the low-income people, but also materialise the wider priorities for the local economic development (Madon and Sharanappa, 2013). However, many resource-poor people are deprived of adequate ICT-supported facilities, despite their availability in low- and middle-income countries (Attwood et al., 2013). It is therefore important to integrate the perspectives of poverty alleviation, including education, human skills development and empowerment into ICT initiatives in order to improve their quality of life.\n2. Socio-economic contributions of ICT projects in developing countries: In the context of socio-economic development, ICT initiatives can positively affect a range of matters (Andrade and Urquhart, 2010), such as health, education, empowerment, microfinance, and even human rights and political activism. The use of ICTs, such as mobile phones has contributed to the expansion of capabilities, thereby empowering users to more easily achieve their desired outcomes (Dey et al., 2013). ICTs support individuals, communities, governments and businesses in their daily activities, through a range of digital technologies (e.g. fixed and mobile telecommunication products and services, including broadband, internet, broadcasting services, equipment such as mobile phones, personal computers, laptops and tablets) (Amoretti, 2007; Van Reijswoud, 2009). Specific ICT initiatives can target the population in general and/or underprivileged groups in respective coverage areas, whether urban or rural. For instance, telecentres are trusted as very applicable to meet local needs by providing access to the internet (Gomez and Gould, 2010).\n3. Towards a conceptual framework: The expanded framework presented in this paper is designed to address the research gap, both conceptual and empirical, thereby contributing to effective policy formulation and theoretical development. We adopted Heeks and Molla's EIC model (Heeks and Kanashiro, 2009; Heeks and Molla, 2009) initially to conduct an empirical study, which was later used for further refinement of our framework. We selected Heeks and Molla's model as it was formulated based on multi-disciplinary research domains of information systems and development studies. The model is appropriate for studies dealing with communities and connectivity in resource-poor settings and recognises that ICT service interventions require complementary inputs, e.g. of a socio-economic nature. By incorporating socio-economic factors, the Heeks and Molla's (2009) EIC framework facilitates understanding of the process through which ICTs can contribute to improved livelihoods. This model is derived from the \"communications-for-development\" (C4D) model to analyse exclusions, such as exclusion from data, information and action resources (Heeks and Molla, 2009). Here \"exclusion\" means that either systems or resources cannot be accessed by some people. Table II shows the components of data, information and action resources which are key factors influencing the outcomes of an ICT project.\n4. Setting the scene: Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries, has a population of approximately 165 million and an economy primarily based on agriculture. Appropriate ICT initiatives have the potential to enhance the socio-economic well-being of rural communities in Bangladesh. This can be achieved through ICT-mediated interventions to provide information on farming methods or practices, basic health practices, environmental awareness, access to markets, education and training (Ahmed et al., 2014). ICTs are seen as an essential part in promoting openness, transparency, accessibility, accountability, connectivity, democracy as well as decentralisation to relieve the pressure on very densely populated urban areas (Ahmed et al., 2014). A study in Bangladesh found that ICTs influenced and reshaped the rural economy, women empowerment, healthcare facilities and disaster and emergency responses in the country (Rahman et al., 2013). However, the optimum use of ICTs also depends on perception about this use by potential users (Khatun et al., 2014).\n5. Research methodology: The nature of the study is interpretive, an appropriate approach for understanding human behaviour within the surrounding context and where phenomena and contexts are difficult to isolate (Walsham, 1993). In an interpretive study, the researchers can immerse themselves in the community and gain a rich understanding of the influences of an ICT intervention. This enables the research to explore how ICTs influence the community in a broader context rather than merely recording levels of adoption and usage. The field study was undertaken in three BRAC Gonokendras located in different villages in rural Bangladesh in 2016 (see Table III for details). The sites were selected for this study on the basis of type, ICT programme availability, the length of time in operation (minimum five years) and infrastructure facilities, including accommodation for the researchers and transportation. While some of the selection criteria were designed for convenience, the \"length of time in operation\" criterion was intended to ensure that the intervention was self-sustaining and the impact of the intervention was mature. This was deemed necessary because many externally funded interventions discontinue soon after the withdrawal of external impetus and funding.\n6. Findings from the field study: In this section, the results from the field study are presented in the form of the participants' perspectives about the contribution of BRAC Gonokendra.\n7. Discussions and expanded framework: There is an ongoing debate about the extent to which ICT interventions can contribute to human development, especially in rural areas of developing countries. We stress the importance of identifying and addressing social constraints affecting the most marginalised and disadvantaged people when considering whether and how ICTs can be useful. We found that, as the participants gained access to information centres, they participated in multimedia-based information programs and became aware of different social issues and how to address these. We also found that the centres assisted some participants to gain employment. In this way, the participants of information centre programs acquired data resources relevant to their needs and social issues, which they could then use as action resources to empower themselves through more knowledge. However, the programs did not have enough economic resources to support participants in implementing what they had learnt might improve their situations. The centres also lacked resources to provide ICT-assisted services to everyone who wanted to participate.\n8. Conclusion: This research investigates the contribution of an ICT-enabled intervention, namely BRAC Gononkedra centres at the community level, using an expanded framework that combines Heeks and Molla (2009) EIC model and the concept of \"development as freedom\" (Sen, 1999). The mere adoption of the Heeks and Molla (2009) model would only show how ICTs can be a means or catalyst for the process of development; however it does not address how social constraints can impede the process of development. Social challenges such as \"religious perception\" and \"mobility restriction on women\" identified at the community level are not incorporated into that model. While their one-way information chain model is useful as a starting point for understanding the process of ICT-led socio-economic development, it is not sufficient when considering the role played by social constraints. To fill this gap, we combined Sen's (1999) \"development as freedom\" notion with Heeks and Molla (2009) model through the incorporation of \"religious perception\" and \"mobility restriction on women\" factors. Our extended framework to investigate ICT-led socio-economic development implies that ICT as a catalyst can promote development at the micro/community level only by simultaneously addressing social constraints.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have received much attention as a tool for development for several decades. One way in which ICTs were introduced in developing countries, particularly prior to the advent of smartphones, was through shared access and information centres. Many of these were established as pilots, but were unable to operate without external funding and were often declared failures. And some of them probably were, particularly those that focussed exclusively on ICT as a technology, rather than on how the centres could contribute to improving livelihoods. The purpose of this paper is to explore how some centres, namely \"Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) Gonokendra\" in three villages of Bangladesh, influenced socio-economic development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was informed by the Heeks and Molla's extended information chain model and Sen's \"development as freedom\". The field study was undertaken in three BRAC Gonokendras located in different villages in rural Bangladesh.\nFindings: While the authors found that the centres contributed to socio-economic development, this contribution was limited by social constraints, hindering the well-being of individuals and families. Addressing social constraints thus remains a challenge in order for ICTs to contribute to development.\nOriginality/value: The extended framework to investigate ICT-led socio-economic development implies that ICT as a catalyst can promote development at micro/community level only by simultaneously addressing social constraints.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Re-using Open Government Data (OGD) published by the Election Commission of India (ECI)	[ "India", "Elections", "Open government data", "Bihar", "Re-use" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Open Government Data (OGD) is defined in terms of the government data which is freely accessible and available for public re-use via dedicated online portals (Saxena and Janssen, 2017). Of late, governments across the globe have been initiating their OGD initiatives to streamline their efforts to secure public trust, ensure transparency, promote public accountability and enhance citizen engagement in administration (Zuiderwijk and Janssen, 2014). OGD may range across sectors like health, environment, transport, tourism, education and the like. It is anticipated that by \"re-using\" open data sets, public value generation will be facilitated. Apart from drawing inferences about the trends in a particular sector, re-using the data helps in prediction and forecasting. For instance, weather data published via the government agency may be useful in understanding the climatic profile of a place and help in forecasting the weather for future. As such, open data sets may be re-used by a diverse set of stakeholders-citizens, journalists, software application developers, researchers, non-governmental organizations, private businesses and the like. In this regard, open data on \"elections and polling\" is being widely available for re-use by academic researchers. As a specific case study dedicated to the investigation of \"elections\", the present research seeks to re-use the datasets available via the online portal of Election Commission of India (ECI) (http://eci.nic.in/eci/eci.html) for assessing Bihar's performance across the two election tiers.\n2. Literature review: Government is the main provider of data which is linked with information about the citizens, organizations or the transactions in the course of providing public services (Alexopoulos et al., 2014). With the emergence of information and communications technology (ICT), governments across the world have been transforming themselves into e-governments (Mpinganjira, 2015) and encouraging participation of users in government processes and Open Government Data (OGD) is one of the extensions of e-government initiatives (Adu et al., 2016; Huijboom and Van den Broek, 2011; Jetzek et al., 2014). OGD may be defined as \"machine-readable data (which is) discoverable, available, and downloadable through dedicated internet portals without cost to potential data users\" (Dawes et al., 2016, p. 15). Data sets may be related to sectors like science and technology, finance, transport, health, politics, environment, education, and the like. Governments should ensure that they release data sets in a timely manner and data sets should be complete, accessible and available and of good quality (Van Velzen et al., 2009; Jaeger et al., 2012; Meijer et al., 2012; Sadiq and Indulska, 2017; Thornton and Thornton, 2013; Vetro et al., 2016; Zuiderwijk and Janssen, 2014). Open data initiatives are instrumental in facilitating democratic processes by promoting transparency, cementing citizen trust, furthering citizen participation and engagement in decision-making, improvising policy-making and providing opportunities for stakeholders to collaborate among themselves as well as with the government, private sector and non-profit sectors to \"re-use\" OGD for generating innovative solutions to social problems (Attard et al., 2015; Craveiro and Albano, 2017; Janssen, 2011; Marjanovic and Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2017; Martin, 2014; Mason, 2010; Wirtz et al., 2017).\n3. Research methodology: Bihar is a state which is located in the eastern part of India. It is considered as the 13th largest state in India. The area of Bihar is 94,163 km2. In terms of population, Bihar is the third largest state in India. It shares borders with Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, West Bengal and Jharkhand. In terms of population, Bihar ranks the third in the country, with a population of 103,804,637 (Census of India, 2011). Bihar has a literacy rate of 63.82 per cent (75.7 per cent for male individuals and 55.1 per cent for female individuals) as per the Census of 2011.\n4. Concluding remarks: Results from both the election tiers show that in the General Elections, a contestant's sex (men preferred over women), affiliation with a National political party and an Unrecognized political party, availing telephone, having a criminal background and marital status (married preferred over others) impacted a contestant's vote share. Variables like age and educational qualification were significant across the board, and there is diversity among the winners in terms of their educational and age profiles. In the Legislative Assembly elections, results show that a contestant's social category (General/SC/ST/OBC) has played a major role in deciding his/her victory in the elections. In contrast with the General Elections, there was no impact of a contestant's sex and political party affiliation in determining his/her victory in the elections. In both the elections, contestants with a criminal background have won the elections. In both the elections, married contestants won the elections. There was diversity in the educational qualification of the contestants across both the election tiers. There was no role of possessing an e-mail facility -apparently for political networking - in determining the victory of the contestants. In the Assembly Elections, the contestants hailing from the General/OBC category won the elections in comparison with the SC/ST ones. In the General Elections, there was no influence of a contestant's caste on voting decision. Voters were uninfluenced in by the political party in the Legislative Assembly elections, but the same was not true in the General Elections. Therefore, in line with the research question chosen for the present study, we conclude that a contestant's socio-demographic profile does impact the vote share of the contestant in the elections. While the results hold validity for Bihar, there may be differences in results for other States covering different time span. This is on account of the demographic disparity in Indian States; differences in the political profile of the States in terms of the inclination towards the right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties; and the diversity in voting preferences across the length and breadth of the country. For instance, the Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections in 2011 witnessed a victory for a newly established political party - the Aam Aadmi Party - in contrast with the incumbent Indian National Congress (INC) or the Centre-ruling BJP. Further studies may investigate such voter polarization in other contexts. Finally, the role of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and the general media - print and electronic - may be factored while assessing election results and voter preferences.\n5. Research implications: This research has clear academic implications, as it provides an apt example of re-using OGD provided by the government body - ECI, in the present case-for academic purposes. As a significant stakeholder, academic fraternity has the potential of re-using OGD and generating value out of the same. In the present case, open data sets from the online portal of ECI were tapped for drawing inferences regarding the electoral landscape of an Indian State. Our research shows that re-use of OGD has immense value for the academicians and they may contribute towards the generation of socio-economic value through such investigations besides underlining the pros and cons of OGD platforms and policies in a particular government department.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The paper aims to \"re-use\" the Open Government Data (OGD) published by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Bihar's performance across General Elections, 2014, and Bihar Legislative Assembly Elections, 2015, is compared, wherein the role of contestants' demographic profiles in determining their vote share is being investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hypotheses are derived based on the impact of contestants' demographic profiles (age, marital status, social category, political party affiliation, educational qualification, availing telephone and email facility, criminal antecedents) on their vote share. Following a quantitative approach, multiple regression and logistic regression are used to draw inferences from the data contestants' affidavits - sourced from the ECI website.\nFindings: Results show that contestants' demographic profiles impact their vote share in the elections. While the ECI website is a viable source for re-using the data available there, data are not available in a user-friendly format and this leads to difficulty in being re-used by different stakeholders.\nOriginality/value: Academic research on OGD re-use is negligible, and the present study seeks to contribute towards extant literature by underlining the significance of re-using OGD by drawing inferences from the data accessible via ECI.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of employee perceptions of training on organizational commitment and turnover intention: An empirical study of nurses in Jordanian hospitals	[ "Jordan", "Turnover intentions", "Organizational commitment", "Jordanian hospitals", "Employee perceptions of training", "Staff nurses", "Registered nurses" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Creating and sustaining a competitive advantage is the ultimate goal of business organizations. To achieve this goal, organizations need to invest in a valuable asset effectively (Alamri and Al-Duhaim, 2017; Rawashdeh, 2018). Investment in human resource practices is a great source of competitive advantage (Silva and Dias, 2016). The training process can be used as an example of human resource practices that contributes to gaining advantage over competitors (Jehanzeb et al., 2013). It is defined as a systematic process that provides employees with the required knowledge, skills and expertise to perform their job successfully (Ramendram et al., 2014). The significance of training is rapidly growing, and firms are adopting this strategy to compete with their competitors in the market (Scheible and Bastos, 2013). There is meaningful debate among scholars and professionals that training has an effective influence on organizational commitment (Alamri and Al-Duhaim, 2017). Esteban-Lioret et al. (2014) summarized that the offering of extensive training programs by organizations may lead to motivated, talented and committed employees. Committed employees potentially have better performance and lower rate of turnover (Huang and Chen, 2013). Evidence from prior work indicates that there is a strong relationship between the training of employees and organizational commitment (Alamri and Al-Duhaim, 2017; Silva and Dias, 2016; Jehanzeb et al., 2013; Yang et al., 2012). The evidence also supports the notion that committed employees are related positively to a variety of desirable outcomes, including job satisfaction and performance, and to a less likely intention to leave the organization. Based on the aforementioned discussion, it can be concluded that training is instrumental in fostering positive employee attitudes such as organizational commitment and subsequently reducing undesirable behavioral outcomes such as turnover intention. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that in the context of registered nurses within the Jordanian hospitals, the implementation of training would be judged to be an important retention strategy.\nLiterature review: Employee perceptions of training\nMethodology: Procedure and sample\nResults and discussion: The demographic details of respondents in Table II is as follows, gender: 54 per cent are male and 46 per cent are female. Age - the highest respondents are in the age group of 21-30 years, which accounts for 41 per cent, followed by 31-40 years at 36 per cent and above 40 years at 23 per cent. Experience: 14 per cent of the respondents are less than 5 years, 66 per cent from 5 to10 years and 20 per cent are above 10 years. Educational qualifications: 5 per cent of the respondents are diploma and less, 6 per cent graduates and the remaining 89 per cent are undergraduates. The mean score and standard deviation (SD) for our study variables in Table IV are 3.16 for perceived availability of training (SD = 0.64), 3.36 for perceived supervisor support for training (SD = 0.68), 3.44 for perceived benefits of training (SD = 0.70), 3.01 for organizational commitment (SD = 0.59) and 2.95 for turnover intention (SD = 0.61). The mean score and standard deviation reflect conformity of respondents' perception of these items.\nImplications: The findings of the present study have implications for theory and practice. At the theoretical level, the current study adds to the body of knowledge on commitment and turnover. Specifically, the current study provides evidence of a strong or weak relationship between employee perception of training, organizational commitment and turnover intention. The research findings verify the applicability of the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) and concur with Fishbein and Ajzen's (1967) model of beliefs, attitude and behavioral intentions in Jordanian hospitals.\nLimitations and suggestion for future studies three: As with all research, there are limitations to this work. First, only three employee perceptions of training are investigated in this study to include the perceived availability of training, perceived supervisor support for training and perceived benefits of training. Given that employee perceptions of training include a number of factors, future research may consider other factors, such as motivation to learn and co-worker support for training (Newmana et al., 2011). Second, the study uses a quantitative approach. Future studies may conduct interviews to examine the relationship between the variables. Third, our data came from registered nurses working in hospitals in a single industry; to increase the generalizability of the findings, there is a need for future research in other industries in Jordan. Fourth, other attitudinal constructs in addition to organizational commitment may act as potential mediators in the relationship between employee perception of training and turnover intention. Future studies can include mediating variables, such as job satisfaction (Poon, 2004) and trust in management (Whitener, 2001), which may better explain the hypothesized relationships. Finally, the findings cannot be generalized, as there is a possibility of bias because of differences in knowledge of and attitude to perceived training.\nConclusion: In this study of hospitals in Jordan, we attempted to investigate the impact of employee perception of training on organizational commitment, and consequently, the impact of organizational commitment on turnover intentions. A strong relationship is established between two variables: perceived availability of training and perceived supervisor support for training with organizational commitment. Nonetheless, contrary to expectations, perceived benefits of training is negatively related to organizational commitment. Our study also confirms a strong inverse association between organizational commitment and turnover intention. This study results are consistent with prior studies conducted in Asian countries such as china and Malaysia. These results imply that Jordanian hospitals should actively apply effective training programs to increase commitment of nurses to the organization, which, in turn, can result in a reduction in their turnover intention. That will eventually contribute to patients' satisfaction through the continuity of nursing care, devotion of greater efforts and provision of high-quality healthcare services.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of employee perception of training on organizational commitment, and consequently, the impact of organizational commitment on turnover intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study adopted a quantitative research design. Data were collected from 302 registered nurses working at Jordanian hospitals using an email survey questionnaire. Using statistical package for the social science analysis of regression to test the hypothesized model.\nFindings: The results suggest a strong relationship between two variables: perceived availability of training and perceived supervisor support for training and organizational commitment. On the other hand, the perceived benefits of training is found to be negatively related to organizational commitment. The study also confirms a strong inverse association between organizational commitment and turnover intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations and suggestions for future studies three as with all research, there are limitations to this work. First, only three employee perceptions of training are investigated in this study to include perceived availability of training, perceived supervisor support for training and perceived benefits of training. Given that employee perceptions of training include a number of factors, future research may consider other factors such as motivation to learn and co-worker support for training (Newman et al., 2011). Second, the study uses a quantitative approach. Future studies may conduct interviews to examine the relationship between the variables. Third, the data came from registered nurses working in hospitals in a single industry; to increase the generalizability of the findings, there is a need for future research in other industries in Jordan. Fourth, other attitudinal constructs in addition to organizational commitment may act as potential mediators in the relationship between employee perception of training and turnover intention. Future studies can include mediating variables such as job satisfaction (Poon, 2004) and trust in management (Whitener, 2001), which may better explain the hypothesized relationships. Finally, the findings cannot be generalized, as there is a possibility of bias because of differences in knowledge of and attitude to perceived training.\nPractical implications: The findings of the present study have implications for theory and practice. At the theoretical level, the current study adds to the body of knowledge on commitment and turnover. Specifically, the current study provides evidence of a strong or weak relationship between employee perception of training, organizational commitment and turnover intention. The research findings verify the applicability of the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960), and concurs with Fishbein and Ajzen's (1967) model of beliefs, attitude and behavioral intentions in Jordanian hospitals. From the practical aspect, the study findings urge Jordanian hospitals to enhance employee perception of training and correlated development opportunities, so as to fulfill their employees' needs and expectations in terms of organizational development. Hospitals may achieve this by providing effective and more comprehensive training programs and urging supervisors to motivate their subordinates to participate in these programs (Jehanzeb et al., 2013). This study results also confirm that perceived supervisor support is very significant to the maintenance of organizational commitment. Hospitals need to create an environment in which practicing training is highly motivated by supervisors. While supervisors are required to publicize the availability of training to the nursing workforce (Ha et al., 2014). Furthermore, the study findings reveal no evidence of a link between perceived benefits of training and organizational commitment. The premise behind this result is attributed to the fact that employees believe that the benefits obtained from participating in training activities are very limited (Kadiresan et al., 2015). So, supervisors are requested to raise their awareness of the benefits to be gained from participating in training programs. The role of supervisors here is very important, they should also unfreeze the old concerns of individuals through positive approach by communicating aggressively about the benefits of training. Moreover, hospitals need to focus more on promoting better relations between training and career development (Newman et al., 2011). Finally, the study results suggest that organizational commitment is negatively related to turnover intention. So, to increase organizational commitment, the hospitals' management should first, design more effective in house training, as well as motivate their nursing workforce, and financially support external training programs that will foster the nurses' skills and knowledge. Second, create a culture of commitment to reinforce the relationship with nursing workforce and encourage them to consider the hospital as a family to which they belong (Diab and Ajlouni, 2015). Finally, the work and environmental conditions must be improved through the provision of career development and promotion opportunities (Silva and Dias, 2016).\nOriginality/value: This study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the literature, as it addresses an essential and not so well researched issue in Jordan a developing Arab country in Middle East. The paper investigates the interaction between employee perceptions of training, organizational commitment and turnover intention of registered nurses in Jordanian Hospitals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Financial access and economic development: the moderating role of financial consumer protection	[ "Economic development", "Financial access", "Financial consumer protection" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent reports indicate that the financial inclusion efforts instituted by the International Monetary Fund since 2004 are yielding fruits. Rutledge (2010), for instance, reported that before the global financial crisis, about 150m new consumers of financial services join the global market every year. According to the World Bank (2014), the number of financially excluded fell from 2.5bn in 2011 to 2bn in 2014. The World Bank (2013) also reports that from 2005 to 2011 the number of depositors in Bangladesh doubled, adding 16.9m new financial consumers to the financial market. In Peru, 5.2m new depositors were added over the period 2005-2011.\n2. Econometric methodology: 2.1 Data\n3. Discussion of results: 3.1 White adjusted least squares regression results\n4. Conclusions, policy implications and recommendations: Over the past decade, FCP has come to the forefront of international development strategy following evidence that the lack of effective disclosure, deceptive advertising by suppliers of financial services and failure to understand financial products were contributory factors to the subprime mortgage crisis and its attendant bank runs in the USA (Ardic et al., 2011). Coupled with the increasing array and complexity of financial products and services, increased onus being put on consumers to take their own financial decisions, as well as the global agenda of broadening financial access it has become increasingly important to have a legal and regulatory framework for the protection of financial consumers. Proponents argue that FCP enhances access to financial services through its disclosure requirements, which remove information asymmetry and ensure consumers are informed, confident, and, hence, more willing to participate in financial markets (Davies, 1999), whereas critics argue that the cost of complying with consumer protection regulations makes the cost of financial products and services high and out of reach of several people fostering financial exclusion, which is inimical to economic development (Evans and Wright, 2010; Wright and Helland, 2011).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of financial consumer protection (FCP) in the access-development nexus.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on cross-country data on 102 countries surveyed in the World Bank Global Survey on FCP and Financial Literacy (2013). The White heteroscedasticity adjusted regressions and Two-stage least squares regressions (2SLS) are used for the estimation.\nFindings: Interactions between FCP regulations that foster fair treatment, disclosure, dispute resolution and recourse and financial access have positive net effects on economic development. However, there is no sufficient evidence to suggest that interactions between financial access and enforcement and compliance monitoring regulations have a significant effect on economic development.\nPractical implications: First, policy makers should continue with efforts aimed at instituting FCP regimes as part of strategies aimed at broadening access to financial services for enhanced economic development. Second, instituting FCP regimes per se may not be enough. Policy makers need to consider possible intervening factors such as the provision of adequate resources and supervisory authority, for compliance monitoring and enforcement to achieve the expected positive effect on economic development.\nOriginality/value: This study extends evidence in the law-finance-growth literature by providing empirical evidence on the effect of legal institution specific to the protection of retail financial consumers on the access-development nexus using a nouvel data set, the World Bank Global survey on FCP and Financial Literacy (2013).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Storytelling sustains a sharing culture at Sarkuysan: High levels of trust and commitment at Turkish copper manufacturer	[ "Knowledge management", "Corporate culture", "Storytelling", "Trust", "Incentives (psychology)" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Five entrepreneurs made an unusual plea to potential investors when setting up their copper-manufacturing business in 1972. They advertised in a Turkish national newspaper: \"Call for shareholders. Come and join us! Our new company has absolutely no property or investment: its guarantee is the honor and dignity of its founders.\"\nThe importance of storytelling: The story of its founding fathers is one of the four central pillars of its organizational culture - the others are continuity, loyalty and trust - and a key reason for the success of knowledge management at the firm.Storytelling is a powerful tool to appeal to both the hearts and minds of employees. Leaders can use it to help employees to make sense of the increasingly complex, fast-changing and uncertain business world. With almost all the company founders still on the executive board, they continue to tell stories about the days, more than 30 years ago, when the company was established. This helps to reinforce its corporate culture - one based less on individual acquisitiveness and more on co-operation, trust and respect. Executives who have joined the company more recently still use storytelling to teach management values, generate principles and beliefs and encourage shifts in employee attitudes and behaviors.\nEmployee retention: The second pillar on which the Sarkuysan culture rests is the \"rational commitment\" of its employees to the company. In contrast to firms where employees are considered a commodity that can be bought and sold, subject to the prevailing economic climate and the availability of good people in the market, Sarkuysan attaches major importance to retaining its personnel.The company, with a policy of lifetime employment and promotion from within, has created conditions where employees understand and know each other well. People help each other, time and again, without expecting immediate return. Career planning tends to be performed within the company. Workers can become master craftsmen and technicians, depending on their abilities. One manager commented: \"In my 11 years with Sarkuysan, I can hardly remember a manager who was employed from outside the company.\"Some 475 of the firm's 550 employees have been there for five years or more. Labor turnover is only 1.48 percent a year among blue-collar workers and 3.49 percent among managers.\nKeeping employees emotionally committed: Sarkuysan invests in its employees to keep them emotionally committed. In particular, it provides free training not only on topics directly related to employees' jobs, but also on subjects to enhance their life skills. At monthly \"life workshops\", psychologists and others speak on matters such as marriage, relationships and child rearing.Another way in which Sarkuysan takes employees' families into account is by inviting spouses to the factory twice a year, where the medical advisor offers advice and workshops on basic health issues, such as first aid. The company provides scholarships to all the children of employees who pass the university entrance examination and take up higher education.The company holds monthly parties for employees celebrating their birthdays. Sarkuysan management also offers financial and emotional support to employees who have suffered family bereavement.\nCreating a sense of identity and trust: The emotional commitment that Sarkuysan employees feel helps to foster a sense of identity and trust, and greater openness.Good leadership is needed to create an organization that works collaboratively. A sharing culture is more likely to develop when top managers lead by example and demonstrate their willingness to share their knowledge.Senior executives at Sarkuysan seek to be as open as possible when deciding, for example, whom to hire and promote. They also publicly demonstrate commitment to, and support for, employees who practice the principles of knowledge management. Top management is not a distant authority at the firm, but visible and active in its day-to-day affairs. Employees have easy access to their managers, who show a willingness to share information and knowledge freely and to seek it from others in the organization. Knowledge is transferred in brainstorming sessions as well as one-to-one conversations.After each project is completed, team members hold a final meeting to capture the knowledge gained and ensure it becomes an asset for future projects. The focus, in these meetings, is not on mistakes that may have been made, but on improvement opportunities. As the culture of the company breeds trust, people are more willing to talk about improvements.Some 250 of Sarkuysan's 550 employees are blue-collar workers. Around 90 percent of these are graduates of technical high schools. Potential employees are selected using a triple test, in which the mathematical abilities and general knowledge of the candidates are assessed. In co-operation with the Gebze Institute of High Technology, the company also uses psycho-technical tests to select employees. For high-level staff, personality tests are applied, while recommendations are also taken into consideration for the most senior appointments.\nThe reward system: \"Knowledge that does not become available to a wider public begins to rot in its own container,\" one manager commented. \"Still waters rot, flowing water is healthy and spreads good health.\" For knowledge sharing to become a common practice in an organization, its reward system has to encourage this. Sarkuysan has a system under which employees at every level are encouraged to make proposals for improvement. The company emphasizes non-monetary recognition and rewards for accomplishment. Proposals are made as a group and each proposal is honored at the end of the month with a gold pin or crystal statue. All members of the group are commended for their contribution. Special achievement awards are given six times a year; the emotional value of these prizes is high.\nComment: This review is based on \"A cultural perspective on knowledge management: the success story of Sarkuysan company\", by Dilek Zamantili Nayir, and Ulku Uzuncarsili, both of the Department of Business Administration in the German Language, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey. The article examines how effective knowledge management, combined with a supportive corporate culture, has enabled Sarkuysan to cope successfully with business challenges. While most knowledge-management case studies are on multinational companies with western management structures, this one is on an emerging-market firm. It focuses on knowledge management as a cultural issue rather than as an information-technology problem.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to reveal how effective knowledge-management practices, combined with a supportive corporate culture, have helped Turkish copper company Sarkuysan to cope successfully with the challenges it has faced.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper draws on interviews with senior managers of the company, plus company reports, bulletins and its official web site.\nFindings: - The paper reveals that labor turnover at the firm is only 1.48 percent among blue-collar workers and 3.49 percent among managers. Top management is not a distant authority at the firm, but visible and active in its day-to-day affairs. Communication is open and levels of trust are high. The reward system recognizes group, rather than individual, achievement.\nPractical implications: - The paper presents a company that combines four core values (storytelling, continuity, loyalty and trust) with two support factors (top-management support and an appropriate reward system) to achieve a high level of success in knowledge management.\nOriginality/value: - The paper describes how knowledge management is applied in an emerging-market context, and focuses on the topic as a cultural issue rather than one that demands complex information technology.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Power distance and its moderating role in the relationship between situational job characteristics and job satisfaction: An empirical analysis using different cultural measures	[ "Culture", "Job characteristics", "Job satisfaction", "Power distance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: An unequal distribution of status and power is a central characteristic of organisations. However, the acceptance and endorsement of authority, status privileges and power differences varies across national cultures (Carl et al., 2004; Hofstede, 1980). This has important implications for international human resource management, because job characteristics related to status and power are perceived differently across cultures. Accordingly, the importance of these factors for job motivation and employee satisfaction should differ across cultures. For instance, since employees in cultures high in power distance are used to receiving instructions from their supervisors, a lack of autonomy may not have a great influence on their job satisfaction. In contrast, autonomy is supposed to be more crucial for job satisfaction in cultures low in power distance, because employees prefer to work independently (e.g. Fock et al., 2013; Huang and Van de Vliert, 2003; Hui et al., 2004). Similar arguments can be derived for other aspects related to status and power, such as advancement opportunities, income and relationships to management and colleagues. Thus, it can be assumed that the degree of power distance within a culture moderates the influence that situational job characteristics have on job satisfaction.\nTheoretical background: Job satisfaction and culture\nData and method: The sample\nResults: The results of the basic situational driver model (without culture) analysed for each country individually are shown in Table III, which presents nations along established cultural clusters (starting, for instance, with the Anglo cluster). The table also provides information on the model's explanatory power in different nations: for 13 of the 16 analysed countries, it explains at least 40 per cent, and for seven countries it even explains more than 50 per cent of the variation in job satisfaction. The most important drivers of satisfaction are an interesting job and good relationships between management and subordinates, almost across all nations. Nonetheless, there are several considerable differences between the nations or cultures concerning the impact of job characteristics on satisfaction. For employees from the Philippines, for instance, low workload is most important, which is also a relevant driver in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Finland. For workers from the USA, Switzerland, France and Sweden, good relationships with colleagues are among the top drivers of job satisfaction, in contrast to all other nations. Income is among the top three drivers in Taiwan, yet it is not a significant antecedent of job satisfaction in countries such as Sweden or Finland, among others.\nDiscussion: We addressed power distance's moderating role in the relationship between situational job characteristics and job satisfaction. Our basic assumption was that the effect of different job characteristics on job satisfaction depends on power distance, because job characteristics are valued differently in cultures with different power distances. We have drawn up and empirically tested five hypotheses using three different ways to measure culture: the scores provided by Hofstede (1980), Taras et al. (2012) and GLOBE (House et al., 2004).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Power distance describes a central facet of national culture, because it influences the acceptance and endorsement of job characteristics related to status and power. This has major implications for international human resource management, because the importance of different situational job characteristics for employee job satisfaction should differ across cultures. The purpose of this paper is to analyse if and how national power distance levels moderate different situational job characteristics' influence on job satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors refer to three approaches to culture: the frameworks of Hofstede and GLOBE as well as to current scores provided in a meta-analysis. The empirical findings are derived using regression analyses on a sample covering 16 nations.\nFindings: The results are convincing regarding the basic job satisfaction driver model not involving culture. However, the results on power distance's impact as well as its moderating role are strongly dependent on the culture concepts utilised. The authors provide an analysis of differences along the measurements behind the different concepts.\nOriginality/value: The authors can conclude that national differences in job satisfaction, as found in various studies, are a result of differences in situational dispositions to work life rather than a result of different cultural surroundings in terms of power distance. The question is whether this is due to power distance's lack of impact or due to other factors, such as the difficulties of measuring culture. The authors discuss the differences which are due to different measurements. For ultimately confirming power distance's moderating role and for advancing theorizing in this field, further research, which can build on the framework offered in this paper, is needed that directly measures the individual power distance facets in addition to the job characteristics and satisfaction values.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Servitization intent as a factor in the servitization process	[ "Servitization", "Strategic intent", "Managerial tensions", "Organizational strategic intent", "Servitization intent" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Servitization, involving shifting the firm's approach from providing value through products to providing value through service-product bundles (Vandermerwe and Rada, 1988), requires a shift in how manufacturing firms deliver value and, therefore, a change in the business model (Barnett et al., 2013)[1]. This is recognized in the servitization literature which implicitly or explicitly identifies business model change as part of the servitization process (Kowalkowski and Kindstrom, 2013; Barnett et al., 2013; Visnjic and Van Looy, 2013; Kowalkowski et al., 2017). Importantly, the business model lens acts as a template to capture the firms value intentions and processes at a specific point in time (Chesbrough, 2010; Amit and Zott, 2015).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Defining intentionality, servitization intent and dissonance in servitization intent\n3. Research method: 3.1 Research approach\n4. Findings: In analyzing the coding categories, an over-riding theme emerged of a desire for servitization, or servitization intent, among the respondents and the recognition of both the importance and challenge of pursing servitization over the long term. At the same time, key managerial challenges within the organization were identified as barriers to achieving this servitization intent. A number of mechanisms for effecting change were also described. These findings are discussed in further detail in the sections below.\n5. Discussion: This research identifies a need to expand the understanding of servitization intent to minimize dissonance in intent and create greater alignment in servitization intent throughout the organization. This may require going beyond traditional approaches to cultural or management alignment (Erasmus and Weeks, 2012) to identify ways to shift the organizational intent (or gravity) to align with servitization intent. Furthermore, to effect change it may be necessary to recruit executives from outside the industry with a broader vision for the potential of servitized business models and without the myopic view-points of executives with long term industry experience.\n6. Management implications: Given the importance of organizational change to servitization (Vendrell-Herrero et al., 2014; Barnett et al., 2013; Ahamed et al., 2013), managers have to plan how they will facilitate this change process. Current research has addressed the requirements for strategic change from multiple perspectives including the potential for inertia based on existing organization archetypes (Greenwood and Hinings, 2017), the role of the discursive process on strategic change (Jaynes, 2015), behavioral processes acting as facilitators or inhibitors to servitization (Gebauer et al., 2005a), the role of organizational dynamism in adaptive business model innovation (Ricciardi et al., 2016) and transformational leadership as a requirement for business model transformation (Savic et al., 2016). While the impact of alignment between strategic intent and the organizations orientation to this strategic intent has been identified as a predictive factor for organization performance (O'Shannassy, 2016), research is lacking on the alignment of servitization intent and the organizational intent.\n7. Conclusion: The overall objective of this research was to determine what the roles of servitization intent and organizational intent have in changing from a product-centric to a service-centric business model. Three research questions were explored: RQ1, RQ2 and RQ3.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the role of servitization intent in the servitization process, and specifically the role dissonance (at an organizational level) in servitization intent can play in creating barriers to the servitization effort. Servitization intent is defined as the desire to achieve a future state of increased servitization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research uses elite interviews and secondary data to explore servitization intent and its role during the servitization process. It examines the resistance to change resulting from a misalignment of the executive intent to servitize, and the organizational intent to retain the existing manufacturing business model. By encompassing data from companies representing a significant portion of the total industry (as measured by revenue), the study provides an industry level perspective of servitization intent and alignment.\nFindings: Servitization intent and three key managerial challenges related to servitization intent that act as barriers to servitization were identified: lack of servitization intent, overcoming the manufacturing mindset associated with the organizational intent and the constraints resulting from managerial experience. Servitization intent and its associated managerial challenges were present at an industry level with consistent findings being shown across the major firms in the industry studied. A number of managerial strategies for overcoming these barriers were identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research focuses on a single industry; the findings, potentially, have application across a broad range of industries.\nPractical implications: A key management implication from these findings is the need for a clear understanding of the organizational intent in relation to servitization in addition to the need to bring this organizational intent in alignment with the executives' servitization intent.\nOriginality/value: This research makes a contribution by identifying the misalignment between servitization intent in different levels of the organization during the servitization process and the mechanisms that can improve alignment and help effect servitization.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The impact of country-of-origin image on brand loyalty: evidence from Iran	[ "Generation Y", "Brand loyalty", "Brand attitude", "Country-of-origin image", "Product-origin facet congruency" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The meaning of a brand exists in the minds of consumers (Homer, 2008). Brands help companies to develop loyalty (Reisenwitz and Gupta, 2011) through providing the primary points of differentiation between competitive offerings (Li, 2010; Molina et al., 2009). In recent years, the brand loyalty concept has been extended to a product's country-of-origin (COO) image (Bruwer et al., 2014) and scholars have made some attempts to devise an integrated theory of how COO image information works in forming consumers' attitudes and expressing their purchase intentions (Laroche et al., 2005). COO image as a part of the product's total image could play the role of a surrogate for product characteristics that cannot be evaluated directly. It is an intangible obstacle that a product or service confronts when entering a new market (Bruwer et al., 2014).\nTheory and hypotheses development: Brand loyalty\nMethodology: First, a structural equation modeling method was employed based on data collected from subjects to test proposed model without considering the moderator variable. In next steps, analysis was conducted using hierarchical regression analysis - that is used to compare successive regression models, each adding more predictors (Lindenberger and Potter, 1998) - with a two-way interaction and a slope analysis (Aiken and West, 1991) to examine the moderating effect of product-origin congruency on the relationship between consumers' perception from COO technology advancement and brand attitude.\nResults: From 450 distributed questionnaires, 419 usable questionnaires were obtained. The majority of respondents (52.6 percent) were female. Around 15.3 percent of the respondents were born between 1977 and 1982, 38 percent between 1983 and 1988 and 46.7 percent between 1989 and 1994.\nDiscussion and implications: This study presented and tested a model of COO image effect on brand loyalty for the luxury brands on Generation Y consumers. This generation was chosen because they form more than one third of Iran's population. The results of hypotheses testing indicated a positive and direct effect of brand attitude on brand loyalty, as previous studies (Esmaeilpour, 2015; Eren-Erdogmus and Budeyri-Turan, 2012; Liu et al., 2012). Among the three constructs of COO image, including cultural assets, fashion equity and technology advancement; only technology advancement had a positive and significant effect on brand attitude. The results of Jung et al. (2014) study showed that Japanese consumers evaluate products only based on technology advancement construct of COO image too. Cultural assets and fashion equity did not affect brand attitude. Consumers' perception from COO technology advancement also had a positive effect on brand loyalty mediated by brand attitude. This study also employed two-way interaction analysis to test the effect of interaction of consumers' perception from COO technology advancement and product-origin facet congruency on brand attitude. The results argued that perceived product-origin facet congruency is critical in determining the effect of consumers' perception from COO technology advancement on their brand attitudes. According to slope analysis, this effect is stronger when perceived product-origin facet congruency is high. This finding supports Josiassen and Assaf's (2010) research.\nLimitations of the study and future research direction: The context of this study is limited to Iran. Different cultural and economic experiences in different countries may cause varied characteristics in Generation Y's consumers. One of the criteria for categorizing generations is the use of media and the most dominant ones during their lifetime. Due to the historical delay in the entrance and publicity of modern information and communication technologies in Iran compared with the western societies, the emergence of different generations based on their use of new media has been delayed as well, qua some have claimed that, in Iran, Generation Y are those born after 1990. So, results of this study should be interpreted with caution for other countries. Moreover the data were only collected using university students in order to keep relative homogeneity in age, intelligence and income. Therefore, an important part of Generation Y's consumers were ignored.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of country-of-origin (COO) image on brand attitude and brand loyalty of Generation Y's consumers toward two categories of luxury fashion brands.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, a structural equation modeling method was employed based on data collected from 419 individuals born between 1977 and 1994 in Iran. In next steps, analysis was conducted using hierarchical regression analysis with a two-way interaction and a slope analysis. Watches and sunglasses are two luxury product categories chosen in this study.\nFindings: The findings of the study reveal that consumers' perception from COO technology advancement is the determinant of attitude toward luxury brands. COO technology advancement also, mediated by brand attitude, has an indirect positive effect on luxury brand loyalty. Moreover, the interaction between COO technology advancement and product-origin congruency has a significant and positive effect on consumers' brand attitude.\nOriginality/value: This study has tried to investigate the impact of the constructs of the COO image on attitude and loyalty toward luxury brands in Generation Y. It has also dealt with the effect of product-origin congruency on the relationship between each one of the constructs of the COO image and brand attitude.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Making sense of research quality assessment	[ "Research", "Performance measures", "Quality assessment", "Universities", "United Kingdom" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research assessment exercises (RAEs) which assess the quality of research in UK universities have a dominant influence on the outlook, behaviour and fortunes of universities, departments and individual academics. Despite extensive discussion there has been little systematic analysis of the extensive data gathered and published in the course of those exercises. Analysis of that data could be helpful; first, testing what might be viewed as truisms about the RAE; second, systematically identifying issues for those compiling future RAE submissions; and, third, stimulating debate about the conduct of RAEs.This paper provides an analysis of quantitative information from two RAEs. It considers the relationship between a department's performance and measures of its research activity. Such analysis is timely. With the increasing cost of RAEs there is much interest in metrics to measure a department's research achievements between RAEs and even to replace them.A previous paper, based on information submitted to the 1996 RAE (termed RAE1996) for the subjects of the built environment and town and country planning demonstrated an uncomplicated relationship between the performance of a submission for a subject (termed department), in terms of grade awarded and measures of activity (Lansley, 1999). These measures were based on, employment of dedicated researchers, research student activity, publications, and research earnings. Not only did the resulting model account for a substantial amount of the variation between the grades awarded but it had considerable face validity.This paper considers information submitted for built environment and town and country planning to RAE1996 and RAE2001, and for archaeology, geography and civil engineering to RAE2001. It investigates:* whether the relationships established for built environment and town and country planning in RAE1996 continued to hold for RAE2001;* the similarity of relationships between performance and activity indicators across the five subject areas; and* the implications of modifications to the conduct of the next RAE, in 2008.The three other subjects were chosen because of frequent debates about the grouping of subject areas in the RAE, for example that built environment should be combined with or placed alongside civil engineering. Although RAE2008 will have a much stronger grouping of subjects than previously, in the event civil engineering has been placed with other engineering subjects. Built environment, but with its name changed to architecture and built environment, and town and country planning have been grouped with geography and environmental studies and archaeology. The main panel to which they will report will take a major role in ensuring the consistent operation of the sub-panels and determining the methods for interpretation and balancing of evidence.\nRAEs and their implications: Briefly, RAEs are carried out to judge the quality of research in all UK universities. Universities make submissions in those subject areas most aligned to their research activities, omitting those where they are not active or research is weak. Each subject has an expert panel, which in the past two RAEs have graded submissions on a seven-point scale (Table I). RAE2008 will adopt a significantly modified grading system.The information considered by panels includes summaries of staffing, details of research students, studentships and higher degree awards, research income and publications and a textual summary of the approach of a department to research, its achievements and future plans. The information is centred particularly on the activities and achievements of individual research active members of staff, both singly and collectively.Preparations for each RAE by the higher education funding bodies are extensive. The compilation of the information required for a submission by a university consumes significant resources. The incentive for making submissions is considerable, as part of the government funding to each university is based on RAE performance. There is a funding formula linking the number of research active academic staff in each subject and the grade awarded in that subject. The higher the grade the greater the return but where a grade is modest or low there is no income. A high grade leads to better funding from government and externally, for example, assisting the securing of research funds from many sources, and the recruitment of high calibre staff and top quality research students. In short, the income and other benefits arising from good research performance are considerable. For those academics operating in departments which do not achieve high grades there may be little funding available for research, difficulties finding time for research, writing, travelling or networking.Key data from the last three RAEs (Table II) shows how substantially the characteristics of those participating in the RAE have changed. RAE2001 saw a decline in the number of departments submitted compared with RAE1996 and in the total number of research active staff returned. Across built environment departments the total number of research students stabilised; for town & country planning they fell. On the other hand, income from research councils and from other sources increased substantially. Research has become more concentrated.\nThe study: The study enquired whether:* The relationships between grade awarded and measures of activity identified for built environment and town and country planning in RAE1996 were repeated for RAE2001.* There were similarities between the relationships between grade and activities which might be determined for several cognate subjects considered by RAE2001.RAE1996\nRAE2001: With each successive RAE there has been a more demanding relationship between the grades achieved and the resulting funding, with successive RAEs increasingly favouring high-grade departments. Thus, it would be naive to expect the strategies adopted by high-grade departments in RAE1996 to have continued to be successful for RAE2001. Greater concentration in research effort would be expected, reflected in terms of the size of departments, numbers returned, and those submitted, so as not to compromise a department's grade. Considerations of quality over quantity would have increasingly prevailed, not least stimulated by government debates about universities.For example, for the analysis of RAE1996 it was conjectured that having a high number of research students would need to be supplements by a high number of studentships and awards. In RAE2001 the time taken to complete doctorates would be a more valuable indicator. Further, income from research councils would become an increasingly important indicator given the intense competition for such funds, while income from other sources would be less valued than in RAE1996. A healthy research culture probably requires that in addition to research students a department will employ research assistants, most usually funded by research income. However whereas in RAE1996 being able to demonstrate that a foundation for such a culture existed through simple head counts, by RAE2001 there was stronger expectation that there would be coherent research groups, thus shifting attention from quantitative to qualitative indicators. For publications many issues would be at play. In some areas conference papers, long derided as an indicator of serious activity started to reappear as chapters in books of proceedings, but were still less valued. Journals which had matured during the early 1990s offered a wider range of opportunities for credible refereed publications than previously.These considerations are just a few of the factors which suggest that the relationships found for RAE1996 would not have prevailed for RAE2001. Nevertheless there remains the argument that grade and levels of activity would be related, and that quality and activity tend to go together.Built environment and town and country planning\nFurther analyses: Architecture\nRAE2008: RAE2008 will adopt a new grading system whereby a department will be assessed on the basis of aggregating judgements of quality in three broad areas (research outputs, research environment and esteem indicators). Each of these judgements will be presented as a profile distributed across five levels (Table XI). The distributions for each profile will be combined into a final distribution with the profile for research outputs being given considerably more weight than research environment and esteem.The terminology also differs. RAE2001 used the term internationally excellent and nationally excellent to define grades. RAE2008 uses the terms world leading, internationally excellent, recognised internationally and recognised nationally. If nationally excellent work (terminology of RAE2001) is likely to be recognised internationally (terminology of RAE2008) then a tentative mapping of the two scales can be constructed linking the definitions of performance for RAE2001 and RAE2008 (Table XII).For example, \"research quality that equates to attainable levels of international excellence in a majority of sub areas of activity\" (5, RAE2001) could be judged as 4 and 3* in RAE2008. While \"attainable levels of national excellence in all others\" would indicate mostly 2* and some 1. Similarly, for \"research quality that equates to attainable levels of national excellence in the majority of sub-areas of activity\" (3b, RAE2001) could be represented by a high proportion of 2 and 1* work but some would be unclassified.For the most part, while highly correlated with performance, by themselves the individual measures established earlier for RAE2001 were not particularly good predictors of performance. Yet in combination they were. Because the proposed weighting of research outputs, research environment and esteem indicators will give considerable weight to research outputs, typically 70 per cent, it will be interesting to see whether this indicator will be based on the quality of the publications submitted rather than the quality of the work reported or whether a broader interpretation of outputs will be adopted. For example, will an objectively argued and rigorously presented description of an internationally excellent activity which has had an impact on policy and practice, but published in a modest journal, receive as much recognition as a narrowly focused analytical exercise in a leading journal? Assessment of the former will require the exercise of a great deal of judgement and may require reference to information contained in parts of a submission other than that concerned with outputs. Since this additional information could also influence the assessment of the research environment and esteem indicators, and so should be discounted from consideration of outputs, that influence would be of limited value because these have much less weight than the assessment of outputs.If a narrow interpretation of outputs, represented in the model by publications, is adopted, then the research environment indicator will need to reflect the qualities attached to the culture of a department especially its size and staffing, the research students and their performance and research support, including research income. This study has shown that these elements account for a very substantial amount of the variation between grades, yet in RAE2008 their implied importance could be limited. The third element is esteem indicators. Most probably this is best reflected by the differences between the predicted and actual grades when applying the model although these will also reflect other factors. These also account for much of the variation between grades, yet in RAE2008 they too may play a minor role.These considerations raise issues about both the degree of importance to be placed on outputs, the manifestation of research activity which is the most difficult to understand, model and rationalise. Yet, if the distributions awarded in RAE2008 are to have credibility they will need to be supported by alternative independent analyses. Findings which do not make sense to an informed public will be undermined.\nConclusion: The paper shows that a simple model accounts for a large proportion of the variation between grades awarded in RAE2001. The model is consistent with that developed for RAE1996 although the definition of the measures has been modified to take account of the changing research environment. In essence the model confirms the importance of size, publications, research student performance and research council income as strongly related to good performance for all subjects analysed. There are interesting differences between subjects. For example, given identical profiles on the four measures, built environment tended to be awarded lower grades than other subjects. It also suggests why civil engineering may not be compatible with built environment and town and country planning in a grouping of subjects.There are both similarities and differences between the subject areas which have been grouped with built environment and town and country planning for RAE2008. While a unified approach to assessing these subjects might be appropriate, the high range of influences on performance need to be recognised.The finding that performance can be related to a combination of measures of activity, none of which dominates, highlights some difficulties for RAE2008. Equating the measures developed in this paper too closely to the ingredients to be considered in RAE2008 may be dangerous. However, it is suggested that outputs may be given too much importance and other ingredients insufficiently recognised.If the assessed quality of a department can neither be related to activity in a simple way nor confirmed by other independent alternative analyses, then judgements of panels will be criticised. The methodology presented in this paper should be broadly applicable to RAE2008 and helpful for confirming those judgements.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - For many academics in UK universities the nature and orientation of their research is overwhelmingly determined by considerations of how that work will be graded in research assessment exercises (RAEs). The grades awarded to work in a particular subject area can have a considerable impact on the individual and their university. There is a need to better understand those factors which may influence these grades. The paper seeks to address this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper considers relationships between the grades awarded and the quantitative information provided to the assessment panels for the 1996 and 2001 RAEs for two subject areas, built environment and town and country planning, and for three other subject areas, civil engineering, geography and archaeology, in the 2001 RAE.\nFindings: - A simple model demonstrating strong and consistent relationships is established. RAE performance relates to numbers of research active staff, the production of books and journal papers, numbers of research studentships and graduations, and research income. Important differences between subject areas are identified.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Important issues are raised about the extent to which the new assessment methodology to be adopted for the 2008 RAE will capture the essence of good quality research in architecture and built environment.\nOriginality/value: - The findings provide a developmental perspective of RAEs and show how, despite a changed methodology, various research activities might be valued in the 2008 RAE. The basis for a methodology for reviewing the credibility of the judgements of panels is proposed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Developing individual and organisational work-life balance strategies to improve employee health and wellbeing	[ "Workplace", "Personal health", "Stress", "Australia", "Strategic choices", "Health", "Attitudes", "Individual", "Queensland", "Organization", "Work-life balance (WLB)", "Wellbeing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The purpose of this study is to investigate both individual and organisational factors relating to work-life balance (WLB) that may influence levels of employee health and wellbeing. Literature identifies that employee health and wellbeing can be affected by many factors, such as work stress, degree of job control by individual employees, conflict between work and life, and lack of organisational support (e.g. Christopher, 2001; Halpern, 2005; Wang et al., 2008; Daley et al., 2009; Hilton et al., 2009; DiRenzo et al., 2011; Skinner and Pocock, 2011), apart from demographic variables such as age and gender (Chiang and Cohen, 1973; Eby et al., 2005). According to prior studies, there is a connection between employee wellbeing, an individual's ability to manage interface between work and life, and organisational WLB policy support. However, is it an individual or an organisational responsibility to manage employee health and wellbeing? The answer to this question is not clear in prior studies. The current research focuses on addressing this important research question.\n2. Literature review and development of hypotheses: 2.1. Employee health, wellbeing and WLB\n3. Research methods: In order to test the hypotheses proposed in Section 2, a large scale population survey was conducted, via telephone interview, to collect the data related to individual characteristics, the perception of individuals' WLB strategies and organisational provision of WLB programmes, in addition to information about individuals' current health condition, stress level and overall thoughts on WLB issues. In this section, we outline the data collection process, which explains the target population, sampling strategy and final survey responses. We also discuss the measurement of each variable used in the hypotheses testing.\n4. Results: Table I provides an overview of means and correlations of all dependent and independent variables included in the study. The reliability analysis of 13 items of independent variables indicates Cronbach's a-values of 0.83, suggesting a reasonable internal consistency and reliability of these variables.\n5. Discussion: This study addresses the key issue of individual vs organisational responsibility in managing employee health, wellbeing and WLB. Different from prior research in the field of WLB, which often focused on either individual characteristics or organisational effort in managing work and family interface (e.g. Steinmetz et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2008; Adkins and Premeaux, 2012), our study tested the combined effects of both individual and organisational effort on perceived employee health, wellbeing and WLB. The results from our current study are significant as they broaden our understanding of the importance of designing and developing appropriate organisational WLB policies and programmes tailored to each individual's specific situation. In the remaining section, we outline several theoretical and practical contributions of our study.\n6. Conclusion: This paper highlights the importance of using individual WLB strategies to address health and wellbeing issues at workplaces. Our findings imply that public policy remains necessary to support individuals and communities in addressing the health issue, whilst organisations should focus more on employee wellbeing and WLB. We also recommend that existing organisational provision of WLB policies/programmes requires further re-evaluation and modification to be effective. This is because employee wellbeing and WLB appear to be influenced both by individual and organisational effort, with organisational strategy in this area likely to be complemented by several HRM strategies, such as recruitment and selection, professional training and mentoring, job design and re-design, and inter-group communication to address the generational workforce gaps.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Work-life balance (WLB) is an issue of focus for organisations and individuals because individuals benefit from having better health and wellbeing when they have WLB and this, in turn, impacts on organisational productivity and performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore relevant WLB factors contributing to employee health and wellbeing, and to understand the interactive effects of individual WLB strategies and organisational WLB policies/programmes on improving employee health and wellbeing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using the data collected from 700 employees located in Queensland, Australia, multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the variables related to individual WLB strategies and organisational WLB programmes. Several multiple regression models were used to evaluate interrelated relationships among these variables and their combined effects on employee health and wellbeing.\nFindings: The authors found that employees exercising their own WLB strategies showed better health conditions and wellbeing that those who do not; they were also more capable of achieving WLB. Both availability and usage of organisational WLB programmes were found to help employees reduce their stress levels, but interestingly to have no direct association with WLB and employee health. Several control variables such as age, working hours, education level and household incomes were found to have moderate effects on employee health and wellbeing.\nOriginality/value: Employee health and wellbeing are determined by multiple factors. In distinguishing from prior research in this field, this study discovers an important interface between individual WLB strategies and organisational provision of WLB policies/programmes supplemented by several exogenous factors in addressing overall employee health and wellbeing. The results have implications for organisational delivery of WLB policies and other human resource management practices to support employees.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Travelling inner landscapes: a longitudinal study on transcultural identity development	[ "South Africa", "Longitudinal study", "Identity", "Identity development", "Transcultural environment", "Transcultural identity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Cor nostrum inquietum est, donec requiescat in te.\nIntroduction: Across their lifespan, individuals strive to create a balanced and healthy identity concept which functions optimally in transcultural contexts. In constructing identities, the diversity of values, perceptions and subjective interpretations of interactions and attitudes becomes apparent. Particularly in transcultural environments, diverse identity aspects require an integrative and including attitude to develop a healthy form of identity (Mayer and Boness, 2009; Mayer and Boness, 2013). Identities are tied contextually to personal and societal structures, as well as to historical circumstances, and inner and outer constructions of the self and others (Mayer, 2008).\nThe contribution of this paper: The contribution of this paper is to increase the understanding of the complexity of identity constructions by exploring how a selected individual defines himself across a period of ten years. It contributes to the existing literature by studying a particular individual over a long period of time, focusing on his patchwork of identity. It also provides insight into how he responds to the question \"Who am I?\". The paper shows the identity and its development within the \"in-between\" of common societal identity definitions in terms of race, gender, religion and profession.\nThe South African context: South Africa has undergone tremendous change at national and international levels in the post-apartheid era (Hart, 2002), increasing perceptions of cultural complexity. Owing to this increase, hybrid (transcultural) identities are required to transform the historical and racial identity constructions (Luthans et al., 2004). Transcultural identities do not only encompass differences in visible characteristics such as race, gender and ethnicity, but also include aspects such as religion, professional background and sexual preference to construct multiple identities (Keupp, 1994; Mayer, 2008).\nSocial constructivist views on identity: This paper views identity from a social constructivist approach of identity research and highlights that identity is constructed by actors in terms of structures, identity formation and identity boundaries (Cepel, 2011). Identity is a dynamic concept that integrates sameness and difference and is connected to the terms identical and identification (Lawler, 2008).\nIdentity in South Africa: Post-apartheid studies on identity, diversity, culture and race in South Africa (e.g. Booysen, 2007; Steyn, 2001; Zimitri, 2001) and have shown that social changes have impacted on identities (Booysen and Nkomo, 2007). However, identity in terms of ethnicity and discrimination still need to be tackled (Kamoche, 2011). Identity in South Africa is, according to a qualitative sociological study of Kotze (1997, pp. 7-8), defined as follows: 35 per cent as racially (white, coloured, black or Indian), 38 per cent as culturally (here ethnically) and 6.8 per cent as religiously defined, and 1.5 per cent defined by language. Ethnic and racial identities are still of major importance (Mayer, 2011). Mare (1993) points out that there is a strong need to express cultural diversity on the one hand, and that attention needs to be given to the manipulation and politicization of ethnicity on the other.\nResearch methodology: Research strategy\nResearch findings: In the following section, findings show the emic perspective of a selected individual through direct quotations and interpretations. Identity aspects that were prioritized by A.R. during certain life times were chosen to be presented. Interpretations will be presented through the reconstruction of the author's text.\nBackground information: In 2002 A.R., a male handyman, turned 40 years old. He was born in Cape Town, as the first-born son of a Capetonian mother and a Zimbabwean father. After his third birthday his father returned to Zimbabwe, taking him with him. A.R. grew up in Zimbabwe and lived there for the next 27 years without contact with his mother. He adopted Shona as his mother tongue and English as his second language. In Zimbabwe, he lived with an aunt. He experienced discrimination from his father's side of the family who did not accept him as a family member due to different racial features and the fact that he had been circumcized (A.R., 2002). His father died when he was 15 years old. He started consuming alcohol.\nDiscussion: The findings show that the key informant A.R. strives to create a balanced and healthy identity which functions optimally for him. During the research period, he constructs and reconstructs himself in terms of a multiple identity (Keupp, 1994), referring to a diversity of values, perceptions and subjective interpretations of interactions and attitudes across cultural divides (Mayer, 2008). As pointed out in the literature (Mayer, 2008), humans are contextually, personally and socially tied to the structures in which they grew up and lived, and this is also true of A.R. He defines himself within the tension of individual as well as social identity concepts (Lindgren and Wahlin, 2001). Across the longitudinal time of research, A.R.'s identity narration seems to be as fractioned and complex as South African contemporary society with regard to the influence of national South African and Zimbabwean, local (Capetonian) and individual (parental and individual) identity concepts as described by Albert et al. (2000). In interpreting and explaining his ideas, thoughts, behaviours and decisions, A.R. aims to make sense of himself and his identity concept by explaining the inherent complexity and ambiguities of his identity to manage his life and conduct (Keupp, 2004a).\nConclusion: The aim of this paper was to increase the understanding of a selected complex identity construction by exploring how a selected individual defines himself across longitudinal time. It shows the construction of identity within the \"in-between\" states by expanding socio-cultural identity definitions in terms of race, gender, religion and profession and thereby contributes to reflecting issues of diversity and includion. The paper thus helps to fill the void of longitudinal identity research in the selected context.\nImplications for future research and practice: Two main research questions were asked in this study: how identity is created over a period of ten years and how identity develops within the defined time frame. Future studies on the longitudinal development and construction of identity in highly hybrid and transcultural settings are needed to explore identity dynamics, processes, \"in-between\" states and nomadic identities in various contexts and cultural settings of society. This is particularly important in the multicultural post-apartheid context which seems to be fragmented, ambivalent and contradictory. These fragments, contradictions and ambivalences need to be brought to consciousness to become part of South African identity discourses beyond racial, cultural and class lines.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate insights into the identity construction and development of a selected single male individual in Cape Town, South Africa. It aims at increasing the in-depth understanding of the complexities of identity construction in a transcultural setting and provides emic perspectives on a micro-individual level over a period of ten years.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research study is based on the post-modernist premise by considering phenomenological and interpretative paradigms most relevant. It is a longitudinal study, conducted with a single individual over a period of ten years by using various research methods as well as triangulation of methods, theories and data. Data were analysed through content analysis.\nFindings: This research provides in-depth information on the struggle of a single person to construct and re-construct his identity and find answers to the question \"Who am I?\" in the multifaceted and hypercomplex transcultural environment of Cape Town. It shows the attempts to developing a coherent multiple identity over a period of ten years, reconstructing the past, creating the present and envisioning the future.\nPractical implications: This research has practical implications for practitioners working with identity (development) in transcultural settings. It provides important in-depth information on \"nomadic identities\" for coaching, counselling or therapies in transcultural settings.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides new and original insights into long-term identity development of an individual in a transcultural urban space.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Job satisfaction and union participation in China: Developing and testing a mediated moderation model	[ "China", "Job satisfaction", "Union commitment", "Trade unions", "Union participation", "Labour relations climate" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Chinese unions are regarded as significantly different from their counterparts in most other industrialised countries (Zhu et al., 2011; Hui and Chan, 2015). Chinese unions are called unions \"with Chinese characteristics\", which means these unions play a \"two-way transmission belt\" role between the employer and the employees, maintaining labour discipline and improving productivity along with defending labour rights (Chen, 2010; Friedman, 2012). Moreover, unions in China organise and operate differently from unions in industrialised countries in three ways: vertical hierarchical structure, lack of independence and limited rights to go on strike (Budd et al., 2014).\n2. Theory and hypotheses: 2.1 Job satisfaction, union participation and union commitment\n3. Methods: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Results: Table I presents the means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients for all variables of interest. According to Tsui et al. (1995), multicollinearity is generally not a problem if the correlation coefficient does not exceed 0.75. From Table I, we can see that our data passed this test.\n5. Discussions and implications: As China has made dramatic social and economic transitions to comply with the urge of employees and government requirements, Chinese unions have re-emphasised their representative role to protect labour interests. The issue of re-evaluating employees' recognition and awareness of unions has raised concern (Chang and Brown, 2013; Chan and Snape, 2013). The main contribution of our study was to verify that Chinese employees have realized unions' representative role and regard unions as an alternative supportive resource to cope with their discontent at work. Our findings enrich the empirical results of Chinese union studies and demonstrate the necessity of examining both micro-level mechanisms and macro-level features to get a complete picture of China's current union system. Moreover, the results suggest that, regardless of the substantial institutional differences between Chinese unions and their foreign counterparts, common points do exist when estimating from an individual perspective. Thus, our approach to analysing unions \"with Chinese characteristics\" (Zhu et al., 2011) also helps to extend prior union studies in other countries.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer empirical evidence on whether and how the work experiences of employees in China influence their union-related attitudes and behaviours.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors developed a mediated moderation model to examine how job satisfaction and labour relations climate interactively affect union participation and whether union commitment mediates the interactive effects. A total of 585 employees from enterprises in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian province of China were surveyed to verify the model.\nFindings: Job satisfaction was negatively related to union participation and union commitment. Labour relations climate moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and union participation; the relationship was negative and stronger when employees perceived an adverse, rather than a favourable, labour relations climate. Further, the interactive effect of job satisfaction and labour relations climate on union participation was partly mediated by union commitment.\nOriginality/value: By empirically examining employees' attitudes and behaviours towards unions in the Chinese context, this study confirms that unions could provide employees with alternative work resources to cope with job dissatisfaction, even in a country where unions play a \"transmission belt\" role between employees and employers. This study adds value to the existing base of knowledge on union practice and labour relations construction, both inside and outside of China.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A critical reflection on the future of intellectual capital: from reporting to disclosure	[ "Intellectual capital reporting", "Intellectual capital", "Intellectual capital disclosure", "Integrated reporting", "Critique", "Fourth stage intellectual capital research Eco-systems" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The motivation for this paper comes from an ongoing research project I commenced in 2011 called \"The Future of Intellectual Capital\". The project's original aim was to gather stories from academics and practitioners who \"get their hands dirty\" working with intellectual capital (IC). From 2011 to 2013, I interviewed over twenty people in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. Since then I have been reflecting on what the interviewees say and my observations of IC practice (or lack of IC practice). Therefore, what I present in this paper is not a synthesis of the interviews, but rather my first hand reflections on the future of IC, with an emphasis on IC reporting and evidence from the IC field. I emphasise IC reporting because of the newfound resurging interest in IC reporting, based on the current push for integrated reporting\nIC and value creation: One problem with IC is there are many different definitions. However, in this paper I adopt Stewart's (1997, p. x) original one, with one major change whereby I replace \"wealth\" with \"value\":\nIC reporting and the reporting wealth-creation myth: Why should firms report their IC? According to Bismuth and Tojo (2008, p. 242) the theory is:\nWhat is the future for IC?: Where we are heading is not going to solve anything. It is a dead end. It has actually been a dead end for quite some time. Karl-Erik Sveiby (Interview, September 2012).\nLimitations: While much of the empirical evidence presented in this paper is freely available to all scholars, the interpretation and findings are subjective. Other researchers, given the same opportunity and evidence, may not necessarily come up with the same conclusions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a personal critical reflection on the future of intellectual capital (IC) based on my experience as an IC researcher, author, editor, teacher and practitioner.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Offers a first-hand reflection on the future of IC, using evidence collected from IC in the field and the author's personal reflections.\nFindings: I argue that the authors need to abandon reporting and instead concentrate on how an organisation discloses what \"was previously secret or unknown\", so that all stakeholders understand how an organisation takes into consideration ethical, social and environmental impacts in keeping with an eco-systems approach to IC.\nResearch limitations/implications: While much of the empirical evidence presented in this paper is freely available to all scholars, the interpretation and findings is subjective. Other researchers, given the same opportunity and evidence, may not necessarily make the same conclusions.\nSocial implications: We are now on the cusp of the fourth stage of IC research (Dumay, 2013), whereby IC expands its boundaries into the wider eco-system, to \"go beyond IC reporting\" (Edvinsson, 2013, p. 163).\nOriginality/value: Offers a critical review of the impact of IC reporting which is relevant to consider because of the newfound resurging interest in IC, based on the current push for integrated reporting (\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Re-engineering pre-employment check-up systems: a model for improving health services	[ "Business process re‐engineering", "Electronic booking", "Customer satisfaction", "Costs", "Operations research", "Health services", "Egypt" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Healthcare staff face serious challenges providing consistently high-quality care in a rapidly changing and uncertain environment (Aiken et al., 2002). Healthcare is influenced by several internal and external forces, including reimbursement changes, labor excess or shortage cycles, political landscape changes, economy and other pressures (Edens, 2005). In fact, the heightened cost pressure that healthcare staff experienced promotes radical organizational change elsewhere (Walston and Bogue, 1999). Managers must recognize the environment in which they function to anticipate and distinguish the need for change and for facilities to remain viable entities. No business can stagnate and expect to survive. An ongoing transformation process is the norm and when business fails to evolve, disappointment results. Workplace re-engineering is one response to internal and external factors exerting influences on staff, particularly in this dynamic healthcare environment (Edens, 2005).Business process re-engineering (BPR) began as a private sector technique to help workers fundamentally rethink how they do their work and to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs and become world-class competitors (Government Accountability Office, 1997). Re-engineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic goals and customer needs (Wikipedia, 2010). Hammer and Champy (1994), BPR's founders and leading proponents, defined the process as fundamentally rethinking and radically redesigning to dramatically improve critical, contemporary performance measures such as cost, quality and service speed. Re-engineering is about designing new processes that can enhance or improve an existing process or respond to an external stressor (Hammer and Champy, 1994).\nBackground: Egypt's Ministry of Health initiated major reforms to substantially improve the country's health outcomes and the healthcare system's financial sustainability. The reform's key component is improving care provision at the Health Insurance Organization (HIO), whose mission is to become an effective healthcare service enterprise able to design, price, negotiate, contract and pay for services covered under Egypt's social health insurance scheme and to ensure high-quality healthcare services for all. For this mission to be accomplished, the HIO is working on service improvement in all its departments through different mechanisms including re-engineering. However, one key success factor for healthcare organization re-engineering is leaders' ability to redefine their organizations in process terms (Prosci BPR Learning Center, 2010) in accordance with customer needs. One main Egyptian HIO service is the pre-employment medical fitness check-up provided by specialized centers (known as medical committees). The general medical committees serve more than two million customers annually, through 34 units distributed throughout Egypt. The general committees include specialized subcommittees who provide services, indicated by law, which are mainly pre-employment medical fitness checks, approving sick leave and assessing partial and complete disabilities. The medical fitness subcommittees are responsible for pre-employment examination in both public and private sectors (Labor Law 12/2003, Act 216) and also medically examining employees before official travel.\nGoals: Our aim was to develop a model for improving Egypt's health services. Objectives to meet this aim included reengineering the pre-employment medical fitness check-up system provided by the HIO, based on six main components:1. customer-focused booking system;2. standardized check-up processes;3. protected medical reports;4. archiving through electronic content management (ECM);5. infrastructure development; and6. capacity building.Second, to detect engineering's impact on: customer compliance to the booking system; on-site service delivery time; appointment date; customer and staff satisfaction; and financial outcome.\nMethod: Research design\nData management: The SPSS Version 11 software was used for data entry and analysis. Simple frequencies, central tendency and dispersion measures were used to summarize our data. Independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA and post hoc significance tests were used to compare the two study groups, before and after re-engineering; p values <0.05 were considered significant.\nThe re-engineering process: The re-engineering process was implemented in three phases to cover all medical fitness committees. Phase 1 included 30 percent of all medical fitness committees, serving 45 percent of the total medical committees' customers. Our re-engineering model adopts the systems approach, focusing on structure, process and outcome. The model is based on customer needs and expectations, obtained through focus group discussion, tailored by experts and decision makers into priorities and intervention strategies (Figure 1).\nStructure: We focused on renovating and repairing buildings, replacing furniture and equipment and establishing maintenance systems. Structural work extended to developing information and communication systems: a computerized booking scheme was established based on customer demands, a web site for committees was launched, and all communication and information resources were provided. Special emphasis was given to developing medical fitness committee law, essential regulations, policies and procedures manuals to facilitate service implementation and support decision making.A new medical examination form was developed, fulfilling standard criteria that ensured document security, offering ample space for recording examination results and repeated visits, and the doctor's name and signature. Structural development also included establishing new services, namely a customer service department in each clinic. Human resources, a cornerstone in organization development, were involved in continuous training and development, which included the newly established information system (encoding system, computer skills, ECM). Ten percent of physicians were replaced, based on better technical and personal criteria. We focused on deficient specialties, i.e. family medicine, psychiatry, radiology and clinical pathology. Staff selection also changed - applicants had to pass a written examination and attend personal interviews to assess their medical knowledge.Process\nFindings: Findings before and after re-engineering were compared. The mean monthly customer flow to the medical committees, for example, significantly increased after re-engineering (3,334.3+-1,888.6 customers) compared to 1,747.3+-1,932.4 customers before re-engineering (t=-3.52; df=70; p<0.001). Specifically, four committees showed significant increases (Figure 3). The six-month post re-engineering customer flow exceeded pre-reengineering throughput by five times in Shubra Misr, while Helwan Center showed the lowest percent change (30 percent increase). The average change in the six centers was 90.8 percent.Figure 4 shows customer flow increasing after a slow start in the first three months. A rapid increase appeared from the fourth month after re-engineering. There is a significant flow rise in the post-reengineering curve in May (23,873 customers). However, there was no apparent correlation between the monthly flow pattern before and after re-engineering.Staff IT training data showed that more than half the staff achieved good marks. Additionally, 4 percent achieved distinction, while 13 percent failed. Customers complied with the newly established booking system - the compliance rate ranging from 68 percent to 89 percent (Figure 5).Most customers (84 percent) were satisfied with the reservation system. The 16 percent who were dissatisfied were unhappy about long waiting times (64 percent of dissatisfied customers), undocumented registration (20 percent) and delayed reservation schedule (16 percent). Internal auditing showed a marked improvement after re-engineering. The average compliance with standards increased from 52 percent before re-engineering to 75.8 percent after re-engineering in six centers (t=-5.1; df=10; p<0.001). Compliance improvement in individual centers ranged between 24 percent and 69.5 percent (Figure 6).Customer satisfaction with medical services, housekeeping, communication and accessibility improved significantly in all centers after re-engineering (t=-159.7; df=77; p<0.001) (Figure 7).We detected a significant improvement in the mean time spent per customer after re-engineering (Table I), i.e. 18.3+-5.5 minutes compared to 48.8+-14.5 minutes before and after re-engineering, respectively (t=-16.5; df=77; p<0.001). The re-engineering process also significantly reduced appointment delays; decreasing from an average 18 days in March to 6.2 days in August (Figure 8).Figure 9 shows staff satisfaction with process flow, administrative procedures, medical care, over-crowding, housekeeping and financial status significantly improving after re-engineering (t=13.08; df=135; p<0.001).Re-engineering (assets, training and running) expenses were reclaimed via increasing revenue; monthly income increased 84 percent on average in the six re-engineered clinics.\nDiscussion: Healthcare organizations have often participated in managerial innovations that promised to revolutionize their operations. Rational choice theorists predict that well-designed strategic changes can lead to significant organizational improvements and, thus, increased ability to compete and thrive. According to this perspective, firms change deliberately in an effort to improve their economic performance (Walston and Bogue, 1999). The Egyptian HIO medical committees, established in 1976, had not changed their underlying processes and were not achieving desired impacts. Our strategic planning process reviewed how well the organization systems were supporting their strategic direction. The review revealed that the old organization systems needed radical structure, process and outcome transformation. The following defects were the main driving forces that stimulated change:* services were not complying with HIO reforms;* customers' views were not an essential pillar;* time was not considered an important input;* technology, when used, tended to create problems rather than facilitate work processes;* not being centers of attention, and hence improving income, seemed far from the staff agenda;* medical and managerial skills training were defective; and* service providers were unhappy with their work environment and their service achievements.Our study aimed to develop a model for improving Egypt's health services through re-engineering the pre-employment medical fitness check-up system provided by the HIO. Six main components were examined:1. electronic booking system based on call center services;2. standardized check-up process;3. protected medical documents;4. archiving through electronic content management (ECM);5. infrastructure development; and6. capacity building.The model originated mainly from customer needs and expectations tailored by experts and decision makers into priorities and interventions. We aimed to support the model using appropriate leadership.Staff have no way of knowing whether the new process produced the desired results unless meaningful performance measures are used, which help to assess whether the process achieved its intended results, examine services produced by the process, and evaluate efficiency issues such as process cost and time taken to deliver services to the customer. Ongoing performance measurement provides feedback, critical for continual improvement and future successes (Government Accountability Office, 1997). Measuring our re-engineering model was done through assessing customer compliance with booking systems, service delivery times, appointment dates, internal audit, customer and staff satisfaction, and financial outcomes. We considered local environment contexts and Egypt's overall health strategy.Improving structure\nConclusion: Healthcare staff, slow to adopt re-engineering strategies, face a long, hard and fraught challenge with possibilities for mistakes at every critical junction. Healthcare still has a great potential for success provided the proper approach is adopted. Our re-engineering model is based on customer needs and expectations, tailored by experts and decision makers into prioritized implementation strategies. We adopted a systems approach, focusing on information systems, supporting infrastructure and staff development. Our process improvement is structured around standards and guidelines that focus on improving process flow. We kept a careful eye on continuous improvement and outcome indicators, which are promising. Our model proves that re-engineering costs are exceeded by increased revenue, which appears secondary to customer satisfaction. However, applying this model necessitates appropriate leadership and flexible implementation in different contexts and environments. We strongly recommend that healthcare managers implement this service improvement model.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for improving health services provided by the pre-employment medical fitness check-up system affiliated to Egypt's Health Insurance Organization (HIO).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Operations research, notably system re-engineering, is used in six randomly selected centers and findings before and after re-engineering are compared. The re-engineering model follows a systems approach, focusing on three areas: structure, process and outcome. The model is based on six main components: electronic booking, standardized check-up processes, protected medical documents, advanced archiving through an electronic content management (ECM) system, infrastructure development, and capacity building. The model originates mainly from customer needs and expectations.\nFindings: - The centers' monthly customer flow increased significantly after re-engineering. The mean time spent per customer cycle improved after re-engineering - 18.3+-5.5 minutes as compared to 48.8+-14.5 minutes before. Appointment delay was also significantly decreased from an average 18 to 6.2 days. Both beneficiaries and service providers were significantly more satisfied with the services after re-engineering. The model proves that re-engineering program costs are exceeded by increased revenue.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Re-engineering in this study involved multiple structure and process elements. The literature review did not reveal similar re-engineering healthcare packages. Therefore, each element was compared separately.\nPractical implications: - This model is highly recommended for improving service effectiveness and efficiency.\nOriginality/value: - This research is the first in Egypt to apply the re-engineering approach to public health systems. Developing user-friendly models for service improvement is an added value.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A tool to evaluate design performance in SMEs	[ "Product design", "Product development", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Good design\" is a significant source of competitive advantage, both in markets with mature products and for highly innovative technologies (Walsh et al., 1992, Lorenz, 1994, Moultrie et al., 2002, Kotler and Rath, 1984). In a review of 60 small engineering firms, Black and Baker (1987) determined that those with a strong \"design orientation\" also exhibited high growth. Walsh et al. (1992) identified a generally positive relationship between \"design consciousness\" and commercial success (profit margin). In a follow up study (Roy, 1999), it was concluded that growing firms used more external design expertise, had a more positive attitude towards product design and were more innovative. In a survey of 800 UK companies, Sentence and Clarke (1997) established a positive relationship between business performance (profitability, exports and growth) and design expenditure. Significant empirical evidence supports the view that a strong design capability is important to business success.However, many SMEs face specific challenges in the design of new products. Many critical design-related activities are often poorly performed in small companies (Huang et al., 2002). Resource limitations and perceived barriers to involving external specialists result in \"silent design\" (Gorb and Dumas, 1987) where engineering or marketing staff undertake aesthetic and ergonomic design work themselves (Norman, 1998). This principle can be extended to include other market and user focused elements of the design process; \"silent marketing\" (Moultrie et al., 2002).In addition, many new product development (NPD) processes emphasise the attainment of managerial objectives such as time to market, project spend, risk reduction and unit cost (Wheelwright and Clark, 1992, Cooper, 1993, McGrath, 1996). But, it is still possible for a highly efficient process to result in products which are difficult to use, look terrible and are costly to manufacture. As companies gain better control over selecting and managing projects, attention must focus on the delivery of high quality products. Walsh et al., noted that \"product design is a crucial but often neglected and misunderstood activity in the performance of firms and economies\" (Walsh et al., 1992).This paper describes the development of an audit tool to enable practitioners in SMEs to assess design performance, and take a wider view of the importance of \"good design\" issues. Following a brief overview of the research methods, the two components of the audit tool (process audit and product audit) are individually described, followed by a brief summary applying the audit tool in three cases. Wider implications for practice, theory and further work are then discussed.\nMethods: This research resulted in a tool for assessing design performance in SMEs, with a view to improving the ultimate outputs of the design process. This ambition was consistent with the general aims of design research which not only aims to develop understanding about the phenomenon of design, but also \"to improve the chances of producing a successful product\" through the development and validation of design methods (Blessing et al., 1995). Swann notes that \"design deals in human interactions with artefacts and situations that contain a great deal of uncertainty. Design research is tied to a domain that derives its creative energy from the ambiguities of an intuitive understanding of phenomena\" (Swann, 2002). Accordingly, the design audit tool has been developed iteratively, following an applied research methodology, through four iterative phases of exploration, tool development, tool application and reflection (Eckert et al., 2003):1. Phase 1 - exploratory study: literature and exploratory cases confirmed the need for a tool to support improved awareness of good design issues. This exploratory phase included four longitudinal cases to explore design issues throughout the product development cycle, identify good design issues in practice and explore attitudes towards design. The cases were chosen from a shortlist of around 20 companies, based on appropriate company size, culture, sector and location. In each case, the company was an SME, operating in a business to business sector. Data was captured through regular progress meetings, anecdotal observations, project documentation and a semi-structured interview at the end of each project.2. Phase 2 - tool creation and feasibility: a prototype \"process audit\" was developed, based upon findings from phase 1, in addition to further expert input. This first prototype was subjected to a preliminary evaluation; to \"sense-check\" its content and construction via six semi-structured interviews with industrialists. This small study confirmed the basic viability of the approach as well as informing the content and structure of the audit; including errors of omission, commission and organisation of information. Following initial modifications, the tool was then applied in three live cases, following an action research approach (Platts, 1993) to establish the feasibility (Canez, 2000), usability and utility (Neely, 1993) of the tool. After each application, the results were reviewed and modifications were made as appropriate. Multiple data sources were used in each case, including verbal feedback from all participants, structured feedback questionnaires, post-workshop reviews and researcher observation. An additional researcher-observer was also present at each workshop, to provide an independent perspective.3. Phase 3 - tool development: based on feedback from the feasibility phase, modifications were made to the audit tool and the delivery process. The most significant change was the introduction of the \"product audit\" as a pre-cursor to the \"process audit\". The revised audit tool was then applied in a further three companies, again being assessed for feasibility, usability and utility.4. Phase 4 - validation: finally, the audit tool was exposed to a wider audience from ten organisations to validate findings from the development phase. In each case, the respondents were given a copy of the full design audit (in the form of a \"workbook\") before being asked to make comments Results from semi-structured interviews and written feedback were incorporated into a final version of the audit tool. A full list of cases is provided in Table I.During this development cycle, the design audit progressed through three substantial revisions affecting the underlying architecture of the tool, with over 40 smaller modifications to individual details including activity descriptions, graphical layout and delivery procedure. The research sequence, cases and audit tool revisions are illustrated in Figure 1.Methodological issues\nThe process audit: As a multi-functional activity, with inherently unpredictable outcomes, new product development (NPD) is acknowledged as being risky, difficult and highly complex (Cooper, 1993). Whilst it may be possible to achieve a successful outcome once, through a mixture of luck, perseverance, perspiration and inspiration, it is much more difficult to repeat success again and again. Wheelwright and Clark (1992) claim that in order to respond effectively to increasing market, technical and business uncertainties, NPD needs to be clearly structured, rapid and highly productive. It is generally accepted that the likelihood of success is significantly increased if some form of structured process is followed. But, what are the characteristics of a \"good\" design process and what might an effective process look like?The process of product creation is generally described from two perspectives; the design process and the NPD process. Whilst clearly related, there is a subtle difference between the two. Design processes can be applied to all types of creative activity, whether individual, as part of a design team or as part of a commercial organisation. In manufacturing businesses, the design process describes a sequence of \"technical activities\" and does not (generally) provide any managerial framework; to control risks, to support \"go/no-go\" decisions or enable investment analysis (Otto and Wood, 2001). The focus of the design process is thus on the generation, evaluation and implementation of solutions. In contrast, the NPD process aims to ensure the appropriateness of these solutions to the business. Thus, the design process is subtly different to the NPD process. Otto and Wood (2001) aimed to differentiate between the two:The NPD process is ... the entire set of activities required to bring a new concept to a state of market readiness ... including everything from the initial inspiring new product vision, to business case analysis activities, marketing efforts, technical engineering design activities, development of manufacturing plans, and the validation of the product design to conform to these plans, through to the development of the distribution channels for marketing and introducing the product.The design process is ... the set of technical activities within a product development process that work to meet the marketing and business case vision.Thus, the \"design process\" can be viewed as an essentially technical process. In contrast, the NPD process, emphasises strategic and managerial issues, to ensure that the right type of product is developed and managerial targets are achieved (Bruce et al., 1999).The boundaries between the two are clearly fuzzy and it can be difficult in practice to distinguish design activity from the many other activities that it supports in the NPD process (Nixon, 1999). The distinction however is important in the development of an audit tool which seeks to focus on design issues in an NPD context.Assessing design process performance\nThe product audit: Several of the NPD success factor studies cited product-related factors as contributing to success. Utterback et al. (1976) noted that a product must have \"advantage over the competition in a key aspect and moderate advantage in several aspects\". Other product factors include technical superiority (Booz, Allen and Hamilton, 1968, Balbontin et al., 1999), clear benefits (Ernst, 2002) and product uniqueness or novelty (Cooper, 1984, Page, 1993, Mishra et al., 1999). Surprisingly however, product appeal, ease of manufacture, aesthetics and ergonomics are not noted, as it is through these characteristics that differentiation and superiority are achieved. Lorenz (1994) argued that conventional means of differentiation (cost and quality) are now \"entry tickets\" and that product appearance and character are now the key to producing meaningful differentiation. Nixon (1999) specifically mentions that the relative importance of product aesthetics as a primary differentiator in crowded market segments. Most insightfully, Rutter and Agne (1998) conducted a survey of 80 consumers to explore attitudes towards \"good design\" and concluded that customers seek products which \"look good and work well\".Given the lack of academic consensus over the attributes of a well-designed product, the judging criteria of 17 major international design awards were reviewed. Awards included: the Australian design awards, German Red Dot awards, Japan G mark, German IF design awards, Italian Golden Compass awards, Korean Good design award and the IDEA design awards in the USA.). Different judgment criteria were clustered to identify common themes. In order of frequency of occurrence, the dominant judgment criteria are: usefulness, ergonomics, novelty, aesthetics, technical and engineering quality and product economics. Literature exploring each of these characteristics in detail was reviewed to establish the underpinning content of the product audit.The product audit\nSelected case examples: The design audit has been applied in a range of industrial settings, as outlined in the methods section. Early applications centred on the process audit. Later applications also introduced and developed the product audit. The three cases, briefly outlined below, are taken from different stages of the audit tool development.Case M: security electronics\nDiscussion: Through a process of application, review and modification, a robust model of \"good design\" in the form of a design audit tool has been developed capturing both product and process perspectives (Figure 5).Initially, the \"process audit\" aimed to encourage a more holistic approach to design to (in the long run) create better-designed products. This process-based view helped raise general awareness of design issues, but failed to have a significant impact on the actual design of products. Case companies remained pre-occupied with perennial managerial issues, such as teamwork and communication. In later applications, by first assessing the design of an existing product, discussions on the design process then became more useful.The process maturity approach enables an assessment of current performance and also indicates opportunities for possible improvement through the codification of \"good\" and \"not so good\" practices, derived from literature and case studies. The maturity grid is able to capture a range of practice, described in language which is familiar to the practitioner. In contrast, yes/no checklists offer a binary response to a good practice statement and Likert-scale questionnaires only provide description of performance at the extremes. It was assumed that the increased granularity and precision of the maturity grid would result in a high degree of consensus between different respondents. However, despite fairly precise descriptions of performance at each level of the process audit, individuals in companies still have greatly differing opinions over current performance. This highlights the inherent unreliability of any single respondent assessment and demonstrates the value of the tool in generating discussion and raising awareness. It also indicates that the tool would be inappropriate for benchmarking performance between companies.The product audit draws on a wide array of sources, including product aesthetics, design for manufacture, and ergonomics. Due to space limitations, these are not expanded upon here. The product audit has proven successful in encouraging a more user-centred view of product design. Before using the product audit, good design is often viewed parochially in terms of profitability or producibility. By taking a more structured view, with an emphasis on customer perceptions, greater emphasis is given to the softer elements of the design mix, such as aesthetics and ergonomics.Implications for practice\nConclusions: A design audit had been described which encourages attention to be focused on the achievement of well designed products. The combined product and process view produces a balanced consideration of \"good design\" issues to complement more traditional project objectives (cost, time and spend).By drawing together information from a diverse range of sources, this study hopes to raise practitioner awareness of good design issues and provides a useful and usable tool to support managers in improving both products and the design process that delivers them.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The creation of well-designed products is widely acknowledged as an important contributor to company success. In principle, an effective design process, as part of the wider new product development (NPD) process, should result in well-designed products. This paper aims to present a tool to enable a design team to evaluate their design process in a workshop setting, with a view to targeting improvements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This tool is based on literature and has been iteratively developed using a mixed research approach, including detailed exploratory cases and application in action research mode.\nFindings: - The resulting tool comprises two main components. A \"process audit\" based on process maturity principles, which targets the design-related activities in NPD. The process audit enables a company team to identify improvement opportunities in the design process. A product audit enables perceptions towards product characteristics to be assessed. The audit tool does not seek to be a benchmarking tool, but aims to capture \"good design\" principles in a form which is accessible and useful to practitioners.\nPractical implications: - In use, the tool enabled managers to balance their concern with meeting budget and timescale demands against the importance of producing well-designed products. By first focusing on the tangible output of the design process - the product - practitioners are better able to understand the way in which design decisions influence product usability, desirability and producibility. Evidence from cases confirms the value and originality of this tool.\nOriginality/value: - Previous tools addressing product development have focused on strategic and managerial concerns. This novel assessment tool focuses explicitly on design issues, within the wider context of NPD.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Organisational learning in SMEs: a process improvement perspective	[ "Process improvement", "Organisational learning, Continuous improvement", "Small- and medium-sized enterprises", "Operations management theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are crucial in delivering sustainable growth in most economies (OECD, 2014). Not only do SMEs represent the vast majority of firms (95 per cent) and employ the majority of the workforce (60-70 per cent) (OECD, 2014), they are also an essential part of the supply chains of many larger firms (Soderberg and Bengtsson, 2010). The ability of smaller firms to improve is, therefore, crucial - for their own survival, for the effective operation of many supply chains, and for the competitiveness of many economies (Chaston et al., 2001; Soderberg and Bengtsson, 2010). However, SMEs face significant barriers when seeking to improve and develop. They are often hampered by limited access to necessary skills and resources, managerial competences and finance (OECD, 2014).\n2. Theory and research framework: We consider the state of knowledge and understanding of PI and CI, with particular attention given to the context of SMEs. We discuss limitations of previous research, arguing why OL provides a valuable lens from which to consider PI and CI. The provenance and use of specific OL frameworks are then discussed, providing a conceptual framework that connects OL with PI and CI. The research questions addressed in the study are then presented.\n3. Research approach: Previous research has employed a range of approaches to investigate PI and CI, drawing from both objective and more subjective data to explore the relevance of previously developed frameworks (e.g. Antony, 2001; Anand et al., 2009). Approaches taken by Lee et al. (2000), Bessant et al. (2001) and Jorgensen et al. (2003) included action research and self-assessment to investigate improvement activities. While self-assessment tools may provide quantitative measures to compare the capabilities of different firms, McCutcheon and Meredith (1993, p. 244) warned that such measures may be \"cloaked in objectivity\" and needed to be considered carefully. Lasagni (2012, p. 331) also noted issues arising from such forms of self-assessment in smaller firms, creating a \"bias toward self-confident SMEs\" over-estimating their capabilities.\n4. Case background and within case analysis: 4.1 Engineering Manufacturer 1 (ENG1)\n5. Cross-case analysis: The six case companies provide a spectrum of engineering-oriented SMEs, ranging from INJECT1 and ENG2 that focused primarily on manufacturing to SYSINT and BUILD that emphasised the delivery of engineering services. BUILD and SYSINT engaged in only limited manufacturing processes compared to INJECT1 and INJECT2, each of which had clearly defined manufacturing processes using specialized tooling. Between these extremes were ENG1 and ENG2 with a balance of tangible production equipment and intangible knowledge and operator skills to provide physical products, as well as advice and services in the redesign of existing products. This range of firms has provided the foundation for the development of robust insights relevant to other engineering-oriented SMEs.\n6. Discussion: In this section we discuss the insights gained from the study on how OL can occur through PI/CI activities. This builds upon the evidence presented in Tables A1-AIII to explain how the more effective and the less effective improvers were able, or not, to realise OL through PI activities. The empirical validation provides evidence with theoretical underpinning for specific organisational mechanisms that help to identify and explain how OL occurs through PI/CI practices in SMEs (RQ1) and the factors that ensure sustained benefits are realized from PI/CI (RQ2). Building on the analysis and discussion, we propose a conceptual model that explains the achievement of OL through PI/CI in SMEs in Section 7.\n7. Conceptual model of organisational learning through PI: We answer our two research questions through a conceptual model (see Figure 2), which was developed to show how OL can occur through PI in SMEs using the evidence gained from the analysis of the cases studied. In the context of engineering-oriented SMEs, the proposed model captures both the mechanisms by which learning occurs through PI/CI practices (RQ1) and the factors that influence the effectiveness of such learning in achieving and sustaining organisational benefits (RQ2).\n8. Conclusions and research implications: The research has studied a spectrum of engineering-oriented SMEs, ranging from those focused primarily on manufacturing to those with a greater emphasis on providing engineering services. Applying an OL lens across the six cases has helped to explain how effective and sustained PI with learning can occur in SMEs. The study makes contributions to theory and practice of PI/CI and OL in SME contexts.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how organisational learning (OL) can occur through process improvement (PI) activities, leading to sustained improvements over time in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors study PI practices in six engineering-oriented SMEs via interview-based case studies. The authors draw from a range of literature and use an OL conceptual framework informed by Crossan et al.'s (1999) 4I framework as an analytical lens.\nFindings: The OL perspective provides new insights to conceptualise the nature of PI as a multi-level practice in SMEs. Effective PI practices within SMEs are shown to be consistent with OL concepts, enabling firms to translate individually identified improvement opportunities into organisational-level changes that result in sustained benefits. A new conceptual model is presented that explains how SMEs can learn through improvement activities. The key role of management support, both operational and strategic, is highlighted. It is necessary for management to provide sufficient PI opportunities to enable and sustain beneficial learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is based on a sample of engineering-oriented SMEs located in the UK. Further case-based, longitudinal, and survey-based research studies with firms of different types will enhance the generalisability of the findings, allowing the confirmation and extension of the new conceptual model.\nPractical implications: The findings provide a theoretically underpinned framework for achieving OL in engineering-oriented SMEs through PI activities. The new model highlights the key mechanisms that enable learning from improvement activities. The findings highlight the key role played by management in introducing additional learning opportunities in the form of new business that requires exploratory learning. Without this, the reduction in improvement opportunities reduces the benefits that can be realised from PI.\nOriginality/value: OL provides a multi-level perspective to understanding how smaller firms are able to undergo systematic improvements and the support required to continually improve.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Understanding the motives of consumers of mezcal in Mexico	[ "Mexico", "Consumer perceptions", "Traditional", "Mezcal" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Background: Food consumption is a social fact full of meaning and emotions that transcend the biological need to eat (Contreras, 1992). As a symbol or sign, it can be considered a physical phenomenon framed by the meanings and rules that a particular social group confers it in the context of their culture (Contreras and Gracia, 2005; Alvarez, 2002), whose importance allows it to be considered a total social fact (MacClancy and Macbeth, 2004).\n2. Materials and methods: A semi-structured questionnaire was used that assessed the effect of the region of origin (Perrouty et al., 2006) and its importance (Adinolfi et al., 2011), the label (Mueller et al., 2010), the form of production (Barber, 2012), the effect of packaging and labelling (Barber et al., 2006), sensory attributes (Bruwer et al., 2011) and demographic aspects (Atkin et al., 2007; Barber, 2012).\n3. Results and discussion: Factor analysis\n4. Conclusions: The results show four types of consumers of mezcal: linked to the territory, traditional, consumers in transition and social consumers. In the first three, motives to consume mezcal are based on extrinsic attributes as the place of production, craftsmanship and cultural identity; paradoxically, the PDO does not exert a real influence. This fact indicates motives of consumption that respect the original quality criteria of mezcal-producing communities, which should be the basis for the rating of mezcal. Therefore, responses may be differentiated, and other kind of seal as the TSG can be introduced and could serve to place mezcal in selective markets without affecting its original character and without turning it into a mass-produced product, a feature of PDO products.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to characterize the consumers of mezcal in Mexico based on their motivations, identifying different groups of consumers and their demographic characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire based on the Food Choice Questionnaire was applied to 310 consumers: 154 directly to mezcal consumers in three \"mezcalerias\" (mezcal bars) and 156 through five social networking communities of mezcal consumers. The data obtained were analysed using multivariate statistics, factor and cluster analysis.\nFindings: The results show that the search for tradition is the determining buying motivation, whereas quality seals do not exert a significant influence. Four profiles of mezcal consumers can be identified according to their consumption patterns: consumer linked to the territory, traditional consumer, consumer in transition and social consumer. The predominant demographic characteristics in the four consumer groups described a male, between 20 and 39 years old, single, childless, with professional education and employed. The overall results reveal a consumer who shares the quality criteria established by mescal-producing communities and is strongly interested in traditionally processed drinks.\nOriginality/value: In Mexico, there are two important distilled drinks, tequila and mezcal. There is ample research on the first one, but there is less research on mezcal, despite it has an annual increase of 45 per cent in consumption. Most of the research work has been focused on aspects of diversity, sustainability and productivity, but there are not studies on the factors that affect mezcal consumption. Thus, this paper aims to characterize the consumers of mezcal, based on their motivations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sponsoring the football national team	[ "Brand image", "World cup", "Image congruence", "Sports sponsorship", "Involvement with the sponsee" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sponsorship has become a desirable way to communicate and leverage positive brand associations (Pouromid and Iranzadeh, 2012; Sasmita and Suki, 2015). Cornwell (1995, p. 15) defines sponsorship-linked marketing as \"the orchestration and implementation of marketing activities for building and communicating an association to a sponsorship\". Identifying conditions that enhance sponsorship success is a task that has inevitably become more important in an increasingly mediated society, in which measuring the return on communication investment is one of companies' major concerns (Cho et al., 2011; Mondello and Kamke, 2014). According to Speed and Thompson (2000), sponsor-event fit and consumer attitudes towards sponsors are central in eliciting advantageous responses from sponsorship associations.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Sponsorship marketing\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research context: Portuguese national team and 2014 world cup\n4. Results: 4.1 Sample profile\n5. Conclusion: 5.1 Theoretical contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A key concern in sports sponsorship decisions is knowing under what conditions sponsorship can effectively act as a brand building tool. The purpose of this study is to list attributes to use when examining congruency in the sponsorship of national football teams. The second aim was to test whether being a client of the sponsor brand and being involved with the sponsee moderates the relationship between image congruence and sponsorship response.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected on four sponsors of the Portuguese national team, just before the 20th Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup. Analyses were conducted on a representative national sample of fans. The research design encompassed a two-step approach. First, qualitative analysis identified the main attributes that fans associate with the national team. In the second quantitative phase, moderated regression analysis was used to test the proposed model.\nFindings: This study confirmed sponsor-sponsee congruence in seven attributes (i.e. national symbol, strength, strong emotions, happiness, optimism, connection and positive feelings) enhances positive brand image and fans' involvement with the national team moderates this relationship. Positive sponsorship outcomes tend to be higher for sponsors when fans are currently clients of the sponsor brand.\nOriginality/value: This study adds to previous research by using mixed methods to study sponsor-sponsee congruence regarding national teams and by testing whether fans being clients of sponsors and being involved with sponsees moderate sponsor-sponsee congruence.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Incidence of workplace bullying among hospitality employees	[ "Working conditions", "Job satisfaction", "Workplace bullying", "Labor discrimination", "Workplace safety" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the contemporary working environment, human resource management (HRM) represents the most important sustainable competitive advantage of a firm because it assists employees in facilitating the success of an organization. In this context, Lucia Casademunt et al. (2012) emphasized the role of emotional well-being management as a strategic factor for HRM. Emotional well-being management is essential because employees are considered one of the most important assets of the majority of organizations, particularly service-based organizations, because of the benefits derived from delivering successful performances (Evans et al., 2003). The hospitality sector is undoubtedly a significant service-based organization.\nWorkplace bullying among hospitality employees: Advancements in comprehending the primary circumstances that precede workplace bullying are important to develop effective prevention and intervention tools for this behavior (Saam, 2010; Einarsen and Hauge, 2006). The prevalence of bullying significantly varies from one activity sector to another, even within the same country, and from one country to another. In Europe, the occurrence rate of workplace bullying is approximately 4-10 per cent (Zapf et al., 2003), although the inferences may vary depending on the measurement and estimation methods used (Nielsen et al., 2009; Notelaers et al., 2006). With respect to the extent of manifestation of bullying, a significant disagreement is observed on the prevalence of this behavior, from 4 to 5 per cent in Northern European countries (Nielsen et al., 2009, 2011) as opposed to 15 per cent in Southern European countries (Giorgi et al., 2011). Certain factors, such as cultural characteristics and societal changes, may help explain the variations in prevalence rates. Issues related to research methodology should also be considered (Nielsen et al., 2009). Studies on workplace bullying are performed by utilizing an array of measurement methods, instruments and designs (Agervold, 2007; Zapf et al., 2003). Thus, several methodological procedures may influence the observed prevalence rates (Nielsen et al., 2010).\nMethods: Data collection and sample\nAnalysis and results: This study primarily intends to identify the individual, organizational and contextual factors that contribute to the development of workplace bullying among hospitality employees. In the first stage, an analysis of a contingency table and a Pearson's chi-square test for independence were conducted. The bivariate relationship between bullying and several previously discussed independent variables was examined. The first analysis also prepared the multivariate analysis that was subsequently performed using a logistic regression model. This approach demonstrated the combined effect of the independent variables with statistically significant predictive power to determine the probability that an event will occur (in this case, workplace bullying).\nDiscussion: Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to the address the key factors of workplace bullying among hospitality employees, as workplace bullying results in damaging consequences on both individuals and organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study first defines the phenomenon of workplace bullying and then reviews the related literature. Data are collected from a sample population of 238 hospitality employees obtained from the latest European Working Conditions Survey. Logistic regression analysis is used to achieve the study objectives.\nFindings: Results from the binary logistic regression model show the main personal and organizational factors related to the probability of workplace bullying. The logistic regression model explains 76.4 per cent of the total variations in the sample. The model correctly classifies 78.1 per cent of hospitality employees who did not feel bullied in their profession and 74.1 per cent of employees who did feel bullied.\nPractical implications: The authors' findings imply that responsible managers in hospitality enterprises may reduce the organizational levels of workplace bullying by adjusting certain working conditions and establishing a supportive environment.\nOriginality/value: Studies on personalities inclined to bullying are inconclusive. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is the first to develop a comprehensive and exploratory conceptual model of workplace bullying that links personal variables, working conditions and contextual factors to the prevalence of workplace bullying within the hospitality sector in the European context.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Facilities management outsourcing relationships in the higher education institutes	[ "Client satisfaction", "Outsourcing arrangements", "Outsourcing relationships", "Outsourcing services", "Performance of service providers", "Strategic manoeuvres" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although the construction industry has long been a powerful engine for Hong Kong's economic growth, the industry experienced a drastic reduction in workloads and a change in market structure following the Asian economic turmoil in 1997 (Chiang et al., 2013). Consequently, regional facilities management (FM) outsourcing services for built environments have grown more common. These outsourcing services include computer integrated FM, catering/vending, moving management, project management (for both major and minor works), services installation (i.e. mechanical, electrical) and cleaning or security services (Moore and Finch, 2004). In the late 1990s in Hong Kong, expenditures for in-house services became a greater burden with the drop in rental incomes, and building owners outsourced many of these services (Lai et al., 2008; Yik and Lai, 2005). To decrease their costs, many commercial building owners chose to outsource operations and maintenance work, according to the results of their feasibility studies. The reports that more than 50 per cent of its benchmark data are found in the FM services at the seven universities in Hong Kong, including energy consumption, maintenance services, refurbishments and building operating costs, and especially the costs of security services, cleaning and waste management services.\nStudy goals: This study investigates the performance of outsourcing service providers:\nWhy this study is needed?: the service providers expect to enhance their own capability in the formulation of outsourcing strategies;\nOutsourcing in FM: Insights into the future of outsourcing\nCritical analysis of the outsourcing models: Outsourcing activities to a service provider can obviously benefit companies in terms of cost estimation, because of the service provider's familiarity with the work environment and conditions of the installations (Lai et al., 2008). FM outsourcing is an example of the professional mode, with service providers' taking the leading role in professional decision-making. However, the poor performance of outsourced service providers cannot be eliminated, and this may pose unforeseen challenges. Scholars continue to debate the question of why so many outsourcing failures are reported if the professional mode constructs the optimal relationship between clients and service providers.\nThe FORT model in FM: In the context of the IT industry, the FORT framework is contingent in nature. Finch (2012) explains that outsourcing relationships have increasingly come to entail processes of mutual support and nurturing. This may include the enhancement of customer relations, improved supplier relationships and the improvement of product or service offerings. Table IV shows the FORT Framework applicable to the FM industry. This new tailor-made proposed FM framework is called Contingency Outsourcing Relationship (CORE) model.\nResearch strategy: In researching the field of management, a researcher needs to adopt many strategies. Yin (2003) claims that a research strategy should be chosen as a function of the research situation. This section is to discuss the justification of selection on appropriate strategies in this study. The relevant key points are listed below:\nMethodological approach: This study tests whether the FORT model is applicable to the FM services of Hong Kong's higher education sector through characterising the FM outsourcing relationship types. Ikediashi et al. (2013) consider the importance of outsourcing risks for achieving outsourcing success in the FM sector. To holistically build a model for outsourcing FM services, FM strategists should also understand the outsourcing success variables. This study can, in the other way, contribute to existing research on FM by developing another hypothesized model to investigate the hidden relationships between outsourcing success variables and their impact on firm performance in terms of time and strategy. In the following sections, there is an analysis of outsourcing relationship from these theoretical perspectives to develop corollaries about the relationships between the strategic manoeuvres identified and the different dimensions of outsourcing relationship. There are nine corollaries in this research. Table V summarizes the theories discussed, the key concepts used and the resulting corollaries developed.\nTesting the nine proposed corollaries: The main objective of this section is to test the nine corollaries concerning the determinants of outsourcing relationship dimensions, strategic manoeuvres, clients' and service providers' evaluation regarding outsourcing category and outsourcing relationship types. The statistical techniques used for testing these corollaries from one to eight are the Mann-Whitney U-test (only two groups of continuous variables in the background of construction professionals) and Kruskal-Wallis test (continuous variable for three or more groups in the types of current outsourcing contracts) and Corollary 9 is multi-nominal logistic regression (similar to logistic regression, but more general as the dependent variable not restricted to two categories in four outsourcing categories). Nine main corollaries have been tested as follows.\nFindings: The local Government-funded vocational training institutes and seven universities in this study represent more than 90 per cent of the FM industry in Hong Kong's higher educational sectors. The study sample comprised 38 FM respondents from clients and 34 FM respondents from service providers. The main outputs of frequency analysis reveal that the study sample was biased towards the master degree holders, where the percentage of those FM professionals (clients and service providers) was very high, being 74 and 64 per cent, respectively, and the study sample was well educated. With regard to the FM working experience of the respondents, it has been indicated that almost 60 per cent of the clients' respondents had equal or more than three years; the percentage of service providers' respondents who had equal or more than three years was 80 per cent.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Understanding FM outsourcing relationships in higher education sector\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to test the nine corollaries concerning the determinants of outsourcing relationship dimensions, strategic manoeuvres, clients' and service providers' evaluation regarding outsourcing category and outsourcing relationship types.The paper has the purpose of reviewing the concept of outsourcing in relation to FM, dealing with service providers' performance and its effect on clients before providing a comprehensive discussion of outsourcing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual approach is adopted, suggesting that a study of outsourcing relationship between clients and service providers from these theoretical perspectives is used to develop corollaries about the relationships between the strategic manoeuvres identified and the different dimensions of outsourcing relationship. The corollaries are examined using non-parametric tests.\nFindings: The model of the facilities management (FM) outsourcing relationships presented in the paper shows performance of outsourcing services through evaluation of outsourcing categories on current and future FM contracts of clients and service providers. As a template of outsourcing relationships, the model is the context for predicting the important outsourcing categories to the future four FM outsourcing contracts, such as building maintenance, security, cleaning and catering. On prediction of those FM contracts, there is an inclination to the types of in-house and technical expertise on category of FM outsourcing relationship types from clients, whilst there is an equal inclination to the type of in-house outsourcing category from service providers.\nOriginality/value: Management on outsourcing relationships between clients and service providers is now essential for effective outsourcing in FM. This paper provides an intriguing insight into how the effect of outsourcing relationships can be strategically implemented into the performance of service providers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social religiosity: concept and measurement across divergent cultures	[ "Research methods", "Scale development", "International consumer behaviour" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Religion is an influential and integral component of culture that permeates lives in all societies in the world (Sasaki and Kim, 2011). Moreover, it represents a form of culture which is extremely difficult to define since it encompasses \"monotheistic Islam, polytheistic Hinduism, and atheistic Buddhism\" (Cohen, 2009, p. 195). However, Cohen (2009) argues that despite the many differences across different cultures in what they consider to be religious, there are many similarities too. Although religious differences may span many areas, of particular relevance to the present research is that they also involve interactions between the individuals and their environment. These social interactions are transmitted across generations over a long time and form the basis of shared beliefs and values. Such interactions are not only concerned with how and what information is shared (or not shared), but also its meaning and values. Sasaki and Kim (2011) conceptualize religion as a unified system of beliefs and values that is unique to different religious traditions, and that focusses on the faithful relationships with the divine. Sasaki and Kim (2011) also argue that religion takes place within the context of culture \"as an overarching system of beliefs and practices concerning the supernatural\" (p. 402).\nMethodology: Data collection\nDiscussion: This study attempted to further develop the concept of SR and to establish measurement invariance of a new SR scale, the SR scale, based on respondents' agreement or disagreement with religious belief statements in China, India, Japan, Korea, and the USA. While the results indicate that the SR scale is valid and reliable in all five countries surveyed, the findings also suggest that interpretation of the SR construct might be different in different countries with different religions. Manifestation of religiosity and how it is practiced in a social context is likely driven by cultural and historical factors.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure social religiosity (SR) and assess its measurement invariance across different cultures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research relied on samples from China (n=486), India (n=377), Japan (n=362), Korea (n=386), and the USA (n=580). The invariance process involved carrying out a series of confirmatory factor analyses with progressively more restrictive constraints.\nFindings: Results show the SR scale to be reliable and valid across culturally and religiously diverse countries. Implications of the findings are also discussed.\nOriginality/value: Based on Katz (1988) this is a new scale to measure SR and its measurement invariance is assessed across culturally divergent countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Work harassment and local government employees: Australia and USA	[ "OCB", "Psychological wellbeing", "Work harassment", "Workplace relationships" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper compares the impact of management and colleagues on the perception of work harassment of local government employees in Australia and the USA post the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) reforms, and in turn the impact on psychological wellbeing and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). We specifically examine psychological wellbeing because it acts like a barometer capturing how employees are coping with a changing workplace (Brunetto et al., 2014a; Xerri et al., 2015). The implementation of NPM reforms aimed to increase organisational efficiency across government departments by introducing budgetary controls, accountability, performance measures and improved management systems (Diefenbach, 2009). However, every country implemented the reforms differently, producing different outcomes for local government employees. The similarities and differences in the way local government management implemented the changes in the USA and Australia will be examined. The commonality between Australia (Dollery et al., 2006) and USA (Wollmann and Thurmaier, 2012) is derived from employees being similarly significantly impacted by resource constraints. However, differences in employee outcomes have emerged because local governments in Australia have undergone a far greater level of organisational change, especially in management practices (Brunetto et al., 2015; Dollery et al., 2006; Svara and Hoene, 2008; Wollmann and Thurmaier, 2012), and consequently, it is expected that the level of work harassment will be greater in Australia.\nBackground: SET\nMethods: Sample\nResults: Confirmatory factor analysis\nDiscussion: This paper examined and found that differences in the discretionary power of management influenced the perceptions of work harassment and employee outcomes. In particular, we examined one country - Australia - that has experienced increased discretionary power for managers with another country - USA - where the discretionary power of managers has not changed, and we compared the outcomes for local government employees within this context.\nConclusion: The findings clearly indicate the impact of work harassment prevailing in the Australian and US local government sector. It appears that the higher discretionary power of managers has increased the perception of work harassment for Australian local government employees. We have conceptualised work harassment as: first, chronic under-resourcing both in terms of manpower and other resources; second, coupled with unrealistically high-performance targets; and, third, affecting large numbers of public sector employees positioned closest to the public. The result is local government employee perceptions about work harassment in the form of being under-resourced and under-staffed is reducing their extra-role behaviour associated with OCB. In addition, insight is provided for public sector management regarding the use of workplace relationships (e.g. POS and teamwork) in controlling employee perceptions of work harassment.\nImplications: The implication for public sector management, in relation to the implementation of NPM reforms, is that bullying associated with work harassment (Diefenbach, 2009; Einarsen et al., 2011) is affecting a large number of local government employees, as opposed to other forms of workplace aggression that target only a select few individuals. Therefore, while workplace harassment appears to have a greater influence on the wellbeing of local government employees in the USA, the fact that work harassment is far more widespread compared to other forms of workplace aggression cannot be ignored by either Australian or US local government managers (Diefenbach, 2009; Einarsen et al., 2011). We found that Australian local government employees have far lower satisfaction with management compared with US local government employees. This provides an explanation as to why they experience greater work harassment, and have lower employee outcomes. One recommendation is that increased discretionary power for managers must be associated with increased training to give them the skills to use their power wisely, which has been recommended by Diefenbach and Brunetto. It is not sustainable to increase the discretionary power of managers if the outcome is increased, and widespread, work harassment. It is only by comparing the US and Australian local government context that the negative impact of increased managerial power on employees becomes clear.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of management and colleagues on the perception of work harassment and outcomes of local government employees in Australia and the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Completed surveys from local government employees (265 from the USA and 250 from Australia) were analysed using structural equation modelling and an ANOVA.\nFindings: The results depict support for the overall measurement and structural models showing that workplace relationships impact on work harassment, and in turn employee outcomes (psychological wellbeing and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour-Individual (OCB-I)), although not all paths were accepted for each country. Statistically significant differences were found between the Australian and USA samples for both the measurement and structural models, with the sample from the USA showing much higher levels of satisfaction with workplace relationships, higher levels of psychological wellbeing, OCB-I, and lower perceptions of work harassment.\nPractical implications: The findings provide implications that Australian and US local government employees, positioned closest to the public, experience work harassment probably as a result of chronic under-resourcing both in terms of manpower and other resources, and coupled with unrealistically high-performance targets. The results depict that such work harassment is resulting in lower psychological wellbeing (USA only) and lower extra-role behaviour associated with OCB-I (Australia and USA).\nOriginality/value: The value of this paper is that it benchmarks the impact of workplace relationships on work harassment for local government employees across two Anglo-American countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Examining consumer attitudes toward genetically modified and organic foods	[ "Organic food", "Privacy", "Genetically engineered food", "Genetically modified cereal", "Genetically modified produce", "Green attitudes", "Social desirability bias", "Impulsive buying" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Most consumer surveys about food attitudes asked demographic questions to help control for preference differences. Assuming preference homogeneity and omitting these variables could add bias to an analysis. Besides controlling for preference differences, demographics can identify groups to target with marketing and can offer insights into the best communication mode and message. Producers of genetically modified (GM), non-GM, organic, and non-organic food could use demographic profiles to improve the efficiency of their marketing spending. However, demographics may not provide a complete picture of prospective buyers.\nPrevious research on food preferences: A recent survey found 55 percent of US adults believed organic produce is healthier than conventionally grown produce and 39 percent believed GM foods are worse for health than non-GM foods (Funk and Kennedy, 2016). Many studies have examined these food preferences and there have been some inconsistencies in the findings.\nPrevious research on the control variables in this research: This survey will test a variable that has not been used in food surveys (birth order), add measures supported in prior research (political preference and social desirability), and include multi-item scales for \"green\" support, impulse buying, religiosity, and privacy concerns.\nMethodology: Qualtrics distributed a nonprobability internet survey to US panelists in January 2015. An attention check was included to improve response quality. Complete, usable responses from the sample frame of adults, aged 25-65, totaled 725. Like many other surveys, nonwhites were under represented (15.6 percent of respondents). Otherwise, the demographic profile of respondents was reasonably representative of the national sample frame.\nResults: Three models were constructed for each dependent variable and likelihood ratio tests indicated that, in all but one case (organic foods), expanding the set of variables in a model made significantly improvements (at the 5 percent level). Bivariate correlations between demographic and value variables found none that exceeded 0.25 (except a negative link between an older age group and presence of children) which suggests multicollinearity is not be an issue.\nConclusions and implications: This study illustrates the contribution from including some less-traditional control variables in food attitude models. Consider the organic food analysis. The addition of the four control variables made a statistically significant contribution to the model. Two of the measures, the green attitude and social desirability bias variables, were significant and one age class and one education class moved into the significant category when the four variables were added. Omitting these variables could produce an incomplete understanding of this market. Therefore, expanding the set of control variables seems prudent.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) and organic foods with a broader list of control variables that includes green attitudes, impulsive purchasing, concerns about privacy, religiosity, birth order, and political preferences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: US internet panelists were asked about their preferences for purchasing non-GM produce, non-GM cereal, and organic products even if they cost a little more. They were also asked if genetically engineered foods are safe to consume. Responses to these four questions were dependent variables in binary logistic regressions. The sample size was 725 adults.\nFindings: Attitudes toward non-GM produce and non-GM cereal were linked with different variables. Green attitudes were positively linked with non-GM and organic food attitudes. Impulsive purchases, a religiosity factor, and a privacy concern factor were linked with non-GM but not organic food attitudes. Social desirability bias was also significant. The genetically engineered food model identified some unique linkages with the control variables, suggesting that these terms may not improve consumer confidence with food.\nOriginality/value: New measures and several variables that researchers independently found to be significant were tested together in models and found to be linked with organic and non-GM food attitudes. Some expected relationships were not found. The results provide better profiles of consumers who have strong attitudes toward GM and organic foods.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Explicating user behavior toward multi-screen adoption and diffusion: User experience in the multi-screen media ecology	[ "Neural network", "Cross-platform", "Multi-device experience", "Multi-screen strategy", "One-source multi-use" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Media experiences in the convergence era are based on personalization, immediate gratification, and significant variety (Shin, 2015). Users are rapidly becoming accustomed to expecting everything everywhere and changing media experiences have influenced the evolution of multi-screen and N-screen technologies. Although multi-screen and N-screen services are often the same, multi-screen is a broader concept that encompasses N-screen as well.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Multi-screen services and the UX\n3. Research model: This study utilized a proposed adapted TAM (Davis, 1989) that comprises two primary factors of TAM: quality factors and relevant components of human-computer interaction theory. Although TAM is one of the most influential research models used in the study of the determinants of technology acceptance, several researchers have identified significant limitations in this model, such as a lack of rigor and relevance, as well as inadequate consideration of social and quality-specific factors (Shin, 2015; Yu et al., 2005). The proposed model is a good predicator of social and technical changes. Researchers have consistently found that technical quality, device compatibility, and user factors play significant roles in technology adoption (e.g. Park et al., 2013).\n4. Study design: To capture the dynamics of a multi-screen ecosystem, the study design employed a multi-step approach. First, qualitative methods were applied to obtain a preliminary understanding of multi-screen users, factors, and behaviors. Focus groups, in-depth interviews, and expert interviews were utilized. These data were then used as the basis for the quantitative model.\n5. Results: 5.1 Fit indices\n6. Multi-screen service adoption forecasting using a diffusion model: The consumer acceptance model produced significant results at the micro level of analysis. The next step was to analyze the market by predicting the future diffusion of the technology. The most widely used diffusion models for technology are the Bass model (Bass, 1969), Fisher-Pry model (Fisher and Pry, 1971), logistic family models (Bewley and Fiebig, 1988), and Gompertz model (Rai, 1999). The underlying concept of these models is the maximization of the perceived utility among customers. These models yield an S-shaped curve to illustrate technology diffusion among specific populations and they are suitable for demand forecasting at the macro level rather than the individual user level. The present study employed the method described by Michalakelis et al. (2008), who used the Gompertz, the Bass, and a logistic model in their diffusion models of Greek mobile telephones. According to Michalakelis et al. (2008), the aggregated S-type diffusion models can be derived from the following differential equation:\n7. Discussion: Using multiple methods, this study holistically examined user behaviors with respect to multi-screen services. A neural network model was developed to identify their relationships using function approximation. The overall results obtained by the proposed neural network-based model were good, possibly because neural networks are appropriate for analyzing nonlinearity in data. Thus, the ability of the neural network model to consider interactions between variables and to approximate complex functions was useful for predicting user satisfaction with certain technology services.\n8. Implications for policy and managerial practice: The emergence of multi-screen services has opened up new areas for regulators and the businesses that will develop the future of telecommunications (Shin, 2013). The results of this study engender implications for theory as well as practice.\n9. Conclusion: People are increasingly using multiple devices for all tasks and activities. Individual activities such as social networking, playing games, and watching news highlights are no longer restricted to a single screen. By employing multi-screen services, users can interact with products and services through a growing diversity of platforms, including installed software, mobile apps, and smart TVs. At present, most media interactions occur on a screen, thus the manner in which people switch between and use screens has become an important area of research. The findings of this study indicate that consumers desire a flexible environment that allows quality content to be mobile and moveable among devices. However, most users have fragmented experiences with the current multi-screen services, which lack true cross-screen capabilities. In addition, the current services offer limited reliability, partial availability, restricted mobility, and narrow connectivity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze user behavior toward multi-screen services by employing neural networks to predict overall customer satisfaction and to prioritize the factors that influence customer intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multi-screen experiences require a new approach incorporating multiple methods. A proposed multi-state analytic approach in which the research model is tested using structural equation modeling was utilized. The results were then used as inputs for a neural network model to predict multi-screen adoption.\nFindings: The findings indicate that multi-screen quality significantly influences usability, which subsequently affects the adoption of the technology.\nPractical implications: The policy and managerial implications of multi-screen development are discussed based on the models of acceptance and diffusion.\nSocial implications: The emergence of multi-screen services as well as the simultaneous and sequential engagement of users with multiple devices throughout the day challenges the ability of marketers to develop effective communication strategies.\nOriginality/value: This study provides an in-depth analysis and heuristic data regarding user drivers, market dynamics, and policy implications in the one-source multi-use ecosystem.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Learning isn't changing	[ "Development", "Technologies", "Learning", "Online", "Millennials" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Basically, people will always need to learn things - and they will always need other people to teach them, to \"engage\" them and to motivate them to learn.\nKey issues for learning and development professionals: The advent of the web - only some 20 years ago - has widened the access to learning materials still further but, in so doing, it is raised some key issues for learning and development professionals. For example:\nThe shoulders of giants: To use a simile first employed by Bernard of Chartres in the twelfth century and most famously used by the British scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, in a letter he wrote in 1676, we are like dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. The idea is that we can see more and further than our predecessors could - not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are borne aloft on their gigantic stature and can build on their pioneering work.\nNew trends: This is particularly true in the world of corporate online learning technology. Now well in to its third decade - or, many might argue, its sixth - corporate online learning is, once again, changing dramatically. To focus on just some of the current trends in this sector, the proliferation of mobile devices, allied to the trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), is forcing content developers to design learning materials for delivery via multiple devices. It's also moving online learning from being (formal) e-learning to (informal) performance support.\nA foggy landscape: So, if we are standing on the shoulders of giants, we appear to be doing so while looking at an extremely foggy landscape. And, since we do not have \"20/20 foresight\", our danger is - as they say of the military - that we spend all our time training to fight the last war rather than training to win the next war.\nAids to vision: A report, called \"A Review of the e-learning markets of the UK, EU and China 2014\" and published a few months ago by the UK-based market analyst, Learning Light, sets out the size and state of the online learning technologies markets in 20 European countries, including the UK. It also examines the Chinese market for online learning technologies.\nConclusions: From this, we can say that what is changing in the learning world is not learning per se but delivery technologies - and also the relative importance in the overall learning delivery mix of this growing range of learning delivery technologies.\nMillennial-focused learning and development: When it comes to preparing learning and development activities for millennials - as for anyone else - learning and development professionals must address such issues as:\nMillennial learning testimonials: According to a \"millennial\" - Rhys Little, a serving officer in the UK's Army Reserve and a project manager with the global organisation Mitsubishi Electric UK: \"I found learning hard at school but it's easy in the military.\" The military tends towards kinaesthetic learning, while school prefers audio-based learning.\nMeeting the need: In today's increasingly fast-paced commercial world, the proliferation of online learning delivery technologies helps to meet the need for \"just-in-time\", \"just-enough\" and \"just-right-first-time\" learning wherever the learners are, whenever they need this learning and however they want to access the learning materials.\nAn ideal scenario: It would be nice to hope that this technology could make accepted subject matter experts more accessible to any learner, anywhere in the world. That way, learners could get access to top quality learning - in a reversal of the way that, today, only privileged learners can study with the world's best, for example, at the world's top universities. However, human beings being human, I suspect that, as technology makes these experts more accessible, other factors - such as money or time availability - will come into play to maintain some form of established intellectual elite.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: An exploration of what's changing - and what is not - in the world of corporate learning. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Discussion paper with special reference to the report \"A Review of the e-learning markets of the UK, EU and China 2014\", published by Learning Light in 2014.\nFindings: Learning is not changing - but the need and the opportunities for that learning are expanding. What is changing in the learning world is not learning per se but delivery technologies - and also the relative importance in the overall learning delivery mix of this growing range of learning delivery technologies.\nResearch limitations/implications: We're standing on the shoulders of giants but we appear to be looking at an extremely foggy landscape. And, since we do not have \"20/20 foresight\", our danger is that we spend our time \"training to fight the last war\" rather than \"training to win the next war\".\nPractical implications: There are a number of technological factors as well as demographic factors that learning and development professionals need to take into account when designing and developing (online) learning materials.\nSocial implications: As technology makes the work of subject matter experts more accessible, other factors - such as money or time availability - are likely to come into play to maintain some form of established intellectual elite.\nOriginality/value: An attempt to discern some current trends and extrapolate them.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Integrating reciprocity into a social exchange model of inter-firm B2B relationships	[ "Trust", "Commitment", "Reciprocity", "Social exchange" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Inter-firm relationships have received significant scholarly attention over the past three decades (Dwyer et al., 1987; Hallen et al., 1991; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Doney and Cannon, 1997; Palmatier et al., 2006; Palmatier et al., 2009; Palmatier et al., 2013). Inter-firm relationships involve exchanges between buyers and sellers. Dwyer et al. (1987) dichotomized such dyadic exchanges into discrete and relational sub-types. Relational exchanges describe transactions that are embedded in a temporal context (Dwyer et al., 1987). Thus, each transaction is affected by past transactions between the parties and, in turn, affects future transaction between the parties. Dwyer et al. (1987) posit that relational exchange is the product of a process in which communication and bargaining antecede norm development, which in turn determines the link between trust and commitment. According to Dwyer et al. (1987), communication and bargaining processes involve intimate disclosures that necessitate reciprocity in inter-firm relationships.\nBackground: This research adopts a social exchange perspective to explain dyadic inter-firm relationships, rather than networked relationships as discussed in Hakansson and Snehota (1989) and Hakansson et al. (2009). Stated briefly, the transaction cost and social control perspectives used to explain inter-firm relationship phenomenon focus predominantly on the particular form of governance mechanisms used to control the relationship (Das and Teng, 2001; Ganesan, 1994; Heide and John, 1992). Given that the current research is concerned with predicting long-term relationships, we assume that such inter-firm relationships will be governed by what is called incomplete or implied contracts in transaction cost analysis (Ganesan, 1994; Lusch and Brown, 1996), or social control (versus formal control) in the social control perspective (Das and Teng, 2001). In these low governance structures, relational exchange is the de facto form of governance. Accordingly, these relationships, like all relationships, have a social component, and this study is principally concerned with how best to predict the long-term viability of these socially governed relationships. Thus, we seek to explain the relationship structure rather than determine when a relationship might form (under a cooperative structure as opposed to alternative structures like a joint venture).\nModel and hypotheses: The conceptual model depicted in Figure 1 integrates reciprocity and its antecedents (i.e. strategic intent and relational proclivity) with trust, commitment and information exchange as determinants of long-term orientation. Strategic intent is the extent to which an organization is inclined toward prevailing over its competition (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990). Also referred to as aggressiveness (Chen et al., 2010), strategic renewal (Volberda et al., 2001) and strategic flexibility (Santos-Vijande et al., 2012), it measures the tactical aggressiveness and ambition of the firm (Johnson and Sohi, 2001). According to Hamel and Prahalad (2005), strategic intent is an active management process that emphasizes the spirit of success by motivating people to achieve set targets that require personal effort and commitment. It permeates many layers of the firm, beyond just the focus of top management (Mariadoss et al., 2014).\nMethodology and analysis: Participants and procedure\nDiscussion: Reciprocity and its antecedents are fundamental social exchange constructs that help us understand the role of trust and commitment in building long-term inter-firm relationships. We contribute to the social exchange literature by explicitly including reciprocity in a model of long-term relationships based on trust and commitment. The results are consistent with the proposition that reciprocity is fundamental to the social exchange view of inter-firm relationships. It is important to note, however, that both reciprocity and quality information exchange capture different information. Furthermore, reciprocity has an indirect effect on quality information exchange. To add to these two conclusions, the role of commitment and the relationship of trust and commitment in both the initially proposed model and the post hoc model are inconsistent with other published research. This should provoke further inquiries into these phenomena.\nConclusion: Throughout the past four decades, social exchange theory has been an important area of research for scholars interested in relationships between business firms. Our research demonstrates that this research is still in its infancy. This is substantiated by a recent call for papers regarding inter-firm relationships in B2B settings. Thus, the area continues to garner intense academic and practitioner interest. As the demands of global business and rapidly changing technology increase the importance of partnership strategies for B2B firms, it is more important to understand how social exchange can be used to build long-term relationships. Such relationships can foreshadow important competitive advantageous for partner firms, and therefore, such relationships are purposively pursued and involve continual give and get. This research finds that committed inter-firm relationships will survive over the long term if trust and quality information exchange follow reciprocity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Reciprocity has traditionally been overlooked in social exchange models of inter-firm relationships. Therefore, this research integrates reciprocity and its antecedents into a social exchange model of inter-firm relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors collected primary data from a sample of firms in the Republic of Korea using a questionnaire. They also used covariance-based structural equations modeling to fit the model given the proposed conceptualization.\nFindings: Both conceptually and empirically, adding reciprocity and its antecedents to the social exchange model produce results that differ from previously published papers. Specifically, reciprocity affects information exchanged indirectly through both credibility and benevolence trust. In addition, the effect of information exchange mediates the effect of trust on calculative and affective commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: The foundation of long-term inter-firm relationships is quality information exchange, which is based on the development of credibility and benevolence trust, which in turn is based on reciprocity. Thus, reciprocity is a key variable in relationship development.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is among the first to combine reciprocity and its antecedents into a social exchange model that contains trust and commitment. This model provides a bigger picture of how firms develop long-term relationships with their partner firms.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementation of ERP of the Australian manufacturing companies	[ "Supply chain management", "Manufacturing resource planning", "Communication technologies", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is based on the concept of identifying and implementing the set of best practices, procedures and tools that different functions of a company can utilise to accomplish total organisational excellence through integration. Today's global business environments are characterised by numerous competitive pressures and sophisticated customers demanding speedy solutions and different supply chain strategies (Davenport, 2000; Chan and Chan, 2005a). Understanding and improving business processes is a cornerstone of success in these fast-changing environments. To alter how they conduct business, companies around the world are taking full advantage of a variety of packaged information technology (IT) systems (Klaus et al., 2000). In the past few years, hundreds of manufacturing companies worldwide have embraced packaged ERP systems as a basis for business process management integration across business functions (Mabert et al., 2000).ERP is probably the most important IT-enabled innovations in the last decade (Beatty and Williams, 2006). ERP software packages enable companies to integrate business processes across organisational functions and locations and hence facilitate such management (Soh et al., 2000). ERP attempts to integrate as many business functions and applications as possible. The technologies are developed to address the fragmentation of information across an organisation's business and to intra- and inter-enterprise information (Sharif et al., 2005). ERP can also be an enabler to allow web-based integration for supply chain management (Downing, 2010). However, adoption of ERP systems is far from successful, partly attributed to its complexity for both software development and training of staff (Scott, 2008; Longinidis and Gotzamani, 2009; Maguire et al., 2010).The objective of the paper is to determine the extent of ERP systems used in Australian manufacturing companies, the reasons for pursuing such an application, the implementation experiences and the benefits obtained. A questionnaire survey and subsequent data analysis revealed a number of important factors for businesses. The planned and actual use of ERP systems is pervasive in the Australian manufacturing sector, with both small and large companies implementing or planning to implement an ERP system. It was also revealed that ERP system implementation benefits are concentrated more in quickly providing high-quality information within firm.\n2 Literature review: ERP systems employ a common database which can facilitate information sharing (Lee et al., 2010), which is one of the critical factors for minimising supply chain dynamics (Chan and Chan, 2009). An effective ERP system also makes the enterprise more flexible and improves the responsiveness, which is another characteristic of successful supply chains (Chan et al., 2009; Chan and Chan, 2010). Consequently, a platform for system-wide supply chain is possible with a proper ERP system (Chan and Chan, 2005b; Forslund, 2010). Therefore, organisational support is a necessity for successful ERP implementation (Lee et al., 2010). In addition, enterprises in different industries would inevitably face different conditions and hence different approaches to treat data, which means a single application may not suit the needs for different enterprises (Batenburg et al., 2008; Helo et al., 2008). Therefore, a proper classification model of data quality for ERP systems is needed (Haug et al., 2009). Subject to these specifications, the basic understanding of the ERP adoption is needed, which is the major objective of this study.Literature on ERP is very rich. A strand of research is of course focus on the benefits firms can obtain from implementing ERP, which are partially summarised in Section 1. Obviously, proper adoption of ERP systems could help enterprises become more competitive (Hunton et al., 2003; Maguire et al., 2010). Apart from that, Longinidis and Gotzamani (2009) have identified another three research areas: investigation of critical success factors for effective ERP implementation, analysis of the metrics for evaluating ERP systems and examination of the obstacles and the sources of failure in ERP implementation. The scope of this research falls exactly within the scope of the last area.ERP is an IT-driven system which enables \"enterprise to streamline and integrate virtually all operations and functions from order processing to vendor and customer relationship management\" (Sledgianowski et al., 2008). In recent years, ERP solutions are more affordable to small companies than ever before (Olsen and Saetre, 2007). This is partly attributed to the development of the internet (Sledgianowski et al., 2008). Nevertheless, investment on ERP systems could not be underestimated and could comprise of a large slice of the enterprise's budget (Aloini et al., 2007). Ifinedo and Nahar (2009) claimed that ERP systems are costly and the failure rate of ERP adoption is high. In this connection, they conducted a survey to link the ERP success to some organisational IT factors. Therefore, there is a need to maintain a high chance of successful ERP implementation.The motivation of conducting this research can be reflected from the above literature. It can be observed from the above literature that different factors may affect the effectiveness of ERP implementation. Before a conclusion can make on which factors are more relevant to the Australian companies, basic of ERP systems, such as penetration, pre-implementation process, implementation experience, etc. should be explored (Olhager and Selldin, 2003). This study, in short, sets out to unveil the understanding of ERP implementation in Australia through a survey study. Details are discussed below.\n3 Research methodology and development of survey: A literature research and survey was carried out to investigate the objectives of this research. The initial stages of this research consisted mainly of studying literature resources to be able to map the background and develop an understanding in the field of ERP systems. A number of related surveys conducted previously by other academics and corporations were analysed and used as a basis for this survey. The survey created here was mainly based on a survey that was conducted in the USA on a much larger scale (Mabert et al., 2000). Olhager and Selldin (2003) and Katerattanakul et al. (2006) also made use of the similar questionnaire to investigate ERP implementation of Swedish and Korean manufacturing companies. The questionnaire was divided into five main categories as follows:1. characteristics of the company and respondent;2. pre-implementation activities;3. implementation experience and ERP system configuration;4. benefits and future direction; and5. final evaluation and comments.A total of 350 surveys and cover letters were prepared and sent out to selected Australian manufacturing companies, a self-addressed pre-paid envelope was also included to increase the response rate. The respondents were given approximately six weeks to return the survey. The survey questions employed four different question formats: multiple responses, yes no response, five-point Likert scales and open response types of questions depending on the depth of information required. The aforementioned five main categories were divided into three parts:* Part 1. Background information about the company.* Part 2. Pre-implementation activities.* Part 3. Implementation activities, benefits received and evaluation of the overall implemented system.The respondents who had already implemented or in the process of implementing an ERP system were asked to fill out the entire questionnaire, whilst those without an ERP system in the company filled out Parts 1 and 2 only. The main idea in Part 1 was to gain some background information about the companies, such as the position of the respondent filling out the survey and the size of the company. Part 2 consisted of questions mainly regarding the pre-implementation activities like the strategic approach the company pursued to implement the ERP system and the type of package selected. Finally, Part 3 comprised of questions implementation experiences, benefit received and the final evaluation of the system and comments. The final survey contained a cover letter and four pages of questions.A final list of 350 Australian manufacturing companies was prepared. Manufacturing companies were selected through the internet; the search was mainly for companies who had already implemented or in the process of implementing an ERP system. Letters were also mailed out to the major ERP vendors such as SAP, Baan and JD Edwards requesting a list of companies who had implemented or in the process of implementing an ERP system. Individually addressed cover letters were also prepared. The number of responses received was 79 out of a possible 350, for a response rate of 23 per cent. The number of responses in absolute term is small, especially if other management research such as marketing is taken into consideration. Given the type of mail survey/questionnaire carried out, which is focused on a very niche area in a specific region, the response rate is considered reasonable (e.g. Helo et al. (2008) conducted a survey to study the expectation and reality in ERP implementation with a sample size of 59; Longinidis and Gotzamani (2009) conducted a survey with sample size of 68; Ifinedo and Nahar's study (2009) has a sample size of 62). Respondents were not asked to provide company-identifying information to maintain confidentiality and a postage-paid return envelope was provided to increase the response rate.\n4 Survey results: The survey is categorical (and descriptive) in nature. Therefore, no statistical test is required and only descriptive statistics are summarised in the section.4.1 Company characteristics\n5 Conclusions: 5.1 Managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons for implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in Australia and the issues encountered during the course of implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire survey is conducted, research frame is selected from the Australian manufacturing sector and a final list of 350 Australian manufacturing companies was prepared from which 79 responses were received, representing a response rate of 23 per cent.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the planned and actual use of ERP systems is pervasive in the Australian manufacturing sector, with both small and large companies implementing or planning to implement an ERP system. It was also revealed that ERP system implementation benefits are concentrated more in quickly providing high-quality information within firm.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Respondents are limited to Australian companies, and results may be regional in nature. Further study is suggested to benchmark the result of this research to other countries.\nOriginality/value: - Provide insights on ERP implementation at least to the Australian companies and hopefully to companies in other countries.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Human resource development practices, managers and multinational enterprises in Australia: Thinking globally, acting locally	[ "Management development", "Human resource development", "Multinational corporations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have extended their global reach and dominance in many markets (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2014), and in the process they search out means of developing international best practice management strategies to enhance their global and local competitive advantage (Brewster et al., 2006; Bartram et al., 2015). In the context of the resource-based view of the firm human assets are one of the most important sources of competitive advantage for organisations in that they provide a unique configuration of knowledge, skills and abilities that are difficult for competitors to replicate (Barney, 1991; Wright and McMahan, 2011). As such, an organisation's human resource strategy and the management of its human capital are critical elements of global competitive strategy. Furthermore, the value that MNEs place on their \"talent\" particularly their managerial talent can impact directly on overall performance (Burbach and Royle, 2010; Sheehan, 2012; Wright and McMahan, 2011).\nMNEs and HRD programmes: Human capital can be defined quite broadly as \"the knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic well-being\" (OECD, 2001, p. 18). While human capital theory focuses on investment in capacity building at the individual, organisational and environmental level (Connell and Stanton, 2014; Wright and McMahan, 2011) in this paper we focus on MNEs. HRD can be defined as \"the integrated use of training and development, organisational development, and career development to improve individual, group and organisational effectiveness\" (Noe, 2008, p. 35). Many organisations, recognising the competitive advantage of highly skilled employees, often develop a wide range of sophisticated HRD strategies and practices to identify their high performers and to develop and retain key staff (Connell and Stanton, 2014; McDonnell et al., 2010; Wright and McMahan, 2011). Training and development, management development, career and succession planning, talent management and organisational development are all designed to facilitate learning in organisations to improve organisational performance (McGraw, 2014; Noe, 2008).\nThe Australian context: Foreign-owned MNEs play a significant role in contributing to the Australian economy, as they employ at least one quarter of all employees in Australia (McDonnell et al., 2011; Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2012). These companies are crucial for human capital formation and upskilling of the workforce, particularly since Australia's growing economy and consequent skills shortages in key areas amongst managers, professionals and technicians (Sheldon and Thornthwaite, 2005; Connell and Stanton, 2014). McDonnell (2011) argues that in Australia, workforce demographics and skills shortages have caused organisations to fight for the brightest and the best employees making the war for talent fierce and the importance of effective talent management crucial for MNEs.\nMethodology: This paper draws on evidence from a large-scale survey of employment practices of MNEs in Australia. A total of 211 indigenous and foreign-owned MNEs were drawn out from a total sample of 527 MNEs. The criteria applied and the methodology used followed the protocols set out in the INTREPID international project assessing employment practices of MNEs across several countries. The full details of the sampling and methods are set out in McDonnell et al. (2011). Foreign-owned MNEs were defined as those that employed at least 100 workers in their Australian operations and employed 500 or more worldwide. Australian MNEs had at least 500 employees worldwide and employed at least 100 outside of Australia.\nVariables used in the analysis: Dependent variables\nFindings: To assess the similarities or differences in MNEs HRD activities of MNEs operating in Australia, and the influence of the country of origin, we present frequencies and cross-tabulations. To present further analysis four logistic regressions are presented.\nLogistic regression: The next section is linked to the factors that influence expenditure on training and development and use of management development, talent management and succession planning. Using 171-193 cases we used four logistic regression models to examine the determinants of the HRD variables. First, we accounted for 25.3 per cent of the variance in the amount spent on training and development (Nagelkerke R2). Table V shows standard error and exponential b values for each of the independent variables. Of the 20 determinants investigated in the logistic regression MNEs that used shared HR service centres were more likely to spend over 4 per cent of their revenue on training and development (p<0.10). Surprisingly, the results showed negative statistical significance for MNEs with union recognition at all sites (p<0.10) and union recognition at some sites (p<0.01). This indicates that MNEs with unionized firms are less likely to spend over 4 per cent of revenue into training and development if they are unionized. Moreover, larger MNEs are more likely to spend over 4 per cent of the revenue on training and development.\nDiscussion and conclusions: It would be fair to say that there is room for growth in human capital development for MNEs operating in Australia, as less than 20 per cent of firms invest more than 4 per cent of their annual pay bill on training and development. Furthermore, almost a quarter of firms invest less than 1 per cent in training and development. While this wide range of expenditure could be related to Hall et al.'s (2002) contention that there has been a move away from employer led training in Australia, MNEs could be investing in other areas such as research and development and plant and equipment, and their investment into training and development could be targeted towards particular types of employees. This argument would support Smith and Billet (2005), who suggest that although Australian employers appear to perform relatively well in comparison to employers in other developed nations; significant problems of under investment in training exist for certain groups of employees.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the HRD practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Australia to understand the value that MNEs place on investment in their human capital, particularly managerial talent.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on a representative sample of 211 MNEs operating in Australia, this paper investigates the extent (using frequencies) and determinants (using logistic regression analysis) of training and development expenditure, management development strategies, talent management and succession planning policies.\nFindings: The findings suggest that less than 20 per cent of MNEs operating in Australia are investing over 4 per cent of their annual pay bill on training and development. Furthermore, almost a quarter of firms invest less than 1 per cent in training and development. However, most MNEs invest in their managers and those with high potential through the use of management development programmes, talent management strategies and succession planning. Interestingly, in comparison to US MNEs, Australian MNEs were less likely to use management development or talent management programmes for senior management or high performing staff.\nResearch limitations/implications: The current study is cross-sectional and represents a snapshot of MNEs' HRD practices at one point in time. The study measured the perceptions of the most senior HR manager and did not include the views of other organisational participants. The authors suggest the need for future research studies that incorporate longitudinal research designs and the views of different organisational actors.\nPractical implications: HR managers or HRD specialists need to develop a strong understanding of the Australian institutional context, as well as demonstrate the importance/business case for an integrative approach to HRD.\nOriginality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to study the HRD practices of MNEs operating in Australia, particularly focusing on the value that MNEs place on their human capital.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Corporate disclosure of human capital via LinkedIn and ownership structure: An empirical analysis of European companies	[ "LinkedIn", "Ownership structure", "Human capital disclosure" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the past decade, companies have increasingly used social network sites (SNSs) to transform their businesses and increase operating performances. In particular, SNSs have caused significant changes in business communication and investor relations (IRs), generating relevant changes in the methods by which companies develop dialogue and interact with stakeholders (Bonson and Bednarova, 2012; Coe, 2013; Hirshleifer and Teoh, 2009; Luo et al., 2013). SNSs are internet applications based on Web 2.0 technology that allow companies to share information at a high rate, thereby fostering interactivity in communication flows (Bonson and Bednarova, 2012; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). SNSs are also becoming one of the main tools to communicate with shareholders and capital markets (Miller and Skinner, 2015; Lee et al., 2015; Luo et al., 2013).\n2. Literature review and development of hypothesis: 2.1 HC disclosure\n3. Method: 3.1 Sample selection and data source\n4. Regression analysis: To test the association between HC disclosure via LinkedIn and independent and control variables, we used the following models:(1)\n5. Verification of robustness: To better understand the relationship between HC disclosure via LinkedIn and the independent variable, we computed the ownership concentration with three other measures. More specifically, we used the accumulated ownership of the first, second and third largest shareholders (AO3). The higher the value of AO3, the more power is concentrated in the hands of the largest shareholders.\n6. Conclusions: In this work, we analysed the content of HC information released via LinkedIn by a sample of European non-financial listed companies and studied the relation between ownership structure and HC disclosure. To analyse HC disclosure via LinkedIn, we developed a disclosure index that includes items concerning the stock of knowledge and capabilities of employees in addition to the practices in human resource management.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ownership concentration and human capital (HC) disclosure released via LinkedIn.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses a quantitative methodology. The sample is composed of 150 European companies. Content analysis was used to examine HC disclosure via LinkedIn. Regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis.\nFindings: The results indicate that ownership concentration negatively influences HC disclosure via LinkedIn, confirming that closely held firms have little motivation to voluntarily release information.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study relates to the sample size. Furthermore, this study investigates only the quantity of HC disclosure; it does not consider the quality of this information.\nPractical implications: The typical ownership structure of European firms generates a force that opposes the growing pressure for internationalization and global transparency. This important issue needs to be considered in investor decisions, HC management and reporting and in setting accounting standards. Moreover, the study points out that, despite the potential opportunities provided by LinkedIn to build and enforce relationships with their stakeholders, companies mainly use LinkedIn for recruitment purposes.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature on HC disclosure because it is, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the first study that exclusively examines HC disclosure by European companies via LinkedIn and because it develops a disclosure index that includes items concerning the stock of knowledge and capabilities of employees in addition to the practices in human resource management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Mobile banking adoption in an emerging economy: An empirical analysis of young Indian consumers	[ "Perceived risk", "Perceived ease of use", "Perceived usefulness", "Mobile banking adoption parameters", "Perceived credibility", "Structural assurance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Technological advancements in the areas of telecommunications and information technology over the past few decades have revolutionized business operation systems in both developed and developing economies especially in the financial service industry. The advent of information and communication technology has led to the proliferation of electronic-based banking products, and has offered tailor-made banking solutions to customers at their doorstep. Internet banking as a technological improvement offered the prospect of changing the structure and nature of banking from \"bricks\" to \"clicks.\" The use of mobile technologies for viable activities has initiated the concept of mobile commerce (m-commerce). Mobile banking is an application of m-commerce that enables customers to bank virtually at any convenient time and place (Bankole et al., 2011).\n2. Literature review: Banks are constantly in search of solutions that help them to reduce their cost of operation and improve customer experience. In this regard, the banking industry has introduced several technologies for better delivery of their services. Introduction of automated teller machines (ATMs) as a self-service delivery channel was one such step. ATMs have initiated a new era of self-service banking. The wave of self-service banking was taken further with the advent of internet banking, which also introduced the concept of \"anywhere banking.\" Technology-led delivery channels have caught up with traditional branch banking, but this was still restricted to the availability of computers and the internet. This issue was overcome by the introduction of mobile banking, a technology for mobile-savvy customers. Over the years, mobile banking has evolved from a simple information-providing medium to a comprehensive banking channel. This journey of mobile banking has been fueled by both innovation in mobile technology and growth in business.\n3. Hypothesis development: In reviewing and consolidating the literature, five distinctive constructs emerged from the literature that explain the mobile banking adoption. In this study, we propose to integrate these constructs to understand mobile banking adoption from the perspective of young consumers in India. The constructs identified during the literature review are PU, PEOU, PC, structural assurance (SA), PR, BI for adoption of mobile banking and user satisfaction (US) (Koenig-Lewis et al., 2010; Riquelme and Rios, 2010; Zhou, 2011; Rao and Troshani, 2007; Martins and Oliveira, 2013).\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Sample and research setting\n5. Data analysis: The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression as suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986) and Preacher and Hayes (2004). The relationship between MBA and BI mediating through US was examined. The respondents were asked about the services they used while making transactions through their mobile. In terms of e-payment (ticket booking, bill payment, online shopping), there is a positive significant behavior in adoption of mobile banking. Security is still a major concern for people using mobile banking for interbank or intrabank money transfer despite SMS alerts for banking transactions. It was noted that approximately more than half of the respondents used mobile banking for carrying out different banking operations such as ordering of checkbooks, making of balance enquiries/statement request and requesting of product information. It was also observed that people who sell and purchase stocks and securities were active users of mobile banking because it provides hassle-free and location-free technology usage. Stock market enquiries and reports, current exchange and interest rates were easily available and used by consumers via SMS alerts.\n6. Conclusions: 6.1 Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting mobile banking adoption among young Indian consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a cross-sectional survey research design to empirically examine the factors affecting mobile banking adoption among young Indian consumers. The study sample consists of 269 respondents aged between 23 and 30 years from India.\nFindings: The findings of the study suggest that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived credibility (PC) and structural assurance (SA) are strong determinants of user satisfaction (US) and behavioral intention (BI) to use the mobile banking service. US was found to partially mediate the relationship between PU, PEU, PC and SA and BI to use the service. Perceived risk was found to be statistically insignificant in terms of its relationship with BI to use the service.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results of this study provide good evidence for banks to further revamp their work practices in the area of mobile banking to enhance the overall penetration of mobile banking in India.\nOriginality/value: The study identifies factors influencing mobile banking adoption among young Indian consumers. Furthermore, this study suggests that US partially mediates the relationship between factor influencing mobile banking adoption and BI.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Identifying and ranking CSFs for KM implementation in urban water and sewage companies using ISM-DEMATEL technique	[ "Critical success factors", "Knowledge management", "Iranian urban water and sewage companies", "ISM-DEMATEL technique" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Today, due to increasingly rapid production and development of knowledge and growing environmental uncertainty, implementation of knowledge management (KM) has become critical. On the other hand, high costs of KM implementation made its success an essential concern for researchers and managers in this context.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Knowledge management\n3. Describing research techniques: Descriptive method was used in the study. One of the main stages was defining and identifying the main factors based on literature review and opinions of the experts in Iranian urban water and sewage companies (IUWSC). In the second stage, using ISM and DEMETL techniques, the main factors were ranked and their relationships were identified. In the final stage, the analysis of results was done to achieve the final model of KM implementation in IUWSC.\n4. Analyzing the findings: ISM and DEMATEL share some similar characteristics and both investigate the cause and effect relationship among multiple criteria, so combining ISM and DEMATEL makes an effective and powerful tool that assists the decision-making group. In this research, data collection tool was a questionnaire designed based on nine key success factors in KM implementation. The questionnaire was given to 30 experts (all was employed for more than 10 years in human resources and planning department) in IUWSC and collected and analyzed after completion by them. In this methodology, the factors were rated by experts based on the scale of 1-5 depending upon the impact of one factor over the other factors (from 1 for no relation to 5 for strong relation).\n5. Conclusions: This research was conducted to identify and rank the CSFs for KM implementation in IUWSC. Nine factors were considered to predict the success of KM implementation in the study.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to study the critical success factors (CSF) of knowledge management (KM) in Iranian urban water and sewage companies (IUWSC) using interpretive structural modeling (ISM)-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Through the literature review among many key factors of KM success, nine factors were selected as the main factors. After confirming the related indices by industry experts, a questionnaire was distributed among them for determining the relationship between the relevant components. Using ISM-DEMATEL approach, a structural model was formed and then the causal relationship among factors was visualized through a cause-effect relationship diagram.\nFindings: The analysis of the results showed that among the studied factors, strategies and goals would have the greatest impact on success of KM implementation and senior management support, and teamwork and organizational culture are other CSFs of KM in IUWSC. In the end, the author's proposed model for implementation of KM was presented based on the results for the status quo of the studied community.\nPractical implications: The set of CSFs can act as a guideline for organizations to ensure that basic factors and issues are covered during implementation KM. Moreover, it provides a clue for effective development of KM in a stepwise approach.\nOriginality/value: This survey is probably the first to provide an integrated view of CSFs for implementation KM in IUWSC. It is hoped to give valuable information to help this business sector to accomplish KM effectively.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Process improvement through economically driven routing of instances	[ "Process design", "Process improvement", "Business process management", "Decision model", "Economic valuation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Process orientation is a widely adopted paradigm of organizational design and proved to be a source of strong corporate performance (Skrinjar et al., 2008; Kohlbacher and Reijers, 2013; Hammer, 2010). Thus, process improvement is a fundamental activity of the business process management (BPM) lifecycle (Zellner, 2011; Dumas et al., 2013). Both the increasing number of scientific publications and the high priority on CIO agendas are indicative of the attention that process improvement receives from scholars and practitioners alike (Sidorova and Isik, 2010; Luftman et al., 2012). However, despite a long tradition and an extensive body of knowledge, approaches to process improvement still are in high demand (van der Aalst, 2013).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1. Foundations of business process design\n3. Decision model: 3.1. Basic idea\n4. Demonstration: We now demonstrate how the decision model can be applied. To do so, we first introduce the order verification process of an IT distributor to which we apply the decision model. We then operationalize the decision model. After presenting and interpreting the optimization results, we conduct a scenario analysis with respect to the reduction factor. For reasons of confidentiality, the identity of the IT distributor will not be disclosed. Moreover, all input data had to be anonymized.\n5. Conclusion and outlook: In this paper, we raised the question of how to derive concrete recommendations for process improvement that do not require extensive re-engineering projects and align with economic objectives. As an answer to this question, we proposed a decision model that indicates along which paths the instances of a process should be routed to maximize the value contribution of the process. Taking a process model and a set of historical instances as input, the decision model determines an optimal parameter setting. Each parameter refers to a distinct decision point in the process model and indicates on which outgoing edge an incoming instance continues its way through the process. When determining the optimal parameter setting, the decision model considers that different instances and paths have different cash flow effects. For example, each instance causes inflows of a certain amount and the outflows related to executing each action may depend on the overall workload of that action. Moreover, the parameter setting influences with which probability process risks for a specific instance occur. We also reported on the insights gained from applying the decision model to a demonstration example that is based on the order verification process of an IT distributor. The decision model is beset with limitations that stimulate further research:\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Process improvement is a fundamental activity of the business process management (BPM) lifecycle. However, practitioners still lack concrete guidance and adequate objectives for process improvement. Moreover, improvement projects typically tie up considerable amounts of capital and are very risky. Thus, more guidance is needed on how to derive concrete recommendations for process improvement in a goal-oriented manner. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors propose a decision model that determines along which paths the instances of a process should be routed to maximize the value contribution of the process. To do so, the decision model requires a process model and a set of historical process instances as inputs.\nFindings: The decision model builds on the idea that only the parameters of the process, i.e., the values according to which it is decided on which path an instance traverses the process, can be modified, without altering the structure of the process. The decision model determines the parameter setting that maximizes the value contribution of the process, which is measured in terms of the expected cash flow of the process. When determining the optimal parameter setting, the decision model considers that different instances and paths have different cash flow effects.\nPractical implications: The authors prototypically implemented the decision model and report on the insights from a demonstration example that is based on the order verification process of an IT distributor.\nOriginality/value: The decision model complements existing approaches to process improvement as it reveals additional improvement potential by focussing on the decision points in a process without altering the structure of the process. The decision model also enables identifying an optimal parameter setting, as a concrete recommendation for process improvement, in line with the principles of value-based BPM.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The validity of the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF scales: A meta-analytic view of 17 years of research across five continents	[ "Services", "SERVQUAL", "Culture", "Quality" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Over the years, marketing researchers have reached consensuses on several issues related to the domain of services. First, as the economy has become mostly service-based, researchers now consider the marketing discipline as being service dominated. Consumers in OECD countries spend more on services than for tangible goods (Martin, 1999). Indeed, service activities constitute about 70 percent of OECD (2005) countries GDP, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming decade. The globalization of services marketing has presented both academics and practitioners challenges and opportunities in this area (Javalgi et al., 2006). Reflecting this changing emphasis services marketing has become a well established field of academic inquiry and now represents an alternative paradigm to the marketing of goods (Lovelock and Gummesson, 2004).\nConceptual background: Both SERVQUAL and SERVPERF's operationalizations relied on the conceptual definition that SQ is an attitude toward the service offered by a firm resulting from a comparison of expectations with performance (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). However, SERVQUAL directly measures both expectations - and performance perceptions whereas SERVPERF only measures performance perceptions. SERVPERF uses only performance data because it assumes that respondents provide their ratings by automatically comparing performance perceptions with performance expectations. Thus, SERVPERF assumes that directly measuring performance expectations is unnecessary.Research comparing the predictive validity of SERVQUAL with SERVPERF has been based on assessing which of the two measures is a better predictor of OSQ. OSQ has been used as the criterion because it is a global representation of the quality of the service offered by an organization (Cronin and Taylor, 1992, 1994; Jain and Gupta, 2004; Kettinger and Lee, 1997; Quester and Romaniuk, 1997). In their comparison of SERVQUAL with SERVPERF, Cronin and Taylor (1992) built their argument for the superiority of SERVPERF over SERVQUAL by empirically showing that SERVPERF is a better predictor of OSQ than SERVQUAL. Also, Parasuraman et al. (1988) assessed the construct validity of SERVQUAL by evaluating whether the scale was an adequate predictor of OSQ. In view of this, the predictive validity of SERVQUAL and SERVPERF is assessed by meta-analyzing extant empirical research on the strength of the relationship between each scale and OSQ.The predictive validity of SERVQUAL and SERVPERF\nMethodology: All studies containing an effect size (r) that measures the strength of the relationship between SQ (SERVQUAL, SERVPERF) and OSQ were eligible for inclusion. Valid statistics included Pearson's correlation coefficients (r) or any other statistics that could be converted to r, such as F-value, t-value, p-value, and kh2. Empirical studies published in 1988 or after and available before May 30, 2005 were included in this meta-analysis. This timeframe is used since SERVQUAL was first published in 1988.Study search\nResults: Table II presents the results of the meta-analysis. The overall strength of the relationship between SERVQUAL and OSQ is larger than 0.50 (r=0.58; rc=0.68; CI90 percent=0.50-0.66). The average SERVPERF and OSQ correlation is also larger than 0.50 (r=0.64; rc=0.75; CI90 percent=0.52-0.77). Since, the lower bound values of the 90 percent confidence intervals for both SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are above 0.50, the grand mean correlations can be interpreted as large (Cohen, 1992). This indicates that both SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are valid measures of SQ, thus bringing support for H1. The presence of moderators of the SERVQUAL-OSQ and SERVPERF-OSQ relationships is evidenced in statistically significant Q-statistics (Table II). The Q-statistic is distributed as a kh2 with k-1 degrees of freedom and is compared to the corresponding critical kh2 statistic. A significant Q-statistic demonstrates that the effect size distribution is heterogeneous and indicates that the population varies systematically according to some factors other than subject level sampling and measurement errors (Lipsey and Wilson, 2001).H2 posited that the relationship between SERVPERF and OSQ is stronger than the SERVQUAL-OSQ relationship. However, a comparison of the strength of these relationships reveals no significant difference. As shown in Table II, although the mean SERVPERF-OSQ correlation (rc=0.75) is larger than the SERVQUAL-OSQ correlation (rc=0.68), the difference is not statistically significant. In effect, the 90 percent confidence interval for the difference between the two point estimates (rc=0.75 and rc=0.68) includes zero (CI90 percent=-0.06 to 0.19), indicating that there is no significant difference between the predictive validity of SERVQUAL versus SERVPERF (Schenker and Gentleman, 2001).H3a and H3b stated that the modified SERVQUAL or SERVPERF scales would be more strongly related to OSQ than the original scales. The observed difference between the predictive validity of the original SERVQUAL and its modified version was statistically significant (QUAL rc=0.54 vs MQUAL rc=0.77; Drc=0.23, CI90 percent=0.06-0.40). This suggests that the predictive validity of SERVQUAL increases when it is adapted to the study context. However, the observed difference between the predictive validity of the original version of SERVPERF and its modified version was not statistically significant (PERF rc=0.73 vs MPERF rc=0.75; Drc=0.02, CI90 percent=-0.04-0.09). This suggests that the predictive validity of SERVPERF does not change when the scale is modified.According to H4a and H4b, the predictive validity of SERVQUAL on OSQ decreases:* as the individualism of the country sample decreases; and* when the study is conducted in a non-English speaking country.A weighted regression with the disattenuated correlations between SQ and OSQ as the dependent variable, and IDV as the independent variable, revealed that a country's individualism negatively impacts the predictive validity of SERVQUAL (B=-0.001, p<0.05), which is contrary to what was hypothesized in H4a (Table III). In addition, the mean effect size for English speaking countries was smaller than the mean effect size for non-English speaking countries (non-English speaking rc=0.79 vs English speaking rc=0.70; CI90 percent=0.04-0.16); thus, not providing support for H4b (Table II).According to H5, when moving from lower to higher levels of customer processing intensity, the predictive validity of SERVQUAL on OSQ should decrease. H5 implied that the SERVQUAL-OSQ relationships should be strongest for PS followed by SS, and weakest for MS. As shown in Table III, the strongest SERVQUAL-OSQ relationships are for SS (B1=0.096, p<0.05), followed by PS (base line), and then MS (B2=-0.12, p<0.05). Hence, H5 is not supported.\nDiscussion: The study results have important implications because they question isolated findings from earlier studies. In spite of the discussions and several arguments provided by researchers about the superiority of SERVPERF over SERVQUAL (Cronin and Taylor, 1992, 1994), the results of this meta-analysis suggest that both scales are adequate and equally valid predictors of OSQ. Because of the high statistical power of meta-analysis (Cohn and Becker, 2003), these findings could be considered as a major step toward ending the debate whether SERVPERF is superior to SERVQUAL as an indicator of OSQ.As Parasuraman et al. (1994) pointed out, the use of performance-only (SERVPERF) vs the expectation/performance difference scale (SERVQUAL) should be governed by whether the scale is used for a diagnostic purpose or for establishing theoretically sound models. We believe that the SERVQUAL scale would have greater interest for practitioners because of its richer diagnostic value. By comparing customer expectations of service versus perceived service across dimensions, managers can identify service shortfalls and use this information to allocate resources to improve SQ (Parasuraman et al., 1994).Our findings also reveal that the need to adapt the measure to the context of the study is greater when SERVQUAL rather than SERVPERF is used. In effect, the original versions of SERVQUAL had a significantly lower OSQ predictive validity than the modified versions. However, both the original and modified versions of SERVPERF had the same level of OSQ predictive validity. This has important implications for both practitioners and academics. Practitioners using SERVQUAL for OSQ diagnostic purposes need to spend greater effort in modifying the scale for context than SERVPERF users.Our results also show an interesting pattern. Since, SERVQUAL and SERVPERF were originally developed in the USA, we expected that the predictive validity of these instruments would be higher when used in countries with national cultures and languages similar to the US. However, results show that the predictive validity of SERVQUAL and SERVPERF on OSQ was higher for non-English speaking countries and for countries with lower levels of individualism. A closer examination of the sample used in our study revealed that all studies conducted in non-English speaking countries as well as those conducted in less individualistic countries relied on modified versions of the SERVQUAL scale. Hence, scale modification rather than cultural context could be driving the results. Since, there were no studies conducted outside the US using non-modified scales, it was not possible to isolate the effect of national culture and language. Further, research is needed to address this important issue. An interesting avenue would be an experimental design where respondents outside the US, would be given a modified scale (i.e. adapted to the industry context) and others would be given the original items; this would allow teasing apart the effects of culture and scale adaptation on the scale's validity.Finally, results suggest the predictive validity of SERVQUAL on OSQ is highest in medium customer processing intensity contexts with an intermediate degree of intangibility (SS) followed by low customer processing intensity (PS) and high customer processing intensity (MS).A plausible explanation for this finding is that SERVQUAL was developed as a scale generalizable across service contexts. Hence, predictive validity peaks in the category that represents a compromise between the emphasis on process and product (i.e. service shop). Another reason could be the varying degree of importance of the service used in the analysis to the customer. Additional research is needed for a better understanding of this result.With the growing proliferation of technology based self-service (SST) encounters, factors that contribute to satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the SST customer interaction have drawn considerable interest from researchers and practitioners (Meuter et al., 2000). Further, research could explore the degree of predictive validity of SERVQUAL on OSQ in SST customer interactions.Like any other meta-analysis, this study is subject to the file drawer problem which prevents the true effect size from being uncovered (Lipsey and Wilson, 2001). However, as shown in Table II, the fail-safe N statistic reveals that several hundred studies unaccounted for, with an effect size of zero, would be necessary to nullify the effect sizes computed. This strengthens the confidence in the results obtained. Finally, in this study, SERVQUAL and SERVPERF were only assessed through their predictive validity of OSQ. A future meta-analysis could employ additional validation techniques. For example, meta-analysis can be used to construct a broader nomological network that includes constructs related to SQ such as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, purchase intention, and word-of-mouth (Zeithaml, 2000). Researchers could then assess whether using SERVQUAL or SERVPERF affects the effect of SQ on the above referred constructs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose is to investigate, the difference between SERVQUAL and SERVPERF's predictive validity of service quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data from 17 studies containing 42 effect sizes of the relationships between SERVQUAL or SERVPERF with overall service quality (OSQ) are meta-analyzed.\nFindings: - Overall, SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are equally valid predictors of OSQ. Adapting the SERVQUAL scale to the measurement context improves its predictive validity; conversely, the predictive validity of SERVPERF is not improved by context adjustments. In addition, measures of services quality gain predictive validity when used in: less individualistic cultures, non-English speaking countries, and industries with an intermediate level of customization (hotels, rental cars, or banks).\nResearch limitations/implications: - No study, that were using non-adapted scales were conducted outside of the USA making it impossible to disentangle the impact of scale adaptation vs contextual differences on the moderating effect of language and culture. More comparative studies on the usage of adapted vs non-adapted scales outside the USA are needed before settling this issue meta-analytically.\nPractical implications: - SERVQUAL scales require to be adapted to the study context more so than SERVPERF. Owing to their equivalent predictive validity the choice between SERVQUAL or SERVPERF should be dictated by diagnostic purpose (SERVQUAL) vs a shorter instrument (SERVPERF).\nOriginality/value: - Because of the high statistical power of meta-analysis, these findings could be considered as a major step toward ending the debate whether SERVPERF is superior to SERVQUAL as an indicator of OSQ.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Communicating sustainability: A content analysis of website communications in the United States	[ "Higher education", "Sustainable development", "Communicating sustainability", "Content analysis", "Sustainability websites" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Since sustainable development was first explicitly detailed as an international priority in the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, in 1987, institutions of higher education (IHEs) have attempted to define their role in a sustainable future. IHEs have the traditional missions of: conducting research and creative activities aimed at advancing knowledge, providing liberal education to students to extend knowledge, and disseminating knowledge through public engagement and outreach (Rosenstone, 2003). More recently, the public has expected IHEs to solve societal problems by utilizing applied research (Dautremont-Smith et al., 2007). This applied research often fits within the social, economic, or environmental dimensions of sustainable development.In addition to these applied research activities, IHEs have attempted to determine the role for sustainable development, also called sustainability, within the curriculum and operations of campuses. IHEs are complex organizations with diverse and dispersed hierarchical structures (Comm and Mathaisel, 2005). Many campuses are comparable to small cities with similar food, water, transportation, and energy requirements (McIntosh et al., 2001; Uhl, 2004). IHEs also typically have diverse stakeholders including faculty, staff, students, parents of students, administration, alumni, governing boards, neighbors, and others (Duderstadt and Womack, 2003).Despite many operational and communication challenges at IHEs, implementing sustainability has increasingly become an important topic for IHEs in the USA. IHEs have progressively committed to sustainability pledges such as the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC, 2011) which had over 660 signatories by August. Organizations such as the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) highlight the accomplishments of IHEs through formal publications, other communications, and events. AASHE has also developed the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) which is a self-assessment and reporting tool for IHEs to quantitatively evaluate progress toward sustainability (AASHE, 2011).Researchers have noted that despite these commitments and actions, creating a truly sustainable IHE can be incredibly challenging given the low level of funding and conservative nature of most IHEs (Velazquez et al., 2005; Lewis and Hearn, 2003). Much research into campus sustainability communication has been qualitative; including descriptive narratives and case studies of projects that have been successful. These qualitative evaluations provide a great deal of in-depth information about how communication is functioning in specific campus settings (Djordjevic and Cotton, 2011; Franz-Balsen and Heinrichs, 2007). One area yet to be explored is different ways in which sustainability is communicated at different campuses.Previous research has assessed operations and/or decision making by high level administrators, individuals within discrete universities, and students (Wright, 2010; Kagawa, 2007; McIntosh et al., 2001; Wolfe, 2001). One group that has been absent from in-depth evaluation is operational decision makers. These individuals typically make the day-to-day decisions about policy, products, and employee activities that make an enormous impact on how sustainable an IHE is in practice.As Franz-Balsen and Heinrichs (2007) point out, the number of publications dealing with campus sustainability communication is sparse, and no in-depth study has focused exclusively on operational decision makers and how they communicate sustainability. Franz-Balsen and Heinrichs also highlight the fact that web-based communication is critical to the campus community at Leuphana University of Luneberg. In their research they found that \"the internet has become a very important communication channel\" for sustainability information with more than 90 percent of their respondent ranking their web site as \"crucial\" (Franz-Balsen and Heinrichs, 2007). Djordjevic and Cotton (2011) describe the difficulties of communicating the sustainability message in large and complex organizations such as IHEs and specific challenges associated with electronic communication.Studies have not evaluated a large cross-section of IHEs throughout a country and how those IHEs communicate about sustainability. Finally, no study has quantitatively evaluated web-based communication about sustainability at a large group of IHEs. This research addresses these gaps in the literature.\n2 Methods: The focus of this study was an evaluation of communication on the web sites of operational decision makers, research units, as well a institution-wide sustainability web sites at accredited IHEs in the USA. The operational web sites selected for this study included: environmental health and safety, facilities management/planning and construction, and purchasing departments. The primary research units targeted were colleges of science. Institution-wide sustainability web sites were also included in the content analysis. This inclusion allowed a comparison of institutional web sites with operational web sites. It also allowed for a determination of whether institutions were either not engaged in sustainability or operational web sites were not communicating about sustainability.The categories of web sites described above were selected because of the role that each of these units have in campus sustainability. Environmental health and safety departments are typically responsible for all of the environmental compliance programs on campus. Facilities maintenance and planning and construction departments make daily decisions about products and building processes. Purchasing departments can have a large impact on policies and processes for vendor selection. College of Science web sites were selected because such units typically house many of the laboratories on campus. Laboratories are energy intensive compared to other types of space and also produce various hazardous wastes (Woolliams et al., 2005).Communication about sustainability at IHEs was assessed through a web-based content analysis. Web-based communication was selected for analysis because it has become a common method for reaching a large target audience such as students, faculty, and staff at IHEs. This methodology was selected because it allows for a quantitative evaluation of a sample from which generalizable conclusions can be made (Neuendorf, 2002). A pilot analysis using 80 web sites allowed for the content analysis tool to be refined and validated.The pilot study was followed by selection through a proportionate stratified random sample of the six recognized general accrediting agencies in the USA (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 2009). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS(r)) random sampling function was used to draw a random sample from each general accrediting agency group. A proportional sample was used to ensure representation from all types of IHEs in the USA.Once an IHE was selected, the web sites for departments of interest were identified and located using Bing(r) advanced search function with multiple terms (and various potential titles) for each type of departmental web site of interest. If the advanced search function method failed to locate a web site of interest, a search from the home page of the IHE was conducted using the IHE's search function. If this method failed to locate all of the web sites of interest, an alphabetical listing of departments (if available) was searched to ensure that the IHE did not have web sites for the department(s) of interest.Once all of the available web sites of interest were located, two human coders used a combination of computer-aided text searching (find, find-next functions) and structured responses into a data matrix to code each site. Each site was coded in a manner to answer several questions including: how sustainability was defined; whether sustainability was listed as a priority (was sustainability integrated into goals, responsibilities, or mission statements); what sources of information are used for references; whether the site claimed a major role in the campus sustainability process; and whether funding for sustainability was provided and detailed on the web site. Demographic information was also coded for each institution including: number of students, type of institution, and classification from the Carnegie Foundation.The required final sample size for the content analysis was 150 IHEs. This was determined based on a power analysis using the standard deviation from the pilot study (0.39), a conservative effect size requirement of 0.23, a desired power of 0.95, and a significance criterion of less than 0.05. 400 IHEs were sampled based on the assumption that at least 50 percent of IHEs selected would not have all of the web sites of interest. Institutions that did not have web sites for any of the four departments of interest were excluded.Intercoder reliability was measured using Krippendorff's agreement coefficient a calculated using an SPSS(r) macro developed by Andrew F. Hayes (Hayes and Krippendorff, 2007). When a high degree of confidence is required, Krippendorff (2004) recommends setting the acceptable level of agreement as a>=0.8; therefore a>=0.8 was considered acceptable for this study.\n3 Results: A total of 737 web sites were identified for inclusion in the content analysis (192 safety sites, 179 science sites, 147 purchasing sites, 146 facilities sites, and 83 sustainability sites). See Table I for percentage sites included compared to original sample of 400 IHEs (five potential sites per IHE). Krippendorff's a=0.87 for the two coders and therefore was acceptable.Approximately 39 percent of web sites analyzed were from private institutions and 61 percent were from public institutions. Approximately 5 percent of web sites analyzed were from exclusively or majority graduate institutions, all other web sites analyzed were from exclusively or high undergraduate enrollment institutions (two and/or four year degree programs).Operational web sites\n4 Conclusions and discussion: In the fall of 2009, only 21 percent of the IHEs included in this study had an institutional-wide sustainability web site. The quality and completeness of web site communications varied greatly in the sample based on the size and focus of the IHE.This paucity of communication was surprising given the tremendous increase in sustainability pledges and member-organizations in AASHE during the time period leading up to this content analysis. It is possible that the primary communication with the campus communities is through a mechanism other than web-based communication.Several recent evaluations of student information-seeking behaviors have demonstrated an overwhelming preference for internet based searches over other types of information-seeking behaviors (Connaway et al., 2011; Karas and Green, 2007). If universities are communicating about sustainability efforts in some other manner, there is a lack of knowledge of audience (students are most likely to look for information on the web site before picking up a phone or looking at a hard copy brochure to inquire about sustainability practices).More likely, web-based communication about sustainability lacked depth in most IHEs during this time period. That is, even though universities were beginning to do more in the realm of sustainability, they were not effectively communicating this activity to the stakeholders of the institution. Several previous studies have highlighted the importance of effective communication to campus sustainability. Velazquez et al. (2005) discussed the challenge faced by decentralized information sources in universities and a lack of communication between departments. Sharp (2002) discussed the need for effective communication in order for campuses to undergo a systemic transformation toward sustainability. Franz-Balsen and Heinrichs (2007) highlight the need to apply theoretical frameworks to ensure effective sustainability communication on campuses. Given the key role of communication for progress on campus sustainability, IHEs should focus on and implement effective web-based communication strategies.The content analysis generated several salient findings. First, a large percentage of institutions only consider the environmental component of sustainability. This is demonstrated by terms such as \"greening the campus.\" Although the environment clearly plays a central role in the sustainability movement, the social and economic aspects of sustainability are typically considered equally important for long-term change. Focusing only on the environmental components of sustainability may limit participation and exclude individuals who are more interested in social or economic aspects of sustainability. Each IHE should carefully evaluate what they mean by sustainability and make sure that their web site and all other communications reflect these values.A second finding was that IHEs generally rely more on non-profit organizations (other than IHEs) and commercial sources as references to information that they place on their web sites. This may point to a need for additional scientific publications and best practice communications by universities.A third finding is that a high percentage of sustainability sites described funding for sustainability and/or building sustainable buildings. However, a much lower percentage of sustainability sites described a single individual with responsibility for campus-wide sustainability. It is difficult to imagine sustainability being anything less than a full time job for one or more person(s) at most IHEs. Consequently, IHEs that are serious about pursuing sustainability across all areas of campus should consider funding a sustainability position.The fourth, and most significant, finding of this study is that most operational decision makers' web sites have no mention of sustainability. This finding highlights the fact that sustainability at this point in time was not integrated into the daily activities of the operational decision makers in this study. This could be for a number of reasons: sustainability might not have been recognized as a priority, the central point of communication for sustainability matters may have rested with another department, or the web-based communication may have been out of date. Whatever the reason, this finding is important to sustainability practice at IHEs in the United States. Each institution should decide to what level sustainability should be integrated in the messages that they are sending; this includes the messages sent through operational web sites.Based on the findings of this content analysis, it would appear that very little activity toward sustainability was occurring in operations at IHEs in the USA. This is inconsistent with publications and pledges from this same time period. For instance, at the time of this research, over 650 institutions had signed the ACUPCC (2011). AASHE was also piloting their innovative STARS rating system during this time with over 70 institutions participating (AASHE, 2011). Therefore, IHEs may wish to evaluate whether their web-based communications adequately reflect their goals and activities.With the implementation of AASHE STARS since the original content analysis, many IHEs may have made progress toward more effective web-based communication. A follow up content analysis study is planned for Fall of 2011. In this follow-up study the same institutions will be re-evaluated for web-based communication about sustainability. It is likely that a more clear and positive picture will emerge from this follow-up study.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the USA communicate sustainability through their websites. Specifically, the authors compare how and to what extent sustainability is communicated through an institution-wide sustainability website versus operational and academic department websites.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper describes the results of a content analysis of over 700 websites at IHEs in the USA which were selected in a stratified random sample. Each website was coded with responses entered into a data matrix. The data in the matrix were then evaluated and compared for important factors related to communicating about campus sustainability.\nFindings: - Although there has been an increase in the number of commitments to sustainability by IHEs, at the time of this content analysis the commitment was not reflected on the websites of the IHEs sampled. Given the common use of websites at IHEs in the USA to communicate to large groups, colleges and universities should ensure that their websites reflect actual practice.\nPractical implications: - The findings from this study may encourage IHEs in the USA to better communicate their practice related to sustainability. The implementation of the sustainability communication component in AASHE STARS may also play an important role in increased and better communication about campus sustainability.\nOriginality/value: - This study describes the first large-scale content analysis of university websites evaluating sustainability characteristics. This paper gives a starting point and recommendations for IHEs who wish to enhance communication about sustainability through their websites.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Trade credit, firm profitability, and financial constraints: Evidence from listed SMEs in East Asia and the Pacific	[ "Profitability", "Trade credit", "Financial constraints", "Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)", "East Asia and the Pacific" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Trade credit is a financing instrument offered by suppliers to their customers (Cheng and Pike, 2003; Lin and Chou, 2015). The efficiency of trade credit management is essential in corporate financing policy because it impacts on risks and performance of firms (Lewellen et al., 1980; Hill et al., 2012). A wealth of empirical studies have explored the vital role of trade credit control through demonstration of its impacts on firms' profitability (Deloof, 2003; Garcia-Teruel and Martinez-Solano, 2007; Kestens et al., 2012; Martinez-Sola et al., 2014; Abuhommous, 2017). In general, those studies have found a linear correlation between the two variables, but this linearity divides researchers into two opposing camps. According to the view of one camp, the profitability of a firm will improve if it steps up investment in trade credit. The opposite camp maintains that high investment in trade credit is related to high risk of revenue loss or high financial costs, and hence reduces firm profitability. These controversial findings suggest that trade credit may have a non-linear rather than a linear relationship with firm profitability. If so, there may exist an optimal trade credit level which maximizes corporate profitability.\n2. Theoretical foundations and hypothesis development: 2.1 Trade credit and firm profitability\n3. Data and regression models: 3.1 Data\n4. Analysis and results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis\n5. Robustness and endogeneity check: 5.1 Deviation from the optimal trade credit level\n6. Conclusions: This paper provides empirical evidence of a non-linear association between trade credit and SMEs profitability with both aspects of trade credit considered, including TCR and TCP. The study is based on a panel data set of 1,509 non-financial listed SMEs from nine countries or territories in East Asia and the Pacific, namely, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, over the seven-year period from 2010 to 2016. The findings indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between TCR, TCP and firm profitability; that is, SMEs have an optimal trade credit level that balances between benefits and costs to maximize their profitability. Further investigations demonstrate that the profitability of firms will decrease when their trade credit level moves away from the optimal trade credit. Moreover, firms display fast adjustment toward the optimum. Thus, this study suggests that trade credit is a crucial factor which influences SMEs' profitability, and managers of SMEs should try to keep the level of trade credit investment as close to the optimal point as possible.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the non-linear association between trade credit and profitability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, this paper analyses whether the above relationship varies according to financial constraints of SMEs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use panel data methodology to conduct investigations for a sample of 1,509 non-financial listed SMEs from nine countries or territories located in the East Asia and Pacific region, namely, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, over the period from 2010 to 2016.\nFindings: This study indicates that trade credit receivable (TCR) and trade credit payable (TCP) have an inverted U-shaped relationship with SMEs' profitability, which implies the existence of an optimal trade credit level that balances between costs and benefits to maximize their profitability. This result suggests that managers should try to keep the level of trade credit investment as close to the optimal point as possible to avoid the case that their profitability reduces when they move away from this point. Moreover, this study also finds that the optimal trade credit level is sensitive to the financial constraints of SMEs. In particular, optimal level of more financially constrained firms is lower than that of less financially constrained firms.\nOriginality/value: A number of contributions that this study makes to the existing literature are presented as follows. First, the paper takes account of the possible presence of a concave relationship between trade credit and SMEs' profitability, largely ignored by the existing empirical literature. Second, it demonstrates this association in terms of both aspects of trade credit, including TCR and TCP. Third, the study investigates the effect of the different level of financial constraints faced by SMEs on the relationship between trade credit and their profitability.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
JBS interviews three business leaders	[ "Social groups", "Entrepreneurs", "Music" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Emerald publisher Kim Foster interviewed the following three business leaders at the Leaders in London 2007 Conference. These are exclusive interviews that range over a wide variety of topics, from the impact of the new technology to using music to change behavior in the workplace.\nAndrew Zolli on Facebook and \"millennials\": Andrew Zolli is an expert in global foresight and innovation, studying the complex trends at the intersection of technology, demographics, politics and global security. His firm, Z+ Partners, helps senior leaders understand and respond to complex change. He serves as a Fellow of the National Geographic Society, where he is leading development of a global initiative to envision new scenarios for a sustainable world in 2030 and beyond.JBS: How can companies benefit from the craze for social networking, using sites like Facebook and Bebo?\nNick Wheeler on entrepreneurs and customers: Nick Wheeler's middle names are Charles Tyrwhitt, also the name of the eponymous bespoke shirt company he founded almost 20 years ago. The company is now the biggest online and mail-order shirt business in Britain, with 2006 sales of about $100 million. Wheeler tried his hand at shoes earlier on, faxing the images of people's feet to India for manufacture, but the faxed images were distorted. The shoes that came back to Britain were suitable only for \"pixies or clowns\", admitted Wheeler. Today this successful businessman keeps sight of his customers above all, even sitting in on call center transactions to get a better sense of the end user.I read that you consider entrepreneurialism a specific trait ingrained in someone's personality. Yet you also say that there is no magic to starting a business. Can you clarify? Do you think anybody can be an entrepreneur or only those with certain personalities?\nBenjamin Zander on the value of praise: Benjamin Zander, Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and best-selling author of The Art of Possibility, brings his conductor's insight into leadership, creativity and teamwork in the corporate workplace. JBS published a special issue in 2005 on \"Arts-based learning for business\" and Zander epitomizes that concept in his work. He has been a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum at Davos four times, reflecting the wide range of his talents and interests.You give everyone an \"A\" on the first day of class. Does that dilute the value of the grade at all?\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Interviews with three business leaders at the Leaders in London 2007 conference: Andrew Zolli, Benjamin Zander and Nick Wheeler\nDesign/methodology/approach: - JBS interviewed the following three business leaders at the Leaders in London 2007 conference on a variety of topics including new technologies, music and entrepreneurship.\nFindings: - Three business leaders express their thoughts on a variety of topics affecting the modern business world.\nOriginality/value: - These are exclusive interviews that range over a wide variety of topics, from the impact of the new technology to using music to change behaviour in the workplace.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
"Boss ceiling effect": brand downgrading consumption of workplace employees	[ "Perceived risk", "Symbolic consumption", "Boss ceiling effect", "Culture balance", "Downgrading consumption", "Undesired self-congruence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As firm employees, many consumers face a social dilemma: whether or not to consume products superior to those of their immediate supervisors or their hierarchical bosses within their firms. This research focuses on the phenomenon whereby an employee tends to avoid purchasing personal consumed products or brands superior to those of his/her boss in the firm, especially for publicly consumed symbolic products, such as automobiles, watches, handbags, etc. In such a case, a boss's choice is like an invisible \"ceiling\" for his subordinates, who would generally tend to choose inferior products, or less prestigious brands, that fall below the \"ceiling.\" We term this phenomenon \"boss ceiling effect,\" and designate the behavior which reflects people downgrading their ideal choice, to make sure the brand prestige is lower than that owned by their boss, as \"downgrading behavior.\"\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: Boss ceiling effect/downgrading behavior\nMethods: Exploratory interview\nDiscussions: This paper investigates the possible explanations for \"boss ceiling effect\" and \"downgrading consumption behavior\" of symbolic consumption in the organization context. Although previous studies suggest that people are motivated to engage in symbolic consumption to signal their social status and social identity, there is no sufficient research explicitly examining brand downgrading behavior in the workplace. This paper, employing both a qualitative and a quantitative study, investigated the influences from undesired self-congruence, perceived risk and other related contextual factors, particularly organization culture, on consumers' brand downgrading behavior.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Previous literature suggests that people might purchase symbolic products to signal their social identity. However, in the organizational context, subordinates as customers might choose products with less brand prestige than what they want and can afford, just to make sure their choices are below the invisible \"red-line\" set by the brands of their supervisors. The authors term the phenomenon as \"boss ceiling effect,\" and term the behavior that people often downgrade their original choice to make sure the brand prestige is lower than that of the product owned by their boss as \"downgrading behavior,\" which have not been explored and well explained by existing literature so far. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conduct qualitative study to explore the existence of boss ceiling effect and providing possible influential factors of brand downgrading attitude. The quantitative study empirically examines the relationships among undesired self, perceived risk, organizational culture balance, and downgrading attitude and intension.\nFindings: The authors find that undesired self-congruence and perceived risk are positively related to the downgrading attitude. In addition, the culture balance directly affects the brand downgrading attitude negatively and also moderates the relationship between undesired self-congruence and downgrading attitude positively and the relationship between perceived risk and downgrading attitude negatively.\nOriginality/value: The authors contribute to both organizational culture research and symbolic consumption research by considering symbolic consumption behavior in organization context. It is of great practical implications for marketers of symbolic consumption to understand the downgrading behavior.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Differences over discourse structure differences: a reply to Urquhart and Urquhart	[ "User studies", "Research methods", "Written communications", "Health", "Information science and documentation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: We thank Urquhart and Urquhart for their detailed and enthusiastic consideration of our recent work (Abrahamson and Rubin, 2012), and for opening the debate on the use of the Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) in library and information science (LIS) research. One of our objectives was to foster further discussion and research in LIS on all aspects of the work represented, particularly in integrated approaches to information behaviour and information retrieval system research, and use of a pragmatics-level linguistics approach in health communication and information use. After providing a brief background, we respond to several of Urquhart and Urquhart's concerns.\n2. Background and our central claim: In Abrahamson and Rubin (2012) we positioned our research in the context of laypeople seeking health-related information via public consumer health web sites. We collected a sample of comparable lay (consumer) and professional (physician) online responses to health-related questions about living with the chronic disease, diabetes. We systematically compared the discourse structures in the peer consumer and physician answers, applying Mann and Thompson's (1987, 1988) RST as the analytical framework. We also considered whether one source of information (or discourse) encourages adherence to healthy behaviour more effectively than another (consumer vs physician), from an RST, or linguistics-based perspective. The data sample was examined for prevalence of RST relations and their rhetorical effects. Mann and Thompson (1987, 1988) distinguish two broad types of the RST relations: first, presentational relations that are considered pragmatic (i.e. contributing to the achievement of a goal, or information use) and second, subject matter relations that are viewed as mostly semantic (i.e. putting forth a factual-level argument, or fulfilling the purpose of information acquisition).\n3. Critique rebuttal: We agree with some methodological limitations pointed out by Urquhart and Urquhart and have explicitly acknowledged most of them in the limitations section of our paper (Abrahamson and Rubin, 2012). Specifically, we noted the limited sample size which restricts the generalizability of the findings, and the need for greater diversity for all participants and multiple voices in physician data sources for future studies. We regret that our wording was confusing on the number of answers/posts and the number of consumer participants studied. There were, in fact, ten consumer answer threads and ten physician answer threads. Consumer threads ranged from one to five answer posts per thread, for a total of 26 consumer answer posts. In total, 11 posts were written by 11 unique authors (each contributing one post) and three more productive authors contributed the remaining 15 out of 26 posts. Physician answer threads each had one answer/post per thread.\n4. Conclusion: We appreciate that Urquhart and Urquhart shared some of their concerns and misunderstandings with us, and take this opportunity to ensure that all readers understand the scope of our study and our conclusions. Within computational linguistics, perhaps the ultimate research challenge is to understand the intricacies of human communication well enough that human-to-information-and-communication technology (system) user experience becomes indistinguishable from human-to-human communication. We believe that, due to our history in user-centred research and practice in information behaviour and information retrieval, LIS researchers are uniquely suited to synthesize these two approaches to develop more user-centred information resources to support adherence in chronic disease. We offer our 2012 study as one example for how to move research in this direction, towards improved understanding of human communication and actual information uses, prior to the design of information resources and systems.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to respond to Urquhart and Urquhart's critique of the previous work entitled \"Discourse structure differences in lay and professional health communication\", published in this journal in 2012 (Vol. 68 No. 6, pp. 826-851, doi: 10.1108/00220411211277064).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors examine Urquhart and Urquhart's critique and provide responses to their concerns and cautionary remarks against cross-disciplinary contributions. The authors reiterate the central claim.\nFindings: The authors argue that Mann and Thompson's (1987, 1988) Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) offers valuable insights into computer-mediated health communication and deserves further discussion of its methodological strength and weaknesses for application in library and information science.\nResearch limitations/implications: While the authors agree that some methodological limitations pointed out by Urquhart and Urquhart are valid, the authors take this opportunity to correct certain misunderstandings and misstatements.\nOriginality/value: The authors argue for continued use of innovative techniques borrowed from neighbouring disciplines, in spite of objections from the researchers accustomed to a familiar strand of literature. The authors encourage researchers to consider RST and other computational linguistics-based discourse analysis annotation frameworks that could provide the basis for integrated research, and eventual applications in information behaviour and information retrieval.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A comparative evaluation of manufacturing flexibility adoption in SMEs and large firms in India	[ "Manufacturing performance", "Implementation", "Strategy", "Small and medium-sized enterprises", "Manufacturing flexibility" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business environment has considerably changed from \"mass production\" to \"lean manufacturing\" and \"mass customization\" over the years. Several authors have recognized manufacturing flexibility as an important strategic competitive capability helping firms achieve mass customization. The strategic importance of manufacturing flexibility has motivated this study, which concerns status of manufacturing flexibility adoption, its barriers and adoption practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms in India. Since, SMEs differ from large firms in terms of business model, organizational design, operating conditions and management style, this study offers an opportunity to understand the underlying differences between SMEs and well-established large firms with respect to manufacturing flexibility adoption. Further, from an operational point of view, this study explores validity of manufacturing flexibility concepts in the context of a developing economy.\n2. The studies done in SMEs context: SMEs segment has recently received wide attention by several authors and practitioners. A large number of studies have been done in the context of SMEs to investigate the different aspects, such as manufacturing practices, technology, workforce, financing, marketing, supply chain (Thakkar et al., 2012; Awais et al., 2014; Kafetzopoulos et al., 2015; Hilmola et al., 2015). Temtime (2003) reported that majority of SMEs is aware of the importance of TQM and planning activities. The study found that size of the SMEs and the level of planning positively influence TQM practices. Various studies examined the implementation of several manufacturing practices, such as lean, QM practices - TQM, six sigma, ISO 9000, 9001 in SMEs. In a comparative study of Australian and UK SMEs, Kumar et al. (2014) observed that low level of six sigma adoption in manufacturing SMEs. They concluded that ISO 9000 is the most popular among QM initiatives. The study further suggests that leadership is critical to the success of any QM practices. Similar to this, Dora et al. (2014) examined the status of lean manufacturing practices, their benefits and barriers among European food processing SMEs. In a recent study, Kafetzopoulos et al. (2015) found that ISO 9001 directly affects quality of products and operational performance and indirectly affects business performance of firms through moderating influence of operational performance. Several studies have examined different technological aspects, such as its present status, antecedents, relationship with performance, evaluation and prioritization, in SMEs. Dangayach and Deshmukh (2005) conducted an exploratory study on advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) in Indian SMEs. The various aspects of AMT, i.e. status, preferred AMT, competitive criteria, implementation criteria and degree of investments in AMTs were explored. The study reported that Indian SMEs give highest priority to quality aspect of whereas flexibility aspect is given least priority while implementing AMT. Further, more attention is given to indirect AMT and administrative AMT than direct AMT. Similar to this, Raymond and St-Pierre (2005) investigated antecedents and performance outcomes of advanced manufacturing system (AMS) sophistication in the context of SMEs. The antecedents of AMS involve strategic orientation of firms, education and experience of owner manager and type of production and commercial dependency of firms. The study also concluded that AMS sophistication affects both operational and business performance of Canadian SMEs. Raymond (2005) concluded that increased critical success factors (CSF) and AMT assimilation level directly improve performance level, whereas mismatch between CSF and AMT negatively affects performance. Further, Lenny Koh and Simpson (2005) found that ERP can improve agility and responsiveness to change in SMEs but due to stochastic and unpredictable nature of uncertainty, ERP cannot always ensure responsiveness to uncertainties.\n3. Theoretical background: The study employs purposive search strategy using keywords, \"manufacturing flexibility\", \"implementation\", \"adoption\", \"antecedents\", \"enablers\" to confine the search results. Highly cited papers and book chapters were incorporated. To provide a better understanding of manufacturing flexibility adoption, this section briefly outlines manufacturing flexibility concepts and describes various adoption practices applied by firms to achieve flexibility.\n4. Research design and methodology: This study compares and evaluates status of manufacturing flexibility, their usefulness, barriers to adoption and practices applied to achieve manufacturing flexibility in SMEs and large firms in India. Consistent with the objective, this study adopts sequential explanatory research design (Creswell and Clark, 2007), in which qualitative interviews follow survey methodology to explain the status of manufacturing flexibility adoption, barriers to adoption and practices applied for manufacturing flexibility adoption in Indian firms. The research framework is shown in Figure 2.\n5. Data analysis and empirical results: The study investigates various aspects of manufacturing flexibility adoption in SMEs and large firms. Along these lines, respondents firms were divided into two groups, i.e. SMEs and large firms, to evaluate and compare familiarity and usefulness of manufacturing flexibility adoption, barriers to adoption and practices applied for adoption. This section provides response analysis, data screening and results of the data analysis.\n6. Discussion: The study compares and evaluates familiarity of manufacturing flexibility concept, its usefulness and barriers to manufacturing flexibility adoption in SMEs and large firms in India. The study also ranks importance level of flexibility adoption practices for SMEs and large firms. The follow-up interviews was used to explain and build upon cross-sectional survey results. This section presents discussion on integrated findings of cross-sectional survey and follow-up semi-structured interviews.\n7. Conclusion and implications: The study provides comparative evaluation of familiarity of manufacturing flexibility concepts, their usefulness and barriers to manufacturing flexibility adoption in SMEs and large firms. In particular, the key adoption practices used for comparative evaluation are flexible working practices, integration practices, technological capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, sourcing practices and manufacturing practices. The mixed method sequential explanatory design was used to better interpret results. Quantitative analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics was done to critically assess differences between large firms and SMEs, whereas qualitative analysis using follow-up semi-structured interviews was carried out to offer a better interpretation of results.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse and compare the status of manufacturing flexibility adoption, its barriers and adoption practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using mixed methods sequential explanatory design, this study employs survey responses from 121 firms, followed by 16 semi-structured interviews to investigate and explain the status of manufacturing flexibility adoption, barriers to adoption and practices adopted to achieve flexibility in SMEs and large firms in India.\nFindings: The study suggests that awareness of manufacturing flexibility concept in SMEs is considerably low and application of manufacturing flexibility is still at embryonic stage. It was found that both SMEs and large firms employ manufacturing flexibility, but they differ with respect to their emphasis on adoption practices used to achieve flexibility. SMEs emphasize entrepreneurial orientation and flexible human resource practices to achieve flexibility, whereas large firms emphasize practices such as technological capability, sourcing practices and integration practices to achieve flexibility. The study also illustrates barriers that hinder manufacturing flexibility adoption at plant level in India.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is cross-sectional in nature and is limited to specific regions of India. The use of subjective measures in survey questionnaire is another limitation of the study.\nPractical implications: Practitioners should consider combinations of adoption practices to achieve the desired level of manufacturing flexibility. It is also important to give due consideration to barriers before considering manufacturing flexibility adoption.\nOriginality/value: The findings contribute to the manufacturing flexibility and SMEs research by providing insights into manufacturing flexibility adoption from the developing economy perspective and by widening the scope of existing research into SMEs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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