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Generation Y preferences for wine: An exploratory study of the US market applying the best-worst scaling
|
[
"Wines",
"Generation Y",
"United States of America",
"Best‐worst scaling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The adult per capita consumption of wine in the US has increased by about 25 percent, from 2.01 gallons in 2000 up to 2.50 gallons in 2009 (Wine Institute, 2010). According to the Wine Market Council (2009), 70 percent of US adults (aged 21+) are either non-drinkers (43 percent) or beer/spirits drinkers (27 percent). The leading wine consumers in US nowadays continue to be the Baby Boomers. However, the new generation is rapidly adopting wine as its preferred beverage with high chances to overtake its parent generation. Thus, it represents the potential consumer segment able to fuel the wine consumption growth in the near future.Based on this context, the concept of generation cohorts has lately gained importance in wine marketing research. Cohort segmentation is thought to bring new opportunities for wine marketers by having in view differences among age groups. In the literature, there have been attempts to find an accurate representation for each group of similarly aged individuals (Barber et al., 2008; Fountain and Fish, 2010; Nowak et al., 2006; Olsen et al., 2007; Qenani-Petrela et al., 2007; Ritchie, 2007; Teagle et al., 2010; Thach and Olsen, 2006; Wolf et al., 2005). With primary focus on investigating behaviour, attitudes and perceptions towards wine, the general finding from these studies is that significant differences exist across generation cohorts. Nevertheless, these differences do not appear to be robust as they vary across countries as well as within the same country.All this has forced wine marketers to rethink their strategies and further tailor them to the needs and preferences of targeted age groups. Moreover, the young consumer segment likely to become the future wine consumers, also known as the Generation Y, is of significant importance for the wine industry. Even though previous studies have tried to explore differences between Generation Y and other generation cohorts (Barber et al., 2008; Fountain and Fish, 2010; Olsen et al., 2007; Qenani-Petrela et al., 2007; Ritchie, 2007; Thach and Olsen, 2006; Wolf et al., 2005), there is still a need to further advance the understanding of the young cohort. The primary focus of these studies has been in relation to behaviour and attitudes towards wine, while little is known about preferences and the factors that induce Generation Y to choose wine.This study aims to fill this gap by exploring differences in wine preferences between Generation Y and older cohorts in the US. It seeks to answer on-going questions within the wine industry and to provide useful information to aid the wine business and marketers in getting a more comprehensive picture of how to reach Generation Y. The objective is to measure the importance given by US consumers to wine attributes when choosing wine in an off-premise setting and to compare findings between Generation Y and older cohorts. The paper is organized as follows: first, previous literature on characteristics of Generation Y is presented; second, the method employed in this study is described along with the study design; third, the findings are presented and finally, conclusions and implications to the wine industry are discussed.Characteristics of Generation Y consumers\nMethod: For the purposes of this study, a web-based survey was conducted in April 2010. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. The first section included questions referring to the participants' wine consumption behaviour. This part screened out participants who never bought wine in an off-premise location (excluding restaurants, bars, etc.). In the second section, participants were asked to rate the importance of a set of 13 wine attributes. Finally, the last section of the questionnaire included questions regarding participants' socio-demographic characteristics.The 13 wine attributes chosen were:1. tasted the wine previously;2. someone recommended it;3. grape variety;4. I read about it;5. brand name;6. origin of the wine;7. matches my food;8. information on the shelf;9. an attractive front label;10. information on the back label;11. promotional display in-store;12. medal/award; and13. alcohol level below 13 percent.The selection of attributes was based on previous off-premise studies of wine (Casini et al., 2009; Cohen, 2009; Goodman, 2009), and have been found to represent the range of cues consumers might use in their selection of wine.The importance rating of each attribute was elicited using the Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) (Marley and Louviere, 2005). Recently, BWS has become popular, especially in wine marketing research (Casini et al., 2009; Cohen, 2009; Mueller et al., in press; among others). There are many advantages of using BWS over other scaling methods, for instance that it is unbiased by individual scale usage and infers a ratio level importance scale that allows for comparisons across consumer segments (for detailed review see Cohen, 2009). During a BWS task, participants are asked to indicate the most (best) and least (worst) important attribute from sub-sets of all attributes (Marley and Louviere, 2005). In this study, participants were asked to choose the attribute that most and the attribute that least influenced their choice of wine when buying in an off-premise location.The 13 attributes were combined to 13 sub-sets of four items each using a Balanced Incomplete Block design. This type of design ensures that each attribute appears the same number of times (i.e. four times) across all sub-sets and that within each sub-set each pair of attributes appears only once. The aggregated BWS score was estimated by subtracting the frequency of times that each attribute was chosen as least important from the frequency of times that it was chosen as most important. Therefore, the aggregated BWS score varied from -4 (i.e. four times chosen as least important) to 4 (i.e. four times chosen as most important).\nResults: Sample characteristics and differences between generation cohorts\nDiscussion: This paper aims to identify differences in wine preferences between Generation Y and older cohorts in the US. To meet this aim, the BWS method was employed on a list of 13 attributes which previous literature has pointed out as important for wine selection in an off-premise setting (Casini et al., 2009; Cohen, 2009; Goodman, 2009). Furthermore, differences between Generation Y and older cohorts in relation to wine purchase behaviour were explored.Findings regarding wine purchasing behaviour of Generation Y were in line with previous research. Even though Generation Y was not found to differ much from older cohorts in relation to purchase frequency, significant differences were found regarding purchase volume. In accordance with previous findings (e.g. Teagle et al., 2010), this implies that Generation Y drinks wine in smaller volumes than older cohorts do. Moreover, in relation to purchase location, Generation Y preferred buying wine more often at grocery stores in comparison to older cohorts who bought wine more often from liquor stores and wineries, a finding that also coincides with previous studies (e.g. Qenani-Petrela et al., 2007).The top five most influential attributes for US consumers were:1. tasted the wine previously;2. someone recommended it;3. grape variety;4. read about it; and5. brand name.Whereas the top five least influential ones were:1. alcohol level below 13 percent;2. medal/award;3. promotional display in-store;4. information on the back label; and5. an attractive front label.These findings are similar to previous findings reported for the US market (e.g. Goodman, 2009; Goodman et al., 2007; Qenani-Petrela et al., 2007), which offers face validity to this study. These results can be interpreted in many ways. First of all, it suggests that US consumers attach high importance to previous experience (e.g. direct, personal and sensorial). This experience is also associated with existing knowledge of wine, such as having read/heard about it before, the grape variety and knowledge of the brand. Finally, US consumers seem to attach less importance to attributes related to marketing information on the packaging of the wine. For example, having an attractive label or a medal does not influence their preferences to the same extent as prior experience does.Despite non-differences in wine purchase frequency, Generation Y individuals were found to differ from older cohorts in the importance they attach to wine attributes. Generation Y regarded the attributes \"someone recommended it\", \"an attractive front label\" and \"promotional display in-store\" as more important and the attributes \"I read about it\" and \"grape variety\" as less important. These differences suggest that Generation Y's preference for wine is influenced more by marketing added-value activities at the point of sale, such as in-store promotions and labelling, while older cohorts give more importance to information about wine. This in fact explains why in past research Generation Y was found to give more importance to labelling, caring about more creative labels (Thach and Olsen, 2006), whereas older cohorts give less importance to promotional activities in general (Barber et al., 2008; Charters and Fountain, 2006).The importance that Generation Y gives to marketing added-value activities at the point-of-sale and its limited interest in information about wine can be rooted in the characteristics of Generation Y. First, it reflects Generation Y's limited wine experience (Barber et al., 2008; Charters and Fountain, 2006). Generation Y still cultivates its taste for wine and learns about it. For that reason, it tries to experience different wines and regard product-related attributes as less important, if at all. In contrast to Generation Y, older cohorts are considered wine experts reflecting their preference for more sophisticated tastes and deeper prior knowledge about wine. Second, it indicates that Generation Y gives importance to subjective knowledge as opposed to objective knowledge when choosing wine (Barber et al., 2008). This explains why Generation Y considers the recommendation of others as more important or that it judges the information about wine (e.g. variety, read about it) as less important. Yet, extrinsic quality cues (e.g. variety) are less important to Generation Y, since these also require prior knowledge and experience in order to function as cues reducing risk associated with choosing the wrong wine. Finally, it reflects the lower, in relation to older cohorts, overall involvement of Generation Y in wine (Teagle et al., 2010). Previous research has postulated that low-involved consumers are more affected by visual elements of the package at the point of sale in comparison to high-involved ones (Silayoi and Speece, 2007).All the above come to further underpin the fact that choosing wine can be a difficult task for consumers. Consumers are often exposed to large amounts of information, which exceed their capacity of processing. For that reason, product attributes - mostly extrinsic quality cues (e.g. brand, grape variety, origin) - can be considered as heuristics that simplify consumers' decision-making process (Bettman et al., 1998). Moreover, since wine is a high-valued product with often symbolic meaning, according to the context of its purchasing and consumption, consumers need to reduce the perceived risk of wine selection (Casini et al., 2009; Perrouty et al., 2006).\nConclusions and implications: In the US, it is said that Generation Y offers the wine industry a growth potential not seen in more than thirty years (Wine Market Council, 2009). This cohort comprises the future US consumer segment with high value for the wine industry. As demonstrated in this study, Generation Y brings along a unique set of marketing mix elements, tastes and lifestyle choices to the wine industry (Barber et al., 2008). Thus, a deeper understanding of Generation Y preferences and, more specifically, of the factors that drive their preferences will aid the wine industry and wine marketers to adopt marketing strategies tailor-made to this specific segment.The findings of this study provide useful implications for the wine industry in relation to marketing wine to Generation Y. To begin with, differences between generation cohorts should be taken into consideration by the wine industry when designing of their marketing strategies. More specifically, reflecting the importance of attributes as derived from the BWS scores, a marketing strategy should try to optimize those attributes of high importance (Mueller and Rungie, 2009). Given that Generation Y attaches more importance to added-value marketing activities at the point of sale, such as in-store promotions and labelling, marketing strategies should give higher priority to these activities in order to meet Generation Y's preferences. In other words, in line with recommendations by Barber et al. (2008), promotion activities should be tailored to Generation Y. In addition, based on the notion that Generation Y preferences are driven more by subjective knowledge about wine than objective knowledge, marketing strategies should focus on heavier wine communication campaigns targeting this age cohort. Considering wine as a relatively new product for Generation Y, heavy communication practices will further cultivate their preferences and develop their wine behaviour (Narayanan et al., 2005). Finally, Generation Y's limited experience with wine provides the chance for the wine business to test new wines and different grape varieties to this age cohort rather than older cohorts, which have already developed their tastes and preference on specific product quality cues.The study faces some limitations that draw directions for future research. First of all, being a direct method in measuring the importance to attributes, the BWS method has certain limitations, for instance it does not capture the importance on the level of each attribute (e.g. low/high price) (Louviere and Islam, 2008; Van Ittersum et al., 2007) and gives more importance to visual extrinsic cues than to verbal ones (Mueller et al., 2010). Future research should investigate also the relative importance of attribute levels and combine the method with indirect ones (e.g. willingness-to-pay). Another limitation pertains to the sample size and sampling method. The sample is relatively small and cannot be considered as statistically representative of the wider population. Furthermore, respondents were selected by means of convenience. Even though the findings have been supported by previous research that enhances face validity of this study, they still have to be interpreted within the characteristics of the sample used. Future research should include a bigger and more representative sample. Finally, future research should focus on other countries in order to identify whether these findings are country-specific or can be generalized across countries. This is feasible since one of the advantages of BWS is that it allows for cross-country comparisons (Goodman, 2009).\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in wine preferences between Generation Y and older cohorts in the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 260 US consumers participated in a web-based survey that took place in April 2010. The best-worst scaling method was applied measuring the level of importance given by participants to a list of most common attributes used in choice of wine. Independent sample t-tests were applied to compare the best-worst scores between Generation Y and older cohorts.\nFindings: - Differences were found in the level of importance that Generation Y gives to wine attributes in comparison to older cohorts. Generation Y was found to attach more importance to attributes such as \"Someone recommended it\", \"Attractive front label\" and \"Promotional display in-store\", whereas older cohorts gave more importance to attributes such as \"I read about it\" and \"Grape variety\". This suggests that Generation Y preferences for wine are driven by marketing added-value activities such as promotions and labelling, whereas limited importance is given to information about wine, reflecting lack of subjective knowledge, experience and involvement about wine.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research adds to generation-based research in wine marketing and contributes towards a better understanding of the differences between generation cohorts in relation to their preferences towards wines.\nOriginality/value: - This study is among the first to compare wine preferences of Generation Y with older cohorts using the best-worst scaling method.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Rethinking risk and return: Part 1 - novel norms for non-normality?
|
[
"Return on investment",
"Normal distribution",
"Portfolio investment",
"Probability theory",
"Financial risk"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nCommon practice: Formal quantitative measures of the \"risk\" associated with a random variable X~FX(x) abound. The simplest and most commonly used examples are the standard deviation: Equation 1 and variance, VarX[X]=EX[(X-EX[X])2], both of which contain identical information in the sense that the former is just the square root of the latter. In financial portfolio theory, where the random variable of interest is the return on an invested asset, the standard deviation frequently is used to capture the risk dimension in a \"risk vs return\" analysis. Specifically, a portfolio's expected (mean) return is plotted against the standard deviation of its return, and the set of optimal portfolios is given by the capital market line (Figure 1), formed by all possible convex combinations of the risk-free asset and the market portfolio.The use of the standard deviation in financial portfolio theory is often justified mathematically by either (or both) of two assumptions:1. that investment returns are normally distributed (so that the standard deviation captures all characteristics of the return distribution not reflected in the mean return); or2. that the investor's utility function is quadratic (so that the first and second moments of the investment-return distribution capture everything that is important to the investor's decisions).Unfortunately, neither of these assumptions is particularly reasonable. From the work of Harvey and Siddique (2000) and others, we know that not only do skewed financial returns exist, but also that investors tend to pay a premium for positive skewness. Also, as shown by Mandelbrot (1963), many financial returns arise from distributions that deviate from normality by possessing such \"long tails\" that standard deviations, and possibly even means, are infinite or indeterminate. Furthermore, the quadratic utility function is characterized by increasing absolute risk aversion (i.e. the decision maker's risk aversion increases as he/she gains more wealth), which is generally recognized as unrealistic in practice.In the insurance world, both standard deviations and variances have been used explicitly in the pricing of products, where policyholder premiums are calculated as the mean loss plus a profit loading proportional to either of these risk measures. While this may be reasonable when an insurance company has a large loss portfolio that can be averaged over many policyholders (thereby justifying the normal approximation), it is clearly inappropriate when dealing with large loss amounts from single events (such as large liability awards or catastrophe-related losses). Such loss distributions not only are highly asymmetric, but also can possess long tails with infinite first and higher moments[1].In the contexts of highly skewed return or loss amounts, practitioners typically employ tail-sensitive risk measures, such as:*value at risk (VaR);*tail value at risk;*excess tail value at risk;*expected deficit; and*default value.As I have shown elsewhere (Powers, 2007), each of these measures can be viewed as a special case of the expression: Equation 2 where a, b, c, and d are constants and u[X], v[X], and w[X] are either means or percentiles of the distribution of X[2]. Unfortunately, the above expression is not well defined if X has an infinite or indeterminate mean unless a=0. Consequently, the only commonly used risk measure that works in the case of a badly behaved mean is the purely percentile-based VaR, given by FX-1(1-e) (for any selected tail probability e).The insensitivity of VaR to pathologies of the mean undoubtedly explains some of this risk measure's popularity in the finance and insurance literatures. However, knowing VaR for only one (or even a few) fixed tail probabilities e leaves much to be desired in terms of characterizing the overall risk associated with the random variable X. Percentiles can tell us much about one tail of the distribution, but little or nothing about the center or other tail.Certainly, if VaR is known for all e[?](0,1), then one has a very good idea of how X behaves; but this defeats the purpose of identifying a simple scalar measure of risk. Knowing the VaR for all e[?](0,1) is equivalent to knowing the cumulative distribution function, the probability density/mass function, the characteristic function, or other similar \"infinite-dimensional\" summary measures. However, the search for a scalar risk measure presupposes that infinite-dimensional measures present undesirable cognitive difficulties for human decision makers, since the human mind - even when trained to understand the definitions of these functions and their nuances - is not well disposed toward using infinite-dimensional objects in decision making. Consequently, we must turn elsewhere for a comprehensive scalar measure of risk.\nA norm-based approach: In developing a novel risk measure, one must be very clear about what it should capture - that is, exactly what is meant by \"risk\". If one begins with the notion that risk denotes a measure of the potential deviation of an outcome from its anticipated state, taking account of both the size and likelihood of each possible deviation, then a very natural approach is to use p-norms of the deviations. The concept of a p-norm is defined at the head of the second column of Table I, and, as shown in the third column, various incarnations of the closely related p-mean (i.e. the geometric mean, arithmetic mean, quadratic mean, and sample maximum) are widely used (see Ronner, 1977, for a comprehensive treatment of the use of p-norms in statistics).To apply the concept of p-norms to the measurement of deviations associated with the random variable X, one need simply subtract a certain fixed value m from each possible value of X, take the absolute value of this deviation, and then compute the p-mean of the absolute deviation. This expression, presented at the head of the fourth column, immediately raises a fundamental question: What value of m should be used?In the case of p=2, common practice dictates that m be the arithmetic mean (i.e. m2=EX[X]), which then yields SDX[X] - the quadratic mean of absolute-centered deviations - as the appropriate measure of risk. Although the mean can be justified in many ways, the most natural motivation in the present context is to note that m2=EX[X] is the value of m that minimizes SDX[X]. Generalizing, I define mp as the value of m that minimizes the p-mean of absolute-centered deviations, and then employ this minimum value as the relevant measure of risk. (for completeness, I would note that the minimum of the p-mean of absolute-centered deviations may be found by setting its first derivative with respect to m equal to 0. This is equivalent to setting the (p-1)-mean of signed-centered deviations, provided in the appropriate row of the fifth column, equal to 0.) In this way, one obtains the general family of risk measures: Equation 3 with their implied \"return measures\": Equation 4 Given that Riskp[X] is not well defined if EX[|X|p]=[?], it follows that this risk measure is restricted to values of p in the interval (0,pX], where pX= arg sup p>0{EX[|X|p]<[?]}. Thus, to identify a \"universal\" value of p>0 for which Riskp[X] may be applied to all random variables X, one must select a value of p that is less than or equal to inf FX(x){pX}. However, by considering the Levy-stable distribution with parameter a arbitrarily close to 0, it can be shown that inf FX(x){pX}=0. Consequently, we are left with only one universal risk measure: Equation 5 and its attendant return measure: Equation 6 Obviously, the above-risk measure is invariant over all random variables, and thus entirely useless. Therefore, in Part 2 of this series (Powers, 2009), I consider an analogous approach based upon a Fourier-like transformation of X (i.e. the characteristic function) rather than the power transformation associated with p-norms. Interestingly, this alternative approach provides results that are both appealing and useful.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper (the first of two) is to consider measures of risk commonly used in the analysis of both investment and insurance portfolios, and argue that there is a need for more appropriate measures to capture the uncertainty inherent in non-normal (i.e. asymmetric and/or long tailed) probability distributions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In Part 1, the risk measures used most frequently in finance and insurance - i.e. the standard deviation (variance), value at risk, tail value at risk, default value, etc. - are reviewed and then the paper explores whether such measures are sufficient for all contexts, including those in which the subject random variable is characterized by asymmetry and/or long tails. As an alternative to conventional measures, the paper assesses the potential of a general p-norm-based definition of \"risk\".\nFindings: - Virtually, all commonly used risk measures, even those designed specifically to capture the behavior of asymmetric randomness, require that the underlying random variable possess a finite variance, or at least a finite mean. To overcome such difficulties, the paper considers a general definition of \"risk\" based upon a quantity closely related to the p-norm - the p-mean of absolute-centered deviations (of which the standard deviation is a special case) - and show that this approach yields a single, but degenerate, result for all distributions.\nOriginality/value: - The paper explores the use of p-norm-based measures in constructing a general definition of \"risk\" that is equally applicable to asymmetric and long-tailed random variables as to normal random variables.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Co-creating leadership dispositional values and contexts survey
|
[
"Leadership",
"Schools",
"Teachers",
"Management theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: The call for collaborative leadership and social justice in schools is not restricted to researchers. Even teachers prefer leadership that is a collaborative effort (Barth, 2001; Boyd and McGee, 1995). Research indicates that those teachers who are also engaged in leadership experience personal gains, intellectual and professional growth, and decreased isolation, all of which spill over to their work in the classrooms. Lambert (1998) found that engaging teachers in reciprocal learning processes through leadership enabled both teachers and leaders to negotiate and create meaning together. However, missing from schools is sustained dialogue and research pertaining to personal and environmental factors that break social barriers that impact the practice of engaging others (teachers, staff, community, students) in constructing leadership. There exists a gap between teacher knowledge and experience, and engagement in school leadership. According to Short and Greer (1997), \"The lack of social interaction keeps teachers from helping others and seeking help from colleagues\" (p. 130), and according to Weiss and Cambone (2000, p. 373), the \"fruits of their participation are not visible\". For these reasons Reyes and Wagstaff (2005) suggest a new approach - \"equitable pluralism that works to break down social barriers\" (p. 102). This pluralism may lead to the use of all the diversity in the organization including culture, knowledge, experiences, and values. The question that remains is how schools engender this pluralism?According to English (2008a), \"research about educational leadership is not likely to lead to many new significant discoveries unless it includes aesthetics and traditions of the humanities (the moral dimensions)\" (p. 2). In arguing for a \"zone of transference\" where science and the arts cross into one another, English has emphasized the imperative need to integrate civic humanism (integrity, subtlety, and compassion) in leadership. Goleman et al. (2002) also posit that leadership is about humanistic qualities that we all have or can develop. They found that good leaders apply emotional intelligence qualities or values like empathy, integrity, listening, and intuition in their work. Likewise, Hackett and Hortman (2008) found a positive correlation between emotional intelligence skills among assistant principals and organizational performance.Dispositional values have been described as social resources that allow intimate engagement in constructing leadership that enables the actors to anticipate pathways of behavior like what people value, what they want, and how they want to engage in co-creating processes (Prahalad and Krishnan, 2008). In addition, increased interest in models of constructed leadership has created the need for research not only in the nature of dispositional values and contextual practices that integrate civic humanism, but also the development of empirical tools or instruments to study the dynamic factors that impact capacity and the practice of leadership models.Co-creating leadership has been conceptualized as the dynamic interactions of integrating and engaging the full use of the organization's potential (knowledge, experience, and relationships) through a set of social behaviors to create common purposes, interests, and solutions (Wasonga, 2007). In this case, leadership is not something that \"individuals with formal legal authority provide for their subordinates; rather, it is a process involving dynamic interaction with subordinates\" through mutual action to create and achieve a common purpose (Owen, 2004, p. 95). Like \"knowledge dynamic\" (English, 2008b, p. 70), \"dynamic interaction\" acknowledges that issues such as truthfulness and problem solving through pluralism are the center of creating new and competing ideas with transparency. Co-creating leadership is premised on socio-psychological theory which interprets behaviors as \"arising from an interaction between factors within each person and factors in the person's environment\" (Owen, 2004, p. 18). In this article, factors within each person are the dispositional values - social resources that motivate people and may be the cause of behavior. Contexts include factors in the environment (conditions, circumstances or situations) in which people work. While the power of dispositional values is the positive influence of the leader's behavior and value towards members of the organization and vice versa (Wasonga and Murphy, 2007), the power of context is found in the environmental argument that behavior is a function of social environment (Gladwell, 2002). The symbiotic relationship between dispositional values and contexts is found in Fullan's (2003) proposition that changing context is likely to impact or lead to change in behavior or values.\nTheoretical framework: The key to unlocking co-creating leadership lies in the understanding of the concept of human nature and how leaders relate to humanity. The way that management perceives members or employees is likely to determine their leadership practices and organizational contexts. Based on Douglas McGregor's concepts, leaders ascribing to Theory X assumptions that perceive people to be dependent on management for direction are likely to use the classical, top-down approach, leading to a more authoritarian structured organization. Leaders who accept Theory Y assumptions that members are good-natured and are willing to work tend to formulate leadership as a collective effort with others to achieve organizational goals through empowerment, sharing, and problem-solving (Lunenburg and Ornstein, 2008; Owen, 2004). McGregor's theory is based on the premise that managerial actions flow directly from assumptions held about others in the organization. While Theory X is in conflict with individual need fulfillment in the work place, Theory Y espouses the idea that people work not only to fulfill institutional role requirements (nomothetic), but also for the satisfaction of personal (idiographic) need (Getzels and Guba, 1957). Ouchi (1981) extended McGregor's Theories X and Y from individual to organizational level through Theory Z. According to Lunenburg and Ornstein (2008), \"theory Z is not concerned with the attitude or behavior patterns of an individual supervisor but rather with the difference the organizational culture makes in the way the whole organization is put together and managed\" (p. 77). While the objective of Theories X and Y is individual actions for the organization, the objective of Theory Z is context - \"the ability of the organization to coordinate people, not technology, to achieve productivity\" (Ouchi, 1981, p. 83).Theories Y and Z in conjunction with social behavioral theory (Figure 1) provide a foundation for investigating dispositional values and contexts for the practice of leadership that engages in a process of harnessing the collective talents of individuals necessary for collaborative group effort in schools. Although other related concepts like distributed leadership offer fundamental insights on shared governance, Owen (2004) states that there is still \"a moral or ethical problem\" (p. 277) that is anchored in the entrenched resistance of those who hold power position and play Theory X soft games. These leaders use \"various forms of participative methods - holding meetings, calling on people to be open and honest, using the language of participation - while guilefully making sure that no significant power was shared with subordinates\" (p. 277). Owen (2004) suggests that moving organizations from traditional leadership to transformative leadership requires the development of new contexts from \"which teachers can learn new roles and new skills required for active participation in team work and collaboration\" (p. 281). Success in creating collaborative school context will require an \"explicit focus on the distinctive qualities of interpersonal social exchanges in school communities, and how these cumulate in an organizational property that we term relational trust\" (Bryke and Schneider, 2002, p. 13). Bryke and Schneider (2002) found that qualities of social interaction are \"powerful concepts shaping the thinking and behavior of local school actors\" (p. 12). They also found that little attention has been focused on human nature, specifically trust, as a substantive property of the social organization of schools. The argument for the importance of human nature in school leadership is also found in English's (2008b) argument that:... without compassion we cannot become effective leaders for social justice, nor will we be able to advance in any significant way our understanding of leadership or improve its effectiveness beyond the metaphors and models of efficiency which are already regnant in our discourse (p. 10).He has also intimated doubts that we will be able to prepare school leaders who will undertake deep change or democracy unless we understand and recognize \"human interiority and its dynamics with belief, values\" (p. 11).The purpose of this study was to explore and develop a multidimensional survey instrument that would capture the synergy of social resources (dispositions values) and contexts that are likely to facilitate the practice of co-creating leadership in schools. The identification of items that constitute dispositional values and contexts for co-creating leadership bear critical theoretical and practical implications due to the dearth in studies that investigate personal orientations that enhance co-creating of purposes and solutions in schools. Identifying items that constitute dispositional values and contexts provides schools and school leaders the opportunity to determine personal needs, the extent of, and the capacity for, the practice of co-creating leadership.\nMethod: Survey questions\nResults: The instrument internal reliability scales covering the seven dispositions and three contexts were calculated using Cronbach's a scores (Table I). All scores were above the suggested level of 0.70 (Vogt, 2005). The coefficient a reliabilities for the subscales were high (ranging between 0.73 and 0.85 for dispositional values and 0.79 and 0.86 for contexts, respectively - see Table I). The factor analysis yielded ten components accounting for 64.03 percent of the variance. The survey resulted in a two-factor solution (dispositional values and context) presented in Table I. Correlation coefficients amongst the subscales of dispositional values and context are presented in Table II. The correlations ranged between moderate r=0.460 to high r=0.815 (p<0.01).\nDiscussion: This study was designed to develop and verify a quantitative survey instrument that may be used to assess the practice of co-creating leadership values and contexts in schools. Two components of co-creating leadership were delineated (dispositional values and contexts). Dispositional values consisted of seven factors (trust and trustworthiness, humility, active listening, resilience, patience, collaboration, and cultural anthropology). Contexts consisted of three factors (deep democracy, quality relations, and evolving power).A coefficient correlation analysis amongst all the factors in the study revealed moderate to strong significant positive relationships. The strongest relationships were found between resiliency and evolving power (r=0.815), and between resiliency and trust and trustworthiness (r=0.781). Resiliency has been identified as both a personal and organizational factor that may lead to success (Henderson and Milstein, 1996; Milstein and Henry, 2000). According to Milstein and Henry (2000), resiliency is an approach that expands our thinking about students, educators, leaders, schools, and communities beyond problem identification and resolution to strengths and actualization. They found that leaders who practice resiliency strategies and promote resiliency in others make a positive difference in the lives of others around them, sometimes in spite of difficult and challenging environments. Generally, of all the dispositional values, trust and trustworthiness and resiliency had higher correlations with all of the factors (dispositional values and contexts). Of the contexts variables, evolving power and quality relations yielded higher correlations with other factors.The high coefficient correlations among dispositional values and contexts indicate high levels of commonality. These dispositional values and contexts are complementary. In combination, they result in a more complete, expanded, and comprehensive multidimensional leadership that is more inclusive. Because different aspects of dispositional values or contexts will appeal to different people, a multidimensional instrument is appropriate. Such an instrument may lead to diverse outcomes that school leaders can use to begin a conversation with others in the organization about engaging in leadership that is co-creating. Leaders may also be able to reflect on their own practice of these dispositional values and the effects on the democratic governance and social justice in the organization. Information gathered using this instrument may lead to modifications in dispositional values and contexts in which leaders, teachers, staff, and students operate. Goleman et al. (2002) found that aptitudes of leadership can be learned at any point in life. It is also important to understand that because values \"reflect underlying human motivations and shape [...] actions\" (Stefkovich and Begley, 2007, p. 209), leaders should know their predispositions. This calls for the establishment of benchmarks. The benchmark for values and contexts may be established by using this multidimensional survey.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop a survey for co-creating leadership dispositional values and contexts by examining the self-perceptions of school leaders, teachers, and staff on the practice of co-creating leadership behaviors and conditions that facilitate the practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on qualitative data and a literature review, survey statements were developed to gather quantitative data for purposes of establishing an instrument for studying the practice of dispositional values and presence of contexts that facilitate co-creating leadership in schools.\nFindings: - The instrument internal reliability scales covering the seven dispositions and three contexts were calculated using Cronbach's a scores. All scores were above the suggested level of 0.70. The coefficient a reliabilities for the subscales ranged between 0.73 and 0.86. The survey resulted in a two-factor solution (dispositional values and contexts). Correlation coefficients amongst the subscales of dispositional values and contexts ranged between a moderate r=0.460 and a high r=0.815 (p<0.01).\nOriginality/value: - This study led to the development and verification of a quantitative survey instrument that may be used to assess the practice of co-creating leadership dispositional values and contexts in schools. Dispositional values consisted of seven factors (trust and trustworthiness, humility, active listening, resilience, patience, collaboration, and cultural anthropology). Contexts consisted of three factors (deep democracy, quality relations, and evolving power).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Overcoming trade logistics challenges: Asia-Pacific experiences
|
[
"International trade",
"International economic integration",
"Regional cooperation",
"Transport and logistics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Trade logistics is the sector responsible for connecting people to markets and buyers to sellers. As such, it plays a key role in developing economic activity between countries and, incidentally, within them. This paper identifies challenges of the trade logistics sector, noting some of the ways in which trade logistics can be part of the broader inclusive development agenda.\n2. Description of the sector: The common use of the term \"logistics\" limits it largely to a particular set of third-party operations, especially freight forwarders and express operators. In contrast, at its broadest, the logistics sector includes transport, freight forwarding and express operations, warehousing, and retail and wholesale distribution. From a policy standpoint, the broader view - a \"whole of supply chain\" approach - is important because it is necessary to take a holistic perspective to dealing with trade logistics. That perspective is necessarily multi-faceted. It facilitates a policy stance that reduces bottlenecks and chokepoints at all points in the chain, and thus facilitates trade transactions to the maximum possible extent. In a nutshell, it is the set of operations that bring producers in one country into contact with consumers in another; it is the \"grease in the wheels\" of international commerce that makes trade relations possible. Trade logistics therefore incorporates two main components: international and domestic logistics. The former set of activities focusses on the way in which goods move between countries, and the latter focusses on their movement within countries.\n3. Review of current status: The most commonly used set of indicators for measuring logistics efficiency across countries is the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index database (LPI) (Arvis et al., 2012[2]). Based on a survey of around 1,000 logistics professionals, the International LPI is an index ranging between 1 and 5 summarizing performance in six key areas: efficiency of the clearance process; quality of trade and transport infrastructure; ease of arranging competitively priced shipments; competence and quality of logistics services; ability to track and trace consignments; and timeliness of shipments in reaching their destination. The second part of the LPI database, the Domestic LPI, measures a variety of qualitative and quantitative indicators on more detailed aspects of logistics performance, including time, cost, and reliability.\n4. Ten challenges: This section discusses challenges facing countries eager to further develop the logistics sector. While the trade logistics environment of each country is unique, we also think that policy makers in the region more or less face similar challenges to be overcome. We will address ten commercially important issues critical for trade logistics policy making.\n5. Case studies: This section presents selected examples of recent attempts to deal with significant logistics-related issues in the Asia-Pacific context, as well as international cases that can potentially inform action in the Asia-Pacific. Most countries in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly placing a high priority on logistics-related reforms with the aim of improving supply chain efficiency. Just as performance varies from country to country, so too does the nature of the problems to be addressed. In some cases, it is primarily physical infrastructure. In others, it is regulatory reform and red tape. In others still, it is cross-border cooperation, particularly in the area of border procedures and transit arrangements.\n6. Conclusion: This paper has provided an overview of the trade logistics sector in the Asia-Pacific from the twin standpoints of supply chain efficiency and inclusive development. Based on a review of internationally comparable data, it has shown that performance within the region varies substantially: some countries are world leaders in the sector, whereas the logistics environment is extremely challenging in others, particularly landlocked countries. It has also highlighted that international indicators tend to focus on performance at key international gateways, and thus do not take full account of the difficulties of internal logistics processes, particularly in very large or archipelagic countries. In most countries, there is much that policy makers can do to improve the logistics environment, both in terms of internal and external connectivity, to bring performance closer to the world technological frontier.\nAcknowledgments: This paper was originally prepared as a background paper for the Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum on September 10-11, 2013 in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The authors appreciate the efficient research assistance provided by Asian Development Bank (ADB) consultant Aiken R. Tafgar. The authors appreciate valuable input from the following ADB staff: Fei Yu (EARD) and Pradeep Srivastava (CWRD). The paper benefited from comments and suggestions from the following ADB and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) staff: Jeff Procak (EARD, ADB), Valeri D. Tian (EARD, ADB), Pradeep Srivastava (CWRD, ADB), Yann Duval (TID, UNESCAP), and Tengfai Wang (TID, UNESCAP). The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of ADB or UNESCAP.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify major challenges that Asia-Pacific policy makers face in drawing up international logistics policies, and to seek possible solutions to the problems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Case study method: the paper includes seven case studies that attempt to address various types of logistics challenges. The paper introduces both intra- and extra-regional examples of the ways in which those challenges have been overcome in particular contexts through concerted action by government and the private sector.\nFindings: There are a lot of interesting experiences of overcoming logistics challenges, both inside and outside the Asia-Pacific region. Good practice experiences can be replicated by other countries in the region.\nOriginality/value: While there have been a lot of discussions on logistics policy reforms, this paper is one of the first attempts that clearly link challenges with concrete case experiences where those are overcome. The paper discusses very practical issues in an analytically sound manner, using case method.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumer processing of bundled prices: when do discounts matter?
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Prices",
"Discounts",
"Bundling",
"Price salience",
"Piecemeal processing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Bundles of products or services are typically cheaper than their individual components. For example, a complete bedroom suite is usually priced less than the summed prices of each item it contains. In fact, discounts on bundles are so common that some researchers have defined bundling as offering two or more products or services for a single, special price (e.g. Guiltinan, 1987; Venkatesh and Mahajan, 1993; Yadav and Monroe, 1993).\nConsumer response to bundles: The focal question of this research is when - and, by extension, why - consumers might be more (or less) responsive to the size of price discounts on bundles. One reason why consumers might buy a bundle with little or no discount (what Stremersch and Tellis, 2002 refer to as a \"product bundle\" rather than a \"price bundle\"), is that the bundle offers non-price benefits. It has been suggested that bundles might be preferred to individual items because bundling reduces cognitive complexity (e.g. Guiltinan, 1987; Harris and Blair, 2006b; Agarwal and Chatterjee, 2003), reduces the risk of incompatibility among the items (Wilson et al., 1990; Harris and Blair, 2006a), and/or enhances the desirability of individual items in the bundle by affecting their perceived quality (Simonin and Ruth, 1995) or highlighting perceived synergies in the benefits provided (Strahilevitz and Myers, 1998).Any of these factors might explain why consumers would buy a bundle without a discount. However, even with these factors, one generally would expect preference for a bundle to rise as the discount on the bundle increases. A lack of response to variations in discount size, if observed, would be best explained by failure to process price information. There is evidence in the broader pricing literature that such failure occurs. For example, Morwitz et al. (1998) observed that some consumers ignore parts of a partitioned price, such as a delivery charge. Inman et al. (1990) found that consumers who were less likely to process information tended to use a promotional sign as a heuristic cue that the product was offered on sale. In the bundling literature, the question of if and when consumers respond to bundle discounts at all remains largely unexplored. The bundling literature has considered how consumers respond to bundle discounts: for example, it has been shown that the perceived value of a bundle increases with larger discounts, and that the tactical way in which bundle prices are framed can influence perceived value (e.g. Harlam et al., 1995; Janiszewski and Cunha, 2004; Kaicker et al., 1995; Low and Lictenstein, 1993; Mazumdar and Jun, 1993; Munger and Grewal, 2001; Yadav and Monroe, 1993). However, the issue of if and when consumers process bundle prices has not been directly addressed. In fact, because of the nature of the particular questions being investigated, researchers have typically used presentation formats that encourage the processing of price information. For example, Yadav and Monroe (1993) used a presentation format such as that shown in Table I.In a related vein, some studies have considered how consumers judge the quality of bundles vis-a-vis their components (Gaeth et al., 1990; Simonin and Ruth, 1995; Yadav, 1994; Janiszewski and Cunha, 2004), and these studies also have used procedures that encourage item processing. Gaeth et al. (1990) and Janiszewski and Cunha (2004) asked consumers to evaluate the individual products prior to evaluating the bundle. Simonin and Ruth (1995) had participants rate how well the products fit together prior to rating the bundle. Yadav (1994) showed participants a list of items and had them choose which to evaluate first.Thus, although presentation formats and procedures used in the existing bundling literature have been appropriate for the specific questions examined therein, they have also tended to explicitly encourage the processing of item information. The question remains as to whether and when consumers will spontaneously use information about the items in a bundle, including price information, to evaluate the bundle as a whole.In summary, the existing bundling literature shows that price bundling is often used as a promotional tool to offer discounts which may result in consumers using a bundled price as a heuristic cue that a discount exists (Nguyen et al., 2009; Arora, 2008). However, the question remains as to whether and when consumers will spontaneously use information about the items in a bundle, including price information, to evaluate the bundle as a whole.Category-based versus piecemeal processing\nHypotheses: How consumers process bundle information is likely to affect how they respond to the size of discounts on the bundle. In the following section of the paper, we discuss two variables that relate to the likelihood of categorical vs piecemeal processing:1. the salience of price information; and2. the familiarity of the purchase situation.These variables have practical value to retail managers in deciding how to price bundles.Item price salience\nOverview of experiments: We report the results of two experiments designed to test our hypotheses. In both, the amount of price savings on a bundle is manipulated so that there is a relatively large or small discount compared to the summed prices of the individual items. Given this basic context, in Experiment 1 we examine the effect of the salience of price information on bundle choice, to test H1. In Experiment 2, we replicate the effect found in Experiment 1 and extend the design so as to examine the effect of familiarity, thus testing H2 and H3.In both studies, we used the context of fast food because it is a category in which products are commonly sold both as individual items and in bundles (combo meals), and it was an appropriate category for our student participants. In the marketplace, a price of a fast food bundle may be either less or more than the sum of the individual items (Estelami, 1999). We used Burger King as a specific context in both studies because the company's pricing practices at the time of this research allowed us to create a realistic discount manipulation. Also, pre-tests indicated that Burger King would be a popular and highly familiar restaurant to our participants.\nExperiment 1: Method\nResults: To test H1, the hypothesis that discount size would have a stronger effect on bundle choice when price salience was higher, we performed a logistic regression with bundle choice as the dependent variable and price salience, price discount and a multiplicative interaction term as independent variables. The results were as hypothesized (see Table II for cell means).The coefficient for the price salience by discount interaction was significant (kh21=6.25, p < 0.05), and follow-up analyses within the menu conditions showed that discount size had a significant effect in the higher salience condition (60 percent choosing the bundle when the discount was high vs 30 percent when the discount was low, kh21=9.87, p < 0.01), but not the lower salience condition (45 percent vs 48 percent, kh21=0.09, n.s.). These results provide strong support for H1.The results of Experiment 1 support the argument that a price discount on a bundle has a stronger effect on consumer response when the presentation format makes prices more salient. An interesting point about this finding is that the less price salient condition - the format in which a price discount did not significantly affect bundle preference - is the format that more closely resembled an actual fast food menu board. On the other hand, the more salient price condition - the format in which bundle choice was strongly affected by discount size - is the format that more closely resembled most previous bundling studies. The results also suggest that consumers do not always process item price information when considering sets of products that include a bundled option. This finding represents a new perspective for the bundling literature, which has tended to treat bundles as collections of items without addressing the possibility that consumers might view bundles holistically.\nExperiment 2: Experiment 2 replicated the first study and extended it by manipulating the familiarity of the purchase situation. We again used the context of fast food combo meals; however, in addition to the use of the highly familiar Burger King setting, we examined response to the less familiar meal combo of a sub sandwich, chips and drink offered by a local convenience store chain named Stop 'N Go. Pre-tests indicated that Stop 'N Go was well-known to our student population, but that few students had bought a meal there.Method\nDiscussion: The studies reported in this paper suggest that consumers may not process item price information when evaluating bundled offerings unless circumstances are conducive to doing so. This finding adds to an emerging perspective to the bundling literature, which has by-and-large assumed that consumers process item information. We find that responsiveness to bundle discounts (and the likelihood of piecemeal price processing) is, in general, enhanced when item information is more salient and when the purchase situation is unfamiliar.From a theoretical perspective, our findings show that response to bundle discounts falls at least partially within the domain of information processing theories. By extension, one can hypothesize that response to bundle discounts is moderated not only by the variables studied here, but also by other processing-related variables such as time pressure, bundle complexity, type of product offered, etc. We can anticipate that consumers in a fast food drive-through might order a combo meal without checking prices, while consumers at an inside counter may be more likely to check; or that consumers might evaluate the item-based value of an expensive computer system with different brands of components, but choose a \"bundle pack\" of Kleenex without such evaluation.Our findings also have important implications from a managerial perspective. We find, essentially, that a sizeable price discount on a bundle is only effective or necessary in situations where consumers are motivated and able to engage in piecemeal processing of item price information. A marketer who offers a large discount on the bundle but does not facilitate item price processing may fail to get the most value from promotional spending. Moreover, in situations where consumers are less motivated and/or less able process item prices, a large discount on a bundle may be tantamount to throwing money away.Also, our findings may imply fundamentally different price response functions under different circumstances. Note that our manipulation of discount size was achieved by changing item prices, not by changing the bundle price. Therefore, our findings indicate that in circumstances that favor piecemeal processing, consumers will respond to the size of a bundle discount even without changes in bundle price. So, in this context, the key question seems to be \"how much can I save by purchasing a bundle?\" When piecemeal processing is less likely, the key issue is likely to be \"How much does the bundle cost?\"In future research, it will be useful to pursue a more complete mapping of the role of familiarity and complexity in determining response to bundled offerings, as well as the role of partially analytic processes. Another interesting direction is to study how the results seen here might be modified by different ways of presenting discount information. Both the bundling literature (e.g. Yadav and Monroe, 1993) and the comparative price literature (e.g. Mobley et al., 1988) have shown that the way in which price discounts are presented can affect consumers' responses to them. In our studies, we chose to vary the discount on the bundle by varying item prices because it was consistent with reality and kept the price of the bundle constant across conditions. We also presented prices without any effort to claim or demonstrate savings, and we presented bundles as an integrated whole. Other presentation formats are likely to produce different results. For example, a format that implies greater savings by means of bundle labeling (\"value meal\") might forestall additional price comparisons (Chaiken and Maheswaran, 1994; Darke et al., 1995), while a disaggregated presentation format (\"add a medium drink to any sandwich for just 49C/\") might encourage such processing.Future research might also examine the implications of bundle processing from a consumer welfare perspective. The results reported here imply that consumers might make less than optimal purchase decisions if they rely on the presence of a bundle as a heuristic decision tool. Although we found that piecemeal processing can be encouraged, across all studies and conditions, only 41 percent of participants gave evidence of item price processing. This number might rise in other product categories, or as people have more of a financial stake in the decision, but it also might drop as one moves from a group of young, college-educated adults to a broader population, including older consumers who may no longer have the cognitive resources to systematically process item information (Yoon, 1997). It should be possible to document the nature of this problem and the situations in which it is most severe, and to test methods for ameliorating potential problems.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine how factors that affect the processing of bundled price information moderate consumer response to a price discount on the bundle. Literature on categorical vs piecemeal processing of information predicts that consumers will be inclined to process a bundled price categorically unless circumstances encourage a piecemeal processing approach. Marketing relevant variables that foster piecemeal processing should result in stronger effects for discount size on bundle choice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper reports two experiments that demonstrate that the effect of discount size on bundle choice is moderated by increased salience of price information and lower familiarity with the purchase situation, both of which increase item price processing.\nFindings: - When the presentation format encouraged item price processing with more salient item prices or a less familiar purchase situation, a discount on the bundle significantly increased the likelihood of bundle choice. When circumstances did not encourage item price processing, discounts on the bundle relative to the item prices had little effect on choice.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Additional research is recommended to test boundary conditions, the effects of additional presentational/situational factors and explicit consumer welfare implications.\nPractical implications: - Results indicate that a price discount on a bundle is only effective/necessary when the purchase situation motivates and enables consumers to engage in piecemeal processing of item price information. When large price discounts are offered on the bundle, marketers should create a situation that encourages item price processing, in order to maximize the effect.\nOriginality/value: - This paper adds to a relatively new perspective in the bundling literature which has not fully examined if and when consumers process item price information. It is found that responsiveness to price discounts is enhanced by managerially relevant variables that increase the likelihood of item price processing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality
|
[
"Africa",
"Inequality",
"Poverty",
"Mobile phones",
"Shadow economy",
"E00",
"G20",
"I30",
"L96",
"O33"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Many lives have been transformed by the mobile revolution, which is providing not just communication but also basic financial access in the forms of phone-based money transfer and storage (Jonathan and Camilo, 2008; Demombynes and Thegeya, 2012). The significant growth and penetration rates of mobile telephony that are transforming cell phones into pocket-banks in Africa are also providing countries on the continent with increased affordable and cost-effective means of bringing on board a large part of the population that hitherto has been excluded from formal financial services for decades. At the 2007 \"Connect Africa\" summit, Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda emphasized: \"in ten short years, what was once an object of luxury and privilege, the mobile phone has become a basic necessity in Africa\" (Aker and Mbiti, 2010, p. 208). An article in\n2. Mobile phone penetration, mobile banking and the poor: 2.1. Mobile phone penetration\n3. Data and methodology: 3.1. Data\n4. Empirical results: This empirical section addresses two main issues: first, the ability of \"mobile phone penetration\" to explain income-inequality conditional on other covariates (control variables) and; second, the possibility of non-linear combinations of the fitted values explaining the response variable. While, the first issue is addressed by the significance and signs of estimated coefficients, the second depends on the result of RAMSEY's RESET. The intuition behind the RESET is that, if non-linear combinations of the explanatory variables have any power in explaining the response variable, then the model is misspecified. Hence, the RESET is a general specification test for the linear regression model. The null hypothesis of this test is the position that, non-linear combinations of the fitted values have no explanatory power on income-inequality. Thus, failure to reject the null hypothesis lends credit to the linear model specification.\n5. Concluding remarks: The aim of this paper has been to complement theoretical literature with empirical evidence on the income-redistributive effect of mobile phone penetration. The findings suggest that mobile penetration is good for the poor, as it has a positive income-redistributive effect. This equalizing incidence could be explained from several angles. First, many lives have been transformed by the mobile revolution thanks to basic financial access in the form of phone-based money transfer and storage (Jonathan and Camilo, 2008; Demombynes and Thegeya, 2012). Hence, the significant growth and penetration rates of mobile telephony that is transforming cell phones into pocket-banks in Africa is providing countries in the continent with increase affordable and cost-effective means of bringing on board a large part of the population that have until now been excluded from formal financial services for decades.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to complement theoretical and qualitative literature with empirical evidence on the income-redistributive effect of mobile phone penetration in 52 African countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Robust ordinary least squares and two stage least squares empirical strategies are employed.\nFindings: The findings suggest that mobile penetration is pro-poor, as it has a positive income equality effect.\nSocial implications: \"Mobile phone\"-oriented poverty reduction channels are discussed.\nOriginality/value: It deviates from mainstream country-specific and microeconomic survey-based approaches in the literature and provides the first macroeconomic assessment of the \"mobile phone\"-inequality nexus.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining the structure and behavior of Afghanistan's routine childhood immunization system using system dynamics modeling
|
[
"Public health",
"Health policy",
"Emerging healthcare delivery structures",
"Research methods",
"Vaccines or vaccination",
"Maternal and child health"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Evidence-based policy has repeatedly surfaced as a goal that is difficult to achieve (Machingaidze et al., 2014; Newman et al., 2017; Simmons, 2015). Even in resource-plentiful environments, it has been suggested that individual and organizational structural deficits limit the use of diverse forms of evidence particularly from academic research (Newman et al., 2017). While health systems are known to play a critical role in achieving public health program and development goals (Evans et al., 2008; Travis et al., 2004), there is limited capacity to evaluate interventions designed to \"strengthen\" health systems (Adam et al., 2011). Evaluation methods have not reflected the complex nature of health systems and have not accounted for non-linearity of effects (Adam et al., 2012; Greenwood-Lee et al., 2016; Shiell et al., 2008).\nBackground: Launched more than 40 years ago in 1974 (Lim et al., 2008; Shen et al., 2014; World Health Organization (WHO), 2011), the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) marks the beginning of one of the best-recognized and most successful health programs across the world (Lahariya, 2015). As a result of concerted international efforts, most low- and middle-income countries have developed national immunization programs based on the EPI scheme. Programs have since become increasingly complex with rising costs, added vaccines in the routine schedule, hard-to-reach populations, increased demands on cold-chain infrastructure and logistics, and exogenous threats like civil unrest and conflict (Shen et al., 2014).\nMethods: Research questions\nGeneral findings and discussion: In Study 1, vaccine-related laboratory and vaccine stock readiness scores were the main predictors associated with immunization coverage. Vaccine-related laboratory capacity may suggest other health facility strengths associated with improvements in immunization coverage, and experts found it difficult to discuss any direct mechanism connecting laboratory capacity and service delivery outcomes in Study 2. Also in Study 1, demand-side factors that may describe patterns of household health behaviors, such as exclusive breastfeeding practices and second dose of tetanus toxoid during pregnancy, were associated with immunization coverage as were women's education and household wealth status.\nConclusion: Health systems and subsystems are important objects of study in public health research. The understanding of their behavior can be improved by using methods that account for complexity. The approach presented in this paper offers a foundation for further testing of immunization policies and their effects on immunization and non-immunization performance when accounting for complexity. By partnering across disciplines like systems engineering and public health, knowledge and data gaps can be addressed using methods that can account for the complexity inherent to immunization and other health programs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how public health and systems science methods can be combined to examine the structure and behavior of Afghanistan's routine childhood immunization system to identify the pathways through which health system readiness to deliver vaccination services may extend beyond immunization outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using findings from an ecological study of Afghanistan's immunization system and a literature review on immunization program delivery, the routine immunization system was mapped using causal loop diagrams. Next, a stock-and-flow diagram was developed and translated to a system dynamics (SD) model for a system-confirmatory exercise. Data are from annual health facility assessments and two cross-sectional household surveys. SD model results were compared with measured readiness and service outcomes to confirm system structure.\nFindings: Readiness and demand-side components were associated with improved immunization coverage. The routine immunization system was mapped using four interlinking readiness subsystems. In the SD model, health worker capacity and demand-side factors significantly affected maternal health service coverage. System readiness components affected their future measures mostly negatively, which may indicate that the reinforcing feedback drives current system-structured behavior.\nOriginality/value: The models developed herein are useful to explore the potential impact of candidate interventions on service outcomes. This paper documents the process through which public health and systems investigators can collaboratively develop models that represent the feedback-driven behavior of health systems. Such models allow for more realistically addressing health policy and systems-level research questions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Multi-agent based safety computational experiment system for shield tunneling projects
|
[
"Shield tunneling project",
"Safety performance",
"Computational experiments",
"Multi-agent technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Due the highly mechanized, fast excavation rate and low environmental impacts, tunnel boring machine (TBM) has been widely used in tunnel construction (Ding et al., 2014a, b; Li and Chen, 2012; Lin et al., 2013; Maeda and Kushiyama, 2005; Min et al., 2015; Shang et al., 2004). In recent years, shield tunneling technology contributes much to the rapid rise of urban metro network and infrastructure systems in China. However, shield tunneling is high-risk. Accidents happen frequently and cause unexpected casualties and economic losses, especially in urban metro construction. For instance, a collapse accident happened in Foshan metro shield construction on February 7, 2018, resulting in 20 casualties; a collapse accident happened in Qingdao metro shield construction on May 27, 2019 and caused five casualties. Not only in China but some shield tunneling accidents also happened in other countries (Zhou et al., 2018). The safety issues in shield tunneling projects have drawn extensive social attention.To prevent accidents and casualties from happening, effective safety management in shield tunneling is needed. Shield tunneling is a highly complicated process (Demirkesen and Arditi, 2015; Liu et al., 2018). It encounters complex underground environmental conditions and shield machine working status (Zhou et al., 2018). Meanwhile, several personnel operate and control the shield machine under this dynamic and complex environment. Potential safety risks hide deep behind them and may lead to different types of accidents, such as tunnel collapse, surface settlement, water and sand inrushing and hazardous gas poisoning. Therefore, it is extremely important to identify and evaluate risk factors. Thereby, managers can set up safety training, disclosure and check plans to promote safety performance.So far, many qualitative and quantitative methods have been used for safety analysis in the tunneling construction context, which includes event tree analysis (ETA) (Hong et al., 2009; Sejnoha et al., 2009), fault tree analysis (FTA) (Sejnoha et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2014b), Bayesian network (BN) (Wang and Chen, 2017; Wu et al., 2015) and other machine learning algorithms. Same researchers also used computer technologies and systems to promote the safety management in tunneling construction, such as automatic risk identification system based on construction drawings (Ding et al., 2012), web-based system for safety risk early warning (Ding and Zhou, 2013), geotechnical instrumentation data warehouse for risk analysis (Ma et al., 2013) and 4D visualization technology for safety management (Zhou et al., 2013). Roughly speaking, these researches provide effective approaches for safety management in shield tunneling projects. Nevertheless, it is a pity that the corresponding complexity and dynamics are not fully embodied.As mentioned, human, shield machine and underground environment are core elements of shield tunneling projects. The errors of human cognitive and behavior, malfunctions of shield machine and unpredictability of underground environment are key issues in safety management (Wang et al., 2016). More importantly, these issues interact in a complex and nonlinear way. Accidents are, therefore, not the immediate result of a single failure, but rather a cumulative effect under human-machine-environment interaction. Hence, a systematic view is needed for steering safety management in shield tunneling projects. At present, few studies relate closely to the systematic perspectives to model and analysis the safety issues in shield tunneling projects. Wang et al. (2016) developed a systems-based model, which integrates system dynamics (SD), Bayesian belief networks (BBN) and smooth relevance vector machines (sRVM), to simulate the interaction of safety and other organizational goals in tunneling projects. Overall, a microscale systematic model to analyze the interactions between human, shield machine and underground environment is still missing. This kind of research is indeed difficult due to the systematic features of human-machine-environment interaction in shield tunneling projects.In recent years, the rapid development of digital twin technology brings new opportunities for construction and engineering management. Specifically, a digital/computing model can be developed, which corresponds to the physical construction process, to analyze the performance of schedule, cost, safety, etc. By integrating this novel idea and the computational experiment method, this paper will develop a computational experiment system to analyze the safety performance of shield tunneling projects, which is referred to as the safety computational experiment system (SCES). With this system, main risk factors that derive from various aspects of human, shield machine and underground environment can be identified and insights can be provided for effective safety management. To achieve this goal, this paper proposes the following research questions and corresponding solutions:How to build the systematic safety model for shield tunneling with the human-machine-environment interaction consideration? This paper adopts the multi-agent technology to build the systematic safety model for shield tunneling. Specifically, this multi-agent based safety model includes an operator agent, manager agent, machine agent, environment agent and interactions among them.How to identify the influence level of the various factors of human, shield machine and underground environment? This paper designs computational experiments to address this question, which includes different personal characteristics, machine statuses and environmental conditions. Through the simulation of multi-agent based safety model and fault tree model, the influence of each factor on accidents can be revealed.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a literature review. The detailed architecture design and development of SCES are outlined in Section 3. Section 4 presents the multi-agent based safety model, while Section 5 conducts a case study to test the applicability of SCES. The last section summarizes our research findings and future directions.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Safety management in tunneling project\n3. Overview of safety computational experiments system: This study aims to develop SCES to analysis the safety performance of shield tunneling projects. SCES draws on the digital twin and parallel control theories. It can be regarded as a digital or parallel system that corresponds to the physical shield tunneling process. Easily control and repeatable computational experiments can be generated to analyze the safety performance, which is impossible to conduct in the real shield tunneling process. Through SCES, the influence of various factors of human, shield machine and underground environment on safety performance can be identified. To provide an insight into SCES, this section starts from an investigation of physical safety system of shield tunneling projects. Then it is followed by the methods for developing SCES. 3.1 Physical safety system of shield tunneling projects\n4. Safety computational experiments system (SCES): Based on the method framework in Figure 2, the SCES is developed. Its overall architecture is shown in Figure 3. This system is implemented with Java agent development framework (JADE) because of its advantages such as simplicity, code compactness and graphical user interface (Bellifemine et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2018). There are four main modules in this system, which are the control center, multi-agent based safety model, scheme management of computational environments and visualization of computational experiments. They are briefly explained as follows. 4.1 Control center\n5. Multi-agent based safety model: This section will elaborate on how to build the systematic safety model by using multi-agent technology, including the basic structure and behavior or working patterns of the agents. This is also the response to the first research question. 5.1 Manager agent\n6. Computational experiments: 6.1 Design of experiments\n7. Conclusion: This paper introduces the SCES to promote a systematic understanding of the safety performance of shield tunneling projects. To achieve this goal, the critical components related to safety performance are introduced, including the manager/operator, shield machine, underground environment and interactions among them. A multi-agent based safety model, in which four agents are developed to model the cognitive and behavior rules of manager and operator, working principle of shield machine, evolution pattern of underground environment and the interactions. Then SCES is implemented on the basis of this multi-agent based safety model. On SCES, computational experiments are elaborately designed and performed for analyzing safety performance. In this paper, a case study is conducted for testing the applicability of SCES. The main influential factors on two types of accidents (surface settlement and mud cake on cutter) are identified, including human experience, soil density, soil cohesion, thrust force, screw conveyor speed and cutter speed. This finally can be used to support informed decisions for safety management.It should be pointed out that SCES is not limited to identify influential factors. This research also raises several relevant problems for further consideration. First, SCES can be adopted to reveal the mechanisms of safety accidents. Of course, this work heavily relies on computational experiments. Computational experiments should be elaborately designed to identify how the human cognitive and behavior errors, abnormal status of shield machine and adverse environmental conditions ultimately result in accidents. Second, it is also worth exploring to extend SCES by integrating the BIM (Li et al., 2019; Zhu et al., 2020), Internet of Things (IoTs) (Zhou and Ding, 2017; Lu et al., 2019), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) (Li et al., 2018a, b) and cloud platform (Naticchia et al., 2019) to collect realvtime information of the physical shield tunneling process and achieve execution between the SCES and physical shield tunneling process. Through this, the analysis and evaluation by computational experiments can be used to support the safety management in a real time way.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: In shield tunneling projects, human, shield machine and underground environment are tightly coupled and interacted. Accidents often occur under dysfunctional interactions among them. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a multi-agent based safety computational experiment system (SCES) and use it to identify the main influential factors of various aspects of human, shield machine and underground environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methods mainly comprised computational experiments and multi-agent technologies. First, a safety model with human-machine-environment interaction consideration is developed through the multi-agent technologies. On this basis, SCES is implemented. Then computational experiments are designed and performed on SCES for analyzing safety performance and identifying the main influential factors.\nFindings: The main influential factors of two common accidents are identified. For surface settlement, the main influential factors are ranked as experience, soil density, soil cohesion, screw conveyor speed and thrust force in descending order of influence levels; for mud cake on cutter, they are ranked as soil cohesion, experience, cutter speed and screw conveyor speed. These results are consistent with intuition and previous studies and demonstrate the applicability of SCES.\nPractical implications: The proposed SCES provides comprehensive risk factor identification for shield tunneling projects and also insights to support informed decisions for safety management.\nOriginality/value: A safety model with human-machine-environment interaction consideration is developed and computational experiments are used to analyze the safety performance. The novel method and model could contribute to system-based safety research and promote systematic understanding of the safety performance of shield tunneling projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Value of academic reading and value of the library in academics' own words
|
[
"United Kingdom",
"Universities",
"University libraries",
"User studies",
"Reading",
"Academic libraries",
"Measuring library value",
"Outcomes measurement",
"Value of academic libraries",
"Qualitative techniques"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Academics value access to scholarly materials and demonstrate that value by the time and amount they spend in reading articles, books, and other scholarly materials. Academics access scholarly materials from many sources, with the academic library as the main provider of journal articles. The Scholarly Reading and the Value of Library Resources project examined the scholarly reading patterns of academic staff at six UK universities, and it hoped to show the value added to the work of the university by the academic libraries' provision of journals and other material. The JISC Collections funded this study led by the University of Tennessee.Measuring the use, outcomes, and value of the library's role in scholarly reading helps librarians make decisions about the future direction of their collections and services, and helps demonstrate the value library collections bring to scholarship. The Scholarly Reading and the Value of Library Resources project sought to answer questions such as: What is the value and outcome of scholarly reading for academic staff? How do academic library collections support research and teaching activities of academic staff? How do reading patterns of articles, books, and other materials differ? What is the role of the academic library collections in teaching and learning?Academic staff members were asked four types of questions - demographic, recollection, critical incident, and open-ended comments. In June 2011 we presented our findings to the participating universities, and we found a high interest in the respondents' comments as a way to enhance the quantitative data and spark interest with the stakeholders and funders. This article focuses on the \"value added\" statements of the open-ended comments. They illustrate \"use value\" - the favorable consequences derived from reading, where value is demonstrated by the outcomes and impacts of the reading (Machlup, 1979). Open-ended questions allow respondents to address any issues or topics that did not come up in the survey and often hit upon the issues which are most important to them. The comments provide another dimension to the understanding of the value and outcomes of scholarly reading. Their responses enhance the quantitative findings of the study by confirming the value and importance academics place on scholarly reading and they reveal areas where services or resources could be improved. In addition, open-ended comments provide useful corroboration when appealing to library funders and stakeholders.\nRelated literature: While libraries used to be able to rest on their credentials as the \"heart of the university\", there is an increasing urgency for libraries to prove their value to university and academic work. Many recent reports have focused on proving the value and importance of scholarly reading and the academic or university library as the provider. The ACRL (2010) values report presents a faceted examination of the value of academic and research libraries. Librarians are being asked for a variety of measures of outcomes, impact, and value (Matthews, 2007). These include usage (e.g. amount of reading from e-journals), measures of outcomes (e.g. increased productivity of faculty), contingent valuation (e.g. cost of not having the library), and Return on Investment (e.g. monetary value of the library collection to grant proposals and reports) (Zeithaml, 1988). Our study focuses on usage and measures of outcomes to establish library value.Economist Fritz Machlup (1979) described two types of value in the information context: purchase or exchange value and use value. While our study focuses on multiple aspects of value, this report concentrates on the \"use value\" - the favorable consequences derived from reading, where value is demonstrated by the outcomes and impacts of the reading. \"Use value\" expresses value in an efficiency-based perspective (Sanchez and Perez Perez, 2001). We measured \"use value\" in terms of the impact scholarly reading and the library collections have on the quality of academic work at the university (Everest and Payne, 2001). \"Use value\" can also be based on the user perception of the library and scholarly reading where users perceive libraries to be more valuable than competitors (Butz and Goodstein, 1996; Woodruff, 1997). \"Use value\" supplements usage and other measures of value to present a broad examination of the role of scholarly reading and the library collections.The Scholarly Reading and the Value of Library Resources project builds on reading surveys conducted by Carol Tenopir and Donald W. King in the USA since 1977 (Tenopir and King, 2000) and in Australia and Finland in 2005 and 2006 (Tenopir et al., 2010). These studies track scholarly reading patterns and the role of academic library collections to the academic endeavor.Tenopir and King (2000) and King and Tenopir (2001) summarize reading patterns of academic staff members through the 1990s. These two sources provide extensive literature reviews and serve as background for the data presented in this report. Multi-university studies by others focus on how faculty members use electronic journals, online resources, and libraries (Healy et al., 2002). One thing that has not changed is the significant differences among the reading patterns of academic faculty in different subject disciplines (Fry and Talja, 2004; Kling, 2004; Talja and Maula, 2003), particularly in the amount of time spent reading and the number of articles read (Tenopir et al., 2005, 2007; Tenopir, King, Spencer and Wu, 2009; Tenopir and King, 2001). Further studies show that staff members in the sciences prefer and read more electronic journal articles than in humanities or social science disciplines (Brown, 2003).Access and convenience, especially electronic access, are important to all academic staff (Maughan, 1999). Faculty members around the world report that articles obtained from electronic collections are essential to improving their work (Tenopir, King, Edwards and Wu, 2009; McClanahan et al., 2010). Budd (2006) found a positive correlation between higher faculty publishing rates and larger library budgets in the top twenty Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions. E-journals contribute to research productivity, quality, and outcomes and bring value to UK research institutions and universities (Nicholas et al., 2010). The Research Information Network (RIN) recently published case studies in the life sciences (RIN, 2009), humanities (RIN, 2011a), and physical sciences (RIN, 2011b) detailing how researchers discover, use, create, and manage their information resources. It found new technologies are only adopted if they make life noticeably better; researchers will not change from their habitual behaviors unless there are advantages in doing so, and disciplines interact differently with new technologies (RIN, 2011b). Another 2011 study by the Research Information Network found a link between the library and the institution's research performance (RIN, 2011c). Our study tends to confirm these earlier findings.\nMethod: Academic staff members at six UK higher learning institutions - Cranfield University, Durham University, Imperial College London, University of Dundee, University of East Anglia, and the University of Manchester - participated in a 2011 survey of scholarly reading of articles, books, and other publications. A librarian at each university e-mailed a survey link to all academic staff members from March 2011 through May 2011. Over 2,000 academic staff members completed the survey, for an overall response rate of 16.8 percent. Of the 1102 respondents who chose to give their academic discipline, 34 percent are in sciences, 24 percent are in social sciences, 16 percent are in engineering/technology, 13 percent are in medical/health, 11 percent are in humanities, and 2 percent are other. The ages of respondents varied from under 30 to over 60, with 18 percent under 30 and 7 percent over 60. Respondents also varied by academic rank including, 25 percent are professors or associate professor/readers, 40 percent are senior lecturers, lecturers, or honorary lecturers, 23 percent are research associate/assistant/officers, and 13 percent are other.We base the questions on two principal sections - reader-related (demographics) and reading-related. Reader-related questions are based on the background of the respondent; the questions include age, gender, percentage of work time spent on various activities, and number of personal subscriptions. The reading-related questions are based on the \"critical incident technique\" first developed by Flanagan (1954), which has since been applied to many contexts, including libraries and readings (Radford, 2006; Andrews, 1991). We focus on the last scholarly reading as the \"critical\" incident of reading (Griffiths and King, 1991). This allows us to ask questions about a specific most recent reading, so the respondent will have a better memory of that reading, rather than having to reflect back on multiple readings over a longer period of time. We make it clear to the respondent that the last reading may not be representative of a typical reading, but it allows us to find details and patterns of reading and use. We defined reading as going beyond the table of contents, title, and abstract to the body of the article or book/book chapter. The questions cover many details of that reading, including time spent on the reading, source of reading, purpose of reading, and value of the reading to the purpose. In addition to questions about demographics and reading patterns, the 2011 survey included two open-ended questions: what role scholarly articles play in their research, teaching, and other scholarly activities and final comments. While we did not specifically ask about books, other publications, or social media, we received many comments on these subjects which we included in this article. However, they were mainly mentioned in regards to scholarly articles.As with all methods, there are some limitations to our study. Since the survey is self-reported, we have to rely on the respondent to provide accurate. The response rates are relatively low since the instrument is sent out through e-mail to the entire university population and we cannot guarantee that every e-mail address is active or that everyone received an e-mail. We believe, however, the advantages of our methodology outweigh the disadvantages. Since it is self-reported we get a personal view, including numerical and measurable (quantitative) information and non-numerical and descriptive (qualitative) information. By maintaining similar core questions since 1977, we are able to compare over time and across populations. Finally, we get information on the outcomes and values of reading that usage data alone cannot provide.The survey instrument can be found at the appendix of this report, and the complete report is available at http://lib-value.org or www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Reports/ukscholarlyreadingreport/ from JISC Collections. Quantitative results of combined reading and the role of library collections can be found in Tenopir et al. (2012). This article provides more in-depth analysis of the open-ended comments.\nFindings: Overall, the comments show a reliance and dependence on access and use of scholarly materials. Table I shows the most common words or phrases in the open-ended comments. We examined the comments individually in an Excel spreadsheet. After editing the comments for spelling and omitting comments that dealt with the survey instrument/method or were off-topic, we grouped the comments by similar themes based on our judgment. We received nearly 1,200 open-ended comments. Many respondents referred to scholarly articles as \"critical,\" \"essential,\" or \"vital\" to their work. The respondents also mentioned article currency and accessibility, in particular electronically, in allowing them to stay up-to-date in their field. They encouraged the growth and continued development of electronic resources, citing e-access as the key to future success, and many also mentioned books as playing an important role in their work, especially for teaching. The only complaint we came across multiple times was a desire for better electronic journal access provided by the institutions. It is not clear whether this is primarily to do with a lack of institutional subscriptions to the required journals, off- campus authentication problems, or other issues.Of the 941 comments, only five respondents said they do not or rarely read articles for their work. All comments can be categorized into five groups: issues with access, importance of articles, role of library, use of electronic resources, value and use of books, and miscellaneous. By examining each group, we are better able to understand the reading behavior of academics, providing insight into how the library services fit into their needs.I. Issues with access\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to ask: What is the value and outcome of scholarly reading for academic staff? How do academic library collections support research and teaching activities of academic staff? How do reading patterns of articles, books, and other materials differ? What is the role of the academic library collections in teaching and learning?\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides insight into the values and outcomes of scholarly reading, identifies overall reading patterns, and illuminates issues academics address. Approximately 2,000 academic staff members from six UK universities completed a web-based survey. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through the survey. The survey used the critical incident of last reading by academics to gather information on the purpose, outcomes, and values of scholarly readings and access to library collections. The survey concluded with open-ended comments, which is the focus of this article.\nFindings: - The open-ended comments focused on the importance of article readings to all work activities, in particular research. They also placed emphasis on the value of the library's e-journal collections, but they had some issues with electronic access. The role of book reading was also discussed.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Open-ended comments are only one way of measuring the value of scholarly reading and library collections. Ongoing studies and examinations of the findings from the other sections of this study will add to the overall findings of the value of the academic library.\nOriginality/value: - This paper further illustrates the essential role of scholarly reading and the library's collections on the academic enterprise. This type of qualitative \"story\" helps libraries demonstrate their value and assess areas of concern.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Mistakes - how can we learn from them?
|
[
"Learning",
"Reflection",
"Methods of enquiry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: We might not like making them but mistakes happen. And there can be a lot of learning from them.\nExamples: There is a sense in which there is no such thing as a \"mistake\". We all know the common-sense meaning of the word but, in essence, a mistake is a mistake because we do not like it. If an action is taken and it does not lead to the intended result, was it a mistake if you could not have avoided it? And what if the circumstances were not unforeseeable but only unforeseen? Then there is, potentially, something to learn. If so, perhaps that is where the focus should be put, and castigating ourselves or others will only get in the way of our being able to accept and integrate the lesson. So let us look at examples of what might be considered mistakes, but look at them in a slightly different way.* A scientific experiment is undertaken. The expected results are not found. The experiment is a failure. Or is it? Science is all about learning from your experiments. When the results are unexpected and yet, on examination, the experimental procedures are found to be sound you may have a scientific breakthrough instead of a mistake.* A management institute launches a new course. The uptake is insufficient to run it. Has the course failed? Or did the institution have a valuable market research finding - and at very low cost.* A manufacturing company launches a creative new high-end product to market at the same time the stock market takes a nose-dive. Did the product fail? It did not sell, but that does not mean it would not sell under more favorable circumstances, or if it could be produced for a mass market at a much cheaper price, etc.* Akio Morita, who created the Sony company, launched his business by trying to sell a tape recorder to the Japanese market. Having failed to get sufficient buyers he went away to explore why this had happened and what he could learn from that initial failure. The rest, as they say, is history.\nQuestions to ask: In order to learn effectively from what has proven to be a mistake, that is, to achieve 20/20 hindsight, you can pose questions in relation to various aspects of the situation. For example:1. Where did the mistake occur?2. When did it occur?3. What did you do? (If possible, try to capture your words and actions at the time.)4. How did you feel about what happened at the time?5. Exactly what were the consequences that make you think of it as a mistake?6. What did you learn?These questions can be supplemented by the following (in order to delve more into the issues):1. Was it possible to foresee what happened? (If the situation was not obviously beyond your control, it is better to assume it could have been foreseen and to analyze it on that basis.)2. Were you clear about your goal? Or was there more than one goal? And were any of the goals in conflict with one another?3. Were you clear about the consequences, and how to deal with them, if the goal were not achieved by your intended actions?4. Were you clear how you would know whether the goal was achieved? Did you have ways to maintain the action on-track between its initiation and its achievement?5. What justification did you have for thinking your actions would be appropriate to achieving the goal? Had you thought through other, untoward, consequences they could have?6. Had you made sufficient contingency plans for those parts of the process which might be vulnerable to adverse circumstances?7. Were you relying on other people and/or machinery? What basis did you have for relying upon them? Had you given sufficient thought to the possibility of their failing you in the process?8. What unrecognized assumptions had you made?9. What were the signals that could have let you know things were going awry?\nPossible limitations in using mistakes for learning: * The biggest limitation of mistakes is that fear of them might stop us from going forward. That is why it is important to reconsider mistakes, recognize that they cannot be completely avoided and gain their benefits; that is, learn from them.* They can be costly. While some mistakes are the cause of no more than dented pride, others can have more serious consequences for ourselves and others. This is why we should make every attempt to avoid mistakes, short of allowing fear of them to shackle our endeavors.\nSome hints for maximizing the value of learning from mistakes: * Face your mistakes head-on. You cannot learn from them if you deny to yourself that they happened. Blaming others also does not allow you to learn much. If you deny your mistakes to others, this can also get in the way of learning from them. Additionally, if you are found out you will be distrusted more than for simply making a mistake.* Apply the kind of questioning illustrated above to assist you in figuring out exactly what happened. Those questions can take you beyond identifying the source of what went wrong in that they can alert you to other vulnerabilities which were present, even though these were not the cause of the problem on this occasion.* What kinds of mistakes do you make? Are there any commonalities?* Learning from a mistake makes it easier to be compassionate toward yourself and any others who contributed to it. Self-blame is unlikely to be beneficial either to you or to anyone else.* There will be times when you want to keep your mistakes (and the learning from them) to yourself. For instance in highly politicized environments the admission of a mistake can be used against you.\nConclusion: Humans make mistakes all the time and the key lesson is how we can be more learning-focused after discovering a mistake.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to examine how mistakes can help to assist learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents examples where mistakes are not necessarily mistakes, but simply opportunities to improve or amend the project. Also lists questions to help in the understanding of mistakes, why it occurred, how it was dealt with and feelings regarding the situation.\nFindings: - Blaming ourselves, or blaming others, does not encourage us. In fact, it is anti-learning. If we, or our department, or our organization has made a mistake then we might as well get what we can out of it - the learning. Gaining learning from our mistakes takes us away from a culture of cover ups and denial.\nOriginality/value: - Humans make mistakes all the time and the key lesson is how we can be more learning-focused after discovering a mistake.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Retrospective: service failure and loyalty: an exploratory empirical study of airline customers
|
[
"Relationship marketing",
"Service failure",
"Customer experience",
"Relationship lifecycle"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nMotivation of the original paper: In the 1990s, \"Relationship marketing\" emerged as a big new idea among academics and practitioners. Models of firms' competitive advantage based on warfare were becoming discredited, at a time when warfare between countries seemed to be going out of fashion. This was the brave new world of Perestroika and the fall of the Berlin Wall with visions of a future world order brought together through cooperation rather than hegemony through warfare.\nContribution of our paper: The paper gave some early evidence of a relationship life-cycle and its impact on customer response following a service failure. We specifically studied the airline sector, where companies had become keen to develop the principles of relationship marketing and used many of its tools, particularly loyalty programmes backed by what at the time were leading edge information technology systems. But the complexity of running an airline offered many opportunities for failure, putting great pressure on efforts to build relationships with customers.\nResponse from the marketing community: As of April 2016, our article had been cited in 330 published articles, based on Google scholar metrics, including citations in Journal of Marketing, European Journal of Marketing and Journal of Service Research. This is a considerable impact and reflects the influence of the Journal of Services Marketing in disseminating research in emerging areas focused on services. The Journal has continued to exercise editorial insight to emerging trends which show a close connection to services sectors while recognising the importance of methodological credibility and practitioner relevance.\nWhere are we now?: Customer loyalty and relationships, managed through databases, was a big new idea at the time our paper was published, particularly within the airline sector. But the seemingly inexorable rise of airline loyalty programmes has since been held in check. Some have questioned the cost of providing a loyalty programme which may undermine \"legacy\" airlines' competitive advantage in the face of competition from a new generation of \"low cost\" airlines whose market share has grown rapidly since our paper was published, and pursue loyalty through low price positioning (Akamavi et al., 2015). Others have noted negative effects on airlines where a loyalty programme may motivate customers who are members of the programme, but have negative effects on customers who are \"bystanders\" and see loyalty programme members receiving benefits which are denied to them (Steinhoff and Palmatier, 2016).\nFuture research directions: Relationship marketing has now become firmly embedded in core marketing thinking, and research has fragmented to investigate specific aspects of relationships and service failures which occur within relationships. This is evident in the number and types of academic articles that appear in such journals as Journal of Relationship Marketing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to reflect on the paper \"Service failure and loyalty: an exploratory empirical study of airline customers\" published 18 years ago. It positions it in the evolving literature on relationship marketing and suggests directions for further research and developments in the area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of key contributions of the paper to the study of relationship marketing and the effects of service failures on relationships identifies emerging strands of research.\nFindings: The concept of a \"relationship lifecycle\" is now widely used in marketing for identifying customer segments. Different points in the lifecycle are associated with differing sets of relationship expectations and levels of tolerance to service failure. Customer relationship management has tended to morph into customer experience management where principles of relationship lifecycles have been applied to mapping customer \"journeys\" through a service process.\nPractical implications: The original study informed practices of managing relationship expectations and handling failed expectations, depending on a customer's length of relationship with a company. Although relationship marketing was originally conceived as an integrator of marketing cues, its emphasis on cognitive evaluations may have been too limiting and customer experience management has since introduced additional affective dimensions.\nOriginality/value: The original paper had been widely cited and generated discussion and important further research. It has value as part of the emerging landscape of services marketing research. This retrospective analysis locates this historical development with reference to currently popular issues of customer experience management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Operations strategy processes and performance: Insights from the contract apparel manufacturing industry
|
[
"Cluster analysis",
"Organizational context",
"Operations strategy",
"Operations performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The operations strategy (OS) concept has been widely researched from a number of perspectives, since its presumptive conception in the late 1960s. However, the vast majority of previous OS research has focused on businesses operating in the manufacturing sectors of developed countries. Despite a significant trend towards the consolidation of certain manufacturing industries in developing countries, and the increasing popularity of outsourcing practices among businesses in developed regions, OS process research in the context of developing countries has been limited. Furthermore, there is no reliable evidence to support whether the conceptual understanding of OS processes developed over the years, through research undertaken in developed countries, has in fact diffused into the businesses operating in developing regions, or even the findings of such research are in fact applicable to the developing country contexts. Given that the traditional manufacturing sectors in developed economies are widely perceived to have become unattractive or infeasible, extending the current understanding of OS concepts to capture developing country contexts is not only timely, but also would be considered as a logical step in the progression of OS research. Studies of this type would be of further significance in the context of recent developments such as globalization of supply chain operations, increasing emphasis on services in the developed region and the rise of emerging economies as low-cost manufacturing bases.\n2. Literature review: Operations managers make a raft of investment and resource allocation decisions that, in the long term, determine the capacity and capabilities of the operations system of an organization. These decisions typically relate to the overall configuration of the operations system in terms of people and other resources, business processes and technology, as well as work routines and organizational culture. Operations performance reflects an operations system's capacity and capability to support the chosen competitive priorities of an organization such as product or service price, quality and delivery time. As such, consistent patterns in these decisions, which constitute OS, directly affect an organization's ability to compete against similar products or services available in a particular market.\n3. Research design and methodological approach: Historically, organizational performance has been linked to the cumulative effect of strategies pursued at different levels of an organization. Literature also suggests that the way strategies are formed under the influence of internal and external organizational contextual factors affects the effectiveness of strategies in achieving superior organizational performance (Ramaswamy, 2001; Papadakis et al., 1998; Slevin and Covin, 1997; Dean and Sharfman, 1996; Ketchen et al., 1996; Pettigrew, 1992). Numerous studies have examined the relationships between these constructs at the business unit level from varying perspectives. However, when it gets to the functional-level strategies, particularly in relation to OS, the current understanding of the relationship between strategy processes, organizational context and performance is limited.\n4. An overview of the Sri Lankan apparel manufacturing industry: The global apparel manufacturing clusters are located in various parts of the world and the total global garment trade generated $490 billion in 2010 (First Research, 2013). An important feature of the industry is the geographic distribution of value-adding operations: i.e. yarn and fabric manufacturing; garment design; and assembly operations. Usually, high-volume manufacturing of fabrics takes place in locations far from where the assembly of garments are undertaken. A large number of relatively smaller plants dispersed across the developing countries assemble the garments using fabrics and accessories supplied by multinational buying companies or their agents under contractual arrangements and tight quality control regimes. In most cases, the design of garments is performed by multinational buyers or their specialist agents as per the requirements of major retail chains operating in developed countries.\n5. Data analysis and results: The sample of companies used in this study represented a good cross-section of the Sri Lankan apparel industry in terms of company size, ownership, maturity and markets served. They ranged from small independent subcontractors to those that had exclusive ties to major global clothing brands. The average age of the firms was 20.5 years with a range of six months to 100 years, which indicates that a good majority of companies would be at the established or pioneering stage of development, and therefore can reasonably be expected to have established organizational structures and processes for dealing with issues of strategic significance.\n6. Discussion and inferences: In general, our analysis confirmed the presence of the three alternative OS processes. It also confirmed the possibility of multiple configurations of one or more distinctive OS process modes co-existing. These configurations can be related to the all three dimensions of performance and one of the three contextual factors tested. In this section we discuss the inferences drawn from the statistical analysis.\n7. Conclusions, limitations and directions for future research: The study reported in this paper examined the significance of alternative OS processes, and by way of deduction, the relevance of the current understanding of strategy process concepts to developing country context. Evidence was drawn from a sample of business organizations within the contract apparel manufacturing sector in Sri Lanka. The analyses confirmed that the existence of alternative forms of OS processes is statistically significant and that the alternative configurations of OS process modes tested can all lead to an acceptable level of operations performance, under differing levels of competition. The findings contribute to OM theory, by way of corroborating with statistical evidence the findings of recent qualitative studies and demonstrating the existence of organizational processes in developing countries that are consistent with the conceptual understanding developed in developed country contexts. For example, the existence of alternative OS process modes, multiple configurations of those process modes and their relationship to operations performance are all consistent with the patterns of strategic decision making and action taking elucidated in the most recent qualitative studies (Kiridena et al., 2009; Sarmiento et al., 2008; Rytter et al., 2007; Verreynne, 2006; Barnes, 2002). The findings, however, did not support the widely held view that a more analytical or rational approach to OS development lead to better operations performance. Instead, the alternative configurations of OS processes were shown to be characteristic of the level of competition faced by companies. The companies in the clusters of which OS process configurations 2 and 3 exist appeared to experience a higher level of competition, compared to those in configuration 1, which, according to the theoretical framework used, represented the rational planning approach to strategy development. Given that there was no performance differential between alternative configurations, this could mean that alternative forms of OS formation can at least be as equally effective as the formal planning approaches in achieving and/or sustaining desired levels of operations performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance and dynamics of alternative operations strategy (OS) processes towards developing a more complete picture of the strategy process-context-performance nexus. The findings are based on the statistical analysis of empirical evidence drawn from the contract apparel manufacturing industry in a developing country.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a structured questionnaire and the key-informant approach data were collected from 109 contract apparel manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka. Cluster analysis was used to identify alternative configurations of strategy process modes.\nFindings: The analyses confirmed that the existence of alternative forms of OS development is statistically significant and that the alternative configurations of strategy process modes tested can all lead to superior performance, under certain circumstances.\nResearch limitations/implications: The generalizability of these findings to other industry sectors within developing countries should be treated with caution, mainly due to the fact that the vast majority organizations selected for this study were subsidiaries of large international companies or comparable local counterparts. In order to better understand the linkages between OS and performance, data should be collected from multiple countries preferably using mixed-methods approaches.\nOriginality/value: The findings are expected to contribute to operations management theory as they corroborate, with statistical evidence, the findings of recent qualitative studies. The results also confirm the existence of OS processes in developing countries that are consistent with the conceptual understanding developed in the context of developed countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Opportunity recognition and cooperation flexibility of entrepreneurial franchisees
|
[
"Trust",
"Franchising",
"Channel relationship",
"Cooperation flexibility",
"Opportunity recognition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The success of franchising systems is based on the strength of the franchising relationship. As such, franchise relationships are far more complex than traditional business relationships, and the development and maintenance of these relationships within a franchise system should be investigated (White, 2010). Recognizing entrepreneurial opportunities is considered an important factor for the expansion of franchise chains into multiple retail outlets. However, these issues have received little attention in franchising research. The increasingly competitive environment has helped franchisees understand the importance of responding to local market pressure and of cultivating flexible cooperation and strategic approaches with their franchisors. However, franchisees face tough questions regarding how to recognize new opportunities for additional outlets and how to cooperate flexibly with franchisors to adopt multi-unit operation approaches to remain in the system. As observed by Verbieren et al. (2008), franchising literature has focussed considerable attention to the franchisor perspective, whereas limited attention is directed toward the research stream on multi-unit initiation and subsequent propensity toward the franchise system of franchisees - the franchisee perspective.\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: To address the ways by which franchisor-franchisee collaborative partnerships establish satisfactory buyer-supplier relationships, we review literature on the successful evolution of the resource-based theory and of relational view.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1 Data collection and sample characteristics\n4. Analysis and results: This study used PLS-Graph (version 3.00, build 1058) (Chin, 1994) to verify the measurements and test the hypotheses. Structured equation modeling with PLS analysis was employed for the empirical assessment of the measurement model used in the study. The stability of the estimates was tested via a bootstrap re-sampling procedure. Two stages were observed in the analysis and interpretation of the PLS model: assessment of the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and assessment of the structural model. This sequence ensures that the measures of the constructs are valid and reliable before conclusions are drawn.\n5. Conclusions and implications: The majority of studies on franchising were conducted in a western context. However, as franchises are increasingly growing in East Asia, there is a need to investigate whether research conducted in a western context is also supported in an East Asian context. There are scarce studies to date that explore the integration between entrepreneurial process (such as opportunity recognition and cooperation flexibility) and trust in a franchising relationship in Taiwan. Applying the perspective of entrepreneurial process to franchisees will aid in outlining the franchisee's perspective and in broadening the picture of the franchising relationship development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to theoretically and empirically demonstrate the channel relationship between franchisors and franchisees. It examines four essential constructs that may lead to successful long-term franchising relationships: the competitive advantage of franchisors, operational assistance, trust, and intention to continue. Moreover, this study attempts to investigate the multi-unit initiation of franchisees and their subsequent propensity to franchise moderated by entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and cooperation flexibility of franchisors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The survey results of 234 franchisees' responses were analyzed to test the proposed hypotheses and research model using partial least squares modeling. Data were collected in Taiwan.\nFindings: It was found that operational assistance of franchisors significantly develops the trust of franchisees and their intention to continue; and cooperation flexibility of franchisors has the positive influence of trust on the entrepreneurial propensity decision of multi-unit franchisees.\nPractical implications: Franchisors have the responsibility to develop a consistently aligned set of cues, guidelines, and processes that can define the flexibility-oriented supply culture, and then systematically monitor the achievement of the support mission. Franchisees collaborate with capable franchisors with trust, where both parties are willing to maintain flexibility in their relationship. They will require frequent changes of products and services to meet the unexpected local environment.\nOriginality/value: This study combines entrepreneurial perspective into traditional franchising relationship research for better understanding the multi-unit initiation and subsequent propensity of franchisees toward the franchise system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How and when AR technology affects product attitude
|
[
"Luxury",
"Augmented reality",
"Attitude",
"Self-reference",
"Consumer beliefs",
"Product display"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, a large number of companies, such as Nike, Ikea, Google and Nintendo, have been adopting augmented reality (AR) technology in developing interactive games, designing advertisements and enhancing the consuming experience (Scholz and Smith, 2016). Through AR technology, companies allow consumers to view virtual objects superimposed into their real world without placing the objects physically in front of them (Yim et al., 2017). So far, AR technology has been used in various retailing contexts in an effort to improve people's consuming experience and assist viewers in understanding products (Scholz and Smith, 2016). Consumers can view a virtual product situated in their physical environment via smart devices (e.g. the virtual sofa of IKEA that situated in consumers' living room) or access an additional digital object by scanning an AR icon (e.g. a scanned Coke can that transforms into a virtual image on a screen). In addition, marketers also provide large interactive screens for consumers to experience self-viewing images with virtual elements (e.g. AR dressing mirror).\nAR-based product display in marketing: Augmented reality experience\nExperiments: Four lab experiments were conducted to examine the effect of AR technology on consumers' product attitude. In our experiments, we asked participants to report their attitude toward the product, which was displayed with either AR technology or traditional technology on the screen of a smart device. In Experiment 1, we investigated whether AR-based product display could induce a more positive attitude than non-AR-based display. To examine the underlying mechanism of the effect, participants in Experiment 2 were required to report whether they felt a personal connection with the displayed product. Finally, in Experiments 3 and 4, we investigated the moderating effects of consumer beliefs (quality vs taste) and brand type (luxury vs mass market).\nGeneral discussion: Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Augmented reality (AR) has emerged as a novel communication tool, which adds virtual computer-generated information to a viewer's real life. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of AR technology on consumers' experience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Four experiments were performed to test the effect of AR-based product display on the consumer's attitude and the underlying mechanism of the effect.\nFindings: The results have demonstrated that self-referencing reality simulation mediates the effect of AR technology on consumers' product attitude, and the effect is attenuated when the consumers hold quality beliefs rather than taste beliefs or when the product is a luxury brand.\nPractical implications: The current research suggests that managers should develop and adopt AR technology when presenting their products in front of consumers, which can improve consumers' product attitude. Additionally, emphasizing the taste of target products rather than quality will strengthen the positive effect of AR technology on product attitude. Furthermore, managers of luxury brands should present their products in a traditional way, which induce an exclusive perception rather than using AR technology.\nOriginality/value: This paper investigates the underlying mechanism of how AR technology improves consumers' product attitude and shopping experience, to fill the gap in consumers' unique experience with AR technology. Furthermore, the moderated effect of consumer beliefs and product difference has also been examined in this study, which attributes to the research of product differentiation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Buyer supplier perspectives on supply chain relationships
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Buyer‐seller relationships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Management of buyer-supplier relationships is central to the success of supply chain management in firms (Harland, 1996). In particular, strategic relationships with critical suppliers must be understood in order to maximize the value creation in the supply chain (Chen et al., 2004). Studies have shown that successful management of these relationships contributes to firm performance (Tan et al., 1999). Dimensions such as trust and commitment are shown to play an important role in high-value strategic relationships, where specific investments are high, and contractual governance alone is not adequate (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). In such relationships, it is important that both parties perceive that they are gaining value from the relationship if it is to continue and the relationship is to be considered a success (Narayandas and Rangan, 2004).Researchers have used both transaction cost theory and social exchange theory as separate and complementary theories to explain the antecedents and dynamics of relationship success (Kwon and Suh, 2004; Kingshott, 2006; Hawkins et al., 2008; Zhao et al., 2008; Liu et al., 2009). Researchers have used both single-respondent and dyadic samples in order to understand the differences in perceptions of the relationship between buyers and suppliers. However, the antecedents and dynamics have mainly been tested on separate groups of buyers and suppliers and rarely between buyers and suppliers in the same relationship (O'Toole and Donaldson, 2002; Terpend et al., 2008). Even when matched pairs in a relationship have been studied, the results have been aggregated to the relationship (Liu et al., 2009). We use both transaction cost theory and social exchange theory factors across a matched-pair dyad directly comparing buyer and supplier perceptions of the same relationship.There are two distinct aspects to the question of differences in perception. One aspect is whether relationship partners perceive the same levels of trust, commitment and performance in a relationship. This issue is dealt with through an examination of perception levels - the values of the constructs. A second aspect is how characteristics of a relationship are valued by each partner, specifically what characteristics lead to a successful relationship. Given that the two partners have different interests and different needs in the relationship, it is reasonable to ask if they respond to different cues within the relationship. This aspect is examined by looking at the interaction of relationship dimensions - in particular, the antecedents of relationship success.Our motivation for this study was to consider a wide range of relationship dimensions drawing on both transaction cost and social exchange theory rather than presupposing certain dimensions would dominate. We examined matched-pair relationships to identify specific differences in perception between the parties within the relationship. Thus, the contribution of the paper is that there are significantly different drivers of relationship success for buyers and suppliers in the same relationship.This paper is structured as follows: first, a discussion of the literature on transaction cost and social exchange theories, relationship success and perceptual differences between buyer and supplier; second, a description of the methodology for the study and data analysis conducted; presentation of the findings of the study; a discussion of the findings and their impact on current theory; and finally, the conclusion with implications for theory and practice as well as the limitations of the study and further research.\nTheoretical background: Transaction cost and social exchange theory are useful as foundations for predictions of relationship dynamics and success. Transaction cost theory takes an instrumental approach to the structure and dynamics of relationships, proposing that transactions are better managed internally or with close long-term relationships with other firms when the governance of the transaction is difficult (Williamson, 1985). What the theory does not predict is how, given the different perspective of buyer and supplier, different factors will influence the success of the relationship for the buying firm and for the supplying firm.Transaction cost theory states that governance of relationships will be predicted by the asset specificity or the degree of specific investment involved in the transaction and the environmental and behavioural uncertainty surrounding the transaction and thus the scope for opportunism (Williamson, 1985). The theory stipulates adaptation (or relationship-specific investments) and reduction in uncertainty as a key to relationship success in order to diminish the hazard of opportunism (Williamson, 1985). For instance, if one party makes relationship-specific investments, this will only be done when the other party attenuates the hazard of opportunism by also making relationship-specific investments or by offering contractual guarantees (Anderson and Weitz, 1992; Rokkan et al., 2003). Factors used from the transaction cost theory for this study are adaptation and uncertainty.Social exchange theory is posited on the concept of individuals or groups interacting due to the expectation of rewards and the avoidance of penalties or punishment (Emerson, 1976; Bandura, 1986). Reciprocity is an important concept within social exchange theory as actions and behaviour by one party will lead to reciprocal action and behaviour by the other party to the interaction (Griffith et al., 2006). A key theme, and an underlying premise of social exchange theory, is the importance of trust and commitment in ensuring relationship success (Anderson and Narus, 1990; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Liu et al., 2009). We define commitment to the relationship as \"an exchange partner believing that an ongoing relationship with another is so important as to warrant maximum efforts at maintaining it\" (Morgan and Hunt, 1994, p. 23). Trust can be defined as the willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence (Moorman et al., 1992). Furthermore, power and dependence have an effect on trust and commitment with a number of studies exploring these factors together (Autry and Golicic, 2010; Lawler and Yoon, 1993; Griffith et al., 2006; Narasimhan et al., 2009). Maloni and Benton (2000, p. 53) define power as \"the ability of one firm (the source) to influence the intentions and actions of another firm (the target)\". As there are different findings within the social exchange theory literature regarding the interplay of these factors, this study uses the factors trust, commitment, dependence and power. Communication is included in the study as it has been identified as an important mechanism in improving interaction in both transaction cost and social exchange theory (Liu et al., 2009).Several studies have provided explanations of relationship success where the buyer is in a weaker power position to the supplier (Anderson and Narus, 1990), while other studies have considered the buyer as the powerful player (Benton and Maloni, 2005; Shervani et al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2009). Our study looks at the buyer's most important relationships where there is a degree of mutual dependence between the buyer and the supplier.Models of relationship success\nMethodology: Sample and questionnaire design\nData analysis: Bivariate analysis\nDiscussion: Congruence in the relationship\nConclusions: Academic contribution\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to employ transaction cost theory and social exchange theory to compare how buyers and suppliers perceive relationship mechanisms. The paper also explains the antecedents and dynamics of relationship performance by comparing buyer and supplier perceptions of the same relationships. The paper specifically focuses on the issue of relationship success and test the hypothesis that the antecedents of perceived relationship success for buyers differ from those of suppliers within supply chain relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is based on a study of the supply chain relationships of a major ICT company where matched pairs of buyers and suppliers were surveyed on the nature of their relationships. The survey instrument drew from previously published constructs on key relationship dimensions such as trust, commitment, power, communication, uncertainty and performance. A series of nested measurement models were then developed and tested for the two groups - buyers and suppliers.\nFindings: - The study found that buyers and suppliers have significantly different perceptions of their relationships across a range of dimensions. In addition, the antecedents of relationship success for both groups bear little similarity, thus supporting our hypotheses.\nOriginality/value: - The paper directly compares transaction cost theory and social exchange theory and finds that both are useful in explaining success in buyer-supplier relationships. Methodologically, the paper is unique due to the combination of over 100 matched buyer-supplier dyads with a comprehensive survey of relationship constructs. Given the use of both transaction cost and social exchange theory, the breadth of the dimensions studied, the unique access to practitioners gained and the nature of the matched-pair data, this paper is an important contribution to the literature on relationship management. Furthermore, the findings indicate a rich seam of potential future research topics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Perceived benefits and church participation: A comparative study among regular and irregular church goers
|
[
"Religion",
"Perceived benefits",
"Participation",
"Marketing communications",
"Church marketing",
"Non-profit marketing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past few decades the topic of church participation has been extensively researched in the sociology literature. Various approaches have been employed to understand this phenomenon. At its earlier stage, the subject of church participation has been studied through lenses of deprivation theory, localism theory, child rearing theory, and doctrinal beliefs theory that constituted the so-called \"old paradigm\" (Hoge and Carroll, 1978).\nTheoretical background: Rational choice theory of religion\nMethods: Participants\nMeasures: Table III presents the descriptive statistics and correlations for the main variables used in the analysis. All items were measured on scale 1 to 7 where 1 indicates strongly disagree/very low extent and 7 strongly agree/very great extent.\nResults: Measurement bias\nTests of hypotheses: Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test hypotheses and the results for each group - CG and ICG are shown in Table IV. All hypotheses were tested as a one-tailed test. Table IV shows that church participation among the regular CG group has a positive relationship with both spiritual (b=0.21, p<0.01) and social benefits (b=0.28, p<0.01). This result supports H1 and H2. However, we did not find support for H3 that predicted the positive relationship between PIL and church participation. Furthermore, among demographic variables we observed that club association (b=0.12, p<0.05) and country of origin (b=0.13, p<0.05) have positive relationships with church participation. This model overall explains 25 percent variance in dependent variable.\nDiscussion: The effects of \"perceived benefits\" on \"religious participation\" has been frequently discussed in the domain of sociology literature, particularly by the proponents of the rational choice theory. This study has made at least two important contributions to this body of research.\nResearch implications and limitations: Studies in the past have linked perceived benefits with consumer involvement (Fatima and Razzaque, 2013), trust, positive attitude, and loyalty (Liu et al., 2012, 2013). Within the non-profit context, perceived benefits were also found to be the antecedent of membership commitment (Plewa et al., 2011). The present study has provided further empirical support for the importance of perceived benefits in encouraging participation among active and passive members in the church context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived benefits and church participation among regular and irregular church goers (ICG).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research incorporates a descriptive research design. In total, 564 questionnaires were completed by active and relapsed members of churches in Australia. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between constructs.\nFindings: This study provides empirical evidence that perceived spiritual and social benefits have a positive and significant relationship with church participation in both regular and ICG sample group. Perceived purpose-in-life (PIL) benefits are not related to church participation in both sample groups.\nPractical implications: The findings may guide leaders of religious organisations to understand the importance of spiritual and social benefits in attracting prospective church members. The marketing message of religious organisation should therefore focus on spiritual and social appeals.\nOriginality/value: Past researchers have not looked into the dynamic relationships between perceived benefits and church participation among regular and irregular church members, particularly in Australia, hence research is to be called for in this area. The study provides a further empirical support for the importance of social benefits within the church settings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Panel data analysis of financial development, economic growth and rural-urban income inequality: Evidence from SAARC countries
|
[
"Financial development",
"Panel co-integration",
"Panel Granger causality",
"Fully modified OLS (FMOLS)",
"Rural-urban income inequality",
"D30",
"F43",
"G28",
"O16",
"O53"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The relationship between financial development and economic growth has received great attention in the recent literature (King and Levine, 1993; Xu, 2000; Levine et al., 2000; Al-Yousif, 2002; Ahmed, 2010; Bittencourt, 2012; Uddin et al., 2013). These studies have tried to address the issue: how an economy's financial system affects its growth and vice-versa. While recent liberalization has established a robust link between financial development and economic growth, policy makers are also interested in the benefits of accelerated growth. Further, given the concern about the income distribution, policy makers want to know how financial policies affect both economic growth and income distribution. Despite several attempts to establish the link between financial development and income inequality (INQ) (Beck et al., 2000; Levine et al., 2000; Li and Zou, 2002; Clarke et al., 2007; Beck et al., 2007), the issue remained unresolved in the literature, especially the relationship between financial development and rural-urban INQ.\n2. Theoretical underpinnings of financial development and INQ linkage: It is generally accepted in the literature that an efficient, well-functioning and vibrant financial system is a necessary condition for long-term economic growth. Schumpeter (1911) argued that financial intermediation through banking played a prime role in economic growth by affecting the allocation of saving and thereby improving productivity, technical change and economic growth. Policies directed toward enabling financial intermediation for a strong and vibrant financial sector through two channels. First, these policies make credit cheaper, boost entrepreneurial activities, generate employment opportunities and enhance the welfare of the poor. Second, the availability of the credit at cheaper cost can provide crucial support to the financial weaker section by allowing them to invest in health, education and improve the life of their children and enhance human capital of the economy which in turn improves the income distribution. Levine (1999) emphasized the role of the financial system in bridging the information asymmetries between savers and borrowers, thereby performing the function of saving, capital fund allocation, monitoring the use of funds and managing risk which altogether supports the economic growth.\n3. Review of related literature: From the theoretical point of view, studies on the concept of finance-inequality relationship are few in number. There are two distinctive theoretical hypotheses regarding the finance-inequality link: an inverted U-shaped relationship (Greenwood and Jovanovic, 1990), which suggests that that inequality rises during the first stage of development after that it decreases when economy further develops. Alternative view of modern economic theories supported the negative hypothesis (Banerjee and Newman, 1993; Galor and Zeira, 1993); they suggested that higher level of capital market imperfections leads to income inequalities.\n4. Data source and definitions of variables: 4.1 Data source\n5. Econometric methodology: 5.1 Panel unit root test\n6. Results and interpretation: The results of the LLC and IPS panel unit root tests at levels and first difference are presented in Table II. The order of the integration of the variables was also summarized in the Table IV. The unit root test results confirm that all variables that used in the panel VAR model are non-stationary in the level data but found stationary in the first difference. This implies that all the variables are first difference stationary I(1).\n7. Conclusions and policy implications: Since theoretical views on the finance-inequality relationship are inconclusive and mixed in the literature, more empirical analysis is necessary to investigate the issue. The study explores the impact of financial development and rural-urban INQ in six SAARC countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan for the time period 1986-2012. To measure the financial development, two proxy variables are used, these are: the ratio of private sector credit to GDP (LCR) and the ratio of broad money to GDP. INQ is the ratio between agricultural to industrial value-added as a share of GDP, a measure of rural-urban INQ and per capita real GDP is used to represent economic growth. Beside these variables two control variables also added in the study: TO (percent of exports and imports of GDP) and price stability indicator, consumer price index (CPI) is also included in the model. The Levin et al. (2002) and Im et al. (2003) panel unit root tests are used to check for the stationarity properties of the series. The study employed Pedroni's co-integration test to examine the long-run relationship among the variables; FMOLS is used to estimate the long-run coefficients and panel Granger test is used to investigate the direction of the causality.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and rural-urban income inequality (INQ) in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries using panel data from 1986-2012.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The stationarity properties are checked by the LLC and IPS panel unit root tests. The paper applied the Pedroni's panel co-integration test to examine the existence of the long-run relationship and coefficients of co-integration are examined by fully modified ordinary least squares. The short-term and long-run causality is examined by panel Granger causality.\nFindings: The results of Pedroni co-integration test indicate that there exists a long-run relationship among the variables. The findings suggest that financial development increases rural-urban inequality whereas trade openness reduces rural-urban inequality. The empirical results of panel Granger causality indicate evidence of short-run causality confirms that economic growth and financial development causes rural-urban INQ.\nResearch limitations/implications: The present study recommends for appropriate economic and financial reforms focusing on financial inclusion to reduce rural-urban INQ in SAARC countries. Financial policies geared toward agriculture and rural population should be adopted to reduce the prevailing rural-urban INQ in SAARC region.\nOriginality/value: Till date, there is hardly any study exploring the causal relationship between financial development and rural-urban INQ for SAARC countries by using panel co-integration and causality techniques. So the contribution of the paper is to fill these research gaps in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Learning takes center stage as BT enters new global markets: Company embeds continuous development and accreditation of IT skills
|
[
"Information technology",
"Growth",
"International business",
"Awards",
"Employee development",
"Telecommunications"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Telecommunication giant BT has used e-learning to prepare more than 6,000 information technology (IT) and technical staff over the past 2 years to support a move into new markets.\nNew markets bring fresh challenges: As the breadth and reach of BT capabilities continue to grow, staying one step ahead of the competition becomes even more crucial for the organization - no more so than for the recently formed BT Technology, Service & Operations (BT TSO) division. To ensure the department continues to develop into new markets, as well as maintain and defend its traditional customer base, it needed to rapidly grow a new set of IT skills with higher and more consistent levels of capability as well as foster a culture of innovation and knowledge sharing across the organization.\nAdopting a new approach to learning: The company took a new approach to skill development to enable the required improvement in IT skills. The aim was to adapt to changes in marketplace demands for new products and services.\nProgram success and achievements: The ALP program has had a massive impact on BT. It is now seen as the key enabler for IT skills development across the company. The program is sponsored at the highest levels of the organization. It is also recognized and appreciated by the workforce as a structured way to develop skills. From an initial focus on just one of BT's lines of business, ALPs have now become the primary IT skills development program across BT's entire key technical and IT workforce.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to observe how telecommunication giant BT has used e-learning to prepare more than 6,000 information technology (IT) and technical staff over the past 2 years to support a move into new markets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Reveals how the company met the challenges of rapidly improving the skills of IT and technical staff, standardized a best-practice approach to IT training across key lines of business and increased levels of staff engagement.\nFindings: Charts the creation of flexible learning and development programs known as accredited-learning pathways (ALPs), which have since been developed to cover wider areas of employee training at BT.\nPractical implications: Explains that ALPs now form a key part of BT's strategic workforce improvement initiatives and are instrumental in embedding continuous learning and accreditation for IT skills. More than 6,000 people have completed ALP content since the program inception in 2011.\nSocial implications: Reveals that the success of the program resulted in BT being awarded the Best IT Training accolade at the training company Skillsoft's annual user conference in 2013, by a panel of independent industry experts.\nOriginality/value: Provides the inside story of a key development initiative at a major international telecommunications company.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Food- and situation-specific lifestyle segmentation of kitchen appliance market
|
[
"Lifestyles",
"Consumer goods",
"Consumer behaviour",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nExpression of concern: It has come to the attention of the publisher that Tables III and IV in \"Food-and situation-specific lifestyle segmentation of kitchen appliance market\", by Won-Moo Hur, Hyun Kyung Kim, JungKun Park published in the British Food Journal, Vol. 112 No. 3, 2010, draws upon similar data that was previously published in the Korean paper \"A study on female lifestyle-based market segmentation of kitchen appliances\" by Won Moo Hur, Wan Soo Lee, Hyong Tark Lee, published in the Korean Marketing Review, Vol. 21, 2005. The first author, Woo Moo Hur identified this reproduction of tables from the Korean paper without attribution and sincerely apologies for this.\nIntroduction: Lifestyle has been given considerable attention in marketing because it serves as a guideline for market segmentation, positioning, and so on (Gunter and Furnham, 1992). Further, lifestyle studies that reflect specific products or consumption situations are more useful and relevant in terms of understanding consumer needs and wants (Mowen and Minor, 1998). In this vein, Zaltman\nTheoretical background: Lifestyle and market segmentation\nResearch questions: The purpose of this research is to analyze lifestyles based on the AIO as it relates to consumers\nMethodology: In order to attain research objectives, an empirical check on the proposed methodology was performed. Personal surveys and interviews were carried out to obtain data. A total of 518 American female household consumers aged between 20 and 65 participated in this study (see Table I). The design of the sample was based on multi-stage stratified random selection of age (US Census Bureau, 2003). A total of 98 questionnaire items were used. The questionnaire was developed based on the food-related lifestyle model (Grunert et al., 2001; Brunso and Grunert, 1998). Also, the relevant AIO items of prior studies (Gunter and Furnham, 1992; Vyncke, 2002) were reviewed and selectively added to gather more comprehensive research items. Each item was measured with the seven-point Likert scale, and also included information gathering questions on purchasing behavior and demographic variables such as purchase intention and product possession.\nAnalysis and results: Lifestyle factor analysis\nDiscussion: Target market and strategy\nLimitations and future research: Despite the findings and implications of the study, this paper contains some limitations as well as future research directions. First, the market was segmented based on women\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The primary purpose of this research is to draw out in-depth lifestyle characteristics which can be used in new product development and marketing. To achieve this goal, this research aims to explore US female household consumers\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 518 US female consumers aged between 20 and 65 participated based on multi-stage stratified random selection of age. The cluster analysis was performed to identify meaningful segments.\nFindings: Six segments of Wellbeing-oriented, Social- and dining-oriented, Family-oriented, Innovation- and action-oriented, Price-conscious, and Convenience-oriented were found. These segments show differences in motivation for buying kitchen appliances, evaluation of quality aspect of foods, consumption situations, and in socio-demographic characteristics.\nResearch limitations/implications: These results identify that a product-specific lifestyle helps one to understand the market better than product function even in a technology-oriented industry. Consumer electronics companies should concentrate on their potential target market and understand their specific needs.\nOriginality/value: The study found that refined and modified AIO-based research is effective in terms of consumer lifestyle analysis. In addition, employing the combination of multivariate analytical techniques made it possible to attain the major objectives of the study\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Medical laboratory quality systems - a management review
|
[
"Management review",
"Checklist",
"ISO 15189:2012",
"Medical laboratory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The medical laboratory accreditation standard ISO 15189 (International Organization for Standardization, 2012), aligned with most management systems standards, includes a requirement to implement a management review, which is considered a vital management-system element, ensuring its continuing suitability and effectiveness. The recent revised and updated ISO 15189 recommends a management review using the process approach and requires that it shall review certain inputs, perform some value added activities and produce outputs. According to ISO 9000 (International Organization for Standardization, 2005, p. 11), a process is defined as a \"set of interrelated or interacting activities, which transforms inputs into outputs\" and that \"Processes in an organization are generally planned and carried out under controlled conditions to add value.\" The process approach in a management review context has been discussed in detail by Islin and Andersen (2008), who highlight that using a process approach in the management review ensures that the quality system continually improves. The managerial requirement significance, like a management review, is often underestimated by laboratory staff aiming at accreditation, who put most effort into meeting the accreditation standard's technical requirements (training, calibration, method validation, etc.). In newly established quality systems, an additional factor is that personnel do not have the experience to evaluate management review process necessity and to implement it in a way that will have a positive outcome and add value. They find it difficult to transform the ISO 15189 requirements concerning management review into comprehensive discussion topics. Therefore, developing a management review checklist helps laboratory staff to fully exploit and use the management review process advantageously. The proforma we present updates the Theodorou and Anastasakis (2009) checklist. Our approach has been revised to cover medical laboratories specifically and meet the new ISO 15189's requirements. Some topics not required by ISO 15189, but important medical laboratory quality management system elements, have been included in the checklist. The recent revised and updated ISO 15189:2012 introduces some changes, which should be recognized when planning and conducting a management review. The differences between ISO 15189:2012 and ISO 15189:2007 are summarized in Table I.\nISO 15189 management review requirements: According to ISO 15189:2012 (clause 4.15), laboratory managers are responsible for reviewing the quality management system at planned intervals; typically yearly or more frequently especially for newly established systems. The quality manager is responsible for ensuring that the management review is conducted in a systematic manner according to an established (and optionally documented) procedure and that the results (actions, decisions, findings) are recorded. The quality manager should also be responsible for preparing and distributing an agenda with topics that meet ISO 15189:2012 requirements and for ensuring that any action identified and recorded during the review meeting is implemented within an agreed time limit. Topics that should be discussed are presented in Table II, where their correspondence with relevant ISO 15189:2012 clauses is shown. We add two more inputs: first, quality and appropriateness of the laboratory's contribution to patient care and second, quality control activities. These elements comprise important medical laboratory quality management system elements (Parsley and Corrigan, 1999; Levett and Burney, 2011) and should have a place in the management review meeting. Moreover, staff suggestions and recommendations for improvement, which are treated as separate inputs by ISO 15189:2012, have been merged. Finally, the point concerning supplier performance has been slightly modified compared to the ISO 15189:2012 title to make sure that subcontractor performance and referral laboratories are discussed.\nManagement review checklist: Table III presents a management review checklist that analyzes the input points required by ISO 15189:2012 into simpler questions. This document can serve as a useful tool for quality system managers and the other participants, helping them to prepare an agenda, collect data (management review inputs), keep records and actions agreed or distributing minutes. As laboratory needs vary, it is advisable to use the checklist dynamically, modifying it, if necessary, depending on the findings. The way the checklist is used depends on laboratory size and discipline.\nConclusions: The management review process is integral to the medical laboratory quality management system and a major opportunity for senior managers to reaffirm their commitment to the management system and to continually improve its effectiveness. Management review is a process in which all laboratory staff are involved. They can collect data and should be informed about the outcome and action plan. Medical laboratory staffs often do not get the most out of a management review and fail to realize that an ineffective and inefficient management review process may lead to an ineffective and inefficient quality management system. Targeted management review checklists provide assurance that all the important quality management system aspects are analyzed and discussed, serving as step by step guide. This can help staff to improve the management review and make sure that the quality management system supports the laboratory's objectives and quality vision.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight changes in ISO 15189:2012 and ISO 15189:2007 concerning management review requirements and to present a management review checklist, which includes all the revised ISO 15189's requirements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The recent revised and updated ISO 15189:2012 standard recommends a management review using a process approach and includes some additional topics.\nFindings: The management review is a key element in many quality management systems, including medical laboratory management systems in accordance with ISO 15189. The process approach enables laboratory top managers and personnel to achieve all the quality management system's important inputs and outputs.\nOriginality/value: As laboratory staff often encounter difficulties fully exploiting the management review process, this checklist helps laboratory staff carry out an effective management review covering all the quality management system's important aspects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumer preferences for wine attributes in an emerging market
|
[
"India",
"Wine",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Millennials"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Indian alcohol industry has been dominated by stronger spirits (particularly whiskey) and beer for years. The wine market was almost non-existent in India a decade ago. However, the market witnessed significant growth in revenues in the last decade, with a compound annual growth rate of 23.8 per cent between 2011 and 2015 (Research and Markets, 2016). The wine consumption too grew at similar rates and touched 31.7 million litters in 2015. The per capita consumption of wine in India is quite low at around 10 millilitres per annum as compared to global average of four litters per annum (Technopak, 2012). Imported wines constitute 25 per cent of wine consumption in India (Research and Markets, 2016). The small but underpenetrated Indian wine market presents a tremendous growth opportunity because of the factors like rising disposable incomes, growing social acceptance of alcohol consumption by both genders, as also increased globalisation and awareness of the health benefits of wine. Modern retail chains have started allocating shelf space for different types and brands of wines. Additionally, some of the states in India like Maharashtra and Karnataka provide optimum climatic conditions for the growth of best-quality grapes for wine production. Recognising these opportunities, many domestic and multinational wine producers are making huge investments and strengthening their presence in India. The variety in price points, taste, colour, pack size, brands and other marketing variables results in complexity in wine purchase process. This poses significant challenges to the retailers in terms of stocking the optimal product mix. Hence, consumer preferences in wine retailing is an important issue in the narrative of wine industry in emerging markets.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: The following section is a review of academic studies conducted in the area of consumer research pertaining to wine preferences and purchase behaviour. In line with the current research objective, this review section particularly looks at the literature that enquires into the attributes that drive consumers' decision-making process with respect to the choice of wine. Hypotheses are forwarded based on the existing evidence and theory.\n3. Research methodology: Understanding the importance of different attributes in consumers' choice process can be done either by asking the consumers directly or by applying indirect methods. Conjoint analysis, a quantitative technique, uses indirect method and has been found to be quite useful in understanding the value consumers assign to different attributes. It has been successfully applied to know the structure of preference for food products as well as beverages, including wine (Johnson et al., 1991; Silayoi and Speece, 2007). This study also employs conjoint analysis. It involves getting respondents ratings or rankings on a set of product profiles that are a combination of different levels of shortlisted attributes. Conjoint analysis requires a careful selection of the attributes and their levels such that they are relevant and realistic (Baglyas, 2013). The attributes and levels for this study were derived from past studies discussed in the previous section, followed by insights derived from the qualitative study involving in-depth interviews discussed below.\n4. Results and discussion: The results of conjoint analysis performed on the ranking data obtained on the combinations presented in Table I are reproduced in Table II. The results indicate that price is the most important factor (30 per cent), followed by type of wine (27 per cent). The other three attributes were not significantly different in importance, with brand leading with 15 per cent importance, origin and taste at 14 per cent each. Within the options for price, Rs600 received a positive utility value of 0.17 while both 1,200 and 1,800 received negative utility values. These values indicate that high priced wines were not so favoured as low-priced wine, thus providing support to H1. Within the type of wine, red wine received the highest positive utility (0.12), followed by sparkling wine (0.07). White wine was the least preferred of the three wine types (-0.19). Additionally, known brands, Indian origin wines and semi-sweet wines had positive utility values of 0.15, 0.12 and 0.04, respectively indicating their preference over unknown brand names, imported wines and dry tasting wines. Thus, H2 which states higher preference for imported wines is not supported, while H3 which states higher preference for sweeter wines is supported.\n5. Conclusions: The study investigates the attributes that are important for consumers in their wine purchase decision. The study is the first attempt at understanding wine retailing issues in the emerging market of India. The main contribution of the study is that it advances the research on consumption preferences of wine for millennials which has huge market opportunity for wine retailers. Employing qualitative research through in-depth interviews, the study identified five attributes that are important for consumers in their wine purchase. These five attributes include brand, price, origin, type and taste of wine. Using conjoint analysis, the results indicate that an average young Indian consumer gives highest importance to price, followed by type of wine. Brand, origin and taste are the other important factors in that order, but with minor differences in importance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The growing wine market in India presents a tremendous opportunity for marketers to formulate a strategy targeted at the Indian consumers. The purpose of this paper is to identify the attributes that are important for young wine drinkers in their selection of wine, the preferred option within the identified attributes and the relative importance consumers place on the identified attributes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews were carried out to identify the attributes of primary importance in the wine selection process. Subsequently, conjoint analysis was conducted on the data collected through a survey of 252 respondents which ranked purchase intention of profiles derived from an orthogonal design.\nFindings: In-depth interviews revealed five factors as important in the choice of wine, namely, price, brand, taste, origin and type of the wine. The results of conjoint analysis showed price as the most important factor, followed by the type of the wine. Red was the most preferred type. Brand, taste and origin follow up in that order of importance with millennials preferring to buy familiar brands, sweet wines and of Indian origin.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the wine consumer behaviour research by identifying the attributes that are important for marketing of wine to the large segment of Indian millennial consumers. The findings will help marketers to better position their wines in the Indian market. The study will also aid in the development of product, branding and pricing decisions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An intelligent decision support system for on-demand fixture retrieval, adaptation and manufacture
|
[
"Decision making",
"Decision support systems",
"Analytical hierarchy process",
"Artifical intelligence",
"Fuzzy sets",
"Object-oriented methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Manufacturers are characterized by demand-driven production requirements at present and in the future. Responsiveness to the needs of their customers is a substantial challenge for them. This has significantly increased the requirements that must be considered to compete in a global market. Among various activities involved in manufacturing systems, fixtures are one of the major problematic components, which need special considerations (Boyle et al., 2011). Fixtures are required to hold, support and locate workpieces for specific processes or assembly operations. They directly affect the quality of products, productivity of systems and cost of products (Kumar and Paulraj, 2014; Ostojic et al., 2011; Peng et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2010). The effort and time spent for designing and fabricating fixtures significantly contributes to the production cycle in improving the current products and developing new products. The cost of fixture design and manufacture contributes to 10-20 percent of the total cost of manufacturing (Bi and Zhang, 2001). This cost increases if the available fixtures are not well-managed and -utilized. Traditionally, fixtures are ordered and assigned to their corresponding workpieces through trial-and-error approaches, which are highly resource and time-consuming. These traditional approaches are unable to enumerate all the available fixtures and stabilize their flows in a system.\n2. Review of literature: 2.1 Related works\n3. Problem formulation and assumptions: As stated in the introduction, the focus of this research is on-demand fixture retrieval and manufacture depending upon the requirements of part-orders from the manufacturing process at which it serves. Fixtures usually flow from one place to the other (e.g. from work center to storage and vice versa) in the loop of a given manufacturing system (Figure 2). In order to avoid blocking, starving and the waste of resources, the right decisions are required at order-arrival times. These decisions are essential to stabilize the flow of fixtures in the system. The decisions should be made using an appropriate DSS. As shown in Figure 2, the on-demand fixture retrieval and manufacture system is expected to execute decision-based fixture assignment to the current order-arrivals. The required data regarding the arriving new orders from the manufacturing system incorporates complete part-order descriptions. These descriptions include the required process plan sets and the features of part-orders that characterize them for the assignment of fixtures. The manufacturing system (e.g. a machining center, an assembly line, a welding station, etc.) receives part/fixture collectives based on the specific decisions made at the on-demand fixture retrieval and manufacture system. The main decision alternatives are:\n4. Proposed DSS: Figure 4 indicates the decision logic and flowchart of the proposed DSS. The details of this diagram are presented in the next sub-sections. The DSS integrates the CBR, RBR and fuzzy set theory components of an AI. The proposed DSS consists of two major components: data structuring and decision analysis components. The system uses Microsoft Excel tools so as to structure and normalize the feature vector values of ordered parts. These tools are usually simple and efficient to undertake simple matrix operations. It is also easy to integrate Excel tools with Java applications. After structuring and normalizing the feature vectors, part-orders are represented as cases using an object-oriented (OO) approach in the Java programming language for decision analysis.\n5. Illustrative numerical example: This numerical example is demonstrated by considering one of the fundamental machining operations, a milling operation center. It is illustrated in a laboratory environment to make it easier and more understandable. It aims to assign and control milling fixtures in an ideal manufacturing system. All the devices are assumed to be available in functional states. In total, 12 attributes are selected by experts to represent ten new cases and two prior cases. These attributes are hierarchically structured using five levels (Figure 11). The first (top) level contains the goal of the MADM process i.e. choosing the most similar processed order to the current order-arrival. The second level incorporates three major attributes of the MADM such as: the physical features of the workpiece, the types of operations required for milling a specific part-order, and the process requirements to undertake the required operations. These three major attributes are sub-divided into the secondary sub-attributes at level three. At the fourth level, the external and internal operations are sub-divided into the tertiary sub-attributes. The bottom level consists of all the prior cases (n-training samples) that are to be evaluated by the AHP. Each prior case is connected to every attribute that has no more further branches, for MADM analysis (see Saaty, 1994).\n6. Conclusions: The problems of fixture assignment and control were not adequately researched in the past. Most of the past studies focused on the adaptation of prior design cases. In the current research, systematic fixture assignment and control approach is required to stabilize the flows of fixtures in a given system. This paper has proposed a DSS that assists users to retrieve the available fixtures, evaluate the current states of the retrieved fixtures, reuse or adapt the retrieved fixtures and manufacture new fixtures depending upon the demand of the system. The proposed DSS is a promising approach to undertake such decisions, which are essential to utilize the available fixtures. It integrates CBR, RBR, fuzzy set theory and the AHP to retrieve the right prior cases and propose the three decision sets (reuse, adapt and manufacture). This DSS can analyze the case attributes and their weights that are expressed using continuous and discrete numerical values, nominal values, descriptive/symbolic values and fuzzy linguistic terms. This implies that the DSS is flexible enough to process imprecise, vague and uncertain information to emulate human reasoning and decision-making capabilities. This improves the quality of decision-making in real situations.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a decision support system (DSS) that stabilizes the flow of fixtures in manufacturing systems. The proposed DSS assists decision-makers to reuse or adapt the available fixtures or to manufacture new fixtures depending upon the similarity between the past and new cases. It considers the cost effectiveness of the proposed decision when an adaptation decision is passed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research problem is addressed by integrating case-based reasoning, rule-based reasoning and fuzzy set theory. Cases are represented using an object-oriented (OO) approach to characterize them by their feature vectors. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and the inverse of weighted Euclidean distance measure are applied for case retrieval. A machining operation is illustrated as a computational example to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed DSS.\nFindings: The problems of fixture assignment and control have not been well-addressed in the past, although fixture management is one of the complex problems in manufacturing. The proposed DSS is a promising approach to address such kinds of problems using the three components of an artificial intelligence and FAHP.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although the DSS is tested in a laboratory environment using a numerical example, it has not been validated in real industrial systems.\nPractical implications: The DSS is proposed in terms of simple rules and equations. This implies that it is not complex for software development and implementation. The illustrated numerical example indicates that the proposed DSS can be implemented in the real-world.\nOriginality/value: Demand-driven fixture retrieval and manufacture to assign the right fixtures to planned part-orders using an intelligent DSS is the main contribution. It provides special consideration for the adaptation of the available fixtures in a system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The contribution of academic scholarship to management development
|
[
"Management education",
"Management development",
"Academic knowledge"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Academic study of business and management is one, increasingly utilised, means of developing managers. The growth of this approach to development has been such that by the beginning of the twenty-first century The Global Foundation for Management Education (2008, pp. 26-27) conservatively estimated that there were at least 13.2 million students of business and management worldwide.\nTheoretical background: Academic scholarship may take many forms. Krathwohl (2002), in his revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, proposes four types of knowledge: factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive (Krathwohl, 2002, p. 214). Factual knowledge includes terminology and specific details and elements, while conceptual knowledge includes classifications, principles, theories and models, and procedural knowledge skills and techniques. Finally, metacognitive knowledge is defined as \"Knowledge of cognition in general as well as awareness and knowledge of one's own cognition\" (Krathwohl, 2002).\nResearch design: The research consisted of two sets of semi-structured interviews with senior managers. The first involved interviews with a purposive sample of 24 senior managers from five organisations. A \"senior manager\" was defined as an individual who contributed to creating a strategic plan, had some corporate responsibility, dealt with complexity and ambiguity, and was required to proactively identify and implement solutions. Each of the interviewees worked within established organisations with a minimum size of 200 people and had personal responsibility for a team of at least ten people. In addition, each had been exposed to either formal management education or programmes of management training and development. In all, 23 of the 24 were either graduates or professionally qualified to an equivalent level; six had a masters qualification in management; five had a management qualification at either diploma or certificate level; ten had participated in comprehensive \"in house\" management development training programmes, and four had attended short courses at a variety of established business schools.\nFindings: The semi-structured interviews found that experienced managers made little explicit reference to academic scholarship when responding to challenges in the workplace. As detailed in a previous paper, the managers' responses were much more likely to be based upon fellow professionals, intuition, personal experience and values (Francis-Smythe et al., 2013). Indeed, only 13 of the 39 interviewees were able to point to any instances in which academic scholarship had played any part in informing their approach to a challenging situation.\nThe development of experienced managers: This research has revealed that academic scholarship had only a limited, direct influence on the practice and development of experienced managers. One way in which it did inform their practice was by providing retrospective confirmation for previously established managerial practices, in line with Mezirow's (1977) proposition that new knowledge can be an important \"after-the-fact\" element. However, as Veil (2011) has noted, the tendency to notice only information which confirms our existing perspectives can present a barrier to learning, and thus this use of academic scholarship may actually hinder, rather than enhance, development.\nSummary and conclusions: Current literature suggests that management development requires less of a focus on understanding \"facts, frameworks and theories\" (Datar et al., 2011, p. 452), and more of a focus on the development of skills of critical thinking and management, and understanding of personal values. Others, in a similar vein, have argued that effective management requires managers' understanding of such representational knowledge to be supplemented by the development of tacit knowledge derived from continual, vigilant assessment of their environment (Chia and Holt, 2008). However, the literature also cautions against relying solely on the learning of procedures (Benjamin and O'Reilly, 2011), suggesting that this may hinder development.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of academic scholarship on the development and practice of experienced managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews with experienced managers, modelled on the critical incident technique. \"Intertextuality\" and framework analysis technique are used to examine whether the use of academic scholarship is a sub-conscious phenomenon.\nFindings: Experienced managers make little direct use of academic scholarship, using it only occasionally to provide retrospective confirmation of decisions or a technique they can apply. However, academic scholarship informs their practice in an indirect way, their understanding of the \"gist\" of scholarship comprising one of many sources which they synthesise and evaluate as part of their development process.\nPractical implications: Managers and management development practitioners should focus upon developing skills of synthesising the \"gist\" of academic scholarship with other sources of data, rather than upon the detailed remembering, understanding and application of specific scholarship, and upon finding/providing the time and space for that \"gisting\" and synthesis to take place.\nOriginality/value: The paper addresses contemporary concerns about the appropriateness of the material delivered on management education programmes for management development. It is original in doing this from the perspective of experienced managers, and in using intertextual analysis to reveal not only the direct but also the indirect uses of they make of such scholarship. The finding of the importance of understanding the \"gist\" rather than the detail of academic scholarship represents a key conceptual innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Creating communities of professionalism: addressing cultural and structural barriers
|
[
"Leadership",
"Organizational change"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Over the last quarter century a good deal of attention has been given to the topic of professional learning communities. During that time, some parts of the community storyline have been fleshed out quite thoroughly while others remain thinly developed. For example, we have learned a good deal about the pillars that support professional communities. Specifically, we see that scholars have drawn on four interrelated bodies of research. One is the emergence of the importance of \"social capital,\" an idea generally attributed to James Coleman. A second is the theory of \"learning organizations\" initially developed by Senge. A third is the growing scholarship on \"teams\" in productive organizations. The last is the development of the concept of \"communities of practice,\" a framework forged by Lave and Wenger in the 1990s.\nMethodology: In this section, we outline the architecture and design for this review on making professional communities a possibility using scaffolding provided by Hallinger (2012a, b, 2014). The goal of the review was twofold. We sought to understand challenges that inhibit the growth of professional community. We also wanted to form an empirical understanding of the ways in which educators could meet these challenges. In both cases, we wished to grow this knowledge in the complexity of schooling and the rapids of continuous school improvement. Around these two goals, the focus is on substantive and conceptual strands of implementation. We do not address methodological issues. Research questions mirror the two goals of the review. The framework for the review is a mixture of research on change and implementation, school improvement, and community.\nBarriers: Structural challenges\nSupport for creating professional learning communities: To date, we have examined how the concept of communities of professional practice can founder. Practitioners, developers, researchers, and policy makers require a firm understanding of these dynamics. Equally important, however, they require an operational manual and a well stocked toolbox to create conditions that nurture the formation and growth of teacher communities (Clift et al., 1992; Darling-Hammond et al., 1995). Leithwood et al. (1999, p. 215) capture this as follows: \"The principal challenge facing those designing schools as learning organizations is to determine the organizational conditions that foster individual and collective learning and to build these conditions into the school.\" Fullan (Fullan and Ballew, 2002, p. 14) outlines the assignment thus: \"the obligation is to remove barriers to sharing, create mechanisms for sharing, and reward those who do share.\" Research that deals with the values of communities of practice is readily available. Knowledge directly addressing the creation of professional communities (as opposed to understanding its qualities) is less well-developed, however (Blanc et al., 2010).\nThe critical role of the principal: Although we possess less knowledge than we might desire, we have accumulated some understandings about principals and communities of professional practice over the last 20 years. Investigators inform us, for example, that community-building work unfolds within three domains: preemptive prevention, removal of existing barriers, and/or the construction of an infrastructure to support the development of professional communities. We also understand that the principal has a cardinal position in this work, a conclusion uncovered in nearly every study of teacher communities of professional practice (Cosner, 2011; Louis et al., 2010; Stoll et al., 2006). Research also reveals that there are significant differences in the nature of leadership in schools with robust communities and those with weak communities (Mangin, 2007; Youngs and King, 2002). That is, \"principals can construct their role to either support or inhibit the strength and quality of teacher community\" (McLaughlin and Talbert, 2001, p. 101). With increasing frequency, research confirms that it is the principal who acts as the catalyst to bring important supports to life (Bryk et al., 2010; Mitchell and Sackney, 2006). Without effective leadership, resources, time, and structures have almost no hope of emerging to support collaborative work (Cosner, 2009; Hayes et al., 2004). We also know that leadership and professional community are interdependent, having an iterative relationship (McLaughlin and Talbert, 2001; Murphy, 2005). Perhaps most importantly, there is a growing knowledge base which suggests that of all the ways that principals have at their disposal to influence student learning, developing, and supporting collaborative communities of professional practice is one of the most powerful (Murphy and Torre, 2014; Supovitz et al., 2010).\nConclusion: The profession has placed a stake in the ground about the need to build powerful culture in schools. Culture in conjunction with academic process, it is argued, will produce the higher levels of academic and social learning that is so much in demand. Particularly heartening is the accumulation of evidence that a focus on culture has the potential to reach students in peril, creating belonging and engagement where too little exists today.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The goal of this narrative synthesis is twofold. The purpose of this paper is to understand the barriers and constraints that hinder or prevent the growth of professional community. The author also want to form an empirical understanding of how educators can be successful in meeting these challenges. In both cases, the author wish to grow this knowledge in the complexity of schooling and the rapids of continuous school improvement. The conceptual architecture for the review is a mixture of research on change and implementation, school improvement, and community.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper can best be described as an integrative review or a narrative synthesis - an interpretation of the literature (Vescio et al., 2008), a method that is especially useful when combing qualitative and quantitative research findings. The author follow guidance from Hallinger in explaining the construction of the paper. The goal is to explore the broadest landscape possible to distill knowledge and understanding on the one hand and provide usable material on the other. In the words of Battistich, the aim is \"to develop integrative explanatory concepts that provide people with a useful framework for considering action under particular circumstances.\"\nFindings: The paper concludes that there are dynamic cultural and well-entrenched structural barriers that make the realization of professional community problematic. Some of these elements are visible. Many others are deeply buried in the meta-narrative of school improvement. The author also finds that absent direct attention to these conditions, efforts to nurture professional community in schools will be seriously handicapped.\nResearch limitations/implications: Narrative syntheses offer the hope of deep understanding of domains of school improvement. They permit the inclusion of findings garnered from an array of methodologies. At the same time, this mode of investigation lacks the precision associated with more structured methods of knowledge accumulation. Even when done well, it places considerable responsibility on investigators in making sense of findings.\nOriginality/value: By examining research from a wide area of domains, the author is able to construct a comprehensive map of the world of bringing professional community to life in schools for researches, policy actors, developers, and practitioners.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Risk-handling styles in a context of flooding and uncertainty in Jakarta, Indonesia: An analytical framework to analyse heterogenous risk-behaviour
|
[
"Indonesia",
"Manmade disaster",
"Heterogeneity",
"Natural hazard",
"Risk behaviour",
"Slum"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In 2012, floods accounted for 53 per cent of the number of people worldwide reported affected by natural disasters (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 2013)[1]. Flooding has become the most pervasive and frequent form of disaster in Asia (Douglass, 2013, p. 12); it certainly is an enormous problem in Indonesia's capital and mega city Jakarta.\nHeterogenous risk responses in relation to natural hazards: from strategies to styles: The heterogeneous risk behaviour that I observed in Jakarta accords with the findings of several other scholars who have studied human actors' flood responses, both in Asia and in Europe (Zoleta-Nanthes, 2002; Grothmann and Reusswig, 2006; Few, 2003; Gaillard et al., 2008; Harries, 2008; Febrianti, 2010; Texier, 2008).\nMethods and research area: From 2010, I conducted 12 months of anthropological fieldwork in one of Jakarta's poorest and most flood-prone neighbourhoods, located alongside the banks of a branch of the Ciliwung River, the largest river in Jakarta. In total, approximately 3.5 million people live along the banks of the Ciliwung. Of them, 759 have settled in Bantaran Kali - 232 households, counted by the number of household heads (Kepala Keluarga, KK). About half of these kampong inhabitants were born in Jakarta (orang Betawi or orang asli), and they have either built their houses themselves on a vacant area of land or inherited it from their parents. Several times a year, residents' houses are inundated by contaminated river water, damaging their values and making them ill. Floods are particularly problematic for these riverbank settlers because the government offers no social safety net to support flood victims. The residents have no personal insurance to help them recover from floods; neither can they afford it to save large sums of money as a buffer that could be used in times of disaster. Most of them earn under Rp 50,000 per week (less than five dollars) by selling snacks or rice meals on the local market or the streets surrounding the kampong. This is an income just about enough to pay for the rent, feed one's family and pay for the school uniforms of the children.\nAutonomy (orang antisipasi): The first risk-handling style that I describe is used by 22 per cent of the research population, and has two main characteristics. First, it concerns risk-handling practices that are autonomous rather than dependent or related to external aid institutions. Second, it involves risk-handling practices that offer short-term solutions to acute problems or stress experiences, rather than long-term investments in security.\nCooperation with government (orang ajar): The second risk-handling style that is commonly used by inhabitants of Bantaran Kali, is used by 14 per cent of the total research population. In contrast to the risk-handling practices of the people with an autonomous risk-handling style, large differences become notable. First, while it became clear that riverbank settlers with an autonomous risk-handling style usually try to handle risks without making help of the use of others, the \"cooperation with government\" risk-handling style typically involves other actors. For example, during floods, people with this style usually walk around in the neighbourhood, ordering neighbours to follow the formal safety instructions as communicated by the local government; they help to set up governmental shelters; help to spread flood-risk warnings in the community, and assist older, handicapped or otherwise vulnerable neighbours in evacuation. Moreover, throughout the year, people with this style engage in \"teaching\" or \"lecturing\" (mengajar) - informal meetings that are set up with fellow residents to inform them about flood risks and safety. In these \"lectures\", people with a \"cooperation with the government\" style tell fellow residents, in accordance with the safety instructions of the local government, that they should not remain in or atop their houses after a flood-risk message has been spread, but evacuate to governmental shelters; that they should not return to their houses before the water has receded until one of the orang ajar has declared it safe to do so; that after floods they should get themselves medically checked, wash themselves and clean their houses with clean water to prevent disease.\nDependency (orang susah): The dependent risk-handling style is used by 18 per cent of the total research population. Similar to the \"cooperation with the government\" risk-handling style that was discussed above, the dependency risk-handling style also involves the maintenance of instrumental relations with actors (patrons) from outside the kampong, thereby providing riverbank settlers with a personal flood insurance. Only these patrons do not work in the government, but instead in economically resourceful aid institutions involved in the flood management of Bantaran Kali. And unlike the small and irregular financial aid that people who cooperate with the government as a risk-handling style receive in return for their political loyalty, the people with a dependency risk-handling style receive regular aid, with amounts that are more than sufficient to recover from floods.\nResistance (orang siap): The fourth and final risk-handling style that I discuss in this paper concerns the practices and perceptions of a group of inhabitants (19 per cent of the total research population) in Bantaran Kali that exhibits risk-handling practices that can be called defensive or even aggressive. By this I mean to say that they express in words and deeds much anger and anxiety to those actors in society who they blame for floods: the city government and its bureaucrats. Unlike their fellow neighbours, who either cooperate with governmental actors or acquiesce with their flood-management policies by quietly making use of their own, alternative strategies to handle flood risk, people with a resistance risk-handling style are overtly angry with the government for not solving floods and not offering sufficient, structural aid after floods. This anger is reflected in their practices: they protest the government, they buy weapons in order to \"fight the government\", or they join gangs and local militia groups - organizations that they deem more trustworthy than the government, or more effective in accessing what they perceive as \"justice\" (keadilan, hukuman), that is: living in a flood-free area, or at least receiving sufficient aid to recover from recurrent floods. Also, they overtly refuse to follow up safety advises as communicated by the government or the riverbank settlers who cooperate with them, accusing them of having a second agenda and of being untrustworthy advisors. Their anger is also reflected in their discourse: the people with a resistance risk-handling style consistently speak of their \"right\" (hak) to be safe; the fact that it is \"unfair\" (tidak adil) that they are forced to live in a flood-prone riverbank as other houses in Jakarta are unaffordable for them; and about the felt urgency to access \"justice\".\nFactors underlying heterogeneous risk-handling styles: Elsewhere I describe in detail the complex reasons behind the heterogeneous risk-handling styles: an analysis that goes beyond the scope of this paper (van Voorst, 2014a, b, 2015)[14]. I will therefore only pinpoint to some of the most important factors underlying the four discussed risk-handling styles, as these are useful for the discussion on risk-management and intervention below.\nDiscussion and implications: In the introduction to this paper, I have argued that a better understanding of heterogeneous risk behaviour and the factors underlying it, is crucial for both scholars of risk and policy makers concerned with safety-policies. For governmental flood interventions to become effective, particularly, it is needed that policy makers acknowledge and understand heterogeneous risk behaviour. This paper contributes to such understanding by defining and analysing four common risk-handling styles in a context of recurrent flood risk in Jakarta, and by introducing a new method to define heterogeneous risk behaviour in future studies. It is hoped that this will make possible systemic comparisons of human actors' different risk-styles - something that would greatly enrich our understanding of the factors underlying heterogeneous risk behaviour. Instead of narrowing the focus of research down to one isolated risk, namely floods and the practices people exploit that are directly related to flood risk, this study took into account the different pressing risks and problems that shape daily life for riverbank settlers, a living situation that is both uncertain and normal at the same time. Viewing people's practices in the face of risk as \"frequent life experiences\" (Bankoff, 2007, p. 26) and, more than that, as only one of the many risks and problems people encounter in their daily lives, I was able to show that behaviour that is exhibited in the face of one risk may well be associated with another risk. For example, some flood victims in Bantaran Kali refuse support that is offered to them by the local government not because they underestimate the threat that a flood poses to their well-being but because they highly distrust the intentions of the government institution that offers them aid during and after a flood event. Had this study taken into account the flood hazard only, then no explanation for the differences in their risk-styles might have been found. There are several arguments that can be made on the basis of the results of my analysis. First of all: my research confirms the findings of scholars such as Lavigne et al. (2008) and Zoleta-Nanthes (2002) that risk behaviour of human actors vis-a-vis natural hazards is heterogeneous. Precisely because this finding is by no means new nor surprising, it is disturbing that most intervention flood-policies in Jakarta continue to be homogeneous. My research explains why homogenous safety advises communicated by the government are likely to be followed up by a selected group of residents only, namely those who cooperate with the government and/or trust political contacts. In my study, this counts for a minority of the population, not for those who deem the government an ineffective safety-institution, and neither for those who have come to distrust the government on the basis of past, negative experiences with bureaucrats. In order to make risk-interventions more effective for the whole population, it is necessary to acknowledge alternative risk practices.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce an analytical framework to define and interpret heterogenous risk behaviour within communities facing natural hazard. By employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the paper presents a categorization of \"risk-styles\" that are commonly used by Jakartan riverbank settlers facing recurrent risk. Unlike the more common concept of \"flood-coping strategies\", the notion of risk-styles extends the analysis of responses directly related to floods and involves a broader set of risk and poverty practices. The proposed analytical framework is likely to be useful for future research on the topic of understanding heterogenous risk behaviour, particularly for systemic comparisons of human responses to natural hazard in other parts of the world.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data underlying this paper were obtained during a year of extensive anthropological fieldwork in 2010 and 2011, in one of the most flood-prone riverbank settlements in Jakarta, Indonesia. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods were used to obtain data in the field, while the analyses of risk-styles was based on quantitative and qualitative analyses of the survey results and narratives of the respondents of the study.\nFindings: This paper defines and analyses four risk-handling styles that are commonly used by inhabitants of a flood-prone riverbank settlement in Jakarta (called Bantaran Kali in this paper) to handle recurrent flood risk. These risk-styles are not completely fixed over time; in particular circumstances, people may and do change their risk-style. However, they should not be considered random or ad hoc. Instead, the study shows how these risk-styles reflect practices that gradually develop during people's lives in a highly uncertain living environment (characterized by flood risk and poverty-related risks), and are more or less consistently used over longer periods of time and in relation to different types of risk and uncertainty. The paper argues that the four risk-styles described are influenced by factors that may seem unrelated to flood risk at first sight, such as trust in other actors and the government, networks and socializing skills, and the opportunities and limitations that are shaped by the economic and political structures in which riverbank settlers live.\nOriginality/value: This paper takes a bottom-up perspective and sheds light on the perceptions of a group of marginalized riverbank settlers on the risk of floods. By introducing the notion of risk-styles, it adds nuanced and empirical data that were obtained during extensive fieldwork to the debate on understanding heterogeneous risk behaviour. The originality of the paper lies in the combined use of qualitative and quantitative tools that were used to categorize common risk-styles as well as in the proposed analyses for defining and understanding heterogeneous risk behaviour.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Responses to professional identity threat: Identity management strategies in incident narratives of health care professionals
|
[
"The Netherlands",
"Narratives",
"Sensemaking",
"Professional identity",
"Identity management strategies",
"Incidents"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the context of incidents, professional identity has vital implications. For instance, cooperation across professional boundaries in health care is often difficult to achieve because of the professional identity of members of different professional groups, e.g., physicians and nurses (Kreindler et al., 2012). Suboptimal cooperation between professional groups has been associated with an increased risk of incidents (e.g. Sutcliffe et al., 2004). Moreover, professional identity is reflected in the content of incident reports (Iedema et al., 2006; Waring, 2009), and finally, incidents can result in an experience of threat to the professional identity (Dixon-Woods et al., 2009). Social identity theory (SIT; e.g. Tajfel and Turner, 1979) posits that when a group's identity is threatened, people who identify with that group (in this case, a profession) will be motivated to maintain a positive image of their group vis-a-vis other groups, which is expressed through identity management strategies (Blanz et al., 1998). Given the important connection between identity and incidents, we study how health care professionals use identity management strategies in response to incidents.\nBackground: The professional group is one of a number of possible sources of social identity (Lammers and Garcia, 2009). Social identity is \"that part of an individual's self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his [or her] membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership\" (Tajfel, 1981, p. 255). Central to SIT are the notions that people categorize themselves and others in terms of group membership, that they tend to feel affectively connected to these groups, and that they are motivated to maintain a positive social identity, because membership of the group is important for the self-concept. Such maintenance of a positive social identity can be achieved through social comparison with other groups (Tajfel and Turner, 1979). A final important characteristic of SIT is that identification affects behavior, because people have a tendency to behave in accordance with the norms and values present within their group (Van Dick, 2001).\nMethods: We performed a qualitative interview study with 14 health care professionals. Our respondents were five physicians, three residents, and six nurses, all working in a center that is part of a hospital in the Netherlands specialized in ophthalmology (eye care). The hospital promoted a positive safety culture consisting of openness and transparency. As part of this endeavor, all professionals were trained in non-technical skills, focussing on communicative behavior such as speaking up and performing a time-out (i.e. an extra safety check before commencing a surgical procedure). Given the profitability of the medical procedure performed in the center, the hospital encouraged its execution by setting a yearly target number. As a consequence, these short procedures were performed under great time pressure. Furthermore, the patient receives local anesthetics during this particular procedure. This presents both patients and care providers with particular challenges (Karlsson et al., 2012). For instance, patients' trust in their care providers during local anesthesia is important for their feeling of safety during the procedure (Mauleon et al., 2007). Specifically, it can be stressful for a patient when the surgical staff uses technical jargon (Caddick et al., 2012). Directly discussing errors or complications among practitioners might also cause stress for a patient, which would increase the risk of an adverse event. In practice, the circumstance of local anesthetics forces all professionals involved to act diplomatically and formally toward each other. The characteristics mentioned above - training in non-technical skills, time pressure, and the presence of awake patients - are important context information because they give an indication of how interaction between professional groups would generally occur in this setting.\nResults: In total, we identified 51 narratives in the 14 interviews. The length of the narratives varied from four sentences to three pages of written text. There was hardly any overlap in the incidents respondents discussed. Respondents often discussed incidents in general terms, referring to incidents that occurred more often, which was marked by the use of words such as \"sometimes,\" \"often,\" and \"mostly.\" This could be an indication of a possible response to the identity threat incidents pose: by acknowledging that incidents indeed occur but that they also happen to others, the association between the behavior of specific individuals, and the occurrence of incidents is diminished. From the total number of narratives, we coded 23 as non-specific incidents and 28 as specific incidents. In total, 16 of these specific incidents were near misses, compared to seven adverse events and one no harm event. We did not find any indication that these different types of incidents were related to differences in the use of identity management strategies. Therefore, we do not make a distinction between them in the remainder of this paper.\nDiscussion: Increased use of multidisciplinary teams to carry out health care tasks, combined with more attention to the prevention of incidents, has brought the manner in which health care professionals collaborate to the forefront of management and research interests. Our results support the claim from SIT that individuals employ identity management strategies in situations of possible identity threat. Our finding that these strategies can be expressed in different ways, sometimes even simultaneously, contributes to our knowledge of the way health care professionals deal with the complexity of interprofessional cooperation and incident occurrence. Our findings also yield some unsettling thoughts that contribute to recent debates on the undesirable side-effects of emphasizing interprofessional teamwork; see, for instance, Finn et al. (2010), who found that this actually led to a reinforcement of hierarchical barriers in cooperation and communication. With our two main findings, we add knowledge on the crucial and problematic role professional identity plays in the dynamics of the relationships between professional groups.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore sensemaking of incidents by health care professionals through an analysis of the role of professional identity in narratives of incidents. Using insights from social identity theory, the authors argue that incidents may create a threat of professional identity, and that professionals make use of identity management strategies in response to this identity threat.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on a qualitative analysis of incident narratives in 14 semi-structured interviews with physicians, nurses, and residents at a Dutch specialist hospital. The authors used an existing framework of identity management strategies to categorize the narratives.\nFindings: The analysis yielded two main results. First, nurses and residents employed multiple types of identity management strategies simultaneously, which points to the possible benefit of combining different strategies. Second, physicians used the strategy of patronization of other professional groups, a specific form of downward comparison.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors discuss the implications of the findings in terms of the impact of identity management strategies on the perpetuation of hierarchical differences in health care.\nPractical implications: The authors argue that efforts to manage incident handling may profit from considering social identity processes in sensemaking of incidents.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that systematically explores how health care professionals use identity management strategies to maintain a positive professional identity in the face of incidents. This study contributes to research on interdisciplinary cooperation in health care.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
All work and no play? Antecedents of the leisure involvement of Taiwan expatriate managers in Mainland China
|
[
"Expatriates",
"Human resource management",
"Employee involvement",
"Human resource strategies",
"Burnout",
"Data analysis",
"Hours of work",
"Employees behaviour",
"Employee turnover",
"Ethnic groups"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Expatriates are employees sent by a parent company to work for a relatively long time (usually six months up to five years) in an international (other country or regional) subsidiary or branch (Silbiger and Pines, 2014; Financial Times, 2019). Expatriate employees from Taiwan are the core managers in Taiwan-invested manufacturing firms in China, and they must adjust to working and living there to be fully productive in factories. However, many have not adjusted well to the social and employment environments, causing inadequate performance and premature departures. A contributing factor is the inability to reduce stress through appropriate leisure activities (Lo, 2005), and to have a healthy work-life balance.\n2. Literature review: In deriving hypotheses and building this research' conceptual model, three distinct streams of literature were considered. First, research on expatriation and international job assignments was consulted, and particularly work on expatriate success and failure. The second focus was on leisure involvement and its antecedents, and perceived freedom in leisure and leisure coping strategies. Third, literature on expatriate life in Mainland China was reviewed. The research hypotheses are shown within the literature review according to the themes to which they pertain.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Survey questionnaire and measurement scale development\n4. Results: 4.1 Characteristics of respondents\n5. Conclusions and implications: The main conclusion of this research is that, for Taiwan expatriate managers in Mainland China, the level of leisure involvement was mainly influenced by perceived freedom in leisure. This implies that even if Taiwan expatriates have strong intentions to cope with stress and job burnout, their actual levels of leisure involvement are low. Taiwan expatriates generally have high levels of job burnout in their Chinese assignments and it is the norm for them to work overtime. Additionally, in Guangzhou they treat the company as their homes and are continuously on standby. These circumstances cause most Taiwan expatriate managers to be physically exhausted and emotionally distraught, and it is difficult for them to devote more time to participate in leisure activities. Only by reducing job burnout, while enhancing perceptions of freedom in leisure, will Taiwan expatriate managers in Mainland China pay more attention to leisure time and its effective use in reducing stress.\n6. Limitations and future research: There are limitations to this research and opportunities for further investigation based on its findings. From the conceptual and theoretical perspective, other variables could be introduced to enhance the predictive capability of the model in terms of leisure involvement. From the individual perspective, for example, a work-life balance scale may have been appropriate since many of these managers were separated from their spouses and families, and this may have contributed to stress and burnout. Expatriates feelings on subjective well-being may also be worthy of inclusion (Newman et al., 2014). Alienation from work (Seeman, 1967) is another personal factor that could be considered, as this is a concept depicting work that is not intrinsically rewarding. From the corporate perspective, various supportive concepts could be contemplated. For example, Liu (2009) studied Taiwan expatriates working in Mainland China, examining the relationships among perceived organizational support, affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. Selection procedures, pre-expatriation training and mentorship are other processes that have an impact on expatriate success (Cheng and Lin, 2009; Nadja et al., 2016; van der Laken et al., 2016; Chen and Chiu, 2018).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to construct and test an antecedent relationship path model for the leisure involvement of Taiwan expatriate managers working in Mainland China. A leisure temporal-spatial involvement (LTSI) was developed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Burnout, perceived freedom in leisure and leisure coping strategies were proposed in the conceptual model as antecedents of leisure involvement. A questionnaire survey gathered information on the characteristics of respondents, including demographic/socio-economic details, expatriate profile and leisure activity participation. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used in this research to measure the relationships among the four scale variables (job burnout, perceived freedom in leisure, leisure coping strategies and leisure involvement).\nFindings: The expatriate managers experienced high burnout levels, particularly in the form of exhaustion. Their leisure involvement was mainly influenced by perceived freedom in leisure.\nResearch limitations/implications: This work contributes to the research on leisure and expatriation in several ways. It is one of the first empirical studies to examine prominent leisure concepts (freedom, coping and involvement) within the milieu of expatriation. The findings provide further support to the notion of the \"presumed cultural similarity paradox,\" in that expatriates of Chinese ethnicity still had significant adjustment difficulties in Mainland China. The research again confirms the challenges of Mainland China as an expatriation destination.\nPractical implications: The research results have significant practical value and may assist Taiwan-capital enterprises in improving expatriates' leisure life management. The section on Managerial and policy implications outlines the implications for the actors involved.\nSocial implications: This work has social implications since the Taiwan expatriate managers are not effectively adjusting to their work-life environments in Guangzhou. Greater social contact between locals and these managers is recommended in the future.\nOriginality/value: A new scale for leisure involvement (LTSI), expressed in temporal and spatial dimensions, is developed to fit the particular situations faced by expatriates. This is also one of only a few empirical research studies to consider leisure involvement within an expatriation framework.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effect of workplace spirituality on salespeople's organisational deviant behaviours: research propositions and practical implications
|
[
"Ethics",
"Organizational change",
"Salesforce",
"Sales management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nIntroduction: Sales research has always been busy investigating salespeople's positive behaviours or those salespeople behaviours that would likely positively affect the sales organisation or its members (Jelinek and Ahearne, 2006b). Frontline positive behaviours such as customer orientation, ethical selling behaviour etc. have been repeatedly examined by a number of researchers (Cadogan et al., 2009; Schwepker, 2003). Similarly, intra-organisational positive behaviours such as salespeople's organisational citizenship behaviours have been studied in depth by various researchers (such as MacKenzie et al., 1998; Netemeyer et al., 1997; Piercy et al., 2003). However, the literature on salespeople's negative behaviours is very less (Jelinek and Ahearne, 2006a, b). Only a few research articles on these behaviours in major research outlets such as Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management (2006, Issue 4) and Industrial Marketing Management (2006, Issue 4) have appeared in the recent past.\nSalespeople's deviant behaviours: Over the last 15 years, employee's negative behaviours have been studied under the different terms (Jelinek and Ahearne, 2010) such as antisocial behaviour (Giacalone and Greenberg, 1997), workplace incivility (Anderson and Pearson, 1999), dysfunctional organisational behaviour (Griffin et al., 1998), organisational misbehaviour (Vardi and Wiener, 1996) etc. These terms represent different negative behaviours. To gather this scattered knowledge into one comprehensive chart, Robinson and Bennett (1995) developed a framework in which they grouped together such behaviours into two general classes: organisational and interpersonal - and referred to these set of behaviours as workplace deviance, which over the years has become a dominant label (Robinson and Greenberg, 1999; as cited in Jelinek and Ahearne, 2010). Robinson and Bennett (1995, p. 556) define workplace deviance as \"voluntary behaviour of organisational members that violates significant organisational norms and, in so doing, threatens the well-being of the organisation and/or its members\".\nTheoretical framework and propositions: Workplace spirituality: its relevance to organisations and the definition\nDiscussion and directions for future research: The concept of workplace deviance in sales organisations demands serious academic inquiry as these deviant behaviours are pervading organisational life and taking huge economic and social tolls (Darrat, 2010). Double-billing the company for airline tickets, overstating the expenses by 10 per cent in every expense report, using company resources for personal use, selling customer lists to competitors: these deviant behaviours are few among those reported by sales managers in a Sales\nImplications for practice: The paper builds theoretically grounded research propositions based on which certain implications for sales practitioners are derived as follows:\nImplications for marketing educators: The deviant behaviour in organisations is not generally a topic of discussion in sales classrooms. This is not a surprise because there is not much information available on these behaviours in sales textbooks (Darrat, 2010). Since sales textbooks derive their content mostly from the research available in journals, it implies that the sales researchers have neglected these behaviours (Darrat, 2010). Nevertheless, the lack of research in this area only masks the growing threat from organisational deviant behaviours indicated by previous research. Many marketing and sales graduates after their course completion directly join for sales role in various organisations. These graduates generally do not bother about the culture of the organisation, but about the salary package the company has to offer. Given this scenario, sales educators/researchers carry the responsibility to educate the students about the role that a value based or non-value based culture plays to shape their behaviours at workplace. A values lacking workplace, where numbers are more respected than employees and where basic human values are missing, may lead to negative emotions like stress, frustration, anger etc. in salespeople which leads them to indulge in deviant behaviours. Sales educators should equip students with the knowledge of the organisational culture related aspects and its possible impact on behaviours so that students can make a better choice for their future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: Recent survey data suggest that salespeople's organisational deviant behaviours such as fudging an expense report, putting off work-related duties to attend to personal things etc. are growing uncontrollably out in the field. Directed towards the goal of mitigating these behaviours, this research attempts to apply the novel perspective of workplace spirituality. Jurkiewicz and Giacalone's value framework of workplace spirituality which consists of ten values (benevolence, generativity, humanism, integrity, justice, mutuality, receptivity, respect, responsibility and trust) is used to propose the theoretical linkages with salespeople's organisational deviant behaviours. The paper concludes with directions for further research, managerial implications and teaching implications.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is a conceptual work, which derives research propositions from an extended literature review.\nFindings: It is proposed that the ten values (benevolence, generativity, humanism, integrity, justice, mutuality, receptivity, respect, responsibility and trust) of value framework of workplace spirituality negatively affect salespeople's organizational deviant behaviours.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research can extend the conceptual framework to salespeople's interpersonal and frontline deviant behaviours.\nPractical implications: First, this paper attempts to help sales managers to fight out the epidemic of deviant behaviours by suggesting that adopting workplace spirituality could reduce salespeople's organisational deviant behaviours. Second, by proposing negative effect on organisational deviant behaviours, this paper extends the list of potential benefits of workplace spirituality in sales organisation to suggest that adopting workplace spirituality could be a sound sales strategy.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study in marketing literature which attempts to integrate workplace spirituality and salespeople's negative (deviant) behaviours.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
When do regulations matter for bank risk-taking? An analysis of the interaction between external regulation and board characteristics
|
[
"Regulation",
"Corporate governance",
"Banks",
"Board of directors",
"Risk-taking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The 2007/2008 global financial crisis highlighted severe problems with excessive risk-taking by banks as well as bank regulation and supervision[1], with the weak governance of banks frequently pointed to in the literature as the main culprit of the crisis (Kirkpatrick, 2009; Bruner, 2011; DeYoung et al., 2013). Despite being seemingly compliant with Basel capital standards[2], many banks had, in fact, accumulated excessive amounts of leverage, carrying risks which inflicted incalculable losses. Further, liquidity risk proved to be a key driver of financial contagion during this crisis, with the bank regulation framework revealing itself as insufficient to prevent the emergence of the proverbial \"too-big-to-fail\" financial institutions (Fullenkamp and Rochon, 2016). The regulatory response with regard to the governance of banks has been substantial, a central feature of the post-crisis financial reform agenda, at both the national and international level (see, for example, Walker, 2009; International Monetary Fund, 2014), including innumerable additions and amendments to the Basel Accord (Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, 2015).\n2. A brief literature review: In addition to its advisory role, as a monitor, the board of directors (board) is meant to supervise managers so as to ensure their decisions are in line with the interests of shareholders. As such, the board is regarded as the key internal governance structure holding responsibility for the implementation of an effective system of risk management (Fama and Jensen, 1983; Srivastav and Hagendorff, 2016). Theoretically, the smaller and the more independent the board is (in terms of board size and representation by directors without close connections to management), the more likely that \"good governance\" will be enforced (Mehran et al., 2011; Aebi et al., 2012). Some prior evidence shows board size to have a negative relationship with firm performance (Hermalin and Weisbach, 2003). Small boards are expected to be more effective monitors, as they can reduce the cost of directors' free-rider and coordination problems (Jensen, 1993). Large boards have been found to be less agile and cohesive, more susceptible to communication and coordination costs and to \"free-riding\" director problems (Jensen, 1993; Pathan, 2009), all of which point to less efficient monitoring by large boards. Independent directors in boards are believed to be better at exerting their monitoring function, as they are less obliged to management and are better at representing the interest of shareholders (Hermalin and Weisbach, 2003). There is also a growing debate about gender and its effect on economic outcomes such as risk preferences (Croson and Gneezy, 2009). Previous literature suggests that women are less over-confident and more risk averse in financial decision-making than men (Jianakoplos and Bernasek, 1998; Barber and Odean, 2001). Thus, in theory, a \"good\" board, a small-sized one, more independent in nature and with a higher representation of women, is expected to better monitor bank risk-taking.\n3. Empirical methodology and data: 3.1 Method and variables\n4. Empirical results and discussion: 4.1 Main results\n5. Conclusion: The innovative element underlying our study lies in testing empirically how bank board's monitoring characteristics moderate the relationship between external banking regulations and risk-taking by banks, an analysis that is absent in prior literature. Using data for 493 banks in 54 countries over the period 2001-2015, we find that with the exception of capital requirements, the market discipline exerted by external private monitoring and greater supervisory power are unable to mitigate the propensity to greater risk-taking by banks resulting from larger board size, higher board independence and greater gender diversity of the board. Significant interaction effects in the direction of greater bank risk-taking between such board characteristics and external regulation show that the significantly positive effect of board characteristics on bank risk-taking clearly overrides any mitigating effects of supervisor power and private monitoring.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: According to previous international studies, the impact of external regulation on bank risk is ambiguous. The purpose of this paper is to ask the question, \"When do regulations matter for bank risk-taking?\" by reporting the first empirical investigation of how the relation between bank regulations (capital requirements, official supervisory power and market discipline) and bank risk-taking is moderated by board monitoring characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using SYS-GMM, the analysis of the interaction between bank-level boards of directors' attributes (board size, board independence and board gender diversity) and external regulation is based on a sample of 493 banks operating in 54 countries over 2001-2015, accounting for three measures of bank risk-taking.\nFindings: Regulations matter for bank risk-taking conditional on board characteristics: board size, board independence and board diversity. With the exception of capital requirements, the market discipline exerted by external private monitoring and greater supervisory power are unable to mitigate the propensity to greater risk-taking by banks resulting from larger board size, higher board independence and greater gender diversity of the board.\nOriginality/value: The bank risk empirical literature is still silent as to the interaction between board governance and regulation for the purpose of examining banks' risk-taking. This paper fills this gap, thus making a significant contribution by extending our knowledge of whether and how board governance moderates the relationship between external regulation and bank risk-taking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The role of social enterprises in shaping social bonds
|
[
"Social policy",
"NGOs",
"Cooperatives",
"Social economy",
"Social capital",
"Citizenship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nInclusion through work and the idea of citizenship: Activation is one of the key social policy trends in contemporary Europe. In terms of theory, activation programmes fall within the broader paradigm of \"active social policy\" (hereafter, ASP) (van Berkel and Moller, 2002). In this paradigm, the core value that legitimizes state intervention in the economy and society (besides providing a social security net in cases of social risk; that is, emergencies that prevent wage earning) is the creation of conditions that are conducive to social participation. ASP posits that one way of boosting social participation is to decrease the level of welfare safeguards. This refers to a situation where the welfare safety network leads to de-activation or learned helplessness (Rymsza, 2003). Hence the renaissance in Europe in the 2000s of the idea of conditional support. Yet, this orientation is tantamount to rejecting one of the fundamental notions of post-Second World War welfare state doctrines: namely, the principle of decommodification. According to this principle, the state should seek to ensure that the standard of living of individual citizens is not contingent on their labour market status. Therefore, the tendency towards activation in social policy may be perceived as an important element of re-thinking the workings of European welfare states (Rymsza and Karwacki, 2011).\nTwo types of activation programmes: ASP distinguishes between two types of activation programmes. The first type is a labour market activation program, operated by public employment services and targeted at jobseekers, that is, at active labour market participants in search of jobs (Kabaj, 1990). Labour market activation programmes comprise in-class training, on-the-job training, work agency services, and professional and vocational counselling. They also include support to jobseekers in starting their own businesses, but these tend to be individual rather than collectively based (i.e. the services tend to not cover the various forms of social enterprise). The second type of activation program is the program targeted at persons who are not economically active, in the sense that they remain permanently outside the labour market[2]. Unless their passive status is voluntary (as might be the case, e.g. with persons living off investments) and as long as it results from deficiencies and dysfunctions (e.g. physical or mental disabilities, social maladjustment, addiction, homelessness), these persons are classified as excluded from the labour market. This is intended to emphasize that their position outside of the labour market and at the margins of society is not a simple effect of self-marginalization; it is at least to an extent structural. In Poland, activation programmes targeted at these excluded persons are referred to as social-vocational re-integration programmes.\nOld and new social economy: For more than half a century, social enterprises in Europe have been an important element of the social economy. The sector began expanding rapidly in the late-1800s and in the early-1900s. It was the time of positivism and of organic work; a time when social activists attempted to improve the situation in marginalized local communities by mobilizing their member and resources. These resources were not necessarily financial, because those tended to be sorely missing. Most social economy initiatives were located in urban areas. But not only there. In 1918 Poland became an independent country after more than 100 years of partition, after which time many pro-entrepreneurial initiatives began to operate in marginalized rural communities (Bukraba-Rylska, 2007).\nBetween reciprocity and vertical inclusion: The crucial difference between the \"old\" and \"new\" social economy is, I believe, the recognition of the changing relationship-building role of social enterprises. Traditional social enterprises relied on reciprocity and horizontal ties. In contemporary WISEs, the focus is on vertical ties and vertical inclusion.\nFrom re-integration enterprises to enterprises with strong local ties: towards hybrid solutions: WISEs are now - both in Poland and in Europe generally - the most popular type of social enterprises, and their numbers are growing. Yet I believe that a social economy with a foundation made of WISEs is an idol with feet of clay. The financial results of WISEs tend to be poor, in Poland in particular. While economic effectiveness on its own is not a relevant measure of a social enterprise's success, success is evaluated in terms both of social benefits and economic effectiveness (Bochdziewicz-Lulewicz, 2006). Yet the inward-oriented design of WISEs, reflected in their focus on benefits provided inside the enterprise to the persons it employs, makes it difficult (if not outright impossible) for these enterprises to really develop a hold on the market. This in turn pushes the management as far as possible towards public subsidies, which in the long-term erodes the entrepreneurial spirit, hinders growth, and puts even more distance between the WISE and the businesses that operate on a competitive market.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of social enterprises in building social capital and strengthening social bonds.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on the comparative method. The author compares the development of social entrepreneurship of the \"old\" social economy (born on the turn of nineteenth and twentieth centuries), and of the \"new\" social economy (developing on the turn of twentieth and twenty-first centuries); and the functioning of social enterprises of two kinds: work integration social enterprises (WISEs) and community-based social enterprises (CBSEs). Moreover, he distinguishes between economic and social re-integration; and reciprocity and vertical inclusion.\nFindings: The paper presents WISEs and CBSEs as tools of two different activation programmes: WISEs improve the employability of individuals who are marginalized in the labour market, while CBSEs serve as vehicles for the socio-economic development of the marginalized communities and territories. Furthermore, the author clarifies two methods of inclusion: through strengthening horizontal social ties (realized mainly by CBSEs, with their mutuality principle as a basis for building relations between participants) and building vertical social bonds (mainly by WISEs, based on the \"inclusion of excluded\" formula).\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper stresses the importance of focusing research into social entrepreneurship on the role of social enterprises in shaping social bonds as well as using and producing of social capital of two main types: bonding and bridging.\nPractical implications: Recommendations for managing social enterprises as hybrid entities. The author argues that the most effective approach (in producing social value-added) is to combine the formula of the re-integration of individuals excluded from the labour market with the efforts to develop the whole local communities from marginalized territories.\nOriginality/value: The author uses sociological perspectives in analysing economic entities and activation policies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Online movie ratings: a cross-cultural, emerging Asian markets perspective
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Service industries",
"Cross-cultural studies",
"Emerging markets",
"Cultural values",
"Online ratings",
"Movie consumption",
"Cross-cultural experiments"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Unlike products with tangible attributes, experiential services such as movies are subjective, emotional, and intangible, and are difficult to evaluate before consumption (Eliashberg et al., 2000). Hence, consumers often rely on sources such as word-of-mouth (WOM) and reviews to evaluate the quality of such experiential products or services before making consumption decisions (Wang et al., 2010). An online survey indicates that 64 percent of consumers actively seek user ratings and reviews on the e-commerce web sites they visit, while 68 percent of online shoppers check at least four reviews before buying (Kee, 2008). Consumers conduct information search online in order to reduce their perceived risk of making a poor purchase decision (Riegner, 2007).\nTheoretical background: E-WOM and its impact on movie consumption\nHypotheses development: The current research examines the effects of a specific form of e-WOM - online ratings - on consumers' decision making about movies. We focus on how the volume and valence of online ratings influence consumers' risk perceptions and purchase intentions for movie consumption, and if these effects are moderated by cultural values.\nStudy 1: effect of volume: Study 1 had two purposes. First, we explored whether the volume of online movie ratings influenced consumers' perceived risks and purchase intentions (H1). Second, we investigated whether the underlying individual cultural values (i.e. conservation vs openness to change; self-transcendence vs self-enhancement) could moderate the effect of volume on consumers' reactions across the four markets (H2 and H3).\nStudy 2: effect of valence (average rating): While Study 1 examined the effect of the volume of online ratings, Study 2 looked at the effect of the valence of online ratings. We operationalized valence as the average rating on a seven-point scale, consistent with previous research (Chintagunta et al., 2010; Dellarocas and Narayan, 2006). We explored how average rating could influence consumers' risk perceptions and purchase intentions (H4), investigated the interaction between volume and average rating and their resultant outcomes (H5), and examined how cultural values could influence the effects of average rating (H6 and H7).\nGeneral discussion: The present research examines the effects of the volume (large vs small) and the valence (high vs low average rating) of online movie ratings on consumers' risk perceptions and purchase intentions in four emerging markets - China, India, Chinese Macau, and the Philippines. The results enhance our understanding of how online ratings influence consumers in these markets, which are experiencing rapid growth in internet penetration. In addition, China and India are among the largest markets for movies in the world.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of volume and valence of online movie ratings on consumers' risk perceptions and purchase intentions, as well as the moderating impact of cultural values, in four emerging Asian markets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a survey questionnaire, data was collected from 204 respondents for Study 1 and 376 respondents for Study 2 in four emerging markets (China, India, Chinese Macau, and the Philippines). The analysis was conducted using analysis of variance.\nFindings: Results indicate that moviegoers express higher risk perceptions and lower purchase intentions when the volume of online ratings is smaller and when the valence (average rating) is lower. These effects are enhanced for more conservative consumers, but are not influenced by consumers' self-transcendence. Indian consumers were found to be more conservative than the other Asian consumers in the study.\nResearch limitations/implications: Taken together, the findings make significant contributions to the literature on services marketing, online ratings, cultural values, risk perceptions, and emerging markets. In contrast to correlational studies, the experimental design controls for potential confounding factors and provides evidence of causality between online ratings and consumer responses. In addition, by using cultural values, the authors avoid the problems associated with using national culture scores to characterize individuals or sub-groups within countries.\nPractical implications: The study suggests that despite the geographical proximity of these emerging markets, key discernible differences exist due to the moderating impact of cultural values on consumer responses. When targeting consumers in relatively conservative markets (e.g. India), a large volume of positive online ratings may lower consumers' risk perceptions and increase their purchase intentions.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the pioneering studies examining the impacts of volume and valence of online movie ratings on consumers' risk perceptions and purchase intentions in emerging Asian markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Improving unsustainable livelihood through marketing interventions : A case on rickshaw pullers
|
[
"Strategic marketing",
"Improvement",
"Income",
"Intervention",
"Self-development",
"Skills training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In most Southeast Asian countries, rickshaw is a common means of public transport. It is popular because of its simple technology and low operational cost. Apart from it being time saving, it also provides comfort and maneuverability to passengers through overcrowded and narrow streets that most countries in Southeast Asia have. Rickshaws play pivotal role in the intra-city transport system, especially in the towns and cities of the third world countries, where, the streets connecting the roads are too narrow to easily drive motor vehicles. Probably they are the only transport system to provide point to point travel (Rajvanshi, 2002).\nThe economics of rickshaw pulling: Compared to other forms of small business rickshaw pulling requires less capital investment and skill. A new rickshaw costs between Rs 6,500/= and Rs 7,500/= (approximately US$120-150). Used rickshaws (second hand) can also be obtained at cheaper rates depending upon the condition of the rickshaw. After obtaining a rickshaw, registration is required in the respective municipalities to ply the rickshaw. Registration is a measure to control the number of rickshaws in a city. However, unregistered rickshaws are also present and as per the estimates of the authors, the number of unregistered rickshaws may even be comparable to the number of registered ones in the city. Despite all attempts at controlling the number of rickshaws, they kept registering a steady increase (Kishwar, 2001).\nSocio-educational description of a rickshaw puller: Rickshaw pullers form the lowest strata of the socio-economic hierarchy of urban India. Many rickshaw pullers take to this profession more as an alternative to being a farm or unskilled labour. Some of them also have small agricultural land holding, which is not sufficient to sustain them and there family. Even rickshaw pullers who ply the rickshaw all the year round came in to this profession after being a labourer in some part of their life. Thus all rickshaw pullers are stuck in between being a labourer or a rickshaw puller and keep shifting between the two as per demand and earnings. The shift from rickshaw pullers to labourers is maximum in the harvesting and reaping season, as all of a sudden there is a sharp increase in demand for labour, and the daily wage is also a little over the earning they would make while plying the rickshaw (Farrington and Deshingkar, 2009) (Figure 1).\nStrategic profiling and goal definition for marketing intervention: The conducted survey revealed four unique strengths of rickshaw pullers that can be utilized for creating an opportunity to improve the life of the rickshaw pullers. These are:\nConclusion and future agendas: The intervention discussed gives a new meaning altogether to rickshaw pulling. This intervention not only aims at improving the earning of the rickshaw puller but also is a movement towards bringing respect and self-esteem in their life. The intervention if operational in large scale can also look at the given avenues for improvising the suggested business model.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe an initiative to improve the daily earnings of a rickshaw puller by training them to retail branded FMCG products based on a \"bulk buying retail selling\" model. The paper is based on the findings of a survey conducted 112 rickshaw pullers in a semi-urban district of eastern India. It also dwells on the business of rickshaw pulling and the socio-economic status of the rickshaw puller. Critical issues related to the sustainability and the future of such interventions on a large scale has also been discussed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An initial survey of 112 rickshaw pullers was done using a structured schedule that captured data related to age, literacy level, earnings per day, ownership and working hours. Some additional aspects related to socio-cultural aspects were also collected as an unstructured interview. A secondary survey from 107 respondents representing different sections of the society who frequently use rickshaw as a means for transport was also done to take an opinion on intervention issues.\nFindings: Findings of the paper suggest that rickshaw pullers have three distinct strategic advantages of literacy, access and mobility, which makes them a potent resource for marketing intervention.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper reflects on a systematic intervention plan that can change the socio-economic pattern of rickshaw pulling. A possibility of contributory roles from garage owners and wholesellers is also explored. The proposed scheme may also bail-out the small-scale industries and handicraft businesses in villages. Major limitations of the research are long-term sustainability and large-scale implementation of the proposed model.\nPractical implications: The paper can act as a manual for small entrepreneurs and NGOs working in the social-development area for implementing schemes targeted at rickshaw pullers. The paper also has valuable points for the consideration of policy makers.\nOriginality/value: The research has given insights in to the livelihood aspect of one of the most essential but neglected modes of transport, i.e. rickshaw pulling. The paper has also identified key strengths that rickshaw pulling has, which otherwise is considered purely physical and low-skilled job.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Project management in the context of organizational change: The case of the Portuguese public sector
|
[
"Public sector organizations",
"Project management",
"Organizational change",
"Portugal"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Through the years, public sector organizations have promoted the perception that their operational systems are too unique to be managed based on operational and organizational practices found in the private sector (Dorsch and Yasin, 1998; Yasin et al. 2004). As such, it was argued that public sector operational systems have distinct constraints which characterize their inputs, processes and outputs. These constraints included, among other factors, budgetary constraints, unmotivated employees, rigid operating procedures and the influence of internal and external politics (Ward and Mitchell, 2004; Brown, 2001). Due to these operational characteristics and constraints, organizational effectiveness in the public sector has been traditionally compromised in favor of operational efficiency.This operational view of public sector organizations was, very much, consistent with a closed organizational system orientation. In this context, the closed system operational orientation is characterized by an internal-focus, absence of a clear customer-orientation, and lack of organizational flexibility (Yasin et al., 2000b). Thus, the main concern of such system was, at best, the efficiency of its subsystems (input, process, and output). Therefore, organizational effectiveness was, often, mistakenly equated with the operational efficiency of the closed system.In the past, public service organizations were not alone in terms of the adoption of the closed system operational orientation. In this context, even private for-profit organizations adopted an efficiency-based, a closed system-oriented business strategies and operational philosophies (Gomes et al., 2006). In recent years, however, most for-profit organizations moved towards a more open system-orientation, which tends to foster organizational effectiveness, customer orientation, while not necessarily ignoring operational efficiency.The success associated with the movement of for-profit organizations toward a more open system-operational orientation encouraged students of management and organizational science to call for benchmarking the efforts of the private sector, in an effort to enhance the performance of public sector organizations. Some researchers referred to this benchmarking effort as \"managerializm\" (Uhr, 1990: cited in Yasin et al., 2004; Dixon et al., 1998). In this context, managerializm refers to the deployment of proven organizational and managerial philosophies and techniques, as utilized successfully by the private sector in public sector operational settings. The aim of this deployment is to make public sector organizations more effective and efficient open operational systems.For not-for-profit organizations to adopt the operational and strategic philosophies consistent with managerializm philosophy, they must utilize well-designed projects aimed at transforming the public sector organizations into open, responsive operational systems. However, for these transformation projects to yield the desired outcomes, public sector organizations must be familiar with project management tools and practice. As such, the officials and managers of these organizations must understand the different facets of the project management body of knowledge. In turn, this requires the promotion of organizational change through the fostering an organizational culture conducive to project management practices.Against this backdrop, the objective of this research is to shed some light on project management characteristics and effective practices from the perspective of public sector organizations. A sample of 102 Portuguese city council officials at the middle-level managerial rank is used to investigate the issues relevant to this study. The participants are surveyed in order to assess their familiarity with relevant project managers' characteristics contributing to project effectiveness. The extent of information availability on some key project management related variables is also assessed. It is hoped that insights gained from this research will enhance the ability of public sector organizations to smooth the needed transition toward a more open system-operational orientation, through the implementations of projects aimed at smoothing the adoption of the managerializm philosophy. Organizations in the public sector can achieve effectiveness and efficiency through the utilization of different operational philosophical approaches. Therefore, the philosophical operational approach advocated in this study is by no means the only one.\nBackground: In recent years, managers of for-profit private organizations have been under considerable market pressures to re-orient the strategies, operations and business models of their organizations. In a response to these pressures, the organizational structures of these organizations have been steadily re-engineered from mechanistic, rigid and closed system-oriented to a more organic, flexible and open system-oriented (Gomes et al., 2006). Cross-functional teams utilizing project management practices have been deployed effectively to smooth this re-engineering effort aimed at organizational changes. This unmistakable rapid pace of organizational re-engineering and the organizational changes associated with it has made project management tools and practices a subject of great practical interest to the management of private organizations. The proliferation of change-based projects made \"management by projects\" a practical phrase, rather than a slogan in today's business environment (Partington, 1996; Smith and Dodds, 1997).The traditional project management approach is based on a closed system perspective of organizations. However, some organizations are still adhering to this approach, even in today's organizational open system environment (Yasin et al., 2002). Perhaps this may explain the relatively high rate of projects failure. In the context of organizational change, project and change initiatives must be approached based on a well-designed and multifaceted strategy, which not only adhere to time and budgetary constraints, but seeks achieving a competitive organizational advantage (Dietrich and Lehtonen, 2005). Toward this end, a broader organizational effectiveness-oriented strategy is required. Such strategy call on project managers to utilize their technical competences, in planning for and controlling activities, with their leadership, communication, and other human resources management skills (Smith and Dodds, 1997; Zimmerer and Yasin, 1998; Muller, 2003).Although public sector organizations are not under the same market pressures as their private-sector counterparts, they have also been subjected to pressures advocating fundamental organizational changes. These pressures have mainly been exerted by western governments since 1980 percents (Wisniewski and Olafsson, 2004). The motivation behind such pressures is to streamline the size of the public sector, eliminate non-value-added activities and promote organizational effectiveness (Brunetto and Farr-Wharton, 2003). With these pressures in mind, a broader emphasis has recently emerged toward the complete transformation of public sector management. This broad management transformation trend has been labeled \"New Public Management\" (NPM). This \"New Public Management\" philosophy has advocated the promotion of profound changes in the roles, management, staffing and delivery of public services (Lawton, 2005). As such the \"New Public Management\" philosophy can be viewed as an important element of the broader managerializm operational philosophy. In this context, the project management body of knowledge is viewed to have the tools, which might facilitate the organizational change associated with broader operational changes consistent with the managerializm philosophy. Politicians, financial institutions, the media, management consultants and scholars around the world have all played an important role in creating and maintaining the pressure for the complete transformation of public sector management. Organizations such World Bank, OECD-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and International Monetary Fund have been in the forefront of this transformation effort (Torres and Pina, 2004).The NPM reforms refer to the adoption of a market-based philosophies and practices within the public sector. These reforms involve the systematic use of strategic planning, program budgeting, risk management and increased use of accountability to achieve measurable outcomes (Brunetto and Farr-Wharton, 2003). Overall, the NPM philosophy promotes systematic changes in the delivery of public services (Hood, 1995). As such, NPM reforms have focused on the complete re-orienting of organizational thinking in the public sector from the input mode to the output mode (Emery and Giauque, 2003). The NPM culture has, in recent years, left its marks on the cultures of many public sectors in different countries.Due to the complexity and the multifaceted nature of stakeholders in public operational context, difficulties can arise when attempting to apply standard project management practices to promote organizational change (Crawford et al., 2003). In general, the literature tends to emphasize the role of the project manager in overcoming difficulties. However, such literature is not specific to the public sector operational environments. Project managers in the public sector may have to deal with more difficulties relative to their counterparts in the private sector. These added difficulties are attributed to dealing with the non-responsive employees and non-traditional operating constraints. Thus, the task of handling difficulties and complexities may pose more serious challenges to project managers in the public sector, when compared to their counterparts in the private sector.In the public sector operational context, politics and political decisions tends to shape the organizational culture. As such, the political context of organizations tends to significantly interact with its strategic and operational decisions. This, in turn, tends to create operational constraints which are not typically found in private sector operational settings.\nMethods: Instrument\nResults: Characteristics of project managers\nDiscussion: Based on the results in Table II, it is interesting to note that characteristics pertaining to technical expertise are absent from the most relevant group. It appears that leadership skills and people-related skills of the project manager are more relevant to the participants than personality-specific characteristics or technical skills. It is also very important to note that accepting the flaws of others was not considered as relevant characteristic of a project manager. This perhaps reflects the rigidity of the public sector operational environment, where people are expected to confirm to pre-determined pattern of behavior. Thus, there is very little tolerance for deviations and flaws. Perhaps this is an organizational culture, where one acts as expected, rather that run the risk of being penalized for thinking.Relating project management variables it is interesting to note that while the participants tend to believe that leadership ability is important, they did not think that leadership-by-example is important. Perhaps the participants do not believe in leadership-by-example, since it is not practiced by senior administrators in their organizations. Thus, this facet of leadership appears to be ignored as a facet of public sector leadership practices. Another words, managers are not expected to act in the same way as they demand their subordinates to act.The results derived from the GAP analysis tend to explain the relative low importance associated with the international management variables. The interesting question here is: are these variables given low importance due to the lack of information, or is it the other way around? Regardless of the direction of this relationship, public organizations may need to make information on these variables readily available and encourage the use of such information. Following this course of action will help these organizations cope with projects which have global aspects.Relating project effectiveness, the participants appear to think that the most important source of project success is the decisions by the project team. They also selected as important the decisions made by upper manager and internal politics, reflecting the strong influence of bureaucracy and organizational constraints on project success.Finally, as far as the participants are concerned, the impact of the project manager leadership on the success of the project appears to be significant.The above interpretations of the results represent the authors' perspective. Other perspectives are equally valid and relevant.\nConclusion and implications: Based on the results of this study which utilized a sample of 102 Portuguese public officials at the middle-level managerial rank, the following conclusions and implications are in order.First, it appears that the participants, for the most part, are familiar with the variables, tools and characteristics relevant to project management know-how. Thus, Portuguese public sector organizations should be ready to deploy project management practice, as they attempt to improve organizational performance. In this context, the excuse of lack of organizational expertise in project management on the part of these organizations appears to be unjustified.Second, the participants appear be fully aware of the leadership, people and technical facets of effective project management practices. The lack of importance of leadership-by-example is noted. The organizational culture of the public sector in Portugal stands to benefit from a well-designed top-down approach to effective leadership, which stressed the impact of leaders' behavior. Also, educational and training efforts are called for to make decision-makers in the Portuguese public sector aware of the importance of the international aspects of their current and future projects.Third, Portuguese public sector organizations appear to be in need of investing toward re-inventing and modernizing their information systems. Such investment is needed in order to make critical information on key aspects of project management and organizational change readily and systematically available to project managers and other decision-makers.Fourth, the participants' familiarity and awareness of the key facets of project management practices is encouraging. Perhaps this familiarity will smooth the required transition of public sector organizations from efficiency-based, closed operational systems to effectiveness-oriented open operational systems, where current anticipated needs of citizens are the driving force of such system.The framework depicted in Figure 1 attempts to conceptually outline the needed transition of public sector organizations from closed to more open systems through the effective utilization of management and project management know-how. In this context, the importance of benchmarking the success of the private sector is emphasized. This framework capitalizes on results and conclusions derived from this investigation. Due to the exploratory nature of this investigation, no specific hypotheses were tested. Future practical research is called for to test the utility of the proposed framework. Such research will be essential to test the practical utility of conceptually based framework.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the Portuguese public sector organizations' familiarity with, and willingness to utilize, project management tools, as these organizations attempt to enhance their operational performance through carefully crafted organizational change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a sample of 102 public officials, 30 project managers' characteristics, 23 project management variables, and information availability on these variables are studied and classified.\nFindings: - In general, the results clearly showed the familiarity of the participants with the important characteristics and variables of effective project management practices. Some exceptions were attributed to the specific nature of public sector operational systems.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample used in this study is specific in nature. It consisted of Portuguese public sector officials at the middle-level rank in the managerial hierarchy. Thus, the results should be interpreted accordingly.\nPractical implications: - Based on the results of this study, some important organizational implications regarding training and systems development were advanced.\nOriginality/value: - This study empirically examines the public sector officials' knowledge and attitude regarding project management practices. It offers significant implications to public sector organizations, as they pursue a more open system operational orientation to meet growing environmental pressures and citizens' demands.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Cultural and contextual influences on corporate social responsibility: A comparative study in three Asian countries
|
[
"Culture",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Context",
"Asia",
"Chinese management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although the bulk of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research has focused on Europe and North America, CSR in Asia may present cultural or contextual differences that lead to different priorities for a CSR agenda (Visser, 2008; Jamali and Sidani, 2012; Ho et al., 2012; Hussain et al., 2017; Davidson and Yin, 2019). For instance, while scholars have noted philanthropy and charity as a popular form of CSR in developing countries (Jamali and Sidani, 2012; Jamali and Neville, 2011; Visser, 2008), a similar result has also been found in Taiwan (Liu et al., 2014) which, according to the classification of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is a developed country. As the importance of the Asia market increases, there is an urgent need to examine the different cultural and contextual influences on CSR implementation in Asia.\nLiterature review: CSR in the Chinese context\nMethodology: Data collection\nDiscussion: The study examines the influence of individual-level factors (managerial cultural values) and country-level factors (country of origin and country of operation) on firm-level outcomes (CSR investments) in three Asian countries. Based on the above results, there are some managerial implications.\nConclusions: In a cross-cultural setting (Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore), this study examines the influence of the managers' cultural values and contextual factors (country of origin and country of operation) on CSR investment priorities. It confirms the importance of individual leaders in determining CSR priority in these three Asian countries. Specifically, among ethnic Chinese managers in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, the managers' cultural values of collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and Confucianism (long-term orientation) are important in CSR decisions concerning the resource allocation in the selection of CSR practices. In addition, the context (a firm's country of origin and country of operation) also differentiates the cultural values and CSR investments' priority of ethnic Chinese managers in these three countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of managerial cultural values and the contextual environment (country of origin and country of operation) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments in three Asian countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 150 questionnaires were collected from 150 companies located in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. The potential influence of ethnicity on cultural values was controlled by collecting data from ethnic Chinese managers.\nFindings: The results show that senior managers, especially their cultural values, play a crucial role in directing Asian companies' CSR investments. In addition, the context (a firm's country of origin and country of operation) also differentiates the cultural values and CSR investments in these three countries.\nOriginality/value: The study adds to the understanding of the influence of managerial cultural values and context on various aspects of CSR. Especially, the study offers valuable managerial implications for CSR implementation from the Chinese management perspective. Considering the fast global expansion of Chinese companies, the results concerning how Chinese managers' cultural values influence their CSR investments priority offer valuable managerial implications. The comparisons of cultural values and CSR investments priority among ethnic Chinese managers in different contextual environments also serve as good starting points for future studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Rhetoric and the foundation of the Service-Dominant Logic
|
[
"Marketing",
"Narrative",
"Rhetoric",
"Service-Dominant Logic",
"Persuasion"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The development of the Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic since its initial presentation in Vargo and Lusch's (2004a) paper in the Journal of Marketing to its position today as the dominant talking point in academic marketing theory is an impressive example of the way in which loosely structured organisations (in this case, The International Confederacy of Marketing Academics) can undergo significant ideological change when galvanised by powerful rhetorical strategies.\nS-D Logic: What is now referred to as S-D Logic originates in a paper by Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch and published in the Journal of Marketing in 2004. The paper was the result of what the journal editor at the time, Ruth Bolton, describes as an \"unusually lengthy review and revision process\" of five years (Bolton, 2006, p. ix). The \"intellectual debate\" that grew during this process prompted Bolton to publish a number of invited commentaries from \"distinguished scholars\" alongside the final version of Vargo and Lusch's manuscript (Bolton, 2006, p. ix). This was then greatly expanded in Lusch and Vargo (2006), an edited collection of essays discussing the significance of the S-D Logic, which brought together 56 marketing thought-leaders writing either as sole or co-authors. Vargo and Lusch have continued to build a strong base of publications that seek to further explain, refine, and defend their arguments in a variety of international marketing journals. A significant number of researchers have begun to publish articles examining the concepts introduced by Vargo and Lusch and a number of conferences have been organised around the S-D Logic, many of them with Vargo and/or Lusch as keynote speakers.\nMethodological considerations: Marketing scholarship has regularly engaged with rhetorical, narrative, and discursive issues. Researchers have analysed the ways in which rhetorical figures lend persuasive power to advertising copy (Stern, 1988; McQuarrie and Mick, 1996; Phillips and McQuarrie, 2002), constructed theories of visual rhetoric in order to investigate advertising imagery (Scott, 1994), looked at the part metaphor plays in the marketing enterprise (Hirschman, 2007), and even argued that marketing is a modern incarnation of rhetoric (Tonks, 2002).\nRhetorical strategy in Vargo and Lusch (2004a): The first rhetorical element that I shall focus on is the overarching narrative of the history of marketing that is central to the paper's first section. The authors present a series of historical vignettes that are laid out in sequence to generate a larger narrative characterising the developmental path that marketing has taken over the last 200 years. This narrative sequence is further repeated in both a figure and a table. Such repetition of an idea across different forms is a common rhetorical device for the generation and fulfilment of expectation in audiences (Burke, 1968). By the time the reader gets to the third instantiation of the narrative of marketing's development as a diagram centred around a vast expanded arrow moving from right to left, she is already familiar with the story, and is therefore able to say to herself, \"ah, yes, the history of marketing thought, I recognise the pattern\". Such repetition parleys recognition into a form of alignment - the reader's memory now becomes the source of the narrative.\nConclusion: implications and future research: The current paper is only able to scratch at the surface of the rhetorical strategies contained in Vargo and Lusch (2004a). Furthermore, there is a wide range of persuasive techniques in evidence in later works from Vargo and Lusch as they begin to engage more fully with criticism and support from the academic marketing community. The adaptations that are performed upon the foundational premises, for example, in Vargo and Lusch (2008) are ripe for analysis. Of equal interest is the way in which other authors have reacted to Vargo and Lusch's rhetorical gambits with their own variations upon key terms and framings. All this is matter for further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of rhetorical and narrative strategies in the foundational text of Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic. The author argues that the success of Vargo and Lusch's (2004a) paper in establishing the foundational premises of the new S-D Logic is greatly aided by their persuasive use of classical rhetorical techniques of word choice, metaphor, and framing as well as the careful construction of a narrative that is guaranteed to be attractive to their audience.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author uses techniques of rhetorical and narrative analysis to closely examine some of the principle argument in the foundational text of S-D Logic.\nFindings: The author finds that Vargo and Lusch (2004a) make use of a powerful narrative of redemption in which marketing is seen to be saved from a potentially destructive internal struggle by a revelatory shift in perspective. The choice of key framing terms such as \"logic\", \"evolution\", and \"paradigm\" is found to have an important rhetorical effect in supporting this persuasive narrative and helping to cast it in a scientifically \"inevitable\" light.\nOriginality/value: The findings speak to the vital role played in academic marketing, and in the successful promulgation of a new movement within the academic marketing community, of persuasive language and narrative.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Bridging the concepts of resilience, fragility and stabilisation
|
[
"Disasters",
"Resilience",
"Stabilization",
"Civil conflict",
"Fragility",
"Community resilience"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Donor community policy debates have long been an arena in which new and faddish labels have emerged including good donorship, good enough governance, comprehensive approaches and the relief-development continuum. These have served many functions in addition to resolving development challenges: as epistemological guides to priorities, repositories for norms, vehicles for legitimising interests and some have even shaped donor and beneficiary state behaviour and development priorities.\nResilience: The past decade has witnessed the resilience renaissance (Bahadur et al., 2013) which has gradually overshadowed \"vulnerability\" and \"sustainability\" in academic, policy and practice discourses (Weichselgartner and Kelman, 2014). Indeed, while the concept of resilience is like a \"Trojan horse\" (Weijer, 2013) and quite \"seductive\" particularly its promise to capture complexity and contingency of risk (Welsh, 2014), it can also be of little value as \"everywhere you turn, the word resilience just keeps cropping up\" (Seville, 2008, p. 1). Normatively, intellectually and practically it is an extremely attractive concept - offering a mechanism for conceptualising how various open and complex systems respond to dynamic and unpredictable external variables and, potentially, produce \"positive\" outcomes. Folke (2006) makes the case for the importance of the term most forcefully by suggesting that achieving desirable states and outcomes for humanity requires new integrated and adaptive approaches to social and economic development. To this end, the complex interconnectedness between humans and nature, at all scales, should be considered and the existence of uncertainty and surprise accepted as the rule.\nFragility: The concept of community resilience, like in many fields, has gradually gained currency in the fragile state literature. But, what precisely does fragility mean? The concept of a fragile state, also known as a failing, weak, quasi or crisis state, was popularised by Madeleine Albright and others at the United Nations in the early 1990s (Gros, 1996). That the concept of fragility remains relatively ill-defined poses difficulties as it is open to differing interpretations (Weijer, 2013). Similarly, there is no universal definition of weak, failed or fragile states (Wyler, 2008; Francois and Sud, 2006; Huria, 2008). Most definitions are informed by Zartman (1995) to some degree, who views failure as occurring when the basic functions of the state are no longer performed. Fragile state structures tend to lack political will and capacity to provide the basic functions needed for poverty reduction, development and to safeguard the security and human rights of their populations (OECD/DAC, 2007). From this vantage point, fragile states are often in conflict, at risk of conflict and instability or they are newly emerging from conflicts. They are also characterised by poor governance, institutional instability, insecurity, corruption and inadequate provisions of fundamental public services to their citizens (Engberg-Pedersen et al., 2008; Wyler, 2008) such as territorial control, education and healthcare and ways to support the poorest people to sustain themselves (Huria, 2008; DFID, 2005; Bornemisza et al., 2010). Although there are many descriptions of fragile states, there are two normative criteria (which also have resonance with debates on community resilience) on which they are frequently judged: legitimacy - government will and capacity to provide core services and basic security; and effectiveness in providing services and security (Newbrander et al., 2011). Thus, (in) security is one of the constitutive elements of fragility.\nStabilisation: The notion of stabilisation appears omnipresent both in current civilian and military responses to conflict and state fragility, but despite its ubiquity the concept itself is used in fundamentally different ways; it is highly ambiguous and certainly - as most concepts - serves particular interests. While it is thus hard to pin down what stabilisation exactly entails - because it is informed by different assumptions on causes of conflict, the objective of stability and the necessary instruments to address these - it is exactly this versatility that explains its appeal, allowing it to act as a \"semantic magnet\" for disparate policy agendas and build unexpected bridges.\nResilience, fragility and stabilisation relationships: The concepts of fragility and stabilisation encapsulate particular notions of resilience with agency and power being common (Figure 1). Thus, a resilience-informed stabilisation programme embraces fragility as a \"window of opportunity\" to encapsulate a more cooperative mode of governance where state and non-state actors participate in mixed public, private and community-based networks (Mayntz, 2003). Such an approach would potential capture community-agency, which is endogenously tied to political and formal institutions, building local trust, interconnectedness and networks.\nConclusion and future directions: Resilience is clearly Janus faced - it raises both despair and hope and provides challenges to overcome and opportunities to take up (Weichselgartner and Kelman, 2014). Despite the concerns, resilience could be viewed as a meta concept for capturing socio-natural and socio-economic relations: it enrols citizens into practices that give meaning and presence and naturalises shocks and stresses to the system by locating them in a post-political space where the only certainty is uncertainty (Welsh, 2014). As argued in this paper, a \"resilience\" lens has the potential to serve as a useful corrective to the equilibria-centric, hierarchically focused and linear emphases of stabilising fragile states. But how can \"resilience\" inform stabilisation and the fragile state agenda? Consistent with Weijer (2013), the concept may act as a \"Trojan horse\" to bring a new way of thinking about change into the discourse on fragility. The resilience lens also has the potential to help understand how external interventions can inadvertently both make a particular community more resilient in the face of exogenous and endogenous shocks and simultaneously destabilise the broader society - providing far more precision and help to policy makers than the exhortation to \"do no harm\" that appears in much stabilisation policy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The fragile states and stabilisation concepts appear to resonate with the concept of community resilience. Yet, there is barely a framework that integrates the three concepts. The authors posit that despite the increasing interest in community resilience in fragile states, there is much less clarity of resilience, fragility and stabilisation connections. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on the literature review of the concepts of community resilience, fragility and stabilisation.\nFindings: The findings restate that the state fragility results from the breakdown of the social contract between the state and its citizens. Whilst both resilience and stabilisation are desirable constructs in reducing fragility, they should be broadly underpinned by agency not only to enhance preventive, anticipatory, absorptive and adaptive actions but also lead to social transformative capacity where agency is embedded for communities to exercise some sort of power to foster change.\nOriginality/value: This paper has encourages debate on resilience, fragility and stabilisation connections by suggesting framework for \"doing\" resilience-informed stabilisation programmes in fragile states. The framework, which may not necessarily be approached in a linear fashion, has three major components: identifying existing resilience factors, enhancing and sustaining these and delivering resilient communities. However, there is need to test the utility of the framework in practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Re-examining the determinants of bank profitability in Nigeria
|
[
"Profitability",
"Nigeria",
"Banking industry",
"Stochastic frontier analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Following the revolutionary work of Short (1979), the determinants of bank profitability have continued to draw attentions of scholars, governments and policymakers. Investigating the determinants of profitability of commercial banks is imperative for overall stability, competitiveness and efficiency of the banking industry (Dietrich and Wanzenried, 2014; Capraru and Ihnatov, 2015). Recently, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 has re-ignited worldwide interests on the subject, since weak profitability is reported to have contributed to the failure of the renowned institution (Nanto, 2009; Garcia and Guerreiro, 2016). The confusion resulting from the failure of the banks makes governments of major economies, especially the USA and the European Union, to reduce unnecessary dependence on profitability of commercial banks as one of the main yardsticks for measuring banking industry's stability, competition and financial sector stability, and hence resulting in the recent bailout among countries to prevent another global economic depression (Laeven and Valencia, 2010; Garcia and Guerreiro, 2016). Thus, investigating the factors responsible for bank profitability is vital to health of the financial sector and that of the overall economy.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Review of theoretical literature\n3. Overview of the Nigerian banking industry: The history of commercial banking in Nigeria can be traced to the establishment of Bank of British West Africa in 1894 (Osuagwu, 2014). The bank, having changed to Standard Bank of Nigeria in 1969, was one of the foreign banks mandated by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to transfer significant portions of their assets to Nigerians due to Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree (1972). This policy mandated the transfer of at least 40 percent ownership of foreign-owned commercial banks to Nigerian public. The effect was the reduction of Nigerian banks to 16 with 367 branches nationwide. By 1975, the number had increased to 18 with 436 branches nationwide.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Techniques of analysis\n5. Empirical results: 5.1 Preliminary checks\n6. Conclusion: This paper examined the firm-level, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of profitability of 15 commercial banks operating in Nigerian banking industry between 2005 and 2015. Our study is conducted after consolidation exercise of CBN, which reduces the number of banks in the industry and increases their capital base. Although abundant studies abound in developing countries on the subject, these studies have not employed the standard measure of cost efficiency. Also, the roles of persistence in profitability have not been adequately addressed by these studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the determinants of bank profitability in Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigates the effect of managerial cost efficiency on bank profitability. Also, since there exist mixed results and controversies in the literature, in both developed and developing countries, regarding the effect of efficiency on bank profitability, this study employs the standard measure of efficiency. In addition, the work incorporates the role of persistence, which is often neglected in the literature in developing countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study employs system generalized method of moments.\nFindings: The findings, using the case of Nigeria, show that cost efficiency is a strong determinant of bank profitability in developing countries. In addition, the profitability of banks in Nigeria persists over time; hence, the industry is fairly competitive.\nResearch limitations/implications: The recent policies of banking industry recapitalization meant to increase profitability and stability in Nigeria and other African countries' banking industry will not be effective if the issue of managerial efficiency is not properly addressed.\nPractical implications: Improving the banking managerial efficiency will positively reduce bad loans, hence leading to the stability in the banking system.\nOriginality/value: The authors introduce efficiency using standard measure of stochastic frontier analysis for its measurement. Also, this study introduces the role of persistence in the literature in developing countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Number-location bias: do consumers correctly process the number on the product package?
|
[
"Packaging",
"Product management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: When making a purchase decision, consumers encode, process and compare product information. Numeric information such as weight/volume, width/length, thinness/thickness and quantity are frequently considered for evaluating product value across brands and products (Bui et al., 2013; Chandon and Ordabayeva, 2009; Tangari et al., 2014; Xia, 2003). For breakfast cereal brands and product types, for example, consumers compare the amount of fiber, calories per serving, transfat, and sugars and choose a cereal that delivers more value and fits their purchase goal. Consumer decisions are often based on dietary practices; if one requires fewer calories per serving, they will choose a cereal that is thought to have fewer calories than others (Burton and Kees, 2012; Zlatevska et al., 2017). For tastier food options, consumers may focus on the amount to lean, cheese or fruits in a product (e.g. 85 per cent lean, 100 per cent-real cheese, 22 strawberries and 1 1/3 bananas) to approximate how natural, sweet or salty they are (Visschers et al., 2010). Consumers also consider numeric information such as weight and calories per serving in a bundle of products to suit the number of family members (e.g. weight of each cup in a bundle of three Mott's applesauce). In cases of electronics, larger, heavier and more voluminous products (e.g. memory, screen size, resolution of a computer and suction power of a vacuum cleaner) are preferred if the price among the options appear to be similar (Raghubir and Krishna, 1999; Swain, 2003); however, in some product categories, which include cameras, push button lights and travel alarm clocks, where heaviness implies burden, lighter options are preferred (Swain, 2003).\nTheoretical background: Numeric information on the package\nPreliminary study: Common industry practices of numeric information placement at the front of a package is, at present, unknown. As Deng and Kahn (2009) argued, there is no standardized set rule for placing product information on the front of a package among product managers and package designers; no evidence of any industry or academic arguments about the placement of product information was reported in trade journals. Therefore, because of the current limited knowledge about industry practice, we conducted a field study with the following objectives:\nStudy 1. Left-right vs top-bottom location effect on number processing: The first study examined the location effects of numeric information on the perceived number magnitude. We chose calories per serving as a target numeric information because caloric content is a primary consideration for purchasing grocery products (Burton and Kees, 2012; Wansink and Chandon, 2006; Zlatevska et al., 2017).\nStudy 2. Left-right vs top-bottom location effect on number processing on the wider package: In Study 1, the left vs right location effect was found only when the number was located at the bottom. We conducted Study 2 to examine whether the weak horizontal effect was persistent when the number was at the top of the package, even with a wider package.\nStudy 3. Effect of a visual reference frame on number processing: On the basis of Gestalt psychology, Arnheim (1974) argued that a visual field's structural skeleton serves as a frame of reference for assigning a location to an object within the field. In our prior experiments, the location-number association was examined in the condition of the top-bottom location set in the whole package. We assumed the whole package as a visual reference frame that automatically assigned the numeric information at the top vs bottom within the frame. However, a question arises whether a bottom-large, top-small association can persist when the visual frame moves up or down on the whole package. On the product package facade, the label can serve as a visual reference frame that is often placed high, middle, or low on the package facade. Where the label is located on the package facade determines where the visual reference frame is formed.\nDiscussion and implications: Spatial locations enable consumers to infer, how large or small a number is. When individuals process a number, they tend to use their previously formed associations between spatial location and numeric information to process the given information. In this study, a series of experiments consistently found the effect of a spatial location of numeric information on the perceived magnitude of a number. It was found that a number at the right was perceived as larger than one at the left only when the number is located at the bottom. Also, placing numeric information at the bottom rather than at the top of a product package facade was more influential in processing the numeric information. This is, however, true only when the visual frame is set lower.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to investigate the following three issues: whether consumers process numeric information with locational cues, which locations (horizontal vs vertical) are more influential in processing numbers and whether a number-location association is weakened or strengthened when a visual reference frame moves up or down.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A field study and a series of three lab experiments were conducted to examine the location effect of numeric information on the package facade on the perceived magnitude of a number.\nFindings: The authors found that a number at the right was perceived as larger than one at the left only when the number is located at the bottom. Also, placing numeric information at the bottom rather than the top of a product package facade was more powerful in processing the numeric information, but this is true only when the visual frame is set lower.\nPractical implications: This study provides practical insights for product managers in placing core numeric information on product packaging to effectively communicate product value to consumers. Optimal locations can be deliberately considered along with types of numeric information and product categories. For healthy products that promote fewer calories, the top area of the package facade may be a better position for placing information on calories per serving to make the product more appealing to those who follow a healthy diet. Heavier, more voluminous products (e.g., refrigerator) better position their volume/weight information at the bottom than at the top or at the right of the bottom than at the left of the bottom on the product facade. Either the left side or right side of the top position may be beneficial for thinner, lightweight products (e.g., television).\nOriginality/value: The present work adds valuable empirical findings; inconsistent with past research, left-right location-number associations are not always true. People tend to associate smaller numbers with left-side locations and larger numbers with right-side locations only when the number is located at the bottom. Also, the study reported that top-small, bottom-large associations are not always true. The difference in perceived magnitude of the number between a number at the top and one at the bottom within the visual frame is significant only when the visual frame is set close to the ground.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Collaboration between philanthropic foundations and government
|
[
"Philanthropy",
"Partnership",
"Government",
"Cross-sector collaboration",
"Non-profit organisations",
"Policy-making"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past 20 years, philanthropic foundations (PFs) have begun playing a key role in governance (Ball and Junemann, 2011; Hess, 2005; Schuyt, 2010). The global economic downturn; the uneven increase in global wealth; ideas of new governance, the growing popularity of corporate social responsibility and the perceived demise of the welfare state have contributed to renewed governmental interest in collaborating with these organisations (Eikenberry, 2006; Harrow and Jung, 2011).\nRelationships between PFs and Government: In the 1990 s, a new style of philanthropy developed in the West. The enormous profits accruing to this sector through the 1990s and early twenty-first century have generated both a \"philanthropic surplus\" and a need to demonstrate some social and moral responsibility (Ball and Junemann, 2011). The new generation of philanthropists focuses on innovation, looking for high impact and accountability. Its main distinction from traditional philanthropy is the direct relation of \"giving\" to \"outcomes\" and donors' direct involvement in philanthropic action and policy communities (Ball and Junemann, 2011). These philanthropists fund programs and networks that utilise the language of the market for social exchanges, and deploy business strategies and methods - particularly those of venture capitalism - vis-a-vis social problems (Scott, 2009). Donors normally expect to see a clear return on their investment (Schuyt, 2010). They function like a de facto advocacy coalition that aims to influence governmental agendas for change. They are powerful in that they are key, active drivers of policy-making, research and advocacy (Scott, 2009).\nResearch method: The study examined the relationships between PFs and government during the development and operation of two collaborative projects, using a qualitative research method. This provided a basis for examining the subjective perceptions and experiences of participants in the collaborative process, providing comprehensive insights into the activities and relationships among these organisations (Marshall and Rossman, 1995; Van-Evera, 1997).\nThe projects: The study examined two collaborative projects of philanthropic foundations and the Israeli government. The Yaniv Project, launched by new PFs in 2003, aimed to promote a new, general national policy scheme for children- and youth-at-risk in Israel. The project ended in 2007, following the government's decision not to recognise it as a national project. (For a detailed description of the project, see Almog-Bar and Zychlinski, 2012, pp. 800-802).\nFindings: Conflicting perceptions regarding the role of Government and PFs, and their legitimacy in governance\nDiscussion: This study examined the relationships between PFs and government in the process of developing collaboration in social policy. In this section, we focus on the challenges that philanthropy brings to collaborations with government and highlight implications for public sector management.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine collaboration between the government and philanthropic foundations in the age of new governance. This focuses on analysing the relationship that was formed between PFs and the government in Israel during the development and operation of two joint projects initiated by PFs, which aimed to promote collaboration between the two sectors in the fields of children at risk and the public education system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Qualitative, thematic content analysis was used to study the relationships that emerged between the PFs and the government. Data were collected from an examination of documented materials and interviews with key participants in the two projects from both parties.\nFindings: The article presents the interface between government and philanthropic foundations in the age of new governance. Several major factors that shape these relations in collaborative projects emerged from the comparative analysis of the two case studies and are relevant to public sector management: the different perceptions of government and philanthropic foundations that guide the collaborations, the politics of collaboration and the power relations between PFs and government.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research might examine other examples of collaboration between PFs and government, since the research reported here comprises only two case studies.\nOriginality/value: As collaborations between government and philanthropic foundations are expanding in many countries as part of new-governance structures, the article presents a valuable insight for both academics and practitioners about relationships between these two sectors, and especially collaboration that involves actors from the New Philanthropy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Scaffolding multimodality: writing process, collaboration and digital tools
|
[
"Media",
"Literacy",
"Scaffolding",
"Argument",
"New literacies",
"English language arts",
"Writing",
"Teaching writing",
"Multimodal",
"Digital tools"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Although research on multimodal literacy practices has focused on student engagement (Jocius, 2013) or students' lives outside of school (Mills, 2010), more research is needed that \"emphasizes scaffolding the multimodal practice of youth by experts in school settings\" (Mills, 2010, p. 39). Multimodality is defined by the combination of two or more modes - including visual, linguistic, audio, spatial and gestural - and the affordances and interaction of these modes to fully express meaning (Dalton, 2012; Mills, 2010). Students may be adept at using multimodal literacies for purposes outside the classroom, but need guidance to use these literacies for other academic and social purposes (Mills, 2010). This discussion contributes to this gap by examining how multimodality might be scaffolded (Dalton, 2012; Mills, 2010) in the classroom.\nRelevant perspectives: The New London Group (1996) called for an expanded concept of literacy that accounted for the design and comprehension of multimodal texts, which they coined multiliteracies. They suggested students' understanding of multimodal design was imperative especially as digital technologies made these forms more accessible, and globalization made communication less dependent upon a standard, national form. Kress (2003, 2010) continued this discussion in social semiotics. Jenkins and colleagues (Jenkins et al., 2006; Jenkins et al., 2016), in their discussion of new media literacies, emphasized the need to make communication more participatory, with low barriers to creating, expressing and sharing ideas in an increasingly technological and networked society. Although students spend an increasing amount of time with technology, their ability to discern and create multimodal texts online is not necessarily keeping pace (Hutchison et al., 2016) and may require more explicit instruction (Simpson and Walsh, 2015). Research suggests that although multimodal instruction may be useful for students to learn content knowledge, such as argumentative writing (Demirbag and Gunel, 2014), and that new models of writing including such multimodality are warranted (Whithaus, 2012), guidance for integrating multimodality into K-12 classrooms is lacking, especially for academic learning rather than merely engagement (Jocius, 2013).\nMethod: A formative experiment was ideal for this study because of its focus upon exploring how an intervention can be implemented in classroom instruction to achieve a pedagogical goal (Reinking and Bradley, 2008). Although each classroom's implementation of this intervention differed according to the teacher's curriculum, the essential elements of the intervention were consistent for each case:\nFindings: The following findings regarding scaffolding emerged from analyses of the data:\nDiscussion: implications for scaffolding digital and multimodal literacies: The findings of this study suggest new ways of thinking about scaffolding within instruction and curriculum surrounding multimodal and digital composition, particularly as related to arguments. The following discussion emerged from theoretical codes that pertained to both the scaffolding needed for digital, multimodal argument construction and how that construction, may, in turn, scaffold student learning.\nConclusion: This study of the use of new, digital tools to mediate learning and the scaffolding required of such tools aligns with recent calls to \"reconceptualize the project of educational innovation\" (Beck, 2017, p. 30) from historical concepts. In other words, even when exploring innovative digital tools, such as those often connected with multimodal literacies, teachers might anchor this innovation in historical pedagogical practices such as scaffolding. For example, this discussion highlights the use of digital tools through Vygotsky's lens of how those tools mediate learning (Schunk, 2012). Furthermore, the functions of scaffolding Wood et al. (1976) described were needed in digital, multimodal composing, as they are in traditional, print-based composing. Finally, this study continues to build upon the multiliteracies perspective (New London Group, 1996). Benko (2013, p. 298) described scaffolding as \"an active process - as a verb - not simply a tool or 'thing' to be used\". This study confirms the need for such an active process when pursuing a conventional learning goal, such as argumentation, through digital means, the digital, multimodal construction of that goal. Scaffolding was in action in this study through designing instruction for multimodal composing, understanding collaboration as a form of scaffolding and examining multimodal composing and its potential for scaffolding argument learning.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study was conducted in ninth- and tenth-grade classrooms with the goal of studying effective scaffolding for improving argumentative writing, both conventional and digital/multimodal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author conducted a formative experiment in two high-school classrooms to study ways teachers integrated forms of multimodal composition in their classrooms and provided associated scaffolding.\nFindings: Findings regarding scaffolding included the embedding of scaffolding in the writing process to blend conventional and digital forms, the use of collaboration as a needed, though resisted, part of this scaffolding, and the consideration of digital tools that mediate students' argumentative writing.\nOriginality/value: This study explored the implementation of a multimodal literacies intervention, providing empirical findings to a field that has remained largely theoretical.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Gender, authentic leadership and identity: analysis of women leaders' autobiographies
|
[
"Gender",
"Leadership",
"Authentic leadership",
"Autobiography",
"Identity work"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Media representations of women in leadership positions are gaining increasing interest (Mavin et al., 2010). The analyses of media representations often focus on everyday constructions of gendered leadership via television, newspapers, websites or photography (Buysse and Embser-Herbert, 2004; Mavin et al., 2010; Trimble, 2007). This paper focuses specifically on autobiographies. Similarly to gender, autobiographies are produced in discourse and performance (Coslett et al., 2002). Within the context of broader discussions of leadership, however, gender is often presented as invisible, as if the body of the leader is irrelevant to their leadership (Fletcher, 2004). The rise of authentic leadership (AL) (Gardner et al., 2005, p. 344) also suggests that the gender of a leader is no longer of importance as the criteria for authenticity is to \"act in accordance with one's true self\". Even so, leadership remains a stubbornly male phenomenon in general (Karelaia and Guillen, 2014), and in the case of AL in particular (Gardiner, 2013a, 2013b). According to Coslett et al. (2002), autobiography is a form of written narrative created for an audience's sentimental story demands. Therefore, it is a form of narrative which may be a \"controlled\" expression of identity. Previously, autobiographies have been recognised as constituting media representations of identity and identity construction (Yar, 2012), particularly for women (Bullen, 2014). However, the gendered constructions and representations of leadership through the use of autobiography remains an area in need of further research, specifically, how women construct and do AL.\nWomen and leadership: Examination of leadership theory and practice has consistently revealed that the phenomenon is understood through a \"male norm\" lens (Calas and Smircich, 1996; Eagly and Carli, 2003; Patterson et al., 2012a). This is despite studies which seek to question the status quo (Patterson et al., 2012b; Galloway et al., 2015). Thus, in many cases, leadership is often presented as gender neutral or blind, as if the body of the leader is irrelevant to their leadership (Fletcher, 2004; Patterson et al., 2012b). A particular example of leadership style which is presented as gender neutral is AL (Gardner et al., 2005). Although an agreed definition for AL is yet to be established, Ladkin and Taylor (2010, p. 5) cite three key features, they write:\nLeadership narratives and identity: This paper is informed by the perspective that identities, including leader, are socially constructed, particularly within the workplace (Brown, 2015; Sinclair, 2005; Collinson, 2003). This focus contrasts, for example, with a conceptualisation of identity as an idiosyncratic aspect making a person unique. Social identities are constructed and maintained through identity work, defined by Sveningsson and Alvesson (2003, p. 1165) as \"people being engaged in forming, repairing, maintaining, strengthening or revising\" their identities, taking on a particular salience during specific events. Accordingly, identity work is an on-going process and identities are not intrinsic, essential nor fixed. However, identity construction at the individual and personal level remains an area in need of further consideration (Brown, 2015). An analysis of narratives and story telling by leaders can help to reveal the construction of leadership identities, or the identity work of leaders, at the individual level (Shamir et al., 2005).\nMethods: Analysis of leadership stories, particularly autobiographies, is used here to understand how widely recognised leaders craft and construct their identities. Autobiographies were selected as they allow for an analysis of the subjective, culturally bound presentation of women leader's lives, rather than biographies which tend to be written from an outsider, objective perspective (Anderson and Chawla, 2004). The paper's presentation of gender is consistent with that of Schippers (2007), in that \"the social locations of 'man' and 'woman' are the places where characteristics of masculinity or femininity are embodied or displayed\" (Powell and Sang, 2015, p. 922). The study does not aim to produce universal/population generalisations. Rather, the knowledge is generalisable to a theoretical position, in this case identity work, and how it informs the gendered construction of (authentic) leadership (Watson, 2009). The use of autobiographies helps to understand how organisational actors construct and present a self to other parties (Ybema et al., 2009). The subjectivity of these kinds of approaches is a strength of the study as it the subjectivity of leaders' experiences which is the focus.\nFindings: The following section sets out the findings from the autobiographies, including the following themes: family, personal values, responsibility to other women and the next generation, long-term impact and roles models. We draw out similarities and tensions within and between the women's constructions of their gendered leadership identity.\nDiscussion: Through analyses of the media representations, via autobiography, of four women leaders, this paper adds to the literature on the social construction of leadership, especially AL. The use of autobiography as forms of media representations which underpin notions of authenticity for leadership is congruent with previous research (Smith, 2010). The current research suggests that these forms of media representations of AL are particularly relevant for the women studied. The analyses have revealed that these women engage in a form of AL which is consciously gendered, outlining clearly the impact they feel their identity as women has had on their careers and leadership approach and roles. Yet, how conscious they are of reinforcing gender stereotypes remains in question. The autobiographies are written by women who are extraordinary in that they have overcome (to some extent) societal gender constraints, to reach positions of international leadership. However, these texts largely conform to gendered expectations of women; for example, all four women locate themselves within domestic contexts, including family life and exhibit \"feminine\" communal leadership traits. Findings reflect the research of Mavin et al. (2010) who examine media representations of women political leaders (also Patterson et al., 2012a). Although Gillard has resisted gender norms to some extent, by not marrying or having children; nevertheless, she is not exempt from establishing an \"appropriate\" gender identity, supported by the importance she attributes to family and her caring role. The general conformity to gender norms is perhaps not surprising if we remember that discourse is a vehicle for transmitting ideology (Koller, 2004). In this case, these texts transmit a gendered hegemony, albeit while resisting some gender stereotypes. This is further evidenced by how each woman places emphasis on her connectedness to other women; the imagined audience or followers. These followers are often constructed as women with familial concerns including work-life balance. This interconnectedness is a key aspect of the post-heroic models of leadership, which Fletcher (2004) argues have failed to take hold, and yet is a key aspect of AL (Avolio and Gardener, 2005), which seeks to impart idealised behaviours in followers (Ford and Harding, 2011). In addition, the attribution of importance to family may be part of a professional self which a follower expects to hear discussed as part of a gendered route to a position of leadership. It is possible that a lack of discussion on this topic would be perceived by followers as negative and lacking in \"authenticity\"; no woman gets to the top without addressing her \"dual life\" and making sacrifices on the way.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Leadership theories have moved from viewing leadership as an innate trait, towards models that recognise leadership as a social construction. Alongside this theorisation, gender and leadership remain of considerable interest, particularly given the under-representation of women in leadership positions. Methodological approaches to understanding leadership have begun to embrace innovative methods, such as historical analyses. This paper aims to understand how high profile women leaders construct a gendered leadership identity, with particular reference to authentic leadership.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Thematic analysis of autobiographies, a form of identity work, of four women leaders from business and politics: Sheryl Sandberg, Karren Brady, Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard.\nFindings: Analyses reveal that these women construct gender and leadership along familiar normative lines; for example, the emphasis on personal and familial values. However, their stories differ in that the normative extends to include close examination of the body and a sense of responsibility to other women. Overall, media representations of these \"authentic\" leaders conform to social constructions of gender. Thus, in the case of authentic leadership, a theory presented as gender neutral, the authenticity of leadership has to some extent been crafted by the media rather than the leader.\nOriginality/value: The study reveals that despite attempts to \"craft\" and control the image of the authentic self for consumption by followers, gendered media representations of individuals and leadership remain. Thus, alternative approaches to crafting an authentic leadership self which extend beyond (mainstream) media is suggested.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
HRM and the case of transgender workers: a complex landscape of limited HRM "know how" with some pockets of good practice
|
[
"Equality",
"Diversity",
"Inclusion",
"LGBTQ",
"Transgender"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nTransgender persons are discriminated against at work: Despite the legal progress made over the past 20 years, i.e. Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999, Gender Recognition Act 2004 and UK Equality Act 2010, surveys conducted by charities in support of transgender rights show that the unemployment rate among transgender persons is 7 per cent higher than the general population and 26 per cent get fired because of their gender identity. In the USA, up to 90 per cent of transgender workers report that they have been harassed, discriminated against or mistreated in the workplace, whereas in the UK, 38 per cent have experienced actual physical intimidation or threats. For these reasons, up to 46 per cent of transgender persons hide their gender identity in the workplace.\nDesign: A questionnaire with a combination of quantitative and qualitative items was developed based on the National Centre for Transgender Equality report and the Government Equalities Office's guidance for employers (The recruitment and retention of transgender staff). It was translated into English, French and German, as according to Equaldex, these are some of the three biggest population groups supporting transgender rights in employment and therefore ought to be leaders in good HRM practice. Participants were recruited via online transgender community forums with more than 500 members worldwide.\nFindings: The \"glass ceiling\": transgender careers can grind to a halt\nRecommendations: It may sound simple, but:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Human resource management (HRM) departments report a lack of knowledge on supporting transgender employees during gender transition in the workplace. The purpose of this research is to survey the experiences of transgender workers in English-, French- and German-speaking countries to evaluate their experience of transitioning at work and the HRM support they received to do so.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire consisting of 32 quantitative items and qualitative text boxes was completed by 166 transgender individuals.\nFindings: Results show a mostly negative landscape with some pockets of good practice.\nResearch limitations/implications: Answers are based on self-report measures and data are cross-sectional.\nPractical implications: Recommendations for good practice are proposed for HRM departments.\nSocial implications: A move towards a more inclusive workplace is needed.\nOriginality/value: Questions focus on HRM practices specifically, whereas other surveys have assessed work practices more broadly.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Meaning of work in a group of school principals: the role of organizational variables
|
[
"Education",
"Job satisfaction",
"Work experience",
"Commitment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Meaning of work and its role in the well-being literature\nMethods: Participants\nResults: Correlations\nDiscussion: Our results showed that role clarity, possibilities for development and sense of belonging to the workplace contributed incrementally to explain the variance of the meaning of work scores above and beyond that accounted for by job satisfaction. At the same time, findings showed that positive feedback from colleagues had a non-significant effect on the meaning of work scores.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Principals' beliefs about their profession are of great interest for schools in terms of organizational development and success. Furthermore, as meaning is a dimension of eudaimonic well-being, studying the principal meaning of work allows us to deepen the knowledge about their professional well-being, too. According to studies on non-educational contexts, the meaning of work is influenced by several organizational variables (such as possibilities for professional development and organizational commitment). Despite this, several school workers still lack to recognize the role played in this regard. Trying to fulfill these gaps partially, the purpose of this study is to verify the incremental effect of organizational dimensions and positive feedback from colleagues above and beyond positive beliefs about work.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An Italian version of the COPSOQ II adapted to school principals was administered to 1,616 school principals. Hierarchical multiple regression was conducted, considering three blocks of variables, namely, positive personal beliefs about work (job satisfaction and self-efficacy); organizational dimensions (role clarity, possibilities for development and sense of belonging to the workplace); positive feedback from colleagues.\nFindings: Overall, the variables explained 45% of the variance of the meaning of work. While organizational variables accounted for an incremental 24% of the variance, above and beyond the personal experience of work (F (5, 1,610) = 267.378, p = 0.000), positive feedback from colleagues did not show a significant effect originality. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study regarding the meaning of work at school with specific reference to school principals.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study regarding the meaning of work at school and with specific reference to school principals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Hospital rounding - EHR's impact
|
[
"Assessment",
"Medical records",
"Process efficiency",
"Electronic health records",
"Hospital rounds",
"Time-motion study"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Electronic health records (EHRs) are a way to avoid dangerous mistakes, reduce costs and improve care (Bush, 2004). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) provides financial incentives to hospitals whose administrators use health information technology meaningfully (Steinbrook, 2009; Manos, 2009). The Affordable Care Act of 2010 calls for EHR adoption and $1 trillion in healthcare reform spending. This governmental push to expedite EHR is motivated by the belief that the USA can save $80 billion via adopting EHR, $18 billion of which could come from private practices alone (Grams, 2012; Hillestad et al., 2005; Hing et al., 2007). However, a literature review found mixed results when it comes to delivering EHR promises (Poissant et al., 2005). For some healthcare systems, EHRs provide positive results; e.g. patients reported being fairly satisfied with electronic healthcare at group health centers, especially dealing with medication, patient-provider communication and receiving test results (Ralston et al., 2007). Some clinicians recognize the advantages; e.g. in a 2004 emergency department (ED) physician and nurse survey, following EHR implementation, clinicians found EHRs easy to use and were satisfied with their performance (Likourezos et al., 2004). EHRs are linked to complete and accurate documentation (Menke et al., 2001), and clinicians surveyed prior to an EHR transition felt that accessibility, quality and safety would benefit from improved reporting (Yoon-Flannery et al., 2008). There is no doubt that such improvements are needed as medical errors continue to be important healthcare problems (Kohn et al., 2000; Leape and Berwick, 2005).\nMethod: Background\nResults: We shadowed 68 and 61 rounds, respectively, during round one (pre-EHR) and round two (post-EHR), totalling more than 730 shadowed hours. Task times for Prep, Walk and Others, by their nature, could vary widely. Other tasks are normally completed in seconds or minutes. We removed outliers longer than 30 minutes on all tasks other than task types Prep, Walk and Other. This reduces the total task frequencies from 20,750 to 20,732. To control differences caused by hospital environment and physician specialties, we grouped data by hospitals and specialty areas. Unfortunately, owing to the relatively small sample sizes in the two smaller hospitals and specialty areas other than hospitalists and cardiologists, the study focusses only on the two largest physician specialty groups, hospitalists and cardiologists in the largest hospital, which houses 365 beds. Table I summarizes basic shadowing information, which records how many non-repeat-patients visited during those shadows. Task frequency counts the times a task type was performed. We counted task frequencies whenever physicians switched from one task to another. Physicians often engaged in the same task several times even for the same patient owing to interruptions or the need to attend to other tasks. Duration is the total time of all shadowed rounds.\nDiscussion: Results from previous trainee focussed hospital time-motion studies found that trainees spend significant time documenting and little on direct patient care, even at hospitals that had implemented EHR (Lurie et al., 1989; Moore et al., 2000; Fletcher et al., 2012; Block et al., 2013). Comparing our results to these studies, in particular the more recent ones (Fletcher et al., 2012; Block et al., 2013), we found that practicing physicians in a community hospital have a rounding time-distribution similar to teaching hospital medical trainees based on time in direct-patient contact and reviewing and documenting patient records, despite a different workflow where practicing physicians work more independently and are rarely involved in educational activities (Table IV). One EHR benefit is that hospitalist time in miscellaneous tasks (walk and others) was reduced from 32 to 26 percent, which is close to the portion that trainees spent in miscellaneous tasks and educational activities (Block et al., 2013). However, time saving is offset by longer time spent reviewing and documenting patient records (45 percent), again comparable to that in the trainee studies. Block et al. (2013) attributes the large time portion spent on medical records to the availability and ever-increasing amount of stored patient records while others (Vinkhuyzen et al., 2012) point to the difficulty navigating electronic records compared to paper charts.\nConclusion: Significant financial and human resources have been expended in the past ten years to transform healthcare using heath information technology (HIT). President Obama has authorized $29 billion in incentive payments to eligible providers as part of the HI-TECH Act passed in 2009. Furthermore, healthcare providers, not complying with regulations, will be subject to significant financial penalties starting in 2015 (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2013). A report from IDC health insights shows projections for HIT spending to double between 2009 and 2015, with 2009 spending on inpatient EHR at $1.34 billion and projected to grow to $2.4 billion in 2015 (Goedert, 2011). Meaningful use aims to actually improve patient outcomes, increase efficiencies and allow better patient care. Although numerous reports and studies show incremental benefits from HIT, our study adds to the growing evidence showing no improvement in efficiency. Many hospital administrators now need to use shadowing scribes to alleviate the updating electronic chart burden (Hafner, 2014). It appears that to reap the expected benefits, a more holistic approach in which EHR design and implementation places greater emphasis on the cultural and sociological factors in medical practices will be needed (Berg, 1998; Clarke et al., 2001; Greatbatch et al., 1995).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the time spent on various tasks during physician inpatient rounds and to examine the new electronic health records (EHRs) impact on time distribution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Trained observers shadowed hospital physicians to record times for various tasks before and after EHR implementation.\nFindings: Electronic records did not improve efficiency. However, task times were redistributed. Physicians spent more time reviewing patient charts using time saved from miscellaneous work.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study focusses solely on work distribution and the changes it underwent. It does not include quality measures either on patient results or physician satisfaction.\nPractical implications: As EHR provides rich information and easier access to patient records, it motivates physicians to spend more time reviewing patient charts. Hospital administrators seeking immediate returns on EHR investment, therefore, may be disappointed.\nOriginality/value: Unlike previous work, this study was conducted in a non-teaching hospital, providing a task-time comparison without any educational and team factor influence. The result serves as a benchmark for many community hospital managers seeking to address the same issue.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The business of black beauty: social entrepreneurship or social injustice?
|
[
"Social entrepreneurship",
"Justice",
"Fairness heuristic theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Meaningful organisations care about more than high productivity and profit. Yes, these factors are important because without them, the chance of organisational survival diminishes. However, truly meaningful organisations understand that other factors also matter. These organisations value people - both internal (i.e. employees) and external (i.e. members of society) constituents. Herman and Gioia (1998) explain that this meaningful culture includes elements such as mutual respect, diversity, acknowledgement of the human spirit (e.g. allowing individual expression of values) and social responsibility. These dynamics are often also associated with justice (Colquitt, 2001; Jurkiewicz and Giacalone, 2004; Roberson and Stevens, 2006; Rupp et al., 2006).\nHistory of the black beauty industry: The history of the black beauty industry in the USA can be traced back to slavery. According to Black (2004), before the mid-nineteenth century, white women desired creams and preparations (including lighteners) to provide smooth, white complexion signifying the genteel lady, and these preparations were borrowed from a variety of cultures, as well as from the slaves who brought hair and beauty remedies from West Africa. Soon, slaves living on plantations also realised that lighter-skinned blacks with straighter hair were favoured, as they worked inside the plantation houses where they performed less backbreaking labour than the slaves relegated to the fields, and they had access to hand-me-down clothes, better food, education and sometimes even the promise of freedom upon the master's death (Byrd and Tharps, 2014). In the nineteenth century, commentators noticed that Africans and those of African descent stood at the base of the racial hierarchy, and as a display of whiteness-secured privilege, black women also made use of skin lighteners and bleaches (Black, 2004).\nEarly contributors to the black beauty industry: Annie Turnbo-Malone (1869-1957) was an African-American entrepreneur who founded a beauty, haircare and cosmetic business targeting black women and grew it into an empire. She patented, manufactured and distributed beauty products and services (Phillips, 2003), and her products included hair straighteners, pomades (and other haircare products), soaps, face powders, deodorants and creams (including bleaching/skin whitening creams) (Ingham and Feldman, 1994; Trawick, 2011). She was so successful that imitators were emerging across the country, and thus, to stymie impostors' efforts, she adopted and copyrighted the trade name \"Poro\", a Mende word (Ingham and Feldman, 1994; Phillips, 2003), under which she continued to build her brand.\nJustice and the fairness heuristic theory: Heuristic methods or processes facilitate self-directed learning, allowing individuals to discover or understand dynamics or to solve problems on their own. Heuristics are relevant to justice because people form their own judgements of what is (or is not) fair based on the information they have and their interpretation of it. According to Van den Bos et al. (2001), the fairness heuristic theory proposes that people use fairness judgements when they are concerned about potential problems associated with social interdependence and socially based identity processes, referred to as the \"fundamental social dilemma\". The latter is concerned with the question of whether one can trust others not to exploit or exclude him/her from important relationships or groups, and the fairness heuristic theory argues that people start looking for fairness information to answer this question (Van den Bos et al., 2001).\nThe black beauty industry: the case for social entrepreneurship: Descriptions of social entrepreneurship vary. Dees (1998) explained that social entrepreneurs adopt a mission to create and sustain social value, pursue new opportunities to serve that mission, engage in continuous innovation, adaptation and learning and exhibit a heightened sense of accountability for outcomes created and to constituencies served. Defourny and Nyssens (2004) mentioned that the very nature of the social enterprise is that it presupposes a certain balance between its two major elements, the economic (i.e. taking risks and being market-oriented to create income and finance the enterprise) and the associative (i.e. meeting emerging but non-remunerative social demands). Campi et al. (2006) mentioned three elements of the social enterprise, namely the economic, the social and the socio-political or civic (i.e. promoting democratisation of decision-making and the inclusion of marginalised parts of the population).\nThe black beauty industry: the case for social injustice: It was previously mentioned that some may argue that the black beauty culture helps to inspire and sustain self-worth and a sense of self. However, arguments may also be made to show how the black beauty industry does the exact opposite, undermining self-worth and destabilising one's sense of self. Some may assert that the main setback partly attributable to the black beauty industry is an arguably apparent loss of identity. Identity plays an important role in organisations, and is therefore acknowledged as an essential organisational construct that can help explain attitudes and behaviours. Identity is associated with several other organisational constructs including job satisfaction, organisational commitment, performance and turnover intentions (Cole and Bruch, 2006; Van Dick et al., 2004; Voss et al., 2006). An individual's identity is related to his/her sense of self, and allows the person to ascertain who he/she is. When the individual experiences loss of that identity due to organisational and societal values or ideologies that are also reflected by the black beauty industry, there is organisational and social injustice.\nCurrent state of the black beauty industry: The beauty industry is a global, multi-billion-dollar industry encompassing numerous products and services. According to Jones (2010), the beauty industry overlaps with many others including fashion, beauty salons and hairdressers, as well as medical products and services such as Botox and plastic surgery; and consumers around the world spend $330bn a year on hair and skin care products, fragrances, colour cosmetics, toiletries and other merchandise. This was a 2008 estimate, and thus, the size of the industry today is in all probability represented by a much larger figure. In fact, the black beauty industry alone, which can be described as a subset of the general beauty industry, is also a global industry arguably worth billions of dollars. Opiah (2014) asserted that the black haircare industry, specifically is grossly underestimated and quoted market research firm Mintel, which estimated the size of the 2012 market at $684m, with a projection of $761m by 2017. Mintel clarified, however, that general market brands, weaves, extensions, wigs, independent beauty supply stores, distributors, e-commerce, styling tools and appliances were missing from the figures (Opiah, 2014). Therefore, if all relevant products and services were included, the evaluation would be substantially higher. The $684m could reach half trillion dollars (i.e. $500bn), according to Mintel (Opiah, 2014). If the black haircare industry alone is so significant in size, one can only imagine the magnitude of the black beauty industry in general.\nDiscussion and future inquiry: This examination of the black beauty industry and its effects bring to mind a particular brewing company's effort to market a malt liquor to urban blacks. According to Brenkert (1998), Heileman Brewing Company sought to market \"PowerMaster\", which contained an amplified percentage of alcohol, to inner-city blacks, using black male models and advertisements assuring consumers that the malt liquor was \"bold not harsh\". In this case, fairness perceptions and views about moral and social responsibility could very much vary. Some may consider that the product instilled a sense of courage, power and worth in a frequently dehumanised segment of the population, while others may claim that it unjustly exploited an already vulnerable target market. Brenkert (1998) concluded that when products targeted at particular market segments cause consumers to suffer disproportionately, it is only fair that measures be considered to reduce the harm produced, and that both individuals and corporations should accept collective responsibility to the targeted market segments for the effects of their products and marketing campaigns.\nConclusion: As the fairness heuristic theory is used to form judgements about the black beauty industry, and the information is considered, individuals will have their own perceptions and interpretations of what is good and fair and some may determine that they are caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. Can the black beauty industry and the organisations and leaders/decision-makers within be trusted not to exploit internal and external constituents' biases and insecurities knowingly or unknowingly thrust upon them by society? Are they, in fact, valiantly serving constituents by helping them to avoid exclusion (e.g. from employment in certain organisations); or are they further propagating unfair stereotypes, thus assisting in the facilitation of exclusion of those who choose not to conform and exploitation of those who do conform? Do they deserve cooperation? The information in this paper presents valid arguments for both positive and negative outcomes of the black beauty industry, and thus, the same industry that can be commended for social entrepreneurship can also be condemned for social injustice.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the black beauty industry from a historical perspective and consider the fairness heuristic theory to determine if organisations in this industry are engaging in and promoting social entrepreneurship or contributing to social injustice. The paper explores the work of Annie Turnbo-Malone and Madame C.J. Walker, pioneers and stalwart entrepreneurs in the black beauty business, to discuss the controversial issue. Current and future applications are also investigated and presented.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Papers from earlier as well as more contemporary journals, news media and books were examined and synthesised to render a balanced view to aid in the entrepreneurship or injustice debate.\nFindings: The paper concludes that decisions about fairness and justice involve perception and thus vary by individual, allowing a substantial case for the black beauty industry to both be commended for social entrepreneurship and condemned as a proponent of social injustice (distributive, procedural and interactional).\nOriginality/value: Organisations have substantial impact on individuals, groups, the community and society. A meaningful organisation encourages expression, perceptions of worth and constructive attitudes and behaviour, and refrains from reflecting excessive dictatorship or dehumanisation. This paper highlights both positive and negative organisational and societal issues concerning the business of black beauty, a relatively understudied topic in management in general and management history in particular, and it provides a unique lens from which to build awareness about entrepreneurship and justice and to effect needed change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does job position moderate the relationship between gender and ethics?: a cross-cultural analysis
|
[
"In-group collectivism",
"Cross-cultural analysis",
"Performance orientation",
"Ethics",
"Gender",
"Job position"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Ethics has long been a serious concern in the business world, and academia has only intensified the weighty discussion. As a greater number of females enter the job market and occupy managerial job positions (Omar and Davison, 2001; Ibrahim et al., 2009), it changes the traditional male-dominated working environment, and thus the ethically related issues within organizations change. According to Ramdani and van Witteloostuijn (2012), male principle owners have a higher propensity than female principle owners to act unethically. Therefore, I believed investigating the relationship between gender and ethics is likely to remain a topic of interest to researchers as more women continue to join workforce.\nLiterature review: Gender and ethics\nMethods: Sample\nResults: Table I presents the matrix of correlations and sample statistics of the individual-level and country-level variables used in the research. Table II reports the HLM analytical outcomes for the main effect and the moderating effects at individual level and at cross-level. Model 1 presents the results of the association between gender and an individual's ethical reasoning. Model 2 shows the consequences of the individual-level interacting effect. Models 3 and 4 exhibit the statistical results of the three-way interactions. Figures 1 and 2 show plots of the supported hypotheses of the three-way interacting effects. I plotted the three-way interactions using standardized variables. By doing so, all the variables could be plotted on the same scale rather than individually separate units.\nDiscussions: This research discussed the relationship between gender and ethics and how other factors from individual level and country level influence the individual-level relationship. The statistical results showed that men are more likely than women to justify ethically suspect behaviors. The results did not support the argument that job position reduces the positive gender-ethics relationship, but the HLM results showed that the proposed negative individual-level interaction between job position and gender on ethics is enhanced at high in-group collectivism and is reduced at high performance orientation.\nConclusion: The empirical findings of this study suggest that gender may indeed predict an individual's willingness to justify ethically suspect behaviors, and this individual-level relationship changes under the joint influence of organizational job position and cultural values. It is hoped that this research can serve as an example for others to adopt the cross-level moderation model to study ethics in the management field.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between gender and ethics, the interaction of job position and gender on ethics, and the three-way interacting effects of cultural values, job position, and gender on ethics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The individual-level data were from the 2005-2008 wave of World Values Survey data set and the cultural values were from the GLOBE study. The research contained 26,639 subjects from 30 nations and used HLM to conduct data analysis.\nFindings: Results showed that men are more likely than women to justify ethically suspect behaviors. In addition, under high in-group collectivism, the ethical difference between genders tends to decrease at high job positions and under high performance orientation, the ethical difference between genders tends to increase at high job positions.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research depends on secondary data; it is therefore impossible for the author to control the data collection process, which could be an issue for discussion. In addition, because of limited available studies to refer to, the formation of the individual-level moderator, job position, might cause some attention.\nPractical implications: Corporate education and training in regards to ethical issues becomes even more vital, especially for men, since the statistical results showed that men are more likely than women to be deviant. Meanwhile, organizations can help themselves by recruiting a greater number of females, as this study shows that females are seen to make more ethically sound decisions than males. Furthermore, under the contexts of high in-group collectivism and low performance orientation, both genders in higher job positions tend to be more unethical than people in lower positions. Since people in higher positions have the right and the power to set the ethical tone for the organization (Clinard, 1983; Posner and Schmidt, 1992), it becomes particularly essential for firms to pay close attention to ethical issues in higher job positions.\nOriginality/value: The study proved that the relationship between gender and ethics is more complicated than expected; job position, and cultural values can jointly influence the individual-level relationship. In addition, since human behavior is complicated, employing multilevel method to investigate humane behaviors in the field of management becomes necessary in the future.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Is our evidence-based practice effective? Review of 435 steroid injections given by a general practitioner over eight years
|
[
"General practice",
"Steroids",
"Surveys"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Intra-articular steroids are widely used in British general practice (Gormley et al., 2003). They have been found to be effective in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee (Arroll and Goodyear-Smith, 2000), but of limited effectiveness in reducing plantar heel pain (Crawford and Thomson, 2003). Steroid injections can be better than physiotherapy for painful stiff shoulders, but the evidence is not strong, and they are probably no better than placebo in the longer term of 6-12 months (Buchbinder et al., 2003). Similarly, they may also be of initial benefit in tennis elbow, lateral epicondylitis, but be no better than placebo after six months (Smidt et al., 2002a, b).Evidence-based medicine aims to base health care upon the best possible evidence, ideally derived from randomised controlled trials. Trials can tell us what may be achieved, often in ideal circumstances. Such information needs to be supplemented by results from routine practice to determine whether similar results can be achieved there, and thus to know how generalisable are trial results.Our aim was discover whether steroid injections given in a typical primary care setting were as effective as those given in clinical trials, also seeing to understand the limitations and interpretation of such outcome studies (Rothwell, 2000). We therefore report the results of a self-completion questionnaire given to all patients receiving an anti-inflammatory steroid injection from one GP during an eight-year period.The practice is situated in a former mining village in North-west England, with a list size of 8,300 patients and five general practitioners. Age-sex distribution is similar to national figures.\nMethod: All patients receiving an anti-inflammatory steroid administered by JH between July 1995 and August 2003 were given a questionnaire for completion one month after the procedure, along with some basic instructions about their injection based upon manufacturer's patient instruction leaflet on the reverse. (Questionnaires available from the authors.) The questionnaire was discussed with local colleagues but not validated since nothing was known to be available ten years ago. Patients who did not return questionnaires were prompted opportunistically.Data was entered by EW on an Excel spreadsheet prior to analysis.\nResults: The steroid injections were given on 435 occasions to 288 different patients, 139 (48 per cent) women and 149 men. The mean age of patients was 65 years. On the few (three) occasions when more than one site was injected a single questionnaire was still given. A total of 123 patients (43 per cent) had received previous steroid injections at the same site and 115 (40 per cent) at a different site. These figures are not mutually exclusive.A total of 395 (91 per cent) of patients returned the questionnaires, see (Table I). A few questions were left blank.Of patients, 96 per cent answered, \"Looking back, would you still have had the injection\" affirmatively, including15 patients who reported that their pain was worse after one month.A total of 11 (2.5 per cent) patients had a further consultation due to problems at the site within four weeks of the injection. These were normally due to pain or mild to moderate sensitivity reactions. None were due to significant infection.\nDiscussion: This is the largest review of musculo-skeletal steroid injections by a single practitioner we have discovered after a literature search. Over half of the GPs surveyed in Northern Ireland performed injections (Gormley et al., 2003), and the average of 55 injections per year here would be well into the top quartile of that group. The frequency of injections at different sites is broadly similar between that group and myself, and during the eight years total numbers exceeded those in many trials.At the time of the start of this series a widely distributed, independent review supported the use of corticosteroid injections for inflammatory arthritis and other soft tissue problems (Drugs & Therapeutics Bulletin, 1995). Treatment was then largely empirical and there was no consensus amongst rheumatologists about their use (Haslock et al., 1995). Subsequent systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials suggest such injections may only have an effect for a few months. However, both patients and doctors may well be satisfied by benefit even if it is only short term.Invasive procedures can have a particularly strong placebo effect (Chaput de Saintonge and Herxheimer, 1994). Steroid injections have been considered as offering \"important, sustained benefit over several months\" (Walker-Bone et al., 2000) which doctors are unlikely to readily deny patients. This can be enhanced by comments from individual patients. One man wrote, \"I can even throw stones with my grandchildren over arm. I have not been able to do this for years\".Trials have reported successful short term treatment substantial numbers of patients. For example 92 per cent of patients given them for epicondylitis of the elbow were improved at six weeks (Smidt et al., 2002a, b), and 77 per cent of those given them for shoulder pain were improved after seven weeks (van der Windt, 1998). These are very similar to our results suggesting patient selection and procedures were appropriate.However, the results are inevitably subject to bias from the non-blinded nature of the procedure, enhanced by expectations of benefit (interim results were presented in the form of a wall graph to show that the results had been analysed and suggesting the research was worthwhile). Patients were usually pleased to participate in this research.The incidence of adverse events was low and similar to other series (Kumar and Newman, 1999), without major infections. The questionnaire did not ask about problems such as injection-site pain and might have usefully done so.Although steroid injections are discrete procedures and therefore amongst the easier to evaluate evidence-based interventions in general practice, actually determining whether they have been given to appropriate patients at the right time and place is a daunting problem (Greenhalgh, 1996). A simple question, \"Would you still have had the injection?\", although ignoring technical issues of appropriateness, summarises the patient's view. It was reassuring that 96 per cent of patients did answer that they would have had the injection, and this may be the most appropriate question to ask patients routinely.Monitoring of complications and longer-term outcomes of medical and surgical interventions should be an essential part of clinical practice (Rothwell, 2000; Baker, 2003). Nevertheless, audit results can be difficult to interpret, and more evidence is required about the sensitivity of such monitoring and its feasibility, limitations and interpretation in routine use. Although the creation and distribution of the questionnaire and the collation of results should be well within the capacity of most practices, this series illustrates the problems in deciding the effectiveness one's performance with a discrete procedure. The assessment of patients with complex problems such as mental illness would be much more difficult.A large personal review such as this is worthwhile since it gives information about outcomes for patients. Such systematic self-monitoring may be considered a mark of professionalism. Although a combination of placebo effects and patient expectations inevitably limits its generalisability, we consider information collected systematically should be easily available to patients.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to review all patients having received a steroid injection for rheumatic problems in the period 1995-2003 by one general practitioner.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Self-completion questionnaire given to patients at the time of the injection to be returned after one month.\nFindings: - Most of the 435 patients (92 per cent) were pleased that they had received the injection. Pain was relieved better than mobility. Results for different sites were similar. Complication rates were low and many patients had further steroid injections.\nPractical implications: - It is feasible to collect large series reviewing the outcome of interventions in general practice. Results can be usefully compared with those obtained in randomised controlled trials.\nOriginality/value: - This is the largest review of steroid injections carried out in a single general practice in the UK. It provides information with which others can compare their own practice and results, especially in primary care.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Bungee jumping and rocket launching: Transformative learning for today's transformational school leaders
|
[
"Transformational leadership",
"Transformative learning",
"School principals",
"Educational leadership development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPurpose: Recent studies have confirmed principals effectively ameliorate effects of increasingly frequent disruption to stable school cultures, when they adopt a transformational leadership style (Hameiri and Nir, 2016). This often-espoused leadership approach is also cited as being crucial to leadership success and, indeed, is sought by governing bodies when recruiting a new principal. In the UK, for example, national education policy includes guidance for governing bodies selecting new headteachers (UK Government, 2017), referring to the findings of Matthews et al. (2014) which indicate that \"the best leaders can transform any school through what they stand for, what they do and how they do it\" (p. 6).\nBackground literature: Leadership theories and models\nApproach: Our methodology was a modified form of action research. Action research is grounded in the philosophy of John Dewey (1916), adheres to the action research principles of Kurt Lewin (1946), follows the main methodological recommendations of Carr and Kemmis and, since its aim is educational, suits the model of participatory action research developed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988). The intention of all action research is to make changes for the better. In this sense, it is both partisan and transformative. The work of Carr and Kemmis (1986) has been influential in a number of studies designed to improve a wide range of educational contexts, including the higher and continuing education context. The publication of a number of recent books and new editions (McNiff, 2013) encourage teachers at all levels to instigate their own research as a way of improving the learning outcomes of their students. Building on the scholarship of teaching and learning, as expounded by Boyer (1990), Hutchings et al. (2011) endorse how teachers must extend student learning so that it is deeper and more satisfying, and this approach has been taken in this project. Action research, involves a spiral process of planning, acting (implementing change), observing, analysing, reflecting and then evaluating (Costello, 2003). This completes one full cycle, which generally raises other issues that will be researched and acted upon in a new cycle (see Figure 1).\nFindings and implications: The investigation elicited whether transformative learning activities had contributed to transformational leadership skills development. Common themes were initially identified and were consequently grouped under five broad themes which researchers determined after in-depth analysis and discussion about the trends of participants' feedback. These were: flexibility and challenge, broadening perspectives, the big picture, supporting others and life-long learning. After these had been established, each theme was linked to transformative learning experiences and aligned to one or more of the four perspectives of transformational leadership - II, Inspirational Motivation, IC and IS (Bass, 1985; Bass, 1997). The findings from participants' comments are presented under the five themes, which had emerged and are detailed below.\nOriginality and value: To date, few studies have aligned transformative learning - such as can be experienced through well-designed postgraduate programs - with the subsequent development of transformational leadership skills. This study's findings, however, contribute to deeper appreciation of how transformative learning provides the appropriate challenges to build confidence and develop transformational leadership skills. Insights concerning the dimensions of transformational leadership which can best be enhanced through transformative learning, frequently focussed on followers and their personal needs and development, as posited by Riggio (2009).\nConclusion: Since this research was conducted, further innovations have been introduced into postgraduate courses at the same university, with the aim of providing additional appropriate contextual challenges, critical incidents and disorienting dilemmas which, in turn, will contribute to the development of transformational leadership skills. Increased focus on advanced leadership skills, international connections and global engagement were suggested by participants in the study, and other cohorts' feedback has been added to the data in regard to the mode of delivery to better suit learning needs of busy educational leaders. Thus, from 2019, double-length courses, offered in blended learning mode, will provide extended opportunity to lead projects in situ and reflect on learning with peers in class in order to gain benefits from deeper transformative learning experiences.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A plethora of principal development programs based on myriad leadership theories currently abounds in many educational jurisdictions globally. Today's principals, consequently and fortuitously, often feel less isolated and better supported that has been indicated in school leadership research over the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to discover, however, how principals, through well-designed postgraduate study, can effectively become the transformational leaders, schools regularly require of them.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Action research involving postgraduate leadership students at an Australian university over a two year period, involved three cycles: identification of leadership learning needs, introduction of innovations to their learning and identification of the transformative learning which contributed to their leadership development.\nFindings: Transformative learning impacts significantly on transformational leadership development. This happens when disorienting dilemmas challenge and open minds to possibilities, and paradigmatic assumptions are questioned. The ensuing awareness enables leaders to demonstrate characteristics of transformational leadership especially the dimension of individualised consideration.\nOriginality/value: Few studies have aligned transformative learning with transformational leadership theory, but this paper found that school leaders benefit from transformative learning in their quest to become such a leader. The scariness of a metaphoric principal bungee-jump could ultimately lead to rocket launching of the most transformative kind.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Risk regulations and financial disclosure: An investigation based on corporate communication in French traded companies
|
[
"Risk management",
"Disclosure",
"Annual reports",
"Financial reporting",
"Corporate communications",
"France"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Risk disclosure is a focal issue of corporate communication (Beretta and Bozzolan, 2004), especially since various scandals have revealed shortcomings in companies' financial disclosure. Such incidents have led investors to lose trust in financial reports. Managers have been seen to omit information allowing third parties to modify their understanding both of risks and the accuracy of the suggested profitability.After reviewing literature on the gap between the reality of risk and communication, we will establish our research objective. In the second section, we will present the layout of our research. In the third section, we will highlight the overlapping of rules, which could be identified as the institutional answer to scandals, this answer favouring risk communication. Based on some French companies' reports, the fourth section will focus on terminology actually used by firms. Finally, after demonstrating the heterogeneity of the notion of risk, we will present a conceptual framework aimed at analyzing practices of risk reporting in annual reports. This conceptual framework results from the comparison between the institutional context and company practice.\n2 Literature on risk communication: There is a wide range of academic articles on risk information offering different perspectives on this issue. Some papers deal with specific risks, such as environmental risks, whereas other research provides an analysis of risk communication focusing on the type of communication employed. Table I provides a synthesis of the contributions of a sample of articles.2.1 Developing a framework for analysing risk publication\n3 Research layout: Our research, which is an exploratory study, notably aims at facilitating the development of a framework in order to qualify risk. To that end, we used the \"grounded theory\" from Glaser and Strauss (1967).3.1 The collection and data processing\n4 Institutional context: Companies are bound by an increasing number of regulations and norms which force them to communicate risk. Two types of rules have an impact upon company policy on reporting. The first represent those which refer explicitly to risks, whereas the second do not tackle risks but require reporting of any fact which could have a material impact on accounts and, subsequently, on the opinion of stakeholders. Managers may know how the first category stands, but they tend to underestimate the second one.Financial communication related to risks constitutes, therefore, an answer to the shortage of fair disclosure raised by scandals, which has lead many bodies to promote transparency of risk information. Indeed, those responsible for setting accounting standards, as well as stock exchange authorities and legislators have implemented new duties relating to risk information and risk management. Nevertheless, an analysis of these new regulations shows there is no consensus but instead constant overlapping and interweaving. Companies, and more specifically those whose shares are traded, are subjected to different information requirements by international bodies as well as by local authorities. In any case, companies have to comply with these regulations to maintain their ability to raise funds.4.1 Regulations at international level\n5 Formal references to risk: We have studied the way three French quoted companies have disclosed information about risk: Aventis, Veolia and France Telecom (see Appendix 1-3).The analysis of the Aventis document of reference shows that the risks are not always defined. Sometimes, the firm gives information on the way it intends to control the risks without giving a precise definition of the risks themselves. That is the case when the firm is explaining the way it tries to control the risks. For some risks, the firm gives a definition and discloses information on the way they are controlled. Financial risks are defined as a consequence of fluctuations of the value of an item (exchange rate for exchange rate risk, interest rate for interest rate risk). The hedging policy is documented as a way of controlling the risks.The analysis of Veolia documents shows that the risks are seldom defined. Financial risks are not defined at all, probably because the COB enacted an \"official definition\". Operational risks seem better defined. However, confusion exists between legal risk and risk of non-conformity, which is in fact an operational risk of non-conformity. Veolia's managers insist on several instances upon the transfer of risk. For example, some foreign investments are covered by a \"political risk\" insurance. This is disclosure on a kind of insurance risk, recently defined by the IASB in IFRS 4.France Telecom's document of reference seems to consider risks widely, according to the frequency of risk information. However, this approach is made relative by several findings. France Telecom focuses on specific kinds of risks, such as market risks and repeats the same information throughout the document. In addition, the way risk is reported emphasizes the risk evaluation made by France Telecom, and insists on a subjective approach of reporting. For example, the document of reference stipulates that \"France Telecom believes that its activities (...) do not pose a serious threat to the environment\" (page 143). A similar presentation of some of the risks relating to France Telecom's Business allows the document of reference to minimize the consequences of risks. Finally, it should be underlined that France Telecom makes no explicit mention of the category of operational risk and mainly considers the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) as part of operational issues.Documents of reference also contain information on risks which are not directly quoted: for example the terms might be prevention or uncertainties. This first step of our research shows that we should also study these aspects, while looking at the way each firm categorizes risks.\n6 Heterogeneity of the notion of risk: The notion of risk appears to be heterogeneous both within the institutional context and within companies' annual reports, which leads therefore to a gap between the requirements concerning risk disclosure and risk communication by companies.On the one hand, the multiplicity and the diversity of sources as regards risk communication lead to a lack of homogenization of risk designation. For example, the term \"financial risk\" involves diverse definitions, which are not exclusive from one another (Table III). Various institutions, both international and French, directly refer to that category of risk. However, they may mention this specific type of risk using different terms such as \"market risk\" (COB (2002) August, reference document; CNC/CRC, recommendation No. 98-01; and opinion No. 98-05 concerning credit institutions), or \"financial risk\" (IAS 32).Through the example of financial risk, the analysis of existing regulations and standards highlights the lack of consensus concerning the definition, and therefore the content, of different risks.On the other hand, the notion of risk again seems heterogeneous when dealt with in documents of reference. The table which shows the \"categorization of risk by each company\" is very useful. Although the COB published guidelines on the way companies shall include risk information in chapter IV of their documents of reference (as indicated above), these recommendations are not treated in the same way by companies. A comparative analysis of the content of chapter IV of the annual reports of three major companies demonstrates this heterogeneity Table IVLooking at the way each firm categorizes risks, we notice that Veolia combines operational and financial risks and considers that the \"stock risk\" defined as \"a significant number of shares needing to be sold in the future\" is at the same level (document of reference, page 87). Veolia does not specify what the factors for market risk are (4.7.1). It simply quotes \"changes in the cost of energy and taxes which could reduce the firm's earnings\" (page 84) and also fluctuations in exchange rates and interest rates.Aventis takes the opposite stance concerning operational risk: competition, activity in certain countries (political risk), the fact that public authorities could cancel contracts signed with the company (also political risk), respect of the law and regulations concerning environment, and, finally, the cost and responsibility relating to hygiene and safety are all factors which are of increasing importance. The company cannot be in a position to maintain or obtain the licences and authorization it requires.In the same vein, France Telecom's document of reference first splits risk into two different categories according to the scope of the risks involved. Within these categories, the content of the COB instruction ( ) appears either explicitly (environmental risks, page 143) or implicitly. For example, the failure of technical networks or of information systems (page 138), although not called operational risk, is considered by managers within the pages dedicated to risk description.Conversely, the presentation of the risks in the Aventis Document of reference is very close to what is required by the COB.As a consequence, standardization of the presentation of risks in annual reports is still not a reality among French companies, even if the French market authority tends to harmonize their content. In addition, this comparative analysis illustrates a gap between legal requirements and company practice.In all three documents, the formulation favors communication of risk management over risk description. By processing information in this way, managers appear pro-active. A purely descriptive discourse would be negative for the image of managers. Risk publication might well be explained by the theory of management impression.Owing to the overlapping of regulations and the lack of homogenisation at different levels (requirements and practices), we should underline the difficulty involved in an objective comparison between legal requirements and practice, as well as between different companies' practices.\n7 Conceptual framework: The need for a conceptual framework aimed at analyzing practices of risk reporting in annual reports follows on from the comparison between the institutional context and company practice. Indeed, such a framework could allow objective comparisons between what is required by regulations and what is actually done by companies. In other words, this framework could be a tool for ensuring compliance with the law.This objective is directly connected to different meanings of the notion of risk. We have shown that risk can be defined in many different ways by legislators, as well as by companies, to produce a broad meaning. Although these parties always refer to risk, they consider it at different times. It should therefore be underlined that the overlapping of meanings of risk could follow on from a temporal approach to risk. This means that when they communicate on risk, companies focus on certain aspects - the risk situation, the aleatory event, which allows the risk to occur and the consequences. The emphasis depends on the moment when risk is taken into account within a period of time which may be called the risk life cycle (Figure 1). This temporal approach could therefore involve the succession of different designations of risks for a similarly random event. This approach embodies the dynamic nature of the risk management process. Such is the case when the consequence of a risk is equivalent to a situation and leads to another risk.For each consequence, the right thing to do is to identify the direct cause as opposed to the indirect cause, which expresses a temporal approach to risk and distinguishes direct damage from indirect damage. A single fact covers different facets of risk: the consequence of the electronic system default constitutes at the same time the occurrence of a risk for the company (negative impact on image), the emergence of a new situation for the customer (non-conformity of the vehicle), and the birth of a risk situation for the company, because this situation exposes it to the aleatory event (a customer referring this matter to a court).The question of the chain of causality is relevant regarding a consequence. In the example, the last consequence is the sentence to damages. What is the corresponding risk? Is it the fact that the company put the vehicle into circulation? There are actually as many answers as there are situations of risk, aleatory events and consequences corresponding to this former situation.\n8 Conclusion: French quoted companies are bound by different rules concerning risk disclosure. This profusion of constraints is likely to explain the twofold lack of harmonization, first between the different companies and secondly between the institutional context and company practice. As there is no consensus between the different pieces of legislation, the terminology referred to by companies tends to differ from one to another. The literature review shows that a lot of studies are neither based on the risks themselves, nor on their definitions.We tried to define a framework which could eliminate these deficiencies. This framework is dedicated to the analysis of risk disclosure (content analysis) as a preliminary to the study of the disclosure itself. The focal issue of the definition of risk backs up the idea that results from case studies seem more promising than those from quantitative studies. We have studied the way three French quoted companies have disclosed risk information: Aventis, Veolia and France Telecom. One factor is likely to explain the lack of homogeneity in the risk disclosure: the temporal point of view. The lack of consensus in regulations and companies' documents of reference comes from the fact that legislators and companies refer to different moments of the risk life cycle. The ever-changing nature of stipulated definitions could thus be overcome by an explicit and single reference to one moment of this risk life cycle. The risks are bound to a range of events. As one event is the cause of a risk, it could be the consequence of a previous one.Such methodology would establish an objective criterion allowing the comparison between risk reporting practices and requirements. Despite the fact that companies in general, and listed companies in particular, are subjected to varying disclosure conditions set down both by national and international bodies, full conformity could be reached. Companies' ability to raise investment capital would also be saved. In this way, the risk life cycle could be a useful mean of analyzing practices of risk reporting in company reports.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Risk orientated disclosure is a focal issue of corporate communication. Many provisions have been implemented in the USA and in Europe to promote transparency about risks faced by companies, especially by quoted ones. The increase of mandatory risk reporting applying to companies leads to the question of whether or how companies are compliant with these regulations. The answer itself implies further questions: what is required to be disclosed? And what is risk? The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses a qualitative methodology based on Huberman and Miles in order to explore the collected data (annual reports of companies, laws, accounting standards, professional sources).\nFindings: - The paper established an inventory of rules currently existing in order to identify the risk disclosure context faced by French companies and found that there is no consensus between the different pieces of legislation. It is demonstrated that the terminology referred to by companies tends to differ from one to another.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study focused on risk disclosure within annual reports of listed companies and on risk reporting within mandatory provisions.\nPractical implications: - A consensus on the definition of risk needs to be reached in order to assess company management, as well as their compliance with provisions.\nOriginality/value: - An attempt is made to set up a framework which could eliminate deficiencies in the lack of consensus in laws and company practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Mobile Banking: A fashionable concept or an institutionalized channel in future retail banking? Analyzing patterns in the practical and academic mobile banking literature
|
[
"New technology",
"Technological innovation",
"Managenent development",
"Telecommunications industry",
"Retail service industries",
"Mobile banking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The mass distribution of mobile devices in combination with changing consumer behavior connects nearly every business insuperably with mobile devices. Thus, mobility is very likely to significantly alter the design and delivery of tomorrow's financial services (Kearney, 2012). Such dynamic environments force banks to decide whether, when and to which extent to invest in Mobile Banking or not. Mobile Banking offers a new way of accessing financial services via mobile devices and so allows for a fully new dimension of bank and customer interaction. The majority of decision makers in the banking industry expects mobile applications on smartphones to fundamentally change the business model (Steria Mummert, 2012) and mobile devices even to partly replace the traditional banking branches (Kearney, 2012). Gartner's Hype Cycle for mobile applications already in 2008 predicted mass institutionalization for Mobile Banking at latest in 2013 (Gartner, 2008). Some even promised Mobile Banking to be one of Mobile Commerce's most important applications and estimated tech-savvy consumers and wireless technology to make markets ripe for Mobile Banking (Laukkanen and Lauronen, 2005; Luo et al., 2010; Stewart, 2009).\n2. Literature review and conceptual groundwork: 2.1. Management fashion lifecycles\n3. Analyzing patterns in the mobile banking's literature in research and practice: The focus of our research is to analyze whether Mobile Banking is likely to experience broad adoption within the next years as well as to get an idea how research's and practice's interest in this concept developed within the last decade (and also which external factors might have influenced the \"hype\"). This analysis is done by taking a look at the Mobile Banking literature from the last 13 years and examining whether this shows patterns of a fashion or a (non-)institutionalization (i.e. a negative or positive trend). From a methodological perspective, we apply a discourse lifecycle analysis, extend findings from previous literature and differentiate between academic and practical publications.\n4. Conclusion: Though Mobile banking still is long in coming and lacks mass adoption, it has been subject to heavy discourse in a fashion setting network of academics as well as practitioners for more than a decade. As the discourse around Mobile Banking is expected to precede the actual adoption, the analysis of the publications around Mobile Banking is an important measure to predict the actual adoption in the next years. To provide answers our research questions, we can state the following:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Though Mobile Banking has raised high expectations in research and practice, it neither experienced broad adoption nor allows it banks to realize additional earnings yet. By analyzing the discourse in form of publications in research and practice as a proxy for the subsequent actual adoption, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether Mobile Banking is just a fashionable concept and whether academics or practitioners are leading the debate on Mobile Banking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: On the basis of academic and practical Mobile Banking publications from the last 13 years, discourse analysis was applied to examine patterns in the Mobile Banking literature and thus debate in research and practice. Previous patterns have been extended to examine whether the Mobile Banking discourse has fashionable aspects indicating a transient hype or whether it indicates long-term institutionalization. By differentiating between academic and practical publications, the different roles have been analyzed.\nFindings: Mobile Banking discourse shows a positive trend indicating a broader adoption in nearer future which should encourage both researchers and practitioners to stay involved in the topic. Temporary developments and the emergence of technological innovations (e.g. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, iPhone) created a fashionable hype around Mobile Banking showing that the acceptance is probably linked to developments like convenience, usefulness or availability. New phenomenon like social networks thus should be integrated in future considerations regarding Mobile Banking.\nOriginality/value: First study about the fashionable aspect in Mobile Banking literature discourse. Combination of conceptual work, literature review and methodological approach in form of regression and pattern analysis. Applies the method of a former work and extends the methodology by the characteristics of fashionable innovations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Poverty and earning compulsions for the family have pushed children out of schools: A study in dropouts in basic education level in North-East India
|
[
"Education",
"Poverty",
"Child labour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In a developing country like India low-average years of schooling along with problem of exclusion is widespread in primary education. Over the years though efforts have been made to bring more children across different communities to school, their retention in the school is still a great challenge. The incidence of dropout, however, varies across communities. It is also not uniform between rural and urban areas. There are indeed many explanations for why students tend to dropout of school. For example, deterioration of living conditions often compels children to abandon school and to contribute to the family income. Likewise, poverty often drastically affects children's dropouts. Many a time economic deprivation of some sections of the society works as the powerful motivator for the parents to withdraw their wards from schools even though they are admitted to the schools. They mostly remain busy in supplementing their parental income, looking after the siblings and doing the household work.\n2. Understanding the dropout rates: Many factors may contribute to dropout rates in a tribal region. A few but powerful of them may be identified as earning compulsions, household works, school timings and parents' unawareness about the importance of school education (Jha and Jhingran, 2002). It is often observed that a substantial number of children do not get education because this is not the first priority of the household. In most cases compulsion of earning is the top priority. Children working in brick fields, collecting woods from the forest, working as domestic help, regular or contract or piece-wage workers on farmlands are a regular phenomenon all over India, especially in the tribal region. The trade-off between attending school and child's earning compulsions has been well established in existing literature. In this view, the child would work or, in alternative, attend school, based on volatility of income in a particular household. In an ideal situation schooling may be provided when the children are free from domestic duties or paid or unpaid work. However, pressure for children to work for the household may also determine dropout rates. This factor may have many interactions. For example, a few of them may be reported as sibling care, fetching of water, cooking and collection of fuel wood from the forest. In addition, the society in general is biased towards males. It is also not possible for a male to maintain their livelihood based on their low wages. So hunger may force the female partners to desert her male partners and their children, as this may be considered as the only option for them. In the process she may decide to stay with another male partner. Hence, children in the tribal areas are left behind and never catch up. Imagine two children in contrasting scenarios, one living with both parents and the other living with either a father or a mother. While incapacitation effect will influence dropouts in the latter case, the children will be in a comfort zone in the former case (Ravallion and Wodon, 2000).\n3. Methodology for sample selection and data collection: The field survey was carried out in two phases - one, during January to April of 2010 and two, between August and November of 2011. The entire research work is based on stratified random sampling. The population in Lohit district is a set of tribal and non-tribal (mostly general) people. The district has two major tribes - Mishmi and Khamti (Government of Arunachal Pradesh, 2011). Though in the entire district as many as four tribes can be traced, out of them, the most dominant are Mishmi and Khamti tribes. Other tribes like Singpho and Meyer are very insignificant in number. Hence the study has considered only Mishmi and Khamti tribes to find inter-tribe variation in attainment of primary education. The gross enrolment ratio in primary education among the tribal people in Lohit district is found to be the lowest in the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh. Lohit district, at present, has two sub-divisions - Tezu and Namsai. Tezu sub-division has two circles in it - Tezu and Sunpura. Namsai sub-division has five circles - Namsai, Chongkham, Wakro, Lekang and Piyong. From Tezu sub-division, both Tezu and Sunpura and from Namsai sub-division, Namsai, Chongkham and Wakro circles are chosen. The selection is based on the following criteria:\n4. Children dropouts and poverty: The reasons for dropouts[5] are presented in Box 1.\n5. Econometric model: The study aims at factors examining the dropout rates among tribal children in the sample district. The econometric analysis adopted is probabilistic. The model used is a binomial logit model.\n6. Analysis of results: Table III presents the parameter estimates of the logit regression of the binary dependent variable (Y=incidence of dropout) on a selection of six explanatory variables mentioned in the previous section. The estimation, using the SPSS software package, was performed on the data set consisting of 320 observations.\n7. Concluding remarks: In summary, we find that children dropout of school is affected by number of factors such as earning compulsions, household work, access to school, school time not suitable and parental unawareness. Interestingly, earning compulsions appears to be the powerful factor in defining boys' dropouts. In contrast, household work dominates girl child's dropouts. The decision to dropout may bear short turn benefits such as household income, support to the households. In the long run, this may bear individual costs like lower earnings, higher likelihood of unemployment and greater likelihood of suffering from health-related diseases. Thus by using logit model, we are able to confirm our theoretical results and to identify possible policy variables.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that explain dropout of children from primary schools in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh, India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The field survey was carried out in two phases, one, during January to April of 2010 and two, between August and November of 2011. The entire research work is based on stratified random sampling. The population in Lohit district is a set of tribal and non-tribal (mostly general) people. The district has two major tribes - Mishmi and Khamti.\nFindings: The authors find that children dropout of school is affected by number of factors such as earning compulsions, household work, access to school, school time not suitable and parental unawareness.\nResearch limitations/implications: It is imperative to mention here that \"earning compulsion\" can be described only as a derivative of the major problem of abject poverty.\nPractical implications: By highlighting the role of appropriate intervention as well as incapacitation, the authors believe that the findings presented above shed light on some important factors that explain dropouts.\nSocial implications: The evidence provided in this paper underscores the importance of social interactions in analysing individual outcomes.\nOriginality/value: The findings may have significant bearings in reducing dropout rates in India.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Firm-specific capabilities and foreign direct investment activities of Turkish manufacturing firms: An empirical study
|
[
"Turkey",
"Manufacturing industries",
"International investments",
"Emergent strategy",
"Developing countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As in many developing countries, Turkey has been a long time recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) since the establishment of the republic. The situation has been changing during the last decade or so and many Turkish firms, being aware of the opportunities in foreign countries, are showing much interest in expanding their business activities abroad through FDI. Scholars in the field of international business consider FDI outflows of developing country firms until the mid 1980s as first wave investors, while they regard FDI outflows of these firms during the 1990s as second wave investors (Dunning et al., 1998). The previous research examining the second wave investors concentrated mainly on two regions, Asia (Yeung, 1994a; Mirza, 2000) and Latin America (Chudnovsky and Lopez, 2000). In these regions, researchers have investigated outward investment activities of firms from Taiwan (Luo and Howe, 1993; Chen, 1996; Chen and Chen, 1998), Korea (Jeon, 1992; Dent and Randerson, 1996; Kimura and Lee, 1998; Phelps et al., 1998), Hong Kong (Tuan and Ng, 1995; Yeung, 1997), Indonesia (Lecraw, 1993), China (Gang, 1992; Zhan, 1995; Fung, 1996), and Brazil (Neto, 1995). Therefore there is a need for research on FDI involvements of developing country firms in other parts of the world. Besides, only a few of these studies focused on the capabilities/advantages of firms involved in FDI.This study attempts to fill this gap by examining firm-specific capabilities of Turkish outward FDI firms. In doing this, we attempt to seek answers to the following research questions:1. What are the characteristics and firm-specific capabilities of Turkish manufacturing firms (TMFs) that engage in outward FDI?2. How do their firm specific capabilities vary with their age, size and sector of operation?3. What are the effects of certain capabilities on their choice of a particular host country location and entry mode?The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The next section provides a brief review of the extant literature and sets out the hypotheses of the study. The third section presents the research methods. Results and discussion are provided in the fourth section. Conclusions, limitations and future research directions are in the final section.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses: A firm, operating domestically or internationally, should possess certain capabilities (i.e. assets and skills) to stay in operation (Porter, 1985). With respect to foreign equity investment activities of firms, the existing theories on FDI and multinational corporations (MNCs) have focused on the advantages or capabilities that foreign firms must have relative to domestic firms in order to overcome the cost of being foreign (Hymer, 1976; Dunning, 1980, 1988, 1993; Kogut and Zander, 1993; Rugman, 1981; Calvet, 1981; Hennart, 1982). This cost, later termed as liability of foreignness, arises from such factors as spatial distance, unfamiliarity, discrimination and restrictions (Sethi and Guisinger, 2002). Most of the FDI/MNC theories emphasize the importance of firm-specific capabilities and advantages in terms of monopoly or oligopoly position (Hymer, 1976; Kindleberger, 1969; Caves, 1971; Knickerbocker, 1973; Flowers, 1976); product life cycle (Vernon, 1966); internalization advantages (i.e. reducing transaction costs via product and/or process integration) of the firm (Buckley and Casson, 1976); proprietary assets like patent and know how, trademark and brand image, organization and management, marketing and finance (Dunning, 1980, 1988, 1993, 2000), international experience (Aharoni, 1966; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Johanson and Vahlne, 1977, 1990), and network linkages (Thorelli, 1986; Johanson and Mattsson, 1988; Powell, 1990; Holm and Johanson, 1997). Therefore, firms in a specific country can develop firm-specific advantages like \"product and process technology, marketing and branding experience, management, access to and expertise in international trade\" (Lecraw, 1992, p.33) that they can use as a current or potential advantage in conducting international operations. When these firms utilize such advantages efficiently and effectively in entering foreign markets, they may overcome the cost of operating in unfamiliar environments.The nature and strength of the firms' advantages comprise one category of the determinants of the ownership, location, internalization (OLI) theory (Dunning, 1980, 1988, 2000). According to this theory, competitive or comparative firm advantage is necessary (whether it be asset advantage (Oa) or transactional ownership advantage (Ot)) for any company that intends to serve foreign markets. However, since the importance of these \"O\" advantages differs between MNCs; and since they are industry and country-specific, emerging country (EC) firms' competitive advantages may not be the same with those of developed country (DC) firms (Dunning, 1993). Others have also found that DC-based firms have large size; high scale economies, and vast international experience. They use sophisticated technology and product differentiation via high level of R&D expenditures; invest in capital intensive sectors; and benefit from capital market imperfections via huge capital. They are also highly integrated; hence, globally present (Lall, 1982; Wells, 1977; Kimura, 1989; Yeung, 1994b). On the other hand, since EC-based firms have the characteristics of being small, operating in labor intensive sectors via producing undifferentiated products, and operating in niche market or regional market, or functioning in newly industrializing economies (Lecraw, 1977; Lall, 1982; Wells, 1983; Kumar and Kim, 1984; Yeung, 1994b), scholars contend that their firm-specific advantages drastically differ from DC-based firms (Horst, 1972; Ghymn, 1980; Kim and Lyn, 1987, 1990; Kimura, 1989; Lau, 1992). EC-based MNCs are also improving their capabilities; hence, their competitive situation may be changing (Wells, 1998). Accordingly, characteristics of the EC-based firms during and after the 1990s may not be the same as that of the EC-based firms that were existent in the 1970s and 1980s. There are also studies investigating the changing nature of developing country firms (see Elenkov, 1995; Wesson, 1994; Li, 1994; Lee and Plummer, 1992; Chang and Grup, 1992).We define capability as any strategically relevant factor within the firm that leads a corporation to do business activities exceedingly well. Prior studies consider some firm-specific capabilities inherently from the perspective of developed country MNCs, while other capabilities can be equally applicable to both developed and emerging country MNCs. The former group of firm-specific capabilities include \"international experience\", \"ability to develop differentiated products\" (Dunning, 1993; Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1992), \"technological know-how\", \"economies of scale\" (Dunning, 1993; Tatoglu and Glaister, 2000), and \"trademark and brand image\" (Dunning, 1993; Tatoglu and Glaister, 2000; ISO, 2002). The latter involves \"firm's commitment to international activity\" (Czinkota et al., 1996), \"ability to adapt technologies previously imported from developed countries to new market segments\" (Agarwal, 1985; Wells, 1983; Lall, 1982), \"level of specialization in producing the product\" (ISO, 2002), \"quality of company's product(s) compared to competitors\" (Kim and Kim, 1993; ISO, 2002), \"ability to apply effective management practices\" (Kim and Kim, 1993; ISO, 2002), \"charging competitive prices\" (Kim and Kim, 1993; Craig and Douglas, 1997; ISO, 2002), \"speed of responding to consumer demand\", and \"ability to adapt to different market conditions\" (ISO, 2002).Based on this literature review, our purpose is first to determine the relative importance of firm-specific capabilities that lead to the formation of foreign equity ventures by Turkish firms. Second, we identify a parsimonious set of firm-specific advantages via factor analysis. Then, the following set of exploratory hypotheses is developed and tested about the relative importance of firm-specific capabilities with respect to age, size, market entry mode, host country location and sector of operation of Turkish FDI firms.H1. The firm-specific capabilities of Turkish manufacturing firms that are involved in outward foreign direct investment will vary significantly with their age.H2. The firm-specific capabilities of Turkish manufacturing firms that are involved in outward foreign direct investment will vary significantly with their size in terms of: (a) number of employees; (b) amount of capital; (c) amount of total sales; (d) amount of total assets.H3. The firm-specific capabilities of Turkish manufacturing firms that are involved in outward foreign direct investment will vary significantly with respect to their industries.H4. The firm-specific capabilities of Turkish manufacturing firms that are involved in outward foreign direct investment will vary significantly with their broad host country locations.H5. The firm-specific capabilities of Turkish manufacturing firms that are involved in outward foreign direct investment will vary significantly with their ownership pattern (i.e. of wholly owned subsidiary versus joint venture).H6. The firm-specific capabilities of Turkish manufacturing firms that are involved in outward foreign direct investment will vary significantly with their market entry mode (i.e. Greenfield investment versus acquisition).\n3. Research methods: 3.1 Survey instrument\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Firm-specific capabilities\n5. Conclusion: Like in many emerging countries, Turkish governments for several years have provided assistance to Turkish firms in generating certain capabilities by setting up policies both in import substitution and export promotion stages of the country's development phases (Yeung, 1994a; Aggarwal and Agmon, 1990). It appears that Turkish firms effectively utilized both country-specific comparative advantages and firm-specific capabilities in expanding their business activities to foreign markets via FDI. Therefore, both macroeconomic (to some extent) and microeconomic (Kumar and Kim, 1984; Kimura and Lee, 1998) factors along with geographical and cultural (Thomas and Grosse, 2001) factors have played their roles in enhancing the outward FDI activity of Turkish manufacturing firm.Our focus in this study was mainly on the influence of firm-specific microeconomic factors on the internationalization of TMFs. Internationally operating firms need to have valuable, rarely found, inimitable and nonsubstitutable resources (Barney, 1991; Conner, 1991) and sufficient capabilities (Grant, 1991; Westhead et al., 2001; Madhok, 2002). Further, contextual setting should also be congruent to the utilization of these firm-specific capabilities (Roth and Merrison, 1992) whether these firms be conventional (Trevino and Grosse, 2002) or unconventional FDI firms (Moon and Roehl, 2001). In this study, we noted that TMFs had strong firm-specific capabilities when they started to expand their business activities through FDI.The study essentially investigated the capabilities and characteristics of TMFs that engaged in outward FDI activity. The study aimed to explore how firm specific capabilities of TMFs would vary with the characteristics of the sample firms. Based on exploratory factor analysis we categorized the whole list of 13 capabilities into four factors. These factors were labeled operation-related, product-related, marketing-related and management-related firm-specific capabilities. A number of hypotheses were developed to investigate how these capabilities would vary with respect to the following sample characteristics including subsidiary age, size, sector of operation, host country location, ownership pattern and market entry mode. While we found moderate support for H1 with regard to the impact of subsidiary age on capabilities of FDI firms, there was somewhat mixed support for H2 related to the subsidiary size. Also, limited support was found for H6 concerning the impact of market entry mode on the relative strength of capabilities. No support, however, was found with respect to the impact of industry (H3), host country location (H4) and ownership pattern (H5).This study is subject to some limitations. First, because we collected the data on internationalization of TMFs after they already engaged in outward FDI activity, it is possible that the responses might not accurately reflect the managerial attitudes due to potential for memory decay. A second limitation is that we relied on a single respondent's perceptions in measuring TMFs' capabilities which might lead to misrepresentation of the real situation. A third limitation is that there is obviously a need for supplementing the survey results with a number of selected case studies, which will enable to make triangulations. Also, a research sample, which incorporates firms from both emerging and developed countries enables to make comparisons and could be attempted in future work.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the capabilities and characteristics of Turkish manufacturing firms that engage in outward FDI activity. To this end, the paper aims to explore how these firms' capabilities vary with the sample characteristics including subsidiary age, size, sector, host country location, ownership pattern and market entry mode.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data were gathered via cross-sectional survey from a sample 94 Turkish manufacturing firms (TMFs) that have subsidiaries based in 28 different countries. Both univariate and multivariate tests were used to analyze the data.\nFindings: - Findings show that sample firms had strong firm-specific capabilities when they started to expand their business activities through foreign direct investment (FDI). The firm-specific capabilities were grouped into four categories as operation-related, product-related, marketing-related and management-related. While the capabilities of the sample firms varied to a moderate extent with their age and size, and to a limited extent with market entry mode, no significant differences were noted with respect to the industry, host country location and ownership pattern.\nResearch limitation/implication: - Relying on the perceptual assessment of single respondents constitutes the main limitation of this study. There is also a need to collect data from other emerging or developed countries to enable comparisons between Turkey and other countries.\nOriginality/value: - This is one of the few studies which attempt to examine the firm-specific capabilities of FDI firms from an emerging country.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessment of factors influencing the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria
|
[
"Nigeria",
"Project management",
"Project failure",
"Multi-storey building projects",
"Project abandonment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The persistent spate of failure and abandonment of construction projects have continuously threatened the efficiency of the construction industry in Nigeria. Although, in Nigeria, various construction physicians have recommended different treatments to cure the construction industry of the twin raging plagues of project failure and abandonment, the problems have continued to persist. Undoubtedly, it will be shocking and painful for anyone to know the conditions of hardship and insecurity to which many Nigerians have been subjected as a result of inadequacy in the provision of buildings for both residential and commercial purposes. Yet, the heart of this social injustice is the continuous failure and abandonment of various building projects, especially multi-storey buildings in very densely populated districts in Nigeria.\nThe concepts of project failure and project abandonment: A project is defined as a series of coordinated activities and tasks embarked upon by organisations, which has clearly defined objectives, commencement date, duration, resources requirements and funding limits (Nzekwe et al., 2015). Though there are numerous definitions available in the literature, this study adopted the project definition by Nzekwe et al. (2015), as it appears easy to comprehend and encompasses the main characteristics of a construction project.\nMulti-storey building: A multi-storey building is a building that supports two or more floors above ground. There is no formal restriction on the height a multi-storey building can reach or the number of floors that the building may contain; though the greater the height of the building, the more the practical difficulties that emerge (Ask.com, 2015). These practical difficulties may be during the pre-construction stage (conceptual planning and design), construction stage and post-construction stage (e.g. maintenance). The building height is defined as the vertical distance from the grade plane to the average height of the highest roof surfaces (New York City Building Code, 2008). A building storey height is defined as the vertical distance from top to top of two successive finished floor surfaces. However, when considering the topmost storey, the height is measured from the top of the floor finish to the top of the ceiling joist, or in cases where there is no ceiling, it is measured to the top of the roof rafter (New York City Building Code, 2008). Multi-storey buildings are usually categorised into low-rise, high-rise, tall, super tall and mega-tall, with the height definitions varying geographically and with a lack of consensus among different authors (Holmes, 2003). However, though the construction of multi-storey buildings is not a new development in Nigeria, there is a limitation in height reached to date. The tallest building in Nigeria till date is the NECOM house, which was raised to a height of 32 floors and 160 m (520 ft) (Wikipedia, 2016). Presently, there is no project under execution designed to reach this height. Thus, multi-storey building projects in Nigeria are still within the category of a low rise. Thus, the findings and conclusions from this study are not generalisable for all categories of multi-storey buildings. However, vital information generated from this study will be found by careful application to be of great benefit and implication to the enhancement of the management vis-a-vis the delivery of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria.\nCauses of the failure and abandonment of construction projects: There will be no curse and scourge of failed and abandoned construction projects without some evident and indisputable factors being responsible for it. To this end, several factors have been recognised by various authors as the causes of the failure and abandonment of various construction projects in the global construction industry. However, previous studies on causes of projects failure and abandonment appear not to have considered the uniqueness of multi-storey building projects. According to Alao and Jagboro (2017), the specific knowledge of the causes of project abandonment, as they relate to particular types of projects based on their individual uniqueness, is indispensable for unambiguous solutions.\nMethodology: Research philosophy is a belief about the method through which data ought to be obtained, analysed and applied. The two major research philosophies include the positivist (scientific and objective) and interpretivist (anti-positivist). Research paradigms and designs can either be quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods where the decision to use either or both is dependent on the focus of a research. To choose an appropriate research design, it is important to match the objectives serving as motivation for a research with methods best suitable to achieving these objectives (Jensen, 2011). Thus, a quantitative design was used to achieve the objectives of this study. Moreover, quantitative research designs can either be descriptive or explanatory (Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012). However, since the focus of this study is to determine the significant factors for the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects, the descriptive approach to quantitative research design was taken. The research strategy adopted for this study is that of questionnaire survey which is embedded in the positivist research philosophy. Questionnaires are used in collecting primary quantitative data which are valid, reliable, unbiased and discriminatory from a representative sample of respondents.\nStudy area: This study was carried out within Lagos State, Nigeria. Lagos State, the formal capital of Nigeria, which is a commercial nerve centre of the country where a significant number of construction projects are being executed. However, in spite of the existence of Abuja as the administrative capital of Nigeria, Lagos State is still the booming business zone and economic centre of Nigeria, and the construction industry in Lagos State can be taken as a representative of the construction industry in Nigeria. Lagos State hosts over 90 per cent of the construction companies' headquarters or branch offices (Adeyemi et al., 2005).\nData requirement, survey instrument and data collection: Primary data were used in this study. The data were collected from two main sources, namely the contractors (construction firms) and consultants. The clients were not included in this research because of the profound difficulty usually encountered in assessing project owners in Nigeria. The survey instrument employed for the collection of data was a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into two parts: the first part was designed to elicit information on the respondents' profile, while the second part elicited data on the factors responsible for the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects. Data obtained to build up the respondents' profile include respondent's profession, academic qualification, experience level and number of building projects executed. To avoid retrieval of unnecessarily voluminous data, a careful selection was done to identify twenty (20) factors most associated with building projects failure and abandonment from the literature. These were presented to the respondents to rate on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from \"least significant\" to \"most significant\" tagged with weight values \"1\" to \"5\", respectively. Closed-ended questions noted for enhancing the easy presentation of question and quick response were used in the questionnaire (Fellows and Liu, 2008 cited in Alao and Jagboro, 2017). The questionnaire was self-administered with the assistance of two experienced research assistants.\nStudy population: The target population in the study was composed of construction firms registered with the Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI) and consultants in Lagos State, Nigeria. The focus of the research is on multi-storey building projects usually characterised by huge capital investment. Thus, this research adopted the methodology of Ojo (2008) in defining the study population by targeting medium- and large-sized construction contractors registered with the FOCI. This was premised on the observation of Ojo (2008) that projects with substantial cost categories of N10-N100 million, N101-N500 million and above N500 million are often executed by medium- and large-sized construction contractors in the study area. The consultants group comprises architects, builders, engineers (structural, electrical and mechanical) and quantity surveyors. The consultants were in good position to provide very useful information as they are the professionals usually engaged by the clients in the designing, supervision and management of construction projects from its inception to completion.\nSampling frame: The information on registered construction firms as retrieved from the FOCI official website as at July 2016 revealed that only 78 construction firms were registered members of the FOCI. However, from this list of registered construction companies, it was observed that at least 53 out of the 78 construction firms available on the membership list either had their head office or branch office sited in Lagos State. Thus, the sampling frame which is the part of the study population available for sampling was given as 53 construction firms in Lagos State. Furthermore, for the purpose of this study, the sample frame of the consultants composed of the consultants who were engaged by these contractors on their projects.\nSample size: Contractors\nMethods of data analysis: Data obtained to build up the respondents profile were analysed with frequency distribution and percentage and stacked bar chart. Factors responsible for the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects identified from the literature formed the variables presented to respondents for rating. The rating was done on a five-point Likert-type scale, where 5 stands for \"most significant\", 4 for \"highly significant\", 3 for \"significant\", 2 for \"fairly significant\" and 1 for \"least significant\". Mean item score (MIS) and factor analysis were used to analyse the obtained data and SPSS was used as the analytical package. According to Alao and Jagboro (2017), there had been consensus in studies that when using a five-point Likert-type scale, a mean cut-off point >2.50 is appropriate in the determination of significant variables. However, Alao and Jagboro (2017), in their study, adopted a 3.20 cut-off point based on the peculiarities of the mean scores of the variables under consideration. This study considered factors with mean score greater than the average mean score as significant.\nFindings: Table II provides information on the questionnaire administration and the number of questionnaires that was appropriately filled and returned for the two groups of respondents. A total of 180 copies of the questionnaire were administered on the contractors and consultants in the study area. From the 106 copies of the questionnaire administered to the contractors' personnel, 76 copies (71.7 per cent response rate) were correctly filled and returned. On the other hand, from the 74 copies of the questionnaire administered on the consultants, 58 copies (78.4 per cent response rate) were correctly filled and returned. Table II shows a combined response rate of 74.4 per cent which is significantly high and very appropriate for this study.\nProfile of the respondents: The first section of the questionnaire solicited for personal information of the respondents and general information concerning their organisations. These include respondent's profession, academic qualification, experience level and number of building projects executed (Table III). Architects represent 15.7 per cent of the total respondents. Builders represent 20.9 per cent of the respondents, while structural/civil engineers represent 26.1 per cent of the total respondents. Quantity surveyors represent 12.7per cent, building services engineers represent 15.7 per cent and land surveyors represent 8.9 per cent of the total respondents. This depicts a fair representation of professionals in the construction industry, thus assuring unbiased conclusions from this study. The second part of the respondents profile shows the respondents' highest academic qualification. Respondents with BSc./B.Tech were 51.5 per cent of the total. MSc holders were 20.9 per cent, HND holders were 20.1 per cent, OND holders were 6.0 per cent, and PGD and PhD holders were 0.70 per cent. This shows that the respondents possess the minimum education qualification required to understand the questionnaire and respond appropriately.\nFactors responsible for the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects: The main objective of this study was to assess the factors responsible for the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects. MIS was used to identify the most significant factors that are responsible for the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects, while factor analysis was used to group the factors into clusters.\nDetermining the significance of factors: The results from the MIS are presented in Table IV. Standard deviation was used to rank variables with equal MIS. The kh2 test of independence was used to determine the inter-dependence of variables (at a=0.05). The values of the test statistic (kh2) and the level of significance (p-value) for all the measured variables are given in Table IV. The results showed that the corresponding p-values of the test statistic for all the variables are less than the chosen significance level (p<0.05). This showed that there was a significant association among the measured variables.\nClustering of factors with factor analysis: In making use of dimension reduction for factor extraction, factor analysis was used as the method of evaluating the relevance of the identified factors, while principal component analysis was the method used for extraction and Varimax with Kaiser normalisation was used for the rotation. Two major tests were used in testing the appropriateness of this method of analysis for this study, namely, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of sphericity. Bartlett's test of sphericity gave a significance value of <0.001 (p<0.05), while the KMO test gave a value of 0.806, a value much higher than the recommended minimum standard of 0.600 (Table V). These results from both tests indicated appropriateness and suitability of factor analysis for factor extraction based on the data collected for this study.\nConclusions: This study assessed the significant factors that predisposed multi-storey building projects in Nigeria to failure and abandonment. With reference to the findings, it is inferable that construction stakeholders in Nigeria have not devised effective means to manage risks associated with client's cash flow. In view of the rating accorded improper planning in this study, it is obvious there is either inadequate feasibility studies or non-adoption of it due to high handedness that may characterise peculiar constructions like multi-storey building projects. \"Structural failure\", as a significant factor contributing to failure and abandonment multi-storey building projects, implies possible systemic failure of processes necessary for ascertaining structural integrity of structures. This poses a threat to the successful completion of projects, safety of construction workers and the end users. It indicates that strict adherence to quality standards at every stage in a multi-storey building project is lightly esteemed. However, further research will have to be conducted to understand the causes of structural failure in multi-storey buildings, especially during the construction stage. Continuous professional development organised by professional bodies in Nigeria seems defective and ineffective. This is premised on the identification of the lack of experience of professionals in handling the complexity of multi-storey building projects as a significant factor causing failure and abandonment of multi-storey buildings.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The failure and abandonment of construction projects have proven to be insurmountable problems incessantly militating against the efficient performance of the construction industry in Nigeria. The complexity, technicality and a host of other project execution issues unique to multi-storey building projects do increase their susceptibility to failure and abandonment. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria. This is with a view to provide inferential empirical data that could enhance successful delivery of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Primary data were used for the study. A structured questionnaire was administered on consultants and contractors' personnel within Lagos State, Nigeria. A total of 180 copies of the questionnaire were administered ,and 134 copies which represent a combined response rate of 74.4 per cent were retrieved. The data were analysed using frequency distribution and percentages, Mean item score and factor analysis.\nFindings: The factors most significant to the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects are inadequate funding by the client, improper planning at the pre-construction phase, structural failure in multi-storey building during construction, bankruptcy/business failure of the contractor, improper scheduling of the building project activities and failure to engage qualified professionals with technical expertise and experience. The rated factors clustered under human resources capability, planning and structural quality, contractor selection and variation, insecurity and variation, and force majeure and political risk.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was limited to multi-storey building projects in Lagos State, Nigeria. Further studies could focus on specific resuscitation strategies for abandoned multi-storey building projects.\nPractical implications: The study provided implications for effective project and contract management of multi-storey building projects which is very paramount to improve the delivery of complex, technical- and capital-intensive building projects in Nigeria.\nOriginality/value: The study provides specific implications for the management of multi-storey building projects, thereby enhancing the delivery of building projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowing and improving paraphrasing skills of Mexican college students
|
[
"Participatory action research",
"Information literacy",
"Plagiarism",
"Paraphrasing",
"Writing and reading",
"Writing centers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper summarizes the findings of a participatory action research (PAR) study, where first-year Mexican college students were evaluated, using custom-made diagnostic tools that measured both their perceptions and competency in regards to paraphrasing. These students were assessed both before and after a paraphrasing workshop. The aim of this study was to see if the intervention helped to improve their paraphrasing abilities.\n2. Theoretical framework (literature review): D'Angelo, in 1979, stated that the topic of paraphrasing has ceased to be popular in English course classrooms. According to this article, ancient practitioners of the art of rhetoric believed a good paraphrase could surpass the original text (D'Angelo, 1979).\n3. Methodology: The research was carried out with two classes of Teaching of English undergraduate major students in the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez, during the January-May 2017 school semester. Participants consisted of a total of 36 students, of which 24 (67 per cent) were women and 12 (33 per cent) were men.\n4. Findings: The main findings are separated, according to the results found from the diagnostic evaluation, prior to the intervention and those obtained after the intervention.\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: From the research results, it was concluded that the diagnostic instruments designed for this study were useful in measuring students' opinion on the importance of paraphrasing and their level of competency. It was also determined that designing and complementing a short-term intervention, following an awareness-raising process, improved students' ability to paraphrase.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to develop both an activity and an instrument to support college students' learning of the proper ways to paraphrase.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a participatory action research approach, consisting of four phases. A survey was used to collect information, as well as a rubric to evaluate students' competencies in paraphrasing, before and after an educational intervention activity. The tools were designed by the authors.\nFindings: The findings suggest that students only have a partial understanding of the elements that are needed to write an adequate paraphrase, despite the declared importance in academic dialogue by the majority of them. The findings also suggest that a short-range intervention can help students develop their skills in paraphrasing.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research was conducted mostly with a small group of first-year college students and a professor they have known for a year. Therefore, a level of trust had been established. This trust relationship is necessary to achieve a participatory action in an unscheduled activity. Only some of the major results are presented.\nOriginality/value: Little actual research has been conducted on college students' perception on paraphrasing and its importance, as well as on their abilities to paraphrase, especially in the Latin American context. This study demonstrates the usefulness of a short-range intervention that can be easily applied in any course or information literacy program.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Drawing up codes of ethics of higher education institutions: evidence from Italian universities
|
[
"University",
"Business ethics",
"Strategic management",
"Codes of ethics",
"Higher education management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Codes of ethics are \"messages through which corporations hope to shape employee behavior and effect change through explicit statements of desired behavior\" (Stevens, 1994, p. 64). They provide guidance in dealing with ethical issues (e.g. Mele, 2009). In the private sector, they are designed essentially to establish an organization's primary values and ethical rules that employees should follow (Robbins, 1988), thus not only promoting professional courtesy and organizational effectiveness (Dean, 1992; Lefebvre and Singh, 1992; Wood, 2000), but also preventing risks derived from misleading behavior of managers or other workers.\n2. Literature review on universities codes of ethics: All public-sector organizations such as universities have to follow rules, values and prescriptions of conduct to share what is regarded as appropriate conduct and implement ethics in their daily activities (e.g. Rezaee et al., 2001; Kelley et al., 2005; Schuurbiers et al., 2009; Bohata, 2017). For this purpose, a university draws up a code of ethics, that is, a formal written document that states an organization's primary values and the ethical rules it expects its employees to follow (Robbins, 1988). In other terms, a code of ethics is a statement of principles that describes desirable professional conduct and guides individuals in resolving ethical issues (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 1991). Essentially, codes of ethics distinguish between what is permissible and what is not, and inform employees of actions that will lead to trouble (Gellerman, 1989). From the corporate point of view, codes of ethics represent the culture of an organization and act as vehicles to communicate the ethical nature both internally to employees and externally to the public (Stevens, 1994). Taking into account business ethics, universities can propose in their codes of ethics activities related to individual behavior, managerial initiatives, the organization as a whole and business-society relationships (Mele, 2009).\n3. Codes of ethics of Italian public universities: The Italian university system is characterized by a large number of public institutions (66) and a smaller number of private institutions; 58 universities offer all orders of studies (bachelor, master and PhD programs), 2 are committed to foreign students and 6 are schools for advanced studies. In terms of students, public universities receive more than 89 percent of bachelor and master students. In total, 64 codes of ethics are included in this study because three universities - that are situated and operate in the same geographical area (region of Piedmont) - have chosen to draw up a combined code.\n4. Methodology: This study followed an inductive approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Leitch et al., 2010) by performing content analysis of codes of ethics of all Italian public universities. These codes may be considered a single in-depth case study - a method that \"focuses on understanding the dynamics present within single settings\" (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 534) and suitable \"when a fresh perspective is needed\" (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 549). The case study method was employed as an illustration to make a solid contribution by focusing on dynamic processes, and to draw more general conclusions.\n5. Findings: This section provides findings of the ethical codes review under two main headings in accordance with the objectives of the study. These two headings are the main ethics issues that Italian public universities identify in their codes of ethics and the activities that they implement to respond to these issues. Table I shows these ethical issues and related activities by connecting them to the four dimensions of ethics considered for this study.\n6. Discussion and implications: The codes of ethics of Italian public universities are concretely (and not only theoretically) addressed the entire university community, given that ethical issues and related initiatives implemented include activities from teaching, research staff, technical and administrative staff and students. While only few previous studies were focused on ethical dimensions of universities, the analysis of codes of ethics shows the possibility to view universities as complex organizations that have all the ethical dilemmas typical of business ethics.\n7. Conclusions, limitations and directions for future research: To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies that connect codes of ethics and universities. This research brings to light how Italian universities invest in drawing up their codes of ethics by identifying the more common ethics issues and related activities that they address daily. In this way, this research contributes to trigger and advance the search for strategic approaches in the content of university codes of ethics, which complements previous research efforts in the field.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Higher education institutions draw up codes of ethics, but in several countries there are no standards to follow. Most universities have autonomy and can freely draw up their codes of ethics in terms of structure and content. The purpose of this paper is to understand the main ethics issues that universities identify in their codes of ethics and what activities they implement to respond to these issues toward appropriate educational management of their institutions in ethical terms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was performed through content analysis of codes of ethics of Italian public universities (64 codes), and may be considered a single in-depth case study. The main ethics issues and related activities were inductively codified in relation to the research purpose. The four constitutive aspects of business ethics (individual, managerial, organizational and societal ethics) proposed by Mele were chosen as the framework to investigate the main ethical needs and related activities implemented by universities to respond to these ethical issues.\nFindings: This research has identified nine main ethical issues and related activities that contribute to guarantee the ethical compliance of universities under the four interrelated aspects different individual behaviors, managerial initiatives, organization strategies and responsibilities toward society. The analysis shows some relevant differences among Italian universities that have important implications in the ethical vision of academic communities and of managerial role in universities.\nPractical implications: The research can help managers of higher education institutions to identify the main ethical issues to draw up codes of ethics and to formulate consistent development strategies that are able to improve the conditions of collaboration, work and productive participation in activities for all members of academic communities.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies that connect codes of ethics and higher education. This research brings to light the main ethical issues and related activities that universities can consider to orient their strategic choices toward the public interest as well as educational management improvement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Conceptualising work engagement: An individual, collective and organisational efficacy perspective
|
[
"Employee engagement",
"Retail",
"Efficacy",
"Social cognitive theory",
"Reciprocal exchange",
"Employees behaviour",
"Employees relations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In recent years, organisations have been investigating the phenomenon of work, or employee engagement, as a source of performance advantage (Macey and Schneider, 2008; Wildermuth and Pauken, 2008; Macey et al., 2009). Arguably, it is the Schaufeli et al. (2002, p. 74) definition which is most widely cited, viewing engagement as: \"a positive, fulfilling, work related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption\". The authors define vigour as characterised by high levels of energy and resilience; dedication with a sense of significance, inspiration, pride and challenge and; absorption as being fully engrossed in one\nDiscussion: Interactional agency and social cognitive theory (SCT)\nConcluding remarks: According to Cartwright and Holmes (2006), there is now more recognition that engagement involves a clear understanding the relationship between meaningfulness, social cognition and efficacy. Employees often ask key questions, Cartwright and Holmes (2006, p. 202):\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of multi-level forms of efficacy and organisational interactions necessary for promoting effective work engagement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Work engagement is explored from a multi-level efficacy perspective (self, collective and organisational). Based on the ideas of Bandura, workplace interactions are investigated through the theoretical lens of social cognitive theory (SCT).\nFindings: The ability to conceptualise engagement from individual, group and organisational perspectives, helps researchers and HR practitioners appreciate the complexities involved. The paper also highlights a need for developing new organisational interactions that promote engagement, as opposed to reinforcing stale managerial policies, or one-sided strategies for short term productivity gains. Organisational interactions should respond to job demands at both individual and collective levels. The paper also suggests that new interactions and stronger communication helps promote collective and organisational efficacy.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a theoretical discussion piece that attempts to set the scene and examine broad issues, and thus there is no measurement or empirical analysis attempted. Additional work is required to operationalise constructs further, as part of a case study protocol for future in-depth empirical analysis.\nOriginality/value: This thought-piece paper is significant for managers in retail and researchers alike, when developing organisational interactions from a multi-level efficacy perspective. The conceptual contribution of the paper is a fresh macro-analytical perspective concerning efficacy and work engagement. Some ideas are also presented for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What influences ethnic entrepreneurs' decision to start-up: Some evidence from Aberdeen, Scotland
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Social capital",
"Networking",
"Start-up",
"Ethnic minority"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years' global business conglomerates, financial institutions and political groups have shown considerable interest in the business and entrepreneurial activities of ethnic minorities (Levie and Hart, 2011; Xavier et al., 2012) and the media are constantly highlighting the emergence of this entrepreneurial group (Levie and Hart, 2011). Ethnic minority small businesses make an important contribution to the UK economy which is also reflected in their rapid growth in the last decade (Hussain et al., 2007). This is a hugely topical subject. The importance of ethnic participation in the entrepreneurial activities of an area and its role in promoting economic and social development have been widely investigated by researchers (e.g. Kuratko and Hodgetts, 2004; Timmons and Spinelli, 2004; OECD, 2010; Levie and Hart, 2011). Additionally, migrant entrepreneurs created almost 14.5 per cent (one in seven) of all UK companies and currently there are 456,073 migrant entrepreneurs in the UK (Centre for Entrepreneurship, 2014 at the Robert Gordon University). A government report estimates that failure to use the talents of ethnic minorities may cost more than PS8 billion per year and that ethnic minority businesses contribute more than PS25 billion to the UK economy (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2013). According to the OECD (2010) ethnic minorities have a higher rate of self-employment than natives in many countries. For example, in the UK ethnic self-employment is 13.4 per cent compared to the 11.9 per cent for indigenous population[1]. Overall, OECD (2010) figures show that it is more likely for immigrants to be self-employed compared to their local counterparts.\n2. Start-up influential factors: There is an abundance of generic entrepreneurship literature on why some individuals opt for starting their own business rather than working for a company (see Clark and Drinkwater, 2000; Masurel et al., 2002; Manev et al., 2005; Caliendo and Kritikos, 2007; Verheul et al., 2010; Chan and Quah, 2012; Zwan and Hessels, 2013). A common consensus is that individuals \"dive in\" when they have a strong belief that they can succeed against all the odds and have a vision of a better reward for themselves and those around them (Olson et al., 1996; Vroom, 1964; Gatewood et al., 2002). However, there is less consensus on distinguishing between elements which specifically relate solely to ethnic entrepreneurs as opposed to the generic. For example, it is widely believed that ethnic entrepreneurs are necessity driven and not motivated by opportunism (see Welsh et al., 2003; Ram and Smallbone, 2003; Hussain and Matlay, 2007; Hussain et al., 2007).\n3. Methodology: Due to the nature of the study, in-depth, face-to-face interview was considered an appropriate method. Face-to-face interviews are linked with understanding and exploring real experience of peoples' lives (Clarke, 2007; Bryman, 2012; Saunders et al., 2012) and allow the researcher to ask follow-up questions (Kvale, 1996), and to probe, specify and interpret the questions which explore the research issues in-depth (Savage et al., 2005; Bosley et al., 2009; Jones et al., 2010). DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree (2006) explain that psychological participation of the respondents helps the researcher to interpret respondent stories and actions in retrospect to business formation. Face-to-face interviews are flexible situation and permit a good rapport. The opportunity to adapt quickly assists the researchers to gather quality data (DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree, 2006). Qualitative interviews involve significant time and planning (Bogdan and Biklen, 2003; de Vaus, 2009; Merriam, 2009).\n4. Findings: 4.1 Motives (personal character traits)\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This research examined the factors influencing ethnic minority entrepreneur's business start-up decisions in Aberdeen, Scotland. As argued by the several researchers (e.g. Audretsch et al., 2013; Dana, 2009; Drakopoulou-Dodd and Gotsis, 2007) entrepreneurship can be highly context specific, so we acknowledged that our findings can vary between research settings and also be applicable elsewhere. It is clear from our fieldwork that personality traits are important influencing factors for ethnic minority entrepreneurial activities. It was confirmed from published studies that personality traits are the main factors for ethnic entrepreneurial intentions (Burns, 2012; Carter and Jones-Evans, 2012; Stokes and Wilson, 2010; Vecchio, 2003) but among all the personality traits, locus of control, need for independence and need for achievement are very influential factors in creating a new business. Most of our ethnic respondents want to control their life and be independent. Besides, experience, flexibility and comfortable lifestyle are highly significant factors identified from fieldwork which influence ethnic entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, our results indicate that religion, education and financial security are the least influencing factors for ethnic entrepreneurs albeit religion appears to be an influential factor. Of the 25 respondents, 17 were of the Muslim faith (see Ramadani et al., 2015 for a discussion of Muslim faith and entrepreneurial proclivity) and the remainder Hindu (see Uppal, 1986 for a discussion of the Hindu faith and entrepreneurial propensity).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore some key factors that influences ethnic entrepreneur's decision in starting-up a new business in Aberdeen, Scotland.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors set out to investigate the motives, drivers and attitudes of ethnic minorities in seeking entrepreneurial opportunities. The authors conduct in-depth face-to-face interviews with 25 ethnic entrepreneurs from a variety of nationalities and cultures originating mainly from the Indian subcontinent region. This includes entrepreneurs from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and some others. The motivations varies according to their culture, traditions, religion and other environmental factors influencing on their decision to start-up.\nFindings: The results reveal some interesting influential factors that lead to the successful start-up decision. These include a positive mindset, self-efficacy, strong determination, knowing of the market and local business culture and good financial management.\nOriginality/value: This paper is based on empirical research and new data have been collected specifically for this research. The authors hope the new findings from this research work will enhance the understanding about ethnic minority businesses in the context of Aberdeen, Scotland.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Antibacterial effect of verjuice against food-borne pathogens
|
[
"Food safety",
"Food preservation",
"Microbiology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In addition to meeting their basic nutrition needs, the consumer demands \"functional\" foods that may provide health benefits such as preventing or delaying chronic diseases (Kaur and Kapoor, 2001; Najafi et al., 2012). On the other hand, modern life conditions have prompted consumers to prefer ready-to-eat foods especially fruit and vegetables mostly due to their low caloric contents and fresh-like tastes (Rico et al., 2007; Ramos et al., 2013). However, inappropriate food processing and storage conditions could cause survival or growth of pathogenic and/or spoilage-causing microorganisms in fresh-cut foods. This microbial population may increase the risk of food-borne diseases or food spoilage. The researches underlined that there is an increase in outbreaks related with consumption of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables (Beuchat, 1996; Harris et al., 2003; Berger et al., 2010; Taban and Halkman, 2011).\nMaterials and methods: Materials\nMethods: Inhibition of naturally exiting micro-flora\nResults and discussion: Various physicochemical properties and antioxidant capacity of unripe grape products were detected in our previous study. These same samples were analyzed and mean values were determined as 2.41 for pH, 0.97 for water activity, 5.63 for soluble solid content, 3.83 percent for titratable acidity, 6.721 g/L for total sugar content and 473.96 mg/L for total phenol content. Antioxidant contents of the samples were detected to vary between 0.010-0.231 and 0.035-0.885 mmol TE/mL by FRAP (ferric reducing ability of plasma) and TEAC (Trolox-Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity) assays, respectively. These results showed that the samples have acidic and phenolic characteristics and therefore these products may have antibacterial effects on food-borne pathogens (Oncul and Karabiyikli, 2015b). The antimicrobial effects of the samples were then tested against the same pathogens via the MIC test method (Karabiyikli and Oncul, 2016). The inhibitory effect of the samples was detected and it was found that the main antimicrobial activity of unripe grape products depends on organic acid composition of the samples (Oncul and Karabiyikli, 2016a). Likewise, the phenolic content of the unripe grape products may have antibacterial effects on food-borne pathogens - besides organic acid compositions (Oncul and Karabiyikli, 2016b). Ten unripe grape products (five verjuice and five unripe grape sauce) were analyzed in this study to determine their antibacterial effect on naturally existing micro-flora of lettuce samples, and also on lettuce samples which were inoculated with some food-borne pathogens. Thus, the antibacterial effect of products was displayed in a real food system.\nConclusion: The antimicrobial effect of unripe grape products against saprophytic microorganisms in natural micro-flora is important in terms of food quality and shelf life. It has also been determined that the products have a significant impact on naturally existing pathogens in terms of food safety. It has been observed that the products effectively inhibited the pathogens that can be found in salad products such as lettuce during the treatment times which represents the consumption habits and preparation times. As a result, all unripe grape products effectively reduced the microorganisms in both inoculated and natural micro-flora of the lettuce samples. The efficiency of the unripe grape products was generally affected by application time. The most dramatic results were observed in lettuce samples inoculated with E. coli. Composition and concentration of organic acids, phenolics and antioxidants in bio-materials such as unripe grape products are very important on the antimicrobial efficiency as well as processing conditions and properties of raw material. Variety, maturation, harvesting and processing are effective on the biochemical composition of the end product which will be used as a natural antimicrobial agent.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Nowadays, natural products are preferred for food safety and preservation due to the demand of consumers. The industrial methods which have been in use for a long period of time have had an adverse impact on organoleptic properties of foods or on human health. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antibacterial effects of unripe grape products on natural and inoculated micro-flora of lettuce as an alternative functional and natural antibacterial agent for consumers and food industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The antibacterial effects of products on initial micro-flora of lettuce were detected. The lettuce samples were treated with products for different treatment times (0, 5 and 10 min). The antibacterial effects of products against inoculated micro-flora on lettuce were obtained. Lettuce samples were separately inoculated with food-borne pathogens (~4 log CFU/g) and treated with products for the same treatment periods.\nFindings: Unripe grape products decreased the initial micro-flora by approximately 1 log CFU/g in 5 min. Unripe grape products dramatically inhibited the inoculated E. coli on lettuce samples right after the treatment. Majority of the unripe grape products decreased the number of S. Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes to an undetectable level in 5 min. S. aureus was the most resistant microorganism among the tested cultures. It was concluded based on the conspicuous results on the inhibition of E. coli, S. Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes that unripe grape products can be considered as natural antimicrobial agents for food safety.\nOriginality/value: This study is also valuable since it enables the in situ testing of the potential usage of unripe grape products against food-borne pathogens.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Complexity and performance measurement for retail supply chains
|
[
"Performance measures",
"System dynamics",
"Complexity analysis",
"Retail supply chain"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Being the starting point of \"bullwhip\" effect, retailers can influence the performance of whole supply chain; therefore, analyzing the complexity of them can give an idea to the practitioners on their decision-making process. With the recent trends, such as global sourcing, multichannel routes and supplier collaboration for innovation, supply chain dynamics gets complicated everyday and members of the chain have to consider retailer ways of working so as to maintain the financial stability of the overall chain (Ganesan et al., 2009).\n2. Literature review: In complexity literature, there are two types of complexity according to the most common classification approach in literature which concentrates on time factor:\n3. Research approach: 3.1 Complexity measures\n4. Test scenarios: In Hubner et al. (2013), retail supply chain planning tasks are classified based on the planning horizon, namely long-, mid- and short-term decisions. Three scenarios are selected with different planning horizons. Scenario 1 - decision of using a decentralized or centralized inventory planning strategy - is an example of long-term strategic decision making. In Scenario 2, a short-term planning problem (shortage in supply), which needs urgent action in daily routine to minimize deviation from plans, has been examined. In Scenario 3, a mid-term decision-making problem encountered by the category management teams (buying teams) in a retail company has been analyzed by comparing the complexity and performance of different solutions that could be offered.\n5. Conclusion: In this research, the aim is to provide a starting point for analyzing complexity in retail supply chains. There has been a vast amount of literature that provided guidance to measure complexity in manufacturing systems and supply chains from the manufacturer point of view. However, it has been observed that the studies measuring complexity evaluate different levels of information on the systems. Based on the information level, complexity has been classified into three categories: system, perceived and value-adding complexity. In order to understand whether the complexity observed in the retail supply chain is useful or raised because of the issues to be fixed; both complexity and performance measures have been applied. Five different complexity metrics gathered from the existing literature for evaluating different information levels. One metric is used to compute static complexity and others compute dynamic complexity. Performance measures explore the retail supply chain from various aspects including resource management, output management and flexibility.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present how complexity on retail supply chains should be recognized and its relationship with the performance. Different supply chain structures and planning horizons have been analyzed to support practitioners taking action on the short, mid and long terms. Confronted complexity in the supply chain has been categorized as system, perceived and value adding. This would also help practitioners to understand the sources of the complexity and if the complexity is useful for the system or not.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Three different retail supply chain scenarios - each concentrating on different planning horizons - have been simulated on system dynamics software STELLA. Using the new classification scheme for complexity and suggested performance metrics, a multi-perspective analysis has been performed on the STELLA output.\nFindings: The results and the methodology can be easily applicable in practice to support decision-making process and to answer \"what-if\" type scenario analysis on systems design and configuration. Using the selected complexity metrics, complexity of the system considering time factor - static and dynamic - and different information levels - system, perceived and value adding - has been evaluated. Used complexity metrics indicate the problematic areas in the systems to be distinguished.\nOriginality/value: This paper uses system dynamics modeling in retail supply chains to derive insight about dynamic behavior and to represent the complex interactions and a new classification scheme for system complexity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Investigating the drivers of consumer intention to buy manufacturer brands
|
[
"Purchase intention",
"Manufacturer brands",
"Moderating effect",
"Theory of reasoned action",
"Brand management",
"Marketing strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: Manufacturer, or national, brands proffer a set of promises to consumers (Keller, 1993). Manufacturers can justify higher prices for branded products because consumers assume a certain level of quality, as promised by the brand name (Mendez et al., 2008; Woodside and Ozcan, 2009). That is, consumers use a brand name as a signal of quality and accept that quality products command a higher price. Unsurprisingly then, researchers have identified perceived product quality as a key driver of the intention to buy manufacturer brands (e.g. Bhat and Reddy, 1998; Deighton, 1992). Studies exploring issues related to the consumption of branded products often underline the specific function of quality: \"Excellent quality is a sine qua non, and it is important that the premium marketer maintains and develops leadership in quality\" (Quelch, 1987, p. 39). Not only are branded products expected to provide greater quality than non-branded products, but premium brands should display even higher levels of quality.Yet the notion of branded products' higher quality increasingly is being challenged (ACNielsen, 2005). Many retailers are expanding their private-label range, which has the potential to increase store loyalty, chain profitability, control over shelf space, and bargaining power over manufacturers (Ailawadi and Harlam, 2004; Jin and Suh, 2005; Ngobo, 2011; Steenkamp and Dekimpe, 1997). Although private-label brands tend to be 20-30 per cent less expensive than corresponding manufacturer brands (Akbay and Jones, 2005; Herstein and Gamliel, 2004), many consumers no longer consider them inferior to manufacturer brands (Burt, 2000; Lamey et al., 2007).A significant pool of literature identifies the antecedents of consumers' decisions to buy private-label brands, but far less literature exists with regard to manufacturer brands. Largely because the prevailing assumption holds that consumers seeking high-quality, prestige-enhancing products invariably choose manufacturer brands. However, as private-label brands are more widely embraced and manufacturer brands use price cuts defensively (Zimmerman et al., 2007), this assumption appears questionable. Against this background, further research is needed to reassess motives for why consumers might buy manufacturer brands.This study therefore examines the drivers of consumer intention to buy manufacturer brands when private-label brands are also available. Most literature has focused on the relationship between the perceived quality of manufacturer brands and consumer intention to buy them (e.g. Dodds et al., 1991; Grewal et al., 1998; Szybillo and Jacoby, 1974). We build on such work by examining how consumers' perceptions of the relevance of brands, or involvement, and their attitude toward private-label brands influence their intention to buy. This study adopts Keller's (2003) \"brand resonance\" concept, which refers to the extent to which customers feel connected with or that they have a relationship with the brand. We also examine the moderating effect of perceived product similarity and age on the perceived quality-purchase intention link. By identifying customer intention to buy manufacturer brands, this study helps brand managers allocate investments aimed at increasing brand sales more effectively. Distinguishing among the various antecedents of intention to buy manufacturer brands also is theoretically meaningful, because previous research almost exclusively cites product quality as antecedents. After presenting the results of an empirical study into the antecedents of consumer intention to buy manufacturer brands, we discuss the specific implications of our study for marketing management and research.\nManufacturer brands and consumers' purchase intention: Research into consumer intention to buy manufacturer brands stems from two main areas of marketing literature: the symbolic and psychological benefits of brands (e.g. Edson and Bettman, 2003; Fournier, 1998; Supphellen and Gronhaug, 2003); and functional benefits of brands (e.g. Bhat and Reddy, 1998). We draw on both. Specifically, manufacturer brands historically have promised higher quality, while private labels have delivered value for money (Verhoef et al., 2002). The conventional wisdom held that successful brands earned credibility and a favourable reputation through their quality provision (Erdem, 1998), so for many years, manufacturers could simply make brands available in stores and promote them aggressively. Previous studies have shown that brand credibility and reputation increase choice probabilities (e.g. Rao et al., 1999). More recently though, consumers have become suspicious about the true value of manufacturer brands, especially as they note the quality gains of moderately priced private-label brands (ACNielsen, 2008; Christopher, 1996; Darke, 2004; Garretson et al., 2002).We therefore consider the perceived quality of manufacturer brands, brand involvement, attitude toward private-label brands, and perceived product similarity as potential antecedents of consumer intention to buy manufacturer brands (IBMB). We focus on these four antecedent variables in particular because they appear in relation to IBMB in previous studies (e.g. Choi and Coughlan, 2006; Hyman et al., 2010; Pauwels and Srinivasan, 2004), though no research has considered their simultaneous effects. The growing competition between manufacturer and private-label brands makes it particularly pertinent to examine consumers' reasons to buy manufacturer brands. We summarise our research approach in Figure 1.\nHypothesis development: Direct effects\nMethod: Measures\nDiscussion and implications: This study's objectives relate mainly to reassessing the drivers of consumer intention to buy manufacturer brands. Although considerable research has addressed brand quality and the emotional and psychological benefits of brands (e.g. Bhat and Reddy, 1998; Edson and Bettman, 2003; Orth et al., 2004), minimal research has investigated consumers' brand involvement or attitude toward private-label brands, much less their effects on the intention to buy manufacturer brands. Therefore, this study extends the typical focus of research on consumer beliefs about brands to include important brand choice-related constructs. Our approach also is consistent with Arnold et al.'s (2005) claim that consumers' motivations to buy brands are fickle.In our effort to deepen understanding of the drivers of consumer intention to buy manufacturer brands and recognise the role of perceived product similarity and age as moderators, we reveal that perceived brand quality exerts the strongest influence on intention to buy manufacturer brands. Moreover, brand involvement strongly affects this intention. The same is true for attitude towards private-label brands, though in this case, the effect is negative.The outcomes of the moderator analysis further indicate that surprisingly perceived product similarity does not but interestingly age does moderate the relationship between perceived brand quality and intention to buy manufacturer brands, as we summarise in Table III.Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Branding literature indicates that consumers buy branded products because they expect higher quality compared with non-branded products. However, as private-label brands improve in quality and deliver more value to customers, a reassessment of intention to buy manufacturer brands is pertinent. On the basis of the theory of reasoned action, the authors aim to hypothesize that the perceived quality of manufacturer brands, brand involvement, attitude toward private-label brands, and perceived product similarity drive purchase intention. In addition, consumers' perceptions of product similarity and age might moderate the relationship between perceived quality and intention to buy manufacturer brands.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The model and relationships are examined with a large sample of more than 600 consumers. The primary data were collected using face-to-face interviews.\nFindings: - Regression analysis finds support for a direct effect of perceived product quality, brand involvement and attitude towards private-label brands as well as a moderating effect of age on the relationship between perceived quality and intention to buy manufacturer brands.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The authors suggest implications of the study findings for brand management and marketing theory development, as well as avenues for further research. Amongst others, the authors recommend that brand manufacturers should communicate the quality aspects of their brands more clearly, because consumers' quality perceptions are strongest amongst the antecedents of purchase intention.\nOriginality/value: - Overall, the findings suggest that marketers need to revise their understanding of retail behavior in this area which constitutes the main contribution of the paper.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Old Europe, new challenges
|
[
"European Union",
"Economic policy",
"Social policy",
"Demographics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: It seems like ages ago that the Europe of Maastricht was heading towards enlargement from the Atlantic to the Urals, and preparing for monetary convergence and economic policy cohesion. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, this reunited Europe was supposed to recover all of its former glory, power, and influence. The USA was worried about Fortress Europe and had not yet seen industrialised China conquering the world.\nOpen Europe does not mean discount Europe: Liberalisation of international trade has led to unprecedented growth around the world. Since 1947, average customs tariffs have fallen by approximately 90 per cent among industrialised countries. Meanwhile, trade has increased 20-fold; world production, tenfold. The next step is to attack non-tariff barriers and protectionist practices of countries such as the USA.An open Europe must not mean a discounted Europe, though. In fact the EU must use all its influence on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to organise free trade and oppose the \"law of the strongest\". All of Europe should agree on the principle of reciprocity in terms of open borders. All this should be done, of course, without ever giving in to the temptation of protectionism.Competition from countries with cheap labour certainly makes the headlines. Overall, however, the EU has balanced trade with the rest of the world. In fact, trade represents approximately one-quarter of European production (the same for France), while two-thirds of its imports and exports are destined for Europe itself. It would be dangerous then to regulate trade and production according to employment figures because countries share an advantage in trade, even if that advantage is unevenly distributed. Thanks to trade, countries grow mutually richer whereas if they close their borders to trade, they grow mutually poorer and cease making progress.Everyone benefits from the internationalisation of trade. In fact, even if jobs are lost in some sectors, wealth is increased overall. Accusing newly industrialised nations is no longer acceptable because OECD and Economic Analysis Council (CAE) studies have shown that overall foreign trade represents a positive net balance in employment. In terms of ethics, one cannot ask weaker countries to accept anti-competition laws when favourable and reject them when inconvenient. One cannot refuse to import what low-wage countries produce more competitively since low labour costs constitute these countries' principal comparative advantage. Encouraging less developed countries to trade remains the most effective tool for improving their social situation.Greater specialisation is profitable in industrialised countries because it leverages comparative advantage. A glance at the French and German cases make this point clear. Industrial imports represent approximately 40 per cent of domestic consumption in both France and Germany. However, the share of such imports coming from low-wage countries (low-value goods which require a lot of unskilled labour) in that category is only 11 per cent in France versus 24 per cent in Germany. In other words, German industry is better in terms of sourcing and exploiting cheaper supplies. This explains how the Germans were able to return to a trade surplus shortly after reunification, and how they remain both more competitive and more specialised than the French.Globalisation does not necessarily mean diminished standards of living. However, for the less-developed countries to catch up, economic and social changes will be necessary in the more advanced countries, and these changes will prove all the more painful because they will likely come as a surprise.\nRevise the CAP without forgetting \"food as weapon\": On the basis of the Berlin agreements and the Luxemburg compromise in 2003, the CAP is scheduled to end in 2013. In the years leading up to 2013, market liberalisation, and decreases in subsidies of all kinds, including export assistance and direct aid to farmers, will take place gradually. It is true that we were subsidising agricultural products. These sorts of subsidies distort agricultural markets, encourage inefficiency, and create wasteful surpluses. A full 80 per cent of agricultural subsidies were allocated to 20 per cent of farmers, most of whom were using intensive methods of cultivation, which ravishes the environment and requires greater inputs of scarce water.This decoupling of subsidies with production - total or progressive, depending on the country - means that the 80 per cent of farmers who received 20 per cent of the funds will continue to farm only if they can make more money by producing crops rather than by doing nothing. This is actually a programmed revolution in European agricultural policy in which we hope to buy the silence of farmers, ever fewer in number, by continuing to subsidise them without their producing anything or rather with the justified environmental restrictions. This \"Last of the Mohicans\" scenario has not been rejected by farmers because they may actually come out ahead. It is similar to paying for past crops and since there are fewer farmers, each one makes the same, perhaps more, even if farm aid decreases overall. The result of this ineffective policy will likely be a partial decentralisation of the agricultural policy throughout Europe.The CAP represents over 40 per cent of community expenses for 2 per cent of the active population. CAP opponents never miss a chance to brandish these figures and call for the dismantling of the common policy in the name of other European priorities made necessary by enlargement or simply through modernity, which encourages us to develop through research, training, infrastructure and social policy. Actually, agriculture is the only field in which community policy replaced national policies, and where European and national public aid, which is devoted to agriculture in Europe, does not surpass its proportion in the active population.The CAP has been a great success in Europe but must be completely revised if only because new Eastern members are now integrating into the Union. Their entry implies the conversion and modernisation of an active labour force similar to that of France in the 1950s. Logical farming, with its emphasis on \"traceability\", and respect for the environment, is only the first step toward sustainable development. We all know that the subsidies granted in rich countries have led to artificial prices worldwide. Indeed these prices are unrelated to real production costs and, in the end, too low to cover production and importation from less-developed countries. For instance, in Europe and the USA, where 70 per cent of the overall cotton production is concentrated, the subsidy per kilo has surpassed the selling price. In these conditions, the more competitive African cotton cannot fetch a fair price hence its production and export cannot develop normally. The same logic applies to cereal, sugar and other staples.Given the clout of the USA, the world price of agricultural products is often a dumping price designed to move American surpluses. If the CAP is to be revised according to the principals of sustainable development, it will be important to do so without US pressure. Of course, not all EU members are equally invested in agriculture. France represents 20 per cent of the net added value of European agriculture; Italy, 19 per cent; Spain, 18 per cent and the others follow far behind, e.g. Germany, 10 per cent; Greece, 7 per cent and the UK, 6.5 per cent. Europe must not let down its guard, though. Agricultural aid is slightly lower in volume in the USA, but higher per farmer ($20,000 in the USA vs $14,000 in the EU). According to the Farm Bill, American agricultural assistance should increase by 70 per cent in ten years. In other words, now is not the time to dismantle our system while the Americans are reinforcing theirs. The \"food weapon\" should not be available in the USA alone; Europe should have it, too.The lessons learned from our adventures in agricultural policy are the following: liberalisation of markets and globalisation have their limits. Certain strategic sectors, particularly those related to national identity and heritage, such as agriculture in France, merit protection. Failing to do so would severely upset social order and solidarity.\nBusiness as usual?: In today's global economy, Europe can stand proud. Indeed, the Europe of 25 is by far the top commercial power in the world. If we exclude intra-trading, which represents on average two-thirds of the exports of each member state, Europe represents 19 per cent of the world's exports versus 14 per cent for the USA and approximately 9 per cent for Japan and China. External trade transactions, which have doubled since 2002, despite energy costs, remain more or less balanced with a deficit of approximately 60 billion Euros and a surplus of over 70 billion Euros if we consider the Eurozone, led by Germany. Such is not the case in the USA with its abysmal foreign trade deficit of 500 billion Euros. China and Japan recorded trade surpluses of 27 billion Euros and 78 billion Euros respectively in 2004 (most recent available data).This positive performance is due essentially to a reunified industrial Germany whose 2004 surplus was approximately 160 billion Euros (versus 30 billion in 1993 and 60 billion in 2000). Ireland serves as the notable exception with a positive balance of 35 billion Euros vis-a-vis the rest of the non-European world; Italy is balanced, too, whereas all the other European countries have posted a structural deficit, e.g. France: 13 billion Euros; Spain: 56 billion Euros; UK: 94 billion Euros. How can we explain these differences among countries within the Union?One explanation remains worth examining here: countries that perform best internationally are those that manage to maintain a solid industrial foundation. While the weight of industry and energy in the added value of the Europe of 25 hovers around 20 per cent on average, it is 25 per cent for Germany; 28 per cent for Ireland and 21 per cent for Italy versus only 18 per cent for the UK and Spain, and 16 per cent for France. This flood of figures reveals a great deal about the future.Germany weighs in at double France in terms of exports within the Union versus exports to the rest of the world (27 per cent vs 13 per cent). Germany's principal strength lies in the surplus for \"machinery and equipment\" - 155 billion Euros versus only 11 billion Euros in France. Chemical products follow at 31 billion euros in Germany versus 10 billion in France. \"Other manufactured goods\" represents 29 billion euros in Germany against a deficit of 19 billion euros in France. This last item underscores the fact that industrial specialisation is the best line of defence against an invasion of imports from emerging countries with low labour costs.If European manufacturers wish to compete internationally, they must specialise with innovative products and services with a high quotient of added value. There are neither condemned sectors nor commercial fatalities due to companies themselves. There are, however, poor managers and entrepreneurs who no longer question their production methods in an ever-changing world where innovation is necessary. Companies that remain content selling what they produce are indeed condemned because in order to conquer a market, one must produce what actually sells; i.e. goods and services that meet real or latent needs. Innovative entrepreneurs are the true motors of growth. However innovation should always be plural, i.e. technical for processes and products, but also commercial, financial, and social.\nNo sustainable growth without children: Reports on technology, innovation and competitiveness fill libraries and line drawers. In these documents, workers are often treated merely as human capital. In terms of training, the employer is considered correctly as an investment and a long-term growth factor. Demographics are generally treated only in terms of aging from the top down (more seniors) with the ensuing problems. However, little is presented on the consequences of aging from the bottom up (fewer young people) and the impact on growth and Europe's place in the world.Economists \"refuse to see\" the link between economic growth and demographics thus they do not even verify it (Sauvy, 1980). Comparisons of growth rates in Europe and the USA usually use technology to explain long-term differences. One wonders though if there is not also a demographic multiplier effect (Godet and Durance, 2006) (see Box 1.)European countries are like orchards full of trees. After 40 fruitful years, the grove reached maturity without anyone having planted new seeds. If we are to invest and consume, we must be optimistic about the future and prepare for it. These are characteristics that, unfortunately, decline with age. In economics and demographics, the same dynamic applies: a zest for life may be expressed in terms of an economic initiative or a nursery full of children. The family spirit is closely related to the corporate spirit.European leaders are well aware of aging from the top down. They know that health and retirement plans will require some painful measures. For instance, we need to ensure that funds will be available to support those aged 80 and greater, a demographic that will double by the year 2035! We may push back these dates, but overall the younger generation, still working but fewer in number, will have to pay for the older generation's care.Regional development factors are endogenous and depend upon the economic dynamics of the local active population. The more people there are, and the more entrepreneurial they behave, the healthier the region. In short, the problems of economic development are internal, and the impact of globalisation on our economies must seriously be put into perspective.In order to compensate for a demographic deficit, Europe must open up the borders to considerable but selective immigration. Integration will need to be legislated through public and family policies that are more flexible in terms of integration. In fact, integration will go better if there is a mix, especially in the schools. Hence the need to encourage people to have children in the old European countries, like France and Germany, where polls indicate that one in two women would like another child but cannot because of the problems inherent in balancing family and career. Similarly recent British statistics indicate that slightly higher birthrates do not reflect such a rosy picture. Experts see some women over age 35 who delayed having children now giving birth, but many in the middle-income bracket decide not to have children because of the spiralling costs of living (Martin, 2007).Overall, aging from the top down is actually good news for Europeans who are living longer and in better health. There is bad news only when there is no next generation to take up the baton. What must be avoided is aging from the bottom of the pyramid. Otherwise what good is \"saving the whales\", if there are no more children around to see them?\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to query the value of strategies implemented, notably in France, and to demonstrate the largely ignored link between demographics and economics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper achieves its objective by comparing statistics of European Union (EU) members and competitors to reveal that traditional views on economics and social policy may no longer apply.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the Old Europe stagnated due to political lack of will, but a renewed Europe has begun. The Euro as scapegoat for poor performance is dismissed. Productivity figures show how foreign trade and debt can be efficiently managed. Overall, trade must be encouraged worldwide. Low-wage countries will inevitably compete and cannot ethically be ignored. The subsidy debate heats up as the EU agricultural policy ends and the USA extends Farm Aid. Regardless, EU members must focus on sustainable development. The low birthrate in the Old Europe means social policy should be reformed to encourage families to have children and allow selective immigration to meet labour needs. The implication is that France - Europe in general - must review the EU mission and structure. The French president seems to be headed in this direction. In future research, demographics must be monitored to make social and economic plans for the working lives of our youth and retirement of our seniors.\nOriginality/value: - This paper will interest economists, politicians and policy-makers, especially those unaware of the role of demographics in productivity and planning.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Fulfilling employees' psychological contracts: organizational socialization's role
|
[
"Employee attitudes",
"Organizational socialization",
"Psychological contracts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizational newcomers require time to become contributing, productive employees, and organizations have an interest in minimizing time-to-productivity. One way to do this is through imparting organizational expectations, standards, and norms to the newcomer through formal socialization programs (e.g. Snell, 2006). Bauer and colleagues (Bauer et al., 2007; Bauer and Erdogan, 2011) noted organizational socialization is receiving increased attention because employees are changing jobs more often during their careers. Such mobility implies organizations must offer more socialization opportunities to quicken the pace of employee contributions. Recent meta-analyses (Bauer et al., 2007; Saks et al., 2007) have considered relations between socialization tactics and outcomes (e.g. role clarity) and called for investigations of how these tactics and outcomes link together.\nTheory development: Organizational socialization: a mid-range model of socialization tactics\nHypotheses: Applied to organizational socialization, uncertainty reduction theory (Berger, 1979; Walker et al., 2013) suggests new employees experience uncertainty about appropriate behavioral norms when entering an organization (Saks et al., 2007). Because newcomers are interested in contributing to the organization (Kristof-Brown et al., 2005), they are motivated to acquire organization-specific knowledge to reduce this uncertainty (Bauer et al., 2007; Kim et al., 2005). Individuals join an organization expecting role clarification; negative consequences result if this expectation is unmet (Byrne et al., 2010), but if met employees feel accepted and psychologically indebted to the organization.\nMethod: Participants\nData analysis: Because our data are self-report and same-source, it is possible that CMV may unduly influence our results. To determine the extent to which CMV was a concern, we utilized Lindell and Whitney's (2001) marker variable analysis. This technique involves including a variable that is theoretically unrelated to study variables but susceptible to the same potential CMV effects (i.e. a marker variable). We included Kosterman and Feshbach's (1989) patriotism construct as a marker variable for two reasons. First, because it is measured in the same manner as our substantive variables, it is susceptible to the same potential CMV effect. Second, we are aware of no studies linking it to any of our study variables. Thus the patriotism variable meets both criteria for a marker variable.\nResults: To gauge preliminary support for H1a-H1c and H2a-H2c we examined correlation and regression coefficients involving the three tactics (i.e. context, content, and social) and our two outcome variables (i.e. organizational commitment, POF). The context, content, and social tactics were positively correlated with both organizational commitment and POF (see Table I), providing initial support for H1a-H1c and H2a-H2c. Results from regression analyses (R2=0.37, F3, 322=62.69, p<0.001) indicated that the content (b=0.27, p<0.001) and social (b=0.55, p<0.001) tactics were positively associated with organizational commitment, providing support for H1a and H1c. However, because the context tactic was not significantly related to organizational commitment (b=-0.01, ns), H1b was not supported. An additional set of regression analyses (R2=0.31, F3,322=48.40, p<0.001) indicated the social tactic was significantly related to POF (b=0.52, p<0.001) supporting H2c, though neither the content (b=0.14, ns) nor context (b=0.11, ns) tactics returned significant coefficients, thereby failing to support H2a and H2b.\nPost hoc analyses: We found no structural relationships associated with the content or context tactics, which is consistent with prior studies (e.g. Takeuchi and Takeuchi, 2009). A possible conclusion is that social was the only meaningful tactic. Although we agree with research highlighting the salience of relational forces in socialization (e.g. Korte and Lin, 2013; Sluss and Thompson, 2012), attributing socialization's impact only to social tactics seems premature. Therefore, we conducted post hoc analyses to examine the relative importance of the three mid-range tactics using dominance and relative weights analyses (see Tonidandel and LeBreton, 2011).\nDiscussion: Our results suggest psychological contract fulfillment partially mediated the relationship between the social tactic and both organizational commitment and POF, underscoring the importance of psychological contracts in onboarding employees. The extent that psychological contracts are fulfilled also has implications for newcomers' commitment to and perceptions they fit in their organization. Before discussing its theoretical and practical implications, we note two important limitations to our study. First, the data were same-source and cross-sectional, giving rise to CMV concerns. However, certain features of our study help assuage these concerns. Research suggests employees react to perceived rather than actual aspects of both the socialization process (Ravlin and Ritchie, 2006) and their psychological contracts (De Vos et al., 2003). Accordingly, we argue that assessing employees' perceptions was a reasonable means of gathering our data. We also employed Lindell and Whitney's (2001) marker variable technique, determining CMV effects to be minimal. We cannot, however, rule out the possibility of reverse causation among variables in our model. For example, employees with higher POF or more fulfilled psychological contracts may, upon organizational entry, be more receptive to and engaged in the socialization process. A second study limitation that should be mentioned is our alteration of Jones' (1986) original measure to exclude negatively worded items. We did this to protect against measurement artifacts that can be created by the use of such items (Barnette, 2000). Nevertheless, because excluding negatively worded items runs counter to Saks et al.'s (2007) recommendations, we encourage future researchers to consider utilizing the full socialization measure while revisiting its psychometric properties.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment in the relationship between socialization tactics and attachment-related outcomes (i.e. organizational commitment and person-organization fit).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from online data collection services which allowed for a custom sample of new employees (n=326) from a variety of organizations and industries.\nFindings: Psychological contract fulfillment partially mediated the relationship between one socialization tactic (i.e. social) and attachment-related outcomes. Post hoc analyses offered support for a hierarchy of socialization tactics with respect to prediction of organization-relevant outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: Researchers and practitioners have long believed socialization plays an important role in creating successful new employees. However, researchers have yet to adequately examine the mechanisms facilitating these relationships. This study advances the socialization literature by highlighting one such mechanism - psychological contract fulfillment.\nOriginality/value: This study seeks to explore the \"black box\" of socialization. Specifically, whereas prior work has suggested one tactic (i.e. social) may be more important than others, this is among the few studies exploring a potential hierarchy of socialization tactics. The authors then discuss the implications of this hierarchy for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Trainer attributes as drivers of training effectiveness
|
[
"Training effectiveness",
"Grounded theory",
"Qualitative research",
"Training evaluation",
"Trainer attributes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizations invest in employee training with high return on investment (ROI) expectations. These include expectation that learning will occur, that skills will be enhanced, and that behaviors will change - resulting in improved personal and organizational performance. Hence, reputable trainers are in high demand across disciplines, countries and regions. Management training is particularly susceptible to difficult effectiveness evaluation perhaps because of the discipline's predominantly \"soft\" nature. While many firms were found to be substantially increasing investment in sales training, not much has changed from the situation more than 20 years ago when it was observed that the effectiveness of sales training methods had received a little research attention (Erffmeyer et al., 1992). More recently, Clarke (2012) lamented the dearth of evaluation research and practice in the field of leadership training and development.\nConceptual framework: Training effectiveness was conceptualized on Holton's HRD evaluation and research model. Holton's is perhaps the first major critique of Kirkpatrick's four-level model and claims to be a more comprehensive framework for diagnosing and understanding causal influences of HRD intervention outcomes (Holton, 2005). According to the original model which closely followed Noe and Schmitt's (1986) motivational model of training effectiveness, three outcome levels - learning, individual performance and organizational performance - are hypothesized as a function of factors in three construct domains: ability, motivation and environmental influences. Complex array of conceptual constructs are specified in each domain that influence each of the three outcome levels as hypothesized by the model.\nMethodology: This qualitative research study used grounded theory, employing the systematic procedures approach of Strauss and Corbin (1990). According to Creswell (2007), grounded theory methodology is best suited for exploratory studies where a theory does not already exist or existing theories are incomplete. There are existing theories of training effectiveness but which are not complete in the sense that none of the existing models is generally accepted. Just as the widely used Kirkpatrick's model is being criticized and revised or updated after 50 years of its original conception, scholars relying on it often omit the all-important trainer attributes addressed by this study. Moreover, the few models that include trainer attributes are still developing. Most of the latter models are built out of sometimes complex quantitative methodologies without empirical testing.\nData collection: Focus group, individual telephone interviews and documented evidence were used to explore the experiences of 26 out of 30 purposively selected participants who had \"strongly agreed\" to the effectiveness of the training they attended in previous post-course evaluation exercises. Consent was sought and both individual participants and their organizations gladly accepted unconditionally. Anonymity of companies and use of only the first names of participants were maintained. Participants were asked to tell the story of how and what features of the training triggered or drove their motivation to apply the learning to their work. The focus group discussion was tape-recorded and transcribed. A memo of interview responses was kept and comments from documented post-training evaluation forms by the participants were also extracted. The combined methods in the course of the forth-and-back data collection and analysis stages provided enough information to saturate the data on trainer attributes through constant comparative approach.\nData analysis: Data analysis started with open coding of early data to generate categories. Because the transcribed data from both the focus group and memos of telephone interviews were voluminous, participants' statements were summarized but still using their own words. This was necessary to perform manual coding with ease given that only a short time was available to complete the exercise. That enabled the range of concepts used by participants to be identified and the analysis to be extended so that the research questions could be data driven and better understood in terms of grounded theory. Related constructs or themes were merged to produce a simple frequency distribution (Table I).\nDiscussion of findings: Trainer attributes could indeed be the \"more potent influences on training effectiveness\" that Noe and Schmitt (1986, p. 519) had identified as an existing gap in the literature. The current findings reveal that seven significant trainer attributes were recognized by trainees whose post-training appraisals confirm that the training was effective. Trainer attributes combine with environmental factors to trigger trainee characteristics leading to behavior change and performance improvement. This seems to agree with Jodlbauer et al. (2012) which found a link between trainee job satisfaction or motivation and training effectiveness. Trainer attributes also influence the perception of course content (program design) as a driver of learning outcome which combines with environmental factors to directly result in effective outcomes. The seven trainer attributes are discussed below.\nLinking back to extant literature: Some studies of trainer attributes focus on qualifications (e.g. Gauld and Miller, 2004). While qualifications such as higher degree and professional certifications are an important possession for a competent management trainer, experience proves that facilitators who were selected based on qualification and experience alone did not live up to expectation. Mamaqi et al. (2011) categorizes trainers' competences into basic (pedagogical) and specific (skills, abilities, aptitude/attitude and attributes). One of the few exceptions, however, is Ghosh et al. (2012) which attempts to ascertain the predictors of training effectiveness with special reference to the characteristics of trainers. Out of seven variables tested, the authors found only trainer's comfort level with the subject matter and trainer's rapport with trainees as significant predictors of trainee satisfaction.\nConclusion: This paper has made significant contribution to the training evaluation literature by exploring specific aspects of trainer attributes that drive training effectiveness. These findings also have implications for HRD evaluation practice. Trainers can utilize new knowledge to improve quality training presentations that combine with program design and the much studied trainee characteristics to improve learning outcomes. Organizational performance improvement which is the desired ROI of training could therefore be better achieved. However, researcher subjectivity raises issues which could limit general applicability of the results and therefore lend them to subjects of future research. Research participants were limited to the researcher's own training participants. It is possible that non-management types of training might have different effectiveness drivers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discover trainer variables that act as driving forces on training effectiveness. This can be a catalyst for improving the quality of training outcomes thereby making training firms more competitive as well as bridge the gap in literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This qualitative research study used the grounded theory methodology. Data analysis was performed using open, axial and selective coding with a discursive set of theoretical propositions emerging. Qualitative data were collected through a focus group, one-on-one interviews and secondary sources. The subjects comprised primarily 26 past participants to the researcher's firm's training programs.\nFindings: Seven major trainer attributes - facilitator disposition, real life examples, group work, interaction, participant involvement, stories/illustrations and demonstrations - were recognized by trainees whose post-training appraisals confirm that the training was effective. These trainer attributes combine with environmental factors to trigger trainee characteristics leading to behavior change and performance improvement.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper makes a significant contribution to training evaluation literature. Researchers can take up any of the discovered attributes to further refine training evaluation theories or models.\nPractical implications: New knowledge can be utilized to improve quality training presentations to improve learning outcomes. Organizational performance improvement, which is the desired return on investment of training, can better be achieved.\nOriginality/value: The paper goes beyond conceptual models to empirical discovery.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Impediments to foreign real estate investment in an emerging market: A tripartite characterisation of the Lagos, Nigeria property market
|
[
"Investor",
"Emerging market",
"Lagos",
"Property market",
"Foreign real estate investment",
"Market maturity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There has been an increase in the mobility of international real estate investment across national boundaries as a result of the prospect of higher return and strategic risk reduction measure which such investment offers (Agboola, 2015). For instance, in 2013, Ernst and Young reported that the foreign direct investment to Sub-Shara African real estate, hospitality and construction sector increased by 63 per cent, thereby placing the sector among the top five recipients of foreign real estate investment (FREI). Irrespective of this increase, the level of FREI in the African market is very low when compared to that of other regions in the world (Rothenberger, 2010). Meanwhile, it has been established that the major factor driving the international market selection for FREI is the characteristics of the real estate market such as the maturity of the market (Falkenbach, 2009). This is because international investors required increased transparency of the market before making any investment decision, and the lack of transparency is among the reasons why many of the world's emerging markets are excluded from consideration by international investors (Gordon, 1999). The characteristics of a particular market can, therefore, be a pointer to the level of FREI received. Suffice to say that international property companies mainly invest in countries that have relative high scores in transparency (Eichholtz et al., 2011). This is worrisome for a country like Nigeria which ranks 83rd out of 109 markets covered in the biannual Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI) for the year 2016 (Jones Lang LaSalle, 2016).\n2. Literature review: The property market also referred as real estate market describes the institutional arrangement through which interaction with property takes place (D'Arcy and Keogh, 1999). It is an amalgamation of many specific market segments that have their unique features in term of conditions, problems, and opportunities (Olaleye, 2008); it is, therefore, misleading to refer to the property market as a single entity. The market comprises a great number of submarkets. Each group of properties, which can in some measure be substituted for one another, represents a separate market. The main function of the property market lies in allocating and reallocating land resources. The market serves as a means to access different real estate types in terms of location, type of uses, tenure, and terms and conditions for occupancy across economic sectors, among others. The property market allows the mobility of real estate resources and wealth. This is because real estate can be used as a collateral, thereby enabling firms and households to release part of their wealth in real estate to raise capital. The property market can also serve as a gauge of the health of a country's financial sector because of the strong relationship between the real estate and financial sectors (Olowofeso et al., 2013).\n3. Data and methods: Primary data employed for the study were sourced through the use of questionnaire administered on firms of property practitioners referred to as ESV firms in Lagos property market, the largest property market in Nigeria. The ESV firms in Nigeria are corporate members of the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV). On the other hand, the corporate membership refers to registered ESV firms; there are also individual membership levels in the institution. The various individual membership cadres include the graduate/probationers members, the associate members and the fellow members. The graduate/probationer members are the graduates of higher institutions of learning who are still under pupillage in a registered estate surveying firms. The associate membership, designated as associate member Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (ANIVS), refers to graduates of ESV who have undergone the mandatory pupillage and have successfully passed the test of professional competence. The peak of the professional membership is the institution's fellowship (FNIVS). These are associate members who have served meritously and for not less than 10 years and have been found suitable for the status of a fellow of the institution. The choice of ESV firms as the study population was because of their key role in the property market and involvement in almost every stage of real estate transaction including the determination of asking price, searching for a trading partner, matching negotiation, providing price information and closing (Yavas, 2007). The ESV firms in Nigeria by virtue of their establishing statue (Federal Government of Nigeria, 2007) render services such as agency, valuation/appraisal, property management and property investment analysis. The ESV firms are thus in the best position to provide information on the characteristics of the market they operate. In analysing the Lagos property market, the study delineated the Lagos market based on its natural geographical setting. Thus, the Lagos market was stratified into Lagos Mainland property market and Lagos Island property market. This delineation is further emphasised by the fact that the clientele, market operations and volume of transactions of the two sub-markets are distinct (Olapade, 2014). This is further buttressed by the classification of the NIESV Directory (2015) which stratified the Lagos market into two property markets, namely the Island and Mainland. Primary data from these two submarkets were sourced through questionnaires administered on ESV firms in these two submarkets. An examination of this directory indicated that 380 registered ESV firms had their head offices located in Lagos property market, 228 of which are located in Lagos Mainland, while 152 are located in Lagos Island. This, therefore, represents the sample frame for each of the market segments. From the sample frame of 380 registered ESV firms in Lagos property market, a total of 190 firms in the study area were selected using the stratified random sampling technique without replacement, representing approximately 50 per cent of the sample frame. This represents 114 out of 227 firms in Lagos Mainland, while 76 out 152 firms in Lagos Island markets. The choice of the fraction of the sample size was in line with the submission of Watson (2001) which suggested a sample of 50 per cent of the population for a population above 100 and total enumeration for a population below 100. A total of 135 (55 and 80 in Lagos Island and Mainland, respectively) responses were retrieved for the analysis, representing 71.05 per cent response rate.\n4. Results and discussion: This section presents the findings and discussions of the research findings. The discussion was presented under three subheadings. The first considered the characteristics of the practitioners in the Lagos property markets, whereas the second focussed on the structure of the Lagos property markets. The third section examined the market maturity classifications of the Lagos property submarkets.\n5. Conclusion: The thesis of this paper was to examine the characteristics of the Lagos property market using the characteristics of the market practitioners, the structure of transaction in the market and maturity of the market. The market is characterised by practitioners whose highest level of education was mainly first degree with an average of seven years post-graduation experience and an average computer literacy level. With regards to the characteristics/profile of the practitioners, it appears that they might not possess the requisite skill and experience required by international investors. The implication of this is that the practitioners might not be able to render the necessary intermediary services required for an effective FREI. Apart from the fact that this might discourage foreign investors from venturing into the market, it could also allow clients seeking professional advice to become disenchanted. Disenchantment may lead the clients to seek services from non-professionals with the attendant consequences on the profession. Again, given that letting is the major type of transaction in the market, it appears that rental market was more active than other types of market transaction. It thus suggests that investment in the market favours a long-term investment scheme. An international investor with short-term scheme might not find the market as a suitable investment destination.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the of characteristics of Lagos, Nigeria property market and its submarkets on the prism of the market practitioners' characteristics, market transaction structure and market maturity. This is done with a view to provide information capable of improving the flow of foreign real estate investment to the Lagos property market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Primary data were sourced through questionnaire administered on firms of property practitioners in the market. A total of 190 firms were selected using the stratified random sampling technique based on their geographical location. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U Test were employed for data analysis.\nFindings: The results showed that the Lagos property market was characterised by practitioners whose highest level of education was majorly first degree, and with a mean computer literacy ranking of 3.38 on a five-point Likert scale. Also, major transactions in the market included letting and sales. The market maturity index of the market was 2.95 and therefore adjudged as an emerging market. The analysis also revealed that there was no significant difference in the characteristics of the submarkets.\nPractical implications: The results of the study are capable of enhancing investment decision in the market.\nOriginality/value: The study differentiates itself from and adds to the previous studies on market characteristics through an examination of the property market on the prism of the market transaction structure, market practitioners' characteristics and maturity of the market holistically in the context of an African emerging market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
International students' experiences in a flipped classroom environment: An Australian perspective
|
[
"Australia",
"Flipped classroom",
"Undergraduate international students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Presently, with the wave of technological innovations, Australian educational institutions are revolutionising teaching and learning delivery to domestic and international students through the flipped classroom mode (Graham, 2013). International students are defined by Paige (1990) as individuals who temporarily reside and study in a country other than their country of citizenship. There were 621,192 international students in Australia in 2017 (Department of Education and Training, 2018a) and international education generated revenue of $30.3bn to the economy, an increase of 8.1 per cent from earnings recorded at $ 28.6bn in 2016-2017 (Department of Education and Training, 2018b). Given that international education is a profitable business to the Australian economy it is imperative that we understand how learning from a traditional mode to a flipped learning model impacts international students' study experiences in the Australian context. The traditional mode of learning can be thought of as didactic and transmission-based, where students passively accept course material through lectures, which is then reinforced in tutorial classes (Schwartz, 2014). Strayer (2012) defines the flipped classroom approach as moving the instructional (passive) aspects of the subject content delivery outside of class time, whilst promoting active student engagement with the content in class time. This includes case studies, problem solving exercises and role plays, empowering students to be active learners and to move towards an inquiry-based learning environment (Hmelo-Silver, 2004). The underpinning theoretical understanding for inquiry-based learning is active learning. Active learning is conceptually defined as \"involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing\" (Bonwell and Eison, 1991, p. 2). Active learning is then linked to a range of learning activities, such as \"instructional strategies, teaching methods and any pedagogical approach that is intended to activate or develop the students' thinking in the learning process\" (Hung, 2015, p. 82).\nLiterature review: In the literature, international students' learning experiences in the traditional mode are often considered to be negative. For example, scholars (Brown, 2008; Rao, 2017) have categorised international students as passive learners in the classrooms, mainly due to their low English levels and different learning styles. Brown (2008) revealed that insufficient comprehension of lectures, group discussions and daily interactions with other students and staff members can be due to their limited fluency in English. As a result, international students' participation in the classroom is lower than domestic students and they are poor at reading and writing skills. The latest research by Rao (2017) echoes similar findings, where international students are deemed as non-participatory in discussions, uncooperative members of groups and lacked critical thinking and writing skills because of their limited English ability.\nMethods: Since this is an exploratory study (Creswell, 2013), a qualitative approach was adopted for the following reasons. First, little is known on the lived experiences of undergraduate international students with regards to their experiences of learning through a flipped delivery. Second, since the nature of qualitative research is naturalistic and interpretive (Creswell, 2013), the research is conducted in \"natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them\" (Denzin and Lincoln, 2012, p. 3). Based on the nature of this exploratory study, a semi-structured interview was chosen as a single method to elicit experiences, feelings, beliefs, thoughts and perceptions of international students (Tharenou et al., 2007). This methodology is conducive to investigate the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate international students in a flipped classroom environment.\nFindings and discussion: There were three key areas of learning experiences in a flipped classroom approach among undergraduate international students; flexibility in learning; engagement with online materials and participation in face-to-face workshops.\nConclusion: One of the aims of flipped classroom delivery is to foster students' engagement in the pre-workshop work, to improve participation in the workshops and eventually to achieve positive learning outcomes (Hung, 2015). Prior studies have claimed that international students are disengaged in the classrooms, mainly due to their English proficiency levels. The findings from our research challenge this assumption, and show that international students enjoy engaging with the online work in their own time, pace and place and are comfortable interacting not only with domestic students, but also with workshop facilitators in this flipped classroom approach. This builds on Owens (2011) research which highlights the stress of adjusting to a new learning and social context. Our research suggests that the flipped classroom approach assists students to engage in discussions in the classroom by first engaging in a range of online activities where they can become familiar with the content. Furthermore, this study has demonstrated some new findings that undergraduate international students take responsibility for their own learning and hence develop a range of transferrable skills, such as time management skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, learning skills, teamwork skills and research skills.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore undergraduate international students' experiences in a flipped classroom environment in an Australian university.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 32 in-depth interviews were conducted with undergraduate international students at one Australian university by three researchers.\nFindings: The learning experiences of international students in a flipped classroom environment include increased flexibility in learning; enhanced engagement with content and; more confident participation in face-to-face workshops. In addition, the analysis further illustrates that international students intrinsically develop soft skills (e.g. increased confidence and communication skills), learning skills (e.g. research and critical thinking) and employability skills (e.g. time management and accountability).\nResearch limitations/implications: These findings focus only on the positive learning experiences of undergraduate international students in one Australian university.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the literature by identifying learning experiences of undergraduate international students in a flipped classroom environment and the connection with their development of soft skills, learning skills and employability skills.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Small farmers, standards, value chains, and structural change: panel evidence from Bulgaria
|
[
"Standards",
"Dairy industry",
"Bulgaria",
"EU accession",
"Supply chain modernization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Agricultural and food standards are spreading rapidly as production and trade are increasingly regulated through stringent public and private requirements on quality, safety, ethical and environmental aspects (Aksoy and Beghin, 2005; Jaffee and Henson, 2005). These developments have resulted in changes in the way food value chains are organised with increasing levels of vertical coordination, upgrading of the supply base and increased dominance of large multinational food companies (Gow and Swinnen, 1998; Swinnen, 2007).\n2. Data: We collected panel data through a series of in-depth interviews with the management of several dairy companies and a survey of potential suppliers to these companies in 2003 and 2009.\n3. Standards, EU accession and dairy chain restructuring: descriptive statistics: 3.1. Changes in standards\n4. The econometric model: To estimate econometrically how various factors influenced farm exit and/or growth in the Bulgarian dairy sector, we follow the approach of Dries and Swinnen (2004) and Jia et al. (2012) who extend the general firm growth model (Nelson and Winter, 1982; Evans, 1987). We estimate the following growth function:\n5. Results: The results of the two-step Heckman regression are presented in Table IX, in six different models. For each model specification, the first column shows the results of the survival equation, while the second column presents the results of the growth equation. Models A, B and C include, respectively STANDARD_INDEX, PROGRAM and DIRECT because there is strong correlation between these variables. Model D includes BELOWSTANDARD, MILKPREMIUM, MILKPRICE as quality indicators. Models E and F are further robustness tests by using MP2003 instead of COWS2003 as indicator for farm size (Model E) and a regression without village fixed effects (Model F)[18].\n6. Conclusion: In the past decade, the Bulgarian dairy sector was characterised by a massive restructuring. Between 2003 and 2010, the number of dairy farms more than halved. Several reports identified supply chain modernisation and the introduction of more stringent food safety and quality standards as the main determinants of the rapid structural changes in the Bulgarian dairy sector after EU accession.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In the past decade, there has been a dramatic decline in agricultural employment in Bulgaria and several reports have pointed at supply chain modernisation and poor milk quality as the main reasons for the dramatic decline in the number of farms. However, to date the policy debate is been based on ad hoc claims, while there is relatively little micro-level evidence. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of structural change in the Bulgarian dairy sector in the period 2003-2009.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the determinants of structural change in the Bulgarian dairy sector in the period 2003-2009, using a unique panel survey of 296 farm households in the North and South Central Region of Bulgaria. In order to control for sample attrition bias, the authors use a two-step Heckman model of farm survival and growth model.\nFindings: The data confirms the rapid outflow of agricultural labour from dairy farming activities: 55 per cent of the farm households supplying milk to a dairy company in 2003 stopped supplying in 2009. The main reasons for quitting are ageing of the household, health problems and an increase in off-farm employment alternatives and not supply chain modernisation and milk quality standards. The institutional innovations which are associated with integration in modern supply chains, such as the provision of farm assistance programmes, have a positive impact on small farms' growth.\nOriginality/value: The study is one of the first to use panel data to analyse the impact of standards on the survival and growth of small farms in value chains. The authors analyse the determinants of farm survival and growth in the Bulgarian dairy sector in the period 2003-2009, using panel surveys of 296 dairy farm households in the North and South Central Region of Bulgaria and panel data from interviews with dairy companies. The findings are relevant beyond the Bulgarian dairy sector as supply chain modernisation and changes in quality regulations are taken place in many other transition and developing countries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Application of Self Organizing Map (SOM) to model a machining process
|
[
"Self Organizing Map",
"Decision trees",
"Artificial neural nets"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The Self Organizing Map (SOM) is a prominent unsupervised neural network model providing a topology preserving mapping from a high-dimensional input space onto a 2D map space. This capability allows an intuitive analysis and exploration of interesting and previously unknown knowledge (Tomsich et al., 2000).The SOM is useful in many applications where the dimensionalities of the feature spaces to be analyzed and the amount of data encountered are too large to allow a fast, interactive training of the neural network. The SOM provides a form of cluster analysis by producing a mapping of high-dimensional input data onto a usually 2D output space while preserving the topological relationships between the input data items as faithfully as possible. It consists of a set of units, which are arranged in some topology where the most common choice is a 2D grid (Kohonen, 1995). The SOM has the ability to map a high-dimensional signal manifold on a low-dimensional topographic feature map, with most of the topological relationships of the signal domain preserved (Kohonen et al., 1996).The SOM algorithm has attracted a great deal of interest among researchers and practitioners in a wide variety of application fields (Oja et al., 2001). In the literature, multivariate techniques have been successfully applied in different complex processes for different purposes such as data mining, image analysis, process monitoring and fault detection diagnosis. Successful applications have been reported in different industrial processes such as:* start-up operation in a steel casting process in Zhang and Dudzic (2006);* operation of a copper smelter in Ross (1988);* monitoring product quality in the food processing industry both in Sheridan et al. (2006) and Yu et al. (2003);* monitoring of combustion processes in Yu and MacGregor (2004);* remote sensing image analysis in Villmann et al. (2003);* discovering operational strategies in the refinery fluid catalytic cracking process in Sebzalli and Wang (2001);* medical image analysis in Li et al. (2006);* genomics data modelling in Eriksson et al. (2004);* increase pharmaceutical data process understanding in Jorgensen et al. (2004);* adaptive modelling of an offset lithographic printing process in Englund and Verikas (2007); and* dynamic modelling of the maize drying process in Liu et al. (2006).These wide varieties of examples demonstrate that considerable effort has been placed on applying these multivariate tools. Optimizations to parSOM, a software-based parallel implementation of the SOM was first introduced by Tomsich et al. (2000) which provides a better performance compared to other implementation attempts such as the one reported in Boniface et al. (1999).The SOM algorithm is employed by Koua (2003) to explore a geospatial dataset. The dataset consists of a collection of socio-economic indicators related to municipalities in a region of The Netherlands. The use of the SOM intended to uncover the structure and patterns from this dataset, and to provide graphical representations that can support understanding and knowledge construction. Spatial analysis, data mining and knowledge discovery methods were combined in this framework, with the goal of portraying the data in a visual form in order to stimulate pattern recognition and hypothesis generation. Some examples of visual representations based on the SOM include the visualization of clusters and shape of the data using unified distance matrix visualization, projections (mesh visualization), visualization of component planes (multiple linked views of component planes) and 2D/3D surface plots of the distance matrices. These techniques used spatial metaphors such as distances, regions and scale, to facilitate the representation of information.In this work, SOM is used to model and predict the output parts' characteristics of a new material turning process which is a new type of wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM). This machining process is almost an expensive process and in addition there are a lot of variables and factors that have different effects on the quality of the final product of this process. Therefore, it is very interesting to investigate the interrelationships and interactions of the machining factors and the quality factors of the final product. Further, since, this process can be considered as a complex function between controllable factors and the output factors, it is very useful for the process operators and engineers to have a process management guideline based on the relations of different controllable factors and the required output quality. In this work, SOM provides a quick and visual method for understanding the relationships between the input and output variables of the process under study. Laine (2003) discusses the advantages of SOM algorithms over existing statistical methods, regarding characteristics of real world engineering environments because the technique is very simple and practical for process engineers to understand the underlying complex behaviour of the processes without the need for previous knowledge in statistics or artificial intelligence algorithms.In this paper, training and visualizing SOM carried out followed by construction of a classification model which is employed for prediction. After this visually variable selection step, the decision tree algorithm is applied to extract a set of process control rules for optimizing the cost and quality of the final product.In the applications of SOM to process modelling and monitoring, almost all existing works have applied SOM for continuous processes, such as chemical processes and steel industry processes with a huge set of process data (Simula and Kangas, 1995; Laine, 2003). In these processes, data collection is not a difficult or costly task while for the WEDM, which is discrete process; data collection is not straightforward and rather costly. We use designed experiments by means of Taguchi method (Ross, 1988) to collect data needed for network training.The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the SOM network and Section 3 presents a brief overview of the WEDM process. The SOM results for our WEDM process are presented in Section 4 followed by the conclusions and future work in Section 5.\n2 SOM network: The result of the SOM process is a topographic map of the input patterns in which the spatial locations (i.e. coordinates) of the neurons in the lattice are indicative of intrinsic statistical features contained in the input patterns (Haykin and Simon, 1999). The SOM consists of neurons organized in an array. Each neuron is represented by a n-dimensional weight vector, where n is the dimension of the space.The neurons of SOM are connected to their adjacent neurons by a neighbourhood relation, which dictates the SOM topology or structure. Typically, the topology shape is either hexagonal lattice shape as shown in Figure 1 or a rectangular lattice as shown in Figure 2.2.1 SOM algorithm\n3 WEDM process: Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a thermoelectric process that erodes workpiece materials by a series of discrete electrical sparks between the workpiece and an electrode flushed by or immersed in a dielectric fluid. The hardness and strength of the difficult-to-machine work materials are no longer the dominating factors that affect the tool wear and hinder the machining process. This makes the EDM process particularly suitable for difficult-to-machine materials. The EDM process has the ability to machine precise, complex and irregular shapes with a CNC control system. In addition, the cutting force in EDM process is small which makes it ideal for fabricating miniature parts.The concept of cylindrical WEDM is shown in Figure 4. A rotary axis is added to a conventional five-axis wire EDM machine in order to produce cylindrical forms. The initial shape of the part does not need to be in cylindrical form. The X and Y slides control the electrically charged wire to remove the work material and the generation of the desired cylindrical form.Examples of the machined parts using the cylindrical wire EDM method are shown in Plate 1.The aim of these experiments is to discover the effects of different controllable factors of machining process on the material removal rate (MRR) and roughness (Ra) index of the output parts. The MRR is an important indicator in the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the process. The Ra index is related to the surface quality of the processed parts.Power, time off, voltage, servo, wire tension, wire feed rate (speed) and rotational speed are the candidate variables which have effect on the quality of output parts in this process. In this work in order to collect data, we used the dataset which is collected based on two L18 (21x37) Taguchi standard orthogonal arrays. In these experiments, all of controllable factors are sampled in three levels as their minimum, middle and maximum values. Table I shows the selected factors and their values in different levels (for more information on orthogonal arrays, the procedure of selecting an orthogonal array and assigning factors to columns, refer to Phadke (1989).Note that this process is a complex process and someone can consider more variables for this analysis. However, in this work, based on the result of our previous experiments and in order to reduce the complexity of our analysis, we decided to fix some variables during the experiments as the process parameters. The selection of the fixed parameters and variable controllable factors has been done based on domain experts' opinions and their previous experiences with this process. The fixed parameters of our experiments are shown in Table II.\n4 SOM results for WEDM process: In this work, SOM has been applied to model the WEDM process in order to discover the relations between machining controllable factors and the quality specifications of output products. Ra and MRR are process output factors; MRR is an important indicator of the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the process and Ra indicates the surface quality of the final product. These two factors indicate the machining quality. As discussed before, variables that can be controlled are power, time off, voltage, servo, wire tension, wire speed and rotational speed.Our goal is to find a set of guiding rules to adjust the amount of controllable variables in order to maximize MRR and minimize Ra. Therefore, in the first step to reduce the complexity, it is necessary to select important variables in a simple and efficient method. Thus, we trained a SOM network with the originally collected data.Map training and visualizing were performed in Matlab version 7, using its SOM toolbox (Alhoniemi et al., 1997). The visualized results are shown in Figure 5.As it can be seen in the Figure 5, there are ten coloured maps. The first one on the left top hand side is the U-matrix, which is a mean for finding possible clusters in the dataset. The other coloured maps are representations of seven controllable variables and two out put variables, respectively. Each cell in every matrix indicates a unique point in the state space of this process. Then, we can use these maps from two directions. First, by analyzing the values point to point and second by comparing the visual patterns and colour distributions in the matrices we can predict the outputs of the process for different values of input factors and we can find the most relevant variables to the output variables.With a simple visual analysis of the coloured maps, comparing the distribution and pattern of coloured maps (each map represents one variable) the following could be concluded:* Based on total pattern of colours, it can be seen that \"power\" is the most relevant attribute to \"Ra\" and has direct correlation with it. As the value of \"power\" is decreasing (from top left side of its matrix), the value of Ra is decreasing in the same direction and almost with same pattern.* Again it is clear that \"voltage\" and \"MRR\" same as \"power\" and \"Ra\" have direct correlation with each other.* \"servo\" has inverse correlation with \"Ra\" in some way. When the \"Servo\" is increasing.* Wire tension, wire speed and rotational speed have no significant relation with outputs.However, it is logically true, as maps show, MRR as the rate of removing material from the processed part and surface quality (inverse of Ra) are in conflict with each other. In other words, when MRR is increasing, consequently the quality of product surface is decreasing (Ra indicator is going up). Note that for the best processing condition, the MRR indicator should be high and the Ra indicator should be low.Also, note that normally, in those cases with a lot of data, U-matrix visually illustrates the possible clusters within the processed data. Since, in our experiment, we collected data by a designed experiment, as U-matrix shows all the data are distributed uniformly and therefore, there is no peak or collection of data (cluster) in the U-matrix.As mentioned before, our goal is to find a set of guiding rules for the WEDM process prediction, which can be helpful for controlling the output quality of products. For example, suppose that a customer order forces that the Ra should be less than five; in this case the process engineer can adjust the controllable factors regarding this quality condition and also maximizes MRR in order to minimize the processing time and consequently to minimize the production cost.Note that although, in practice it is possible to extract the control guidelines visually from SOM maps, in this work for further analysis, we classify process outputs regarding the controllable variables.This task is accomplished through decision tree algorithm, which is a powerful data classification algorithm using \"ENVISIONER\" a data mining tool developed by Neurosoft.The final structure of the resulted decision tree is shown in Figure 6.To test the efficiency of our results, we carried out some experiments. In these experiments, in order to produce parts with predetermined output specifications, we adjust controllable variables by the predictions of the classification tree and the results by SOM. We suggested the following experiments, including suggested values for input variables as well as their predicted output values. After execution of these experiments by the process operator and process expert, the results as shown in Table III were satisfying based on the expert opinions.The experiments discussed here have been performed in the Machining Workshop Center of Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran and the extracted control rules are now being applied in a look-up table which is used as guidelines for the operators.\n5 Conclusions and future work: In this paper, SOM has been applied to the WEDM process as a simple and practical technique for process engineers to understand the complex relations among process variables without any mathematical or statistical computing. In order to analyze our results, we used another approach, decision trees. Both results were the same, while the SOM gave us more information about the importance of controllable variables regarding to their relations with output variables. This technique can be used as a multi-variable quality control tool in all kinds of machining processes. Although, there are a lot of different approaches for this classic process modelling problem, our claim is that since the main result of SOM is visual maps with a lot of easily extractable information for engineers, it can be very interesting tool for practitioners. Applying our suggested recommendations by the operators of this process and finding satisfying results comparing to our predictions, made both of research team and process experts happy.The result of this work can be used as a main part of an automated process advisor and a commercial software solution.The results of this work further can be used as an input for more advanced decision support systems, such as rule-based fuzzy expert systems, which provide smooth control rules and also are very useful in automatic prediction and control of complex processes.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present a practical application of Self Organizing Map (SOM) and decision tree algorithms to model a multi-response machining process and to provide a set of control rules for this process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - SOM is a powerful artificial neural network approach used for analyzing and visualizing high-dimensional data. Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) process is a complex and expensive machining process, in which there are a lot of factors having effects on the outputs of the process. In this work, after collecting a dataset based on a series of designed experiments, the paper applied SOM to this dataset in order to analyse the underlying relations between input and output variables as well as interactions between input variables. The results are compared with the results obtained from decision tree algorithm.\nFindings: - Based on the analysis of the results obtained, the paper extracted interrelationships between variables as well as a set of control rules for prediction of the process outputs. The results of the new experiments based on these rules, clearly demonstrate that the paper's predictions are valid, interesting and useful.\nOriginality/value: - To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time SOM and decision tree has been applied to the WEDM process successfully.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Effective global leadership requires a global mindset
|
[
"Leadership",
"Equal opportunities",
"Leadership development",
"Globalization",
"Culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: True or false? Effective global leadership requires ...:* ... having lived in more than one country.* ... having traveled to other countries.* ... speaking more than one language fluently.* ... managing a globally diverse team.* ... having experienced an international assignment.* ... having been schooled abroad.Most people would say \"true\" to the items above. After all, how does one become globally effective without these types of global experiences? Or, are these necessary and/or desirable, but not sufficient? This article will explore the research to date that might shed some light on the answer to these questions.\nWhat are the global workforce trends?: These trends can be neatly summarized into three broad headings:1. macroeconomic;2. environmental and social; and3. business and industry.Macroeconomic\nGlobal workforce trends beyond 2020: What does this all mean for the global workforce beyond 2020? For one, an international labor market, expressing itself through migration, is upon us. The tidal wave of immigration to the USA in the 1990s has affected just about every corner of America, from large city to small. The slowdown in population and labor force growth throughout the developed world will intensify the need to take advantage of different sources of international labor from the less developed world. The fiscal impacts of aging, along with its demographic effects on declining population and workforce growth, will further heighten the need for foreign labor in the advanced economies of the world. The global economy will become a global workforce. There will be no clear tipping point and, indeed, the global workforce is really already here. The signs of this global workforce are all around us. Employment in foreign-owned or affiliated companies in the USA alone grew by 32 percent just between 1991 and 2000, to almost 6.5 million workers.Furthermore, the impact of the Age Wave will be relatively uneven across the globe.By 2050, nearly 1.5 billion, or 16.3 percent of the world's population, will be aged 65 or older (three times its current size). But, by 2025, China will have more than 200 million people aged 65 and over, and by 2050 more than 300 million - more than the current size of the US population. Add to this its one-child policy, and China should expect a serious impact on the availability of all future workers, managers or otherwise. Japan is in no better shape given that, over the long-term, it would have to increase immigration eleven-fold from its current level to make up for the nation's low fertility rate and rapid decline in its working population. The median age for the world in the last half century has hovered around 24; it is over 25 now, but by 2050 it will be just under 44. In most developed nations, the median age for the population will be over 51, with Germany and Japan averaging 53 to 55.Just these trends alone provide enough of a business case for the need for a global mindset in order to manage effectively. In summary, the world's population is aging, yielding relatively limited skilled labor in the future. Population distribution is rapidly changing, with most increasing in previously under-developed markets. As organizations expand into these new markets, the global workforce is today's reality. International sourcing of labor is rapidly becoming a necessity to deal with local shortages. The world is indeed becoming flat due to vast enhancements in technology, transportation and the interdependence of a global economy. There is little question that isolationism is the death knell for organizational survival.\nWhat is a global mindset?: But, what then exactly is a global mindset and how does it impact the way organizations lead? One definition offered suggests it is the ability to influence individuals, groups, organizations, and systems that have different intellectual, social, and psychological knowledge or intelligence from your own. But, more than the old adage, \"think globally and act locally,\" it's now \"think and act both globally and locally\" at the same time. This means not only recognize when it is beneficial to create a consistent global standard, but also deepen the understanding of local and cultural differences, crossing cultures and changing contexts. It requires simultaneously recognizing situations in which demands from both global and local elements are compelling, while combining an openness to and awareness of diversity across cultures and markets with a willingness and ability to synthesize across this diversity.\nWhat is global leadership?: A study by Goldsmith et al. (2003) interviewed an age- and gender-diverse group of HRD officers in 200 global organizations. They were asked what the most important leadership skills (with 1=important and 10=extremely important from a list of 72 items) required for effectiveness in the past, present and future were. Not surprisingly, the top three items mentioned for past and present leaders included none remotely suggesting global considerations. But, when asked what will be important for the future the third most highly rated item was \"makes decisions that reflect global considerations.\" Interestingly, this same item was rated as the 70th and 71st, respectively, for the past and present required leadership skills. So, while global considerations were not considered that important just six years ago, there was enough foresight to recognize that they would indeed become critical in the future.The study went on to identify just what these global leadership skills would be. Five overall clusters were identified:1. thinking globally;2. appreciating cultural diversity;3. developing technological savvy;4. building partnerships and alliances; and5. sharing leadership.But it was also concluded that these skills were required in addition to those typically associated with overall general leadership skills, such as, among others, managing change, strategic thinking, decision-making, enabling teams, managing results, etc.So, while it is likely that general leadership skills are easily transferred into a global leadership context, this does not mean a leader who is effective in a domestic setting will necessarily be effective in a foreign setting.\nWhat is a global leadership mindset?: Having identified what a global mindset and global leadership are, how do the two combine to create a global leadership mindset? A global leadership mindset involves carefully balancing three overall dichotomies:1. Global formalization versus local flexibility - wherein formal approaches unify an organization in the customer's eyes so they know what to expect from the global brand, but the manifestation of this brand locally may look different. For example, organizations may create different packaging of products more familiar to local customs and expectations while never changing their brand image.2. Global standardization vesrus local customization - wherein minimally standard protocols and processes are needed to create one company \"way\", but there needs to be flexibility in how these are implemented at the local level based on local requirements. For example, depending on local regulatory controls, some food and drug specifications may vary accordingly, while never endangering consumers.3. Global dictate versus local delegation - wherein ways of doing business need to be uniform but local implementation must be delegated according to existing customs. For example, local customs might dictate how business is conducted but never violate defined corporate values.One excellent example, according to Fortune magazine, of managing these polarities on a global stage is McDonalds, which allows countries to invent their own buns, bags, and business practices, while catering to local tastes (Gumbel, 2008). Without this balanced approach, organizations will not be able to address local market needs effectively. In short, a global leadership mindset is the ability to take a global rather than country-specific view of business and people, and be able to apply this perspective to a country, taking into account its culture.\nAcquiring a global leadership mindset: What goes into creating a global leadership mindset? Is it an acquired taste? Does it come naturally? Can it be developed? And, what is the role of cultural literacy in enabling this type of mindset? In a world where crossing boundaries is routine, cultural intelligence becomes a vitally important aptitude and skill. Someone with high cultural intelligence can select those features of individual or group behavior that are both common and different. They are able to note what is both true and peculiar about individuals and groups; almost a sixth sense. But, can this sense be developed?Segil et al. (2003) identified five levels of cultural literacy as depicted in Table I. As can be surmised, these levels are relatively cumulative in that to achieve a higher level one most likely has to already demonstrate the levels beneath it.Clearly, a \"global capitalist\" is farther up the curve than a \"proud citizen\", but being the latter is not, by any means, derogatory. It is just a stage in developing a strong sense of cultural literacy. The question is, can experience alone help someone move up that curve?\nGlobal leadership development: Probably not, at least, alone. Many who have studied global leadership, as well as leadership development in general, have concluded that a multi-dimensional approach is the most effective way to develop effective global leadership. These methods reduce to four overall approaches:1. examination;2. education;3. experience; and4. exposure.Examination\nConclusion: What does this all mean for both global organizations and their global leaders? First, a company's vision and values must show global consistency. However, its workplace practices, which translate policy guidelines into day-to-day procedures, should be locally determined. A need for global consistency would favor policies that accentuate formalization, standardization and global dictates, whereas a need for local responsiveness would favor flexibility, customization and delegation. A global mindset can be the new competitive advantage in the marketplace, so a global corporation needs a high stock of global mindset!But, at the end of the day, as far as development is concerned, it must be driven by an organization's global business strategy, although what needs to be learned is not all business-related. Global executives learn their trade the same as other executives do, but they must take much more responsibility for their own development. It is critical to remember the quest for a global mindset may never end. The complex and dynamic world in which we live provides unlimited opportunities for exploring the many linkages across our wide world of diversity.So, true or false to those items at the beginning of this article? Perhaps the best answer is that just experiencing those does not guarantee effective global leadership. Equally, if not more important, is the acquisition of a true global mindset that will enable leadership effectiveness in a global capacity. Without acquiring such a mindset, all the global leader experience in the world is not likely to improve one's effectiveness on the global stage.As cultural and business complexity increase so does the demand for a global mindset, almost exponentially given the intersect of this complex environment.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to conduct a global literature review and develop a viewpoint on the most critical success factors required to develop a global leadership mindset.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper takes the form of a global literature review and the author's viewpoint.\nFindings: - Global leadership development must be driven by an organization's global business strategy. Having \"global\" experiences at work does not guarantee effective global leadership. The acquisition of a true global mindset enables leadership effectiveness in a global capacity. As cultural and business complexity increase so does the demand for a global mindset, almost exponentially given the intersect of this complex environment.\nPractical implications: - Methods for global leadership development include examination, education, experience and exposure.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a fresh perspective.\n",
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The antecedents and consequences of financial literacy: a meta-analysis
|
[
"Antecedents",
"Meta-analysis",
"Financial literacy",
"Consequents and moderators"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Financial literacy is understood as \"the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being\" (Hung et al., 2009, p. 4). On the other hand, financial well-being is understood as \"a state of being wherein a person can fully meet current and ongoing financial obligations, can feel secure in their financial future, and is able to make choices that allow them to enjoy life\" (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2017, p. 6). It is expected that as consumers increase their financial literacy, they become more sensitive to saving and investment decisions (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2007) and probably more skilful to make daily financial choices (Lusardi and Tufano, 2008). Given the importance of this issue in people's lives, the conceptualization and measurement of the term \"financial literacy\" is one of the major concerns on the agenda of researchers in the financial and marketing context (Huston, 2010; Lusardi and Mitchell, 2014).\nConceptual framework: Financial literacy is an essential component in the achievement of economic well-being (Braunstein and Welch, 2002). Theoretically, much has been said about this construct. In practice, however, financial literacy has been difficult to conceptualise, measure and evaluate (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2011; Atkinson and Messy, 2012).\nAntecedents of financial literacy: Financial literacy in this context is formed by a set of interrelated constructs associated with socio-economic characteristics and financial behaviours and attitudes (Hung et al., 2009; Lusardi and Mitchell, 2011). In our framework, based on a systematic literature review, we defined seven antecedent constructs of financial literacy: educational level, financial attitude, financial knowledge, financial behaviour, gender, household income and investments. Table I presents the conceptual definition, expected relationships and operationalization of each of the antecedents of this framework.\nConsequents of financial literacy: Financial literacy results in behaviours that are capable of changing an individual's ability and confidence to apply this knowledge in financial decision making (Huston, 2010). This framework directly evaluated five possible consequences of financial literacy: the behaviour of incurring avoidable credit and checking fees, credit card behaviours, credit score, financial well-being and the willingness to take investment risks. Table II presents the operationalization of each consequent construct and the expected relationship with financial literacy.\nModerators of financial literacy: Financial literacy studies have demonstrated that financial competence is an essential element in more conscious and planned consumer decision making (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2011; Knoll and Houts, 2012). On the other hand, other studies have demonstrated that local characteristics, such as cultural and economic contexts, seem to coordinate their attitudes and consumption behaviours (Huston, 2010; Silgoner et al., 2015).\nMethodological design: As we mentioned earlier, we applied the meta-analytic approach to address some incongruencies in investigating financial literacy. In this way, we followed the steps indicated by Cooper et al. (2010), which have been reapplied in other meta-analytic studies (Ali et al., 2015; Babic Rosario et al., 2016). The Cooper (2010) approach comprises three steps: data search, data collection process, and data coding and analysis. It also contemplates the PRISMA protocol, which is recommended for systematic reviews (Moher et al., 2009).\nAnalysis of the antecedents of financial literacy: Table IV presents the results of the antecedent constructs of financial literacy. The table shows: the number of studies which have investigated these relationships (k); the number of effects generated for the relationships between the constructs (0); the cumulative sample number of the studies tested (N); the force of the generated effect (r); the lower-limit confidence interval (LLCI); the upper-limit confidence interval (ULCI); the value of Fisher's Z transformation; the level of significance of the relationship (p-value); the level of relationship heterogeneity according to the Cochran Q index and the I2 statistic; and the fail-safe number (FSN).\nAnalysis of the consequents of financial literacy: Table V presents the results of the consequents of financial literacy. Based on the results, we noted that the relationship between financial literacy and the behaviour of incurring avoidable credit and checking fees is negative (r=-0.053; p<0.001). This result indicates that being more financially literate reduces the payment of avoidable credit and checking of fees (Fornero and Monticone, 2011). On the other hand, the relationship between financial literacy and credit card behaviours was not significant (r=-0.034; p=ns), despite the fact that consumers make frequent or regular purchases of goods and services with their credit card, which is representative of financial behaviour. This relationship was not found to have any significant interaction in this meta-analysis.\nModerators analysis: Analyses of possible moderators were carried out for the variables of educational level. The analysis took place under these conditions, since these relationships were significant, presented a significant number of observations (k=96 and 84) and were highly heterogeneous (Q=18,273.3 and 1,141.70).\nCultural moderation effects: We tested four possible variables that could moderate the effect size of educational level and financial literacy: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, long-term perspective and indulgence.\nEconomic moderation effects: We analysed another four economic variables that could moderate the relationship between education level and financial literacy: human development index, consumer price inflation, recent crises and other categories measuring financial literacy. In this case, the analysis did not present significant results.\nConclusions: Programmes promoting financial literacy have been proposed to address the problem of over-indebtedness and to promote well-being. If, on the one hand, financial competence and socio-economic characteristics are essential elements of more conscious and planned consumer decision making, then on the other hand, individuals' cultural characteristics and personal values (power distance, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence), which are moderators in relationships pertaining to financial literacy, seem to coordinate their attitudes and consumption behaviours.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the antecedents and consequences of financial literacy by using meta-analytic techniques.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 44 valid studies, which generated a total of 690 observations (effect sizes).\nFindings: The findings showed that the factors influencing financial literacy were as follows: educational level, financial attitude, financial knowledge, financial behaviour, gender, household income and investments. The consequences of financial literacy were the behaviour of incurring avoidable credit and checking fees, credit score, and the willingness to take investment risks. The authors also find some methodological, cultural, economic and theoretical moderations effects between financial literacy and antecedent/consequent constructs.\nResearch limitations/implications: This meta-analysis reviewed the relationships found worldwide in the literature on financial literacy. The authors also identified new avenues for future research. Some specific limitations, such as the non-use of qualitative studies, are registered.\nOriginality/value: This research tested the impact of the antecedents, consequences and moderators of financial literacy via a meta-analytical review. This meta-analysis contributes to the marketing and financial literature by offering a set of empirical generalisations about the direct and moderation effects investigated.\n",
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Service development in traditional product manufacturing companies
|
[
"Customer service management",
"Industrial services",
"Critical success factors",
"Manufacturing industries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Decreasing competitive advantages in technology and the associated diminishing product margins are currently putting pressure on product manufacturing companies to search for new business opportunities (Mathieu, 2001b). One frequently suggested means of responding to these challenges is to extend the service business (Gummesson, 1994; Wise and Baumgartner, 1999; Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003; Sawhney et al., 2004). The rationale for extending the service business proceeds along three lines:1. marketing opportunities;2. strategic opportunities; and3. financial opportunities.Marketing opportunities can be understood as developing services for selling more products. In other words, services support firms in augmenting their product offering, facilitating sales at the general level (Kyj and Kyj, 1994; Lovelock, 1996), and increasing the general quality of interaction between buyer and seller (Parasuraman, 1998). Services create a relationship where the customer is dependent on the supplier. They help manufacturing firms to remain in continuous contact with customers, turning a one-transaction relationship into a long-term relationship and leading to better profitability since companies are willing to sacrifice margin to win new customers, but progressively restore their margins as the business relationship develops (Malleret, 2006).In addition, the development of services also entails strategic arguments such as achieving better differentiation and competitive strategy (Anderson and Narus, 1995; Oliva and Kallenberg, 2003). Developing services is a means of product differentiation, which is valuable for retaining existing customers or attracting new customers. By combining product and services, it also becomes more difficult to compare different suppliers' offerings. As a result, there is less direct competition on price, and this improves profitability. Simon (1993) argues that services, which directly enhance the value of the product, are very effective in creating differentiation advantages.If manufacturers develop services that are co-produced by themselves and their customers (Vargo and Lusch, 2004), the services act as a resource position barrier and can be translated into an entry barrier for competitors. By developing services such as taking over customer operation, business consulting, or process-oriented R&D, manufacturing firms create a situation where their own resource position directly and indirectly makes it more difficult for competitors to catch up. Service business extension possesses unique and hard-to-imitate resources that lead to sustainable competitive advantages (Wernerfelt, 1984; Mathieu, 2001).The potential service revenue and high service margins, as well as the fact that services are a more stable source of revenue, constitute the financial benefit (Sawhney et al., 2004). The sale of products, especially capital goods, is often a one-off transaction, not to be repeated for another few months or years, leading to fluctuation and uncertainties in the manufacturer's turnover. Services, on the other hand, can follow a recurring pattern (in the form of a contract covering maintenance), generating regular income that makes it easier to manage cash flows and cope with unfavourable economic cycles (Malleret, 2006). In addition, services offer higher margins than products. In most manufacturing industries, the average margin of products has dropped to just 1 per cent (VDMA, 2004). In contrast, the development of typical after-sales services such as repair, maintenance contracts, and assembly offer margins of more than 10 per cent (Cohen et al., 2006). Moreover, the entire market for services often revolves around one or two orders of a greater magnitude than annual new product sales (Wise and Baumgartner, 1999).Anecdotal evidence on the extension of the service business and the corresponding service development in manufacturing firms can be found in Jack Welch's (General Electric) statements that the service market is bigger than most firms can believe, Siemens' goal to generate 50 per cent of total revenue through services, and IBM's success in mutating itself from a pure mainframe manufacturer to an outstanding service provider. In spite of these demonstrated benefits (marketing, strategic, and financial opportunities) of developing services in traditional product manufacturing companies, in business practice, it was observed that manufacturing companies have not developed services systematically (Homburg et al., 2003; Schuh et al., 2004). Some customers ask for services and these requests are often fulfilled without systematic service development, leading to a longer time-to-market, high service costs, and inadequate returns. Thus, the extension of the service business reflects a rather unstructured development, which has not been consciously pursued. In addition, very little research has been conducted on the subject of service development in manufacturing companies. Recent literature on service development (Avlonitis et al., 2001; De Brentani, 2001; De Jong and Vermeulen, 2003) mainly concentrates on traditional service firms. This paper attempts to fill part of this knowledge gap by addressing the following objectives. The primary objective is to explore antecedents for developing different types of services. For this purpose, a classification schema for service development is proposed. A second objective is to address the neglected role of service development in manufacturing firms. The next section will discuss current research on classification schemas for industrial services and antecedents for service development. Both research perspectives are particularly relevant to this study because they provide the basis for the conceptual framework. The fourth section illustrates the findings by describing configurations on antecedents in firms, which have successfully developed different types of services. The final section contains a short conclusion and discusses the findings in relation to managerial and theoretical implications.\nExisting theory: A review of service typologies in manufacturing companies\nResearch methodology: Understanding the configuration of antecedents for different service types is a complex and context-bound organisational issue. For this reason, a qualitative research approach is used (Yin, 1994). However, while the study is qualitative due to its context, it is positioned between deductive and inductive qualitative studies, being neither a test of an already developed theory nor a development of a new theory. Rather, it is an extension of existing theories on service development (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) through dialectic interaction between field studies and existing theory. The qualitative research process is structured to maximise internal and external validity. External validity, in the context of qualitative studies, refers to the extent to which the results are transferable. Internal validity is the approximate truth about cause-effect or causal relationships (Lincoln and Cuba, 1985).A multi-case research design was employed (Eisenhardt, 1989). All the case studies stem from European manufacturing industries that focus on industrial customers. They were selected for the case studies on the basis of their interest in the area and the variety of their experiences. In the interest of data confidentiality, the real names of the companies are not revealed. The research process starts with in-depth case studies for each service type. Each case study began by identifying a key contact person who was very familiar with service development. The contact person assisted the research team in identifying other executives who could provide relevant information.Each in-depth case is built on 12-15 extensive interviews with different management functions (R&D, service management, product management, management board, and sales). The interviews typically lasted two hours and consisted of unstructured questions. Unstructured questions were designed to allow the interviewee to relate their experiences on necessary antecedents for development of the service type. The set of unstructured questions was specifically designed to collect data on antecedents that were explained in the conceptual framework.Needless to say, the three in-depth case studies of companies may be considered inappropriate with respect to transferability and limited with respect to the causal relationship between service types, antecedents, and performance. To further enhance the internal and external validity, the research process continues with six bipolar mini-cases for each service type. On the one hand, our assumption was that the results of each in-depth case could be replicated by the six mini-cases, thus ensuring transferability. On the other hand, bipolar design enhanced the internal validity. The bipolar design means that three out of six manufacturing companies were selected, which were highly successful in their service development for each service type. In contrast, the other three manufacturing companies struggled to develop services successfully. The expectation was that a comparison of these polar-typed mini-cases would help to internally validate which antecedents prevent or limit service development. The data for the mini-case were obtained through interviews with the executive for the service development project (several executives were interviewed several times). The interview guide consisted of structured questions to ensure the transferability of the results from the three in-depth case studies. The set of questions was designed to collect data on the implementation of different antecedents and the performance of the service development project.Both the interviews for the in-depth cases and mini-cases were tape-recorded and transcribed. In addition, secondary data were also transcribed, leading to approximately 400 pages of interview data. Each in-depth case and mini-case was reviewed by the interviewees to strengthen construct validity. Inaccuracies were discussed with the interviewees, and changes were made accordingly. Traditional inductive research methods were used to analyse the case studies. Existing theories were integrated whenever necessary (Eisenhardt, 1989).\nResults: Company A: development of information services (customer service)\nConclusions: The aim of this article was to explore antecedents to the development of CS, PRS, and CSS. In three in-depth case studies and 18 mini-cases, different antecedents for the successful development of these service types were presented. Each service type requires a specific configuration of antecedents. CS requires only the involvement of frontline employees, funnel tools, external contacts, employee autonomy, and IT. PRS call for the implementation of the following antecedents: involvement of frontline employees, funnel tools, multifunctional teams, market testing, external contacts, information sharing, management support (in part), strategic focus, employee autonomy, internal organisation, and IT. CSS involve nearly all antecedents including involvement of frontline employees, presence of a service champion, management support, funnel tools, multifunctional teams, availability of resources, market testing, market research, external contacts, information sharing, strategic focus, employee autonomy, training and education, and internal organisation. The combination of different service types and antecedents forms a model that serves as guide for managers in typical product manufacturing companies wishing to extend the service business by developing services successfully. The model suggests that managers do not have to invest in all antecedents. By highlighting the configuration of antecedents for different service types, the model offers a more comprehensive understanding of which antecedents managers should invest in. From the theoretical perspective, this paper fills the existing gap in the literature on service development in manufacturing companies. By proposing a classification schema for service development, scholars can benefit from the theoretical work on the relationship between the characteristics of services and antecedents.As with any research, this study has limitations. The study is based on case-study research, but the external validity (generalisability) of the antecedents could not be assessed. Future research would benefit from insights obtained from quantitative data. In addition, involving firms with extensive direct experience of service development is certainly essential for collecting high-quality data. As pointed out by Neu and Brown (2005), future research might also benefit from other sources, including customers or industry experts. In addition, the study is limited by the fact that it concentrates on European companies. Applying the results to other regions could further enhance the transferability and generalisability of the results. Finally, the study deals with only three different service types. There may well be other classification schemas leading to supplementary insights into antecedents for service development.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The primary objective of this paper is to explore antecedents for developing different types of services. A second objective is to address the neglected role of service development in manufacturing firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative research approach is used. While the study is qualitative due to its context, it is positioned between deductive and inductive qualitative studies, being neither a test of an already developed theory nor a development of a new theory. Rather, it is an extension of existing theories on service development through dialectic interaction between field studies and existing theory.\nFindings: - The findings suggest that three types of service (customer service, product-related services, and customer support services) differ in their configuration of antecedents for service development.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study is based on case-study research, but the external validity (generalisability) of the antecedents could not be assessed. Future research would benefit from insights obtained from quantitative data.\nPractical implications: - The combination of different service types and antecedents forms a model that can guide managers in typical product manufacturing companies who wish to extend the service business by developing services successfully.\nOriginality/value: - Based on three in-depth case studies and 18 bi-polar mini cases, this paper explores the relationship between types of services in manufacturing companies and typical antecedents that are necessary for service development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What about us? Exploring small to medium Australian not for-profit firms and knowledge management
|
[
"Knowledge management systems",
"Internal marketing",
"Knowledge transfer",
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Non-profit organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Examination of not-for-profit (NFP) organizations and knowledge management (KM) in NFP organizations is rudimentary (Ragsdell et al., 2014; Andreasen et al., 2005; Rainey et al., 1976; Hume and Hume, 2008; Helmig et al., 2004). To move forward in KM and NFP research, we must examine and understand the translation and integration of KM into small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) NFP contexts and identify how KM can best be developed and adopted in these smaller NFP firms. These firms represent the largest percentage of the NFP sector in Australia, and, as such, research in this area warrants more attention (Australian Productivity Commission, 2010; Lyons, 2001, 1999). Much is known about the application and practice of KM in for-profit firms, both corporate and SMEs; however, many for-profit business practices do not appear to translate easily to NFPS, with this evident in the implementation of KM in NFPs (Riege, 2005). Previous research into large NFP firms identifies that KM is recognized in the firms as a practice that can support operations, but it is often not viewed as a priority investment (Hume et al., 2012a, 2012b). Adoption in the NFP SMEs is limited and informal (Lettieri et al., 2004), and, unlike the for-profits, it is rarely seen as operationally supportive or a likely investment or conducted in a \"managed\" KM process in these NFP organizations and SMEs. This research will improve the understanding of the requirements of a KM process in these NFP SMEs and suggests that knowledge can be identified, captured and distributed in an unintentional and informal manner supporting operations and minimizing the expense of KM implementation.\nKM in NFP research: The literature clearly supports the growth of interest in KM-style initiatives by NFP organizations, but it appears to lack practical application and any empirical testing from using a broad definition of NFP organizations (Lyons, 2009). Further, research into the application of KM strategies in NFP organizations, focusing on specific issues of knowledge development and diffusion strategies via the application of \"popular\" socialization strategies such as Communities of Practice (CoPs) for example and the approach to supporting externalization and internalization strategies, is limited (Wenger and Snyder, 2000). These research gaps have very practical implications and value for the NFP sector that is increasingly in need of KM that can address the increasing service need and competitive drivers. This case analysis will create a strong foundation for a knowledge-planning framework, its application and practice in specific NFP SMEs. This paper will provide greater rigor to the propositions presented thus far in the KM discourse and provide the depth and breadth that is needed to provide meaningful academic and management insights. Because of the limited specific research in this area, this work is exploratory.\nData and method: Exploratory research is a flexible and valuable tool for social science research (Babbie, 1989; Churchill, 1979; Kinnear and Taylor, 1996). The objective of exploratory research is to assist in breaking broad and vague problems into smaller and more precise issues (Patton, 1990), increasing the researcher's familiarity with a problem and clarifying concepts (Churchill, 1979; Miles and Huberman, 1994; Zikmund, 1991; Churchill, 1979). Exploratory research has limitations. The interpretation of the findings is usually subjective and with small sample cases that cannot be projected to a wider population (Zikmund, 1991; Miles and Huberman, 1994). This paper adopts a case study methodology to identify overall themes and practices and offers a deep understanding of KM. The two cases for examination are reflective and retrospective and include a range of small to medium Australian NFP organizations. The case studies included in-depth interviews, content and document analysis and focus groups until theoretical saturation and no new information were found.\nCase descriptions and identification: This section of the paper will offer the descriptions of each case and discuss the relevant practices and activities occurring in the firm. Using data analysis from Leximancer 3.0 output, the key and global concepts and the NFP case material and interviews are compared and discussed. The maps identify the global nodes of each firm. These are then used as a guide to interpret the narratives. This process offers affirmation and verification of the case analysis and adds to the ethnography. A combined analysis of all firms is presented as per the Leximancer as well as manual script coding and interpretation.\nSME-NFP case analysis: Individual maps\nCase 1: environmental protection: The paper will proceed first with the case facts and descriptors. Case 1 is a larger SME with 200 employees/staff across a nationally organized entity. With 30 years of experience in creating sustainable environmental outcomes, the organization promotes itself as a solutions-driven organization that is committed to practical environmental problems. Key projects include salinity, declining water quality, soil degradation and climate change and biodiversity loss. This firm thrives on scientific knowledge and community engagement and has a large voluntary staff of varying levels of education. Many permanent staff are educated and experienced in their fields of horticulture and environmental sciences.\nCase 2: homelessness services: The following section offers the description and context of Case 2. It offers facts about the operation of the organization and the explicit facts identified by documents and interviews.\nDiscussion: This paper has shown how the drivers for knowledge seem to vary across NFP SMEs, and the activities involved around supporting it, both explicit and indirect, are also increasingly varied. Haggie and Kingston (2003) suggested this in their work, and the application to small NFP organizations confirms this notion. This research has identified that the key elements of the KM framework in NFP SMEs are:\nSummary: This paper has shown how the drivers for knowledge seem to vary across SMEs and NFP organizations, and the activities involved around supporting it, both explicit and indirect, are also increasingly varied. This research has identified several key elements of the KM framework in NFP SMEs. The first suggests the adoption of simple social practices capitalizing on the informal and social network often evident in NFP SMEs that capture the importance of the social mission to employees and its impact on knowledge definition. The research suggests the need to embed this shared value in any KM strategy. The paper also emphasized the importance of IM in sharing, capturing and documenting information and knowledge. The paper finally suggests the promotion of simple KM strategies as a method of efficiency, cost saving and best practices that can assist in achieving shared goals and the mission in a cost-effective manner.\nConclusion: This research has expanded the KM research paradigm away from a strong focus on understanding the concept of \"what is knowledge\" in for-profit firms. It has emphasized various attributes and formalized different taxonomies to a much-needed pragmatic research programme on the \"how\" NFP SMEs manage knowledge from a process- and people-oriented view. This paper has contributed to advancing what organizational functions are required for better adoption and implementation of KM in the NFP sector. By developing the priorities in implementing and operating KM programmes such as social mission, this work is helping managers and SME organizations recognize that knowledge (both tacit and explicit) is primarily created by people within the organization and at the level that requires specific social and IM practices to help focus activity, capture and distribute knowledge. This paper suggests that for the sharing process to begin, mature and sustain itself, understanding and managing the primary psychological elements of socialization, values and sharing is vital. This paper introduces the practice of IM and socialization as the essential ingredient for KM success in NFP SMEs. It is essential for \"knowledge to be viewed as a \"product/service\" within the organization that is marketed to facilitate exchange both within the organizations and with customers/clients. Linking KM and IM to address the personal issues of \"me\", i.e. the transient, volunteer and full- and part-time worker, is key to supporting knowledge capture and ongoing renewal that is central to KM. As part of this IM process, knowledge contributors, developers and process champions need to be actively engaged, motivated and rewarded and/or recognized within the organization in some meaningful way to continue to contribute.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to research the practice of knowledge management (KM) in not-for-profit (NFP), small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to identify gaps in the current body of knowledge. Previous work has been conducted in small, medium and large enterprises; however, NFP SMEs have been underexamined. Given the prevalence of NFP, SMEs' further research is warranted.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a case study methodology, this research advances previous KM work (Hume and Hume, 2008). Based on previous work in SMEs, KM and the application to NFP organizations, this work offers a set of propositions related to strategic development of KM in NFP organizations with multiple data sources across hierarchical levels sought and analyzed within each of the case studies. This process provided data variation. Collection continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. The paper supports analysis with the use of Leximancer 3.0 and offers a unique approach to qualitative research using textual and narrative analysis.\nFindings: This paper explores the definition of knowledge, the importance of knowledge planning, capture and diffusion and offers development in NFP SMEs. The paper concludes by introducing the link between KM and internal marketing to address the importance of cultural and social issues of \"me\" which are central to knowledge capture, renewal and sustainable KM in NFP organizations. The paper introduces socialization strategies and informal knowledge capture specific to the transient, volunteer and permanent employee mix in NFP organizations and introduces the notion of understanding the significance of social mission to employees and volunteers in the embodiment of KM.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has aimed to access all empirical articles in the field of KM in SMEs. To ensure the consideration of the advancement in wireless, mobile computing technology and smartphones as KM support, articles from 2005 onwards were primarily sought. This search restriction has limited the role of earlier works in the research. It is arguable that the sample cases may not offer a comprehensive coverage of all NFP firms, with the qualitative approach further limiting the generalization of the findings.\nOriginality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, KM has been applied specifically in very few NFP SME firms, with scant exploration of the constructs of socialization, social mission and informal knowledge structure in NFP considered or previously published in academic journals.\n",
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Injecting confidence: anticipating and reducing the risks of childhood immunisation
|
[
"Medicines",
"Medical practice",
"Health and safety",
"Youth",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a letter in August 2004 the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), in conjunction with the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO), announced important changes to the vaccines used for childhood and adolescent immunisation (DoH, 2004a). The changes were made following the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).The reasons for the changes are explained in the CMO letter (DoH, 2004a). These include the change in risks of polio infection in the UK, allowing an inactivated preparation to be incorporated into a vaccine instead of an oral preparation, the use of an acellular preparation of the pertussis vaccine and the removal of thiomersal to comply with the international aim of reducing mercury exposure in children.The letter and the annex appended to it outline the three new vaccines (all manufactured by Aventis Pasteur) and the amended national immunisation schedule. The brand names were provided as follows: Pediacel (for two, three and four-month-old children), Repevax for pre-school boosters (three to five years) and Revaxis for teenage boosters (13-18 years). The potential for confusion in the names of the latter two vaccines by the less vigilant was there from the outset.\nWhat's in a name?: It was no doubt disappointing for the CMO, CNO, CPO and, not least, Aventis Pasteur when the first reported patient safety incidents were collected by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). In primary care, for those involved in giving the vaccines, there was probably some concern about the potential for error when the similarity of the product names, packaging and labelling became apparent. This was despite the Department of Health's previous publication on improving medication safety, which made recommendations for improved labelling and packaging (DoH, 2004b).A formal Safer practice notice was issued by the NPSA in conjunction with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on 29 April 2005 (National Patient Safety Agency, 2005a). It stated that:There have been a number of reported patient safety incidents and near misses involving Repevax and Revaxis vaccines where staff have mistakenly given the wrong vaccine. This is due to similar product names, labelling and packaging.It is unfortunate that guidelines issued by the MHRA in 2003 and referred to in the Safer practice notice may not have been sufficiently considered as the new vaccines were developed (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, 2003). Indeed, this is an example where risk assessment and risk reduction at a national level had not been implemented in a robust fashion. It led in several cases to the unnecessary administration of pertussis vaccine to adolescents and the omission of a pertussis dose in pre-school children.The clear risk-assessment advice now issued to trusts could so easily have been incorporated into the original CMO letter (DoH, 2004a) and possibly prevented some of the incidents that occurred. Perhaps national bodies should routinely include risk-assessment and risk-management advice when they publish information on new products.\nReassuring parents: Following the identification of the patient safety incidents in respect of Revaxis and Repevax, the NPSA and MRHA also issued a patient briefing. The briefing included the comment that \"mix-ups are rare\" adding that in a recent report to the NPSA \"93 children were vaccinated with Repevax instead of Revaxis\" (National Patient Safety Agency, 2005a). Whilst this number is relatively low as a percentage of reported incidents against the number of children receiving vaccinations in any given year (probably hundreds of thousands), it is by no means certain that the NPSA will have captured all vaccination incidents and near misses.The NPSA briefing explains that the NHS is addressing the problem and the packaging will be changed. All NHS organisations in England and Wales were told to do the following things:*ensure procedures are in place to make sure that staff select the right vaccine;*make sure staff know that the packaging of these vaccines will change;*look at how they store and manage vaccines and strengthen procedures where necessary; and*continue to report to the NPSA any problems where medicine products could be confused. If a child has a reaction to a vaccine, staff should report this to the MRHA (National Patient Safety Agency, 2005b).\nPre-existing risk assessments and good immunisation practice: For those actively engaged in clinical risk management it is disappointing to see that \"some organisations may already be doing these things\" (National Patient Safety Agency, 2005b). From the patient-safety perspective, as a result of the lessons learnt over the years and the manner in which immunisations are administered, we should be reading much more robust statements such as \"all organisations should be doing these things\" and \"a review of policies and procedures should demonstrate that risks of immunisation error are minimised\". There are already clear governance and contractual initiatives in place in primary care that requires safe immunisation practice.\nMPS data and immunisation problems: Unsurprisingly vaccination errors are not confined to the introduction of Repevax and Revaxis. The Medical Protection Society (MPS) has accumulated considerable data over the years on vaccination and immunisation errors in primary and secondary care. Incidents are often only reported to MPS if the practice or individual practitioner is involved in a complaint or potential claim. GPs and health visitors may be able to manage many incidents locally by immediately reporting an incident to, and effectively communicating with, the parent. Given the current systems of notification it is unlikely that all the most recent incidents have been reported to the NPSA. Fortunately, most of these incidents seldom result in harm to the infant, child or young person concerned. They do, however, for obvious reasons, generate a great deal of ill-feeling and often anger or resentment towards the primary care team for clearly avoidable errors.A review of immunisation-related cases opened at MPS in the last five years was undertaken for the purposes of this article. MPS receives many telephone calls for advice on immunisation practice in addition to written requests for advice and support. In the last five years more than 300 cases were opened involving specific aspects of immunisation practice in children. These included complaints, allegations of negligence, and general or ethical concerns that needed guidance from our team of medico-legal advisers.Errors that had occurred or were perceived to have occurred included some of the following:1. Failure to obtain appropriate or any consent;2. Faulty or poor technique in administering vaccines;3. Poor attitudes of staff when dealing with parents;4. Inappropriate methods of storing vaccines;5. Using out-of-date vaccines;6. Failure to provide appropriate advice;7. Failure to keep proper records;8. Failure to communicate with other services about immunisation records;9. Inappropriate management of vaccine reactions;10. Incorrect administration of vaccines:*additional doses given unnecessarily;*wrong doses given;*wrong vaccine given; or*omission of doses.Table I shows a brief analysis of 70 complaints about immunisation practice (excluding cases where specific allegations of negligence had been made or were pending) that were reported by primary care practitioners to MPS during a five-year period.\nAdministration of the wrong vaccine: The majority of the cases relating to administration of the wrong vaccine were not unlike those described above with Revaxis and Repevax. However, to a certain extent these contained even more fundamental errors as children were given, for example, MMR or BCG instead of DPT. In more than one case a child was given sterile water instead of MMR.The storing of vaccines in well-segregated and labelled refrigerators, as advised by the NPSA, should reduce this risk and is not a new concept for the vigilant healthcare professional (National Patient Safety Agency, 2005a). Despite attention to detail, clear labelling of the boxes and particular attention to the age of the infant or child being presented for vaccination, the administration of the wrong vaccine can only occur if there is an error in reading or interpreting the label of the vial. It can easily happen but should not. Individually accountable health practitioners should be very careful when running immunisation clinics.\nAdministration of extra or unnecessary vaccines: The administration of additional and unnecessary vaccines - again, an avoidable error - accounted for 17 percent of the complaints in the series reviewed. Recalling a child to a clinic to give a fourth primary immunisation within the first six months of life when only three are indicated is indefensible practice. Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. The reasons behind such errors lie in poor administrative practice, poor communication, inaccurate recording of information and problems with informatics. Due to the nature of the vaccines and the usual good health of the child, incidents like these rarely result in health problems. Perhaps if they did, the public and the professions would not tolerate such basic mistakes and the error rate would reduce dramatically.Strict adherence to practice policy for recording which immunisations have been given, effective IT systems linking primary care and other community and child health services, and attention to detail when performing the procedures should reduce these errors. It is difficult to assess the scale of the problem as not all such patient safety incidents are reported to the NPSA. Details of those that are may not be easily accessible if there are no obvious trends that the NPSA feels able to address. Human error is more difficult to tackle, particularly if the professional involved has a previously untarnished record and the mistake reflects an unexplained error rather than a systems problem.\nConsent problems: The consent process in the administration of vaccines is not usually difficult or complex. For parents to make an informed choice they need sufficient time and information to weigh up the risks and benefits of embarking on the immunisation programme for their child or children. Parental responsibility is key to this process. Primary care organisations should understand the concept of parental responsibility and know about the recent change in the law in England and Wales that allows non-married fathers, who are named on the birth certificate of children born after December 2003, to consent for medical treatment, care and interventions. (In Northern Ireland this change was introduced in July 2001 and in Scotland the issue is, as of July 2005, before the Scottish Parliament.)The annex to the CMO letter of August 2004 discusses the position in relation to consent and the new vaccines introduced in late 2004. It states that \"the changes in vaccines will not affect the consent process; consent is required for protection from civil liability and is not vaccine-product specific\" (DoH, 2004a). It is a pity that the emphasis is so legally biased - good practice, rather than the threat of legal action, dictates that the taking of consent is sound and should drive the quality of this process.However, the remainder of the advice, taken from the CMO letter, is more patient-centred and should be adhered to by all staff in primary care who are involved with the immunisation of children and young people:Consent must be obtained before the administration of all vaccines. Consent obtained before the occasion on which a child is brought for immunisation is only an agreement for the child to be included in the national immunisation programme. It does not mean that consent is in place for each future immunisation. There is no legal requirement for consent to be in writing.Health professionals must ensure that:*parents/carers have access to the new information;*that there is sufficient opportunity for them to discuss any issues arising, and*that they are properly informed of the advantages of the new vaccines, the possible side effects and how to treat them (DoH, 2004a).Despite the abundance of advice available about consent in the health service, the administration of immunisations without adequate or appropriate consent continues. A recent survey by MPS found that 87.5 per cent of practices always take consent when childhood immunisations are administered, while more than a quarter did not document at all that consent had been taken (McTigue, 2004). The episodes are likely to be infrequent but are more likely to be due to human factors than to system errors. Nevertheless, all primary care organisations should have consent policies that outline the rudiments of consent and deal with specific issues such as consent to participate on the immunisation programme and the need for consent for individual vaccines.MPS is not infrequently asked how to deal with disagreements between parents arising when one of the parents refuses to consent for the child to receive immunisations. The advice provided will normally be on a case-by-case basis (maintaining patient confidentiality) and will depend on a number of factors. These include parental responsibility, family composition (e.g. whether parents are co-habiting or access arrangements exist) and, of course, the best interests of the child. Clear disregard of the views of a parent who is entitled to give them is not advisable given that immunisations are not administered in situations that constitute clinical emergencies. It is important and necessary that clinicians seek appropriate advice in these situations.\nLearning from lessons: Developing safe practice requires alert and committed staff. The childhood immunisation programme is long established and has a crucial role in maintaining the well being of infants and children. The health professionals who are charged with delivering and monitoring this programme must engage fully in managing risk to reduce unnecessary and potentially harmful incidents.Experience over the years has taught us that the root causes of error in the administration of immunisations are various and are both system and person driven. Systems can always be improved as none are perfect. They must be examined from every aspect of the process starting with the research, development, production and marketing of vaccines at national and international levels down to the simpler systems for basic storage and daily use within GP practices.Coupled with this, staff involved in the immunisation programme must be fully acquainted with the risks of the system and their own risks as individuals where it would appear that the majority of errors occur.No health professional would wish their own child to be exposed to a system where, on any day, the child could receive the wrong dose of the wrong vaccine, administered incorrectly and recorded inaccurately, with no firm guarantee that another mistake was impossible. We can and we must do better.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to assess important changes made to the vaccines used for childhood and adolescent immunisation in August 2004. These changes resulted in a number of patient safety incidents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The changes are reviewed for the way that risk assessment and risk management were used in their development. An analysis of recent claims and complaints handled by the Medical Protection Society is then used to broaden the debate.\nFindings: - The August 2004 changes to the childhood vaccination programme contained unnecessary and avoidable risks of patient safety incidents, which could have been avoided if existing advice had been followed. Errors continue to be seen in the administration of childhood immunisation in primary care. These are driven both by systems and human factors.\nPractical implications: - This paper will be of use to those working in primary care who wish to ensure that childhood and adolescent immunisations are carried out correctly.\nOriginality/value: - The paper highlights risk-management issues that are relevant to childhood and adolescent immunisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Market segmentation with respect to university students' clothing benefits sought: Shopping orientation, clothing attribute evaluation, and brand repatronage
|
[
"Market segmentation",
"Clothing",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Shopping",
"Brand loyalty"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Market segmentation is a very important construct when predicting consumers' purchasing behavior. Segmentation uses the premise a consumer market can be identified and divided into segments-based upon consumers' characteristics. The importance of identifying market segments for each product and service has been long understood. People seek benefits from each product consumed and this in turn provides a reason for true market segmentation (Haley, 1968). Identifiable segments provide a tool for better communication of product benefits with the target market as well as a more complete, multi-faceted description of each segment. Thus, segmentation allows marketers to identify themes which may capture the attention of consumers and satisfy their consumers' needs (Engel et al., 1990; Peter and Olson, 1987). Apparel market segmentation by benefits has been studied for many years (McKinney et al., 2004; Shim and Bickle, 1994; Kopp et al., 1989). Early scholars studied benefits sought by wearing clothes from the perspective of need theories (e.g. why people \"need\" dress) (Creekmore, 1963; Barr, 1934; Hurlock, 1929). Recent scholars have a tendency to study just the benefits sought by segmented consumer markets (e.g. sportswear, jean or prestige product and outlet product) (Hwang, 2005, 2004; Park and Park, 2005; Hwang and Yang, 2004; Lee and Lee, 2004; Choi and Koh, 1995).Although these studies provided a foundation for understanding complexities involved in examining the benefits sought by wearing clothes or purchasing clothes, few recent studies have focused on the relationship between consumers fundamental beliefs or brand repurchase intention and clothing benefits sought for university students. University students have money and fashion interests, which are two major components of a viable fashion market segment; however, very limited information is available about this group of consumers with this view. Therefore, this study examines the difference of consumers' shopping orientation, clothing attribute evaluation, and brand repurchase intention by benefit segments in the context of clothing purchase of university students.The specific purposes of this study were to:* segment the university student casual apparel market based on clothing benefits sought; and* develop a profile of each segment in terms of attribute evaluations, shopping orientations, and repatronage behavior.The present study will help marketers and managers of fashion companies devise effective tools in planning new product development and marketing strategies. It also will contribute to clothing knowledge with information regarding what benefits young adults, both male and female university students, seek when re-patronizing casual apparel brands. Furthermore, this research considers evaluative criteria and shopping orientations by benefit segmentation group.Following this introduction, the next section reviews the literature on clothing benefits sought, shopping orientation, clothing attribute evaluation, and re-purchase intentions. Section three suggests a conceptual model and hypotheses. Section four presents the results of empirical tests. Section five discusses the results and compares them with the findings of previous studies. Section six presents conclusions and theoretical and managerial implications.\nLiterature review: Clothing benefits sought\nConceptual model and hypotheses: Classification of consumer group\nMethod: Study subjects\nConsumer classification and testing of hypotheses: Classification of consumer groups\nImplications and future research: Implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to segment the university student casual apparel market based on clothing benefits sought and develop a profile of each segment in terms of attribute evaluations, shopping orientations, and repatronage behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Questionnaires were distributed to 200 university students at Florida State University and 184 completed questionnaires were analyzed.\nFindings: - The results were as follows. First, analysis of consumer clothing benefits sought generated six factors and attribute evaluation produced two factor solutions and shopping orientation generated three factors. Second, three consumer groups - utilitarian benefit group, hedonic benefit group, composite benefit group - with different clothing benefits sought were identified. Third, the study found significant differences in consumers' hedonic and utilitarian attribute evaluation among the groups. The study also revealed significant differences in shopping orientations and brand repurchase intentions among the groups.\nPractical implications: - From these results, it is possible to identify that clothing repurchase intention was significantly different among three different groups with different clothing benefits sought. Furthermore, consumer classification according to clothing benefits sought in university students' casual wear purchase can be used by clothing marketers and managers to establish product plan and marketing strategy development.\nOriginality/value: - The study has originality and value in that the relationship between clothing benefits sought and repurchase intention has not been studied very much in the clothing domain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Toward increasing affective commitment in SME strategic networks
|
[
"SME",
"Trust",
"Case study",
"Affective commitment",
"Strategic networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the last decades, there has been an increasing number of strategic networks in many different industries (Borch and Arthur, 1995; Gnyawali and Madhavan, 2001; Agostini and Nosella, 2015), established with the aim of sharing resources and competences, developing new products and services or entering into new markets. Consequently, the academic literature has dedicated increasing attention to strategic networks and a number of different issues started to be investigated (Human and Provan, 1997; Collins and Clark, 2003; Roxenhall, 2013). Among them, researchers have dealt with the high record failure of these networks (Agostini et al., 2015), and have examined the effective management of networks and their performance (Zahid and Abdul, 2018); in this perspective, behavioral aspects such as trust, conflict management and resolution, and commitment have been investigated as fundamental antecedents of network performance (Christoffersen, 2013). Among these elements, commitment has received little attention from scholars as the recent literature review carried out by Gomes et al. (2016) has shown, particularly in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) strategic networks. Considered their inherent limited internal resources and knowledge base, SMEs are increasingly likely to leverage external resources to achieve strategic objectives (Lefebvre et al., 2014). SMEs strategic networks, composed of multiple, legally independent partners (both horizontal and vertical), are loosely coupled systems in which the polycentric spread of the make decisions' authority creates ambiguous and uncertain situations for the network members (Winkler, 2006). In these contexts, it is therefore important to cement relation between partners through commitment. Commitment has been mentioned among the behavioral elements that play a major role in enhancing strategic network survival and performance (Roxenhall, 2011; Christoffersen, 2013). At the same time, considering the coordination problems, one cannot assume that high levels of commitment will occur naturally (Perry et al., 2004). Therefore, it is important to understand how partners may achieve high levels of commitment in SME strategic networks, because the high degree of complexity inherent when multiple partners are involved prevents us from simply extending findings from studies of dyadic- or hub-driven networks to the SME strategic network domain (Agostini et al., 2015). Furthermore, achieving commitment is not an \"on/off\" condition, but it implies a change based on the dynamic evolution of other conditions over time. Hence, this paper aims to unveil how partners may increase their level of commitment along the network development process in the SME context. More particularly, we focus on affective commitment based on the rationale that different components of commitment (i.e. affective, calculative and normative) are associated with different types of collaborative outcomes and affective commitment has been identified as the main component through which network performance might be increased (Clarke, 2006; Sharma et al., 2006).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Commitment in SMEs strategic networks\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Qualitative methodology: case selection and description\n4. Results of the data analysis: 4.1 Within-case analysis\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The aim of this paper was to understand how affective commitment can be increased along the development process of SME multipartner strategic networks. Looking at the comparative analysis of cases, our empirical study shows that, despite departing from a medium level of affective commitment, there are different factors that may push or hinder it. More specifically, the first relevant evidence is that in the find and design phase the previous knowledge of partners and their reputation are the factors that seem to determine initial affective commitment. This is reasonable, because SMEs are usually reluctant toward collaboration with other firms, so doing it with firms they already know enhances the initial level of trust among partners, which, in turn, increases affective commitment. In addition, the presence of an external impartial entity, supporting firms in the network establishment, seems to increase their trust in the network and can also stimulate their affective commitment in order to make a good impression on the external entity. Furthermore, the fact that from the beginning all partners dedicate resources to the network makes them more trustful. However, the initial level of affective commitment is not likely to be self-nurturing. It could decrease if other factors do not intervene in the later stages of the development process. For example, an initial trusting environment generated a priori by previous knowledge is not sufficient and not meant to persist throughout the development process if other factors do not intervene to support it. Practices, systems and tools seem to influence the development of affective commitment. Indeed, meeting frequently, taking decisions together and receiving regular feedbacks on the network activity stimulate partners' attachment to the network and make them feel more confident on the other partners' behavior. Instead, being unaware of what happens feeds partners' doubts on the others' behavior and induces negative feelings about the network. The use of tools, as a shared website and database with information on the network activities, increases trust on the others and make partners feel the network problems as their own problems. The fact that there is a network manager whose power and leadership are legitimated by all partners contributes to strengthen the positive effect on trust and affective commitment.\n6. Limitations: Considering the limited generalizability of this exploratory study due to the analysis of two cases, future studies with a larger number of strategic multipartner networks can expand the understanding of the dynamics leading to increasing commitment. More particularly, the issue related to the mediating effect of trust on the relationship between other types of antecedents and (affective) commitment deserves further investigation. To this regard, also investigating the relationship among antecedents and their relationship with different dimensions of commitment may reveal useful insights. Finally, the issue of the use of ICT tools in collaborative environments still deserves further attention.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: To hinder the high failure rate of strategic networks, recently scholars have concentrated on behavioral aspects such as trust, conflict management, resolution and commitment as fundamental antecedents of strategic network performance. Within this context, this paper focuses on the antecedents of affective commitment, based on the rationale that an increasing affective commitment cannot occur naturally during network evolution. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to understand how affective commitment is achieved along the development process of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) strategic networks.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To address the aim of the paper, a qualitative approach based on multiple case studies was used. Two case studies of Italian SME strategic networks having an increasing and decreasing level of affective commitment were selected to have a base of comparison, following a \"polar types\" theoretical sampling approach.\nFindings: By comparing two cases in which partners show a different affective commitment along the network development process, this study allows providing a twofold contribution. The former is to unveil the most relevant elements partners may rely on to achieve an increasing affective commitment and the latter is to propose a dynamic approach toward the study of affective commitment in SME strategic networks.\nResearch limitations/implications: Considering the limited generalizability of this exploratory study due to the analysis of two cases, future studies with a larger number of strategic multipartner networks can expand the understanding of the dynamics leading to increasing commitment.\nPractical implications: The paper provides a series of practical guidelines for managers to create a trusting environment with a high level of affective commitment within the context of SME networks, which can contribute to their survival.\nOriginality/value: The originality of the study consists in having adopted a dynamic approach toward studying affective commitment in the context of SME networks, which resulted in the identification of relevant factors that can lead to increasing affective commitment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Training for cultural competence
|
[
"Learning organizations",
"Team building",
"Competences",
"National cultures",
"Cross‐cultural management",
"Cultural competence",
"Cross‐cultural training",
"International team building",
"Cultural intelligence"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: For years, the Chinese branch of a major European-based multinational pharmaceutical company saved significant money by submitting its proposals for the approval of new medicines in English to the Chinese government, even though the \"rule\" stated the application should be in Chinese. To write the application in Chinese would be very expensive (requiring new computers, keyboards, software, etc). After some time, the company changed one of its top people in China (who had established excellent relationships with Chinese government officials) without informing or consulting with the Chinese authorities. The Chinese were offended, and mandated that the company now submit all documents in Chinese (at great expense and lost time). If the company had the cultural intelligence (CQ) to understand the importance of long-standing relationships in the Chinese culture, they undoubtedly would have taken the time to overlap the new and current executives and so that the current executive could make a formal introduction of his replacement. This is just one example of the ways that companies lose money every day by not understanding the cultures with which they are working.\nVirtual communications: Cultural competence extends to an understanding of virtual communications (or working with a geographically dispersed team), which can be even more confused than working across cultures in the same physical space. Employees should be made to understood what kind of impact the rise of virtual communications in the workplace has had on intercultural interactions and how there are still improvements that need to be made on that front.The instantaneous way businesses communicates in the modern era, through social media, emails and chat rooms, means there is more room for error and misunderstanding. Among some of the concerns that exist for cross-cultural virtual training are time differences and differences in learning styles, where questioning the teacher or singling out an individual can be seen as disrespectful or embarrassing.\nInternational team building: International team building is a key topic for cultural competence training, as it touches upon many of the recurring themes already listed. Above all, the differences in matters such as negotiation styles and how to communicate with one another in terms of criticism need to be weighed carefully by team members to minimize potential misunderstandings. International teams also struggle with differing perceptions of decision-making, roles, leadership, accountability, and reaching agreement. These misunderstandings could risk undermining the team's effectiveness, but considerations in both intercultural teamwork and virtual training can help the team operate to its maximum potential.\nGlobal leadership development: Training for cultural competence can be integrated seamlessly with training programs and courses tailored towards training global leaders. An employee who possesses strong global leadership will have a great deal of cultural intelligence and teamwork skills, in addition to being a strong leader. These are qualities that can be taught, and with proper training and experience, top performers may be made into valuable leaders in time.Company-tailored courses on global leadership can help provide emphases on the skills that are most relevant to the company, as opposed to university courses, which are sometimes too generic. Global team projects and international assignments are good ways to provide them with experience, but the company's training and development department must be proactive in guiding the employee and making sure they focus on the most valuable information to be learned from such assignments.\nRealizing the return on investment: Corporations may initially be reluctant to invest in a cross-cultural training course for their employees simply because the benefit may not be obvious. If the curriculum of the proposed course is too disconnected from class to class or program to program, then the overall effectiveness of the curriculum will be undermined. Similarly, if the course does not establish a clear link between cross-cultural competence and business performance, it may be harder for employees to believe that such a link exists for themselves. In order to avoid these, the curriculum should strive to attain a few key attributes:* Training programs should ideally have a clear structure, focusing on specific goals such as teaching employees specific cross-cultural skills over time to increase their abilities and offering coaching to high-potential employees.* There should also be a high level of interconnectivity and continuity between classes in a curriculum, so as to ensure that there is a link and a purpose to graduating from one course to the next.* The information from courses should also be extremely accessible, perhaps with the use of knowledge management systems, which are covered more in-depth later in this article, or other media types such through the web.* Although courses should focus on specific subjects or areas of knowledge, they should be able to be customized to fit the needs of each specific group that takes the course, and there should be a post-course evaluation available to measure the ability of the course to meet these groups' needs.\nThe importance of feedback: Feedback for the curriculum should work on multiple levels. First, pre- and post-program evaluations can determine exact what kind of benefit a program can have for its employees. Second, the reality for these programs is that a single seminar will not teach effective cultural competence; it will take a series of seminars along with additional projects and interventions for reinforcement. The combined teachings of the entire program should be based around a common goal, and each employees' personal goals and achievements should be measured to offer another metric for performance and behavioral change.The last level of feedback, and the one companies will probably care about the most, is analyzing the return on investment and changes in revenue as a result of the new curriculums. Though this can be difficult to measure and link conclusively to changes in behavior as a result of cultural-competence training, it is possible through the use of metrics, allowing an analysis of communication and decision-making before and after training, as well as an analysis of the proper financials and statistics on product development.\nRetaining the knowledge: A strong knowledge management system will also greatly assist in the process of strengthening a company's ability to improve its cultural competence. By having a central database available filled with information with employee information and experiences ready for access, all employees can develop their knowledge and build their internal networks based on shared experiences with other employees and the need to consult another employee for potential questions on a certain region. Such a system would also have information on further opportunities and training programs to allow employees even more potential information and help strengthen their cross-cultural abilities.\nEndnote: Dr. Neal Goodman is the president of Global Dynamics Inc. (www.global-dynamics.com), the leading provider of cross-cultural training services. He can be reached at +1.305.682.7883 or ngoodman@global-dynamics.com. As a special courtesy to the readers of this article, upon request, Dr Goodman will send a copy of the 14 core cultural tendencies that have been found to make a difference.\nAbout the author: Dr Neal Goodman is the Co-founder and President of Global Dynamics, Inc. and is an internationally recognized authority in international human resource management and organizational development. Through the auspices of Global Dynamics Dr Goodman designs international training programs for the corporate training departments of multinational corporations and international organizations. These programs have helped thousands of corporate executives to be more effective in international settings. Dr Goodman's programs on team building, international joint ventures and diversity in the workplace have been recognized by corporations, government agencies and educational institutions. Dr Goodman has authored numerous books and articles on the globalization of organizations. His publications include: \"Cross-cultural training for the global executive and intercultural education at the university level\", in Improving Intercultural Interactions: Models for Cross-cultural Training Programs by Richard W. Brislin and Tomoko Yoshida (Sage Publications, 1994). Neal Goodman can be contacted at: ngoodman@global-dynamics.com\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the best ways for an organization to instil cultural intelligence and international success in to its workforce.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Possible methods examined include highly tailored cross-cultural curricula, virtual training, global leadership programs, international team building exercises, and knowledge management systems. The recommendation and analysis of these methods is based on 25 years of Global Dynamics experience in training executives in cross-cultural skills.\nFindings: - The author's research has found that complete implementation of the recommended methods result in optimal performance in a global market. Making employees aware of their own cultural perspectives and misunderstandings enables the development of a larger world view. Leadership involvement in the direction of organization's cultural competence strategy helps employees hone their skills on specific points of emphasis. Additionally, metrics should be used to gauge the effectiveness of the cultural intelligence strategy in order to continually improve elements of the overarching program.\nPractical implications: - By having more direct involvement in the learning process, leadership can strengthen the organization's cultural intelligence and ensure that the learnings are directly applicable.\nOriginality/value: - This paper is based on more than 25 years of experience working with the world's leading international organizations to enhance their global performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
To share or withhold? Contract negotiation in buyer-supplier-supplier triads
|
[
"Asymmetric information",
"Game theory",
"Buyer–supplier–supplier triads",
"Negotiation policy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past few decades, there has been a growing body of research on negotiation strategy and the effects of symmetric and asymmetric information in supply chain management (Dwyer and Walker, 1981; Feng and Lu, 2013; Gurnani and Shi, 2006; Mishra and Prasad, 2005). The stream of research on supply chain contract negotiation strategy has demonstrated that negotiation power enables stronger firms to compel other firms to accept their terms of trade and even win concessions (Emerson, 1962; Crook and Combs, 2007; El Ouardighi and Kogan, 2013; Maglaras et al., 2015). Although scholars have recognised for some time that exchange relationships are often characterised by an unequal access to information and power distribution between the parties (Dwyer, 1984; Shang et al., 2016; Luo et al., 2017), our understanding of negotiation under asymmetric information conditions remains limited. Indeed, in spite of the growing recognition of the importance of negotiation power and access to information in supply chain interactions (Frazier et al., 2009; Li et al., 2019), scholars have failed to offer a comprehensive model to explain negotiation strategy with competing partners under asymmetric production-cost information.\n2. Literature review: Our study is mainly related to two streams of the literature: supply chain contract negotiation and power in supply chain contract negotiation. Now we discuss how our research relates to these two streams of the literature.\n3. The models and equilibrium analysis: We consider a two-echelon supply chain that is composed of two competitive manufacturers and a common retailer. Figure 1 illustrates our conceptual approach to the issue. The retailer is assumed as the Stackelberg leader and the two manufacturers are assumed as Stackelberg followers.\n4. Firms' strategic choices: In this section, we discuss the effect of production efficiency, the choice of retailer's negotiation strategy and the choices of manufacturers' information-sharing strategies on the supply chain performance.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: This study explores a retailer's optimal negotiation policy and two competing manufacturers' optimal production-cost information strategies in the setting of buyer-supplier-supplier triads where with the two manufacturers have asymmetric production cost. In the contract negotiation between a retailer and two manufacturers, the retailer, as the Stackelberg leader, has the option of segmented or unified negotiation policy, whereas the manufacturers, as the Stackelberg followers, also have the option of withholding or sharing production-cost information strategy. From both the retailer and manufacturers' perspective, we examine their optimal strategic choices and operational decisions, respectively, through the comparative analysis of equilibriums of eight possible scenarios. Our study indicates that the choice of retailer's negotiation policy, the manufacturers' information-sharing decisions and manufacturers' production efficiency have significant effects on the financial performance of the retailer and the two rival manufacturers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper seeks to fill the literature gap that lacks of exploring negotiation strategy with competing partners under asymmetric production-cost information. The purpose of this paper is to examine firms' optimal contract negotiation strategies in buyer-supplier-supplier triads where there are concurrent negotiations between the retailer and two competing manufacturers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors consider a two-echelon supply chain, in which the retailer has the option of segmented or unified negotiation policy, whereas the two competing manufacturers can withhold or share production cost information in the negotiation. Based on game theory, the authors derive the manufacturers' optimal wholesale prices and the retailer's optimal retail prices with eight possible scenarios. Optimal strategic choices and operational decisions are then explored through the comparative analysis of equilibriums of eight possible scenarios.\nFindings: The authors find that the retailer will adopt different negotiation strategies depending on manufacturers' decisions on sharing or withholding their production-cost information. When both manufacturers share their production-cost information, the retailer will adopt a unified negotiation policy. The high-efficiency manufacturer should adopt the same information-sharing strategy as the low-efficiency manufacturer in order to gain more profit.\nOriginality/value: The modelling helps to bring further clarity in supply chain contract negotiation by offering a conceptual framework to enhance our understanding of the effects of information-sharing strategy and negotiation policy in the negotiation process form the perspectives of all engaging parties. Managerial insights derived from the research will enable retailers and manufacturers to make informed and better strategic and operational decisions to improve market competitiveness.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Understanding econo-political risks: impact of sanctions on an automotive supply chain
|
[
"Case study",
"Supply chain management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Focusing on developed countries, much research on supply chains (SCs) ignores uncertainties in the political climate due to their secondary importance to the operation of SCs. In practice, uncertainties such as potential restrictions on trade and financial transactions are central to the concerns of many SC managers in developing countries. For example, over recent decades thousands of firms in countries across different continents, such as Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Sudan, have been exposed to significant restrictions due to international and unilateral sanctions. Other firms in countries exposed to civil unrest, drug cartel wars, and insurgencies also have to cope with similar uncertainties.\n2. Literature review: Most of the literature on sanctions is in the field of political science and focuses on the country as the unit of analysis, thereby not examining the impact of sanctions from the operations management perspective. Nevertheless, this literature provides basic background and definitions pertinent to the current research. A different field of literature in SCRM provides further context and poses analytical questions that we bring into the study of the impact of sanctions on SCs.\n3. Research methodology: This research uses an exploratory case study method (Eisenhardt, 1989) to develop theory about the impact of sanctions on SCs and the responses of SC actors to this risk. The choice of method is informed by two considerations; first, in the absence of previous research there is a salient need for developing theory on the basic concepts, mechanisms, and variables that are relevant in this problem context and such a theoretical foundation is required for future analytical modelling or empirical testing. Second, a case study is used for theory development both because of the nuanced and multi-dimensional data that it provides through interviews, observations, and archival documents, and because the amount of quantitative data available in this setting does not warrant a data-driven quantitative approach to theory development.\n4. Developing the theory on the impact of sanctions on SCs: A theory on risks of sanctions on SCs is developed in the following steps. First, an organising framework of risk management is offered, which informs the relevant components that should be addressed in our theory. Taxonomy of EPRs and a map of the typical menu of responses at the disposal of affected SCs are then provided. These components are substantiated by mapping out the risks faced and the responses adopted in the case studies, along with their impacts on the overall SC.\n5. Implications and conclusions: In this research we have used a case study of a SC in a country under sanctions to enhance our understanding of EPRs to SCs and how a SC reacts to such risks. The theory we have developed highlights the different pathways through which these risks influence a SC and the different solutions SC members employ to mitigate the risks. We found it helpful to organise the types of risks based on the time frame during which they unfold and the scope and types of activities they target. Furthermore, we organised potential risk reactions in terms of the implementation time horizon and the level of decision makers within an organisation that they involve.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce econo-political risks (EPRs) to supply chains (SCs). Based on case data from an automotive SC, this research identifies the mechanisms through which a subset of EPRs influences SC operations and outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory case study method is employed for theory development. Interviews with SC professionals of three case companies were the primary data source. Company documents, archival records, and direct observation provided further insights into how EPRs are perceived, how they impact a SC, how SC actors react to them, and what the overall performance results are.\nFindings: The research identifies EPRs in terms of scope (flow of material, money, and knowledge) and time, and provides concrete examples, along with the channels through which their impact unfolds, and the responses available to SC actors. The authors find secondary impacts of EPRs through economic and regulatory channels to be significant, and bankruptcy, strategic reorientation, and single sourcing are common outcomes. By elaborating on the mechanisms through which sanctions impact upon SCs, and the feasible response trajectories, this research can assist SC actors with more effective management of EPRs.\nOriginality/value: This paper is novel for three reasons: first, it introduces EPRs to research into supply chain risk management (SCRM); second, it addresses SC risks in a developing country, a topic largely missing from the literature; and finally, this research focuses on post-event SC risks, whereas the bulk of SCRM literature focuses on the pre-event phase.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of using different keyboards on free-text keystroke dynamics authentication for Arabic language
|
[
"Information security",
"Arabic language",
"Keystroke dynamics",
"Authentication",
"Keyboard-layout"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Authentication is a verification process of the identity of an entity that is requesting access to a system (Karnan et al., 2011). Internet businesses and many other systems require a more stringent authentication process. With requests for trusted authentication ever increasing in many of today's security applications, traditional methods such as username and password fail to meet today's challenges. The drawback of these traditional methods is that they afford easy ways to hack the system, which damages the overall system security (Deng and Zhong, 2013).\n2. Background and related work: This section discusses related work in the area of free-text keystroke dynamics in general and those using Arabic free-text in particular. Additionally, a number of studies that sought to investigate the impact of using different keyboards on user authentication are reviewed.\n3. Methodology: In this section, the time features, the way to extract timing vectors and the Arabic texts that are used in this experiment are explained. Additionally, the methods which are used to classify users based on their collected data are described.\n4. Experiment: We carried out a controlled laboratory experiment in such a way that all participants were asked to type texts in Arabic language using two different keyboard layouts. In this section, we describe the setup and procedure of the experiment.\n5. Results: All 34 participants successfully completed their given task. To evaluate the system, two performance measures are used: FRR and FAR (Alsultan and Warwick, 2013a, 2013b). FRR is the ratio of the authorised users who are incorrectly prohibited access to the system. On the other hand, FAR is the ratio of the unauthorised users who gain access to the system. In this experiment, we calculated the FAR and FRR in two cases as follows. For the FAR, we compared users' test data that were stored in the Mac laptop with two users randomly based on their profile data collected in the HP laptop. Also, we compared users' test data in the HP laptop with two users randomly based on their training data collected in the Mac laptop. We used an automated function in Java to pick a random user. We calculated the FRR by comparing users' test data collected in the HP laptop with users' profile data, which were gathered by the Mac laptop. We compared users' log-in data collected in the Mac laptop with users' training data collected in the HP laptop.\n6. Discussion: The results of this experiment show that using two different keyboard layouts during the log-in and sign out phases affects the performance of the system. That is, when the SD is used as a threshold for Euclidean distance, we found interesting results regarding the FAR and FRR whilst using two different keyboard layouts, as they reflect the accuracy of the system. It is important to note that the achieved results may confirm a known fact, i.e. that keystroke layout has an influence on typing patterns. However, the aim of our study was to evaluate and validate the system performance whilst using Arabic keystroke layout, as Arabic language has different features comparing to previous studies (Villani et al., 2006; Matsubara et al., 2015). Additionally, we argue that our findings have important implications for supporting proven studies for using English keystroke layout (Villani et al., 2006) and using Japanese keystroke layout (Matsubara et al., 2015).\n7. Conclusion and future work: This study has investigated the impact of using different keyboard layouts on the user authentication process when typing Arabic free-text. Therefore, an experimental study was conducted. The results of this investigation showed that FAR was 0.44 using the first keyboard and 0.60 using the second, whilst the FRRs were 0.2 and 0.08 for the first and second keyboards, respectively. Hence, a considerable change in the accuracy of the system is observed when using different keyboards even under the same time features and Arabic text inputs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Nowadays, there is a high demand for online services and applications. However, there is a challenge to keep these applications secured by applying different methods rather than using the traditional approaches such as passwords and usernames. Keystroke dynamics is one of the alternative authentication methods that provide high level of security in which the used keyboard plays an important role in the recognition accuracy. To guarantee the robustness of a system in different practical situations, there is a need to examine how much the performance of the system is affected by changing the keyboard layout. This paper aims to investigate the impact of using different keyboards on the recognition accuracy for Arabic free-text typing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To evaluate how much the performance of the system is affected by changing the keyboard layout, an experimental study is conducted by using two different keyboards which are a Mac's keyboard and an HP's keyboard.\nFindings: By using the Mac's keyboard, the results showed that the false rejection rate (FRR) was 0.20, whilst the false acceptance rate (FAR) was 0.44. However, these values have changed when using the HP's keyboard where the FRR was equal to 0.08 and the FAR was equal to 0.60.\nResearch limitations/implications: The number of participants in the experiment, as the authors were targeting much more participants.\nOriginality/value: These results showed for the first time the impact of the keyboards on the system's performance regarding the recognition accuracy when using Arabic free-text.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Alternative food networks: sustainable business models for anti-consumption food cultures
|
[
"Case studies",
"Sustainability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Consumption is globally recognised as being an element which finally leads to unsustainable development. The United Nations, whose vision is of a \"world free from hunger and malnutrition, where food and agriculture contribute to improving the living standards of all [...] in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner\" (FAO - United Nation, 2017, p. vii), reaffirmed the need to promote more sustainable consumption behaviours and thus suggested transformative changes in food systems worldwide. Moreover, in the Sustainable Development Goal No. 12 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the need to achieve economic growth and sustainable development by changing the way of production and consumption was highlighted, while promoting prosperity and people's well-being. Sustainable consumption research has grown rapidly as a research field (Fischer et al., 2017; Geiger et al., 2017; Reisch et al., 2016), in response to the question of how consumers can be motivated to re-direct their consumption practices towards more sustainable ones.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Sustainable business models\n3. Methodology and research design: This study examines how IFAs adopt business-relevant activities oriented to affect consumer welfare and spreading food anti-consumption practices within a SBM. A case study was carried out in order to answer the research question. This is an appropriate method when the question is in the form of a \"how\" question (Brinkmann and Kvale, 2008), as is the case in this research study. The method offers vivid illustrations from the reality of organisations, and insights into cause-effect relations which go beyond what can be observed from the quantitative analysis (Denzin and Lincoln, 2017). In the design of the case study we refer to the approach developed by Eisenhardt (1989) with the specific aim of generating the theory (Harris and Sutton, 1986; Eisenhardt, 1989). This means that this research was designed according to the following stages (Eisenhardt, 1989): getting started, namely defining the research question; selecting cases, namely selecting the theoretical sample; crafting instruments and protocols, namely defining the multiple data to be collected and how to collect them; entering the field, which implies an overlap of data collection and analysis; analysing data, namely to make a within-case analysis; shaping hypotheses, which means sharpening the theory being developed; enfolding literature, namely to compare conflicting as well as similar literature; and reaching closure, that is to achieve the principle of theoretical saturation. In order to answer our research question (stage 1), a single-case study was designed (stage 2) for theoretical rather than statistical reasons in order to extend the emergent theory (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Our case, namely the FA platform, is particularly used as a \"revelatory\" case (Yin, 2014) as part of the European Network, IFA, namely \"The Hive Who Says Yes\" was recently born in Italy but in less than two years it has gained the first position in terms of performance parameters, such as the number of active Assemblies and their earnings. Furthermore, Italy was a forerunner in Europe, together with France and Spain, of these particular AFNs (Bazzani and Canavari, 2013; Dansero and Puttilli, 2014; Barbera et al., 2014; Barbera and Dagnes, 2016; Fonte and Cucco, 2017). Despite its limits, the single-case design has the ability to provide a thorough description of the existence of a particular phenomenon (Siggelkow, 2007), and this research specifically sheds light on the potentiality of AFNs to foster anti-consumption behaviour and sustainability issues.\n4. Data collection, analysis and results: 4.1 The Italian Food Assembly\n5. Discussion, conclusions and limitations: The aim of this research was to contribute to the literature on SBMs and on sustainability consumption behaviours, highlighting the IFA's role as an enabler to bring power back to producers and consumers, with shorter supply chains where people connect to food in a better way.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse a sustainable business model (SBM) implemented by an Alternative Food Network (AFN), namely the Italian Food Assembly, with the goal of exploring its drivers of success and explaining how it can contribute to enhance sustainable and anti-consumption behaviours. This research aims at combining principles from both SBM innovation and user-driven anti-consumption and well-being habits, in order to develop more successful, comprehensive and community-centred sustainable value propositions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Given the research goal, an exploratory case study was prepared where multiple sources of data were employed, namely in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus groups and document analysis.\nFindings: In the light of the Bocken et al. (2014) framework, this paper provides evidence on the implementation of an AFN where it is possible to observe a strong sharing of knowledge regarding sustainable consumption behaviours and an effective dissemination of best practices between members. The authors developed four propositions that support the creation of a sustainable food supply chain, laying the foundation for spreading consumer behaviours and motivations so that they become more sustainable in their consumption habits.\nResearch limitations/implications: Even though the case study is very rich in the amount of data gathered, it cannot be generalised. Further research will overcome this limitation by adding more cases within a comparative approach and through a quantitative methodology.\nOriginality/value: It adds value to recent literature and practice by focussing on how networks of producers, consumers and other actors could act to improve food anti-consumption behaviours, by embodying alternatives to conventional food systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Service learning: a guide to selected resources
|
[
"Collections management",
"Education",
"Community work (social welfare)",
"Experiential learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Service learning, once an experimental teaching and learning approach, has become well established as a pedagogy. The last two editions of the Encyclopedia of Education reflect this development: while the first did not even gloss the concept, the second devotes a lengthy article to it. The entry, written by Richard Kraft, formerly of the University of Colorado, and Janet Eyler, professor at Vanderbilt University, outlines the programs of service learning in both schools and universities (Guthrie, 2003, pp. 2202-10).Service learning has its roots in community service, a long-standing American democratic tradition based on the ethical ideals of building good character and developing good citizens. As a discrete concept, however, it is relatively new and has only been commonly used in the USA since the 1980s. As a pedagogy it combines and interlaces student learning with service to the community: it is, therefore, a form of experiential learning which transcends mere community service. Bringle and Hatcher (1995, p. 112) define service learning as:...[a] course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.Service learning, then, serves a reciprocal purpose: students apply their knowledge and skills to a project that improves the community and in turn learn from the community. Ideally, both the community and the students gain from the project. Totten and Pedersen (1997, p. 3) state:...service learning involves students in (1) intentional and thought-provoking application of their classroom learning to meaningful work and service in their schools and community, (2) active and engaging work that somehow connects their school and community; and (3) structured reflection.In designing a successful service learning experience, teachers and faculty must identify real community needs, must structure the experience in such a way that students can grow and learn from it, and, on completion of the experience, must assess its outcomes.The following annotated bibliography of resources in the area of service learning is divided into three sections: Organizations and their web sites, Periodicals, and Books. The resources listed in the following pages will be useful to teachers and faculty interested in incorporating service learning experiences into their classrooms or in learning more about the pedagogy. This bibliography will also serve as a guide for librarians who want to build a service learning collection or expand and supplement their present one.\nOrganizations and their web sites: There are now several excellent web sites that promote service learning and provide information on the topic. Most of these web sites have been put together by organizations devoted to support of service learning. Currently, the most comprehensive web site that contains a large number of resources (many of them accessible online) is the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.Campus Compact: www.compact.org\nPeriodicals: Articles on service learning at the school or college level are published in a wide variety of journals, including About Campus, Community College Journal, Educational Horizons, Educational Leadership, Equity & Excellence in Education, Momentum, Our Children, Peer Review, Social Education, and Teaching Sociology. In addition, there are a small number of periodicals that are devoted in their entirety to service learning or experiential education. They are described in this section.The Journal of Experiential Education\nBooks: This section contains descriptions of selected books on service learning published in the last five to six years. Some of the books issued in the early stages of the service learning movement have in the meantime acquired classic or essential text status. Titles in this category include the three-volume Praxis series put out by the University of Michigan's OCSL Press (1993-1995), the 18-volume series Service-Learning in the Disciplines published by the American Association for Higher Education (1997-2000), A Practitioner's Guide to Reflection in Service-Learning (Vanderbilt University, 1996), the reader Service-Learning in Higher Education (Jossey-Bass, 1996), and the three-volume set Combining Service and Learning: A Resource Book for Community and Public Service (National Society for Internships and Experiential Education, 1988-1990).Berman, S. (1999), Service Learning for the Multiple Intelligences Classroom, SkyLight Training and Publishing, Arlington Heights, IL\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Service learning has become an important teaching methodology in many American schools, colleges, and universities. Libraries will thus want to add resources to their collections in this subject area to support faculty and student research. This article aims to briefly define the concept of service learning and to describe selected resources in the area.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The annotated bibliography is divided into three sections: organizations and their web sites, Periodicals, and Books.\nFindings: - Service learning, once an experimental teaching and learning approach, has become well established as a pedagogy. In designing a successful service learning experience, teachers and faculty must identify real community needs, must structure the experience in such a way that students can grow and learn from it and, on completion of the experience, must assess its outcomes.\nOriginality/value: - This paper synthesizes the literature on service learning and provides a guide for librarians who want to add materials in this area to their collection.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Organizational oratory as the art of addressing multiple and mutually antagonistic audiences
|
[
"Rhetorical strategies",
"Conflicting interests and identities",
"Multiple antagonistic audiences",
"Organizational rhetoric"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organizational orators often find themselves facing composite audiences, consisting of groups with discordant interests, dissonant identities and discrepant interpretations of decisive issues. Sometimes these antagonistic audiences can be addressed separately, which ameliorates the situation, but frequently the speaker is \"forced to address several audiences simultaneously\" (King and Fine, 2000, p. 72, emphasis added). This common predicament has perplexing characteristics and profound consequences.\n2. Classical assumptions about the \"character\" of an audience: Classical treatises on oratory overlooked the challenges that occur when a speaker must simultaneously address several audiences. Consider Aristotle's contention that every audience has a \"character\" to which the orator ought to adapt (Aristotle, 1946, pp. 1389a-1391b). He supports the claim by sketching a series of sharp contrasts between the characters of audiences composed of young men and audiences composed of old men, audiences composed of the wealthy and audiences composed of the poor, audiences composed of the powerful and audiences composed of the powerless. For example, he argues that an orator addressing an audience consisting of young men must adapt his rhetoric to the fact that, inter alia, they are credulous (because they have not yet been deceived many times), optimistic (because they have not yet met with much failure), and free of malice (because they have not yet observed much wickedness) (1389a-b). If the audience is composed of old men, on the other hand, the speaker is advised to adapt his rhetoric to a different collective character - one that consists \"of elements that are the contrary\" of the characteristics of the young (1389b; see also 1391b). Thus, Aristotle argues that old men are cynical (because they have been deceived many times), pessimistic (because they have met much failure), and full of malice (because they have experienced much evil) (1389b-1390a). He concludes the contrast thus: \"Such are the characters of Young Men and Elderly Men. People always think well of speeches adapted to, and reflecting, their own character: and we can now see how to compose our speeches so as to adapt both them and ourselves to our audiences\" (1390a).\n3. Contemporary accounts of how to cope with composite audiences: The same problem still surfaces in modern rhetoric. For example, Kenneth Burke proposed that \"you persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your way with his. Persuasion by flattery is but a special case of persuasion in general. But flattery can safely serve as our paradigm if we systematically widen its meaning, to see behind it the conditions of identification of consubstantiality in general\" (Burke, 1969a, b, p. 55). While this may work if one is trying to persuade a single individual or a homogenous group, it is not helpful when the audience is composed of inimical cliques with conflicting identities and incompatible conceptions of what course of action to take. In such situations, it is meaningless to say that the speaker should \"identify your way with his,\" since there is not a single \"he\" with a single \"way\" to identify with. Rather, there are many groups with clashing ways. Identifying with all their ways is impossible; identifying with one will probably make you one friend and many enemies.\n4. A repertoire of strategies: 4.1 Separate audiences and address them sequentially\n5. Concluding remarks: The difficulties that arise when a speaker must address multiple and mutually antagonistic audiences are better understood than they once were. However, we probably still underestimate the scope and severity of the problem. Abandoning classical assumptions about audiences requires one to re-think numerous other rhetorical concepts. After all, the concept of an audience is central to the entire web of beliefs that underpins rhetorical theory, and when a central concept is revised, its implications tend to affect the entire web (or rather, ideally it should affect the entire web, yet thinkers tend to do what they can to protect entrenched beliefs) (Quine, 1970). Consider the concept of ethos. Even though the concept pertains to the credibility of the speaker, it is essentially the audience's perception of the speaker that determines his ethos (Gabrielsen and Christiansen, 2009). This implies that, if we re-think the concept of an audience, we will also have to re-think ethos. Thus, as long as a speaker is assumed to face a single audience type, it is relatively easy to give advice about which ethos to cultivate, and how. However, if the speaker must simultaneously confront many audiences with mutually conflicting characters, the issue immediately becomes much more complex: an ethos that appears credible to the elderly may well create animosity among young people (Andrews, 1990, p. 42). This holds for a host of rhetorical concepts. The work of revising the web has barely begun.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how organizational orators cope with situations where they must simultaneously address several audiences with clashing interests, conflicting identities and contradictory interpretations of crucial issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper draws on both the classical rhetorical tradition and various contemporary disciplines to delineate, conceptualize and critically discuss a repertoire of rhetorical strategies for dealing with composite audiences.\nFindings: There are at least nine distinct strategies for dealing with the problem. Most of them make problematic assumptions about audiences. The most promising strategy involves shifting and blending frames.\nPractical implications: Most managers will stand in situations where they have to cope with multiple and mutually antagonistic audiences. This paper provides practical suggestions for how to go about it.\nOriginality/value: The paper isolates and investigates a problem that was largely overlooked by classical rhetoricians, and contemporary scholars still underestimate its ubiquity, its complexity and its urgency. Apart from improving our grasp of the problem, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of potential solutions, and shows their shortcomings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Exploring critical delivery selection risk factors for transportation design and construction projects
|
[
"USA",
"Factor analysis",
"Risk",
"Transportation",
"Procurement",
"Project delivery methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The selection of an appropriate project delivery method can have a major impact on the achievement of project goals and objectives. Researchers (e.g. Oyetunji and Anderson, 2006; Luu et al., 2003; Love et al., 1998) have shown that using a suitable project delivery method can increase the efficiency and the success rate of a construction project. In fact, the selection of an appropriate delivery method could decrease the total project cost by an average of 5 percent (Love et al., 2012; Gordon, 1994). On the other hand, Rwelamila and Meyer (1999) indicated that applying an inappropriate project delivery method may impede a project's performance and even lead to project failure.\n2. Literature review: The Associated General Contractors (2004) defines a project delivery method as \"the comprehensive process of assigning the contractual responsibilities for designing and constructing a project. A delivery method identifies the primary parties taking contractual responsibility for the performance of the work.\" Although many project delivery methods are available, a study by the Construction Industry Institute (1997) specified that there are only three fundamental project delivery methods: DBB, DB, and CMGC (or Construction Manager at Risk). This finding is supported by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program Project 20-5 (Gransberg and Shane, 2010) and the EDC initiative. Touran et al. (2011) claimed that the difference between project delivery methods lies in the fact that the contracts among the owner, the designer, and the builder are formed and the technical relationship among parties within those contracts. Figure 1 graphically illustrates the conceptual difference between variations of these three project delivery methods regarding the risk sharing and control between owners and contractors.\n3. Research method: To accomplish the aforementioned objectives, a combined exploratory research method was implemented. This exploratory research method involved the following steps: first, development of project delivery risk factors through a synthesis of empirical studies and a comprehensive literature review related to risk and project delivery selection; second, conducting a national survey questionnaire to identify how risk influence DBB, DB, and CMGC; third, analyzing the data using statistical multivariate analysis techniques; and lastly, discussing findings and providing recommendations for applying a risk-based approach to selecting delivery methods for transportation projects.\n4. Results: The factor analysis results indicated that there are six critical factors for DBB, seven for DB, and six for CMGC. To verify the results from the factor analysis, the authors rigorously analyzed the latent factors identified by SPSS to confirm that they were composed of factors that are theoretically related to one another. The critical risk factors are named the following way: the abbreviation for the delivery method, the rank for that method, and the name of the factor. For example, the most critical factor for DB is DB-1: scope risk, while the second most critical factor for DBB is DBB-2: schedule risk. The results and the following discussion use this convention for referring to the critical risk factors and their components. Factor loadings, percent of variance explained, and cumulative percent of variance explained associated with the DBB, DB, and CMGC delivery methods are presented in Tables I-III, respectively.\n5. Discussion: Table IV summarizes the risk factors considered to have the most impact on the project delivery selection process for transportation projects. It is noted that the delivery critical risk factors are distributed differently with regard to each method. Specifically, Table IV indicates that:\n6. Conclusions: The selection of an appropriate delivery method has recently received considerable attention in the transportation industry. An array of techniques and decision support guidelines has been developed, but limited studies focus on the impact of unique project risks in the project delivery selection process. The results from this study show that there are a variety of risks involved in the project delivery selection process, and decision makers must have a clear understanding of how risks impact each delivery method to select the appropriate method. The study found that seven critical risk factors exist for DB, six for DBB, and six for CMGC. The three factors - construction risk, scope risk, and constructability and documentation risk - that have the greatest impact on the selection of DBB, CMGC, and DB were discussed in detail.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of risk on the project delivery selection process of three primary methods in use in the USA, including design-bid-build (DBB); design-build (DB); and construction manager/general contractor (CMGC).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The review of empirical studies, national survey questionnaire, multivariate analysis, and cross-validating discussion are adopted for this research. The risk factors were identified through an exhaustive literature review and empirical studies that included more than $10 billion of transportation projects. Experts with an average of 25 years of professional experience related to risk and project delivery methods in the transportation industry were invited to participate in the survey.\nFindings: There were six critical risk factors for DBB, seven for DB, and six for CMGC. These critical risk factors are ranked differently from each delivery method. The most critical risk factor for DBB is construction risk, for DB is scope risk, and for CMGC is constructability and documentation risk.\nResearch limitations/implications: Knowledge of the risk factors will allow researchers to better understand the impact of risk on DBB, DB, and CMGC projects. The chief limitation of this research is that the primary data were mostly opinions from experts although several empirical data were collected for cross-validation. The future research may take into account the role of participant's risk aversion in project delivery decision frameworks.\nPractical implications: Transportation agencies and other practitioners can use these risk factors to make more effective and defensible decisions on which delivery method is the most suitable for their projects. The result from this study provides a foundation for decision makers to use a risk-based approach in the project delivery decision.\nOriginality/value: This research is the first attempt to examine the impact of risk on the project delivery selection process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Dynamics of unidimensional and multidimensional inequality in Pakistan: Evidence from regional and provincial level study
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Gini",
"Multidimensional inequality",
"Unidimensional inequality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The standard objective of the economic literature regarding inequality measure is to relate unidimensional indicators, such as income. People are different in income, education, health, and we must take into account several individual characteristics. On the other hand, in order to calculate the social state of an individual, more than one criterion often needs to be applied, since economic disparity does not arise from the distribution of income alone. Despite the appropriate distribution of income, living standard of the common man can never be improved through economic growth. As viewed by Kemal (2006), economic growth and proper income distribution are essential for economic development. Kuznets (1955) pronounced an inverted U curve, according to which, inequality rises because of higher migration from agriculture sector to industrial sector at the initial stage of economic development. But when an economy becomes stable, such income divergences decrease gradually because the higher growth benefits the lower income groups.\n2. Data collection and methodology explanation: To assess unidimensional and multidimensional inequality in Pakistan, this research collects well-defined data on abundant household indicators from Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement and Household Integrated Economic Survey[1]. This study uses two sets of data, such as 1998-1999 and 2013-2014, and compares the results of both periods. We compare the empirical results of inequality in Pakistan along with the provinces and their representative regions (urban and rural). The dimensions along with representative sub-dimensions are given in Table I. We take the Gini coefficient to estimate unidimensional inequality also known as income or consumption inequality. Similarly, the sub-dimensions of education, health and housing services are used to estimate multidimensional inequality to compare different provinces and rural-urban areas as well. All sub-dimensions are aggregated through indexing approach to make a single composite dimension. Furthermore, equal weight is assigned to each dimension to make analysis simple.\n3. Results and discussion: Table II shows unidimensional inequality at the national and provincial level of Pakistan along with their representative regions (rural and urban). Given results illustrate that income inequality in Pakistan and its provinces (Punjab, Sindh, KPK and Baluchistan) were 45, 46, 45, 43 and 41 percent in 1998-1999, respectively, while these estimates reduced to 31, 32, 29, 27 and 25 percent in 2013-2014, respectively. These coefficients of unidimensional inequality predicted a major decline in income inequality in Pakistan and its provinces as well. Similarly, estimates of income inequality in the urban region of Punjab, Sindh, KPK, Baluchistan and Pakistan were 50, 47, 46, 40 and 48 percent in 1998-1999, while these measures declined further and reached to 34, 30, 35, 33 and 34 percent in 2013-2014, respectively. Moreover, estimated measures of the rural region of Pakistan along with its provinces were 39, 38, 38, 40 and 41 percent in 1998-1999 which declined to 25, 27, 21, 22 and 20 percent in 2013-2014, respectively.\n4. Conclusion and policy recommendations: The aim of this research is to compare unidimensional and multidimensional inequality in the case of Pakistan, its provinces and different region as well. As a matter of fact, we have confirmed significance of inequality as a unidimensional and multidimensional phenomenon. Briefly, we do not consider inequality as unequal distribution of material resources, but as an unequal access to educational opportunities or to health services. When we compare the result of unidimensional inequality for different provinces, we noted that Punjab has high-income inequality because of high population, low employment rate, technological advancement and unequal distribution of income in this province, followed by Sindh, KPK and Baluchistan in both time periods. Correspondingly, we found high-income inequality in the urban region of all provinces because of heterogeneous labor force during both estimated periods. However, income inequality in rural areas is low because of homogeneity of the labor. The low-income inequality in rural areas reflects that most of the labor force is employed in the agriculture sector so that their incomes are closed to each other. Moreover, with the passage of time, income inequality declines because of trickle-down effect which shifts the benefits from high income to lower income over the time. Likewise, multidimensional inequality also shows a declining trend over the period of time. However, due to a large share in the budget and advancement in infrastructure, Punjab has lower multidimensional inequality as compared to others. Moreover, in the case of multidimensional inequalities, rural areas of all provinces are most affected because of higher disparities in basic dimensions like health, housing services and education.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the unidimensional and multidimensional inequality in the case of Pakistan and compare their results at the provincial as well as regional (urban and rural areas) level. The authors collected data from Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement and Household Integrated Economic Survey for fiscal years of 1998-1999 and 2013-2014.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used Gini coefficient for unidimensional inequality and multidimensional indexing approach of Araar (2009) for multidimensional inequality.\nFindings: The findings predicted that unidimensional inequality is relatively high in the urban area due to uneven dissemination of income, but multidimensional inequality is quite high in rural areas because of higher disparities among all dimensions. At the provincial level, Punjab has relatively high-income inequality followed by Sindh, KPK and Baluchistan.\nOriginality/value: This study is a pioneering effort to compare two time periods to explore unidimensional and multidimensional inequality in all provinces of Pakistan and their representative rural-urban regions by applying Araar and Duclos's (2009) approach. Further, this study opens some new insights for policy makers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Reflections on the learning objectives for sustainable development in the higher education curricula - three cases from the University of Belgrade
|
[
"Higher education",
"ESD",
"Learning outcomes",
"SDGs",
"Learning objectives",
"Higher education curricula",
"Teachers",
"University of Belgrade"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The integration of the concept and principles of sustainable development (SD) and education for sustainable development (ESD) into the higher education (HE) curricula is considered to be one of the organic dimensions of sustainability at universities. Other dimensions or usually recognized domains in which higher education institutes (HEIs) can apply the concept of sustainability are research, facilities or campus operations, community outreach and the institutional framework (Filho et al., 2017). Though all those are inseparable, they are not always analyzed holistically or in terms of their interrelations (Filho et al., 2015).\n2. The context - University of Belgrade: The University of Belgrade is the largest and oldest public university in Serbia. It comprises 31 faculties, which are divided into groups for the social sciences and humanities, medicine, and science and technology[2].\n3. Methodology: This research has been undertaken within the framework of qualitative methodology. The data on courses and its sustainability have been analyzed on two levels:\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Limitations of the study\n5. Conclusion: The conducted curriculum analysis within the study programs at the three faculties of the University of Belgrade highlights several key aspects of importance for improving the educational process in order to include the concept of sustainability:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This purpose of this study is to explore the integration of the sustainable development concept and goals into the curriculum of higher education studies using the example of three faculties of the University of Belgrade.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative content analysis has been applied on two levels: the evaluation of the sustainability of courses starting from the criteria defined using the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (ASHE, 2017), and the analysis of the outcomes defined in the curricula of subjects within the three faculties using the UNESCO learning objectives related to selected sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a criteria.\nFindings: While the largest number of courses were analyzed from the Faculty of Architecture, the highest proportion of sustainability courses was found in the Faculty of Security Studies. Both study areas reflect a stronger interdisciplinary orientation, although it should be strengthened in the case of the Andragogy study program. Based on the experience of the Faculty of Architecture, the courses implemented by linking theory and practice may significantly contribute to achieving the LOs and to implementing the education for sustainable development. At the University of Belgrade, strategic documents are missing that would encourage and oblige the faculties to apply the concept of sustainability.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to apply this type of curricula analysis at the University of Belgrade. It is performed by teachers from the university, coming from different disciplinary fields but oriented towards an interdisciplinary perspective. Although performed in three specific study areas within a single university, the identified gaps and trends may be useful for planning interventions toward accelerating the implementation of SDGs in the higher education curricula.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A framework for Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR): State of the Art
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Information sharing",
"CPFR implementation",
"Collaboration",
"Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR)",
"CPFR barriers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: By focusing only on competitive relationships with others, companies are increasingly realizing that this isolated focus is making it difficult to maintain and/or grow market share. Modern companies face a myriad of different challenges such as globalization, supply chain risk management, rapid development in technology, increasing costs, problems concerning demand uncertainty, enhancing the delivery of products or services, and the need to improve customer service and quality on an ongoing basis (Fisher, 1997; Stevenson, 2002; Brindley and Ritchie, 2004; Hsu and Wang, 2004; Briscoe et al., 2004; Colicchia and Strozzi, 2012; Irani and Kamal, 2014). As pointed out by Branska and Lostakova (2011), one very powerful way to overcome some of these challenges is the integration of business logistics systems with logistics systems of suppliers and customers using collaboration approaches such as Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR). Collaboration and integration in the context of supply chains has been widely discussed in recent years (Chandra and Kumar, 2000; Byrne and Heavey, 2006; Holmstrom et al., 2006; Jiao et al., 2008; Liston et al., 2008; Jain et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2010; Derrouiche et al., 2010; Sundram et al., 2011; Kamal and Irani, 2014).\n2. Research methodology: In addressing the gap identified, a systematic literature review was undertaken in CPFR. The review included both empirical and non-empirical studies using a literature review methodology (Figure 1) proposed by Soni and Kodali (2011). The steps of the applied methodology are outlined as follows.\n3. Taxonomy: In order to be able to perform a classification analysis, a taxonomy according to which the papers will be classified is required. The content of this taxonomy depends on the research question to be addressed during the literature review. The taxonomy developed for this study is loosely based on what was proposed by Min and Yu (2008). In their taxonomy they identified three dimensions for classification: the problem scope; the methodology; and the implementation status. This paper uses the implementation status (\"implementation of CPFR\") as one of its classifications but adds four more dimensions, three of which are based on the VICS's guideline of \"CP\", \"CF\" and \"collaborative replenishment\". Table II presents these three major components and the nine main steps of CPFR according to the VICS guidelines. The fifth and final classification is a comparison of CPFR with alternative collaborative programmes and techniques \"comparison with other techniques\". Table III presents this classification, the articles that fall within these classifications and the methodologies used in these publications. The number of publications both annually and in total is specified in relation to each of the five dimensions of the taxonomy (Table IV). As illustrated there is a reasonable spread of papers over the time horizon, albeit at low publication rates in general ranging from two to 12 papers in any given year. From a general trend perspective it can be seen that there are more publications on the topic in more recent times when analysing the peak publication years (\n4. Collaborative planning: Research evidence indicates that CP is a fundamental part of supply chain management. As summarized by Cassivi (2006), CP is the first step of CPFR with two fundamental stages: front-end agreement and joint business plans (see Table II). This phase is critical as partners develop collaboration initiatives and terms. On the counter, according to the research of Attaran (2004), a lack of CP leads to significant negative impacts on supply chain performance. Barratt (2003) investigated the role of CP in the grocery and consumer packaged goods industries. Although the research explains the concepts and benefits of CP, it does not address how they can implement CP in order to have an integrated supply chain.\n5. Collaborative forecasting: In contrast with the other dimensions of CPFR, most of the articles related to CF have been approached from a variety of different aspects. In the area of CF, research has mainly focused on the CF process, the importance of information sharing (IS) and developing forecasts in a collaborative fashion, concept of collaboration between different internal parts of a company, especially in the area of forecasting, as well as the important organizational issues related to CF (Raghunathan, 1999; Fosnaught, 1999; Helms et al., 2000; Wilson, 2001; Kahn et al., 2006; Aviv, 2007). The extant papers show the importance of CF in relation to complex communications with different abilities such as reducing bullwhip effects and improving supply chain performance (Eksoz and Mansouri, 2012).\n6. Collaborative replenishment: As illustrated in Table II, the third stage of CPFR is collaborative replenishment, which includes making and fulfilling orders. Liu and Sun (2012, p. 351) stated that \"in the replenishment stage, it is necessary to generate orders according to sales forecast\", thus connecting collaborative replenishment directly to a forecasting activity. Collaborative replenishment spreads replenishment activities across the supply chain and facilitates collaborative inventory management in operations. The benefits reported by researchers include improved customer service levels, increased order accuracy and decreased inventory. As discussed by Lyu et al. (2010) in a study of the textile industry, it is important that the collaborative replenishment plan is examined collectively by the supplier and the retailer. Prior to the advent of CPFR, Vender-Managed Inventory (VMI), quick response and Continuous Replenishment (CR) were the techniques used for collaborative replenishment. VICS identified that transportation is also a key element in collaborative replenishment schemes. This was further analysed by Esper and Williams (2003) who reviewed collaborative transportation and its relationship to CPFR. They found that collaborative transportation management (CTM) requires a conversion of order forecasts developed via CPFR into shipment forecasts, and collaboratively insuring their accurate fulfilment. Chen and Chen (2009) examined how companies can combine CTM and CPFR to deeply integrate customer procurement forecast processes and logistics demands.\n7. Implementation of CPFR - different levels and context: Johnson (1999) believes that collaborative data modelling is a critical phase in the implementation stage of CPFR. He suggested that in order to succeed in implementing a collaborative process, firms need to design a data model based on the relationship between the trading partners rather than analysing the structure of both firms individually. According to Danese (2007), previous CPFR implementation cases confirmed that CPFR can take a number of different forms across supply chains. Also, Seifert (2003) claimed that different forms of CPFR collaboration exist among several partners such as customers and suppliers. However, advanced CPFR implementation is a challenging task and the rate of its adoption has been slower than expected (Frantz, 1999; Andraski and Haedicke, 2003; Smaros, 2003). Skjoett-Larsen et al. (2003) classified CPFR into three levels - basic, developed and advanced - depending on the depth of collaboration. They argued that the basic CPFR is frequently the starting point for other collaborative initiatives.\n8. Comparison of CPFR with other techniques: In this section, a comparison of CPFR with other techniques such as VMI, EDI and ROP will be discussed. Aviv (2002) compared traditional VMI and CPFR programmes in settings with different levels of intertemporal correlation in the demand process. The key differences are the consideration of the production environment of the manufacturer, and the explicit modelling and discussion of the internal service performance. The relationship between Agile Virtual Enterprise (AVE) and CPFR has been explored by Shu et al. (2010). They suggested an AVE-Based CPFR Mechanism and model. This model is composed of three stages: planning, forecasting and replenishment. This model defines relationship management in allied leaders of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. A study undertaken by Sari (2008) aimed to help supply chain managers to specify a proper level of according to their particular business conditions. To achieve this goal, a simulation model representing two popular supply chain initiatives, including CPFR and VMI, was constructed. In addition, a traditionally managed supply chain is also included in the model as a benchmark. The results show that CPFR is more beneficial compared with VMI. The results of this research show that the value of CPFR is substantially greater under the market conditions where uncertainty in demand is high and replenishment lead times are longer. The result of this research helps firms' managers of supply chains to invest in CPFR instead of VMI. It is apparent that as a limitation for this study, the results of this research should be examined for more than one member at each echelon. Comparing the results of two studies by using more cases can identify different dimensions of the CPFR. Sari (2010) also examined the effects of RFID technology on different supply chains when they are working based on a traditionally managed supply chain, VMI and CPFR. The results from a simulation model showed that integrating RFID technology within a supply chain provides significantly greater benefits when the level of collaboration is high. In other words, the performance of supply chain improves when it applies CPFR.\n9. Implications and future research recommendations: This paper offers new insights into the CPFR area. The findings of the paper and the gaps identified lead to a number of significant implications for theory and practice, which lead to important avenues for future research.\n10. Concluding remarks: It is generally accepted that the starting point of what we know today as CPFR began with a Collaboration Forecasting and Replenishment initiative between Wal-Mart and Warner-Lambert in 1995 (Cooke, 1998). Using 1998 as an appropriate starting point, a systematic literature study was carried out to explore the scope of CPFR and provides a framework and an overview on the state-of-the-art in the domain up until 2013. In carrying out this review a five dimension taxonomy was devised, which included the three primary dimensions of CPFR as defined by VICS, CP; CF and Collaborative Replenishment and in addition to this implementation of CPFR and a comparison with other approaches. From a general perusal of the findings (Tables III and IV) it can be seen that there has been a general increase in the number of papers addressing CPFR in the second half of the study period (e.g. 2006-2013) however it can also be noted that the majority of these studies have focused in on the dimension of implementation of CPFR (51 of 93 papers), with much less attention on the other four. This would suggest that researchers have tended to focus on the practical side of implementation, but have not paid sufficient attention to the constituent elements that are required for its successful implementation. As a testament to this, Table IV shows that eight, 17 and five papers, respectively, focused on CP; CF and collaborative replenishment in this 16-year time frame. It can also be seen (Figure 3) that the vast majority of studies were completed using the case study methodology, which again is a strong indicator as to the practical nature of CPFR research and in many instances entailing a research analysis of a post CPFR implementation project.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although many papers purport the significant value attributable to supply chain performance from the use of Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR), the question of \"what are the main constructs and efficient framework for successful implementation of CPFR?\" remains largely unanswered. This question will be addressed by identifying and analysing the main constructs for successful implementation of CPFR. The purpose of this paper is to attempt first to seek answers to this question. Second, to review the scope and value of CPFR using a devised state-of-the-art taxonomy for the classification of selected bibliographical references and third, to develop a conceptual framework by identifying areas which need more research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The method underlying this paper followed the steps of a systematic literature review process outlined by Soni and Kodali (2011). The review is based on a total of 93 papers published from 1998 to 2013 on CPFR.\nFindings: Four main constructs for successful implementation of CPFR have been identified: CPFR enablers, CPFR barriers, trading partner selection and IA. The findings indicate that there is a need for better understanding of the amount and level of information sharing as an important function of CPFR implementation. The paper also illustrates a number of shortcomings in the current literature and provides suggestions to guide future research on implementing CPFR in different industries.\nPractical implications: This paper is of interest to both academicians and practitioners as it helps to better understand the concept and role of CPFR in supply chain integration and its implementation results, enablers and inhibitors. The proposed framework in this paper can be used to give insight for future research and practice.\nOriginality/value: The paper offers a framework for the review of previous research on CPFR and identifies the most important shortcomings that need to be addressed in future research. In addition, this review is both greater in scope than previous reviews and is broader in its subject focus.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intention: A study among university students in North Borneo, Malaysia
|
[
"Need for achievement",
"Locus of control",
"Innovativeness",
"Self-confidence",
"Propensity to take risk",
"Tolerance for ambiguity"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Through the economic lens, entrepreneurship roles are widely studied as an agent of changes to the economic growth of many nations. It was introduced by a great scholar known as Joseph Schumpeter in his book, Theory of Economic Development, which highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship for economic growth. Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of vision, change and creation that require an application of energy and passion toward the creation and implementation of new ideas and creative solutions (Kuratko, 2009, p. 21). This led to the self-employment and job opportunities among the society. However, the question arises on what makes individuals in making a decision to start a business as their first choice career. Thus, many researchers endeavour to investigate the factors associated with entrepreneurial intention among the students. Why students? Students are prospect entrepreneurs who bring fresh ideas into the market by shaping the development of a country.\n2. Psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intention: According to Carland et al. (1984, p. 358), an \"entrepreneur is an individual who establishes and manages a business for the principal purposes of profit and growth\". Low and MacMillan (1988, p. 141) defined entrepreneurship as, \"the creation of new enterprise\". Many researchers are engrossed to identify what factors make an individual to engage in business formation (e.g. Boyd and Vozikis, 1994; Koh, 1996; Zhao et al., 2005). In this research, the researchers are focusing on entrepreneurial intention among undergraduates. Furthermore, Ajzen (1991) strongly suggested that behavioural intention is the best predictor of behaviour. Therefore, it is very important to understand the concept and the development process of entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial intention can be defined as the intention to own a business (Crant, 1996) or the intention to be self-employed (Douglas and Shepherd, 2002; Kolvereid, 1996). More recently, Vidal-Sune and Lopez-Panisello (2013) noted that the entrepreneurial intention explains the individuals' thoughts and actions as regard to their willingness or intention to create a new business. Furthermore, entrepreneurial intention can be triggered by an event during an individual's life path (Solesvik et al., 2014, p. 683). In the context of our research, entrepreneurial intention is defined as an individual prospective and innovation of venturing a self-owned enterprise or starting up a new business. What causes an individual to become entrepreneurs? This issue involves a psychological perspective point of views. Psychological characteristics are associated with the trait approach to entrepreneurship as in earlier studies conducted by McClelland (1961), Brockhaus (1980) and Krueger (2000). Several studies have attempted to examine the relationship between personality characteristics and entrepreneurial intention. For example, Espiritu-Olmos and Sastre-Castillo (2015) conducted a research to examine the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurial intention among public university students in Madrid, Spain. Their results indicated that the six dimensions of personality traits, namely internal control, need for achievement, kindness, tolerance of ambiguity, tolerance for risk and extroversion significantly influenced entrepreneurial intention among university students. In addition, Koh (1996) examined the relationship between psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial inclination among MBA students in Hong Kong. Based on the logit analysis results, the researcher found that the psychological characteristics of innovativeness, tolerance of ambiguity and propensity to take risk are significantly related to entrepreneurial inclination. Conversely, the findings of the above research indicate that two of personality characteristics, namely the need of achievement and locus of control were not significant. The limitations of this research are related to the sample sizes, i.e. only 52 respondents and the analysis addressed the associations between personality characteristics and entrepreneurial inclination. Koh (1996) suggests that for future research, researchers should use causal analysis technique in order to investigate the above-mentioned relationship and other factors associated with or leading to entrepreneurial success. Another research was conducted by Dinis et al. (2013), who examined the relationship between the psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intention among teenage students between the age of 14 and 15 years. The results of their research showed that both self-confidence and need for achievement are positively related to entrepreneurial intention. Meanwhile, the propensity for risk has a negative influence on entrepreneurial intention. However, the psychological characteristics of tolerance for ambiguity, locus of control and innovativeness were found to be insignificant. The problem with the above research is due to the reliability of the constructs, especially self-confidence, need for achievement, tolerance for ambiguity and innovativeness were not satisfactory. Despite of some limitations of the previous research, the current research will follow the suggestion by Koh (1996) that is to examine the impact of psychological characteristics on entrepreneurial intention among university students. The psychological constructs in this research consist of six dimensions, namely innovativeness, locus of control, self-confidence, propensity to take risk, need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity which were adapted from Koh's (1996) research. Each of the aforementioned dimensions is discussed below.\n3. Research methodology: The respondents in our research consist of 676 undergraduate students in UMS. These respondents were exposed to the subject fundamental of entrepreneurial acculturation since the first year of their studies. The respondents are in the age range of 19 to 25 years. The data were collected in 2013 through a self-administered class survey questionnaire. Six items measuring entrepreneurial intention were adapted from Linan and Chen (2009) and the six dimensions of psychology constructs were adapted from Koh's (1996) research (i.e. innovativeness, locus of control, self-confidence, propensity to take risk, need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity) (refer to Table AI). All items were rated on reflective five-point Likert scales ranging from 1 = \"strongly disagree\" and to 5 = \"strongly agree\". The data collected were statistically analysed using partial least square technique through the SmartPLS program version 2.0 software (Ringle et al., 2005). This method comprises of a statistical modelling-based technique through structural equations enabling the simultaneous estimation of a group of equations by measuring the concepts (measurement model) and the relationships between them (structural model) and endowed with the capacity to address concepts not otherwise directly observable (Dinis et al., 2013, p. 768). Table I summarized the main aspects of the methodology of this research.\n4. Results: 4.1 Measurement model estimation\n5. Discussions and conclusion: This research provides empirical evidence supporting the relationship between psychological characteristics and entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students of UMS. The results in Table V demonstrate that five psychological characteristics, namely innovativeness, self-confidence, propensity to take risk, need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity have significantly influenced the entrepreneurial intention. However, locus of control has no significant impact on entrepreneurial intention. The discussions of the findings for each of the six psychological factors are as follows:\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual psychological characteristics (i.e. innovativeness, locus of control, self-confidence, propensity to take risk, need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity) and entrepreneurial intention.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 676 undergraduate students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) have participated in the survey. The data were analysed using partial least square technique version 2.0.\nFindings: The results have shown that innovativeness, self-confidence, propensity to take risk, need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity are positively related to entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students. However, locus of control is not significantly related to entrepreneurial intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although samples of the research are quite large, this research only involves undergraduates in UMS. Therefore, findings obtained are not generalized because the results do not include other educational institutions in Malaysia. On the implication aspect, this research might give some views among undergraduates to embark in business after graduating.\nPractical implications: In spite of that, students should be encouraged and equipped with innovativeness, self-confidence, propensity to take risk, need for achievement and tolerance for ambiguity to interpret successful entrepreneurial role models and identification of business prospects for their future career.\nOriginality/value: The findings of the research may extend existing knowledge in the entrepreneurial field as well as to provide valuable information to policy maker in strengthening and redesigning suitable curriculum not only at the university level, but also in pre-school by giving entrepreneurial awareness on how this knowledge will transform us into an entrepreneurial society that can create wonders for human kind.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Entrepreneurial universities in the region: the force awakens?
|
[
"Growth",
"Entrepreneurial orientation",
"Small firms",
"Anchor institutions",
"Entrepreneurial universities",
"Regional innovation systems"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the lead up to George Osborne's combined Autumn Statement and Spending Review, Sajid Javid the Business secretary made a plea for his department to exist beyond November 2015, in front of the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee on 14th October[1]. With Javid's Department under pressure to find 20-40 per cent of savings in its PS18 billion budget it was no surprise when the committee's chair (Iain Wright MP) opened proceedings with a withering observation, \"where are you adding that distinctive added value in order to make a real difference to developing a more enterprising, competitive economy for Britain [...] [a lot of it] [...] could be carried out and successfully completed with a revised, enhanced Treasury and a beefed-up Department for Education and Skills?\"\nThink local. Act local: Anchor institutions are large, often non-profit, organisations at the heart of a local regional community that have a clear social purpose and are able to offer a range of formal and informal support and guidance to the local business community. In fact, an examination of the eight Entrepreneurial Universities of the Year Award winners[6] and the REF2014[7] Impact Case Studies - those pertaining to small business and entrepreneurship - would appear to support the idea that value exists for a university to take a lead in terms of being a focal point for thought leadership and initiatives to support the MSB sector, in addition to the wider business community (Witty, 2013).\nThe collective and cumulative impact of a university being the anchor institution within its RIS: A simple checklist of activities universities offer does not communicate the way in which the collective impact of these activities creates outcomes for the region that are often greater than the sum of the parts. While infrastructure matters feature in many of the recent devolution deals, the softer aspects of skills and innovation, the potential for a sustainable and more productive growth and inclusion is somewhat diluted. This is where universities can play a significant role according to the mission of individual institutions, for example, in regeneration; skills; innovation; and business support. The challenge is of course getting out the message that this support from universities is available. The next challenge is managing expectations, particularly for micro and small businesses (MSBs) about the extent to which the university can help any of them on a one-on-one consultancy basis.\nFinal thoughts: In this paper, I have sought to re-examine the role played by anchor institutions within the RIS, in the light of Chancellor's Spending Review. Anchor institutions are large, often non-profit, organisations at the heart of a local regional community that have a clear social purpose and are able to offer a range of formal and informal support and guidance to local SMEs.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The growth in popularity of the regional innovation system approach has, in part, been driven by the need for economies to respond to the after shocks of the global financial crisis. At the same time, the author sees the term anchor institutions are used increasingly to describe organisations that have an important presence in the local community and make some strategic contribution to the local economy. The purpose of this paper is to consider the needs of the micro and small business (MSB) ecosystem through the lens of the entrepreneurial university as a regional anchor institution.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Asheim et al. (2011) refers to regional innovation systems as, an emphasis on economic and social interaction between agents, spanning the public and private sectors to engender and diffuse innovation within regions embedded in wider national and global systems. According to Doloreux and Parto (2005) three dimensions underpin the use of the regional innovation systems concept, namely: the interactions between different actors in the innovation process, the role of institutions and the use of regional systems analysis to inform policy decisions. The author has drawn on contemporary literature on the entrepreneurial university, regional systems of innovation and institutions to explore some key qualities and problems around anchor Institutions, networks and national and local policy.\nFindings: Following the Chancellor's Comprehensive Spending Review in November 2015 and post the changes in the Department of Business Innovation and Skills remit the author wants to highlight the way universities can take a lead role as an anchor institution within their region. The author argues that this role should include providing a wider range of formal and informal support, knowledge and resource for MSBs, alongside the usual SME suspects (Hart and Anyadike-Danes, 2014; Witty, 2013; Wilson, 2012). Based on my analysis and involvement in the the work of the eight Entrepreneurial Universities of the Year Award winners - during the author's time as President of ISBE - He suggested four different ways in which collaboration might be enhanced to ensure MSBs make maximum use of the advice and support on offer from universities playing this anchor role.\nOriginality/value: The results emerging from this work suggest a need for regional policy makers to embrace a innovation-supportive culture, which actually enables firms and systems to evolve over time would be far more effective than those proposed in the latest Comprehensive Spending Review. The outcomes of which will see some of the most robustly evaluated programmes, designed to support small firm growth, closed down and replaced by a commitment (by government) to secure a strong, growing economy, cutting of more red tape and extending small business rate relief for an extra year (Mole, 2015).\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Board of director performance: a group dynamics perspective
|
[
"Boards of Directors",
"Governance",
"Performance management",
"Group dynamics",
"Team working"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The respective literatures on the theory of the firm and corporate governance suggest that a firm's board of directors (BOD) is an important institution for mitigating the agency problem that arises with absentee ownership. The agency problem in this context is that the interests of management may differ from the interests of the shareholders for whom the BOD work, and that management may make business decisions in response to the former rather than the latter. Casting the BOD in this role gives rise to the question, what do we actually mean when we say that the board is intended to mitigate the agency problem, and, depending on the answer to this question, what kinds of people should populate the board to enable it to accomplish its tasks?Recently, there have been a number of large corporate failures and allegations of defalcation and malfeasance on the part of management. In some of these cases the problems have been attributed to a failure of corporate governance, or more specifically, to ineffective boards. Consequently, it is tempting, in the current environment, to argue that the board's main role is to minimize defalcation, malfeasance, self-dealing, and other such negative behaviours - that is, to act as effective gate-keepers. It is also tempting to consider board performance in similarly narrow terms; that is, effective boards avoid such problems and ineffective ones do not.We argue that such a narrow characterization of the role of boards misses the point. Their true economic role is one of decision control, not only in the sense of preventing negative management behaviours, but also in the sense of encouraging positive management behaviours. That is, the decision control function should include encouraging management to present the company with an opportunity set of endeavours that is as rich as possible, and to act on the opportunities that make sense for the company and its shareholders. Therefore, we see the BOD as a team of individuals that plays a role in developing and selecting creative ideas for the advancement of the firm.We look to the organizational behaviour literature on teams and group dynamics to inform us concerning the construction of teams that are appropriate for this kind of task. With this as background we characterize agency costs as being made up of an active component and a passive component. The former captures costs associated with actions managers take in response to their individual objective functions, and that are to the detriment of the firm and its shareholders. The latter captures the opportunity costs that arise when management fails to identify and/or seize opportunities that it should seize, and that shareholders would prefer managers to seize (consistent with both resource dependence and stewardship roles (see Sundaramurthy and Lewis, 2003)). The underlying theme of this paper is that the composition of boards that are capable of minimizing active agency costs may be different from the composition that can minimize passive agency costs. A board that can address both effectively may be different yet again. The complexity of constructing a board, or in effect, a team, that is capable of addressing both active and passive agency costs leads us to look to the organizational behaviour literature for guidance.\nTraditional BOD roles and research: Many researchers have recognized the agency issues that arise with the absentee ownership that typifies many large firms in the modern economy (Berle and Means, 1932; Jensen and Meckling, 1976; Fama and Jensen, 1983; Demsetz, 1983; Williamson, 1983; Shleifer and Vishny, 1997). Shleifer and Vishny (1997) define the agency problem as one of ensuring that management does not expropriate or waste financial suppliers' capital. \"The separation of ownership from control produces a condition where the interests of owner and of ultimate manager may, and often do, diverge\" (Berle and Means, 1932 - cited in Demsetz, 1983, p. 375). Jensen (1993) and others (Fama and Jensen, 1983; Leighton and Thain, 1995; Millstein and MacAvoy, 1998; Williamson, 2002) have argued that the BOD is an important decision control point that is intended to alleviate agency problems and assist with moving the corporation forward to create value for shareholders. Having posited this, natural questions that arise are; what characteristics make some boards relatively more effective than other boards, and what is an appropriate measure of board effectiveness?A broad range of studies has investigated these questions. Among other things, researchers have investigated the apparent contributions of CEO duality (Fama and Jensen, 1983; Dey, 1994; Monks, 1995; Daily and Schwenk, 1996), board compensation schemes (Leighton and Thain, 1993; Baker et al., 1988), board ownership of the firm (Jensen, 1993; Monks, 1995; Becht et al., 2002), the proportion of internal versus external directors (Fama and Jensen, 1983; Cadbury, 1992; Dey, 1994; Eisenberg et al., 1998; Becht et al., 2002), and board diversity along cultural and gender lines (Orser, 2000; Brown et al., 2002).Previous research linking BOD characteristics to organizational effectiveness has primarily focused on linking the variables of board size, composition, and independence to a variety of financial indicators. Belkhir (2004), for instance, provides a typical example of research linking board characteristics to firm performance. He found a positive relationship between board size and firm performance, up to an optimal point, as measured by Tobin's Q, and ROA.The mainstream governance literature continues to examine single board characteristics in relation to a number of different financial indicators. Typical financial indicators include Tobin's Q and ROA, market to book value ratio, debt financing costs, yield spreads, share price, and financial distress (Anderson et al., 2004; Belkhir, 2004; Bonna et al., 2004; Elloumi and Gueyie, 2001; Vafeas, 1999). Elloumi and Gueyie (2001) examined financial distress and corporate governance characteristics in a sample of Canadian firms. The authors found that BOD composition explains financial distress beyond an exclusive reliance on financial indicators.While these studies provide interesting insight into board characteristics that tend to correlate with firm performance, the depth of the theoretical foundation underpinning them seems lacking. Interestingly, this has not deterred a number of authors who have laid out a formidable set of prescriptions specifying how effective boards should be constructed (Yermack, 1996; Eisenberg et al., 1998; Dey, 1999; Higgs, 2003).We look to the organizational behaviour literature for guidance. A central issue for any team is defining the parameters for its success. BOD effectiveness remains an elusive concept, as there is much debate about the tasks and roles that boards should play. Lawler et al. (2002) proposed that board effectiveness consists of three dimensions: scanning the environment for opportunities and threats; constructive feedback and guidance to the CEO; and, extending a network of contacts and external sources of knowledge to enhance firm performance. This is a slightly broader definition than has been traditional in the governance literature where BOD roles have typically been defined in terms of control in monitoring managers as fiduciaries of stockholders. In addition, Johnson et al. (1996) include in BOD responsibilities tasks such as service in advising the CEO and top management on strategic issues, and resource dependence in terms of facilitating the acquisition of resources critical to the firm's success. These too are tasks that go well beyond simply mitigating agency costs.Barrick et al. (1998) hold the view that, in examining the make-up of any team, it may be useful to examine the individual, group and environmental factors that coalesce to determine group effectiveness. Their view is consistent with the input-process-output model (Gladstein, 1984; Guzzo and Shea, 1992; Hackman, 1990), the central notion being that a variety of inputs combine to influence intra-group processes, which, in turn, affect team outputs. Too little attention has been paid to the mechanisms that convert group characteristics into organizational outcomes. The link is often simply assumed. The other major failing of team research has been its failure to account for situation-specific variables (context) (Edmondson et al., 2003).It is important to place BOD effectiveness as but one input in firm performance. This point is important to note not only because of its implications for empirical study, but also because it forces researchers to rethink the roles and responsibilities of boards. BOD are arguably responsible to shareholders, members of the organization and communities (consistent with a stewardship approach (see Sundaramurthy and Lewis, 2003)). The challenge for an \"effective\" board may be to juggle potentially competing interests while trying to add value to an organization. However, the link between board characteristics and firm performance is often simply assumed with widely varying research results (for a review see Johnson et al., 1996). From the organizational behaviour literature, BOD (team) composition, tasks and roles coalesce with firm and industry context to determine board effectiveness. The point here is that future research may be better served by concentrating on creating and testing a theoretically sound model of BOD effectiveness, rather than by focusing on finding relationships between team attribute variables and firm performance. The first step toward a more holistic conceptualization of BOD effectiveness is presented in our theoretical framework.\nAn integrative approach to board performance: BOD can be viewed as organizational teams that deal with complex issues under potentially ambiguous task and role situations. The characteristics and functionality of a board will play an important role in BOD effectiveness, and the contribution of each of these factors is likely to be moderated by a number of environmental and firm specific variables. The theoretical model that underpins our line of argument is presented in Figure 1.Our model makes the assertion that both BOD characteristics and functionality may each independently influence performance, and BOD characteristics may also influence functionality (indirectly influencing performance). That is, the proportion of inside directors, for example, may have a direct impact on the ability of the board to secure outside sources of funding (a performance measure) due to the number of external contacts. However, we assert that, perhaps more commonly, the proportion of internal directors will influence how the board goes about securing external funding. This degree of functionality (or lack thereof) will then determine how successful the board was in securing resources (performance). We also contend that contextual factors from within and outside the organization will moderate the relationships between BOD characteristics and performance, BOD characteristics and functionality, and BOD functionality and performance.BOD characteristics\nConclusions: This paper asserts that boards are teams that share similarities with many other kinds of teams. As a consequence, some of the factors that lead to board effectiveness are the very same factors that lead to team effectiveness in general. We posit that importing concepts of team effectiveness from the organizational behaviour literature can help our insight into board effectiveness, and we are hopeful that our approach will encourage further research in this direction.As a final comment, we are hopeful that our approach to board effectiveness will stimulate thought about the creative contributions boards of directors should, in theory, be capable of making, and that we draw emphasis away from the board as an instrument of constraint. At the risk of over-reaching, we fear that the economic losses that might be prevented from a board focus on constraint are minor in comparison to the opportunity losses that might arise from a failure of boards to see their larger role. We therefore wish to refocus attention on the board as an instrument driving the corporation forward, acting as a contributor to creating shareholder value.We acknowledge that there are significant impediments both in research design, and in data collection associated with the line of reasoning presented in the foregoing sections. Although this is the case, we suggest that the development of a comprehensive framework for thinking about BOD and their effectiveness will assist in making better choices about which can and should be overcome.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper proposes mainly that boards of directors (BOD) are teams that share characteristics with many other kinds of teams. As a consequence, some of the factors that lead to board effectiveness are the same factors that lead to team effectiveness in general. By integrating the organizational behaviour literature on teams with the governance literature, a comprehensive model of BOD performance is proposed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This conceptual paper proposes a model to assess the performance of a board and situates board performance as one input into firm performance.\nFindings: - This paper outlines the dynamic interplay between board characteristics, functionality and performance and proposes a comprehensive model, based largely on the group dynamics literature.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Suggests that future research attempt to empirically address some (or all) of the items in the conceptual model. Acknowledges that operationalizing certain variables will prove challenging, but suggests that ethnographic accounts of how these variables (and potentially others) interact may be a valuable first step in more fully understanding board composition, functioning and performance.\nPractical implications: - It is argued that by extending traditional passive agency roles, BOD may be able to provide a wider range of contributions to enhance shareholder value.\nOriginality/value: - This interdisciplinary paper integrates the group dynamics literature with the governance literature to propose a comprehensive model of BOD performance.\n",
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An experimental study of process representation approaches and their impact on perceived modeling quality and redesign success
|
[
"Business process re‐engineering",
"Modelling",
"Communication processes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Organizations now exist in a global marketplace that is highly competitive. Thus, businesses today can no longer expect to remain profitable if inefficiencies are not identified and corrected. Increased technology, in and of itself, is not a panacea that will automatically cure organizations' inefficiencies. In order to be successful, it is imperative for organizations to primarily focus on their business processes, not merely their produced outcomes. By focusing on processes, an organization also has the ability to increase both its service and quality. As a result, many organizations have turned to business process redesign (BPR) principles and techniques to facilitate this endeavor. BPR combines aspects from numerous disciplines including information systems analysis, organizational behavior, management, and business communication. Redesign approaches are used to examine each business process and determine if it should be changed, automated, integrated, or even eliminated (Davenport, 1993; Hammer, 1990; Kock, 2003). Generally speaking, technology can be applied to facilitate the process, but only after the underlying processes are analyzed and redesigned (Harrington et al., 1998). While the outcome of BPR may result in significant changes, an organization must be able to adhere to these major changes in order for it to reach its goals and remain competitive in today's global market.The computer and communication technological advances have provided alternatives to the traditional way organizations conduct their daily business. A study conducted by Kock and McQueen (1996), point out that a large percentage of service sector sales come from companies that sell data or information products. And, about 70 percent of all the exchanges within organizational processes in general, including manufacturing organizations, involve information (i.e. faxes, memo, email), as opposed to tangible assets like parts and materials (Kock, 1999; Kock and Murphy, 2001).Yet, in spite of the above, the vast majority of current BPR practices seem to favor the use of process representations that are particularly well aligned with a manufacturing-oriented view of processes (Gladwin and Tumay, 1994; Kock and Murphy, 2001). This study shows that a more communication-oriented view of processes is advisable, since it may lead to better outcomes in BPR projects. This is demonstrated through an experimental study of 114 subjects employing two different process redesign methods; one more and the other less communication-oriented.\n2 Modeling and its effect on process redesign: A study done by Kaplan and Simmon (1990) reflected that problem solving became easier when appropriate representation was included in the design process. One of the main steps in any systems analysis or redesign project is to appropriately analyze and represent the current processes in an organization. Modeling provides the means to effectively describe the flow and processing within a system. Because of the abstract nature of processes, having a common understanding of them becomes difficult without the use of standardized modeling approaches. Gladwin and Tumay (1994) have discussed the importance of choosing the right modeling approach as an important piece of the redesign process and have identified flow diagramming, CASE tools, and simulation modeling as three categories of modeling tools for analyzing business processes.2.1 Definition of a model\n3 Communication flow-based modeling: the hypotheses of this study: Most of the current BPR approaches lead to processes being represented and viewed as sets of interrelated activities. Little research attention, however, has been paid so far as to how different representational lenses can affect the outcomes of process redesign projects. For example, there is some evidence that looking at processes from a communication (or information) flow-oriented perspective may be desirable (Kock and Murphy, 2001), but there is little empirical research to support this or related assertions. Moreover, the knowledge creation and exchange that routinely takes place among different parts of an organization is complex, and it can be argued that much of the current business redesign approaches do not fully take into consideration the new communication intensive nature of the businesses in today's economic environment (Kock, 1999, 2003).As discussed in the previous sections, the empirical research literature on process redesign distinctly identifies the benefits of understanding the current processes in an organization as an important factor. Despite this known benefit, there has been very limited empirical research that identifies and defines how the various functional units work, communicate, and interrelate within an organization. A new theoretical model, called communication flow optimization theory (Kock, 1999; Kock and McQueen, 1996; Kock and Murphy, 2001) has been developed based on grounded-theory research (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Strauss and Corbin, 1990, 1998) to address these problems. It emerged from real-world process redesign projects conducted over a period of six years. Evidence from those projects suggested that the flow of information could generally be seen as analogous to the flow of materials in processes, and the flow of information could be referred to as the \"communication flow\", or the web of communication interactions of a process.The theory states that optimal communication configurations can be obtained by redesigning the flow of communication in processes through the application of communication flow-oriented process redesign guidelines. It is hypothesized that the level of optimization of the communication configuration of a process will account for a substantial amount of the variation in quality and productivity achieved through the process. Process productivity is measured through the ratio of output capacity versus costs. Process quality is measured as the customer satisfaction in connection with the outputs of the process, where a customer can be internal or external to an organization (Kock, 1999; Kock and Murphy, 2001). Given the emphasis of contemporary process redesign practices on activity flows (Kock, 1999; Katzenstein and Lerch, 2000), the following hypotheses have been derived for this study to test communication flow optimization theory.H1. Communication flow representations are perceived as more accurate representations of business processes than activity flow representations.\n4 Research method: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the communication flow optimization theory by examining two different business process representation and redesign methodologies using two different experimental conditions. The study examined activity flow and communication flow-oriented business process representation and redesign techniques, which were used in the experimental conditions by small BPR groups made up of students.Each process redesign group developed either a communication flow or an activity flow representation of its target processes. Communication flow representations were adaptations of data flow diagrams (Davis, 1983; Dennis and Wixom, 2000) and were generated following the modified format proposed by Kock (1999). Activity flow representations followed the general format proposed by Harrington et al. (1998) for functional timeline flowcharts. While both types of representations contained different types of descriptive content, they generally embodied the same \"amount\" of information (i.e. neither was substantially more \"information-rich\" than the other). Figure 1, adapted from Kock (2003), highlights the differences between communication flow and activity flow representations of processes.The first version of the data collection instrument was a questionnaire whose question statements were answered on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). See the Appendix for the question-statements used. To ensure content validity, using this initial data collection instrument, a pre-test was designed and conducted. The purpose of the pre-test was to confirm that variables and respective measurement scales were appropriate, correct, and understandable for the respondents. Four system analysts and one database administrator were interviewed. The participants were informed they were participating in a pilot study and that their comments and recommendations would be used to develop a questionnaire for the purpose of evaluating various modeling approaches in an experiment. A short description of the experiment was provided to all participants. The discussions regarding the pre-test with the participants proved insightful. Based on their recommendations, four of the questions were deleted and three additional questions were revised.In order to further refine the instrument and test its reliability and construct validity, a pre-test was conducted. The results were used to perform a factor analysis to group items under different constructs and performed construct validity assessments. To insure the internal consistency of the variables, reliability assessment was performed using Cronbach's a coefficient-based test (Huck and Cormier, 1996; Rosenthal and Rosnow, 1991).The subjects in this study were students from a mid-sized university that were enrolled in system analysis and design courses. The study extended over a period of two semesters. In each class, the students were randomly selected and placed into two separate groups. Each group was given a short training session focusing on one of the two specific modeling techniques: group A was trained on a communication flow diagram, and group B was trained on an activity flow diagram. The training of the groups included a brief description of the modeling technique, the symbols used, and a simple illustration of the use of each specific technique. The groups were also given a handout describing the notation, together with an example. The training session also included a quick review of general guidelines used for process redesign. At the end of the training, the same process redesign task was given to each of the groups. This task was based upon a case study about an order fulfillment process. Each group was asked to create a model for the current processes as stated in the case study based upon the assigned modeling technique. The groups were then asked to perform a redesign using the redesign guidelines previously provided. The groups were then required to generate another model for the redesigned processes using the same modeling technique. After the completion of this task, the questionnaire was administrated to each of the groups. A total of 114 students participated in the experiment. Fifty-seven of the students utilized an activity flow model and the other 57 students used a communication flow model for the redesign project. The results of the survey were gathered and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied using a statistical analysis software package called SPSS (Field, 2000).\n5 Results: Cronbach's a tests are generally utilized to assess a data collection instrument's reliability (Huck and Cormier, 1996). The a coefficients obtained for all three constructs were acceptable. The a for perceived accuracy (ACCURACY) was 0.727, for perceived usefulness in the visualization of redesign changes (VISUALIZATION) was 0.836, and for perceived success (SUCCESS) was 0.802.The scores were then analyzed using multiple ANOVA tests. ANOVA is a versatile statistical technique that can be used to determine if there is a significant difference between two or more means of samples (Huck and Cormier, 1996; Rosenthal and Rosnow, 1991). Table I contains the descriptive as well as the inferential statistics for both treatment groups. The descriptive data includes means and standard deviations; the inferential statistics include the results of the multivariate ANOVA test.Regarding ACCURACY, the descriptive statistics indicated a mean of approximately 5.2 for the group using the activity flow model and a mean of approximately 5.3 for the communication flow group. The ANOVA test did not yield a significant difference between the two groups (F=0.499, P=0.481). Even though the mean value for group B was higher than group A, the statistical analysis did not provide support for H1.ANOVA tests indicated statistically significant results both for VISUALIZATION (F=10.847, P<0.001), and SUCCESS (F=7.866, P<0.01). The means for the variables relating to group b were higher than the mean for group A. These combined results provide general support for H2 and H3.\n6 Discussion and conclusion: A vital component of a redesign project is the depiction and understanding of the organizations' processes through an appropriate modeling approach. Prior research has illustrated that there are both advantages and disadvantages associated with different modeling approaches. While the literature on process redesign suggests that the vast majority of past and current process redesign projects have emphasized process representations depicting the chronological flow of activities of processes, this study supports Kock's (2003) assertion that such emphasis is problematic. According to this study, the perceived usefulness of communication flow representations in the visualization of redesign changes is about 12 percent higher than that of activity flow representations. This study also suggests that perceived process redesign success is about 9 percent higher when communication flow representations are used.The likely reason for the above findings is that we live in an information-based economy, and in consequence, information is what flows the most within the different functional units of organizations. This is particularly true with the emergence of \"virtual organizations\", \"virtual teams\", and \"e-business\". The associated explosion in organizational communication demands is likely to make the focus on the communication flow structure of business processes even more urgent in the near future.This research supports the notion, put forth by the communication flow optimization theory, that a focus on the communication flow in connection with processes allows redesign groups to accurately represent processes and, in turn, identify business process inefficiencies. Thus, the redesign groups can then more efficiently determine which communication interactions can be eliminated or improved. In addition, the study suggests that utilizing a communication-based model is likely to have a positive effect on the success of a redesign project. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that a reorientation from the ubiquitous contemporary BPR practice of placing emphasis on workflows, toward the practice of placing emphasis on communication flows, may have a deep impact on the future success of process redesign efforts.The research set forth in this study should contribute to a variety of groups. The practitioners in the area of business redesign are thought to be the main beneficiaries. The findings should allow managers and practitioners involved in operational-level process redesign to acknowledge that their primary focus should be on the flow of information rather than on the activities performed. At the minimum, based on the findings, managers and practitioners should determine that a balance must be struck between these two approaches. Further, the information system developers and designers should be able to better align information systems design with business processes techniques. Using communication flow methodologies in the analysis stage should significantly help the design and the development processes. The findings here can contribute to academic research across many different disciplines as the area of business redesign permeates many fields. Specifically, researchers in information systems should utilize the vast body of research that has already been completed in organizational redesign.While this study was one of the first to use empirical data relating to the communication flow optimization theory, the study was limited to the source of data used in the experiment. Data were collected from various information systems classes at a university. The participants were not redesign team members in an actual organizational redesign project. Future studies should focus on the characteristics of the designers. While the findings here are in line with Kock's (2003) findings, which were obtained in the context of actual process redesign projects, it must be acknowledged here that performing a study using actual redesign teams in various organizational environments may have a differing effect on the results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of research is to examine the communication optimization theory by comparing two business process representation approaches and related redesign guidelines through an experiment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The experiment examined two process representation approaches involving 114 subjects. Each method gravitated around a different business process representation - one placed emphasis on business process activities and their sequencing, and the other on the web of communication interactions found in business processes.\nFindings: - The key finding was that an emphasis on a communication-oriented view of processes seems to increase perceived modeling quality and redesign success.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Data were collected from various information systems classes at a university. The participants were not redesign team members in an actual organizational redesign project. Future studies should focus on the characteristics of the designers.\nPractical implications: - The findings should allow managers and practitioners involved in operational-level process redesign to acknowledge and focus on the flow of information rather than just the activities performed or at least determine a balance between these two approaches. Further, the information system developers and designers should be able to better align information systems design with business processes techniques. Using communication flow methodologies in the analysis stage should significantly help the design and the development processes.\nOriginality/value: - This research was one of the first experimental studies to test the communication flow optimization theory and its effect on business process redesign.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How fundamental and supplemental interactions affect users' knowledge sharing in virtual communities? A social cognitive perspective
|
[
"Knowledge sharing",
"Virtual community",
"Fundamental interaction",
"Supplemental interaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The past decade has witnessed the emergence and explosive growth of virtual communities (VCs). VC is a social network of individuals who interact through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals, e.g., sharing interests, building relationships, exchanging knowledge, and engaging in transactions (Kim et al., 2012; Rheingold, 1993). With the widespread adoption of the internet, conversing with others who are sharing similar interests and generating content in VCs becomes an ordinary thing, making VCs penetrating into our daily life deeply. Of the estimated one billion internet users, 84 percent have participated in an online community (Horrigan, 2001; Bateman et al., 2011). With the support of information and communication technologies (ICTs), VCs enable knowledge sharing (KS) among geographically dispersed people possible, overcoming the limitations of the traditional face-to-face meeting. This special advantage makes VCs become an important channel of KS for different users (Chiu et al., 2006; Hsu et al., 2007), as well as for some famous companies, e.g., Dell (Di Gangi and Wasko, 2009; Bayus, 2013; Di Gangi et al., 2010).\n2. Theoretical underpinnings: 2.1 Factors influencing KS in VCs\n3. Conceptual model and hypotheses development: Based on SCT, we propose that the VC environment affects users' KS behavior through two ways: direct effect and indirect effect through the mediation of cognitive factors (see Figure 1). We develop a research model as shown in Figure 2, in which the FI and the SI constitute the environment of a VC, and self-efficacy and outcome expectation reflect users' cognition when they participate in the VC. This model aims to explore how FI/SI in a VC influences a focal user's KA/KC behavior.\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Constructs and scales\n5. Implications, limitations, and conclusions: 5.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of the environment of a virtual community (users' interactions inside and outside of a community which are defined as the fundamental and supplemental interaction (FI and SI), respectively) on its users' knowledge sharing (KS) and the underlying cognitive mechanism.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted among the users who had experience of participating in a domain knowledge specific online community. A total of 479 valid observations were collected. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research model and hypotheses.\nFindings: The empirical results show that the fundamental interaction (FI) not only directly affects users' knowledge acquisition (KA) and contribution, but also indirectly affects users' KA and contribution partially through the users' self-efficacy and outcome expectation. While the supplemental interaction (SI) negatively affects users' KA, it positively affects the users' knowledge contribution and this effect is also partially mediated by the users' self-efficacy and outcome expectation. The mediators of self-efficacy and outcome expectation play distinct role on users' KA and contribution in virtual communities (VCs).\nOriginality/value: This research conceptualizes the users' interaction inside and outside of a particular virtual community as FI and SI, respectively, and reveals the mechanism how they affect users' KA and contribution. The results shed light on the literature of KS in VCs and extend social cognitive theory's application into a complex environment with blended interactions in a virtual world. The research also provides insights for virtual community designers, administrators and users.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Barriers to low-carbon warehousing and the link to carbon abatement: A case from emerging Asia
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Emerging economies",
"3PL",
"Elastic Net regression",
"Logistics social responsibility",
"Low-carbon warehousing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Due to increasing awareness on climate change, interest in sustainable logistics is growing. Major global third-party logistics (3PL) service providers have made important commitments to environmental sustainability improvements in the past several years (Lieb and Lieb, 2010).\n2. Literature review and theoretical background: 2.1 Natural resource-based view (NRBV) and the supply chain\n3. Research propositions: Barriers to sustainable supply chains may be defined as those factors whose presence would hinder the adoption of green initiatives (Centobelli et al., 2017). A review of literature suggests that barriers to sustainable practices can be classified into eight major categories. Four of these barriers (cost, complexity, communications and knowledge) are internal to an organization, while the others (government, suppliers, customers and technology) are external in nature. Given that warehousing is an integral component of supply chains, these barriers to GSCM may be inductively proposed to also apply to low-carbon warehousing, from which a conceptual model is developed.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Research design\n5. Case analysis and results: 5.1 Low-carbon warehousing practices and outcomes at CLS company\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Outcomes and barriers of low-carbon warehousing in emerging Asia\n7. Conclusion: 7.1 Contributions to literature\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Warehouses are large emitters of greenhouse gases and their impact on climate change is under increasing focus. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers that inhibit the adoption of low-carbon warehousing in Asia-Pacific and their links to carbon abatement performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory conceptual model was first developed from a literature review of the general barriers to sustainable supply chain practices and hence potentially in low-carbon warehousing. A large contract logistics services provider in the Asia-Pacific served as the subject of a case study. The perceived barriers to low-carbon warehousing were derived from an internal survey of respondents from the case company and regressed against carbon abatement outcomes at that organization's operations across the region.\nFindings: Results show that the case company reduced carbon emissions by 36 percent on a revenue-normalized basis between 2008 and 2014, but with relatively lower success in emerging markets vs mature markets. An Elastic Net regression analysis confirms that technology and government-related factors are the most important barriers in the case company's efforts to \"decarbonize\" its local warehousing operations. However, results suggest that the customer-related barrier, which is highly correlated with the government barrier, is in part driven by the latter.\nResearch limitations/implications: This case study is based on a single multinational company in Asia-Pacific, but nonetheless serves as an impetus for more cross-sectional studies to form an industry-wide view.\nOriginality/value: An extended stewardship framework based on the natural resource-based view has been proposed, in which logistics services providers take on a proactive boundary-spanning role to lower the external barriers to low-carbon warehousing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The mitigating role of holistic thinking on choice overload
|
[
"Decision making",
"Holistic thinking",
"Assortment size",
"Choice overload"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Choice overload has long been a controversial topic in consumer research (Chernev et al., 2015; Malhotra et al., 1982; Scheibehenne et al., 2009). While some researchers argue that larger assortment sets benefit consumers (Kahn and Lehmann, 1991; Levy and Weitz, 2001), some have argued that large assortments lead to choice overload (i.e. decreased satisfaction) (Chernev, 2003; Diehl and Poynor, 2010; Iyengar and Lepper, 2000). A meta-analysis by Scheibehenne et al. (2010) found that the average effect size for studies supporting the desirability of large assortments was equal to the average effect size for studies finding choice overload. Further, the meta-analysis could account for only 56 per cent of the effect size variance, suggesting that there is still significant variance left unexplained. Building on these findings, Chernev et al. (2010) have argued for a need to focus on when choice overload occurs, rather than whether it occurs.\nTheoretical background: Increasing assortment size can both positively and negatively impact consumers. On the positive side, large assortments are desirable because they help consumers with cost of search and decision confidence, as all the options are readily available in a single transaction (Boyd and Bahn, 2009, Eaton and Lipsey, 1979). Large assortments signal the relative quality of the products in the assortment, elicit freedom of choice and are better able to meet diverse individual needs (Anderson, 2006; Berger et al., 2007). In contrast, some have argued that large assortments create choice overload, which is defined as experiencing less satisfaction after choosing among many options compared to choosing among few options (Iyengar and Lepper, 2000; Polman, 2012; Scheibehenne et al., 2010). This occurs because increases in set size result in greater time and effort demands to cognitively process the items and can also lead to fear of not being able to pick the optimal option (Kahn and Lehmann, 1991; Schwartz, 2004).\nRole of holistic thinking: Thinking styles affect numerous cognitive processes, such as attention, depth of processing and efficiency of information search (Phillips et al., 2016). While individuals generally have a culturally dominant processing style (holistic or analytic thinking) (Nisbett et al., 2001), thinking styles can be viewed as a within-culture individual difference or can vary by the specific situation (Choi et al., 2007; Monga and John, 2008, 2010). Because of their impact on how consumers process information, we expect thinking style (specifically, holistic thinking) to moderate the impact assortment size increases have on satisfaction.\nStudy 1a: Participants and design\nStudy 1a results: Manipulation check\nStudy 1b: Method\nStudy 1b results: Manipulation check\nStudy 1c: Participants and design\nStudy 1c results: Manipulation check\nStudy 2: Pretest\nStudy 2 results: Manipulation checks\nStudy 3: In total, 290 students (42.1 per cent female) participated in a 2 (assortment size: small [6 options], very large [48 options]) x 2 (processing style: holistic vs analytic) x 2 (decision goal: hedonic vs utilitarian) between-subjects experiment. Respondents were invited to participate in two ostensibly unrelated tasks. The first task was introduced as a \"visual processing task\" and included the processing style manipulation (map task; Burgoon et al., 2013; Forster, 2009; Friedman et al., 2003). Participants were presented with images of states with some cities labeled within them. In the holistic condition, respondents were asked to focus on the maps as a whole and answer questions about the shape of the images, while in the analytic condition, respondents focused on the cities and answered questions about which cities were included on the map. Following this task, respondents participated in a \"decision process task\", where they were asked to choose a carry-on from either a small or very large assortment for business or vacation purposes. Then, they answered questions for overload feeling (a = 0.77), satisfaction (a = 0.88), assortment size manipulation check (r = 0.61), decision goal (r = 0.51 for hedonic and a = 0.77 for utilitarian), and involvement (frequency of flying for business and leisure).\nStudy 3 results: Manipulation check\nGeneral discussion: While a large body of research examines the question of whether larger assortments increase or decrease satisfaction, researchers have yet to agree on the answer, leading to calls for discovering moderators and a greater understanding of the psychological process of choosing from varying assortment sizes (Chernev et al., 2010; Iyengar and Lepper, 2000). Accordingly, this paper considers the process underlying the impact of assortment sizes on satisfaction and identifies a new type of moderator - one which reduces the impact of overload feeling on satisfaction, rather than reducing the overload feeling itself. More specifically, we show how holistic thinking mitigates the negative impact of large assortment on satisfaction across a variety of contexts and assortment sizes.\nManagerial and consumer implications: Managers frequently seek to satisfy varying customer needs by increasing the number of options in an assortment. However, some studies suggest that large assortments do not always increase satisfaction, but rather may overwhelm consumers and cause them to feel dissatisfied and/or regret their decisions. Accordingly, some managers have started to decrease their assortment sizes to overcome this possible effect. However, our research indicates that managers do not need to forego the possibility of satisfying varying needs of customers (by decreasing the assortment size), rather they can focus on customers' thinking styles. Our findings show that consumers who approach decision tasks holistically are less negatively impacted by large assortments. Managers can take advantage of this finding by priming hedonic decision goals (vs utilitarian ones), as such goals can prime holistic processing. One way to do this would be to highlight the product's hedonic attributes to position the consumption experience as a hedonic one. Even a utilitarian product can be framed as a hedonic experience; for example, \"an ad may frame a credit card as access to happy consumption or tires as opening the road to exciting adventures\" (Kronrod et al., 2011, p. 55). Consumers can also take advantage of these findings by approaching their consumption holistically. Even if consumers are not chronic holistic processors, they can manipulate their thinking style by focusing on the hedonic attributes of the consumption experience.\nLimitations and future research: While large assortments create overload feeling, which decreases satisfaction, through five studies, our research shows that this overload feeling can be mitigated by an individual or a situational factor (i.e. holistic thinking). Further, alternate path analyses were nonsignificant, adding more to the robustness of our research. The only unexpected finding was decision-specific holistic thinking's positive impact on perceived assortment size and the relationship between assortment size and overload feeling in Study 1b. However, unlike the other studies, Study 1b did not contain images of the assortment options. Individuals who apply gestalt/holistic processing prefer visual (vs verbal) presentations (Townsend and Kahn, 2014). Thus, while the same links were nonsignificant with chronic holistic thinking in the same study (suggesting that chronic holistic thinkers might be accustomed to evaluating options with or without pictures), the absence of pictures might have made it harder for decision-specific holistic thinkers to apply gestalt approach, leading them to perceive a greater amount of information and feel more overloaded. Future research can study the impact of visual vs verbal presentation of the assortment and its interaction with the thinking style on choice overload.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how and why holistic thinking mitigates the negative impact of large assortments on satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Five between-subject experiments demonstrate the mitigating role of holism on choice overload across a variety of contexts.\nFindings: While large assortments create overload feeling, holistic thinking mitigates the negative impact of overload feeling on satisfaction for both chronic (Studies 1a and 1b) and decision-specific (Studies 1b and 1c) holistic thinkers, as well as those who adopt a more holistic thinking style because of the decision goal (Study 2) or incidental priming (Study 3).\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper introduces a new moderator of choice overload effects - holistic thinking - and shows how it mitigates the negative indirect effect of assortment size on satisfaction. This paper contributes to the literature on assortment size effects and shows that even when assortment size increases overload feeling, this negative impact of assortment size can still be reduced.\nPractical implications: Marketers with large assortments can reduce the negative impact of overload feeling and increase satisfaction by promoting the hedonic features of the products and encouraging holistic thinking. Similarly, consumers can reduce the negative impact of overload feeling by approaching their consumption more holistically either because of their individual traits or situational factors.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes a new moderator to the choice overload literature: holistic thinking. In doing so, it adopts a broader consideration of the decision-making process underlying overload effects and pinpoints how (i.e. by which path) holistic thinking mitigates the negative impact of large assortments.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of ISO 9000 certification on firms' financial performance
|
[
"Greece",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Market efficiency",
"Empirical research",
"ISO 9000 adoption",
"Operation efficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As competitiveness between firms rapidly increases and customers' demands are constantly changing, quality awareness becomes a primary target for every manager. Since quality is difficult to be generally defined and measured, quality standards must be somehow certified. The ISO 9000 series aims to make quality certifications accepted beyond any doubt and, since now, have managed to achieve these expectations and deliver the best possible results (Franceschini et al., 2010). ISO 9000 standards refer to the minimum requirements that a company should meet in order to be certified and ensure the consistency of products, services and processes (Singels et al., 2001). According to Zhu and Scheuermann (1999), the ISO 9000 does not address a particular type of industry or a particular product, since it is not technical in its nature. Each company takes under consideration the requirements of the ISO 9000 standards and designs such a quality control system that is perfectly compatible with its particular conditions and needs (Poksinska et al., 2006).\n2. Brief literature review: Nowadays, it is quite obvious that more firms understand and accept the importance of quality management and, therefore, seek to certify the quality of their products, services or processes. Srivastav (2011) mentions that the number of managers who support the tangible effects of ISO 9000 series is growing rapidly. The ISO 9000 documentation is based on eight quality management principles (Billy et al., 2012): customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making and mutually beneficial supplier relationships.\n3. The conceptual framework of the study: 3.1. Introduction\n4. Research methodology: 4.1. Sample of the study\n5. Results: The examination of the proposed conceptual framework was also conducted with the use of the structural equation modelling technique. The estimation of the structural model was conducted with the maximum likelihood estimation method. The covariance matrix was used as the table of entry and the extraction of the standardized completely solution was requested (Hair et al., 1995; Kelloway, 1998).\n6. Discussion: In general, the empirical results suggest that ISO adoption has a positive impact on most of the measures of operation and market efficiency (except productivity and market share). Moreover, it is quite interesting that only one of the measures of operation efficiency has a direct impact on financial performance. On the other hand, all three measures of market efficiency seem to have a direct impact on financial performance. A first observation allows us to conclude that market efficiency is the most significant dimension for ISO adopting companies, since most of the hypotheses concerning that factor were verified by the empirical data.\n7. Summary and conclusions: The present study investigated the impact of ISO adoption on operation efficiency, market efficiency and overall financial performance. The research focuses on the development of a new conceptual framework which consists of various factors that cover a wide range of organizational processes. An extensive literature review revealed that no previous research has adopted such an expanded rationale.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the acquisition of an ISO 9000 certification and the overall financial performance of the certified firms. More specifically, the study proposes a multidimensional conceptual framework, including \"customers' demand\", \"ISO adoption\", \"operation efficiency\", \"market efficiency\" and \"overall financial performance\". Such a multidimensional approach has randomly been explored in the existing literature, making the examination of the proposed conceptual framework an interesting research topic.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed conceptual framework was tested on a sample of Greek ISO 9000-certified companies of various economic sectors. Quality managers were used as key respondents. The final sample consisted of 168 companies. The reliability and the validity of the questionnaire were thoroughly examined. Empirical data were analyzed using the structural equation modelling technique. The findings are based on the 2000 version of the ISO series, which is generally accepted and has widespread use, as it has eliminated most of the disadvantages of the 1994 version. The present study is empirical (it is based on primary data), explanatory (examines cause and effect relationships), deductive (tests research hypotheses) and quantitative (includes the analysis of quantitative data collected with the use of a structured questionnaire).\nFindings: The findings of the study provide strong evidence that ISO 9000 implementation is highly associated with improvements in overall financial performance. Moreover, it was found that ISO implementation is directly associated with significant improvements in quality awareness, operations execution, market share, customer satisfaction and sales revenue. Finally, customers' demand was not found to be the most important motivation for implementing an ISO certification. Rather, it seems that companies seek for quality improvement due to internal motives.\nResearch limitations/implications: A limitation stemming from the implemented methodology is the use of self-report scales to measure the constructs of the proposed model. Moreover, the present paper lacks a longitudinal approach, since it is cross-sectional and provides a static picture of ISO implementation.\nPractical implications: The paper makes an analytical effort in order to point out areas that companies should emphasize in order to successfully implement ISO 9000 and, therefore, harvest its potential benefits. Certain practical implications are offered in the final part of the paper.\nOriginality/value: The paper proposes an enhanced conceptual framework that examines vital issues concerning the successful implementation of ISO 9000, thus, providing valuable outcomes for decision makers and academics. Moreover, the results of the study may be generalized in other developed countries whose economy faces similar significant challenges as Greece.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What has changed? The development of corporate governance in Malaysia
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Corporate governance",
"National economy",
"2011 blue print"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Asian financial crisis in 1997 was an alerting bell for corporate governance reformation in the Asian Pacific. Malaysia has drawn its own facts about the weaknesses in Malaysian corporate governance. The Malaysian Government has enhanced the governance mechanisms by improving the guidelines and principles required on firms irrespective of their categories. This paper is trying to reenact the history of that enhancement process which took the Malaysia Government up until 2011 to reach to the current system. This will include the changes that have happened since then until the issue of latest blue printed guidelines.\nIssues of corporate governance in Malaysia: The corporate governance scandal brought to light many issues which have played an important role in determining the enhancement process addressed by the Government of Malaysia. The fact that agency problems occur between shareholders and mangers and/or shareholders and board of directors these problems were major factors why there was a real need to improve the corporate governance mechanism. The agents or mangers have been accused of not acting on the shareholders best interests. Managers are also blamed for their lack of responsibility for business practices since they do not show the concern as if they were owners themselves. Large shareholders are accused of applying pressure out of their own interest as they are the chief owning entities.The literature shows that most of the concentrated shareholding firms usually perform at the interest of the shareholders especially with regard to cash flow rights. This in turn, requires the regulating authorities to take into consideration the principles in place which enhance the equal rights between different shareholders irrespective of their level of investments. In Malaysia, the issue of the large shareholder is the main issues which authorities have often encountered during such a crisis. In Asia this growing problem arises from the practice of pyramiding and cross-holdings. This can be seen in the clashes between the power of control and cash flow rights of insiders. Thus, the insiders might play their incentives to maximize their private benefits over the minority shareholders which may, in turn, put the minority at a high risk. Literature has shown that corporate governance in Malaysia reveals the Agency Cost Act as one of the main determinants in the decision of CEOS. It has been a long standing issue in corporate governance Malaysia where external shareholders are require more voting rights to protect their interests, thus acquiring the dominant voting rights. This tends to result in a weak board of trustees and a weak market control. It is worth mentioning that Malaysia was strong in governance guidelines before the crisis hit Asia compared to other Asian countries, however, not totally spared from the crisis effects. The currency depreciated with its high interest rate in the Kuala Lampour Stock Exchange (KLSE) fell followed by high offshore fund withdrawals.The financial crisis brought to the foreground weak corporate governance guidelines: the importance of reforming company structure; over-leveraging by companies; low level transparency, disclosure and accountability; high family control and lack of bank credit systems. Though these weaknesses in corporate governance were not the main cause of the crisis it did contribute greatly to the crisis.\nDefinition of corporate governance: The agency problems arose partly due to the relationship between owners and the management. Scandals in corporate governance persuaded scholars to define corporate governance based on their problem solving perspectives or corporate affairs. In addition, a common definition states that internal governance mechanisms involve board of directors and ownership structure while the external involves taking over the markets and the legal system. Researchers have defined corporate governance in a variety of ways. For example, a definition given by the finance committee on corporate governance in Malaysia in the report on corporate governance (2002) stated that:Corporate governance is the process and structure used to direct and manage the business affairs of the company towards enhancing business' prosperity and corporate accountability within the objectives of the long term shareholder values, whilst taking into account the interests of other stakeholders.This indicates that corporate governance not only applies to the shareholders but other stakeholders as well.\nCorporate governance systems around the world: Anglo-Saxon corporate governance system\nSummary: The discussion on corporate governance in Malaysia as well as other East Asian countries should be initiated from the events of the East Asian economic collapse in the second half of 1997. This particular period placed a huge concern and initiated recognition of corporate governance to the public and private sector in those countries. Malaysia researchers have acknowledged that the Asian crisis was due to weak corporate governance as the most significant contributing factor (Abu-Baker and Nasser, 2000). The importance of corporate governance in Malaysia rose from a number of old publicized local financial failures such as the Perwaja Steel Company in the mid-1990s. This led to the formation of a high level finance committee on corporate governance in which the main task was to comprehensively review and reform corporate governance in Malaysia (Ow-Yong and Kooi Guan, 2000).\nCorporate governance in Malaysia: Introduction to corporate governance in Malaysia\nWhat has changed after the lunching of 2011 blueprint of corporate governance?: There are many changes and improvements to the corporate governance guidelines since the starting point in 2011. The new guidelines contain stringent formalities on voting and the use of technology in pull voting. In addition, more space has been given to the board to accelerate the efficiency process in the companies for reviewing strategies and reports from individual corporate departments. The new set of roles stressed that there be a separation of tasks between the CEO and chairman in the firms. There has also been a plea to formalize the independence of directors by setting up a static portion for them in the board. Meanwhile, the new guidelines help to mandate the board in establishing a nominating committee with enhanced roles chaired by an independent director.\nConclusion: The features of corporate governance in Malaysia are similar to that in the UK as the code of the Malaysian corporate governance is identical to the old combined code of the UK; it is, in fact, a crisis driven. It draws from the principle on how a company and its owners or shareholders should relate to achieving the best return by having the appropriate performance. Unlike China, the board in Malaysia is a single unitary board which consists of executive and non-executive directors. There is no separation of the supervisory function of the board as in its old counterpart based on the Britch model. It can be seen that the progress of Malaysian authorities interest in improving the corporate governance guidelines has received positive feedback from international parties involved in the governance issues and its process. In fact, Malaysia has secured its position for the fourth consecutive year as a country with good investment protection cited by the World Bank as shown in the reports for 2006 through 2010. There have been several international awards given to Malaysia as a top emerging country for its adoption and compliance with governance standards.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a mini review of corporate governance in Malaysia. The paper acts as an introduction to the history of corporate governance in Malaysia, from the starting point until the release of the new Blue Print.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper adopts a browsing method that takes into consideration the review of the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance. It also reviews the new blue print of the code of governance in Malaysia.\nFindings: - An extensive effort is being implemented to improve the corporate governance mechanisms in Malaysia and although Malaysia is following the UK style in designing the corporate governance code, it secured the 4th position among the world's top countries growing in the direction of attracting investors.\nOriginality/value: - This is a review paper based on the guidelines of corporate governance in Malaysia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comparison of online and traditional performance appraisal systems
|
[
"Performance appraisal",
"Human resource strategies",
"Information systems",
"Communication technologies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: As human resource (HR) management departments continue to move to internet or web-based technology (The Hunter Group, 2001), more research evaluating the use of web-based HR, or electronic human resource management (eHRM) is needed. The fastest growing trend in the delivery of HR information is employee self-service (ESS) (Gueutal, 2003). These applications give employees the ability to access and maintain their personal HR information via the web. Another growing trend is the adoption of managerial self-service (MSS) which provides managers access to a variety of HR tools and information via the web (Gueutal, 2003). Most manager HR-related tasks can be completed via MSS applications including pay administration/compensation, performance management, staffing, and employee development (Gueutal, 2003). Another term used to describe these tools utilized within a given organization is human resource information systems (HRIS), which Kavanagh and Thite (2008) define as \"the system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyse, retrieve, and distribute information regarding an organization's human resources.\"\n1 Online performance appraisal system: An online PA system is a software program that facilitates the completion of performance evaluations online. It can be an MSS tool such that only managers have access to this system or it can be a combination of MSS and ESS, in which employees also have access and can provide information into the system. An online PA system can be more than the traditional P&P form placed on the web in that it may be integrated with an employee position description module, allowing managers to pull data from the employees' position description and insert this information into the evaluation (PeopleAdmin, 2006). Further, it can act as a historical archive, storing past evaluations and permitting comparisons between evaluations over time. The primary advantage of these systems is the accessibility of the data any time from any computer with internet access, as well as the ease and speed with which they can generate accurate HR-related reports (Kavanagh and Thite, 2008). Such systems also offer HR managers the opportunity to readily monitor the extent to which supervisors complete their employees' PAs on time, in addition to making it easier for them to examine trends in performance ratings.In a case study describing the adoption of an online performance evaluation system by TRW Inc., Neary (2002) followed a team of information technology experts and HR managers as they created a web-based employee performance and development process system. Whereas Neary's (2002) description conveys some potential advantages of using an online PA system, such as linking the results over time and increasing the accessibility of the data, he did not empirically examine the influence of adopting the online system on employees' perceptions of and/or reactions to the PA.The online performance evaluation system examined in the current study is one module embedded in an integrated software package that tracks employment applications and maintains position descriptions. Each module not only works independent of the others; but they also work together (e.g. position descriptions populate applications and PAs). The focal organization was currently using the application and position description modules when they adopted the performance evaluation module. Prior to launching the online system, employees were given training on how to use the system and the series of steps that needed to be completed (e.g. the supervisor's supervisor was required to check the ratings). Employees were reminded of these steps in follow-up correspondence. Employees were also given information about how the system would be used. For example, various reports (e.g. summaries of ratings by dimension) would be generated facilitating oversight by HR and management.\n2 PA reactions: The effectiveness of PA has traditionally been assessed with one of the three categories of criteria (Cardy and Dobbins, 1994): rater errors, rating accuracy, and qualitative aspects of the appraisal, including employees' reactions. Historically, reaction criteria have received the least amount of research attention (Murphy and Cleveland, 1995), yet, they are proposed to be better indicators of the overall viability of an appraisal system than the other criteria (Bernardin and Beatty, 1984) and related to perceptions of PA validity (Dickinson, 1993; Lawler, 1967). Further, Hedge and Borman (1995) predicted employees' attitudes about appraisal may play an increasingly important role in appraisal processes as procedures and systems continue to develop over time. Further, research has demonstrated that employee reactions to PA can influence employee motivation, productivity, and organizational commitment (Dickinson, 1993; Ilgen et al., 1979; Larson, 1984; Pearce and Porter, 1986; Wexley and Klimoski, 1984).In this study, we focus on reactions that have been documented as important in the broader PA literature (Keeping and Levy, 2000), frequently assessed in the PA literature (Cawley et al., 1998), relevant to the purposes of the PA in the focal organization, and hypothesized to differ between the online and P&P groups. Our design involved the comparison of employees who were evaluated using the online system (hereafter referred to as online employees/group) to employees who were evaluated using the P&P system (hereafter referred to as P&P employees/group); therefore, we limited our examination to reactions that were relevant to both groups.2.1 Rater accountability\n3 Method: 3.1 Participants and procedure\n4 Results: Table I provides the descriptive statistics and correlations among the variables of interest. We also examined the data for normality and noticed that security and utility were bimodal, with peaks at three and four on the five-point scale. The pattern of intercorrelations among the PA reactions was generally consistent with previous PA research (Cawley et al., 1998). In order to test our hypotheses, we conducted a MANCOVA, controlling for the variables listed above. Consistent with Institutional Review Board regulations, all survey items were optional. As a result, not all participants completed every item. Unfortunately, this resulted in a considerable amount of missing data. Listwise, deletion yielded 102 online participants and 62 P&P participants.Our H1 proposed that employees evaluated with the online system will report higher levels of supervisor accountability than employees evaluated with the P&P approach. Consistent with this hypothesis, the online employees (M=3.55, SD=0.72) reported statistically significant higher levels of supervisor accountability than the P&P employees (M=3.27, SD=0.69; F(1,158)=8.36, p<0.05). Thus, H1 was supported.H2 proposed that employees evaluated with the online system will report higher levels of security for the ratings than employees evaluated with the P&P approach. The online employees (M=3.57, SD=0.75) reported virtually the same level of security for the ratings as the P&P employees (M=3.58, SD=0.70; F(1,158)=0.01, p>0.05). H2 was not supported.In H3, we predicted that online employees would report significantly higher levels of quality than the P&P employees. Contrary to expectations, when asked to compare their ratings to last year, the P&P employees (M=3.51, SD=0.75) reported significantly higher quality ratings than the online employees (M=3.12, SD=0.83; F(1,158)=8.04, p<0.05). Thus, H3 was contradicted.H4 proposed a significant difference between the online and P&P groups on satisfaction with the PA. The online group (M=3.85, SD=0.77) did not differ significantly from the P&P group (M=3.79, SD=0.80) on satisfaction with the PA (F(1,158)=0.86, p>0.05), failing to support H4.H5 proposed that online employees would report higher levels of utility for the PA ratings than P&P employees. Contrary to expectations, the P&P employees (M=3.45, SD=0.73) indicated a somewhat higher level of utility than the online employees (M=3.29, SD=0.81; F(1,158)=0.89, p>0.05); however, this difference was not significant. Thus, H5 was not supported.Our final hypothesis (H6) predicted online employees would report more participation in the PA than P&P employees. Consistent with expectation, the two groups differed significantly on participation in the PA (F(1,158)=9.50, p<0.05), with the online group (M=0.17, SD=0.62) reporting more participation than the P&P group (M=-0.08, SD=0.55). These results support H6.\n5 Discussion: The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which an online PA system influences employees' reactions to their PA. Contrary to previous research comparing examinees' reactions to computerized selection assessments (Richman-Hirsch et al., 2000), we found that the computerization of PA systems does matter to some degree. Consistent with expectations, the online system appears to facilitate perceptions of supervisor accountability. To the extent that accountability relates to more accurate ratings (Beckner et al., 1998; London et al., 1997; Mero and Motowidlo, 1995), this is good news for employees and organizations.Our findings revealed no difference between the online PA and P&P groups in perceived level of rating security. Thus, the online system did not seem to enhance (nor detract from) employees' perceptions of the security of their ratings. It seems that a computer server was perceived to be no more or less secure than a locked filing cabinet to our sample. One explanation for this finding would be if approximately half of the employees believed the online system was more secure, and the other half believed the online system was less secure, resulting in average ratings that appeared to convey no perceived difference. This would be revealed by a bimodal distribution with the modes at the extremes. As noted earlier, the data did have somewhat of a bimodal distribution, but the two modes were at three and four on a five-point scale. Thus, the majority of the employees felt the online system was at least as secure as the P&P approach.As we predicted, employees evaluated with the online system perceived higher rates of participation in the PA process than employees evaluated with the traditional system. This may have been a function of the self-rating module. Although both groups were encouraged to complete the self-rating module, 64 percent of the online employees completed it, whereas only 18 percent of the P&P employees completed it. The online system also facilitated employee access to information about the status of the evaluation at any time. Additional research is needed to probe the underlying processes that contribute to these differences in perceptions and perhaps engagement by employees in the process. For example, is feedback delivered differently following an online appraisal, and if so, how does this contribute to perceptions of employee involvement with particular aspects of the process?Contrary to expectations, the online system appeared to have reduced perceptions of the quality of the evaluations completed compared to the previous year, in which all employees were evaluated using the P&P system. Perhaps, because of the novelty of the system, supervisors were not comfortable with the new system and/or spent a significant amount of time figuring out how to use it, and as a result, this deterred them from providing extensive quality feedback to their employees. This in turn may have resulted in the employees perceiving lower quality ratings and less-detailed feedback. It would be interesting to examine whether perceived quality improves as employee and supervisor comfort and experience with the system increases. Alternatively, quality may remain low or get worse if supervisors treat PA as a technology-driven process, rather than a developmental/coaching opportunity. Additional research is needed to determine if our findings were unique and if quality ratings change after a second implementation. Regardless, it appears that switching to an online PA system may result in lowered perceptions among employees regarding the quality of supervisory performance ratings, at least initially, and organizations should work to address this issue (a point we return to below).The online system did not enhance nor adversely affect the employees' perceived utility of or satisfaction with the PA. This is particularly interesting given the adverse effects on rating quality. We note that for utility, though not statistically significant, the online group reported somewhat lower perceptions than the P&P group. This might suggest that like perceived quality of the ratings, utility may be somewhat hampered by the online system. Alternatively, the utility of the system (rather than the process or ratings) to supervisors and HR (rather than employees) over a full appraisal cycle (rather than after one administration) may be more relevant when determining the advantages of online systems over P&P. The finding for satisfaction is good news once again for both employees and their employers, as it suggests that employees feel satisfied with the process regardless of the method for PA delivery. We encourage more research on quality and utility to determine the generalizability of our findings across online PA systems and samples of employees.5.1 Implications for practice\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to compare employee reactions to the use of an online performance appraisal (PA) system to the traditional paper-and-pencil (P&P) approach.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A quasi-experimental study is conducted comparing the reactions of a group of 83 employees evaluate with a traditional P&P PA instrument to the reactions of a group of 152 employees evaluated with an online version of the same assessment tool.\nFindings: - Employees rate with the online version reported significantly higher levels of rater accountability and employee participation than employees rate with the traditional instrument. They report no difference in perceived security of the ratings, utility of the ratings, or satisfaction with the PA. Online employees report significantly lower levels of quality for the PA ratings than traditional employees.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is limited to employees in one organization and the variables examined. In the future, researchers should examine supervisor and human resource (HR) manager reactions to the system, additional individual difference variables, variables related to technology acceptance and use, and additional PA reactions.\nPractical implications: - The findings inform HR managers about how one sample of employees' reacted to an online appraisal. It is important for organizations to ensure all system users are well-trained in how to provide quality ratings and feedback through the system.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first quasi-experiment comparing employees' attitudes toward an online administration of PA to a traditional P&P administration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A methodology for increasing revenue in fashion retail industry: A case study of a Mexican company
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Retail",
"Inventory management",
"Replenishment",
"Fashion retail"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: SCM concepts, models and ideas from the literature and practice, have been extensively proposed in recent years. However, there is still room for improvements in areas such as inventory, demand and transportation management, as well as sales and operations planning in the fashion retail industry. This industry exhibits characteristics such as short life-cycles, high volatility, low predictability and high-impulse purchasing (Christopher et al., 2004). That is, demand for these products is rarely stable or linear, which makes it difficult to forecast with accuracy.\n2. Literature review: From the context presented in Section 1, it becomes clear that \"inventory management plays a major role in the fashion retail industry\". The complexity increases as new products are constantly being introduced (Caniato et al., 2014) and sales forecasting becomes a difficult task given demand variability.\n3. Proposed methodology: This methodology works under the premise that historical sales provide a recognisable pattern (in the case of new introduced products, we use data from identical/similar items). This pattern allows to determine categories for items. Once the pattern is identified, it is assumed as stable and independent among categories and seasons. In other words, products historically classified in the same category show a similar sales pattern independently of the season in which they were sold. Figure 2 illustrates this behaviour for products with high (H), medium (M) and low (L) demand.\n4. Case study: To evaluate the performance of the methodology, a Mexican fashion catalogue retail company was selected for implementation. The company is part of the fashion industry since 1991. They have a single distribution centre in a major city and 39 branches around the country. Their products are: clothes, shoes and accessories. For this analysis, we only consider clothes, as these products better represent the typical behaviour in fashion retail. In total, 90 per cent of their products are new each season.\n5. Conclusions and future work: In this paper, an inventory management methodology is proposed for replenishment and supply scheduling problems in fashion retail environments. Its contribution lies in that it dynamically adjusts future replenishment schedules according to items behaviour. This tool consists of two phases: the first phase is committed to develop an AP that will provide information about the estimated size of the initial purchase and replenishment orders for every item according to its expected performance level (H, M and L). In addition, supply replenishment policies are defined to facilitate the adjustments of outliers during the second phase. For the second phase, the behaviour of real demand for every item (in terms of sales and shortages) is captured into a database and monitored against its forecast demand (from the AP) using the periodical CIs obtained per category. In conjunction with the replenishment policies, adjustments in replenishment orders are made to assure the availability of products in future demands and to deal with potential disruptions derived from real demand variations.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Fashion retail companies typically exhibit short life-cycles, high volatility and low predictability. Therefore, their success is largely determined by the organisation's flexibility and responsiveness. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to facilitate inventory control to minimise both shortages and excess inventory for a multi-product, multi-period finite time horizon inventory problem by using statistical and stochastic analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed methodology operates in two phases: the first phase consists on determining an aggregate plan (AP) that will be used for monitoring the behaviour of the items during the time horizon. This plan is obtained by statistically analysing historical data related to sales and inventory shortages and is used to determine a demand forecast during the time horizon that allows to handle with potential disruptions derived from real demand variations. Finally, supply replenishment policies are defined to facilitate the monitoring process during the second phase. For the second phase, the behaviour of real demand for every item is captured into a database and compared against its projected demand (from the AP). If needed, adjustments are made in the procurement of future deliveries to reduce the probability of having shortages and/or excess inventory.\nFindings: A case study in a Mexican fashion retail company was conducted to assess the performance of the methodology. Results indicate that shortage in early periods can be reduced totally for certain products while, for others, the reduction is about 90.5 per cent. In addition, the incomes of the company were increased over 57 per cent.\nResearch limitations/implications: Even when the success of the methodology has been shown, cultural and behavioural factors were not considered. An extensive study is suggested to determine if these factors should be included to enhance the performance of the methodology.\nPractical implications: A case study of a Mexican fashion retail company was conducted to assess the performance of the proposed methodology. The methodology is easy to implement and effectively and quickly responds to disruptions in the demand and it also significantly reduces the level of shortages while increasing sales and revenue for the company.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes a methodology that is able to anticipate product's behaviour from early weeks. Additionally, replenishment policies allow to quickly adjust future orders to guarantee the availability of items and minimise overstock.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
You're in the Army now! Historical lessons for contemporary management theorists
|
[
"Management theory",
"Military metaphors",
"Theory uptake",
"Urwick"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Lyndall Urwick (1891-1983) was one of the most prolific and enduring writers on management theory and practice in the twentieth century (Parker and Ritson, 2011a). His work proselytised Taylor's scientific management and used military metaphors to communicate his theories and prescriptions. Urwick is noteworthy among the management writers of his day in his enduring commitment to the military perspective.\nManagement theories: uptake and resistance: Contemporary management research literature and theories merit review as a contextual background to Urwick's sustained (and ultimately failed) attempts to develop and promulgate his military-based management ideas. Researchers argue that management ideas and fashions emanate from sources including a general community perception of a problem that can be addressed through a specific management idea or practice, perceptions of benefits to be secured through adoption of new ideas and concepts, the tendency of groups to mimic the ideas being adopted by other groups and the adoption of such ideas in a social bandwagon style as adopters seek legitimacy (Kieser, 1997; Newell et al., 2001; Spell, 2001). Promoters may present improvements on previous practices while actually recycling earlier populist beliefs (Spell, 2001). So adoption of new management ideas may variously reflect perceptions of desired and actual performance in organisations, economic conditions or respond to social norms of what is seen as progress (Spell, 1999). Thus, how a problem is defined and whether practices will change depends on the audience's values and views of social reality (Whitley, 1984). This has potential relevance to our understanding the failure of Urwick's military metaphor to gain traction among his target audiences.\nUrwick's military career and Taylorist convictions: Lyndall Urwick (1891-1983) was the only son of a wealthy family of glove makers in Worcester England (Roper, 2000). He completed his undergraduate degree in history at Oxford University before entering the family firm Fownes & Co in 1912 (Roper, 2001; Witzel, 2003). An officer in the Territorial Army, Urwick was among the first to join the British Expeditionary Force in August 1914. He fought in the frontline until an attack of enteritis and dysentery put him into hospital in November 1914 (Witzel, 2003; Brech et al., 2010). Subsequently, arrangements were made to send him to an assembly camp in Rouen while he recuperated. In May 1915, Urwick returned to the front-line on the Ypres salient, and in August 1915, he became an acting Captain. Ongoing concerns about his health saw Urwick progress through a succession of staff appointments. Between November 1916 and April 1917, Urwick commanded a Training Reserve Brigade in Dorset, and in April 1917, he returned to France where he served as Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General (Brech et al., 2010). At war's end, Major Urwick was responsible for rounding-up allied prisoners of war left to fend for themselves by the retreating Germans. A final post-war promotion ensured that Urwick left the armed forces with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Witzel, 2003; Brech et al., 2010). In 1919, Urwick was awarded an Order of the British Empire (Witzel, 2003; Roper, 2000).\nMilitarised line - staff relationships and span of control: Urwick drew upon his wartime experiences to inform and illustrate his theoretical propositions. Two military principles in particular recurred often in his work. These were the line-staff distinction and the span of control.\nBritish decline and Urwick's response: To understand why Urwick remained such a committed devotee of Taylor, and why he continued to deploy military metaphors, it is necessary to view his career in its historical context. Urwick was born in 1891, about the same time Britain lost its position as the world's leading economy to the USA (Abramovitz, 1986; Maddison, 1991; Broadberry, 1998). He died in 1983, the same year as Margaret Thatcher's second general election victory. In the decade preceding Urwick's death, one could have divided the countries of the developed world into two categories. There were those countries that had overtaken the United Kingdom's economy in terms of gross domestic product per capita and there were those that looked as if they would soon overtake it if historical growth rates persisted (Maddison, 1991, pp. 24-25, 49). Lieutenant Colonel Urwick lived his life in the shadow of Britain's relative economic decline.\nModelling from British army transformation strategies: The British lacked the means to participate in mass warfare on the Western Front until 1916 when Kitchener's Army was thrown into battle on the River Somme. That British Army had three inherent disadvantages to overcome. The first was inexperience because Britain not raised a mass army in living memory (Spiers, 1992). The second disadvantage was that traditionally, Britain left others to fight on the continent, while its navy attacked enemies on the peripheries (Liddell Hart, 1930). The third disadvantage was tactical. The defensive military technologies of the day meant that in 1916, the British were going to have to traverse battlefields dominated by efficient killing machines like machine guns and modern artillery (Griffith, 1994; Sheffield, 2001). These three disadvantages combined to deadly effect when the British launched their assault on the German positions near the River Somme on 1 July 1916 (Prior and Wilson, 1992). The received wisdom is that thousands of inexperienced and poorly led British troops carried 66 lbs of equipment and marched slowly across no man's land to their deaths (Liddell Hart, 1930). In truth, around 30 per cent of the British casualties never even made it to no man's land because they fell behind the British lines (Prior and Wilson, 2005). The preliminary British artillery barrage had simply failed to suppress the German defences.\nMilitary disaffection in Urwick's audience: Within weeks of the breakthrough on the Hindenburg Line, the scale of the British achievement was being undermined by the allies' agreement to call the instrument signed by the Germans an \"Armistice\" as if two sides of approximate parity had negotiated an end to the war. In truth, this document was no armistice; it was a surrender on terms (Prior, 2010). However, the word \"Armistice\" would play its part in obscuring the reality of the German defeat in 1918.\nConclusions: In Chandler's analysis, the second industrial revolution had been a collectivised age. Managerial planning, control and coordination realised economies of scale and scope in large industrial manufacturing businesses. It was an era in which metaphors drawn from large military forces had potential relevance for business administration. Urwick saw in his First World War experiences an opportunity to improve British managerial practice. However, his First World War metaphors lacked currency for management both then and now. The past 30 years have seen the retreat of Chandlerian industrial firms in the face of ongoing technological change (Langlois, 2003, 2007). Flexible, adaptive and affordable technologies have reduced fixed and sunk costs to the point where the capacity to realise economies of scale and scope is no longer a key determinant of organisational success. Indeed, the past three decades have witnessed an unrelenting winding-back of Chandler's investments in productive capacity, distribution and management by means of outsourcing, downsizing and business process re-engineering. The \"invisible hand\" of the market coordinates the vast bulk of economic activity once more. The result is that industrial manufacture in the networked organisations of today bears an uncanny resemblance to a form of military organisation unknown to Urwick; ad hoc and temporary military forces created specifically to meet the demands of a particular mission which have characterised battlefields since the end of Second World War (Talbot, 2003).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the employment of the military metaphor by the management thinker and writer Lyndall Urwick who in the twentieth century developed and articulated his ideas over a 60-year period, arguably the longest continuous period of any management writer of his day.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study draws on published research into Urwick as well as upon the breadth of his published writings over a 60-year period. It offers a contextualised explanatory analysis of his military theory ideas and explores their lack of traction by reference to British military, economic and social history.\nFindings: The study reveals the wartime context that surrounded the emergence of his ideas and motivated Urwick's faith in the military approach to management. This stood in contrast to the countervailing forces of the post-war decline in British industry and a populist mythology of British Army mismanagement and failure in the Great War.\nOriginality/value: In this case of a management idea's failure to gain traction, the importance of the congruence between management theory and societal beliefs emerges as crucial to the likely uptake of new management thinking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Is the screening of product ideas supported by the NPD process design?
|
[
"Product development",
"Process planning",
"Design",
"Decision making",
"Best practice"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With new product development (hereafter NPD) as an investment expected to be leveraged, the screening performed between the NPD phases is crucial for the overall performance of a company. Two dimensions of the screening of product ideas are faith and consequence. Faith is the evaluation of a product idea's potential on the market. Consequence is the termination of product ideas within the NPD process. Companies demonstrate faith and consequence in their product development by believing in some ideas while terminating others.Different decision criteria determine the screening of product ideas over the process (Carbomell et al., 2004; Hart et al., 2003). NPD \"best practice\" literature generally agrees that the decision criteria and the screening of product ideas are supported by the NPD process design. According to \"best practices\" of NPD, the NPD process design supporting screening decisions is the use of cross-functional teams (Gupta and Wilemon, 1986; Montoya-Weiss and Calantone, 1994; Henard and Szymanski, 2001; Song et al., 1996; Song, 1996; Griffin and Hauser, 1996) and an NPD process with interacting phases (Urban and Hauser, 1993; Souder, 1989; Henard and Szymanski, 2001; Montoya-Weiss and Calantone, 1994; Cooper, 1988; Barczak, 1995; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1986; Grunert et al., 1997; Maylor, 2001; Wind, 1982; Crawford, 1997; Lewis, 2001). This assumption has not been explicitly confirmed, because the decision criteria and the subsequent screening have been \"overlooked\" by research (Hart et al., 2003).The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the screening of product ideas is supported by the NPD process design throughout the NPD phases. The empirical results provide important insight into the complexity of choosing the right product ideas to develop into new products. Acknowledging that NPD takes place in a context, the market conditions facing companies are also considered in the analysis. The paper examines the following two research questions:1. whether the NPD process design supports the screening of product ideas; and2. the role of a company's market conditions in this relationship.The paper contributes to NPD literature by adding to the knowledge of the screening of product ideas within the NPD process through these research questions. The paper adds to the arguments supporting the screening of product ideas as an important future research topic. By showing that the screening is detached from the NPD process design, the paper gives valuable insight into the need for theory to investigate the complexity of implementing \"best practices\" of NPD.Data were collected using an internet questionnaire addressed to the manager in charge of NPD in the contacted company. Participating companies were major international companies having placed their NPD in Denmark.The paper is organized as follows. First, the conceptual framework is presented and the hypotheses developed. Next the data collection and variable measures are described. Then the results and the discussion follow, before a conclusion and implications are given.\nConceptual framework and hypotheses: Drawing on literature in marketing, product development and project management, the following framework for the relationship between NPD process design, market conditions and product idea screening is developed (see Figure 1). The framework posits three main links:1. a direct link between NPD process design and product idea screening;2. a direct link between market conditions and product idea screening; and3. a direct link between market conditions and NPD process design.\nNPD process design: Cross-functional teams\nMarket conditions: Fast-cycle markets where the competitive advantage relies on creativity and innovation, and where the competitive rivalry is very intense are the markets most often experienced by high-technology companies. Here product ideas are terminated earlier in the NPD process (Slater and Narver, 1997;Williams, 1992). Differently, low-technology companies operate more often in stable environments where competition is based on operational efficiency (Slater and Narver, 1997;Williams, 1992). In these slow-cycle markets, the belief in product ideas is stronger, because the known market and customers lower the risk of NPD, and forecast product performance with higher certainty. Therefore it is hypothesized:H3a. Slow-cycle market conditions increase faith in product idea screening.H3b. Fast-cycle market conditions increase consequence in product idea screening.Furthermore, companies faced with high equivocality and uncertainty adopt integrated NPD practices in order to stay flexible and alert to the often changing competitive situation (Koufteros et al., 2002). An empirical study of 79 firms from the medical instrument technology industry and 85 firms from the food processing industry found that the absence of planning and NPD programs is causing new product failure in food processing companies (Karakaya and Kobu, 1994a). Therefore, it is hypothesized:H4. Fast-cycle market conditions increase the use of cross-functional teams and interacting phases for the development of new products.\nData collection: The sample consists of major international companies having their R&D unit placed in DK. The targeted companies develop either high or low technology products for the consumer market. Low-technology products were represented by food companies whereas high-technology products were more diversely represented by industries such as telecommunication, personal computers, kitchen hardware, speakers, washing machines, tumblers, and headphones. The selection criteria were: reasonable size, consumer products, and product development in Denmark. High or low technology is defined on basis of the end product, since these are operating in fast and slow-cycle markets.The potential companies being identified, their Websites were visited in order to check if product development activities were taking place in Denmark and furthermore to determine a possible contact person. The latter was found based on either job title as R&D manager/director or via the organizational chart from which it was possible to determine whether it was a marketing, engineering or project manager who would be the relevant contact person.Based on this search for companies, the list contained 30 high-technology companies and 55 low-technology companies. Where the low-technology companies are a sample of a large population of food companies, the 30 high-technology companies constitute the existing population in Denmark. Contact was made by telephone to all 85 companies. Having accepted to participate, the company and the participating person from the company were entered into a mail database which distributed emails with links and passwords to an internet questionnaire. The response rate was 68 per cent.\nMeasures: The screening of product ideas\nAnalysis: The relationships between NPD process design, market conditions and product idea screening are analyzed by use of a multiple dummy regression analysis. Market condition is coded 1 for low-technology companies and 0 for high-technology companies. Cross-functional teams and single units responsible for NPD are coded 1 for being responsible for NPD and 0 for not responsible. A design of the NPD process with interacting phases is coded 1 for the implementation of any generation of a stage-gate process. The results are presented in Tables I, II and III. To examine the association between market conditions and NPD architecture, a general chi-square analysis was conducted.\nResults: H1 states that cross-functional teams increase faith and consequence in product idea screening. The results in Tables I, II and III do not support this assumption. Regarding faith in the product ideas (see Table I): In the idea phase, cross-functional teams have less faith in product ideas than a single-unit being responsible for NPD, except for the R&D department. Differently in the prototype phase, where cross-functional teams together with marketing demonstrate more faith in product ideas. Regarding the consequence for product ideas in the NPD process, the results show that cross-functional teams are performing as any single unit responsible for NPD. The product phase is an exception with fever ideas surviving from the prototype phase to the product phase (see Table II).H2 states that interacting phases increase faith and consequence in the product idea screening. The results in Tables I, II, and III do not support this assumption. For the sample companies, the design of the NPD process does not affect the screening of product ideas. Neither faith nor consequence is influenced by the NPD process implemented in the companies.H3a states that slow-cycle market conditions increase faith in product idea screening. The results in Table I do not support this assumption. From Table I and Figure 2 it appears that companies on fast-cycle markets such as high-technology consumer goods have faith in their product ideas. Not, on average, an overwhelming faith, but these companies seem stronger in their belief.H3b states that fast-cycle market conditions increase consequence in product idea screening. The results in Table III and Figure 3 (see below) support this notion. Figure 3 demonstrates that high-technology companies terminate thirty-six percent of new product ideas in the idea phase, but only seven percent in the concept phase, whereas low-technology companies terminate 28 percent of new product ideas in the idea phase and another 25 percent in the concept phase. High-technology companies use fever product ideas for the development of a new product. Differently, low-technology companies have a higher amount of product ideas to evaluate in all phases of the NPD process.H4 states that fast-cycle market conditions increase the use of cross-functional teams and interacting phases for the development of new products. The relationship between market conditions and the use of cross-functional teams is not supported (kh2=1.128; p=0.288). Differently, the relationship between market conditions and an NPD process designed with interacting phases is supported (kh2=3.561; p=0.059). As shown in Figure 4, companies on fast-cycle markets (high-technology companies) apply an NPD design with interacting phases more extensively.\nDiscussion: The result that cross-functional teams do not influence the screening of product ideas any differently than single-units being responsible for NPD raises questions regarding the teamwork of cross-functional teams. Rejecting H1 supports the notion that the ability to work in teams is not given in many organizations (Lewis, 2001). Project management literature (Pinto, 2002) states that promoting cross-functional teamwork in companies requires careful attention to not only superordinate goals, team member proximity and the design of the teams, but also to the psycho-social attitudes of the team members. As stated in teamwork literature, teamwork requires special efforts and organizational support. This message seems still highly relevant.Has the NPD process evolved into an overlapping, flexible process? As pointed out by Flint (2002), ad hoc and/or sequential processes exist in some companies (Flint, 2002). Figure 4 supports this notion. The results presented here give rise to another interesting question: How is the design of the NPD process implemented? In a study involving over 100 business and consumer marketing firms, few positive relationships were found to exist between the structure put in place to guide the NPD processes and the sales results accruing from NPD efforts (Gordon et al., 1995). Another study of 244 SMEs in manufacturing found that concurrent engineering did not exhibit significant effects on product innovation performance (Koufteros et al., 2002). The central aspect is not the decision to apply an approach with interacting phases like the stage-gate model, but the implementation within companies (Cooper, 2000; Gordon et al., 1995). Structuring the NPD process is a benefit for the screening of product ideas, but not a small step to take for perfecting the NPD process in a company. It takes more than reading a book to turn theory into practice.The strong confidence of high-technology companies in the sample is interesting. Several aspects may have generated this result, and five are given below. First, the low-technology companies in the sample are food companies, and this market is very much dependent on shelf space, which is not easily gained for new products in the supermarkets (Brunso, 1996; Risom, 2000). Hence, low-technology companies need a larger portfolio of new products to bring to the negotiations with retailers. The second aspect is experience. Previous research has found that food-processing companies show very low success rates (Stewart-Knox and Mitchell, 2003; Karakaya and Kobu, 1994b; Koku, 1998). Though operating in a slow-cycle market, the food companies seem unable to convert their market knowledge into strong confidence. Third, an investment decision is attached to all new product ideas. The fact is that technology costs more. Hence, high-technology companies are more strongly motivated to a consequent screening than low-technology companies because each development represents a greater economic risk for the company. Fourth, a false security in technology: If a product demonstrates high functionality, then the potential sales are perceived high. This technology-push line of thought is often questioned by theory (Crawford, 1997). Fifth, the attitude of being superior to the market is an often cited characteristic of high-technology companies (Day, 1999).\nConclusion: Two aspects can be drawn from the results and the discussion. First, the screening of product ideas is detached from the actual development process. Second, companies' market conditions significantly influence the screening of product ideas.As concerns the first research question, the conclusion is that the NPD process design does not support the screening of product ideas. Cross-functional teams and interacting phases are not fulfilling expectations. Though indicated as applied in companies, the functionality is not as theoretically assumed. The implementation of NPD process design constitutes a communication gap between research and practice.As concerns the second research question, the conclusion is that market conditions overrule decision procedures for the NPD process. Companies' orientation toward the competitive game in their markets plays a central role for NPD decision-making.In all, the screening of product ideas is a complex decision situation that cannot be assumed to follow the theoretical intentions of cross-functional teams and interacting phases.\nResearch implications: To understand NPD in companies, NPD literature will benefit from knowledge of the process of implementing \"best practices\" of NPD. Companies follow guidelines, but how is the NPD process followed through? As stated by research, the decision criteria for the screening of product ideas have been an \"overlooked\" part of the NPD process (Carbomell et al., 2004; Hart et al., 2003). This paper supports the need for more insight into the complexity of screening decisions as well as knowledge of the screening determinants.\nPractical implications: The risk of developing and investing in ideas without potential to generate ROI is high when the screening of product ideas is detached from the NPD process. The implementation of cross-functional teams and interacting phases demands more attention by management in order to reduce the costs of NPD relative to the ROI of new products.Market conditions should be considered in the NPD decision-making, but as an information source equal to other information sources used for the NPD. Following the conditions of the market is a narrow view on the company product portfolio, and may make companies miss out on important windows of opportunity. Managers should use market conditions actively rather than reactively.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the screening of product ideas is supported by the NPD (new product development) process design throughout the NPD phases.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected with an internet survey questionnaire from 43 large companies producing high and low-technology consumer products.\nFindings: - Results reveal that the screening of product ideas is detached from the NPD process design, but significantly influenced by the market conditions facing companies.\nResearch limitations/implications: - To understand NPD in companies, NPD literature will benefit from knowledge of the process of implementing \"best practices\" of NPD. Companies follow guidelines, but how is the NPD process followed through? This paper supports the need for improved insight into the complexity of screening decisions as well as knowledge of the screening determinants.\nPractical implications: - The implementation of cross-functional teams and interacting phases demands more attention by management in order to reduce costs of NPD relative to the ROI of new products.\nOriginality/value: - By showing that the screening is detached from the NPD process design, the paper gives valuable insight into the need for theory to investigate the complexity of implementing \"best practices\" of NPD.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Discovering academics' key learning connections: An ego-centric network approach to analysing learning about teaching
|
[
"Higher education",
"Teaching",
"Workplace learning",
"Social network analysis",
"Personal learning networks",
"Egocentric network analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The prominence of networking and other forms of social exchange for both individual and organisational learning is widely acknowledged (Ancori et al., 2000; Cross et al., 2001). It is a commonly held belief in education that \"networks generate powerful professional learning\" (Lima, 2008, p. 13). Various researchers describe networks as a key source of teachers' professional development and highlight their vital role in equipping teachers with a sense of empowerment, providing emotional support, enhancing engagement in teaching, and enabling teachers to take ownership of curricula (Baker-Doyle, 2011; Lieberman and Miller, 1999; Lieberman and Wood, 2003). However, research on the role of networks in professional development of teachers has predominantly been carried out in relation to formal, institutionally provided networks in compulsory education contexts (Baker-Doyle and Yoon, 2011; McCormick et al., 2011). Kerr et al. (2003) have recognised the need for examining such networks from an individual standpoint given that most existing research comes from the perspective of network coordinators rather than that of the participants. There is a paucity of studies examining personal networks of academics in higher education. In particular, there is limited understanding of the way in which academics utilise the resources available through their networks, or how networks in general support their practice and professional development. Further, Borgatti and Cross (2003) have pointed out that our understanding of the specific types of relationship that are conducive to learning in networks is limited.\nLiterature review: In this study learning is conceived as the acquisition of new ideas, knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to teaching practice, assuming that this is likely to occur through social interactions with other knowledgeable peers. We use social network theory to describe the interactions of academics. A social network comprises the individuals (actors or agents) and the interactional links or ties between them, and network theory provides ways of describing both the properties of the ties and the overall structure of the ties. The interactions comprising the ties may take the form of exchange of knowledge, materials, resources, and advice (Wenger et al., 2011). Since authors such as Eraut (2007), Scardamalia and Bereiter (2003), Koopmans et al. (2006), Schulz and Geithner (2010), Katz et al. (2009) and Tynjala (2008) have emphasised the importance of dialogue and social interaction for sharing ideas, experiences and concepts during learning, we consider that networks are a potential locus for academics' professional learning.\nMethodology: Data collection procedure\nResults: This section presents synthesised quantitative results of the SNA survey and the semi-structured interviews. The qualitative results are described in Pataraia et al. (2013). Firstly, we discuss the overall form of participants' personal learning networks relating to teaching. Secondly, we examine the extent and characteristics of any homophily evident. Thirdly we examine tendencies in the participants' learning network relations. Finally, we measure the significance of association between physical proximity/strength of tie and frequency of interaction about teaching.\nDiscussion: Participants' personal learning networks relating to teaching displayed diversity in their composition. Although key learning connections were found both within and outside the home institution, the percentage of physically-proximate connections was still high. The SNA and interview data revealed that participants' learning networks were based around both physically and emotionally close ties, which appeared the most homophilious with respect to occupation (academic professionals). This suggests that three factors - i.e. physical proximity, the strength of tie measured in terms of friendship, and homophily in regards to similar occupation - encouraged the creation of learning networks.\nConclusion: This investigation extends the discussion of professional learning in academia in a novel way, by taking a social network perspective. This research enriches the limited understanding of academics' networks, by revealing relationships that condition professional learning and support enhancement of teaching practice. Reflection on personal networks can potentially enable academics to determine the effectiveness of their networks by identifying expertise/knowledge gaps or mechanisms for better exploitation of available resources. A practical implication of this study would be to recognise the potential of personal networks for academics' professional learning and improvement of practice, considering informal interactions relating to teaching as an integral part of the strategy for academic development; universities and central units might provide the venue, time and opportunities for informal exchange of knowledge within/across departments, as well as between different institutions, promoting dialogues and reflections around teaching practice. One such example of staff development that promotes networking between institutions is the disciplinary commons developed by Fincher and Tenenberg (2011). Moreover, central units could raise awareness of networks, by communicating to academics the importance of open and diverse networks for broadening their knowledge base and expertise. This could be achieved by offering training on enhancing the networking skills.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this exploratory study is to investigate the role of personal networks in supporting academics' professional learning. In particular, the paper examines the composition of academics' networks and the implications of network tendencies for academics' learning about teaching.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts a mixed-methods approach. Firstly, the composition of academics' networks is examined using social network analysis. Secondly, the role of these networks in academics' learning about teaching is analysed through semi-structured interviews.\nFindings: Findings reveal the prevalence of localised and strong-tie connections, which could inhibit opportunities for effective learning and spread of innovations in teaching. The study highlights the need to promote connectivity within and across institutions, creating favourable conditions for effective professional learning.\nResearch limitations/implications: While the study makes a valuable contribution to the literature, the generalisability of these findings is limited, because the sample is restricted to 37 academics. Participants' characteristics and networking behaviours may not be fully representative of academics in a wider range of contexts and settings. Another limitation is that the evaluation of people's learning was limited to self-reported measures. Future research should measure a broader range of evidence related to academics' professional networks.\nPractical implications: This study extends the discussion of professional learning in academia in a novel way, by taking a social network perspective. The approach employed attempts to enrich the limited understanding of academics' networks, by unpacking the ways in which academics' personal networks support their learning.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this work lies in its intent to uncover relationships that condition professional learning and enhancement of teaching practice. Reflection on personal networks can potentially enable individuals to determine the effectiveness of their networks and the significance of their network connections.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of cultural authenticity on brand uniqueness and willingness to try: The case of Chinese brands and US consumers
|
[
"Asian brand",
"Brand logo",
"Brand uniqueness",
"Chinese brand",
"Cultural authenticity",
"Willingness to try"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Brands from Asia, and especially from China, are growing in number and presence around the world. Asian businesses are becoming major global players, contributing to 16 percent of the world's total Foreign Direct Investment (Ernst and Young, 2012). Additionally, the number of Asian brands ranked within the top 100 global brands has doubled in the last decade, from six brands in 2004 to 11 in 2014 (Interbrand, 2015). However, Asian brands still need to overcome consumer perceptions often associated with the negative country-of-origin effect (Henderson et al., 2003; Kumar and Steenkamp, 2013; Roll, 2006), and this poses huge challenges for the growth of Asian brands' global power. One of these challenges is to persuade consumers in the West (e.g. Europe, the USA, or Canada) to try Asian brands.\nLiterature review: Effect of brand cultural authenticity on consumer perceptions\nResearch methods: A 2 (logo mark: Asian-themed vs Western-themed) by 2 (logotype: English only vs a blend of English and Chinese language) between-subjects factorial experimental research was designed (Appendix). Experimental research is an effective method to observe casual relationships among independent and dependent variables, as well as to predict the respondents' perceptions or behaviors in a specific context (Grabe and Westley, 2003). Since the objective of the study was to examine the predictive perceptions of US consumers, the experimental research design was deemed appropriate.\nResults: Reliability\nConclusions: In response to today's marketplace in which many Chinese brands are trying to expand their businesses not only within the Asian regions, but also into Western nations, this study investigated the strategic use of cultural authenticity that Chinese brands may employ when introducing themselves to Western consumers. Although the benefits of using cultural heritage in brand strategies have been noted by several scholars in the past (Ooi and Stober, 2008; Roll, 2006; Kumar and Steenkamp, 2013), the efficacies of how Asian brands can use brand logo designs to positively influence their brand success have not been studied. To fill this gap, this study was designed to examine how Chinese brands can increase willingness to try among Western, specifically US consumers by establishing brand uniqueness via culturally authentic brand logo designs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In response to today's marketplace in which many Asian brands are trying to expand their businesses into Western nations, this study investigated the strategic use of cultural authenticity that Asian brands may employ for their success. Although the benefits of using cultural heritage in brand strategies have been noted by past literature, the efficacies of how Asian brands can use brand logo designs to positively influence their brand success have not been studied. To fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to examine how Chinese brands can increase willingness to try among US consumers by establishing brand uniqueness via culturally authentic brand logo designs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data from 289 respondents via online between-subjects factorial experimental research surveys were collected using a national US population as the sample frame. The Chinese brand logos communicating Asian heritage were created by manipulating the cultural authenticity of the brand logo mark and the language of the logotype.\nFindings: The results suggested that the Asian-themed brand logo is an important tool in exuding a Chinese brand's sense of cultural authenticity to US consumers. In turn, the perception of cultural authenticity for the Chinese brand positively influenced the US consumers' perceptions of the brand's uniqueness, which led to greater willingness to try the brand.\nOriginality/value: The research provides empirical insights into how \"Asian-ness\" can be manifested via brand logos to convey cultural authenticity as well as to build perceived brand uniqueness and the willingness to try among US consumers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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