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Employing penetration testing as an audit methodology for the security review of VoIP: Tests and examples
|
[
"Auditing",
"Communication technologies",
"Internet",
"Tests and testing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The convergence of voice and data networks, leading to the transmission of digitised voice communication in data packets, has caused considerable interest in commercial organisations, alternative telecommunication service providers, and end-users. Studies from the Synergy Research Group (Abbasi, 2003) and Deloitte Research (Deloitte Research, 2004), indicate that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is being rapidly adopted in the enterprise environment. Although the current worldwide retail market penetration for VoIP is less than 6 percent (Abbasi, 2003), Adopters of VoIP have obtained cost savings from the VoIP business investment, as a result of toll bypass for long distance calls and reduced total cost of network ownership and by productivity savings and improvements from enhanced personnel mobility and new VoIP features (Ransome and Rittinghouse, 2005).The adoption of VoIP has raised some security concerns, in particular, issues relating to voice-traffic confidentiality and integrity issues, which may form part of contractual or regulatory requirements, VoIP systems availability issues to maximise the return on capital investment and finally, user and end-point authentication issues to avoid VoIP service abuse such as and toll-fraud and the associated financial impact.The purpose of this paper is to describe a modular security testing methodology for a corporate VoIP infrastructure. Section 2 introduces the most significant characteristics and components of VoIP. Section 3 describes in detail the security testing methodology. Section 4 describes a test case using our proposed security testing methodology. Section 5 concludes the paper and discusses future work on VoIP security testing.\nRe-inventing telephony - the voice over IP revolution: The basic concept of VoIP is the digitization of analogue voice signals using appropriate coders/decoders to time sample an analogue voice signal; to divide the digital information into data packets for transportation across an IP network. The process of converting a continuous analogue signal to a number of discrete digital streams is known as quantization (McElroy, 2003). Speech coders/decoders (e.g. ITU-T G723.1; G.729; etc.) use low-bit rate speech compression algorithms to further reduce the size of the default 64kbit/s digital bit stream to enable \" travel over relatively low-speed (e.g. dial-up, DSL) links\" (Ransome and Rittinghouse, 2005). Following digitization and compression, the digital bit stream is divided in to discrete data packets for transport across a packet switched network.The actual voice data is transported within UDP packets; it also uses the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) to transport its delay-sensitive data media stream. RTP runs on top of the UDP transport protocol and operates in conjunction with the Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP). Both of them are responsible for the timely; reliable; synchronized; and monitored delivery of voice packets (Arora, 2004). Finally, the UDP packet is encapsulated in an IP datagram where the network source and destination IP's are defined. Depending on the VoIP network architecture - H.323 or Session initiation protocol (SIP) IP enabled networks - and configuration, the source and destination of the voice packet could be, interchangeably, an IP enabled phone, a SIP proxy and/or redirect server, an H.323 gatekeeper, and a voice gateway that normally connects a VoIP network with the PSTN.Various QoS mechanisms and traffic engineering techniques are applied during the packet switching and/or routing of voice packets in order to prioritize the delay-sensitive voice packets, over plain data packets. Mechanisms are also employed to compensate for IP network inherited latencies packet loss and jitter.The following network diagram outlines how VoIP might be deployed inside the enterprise environment. The associated explanation outlines the role of each of the core components (see Figure 1).* The Voice Gateway: This device provides connectivity between circuit-switched (e.g. PSTN) and packet-switched networks (LAN, WAN, Internet). The voice gateway utilizes the appropriate speech coders/decoders, such as G.711 and/or G.729, to convert various voice protocols, such as SS7 and/or ISDN signalling messages to a digital voice bit-stream.* The Call Controller: This device provides \"intelligent\" services to the VoIP network such as end point address translation. The call controller can be either a SIP proxy server and/or a vendor proprietary IP-PBX or a H.323 gatekeeper depending on which of the main two signalling protocols is used;* H.323: devised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) was originally designed to transport multimedia applications over local area networks and adapted to support VoIP. The H.323 standard is fairly complex defining a number of signalling and control protocols.* SIP: The Session Initiation Protocol (was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force to support VoIP SIP defines a simpler architecture than H323 based on a clients/server approach.* The AAA Server: This client/server system provides authentication; authorization and accounting (AAA) services to the VoIP network. The call controller, along with the AAA server allow enterprise employees to authenticate and access to the VoIP network and services. The AAA server accounting service interoperates with the voice gateway to maintain accounting and billing records known as call detail records (CDR) (Cisco Systems, 2004).* The LAN Switch is a dedicated network device, which provides the IP connectivity among every network and system element in the VoIP infrastructure.The decision to deploy VoIP in the enterprise environment has to be carefully balanced between the reduced TCO of owning one unified network instead of two and the new challenges posed by VoIP: it is complicated by design which raises reliability issues, it is a delay sensitive application which raises service quality issues, and finally VoIP has a number of associated security issues (Endler and Collier, 2006).\nAn approach for vulnerability assessment of voice services over IP: VoIP has the potential to become a mission-critical business application but has a number of information security threats; risks; and vulnerabilities, which need to be addressed, before it is a realistic candidate to replace the PSTN in an enterprise environment. In formulating a security policy to protect a VoIP network a risk and threat assessment is essential is determining, appropriate security countermeasures.The following sections will describe the proposed four-stage security testing methodology, which addresses key concerns in five separate modules. The methodology recognizes beyond the technical activities, the importance of qualified security testers and all the legal and ethical issues that surround security testing. The actual methodology will address the VoIP core components in accordance with the three key principles of methodical security testing (Barrett, 2003) (i.e. reliable; repeatable; reportable) and encompass a set of standard and VoIP specific security tests. The security tests will be as technology and/or vendor neutral as possible in order to satisfy different VoIP network architectures and advances in the regime of VoIP technology (see Figure 2).The scope of the security testing methodology aims at covering both external and internal security testing. There are a number of issues which the methodology does not address: The discovery of zero day vulnerabilities, thorough security testing of security perimeter devices, the physical security posture of the VoIP network, the use of social engineering techniques.First module: compliance\nTests and demonstrations: The testing infrastructure\nEvaluation and conclusions: In testing the methodology in the laboratory-confined VoIP network it is possible to verify that it addresses three key areas.1. It satisfies the primary objective of security testing by exposing several security vulnerabilities in the test network and aiding in determining if security controls of the security target were properly configured.2. It satisfied the three key principles of methodical security testing since it has been designed to be reliable, repeatable, and reportable. Reliable in the sense that it promotes the employment of professional security testers, it sets strict rules of engagement, and it provides specific security tests, which are not intrusive in nature. Repeatable in the sense that it provides security tests which are as technology and/or vendor neutral as possible, combined with expected results by every applicable security test. And reportable in the sense that it provides specific results and recommendations which can be incorporated in a final report.3. It satisfied the objective of the security testing methodology, which was to assess the vulnerabilities of a corporate VoIP infrastructure. The security tests were designed to assess the specific environment and the impact of the identified vulnerabilities in the confidentiality, integrity, and availability has been rated.The security testing methodology requires further work to produce a unified result regarding the overall security posture of the security target. Specifically, the security vulnerabilities were identified and rated accordingly, however vulnerabilities that were identified as a result of a misconfigured and/or absent security control were not further verified. Those results are partly based on an industry-accepted formula and partly based on an informed ad hoc, and thus further improvable, decision process on behalf of the professional security tester.VoIP is currently evolving into a critical business operation. There is strong competition between vendors to develop VoIP solutions that are robust, reliable and secure. The first operational and economical benefits by the early adopters of VoIP are visible, but numerous problems remain which are delaying the universal acceptance of VoIP in the enterprise environment.One of the most significant concerns of VoIP is its security engineering. Determining and assessing security vulnerabilities and/or misconfigurations in a complicated and demanding information technology application such as VoIP, requires an appropriate security assessment methodology. A dedicated VoIP oriented security assessment methodology enables assessors to perform a competent, repeatable, precise and, ethical security test, which covers the key aspects of a VoIP infrastructure.VoIP can offer significant business advantages and has the potential of changing the way people communicate. However there are a number of risks associated with embracing this exciting new technology. A VoIP security framework that includes the appropriate technologies, methods, and tools, will contribute towards the mitigation of these risks and enable implementers to secure their VoIP networks effectively. Hopefully, the research output of this paper will contribute to the development of such a comprehensive security framework.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to discuss and amalgamate information security principles, and legal and ethical concerns that surround security testing and components of generic security testing methodologies that can be applied to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), in order to form an audit methodology that specifically addresses the needs of this technology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Information security principles, legal and ethical concerns are amalgamated that surround security testing and components of generic security testing methodologies that can be applied to VoIP. A simple model is created of a business infrastructure (core network) for the delivery of enterprise VoIP services and the selected tests are applied through a methodically structured action plan.\nFindings: - The main output of this paper is a, documented in detail, testing plan (audit programme) for the security review of a core VoIP enterprise network infrastructure. Also, a list of recommendations for good testing practice based on the testing experience and derived through the phase of the methodology evaluation stage.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The methodology in the paper does not extend at the moment to the testing of the business operation issues of VoIP telephony, such as revenue assurance or toll fraud detection.\nPractical implications: - This approach facilitates the conduct or security reviews and auditing in a VoIP infrastructure.\nOriginality/value: - VoIP requires appropriate security testing before its deployment in a commercial environment. A key factor is the security of the underlying data network. If the business value of adopting VoIP is considered then the potential impact of a related security incident becomes clear. This highlights the need for a coherent security framework that includes means for security reviews, risk assessments, and influencing design and deployment. In this respect, this approach can meet this requirement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Performance and risk management in strategic cooperation: A comparative study of business and military sectors
|
[
"Sweden",
"Defence sector",
"Risk analysis",
"International cooperation",
"Peace"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Background and area of interest\n2 Conflict and business theory: Initially, we identified three areas of interest when comparing risks in the business and the military sector: conflict of interest transformation theory, project risk control management and cooperation risk control.Conflict of interest transformation theory\n3 International military peace missions: Military cooperation in peace missions\n4 Comparison of business and military management structures: Business and military activities are performed with quite different means. However, behind the activities in the two sectors, there are structures and processes leading up to and controlling such activities, which have substantial similarities.In both sectors, the cooperation between the parties is a means to manage the main task which is to meet customer expectations and create maximum business result in the business sector and to handle the conflict and create stable conditions in the military sector.A comparison was made between the business venture or project life cycle with the military mission life cycle. In each phase, there are striking similarities between the two sectors. A comparison was also made between the business management structure and the political/military management structure. On each decision level, there also are strong similarities. The comparison leads us to the conclusion that though the environment for business ventures and internationally military peace missions are very different both the business and the military sector has similar distinctive hierarchal competent bodies with well defined responsibilities acting in corresponding phases. We find these similarities being of such substance that a kind of knowledge transfer ought to be possible between the two areas.We then tested our findings by taking our identified risk factor areas in the business sector and compared with the processes and procedures in the military sector. Also in these respects we found striking similarities.When doing these comparisons one has to keep in mind that risk is not just something that must be avoided in all cases but is about assessments, decisions and actions of risk control in order to achieve the right balance between risk and opportunity.A major difference was also recognized. There are two major approaches to take strategic decisions or coming up with budgets for both small business and larger companies. The traditional method is known as bottom-up, though many businesses and corporations, along with governments, are moving towards more top-down steering, particularly during times of fiscal stress. The two steering approaches applied to our two types of organisations means that business mostly applies the bottom up principle to take care of business opportunities defined on lower levels while the political/military organisation mostly uses the top down principle, mainly because budget frames are a part of the project decision.\n5 Empirical investigation: The interviews\n6 Analyses: This study started with a focus to find out to what extent military organizations could learn from business how to identify and manage cooperation risks when cooperating in international missions.The interviews clearly showed that the military ranks have a preference for being as little independent on other forces as possible - at least as the other parties are any other than nations with very similar culture and certainly for the more crucial activities of an operation. One reason for this may be due to the limitations in partner selection. Business top management chooses its business partners and whom to cooperate with very few limitations from the board. The military top management advises its political management, which is just one part in the international community, and which sets very strict conditions and limitations for the military cooperation and its operations.Another main difference between the business and the military sector is the way \"result\" is measured. Business results are very \"easily\" measured in return on investment while the military objectives are only a means to reach other objectives in the form of humanitarian situation, democratic rules, etc. In business, the operation is a means to reach a monetary objective while in the peace mission money is a means to reach a kind of well-being.We found that though the organizational structures are comparable and though the responsibilities of the organizational bodies in different phases of the business/mission life cycles are comparable the decision process in the two sectors and the measurements of result in the two sectors differ in such a way that a knowledge transfer between the two sectors is more complicated than just applying a business risk assessment model or method to the military sector.However, this does not mean that an organizational learning cannot be performed. These reasons instead led us to an adjustment of our focus from a straight application of a business risk evaluation model on the military missions to a more general risk management analyses and a shift from how cooperation risk control is performed to the conditions for cooperation risk control. Based on the result of the interviews, we identified four crucial areas in which the conditions for cooperation seem to differ between the military and the business sector:1. cooperation risk control management;2. mission objectives;3. the decision process; and4. follow up of missions.Having identified these four areas, our analysis starts with an analysis of the result of the interviews with respect to cooperation risk control management in general. From there we proceed to analyze two of the three above-mentioned three areas, mission objectives and the decision process. These are analysed from the life cycle perspective used in the empirical investigation. Finally, the third area, follow up of missions, which is only valid in the last phase of the life cycle is analysed.Cooperation risk control management\n7 Conclusions: With respect to the aim of this study - how to improve performance of peace missions by improvements in cooperation risks control based on business experience - we draw the conclusion that there ought to be a more integrated decision process between the political and top military levels (a combined \"top down\" and \"bottom up\" system). It is also important in the decision process, to a higher degree than we have seen so far, to formulate objectives for the different parts of an international peace and reconstruction mission and, from the experience from our study, especially for the military part.We also found that there ought to be a closer connection between the military mission objectives and activities and the aid and reconstruction objectives and activities in a peace mission. Follow up of missions ought to be improved both for assessment of results achieved and for lessons learned.We could not find any evidence of a structured analysis of an exit strategy in the decision process. If this observation is correct we find it most important that such a process is introduced.\n8 Recommendations for further research: A comparison was made in this study between the business venture or project life cycle with the military mission life cycle. In each phase, there are striking similarities between the two sectors. It would be of great interest to do a deeper research of the similarities and differences of the two types of life cycles, the military sector with \"open start\" and business sector with \"open end\".A comparison has also been made between the business management structure and the political/military management structure. On each decision level, there also are strong similarities. We find these similarities being of such substance that a kind of knowledge transfer ought to be possible between the two areas. Further research in this area of knowledge transfer in both directions is possible between the two sectors.A major difference was also recognized about the two major approaches to take strategic decisions or develop plans and budgets. The traditional method is known as bottom-up used by many businesses and corporations. Governments and the military sector are moving towards more top-down steering, mainly because budget frames are a part of the project decision. A study on the planning process for a peace mission using the bottom up steering method might give new ideas and engagement about setting objectives and follow up/lesson learned activities.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate if business practices for performance through risk control methods can be applied by defence forces in peace missions called for by the United Nations (UN) in order to improve the efficiency of such missions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Extensive studies of existing theories on business cooperation risk control were performed as well as studies of the organizational and legal structures for Swedish participation in international military missions. These studies were followed by interviews with politicians and military officers of high ranks regarding cooperation in such missions and the interviews were analyzed with respect to the theoretical methods and their validity for the military sector.\nFindings: - The authors' conclusion is that an adoption of some of the existing business risk control management methods could improve the efficiency of military risk management. The first step in such organizational knowledge transfer is to improve the form for and the formulation of more stringent objectives for the military mission.\nOriginality/value: - The study indicates how the performance of international peace missions can be improved by application of risk control methods from the business sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Do the self-employed value autonomy more than employees? Research across four samples
|
[
"Jobs",
"Self employed workers",
"Careers",
"Contract workers",
"Job satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The nature of work has undergone a transformation as new business models, changing technologies, and evolving workforce demographics have made the traditional model of full-time employment with a single organization over the employee's lifetime less relevant for most people. This has lead to an increased emphasis on the individual, rather than the organization, being responsible for the management of his or her own career (Quigley and Tymon, 2006; King, 2004). Whether pursuing a protean career (Hall, 1996) or a boundaryless career (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996), the individual is make choices to engage in purposeful actions to achieve satisfying outcomes with respect to intrinsic and extrinsic factors.Theorists of self-managed careers (cf. King, 2004) have incorporated Schein's (1975, 1978, 1994). Schein proposed that individuals would develop career anchors, based on their experiences and their self-perceptions as to their talents and abilities, motives and needs, and attitudes and values. The individual's anchor would subsequently influence his or her choices throughout their career. He originally conceptualized five anchors of technical/functional competence, managerial competence, security/stability, autonomy/independence and entrepreneurial creativity with the latter two being anchors that would lead to individuals' making choices that would lead to work outside of traditional organizational employment.Given the influence of Schein's work, this research sought to test whether among self-employed individuals, who should be characterized by having autonomy/independence anchors, there was evidence that their psychological profiles did differ from traditional employees and whether. Specifically, it examined whether reported job autonomy provides more value or benefit to the self-employed than it does to employees.There is a variety of empirical support for the association between self-employment and autonomy. Studies have found the self-employed differ from the organizationally employed with respect to career anchors with the self-employed more likely to have autonomy and independence and entrepreneurial creativity anchors (Danziger and Valency, 2006; Feldman and Bolino, 2000; Yarnell, 1998). The self-employed have been found to report greater job autonomy (e.g. Hundley, 2001; Thompson et al., 1992). The self-employed also profess that the desire for greater autonomy was an important motive in their pursuing self-employment (Feldman and Bolino, 2000). College students considering future career plans view self-employment as offering greater autonomy than organizational employment (Kolvereid, 1996)However, Hackman and Oldham (1975) proposed in their Job Characteristics Model that jobs which provide autonomy are more intrinsically motivating for most people than those which are not (with that relationship being moderated by individual growth needs). Relatedly, the desire to achieve choice over task and career has been predicated to be one of the intrinsic needs individuals seek to satisfy through their career choices (King, 2004; Quigley and Tymon, 2006). In fact, numerous studies (Kinicki et al., 2002) have found that job autonomy is positively related to desirable attitudes (such as job satisfaction, and life satisfaction) and negatively related to undesirable attitudes (such as turnover intentions). Consistent with prior theory and research, it was predicted that:H1. Among both the self-employed and employees, there will be positive relationships between perceived job autonomy and desirable attitudes such as job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and professional commitment and negative relationships between job autonomy and undesirable outcomes such as stress.However, the conceptualization of the career anchor of autonomy/independence, as well as the other literature relating self-employment and autonomy, imply that the psychological profiles of the self-employed differ from employees'. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that:H2. The strength of the relationships between perceived job autonomy and attitudes will be stronger among the self-employed than among employees.\nMethodology: The hypotheses were tested using data from four different samples: the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (\"NSCW\", n=3,504), the 2000 Third European Survey on Working Conditions (\"ESWC\", n=21,703), a 2005 study of Certified Public Accountants (\"CPAs\", n=602), and the 2003 study of people working in the translation and interpretation profession (\"Translators\", n=165). There are several advantages to using multiple studies. First, to the extent the findings are consistent there should be more confidence in their generalizeability, especially as samples included US and European participants. Second, the within-profession design of the CPA and Translator studies provide samples with participants with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities such that differences with respect to personality factors might be more pronounced.Additionally, all four samples enable the self-employed to be classified as either owners of businesses that employed no others (\"independents\") or owners of businesses that employed others (\"owners\"). While acknowledging self-employed individuals with differing career anchors might appear to be similar, Schein distinguished among them, arguing that the priority of those with autonomy and independence anchors \"is to be on their own, setting their own pace, schedules, life-styles, and work habits\" whereas those with creativity anchors \"are much more preoccupied with building something\" (Schein, 1978, p. 157). Schein (1994) and Katz (1994) felt that these two distinct career anchors would lead to differences in the types of businesses they would own. Specifically, those with autonomy and independence anchors would tend to limit the type and size of size of their businesses:[...] they become teachers, consultants, or autonomous professionals of various sorts, but they do not build enterprises. In fact, I have seen many cases where their success led to the need to hire others and the autonomy-anchored person then abandoned what he had built and went back to working on his own (Schein, 1994, p. 88).This bifurcation isolates for analysis those individuals who worked by themselves and would be most likely to have autonomy/independence anchors separately from owners who would more likely have entrepreneurial creativity as well as autonomy/independence anchors.All four samples provided data on participant demographics such as sex, age, marital status and income data, perceived job autonomy, and job satisfaction while three samples (NSCW, CPA, and Translator) also measured life satisfaction and two (NSCW and ESWC) measured stress as well. The relationship between job autonomy and attitudes towards the job are likely to be more pronounced than relationships between job autonomy and attitudes towards non-corresponding foci such life in general. To the extent that the self-employed value job autonomy more than employees, it should then be most manifest with respect to job satisfaction.\nData collection and samples: Samples\nResults: The differences across groups with respect to perceived job autonomy were examined through ANOVA with work arrangement as the fixed factor and the effect size (partial eta square, or ep2) was calculated. The standardized mean difference (d) was calculated for each arrangement relative to the other two and the statistical significances of the differences were calculated with the Bonferroni adjustment. The results are shown in Table I. In all four samples, those in the three work arrangements differed with respect to job autonomy as the F statistics for work arrangement were significant at p < 0.001. Additionally, the ep2 were similar in magnitude (NSCW, 0.11; ESWC, 0.12; CPAs, 0.15; translators, 0.13), exceeding the benchmark of 0.08 for a large effect size (Cohen, 1977; Stevens, 2002).As shown in Table I, owners and independents reported more job autonomy than employees. The ds between employees and independents and owners averaged 0.73 (ranging from 0.43 to 1.43). Given Cohen's (1977) benchmarks of 0.20 for a small effect size, 0.50 for medium, and 0.80 for large, the differences appear both statistically significant and substantial. The relative amounts of job autonomy reported by owners and independents were less consistent.The first hypothesis that job autonomy would be positively associated with desirable outcomes such as job satisfaction, and life satisfaction and negatively associated with stress was supported by all four samples. The zero-order correlations (Table II) between job autonomy and job satisfaction were significant at p < 0.001 and positive in four samples: NSCW: 0.31; ESWC: 0.23; CPAs: 0.41; Translators: 0.57. The correlations between job autonomy and life satisfaction were significant (Table III) at p < 0.001 and positive for the three samples where it was measured: NSCW: 0.16; CPAs, 0.28; Translators, 0.50. The correlations between job autonomy and stress were significant at p < 0.001 and negative for NSCW: -0.19 (with the -0.07 for ESWC being statistically significant but with an effect size well below the threshold for small).The results were similar when the relationships between job autonomy and attitudes were analyzed through hierarchical regression with job autonomy entered as the second step after demographic control variables (age, sex, marital status, income (except for the ESWC sample) and dummy variables for being and owner or independents). As shown in Model 2 in Table IV with job satisfaction as the dependent variable, Table V with life satisfaction as the dependent variable and Table VI, with stress as the dependent variables, the beta coefficients for job autonomy were significant and positive with respect to satisfactions and negative with respect to stress.However, the second hypothesis was that the relationships between job autonomy and the outcomes could be stronger among the self-employed, especially independents, was not supported in any of the four samples. First, the zero-order correlations between job autonomy and the outcomes as shown in Tables II and III within each work arrangement were compared. Were job autonomy to be more valuable to the self-employed, the correlations would be stronger among owners and independents than among employees. That was not the case. In fact, with respect to job satisfaction, in both the ESWC and CPA samples, the correlations of employees (0.25 and 0.57, respectively) were larger than those of owners (0.19, z=1.96, p < 0.05 and 0.25, z=3.89 p < 0.001, respectively) as well as those of independents (0.14, z=5.40, p < 0.001, and 0.23, z=4.01, p < 0.001). None of the other differences between work arrangements were significant. With respect to life satisfaction, the correlation among translator owners (-0.15) was less than of both employees (0.45, z=2.39, p < 0.05) and independents (0.45, z=3.02, p < 0.01). None of the other differences with respect to life satisfaction or stress were significant.As shown in Model 3 of Tables IV, V, and VI, the results were similar when the hypothesis was tested using hierarchical regression with the third and final steps being the addition of interaction terms (dummy variable for owner * standardized job autonomy and dummy variable for independent* standardized job autonomy). If owners or independents benefited more from job autonomy than employees, the interaction terms should explain additional variance (DR2) and their coefficients should be significant. However, in most of the regressions, the addition of the interaction variables did not explain additional variance and in some cases the direction of the coefficients was different than that hypothesized. In no case was the amount of additional variance explained more than trivial in magnitude.It seemed possible the results might be attenuated by the work arrangements consisting of individuals who wished to be in a different work arrangement as well as those who were satisfied. It was possible to classify individuals based on their preferred, rather than actual, work arrangement, in the NSCW, CPA, and Translator samples and to replicate the correlation and regression analyses; the results were not different than the results of the first analyses done with individuals classified according to their actual work arrangement.\nDiscussion: Analysis of the four samples found there were substantial differences across the work arrangements with respect to the amounts of perceived job autonomy. This is consistent with both prior research as well as the popular image of the virtues of self-employment. The analysis of the four samples confirmed prior studies: job autonomy was positively related to desirable and negatively to undesirable outcomes in all work arrangements. Consistent with Hackman and Oldham (1975), individuals benefit from job autonomy, regardless of whether they work for themselves or for someone else. However, contrary to expectations given numerous associations between autonomy and self-employment, there was no evidence in any of the four samples that self-employed individuals, whether owners or independents, found more value in, or benefited more from, job autonomy than did employees. The studies do not support the view the self-employed benefit more from autonomy than do their employee counterparts.Moreover, these findings were consistent across four samples that differed with respect to the method by which data was collected (telephone, mail and in person surveys), the sampling frames (US national across-industry, European Union across-industry and regional-within profession and the demographic composition of the samples (similarly male and female, majority male, majority female, ages, and income) and distinct, if similar, measures of the constructs. As a result, it would appear likely that these findings are robust and generalizeable.There were, of course, limitations. First, the individuals were classified into categories of the self-employed with the intention of isolating those individuals who would most likely, given theory and prior research, to have autonomy and independence anchors. It would have been preferable to directly assess the career anchors or otherwise assess the psychological profiles of the individuals. Second, data in all samples consisted of self-reports with respect to perceived job autonomy and the attitudinal variables. As a result the statistical relationships might have been exaggerated had data been gathered from different sources (although Spector (2006) suggests what might be exaggerated are the dangers of common method variance). Third, broad and one-dimensional measures of perceived job autonomy were used in all samples and it may be perceptions of autonomy with respect to specific facets of the individual's job might be more revealing.From a theoretical perspective, the research supports that view people find autonomy or control to be intrinsically rewarding and that making career decisions that increase it are likely to lead to superior personal outcomes. It does not, however, support the view that groups of people have an autonomy/independence career anchor that leads to them benefiting even more. From a practical perspective, the results are instructive for individuals in terms of vocational guidance. Even if the self-employed do not value job autonomy more than traditional employees, self-employment, either as owners of small businesses that employ others or as independent contractors appears as a viable way of people improving the quality of their work lives by increasing their job autonomy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the relations between perceived job autonomy and attitudes are stronger among self-employed than employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Four samples (total n=25,974), consisting of self-report data from working adults, were used. In each, participants were classified under three work arrangements: owners of businesses employing others, independent contractors, and employees. The perceived job autonomy for each work arrangement was determined, as were the strengths of the relationship with attitudinal variables (job satisfaction, life satisfaction, professional commitment, and stress). Correlational analysis and hierarchical regression were used to test whether the strengths of these relationships were stronger among the self-employed.\nFindings: - In all four samples, both types of self-employed reported more job autonomy than employees. In all samples and within all work arrangements, the relationships between job autonomy were statistically significant and positive with respect to desirable outcomes and negative with respect to stress. However, the strengths of these relationships were no greater among owners or independents than among employees.\nPractical implications: - From a career advising and planning perspective, the research indicates that self-employment, either as an owner or independent, is an effective tactic for individuals to increase their job autonomy. However, there was no evidence that the self-employed differ from employees with respect to the benefit they receive from the job autonomy they perceive.\nOriginality/value: - This study adds to the literature on career choice and self-employment by comparing the strengths of relationships between job autonomy within and across work arrangements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: a gateway to sustainable economic development
|
[
"Infrastructure",
"Trade"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: For decades, Pakistan has been striving for a high and sustainable economic growth. Although Pakistan has made great progress in restoring macroeconomic stability, much more needs to be done to put Pakistan on a solid economic growth footing. For this purpose, policy makers are designing different development projects to accelerate the speed of growth. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of them.\n2. CPEC, trade and infrastructure: The CPEC - a bilateral cooperative initiative, 3,000 km network of highways, railroads, oil pipeline and links of optical fibers of costs 51 billion - connects Kashgar, China's north-western autonomous region of Xinjiang, to Gwadar Port in Pakistan (Shoukat et al.). The Chinese Government highlighted the \"One Belt One Road\" initiative in their 13th five-year development plan, because this project will materialize the dream of the Chinese Government to become economic king of the whole world. The \"One Belt One Road\" initiative is not only beneficial for China, but it will also benefit 4.4 billion people of the world and enhance 29 percent of the world's total economic prosperity (Javaid and Javaid, 2016). This corridor is critical to develop a rapid, extensive infrastructure throughout the whole of Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Baluchistan, and profound economic connections to Europe, Africa and to the entire hemisphere for the purpose of promoting trade and growth in Pakistan and China. The details of road and railway routes are given in Figures A2 and A3.\n3. CPEC and FDI: According to the economic survey 2015, it has been estimated that when the CPEC project will complete in 2017, the value of this project would be greater than the inflow of FDI in Pakistan since 1970 (Hali et al., 2015). China committed $50 billion amount to be invested in Pakistan under the umbrella of CPEC, of which $35 billion will be invested in energy projects and $15 billion in infrastructure, Gwadar development, industrial zones and mass transit schemes (Husain, 2017). However, it is expected that it will be more than 55 billion in the next five years (Sender, 2017). The entire portfolio will be completed by 2030.\n4. CPEC and energy crises: In this era of development, energy plays a vital role in upgradeing the economic growth of developing economies and the literature recognized it as an important driving forces of economic growth in all economies (Pokharel, 2007). The relationship between energy production and economic growth is adequately investigated in the literature, and majority of studies concluded that higher energy production causes economic growth (Hou, 2009). Similarly, energy is the most important factor promoting the quality of life and providing economic and social progress (Enu, 2014). Furthermore, in developing economies, energy demand is driven by economic development. Therefore, developing economies are striving to avoid the shortfall of energy by improving their energy services (Toman and Jemelkova, 2003) through different mutual collaborated projects. Similarly, Pakistan is facing 4,500 MW shortfall of energy on a regular basis. During the last decades, Pakistan has experienced routine power cut of up to 5 hours per day, which caused a 2.5 percent reduction in the economic growth rate of Pakistan. Therefore, the problem of energy deficit has been addressed in CPEC on serious notes with $33 billion investment in this sector. Moreover, it has been estimated that 10,400 MW of electricity is going to be produced by March 2018, under the umbrella of Early Harvest projects. Although some of these early harvest projects will be completed in 2020, these projects will enhance the energy-generating capacity of Pakistan up to 10,000 MW by the end of 2018. There are certain projects such as Balloki power plant, Bhakki power plants, Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Plant and Tarbela IV Extension Project under CPEC that will help Pakistan to realize its dream to overcome the shortage of electricity and to push the economy toward prosperity and development. Moreover, Pakistan has planned to import electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as part of the CASA-1000 project, which is expected to be completed in late 2018. Energy projects of early harvest are being constructed by Chinese private power producers, and Exim bank of China is providing them finance at 5-6 percent rate of interest, while the Government of Pakistan will purchase electricity from Chinese firm on pre-negotiated rates.\n5. Renewable-energy projects: Pakistan has started different renewable energy projects with the help of foreign companies. The world's largest solar plant - the 6,500 acre Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park near the city of Bahawalpur with an estimated capacity of 1,000 MW - is being constructed by China's Zonergy Company under CPEC and was expected to be completed in December 2016. At the completion of the first phase, the project was supposed to generate 100 MW, but unfortunately it is producing 3 MW, while at the completion of the second phase, it will be able to produce 900 MW. Moreover, Chinese-Pakistan consortium United Energy is also producing 250 MW electricity at the cost of $659 million under CPEC. Similarly, many other projects such as Jhimpir wind power plant by Turkish company Zorlu Enerji, Dawood wind power project by Hydro China, Suki Kinari Hydropower Project by SK Hydro Consortium and Karot Dam are under construction and supposed to contribute to eliminate energy shortfall. The major financers of CPEC projects are Exim bank and China's Silk Road Fund. Similarly, a mega project, Kohala hydropower project - its capacity is 1,100 MW at the cost of $2.4 billion - was being constructed by China's Three Gorges Corporation before the announcement of CPEC, but now it is funded by CPEC fund. Moreover, Diamer Bhasha Dam is supposed to produce 4,500 MW at the cost of $14 billion and Pakistan is willing to complete this project under the roof of CPEC. For this purpose, a meeting of Pakistan and China officials was held in December 2015, but still a clear verdict is absent (Wolf, 2016).\n6. CPEC and employment: Applied Economic Research Centre has estimated that at the completion of the mid- to long-term plan of CPEC, 700,000 direct jobs during the period of 2015-2030 and 1.4 million indirect jobs will be originated in supply chain and services sector (Rabbi, 2017). Official data revealed that, by the end of June 2017, almost 30,000 Pakistani engineers and doctors were directly employed in early harvest CPEC projects (Technology Times, 2017) (Table I).\n7. CPEC and tourism: Over the past several decades, the researchers have been continuously investigating the association between tourism and economic development and concluded that tourism improves economic growth and economic growth flourishes tourism sector (Dwyer et al., 2004). Therefore, developing countries are spending heavily on tourism sector in order to accelerate the speed of growth of their economies. According to Budeanu (2007), the travel and tourism sector is getting a prominent place among world's largest industries by providing 225 million jobs and leaving impressive impacts on the economic growth of the world by contributing 9 percent in global GDP. Researchers are anticipating that by the end of 2022, this industry will produce 328 million jobs and 1 in every 10 jobs on the planet (Seetanah, 2011).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss positive spillovers of this project, especially for Pakistan because the majority of the literature discusses challenges associated with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study reviews the available literature to assess the role of CPEC in the sustainable economic development of Pakistan.\nFindings: This study indicates that CPEC is an ambitious development project because it needs a larger restructuring of the economy of Pakistan and it will be productive with the successful blend of policy changes and participation of the business community in Pakistan. This project primarily creates a huge amount of foreign direct investment for Pakistan, at the same time, it will also create greater trade opportunities to China by giving access to a new market for its trading goods.\nOriginality/value: This study established that CPEC will improve the economic growth and trade, enhance regional connectivity, overcome energy crises, develop infrastructure and establish people-to-people contacts in both the countries, which will further help to improve the tourism sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Motivators of SME initial export choice and the European Union regional effect in manufacturing
|
[
"UK",
"Manufacturing",
"Export",
"Motivation",
"Resource-based theory",
"Small- and medium-sized enterprises"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The factors that set off SME growth (including exporting) are still in need of research (Bamiatzi and Kirchmaier, 2014). In international business research, the general consensus is that there is a positive relationship between international involvement of small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) and firm performance (Hilmersson, 2014). Edmunds and Khoury (1986) present the importance of exporting for SME profitability stating all SMEs should export. However, up until today the entry mode and pre-export phase research conducted on large multinationals is still much larger than on SMEs (Chellilah et al., 2010; Hilmersson, 2014). Much of the literature on the internationalization of SMEs involves a contrast between the process or stages approach (i.e. incremental learning), originated by Johanson and Vahlne (1977, 1990), and the international new ventures or \"born global\" approach (Knight and Cavusgil, 2004; Oviatt and McDougall, 1994). Yet, as Fillis (2001) states, the majority of frameworks fail to readily explain smaller firm internationalization behaviour and motivations. Research on geographical proximity for SME exporting has not focused on the inter-regional liability of foreignness between the European Union (EU) and its motivations, while it has been shown that SME internationalization performance is affected by geographical scope (D'Angelo et al., 2013; Rugman, 2003).\nLiterature review: Looking for answers in the previous research in the area of entry mode selection and the pre-export phase, it can be seen that it has mostly been theoretical, disconnected, and the behavioural pre-export phase research is neglected (Anderson and Gatignon, 1986; Dunning, 1988; Hill et al., 1990; Leonidou et al., 2007; Narayanan, 2015; Tan et al., 2007). The existing empirical research has mostly focused on the manufacturing sector (Charoenrat and Harvie, 2014; Rosnan et al., 2016; Trimeche, 2003; Zucchella and Siano, 2014) or contained a mix of sectors and industries (Hemila and Vilko, 2015). The service sector has seen a rise in research albeit smaller (Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1992; Aykol and Leonidou, 2014; Fayos Gardo et al., 2015). As Leonidou et al. (2007) state in their review of the motivator literature, the literature on pre-export phase firm behaviour, till now, has been non-programmatic (with duplication of work), fragmented, inconsistent, and approached only partially specific motivators while neglecting other critical ones and finally did not offer an analysis of the importance of each stimulus to exporting. It is evident that unification and analysis of the most significant existing motivators within the literature and a closer look at the more recent topics of SMEs and exporting is necessary, particularly within the EU regional setting.\nTheoretical framework and hypotheses: The 27 variables selected from the literature, after narrowing down from 44 using principal component analysis, are presented in Table I (e.g. excess capacity, legal restrictions, unsolicited order) and are recurring in the literature (Driscoll, 1995; Kuada and Sorensen, 2000; Leonidou et al., 2007).\nFindings: To investigate the EU effect, the data were split into two groups: those whose latest market entry was in the EU, and those whose latest market entry was not in the EU (a categorical independent variable with two levels). From there any significant differences in average factor scores retrieved from our PCA between the two groups were assessed using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The results reveal that participants whose latest entry was not in the EU scored significantly higher in the factor scorings for the external dimension than participants whose latest entry was in the EU (W=437, p=0.02). There were no significant differences between the two groups for the other components. A priori power analysis reveals that for a two-tailed t-test, a medium effect size (d=0.5), a significance level of a=0.05, and a power (1-b) of 0.7, the required sample size is 100; thus making the sample size of 103 adequate (e.g. Chellilah et al., 2010; Chowdhury et al., 2015).\nDiscussion[1]: H1. Home motivators are positively associated with choice to export outside the EU.\nConclusions: Summary and theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A global reach in exporting has been linked to profitability. The purpose of this paper is to answer the influence of EU regulations on exporting decisions of UK manufacturing small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) by investigating the home and host country-based motivators behind SMEs' choice to export, and export regionally, within the EU.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Contrasting the Uppsala and resource-based view perspectives (using a sample of UK independent manufacturing SMEs and utilizing a survey, correlation analysis and factor analysis), the paper finds and describes the effect of the most recurrent motivators from the literature on the SMEs' decision to export within the EU or not.\nFindings: The paper finds that SMEs whose latest international market entry was not in the EU scored significantly higher in the factor scorings for the motivators in the external dimension than participants whose latest entry was in the EU. Several motivators show an association with the choice to export per se. The importance of regionalization to export initiation (and EU membership) within the EU is emphasized in the results.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample size is limited.\nPractical implications: In the current climate, how can SMEs reduce market research costs for managers by relying solely and proactively on home country and internal advantages and motivators and being more aware of their surroundings? Managers and policymakers can direct their strategy, resources and policy more efficiently according to motivators; internal home country motivators (e.g. strengths of prices of products) direct the SME to overcome inter-regional liability of foreignness, while host country motivators (e.g. legal restrictions in the host country) direct them to regional ventures.\nOriginality/value: The theoretical and empirical work on the topic, until recently, has been fragmented and inconsistent focusing on specific motivators but not necessarily justifying the selection or origin of variables even less on SMEs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Strategic action grids: a study on supply chain risk management in manufacturing industries in India
|
[
"Importance-performance analysis (IPA)",
"Mitigation strategies",
"Indian manufacturing industries",
"Risk categorization",
"Strategic action grids",
"Supply chain risk management (SCRM)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: India is an Asian manufacturing leader owing to the high availability of workforce, lower cost of manufacturing, better quality of products and availability of quality raw materials at affordable prices (Yu and Goh, 2014). The above factors have appealed multi-national companies in the global arena to invest in India. Advent of globalization, outsourcing, and ever increasing competitive environment have led to the emergence of risk issues in the supply chain. Hence, the organizations are forced to adopt innovative ways of doing business (Stefanovic et al., 2009).\n2. Literature review: Modern day supply chains are vulnerable due to dynamic changes in economy, business and ecological environments more than ever before. First, catastrophes have been increasing in a large number, and its severity of impact on the firm and the supply chain is enormous during the recent past (Thun and Hoenig, 2011). Natural calamities such as droughts, floods, tsunamis have been occurring more frequently and have a significant impact on the economy. Second, supply chains, of late are highly complex than the yesteryears (Juttner, 2005). A higher level of complexity is attributed to outsourcing, the relationship between the trading partners in the network, increased dependence on trading partners capabilities (Svensson, 2004; Thun and Hoenig, 2011), new technologies, shorter product life-cycles due to change in preference of the customer, regulatory requirements (Trkman et al., 2010), competitive environment, etc. Third, to increase the efficiency of the supply chain, the supply chain managers strive to make their operations leaner and more efficient in an unstable environment (Wagner and Bode, 2006; Tang, 2006; Hult et al., 2010). The supply chain network faces the risks related to demand, supply, finance, and risks related to production and operation (Wagner and Bode, 2008; Kaur et al., 2011; Chen and Wu, 2013). An outcome of an efficient supply chain is the increase in performance. The efficiency of the supply chain may improve by initiatives such as product variety, reduced supplier base, and reduced assets through outsourcing of non-core activities.\n3. Methodology: The present IPA study is based on the type of manufacturer, risks perceived, the mitigation strategies, and the TMC of the firm toward risk management (Shenoi et al., 2016; Shenoi, 2017). The details on the dimensions of SCRM are provided in Section 3.1. The IPA study is performed on the basis of two different concepts to establish:\n4. Analysis, observations and findings: Shenoi (2017) performed IPA on responses of an empirical study on SCRM in Indian manufacturing industries to categorize the risk factors, mitigation strategies and TMC. The levels of risk faced by the different firms vary based on nature of its business. The attributes include the type of manufacturer, number of employees, turnover, the size, and export orientation of the firm (Padma et al., 2008; Thun and Hoenig, 2011; Lavastre et al., 2012).\n5. Conclusion: This study is performed to understand the risks, mitigation strategies, and the TMC of OEMs and suppliers in reducing the risk. The finding indicated that most of the risks, as noted by their means, are near the POI of the grand means of the risk constructs and their impact on the supply chain, indicating that all the risks have the equal likelihood of occurrence. The OEMs have benefited by following RM mitigation strategy, while suppliers have benefited by RS as they lie in the region of \"Keep it up.\" The strategies adopted by the Top Management such as OS, LTC, AR and BCI have benefited the organizations as they are placed in the \"Keep it up\" region.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide strategic recommendations to supply chain managers of Indian manufacturing industries for a robust supply chain related to risk management by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers in manufacturing industries to ensure a robust supply chain risk management (SCRM).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is utilized to identify and provide strategic recommendations to manufacturing industries for improving their supply chain performance by attaching due importance to risk constructs and appropriately choosing mitigation strategies.\nFindings: The investigation using the strategic action grids reveals that most of the means of risks are near the point of intersection of the grand means of the risk constructs and their impact on the supply chain, indicating that all the risks have the equal likelihood of occurrence. The mean importance of risk monitoring, risk avoidance (RA) and risk sharing surpass the mean performance for both OEMs and suppliers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is executed with following limitations: the study assumes that the manufacturing industries across different sectors perceive similar risk. The sectors considered are automotive, heavy engineering, general engineering and home appliances. The Southern States of India are considered because of the dominant presence of many industries, especially automotive industries. However, it should be noted that these States form the manufacturing hubs where the lead organizations are functioning along with their major suppliers.\nPractical implications: By understanding the importance of SCRM dimensions and utilization of these dimensions, firms can mitigate the impact of risk on the supply chain. The detailed study of SCRM strategies highlights the importance attached to risk factors, mitigation strategies, and top management commitment. By the implementation of SCRM strategies, supply chain managers can improve the firm's performance.\nOriginality/value: The study involves empirically validated data on SCRM dimensions. The IPA is performed on the SCRM dimensions to investigate the importance attached to the factors of the dimensions and their performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Training and labour needs of young workers in Vietnamese organisations
|
[
"Training",
"Vietnam",
"Future labour needs",
"Young workers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite a considerable opening up to the west, an increase in international trade, and the economic reform that the Vietnamese government refer to as Doi Moi or renovation (Ying, 2002, p. 11), a great deal remains unknown about work, employment and training in Vietnam. Research findings, although appearing more frequently in journals (see Ying, 2002; Jenkins, 2004; Truong and Quang, 2007; Thang and Quang, 2007; Clarke et al., 2007) remain fairly limited. In addition there are still are few official opportunities for academics and researchers from outside of Vietnam to undertake detailed research on training and employment given the complexities of language, access and the intertwining of employers, trade unions, employer groups and the Vietnamese Communist Party. However, towards the end of 2007 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) approached the authors regarding the possibility of undertaking a survey of Vietnamese employers to, initially, examine their experiences of recruiting young workers. This was against a backdrop of a youth unemployment rate of 14 per cent and an expected additional 1.2 million young people entering the labour market year on year. The VCCI suggested that young people will \"account for 7 million of the estimated demand for 8 million jobs during the period 2006-2010\" (VCCI/ILO, 2007, p. 5). Given the possibilities such access to Vietnamese employers a survey represented, the final project specification was expanded to include:\nEconomy and employment in Vietnam: issues from the literature: The economic landscape in Vietnam has been changing rapidly in the last two decades as the country embraces the process of transformation from a centrally planned system into a market-oriented economy. The number of state-owned companies had been reduced from 12,000 in 1990 to 5,300 in 1999, while the number of private enterprises had increased to 75,000 by the end of 2003 (Truong and Quang, 2007, p. 114).\nMethods and survey background: To explore the issues outlined above it was agreed that a survey-based methodology would be an appropriate research design. The survey instrument was designed by the authors in collaboration with the VCCI and the ILO during the Spring of 2008. The research instrument combined forced choice questions (such as Likert style and ranking questions) with a number of open-ended questions designed to elicit the actual views of the employers. The design of the research instrument was influenced by a number of key factors. First, it was felt that using a majority of forced choice questions would be appropriate given that the questionnaire had to be translated into Vietnamese and therefore reduced the risk of misunderstanding or incorrect interpretation of the questions. Second, the research instrument was kept relatively short to try and ensure an adequate response rate. Third, the Leicester research team incorporated feedback from the VCCI, on an initial draft of the research instrument, to ensure that the VCCI were happy that the research instrument addressed their key research concerns and that the instrument was \"fit for purpose\" within the context of researching within the Vietnamese economy.\nSurvey results - training in Vietnamese companies: On average more than a quarter of staff (27.6 per cent) have graduated from university, a higher figure than for those with no professional or technical training (21.7 per cent). This would suggest a number of staff have entered training after leaving school as the data shows that 27.1 per cent of employees did not graduate from high school. When we looked at this data by size of organisation it became apparent that smaller organisations employ a far greater proportion of university graduates than larger organisations. This pattern is consistent with data in the earlier part of this report which indicated that young people were more likely to be recruited in to managerial level jobs in smaller companies. It appears that the smaller companies are recruiting the most highly qualified young people directly in to high-level jobs, suggesting that opportunities for graduates are better in smaller companies. In terms of industrial sector those from the service sector employed more graduates than those from industry.\nDiscussion: What is apparent from the quantitative data are that employers are keenly aware of the current and future labour needs in Vietnam. All respondents reported current difficulties in meeting demand for more highly skilled staff and predicted difficulty in recruiting skilled technical and managerial staff in the next five years. This concern reflects recent changes in the Vietnamese labour market. Without doubt the impact of the recent modernisation of the industrial sector, the move away from an industrial sector characterised by low productivity, a reliance on out-dated machinery and a lack of modern technology, has resulted in high demand for skilled staff amongst all employers (Jenkins, 2004). At present the shortage of appropriately highly skilled staff is a preoccupation amongst employers and, more concerning is that businesses seem to predicting that these shortages will persist and even worsen in the next five years. Almost a decade ago Sakellariou and Patrinos (2000, p. 147) suggested that in Vietnam, \"trained technical labour accounts for only a small fraction of the total labour force [...] consequently there is a shortage of high level technical experts, skilled technical workers, administrative and managerial experts [...]\". Some ten years later our data shows that this picture does not appear to have changed very much and employers remain fearful that their future needs for skilled labour will not be met. The support from employers for intervention from the VCCI and the government on a number of measures, focused primarily on the need for government policy in areas relating to vocational training would suggest that employers continue to seek external support in meeting their current and future labour demands.\nConclusion: This research has shown that Vietnamese employers clearly value training and appreciate the impact that training young people can have for their enterprise. Training programmes are offered to young workers regardless of sectors and the respondents are very aware of the areas they need to concentrate on in their organisations. However, the employers also clearly felt that more financial and regulatory support is required to ensure that the training offered relates to their skill needs and the needs of the enterprise. While the increase in funding in education (MOET, 2001) was a start there is a need for the government and VCCI to spend some time identifying which skill sets are required in the economy. Respondents identified a need for further investment in the development of highly skilled and trained staff throughout the labour market to meet the changing demands of the economy. Furthermore a greater emphasis should be given to linking needs of employers with the national vocational education and training system and it is here where respondents felt that the VCCI had a particular role to play. Respondents said that VCCI could engage more with employers to determine where support on HR and training issues is most needed. In addition respondents where keen that the VCCI and government do more to alleviate and potential barriers to the training of young workers such as the shortage of trainers, shortage of equipment and the fear of losing trained staff.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is report on findings from a survey of Vietnamese employers in 2008 highlighting key tends in training and future labour needs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses data collected from a survey of Vietnamese employers during 2008. The survey was design by the authors and the fieldwork undertaken by representatives of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) with support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).\nFindings: The survey shows that Vietnamese organisations understand the importance of training for their young workers but require more support from government and the VCCI to ensure effective training.\nPractical implications: The paper contains a number of practical implications for Vietnamese employers and the VCCI.\nOriginality/value: Despite some opening of trade between Vietnam and the west, relatively little is still known about work, employment and training in Vietnam and there a few opportunities to undertake research of this nature. The main contribution of this paper is to report on current training practices and labour needs in Vietnam.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Innovative tools and techniques to manage your stress to ensure work-life balance
|
[
"Computer vision syndrome",
"Organizational development",
"Performance",
"Peter Drucker",
"Stress management",
"Work-life balance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Everybody's going through a lot of stress these days, no matter how well off you are and how many advantages you have, it's a stressful time in everybody's lives (Chris Frantz).\nTypes of stress: Stress is classified into three types - personal stress, work-related stress and organizational stress. When stress arises due to personal reasons it is known as personal stress. When it arises due to high expectations in the workplace it is known as work-related stress. Organizational stress arises due to organizational change, uncertainty and complexity. Personal stress is the most challenging one, arising out of health or family problems and commitments. Work-related stress often arises due to lack of resources and the inability of the employees to execute their tasks effectively. It arises due to demanding clients and customers, the inability to manage time effectively, when roles are not clearly defined and demarcated leading to confusion and due to setting unrealistic goals. Organizational stress arises due to wrong policies of companies, sudden dismissal or retrenchment.\nStress and burnout: Most of us are trying to balance work, home, and a family life. We tend not to accept the early symptoms of burnout and carry on our daily lives. In my opinion, living your life isn't supposed to be that way. If you ignore the red flags, you'll become gravely ill and your life could come to a complete halt (Yasmeen Abdur-Rahman, Recognize the Early Signs of Burnout).\nCauses of stress: There are innumerable causes for stress. Some people take on extra work as they need more money to support their family members. Some undertake extra pressure to compete with others and to grow rapidly in their career. At times inefficiency may put employees in stressful situations. In this case, they must learn the ropes of work quickly to avoid stress. Workplace conflicts may also be a source of stress. Demanding bosses may also be the cause of stress among employees. When employees do not have promotion prospects within the company and cannot find alternative employment elsewhere, they work under stress. When people pursue wrong careers due to financial needs they get stressed out quickly. In some cases, people may not know how to choose the right career thus landing in a wrong workplace. Those who have family problems and the divorced individuals may also develop stress levels. When people give too much importance to work they get terribly stressed out. In this regard, Bertrand Russell rightly noted, \"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.\" Hence, the causes for stress may be personal, professional, and social pulls and pressures.\nEffects of stress: Stress has more negative effects than positive. Excessive stress may lead to a nervous breakdown. It may lead to a heart attack or other diseases. The effects of stress are more on mind than on body. Therefore, it is essential to tackle stress to eliminate physical ailments. Excessive stress leads to irregular bowls or frequent headaches resulting in lack of concentration, losing productivity and profitability. Affected individuals may eat more or lose their appetite. They may also not get proper sleep. Individuals may become moody developing fears and phobias that drain their mental energy. They may resort to drug addiction and other vices such as excessive alcoholism and smoking.\nRemedies of stress: The way to tame stress is mindfulness, believing in present, not in the past or future. Britta Holzel of Harvard Medical School, along with other authors identified four key components of mindfulness that help deal with stress. They are attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation and sense of self. Here are the tips to bust your stress:\nPursue parallel careers: Peter Drucker believed in the concept of parallel careers. He said, \"We will have to learn to develop second careers for accomplished professional and managerial people when they reach their late forties or so.\" Parallel career does not mean you do not enjoy your life. Parallel career does not mean you neglect your career. It is a career that is close to your heart and also helps you generate income for leading a financially stable life. Peter Drucker pursued his passions such as writing, consultancy and teaching and also hobbies such as mountain hiking and swimming. He balanced everything in his life - work, hobbies and passions. He led his life completely without having any regrets at the end.\nComputer vision syndrome (CVS): These days CVS has become a common problem and a very big challenge for employees as they have to work long hours in front of the computers. Due to the sedentary working conditions, employees have developed several work-related stresses. Employees develop several health hazards due to CVS such as dry eyes, irritation in eyes, poor vision and decline in eye blinking rate. Study reveals that blinking rate decreases by 70 percent when people work in front of computers for long duration. Here are the ways to tackle this challenge.\nConclusion: It is ironic that people earn a lot of money and then spend most of it on stress-related diseases. They must learn to strike a balance between pressure and pleasure. They must be able to balance their personal, professional and social life. There are people who spend their entire life making money without searching for any meaning in life. To conclude, there are three symptoms to good health - sound sleep, exercise and good appetite. As long as you enjoy these you enjoy good health and you can keep stress at bay and lead a happy and great life.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline various aspects of stress including its causes, effects and remedies to ensure work-life balance to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper explains types of stress and differentiates between stress and burnout. It outlines innovative tools and techniques to manage stress.\nFindings: It enlightens that there are three symptoms to good health - sound sleep, exercise and good appetite. As long as you enjoy these you enjoy good health and you can keep stress at a bay and lead a happy and great life.\nPractical implications: The tools and techniques to ensure work-life balance can be applied in any industry and in any size of organization.\nSocial implications: The social implications of this research suggests that leaders can provide meaning to their lives by balancing their personal, professional and social life.\nOriginality/value: It elaborates stress management from the perspective of parallel careers with Peter Drucker's example. It adds value to tackle computer vision syndrome.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intermediaries driving eco-innovation in SMEs: a qualitative investigation
|
[
"Eco‐efficiency",
"Eco‐innovations",
"Sustainability‐oriented innovation",
"Absorptive capacity",
"Learning networks",
"Inter‐organizational learning",
"Public private partnerships",
"Intermediaries",
"Knowledge transfer",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Innovation",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly challenged to contribute to sustainable development (Jamali et al., 2009; LePoutre and Heene, 2006; Luetkenhorst, 2004), that is, to be involved in alleviating social grievance as well as environmental degradation. On the one hand, SMEs can benefit from dealing with sustainability-related issues, for example, through cost saving (e.g. increased energy efficiency) or by realizing competitive advantage (e.g. successful new products). On the other hand, handling sustainability issues can become a very insolent and complex endeavor for some SMEs. In the context of sustainability, SMEs are faced with challenges such as resource constraints in terms of time, knowledge, financial, and human capital (European Commission (EUC), 2007; Lee, 2009; Perez-Sanchez et al., 2003) as well as factors related to managerial and organizational structure such as no or few personnel dedicated to sustainability management or an ad hoc, informal management of sustainability issues (Jenkins, 2004; Spence, 1999). Yet, even though dealing with such issues may, at first, present a complex endeavor for some SMEs, they may collaborate with parties outside their organizational boundaries such as universities, governmental bodies, or consultancies to gain access to knowledge and to direct assistance to better deal with sustainability issues (Jenkins, 2009; LePoutre and Heene, 2006; Valliere, 2006). For the purpose of this paper, we refer to these external organizations as intermediaries (Howells, 2006).Against this background, we are interested in the role of intermediaries in an SME's effort to engage in eco-innovation. Eco-innovations include enhanced processes, products, and organizational practices that reduce or avoid negative environmental impacts (van Hemel and Cramer, 2002; Rennings et al., 2006; Beise-Zee and Rennings, 2005). We focused our research on ECOlogical PROject For Integrated Environmental Technology (Ecoprofit(r)) as it is a programme that aims to introduce organizations to the concept of sustainable development by use of a \"complex\" intermediary (i.e. composed of more than one party, as will be explained later) in which a local governmental body and an environmental consultancy provide direct and indirect forms of assistance to SMEs. Ecoprofit(r) emphasizes eco-efficiency, that is, the combination of economic and environmental performance to create economic gain while reducing negative environmental impact (Schaltegger and Synnestvedt, 2002). Eco-efficiency innovation can constitute a feasible first step for SMEs with limited resources (financial, time, knowledge) to initiate a more sustainable mode of business operations.Based on an interview study among German SMEs from the metal- and mechanical engineering industry, we explore the role of a complex intermediary in the pursuit of more sustainable business operations of these SMEs. In particular, we focus on the question if and if so, how the model of Ecoprofit(r) has helped SMEs to implement changes. However, in order to have a long-lasting positive impact on the environment, it is essential that these activities are also a trigger for continuous change in the future. Therefore, we aim at exploring how lasting these changes are.We will attend to the central questions of this paper in five steps. First, we will outline the current literature on sustainability in the context of SMEs. Here, we will place particular emphasis on eco-innovation and the role of intermediaries. On this basis, we will analyse Ecoprofit(r) as a complex intermediary constellation. In a second step, we will provide information on our qualitative interview study to then, in a third step, present the central findings. In a fourth step, we will discuss our findings, elaborating on potential reasons why SMEs are willing to interact with intermediaries arguing from an absorptive capacity perspective. Additionally, we will examine the long-term effects of the interaction with intermediaries. The purpose of this step is to derive propositions for future research. Following, this paper concludes with some final remarks regarding limitations and further research avenues.\n2. Literature review: The integration of sustainability-related aspects and innovation can be beneficial for business: they can reduce costs (e.g. through an energy management system), reduce risks (e.g. through enhanced safety features), increase sales and profit margins (e.g. through the introduction of premium organic brands), increase reputation and brand value, become more attractive as an employer (e.g. through better alignment between personal and company values), and build up innovation capabilities (Schaltegger, 2011). Despite these potential benefits, dealing with sustainability-related issues constitutes a challenge to most organizations. As a consequence, many instruments, concepts, and tools have been developed to assist businesses in their effort to alleviate environmental and social issues (e.g. Schaltegger et al., 2007). However, most of these tools were designed for or are used by larger corporations (Graafland et al., 2003). As SMEs are not simply smaller versions of their larger counterparts (Tilley, 2000; Welsh and White, 1981), they might require different tools or a different approach to dealing with social and environmental issues than those offered to large corporations. Therefore, this section of the paper will first explore the challenges SMEs face when wishing to implement changes towards sustainability and will then go on to discussing the potential role of intermediaries in this process. In a third and final step of the literature review, we will introduce Ecoprofit(r) as a complex innovation intermediary.2.1 SME characteristics and eco-innovation\n3. Methodology: This paper is based on qualitative exploratory research and is of interpretative nature (Silverman, 2008). We chose a qualitative approach to gain greater understanding of the field of study (i.e. the role of intermediaries in an eco-innovation process) as this approach leaves space for insights that were not anticipated by the researcher (Stebbins, 2001; Wolcott, 2009). More specific, an interview study was undertaken. The following subsections outline the research sample, data collection, and method of analysis of the undertaken empirical work.3.1 Research sample\n4. Research findings: The research findings are structured as follows: first, the eco-efficiency innovations achieved by the sample companies are presented. Subsequently, drivers and barriers encountered are shown. Finally, the effects and relevance of collaboration with intermediaries are laid out.4.1 Eco-efficiency innovations achieved by the studied SMEs\n5. Discussion: We will discuss the previously presented findings in three steps. First, we will argue that a complex intermediary may strengthen an SME's absorptive capacity for eco-efficiency innovation. Second, we will elaborate on the role of the local authority as an external stimulus to change towards more sustainable business operations by also highlighting the reasons for SMEs to participate in a support programme like Ecoprofit(r). In a third and final step, we will discuss the potential to induce long-term effects through a programme like Ecoprofit(r).5.1 Complex intermediary to strengthen an SME's absorptive capacity\n6. Limitations and future research: SMEs face particular challenges such as resource constraints in finance, personnel, and time, yet are at the same time challenged to address societal demands to contribute to sustainable development. This paper took this situation as a starting point to investigate if innovation intermediaries in the form of a complex intermediary can help SMEs in this process and how lasting these changes are. In order to gain a more precise picture, we focused on eco-innovation and therein specifically eco-efficiency innovation. During our conducted interview study, we found that the initial approach by an external organization was a trigger to become involved in more sustainable business operations. Moreover, interacting with intermediaries who provide on-site support during the implementation was considered very helpful by our interviewees and indicates that particularly those SMEs that have limited prior knowledge are in need of more help than can be provided by handbooks or other forms of one-off information provision. Despite the eco-efficiency innovations implemented during the participation in the Ecoprofit(r) programme, some of the SMEs did not continue their transformation towards corporate sustainability. We discussed this finding and proposed the importance of long-term support for those SMEs that require it.With these findings we can provide useful implications for future research as well as for practitioners despite the small sample size due to the focus on SMEs in one specific industry (metal- and mechanical engineering) and their interaction with the same complex intermediary for at least three reasons. First, metal- and mechanical engineering is an industry dominated by manufacturing. As a consequence, we insinuate that manufacturing-intense SMEs from other industries may display similar patterns. Second, The companies in our sample operate in a B2B context, hence have no or very limited contact to the end-consumer. This, again, is no specificity exclusive to metal- and mechanical engineering but is apparent in many other industries. Therefore, we suggest that our findings may also materialize in other SMEs operating in a B2B context. Third, our sample consists exclusively of family business. As identified in literature, the owner-manager plays a central role in family businesses (Bougrain and Haudeville, 2002). Therefore, we suggest that the patterns identified here could also applicable in the context of other family businesses.The core implication brought forward by our study is that some types of SMEs require continuous handholding during their pursuit of sustainability whereas others deal with these issues by themselves once they have received initial help. Therefore, eco-innovation facilitation from different types of intermediaries (public and private) with different levels of support (from customized and individual to more loosely held support, such as networks) is recommendable. Overall, the proactive approach by a public intermediary (here local authority) is one essential push factor to trigger eco-efficiency innovations in SMEs with low absorptive capacity. Future large-scale studies should further investigate the reasons for these differences in order to determine a typology to be used by practitioners and scholars so as to develop tailor-made support schemes for the respective SME types. Moreover, cross-sectoral research should be conducted in order to gain greater understanding on the influences of industry norms and values might have. Also, it would be interesting to analyse, the influence of the direct contact to end-consumers (i.e. a business-to-consumer context). As Ecoprofit(r) has a strong focus on eco-efficiency innovation, it would be interesting to analyse similar programmes focusing on other aspects of eco-innovation or even broader sustainability-oriented innovation (Hansen et al., 2009). Through such a comparison, one could gain better insight into which kind of programme works for which type of sustainability challenge, or if overall more integrated programmes are necessary that deal from the beginning with the challenge to take an integrative approach to sustainability-oriented innovation management.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify the role intermediaries can play in an small to medium-sized enterprise's (SME's) pursuit for corporate sustainability with a focus on eco-innovation. The research identifies drivers and barriers for eco-innovation, and highlights effects induced through collaboration between SMEs and local authorities, on the one hand, and consultancies, on the other.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is based on an exploratory qualitative interview study among German SMEs of the metal and mechanical engineering industry that have participated in \"Ecoprofit\", an intermediary based program that aims at introducing organizations to the concept of sustainable development through implementation of eco-innovations.\nFindings: - The key findings are that first, the proactive approach by a public intermediary (here local authority) is one essential push factor to trigger eco-innovations in SMEs with low absorptive capacity. Second, it is found that SMEs may need facilitation for eco-innovation from different types of intermediaries (public and private) with different levels of support, which can range from customized and individual to more loosely held support, such as networks.\nOriginality/value: - This study discusses the challenges of corporate sustainability with a focus on eco-innovations for SMEs and proposes a \"complex intermediary\" consisting of a local authority and consultancies as one means to engage SMEs in sustainability. Moreover, it focuses on SMEs in the B2B context, organizations that are often overlooked despite their vast impact. Furthermore, by using a single industry approach, in-depth findings for the metal and mechanical engineering industry are presented.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Women in control and tax compliance
|
[
"Tax compliance",
"Female firm owners",
"Female top managers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The neoclassical paradigm refers to the standard economic approach in explaining tax compliance behavior (Ritsatos, 2014). According to this approach, the likelihood of being audited (Allingham and Sandmo, 1972; Ebimobowei, 2013; Modugu and Anyaduba, 2014) and tax fines (Doran, 2009; Mulder et al., 2009; Poppelwell et al., 2012) determine tax compliance. However, previous studies (Alm et al., 1995; Andreoni et al., 1998) suggest that the economic approach is insufficient in explaining tax compliance.\nBackground literature and hypotheses development: Only a few studies investigate the effect of the presence of female top managers on firms' tax compliance policies in developed and developing countries. Considering, the domination of male directors in business activities (Ho et al., 2015) that causes women to hold less than 5 per cent of CEOs of S&P 500 companies (Catalyst, 2019), empirical evidence on the positive effect of the presence of women in top management positions is arguably essential. The evidence does not only inform regulators to enhance countries' fiscal revenues, but also underscores the importance of gender equality in the labor market, especially for strategic positions, and motivates firms to acquire the best human assets. Furthermore, previous studies fail to support the reasons because they show conflicting results on the effect of the presence of female top managers on governance and performance. Several studies find that the presence of female directors causes firms to exhibit better governance as indicated by greater transparency and willingness to joint with monitoring committees (Adams and Ferreira, 2009; Vahamaa, 2017; DeBoskey et al., 2018), while another study does not show the relationship between the presence of female directors with governance (Nalikka, 2009; Manita et al., 2018). In a similar vein, several studies indicate the positive effect of the presence of female top managers on performance (Hoogendoorn et al., 2013; Moreno-Gomez et al., 2018; Adeabah et al., 2019), while others do not find similar results (Carter et al., 2010; Ahern and Dittmar, 2012; Gipson et al., 2017). Thus, it is an empirical question to what extent firms manage to acquire the best human capital through the gender equality strategy.\nMethod: This paper is a quantitative study that uses a causal approach. This approach enables one to explain that other variables cause the change of a certain variable. From the positivist point of view, the causal approach is the essence of the scientific inquiry (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).\nEmpirical results: The descriptive analysis reveals that 76.04 per cent of the sample firms had male top managers and only 23.96 per cent of the sample firms were led by female top managers. The domination of male top managers applied in all firm's tax compliance categories, namely full compliance, partial compliance, and no compliance.\nDiscussion, implications and concluding remarks: This study tests the role of female top managers and female owners in tax compliance using 23,178 sample firms in 98 developing countries from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. This study shows that in developing countries female top managers and female owners play a positive role in tax compliance. This study also underscores that not only the presence of female top managers that enhances corporate tax compliance but the presence of female owners also increases tax compliance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The study aims to empirically analyze the effects of the presence of female top managers and owners on corporate tax compliance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data for analysis were sourced from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys that involved 23,178 private firms in 98 countries. The surveys used a stratified random sampling method by using three criteria, namely, firm size, business sector and geographic region, within each country. Further, data are analyzed using the ordinal logistic regression and supported by the marginal effect analysis.\nFindings: The results show that the presence of female top managers and owners is a significant factor that underlies the firm-level tax compliance difference when firms exhibit relatively lower compliance.\nPractical implications: Although this study shows that the determinants of corporate tax compliance are very complex, there are also crucial roles of top managers and owners' gender. This study advises firms to use the gender equality strategy to generate the best human capital, especially in their top management levels. Besides, this study can be helpful in designing policies that facilitate women to reach top managerial levels or to own businesses as an alternative method to enhance tax compliance for developing countries that fail to generate optimal corporate income tax revenues.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous studies examine the effects of the presence of female top managers and business owners on firms' tax compliance policies. This study contributes to extend the understanding of the important role of women in corporate strategic decision-making, especially in taxation policies in various developing countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Reflective, ethical, and moral constructs in educational leadership preparation: effects on graduates' practices
|
[
"Leadership",
"Ethics",
"Students",
"Education",
"Assessment",
"Social policy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The achievement gap in the USA between African American and white students has placed educational leadership faculty on notice to emphasize pedagogical leadership with a focus on \"democratic dialogue\" in the preparation of school leaders. Democratic dialogue attends specifically to issues of reflection and ethics culminating in action for social justice on behalf of all students. These components work well together in pursuing a value-centered and transformative pedagogical preparation for educational leaders in the context of an increasingly global society (for example, Beck, 1996; Beck and Murphy, 1999; Begley, 1999; Bryk, 2003; Capper, 1993; Jackson, 2001; Lyman and Villani, 2002; McCarthy, 1999; Murphy and Datnow, 2003; Sergiovanni, 1992; and Starratt, 1991, 2003).In the twenty-first century, characterized by expanding technology, exploding knowledge, accelerating change, growing diversity, and increasing uncertainty (Merseth, 1997, p. 1), there is an emerging consensus among scholars of educational leadership that preparation programs need to prepare students to work effectively as reflective and ethical practitioners within the context of complex social justice issues (Starratt, 2003; Young and Liable, 2000). This perspective is in contrast to Rapp's (2002, p. 226) assertion that \"... educational administration and social justice have nothing in common\", and with conclusions from a national survey of program faculty and department chairs that for most educational leadership programs, \"... the complexity of poverty is a missing or minimal social justice component\" (Lyman and Villani, 2002, p. 268). Poverty is generally the culprit in student educational attainment. The achievement gap in the USA will continue to widen unless school administrators take on the new roles of engagement in reflective thinking, ethical and moral behavior, and commitment to social justice actions.This paper reports results from a survey assessment of graduates from a small educational leadership preparation program in which reflective, ethical, and moral dispositions and practices are major curricular strands. REMAS was developed, field-tested and used for the primary purpose of measuring the extent to which graduates of the leadership preparation program under study perceived that they demonstrate use of reflective, ethical, and moral dispositions and leadership practices within their professional workplaces. These program components increasingly appear among the goals, mission statements, and professional standards of many educational leadership preparation programs today (Murphy and Datnow, 2003).Our report of this research is organized as follows. First, we review the theoretical literature as a basis for understanding or conceptualizing the practical literature on reflective, ethical, and moral leadership issues present in an increasing number of educational leadership preparation programs. This literature served as the underpinnings for development of the survey instrument used in this study, the REMAS. Second, we describe the institutional setting in which the study occurred. Third, our methods section includes a description of the participants, instrumentation, procedures, data collection and analysis. Lastly, we present a discussion of the results, our conclusions and implications for social justice and for the future development of leadership preparation programs. The results suggest that the reflective, moral and ethical leadership program components incorporated in the REMAS instrument have construct validity and hence may be quite useful to faculty interested in developing and assessing these curricular strands.\nConceptual framework: Analyses of literature describing preparation programs in educational leadership suggest that faculty are increasingly concerned about the place of reflective thinking and practice, ethical decision-making, and moral character development in their courses (Murphy and Seashore Louis, 1999; Osterman, 1990). The literature base that argues for this inclusion has a long intellectual history. It is worthy of note that the application of reflective thinking in the preparation of teacher educators preceded its use in educational leadership preparation programs, whose primary grounding has been in management and administration. While ethics and moral applications in practice were primarily relegated to professions such as business, law, and medicine, often in the form of courses such as \"business ethics,\" slowly these applications have found their way into educational leadership programs in the USA. In the overview of literature on reflection and moral and ethical decision making, we describe how the concepts found in the literature served to frame our survey items.Reflection\nMethodology: Setting\nData analysis: The REMAS data were analyzed using factor analysis, descriptive statistics, correlations, and analyses of variance. ANOVA was used for the purpose of comparing program graduate responses on the REMAS based on demographic variables of age, gender, and job position. For these latter analyses, the REMAS data, based on perceptions of frequency of reflection and ethical and moral actions were treated as interval data. The survey data were subjected to factor analysis to confirm that researcher hypothesized survey items actually measured the constructs we believed they were measuring. As noted above, for this analysis, the survey responses gathered from 106 graduates were combined with responses from 113 co-workers of graduates, responding to a co-worker version of the survey.Results\nDiscussion: Osterman (1990) and Osterman and Kottcamp (2004) have emphasized the importance of reflection in professional development. Osterman and collegues connect reflection with experiential learning theory and address the need for open communication, empathy, and collaboration. As they pointed out, neither higher education nor school workplaces are currently conducive to this type of learning as both often are mired in a traditional management style that places emphasis on:... highly centralized decision-making processes and predominantly vertical patterns of communication which restrict both the quality and quantity of information distributed throughout the organization (p. 149).Critical reflection, experiential learning, and personal agency appear to challenge this traditional approach. Today, more attention is being given to reflection as a means for improving professional practice (Arredondo Rucinski, 2005; Arredondo and Rucinski, 1998; Kaufman, 2004). Additionally, reflection on action is seen as a mechanism for school reform (Beas et al., 2004; Carr, 2004; Delany and Arredondo, 2001; Pearce, 1995).Educational leadership programs across the nation are beginning to include reflective practice in their curricula. To date, however, few instruments have been developed to assess these curricula. While the data reported here are self-assessments based on individuals' self-perceptions, an assessment design was developed based on both these self-perceptions and on co-worker perceptions of program graduates' behavior. Two versions of this survey have been developed and field-tested and are available from the authors. This paper reports on the development and use of this apparently reliable instrument and the authors suggest that other programs could use it to assess reflective strands in their curricula. This instrument has the potential to contribute to educational leaders' knowledge and learning, and hence to the improvement of educational practices in schools.Further, by using the components of reflection drawn from the literature review as \"standards for reflective practice\" program faculty can develop teaching methods for helping their students become competent reflective practitioners. For example, students enrolled in this leadership program experience a battery of assessments early on for indications of styles of learning and leadership, and to assess their dispositions to think about equity and social justice. To illustrate, one course goal involves completing a social justice project based on the concept of a small win (Weick, 1984). This year-long project assignment is designed to bring students to a higher degree of understanding and willingness to take personal action on social justice issues. Another course goal focuses on ethical attitudes. Here, students collaboratively develop solutions to cases and problems. By doing so, they consider new values or reinforce old ones through a conscious, rational process of thinking about the sources, implications, effects, and relationships of their values and beliefs to those of others in society, and to the relationships that students wish to develop.Faculty in the educational leadership program studied and colleagues in other universities are planning administrations of the survey with doctoral program students and graduates, as well as with entering educational leadership students. The curricula and instructional strategies used in the program studied to develop reflective thinking dispositions are being revised as a result of analyzing and incorporating the results of this assessment with this and the co-worker survey. Our analyses suggest that while there are needs for program refinement, experiences in our program enable students to reflect on their own decisions and actions in ways that may allow consideration of the well-being of clients, employees, policy, practice, and of marginalized and disenfranchised populations within what often are undemocratic schools and organizations. Curricular strands focused on reflective practice, ethical and moral beliefs and actions are perceived by program graduates as effective for enabling them to pursue and realize social justice and democratic outcomes. Study data reinforce these perceptions by showing that graduates report frequent use of the reflective skills learned in the program. Until programs in educational leadership systematically study and report the effects of such curriculum changes, the outcomes of making the profound shift from provided knowledge to training graduates to construct meaning through reflection, experience, and personal agency, may yield consequences that are poorly understood.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - A 34-item Likert-type survey instrument, The Reflective, Ethical, and Moral Assessment Survey (REMAS), measuring perceptions of use of reflective, ethical and moral dispositions and leadership practices was developed. Items, component factors, and results of the self-assessment of graduates from an educational leadership preparation program in which the reflective, ethical and moral constructs are two of four curricular strands are reported.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data from mailed surveys from 106 program graduates and 113 co-workers were compiled and analyzed. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used for analyses of program graduate responses on the factor scores based on demographic variables of age, gender, and position, i.e. higher education, p-12, or other.\nFindings: - Its show differences among the graduates by gender for the defensive behavior factor with males tending to be more defensive than females, and for age on the reflective dimensions factor, with older graduates tending to be more reflective. Data were subjected to factor analysis to confirm that the hypothesized items were measuring predicted constructs. Extraction of principal components, with orthogonal rotation yielded four factors, with approximately 62.3 per cent of the variance explained. Alpha reliabilities ranged from 0.91 on the first factor to a low of 0.71 on the third.\nOriginality/value: - The REMAS instrument is newly developed and fulfills a void in the literature on this topic. Both the literature review and instrument will be useful to universities as changes emphasizing reflective, ethical and moral leadership are made to preparation programs and increased needs for program assessments are articulated.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding generational differences for competitive success
|
[
"Social stratification",
"Demographics",
"Workplace",
"Employees",
"Age groups",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Everyone's life experiences shapes who they are - whether man or woman, and across all races, ethnicities and religions.\nWho are they?: According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM, 2004), in the US, there are four demographic groups present in the workplace. These age groups break down as follows:*veterans - born between 1925-1940 (10 percent);*baby boomers - born between 1941-1960 (44 percent);*generation X - born between 1961-1976 (34 percent); and*millennials, born between 1977-1992 (12 percent, and increasing quickly).Today, the three generations most represented in the workplace are baby boomers, generation X, and millennials (also known as Gen Y, nexters and echo boomers).The \"baby boom\" occurred post second world war in most western countries. In the US, baby boomers, born either during or after the second world war, are the largest generation in American history. Due to their size and the times that they lived through, these individuals have had a profound impact on American and global societies. Some of the defining events they experienced growing up were rock and roll, the space race, and women's liberation. The impact of these events shaped their personality, which tends to be optimistic, idealistic and driven.Very different life events shaped members of generation X - the term coined by British authors Charles Hamblett and Jane Deverson in their 1964 book Generation X (Hamblett and Deverson, 1964). Canadian author Douglas Coupland (1996) popularized this terminology - making it part of the lexicon - in his 1996 book of the same name.In the US, these Gen X children were born at a time when the divorce rate was double that of boomers when they were children. This group is significantly smaller than the boomer generation, mainly due to easier access to birth control, and the decision to have smaller families. The UK, however, experienced a second \"baby boom\" during the 1960s, increasing the numbers of their Gen X generational cohort.During this same time frame, the US Social Security system began to come under scrutiny as potentially not being able to pay Gen Xers in their retirement years. This is also a time when more families had both parents working - creating the term latch-key children. These were kids who came home to an empty house, with a key literally on a chain. Many Gen X member's parents experienced one of the first rounds of mass corporate layoffs in the 1980s, which also shaped their children's own work-related viewpoint.The latest generation to enter the workforce are millennials. They are often grouped with Xers as the \"younger generation,\" but analyzing this generation clearly shows there are great differences.This generation benefited greatly from modern technologies - with access to computers as early as elementary school, and learning how to surf the internet to do research papers. On the down side, however, millennials also grew up seeing terrorist attacks on American soil. Clear-cut ethnic and racial boundaries in this group are not as delineated, since they are the most ethnically diverse generation in American history.This diversity, and a resurgence of patriotism after the events of September 11, 2001, fundamentally shaped the millennial generation - causing them to be more socially minded. Millennials are as active socially as boomers were in their day - confident, team-oriented, and used to having structure in their lives - like parents planning activities (Jayson, 2006).Each of the three most prevalent generations in businesses brings value to their chosen professions and environment, but their members also value different things at work, which is important for managers and leaders to understand.\nUnderstanding generational traits and styles: Because of their large numbers and the times in which they matured, baby boomers were able to make an impact in the societies in which they lived, making them idealistic and driven. Work and personal sacrifice to them equaled financial success.These values greatly contrast those of generation Xers. Members of this age group are often more skeptical, less loyal, and fiercely independent. The most important thing to them is a work/life balance - something they think boomers do not have.Workers in the millennial group are the most confident generation, as they grew up in a American school system that catered to people's self-esteem. These people are the most wanted generation, because they were conceived at a time when birth control and abortions were widely available and their families still chose to have them. Since many families had fewer children and greater resources, parents were more dedicated to raising them.This dedication, however, was - and still is - often taken to the extreme - with perceptions of too much control and parental dependency for career success. The term \"helicopter parents\" was coined in large part due to the tendency many millennial parents have to hover around their children, trying to oversee work and social activities.This involvement has spread to the college years, and even when their children are employed. Many newspaper and magazine articles quote college administrators and HR managers, who field more and more calls from these over-involved parents.\nCoexisting age groups and their differences can result in work conflict: According to the SHRM study, there are three main areas where the generations differ: work ethic, managing change, and perception of organizational hierarchy.Boomers often believe that younger generations do not work as hard or long as they do, because they are not \"punching the clock\" from 8 am to 6 pm every day. Working from remote locations, telecommuting or having a virtual office are all viewed as odd by boomers, and also not as productive work environments.This view differs from the Xers' standpoint that if the work is done, it does not matter how it was done or where - they are much more concerned about outcome than process.Xers also feel that if they did not struggle for balance in their lives, all they would do is work - since, due to the prevalence of PDAs and wireless technologies, they can and are expected to work everywhere.Younger workers are results-oriented, and do not focus or care about the method used to achieve the results. Many Xers and millennials see boomers as resistant to new technologies and change. Boomers, however, (who include the likes of Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs), view themselves very differently - as being open to change and new technologies - as long as they perceive real value in it.Communication modalities also pose problems between the generations. Baby boomers highly value face-to-face communication, and have no problem getting up to walk to another office location to ask a colleague a question. Xers, like boomers, will use whatever communication form is most efficient.The younger millennials, however, favor instant messaging, text messaging and e-mails. Many are more comfortable and at ease sending a quick e-mail or other digital message, than having a face-to-face conversation or picking up the telephone.Millennials are the first workplace generation to be digital natives. They grew up with these technologies in abundance, and new ones being developed regularly. Unlike older generations, they are unafraid of new technologies and are often what marketers would call \"first adapters\" - the first to try, buy, and spread the word about cool new gadgets/technologies.The millennials' comfort level with e-mail, however, can also be the source of workplace conflict. It is not always the best mode for conducting business - especially situations where conflict is in the air or bad news needs to be shared. Over reliance on e-mail also does not allow younger workers to develop more personal relationships with colleagues, managers, direct reports, and clients.Another difference between the generations concerns expectations regarding feedback - or the need for it. Boomers require little feedback to do their jobs well, whereas millennials like - and expect - constant feedback. They feel more at ease and able to do the job right when given very detail-oriented instructions - likely a result of heavy parental direction and involvement in their formative years.This can cause conflict when a younger person manages a boomer. The older worker may feel insulted by specific instructions, where the millennial would feel uneasy or lost without enough guidance. Without detailed communication with one another, this potential conflict can get out of hand - resulting in an unproductive office filled with an atmosphere of hostility.The solution to this scenario is to ask the employer or the employee what his or her expectation is regarding feedback and instructions, and then learn to adapt one's own approach to the answer.\nLeverage everyone and win: There are four areas to focus on for overcoming generational conflict at work and ensuring that mixed demographic workplaces can survive and thrive - changing human resource policies/corporate philosophies, ensuring an environment of effective communication, incorporating collaborative decision making, and developing internal training programs that focus on the differences.The first step is to adapt a firm's human resources policies and practices. This will impact the working environment, which, in turn, will help in recruiting and retaining a range of generations.Every generation wants to earn more money, but that is not the only deciding factor in choosing and staying with a job. For example, boomers do not want to hear about stock options. They do not have time to watch the market and stick with its ups and downs; they want to see the bottom line on payroll.Generation X, however, will pick a lower paying job if it offers less stringent work hours to allow for greater work/life balance.Millennials want to work for companies where there is collaborative decision-making, fast-track leadership programs, where managers recognize and reward contributions.Boomers want their colleagues and management to recognize their experience and daily efforts, and welcome the chance to mentor younger coworkers. Gen X members seek opportunities to learn and place significance on self-improvement. Millennial workers need to see meaning and value in their workplace contributions - it is what keeps them involved and on staff.The latest trends indicate that these youngest workers are placing heavy significance on corporate philanthropy and social awareness. According to the 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study (Cone, Inc. 2006), 61 percent of millennials (Cone's survey for this age group includes those born between 1979 and 2001) see themselves as accountable for making a difference in the world, and an impressive 78 percent of these youngest workers also strongly feel their employers should be responsible for joining them in their altruistic, civic-minded pursuits. A total of 74 percent of these same workers will support a company and its products/services when it is known that the firm has a strong commitment to a charity or similar cause. More importantly, more than half of those Cone surveyed would turn down a job offer from a company they perceive as being irresponsible to society.At the heart of meeting these challenges, is finding the right communication method to best get your message across to each generation. Using a company's website, or blogs, for example, is the best means to let potential millennials know they have found the right company environment. These blogs give a more loose sense of company culture while still being managed by the leadership of the firm. Gen Xers will likely focus more on firms offering maternity leave and daycare benefits, to allow flexibility. Boomers want an environment in which they are challenged and can contribute to - and see their efforts affect - the bottom line.Increasingly, boomers are looking for ways to give back via mentoring programs, teaching or consulting opportunities. Many are also thinking of slowing down as they get closer to the retirement years, and are hoping that the companies they have dedicated so much of themselves to can be flexible with them.Despite the differences between each generation, people in all age groups can learn from one another. Being more open-minded about possible generational influencers is a lot like diversity training. Everyone needs to have empathy for one another; being direct, honest and sensitive is key - which internal training programs can address.What will the workforces of the future face as employees born after 1992 start changing the dynamic? While there is no official recognized name for this generational cohort, in some media circles and articles they have been referred to as generation Z or \"generation me.\" Such names or labels are typically assigned when the majority of a generation has come of age/entered the workforce. This group constitutes 70 to 80 million people in the US - or about 30 percent of the population (Tucker, 2006).This group, also known as generation M (for me), are even more aware of and reliant on new communication technologies.Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (Roempke Graefe and Lichter, 1999) indicates that members of \"generation me\" are also more likely to grow up in households with unmarried parents, or just one parent cohabiting with another adult. They will also face a lifetime tax rate (the present value of future taxes paid vs benefits received) of 82 percent, according to projections in former US President Bill Clinton's 1995 budget. Will this generation grow up even more disillusioned with government - and what will the impact be on business?More research needs to be done about understanding the motivators of this generation, before conflict arises in the workplace, to ensure productivity is not affected.True leaders take the time to learn what makes people comfortable, while striving to achieve balance in the workplace. Management needs to find ways to use the strengths that all generations possess, making decisions with input from each age group. The result will be a company in a better position to serve its diverse clientele ... one that mirrors the workplace.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The largest diversity of generations is represented in today's workplace than at any other time in history. With this diversity comes new challenges. The purpose of this article is to analyze the specific challenges, and also opportunities, inherent in managing - and working in - a multigenerational workforce. By focusing on research about the character traits of workers in each generation, and identifying the types of conflict that can result, managers can better understand these characteristics and work styles, and can leverage them to enhance both team and organizational success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A wide range of studies and research was reviewed, and all revealed the methods to recognize the key motivators for each generation. By understanding and appreciating each age group's work style and personality traits, existing friction can be minimized and the assets of managing - and coexisting within - a multigenerational workforce is maximized.\nFindings: - Three primary generations exist in the business world: baby boomers, generation X, and generation Y (known as millennials). Each possesses unique characteristics that affect work ethic and relationships, how change is managed, and perception of organizational hierarchy: defining events in each generation's life all occurred between the ages of 5 to 18, the developmental years. The different backgrounds and life experiences result in five areas of potential workplace strife surrounding their differing expectations, distinct work ethics, deep-seated attitudes, opposing perspectives and diverse motivators.\nResearch limitations/implications: - More research on generation X and millennials and their role in the workplace in developing countries is needed. Another area that needs future research is how increasing globalization impacts generational cohorts in different countries.\nPractical implications: - The existence of a multigenerational workforce affects two areas of human resources policy and employee development efforts: retention and motivation. Employees of diverse age groups react differently to programs designed to address these two areas, and also have differing expectations. Companies may need to rethink their existing practices.\nOriginality/value: - The article will deepen understanding of the differences that can divide generations and explore the benefits - and necessity - of creating and leveraging a multigenerational workforce.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The predictive value of strategic orientation for ESG performance over time
|
[
"Competitive strategy",
"Sustainable development",
"Social responsibility",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Political economy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Within the context of increased focus on sustainability implementation and investments (Munoz-Torres et al., 2004), the distinction between sustainable companies and their less sustainable counterparts has become relevant for a greater number of managers and investors. Both progressive and mainstream investors seek opportunities for long-term investments in companies genuinely committed to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues (Guyatt, 2005; Munoz-Torres et al., 2004). As Engert et al. (2016) state, this genuine commitment requires a matching strategic orientation to ensure that ESG factors become integrated into the overall business strategy and processes.\n2. How strategic orientation impacts sustainability performance: 2.1 Strategic orientation\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample and data sources\n4. Empirical results: Table II (at the end of this document) shows the estimation results of equations (1)-(3). In Models 1-3, only the key explanatory variable was included. No fixed effect was introduced in Model 1; year fixed effect was included in Model 2, and both year fixed effect and industry fixed effect were included in Model 3. Comparing the three models, the goodness-of-fit of the model improved substantially when the fixed effect was included. The coefficient of strategic orientation is positive and significant (p < 0.01) in all three models, which supports H1. In Models 4 and 5, one moderator (period) and its interaction term with strategic orientation were included. No fixed effect was introduced in Model 4; industry fixed effect was included in Model 5. The year fixed effect in this test was not included because period covered the time effect. Again, the goodness-of-fit of the model improved substantially when the fixed effect included. The coefficient of the first interaction, strategic orientation*period, is positive and significant (p < 0.01) in the two models, which supports H2.\n5. Discussion: The finding of the study indicates that there is significant statistical evidence that the strategic orientation on stewardship and ESG performance are positively related. The results of this study substantiate the theoretical work of McCuddy and Pirie (2007), who argued that the stewardship perspective would positively influence corporate sustainability performance. It also supports the claim of Nijhof and Jeurissen (2010) that an instrumental strategic orientation has a weaker effect on doing business sustainably over time in comparison to a stewardship strategic orientation. By emphasising the financial payoff of corporate sustainability initiatives, companies with an instrumental strategic orientation will focus on the monetary aspect of sustainability resulting in lower sustainability performance. The empirical analysis of this study indicates that there is statistical evidence to support that a strong orientation on stewardship leads to a high ESG performance. This effect is consistent and increases even slightly over time. The main explanation is that fueled by intrinsic motivation of managers and a sense of stewardship at the corporate level, companies will have a more profound commitment to sustainability issues, and therefore, be able to overcome the dilemmas that are part of sustainability, and therefore, deliver long-term ESG performance. In other words, when companies are truly engaged in stewardship, instead of viewing sustainability behaviour solely as a business opportunity, this is indeed likely to lead to better sustainability performance.\n6. Conclusion and recommendations: The goal of this study was to contribute to the discussion about the corporate strategic orientation and its relationship to actual corporate behaviour and long-term performance. Firstly, to what extent is strategic orientation influencing ESG performance? A significant relationship has been found between these variables, indicating that a company with a stronger strategic orientation on stewardship has significantly higher ESG performance, than a company with a strategic orientation that is more instrumental. Furthermore, the significant relationship between strategic orientation and ESG performance is consistent and even increase over time, indicating a lasting effect. Secondly, to what extent is the relationship between the strategic orientation and ESG performance moderated by the political model of economy? This study showed that the effect of strategic orientation is significantly different in the British and Rhine model compared to the American model. The effect is stronger for the companies originated from a Rhine model country than these from an American model country and effect is stronger for the companies originated from a American model country than these from a British model country.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Despite the scholarly attention for the integration of sustainability within business strategy and processes, little is known about how strategic orientations of companies influence this integration. Drawing on stewardship theory, this paper aims to analyse the influence of strategic orientation of companies on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance and the moderating effect of three different political models of economy (Rhine, British and American).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper creates a measurement for strategic orientations by using a coding scheme with a five-category evaluation matrix. The main empirical analysis is done by a fixed-effect model with a panel data set covering 179 publicly traded companies over the 2009-2016 period.\nFindings: The conclusions of this paper present that - consistent over time - a stronger orientation on stewardship positively associates with higher ESG performance. Additionally, the political model of economy significantly alters the relationship indicating the effect of strategic orientation on ESG performance. The relationship is significantly stronger in the Rhine model and significantly weaker in the British model, when both compared to the American model.\nOriginality/value: The implications of this paper are vital to understanding corporate strategic orientation and its relationship to actual corporate behaviour and long-term performance. Implementing the elements of focus, motivation, commitment, support and communication linked to a stewardship orientation is fundamental to achieve higher levels of sustainability performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Risk factors of social assistance transitions: a case-control study for Germany
|
[
"Poverty",
"Individualisation",
"Life course risks",
"Social assistance",
"Social stratification"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In current sociological poverty research, two competing perspectives are prevalent among the various theoretical approaches. The traditional sociological perspective asserts that poverty is highly structured by social stratification determinants such as social class or ethnic origin. Conversely, individualisation theory states that the importance of such determinants has decreased within the twentieth century such that their association with poverty should be marginal in contemporary Western societies. Instead, individualisation theorists consider poverty a phenomenon that is induced by life course risks such as health problems or unemployment, which affect all social strata rather than only disadvantaged social groups. However, many empirical studies on poverty transitions indicate that these seemingly opposing theories are actually complementary. These studies suggest that a simultaneous investigation of both perspectives is a promising way to obtain a sociological understanding of poverty dynamics (e.g. Barbieri and Bozzon, 2016; Hill et al., 1998; Layte and Whelan, 2002; Walker, 1994).\n2. The current study: This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the entire German population at risk of social assistance entry. This is the first paper to apply and comprehensively test sociological theory on this topic. Its research questions are motivated by the ongoing discussion of the poverty-triggering impact of social stratification determinants and life course risks. The latter are considered major biographical events or statuses that are believed to trigger undesired events within individual biographies, such as poverty transitions[2]. Social stratification determinants are considered social structural variables that are linked to positions within the social hierarchy and that are believed to shape individual biographies. Social class is considered to be the central social stratification determinant and is conceptualised in the sense of Erikson et al. (1979) as a combination of employment and occupational status which enduringly constitutes one's relational position within the given labour market and production system in industrial societies. This paper investigates whether the social stratification determinants of education, social class, ethnic origin and gender are significant predictors of first-time social assistance transitions, their relative importance compared to the life course risks of unemployment, health problems and single parenthood, and whether the impact of the investigated life course risks varies for different social strata. The paper is structured as follows. First, it outlines the two theoretical perspectives and summarises the state of research. Then, the data set and the case-control methodology are described. The following section presents the variables that are used and interprets the multivariate results. In the final section, the results and limitations of the study are summarised, and directions for further research are given.\n3. Social stratification, life course risks, and their relation to poverty: 3.1 Theoretical considerations\n4. Data and Methods: 4.1 Data\n5. Multivariate results and discussion: 5.1 Variables\n6. Summary and conclusion: This paper investigated the predictive power of social stratification and individualisation theories for social assistance transitions as a poverty indicator. The study utilised German survey data with a large share of social assistance recipients to investigate first-time social assistance entries. Although the longitudinal design of these data suggested the use of fixed-effects models or other methods that aim to reveal causal relationships, the empirical investigation had to be performed indirectly because there are too few prospectively observed transitions into first-time social assistance receipt in German panel surveys. The study applied case-control methodology to circumvent this problem, and the empirical analysis indicated that life course risks such as unemployment, health problems, and single parenthood have a strong impact on the transition probability. Contrary to the prediction of individualisation theory, these risks do not have the same poverty-triggering effects for all investigated social strata. This result is in line with the evidence for income poverty, which also found significant interactions of life course risks with social stratification determinants (e.g. Whelan and Maitre, 2008), and underlines the importance of investigating multiple forms of poverty to retain a complete picture. Future research should apply the social stratification and individualisation perspective to poverty indicators that have not yet been investigated from these perspectives (e.g. subjective poverty measures).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Poverty transitions can be explained by two opposing theories: the traditional sociological approach that focusses on social stratification and individualisation theory, which emphasises on life course risks for all strata. Both perspectives have been investigated extensively for income poverty while neglecting other important poverty indicators, such as deprivation or the receipt of social assistance. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the latter to investigate the impact of social stratification (e.g. social class), life course risks (e.g. health problems), and their interactions on the probability of social assistance entry for Germany.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis utilises survey data containing a sample of first-time social assistance entrants and a sample of the residential population. Applying case-control methodology, logistic regression is conducted to model the impact of social stratification determinants, life course risks, and their interactions on the probability of social assistance entry.\nFindings: Social stratification determinants, particularly social class, have a significant effect. However, their effect is weaker than the effect of life course risks. Contrary to the prediction of individualisation theory, the poverty-triggering impact of life course risks varies substantially by social stratum. The combination of both theories yields high predictive power.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first to comprehensively test social stratification and individualisation theory with respect to social assistance receipt as a poverty indicator. It is the first paper that investigates the entire population at risk of social assistance entry in Germany.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Using social media posts as resources for engaging in value co-creation: The case for social media-based cause brand communities
|
[
"Social media",
"Value co-creation",
"Online communities",
"Post characteristics",
"Resources",
"Customer engagement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: During the January 2011 Queensland flood crisis in Australia, the Queensland Police Service utilized its active and dynamic social media-based community to communicate critical information, correct misinformation and talk to the world's press in real time about the unfolding emergency. Ultimately, the social media community assisted the Police Service to fulfill its important service mission to make Queensland a safe and secure place, and thus generated organization-customer value for social good. Unclear, however, is just how this organization-customer value occurs through community members' engagement with social media and the extent of these interactions. How does the intersection of twenty-first century technology, such as social media, and more traditional activities, like brand communities, stimulate supporters' value creation and generate value for resource-restrained cause organizations? This research proposes that understanding how value is created and co-created through organization-customer engagement activity in cause brands' social media communities might assist other cause organizations to more easily meet their service delivery missions in a digital age.\nTheoretical positioning: Researchers in the S-DL and SL perspectives are working toward developing value co-creation theories and models (e.g. Galvagno and Dalli, 2014; Gronroos, 2012), as well as conceptualizing co-creation of value (e.g. Gronroos and Gummerus, 2014; Jaakkola et al., 2015; Mustak et al., 2013). Both logics also take into consideration emerging digital technologies that have disrupted marketplaces. These technologies have empowered consumers to actively determine how and when they interact with firms to shape their own product experiences and co-create value with organizations and other customers (Gummesson and Mele, 2010).\nResearch approach: To answer the research question, the study applied the described value co-creation theory and current definition of customer engagement in a case study approach (Eisenhardt, 1989) to examine how cause brands' social media communities create value through interactions with post resources. The research method used is netnography, an ethnographic technique suited to the study of online communities (Kozinets, 2002) and which has been applied in prior studies of this nature (e.g. Brodie et al., 2013; Hollebeek and Chen, 2014; Schau et al., 2009). Netnography permits closer proximity to the respondents and is appropriate for studying online communities where important social interactions are manifest through posting behavior (Kozinets, 2010). It is a more naturalistic and unobtrusive approach, capturing actual interactions in the community rather than conducting focus groups or in-depth interviews with community members that are more separated from their spontaneous posting activity (Kozinets, 2002). This method therefore aids the researcher's understanding of the phenomenon of value co-creation in social media-based cause brand communities and is considered well suited to this research. At the time of the study, the netnography method followed Kozinets' (2010) five steps: planning, entree, data collection, analysis and reporting.\nFindings: Our findings are reported in two sections. The first section presents the findings for post characteristics that examine their platform, tone and language. The second section focuses on post themes. A theory-building framework that combines aspects of the value co-creation and customer engagement literatures guided our analysis. Specifically value co-creation is regarded as the collaborative value-creating activities, or integration of resources, that result from direct organization-supporter interactions (Gronroos, 2012; Gronroos and Voima, 2013). Customer engagement (e.g. Brodie et al., 2013), however, views the resources used as objects of consumer engagement. We extend this thinking to examine how organizational posts, construed as focal objects of consumer engagement, can act as triggers that result in consumer engagement sub-processes, thus integrating the two models in Brodie et al. (2013). Using this extended approach, the emergent themes are positioned to suggest conceptual pathways that can be operationalized for future research.\nDiscussion: The objective of the current study was to determine how cause organizations create focal engagement objects through their posts to their social media community members and how members engage with these posts to potentially co-create value. The study applied value co-creation theory and the current definition of customer engagement to answer the research question:\nTheoretical implications: This study extends extant theory into value co-creation and customer engagement by showing how customer engagement and value co-creation are linked through the particular characteristics (post platform, tone and language) and combination of operand (posts) and operant (platforms, engagement objects) resources that are integrated in various behaviors (e.g. click, comment) within the online domain. Specifically, this study demonstrates how post characteristics and different resource combinations can influence value co-creation by triggering interactions that occur as various behavioral activities (e.g. click, comment). Accordingly, this study bridges theories into resources, value co-creation (Gronroos, 2012) and customer engagement. It builds customer engagement theory by identifying engagement objects specific to social media (i.e. shout-outs and thunderclaps), and demonstrates the transferability of previously identified customer engagement sub-processes. It also recognizes that these sub-processes sometimes manifest differently in the social media environment. The identification of several new sub-processes (e.g. acknowledging, rewarding and adding momentum) shows that some sub-processes might occur more readily in certain contexts (e.g. cause brand), providing a further contribution to engagement and non-profit theories. Finally, regarding an organization's role in facilitating value and providing resources as organizational engagement provides a new way of considering the antecedents to customer engagement.\nImplications for practice: For practitioners involved with cause brands' social media communities, the findings suggest that, depending on the nature of the consumer engagement object in the cause organization-initiated posts, differing and complementary engagement sub-processes can be triggered, leading to community engagement with the messages, and further interactions through likes and other sharing behavior. The important take-away from the current research is that practitioners should be thinking about their posts in three ways. First, what consumer engagement objects are they placing into the social media community for their supporters? The findings of this study show a focus on events, donations and fundraising, and social justice and advocacy, donations/fundraising, including shout-outs and thunderclaps, that are useful for community engagement. Second, is the tone and language in the post appropriate to generate community engagement in some way? Findings show these two considerations can influence community members to mirror sentiments, leading them to add their own support to the message and thus encourage other members to engage in value co-creating ways. Finally, practitioners can reflect on what engagement sub-processes they wish to activate through their posts. From the findings it appears that different engagement objects in the posts can trigger different engagement activities, such as acknowledging, advocating, as well as adding momentum to a particular issue relevant for the cause organization. For cause organizations, if these three points are taken together it is possible that the potential for co-creation of value can be actualized for mutual benefit.\nLimitations and future research: This research is limited to the extent that it involved two cases, so findings are not generalizable to other social media-based brand communities or cause brands. The posts and behavioral data collected support assertions about the potential for value co-creation in social media-based cause brand communities. Nonetheless, the findings are snapshots only of interactions during the two-week data collection periods in each brand community. Moreover, precisely how posts co-create value (i.e. supporter value) and how organizations might derive organizational value, remains unclear.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how organizations create focal engagement objects through posts to their social media community members and how the members engage with these posts in ways that potentially co-create value. Of additional interest is the use of platform, tone and language to determine how they potentially influence value co-creation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research method is netnography. Two Australian-based cause organizations were selected for the study, and posts were collected from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube platforms used by the communities, as well as likes, clicks, shares and retweets. Data was examined using content and thematic analyses.\nFindings: Findings for the characteristics of the posts indicate how platforms need to be member-centric and that post tone and language can be used for engaging members effectively. Three consumer engagement objects were thematically derived from the posts: events, donations and fundraising, and social justice that includes shout-outs and thunderclaps. In turn, consumer responses evidenced engagement sub-processes of co-developing, acknowledging, rewarding, sharing, advocating, adding momentum and learning. The likes, clicks, shares and retweets assisted in determining the amount of community interactions with posts in the cause brands' communities.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is limited to the extent it involved two cases. As with any cross-sectional research, the findings are snapshots of interactions on the two sites over the two-week data collection periods. Theoretical implications provide a deeper insights into value co-creation by empirically examining how organizations and their supporters employ and use post resources to co-create value collectively, and how the characteristics of the posts and behavioral interactions potentially facilitates this.\nPractical implications: Managerially, this investigation will assist both commercial brand and cause brand organizations to plan and adapt their social media strategies to enhance supporters' engagement with posts in this digital environment.\nSocial implications: The social implications of this study are that it provides an understanding of how cause organizations can harness online communities for value co-creation to generate social good.\nOriginality/value: The study is both original and adds value to the research community. The findings presented provide an insightful conceptual framework to guide future research into this important area of consumer engagement with resources in social media communities leading to potential co-creation of value.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Measurement invariance of second-order factor model of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) across K-12 principal gender
|
[
"Gender",
"Transformational leadership",
"Confirmatory factor analysis",
"School principals",
"Measurement invariance",
"Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The recent interest in educational leadership has sought to refine the elusiveness of the school leader. Waite (2014) suggested that leadership is relational, and that \"relationships in schools - from classroom relationships between students and teachers, to teacher-administrator relationships, to school-community relationships - influence everything that teachers and other school leaders seek to accomplish through schooling\". The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) has been employed widely to assess the relational aspects of leadership (e.g. transactional vs transformational; Avolio and Bass, 2004). Yet further research is needed to examine the MLQ's construct validity. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap in research by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to investigate the measurement invariance of the MLQ's factor structure across female and male K-12 school principals.\nMultifactor leadership theory: Leader behaviour is conceptualized by three constructs: transformational, transactional, and non-leadership (Antonakis et al., 2003). Transformational leaders help followers to look beyond their own self-interest in order to accomplish extraordinary tasks (Antonakis et al., 2003). Transformational leaders \"engage with others in such a way that the leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality (Burns, 1978)\". Five factors comprise the transformational construct: idealized influence attributed (IIA) pertains to the perceptions followers have about their leaders as role models to be admired and respected (Bass, 1995), while idealized influence behaviour (IIB) refers to the observed behaviours that describe a leader who is trusted to exhibit high ethical and moral standards (Bass, 1995). Leaders demonstrate inspirational motivation (IM) when they motivate followers by communicating an appealing vision aimed at inspiring them to embrace and achieve shared goals (Bass, 1999; Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999). These leaders also encourage intellectual stimulation (IS) among followers to question and challenge current approaches and to offer ideas for improvement (Avolio et al., 1999). Individualized consideration (IC) refers to the leader's ability to support, encourage, and coach followers (Yukl, 2006).\nGender differences in leadership: Gendered perceptions, conceptualizations, and styles of leadership have been investigated extensively across diverse organizational contexts and individuals' roles therein (i.e. college, workplace, executive leadership). Differences between gender in leadership style may be the result of individual differences related to personality traits and/or their emotional intelligence.\nMultifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ): Development\nStatement of purpose: Differences in leadership perception and style across genders exist. While there have been EFA validation studies on the nine-factor model in business and educational settings, inconsistencies across the number of first-level factors and the definitions of second-level factors remain. Further, CFA is a more desirable analytical technique for conducting validation studies. But, limited CFA studies exist on the MLQ in regard to leaders' gender. Lastly, no studies have examined the differences between male and female K-12 school principals, nor the measurement invariance of the second-order factor model of the MLQ. The purpose of this study was to use CFA to investigate the measurement invariance of the second-order factor structural validity of the MLQ across female and male K-12 school principals.\nMethods: Participants\nResults: First- and second-order factor analyses\nDiscussion: The purpose of this study was to use CFA to investigate the measurement invariance of the second-order factor structural validity of the MLQ across female and male K-12 school principals. This study addressed construct and factor issues previously associated with the MLQ in the measurement of transformational and transactional leadership among leaders in a variety of organizations. By using a sample of K-12 school principals across gender, this study has provided support that may ameliorate contextual doubts of transformational leadership behaviour when examining the relational aspects needed to improve schools.\nLimitations: Several limitations should be considered when conducting future research on the MLQ. First, this study focuses on the measurement model of the MLQ. Outcome variables, such as followers' motivation or their organizational commitment, could be included to test the predictive validity of the MLQ using structural equation modelling. Second, principals' leadership styles in this study were self-reported by the participants themselves, instead of being reported by teachers or staff under their supervision. The leaders' self-perception of their leading styles may be quite different from their followers' perceptions. The latter may have a stronger impact on the inter-relationship between leaders and followers, and the effectiveness and outcomes of the leaders' style. Another limitation of self-report measurements is that accuracy of responses can be questioned, even though social desirability does not seem to be a strong biasing factor (Lievens et al., 1997). There are other forms of data collection (e.g. observation, follower responses) to help establish the validity of reported response on the MLQ.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factor structure and the measurement invariance of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) across gender of K-12 school principals (n=6,317) in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Nine first-order factor models and four second-order factor models were tested using confirmatory factor analysis.\nFindings: The results suggested that the nine-factor model provided the best fit for the data. Further examination revealed that most constructs lacked convergent validity and discriminant validity. Second-order factor models were tested and the hierarchical model with two higher order factors (i.e. transformational and transactional leadership) was deemed the best fit and it was then tested for measurement invariance between females and males. The measurement model was found to be invariant across gender. Findings suggested that female school principals demonstrated significantly greater transformational leadership behaviour, while male school principals demonstrated significantly greater transactional leadership behaviour.\nOriginality/value: This study addressed construct and factor issues previously associated with the MLQ in the measurement of transformational and transactional leadership among a variety of organizations. By using a sample of K-12 school principals across gender, this study has provided support that may ameliorate contextual doubts of transformational leadership behaviour when examining the relational aspects needed to improve schools.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
From precision agriculture to Industry 4.0: Unveiling technological connections in the agrifood sector
|
[
"Industry 4.0",
"Digital transformation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Agriculture is facing rapidly changing economic, social and environmental scenarios in the twenty-first century. Forecasts on worldwide population estimate that it might increase at about 9bn by 2050 (Nikos and Bruinsma, 2012) and led the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to underline the growth of food needs of about 60 percent, if compared to the annual average calculated between 2005 and 2007. The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament confirms these figures (McIntyre, 2015). In this regard, FAO focuses on how global agricultural and food systems can support the subsistence needs of the worldwide population according to different cultures and dietary habits of both developed and emerging countries (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2017).\nBackground: Precision agriculture\nMethods: The work focuses on the creation of a dictionary which identifies the most innovative technologies that are applied in precision agriculture by investigating the overlaps with Industry 4.0 technologies to create clusters and to analyze the connections between them.\nResults: The present research work allowed to obtain three main results which contribute to better understand the relationship between precision agriculture and Industry 4.0. In particular, the above-mentioned methodologies generated three outputs:\nConclusions: This study confirmed the relationship between Industry 4.0 and precision agriculture and allows to respond positively to both the research questions formulated in the background analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Circumstances that are have a significant impact on it. In particular, environmental sustainability related to the increase of worldwide population, and market demand for agricultural products (with consumers more and more aware about cultivation and breeding techniques and interested in healthy and high-quality products) represent two of the key challenges that the agricultural sector is going to face in next years. In such a landscape, technological innovations that can support organizations and entrepreneurs to face these problems become increasingly important, and Industry 4.0 is the most striking example. Indeed, the Industry 4.0 paradigm aims to integrate digital technologies into business processes to raise productivity levels and to develop new business models. Accordingly, digital technologies play a similar role in the precision agriculture domain, and the purpose of this paper is to understand if the technologies at the basis of these two paradigms are the same or not.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present work investigates how the two domains of Industry 4.0 and precision agriculture are connected to one another by analyzing the most used technologies in both the fields in order to highlight common patterns and technological overlaps. To reach such goal, an approach combining manual and automated analysis was developed.\nFindings: The research work generated three main results: a dictionary of precision agriculture technologies including 324 terms; a graph, describing the connections between the technologies composing the dictionary; and a representation of the main technological clusters identified.\nOriginality/value: These show how the two domains under analysis are directly connected and describe the most important technologies to leverage when approaching digital transformation processes in the agricultural sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"When I am with my husband, I do not feel mosquito bite": Insecticide-treated net usage among pregnant women, Accra, Ghana
|
[
"Pregnancy",
"Ante natal care",
"Community members",
"Insecticide treated nets",
"Malaria",
"Pregnant women"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Pregnant women in malaria-endemic African countries are highly vulnerable to malaria infection due to reduced immunity (WHO, 2010). Pregnant women with malaria infection are more likely to be anaemic and give birth to low birth weight or stillborn babies. Hence, regular use of an insecticide-treated net (ITN) is a vital intervention for the prevention of malaria (Ministry of Health, 2004; GHS, 2015a). However, the percentage of pregnant women sleeping under an ITN remains too low (WHO, 2008). In Ghana, only 33 per cent of pregnant women sleep under ITNs (Ministry of Health, 2004). Thus, Ghana introduced policy guidelines and strategic frameworks for the implementation and scaling-up of the use of ITNs in accordance with the international strategy dubbed Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership programme (GHS, 2015a). One of the four strategies to achieve the objectives is to promote multiple prevention, which includes promotion of treated bed nets usage. Within this intervention are the distribution of free ITN and provision of sulphadoxine pyrimethamine to pregnant women when they visit the health facilities for antenatal care (ANC). Besides, ITNs are available in pharmacies and chemist shops for sale (GHS, 2015a).\nLiterature review: While the influence of socio-cultural attitudes, beliefs, norms and traditions on the acceptance and compliance with health care interventions cannot be underestimated, there appears to be ambiguity as to what constitutes these terms, due to cultural variations in the African context (Adogu and Ijemba, 2013). Chukwuocha et al. (2010) noted that the low level of actual use of ITNs by women could be attributed to socio-economic and cultural factors, such as poor or inconvenient accommodation to hang the net. Azabre et al. (2013) revealed that some respondents drink or use local herbs for controlling malaria instead of using bed nets or they offer sacrifices to the gods and ancestors for protection from malaria in Ghana. Ankomah et al. (2012) suggest the need for behaviour change interventions to address the community level perceptions and misconceptions regarding the distribution of ITNs in Nigeria.\nTheoretical viewpoint: The health belief model, as discussed by Glanz et al. (2002), was used to explain the findings of our study. This is based on the understanding that people will take a health-related action (i.e. in this study, use of ITN) if they feel that a negative health condition can be avoided; have a positive expectation that, by taking a recommended action, they will avoid a negative health condition; and believe that they can successfully take a recommended health action (Glanz et al., 2002). Four perceptions serve as the main constructs of the model but we synthesised three constructs of the model: perceived seriousness, perceived benefits and perceived barriers (Rosenstock et al., 1988) to explain how pregnant women behave the way they do towards the use of ITNs in Ghana.\nMethods: Research design\nAnalysis of findings: Identified socio-economic and cultural factors that could influence ITN usage in the community\nDiscussion: The findings are presented showing sub-themes related to the concepts of perceived seriousness, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits.\nConclusion: The major objective of the study was to explore how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of ITNs in the control of malaria amongst pregnant women. The study concludes that, despite some appreciable knowledge, positive attitudes and perceptions of ITNs, there were some socio-cultural beliefs and practices that persist in the communities. These include the presence of the man providing both physical and spiritual protection for the wife against mosquito bites and associated malaria; and the community's perception that chemicals used in treating the nets could affect pregnancy by causing abortion of the foetus. These have the likelihood of influencing pregnant women's ITN usage. There is the need to explore this phenomenon further to aid in policy formulation by health policy makers and stakeholders in the healthcare environment. The pregnant women's perceived reliance on the spiritual protection from the husband against mosquito bites could be addressed through public health education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of insecticide-treated net (ITN) use in the control of malaria amongst pregnant women attending antenatal clinic.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were gathered using interviews and documentary review. Framework analysis was applied to classify emerging themes and the findings interpreted using the health belief model.\nFindings: The findings showed that the pregnant women had appreciable knowledge, both the positive and negative attitudes and the perceptions of insecticide treated nets. To most of them, sleeping under an ITN would not affect pregnancy/cause abortion, but rather prevent mosquito bites and associated malaria.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations include the sample size of participants and health facilities used. Lack of application of a quantitative research method meant that the authors could not quantify the findings to ensure generalisation to the entire population.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals need to appreciate the perception and the attitude of pregnant women when designing policy guidelines for the malaria control programme.\nSocial implications: This paper helps to elucidate on how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of ITN usage amongst both pregnant women and people in malaria endemic communities.\nOriginality/value: This paper suggests that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals have to devise strategies to address socio-cultural beliefs and practices in the scaling up of malaria control programmes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Predicting the voluntary donation to online content creators
|
[
"Donation behavior",
"Content consumption",
"Knowledge payment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the rapid development of Web 2.0, some popular social media, such as YouTube and WeChat, allow active users to express domain-specific knowledge, opinion and experience in diverse formats, such as text, image, voice and video (Ahmed et al., 2019; Susarla et al., 2012). The shared information online, which is called user-generated content (UGC), has become an important source for people's relaxing entertainment, information seeking and decision-making (Daugherty et al., 2008). Meanwhile, UGC is crucial to audiences' continuous engagement in social media (Hilvert-Bruce et al., 2018). It has become one of the key factors that ensure the long-term sustainability of online platforms.To encourage the contribution of content creators, the donation mechanism has been widely adopted by many virtual communities dedicated to information sharing, especially in China (Lu et al., 2018). For example, Sina Weibo, a prevalent microblogging service in China, attracted more than 2 m users to donate to content producers in the first three-quarters of 2016 (Sina Weibo, 2016). YY Live, a leading social live streaming service in China, earned 905.7 m US dollars from donation in the third quarter of 2019 (YY Inc, 2019). Figure 1 illustrates an example of donation function provided by Xueqiu.com (one of the largest financial communities serving Chinese investors). The users can post articles to share their stock market experience and opinion. The donation button as well as the information about previous donations is placed at the end of the article. If a content consumer is willing to support the creator after reading, he or she can click the button, decide the amount of donation and make the payment.The donation function is introduced as a new business model based on voluntary payment. It is not compulsory for audiences to pay for the released content which is free of charge. Actually, a small fraction of the audiences contributes to a large proportion of the donation (Tu et al., 2018; Zhu et al., 2017). Therefore, understanding the factors that influence the voluntary donation to content creators becomes important for researchers and practitioners to improve the effectiveness of the business strategy. Although recent studies have investigated this phenomenon in the context of live streaming (Hou et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2018; Lee et al., 2019; Wan et al., 2017), there is a paucity of literature on exploring the determinants of audiences' donation to user-generated text content. Furthermore, influencing factors other than customer perceptions are scarcely examined in most existing studies that use data from online surveys. While a few researchers have focused on the real donation behaviors (Li et al., 2019; Yu et al., 2018; Zhou et al., 2019), little is still known about the impact of the characteristics of content and creators.Based on these gaps, this study collected consumption data of user-generated text content from Xueqiu.com. Both content and creator-related features were then extracted from the used data set containing 18,761 articles. We constructed the donation prediction models using several prevalent classification techniques and feature selection methods. The prediction results show that the identified features are important determinants of donation behaviors. Moreover, the random forest classifier based on all the features has the best prediction performance.In this paper, we have made the following contributions. First, our research contributes to the literature on social media by investigating the donation function provided by online knowledge-sharing communities. Although the emerging donation function is changing the social media operation in many ways, only limited researchers have investigated the phenomenon until now. The present research is among the first studies that attempt to theoretically explain donation behaviors in social media. Second, we contribute to the literature on UGC consumption by considering the voluntary donation to text content. Prior studies have paid much attention to the content consumption in live video streaming. However, audiences are able to consume UGC of disparate formats such as video or text. It remains unclear that these diverse consumptions could be categorized into the same patterns. Our research provides some new clues to understand the phenomenon comprehensively. Third, we extend the literature on online donation behaviors by recognizing content and creator-related features as determinants that influence the voluntary donation to content creators and incorporating them into the prediction models.The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 presents a literature review of UGC consumption and online donation behaviors. We then describe the data and methodology in Section 3. Section 4 shows the experimental results and a discussion. The theoretical and practical implications are summarized in Section 5. Finally, Section 6 concludes this paper.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Online content consumption\n3. Research method: Figure 2 illustrates the research process, which can be divided into two main parts: data processing and donation prediction. First, the content consumption data were collected from Xueqiu.com. A total of 18 variables, including two dependent and 16 independent ones, were considered after numerical data processing and textual analytics. Second, four supervised learning classifiers and three prevalent feature selection methods were used to build donation behavior prediction models with different feature groups. 3.1 Data collection and preprocessing\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Descriptive statistics of the collected articles\n5. Implications: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n6. Conclusions and future research: Paying for knowledge online is increasingly popular in the content consumption of ordinary people. Social media have introduced various business strategies such as voluntary donation to obtain revenue from the content consumption. However, the donation strategy is still in the inefficient development and the scientific and perfect industrial practice has not been established yet. Therefore, it is necessary for researchers and practitioners to systematically understand the mechanisms behind the emerging phenomenon.This study built a novel data set comprising textual content and the corresponding donation information collected from Xueqiu.com. Extensive experiments were then conducted to examine the impact of both content and creator characteristics. Effective donation prediction models were constructed by using a series of data mining techniques. We also identified several relatively important predictors affecting the classification performance through an interpretive analysis of experimental results.The current study is not without limitations, which can serve as directions for future research. First, the data used in this study were collected from an online platform providing only content in finance domain. Actually, the donation function has been widely applied in social media relating to various domains, such as tourism and healthcare. One interesting question is whether the underlying mechanisms are consistent when considering domain heterogeneity. Following this direction could be a possible way to expand the generalizability of the current study. Second, our analysis is restricted to the context of text content consumption. The identified content features cannot be generalized to the other formats, such as video and picture. Future studies may construct a unified framework based on deep learning technique to extract common features that model these multimedia content, which will give us a systematic view to the effect of content-related factors on the donation behaviors. Third, due to the insufficiency of metadata, we explore only five kinds of creator characteristics in the assessment of the donations. A natural direction for future research is to employ the data from other online platforms to supplement the conclusions about the creator features in the present study. Finally, building a donation prediction model for continuous values instead of binary categories is also worth exploring in the future studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact factors that might influence audiences' voluntary donation to content creators on the online platforms, and to build an effective prediction model by considering both content and creator-related features.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study collected the real-world data of content consumption from Xueqiu.com and extracted both content and creator characteristics from the data set. The best donation prediction model based on such features was determined by evaluating four prevalent classifiers with various performance metrics. Furthermore, three feature selection methods were applied to validate the robustness of the constructed model, and then the predictability of different feature groups was examined. Finally, we conducted an interpretive analysis to identify relatively important predictors.\nFindings: The experimental results show that the random classifier with all extracted features outperformed other built models and achieved excellent performance, indicating the usefulness of these factors in predicting the donations. Moreover, the predictability of content features was demonstrated to be relatively better than that of creator ones. Finally, several particularly important predictors were identified such as the number of modal particles in the article.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first to investigate what factors might drive customers' voluntary donation to content contributors on social websites. Different from previous studies focusing on live video streaming, we expand the research vision by examining the donations to user-generated text content, calling for attention to other important topics in the burgeoning industry.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Gender and diversity research in the Southern Management Association
|
[
"Gender",
"Religion",
"Mentoring",
"Equal opportunities",
"Family friendly organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The Southern Management Association (SMA) is a vibrant and productive regional affiliate of the Academy of Management with more than 900 members, and its annual conference draws participants from around the globe. The November 2007 event in Nashville, Tennessee, offered workshops on teaching and research methods, consortia for faculty and doctoral students, and three days of presentations. This report summarizes coverage of gender, diversity and related topics at the conference.Diversity was linked with Ethics and Social Issues as one of the eight tracks. However, diversity topics were presented in tracks designed for organizational behavior, human resources/careers, entrepreneurship/information technology/innovation and research methods. Approximately 170 papers were presented, slightly less than the previous year. Two-thirds (111) were empirical rather than conceptual in nature. At least 20 per cent of the papers were relevant to diversity, with 25 reporting empirical findings and another five designated as conceptual or theoretical papers.Deep-level diversity is drawing a great deal of attention among researchers and was an important topic at this conference. Three papers were presented in a symposium titled: \"Deep-level diversity and team performance: a closer look at the ties that bind\". The symposium focused on ways in which deep-level diversity may affect team performance or process outcomes (Woehr, 2007). One paper addressed special methodological issues while the other two presented empirical findings. Surface-level diversity categories generally include age, gender, race and physical characteristics. Categories of deep-level diversity are less apparent and may be unrelated to surface-level diversity. Deep-level categories include personality traits, beliefs, attitudes and values systems that guide human behavior.The first paper in the symposium describes a number of complicating multi-level factors that must be considered in analyzing deep-level diversity (Oliver and Bowler, 2007). Direct consensus models may be most appropriate when some higher level construct, such as a team process, is dependent on consensus or agreement among team members at a lower level of analysis. Caution is necessary in using aggregated data as performance or process indicators, because the items of most interest in deep-level diversity may fall below the acceptable statistical standards for other types of research. One example is the rwg = 0.70 standard for aggregation bias.Findings from two studies of the effects of deep-level personality diversity on team effectiveness were presented in the second symposium paper (Poling et al., 2007). Each study involved over 300 business students. Diversity of personality traits had no impact on task performance. However, the overall findings suggest that diversity in specific personality traits may have a detrimental effect on team functioning by increasing the less desirable relationship conflict and decreasing the more desirable task conflict.The final symposium paper described a series of three studies to consider the effect of value diversity on team effectiveness (Arcineiga and Poling, 2007). Each study utilized a different task and a different sample of either Mexican or American students. While diversity did not affect task performance, diversity in values had differential effects on team processes. More similarity or less diversity, was associated with more team cohesion and team-efficacy but higher levels of conflict.Other presentations on deep-level diversity were scheduled throughout the three-day conference. A paper on network structure in multicultural groups offers a model to explain the formation of culturally homogeneous subgroups, or cultural cliques, according to values and belief systems (Dakhli et al., 2007).A study involving 420 Dutch school teachers focused on the relationship between deep-level value similarity and team functioning (effectiveness, performance, and satisfaction) (Van Emmerik, 2007). Teams functioned better when the members had more opportunities to interact with one another, thereby generating resources from deep-level similarity. Resources generated from surface-level similarity did not have a significant impact on team functioning.Religion was considered as a characteristic of deep-level value diversity in studies conducted with over 400 business students (Moore, 2007). Perceptions of religious dissimilarity had negative effects on perceptions of cohesion. In addition, negative effects on perceptions of cohesion were observed in organizations where acceptance of religious expression in the workplace was high.The quasi-experimental study described in the best doctoral paper in the Ethics/Social Issues/Diversity tract applied positive psychology techniques to issues of deep-level personality diversity (Broberg and Cogliser, 2007). Students were trained to recognize strengths in self and others and then apply those strengths effectively in accomplishing team tasks. The strengths-based approach reduced conflict and enhanced individual performance.Entrepreneurship is another active research area, and at least 20 conference papers addressed issues of entrepreneurial activities, new ventures and family firms. Three of these focused on female entrepreneurs.Entrepreneurial intensity measures the focus and commitment displayed by an entrepreneur during the process of beginning a new business. In a study using data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, self-realization and the potential for financial gain were strong predictors of intensity (Meek and Bruce, 2007). However, gender and support from entrepreneurial parents had no effect on the entrepreneurial intensity of nascent entrepreneurs.Data from qualitative case analyses were used to develop a model of mother-to-daughter succession in family firms (Higginson, 2007). The researcher was most interested in the transfer of knowledge from mother to daughter. Relational elements (cognition, reflection, affection and connectedness) mediate the transfer process. Higginson suggests that the tendency of women to seek co-operative networks may be particularly beneficial in making and sustaining vital contacts.A qualitative study of 62 African-American female entrepreneurs was presented in the Research Methods track (Robinson et al., 2007). The paper describes the process of collecting data from conversations and dialog with these successful women about their experiences in founding and expanding their businesses. The narrative accounts of their personal experiences provide rich and detailed data for future studies of entrepreneurship.Among the major topics at the conference were work-family conflict (WFC) and family-friendly policies, with six papers presented in different tracks. The award for best paper in the OB track went to Halbesleben et al. (2007) for their study of WFC among 608 Brazilian workers. The researchers found lower levels of time-based and behavior-based WFC among married employees who were in the same career. However, strain-based WFC was highest for same-career couples who shared the same workplace. Additionally, these same-career partners experienced more spousal social support and less strain in terms of emotional exhaustion.Other researchers used structural equation modeling to examine the mediating role of job-focused self-efficacy (JFSE) in the relationship between work stress and WFC (Mathis et al., 2007). Work stress includes three factors: work-role ambiguity, work-role conflict and work-role overload. The web-based survey was completed by 467 participants who were working full-time for state agencies, universities, or other employers. The researchers found that JFSE served a mediating role in the relationship between work stress factors and WFC for blacks but not for whites in this sample (Mathis et al., 2007).A study of 428 Dutch municipal workers considered individual-level and team-level antecedents of WFC (Van Emmerik and Peeters, 2007). These researchers were particularly interested in crossover processes, which may occur when individual experiences of stress and strain are transmitted to the team and its members or vice-versa. Their findings help in explaining the accumulation of stress and strain that individuals experience at work. Additionally, the results suggest that women suffered more from work-to-family stress than men, while younger workers suffered more than older workers from family-to-work stress.In making a choice between work and family roles, survey data from another study suggests that salience and importance of both work and family are significant predictors of the chosen activity (Carlson et al., 2007). The 174 working adults in this sample experienced less WFC when their level of engagement in family activity was high.Data from an online survey confirmed once again that an organization's family-friendly policies are appealing to job applicants (Shumate and Casper, 2007). The 192 participants in this study were adults working at least part time hours. In this sample, family-friendly policies were more attractive than diversity policies or higher pay levels, regardless of the individual's gender, age or ethnicity.Chen (2007) used data from the 2002 General Social Survey, a nationally representative sample of 2,765 working adults, to study the effects of family-friendly leave policies on work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict. Overall, the effects were stronger for women than for men. Family-to-work conflict rather than work-to-family conflict produced more negative effects on the well being of the women in the sample.Two papers on mentoring presented interesting data on gender and age. Researchers who conducted a Web-based survey of 770 librarians found no differences in the desire for developmental coaching among participants, regardless of age (Gentry et al., 2007a).Mentoring was the focus of a longitudinal study conducted in the regional office of a large insurance company (Weinberg and Lankau, 2007). All participants were involved in a nine-month voluntary mentoring program. The mentor's gender had a significant effect on his or her output but only in the area of vocational support. Across all three mentoring functions (vocational, psychosocial and role modeling), mentoring was more effective in same-gender dyads.Age and support were also the focus in a study of managerial effectiveness. Regardless of age, social support from supervisors and co-workers had a beneficial impact on managerial effectiveness in terms of higher performance and lower potential for derailment. However, the effects are stronger for older workers. This study surveyed 492 managers and their supervisors from a variety of organizations and industries (Gentry et al., 2007b).In addition to the mentoring studies, several other papers focused on gender issues, including the differential experiences of women in the workplace. Despite laws, litigation and training, women are still underrepresented in middle and upper management. Bunch examined the underlying reasons for this phenomenon (Bunch, 2007).Gender differences were demonstrated in a study of wage disparity where subordinate, peer, and superior networks were positively related to compensation (Clark et al., 2007). Men were more likely to have stronger networks providing closer ties with more influential members in all three network types. Also, men were more likely to initiate contact in this sample of 441 MBA students.A study of female expatriates in a large corporation found that women were more frequently assigned to non-strategic international positions of less importance to the organization (Pattie and Harris, 2007). Women in this sample received lower performance evaluations and expressed more intentions to withdraw than their male counterparts.In a study of transformational leadership behaviors among business students, the researchers found that high self-monitoring women rated themselves as more effective than low self-monitoring women. However, this pattern was not observed among the male participants (Watkins et al., 2007).Demoralization is the term used to describe opportunistic behavior of workers who use deceptive and illegal devices to earn more money through less effort. In a study of monetary incentives and self-set goals, Moussa (2007) expected to find higher levels of demoralization among men. However, no significant differences in ethical behavior between men and women were observed. This laboratory study involved 300 college students performing a clerical coding task.Both gender and ethnic diversity were included in a conceptual model of employee acculturation experiences (Phillips, 2007), while race and/or ethnicity were considered in three empirical papers. Authors of the best paper in the Ethics/Social Issues/Diversity track examined six theoretical arguments for low levels of minorities in professional positions in the USA (Buttner et al., 2007). They tested seven hypotheses with data from a survey of 143 business school deans at AACSB member schools. The leader's race was the only significant demographic predictor of minority faculty representation. Leaders who possess racial awareness, recognize the importance of cultural change, and employ specific strategies for diversity recruiting and provide performance feedback were able to impact minority representation. Including diversity as a general strategic priority had no effect on minority representation.The challenges of increasing diversity while improving academic performance were considered in a study of adverse impact and minority group differences in GPA and SAT scores (McKinney, 2007). Using data from 1,996 students, group differences were observed only in SAT scores, but high school GPA was a better predictor of college GPA over a three-year period.Survey data collected from 523 business students showed a strong positive relationship between the employer's attitude toward affirmative action and employee perceptions of affirmative action (Fubara et al., 2007).Authors of another conceptual paper developed a model suggesting that discrimination varies by context, and pervasiveness moderates the relationship between discrimination and collective esteem (Smith and Watkins, 2007). Pervasive discrimination is posited to have different and more negative effects than rare discrimination on collective esteem, in-group bias, and ultimately on the wellbeing and self-esteem of the individual.Randle (2007) considered the effects of weight discrimination, using data from an online study of 395 adults working in various industries to examine the effects of weight discrimination on various employee attitudes and behaviors. Results suggest that high generalized self-efficacy moderates the relationship between perceived weight discrimination and job satisfaction.This report is based on attendance at the conference, personally hearing many of these presentations, reviewing the abstracts and carefully reading the proceedings. Many researchers include gender, age, race or some other diversity characteristic as an incidental factor or control variable. However, the authors of these 30 papers chose diversity as the focus of their research. These papers represent a wide variety of topics, and they were dispersed among five of the eight tracks at the conference. Empirical studies included both qualitative and quantitative methods involving traditional pen-and-paper questionnaires, online surveys and lab experiments. Samples sizes ranged from six to over 2,700. The number of diversity related papers was 50 per cent higher than at the 2006 SMA conference, and two of the diversity papers received best paper awards. The quantity, quality and dispersion provide strong evidence that diversity topics have wide appeal and are of great importance to the study of management.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This report summarizes research on gender, diversity and related topics presented at the 2007 Southern Management Association (SMA) conference in Nashville TN.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The SMA is a regional affiliate of the Academy of Management. SMA's annual conference promotes its mission of advancing the research, teaching, learning and practice of management.\nFindings: - Diversity topics were scheduled throughout the conference and included in five of the eight tracks. One symposium was devoted to deep-level diversity.\nOriginality/value: - The papers presented at the SMA conference highlight the growing interest in and variety of diversity research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of globalization on the formation of a global political system
|
[
"Globalization",
"Information",
"Global political order",
"Global political processes",
"Global political system",
"Global problems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: what is \"globalization\"?: Over many centuries, human societies across the globe have established progressively closer contacts. Recently, the pace of globalization has dramatically increased. Unprecedented changes in communications, transportation, and computer technology have given the process new impetus and made the world more interdependent than ever.\nWhat is \"global political system\"?: Taking into account the process of global political evolution (Modelski, 2002), it is necessary to emphasize that the development of the global political order has not been just a simple change in the system of social relations, but also a directed search for such forms of organization that will be acceptable for a growing population. Thereby, let us try to define the essence of the global political system.\nPolitical globalization and centers of power: By globalization processes we also mean the processes which cause the structural transformation of the world order; their aim is to remove obstacles for the mobility of all factors of production, as well as for the growth of number and diversity of actors and the increasing interdependence between them in the sphere of economy, politics, culture , etc. In this respect, we consider political globalization as a global political dynamic and non-linear process of reinforcement of interdependence between all the elements of the global political system.\nConclusion: Thus, we consider that the transition to a new structure of the global political system is possible only through the acceleration of the political globalization. The world economic crisis of 2008-2009 has become a bifurcation point of the current structure of the global world. Perhaps, it has served as a \"jump\" from unipolar world to a more stable system of multipolarity. So the crisis can be viewed as a phase transition to the formation of a new \"crystal lattice\" (architecture) of the global political order.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of globalization on the formation of a global political system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Taking into account the fact of global political evolution, the authors of the paper point out that the global political structures tend to change.\nFindings: During the past millennium the global political architecture has changed greatly from a state of low degree of cohesion and a simple structure to a fairly high level of unity and strong structure of today. Moreover, this development of the global political order was not just a simple change in the system of social relations, but also a directed search for such forms of organization that will be acceptable for a growing population.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors examine the development of a political system changing from the world phase to the global era. The paper aims to deepen the understanding of global political processes.\nPractical implications: The results of the research can be used as recommendations for state governments to strengthen the position of civil society and political institutions within a certain country.\nOriginality/value: The development of a global political order was evolutionary in the sense that it took place as a \"natural\" process of \"trial and error\" (it can be viewed as a phenomenon of the deployment of evolution), which does not require the postulation of a general plan or focus. Political globalization is closely connected with the process of informatization. The global political system makes it easier to use information technologies as an instrument of political pressure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates
|
[
"Hospitality management",
"Tourism",
"Graduates",
"Career development",
"Ireland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The growth of tourism and hospitality in higher education has been well documented and is demonstrated in course enrolments, numbers of teachers and scholars, numbers of textbooks and journals and the volume of research (Airey and Johnson, 1999). In tandem with this has been a growing emphasis by students on the employment opportunities afforded by their programme of study. What has been less well chronicled, however, is the career progression of graduates who have completed a tourism/hospitality programme. McKercher et al. (1995, p. 541) found that little research had been published investigating career growth of tourism graduates in Australia: where such studies did exist, they only attempted to monitor graduates' entry into the workforce and did not follow their career paths over time. The authors were unable to find published studies from other countries. More recently, Ladkin (2002) has advocated the value of career analysis as a successful technique to examine patterns and processes in individual working lives. Employing a case study of hotel general managers in Australia, she identifies career analysis (career length, vocational education, career mobility and career ambition) as a form of supply-side information that can be used for labour market and HR planning. This paper will present the findings from a longitudinal study conducted in Ireland regarding career progression of tourism and hospitality management graduates. The paper will focus largely on the results from a follow-up questionnaire, and comparisons with the previous study will be made where appropriate.\nLiterature review: The reputation for high staff turnover and wastage of trained and experienced personnel within the tourism/hospitality industry is widely acknowledged. The critical need to secure and retain a professional and skilled workforce to meet existing and emergent needs underscores the importance of exploring career progression in the sector. Reports of a poor image in the eyes of hospitality students coupled with relatively high levels of labour turnover (Kelley-Patterson and George, 2001) suggest that the tourism/hospitality industry may face greater challenges than other sectors in attracting, recruiting and retaining high calibre staff. In a survey of English and Dutch hospitality students, Jenkins (2001) found that as their degree progressed, the students' perception of the industry deteriorated and the desire to work therein diminished considerably, with as few as 50 per cent of students intending to enter the sector. Critically, work experience appears to be the key source of this disenchantment with the industry.Kelley-Patterson and George (2001, p. 316) report that graduates in the hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors may find it difficult to develop \"positive psychological contracts in that many are likely to work for organisations which require employees to work relatively long hours, at times which make it difficult to find a good balance between home and work life and where pay may be lower than in other sectors\". The failure of HR strategies to incorporate graduate expectations relating to equality in the workplace, variety of job functions as well as pay and conditions may thwart the development of relational contracts and result in employees exploiting available training and development programmes before leaving the sector in pursuit of enhanced conditions elsewhere (Kelley-Patterson and George, 2001). Results from a study concerning career stress among hospitality employees (Ross, 1997) echo these findings: a clearer and more autonomous work role, greater inter-organisational communication and empathy on the part of management to the needs of workers as family members are all identified as strategies in the avoidance of work stress in the sector.Higher education institutions play a critical role of in the development of graduates' employment expectations. Garavan and Morley (1997, p. 153) suggest that universities are vital in \"structuring the experiences of graduates in terms of the kind of work they can expect to perform, their pay and promotion prospects and degree of freedom and discretion they may have within an organisation\". It is alarming, therefore, to note that education may actually discourage hospitality graduates from entering the industry, as highlighted by Jenkins (2001). At the core of this issue is the dissonance between education, industry and graduates. A comprehensive review of the debate surrounding \"education-industry\" liaison is contained in Purcell and Quinn (1996, p. 52). Industry has charged educationalists with producing poorly prepared graduates with unrealistic expectations, while educationalists have accused hospitality employers of outdated approaches towards recruitment and management in general.Profile of graduate employees\nMethodology: A growing number of courses in tourism and hospitality at third-level colleges in Ireland, coupled with a dearth of information regarding career progression, led CERT (the State tourism training agency) to commission a study (CERT, 1996) to track the career progression of tourism management graduates over a five-year period (1990-1995). In total, 1,367 graduates of tourism management programmes, between 1990 and 1995, were asked to participate in the study. Two questionnaires were sent to each graduate - one to be completed by those still working in the tourism industry and the other to be completed by those in non-tourism sectors. Graduates were asked to complete the questionnaire most appropriate to their circumstances, and 444 responses were received.A follow up study was conducted in 2003 to provide longitudinal data regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates. A survey instrument was designed to incorporate questions relating to current and previous employments, recent training/education and personal details. The original study had been sent to graduates by their respective colleges. The follow up questionnaire in the current study was sent to all those who had responded to the initial survey (444 respondents) and who had provided addresses. Thus, 374 questionnaires were sent out to participants of the original study (307 national addresses, 67 international addresses). In total, 99 questionnaires were returned, of which 77 were completed and 22 were \"return to sender\". Our information concerning the respondent's last known address was over eight years old at the time of mailing, so it was not surprising that over 20 questionnaire packs were returned undelivered because respondents had moved away. In order to increase the response rate, the researchers tried to contact those who had failed to reply to the questionnaire through their respective colleges. However, this did not yield any additional responses. This suggests that there is not a strong link between the colleges and their alumni, and this is echoed by the findings of this study.While the number of respondents is much smaller than in the previous study, there are similar response rates from the different colleges and a reasonable representation with respect to the discrete qualification categories (certificate, diploma and degree). The results of the research can, therefore, provide valuable longitudinal data and unique insights into the career progression of individual tourism management graduates. The breakdown of questionnaire returns by gender, i.e. 69 per cent female and 31 per cent male, is consistent with the breakdown of respondents to the original study. The majority of respondents were in their early 30s, consistent with people who completed their original third-level qualification between 1990 and 1995.\nResults: A similar proportion of respondents are employed within the tourism industry and outside the industry (48 and 46 per cent, respectively). In the original study, 73 per cent of respondents were working inside the industry and 27 per cent were employed outside the sector. This suggests that there is a high drop-out rate from tourism/hospitality employment in Ireland. A number of potential reasons for this are explored later in the paper. Four per cent of those currently working outside tourism are also pursuing further study: of these, one is employed as a cleaning supervisor, one as a social worker and one is working in the electronics industry. The remaining six per cent are unemployed and are seeking work either in or outside the tourism industry. Of those who are working either in or out of the tourism industry, the vast majority are employed on a full time/permanent basis: 86 per cent of those in tourism and 94 per cent of those outside the industry.Amongst those working in tourism-related areas, 21 (57 per cent) are employed in management positions (six GM or MD hotel, three deputy GM hotel, two restaurant manager, two sales and marketing manager, two catering manager, one HR manager hotel, one GM golf club, one commercial manager magazine, one development director, one conference and banqueting co-ordinator, one reservations co-ordinator). Of the remainder, seven are self-employed (bar, restaurant, hotel, catering), two are senior receptionists, two are airline personnel (cabin crew, supervisor), two are lecturers, one is an accountant (bar/hotel), one is an accounts administrator and one is an assistant supervisor in a travel agency.A breakdown of the job category by level of current qualification demonstrates that there is a greater representation of those with degree-level qualifications employed in senior management positions within the tourism industry. Those employed within the tourism education sector are the most qualified. Finance is the job function most frequently undertaken by those employed in tourism; 72 per cent of respondents reported that they always or often perform tasks in this area. Food and beverage (69 per cent), followed by sales and marketing (65 per cent) are also carried out regularly. The fact that front office/accommodation functions are less frequently conducted suggests that as people progress in their careers in tourism they are likely to perform less of this role. The lower frequency attributed to personnel/training may indicate that this is regarded as a more specialist task within the sector.Those working outside the tourism industry are involved in a variety of different areas, including education, finance, retail and healthcare. While a direct comparison between the level of qualification of those working inside and outside the tourism industry is not feasible given the small sample size, it is evident that those employed in the education sector are the most qualified group in both segments. Moreover, it is worth noting that a higher number of masters and degree level qualifications have been obtained by those who now work outside the tourism industry, matched by a higher number of diploma holders within the industry.Gender\nConclusion: Tracking studies usually only attempt to monitor graduates' entry into the workforce and do not follow their career paths over time. The objective of this study, however, was to provide longitudinal data regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates. The issues raised in this study have implications for those involved in the provision of tourism/hospitality programmes as well as tourism employers, particularly in an Irish context where there is an ongoing shortage of skilled workers in the sector. A number of recommendations for employers and educators, based on the conclusions of the study, are outlined below.Industry application\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to present longitudinal data regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A survey instrument was designed to incorporate questions relating to current and previous employments, recent training/education and personal details. The original study was sent to graduates by their respective colleges and there were 444 respondents to the survey. The follow-up questionnaire in the current study was sent to all those who had responded to the initial survey and who had provided addresses (374).\nFindings: - There is a significant drop-out rate from employment in the tourism/hospitality industry in Ireland, which is particularly obvious amongst women. Those employed in the industry identified poor remuneration and unsuitable working hours as the major issues in need of redress. There is constant reference to work conditions within the tourism/hospitality industry throughout this study and, in particular, their apparent incompatibility with family life.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Owing to the small sample size, results presented here are largely indicative. Nonetheless, some general trends are discernible.\nPractical implications: - The issues raised in this study have implications for those involved in the provision of tourism/hospitality programmes as well as tourism employers, particularly in an Irish context, where there is an ongoing shortage of skilled workers in the sector.\nOriginality/value: - Tracking studies usually only attempt to monitor graduates' entry into the workforce and do not follow their career paths over time. The objective of this study, however, was to provide longitudinal data and unique insights regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Segmenting consumers' reasons for and against ethical consumption
|
[
"Segmentation",
"Green marketing",
"Best–worst scaling",
"Ethical consumption",
"Reason-based choice",
"Relative importance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Ethical consumerism is defined as the intentional purchase of products considered to be made with minimal harm to humans, animals and the natural environment (Auger et al., 2003; Bray et al., 2011; Papaoikonomou et al., 2012). Consumers are increasingly concerned about their consumption in this regard (Bonini and Oppenheim, 2008; The Co-operative Group, 2012). Over 50 per cent of consumers polled by Nielsen in 2013 in 58 countries claimed to be willing to pay more for products from socially responsible companies (Nielsen, 2013). In terms of buying behaviour, the growth of ethical consumerism in the last decade has been considerable. For example, ethical spending in the UK has increased by 33 per cent from 2005 to 2011, to represent a total market value of PS47.2 billion (The Co-operative Group, 2012).\n2. Reasons-based choices: The concept of reason-based choice (Shafir, 1993; Shafir et al., 1993) suggests that decision makers seek reasons to resolve conflict, with greater weight given to positive features in a choice task, while greater weight is given to negative features in a rejection task. For example, Shafir (1993) demonstrates that respondents considering vacations focused on the gorgeous beaches in making a booking, but focused on the lack of nightlife when ruling out options. Winchester et al. (2008) finds that positive (negative) beliefs about a brand contribute to increasing the propensity to purchase (reject) a brand. Ganzach (1995) explains that because choosing involves greater commitment than rejection, greater weight is given to the negative dimensions of the impoverished alternative. Wedell (1997) argues that a greater need for justification in choice leads to weighting of attribute differences. Each explanation highlights how reasons with varying valance are utilised differently in choosing and rejecting options.\n3. Literature outlining consumers' reasons for and against ethical consumerism: 3.1 Consumers' reasons for supporting the practice of ethical consumption\n4. Methodology: The research approach involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. First, qualitative research was undertaken to build upon the literature and further delineate the reasons for and against ethical purchasing. Second, quantitative research was designed to measure the relative importance of these reasons, and to identify underlying consumer segments with respect to differences in reasoning and behaviour relating to ethical and non-ethical purchasing.\n5. Analysis and results: 5.1 Aggregate best-worst scores for reasons for and against ethical consumption\n6. Discussion: This paper quantified which reasons consumers use to choose and reject ethical products and demonstrates how this differs across ethical and non-ethical consumer segments. The results indicate that while many consumers would like to make a difference and do care about the issues that ethical products address, the key barriers to ethical consumption among ambivalent consumers relate to confusion and scepticism. These results imply that there is a need to create clarity for consumers in regard to how their consumption makes a difference in minimising harm to humans, animals or the environment in the production, consumption and disposal of various products. As such, efforts to address issues of uncertainty surrounding PCE (Kinnear et al., 1974; Cleveland et al., 2005) may shift consumers with an ambivalent view about the benefits of ethical consumption to one that is more positively orientated towards it. For firms offering ethical products, there may be strategic benefit in communicating more extensive information, such as through clearer labelling, to help consumers better learn about how their ethical purchases create real differences (Hartlieb and Jones, 2009). While some studies have found mixed reactions to organic and fair-trade labelling and associated quality concerns (Strong, 1996; Didier and Lucie, 2008), the present study found these concerns were outweighed by the value in the information that labelling can provide.\n7. Limitations and avenues for future research: One limitation of this research is that it did not examine whether reasons for ethical and non-ethical consumption are more relevant to specific product categories. For example, the importance of health concerns might generalize across a number of categories (e.g. food; and detergents), while concerns about social stigma might be more relevant to categories involving conspicuous consumption (Griskevicius et al., 2007, 2010). Similarly, the understanding of how consumers evaluate ethical services, including reasons leading to non-adoption, deserves attention in future research. We showed a relationship between the reason-based segments identified and the propensity to purchase carbon offsets in buying airline tickets. Indeed, Holden (2009) argues that consumers' play a pivotal role within the sustainable tourism and aviation markets to instigate positive change. In other research, Goldstein et al. (2008) demonstrate the role of social norms in environmental conservation (e.g. via towel use) in hotels. In a similar vein, Harmon and Auseklis (2009) point to the merits of sustainable information technology service practice, but indicate that little is known about consumers' valuation of such services.\n8. Research implications and conclusion: This research informs researchers and practitioners as to what reasons relating to the benefits and shortcomings of ethical products are most important in shaping ethical and non-ethical choices. Whereas previous literature has focused on attitudes towards and preference for specific ethical attributes of products (Auger et al., 2003; Didier and Lucie, 2008), we quantify the underlying reasons for why such attributes may be more or less attractive. The research confirms suggestions that a large segment of consumers are positively orientated towards ethical purchasing (Davies et al., 2012). The present research suggests, however, the merits in understanding the cynicism of some non-ethical consumers rather than ignoring their views, or waiting for their views to somehow change. Our findings offer clearer direction to marketers about how to better position their products and the types of communication strategies in supporting this endeavour. The research also suggests which barriers require greater attention relative to others in encouraging support for a variety of consumer groups that aim to minimise harm to people, animals and the environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to quantify the relative importance of reasons used to explain consumers' selection and rejection of ethical products, accounting for differences in ethical orientations across consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Reviewing previous literature and drawing on in-depth interviews, a taxonomy of reasons for and against ethical purchasing is developed. An online survey incorporating best-worst scaling (BWS) determines which reasons feature more in shaping ethical consumerism. Cluster analysis and multinomial regression are used to identify and profile segments.\nFindings: Positively orientated consumers (42 per cent of respondents) purchase ethical products more so because of reasons relating to impact, health, personal relevance, and quality. Negatively orientated consumers (34 per cent of respondents) reject ethical alternatives based on reasons relating to indifference, expense, confusion and scepticism. A third segment is ambivalent in their behaviour and reasoning; they perceive ethical purchasing to be effective and relevant, but are confused and sceptical under what conditions this can occur.\nResearch limitations/implications: Preferences were elicited using an online survey rather than using real market data. Though the task instructions and methods used attempted to minimise social-desirability bias, the experiment might still be subject to its effects.\nPractical implications: Competitive positioning strategies can be better designed knowing which barriers to ethical purchasing are more relevant. The paper challenges the benefits in altruistic-based positioning and outlines shortcomings in communication about ethical products, including those relating to product labelling.\nSocial implications: Through their purchase behaviours across a number of categories, ethical consumers aim to minimise the harm and exploitation of humans, animals and the natural environment. This research provides insights into the potential reasons why the uptake of ethical products is not being achieved and how it can be addressed to make improvements in making this movement more mainstream.\nOriginality/value: This research examines an extensive list of reasons for and against ethical purchasing used by a general population of consumers. By forcing respondents to make trade-offs, this is the first study quantifying the relative importance of reasons utilised by consumers. It also highlights the value in using cluster analysis on best-worst scores to identify underlying segments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Applying student-generated theories about global change and energy demand
|
[
"Problem-based learning",
"Global change database",
"Technology",
"Education",
"Foresight",
"CO2 emissions",
"Trend analysis",
"Game-based learning",
"Climate protection",
"Economic trends",
"Global climate change",
"Surfing global change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Goals and aims: This paper explores how learning technology could be applied to develop educational processes for assessing the causes and drivers for global climate change.\n2. The T5 approach combining data and learning technologies: The approach of this educational IT setting is pictured in Plate 3, where several tables of (gaming) stakeholders are positioned facing each other in a room after having prepared themselves online in a dialogic and review-based manner.\n3. Benefits of a dialogic learning approach based on sound data: As described in Section 1, the understanding of one's adversary's standpoint seems to be crucial for the reaching of substantial solutions to complex multi-stakeholder issues such as global climate change. Such approach was already successful at the highest-rewarded European prize on media didactics - the Medidaprix 2997 - where the authors negotiation game \"Surfing Global Change\" reached a finalist's score. The graphical structure of this submission's documentary CD is shown in Figure 4.\n4. Conclusions: As a didactic strategy, T5 takes advantage of collaborative and game-based learning and takes care of the social frame and social dynamics when applying educational technology.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how learning technology could be applied to the development of educational tools for global climate change. The task to be performed in an informed dialogue is to assess the causes and drivers for global climate change and to produce an improved basis of scientific understanding for the implementation of the climate protection targets suggested for each country. By character, this approach integrates the political and the scientific level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper applies learning theories and options for educational technologies to socio-economic, technological, biospheric, political and scientific themes relevant to present climate change.\nFindings: Drivers, effects and subsequent measures are subject to highly nonlinear effects. Thus, the combination of a (scientific, fact based) \"Global Change Data Base\" and a (dialogic, communication based) discourse (in the spirit of \"Surfing Global Change\") seems best suitable to produce solutions for the seemingly unresolvable issues of climate protection. This combination of approaches is entitled \"Tackle the Task of a Transition through Technological Targets (T5)\" and allows the application of hypotheses generated by students in a scaffolded setting of discursive learning.\nSocial implications: Suggestions for CO2 abatement measures are currently passing the process of political negotiation in all countries in the world. The different views and patterns of ethical values are harmonised during the T5 learning process and symbolise the required political process of consensus finding among and between different ministries, countries and global interest groups.\nOriginality/value: This approach includes social and natural driving factors such as population, land use, economics, politics, energy systems, the global carbon cycle, biosphere and climate, and thus offers a more comprehensive learning endeavour than many other approaches.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
New NICE and public health
|
[
"Public health",
"Evidence‐based practice",
"Cost effectiveness",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: On 1 April 2005 the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (new NICE) opened its doors for business. It was in part business as usual because NICE's work on of appraising new pharmaceutical products and interventional procedures and its development of clinical guidelines continues. But with the closure of the Health Development Agency (HDA), NICE assumed some of that agency's functions. With the acquisition of the public health evidence-based work of the HDA, it was decided that new NICE would take on the new responsibility for producing public health guidelines. This is the first time in the UK that a national body has had the task of producing evidence-based public health guidelines. Public health in this context is defined to include health promotion and health education as well as broad public health concerns.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to describe the public health guidance development activity of the new National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper outlines the origins of the public health guidance development work, the types of guidance in public health which NICE will produce, the methodological approach which will be used, the advisory body structure, the health economics which will inform judgements about cost-effectiveness, the audiences for the guidance and the approach to health inequalities which will be taken.\nFindings: - The future recommendations which NICE will make in public health are signalled.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a summary of the key processes which will be used in the production of public health guidance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Older employees and technology use: Factors that influence e-learning adoption
|
[
"Success factors",
"Age",
"Organizational e-learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Rapid technological advancement is one of the main reasons why today's business world rarely stands still. To remain competitive, firms must keep pace with such developments. Those that fail to do so are usually destined for a place among the also-rans.\nE-learning in the workplace: Of course, technology comes in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Perhaps one of the more interesting to emerge is e-learning. The phenomenon was originally considered mainly with regard to higher education. Since then, it has also become firmly established in the workplace. An increasing number of organizations now view e-learning as a vital component of their training and development programs.\nIs age a key issue?: Any discussion about technology at work and the question of age usually enters the fray. And more often than not, it will be argued that younger workers are likelier than their older counterparts to embrace technology. Such a debate is pertinent given that older employees make up a sizeable percentage of the workforce.\nHow to make e-learning successful: Regardless of age, many individuals are naturally more inclined to embrace new technologies if they regard them as easy to use. The importance of this issue should not be underestimated. According to some evidence, employees are not necessarily convinced that e-learning is significantly more effective than conventional training methods. Organizations must, therefore, take such concerns seriously and ensure that e-learning ticks all the boxes where being user friendly is concerned. If not, employee perceptions of its complexity will grow and negatively impact on their willingness to properly engage with the technology.\nComment: The review is based on: \"Factors for successful e-learning: does age matter?\" by Julie Fleming, Karen Becker and Cameron Newton. The authors present an interesting article which questions assumptions that age is the main barrier to technology adoption. Several other factors are identified as being more influential and it is proposed that firms which focus on these issues can increase acceptance of and intention to use e-learning among older employees.\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: Age is widely regarded as a significant barrier to technology adoption. Older employees are negatively stereotyped as lacking the necessary motivation and capabilities needed to embrace things such as e-learning. However, evidence suggests that perceived complexity, learning authenticity, and availability of technical support could be more influential than age when it comes to acceptance of such technologies and future intention to use them. Scope, therefore, exists to increase engagement with e-learning among older workers if organizations address concerns associated with these factors.\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"
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] |
Creating strategic capabilities: organizational learning and knowledge management in the new economy
|
[
"Workplace training",
"Learning organizations",
"Knowledge management",
"Economics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: There is a widespread view that existing management theory and practice is inadequate in our rapidly changing world and the emerging new economic order (Bryans and Smith, 2000; Kelly, 1998). This new economy is characterized by three distinguishing properties: globality; intangibility; and inter-connectivity (Coyle, 1999; Kelly, 1998).Although the international organization is not a recent phenomenon, the globalization of business activity has been an outcome of a number of important developments (Evans et al., 2002, p. 26):...the steady dismantling of trade barriers in Western Europe and in North and South America, the increasing availability of global capital, advances in computing and communications technology and the progressive convergence of consumer tastes.Moreover, the unexpected fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, coupled with China's adoption of market-oriented policies opened up huge new markets to international business (Evans et al., 2002, p. 26). In the European Union, in particular, cross-border merger and acquisition activity has increased eight-fold since 1985 (Tijmstra and Casler, 1992, p. 31). Similarly, joint ventures and alliances greatly increased over the same period (Jackson, 2002, p. 150). As a result, a tendency towards transnationalization is evidenced in Europe (Van Dijck, 1990) and in the world economy (Evans et al., 2002, pp. 30-31), with important implications for management strategies.In the old economy firms had a choice between three generic strategies leading to the development of a competitive advantage: cost leadership (doing things cheaper), market differentiation (doing things better) and niche orientation (Porter, 1985). Yet the globalization of business activity gradually led to an erosion of traditional sources of competitive advantage (Jacome et al., 2002), demanding the adoption of complementary and/or supplementary strategic approaches. According to the resource-based view of the firm, firms gain competitive advantage through \"the acquisition, holding and subsequent use of strategic assets\" (Riahi-Belkaoui, 2003). Strategic assets comprise both tangible and intangible assets (Riahi-Belkaoui, 2003, p. 215). Tangible assets, such as property, production facilities, raw materials and physical technologies are nowadays easily accessible, imitable and substitutable (Riahi-Belkaoui, 2003, p. 217). Consequently, the focus has been gradually shifting from tangible to intangible assets as strategic assets capable of generating sustainable competitive advantage and superior performance. The fundamental characteristics of intangible assets as strategic assets are their rarity, inimitability and non-substitutability as well as their unobservability (Riahi-Belkaoui, 2003, p. 217). Intangible assets vital for competitive advantages comprise \"consumer trust, brand image, control of distribution - and corporate culture, the talent of people and leadership skill\" (Evans et al., 2002, p. 33), as well as \"accumulated learning and experience\" (Bateman and Snell, 2002, p. 123).The last characteristic of the new economy, inter-connectivity, highlights the vital role of partnerships leading to the boundaryless organization, i.e. \"complex arrangements and configurations, often fluctuating over time\" (Evans et al., 2002, p. 26). In addition to traditional forms of partnerships, information and communication technologies have contributed to the development of e-business:...the internet-facilitated integration of processes, applications, and information systems to facilitate rapid collaboration, coordination and relationship formation across traditional organizational boundaries (Tiwana, 2001, p. 4).E-business communities consist of \"customers, suppliers, distributors and commerce providers, sharing digital and knowledge networks for collaboration and competition\" in the new global-virtual environment (Romano et al., 2001, p. 19).The above developments resulted in three key challenges that twenty-first century business organizations need to face: customer empowerment; the intesification and changing nature of competition; and the resulting enhanced dynamism and complexity of the environment. The internet and web-based technologies have significantly empowered customers by providing a means of enhanced access to information and interactive communication. Yet, customer empowerment is not merely about customer self-service - i.e. the availability of web-based customer-company interaction (Nash, 2001). New technologies are empowering customers by enabling \"customer input to be possible at any stage in the product life cycle and initiated by the customer\" (Johnston, 2001, p. 214). Products and services are \"increasingly being defined as experiences rather than their tangible selves\" (Tiwana, 2001, p. 11), while new concepts of the customer as \"co-designer\", \"co-maker\" and \"co-distributer\" gain increasing familiarity (Johnston, 2001, p. 214). By giving customers direct access to and ownership of information and outcomes customer empowerment results in a real change in ownership and control in the organization, eventually transforming organizational relationships (Christie, 2002, p. 46).Due to customer empowerment, customer demands have been continuously increasing while loyalty has been decreasing (Dufficy, 2001). In response to increased customer demands, companies \"use flexible manufacturing systems and service processes to tailor product/service offerings to individual customers' requirements at mass production levels of efficiency and cost\" (Johnston, 2001). Mass-customization and \"merger mania\" (Forster, 2000, p. 258), inter alia, affected environmental complexity, \"the number and dissimilarity of external elements relevant to an organization's operations\" (Daft, 2001, p. 136). Environmental complexity coupled with ever accelerating dynamism resulted in enhanced uncertainty, \"the inability to predict external change due to insufficient information about environmental factors\" (Daft, 2001, p. 136).To deal with mounting uncertainty companies turned to the use of integrated and coordinated approaches leading to the development of distinctive organizational competencies, or core competencies. Core organizational competencies are highly firm-specific and result from the integration of \"skills, technologies, systems, managerial behaviors and work values\" characterizing an organization (Evans et al., 2002, p. 34). Current strategic philosophies leading to the development of strategic capabilities include time management; technology management; relationship management; and knowledge management (Jacome et al., 2002; Walters et al., 2002).A strategy based on time can offer a new and powerful source of competitive advantage \"in the ever increasingly competitive global market place\" (Jacome et al., 2002, p. 184; Pruet and Howard, 1996). Time, as the core of this strategic orientation, is used:...to provide value to customers, distribute new products and services faster, and reduce ordering cycles, thus allowing the business organization to offer products to markets faster than its competitors (Jacome et al., 2002, p. 184).Firms utilizing this strategy:...have the capacity to conceive, develop and execute new products and services more quickly than their competitors, resulting in an increase in the efficiency and more importantly an increase in the clients' confidence, and therefore permitting a quicker expansion and effectiveness of the product line. In other words, a competitive advantage is established based on time (Jacome et al., 2002, p. 189).A second path to creating advantage in the new economy is the adoption of a technology management philosophy via:...identify(ing) the most cost-effective role that can be achieved through developing ongoing relationships with marketing, R&D and manufacturing/operations management using the notion of \"leveraged assets\" (Walters et al., 2002, p. 777).Walters and associates, following Noori (1990), conceptualize the management of new technology as:...the integration of process and product technology to address the planning, development and implementation of technological capabilities and capacities to meet the strategic and operational objectives of an organization and its partners (Noori, 1990, p. 777).Relationship management, defined as the organizational capability to \"identify, establish, maintain and reinforce economic relationships with customers, suppliers and other partners with complementary (and supplementary) capabilities and capacities so that the objectives of the organization and those of all other partners may be met by agreeing and implementing mutually acceptable strategies\", is a third source of building competitive advantage by \"identifying, developing and maintaining partnerships which ensure that product service objectives to meet customer expectations are met\" (Noori, 1990, p. 777).Yet, the common denominator to the successful integrated planning, development and implementation of these strategies leading to value creation is organizational learning and knowledge management. According to Rastogi (2003), in the highly uncertain and turbulent business environment of the new economy firms' strategies ...cannot rely on long-range business planning as such:...master plans become quickly irrelevant in the face of rapid and unpredictable changes. Strategy-making may thence focus best on framing and buying the right options that will enable a firm to compete in an uncertain and poorly understood future. ... Such an approach to strategy requires the firm to engage in a sustained process of probing and learning for identifying and developing viable strategic options ... In this sense, the management of knowledge in and by a firm may be seen as the foundation of its efforts toward securing and sustaining a leading competitive edge.\nKnowledge and learning in organizations: Organizational knowledge is \"much talked about but little understood\" (Tsoukas and Vladimirou, 2001). The current literature on organizational learning \"uses a confusing variety of terms and concepts\" (Goh, 2003). There is a need \"to bridge the divide\" between knowledge management and organizational learning (DiBella, 2001). Aiming to address these issues, an attempt will be made here to clarify the concepts of \"organizational learning\" and \"knowledge management\" in order to highlight their relationship.Knowledge and knowledge management\nOrganizational learning and knowledge management in the new economy: Success in the twenty-first century marketplace requires efficiency of current operations combined with the foresight or preparedness to be an innovator; that is, doing things cheaper and better and faster than competitors. Innovation:...is about learning new ways to understand or configure the world around us. It is about seeing possibilities while others see constraints, converting failure into success, or acting in novel ways. Innovation pertains to creating new knowledge or using existing knowledge in ways that create new forms of thinking or new products. In that sense the results of innovation are transformative since the outcome is something entirely different from what you had before (DiBella, 2001, p. 4).Hence, \"building a learning organization or creating and then using knowledge management systems are organizational innovations\" (DiBella, 2001, p. 8).In the new economy, organizations may face learning overload; thus improving organizational learning capability is critical for competitive advantage (Goh, 2003). A strategic learning capability involves \"strategically figuring out what an organization needs to know and then taking action to acquire that knowledge\"; it can be built via the following steps (DiBella, 2001, p. 10):1. Recognize and appreciate existing learning - by describing existent learning processes in the organization;2. Establish a gap between existing learning and strategic learning needs - via determining the extent to which the content of current learning meets performance pressures and environmental demands; and3. Identify actions to build desired learning capabilities - by delineating initiatives that focus on strategic learning issues.In addition to strategic learning, twenty-first century organizations need to develop and implement effective knowledge strategies leading to sustainable competitive advantage and organizational success (Bierly et al., 2000). In this regard, Campos and Sanchez (2003, p. 12) suggest the formation of a strategy based on \"double-loop knowledge\" and propose \"a key model for developing and finalizing the strategic process\" Campos and Sanchez (2003, p. 9).\nConclusion: To be successful in the new economy, companies are required to innovate and adopt - hence learn - far more quickly and effectively than their counterparts. Effective learning means shifting not only what gets learned but also how learning takes place and evolves in organizational contexts. This requires developing a strategic learning capability by linking organizational learning and knowledge management in and among organizations. This paper attempted highlighting such a link.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge management and organizational learning literatures by clarifying the concepts and presenting a framework illustrating their relationship. The framework is meant to reduce confusion about learning and knowledge management issues and guide the design of international studies and data analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Conceptual discussion and approach are undertaken. The discussion focuses on the extrapolation of the current situation into the future.\nFindings: - On the basis of the analysis it is suggested that to be successful in the new economy companies are required to innovate and adopt, hence learn, far more quickly and effectively than their counterparts. Effective learning means shifting not only what gets learned but also how learning takes place and evolves in organizational contexts. This requires developing a strategic learning capability by linking learning with knowledge management in and among organizations. This paper attempted to highlight such a link.\nPractical implications: - The paper can help knowledge management and organizational learning managers to develop and implement effective learning and knowledge strategies, leading to the development of sustainable competitive advantage and organizational success.\nOriginality/value: - The paper shows that integration of knowledge management and organizational learning approaches will place current theories and practices in perspective for the future, making it easier for twenty-first century organizations and practitioners to reach the right decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Limits to the diffusion of innovation: A literature review and integrative model
|
[
"Diffusion",
"Innovation",
"Social networks",
"Communication technologies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the least understood areas of innovation diffusion is the non-adoption of new technology (Selwyn, 2003). In some cases individuals or groups eschew the functionality of technology, regardless of when it was developed (Bruland, 1995). In others, existing technology users do not chose to purchase categorically similar (price, function, availability) newer products when they become available. Further, some who have used a new technology may later become non-users, given their dissatisfaction with the experience; also known as discontinuance (Kingsley and Anderson, 1998).This being said, it must be acknowledged that the majority of research on this topic to date has assumed that for rational or utility maximising consumers eventually new technology will replace old (Davis, 1989; Rogers, 1962, Venkatesh et al., 2003). But market history has shown that it does not do so easily, automatically, or even completely. For instance, as early as Gilfillan (1935) had noted that in the maritime industry some market segments did not replace sailing ships (the old technology) even after the emergence of steam ships (the new technology) in the nineteenth century, and diesel in the twentieth century. In fact, producers of the old technology continued commercialisation and accelerated innovation in response to the threat of the new technology (Gilfillan called this phenomenon the \"sailing ship effect\").Accepting that diffusion of innovation is neither uniform (Bauer, 1995; Brandyberry, 2003) nor inevitable, the aim of this paper is to investigate limits to adoption that new technological innovations are likely to find from competition with non-use of technology and/or notionally older technology. To do so the paper begins with a cross-disciplinary literature review, exposing the perspectives of researchers in the fields of marketing, new product development and sociology. This provides a two-part framework for the examination of innovation diffusion and exposes three levels of analysis for each framework. Thus it is possible to categorise innovation diffusion as affected by technological, social and learning \"conditions\" (Schiavone and MacVaugh, 2009) while operating in the contextual \"domain\" of the individual, community or market/industry.The conditions and domains that emerge from the review of innovation diffusion are next contrasted with historical examples of technology non-adoption in context. This evidence provides a lens through which potential drivers of non-adoption become clearer. Using Rogers' (1962)[1] Diffusion of Innovation theory as an organising framework, an integrative model of factors limiting adoption of new technological innovations is posited to explain the possible effect of interactions between conditions and domains during the process of new product introduction.The paper concludes with recommendations for researchers, who will likely find both the model and the appendices a valuable tool for further research, and for practitioners, who may look to incorporate predictions of resistance into their product innovation process.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Introduction and method\n3. An integrative model of non-adoption: Our research indicates that in any system of innovation diffusion there are three common players: the (potential) individual user, the community of users (of categorically similar technology) and the innovating industry or market. The players influence and are in turn influenced by three systemic conditions: technological, social and learning. Conditions have an effect at a number of levels, each of which we have identified as a variable associated with adoption/non-adoption. In any systemic instance of product introduction where a player is influenced by a condition resulting in negative feedback (Sterman, 2001) the result may be non-adoption. In a systemic instance of product introduction where multiple players and condition interactions result in negative feedback, the result is almost certainly non-adoption.Figure 1 follows the pattern of analysis from the literature review. Starting on the horizontal axis we highlight that technology non-adoption usually takes place within at least one of three domains: that of the individual, a community of individuals or within a marketplace/industry. On the corresponding vertical axis we show how non-adoption may be accounted for by consideration of one or more conditions: Technological, Social structure or Learning. Each of these conditions has at least three, increasingly complex, levels of influence. For example it is much simpler to identify when a technology is of a lower utility to a single customer than it is to know when an entire community favours a product because of the complementarity generated by industry standards. Thus, reading the model from top to bottom, increasingly complex reasons for non-adoption are exposed. Similarly, reading from left to right the context moves further away from individual domains towards those that are bound up in the industry or market as a whole.Advice on reading the model: reading from the upper left hand text box, then choosing one of the contextual factors boxes, and finally moving across to a chosen domain, it is also possible to read the model as several short summaries of our literature review. For example, a new product development team might wish to understand why a community of users did not accept its newest product. Given data from a marking survey they might find out that users had not been able to find out much about the product from a popular online forum for related technologies. Reading from one line of the model they could surmise:New technology fails to replace older (or no use of) technology when the capability of users has not created a community of expertise, as can be supported by the research of Aggarwal et al. (1998) and Maryse and Eelko (2008).\n4. Limitations: While we believe the model provides a much-needed integration of the highly dispersed knowledge on the subject of technology adoption, we must also acknowledge some limitations of our approach. First, much of the work on which we based the model is drawn from NPD and Marketing theory. Both fields are dominated by the assumption that users adopt new technology to maximise their utility. Conversely, the Sociology literature argues that consumers may adopt a new technology, for instance, by following a temporary fashion. In this case the user is not maximising their utility, but rather maximising their social orientation. The resulting conflict of assumptions, means that the model is context dependent rather than generally predictive.Second, the model does not integrate the overlapping effects of the different contexts and domains in which almost all new technology operates. Thus, while each central box explains one important reason for non-adoption it does not explain how this may or may not be related to other reasons. In the tradition of Innovation research this is useful as it provides a sequential system for the consideration of strategic choices, but Sociologists may find such explanations overly simplistic without discussion of the system as a whole.Finally, we must highlight that our model is based on a comparison of existing theory with historic data on technology non-adoption. We have no direct evidence that the factors discussed in our case examples caused the non-adoption, nor that the originating authors of the research we apply would accept our interpretation of their results. The literature review and model is exploratory, illustrative, theoretical in nature, and requires quantitative study to verify its claims.\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: This paper proposes an integrative model aimed at explaining limits to adoption of innovation and non-adoption of new technologies. The model is built on the assumption that individual decision to adopt or reject new technology is affected by several variables. In brief, they can be summarised as:* the extent to which new technology meets the significant technological, social, and/or learning conditions encouraging its adoption i.e. it is easy to adopt; and* the extent to which new technology is considered useful in the individual domain, community domain and/or industry/market domain; i.e. it is useful.The main conclusion emerging from our literature review (see Tables I-VI for indexes of the studies reviewed for our model, shown in chronological order) and theoretical model is that firms launching product innovations should consider a broad range of variables in order to maximise their adoption within market. Some of these variables refer directly to the new technology (e.g. price, perceived utility, diffusion rate, technological infrastructures and so on). Other variables affecting adoption are instead \"external\" to new technology as they related to the characteristics of old technology that innovation should replace. When users evaluate these characteristics as more suitable (for instance, in terms of social orientation, utility, technological complementary and so on) than characteristics of recent innovations, the more product adoption is restrained. This reasoning also highlights the need for academics to study technology adoption through a multidisciplinary lens (a useful starting point is shown in Tables VII-VIII, which show meta-analyses and overview texts in the field, in chronological order). This would increase their understanding of existing phenomena and the likelihood of successful prediction of future innovation success.Two main managerial implications can be drawn. First, this can be a fruitful model for orienting new product development strategy, since it may reduce the risk of low and slow user adoption of radical innovations due, for instance, to their technological, social, and cognitive differences with former products. A second critical managerial implication arises for strategy and marketing boards of high-tech firms. Technological, social and learning conditions clearly have an effect on marketing actions and competitive strategies of this type of organisation. For instance, if some firms perceive users switching costs (or community resistance) for the adoption of a new technology are too high, they should not risk engaging in direct competition with innovation pioneers. Conversely, they could exploit such conditions and seek new opportunities, for instance, by launching products aimed at revitalising a mature technology. Similarly, they could arrange marketing actions (e.g. media campaigns) in order to reinforce the social adoption and utilisation of the old technology within its user community.These implications also provide the basis for further empirical research. The authors plan to conduct surveys in order to investigate to what extent conditions and domains matter in retiring an old product and accepting a new one. Furthermore, we recommend that others examine the potential interdependencies and regularities between the model variables and domains.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to integrate existing theoretical explanations for innovation diffusion across the disciplines of marketing, innovation and sociology research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Literature reviews and historical case analysis were used to support an integrative model.\nFindings: - Innovation diffusion is affected by technological, social and learning \"conditions\" while operating in the contextual \"domain\" of the individual, community or market/industry.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The model is drawn from new product development and marketing theory. Both fields are dominated by the assumption that users adopt new technology to maximise their utility. Also, the model does not integrate the overlapping effects of the different contexts and domains.\nPractical implications: - The article provides a sound model for orienting new product development strategy, since it may reduce the risk of low and slow user adoption of radical innovations due, for instance, to their technological, social, and cognitive differences with former products. A second critical managerial implication is that technological, social and learning conditions clearly have an effect on marketing actions and competitive strategies.\nOriginality/value: - The article provides a literature review of resistance to technology adoption through a multidisciplinary lens.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Moves to increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace: Fairness and camaraderie as building blocks
|
[
"Fairness",
"Diversity",
"Inclusion",
"Camaraderie",
"Minority employee groups"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Where workplace equality is concerned, business organizations can be saints in one breath and sinners in another. Companies will shout from the rooftops to advertise formal and informal practices that serve to promote equal opportunities and inclusion. Yet, they are understandably more reticent about the mechanisms which determine that such as higher salaries and significant upward career mobility are really only attainable by a select few.\nTrust is the foundation: Given the number of firms that apply, securing a spot on this prestigious list ranks as a considerable achievement. Trust forms the main criteria for selection. Especially important in this context is evidence that employees are trusting of their firm's managers and leaders.\nHow leaders can increase perceptions of trust and fairness: Those in management positions clearly have an important role when it comes to nurturing trust. Research has identified demonstrating support and respect as among the various ways they can succeed. Being competent and accountable are important too. And leaders who are transparent and give employees a voice while showing gratitude toward them can also raise trust levels.\nCreating an inclusive environment: Inclusion is a related yet distinct concept whereby the uniqueness of individuals is celebrated. Instead of focusing on specific demographic groups, the emphasis is placed on the knowledge, skills, and experience each person can offer.\nDo different groups have different perceptions?: Analysis of data accumulated over several years confirms that employee perceptions of both fairness and camaraderie are higher in firms labeled BEST than those identified as NONBEST. However, a slightly different picture emerges when perceptions of white men and minority groups are compared. More negative perceptions among minority groups are apparent in both BEST and NONBEST contexts. These perceptions are as expected greater in the latter case.\nComment: The review is based on: \"Are the \"best\" better for everyone? Demographic variation in employee perceptions of Fortune's 'Best Companies to Work For'\" by Carberry and Meyers (2017), published in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. The authors explore attitudes to diversity in the workplace and focus on firms identified as best to work for. They note the key role of leaders in demonstrating fairness and coworkers in enhancing a sense of camaraderie and conclude that such firms generally outperform others in these respects.\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: Firms that increase their emphasis on diversity and inclusion can generate positive perceptions and attitudes among employee groups that have been historically marginalized. Leaders play a significant role by consistently demonstrating fairness to all employees through formal practices and routine behaviors. Inclusion is determined more by the actions of co-workers who can help cultivate an environment where camaraderie and a sense of belongingness are the norm.\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"
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] |
The gender gap in pre-career salary expectations: a test of five explanations
|
[
"Gender",
"Career development",
"Wage gap",
"Salary expectations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is well documented that women continue to earn less than their male colleagues. Across OECD countries, men's median earnings remain approximately 18 percent higher than those of women (OECD, 2011). The persistence of this gender gap is puzzling considering changing social attitudes as well as employment and pay equity legislation, and the increasing representation of women in areas traditionally deemed to be \"men's work\" (Ng and Wiesner, 2007). An important finding that sheds some light on the persistence of the wage gap is that men and women differ significantly in their pay and advancement expectations even before they enter the workforce (Heckert et al., 2002; Hogue et al., 2010; Major and Konar, 1984; Ng et al., 2010). Most recently, Schweitzer et al. (2011) reported that despite decades of advances in educational and employment opportunities for women, young women still have lower salary expectations and expect longer times to promotion than men, even after accounting for field of study, academic achievement, or career priorities. Despite the body of research that has accumulated documenting gender differences in salary expectations, it remains unclear why young men and women hold such vastly different expectations.\nExplaining the salary expectations gap: Since the early 1980s, researchers have identified a number of factors that might explain the gender gap in salary expectations, but individual studies have had mixed results or have left a significant proportion of the gender gap unexplained. Our review of the literature has identified five major categories of explanatory factors, which are reviewed in the sections below: psychological factors (Heckert et al., 2002; Hogue et al., 2010); differing career-related priorities of men and women (Hollenbeck et al., 1987; Major and Konar, 1984; Schweitzer et al., 2011); beliefs in gender inequity (Desmarais and Curtis, 1997; Hogue et al., 2007); differences in career-related information or perceptions (Sumner and Brown, 1996); and differences in the value of human capital (Chevalier, 2007; Major and Konar, 1984). In particular, the model of differences in pay expectations proposed by Major and Konar (1984) has been highly influential to subsequent research (Hogue et al., 2010). We therefore base our approach on their model, which suggests that men and women differ on a number of important factors that play a mediating role in determining how they form their career expectations.\nMethodology: Participants\nResults: The means, standard deviations and correlations between all study variables are presented in Table II. As expected, women reported lower initial salary expectations of ($42,060, compared to $48,860[1] for men, 16 percent lower for women). Women also reported almost 27 percent lower expectations for peak salary ($125,664 vs $171,035 for men).\nDiscussion: Our results confirm that the gender-salary expectations gap persists. Consistent with previous findings, the young women in our study expected an initial salary that was 86 percent of what men expected. That gap rose for peak salary expectations, with young women expecting only 73 percent of the expectations of men. To explain this sizeable gap in the salary expectations of pre-career men and women we tested five possible explanations based on extant theory and empirical findings. We found that, while several gender differences exist (i.e. in beta work values, gendered information, estimations of salary of peer comparators, expected child-rearing leave, and industry), when all of these common explanations for the gender-salary expectations gap were tested together, very few significant variables were found. Our simultaneous inclusion of variables representing five explanatory factors yielded significant explained variance in both initial and peak salary expectations, but a large proportion of the variance in pay expectations remains unexplained. Thus, the reasons for the gap in initial salary expectations remain elusive. We must therefore continue the search for possible explanations for this gendered gap.\nConclusions and directions for future research: Over the last 25 years, women have been consistently shown to have lower career expectations than men. Despite the fact that today's young men and women have the benefit of changing societal attitudes, numerous gender-focussed programs, and are purported to be more egalitarian, ambitious and career driven, the salary expectations gap persists. This expectations gap is critical because individuals make career choices and decisions based upon their expectations and these expectations will likely affect their actual pay and career attainments throughout their careers. It is likely that lower expectations will lead to lower negotiated salaries, perpetuating and perhaps contributing to the ongoing wage gap in the workplace. In addition, research has found that women may perceive less opportunity to negotiate for a higher salary (O'Shea and Bush, 2002), may be less likely to negotiate (Kaman and Hartel, 1994), and if they do negotiate, may have less positive outcomes (Babcock and Laschever, 2003), resulting in further disadvantage when it comes to salary.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender gap in pre-career salary expectations. Five major explanations are tested to explain the gap, as well as understand the relative contribution of each explanation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 452 post-secondary students from Canada.\nFindings: Young women had lower initial and peak salary expectations than their male counterparts. The gap in peak salary could be explained by initial salary expectations, beta values, the interaction between beta values and gender, and estimations of the value of the labor market. Men and women in this study expected to earn a considerably larger peak salary than they expected for others.\nResearch limitations/implications: Cross-sectional data cannot infer causality, and the Canadian sample may not be generalizable to other countries given that an economic downturn occurred at time of data collection. Research should continue to investigate how individuals establish initial salary expectations, while also testing more dynamic models given the interaction effect found in terms of gender and work values in explaining salary expectations.\nPractical implications: The majority of the gender gap in peak salary expectations can be explained by what men and women expect to earn immediately after graduation. Further, women and men have different perceptions of the value they attribute to the labor market and what might be a fair wage, especially when considering beta work values.\nSocial implications: The data suggests that the gender-wage gap is likely to continue and that both young men and women would benefit from greater education and information with respect to the labor market and what they can reasonably expect to earn, not just initially, but from a long-term perspective.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to simultaneously investigate five theoretical explanations for the gender gap in pre-career expectations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A revisit of lean production on performance based on heterogeneity
|
[
"Performance",
"Lean production",
"Propensity score matching",
"Difference-in-difference"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In facing a rapidly changing and highly competitive market, an increasing number of manufacturing firms have embraced lean production strategies to improve performance outcomes. Although lean production is typically considered to improve the performance (Shah et al., 2008; Fullerton and Wempe, 2009), results related to improved performance are mixed (Rumyantsev and Netessine, 2007). Lean production may not be appropriate for all firms (Zipkin, 1991). The influence of lean production on performance is dependent on various contextual and environmental factors (Power et al., 2010; Azadegan et al., 2013). This means that firm heterogeneity (e.g. a firm size, age, organization ownership structure, industry-specific structure, etc.) plays a crucial role in improving firm performance (Eroglu and Hofer, 2010; Chen and Tan, 2013; Wiengarten et al., 2015).\n2. Literature support and hypothesis development: Lean production was first proposed based on the Toyota Motor Corporation's strategies during 1970s (Shingo, 1981). Womack et al. (1990) and Holweg (2007) define lean production as a strategy or philosophy aimed at eliminating waste through the use of socio-technical practices across companies. Although lean production is typically supposed to have positive effects on firm performance, the results are mixed (Callen et al., 2000; Kinney and Wempe, 2002; Fullerton et al., 2003). Lean production may not be appropriate for all firms because of firm heterogeneity. This paper reviews the causes of mixed results from two perspectives: theoretical analysis and empirical studies.\n3. Methodology and variables: 3.1 Methodology\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 The nearest neighbor matching and t-test results\n5. Conclusion: This study investigates the effects of lean production on firm performance, referring to business and operations performance. The analysis of a large sample of Chinese listed manufacturing firms over an 11-year time period suggests that the implementation of lean production has non-significant effect on business performance whether for the state-owned firms or the non-state-owned firms, or all the samples. However, it has significant effect on operations performance, especially existing improvement on the non-state-owned firms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to revisit causal effects and investigate hysteresis effects of lean production on performance. With a focus on firm heterogeneity, this paper explores the role of organization ownership structure in shaping the relationship between lean production and performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The propensity score matching (PSM) model combined with difference-in-difference (DID) estimation is applied to minimize selection bias caused by firm heterogeneity and endogeneity problems derived from unobserved fixed variables that could potentially affect the desired causal relationship.\nFindings: Results show that lean production has no significant effect on business performance; however, the relationship between lean production and operations performance is positive and significant, especially for non-state-owned firms. Furthermore, the non-significant effect of lean production on performance of state-owned firms is largely due to the failure of lean production implementation. Meanwhile, lean production can only improve operations performance of non-state-owned firms in the short term due to their inability to continuously implement lean production.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper only covers manufacturing listed firms in China. Further studies are needed to test the wide implications of this paper in other countries.\nPractical implications: This paper may help managers to identify problems in the implementation of lean production for different organization ownership structure firms, thus providing new insight into the implementation of lean production.\nOriginality/value: This paper appears to be the first one to examine causal effects of lean production on performance in China by applying the PSM model combined with DID estimation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Multicomponent joint reliability importance of series-in-parallel and parallel-in-series systems
|
[
"Reliability",
"Bridge structure",
"Joint reliability importance",
"Parallel-in-series",
"Series-in-parallel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Every component of a coherent system is not equally important for its functioning. For example, the functioning of a series system can be improved by increasing the reliability of the weakest component and the functioning of a parallel system can be improved by increasing the reliability of the strongest component. One needs to quantify the reliability importance of various components of a complex coherent system. In literature, one can find various importance measures that assign a numerical rank for determining which components are more important to the system reliability improvement or are more critical for the system failure (Birnbaum, 1969; Barlow and Proschan, 1975a; Vesely, 1970; Fussell, 1975). Natvig (1985) showed that Barlow and Proschan (1975a) measure was a weighted average of the Birnbaum (1969) measures.\n2. Preliminaries: Consider a coherent system consisting of n components where each component has two states, functioning or non-functioning. For i=1,2, ..., n, let A\n3. Multi-component JRI for series-in-parallel system: In this section, we study series-in-parallel system and give expressions for the JRI of two or more components when components are independent but non-identical. Series-in-parallel systems are used when connecting speakers in an amplifier. We assume that there are \"r\" series subsystems connected in parallel and \"n\n4. Parallel-in-series system: We consider a system with \"p\" parallel subsystems connected in series and \"n\n5. Applications and conclusions: In this section, we illustrate the method for finding the JRIs for two series-in-parallel systems, one with unreplicated components and the other with components replicated in various subsystems.\n6. Conclusions: We generalize the work of Chang and Jan (2006) and Gao et al. (2007). They found the JRI of two components of series-in-parallel system when the components are identical and independently distributed. We derive the JRI of m2 components for series-in-parallel and parallel-in-series systems when components are independent but need not be identically distributed. Expressions are obtained for the above mentioned systems with replicated and unreplicated components in different subsystems. These results will be useful in analyzing the joint effect of reliability of several components on the system reliability which would help in designing systems that function more effectively and for a longer duration.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Joint reliability importance (JRI) of components is the effect of a change of their reliability on the system reliability. The authors consider two coherent multi-component systems - a series-in-parallel (series subsystems arranged in parallel) and a parallel-in-series (parallel subsystems arranged in series) system. It is assumed that all the components in the subsystems are independent but not identically distributed. The subsystems do not have any component in common. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: For both the systems, the expressions for the JRI of two or more components are derived. The results are extended to include subsystems where some of the components are replicated.\nFindings: The findings are illustrated by considering bridge structure as a series-in-parallel system wherein some of the components are repeated in different subsystems. Numerical results have also been provided for a series-in-parallel system with unreplicated components. JRI for various combinations of components for both the illustrations are given through tables or figures.\nOriginality/value: Chang and Jan (2006) and Gao et al. (2007) found the JRI of two components of series-in-parallel system when the components are identical and independently distributed. The authors derive the JRI of m=2 components for series-in-parallel and parallel-in-series systems when components are independent but need not be identically distributed. Expressions are obtained for the above-mentioned systems with replicated and unreplicated components in different subsystems. These results will be useful in analyzing the joint effect of reliability of several components on the system reliability. This will be of value to design engineers for designing systems that function more effectively and for a longer duration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Buddhism and decision making at individual, group and organizational levels
|
[
"Decision making",
"Buddhism",
"Practical wisdom",
"Law of Dependent Origination"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Contemporary society is more willing than ever to embrace the practical wisdom in various dimensions of daily lives including work. The need to bring change through practical wisdom in present business environment which is still primarily grounded in \"rational economic man\" assumption and management principles and practices based on fulfilling \"self-interest\" is increasingly felt (Gibson, 2008; Strait and Wallace, 2008; Mele, 2010; Billsberry and Birnik, 2010).\nDecision-making literature: The need for decision making arises because of the uncertainty associated with the future and unavailability of all required relevant information (Tannenbaum, 1950). Beyond the normative (rational) and descriptive (psychological) models of decision making (Over, 2004) Herbert Simon's theory of bounded rationality (1979) altered the decision making literature fundamentally. Simon highlighted the informational and computational limitations of human rationality while making decisions. The role of the individual in the organization prescribes the decision premises for the individual (Simon, 1991). Individuals play different roles in an organization by acting as an individual manager, as a team member and as an organization leader. We now examine the role played by the individual in influencing decision making at different levels.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how practical wisdom rooted in Buddhism can help modern managers make decisions in contemporary business organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper suggests a model explaining how individual level Buddhist beliefs in Dependent Origination are reflected in behavior of individual through mindfulness, compassion and expansion of self. The model also explores the consequences of above mentioned behavior in terms of individual, group and organizational level decision making, respectively.\nFindings: The paper develops propositions which demonstrate the possibility of applying the practical wisdom of Buddhism into the individual, group and organizational decision-making processes. The paper proposes an integrative model and suggests initiatives that can be taken in business organizations and business schools for applying the practical wisdom gleaned from the Buddhist traditions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper brought the core concepts of Buddhism as the main point of application in the decision-making process in management. However, this approach is perhaps difficult to grasp for the readers who may not be as conversant with that tradition.\nOriginality/value: Rich eastern traditions have remained underexplored in contemporary business literature. This paper examines the potential contributions from the Buddhist heritage in the crucial decision-making domain in management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A state secret - dissertations in the German Democratic Republic
|
[
"Libraries",
"Theses",
"Bibliographies",
"Educational institutions",
"Germany"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the 41 years of the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), one of its many secrets was that of the dissertations which had been submitted at the universities and colleges of the East German state and not made publicly accessible. Up to the present time, the extent of the doctoral theses and the topics covered could only be a matter of speculation (Bleek, 1984; Mertens, 1986). Since the autumn of 1989 and the unification of Germany which followed in October 1990, this area has been opened up for research. The author of this article is currently analysing, with the sponsorship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which theses were classified by the regime of the SED (Socialist Unity Party, the ruling communist party in the GDR). A full bibliography giving all the information of the titles and the names of the authors involved will be published in the spring of 1994 (Bibliographie der Geheimen DDR-Dissertation, 1994).The main interest of the current research is centred on the question of which universities and colleges classified their dissertations, the number of theses involved and the topics with which they dealt. The sources for this examination are the catalogues of the university library of the Humboldt University in East Berlin and the East German National Library (the Deutsche Bucherei) in Leipzig. Together these two catalogues hold over 6,800 titles of classified doctoral theses from all the East German universities and colleges which are classified \"Nur fur den Dienstgebrauch\" (NfD: for official use only) and \"Vertrauliche Dienstsache\" (VD: confidential).\n2. Legal basis: In the early 1970s, the Ministerium fur Hoch- und Fachschulwesen (Ministry for University and Technical College Education) in the former German Democratic Republic announced the segregation of dissertations. The Anordnung zum Schutz der Dienstgeheimnisse vom 6.Januar 1971 (Directive for the Protection of Official Secrets of January 6, 1971) was the legal basis for the classification of the theses, their segregation in special depots and the prohibition of their use in East German college and university libraries. By means of the Anweisung uber die Archivierung von Hoch- und Fachschulschriften mit Dienstgeheimnissen vom 4.Oktober 1977 (Directive on the Storage of University and Technical College Works Containing Official Secrets of October 4, 1977) the government ordered the centralised collection and storage of the classified theses at the Deutsche Bucherei in Leipzig[1]. The use of these dissertations for scientific purposes was allowed in only a very few exceptional cases. Following instructions from the Ministry, librarians were not allowed to include the titles of dissertations in the catalogues of the library of the doctoral institution or the Deutsche Bucherei Leipzig. Moreover, it was not allowed to include the authors, titles and doctoral institutions in the national bibliography of the GDR the German national bibliography, Series C: Dissertations and habilitations nor in the annual dissertations index, Jahresverzeichnis der Hochschulschriften (JVH) which were both published in Leipzig by the Deutsche Bucherei. The classified theses therefore had to be listed in separate catalogues. Potential users were only allowed to see that part of the catalogue which was relevant to the topic on which they were working. GDR nationals had to produce a permit from the director general of the Deutsche Bucherei, while foreign nationals had to apply to the Minister fur Hoch- und Fachschulwesen[2]. The inventory listing all classified theses was also classified as vertrauliche Dienstsache (confidential)[3]. Despite the directive[4] contained in the Anweisung uber die Archivierung von Hoch- und Fachschulschriften mit Dienstgeheimnissen vom 4 Oktober 1977 that all doctoral theses should be submitted within four weeks of their completion, it normally took several years before the universities and colleges sent their classified dissertations to the central depot or Sachgebiet fur Spezielle Forschungsliteratur of the Deutsche Bucherei in Leipzig.The universities and colleges were themselves the inadvertent cause of angry questions and strong reminders being issued from the central depot in Leipzig, for they frequently wrote to the librarians in Leipzig asking them to drop or change the classification of some of their theses. The librarians of the Deutsche Bucherei could see from the separate catalogue that they had never received these dissertations and would send emphatic reminders to the erring university or college library demanding immediate submission of the missing dissertation[5]. Based on a decision of the Council of Ministers of January 15, 1987, concerning the Grundsatze zum Schutz der Staatsgeheimnisse der DDR (Principles for the Protection of GDR State Secrets), compulsory examination of the degree of confidentiality of all dissertations which were still classified was introduced. As a result of this, many dissertations were declassified and only a few new theses were classified. The last entry in the catalogue shows how doubtful the procedure was. This was a thesis submitted by the technical college at Ilmenau (Schultz, 1982), wherein only Appendix 3, amounting to five pages, was classified. This appendix contains three short computer programs in the language FORTRAN of 47, 55 and 100 lines. Compared with other programs of frequently over 1,000, they were relatively simple.\n3. Proportion of classified theses: For the years 1978 to 1987 the annual index of university works (Jahresverzeichnisse der Hochschulschriften, JVH) showed 34,383 doctoral theses submitted by the academies, universities and colleges of the GDR[6]. The separate catalogue of the Deutsche Bucherei contains an additional number of 6,824 theses for the same period which were not allowed to be published in the national bibliography. This means that between 1978 and 1987 41,207 dissertations in total were submitted to the academies, universities and colleges of the GDR.The percentage of classified theses is 16.6 per cent, i.e. one in six[7]. The analysed classified dissertations of the years 1978 to 1987 were marked VD (vertrauliche Dienstsache: confidential official matter) and NfD (nur fur den Dienstgebrauch: only for official use). Table I indicates numbers and percentages involved.After some years, the grade of classification for some of the dissertations originally classified as VD was lowered to NfD or dropped altogether. On the other hand, the classification for one thesis was raised from NfD to VD. Obviously, those responsible at the Akademie fur Arztliche Fortbildung (Academy for Postgraduate Medical Education) in East Berlin considered the topic of that particular dissertation too explosive: Aktuelle Darstellung der Suizidproblematik in Gorlitz (Current state of the suicide problem in Gorlitz) (Hasenfelder, 1986).\n4. Differences between the institutions: There is considerable variation not only in the number of classified theses at the individual establishments, but also in the percentage of the total number of theses at the respective institutions which these figures represent. The catalogue of the Deutsche Bucherei, for 2,869 of the theses classified as VD, also gives their provenance. In Table II these figures are shown as a comparison with the official overall figures for these institutions as shown in the JVHTable II shows that the total and the percentage figures vary from institution to institution. The overall number of classified dissertations does not depend on the size of the institution. For example, over 1,000 more theses were submitted at the Karl Marx University Leipzig than at the Martin Luther University in Halle/Saale, but the proportion of classified dissertations was greater at Halle than at the Karl Marx University. In Leipzig, the number of theses submitted overall is six times greater than at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in East Berlin, but the proportion of classified dissertations was a tenth less. Very often the contents of the theses at the Bauakademie (Academy of Building) were classified. Moreover, the research results of economic dissertations were treated as official secrets. The Bruno Leuschner College of Economics in East Berlin shows this particularly in the years 1978-1980[8]. Classification of theses is not based exclusively on their scientific content; it can often be traced back to the standing of the author or the examiner.Surprisingly, as can be seen in Table III, the lowest levels can be found at the two technical universities (TU) in Dresden and Magdeburg. It may be that the three technical colleges (TH) at Ilmenau, Karl-Marx-Stadt (now renamed Chemnitz) and Leuna-Merseburg hoped to increase their own importance by the early classification of their topics, whereas the first classification in Magdeburg did not appear until 1982, and in Dresden not until 1986[9].As in the case of the technical colleges, the highest percentages in colleges of engineering are at the smaller institutions (Table IV). The \"importance\" and \"exclusiveness\" of the colleges in East Berlin-Wartenberg and Mittweida (near Leipzig) seem in this case also to be factors in the classification of dissertations. The numbers of classified dissertations from the teacher training colleges in the former GDR (Table V) were much lower than those from other colleges, owing to the fact that few of these dissertations related to economics or security issues. Nevertheless, the differences between the various colleges are significant. The largest teacher training college, the Padagogische Hochschule Karl Liebknecht in Potsdam, produced one classified thesis less than the Padagogische Hochschule Liselotte Hermann in Gustrow, which was four times smaller.\n5. Examination of the classifications: The decision of the Board of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic of January 15, 1987, regarding the Grundsatze zum Schutz der Staatsgeheimnisse der DDK (Principles for the Protection of GDR State Secrets) initiated the compulsory examination of all classifications. This measure removed the classification of 642 dissertations in 1988 alone. The Martin Luther University in Halle declassified 257 dissertations (letter from university board of 22 February1988); the Engineering College at Zwickau declassified 87 theses (16 March 1988), 63 works were declassified at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald (15 April 1988); another 43 at the Engineering College at Wismar (8 June 1988); 144 dissertations at the Wilhelm Pieck University at Rostock (4 July 1988) and 48 at the Engineering College at Ilmenau (16 September 1988). In addition, the Academy of Sciences declassified 83 dissertations in August 1988.This large number of declassifications (Table VI) was the result of the large numbers of earlier classifications. Paragraph 4 of the Anweisung uber die Archivierung von Hoch- und Fachschulschriften mit Dienstgeheimnissen vom 4. Oktober 1977 stipulated regular re-evaluation of the classification required, but in fact most universities and colleges did not carry out regular checks and retained their old classifications. For this reason in the mid-1980s the libraries often lifted the ban immediately if a decision was requested by the Deutsche Bucherei Leipzig. The academies, universities and colleges also took no notice of the governmental decree of January 1987. Thus, the Deutsche Bucherei sent out a questionnaire in summer 1988. The result of the answers was this extensive cancellation of former bans. For most of the formerly classified dissertations at the Deutsche Bucherei Leipzig, the clearing of classification took place on 2 September, 1988. All other works remained classified until German unification in October 1990, but in practice, visitors were allowed to use these dissertations from November 1989. The last official clearing of classifications was carried out in March and April 1990 on two theses from the Engineering College at Zittau (Bittner, 1986; Domschke, 1985). Most of the clearing was done by the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences. With the exception of the University at Rostock, most universities only removed the classification from a few of their theses.\n6. Conclusion: This interim report on the research project on the secret doctoral dissertations in the GDR gives the following results:1. Despite the centralist directives from the Ministry for University and Technical College Education regarding the classification of dissertations, actual classification of doctoral theses has been handled very differently by the various institutions.2. The reasons for the classification of a particular dissertation are not based exclusively on the sensitivity of material from the security or economic politics point of view, but are also based on the varying academic self-images and need for prestige of the different institutions.3. The practice of classifying dissertations set up by the Party and the state required such a large amount of bureaucratic input that library capacity was withdrawn from the real work of research libraries - that of compiling public collections and the provision of research literature.4. Dealing with this legacy of the GDR days, that is, returning the secret dissertations into the general stocks and listing them in the bibliographies and general catalogues, will in all likelihood take several more years.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Since the early 1970s the Communist regime in the German Democratic Republic classified thousands of doctoral dissertations as confidential, thus blocking the dissemination of research in the various disciplines of science. More than 6,800 titles of dissertations have not been listed in the national bibliographies. This article seeks to give a first overview of the different fields of restricted research and the topics which have been treated as state secrets. The study also aims to show the involvement of universities and colleges in the classification and segregation of theses into special depots and non-public reading rooms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The author of this article analysed which theses were classified by the Socialist Unity Party, the ruling Communist party in the GDR, and a full bibliography giving all the information of the titles and the names of the authors involved was published in 1994.\nFindings: - Despite the centralist directives from the Ministry for University and Technical College Education regarding the classification of dissertations, actual classification of doctoral theses has been handled very differently by the various institutions.\nOriginality/value: - Dealing with this legacy, that is, returning the secret dissertations into the general stocks and listing them in the bibliographies and general catalogues, took several years. This article was able to highlight those events through its original source.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Health service engagement with consumers and community in Australia for issue: Engagement and accountability with your community
|
[
"Continuous quality improvement",
"Health policy",
"Patient perspectives",
"Qualitative research",
"Quantitative research",
"Process mapping",
"First nations/Indigenous peoples health",
"Healthcare commissioning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Australian Department of Health and all States and Territories in Australia mandate consumer[1] engagement for health service planning, programme evaluation and research (COTA, 2016; EIH, 2015; NTDCM, 2017; SAHealth, 2019a; VicHealth, 2017; WAGovt, 2018a). The First Nation people in Australia continue to experience reduced life expectancy and poorer health outcomes than other Australians (AIHW, 2009) engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in service planning and research is critical to ensure that health services are responsive to and address the health priorities of these communities. The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has provided clear and detailed guidelines as to how to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in planning and undertaking health research.\n2. Purpose: This paper is to provide an overview of consumer and community engagement in health service planning, quality improvement and programme evaluation in Australia, and key components and importance of a strong suite of tools for achieving effective outcomes.\n3. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a non-systematic review of Australian national, state and territory websites in relation to policy commitment to consumer engagement, best practice framework for consumer engagement and recent project example.\n4. Consumer engagement: 4.1 Who is consumer and who is community?\n5. A practical example: PHNs are an Australian Government initiative to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of medical services for patients in the community. PHNs act as budget holders commissioning a range of primary care services.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of consumer and community engagement in health service planning, quality improvement and programme evaluation in Australia, and key components and importance of a strong suite of tools for achieving effective outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is a non-systematic review of Australian national, state and territory websites in relation to policy commitment to consumer engagement, best practice framework for consumer engagement and recent project example.\nFindings: Consumer engagement is a recognised component of the Australian health system. It is reflected in the national and state health policy and is a mandatory requirement of hospital accreditation. The application of co-design principles is gaining increasing popularity in health service planning and programme evaluation. Co-design is an important enabler of patient/community-centred service planning and evaluation; however, on its own it may lead to poorer outcomes. Co-design must occur within a broader systemic framework.\nPractical implications: The research identifies a conceptual framework, approaches and tools of value to health service management and planners.\nOriginality/value: Consumer and community engagements are critical to the development of consumer-centric services. However, this should complement and add value to, not divert attention away from established principles of service planning, continuous quality improvement and programme evaluation. To do so may result in poorer quality health and well-being outcomes, reduced efficiency and ultimately reduced consumer and community satisfaction with services. This paper examines consumer and community engagement within the broader planning and quality improvement framework and practical implications for keeping planning, research and evaluation on track.\n",
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] |
Post-visit and pre-visit tourist destination image through eWOM sentiment analysis and perceived helpfulness
|
[
"Information technology",
"Brand image",
"Customer orientation",
"Information systems",
"Information gathering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is commonly accepted that the destination image is important for any tourist destination loyalty and that it highly influences tourist destination choices and the future purchase intentions (Bigne and Sanchez, 2001; Gursoy et al., 2014). Several stages can be distinguished regarding tourists' behaviour: pre-visit destination choice, onsite experience and the experience evaluation (in terms of travel quality - service and experience - and perceived value), and finally, post-visit actions such as intention to revisit and willingness to recommend the tourist destination (Chen and Tsai, 2007).\n2. Related work: 2.1 Tourist destination image\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: A total of 200 reviews posted about Barcelona were collected from Ciao website (http://travel.ciao.co.uk/Barcelona_5296443_4) using the webscraper developed. The number 200 is actually the whole population of available reviews at the moment of data collection (June 2014).\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This paper advances the understanding of how online reviews operate in the creation of a destination image in the pre-visit stage from the actual experience after the visit. eWOM reveals not only the actual image after the experience of visiting a destination but also its helpfulness for potential tourists, which helps to conform their pre-visit destination image. The growing revolution of web 2.0 is encouraging DMOs to analyse in detail the content presented by reviewers in virtual platforms (Law et al., 2014). This idea is also supported by Dwivedi (2009), which recognises how web 2.0 is causing a paradigm shift in the image formation of a tourist destination.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the image of travel destinations after the visit by analysing sentiment orientation of the online reviews, and how this orientation, as well as other electronic word of mouth (eWOM)'s credibility sources, can affect the perceived helpfulness of shared opinions measured through the helpfulness score.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Tourist destinations are increasingly affected by travel-related information shared through the Web. More and more people first check the previous travel experiences of other people to build their own destination image and to help them in their choice of destination. This paper analyses the shared opinions related to the city of Barcelona in a well-known eWOM website. The reviewers' opinion and the credibility sources of eWOM are extracted from the web using a webscraper, while the sentiment score to analyse the discourse orientation (positive vs negative) is calculated using computer-based sentiment analysis techniques.\nFindings: Online reviews' users are reluctant to provide extreme polar opinions (very negative, very positive) to any travel subcategory (hotel, restaurant, attractions and night-life) of a tourist destination. The results obtained also reveal that eWOM's perceived helpfulness grows with the expertise of the reviewer. However, the helpfulness score given to the reviews posted is not influenced by the sentiment orientation of the author's opinion.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is limited to the case study of Ciao, which is a well-known consumer platform, and the city of Barcelona, which is a top touristic destination. However, the approach proposed can be easily extended to other similar consumer platforms and cities using the same methodology.\nPractical implications: Understanding the information posted in the media environment is a major concern in the field of marketing destination planning. Positive and negative eWOM offers potential consumers a clear picture on the tourist destination, and this information can be used by Destination Marketing Organisations to meet customers' needs and expectations. The perceived helpfulness of reviews analysed in this paper can also help practitioners and scholars to understand those factors that make reviews more trustable.\nOriginality/value: From a methodological point of view, the main contribution of this research is the utilisation of an unstructured approach to the measurement of the destination image based on the sentiment analysis of shared opinions. From a theoretical point of view, the study relates the post-visit destination image with the pre-visit image formation process, using the sentiment orientation of the former and the perceived helpfulness of the latter.\n",
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Exploring the creativity-trashing power of workplace ostracism and defensive silence: Insights on guarding against psychological damage caused by poor supervisors
|
[
"Psychological empowerment",
"Defensive silence",
"Employee creativity",
"Workplace ostracism",
"Psychological distress"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The translation of focused creativity by employees is a crucial source of competitive advantage, hence why employers who invest the most in maintaining their wellbeing are best placed to protect their value-generating people assets. A research paper by Chenji and Sode (2019) concentrates on how the psychological empowerment behavior of employees is impacted by them experiencing workplace ostracism and by them practicing defensive silence. The effect of these factors on employee creativity is also analyzed, and the paper seeks to clarify how ostracism's psychological effects can be mitigated. Self-reported data for the study were collected from 454 employees working in India's service sector, for a bank, an insurance company, and an IT service provider.\nUnpacking the dynamics of workplace ostracism: The fundamental influence of interpersonal relationships between colleagues on their role performance means that employers who don't optimally address issues like bullying and poor managerial leadership can see their employee productivity and attendance levels plummet. Ostracism can be understood as the experience of feeling socially excluded by colleagues and/or managers, resulting in a sense of insignificance for the individual on the receiving end. An employee can therefore rapidly lose the feeling of belonging and become stripped of their self-worth, caused by the accompanying psychological distress they suffer by being treated outside of accepted social conventions. This mental harm can manifest as aggressive behavior and through conflicts arising more frequently, as a result of the individual trying to counteract ostracism's psychological power to erode their self-esteem and sense of meaning. Another symptom of someone being subjected to workplace ostracism is that they avoid contact with others and generally withdraw themselves, which can increasingly do damage from within by breeding emotional exhaustion and a cynical outlook on life.\nUncovering the survey results: Based on the respondents' answers to survey prompts such as \"Others do not talk to me at work\" and \"I remain silent at work because I do not want to be criticized by colleagues or superiors\", the study's hypothetical model is formed by the following findings, that:\nAction points for managers: Since workplace ostracism can have a huge impact on employee wellbeing, creativity, and therefore on their overall performance, leaders should aim to consistently achieve the converse scenario of managers empowering their team members to deliver their best work from a mentally engaged state. To culturally underpin this vision, the authors encourage organizational leaders to:\nCommentary: The review is based on \"Critical reflection in leadership development\" by Chenji and Sode (2019), published in \"Industrial and Commercial Training\". This research paper focuses on the creativity and empowerment impacts caused by workplace ostracism, as well as the practice of defensive silence by those on the receiving end of it. The results revealed that exposing employees to workplace ostracism causes their creativity to decline, and causes them to adopt defensive silence as self-protection. In turn, defensive silence impacts the relationship between workplace ostracism and employee creativity when employee empowerment levels are low. Organizational leaders are therefore advised to lead by example, to ensure that employee empowerment training is provided, and to embed clear positive behavior messaging throughout their onboarding process .\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 focuses on the creativity and empowerment impacts caused by workplace ostracism, as well as the practice of defensive silence by those on the receiving end of it. The results revealed that exposing employees to workplace ostracism causes their creativity to decline, and causes them to adopt defensive silence as self-protection. In turn, defensive silence impacts the relationship between workplace ostracism and employee creativity when employee empowerment levels are low. Organizational leaders are therefore advised to lead by example, to ensure that employee empowerment training is provided, and to embed clear positive behavior messaging throughout their onboarding process.\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"
}
] |
Overworked in America? How work hours, immigrant status, and interpersonal justice affect perceived work overload
|
[
"Immigrants",
"Hours of work",
"Interpersonal relations",
"Disadvantaged groups",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nearly 20 years ago, Schor (1991) wrote the highly influential book, The Overworked American wherein she chronicled the increase in hours logged by employees in the USA. Since that time, estimates suggest that the proportion of laborers working excessive hours continued to climb (Kuhn and Lozano, 2008; Rones et al., 1997). In fact, US employees worked an average of 95 more hours per year in 2000 than they did in 1989 (Schor, 2003). Simultaneously, workplace stress has risen significantly as well (Cryer et al., 2003). Not surprisingly, many workers appear displeased with these trends. In fact, more than one in three Americans recently indicated that they would prefer to work fewer hours than they currently work (Reynolds, 2004).\nPredicting work overload: The number of employees experiencing and reporting work overload is increasing, particularly in certain job sectors (e.g, nurses, salespersons)(Cartwright and Cooper, 1997; Mulki et al., 2008; Rauhala et al., 2007). Objective work overload, defined as having too much work and too little time, is a psychological stressor (Claessens et al., 2004; Roberts et al., 1997) that is cited most frequently as an employee's source of job stress (Robinson and Griffiths, 2005). Perceived work overload is an employee's perception of objective work overload, or an employee's belief that they have too much to do (Leiter and Schaufeli, 1996; Schaufeli et al., 1995) or too little time to finish assigned tasks (Greenglass et al., 2003).A number of consequences of objective and perceived work overload are discussed across various literatures (e.g. psychology, management, stress literatures). The overwhelming consensus of these studies is that the consequences of work overload are more often than not negative for both employees and organizations (Jex and Beeheer, 1991; Spector et al., 1998). First, work overload is related to psychological outcomes in employees. For example, work overload has been shown to be the most important predictor of burnout (Brantely, 1993; Shirom et al., 1997) and is also related to work-life and work-family conflict (Britt and Dawson, 2005; Frone et al., 1997; Parasuraman et al., 1996; Skinner and Pocock, 2008), work exhaustion (Ahuja et al., 2007), and personal strain (Harvey et al., 2003). Second, work overload also has been shown to affect employees' physical health. Specific health outcomes associated with employee work overload include increased cholesterol and triglycerides levels (Shirom et al., 1997). Additionally, direct organizational factors such as commitment (Ahuja et al., 2007) occupational stress (Bryant et al., 2000), job dissatisfaction (McVicar, 2003), and sickness absenteeism (Rauhala et al., 2007) often are investigated as consequences of work overload. Thus, the consequences of work overload, whether it is objective or perceived, negatively affect organizations directly through a variety of avenues and indirectly through the psychological and health problems that it causes employees.Though the literature investigating the antecedents and consequences of work overload has enhanced our understanding of who is likely to experience it and the circumstances under which it often occurs, we know relatively little about how employees formulate their perceptions of work overload. Because of this gap in the literature, next we investigate the number of hours worked as a potential antecedent of work overload. The number of hours worked should influence perceptions of work overload for three reasons. First, working a greater number of hours is stressful because it requires more mental, physical, and emotional resources on the part of the employee (Colligan and Higgins, 2005; Wallace, 1999). Second, the more stressful one's work environment, the more likely work overload is to occur (Hauge et al., 2007). For instance, a supervisor with a tight deadline (a source of stress) may engage in behaviors such as overloading employees to meet the deadline. Third, though there may not be much scheduling flexibility in certain organizations, supervisors often have some degree of latitude in managing the work hours of their subordinates (Henly et al., 2006; Hornung et al., 2008). Consequently, employees may view their supervisors as responsible for the quantity of their work hours. Taken together, these three reasons suggest more hours worked should lead to greater stress, which may correspond in an enhanced likelihood that the employee perceives overload.H1. The number of hours worked has a positive effect on perceived work overload.\nThe moderating role of interpersonal justice: Because we focus on perceived work overload, it is important to recognize that beliefs about other organizational factors, such as how fairly they are treated (i.e. organizational justice), may influence how individuals arrive at these perceptions. On the one hand, if an employee deems a supervisor to be fair, having to work a high number of hours is less likely to be viewed as overload. On the other hand, if the supervisor is seen as unfair, having to work extended hours is more likely to be seen as overload. This possibility introduces an employee's perceptions of organizational justice as a potential moderator of the work hours-perceived overload relationship.Organizational justice involves an employee's perceptions of the fairness of treatment received from the employer (Colquitt, 2001). There are at least three types of organizational justice. The first type, distributive justice, pertains to employee perceptions regarding the fairness of organizational outcomes such as pay raises, promotions, or layoffs. The second type, procedural justice, refers to perceptions of the fairness of procedures used to make organizational decisions (e.g. the consistency in appraising employee performance). Finally, interpersonal justice involves employee perceptions of fairness concerning the treatment received from organizational decision-makers (e.g. the boss' level of respectfulness when interacting with employees). Here, we focus on interpersonal justice because it is more general than the other two types and does not involve a particular referent (i.e. a specific organizational decision).Because perceptions of interpersonal justice directly affect beliefs about the overall fairness of the organization (Beugre and Baron, 2001), they also are likely to influence what individuals consider and do not consider unfair treatment. For instance, employees who received unfavorable outcomes engaged in retaliation against their employers (Skarlicki and Folger, 1997) or experienced more insomnia (Greenberg, 2006) only when interpersonal justice was low. In the present study, when perceived interpersonal justice is low, employees should be more likely to interpret a higher number of hours as abusive or exploitative. Consequently, they are apt to perceive a higher level of overload. Conversely, if employees perceive interpersonal justice to be high, they should be more likely to interpret a higher number of hours as legitimate. Accordingly, this should result in lower levels of perceived overload.H2. Interpersonal justice moderates the relationship between hours worked and perceived work overload, such that the linkage is stronger when perceived interpersonal justice is low.\nComparing immigrant and native-born employees: Thus far, we have proposed parallel processes for immigrants and non-immigrants alike. The literature on relative deprivation (Crosby, 1984), however, implies this may not be the case. Relative deprivation is a theoretical perspective suggesting groups lacking access to a particular resource are more sensitive to their level of that resource than those for whom it is plentiful. For example, a small raise is likely to be more significant to employees who earn small salaries than to high-paid executives. Research on relative deprivation generally has proven supportive (Holtz and Nihiser, 2008; Pettigrew et al., 2008; Tougas et al., 2005).Applied in the current context, relative deprivation suggests the interaction proposed in H2 should differ for immigrants and natives. Immigrants often face discrimination (i.e. injustice) based on their nationality (e.g. Dietz and Pugh, 2004; Harcourt et al., 2008; Petersen and Dietz, 2005). This discrimination suggests that equitable treatment is less accessible to immigrants than it is for native-born Americans. In other words, immigrants often are deprived of justice relative to natives. Based on relative deprivation, therefore, immigrants should be more sensitive to justice concerns than non-immigrants. Accordingly, immigrant employees are likely to experience more overload. Moreover, the moderating impact of justice on the work hours-overload relationship is apt to be more pronounced for immigrants than for non-immigrants.H3. Immigrant employees will report experiencing more overload than non-immigrant employees.H4. Immigrant status moderates the interactive effect of interpersonal justice and number of hours worked on perceived overload such that the attenuating effect of justice on the work hours-work overload relationship will be more pronounced for immigrants than for non-immigrants.\nMethod: Data and sample\nResults: Descriptive statistics and correlations for all study variables are presented in Table I. Prior to assessing the study hypotheses, we conducted a two-factor confirmatory factor analysis to ensure that the interpersonal justice and overload items represented distinct constructs to the participants. Despite a significant chi-squared value [kh2 (18)=130.35, p < 0.01], the other fit statistics indicated the expected two-factor model was a good fit to the data after allowing two error variances of conceptually similar items on the overload scale to correlate (CFI=0.98, RMSEA=0.05). We also compared the fit of the two-factor model with that of a single factor model. The single factor model fit significantly worse than the two-factor model [Dkh2 (1)=1920.15, p < 0.01], thereby supporting the fit of our hypothesized two-factor model. Thus, we proceeded to test the hypotheses using hierarchical moderated multiple regression with the controls entered in Step 1, justice, hours worked, and immigrant status in Step 2, the composite two-way interactions in Step 3, and the three-way interaction in the final step (see Table II).The first hypothesis predicted that employees working more hours would perceive more work overload than those working fewer hours (H1). The variables added in the second step of the regression analyses accounted for a statistically significant amount of incremental variance beyond that of the controls (DR2=0.112, p < 0.01). Moreover, the effects of hours worked (B=0.02, p < 0.01) was significant and in the predicted direction. Thus, H1 was supported.H2 predicted that justice would moderate the main effect predicted by H1. Specifically, we anticipated that higher levels of justice would attenuate the relationship between work hours and perceived work overload. Though the work hours x justice interaction was significant (B=0.01, p < 0.01), it was not consistent with our prediction. Thus, H2 was not supported. H3 predicted a main effect of immigrant status on overload, such that immigrants would report experiencing more overload than non-immigrants. Though the effect was in the predicted direction (B=0.09, ns), it was not statistically significant. Thus, H3 was not supported by the data.The fourth hypothesis predicted a three-way interaction between justice, hours worked, and immigrant status on perceived work overload. This interaction was statistically significant (B=-0.02, p=0.01, DR2=0.002). As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, the attenuating effect of justice proposed in H2 on the work hours-work overload relationship was considerably stronger for immigrants than for native-born employees. In fact, though both statistically significant, the effect size for this interaction was more than five times as large for the former (DR2=0.021, p < 0.05) than for the latter (DR2=0.004, p < 0.01) and only immigrants exhibited the pattern predicted in H2 (B=-0.02, p < 0.05). Conversely, the interactive pattern for the non-immigrant sub-sample was reversed (i.e. stronger effect of work hours when justice was high; B=0.01, p < 0.01). Hence, H4 was supported.Additionally, because the theoretical rationale used in making the case for differential effects on the basis of immigrant status could be extended to make similar arguments for racioethnic or sex differences, we tested this possibility empirically. We dummy coded sex (1=Female) and racioethnicity (1=Minority), created two- and three-way interaction terms with justice and hours worked, and incorporated them in our regression analyses described above. Interestingly, none of the new interaction terms were significant, but the pattern of results shown in Table II concerning our hypotheses was unchanged. For the sake of parsimony, these regression results are not presented.\nDiscussion: In this study, the relationship between the number of hours worked and perceptions of work overload was examined for immigrant and non-immigrant workers in the USA. The results confirmed two of the four hypotheses. First, the idea that employees working longer hours perceive higher levels of work overload was supported. Second, the nature of the justice x work hours' interaction on work overload differed depending on whether or not one was an immigrant. On the one hand, higher levels of justice attenuated the hours worked-work overload relationship for immigrant workers. On the other hand, higher levels of justice exacerbated the hours worked-work overload relationship for native-born employees. These findings demonstrate the importance of justice to immigrant employees and run counter to the notion that immigrant workers are easier to exploit (Jordan, 2006). The implications and limitations of this study are discussed as follows.Implications and limitations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Though a number of demographics (e.g. sex, age) have been associated with work overload, scholars have yet to consider the potential impact of immigrant status. This is important because immigrants constitute a significant proportion of the workforce, and evidence suggests many employers believe they are easier to exploit. This paper aims to examine work hours, interpersonal justice, and immigrant status as predictors of work overload.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The hypotheses were tested using a large, national random telephone survey of employees in the United States (n=2,757).\nFindings: - As expected, employees who worked more hours tended to perceive more work overload. Importantly, however, this effect interacted with interpersonal justice differently for immigrant and native-born employees. Justice attenuated the effect of work hours for the former but seemed to exacerbate it somewhat for the latter. Of note, the interactive effect was more than five times larger for immigrants than for natives.\nPractical implications: - The study shows that supervisors might require their employees to work longer hours without necessarily being perceived as abusive (i.e. overloading them). Doing so, however, requires treating employees justly in the form of respect, courtesy, and dignity. Though this form of just treatment is important for all employees, its effects are especially pronounced for immigrants.\nOriginality/value: - The relationship between the number of hours worked and perceptions of work overload is examined for immigrant and non-immigrant workers in the USA.\n",
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] |
Evolving readiness index for overhauling the retailing sector through retailing process reengineering implementation
|
[
"Critical success factors",
"Retailing",
"Decision support systems",
"Retail sector",
"Business process reengineering",
"ISM",
"Mobile retailing",
"Retail process reengineering",
"Multi-Level DEA",
"ANP"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and literature review: According to the 2011 IMF report, the economy of India is the tenth largest in the world by nominal GDP (US$1.847 trillion) and the third largest by purchasing power parity (US$4.530 trillion). In its huge economy, retailing accounts for 14-15 percent of its GDP, which is estimated to be US$450 billion and one of the top five retail markets in the world by economic value. Moreover, India is one of the fastest growing retail markets in the world with an average growth of 12 percent for the last five years. Being the largest democracy of 1.2 billion people, third largest internet (137 million in June 2012) and second largest mobile/smart phone users (929 million in May 2012), highest customer base, and vibrant economy makes many domestic and foreign companies interested to invest in the Indian retailing sector. However, as per Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy and Economic Intelligence Service (2011) report, larger format convenience stores and supermarkets accounted for about 7-9 percent of the industry that caters to 10-15 percent of the population present in large urban cities. Thus, it vindicates that retailers are not able to reach and serve a large customer base, which in fact sought for a large retail network setting and enhancement of retailing processes.\n2. Identification of CSFs of mobile retailing: Every retail outlet is set up to attract customers toward it, by providing them goods and services according to their preferences. An alternative paradigm exists of taking retailing to customers (Davies, 1995), where several technologies, creative, and innovative means help to improve the passive retailing channels (or processes). For example, Barlow et al. (2004) and Kent (2007) have suggested the use of ICT in retailing; Reynolds (2002) has advocated for e-commerce application in retailing sector of USA and UK; Doherty and Chadwick (2010) have reviewed the works of several researchers in the last 20 years to provide the past, the present, and the future of internet retailing and its major drivers; Pentina et al. (2011) have surveyed 115 top online retails to identify the success drivers of e-shopping application; Bennett and Savani (2011) have computed retailers' preparedness for the implementation of third wave (ubiquitous) computing applications in UK firms; Yang and Kim (2012) have examined the mobile shoppers' shopping motivation and put forward drivers to motivate customers for mobile shopping.\n3. Data collection and methodology: The success of BPR depends on a number of factors. The CSFs in respect of RPR implementation are extracted from the past reported works as well as through a cross-sectional field survey using a self-administrated short questionnaire and by conducting structured interviews. This survey was conducted among 1,550 respondents to ensure that no important dimensions were missed out. The CSFs were refined and rephrased in the light of the feedback obtained in the survey and are listed in Table II, along with their sources.\n4. Results and discussions: The paper has identified 11 CSFs with regard to RPR implementation. The RPR readiness for the retailing sector would, thus, be a composite measure of these 11 CSFs. The key contribution of this work lies in capturing and integrating the 11 CSFs for RPR implementation in 12 selected Indian retail outlets through combination of three prominent methodologies namely ISM, ANP, and Multi-Level DEA.\n5. Conclusions: BPR implementation in organizations would help to improve the performance, transparency, add visibility, and attract more number of customers. Hence, for yielding higher efficiency policy makers should gear up to implement BPR in general and in retailing sector in particular. However, many retail outlets in India are way below than their counter parts to implement RPR. There could be many reasons, but it is a necessity to find the most CSFs. Hence, this study uses survey-based statistical approach with the combination of ISM, ANP, and Multi-Level DEA methodologies to evaluate the evolving readiness index for overhauling the retailing sector of India through RPR implementation.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of readiness of the Indian retailing sector for the implementation of mobile retailing applications. It also identifies the most critical success factors (CSFs) for mobile retailing implementation through retailing process reengineering (RPR) framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper attempts to identify a few CSFs through questionnaire survey and interview, subsequently establishing the inter-factor relationships through interpretive structural modeling framework and computing the priority weights of the interrelated factors using analytic network process. Finally, the authors compute the retailers' RPR implementation readiness indices for mobile retailing using Multi-Level data envelopment analysis methodology.\nFindings: The 11 CSFs have been identified. Out of these, two factors namely Strategic Alignment and Management Control and Quality Contribute profoundly for mobile retailing implementation. Finally, a readiness index has been computed for implementation of mobile retailing in the selected retail outlets through RPR framework.\nResearch limitations/implications: Only a few selected large retail outlets have been considered in this study and the sample size was modest. This study only revolves around the Indian retail sector.\nPractical implications: This study can be used as a decision support system for mobile retailing implementation in Indian retail sector. Moreover, based on the results of this study, a few retail outlets are completely ready for mobile retailing implementation. Apart from them, the other retail outlets can improve their readiness index by emphasizing on performance scores of the CSFs.\nOriginality/value: Due to the scanty literature on mobile retailing, this study contributes to the mobile retailing body of literature in three ways: first, identification of CSFs in mobile retailing; second, interrelationship among the factors; and third, proposes a rational framework to compute retail outlets' readiness indices for the implementation of mobile retailing through RPR framework.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Workforce ageing and the training propensity of Italian firms: Cross-sectional evidence from the INDACO survey
|
[
"Ageing",
"Human capital",
"Probit model",
"Labour turnover",
"Older workers",
"Vocational training",
"INDACO"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Italy is one of the European countries that, during next years, will be more seriously hit by ageing concerns. According to reliable demographic forecasts released by Piekkola (2004), in Italy, the senility index, i.e. the proportion of people older than 60 years in relation to people younger than 20; the old age dependency ratio, i.e. the number of people older than 60 relative to the number of people between 20 and 59; and the intensity of ageing index, i.e. the proportion of the population older than 80 in relation to the population older than 60, will all dramatically rise over the next decades. Just to give an idea, in this country, around 2040, the people aged more than 60 years will be about as much the number of people aged between 20 and 59 years, while the percentage of population aged older than 80 years as a fraction of people older than 60 years will exceed 25 per cent.\nTheoretical background: From a theoretical perspective, corporate training propensity is likely to be seriously affected by the age of the incumbent workforce; indeed, human capital and labour turnover theories suggest that returns to training investments are quite different among young and older workers, and this is likely to have an influence on the internal training decisions of employers. Moreover, according to deep-rooted theories and circumstantial evidence, different patterns in training provision are expected according to firms' size and depending on whether firms adopted innovation strategies and/or invested in R&D projects.\nData: The data set explored in this paper is build by retrieving information from INDACO (2009). INDACO is a survey on job-related vocational training carried out by the Italian Institute for the Development of Vocational Training, and the 2009 release is currently the latest available after some years of stopping.\nEconometric modelling: The econometric model implemented to estimate the effects of ageing profiles and corporate characteristics on the propensity of surveyed firms to offer vocational training is the following:\nResults: Here, I will provide the probit estimation results of the econometric model outlined in equation (1)[8]. Thereafter, I will graphically show how the implied training propensity of firms varies according to the average age of the employed workforce in small, medium-size and large business units.\nConcluding remarks: In this paper, I explore some ageing concerns related to the supply of vocational training by retrieving data from INDACO (2009). Specifically, I provide a probit analysis aimed at testing how the age and the gender of the employed workforce, as well as a set of relevant corporate characteristics affect the willingness of firms to offer training to their employees.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to take into consideration the propensity to offer vocational training of a large sample of Italian private firms by retrieving cross-sectional data from INDACO (2009).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Estimating a probit model, the author assesses how the age and the gender composition of the employed workforce, as well as a set of relevant corporate characteristics, such as size, sector, geographical location, innovation strategies, R&D investments and use of social safety valves, are linked to the willingness of firms to supply on-the-job training.\nFindings: First, as far as the average age of the whole employed workforce is concerned, it was found that the propensity of surveyed firms toward training provision follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. Furthermore, it was shown that larger firms have a higher training propensity with respect to small firms, and the same attitude holds for productive units that adopted innovation strategies and/or invested in R&D projects. By contrast, it was found that the propensity to support training activities is negatively correlated to the percentage of employed women and the use social valves.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample of business units taken into consideration is quite large, but it has some biases toward larger and manufacturing firms. Moreover, the cross-sectional perspective of the analysis does not allow implementation of the finer identification procedures that can be applied with panel data. Furthermore, the lack of employer - employee linked data does not allow to fully address the issue of compliance to training activities.\nSocial implications: From a policy point of view, the results shown throughout the paper suggest some broad guidelines. First, especially in small firms, vocational training for young and older workers should be somehow stimulated. Moreover, as far as mature employees are concerned, those interventions should be framed in an active ageing perspective. Subsidies and targeted job placement programmes are often claimed as being the most appropriate ways to improve the underprivileged position of older workers. However, continuous learning during the whole working life still appears as the most effective device to reduce the employment disadvantages in the older years.\nOriginality/value: While there are a number of papers that study the age patterns of training participation by using workers' data retrieved from personnel and/or labour force surveys, this work is the first attempt to provide a probabilistic assessment of the decisions of Italian firms regarding training provision by taking into account the ageing perspectives of the incumbent workforce.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Relationship between the personal values and shopping orientation of Chinese consumers
|
[
"Consumer behavior",
"China",
"Social values",
"Individual psychology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Personal values are widely acknowledged as the underlying determinants of consumer attitudes and behavior (Homer and Kahle, 1988). The term \"personal values\" is used to reflect the belief that values are being measured at the individual level (Hanna, 1980). As individuals possess fewer personal values than attitudes, the personal-value concept is a more parsimonious way of describing and explaining the similarities and differences among individuals, groups, or cultures (Rokeach, 1968). Shopping is one avenue by which people affirm themselves, and has become an expression of personal values (Michon and Chebat, 2004). As a result of the close linkage between culture, values, and consumer behavior, the psychographic examination of shopping orientation is a good way to understand shopping behavior. Various studies have focused on the classification of the shopping orientations of consumers from different perspectives, but few studies have investigated the relationship between personal values and shopping orientation.According to Mercer's annual worldwide cost of living rankings 2005/2006, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Shanghai were ranked ninth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth, respectively, among the world's most expensive cities (China Daily, 2005). The survey covered 144 cities, and compared the cost over 200 items in each location.In just a short time, Shanghai has successfully reshaped itself from a traditional manufacturing-based city to an internationally oriented economic center. Consumers in Shanghai have always been noted for their sophistication, sense of fashion, and willingness to spend. In fact, they have the greatest purchasing motivation and ability among consumers in cities in China. The understanding about the consumers in Shanghai is valuable to marketers who want to explore the China market. Taipei has been transformed into the home of the world's best-known luxury and international goods, whereas Hong Kong, an established cosmopolitan city, is evolving toward becoming a first-class world city. Hong Kong is also of strategic importance as a launching point for both local and foreign firms into the market in mainland China. As the Greater China market is becoming important for multinationals, investigating the relationship between the personal values and shopping orientation of working adults in Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong is of practical value.\nCharacteristics of modern chinese consumers: It has been found that shopping is not a favored leisure activity for large segments of the Chinese population. According to a survey, 48 per cent of Chinese women said they disliked shopping, whereas only 30 per cent of American women said they disliked shopping. The percentage of Chinese men who said they disliked shopping was 63 per cent, putting them roughly on a par with American men. However, modern Chinese consumers are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly put quality before price. In the survey, the middle-income group said the top three factors in choosing a product were trust in the quality of the brand, a positive impact on health, and the considerate treatment of the customer by the salesperson: a fair price was ranked only fifth. In another survey, quality, service, and variety were found to be the top three factors in choosing a shopping destination, with value coming in fifth (Wall Street Journal, 2004).Differences were observed among consumers in Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong in terms of their personal values and shopping behavior. Generally, Shanghai consumers prefer foreign goods, and they are among China's most brand-conscious consumers. Young Shanghaiese are among the first to pick up on new fashions and trends from Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong (Media Asia, 2005). Taipei consumers exhibit a down-to-earth attitude that is almost folksy, and the focus of life is the family. According to a survey by ACNielsen, more than 90 per cent of Taipei citizens said they were satisfied with family life, with almost as many saying they spend more on their family than they do on themselves (Media Asia, 2005). Hong Kong people are more business and money minded, and increasingly they are looking for brands and products that reflect their personality (Media Asia, 2000). According to a survey conducted by Mindshare Hong Kong 3D (Media Asia, 2005), among the three cities, Hong Kong consumers are the most money conscious but are less concerned with political affairs, Taipei consumers spend money more generously, and Shanghai consumers would like more time to make money.\nLiterature review: Personal values and their measurement\nQuestionnaire design: The questionnaire for the study consisted of four sections: shopping orientations, terminal values (values as long-term goals), instrumental values (values as guiding principles), and personal information. The English and Chinese versions were presented together in one questionnaire to ensure the understanding of the intent of the items by those who could read both English and Chinese. Part one of the questionnaire consisted of 45 statements related to 11 shopping orientations, including impulse shopping, shopping self-confidence, shopping gender roles, brand-loyal shopping, shopping center enthusiasm, economic shopping, personalized shopping, shopping interest, patronage loyalty, shopping opinion leadership, advertised-special shopping, and fashion conscious (Ownbey, 1991). Parts two and three consisted of the 18 terminal values that serve as long-term goals in life and 18 instrumental values that serve as guiding principles in day-to-day activities, respectively (Rokeach, 1968, 1973). For greater ease of administration, the questionnaire for this study incorporated a 5-point Likert rating scale instead of the 7-point ranking scale of the original RVS. Research-based data indicate that both the rating and ranking scales are reliable and valid (Moore, 1975; Rankin and Grube, 1980). In addition, Moore (1975) recommended the rating version of the RVS for group description purposes.\nData collection: The sample for the study was selected from adult working Chinese from Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong in 2004. Five hundred questionnaires with stamped return envelopes were distributed randomly through personal distribution in central districts in Taipei and Hong Kong. The respondents returned the questionnaires by mail. The sample in Shanghai was collected through personal interviews using judgment sampling. The total number of questionnaires returned was 454: 201 from Shanghai, 107 from Taipei, and 146 from Hong Kong. The response rate of Taipei was 21.4 per cent and that of Hong Kong was 29.2 per cent. The response rates were high because the respondents could return the questionnaire in the stamped return envelopes. Also, some people declined to fill out the questionnaire if they had no intention of returning it.The demographic profile of the respondents is listed in Table I. White collar workers made up the majority of the respondents in the three markets, constituting 31.7 per cent of respondents in Shanghai, 34.5 per cent in Taipei, and 46.2 per cent in Hong Kong. The income level of the Shanghai respondents was evenly distributed from high to low among different income levels. The average income of the majority (48.5 per cent) of the Taipei respondents was at the top level, whereas the average income of the majority (58.2 per cent) of the Hong Kong respondents was at the median level. The majority of the respondents were aged between 18 and 30, constituting 77 per cent of respondents in Shanghai, 70.1 per cent in Taipei, and 73.3 per cent in Hong Kong. Concerning education level, 80.2 per cent of Shanghai respondents and 79.5 per cent of Taipei respondents had university level education, whereas only 43.8 per cent of Hong Kong respondents had university level education. The majority of the respondents in Shanghai (65.1 per cent), Taipei (72.9 per cent), and Hong Kong (76.7 per cent) were single, while the distribution of gender tended toward women, who constituted 51.3 per cent of respondents in Shanghai, 54.2 per cent in Taipei, and 58.2 per cent in Hong Kong.\nResearch findings: Factor analysis of shopping orientations\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - As the market of Greater China is becoming increasingly important for multinationals, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the personal values and shopping orientation of working adults in Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The total sample of 454 included adult working Chinese from Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong. Factor analysis was performed to identify separately the shopping orientations and dimensions of the personal values of the subjects. ANOVA analysis was then used to examine the differences among the subjects in terms of their shopping orientation and personal values. Lastly, correlation analysis was used to examine the relationships between dimensions of personal values and shopping orientations.\nFindings: - As expected, the results showed that Chinese consumers in Greater China shared similar personal values, but differences were found in their shopping orientation. Significant relationships were found between dimensions of personal values and the eight shopping orientations. Among the dimensions of personal values, self-actualization played a major role in six of the eight shopping orientations, with shopping gender roles and economic shopping being the exceptions. Personalized shopping, advertised specials, and shopping for self-satisfaction were found to be the three major shopping orientations that were closely related to personal values. Shopping gender roles and economic shopping were found to be unrelated to any personal values as they reflect individual short-term goals rather than long-term values.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The Shanghai data were collected using judgment sampling as there are regulations that restrict the distribution of questionnaires in public streets in mainland China, whereas the Taipei and Hong Kong data were collected using random sampling. Different collection methods in the sampling process may have led to a problem regarding the representativeness of the sample.\nPractical implications: - Among the dimensions of personal values, self-actualization played a major role in shopping orientation. The self-actualization needs of consumers could be achieved through smart shopping and bargain hunting, but also through personalized shopping and shopping satisfaction. Because consumer shopping satisfaction is generally not high in Greater China, improvements could be made to enhance shopping satisfaction by providing a shopping environment that enables consumers to demonstrate their intellectual thinking and that meets their self-actualization needs. Personalized shopping is also important for Chinese consumers who prefer closer personal relationships with salespersons.\nOriginality/value: - Various studies have focused on the classification of the shopping orientations of consumers from different perspectives, but few studies have investigated the influence of personal values on shopping orientation, especially in the Greater China market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Prospects of open government data (OGD) in facilitating the economic diversification of GCC region
|
[
"Open data",
"Kuwait",
"Typology",
"Caged",
"Systematic literature review",
"Bahrain",
"Forerunner",
"OGD",
"GCC",
"Economic diversification",
"Oil prices",
"Laggard"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the ongoing crisis of depleting oil reserves in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the consequent plummeting of oil prices (Khediri et al., 2015; Zeitun et al., 2017), the GCC constituents have been attempting to turnaround their economy for which they need to \"diversify, increase their productivity, create more well-paying jobs for locals, improve their education systems and boost the role of the private sector\" (Forbes, 2016). Concomitantly, the GCC has been pushing forward its open government data (OGD) agenda to bring about transparency and collaboration in citizen - government interaction, although in a nascent form. The underlying philosophy of OGD is \"making data freely available to everyone, without limiting restrictions\" (Kalampokis et al., 2011, p. 236). The contribution of OGD has been highlighted in terms of solving socio-economic problems as well as by creating national wealth by tapping the OGD outputs effectively and efficiently. OGD has immense potential in driving the \"information economy\" forward and OGD's contribution to the government could be of the tune of 40 billion euro per year (European Commission, 2011).\n2. Method: 2.1 Structured literature review\n3. Role of open government data in facilitating the economic diversification of the Gulf Cooperation Council: To address the ongoing challenges post-oil prices' crisis, the GCC has been taking a number of measures towards economic diversification where the focus is on spawning non-oil sectors. We posit that with the robust implementation of OGD, the region may witness an economic turnaround in a befitting way.\n4. Conclusion: The study sought to address an important question as to how can the GCC encounter the ongoing economic challenges in the region with the help of sustained OGD initiatives. The study projected GCC as a \"forerunner\" among the OGD-adherents typology. While scanning a few examples from the OGD portals of the GCC countries, we found that there are serious limitations in these portals. On one hand, we would recommend that the commitment towards OGD implementation needs to be furthered, and on the other hand, we would recommend that the requisite infrastructure for furthering OGD initiatives be in place. We posit that there is immense potential in the GCC to tap its OGD-implementation drive and spearhead its economic diversification initiatives. There is a need for creating more awareness about the efficacy of the OGD initiatives in the region. It is important that the GCC countries adhere to OGD implementation steps in a robust manner and institutionalize the OGD-implementation for realizing its short-term and long-term goals for achieving an economic turnaround of the region as a whole. Our research validates the argument that \"up to now, opening up government data has not been considered a priority for (many) national governments\" (Janssen, 2011, p. 25). Much like the European Union which has envisaged information management as one of the focus areas in \"Horizon 2020\" which would support OGD initiatives in a major way (European Commission, 2011), the GCC should also include the progress of OGD in its \"vision\" statement of economic diversification. Finally, the GCC needs to realize that the role of OGD initiatives in spearheading its economic diversification objectives is very critical, and a liberal approach should be adopted for furthering increased \"opening\" up of the datasets in the region.\n5. Implications and limitations of the study: The study holds relevance for practitioners across the GCC. For instance, apart from strengthening their OGD portals, the GCC countries are encouraged to initiate and further their social media-based public engagement initiatives (Lee and Kwak, 2012). For instance, the local Korean Governments have been using Facebook for promoting tourism in their areas (Park et al., 2016). In a similar vein, and given the impetus of the GCC countries to push forth the tourism sector, there should be ample utilization of the social networking tools. Setting benchmarks for efficient progress of OGD initiatives is important (Veljkovic et al., 2014); therefore, practitioners and policy-makers in the GCC should strategize upon their OGD implementation in terms of select indicators and level the progress achieved across different economic sectors against these indicators. Further, the governments should attempt at inter-organizational information sharing activities for addressing the broader socio-economic-technical challenges (Gil-Garcia and Sayogo, 2016) in the GCC. Governments should forge partnership with the private sector for publishing data which might provide value to the people at large besides furthering the growth of free and commercial products (Zeleti et al., 2016). The study's limitations rest in being exploratory and evidence-based. Further studies are called which are grounded in empirical investigations approached from longitudinal or cross-sectional lens.\n6. Suggestive pointers for further research: Given that the study is exploratory in nature, it is important that further studies be conducted to take into account the users' perspectives regarding the utility of the OGD initiatives (Zhang and Chen, 2015; Zuiderwijk et al., 2015) across the GCC. Further studies are required in ascertaining the extent to which the alignment of OGD along the aims of economic diversification leave significant impact on the OGD users and providers and how can OGD lead to sustainable growth of the GCC region (Hochtl et al., 2014). Also, studies on OGD evaluation are scarce, and while the present study makes an attempt at investigating selected OGD examples from the GCC, further academic research is required to probe other OGD initiatives of the GCC and draw inferences regarding their progress in terms of achievement and challenges (Sandoval-Almazan, 2011). Finally, research may be undertaken to appreciate how the GCC may derive lessons from adopting OGD in legislative, executive and judicial wings of the government somewhat like Kenya where it was found that OGD initiative undertaken by the Kenyan judiciary furthered judicial reform besides improving justice delivery through public participation (Maseh and Katuu, 2017).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: As the ongoing oil prices' crisis is emerging as a major cause of concern for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, the constituent governments are attempting at undertaking measures of economic diversification to attain long-term sustainability. The author posits that open government data (OGD) has a significant role to play in facilitating the economic turnaround of the GCC region, given that OGD promotes innovation and economic growth besides providing avenues for collaboration and participation among different stakeholders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Following a structured literature review, the paper scans literature on OGD followed by providing a typology of countries on the basis of their OGD-adherence (\"laggard\", \"caged\", \"forerunner\" and \"champ\"). This is followed by a discussion on the ongoing oil prices' crisis, and evidentiary support is lent by examples from the OGD portals of each of the six GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) to provide indicators as to how a robust OGD implementation may support their economic diversification objectives.\nFindings: Although the present OGD framework of the GCC is relatively weak, it is asserted that OGD has immense potential in facilitating the economic diversification initiatives of the GCC countries. Therefore, the GCC needs to strategize upon institutionalization of their OGD initiatives for realizing their \"vision\" and goals of economic diversification to result in an economic turnaround effectively.\nOriginality/value: Besides providing a typology of countries as OGD-adherents and categorizing GCC as \"forerunner(s)\" on the basis of the typology, the originality of the study lies in its attempt to answer the research question: \"what is the role of the OGD in facilitating the economic diversification of the GCC?\" Conceding that the research on OGD in the GCC context is few and far between, the present study is a significant contribution to the extant literature pertaining to the roll-out of OGD in developing countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Critical realism as a philosophy and social theory in information science?
|
[
"Philosophy",
"Information science",
"Libraries",
"Reality",
"Information research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: An interdisciplinary research field like library and information science (LIS), and its user studies in particular, concerned with many levels of information creation, seeking, use and processing, both institutional and system-oriented, individual and collectivistic (Wilson, 2002), will naturally contain different ontological, epistemological, and methodological perspectives (Budd (2001) gives an excellent overview). On the one hand, Dervin (2003) rightly points out that we are \"drowning in concepts, variables, methods, theories\", while, on the other hand, Bates (2002, p. 15) (also rightly) claims that: \"the several metatheories driving research in information seeking each have much of value to offer, and should not be placed in a life or death struggle for dominance in our thinking and research\".Nevertheless, research is always a question of making choices. These may be unreflective, but they may also reflect a basic view of science. One choice is what part of reality the researcher wants to focus on; another is what basic assumptions he or she has of what this reality is like. In other words, all theory makes assumptions about the nature of reality, and such ontological assumptions carry implications for the way one conceives knowledge and necessarily regulate how one studies objects or events (Budd, 2001, p. 114; Willmott, 1997). Budd (2001), Hjorland (2004) and Wilson (2002) are among the LIS scholars that point out the importance of a philosophical basis for making both the epistemological and ontological choices that are necessary for conducting research.In this paper I join the \"ontological project\" by discussing critical realism (CR), a philosophy of science, and a realist social theory and explanatory framework that has developed from it. A distinctive feature of a realist philosophy is that ontology (the theory of being, which has strong implications for the conceptions of reality) is seen as distinct from epistemology (the theory of knowledge), which means that scientific theorising is based on the assumption that there exists a mind-independent reality. In this respect realism differs from empiricism (the view that knowledge derives from experience of the world), and also from idealism (positing thought and language over matter). In social studies this distinction conditions our analysis: how real is social reality, and how can we best study, for example, the complex social events associated with information seeking and use?In the study of information seeking and use, the objects of our inquiry are empirical events. We know, however, that events are not transparent, and in fact, in most cases, require more than description. Regardless of the method, the work of theory is to explain the hidden powers - processes or mechanisms - that produce the effects or events that we study. According to the critical realist philosophy, the very possibility of social theory is based on the existence of real social structures and systems that are emergent entities which operate independently of our conception of them, conditioning - but never determining - intentional agential activity, being nonetheless dependent on that human activity to endure or change (Archer, 1995; Willmott 1997, p. 97). This way of thinking about science implies that reality is stratified. Events can be seen, but social mechanisms are not readily observable; they require theory and abstraction. Methods are the tools that scientists use to test how well a given theory - or a related set of concepts - accounts for an empirical event. Science should not be content to study only what we can empirically experience, but the aim of science is to discover (identify and describe) these hidden, or not readily observable, structures and objects that have causal powers to produce effects (Bhaskar, 1989).The CR philosophy of science also assumes that reality is composed of different levels (e.g. the biological, the psychological, the social, and the cultural level). None of these levels, nor the causes of what occurs on these levels, can be reduced to another level. This is a cornerstone for the analysis and implies that complex social phenomena, such as information need, seeking and use, cannot be explained in terms of mechanisms or processes working at just one level, be it personal, cognitive, discursive or socio-cultural. Here, CR could contribute to an explanatory framework for interdisciplinary research, and for many LIS studies.In this paper, I discuss such a framework. I do not, however, make any attempt at a deep analysis of realist philosophy in general and CR philosophy in particular, but start with a general short introduction to some central tenets of CR. This is by necessity sketchy, and interested readers are referred to the book Critical Realism: Essential Readings (Archer et al., 1998), which makes accessible in one volume several key texts by the most central authors on CR as both a philosophy of science and as a social theory.\nThe critical realist approach to social science: CR is a movement in the philosophy of science, starting with the British philosopher Bhaskar's (1978, 1979) writings. It has later been developed for and employed in social theory by Bhaskar (1989) and many others, most notably by Archer (1995, 1996, 2000), Sayer (1992, 1999), Layder (1994) and Collier (1994, 1998). In information systems research, defined as an applied field that is heavily oriented towards the applications of information systems in business, and in many adjacent fields of social science, like organisation research and economics, the philosophical approach of CR has been an object of growing interest (Dobson, 2002; Spasser, 2002; Willmott, 1997; Reed, 2001; Mingers, 2004), although it has also been subject to severe criticism (e.g. Klein, 2004). Mutch (1999, 2002) has suggested that Archer's realist social theory could be a suitable framework for the examination of the use of information in organisations. In these studies there is expressed the need of a greater awareness of structure and process, and of the human being acting as a person, a collective agent, and as a social actor.CR as a philosophy of science\nRealist social theory and LIS: To use CR as an explanatory framework in the field of LIS research implies an argument for a realist social theory as a basis for the analysis of complex phenomena like information needs, seeking and use, as well as an argument for analytical dualism as a methodology for theorising the relative interplay of structure, culture and agency, a central issue in all social science research (Archer, 1996, Ch. 6). To keep these categories apart, for the purpose of analysis, is, according to Archer (1995, Ch. 5), a matter of theoretical necessity if we are to advance usable social theories.A few central features of CR are used here to connect the philosophy and the realist social theory to some current LIS models of information behaviour. These features are the conception of a stratified social reality, an awareness of the importance of contextualisation, and the relation between structure and agency.A stratified reality\nConcluding remarks: When it comes, then, to studying human information actions in context, it is important, according to CR theory, to distinguish, in the most categorical way, between human action and socio-cultural structure. The properties possessed by the social and cultural forms (the institutions, systems, work tasks and everyday life situations) that condition the information activities, may be very different from those possessed by the individuals (their reasons, intentions and plans) upon whose activity they depend.What account of social reality would rule out a realist programme of the kind outlined above? According to OutHwaite (1998, p. 282), realism will, broadly speaking, be inapplicable if there are no intransitive objects of social science, no objects susceptible of real definition and nothing capable of being explained in terms of generative mechanisms. This means that social realism is compatible with a wide range of social theories, but, more formally, \"critical realism is committed to an explanatory framework which acknowledges and incorporates (a) pre-existent structures as generative mechanisms, (b) their interplay with other objects possessing causal powers and liabilities proper to them in what is a stratified social world, and (c) nonpredictable but none the less explicable outcomes arising from interactions between the above, which take place in the open system that is society\" (Archer, 1998, p. 377).Could CR act as an underpinning philosophy or a philosophical \"underlabourer\" (Archer, 1998, p. 197) for LIS research, or will it only add to the \"laundry list\" of concepts and theories (Dervin, 2003)? Although much of the writing, expecially by Bhaskar, on CR philosophy is difficult and sometimes obscure, Danermark (2002), with examples from disability research, finds that the CR perspective lays the foundation for interdisciplinary research in a very fruitful way, not least in its demand for methodological pluralism. He also argues for the fruitfulness of highlighting the (often tacit) assumptions each researcher by necessity has about reality. These considerations should apply to LIS as well, as should Danermark's observation that interdisciplinary fields are often characterised by a complex relation, or even a gap between the knowledge bases of professional practitioners and researchers. While the LIS practitioner tends to adopt a \"practitioner focussed philosophy\" (Dobson, 2002) and to see the information behaviour of the information seeker as whole, including both social and individual aspects, the researcher often has to separate different levels in order to analyse a complex problem. An awareness of a stratified reality and generative mechanisms working in an open system might facilitate a common ground, where the outcome of information behaviour research is seen as a basis for practical knowledge, not prediction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The philosophical position known as critical realism is briefly introduced, and some of its central features are used to connect the philosophy and the realist social theory to some current library and information science (LIS) models of information behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses a literature-based analysis of the critical realism concepts of a stratified social reality, the importance of contextualisation, and the relation between structure and agency. These features are discussed in relation to various models of information-seeking behaviour, but also to the \"interpretative\" approach to information as meaning which can only be achieved through discourses in a human community.\nFindings: - The critical realism perspective could lay a fruitful foundation for an interdisciplinary research field like LIS, and its user studies in particular, concerned with many levels of information creation, seeking, use and processing. It is the task of the LIS researcher to explain the mechanisms that influence the information seeking, not only on an empirical level, by observing the user and his/her discourse community, but also by revealing possible underlying causes and relations.\nOriginality/value: - An awareness of the fact that social and cultural structures exist independent of one's knowledge of them has implications on how many central problems in the LIS field are regarded and studied.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Resource endowments, market positioning, and competition in transitional economies: Global and local advertising agencies in Hungary
|
[
"Resource management",
"Advertising agencies",
"National economy",
"Hungary",
"Market forces"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A critical area of concern for international marketers interested in transitional economies (TEs) is the effective use of their company's resources, especially considering that resources are not equally distributed among local and global competitors. The ability to recognize and exploit asymmetries in resource endowments is a pivotal factor for success in configuring marketing capabilities, achieving market share, and ensuring profitability. The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm is an appropriate framework for examining these concerns (Newbert, 2007). Some researchers argue however that this theory is not yet fully developed because its contextual boundaries have not been adequately identified, raising questions about the generalizability of findings. Additionally, researchers have argued that many RBV empirical studies present resources statically without necessarily paying much attention to differing circumstances that affect the use of individual resources. Priem and Butler (2001) argue that most RBV research has not yet answered key questions about when, where, how, and for whom specific resources might be useful. Makhija (2003) and Levitas and Achidindorfor (2006) have called for further testing of RBV theory in environments of extreme change, such as TEs, as well as in different industries in order to identify boundaries of usefulness. For their part, Srivastava et al. (2001) have recommended the use of alternative research methodologies, such as the case study method, in order to further RBV research.In view of all these recommendations for further testing and use of new research methods, we chose to adopt a longitudinal case study approach in our investigation of resource use and asymmetry in market positioning and competition. The focus of this study is the infant advertising industry which has grown quickly in Hungary, an Eastern European TE. This analysis is structured according to the RBV of the firm and investigates how local and global ad agencies have manipulated their resource endowments for successful competition and growth.Hungary holds particular interest for international marketers. As a TE, it was an exception to the rule because a modest advertising industry was allowed to flourish under former Soviet control. After the fall of communism in 1989, competition in the Hungarian advertising market intensified as many foreign ad agencies followed their manufacturer- and marketing-company clients into the Hungarian marketplace. The size and importance of the Hungarian advertising industry have grown notably, inviting longitudinal case study analysis. This research method has been judged by Barney et al. (2001) to be especially appropriate in the study of resource endowments and asymmetries, while the use of extreme examples, such as Hungary, are recommended in general for case study analysis (Yin, 1994).In this paper, we address two research questions:1. How do local and global ad agencies use their resource endowments to compete in the Hungarian marketplace?2. How have resources affected market performance by local and global agencies?In order to provide the rich detail typically associated with the case study method, we adopt the research method recommended by Eisenhardt (1989) and Yin (1994). This method requires inclusion of specific contextual and temporal detail in order to provide insights into true cultural meaning. In this paper, particular attention is given to description of the country, the industry, and the lived experience of individual local agency members, as well as to the challenges of new market entry experienced by managers in an individual client-company, Vodafone Hungary.The paper is organized in the following sections. First findings from the RBV literature are related to the particular conditions of competition in the global advertising industry. Second, the research design, sources of data and methodologies of data collection are presented. In this section, two new empirical case studies are presented. The first depicts the advertising industry in Hungary as seen through the eyes of advertising agency members. The second examines the experience of The Vodafone Group, a global company that was an early entrant into the Hungarian marketplace. A particular feature of this market entry was the need to establish rapid relations with a local advertising agency in order to meet a short launch deadline. Next, theoretical and empirical findings about agencies' use of resource endowments in Hungary are integrated and discussed according to the RBV theory of the firm. In conclusion, limitations of the study are acknowledged and specific recommendations for research are formulated.\nLiterature review: RBV and the global advertising industry\nResearch design, methodology, and data: In an effort to answer the two research questions presented previously, a case study approach was deemed appropriate. Case study research generates rich, empirical information from multiple sources including interviews, archival data, survey data, ethnographies, and observations (Yin, 1994). Case study research also better explains relationships that are found in hard data (Mintzberg, 1979) and therefore offers unique insights into phenomena. The use of case studies is also quite desirable when the topic of interest is highly episodic and infrequent (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007) such as the entrance of global competitors in emerging markets.As recommended by extant literature (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007), two case studies, each with multiple informants, are used to provide varying view points on the Hungarian advertising industry. One case study approaches the phenomenon from the advertising agency perspective while the other case does the same from the client perspective. Informants were selected based upon our extraordinary access to key individuals in the industry (Yin, 1994). For the first case study, four agency informants were selected who represented both global and local agencies. This group represented a mix of small and large agencies, in terms of numbers of employees and clients. For the second case study, three client informants from one firm were interviewed. Great care was taken to ensure that at least one of the informants was employed by the firm during its initial market entry into Hungary, and that at least one of the informants had a more recent tenure with the firm.To begin the case research process, one of the authors conducted a face-to-face interview with the Deputy Trade Commissioner of the Hungarian Trade Commission in New York City to gain insight into the overall Hungarian market, and specifically the country's advertising industry. Next, one of the agency informants who held significant knowledge about the Hungarian advertising industry, and to whom one of the authors had easy access, was extensively interviewed over the telephone. The research objectives were to gain a broad overview and history of the Hungarian advertising market, identify relevant topics for future interviews with informants, and to pilot test the case study (Yin, 1994). From the pilot test, questions and areas of inquiry were further refined. Subsequent to this, most interviews were collected in person in Budapest, Hungary during 2005[1]. Due to travel limitations, a few of the interviews took place via e-mail and telephone. According to the recommendations by Braun and Clarke (2006) and Strauss and Corbin (1990), transcriptions of interviews with the agency and client informants were initially coded by topic [e.g. pay lower wages (Hungarian agencies); rely on relationships between multinational clients and global agency back \"home\" (global agencies); promote business longevity (Hungarian agencies); etc.]. These items were later allocated to discrete categories such as \"work product\" and \"work patterns,\" and initial relationships were detailed. The work product category, for example, featured items such as creativity, ATL and BTL services, and appeared to be influenced by marketing skills, local market knowledge, access to capital, and firm size and structure.In an effort to triangulate the data (Eisenhardt, 1989; Jick, 1979) and minimize interviewer bias (Leonard-Barton, 1990), we sought out archival data and conducted additional interviews with informants not directly employed by agencies or clients. As a result of these research efforts, we obtained communications with and archival data from several agencies. These were the Hungarian Advertising Association, the Association of Communication Agencies in Hungary, and the Budapest Business Journal's \"Intelligence service report.\" We also consulted reports made publicly available by the Hungarian News Agency about firm behavior in the Hungarian advertising industry. Based upon these additional interviews and supplementary study of archival data, we undertook extensive follow-up communications with our agency and client informants, in order to clarify points and discuss emerging themes. Thus, our research method evolved as an iterative process of research and consultation. Themes which emerged from this process were compared with earlier findings from the literature, as recommended by Eisenhardt (1989). Work by Barney (1991) suggested some initial thematic coding categories (such as \"HC,\" \"PC\") and helped us to identify relationships between categories.We discovered that much of the disparity in resource endowments between global and local advertising agencies was linked to differences in HC, PC, and OC and that the strategies employed by agencies reflected both perceived and actual strengths and weaknesses in this regard. From these observations, we selected specific examples and interview extracts for our two case studies, using the RBV theory to frame our discussion. Items were selected for inclusion based on their rich contextual and illustrative temporal value.Case study 1: advertising in Hungary: agency views\nOverview of research findings on resource endowments, market positioning and competition in Hungary's advertising industry: Two research questions were posed in the Introduction section about how local and global ad agencies use their resource endowments to achieve and defend market positions in Hungary, and how their use of these resource endowments affects strategic choice and performance. The first case study explored aspects of the Hungarian advertising industry from the point of view of local industry members; the second portrayed a global marketing company's experience as a client recruiting and working with several ad agencies in Hungary. Together, the cases provide detailed information and insight into agencies' use of resource endowments; their choice of initial and subsequent market positioning; reasons for strategic adjustments in response to market changes; as well as levels of both local and global agency performance. Several issues merit further examination and discussion. These relate to asymmetries in resource endowment; the changing value of certain resources over time; and the enduring value of select resources over time.Resource asymmetries\nLimitations and future research: The case studies presented in this paper offer only limited views of market conditions in Hungary in the period since 1989, due to the small number of interviewees and the convenience nature of the sample achieved through social networking in 2005. Possible limitations to this study include the risk of halo effects, because interviewees were speaking about an industry in which they are employed, and personal bias due to selective responses, errors, or omission. These concerns, however, should be minimal due to the use of iterative research methods and triangulation that were used first to identify sources and types of information and then to analyze the resulting data (Jick, 1979; Leonard-Barton, 1990). Moreover, given the previous lack of information about competition among local and global ad agencies in Hungary, the case studies in this paper are valuable for the richly detailed longitudinal analyses that they provide of resource endowments, asymmetries, and competition among local and global advertising agencies operating in Hungary (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1994).In this paper, our analysis of data has been structured according to the RBV theory of the firm in an effort to add to the generalizability of the RBV theory, as requested by several scholars (Levitas and Achidindorfor, 2006; Priem and Butler, 2001; Srivastava et al., 2001). Findings reported here suggest that the RBV theory is useful in explaining business and marketing phenomena in different temporal and historical contexts, as well as in different market environments (such as those in TEs). Future theory-driven studies should be conducted in other national advertising environments, in search of further insight into how local and global agencies use their resource endowments to compete against one another. Of particular interest will be studies of the use of resource endowments by small local ad agencies in China, as they face challenges from large foreign competitors in their home market.In addition, managerially-oriented research using the case method is needed to document how agencies use resource endowments to meet competition in other Eastern European markets. The present study of Hungary might be useful as a benchmark for identifying similarities and differences in other CEE countries. Results from this type of research will allow managers of Hungarian ad agencies to determine whether current resources are sufficient to support \"going international\" into neighboring CEE markets. They will also assist managers in deciding whether or not initial concentration on BTL projects and price leadership would once again be appropriate strategies. If Hungarian advertising executives choose to compete directly in the European Union, then their HC, in the form of high levels of education and familiarity with English (Wilson, 2006; Zoubir, 1999), may prove to be determinant factors for success. Studies which track the experience of Hungarian agencies in this regard will be most valuable. Finally, other researchers might use this study of Hungary as a benchmark for comparing the development and progress of advertising industries in other CEE countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to draw upon the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm in order to assess the \"who, when, where, and how\" questions about use of resources in shaping market positioning by global and local firms in a transitional economy (TE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper utilizes a longitudinal case-study approach to present and discuss resource asymmetry between global and local advertising agencies operating in Hungary.\nFindings: - RBV proves to be valuable theory, revealing an interesting and unexpected range of sources and types of resources that are being used to advantage by local and global agencies competing in Hungary. Earlier historical asymmetries in resource endowments contributed to a notable division between global and local agencies according to market sector. Specific resources, such as reputation, access to global resources, and use of Western-style business practices, proved beneficial to global firms after Hungarian market liberalization in 1989, while interpersonal relationships have emerged as a valuable resource, regardless of context.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Use of a convenience cross-sectional sampling method may contribute to some halo effects and personal bias. Additionally, results may be limited in their applicability only to the advertising industry and to Hungary as a specific TE. Future research should validate these findings in other industries and other TEs.\nPractical implications: - Findings from this study offer marketing managers operating in TEs fresh insights into how asymmetries in resource endowments at various points in an infant industry's life cycle act to influence choice of market positioning strategies and subsequent success of firms competing in the industry.\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides rich detail of the advertising industry in Hungary, suggesting directions for study of advertising industries in other TEs, not only in Eastern Europe. Results from this study increase confidence in the generalizability of RBV theory by demonstrating its usefulness and flexibility when applied to an unusual context in terms of time and space.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Home to work spillover and turnover intentions: The mediating role of training and development practices
|
[
"Turnover intentions",
"Gender",
"Training practices",
"Conservation of resource theory",
"Development practices",
"Home-work interference"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Employee turnover continues to be a major concern for organizations and managers. Many research studies are aimed at identifying predictors of turnover (Blomme et al., 2010). Although research has generally tended to focus on characteristics of the work environment as major causes of turnover, scholars are beginning to acknowledge the importance of non-work factors for work-related attitudes and behaviors (Huffman et al., 2014).\nLiterature review: Turnover\nMethod: Sample\nResults: The final SEM model is presented in Figure 1. H1a was supported. Overall, positive HWI was negatively related to turnover intentions (b = -0.16, p < 0.01), although for women, the relationship was fully mediated by perceptions of investment in training and development practices. H2a was also supported. Perceptions of investment in training and development practices were shown to mediate the relationship between positive HWI and turnover intentions, with positive HWI leading to higher levels of perceived investment in training and development practices, which subsequently led to lower turnover intentions.\nDiscussion: This paper examines relationships between positive and negative HWI and turnover intentions, in addition to investigating the mediating role that perceptions of investment in training and development practices might play in these relationships. The results demonstrated that, for both genders:\nConclusion: To prevent turnover and to retain valuable employees, the outcomes of our study challenge organizations to provide support to employees in balancing their work and home life. Our results also encourage organizations to pay attention to the needs that their employees have for development and growth, not only in terms of maintaining their employability but also with regard to retaining them within the organization. Our study thus indicates that positive home-work effects can diminish employees' intentions to leave the organization, partly via HR practices, but that negative spillover from home to work can reinforce such intentions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the relationship between home-to-work spillover, measured as positive and negative home-work interference (HWI) and turnover intentions, as well as the mediating role of perceptions concerning training and development practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected among 418 respondents who were working at two business schools. A confirmative structural equation modeling analysis was conducted for the analysis.\nFindings: As expected, positive HWI showed negative relationships with turnover intentions, while negative HWI related positively to turnover intentions. Training and development practices mediated the relationship between positive HWI and turnover intentions; the mediation effect was stronger for women than it was for men. Training and development practices did not mediate the relationship between negative HWI and turnover intentions, however.\nPractical implications: The outcomes suggest that helping employees to balance their work and home lives can be beneficial for employees, as well as for employers in terms of reducing turnover intentions.\nOriginality/value: As contributions, additional insight into the relationship between positive and negative non-work factors and turnover intentions by examining the ways in which both positive as well as negative HWI are related to turnover intentions. Furthermore, the research considers the mediating role played by perceptions concerning human resource (HR) practices, and particularly training and development practices as perceived by the employee, in the relationship between positive and negative HWI and turnover intentions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social media as a political backchannel : Twitter use during televised election debates in Norway
|
[
"Twitter",
"Television",
"Agenda setting",
"Backchannel",
"Election debate",
"Political communication"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Twitter has within few years become a prominent \"backchannel\" for televised political debates by making audience reactions visible online. By adding a specific hashtag to their tweets, Twitter users can take part in larger, public conversations about an event, reaching outside their own network of followers and followees to join the \"virtual loungeroom\" (Harrington et al., 2012). The # character is used in conjunction with a word or a phrase in order to connect the tweet to a particular theme. It allows for coordinated distributed discussion on the Twitter platform. Hence, audiences can easily turn television watching into communal, social events. As social reactions to TV shows become visible through Twitter, it allows for examination of the Twitter users' response to electoral debates in near real-time (Mascaro and Goggins, 2012). Several studies (Twitter, 2012; Bruns and Burgess, 2011; Larsson and Moe, 2011; Diakopoulos and Shamma, 2010; Elmer, 2013) have shown how Twitter has been used as a platform for continued response sharing during large televised events, such as the London Olympics, the Eurovision Song Contest or political elections.\nTwitter and mediatized events: Since its launch in 2006, Twitter's potential to challenge the role of edited media as gatekeepers and agenda setters has increasingly caught the interest of researchers. Twitter has gained international attention as a breaking news medium (Kwak et al., 2010), as a utility during crisis (Mendoza et al., 2010), as well as a backchannel for televised events, such as Eurovision Song Contest or X-Factor (Highfield et al., 2013; Lochrie and Coulton, 2012), political TV debates (Bruns and Burgess, 2011) and talk shows (Larsson and Moe, 2011), to mention a few. Kwak et al. (2010) asked \"What is Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media?\" They argued, based on a quantitative study of the entire Twitter sphere in 2009, that Twitter is less a social network (low reciprocity) and more a news medium as 85 per cent of tweeted topics have basis in news links.\nThe Norwegian context: The Norwegian election in 2011 took place in the aftermath of the tragic event on 22 July, when 77 people got killed by Anders Behring Breivik at the Utoya and in Oslo - a majority of them children participating on the Labour Party's youth camp at Utoya. Totally, 11 of the killed victims at Utoya were candidates during the 2011 local election. The tragedy happened in the early stage of the election campaign, and all the political parties agreed to postpone the election campaign as the country went through a collective mourning. The political parties agreed not to comment upon political topics or criticize each other until 13 August. These rather gloomy circumstances are particularly reflected in the first debate, when terror and security was one of the main topics.\nResearch design and methodology: In the 2011 election campaign, there were three televised debates between party leaders. The first took place on 23 August 2011 and was broadcasted on both NRK1 and TV2, the largest TV stations in Norway. The two last ones were broadcasted on 9 September 2011 (NRK1) and 10 September 2011 (TV2). The two debates broadcasted on NRK1 reached the largest audience and this study focuses on Twitter as a political backchannel during these two debates.\nFindings and analysis: During the first debate, which was held three weeks before the election, few of the Twitter participants published large quantities of tweets. The average number of tweets was 1.8 per Twitter user, while just seven had more then six postings.\nSimilarities across the two debates: Differences in the Twitter debates might be explained by the differences in the above-mentioned contextual variables. The similarities are, however, more striking and we observe five key tendencies that are similar in both debates:\nMeta talk in the debate: In order to facilitate a more in-depth discussion of the role of Meta talk in the Twitter debate, we will first look at how Meta talk relates to topics and participants in the debates. In the next section we scrutinize sentiments and attitudes (Figure 4).\nReactions to politicians' answers and the media setting: Even though the comments on Twitter closely follow the agenda in the TV debates, Twitter users raise strong opinions, both supportive and critical, particularly towards politicians' answers and the media setting. In order to examine the sentiment or attitude in the Meta talk tweets, we identified three main categories based on the data material; politicians' answers, media setting, and looks, grammar and body language. Some interesting findings are worth mentioning; a majority of the Meta talk tweets are discussions about the politicians's answers, such as:\nDiscussion: H1. During televised political debates, the debate on Twitter follows the same agenda as the televised debate.\nConclusion: In this paper, we have presented a number of insights concerning how Twitter is used during televised debates in an election campaign. Through a multiple step analysis using the IMSC model (issue, meta, sentiment, close reading), we were able to identify not only how the Twitter debate aligns very closely with the flow of the TV debate, but also how the Twitter debates supplement and contrast the debate on television. The multiple step analysis started by comparing discussed issues in the TV debates vs Twitter. Second, tweets discussing the \"the debate about the debate\", Meta talk, were identified. Third, the sentiments of Meta talk tweets were analysed (mainly related to politicians' answers and media setting), and lastly, a close reading of selected tweets were performed. Our method is well suited to perform in-depth analysis of Twitter debates, and we look forward to its further enhancement.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how Twitter is used as a political backchannel and potential agenda setter during two televised political debates during the Norwegian election in 2011. The paper engages with current debates about the role of social media in audience participation and traditional media's changing role as gatekeepers and agenda setter.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. By introducing and using the IMSC multiple step analysis model on the Twitter datasets, the authors are able to analyse the flow of thousands of tweets and compare them with topics discussed in the televised debates.\nFindings: The paper finds that the same topics are discussed on Twitter as on TV, but \"the debate about the debate\" or Meta talk tweets reveal critical scrutiny of the agenda. The paper identifies a clear pattern of political fandom and media criticism in the \"debate about the debate\", indicating that Meta talk in social media can function as a critical public sphere, also in real time, which has not been identified in existing studies of Twitter and political TV shows.\nOriginality/value: The analysis is unique in the sense that the paper analyses a smaller, national Twitter population in deeper detail than what is common in larger Twitter studies related to political televised debates. The IMSC model can be used in future Twitter studies to uncover layers in the data material and structure the findings.\n",
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] |
Power in the boardroom: a study on Turkish family-owned and listed companies
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Boards of Directors",
"Family firms",
"Turkey"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: During the last decade, there has been a remarkable increase in governance activity, in both developed and emerging markets. Although there is a divergence among corporate governance systems depending on the institutional, legal and cultural context the firms are embedded in, there is a widespread agreement that a sound corporate governance practice requires an effective exercise of share ownership, tightened disclosure standards and fiduciary responsibility of the board, the establishment of a remuneration policy for key executive managers and board members, stronger annotations on disclosure of related party transactions, a stronger call for protection of minority shareholders and greater potential for shareholders to question boards and to participate in decision-making (Ozsoy-Gokakin and Uysal, 2006). In this way, the board of directors plays an important role in the initiation, promotion and practice of good governance principles. However, depending on the characteristics (institutional, legal, cultural) of the business system in general, and governance system in particular, the board can exist as mere co-opted appendage (Mace, 1971), a \"legal fiction [...] a passive and compliant rubber stamp\" (Kosnik, 1987, p. 166), another management tool controlled and administered by managers for the promotion of their own interests (Gordon, 1945; Pfeffer, 1972) or as means to counterbalance conflicting interests of the various stakeholders.Most of the studies on boards of directors provide insight into the board's and firm's performance and the roles assumed by the board in a given economic system, namely listed companies of the Anglo-Saxon model of corporate governance. However, equity-market based Anglo-Saxon models cannot be applied to corporations in other business and governance systems (e.g. emerging economies of Asia and Turkey) characterized by close co-operation between state, the family-owned business and finance (Singh and Zammit, 2006). The focus of this paper is the board itself within the Turkish business system that is characterized by a dominant state, an emerging economy, concentrated ownership by families in the form of pyramidal structures, weak legal procedures in private property rights and minor dependence on financial markets for equity concerns. Thus, this paper provides an analysis of the board of directors in Turkish family-owned and listed firms, and addresses the following issues:* the role/responsibility of the boards;* board composition and attributes;* board dependence and power configurations; and* the responsiveness of the board to different stakeholders.Accordingly, a schema proposed by Pettigrew and McNulty (1995) to study and evaluate power and influence in the boardroom is utilized. In line with the theoretical framework of this study, the model incorporates interrelated variables at three different levels:1. institutional environment;2. structural configurations of the board; and3. board members' individual attributes in endorsing their power bases.However, in this study only data about structural configurations of the board are provided through primary data and secondary data are used to describe the institutional environment. The individual attributes are not studied. Since, this is an exploratory study, relationship between variables are not tested.The main contribution of this paper is two-fold: firstly, it brings together different literatures dealing with the board of directors, culture and legal arrangements for evaluating data concerning board attributes, composition, power configurations, responsibilities and roles in family-based governance systems characterized by listed, large family-owned and managed firms in contrast to boards of directors in equity-market based governance systems. Secondly, the paper discusses the effectiveness of economic crises in inducing a \"top down\" implementation of corporate governance practices, at least at the level of the board of directors, against the persisting path dependencies in the prevailing business system.\nCorporate governance systems and the board of directors: Corporate governance systems differ in accordance with the legal/institutional/cultural context in which the firms are embedded. Although in the literature there are various groupings of corporate governance systems (Scott, 1997; Berglof, 1997; Weimer and Pape, 1999) for the above stated purposes of this paper, a classification made by Khan (2003) is utilized. Furthermore, the focus is on the relevance, responsibilities and accountability of boards of directors in \"equity-market based\" (dominated by listed companies and observed in the Anglo-Saxon type of capitalism) and \"family-based\" (dominated by family-owned managed companies and observed in emerging economies in Asia) systems. Since these systems differ in terms of major sources of equity, separation of ownership and control, possible agency conflicts and shareholder rights, it is suggested that the roles and attributes of the board of directors in both systems are different (Khan, 2003).Boards of directors in listed firms in equity-market based systems\nTurkish institutional context: The Turkish industrialization process is characterized by the creation of a business class by the state, the limited role played by foreign direct investment, and state intervention as a major source of uncertainty. Relying on government subsidies, provisions by the state in the form of favoritism, legal and economic support and reliance on banks (especially state) for loans were common practices among the managers/owners of firms. Only in the late 1980s, due to shortage of public funds available to private business, changes observed in banking regulations and the articulation of structural adjustments in the economy, was a drift in ways of providing firms with financial resources observed. Banks that had operated only as commercial banks until then started to adopt investment banking operations as well. This move was an opportunity for large Turkish firms to deal with equity shortages and, as a result, large Turkish firms (holdings) started to establish their own banks. For financial resources, firms rely on retained earnings and short-term bank loans. Although there are different calculations for different groups of companies, the debt to equity ratio of the Turkish listed firms is high (Ugurlu, 2000). Under these conditions, it is clearly evident that Turkish firms are dependent on banks and families for equity; 77 percent of ISE-listed companies are controlled by few families that hold on the average 53.8 percent of the equity capital. Moreover family ownership is even more accentuated by pyramidal structures. The voting rights in a family owned and controlled company amount to 60 percent even though the same family owns 53.8 percent of the equity (Yurtoglu, 2000). Ownership is highly concentrated (Kula and Tatoglu, 2006), with 38 percent of the largest 100 listed companies being owned by a single shareholder who controls more than half of the equity capital. Furthermore, 84 percent of the top 100 companies are owned by five large shareholders who together control more than half of the equity (Demirag and Serter, 2003). The non-existence of hostile takeovers and the rareness of merger activity in Turkey imply a lack of an active financial market (Yurtoglu, 2000).In terms of minority shareholders' rights, Turkey is seen to be worse than some emerging economies of Asia (India, Malaysia, The Philippines, Pakistan) and in terms of juridical efficiency, Turkey is worse than all of these countries except Thailand and Indonesia (La Porta et al., 1998). The results of La Porta et al. (2004) study also reveal that countries with a French legal origin (such as Turkey) have a lower security of property rights than countries with a British legal origin. Weak legal procedures for shareholder rights, the concentration of ownership in the hands of families, the inefficiency of financial markets in the provision of equity, favoritism on the part of the state and dependence on banks create a business system that is vulnerable to political and economic instabilities. In 2000, the liquidity crisis faced by Turkish economy weakened the banking system and led to a huge increase in public debt. Although a financial crisis was prevented by the support of the IMF, this fragile economic balance was reversed in a short time by a political dispute between the president and the prime minister, and the Turkish economy had to live through one of the worst financial crisis of its history; the Turkish lira was devalued by 50 percent against major currencies, GNP decreased by 10 percent (Erturk, 2003), and failures on the part of big corporations were unavoidable. The media, the public and international investors attributed these failures to corruption and management inefficiencies in both the public and the private sectors. Thus, the IMF rescue package in 2001 included governance conditions to prevent mismanagement taking place in the Turkish economy. Post-crisis era in Turkey has been characterized as a \"re-regulation phase\", where with the support of external anchors (primarily the European Union and the IMF, with the World Bank having a secondary role) theregulatory capacities of the state have been developed in relation to building new institutions (Keyman and Onis, 2007). During this era, the existence and support of external anchors facilitated a greater commitment to reforms on the part of economic agents like domestic banking lobbies, domestic businesses (both large conglomerates and SMEs) and labor unions while improving their credibility. In this line, institutional reforms that will contribute to the strengthening of regulatory capacity of the state were realized - namely central banking reform and the establishment of Bank the Regulatory and Supervisory Agency (BRSA). The BRSA and Capital Markets of Board (CMB) became major actors in regulating corporate governance practices in Turkey. As an initial step in improving the regulatory framework, CMB issued a Corporate Governance code on a \"comply or explain\" basis in 2003, and in 2004 all companies listed on the ISE included a compliance report in their annual reports. Enforcement of corporate governance standards in line with other regulatory reforms, especially in the banking sector, strengthened the endorsement of the rule-based economic policies which are reflected in macroeconomic stability and the creation of an environment where an \"increase in supply and demand for finance had become possible and thereby both statutory and voluntary corporate governance reforms became feasible\" (Ugur and Ararat, 2006 p. 344). Accordingly, it can be argued that with the enforcement of institutional reforms, especially in the realm of corporate governance, the reliance of Turkish firms on the state and their own equity has been shifted, to a certain extent, to external financial sources.\nMethodology: Research design\nFindings: Board composition and attributes\nDiscussion: This paper outlines power dynamics in the boardroom of typical family-owned and listed Turkish companies in contrast to that of listed companies in an Anglo-Saxon type of governance system. The summary of findings presented in Tables II and III provide ample support to claim that in the Turkish family-owned and listed companies, interests of owners and managers are aligned as boards are dominated (in number and in power configurations) only by these stakeholders and structural devices to assure the representation of other stakeholders are not developed.A typical board of directors in a family-owned and listed Turkish firm consists of executive directors and family members. In most of the cases studied, independent members do not sit on the board. Minority representation on the board is negligible; existing Turkish commercial law provides little protection for minority shareholders. In Turkey, dividend rights are not related to voting rights and this situation leads to control of insiders (top management team) without giving them substantial ownership. Similarly, Turkish legal arrangements do not allow proxy voting by mail, proportional representation or legal support for non-compliance with managerial decisions (Onder, 2003). Data provided by this study also confirms that although minority stakeholders are considered to be the most important stakeholder they are not represented in the boardroom. Similarly, in terms of resource procurement customers, the state and owners respectively are considered the most important stakeholders and these results confirm the literature on the dominance of state and families in the Turkish business system (Bugra, 1996). Power balance among board members is determined by the contributions of board members in terms of critical and scarce resources (legal rights, monetary control, knowledge, personality and traditions) provided by these stakeholders (Zald, 1969).Owner and manager alliance is even further accentuated by split leadership; in most of the boards, the CEO and the chairman have separate positions and responsibilities. In Turkey, there are only a few academic studies regarding CEO duality and these studies mainly support split leadership structure (Kula, 2005, Ozsoy-Gokakin and Uysal, 2005). Furthermore, Turkish CEO as compared to his/her reference peers differs in performance evaluation; CEO turnover is not influenced by stock market performance but based on income before tax (Durukan et al., 2005). All these research findings address the vulnerability of CEO positions to the interests of majority shareholders and thus, managing relations with the family for reducing the risk of turnover. The findings of this study also reveal that managers have more opportunities to exercise their potential power in the boardroom by setting the agenda on decision making, communicating decisions and thus controlling the two-way flow of information. Situated in a brokerage position, the CEO can monitor information available both to family members and the rest of the management team.So far, the domination of Turkish corporations by family members has been discussed. However, according to the results of this survey, it may be argued that top management teams, and especially the CEO, have the chance of countervailing or dominating family members in managerial practices. This argument on CEO dominance in Turkish corporations is accentuated by the alliance of these groups in joint interest articulation at a more macro level through joining the same voluntary organizations. For example, although the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association (TUSIAD) was founded to protect the interests of owners, professional managers are also members of this organization (Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association, 2008). Accordingly, this paper argues that in Turkish family-owned and listed companies, the interests of majority shareholders (family) and managers converge and a managerial hegemony, either as the dominance of professional managers or an alliance of family members and managers, is exercised.The analysis of the roles assumed by a typical family-owned Turkish firm reveals that boards are responsible only for setting strategies, and endorsing of proper legal and ethical visibility; they are not involved in control. However, as stated by Monks and Minow (2004) the primary role of board is to monitor management on behalf of owners. These \"paper boards\" are thus mainly instruments for providing legitimacy in the economic system in order to ensure financial resources (mainly from foreign investors), a good reputation and visibility for the company.Finally, this study focuses on political, cultural and economic issues that shape the board structure of family owned and listed companies in Turkey. However, comparative studies focusing on the role of Islamic trends and the impact of both Western and Eastern influences in shaping corporate governance practices and board structures can further be brought in to study and to have a more fine-grained understanding of the issues raised in this paper.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to understand the power dynamics of the boards of directors in family-owned and listed Turkish companies. Power and dominance in the boardroom can be studied in relation to three variables: the institutional environment in which the firm is embedded; the structural configurations of the board; and the top manager's propensity to exercise his/her power resources. Focusing on the board level, this paper aims to conceptualize power dynamics as being composed of structural attributes, roles assumed, responsibilities, dependency and representation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research domain of this exploratory study is family-owned and listed companies operating on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). The data for the study were collected from three different sources: a survey administered to members of the boards of directors; discourse analysis of corporate governance compliance reports of the same companies; and in-depth interviews conducted with board members.\nFindings: - This study shows that on a typical board of directors of a family-owned and listed Turkish company, the interests of owners and managers are aligned and other stakeholders are not represented; the role of the board is confined to visibility and legitimacy and does not include control.\nOriginality/value: - This paper argues that theories developed for Anglo-Saxon equity-market based business systems have limited exploratory power for an emerging economy - namely Turkey - that is based on a business system characterized by close co-operation between the state, family-owned businesses and financial markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Context from the data reuser's point of view
|
[
"User studies",
"Research work",
"Information studies",
"Data sharing",
"Data curation",
"Data reuse"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Context is a critical component for data reuse. Defined as \"the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs\" (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context), the technical aspects of context necessary for reliable, long-term access to digital content (e.g. cultural objects, data, images, software, etc.) have been explored in the digital preservation and curation literature. Less attention has focused on the context necessary for preserving content's meaning to support reuse. Yet, preserving meaning has become increasingly important as scholarly communities look to share and reuse research data to replicate and reproduce research as well as perform novel inquiries. Although researchers have proposed frameworks (Baker and Yarmey, 2009; Beaudoin, 2012a, b; Lee, 2011), engaging with data reusers to specify the context necessary to support meaning making has occurred less frequently.\n2. Literature review: Focused on collaborative data sharing and reuse, Chin and Lansing identified two broad categories of context biologists working in the BSC needed to describe how data were created, interpreted and applied: scientific and social. These categories were the scientific context, which supported biologists' research with the data, and the social context, which facilitated biologists' collaboration with each other. Given that our study examines data reuse practices that are not the result of joint work within a collaboratory, we draw from four key context types Chin and Lansing identified that focus on the scientific context: general data set properties, experimental properties, data provenance, and analysis and interpretation.\n3. Research methodology: This paper is based on 105 interviews and observations with researchers from three disciplinary communities: social science, archaeology and zoology. The interviews and observations were done from 2011 to 2013 as part of a larger research project. A major objective of the project was to examine contextual factors affecting data reuse in these three disciplinary communities.\n4. Findings: Findings showed researchers mentioned 12 types of context information that we organized into three broad categories (Table I): data production information (data collection, specimen and artifact, data producer, data analysis, missing data, and research objectives); repository information (provenance, reputation and history, curation and digitization); and data reuse information (prior reuse, terms of use and advice on reuse). Although many of these context types have been mentioned in the literature, our findings present a more nuanced view from the perspective of researchers in three disciplines, which demonstrate different degrees of reliance on each context type (Figure 1). Findings showed not only the importance of the different types of context for each discipline, but also the ways disciplinary members thought about the different types. The researchers' disciplinary needs are shown through illustrative examples and the similarities and differences across disciplines are highlighted.\n5. Discussion: Digital curation researchers primarily focus on preservation activities to make content renderable over time (Lee, 2011; Beaudoin, 2012b). This study expanded the discussion to curation activities that enable meaning making over the long term by preserving data's context as well as content. With a specific focus on data reusers, this study examined the context researchers needed to decide whether to reuse data. Our aim was to identify the various context types data producers and repository staff ought to capture and curate. Considering context within a collaboratory, Chin and Lansing (2004) identified several context types needed for collaborative data sharing and reuse among biologists. Drawing from their research, we examined social scientists, zoologists and archaeologists' data reuse practices via repositories.\n6. Conclusion: Data reuse requires not only the preservation of data. Rather, data's meaning or the context of data production must also be preserved. Although this may seem to be an obvious conclusion, having data producers and curators put it into practice is difficult in absence of an understanding of data reuse needs. Our findings provide that understanding. We confirmed prior research on the importance of several types of context describing data's production and identified new ones, including several related to repositories and reuse. Together the 12 context types capture data production, repository and data reuse information that data producers and curators can use to guide the capture and management of data's meaning during data collection and deposit.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Taking the researchers' perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the types of context information needed to preserve data's meaning in ways that support data reuse.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a qualitative study of 105 researchers from three disciplinary communities: quantitative social science, archaeology and zoology. The study focused on researchers' most recent data reuse experience, particularly what they needed when deciding whether to reuse data.\nFindings: Findings show that researchers mentioned 12 types of context information across three broad categories: data production information (data collection, specimen and artifact, data producer, data analysis, missing data, and research objectives); repository information (provenance, reputation and history, curation and digitization); and data reuse information (prior reuse, advice on reuse and terms of use).\nOriginality/value: This paper extends digital curation conversations to include the preservation of context as well as content to facilitate data reuse. When compared to prior research, findings show that there is some generalizability with respect to the types of context needed across different disciplines and data sharing and reuse environments. It also introduces several new context types. Relying on the perspective of researchers offers a more nuanced view that shows the importance of the different context types for each discipline and the ways disciplinary members thought about them. Both data producers and curators can benefit from knowing what to capture and manage during data collection and deposit into a repository.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Internal crisis communication: An employee perspective on narrative, culture, and sensemaking
|
[
"Internal communications",
"Crisis",
"Organizational culture",
"Shareholders",
"Crisis management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Every organization will at one time or another face a crisis or a transformation, and therefore needs to be prepared to communicate with both external and internal stakeholders. Crisis communication researches have primarily focused on the external dimensions of crisis communication, such as media, social networks, and external stakeholders (Natti et al., 2014; Frandsen and Johansen, 2011; Johansen et al., 2012), which seems to be the general priority, even within organizations (Heide and Simonsson, 2014). The advices and communication plans, made by communication consultants, are often sender oriented, and focus is on how the management can follow a pre-written plan when informing external and internal stakeholders. But since every crisis is unique, it is difficult to follow a pre-written plan (Frandsen and Johansen, 2011; Wessling, 2013; Falkheimer and Heide, 2008). Furthermore, different stakeholders will, depending on their prior knowledge, interpret the crisis and the crisis communication differently (Mazzei and Ravazzani, 2011; Welch and Jackson, 2007). Hence, a distinction has to be made between external and internal crisis communication. According to, e.g. Frandsen and Johansen (2011), and Taylor (2010) there is a need of research concerning the relation between an organization and its employees during a crisis.\nBackground: The present study grew from a wish to examine what happens in a public administration which is going through a crisis, and how this affects the relations between management and employees. A number of possible cases were found through the help of the Swedish Association of Communicators (a term which in Sweden covers anybody working with communication without being part of the management), focusing on recent or ongoing crises. The study depended on the co-operation of the involved organization, which proved to be rather hard to obtain. Finally, co-operation was established with a municipality in Stockholm area. The municipality has 87,000 citizens, and 6,000 employed by the municipality. The city council is the head of the municipal government, the administrations, the municipal committees, and companies. There are seven administrations with different areas of responsibility. The administrations consist of a different number of units, each with its own area of liability.\nLayout of the study: The study was based on semi-structured interviews with six employees in the municipality who were personally affected by the fraud, including the director of the administration, the head of the concerned unit, the communicator, and three employees within the unit. The interviews were conducted in March 2014 at the co-workers offices and lasted between 45 and 90 minutes. The three employees were guaranteed that neither their co-workers at the unit, nor their superiors would be able to identify them or their answers, and they were informed that the recording of the interviews could be stopped at any time if they wanted to. The director, the communicator, and the head of the unit were aware that they could not be completely anonymous in the study due to their titles and responsibilities. During the interviews, the interviewees were asked to speak freely and primarily focus on their experiences.\nTimeline for the case: July 2013: suspicions were aroused when falsified disbursements regarding 200,000 SEK from the municipality to a firm in the construction industry was found. A former employee, who retired in June 2013 had certified the false invoices. An internal investigation started.\nFindings: Earlier research (e.g. Frandsen and Johansen, 2011) shows that the prime focus of organizations is on informing media and external stakeholders, which could also be seen in this case, where the crisis communication was successful when it came to informing media and other external stakeholders. When it came to informing internal stakeholders, the information seemed to satisfy the need for knowledge in general. However, during the research it became clear that the management and the employees had different views on the communication. While some in management thought that they had handled the crisis communication well, the perspective of the employees was quite different. The management did not present all the information that the employees felt they needed, which made them construct their own narratives, based on assumptions and rumours, as well as on the culture within the unit. However, while management interpreted the crisis as not due to any cultural problems, the employees felt that there was a shared responsibility. During the interviews, all employees said that they were victims and felt duped and manipulated, however, most interviewees did not feel that the former employee was entirely responsible and was the only one to blame:\nConclusions: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our knowledge about internal crisis communication by examining employees' views on communication and the role of narratives, culture, and sensemaking within a unit in a Swedish municipality. The reason for this is the need for managers to develop internal crisis communication into a separate strategy and not just copy external communication strategies and expect them to work internally. The findings of our study can be summarized under four headings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the study of internal crisis communication, not only the communication from the management to the employees, but also the employees' communication with each other, in order to highlight the role of communication in the employees' sensemaking during a crisis situation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was conducted as interviews with both managers and employees at a municipality in the Stockholm region, where a former employee had just been accused of embezzling approx. 25 million SEK. The interviews were analysed with particular interest to descriptions of how information was communicated, and how the sensemaking process developed.\nFindings: The crisis communication was successful when it came to informing external stakeholders and media. But the management and the employees had different views on the communication. The employees felt that management did not present all the information they needed, which made their sensemaking based on assumptions and rumours, and on the culture in the unit. Management interpreted that the crisis was not due to a culture problem, while the employees felt that there was a shared responsibility. Blaming the former employee was perceived as a way of dodging the cultural problems.\nPractical implications: Conclusions can be generalized into three points: first, differences between external and internal crisis communication need to be taken into account. Second, a crisis can strengthen existing patterns within a dysfunctional culture. Third, do not use single employees as scapegoats, putting all blame on them.\nOriginality/value: The study shows the significance of culture and rumour as components of sensemaking in a crisis situation. The results should be applicable to most kinds of organizations, commercial or not.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors influencing international fashion retailers' entry mode choice
|
[
"Fashion industry",
"Retailers",
"Market entry",
"Globalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the past two decades, international activity has become a crucial dimension for the growth of fashion retailers, who have been aggressively expanding to foreign markets (Wigley and Moore, 2007). When fashion retailers attempt to establish a presence in a foreign market, they face a critical decision in choosing the most appropriate entry mode, which is the institutional arrangements that a firm develops for transferring its products, technology, staff, and other resources to a foreign country (Hill et al., 1990). More specifically, entry mode choice in the fashion retail market refers to the mechanism that a fashion retailer chooses to enter, develop, and distribute its brands in a foreign market (e.g. by export, franchising, joint venture or wholly-owned subsidiary) (Picot-Coupey, 2006).Entry mode choice is a pivotal aspect of fashion retailers' internationalization process; however, limited research has been devoted to fashion retailers' entry mode choice despite an increasing number of fashion firms operating abroad (Doherty, 2000). Several gaps are identified in the literature of entry mode choice for fashion retailing. Although several entry mode theories have been tested in the manufacturing and service industries (Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1992; Blomstermo et al., 2006), the application of these theories are largely ignored in the fashion retailing sector, with few exceptions, such as Doherty (2007). Researchers have suggested that entry mode research in the fashion retail market often lacks a unified theoretical framework although it holds great promise for theoretical advancement (Dawson, 1994; Park and Sternquist, 2008). Furthermore, although some studies discussed the entry mode choice for retailing in general (Doherty, 1999; Gripsrud and Benito, 2005; Park and Sternquist, 2008), contributions to understanding entry mode choice practices of fashion retailers are limited. For instance, Doherty (1999) discussed international retailers' entry mode choice using examples from various sectors (e.g. electronics, beauty product), but did not focus on fashion retailing.The purpose of the present study was to address the above literature gap and identify factors that are likely to influence fashion retailers' entry mode choice. First, the present study applied established theories of entry mode choice to a fashion retailing context. Various theories have been used to examine entry mode choice in manufacturing industries (Chen and Mujtaba, 2007). These theories were integrated to generate a series of propositions, positing how different factors may influence a fashion retailer's entry mode choice. A conceptual framework was then developed to help fashion retailers choose among different types of entry modes in order to be successful in a foreign market. Finally, a case study of an Italian fashion retailer's entry into the Chinese fashion market was presented to demonstrate application of the developed propositions.\nLiterature review: Features of international fashion retailing and entry mode choice\nMethodology: Researchers have noted that applying existing theories has a potential to explain the entry mode choice for fashion retailers (Dawson, 1994; Doherty, 2000; Moore and Fernie, 2004). For example, Dawson (1994, p. 271) suggested that researchers should \"build on and adapt these ideas [generated in the manufacturing sector] and make them applicable in the retail context\". The present study integrated and applied the aforementioned theories to inform fashion retailers' entry mode choice. As a result, a total of nine factors that influence a fashion retailer's entry mode choice have been identified. The factors included: asset specificity, brand equity, financial capability, international experience, country risk, government restrictions, cultural distance, market potential, and market competition. To organize the factors for further analyses in a fashion retail context, we adapted classification schemata developed in previous research (Sarkar and Cavusgil, 1996; Pak, 2000; Chen and Mujtaba, 2007). Accordingly, the nine factors important for fashion retailers' entry mode choice were classified in three groups: firm-specific factors; country-specific factors; and market-specific factors.Based on the analysis of the nine factors that determine a fashion retailer's entry mode choice, a series of propositions were developed. As discussed in Hunt (2002), these propositions were developed in the form of bridge laws. Bridge laws are derived from fundamental laws with the purpose to bridge the gap between these fundamental laws and the specific phenomena under investigation (Hunt, 2002). Bridge laws are not directly testable, and precede derivation of research hypothesis. Research that does not state bridge laws and move directly from a theory to testable research hypotheses runs the risk of testing the hypotheses that cannot in fact be derived from the theory (Hunt, 2002). The present study is the first attempt to apply the fundamental laws of the four reviewed theories to the entry mode choice of fashion retailers; therefore, development of propositions in the form of bridge laws is a necessary step between theories and development of testable hypotheses for future empirical research.\nEntry mode choice for fashion retailers: In this section, we discuss factors that influence a fashion retailer's entry mode choice and develop a series of propositions regarding appropriate level of entry mode for fashion retailers that are expanding to a foreign market. Examples of international fashion retailers are used to support the propositions.Firm-specific factors\nA case study of an Italian fashion firm's entry into the Chinese market: The case study is based on one of the author's work experience in the Chinese fashion market. The author was employed as an assistant brand manager for an Italian company (referred to as Company X) in 2006, when the company began the process of entering the Chinese market by introducing a new brand (referred to as A Brand). In addition to this personal experience, Company X's web site provided supplemental data. Company X is a leading Italian fashion company, which has a total of 15 brands distributed internationally. Establishing a presence in the lucrative Chinese market was an important strategic initiative for the company. The company had attempted two separate entries into the Chinese market. The first entry was at the beginning of 2005; Company X starting a JV with a local firm to distribute the company's B brand. The case study focuses on the company's second entry, where A Brand entered the Chinese market in 2006. A Brand is characterized by its reasonable price and trendy design. It has gained great popularity in Italy and is well-received in many international markets. For the brand, design and marketing are the keys to its success. An entry mode of WOS was selected by the company for distributing A Brand in the Chinese market. Company X's decision-making process and entry mode choice are analyzed below in relation to the nine factors proposed above.Asset specificity\nConclusions: Whereas abundant research has focused on entry mode choice, few studies (Doherty, 2007; Wigley and Moore, 2007) have been dedicated to the entry mode choice of fashion retailers, with even less attention given to conceptual development in the field. The present study fills this gap by integrating four theories of entry mode research to identify three groups of factors (firm-specific, country-specific and market-specific) that influence entry mode choice for the fashion retail market; provide a conceptual model of entry mode choice for fashion retailers; and develop nine propositions that posit how each factor influences a fashion retailer's entry mode choice. A case study of an Italian company's entry mode choice for the Chinese market provided illustrative support to the identified factors and developed propositions.The study has important managerial implications for industry practitioners. The developed framework and propositions may be helpful for fashion retail firms that are considering entrance into foreign markets. This study helps the firm recognize the important factors and characteristics of different entry mode alternatives. In particular, a manager may use the propositions developed in this study to systematically evaluate his/her company's case to justify an entry mode decision for a specific market. It should be noted that entry mode choice is an intrinsically complex decision that requires all of the nine factors to be considered collectively. In addition, the same factors could be perceived differently by different companies or in different circumstances. Therefore, a manager needs to make the most appropriate entry mode choice based on the best overall evaluation of his/her company's case in relation to each factor.The developed propositions serve as bridge laws that bridge between the four reviewed entry mode theories and the investigation of a fashion retailer's entry mode choice. They are necessary for the development of directly testing hypothesis in the future empirical research. It is known that each of the determining factors have different importance when entering a foreign fashion retail market. For example, entering a fashion retail market in more developed countries versus less developed countries may result in a somewhat different set of determining factors, at least in terms of their importance for the entry mode decision. An important contribution of future research would be the identification of conditions that affect weighting of factors in entry mode decisions. Such research would effectively assist practitioners in prioritizing entry mode factors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a theory-based framework that informs a fashion retailer's entry mode choice into a foreign market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Aspects of transaction cost, bargaining, resource based, and internationalization theories were integrated to develop a conceptual framework for fashion retailers determining the best entry mode to foreign markets. Propositions were developed, which serve as bridge laws, bridging the gap between the theories and the investigation of fashion retailers' entry mode choice. A case study was used to demonstrate applicability of the developed propositions.\nFindings: - Three groups of factors were identified that influence entry mode choice in the fashion retail market: firm-specific factors of asset specificity, brand equity, financial capacity, and international experience; country-specific factors of country risk, cultural distance, and government restrictions; and market-specific factors of market potential and market competition. Nine propositions were generated, positing how each of the factors may influence a fashion retailer's entry mode choice.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The conceptual model and propositions require further empirical investigation. Future research also needs to systematically explore the interactions or trade-offs between different determinate factors.\nPractical implications: - A fashion retailer can use the framework and propositions to systematically evaluate the company's case to justify an entry mode decision for a specific foreign market.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first paper to describe the integration of theories to help explain factors affecting fashion retailers' entry mode choice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring the retail industry environment using nonlinear analysis
|
[
"Retail",
"Decision making",
"Sales",
"Nonlinear analysis",
"Systems perspective"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The retail industry is facing new challenges because of the market complexity associated with the omni-channel retailing (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014; Verhoef et al., 2015); an increasing variety of products and services (Mai et al., 2011) - e.g., virtual salespersons, interactive kiosks and displays, radio frequency identification systems connecting offerings with customers (Hackney et al., 2006; Pantano and Naccarato, 2010), and delivery choices; and transnational competition between different retailers in the global marketplace (Fernie and Arnold, 2002; Chase, 2013). This complexity affects decision-making processes, from store organization to supplier and customer relationships. This is particularly the case in the present period, in which obtaining financial and nonfinancial information related to environmental changes is complex (Yu and Ramanathan, 2011, 2012; Harrauer and Schnedlitz, 2016).\n2. Literature review: Because the high level of variety and variability of phenomena and the fast change of society, consumption, markets and needs, complexity is affecting different contexts and environments around the world generating effects in market relationships, company management, consumption and social life. Researchers and practitioners are interested in understanding the effects generated on the retail industry by this condition (Pantano et al., 2017). A multiplicity of contexts emerge from the retail environment by the internal and external relationships generated by involved actors (including the customer), affecting retail operations strategy (such as low cost, quality, flexibility and delivery) (Yu and Ramanathan, 2012). Customers and companies must consider network connections and strategies that are able to manage complex relationships (Castells, 1996; Capra, 1997, 2002). Different research perspectives have demonstrated the need to shift focus from the dyadic supplier-customer relationship to the network and systemic approach suggesting the use of systems perspectives and alternative statistical frameworks to manage and reduce the retail environmental complexity (Moretta Tartaglione et al., 2018).\n3. Methodology: As emerges from the analysis of the literature, systems theories suggest studying complex environments, such as the retail environment, analyzing the nonlinearity of the relationships between the various elements. Previous studies in the retail sector mainly use linear statistical models, although in recent years there has been a greater tendency to use nonlinear methods. Based on these considerations, this work is based on an exploratory analysis of the relationships between sales and internal and external environmental drivers in a retail company using a statistical comparison of linear and nonlinear models. The aim is to identify which method could better support the retail management decision-making.\n4. Results: In this section, the results from the exploratory analysis are presented with a focus on the complete representations of applied models and their comparison. It starts with a display of the linear model, follows with the GAM, closes with k-fold-cross-validation and comparison of the models.\n5. Discussion: The sequence of statistical methods applied in this work configures an emergent model based on a linear analysis followed by a nonlinear analysis and GAM comparison. The effects of the interaction of variables are noted, with an analysis of the reactions and intensity of the influences between them.\n6. Managerial implications: Considering the results obtained by explorative analysis, the systems perspective permits the identification of implications that could be of interest to companies in the retail industry. The systems perspective, following different approaches, supports researchers and practitioners in understanding: the relevance of elements/variables affecting management of companies; the existence of relations and interactions affecting the goals of companies, interpreted as systems; and the role of the environment in characterizing company performance, the ability to gain competitive advantages and retailer decision-making activity.\n7. Conclusions: This work with an explorative analysis presented the effects of nonlinear analysis upon the opportunities to capture the influence of the internal and external environmental drivers on the sales and different implications are generated. First, it is possible to affirm that nonlinear analysis, in the case of specific and complex scenarios, can represent the dynamics of relations better than linear analysis. Further, a systemic perspective seems to be an efficient approach for management to focus attention on single interactions between variables, while at the same time taking into consideration the dynamism of variables and environments that affects every retailer's strategy on a deeper level.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of the relationships between sales and internal and external environmental drivers in a retail company using a systems perspective in order to support retail management decisions with nonlinear methods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research and results are presented in two parts: the collection and explorative analysis of the data; and discussion of the managerial implications following a systems perspective. The exploratory analysis is conducted using a statistical comparison of linear and nonlinear models of sales data from a retail company. The data, which comprise two data sets, come from 45 retail stores located in different regions of the USA.\nFindings: Specifically, nonlinear models provided a better explanation of variation in retail activity (R2=46 per cent) than linear models (R2=16 per cent). In such a situation, the nonlinear analysis captures the influence of internal and external environmental drivers on retail sales.\nResearch limitations/implications: With a limited variety of external and internal drivers, the exploratory analysis aims to describe a general situation in which retailers are managing activities in complex environments as opposed to reflect on a particular retail chain.\nPractical implications: The systems perspective is used to interpret the managerial implications of the nonlinear analysis fits, particularly in cases where retail decision-makers are adapting, transforming and restructuring sources of competitive advantage in complex environments.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides an alternative perspective (the systemic one) of how retailers could interpret the relationships between internal and external variables in the dynamic environment of the retail chains with nonlinear models.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Importance and contribution of intangible assets: SME managers' perceptions
|
[
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Intellectual capital",
"Intangible assets",
"Resources"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A variety of disciplines (such as economics, organisation, strategy, management, finance and accounting) and participants (including academics, standard setters, professional bodies, government agencies, and consultants) are interested in intangible assets (Lev and Zambon, 2003). Consequently, a plethora of terminologies are used in discussing intangible assets. Terms generally used are \"intangibles\", \"intangible assets\", \"knowledge assets\", \"intellectual capital\", \"intangible capital\" (Fincham and Roslender, 2003b; Lev, 2001; Tomer, 2008), while terms such as \"intellectual assets\" (Bismuth and Tojo, 2008; Litschka et al., 2006; Robertson and Lanfranconi, 2001), \"intangible resources\" (Bontis et al., 1999), and \"knowledge resources\" (Grover and Davenport, 2001), are also used, but less frequently. Not only is there a plethora of terminologies used in the intangible asset discourse but also, these terms are sometimes used interchangeably (OECD, 2008) and ambiguously. Added complexities in this research field are that there is no consensus as to the meanings and definitions of these terms (Diefenbach, 2006; Sullivan, 2000; Sveiby, 1997) with an ongoing definitional debate (Canibano et al., 2000; Guthrie et al., 2001; Holland, 2004; Lev, 2001; van der Meer-Kooistra and Zijlstra, 2001). In the New Zealand (NZ) accounting standard, an intangible asset is defined as: \"An identifiable non-monetary asset without physical substance\" (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, n.d.). However, in the intellectual capital (IC) literature, intangible assets are defined as: \"claims to future benefits that do not have physical or financial embodiments\" and \"non-physical sources of value generated by innovation, unique organizational designs, brands, and human resources\" (Lev, 2001). These definitions indicate that \"intangibles\" has a broader meaning in the IC literature than in prevailing accounting standards. For clarity of meaning in the current study, the following definitions and examples were provided. Intangible assets are: \"all the assets/resources, elements and capacities that are attributed to an organisation and contribute to the delivery of the organisational strategy, which are not currently recognised and disclosed in the balance sheet\". Intangible assets are collectively referred to as intellectual capital. Examples of such intangible assets include among others skills, know-how, brands, corporate reputation, organisational capabilities, relationships with customers and suppliers, and employee innovativeness.There is a bewildering array of articles and studies (conducted mostly on large firms) investigating various issues on intangible assets and intellectual capital. There is a general assumption and acceptance that intangible assets are critically important in most organisations and that they make several contributions to the success of a business. Consequently it is argued that it is critically important that intangible assets be well understood, properly managed and that it should play a major role in the strategic management process (Hall, 1992; Luthy, 1998; Marr, 2008). However, there is scarce evidence as to whether this assumption and argument is valid for small and medium firms. Moreover, there is yet no general standard that offers guidelines for measuring and reporting on the performance of these value drivers (DiPiazza and Eccles, 2002). Although this is a dilemma for large firms, more so for small and medium size firms who may not even be aware that intangible assets are important value drivers. Research on IC applied to SME managements' perceptions as to which intangible assets are most important and contribute to their businesses' success in particular is scarce. The current study attends to this gap and investigates if the broad assumption and acceptance of the importance of intangible assets and their contributions is relevant for SMEs.The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 reviews the claims in the literature that intangible assets are important and that they make contributions to business' success. The study's research method is explained in section 3. Section 4 presents the results and discusses the findings. The paper concludes with final comments and suggestions for future research.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Importance and contribution of intangible assets\n3. Research method: We sent a postal questionnaire to NZ[2] small and medium enterprises (SME) so as to ascertain managers' perceptions about the importance and contributions of intangible asset components to the success of their businesses. We also assessed participants' familiarity with the term IC and their preference as to using the terms IC, intangible assets or a term of their own. Questionnaires were used as they are relatively cheaper to administer than any other method that can be used to gather opinions and responses of the sample population and can be sent out in large quantities (Bryman and Bell, 2007).3.1 Defining small and medium enterprises\n4. Results and discussions: The results are presented and discussed separately for the four sections of the questionnaire.4.1 Section 1: geographic information\n5. Conclusion and areas for future research: This study covers the gap in the research on IC applied to SMEs. The paper provides evidence that the assumed broad acceptance about the importance of intangible assets and their contribution to business success is valid not only for large entities but for SMEs as well. This is important evidence to raise awareness among SME managers that understanding, identifying and managing intangible assets are important, as these resources are important value drivers and give their businesses a competitive advantage. Such awareness is essential in particular in countries in which SMEs make up a significant proportion of the country's business and employment. The results of this study provide useful information about which intangible assets other SME managers perceive are important and make contributions to their businesses. This information may be a starting point and benchmark for SME managers who are unfamiliar and ignorant about these aspects. The study also supports the literature that it is problematic to frame and separate IC components. Respondents clearly indicated that their intangible assets have considerable overflows, are entangled and inert, and that their people are key contributors to the success of their businesses, and are enablers of other corporate resources.This study adds to the limited prior descriptive evidence in the area of the importance and contribution of intangible asset components (DiPiazza and Eccles, 2002; Hall, 1992; Hollis, 2004; Litschka et al., 2006). Our study gives empirical evidence as to claims in the literature that IC is important and makes several contributions to the success of businesses and in particular filling the gap of such evidence for SMEs. The paper indicates that managers of SME in the Auckland region in NZ consider the majority of intangible asset components as being essential, very important and important to the success of their businesses and that these components collectively contribute to several aspects of their businesses. The components that the majority of respondents rated as being \"essential\" to the success of business are customer satisfaction (highest score), followed by customer loyalty and corporate reputation and then product reputation. Based on average ratings, these four components also rank as the four most important relative to the other components in the questionnaire.The statistical analyses when categorising the components into three IC categories show that most components in the external capital category are perceived as being essential, and those in the human and internal capital categories are being perceived as very important. Also, more components in the human capital category are considered being essential, very important and important in total than in the other two categories. Our statistical analyses to determine if there are correlations between the number of employees and the importance of intangible assets, and the number of employees and the three IC categories all show no evidence of such associations. We can conclude that the number of employees does not affect SME managers' rating of the importance of intangible asset components.The completed questionnaires showed no evidence that respondents had difficulty with identifying the level of importance for the 23 standalone components. However, when asked to identify intangible asset component(s) that make specific contributions, they commented that separating IC into different components is problematic. Their answers clearly show that their intangible assets are entangled, have considerable overflows and that people are essential contributors to all areas of their businesses. This suggests that separating IC into different components is only meaningful to help executives and managers in identifying and understanding their important value drivers so that they can manage them effectively. However, disentangling IC into different components or even categories is a futile exercise in investigating and understanding the contributions IC makes, and in determining their value to a business.These conclusions must be moderated by the following considerations. First, while the database for the sample selection is comprehensive, it is not exhaustive. In particular, there is the possibility of a bias against SMEs that were not included in the database. Nonetheless, there were still a significant number of SMEs listed in the database. Second, the use of a small sample and a questionnaire approach raises certain difficulties. Therefore, it is not suggested that the responses received are in any sense statistically representative of the views of SMEs in NZ, or that a fairly short questionnaire is the optimal method of eliciting respondents' views on a complex topic. However, in spite of the limits to what can be concluded from the results of the current study, the data can complement other research in this area. For example, the management practices, governance arrangements and growth aspirations of SMEs in NZ are generally considered to be qualitatively different to larger firms (NZ MED, 2010). Hence this study's results can complement those of similar studies conducted for large NZ entities.Issues of key interest for future research are to explore SME management practices regarding governing their intangible assets, what information they record and how they apply this in their businesses to create value. Such data might be relevant and useful to large enterprises, in NZ as well as internationally. Other suggestions for future research are replicating the current study to determine similarities and difference in the following scenarios:* SME in Auckland region with other urban centres in NZ;* SME in NZ with SME internationally;* NZ SME with NZ large entities;* NZ large entities with international large entities; and* SMEs with large entities.Other possible avenues to further explore relate to comments of respondents. A few respondents indicated that \"people\" make several contributions to their businesses. Exploring the meaning of \"people\" might shed light on components classified in the human capital category. Currently, employees are classified as human capital, whereas suppliers, customers and investors are categorised as components of external or relational capital. Perhaps all people should be grouped together in a single category such as human capital?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in an attempt to cover the gap in research on intellectual capital (IC) applied to SMEs. The paper informs the debate on the importance of IC by providing empirical evidence of SME managers' perceptions about the importance and contribution of intangible assets to their businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Questionnaires were sent to New Zealand SMEs investigating managers' perceptions about the importance of and the contributions that intangible asset components make to their businesses, and to assess their familiarity with the term intellectual capital (IC) and their preferences in using the term IC versus intangible assets. The results pertaining to the importance of intangible assets were statistically analysed.\nFindings: - This paper informs that the broad assumption that intangible assets are important and are value drivers of business' success is valid for small and medium enterprises. The majority of respondents perceive intangible asset components to be essential, very important and important to the success of their business and that these components collectively make several contributions to their businesses. Based on average rating, customer satisfaction ranked as the most important and thereafter customer loyalty, corporate reputation, product reputation and employee know-how. A minority of respondents indicated that only a few components are not very important and not important at all, the least important component being distribution agreements, followed by employee education and relationships with investors. The majority of respondents are familiar with the term IC, and the same number prefer to use the term \"intangible assets\" as those preferring to use the term IC.\nPractical implications: - Providing evidence of SME managers' perceptions of the importance and contributions of intangible assets is essential to raise awareness among SME managers in understanding, identifying and managing intangible assets that are important value drivers for their businesses. Such awareness is essential in particular in countries where SMEs make up a significant proportion of business and employment. The results of this study may be a benchmark for SME managers unfamiliar and ignorant about the topic of this research.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is the first providing empirical evidence as to SME managers' perceptions about the importance of and the contributions of intangible assets to their businesses, as well as about their familiarity with the IC concept and preference in using IC terminology.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comparing tasks of 160 occupations across eight European countries
|
[
"Expert rating",
"Job content",
"Jobholder rating",
"Task sets",
"Web survey",
"Work analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Does an Italian plumber engage in the same activities as a plumber from France, Poland or the UK? This paper aims to investigate the similarity of occupations across EU member states, hence it does not seek to explain differences across countries, but rather the extent of similarity. This is a relevant topic for both scientific and practical reasons. The scientific relevance refers to the growing interest in occupations as a core concept in scientific disciplines. Occupations have been explored for almost a century in I/O psychology (Morgeson and Dierdorff, 2011), and for half a century in the sociology of occupations (e.g. Larson, 1977). In labor economics, the studies on gender segregation by occupation and equal pay exists for several decades (e.g. Reskin, 1984), whereas a recent development focusses on the task-based approach analyzing outsourcing (Autor et al., 2003) or the transferability of skills across occupations (Gathmann and Schonberg, 2010).\n2. Occupations and the related work activities: 2.1 Task sets in jobs and occupations\n3. Hypotheses, method and data collection: 3.1 Research objective\n4. Results: 4.1 Similarity across occupations disregarding countries\n5. Conclusion and discussion: This paper started with the question whether an Italian plumber performs the same activities as a plumber from Germany, Poland or France. This is a relevant question for scientific and practical reasons. A review of the literature in this field reveals that empirical explorations are lacking, while the value of knowledge about the comparability of occupations emerges with the increasing labor market mobility in European. Using the data collected in the EU-FP6 funded EurOccupations project, this paper aims to investigate the similarity of 160 occupations across eight EU member states. Our study builds on the work of the O*NET(r) Center in the USA and its approach of analyzing work activities by means of job-specific descriptions. The 160 occupations were selected from a list of 1,500 occupational titles, such that occupations of all skill levels, male as well as female-dominated occupations, large occupations and burred occupations were included. Departing from the O*NET(r) guidelines, for each occupation approximately ten unique tasks task descriptions were drafted and translated, applying desk and internet research and using information from at least six different sources. In the next step a multilingual web survey was designed, asking on a five-point linear rating scale how often each task was performed and how important the task was. In all eight European countries experts and jobholders were recruited to respond to the survey, resulting in 2,950 ratings from 2,468 expert raters and 1,247 ratings from jobholders.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Do similar job titles refer to the same work activities, as assumed often, but hardly empirically tested? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the similarity of 160 occupations within and across eight European countries using interrater agreement statistics (rWG).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a multilingual web survey, experts and jobholders in the eight countries rated the frequency of ten tasks per occupation they had knowledge of (n=4,197 ratings). Three hypotheses are investigated: first, interrater agreements of occupations are similar regardless the country; second, interrater agreements of occupations are similar within countries; and third, experts and jobholders are similar in their ratings.\nFindings: Half of the occupations reveal no agreement across ratings, one-third shows a weak/moderate agreement and one in ten shows a strong agreement. H1 is rejected for task frequency but not for task importance. Within-country similarity of occupations is larger than across-country similarity. H2 is supported for two countries and rejected for two other countries. H3 is not supported. Jobholders demonstrate higher agreement than experts.\nResearch limitations/implications: An empirical testing of occupation-specific tasks for a wide range of occupations across Europe seems a viable approach.\nPractical implications: The paper contributes to the challenges related to labor market mobility across borders.\nOriginality/value: Work tasks for a wide range of occupations and countries, using job-specific work activities in combination with web surveys and the internet for recruitment of jobholders, have not been used before.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The interplay between SME owner-managers and the brand-as-a-person
|
[
"SMEs",
"Brand personality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Brands are a valuable asset for small and large organisations, as they produce a bundle of benefits which enhance the relationship among the firm, its owners, its customers and other stakeholders (de Chernatony and McDonald, 2003; Kapferer, 2004; Keller, 2001). When seeking to position a brand successfully, brand managers connect their brands with consumers through intangible aspects of the brand, such as the brand personality, as a basis for creating affinity. This aspect of brands is part of the brand-as-a-person metaphor, which includes its personality, demographics and behaviour (Machado et al., 2019). Prior studies have shown that consumers connect with brands whose personalities are similar to theirs (Freling et al., 2011; Huang et al., 2012; Radler, 2018).\n2. Brand-as-a-person: definition, purpose and dimensions: Animism (Flight and Coker, 2016; Guthrie, 1993; Nida and Smalley, 1959) and anthropomorphism (Epley et al., 2007; Tuskej and Podnar, 2018; Waytz et al., 2010a) are the theoretical building blocks with which to study the brand-as-a-person metaphor (Aaker, 1997; Fournier, 1998; Davies and Chun, 2003; Gardner and Levy, 1955; Hanby, 1999; King, 1973). Animism, which is defined as \"attributing life to the non-living\" (Guthrie, 1993, p. 52), has also been referred to as the belief that objects acquire souls in the sense that they have a core essence similar to an ancestry or genealogy (Aggarwal, 2004). Anthropomorphism is defined as \"attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things or events\" (Guthrie, 1993, p. 52). Social psychology provides extended research on how humans anthropomorphise inanimate objects and non-human actors like supernatural beings (Epley et al., 2008; Niemyjska and Drat-Ruszczak, 2013), computers (Gong, 2008; Waytz et al., 2010b) and pets (Chartrand et al., 2008; Epley et al., 2008). With the expanded presence of brands in consumers' lives, interest has increased in how animism and anthropomorphism can improve consumer-brand interactions and relationships between the brand and the brand managers, including SME owner-managers (Herskovitz and Crystal, 2010).\n3. Research focus: the small-to-medium-sized enterprise context: From the beginnings of SME branding research in 2005 and after more than a decade of research, there is evidence to suggest that SMEs' performance benefits from brand management (Agostini et al., 2015). While some studies have suggested that brand management is a secondary task for SME managers (Krake, 2005), others have suggested that branding is an essential activity for building brand reputation, marketing a product/service and increasing profit (Spence and Essoussi, 2010; Tormala and Gyrd-Jones, 2017). These contradictory results may be due primarily to the personal position that the SME owner-manager may take towards marketing and branding in particular and to how the SME owner-manager makes decisions.\n4. Research methodology: Previous studies have called for qualitative research to determine how SME owner-managers develop business strategies (Berthon et al., 2008; de Massis and Kotlar, 2014; Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2016; McCarthy, 2003) and to explore the changing and evolving context of marketing (Gummesson, 2005). The present study uses the grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) to explore the brand-as-a-person metaphor and its relationship to SME owner-managers. Such authors as Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Gephart (2004) recognise grounded theory as a practical method for conducting research that focuses on the interpretive process by analysing the production of the meanings and concepts social actors use in real settings. The procedures of grounded theory are designed to develop a well-integrated set of concepts that provide a thorough theoretical explanation of a social phenomenon. Grounded theory should explain as well as describe and may also import some degree of predictability but only with regard to specific conditions (Corbin and Strauss, 1990).\n5. Results: 5.1 The pathways for the creation and development of brand-as-a-person\n6. Theoretical contribution: The present study contributes to the extant literature on SME brand management in several ways and in relation to the influence of the SME owner-manager on the brand-as-a-person metaphor (Dion and Arnould, 2016; Odoom et al., 2017). First, it demonstrates empirically the presence of the brand-as-a-person in SMEs. It offers a conceptualisation of the brand-as-a-person by acknowledging the various paths by which the SME owner-manager may take in the creation and development of the metaphor. In doing so, the study demonstrates the congruence between the two. This study also reinforces that the entrepreneurial activity of SME brand management is guided by the leading role of the entrepreneur in a highly complex, self-defined job based on aspects of his or her self-concept (Frese and Gielnik, 2014). To the best of the researchers' knowledge, this is the first study to highlight the interplay between SME owner-managers and the brand-as-a-person metaphor. Academic research on SMEs should consider that personality traits, abilities and values imply a particular style of management and strategy formulation (Kienzler, 2017) and address the extent to which SME owner-managers are involved in the creation and components of particular brand strategies, such as brand-as-a-person. By exploring the presence of brand-as-a-person and the possible relationship between SME owner-managers and their brands, this study offers a sound explanation of how SMEs' brand strategies are developed.\n7. Managerial implications: When entrepreneurs create and develop a brand as part of their entrepreneurial activities, they are involved in a self-defined job that involves their personalities and other personal characteristics (Frese and Gielnik, 2014). Therefore, when they are particularly interested in moving from an intuitive to a rational approach to creating brand-as-a-person, they should follow a managerial roadmap to help them establish a systematic process in the enterprise. As depicted in Figure 1, SME owner-managers should be conscious of the human characteristics already given to their brand-as-a-person and undertake a personal assessment of not only their own personality traits but also their abilities and knowledge, tastes and preferences and values as to become more aware of her/his personal characteristics.\n8. Limitations and future research: This study is not without limitations. This is a qualitative exploratory study, and future research should test empirically the results presented across a wider variety of participants. As this study is the start of the exploration of brand-as-a-person in the context of SMEs, theory must be developed to address how brand strategy moves from an intuitive/unconscious to a rational/conscious level. Future research may draw on the entrepreneurial orientation and learning literatures to help fill many of the gaps in this area of branding, particularly regarding the close relationship between the SME owner-manager and his or her brand-as-a-person.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the largely unexplored conceptualisation of the brand-as-a-person metaphor in small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by examining its potential relation with the SME owner-manager, the pathways to its creation and development and the intuitive nature of this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A grounded theory approach was used, and data were collected through a set of 36 semi-structured interviews with 30 SME owner-managers in various sectors in Mexico.\nFindings: The results indicate that SME owner-managers intuitively humanise their brands. The study revealed four pathways to develop the brand-as-a-person metaphor in the SME context: through personality traits, tastes and preferences, abilities and knowledge and values, all suggesting that SMEs' brand-as-a-person metaphors are largely an extension of their owner-managers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper presents a theoretical framework that illustrates the four pathways to the creation and development of brand-as-a-person that are derived from the brand's relationship with the SME owner-manager. The results of cross-industry semi-structured interviews are limited to a single culture context.\nPractical implications: SME owner-managers should first undertake an introspective personal assessment of their intuitive and conscious decision-making, as SME owner-managers often make decisions in an intuitive way. The results suggest that they should act in a more conscious, responsible and rational way when formulating their brand strategies.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to clarify the profound influence of SME owner-managers' personal characteristics, including personality traits, tastes and preferences, abilities and knowledge and values, on the brand-as-a-person metaphor. This study also confirms the intuitive learning strategy formulation of SME owner-managers' branding practices and SMEs' need for a more rational approach to branding.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The new age of customer impatience: An agenda for reawakening logistics customer service research
|
[
"Customer experience",
"Customer service",
"E-commerce",
"Online retailing",
"Logistics service",
"Amazon effect",
"Customer impatience",
"Omnichannel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Higher expectations in terms of logistics customer service (LCS) have become the norm rather than the exception in today's supply chains. Customers still want fast service; however, in the current era of omnichannel retailing and e-commerce, they also want flexible delivery options (Douglas, 2013) that are customized and tailored to their individual needs (Terry, 2014). In an editorial to the omnichannel logistics special issue of International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, guest editors Saghiri et al. (2018) concisely captured the current business environment and continuing escalation in consumer expectations.\nOverview of previous logistics customer service (LCS) research topics: Our overview of the academic literature is organized around key themes observed in academic journal articles. These themes are represented in the selected articles (summarized in Table I) and provide a chronological review of LCS academic research to date. The purpose of this overview is not to review all relevant literature related to the evolution of LCS. Readers are referred to Rao et al. (2011) and Leuschner et al. (2013) for comprehensive reviews. Our intent is to track academic topical coverage over the years - and to supplement this with an overview of key LCS coverage in recent logistics-related trade publications.\nObservations from the trade press: Everybody's got a customer service story, and it's rarely a happy one. The surly or inattentive clerk. Pressing \"1\" on the handset over and over again in search of a human voice-with a recorded voice telling you just how important your business is to rub salt in the wounds [...]. (such) daily experiences illustrate that there aren't many players in business today who really get what customer service is about-or how it can translate into competitive advantage.(van Bodegraven and Ackerman, 2009, p. 47)This quote represents a significant observation in the trade press in the mid-late 2000s. As the academic literature shifted to a greater focus on the end consumer, a similar trend is mirrored in the trade press. In April 2018, Logistics Management published a Special Issue titled \"The E-commerce Logistics Revolution\" contending that \"software, technology, and processes that are helping today's retail and manufacturing professionals exceed ever-increasing customer demands - whether in B2B or direct to consumers\" (Levans, 2018, p. 3). Just as customer power was recognized as the driver for LCS in the supply chain in the 1980s, consumer spending power is arguably becoming the ultimate supply chain disruptor. As the dominant force of commerce, specifically e-commerce, consumers' purchasing behaviors are changing the face of LCS in recognition of the increased need for personalization of service configurations.\nWhere do we go from here - refocusing and reimagining customer service: Although academic coverage specific to LCS has declined somewhat in recent years, we see an increased emphasis on service in the realm of omnichannel fulfillment strategies. As such, the importance of LCS should not be assumed to be diminished in today's business environment. The reality is that, in the age/era of customer impatience, it's more important than ever.\nConclusion: Over 40 years ago, Heskett (1977) pointed out that \"Logistics can spell the difference between success and failure in a business\" (p. 85). Similarly, in one of the early investigations of what firms can do when customers change what they value, Flint and Mentzer (2000) reminded us that \"understanding how customers' logistical needs change over time is a key component to predicting what customers may value in the future\" (p. 41). These statements are still true today. In fact, LCS is more critical than ever in support of retailing in an omnichannel and e-commerce era. Logistics can provide the coordination to integrate supply chain activities. Such integration is essential to handling the complexity and time pressures associated with omnichannel and online retailing. Customers demand more and they are impatient. They don't want to wait - \"Consumers are looking for that immediate delivery option\" (Beckwith, 2017, p. 44). This is unlikely to change. \"One thing is certain, though: e-commerce and omnichannel retail leaders have trained their customers to expect more options and better service [...] they want to order a product this morning and receive it this evening\" (Douglas, 2017b, p. 45).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the body of logistics customer service (LCS) research published in leading logistics journals from 1990 to 2017. Specifically, the paper presents a call to arms for logistics and supply chain researchers to address new and emerging issues impacting customer service in the age of omnichannel and e-commerce retailing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors reviewed academic journals to identify articles focusing on LCS from 1990 through 2017. The authors noted trends in academic research activity/focus and supplemented the findings by examining more recent trends covered in trade publication articles.\nFindings: The authors observed a large amount of LCS research in the early 1990s and 2000s, but noticed a substantial decline in coverage within academic journals since the late 2000s while industry continues to give customer service issues even greater attention. The difference between the level of coverage within academic journals and the increased importance firms place on customer service represents a critical gap and opportunity for scholars. This research represents a \"call to arms\" to address this gap. With particular emphasis on observed customer impatience and escalating requests, within omni- and e-commerce channels of distribution, we suggest greater theoretical insights into customer service strategies and their role in successfully navigating today's changing logistics service environment are needed.\nOriginality/value: The review serves as a call for more attention to customer service issues within leading logistics journals. Suggestions for research into new and emerging topics are offered.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Limited higher order beliefs and the welfare effects of public information
|
[
"Strategic uncertainty",
"Coordination games",
"Levels of reasoning",
"Private information",
"Public information",
"Higher-order beliefs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There has been an extensive debate about the welfare effects of transparency in environments with strategic complementarities, started by the seminal paper by Morris and Shin (2002). Strategic complementarities are widespread in macroeconomics, models of financial crises, price competition, investment in network goods, and many other economic situations. In games with strategic complementarities, public, and private information about an uncertain state of the world have distinct effects, because information that is shared by several agents is more informative about the likely beliefs and actions of others than private information. Given that public signals are more informative, rational players put a higher weight on these signals than on private signals of equal precision. In equilibrium, the weight on public signals is even higher, because rational players account for the rationality of others and the attached weights are strategic complements.\n2. Welfare analysis in the Morris-Shin-model: In the model of Morris and Shin (2002), there is a continuum of agents i. The payoff function for agent i is given by:\n3. A cognitive hierarchy model on the use of public and private information: Cornand and Heinemann (2014) present an experiment, in which subjects repeatedly play a beauty-contest game based on Morris and Shin (2002). In each round, each subject is randomly matched with another subject, and the payoff function is such that players want to choose actions that are close to an unknown fundamental but also close to each other. Each subject receives two signals on the fundamental, a private signal, and a common signal. The common signal is the same for both subjects, and subjects know, which of the two signals is common. All signals have the same precision. Appendix 1 provides more details about the design of this experiment. Varying the relative importance of the coordination motive, Cornand and Heinemann measure the relative weights that subjects put on the two signals[5].\n4. Welfare analysis for level-2 reasoning with coordination entering welfare: If coordination is socially desirable, then public information is beneficial in equilibrium, while private information may have detrimental effects on welfare. This is an outcome, for example in Woodford's (2005) variant of the model, where coordination enters the welfare function. In this section, we check the robustness of these results with respect to limited levels of reasoning. The payoff for agent i is given by:\n5. Limited levels of reasoning and partial publicity: Concepts of intermediate publicity as in Cornand and Heinemann (2008), Morris et al. (2006), or Myatt and Wallace (2014) seem especially relevant for representing the way subjects deal with public signals. The model of Cornand and Heinemann (2008) is very similar to that of Morris and Shin (2002) with the same utility, distribution, and welfare functions. The difference is that agents have access to the public signal y only with some probability P\n6. Welfare effects of transparency with policy interventions and limited levels of reasoning: James and Lawler (2011) show that opacity is always optimal when the central bank simultaneously releases a public signal and uses a policy instrument for stabilization policy. The reason is that public policy and private actions are perfect substitutes in responding to the fundamental (shock). In the first-best solution, the sum of an agents' private and the public action[16] should equal the expected state of the world given this agent's private and the government's information. By disclosing its information to private agents, the government induces a distortion in private actions toward this public signal. If the government would act after private agents, it could undo the bias and transparency would have no welfare effect. With simultaneous decisions, however, private agents take the government's equilibrium action into account and deviate even further from their private signals. Thereby, the sum of both actions gets distorted away from the optimum. In order to avoid this, the government should secretly respond to its information without disclosing or signaling it to the private sector. This logic is robust to coordination being socially desirable and to the possibility of providing partially public information (James and Lawler, 2012). As we formally show in this section, it also holds when private agents choose actions with limited levels of reasoning. The conclusions by James and Lawler just require that private responses to public signals differ from the social optimum, which is true under limited levels of reasoning of any degree except 1.\n7. Conclusion: The literature in the vein of Morris and Shin (2002) has largely been interpreted in terms of central bank communication and concentrates on discussing welfare effects of central bank announcements using equilibrium theory. We contribute to this discussion by showing that deviations from full rationality that are regularly observed in experiments relying on generalized beauty-contest games as Morris and Shin (2002), provide an additional argument in favor of transparency. Different from all the previous papers, our argument is not based on equilibrium theory and proposes instead a behavioral approach. Subjects in the lab behave more in line with limited levels of reasoning than with equilibrium theory. Under limited levels of reasoning, subjects attach smaller weights to public information than in equilibrium. This at least reduces negative welfare effects of public information. The precise conclusions from such a behavioristic view depend on the environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In games with strategic complementarities, public information about the state of the world has a larger impact on equilibrium actions than private information of the same precision, because the former is more informative about the likely behavior of others. This may lead to welfare-reducing \"overreactions\" to public signals as shown by Morris and Shin (2002). Recent experiments on games with strategic complementarities show that subjects attach a lower weight to public signals than theoretically predicted. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the welfare effects of public signals accounting for the weights observed in experiments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Aggregate behavior observed in experiments on games with strategic complementarities can be explained by a cognitive hierarchy model where subjects employ limited levels of reasoning. They respond in a rational way to the non-strategic part of a game and they account for other players responding rationally, but they neglect that other players also account for others' rationality. This paper analyzes the welfare effects of public information under such limited levels of reasoning.\nFindings: In the model by Morris and Shin (2002) public information is always welfare improving if strategies are derived from such low reasoning levels. The optimal degree of publicity is decreasing in the levels of reasoning. For the observed average level of reasoning, full transparency is optimal, if public information is more precise than private information. If the policy maker has instruments that are perfect substitutes to private actions, the government should secretly respond to its information without disclosing or signaling it to the private sector independent of the degree of private agents' rationality.\nOriginality/value: This paper takes experimental evidence back to theory and shows that the main result obtained by the theory under rational behavior breaks down if theory accounts for the bounded rationality observed in experiments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Suggestion systems in organizations: what motivates employees to submit suggestions?
|
[
"Innovation",
"Employee behaviour",
"Employee communications",
"Motivation (psychology)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Given the changing environments and growing competition in today's markets, innovation - both developing new processes or products and improving existing ones - is a necessity for organizations wishing to survive (Amabile et al., 2005; Mumford and Licuanan, 2004). Suggestion systems play a pivotal role for organizations wishing to become more innovative. They are of great importance to organizations for two reasons: first, they supply companies with impressive cost savings (Figueroa, 2000; Imai, 1986; Yasuda, 1991). Second, they channel innovative behaviour in a useful direction (Frese et al., 1999; Ohly et al., 2006); employees with new ideas get the opportunity to submit a suggestion and to receive feedback for it (Fairbank and Williams, 2001). Thus, by providing suggestion systems, organizations benefit directly from the innovativeness of their employees.\n1 Hypotheses development: Interactional justice is related to the motivation to submit suggestions\n2 Method: Participants and procedures\n3 Results: First, we tested the simple mediation model suggested in H1 and H2. To address H3, we integrated the moderator variable into the proposed model. Finally, we empirically tested H4 to evaluate our overall moderated mediation model. Prior to our analyses, all continuous measures were z-standardized (Aiken and West, 1991).Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all study variables are presented in Table I.Results for H1 and H2 are depicted in Table II. Supporting H1, interactional justice was positively associated with the motivation to submit suggestions, as indicated by a significant unstandardized regression coefficient (b=0.57, t=7.00, p<0.00). Further, with regard to H2, the link between interactional justice and VSS was supported (b=0.52, t=6.19, p<0.00). Furthermore, VSS had an effect on the motivation to submit suggestions (b=0.55, t=6.74, p<0.00). The relationship between interactional justice and motivation to submit suggestions declined, but remained significant, when VSS was controlled (b=0.39, t=4.33, p<0.00). Thus, - using the criteria suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986) - the results show a partial mediation effect and support H2.The formal two-tailed significance test shows that the indirect effect was significant and also shows a mediation effect (Sobel z=3.52, p<0.00). Bootstrap results align with the Sobel test (Table II). The bootstrapped 99 percent confidence interval around the indirect effect did not contain zero (0.05, 0.40). Thus, H1 and H2 were supported; we found a positive relationship between interactional justice and motivation to submit suggestions, which was partially mediated by VSS.Table III provides the results for H3. Results indicate that the interaction term between VSS and wellbeing on motivation to submit suggestions was indeed significant and explained an additional 4 percent of the variance (b=0.21, p<0.05). To further investigate this moderated relationship, we plotted regression lines of VSS on motivation to submit suggestions under conditions of low and high wellbeing, using one standard deviation above and below the mean as reference points.As shown in Figure 2, the form of these interactions conformed to the predicted patterns, with the linkage between VSS and motivation to submit suggestions being weaker under conditions of lower wellbeing than under conditions of higher wellbeing. Hence, H3, predicting an enhancing moderator effect of wellbeing on the positive relationship between VSS and motivation to submit suggestions, was supported.Although our results demonstrated that wellbeing moderated the relationship between VSS and motivation to submit suggestions, which in turn is influenced by interactional justice, we additionally needed to assess the conditional indirect model shown in Figure 1. That is, we tested H4 by examining the conditional indirect effect of interactional justice on motivation to submit suggestions (through VSS) at three values of wellbeing (Table IV): the mean (0.00), one standard deviation above the mean (1.03), and one standard deviation below the mean (-1.03). Both normal theory-based tests and bootstrap contingence intervals estimates showed that conditional indirect effects, at two of the three values of wellbeing (those based on moderator values at the mean and at+1 standard deviation) were significantly different from zero. Thus, H4 was supported, indicating that the indirect positive effect of interactional justice on motivation to submit suggestions through VSS was observed when levels of wellbeing were moderate or high, but not when wellbeing was low.The moderated mediation macro developed by Preacher et al. (2007) also computes conditional indirect effects at various randomly chosen values of the moderator (see the lower half of Table IV). Usually, the interaction is simply tested by using one standard deviation above and below the mean. The output provided by the moderated mediation macro supplements this approach, and allowed us to identify the values of wellbeing for which the conditional indirect effect was just statistically significant at a=0.05 (termed the regions of significance). Results demonstrated that the conditional indirect effect was significant at a=0.05 for any value of wellbeing bigger or equal to -0.45 on this z-standardized scale.\n4 Discussion: Our study examined the processes underlying the motivation to submit suggestions via suggestion systems. Initially, based on the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964; Cropanzano et al., 2002), we showed that the VSS mediates the positive relationship between interactional justice and the motivation to submit suggestions. Further, according to the resource allocation theory (Kanfer and Ackerman, 1989; Kanfer et al., 1994), we demonstrated the role of wellbeing in moderating this mediated relationship; the positive relationship between VSS and motivation to submit suggestions was stronger for higher levels of wellbeing than for lower levels. The suggested model, which integrates the study's results, was tested and confirmed using bootstrapping procedures. The results supported the hypothesized moderated mediation model. More precisely, the positively mediated relationship between interactional justice and the motivation to submit suggestions was found for cases of moderate or higher wellbeing but not for those of lower wellbeing.Our study contributes to the literature by supplementing and extending prior findings in several ways. First, we adapted the construct of motivation to our context. Although Rank et al. (2004) suggested the need to determine different antecedents of specific innovation processes, authors had not considered a specific kind of motivation concerning involvement with a suggestion system. The current study addresses this challenge by investigating a specific kind of motivation in this context, namely the motivation to submit suggestions.Second, we examined the relationship between interactional justice and the motivation to submit suggestions. Even though relationships between interactional justice and both motivation and innovation seem to exist (Liao and Tai, 2006), interactional justice's effects on employees' motivation to behave innovatively in the context of a suggestion system had, to our knowledge, not yet been examined. In our study, we found a significant indirect positive relationship between interactional justice and the motivation to submit suggestions, partially mediated by the VSS. Thus, our findings extend the research on organizational justice (Eisenbeiss et al., 2008), showing positive effects of interactional justice on employees' motivation to submit suggestions. In addition, the findings underline the practical importance of interactional justice for suggestion systems, which in turn produce impressive cost savings (Figueroa, 2000).Third, we showed an enhancing moderating effect of employees' wellbeing on the indirect relationship between interactional justice and the motivation to submit suggestions via the VSS. According to health research and in line with the resource allocation theory, wellbeing sets free employees' resources and is therefore important for augmenting motivation (Binnewies et al., 2009; Kanfer and Ackerman, 1989; Kanfer et al., 1994; Sohl and Moyer, 2009). Therefore, when employees can channel free resources to additional or voluntary tasks, the motivation to execute such tasks is augmented.At a first glance, the degree of the moderating effect - 4 percent - seems to be fairly low. However, its practical significance on employees' motivation to submit suggestions is notable, especially when imagining ordinary automotive companies with 100,000 employees. An additional 4 percent increase in motivation would result in 4,000 more employees being motivated to submit suggestions. Assuming only one more suggestion per employee and a conservative estimate of half of the suggestions being successfully implementable - considering also that Toyota adopts about 90 percent of the suggestions (Yasuda, 1991) - this would lead to great cost savings. A study concerning the suggestion systems of 277 German organizations, comprising 18 industries, showed average cost savings of EUR6,022 per employee suggestion (Deutsches Institut fur Betriebswirtschaft (German institute of economics), 2008). Following our example of 2,000 successfully implemented suggestions, the savings add up to EUR12,044,000, an impressive amount. Hence, at a second glance, the moderating effect seems to be high rather than low.Limitations and further research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Suggestion systems offer the opportunity for organizations to benefit directly from their employees' innovativeness. The purpose of this paper is to investigate processes underlying employees' involvement with suggestion systems. It examines the relationship between interactional justice of the suggestion system, valence of the suggestion system (VSS), employees' wellbeing, and their motivation to submit suggestions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected in a German manufacturing company. In total, 142 questionnaires were completed (response rate: 71 percent). The paper applies the bootstrapping method in order to test the hypothesized relationships.\nFindings: - Results support the hypothesized moderated mediation model, in that VSS mediated the positive relationship between interactional justice and motivation to submit suggestions when wellbeing was high or moderate, but not when wellbeing was low.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results reflect only subjective appraisals. However, the studied variables are ultimately based on what employees perceive. Nonetheless, future research should generate and include more objective measures.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides evidence, first, that companies should consider the important role of employees' wellbeing in the innovation context and try to enhance it. Second, the interactional justice and the VSS contribute to employees' motivation to submit suggestions and should be strengthened.\nOriginality/value: - While the existing literature mostly focuses on innovative behaviour in general, this paper analyzes employees' motivation to submit suggestions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Information kiosks: a taxonomy
|
[
"Information centres",
"Self‐service",
"Research and development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recent advances in technology have created a surge in \"technology-based self-service\" (Dabholkar et al., 2003). Such developments are changing the way that service firms and consumers interact and are raising a host of research and practice issues relating to the delivery of e-service. E-service is becoming increasingly important not only in determining the success or failure of electronic commerce (Yang et al., 2001), but also in providing consumers with a superior experience in terms of the interactive flow of information (Santos, 2003). This article specifically contributes to thinking about e-service by examining one specific form of self service technology, information kiosks.Since much of the prior literature on information kiosks, public access kiosks, or online kiosks has been focused on one implementation of the kiosk, there are no established definitions of the nature of kiosks. Such a definition is particularly important in the context of this paper, since it defines both the focus of the paper and the scope of the proposed taxonomy. Our definition of an information kiosk (which emerges from the research described in this paper) is:1. a self service technology station;2. with interactive information processing capacity; and3. located in a public concourse.On the basis of this definition, ticketing machines, drinks or newspaper vending machines and various other self service stations are excluded from the taxonomy. Included are, for example, health information kiosks, loyalty card kiosks, ATMs, ticketing and travel information kiosks, retailers' in-store kiosks, and photo kiosks. This definition, like the associated taxonomy is dynamic and needs to be reviewed with each new kiosk implementation.The paper proposes a multi-dimensional taxonomy for kiosk-based self service technologies (SSTs). This taxonomy is designed to inform wider perspectives on, and the contextualization of research in relation to kiosks specifically, and more widely in the context of e-service delivery. It is anticipated that such a taxonomy will make a similar contribution to that of earlier typologies of physical services (Lovelock et al., 2002; Li and Zhao, 2003). Hunt (1976, p.117-18) suggests that classification schemes:... play fundamental roles in the development of a discipline, since they are the primary means for organising phenomena into classes or groups that are amenable to systematic investigation and theory development.Lovelock et al. (2002) explain that service classification schemes are useful in helping managers answer the following questions:1. What does our service operation actually do?2. What sorts of processes are involved in creating the core product that we offer to customers?3. Where do customers fit in our operation?These would appear to be useful questions for managers and researchers to be posing in relation to kiosks and self service technologies. Indeed Bitner et al. (2000) emphasise the importance of determining the customer for which the SST is intended and the benefits that it should provide for them.Information kiosks have been a feature of the landscape of many public concourses since the early 1990 s and can play an important role in interaction with people \"on the move\" (Slack and Rowley, 2002b). Kiosks can intervene \"at the point of decision\" and they are perceived to be able to extend or enhance the service experience offered by public concourse operators, airlines, banks, retailers, and health centres. Despite the growth of web based services and retailing, face-to-face and in-store activities remain popular. The current escalation in the range of applications of information kiosks would suggest that a number of businesses are recognising the importance of technology in-store and other public locations. In addition, some online business sectors such as online photography services have begun to recognise the value of presence in physical service environments. In short, internet linked kiosks provide an opportunity for merging service delivery across channels and optimising the quality of the service experience delivered through physical space, by extending it to virtual space.Despite the work that has been conducted on e-service in the last few years, theory and practice of e-service is still in its infancy (Santos, 2003) and this paper seeks to make a contribution to this literature. There are a number of concepts that inform the analysis processes associated with the development of this taxonomy:* e-service may be delivered as an element of e-commerce, or alone (Voss, 1999);* in e-service the customer's interaction with the organisation is through the technology, which means that during an e-service encounter customers have to rely entirely on sight and sound. However, e-service, unlike traditional service, is not constrained by distance and opening hours;* e-service is generally conceived as self service (Dabholkar, 2000; Sara, 2000; Surjadjaja et al., 2003; Zhu et al., 2002; Meuter et al., 2000);* e-service is often one element in the overall service experience delivered to customers. Service delivery through kiosks is one of the channels of e-service (Zhu et al., 2002); and* e-service is information service since the primary value exchanged between the two parties is information (Rust and Lemon, 2001).\nLiterature review: The platform for this work is three fold. It draws on earlier work on kiosk typologies, but is also informed by recent work on e-service and specifically, mobile technology-based services. Finally it explores the conceptual frameworks that provide typologies for p-services (physical or traditional services).Kiosk typologies\nMethodology: This paper builds on a research programme of observation and sense making relating to kiosk application, over the past ten years (e.g. Rowley, 1995; Slack and Rowley, 2002a, 2002b, 2004; Rowley and Slack, 2003). Detailed observation of a number of in-store kiosks is coupled with a wider internet based search for kiosk applications. This is used as the basis for an analysis informed by the principles of both grounded theory and classification theory that leads to the development of the information kiosk taxonomy. The data set, and therefore the taxonomy, is dynamic and under a process of gradual extension and evolution.The explicit stages in the methodology were:1. Data collection towards the compilation of a structured database of information kiosk applications. The data set was drawn from observation of kiosks across many locations and countries over ten years. This was amplified with data from an internet search for more recent announcements of kiosk applications, especially in countries where a visit was not timely. A key element of this process was the surfacing of a definition of the nature of an information kiosk, which could be used to identify technologies for inclusion in the database. This definition was presented in the introduction. The database includes structured descriptions of 50 exemplar kiosks, many of which are representative of a chain of installations. Of these, 27 exemplars have been observed by the authors, whilst 23 are derived from desk research. This database is not necessarily comprehensive, but the extent of recurrence of similar applications from different businesses suggests that it is representative of current and potential future kiosk applications. The database includes kiosks in the USA, the UK and in other countries; 23 of the exemplars are located in the USA, 20 in the UK, 5 elsewhere, and 2 have installations in more than one of these countries. This is important because a study limited by country might generate a more restricted range of applications as a result of differences in public concourses, technology acceptance and cultural attitudes to the notion of self service.2. Development of the categories for the new taxonomy. The approach adopted in this research draws from two different traditions: the research philosophy and design associated with grounded research; and the analytico-synthetic approach to the development of taxonomies and classification schemes. These approaches are both inductive; they start with a body of information and seek to distil some structure from that body of information to make meaning explicit, thereby the information becomes more accessible and useful.Grounded theory uses inductive strategies for analysing data. It starts with individual cases and systematically develops conceptual frameworks to synthesise data and identify patterns and relationships within it (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Strauss and Corbin, 1997, 1998). The early stages of our grounded theory analysis are evident in our earlier publications on information kiosks (e.g. Slack and Rowley, 2002a, 2002b, 2004; Rowley and Slack, 2003). Here we proposed some major categories of information kiosks with the intention of providing a basic framework for comparing and contrasting different information kiosks and their application and implementations. These categories were primarily concerned with the task and function of the kiosk applications identified. The continuation of this process, using an extended database of kiosk applications, is explained and illustrated below. It is specifically intended to develop these earlier categories into a multi-dimensional taxonomy. To achieve this it is necessary to:* extend, confirm and further define key categories or dimensions; and* identify sub-categories or sub-dimensions.From the perspective of the analytico-synthetic approach to the development of taxonomies (Rowley and Farrow, 2000) the analysis uses the information collected on information kiosks to identify \"isolates\" or individual \"descriptors\" that can be applied to describe kiosks. The process continues by grouping the isolates by characteristics of sub-division into facets or, in this case, dimensions. Finally, it is evaluated by checking that the taxonomy accommodates each case.An interactive process of analysis of the exemplars of information kiosk applications in the database was conducted. Here we were in pursuit of insights arising from similarities between different kiosk applications. This process included:1. a preliminary analysis on the basis of some existing service classifications or taxonomies to contextualise kiosk applications;2. a conceptual and pragmatic analysis of the relationships between the characteristics used for structuring the database and the establishment of these characteristics as the key dimensions in the taxonomy;3. an identification of potential sub-dimensions for each of the main dimensions, through a process of category creation, and refinement;4. the formulation of a revised and extended taxonomy, with dimensions and sub-dimensions; and5. the testing of this proposed taxonomy, in terms of its capacity to accommodate all of the exemplars in the database.\nThe structure of the database: From the data collection a wider range of kiosk and SST applications were described and categorised. The earlier taxonomy (Rowley and Slack, 2003) was seen to be only one dimension of the whole. Work on public access systems (Rowley and Slack, 1998) had identified four characteristics as being important in the development and use of such facilities. The database, therefore, was structured according to three of these categories, namely: environment and location, task and function, audience and user. The fourth category, technology, was not used at this stage.To illustrate this process, Table II shows some examples of kiosks taken from the database.The constant comparison that was implicitly required in constructing the database led to several stages of coding the developing data. From this the taxonomy was devised and structured.\nConstruction of the taxonomy: The stages in construction of the taxonomy are explained here. First, kiosk applications are positioned and characterised with reference to other p-service extant classifications. This is followed by a section that establishes the main dimensions in the taxonomy. Subsequent sections establish the sub-dimensions for each of the dimensions in the taxonomy.Characterising kiosk applications\nConclusion: This article reports grounded theory research with data collection based on observation and desk research over many years, which results in a proposal for a taxonomy for kiosk service applications. The taxonomy is summarised in Table V, below, where dimensions and sub-dimensions are shown. Typically any one kiosk can be classified using one or more of the sub-dimensions under each dimension. In other words, all kiosks can be categorised in terms of Location, User, Task and Technology. This taxonomy makes an important contribution to the field of self service technologies and the related field of e-service. Taxonomies or classification of p-services have traditionally provided valuable frameworks that have contributed to the contextualisation and integration of outcomes from unrelated research projects. There is a pressing need for such classifications in the emerging and rapidly developing area of SST and e-service, as many researchers in different locations and countries work simultaneously to advance knowledge and understanding in these areas.This article is designed to encourage further reflection on taxonomies for kiosks, e-service and SSTs. It is in no sense the \"final word\". Work in this area will need to be extended as applications and the opportunities offered by technology develop. This work could be further developed with reference to:* Games and entertainment - games machines have traditionally been differentiated from information kiosks, but as kiosk technologies advance and the options for the delivery of infotainment expand, it may be necessary to consider the role of kiosks in entertainment. Specifically, some kiosks, such as those playing MP3 s in bars (and replacing juke boxes) may deliver music and entertainment. There may be a subtle difference between the option to download an MP3 onto a personal MP3 player and the option to play an MP3 in a public leisure environment.* Integrated kiosks, such as Snaptrax Digital Media Stations, that incorporate a digital photo finishing station, a public access internet terminal, CD, laptop and MP3 digital music downloading/recording and cell phone services, may support tasks across several categories, be located in a wide variety of different locations, and be used by users in different \"role identities\".* A further dimension that could be examined for inclusion in the taxonomy might be the basis of the benefits offered to customers and businesses, respectively. Such a classification could identify important dimensions that determine the potential impact and penetration of kiosks and SSTs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-dimensional taxonomy for information kiosk-based self service technologies (SSTs). This taxonomy has an important contribution to make to the integration of research and development, in relation to information kiosks. There are aspects that may also be extended to e-service, online service and self-service.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The conceptual context for this work is established by a review of previous literature. This focuses on taxonomies and classification schemes relating to information kiosks, traditional services (p-services) and e-services. A comprehensive database of information kiosk technologies and their applications is constructed. Longitudinal observation of the development of information kiosk technologies is the basis for this and has been extended by web research.\nFindings: - An iterative analysis of the kiosk database defines the nature of service delivery from kiosks, and supports the identification and verification of the dimensions and sub-dimensions of the taxonomy. It is informed by earlier classification schemes and taxonomies in the information kiosk, e-service and p-service literature.\nOriginality/value: - This taxonomy has four main dimensions: Location, User, Task and Technology. Sub-dimensions are developed for each of these main dimensions. It can be used to classify all information kiosks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Designing office shirt: an integrated approach
|
[
"India",
"Clothing",
"Fashion design",
"Consumers",
"Optimum design",
"Apparel design",
"Conjoint analysis",
"Attributes and levels reduction",
"Algorithms",
"Market share",
"Multinomial logit model",
"Delphi and optimum design combinations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Globally, women have emerged as a very significant economic force in terms of purchasing power. Apparel is one of the five areas where they spend considerable amount of time, energy and money (Silverstein and Sayre, 2009). However, smart clothing applications, and the next generations of clothing are struggling to enter the mass market because the consumers' latent needs have not been properly recognized. There is a need for a clear design direction (Ariyatum et al., 2005). Creating suitable designs of different women's wear has emerged as a very important challenge to satisfy the need of the end-users. In a study (Rafaeli et al., 1997; Sullivan, 1997) on women's choice of working attire, it was revealed that their choice of appropriate dress was based on group/societal norms, not written in organizational rules and policies. Moreover, women spend considerable time and energy in shopping for appropriate clothing and planning for what to wear to work. So, designing women's wear needs research attention, as consumers are extremely focussed. Undoubtedly, apparel designing has entered in the era of mass customization and customer focussed design process (Tseng and Xuchong, 2007). This paper focusses on consumers' evaluation of different combinations of apparel attributes and their levels. As multitude of attributes in product evaluation creates information burden for the consumers (Green and Srinivasan, 1990), reduction of attributes and their levels is a major concern of the paper. It also considers designers' opinion to address future prospects of different design combinations. Combination of customers' and designers' opinion for apparel design is an original approach followed in the study.\n2. Literature review: Indian women's wear industry, in terms of value, roughly is of size around Rs 161 billion, with an annual growth rate of around 9 percent (ICMR, Case No. G042; Allen Soly, 2002). Women's wear industry in India consists of western women's wear and ethnic women's wear. The former enjoys the steady growth of 15-20 percent. In India, office shirt is categorized as formal western women's wear. Considering its moderate-to-high rate of growth and the market in almost completely in the hand of a large number of players from the unorganized sectors, there is a rush to enter in this segment. Now in India, there are brands like Allen Soly (launched westernized women's wear in 2002), Schuller's Range, Be, Benetton, Mango, Wills Sports who deal with office shirt as women's work wear. These companies stand to gain substantially as the number of educated working women is increasing significantly after the globalization of the Indian economy. For further growth and consolidation these companies require adequate knowledge on evaluating criteria of consumers for choosing apparel.Cultural background and extent of acculturation (integrating process with dominant culture) are important factors to determine the dress preference (Upchurch, 2008). In India, culture plays a significant role in women's dress preferences. For example, north Indian women prefer Salwar Kameez, however, south Indian women like sari (Vashisht, 2005). In North India, apart from salwar kurta, trousers and shirts have emerged as a popular office wear (Roy and Saha, 2007). Due to a very fast acculturation of Indian working women (Bijapurkar, 2007), office shirt and trousers have gained in sales momentum across the country a fact that is evident from the growth figure of westernized women's wear industry in India. Modern women continue to dress professionally, while adding some fashionable alterations according to their personalities (Solomon and Douglas, 1987). Understanding those consumer judgments and alterations are very crucial in designing women's wear. Designing office shirt is not an exception.Important women's wear attributes\n3. Objectives of the study: The paper aims to identify and select women's office shirt attributes and their levels; to arrive at the preferred combinations of the selected levels of the attributes. The paper also strives to estimate probable market share of the design combinations and analyze the future prospect of different design combinations of office shirt for women.\n4. Supporting methods for attaining the objectives: (1) To select the office shirt attributes and their levels from the larger set of attributes and levels, an algorithm has been developed.(2) To arrive at the preferred combinations of the levels of the attributes, conjoint analysis with dummy variables is used, where utility of each level of the office shirt attributes is derived. Based on this utility, preferable combinations are selected.(3) To estimate probable market share of the design combinations, multinomial logit model is used.(4) Through Delphi, different fashion designers' opinion has been considered for analyzing future prospect of different design combinations of office shirt.\n5. Process of reduction of attributes/levels: Preferences of the respondents for attributes and their levels are measured through preference proportion which is defined as follows.Preference proportion\n6. Detailed methodology: In this study, full profile conjoint analysis has been chosen with dummy variable regression approach because of its wide industry acceptance and respondent friendly approach. The ranking score of the design combinations assigned by the respondent has been considered as the dependent variable. Dummy like variables, which are derived from coding of the levels of the attributes, have been considered as independent variable. This type of coding is termed as \"effect coding\" (Nargundkar, 2005). To bring accuracy and efficiency in calculating the regression co-efficients, SPSS15 is used. Regression co-efficients of the independent variables provide the part utility of the levels of the attributes.Combining the part utility values of the levels of the attributes, the utility of the design combinations can be calculated and the combinations can be ranked according to their utility values. One of the major applications of conjoint analysis is estimating market share of design combinations that differ in utility levels (Malhotra, 2007). For estimating market share based on utility of design combination multinomial logit model can be applied (Ozmen et al., 2006).Sample design\n7. Results of empirical study: In our case of reducing attributes and their levels based on empirical study, 70 percent has been considered as the cut off percentage of preference proportion and 15 percent has been considered as the threshold percentage of preference proportion. Maximum three levels are to be considered. According to the algorithm, the attributes and levels for women's office shirt have been selected. Selected levels are shown in Table III and selected attributes are shown in Table IV.Let us present in a comprehensive form all the selected levels of the attributes sleeve, collar and print of the shirt which have been selected as preferred attributes of office shirt for women. Fitting has only one selected level (Table V).With the selected attributes and levels, full profile design combinations of office shirt have been formed for conjoint analysis. The full profile design combinations are shown in Table VI. One of the selected attributes fitting has not been considered in the full profile combination as it has only one level. So, fitting attribute will have to be included at the final stage of our design considerationsThrough conjoint analysis with regression approach, the utilities of each level of the three attributes of office shirt have been derived. By combining these utilities, the utilities of all full profile design combinations of women's office shirt have been calculated. According to their utilities, the design combinations are ranked which is shown in Table VII.Through multinomial logit model, from the utilities of different full profile combinations, the probable market shares of these different design combinations of office shirt for women have been calculated which are shown in Table VIII.More specifically, as it is seen in Table VIII, it may be stated that design combination of normal collar, three-quarter sleeve and stripes may be the most preferable combination which may enjoy maximum market share among the selected sets of design combinations. As fitting attribute has not been included initially, so we may include the only level of fitting, i.e. normal fitting in the most preferred combination. Thus normal fitting-normal collar-three-quarter sleeves-stripes may be claimed as the most preferred combination.\n8. Considering the opinion of fashion designers: After selecting the three best design combinations of office shirt based on their derived utility, opinions of 50 north India based fashion designers have been taken through Delphi method for forecasting the future popularity of these design combinations. The technique is designed as a group communication process which targets to bring about a convergence in the experts' opinion in a specific real-world issue. After receiving the forecasts from the experts, these forecasts are combined by giving equal weightage to all of them. The fashion designers selected for giving opinion have an average of six to eight years of experience. So, equal weight has been assigned to the opinion of each of them. The results of the Delphi are as listed below:Result of the first round opinion survey of Delphi:(1) 56 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-three-quarter sleeve-stripes with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.(2) 28 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-three-quarter sleeve-solid mono color with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.(3) 16 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-half sleeve-stripes with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.Result of the second round opinion survey of Delphi:(1) 80 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-three-quarter sleeve-stripes with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.(2) 12 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-three-quarter sleeve-solid mono color with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.(3) 8 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-half sleeve-stripes with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.Result of the third round opinion survey of Delphi:(1) 96 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-three-quarter sleeve-stripes with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.(2) 4 percent of fashion designers said that normal collar-three-quarter sleeve-solid mono color with normal fitting will be the most favored combination in near future.Through multiple rounds of Delphi, a convergence of the fashion designers' opinion has been arrived. They have opined that in the near future the combination of normal collar, three-quarter sleeve and stripes with normal fitting would be the most favorable design combination of shirt for 18-30 generation. This is in line with our consumer-based study, where normal collar, three-quarter sleeve, stripes with normal fitting was found to be the most preferred combination among respondents. The best design combination is shown in the following picture (Figure 1).\n9. Implications of the research: We have found few cases from the existing literature where apparel has been designed through consumers' opinion. Even, there are few researches where conjoint analysis has been used in apparel design. However, no substantial work on apparel design has been done so far where a balance is maintained by combining the opinions of consumers and the designers. Our paper aims to bridge this gap. Designs of consumers' choice at present and future prospects of the designs are both considered in the suggested method of apparel design. This combined approach to apparel product design may be an improvement over the existing apparel design processes. It may be useful for the apparel manufacturers who strive to design according to customers' needs and designers' directions. Knowledge of optimum design combinations gained through this approach may help apparel manufacturers and retailers in bringing efficiency in stock keeping unit management by keeping more stocks of apparel with optimum design combinations and thus ensuring a better return on investment made on their stocks.\n10. Concluding remarks: Our study provides a direction on how conjoint analysis may be used in apparel industry, starting from reducing product attributes and their levels through an indigenous way and reaching optimum design combinations. It helps to reduce information overload of the respondents and supports the researchers to focus on important product attributes and their levels while designing a product or service. The paper also attempts uniquely to validate results of conjoint analysis through fashion experts' opinion.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Grounded theory, supported by leading designers, argues for an integrated approach covering end users and designers. However, no substantial work on apparel design has been done so far where a balance is maintained by combining the opinions of consumers and the designers. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical framework for designing apparel considering both consumers' opinions and fashion designers' views.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An algorithm is proposed for reducing attributes and their levels to carry out conjoint analysis and assign utilities to different attributes and their levels. After selecting the best three design combinations based on their utilities, the authors have arrived at optimum design combinations. Through Delphi method, the opinions of a few fashion designers about these selected design combinations have been collected for matching with optimum design.\nFindings: - An optimum design is suggested for a formal office shirt, for North Indian women, by integrating opinions of designers and consumers.\nOriginality/value: - Attribute and level reduction technique is an original contribution to the literature. Further, the authors' approach to apparel design may provide a guideline to apparel manufacturers when designing their products. Knowledge of optimum design combinations gained through this approach may help apparel manufacturers and retailers in bringing efficiency in stock keeping unit management by keeping more stocks of apparel with optimum design combinations and thus ensuring a better return on investment made on their stocks.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
School boards and superintendents doing local curriculum work : Conflict or successful cooperation?
|
[
"School leadership",
"Governing chains",
"Local school actors",
"School policy",
"School board",
"School superintendent",
"Local curriculum work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: This paper is part of a larger research project focussing on what happens when national policy meets local governing structures. The interest comes from the fact that, in the Nordic countries, the local (municipality) level has always been an important part of the governing systems (Moos, 2013). For the last 20 years this has been even more pronounced. During this era of decentralization locally elected political boards have been identified as responsible for the local enactment of national policy (Lundahl, 2002). In Sweden this local school level has developed to include not only 290 municipalities but also many independent schools (with their own boards). The local level can thus functionally be divided into a micro (school) and a meso (municipality) level, with both levels having to relate to the macro (national) level in the governing system, where laws and regulations are formulated (Holmgren et al., 2012). The national school law of 2010 also stipulates that all local actors must cooperate within what is called a \"local systematic quality work.\" That is: the law demands cooperation between different system levels. It is all these kinds of requested activities that are here called local curriculum processes. The underlying question is: how do these processes work?\nRole identity construction and curriculum processes: The starting point for this paper is thus an interest in what happens when national policy is transformed into local school activities. These activities have come into greater focus in the last few years, when Ball et al. (2012), for instance, have been interested in how schools do policy (my emphasis added). Their focus is on policy enactment (rather than implementation) and on this being done: \"in original and creative ways within institutions and classrooms [...] but in ways that are limited by the possibilities of discourse\" (p. 3). Policy enactment is hence seen as a creative process of interpretation and recontextualisation. The theoretical starting point for this paper shares the same interest in local activities, texts, transformation and recontextualisation. These aspects of the local acting are, however, seen as aspects of curriculum processes, which as a phenomenon occur at different system levels.\nMethodological issues: As previously mentioned, this paper is part of a larger project. The project as a whole has a mixed-method design and includes surveys with superintendents, politicians and principals. It also includes interviews with chairmen of local school boards, superintendents and principals in 12 municipalities. Six of the municipalities were followed over time, with a political election between the interview rounds. It is in these six municipalities that the data were gathered. The municipalities were selected by a combination of criteria. They were all middle-sized municipalities, since we wanted them to include a local school office of a certain size, led by a superintendent. They were of different political colors, including stable left- as well as right-wing majorities. There were also municipalities with shifting majorities. Some were chosen because their superintendents served school boards with different profiles (e.g. both elementary schools and upper-secondary schools). They were also selected to represent different parts of Sweden.\nResults: A first conclusion from the study is that local politicians and superintendents in general are role-aware actors. There seems to be a clear and formal dividing line between the two actors respecting the \"what and how\" side. An important starting point for the presented results is, however, that in practice there is not a clear dividing line. In the politicians and superintendents' daily work the borders are blurred, and it is in this potential \"mine zone\" that the role identities are constructed, in the handling of every day's curriculum work.\nConclusions: The aim of this paper was to illuminate some of the complexity of the local school work, focussing on the curriculum processes. These processes include the work of key actors in a governing chain, linking different spheres and levels together in enacting the law and other national regulations. By looking closely at the nuances of acting, we can better understand these processes. Even though it was not possible to follow the actors' daily work in this exploratory study, but only to hear what the actors told us about that work, there are some results worth highlighting for further studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper is about a specific part of the Swedish governing system: the municipality, which has the responsibility of implementing national school goals. The starting point is an identified local governing chain including the chairman of the politically elected school board, the superintendent, principals and head teachers. It is the first link in this chain which is in focus, between chairmen and superintendents. The purpose of this paper is to investigate their role understanding and enactment: what roles do they have, formally and enacted? Is it a clear or blurred line between them? What can be seen as causing conflict or success?\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is part of a larger research project focussing on what happens when national policy meets local governing structures. The project as a whole has a mixed method design and includes surveys with superintendents, politicians and principals. It also includes interviews with chairmen of local school boards, superintendents and principals. In this paper the focus is on interviews made with politicians and superintendents in six (of 290) municipalities followed over time (including a political election between the authors visits). The municipalities are spread over the country, with shifting political majorities.\nFindings: The authors identify that there seem to be a shared formal role understanding in that politicians are responsible for the what-side and superintendents for the how-side of the local work. The roles are, however, enacted in a blurred zone with role intrusion as an active component. What causes a conflict or not is if the two have a shared understanding of how to play the game. This makes the local work sensitive to changes on the positions. Success comes from a relationship built on trust and where there is a mutual understanding of how to work.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is built on a small selection of municipalities and must be complemented by further ones to be able to generalize the results. What it can say something about is, however, how actors in six different local settings enact the same kinds of assignments and if there are similarities and differences between their role enactment.\nOriginality/value: Although the study is built on a small selection of municipalities it is unique in that it follows interlinked actors over time, making it possible not only to discuss municipality stereotypes but study human relationships over time. This also makes it possible to discuss new aspects of governing chains.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evolutionary patterns in e-business strategy
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Internet",
"Electronic commerce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The operations management literature has devoted significant attention to supply chain management (SCM) in the last decade. Within this literature, many authors dealt with the topic of supply chain integration. Generally speaking, \"supply chain integration\" refers to the efforts put in place by firms from a broad variety of industries to improve their performance, and the performance of firms that comprise the entire network to which they belong, by interacting more closely and even collaborating with customers, suppliers, partners, and third parties in general.In this field of research, significant attention has been given to the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in supply chain integration. Following the publication of the seminal works on this topic (Malone et al., 1987), ICT importance has proven to be significant, and several contributions to the literature have discussed their impact on managerial practices and operational performance. With the rise of the internet in the last ten years, a large number of publications and studies have sought to establish the importance of this technology in SCM. Even though several publications and success cases studies have been presented in the literature, relatively few studies examine the development of the internet phenomenon in SCM over time.Cagliano et al. (2003) analyzed the adoption of internet technologies in supply chain processes by examining a large sample of European manufacturing firms that participated in the third edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS III). Two years later, the article was updated (Cagliano et al., 2005) on the basis of secondary sources; the main elements seemed to remain valid, but the analysis was not based on newer IMSS data.Now that the fourth edition of the IMSS is available, the present paper aims to understand if the modeling (Cagliano et al., 2003) proposed earlier in the literature remains valid and to assess whether there are significant patterns that emerge by comparing the two editions of the survey.The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: the next section will provide a review of the current literature on supply chain integration and ICT, then the research goals and methodology will be presented and the findings from the empirical research will be described. In the final section, these results will be discussed in detail and suggestions for future research development will be presented.\nLiterature review: Supply chain integration\nResearch goals: The goal of this paper is to analyze the diffusion of e-business over time in order to evaluate how companies are investing in internet-based tools to manage their supply chain. Specifically, we aim to replicate the analysis performed on the IMSS III data collected in 2001 (Cagliano et al., 2003), in order to investigate whether the pattern of adoption of e-business tools has changed over the subsequent four years. Replication is a fundamental part of the scientific process (see Frohlich and Dixon, 2001, for a review): theory-building must be followed by rounds of verification and elaboration (Flynn et al., 1990). In particular, a new and fast evolving issue, such as e-business, needs to be frequently monitored both to test the robustness of initial findings and to identify evolutionary trends.Several authors claim that the number of supply chain transactions involving internet-based tools is increasing (Bertele et al., 2005; Forrester Research, 2007; Lee and Barua, 1999; Boyer and Olson, 2002; Zhu and Kraemer, 2002; Barua et al., 2004). Much of the literature assumed that following the \"peak of inflated expectation,\" the adoption of information technologies would proceed confidently (Cagliano et al., 2005), even if it can differ between countries (Kemppaien and Vepsalainen, 2003; Olhager and Sellin, 2003) and industrial sectors (Matapoulos et al., 2007). However, the literature provides limited evidence of what companies are doing, and empirical studies are needed to test whether the adoption of ICT in the supply chain is truly increasing. For all these reasons, we sought to test the following research proposition:RP1. The level of adoption of internet-based tools within supply chain relationships has increased over timeThe literature suggests that the impact of the different tools depends on several contingent factors, such as the existence of specific kinds of teams (Giunipero and Vogt, 1997; Robey et al., 2002; Johnson et al., 2007), the possibility of developing specific forms of cooperation along the supply chain (Sanders, 2007; Devaraj et al., 2007), and a company's competencies and organizational structures (Power and Singh, 2007). It follows that different companies will invest differently in the use of internet technologies within the supply chain.Cagliano et al. (2003) provided evidence that companies had invested heterogeneously differently in e-business tools. Based on IMSS III data, four e-business strategies were identified: traditionals (i.e. no use of e-business), e-sellers (use of e-commerce only), e-purchasers (use of e-procurement only), and e-integrators (joint use of e-commerce, e-procurement, and e-operations). Two years later, the paper was updated (Cagliano et al., 2005) on the basis of secondary sources, but no new IMSS data were available. Consequently, research replication is particularly important in this case, since constructs need to be verified over time and relationships need to be tested on different samples (Frohlich and Dixon, 2001). For this reason we sought to test the following research proposition:RP2. The four e-business strategies, namely traditionals, e-sellers, e-purchasers, and e-integrators, are confirmed using more recent data.Even if alternative strategies remain stable over time, some companies may have changed their own e-business strategy; in other words, they may have moved from one cluster to another. However, Cagliano et al. (2003) showed that firms, at that time, were planning to increase their efforts towards e-business, but without changing their strategy. This means that e-sellers declared that they were going to increase the adoption of internet tools primarily with customers (e-commerce); e-purchasers were increasing the use of e-procurement; and e-integrators, for their part, were going to continue to utilize e-business intensively with both customers and suppliers. Using more recent IMSS data, we could test whether the strategies and efforts that companies adopted remain stable over time. For these reasons, we wished to test the following research proposition:RP3. Firms are adopting the same e-business strategy over time.\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: E-business adoption\nDiscussion: Our results confirmed our RP1, i.e. that the level of e-business adoption has increased on average, as other sources have already suggested. This is consistent with a growing relevance of the e-business phenomenon, beyond short-term fashion and hype: internet-based tools are spreading, slowly but steadily, across firms in different industries and contexts, reshaping SCM strategies and practices.However, our results do not confirm the modeling proposed four years ago: although the main constructs of e-business (i.e. e-commerce and e-procurement) remain valid, the four e-business strategies (traditionals, e-purchasers, e-sellers, and e-integrators) are no longer adopted by manufacturing firms in Europe. Instead, three clusters emerged from the new data, namely low, partial, and full adopters. Despite the different level of adoption, all three groups are characterized by a balanced use of e-business with both customers and suppliers (i.e. e-commerce and e-procurement). These results suggest an evolutionary trend in the process of e-business adoption, which shows two distinct features. First is a reduction in the number of low adopters compared to four years ago, though they remain an appreciable proportion of the sample. Second, the integrated adoption of e-business both up- and down-stream has taken the place of partial adoption, reversing the results observed four years ago.This last result, which is quite unexpected, shows how firms are becoming more mature and conscious about e-business, which in turn is becoming a more consolidated concept than in the past. The fact that most companies have chosen a partial but more pervasive adoption, i.e. both up- and down-stream - supports this conclusion. This contrasts with the alternative hypothesis that could be inferred from the results four years ago. At that time one could argue that mono-directional strategies (e-purchasers and e-sellers) were the first step of an evolutionary path towards e-integration. But if this were the case, there should still be some firms today that adopt such strategies, particularly among those firms categorized as traditionals four years ago. Instead we find that no firm adopts such a strategy today, and, on average, companies show many different degrees of adoption of both e-commerce and e-procurement at the same time. This leads us to the conclusion that the evolutionary path of adoption, if it exists, now runs along the diagonal of the matrix.Finally, we investigated the strictly longitudinal sub-sample, i.e. those firms that participated in both editions of the project, thus allowing us to understand the evolution of e-business strategies at the level of individual firms. The results confirm the overall trend towards a slight increase in adoption and a rebalancing between e-commerce and e-procurement. The firms that participated in both editions of the research show an evolutionary trend similar to that of the entire sample, thus confirming results obtained for the whole sample. This means that the differences between the two editions are not likely to be caused by the different composition of the sample. In addition, we observed that some firms even decreased their adoption efforts, either up- or down-stream, along one direction and increased their efforts along another direction. This probably reflects a more conscious and cautious adoption of e-business, which aims at exploiting the real benefits wherever they are easily accessible, without over-investing in one direction.This last result conflicts with what the same firms declared at the time of IMSS III, when they reported planning an increasing use of e-business in the following years, while continuing in the original direction - in other words, without changing their underlying strategy. It is not really surprising that in the intervening years, some firms changed their mind, especially when one considers how immature they were at the time and how different reality has been compared to the original claims of the \"new economy\" era. Companies have also been able to verify the effectiveness of their investments only recently, which led some to reshape their strategies. However, these shifts in strategy, and also the reduction in the use of internet-based tools in some cases, further support the claim that e-business is becoming a consolidated concept, adjusting itself in order to become more than an innovative strategy adopted only by the most advanced firms. It is increasingly becoming the way business is conducted every day, by the majority of firms.\nConclusions: We argue that these results are relevant for research, since very few authors have investigated the level and pattern of adoption of e-business strategies on large, longitudinal samples. Moreover, the emerging results, in addition to contrasting with previous findings, shed new light on the evolution of this new and fast-evolving topic.We also believe that these results are relevant for practitioners, who, thanks to this work, can better understand the current level of diffusion of e-business and its implications for supply chain strategy in general. In particular, our results are interesting for any kind of firm, including small and traditional ones, since they show that the world is changing. In addition, most firms are now slowly adopting e-business, thus paving the way for these companies to keep up with long-term trends in their industry.Finally, this research opens the door to further investigations. First of all it would be important to relate the various internet-based strategies to firm performance, in order to evaluate the contribution to company results. This would also help in better understanding why companies may have changed their approach towards internet technologies. Future studies should analyze in more detail the different patterns of e-business adoption observed in this work, especially those situations in which investment is shifted away from certain areas. A detailed analysis of the elements that explain this behavior would help companies better understand how to introduce e-business into their supply chains.Second, e-commerce and e-procurement are today two very broad concepts: it is definitely important to investigate each of them further in order to understand the different kinds of applications that are adopted, the purposes for which they are adopted, and the results that are obtained.Third, since the IMSS project is global a comparison with different geographical areas is possible and would be useful for understanding whether different patterns exist in different regions.Generally speaking, further development of this research would greatly benefit from an in-depth qualitative analysis of some case studies, in order to better understand the details of the adoption of e-business tools. For example, it would be interesting to understand the goals that lead to adoption, the different functionalities that are adopted, the organizational and relationship implications of the adoption, as well as the results achieved. Most of all, a dyadic case study design that investigates the adoption of e-business from both the customer and the supplier perspective would provide a more complete picture of the phenomenon. Our results provide a useful starting point to design further research, since they lay the groundwork for developing these interesting follow-up investigations.The findings of the paper lead us to possible hypotheses about future corporate behavior. The data we have analyzed provide evidence that companies consider e-business a relevant issue, even if a relatively small number of them are investing significantly in these applications. Previous literature has claimed that this behavior may be due to enabling elements that may enhance the impact of e-business technologies on company performance. This result is consistent with core competence theories that argue that competing companies develop those competencies that prove to be most useful for achieving their goals (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990; Peteraf, 1993; Barratt and Oke, 2007). This suggests that companies that invest now in e-business technologies will develop better competencies and will probably be able to invest more and more effectively in them in the future. Thus, they will be able to improve performances through the use of e-business technologies, while those companies that are now limiting their investments in these technologies will not be able to realize similar benefits. Therefore, we predict that future studies, even if they find a continuum in levels of e-business adoption, will show that the distance between the low adopters and the full adopters increases over time, leading to a \"digital divide\" paradigm: companies will have to choose whether e-business is a critical element of their strategy or not, and invest accordingly.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - In 2003 the authors investigated the level of adoption of e-business by manufacturing firms in Europe. Four company strategies were identified based on different extents of adoption of internet-based tools for interaction with customers and/or suppliers. The purpose of this paper is to replicate, those analyses using the new release of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) IV. These new results are compared with previous ones in order to determine whether modeling previously described in the literature remains valid.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data collected in Europe through IMSS III and IV are used. In particular, companies are clustered according to e-business practices adopted in supply chain management (SCM) and the degree of adoption of e-business between the two editions of the research is compared. A longitudinal analysis is also conducted using data from companies participating in both editions of the survey.\nFindings: - It is shown that the fundamental aspects of the modeling approach earlier proposed in the literature remain valid, with a higher average level of adoption of e-business tools in the more recent edition of the study. However, the four-cluster model is shown to be no longer valid. In the more recent dataset, three clusters emerge. They are characterized by different levels of adoption of e-business, balanced between e-commerce and e-procurement. The longitudinal analysis shows that the firms participating in both editions of the research have changed their strategy, coherently to what the overall sample does.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This paper is focused on the assembly industry and only part of the sample is strictly longitudinal. Further research is needed to relate e-business strategy with performance and to distinguish among the various tools available.\nPractical implications: - This paper also shows that the adoption of e-business is increasing among small and medium firms, even if the practices adopted by any individual company remain limited. Results show that a cautious adoption is preferable to more radical implementation, since some firms have actually reduced their initial efforts to adopt e-business.\nOriginality/value: - The literature currently lacks extensive, longitudinal studies on e-business strategies in SCM. The paper shows how the concept has rapidly evolved recently, and it modifies models that are proposed only a few years ago in the face of new data.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigating occupational disidentification: a resource loss perspective
|
[
"Emotional exhaustion",
"Turnover",
"Conservation of resources theory",
"Occupational disidentification",
"Perceived occupational prestige"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: I never told my children what work I do.\nHypothesis development: Occupational disidentification\nStudy 1: Method\nStudy 2: Method\nDiscussion: Using COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 1998) as a framework to build our conceptual model, we conceptualize occupational disidentification as an avoidance coping strategy. In line with this theory, we found, thanks to samples of 544 professionals working in health and social services (Sample 1) and 113 home care employees (Sample 2) that occupational disidentification is related to emotional exhaustion, and in turn, intentions to quit and actual departure from the organization. We also tested the antecedents of occupational disidentification with Sample 1, and found that POS buffers the negative relationship between perceived occupational prestige and occupational disidentification.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of occupational disidentification through the lens of conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 1998). Occupational disidentification is conceptualized as a coping strategy, or an investment of resources to cope with poor perceived prestige of the occupation, which represents a threat to an individual's resource: one's self-esteem. However, occupational disidentification, as an avoidance coping strategy, generates a loss of cognitive and emotional resources leading to emotional exhaustion and, in turn, departure from the organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research hypotheses are tested among two samples of employees working in health and social services (Study 1, N=544), and in home care services (Study 2, N=113). Measures of employees' attitudes were collected at the same time, and turnover was collected 18 months (Study 1) and 12 months (Study 2) later.\nFindings: Research hypotheses are all supported. Occupational disidentification partially mediates the occupational prestige-emotional exhaustion relationship, and emotional exhaustion partially mediates the occupational disidentification-turnover intention relationship. Perceived organizational support moderates the negative relationship between perceived occupational prestige and occupational disidentification.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution of this study is the conceptualization of occupational disidentification within the theoretical framework of COR. In that vein, the study provides: a deeper understanding of the mechanisms explaining and buffering occupational disidentification, and empirical evidence of the key role of emotional exhaustion to explain the consequences of occupational disidentification.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Influence of ethical leadership on employee learning orientation: evidence from academics
|
[
"India",
"Ethical leadership",
"Organizational learning",
"Academics",
"Learning orientation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a dynamic business environment, employee learning orientation is significant for an organization to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Learning orientation is \"a concern for, and dedication to, developing one's competence\" (Gong et al., 2009, p. 765). It is the desire of employees to strengthen and master their skills and capabilities in a continuous manner. It includes sincerity, attentiveness, dedication, and commitment toward learning. It enhances innovation, knowledge creation, and problem-solving capabilities of members of the organization. Learning orientation positively affects organizational performance, negates threats in business environment, and is crucial in acquiring value from knowledge of other organizations (Farrell et al., 2008).\nResearch design and methods: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from faculty members of academic universities in India. The sample consisted of 160 respondents, after removing the unusable, incomplete, and outlier cases. Ethical leadership was measured by a 10-item scale given by Brown et al. (2005). The anchors ranged from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Employee learning orientation was measured by a three-item scale of Gray and Meister (2004), with responses taken on a seven-point Likert scale (1 [strongly disagree] to 7 [strongly agree]). Regression analysis was used to find the relationship between ethical leadership and employee learning orientation.\nResults and discussions: The finding suggests that ethical leadership has a significant and positive impact on learning orientation of employees (R2 = 0.121, b = 0.348, r < 0.01). Ethical leaders create the environment of fairness, trust, honesty, and integrity that enables followers to reciprocate with beneficial work behavior (Brown et al., 2005). In this work environment, followers are likely to experience psychological safety. This supporting and nurturing environment would assure the employees that they would get their due credit if they are involved in learning to benefit the organization. In a stress-free environment, employees would have a positive approach toward learning, which would help them to enhance various skills and capabilities.\nConclusion: In conclusion, this study attempted to investigate an unexplored yet important workplace-behavior area. It strengthened the study of workplace behavior by providing evidence of the positive influence of ethical leadership on employee learning orientation in universities. Future studies should investigate the impact of ethical leadership on learning orientation in other organizational settings and cross-cultural contexts, and by using various other research methods. Research scholars should also investigate the insight mechanism and other antecedents of learning orientation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ethical leadership and employee learning orientation in organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses a quantitative methodology to analyze data collected from 160 faculty members from universities, using a survey questionnaire.\nFindings: The finding of this study reveals that ethical leadership has a positive effect on learning orientation of faculty members in universities.\nOriginality/value: This study adds to the field of ethical leadership by investigating the influence of ethical leadership on learning orientation of faculty members in universities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Value creation through intellectual capital in developed European markets
|
[
"Intellectual capital",
"Intangibles",
"Cobb-Douglas",
"Complementarity of intellectual resources",
"Production function",
"Returns to scale"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Production function based on companies' intellectual capital seems to be relevant both from theoretical and practical points of view. The idea of any production function is to draw cohesion between firm's inputs and outputs. This approach appears to be of particular importance when the activities of companies are analyzed in terms of future growth. The classical theory of the firm implemented in the analysis of economic agents' behavior does not face all the requirements of new economy conditions. One of the pivot shortcomings of the existing theoretical frameworks is related to the omission of intangibles as key drivers of firm's growth and success. We would like to challenge this issue placing the emphases on a complementarity of intellectual resources.\n2 Theoretical background: (a) Intellectual capital definition\n3 Research design and model development: We place emphasis on apparent discrepancy when a particular company with a high quality of one of the intellectual capital components is unlikely to create value. Meanwhile a comparable company with a lower quality of the mentioned resource employing optimal balance of intangibles is better off. Moreover, we would like to examine if additional investments into companies' intangibles provides higher, equal or lower return.\n4 Conclusion and discussion: Considering the purpose set in our research and following the results already shown and commented, we summarize the following conclusions:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the production function of firms based on the use of intellectual capital. The authors come up with this problem since believe that the new economy conditions require an adjustment and a development of classical firm theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research question addressed in this study is mainly related to the empirical validation of the function based on companies' intangibles in the Cobb-Douglas framework. This model enables the authors to advocate the idea of the complementarity of intellectual resources as well as simplifies the analysis of intellectual capital features. To accomplish the purpose of the research, the authors design a log-linear model and estimate it on a sample of more than 400 European and American companies.\nFindings: Application of Cobb-Douglas framework allowed designing a production function based on intellectual capital. The complementarity of intellectual capital components is justified on the empirical results obtained in this research. The increasing return to scale for intellectual capital was established for the sample examined in this study.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main shortcoming of the approach implemented in this study is related to the proxy indicators of intellectual capital. Nevertheless, the authors statistically validate the chosen indicators applying hedonic approach.\nPractical implications: Practical accomplishment of this research is mainly associated with the conclusion about an increasing return to scale of intellectual capital. This phenomenon appears to be of a particular importance for investment decisions.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this paper provide a new insight into intellectual resources interrelation that enhances companies' value creation. The authors also hope to assist future research attempts in application of the theory of company's growth driven by its intangible capital.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Capitalizing on coaching investment: enhancing coaching transfer
|
[
"Coaching",
"Employee development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Increasingly organizations are choosing coaching as a means to enhance staff, and ultimately organizational performance (Sherman and Freas, 2004). Despite the often considerable financial and human resource investment, staff are not guaranteed to employ the development that they gain in coaching within their workplace.\nCoaching and transfer: This article focuses on coaching in which a coachee and an external/internal coach work together to enhance the coachee's job performance. Coaching transfer is \"the sustained application of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other qualities acquired during coaching into the workplace\" (Stewart et al., 2008, p 88).Three factors have been found to support transfer:1. pro-development organizational culture;2. positive psychosocial support within the organization for the coachee;3. pro-development coachee.Organizations can maximise the likelihood that their coaching investment translates into enhanced performance by paying careful attention to these factors.\n1. Pro-development organizational culture: Organizational culture is the soul of an organization. It is pervasive in its influence of people and performance. Significant effort is often invested in creating the \"right\" culture. A pro-development culture values and encourages development. It is characterized by sponsorship and support for development. To capitalise on their coaching investment organizations must work to nurture this type of pro-development culture.A pro-development culture facilitates coaching transfer via creating a positive organizational climate, employing operational factors that support coaching, and being mindful of workload.Organizational climate\n2. Positive psychosocial support for the coachee: We often speak of development as a result or product. We overlook that change is complex and dynamic, and has the possibly to go wrong or become undone. We speak of personal and personnel development as positive. We overlook that they can be threatening and unsettling to the individuals involved. Coachees who have psychosocial support from within their organization are more likely to transfer their development to the workplace.Psychosocial support is \"support for people by people\". The support of a quality developmental champion has been found to be the most important factor for coaching transfer. Peer support is also important.Availability of a quality developmental champion\n3. Pro-development coachee: The coachee takes centre position in every coaching relationship. Not all coachees are poised to maximise the benefits of coaching (e.g. coachees who feel coerced into coaching, and those without a true need for coaching). Not all coachees will transfer their development. Transfer relies on coachees' motivation to implement and sustain their development in the workplace. Coachees who have a pro-development approach and who are proactive in pursuing their goals are more likely to transfer.Pro-development approach\nConclusion: Organizations and coachees testify that coaching is a powerful medium for enhancing coachee's professional life. To capitalize on their coaching investment organizations must recognise that they cannot pass the responsibility for staff development entirely over to their coaches. The coachee-coach relationship is a time-bound, goal specific, situationally constrained vehicle for development. Coaching success depends on an ongoing partnership of mutual responsibility between the organization and the coachee.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to raise organization's and practitioner's awareness of how to maximise coaching investment via enhancing coaching transfer.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is based on a research project that comprised two sub-studies. The first employed used semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis techniques to explore coachees' (N=25), coaches' (N=9) and organizational stakeholders' (N=5) perceptions of a successful coaching outcome and the facilitators and barriers to transfer. The second study administered a self-report questionnaire developed from the results of Study one to coachees (N=110) to explore possible relationships between transfer and coachee motivation, work environment psychosocial factors and situational factors.\nFindings: - Coachees, coaches and organizational stakeholders described coaching outcomes as comprising intra-personal development, personal and performance outcomes. Further, they described transfer as associated with a pro-development organizational climate, psychosocial support and the coachee having a pro-development attitude. Correlational analyses of questionnaire data supported these findings.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings were based on self-report. Despite the limitations of self-report data, they provide a useful indication of the factors which likely impact on coaching transfer.\nPractical implications: - The findings are valuable in that they provide practical guidance to assist organizations and practitioners maximise coaching investment.\nOriginality/value: - Although this study drew on training transfer research, it was original in the field of coaching.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does strategic human resource involvement and devolvement enhance organisational performance? : Evidence from Jordan
|
[
"Organisational performance",
"Confirmatory factor analysis",
"Hierarchical regressions",
"Human resource devolvement/empowerment",
"Strategic human resource involvement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has attracted a great deal of research attention owing to its impact on the functioning of organisations. It is argued that involving Human Resource (HR) directors in the strategic plans of an organisation and empowering line managers with greater responsibility in terms of day-to-day HR affairs can reduce employee turnover and improve organisational performance[1] (see, e.g. Budhwar and Sparrow, 1997; Budhwar, 2000; Sullivan, 2003; Andersen et al., 2007; Karami et al., 2008; Singh et al., 2012a). Prima facie, this argument is plausible; however, not much empirical evidence exists to support such assertions. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap with the help of primary data collected from the population of financial firms in the country of Jordan. The study is important and timely owing to the fact that not much research has been carried out in the context of small countries. Jordan is a small, relatively developed and stable Middle Eastern country with a significant industrial and commercial base. If strategic HR aspects derived in the west are unable to generate significant performance improvements in such a context, arguably this could cast doubt on the broader relevance of such aspects across much of the developing world.In this paper, we address the following key question: what measurable impact does the effective process of strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement have on employee turnover and financial performance? The underlying hypotheses are that, if it is true that strategic HR involvement and HR empowerment are effective instruments, then the outcome of the implementation of such instruments should show up in reduced employee turnover and, perhaps more importantly, in the enhanced financial performance of organisations.The paper is organised as follows: Section 2 highlights the SHRM in the context of Jordan; Section 3 describes the theoretical background and summarises the literature on strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement; Sections 4 and 5 list hypotheses, describe the data, variables, and methodology applied in the study; this is followed by an analysis of results in Section 6; discussion and conclusions are considered in Section 7.\n2. SHRM in the context of Jordan: During recent years, Jordan has opened its markets to world trade and investment, and is fast becoming a credible player in global commerce. However, given its limited natural resources, the onus is falling on the services sector, which contributes to over 75 per cent to the country's national income (World Factbook, 2009). Importantly, the financial sector occupies a prominent position within the services. It is recognised that the services sector had been largely insulated from the recent financial crisis owing to its, as yet, somewhat limited exposure to overseas capital markets. This, however, is changing fast, as became clearly evident during the course of the research for this paper, during which the authors spoke to over 100 HR directors responsible for financial issues. It was discovered that HR directors have been engaged in several HR initiatives with the aim of enhancing organisational performance to make their firms competitive. Several HR directors relayed to authors their firms' evolving belief that employees are key resources who can enable businesses to gain competitive advantage (academic work in this arena can be found in Pfeffer, 1994, 1998). Allied to the realisation of these HR directors is also the fact that there is now a burgeoning (but, as yet, inconclusive) literature on the link between the SHRM and positive firm performance, however, measured (Huselid, 1995; MacDuffie, 1995; Delery and Doty, 1996; Darwish et al., 2013). Within the organisation, the implementers of SHRM changes are primarily the HR directors, the focus of whom is now shifting gradually from routine functions to strategic aspects. In an earlier work, this preposition was tested empirically, and found to be true in the case of financial firms under investigation in this paper (see Singh et al., 2012a). Markedly, this work is an extension of the previous work on the role of HR directors (Singh et al., 2012a) conducted with the help of the same data set.Throughout this paper, we take a closer look at the issues associated with strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement in the financial enterprises in the wake of these firms' attempts to enhance their organisational performance. The paper also responds to the call of several HRM researchers who have emphasised the necessity of investigations into HRM issues from different angles (see Casson et al., 1996, 1997, 1998; Wright et al., 2005b; Chand and Katou, 2007). Thus far, almost all the studies on this topic have been conducted with regard to the industrial sector in the western context - particularly in the USA and the UK. This work conducted in a non-western context and in an all-important financial sector in Jordan adds value to the literature. A review of research work in the context of Jordan showed that very few studies on HRM issues exist, and none on the theme investigated in this paper (some related studies include that of Al-Husan et al., 2009; Mohammad, 2011; Singh et al., 2012a; Darwish et al., 2013).\n3. Theoretical background and literature reference: Basics of strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement\n4. Hypotheses: We propose that the end results of involving HR directors in the overall strategic process of the organisation and devolving the day-to-day routine HR issues to line managers would show up positively through reduced employee turnover and enhanced financial performance[2]. Based on the review of literature, as described above, alongside deductive reasoning, we propose to test the following two related hypotheses:H1. There is a negative relationship between the issues of strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement and employee turnover; the higher the involvement and empowerment, the lower the employee turnover.H2. There is a positive relationship between strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement, and financial performance. Higher the involvement and devolvement, higher would be the financial performance.The first hypothesis is related to the behavioural (subjective) aspects of organisational performance as we attempt to establish whether there is a relationship between the issue of strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement, and that of employee turnover. In contrast, the second hypothesis takes into consideration the objective aspects of performance, which concerns the financial results of the companies.\n5. Methodology: Data sources\n6. Results: Descriptive\n7. Discussion and conclusions: This study contributes to our understanding of and insight into the relationship between strategic HR involvement and HR devolvement, and organisational performance. The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that effective strategic HR involvement in the working of the company reduces employee turnover rate and enhances financial performance. The results tell us that, when HR directors are involved in the overall strategic process of their companies (e.g. contribute to planning and implementing the business and corporate strategies, and joining the board meetings regularly), employees remain longer within the company, and contribute positively to the financial performance.The findings of our first hypothesis are consistent with previous works that have established a positive relationship between the core aspects of SHRM and perceived indicators of financial performance, such as ROA, ROE, and employee turnover (see, e.g. Appleby and Mavin, 2000; Richard and Johnson, 2001; Andersen et al., 2007; Karami et al., 2008). The results of this study are also consistent with the work of Wright et al. (1999), who found a positive relationship between strategic HR involvement and organisational effectiveness; moreover, they have pointed out the fact that HR directors greatly value their jobs when they are involved in strategic decision making.We did not find support for our hypothesis that empowering line managers with greater power will also lead to reduced employee turnover and enhanced financial performance. This result is not aligned with the findings of various studies, which have established a weak-to-moderate positive relationship between HR empowerment and perceived organisational performance (see, e.g. Appleby and Mavin, 2000; Andersen et al., 2007). However, it has been pointed out in the literature that, in order for HR practices to be carried out in harmony with broader policy issues, HR managers and professionals should train line managers on HR practices and keep interactions and communications with them open and on-going (Budhwar and Khatri, 2001). Additionally, the reason for not determining a positive link of empowerment on low employee turnover and financial performance could be owing to the fact that the study was conducted during the on-going period of turmoil in the financial world, and HR directors and management were in the process of consolidating the core business decisions by keeping them in the hands of the top few executives. It is probable that, when the study is replicated in normal circumstances, results will differ.Contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to test empirically the relationship between the strategic involvement and the devolvement of human resource functions with organisational performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is based on the primary data collected from the population of financial firms based in Jordan. The methodology adopted for the purpose of data analysis includes the use of basic statistics, zero-order correlations, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regressions.\nFindings: - The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that the involvement of human resource functions into the business and corporate strategy reduces employee turnover rate and enhances financial performance. The analysis does not support the second hypothesis that empowering day-to-day human resource functions to line managers impacts negatively on employee turnover and positively on financial performance.\nPractical implications: - Our results imply that financial performance can be enhanced and employee turnover rate decreased by involving human resource directors in the overall strategic decision-making process of companies. However, our results also imply that the devolvement of routine human resource issues to line managers is neither positively related to the financial performance of the companies nor negatively related to employee turnover. This raises doubts as to whether, after having involved human resource functions into the strategic affairs of the company, they are empowered enough to make a positive impact.\nOriginality/value: - This is one of few papers conducted on this topic in a non-western environment, and the first of its kind for the country of Jordan. This paper contributes to the field through its approach to measuring and testing strategic human resource management theory. The paper also successfully links the core aspects of strategic human resource management with objective indicators of financial performance of the companies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Technology acceptance model (TAM) and social media usage: an empirical study on Facebook
|
[
"Social media",
"Facebook",
"TAM"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton who had robbed over 100 banks, remarked \"because that's where the money is.\" Fast forwarding to the current business world, marketers, and businesses are rushing to online social media sites because that is where customers, suppliers, prospective employees, and other stakeholders are to be found. Social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn, have been defined as a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). According to the Webster online dictionary, social media is defined as the forms of electronic communication (as web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other s (e.g. videos). In particular, channels (e.g. e-mail) and platforms (e.g. intranets) are two categories of social media widely used within an organization (McAfee, 2006). Based on a social presence/media richness and self-presentation/self-disclosure, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) classified social media into blogs (e.g. Open Diary, Technirati, and LiveJournal, etc.), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, Google+), virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life), collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia), communities (e.g. YouTube, Flicker), and virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft).\nTheory development and research model: TAM was developed by Davis (1986) to theorize the usage behavior of computer technology. The TAM was adopted from another popular theory called theory of reasoned action (TRA; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) from field of social psychology which explains a person's behavior through their intentions. Intention in turn is determined by two constructs: individual attitudes toward the behavior and social norms or the belief that specific individuals or a specific group would approve or disprove of the behavior. Both TRA and TAM are shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. While TRA was theorized to explain general human behavior, TAM specifically explained the determinants of computer acceptance that are general and capable of explaining user behavior across a broad range of end-user computing technologies and the user population (Davis et al., 1989).\nResearch methods: For our empirical study, a total of 900 full-time students from two business schools (one public university and one private university) in the USA were simultaneously requested to participate in an online survey. These students were enrolled as full-time students in either undergraduate or graduate level business programs. Our online survey asked respondents to answer the survey regarding their experiences as regular usage of Facebook. A total of 405 responses were received from the initial announcement. In order to minimize bias, no incentive was provided to the students for their participation. Approximately two weeks after the first announcement, an e-mail reminder was sent which collected 35 additional responses. Out of total 440 responses collected during the two waves of survey request, 51 incomplete responses were dropped. The final sample size was 389 resulting in a response rate of 43.2 percent (389/900). The characteristics of our sample respondents are provided in Table I.\nDiscussion: Among all the social media sites, Facebook has become a global phenomenon to support interpersonal interactions, communications, entertainment, and social bonding among its users. Motivated by the widespread and unprecedented popularity of Facebook, the current study seeks to understand what leads to acceptance of such social media usage by diverse and global individual users. Accordingly, the current study has extended the TAM model to explain key variables of social media acceptance and usage behavior among the individual users.\nConclusion: This paper proposes a revised TAM framework for enhancing our understanding of a social media user's attitudes toward usage. The findings suggest that utilitarian orientations of perceived usefulness and TW of a social media site are important determinants of a user's IU the social media, which in turn, is the indicator of the actual usage behavior of social media. Based on the TAM model, our study validates the attitude-intent-behavior relationship in the context of the social media site Facebook. Further, we have also explored and added additional important constructs, CM, social media CPs, and PP, to make the TAM model more meaningful in the context of understanding the acceptance and usage of social media.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Given the widespread popularity of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn, theorizing and understanding the user attitude and usage behavior of social media site is fundamental in developing future understandings and deployment of these new technologies. One approach to such studies on drivers of social media usage behavior would be to revisit the technology acceptance model (TAM). The purpose of this paper is to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Decades of extensive research have focussed on validating the TAM, proposed by Davis (1986), for various types of information systems and communication technologies. TAM forecasts individual adoption and voluntary use of technology. This study examines individual adoption behavior of the most popular social networking site Facebook. The influences on the intention of using social networking based on individual's perceived ease of use (EU), the user's critical mass (CM), social networking site capability (CP), perceived playfulness (PP), trustworthiness (TW), and perceived usefulness (PU) is empirically examined with a primary data set of 398 users of Facebook gathered from a web-based questionnaire survey.\nFindings: The results demonstrate that the revised social media TAM model proposed in this study supports all the hypotheses of social media usage behavior. The results of this study provide evidence for the importance of additional key variables to TAM in considering user engagement on social media sites and other social-media-related business strategies.\nOriginality/value: Based on our review of existing scientific literature on social media, few empirical studies have been conducted to scientifically evaluate and explain the usage behavior of social media using Facebook. A validated instrument of usage behavior of social media can provide usability experts and practitioners with a validated tool to assess social media acceptance and usage behavior. This can help us gain a better understanding of \"who is and who is not using these sites, why and for what purposes\" (Boyd and Ellison, 2007).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining retail customer experience and the moderation effect of loyalty programmes
|
[
"Loyalty",
"Customer experience",
"Loyalty programme",
"Satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Creating superior customer experience (CE) is a central concern in retail management and most managers recognize that enhancing CE is important for customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately the firm's profitability (Kumar et al., 2013). In order to provide good, positive CE, it is important to understand the factors that create CE, how to measure it and how it affects customer satisfaction and loyalty in different service settings (Klaus and Maklan, 2012). However, despite on-going conceptual development of CE and growing attention to the construct, only a limited amount of research has attempted to measure CE and test its effects on customer satisfaction and loyalty (Lemke et al., 2011; Maklan and Klaus, 2011; Verhoef et al., 2009), and those that do (e.g. Bagdare and Jain, 2013), use reflective rather than formative measures of the construct. This is a pity becasue the CE construct is more apporiately measured formatively because the causal relationship is between the indicators and latent construct, i.e. each indicator influences CE, rather than the other way round (Cenfetelli and Bassellier, 2009; Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer, 2001). Moreover, authors exploring the measurement of CE rarely link the construct to key customer outcomes such as satisfaction and loyalty, ignoring possible mediating or moderating variables (e.g. Bagdare and Jain, 2013).\nConceptual framework: Conceptualization of retail CE\nResearch design and methods: Research context\nResults: We used partial least square (PLS) structural equation modelling for our data analysis. Using PLS in path modelling to establish causal relationships is advantageous because it requires no assumption of normal distributions and also allows for smaller sample size requirements (Hair et al., 2011). The software used in this study is Smart PLS 2.0 M3 (Ringle et al., 2005). Unlike covariance-based structural equation modelling, PLS path modelling does not optimize a unique global scalar function, and subsequently does not have global goodness-of-fit (GoF). There have been attempts to develop overall model fit indices in PLS, such as the GoF index and the relative goodness-of-fit index (GoFrel), but recent methodological research suggests that these indices are not suitable for PLS model validation (Henseler and Sarstedt, 2013). We therefore follow the commonly adopted guidelines as set by Hair et al. (2011), using a two-step procedure to assess the adequacy of the model. First, we assess the measurement model with regard to reliability and validity. Second, we examine the structural model parameters and the explanatory power of the model. To test the significance of model estimates, we compute the t-statistics using 5,000 bootstrap samples (Hair et al., 2011). In the results tables, for the ease of reading we report \"t-value of 1.96 and above\" in term of \"p-value of 0.05 or lower\", and \"t-value of 2.58 above\" in the term of \"p-value of 0.01 or lower\".\nDiscussion and conclusions: This paper attempted to measure the construct of CE in several specific settings and test its links to satisfaction and loyalty using loyalty programme membership as a moderator on those links through four in-built replication studies. We make three important contributions to the retailing literature.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the construct of retail customer experience (CE) and its links to satisfaction and loyalty; and to test whether loyalty programmes perform a moderating effect on those links.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A variety of retail attributes are integrated to develop a holistic CE construct using formative measures, with four in-built, differentiated replication studies conducted in the supermarket and department store sectors in China.\nFindings: The empirical results confirm the model of CE's impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty; but reveal that loyalty programmes perform an insignificant moderating role in enhancing the linkages in the model.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further studies may examine whether our findings hold true for each individual loyalty programme. The paper calls for more studies based on multiple, in-built, differentiated replication studies and measures to encourage publication of negative empirical results so as to ensure empirical generalization and self-correction in the literature.\nPractical implications: Retail managers should focus attention on the design and delivery of great CE, without placing great reliance on loyalty programmes. Both cognitive and emotional attributes of retailing services should be considered for managing a holistic CE.\nOriginality/value: The paper examines a model of CE with loyalty programme as a possible moderator; it uses formative measures of CE, multiple in-built replications and reports negative empirical results, which are critical to the development of scientific progress in retail management research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"After 300 meters turn right" - the future of Russia's GLONASS and the development of global satellite navigation systems
|
[
"Russia",
"Global navigation satellite systems",
"GLONASS"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) determine the exact location of objects. Originally developed for accurate location of military installations, the satellite signal was later opened up for civilian use, providing navigation data for objects on land, water surfaces and in the air. Today, satellite positioning technology is used by transporters, carriers, motorists, surveyors, builders, foresters, etc. through a wide array of devices like mobile phones or multimedia devices with built-in receiver modules.\nMethodology: To determine the future demand for space navigation, we identified devices with certain characteristics as the base unit for the forecast of market development. In the first phase of the project, we scanned publicly available sources of information, like relevant reports of foreign and Russian agencies, marketing reports of consulting companies, as well as national policies and programs for the sector. The literature formed the basis for discussions with the expert panel, which identified priority areas for the development of markets and technologies of space navigation. In these expert groups, participants identified key trends, drivers and barriers for the sector. We, subsequently, developed a first estimate of the market for space navigation and the main directions of technological development of space navigation system. In the second phase of the exercise, we organized a series of roundtables and workshops in which we presented the interim results to representatives of educational institutions, research organizations and enterprises in the space industry, as well as manufacturers of equipment. We adjusted our assessment of market size based on the feedback and further redefined the most promising technological opportunities for GLONASS. The third stage consisted of in-depth interviews with key experts. We also sent out questionnaires about the schedules of different project implementations around GLONASS. Here, we were especially interested in public authorities and their planned large-scale projects. This allowed us to assess the newly introduced technologies, as well as forecast the development of technologies in Russia under different scenarios. Final results have again been discussed with experts from science, industry and relevant government agencies. The outcome of the exercise has also been presented during a roundtable on \"Improving the management of space activities: international experience and prospects for the Russian Federation\", organized by the HSE in 2013.\nGLONASS: The beginning of global satellite navigation programs goes back to the ambitious Soviet space program which, in 1957, launched the world's first satellite. The USA followed on January 31, 1958 with Explorer 1. The signal that satellites sent to earth was not used for exact positioning before 1964. US submarines used the TRANSIT satellite communication system for determining their position, which relied on one satellite and could only receive a reading every 35-45 minutes. The following system TIMATION I (installed by US Navy in 1967) had an atomic clock onboard which allowed measuring the time a signal took from leaving the satellite to reaching its target. This technology allowed for correct positioning while the navigating object was moving. The USSR included navigation systems already into its five-year plan of 1966, but its first attempts to set up the nece0ssary infrastructure started as late as 1972 with the launch of Cosmos 1,000 (Wood and Perry, 1980). For a detailed analysis of Soviet technological progress in the field of satellite navigation, please see Perry and Wood (1976).\nGlobal Positioning System: The development of the US Defense Navigation Satellite System began in 1973, which was later renamed NAVigation Satellites providing Time and Range; Global Positioning System, and finally shortened to GPS. The first satellite was launched a year after the start of the program and, by 1993, 24 satellites were orbiting. The system's original function was to guide missiles, initially toward standing, later also toward moving targets. The opening of the system for civil use followed the tragic incident in 1983, when the Soviet Union shot down a passenger plane which accidentally entered its airspace. The system was designed for a minimum of 24 satellites, but for increased accuracy GPS currently operates with 31 satellites.\nGalileo: Galileo is a joint project of the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency and was originally implemented to improve the transport of goods through the EU. The project involves non-EU partners like Russia, China, Israel, South Korea and the Ukraine. Currently, negotiations are underway with Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, India and Malaysia. The Galileo system is planned to start between 2014 and 2016 with 30 satellites (27 operational and 3 spares). The infrastructure on the ground will include three control centers and a global network of transmitting and receiving stations. The Galileo system is based on the same technology as the GPS, and provides a similar capability. The space segment consists of 30 medium-altitude satellites covering the whole globe, including the Polar Regions. Galileo navigation signals should provide good coverage even in the range of 75 degrees northern latitude, which corresponds to the location of the North Cape. A large number of satellites including three spare ones ensure signal availability and accuracy. The main 27 satellites operating on three circular orbits at 29,994 km and an inclination of 56deg complete one turn in 14 hours 4 minutes and 42 seconds. Satellites weigh between 700-800 kg, with a lifetime of 10-12 years.\nBeiDou navigation satellite system (Compass/BeiDou): Already in 1983, a regional navigation system based on the Twinsat technology was tested in China and showed an accuracy level comparable with GPS. BeiDou, officially launched in 1993, utilizes DFH-3 satellite platforms and displays similar characteristics with GPS. The system provides basic services to the Chinese Government and military, including positioning, timing and short message transmission all over East Asia. As of May 1, 2012, in geostationary orbit, 13 satellites determine the location of facilities in China and neighboring territories. According to plans, the orbital group will expand to 35 satellites in 2020. BeiDou is used by government agencies, logistic service provider and public transport. The system is planned to grow through cooperation with other countries to provide high-quality services for a global clientele free of charge.\nMarket analysis of global satellite navigation: We identified two main market segments in Europe: ground transportation (vehicles with built-in satellite navigation, personal autonavigation devices) and location-based services (LBS)-services (the user's location provided by the integration of GNSS in mobile phones). Among other segments are agriculture, aviation (commercial, regional, business and civil aviation) and maritime transport.\nDevelopment of the Russian market for GNSS: The Russian market accounts for less than 1 per cent of the global market share. In our exercise, the different types of GNSS devices are divided into five fields of usage:\nThe use of built-in car GLONASS modules: Due to increased importance of built-in GNSS devices, the demand for these devices will be largely driven by the growth of car sales (Figure 3 and 4).\nThe use of GLONASS in cartography: Public measures to improve the development of Geodesy and Cartography by 2020 (approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation from 17.12.2010 No 2,378-P) will attempt to raise the efficiency in geodetic support of the Russian Federation. The list of measures includes the creation and development of a high-precision geocentric coordinate system of the Russian Federation, integrated into a new international terrestrial reference system. With the implementation of geodetic and cartographic works, supporting space flights and navigation problems with the use of measuring devices are in use by various federal executive agencies and scientific organizations. Figure 5 shows the dynamics of the forecasted sales of surveying and mapping equipment with navigational chips (Figure 6).\nSummary: This paper discusses the results of a recently held foresight exercise on the future development of Russia's GLONASS system and thereby provides a comprehensive picture of the development of GNSS for civilian use until 2020. In comparison with other suppliers, GLONASS is independent from foreign governments. In addition, unlike Galileo and BeiDou, Russia has considerable experience in the deployment, improvement and replacement of satellites. Some characteristics, however, are still falling behind main competitors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) were designed to determine the exact location of objects on land, water and air for military purposes. With the opening of the satellite signal for civilian use, the technology created business opportunities for various applications. Today, satellite positioning technology is used by transporters, carriers, motorists, surveyors, builders, foresters, etc. through a wide array of devices like mobile phones or multimedia devices with built-in receiver modules.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper provides the results of a recently held foresight exercise on the future development of Russia's GLONASS system.\nFindings: The foresight exercise suggested a number niche markets where the GLONASS technology could be of great use, like monitoring of buildings and construction sides or the monitoring of shipments. In addition, in the case of Russia, large-scale government-driven investment programs will be key drivers for GLONASS' growth perspectives.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides a comprehensive picture of the development of GNSS for civilian use until 2020.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Health-related quality of life measurement
|
[
"Personal health",
"Quality of life",
"Instruments",
"Health services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Modern medical science has ensured significant progress in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Traditionally, the success of treatment has been measured by biomedical/clinical end points like survival (overall or long-term, specific or corrected survival, disease-free survival, recurrence-free survival), response rates, time to progression, relapse or treatment failure, and surgery-related items like mortality, morbidity and duration of hospital stay. Improvements in living conditions and changes in medicine lead to increase in life expectancy. Furthermore, once thought acute lethal conditions are becoming chronic conditions. Diseases and their treatment may have an impact not only on survival but also on the wellbeing of the individual's quality of life. Effort is now being made to gauge these consequences of surgical interventions. Health related quality of life (HR-QOL) is a multi-dimensional dynamic concept that has developed from the need to estimate the psychosocial impact of diseases, which includes economic welfare, characteristics of community and environment, and health status.\nHealth-related quality of life: The assessment of health-related HR-QOL has received considerable attention in the last two to three decades, with the development of a wide variety of assessment instruments. These instruments can be generic or disease specific, health profiles or preference based (Hickey et al., 2005). In the purest sense, quality implies subjective evaluation by the individual. HR-QOL is variously referred to as patient-assisted outcome measure, health status, and functional status or just as outcome measure. Quality of life (QOL) and HR-QOL are often used interchangeably, often with little distinction between the two concepts, giving rise to confusion in this area of research. There is a need to distinguish between global wellbeing and health-related wellbeing, although health is one of the strongest determinants of global QOL. Key dimensions of HR-QOL are physical functions, sensations, self-care/dexterity, cognition, pain/discomfort and emotional/psychological wellbeing i.e. \"all within the skin\". Therefore, HR-QOL is more appropriate for our use, as health workers can influence by improving patient's illness. There is increasing consensus that \"HR-QOL is important\". However, what exactly is HR-QOL? As a rule, the term HR-QOL is used in medical research for characterizing an individual's QOL from his/her own subjective perspective, in contrast to the professionals' objective evaluation of the health status of the individual (Fry, 2000). World Health Organization has defined HR-QOL as:[...] an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live, in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It is a broad ranging concept affected in a complex way by the person's physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships and their relationships to salient features of the environment (WHO QOL-group, 1996).Another concept to emerge from these deliberations is the quality adjusted life years (QALYs), which stemmed from the presumption that a treatment plan improving QOL without survival benefit will be preferred by the patient over a treatment plan with survival benefits but serious discomfort. An increasingly used extension of QALY is quality adjusted time without symptoms or toxicity (Q-TWIST): which obviously means quality symptoms-free time without adverse effects of treatment. HR-QOL is a relatively new addition to the tools that clinicians use to gain a better understanding of the impact of disease and its treatment. The science of HR-QOL assessment is a vibrant, although young discipline but becoming an essential tool to justify innovative approaches to treat medical and surgical ailments.Importance of HR-QOL measurement\nConclusion: Health related quality of life (HR-QOL) is a multi-dimensional dynamic concept that has developed from the need to estimate the psychosocial impact of diseases, which includes economic welfare, characteristics of community and environment, and health status. Survival alone is now regarded as insufficient method of disease management. Only the treatment, which improves HR-QOL, is regarded as an effective intervention even if it is without survival benefit. HR-QOL is being incorporated into the decisions of clinicians and policy-makers in almost every speciality of medicine and surgery. HR-QOL measurement in surgery is currently done mainly for the research purposes, and unless it finds a beneficial place in routine clinical practice, it is likely to remain a philosophical exercise. HR-QOL as a prediction of treatment response is another interesting option; however, this area requires further development. Because the impairments of function that may occur after different operations vary considerably, an operation-specific assessment of HR-QOL for each type of surgical procedure is becoming an essential principle to follow in a successful healthcare system. A further important area of growth is incorporation of HR-QOL in both the medical school curriculum and in the continuous professional development programme for clinicians\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to discuss the value of health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) measurement and describe its development with a few examples.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology is a literature review of various articles published in the last 25 years on health-related quality of life.\nFindings: - HR-QOL tools are health status instruments, which are utilized to assess the changes in the health status of patients. These surveys are of increasingly importance as healthcare providers are challenged to justify treatment approaches and rationale for any intervention. Objective criteria can be used to determine whether there is clinical evidence of disease. However, the impact of disease on the individual's life is not included in such a clinical assessment. The use of validated and reliable health instruments is directed at measuring this impact in a reproducible and valid fashion. In patient-centred research, \"experimental\" conditions are constantly changing because human beings with values, feelings, perspectives and social relationships are being treated. It is especially important to use valid measurement tools when assessing these impacts.\nOriginality/value: - This article is written from the authors' own experience and knowledge and adds those benefits to the literature already available.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Palm oil free" vs "sustainable palm oil": the impact of claims on consumer perception
|
[
"Risk perception",
"Attitude",
"Product evaluation",
"Palm oil",
"Expected tastiness",
"Nutrition claims"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge on the consumer-product relationship by focusing on palm oil, a very controversial food ingredient. The palm oil debate has become highly polarised in recent years and is of crucial importance for multinationals and their policies. The main accusations concern the detrimental effect on the natural environment and the sustainability of producing communities. Indeed, in many areas the growth of palm oil production is a major cause of pollution problems, land use change and deforestation, with consequent implications for biodiversity (Oosterveer, 2015; Saswattecha et al., 2015). The palm industry is also associated with neglect of land tenure rights, exploitation of labour and disregard of basic human rights (e.g. Cramb and Sujang, 2011; Pye et al., 2012). Although a global sustainability standard for the palm oil production - the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) - was established by multi-stakeholders to respond to the aforementioned concern, only about 20 per cent of the palm oil on the world market is produced with the RSPO certification. In addition, some advocacy groups denounce a possible harmful effect to health caused by the massive use of this vegetable oil in food products.\nLiterature review and research hypotheses: In the past decade, the consumption of vegetable oils is increasing (Clay, 2004). Among these, palm oil is the most produced and consumed worldwide (Fitzherbert et al., 2008; Hansen et al., 2015). Whilst palm oil has been grown commercially since the 1960s (McCarthy and Cramb, 2009), its production has been massively intensified from the mid-2000s. From 15.2m tons in 1995, global production increased to 73.5m tons in 2018 (European Palm Oil Alliance; Statista). The growth in demand for palm oil is due to its large range of use, from foods to cosmetics, combined with a competitive market price (MPOB, 2013). The most recent statistics indicate that more than half of all the palm oil imported in Europe (61 per cent) was used for biodiesel (51 per cent), heating and electricity (10 per cent), while the remaining 39 per cent was used for food, animal feed and other industrial uses such as cosmetics (Oil World, 2018).\nMethod: The stimulus used in the study was a biscuit packaging. Three versions of the pack were created, one for each experimental condition (\"palm oil free\" claim, \"with sustainable palm oil\" claim, \"no claim\"). Moreover, two types of brand were considered: a well-known brand and a fictional brand. Given that the subjects could already be familiar with the well-known brand and have an established preference, the fictional brand that subjects had not been exposed to before was used in order to reduce potential bias due to this familiarity.\nResults: Results of factorial ANOVAs are reported in Table I. The main effect of the type of claim on PE was significant (F=4.40; p < 0.05). Specifically, post hoc tests showed that the mean score was higher when consumers were exposed to \"palm oil free\" claim (PE=21.60) as opposed to \"with sustainable palm oil\" claim (PE=18.55), thus supporting H1a. On the contrary, no significant difference emerged with respect to the \"no claim\" condition (H1b). The type of claim also impacted on RP (F=5.87; p < 0.01), supporting H3. Consumers exposed to the \"palm oil free\" claim showed a lower RP towards the product (PR=7.12) compared to those exposed to the \"with sustainable palm oil\" claim (PR=9.97) and to the \"no claim\" packaging (PR=7.20). As hypothesised in H4, the \"free from\" claim did not generate a lower ET of the product, compared to the \"sustainable\" claim and to the \"no claim\" (F=1.02; p>0.05). Finally, H2 and H5 were not supported by empirical data as attitude and WTP did not differ among the three experimental conditions. Results indicated the absence of an interaction effect between brand and claim for each dependent variable, thus excluding the potential familiarity with the well-known brand bias. The means and standard deviations of the independent variables are shown in Tables II and III.\nDiscussion and implication: In the last decades, consumers have shown a growing concern about the environmental and health impact of palm oil production and consumption. As a consequence, companies developed different strategies to reassure them and to meet the market needs. Understanding how individuals respond to these strategies is of crucial importance, especially in the food sector. This paper investigated the consumers' response towards product packs showing different palm oil-related claims: \"palm oil free\", \"with sustainable palm oil\" and \"no claim\". Results revealed that the RP was lower in the case of \"palm oil free\" labelled products compared to \"with sustainable palm oil\" labelled products and to products without claim. A second key finding is that the \"palm oil free\" product received a better evaluation compared to the \"with sustainable palm oil\" product. Finally, as expected, perceived tastiness was equal among the different experimental stimuli. Such evidence enriches the literature on consumer taste expectations and provides manufacturers with a powerful weapon to influence the consumers' decision-making process. The observed effects did not differ across brands, thus excluding possible biases related to the knowledge of and the relationship with the brand.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The palm oil debate has become highly polarised in recent years and is of crucial importance for multinationals and their policies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumers' response towards product packs communicating this food ingredient in different ways: through \"palm oil free\" and \"with sustainable palm oil\" claims or without mentioning it.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mail survey with a sample of 191 consumers was conducted. Respondents were equally and randomly distributed among the experimental conditions. The hypotheses were tested by a between-subjects factorial design.\nFindings: Results revealed that consumer exposed to the \"palm oil free\" products showed a lower risk perception compared to those exposed to the \"with sustainable palm oil\" products and to products without claim. Moreover, the product evaluation was better in the \"palm oil free\" condition compared to the \"with sustainable palm oil\" condition. No differences emerged in attitude, expected tastiness and willingness to pay.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study sheds light on the consumer valuation of palm oil products and provides some useful managerial implications to manufacturers and product managers.\nOriginality/value: Results enrich the literature on food claims on pre-packaged foods as the source of information and on consumers' perception towards palm oil.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of personal resources on turnover intention: The mediating effects of work engagement
|
[
"Self-efficacy",
"Work engagement",
"Turnover intention",
"Personal resources",
"Optimism",
"Organizational-based self-esteem"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Work engagement - since first coined and introduced by Kahn (1990) - has been considered an emerging, evolving and essential concept for positive organizational change in the workplace and has continuously received a great deal of attention from the fields of human resource development (HRD) and organization development (OD), industrial and organization psychology and organizational behavior in business (Kim, 2012; Saks, 2006; Wollard and Shuck, 2011). Interest in this area stems from a conviction that the employee's positive psychological state in organizations enhance motivation to work and result in improved individual and organizational performance. The extant studies have revealed the positive influences of work engagement on diverse organizational outcomes including higher levels of job performance, employee creativity, organizational commitment and financial returns (Bakker and Bal, 2010; Hakanen et al., 2006; Xanthopoulou et al., 2009a; Zhang and Bartol, 2010) as well as lower levels of absenteeism, job burnout and turnover intention (Saks, 2006; Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004; Schaufeli et al., 2009; Wefald et al., 2011).\nLiterature review and hypotheses: Conceptual framework\nMethods: Sample and procedure\nResults: Common method bias, normality, reliability and correlation\nConclusion: The purpose of the current research was to investigate the relationships among self-efficacy, OBSE, optimism, work engagement and turnover intention in the Korean business organizational context. Based on the results of the study, this study suggests relevant and useful implications to HRD researchers and practitioners. Future research recommendations are also discussed based on research limitations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to investigate mediating effects of employees' work engagement in the relationships between their personal resources (i.e. self-efficacy, organizational-based self-esteem and optimism) and turnover intention within Korean organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 571 survey responses collected from Korean organizations were utilized and analyzed to test the proposed research hypotheses by using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: The results showed that all of personal resources had a positive impact on work engagement and work engagement had a negative impact on turnover intention. The results also revealed that although both organizational-based self-esteem and optimism had a negative impact on turnover intention, self-efficacy had an impact on turnover intention with the opposite way. In addition, work engagement mediated the relationships among self-efficacy, organizational-based self-esteem, optimism and turnover intention.\nPractical implications: The findings of the study could suggest practical implications when human resource development (HRD) professionals consider appropriate human resource interventions (e.g. training intervention) as to how to create and maintain a working environment where employees are facilitated and learned to have high levels of personal resources (i.e. self-efficacy, organizational-based self-esteem and optimism), which leads to enhancing employees' work engagement and positive outcomes (e.g. lower turnover intention).\nOriginality/value: Given that little research effort has been made to investigate the relationships among personal resources (i.e. self-efficacy, organizational-based self-esteem and optimism), work engagement and turnover intention, this research contributes to the HRD literature by adding empirical evidence of the relationships in the context of Korean organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The work-life experiences of an invisible workforce: The case of live-in women migrant domestic workers in Malaysia
|
[
"Work-life balance",
"Intersectionality",
"Invisible workers",
"Live-in domestic workers",
"Malaysia and Asia",
"Women migrant workers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: It is estimated that there are 150.3m migrant workers globally, 11.5m of which are employed as migrant domestic workers (MDWs) (ILO, 2015). The sector is heavily feminized, with women representing 73.4 per cent of all MDWs internationally. This equates to around 8.5m women who have left their home countries to work abroad as non-national domestic workers (Gallotti, 2015). MDWs make important contributions on a number of levels. MDWs' care and domestic services facilitate their employers to work outside their homes, effectively enabling middle-class households to elevate their quality of life and to contribute to the economic growth and development of the labour-importing country. The demand for MDWs continues to rise, with many countries' national policy encouraging women's formal labour market participation, leading to rising dual-earner households, and demographic transformations, such as an aging population and lower fertility rates (ILO, 2015). At the same time, MDWs contribute to the socio-economic development of their home country with the remittances they send home, which considerably improve their families' quality of life and financial prospects (ILO, 2015). Yet, they do so by making considerable personal sacrifices, leaving behind children and other family members due to restrictive migration policies of labour-importing countries (Dyer et al., 2011).\nPrevailing concepts in extant WL research: WL research is a multi-disciplinary field that examines the relationship between two broad domains of (paid) \"work\" and \"life\" (i.e. everything else that is not paid work). Conceptually, the relationship between work and life has been articulated through a number of linking mechanisms, including \"balance\", \"conflict\" and \"facilitation\" (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000; Wilkinson et al., 2017). Among them, the concept of WLB has become the most popular way of framing contemporary debates about paid work and the rest of life (Eikhof et al., 2007; Fleetwood, 2007; Lewis and Beauregard, 2018). Yet, the dominance of WLB as a discourse and a concept is problematic, as described by Fleetwood (2007, p. 352):[...] it is unclear whether WLB refers to: an objective state of affairs, a subjective experience, perception or feeling; an actuality or an aspiration; a discourse or a practice; a metaphor for flexible working; a metaphor for the gendered division of labour; or a metaphor for some other political agenda.(Fleetwood, 2007, p. 352)\nMarginalized voices: the WL experiences of invisible workers who make others' WLB possible: Despite its framing as an ungendered and more inclusive approach, WLB as a concept and a discourse has been criticized for concealing existing and ongoing gendered processes of the neoliberal adult worker model. The reality is that WLB and the WL interface have historically been approached and studied in the mainstream literature as a (working) women's issue. However, not all working women are represented in mainstream WL research. Ozbilgin et al. (2011, p. 191) have coined the term \"the ideal work-life balancers\" to denote the propensity for WL researchers to focus on workers \"who are predominantly female, white, middle-class and/or engaged in white-collar work, involved in a heterosexual relationship, and the parent of young children\". They have argued that this has led to a lack of diversity in the voices of workers of different cultural and national backgrounds, race, ethnicity, sexuality and dis/ability, who have different or no caring and family responsibilities, and who are employed in the non-white-collar, non-middle-class jobs.\nAn intersectional approach to understanding the WL experiences of women MDWs in Malaysia: Given the gendered, restrictive and exploitative nature of live-in domestic work and the imbalance of power in the employment relationship, we adopt an intersectional approach to take into account the multiple dimensions of disadvantage that intersect to shape women MDWs' experiences of the WL interface. Intersectionality is an approach \"in which the various forms of subordination that people face are taken into consideration as they act together\" (Satterthwaite, 2005, p. 8). Social categories of difference such as gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, ability and age do not function as unitary or mutually exclusive identity elements, but reciprocally constructing phenomena that intersect to shape differentiated opportunities and constraints (Collins, 2015).\nResearch methods: Data collection\nFindings and analysis: Our findings illustrate how gender, class and temporary migrant/non-national status with their structural unfreedoms intersect to shape migrant women's accounts of work, life, family and WLB as live-in MDWs in Malaysia. We focus on thematic findings based around narratives of \"work\" and \"life\" as live-in MDWs, of \"real family\" (family back home) and \"temporary family\" (employer's family), and of how WLB is conceptualized and enacted. The narratives highlight how any semblance of WLB in our participants' lived experience has given way to the needs of their employers and to the need to work as MDWs to earn an income for their families back home. The three themes are: working as MDWs enables the women and their families back home to have a life; the simultaneous co-existence of WL boundary segmentation and integration in relation to \"real\" and \"temporary\" families; and the notion of WLB being centred around the women's ability to fulfil their multiple duties as MDWs and as absent mothers/sisters/daughters, whose remittances replace the physical care they would otherwise provide to their families back home.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This paper aimed to give voice to live-in women MDWs, who have been marginalized in the WL literature despite the important role they play in making other people's WLB possible. Through an intersectional approach, we identified that the intersection of gender (women), class (low-skill work and low paid labour class) and temporary migrant status has put MDWs at an exceptionally disadvantaged position in terms of WLB experiences and outcomes. The unequal power resource relations and lack of freedom of choice experienced by our participants are further exacerbated by their position as secondary labour segment workers, who are subjected to highly restrictive employment and legal conditions. Owing to the collective and nuanced intersection of being women, domestic workers/maids and temporary migrants with a restrictive and inflexible work permit, our participants shared narratives of \"life\", \"work\" \"family\" and WLB that highlight how any semblance of WLB in our participants lived experience has given way to the needs of their employers and to the need to work as MDWs to earn an income for their families back home. The three key narratives were: working as MDWs enables the women and their families back home to have a life; the simultaneous co-existence of WL boundary segmentation and integration in relation to \"real\" and \"temporary\" families; and the notion of WLB being centred around the women's ability to fulfil their multiple duties as MDWs and as absent mothers/sisters/daughters, whose remittances replace the physical care they would otherwise provide to their families back home. In all, our participants' conceptualizations of work, life, family and WLB look very different from mainstream WLB debates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the work-life (WL) experiences of live-in women migrant domestic workers (MDWs), who represent a significant proportion of migrant workers globally. MDWs play a key role in enabling the work-life balance (WLB) of others, namely the middle-class households that employ them. Yet, their experiences have largely been invisible in mainstream WL literature. The authors draw on an intersectional approach to frame the WL experiences of this marginalized group of women at the intersection of being secondary labour segment workers, with significant legal and employment restrictions as migrant workers, who work and live in the same place as their employers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 women MDWs from Indonesia and the Philippines working in Malaysia. The women talked about the meaning of work as MDWs, how they maintain familial connections whilst working abroad, and how they negotiate their WLB as live-in workers. Thematic analysis of the interviews focused on the intersection of the women's multiple dimensions of disadvantage, including gender, class and temporary migrant-foreigner status, in shaping their accounts of the WL interface.\nFindings: Three thematic narratives highlight that any semblance of WLB in the MDWs' lived experience has given way to the needs of their employers and to the imperative to earn an income for their families back home. The themes are: working as MDWs enables the women and their families back home to have a life; the co-existence of WL boundary segmentation and integration in relation to \"real\" and \"temporary\" families; and the notion of WLB being centred around the women's ability to fulfil their multiple duties as MDWs and absent mothers/sisters/daughters.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is based on a small sample of live-in women MDWs in Malaysia, intended to promote typically excluded voices and not to provide generalizable findings. Accessing potential participants was a considerable challenge, given the vulnerable positions of women MDWs and the invisible nature of their work.\nPractical implications: Future research should adopt a multi-stakeholder approach to studying the WL experiences of women MDWs. In particular, links with non-governmental organizations who work directly with women MDWs should be established as a way of improving future participant access.\nSocial implications: The study underscores the existence of policies and regulations that tolerate and uphold social inequalities that benefit primary labour segment workers to the detriment of secondary labour segment workers, including women MDWs.\nOriginality/value: Extant WL literature is dominated by the experiences of \"the ideal work-life balancers\", who tend to be white middle-class women, engaged in professional work. This study offers original contribution by giving voice to a taken-for-granted group of women migrant workers who make other people's WLB possible. Moreover, the study challenges WL research by underscoring the power inequities that shape the participants' marginal and disadvantaged lived experience of work, life, family and WLB.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Women in construction: shortcomings, difficulties, and good practices
|
[
"Management",
"Interview",
"Construction site"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although the participation of women in the formal labor market is constantly growing, their employment in positions that have been traditionally male is still very small. According to MTB (2018), less than 10 percent of construction jobs in Brazil are occupied by women. Prejudice, discrimination, sexism and the gender wage gap are still part of women's lives, which hinders the equality of opportunities between men and women in the work environment, specifically, on construction sites and within the construction sector.\nContext: Historical context: sexual division of labor\nMethodology: The research methodology involved a qualitative analysis of data from interviews with workers and engineers of both genders, making it possible to assess the work environment from both perspectives.\nAnalysis and discussions: Table II presents the results obtained in the Likert-scale opinion measures (average, minimum and maximum values). The analysis and discussions of the main results are presented below.\nGood practices proposal: Based on the information gathered above, it was possible to obtain valuable information about the shortcomings, difficulties and priorities of female workers at construction sites. Table III presents the good practices suggested, based on the evidence observed and according to the analyzed topics.\nConclusions: The main outcome of this study for research, social and theoretical purposes is a better understanding of the situation of women workers at construction sites, from the point of view of workers and managers of both genders. Recommendations for improving the working conditions of women on construction sites are also important.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: On average, only 10 percent workers at construction sites are women. This percentage, however, is not due to a lack of interest or capacity, but to discrimination against women, sexual harassment and work safety. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main issues and current difficulties of women workers at construction sites, as well as good practices that might provide a better environment for them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Interviews were carried out with workers and engineers who work/have worked at construction sites, to gather material for a discussion about the gender gap in this environment. The interviews were structured and analyzed around the following topics: acceptance, well-being, installations, gender perception and good practices.\nFindings: The hiring of women usually occurs at the end of the construction period, which brings up the issue of sexual division of labor. Effects of the glass ceiling and the leaky pipeline phenomena were evident, as well as harassment, discrimination and sexism.\nOriginality/value: Studies about women in engineering have been become relative common, but studies about female workers on construction sites are still scarce. The women interviewed see themselves as warriors, symbolizing the gain of space within the construction sector and in society. It is hoped that the results can contribute to raising awareness about the benefits of gender mainstreaming at construction sites and to promote the health and well-being of women in these environments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Obtaining laboratory accreditation - required activities
|
[
"Technical requirements",
"ISO/IEC 17025"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Quality continues to be an important market force because consumers are generally loyal to organizations that supply good-quality products and services. It is, therefore, important to recognize that quality is a criterion that managers must satisfy if they intend to succeed in global markets (Zhang and Xia, 2013). However, managing quality is a complex activity requiring attention to finances, operational performance and client satisfaction (Singh, 2007). Quality management's central idea is that staff who improve quality also strengthen operational efficiency and customer satisfaction (Yeung et al., 2004). Organizations are increasingly implementing multiple management system standards to improve effectiveness, efficiency and to assure stakeholders (Bernardo et al., 2012). Santos et al. (2011) showed that quality management system (QMS) certification led managers to improve their internal organization, improving access to information and the management system internal evaluation.\nLiterature review: Topics covered in this literature review include: laboratory accreditation; technical requirements; and selecting and validating testing and calibration methods. These sub-sections provide a background to the accreditation procedure for quality management, explain the ISO/IEC 17025 standard's technical requirements and extend those concerning the selection, development and validation steps.\nMethodological procedures: Our work is classified as an applied and exploratory study, based on a literature review and a laboratory case study that tests electro-medical equipment linked to an IHE. The research takes a qualitative approach to analyze scenarios within a laboratory. The objectives focus on solving problems encountered during standardizing test procedures. A detailed description is, therefore, necessary since they are key elements in the study. Three publications support the study's scope, setting its course and guiding the study to its desired conclusion: Grochau and Ten Caten (2012), ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (2005), and the model proposed by Feinberg (2007). Figure 2 shows the steps taken in the study and their relation to these three publications.\nResults and discussion: In Brazil, electro-medical equipment has the ABNT NBR IEC 60601-1 (Associacao Brasileira de Normas Tecnicas, 2010) as its regulating standard, which sets out the general requirements that electro-medical equipment must meet to assure basic safety and essential performance. The ABNT NBR IEC 60601-1 clauses include identification criteria linked to its inventory and documentation, and performance criteria as protection against electrical, mechanical, radiation and temperature excesses. The standard also sets requirements that are related to the programmable electro-medical systems accuracy. Thus, it is a generic standard, covering all electro-medical equipment and establishing the minimum requirements to guarantee safety and good equipment performance. Specific clauses applicable to electro-medical equipment can be found in ISO specific standards. They are responsible for establishing specific criteria for devices and thus to guarantee safety and superior performance. Equipment having specific standards include defibrillators (Associacao Brasileira de Normas Tecnicas, 2005); haemodialysis, haemodiafiltration and haemofiltration equipment (Associacao Brasileira de Normas Tecnicas, 2003); and infusion pumps and controllers (Associacao Brasileira de Normas Tecnicas, 1999). Compatibility with these standards is considered essential since these are devices for which laboratory staff intend to develop testing and calibration procedures - infusion pumps and controller standards; e.g. state that the equipment shall maintain the accuracy stated by the manufacturer. This section is divided into two parts and covers: validating the model proposed by Feinberg (2007); and drawing up the test standardization method that meets laboratory requirements when staff specialize in electro-medical equipment. For this purpose, qualitative interviews were held with researchers involved in the accreditation process, in a specialist laboratory (quality controlling electro-medical equipment within an IHE). Interviews held in 2016 were characterized by identifying the criteria used by researchers to develop their activities and to lead the laboratory toward accreditation.\nConclusions and recommendations: A problem encountered by laboratory staff is absent models on how to meet international, national and regional standards, and the steps to be followed when selecting, developing and validating testing and calibration procedures. Our work has, therefore, developed a method for test standardization that meets such requirements, which assists laboratory staff concerned with testing and calibrating to obtain the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. To do this, we explored related work that helped to give the process structure and, together with researchers from an IHE, derived criteria to be observed at each phase in the analytical method life cycle.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the activities needed to meet specified requirements to assist laboratory staff running tests and calibrations and to obtain ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The relevant literature that contributes to establishing activities that help laboratory staff to obtain ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation was studied. Laboratory researchers specializing in electro-medical equipment quality control were questioned about the criteria to be observed when selecting, developing and validating analytical steps.\nFindings: Results revealed the analytical method criteria to be observed, which demonstrated their essentially quantitative nature.\nOriginality/value: This study presents a model that improves selecting, developing and validating analytical steps and contributes to producing reliable test and calibration results. These improvements can help laboratory testing and calibration to meet clients' needs, satisfy specified requirements and provide reliable results.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Performance of SOEs: evidence on Botswana Telecommunications Corporation
|
[
"Governance",
"Productivity",
"Efficiency",
"Enterprise",
"Agency",
"Stakeholder"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper uses an African case study to examine drivers of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) performance. SOEs continue to maintain a strong presence in Africa, particularly in the Sub-Saharan Africa where they operate virtually in all sectors (Kikeri and Kolo, 2006). SOEs dominate infrastructural sectors wherein heavy capital requirements serve as a disincentive for private investors in the less developed world (Bozec et al., 2002), it is therefore not surprising that their relevance and importance remains largely uncontested (Boko and YuanJian, 2011).\n2. Literature review: Nayyar (1990) and Putterman (1993) suggest three aspects that influence SOE performance. These are corporate incentives, efficiency in monitoring mechanisms and the economy wide free rider problem. Faced with two distinctive dimensions of performance, i.e. financial and social (Aharoni, 1981), SOEs in theory are owned by, and report to a wide spectrum of stakeholders without a unifying corporate governance mechanism which monitors their performance (Stan et al., 2013). This does not only create a gap in their performance drivers but also results in undue political exposure (Cuervo-Cazurra and Dau, 2009). Resources are also identified as potential drivers of firm performance if they are applied to adapt to business imperatives (Bourgeois, 1981; Tan and Peng, 2003), although this proposition is challenged in the SOE sector as critical resources often get diverted to pet projects (Stan et al., 2013).\n3. An overview of the Botswana telecommunications sector and BTC: 3.1 The Botswana telecommunications sector in brief\n4. Methodology: Gaining an in-depth understanding of how several variables combine to influence an SOE's performance needs to be examined within an ontological context. A case study approach presents an advantage of cutting through the complexities of each case (Johansson, 2003) whilst maintaining originality and testability (Eisenhardt, 1989).\n5. Analysis: 5.1 Enterprise performance\n6. Conclusions: This paper pursued an inquiry into how various and seemingly competing organizational theories combine to explain organizational performance in the context of SOEs. The paper interrogated a number of factors that have fundamentally aided BTC to sustain long periods of good performance, including driving the SOE back to profitability after a temporary decline.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate fundamental performance drivers in a state-owned enterprise (SOE) in the context of organizational theories.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a case analysis investigating how several factors, considered in the context of organizational theories, have combined to influence sustained performance at the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). The study analyses both quantitative and qualitative data pertaining to an 18-year period from 1995 to 2012.\nFindings: The paper supports the widely held view that agency and resource-based theories explain good performance, but challenges the popular view that political influence is always self-interest driven. A concept of positive public choice, under which such influence is driven by stakeholder interests and sustainability emerges. The case reveals that a selective approach to stakeholders defined how BTC crafted its good performance in a politically conducive environment.\nPractical implications: Based on the research findings, a framework unifying political intervention with stakeholder interests needs to be developed and formalized with a link to SOE objectives. The framework would have clear performance measures linked to it, adequately monitored under a governance structure constituted from well-incentivized boards and managers with adequate strategic corporate resources under their control. The paper proposes such a framework.\nOriginality/value: The paper reveals an unexplored area of potential research, i.e. a positive public choice perspective under which societal interests are modeled with enterprise sustainability through political processes often blamed for poor performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Digital services governance: IT4IT(tm) for management of technology
|
[
"IT4IT",
"IT service management",
"Management of technology",
"Digital business creation",
"SIAM"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The digital transformation is central in most industries as an established or perceived game changer for business models and as the most strategically technological priority (Ba and Nault, 2017; Westkamper and Walter, 2014; Kodama, 2014). Information technology (IT) is a locomotive for many new industries and business models with technology penetrating areas of business hitherto not affecting by technological innovations (Rossignoli et al., 2016; Candi, 2016). Digital business models and disruptive innovations have become synonymous at least in a popular perception (Song, 2017; Tongur and Engwall, 2014).\n2. Literature study: This literature study is first presents the foundations of MoT in order to establish the referential relationship to the technological framework. Second, this section presents IT service perspectives in order to define IT as a broader and more complex technology than computing. Lastly, this section is presenting the IT4IT(tm) framework. The underlying claim of the literature study is to support and pinpoint a research gap in the perception of MOT being unrelated to industrial frameworks for design, development and operations of technology. Furthermore, the literature study is aimed at finding support for a general split of IS (read:technology) frameworks in development and operations. This split is a risk for failure of innovation. The research gap to address in the literature study is henceforth, why development and operations remains split, and what characteristics and success criteria an empirically driven framework IT4IT(tm) would need to meet to fulfil to offer an end-to-end framework for technology.\n3. Methodology: This paper is based on a qualitative, interpretistic and sociologically-inspired methodology in the tradition of IS studies (Walsham, 1995). Practice of relevance in underscored in the case study with an IT/IS providing organisation and its stakeholders (Benbasat and Zmud, 1999). Action research not only plays a significant role as the organisation and sociotechnical systems are affected by the study practices, but also reacts upon the imposed changes (Baskerville and Wood-Harper, 1996). The main case relies on a major case study with five months of in-depth, daily effort to observe, collect and structure data (Yin, 2013). The data collection approach consisted of daily observations in the work environment, participation in internal project meetings, interviews with customers or customer representatives, system design and modelling, model creation in BPML, UML and ARCHIMATE/TOGAF. The tradition of studying technology from its constituting structures is followed (Orlikowski, 2000).\n4. Case study: Pollux is a major Northern European IT services provider that employs approx. 2,500 IT professionals. Pollux was spun-off from a larger research and manufacturing organisation in the life-science industry and was introduced at the stock market around 2015. The IT services are mainly in the field of IT infrastructure operations, software systems operations and management, help- and service desks, standard software implementation, application management, cloud services, clients and database management. Industries of focus are larger industrial enterprises, governmental services, healthcare and life science, and the financial industry.\n5. Discussion: In studying MoT frameworks, a number of criteria must be defined to establish meaningfulness for management, technology and the concept of frameworks as processual blueprints for both academia and practitioners (Kim, 2013; Lee and Om, 1994; Tambo et al., 2016; van Wyk, 1988). Fundamental to a framework, in general, and MoT frameworks specifically, is the ability to guide the governance process of technology up to a level of practical relevance. At best, MoT frameworks are to be considered as a reference model or a reference architecture in domain-specific technological processes (Lepmets et al., 2012; Bolisani and Scarso, 1999). Frameworks must provide navigation in corporate practices (Beard, 2002), and navigation is found between static structures and institutions and the dynamics of change (Martin and Daim, 2012; Pardo et al., 2013).\n6. Conclusion: Suggestions for further studies include seeing the impact of full value chain implementations of IT4IT(tm) and associated empirical studies. The Open Group is a forum for large influencers within technology and most standards have impacted industries positively over time. The Pollux case started at the end-points of the value chain in form of standardising the service catalogue, service level agreement KPI definitions and the reporting of the SLA KPIs. A number of suggestions are presented for an actual IT-based underpinning of IT4IT(tm), e.g. IT4IT(tm)-based knowledge management systems, dedicated management IS, better connections between portfolio management, enterprise architecture, project execution, delivery management and continuous transformation processes. Not one system exists so far for supporting the full IT4IT(tm) value chain, but the reference architecture is preparing solid grounds for this. Further projections for research in IT4IT(tm) could address the modern-day strongly heterogeneous service landscape of IT, where the Service Integration And Management (SIAM(tm)) reference model has been proposed to manage multi-vendor environments; SIAM indicates a potential for augmenting IT4IT(tm) and control inter-organisational complexities (Andenmatten, 2016b; Armes et al., 2015).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present, analyse and demonstrate the impact and potentials of a pragmatically derived information technology (IT) governance framework, IT4IT(tm), for the discipline of management of technology (MoT) especially within the IT industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on an extensive literature study working with the limitations of the relatively recent publication of IT4IT(tm) and the normative character of IT4IT(tm). A mixed-method case study is presented based on an IT service provider organisation. Both a qualitative method and a systems and design oriented method are being used.\nFindings: IT4IT(tm) can provide value and a clearer understanding of the service delivery framework if the technological core of the focal organisation is adapted to a value stream thinking. This suggests a more operational character of all IT processes and analogue to general MoT frameworks and corporate governance models.\nResearch limitations/implications: Given the recent publication of the IT4IT(tm) framework, this study is primarily ex ante and suggests further full-scale ex post research in the future.\nPractical implications: Validation and successful implementation of the IT4IT(tm) framework will give companies better opportunities for safe and controlled value creation using IT. Control connects with risk reduction and less risk can encourage innovation and \"tame\" development complexity. Using value streams will align IT better with manufacturing and services.\nOriginality/value: Companies are striving to seek governance and risk minimisation in IT development and operations. This paper is discussing the applicability of the IT4IT(tm) framework for finding a better understanding of the value creation and value proposition delivered by introducing controlled processes minimising risk.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The psychological effects of fast food consumption on body image emotions
|
[
"Shame",
"Guilt",
"Body image",
"Fast food consumption",
"Planned diet"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The customers demonstrate different eating behaviors which are a product of their unique socio-cultural backgrounds (Li and Zhong, 2017) as well as their self-image perceptions (Wright et al., 2016). This entails that a positive self-image perception restricts people to over-consumption of food as they keep a critical eye on their weight. This also forms the basis to segment individuals. Hence, we can safely assume that individuals restrict in food consumption in order to maintain a positive self-image, i.e. to look healthy and smart. However, the individuals who prefer tasty food get addicted to it and are caught in several eating disorders (Witt and Lowe, 2014) which are harmful for them and also for their families and society. There is a group of individuals who consider even the society as a whole while consuming food and try to contribute in its sustainability (Cherrier et al., 2011). Such green consumption habits are rare among youngsters (Perera et al., 2016) but must be inculcated to promote healthy eating, so that bad effects of over-consumption can be minimized.\nLiterature review: There is strong empirical support in favor of positive emotions that trigger healthy eating among individuals. However, on the contrary, negative emotions may trigger impulse eating as well as the consumption of unhealthy food (Macht, 2008; Kashif et al., 2015). A review of the studies provides interesting insights.\nHypotheses development: The feelings of shame and guilt are evoked when an individual believes that an event reflects negative effect on the self (Tangney et al., 2009). These emotions would stem from a natural occurrence of diet violation such as fast food consumption. Researchers suggest that such emotions may originate from failure of self-regulation (Muraven et al., 2005) and can lead to losing self-control to cause obesity - poor body image perceptions. This is a condition where people are failed to restrict themselves to specific food. We extend this condition to fast food consumption as it may adversely affect body image perceptions, having a potential to ignite feelings of shame and guilt as an individual feeling guilt and shame due to poor body appearance (Westermann et al., 2015). This is because individuals are sometimes unable to maintain self-control and become obese where body is not aesthetically appealing to others. More specifically, a restrained eater, someone who is conscious about body images might feel disappointed with the diet violation occurring on a regular basis (Steenhuis and Vermeer, 2009), resulting into negative emotions. Thus, shame and guilt would be experienced by restrained eaters following fast food consumption (Lemaster, 2010). Keeping this in mind, we hypothesize:\nResearch methods: Sampling and data collection\nFindings: Demographic characteristics and descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: The fast food consumption and the arousal of negative consumer emotions due to poor body image perceptions in the context of Turkey are unique products of this study. The results reveal that restrained consumers feel body image based shame and guilt after fast food consumption. This finding in line with the studies conducted earlier (Steenhuis and Vermeer, 2009; Houben et al., 2010; Lemaster, 2010). The consumers who feel guilt plan diet to manage the effect of guilt which is also in line with the previously held studies (Lozinski, 2011).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the arousal of negative consumer emotions as a consequence of fast food consumption among individuals with restrained food consumption. Furthermore, a moderating effect of socio-cultural pressure to buffer these relationships is positioned for the first time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The field study is completed with data collected through an online survey among 353 customers by employing a random sampling technique. The collected data are analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis procedures.\nFindings: The hypotheses related to the effects of fast food consumption on body image guilt and shame, body image guilt on planning diet and shame, moderator role of socio-cultural, in terms of shame, are accepted.\nResearch limitations/implications: A key limitation is data collected from individuals with restrained food consumption in Turkey which limits the generalizability of results to other countries and contexts.\nPractical implications: The results call for paying attention to socio-cultural pressures that enhance shame.\nOriginality/value: The primary contribution of this paper lies in the fact that fast food consumption is scantly related to the arousal of negative consumer emotions. Furthermore, moderating effects of social pressures and Turkish context are also unique to this study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Arts and humanities research evaluation: no metrics please, just data
|
[
"Research",
"Information science and documentation",
"Contextual information",
"Arts and humanities research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The use of metrics derived from academic citations in formal and informal research evaluations has a long and controversial history. The birth of the Science Citation Index in 1964 made it practical to use citation-based metrics in research evaluation for the first time and various metrics have since then been used to aid the evaluation of journals, articles and authors (Garfield, 1979). The fundamental principal underlying citation analysis is that scientists tend to acknowledge prior research informing their work by citing it and that this is normative behaviour in science (Merton, 1973). This principal has been widely criticised on the basis that citations can be negative and influenced by factors other than the quality or contribution of the cited article (Brooks, 1986; MacRoberts and MacRoberts, 1996; Seglen, 1998) and so citation counts are not direct and unbiased measures of the contributions of articles to future research. Academics may also be concerned that metrics-based evaluations use numbers that they do not recognise as reflecting themselves (Day, 2014). Nevertheless, evidence that indicators based on citation counts in some subject areas tend to positively correlate with citation counts (e.g. Franceschet and Costantini, 2011) has been used to support their use in research evaluation. This use would typically be to inform expert judgements about research quality rather than to replace them (Moed, 2006; Nederhof and Van Raan, 1993; Warner, 2000). For example, if the outputs of one or more researchers need to be rated then the citation indicators could be used as a starting point for the evaluation, as an alternative data source to cross-check against the initial human ratings, or as an additional source of evidence for marginal cases.\nImpact vs engagement: the importance of context: The value that arts and humanities research gives to society is not always as transparent or visible as for other types of research, such as medical or technological innovations. As a result, there is less of a public consensus about the benefits of arts and humanities research in general, and a more concerted case has to be made for justifying the public money that it receives to support research. In particular, it is impossible to demonstrate the socio-economic impact of some arts and humanities scholarship because it is valuable in other ways, some of which are impossible to measure or even estimate in any meaningful way (Belfiore and Upchurch, 2013). The increasing use of evidence-based policy therefore risks marginalising the highly subjective experience of engaging with the arts (Belfiore and Bennett, 2008, pp. 5-9).\nEnvironment data: a case study from music, drama, dance and performing arts: The observations here relate to the fact that while there is unease about the use of metrics as a mode of \"measuring\" the excellence of research produced in the UK's HEIs, the rich array of data presented as part of REF2014 demonstrates that the arts and humanities sector are comfortable with deploying numbers (albeit framed as data rather than metrics) to present a case about the excellence of their research cultures. When considering the environment component of the process, making up 15 per cent of the overall score of a unit's assessment, data were similarly submitted across a range of areas and used to inform rather than determine judgements. Units of Assessment (UoAs, i.e. individual submissions from universities) were asked to include data on the total number of doctoral degrees awarded and research income from the external sources listed on para. 171 of assessment framework and guidance on submissions document (REF2014, 2012a, p. 31), as verified with the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). This HESA data includes all activity associated with a submission, including activity associated with staff that were not selected for inclusion. Thus it could include data associated with staff who had since left the unit, staff who were judged by HEIs not to have enough high quality outputs to be included in their university's submission, staff who were not eligible, or even staff from other areas that were transferred for strategic reasons. The HESA data would be most useful if mapped to the research achievements delineated through the outputs submitted to the REF and the projects and collaborations that demonstrate the vitality and sustainability of the submitting department or unit. As with the impact case studies, strategic judgements were apparently made by HEIs to utilise selective data that underpinned the narratives they were presenting about their research achievements over the period of assessment.\nCitations to arts and humanities research: An important problem for any citation-based evaluations of arts and humanities research is that artists produce a wide variety of types of outputs, including musical scores and instrumental performances, software design and dance performances, which are not naturally citable. The report from sub-panel 35 delineates over 34 different types of output submitted for REF2014 assessment: \"advisory reports and evaluations, books (authored and edited), chapters in books, journal articles, published conference papers, electronic resources and publications, exhibition catalogues, translations and scholarly editions, compositions and musical scores, creative writing (libretti, film scripts, radio plays, novels, short stories, stage plays), databases, grammars, patents, digital and broadcast media, performances, films, video and media presentations, installations, designs and exhibitions, software design and development, working papers\" (REF2014, 2015d, sub-panel 35, para. 38). Only 29.5 per cent of the research outputs submitted to UoA35 came in article form (compared to 37.7 per cent across Main Panel D, 99.5 per cent across Main Panel A, 94.4 per cent across Main Panel B and 80.9 per cent across Main Panel C (REF2014, 2015a, b, c, d).\nConclusions: the case for non-systematic data not metrics: Although qualitative or quantitative data is recommended for evaluations of funded AHRC projects in the UK, and there are presumably similar requirements elsewhere, no data is systematically collected in the REF to support evaluations of the researchers' outputs throughout the arts and humanities because none of the arts and humanities sub-panels chose to use citation counts. As argued above, there is not currently enough evidence to be reasonably sure that citation count data would help to improve the accuracy of peer review judgements about arts and humanities research because it would be much weaker as an indicator of scholarly impact. There are also concerns that the introduction of citation data would serve as a perverse incentive, handicapping less fashionable areas of research and so the overall effect of systematically introducing citations could be negative. This is not to posit an argument that pushes for the exceptionalism of the arts and humanities, but is a pragmatic recognition that no evaluation method should be responsible for changing the behaviour of researchers to the detriment of the range and reach of their research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to make an explicit case for the use of data with contextual information as evidence in arts and humanities research evaluations rather than systematic metrics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey of the strengths and limitations of citation-based indicators is combined with evidence about existing uses of wider impact data in the arts and humanities, with particular reference to the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework.\nFindings: Data are already used as impact evidence in the arts and humanities but this practice should become more widespread.\nPractical implications: Arts and humanities researchers should be encouraged to think creatively about the kinds of data that they may be able to generate in support of the value of their research and should not rely upon standardised metrics.\nOriginality/value: This paper combines practices emerging in the arts and humanities with research evaluation from a scientometric perspective to generate new recommendations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Social marketing interventions aiming to increase physical activity among adults: A systematic review
|
[
"Physical activity",
"Social marketing",
"Intervention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over 80 per cent of the adult population are insufficiently active. The World Health Organization estimates 3.2 million deaths are caused by physical inactivity (WHO, 2015). Efforts to increase participation in physical activity in adults are often impacted by barriers such as lack of motivation, time, social capital, poor health, and lack of facilities (Cerin et al., 2010; Trost et al., 2002; Zlot et al., 2006). One approach used to overcome barriers and facilitate participation in physical activity is social marketing (Berkowitz et al., 2008). Social marketing relies on commercial marketing techniques to deliver interventions for social benefit.\nMethods: Search strategy\nResults: Target audiences are identified in Table II. Social marketing interventions targeted 18-60 year old adults, they were carried out in a diverse range of contexts, and often included different outcome measures. As such standard meta-analytical procedures could not be followed. Positive, negative or no effects were recorded without attempting to determine the size of the effect.\nDiscussion: The aims of this systematic review were to provide a contemporary understanding of the effectiveness of social marketing to increase physical activity among adults aged 18-60 years old and to ascertain the extent to which the six social marketing benchmark criteria were reported in social marketing interventions aiming to increase physical activity among adults. The review indicates that the overwhelming majority of the identified social marketing interventions reported positive behavioural change, and no negative behavioural outcomes were reported. Consistent with Stead et al. (2007) the evidence gathered in our review suggests that social marketing offers an effective behavioural change approach to increase physical activity among adults.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A significant proportion of the world's adult population is insufficiently active. One approach used to overcome barriers and facilitate participation in physical activity is social marketing. The purpose of this paper are twofold: first, this review seeks to provide a contemporary review of social marketing's effectiveness in changing physical activity for the better; and second, it seeks to ascertain the extent that Andreasen's (2002) six social marketing benchmark criteria have been applied in social marketing interventions targeting physical activity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 94 articles covering 26 social marketing interventions were identified following systematic literature review procedures.\nFindings: None of the interventions gave evidence that they addressed all six social marketing benchmark criteria, and only four interventions addressed five criteria. The results indicate that three of the benchmark criteria, namely, behavioural objectives, formative research, and marketing mix are well utilised in social marketing interventions. Inclusion of market segmentation, exchange and competition offers potential to extend further on social marketing's effectiveness in increasing physical activity.\nOriginality/value: The results of the current study indicate that increasing the number of benchmark criteria used in an intervention to at least four increases the chances of achieving positive behavioural outcomes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Market, industry, and company influences on global product standardization
|
[
"Product",
"Standardization",
"Global",
"Market",
"Industry",
"Company"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Global product standardization involves the development of high quality, low-cost products that require little or no customization to be sold in foreign markets (Buzzell, 1968; Cavusgil et al., 1993; Quelch and Hoff, 1986). The use of globally standardized products has been reported to positively influence firm performance (Waheeduzzaman and Dube, 2002) and has emerged as an increasingly important topic of discussion among academics and practitioners (Drucker, 1990; Friedman, 1986; Hitt et al., 1998; Jain, 1989; Kanter and Dretler, 1998; O'Donnell and Jeong, 2000; Samiee and Roth, 1992; Sorenson and Weichman, 1975; Whitelock and Pimblet, 1997; Zou and Cavusgil, 2002). Although, a great deal of research has been reported on global product standardization, an important issue that has not been fully explored is that of what factors influence the need for global product standardization (Cavusgil et al., 1993).In this paper, the existing research is extended by examining market, industry, and company factors to determine their relationship to the product, pricing, advertising/promotion and distribution dimensions of global product standardization. By understanding the relationship between these factors, researchers can have a greater understanding of what market, industry, and company factors influence the use of standardized global products. Managers participating in the global market can likewise understand what their own market situation might require in the various areas of product standardization. The results of the research indicate that significant relationships exist between market factors and the product and pricing dimensions of global product standardization, industry factors and the pricing dimension of global product standardization, and company factors and the advertising dimension of global product standardization.\nFactors influencing global product standardization: The factors identified in the literature that are related to global product standardization are now discussed in addition to the dimensions of global product standardization. The research hypotheses are presented as part of this discussion and the research framework resulting from this review is shown in Figure 1. Global product standardization is defined as product development for world-wide markets with minimal adaptation, customization, or modification (Kacker, 1972; Jain, 1989; Levitt, 1983; Samiee and Roth, 1992). Global product standardization is examined in this research in five dimensions: commonality of product, commonality of pricing, commonality of advertising and promotion, commonality of distribution, and overall global product standardization.Commonality of product is the global standardization of potentially unique characteristics such as design, brand name, units of measure, packaging protection, constituents, features, styling, usage instructions, labeling and/or sizes (Kacker, 1972). Commonality of pricing is the global standardization of the cost customers are asked to incur for products. Commonality of advertising and promotion is the global standardization of product positioning, brand names, packaging messages, other advertising messages and sales promotions. Commonality of distribution is the global standardization of wholesale and retail methods of physically bringing products to customers. Overall, global product standardization represents a combination of the previous four dimensions.Market factors\nResults and findings: A total of 154 completed and usable surveys were returned. Respondent characteristics and product characteristics are provided in Table I. Cronbach a's for the market, industry, and company constructs were 0.8484, 0.7162 and 0.9447, respectively, and are seen in Table II. A factor analysis revealed that 87.6 percent of the total variance was attributable to market factors including legal requirements, cultural/social customs and taboos, consumer preferences, consumer purchasing habits, product use conditions, economic development, marketing infrastructure and competition as predicted by the model. About 4.7 percent of the total variance was attributable to industry factors including market turbulence and technological turbulence as predicted by the model. About 7.7 percent of the total variance was attributable to company factors. The factor analysis confirmed that the three categories of market, industry and company factors do account for the variation observed in global product standardization, but it is also evident that market factors have a much higher level of influence. Given the relatively low return rate, it was important to test for potential non-response bias. A test of means was performed between early and late responders for the 94 variables used in the study. Of these, only five were significantly different at the 0.05 level. These results indicate that non-response bias was at a minimum.In order to examine, the hypothesized relationships, correlations were calculated between each pair of variables. Results are provided in Tables III-V and the significant results by hypothesis are now described. Market factor results: of the market factors hypothesized to be related to overall GPS, consumer preferences (H1.3), consumer purchasing habits (H1.4), and competition (H1.8) were significantly related. Consumer preferences were found to be negatively and significantly related to the overall GPS, product, and pricing dimensions. Consumer purchasing habits were found to be negatively and significantly related to the overall GPS, product, and pricing dimensions. Competition was found to be negatively and significantly related to overall GPS and the pricing dimension. Although, not significant for the overall GPS measure, cultural/social customs was found to be negatively and significantly related to the product dimension; and product use conditions were found to be negatively and significantly related to the pricing dimension. Industry factor results: of the industry factors hypothesized to be related to overall GPS, none were found to be significantly related. Although not significant for the overall GPS measure, market turbulence and technological turbulence were found to be negatively and significantly related to the pricing dimension. Company factor results: of the company factors hypothesized to be related to overall GPS, sub-unit acquiescence (H3.4) and sub-unit cooperation (H3.5) were found to be positively and significantly related to overall GPS. Sub-unit acquiescence and sub unit cooperation were also found to be positively and significantly related to the advertising dimension. Although not significant for the overall GPS measure, sub-unit vertical dependence was positively related to the advertising dimension of GPS.\nDiscussion: The results of the research indicate that certain market, industry, and company factors are significantly related to overall GPS as well as being significantly related to specific GPS dimensions. In the majority of cases, our results where significant are consistent with the literature and in cases where the opposite result was found, we believe that there is a logical alternative explanation for the research findings. This is now discussed in the context of market, industry, and company factors.Market factor findings\nSummary and conclusions: This study investigated the relationship between market, industry and company factors and the product, pricing, advertising and distribution dimensions of global product standardization. Researchers have suggested that that not all factors are equally important with respect to global product standardization (Buzzell, 1968; Levitt, 1983; O'Donnell and Jeong, 2000; Walters, 1986; Zou and Cavusgil, 1996). The findings of this study provide empirical results that can help to clarify this issue. In many cases we found results consistent with the literature, and where we found the opposite we believe that there are plausible reasons for these results. Of particular interest are:* the findings that the impact of some market, industry, or company factors affected some but not all dimensions of global product standardization;* the possible impact of price as a differentiator in competitive markets; and* the time dimension whereby global product standardization has become so widespread that factors that are thought to have a negative influence on it are no longer applicable.Clearly, future research is warranted to further investigate these results and the possible reasons for them.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to report research on the relationship among market, industry, and company factors and the level of global product standardization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study is based on a survey of executive level managers in US-based companies that market products both domestically and internationally.\nFindings: - Significant relationships were found between specific market, industry, and company factors and global product standardization.\nOriginality/value: - The results of the research can be used both to understand and to manage global products in light of the market, industry, and company factors that influence their existence.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Enhancing student engagement through simulation in programming sessions
|
[
"Programming",
"Student engagement",
"Classroom environment",
"Engagement dimensions (behavioural, emotional and cognitive)",
"Meaningful learning",
"Simulator"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Typically, computer programming is associated with science and engineering disciplines, such as mathematics, physics and psychology (QAA, 2016). However, researchers and practitioners discuss various skills of art, such as creativity and critical thinking, as requirements for becoming an effective programmer (Bergin et al., 2005). Conventionally, programming is considered a difficult subject to teach (Jenkins, 2002). This may be because it draws on a wide range of disciplinary skills; whatever the reason this is likely to impact of student engagement. Research shows that disengagement is not exclusive to programming though, as students across the board experience a lack of engagement which often manifests itself in boredom and alienation (Mann and Robinson, 2009; Mann, 2001). In the programming context, disengagement results into high dropout rates (Bennedsen and Caspersen, 2007).\nDefinitions: Student engagement\nThe study: Inside the black box: simulation as a pedagogic tool\nMethodology: This is a case study of an innovative intervention in one UK university where classroom environment related to student engagement was explored. It followed a mixed-method approach allowing data triangulation from a validated self-report survey inspired from Fredricks and McColskey (2012) and the novel approach based on Brookfield's (1995) Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ).\nFindings: The self-report survey data revealed the levels of targeted students' behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement; the CIQ data provided rich explanation and clarification through specific examples. The data sets individually and together revealed a reciprocal relationship among the three dimensions of engagement confirming the importance of enhancing student engagement leading to practical recommendations.\nKey learning: This study has deepened understanding and provided explanation about the behavioural, emotional and cognitive dimensions of student engagement in programming subjects (Fredricks et al., 2005). Comparative analysis of the data indicates that the simulator sessions were more interesting, collaborative and focused on learning goals, bringing about enhanced attention and participation of students. However, the simulator sessions were not cognitively challenging to students which poses questions about whether these sessions were so effective that students mastered complex tasks easily; or not challenging enough because they gave too much information away. Challenge aside, the strong correlation between dimensions suggests that if the engagement elements of any dimension change, there is a possibility that the other dimensions will be affected proportionately. It is therefore important to include quality learning activities which can effectively contribute to students' behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement in a balanced manner.\nLimitations and future study: The focus of this research is to explore the impacts of a simulator on student engagement in programming sessions within the classroom environment. Therefore, the findings do not elucidate how and to what extent non-classroom-based variables, such as cultural backgrounds and social powers, influenced student learning. Eventually, based on a comparative investigation to teaching and learning activities of the simulator-based and traditional programming sessions, several behavioural, emotional and cognitive changes were identified. These findings appear as a starting point for the exploration of suitable pedagogical designs for meaningful learning of programming concepts. In this regard, it would be essential in future work to measure quality levels of learning gains and difficulties faced by students in the two approaches of programming sessions. Additionally, a large scale longitudinal study involving more students may reinforce or challenge the findings of this study with new perspectives and guidelines.\nConclusion: This study provides evidence that the use of a simulator in programming sessions can improve student engagement for meaningful learning. Varied dimensions of engagement include behavioural, emotional and cognitive aspects, which need to be addressed in session planning and implementation. As these dimensions are interrelated, teachers should be aware of these different dimensions in creating meaningful learning. The level of engagement in simulator-based tasks need to be carefully calibrated as this study show higher engagement but potential lower level of challenge. Therefore, tutors should understand a balance of the three engagement dimensions is imperative and ensure that teaching and learning-related drawbacks are tackled by employing suitable teaching-learning activities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of a simulator for teaching programming to foster student engagement and meaningful learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory mixed-method research approach was adopted in a classroom-based environment at a UK university. A rich account of student engagement dimensions (behavioural, affective/emotional, and cognitive) was captured through descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. This was triangulated through reflective and in-depth validation of open-ended questions.\nFindings: Results show higher behavioural and emotional engagement in simulator-based sessions, but relatively low cognitive engagement when compared with traditional programming sessions. A strong interweaving relationship between these three dimensions is evident in both the traditional and simulator approaches. Therefore, a balanced distribution of the dimensions is recommended for effective planning and delivery of programming sessions.\nResearch limitations/implications: Student engagement is multidimensional as it includes various internal and external/ecological factors. This study did not consider external factors, such as family and societal influence; it focused on the classroom-based environment.\nOriginality/value: This study critically examined the use of simulation as a means to foster student engagement in programming sessions. Findings suggest that a balanced activities within the three engagement dimensions can facilitate meaningful learning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumers' understanding of autonomous driving
|
[
"Perceptions",
"Technology adoption",
"IT assimilation",
"Inductive research",
"Exploratory framework"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Autonomous driving indicates driving partly or fully by a car with limited or no human driver intervention (Bonneau et al., 2017). Although autonomous driving is still in experimental phases, it is expected to be prevalent in the near future. Highly autonomous cars will be available by 2020 (Bonneau et al., 2017), and in 2050, an autonomous car may be a usual apparatus (Bertoncello, 2015). In fact, people have already experienced a level of automated driving. For example, most of the recently released cars are equipped with a cruise control function, which automatically controls the car speed. The function decreases driver fatigue by making the driver's foot free from the pedal, and increases safety by maintaining a steady speed. In addition to cruise control, a number of automated functions, such as lane-keeping system and auto-break, have changed driving behaviors. Drivers of self-driving cars can make business calls, drink coffee and rest their feet while driving since their hands and foot are free from driving (Kim et al., 2016). Indeed, we can expect that highly autonomous driving can change driving behaviors and may lead to significant changes in daily life (Howard and Dai, 2013).\n2. Research background: Autonomous vehicles indicate the vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input (Gehrig and Stein, 1999). The complete automated cars can handle all of the possible on-road scenarios without any human input. They monitor the road and detect obstacles using camera, sensor, and GPS, and then their CPU analyzes the situation. If the CPU cannot analyze the situation, it obtains information from the network. Finally, it decides what action the car should take. Such a process is expected to bring benefits in safety, convenience, fuel economy and lower emissions by taking over human drivers' mental and physical workload and assisting with their inattention behaviors (Davila and Nombela, 2012; Rupp and King, 2010; Verberne et al., 2012). It is estimated that completely automated cars will be available by 2019, and three out of four vehicles will be fully autonomous in 2040 (IEEE Newsroom, 2012).\n3. Methodology: Because there are few individuals who have used autonomous cars, we collected data from individuals who have driving experience. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 41 drivers. The classification of driver type was conducted by cluster analysis using their driving experiences. Their responses were categorized into thematic categories or topics on the basis of content analysis, and the topics were structured based on the core-periphery model (Borgatti and Everett, 2000). For better understanding, we visualized the structure on a perceptual map by adopting a maximum tree approach (Flament, 1981).\n4. Results: According to the result of content analysis, both ODs and FDs have similar understandings of autonomous driving on ten topics. It shows the common feature of the two groups in that Primary value (T3) and IT (T4) are the most frequently mentioned topics in both groups. However, the core-periphery analysis of the topics shows different understandings between ODs and FDs. The difference appears in Table II, which illustrates the core-periphery membership in two groups. The most noticeable difference is that while ODs have two core elements of Primary value (T3), and IT (T4), FDs have four more topics as core elements: IT manufacturer (T9), distrust (T6), traditional manufacturer (T10), and risk factor (T7), in addition to those two overlapping topics. Especially IT manufacturer (T9) and traditional manufacturer (T10) are part of the core elements in FDs, whereas both elements have low coreness in ODs. Moreover, the relationships among those 10 topics are different in each group, as seen in the perceptual maps in Figures 1 and 2 (Table IV).\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Comparison of the core structure\n6. Conclusion: This study makes a contribution to building knowledge about consumers' attitudes toward autonomous driving. Differently from prior studies' focus on its technological aspect and some derived benefits, the study examines it from the viewpoint of consumers, who are critical participants in the dissemination of autonomous driving. In particular, this study compares perceptions of occasional and FDs based on the hazard perception theory, arguing that while users' knowledge and understanding of the system is more reliant on the opinions of others before a system is realized, as they experience the system, they create their own opinions of it and broaden their interpretations (Hartwick and Barki, 1994). Our findings show significant differences of sensemaking of autonomous driving by driving experience. Occasional drivers' understandings are limited to the fundamental concepts of autonomous driving, whereas frequent drivers' conceptions include its specific and holistic concepts. Furthermore, this study makes contributions by proposing potential factors affecting user adoption of autonomous cars. There have been some discussion on possible malfunctions of autonomous cars, and our results confirmed this. Future studies therefore need to regard risk-related factors (i.e. perceived risk) and trust as essential constructs in explaining users' acceptance of autonomous vehicles. In addition, our findings show that drivers may think that autonomous cars take enjoyment out of driving. Accordingly, while perceived enjoyment of the substituted (i.e. driving by hands) can be a strong impact on the user adoption, perceived enjoyment of the alternative (i.e. autonomous driving) can have insignificant influence on the adoption. Future research may need to examine two aspects of perceive enjoyment in the context of autonomous driving. This study, thus, offer rich knowledge about consumers' understandings of autonomous driving as showing perceptual differences by driving experience.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers' understanding of autonomous driving by comparing perceptions of occasional drivers (ODs) and frequent drivers (FDs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 41 drivers. Their responses were categorized into thematic categories or topics on the basis of content analysis, and the topics were structured based on the core-periphery model. Finally, the authors visualized the structure on a perceptual map by adopting a maximum tree approach.\nFindings: Respondents' understanding of autonomous driving were categorized into 10 topics. There were significant differences in topics and their relationships between ODs and FDs. Findings also show that FD can better detect hazardousness from autonomous driving environments than ODs.\nResearch limitations/implications: Differently from prior studies' focus on its technological aspect and some derived benefits, the study examines it from the viewpoint of consumers, who are critical participants in the dissemination of autonomous driving.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that rather than focusing on developing the highest level of autonomous cars, developing in an evolutionary way by adding automated functions to existing cars can be the better strategy to dominate the autonomous vehicle market.\nOriginality/value: This study is a pioneering work in that it can be an initial empirical work on autonomous driving from the customer standpoint.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Extracting core questions in community question answering based on particle swarm optimization
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Social media",
"Particle swarm optimization",
"Text mining",
"Community question answering",
"Core question extraction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the rapid development of the internet, individuals or organizations acquire increasingly more knowledge through the internet. Community question answering (CQA) websites have become important knowledge-sharing platforms (Liu and Jansen, 2017). The sites are online question-answering websites where users can post or answer questions freely (Shah and Kitzie, 2012). Yahoo! Answers[1] and Zhihu[2] are popular CQA websites on which users can ask questions via posted questions and share knowledge by answering questions. Millions of questions have been posted and answered on these CQA websites. Many users gain benefits from these CQA websites and increasingly more users participate on the websites.\n2. Related works: 2.1 Community question answering\n3. Core questions extraction method: The proposed core question extraction method, called QueExt, includes three steps. First, the questions are modeled for further processing. Then, the questions are clustered to derive the topic distribution and determine the number of core questions to be extracted in each cluster. Finally, the core questions are extracted from each cluster. The details of the QueExt method are given in this section.\n4. Experiments: In the section, the experiments are conducted using real data from a CQA website. We use the data set from Zhihu, which is a famous CQA website in China. There are 1,179 questions in the data set. 240 subsets with a sample size of 200 are derived from these questions. These questions are preprocessed first. The jieba word segmentation package, which is a popular Chinese word segmentation tool, is used to segment questions. Multiple lists of common Chinese stop words, such as the stop word list of the Harbin Institute of Technology, the stop word library of the Machine Intelligence Lab of Sichuan University and the stop word list of Baidu, are used for filtering stop words.\n5. Conclusions: In this paper, the core question extraction method is proposed. With this method, a small number of core questions can be derived from a large number of questions. The extracted core questions cover most of the content of the original questions with the least amount of duplication. Two kinds of PSO models are extended to resolve the clustering question and extraction core question problems with respect to the specific question extraction needs. The proposed method is evaluated using extensive numerical experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed QueExt method performs better than other methods.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A large number of questions are posted on community question answering (CQA) websites every day. Providing a set of core questions will ease the question overload problem. These core questions should cover the main content of the original question set. There should be low redundancy within the core questions and a consistent distribution with the original question set. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In the paper, a method named QueExt method for extracting core questions is proposed. First, questions are modeled using a biterm topic model. Then, these questions are clustered based on particle swarm optimization (PSO). With the clustering results, the number of core questions to be extracted from each cluster can be determined. Afterwards, the multi-objective PSO algorithm is proposed to extract the core questions. Both PSO algorithms are integrated with operators in genetic algorithms to avoid the local optimum.\nFindings: Extensive experiments on real data collected from the famous CQA website Zhihu have been conducted and the experimental results demonstrate the superior performance over other benchmark methods.\nResearch limitations/implications: The proposed method provides new insight into and enriches research on information overload in CQA. It performs better than other methods in extracting core short text documents, and thus provides a better way to extract core data. The PSO is a novel method used for selecting core questions. The research on the application of the PSO model is expanded. The study also contributes to research on PSO-based clustering. With the integration of K-means++, the key parameter number of clusters is optimized.\nOriginality/value: The novel core question extraction method in CQA is proposed, which provides a novel and efficient way to alleviate the question overload. The PSO model is extended and novelty used in selecting core questions. The PSO model is integrated with K-means++ method to optimize the number of clusters, which is just the key parameter in text clustering based on PSO. It provides a new way to cluster texts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity: interdependency and complementarity
|
[
"Absorptive capacity",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Systematic literature review",
"Knowledge intensive teams"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge is a justified true belief (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) that mixes experience, values, contextual information and experienced insight (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). It is a strategic organizational resource (Schultze and Leidner, 2002; Sher and Lee, 2004), as it improves organizational capacity (Nonaka, 1994) and is a source of organizational value creation (Mohanty, 2003). This is because knowledge can generate rare, valuable solutions that are hard to imitate and replace (Grant, 1996) and which can provide competitive advantage (Barney, 1991; Rua et al., 2018).\n2. Knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity: The concept of AC is linked to knowledge and KS, as it is an ability that allows a company to identify external knowledge, assimilate it and apply it for business purposes (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). The following sub-sections deal with the concepts related to KS; present the concepts related to AC; and show the development of the hypotheses.\n3. Method: To accomplish the proposed objective, the study was carried out in two phases, namely, in the first, described in Section 3.1, a systematic literature review was carried out with the purpose of constructing a research model relating KS to AC; in the second, presented in Section 3.2, a survey was conducted to test the model.\n4. Findings from testing the research model: The distribution pattern of the sample (Hair et al., 1998) influences the procedures adopted in the measurement tests. Thus, to detect the normality of the sample the asymmetry, kurtosis and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov value of the variables were checked. As the data presented non-normal distribution in all the tests, adjustment using PLS-SEM was recommended (Hair et al., 2016).\n5. Conclusions: This article offers a clear understanding of the relationship between KS and AC by undertaking a systematic and integrative literature review and grounding and testing the resulting proposed model. The arguments used to consider AC - KS form a feedback loop with the arguments for KS - AC and both suggest complementarity. This loop, in turn, is used to explain the relation established in the AC - KS articles, assuming interdependency. AC is a construct with several dimensions, thus we consider PACAP as an antecedent of KS and RACAP as its consequent. This dynamic is found to be the most appropriate way of approaching the relationship between the two concepts, based on the results of the systematic literature review.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to resolve contradictions in the literature regarding the relationship between knowledge sharing (KS) and absorptive capacity (AC). The authors analyze the reasons for which KS has been interpreted as an antecedent and those for which it has been seen as a consequent of AC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses a systematic review of the literature to identify the arguments supporting the relationships between the constructs and propose a model. Additionally, the hypotheses were tested using SEM to assess the proposed model.\nFindings: The findings reveal the nature of the relationship between KS and AC. Suggesting AC is bi-dimensional, consisting of potential AC and realized AC, while the relationship between these two dimensions depends on KS.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study provides consistent theoretical grounds for future empirical research. The study findings demonstrate KS provides a real contribution towards AC, validating the previous literature on the impact of KS antecedents on realized AC. Additionally, the authors provide evidence to suggest knowledge donation is an output of the AC process, thus generating a debate on the nature of knowledge donation (requested vs unrequested), which raises interesting research questions to be addressed in the future. As a limitation, empirical data was only collected in the context of software development in two countries.\nPractical implications: The results elucidate the central role of knowledge collection within AC. For managers, the importance of the role of knowledge collection to fully benefit from AC and exploit knowledge is highlighted.\nOriginality/value: The research design is original in that it combines a systematic and integrative literature review to the ground and propose hypotheses with empirically testing of the emerging model. The study clarifies the relationship between KS and AC, providing evidence to show knowledge donation is an output of the AC process. The benefits of this study can be seen at the team and firm-level.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumers' switching motivations and intention in the case of bank mergers: a cross-cultural study
|
[
"Theory of planned behaviour",
"Cultural differences",
"Banks’ merger",
"Consumer switching intentions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Banks not only offer clients an expedient way to manager their money, but also have a significant impact on a nation's economic development through their provision of investment funds and financing for both individuals and corporations (Kaur and Kaur, 2010). However, globalization has led financial markets to face increased costs and intense competition, pushing the financial institutions toward consolidation (Kyriazopoulos and Peteropoulos, 2010). The 2008 global economic crisis resulted in an unparalleled liquidity pressure on banks, undermining their ability to grant loans (Duchin and Sosyura, 2014). Numerous banks have since been forced into mergers in order to survive the repercussions of the predicament (Berger and Bouwman, 2011). Mergers typically entail full integration of two banks into a single business with a unified operational and administrative structure and a unique identity (Kyriazopoulos and Peteropoulos, 2010; Focarelli et al., 2002). These mergers often act as safety nets: as banks increase in size, they typically experience decreased costs, an amelioration of their efficiency (Davis and Wilson, 2000; Farrell and Shapiro, 1990), and a diversification of their risks (Kowalik et al., 2015; Hanweck and Shull, 1999). Mergers also allow banks to penetrate new markets, recognize economies of scale, gain economic power and status, and increase shareholder wealth (Hsing-Chin and Lin, 2013; Chen and Hsu, 2011).\nLiterature review: Switching behavior in the banking sector\nMethodology: The study adopts an exploratory methodology employing semi-structured interviews in order to collect data. In all, 30 face-to-face interviews were conducted with a sample of customers selected by branch managers from the two banks using a purposive sampling technique. The sample includes 17 male and 13 female participants, ranging in age from 45 to 75 years, which - according to the banks' managers - represent the largest age category of their client base. The sampling frame is considered to represent the largest consumers' populations of the two banks - namely Spanish (S) vs British (B) - in each of three cities: Madrid (S=7, B=5), Barcelona (S=4, B=6), and Calpe (S=3, B=5). Madrid and Barcelona were chosen as they are the two largest cities in Spain (Gonzalez, 2008) and boast considerably large portfolios and bank branches; Calpe was chosen due to customers' large portfolios, as per the bank managements' knowledge and discretion.\nFindings and discussion: Using a cross-cultural segmentation of interviewees based on Spanish vs British origin, the research findings are thematically presented and discussed in this section. A descriptive account of the extracted themes is substantiated by interviewees' quotes drawn from the rich qualitative data obtained.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This case study was developed in Europe during an extremely turbulent economic period - specifically, the 2008 financial crisis. It adds to the understanding of the effect of cultural background on consumers' switching motivations during a merger of financial institutions. The results indicate that customers' switching behavior is a highly complex process influenced by a variety of different factors, including the awareness of the current bank status and related communication; the banking experience and customers' satisfaction with their pre-merger branch, including their use of various banking mediums; the perceived switching advantages and disadvantages; third-party influence; and the circumstances facilitating or hindering the switching decision (Colgate and Hedge, 2001). Each of these factors seems, to a large extent, to be moderated and influenced by one's cultural background.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze consumer switching behavior, which in the retail banking sector is of outmost importance, particularly during financial crises and in their ensuing consolidation pressures. Moreover, research indicates that cultural values play a critical role in determining a customer's likelihood to switch the service provider. The theory of planned behavior offers a comprehensive theoretical framework for an understanding of this behavior. Its application implies that switching is influenced not only by one's attitudes toward changing banking service providers, but also by the merger situation at hand, the influence of significant others, and whether the switching decision is under one's behavioral control.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper scrutinizes the merger between Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland in the Spanish market, with a focus on the differences between British and Spanish consumers. In all, 30 face-to-face exploratory interviews were conducted with a sample of customers from both nationalities selected through a purposive sampling technique.\nFindings: The results indicate that the switching behavior within the banking sector is largely determined by one's cultural background. While individualistic consumers are more prone to switch banks, collectivist consumers are highly risk averse and are unwilling to lose the established relations with a bank's personnel. These particular characteristics make them unlikely to switch banks irrespective of a merger and its related consequences.\nOriginality/value: This paper examines the impact of cross-cultural differences on consumer switching motivations and intentions in the particular case of a real-life banks' merger.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Financial development and economic growth in GCC countries : A comparative study between Islamic and conventional finance
|
[
"Economic growth",
"GCC countries",
"Conventional financial development",
"Islamic financial development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: The relationship between financial development and economic growth has been a major subject in the field of development economics over recent years. The theoretical foundation of this relationship can be traced as far back as the work of Joseph Schumpeterian the beginning of the twentieth century, Robinson (1952) and later to Goldsmith (1969), McKinnon (1973) and Shaw (1973). McKinnon (1973) and Shaw (1973) show the importance of financial liberalization in promoting domestic savings and hence investment. Empirical analyses on the impact of financial development on long-run economic growth include, among others, Roubini and Sala-I-Martin (1992) and King and Levine (1993a). This studies show the crucial role played by the financial sector when it is able to direct financial resources toward the sectors that demand those most. A developed financial sector promotes a better allocation of the financial resources into productive use and contributes positively to the economic growth.\nII. Finance and growth nexus: related literature: 2.1 Financial development and economic growth\nIII. Research question: This paper tries to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth in the five GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar Saudi Arabia and UAE). Moreover, this study tries to compare the different effects of conventional and Islamic finance on economic growth.\nIV. Islamic finance in the GCC countries: The Islamic finance industry has been developed in GCC since 1973. The first Islamic banks implanted in the GCC countries were the Kuwait Finance House (1975) and Dubai Islamic Bank (1975). The GCC region currently remains the primary financier of Islamic finance world-wide. By the end of 2011, there were more than 50 banks in GCC offering a full range of Islamic banking products and services. Today, the GCC countries are widely believed to have the most developed Islamic financial system in the world containing a large Islamic banking sector, a well-developed Islamic interbank money market, a growing Islamic securities market (Sukuk) and a sophisticated Islamic insurance market (Takaful) and operating side-by-side with a conventional-banking system.\nV. Data and econometric methodology: In this section we empirically assess the relationship between financial development and economic growth in GCC countries over the period of 1996-2011. More precisely we try to test the following three hypotheses:\nVI. Empirical results: Using the econometric methods outlined above, this section presents regression results concerning the relationship between economic growth and various measures of financial development. The results are grouped and presented in three sub-sections:\nVII. Conclusion: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of financial development on economic growth in GCC countries. Specifically the paper tries to examine the effect of overall financial system development on economic growth, and compares the effect of Islamic finance development and conventional finance development on the economic growth for five GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar Saudi Arabia and UAE) observed for the period 1996-2011, using the OLS, panel data and GLS techniques of estimations. Our findings reveal that: first, the overall financial system development does not affect the economic growth of GCC countries. Second, conventional finance development affect negatively and significantly the economic growth of GCC countries. Third, while Islamic banking sector development (measured by Islamic deposit to GDP ratio and Islamic private credit to GDP ratio) is a relevant determinant of economic growth in GCC countries, the Sukuk markets do not contribute to economic growth since that Sukuk markets represent a small share of capital market in GCC countries and had not reached a threshold level that will enable them to contribute to the economic growth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the effects of Islamic financial development and conventional financial development on the economic growth for five GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar Saudi Arabia and UAE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using generalized least squares, OLS and panel data frameworks, this paper employs different measures of financial development for the period (1996-2011).\nFindings: Empirical results strongly support the hypothesis that Islamic finance leads to growth in the five GCC countries, however, no significant relationship observed between conventional financial development and growth.\nPractical implications: The findings of this paper suggest the need to accelerate the financial reforms for Islamic finance that have been launched in the region since the last decade and to improve the efficiency of these countries' Islamic financial systems to stimulate saving/investment and, consequently, long-term economic growth.\nOriginality/value: This study has several contributions to the existing literature. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first study that examines empirically the effect of Islamic finance on economic growth in GCC countries. As well, this paper is the first to compare the different effects of Islamic finance and conventional finance on economic growth on a context of countries having the most developed Islamic financial system in the world operating side-by-side with a conventional financial system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A contingency approach to international marketing strategy and decision-making structure among exporting firms
|
[
"European Union",
"Manufacturing industries",
"Service industries",
"Exports",
"Marketing strategy",
"Global marketing",
"Globalization",
"Organizational structure",
"Organizational performance",
"Interaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research concerning marketing standardization/adaptation strategy and performance has stimulated significant interest among academics and practitioners in developing international marketing strategies (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Jain, 1989; Katsikeas et al., 2006; Lages et al., 2008b; Tan and Sousa, 2011). Early studies focus mainly on whether standardization/adaptation strategy can lead to higher performance. These studies have explored the direct impact of standardization/adaptation strategy on performance. This research has often yielded quite mixed and inconclusive results (Lages et al., 2008b; Samiee and Roth, 1992; Szymanski et al., 1993; Zou and Cavusgil, 2002). Some research has revealed a positive link between standardization/adaptation and performance (Szymanski et al., 1993; Zou and Cavusgil, 2002), while other research has reported a non-significant relation between standardization/adaptation and performance (Samiee and Roth, 1992; Chung, 2003; Lages et al., 2008b). Recent studies have had a shift in focus, attempting to address the issue of when and how standardization/adaptation strategies improve firm performance (Katsikeas et al., 2006; Okazaki et al., 2006; Schilke et al., 2009). This later research stream maintains that the impact of standardization/adaptation on performance becomes evident when it is co-aligned with a specific moderation factor. For instance, it is revealed that the standardization and performance relation is associated with environmental and firm factors (Katsikeas et al., 2006; Schilke et al., 2009). Understanding such a moderating role of environmental factors offers an alternative explanation to the inconsistent results revealed in previous studies regarding whether or not standardization strategies have a direct effect on firm performance (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Samiee and Roth, 1992).While recent research shows an interest in exploring the moderation effect in the standardization/adaptation-performance paradigm, such studies are mainly focussed on multinational corporations (MNCs) and their subsidiaries, or business units (e.g. Katsikeas et al., 2006; Schilke et al., 2009), but little attention has been paid to exporting firms in relation to both standardization and decision-making structure strategies (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Chung, 2003). To fill this research gap, this exploratory study is conducted to investigate whether the interaction of standardization/adaptation and the decision-making structure is associated with a higher financial performance, as well as under what conditions a strategic approach would lead to a better financial result in the export sector.The decision-making structure is considered to be an important force in a firm's international operations (Madsen, 1987; Tai and Wong, 1998; Laroche et al., 2001; Okazaki et al., 2006; Chung, 2008). A firm's choice of decision-making structure is a major driving force behind the formulation and implementation of standardization/adaptation strategy (Daniels, 1987; Tai and Wong, 1998; Laroche et al., 2001). Extant examination of the decision-making structure research has primarily focussed on uncovering the behavior of MNCs (Gates and Egelhoff, 1986; Quester and Conduit, 1996; Laroche et al., 2001; Okazaki et al., 2006). Little attention has, however, been paid to the issue of organizational structure and performance from the perspective of export firms in relation to standardization/adaptation strategy and the decision-making structure (Beamish et al., 1999; Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Sousa and Bradley, 2008).This study contributes to the extant literature in several ways. First, it integrates the concepts of standardization/adaptation strategy with the centralization/decentralization decision-making structure, by examining the effectiveness of four strategic approaches (i.e. the global, glocal, regcal and local approaches), with a focus on firms operating in the export sector. Such an approach is meaningful, as the affiliation of standardization/adaptation strategy and the decision-making structure may lead to higher performance (Solberg, 2000; 2002; Tai and Wong, 1998). Second, it identifies relevant moderating variables based on contingency theories (Lages and Montgomery, 2004; Lee et al., 1993; Zeithaml et al., 1988). Contingency theories have been viewed as one of the most dynamic research topics in contemporary marketing research (Kahn, 1998; Wang, 1996). The utilization of contingency theories can provide guidance on the conditions under which the alignment of standardization/adaptation strategy and the decision-making structure can lead to higher financial performance for firms operating in the export sector. Third, this study develops a group of propositions regarding the interaction effect between the four strategic approaches and selected contingency variables that have an effect on firm performance, including firm size, international experience, consumer characteristics, the legal environment, cultural distance and the nature of products. Thus the disclosure of the roles of these contingency factors in the standardization-decision-making structure-performance paradigm can further extend the academic inquiries regarding standardization/adaptation strategy and performance relationship (Katsikeas et al., 2006; Zou and Cavusgil, 2002). By examining these interaction effects along with the four strategic approaches, firms can decide whether they need to include the decision-making structure in the alignment of standardization/adaptation and environmental/firm factors (Katsikeas et al., 2006; Schilke et al., 2009). The interaction outcomes will also offer implications for research focussing mainly on the direct relation between the concentration and coordination of marketing activities, international experience, standardization/adaptation and performance (Zou and Cavusgil, 2002). Therefore, firms can use this information in their decisions regarding whether they should consider the direct, as well as indirect, effects of these factors in their standardization/adaptation-decision-making structure-performance formulation.Theoretical background and conceptual frameworks\nResearch propositions: Following the contingency framework, this study identifies a set of contingency variables that may potentially take a moderating role between a firm's adoption of an approach and its performance. The analysis of the contingent variables is presented below.Firm size\nMethodology: Sampling frame and data collection\nDiscussion and research implications: The main objective of this research is to use contingency theory to explore the interactive effect on firm performance between strategic approaches (i.e. the global, glocal, regcal and local approaches) and a set of contingent variables. Based on the literature and our conceptual reasoning, we formulate six propositions relating to the six contingency variables, which include internal variables (firm size, IBE), external variables (consumer characteristics, legal environment, cultural distance) and the nature of the products. The moderation role of such contingency variables influencing the relation between the four strategic approaches and firm performance are examined using empirical data. The research results and their associated implications are discussed below, in terms of three factors.Internal (firm size and IBE) factors\nLimitations and directions for future research: As an exploratory study to examine the contingency effect of the four strategic approaches, this study suffers from a number of research limitations, which need to be addressed by future research. Meanwhile, such limitations open a new avenue for future research directions to further examine such issues.First, findings concerning the interactions of the four strategic approaches (global, glocal, regcal and local) and the contingency variables are not robust across the different program elements, as demonstrated through the significant and non-significant results. While such results are normally anticipated, given that each proposition actually covers four aspects of marketing mix that vary under different conditions, future research should continue to provide empirical evidence to replicate the results in this study and shed further light on some unexpected findings of this study. While this study provides initial empirical findings that partially confirm our propositions, more theoretical background and conceptual justification is needed in the hypothesis development and reasoning in the future research.Second, future research should also continue to explore other types of contingency variables that might also have an impact on strategic approaches. For example, variables that have already been identified; such as a firm's commitment to exporting (Lages et al., 2008b), competitive forces and infrastructure (Lages and Montgomery, 2004); could all have potential moderation effects in the approaches-performance relation.Third, it is important to note that the two performance items employed in this study are single-item factors. This weakness needs to be improved in future research through the use of a more complex performance measurement, such as the EXPERF scale, STEP scale or AEP index (Diamantopoulos and Kakkos, 2007; Lages and Lages, 2004; Zou et al., 1998). The limitations of unidimensional measurement performance factors have been well cited in the literature (Ryans et al., 2003).Fourth, similar to the issue facing other research in this field (Lages and Montgomery, 2004), the findings of this study draw on the experiences of Australian and New Zealand exporting firms operating in the EU region. Though exporting is vital to both countries, the size of exporting in these two countries is still increasing. Thus, future research should consider replicating the outcomes proposed in this study, based on firms operating in other countries and a wider host market profile. Only then can a generalization of the findings established in this study be obtained.Last, due to its exploratory nature and relatively small sample size, we did not conduct a covariance-based CFA (e.g. Amos; LISREL). Future research should estimate the fit measures for the established models (e.g. kh2, CFI, GFI, NFI, SRMR) (Schilke et al., 2009). By including these fit statistics, the results concerning standardization, decision making and performance can be better validated.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Although the relation between standardization/adaptation strategy and performance has been extensively examined in the international marketing literature, the findings concerning these factors are still inconclusive. The conflicting results might relate to the analysis approach adopted in prior research, which tends to focus on the direct effect of marketing strategies. By utilizing the contingency theory, the purpose of this paper is to uncover the moderation factors for the strategy-structure-performance paradigm in the export sector. Internal, external and product-related factors are explored.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study focuses on four strategy and structure combinations: The global approach (standardization-centralization); the glocal approach (standardization-decentralization); the regcal approach (adaptation-centralization); and the local approach (adaptation-decentralization). The interactive effect of the four approaches and a set of contingent factors are examined based on the experience of 151 exporting firms operating in the EU region. The respondent firms operate in various manufacturing and service industries.\nFindings: - It is revealed that firm size, international business experience, consumer characteristics, the legal environment, cultural distance and the nature of the products play a moderating role between a firm's adoption of a particular approach and its performance, as measured by market share and sales growth, dependent on the relevant marketing program elements (i.e. product, price, promotion and place).\nOriginality/value: - The research findings presented in the paper have significant implications for future research and strategic application.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effect of enterprise social networks use on exploitative and exploratory innovations: Mediating effect of sub-dimensions of intellectual capital
|
[
"Social capital",
"Human capital",
"Exploitative innovation",
"Exploratory innovation",
"Organizational capital",
"Enterprise social networks",
"Digitalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Firms face nowadays a turbulent environment characterized by rapid technological change, increased competition, shortened product lifecycles and changing customer needs. This context offers challenge to companies to embark on new innovation opportunities (Berraies and Ben Rejeb, 2019; Zuraik and Kelly, 2019). Companies must, in particular, digitize and integrate new collaborative technologies to synergize diverse knowledge, a diversity that is particularly related to the divergent thinking that positively affects innovation. In this line, social networks represent a social phenomenon that tends to affect the behavior and habits of individuals and have undeniably changed the way they interact and communicate. In recent years, to be in tune with these changes, firms have also embraced the social networks for their internal organizations to optimize interpersonal collaborations and transversal knowledge flows and strengthened links between organizational members and their stakeholders (Riemer, 2016). Through these collaborative tools, companies benefit from the knowledge deposits and skills of their members and from the synergy created by interactive networks both formal and informal. Nevertheless, the question of the effect of the enterprise social networks (ESN) on firms remains a subject that has been little studied and lacks empirical support. Some prior research stressed in this sense that ESN can bring considerable benefits, as lever for optimizing transversal communication (Mantymakia and Riemer, 2016) and knowledge sharing within firms (Riemer, 2016). In particular, to the best of our knowledge, studies that have particularly investigated the link between ESN use and innovation are limited. In this line, we seek in this research to analyze the link between ESN use and two types of innovation, namely, exploitative and exploratory innovations. We defend in the perspective of O'Reilly and Tushman (2013) that the most successful firms - called ambidextrous - are those that are capable to maintain balance between exploiting the existent knowledge and skills and exploring new ones, achieve exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation and ensure short- and long-term profits. Along with this idea, it is interesting to highlight the determinant of each type of innovation. Researchers have investigated for long time the antecedents of innovation rather than differentiating between exploratory and exploitative innovations. Some authors claimed that achieving ambidextrous innovation is based on structural and organizational context such as structural differentiation (Jansen et al., 2009) and innovation climate (Zuraik and Kelly, 2019). In this perspective, an interesting area that can be investigated and that is underexplored is how collaborative technologies and, in particular, ESN promote exploitative and exploratory innovations. One exception is the exploratory case study of Dalmasso et al. (2017) in which they emphasized that ESN may contribute to organizational ambidexterity in an \"exploitation-oriented\" organization. The idea defended in this research is that the ESN use can promote contextual ambidexterity by building collective know-how and boosting sharing of ideas between diverse users and collaboration whether in exploitation and exploration projects. ESN provides knowledge, human, social and organizational benefits that may conduct ambidexterity. Falkowski (2014) outlined that social networks contribute to intellectual capital (IC) growth. Kline and Konstanze (2013) also stressed that ESN is linked to increased SC. Delgado-Verde et al. (2015) emphasized that a firms' IC is associated with innovation. Kang and Snell (2008) also highlighted that ambidextrous learning is derived from IC that integrates the unique configurations of human capital (HC), social capital (SC) and organizational capital (OC) (Cabrita and Bontis, 2008). The knowledge integrated in these sub-dimensions of IC is considered as a key ingredient for exploratory and exploitative innovation activities (Duodu and Rowlinson, 2016). In this line, the originality of this research lies in highlighting the mediating roles of sub-dimensions of IC in the link between ESN use and exploitative and exploratory innovations that have never been explored.\n2. Literature background: 2.1 Exploitative and exploratory innovations\n3. Research method: 3.1 Data collection and sample\n4. Hypotheses testing: To test our hypotheses, structural equation modeling and, in particular, PLS via SMART PLS 3 was used as a modeling method in this research. This technique is known for its robustness and ability to test models incorporating many variables (Hair et al., 2014). Compared to regression analysis, this method can test in the same time direct and indirect links, particularly mediation links. Results highlight that the value of standardized root mean squared residual is 0.074 and, thus, is under the cut-off value of 0.08 (Hu and Bentler, 1999). The goodness of fit is equal to 0.401 and thus is higher than 0.3, revealing the high quality of the dependent variables (Tenenehaus et al., 2005).\n5. Discussion: Recent studies have examined the effect of ESN use by firms. Researchers stressed in this line that ESN holds great promises for firms and employees (Mantymakia and Riemer, 2016; Riemer et al., 2012). Firms could benefit from these collaborative tools to foster knowledge sharing, boost interactions between organizational members and with the stakeholders (Eazmerita et al., 2014; Turban et al., 2011) and promote innovation.\n6. Conclusion: 6.1 Theoretical contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between the enterprise social networks (ESN) use and the exploitative and exploratory innovations and deepen the analysis by examining the mediating role of the sub-dimensions of intellectual capital (IC) in these relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a quantitative method based on the questionnaire administrated to a sample of 248 middle managers working in Tunisian ICT firms. Regarding the data analysis, the authors use a partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method.\nFindings: Results highlight that whereas exploratory innovation is positively linked to human capital (HC) and social capital (SC), exploitative innovation is positively associated with HC. Findings show that the ESN use is linked positively to exploitative innovation and this link is mediated by HC. The data analysis also revealed that HC and SC mediate the link between ESN use and exploratory innovation.\nOriginality/value: Although limited studies have investigated the effect of the ESN use on firms, this research pioneers the examination of the effect of the ESN use on exploitative and exploratory innovations within ICT firms and the mediating roles of HC, SC and organizational capital that have never been explored. Findings are highlighted along with interesting insights for managers and outline the key aspects related to the ESN use that may improve the sub-dimensions of IC and boost exploitative and exploratory innovations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Consumers' awareness and perceptions regarding functional dairy products in Iran: A qualitative research
|
[
"Perception",
"Awareness",
"Functional food",
"Qualitative research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Non-communicable diseases are a major public health and socio-economic problem in developing countries in the twenty-first century (World Health Organization, 2014). Studies have revealed that there is a nutritional link in a range of chronic non-communicable diseases such as coronary heart disease, various cancers, diabetes mellitus and various bone and joint diseases (World Health Organization, 1990). Knowledge of this relationship is known as one of the main reasons for shifting consumers toward the potential health benefits of specific foods and food ingredients (American Dietetic Association (ADA), 2009). During the last decades, the number of consumers believing food can directly contribute to the health and well-being is increasing around the world (Mollet and Rowland, 2002). An increased interest in diet and nutrition has resulted in an increased interest in new kinds of foods, so-called functional foods (Wansink et al., 2005). Functional foods are a variety of natural foods or foods that have been modified to have a functional influence on the health and well-being of the consumer through the elimination, addition, or modification of specific components by using technology or biotechnology (Diplock et al., 1999; Roberfroid, 2000). It is claimed that they are able to affect one or more target functions in the body, beyond basic nutritional effects, in order to improve health and reduce the risk of disease (Diplock et al., 1999). Several categories of functional foods are conquering the market worldwide. One of the most important types of these foods are functional dairy products, including low-fat/skim dairy (Ozen et al., 2012), probiotic dairy (Granato et al., 2010), dairy fortified with vitamins/minerals/or omega-3 fatty acids, and low-lactose/lactose free milk (ADA, 2009). There are some evidences indicating numerous health benefits of these products. For example, studies have found low-fat dairy consumption to be related to a lower risk of hypertension (Alonso et al., 2005; Toledo et al., 2009), type 2 diabetes (Liu et al., 2006), and coronary heart disease (Hu et al., 1999). Also, probiotic dairy including yoghurt and other fermented dairy products have been reported to have beneficial effects including improving the immune function, lowering cholesterol, treating alcoholic liver disease, improving lactose intolerance, preventing and controlling cancer especially colon cancer, lowering urinary tract infection, gastric ulcer, diarrhea and gastrointestinal diseases (Arunachalam et al., 2000; Kirpich et al., 2008; Pereira et al., 2003; Rampengan et al., 2010; Uehara et al., 2006; Zhao et al., 2007).\n2. Method: 2.1 Participants and data collection\n3. Results: The characteristics of participants are shown in Table I.\n4. Discussion: The results of the present study showed that participants were unfamiliar with the term \"functional dairy products\" and confused because of the ambiguity of what these products are and what they contain. It is interesting to note that some of them consumed such foods without realizing that those are called functional dairy products. This shows that the term \"functional dairy products\" in Iran is specifically a techno-jargon that has not been communicated to the consumers. This result is in agreement with previous studies that reported a low familiarity with the term \"functional food\" among consumers (Annunziata and Vecchio, 2011; Carrillo et al., 2013; Krygier, 2007). In contrast, a study of Swedish consumers showed that most respondents were familiar with the concept of \"functional food\"; however, the study population was likely to be representative of a more health informed segment of the Swedish population than the general population (Landstrom et al., 2007).\n5. Strengths and limitations: To mention the study strength and limitations, this was a qualitative research and the findings can provide a better understanding of Iranian women's awareness and perceptions regarding functional dairy products, as well as preferred channels to raise awareness about these products. Variety in sampling including different socio-economic backgrounds and different occupation groups of participants was an advantage of the current study. One limitation, i.e. voluntary participation, however, could have led to exclusion of the experiences of those who did not participate in the study. Also, all participants were selected from a sample of Tehranian women, so our findings might not reflect views of the general population of Iran.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Functional dairy products market has been growing steadily in Iran. Awareness and perception related to these products has an important role in consumers' acceptance and subsequently long-term marketplace success of these products. The purpose of this paper is to fill the knowledge gap in this regard, study conducted in Iran.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The theory of social marketing served as the framework of the study. Qualitative data were collected via eight semi-structured focus group discussions (FGDs), between May and September 2014. Participants were 65 women (44 housewives and 21 employed women), aged 23-68 years, selected by purposive sampling, with a maximum diversity. All FGDs were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative content analysis of the data was conducted by MAXQDA(r).\nFindings: Almost all participants were unfamiliar with the term \"functional dairy products,\" although, some of them had consumed these products. Apart from perceiving the functional dairy products as unnecessary by some participants, some women did not trust in health claims of these products for various reasons such as distrust in food manufacturers, exposure to contradictory information, and fear of unforeseen and dangerous side effects due to taking them. The participants agreed on the need for more information from a trusted and credible source such as health professionals or authorities through different communication channels like television, training classes, shopping center, and so on.\nOriginality/value: This study provides a unique insight into consumers' awareness and perceptions concerning functional dairy products in Iran. To the best of the knowledge, this study is the first study in this regard in Iran. Given the novelty of these products in the market, the findings could provide information for the dairy industry to expand its market and improve its profitability and reliability, as well as public health sector to design and implement intervention programs to promote functional dairy products consumption in the population.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
RES-E capacity investment under uncertain renewable energy supply and volatile electricity spot price
|
[
"Uncertain demand",
"Capacity planning",
"Intermittent energy source",
"Renewable energy source electricity",
"Uncertain supply"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Energy supply security and climate change have become global issues in the twenty-first century. The renewable energy industry plays an important role in mitigating greenhouse gas effect and energy shortage. Developing renewable energy source electricity (RES-E), which could address climate change, guarantee energy supply security and create jobs, is a way to achieve sustainable development (Lamy, 2004). For example, wind power has been one of the fastest growing energy technologies of the past decade (AWEA, 2002). Wind power industry in China has doubled every year since 2005. Photovoltaic power also shows the great commercial future. However, an essential feature of most renewable resources is intermittency. Most intermittent RES-Es are variable and unpredictable. Besides, electricity is hardly stored economically at present. In a word, a power system requires high electricity supply reliability since the interruption of electricity supply would incur huge loss. Therefore, integrating the intermittent RES-E with the power system economically and safely is challenging. Understanding how to plan generation capacity with intermittent renewable sources is important.\n2. Problem description: Since electricity demand is uncertain and varies significantly with time in perfectly competitive market, the electricity spot price will show volatile fluctuation in order to reach supply and demand equilibrium in real time. At the same time, renewable energy such as wind and solar power is affected significantly by weather. Therefore, its supply is also uncertain and uncontrolable. Therefore, the property of intermittency should be taken into account in the investment model.\n3. RES-E capacity investment strategy without relationship between renewable energy supply and electricity spot price fluctuation: 3.1 Model establishment\n4. RES-E capacity investment strategy with relationship between renewable energy supply and spot electricity price fluctuation: 4.1 Model establishment\n5. Analysis of correlation between supply and spot price: 5.1 Comparison between models of dependent/independent renewable energy supply and electricity spot price\n6. Numeric study: Present paper takes wind industry as an example. After the field study of the wind electricity market, power generators, recent investigations on electricity power policy, and regulations published by Chinese Government, this paper uses the following data for the numerical study.\n7. Conclusion: Traditional supply chain study assumes the capacity investment plan of manufacturer is only affected by the uncertainty of downstream demand. In renewable energy industry, however, the intermittency of renewable first output makes the supply of power also uncertain. Assume the electricity market is a demand market under loose regulation (perfectly competitive market), for the power generator all of the demand and supply are uncertain. Traditional supply chain adopts safety stock to handle the uncertainty of demand, for renewable energy however, current technology find it difficult to store extra power efficiently. Besides, no previous literature discusses if supply and demand has a certain relationship and its impact on investment decision. This paper explores the effect of the correlation between the intermittency of renewable energy and the electricity price fluctuation on the investment capacity planning of the renewable power generator. We find: first, when there is no correlation between the fluctuation of renewable energy supply and the fluctuation of the spot electricity price, i.e., when the correlation premium is 0, the equivalent cost of renewable energy is lower than spot electricity price. The renewable energy has a competitive power in the electricity market and the power generator will increase the capacity investment. Second, when there exists certain correlation between the fluctuation of renewable energy supply and the fluctuation of spot electricity price, i.e., when the correlation premium is not 0, the profitability of renewable energy is decided by market value and construction and maintenance cost. Renewable energy source's market value consists of two parts: base value and correlation premium. Base value is positively correlates with average level of renewable energy's supply and power price. Third, the synchronicity between intermittency of renewable energy and fluctuation of spot power price is the root causes of correlation premium. If the intensity of renewable energy generation is positively correlated with the spot price, correlation premium is positive and vice versa. Fourth, the change of correlation premium has an effect on the market value in the same direction. When the correlation premium is not 0, the increase of renewable energy output intensity or the fluctuation of the spot price will increase the correlation premium.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: When the power generator faces uncertain and independent electricity spot price and renewable energy source supply, two different conditions need to be considered: the distributions of renewable energy source electricity and electricity spot price are independent or dependent. The purpose of this paper is to explore the capacity investment strategy under volatile electricity spot price when renewable energy penetration rate is low, taking into account these two conditions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors design a capacity investment model under dual uncertainties and consider how to optimize the investment capacity in order to maximize profit under two different conditions.\nFindings: The authors find that when renewable energy supply fluctuation is unrelated to spot electricity price fluctuation, the renewable energy power profitability is determined by the average cost of spot electricity price and equivalent cost. When renewable energy supply fluctuation is related to spot electricity price fluctuation, the renewable energy power profitability is determined by the market value and the construction and maintenance cost.\nPractical implications: Faced with the conflict of the renewable energy supply, the authors need to understand how to plan the generation capacity with intermittent renewable sources. The result helps renewable energy become competitive in the electricity market under loose regulations.\nOriginality/value: The authors compare two capacity investment strategies that the renewable energy supply fluctuation is related and unrelated to spot electricity price.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Top management team gender diversity and productivity: the role of board gender diversity
|
[
"Gender diversity",
"Top management team",
"Upper echelons theory",
"Board gender diversity",
"Employee productivity",
"Social justice theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past decades, gender diversity has increasingly been embraced and encouraged by many public and private organisations (Hillman et al., 2002; Smith et al., 2006). The Australian Government and relevant regulatory bodies, such as the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), have taken initiatives to increase women's representation in leadership positions (Kang et al., 2007; Klettner et al., 2016). One of the most notable examples is the introduction of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, which requires organisations with 100 plus employees to annually report their gender equality initiatives, including the percentage of women at various organisational levels (Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2017; KPMG, 2016; WGEA, 2017). Another example is that all ASX-listed companies are required as part of the ASX's \"Listing Rule 4.10.3\" to disclose gender diversity-related measurable objectives regardless of their organisation size unless they can justify why the recommendations cannot be complied with (KPMG, 2016). Despite these efforts, women represent only 19 per cent of the senior executive level in the ASX 500 companies, ranked by market capitalisation companies as of 2015 (KPMG, 2016).\nTheoretical underpinning and hypotheses development: TMT and employee productivity\nMethods: A time-lagged research design was utilised, with a one-year time lag between TMT gender diversity (year 2016) and productivity (year 2017). This allowed the predictor and moderator to precede the outcome (Ali, 2016; Huselid, 1995). The selection of the one-year time lag between these variables can be considered as a conservative approach, and has been utilised by previous diversity studies (e.g. Bonn et al., 2004; Jeong and Harrison, 2017).\nMeasures: Predictor\nResults: Table I displays a summary of descriptive statistics for all the variables employed in the study (means and standard deviations) and bivariate correlation coefficients. The weak correlations among controls, predictor and moderator variables suggest that multicollinearity was not an issue (Allen et al., 2014; Sarstedt and Mooi, 2014).\nDiscussion: The main objectives of this study were to test a positive relationship between TMT gender diversity and productivity, and a moderating effect of board gender diversity on the relationship between TMT gender diversity and productivity. The findings suggest a positive relationship between TMT gender diversity and employee productivity, and that this relationship is quite strong in organisations with low levels of board gender diversity.\nTheoretical and research contributions: This study contributes to the theoretical underpinnings for a TMT gender diversity-productivity relationship. It supports the upper echelons theory (Hambrick and Mason, 1984) by finding a main positive linear TMT gender diversity-productivity relationship. The results suggest that TMT members' demographic characteristics, for example gender, can influence TMT processes leading to higher productivity (Krishnan, 2009). However, a direct support to the upper echelons theory would require measuring mediating processes gender diversity initiates and their effects on productivity. Moreover, the significant interaction term (even though the predicted strengths of the TMT gender diversity-productivity relationship in organisations with low or high board gender diversity were not supported) provide some support to the relational framework (Syed and Ozbilgin, 2009). An alignment among laws and regulations around gender diversity, board gender diversity and TMT gender diversity would still be desirable based on the social justice case for diversity. Along these lines, additional moderating effects can be predicted. Furthermore, the use of the relational framework (Syed and Ozbilgin, 2009) and the theoretical arguments presented in this paper help integrate and refine the two theories - the upper echelons theory and the relational framework. For instance, the upper echelons theory (the business case lens; Hambrick and Mason, 1984) is more accurate and precise in predicting positive processes and outcomes when it involves alignments across multiple organisational levels.\nPractical implications: The study's findings have many implications for practitioners and regulators.\nLimitations: Despite having many strengths, this research has three main limitations. First, this study could not incorporate other diversity dimensions, such as racial diversity, into the research. Although many previous research studies (e.g. Ely and Thomas, 2001; Pelled et al., 1999; Richard et al., 2007) note that race is another highly visible and salient diversity dimension which can influence productivity, the ASX-listed firms used as the study's sample, generally, are not legally demanded to disclose any racial diversity indicators (Ali et al., 2011). Second, the data from this research reflect low levels of gender diversity at both levels in the study's sample firms. It can, therefore, be implied that the data from this study's sample on the proportion of women at the TMT and board levels were skewed towards a greater representation of men. It is expected that the moderating effects of board gender diversity on the TMT gender diversity-productivity relationship might be different when these effects are investigated using a full range of gender diversity (Krishnan and Park, 2005).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Based on the significance of context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a positive top management team (TMT) gender diversity-productivity relationship derived from the upper echelons theory, and a moderating effect of board gender diversity on the TMT gender diversity-productivity relationship derived from the relational framework.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The hypotheses were tested in 172 organisations listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. This research uses archival data from multiple secondary sources, with a one-year time lag between the predictor and outcome.\nFindings: The findings indicate a positive effect of TMT gender diversity on employee productivity and a strong positive TMT gender diversity-employee productivity relationship in organisations with a low level of board gender diversity.\nOriginality/value: This study provides pioneering evidence for a positive effect of TMT gender diversity on employee productivity and for a moderating effect of board gender diversity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Distribution features and intellectual structures of digital humanities: A bibliometric analysis
|
[
"Library and information services",
"Digital humanities",
"VOSviewer",
"CiteSpace",
"Digital cultural heritage",
"Digital history",
"Digital literary",
"Humanities computing",
"Visualization analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: When one nowadays expects to understand one's own research field, literary analysis or otherwise, it is sensible to make use of the novel computational methods and tools and converge them with traditional research paradigm within that field (Naukkarinen and Bragge, 2016). Contemporary humanities research has expanded beyond anything that could be considered traditional, digital humanities is the umbrella term that describes much of this kind of work (Varner and Hswe, 2016). Digital humanities first emerged in the late 1940s as \"humanities computing,\" when it formed the basis for such projects as the Index Thomisticus conceived by an Italian priest named Father Roberto Busa. Today, digital humanities are applying advanced computational tools to more diverse disciplines, ranging from history and literature to cultural studies (Mone, 2016), and even computational landscape. However, digital humanities must be understood in the context of the history, methodologies, and perceptions which its practitioners bring to the table (Jennifer and Kevin, 2013). Grounded in the interactive values of humanities and techniques, the digital humanities attempts to lead the humanities community into new domain by promoting experimentation, collaboration, and openness (Spiro, 2012).\nLiterature review: Bibliometric analysis is not new. A quick search in the Web of Science (WoS) core collection database using topic query \"bibliometric analysis\" resulted in more than 4,000 documents, with nearly three-quarters of those being academic articles. Bibliometric analysis has been adopted in various forms for more than a century (Pritchard and Wittig, 1981; Hood and Wilson, 2001). Since Eugene Garfield founded the Information Sciences Institute in 1958 and introduced the impact factor (IF), an increasing number of bibliometric indicators and tools have been developed (Liu et al., 2015). Bibliometric analysis has been adopted in various disciplines to visualize the patterns or intellectual structures of a scientific topic and to assess the scientific outputs in a given field (Huang et al., 2016; Li et al., 2017).\nMethodology: Analysis schema\nResults and discussion: Yearly research output\nConclusion and implication: Digital methods and techniques are rapidly having an important impact on the development of humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS). A steady increase in focus on digital humanities can be found in this study, which indicates that digital humanities has been one of the more popular research domains in the digital age. This study aimed at providing insights about the progress of digital humanities research based on 803 records collected from the WoS database. Basic situation can help people get a general understanding about digital humanities research from different perspectives: yearly research output, language of documents, productive institutions, active journals, prolific authors, and categories. The interpretation of highly cited references along with keywords distribution analysis were used to represent intellectual structures, including influential studies and hot research topics. VOSviewer and CiteSpace as popular visualization tools were applied to process the bibliographic data including authors, categories, references, and keywords.\nLimitations: Although the view provided valuable insights into the current status and intellectual structure of digital humanities, it has to be understood that some deficiencies still exists, while some research biases or limitations are inevitable.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a retrospective bibliometric analysis of documents about digital humanities, an emerging but interdisciplinary movement. It examines the distribution of research outputs and languages, identifies the active journals and institutions, dissects the network of categories and cited references, and interprets the hot research topics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The source data are derived from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection. To reveal the holistic landscape of this field, VOSviewer and CiteSpace as popular visualization tools are employed to process the bibliographic data including author, category, reference, and keyword. Furthermore, the parameter design of the visualization tools follows the general procedures and methods for bibliometric analysis.\nFindings: There is an obviously rapid growth in digital humanities research. English is still the leading academic language in this field. The most influential authors all come from or have scientific relationships with Europe and North America, and two leading countries of which are the UK and USA. Digital humanities is the result of a dynamic dialogue between humanistic exploration and digital means. This research field is closely associated with history, literary and cultural heritage, and information and library science.\nResearch limitations/implications: This analysis relies on the metadata information extracted from the WoS database; however, some valuable literatures in the field of digital humanities may not be retrieved from the database owing to the inherent challenge of topic search. This study is also restricted by the scope of publications, the limitation regarding the source of data is that WoS database may have underrepresented publications in this domain.\nOriginality/value: The output of this paper could be a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners interesting in the knowledge domain of digital humanities. Moreover, the conclusions of this retrospective analysis can be deemed as the comparable foundation for future study.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Application of Six Sigma DMAIC methodology in a transactional environment
|
[
"Six Sigma",
"Process management",
"DMAIC",
"Communication and information management",
"Strategy",
"Quality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Six Sigma is a breakthrough business strategy used for quality and process improvement by using a set of structured tools and statistical measures to evaluate processes (Antony, 2004b). Six Sigma has evolved over the last two decades and continues to expand since its inception at Motorola in the mid-1980s (Hoerl, 2004). Six Sigma as a business strategy has been exploited by many world-class organisations such as Motorola, SE, Honeywell, ABB and Sony to name a few, resulting in million dollar savings on the bottom line (Snee, 2004). Edgeman et al. (2005) suggest that Six Sigma approach can help to develop solutions that jointly optimise multiple bottom lines. Senapati (2004) highlights that many of these companies have laid out specific blue prints for process improvement using the Six Sigma framework. More and more companies are discovering Six Sigma to gather customer input and gauge customer satisfaction within their products and services.The current business trend of cut-throat competition is forcing organisations to look at ways of reducing costs. The scarcely available funds need to be deployed meticulously. Implementation of Six Sigma methodology is most suitable in such conditions as compared to any other traditional contemporary process improvement methodology due to the following reasons:* The implementation of Six Sigma facilitates breakthrough results as evidenced by many organisations (Breyfogle et al., 2001).* Fact- and data-based approach, and the use of statistical methods reduces chances of error (Pande et al., 2001).* The resources required for Six Sigma can be drawn from within the organisation (Gupta, 2005).* The time frame for implementation of projects is comparatively short; most of the projects can be completed within three to six months (Snee, 2001).In today's business world information is considered power and a major source of growth and prosperity. However, if information is not analysed and acted upon in time, organisational effectiveness can be reduced hence affecting the competitiveness (Peipert, 2005). The importance of information is highlighted by the fact that without essential information, organisations do not know what they need to know, neither they are aware of what they do not know, hence the act of organising itself goes in vein. This case study investigates the effectiveness of communication and information management (CIM) system within an infrastructure support company, using the Six Sigma (DMAIC) methodology.\nLiterature review: Six Sigma has many definitions, each addressing one of the several aspects of its phenomenon of the pursuit of \"near-perfection in meeting customer requirements\" (Pande et al., 2000). Since Six Sigma focuses on the customer and uses facts and data to deliver better solutions, it is regarded as an effective way to manage business (Pande et al., 2001). According to Breyfogle et al. (2001), \"Six Sigma is a team-based approach to problem solving and process improvement\". Six Sigma's success has been attributed to embracing it as an improvement strategy (Antony and Banuelas, 2001; Snee, 1999), philosophy (Slack et al., 2004) and a way of doing business (Pande and Holpp, 2002; Watson, 2001).According to Breyfogle (2003), Six Sigma organisations have a well-defined management hierarchy within the organisation. Antony and Banuelas (2001) refer to this hierarchy of execution as one of the most powerful themes of Six Sigma approach. According to Breyfogle et al. (2001), in a Six Sigma organisation special titles are given to people within the organisation depending on their Six Sigma roles. All employees of the organisation should have the awareness of Six Sigma and preferably be trained as Yellow Belts to create a Six Sigma culture throughout the organisation (Gupta, 2005).CIM within organisations is one of the most important and critical aspects especially in today's competitive world. Information flows throughout the organisation and follows various processes till it is complete in entirety and reaches the final destination. The changing business environments require organisations to manage the information effectively in order to create a knowledge base and utilise the same for business advantage and competitive edge. Timely communication of this information is referred to as knowledge management within the organisation, described as getting the right information to the right people at the right time, helping people create knowledge and sharing and acting on information (Holm, 2001).Six Sigma has been successfully implemented within the manufacturing industry and now the awareness is growing towards application in the service, transactional and administrative processes (Bisgaard et al., 2002). This paper is aimed at using Six Sigma (DMAIC) methodology in evaluating the efficiency and operational performance with regard to management of information and suggest improvements where gaps are identified.\nResearch methodology: The objective of identifying an effective communication system within the infrastructure organisation is achieved through case study strategy. \"Case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident\" (Yin, 2003). This research is not restricted to identifying the root cause but also encompasses the development of a better framework. Hence a well-constructed case study strategy is employed in the research to test the existing theory.In this case study, Six Sigma DMAIC methodology is applied to identify the root causes for an existing problem and proposes solutions that can have significant business impact. Positivist philosophy is used since large sample of data is involved and provides analysis of a wide range of situations. The research is based upon facts or reasons with regard to the phenomena with little consideration of the subjective state (Hussey and Hussey, 1997).Triangulation approach is adopted for data collection. Since each data collection method has its strengths and weaknesses, the research encompasses two methods; case study and questionnaire to counterbalance the flaws if any, leading to credible findings. Moreover, if the results obtained from one-method backs up the results from another, the research is validated and hence accomplishes a reliable conclusion (Bulmer, 1984). The next section discusses the case study approach undertaken during the project and the implementation process of DMAIC Six Sigma methodology.\nCase study: Introduction to case study\nManagerial implications and lessons learned: The case study found that top-level management had general awareness of Six Sigma and was committed in deploying the strategy across the organisation. The understanding of Six Sigma at the middle management level was not reflected from the findings and thus need a serious thought to develop good knowledge base within the organisation as a whole, for successful deployment of Six Sigma across the organisation.Training plays a vital role in implementation of any new system. With regard to this project it is important that emphasis should be laid on creating awareness of the proposed system to all users and the importance of each entry should be realised by all involved. These factors help in institutionalising the improvement process. In order to ensure effectiveness of the training, a skill matrix must be prepared for all the involved and training needs should be identified accordingly. The skill set should be reviewed on regular basis to determine the awareness level and prepare the training calendar accordingly. Since the project requires involvement of the ground-level staff, the management should keep the staff motivated through sustained communication and education.Culture is another major contributor towards ensuring that the improvement is sustained for long time. The management has to instil within the team a sense of ownership and responsibility for the actions they do, to ensure that the information provided is correct in entirety. In order to improve the effectiveness of communication and information across organisation, management need to develop this culture at the field level to enhance reliability of information at source.The study provided an appreciation of the Six Sigma methodology, roles and responsibilities that helped to carry out the research. The case study approach enabled application of DMAIC methodology in a real-world situation and provided opportunity to correlate the theoretical knowledge gained through the literature review with the practical application in the concerned organisation. The case study also facilitated factual primary data collection for the research and the survey instrument enabled to narrow the scope of root causes to identify the vital few from the trivial many.The lessons learned from the case study need to be propagated and transferred to different business units across the organisation. An understanding of quality and process thinking at different levels will help to establish continuous process measurement and improvement systems. Considering the lack of data-driven approach towards decision making across the organisation, it is important to train the management at all levels in Six Sigma since a data-driven methodology helps in making effective and better informed decisions. Embracing Six Sigma across the organisation and effective use of Six Sigma tools and techniques for problem solving will develop the organisation into a Six Sigma organisation.As stated by Antony (2004a), successful implementation of Six Sigma within an organisation depends upon the consideration for critical success factors (CSFs) of Six Sigma. In this regard following CSFs of Six Sigma were identified in the organisation that were instrumental in carrying out the project:1. top management commitment and involvement;2. leadership;3. linking Six Sigma to business strategy;4. education and training;5. understanding of Six Sigma methodology;6. organisational infrastructure; and7. awareness of quality tools.Lack of consideration for these basic CSFs of Six Sigma within organisation would have resulted in failure of the Six Sigma project. With regard to the project undertaken it is also worth mentioning that along with the CSFs, the clarity of aims and objectives prior to starting a Six Sigma project contributes to successful implementation.\nLimitations and directions for future research: Jankowics (2005) acknowledges that limitations of any research must be recognised and any data collected should be examined in a critical fashion. Throughout this research following limitations have been realised:* Paucity of literature on the application of Six Sigma within CIM arena, presenting huge scope for future research.* Owing to paucity of literature no competitor data could be accessed for research to benchmark against. In future such a research can be conducted across the CIM systems of different companies.* The research would have benefited from the use of longitudinal study, allowing full deployment of DMAIC methodology through implementation of recommendations.\nConclusion: Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach that is applicable to all arenas starting from manufacturing to transaction and enhances process efficiency by identifying and eliminating the defects. The paper presents case study from a leading infrastructure support company where Six Sigma methodology was employed to address the concern within the CIM system of the organisation. The structured Six Sigma approach facilitated to identify the root causes of the problem and tools like brainstorming, Pareto analysis, cause and effect analysis, etc. helped to prioritise the issues and find effective solutions to the problems.In conclusion from the study conducted it is evident that a systematic and conscious effort to influence and control the flow of information will lead to efficient processes and improve the overall effectiveness of CIM system within the organisation. By developing the control centre into a one point contact for all the core businesses of the group focus can be laid on real-time data access in a controlled manner. This will enhance the effectiveness of the group with timely updates on the completion of tasks in real time and highlight concerns, if any at work-sites so that necessary action can be taken to rectify the situation as and when required. This will facilitate generation of timely management reports of the business for the senior management at all times. The financial savings generated from the project as reported by the Six Sigma Project Champion in June 2008 was over PS400K. Overall an effective CIM will definitely provide a competitive edge to the group as a whole.As a next phase of this research, the organisation can conduct an extensive empirical research across different business units to understand the impact of ineffectiveness in the CIM system within each unit and evaluate impact across the organisation. Investigate the mode and effectiveness of suggested CIM improvements and incorporate them in the continuous performance initiative for the organisation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Communication and Information Management (CIM) is crucial for any organisation and effectiveness of CIM can result in significant improvement to the bottom line and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and streamline the communication and information system within an \"infrastructure support service\" company using Six Sigma methodology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research involved a triangulation approach of case study and use of survey instrument to find a solution to the problem.\nFindings: - The paper highlights a significant concern with regard to CIM within all the business units of the group. The effectiveness of the present CIM system for the whole group is below industry average with regard to accuracy and timeliness of CIM, resulting in an inefficient management reporting system. Operating in a highly competitive and time-bound environment, correct and real time reporting is paramount. The main reasons for the ineffectiveness of CIM across the group can be attributed to two main factors; data management and communication systems being used. The paper also illustrates an appreciation of the use of Six Sigma within a transactional environment.\nOriginality/value: - This study is a novel application of Six Sigma methodology within the communication and information management system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effects of upward feedback on leadership behaviour toward subordinates
|
[
"Feedback",
"Leadership",
"Management development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Appraisal on performance or for development purposes is a common element of human resource management in many organizations today (Graddick and Lane, 1998; Timmreck, 1995). Feedback from multisources (e.g. managers, peers, subordinates) and upward feedback can be a valuable source of information on performance. In fact, the use of subordinate appraisals in the performance appraisal process is increasing (Bernardin et al., 1993; Graddick and Lane, 1998; Tourish and Robson, 2003). Fortune magazine's annual survey of 32 industries showed multisource feedback is almost universal among the most respected companies in the USA (Ghorpade, 2000). Upward feedback refers to the process of subordinates anonymously (in most cases) evaluating their supervisor's performance. The information is averaged and fed back to the supervisor and possibly to the next higher level of management, for the purposes of development and/or performance evaluation. The current situation is that upward feedback and multisource systems are being implemented at an unprecedented rate in the UK and the USA. Unfortunately, however, the same cannot be said of empirical research in this area (Fletcher and Baldry, 1999). The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the empirical research in this important area by incorporating three aspects into the research design essential for a good insight into what happens during an upward feedback program, but mostly neglected in previous studies. First, a control group is included. Second, the focus is both on the perception of the subordinates and the self-perception of the managers. Third, the different feedback dimensions used in the program are analyzed separately instead of averaged into one feedback score.\nMethod: Participants\nResults: As a first step, Time 1 ratings of managers were compared to the rating of their subordinates (see Table I). This provides insight into the extent managers have an understanding of how they are perceived by their staff. All managers were treated as one group for this analysis. In this analysis and all subsequent analysis we will present results significant at a p<0.10 level. This to counter power problems and the possibility of making type 2 errors, stating that an effect did not exist, where in fact it did. Given the relatively small number of managers in both groups, it is important to acknowledge that it takes a stronger effect to be significant at the usual p<0.05 level.Correlating the staff-ratings with the managers' self-ratings revealed low overall correlations. Only two correlations were significant at a 0.05 level. These were \"Presenting feedback\" and \"Integrity & respect\". \"Participating and empowerment\" was the third dimension with a reasonable correlation, albeit only significant at the p<0.10 level. So, overall we can conclude from these correlations that manager's rating of their own behavior differs considerably from the ratings provided by subordinates in terms of who shows what behavior more or less. Next, the mean scores of the subordinates' ratings were compared to that of their managers. On all nine dimensions managers rated their behavior more positively. This confirmed the point made above: lack of insight into the impact that their behavior had on staff.In the second step, the effect of the feedback program was assessed in terms of changes in behavior from the pre-measure to the post-measure using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of the staff-ratings showed only one significant result (p<0.10); \"Valuing diversity\" increased as a result the program. The self-ratings showed three significant changes. The estimate of the managers of their behavior in terms of \"Presenting feedback\", \"Fairness\" and \"Integrity & respect\" dropped from Time 1 to Time 2.\nDiscussion: In this paper we explored the impact of an upward feedback program on leadership behaviour. We aimed to determine the influence that participating in an upward feedback program had on managers' leadership behaviour, both as rated by their subordinates and as self-rated. Our study showed three results. First, managers lack insight into the real impact their behavior. Second, only a small positive effect was found of the upward feedback program on the leadership behaviour as rated by their staff in terms of valuing diversity. Third, on the self-ratings reduced among the managers of \"Presenting feedback\", \"Fairness\" and \"Integrity & respect\", managers became less positive between Time 1 and Time 2. It seems that the managers adjusted their opinions of themselves on these dimensions.Our results confirm, again, that most people hold a more positive view of their competencies compared to the view held by the people they work with. The consistent higher scores of self-ratings compared to staff ratings dovetails studies comparing self ratings with supervisor ratings or peer ratings (Harris and Schaubroeck, 1988).The reduction in self-ratings among managers is in line with other studies where those managers improved who originally over-rated themselves (e.g. Johnson and Ferstl, 1999; Walker and Smither, 1999). This effect can be understood with self-consistency theory, which assumes that people prefer feedback that is consistent with their self-image. This suggests that managers with negative discrepancies may increase effort or reduce their-self-ratings to reduce the discrepancy. Similarly, Waldman and Atwater (2001) showed that lower scores from subordinates and larger discrepancies between self and staff ratings resulted in more active additional feedback seeking. It is unclear if managers in this group showed similar behaviour. It seems that managers did decrease their self-ratings, but did not change their behaviour, that is increase their efforts to become better managers.These limited outcomes to the research questions are not uncommon in feedback research. It resonates with the conclusions in the meta-analysis of Kluger and DeNisi (1996) that feedback is a double-edged sword. Their meta-analysis even showed that feedback reduced performance in one third of the cases. It can be speculated to what extent the upward feedback resulted in a lowered self-concept and less self-efficacy as a manager. A influence of self-efficacy was shown in a recent study by Heslin and Latham (2004), who showed that self-efficacy played a positive role in helping managers take advantage of the received feedback. An extensive meta-analysis by Judge and Bono (2001) showed that a positive self-concept (i.e. self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, emotional stability) is an important predictor of job performance. Therefore, one could even speculate whether a drop in positive feelings about one's performance will be related to less positive managerial behavior in the long run.One could of course argue that a multi-source approach (360-degree feedback) might have resulted in stronger results. Current research provides some empirical proof for its effectiveness above and beyond upward feedback (see Seifert et al., 2003; although see also Waldman et al., 1998). It seems that despite its intuitive appeal, upward feedback has only a limited effect in enhancing supportive leadership behaviour. More research is needed to develop an understanding of the conditions under which feedback leads to positive behaviour change. Perhaps we also need to consider the research about the source of the feedback - the more valued the source, the more likely someone is to attend to it. Greguras et al. (2003) studied the differential attention paid to different rater sources, including supervisor, peer and subordinate ratings. Their study showed that managers paid more attention to supervisory ratings than to peer or subordinate ratings. Despite these critical findings, previous research has shown that subordinates are a valued source of feedback. Indeed, our research suggests that the managers did attend to this source of feedback - and reappraised their behaviour accordingly. This reappraisal could possibly lead to behaviour changes in the longer term. Managers who provided accurate self-ratings have been found to be better performers than those who provided inaccurate self-rating (Atwater and Yammarino, 1992; Fletcher, 1997).One limitation of the present research is the small number of managers that participated in this research. With only 45 managers, the power of testing possible effects of our program on management level was low. Previous studies included sometimes as many as 978 or more leaders (e.g. Atwater et al., 1995; Johnson and Ferstl, 1999). These numbers allowed for a more thorough analysis at the management level. However, it should also be acknowledged that other studies were able to report significant effects of an upward or 360 degrees intervention program with as few as 17 (Seifert et al., 2003) or 57 (Hegarty, 1974) managers.Despite this limitation, the strength of this study should not be overlooked. A major strength is our inclusion of a control group. To our knowledge, this has only been done in a few other upward feedback studies (e.g. Atwater et al., 2000; Hegarty, 1974; Heslin and Latham, 2004).In conclusion, it is often taken for granted that discrepancies between self-ratings and subordinate ratings raise self-awareness, highlight gaps between goals and job perfomance and suggest areas of improvements (London and Smither, 1995; Tornow, 1993). As a frequently used instrument within human resource development programs, users of upward feedback programs hope, or expect, that managers will respond to these insights by actually taking steps to improve performance. Our results and that of earlier studies suggest that that is not always the case. It stresses the need for more research into the specific conditions under which upward feedback does and does not work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To investigate the influence of participating in an upward feedback program on leadership behaviour, both as indicated be self-ratings and subordinates' ratings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research design consisted of two measurement points within six months. The program included managers receiving an upward feedback report and a short workshop to facilitate interpretation. A sample of 45 managers and 308 staff members of a community health care organization took part.\nFindings: - The study showed three results. First, managers lack insight into the real impact of their behavior. Second, only a small positive effect was found of the upward feedback program on the leadership behaviour as rated by their staff in terms of valuing diversity. Third, the managers' self-ratings of Presenting feedback, Fairness and Integrity & respect decreased between Time 1 and Time 2.\nOriginality/value: - The study points towards the need for HRM professionals to carefully implement upward feedback programs in order to have a real impact on the development of managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A positive deviance approach to eliminate wastes in business processes: The case of a public organization
|
[
"Decision support",
"Positive deviance",
"Process analytics",
"Waste elimination"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Deciding whether to grant or not a building permit is a process that in most European countries is a municipal service. It is a rather complex process, which comprises hundreds of activities that may be carried out in a great variety of pathways. This work considers a case from the Netherlands, where five Dutch municipalities opened their data about their building permit application process. Although all municipalities are subject to the same law (the Wet algemene bepalingen omgevingsrecht, 2012), performance significantly differs across municipalities, and from case to case. In particular, it has been observed that the process lasts long, and that duration service-level agreements (SLAs) are frequently missed.\n2. Related works: The lean management concepts, originating from the manufacturing sector, have few instantiations in the public service sector. At the operational level, we observe works that target the complexity reduction issue (e.g. by standardizing information flows in business-to-government information exchange (Bharosa et al., 2012)), the uncertainty reduction concern (e.g. by identifying the important variables for process improvement (Bamber et al., 2014)), or the waste elimination (e.g. by shortening waiting times, cutting costs, and improving resource allocation (Smith et al., 2012)). At the strategic level, we regard a family of works, labeled as \"lean-government,\" which place emphasis on getting a smaller government, and on managing and coordinating the interactions between public and private actors (Janssen and Estevez, 2013).\n3. Context and intuition: 3.1 Background\n4. Application: To check the first hypothesis, I applied two tests. The first test concerns the structural differences of the process, while the second checks the significance of the behavioral patterns of Section 3.2 to the classification of cases (positive, normal).\n5. Evaluation: Following the concepts' operationalization and the application procedures of Section 4, various tactics can be suggested. In this section, we craft, describe, and evaluate nine distinct scenarios, plus two baseline scenarios to reach the recommendations:\n6. Discussion: The building permit application process is a complex process that comprises hundreds of activities that can follow various pathways. The referenced municipalities are frequently experiencing missed SLAs, so they are considering outsourcing some parts of the process as an option to improve performance. However, this is an equally complex decision to make.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to manifest a method that exploits process analytics to discover critical knowledge for a business process. This knowledge eventually answers to the question if process behavior can suggest which activities should be outsourced to get the performance improved.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author linked waste sources to process behavioral patterns, and adopted the positive deviance paradigm to highlight compelling behaviors. Various analytic tools (generalized regression, clustering, etc.) were used to provide recommendations.\nFindings: By outsourcing small parts of the process, significant process improvement is expected. Evidence-based process analytics can effectively support the relevant decisions.\nResearch limitations/implications: The author had no access to the relevant policy makers (process owners).\nOriginality/value: The author proposed an operationalization of concepts that connects process behavior to waste sources. The author presented the use of positive deviance as a guide for waste elimination projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Key characteristics for designing a supply chain performance measurement system
|
[
"Supply chain performance",
"Systematic review",
"Supply chain performance measurement system"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, performance measurement and management have become essential for organisations to survive in the current business environment (Taticchi et al., 2010; Bititci et al., 2012; Mishra et al., 2018). Appropriate performance measures can ensure that managers adopt a long-term perspective and allocate the company's resources to the most effective improvement activities. Many companies still rely on traditional, cost-related measures such as return on investment, profit margin and cash flow (Zuriekat et al., 2011) that will provide a limited view to the type of changes required.\n2. Methodology: A structured literature review has been conducted following the three stages proposed by Webster and Watson (2002): identifying the relevant literature, structuring the review and developing a model to guide future research. The authors developed this approach from an information systems' angle, over the years their approach is still evident in research in the SC area (see e.g. Jede and Teuteberg, 2016). As SCPM systems are a part of the information systems within an organisation, it was considered relevant to follow the guidelines proposed by Webster and Watson (2002).\n3. Analysis: The review revealed that SCPM systems captured in the concept matrix can be classified around four main functions identified by the authors as process focus, prioritisation, integration and causality. Table I presents the main frameworks proposed under each function based on the main scope, tools used, measures and practical implications provided. As illustrated in Table I based on the literature review findings, the role of process-focussed SCPM systems is to evaluate performance, identify processes that require improvement, and then link corresponding measures to goals. A prioritisation SCPM system can be used to evaluate performance, identify measures that need improvement and prioritise measures with respect to goals. A causality system is used to evaluate the impact of enablers on the performance, predict performance and link measures to goal. An integration function can be embedded in a SCPM system to evaluate and predict the performance, characterise measures and link measures to strategy. Some papers developed models/frameworks that could feature under more than one function. This section will discuss the four alternative functions to design a SCPM system and will then show how they can be combined to result in more potential tracks to design a SCPM system.\n4. Discussion: The effectiveness of the SCPM system in terms of performance improvement is influenced by the SC context. Since SC performance is not a one-dimensional concept, the distinct effect of different dimensions (practices, patterns and attitudes) on different SC performance measures should be considered (Gimenez et al., 2012). Figure 2 illustrates a framework consisting of the pre-design and the design phase; however, the authors recognise the relevance of extending this to the implementation phase.\n5. Conclusion: The novelty of this work lies in providing a comprehensive review summarising the development in the field of SCPM system over a time span of 20 years (1995-2015) in order to answer the two research questions.\n6. Future agenda: A research agenda with a number of research directions that can facilitate the development in the SCPM field is identified and discussed in this section.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a review of the literature that gives insight into design elements for constructing a supply chain performance measurement (SCPM) system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic review of published research on SCPM systems and frameworks over the last two decades was conducted with the purpose of categorising key functions of SCPM systems by providing an insight into the design, functionality, implementation and practical implications of SCPM systems.\nFindings: The review revealed a set of functions governing the SCPM system that have not been fully explored in previous research: the process focus, prioritisation, integration and causality functions of a SCPM system. A relationship between two or more functions can be created to include more functionality based on the needs of the company to create a comprehensive performance measurement system.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper concludes with a conceptual framework to guide future research in the area of designing a SCPM system and define the main aspects that should be considered when developing a SCPM system.\nPractical implications: The paper brings a new dimension to the SCPM research by identifying the main functions of SCPM systems that could benefit practitioners to set up a SCPM system relevant to its intended function. The paper presents multiple potential stages of merging different functions in one SCPM system. Based on the company's needs and context, the functionality of the SCPM system can be designed at four levels creating ten possible scenarios when designing a company's SCPM system.\nOriginality/value: The paper integrated the literature and findings of 269 research papers of the last two decades, upon which a conceptual framework was developed as a guide for constructing an effective SCPM system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impacts of customer involvement on the relationship between relationship quality and performance
|
[
"Performance",
"Relationship quality",
"Customer involvement",
"Mediation effects",
"Second-order construct"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Regarded as the essence of relationship marketing (Jap et al., 1999), relationship quality (RQ) reflects the quality of interaction between manufacturers and customers (Gummesson, 1987). High RQ has been viewed as a critical driver of successful relationship development, continuous relationship benefits and sustainable competitive advantage (Bandara et al., 2017; Hennig-Thurau, 2000; Jiang et al., 2016; Naude and Buttle, 2000).\n2. Theoretical foundation and hypotheses: 2.1 Relationship quality and its components\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sampling and data collection\n4. Results: As mentioned previously, our theoretical model contains two first-order constructs - customer involvements and performances, and a second-order RQ construct with three first-order construct dimensions: trust, commitment and transaction-specific investment. We also use an alternative model, which removes the second-order RQ construct and establishes a direct link to the three sets of RQ construct with customer involvement and performance. In other words, the theoretical model involves the composite construct of RQ, whereas the alternative model is applied together with the disaggregated measurement of RQ.\n5. Discussion, contributions and conclusions: The study aims to determine whether RQ should be measured as a disaggregated or composite construct, to investigate the causal relationship between RQ and customer involvement, and to discuss the role of customer involvement in RQ-performance linkage in B2B settings. Based on the conceptualizing of RQ consisting of trust, commitment and transaction-specific investment, we propose hypotheses and built a theoretical model. Using data sampling and analysis, we compare the two competing models of RQ construct, validate the second-order factor structure and test our hypotheses. The following theoretical and managerial contributions are made.\n6. Limitations and suggestions for future research: Although this paper provides novel theoretical and practical contributions, there are some limitations. First, this paper focuses on customer relationship. Future research should incorporate refined dimensions of customer involvement, that is, considering customers as an information source, co-developers and innovators (Cui and Wu, 2016). It may be interesting for future studies to examine the roles of three dimensions of customer involvement. Second, the analysis of financial performance solely is also a shortcoming of this study. Other measurements of performance, such as operational performance and NPD performance, could be included in the model in future research. Third, the data analyzed in this study is exclusively obtained from Chinese firms. Therefore, the conclusions may not be applied to other regions or cultures. Future studies should analyze data samples from different countries to draw more comprehensive conclusions that are universally generalizable. Finally, cross-sectional data may not be appropriate in explaining causal conclusions. Thus, longitudinal analyses should be used to evaluate the dynamic interaction among variables associated with RQ in the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to determine whether relationship quality should be measured as a disaggregated or as a composite construct, and investigate the causal relationship between relationship quality and customer involvement. The authors also explore the role of customer involvement in relationship quality-performance linkage in B2B settings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on 214 Chinese manufacturers and uses the structural equation model to examine this conceptual model and hypotheses.\nFindings: As a reflective second-order construct, relationship quality not only has positive effects on performance but also positively affects customer involvement. More importantly, customer involvement partially mediates the relationship between relationship quality and performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study only focuses on customer relationship, but neglects the supplier relationship.\nPractical implications: When assessing the relationship quality with customers, suppliers must consider trust, commitment and investment dimensions simultaneously. In addition, to increase performance, suppliers must involve customers who are trusted and invested in training and logistics facility and then cooperate with them in new product design.\nOriginality/value: These findings contribute to this understanding on the relationship quality in B2B settings and provide theoretical contributions and managerial insights for both academics and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Decoding social media speak: developing a speech act theory research agenda
|
[
"Text mining",
"Social media communication",
"Speech act theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Language is the currency of most human social processes (Chung and Pennebaker, 2007 p. 343).\nSpelling out the foundation: speech act theory: People (i.e. writers) use words (and images) to convey substantial information about who they are, their relationship with their audience and their intentions (Pennebaker et al., 2003). In social media, language is not simply a means to share objective information or descriptions of reality but becomes a way to create a reality (Gergen and Thatchenkery, 2004). The relatively minimal media richness available in chats, reviews and blogs means that verbatim communication is fundamental to how social media users construct, share and form views, perceptions and identities. Accordingly, the central premise of SAT is that language construction (in speech or writing), through words, sentences and interactional exchanges, conveys a speaker's underlying meaning and intention (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1976). More colloquially, \"to say something is to do something\" (Austin, 1962, p. 12).\nDecoding the impact of a message: The act of posting an expressive like: \"This is a poor product\" or asserting that \"I will not use this service again\" may be intended, interpreted or counting as a dissuasion or warning, given the appropriate contextual conditions like online customer review sites. Such sites have amplified and accelerated the influence of existing customers' product and service experiences on potential customers to the point that nearly any customer comment can function as an influential product recommendation or dissuasion. However, not all customer reviews have equal impact: some assertions, expressed opinions go viral, but others are destined for obscurity. In fact 71 per cent of tweets, for example, will never get read (Geere, 2010). The sheer mass of verbatim customer reviews posted daily creates an urgent managerial need to come to grips with peer-to-peer communication and gauge its impact accurately. The heuristic processing of most customer reviews (Ludwig et al., 2013) has prompted many researchers to consider the implications of expressive speech acts that contain affective content words. Such affective expressions influence evaluations and decision-making (Lench et al., 2011) by eliciting automatic affective responses, which require fewer processing resources and surface rapidly to influence receivers' attitudes (Baumeister et al., 2007, Cohen et al., 2008). Research examining the content words of social media messages finds direct links between the mood of online messages and stock market behaviours (Das et al., 2005) and changes in the affective content of blog posts before and after 11 September 2001 (Cohn et al., 2004). However, the impact of affective content is not always straightforward (Petty et al., 2003). When the semantic content in review texts is too positive, consumers grow suspicious, as witnessed by reports of fake reviews. In a field study on Amazon.com, monitoring weekly changes to reviews posted and the conversion rates of product sites, Ludwig et al. (2013) confirm that sharp increases in positive affective content on a product site lead to smaller conversion rate increases than if the positive affective content increases were more moderate. For a negative change, no such attenuation effect exists though: more negative affective content in customer reviews always deters more potential customers from buying and is more detrimental to conversion rates.\nDecoding the strength of conviction: When it comes to online reviews, (star-) rating systems are the prevalent means customers use to share their opinions and the strength of their convictions: A five-point average rating indicates stronger overall positivity than a four-point rating. These differences matter, and a one-point improvement in an overall product rating translates to significantly more sales online (Zhu and Zhang, 2010). However, product and service opinions voiced in other social media formats, such as Twitter and Facebook, do not include such global rating scales. These verbatim messages also differ in the strength of the conviction expressed through the forcefulness of the language being used (Rastogi et al., 2014). SAT again may provide insights in the form of a theoretically rooted understanding of how to derive the strength of writers' intentions from the meaning of the sentence in which they appear (Searle, 1969). Villarroel Ordenes et al. (2014) propose that, in addition to content words that can be text mined to distil the valence of customer sentiments, function words carry significant sentiment implications for assessing strength. Chung and Pennebaker (2007) suggest that function words are illocutionary force mechanisms that modify or alter the meaning of affective content words (e.g. adjectives or verbs). Such speech acts allude to different sentiment strengths or invert the valence of sentiments through force modification. Consider the use of negations (\"not good\") or certain versus tentative words (absolutely vs apparently). We propose that function words, in combination with affective content words, can invert, boost or attenuate the expression of a specific sentiment.\nDecoding the quality of a message: Another social media format, enjoying growing popularity, is online user innovation communities. Similar to customer reviews sites, these forums can be leveraged by companies to gain access to customers' insights and co-creative efforts (Dahlander and Frederiksen, 2012). A critical success factor is the means to encourage the identification and proliferation of quality contributions (Ransbotham and Kane, 2011). Well-formulated, well-developed arguments determine the value of members' community contributions online (Ransbotham and Kane, 2011; Hansen and Haas, 2001), possibly even more so than the actual content or strength of the argument (Seibold et al., 2010). Ludwig et al. (2014) apply SAT to understand how text mining might help automatically establish the quality of contributions in user innovation communities. They posit that well-structured arguments characteristically use more causal words (e.g. because, cause and effect) and other words suggestive of cognitive processing (e.g. realize and understand). The argumentative quality of a message in social media in general and user innovation communities in particular therefore should relate to the function words that members use to substantiate and develop their statements and arguments. That is, social media messages with more developed arguments should be perceived as better, more informed statements, which also enhance the appeal of using and contributing for others (Seibold and Meyers, 2007).\nDecoding the socialization of the writer: In addition to argument quality and because of the lack of switching barriers in virtual communities (Iriberri and Leroy, 2009), members must develop a sense of integration and identification with an online community (Kohler et al., 2011). Yet the relative anonymity in these gathering spaces means that socialization by participating members remains largely under the radar. It is hard to develop a sense of members' commitment to the community. In response, SAT might provide some guidance, because members' socialization is inherent in the way they write.\nDecoding the insincerity of a message: For sincere speech acts, the communicated act (consciously or subconsciously) is unambiguous and directly related to the speaker's intentions. Unfortunately, an increasing amount of social media messages in various channels reflect insincere, deceiving intentions (Tsikerdekis and Zeadally, 2014). In customer review settings, for example, customers must be wary of fake, overly negative or positive evaluations (Anderson and Simester, 2014). Spam filters seek to safeguard users from email scams. Even in business-to-business (B2B) loyalty programs administered through social channels, fraudulent communicative acts account for $1.4 billion in profit losses each year (Nickerson et al., 2011). Humans are very poor lie detectors though, especially when it comes to detecting deceit in written statements (DePaulo et al., 2003), creating a pressing need for better techniques to identify deceitful intentions in verbatim claims (cf. plagiarism checks). Despite a nascent body of research into linguistic cues of deceit, different linguistic cues seem mostly haphazardly tested and context specific, leading to mixed findings across scientific disciplines (Matsumoto and Hwang, 2014). The use of a theoretical lens derived from SAT instead might serve to construct a comprehensive research agenda for decoding deception in social media verbatim comments.\nDirections for researchers: Freud offered examples of \"slips of the tongue\" to emphasize that word use is diagnostic of people's mental, social and physical states. The psycho-analyst Lacan, (1968) and philosopher Ricoeur (1976) both posit that the unconscious asserts itself through language use, the way people describe events defines the meanings of those events. Such conceptualizations of the implications of people's language use have been the foundation for work by sociolinguistics (Eckert, 1999), narrative and discourse analyses (Schiffrin, 1994), and communication research (Robinson and Giles, 2001). Just as people's word use signifies their own realities, it affects their audience. The way people communicate their experiences and viewpoints has direct implications for the accessibility and perceived diagnosticity of that information for their audience (Feldman and Lynch, 1988). This article suggests insights that might be assessed in systematic analyses of online verbatim content.\nDecoding managerial lessons: As online text-based conversations grow rapidly, business models increasingly get reorganized to incorporate and manage social media conversations. This article set out to offer insights into how content and function word uses relate to conversants' speech acts and might help assess customer perceptions, intentions and behaviours. Drawing on emerging theory about speech acts, as well as growing empirical evidence, we show that the use of language - or language-in-use - is key to decoding social media speak. From this discussion, specific lessons for marketers emerge.\nClosing thoughts: Recent years have seen a veritable explosion of online, text-based conversations. Acquaintances, friendships and romantic relationships are established and maintained online; there are also multiple social media platforms for customers to share their product and service experiences, in their own words. The central premise of this article holds that particular word use in these conversations conveys much more than just content. Speech acts in text-based conversations are windows to the perceptions and behaviours of writers. Moreover, these speech acts define the relative accessibility and diagonisticity of social media messages, causing divergent impacts on the audience. These new insights should help enhance understanding of how perceptions and intentions can be decoded from social media speak.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Drawing on the theoretical domain of speech act theory (SAT) and a discussion of its suitability for setting the agenda for social media research, this study aims to explore a range of research directions that are both relevant and conceptually robust, to stimulate the advancement of knowledge and understanding of online verbatim data.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Examining previously published cross-disciplinary research, the study identifies how recent conceptual and empirical advances in SAT may further guide the development of text analytics in a social media context.\nFindings: Decoding content and function word use in customers' social media communication can enhance the efficiency of determining potential impacts of customer reviews, sentiment strength, the quality of contributions in social media, customers' socialization perceptions in online communities and deceptive messages.\nOriginality/value: Considering the variety of managerial demand, increasing and diverging social media formats, expanding archives, rapid development of software tools and fast-paced market changes, this study provides an urgently needed, theory-driven, coherent research agenda to guide the conceptual development of text analytics in a social media context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Marching with the volunteers: Their role and impact on beneficiary accountability in an Indonesian NGO
|
[
"Volunteers",
"Indonesia",
"Social capital"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The main purpose of this paper is to examine the role of volunteers and its impact on related beneficiary accountability practices in a large humanitarian non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Indonesia. By pursuing this objective, we aim to contribute to the conversations on beneficiary accountability within the NGO accountability literature. Within this literature one of the main concerns is related to the privileging of upward accountability to powerful stakeholders like donors over downward accountability to the beneficiaries by the NGOs (Agyemang et al., 2017; Ebrahim, 2003; O'Dwyer and Unerman, 2007, 2008; O'Leary, 2017). These concerns have led to a growing realisation among the NGO practitioners, policy makers and scholars that beneficiaries, as one of the most significant stakeholders of NGOs, ought to be at the centre of any accountability related analysis (Hall and O'Dwyer, 2017; O'Leary, 2017). In our opinion, beneficiaries should be treated as the raison d'etre of NGOs.\n2. Volunteering, NGOs and their accountability towards beneficiaries: There are different types of NGOs. According to Unerman and O'Dwyer (2006), broadly there are two types of NGOs - welfare provision and advocacy/campaigning NGOs. Welfare NGOs (e.g. Oxfam) are mainly focussed on the provision of welfare services aimed at disadvantaged segments of the society. Many of them operate in developing countries and can be national or international in nature. Advocacy/campaigning NGOs (e.g. Amnesty International) are mainly engaged in campaigning or advocacy around a particular concern or issue which can include, inter alia, human rights, environmental protection, etc. Finally, there could be hybrid NGOs which contains features of both types of NGOs outlined above. Our case NGO belongs to the first category of NGOs and mainly operates in Indonesia providing humanitarian services. They mobilise a significant volunteer base to deliver its services to the beneficiaries.\n3. Theoretical framework: This study draws on Pierre Bourdieu's practice theory which argues that the value of social relations and practices in a particular field is based on several \"forms of capital\", which include economic, social and cultural resources (Bourdieu, 1977, 1986). Bourdieu (1986) suggests that it is impossible \"to account\" for the structure and functioning of the social world unless we study capital in \"all of its forms\". In this perspective, social actors accumulate capital in various forms, by channelling their social energy in the \"fields\" of structured social relations (Malsch et al., 2011). Such relations are structured by rules and logic that bind the actions of social actors, while social actors also have the capacity to make choices and decide on their course of action. These relations, then, support social actors to sustain a socially constructed way of life (\"habitus\") (Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008; Pret et al., 2016). Field, capital and habitus are notions that should be considered together when studying social practices in their context. Social actors develop a range of possible strategies of action that inform practices in their field (Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008; Pret et al., 2016). In our study, these three constructs of Bourdieu are equally relevant in analysing and delivering insightful observations of the ways beneficiary accountability is facilitated through the work of NGO volunteers (See Figure 1).\n4. Methodological considerations and research methods: Our study focusses on how volunteer's engagement in a humanitarian NGO facilitates beneficiary accountability. We aim to study in depth the formation of beneficiary accountability. We are also aware that non-procedural or less \"corpora-centric\" (Shenkin and Coulson, 2007) forms of accountability will be very much case embedded and socially constructed (Antlov et al., 2006; Gray et al., 2006; Witoelar, 2014). Our approach is qualitative while we aim in seeing through the eyes of the research participants their experiences and interpretations of their everyday interactions. Borrowing our theoretical constructs from the writings of Bourdieu, we unfold the substantiation of this extensive empirical work. We maintain that constructs such as \"volunteering and NGO management as fields\" should be understood/established through empirical research and sourced in the views of the study's own participants (Chudzikowski and Mayrhofer, 2011).\n5. Results and analysis: In this section, we examine the role of volunteers in ACT and its impact on facilitating accountability towards beneficiaries. Our analysis is informed by Bourdieu's writings on the relevant constructs of \"field\", \"habitus\" and \"capital\".\n6. Discussion and conclusion: In this paper, we have examined the role of volunteers and its impact on related accountability practices towards beneficiaries in a large humanitarian NGO in Indonesia (ACT). To address this research objective, we have undertaken an extensive fieldwork-based case study drawing empirical evidence from multiple sources including interviews and focus groups with ACT's management and executives, volunteers and beneficiaries. Theoretically, our analysis is informed by Bourdieu's (1977, 1986) work and the related notion of field, habitus and capital.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of volunteers and its impact on related accountability practices towards beneficiaries by a large humanitarian non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Indonesia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a qualitative case study design. The empirical evidence comes from rich fieldwork carried out in an Indonesian NGO. The authors collected the evidence mainly via 46 interviews and five focus groups.\nFindings: The authors found that the case NGO drew heavily on the social and cultural capitals of volunteers in the process of serving its beneficiaries, which, in turn, facilitated the enhancement of its accountability to the beneficiaries. The authors also found that volunteers play a bridging role to reduce the distance between NGOs and beneficiaries.\nResearch limitations/implications: For NGO managers, this study provides necessary empirical evidence on the positive role played by the volunteers in the development and operationalisation of accountability to the beneficiaries. In the authors' case, beneficiary accountability is enhanced by the social conduct and practices performed by the NGO's numerous volunteers. Beneficiary accountability is of significant concern to the policy makers too. This study shows that volunteers and NGO can work in a reciprocal relationship where social and cultural capital can be mobilised to each other's advantage. To facilitate beneficiary accountability, NGOs can draw on the socio-cultural capitals held by the volunteers who appear to share the same norms and expectations with the beneficiaries. This process can also lead to the building of social and cultural capital by the volunteers themselves as they achieve great satisfaction and gain valuable experience in this process that could lead to greater satisfaction in their spiritual and material lives.\nOriginality/value: The authors extend the previous literature on beneficiary accountability by highlighting the under-researched role of volunteers in such accountability practices. In this paper, the authors first discuss the facilitating role of volunteers in enhancing NGOs' accountability towards beneficiaries. Then, this is illustrated empirically. In addition, the authors argue that although Bourdieusian concepts like field and capital have been widely used in the analysis of various organisational practices the concept of habitus received limited attention particularly from the context of developing countries. The authors undertake an examination of the habitus of volunteers in the Indonesian case organisation and explore their linkages with the field and associated capitals.\n",
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