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Benchmarking the competitiveness of the ASEAN 5 equity markets: An application of Porter's diamond model
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"Competitive advantage",
"ASEAN",
"Stock markets"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The ASEAN has been a regional economic integration initiated in 1967. The collaboration aims to increase the potential of bargaining position in the global, and share resources among members within this region. The cooperation has been started by ASEAN Free Trade Area initiating in 1993. ASEAN's economic performance continues to outpace the rest of the world with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicting that GDP in ASEAN countries will grow 5.3 percent in 2013 and 5.6 percent in 2014. One important attempt devoted to financial sector development is the linkage between seven stock markets from six countries in ASEAN, namely, ASEAN exchanges. The members of the ASEAN exchanges are Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine, Singapore, Ho Chi Min, and Hanoi. The issue of stock markets integration has been emphasized by the liberalization of financial markets, which start out by relaxation of international capital flows and the growing cross-border investment into ASEAN. Furthermore, leaders of the ASEAN countries confirmed their commitment to the founding of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), briefly AEC, by the end of 2015. It is enthusiastically to transform ASEAN to be a free movement zone of goods, services, skilled labor, investment, and capital. This impressive performance will shape the region with an important investment opportunity. One of the main objectives for the collaboration is to establish market base economies, in which financial sectors are liberalized. It is expected that financial and capital markets will be integrated to ensure that capital flows are flowed toward the right mechanism, so reducing the vulnerable to the crisis.\nLiterature review: A brief review of ASEAN stock markets\nData and methodology: Data\nAnalysis of the competitiveness for ASEAN 5 stock markets: The competitiveness of stock market among ASEAN 5 nations was analyzed based on diamond model. This model considers the four aspects of stock market environment including factor condition, demand condition, related and supporting industries, firm strategy, structure, and rivalry. In addition, the role of government is affecting factor on four key factors. We hypothesize that the cumulative relative value for a country having higher competitive advantage should be greater than lower competitive advantage equity markets.\nPolicy implications and discussions: One remarkable implications of the radar chart in the above figure is the distance between each point on the same spoke. The distance represents the competitiveness gap between two stock exchanges under a particular dimension of Porter's diamond model. From the previous analysis, the relative competitiveness score has separated the five stock exchanges into two groups. There are three aspects of Porter's diamond model that contribute to this separation. The higher competitive group surpasses another in the role of government, factor condition, and related and supporting industries aspects. The three aspects are more macro-factors related to government policies and decisions. This indicates that government and the environment the stock exchanges operating in plays an energetic role in supporting the financial and capital market development. The result shows that the leader stock exchanges of the region, Singapore and Malaysia have significant involvements from the government. To learn from the best-in-class exchange, SGX, the remaining stock exchanges should focus on the role of government since government plays an important role in the investment in basic infrastructure development under factor condition aspect, relaxing regulations related to investment and taxation under the role of government, as well as creating supportive activities and business environment for the advancement of equity markets. Therefore, the government of the lower competitive group should indorse basic infrastructure, increase level of involvement in public policies and taxation, as well as promote supporting industries so as to explore domestic and regional demand for financial products and to improve the supply chain efficiency.\nConclusion: This paper investigates the competitiveness of the stock markets in ASEAN 5, applying Porter's diamond model to analyze the competitiveness. The model is based on five main pillars of competitiveness, comprising of several indicators that emphasize different aspects of competitiveness. This research contributes to a deepened concern of the sources of competitive advantage among ASEAN stock markets. To the best of knowledge, this study is the first to conduct benchmarking on the competitive advantage for stock exchanges, which has never been studied before. The study sheds light on the competitiveness structure of the stock markets in the ASEAN region. The results show that SGX tops the list far ahead of others. BM acquires the second highest-ranking after Singapore in terms of competitiveness. The SET is third ranked ahead of IDX and the PSE, respectively. This finding reveals that the competitiveness and the development levels of the stock markets in this region are imbalanced. The existing gaps should be reduced in order to foster the future of integration. One effective way to lessen the gap is to promote strategic alliances and cross-border listing of equity products among the region. The benchmarking process in this study helps the lower competitive stock markets to determine what they could be doing better. The lower competitive markets should indispensably need to establish the well-planned development strategy and policy to build up the competitive advantage and to find synergies among the region before full participation of AEC in 2015.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the competitiveness of the stock markets in ASEAN 5, which are the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Bursa Malaysia (BM), the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research applies Porter's (1990) diamond model to analyze the competitiveness and the data were collected from World Economic Forum, International Institute for Management Development, the World Federation of Exchanges database, and DataStream.\nFindings: The results show that SGX is the most competitive exchange in ASEAN 5 region. It dominates other exchanges in every dimension. It gains its reputation for being the region's most prominent exchange, followed by BM, SET, IDX, and the PSE, respectively.\nPractical implications: The results of this investigation provide rank for competitiveness of stock exchanges among ASEAN 5 and identify the way to improve its competitive position.\nSocial implications: It is useful for public and private sectors involved in the development and policy making to promote funding and investment efficiency of the exchanges. It will be benefit to establish the well-planned development strategy and policy to build up the competitive advantage of the nations.\nOriginality/value: Identifying and benchmarking the competitiveness of the stock markets in ASEAN economies. By using Diamond Model, the authors propose indicators to assess the competitiveness of the stock markets in ASEAN 5 countries. Assessing the competitiveness of the ASEAN stock markets in this paper will lead us to better understand about each country's strengths and weaknesses and to promote a mutual collaboration among the region toward ASEAN Economic Community.\n",
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R&D effects, risks and strategic decisions: evidence from listed firms in R&D-intensive countries
|
[
"Asset pricing",
"R&D intensity",
"Stock returns",
"Currency risk",
"R&D anomaly",
"R&D-intensive countries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: R&D impact on the development of a firm was well studied by researchers (Bloom et al., 2013). A comprehensive review of the relevant literature conducted in the OECD (2017) paper showed that markets do not provide enough incentives for firms to invest heavily in R&D because social effects of such investment significantly overweigh private returns. At the same time, broad academic literature mostly exhibits evidence of the significant and mostly positive effect of firms' R&D intensity on stock returns. These controversial conclusions may be justified by different attitudes of investors to R&D risks, as well as drawbacks in implemented R&D strategies.\n2. Literature review and the model: Early studies of the level of R&D intensity and stock markets focus on the US market. Hirschey (1982) finds positive effects of R&D on stock returns. Sougiannis (1994) divides the impact of R&D into indirect and direct effects. The indirect effects impact market value through earnings. For the direct effects, new information from R&D directly affects share prices. According to Sougiannis (1994), the indirect effect is greater than the direct effect, which may support mispricing as the reason behind the R&D anomaly because investors do not necessarily require an additional premium for R&D.\n3. R&D risk premiums: The sample for our empirical analysis was retrieved from the Thomson Reuters Datastream portal and initially consisted of approximately 2,300 public firms whose shares are traded on the Korean Exchange, Helsinki Stock Exchange or Tel Aviv Stock Exchange during the period from 2002 to 2016. The sample includes the revenue and R&D expenditures of the firms, their market capitalization as of year-end and as of June 30 for each year and the stock prices as of the end of each month throughout the period under consideration. At this stage, all missing values are omitted, while zeros (i.e. in the case where a firm does report R&D expenditures, although equal to zero) remain in the sample. All figures are denominated in US dollars. To participate in the portfolio formation process and thus contribute to its return in a given year, a firm must meet a number of conditions. Namely, it is necessary for the firm to exhibit market capitalization as of June 30 of the studied year and annual revenue for the previous financial year of over US$1m. In addition, its book value of equity may not fall below zero and its R&D expenditures for the previous financial year (or, alternatively, for several of the latest financial years, depending on the selected R&D-intensity measurement) should be reported, i.e. companies with missing values are omitted. Finally, stocks with extraordinarily high or low monthly returns (as compared to their peers) are excluded following the winsorizing procedure. The market portfolio, risk-free rate and SMB portfolio returns for the model were provided by the Fama and French database[1].\n4. The impact of R&D on currency risk: To further study the origins of risk premium, we investigated the impact of R&D on systematic risks for each firm. Many studies including those of Ho et al. (2004), Chan et al. (2001), Kothari et al. (2002), Chambers et al. (2002) and Amir et al. (2007), discovered that R&D intensity is positively related to stock return volatility. They demonstrate that the stocks of R&D-intensive firms have greater systematic risk. According to Ho et al. (2004), the higher systematic risk arises from higher business risk, which is determined by the volatility of sales. According to Ho et al., the operational risk of the R&D-intensive companies is also greater. Bah and Dumontier (2001), among other researchers, noted that highly R&D-intensive firms are financially less leveraged. Li (2011) posited that R&D intensity predicts returns only among financially constrained firms. According to Li, financial constraints drive the potential positive stock return from R&D intensity, which supports the risk-related explanation of the R&D anomaly.\n5. Conclusions and implications for firm's strategy: This paper examines the impact of the R&D-related risks on expected stock returns. Using a sample of stock returns from the three most R&D-intensive countries, namely, South Korea, Finland and Israel, we discovered that a firm with a higher ratio of R&D expenditures to its revenue should face a higher required rate of return on its equity which generally supports the evidence from US and other developed markets. At the same time, a reduction in R&D intensity tends to facilitate an even more drastic compensation for risk. We could not discover any long-term effects of R&D investments on a firm's value. Probably this fact could be explained by the short-term R&D effects in the relatively large ICT sectors of South Korea, Finland and Israel.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to look at the effects of research and development expenditures (R&D) on value and risks of publicly traded companies by studying returns on stock exchanges of R&D-intensive economies (Republic of Korea, Finland and Israel).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical tests of multifactor asset pricing models were applied to demonstrate that R&D intensity could be considered as a pricing factor and affect investors' risk premiums on those markets. To discover the reasons behind the asset pricing R&D anomaly, this study investigated the nature of R&D risk further by looking into the interactions of R&D and currency risks.\nFindings: This study discovered that investors in stock markets of R&D-intensive countries should require a positive equity risk premium. However, the reduction of R&D intensity may increase firms' risks and firms with higher R&D-intensity are less exposed to currency risks in R&D-intensive economies.\nOriginality/value: Many researchers have investigated the relationship between a firm's R&D and stock returns. But nearly all of them focus on the US Stock Market and attempt to determine the reasons for R&D's impact on firms' risks and market value. Meanwhile, the role of R&D and related risks for investors could be even more prominent for stock markets in R&D-intensive countries. To bridge this gap, this research studied stock returns on exchanges of three developed countries where the ratio of gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) to GDP is among the highest worldwide. In this study, the methodology of asset pricing empirical studies was adopted and it was further developed to analyze the causes of R&D risks. The new methodology was applied to discover relationship between R&D intensity and currency risk exposure. The interesting findings could be used for development of firms' corporate strategies in those countries and for elaboration of policy decisions.\n",
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Validation of the work-related age-based stereotypes (WAS) scale
|
[
"Stereotypes",
"Older workers",
"Ageism",
"Age-based stereotypes",
"Ageist stereotypes",
"Stereotype measurement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There are over 44 million individuals aged 50+ in the US workforce; by 2020, those aged 55+ are expected to increase their share of the labor force to 38 percent. By 2020, the labor force participation rate for those aged 65+ is expected to increase to 22 percent (AARP, 2013). Similar demographic trends are projected across the Atlantic, with the proportion of older workers in European Union (EU) (2010) economies expected to increase by approximately 140 percent within the next 20 years, and with the old-age dependency ratio (the extent to which an economy relies upon older workers) expected to almost double.\nThe stereotype content model: negative and positive age-based stereotypes: The stereotype content model (Fiske et al., 2002) posits that there are two primary dimensions of stereotype content: competence and warmth. These two dimensions have been found to be universal dimensions of social cognition (Fiske et al., 2007). These content dimensions combine to delineate three basic forms of prejudice: paternalistic (against those viewed as being low on competence but high on warmth), envious (against those viewed as being high on competence but low on warmth), and contemptuous (against those viewed as being low on competence and warmth); high competence and warmth is reserved for one's in-groups (Cuddy and Fiske, 2002). Older adults are postulated to fall on the paternalistic dimension, whereby they are viewed as warm, good-natured, sincere, and happy, but incompetent, unimaginative, wavering, and foolish. This focus on incompetence of older adults also finds confluence with Terror Management Theory (Greenberg et al., 2004), whereby themes associated with death and decay bring to mind representations of frailty, weakness, and incompetence. With regard to older workers in particular, a perceived lack of competence has been both theorized and evidenced to be the most essential negative stereotype (Krings et al., 2011).\nMeasures of ageism and age-based stereotypes: To identify published measures of ageism and ageist stereotypes, we conducted an electronic database search using PSYCInfo, utilizing the following keyword combinations: \"Ageism\"\nMethod and results: Item development\nDiscussion: We developed a multidimensional measure of age-based stereotypes of older workers. Across three samples, we established validity for the three-factor multidimensional factor structure of the WAS, with accompanying convergent and discriminant validity evidence. This scale has the potential to inform research on age-based prejudice in the workplace by providing greater measurement fidelity to measures of ageism in the workplace, and by providing a greater variety of predictive possibilities with negatively and positively valenced dimensions. Therefore, researchers using this scale can predict outcomes that are related to the negatively related constructs of competence and adaptability and the positively valenced construct of warmth. As evidenced by the current results, warmth better predicts contextual performance than task performance. Also, all three stereotype content dimensions as measured by the WAS predicted ageist attitudes in a field sample of mostly older workers working in a range of occupations. Hence, the WAS scale may successfully predict various types of organizational outcomes, including ageist attitudes, behavioral intentions (suitability for hire ratings), and perceived performance.\nFuture research: One may question the limited number of stereotype dimensions we ultimately selected - why only three? No doubt, there are numerous stereotypes of older adults. Our reasoning is scientific parsimony. We identified three overarching stereotype themes that pervade social cognitions of older workers - that they are weaker, frailer, and less able or competent than their younger counterparts; that they are more genial, friendly, and warmer than their younger counterparts; and that they are set in their ways, resistant to new ideas, and afraid or unable to change. Although other dimensions may exist, they may not be pervasive enough to warrant a greater item set to measure stereotypes. Future research examining use of the less prevalent stereotype dimensions may be useful.\nConclusion: Across multiple samples and a variety of methods, the WAS scale evidenced measurement validity. These robust results speak to the potential of the WAS scale to predict criteria of organizational importance that are related to age. Given a dearth of stereotype measures focussing on age as it relates to the domain of work, it is our hope that the current study will spur further research into and development of such scales.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on developing and validating a multidimensional measure of work-related age-based stereotypes (WAS) scale.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based upon a review of the literature, a three-dimensional stereotype content model including both negative (incompetence, inadaptability) and positive (warmth) stereotypes of older workers was created. Construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity for the WAS scale were examined across three independent samples constituting both lab-based experimental studies and a field-based survey (total n=1,245).\nFindings: Across all samples, the WAS evidenced good construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity.\nOriginality/value: As evidenced by a review of the literature, the WAS is unique in that it measures both negative and positive stereotypes of older workers. Implications for research are discussed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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E-procurement in small and medium sized enterprises; facilitators, obstacles and effect on performance
|
[
"Small-to-medium-sized enterprises",
"E-procurement",
"Survey",
"Strategic purchasing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: E-procurement is an e-business capability (Devaraj et al., 2007) that combines the use of information technology and purchasing resources in processing purchasing orders, exchanging information with suppliers and supporting purchasing decisions (Ordanini and Rubera, 2008). Companies increasingly recognize that applying information technology to their procurement processes can yield significant competitive advantage. Indeed, a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group indicates that 9 of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies mention in their annual reports that digital technologies are crucial for their procurement operations (Hogel et al., 2018). Benefits of e-procurement include reduction of the time required to process purchase orders, reduction in costs associated with managing purchasing orders and payment to suppliers, reduction of transaction errors, and improved data accuracy and information quality (Bahaddad et al., 2018; Costa et al., 2013). According to some estimates, e-procurement could render material cost savings of 5 to 10 percent, productivity increases of 30 to 50 percent, and substantial improvements in innovation, quality, speed, and risk management (Hogel et al., 2018). Moreover, a recent report by the McKinsey consulting group indicates that chief purchasing officers expect a 40 percent increase in annual savings, 30 to 50 percent less time spent on transactional sourcing, and a 50 percent reduction in value leakage because of digital procurement programs (De la Boulaye et al., 2017). Despite these enticing benefits, e-procurement is still predominantly exploited by larger firms rather than by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Zeller and Drescher, 2017; Gunasekaran et al., 2009).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: Although there is a paucity of research regarding e-procurement in SMEs, three articles are key to understanding its current state. In the first study about e-procurement in SMEs, Archer et al. (2008) identified the perceived importance of barriers to the adoption of internet business procurement and supply chain solutions. Using survey data from 173 Canadian SMEs, Archer et al. (2008) found that lack of management leadership, lack of knowledge, and resistance to change are the most often barriers identified by SME managers, all of which point toward the role of top management support. Although some studies have found that top management support has a positive influence on e-procurement (Teo et al., 2009; Soares-Aguiar and Palma-dos-Reis, 2008; Rai, Tang, Brown and Keil, 2006) the evidence is not conclusive in both large organizations (Wu and Ross, 2007) and SMEs (Hassan et al., 2017). Some authors have argued that IT obstacles (e.g. IT budget constraints and the use of IT legacy systems) could play a role in the lack of relationship between e-procurement and top management support (Wu and Ross, 2007). Thus, the need to also consider the relationship between IT obstacles and e-procurement when analyzing top management support and e-procurement.\n3. Research method: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Results: The theoretical model presented in Figure 1 was estimated using the entire (n=199) data set. Prior to assessing the study's hypotheses, the model's overall fit had to be established (Bollen and Long, 1993). The kh2 statistic was significant (kh2=756.36, df=489, p<0.01). With respect to the fit indices, the kh2/df=1.55 and RMSEA had a value of 0.053, below the recommended maximums of 3 and 0.08 (Chau, 1997), respectively. The fit indices CFI=0.98, IFI=0.98, NNFI=0.98, RFI=0.95 were all above the minimum acceptable 0.94 level (Chau, 1997). Thus, the model appears to fit reasonably well.\n5. Discussion: Overall, the data analysis seems to support the proposed model, suggesting that top management support of IT, strategic purchasing and IT obstacles are three key elements that affect the development of e-procurement. The results extend previous literature in e-procurement in SMEs either by providing evidence of a relationship that was not previously found in the literature (top management support and e-procurement; Hassan's et al. (2017) and by providing empirical evidence of relationships which had not been previously tested in the context of SMEs (strategic purchasing and e-procurement; and e-procurement and performance; Archer's et al. (2008) and Gunasekaran's et al. (2009).\n6. Concluding remarks: While e-procurement has received considerable attention in the literature, its study in the context of SMEs has not been addressed in enough detail. The goal of this research was to fill this gap in the literature by empirically testing a model for the development of e-procurement in SMEs that included top management support toward IT, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing. In addition, the model also relates e-procurement to procurement performance and business performance. The proposed model was tested using survey data from a sample of 199 SMEs in manufacturing in Spain. According to the results pertaining to this article's five research questions, top management support toward IT, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing are all relevant factors when adopting e-procurement by SMEs. More specifically, in relation to our first research question (RQ1), we can conclude that the support of senior management toward IT is necessary to provide the leadership and resources that investment in new IT requires. IT obstacles were also found work as a major deterrent to e-procurement in SMEs (RQ2). It can be concluded that elements such as the lack of flexibility of the new e-procurement system to match the current purchasing process, the lack of integration with other systems including systems from suppliers, the complexity of the new system, among others have a negative influence on e-procurement. The results also lead us to conclude that strategic purchasing is a significant contributor to the development of e-procurement in SMEs, therefore, answering RQ3. Additionally, this research showed that e-procurement has a positive impact on procurement performance as well as business performance and it can be concluded that the performance gains derived from e-procurement go beyond the immediate gains in procurement process performance (RQ4) to also increase a firm's business performance (RQ5) adding considerable value to SMEs procurement function. Thus, the five aspects of the research undertaken support the model presented in Figure 2.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze e-procurement in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its relationship with top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing and the effect of e-procurement on performance (procurement performance and business performance).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The hypotheses were tested using a sample of 199 managers from SMEs in manufacturing.\nFindings: The results indicated a significant relationship between e-procurement in SMEs and top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing. Similarly, the authors found a positive relationship between e-procurement and procurement process performance and business performance.\nPractical implications: The findings stress to SME managers, the need to pay attention to top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing when implementing e-procurement. Similarly, it provides evidence of the benefits of e-procurement on procurement process performance and business performance.\nOriginality/value: This study fills a gap in the literature regarding e-procurement in SMEs and its impact on performance. SMEs constitute a significant part of today's economies and e-procurement can significantly impact the performance of these organizations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What is said in European Works Councils stays there: Confidentiality and how to cope with it
|
[
"Confidentiality",
"European Works Councils",
"Workers’ representatives",
"Information and consultation",
"Multinationals"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Employee representatives do not have the easiest task on their hands. Their job is to represent and defend the interests of the employees in a company. In order to fulfil their role as a representative of the workforce, they need the most up-to-date information about the firm's affairs, such as (probable future) decisions, strategic plans and business operations. However, such information is often sensitive and could damage the interests of the company if made public. This kind of information could also cause (possibly unnecessary) unrest amongst the employees; it is therefore often defined as confidential. To continue getting this kind of confidential information, the employee representatives thus need to show management they can be trusted and discreet. However, this requisite conflicts with their responsibility to represent the views of the employees. To fulfil this role, they need to discuss these issues with the employees, report back on debates and ask for input. This communication with the workforce is needed in order to give management a universally agreed response.\nLiterature review: According to Fitzgerald and Stirling (2004) there are three C's which prevent EWCs from realising their full potential: consultation, co-determination and confidentiality. Focussing on the last one, the authors argue that management might hesitate to provide sufficient and timely information out of fear of breaking stock market rules. Yet, despite the identification of confidentiality as one of the main obstacles for a well-functioning EWC, little attention is given to the issue in the industrial relations literature.\nConfidentiality and information and consultation: The above differentiation between the legitimate and illegitimate use of confidentiality requirements shows the close relation between the issue of confidentiality and the timing of informing and consulting employees. The more detailed the information and the earlier the consultation happens in the decision-making process, the more that confidentiality is a legitimate requirement.\n\"Coping\" with confidential information: Faced with confidential information, employee representatives and EWCs can react in different ways: they can accept the confidentiality and keep the information secret; they can challenge the confidential nature of the information; or they can disclose the information, completely ignoring its confidentiality. Depending on the reaction, the effects of confidential information will differ. If an EWC is required to keep information secret all the time, tensions might develop in its relationship with the employees it represents. If it discloses information, this might jeopardise its relationship with the management (and possibly the employee representatives' jobs). So, the way in which employee representatives treat confidential information will affect their work as representatives.\nMethod: This study is of an explorative nature. It is, to our knowledge, the first to examine the subject of confidentiality in EWCs in a detailed way. The aim of the research is thus to approach this subject using a broad theoretical framework on EWC types and \"coping\" strategies, but without clear hypotheses on how the one should relate or lead to the other.\nWithin-case analysis: Organisation A\nCross-case analysis: The three previous within-case analyses will now be complemented with a cross-case comparative analysis.\nContributions, limitations and further research: This study contributes to the literature, practice and policy concerning EWCs in different ways. In terms of the literature, this study is, to our knowledge, the first to focus extensively on the issue of how confidentiality is treated in EWCs and how this might increase or decrease their effectiveness. In doing so, it tries to bring together insights from traditional sociological literature on EWCs with theories from industrial psychology. Given the explorative nature of the study, this paper gives ample inspiration for further research. Future studies could search for cases in which the balance between early information and consultation and confidentiality is different; longitudinal case studies could see whether the hypotheses on the effect of different coping strategies are confirmed; and more quantitative, survey-based studies can use this study for the design of their questionnaires.\nConclusion: Every representative faces the dilemma of what to do with sensitive information. Keep it to yourself to guarantee that you will get more information later, or share it with your rank and file to inform them and get input for how to proceed? Or, alternatively, challenge the confidential nature of the information so you can share it without risk? Obviously, the way a representative copes (or does not cope) with confidential information will have its effects on their work. In EWCs, some extra layers of complexity are added given the different national traditions and regulations regarding such information. Interestingly, the subject has attracted only scant attention in the EWC literature. For this reason, this paper presents an explorative case study on the issue, building on sociological and industrial psychology literature. The study aims to provide insight on which EWCs are confronted with which kind of confidentiality issues, how they cope with this and how this affects the way they function.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study how employee representatives in European Works Councils (EWCs) treat confidential information and how such strategies might improve the EWC functioning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Building on interviews of several case studies of EWCs, this paper brings together insights from industrial relations and occupational psychology literature.\nFindings: The results show that through actively challenging the management, an EWC can reduce the amount of information labelled as confidential and become freer to communicate with their rank and file. Actively challenging management, however, does not seem to impact the openness of the management to give early and complete information.\nResearch limitations/implications: The paper is based on several case studies, which limits the generalisability of the findings. The results, however, indicate that research is required on how challenging confidentiality can incite managements to provide earlier information.\nPractical implications: The research show clearly the potential but also limitations for employee representatives in actively challenging the management over what information is confidential.\nSocial implications: This study studies a universally difficult topic for employee representatives: how to handle confidential information. The findings show that EWCs have little levers to force management to provide early information. For this, more structural change is needed.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to focus exclusively on the issue of confidentiality in EWCs. This is a central concern for employee representatives, but research, until now, has not given much insight in which strategies work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Call-center staff are talking positive at Co-operative Financial Services: Culture-change program promotes new leadership style
|
[
"Call centres",
"Customer service management",
"Training",
"Leadership",
"Organizational culture",
"Financial services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A Big Brother diary room was the unusual method that Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) used to gain employee feedback on a learning and development program aimed at creating a shift in culture, changing behavior and promoting a new style of leadership in its call center.\nThe learning program: Over a six-week period, 900 call advisers completed phase one of the program. In groups of 12, they took part in one-day learning sessions facilitated by Academee.\"The language and approach taken were consistent with Dancing with Customers, to ensure continuity and to build a coherent message,\" explained Ann-Marie Stagg.Phase one sessions focused on developing a common approach across CFS to the techniques, language and mindset needed for an improved, sustainable call quality. Concise, user-friendly workbooks were designed to stand on desktops after the session, in line with the overall Talking Positive brand identity. Each participant received personalized training and there was time to embed knowledge, tools and techniques and give feedback. Call advisers learned how to \"guide\" a call, how to listen, ask questions, acknowledge and respond, and to up-sell where appropriate.When this cycle was understood, call advisers learned how to handle any conflict positively and professionally, without becoming emotionally involved, to build rapport and to create an environment where the customer would enjoy a good experience.Phase two helped to embed this learning. Rather than introducing new tools and techniques, these half-day sessions encouraged participants to consider what made their calls work and what did not. It provided an opportunity to share best practice, increase understanding and build the overall Talking Positive culture.Each participant also devised and signed an individual pledge - something he or she vowed to achieve - and these were pinned up throughout the contact center.\nTraining for team managers: In addition to the call-adviser training, a learning program provided team managers with the skills and confidence to support call advisers with coaching. It did this by introducing emotionally intelligent leadership styles and a range of coaching tools and techniques. This interactive program also used role-play to help team managers to understand their own behavior and its impact on others.\"This program helped to shift team managers from their traditional supervisory role to one of motivational coach and leader,\" said Ann-Marie Stagg. \"They are now better equipped to create a positive environment where call advisers can achieve more.\"She was continually enthusiastic about Talking Positive within CFS, and the program had many other champions who helped to spread this attitude throughout the organization. CFS also put together a Talking Positive support team, responsible for booking individuals on to the program, arranging training rooms and so on. Academee's client-services team worked closely with the support team to ensure the program ran smoothly.\nThe benefits and the future: \"Talking Positive has created a buzz throughout CFS - across the contact center, you can not only see all the visible branding, but also hear it talked about everywhere you go. It has ignited a cultural change,\" Ann-Marie Stagg enthused.\"The branding was particularly successful during the launch period. We have now taken it one stage further. I am a strong believer that displays should not remain static. They need to be refreshed. So we now have an ever-changing wall of individual pledges. We have also added several hints to our intranet to help with positive call handling.\"Former UK premier Tony Blair visited the contact center during Talking Positive to look at flexible-working practices and spotted some of the Talking Positive posters. \"He was really interested in learning more about it,\" said Ann-Marie Stagg. \"so one of our team managers created a poster of his own - 'Talking Positive, as endorsed by Tony Blair'!\"A recent benchmarking exercise carried out by Consumer Intelligence revealed CFS rankings to have improved significantly since the introduction of Talking Positive. Mystery shoppers compared 37 major competitors operating in the general-insurance sectors against 150 risks for motor and home insurance by telephone. The results revealed CFS to be the highest overall improver for sales techniques as well as second for overall rapport building (against twelfth at the start of the year), second-highest for \"would you take out this policy?\" and fifth for overall sales technique.\"Talking Positive is not just a one-off,\" Ann-Marie Stagg commented. \"We are talking about fundamental culture change. You cannot do that overnight. It's hard work. The pace of change and engaging people with the new culture are ongoing challenges.\"CFS recognizes the importance of continuous learning and investing in further programs, and has now appointed Academee to design and deliver a program named Selling Positive to the CFS sales and renewals team. Building on Talking Positive, this sales-techniques course will further develop call-handling abilities and create better customer experiences.\nNote: David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest editor, wrote this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to detail a training program that helped to create a shift in culture, change behavior and promote a new style of leadership at Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) call center.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper describes the background to the training program, the way in which it was designed and delivered, and the results it has achieved. Also examines how the program was branded within CFS.\nFindings: - The paper demonstrates that the program, named Talking Positive and designed in collaboration with learning specialist Academee, combines practical sessions, group discussion, question-and-answer sessions and ongoing action planning. There is also a separate a learning program to provide team managers with the skills and confidence to support call advisers with coaching.\nPractical implications: - The paper reveals that a benchmarking exercise showed CFS customer-service rankings to have improved significantly since the introduction of Talking Positive.\nOriginality/value: - The paper highlights how each participant has devised and signed an individual pledge - something he or she has vowed to achieve - and these are pinned up throughout the contact center.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Modern apprenticeships in professional football: some policy implications
|
[
"Workplace training",
"Training",
"Subsidies",
"Apprenticeships",
"Football",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Previously in the pages of this journal, the Modern Apprenticeship scheme in English professional football was examined from the perspective of the trainees themselves (Monk, 2000). In that paper the central argument was that the scheme does not serve the interest of the apprentices well, given that only 25 per cent of them are ever offered a contract as a professional player. The focus of the present article is somewhat different in that the scheme (which was renamed in 2004 to become the Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence, or ASE), will be examined from a wider policy perspective.However, it would seem that the benchmark criteria by which one might assess the success of subsidised youth development schemes in football are themselves ambiguous. For example, one could judge the scheme at a micro level, i.e. by looking at the number of apprentices from a given club who become part of that clubs' first team squad (or are sold to another club, thereby generating revenue for the training club). Alternatively, at a macro level, one could argue that the current scheme of youth development is based firmly on Wilkinson's (1997) proposals outlined in A Charter for Quality and that as such, it is the development of a successful national senior side that should act as an appropriate criterion to assess the scheme. A central contention here is that the current policy of the British government is inefficient, in that it is insufficiently fine-tuned to specified outputs, whether of a micro or macro nature.Paradoxically, in one sense it is allocating too many resources to Modern Apprenticeship training in football and yet, in another, not enough. Given that 85 per cent of trained apprentices no longer earn their living as footballers by the time that they are 21 (Hoey, 2003), then one could argue that the extensive public subsidies given to football clubs represent an inefficient allocation of resources. Results from an earlier round of the present study suggest that clubs in the Football League were typically getting PS178,000 per annum from the UK government and those in the Premier League PS70,000 per annum (Monk and Olsson, 2006).However, if a key objective of subsidising sports training is to help to generate sufficient funds to produce a national side capable of winning a World Cup (or some other major championship), then one could argue that insufficient public resources are devoted to youth training. This is in accord with a number of recent publications issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2000, 2002) which have also highlighted this issue. It is clear that the British government wishes to see success at the highest levels of sporting competition but deciding how to allocate publicly funded resources to achieve this aim is problematic. This is where the comparison with French football has proved to be instructive. France were, of course, World Cup champions in 1998 and European champions in 2000; they also reached the finals of the World Cup in 2006. The suggestion here is that this was a direct consequence of a systematic youth training policy that was heavily subsidised by the French government.The present paper has two objectives. First, it provides an account is given of those apprentices who were recruited into the scheme in the summer of 2005 or 2006. Second, the results from this data set are compared with the system of youth development in French football. The article is organised as follows. First, the discussion is contextualised by relevant academic literature. This is then followed by a section outlining the methodology used. Some interim results are then presented. Finally some policy implications are discussed in the conclusion.\nAn academic contextualisation: This paper is contextualised by the academic literature on signalling and the associated concepts of an occupational labour market (OLM) and internal labour market (ILM); see (Blaug, 1993) for a useful summary of this literature. A central contention is that qualifications can act as signals that prospective employees can send out either in the context of a single organisation (ILM) or in the wider context of an industry or occupation (OLM). For their part, employers across a wide spectrum of the economy can use such signals as a relatively cheap (and legal) means of sifting applications (Arrow, 1974; Spence, 1973). The argument (explored below) is that employers in the football industry may seek to use other signals apart from such qualifications.When using such signals, it is clear that the way that employers run OLMs or ILMs is important. It would certainly seem as though football clubs treat the succession of schoolboys through to apprentices and then contracted professional players, as a variant of an internal labour market. For example, Dastmalchian and Blyton (1992) argue there are three main characteristics of ILMs:1. The existence of a job ladder.2. Entry into employment is normally at the bottom of this ladder.3. Movement up this ladder is associated with the progressive development of skill and knowledge.If one considers these criteria it seems clear that they apply to professional football clubs; however, instead of promoting on the basis of written or formal qualifications, they treat physical phenomena as appropriate signals (such as speed or the number of goals scored). Thus it is clear that youth development acts as the most likely conduit to becoming a contracted player and one estimate (Monk and Russell, 2000) is that 68 per cent of professional players in England are products of the Modern Apprenticeship system. This data is clearly consistent with the second criterion mentioned above.Moreover, clubs will, typically, have over 100 schoolboys aged 9-16 affiliated to their Academies or Centres of Excellence and then gradually reduce the numbers involved so that 17 or 18 (or so) apprentices are employed aged 16-18 and from the ranks of these apprentices they will employ one or two players on a professional contract. There is, then, a ladder to climb and a first team place is at the top of this ladder; to get there, young players must show evidence (credentials) of a progressive development of skill (see criterion 3 above). Alternatively, if a player is transferred then one could regard this as an example of an OLM at work.\nMethodology: Essentially, the use of a three year longitudinal study enables one to gain a rich data set and provide a developmental picture that is more appropriate given the questions raised by this research than a simple snapshot of the data taken at one point in time (Hanushek, 1992; Saunders et al., 2003). Although seven clubs were involved in 2005 (all from the North-West of England), one of these clubs felt unable to take part in the second round of the study in 2006. However, the full range of English professional clubs has been represented, from the Premier League through to Division Two. Principally, the research involves tracking the progress of over 100 Modern Apprentices.The data were also compared with a leading French club that plays in the top flight of football in that country (League 1). Of course, one obvious limitation of this methodology is that the club may not be typical but the system in France is relatively homogenous and is modelled on the national centre at Clairefontaine and is also covered by extensive legislation, which governs the labour market of that country (Adnett, 1989). In France, devolved youth development centres (analogous to our Academies or Centres of Excellence), have been in operation since the 1980s. Indeed, French law requires that football clubs have a system of youth development. More generally, a number of authors including Thomson et al. (2001) have suggested that there is a stark contrast between British and French employers in this context. In the UK, employers enjoy a voluntarist culture with respect to training; they do not have to commit any of their own resources to training, if they so choose. This compares to their French counterparts who, by law, have to spend a minimum of 1.25 per cent of their wage bill on training.Typically, football clubs will have aspirants (hopefuls) from the age of 15-18 and then stagiaires (trainees) from the age of 18-20; recruitment of apprentices is mostly done on a national (and sometimes international) basis. Prior to that, the club featured in this study also has a system of recruiting 13 and 14 year old schoolboys who train (and board) with the club; this is also considered quite normal, for clubs in League 1. French clubs would also appear to operate internal labour markets and like their English counterparts, will typically only offer one or two professional contracts per annum to apprentices who finish their training. It is worth remembering that there are only 40 professional football clubs in France spread over two leagues; job opportunities within an occupational labour market as a player are even more constrained than they are in England.\nResults: The English system\nConclusion: In total, the British government is currently spending PS14.2 million/year subsidizing the Modern Apprenticeship scheme in English professional football. However, it seems that the system has \"fallen between two stools\". The programme does not operate successfully at a micro level (as a subsidised market activity) in that attrition rates are so high and most of those trained never earn their living as professional footballers. Equally, the system does not work at a macro level in terms of producing an elite squad capable of winning major tournaments. When judged by the latter criterion, the French system has performed significantly better.It is obvious that success at major international sporting events is hugely expensive. In order to promote elite performance an organisation called the UK Sports Institute has been established and has been explicitly modelled on the Australian Institute of Sports. The AIS has been widely hailed as a successful conduit for the publicly funded development of elite athletes in a wide range of over 20 sports (Gibson, 2002). Australian experience suggests that, in the context of elite competition \" ... there is a significant linear relationship between money spent and total medals won\" (Hogan and Norton, 2000, p. 203).The suggestion here is that the British government has to make a strategic decision about the criterion by which apprenticeship schemes are judged. If it wishes to help to subsidise training so that the chances of success in major competitions are greater, then a far bigger public subsidy is needed which is specifically tailored to the needs of elite performers. Alternatively if it wishes to assess the scheme at a micro level, then it should consider reducing or even doing away with the public subsidy given the attrition rates involved.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the two year Modern Apprenticeship undertaken by trainees in the English professional football industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In the first round of this three-year project representatives of seven English clubs were interviewed in the summer of 2005; follow-up interviews were conducted in the summer of 2006. To contextualise these results, a representative of a leading French club who was responsible for youth training was asked about provision in that country.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the apprenticeship system in France is more extensive and expensive but it produces players who are more likely to do well in major international competitions such as the World Cup. This in turn is due to the fact that more resources are allocated to training aspiring footballers; such spending includes extensive government subsidies. However, attrition rates are even higher in France than in England; at a micro level the system there is less successful.\nPractical implications: - This paper argues that the British government is in one sense spending too much money subsidising youth development in football; 75 per cent of all apprentices are never offered a professional contract. However, in another (macro) sense, it is not allocating sufficient resources to youth development in professional football given that England has never been in a World Cup final in 40 years.\nOriginality/value: - Although a number of articles have been published concerning the physiology of training aspiring footballers, very little has been done by way of examining the resource allocations associated with the training given to young apprentices in the game, which is one of the UK's key sporting industries.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Job-major match and job satisfaction in Italy
|
[
"Structural equation modelling",
"Graduates",
"Job satisfaction",
"Job-major match",
"Parental background"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Individuals matriculate in and graduate from university studies in order to improve their abilities in the labour market. Their jobs after graduation may or may not fit their expectations, but in principle that job should conform to their attended study programme.\n2. Italian context, data, and model: 2.1. The Italian educational system\n3. Results: 3.1. Job-education match\n4. Conclusions and discussion: A major conclusion of our analyses is that the proportion of graduates from Padua University with more skills than required by their job is lower than the percentages usually detected in Italy and Europe. Padua is located in north-eastern Italy, a geographical region whose economic system, unlike that of the rest of Italy, is affected by the presence of \"local production systems\". These areas are characterised by high concentrations of small and medium-sized firms in manufacturing and service activities, high levels of innovation, and a strong relationship with universities and research centres.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study how graduates' jobs may be determined by their educational performances and social background. In particular, the authors investigate job-education mismatch and job satisfaction to evaluate whether time spent and effort exerted during university studies were compensated with a good job.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data on the occupational status of the graduates 36 months after graduation, collected by the Padua University on its graduates, are analysed by means of univariate and multivariate methodologies. In particular, the pathways from graduates' social capital to job satisfaction are investigated through a structural equation modelling approach.\nFindings: The authors find that a minority of graduates can be considered as overeducated when considering the requirements of the labour market, but many graduates state that any degree would suffice for their job. Multivariate analyses show that graduates' job quality is related to their university choice and outcome, high school choice and performance, social capital. Destiny is written from the beginning of the educational pathway, but students can affect their labour market future with an appropriate choice of university programme.\nOriginality/value: The qualified point of this paper lies on the complexity of the model adopted for the analysis and its ability to highlight direct and indirect effects: two job outcomes (job-major match and job satisfaction) are the variables of interest, analysed within a structural model covering all educational stages of the Italian educational pathway, from parental social background to university degree.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Management controls, heterarchy and innovation: a case study of a start-up company
|
[
"Innovation",
"Start-up",
"Heterarchy",
"Management controls",
"Evaluative principles"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The operation of accounting in pluralistic contexts is an issue that has received increasing attention in the research literature in recent years (see e.g. Brown et al., 2015; Chenhall et al., 2013, 2017; Celerier and Cuenca, 2015). Despite this, much about the role of management controls in pluralistic contexts remains relatively unexplored. This study focuses on how management controls are used to manage across diverse, interdependent functional areas of a non-hierarchical organization (e.g. research and development, and sales functions), which may emphasize different priorities, and rely on different evaluative principles, in order to achieve innovation. Prior research suggests that entrepreneurial firms tend to employ flatter organizational structures, in order to be able to respond more quickly to market opportunities (Langfield-Smith, 1997). These flatter structures typically feature interdependent business functions, which may use different evaluative principles to determine what is important within that function.\nInnovation and heterarchy: In this section, we provide a definition of innovation, describe the nature of the innovation process and discuss our motivation for studying the initiation phase of innovation in a heterarchy. Next, we explain the characteristics of heterarchy that are proposed by Stark (2009) to enable innovation. For each characteristic, we identify an associated practical challenge. We then consider what prior research suggests could be the role of management controls in a heterarchy.\nThe role of management controls in a heterarchy: The control challenges for managing the initiation phase of innovation in a heterarchy identified in the prior section are as follows. The first control challenge is how to achieve distributed intelligence and ensure all organizational participants focus their attention on the generation of new ideas, rather than simply harvesting and protecting existing practices. The second challenge is to work out how to achieve precise co-ordination of the interdependent teams whilst simultaneously balancing their autonomy to support productive debate. The third and final challenge relevant to our context relates to working out how to ensure interdependent teams select ideas that will more likely be successful in the absence of hierarchy. The management control literature to date has not particularly focused on the management controls useful in the initiation phase of innovation nor on heterarchies. Existing evidence on the initiation phase of innovation is from studies of hierarchical organizations and research and development departments, as discussed below.\nMethod: We undertook a field study of TechCo[8], an Australian technology start-up company, from July 2016 to July 2017. TechCo is based in a major Australian city, and has an internal support office based in Southeast Asia. At the end of our field work, the organization had just established offices in the UK (two employees) and the USA (one employee). During the period of our study, the organization experienced considerable growth in personnel, moving from 30 to 40 staff in its Australian office. TechCo's interest in continual innovation, along with its organizational structure, made it an attractive site to examine phenomena relevant to our research question.\nCase analysis: The following section presents our case analysis. In our analysis of the case data, we identified two key themes. The first theme relates to how differing evaluative principles and interdependence of business functions are managed at TechCo, an organization actively pursuing non-hierarchical control. The second theme relates to how management controls are used to both promote innovative idea generation and order priorities for innovation within the organization. Below we cover each of these themes in turn.\nDiscussion and conclusion: In this study, we examine how heterarchies use management controls to support the initiation phase of innovation. And more specifically, we consider the following questions: How do these non-hierarchical organizations use management controls to manage co-ordination of interdependent functional areas where differing evaluative principles co-exist? and How are management controls implicated in the efforts of heterarchical organizations to generate and select innovative ideas? Below we organize our discussion according to addressing each research question in turn.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider how organizations with diverse, interdependent functions with differing evaluative principles and differing ideas as to which behaviors are the most desirable, use management controls in their efforts to achieve innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a case study of TechCo, an Australian technology start-up company, over a 12 month period.\nFindings: The authors demonstrate how the clash of differing evaluative principles among interdependent teams led to the organization seeking new ways of organizing, which in turn, enabled the organization to better manage the interdependencies between the diverse functional areas. Additionally, the findings show how, through the use of management control systems, the organization was able to promote idea generation and \"buy-in\" across all functional areas, order competing priorities for innovation and set the agenda as to what constituted \"acceptable\" innovation for the organization to pursue.\nOriginality/value: The authors find that management controls play an important role in managing the tensions between differing evaluative principles in diverse functional areas in a heterarchical organization, and in supporting innovation in such an environment. As such, the authors provide the first research evidence on how management controls are used within a heterarchy to generate and select innovative ideas.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Sustainability in the Pakistani hotel industry: an empirical study
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Tourism",
"Stakeholder theory",
"Sustainability",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Hotel industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Increasingly, the notion of sustainability has received considerable interest within academia, business, government and society. The term sustainability originated from the concept of sustainable development. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) defined sustainable development as \"development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\" (WCED, 1987, p. 43). Dyllick and Hockerts (2002, p. 131) transposed the concept of sustainable development into a corporate framework. They described sustainability as \"meeting the needs of a firm's direct and indirect stakeholders (such as shareholders, employees, clients, pressure groups, communities etc.), without compromising its ability to meet the needs of future stakeholders as well\". In addition, the term sustainability is perceived as a triple bottom line concept that refers to a synchronized improvement in the economic, social and environmental aspects of business performance (Elkington, 1998).\nSustainability and the hotel industry: Sustainability is an established business trend in the modern corporate world. It involves aligning a company's policies, strategies and practices with the social, environmental, cultural and economic dimensions of sustainable development (Amini and Bienstock, 2014). The purpose of sustainable business management is to simultaneously improve a company's social, environmental and economic performance (Hahn et al., 2015). While the majority of sustainability research has been conducted in the context of the developed world, scholarly interest in the topic is growing in the developing world (Buckley et al., 2017; Eweje, 2014; Jamali and Karam, 2016b).\nMethodology: A case study method was used in this study to investigate sustainability practices of the hotel industry in Pakistan. Case study research is particularly useful for attaining an in-depth understanding of a phenomenon under investigation (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2014). A case study is \"an empirical enquiry that:\nResults: The findings revealed varied trends in relation to awareness and implementation of sustainability practices in the Pakistani hotel sector. Some hotel managers were not aware of the term \"sustainability\". For instance, the managers of Epsilon, Gamma, Theta and Delta hotels were not aware of the \"sustainability\" concept. Conversely, Beta and Alpha hotels' managers were not only aware of the current sustainability issues but were also taking some practical steps to improve their sustainability. These hotels have introduced some environmental and social initiatives to enhance their sustainability performance.\nDiscussion and analysis: Sustainability is increasingly being adopted by the business sector on a global scale. However, the results of this study revealed that \"sustainability\" was a comparatively new phenomenon for the Pakistani hotel industry. The sample hotels are mainly striving to improve their economic performance. However, the hotels have implemented some fragmented environmental and social practices on an ad hoc basis (Jamali and Mirshak, 2007). Accordingly, a systematic approach to sustainability was lacking. In addition, it also appears from the findings that the sample hotels were adopting some environmental sustainability practices because of direct and anticipated economic benefits. This finding is in line with the instrumental logic of the stakeholder theory, which argues that companies embrace sustainability to enhance their economic outcomes (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). Conversely, managers did not explicitly comment about ethical or moral reasons for implementing sustainability practices but it could be argued that some of the sustainability practices such as support for orphans were adopted due to normative ethical concerns of hotel managers.\nConclusion, implications and future directions: This study examined the sustainability practices in the Pakistani hotel industry context. The results indicated that the concept of sustainability is slowly evolving but at present, there is a lack of awareness of sustainability within the business sector. In particular, sustainability is not an established business model as far as the Pakistani hotel industry is concerned. However, the current body of knowledge suggests that sustainability is a business imperative and survival of a business in the long term depends on how well it manages its internal operations in a sustainable manner. Likewise, sustainability is also important from the societal perspective as more and more stakeholders are expecting businesses to adopt responsible business practices. While currently there is not much demand for sustainability from the Pakistani stakeholders due to lack of awareness, the international hotel clients may require hotels to adopt and promote sustainable business practices. Therefore, sustainability can be used as a competitive strategy to attract both domestic and foreign customers who are interested in hotels' ethical performance. In this regard, the hotel industry needs to take proactive measures and integrate sustainability practices to enhance its image, reputation and overall performance. In addition, concerted effort and collaboration are essential between the business sector, government and community organizations to address sustainability concerns in the country.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to look at the sustainability practices adopted by the Pakistani hotel industry. Sustainability is a relatively under-researched notion from the perspective of the developing world, and in particular, the research lacks evidence from the Pakistani hotel industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors follow an exploratory multiple case study design to study the sustainability practices adopted by the Pakistani hotel industry. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with the senior hotel managers.\nFindings: The results suggest that sustainability is only partially integrated into the business strategy for most of the sample hotels, and a systematic approach to sustainability is currently lacking. Overall, the central focus of the hotels is on developing commercial performance, whereas some fragmented social and environmental sustainability initiatives are implemented on an ad hoc basis.\nPractical implications: This study identifies some practical issues and challenges in relation to sustainability implementation in the Pakistani context. It is suggested that the government, community organizations and the private sector firms need to actively collaborate to promote the sustainability agenda.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the extant literature by exploring sustainability implementation in the Pakistani hotel industry. While there is limited sustainability research in the context of the developing world, this study contributes by bridging this gap in the present literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Fund assortments, gender, and retirement plan participation
|
[
"Retirement",
"Consumer",
"Gender",
"Assortment",
"Participation",
"Investor"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Employers in the USA continue to transition from offering their employees traditional pension plans, which require little or no decision-making on the part of the individual, to defined contribution plans such as 401(k)'s, as employees' primary retirement savings vehicle. Similar shifts are evident in other parts of the world as well, as part of pension reform efforts. In the process, individuals are required to take on more responsibility for their future financial security, having to decide whether or not to participate in such plans, how much money to invest, and how safe or risky those investments should be. For many, such decisions are difficult, even daunting. In one recent survey, less than one fifth of respondents believed they were successfully planning for retirement (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2005). Not surprisingly, despite the importance of saving for retirement, many choose not to do so. Consumer responses such as this can represent a significant problem for financial services firms interested in encouraging consumer adoption of retirement investment products.Part of the problem may stem from consumers' inadequate knowledge in the domain of financial investing (Morrin et al., 2008) or low levels of financial literacy (Rotfeld, 2008) - a problem particularly evident among women, minorities, and those without a college education (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2005). Another part of the problem may stem from the decision making context, such as how defined contribution plans are structured. For example, efforts have grown in recent years to encourage individuals to participate in defined contribution retirement plans by revamping the sign-up procedure. More employers now offer automatic enrollment or automatic savings increases in their 401(k) plans (Kristof, 2007; Madrian and Shea, 2001; Thaler and Benartzi, 2004). Making enrollment in a firm's retirement plan the default option has indeed enhanced the level of employee participation (Kristof, 2007). Nevertheless, the majority of defined contribution plans continue to be structured as opt-in, and a significant proportion of individuals eligible to participate in such plans choose not to do so. In the USA it is not uncommon for new employees to sign up for 401(k) plans with little to no knowledge and experience regarding how to choose from the assortment of investments. A large-scale study conducted among over 2 million employees by the human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates, for example, found that about a third of those eligible to participate in employers' 401(k) retirement plans chose not to do so (www.401(k)helpcenter.com/press_2006/pr_hewitt_051606.html). Thus, it is of critical importance to better understand the process underlying an individual's decision to invest in a retirement investment plan (Wiener and Doescher, 2008).Other aspects of a 401(k) plan's structure can impact the decision process. Research has shown that offering larger mutual fund assortments in defined contribution plans reduces overall participation rates. Iyengar et al. (2004) examined data provided by Vanguard on over 700,000 employees eligible for 401(k) plans. They found that, controlling for factors such as compensation, gender, and age, every ten funds added to the fund assortment in a 401(k) plan led to a 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent drop in participation. When only two funds were offered in a plan, the average participation rate was 75 percent, compared to just 60 percent if there were 59 funds offered in the plan.1.1 Gender effects\n2. Method: 2.1 Sample\n3. Results: 3.1 Plan participation\n4. Discussion: The results reported here show that individual difference factors, such as gender, and contextual or plan structure factors, such as number of mutual funds offered in a 401(k) plan, can interact to influence both the incidence and extent of participation in defined contribution retirement investment plans. Iyengar et al. (2004) found that participation rates declined by 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent for each ten additional fund added to the choice assortment in 401(k) plans. Here, we found that the reduced participation in retirement plans that can result from increased fund assortment size was moderated by gender, with the negative effect of larger assortments on participation evident among women, but not among men, and we argue that this difference is driven by their different agentic orientations. We also measure participation in two ways:1. incidence (i.e. yes/no); and2. extent ($ conditional on participation).More specifically, we found that women were less likely to participate in the 401(k) when larger mutual fund assortments were offered. In contrast, the evidence suggests that men may be more likely to participate when larger assortments are offered. We also found that among those who decided to participate in the plan, the large fund assortment caused women to invest fewer dollars compared to men.Those responsible for formulating retirement plan structures should be aware of potential differences in plan participation based on gender. We found that women reported being less knowledgeable than men, and their asset allocations suggested they are more risk averse in this domain. Men, but not women, felt more responsibility for the outcome of their investments as fund assortment size increased, suggesting a stronger agentic orientation as a function of choice set size. These findings help to explain why men may exhibit approach behavior and women avoidant behavior in the face of larger fund assortments. These results have implications for pension reform efforts and shifts away from defined benefit and toward defined contributions plans that are under consideration or in process in various parts of the world such as Latin America (e.g. Calvo et al., 2010), New Zealand (Rashbrooke, 2009), Australia (Barrett and Tseng, 2008), Canada (Baldwin, 2008), Europe (Sloss and Russell, 1992), South America (d'Elia, 2009), Asia (Lu et al., 2008; Williamson et al., 2009), Southeast Asia (Asher, 1998), and elsewhere (Dent and Sloss, 1996). More specifically, offering ever-larger sets of investment choices should be approached with caution in the case of women or, more broadly, investors who might respond in an avoidant manner due to lower agentic orientations. Larger fund assortments may reduce plan participation and dollar investment levels among those with lower agentic orientations.Our results are limited in that they are based on a single simulation study. Our findings need to be replicated in other samples and populations. For example, observational analysis of actual plan data would provide good supplementary evidence in support of our hypotheses. There may also be other individual difference variables that moderate these effects that are not examined in the present research. For instance, prior research has also shown that men and women differ in the way they process information with men tending to process information in a more heuristic or schema-based approach, whereas women tend to process information in a more detailed or piecemeal fashion (Meyers-Levy and Maheswaran, 1991; Iacobucci and Ostrum, 1993; Kempf et al., 2006; Meyers-Levy, 1989). Whether these processing style differences lead women to become more overwhelmed in the face of large assortment is an interesting avenue for further investigation.Future research should attempt to identify other segments of the population that may be subject to negative effects of larger fund assortments. Future research could also explore what other aspects of 401(k) plan structures have significant effects on participation as well as satisfaction. For example, certain types of decision aids, such as graphical displays (Kozup et al., 2008) could backfire for women, if they have the effect of increasing the amount of information processing required. This and other questions offer many fruitful areas for further exploration.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to promote an understanding of gender effects on retirement plan participation as a function of fund assortment size.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A decision simulation was conducted among 349 US adults whose task was to invest in a hypothetical 401(k) retirement plan. The number of mutual funds offered for investment was varied and the effects on the incidence and extent of participation observed.\nFindings: - The results indicate that larger fund assortments tend to reduce participation among women, but increase it among men.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Replication in other contexts and with other data sets would be worthwhile.\nPractical implications: - To enhance retirement plan adoption/participation, financial service firms may want to tailor such plans according to gender (and other consumer characteristics) according to the present set of findings.\nOriginality/value: - First time authors are aware that the interaction between gender and assortment size is examined.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Veblen and globalization: a comment on Wellington and Zandvakili
|
[
"Globalization",
"Trade barriers",
"Economic theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Readers of Wellington and Zandvakili's paper, \"Globalization and Inequality According to Veblen (2004)\" might come away with the idea that Veblen was adamantly opposed to the process of globalization. That is because the authors chose to emphasize that \"globalization is one of the ways in which the prime movers open up opportunities for the predators\" (Wellington and Zandvakili, 2004, p. 1067).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to examine the claim made by Wellington and Zandvakili that Thorstein Veblen would be opposed to globalization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The approach of the paper is to examine what Veblen actually said in order to provide evidence from Veblen's own pen.\nFindings: - Veblen forcefully argued that trade barriers are another form of business sabotage. Trade barriers increase business profits but harm the community as a whole. That is because trade barriers inhibit specialization, and specialization is required for technological progress. Trade barriers therefore impede progress from the standpoint of humanity as a whole.\nPractical implications: - National boundaries impede technological development because they reduce specialization. Trade barriers make the problem worse, and therefore are harmful. Trade barriers help business at the expense of the general public.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers an argument for reducing trade barriers that is not derived from neoclassical economics. It should be of interest to anyone interested in the debate about globalization as well as those interested in Thorstein Veblen.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Buyer-supplier relationships in Dongdaemun fashion market: relationship quality model
|
[
"Channel relationships",
"Trust",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Quality",
"South Korea"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Dongdaemun fashion market has been successfully positioned as a main hub for the distribution of non-brand fashion products in Korea. Dongdaemun market, which has more than 100 years of history as a traditional wholesale market, now covers 32 commercial buildings and about 27,700 small fashion stores attracting more than 300,000 visitors a day, including business buyers from all parts of Korea, Japan, China, and other adjacent countries as well as young fashion-conscious shoppers and fun-seeking tourists (Kim, 1999; Han, 2004).One of the important competitive advantages of Dongdaemun market that is often quoted by retail scholars is an efficiently managed network system among supply chain members (Kim, 1999; Kim, 2000; Shin, 2003). While geographical proximity, direct interactions, informality, and face relationship among suppliers and buyers are all believed to contribute to a successful supply system, there have been only a few academic attempts to investigate the association among the relationship-related factors and their effects on the channel members' relationships and behaviors in Dongdaemun market.Many supply chain researchers have been searching for a meaningful representative of \"a good relationship\" among channel members (Naude and Buttle, 2000). Previous studies proposed that the relationship quality among transaction parties could be composed of various constructs such as trust (Crosby et al., 1990; Mohr and Spekman, 1994; Naude and Buttle, 2000), satisfaction (Crosby et al., 1990, Naude and Buttle, 2000), commitment (Mohr and Spekman, 1994; Morgan and Hunt, 1994), coordination (Mohr and Spekman, 1994; Naude and Buttle, 2000), communication (Mohr and Spekman, 1994), power (Anderson and Narus, 1984; El-Ansary and Stern, 1972), and many others. These studies provided a helpful assistance to understand the relationship each trading party would be engaged in, but failed to produce a clear definition of relationship quality, and the structure of various relationship-related factors and the quality of a relationship (cf. Naude and Buttle, 2000). Therefore, a concise relationship quality model with a clear definition of the constructs should be developed and tested. Variables included in the model should be industry- and environment-specific to increase the explanatory power of the model.This study attempted to examine the buyer-supplier relationship quality perceived by Dongdaemun fashion stores (buyer perspective). A testable model for the relationship quality and its antecedent factors and the consequent variable was proposed. In addition, the moderating effect of past relationship history (relationship length) was examined. The relationship quality between a fashion store and its supplier was hypothesized to be composed of two dimensions of satisfaction and trust. The antecedent factors included product-related factors of product price, quality, and design, and supplier-related factors of communication, power balance, geographical proximity, and honesty of the supplier. The expected consequence of the relationship quality was proposed as a future business intention (behavioral intention).\nLiterature study: Dongdaemun fashion market\nMethodology: In-depth interviews\nFindings and discussions: Exploratory factor analysis\nConclusion: This study investigated the fashion store's (i.e. the buyer's) perceived relationship quality with its supplier. The relationship quality was proposed to be determined by seven factors, and to affect the behavioral intention for future business. In addition, the moderating effect of relationship length on the relationship quality and its relations with other variables was examined.Among the proposed antecedent factors to relationships, product price was deleted in the testing model because it did not have an independent component. Instead, product design was found to have the strongest impact on the buyer's perception of relationship quality. In both groups, the perception of positive product design increased satisfaction and trust; moreover, it had a direct effect on behavioral intention in the long relationship group. It seemed that fashion business buyers in Dongdaemun market put a greater emphasis on product design. Thus, product suppliers in this fashion cluster should focus on improving their capability in producing superior design.The product quality was also found to be an important precursor to the nurtured relationship quality by increasing satisfaction. For fashion business buyers who had longer experience with the seller, communication increased trust in the partner. On the basis of relationship development theories, it was hypothesized that product-oriented factors and geographical proximity and power balance were more important for fashion stores at an early stage of relationship development, while communication and honesty become more critical for those at a mature stage. This study confirmed many of these hypotheses, the role of product design, power balance, communication, honesty was found to coincide with expectations. The nature of a relationship should change as the relationship ages. The relative importance of anteceding factors to relationship quality will also change as the literature suggested. In future work, a detailed investigation on this subject should be sought as it will have critical implication for both marketers and academics.Regarding the relationship between relationship quality and its proposed consequences for behavioral intention, satisfaction was found to have a direct effect on both trust and intention independently of the moderating relationship length effect. The causal effect of trust on behavioral intention was only found in the short relationship group. The intention of the long relationship group was not well explained with the proposed model compared with the short relationship group. In the long relationship group, behavioral intention was determined by product design and geographical proximity in addition to satisfaction. Surprisingly, geographical proximity had a negative effect on the behavioral intention, which was the opposite of the expected direction. This result could suggest that small fashion businesses in the Dongdaemun cluster who have sufficiently long experience might start to consider to procure merchandise from remote suppliers in favor of lower prices due to increasing cost pressures. Thus, the result of the present study warns small sized fashion supply chain players in the Dongdaemun cluster that they should be prepared for these up-coming changes. At the same time, more empirical studies to establish a relationship quality model that has better explanatory power for the long relationship group are urgently required. Fashion supply chain members in the Dongdaemun fashion market should understand the mechanism for formulating relationship quality and try to enhance their trade partners' relationship quality perception.Limitation and suggestions for future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the structure of buyer-supplier relationship quality perceived by small-sized fashion businesses with their major supplier.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - On the basis of the literature review and in-depth interviews, a testable relationship quality model is proposed. Two hundred and eighty stores located in Dongdaemun fashion market in Seoul, Korea, are surveyed and 233 complete responses are used in the analysis to test hypotheses.\nFindings: - The major findings includes the critical role of product design, product quality, and a supplier's honesty in the building of relationship quality. As the relationship ages, geographical proximity, communication, and design factors become more important in determining relationship quality and behavioral intentions, while product quality and power balance factors became less important.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Only one side of the perception is analyzed. The data is collected from single informants from each buying fashion store. Instead of using longitudinal data, a cross-sectional research design is employed.\nPractical implications: - Among the proposed anteceding factors to relationship quality, product design is found to have the strongest impact on the buyer's perception of relationship quality. Thus, product suppliers in Dongdaemun market should focus on improving their capability to produce superior designs.\nOriginality/value: - Dongdaemun market has been successfully positioned as a main hub for the distribution of non-brand fashion products in Korea. This paper is the first to investigate the channel members' relationships and behaviors in Dongdaemun market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The enactment of public relations functions: insights from the Indonesian mining industry
|
[
"Indonesia",
"Public relations",
"Mining industry",
"Enactment theory",
"Organization interpretation model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Public relations (PR) practices vary across the world. Some practices follow the standardized world-wide principles as proposed by The International Association of Business Communications Excellence Study (Grunig et al., 1995; Grunig and Grunig, 2002; Vercic et al., 1996), while some others reflect the contextual utilization of the principles (Grunig et al., 2006; Hoffmann et al., 2015; Sriramesh and Vercic, 2009). Similarly, PR models have also been found to differ across cultures and political systems. As a result, an additional dimension (i.e. personal influence model) has been proposed to extend the well-established Grunig's four models of PR (press agentry model, public information model, two-way asymmetrical model, and two-way symmetrical model) (Grunig et al., 1995; Huang, 2000; Jo and Kim, 2004; Park, 2002; Rhee, 2002; Sriramesh, 1992; Valentini, 2010; Gallicano, 2009). Nevertheless, why certain PR practices are more common in particular countries remains an issue worth investigating (Jo and Kim, 2004).\nTheoretical background: Organization and environment: an interpretive model\nMethodology: Research context\nFindings and discussion: The organizational interpretation model\nConclusions: Enactment theory maintains that there are uncertainties within the environment that urge organizations to seek interpretations, which then underline their actions (Weick, 1969, 1979, 2001). The organization develops specific ways to interpret its environment, whether by actively or passively engaging in their environment. The present study found that the Indonesian private mining company and the MNC actively engaged in their environment during the post-Suharto era. These companies allocated resources to search for information to help them interpret and enact their findings. Unlike these two companies, the state-owned mining company did not actively search for information from its environment. This company relied mainly on routine data or documentation to interpret their environment.\nLimitation and future research: The current study employed enactment theory and multiple case study design to investigate how perceptions of an organizational environment among PR practitioners and top managers influence PR functions and practices of the organizations. The research context is large mining companies operating in Indonesia. The present study contributes to the PR literature by describing how organizational members construct and enact PR functions and practices as well as how the organization accommodates local values in the PR enactment in an emerging market like Indonesia.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the process in which organizational members construct and enact public relations (PR) functions as well as how the organization accommodates local values in the PR enactment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A case study of three large mining companies representing multinational, state-owned, and privately owned mining companies in Indonesia was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 37 key informants (three top executives and 34 members of PR units).\nFindings: The Indonesian private mining company and the multinational corporation actively engaged in their environment during the post-Suharto era. They perceived the local community to be more powerful than ever before as a result of the socio-cultural and political changes in the country. They changed their organization designs to gain organizational legitimacy by establishing independent PR divisions at the mining sites and assigning field officers who had the same cultural background as the community. These companies enacted the role of PR as relationship agents and cultural interpreters. Unlike these two companies, the state-owned mining company did not actively search for information from its environment. It relied on the government support for its organizational legitimacy and ignored the environmental changes.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of the first few studies examining the enactment of PR functions in Indonesia, an emerging country that is under-represented in the marketing and PR literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Hybrid convenience stores - the changing role of convenience stores in Taiwan
|
[
"Convenience stores",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Restaurants",
"Taiwan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Imagine a cosy place with bright lights, tables and comfortable chairs where you can select from a wide range of food straight off the shelf and experience and enjoy the dining environment right after making your purchase. This is a place which provides a snug and agreeable space, delicious food, and a relaxing atmosphere. It seems like a real restaurant, but it isn't. Before entering this place, you take a look at its sign... Wow, cool. It's 7-ELEVEN (Liu et al., 2004).\nResearch background: A history of the development of convenience stores\nResearch hypotheses: As mentioned, in this research Rogers' (2003) DOI theory is applied to investigate the facilitators of hybrid convenience stores in Taiwan. Rogers (2003) categorizes the innovation adoption framework into five onward stages (figures in brackets indicate the percentage of total adopters in each stage): innovators (2.5 percent), early adopters (13.5 percent), early majority (34 percent), late majority (34 percent) and laggards (16 percent). Rogers (2003) argues that the five perceived attributes of product innovation, i.e. relative advantage (RA), compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability, can explain more than 49 percent of the variance in the rate of adoption of an innovation. Due to the fact that the methodology of this research is to use a limited set of factors rather than an exhaustive set of redundant factors to maximize the explanation of the variance of the rate of innovation adoption, this research focuses on the following five attributes to investigate the phenomenon under discussion.Relative advantage\nResearch methodology: Scale development, questionnaire design and pre-testing\nData analysis and results: Data were analyzed and individual analysis results are presented below.Participants' demographic profiles\nDiscussion and conclusions: In this research, an attempt is made to examine what facilitates the diffusion of dining in hybrid convenience stores in Taipei, Taiwan, the place with the highest convenience store density in the world. Adopting Rogers' (2003) DOI theory, this research focuses on testing the influences of the five innovation attributes, i.e. RA, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. In general, the research findings have validated the applicability of Rogers' (2003) theory that the DOI innovation attributes can influence consumer adoption of the hybrid convenience store dining environment. That is, compatibility, trialability and observability have a positive effect on the acceptance of dining in hybrid convenience stores, while complexity has a negative effect. RA, on the other hand, does not have a significant effect.Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The hybrid convenience store, a convenient shopping as well as dining environment, is an innovative concept in both the convenience store sector and the food service industry in Taiwan. As Taiwan has taken the lead in the development of the convenience store sector, this phenomenon deserves further investigation so as to assist convenience store operators and restaurateurs in Taiwan in formulating strategies to cope with this trend. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the facilitators of the hybrid convenience store concept accepted by consumers within the framework of Rogers' diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data in the form of self-completion survey are collected in MRT stations in Taipei. In total of 289 questionnaires are collected and used for data analysis.\nFindings: - It is found that the higher the levels of \"compatibility\", \"observability\" and \"trialability\" are, the higher the likelihood that potential consumers will dine in hybrid convenience stores. It is also found that lower levels of \"complexity\" also increase the likelihood that potential consumers will dine in hybrid convenience stores. However, the findings do not support \"relative advantage\" as a facilitator.\nPractical implications: - The research findings reveal that consumers in urban areas of Taiwan have gradually accepted the innovative concept of dining in hybrid convenience stores. According to the findings, a number of strategies might be applied in order to facilitate the adoption of the dining concept in hybrid convenience stores by potential consumers in Taiwan. For example, the dining process of fast food restaurants can be possible to emulate; having meals on a trial basis can be applied; TV commercials and word of mouth marketing strategies can also be employed.\nOriginality/value: - This paper extends/validates the DOI theory in the Taiwanese convenience store sector and as a consequence, this paper serves as a basic building block in the formulation of pertinent marketing strategies geared toward sustaining and/or increasing consumer patronage in hybrid convenience stores.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Individual tax compliance in China: a review
|
[
"Confucianism",
"Tax compliance",
"Norms",
"Ethical values",
"Legalism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Tax is a fundamental aspect of modern life. Funds raised from taxes pay for many essential services and public goods. The willingness of individuals to pay their taxes is therefore of fundamental importance to the economic and social welfare of any country. The growing demand for better national health care, educational opportunities, and other essential public services is expected to press governments to urge taxpayers not to avoid or under-declare their tax obligations. China, being the world's second largest economy with mounting fiscal expenditures on a range of essential governmental services, creates pressures for the Chinese government to generate more revenue. This is why tax compliance is of critical importance to the most populous country in the world. More importantly, previous research about China undertook overly narrow assumption about the Chinese taxpayers.\n2. A synopsis of tax compliance research: 2.1 The increasing trend of tax non-compliance\n3. Taxpayers' ethical values and the effect on tax compliance in China: 3.1 Taxpayers' ethical values and tax compliance\n4. Commentaries and conclusions: The problem of individual tax non-compliance affects many jurisdictions around the world. The number of individuals evading their taxes has been increasing significantly in recent years, leading to growing concerns of tax authorities, and prompting a need for further academic research. Some of the factors that affect individual tax non-compliance have been identified in this research, and social norms and ethical beliefs appear to be the two most important. Most previous tax compliance solutions in the literature are from developed Western economies, and to address the idiosyncratic tax compliance characteristics of China, where the cultural and ethical values differ from those in the West, indigenous solutions are necessary. If the statistical trend in individual tax evasion in China continues to increase at the same pace, the economic cost will be significant and, more importantly, government spending may not keep up with the social needs of the wider community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review research about China's individual tax compliance. While empirical research in this jurisdiction is still in its infancy, the scale of the problem might be under estimated, or at least over looked. Comparatively, tax compliance as a subject matter has received considerable attention in developed Western economies, where the data had revealed an increasing trend of taxpayers not complying with their tax obligations. Although, this issue had not received as much attention by the Chinese government, as the world's second largest economy and one of the most populous nations in the world, tax compliance is of critical importance to the Chinese economy and welfare of its citizens. Therefore, it is crucial that a review about China's tax compliance research should be conducted to identify gaps in the literature.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper focuses specifically on a review of empirical research about China's individual tax compliance. While, this work is primarily descriptive, it builds on existing research to make normative recommendations aimed at improving tax compliance in China.\nFindings: This paper reaffirmed earlier findings in the literature that Confucianism influences both Chinese social and individual ethical values, any attempt to foster greater tax compliance in China should appeal to the importance of taxes as contributions to the public funding of family and community welfare. However, what was missing from previous research is that the assumption about Chinese ethical values was overly narrow. Apart from Confucianism, another Chinese philosophy known as Legalism is also influential in prompting ethical behaviour, in particular on regulatory issues. Therefore, tax compliance in China drawing on Chinese ethical values should include both incentives and disincentives to prompt individuals to comply with their tax obligations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The observations and recommendations put forward in the paper are principle-based solutions drawn from Chinese ethical values. Furthermore, no detailed discussions on enforcement are included, as it is beyond the scope of the paper. Hence, the recommendations will require further empirical testing and should be examined in future research.\nOriginality/value: This review draws attention to a subject matter in China that has been overlooked. Apart from revisiting the key and related literature on China, this paper identified a gap that had been neglected in earlier research. Legalism, a less known Chinese ethical school of thoughts, is an important to the design of tax regulations prompting individuals to comply with their tax obligations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Creative management in TAMK Proacademy
|
[
"Entrepreneurship",
"Management",
"Learning process",
"Education",
"Creativity",
"Coaching",
"Innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A learning organization is a place where people are continually discovering how they create their reality. And how they can change it (Peter Senge (2006) Fifth Discipline).\nConclusions: Since its founding, the learning community in Proacademy has provided the students with excellent skills in entrepreneurial teamwork. A large majority of Proacademy graduates either continue the team enterprises they started during their studies, found new companies, or are employed as managers in companies that need a new approach to team work and learning - many Proacademy team entrepreneurs get a number of employment proposals during their studies due to close contact with their customer companies. Compared to other programs in Finnish universities of applied sciences, the dropout rate in Proacademy is very low (one-to-three students move back to the mainstream yearly but even those who do usually complete their studies on schedule) and the average study time for a bachelor degree is 3.6 years.Due to the flexibility of its teamwork-based management structure, Proacademy is able to achieve consistently good results in entrepreneurial learning while being able to adjust to changes in the surrounding society much faster than most university departments. Also, it seems that radically increasing the students' freedom and responsibility for their own learning and that of others, while emphasizing the importance of the students' role in building the learning community and rethinking and sharing its vision, mission and values, can alleviate the problems associated with traditional individualist university education, such as low engagement and the lack of student responsibility for the learning process and the well-being of the learning community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to focus on the management of creative learning process in Proacademy, an entrepreneurship education unit of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) where all coaching, learning and business development activities are focused on facilitating the entrepreneurial path, which consists of five core value-activities of trust, courage, actions, learning and success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - TAMK Proacademy implements a unique approach to continuous development of a learning community, based on team learning and self-managed development of relevant knowledge and skills. The paper describes this process, part of its theoretical basis and major outcomes.\nFindings: - The shared decision making in Proacademy allows for student-entrepreneurs to take an active and responsible role in the management of the study programme and leaves enough room for creativity and innovation in practice. Capability of self-leadership of teams and individuals is enabled by a shared vision and values, and the shared domain of entrepreneurship as the focus of learning activities.\nOriginality/value: - This paper demonstrates the key factors found to be most important in managing a creative organization and it will be of value for anyone investigating learning organizations. It presents an example on how an organization that supports active co-operation between the university staff and the students can be structured.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Food choice motives for consumers in Lebanon: a descriptive study
|
[
"Lebanon",
"Clustering",
"Customer segmentation",
"Food choice motives"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Food consumption is an important global topic due to its impact on the individual, public health, social cohesion, economy and environment. There have recently been serious changes in the global food system - food production, distribution and consumption (Stordalen and Fan, 2018; Hueston and McLeod, 2012). Contemporary food production has become more globalised and industrialised and products have been subject to more standardisation (Mirosa and Lawson, 2012; Reisch et al., 2013). Farmers today are more likely to sell their output to large complex supply chains instead of engaging with customers in local markets (Reisch et al., 2013). The disappearance of the local market in this system has also enlarged the distance between farmers, the industry and consumers. The food industry consists of a small number of global companies and a large number of SMEs. Food retailing is represented with fewer and larger retail chains competing on a global scale for market share on the basis of price. They control food systems and have huge market power over farmers and food processors.\nFood choice motives: Consumers' food choice is a result of a complex process where various inter-related factors play a significant role. Some food choice models have been developed in the literature to explain those factors. For example, Furst et al. (1996) developed a food choice model based on an empirical analysis of qualitative data which represents the types of factors and the process involved in a single choice event. The main factors influencing food choice are: life course, influences and personal system. Steenkamp (1997) has divided the factors that affect food choices into product-, consumer- and environment-related factor groups. Generally, they are the main factors in most food choice models. Another food choice model adopted from Ajzen's (1991) The Theory of Planned Behaviour attempted to explain food choice using relationships between attitudes, beliefs, subjective norms and intentions (Conner and Armitage, 2006).\nResearch methodology: Data collection method and research sample\nFindings: Prior to analysing the data exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was applied to the food choice motives in order to gather the variables into meaningful groups. The purpose of the analysis was also to assess the dimensionality, measurement and psychometric properties of the scales used in the study. The reliability of factor analysis is dependent on sample size. In order to have practical significance, an item should have an absolute loading value of at least 0.5 (Hair et al., 2010). All items which belong to familiarity, natural content and animal welfare, three items from mood \"keeps me awake, alert, cheers me up, and makes me feel good\", two items from health \"is good for my skin/teeth/hair/nails, etc.\", and one ethical concern item \"comes from countries I approve of politically\" were dropped from the analysis since the factor loadings of these items were below 0.5.\nConclusion and implications of the study: This study segmented the Lebanese consumers into different groups by employing a two-step hierarchical clustering approach based on food choice motivations. By applying exploratory factor analysis, the study discovered that food choice motivations were grouped under eight dimensions: ethical, sensory, convenience and availability, health, weight, mood, price and religion.\nLimitations and directions for future research: Inevitably the study has some limitations. As it attempted to segment Lebanese customers based on food choice motivations the findings cannot be generalised to fit all countries. More research will be required in other countries to make more reliable and enlightening conclusions for the subject. Another research perspective could be cross-cultural studies by employing the same questionnaire in culturally different countries in order to see the differences among them. These approaches will help to better understand the segments based on food choice motivations in different countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors underlying Lebanese consumers' food motivations and segment them based on those motivations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data in the study were collected from the main shopping districts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, through a structured questionnaire. Respondents were intercepted by employing simple random sampling. Out of 700 people approached, 411 surveys were collected, giving a response rate of 58.7 per cent. After gathering the food choice motives under main groups by employing exploratory factor analysis, the study used two step cluster analysis.\nFindings: The food choice motives were grouped under eight dimensions: ecological, sensory, convenience and availability, health, weight, mood, price and religion motives. Based on the food choice motives, the study identified four dissimilar clusters, namely, careless, conscious, hedonic and health and weight conscious. The study clearly indicated that there are significant differences among clusters in terms of the food choice motives, attitudes towards healthy eating, exercising, food quality and natural organic food and socio demographic characteristics.\nOriginality/value: There are numerous studies on food choice motives in the literature investigating certain countries. This study is the first study investigating the subject in one of the Middle Eastern countries, Lebanon.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Entrepreneurial response to changing opportunity structures: Self-selection and incomes among new immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden
|
[
"Immigrants",
"Entrepreneurship",
"Institutions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Immigrant entrepreneurship has been seen as increasingly important for social and economic integration, reduction in inequality and poverty, and even for job creation, economic growth and innovation (Fairlie and Lofstrom, 2012). Still, as emphasised in the call for this special issue on Migration, Enterprise and Society, there is a lack of studies dealing with migration and entrepreneurship. Immigrants' entrepreneurship is often associated with disadvantage and harsh conditions, and several studies confirm this picture. While policymakers often consider immigrant entrepreneurship to be a remedy for labour market integration, studies reveal the existence of a stable income gap over time between native and immigrant entrepreneurs (Andersson and Wadensjo, 2004; Andersson Joona, 2011; Halvarsson et al., 2018).\nContext: institutional change and the business environment in Sweden: Preconditions for migration as well as for entrepreneurship were affected by several changes in the institutional structure in Sweden during the period of analysis. One important change was the immigration policy reform launched in 2008, which allowed a recruitment of labour from outside Europe. A second change was the policy reforms that were introduced in 2007 in order to enhance entrepreneurship and self-employment. In addition, business cycle factors, such as the economic crisis of 2008 and the subsequent recovery of the Swedish economy, influenced the preconditions for migration and entrepreneurship.\nTheoretical perspectives on immigration, institutions and incomes: Several studies on immigrants' relative incomes report a negative immigrant-native income gap regarding wage employment as well as self-employment, among many others Borjas (1987), Borjas and Bronars (1989), Hjerm (2004), Andersson and Wadensjo (2004) and Andersson Joona (2011). Other researchers, e.g., Chiswick (1978), Constant and Zimmermann (2007), have found a positive immigrant-native income gap. Explanations of the relative income performance of migrants generally focus either on the supply side (migrants' characteristics) or the demand side (markets and institutions).\nData and methods: To investigate income change, we use rich register-based longitudinal microdata from Statistics Sweden (SCB) for the period 2004-2012, with detailed individual-level information on the Swedish population. The database, Longitudinal Integration Database for Health Insurance and Labour Market Studies, comprises time-varying information on all residents of Sweden 16 years of age and older, including foreign-born individuals with residence permits. We excluded seasonal working migrants who receive short-term residence permits (e.g. for work in the berry-picking industry).\nResults: The empirical analysis is designed in two stages. First, after comparing the trends of incomes from entrepreneurship among immigrants and natives by a graph of trends based on microdata calculations for the period of eight years (2005-2012, 2005 being the first complete income year for those immigrated in 2004) and graphs of income distribution, we employ a DD analysis for four time points for matched and unmatched data to identify deviance in trends due to institutional change. Second, we decompose log incomes from the entrepreneurship of the two cohorts of immigrants (who arrived before and after the reform) using the Blinder-Oaxaca approach.\nDiscussion: In the call for this special issue, the absence of migration from the mainstream academic literature on business on management was highlighted. Hence, we responded to the call by investigating how changing opportunity structures, in terms of migration legislation and market conditions, affected new immigrants' entrepreneurship in Sweden. The main purpose was to study the development of entrepreneurial income; whether there is a widening or a narrowing native-immigrant income gap during the period; whether migrants arriving after the migration reform were more successful than those who arrived before the reform and whether self-selection or changing market conditions were the most important factor explaining income change.\nConclusion: The aim of the paper was to analyse the income performance of immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden over a period when major institutional changes occurred. One such change was the new immigration legislation that opened new opportunities for labour immigration by third-country nationals, including the possibility of entrepreneurship immigration, i.e. with purpose to run a business in Sweden. Our main hypothesis was that the new opportunities created by the immigration policy reform positively affected the self-selection of new immigrants, which would improve the relative incomes of new immigrant entrepreneurs - both compared to native entrepreneurs and to entrepreneurs among earlier cohorts of immigrants. However, there were also changes to the business environment in Sweden, resulting both from proactive policies for entrepreneurship and growth and due to general conditions in terms of economic recession and recovery. The net effect of the changes to the business environment was expected to be positive at large, while the effect on new immigrant entrepreneurs' relative incomes was more difficult to predict. Therefore, our analysis of the income gap over time also includes the separation of effects related to selectivity of migration from the effects of a changing business environment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the introduction of a liberalised regime for labour immigration in Sweden affected the self-selection of new immigrant entrepreneurs and to what extent the changes in entrepreneurial income among new immigrants was due to self-selection or to a changing business environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on rich microdata from Swedish administrative registers, this paper investigates how incomes changed during the years before and after the migration policy reform. By decomposing the income differential of new immigrant entrepreneurs arriving before and after the reform, this study estimates the contribution of a changed composition of migrants to the changing entrepreneurial income.\nFindings: Entrepreneurial income among self-employed new immigrants improved after the reform, narrowing the immigrant-native income gap, while among employees, the income gap remained during the whole period of the study. Out of the total 10.9 per cent increase in log income, the authors find that 2.7 per cent was due to selectivity, i.e., changing characteristics of new immigrant entrepreneurs. The remaining 8.2 per cent was due to increased returns to characteristics, i.e., the characteristics of new immigrant entrepreneurs were better rewarded in the markets in the latter period. Hence, increases in entrepreneurial income among new immigrants were due both to self-selection and changes in the business environment.\nPractical implications: The authors find that the migration policy reform had the effect of attracting successful immigrant entrepreneurs. Hence, the findings have implications for migration policy as well as for growth and employment policy.\nOriginality/value: This paper reveals a positive trend regarding income from the entrepreneurship of new immigrants after the liberalisation of labour immigration policy in Sweden. Theoretically and methodologically, the authors combine self-selection theory and the mixed-embeddedness perspective in a novel way, using rich data and a quantitative approach.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The effects of innovative, consumer and social characteristics on willingness to try nano-foods: Product uncertainty as a moderator
|
[
"Behaviour change",
"Diffusion",
"Conceptual model",
"Trust",
"Innovation theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nanotechnology is seen as a key technology in the twenty-first century (Siegrist et al., 2007), and previous studies have shown that it represents huge commercial opportunities to investors and businesses (Lo et al., 2012; Tolfree, 2006; Uldrich and Newberry, 2003). The applications of nanotechnology are already quite wide, including the fields of materials, chemicals, medicine, food, consumer products, energy, cosmetics, and so on, and it is likely that the impact of this will eventually change entire industries. According to BCC Research (2015), the market value of nanotechnology applications has increased dramatically in recent years, with Padua and Wang (2012) stating that the market impact of nanotechnology-enabled products and related applications will reach three trillion US dollars worldwide by 2020.\n2. Literature review: According to Rogers (2003), the DOI theory is based on four foundations, which include the identification of adopter categories, communication, the individual innovation decision processes, and the identification of the important characteristics of an innovation. Previous studies have already applied the characteristics of an innovation, as mentioned in the theory, to measure acceptance of public or organizational innovations, including information technology, new software, e-learning systems, online systems, and so on (Al-Ghatani, 2003; Liao and Lu, 2008; Mallat et al., 2009; Shih and Fang, 2004). Even though the characteristics of an innovation have been widely applied in various fields, as yet there are few studies of technology-based innovative foods, although such products are becoming increasingly popular. The related technologies not only can make foods better, but can also address problems related to food shortages (Costa-Font and Gil, 2009; Padua and Wang, 2012; Singh et al., 2013). However, technology-based innovative foods may produce some unknown risks and uncertainties related with regard to their effects on human health and the environment (Rashidi and Khosravi-Darani, 2011). Taking gene-modification technology as an example, many studies have shown that people feel that there are more risks than benefits associated with this technology (Costa-Font and Mossialos, 2007; Grunert et al., 2003; Hossain and Onyango, 2004; Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, 2015). Therefore, in addition to experts and government bodies, consumers should also pay more attention to technology-based innovative foods.\n3. Hypotheses development: 3.1 Relative advantage, perceived trustworthiness, and perceived benefit\n4. Methodology and results: 4.1 Questionnaire design\n5. Discussion and findings: 5.1 Innovative features (H1-H3)\n6. Conclusions and recommendations: 6.1 Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: By integrating the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, technology acceptance model (TAM), and social capital theory, the purpose of this paper is to: develop a model of consumer behavior and trial willingness toward nano-foods from product, consumer, and social perspectives; examine the effects of innovative features, consumer characteristics, and trust in authority on subjective perceptions (perceived trustworthiness and perceived benefit) as well as the social influence on attitudes toward nano-foods and trial willingness; examine the moderating role of product uncertainty on the relationship between these characteristics and subjective perceptions; and examine the effect of perceived benefit on perceived trustworthiness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The results of the structural equation model (SEM), with nano-food knowledge data collected from 431 respondents, supported the research model and revealed the main effects hypothesized in this study and the moderating effect of product uncertainty. Simple slope analysis was further adopted to test the significant moderating effects.\nFindings: The SEM results indicated that innovative characteristics (relative advantage, lack of observability, and novelty), consumer characteristics (perceived technology application), and social characteristics (trust in authority) affect perceived trustworthiness or perceived benefit. Social influence also has a direct effect on attitude toward nano-foods and trial willingness. Product uncertainty significantly moderates the relationship between characteristics (relative advantage and perceived technology application) and subjective perceptions (perceived trustworthiness and perceived benefit).\nResearch limitations/implications: With increasing numbers and kinds of nanotechnology products now being developed and sold, it is important to go further to determine consumer perceptions and attitudes toward these. This study, thus, applied the DOI, TAM, and social capital theory to examine this issue. However, other theories might also be used to carry out research from other perspectives. This study should, thus, be seen as preliminary, and it is hoped that more works will discuss consumer attitudes toward nanotechnology products in the future.\nPractical implications: When a new nano-food is introduced, the current study suggests that food manufacturers use the description on the package as a communicative tool. Detailing the advantages of nano-foods on food packages might be a useful way to enhance trial willingness and to reduce the fears and insecurities related to the use of nano-related products. In addition, if food manufacturers could cooperate with organizations or individuals seen as having some authority in this area (e.g. nanotechnology researchers) in order to disseminate accurate information about nanotechnology and related food products, this might be an effective way to increase sales and profits.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper integrating the DOI, the social capital theory and the TAM to empirically investigate consumer willingness to try nano-food products.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Applying an organisational agility maturity model
|
[
"Self-assessment",
"Agility framework",
"Enterprise agility",
"Information technology services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Higher education is facing significant disruption through technology that is fundamentally changing how universities operate (Aronowitz et al., 2015; Adams Becker et al., 2017). The impact of these changes on both culture and operations is necessarily transformative, and will require an understanding of core capabilities to ensure the required leadership. Universities must be agile if they are to respond quickly to the changing legislative and competitive environment and the changes in teaching, learning and research practice. Consequently their information services must ensure that they have the capability to be agile in response to these new challenges.\n2. Literature review: While the concept of agility is not new, it arguably came into prominence, particularly in regard to software development and project management, through the promulgation of the so-called \"Agile Manifesto\" (Beck et al., 2001). The development and uptake of various agile methodologies has subsequently been well chronicled in the literature (Ionel, 2009; Dingsoyr et al., 2012; Maurer and Hellmann, 2013; Al-Saleem and Ullah, 2015).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 The case study\n4. Selected results: Selected descriptive results of the survey are presented in this section. Section 4.1 provides a summary of the results for the whole Division.\n5. Discussion: The purpose of this research study was to identify the most appropriate organisational agility maturity model that could be applied to an information technology service division within a university. Based on an analysis of the extant literature, the authors selected Wendler's Organizational Agility Maturity Model as the most suitable tool (Wendler, 2014).\n6. Conclusion: The higher education industry is evolving at an ever-accelerating pace. As a result, university information technology services must be able to support their clients with an effective balance of leadership, guidance and high-quality service delivery. IT services are constantly seeking to align themselves with their university's strategic priorities by having the agility and flexibility to respond to a rapidly changing environment, while remaining effective and efficient. Organisational agility is seen as a strategic imperative for achieving these goals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the baseline model required to measure whole-of-organisation agility within a university information services division. The paper seeks to analyse the process of identifying and applying such a model.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The qualitative methodology applied is that of a single case study. The organisation analysed was an Australian university's information services division. A structured survey, based on Wendler (2014), was administered to all staff as part of a multi-phased approach, thus facilitating a triangulation process.\nFindings: The current research has confirmed the applicability of Wendler's model to the higher education information technology sector. Application of the model establishes not only a baseline agility maturity score across the whole-of-organisation but also provides granular scores based on organisational units. Triangulation of survey results is recommended to achieve a more in-depth perspective.\nResearch limitations/implications: Further research comparing similarly and differently sized universities could provide valuable insights. More research is needed to extend the applicability of Wendler's model to a wider range of domains and industries.\nPractical implications: The grouping of survey questions under particular broad themes reflected the strategic focus of the division being surveyed. Organisations implementing the proposed model will need to select themes that correspond with their respective strategic goals and culture.\nOriginality/value: The paper has extended the research and resultant model developed by Wendler by applying them not only to both managers and staff but also to a different domain, specifically higher education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Inside the "black box": the performance of boards of directors of unlisted companies
|
[
"Boards of Directors",
"Group dynamics",
"Directors",
"Corporate governance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This study aims to explore two under-developed areas of corporate governance research:1. The governance of unlisted companies.2. Board behaviour, in particular Board Process - how members interact with each other to achieve objectives, sometimes called group dynamics.Although unlisted companies form the majority of UK firms, Long et al. (2005) highlight the need for more research into their boards.Research on what happens within the board (the \"black box\") is notoriously difficult and the large majority of extant studies of boards have been based on desk research. Many researchers have referred to the difficulties they encounter in working with boards (Pettigrew, 1992; Gay, 2001; Long et al., 2005). Boards prefer to keep their deliberations secret and are often reluctant to be studied (Long et al., 2005). Dulewicz and Herbert (2008) have found an increasing trend over recent years for companies to have a policy not to respond to questionnaire surveys about their boards. This is not altogether surprising, especially for \"cold\" surveys such as this when one is dealing in material which, by its very nature, requires penetrating investigation and a willingness of participants to address intrinsically sensitive territory. Evidence of the bias of past research towards structural analysis, versus process, is provided by Gabrielsson and Huse (2004). They reviewed 127 empirical studies of corporate governance and found that only a small minority explored the behavioural aspects of board performance by delving into the \"black box\". They conclude with a powerful argument in favour of more studies incorporating process analysis, behavioural factors and evolutionary processes.Boards are different from other types of team and so experience different process issues. Leblanc (2004) identifies key differences between boards and executive teams:* The existence of \"outsiders\" - non-executive directors (NEDs) with limited exposure to the firm.* Boards typically have more members than senior management teams.* Boards function only episodically, meeting on average 10-12 times a year, equivalent to two weeks per year.These unique characteristics make boards more prone to \"process losses\" - a concept used by Steiner (1972) in his model of team performance. This model defines actual team performance as total potential performance minus process loss, which is the sum of coordination loss, due to the difficulty in coordinating efforts of multiple individuals, and motivation loss. These interaction difficulties prevent the group from achieving its full potential. This suggests that board effectiveness depends on social-psychological processes such as group interaction, the exchange of information and critical discussion.The literature indicates that more research into personal and inter-personal dimensions of directors' behaviours and board effectiveness is required. For example, the relevance of much of the existing group process theory to the study of boards is reiterated by Murphy and McIntyre (2007) who hope that further research using organisational behaviour concepts is forthcoming. Sonnenfeld (2004) challenged many \"myths\" of boards and concluded that the missing side of board research is the \"human side\". The questions he considers important include areas covered by the questionnaire used in this study. Barrick et al. (1998) argue that group effectiveness is determined by the combination of individual, group and environmental factors in any situation. Pye and Pettigrew (2005) highlight the need to examine the ambiguous relationship between individual and collective characteristics, behaviour and effectiveness. McNulty et al. (2002) argue our understanding of behavioural dynamics needs to be significantly improved.Past research studies have investigated links between structural governance factors and company performance. Hermalin and Weisbach's (2003) survey found little evidence of any clear links. The positive impact on monitoring shareholder interests is argued by Gabrielsson and Winlund (2000) but the meta-analysis of 54 empirical studies by Dalton et al. (1998) found no clear association between the proportion of non-executives and financial performance. A more recent survey by Becht et al. (2005) highlights that ownership concentration improves governance of performance, at least for family-owned firms.Another structural factor, board size, has been shown by different studies to be both positively and negatively associated with performance. Large boards may be better at forming links with external resources and making information-based decisions (Ruigrok et al., 2006). A countervailing process is identified by Forbes and Milliken (1999) who discuss the potential for \"social loafing\" within boards and argue that team relationships and cohesion will be more difficult as the number of directors increases. Similarly, Jensen (1993) recognised that larger boards incur significant co-ordination costs. This brings greater likelihood of conflict, lower motivation, less informal communication between members, slower decision-making and lower cohesiveness (Ruigrok et al., 2006). A negative relationship between board size and board cohesiveness was also proposed by Levrau and van den Berghe (2007a). Belkhir (2008) found a positive relationship between board size and firm performance up to an optimal point in his study of bank and savings companies. Research by Jensen (1993) on private-equity companies suggests that boards with seven or eight directors and high equity ownership are optimal. This is consistent with the empirical findings of Belbin (2004), a leading authority on management teams, that large teams of 11 or 12 are often ineffective and that the optimum size is six members.Only a small number of studies were found that focused on board process. For example, Wan and Ong's (2005) work suggests that board structure does not influence board process, but that process does play an important role in determining performance. Forbes and Milliken (1999) combine strands of previous research into boards of directors with concepts from the field of group dynamics (process) and workgroup effectiveness. Thus, although not conclusive, the results from a few studies suggest links between structural factors (board size, ownership, proportion of NEDs), process and performance, but more research is needed.The board standards model\nResearch question and hypotheses: The literature review provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for framing the research question for this study: What are the main factors associated with underperformance of unlisted companies' boards as working groups in terms of process and structural corporate governance factors?From this question four hypotheses were derived:H1. The quality of personal relationships within the board of directors is the main cause of \"process loss\" in boards of unlisted companies.\"Process loss\" is defined as interaction difficulties that prevent the board from achieving its full potential. Murphy and McIntyre (2007) and Sonnenfeld (2002) identify 'intragroup trust', \"mutual respect\" and \"working relationship with CEO\" as factors that have some correlation with team effectiveness. It is important to recognise that relationships are dynamic and that good and bad characteristics can drive the quality of relationships within a board into virtuous or vicious circles (Huse, 2007). Given these reinforcing dynamics it is perhaps not surprising that Higgs and Dulewicz (1998) found that team relationship factors accounted for by far the largest amount in overall team performance. This hypothesis tests the validity of these findings to boards of unlisted companies.H2. The Chairman's leadership style is a significant cause of \"process loss\" in boards of unlisted companies.The importance of the chairman's \"behavioural posture\" is raised by Leblanc (2004). He proposes various stereotypes of leadership style, some of which are more suited to aiding overall team performance. Levrau and van den Berghe (2007b) found a key role for the Chairman in determining board effectiveness, supporting Pettigrew and McNulty's (1995) argument about the Chairman's influence on the shaping of board dynamics. The importance of the chairman's personality is discussed by Furr and Furr (2005) and it is possible to see how this is a strong influence on factors such as the amount of trust, transparency and the quality of debate within the board (Bloch, 2005).H3. The presence of non-executive directors in boards of unlisted companies reduces the board's performance as a working group.Forbes and Milliken (1999) argue that a higher proportion of non-executive directors on a board may indeed enhance some aspects of board performance such as effort norms. However, they also suggested that other aspects would be harmed, including board cohesiveness. With more affiliations outside the board and less opportunity to build relationships with other directors, non-executives could reduce these aspects of group effectiveness.H4. Larger boards in unlisted companies increase the likelihood of \"process loss\" in the board as a working group.The competing arguments about the impact of board size on performance are outlined above. This hypothesis tests the application of Jensen's (1993) and Belbin's (2004) findings that large boards and executive teams are less effective as working groups than smaller ones.The BEQ had been constructed to measure Element 5 of ORB (see Figure 1 above) on the assumption that all 45 items reflected behaviours that were relevant to effective board behaviour and process (Dulewicz et al., 1993). Further exploratory work was conducted on the BEQ in this study, to test the relevance of the items and specifically to identify the most and least desired behaviours of directors; gaps between current and future behaviours; and those behaviours correlated with under-performance.\nResearch method: Research design\nResults: The \"ideal\" board\nDiscussion: There is a problem in establishing the total population of unlisted companies and hence the response rate. Long et al. (2005) state \"It is difficult to define the population of ... unlisted company boards due to the limited statistics available\". This problem is common to many studies and it is difficult to go beyond some broad descriptions of what this population looks like (e.g. Westhead et al., 2002). While this sample covers a wide range of unlisted companies in terms of turnover, employees and sector, it is impossible to calculate the response rate or claim it is highly representative of the population. This sample might be considered to be a \"judgement\" or \"purposive\" sample (Churchill, 1999), as it is a sample in which it is expected that the sample elements can serve the research purpose in that they are in a position to make the contributions that are sought.The \"ideal\" board\nConclusions and recommendations: The \"ideal\" board presented in Table II provides a short checklist for any director wishing to assess the performance of his or her board as a working group. It highlights key characteristics that should be thought about and discussed during any sessions on director or board performance. The full questionnaire provides the means for a more robust and complete assessment of a board's performance as a working group and should ideally be undertaken by all board members with an external facilitator. Agreement and discussion of any commonly identified gaps in board behaviour should result in a practical development plan to improve effectiveness.The main limitations of the research relate to the sample, use of one respondent per board and lack of detail. The sample of 67 is a \"purposive, judgmental sample\" (Churchill, 1999) of all unlisted companies, derived from those who were willing and able to respond. In addition, only IoD members were invited to respond. Furthermore, only one director's view of each board was sought. Finally, the questionnaire only provides an outline view of performance on the 45 items. These limitations lead to several recommendations for future research. Firstly, it would be useful to repeat the survey on a larger sample of directors of both listed and unlisted companies. In addition, the views of a number of directors from each board should be sought. Such studies would increase the reliability and generalisability of the findings. Secondly, it would be useful to research the key findings on board behaviour within the target populations using a case study method, combining director interviews with observation of board meetings. Lockhart (2006) highlights the usefulness of case studies but also the drawbacks in terms of generalisability.Future research on how boards actually behave needs to be centred on the fact that boards share many characteristics with other groups and teams. Despite some key differences, perhaps the \"essence of high performance is spirit. If we try to banish play, ritual, ceremony, and myth, we will destroy teamwork, not enhance it\" (Bolman and Deal, 1992). Formulaic, rules-based and inflexible codes of corporate governance may diminish the value creation that the highest performing boards achieve.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore two under-developed areas of board research: the corporate governance of unlisted companies; and board behaviour, focusing on process factors that contribute to a board performing effectively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The Board Effectiveness Questionnaire was completed by 67 directors, to gather views on how their board currently operates and how they think it should operate, across various behavioural areas relating to the relationships, decision making, the working climate and predispositions. Analysis of \"process losses\", the pattern of sub-optimal board behaviour, allowed the testing of four hypotheses concerning board effectiveness.\nFindings: - The 18 most important and five least important behaviours were identified, plus 12 showing the greatest \"process loss\". Quality of team \"relationships\" is the main cause of loss whereas evidence for the impact of leadership style is mixed. Size of the board is related to overall performance of the board but number and proportion of non-executive directors are not.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is a \"purposive, judgmental\" sample of all unlisted companies, derived from those who were willing and able to respond. Only one director's view of each board was sought.\nPractical implications: - The picture of the \"ideal\" board provides a checklist for a company wishing to assess its board's performance as a working group, highlighting key characteristics that should be reflected on when discussing director/ board performance. The gaps in board behaviour identified could help other boards assess their own performance and researchers to focus on these areas.\nOriginality/value: - The paper explores two under-researched areas.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Aligning strategies and processes in knowledge management: a framework
|
[
"Organizations",
"Management strategy",
"Knowledge management",
"Alignment",
"Alignment enablers",
"Social networks",
"Artefact networks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The growing interest in organisational knowledge over the last decade has brought an increased focus on the role of strategy in knowledge management (KM). In an attempt to improve KM in organisations, a number of authors have proposed a variety of strategic approaches to deliver performance and competitiveness in firms (e.g. Hansen et al., 1999; Earl, 2001; Jasimuddin et al., 2005; Denford and Chan, 2011; Lambe, 2011; Bettiol et al., 2012). Consistent with the increasing importance of strategy in the KM literature is the topic of \"alignment\" that has been studied in a number of contexts other than KM. Contributions of existing alignment research are with regard to business strategy and other functions (e.g. information and communication technology (ICT), marketing, etc.) and the resulting outcomes on organisational capabilities and performance (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993; Chan, 2002; Tallon and Pinsonneault, 2011; Yayla and Hu, 2012). However, there appears to be inadequate research focusing on the alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes in organisations. In fact, some literature sources have suggested that many organisations fail in their attempts to align their KM strategies with knowledge processes in teams or workgroups (Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Earl, 2001; Pinho et al., 2012).The authors adopt the notion of Henderson and Venkatraman (1993, pp. 2-3) and define alignment with respect to KM in this paper as a continuous process of refinement that comprises \"the fit and linkage between an organisational KM strategy emphasis and associated KM processes\". Based on the current management literature on alignment, the authors believe that there is a research gap in the understanding of alignment between the organisation's KM strategy and workgroup KM processes which underpin the success of KM. In fact, of the few key studies (Hansen et al., 1999; Zack, 1999; Earl, 2001; Maier and Remus, 2002) on KM strategy, none have clearly spelled out the alignment between KM strategy and knowledge processes in workgroups. Since there are no clear guidelines in the KM literature on the notion of alignment, this research aims to answer the following research question: how can organisations achieve alignment between their KM strategies and workgroup KM processes? In this regard, for organisations that are planning to focus their efforts on KM, it is often not clear what alignment enablers organisations should invest in order to achieve alignment?To answer these questions, a qualitative case study research approach was followed to gain a deeper understanding of alignment and its approaches, and of the accompanying alignment enablers and associated KM problems arising from non-alignment. Based on empirical evidence, the authors propose a Strategic-Workgroup Alignment Framework (see Figure 1) that illustrates alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes. This framework also introduces three different alignment processes and key alignment enablers to achieve alignment.This paper is structured as follows: the next section revisits key literature on strategic approaches to KM and describes the complementary nature of the knowledge processes that workgroups draw on to manage knowledge effectively. More specifically, two categories of workgroup enablers - i.e. social networks (SNs) and artefact networks (ANs) - that contribute to more effective and efficient KM in workgroups are revisited. A description of the research methodology follows based on three representative case organisations. The Strategic-Workgroup Alignment Framework with respect to KM strategy and KM process alignment is then presented. A discussion section follows that explains different alignment approaches and the implications of using this framework. Finally, the Conclusion section describes the limitations and avenues for further research.\nLiterature review: The existing management literature suggests that alignment is often difficult to achieve due to issues including vague guidelines on how to achieve alignment, the inter-related nature of organisational processes, and difficulties in measuring the progress of alignment efforts (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993; Baker et al., 2011). Despite the inherent complexity, alignment is a dynamic process that manifests itself over time and can be more aptly described as an incremental process of continuous improvement to achieve specific alignment goals (Benbya and McKelvey, 2006). Previous KM studies indicate that KM strategy often fails to deliver knowledge process outcomes such as improvement in one or more processes of creation, transfer and codification (Maier and Remus, 2002; Jasimuddin et al., 2005; Kumar and Ganesh, 2011). This can be attributed to the non-alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes in organisations. In this context, the authors define a workgroup as a group of workers that works collaboratively on a series of tasks related to one or more business processes and the associated management of process knowledge. Considering KM strategy and workgroup KM processes, key scholarly literature contributions relevant to the context of this paper are revisited in the subsections that follow.Forms of knowledge and knowledge management processes\nResearch methodology: A qualitative case study research design was chosen for this study. Case studies are considered a suitable approach for focusing on the \"how\" type of research questions and for exploring contemporary phenomena within a real-life context (Yin, 2009). Three knowledge-intensive case organisations were selected based on their KM strategy emphasis and the link to KM processes in workgroups as outlined in Table I. Case studies enabled an in-depth assessment of the nature of each organisation's business, how alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes was manifested, and the different types of alignment enablers used (Eisenhardt, 1989; Creswell, 2007).Data collection occurred over a period of six years (2002 to 2007) in medium to large organisations in Australia and New Zealand. Table II summarises the cases in terms of the organisation size, number of participants, and workgroups and participants interviewed. Sixteen interviews were conducted with various managers, vice-presidents and workgroup team members of the participating organisations. Of these, eight were targeted towards senior management to explore the KM strategy emphasis in the organisations. The remaining eight interviews were conducted in workgroups to examine how the chosen KM strategy emphasis was aligned with workgroup KM processes. Follow-up interviews and observations were helpful in identifying different alignment enablers in SNs and ANs that supported the creation, transfer, use and application of knowledge.Interviews were semi-structured with open-ended questions, lasted 45 minutes and were audio-recorded and transcribed. Field observations required one researcher to spend time with workgroups to gain an understanding of how alignment was manifested in these organisations. Interview transcripts and field notes were combined, coded and analysed to identify general and specific patterns, and emerging themes (Creswell, 2007). The different sources of evidence described in Table I allowed for triangulation (Yin, 2009). The qualitative software tool \"Atlas.ti\" was used to support the coding, analysis and interpretation of data collected in the study.The next section presents the evidence in the form of case exhibits which are focused on the alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes in the three chosen organisations.Case studies\nThe Strategic-Workgroup Alignment Framework: Based on the empirical evidence from the cases, the Strategic-Workgroup Alignment Framework is proposed in Figure 1. The framework illustrates alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes through alignment enablers (i.e. personalisation and codification KM strategy emphases with knowledge creation/transfer and knowledge storage/application through SNs and ANs, respectively), the link between alignment enablers and KM processes and, lastly, alignment between workgroups. As depicted in Figure 1, organisations can either select a personalisation or codification KM strategy emphasis. Whichever approach is chosen determines the key workgroup alignment enabler category and the one or more respective alignment enablers within that category to align a chosen KM strategy emphasis with workgroup KM processes.Data analysis identified a number of key alignment enablers that link an organisation's KM strategy with workgroup KM processes. Alignment enablers (individually or collectively) are elements that help to establish and confirm a KM strategy choice and direction for managing knowledge processes in an organisation. Apart from confirming the strategic emphasis, enablers also guide strategic-workgroup alignment. Two categories - i.e. personalisation and codification enablers - are identified and differentiated. Personalisation enablers emphasise aligning a personalisation KM strategy emphasis with relevant workgroup KM processes. In particular, personalisation alignment and accompanying enablers focus on strengthening the creation and transfer processes of knowledge in workgroups. Examples of personalisation enablers include roles (e.g. knowledge brokers, advocates, mentors and champions); socialisation incentives; creation of specialized groups, teams or CoPs; and a personalisation knowledge culture.On the other hand, codification enablers focus on aligning a codification KM strategy emphasis with workgroup KM processes. More specifically, codification alignment and accompanying enablers therefore seek to strengthen knowledge codification/storage and reuse/application processes in workgroups. Examples of codification enablers include:* codification templates and knowledge classification schemes;* models and structures to store codified content in knowledge bases, portals, intranets, and wikis;* semantic tagging; and* a knowledge codification culture.As indicated in Figure 1, alignment enablers are central to aligning a specific KM strategy emphasis with workgroup KM processes. In doing so, the respective KM processes in workgroups can be improved over time.\nDiscussion: Apart from the alignment enablers illustrated in the Strategic-Workgroup Alignment Framework (Figure 1), empirical evidence denotes three different alignment approaches with respect to KM strategy and KM processes in organisations. These approaches are:1. top-down personalisation alignment;2. top-down codification alignment; and3. horizontal workgroup alignment through replication of specific KM processes between workgroups.Top-down personalisation alignment\nConclusion: This paper has examined how organisations can align their chosen KM strategy emphasis (codification and/or personalisation) with workgroup KM processes using alignment processes and SN and/or AN enablers to improve relevant KM workgroup processes. Managing knowledge is a process that requires careful consideration of the link between KM strategy and KM processes in organisations. As a result, the Strategic-Workgroup Alignment Framework synthesized from empirical evidence is presented together with a discussion of the different approaches and implications in aligning KM strategy and processes.While this study improves the understanding of alignment, there are some limitations. Firstly, even though the proposed framework provides valuable insights with respect to different alignment processes, it does not specify how to measure or assess each of the alignment processes in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Since alignment involves continuous improvement, specific benchmarks are required to assess and evaluate management interventions. This is necessary to determine what alignment enablers should be introduced and the degree to which they should be introduced. In addition, this study did not explore the breakdown of tasks associated with managerial interventions as every organisational context is unique and dynamic. Secondly, it may be necessary to investigate the relationship between different alignment enablers and determine whether they influence one another and if so, to what extent. Thirdly, the alignment enablers mentioned are not an exhaustive list. Fourthly, although a part of the alignment processes, this study's focus was specifically on KM strategy and its alignment with workgroup KM processes.Further research could bring to light other approaches for achieving alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes. Finally, this study has only investigated the alignment of specific type of KM strategy approaches (i.e. personalisation and codification) in organisations. Future work could consider other KM strategy approaches or topologies to identify alignment enablers and processes for these and similar settings.In summary, management need not micro-manage the knowledge in workgroups, but rather could invest in suitable and relevant alignment enablers to align KM strategy and workgroup KM processes. Managers are cognizant of their own organisation's context and long-term directions, and are therefore instrumental in identifying one or more combinations of suitable enablers to successfully align KM strategy and workgroup KM processes. Finally, the authors suggest that alignment is a dynamic process that requires managers to continuously review existing alignment enablers and adapt new ones on a regular basis to reflect improvement in KM processes over time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Knowledge management (KM) has become a key driver of organisational performance. The existing literature suggests that many organisations fail in their attempts to align their KM strategies with knowledge processes within their organisation. Based on the management literature on alignment, there is a gap in the understanding of how an organisation's KM strategy and KM processes in workgroups can be aligned. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that alignment in terms of KM is important and underpins the improvement of KM processes in organisations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative case study research approach was used to examine alignment between strategy and processes of knowledge in organisations. In total, three case organisations representing different industry sectors were chosen to examine how organisations align their KM strategies with workgroup knowledge processes.\nFindings: - This study proposes a Strategic-Workgroup Alignment Framework that explains the key alignment enablers and different alignment approaches required to align KM strategy with workgroup KM processes in organisations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The authors acknowledge the limitations of this paper. Although the proposed framework provides valuable insights with respect to different alignment approaches, it does not specify how each alignment approach can be assessed in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. As part of the alignment approaches, this study's focus was between strategy and processes of knowledge: further research could bring to light new alignment options of knowledge and the associated implications.\nOriginality/value: - This study illustrates that organisations can improve the management of knowledge through alignment between KM strategies and KM processes. Such an improvement is also possible in the absence of a KM strategy emphasis, where alignment would require a deeper examination of workgroup knowledge processes. This study also identifies specific alignment enablers to align KM strategy and KM processes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
National standards of customer satisfaction in facilities management
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Performance management",
"Facilities",
"United Kingdom",
"Ireland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Facilities management (FM) is \"the integration and alignment of the non-core services, including those relating to premises, required to operate and maintain a business to fully support the core objectives of the organisation\" (Tucker and Pitt, 2008). Although FM services are non-core in nature, if managed correctly they should have a strategic importance to adding value to an organisation's core business delivery.The standard at which an organisation believes it is delivering FM services can often be distinctly different from the perceptions of the customers/users receiving the services. This is reinforced by the GAPS model created by Parasuraman (2004), illustrating that service quality fails when there is a gap between customer expectations and perceptions. FM therefore has a critical importance within the workplace, where the performance of service delivery needs to be measured to ensure added value is being achieved. Moreover, Tucker and Smith (2008) express that the perceptions of the user to the initial input of the service delivery process are equally important, as they essentially determine the strategic and operational objectives of the organisation. The importance of gathering service delivery data from a customer perspective in FM is clear.In 2004, the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), part funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) (now known as the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)), issued a report titled \"Rethinking facilities management: accelerating change through best practice\" (BIFM, 2004). Promoting customer satisfaction was regarded as one of the top five issues today and in five to ten years time for FM. Performance benchmarking was also noted as being important, as although not in the top five current issues, it showed the largest change in importance for five to ten years' time across all FM functions. The report is now five years old, and based on these findings the importance of promoting customer performance measurement and the use of benchmarking within a strategic FM function should now be essential.Studies on performance measurement within FM have been commonplace over the past two decades. Studies have generally tended to focus on how FM organisations can manage performance strategically to achieve added value and more efficient service delivery (e.g. Amaratunga and Baldry, 2000, 2002, 2003; Hinks and McNay, 1999; Kincaid, 1994; Varcoe, 1996a), and the importance of benchmarking, which have arguably leaned towards more financially orientated factors (e.g. Massheder and Finch, 1998a, b; McDougall and Hinks, 2000; Wauters, 2005; Williams, 2000; Varcoe, 1996b). Specific studies focusing on the involvement of the \"customer\" in FM are also evident (e.g. Bandy, 2003; Amaratunga et al., 2004; Futcher et al., 2004; Shaw and Haynes, 2004; Walters, 1999; Loosemore and Hsin, 2001), but they are not as frequent as more generic performance measurement papers. Moreover, specific research on the application of customer satisfaction indicators as a strategic performance measurement process within FM is insufficiently documented.According to Sarshar and Pitt (2009), FM suppliers need to go beyond their existing customer performance measurement systems, moving from customer satisfaction surveys \"towards 360 degree client perception management systems\". By this, Sarshar and Pitt (2009) explain that this would require a review of client requirements from both quantitative and qualitative data, where most surveys are quantitative in nature and consequently miss out on important issues.This paper forms the first stage of a wider research study investigating how FM provider organisations can strategically use and apply customer performance measurement to innovate and improve FM service provision. This was achieved by developing a conceptual model, known as the Customer Performance Measurement System (CPMS) (Tucker and Pitt, 2009), which incorporates a robust process of quantitative and qualitative methods that are accessible and strategically applicable to FM organisations.The following objectives were set to investigate operationally the development of the CPMS:* establish generic industry benchmarks of customer satisfaction for specific FM services in the UK and Ireland;* strategically apply generic industry benchmarks of customer satisfaction to an FM organisation through the quantitative measurement of internal client-base benchmarks and a qualitative assessment of the organisation's existing processes; and* assess the extent to which the CPMS model can enhance an FM organisation's existing customer performance measurement processes and contribute to strategically innovating and improving FM service provision.This paper provides an overview of the wider study, and then focuses on the primary research undertaken to complete the first aim identified above.\nThe CPMS model: According to Fellows and Liu (2003), \"modelling is the process of constructing a model, a representation of a designed or actual object, process or system, a representation of reality\". To this, the development of a conceptual framework or \"model\", termed CPMS, was developed to effectively test the aims and objectives set in the previous section.The CPMS will create a continuous improvement process allowing both customers and FM providers to gain knowledge and accessibility to customer performance data, and help FM provider organisations prioritise and strategically apply customer performance measurement information. The studies mentioned in the Introduction were influential in developing the CPMS framework. The overarching concept of applying benchmarking techniques however came from Camp (1989), who suggested that benchmarking is \"the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance\". Hence, by establishing a national customer satisfaction benchmark of FM service delivery, this will help kick-start the potential to obtain superior performance for FM service providers. However, the fundamental influence in developing the model reflected on the work of Amaratunga and Baldry (2002), who emphasised the importance of \"performance management\", where \"results in performance measurement indicated what happened, not why it happened, or what to do about it\". Hence the CPMS model uses external and internal benchmarks to explain what has happened, a gap analysis procedure will explain where it has happened, but the most important component, i.e. a strategic implementation process, will explain why and how FM providers can go about improving customer performance. The CPMS framework consists of four key stages (Figure 1):* Stage 1: National benchmarking- The purpose of this initial stage is to determine an external customer opinion via generic benchmarks within the FM industry. Key customer satisfaction attributes will be agreed across individual FM services and will be targeted at organisations that receive and/or operate FM services in-house (i.e. no FM providers).* Stage 2: Internal benchmarking - An internal benchmarking exercise will then take place within an individual FM provider organisation. This will require access to the FM providers' client base. The exercise will largely mimic the content of Stage 1, providing a direct comparison to evaluate how individual FM providers are performing against the perceived national standards. Data would also be collected from a qualitative assessment of key FM staff within the organisation, and a sample of their client base, to further understand the current organisational framework for capturing customer satisfaction.* Stage 3: Gap analysis - The CPMS is now able to analyse the specific gaps/areas for improvement within the service delivery of the FM provider.* Stage 4: Customer performance strategy - The FM provider organisation is now in a position of the informed client. Strategic decisions can be made to devise new processes to add value and further enhance the organisations service quality.\nResearch structure: In order to test the effectiveness of the conceptual CPMS framework described, a mixed methodological approach is taken using both quantitative and qualitative methods. More specifically, a mixed \"sequential explanatory strategy\" (Creswell, 2009) is used, where quantitative data and qualitative data are collected in sequential phases. This also gives weight to the collection of quantitative data, where initial quantitative data is collected in the first phase, and is followed up by the collection of qualitative data in the second phase to help inform the initial quantitative findings (Creswell, 2009).Creswell (2009) states that \"theory use in mixed methods studies may include theory deductively, in quantitative theory testing and verification, or inductively as in an emerging qualitative theory or pattern\". Essentially this study adopts a deductive approach, where theory is systematically tested in order to unravel new findings and theory (Stages 1-3 of the CPMS). However, the final process is inductive (Stage 4 of the CPMS), where \"the researcher infers the implications of his or her findings for the theory that prompted the whole exercise\" (Bryman and Bell, 2007).Stage 1 is conducted through a large-scale quantitative study in order to establish generic customer satisfaction benchmarks for the FM industry. Stage 2 then involves testing whether the benchmarks can be applied to an instrumental case study, through an individual FM provider organisation. This will be achieved through an internal quantitative study to compare the case study's client base benchmarks (Stage 2a), to the generic benchmarks established in Stage 1. It will also be achieved through a qualitative study (Stage 2b) involving a series of semi structured interviews with case study staff and clients to inform the researcher of the existing processes involved for assessing customer satisfaction. Stage 3 then amalgamates the data established from Stages 1 and 2, analysing the key gaps and areas for improvement within the case study. This information will then be disseminated to case study staff for consideration. Stage 4 then finally infers the findings by providing suggestions for improvement to the existing processes. This will take place by conducting a series of post-CPMS interviews with case study staff to validate the effectiveness and applicability of the framework (Stage 4a), followed by a series of collective case studies, through a selection of external FM providers to validate externally the effectiveness and applicability of the framework (Stage 4b).\nCPMS Stage 1: methodology: Survey design\nCPMS Stage 1: Analysis: A systematic analysis procedure was undertaken for each question asked within the 2007 and 2008 surveys:1. Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test (to identify whether the data was normally distributed);2. Mann-Whitney U test (to identify any significant differences between 2007 findings and 2008 findings);3. frequency distribution tests (to identify trends in percentages between individual variables); and4. kh2 tests (categorical analysis to identify any significant relationships between two individual variables).Kolmogorov-Smirnov one sample test\nCPMS Stage 1: discussions and implications: The paper has provided an overview of the first stage of primary research undertaken within a wider study focusing on how customer performance measurement information can be strategically implemented into FM provider organisations. This first stage of primary research has aimed to establish generic customer satisfaction benchmarks of service delivery for the FM industry.Following the Mann-Whitney tests, it was established that there was no significant difference between the 2007 and 2008 survey findings. This suggests that if generic customer satisfaction benchmarks are to be permanently implemented across the UK and Ireland, the survey would not need to be conducted every year, but possibly updated every two or three years minimum.The frequency distribution analysis identified some interesting findings in the relationships between the criticality, efficiency, and provision of certain services. Generally, it could be assumed that the \"health and safety\", \"mailroom\", \"reception\", and \"helpdesk\" services were all considered very critical, highly efficient, and predominantly provided in-house. One could contend that because health and safety services rely on strict legislative demands, that possibly a specialist provider would be more suited to deliver the service. However, this does not appear to be the case across the UK and Ireland, with customers considering the service to be highly efficient via in-house methods. The reception and helpdesk services are also interesting findings, as they are generally considered to be front-line services and are therefore naturally perceived to be very critical, in which customers again seem to entrust as an in-house service, and provide highly efficient results. Conversely, the \"M&E engineering\", \"waste management\" and \"building fabric\" services were considered very or moderately critical, but rated lowest in terms of efficiency, and predominantly outsourced. These services are often considered more traditional \"hard\" functions of FM compared to those rated more positively above, but are distinctly more negative in terms of service delivery.Through the kh2 and Fisher's exact tests, however, only a small proportion of services (mailroom, catering, grounds and gardens) actually produced significant relationships between the level of criticality, efficiency, and provision of services, suggesting that although the trends identified through the frequency distribution analysis are important to consider, they do not necessarily prove that this is the norm for all customers across the country.The kh2 and Fisher's exact tests did, however, produce the most frequent levels of significant relationships between the efficiency of services and the aspects of the FM team delivering the services. This suggests that customers are conscious about the actual people delivering the services on-site, implying that choice of the right personnel for particular services by FM providers is essential in achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction regarding the efficiency of service delivery.Equally, there were many significant relationships evident regarding the efficiency of services and the level of innovation in service provision. This was also notable from customers' overall satisfaction with all services provided on-site, which produced a strong association to the level of innovation in service provision. This suggests that customers are conscious of how innovative FM providers are in delivering certain services, implying possibly that there is an expectation for FM providers to be proactive in their approach to service delivery, which can have a direct impact to customer perception of the efficiency of service delivery.In summary, the customer satisfaction benchmarks established within this research have produced some significant findings that could potentially further enhance FM provider organisations' existing performance measurement strategies. The authors are now working closely with a case study FM provider organisation to test the further stages of the conceptual CPMS framework, which we hope to publish in the near future.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the first stage of primary research undertaken to establish generic customer satisfaction benchmarks for the facilities management (FM) industry, and test whether the benchmarks can be strategically implemented into individual FM provider organisations to further enhance their existing performance measurement processes and subsequent service provision.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study proposes the development of a conceptual framework, the Customer Performance Measurement System (CPMS). The CPMS consists of four stages, and uses a mixed methodological strategy. This paper provides the findings from the first stage of the CPMS, to establish generic customer satisfaction benchmarks for the FM industry. This is undertaken through two annual customer satisfaction surveys in 2007 and 2008 across the UK and Ireland.\nFindings: - The paper establishes customer satisfaction benchmarks for individual FM services. The benchmarks identify trends between key variables of criticality, efficiency and service provision, including general variables regarding the performance of the FM team delivering the services and overall satisfaction with all services provided.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The research presented forms part of a wider study testing the concept of the CPMS framework. The paper provides an overview of the wider study, while focusing on the completion of the first stage of primary research.\nOriginality/value: - Information on the application of customer satisfaction indicators within the industry is limited. This paper provides an insight into how customers perceive individual FM services within the UK and Ireland.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An essay on life, care and death in the Brave New World after 1984
|
[
"Neoliberalism",
"(Re-)Production of bodies and signs",
"ICT and life sciences",
"Late capitalism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The two most outstanding dystopian novels of the mid-twentieth century observe and anticipate technological development in relation to questions of human nature and culture, individual identity and close social relationships, matters of privacy and private life.\nCoda: Had I written this piece a few years ago, the thought of a reappearance of reactionary modernism as a \"solution\" for this agony would not have crossed my mind as the rules and laws of the hegemonic world economy differ so widely from those of nation state politics. Since the crisis years of neoliberalism in the late 2000s, the return of power politics comes into view and, in particular, a revival of nationalism, of authoritarian if not totalitarian rule is not beyond imagination. In case, any such kind of politics should ever get the upper hand in the competition for hegemony and bring the so much more advanced technologies under its command [...] then the dystopian visions of an Orwell or Huxley might look like children's tales.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In order to explore the impact of the recent wave of a technological revolution on global culture and society, the purpose of this paper is to re-read the two most outstanding dystopian novels of the mid-twentieth century. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley observe and anticipate technological development in relation to questions of human nature and culture, individual identity and close relationships, matters of care, privacy and private life. The totalitarian regimes both authors experienced in their time have disappeared, yet today the two fields of high technology that fueled their fantasy are reaching levels of development to surpass Orwell's and Huxley's daunting visions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper approaches the recent innovations in the information and communication technology as well as the upsurge of life sciences and bio-technology from a philosophical perspective, considering their impact on the social structure (division of labor, distribution of wealth) as well as on the symbolic order of advanced industrial societies (the sign and the body, life and death).\nFindings: Taking up Michel Foucault's distinction between ancient sovereign rule and modern biopolitics, the author suggests discerning a third stage of domination: bio economics plus culture industries. In contrast to the two previous forms of domination, this new regime does not endeavor to suppress but to foster and unleash life. Therefore, it instigates less resistance and opposition but meets with more approval and compliance. Domination in this neoliberal-libertarian guise may prove not less dangerous than the former totalitarian variant. It forces the author to re-think ways of resistance and critique.\nOriginality/value: This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the analysis of care, society and democracy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Public value of e-government services through emerging technologies
|
[
"Emerging technologies",
"Public value",
"E-government",
"Smart technologies",
"Smart strategies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Emerging technologies are disruptive in organizations and impact on competitiveness, efficiency and the creation of value. Although there is much literature related to the study of IT in organizations, very little has reported about the effects of emerging technologies and public value on developing countries, especially for the design of smart strategies in government. There are different kinds of technologies that have been adopted by organizations throughout history; one important feature of emerging technologies is to generate changes in organizations. The effects of these technologies have been beneficial, as they generate positive results in terms of efficiency, transparency, accountability, as well as in the interaction between government and citizens. Some of these technologies are called \"smart\" because they work connected to the Internet, and they are characterized by improving efficiency, reducing costs, improving communication and interaction between people, as well as generating networking and collaboration (e.g. social networks). These kinds of technologies also perform activities that were previously exclusive to human beings (such as mechanical robots, service kiosks and ATMs), but nowadays, these technologies are replacing people in their daily and routine activities.\nLiterature review: The disruption of emerging technologies generates changes in organizations, and these changes affect the improvement of public value since it generates a better functioning of the government in terms of transparency and efficiency, which impacts trust, engagement, and public value. For this research, e-government is conceptualized as the use of technology to improve factors such as transparency, accountability, efficiency, interoperability and finally public value (Gil-Garcia and Pardo, 2005; Valle-Cruz et al., 2016).\nMethods: This section describes the research design and methods. A survey was conducted electronically between March 1 and May 23, 2017. The instrument was designed for citizens using technologies in the metropolitan area of the Toluca Valley (Lerma, Toluca and Metepec municipalities). The Toluca Valley is an important area because it borders with Mexico City (the capital of Mexico), being the most populous state in Mexico. It has a large industrial corridor, and Toluca is the capital of the State of Mexico. The study was carried out with a sample size n=157[1], which represents the citizens that use technologies in the metropolitan area of the Toluca Valley, and questionnaires were sent electronically to Twitter users who follow each government official account.\nResults: Based on the multivariate linear regression model, this section presents the results of testing the public value of e-government services through emerging technologies. For this reason, first, an exploratory factor analysis was performed, and then, a multivariable regression model that provides empirical evidence for the relationships between the proposed independent and dependent variables for the public value model was also analyzed. For the sample adequacy measure of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin, a value greater than 0.70 indicates a good level for sampling adequacy (Cerny and Kaiser, 1977). The KMO for the sample studied is 0.929, which means it can continue with the factorial model (Table II).\nFindings: Answering the research question:\nConclusions: In this research, public value in e-government was studied by a multivariate linear regression model for the metropolitan area of the Toluca Valley. The contribution of this paper lies in the study of emerging technologies for the creation of government public value in developing countries. However, this research only focused on e-government services. The findings of this research area will allow us to advance in the understanding of the generation of smart strategies for governments and this research seeks to advance in this direction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that generate public value in e-government services through emerging technologies and to answer the following question: Which are the factors that generate public value, in the e-government services, through emerging technologies?\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on a multivariate linear regression model, the author tests the public value of e-government services through emerging technologies in the metropolitan area of the Toluca Valley. Five factors are evaluated to understand public value: anti-corruption strategies, access to public information, transparency platforms, social media and service kiosks.\nFindings: Smart strategies and technologies must be guided by the generation of public value through anti-corruption strategies, open data, access to information and data privacy. The efforts of governments should focus on avoiding corruption, making government transparent, opening data and correct handling of information privacy. Technology is an important mechanism to boost public value generation.\nResearch limitations/implications: Mexico is a developing country, and there are very few emerging technologies implemented in e-Government.\nPractical implications: The results are important to identify good practices for the generation of public value in the e-Government area.\nOriginality/value: The study of emerging technologies is a new area in government, and this paper studies the generation of public value through emerging technologies in a developing country.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Sustainable resorts: learning from the 2004 tsunami
|
[
"Sustainable design",
"Natural disasters",
"Tidal waves",
"Thailand"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: unsustainable tourist facilities led to deaths: Over the past two decades, south Thailand's beach scene spawned a shortsighted consumerist economy of convenience and fast money. Despite the obvious warning signs - the overcrowding of hotels, restaurants, and shops along the seafront, the improper planning of resorts along narrow strips, and the unstable structures on sandy beaches - the tourism industry created \"an accident waiting to happen\" (Plate 1). If the tourist industry had used proper planning for oceanfront safety and followed sustainable architecture principles in line with environmental realities, the tsunami would not have resulted in so many deaths and so much property loss and harm to Thailand's international image.The Boxing Day tsunami sent a clear signal to national and local governments, developers, and planners to adopt the principles of environmentally sustainable development for future planning. Environmental viability/vulnerability factors of built structures within the shoreline ecology are among the major concerns for the reconstruction and building of tourism facilities. Resort areas must be safely sited to minimize potential threats to locals and visitors. Physical safety measures and a consequent psychological sense of security are key factors in stimulating people's interest in visiting the Indian Ocean coast and, at the same time, sustainable architecture can enhance the natural beauty of south Thailand.The tsunami was not a \"one-off\" event, but a sign of things to come. Global climate change is raising sea levels, stirring up more powerful monsoons and cyclones, and flooding rivers. Seismic activity, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, is expected to increase in the Indian Ocean region following the rupture of the once-stable Indo-Australian tectonic plate in the mid-1990s (Van Orman, 1995). A regional early-warning system cannot, by itself, guarantee safety, since the nearby Andaman Islands, which were also affected by the north Sumatra earthquake, are also becoming more prone to temblors. Resort developers must rebuild structures that can survive the worst-case scenario. In view of this, certain ideas for sustainable resort development have been suggested after research into the disaster.\nResort planning: Good planning and design of buildings can protect lives and foster a real sense of security for travelers and host communities. It is obvious that nearly all resorts in the disaster area, even the most luxurious ones, suffered in some way from bad planning and design in terms of safety. It was not a surprise then that the tsunami doomed thousands of guests, resort employees, and local residents. Had these design faults been resolved earlier, the losses in lives and property might have been greatly reduced. In the wake of the disaster, development and reconstruction should now follow a step-by-step planning procedure that encompasses site concerns, foundations, structural systems, architectural designs, and building services and landscaping) These measures can ensure the safety of buildings in all aspects. If we are to learn from the tsunami experience, the following procedure (Figure 1) may serve as an example for us to follow.\nSite sensitive planning: Resort planning should be site sensitive. Investigations of topography, geology, types of foundation rock, direction of waves and wind, and other environmental factors all need to be considered. For instance, resorts directly facing the sea received the brunt of the tsunami (Figure 2), whereas those situated on the outer edges of bays, away from the focal point of the wave, were the least disturbed. The curvature and angle of the seabed determined which specific locations were severely affected. If the natural position of potential resort sites and the coastal undersea topography had been closely examined beforehand with a suitable wave-impact study, the degree of damage could have been greatly minimized.Most of the deaths and injuries were sustained when people were hit by fast-moving debris or became trapped under the jetsam (Plate 2). The most lethal debris consisted of low-cost building materials, especially the corrugated sheet metal used to build shanties, as in Phi Phi's Tonsai beach district. Instead of ramshackle construction in crowded quarters, small businesses such as shops, bars, and guesthouses, should be allowed to lease retail spaces in well-designed markets, preferably new structures to be built by developers or subsidized by the government. These markets should be located on lower slopes at least six meters above the high-water mark. Elevated boardwalks, linking beaches, hotels and shopping areas, would make it convenient for tourists to access hillside markets and escape the flooding to reach higher ground.Apart from a suitable site location, it would also be useful to provide physical protection for the site. The use of offshore barriers or dykes and walls are options that are appropriate and economically feasible for reducing the wave energy, and thus impact, on the structures (Figure 3).\nProper foundation: Resorts and hotels were often built along the lowest-lying areas of the coast for the convenience of beach access. Nevertheless, such areas are the most prone to wave action and flooding. The low-density characteristic of sand was especially dangerous, due to its loosely packed foundation. In Patong-Phuket, Khao Lak, and KoPhi Phi, improper foundations led to the felling of resort buildings (Plate 3).On the contrary however, a group of Phi Phi resort buildings a few meters above sea level survived the disaster (Plate 4). It was obvious that an inland rock bed provided a firm foundation for these buildings to withstand great force. Zoning and land-use rules for resort districts in accordance with the contours of the land and tidal hydrodynamics should be developed. The creation of guidelines for land use will require further studies and extensive discussions by architects, building engineers, construction companies, hotel management, and government planners and regulators.The location of foundations is extremely important, since it determines the strength of structures anchored to the soil. Additional downward force to anchor resort buildings strongly into the soil could be made possible by tension lines, soil nail, and other kinds of soil anchor (Figure 4). To further enhance a structure's durability over time, natural and artificial means of protection or foundations could be used to help prevent the displacement and slide of buildings.\nA proper structural system: Structural damage to ferro-concrete structures and big wooden posts, especially in the larger hotels, was often not as devastating as the exaggerated news reports suggested. Many big hotels suffered only superficial structural damage, such as broken glass windows and interior damage, and could be renovated and reopened. Demolition was not necessary, especially in buildings where the ground floors were devoted to open-air facilities such as cafes and spas, which did not obstruct the floodwaters (Plate 5). \"Wide and shallow\" should be a ground rule for large structures, permitting floodwater to simply pass through unobstructed rather than constricting its flow and causing it to gain speed and rise higher.On similar principles, traditional stilt houses of the indigenous Chao Le, or \"sea gypsies\" along waterways survived even great tide-driven waves (Plate 6). A large force of impact was prevented by their tiny pillars. Waves simply passed through without damaging the house itself. On the other hand, houses built directly on the ground received the full force of the wave when it struck and retreated. These houses were pulled off their foundations.A much more detailed study is needed to better understand how structural systems can be designed and situated to withstand lateral wave impacts. Some sub-topics for further research include:* the shape of columns (round, square, or rectangular), and the direction of the column in relation to incoming waves (flat or diagonal);* the degree of impact on wall systems (force applied at different heights), and again the placement issue (diagonal vs fronting the sea); and* natural and traditional built models of flood-resistant structures, like the root and trunks of banyan trees and stilt-house building methods.Low-density services like spas and waiting areas should be placed on the ground floor with a minimum of walls or partitions. Elevation can save a building from collapsing (Figure 5).In contrast, management and security functions such as communications centers, safety deposit boxes, reservation desks, and offices should be relocated to the upper floors so that they can still function during and after the disaster. This step will help maintain emergency management functions during disasters. Back-up power generators should also be moved to roofs or upper floors to prevent flood damage to hardware.Raised structures on stilts give an advantage to resorts for reducing a wave's impact in each section. Bellows could be a mitigation approach if stilts are not practical. These plan diagrams (Figures 6 and 7) show the structural organization for reducing a wave's impact on the more critical structural elements. Caution should be exercised in those areas with pedestrian congestion, such as corridors, elevator entrances, and walkways, which should be shielded or raised above ground level.The use of heavy construction as opposed to light construction is less vulnerable not only to typhoons but to tsunami waves as well. Apparently, heavy timber and ferro-concrete structures had the best chance of surviving the impact of waves. It is important to ensure that there is consistency and balance between tsunami-resistant construction and structural requirements of natural force such as earthquakes, which sometimes run counter to these principles. A careful equilibrium should be achieved.\nProper architectural design: The orientation\nBuilding services: Drinking water and electrical supply were found to be woefully insufficient during and after the disaster. Since, the arrival of the tourism industry two decades ago, the region's freshwater resources have been wasted, mainly as flushing water for tourists. It is obvious that the planning and back-up building services were not properly provided for during design stage. It was difficult for the victims to find even a single drop of fresh water after the tsunami. Electricity was totally cut off and emergency services experienced great difficulties.Water supply\nLandscaping: The occasional banyan, with its many trunks and aerial roots, saved many lives, allowing people to find support against the water flow and climb above danger (Plate 13). Palms, which are visually attractive, are harder to climb and have no branches. The planting of sturdy, branching hardwoods in resort areas is a \"must-do.\" Innovative tensile structures and flexible platforms on larger trees could be designed as a form of recreation to encourage people to climb, as well as a safety measure.Natural landscapes at higher levels can also provide safety platforms during tsunamis and floods. Landscape design should be incorporated as a safety feature in the master planning of resort development (Plate 14). It can help restore the balance between the natural and built environments.\nLearning from tradition: The best way to prevent massive casualties in natural catastrophes is passive defense, mainly through the placement and design of buildings. Electronic warning systems are workable only if there exist escape routes close to every hotel and neighborhood. The tourism industry, despite its technological advances and sophisticated building methods, turned out to be the most vulnerable sector along the Thai coast. Resort designers have much to learn from the vernacular architecture of the coastal region.Chao Le: the sea gypsies\nNon-sustainable development of the tourist sector: Tourism developed as an industry along the coast starting in the late 1970s. Owing to the demand for scenery rather than safety, the tourist trade has been the least environmentally sustainable form of human settlement on the coast of Thailand and the least integrated into the natural ecology. A huge challenge lies ahead for planners, architects, and resort management to integrate tourist facilities into the natural environment, particularly developing models of environmentally sustainable architecture appropriate to the coastal lagoon topography. In contrast to the established communities of Chao Le and ethnic Chinese, the tourist resorts had major vulnerabilities to disaster:* Buildings were sited in environmentally hazardous zones, like along beaches prone to flooding and tsunamis.* Tourism attracted dense concentrations of transient people - foreign visitors and migrant workers - who had no long-term relationship with the area or the established communities.* Resort complexes and clusters, as non-permanent groupings, lacked the leadership and communication networks of the more resilient established communities, leading to the collapse of communications after the tsunami.* Hotels and upscale restaurants were dependent on imported goods, services, and power, isolating it from local communities, which produce their own food, transport, and energy resources. (Stranded and injured visitors often had to get first aid, food, water, shelter and transport from local fishermen and shopkeepers rather than from tourism operators).* Owing to the very high tourist demand for flush toilets and showers, resorts depleted the water resources of the coast, causing the drainage and pollution of lagoons and rivers, which had protected the land. Drainage spurred a building boom on lowlands, which increased population density in flood-prone areas.\nAction plan: major response for resort (re)construction: Learning from local traditions, development in the past adapted to site conditions to avoid damage from natural disasters. In contrast, more recent developments did not follow the knowledge and traditional skills of the indigenous community. Tourism developers were shortsighted and money-oriented, and safety was hence not a priority. To avoid a repeat of the tragedy, action must be taken.Response to site - relocate small businesses on hillside market areas\nConclusion: The tourism industry cannot go back to shortsightedness and fast money because disaster will strike again. As this unfortunate experience has shown us, sustainable architecture could mean the difference between life and death. Careful consideration should be given to site conditions, structural issues, architectural issues, landscaping, and even building services. More studies are needed in each of these areas. A safe and pleasant atmosphere will, in turn, draw more people to enjoy nature, thus benefiting the economic development of local communities.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - Given the extensive destruction resulting from the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that destroyed and damaged resort complexes in southern Thailand, the purpose of this research paper is to focus on the planning of architecture of resorts in two layers: the relationship of structures and land use to the natural environment, and the identification of specific design flaws that resulted in the loss of life.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An international collaborative effort led to site visits by our research team to the hardest-hit resort areas of Khao Lak, Takua Pa, and Ko Phi Phi on December 29, 2004-January 6, 2005, and in February 2005. The research team had direct contact with the adverse effects of the tsunami and gained insightful understanding on how structures and faulty architectural designs worsened the disaster and obstructed the process of saving lives. Analysis of these effects were then compiled and used to underpin subsequent proposals for resort reconstruction to minimize future destruction which may result from such calamities.\nFindings: - Close scrutiny and subsequent analysis of various factors which magnified the destruction and damage caused by the tsunami resulted in action plan proposals for sustainable resort development aimed at avoiding a repeat of the tragedy. These include responses to site, architecture, structures, building services and landscaping. More specifically proposals were made on issues of relocation, modifications of design flaws, introduction of escape routes, safer rooms, restoration of waterways, co-generation, tree plantation and incorporation of natural landscape.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Most of the information and data were gathered first hand at the location mentioned. More studies are needed to reinforce and further validate the proposed measures as generally applicable in similar locations.\nOriginality/value: - An action plan outlining measures aimed at minimizing damage from such natural disasters could provide a useful resource in future planning of resorts in tsunami prone locations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A new living contract: cases in the implementation of the Living Wage by British SME retailers
|
[
"United Kingdom",
"Case studies",
"Ethics",
"Living wage",
"Small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)",
"Retail/Wholesale"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past few decades, developed economies in the west have continued to grapple with a series of seemingly intractable problems in the context of labour productivity, intense competition from emerging markets, the rise of low-skilled and low-paid jobs, chronically un- and underemployed workers and stagnant or decreasing wages (Eurostat, 2016; Clarke and D'Arcy, 2016). The more recent rise of the \"gig economy\" involving zero-hour work contracts and \"forced\" self-employment has further intensified employer-employee conflicts (Pennycook et al., 2013; Broughton and Richards, 2016).\nLiterature review: The Living Wage\nMethod: The study employed mixed-methods research (Creswell, 2009). A survey as well as semi-structured, in-depth interviews were used. The purpose of the survey was to gain initial insights into SME's experience of adopting the LW. Survey questions asked about reasons for signing up to the LW; implementation, challenges and benefits of the LW; as well as about the company's current and future LW strategy. The survey was also used as a recruitment tool for follow up in-depth interviews. The interviews, which were semi-structured, probed for further detail on the topics covered in the survey but also allowed for new topics and issues to emerge.\nFindings: Survey findings\nDiscussion: The findings of this study highlight that in the overwhelming majority of cases employers are motivated by strong moral values and personal beliefs in \"paying a fair wage for a fair day's work\", which came across strongly in both the case studies and the survey findings.\nConclusion: This was the first study of its kind that investigated in-depth the implementation of the LW in SMEs, responding to the call for more empirical research into LW employers (Werner and Lim, 2016a). New insights into the motivations, challenges and benefits of paying the LW emerged and should serve as timely and significant bases for companies to examine, especially those thinking of paying the LW to their staff. As such, the study's findings provide valuable insights for those wishing to encourage LW adoption among SMEs. Furthermore, this study makes an original contribution to the literature on SME retailers as well as to the literature on ethics in SMEs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence for the motivations of SMEs for introducing the Living Wage (LW), focussing on retail as one specific sector. It develops understanding of the strategic benefits and challenges these employers face in balancing financial, ethical and social considerations in small businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study employed mixed methods: a survey and semi-structured interviews. The interviews are presented as part of three case studies.\nFindings: Findings indicate that employers were, for the most part, motivated by personal ethics and beliefs about fair wages and social justice. They suggest that SME accrue benefits from LW accreditation such as reputational benefits and higher employee morale, but that there are also potential pitfalls of LW adoption related to pay structure and incentives. The sustainability of the LW emerged as an issue in terms of the long-term strategy and brand positioning of the companies involved.\nResearch limitations/implications: The nature of the research was exploratory and thus the study only allows for limited generalisation. Recommended avenues for further research include gathering data from different levels of organisations and from different stakeholders.\nOriginality/value: This is the first paper to investigate the drivers for, and implementation of, the LW in SMEs. The specific characteristics of SMEs - their ethos, low visibility, reliance on trusting relationships and limited resources, among others - make the study of why and how they choose to implement the LW very interesting. This study is the first to gather and analyse data from SME retailers and wholesalers that have implemented the LW.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Managerial behaviour of small and medium-sized family businesses: an empirical study
|
[
"Family firms",
"Managers",
"Organizational behaviuor",
"Management strategy",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Family firms have been the focus of numerous studies during the last few years due to their capacity to generate employment as well as their essential role in the wealth creation process. Technological evolution and market globalization are factors that critically affect the framework of family businesses. For this reason, the survival of family enterprises depends on their striving for management competitiveness since this implies their anticipation and reaction capacity to environmental challenges (Camison, 1997). In order to improve management competitiveness, family businesses must adapt their strategies and organizational structures to a dynamic environment in open-market economies. Many authors (Westhead and Cowling, 1997, 1998; Morris et al., 1996; Gallo et al., 2004; Chrisman et al., 2003) highlight the need to increase empirical studies that compare strategic and competitive differences between family and non-family businesses. In this sense, the question asked in the study was: Are there management behaviour differences between family non-family businesses? We tend to agree with Basu (2004) that in entrepreneurship theory there is no consensus on the exact definition of a family business. Nevertheless, the main schools of thought focus on either ownership criteria or on management variables. According to Romano et al. (2000) family firms are those fulfilling any of the following requirements:* at least 50 per cent of ownership is in the hands of the family;* the family maintains control of the business;* an important part of management positions are occupied by familiars.While in a more restrictive sense, Sharma et al. (1997) believe that family firms should meet with these conditions:* ownership and control of the business in the hands of the family;* influence of family in management decisions;* intention of transmitting the business to next generation of family members.The special characteristics of family enterprises could be the reason they have different strategic management behaviours to those of non-family firms. Family businesses often have \"intangible assets\" such as family dedication and commitment towards the company (Dorta and Perez, 2001; Peteraf, 1993) and these aspects imply a more diligent protection of company traditions and values (Monreal et al., 2002). Habbershon et al. (2003) point out that the interaction of different subsystems (the family, the company and the family members) give rise to a synergy effect that improves performance. Family firms suffer less from agency costs because ownership and management are in the hands of the family, and agent and shareholder have the same goals (Fama, 1980; Howorth et al., 2004; Maury 2006). There are also differences related to profitability (Harvey, 1999; Carney and Gedajlovic, 2002; Anderson and Reeb, 2003), financial structure (Upton and Petty, 2000; Romano et al., 2000; McConaughy et al., 2001; Randoy and Goel, 2003), management training (Monreal et al., 2002; Matlay, 2002), product diversification (Monreal et al., 2002) and size (Anderson and Reeb, 2003; Westhead and Cowling, 1998; Daily and Dollinger, 1993) which influence the strategic development of family companies.The empirical evidence about whether there are strategic management differences between family and non-family firms is not conclusive. The aim of this study is to search for the main differences between small and medium-sized family and non-family enterprises. Bearing this in mind, we have taken into account management variables and competitive variables including strategy, strategic planning, human resource policies and management tools. We carried out a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 639 small and medium-sized industrial enterprises composed of 456 family and 183 non-family firms. In accordance with this aim, we have organized the study in the following way. First, we present the previous research literature regarding the relationship between the ownership structure and the company's management orientation. In the next section we describe the sample chosen and the methodology used. Next, we provide our analysis and a discussion of the results, and finally we present the main conclusions.\nManagerial factors in family firms: Strategy\nResearch methods: Sample selection and data collection\nVariables: Dependent variable\nResults: Univariate analysis\nDiscussion: Private ownership, owner-management and altruism combine to make the governance of family firms theoretically different from other ownership forms (Lubatkin et al., 2005). This study explored the special characteristics of management in family businesses. We tried to outline the main differences between family and non-family firms with respect to strategy, management techniques and human resources practices. The research examines the advantages and disadvantages of family firms in such strategic fields. We conclude that family businesses give less importance to activities related to planning and monitoring business management. This is a disadvantage that they should try to overcome. On the other hand, there are several \"cultural\" advantages associated with family firms of which they should take advantage (Denison et al., 2004).Employee capabilities and skills and corporate climate are needed to support the company strategy (Craig and Moores, 2005). However, family businesses do not give enough importance to personnel training and management qualifications in relation to non-family businesses. So, it is important that family businesses should be aware that their future development depends on personnel and management skills. The results shown by Bhattacharya and Ravikumar (2004) and Barth et al. (2005) confirm that family firms are less productive when they are managed by family members than when they are managed by external professionals; since professionalism avoids agency costs derived from altruism and self-control. Thus the strong commitment towards family well-being may cause inefficiency in the decision making process. We agree with Boussouara and Deakins (2000) in concluding that external directors do bring value-added benefits to family firms, since professional managers perform more than monitoring roles. They bring competence in acting as councillors, guiding and advising the entrepreneur, particularly in strategic planning.Commitment to training in terms of activities, expenditure and in term of managers with university education was significantly higher in non-family firms. The study also examined topics related to strategic planning such us quality assurance and technological position. Both are essential for the development and success of the company in globalized environment. Our findings show statistically significant differences in relation to the quality assurance variable, in the sense that small family firms attach less importance to obtaining quality standards than non-family firms. Nevertheless, we did not find differences between family and non-family businesses with respect to technological position. We believe family businesses should compete by investing resources that create a value added to theirs organizations, in order to differentiate themselves from theirs competitors. That is, increasing the quality of products and processes as well as innovating by technological improvements.We are aware that family firms should take into account their advantages in management such as the family dedication and commitment towards the company. As well as the synergy effect associated to the interaction between ownership and management. Nevertheless, family businesses should realize that the dynamic and uncertain environment in a globalized context calls for continuous and permanent anticipation. This responsibility rests on the owner-manager. In fact, the best way to ensure the survival of the family firm would be to improve management competitiveness. In addition, management decisions regarding the adoption of competitive advantages should refer to improving innovation through technology and quality product and processes developments. In the present study we took a family business to be one where the family held more that 50 per cent of the equity. We should state this fact as a limitation of the study, since we think that it is necessary for a family member to participate in the management functions, as well as having the intention to transmitting the firm to the next generation.\nConclusions: In this study we have used a sample of 456 family companies and 183 non-family companies. The results show that the strategic orientation adopted by family companies to compete in markets is similar to that followed by non-family firms. We have used Miles and Snow's (1978) typology, which classifies companies according to their innovation attitude (in products, service or market). However, when we analyzed the way family firms make use of different competitiveness factors, such as personnel training and strategic planning, we have found some weaknesses that family firms should correct. Family enterprises devote fewer resources to training, they attach less importance to education as a competitiveness factor, and they have a smaller proportion of managers with a university degree. We have also found that family companies give less importance to the improvement of detailed and rigorous management planning, and are prone to underemploy management accounting techniques, in particular management accounting systems and cash budgets.These results lead us to support the call for family firms to focus on \"management development\", which should be understood as the general enhancement and growth of management skills through a learning process. Finally, we conclude that there is a need for additional research because our findings indicate that there are different managerial behaviours between family and non-family firms. However, we need to corroborate these results and look for the basis of such differences in order to address the competitive advantages and disadvantages of family firms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of the present study is to test the main differences between private small/medium-sized family businesses and non-family businesses with regard to management variables such as: strategy, strategic planning, manager's training and professionalism and financial techniques implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this empirical research, we use a sample of 639 small and medium-sized industrial firms, distributed in 456 family and 183 non-family firms, with the intention of determining whether family SMEs possess specific structural characteristics distinct from non-family ones. The data collection technique used was a questionnaire obtained from a postal survey, and addressed to the manager of the company.\nFindings: - Results show that managers of family firms use some management tools such as management accounting systems and cash budgets for the decision making process and also give less importance to strategic planning and personnel training programmes as a competitiveness factor.\nResearch limitations/implications: - There is a need for additional research because the findings indicate that there are different managerial behaviours between family and non-family firms, but we need to corroborate and look for the basis of such differences, in order to address what the advantages and disadvantages of family firms are.\nPractical implications: - The results lead us to support the need for family firms to focus on \"management development\", which should be understood as the general enhancement and growth of management skills through a learning process.\nOriginality/value: - The paper contributes with new empirical evidence about the management function in family businesses. It is also expected that the results of the study help policy makers to make further efforts facilitating the progress of family firms, knowing they are the real engine driving and contributing to welfare of developed economies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Embracing leadership: a multi-faceted model of leader identity development
|
[
"Leadership",
"Leadership development",
"Identity development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Who we think we are determines what we do and how we do it. An identity is \"a set of meanings applied to the self in a social role or situation defining what it means to be who one is\" (Burke, 1991, p. 837). It captures how one makes sense of themselves in relation to others, and how others conceive of that person (Kenny et al., 2011). One's identity is the culmination of one's values, experiences, and self-perceptions (Baltes and Carstensen, 1991). An individual possesses multiple identities, each of which is associated with various roles and contexts (Ashforth and Johnson, 2001). Of these multiple identities, the leader identity is \"the sub-component of one's identity that relates to being a leader or how one thinks of oneself as a leader\" (Day and Harrison, 2007, p. 365). The development of the leader identity has critical implications to leadership development.\nTheoretical background: Sociologists and psychologists have been conducting research on self-concept and identity for decades. Identities capture \"the traits and characteristics, social relations, roles, and social group memberships that define who one is\" (Oyserman et al., 2003). Identities taken together make up one's self-concept (what comes to mind when one thinks of oneself) (Neisser, 1993; Stets and Burke, 2006). An individual's self-concept is one of the most significant regulators of behavior (Schlenker, 1985). Self-concept has exhibited a broad impact on an individual's life, on shifts in one's self-esteem, mood changes, social comparison choices, the nature of self-representation, choice of social setting, and the definition of one's situation (Markus and Wurf, 1987). Self-concept is dynamic and negotiated through interacting with other people (Goffman, 1959). Individuals can actively engage in identity work where they \"engage in forming, repairing, maintaining, strengthening, or revising the constructions that are productive of a sense of coherence and distinctiveness\" (Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2003, p. 1165).\nMethods: Grounded theory approach\nFindings: Of the 15 program participants, 13 believed that they had developed into leaders in their communities, while two believed they had grown toward leadership but had not integrated leadership into their self-concept. All but one of those who identified themselves as leaders received support from their mentors affirming them as leaders, citing specific examples of how they assumed leadership roles in various projects. In the one exception (Karen), the mentor thought the participant was not a leader yet because she had not taken any leadership roles in any program, and yet the participant defined herself as a leader because she spoke up more and stepped up more. It appears that when discussing leadership, the mentors saw leadership more as an external journey, demonstrated in speaking to a group, taking charge, doing committee work, or starting ministries. However, for the program participants, becoming a leader is more of an internal journey, experienced through breaking psychological boundaries, recognizing interdependences with other people, discerning purpose, and rethinking the meaning of leadership. The development of the leader identity was not a singular process. Rather, it consisted of continuous, iterative development of multiple identity facets that coevolved with participants' understanding of leadership, both of which coalesced into growing confidence in the leadership role. Appendix 3 provides sample quotations for each theme discussed in the following sections.\nDiscussions and conclusions: Contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Leadership development has been replete with a skill-based focus. However, learning and development can be constrained by the deeper level, hidden self-knowledge that influences how people process information and construct meaning. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how people construct and develop their leader identity. The authors intend to shed light on the critical facets of identity changes that occur as individuals grapple with existing understanding of the self and of leadership, transform them, and absorb new personalized notions of leadership into their identity, resulting in a higher level of confidence acting in the leadership domain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a grounded theory study of participants and their mentors in a lay leadership development program in a Catholic diocese. The authors inductively drew a conceptual model describing how leader identity evolves.\nFindings: The findings suggested that leader identity development was not a uni-dimensional event. Rather, it was a multi-faceted process that encompassed three key facets of identity development: expanding boundaries, recognizing interdependences, and discerning purpose. Further, it is the co-evolvement of these three facets and people's broadening understanding of leadership that led to a more salient leader identity.\nResearch limitations/implications: The model addresses the gap in literature on how leader identity develops specifically. It enriches and expands existing knowledge on leader identity development by answering the question of what specific changes are entailed when an individual constructs his or her identity as a leader.\nPractical implications: The findings could be used to guide leadership development professionals to build targeted learning activities around key components of leader identity development, diagnose where people are in their leadership journey, set personalized goals with them, and provide pointed feedback to learners in the process of developing their leader identity.\nOriginality/value: The authors provide an in-depth and integrative account of the contents and mechanisms involved in the construction of the leader identity. The authors zero in on the critical transformations entailed in the process to establish and develop a leader identity.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A framework for outsourcing IS/IT security services
|
[
"Communication technologies",
"Outsourcing",
"Information systems",
"Data security",
"European directives"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Outsourcing refers to the procurement of products and/or services from sources that are external to an organization. Within the last 15 years, outsourcing has become a common issue in organizations' management agenda.Information systems (IS) or information technology (IT) outsourcing can be defined as the transferring of an IS/IT function that was previously carried in-house, to a third party provider. IS/IT outsourcing began evolving in the early 1990s, mainly for supplementing in-house application development. It covers a wide range of IS/IT related functions, including software development, hardware maintenance and web hosting, and constitutes a well established and fast growing industry.Recently, there has been an increased demand for web hosting, e-commerce hosting and remote data storage services. This functionality is provided to organizations by application service providers (ASPs), who provide hardware, software and network infrastructure, as well as business services. To deliver these services most ASPs manage and store the organizations' information resources, and provide access to the end-users through public networks. ASPs are playing a very important role for IS/IT outsourcing, that has driven researchers to characterize it as \"netsourcing\" (Kern et al., 2002).Within the expanding range of IS/IT functions that are outsourced, a recent advent has been the procurement of IS/IT security services. IS/IT security outsourcing is appealing to enterprises, because security is a high expertise area, and because many security tasks, such as, for example, network monitoring, require substantial resources, in terms of manpower and infrastructure. Thus, companies specializing in security provide IS/IT security services to organizations which lack this expertise or do not possess adequate resources to perform these functions internally.Can security services outsourcing, however, be managed or considered under the same terms as other IS/IT related functions?This paper argues that IS/IT security outsourcing should be examined under different lens from traditional IS/IT outsourcing. To demonstrate this, the paper explores the specific organizational, technical and legal aspects of security outsourcing, and focuses on the privacy and data protection requirements and how these can be accommodated.The rest of the paper is organized as follows: the next section reports on the major issues organizations face before making an IS/IT outsourcing arrangement. Section 3 elaborates on the reasons that drive organizations to outsource their security functions and on the most commonly outsourced security services. Section 4 presents the organizational and technical issues that organizations should consider for IS/IT security outsourcing. Section 5 presents the legal requirements pertaining to outsourcing, by focusing on how personal data can be protected, from the perspective of the directive adopted by the European Union. Finally, the last section presents the overall conclusions and issues for further research.\n2 IS/IT outsourcing: The reasons for which companies turn to IS/IT outsourcing are primary financial; they include expectations of improved rate of returns on investments (ROI), reduced cost and economies of scale that could not be realized internally. By outsourcing their IS/IT functions organizations also aim to:* have improved access to specialized knowledge and best-practices;* receive better quality services;* have increased business continuity capability in case of internal incidents; and* achieve flexibility with regard to technology.Moreover, companies expect to gain increased competitiveness and a chance to focus their efforts and use their resources on their core competence. Goo et al. (2000) found that organizations in different industries are likely to have different motives for outsourcing their IT/IS functions, while Yang and Huang (2000) argue that a major factor for IS/IT outsourcing decisions is the need to improve performance. In general, IS/IT outsourcing is particularly appealing to small and medium sized enterprises, because they often face more financial constraints compared to large firms.Outsourcing, however, is not a risk free process. Lacity and Willcock(1998) name a set of risk factors for IS/IT outsourcing, including:* treating IT as an undifferentiated commodity to be outsourced;* incomplete contracting;* failure to build and retain requisite in-house capabilities and skills;* power asymmetries developing in favour of the vendor;* unrealistic expectations with multiple objectives for outsourcing; and* poor sourcing and contracting for development and new technologies.In a recent study (Khalfan, 2004) loss of data confidentiality was ranked first among a set of five risk factors in IS/IT outsourcing. Security considerations in general are widely recognized as important factors impeding wider adoption of IS/IT outsourcing. Other sources of reluctance for outsourcing are related to the qualification and expertise of the providers' employees and to the loss of important knowledge. Moreover, possible risks that are often related to IS/IT outsourcing include unexpected costs and possible complications. Finally, total outsourcing, usually with a single provider, is considered as a high risk strategy.Thus, organizations strive to achieve a balance between the expected benefits and the relative risks stemming from outsourcing, by choosing the most appropriate answers to the following questions: what to outsource, to whom, when or for how long and finally how to manage the outsourcing arrangement. With regard to the first question, both researchers and practitioners agree that activities related to the core business of the organization should be kept in-house, while those that are peripheral to the business are more suitable for outsourcing. Companies also often chose to externalize activities that are tedious or monotonous. Finally, knowledge-intensive and resource intensive activities are also considered for outsourcing.The answer to the second question is far more complicated and is usually related to tasks such as examining business profiles and credentials and managing business partnerships. Kim and Chung (2003) found that the selection of the provider is considered to be the most critical success factor for IS/IT outsourcing. As far as the duration of the outsourcing arrangement is concerned, outsourcing arrangements can be temporary or last for an indefinite period; usually their duration is from three to ten years. Service level agreements (SLAs) are commonly used to regulate the outsourcing arrangement and define the basis for the relationship between the company and the provider. SLAs also function as a guarantee for the performance levels agreed. Rohde (2004) reports that only few companies seek legal advice prior to signing outsourcing contracts.Lately, management has yet another issue to consider during the outsourcing decision-making process: the answer to the \"where\" question. The development of IT infrastructures in developing countries, which offer the necessary infrastructure, skilled personnel and expertise in the IS/IT field at lower cost, makes organizations increasingly consider outsourcing some of their IS/IT functions in vendors located in developing countries.\n3 Outsourcing IS/IT security services: Outsourced security services, also referred to as managed security services (MMS), entail that the resources (physical as well as human) related to security functions are supplied and/or administered by external providers, who are specialized in the area of IS/IT security. Whereas the outsourcing of physical security services is a very common practice, organizations appear relatively reluctant to outsource their IS/IT security functions. Security outsourcing is a risk mitigation practice and carries its own risks.Providing IS/IT security services is now starting to become a thriving business area; the market for security services in Western Europe, as appreciated by Gartner, was worth $548 million in 2002 and it is estimated to reach $1.4 million by 2007 (Whitworth, 2005). Researchers, however, have not yet placed IS/IT security outsourcing issues in their research agenda. There is a multitude of reasons for that; the fact that the theoretical tools currently applied to IS/IT outsourcing research, for example, resource-based theory (RBT), transaction cost theory (TCT), resource dependence theory (RDT) and agency cost theory (ACT) have not been applied in IS/IT security research makes the endeavor to study IS/IT security outsourcing even harder.The basic argument for IS/IT security outsourcing is that security issues are handled by experts, allowing companies to focus on their core competencies. On the other hand, an important issue that discourages companies from outsourcing their security functions is the fear of losing control over their systems.Decision making for traditional IS/IT outsourcing (e.g. application development) typically takes into consideration criteria such as the expectance of cost reduction and increased effectiveness. However, in the case of security outsourcing decision making is much more complicated because:* It is not clear which security functions are suitable for outsourcing and which should be kept internally. No set of criteria designating security services whose outsourcing would significantly benefit companies exists.* IS/IT security can be of strategic importance for many organizations. However, it is usually considered as a mere commodity asset.* Estimating the cost of security is problematic. Most traditional IS/IT outsourcing decisions are based on cost estimation and return-on-investment evaluation; however estimating the cost of security is not straightforward.* Confidentiality and privacy requirements are of critical importance for IS/IT security outsourcing arrangements. Moreover, provision for these requirements is often included in the relevant legal and regulatory framework.* Regardless of whether security is pursued in-house or outsourced, risk remains with the organization, which has to bear the impact in case of manifested risks.* Finally, there is the issue of raising or enhancing security awareness among end-users and creating a security culture within the organization, as many researchers and practitioners suggest (Dhillon and Backhouse, 2000; Goodwin, 2004; Nosworthy, 2000; Siponen, 2000). This task is hindered when IS/IT security services are provided by an external company and are thus transparent to the end-users.3.1 IS/IT security outsourcing rational\n4 Organizational and technical aspects of IS/IT security outsourcing: Decision making with regard to IS/IT security outsourcing is a complex issue, that entails finding effective solutions to such questions as the ones described in the previous paragraphs. A significant part of the difficulties and the complexity related to IS/IT security outsourcing can be ascribed to the different aspects that must be considered, as well as to the sensitive character of IS/IT security.To explore these issues, we follow a socio-technical approach, as shown in Figure 1. This approach focuses on three very important, yet not adequately addressed issues of IS/IT security outsourcing: the organizational, the technical and the legal dimension. This framework can be of assistance to answer the \"how\" to outsource question.In the first place, decisions on security services outsourcing need to take into consideration the legal and regulatory requirements pertaining to the organizational context. For security outsourcing arrangements, meeting the privacy and confidentiality requirements laid by the relative legal framework is of critical importance and entails considering many factors, as described in the following section. IS operate and are used by organizations with the purpose of facilitating and achieving business goals. IS (which we consider as socio-technical systems, comprising of hardware, software, processes, data and individuals) provide critical services of strategic importance for many organizations. For these organizations management of the outsourcing arrangement is also of critical importance. Finally, the technical aspect of IS/IT security outsourcing, meaning the technical infrastructure, has also to be considered for making a security arrangement.For our analysis, legal requirements play a decisive role both in the decision-making process (affecting, for example, the choice of provider), and in the management of the outsourcing process (for example, liability issues and contractual arrangements). Business objectives, together with the business processes which pursue them, determine the role of IS/IT security and consequently designate which security functions should be better kept in-house and which should be outsourced.In the following paragraphs, we explore the major organizational and technical issues companies need to take into consideration for managing security outsourcing arrangements. The major legal requirements related to issues of privacy and confidentiality with regard to outsourcing are explored in detail in the next section.4.1 The organizational dimension\n5 Privacy considerations for outsourcing: the European perspective: Organizations as well as security providers need to take into account the legal obligations and restrictions that arise from outsourcing arrangements. Liability, protection of intellectual property, security and confidentiality are critical issues for outsourcing. The legal and regulatory frameworks, however, do not only provide restrictions with regard to outsourcing; they can also facilitate decision making on which organizations to trust for outsourcing security functions and how to manage the outsourcing arrangement. Issues such as liabilities and intellectual property rights are usually arranged within the respective contractual agreement. Therefore, defining the applicable law as well as the jurisdiction under which the organization and the provider operate is of paramount importance, especially in the case they differ.The preservation of security and confidentiality of information are named as primary inhibitors for organizations contemplating to outsource their functions. Moreover, failure to meet legal requirements pertaining to security and confidentiality entails possible liabilities for the organizations. Since, security and confidentiality are of paramount importance for outsourcing, this section focuses on the data protection regulatory framework, which encompasses the requirements pertaining to security and confidentiality.Recent regulatory developments on the liability of enterprises and management, such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act (2002), the requirements stated in (Basel II, 2005) and the discussions around proposals for a European Data Retention Guideline, together with specific regulations for the telecommunications, telemarketing and electronic commerce sectors (EUEC, 2000) have increased and are in fact steadily increasing the amount of requirements which have to be met by outsourcing partners.The first part of this section looks at selected requirements pertaining to the protection of privacy and personal data as laid out in the European data protection directive (EUDP, 1995). In the second part, a scalable model for incorporating these requirements into a general framework for outsourcing security services and operations is described.5.1 Core legal requirements on data protection as defined in the European data protection directive\n6 Conclusions and further research: IS/IT security outsourcing is a relatively recent issue, that has not been adequately researched up to now. Owing to its particular organizational, legal and technical aspects, security outsourcing should be treated on a different basis from traditional IS/IT outsourcing. The management of organizations need to take into consideration a multitude of factors, prior to engaging in a security outsourcing arrangement. Among these factors, meeting the requirements on privacy protection is of critical importance, not only because of the existing legal and regulatory framework, but also because privacy is a fundamental element for building trust relations between companies and their customers and/or business partners.Moreover, there are important organizational issues that should be addressed. These issues are, up to point related with the legal and regulatory framework within which companies operate. Finally, the importance of issues related to IT technology cannot be neglected since organizational as well as legal requirements are mostly implemented through technical solutions.Thus, organizations need to take into account not only technical, but also organizational and legal issues for formulating their strategy with regard to IS/IT security outsourcing, as shown in Figure 3.The rapid growth of the relative market and the increasing number of companies that choose to buy IS/IT security services make it necessary that more issues pertaining to the contractual agreement are investigated, such as pricing and criteria for choosing the most suitable provider.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to provide an overview of the major technical, organizational and legal issues pertaining to the outsourcing of IS/IT security services.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses a combined socio-technical approach to explore the different aspects of IS/IT security outsourcing and suggests a framework for accommodating security and privacy requirements that arise in outsourcing arrangements.\nFindings: - Data protection requirements are a decisive factor for IS/IT security outsourcing, not only because they pose restrictions to management, but also because security and privacy concerns are commonly cited among the most important concerns prohibiting organizations from IS/IT outsourcing. New emerging trends such as outsourcing in third countries, pose significant new issues, with regard to meeting data protection requirements.\nOriginality/value: - The paper illustrates the reasons for which the outsourcing of IS/IT security needs to be examined under a different perspective from traditional IS/IT outsourcing. It focuses on the specific issue of personal data protection requirements that must be accommodated, according to the European Union directive.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Benchmarking the performance of dairy products in Chinese dairy industry
|
[
"China",
"Performance evaluation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The demand for dairy products in China is growing with rising incomes, population growth, urbanization and changes in diets. Dairy consumption in China showed a strong growth from less than 5 kg per capita to over 20 kg per capita from 1990 to 2006 (Zhang et al., 2010). Although the Chinese dairy industry developed its sector with branding, establishment of modern marketing channels and certification by various government safety programs, the Chinese dairy supply was not as reliable as it appeared to be (Zhang et al., 2010). In August 2008, an incident shocked the Chinese dairy consumers that a few brands of infant milk powder manufactured by a Chinese dairy company were recalled due to melamine contamination, a chemical utilized mainly for plastics production. Melamine is nitrogen-rich and was added to watered-down dairy products to deceive food quality inspectors, who usually measure nitrogen levels to indicate protein levels. The Chinese Government confirmed that this industrial chemical was detected in various dairy supplies after some diseases were linked to dairy consumption. As a result, an estimated 60,000 Chinese residents were involved in this incident, which included over 1,000 hospitalizations and six infant deaths (Qiao et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2010).\n2. Main factors for evaluating and benchmarking dairy products: This section discusses the complexity in evaluating and benchmarking dairy products and the relevant criteria for evaluating and benchmarking dairy products.\n3. The fuzzy multicriteria group decision-making approach: The performance evaluation of dairy product alternatives with respect to multiple evaluation criteria can be formulated as a multicriteria group decision-making problem. This problem usually consists of a number of alternatives Ai (i = 1, 2, ..., n) with respect to each criterion Cj (j = 1, 2, ..., m). Subjective assessments are often required for determining the performance of dairy product alternatives Ai with respect to each criterion and the relative importance of the criteria, on which the overall performance of dairy product alternatives can be determined (Ardakani et al., 2015; Wibowo and Deng, 2013). Linguistic terms approximated by fuzzy numbers are used to represent the subjective assessments of the decision makers.\n4. An example: This section presents an example of evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy product alternatives for demonstrating the applicability of the fuzzy multicriteria group decision-making approach described in the previous section.\n5. Results and discussion: The result in Table VII provides the management of the dairy product companies with information about both overall and individual performance level of all criteria for individual dairy product alternatives. The result shows that alternative A3 is the best overall dairy product alternative. This result also demonstrates the conflicting nature of dairy product performance evaluation criteria and suggests that single criterion alone, cannot capture the notion of overall performance of dairy products. For example, alternative A3 has performed very well in terms of its product convenience but performed poorly in all other criteria including taste, quality, packaging, brand, price and country-of-origin. Meanwhile, even though alternative A3 alternative is the best performing dairy product, it can further improve on its brand and convenience criteria.\n6. Conclusion: Evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products is critical as it allows dairy product companies to measure their relative performance of their dairy products, identify the lesson that dairy product companies can learn from each other, and take appropriate initiatives to move toward becoming more competitive. However, the process of evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products often involves subjective evaluation by a group of decision makers with respect to a set of qualitative criteria. To address this group decision-making problem, we have developed a new fuzzy multicriteria group decision-making approach. This paper has first presented a review of the factors that are important to consumers of dairy products and then developed a new product performance index for evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products. To deal with the subjective assessments of qualitative performance measures, linguistic terms approximated by fuzzy numbers are used. Based on the concept of the degree of dominance, a fuzzy multicriteria group decision-making approach is developed to obtain a product performance index for each dairy product. The results show that the fuzzy multicriteria group decision-making approach is capable of effectively and efficiently handling the multicriteria group decision-making problem.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the main factors that are important to consumers of dairy products and develop a new product performance index for evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products. This helps dairy product companies understand their dairy products' overall performance level, relative to other dairy products in the market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A new product performance index is developed for evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products with respect to multiple criteria. Seven important criteria are identified for evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products. To deal with the subjective assessments of qualitative performance measures, linguistic terms approximated by fuzzy numbers are used. Based on the concept of the degree of dominance, a fuzzy multicriteria group decision-making approach is developed to obtain a product performance index for each dairy product.\nFindings: The proposed multicriteria group decision-making approach is found to be useful and effective in evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products. The approach is capable of adequately considering the presence of multiple decision makers, the multi-dimensional nature of the performance evaluation problem, and modeling the subjectiveness and imprecision of the performance evaluation process.\nResearch limitations/implications: The outcome of the multicriteria group decision-making approach is dependent on the subjective inputs provided by the decision makers.\nPractical implications: This product performance index will provide useful insights for companies understand their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their products' performance criteria, and identify relevant areas for continuous improvement. This product performance index is also applicable for dealing with the general multicriteria decision-making problems.\nSocial implications: The proposed multicriteria group decision-making approach can be used as a decision-making tool for providing various decision makers in dairy product companies and general consumers with useful information regarding the performance of different dairy products.\nOriginality/value: This paper highlights the important factors for evaluating and benchmarking dairy products and develops a new product performance index for evaluating and benchmarking the performance of dairy products in China.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Who are the Chinese private entrepreneurs? A study of entrepreneurial attributes and business governance
|
[
"Entrepreneurs",
"Corporate governance",
"Social change",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Private enterprises are a major driving force in the Chinese economy. In 2002, there were 2.4 million private enterprises in China, employing 34.1 million people (Lang and Hu, 2004). Private entrepreneurs are being recognised as an emerging social class in China. A recent research study on social stratification in China ranked private entrepreneurs as the third largest social class after government officials and managers of state-owned enterprises (Lu, 2002, 2004). As social disorganisation and reintegration resulting from reforms are still ongoing (Li, 2004), we cannot yet state that this new class has fully established itself. It has, however, assumed a significant presence in the socio-economic structure of China. For example, the private sector accounted for one-third of the Chinese economy as a whole (National Administration of Industry and Commerce, 2003). In provinces like Zhejiang, where the private sector has developed at a greater speed, private enterprises made up more than two-thirds of the provincial economy (Zhang et al., 2003). Despite the different perceptions of private entrepreneurs regarding their own social status as a new class, they are exhibiting certain common stances on political, social and economic issues (Chen, 2002, 2004; Research Team on Private Enterprises of China, 2005). For a better understanding of Chinese entrepreneurship, there is an urgent need to explore the main characteristics of private entrepreneurs as a new social class.The concept of \"private entrepreneurs\" is unique in the Chinese context of entrepreneurship. While entrepreneurship takes place in the private and public sectors, \"entrepreneurs\" are commonly defined as individuals who take the risk of starting-up a business, using their own resources in most cases and their businesses are therefore privately-owned. In the Chinese context, entrepreneurial activity in the private sector is categorised into two groups:1. Individual households (Getihu) - businesses that employ fewer than eight employees.2. Private enterprises - which are profit-making economic entities that employ eight or more persons (Tsang, 1996).Thus, in China the concept of \"private entrepreneurs\" only refers to those who establish a private enterprise, or a non-public economic organisation, and this is what is meant, in this paper, by \"private entrepreneurs\" and \"private enterprises\".In retrospect, after the accomplishments of the three socialist transformation movements taking place between 1950 and 1956, public ownership became a dominating form of ownership in the Chinese economy. Entrepreneurs, as minor shareholders in the newly-converted joint ventures, had only dividends at fixed rates to reflect their lost status as business and private property owners. By 1965, when the system of fixed rate dividend payment was eventually abolished, the traditional bourgeois of China lost its remaining legitimacy, and private entrepreneurs as a social class disappeared entirely.Reforms commencing in 1978 gave the non-public economy a fresh start. Initially, private enterprises were either mixed with \"Getihu\" or, more commonly, were in disguise as collectively-owned enterprises. This situation did not change significantly until 1988, when the private economy was legitimised. From 1989 to 1991, the number of private enterprises grew at 19.1 per cent annually and at 30.5 per cent since 1992 (National Administration of Industry and Commerce, 2003). Private enterprises have become a major driving force in the contemporary Chinese economy, and private entrepreneurs as a new social class are attracting enormous interest across the Chinese society.How and why it was possible for private individuals to become entrepreneurs and to emerge as a new and important social class in China? At the macro-economic level, changes in the strategies and policies of the Chinese government since early 1980s have undoubtedly created an increasingly entrepreneurship-friendly environment (Literature Office of Institute of Rural Policies, 1987; Zhang and Li, 1990; Xiao, 1992; Jia and Qin, 1993; Zhang et al., 1994; Zhang and Liu, 1995; Zhu et al., 1998; Zhang, 1999, 2002; Liu, 2005). We are mainly interested in the micro factors that have shaped the emergence and characteristics of this new social class. In this context we focussed on a number of research questions: who are these entrepreneurs, what motivated them to start their businesses, what are their distinctive features and how do they govern their businesses? We believe that these questions are significant for a better understanding of Chinese entrepreneurship and its impact upon the socio-economic structure of contemporary China. This paper focuses upon the key micro factors that are shaping the creation of the new entrepreneurial class. Following an introduction, the data collection and research methods are outlined. We examine relevant issues related to entrepreneurs in China, such as the social background of private entrepreneurs and the business governance of private enterprises. Key findings are summarised in the concluding section.\nData collection: The data on which this paper is based derives primarily from five nationwide sampling surveys on Chinese private enterprises that were carried out in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2002, and 2004, by the Department of United Front of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in collaboration with the National Federation of Industry and Commerce of China and the Chinese Society of Research on Private Economy. In these surveys, questionnaires were designed to collect data relating to the main issues affecting private enterprises, e.g. socio-demographical characteristics, pre-start-up career history of entrepreneurs, the economic and financial status of their enterprises, employment, organisational forms and governance, relationships between private enterprise and governments at all levels, and entrepreneurial expectation. The number of questions in each survey varied, and some of the questions in later surveys were modified to reflect both the changes in political-economic situations of China and the specific objectives of surveys. In each survey, data were collected from 3,000 enterprises across the country.Samples consisted of exclusively private enterprises (as defined above) and the respondents were either owners or one of the main investors. In view of the great number of private enterprises and the marked differences among private economies across various regions in China, sampling was made in accordance with the principles of stratified random sampling. The total population of private enterprises was divided into equal percentage subgroups, and sub-samples were chosen based on the gross domestic products (GDP) generated by the private economic sector at provincial, district and enterprise levels. Slight under-representation of small private enterprises and over-representation of larger organisations were found in some provinces where the private economy was more developed. In such cases, the bias was counter-balanced by samples from other provinces where the private economy was less-developed. Overall, the representativeness of samples in each survey was considered satisfactory at the national level.\nSocial backgrounds of private entrepreneurs in China: In this section, we analyse the changes in social backgrounds and the origins of private entrepreneurs from four specific perspectives: prior occupations, positions, motivations and educational attainment.Who are the private entrepreneurs in China?\nGovernance of Chinese private enterprises: Organisational forms\nThe power structure of Chinese private enterprises: The power structure of Chinese private enterprises is inherent in their relevant governance configuration. The results emerging from surveys show that the power structure was gradually brought in alignment with the perceived need of a modern enterprise system, as illustrated by the establishment of shareholder conferences, board of directors, and supervisory committees (see Table VII). In 2004, nearly 60 per cent of the sample firms established shareholder conference, double the number in 2000; nearly three-quarter of firms benefited from board of directors, 2.83 times more numerous than in 1993; and, an increasing number of firms established supervisory committees.In the power structure of Chinese private enterprises, there still exist other organisations holding power and affecting the governance of enterprises, i.e. the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), trade unions, and conference of employee representatives. These organisations mainly represent the interests of the party and employees rather than that of investors. Therefore, up to now, very few private enterprises were enthusiastic with the activities of these three organisations. Nevertheless, increasing numbers of private enterprises benefited from this type of representation. For example, in 2004, almost half of the sampled enterprises had trade unions (see Table VIII).\nThe exercise of power: Survey results also suggest that in many of the Chinese private enterprises investigated ownership was not generally separated from management. In 2000, for example, 96.8 per cent of private entrepreneurs served as chief executives of their enterprises, and the figure remained very high at 96.0 per cent in 2002 and 92.4 per cent in 2004, respectively. It appears that the main investors in Chinese private enterprises were also the key decision-makers. Meanwhile, shareholder conferences or board of directors have not yet imposed their influence adequately. The 2004 survey showed that fewer than half of the shareholder conferences or board of directors in private enterprises exercised decision-making powers.Generally speaking, and in comparison with state-owned and collective enterprises, the power structures and decision-making mechanisms of private enterprises were dominated by their main investors. Meanwhile, their organisational forms have gradually shifted from traditional family-dominated structures to a more modern enterprise system, which made it easier to affect a separation of management from ownership to growth-oriented businesses. From economic and management perspectives, these features of organisational structure in private enterprises reflected the progression of evolutionary market-oriented reforms in China. As private entrepreneurs maintain their relative independence in the exercise of power, they are emerging as an increasingly influential force and a social elite class.\nConcluding remarks: Based on the emergent results from nationwide surveys in China, this paper set out to profile private entrepreneurs and the businesses that they were running. The findings reveal some unique attributes of private entrepreneurs and characteristics of private enterprises. The result tend to support the argument that in the new round of social stratification taking place in China, private entrepreneurs have emerged as a new and increasingly powerful social class.First, Chinese private entrepreneurs, initially from working class and farmers, mainly originate from those who had a higher social status and better control over and access to political, social, and economic resources. Managers of state-owned and collective enterprises, with valuable political connections, was the largest group from which private entrepreneurs were most likely to emerge. Despite the fluctuation in the number of private entrepreneurs from \"Getihu\", they remained the second largest group most likely to become private entrepreneurs. After the social and economic development of more than 20 years, private entrepreneurs seemed to have become a new social class. The remarkable change in the origin of private entrepreneurs from a lower to a higher social background suggests that the main mechanisms of formation of this social class appears to have shifted from elite circulation in 1980s, to elite reproduction since mid-1990s.Second, individuals were primarily motivated to become private entrepreneurs by positive factors, which in the later surveys consistently outranked push factors. The overwhelming motive to become a private entrepreneur was the need for achievement and personal development. There were also a significant number of people who were motivated by the need for personal wealth. By contrast, whilst unemployment and job insecurity was found to be the second most important motive in 1993, this key push factor has become less relevant in later years. The change in motivational drives reflected the changing attributes of the new generations of private entrepreneurs - who where from different social groups than the working class and the farmers. Positive motivation also implies that new generations of private entrepreneurs were more likely to pursue opportunities for business growth. Furthermore, it is these positive personal attributes that characterise this new social class as social elites in the contemporary Chinese society.Third, while a majority of private entrepreneurs originally came from a humble background and were relatively less educated, since the late 1990s increasing numbers possessed improved educational attainment and almost half had completed higher education. Again, this is symptomatic of the changing social and demographical attributes of Chinese private entrepreneurs. From a social change perspective, the improvement in educational attainment implies that the less educated entrepreneurs may find it harder to become part of this emerging social class and that a mechanism of elite reproduction may have come into existence.Finally, as reforms proceeded and businesses scaled, the governance of Chinese private enterprises evolved towards modern forms of enterprise systems. Fewer individuals established businesses as either sole ownership or partnerships, and the overwhelming number of private entrepreneurs chose a limited liability status. However, many enterprises in China have not yet separated ownership from management, and main investors remain the key decision-makers in their enterprises - without the benefit of a fully functioning shareholder conferences or board of directors. This may well indicate a tough task ahead for private enterprises in creating an organisational structure and management style that can maintain entrepreneurial orientation and accommodate the needs for control, delegation, and co-ordination within the organisation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the key micro factors that are shaping Chinese entrepreneurship: socio-political origins, motivations, educational attainment, organisational forms and power structures.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper employs a questionnaire survey approach, involving a sample of private entrepreneurs who responded in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2002, and 2004.\nFindings: - The findings reveal a remarkable change in the origin of private entrepreneurs, from a lower to a higher social background. It emerges that individuals were primarily motivated to become private entrepreneurs by positive factors. Increasingly, since the late 1990s, individuals who chose private entrepreneurship exhibited much-improved educational attainments. Significantly, many enterprises have not yet separated ownership from the management function.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The data under investigation are not yet fully explored. Further analyses of the impact that the changing attributes of private entrepreneurs could have on entrepreneurial firms is planned for the near future.\nPractical implications: - From the perspective of social changes, there is a need for differential policies to support novice entrepreneurs who originated from a poor social background. Current business governance indicate a tough task to create an organisational structure and management style that would maintain the entrepreneurial spirit and accommodate the needs for control, delegation, and co-ordination within the organisation.\nOriginality/value: - The paper uses the newly available nationwide survey data to explore the attributes of private entrepreneurs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How do public relations practitioners perceive investor relations? An exploratory study
|
[
"Investors",
"Public relations",
"Perception"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As capital markets in the world have become increasingly more complex, the necessity for investor relations has become apparent (Marston, 1996). Since, the infancy of investor relations in the 1960s, public relations practitioners have referred to acquiring press releases, annual reports, and financial disclosures as a common area of investor relations (Davids, 1989; Silver, 2004). However, due to the years preceding the 1987 stock-market crash as well as the increasing institutional investors during the l980s, people have considered investor relations more significant and complex tasks (Davids, 1989; Silver, 2004). According to Marston and Straker (2001), the number of respondents thinking of investor relations as very important at European continental corporations increased from 6.8 to 97.8 percent over the last ten years. As such, the importance placed on investor relations has been steadily increasing.It was not until in the 1980s that investor relations departments appeared in earnest (Mahoney, 1991). Investor relations activities were primarily conducted by financial affairs or independent investor relations departments, separated from the public relations function because goals of investor relations largely focus on increasing stock price (Farragher et al., 1994; Marston, 1996; Petersen and Martin, 1996). Not only did these conditions seem to place the emphasis for investor relations on finance in the past, but also investor relations seems to fall within the business area more at present.However, public relations professionals began to perceive the importance of financial communication capabilities after the Enron scandal in 2001 (Petrecca, 2002). Since, then, the convergence between investor relations and public relations has been given more serious attention (Johnson, 1990; Silver, 2004). Prout (1997) noted that investor relations is one of functional responsibilities in the department of public relations. These situations have started to extend the center of investor relations from finance affairs to the public relations function.Despite the importance and attention to investor relations in public relations, only a few academic studies in public relations have been explored. There were surveys for chief executive officers (Petersen and Martin, 1996) and investor relations professionals at Fortune 500 companies (Laskin, 2005), yet few studies examined how public relations practitioners perceive investor relations. According to Petersen and Martin (1996), academic studies of investor relations in terms of strategic public relations have been largely neglected under the communication field.Therefore, this study targets how public relations practitioners perceive investor relations, and addresses the handling of investor relations' activities in the practical field. This research contributes to the starting point for understanding viewpoints of public relations professionals regarding investor relations and provides implications to public relations educators.\nLiterature review: Definition of investor relations\nMethod: Conducting the survey and participants\nFindings: Of 5,000 questionnaires transmitted, 1,116 respondents (22.3 percent) were unreachable due to incorrect e-mail address, were no longer in positions listed, or were no longer working in public relations. Additionally, 73 declined to participate, and 26 were otherwise unavailable. Of 3,785 usable e-mail addresses, 134 responses, which represent a response rate of 3.54 percent, were included in the data analysis.Participants profiles\nDiscussion: The current research explored how public relations practitioners perceive investor relations activities, through a web-based survey. This determined that most practitioners considered investor relations fell within the realm of public relations, but they took a different position on necessary knowledge, skills, and academic courses for investor relations activities.First, the existence of independent investor relations departments tends to be dominant with the growing importance of investor relations. The majority of practitioners in this study indicated investor relations activities were conducted by staff members from a separate department within their organizations, which is similar to several previous studies (Marston, 1996; Marston and Straker, 2001; Petersen and Martin, 1996). Specifically, Marston and Straker (2001) found out more than half of European corporations had a separate department for investor relations within organizations. A recent survey by the Pittsburgh Chapter of NIRI reported that almost 75 percent of investor relations professionals responded that their organizations now make investor relations a priority (\"Investor relations function gets higher priority, NIRI-Pittsburgh Survey says,\" (NIRI-Pittsburgh Survey, 2003)). Despite the increasing importance of investor relations in general, professionals whose organizations reported no investor relations activities responded that they did not think investor relations was much important in terms of public relations, and they also believed that their management level officers might share the same opinion.In response to research question measuring the importance placed on each investor relations activity, public relations practitioners regarded relationships with top management as the most important among investor relations activities. This finding is consistent with the perception of chief executive officers (Petersen and Martin, 1996). Linked with research question concerning the effectiveness of each investor relations activity for achieving organizational goals, practitioners thought of \"direct involvement of top management\" as the most effective activity for achieving corporate goals, which means public relations practitioners highly acknowledged the importance of top executives' involvement in investor relations activities. According to Laskin (2005), investor relations practitioners at Fortune 500 companies responded that offering top executives or other departments information is a quite common activity. Regarding involvement with higher executives, public relations practitioners, chief executive officers, and investor relations practitioners at Fortune 500 corporations seem to have similar standpoints.Public relations practitioners also considered providing financial information to investor relations publics important second. Similarly, investor relations practitioners commonly complied with requests of significant publics such as analysts, shareholders, and stockbrokers (Laskin, 2005). Silver (2004) identified acquiring of press releases, annual reports, and financial disclosures as common areas of investor relations in the 1960s. Providing financials to investors is still an important way of conducting investor relations activities, which implies that the dissemination of information to investors can play a key role in taking charge of investor relations activities and serve to maintain a relationship with the public.Regarding the research question addressing important outcomes of investor relations activities that might result in, practitioners thought of \"earning a reputation for honesty\" as the most important outcome. Interestingly, increasing the stock price was considered the least important outcome of investor relations. This finding inconsistent with several previous studies (Farragher et al., 1994; Petersen and Martin, 1996) implies that the results of investor relations activities can be extended from a limited role in finance like increasing stock price to the much broader area of public relations such as improving corporate reputation. This also reflects that practitioners tend to consider investor relations function within the public relations paradigm in much the same way as public relations scholars (Cutlip et al., 1999). However, no evidence is available to confirm that investor relations truly does affect organizational reputation. Therefore, it would be more valuable to look into how much investor relations activities affect organizational reputation in future research.In an answer to the last research question about necessary knowledge and skills for public relations practitioners in handling investor relations activities, the respondents regarded \"writing and speaking skills\" and \"public relations knowledge\" as the most necessary, which fall more into general qualifications in public relations than particular ones in finance. Interestingly, specific investor relations experiences (e.g. \"investor relations experiences\") or financial knowledge and experiences (e.g. \"knowledge of financial/capital markets\" and \"experiences in major financial center\") were considered less important. Practitioners' points of view reflect investor relations as being a part of, or falling within, public relations functions. This view is in accordance with those of public relations scholars (Cutlip et al., 1999; Ferris and Newman, 1991). Laskin (2005) also agreed that investor relations practitioners might be unsuccessful in accomplishing effective communication and increasing corporate values without a communication background. Specifically, the survey about investor relations qualifications from PRSA reported that investor relations mutually relied upon public relations (Ferris and Newman, 1991). This trend might coincide with the increasing need for converging public relations and investor relations (Johnson, 1990; Silver, 2004). In other words, practitioners' perceptions on skills and knowledge for investor relations were as one in the current trend.Yet, the findings in the current study are contradictory to those of Petersen and Martin (1996) who found that chief executive officers regarded specific investor relations knowledge including finance and capital markets as a predominant qualification necessary for investor relations, and that public relations knowledge was the least necessary knowledge for investor relations activities. The chief executive officers even believed that public relations professionals might have difficulties in performing investor relations tasks due to a lack of training in corporate management and law (Petersen and Martin, 1996). These results show both public relations practitioners and chief executive officers perceived significant qualifications for investor relations activities differently.Regarding the necessary undergraduate courses for investor relations, practitioners showed contradictory attitudes. They took \"fundamental for understanding finance\" and \"basic law encompassing investor relations surroundings\" into account as the most necessary courses for investor relations at an undergraduate level, although practitioners also gave much attention to public relations skills or knowledge for entry-level staff members. Considering the relatively high mean score for \"writing for financial news releases\" among necessary courses, a gap concerning investor relations seems to exist between the practical field stressing technical things and public relations academia emphasizing \"mutually beneficial relationships with shareholders and others in the financial community\" (Cutlip et al., 1999, p. 21). The practitioners took investor relations for granted as a boundary of public relations in the perspective of necessary skills and experiences, yet they still put more emphasis on finance regarding required academic courses. This study could provide some guidelines to public relations educators in that to what extent educators should pay attention to demands from practitioners regarding investor relations.Limitations and future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how public relations practitioners perceive investor relations itself and what the potential is in terms of public relations with empirical results.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A web-based survey was conducted by using systematic random sampling with a probability sample of 5,000 public relations practitioners drawn from the 2004 Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Directory. The survey consisted of three sections, investor relations functions at organizations with a multiple-answer format, perceptions on specific activities of investor relations with a seven-point Likert scale, and demographic information.\nFindings: - Practitioners conceived that counseling with top management the most important investor relations activity and that earning a reputation for honesty the most significant result the activity can create. Moreover, practitioners considered direct involvement with top management a highly effective investor relations strategy for achieving goals. However, for handling investor relations, practitioners showed contrary attitudes regarding qualifications and undergraduate courses, indicating that public relations qualifications would be more needed for entry-levels, while basics for finance would be more necessary for undergraduates.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research acquired an extraordinarily low response rate, 3.54 percent and targeted the US public relations practitioners only.\nOriginality/value: - This study is the first to directly investigate public relations practitioners' perceptions on investor relations as well as fairly in accordance with the current consensus that investor relations and public relations should be convergent.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managing clinical integration: a comparative case study in a merged university hospital
|
[
"Hospitals",
"Acquisitions and mergers",
"Integration",
"Change management",
"Public sector organizations",
"Sweden",
"Health services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Beginning in the 1980s, mergers become one of the most popular restructuring strategies in healthcare as a response to increased market and financial pressures (Dranove and Lindrooth, 2003; Goddard and Ferguson, 1997). Most research on hospital mergers originates in the US although researchers in the UK have contributed notably with empirical studies (Fulop et al., 2002, 2005). A review of the healthcare literature shows that hospitals typically justify mergers by promising dramatic operational and financial improvements (Bazzoli et al., 2004; Blackstone and Fuhr, 2003; Ferguson and Goddard, 1997). Swedish research shows that an additional justification is claimed for university hospital mergers - a stronger clinical entity post-merger will strengthen the academic mission by providing, for example, a critical mass of patients for education and research (Brorstrom, 2004; Choi and Brommels, 2009; Hallin, 2000).Mergers, however, often involve difficult organisational change processes in which multiple factors may lead to failure more frequently than success (Cartwright and Schoenberg, 2006; Kavanagh and Ashkanasy, 2006). It is therefore not surprising that research consistently shows that most mergers fail to achieve their intended outcomes (Cartwright and Schoenberg, 2006). The high failure rate is even more evident in healthcare mergers (Andreopoulos, 1997; Blackstone and Fuhr, 2003; Mallon, 2003; McClenahan, 1999; Todd, 1999). For example, a study of 300 of the 750 hospital mergers that occurred between 1994 and 1998 in the US showed that most failed (Todd, 1999). A general finding is that major operational or clinical changes were not implemented even years after the hospital merger was formalised (Bazzoli et al., 2004; Goddard and Ferguson, 1997). The literature largely attributes merger failures in healthcare to deeply embedded clinical structures of professional culture (Kitchener, 2002) and to multiple dominant coalitions of stakeholders (Denis et al., 1996, 1999), which make rapid, large-scale changes difficult to effect in public healthcare (McNulty and Ferlie, 2002, 2004). Although a sceptical tone has begun to appear with recurring warnings about the folly of \"merger mania\" (Andreopoulos, 1997; Ferguson and Goddard, 1997; Mallon, 2003; McClenahan, 1999; Todd, 1999), there are no signs of a decrease in merger activity.The merger trend reached Swedish healthcare in the 1990s, culminating in the high profile merger of the two university hospitals, Karolinska Hospital (KH) and the Huddinge University Hospital (HUH), in 2004. The new entity was called the Karolinska University Hospital (KUH). In 2010, yet another merger between two university hospitals in the south of Sweden was announced. Despite the central role of hospital mergers in the restructuring of Swedish healthcare, few Swedish researchers have studied this area.Since clinical departments are the organising structures for medical care in hospitals, the consequences for such units are of central importance in the analysis of university hospital mergers (Corwin et al., 2003). Yet most of the research focuses on the hospital as the analytical unit (Cohen and Jennings, 2005; Kastor, 2001, 2003), seldom assessing how clinical operations are affected by mergers. Denis et al. (1999) in their study of two university hospital mergers briefly report \"paralysis in clinical areas\" for both. Moreover, research shows that it is important to examine how middle management deals with complex change processes (Bamford and Forrester, 2003) if we are to understand, de facto, what factors advance or obstruct managerial actions following mergers. Yet, we have not found a healthcare merger study that looks specifically at the role of middle management in post-merger processes.Consequently, guided by previous research, this paper explores critical factors that may advance or obstruct clinical integration after a hospital merger has been formalised. More specifically, we focus on the interplay between the efforts to achieve operational integration initiated by the new clinical managers and the evolving change process. In this way, we hope to shed light on an area that is rarely addressed in the post-merger literature. By comparing two cases (each case represents two combined clinical departments of the same specialty from each hospital site) with different outcomes, this paper seeks to increase our understanding of why clinical integration succeeds or fails following a hospital merger.\nMethodology: Context\nCase descriptions: Context\nComparative analysis: As our two cases demonstrate, clinical integration was achieved in Department Y whereas it failed in Department X although both clinical managers were given the same formal assignment within the same change context - clinical integration in the aftermath of a university hospital merger. In comparing the two cases, three main themes emerge: the new clinical managers':* interpretation of the mandate;* design of the management constellation; and* approach to integration.We next develop these three themes as they appeared at the two departments.1. Interpretation of the mandate\nDiscussion and conclusions: Typically, post-merger integration represent a case of very difficult change processes (Kavanagh and Ashkanasy, 2006). This seems to be particularly true in the healthcare area where research shows that most mergers fail (see Andreopoulos, 1997; Blackstone and Fuhr, 2003; Mallon, 2003, McClenahan, 1999; Todd, 1999). In one example where a university hospital merger was seen as fairly successful at the hospital level (defined as achieving \"equilibrium\" between the three hospitals involved and creating an inspiring shared vision), very little change was de facto achieved at the clinical level (Denis et al., 1999). Thus it comes as no surprise that clinical integration was not achieved for Department X. Previous research points out that it usually takes several years, even a decade, before synergies are materialised in knowledge-intensive contexts (Birkinshaw et al., 2000). Goddard and Ferguson (1997) also conclude that clinical changes typically are not fully implemented even years after a hospital merger has been formalised. Thus Department Y's successful integration achieved within a year is somewhat of an anomaly. How can we better understand these remarkably different outcomes? Although several factors might have advanced or impaired the integration process, we found three main factors that seem to have been instrumental for the different outcomes in our two cases - the clinical managers':1. interpretation of the mandate;2. design of the management constellation; and3. approach to integration.Next we discuss these empirical findings in relation to previous research.Interpretation of the mandate: one vs two masters\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to explore critical factors that may obstruct or advance integration efforts initiated by the clinical management following a hospital merger. The aim is to increase the understanding of why clinical integration succeeds or fails.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors compare two cases of clinical integration efforts following the Karolinska University Hospital merger in Sweden. Each case represents two merged clinical departments of the same specialty from each hospital site. In total, 53 interviews were conducted with individuals representing various staff categories and documents were collected to check data consistency.\nFindings: - The study identifies three critical factors that seem to be instrumental for the process and outcome of integration efforts and these are clinical management's interpretation of the mandate; design of the management constellation; and approach to integration. Obstructive factors are: a sole focus on the formal assignment from the top; individual leadership; and the use of a classic, planned, top-down management approach. Supportive factors are: paying attention to multiple stakeholders; shared leadership; and the use of an emergent, bottom-up management approach within planned boundaries. These findings are basically consistent with the literature's prescriptions for managing professional organisations.\nPractical implications: - Managers need to understand that public healthcare organisations are based on competing institutional logics that need to be handled in a balanced way if clinical integration is to be achieved - especially the tension between managerialism and professionalism.\nOriginality/value: - By focusing on the merger consequences for clinical units, this paper addresses an important gap in the healthcare merger literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Attributes of apparel tablet catalogs: value proposition comparisons
|
[
"Applications",
"Attributes",
"Catalogues",
"E-service",
"M-commerce",
"Tablet catalogues"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The percentage of Americans who have mobile internet access has risen significantly in the past few years, and industry evidence indicates that mobile sales are growing faster than web sales (Pew Research Center, 2012). According to the Internet Retailer Mobile 400, the combined m-commerce sales of the 281 US retailers, who are in the top 400 mobile retailer list, grew 82.3 percent, from $4.36 billion in 2011 to $7.99 billion in 2012 (Brohan, 2012). Notably, more consumers indicated they were more likely to buy clothing while using a tablet than a smartphone in a survey of 1,500 US consumers (Woodward, 2012).\nMethod: Sampling procedure\nResults: Content analysis\nDiscussion: The present study examined current tablet catalog practices and compared the value proposition between catalog aggregators and individual retailers. The findings of the study show that both retailers and catalog aggregators try to create a satisfactory tablet catalog to meet consumers' reading habits. For example, the \"Thumbnail Pictures of Pages (in a row)\" is the most common attribute found in the 28 apps. In a print catalog, a consumer is able to flip to any page directly; \"Thumbnail Pictures of Pages\" provides tablet catalog readers the same function. Moreover, in a print catalog a reader can \"dog ear\" the pages or use a \"post-it\" to mark the pages they like. Although a reader cannot physically fold a page in a tablet catalog, \"Favorites\" is the feature that allows a reader to mark and sort his/her favorite pages and products.\nConclusions and implications: The objectives of this study were to gain a comprehensive understanding of tablet catalogs and to examine the value proposition of retailers and aggregators in tablet catalog marketing. To summarize, findings from this study may provide useful practical information about current tablet catalog practices. Table I presents a rather integrated list of tablet catalog attributes from women's wear tablet catalog apps. This study explored the need to add a new \"C,\" Control dimension in the previous framework and formed the 8Cs framework in the new tablet era. Although we only found two control features, \"Adjust-to-fit Display\" and \"Pinches\" in the present study, we believe that as new technology develops, new features would be added in the control dimension. For instance, Samsung announced its latest Galaxy S4 smartphone with facial and eye tracking technology can recognize eye and face movement to pause a video or scroll down a browser (Lee, 2013). However, given the exploratory nature of this study, we strongly suggest that more research is needed to verify this proposal of adding the eighth \"C\" and investigate the new framework from both theoretical and empirical standpoints. In addition, the value propositions of retailers and aggregators in tablet catalog marketing were found to be somewhat different. Thus, retailers who attempt to engage in tablet catalog marketing may use the information and findings in the study to facilitate their decision making.\nLimitations and future research: As with other research, this study has several limitations. First, this study only focussed on women's wear catalog apps downloaded from the Apple app store and created exclusively for iPad. Future research may examine more diverse product categories or collect the sample from a different operating system, e.g. Android tablets, to confirm if attributes vary in different devices. Second, mobile commerce exhibits fast-changing dynamics. Retailers keep updating and improving their applications rapidly. As a result, the sample size and the results from collected data (attributes) may vary in different periods and limit the generalizability of the present study. However, the present results may provide a baseline of longitudinal study in the field of catalog app marketing. Similar studies could be conducted in the future to examine what dimensions have been further emphasized compared to the present study. The evaluation of attributes in the present study was based on components provided by retailers. Future research may examine the attributes found in the present study from the vantage point of the consumers by having them rate each attribute on importance. Last, this study used eight dimensions to categorize the attributes based on researchers' assessment. A factor analysis is recommended for future research to verify the categorization from tablet consumers' point of views. In addition, more studies should be conducted to examine whether features in the Control dimension are influential to mobile device users. For example, tablet catalogers might lock the features to retain the esthetics of their catalog display, as consumers did show higher trustworthiness toward mobile web sites with a higher level of display esthetics (Li and Yeh, 2010). Thus, it is imperative to examine whether opting out of these features would increase consumer perceived display esthetics or might result in the negative perception caused by users losing control over the device.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: To comprehend tablet catalog marketing, the purpose of this paper is to obtain an integrated descriptive analysis of tablet catalogs and to compare the value propositions between retailers' and aggregators' applications (apps).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 28 tablet catalog apps were content analyzed in terms of interface attributes. Next, based on the results, a kh2 analysis was applied to compare the value proposition between retailers and aggregators.\nFindings: The result showed that the value propositions of retailers and aggregators were significantly different in the Context, Customization, and Communication dimensions. In addition, the incongruence of emphasized dimensions among retailers is larger than that among aggregators.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because mobile commerce exhibits fast-changing dynamics, the results from collected data may vary in different periods. However, the present results may provide a baseline of longitudinal study. The 8Cs framework expanded from the 7Cs framework may be applied to other studies.\nPractical implications: Retailers who attempt to engage in tablet catalog marketing may use the information and findings to facilitate their decision making. The list of the attributes can be a benchmark for a retailer to evaluate its current tablet catalog app or be a reference for those retailers who are planning to develop one.\nOriginality/value: This study identified and demonstrated a need of adding a new \"C,\" Control, in the previous framework and introduced the expanded framework. In addition, this study provided a set of findings for further research in the area.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Is more always better? Risk trade-offs among internationalizing new ventures
|
[
"Performance",
"Risk management",
"New venture internationalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite the fact that international entrepreneurship scholars have been researching internationalizing ventures for nearly 25 years, the performance implications for these ventures are less clear. Internationalization serves as a growth strategy that enables new ventures to pursue larger markets and exploit new innovations to the fullest (Dimitratos et al., 2003; Oviatt and McDougall, 1995). Based on the premise of additional profit opportunities being undertaken and a stronger competitive position, some studies have found support for a positive relationship whereby higher internationalization leads to greater new venture performance (Bloodgood et al., 1996; Khavul et al., 2010). Yet other studies have been unable to confirm any relationship between new venture internationalization and performance (Fernhaber and Li, 2010; McDougall and Oviatt, 1996). Contrary to their expectations, Lu and Beamish (2001) even found a negative relationship between internationalization and performance for small- and medium-sized firms. Such a disarray of findings brings into light the need to simultaneously consider the benefits alongside the costs associated with internationalization. In addition to the challenges associated with being new, and many times small, internationalizing new ventures face a host of costs related to transportation, the need for specific foreign knowledge and a lack of legitimacy abroad (Zaheer, 1995).\nTheory and hypotheses: Benefits and costs of new venture internationalization\nMethodology: Using SDC Platinum, a sample of 210 high-technology new ventures headquartered in the USA that issued an initial public offering (IPO) between 1995 and 2005 were identified. To be consistent with other new venture studies (i.e. Coviello and Jones, 2004), a six-year cut-off was used. Ventures were part of the biotechnology, computer equipment or communications sector of the high-technology classification in SDC Platinum (Ranft and Lord, 2000). Following other studies using IPO venture data (Carpenter et al., 2003), all firms that were corporately held or the result of a corporate spin-off were eliminated from the sample.\nAnalysis and results: Correlations, means and standard deviations are presented in Table I. The average new venture in our sample was 3.7 years old as of its IPO year and had $42 million dollars in revenue. Approximately 80 per cent of the ventures had received venture capital backing prior to the IPO. While the average percentage of international sales for the entire sample was approximately 11 per cent, this increased to 29 per cent for the subset of 82 ventures that were international as of the IPO year. Of these 82 ventures, 22 were focused solely in the North American region of the triad. An additional 24 ventures reported sales within two regions of the triad, with the remaining 36 ventures operating in all three regions. Interestingly, among the 83 ventures, only 3.3 per cent of their assets were reported as being located outside of the USA. The average profitability of a venture, in terms of return on assets, over the three-year time period following IPO was -42 per cent. Such a negative figure is common among technology-based new ventures during this time period. To assess the potential for multicollinearity, we calculated the variance inflation factors (VIF) for all variables. The mean VIF was 2.18, and all obtained VIFs were well below the concerning value of 10 (Neter et al., 1996).\nDiscussion: This study reveals several important findings. Most notably, the results provide strong support for the existence of a curvilinear relationship between internationalization and performance, as measured by profitability. Being able to recognize the benefits and costs associated with new venture, internationalization is helpful in reconciling prior inconsistencies in the literature. Such a relationship is consistent with the international business literature (Gomes and Ramaswamy, 1999) and emphasizes the danger of examining the international entrepreneurship literature too narrowly without fully taking into account the insight from its overlap with the international business field.\nLimitations and future research: While this study helps shed insight for the international entrepreneurship literature in terms of the performance implications for new venture internationalization, there are several limitations, and subsequently many opportunities for future research that also emerge. Foremost, given that the sample is based on publicly held ventures in the USA, the findings may not hold for the rest of the population of new ventures. Thus, future research would benefit greatly by testing the performance implications for international ventures that are smaller, privately held, outside the USA and in moderate or lower-technology industries. This is of particular interest, given our finding that internationalizing new ventures are able to perform better when expending less resources on product development. Although we focus in this study on the role of risk management, an interesting area for future research would be to explore other ways to manage the negative tradeoffs. The literature on resourcefulness and slack resources could potentially offer new insight as well as the literature on risk management. In addition, it would be interesting to extend our paper beyond the implications of the intensity of international sales to also consider the scope or diversity of countries entered (Kuivalainen et al., 2012). By reconciling the performance implications for new venture internationalization, it is ultimately hoped that the insight will be leveraged to stimulate many new inquiries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ventures manage the negative returns associated with higher levels of internationalization. Many new ventures are internationalizing to fully exploit new innovations and/or gain access to larger markets. Yet at some point the rising costs associated with internationalization outweigh any benefits, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between internationalization and performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: New ventures are theorized to better manage high levels of internationalization by limiting exposure to other sources of risk. This can be achieved by leveraging greater size and/or limiting simultaneous diversification efforts on product innovation. To test the hypotheses, a regression using Heckman selection was run using a sample of 210 US-based, publicly held ventures in high-technology industries.\nFindings: The results confirm that when higher levels of internationalization are coupled with either a low emphasis on product innovation or larger size, the negative returns are mitigated and actually become positive.\nResearch limitations/implications: A key implication lies in recognizing the role of risk management for internationalizing ventures. Future research could benefit by testing for generalizability in other countries as well as among privately held ventures.\nPractical implications: To manage the trade-offs associated at higher levels of internationalization, ventures need to maintain a low emphasis on product innovation or meet a threshold in terms of size.\nOriginality/value: The value of this research lies in better understanding how ventures are able to overcome rising costs at higher levels of internationalization.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quality preferences and pricing of fresh-cut salads in Italy: new evidence from market data
|
[
"Consumer preference",
"Quality attributes",
"Agro-food manufacture’s strategies",
"Fresh-cut salad",
"Hedonic price"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In Europe, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables (hereafter F&V) supply is one of the emerging industries in the agro-food sector. During the last years, this production has been characterized by an interesting progressive increase in trade that has been similar across all western countries including Italy (Ismea, 2011).\nBackground: Literature review\nMethodological approach: A hedonic model to evaluate quality attributes\nResults and discussion: Outcomes of the hedonic price models are reported in Table V, which also includes the most important performance indicators of the model. More specifically, the four models show a good overall significance (F-statistic above 1,700 corresponding to a p-values much lower than 0.000) and a high capability to explain the variability of the data set (R2 above 0.94).\nConclusions: This study shows that fresh-cut salads, which are one of the major growing segments in European agro-food sector, are highly differentiated products. Their quality attributes, on which market competition is based, are related to product preparation, packaging, farming type, brand and assortment.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In Europe fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, is one of the major growing segments in agro-food sector. Current literature reports a limited number of studies about consumers' preferences towards these products. In particular, it lacks of studies focussed on fresh-cut salads and based on market data. In this paper, a study on consumer preferences towards the main attributes of Italian fresh-cut salads is proposed. More specifically the investigation is focussed on attributes assessable by consumers before purchase such as assortment, tenderness, product preparation and vegetable variety together with brand, size and type of packaging, presence of organic certification, promotion and product price. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how much Italian consumers pay for those attributes with the aim to understand how much profitable could be different strategies in the sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on IRI-Infoscan scanner data, consisting of 881 fresh-cut products. The impact of each attributes on pricing is measured by means of a hedonic price model.\nFindings: Main results show that, in Italy, fresh-cut salad price is greatly affected by tenderness, product preparation, assortment, brand, presence of organic certification, packaging attributes and vegetable variety.\nPractical implications: Findings offer to producers the possibility to set up products by composing the mix of attributes that gives back the highest price. In addition, they provide some insights to define manufacturer's strategies.\nOriginality/value: This paper represents a novelty in economic literature because it can be considered an example of consumer preferences analysis towards the different attributes of fresh-cut vegetables based on real market data.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Res extensa et res cogitans de maqasid as-shari'ah
|
[
"Empirical application",
"Islamic law",
"Monotheism and epistemology",
"Religion",
"Science and society"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: meanings of res extensa and res cogitans between Islam and the occident: Imam Ghazzali on res extensa and res cogitans\nThe permanent problem of science in occidental reasoning: the duality of rationalism: the divine law and rationalist thought: Descartes, like Kant, froze science in the constrained crucible of the worldly domains of res extensa and res cogitans to understand reality that is argued to be present in materiality and abstraction. But the approach failed to have the potentiality for knowledge of reality existing in objective continuity across systemic continuums. Thereby, the very objective that Descartes and Kant aimed at - for attaining certainty in belief and consciousness - failed them to look beyond the limited material horizon of science.\nObjective: The above implications of our discussion above bring forth the objective of this paper. The principal objective of this paper is to lay down the positive methodology of the tawhidi worldview. Within this worldview, the existing philosophy of maqasid as-shari'ah rests. However, in its existing state, the narrow philosophy of maqasid as-shari'ah fails to address the socio-scientific problematique. The problematique attains the realm of generality and a generalized system model within the great design of sunnat-Allah. This paper will then establish the extendibility of maqasid as-shari'ah within the domain of sunnat-Allah is indeed possible both by its episteme and by methodical formalism applying to real issues. Several socio-scientific issues will be discussed and critically re-formulated in the light of the tawhidi methodology and its methodical formalism to bring out the potentiality of a newer precept of maqasid as-shari'ah that must be addressed in the complexity and richness of evolutionary learning with the diversity of being and becoming of our new age, and in the light of the Qur'an and the sunnah[4].\nA critical review of the literature on the development of science within the monotheistic domain: Tawhid means oneness as the primal attribute of God. Every Muslim and non-Muslim believes in the oneness of God as the cardinal attribute of their religion, be this Islam or any other. Yet, the understanding of tawhid in its ontological, epistemological and phenomenological relationship in the articles of faith and its relationship with the world-system are not easily comprehended. This is equally true of Muslims and non-Muslims. Consequently, the substantive meaning of monotheism in relationship to God, self and the world, and the ultimate closure of knowledge and temporal order in the hereafter (akhira), is not understood. Only a casual reference is made to this otherwise substantive knowledge premise. The failure and the gradual decline of interest and pursuit in the intellectual world of the substantive understanding of monotheism as the unity of organic relationship explained by invoking the structure and functionalism of scientific knowledge caused the gradual abandonment of the study of the monotheistic law in hardcore scientific inquiry.\nThe real scientific problematique: Kantian heteronomy: The divisive wall of intellection in systemic discontinuity between micro and macro aspects of socio-scientific inquiry; and most critically, the impossibility to integrate the monotheistic law in mainstream socio-scientific thought, is due to the permanence of what is termed as heteronomy of the Kantian type. The problem of heteronomy is not simply of a philosophical nature. Its identical effects of divisiveness between disparate types of socio-scientific reasoning are found in economics, finance and social orders (Choudhury, 2010).\nCritical inquiry on maqasid as-shari'ah: on the extendibility of maqasid by the monotheistic epistemology and in the total world-system res extensa and res cogitans: We now build on the substantive research issues that underlie the analysis of Figures 2 and 3. The scientific research program that emanates from the underlying inquiry negates, first, the Kantian heteronomy that otherwise spreads out thoroughly in contemporary perspectives of science and society. Second, the research program completes the incomplete causality underlying Ghazzali's one-directional correspondence between the monotheistic law and its concrescence. Thirdl, the completeness by the tawhidi methodological worldview of Ghazzali's problematique of causality, and the logical annulment of Kantian heteronomy, enable the monotheistic law to attain unity of knowledge and unification of details in the world-system. Such a dynamics is true in both the general and particular issues of the world-systems relating to \"everything\" (res extensa and res cogitans). Accordingly, such an integrated unity of knowledge is cast in the reality of the super-arching law, sunnat-Allah.\nExamples of particulars within the generalized system domain of sunnat-Allah for extendibility of maqasid as-shari'ah: What ought to be the nature of maqasid as-shari'ah in the embedded totality of the divine law (sunnat-Allah)\nThe contrast between the ideas of shari'ah-compliance and maqasid as-shari'ah and its extension: an empirical work: Modeling the financing instruments in the contrasting meanings of shari'ah compliance and maqasid as-shari'ah\nA way of integrating the financing instruments: foreign trade financing instrument: Foreign trade financing instrument (FTFC) makes a very viable collective portfolio of every kind of other participatory financing instrument that enters exchange of goods and services around the world economy. Thereby, the interactive capacity of the individual financing instruments between them can be effectively realized by revolving them interactively around foreign trade financing. This would be the extensive way of modeling maqasid as-shari'ah around a general system. Besides, the effectiveness of foreign trade financing as such a convergent portfolio of interactive financing instruments also carries along with it the real economy activities. These are the development ones and enter directly into the well-being function in the large-scale domain of all possible activities. We bring out this overarching nature of inter-instruments interaction in Figure 5.\nConclusion; formalism of the potentiality of maqasid as-shari'ah within sunnat-Allah: By combining the above-mentioned verses explained here, the study of the conscious multi-universe induced by knowledge, and thereby, with divine mercy and balance, can be signified by:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to undertake a critical evaluation of the purpose and objective of Islamic Law, namely, maqasid as-shari'ah, as it has evolved in Islamic scholastic experience. But, the greater philosophy and potential of maqasid as-shari'ah within the great design of the monotheistic law, sunnat-Allah, is explained. Such explanation is carried out in the light of the core of Islamic epistemology that directly induces Islamic Law.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This critical evaluation is pursued in the light of the epistemological worldview and its methodical formalism of unity of knowledge contra a differentiated and conflicting view of human experience in rationalism. The episteme of unity of knowledge is Tawhid as the law of everything in the precept of unity as understood by the monotheistic law, sunnat-Allah. In the light of the extendibility of maqasid as-shari'ah across the relationally unifying domain of sunnat-Allah, the potentiality of shari'ah in terms of res extensa (epistemic extension) and res cogitans (cognitive capacity) is discussed.\nFindings: Various occidental thoughts in this quest for extendibility of the epistemic totality are critically examined by the Tawhidi monotheistic law. The universality of the Tawhidi law of monotheism in respect of its characteristics of res extensa and res cogitans is studied to bring out the potentiality of maqasid as-shari'ah. Thereby, the new vision of inter-systemic extensions across diverse domains of intellection interactively unified together is formalized. This formalism goes beyond the existing limits of maqasid as-shari'ah confined as it is to worldly socioeconomic affairs (muamalat).\nResearch limitations/implications: A much broader investigation is opened up by this paper that can be extended by academic work.\nPractical implications: The practical support of the criticism against both the idea of shari'ah-compliance and the incomplete implication of maqasid as-shari'ah as presently understood among Islamic scholars is carried out by a detailed empirical work. The extension to the choice of a new financial instrument of Foreign Trade Financing Certificate is introduced.\nSocial implications: The critical discussion launched in reference to the wider meaning, objective and purpose of maqasid as-shari'ah under the epistemology of the Tawhidi methodological worldview results in the substantive understanding of maslaha, well-being. Maslaha as well-being forms the ultimate index of socio-scientific valuation under maqasid as-shari'ah in the light of the Tawhidi epistemological worldview. Thereby, the perspective of socioeconomic development, and more extensively socio-scientific intellection, is brought out as extensively participatory evolutionary process under the principle of unity of knowledge (Tawhidi episteme). Brief examples are invoked to establish this fact. An example of measured multidimensional well-being (maslaha) as the final index of participatory organic relations that maqasid as-shari'ah ought to project in reference to Tawhidi methodological worldview is represented.\nOriginality/value: This is a distinctively original paper in an area that has not been investigated thus far. Besides, much scope for further intellectual investigation is opened up.\n",
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Transition and people with learning disabilities: Reflections on the quality of content that emerges from the process of involving service users in information provision
|
[
"Learning disabilities",
"Disabled people",
"Information facilities",
"Leisure facilitites",
"Internet",
"Transition management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Transition Portal Project\nAims: This paper discusses and analyses the content produced during this early stage of the project and the issues that have arisen during this activity. Its aim is to attempt to evaluate this content in terms of the relevance it has for its target audience and to elicit the issues inherent in undertaking the task of producing and uploading information. Specifically, it:* Explores the topics research (Townsley, 2004; Tarleton, 2004) that professional organisations (The Transition Information Network) have found to be relevant to people with learning difficulties who are facing transition.* Compares the topic headers used in the Transition Portal with those the research and professional organisations have found to be important.* Examines the content of the web sites and structure, in terms of the headers used and how appropriate these are for the coherent presentation of transition information.* Explores other issues related to the content, such as the use of the first person, the role of supporters, etc. and the subsequent potential informational value of the material for its intended market.From the data accrued, an attempt is made to judge the relevance of the content examined. This issue is an essential one for the project in general and for any evaluation of the portal content.\nLiterature review: information needs and transition: The Road Ahead (Townsley, 2004; Tarleton, 2004) has been the only major study to date to examine specifically the topic of the information needs around transition of people with learning disabilities. It was undertaken over a six month period between October 2003 and March 2004 and included:* Focus group interviews with young people, their parents and supporters.* A systematic review of the literature on transition.* A review of the information already available for young people, parents and professionals, including an evaluation of materials by young people and parents. (Tarleton, 2004, p. 2).Below is a bullet-point summary of the thematic information needs identified in The Road Ahead, including references to literature examined in the literature review (Townsley, 2004) that formed part of the investigation:* Safety and risk (Ward et al., 2003).* Health services/health action plans.* General health and diet (Pearson et al., n.d.).* Rights to services and support from adult social work teams.* Travel - access to transport and equipment.* Money and benefits - age-related benefits; changes to existing benefits; carers' needs assessments; earning money through paid work; learning about money management; having a bank account (Ward et al., 2003; O'Sullivan, 2001).* Education and learning opportunities, activity centres, etc.* Careers and employment, employment agencies, supported work, etc.* Housing and accommodation - living alone or with others; living with a family in an adult placement, etc.* Sexuality and sexual relationships (Morris, 2002).* Friendships - importance of friends; leaving/moving school, college or home; making new friends.* Leisure options and activities.One may feel that information on leisure activities may not be as important as that on benefits, health or education. However, Morris (2001) points out those activities such as sport or evening classes are an excellent way to meet and make friends and, hence, obviate social exclusion. This is a \"big issue for all young disabled people\" (Townsley, 2004, p. 4).The Road Ahead also identified a poverty of usable and accessible information about transition in formats that suited young people with learning disabilities. Models of content that user testers with learning disabilities identified as useful were particularly those created by young people themselves and content using rich media (animation, photos and graphics) to share people's individual experiences. The research participants with learning disabilities identified the Trans-active web site, which was developed by the Rix Centre with Mencap, as an especially accessible and useful source of information about transition. These findings were particularly influential in the shaping of the project under discussion in this paper.The Transition Information Network (TIN) is an alliance of organisations and individuals who work together with the aim of improving the experience of disabled young people's transition to adulthood, and it maintains a web site for parents, carers and people who work with and for disabled young people in transition to adulthood. The topics TIN uses are similar to those identified in The Road Ahead, although it does not have a specific section on safety/risk. The Transition Portal satellite web site templates that were provided to participating organisations have default headers that users are able to edit and amend to suit the themes that they elect to cover as web content generators. The default headers do not include sections on (or equivalent to) housing or education in its default interface, nor - as it is designed principally for young people themselves - on policy and guidance, although once an organisation has acquired its own web site it can change the headings (and therefore the topics) to meet its own needs, so there is no barrier. It is instructive to look first at the headers that the various organisations used in their construction of the web site.Table I offers a comparison of themes and headers used in The Road Ahead, TIN and the Transition Portal. The latter headers tend to be more general, so although there is no equivalent to Careers and employment, the header \"After school\" could include such information, and also material about education and training, another \"Road Ahead\" theme and TIN header.\nMethods: The following methods were used to examine the portal content:* Desk research. to elicit the topics found to be relevant to people with learning difficulties who are facing transition.* Inspection by researchers. to compare the topic headers used in the Transition Portal with those the research and professional organisations have found to be important, and to examine the content of the web sites and the structure in terms of characteristics, reading level, etc.* Expert enquiry. to help with the above, and to evaluate content in terms of accessibility and relevance; a number of experts in the field were presented with the portal content and asked for their views. The experts included a lecturer in using technology with people with learning disabilities and a software developer specialising in creating materials for his constituency.With regard to the inspection of the content, the team looked to see if it:* dealt with a topic of interest in transition, as identified in the literature (as transition affects virtually all aspects of one's life - from education to employment to relationships to leisure - almost all topics may be considered to be of some relevance);* offered any subjective opinion about the activity (such as if the contributor enjoys the activity or finds it useful, etc.); and* gave any practical information (locations, times, equipment/clothing needed, etc.) that would be useful to other people.Even if the content did not include all of the attributes mentioned above, the presence of any topic can be considered as a focal point for conversation - considering the important point that the web sites are likely to be used by the service users in conjunction with a supporter there to guide, to discuss content, and to generally make the information-seeking a meaningful experience.Clearly, relevance and accessibility should be examined with the people with learning disabilities themselves in the longer term. A suggestion made at the end of this paper, for example, is that an editorial board, made up primarily of people with learning disabilities, could review the material for relevance. Individual comments expressing preferences, etc. will also be used. However, for present purposes (before the portal goes \"live\" and is available for online public access) it was considered appropriate to undertake an audit and analysis of content in order to inform training workshops, prior to undertaking more in-depth work with people with disabilities themselves.Participants (content creators)\nResults: Results are discussed as follows: breakdown and analysis of headers used for web site sections and what they tell us; an outline of the content covered and its structure; issues such as the use of the first person; content produced by supporters and non-accessible content complete the review.Headers used for web site sections\nDiscussion: enhancing portal information provision: Results from this study suggest that the Transition Portal Project has great potential to provide transition information to the learning disabled community. One key element is required for the continuing development and implementation of the system - a process to ensure the information provided may be of benefit to service users. Clearly, the interplay between supporter and service user is at the heart of this, as it is with regard to the usability of the system and the uploading of data - topics outside the scope of this particular paper. It would be easy to suggest that supporters annotate or modify in some way the content produced by the person with the learning disability. However, to facilitate, encourage and emphasise service user contribution, it would be incumbent upon the supporter to work closely with the person with learning disabilities, using their skills to gently probe, suggest and coax. This again highlights the need for tangible support skills for the use of ICTs by people with learning disabilities to ensure that self-advocacy has integrity and that the benefits of providing people with tools and instruction to express their views and share experiences with multimedia are genuinely realised. To give an example from the portal content, the phrase, \"my ideal job would be to work in an office\", written by a service user, could be supplemented by the same person, following gentle questioning by the supporter asking why working in an office should be so desirable, what it entails, which aspects are most appealing, etc. This would create additional text which would tell others a little about an office environment.While the above may seem obvious, there are many constraints and barriers to overcome, including limitations of time and of the skills required to promote this kind of dialogue. Regarding the latter, Bradshaw (2001), for example, found from video observations of the \"communication acts\" used by staff-in-charge of people with learning disabilities that \"staff appeared unable to adapt their communication to the skills of the service user and an average of 45 per cent of communicative acts were outside the reported understanding skills of the individual\" (p. 233). Bartlett and Bunning (1997) described the difficulties staff may have in using appropriately accessible language with learners with learning disabilities without demeaning their charges.Another way of involving service users might be to set-up an editorial committee consisting predominantly of service users, led by one or two participants with milder disabilities and overseen by a supporter. The committee would be a little more able and aware of the informational aims of the portal, and would review all content and decide if it required additional input, and what form that input might take (illustrative image, web link, additional text, etc.) A supporter would, of course, help facilitate the discussions. Adopting this approach would not be quite as simple as it may seem. There would need to be some protection of the original material created by service users, so it is valued with all its illogical inconsistencies and eccentricities intact.Participation of this kind - i.e. peer support - by people with learning disabilities would be inventive, but not unique. Peer support lay at the heart of the Trans-active project that was originally identified in this line of research by SCIE as a model example of information provision, as mentioned above. Indeed, there has been a growing movement in social research to involve people with learning disabilities in research studies in this kind of participatory manner. Burke et al. (2003), for example, describe a conference in which people with learning disabilities were able to contribute their ideas about an academic research project, and Williams (1999) highlights other projects and the methods used in which this constituency formed part of a research team. Kiernan (1999) examines the origins of the phenomenon and the issues that arise. Finally, there are several learning disability self-advocacy groups (such as People First, http://www.peoplefirst.org.uk/) which work to, as People First Central England (n.d.) say, \"to help people with learning difficulties speak up for themselves, with help and support if needed\".\nConclusion: Practical conclusions from this phase of research:* The role of the portal is crucial in that it can set subjective, anecdotal content into an informational context by linking to other sites or pages, internal or external to the satellite cluster that extends the themes raised in the subjective content.* Supporters work with service-user content creators to render subjective content of more informational value is a skilled advocacy and support process that provides opportunities for teaching and learning for both parties.* An editorial process that remains broadly inclusive by involving people with learning disabilities wherever possible could complement this endeavour. Such a process will need to be informed by self-advocacy movement values so as to respect the quality of service-user content, however eccentric or subjective, as the little heard voice of people with learning disabilities. The Transition Portal Project is a response to government and other pressure to include service users in the development of the services, and has evaluated a web-based information service around transition. The issues elicited included those of focusing only on a limited number of topics of interest in transition, writing about one's personal experiences without providing information of use to others, and some material being too difficult for people with learning disabilities to understand. The issue of how support, intervention, annotation, coaxing, etc. is applied lies at the very heart of the project and at the heart of inclusive practice generally. The portal initiative is hoping to give a lead to others in this respect, and results suggest that there is clearly scope for this kind of service-user involvement, the success of which - in terms of information provision - will depend on sensitive training of both supporter and service user, and considerable time and dedication to formulate and upload information.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper's purpose is to describe the information content of web sites developed by and for people with learning disabilities around the theme of transition from school to adulthood.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper adopts a content analysis approach, in which subject experts evaluate user-generated content produced as part of a project on inclusion and people with learning disabilities.\nFindings: - Despite being only one theme of a number pertaining to transition, leisure, entertainment and hobby-related information dominated the web sites. Other issues elicited included that of writing about one's personal experiences providing limited information of use to others, the key role of carers/supporters in information provision, and some material being too difficult for people with learning disabilities to understand.\nPractical implications: - The paper shows that for the information service to be valuable and relevant to the target audience, much training and considerable time investment are required for both people with learning disabilities and their supporters. The practice of creating and uploading information on to the web site holds benefits to the creator beyond mere information provision.\nOriginality/value: - The development of information services for people with learning disabilities by the service users themselves is an important innovation. This paper points out how such an inclusive approach could work in the future.\n",
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] |
Internationalization as a determinant of systematic risk: the role of restaurant type
|
[
"Internationalization",
"Restaurant type",
"Systematic risk",
"Modern portfolio theory"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Internationalization has been a driving force in the growth of US-based restaurant firms. For instance, Yum! Brands operates in more than 135 countries (Yum! Brands, Inc., 2017). However, despite the potential opportunities, internationalization may render many challenges (Hitt et al., 2006), which can increase risk. In other words, multinational corporations (hereafter MNCs) may face daunting challenges to manage the high level of uncertainty in diverse global markets. As a result, the pivotal significance of internationalization and risk management has prompted researchers in the financial economics field to examine the relationship between internationalization and risk (Krapl, 2015).\nLiterature review: Relevant theories of internationalization\nMethodology: Data collection\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: Restaurant firms' managerial decisions regarding operating, investing and financing can influence characteristics of risk (Gu and Kim, 2002) and the internationalization strategy is one of the most momentous managerial decisions that restaurant executives need to make, which can affect aspects of firms' risk (Lubatkin and Chatterjee, 1994). Considering that numerous restaurant firms have widely implemented internationalization, effective risk management is one of the crucial concerns of firms operating in international markets.\nLimitations and future research: This study is not without limitations. Structural differences may generally exist between limited-service restaurants and full-service restaurants. However, even within the same restaurant segment (either limited-service restaurants or full-service restaurants), food menu or service may vary across the country due to the degree of modification. Some restaurants operate a variety of segments that are a combination of limited-service and full-service restaurants. Thus, future studies can develop more constructive criteria for the classification of restaurant types, and investigate the effect of restaurant type on this topic.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold: to investigate the relationship between restaurant firms' internationalization and systematic risk, and to further examine the relationship between internationalization and systematic risk based on the type of restaurant firm (i.e. limited-service vs full-service restaurants).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study analyzes data from US-based publicly traded restaurant firms by estimating systematic risk based on the Carhart four-factor model and by performing a two-way random-effects model.\nFindings: Findings support not only the risk-reduction effect of internationalization on systematic risk but also the moderating effect of the role of restaurant type on the relationship between internationalization and systematic risk. More specifically, the risk-reduction effect of internationalization on systematic risk is greater for limited-service than full-service restaurants.\nPractical implications: The findings of this study can provide restaurant executives with more confidence in pursuing internationalization as part of their risk management strategy, acknowledging that more international operations could mitigate restaurant firms' systematic risk. More specifically, limited-service restaurants can more significantly enjoy the risk-reduction benefits by increasing their international operations than full-service restaurants based on the findings of this study. Furthermore, risk-averse investors could consider purchasing shares of limited-service multinational restaurants' stocks to enjoy more risk-reduction benefits.\nOriginality/value: By focusing on the restaurant industry with consideration for the restaurant type, this study provides more tailored recommendations for implementing internationalization strategies with regard to risk management.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
How do retailers increase the benefits of buyer innovativeness? An intra- and inter-organization perspective
|
[
"Organization design",
"Buyer innovativeness",
"Inter-departmental communication",
"Retail competitiveness",
"Supply base diversification"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Retail buyers play the crucial role of spanning intra- and inter-organization boundaries (Esbjerg et al., 2016; Fiorito and Fairhurst, 1993; Fiorito et al., 2010; Keaveney, 1995). Retail buyers who are more innovative tend to be more active in coordinating the collaborative relationships with store divisions and suppliers to adopt new approaches to create higher customer value (Adams et al., 2006, Amabile et al., 1996; Bessant, 2003). The competence of these activities is less observable and imitable in comparison to the store operations of rivals. Consequently, retail buyer innovativeness is a key managerial challenge in the process of developing the organizational capabilities required to achieve company goals (Corsten and Kumar, 2005; Murray and Chapman, 2003).\n2. Conceptual framework and constructs: Many retailers hesitate to implement innovative strategies (Esbjerg et al., 2016). However, innovation, the successful exploitation of new ideas in problem-solving, has become a major success factor for retailers (Adams et al., 2006; Hristov and Reynolds, 2015; Sorescu et al., 2011). As innovativeness is the process of adopting a new approach to improve established routines, it can be considered a typical output of innovativeness (Bessant, 2003).\n3. Hypothesis development: 3.1 Effect of inter-departmental communication\n4. Research methodology: 4.1 Research setting and data collection\n5. Analysis and results: 5.1 Construct validity\n6. Conclusions and discussion: This study developed and tested a model that investigated the relationships among buyer innovativeness, inter-departmental communication, and retail competitiveness. We also explored whether a retail strategy of supply base diversification for managing suppliers moderates the association between innovativeness and competitiveness.\n7. Limitations and further research: The findings of this study should be interpreted in light of one major limitation. The data on inter-departmental communication are derived from heads of merchandising divisions, while the data from other areas of retail organizations may reveal different results. Consequently, future researchers should survey individuals from multiple areas of the organization in order to attain a more thorough understanding of these relationships.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a model investigating the relationship among inter-departmental communication, buyer innovativeness, and retail competitiveness. The authors also explore whether a retail strategy of supply base diversification for managing suppliers moderates the association between innovativeness and competitiveness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model and survey data drawn from general merchandise managers of 149 supermarket retailers in Japan.\nFindings: The results indicate that inter-departmental communication between merchandising and store divisions drives innovativeness among retail buyers and ultimately strengthens firm competitiveness. Moreover, when buyer innovativeness is evident and less actively the retail buyers utilize supply base diversification, the stronger is the retailer's competitiveness. The study failed to find any direct impact of inter-departmental communication on retail competitiveness.\nPractical implications: This study offers managerial insights into the roles that buyer innovativeness, inter-departmental communications, and supply base diversification play in developing effective competitive strategies.\nOriginality/value: This study makes two key contributions. First, it is novel in using inter-departmental communication to explain the antecedents of buyer innovativeness. Second, drawing on the power-dependence theory, the authors extend the well-established innovativeness-performance linkage by exploring the moderation effect of supply base diversification.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Resource sharing at the American University of Beirut: challenges and opportunities
|
[
"Resource sharing",
"Library consortia",
"Interlibrary loan",
"Document delivery services",
"Reciprocal agreements"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The explosion of information in the digital age and the emergence of new research trends, especially systematic reviews, has led to a significant rise in the number of interlibrary loan and document delivery requests. To address these issues, the American University of Beirut (AUB) Libraries has established reciprocal agreements and joined consortia. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of resource sharing at AUB given its location in the Middle East region and specifically in Lebanon.\nBackground: American University of Beirut\nConclusion: The findings from the statistics suggest that joining consortia and signing reciprocal agreements have helped AUB libraries expand the DDS services to the whole community. Instead of serving only faculty members, we also reduce the cost allocated to the interlibrary loan and document delivery unit, and opened the lending services to the local and international institutions therefore becoming more visible to the local and global community.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the resource sharing initiative through signing reciprocal agreements, joining consortia and subscribing to OCLC at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Libraries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Statistical analysis of interlibrary loan transactions over the past five years was conducted.\nFindings: Joining local, regional and international consortia, signing reciprocal agreements with two institutions and subscribing to OCLC Worldshare ILL have maximized access to resources by reducing the cost allocated to ILL and expanded the DDS services to allow unlimited requests to all members of the AUB community.\nOriginality/value: Academic libraries are still facing budget cuts while they are expected to deliver better services to their communities. The implication of the statistics gathered discloses a constant need for finding ways to support resource sharing and to align with the University's mission of fostering life-long learners by supporting research and maximizing access to resources.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Overcoming economic stagnation in low-income communities with programmable money
|
[
"Economic development",
"Cryptocurrency",
"Economic development",
"Blockchain",
"Ethereum",
"Decentralized finance",
"Local currencies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: For most countries, economic growth has been a large focus of public policy throughout the past century. The aggregated gross domestic product of all countries has risen continually through time with few exceptions, and totals over US$80tn as of writing (World Bank, 2017a). However, as the world becomes wealthier as a whole, the number of people living with a low income grows alongside it (World Bank, 2017b), creating unbalanced societies in which the products of wealth generation are not reaped by its entire population. This unequal distribution of wealth forces the creation of communities that face subpar quality of living, composed of households that often cannot afford the cost of living elsewhere. This phenomenon is especially noticeable in Brazil, a country with one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world (World Bank, 2017c). In Brazil, low-income households often populate urban areas denominated favelas, which are communities characterized by low income, high crime rates and geographical isolation from the key areas of cities, as they take up peripheral land, often on hillsides.\n2. Traditional approach: 2.1 Motivation for local currencies\n3. Blockchain as a natural alternative: 3.1 The world computer\n4. An Ethereum-based implementation: The sections below will reference an example Solidity[3] implementation of a local currency deployed on Ethereum. To allow for technical and non-technical readers to comprehend the concept alike, no code will be displayed here, only a description of its functionalities. Technical readers are encouraged to view the code on GitHub[4]. Furthermore, given the lack of available research on the use of blockchain technology for the specific purpose of a local currency, the current section will draw mostly from the author's own research, observations and assumptions. It is to be expected that the model should be improved upon from new developments in this research space.\n5. Limitations of the model: 5.1 Transaction fees\n6. Conclusion: This paper introduced the concept of local currencies as a mechanism for overcoming economic stagnation in low-income communities and proposed the use of a blockchain-based implementation of the model as a strategy to overcome the difficulties faced by current local currency systems. Complementary monetary systems are not widely used, and this can be partly attributed to the number of barriers such projects must overcome to succeed. Thus, a blockchain-based system, inheriting characteristics such as transparency, decentralization and security from a pre-existing protocol could be helpful in eliminating some of the major issues faced by local currencies today.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study hopes to encourage further research into the topic of local currencies, as well as specific research into increasing the efficiency of these systems through the use of blockchain technology. There is currently a lack of available research into the topic, which poses barriers for those who wish to study it, so the paper provides a general overview to be used as a starting point for those wishing to broaden their knowledge of local currency systems while also introducing a working implementation of a proof-of-concept for the proposed system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A literature review of available studies on local currencies is conducted to provide an overview of the current systems and their shortcomings. Subsequently, blockchain technology is briefly introduced and an Ethereum-based model is proposed, which helps overcome the problems identified. The section exploring the Ethereum-based model draws code written by the author to simulate the features.\nFindings: The paper concludes that blockchain technology can significantly help improve efficiency, transparency and security of local currency systems, while also helping cut costs associated with the implementation of a complementary monetary system. In the medium-term, local currency systems will most likely use a blockchain protocol as the underlying technology for the network.\nOriginality/value: Local currencies are an understudied topic by itself and the intersection between them and blockchain is a nearly non-existent research space. Thus, the paper takes a multidisciplinary approach, aiming to bridge the fields of computer science and economics to provide a foundation for further research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Distinctive features of service performance measurement
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Finland",
"Service management",
"Interview study",
"Service operations management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Service performance measurement has emerged as an important area of research along with the growth in service management research (Bititci et al., 2012; Johnston, 1999; Neely, 2008). Service performance measurement is regarded as important due to the increasing significance of service activities, but it is also regarded as a more complicated one compared to the manufacturing context (Pawar et al., 2009). The existing literature analyzes performance measurement in different service industries and provides industry-specific measurement solutions, such as solutions for assessing service quality in various consumer services (Johnston, 2005; Johnston and Pongatichat, 2008). A downside of the wide interest is a fragmented body of research complicating the follow-up of academic discussion on the topic. What seem to be lacking are more general characterizations of service performance measurement. There is a need to better understand what exactly makes service performance measurement problematic, and what the possible distinctive features are compared to the generic literature on balanced performance measurement (e.g. Kaplan and Norton, 1992).\n2. Service performance measurement - overview of the literature: Performance measurement addresses balanced examination of organizational performance with the intention to implement a strategy (Kaplan and Norton, 1992). The basic idea is that financial measurement does not provide sufficient picture of performance - there is an additional need to obtain measurement information from other perspectives such as employees, processes and customers. The strengths of the performance measurement stream relate to its multidisciplinary nature and relevance to managerial practice (Neely, 2005; Thorpe and Beasley, 2004). Much of the existing literature is of a normative nature and is concerned with designing a measurement system or examines the characteristics of existing measurement systems (Garengo and Bititci, 2007; Johnston and Pongatichat, 2008).\n3. Research methods: Service operations can be found in almost any industrial sector. This study concentrates on public services, knowledge-intensive services and industrial services. These sectors were chosen because of their known challenges in performance measurement. Public services struggle with the problems of demonstrating value for money (Jaaskelainen and Lonnqvist, 2011), knowledge-intensive services with the non-standard and individual nature of work (Davenport, 2008) and industrial services with servitization-driven challenges (Laine et al., 2012). Furthermore, much of the service management literature still concentrates on consumer services, while business services and public services have received less attention (Johnston, 2005).\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Performance measurement in three service contexts\n5. Analysis: distinctive features of service performance measurement: Empirical observations confirm the notable deficiency of prevailing performance measurement literature building on organizational structures (Bititci et al., 2012). Performance measurement systems following formal organizational structures connect easily with managerial functions and responsibilities but not necessarily the operations that organizations carry out. Nevertheless, the role of service-specific features has steadily increased in organizations' measurement systems (Auzair and Langfield-Smith, 2005; Hood, 2007). The impact of service-specific features on performance measurement practice needs to be clarified.\n6. Conclusions: The literature on performance measurement in services is extensive, multifaceted but also fragmentary. There is abundant knowledge on performance measurement in certain service environments, such as consumer services. Simultaneously, the literature on service management highlights many features of services with a broader orientation to service environment that has yet not been sufficiently linked to performance measurement. This study contributes by shedding light on the overall characteristics of service performance measurement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the distinctive features of service performance measurement. It also provides an overview of current status of performance measurement in three service sectors in Finland.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper builds on two complementary empirical studies. In the first study, data were gathered through individual interviews in Finnish service organizations. In the second study, group interviews were held in order to enhance the understanding. The service sectors studied are knowledge-intensive, public and industrial services. There are two main units of analysis in the data set: an organization and service operations.\nFindings: The results show that the specific performance measurement characteristics are more apparent at service operations level. The findings reveal three distinctive features of service performance measurement. First, the contingency perspective stresses a need to consider the characteristics of different service contexts. Second, customer-orientation implies that the measurement should also cover customers' actions during the service operation as well as the impacts of service operations. Third, the systemic perspective proposes that performance measurement should encompass all actors participating to service operations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results provide support for structuring the existing research and identifying paths for future research. They also assist practitioners in their search for best measurement practices.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes by providing empirical insights from three service sectors on the development needs of performance measurement. The findings provide understanding on what exactly makes service performance measurement problematic and suggests three paths to move forward.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The performance-improving benefits of a radical innovation initiative
|
[
"Innovation",
"Performance management",
"Decision making",
"Performance criteria",
"Radical innovation",
"Sustainable innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Does it make sense to work with small-scale improvements for innovation? The short answer is \"no!\" In this study we demonstrate that rather ambitious large-scale innovations which inspire small-scale improvements work better when searching proactively for new inputs to the organizational innovation stream (Tushman et al., 2010). Here our empirical evidence determines that processing a radical innovation project represents a sustainable approach to increase overall productivity and performance of other innovation-related activities in the company.\n2. Methodology and case organization: We report on a longitudinal case study. The unit of analysis was a regional department in a multinational enterprise that produces technology-processing equipment for recycling of private and industrial scrap to be used in the district heating industry. The purpose of the initiated radical innovation proposal was to radically rethink the technology used to process scrap with a goal of increasing production efficiency by more than 50 percent. Hence, the initiated project was according to OECD's (2005) Oslo Manual a product innovation project with a high degree of novelty and uncertainty.\n3. The data collection process: The overall processing of the project is described to present an in-depth story of the project's development. Figure 2 illustrates the general timeframe of the project. First the Focus phase is described and afterwards the Preject phase is described.\n4. Results: The process of establishing a radical innovation proposal did identify new potential for the case organization, since it gave them new input to boost their innovation stream (Tushman et al., 2010). Our content analysis of the data from the idea management system determines that the types of concepts that were developed as part of the project-led learning (Brady and Davies, 2004) can be divided into two categories: first, concepts that improve the performance of existing offerings, e.g. reducing wear and tear of running parts and second, new product concepts, e.g. the introduction of a transportable machinery instead of only offering stationary equipment. Hence, concepts were developed that represented a stretch of the existing s-curves to the company and new potential s-curves. These findings are summarized in Tables I and II. Table I presents 18 concepts that potentially improve performance features of existing offerings. Table II presents 13 concepts that represent new products to the organization.\n5. Implications: The implications for our study are first divided into management practices and second to academic development. First it is stressed that approaching high uncertainty projects in a disciplined manner can improve innovation performance if the new concept proposals are realized. This is argued, since knowledge that is directly exploitable is identified and described during the exploration process. This beneficial sideeffect represents a large potential to incremental innovation - this is perhaps also why a radical/breakthrough innovation focus is gaining in attention in the industry (cf. Keupp et al., 2012; Raisch et al., 2009; Shelton and Percival, 2013). Our analysis revealed that ten easy to implement concepts with a perceived low level of uncertainty were identified ranging from low to medium to high potential for the organization, event though the focus of the process was a radical approach to product innovation. Some of these concepts were started up as projects to improve the performance of the existing offerings directly after the presentation to the decision makers. This finding gives innovation consultants and R&D managers ammunition to persuade top management and Board of Directors to invest in high ambition projects, since incremental innovation activities (exploitable knowledge) are identified during the exploration process. The process also lead to a successful perceived result of radical product innovation, since a new technology was identified that could improve the performance of the existing product by 70 percent and allow the development of 13 new product innovations with different levels of risk profile and return tradeoff.\n6. Conclusion: Our study informs about the potential performance-improving knowledge that is constructed in the early stages of a radical innovation project. Our endeavor to step out of the claimed routinization of innovation research and treat innovation as an independent variable has proven fruitful, since our ambition to break new grounds gives clear answers to our research question:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the question: to what extent does the process of establishing radical innovation proposals identify new potential for improved performance? The goal is to determine the types of early stage concepts that are developed, their potential performance impact on the existing business and their potential value to the organization ex ante decision making with respect to choice of projects to pursue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors apply a participatory case study approach combined with a content analysis of data from an idea management system that was utilized by the case organization. The authors build new empirically based theory on the direct and indirect value that emerges by creating new potential concepts to the innovation stream of an existing company.\nFindings: The authors conclude that three types of performance-improving activities are developed to be exploited during opportunity recognition and concept development, through a disciplined approach to uncovering potential RI projects. These concern existing products and production, as well as the conceptualization of new products to the organization, market and world.\nPractical implications: Approaching high uncertainty projects in a disciplined manner can be beneficial to an organization, since knowledge that is directly exploitable to improve performance is identified during the exploration process.\nOriginality/value: The paper is original since the authors treat the study of innovation as an independent variable. The authors apply a theory-building approach based on empirical evidence that was collected in a real life setting and not in a business school setup. The findings are novel because the authors examine the potential value of radical innovation processes ex ante realization and decision making. Hence, the authors examine what happens before the archetypical performance measurements of realized innovation projects can be utilized to verdict the success or failure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Characteristics of human perception and their relevance when studying information behavior
|
[
"Human computer interaction",
"Embodiment",
"Information behaviour",
"Perception",
"Human computer confluence",
"Situated cognition"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"Information\" is a phenomenon that is of particular interest to a range of disciplines including computer science, information systems, and library and information science (LIS). Depending on the context, the term information can refer to physical matters that can be measured (see, e.g. Shannon, 1948) or largely cognitive phenomena that would be extremely hard if not impossible to measure. In the context of this paper, information is seen as a matter of perception that requires a human subject for the information to be perceived. From this point of view, more or less anything can be used to generate information: \"[...] we are unable to say confidently of anything that it could not be information\" (Buckland, 1991, p. 50).\n2. Perception: what we see, what we think we see, and what we do not see: This paper explores some of the implications of the specific characteristics of the human body and the cognitive and perceptual systems that co-evolved with it to the extent that they are relevant for human information behaviour and the scientific study thereof. In this section we discuss those characteristics and potential impacts of those characteristics on what we \"see\". Implications for research in information behaviour research will be discussed in subsequent sections.\n3. Human information behaviour: Human information behaviour is a research area of particular interest to scholars and practitioners in LIS. Traditionally, the focus of information behaviour research is on \"how people need, seek, manage, give and use information in different contexts\" (Savolainen, 2007, p. 112) but also includes speciality domains such as serendipitous information discovery (see, e.g. Rubin et al., 2011).\n4. Is information overload a problem?: There is an argument put forward in particular by technologists that new media including the internet cause \"information overload\" and that new technologies are needed to cope with this information overload (e.g. Maes, 1994). Case (2012) defines information overload as \"a state in which too much information leads to a generalized state of anxiety ands/or confusion, or an inability to make a decison regarding a specific problem\". A different view, grounded in the physiology of perception, is to argue that humans are subject to continuous \"overload\", and always have been, simply because they are situated in a constantly changing, intrinsically unpredictable and infinitely rich world (Lueg and Pfeifer, 1997). Following that argument, recorded information which is the focus of LIS research (Bates, 1999) merely adds to an already existing phenomenon; see Bawden and Robinson (2009) for a broad discussion of information overload and related issues, including a warning that \"there is some danger that information specialists may promote solutions to problems which are largely recognized only by themselves\" (p. 181) which arguably was the case when computing researchers focused on addressing internet information overload at the expense of other types of information overload.\n5. Discussion and future research: [...] the idea that we miss a substantial amount of the visual world at any given time is startling [...] (Mack, 2003).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight findings regarding human perception in allied disciplines and to argue that information behaviour research needs to find ways to address human characteristics that imply that: first, subjects are likely to fail to recognize information that is present in an environment and potentially relevant to a task at hand; and second, subjects would not be able to report on the fact that they failed to recognize the information. The authors also discuss as to how information behaviour research can address the aforementioned challenges resulting from human movement and perception.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author draws on the literature primarily in cognitive science and psychology to highlight the findings that are most relevant to the scientific study of information behaviour, to develop a model of the information environment in which information behaviour is situated, and to critically examine how data is collected in information behaviour research. Ways to provide more comprehensive information about information behaviour are also discussed.\nFindings: The literature in cognitive science and psychology suggests that failing to notice information relevant to a task at hand may not be the exception but to be expected, and needs to be taken into account by information behaviour researchers. Popular data collection methods including questionnaires and interviews do not pick that up because subjects would not be aware of the fact which means in turn that they cannot articulate the fact either. This suggests that: first, current models of information behaviour focus too much on one side of the coin; and second, information behaviour researchers may need to complement their data collection methods with data collection methods such as gaze tracking.\nResearch limitations/implications: This is a conceptual paper based on the careful analysis of relevant research primarily in cognitive science and psychology. Relating theory to practice provides a strong indication of the general validity of the findings but there may be other aspects that have not been covered as yet.\nOriginality/value: The paper is unique in that it critically reviews information behaviour research from a human perception and movement point of view. There have been papers criticizing information behaviour research from a methodological point of view. This paper adds to that body of work and proposes a way forward.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An evaluation of enhancing social tagging with a knowledge organization system
|
[
"Social groups",
"Tagging",
"Knowledge management",
"Controlled languages"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge organization systems have been used as tools for information discovery and retrieval in libraries and abstracting and indexing services, some for more than a century. Their benefits for improved information retrieval in the digital environment have been well acknowledged and recognized. They have devices to reduce the ambiguity of natural language when describing and retrieving items, and to allow access via browsing and navigation. However, there are costs associated with the use of knowledge organization systems - manual indexing or classification are a significant resource, especially when performed by trained indexers.Social tagging, as supported within community-based tools such as Flickr (2008) and Del.icio.us (2008) currently attracts much attention and are seen as a key feature of Web 2.0 services. They hold the promise of reducing indexing costs by drawing end-users into contributing, adding value as part of their interaction with information services. However, social tagging is tailored to making it easy for end-users to describe information items and to have access to other users' descriptions rather than information discovery and retrieval. The resulting collections of tags (\"folksonomies\") are completely uncontrolled, lacking even basic control of word forms such as spelling variants, synonyms and disambiguation of homonyms (Spiteri, 2007; Guy and Tonkin, 2006). Many users use tags only to characterise their own documents, and not to help the community (Tonkin et al., 2008). On the other hand, user assigned tags could cover aspects that are not available in a knowledge organization system, especially when it comes to new concepts; as such, they could help update the knowledge organization system.The EnTag[1] project explored the combination and comparison of controlled and folksonomy approaches to semantic interoperability in the context of repositories and digital collections. The aim is to evaluate the effect on both indexing and retrieval when using only social tagging versus using social tagging in combination with a knowledge organization system. In this project, we describe the aims and methodology of the project, the results of one of the case studies in detail, and discuss the general conclusions of the project arising from both studies.\n2. Related work: The need for knowledge organization systems in relation to folksonomies has been reported in the literature. Weller (2007) compares ontologies and folksonomies, suggesting that they are not to be seen as rivals but complement each other. Noruzi (2007) provides seven arguments for why a folksonomy-based system should use a thesaurus, emphasizing that there is no way to maintain consistency over time or across folksonomy users without a thesaurus. Connotea (2008), a service for organizing references, has recently developed an add-on tool that allows taggers to select terms from a knowledge organization system (Entity Describer, 2007).Smith (2007) explores the connection between folksonomies and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and describes advantages and disadvantages of each. She suggests that their product (called LibraryThing for Libraries) may \"provide a compromise between the constraints of controlled vocabulary and the relative wilderness of the folksonomy\". Hayman (2007) argues for combining the better of the two worlds and describes its application on the Australian collection of education resources (www.education.au). In their collection, knowledge organization systems are used for metadata creation and searching, and in order to keep pace with user needs, folksonomies are being explored. Users can tag resources by choosing from an established taxonomy or by entering their own terms. Users' own terms will be used later to feed back into the taxonomy to improve its quality. The Library of Congress is collaborating with Flickr, in order to enhance bibliographic records for its images by end-user tags (Raymond, 2008).\n3. Overall approach: The aim of EnTag was to investigate the combination and comparison of controlled and folksonomy approaches to semantic interoperability in the context of repositories and digital collections, and had the specific objectives to:* investigate indexing aspects when using only social tagging versus when using social tagging in combination with a controlled vocabulary;* investigate the above in two different contexts: tagging by readers and tagging by authors; and* investigate the influence of only social tagging versus social tagging with a controlled vocabulary on retrieval.Thus the main focus of investigation was into the effectiveness of an enhanced tagging system. The enhanced system, with the capability of offering suggestions via a knowledge organization system, was compared against free social tagging. Two different contexts were explored: tagging by readers and tagging by authors. For each of these a separate demonstrator was developed, one operating on data extracted from Intute (2009), and the other operating over Science and Technology Facilities Council's repository (STFC ePublication Archive, 2008) in which tagging can be conducted by authors submitting papers to the repository. A user study was conducted for each demonstrator, which allowed a general comparison of a repository versus digital collection context, a different knowledge organization system, interface, and user community. In the EnTag Intute demonstrator, the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) forms the knowledge organization system, and ACM Computing Classification Scheme (1998) was used in the STFC study.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Intute demonstrator study\n5. Implementation: For each part of the project, separate demonstrators were implemented.5.1 Intute demonstrator\n6. Results: Details of the results of the Intute demonstrator are presented in Golub et al. (2009). In this paper, we present the detailed results of the STFC case study.We present an analysis of the statistics gathered in the STFC trial. As we have only ten participants, we can identify those individually using letters. All the STFC participants were male, and had significant experience in IT, with half with over 20 years' experience, only two having less than ten years, and one having over 30. Three were not native English speakers but were fluent in speaking, reading and writing English. All participants had published at least ten items each, with a minimum of 11 and a maximum of 117. None of the participants identified themselves as frequent taggers, although one did use controlled vocabulary as part of his role. Only two participants had any knowledge of the ACM thesaurus before the tests, though several others were aware that it existed.Number of tags\n7. Conclusions: 7.1 Conclusions on the STFC demonstrator\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Traditional subject indexing and classification are considered infeasible in many digital collections. This paper seeks to investigate ways of enhancing social tagging via knowledge organization systems, with a view to improving the quality of tags for increased information discovery and retrieval performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Enhanced tagging interfaces were developed for exemplar online repositories, and trials were undertaken with author and reader groups to evaluate the effectiveness of tagging augmented with control vocabulary for subject indexing of papers in online repositories.\nFindings: - The results showed that using a knowledge organisation system to augment tagging does appear to increase the effectiveness of non-specialist users (that is, without information science training) in subject indexing.\nResearch limitations/implications: - While limited by the size and scope of the trials undertaken, these results do point to the usefulness of a mixed approach in supporting the subject indexing of online resources.\nOriginality/value: - The value of this work is as a guide to future developments in the practical support for resource indexing in online repositories.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Overcoming the specific performance measurement challenges of knowledge-intensive organizations
|
[
"Case studies",
"Knowledge‐intensive organization",
"Performance measurement",
"Performance",
"Knowledge organizations",
"Service management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper studies performance measurement of knowledge-intensive organizations whose success relies strongly on the efforts of knowledge workers (Alvesson, 1993; Blackler, 1995; Miles, 2005). Therefore, it is important to understand the special characteristics of knowledge work. Davenport (2008) defines knowledge worker as follows: \"they have high degrees of expertise, education or experience and the primary purpose of their jobs involves the creation, distribution or application of knowledge\". Already Drucker's (1999) renowned book highlighted the improvement of knowledge work performance as a key challenge of modern economy, but the issue still remains as a highly challenging area of research.Much of the earlier research has concentrated on the nature of knowledge work and the means to improve its performance (Davenport, 2008; Miller, 1977). Yet, there are surprisingly few studies on knowledge work performance measurement (Ramirez and Nembhard, 2004; Takala et al., 2006; Thomas and Baron, 1994). Despite the fact that many knowledge-intensive organizations are fairly small, performance measurement can support their management, especially in facilitating employees rather than in formal control (Amir et al., 2010; Groen et al., 2012). However, the functionality and impacts of measurement are rarely discussed in the literature (Ittner, 2008). This paper aims to bridge this research gap by evaluating the applicability of the chosen measurement approaches.Measurement of knowledge work performance is challenging due to many intangible performance drivers (e.g. employee competencies and working atmosphere; Amabile, 1998; Davenport, 2008; Drucker, 1999), the intensive interaction between knowledge worker and customer (Gronroos and Ojasalo, 2004; Johnston and Jones, 2004) and the complex and intangible nature of service outputs (Lettice et al., 2006; Sherwood, 1994). More specific measurement challenges relate to the measurement of service impacts and customer value (Davern and Kauffman, 2000; Kujansivu and Lonnqvist, 2009). These observations lead to a proposition that there are at least two specific aspects that have to be taken into account in measurement and management of knowledge-intensive organizations: the performance and well-being of individual knowledge workers and the ability to provide value for the customer. This paper focusses on the measurement of these drivers of organizational performance.This paper is structured as follows. The first part of the literature review justifies the perspectives used in examining performance of knowledge-intensive organizations. Second part reviews the current scholarly understanding on different measurement tools relevant for the chosen aspects. In addition to performance measurement literature, service management and human resources management (HRM) literature are reviewed. The empirical part begins with the identification of practical needs for measurement in three case contexts. Three potential measurement approaches presented in the literature are chosen and applied in practice in order to evaluate their suitability in capturing the performance of knowledge-intensive organizations.\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Two perspectives of performance in knowledge-intensive organizations\n3. Empirical examination: 3.1 Research contexts and methods used\n4. Conclusions: There is still a lack of empirical research on the topic of measuring performance in knowledge-intensive organizations. Based on the empirical observations and indication of the prior literature, it can be noted that, as such, the traditional balanced performance measurement approach does not substantially differ in knowledge-intensive organizations. Many performance aspects can be captured with the similar measurement practices as in any organization. Therefore, a more focussed research approach is needed. Two distinctive perspectives (knowledge worker and customer) were proposed to be emphasized in the context. These were also demonstrated by the case analysis. The study also evaluated potential ways of overcoming the known measurement challenges related to these two perspectives. The study accompanied the previously presented search for the linkage of operative HRM practices (e.g. performance appraisals addressed to individual knowledge workers) and the discussion of strategic performance measurement (Toulson and Dewe, 2004). This is a specifically important task in knowledge-intensive \"people\" organizations.This study also demonstrated the need to apply the ideas of service management in improving performance measurement in knowledge-intensive organizations. Customer-oriented performance measurement is a topic that has yet received surprisingly little attention (Tucker and Pitt, 2009). Two of the practical measurement solutions examined in this study were linked to the interaction between customer and service provider. According to service management literature, the content of service varies depending on a customer. This means that also service performance is a very customer-specific phenomenon, which calls for more rigorous models for measuring the components of service outcomes (Rhee and Rha, 2009). Customer-oriented performance measurement is easily linked to customer satisfaction surveys, even though it should be considered as a broader approach of developing measurement. For example, a customer can take a role in setting the measurement criteria of service outcomes. For this purpose, customer-target-oriented measurement appears as a potential way to measure customer value in a tailored manner.Finally, the context-specific nature of service provision necessitates further development and application of the contingency-based approach of performance measurement and management control (Auzair and Langfield-Smith, 2005). On the other hand, the application of measurement always requires tailoring to a specific context since also knowledge-intensive organizations form an incoherent group with varying characteristics. For example, it was found out in this study that the customer-target-oriented measurement requires long-term customer relationships, which restricts its applicability in every knowledge-intensive organization. In addition, the studied output measurement methods are more suitable in the public sector since output measurement is not a similar problem in companies. There is still a continuous search for more generalizable measurement approaches in coherent empirical contexts. This can only be done with even more detailed contextual analysis and practical testing of measurement approaches in different service environments (Amir et al., 2010). This offers plenty of important objects for further research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify practical ways to overcome the specific performance measurement challenges of knowledge-intensive organizations. By reviewing performance measurement, service management and human resources management literature the paper recognizes two aspects that are crucial for the success of knowledge-intensive organizations: the performance and well-being of individual knowledge workers and the ability to provide value for the customer. The authors evaluate three measurement solutions for measuring these aspects, in three empirical settings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Qualitative case approach, carried out as an action research, is used with empirical data obtained through interviews, workshops and analysis of documentation related to measurement systems. The empirical study consists of three case studies where two main phases were carried out: investigating the status of existing measurement practices; and development and evaluation of new measurement approaches and tools.\nFindings: - The results of the evaluation of proposed measurement approaches provide understanding of their potential in different workplaces. Eventually, this potentially supports the managers of knowledge-intensive organizations in developing not only the measurement practices but also the overall performance of their organizations.\nOriginality/value: - As the key academic contribution, the study provides new understanding on the potential of selected measurement approaches in overcoming the specific performance measurement challenges in knowledge-intensive organizations. The results take into account the perspectives of an individual knowledge worker, a customer and an organization as a whole. In many previous studies, the main focus has been solely on the organizational perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Experience and coping of employment risks in Hong Kong
|
[
"Employment",
"Globalisation",
"Hong Kong"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Employment risks like redundancy, job loss, wage and job benefits reduction, shortening of job contract duration, increase in workload, prolonged working hours, unstable income and frequent changes of worksites can cause immediate economic hardships and psychological distress. These risks are said to have become more common as economic globalisation leads to intensified market competition and employers adopt flexible staffing measures so as to respond swiftly to ever-changing business conditions (Blossfeld et al., 2006). To the extent that particular social groups are unable to avoid or cope with these experiences and repeatedly encounter them, the result may well be persistent income inequalities. Theories and many studies about employment are, therefore, concerned with two important issues of employment risks: first, their distribution and second, the ways which different social groups cope with them. The risk society approach has affected a lot of discussion and empirical studies about macro social changes and different types of risks in modern societies. With reference to employment risks, proponents of the approach make two claims. The first claim is the equalisation of employment risks: as modern societies undergo rapid economic changes, employment risks are universalised and affect equally most people at some points in their lives (Beck, 1992, 2000; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002). Second, the coping of employment risks has become individualised: individuals, regardless of their socio-economic positions, are now more conscious of the need to proactively adopt different strategies and plan ahead so as to hedge oneself against potential employment risks. The approach calls this the individualisation process. Existing empirical studies which assess the equalisation and individualisation claims are primarily about Anglo-Saxon societies; advanced Asian societies have generally been neglected. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper aims at using the case of Hong Kong to assess the two claims. The rest of the paper is organised in the following ways: in the next section, we will discuss previous studies, followed by a brief review of the welfare provision and labour market regulation in Hong Kong. We then describe our research method and then discuss the data analysis results. The discussion and conclusion section will elaborate the theoretical and policy implications of our study.\nPrevious studies: The equalisation claim alleges that employment risks are no longer confined to less educated employees and those who are in lower occupations only. Professionals, managers and the more educated employees who used to enjoy secure and stable employment are also vulnerable to employment risks. Many studies have found that the distribution of employment risks is far from even between different socio-economic groups. These studies note that among many factors, occupation, work experience and education level are particularly significant. Higher occupational and education level and greater work experience help to buffer individuals against employment risks (Burchell et al., 2002; Green, 2003; Maurin and Postel-Vinay, 2005; Cebulla, 2007; Taylor-Gooby and Zinn, 2005; DiPrete, 1993). Work experience not only enables an individual to develop generic or occupational or firm specific skills and knowledge. It also allows him or her to accumulate job and other work-related information, for example, sector-specific business conditions, management style, culture of firms, terms and conditions of employment in specific industrial or occupational sectors. Education has been noted to facilitate upward job mobility and help to avoid employment risks (Muffels and Luijkx, 2006). Education also assists smoother re-entry into the labour market after unemployment. These studies show that contrary to the equalisation thesis, employment risks are still unevenly distributed.\nWelfare provision and labour market regulations in Hong Kong: Welfare provision\nMethod and data: We draw on two types of data to address our two research questions. The first type is official data from the quarterly General Household Survey (GHS) conducted by the Hong Kong Government. The survey is the only longest running survey with a territory-wide sample that allows us to examine the trend of unemployment incident rates. It adopts the International Labour Organisation criteria in defining unemployment. We make use of the data from the second quarter of GHS from the year 1993 to 2008 during which Hong Kong changed from a manufacturing economy to a finance and service economy under the advent of economic globalisation. Because of access limitations imposed by the government department which hold the GHS data, we could not extend our coverage to the 2009 to 2014 data. The second quarter was chosen so as to avoid seasonal factors of unemployment (e.g. job search of school-leavers in Summer). Basic socio-demographic characteristics (age, education level, gender) and the economic activity status of the respondent were enumerated. For those who are unemployed at the time of the survey, they were asked the occupation of their previous job.\nExperience of employment risks: The risk of unemployment from 1993 to 2008\nThe coping of employment risks: Of the 13 coping methods gauged by our telephone survey, \"make savings\" is the most commonly used method: 64.2 per cent of the respondents sometimes or frequently used this method. This is followed by the method \"reduce consumption\", 51.5 per cent of the respondents have used this method. The least common method was \"join trade union or collective action\": only 5 per cent of all respondents frequently or sometimes adopted this method. Details of the distribution are given in Table AI. The distributions of responses to various coping methods suggest that local employees generally rely on individualistic means rather than collective or institutional ways to cope with the negative economic consequences of employment risks. We used principal component analysis method to explore the latent variables which underlie these 13 methods and to reduce them to fewer variables for more succinct subsequent analysis. Details of the principal component analysis are in Appendix 2. In the final analysis, two components were obtained: the first component consists of the following six methods: \"increase investment\", \"reduce investment\", \"make savings\", \"buy insurance\", \"further studies or training\", and \"discuss with boss\"; the second component is made up of \"change job\", \"change industrial or occupational sector\", \"take up more part-time job\", \"set up own business\", and \"increase working hours\". The methods \"reduce consumption\" and \"join trade union or collective action\" have very low factor loadings onto either one of the two derived components. In the ensuing discussion, we separately analyse these two methods and the two components.\nDiscussion and conclusion: Based on the analyses of two types of survey data, this paper examines the experience and coping of employment risks in Hong Kong so as to extend the empirical assessment of the risk society approach beyond the Anglo-Saxon context to mature Asian economies. The findings show that contrary to the approach's equalisation thesis, experiences of employment risks have continued to concentrate in disadvantaged socio-demographic and occupational groups: occupational and education difference still matter. The results for work experience are explicable by the relatively free labour market and the general absence of internal labour markets and institutional regulations of employment relations in private firms in Hong Kong. Laying off longer serving employees who have higher pay than novices enables management to make savings on the wages and other job benefits of these employees without incurring much costs.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use the case of Hong Kong to assess the equalisation and individualization claim of the risk society approach to studying experience and coping of employment risks.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two types of survey data are used: quarterly official surveys from the year of 1993 to 2008 and a cross-sectional territory-wide representative telephone survey conducted in 2009.\nFindings: The findings show that contrary to the equalisation claim, experiences of employment risks have continued to concentrate on disadvantaged groups: unskilled manual workers and those with education levels below lower secondary school had continuously fared worse than professionals, managers and university degree holders. These disadvantaged groups were also not particularly proactive in adopting either capital-based or work-related coping methods when they encountered unemployment.\nResearch limitations/implications: The lack of trend data to examine the use of different coping means is one of the main drawbacks of the current study. The study carries important theoretical implications.\nPractical implications: Policy implications for the government to provide more comprehensive and proactive employment-related support measures and further expansion of university education.\nOriginality/value: This paper examines the case of Hong Kong so as to extend the empirical assessment of the risk society approach beyond the Anglo-Saxon context to mature Asian economies. The study further shows that we need to go beyond the secular trend globalisation which the risk society theory emphasises. Historical factors and business-government-labour power relations are critical factors that shape the policies and institutions of labour market regulations and welfare provision in the local context\n",
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Post-occupancy evaluation of the thermal environment in a green building
|
[
"Green building",
"Thermal environment",
"Post‐occupancy study",
"Operations",
"Sustainable development",
"Buildings",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Buildings are one of the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change. Building heating and cooling are the most energy-intensive activities. The thermal environment is also one of the key factors affecting users' work performance. Maintaining an acceptable level of thermal environment should be addressed in sustainable designs and operations. In today's green building rating systems that aim to mitigate building-related carbon emissions as well as provide occupants with comfortable indoor environments (USGBC, 2009a, b), thermal environment requirements mainly refer to engineering-based comfort standards (Figure 1), such as American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy (55), International Standards Organization (ISO) Ergonomics of the Thermal Environment (7730) and Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Environmental Design (Guide A). In the USA Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, the ASHRAE comfort zones for mechanically conditioned and naturally conditioned spaces are used as the criteria for green buildings (USGBC, 2009b). The Japanese CASBEE (comprehensive assessment system for building environmental efficiency) system also recommends the ASHRAE comfort zones as a design tool for green buildings (Institute for Building Environment and Energy Conservation, 2008). The ASHRAE comfort zones for naturally ventilated spaces have also been adopted in the Australian Green Star system; for air-conditioned spaces, however, the Green Star system recommends ISO 7730: 2005 for defining the optimal predicted mean vote (PMV) (Green Building Council Australia, 2008). The UK BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) system requires that building designs and service strategies deliver thermal comfort levels in accordance with the criteria in CIBSE Guide A: Environmental Design (Building Research Establishment, 2008). These standards are based on numerous laboratory and field-based studies that have contributed to a scientific understanding of human physiological comfort. In addition to the engineering standards, these green building rating systems recommend the provision of high levels of thermal comfort through systems controlled by occupants to promote productivity, comfort and well-being.Although these standards are supported by numerous scientific lab and field studies, the design practice is quite debatable. Cole summarized the approach to comfort provisioning in building design practice (Cole, 2008). The comfort standards serve as a guide for design consultants, and later as a reference for regulatory authorities to assess whether \"acceptable\" conditions have been provided within the workplace. As indicated in Figure 2, the process is a linear one, with the occupant's physiological comfort being seen as the result of a series of design decisions. There is little opportunity for feedback from the occupant regarding those design decisions, and still less the comfort standards. Behavioral aspects of comfort are largely ignored (Brager and De Dear, 1998). The result is a unidirectional design process where the building occupants are the passive recipients of the outcomes of such research and practice.There should be a question mark on whether these design standards can deliver a green (energy efficient and comfortable) environment as expected. The pointed question could be answered by post-occupancy evaluation (POE) that examine the built environment simultaneously in both dimensions, balancing energy consumption and occupants' demands for physical, physiological and psychological needs (Meir et al., 2009). POE serves as a way of providing subjective and objective feedback that can inform planning and practice throughout the building's life cycle from the initial design to occupation. This research conducted a POE survey in a green building to offer insights into how the thermal environment actually is perceived and shaped.\n2. Literature review: The question of what constitutes a \"comfortable\" thermal environment has intrigued a large number of different studies carried out over recent decades focusing on various aspects of the broad field of comfort, well-being and health at workplaces. Two main methodical approaches can be identified analysing the comfort research: lab study of thermal comfort, field study of thermal comfort and post-occupancy evaluation (Nicol and Roaf, 2005; Humphreys, 1994).In the lab/field study of thermal comfort, the question of comfort has always been approached by tests with people in order to include subjective votes and correlate them with measured climate parameters (Fanger, 1970). Based on the lab study of thermal comfort, comfort indices such as predicted mean vote (PMV) that underpin current standards are developed. In the mean time, based on the field studies, thermal adaptation was developed to expand the human comfort concept (Auliciems and Szokolay, 2002). The range of temperatures that building occupants reported as \"comfortable\" was wider in field studies than in controlled conditions in the chamber (Humphreys and Nicol, 2000). The post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of buildings is an increasingly important tool for the improvement of buildings and the evaluation of what makes energy-efficient and sustainable buildings. Over the last 20 years a range of POE methods have been developed and their systematic application has demonstrated a huge potential not only to reduce the financial and environmental costs and impacts of buildings, but also to improve the quality of life, comfort and productivity of building occupants (Preiser, 2001).Nicol and Roaf (2005) compare the three major methodologies. The laboratory study of thermal comfort has the advantage of experimental control and has been used to clarify the relationships between the different components (temperature, humidity, air movement, clothing insulation and metabolic heat) in the overall thermal balance of the human body. The field study of thermal comfort use the same way, but the subjects are in their own familiar environment and dressed to suit their preferences or circumstances. Both the field study of thermal comfort and post-occupancy evaluation happen in the real built environment. The difference is: instead of measure climate parameters, POEs use occupant as a sensing device. In the POE, the occupant provides a subjective measure of a building and acts effectively as its \"memory\" (so that questions are in a form such as \"how often is the building hot in summer?\"). In the field study of thermal comfort, the occupant reports on his or her own feelings at the time of the survey (\"I feel hot now\"). POEs think that she works in the same environment everyday of her life and is acutely aware of the ways in which the workspace environment affects her performance. This obvious information is waiting to be gathered and used to improve her work environment, to improve her functional comfort, to improve productivity, and to make the physical environment into her tool for work.POE is thought as a more appropriate approach to verify the green intent in green buildings in-use. In the USA, the Center for the Built Environment at UC Berkeley compared the results of surveys of LEED-rated buildings with the results of non-certified buildings (Huizenga et al., 2006; Abbazadeh et al., 2006). In the UK, Adrian Leman compared conventional buildings to buildings with \"green intent\", as certified by BREEAM (Leaman and Bordass, 2007; Leaman and Bordass, 2006). The two systematic studies show that, as a group, green buildings score better. However, some bad examples are also green buildings. Other post-occupancy studies on energy performance in LEED-certified buildings have invariably shown some green buildings performed better than predicted, while others performed worse (Diamond et al., 2006; Turner, 2006; Turner and Frankel, 2008). These studies suggest that deviations from predicted performances were often due to higher than expected occupant loads and the inability of systems to perform together as intended. Further, hours of operation and building space temperatures varied from the initial designs. The two performance gaps related to satisfaction and energy are arguably closely interrelated because occupant comfort and behavior can significantly impact a building's energy and environmental performance (Brown, 2009). However, as the POE survey puts less emphasis on measuring the physical characteristics of the environment (temperature, noise, light, etc.), the results of a POE survey cannot be interpreted (Nicol and Roaf, 2005). Field measurements should be conducted to complement the POE and be used to interpretation of a POE. The article presents a post-occupancy survey in a highly ranked green building in China aiming to answer three questions: How do users perceive and behave in green buildings? Why does a building fail or succeed in satisfying occupants? How is the thermal environment shaped by user behavior?\n3. The building under study: In 2007, the Green Building Label (GBL) was introduced as a national sustainable building assessment system in China. The GBL uses a checklist to score three classes in each of six categories: land saving and outdoor environment, energy saving and utilization, water saving and utilization, material saving and utilization, indoor environmental quality, and operation and management. The highest attainable level is the Three Star Label. Quantitative criteria have not been developed to assess thermal comfort in naturally ventilated conditions. For mechanically ventilated conditions, the Chinese National Standard GB50189-2005, \"Design standard for energy efficiency of public buildings\", is used, and two indoor temperatures, 20degC and 25degC for heating and cooling seasons, respectively, are defined (China Architecture and Building Press, 2005).In this study, we analyzed the headquarters of the Shenzhen Institute of Building Research (Plates 1 and 2), which was built in 2008 and awarded the GBL's Three Star Label. The building extensively uses green features and technologies, such as solar energy generation, natural ventilation, evaporative cooling, gray water recycling, and efficient water cooling systems, and serves as a showcase for green design in China. The 18,000-square-meter office building is located in the north of Shenzhen (E114deg33', N22deg34'). Given the hot summer and warm winter conditions, this building adopts a mixed-mode ventilation system. Mixed-mode refers to a hybrid approach to space conditioning that uses a combination of natural ventilation from operable windows, and mechanical systems that include air distribution equipment and refrigeration equipment for cooling (Brager, 2006). It then integrates the use of air-conditioning when and where it is necessary, with the use of natural ventilation whenever it is feasible or desirable, to maximize comfort while avoiding the significant energy use and operating costs of year-round air conditioning.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 Occupant survey\n5. Analysis: 5.1 Occupant satisfaction\n6. Discussion: This article presents subjective and objective evaluations of the thermal environment in a high-level green office building in China. These two studies were combined to answer the following three questions.1. How do users perceive and behave in green buildings? The occupant survey conveyed satisfaction with the building's indoor temperature. The thermal environment satisfied the majority of respondents. However, 12 percent and 20 percent reported dissatisfaction with summer and winter temperatures, respectively.2. Why does a building fail or succeed in satisfying occupants? Physical measurement revealed the potential shortcomings of sustainable building design in humid subtropical climates, where natural ventilation and passive cooling designs dominate and cold air in winter is often neglected. The perception of cold in the summer and the contrasting temperatures measured at various workstations on the 10/F indicated another source of discomfort due to poor cooling outlet designs.3. How is the thermal environment shaped by user behavior? Objective measurements showed that the building's indoor temperature varied among floors in both the summer and winter. The variation was mainly a result of occupancy conditions. When the building was air-conditioned during the summer, the indoor temperature of certain sparsely occupied floors (4/F, 7/F and 9/F) complied with the requirements of the China GBL (25degC for cooling seasons). However, given the dense occupancy conditions and air outlet designs on the 8/F and 10/F, the thermal environment was more complicated and did not satisfy requirements. This result agrees with published findings (Diamond et al., 2006; Turner, 2006; Turner and Frankel, 2008) and indicates that occupancy load and conditions are important factors that likely contribute to the performance gap. Variations in the thermal environment revealed that the building's users have good energy conservation habits. For example, when office workers gathered for a weekly meeting, the mechanical cooling system for the main office area was shut down to conserve energy.\n7. Implications: Based on the POE study on the building, following two actions could be made to improve its performance. First, the potential sources of discomfort include low temperatures near air outlets in the summer and excessive cold in the winter. Facilities managers should provide strategies to avoid locally over cooling in summer by relocating the workstations or redirecting the cold air; while in winter, temporal heaters or portable heaters should be provided during severely cold days. Second, the findings suggest that a general criterion for temperature is not an effective design guide for this building's operations. The building's facilities managers were interviewed at this point. Their daily operations were stringently according to the green building regulations (25degC for cooling). However, they never expected the two discomfort sources identified above. The survey results were useful for them to adjust their daily operations. They were suggested to do regular surveys to fine-tune their operations for optimal building performance. In the meantime, the facilities managers should keep the energy conservation habit to operate the building system according to occupancy conditions.There were three main limitations in this study. First, the number of sensors or meters for simultaneously measuring various workstations in different locations and during different seasons was limited. Second, the subjective evaluation was based on international benchmarks from several countries because local benchmarking for buildings in China is limited.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - A green building should provide occupants with a comfortable and energy-efficient environment. The aim of this paper is, following a post-occupancy study, to find out whether the green intent is being delivered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A post-occupancy study was conducted in a high standard office building certified by China's Green Building Label. The study included an occupant survey and a physical measurement.\nFindings: - The building generally achieved its intended thermal environment of 25degC during cooling seasons and satisfied more than 80 per cent of occupants. Sources of discomfort, including low temperatures in both the summer and winter were identified. Objective measurements showed that the building's indoor temperature varied among floors in both the summer and winter. The variation was mainly a result of occupancy conditions. Variations in the thermal environment also revealed that the building's users have good energy conservation habits.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Post-occupancy evaluations should be included in the green building certification process to demonstrate a building's sustainability after construction and operation. Facilities management should take the responsibility to periodically examine the green intent being delivered.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides empirical data to expand the international post-occupancy evaluation on green buildings. The building under study as a green design showcase represents current green building development in China.\n",
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Mitigating cyber attacks through the measurement of non-IT professionals' cybersecurity skills
|
[
"Cyber threat mitigation",
"Cybersecurity assessment of non-IT professionals",
"Cybersecurity skills index"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The threat to organizational information systems (IS) due to vulnerabilities and breaches caused by employees continue to result in substantial financial and information losses (Carlton et al., 2016; Hovav and Gray, 2014). About 72-95 per cent of cyber threats to organizations are due to users' mistakes due to poor cybersecurity skills. Embedded security features of the information technology (IT) products and services are relied upon to protect organizations and individuals (Peha, 2013). However, the weakest link is viewed as the strongest protection of IS. Individuals are usually seen as the weakest link in an organization's IS security chain (Mitnick and Simon, 2002; D'Arcy et al., 2009; Whitman and Mattord, 2018). Even with sophisticated intrusion detection systems, organizations are still at risk of cyber attacks. Human errors and social engineering (phishing attacks, drive-by-downloads, etc). appear to prevail in circumventing such IT protections (Siponen and Vance, 2010). Even with the best intentions, an employee may work in an insecure manner or under stress and cause a threat either because of poor security tool usability, lack or skills or human error (PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 2013; Sasse et al., 2016; Sombatruang et al., 2016). Because cyber attacks have intensified over time, organizations are increasing the priority of cybersecurity awareness program but must include also training and education to enhance their employees' cybersecurity skills (Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), 2016; PwC, 2016; Whitman and Mattord, 2018).\n2. Literature review: To ensure breadth, depth, rigor, consistency, clarity, brevity and effective analysis and synthesis, an extensive search of the literature domain was conducted using interdisciplinary fields including aviation, computer security, IS, medical and transportation (Levy and Ellis, 2006; Silber-Varod et al., 2016). The theoretical foundation for the cybersecurity skills index (CSI) used in this study emerged from existing knowledge discovered during the literature review. This theoretical foundation served as the starting point for the design, development and empirical testing of the CSI. Information concerning cybersecurity skills shortages, risk mitigation and tools were also outputs from the literature review; as were the information needed to operationalize the CSI and to design and develop the scenarios and hands-on tasks on which the CSI is based.\n3. Methodology: Classified as a developmental research, this study tried to answer the question of how an artifact could be constructed to address a problem (Ellis and Levy, 2009). Richey and Klein (2014, p. 1) defined developmental research as a way to \"create knowledge grounded in data systematically derived from practice\". Developmental research is comprised of three major elements:\n4. Findings: The results of this study were gathered in three phases. Phase 1 used the Delphi technique as a way of consensus-building with a number of SMEs from industry, the Florida chapter of the FBI/InfraGard, the US Secret Services' (USSS) Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) team and other federal agencies. A review of literature involving current cyber attacks (MacMillan and Yadron, 2014; Yadron et al., 2014) identified the initial 12 cybersecurity threats and corresponding skills. These were then presented to the SMEs. After round one, the 12 threats were reduced to 10. At the end of Round 2, cybersecurity threat and corresponding skill number 10 was identified as an outlier and the SMEs highly recommended removing it from the list. Thus, a consensus of SMEs opinion identified the top nine cybersecurity skills needed for non-IT professionals to mitigate the respective top nine cybersecurity threats. The top nine platform independent cybersecurity skills, their respective category, SME rankings, number of SME responses, ranked weighted total, ranked average, and skill importance weight are presented in Table I. Weighted totals were based on the number of SME responses multiplied by the score for each assigned ranking. This was then divided by the total number of SME responses to determine the final rank of one through nine. Each skill importance weight was based on the individual skill weighted average divided by the total weighted average.\n5. Conclusion: This study utilized scenarios with observable hands-on tasks to measure cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. The results of this study provide information security researchers and practitioners insight into the cybersecurity skills level of non-IT professionals, while also outlining a developmental research in the context of cybersecurity. Additionally, the results of this study promise to influence industry practices in mitigating the vulnerabilities and threats associated with cyber attacks that are due to limited cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. Moreover, this study is significant as it has several key implications for the provision of insight to researchers and practitioners into the cybersecurity skills level of non-IT professionals. Moreover, this study is novel as it has moved away from the prior survey instruments measures and into an actual scenario-based demonstration of skills. This research has demonstrated the need to ensure that non-IT professionals are provided with the opportunity to develop their appropriate cybersecurity skills; and the value of having a tool to assess the level of the skills that people possessed. Once the level of skill is measured, organizations or decision makers may focus their training on those skills where an individual scores demonstrated lowest or provide it to department of an organization that overall demonstrated lowest scores across all departments.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Users' mistakes due to poor cybersecurity skills result in up to 95 per cent of cyber threats to organizations. Threats to organizational information systems continue to result in substantial financial and intellectual property losses. This paper aims to design, develop and empirically test a set of scenarios-based hands-on tasks to measure the cybersecurity skills of non-information technology (IT) professionals.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was classified as developmental in nature and used a sequential qualitative and quantitative method to validate the reliability of the Cybersecurity Skills Index (CSI) as a prototype-benchmarking tool. Next, the prototype was used to empirically test the demonstrated observable hands-on skills level of 173 non-IT professionals.\nFindings: The importance of skills and hands-on assessment appears applicable to cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. Therefore, by using an expert-validated set of cybersecurity skills and scenario-driven tasks, this study established and validated a set of hands-on tasks that measure observable cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals without bias or the high-stakes risk to IT.\nResearch limitations/implications: Data collection was limited to the southeastern USA and while the sample size of 173 non-IT professionals is valid, further studies are required to increase validation of the results and generalizability.\nOriginality/value: The validated and reliable CSI operationalized as a tool that measures the cybersecurity skills of non-IT professionals. This benchmarking tool could assist organizations with mitigating threats due to vulnerabilities and breaches caused by employees due to poor cybersecurity skills.\n",
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Healthcare service quality perception in Japan
|
[
"Overall quality judgement",
"Cognitive structure",
"Scatter model",
"Technical features",
"Health care",
"Perception",
"Japan"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interest in healthcare service quality is remarkable. Practitioners and academics are struggling to find healthcare systems that satisfy different stakeholders (patients, providers, practitioners, and insurers). Healthcare organisations are under pressure. Laws emphasising patients' rights to good care interfere with cutting costs and insurance system pressures. Therefore, the emerging question - i.e. how to satisfy patients, provide service quality and maximise profit under limited resources in a competitive environment? - is still waiting to be answered in many countries. Japan is no exception. The pressures from powerful insurance institutions and the politics of minimising costs lead Japanese healthcare services providers to valorise quantity (examined patients) to service quality's detriment. Such situations seem to deeply affect medical practices and perceived quality.In this article, we follow-up a study published in IJHCA Vol. 21 No. 7 (Elleuch, 2008) and explore Japanese patients' healthcare service quality perceptions using a non-linear approach (Otani et al., 2003; Cronin, 2003; Brannick and Brannick, 1989). Using a non-linear model offers the opportunity to point out the most salient service features that affect service quality perceptions. As the Japanese context is relatively scarcely investigated (in contrast with the USA and Europe), our work aims to enrich the current knowledge on healthcare service quality perceptions and to reveal Japanese healthcare practice characteristics. Furthermore, by adopting a quality model that considers both functional and technical features (Kang and James, 2004; Gronroos, 2001) through a non-linear approach, we try to go deeper by investigating patients' reactions and behaviours in order to better assess their needs.\nTheoretical background: Technical and functional quality\nJapanese healthcare: At the macro level, Japan appears to have an excellent healthcare system, as services are mostly available to all people at relatively cheap prices. The Japanese have a long life expectancy (75 years for female and 71 years for males) and low maternal (7.1 per thousand) and infant (three per thousand) mortality rates. However, recently, discussion has arisen about poor micro economic efficiency (Ogata, 2001). Likewise, research conducted in Japan regarding healthcare quality and patient satisfaction revealed many problems that affect the relationship between provider and patient, which may jeopardise patient health (Elleuch, 2008; Yutaka, 2002; Ovretveit, 2001; Kurata et al., 1994). Furthermore, the scarcity of research attests a reluctance to adopt a marketing perspective in Japanese healthcare organisations owing to a tendency to cut costs while maximising profit.The fee payment system and the service price fixed by the government means that most Japanese healthcare settings are offering standard services that lack specialisation and deprive medical institutions of competitive advantages. Additionally, medical and administrative tasks overlap as physicians are managing the setting without having management skill and knowledge (Levin et al., 1987). Medical services are becoming high-volume, where the lack of restrictions on frequency and duration appears to be responsible for the high number of visits and short consultation times. In 1999, a survey conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (1999) showed that 47 per cent of outpatients wait less than 30 minutes in small hospitals, while 30 per cent wait less than 30 minutes in large hospitals. Those waiting more than one hour were 15 per cent in small hospitals and 29 per cent in larger hospitals. Two-thirds experienced a consultation of less than ten minutes in duration, of which 18 per cent were less than three minutes.Quality seems to be sacrificed by Japanese doctors as they pursue quantity to maintain their incomes. Doctors try to see the maximum number of patients without caring about how they see patients or about what they do to patients. Onda et al. (2004) remarked that the ability to communicate with patients and show him/her enough interest, to hear his/her story and complaints is not a skill of Japanese doctors. Nevertheless, communication was found to affect Japanese consumers' evaluation of maternal and child health services (Hisako and Ritsuyo, 2006). Japanese outpatients evaluate pharmacists better than physicians and nurses based on medical consultation experiences and the ability to explain instructions and treatment (Onda et al., 2004). Poor communication between patients, physicians and nurses in Japanese medical settings appears to be a strong barrier to establishing deep and long-lasting relationships with healthcare organisations. Friction between patients and providers is a heavily debated phenomenon after many medical scandals were revealed recently. Medical practices and healthcare systems need revising before they can adapt to Japanese society's needs. Hence, our interest is focused on Japanese medical service consumers and their evaluation of healthcare service delivery. Through this focus, we try to enrich existing knowledge and to detect potential problems that could affect healthcare service experiences before illuminating ways to enhance services.\nMethod: Questionnaire and sample\nResults and discussion: Health services attribute structure\nImplications: Taking into account both medical service technical and functional facets and using the scatter model, we depict patient reaction to healthcare service experience. Our findings contribute to understanding how patients judge healthcare services and decide about re-using and recommending the provider of those services. The scatter model offers the opportunity to detect service features that are more susceptible to the patient's service quality perception. Hence, researchers should be more aware about the ability of non-linear models to better depict judgment and decision processes. Researchers in healthcare service marketing are invited to rely more on such compelling models in order to grasp the patient's reaction and predict his or her future behaviour. Equally, the service's technical facet, as perceived by the patient, should figure among those healthcare service attributes believed to drive quality perception and intentional behaviour. Researchers should invest more time in defining and measuring this dimension. Further, reactions toward attributes should be assessed within the patients' cultural context. The results show how Japanese cultural characteristics and medical practices could provide a better understanding of Japanese patients. Health service researchers ought to use cultural context as a foothold to understand results and predict phenomena (Terpstra et al., 2006; Elleuch, 2008).Our findings indicate that Japanese patients' overall quality judgments and their loyalty follow a linear compensatory process. Perceived overall quality depends on the appraisals of staff behaviour and technical features, while loyalty is affected by technical attributes and patients\" first impression of staff and service setting. Managers who are also physicians in Japanese healthcare settings should pay more attention to the service \"how\" and \"what\" as both influence patient satisfaction and intentional behaviour. Enhancing service features through developing customer orientation among different employees could positively affect patient/provider relationship and then ensure patient loyalty. As the service's technical dimension seems by far to affect patient's overall quality perception, Japanese healthcare providers should focus on that feature. Providers should define patient needs and try to adopt medical practices that enhance functional specialisation rather than under-developed standardisation (Yutaka, 2002). Long waiting times and expensive gifts offered by patients to some doctors reputed to be skilful suggest that a physician's technical ability is important. Physicians ought to develop communication, diagnostic and treatment skills to improve their service quality. Such an evolution could ameliorate technical weaknesses and enhance patient health. Nonetheless, as a rule, Japanese doctors receive training only in their speciality, and then they are often unable to understand exactly the patient's whole health situation. The Japanese healthcare system should encourage a medical education that emphasises clinical training in different medical treatments to incite knowledge diversification. Further, more than routine words and a courteous manner, staff should be able to demonstrate their willingness to help patients, transmit trust and confidence, and perform services quickly. Patients seem tired of long waiting times (88.7 per cent in our study believe they waited too long) and the staff's busyness with routine tasks. Incentives to medical providers should encourage an effective appointment system in order to save patient's time and better organize staff's work.\nConclusion: Relying on a non-linear approach to assess how patients cognitively process healthcare service delivery, we explored a scarcely investigated context, i.e. Japan. Furthermore, our study was designed to investigate a service framework that considers both functional and technical healthcare delivery. Although the results could illuminate our understanding of patients' reaction to the healthcare experience generally and within the Japanese context specifically, this study seems to be limited by the relatively small sample. Because Japanese patients and healthcare settings are reluctant to answer questionnaires and cooperate with such research owing to their unfamiliarity with studies of this nature, researchers should rely on official organisations such as the health ministry to run larger investigations. Generally, our study demonstrates that Japanese healthcare providers ought to take patient needs into account. Providers are encouraged to build long-term relationships with patients if they want to maintain their viability. Evolution at the micro and macro levels seems necessary to avoid an unsolvable \"breakdown\" of Japanese medical services.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to assess Japanese patients' healthcare service quality perceptions and to shed light on the most meaningful service features. It follows-up a study published in IJHCQA Vol. 21 No. 7.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Through a non-linear approach, the study relied on the scatter model to detect healthcare service features' importance in forming overall quality judgment.\nFindings: - Japanese patients perceive healthcare services through a linear compensatory process. Features related to technical quality and staff behavior compensate for each other to decide service quality.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A limitation of the study is the limited sample size. Non-linear approaches could help researchers to better understand patients' healthcare service quality perceptions. The study highlights a need to adopt an evolution that enhances technical quality and medical practices in Japanese healthcare settings.\nOriginality/value: - The study relies on a non-linear approach to assess patient overall quality perceptions in order to enrich knowledge. Furthermore, the research is conducted in Japan where healthcare marketing studies are scarce owing to cultural and language barriers. Japanese culture and healthcare system characteristics are used to explain and interpret the results.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Leadership deficiencies in rapidly changing organizations: multisource feedback as a needs assessment tool - Part I
|
[
"Leadership",
"Rapidly changing organizations",
"Multisource feedback",
"Needs assessment",
"Organizations",
"Feedback"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: When a leader is in the middle of a big change you can get hurt a couple of different ways [...] You can find yourself lacking some of the needed skills brought on by changing environment and you can also find yourself being so busy that you either fail to reflect on where you are at or you just don't get the feedback you need to make needed adjustments. In either case, a rapidly changing organization landscape can create real problems for a leader (a senior leader's observation, Fortune 1000 service organization).\nResearch methodology: To better understand leadership performance deficiencies and competency gaps among business leaders in rapidly changing organizational environments, 153 middle and front-line managers from a cross-section of over 50 different US manufacturing and service organizations, participated in a MSF exercise. This exercise was part of a formal leadership and career development program that they attended to help them more effectively deal with major changes currently taking place in their organizations. MSF programs are defined as having at least two independent feedback sources, such as supervisors, subordinates, peers and/or people outside the organization (Lepsinger and Lucia, 1997). At the time of this study, all of the participants were operating in organizations that were described by their superiors as \"experiencing large-scale organizational change\" which was a primary reason for their participation in this development initiative. Large-scale organizational change could be operationalized as: restructuring, downsizing, significant cost reduction and revenue enhancement initiatives, strategic realignment and mergers, the implementation of continuous improvement models, and technology infusions, among others. The participants averaged 44 years of age, were 66 percent male and held positions in 11 different functional areas in their organizations.In order to utilize MSF, participants in this study were each asked to identify five individuals that represented critical working relationships in their current leadership role. Each participant was asked to select a feedback group that:* they depended on to achieve desired results;* they believed knew them well within the context of their current work situation;* 3had regular and ongoing contact with the participant;* was in a position to offer accurate feedback on their leadership skills and performance; and* were willing to offer an honest assessment of their performance.Typically, MSF initiatives utilize anonymous feedback in hopes that raters will feel more comfortable communicating in an accurate and honest fashion (Atwater et al., 2007).However, in this career development exercise, it was a conscious decision by program facilitators to let the participants chose their own feedback team. This was very important because participant leaders chose raters whom they believed were in the best position to aid them in their leadership development and performance improvement. In turn, this somewhat unique selection process resulted in 765 raters rating the 153 middle and front-line managers. The feedback sample participants included 24 percent superiors, 27 percent peers; 26 percent subordinates and 23 percent people outside their perspective organizations. Utilizing raters outside of the participants' place of employment was employed as suggested by the current literature on MSF (Testa, 2002). Each participant's feedback group was asked to provide a candid, written, qualitative response to the following open-ended question, \"What specific things should this individual be working on to become more effective as a leader in their rapidly changing work situation?\"Each member of the MSF team submitted their written assessment to the study participant for review and analysis. Each participant was then asked to assess the feedback they received from their MSF team and identify specific areas that they were told needed attention to improve their performance in their current leadership role. The purpose of this step was to provide each participant an opportunity to review, assess and internalize the feedback they received as a key component of their personal leadership develop plan which was part of this comprehensive leadership development initiative. Participants were then required to submit these specific areas of improvement with examples that had been identified by the MSF to the researchers.There was a three to seven range of specific areas needing improvement, generating a total of 708 areas of improvement, with the average of 4.6 areas per participant. These areas were then content analyzed using a three judge review panel to assign each participant's findings to an appropriate performance deficiency factor. These factors were not predetermined but emerged as the content analysis proceeded. Over 30 different performance deficiency factors were identified and frequency counts were tabulated. For a factor to be included in a particular performance deficiency category two out of three judges had to be in agreement and twenty-three factors were eliminated as such. Figure 1 contains the top ten most frequently mentioned factors needing improvement with the corresponding percentage of participants that identified each particular performance deficiency factor.\nKey research findings - part I: I can say that I was somewhat surprised by several factors that my MSF group said needed work but in the end there was a lot of agreement about what I needed to do to improve my performance [...] and to be honest with you I am glad that I know the things that need work (a participant's observation).The leadership \"performance deficiency factors\" that were identified by the participants in this study using a MSF methodology will now be discussed to better understand the challenges that leaders can face in periods of rapid organizational change. In addition, key \"leadership lessons\" will be offered to help create better awareness and understanding of how these deficiencies can impact organizational or individual performance during periods of large-scale transition.Performance deficiency factor # 1: ineffective communication practices (66.3 percent)\nIn closing: As we conclude our discussion of the top five leadership deficiencies that emerge from this research, we would ask the reader to review the key leadership lessons and ask yourself if these leadership deficiencies have caused trouble in your organization? If so, what specific steps need to be taken to mitigate these deficiencies? In part II of this study we will discuss the remainder of the leadership deficiencies that emerged in this research and how to deal with these challenges.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to report the results of a study concerning the key performance deficiencies found in leaders in rapidly changing organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A sample of 153 middle and front-line managers from a cross-section of US manufacturing and service organizations were asked to assemble a multisource feedback (MSF) team consisting of five people who responded to the following question: \"What specific things should this individual be working on to become more effective as a leader in their rapidly changing work situation?\" In turn, 765 raters rated 153 middle and front-line managers on their leadership performance deficiencies.\nFindings: - Data analysis indicated the top ten leadership performance deficiencies were: ineffective communication practices, poor time and priority management skills, failing to clarify direction and performance expectations, ineffective interpersonal/teaming skills, inability in handling stress/pressure and staying poised, ineffective coaching/feedback and employee development practices, poor planning skills, ineffective problem-solving and decision-making activities, ego issues and disorganization.\nOriginality/value: - Based on these data, a series of leadership lessons for individual business leaders, organizations they serve and those responsible for the training and development of leaders are provided.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Survival strategy of OEM companies: a case study of the Chinese toy industry
|
[
"Outsourcing",
"Operations strategy",
"Case study"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The upgrade of low-end enterprises in global value chains constitutes an important theoretical topic in terms of world's value chain (Gereffi, 1999; Kaplinsky et al., 2002). It also represents a strategic development issue with respect to the survival and long-term development of those original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which are positioned at the low end of the global value chain (Hobday, 1995; Zhao and Xu, 2013). As such, there is a dearth of studies examining the abilities and processes by which OEMs transform their operations and upgrade to become original design manufacturers (ODMs) and original brand manufacturers (OBMs) (Eng and Spickett-Jones, 2009).\nLiterature review: Global value chains\nMethodology: This study adopts a multi-case-study method to advance discussions. According to Yin (2002), the case study method is appropriate when the research seeks to address \"how\" and \"why\" questions in a real context. The study explores how some OEMs in emerging countries survive and upgrade to ODM or OBM, and its design is based on the procedure suggested by Yin (2002) and Eisenhardt (1989).\nResults: Value chain analysis\nSurvival path of OEM enterprises: Keeping OEM operations but transferring to a lower-cost area\nDiscussions and conclusions: In China, the issue of OEM business transformation and upgrading has become highly significant for national economic development. Many scholars have proposed that OEMs could first transform from OEM to ODM, and then from ODM to OBM (Xu, 2007b). Most of the extant research has pointed out the direction of transition but not the process of the transition. This study attempts to address this gap by examining the process.\nConclusion: OEM firms from emerging markets sit at the bottom of the global value chain. With the development of the Chinese Economy, the profit margins of these OEMs have narrowed, leading to questions about their survivability. Of particular importance for such OEMs are the region's labor costs, which directly affect the OEMs' profitability. This study suggests that most of the successful toy OEMs in China focus on OEM operations, but with ODM and OBM operations as supplementary activities. By examining eight toy companies in the Chinese toy industry, this study identifies factors related to the existence and development of OEMs and the mechanisms of their transition to ODM and OBM. The objective of the analysis is to extend theory on the survival path of OEMs from the perspective of emerging economies by examining how OEMs survive cost pressures and upgrade to ODMs or OBMs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although there have been many discussions on the status and development of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), theory on how they survive is minimal. Little is known about how OEMs survive and upgrade to other business models, such as original design manufacturers (ODMs) and original brand manufacturers (OBMs), in emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to extend the theory on the survival path of OEMs from the perspective of emerging countries by examining how OEMs survive cost pressures and upgrade to ODMs or OBMs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a multi-case study method, this study analyzes the survival path employed by OEMs by examining eight firms in the Chinese toy industry.\nFindings: This study shows that OEMs remain weak in the global toy industry chain due to labor costs. While some OEMs move to low-cost regions, others turn to OBM management, after transitioning through an ODM model, by investing in research and development and marketing.\nOriginality/value: This study explores the survival paths of OEM enterprises, showing that OEMs can first upgrade to ODMs and then to OBMs, or they can directly upgrade to OBMs. Shifting from OEM to ODM is an important step in the transition process, although the contract that OEMs have with their foreign partners does not change significantly.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge sharing, job attitudes and organisational citizenship behaviour
|
[
"Malaysia",
"Employees behaviour",
"Job satisfaction",
"Job involvement",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Organizational commitment",
"Organizational citizenship behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Knowledge sharing is regarded as the informal communication process involving the sharing of knowledge between co-workers (Siemsen et al., 2008). Organisational members are better equipped with skills and knowledge when they engage in knowledge sharing (Sitko-Lutek et al., 2010). Organisational administrators and mangers presumably value such practices, in part because knowledge sharing among employees makes an individual's job easier, and saves the individual's time for more substantive tasks. However, it is difficult to enforce knowledge sharing because knowledge is created and stored within the organisational members (Chow and Chan, 2008). In the workplace, knowledge sharing problem is relatively common in which the individual employees with knowledge are less inclined to share their knowledge (Ho et al., 2009). Knowledge sharing will not happen if one does not intend to share knowledge (Siemsen et al., 2008). Furthermore, knowledge sharing behaviours are generally unnatural because individuals perceive their knowledge as valuable assets, and open sharing of knowledge with others is limited by their natural tendency to keep information to themselves (Davenport and Prusak, 1998, as cited by Hsu et al., 2007). Therefore, the unwillingness of employees to share knowledge with other colleagues has created problems for organisational survival (Lin, 2007a).Although knowledge sharing literature is varied, rich and still growing over two decades, many researchers have limited their studies to focus on interpersonal trust (Chai and Kim, 2010; Ford and Staples, 2010; Hsu et al., 2007), reciprocal benefits (Tohidinia and Mosakhani, 2010; Lin, 2007b), cultural factors (Huang et al., 2008; Ardichvili et al., 2006), and organisational issues (Li, 2010; Kankanhalli et al., 2005) in relation to knowledge sharing behaviour. Although the accumulation of research on knowledge sharing has provided useful insights, there has been little formal analysis of the impact of job attitudes on employees' knowledge sharing behaviour, and few attempts to integrate it explicitly with organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). In other words, a complete picture of the psychology surrounding knowledge sharing behaviour is missing.On the basis of a review study, Hislop (2003) concluded that the most significant factor influencing knowledge sharing is the employee attitude. In some instances, employee attitudes may impede knowledge sharing behaviour (Yang, 2008). Because knowledge sharing behaviour is regarded as an individualistic behaviour (Bock and Kim, 2002), it is important to understand how the individual attitudinal and behavioural outcomes may have a differential impact on employees' knowledge sharing behaviours. In this regard, this paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by examining how the job attitudes (i.e. job involvement, job satisfaction and organisational commitment) may influence the employees' knowledge sharing behaviours. Our paper is distinctive because we further examine whether OCB mediates the relationship between job attitudes and knowledge sharing behaviour.In the sections that follow, we review the literature on job involvement, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, OCB and knowledge sharing behaviour that facilitates the development of model and hypotheses. Next, we describe the research methodology employed in this study, and present the statistical results and discussions of the findings. Finally, we discuss both implications and limitations of these findings.\n2 Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Knowledge sharing\n3 Research methodology: 3.1 Measures\n4 Data analysis: 4.1 Profile of respondents\n5 Discussions and implications: 5.1 Discussions of the results\n6 Conclusion and research limitation: The research investigates the impact of work attitude on knowledge sharing behaviour. It is found out that job involvement, job satisfaction and OCB are independent and positively related to employees' knowledge sharing behaviour. However, organisational commitment has a negative relationship with knowledge sharing behaviour. OCB is found to be a non-mediator between job involvement, job satisfaction organisational commitment and knowledge sharing behaviour. This finding implies that the employees are motivated to share knowledge when they experience higher job involvement and job satisfaction, and not to be influenced by the mediating effect of OCB. This is a new result for further research in this field.This study has some research limitations that should be acknowledged. In fact, identification of these limitations should provide direction for future studies. First, cross-sectional data are used to test the model. It would be worthwhile for future studies to conduct experimental or longitudinal research in which the temporal priority of one variable over another can be tested more clearly. Second, this study does not incorporate moderating variable in examining the relationships between job attitudes and knowledge sharing behaviours. Future research should attempt to include the moderators (e.g. individual or situational factors) in order to account adequately for the relationships between job attitudes and knowledge sharing behaviours. Third, this finding is based on a sample collected from IS personnel in Malaysia. We recommend that future studies test the proposed model in other professional groups or/and countries. Fourth, the relationship between organisational commitment and knowledge sharing behaviour depends on continuance commitment examined. Future research would benefit from further investigation of joint effects of the different commitment components (e.g. affective, continuance and normative commitment) on employees' behaviour.Although this research has these limitations, it has provided theoretical and empirical justification for expecting employees' job attitudes to be related to knowledge sharing behaviour. In other words, IS employees' propensity to share knowledge is found to depend on their job involvement, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and OCB. Given the substantial role of IS personnel in today's business world, we hope that our findings may help the organisational administrators and managers to attain a collective understanding regarding IS personnel's job attitude and its ramifications in knowledge sharing behaviours.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - There are very few studies on the impact of job attitude on knowledge sharing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of job involvement, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) on employees' knowledge sharing behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research is based on a survey of 116 Information Systems personnel in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling is used to test the hypothesis.\nFindings: - The results show that job involvement, job satisfaction and OCB are independent and positively related to employees' knowledge sharing behaviour. However, organisational commitment has a negative relationship with knowledge sharing behaviour. It is found that OCB is not a significant mediator between job involvement, job satisfaction organisational commitment and knowledge sharing behaviour.\nResearch limitations/implications: - It is widely reported that knowledge workers may not be willing to share with others since they can always argue that it is not their job to share. Therefore, knowledge sharing can be regarded as an extra job. OCB is an extra-role behaviour which is especially relevant to research on knowledge sharing. Theories and research methods in OCB may be used in future research on knowledge sharing.\nPractical implications: - Given the importance of knowledge sharing in today's competitive business world, this study provides a broader understanding of different dimensions of job attitudes in relation to employees' knowledge sharing behaviours. Our findings suggest that organisational administrators and managers should look into ways of improving the levels of job satisfaction, job involvement, and OCB in order to facilitate knowledge sharing behaviour.\nOriginality/value: - This study makes two distinct additions to the organisational behaviour and knowledge sharing literature. First, job attitudes appear to be significantly related to knowledge sharing behaviour, addressing a research gap in the literature of knowledge sharing and employee attitudes. Second, this study reveals that OCB directly affects knowledge sharing but it does not mediate employees' job attitudes to promote knowledge sharing behaviours.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A multi-methodology on building a corporate governance index from the perspectives of academics and practitioners for firms in Greece
|
[
"Experts",
"Analytic hierarchy process",
"Delphi method",
"Classical test theory",
"Corporate governance index"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the concept of good corporate governance (CG) is considered as the hallmark of a well-run company (Wilkes, 2004). Indeed, institutional investors, shareholders and stakeholders in general are pushing firms to adopt best practices of CG (Koehn and Ueng, 2005; Wei-An, 2008)[1], an approach that has been promoted mainly because of the rapid increase in theoretical (Jensen and Meckling, 1976; Shleifer and Vishny, 1997; Denis and McConnell, 2003) and empirical research in CG (Gompers et al., 2003; Larcker et al., 2005; Bebchuk et al., 2009).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Literature review on measuring corporate governance\n3. Theoretical background in CG index development: As previously mentioned, there is a theoretical gap among the variables (Florou and Galarniotis, 2007), the criteria (Nerantzidis, 2012), the weights (Graafland et al., 2004; Bozec and Bozec, 2011) the norms and generally the mechanisms (Nerantzidis, 2015) that someone should use to construct a transparent, reliable and valid index. These theoretical gaps support the idea of using a multi-methodology on building a transparent, reliable and valid CG index from the perspective of academics and practitioners for firms in Greece.\n4. Application of the proposed model: This part presents the results of the application of the three methods separately and outlines the synthesis of the proposed model. Finally, the main results of the multi-methodology are summarized.\n5. The proposed methodology versus another well-known approach in measuring the disclosure of CG: This subsection highlights the differences between the proposed methodology and another well-known approach in measuring the disclosure of CG (i.e. the Cooke's dichotomous approach which is used in a wide range of studies in CG, such as Black et al., 2006; Garay and Gonzalez, 2008), putting emphasis on the variation of the actual scores and the changes in the ranking order, an important issue with econometric implications.\n6. Conclusions and perspectives: The purpose of this study was to look inside the \"black box\" in CG measurement, and shed some light on how to construct a transparent, reliable and valid index, equally considering the academics' and practitioners' perspectives. For this reason, the work proposed here addresses the main problems that were set after the literature review on prior CG indices. Indeed, we used a shared epistemology, combining methods and tools, to develop a CG index for the Greek environment (i.e. listed companies).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to look inside the \"black box\" in corporate governance (CG) measurement, and shed some light on how to construct a transparent, reliable and valid index, considering equally both the academics and practitioners' perspectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A synthesized literature review is presented and a CG index is developed combining the strengths of three different methodologies: the Delphi method, the classical test theory (CTT) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This approach helps authors to break the process into separate steps and to select the appropriate techniques to support their decision regarding the norms, the criteria, the variables and the weights that someone should use to construct a CG index.\nFindings: The authors' analysis indicates that a well-designed CG index requires a combination of research methods to identify the best options to solve several methodological issues in index construction. For the application of this multi-methodology in Greece, the authors used two equal and independent samples to explore the different perspectives regarding the importance of the index criteria and sub-criteria. This process provides evidence that the opinion of academics and practitioners in Greece tend to converge. Moreover, it is found that this multi-methodology produces the highest variation in CG scores and ranking orders, as opposed to a traditional approach, in measuring CG disclosure, an important issue with econometric implications.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations of this study are associated with the methods used.\nPractical implications: This paper provides practical implications for investors and commercial vendors. For the former, it highlights the need to be more cautious and/or suspicious when they use CG ratings, meaning that they should comprehend the base of the ratings models, and for the latter, it demonstrates the importance of enhancing the transparency in CG indices construction.\nOriginality/value: The value of the paper lies in improved understanding of the methodological issues in constructing CG indices. This is quite interesting because this approach could serve as a roadmap for other researchers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Role of burnout on job level, job satisfaction, and task performance
|
[
"Job satisfaction",
"Burnout",
"Job level",
"Task performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An effective work environment needs to generate quality services and products, have the capacity to attract talented people, support innovation and changes, and decrease turnover costs (Levering, 1998). Today, because careers have become complex and sophisticated, companies must prudently consider organizational practices and increase contributions (Thomas and Velthouse, 1990). Jobs do not provide knowledge and services alone, and this requires that businesses devote their attention also to workers' occupational safety in terms of discretion and independence. A number of studies (e.g. Thomas and Velthouse 1990, Ilies et al., 2005) have found that autonomy in organizations leads to an increase in productivity, satisfaction, and performance. Such autonomy also produces greater worker engagement (Gagne, 2003), a crucial variable that enhances motivation and commitment. Additionally, past research (e.g. IBM, 2014; SHRM, 2012) has noted that people with different job levels have different levels of engagement, and these findings have led subsequent studies to examine the engagement through job level. Those studies (IBM, 2014; SHRM, 2012) have shown that individuals with higher job rankings tend to be more engaged at work than those with lower job levels.\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nData analysis: We employed the Hayes (2013) PROCESS tool using the bootstrap method to examine the mediating effect of the three subscales of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and professional inefficacy) on the relationship between job levels and job satisfaction and between job levels and task performance. Using the PROCESS tool, the combined effects of the regression predictor onto the mediator and regression mediator onto outcome resulted in the estimation of the indirect effect. We tested the significant level of the indirect effect by computing confidence intervals for the indirect effect through bootstrap methods. Traditional normal theory tests for indirect effects have the unrealistic assumption of normality for the sampling distribution of the specific indirect effects. Bootstrap confidence intervals are a better approach when researchers have access to the original data set (Williams and MacKinnon, 2008).\nResults: Role of burnout on the relationship between job levels and job satisfaction\nDiscussion and conclusion: Discussion\nConclusion: Our study found that job levels had positive relationships with job satisfaction and task performance, and the three subscales of burnout (i.e. exhaustion, cynicism, professional inefficacy) have negative relationships with job levels, job satisfaction, and task performance. Also, three subscales of burnout (i.e. exhaustion, cynicism, professional inefficacy) mediate the relationship between job levels and job satisfaction. Moreover, among the three subscales of burnout (i.e. exhaustion, cynicism, professional inefficacy), only cynicism and professional inefficacy mediate the relationship between job levels and task performance. The findings of the present study provide useful information for organization development practitioners and researchers in understanding Korean employees' job satisfaction as well as task performance in work environment. These findings are beneficial for the professionals to better understand the dynamics of burnout in promoting employees' job satisfaction and task performance based on their level job and Korean workers' psychological issues at workplace.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of burnout (i.e. exhaustion, cynicism, professional inefficacy) in the relationship between job level and job satisfaction as well as between job level and task performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The final sample included 342 Korean workers from selected companies. The authors employed the Hayes (2013) PROCESS tool for analyzing the data.\nFindings: The results showed that all three subscales of burnout (i.e. exhaustion, cynicism, professional inefficacy) mediate the relationship between job level and job satisfaction. However, only two mediators (i.e. cynicism, professional inefficacy) indicated the mediating effects on the association between job level and task performance.\nOriginality/value: This research presented the role of burnout on the relationships between job level, job satisfaction, and task performance especially in South Korean organizational context. In addition to role of burnout, findings should prove helpful in improving job satisfaction and task performance. The authors provide implications and limitations of the findings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comparative study of costs and benefits of apprenticeship training in Austria and Switzerland shows schemes are effective in different environments
|
[
"Switzerland",
"Austria",
"Apprenticeships",
"Recruitment and retention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A comparative study of the net costs and benefits of providing apprenticeship training in Austria and Switzerland showed that schemes can be effective in different environments. The authors demonstrated that on average a Swiss firm generates an annual net benefit of EUR3,400, whereas an Austrian firm has net costs of EUR4,200. The main reason for the difference was higher apprentice pay in Austria, although the results showed that Austrian firms retain a higher share of apprenticeships which saves money in the long-run.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose was to compare the net costs and post-apprenticeship benefits of providing apprenticeship training in Austria and Switzerland: two countries with many similarities but also critical institutional differences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors looked at detailed workplace data about the costs and benefits of apprenticeship training, as well as hiring costs for skilled workers from the external labor market. The authors use nearest-neighbor matching models to compare Austrian and Swiss firms.\nFindings: The main results showed an Austrian firm makes an average of EUR4,200 per year net investment per apprentice, whereas a comparable Swiss firm generates a net benefit of EUR3,400 in the same occupations. The differences in net costs could be explained, the authors said, by the different wage structures in the two countries. However, the situation was complicated by the fact that the relatively high apprentice wage in Austria contributed to the survival of firm-based apprenticeship training.\nOriginality/value: The authors said their results showed that countries expanding their apprenticeship systems should consider different national practices.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does board independence moderate the relationship between environmental disclosure quality and performance? Evidence from static and dynamic panel data
|
[
"Company performance",
"Corporate governance",
"Emerging market",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Emerging markets",
"Board of directors",
"Board Independence",
"Independent Directors",
"Corporate environmental reporting (CER)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: One of the outcomes of industrial development has been the emergence of a link between economy, ethics and politics as well as an interaction between economic issues and moral and social values. As a result, managers of business entities no longer merely focus on higher productivity, but also address various environmental, ethical, racial and social issues. Along with these changes, corporate environmental reporting (CER) has gained increasing importance since the 1980s. Studies show that in 2014 more than 7,000 companies worldwide engaged in corporate social reporting (CSR) (Khan et al., 2016). In the literature, CSR and CER are explained using the win-win relationship between businesses and stakeholders as a means for increasing profitability and improved firm performance (Brown and Fraser, 2006). Many studies have examined the direct relationship between CER and firm performance to address whether firms get involved with CER to improve their performance (Freedman and Jaggi, 1988; Murray et al., 2006; Liu and Anbumozhi, 2009; D'Amico et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2015; Lee, 2017). Literature review also reveals that the inconsistency of these results of these studies, with some studies reporting a positive relationship, while others reporting a negative or no relationship.\n2. Literature review and hypothesis development: 2.1 Effect of environmental disclosures on performance\n3. Research design: 3.1 Sample\n4. Results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Discussion: The effect of a board of directors as a corporate governance mechanism on corporate outcomes has been long debated. Our goal in this article is to show whether EDQ is related to comprehensive measures of performance and to examine the effect of board independence on this relationship using the agency theory. Unlike previous studies that merely investigated the direct effect of EDQ on performance, the present research seeks to determine the effect of corporate governance mechanisms such board independence on this relationship. We find a significant positive relationship between EDQ and performance, which is consistent with the results of Clarkson et al. (2011). This can be because of the fact that more environmental disclosures can enhance the company's reputation and leave a favorable impression on the stakeholders, which in turn improves its performance. We also show that board independence has a significant positive effect on the relationship between EDQ and performance. These robustness of the results are checked with various techniques, which again indicate that, based on the Anglo-American corporate governance standards, board independence has played a good regulatory role in Iranian firms. To achieve better corporate governance, we must consider the theory that board independence is one of the key elements of effective monitoring. The results also confirm the effectiveness of the Iranian Corporate Governance Code, which has required companies to have a more independent board since 2010.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to link environmental disclosure quality (EDQ) to firm performance and examine the moderating role of board independence in this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on agency theory and stakeholder theory, the authors developed and tested hypotheses using original survey data from 720 firm-year observations collected from 120 Iranian companies over six years between 2011 and 2016. In this paper, they conducted static and dynamic panel data analysis.\nFindings: After correcting for endogeneity bias, the results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between EDQ and firm performance. The results also showed that board independence significantly reinforces the positive effect of EDQ on performance, and firms with more independent board members are involved environmental disclosure for improved performance. This is consistent with agency theory, which posits that a more independent board of directors can better monitor the CEO and reduce incentives for pursuing personal interests, which in turn improves performance. The results are robust after performing sensitivity tests.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper takes the perspective of corporate governance to empirically examine the effect of EDQ on firm performance. This study makes a contribution to the literature by showing that board independence moderates the effects of EDQ on firm performance.\nPractical implications: The evidence supports the emphasis that recent policy statements have put on increasing the number of independent directors on corporate boards. This study offers insights to policymakers interested in enhancing the monitoring role of corporate boards.\nOriginality/value: The study adds value to the understanding of the effect of the EDQ on performance and how board independence influences this relationship, particularly in an emerging economy like Iran.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Post-worldview? A dialogic meta-narrative analysis of North-South, South-South, and Southern theory
|
[
"Worldviews",
"Comparative education research",
"Global South"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A common interpretation of Wittgenstein's notion is that one's imagination is limited by one's exposure to language and culture. Over time, imaginary ruminations and reasonings based on virtual, spatial, and even spiritual realities (Glaube) point to positional \"eyes-of-the-beholder\", where one's spatial point of reference reflects the perspectives, opinions, and judgements of that set of realities from a particular angle or approach. In comparative and international education \"qualitative\" research, the acceptance of differing points of view and reference have often resulted in a fragmented and fractitious affirmation of cultural relativity, whereby the pursuit of truth (Veritas) has been replaced by the pursuit and contestation of a plurality of knowledges and truths. Davies defines this as \"discursive practice\", which refers to the way discourse and the production of selves produce and reconstitutes one's social and psychological realities (Davies and Harre, 1999, p. 88). The positional and discursive worldviews relative to \"other\" are not only dependent on locational, contextual, and time (Zeitgeist) dimensions, but also on disciplinary methodological foundations and subjective interpretations of both experience and choice. The notion of Zeitgeist is used here purposely to reflect the spirit of the times and the essence of what is understood in the greater community-at-large.\nWhat is worldview?: A world-picture serves as a basis, a foundation (Grundlage), or a \"point of departure\" of a community looking at the world, though it contains both certainties and knowledge claims resting on them - perhaps in the form of theories - but not necessarily so (Kober, 1996, p. 419). In his volume, Farewell to Reason (1987), Feyerabend referenced Wittgenstein's presentation of the duck vs rabbit analogy when asking why it should not be possible to make conflicting statements about a given situation and yet still be considered correct. Rather, \"[...] [I]t is a matter of research and not of philosophical fiat to decide whether the world we inhabit resembles a duck-rabbit picture (Feyerabend, 1987, p. 81). Bourdieu argued that academia has placed greater emphasis on the 'scholastic view' of the world\". He states:In short, the sociological critique only radicalizes the philosophical critique of prejudices by offering a means to also grasp the presuppositions inscribed in institutionalized philosophy. Hence to realise more completely many of philosophy's traditional ambitions(Bourdieu, 2008, p. 151).\nApproaches to discovering phenomena based on meta-narrative analysis: The emergence of a meta-narrative analysis of worldview perspectives involves many voices - including those that are marginalised - to be heard, synthesised, and analysed (Hampton, 2004). The approach undertaken in this discussion involves identifying \"facts\" through evidence, gathering observations and participatory experience of worldviews in what Matusov and Wegerif (2014) describe as a dialogic education. Dialogic education refers to the agonistic relations and dialogue that are derived from a gift of extra-paradigmatic challenges - challenges that come outside of one's own paradigm (worldview) - that move the paradigms further (Matusov and Wegerif, 2014, E2). This definition complements Ninnes and Mehta's (2004) research on the equilibrium and conflict worldview pole. The Equilibrium Worldview Pole refers to a functionalist view of society. Popkewitz (1991, p. 1) views the functionalist as one who sees a better world that is evolving into new programs, new technologies, new organisations, all for the betterment of efficiency and effectiveness. In contrast, the Conflict Worldview Pole represents a view of society and education characterised by structural contradictions, where oppressive relationships between social groups with different interests and levels of resources are defined by coercion rather than cooperation.\nScholarly perspectives: The three positional worldview perspectives presented by Breidlid, Connell, and Comaroff and Comaroff reflect theoretical, conceptual, and personal points-of-reference. Breidlid, a Norwegian scholar who has conducted extensive studies on the global South, is considered an outside observer who has been critical of imposing Western-based epistemologies. Connell, an Australian scholar who views Australia as representative of the global South in the form of \"the south land\" as labelled by British colonisers in the early nineteenth century, presents voices and ideas produced by the colonised world as opposed to what she refers to as the metropole. Comaroff and Comaroff, who have resided in South Africa, stress the virtue of the global South as its context and not its content, suggesting that the global North carries with it a great deal of imaginative baggage around the contrast between centrality and marginality, free-market modernity and its absence (2014, p. 126). While all are considered exceptional scholars in their own right, their research observations and participatory viewpoints may help define in general how knowledge is ever-changing and, at times, advancing. Below are examples of epistemic change in Paulston's characterisations of knowledge post-1990s to 2010s.\nDimensions of a way forward: This discussion has considered how three positional worldviews have helped contribute to the body of knowledge affecting the advancement of comparative and international education \"qualitative\" research. The current state of comparative and international education research appears to be at a crossroads. Either it will continue to polarise, broadening and deepening the divide of thinkers in the field, or it will realign dimensions of its own academic capital and develop new forms of collective inquiry not only from within the field but beyond its entrenched association with the social sciences. It will be initiatives beyond disciplinary inquiry and positional frames of reference that will advance the field, and thus, knowledge.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Utilising dialogic meta-narrative analysis, a form of inquiry based on examining the difference between voices in meaningful and relevant dialogue (Wegerif, 2006, p. 347), the purpose of this paper is to present an examination of three relevant works on theories of the global South for identifying educational patterns, themes, and biases from the worldview perspectives of the respective authors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In comparative and international education \"qualitative\" research, the acceptance of differing points of view and reference have often resulted in a fragmented and fractitious affirmation of cultural relativity, whereby the pursuit of truth (Veritas) has been replaced by the pursuit and contestation of a plurality of knowledges and truths. Davies defines this as \"discursive practice\", which refers to the way discourse and the production of selves produce and reconstitutes one's social and psychological realities (Davies, 1999, p. 88). The positional and discursive worldviews relative to \"other\" are not only dependent on locational, contextual, and time (Zeitgeist) dimensions, but also on disciplinary methodological foundations and subjective interpretations of both experience and choice.\nFindings: The analysis of the three scholarly works identifies issues of comparative education research from a dialogic and dialectic perspective, suggesting that relativistic notions of research are required and necessary in order to expand horizons and \"break out of the box\" to broaden one's imagination.\nResearch limitations/implications: The questions raised by all three worldviews require further research: Who pays? Who benefits? Should the field contest the positional points-of-reference of comparativists? Should theory and mode of inquiry be made more clear in order to understand and discern the positional authority of the researcher and the researched? Should relevant literature addressing subject material involve greater scrutiny - if not collaboration - between scholars from different worldview perspectives?\nPractical implications: Subjectivity, validation and significance of findings contribute to dissemination and advancement of knowledge, and if not robust or rigorous, are simply another point of view.\nOriginality/value: This is a new paradigmatic approach to problematising comparative and international research from three positional worldviews. The value in problematising the three worldviews helps to delve deeper into the issues at hand regarding the global South.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Internship models: acknowledging social and academic expectations
|
[
"Self-efficacy",
"Internship",
"Knowledge workers",
"Professional communication",
"Societal narratives",
"Student writing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: narratives and higher education: Narratives, according to Sheila Trahar (2009), are especially important to human beings because \"we come to understand and give meaning to our lives through story\" (n.p.). With narratives, communicators deploy rhetorical devices that encourage engagement and reflection by adapting to specific genres. For example, literature, psychology, and religion may use narrative hyperbole to emphasize an argument point. A more recent genre, gaming, immerses players in a narrative that uses \"psychological models of identity, identification, and sociological bond\" (Wendler, 2014) to lead the player to co-create the narrative necessary to move through increasingly complex levels and achieve success. Narratives, as I use them in this article, are rhetorically designed to present an argument, to engage and convince recipients (readers, listeners, players), and to manage and engage one's imagination (see Hume in Beauchamp, T.L.). In academic settings, we hear and we tell many stories, especially about writing across and in the disciplines. Faculty across disciplines often tell students that they do not teach writing. To teach writing is the job of the English teacher, and the responsibility for writing well, across disciplines, remains on the student. Disciplinary faculty who regularly tell students that they do not have the skills to produce texts expected in their discipline often are the same faculty who encourage the students' implicit narrative by saying that disciplinary writing is not expected from them because the overall course grade places less than 10 percent on writing. Perhaps, the student narrative continues, they cannot produce the disciplinary writing, and they really are not expected to learn how to do so, or the course design would have writing at 20 percent or more. Failing writing, then and only then would result in a grade less than an \"A.\" Faculty, often without knowing the power of their narratives, support what Street (1984) termed an autonomous model of literacy where writing is understood as a separate skill from learning disciplinary context. As Gee (2015) explains, an autonomous approach to literacy is also known as the \"literacy myth\" with \"an armory of concepts, conventions, and practices that privilege one social formation as if it were natural, universal, or, at the least, the end point of a normal developmental progression\" (p. 43). Gee (2015) points out that Street's alternative to the autonomous model is \"the ideological model [that] attempts to understand literacy in terms of concrete social practices and to theorize it in terms of the ideologies in which different literacies are embedded\" (p. 43). The role of the Director for Writing Across and In the Disciplines requires that the power of (faulty) narratives needs to be acknowledged, and that the paradigm needs to be changed to include new and more appropriate narratives for faculty and students.To initiate such a paradigm shift, an internship course was established to encourage students to connect writing to specific disciplinary and non-academic tasks. The internship model provides students from diverse economic, cultural, ethnic, and disciplinary backgrounds with opportunities to experience the relevancy of writing in and outside of academic settings while also promoting self-efficacy. With business management's Peter F. Drucker's work on what business can learn from non-profits, and with psychologist Albert Bandura's work on self-efficacy and positive psychology, internship experiences can influence context-independent narratives about disciplinary writing and lead to a paradigm that encourages teachers and students to see the opportunities created by a narrative that connects writing to disciplinary, community, and work contexts.\nMethodology: engaging the questions: Aristotle's work on how the intrapersonal directly informs the interpersonal, and how persuasion of self influences how we persuade others, is a foundational argument used for this research. The act of persuasion and the argument for a paradigm shift in how we understand internships are presented through a qualitative lens and a critical narrative approach. The stories told become the stories analyzed in order to reveal patterns and to establish theories. Sociologist Bouma (1996) explains theories as \"... ideas about the way other ideas are related. Theories are abstract notions about the way concepts relate to each other\" (p. 16). To provide a concrete discussion of abstract notions, qualitative data from class observations, student interactions, and discussions with community and industry stakeholders, 36 years of working with student writing - from undergraduate student tutor to full professor - are used. Such a qualitative approach is able to address concepts that quantitative data cannot address. As Bouma (1996) states, \"Quantitative data are usually expressed in numbers, percentages or rates. In contrast, qualitative research tends to answer questions such as: What is it like to be a member of that group? What is going on in this situation? What is it like to experience this or that phenomenon? Hence qualitative data tend to be expressed in the language of images, feelings and impressions; they describe the qualities of the events under stud\" (p. 18). Including impressions and human qualities allows the researcher to address values that are difficult to measure. This phenomenological paradigm often used in qualitative research reminds us that socially constructed realities are the result of an individual or a collective definition of the situation (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984). In other words, qualitative study encourages the researcher to expand her analysis into the phenomena of what it means to be human. As Crotty (1998) argues, such meaning \"is not discovered but constructed. Meaning does not inhere in the object, merely waiting for someone to come upon it ... Meanings are constructed by human beings as they engage with the world they are interpreting\" (pp. 42-43). Similar to a \"One dialogue, two conversations\" approach found in comedic scenes where two separate conversations fit into one dialogue, a qualitative approach provides the necessary distance needed to untangle two disparate conversations: the logical conversation from a faculty perspective, and the very different but equally logical conversation from a student perspective. The findings from my research, and the resulting discussion, show great need for engaging with multiple stakeholders in continued discussions about the role of internship programs in higher education.\nFindings: higher education, higher pay, better skills: Students and parents learn long before students enter college that a university degree will lead to higher-paying jobs. Kurtzleben (2014), for example, points out that millennials will profit from a college degree because \"earnings for college-degree holders are $17,500 greater than for those with high school diplomas only\" (p. 1). Similarly, Gardner (2018) argues that studying engineering and business can lead to jobs. Universities themselves support this narrative for a post-secondary degree. For example, already in 2010, Carnevale et al. (2010) announced that \"by 2018, we will need 22 million new workers with college degrees--but will fall short of that number by at least three million postsecondary degrees\" (par. 2). Higher income for the graduate becomes an overpowering narrative that ellipses individual skills students take with them throughout their lives.At the same time, growing academic and professional narratives address real-world problem-solving skills. Gardner (2018), for example, states that employers \"are putting a premium on graduates who have both technical know-how and creative and communication skills.\" She uses a report released on May 2018 from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to point out that \"emerging evidence shows that integrating the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math-plus medicine-with the arts and humanities at the higher ed. level can improve problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills\" (2018).To address these new demands, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) challenged engineering schools in 2015 to conduct work that is \"multidisciplinary, multicultural and designed to promote creativity, original research, social consciousness and entrepreneurship\" (Gardner, 2018). NAE's ongoing efforts to prepare \"generations to tackle the grand challenges,\" seen as \"continuation of life on the planet, making our world more sustainable, secure, healthy, and joyful\" (NAE, 2018), require students to show talent competency, multidisciplinary competency, viable business/entrepreneurship competency, multicultural competency, and social-consciousness competency (NAE, 2018). Similarly, Florida (2002) argues that economic and job-related discussions need to pay attention to a \"Creative Class,\" which in the early 2000s represented 40 million workers, or 30 percent of the U.S. workforce. Florida organizes the creative class into two sections:Super-Creative Core: close to 12 percent of all U.S. jobs: science, engineering, education, computer programming, research, arts, design, and media workers whose primary job is to be creative and innovative where \"along with problem solving, their work may entail problem finding\" (Florida, 2002, p. 69).Creative Professionals: the classic knowledge-based workers: healthcare, business and finance, the legal sector, and education. They \"draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems,\" using higher degrees of education to do so (2002, p. 69).According to these findings, students are entering a society where their role is to recognize and solve problems. How they do so largely is the responsibility of the individual's ability to know which skills are needed, when to research and collaborate within and across disciplinary borders, and how to continually learn as they often work online and without geographical borders.The competencies identified by the NAE and the growing creative class provide an excellent starting point for redesigning curriculum. To participate in the national discussions on preparing students for the job market on a much smaller scale than the NAE's Grand Challenges, an interdisciplinary internship course was designed to encourage students to practice skills relevant across the disciplines, especially recursive critical thinking, problem-solving, social and emotional intelligence, and verbal and written communication skills applied to cross-disciplinary tasks. The discussions leading to the redesign involved class observations, communication with students, faculty from across campus, community and industry stakeholders, and the author's own experiences working with students and stakeholders for more than 34 years in a variety of institutions.\nDiscussion and analysis: bridging work and school competencies: To revise the course, it was necessary to redesign understandings of what a course can be and what the students' roles may become. The faculty, after engaging in extensive research on internship models, reimagined student roles by adapting strategies for encouraging productive interns and employees. In 2014, Rick Wartzman revisited an article written by Peter Drucker for the Harvard Business Review's section on Leadership. Wartzman (2014) reminded readers of Drucker's vision for a shift from manual labor to knowledge workers who are most productive when they are engaged in what they do and who have a strong sense of purpose as members of an organization. As Wartzman (2014) points out, \"survey after survey reveals that the vast majority of employees are not engaged in what they do\" (p. 1). Drucker (1998), in his discussions of the knowledge worker, underscored the importance of engagement and motivation in a world where many workers no longer need labor-intensive physical skills of the 19th and 20th centuries. Knowledge workers, whose role focuses on information and not on production, \"need to know the organization's mission and to believe in it.\" Drucker (1989) strongly believed that knowledge workers are not satisfied by money alone, but that businesses have to also satisfy a worker's values.Engaged workers are similar to engaged students where employers and faculty know that the best work is completed when the individual identifies with the purpose of the task. Challenges for both employers and faculty are to present tasks that the employee and students find relevant and valuable. Course relevancy and values change, as Drucker (1992) explains this paradigm shift in the Harvard Business Review.Every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of decades, the society altogether rearranges itself, including its world view, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, and its key institutions. Fifty years later, a new world exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. (p. 1)Along with the inevitable paradigm changes, Drucker emphasized the importance of motivation for knowledge workers and argued that a knowledge worker's motivation was similar to a volunteer's motivation because \"they carry their tools in their heads and can go anywhere\" (1992). To be successful in engaging volunteers and knowledge workers, Drucker (1989) calls for \"a clear mission, careful placement and continuous learning and teaching, management by objectives and self-control, high demands but corresponding responsibility, and accountability for performance and results\" (Drucker, 1989). In other words, Drucker's volunteers and knowledge workers, students included, need to be involved in the learning process. Theymust feel a need to learn and must understand the relevance of what is being taught.want to apply what they learned. They want to learn by interacting with each other instead of listening to the instructor.must believe that they can bring something to the work. They should be able to bring in their own experiences and relate them to the current situation.want to be part of a solution. They want to be presented with a problem that they can help solve. They want to bring in their perspectives to the problem at hand, and they want to be taken seriously.The volunteer role is similar to the role of an intern who needs to be involved in the learning process and who needs to be encouraged to actively participate in working on solutions to a client-based project.Challenging expectations\nConclusions: diversity, identity, and belonging: Revising academic learning that integrates an internship model incorporates practical approaches to learning. Students' backgrounds and experiences with academic expectations directly influence decisions and contributions of stakeholders and interns. For example, interns contacted a Dine elder to secure information they needed to create a project that included culturally sensitive materials. They chose this approach because a Dine student insisted that her team needed to learn more about their client's request by including first-hand accounts of the problem at hand. The actions of the Dine student are unusual because many Dine students on campus, like most people of color, are accustomed to focus and work on projects outside of their home cultures. Sharing insights that are culturally bound is mostly avoided since the larger university system is seen as functioning with standards and consequences that are separate from non-Western understandings of truths. This student was compelled to ensure a level of authenticity because she identified as an intern whose self-efficacy expanded beyond that of minority student in a traditional classroom and instead included a focus on non-traditional educational and work practices. In fact, during these years of the internship program, students who were considered marginalized by the university (ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA students, first-generation students) engaged with research that provided insights into their own roles within the larger university system.Improving student self-efficacy requires student buy-in. Additionally, faculty need to reconsider how to understand class-time. Adapting an internship model encourages students to participate in their learning. Students report that while an internship course takes more time than a traditional writing course, they preferred interacting with clients and producing relevant work.Limitations and constraints\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper shows an example of an internship-classroom model that increases student motivation and self-efficacy across cultural frameworks by providing opportunities for application projects.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author uses qualitative data collected through teacher research and focuses on the rhetorical context to show how disciplinary writing courses can be redesigned by incorporating theoretical frameworks from business management and psychology.\nFindings: Client projects used in disciplinary writing courses, in conjunction with national narratives on higher education as a gateway to higher pay and better skills, improve student self-efficacy if faculty redefine their roles as mediators, and if students are treated as interns and knowledge workers.\nPractical implications: The integration of non-academic approaches from business management with academic expectations of research, revision, and rehearsal for a specific client shows how purposeful client-based projects can influence student motivation, self-efficacy, and sense of self-worth that are crucial for diverse student populations. Expanding the theoretical frameworks for successful teaching is an effective model for increasing students' competence as disciplinary writers.\nOriginality/value: An interdisciplinary approach that draws from academic fields as well as from the business world provides new ways of working successfully with students and preparing them for writing inside and outside the classroom. Incorporating an internship approach into a classroom setting encourages teachers to reimagine student, client, and faculty roles.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Applying the peak-end rule to reference prices
|
[
"Pricing",
"Reference prices",
"Satisfaction",
"Peak‐end rule",
"Choice models",
"Customer satisfaction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A reference price is a psychological benchmark against which consumers evaluate offered prices (Mazumdar et al., 2005; Erdem et al., 2010). The existence of such a benchmark is widely accepted in marketing and has the status of an empirical generalization (Kalyanaram and Winer, 1995). The underlying premise is that consumers do not respond merely to absolute price levels, but also to the gap against one or more reference prices. Various internal price benchmarks may be used by consumers towards this end (Monroe, 1973; Mazumdar et al., 2005): the reservation price (the highest price one is willing to pay), the lower bound on price (if price is used as a quality cue), the target price, the fair price, the most recently observed price, and so on. Consistent with current practice in the empirical literature, we will conceptualize the reference price as the price the consumer considers the current price of the product, and which can therefore be viewed as the anticipated price (Winer, 1986; Chandrashekaran, 2011). In this conceptualization, the gap between observed price and reference price is referred to as \"sticker shock\". In a landmark study, Winer (1986) showed a brand choice model incorporating sticker shock to have better empirical fit compared to a pure demand model using price only. This shows that sticker shock acts as an independent construct from price, in that it has an impact on brand choice beyond that of price alone. Numerous other studies have shown reference prices to be an important construct in understanding consumers' price evaluations and subsequent purchase decisions (for a recent review, see Mazumdar et al., 2005).Considering the importance of the reference price construct in the marketing literature, relatively little empirical research has explored the process by which reference prices are formed in consumers' minds (Briesch et al., 1997). Increasing our understanding of this would be of interest to both academicians and data analysts in industry. Most models of reference price formation used to date have been adopted from the economics literature: extrapolative expectations (Ferber, 1953; Drechsler and Natter, 2011), rational expectations (Muth, 1961; Sun, 2005; Erdem et al., 2010), and adaptive expectations (Nerlove, 1958; Zhang et al. 2011). These economic models of reference price formation perform reasonably well empirically, but have been criticized for not offering a plausible representation of consumers' cognitive processes, as we will discuss below.Unrelated psychology research, however, suggests a potential mechanism by which consumers might form reference prices. Original research in the area of satisfaction has shown that consumers often use simplifying heuristics to form integrative satisfaction judgements on the basis of individual satisfaction episodes over time (Kahneman et al. 2003). Specifically, overall satisfaction with an extended experience will be mostly determined by the satisfaction peaks (high or low) felt with individual episodes, and satisfaction felt with the final episode in the experience. This heuristic is called the peak-end rule, and it has been shown to operate in a variety of satisfaction-related settings. While primarily a heuristic used in satisfaction contexts, we will argue why it might also apply in the context of reference price formation, and test it empirically against benchmark models.\n2. Models of reference price formation: Differing formulations of reference price formation have been used in the literature (Winer, 1986; Nasiry and Popescu, 2011). This section will briefly outline commonly used models of reference price formation.2.1 Extrapolative expectations model\n3. Data and analytical approach: As other authors have noted (e.g. Winer, 1986), reference price is an unobservable construct, hence we are unable to measure it directly. We can infer it empirically on the basis of its impact on other marketing variables, however. We obtained IRI scanner panel data in order to calibrate a choice model and to allow us to test the peak-end model empirically against two baseline models. The dataset contains decaffeinated ground coffee purchases for a period of 276 household over a period of 84 weeks, for a total of 3,265 purchases. Decaffeinated coffee was chosen as a product category because consumers tend to be brand loyal and no close substitute categories are available to offer consumers dissonance-free alternatives in case of sticker shock. An unexpectedly high price is therefore likely to be salient since a difficult decision needs to be made whether to accept it or go without the desired product. Another advantage of decaffeinated coffee is that the number of brands is limited, and hence a sufficient number of observations per brand are available. The dataset keeps track of purchase quantity, regular and promoted price, and other promotional variables. The data were split in a calibration sample (176 households and 2,032 purchase incidents) and a holdout sample (100 households and 1,233 purchases incidents) to enable us to assess predictive validity. To ensure a sufficient number of purchase incidents, only the top four brands were included in the study. Together they account for more than 80 percent of purchases. The baseline brand choice model was formulated using the common multinomial logit function: Equation 5 In this, the variables are defined as follows:X0j =Brand constant.X1ij =Brand loyalty of household i to brand j. These variables are calibrated on the first 32 weeks of purchase history, and measured by the brand's share of purchases by the household. We include this variable as a measure of heterogeneity among households.X2ijt =Brand purchase dummy, indicating whether household i bought brand j in period t.X3ijt =Price paid by household i for brand j in period t.X4ijt =Promotional dummy, indicating whether household i bought brand j in period t on promotion.The peak-end model is operationalized by adding a fifth variable to the baseline brand choice model, namely sticker shock: X5ijt=X3ijt-Pijtr with Pijtr the peak-end formulation of reference price proposed earlier. Relative improvement in fit between the models will then allow us to assess the merits of the peak-end model of reference price.\n4. Empirical results: The model coefficients were estimated in SAS using the maximum likelihood procedure. The estimation results can be found in Table I. The null model, included to provide a baseline maximum likelihood level, refers to a model of brand choice containing only brand intercepts. In this model, choice probability of each consumer is equal to market share. The base model adds a set of non-reference price covariates to the null model: brand loyalty, last purchase dummy, last price paid and promotion dummy. The final model adds reference price based on the peak-end model as an independent variable.As can be seen from Table I, and consistent with the extant literature, the base model is a very significant improvement over the null model. The relative magnitude of the model coefficients' t-values are also consistent with prior research results. Price and promotional coefficients are high, reflecting the known high price elasticity for consumer goods (Farley et al. 1995). The addition of reference price leads to a smaller but still significant improvement in model fit. As might be expected, the coefficient of price drops significantly after adding the sticker shock variable, but remains highly statistically significant. This is evidence that price and reference price (sticker shock) are independent constructs. If sticker shock represented merely an alternative way of formulating the impact of price, then multicollinearity would be the case, meaning that the coefficients of price and sticker shock cannot be independently estimated, resulting in high variances. The t-values of both variables have high absolute values (5.69 and 4.97), however, so we may rule out the possibility that these variables represent separate measurements of the same construct.Further analyzing the results in Table I, the peak-end reference price addition to the base model improves the U-squared statistic by .62 percent. This is a small but worthwhile improvement, and is statistically significant (Chi-squared value of 25.03; p<0.01). It is therefore worthwhile to introduce a peak-end reference price formulation to brand choice models, and we conclude that H1 is supported.Note that our reference price model contains an unknown carryover constant l. The value of l was estimated by varying its value between 0 and 1, and finding the value that maximizes the log-likelihood of the brand choice model. This lead to the estimate l[?]0.7, indicating a higher relative weight for the final price in reference price formation. However, the peak price retains a significant weight with a value of (1-l)=0.3. The second hypothesis that the peak price has a non-zero weight follows directly from the first. Indeed, assuming a zero weight for the peak price implies l=1, which is the baseline model, which we have shown to be inferior to the peak-end model based on l=0.7. We conclude that the peak price has a statistically significant effect on consumers' reference price, and that for the tested dataset, its impact on the reference price is just short of half the impact of the final price (0.3 versus 0.7).In order to further validate the model results, the estimates from the calibration group were used to form predictions of brand choice for the holdout sample. The null model performs poorly, with only 28.8 percent of brand choice predictions correctly classified. For the base model, this improves to 84.0 percent correct classifications. Incorporating the peak-end formulation yields 85.2 percent correct classifications of brand choice. This is a small but meaningful improvement in predictive validity, and we therefore conclude that it is worthwhile to include a peak-end formulation of reference price in choice models.\n5. Discussion: The above analysis shows the peak-end model of reference price to be a valid conceptualization of the construct. Our empirical analysis of ground decaffeinated coffee data shows the peak-end model to deliver statistically significant improvements over a base model not containing reference price. Compared to previous models of reference price formation, the peak-end formulation has arguably a stronger behavioral rationale, in that it builds on a large body of empirical work supporting the peak-end rule in a variety of contexts (Kahneman et al. 2003). Even though most of this work is in the satisfaction domain, the concept of reference price is closely linked to satisfaction via the concept of sticker shock, which is essentially a satisfaction response to an observed price level.If one accepts the notion that the peak-end formulation constitutes a behaviorally more plausible process of reference price formation, one can derive some implications for managers who need to make price and promotions decisions. First, our results show that the peak price has a nonzero weight in the reference price. This means that it may be to the benefit of the firm to occasionally raise the price of the brand above a level that might normally be considered desirable, as a tactic to restore the reference price. Such a tactic of intentional sticker shock carries obvious risks and should be carefully considered against potential downsides. Moreover, this tactic seems best suited to frequently purchased product contexts, where the frequency of sales minimizes the impact of a lost sale during the peak-price period. Based on the structure of the peak-end rule, this tactic needs to be used only sparingly and for a short time period to be effective.\n6. Study limitations and future research: Our results were obtained from the analysis of scanner panel data for one product category only. Future studies should replicate these findings in other product contexts. While we expect the peak-end rule to be valid for other product categories than the one tested, the relative weights of final to peak price may be quite different. These results should be tested not only for frequently purchased products, but also for infrequently purchased and/or high-involvement products.One of the reasons we chose decaffeinated coffee as a category was that brand and category loyalty is quite strong, making consumers more likely to accept or at least contemplate a high price. Categories where this might also be the case are essential goods and services like gasoline, electricity, medical services, basic food staples, repairs and maintenance products. Future research could study category effects depending on the substitutability of the product category. We expect the impact of the peak price to be reduced when readily substitutes are available.Although prospect theory predicts a stronger peak-price effect for high prices (because they represent a loss rather than a gain), it would be of interest to extend the study to include low peak prices. There is a substantial literature in marketing showing that frequent promotional discounts erodes consumers' reference price (Greenleaf, 1995; Krishna et al., 1991). If the finding holds that the low peak price has a significant effect on reference price, the managerial implication would be to avoid deep discounts in particular, as their impact would be particularly deleterious. This is because the peak-end rule suggests the magnitude of discounts to be especially important, even if such large discounts are only rarely available. Another implication is that it does not matter if the discount is offered only rarely.Other future research could investigate how long-lasting the effect of peak price is. The peak-end rule suggests that the effect is quite durable, but it would be worthwhile investigating where the limit lies, and what contextual factors are important. In many product contexts, prices change over time and consumers are aware that historical prices are not always realistically available anymore. This suggests that further refinements could be made to reference price models in the pursuit of improved predictive ability of choice models.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The objective of this paper is to propose and empirically test a potential mechanism for how consumers form reference prices. The proposed peak-end rule of reference price formation says that reference prices are formed as a weighted average of the highest observed price and the most recent price.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors argue why the peak-end rule observed in satisfaction contexts may also apply to the process by which consumers form reference prices. They then test the proposed peak-end rule using IRI scanner panel data for decaffeinated coffee.\nFindings: - Fit and predictive validity of a choice model improves when a reference price term based on the peak-end rule is added. While the most recent price has a greater impact on reference price, the effect of the highest observed peak price is also significant, managerially and statistically.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study provides evidence for a novel and behaviorally plausible reference price formation process.\nPractical implications: - Temporarily charging a high price has a longer-lasting effect on reference price than would be suggested by other reference price models, which typically involve a quickly decaying lag effect. Temporarily charging a very high price to restore the reference price may therefore be a useful pricing tactic.\nOriginality/value: - While the peak-end rule is amply supported as a mechanism by which consumers form global satisfaction judgements, its application to reference price formation is novel, and has some potentially useful implications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
From one-sized to over-individualized? Service logic's value creation
|
[
"Social constructionism",
"Value creation",
"Service logic",
"Public value",
"Group value"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Healthcare management fashion (Alvesson, 2011) in the last few decades has mainly retrieved inspiration from the manufacturing industry (Batalden et al., 2016). The so-called value chain (Porter and Millar, 1985)--and its conception that value is produced through predefined and sequential steps--has been particularly popular among healthcare managers. Translated to a healthcare context, the value chain implies that illnesses are treated in a linear fashion through standardized processes (Christensen et al., 2009).\nService logic's value creation: In service logic, it is the integration of both tangible and intangible resources that constitutes the service. Thus, service frames both tangible and intangible resources, or traditional goods and traditional services. Therefore, all providers are to be regarded as service providers that integrate resources from one another to create value (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). The tangible resources include products and raw material. However, a service logic favors the intangible resources, which include knowledge, skills, information, competencies, relationships, etc. (Tronvoll, 2007).\nSocial constructionism: This section presents social constructionism because these ideas are used as a lens through which the value concept and the creation of value is to be understood. Social constructionism has been important in increasing understanding of organization and management in a healthcare context (Dar, 2008; Hujala and Rissanen, 2012).\nValue: beyond private and subjective: As mentioned above, questioning the taken-for-granted is a major commonality among the various strands of social constructionism (Barlebo Wenneberg, 2001). At first, many key aspects of a service logic may be hard to argue against: who does not favor patient focus rather than focus on the organization's internal processes? Who does not prefer to conceive the patient as an active value co-creator rather than a passive value-receiver? As enchanting as these ideas may seem, the positive aspects are not a matter of course. The following sections seek to problematize and nuance some of the value creation ideas of a service logic. This first section focuses on the inherent individualism that complicates understanding of group and public values.\nValue creation: beyond the active customer and enabling interactions: In this section, the seemingly positive shift in roles in co-creation--toward an active value-creating customer--is problematized. This is done both on the basis of formal rules and responsibilities as well as informal rules and social norms. These social structures are also used to nuance the overly positive notion of interaction in service logic, suggesting structures to hinder some individuals and groups co-creation actions and interactions, but not others.\nInterconnected value creation: The preceding sections have problematized the individualized notion of value to neglect the group and public levels, which is considered important in value creation. The premises of service logic of the active value-creating customer that participates in fruitful interactions with the provider and others were also problematized. It is argued that formal and informal rules may hinder customers from taking over tasks and participate in enabling interactions--and more so for members of certain groups than others. This section seeks to tie together the above by suggesting the importance to conceive value creation as interconnected.\nConclusion: The aim of this paper has been to nuance the individualized notion of the value-creating customer of the service logic, which is gaining increased interest in healthcare management. It is clear that there is already a displacement in vocabulary taking place, from a passively waiting patient at the end of a value chain to the enchanting notion of the active and rational patient co-creating value with multiple actors.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is a current trend in healthcare management away from produced and standardized one-size-fits-all processes toward co-created and individualized services. The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the value concept in healthcare organization and management by recognizing different levels of value (private, group and public) and the interconnectedness among these levels.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses social constructionism as a lens to problematize the individualization of service logic's value concept. Theories from consumer culture theory/transformative service research and public management add group and public levels of value to the private level.\nFindings: An intersubjective (rather than subjective) approach to value creation entails the construction and sharing of value perceptions among groups of people. Such an approach also implies that group members may face similar barriers in their value creation efforts.\nPractical implications: Healthcare management should be aware of the inherent individualism of service logic and, consequently, the need to balance private value with group and public levels of value.\nSocial implications: Identifying and addressing disadvantaged groups and the reasons for their disadvantaged positions is important in order to enhance the individual's value creation prerequisites as well as to address public and societal values, such as equal/equitable health(care).\nOriginality/value: It is important to complement service logic's value creation with group and public levels in order to understand the complexity and interconnectedness of value and the creation thereof.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Deconstructing Islamic banking - history of debates, and steps to an alternative future
|
[
"Islamic banking",
"Islamic finance",
"CLA",
"Islamic jurisprudence",
"Islamic thoughts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The main method of analysis in this article will be \"Causal Layered Analysis\" (CLA). Derived from theories of poststructuralist discourse, and developed by Inayatullah (2002), CLA provides a basis for critiquing the social construct of the \"real\" and offers a layered approach with which to analyse the results and provide a framework for the discourse from the key focus areas of this research. CLA has the ability to create new ways of knowing by interpreting and re-interpreting issues and their solutions. This provides a rich method for the analysis of complex and multi-layered problems; it consists of four levels: the litany, social causes, discourse/worldview and myth/metaphor.\nRoots of ideas making up the fabric of Islamic banking in the Muslim world: There are a range of basic principles that constitute the intellectual scene in the Muslim world. These interact with each other and are difficult to isolate. These constitute the fabric of ideas amongst which Muslim collective thought permeates at the world level, especially for the religious. Understanding these components may help us to understand the current intellectual status and its future destination.\nRepercussions of intellectual crisis on Islamic banking: Kuran (2005) wages strong criticism on the Islamic economics campaign and claims that it was unable to show the advantages and principles of this economy in a way that enabled the economic expert to be aware. Nor did it produce solutions, the application of which surpassed the scope of a small minority of Muslims. He believed that the Islamic economics reinforced the illusion that Muslims are able to solve the problems they faced by merely embracing Islam and resisting capitalist greed.\nThe future of Islamic banking thought: The most important problem faced by the researcher in the financial and economic sciences is the complexity of this system, and any attempt to develop a simple and specific model to predict its future becomes extremely difficult (El Diwany, 2010), but if we were able to anticipate the direction of possible change in the Islamic banking ideas, then it would be a great achievement, regardless of its magnitude. Here lies the importance of future studies. If Ibn Khaldun managed through his scientific methodology to study Arab history and civilisation and to extract its social laws, then, likewise, a contemporary Muslim is required to study these laws to come out of his current crisis (Elnfisi, 2013).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is almost a consensus amongst Muslim scholars that the most crucial problem faced by the Muslim world is in the prevailing ideas (including sanctification, archaism, the common paradigm, the absence of the role of the intellectual, etc.) which formulate people's thoughts and determine their options. There will not be a genuine renaissance of Islam without updating these ideas and emerging from the cocoon of the past. This can be done through a modern approach which would respond to the changes by looking towards the future rather than towards the past. This study aims to identify the intellectual aspects of this crisis and how this crisis has formed and influenced Islamic banking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To analyse this crisis, the methodology called causal layered analysis (CLA) is used, which is drawn from the field of strategic foresight and designed by Inayatullah (2002). CLA is designed on the basis that the way to understand the nature of the problem will determine the proposed solutions, by diving through the surface phenomena of the problem to the depth of the \"motors\" of the crisis.\nFindings: The author finds that Islamic banking is the offspring of its incubator ideas and reform, and the change and progress of Islamic banking can only deal with a critical approach of these ideas; Islamic banking promotes itself as an alternative to conventional banking, but this has not been achieved except on the level of form rather than substance; Islamic banking is a movement within a variable reality, and inertia in specific form and context will keep it in a state of crisis and may lead to its demise.\nOriginality/value: To the author's knowledge, this is the first study showing the roots of the ideas making up the fabric of banking in the Muslim world and the repercussions of intellectual crisis on Islamic banking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of listening in e-contact center customer relationship management
|
[
"E-satisfaction",
"Service quality",
"Active empathic listening",
"E-retailing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to US Census Bureau News (2012), retail e-commerce sales reached almost $57 billion for the third quarter of 2012, and sustained an average annual growth rate of 17.3 per cent from 2011. As e-retailing has developed rapidly, practitioners and researchers have recognized the difference between traditional retailing and e- retailing in terms of building customer relationships and maintaining service quality.\nE-contact centers and customer relationships: Employee behavior in e-contact centers\nMethodology: An online survey was conducted to collect data. Two-thousand e-mail invitations were distributed to a randomly selected national (USA) sample purchased from an independent online research company. The response rate was 21.05 per cent. The usable responses were limited to those who had contacted e-contact centers which were 253. This usable sample was 210 after the screening process. The sample characteristics are presented in Table I.\nAnalysis and results: Measurement model\nDiscussion and implications: The main purpose of the study was to examine the relationships between e-listening and interpersonal service quality and utilitarian value. The study also examined the interrelationships between customer relationship factors including interpersonal service quality, utilitarian value, e-satisfaction (with the e-contact center and the e-retailer) and customer loyalty to the e-retailer. The results of the current study contribute to the extant literature by identifying the importance of AEL in e-contact centers (e-listening), and the linkages between e-listening and possible customer relationship relevant outcomes.\nLimitations and further research: The study is subject to some limitations. First, the study utilizes general AEL constructs identified in previous research (Drollinger et al., 2006). Although these constructs provide a way to differentiate the cognitive aspects of AEL, and therefore a mechanism for discerning utilitarian value, further qualitative studies on nonverbal cues in online communications would develop insights into more granular, behavioral dimensions and effects of e-listening.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The main purpose of the study is to examine the relationships between e-listening and customers' perceptions of interpersonal service quality and utilitarian value during e-contact center interactions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Participants completed an online survey about their service experiences with e-contact centers. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: This study found that e-listening is highly related to interpersonal service quality and utilitarian value. Interpersonal service quality is positively related to e-satisfaction and e-loyalty, both with e-contact centers and e-retailers.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study utilizes general active empathetic listening (AEL) constructs identified in previous research. Although these constructs provide a way to differentiate the cognitive aspects of AEL, and therefore, a mechanism for discerning utilitarian value, further qualitative studies on nonverbal cues in online communications would develop insights into more granular, behavioral dimensions and effects of e-listening. In addition, the study is based on general e-retailing processes, and is not focused on a specific business or sector. The magnitude of the effects of e-listening on the different factors related to customer relationships may vary with different sectors.\nPractical implications: E-contact centers should provide interpersonal interactions that emphasize utilitarian value. The centers should be staffed by employees who are well trained in AEL and who are provided with appropriate resources. The interactions of these e-contact centers can provide significant input to e-retailers about the improvement of service quality and resulting customer e-loyalty.\nOriginality/value: The research provides an original view of service quality in e-contact center contexts and makes a valuable contribution to understanding the evolving service offerings of multi-channel e-retailing. The study provides support for the argument that value and quality in interpersonal interactions with e-contact centers lead to satisfaction and consequently to customer loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Emotional connections in higher education marketing
|
[
"Marketing",
"Branding",
"Advertising",
"Higher education",
"Emotion",
"Decision making",
"Students",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The UK Higher Education sector is an important part of the economy both in terms of its contribution to knowledge through graduate employability, international research and interaction with industry. The sector comprises 166 higher education institutions of which 116 are universities. These institutions accommodate approximately 2.4 million students and employ nearly 375,000 staff (Universities UK, 2010). As part of its austerity programme the UK's new coalition government have taken a new approach to University funding, essentially cutting central government funding for university activities and creating a framework where such funding will largely be a function of market demand.At a general level, the concept of marketing has grown in importance for universities across the world from the 1980s onwards (Kotler and Fox, 1995) and particularly in the UK since the re-designation of polytechnics to universities in 1992. The resulting increase in sectoral competition highlighted a need to create more distinct brand identities and has compelled universities to more fully consider marketing principles as they improve their efforts to attract and retain students both in the domestic and international markets (Brookes, 2003; Domino et al., 2006; Bennett and Ali-Choudhury, 2009).As a concept, the marketing of education remains relatively new and it is a discipline area that has stimulated much debate within the higher education sector in particular. At an academic level it has been argued that the level of analysis being applied to higher education marketing is inadequate as \"the literature lacks theoretical models that reflect on the particular HE context\" (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2006). At a more practical level there is a lack of clarity regarding to what extent, if any, a business-oriented marketing approach which places the \"student customer\" at the centre of all activity is appropriate within the higher education proposition. This lack of clarity is evidenced through the often polarized views expressed among commentators as to whether students are in fact \"customers\" in the conventional sense (see Brookes, 2003; Svensson and Wood, 2007; Eagle and Brennan, 2007). Barrett (1996) goes so far as to propose that it is \"regrettable and ominous that the marketing focus, explicitly borrowed from business, should be accepted and even welcomed\" in a higher education context. That said, political changes have impacted the funding model to such an extent that a more professional market-driven approach will be a necessity within the UK university sector.\nMarketing in the higher education context: The elements of globalisation in higher education are widespread and multi-faceted and the HE market is now well established as a global phenomenon especially in major English speaking nations (Binsardi and Ekwulugo, 2003).In parallel, as a response to these global change dynamics the value, effectiveness and potential benefits of using marketing theories and concepts which have been effective in the business world, are gradually now being applied to many universities with a view to gaining a competitive edge (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2006).Accordingly, UK universities have increased the investment made in their marketing departments and broadened the scope of their marketing activity in recent years (Foskett and Hemsley-Brown, 2001). Almost two-thirds of UK universities have increased their investment in marketing by 10-20 per cent over the past three years (Stamp, 2007). However, research into the new area of education marketing is limited and largely \"incoherent\" (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2006) and has its origins in the US and UK in the 1980s. Such thinking and approaches were largely based on models developed for use in the business sector (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2006) and were implemented without any significant contextual adaptation.Government funding pressures apart, the greatest change dynamic within the sector currently is that of demographics and the ongoing decline in the number of 18 year olds in the UK. The analysis of demographic data by Universities UK (2010) finds that the percentage change in the Northern Ireland population of 18-20 year olds shows an -11 per cent decline taken from a base line of 2006, which drops to -15 per cent if taken from 2009-2020. This is similar across the UK and Ireland.As this undergraduate segment of the market is the core of most universities business such a decline is of critical strategic importance and has created the impetus for increased marketing efforts by universities as they try to maintain and grow their share of a declining market (Stamp, 2007) and better develop new income streams from other markets and segments.The confluence of these forces can be regarded as a \"perfect storm\" for Higher Education players in the UK through the coming decade and points up the need for universities to develop stronger connections and relationships with potential customers from an early age.\nThe student \"customer\" in higher education: There is much debate both in the academic literature and in the sector's marketing departments regarding the perceived positive and negative aspects of the \"student as customer\" concept. The advent of deferred fees in UK higher education has led to some commentators taking the position that students must be regarded as customers in the same way as would other purchasers of goods or services (Bejou, 2005).An alternative school of thought (Emery et al., 2003) proposes that while students contribute to the cost of their education the contract is not one of \"purchase\". The risks attached to the \"purchase\" model are argued to centre on the resulting perception by students that in adopting a consumerist perspective they should expect good grades irrespective of effort or quality of outcome (Clayson and Haley, 2005).Linked to issues of outcome quality is the possible risk for academic delivery staff who, in maintaining academic standards and not automatically supplying good grades without merit, may themselves be \"marked down\" by students through university teaching satisfaction questionnaire exercises (Yunker and Yunker, 2003).Sharrock (2000) and Halbesleben et al. (2003) propose that expectations management of students is therefore critical and that \"there needs to be a clear understanding that tuition facilitates education but does not 'cause it'\" (Eagle and Brennan, 2007).Rather than students being considered \"customers\" of their higher education experience it is argued that it is more useful to consider them consumers of that experience (Conway et al., 1994) given that there appears to be no other service encounter where the quality of outcome depends as much on the efforts of the consumer. Related to this customer concept is the nature of the product being sold and this too has been widely debated. Students are argued not to be \"buying degrees\" but are instead buying the benefits that a degree can provide in terms of employment, status and lifestyle (Naude and Ivy, 1999).That said, whether classified formally as customers or not, the significant increase of UK tuition fees in 2006 highlighted that students are paying for a service and that universities are therefore regarded to be providing an appropriate value proposition in return for that payment. There is ongoing debate about the nature of the education \"product/service\" and the responsibility of the student customer in the exchange transaction but despite this students increasingly perceive universities as service providers from which they are making a purchase (Bok, 2003). At a sectoral level this more commercial perspective has also been strengthened by the introduction of various customer-oriented benchmarks, for example the UK's National Student Survey of student satisfaction which helps facilitate more informed decision-making by potential applicants while at the level of individual universities the perception of a \"customer orientation\" is strengthened through the issue of in-semester teaching quality/satisfaction surveys to students through which they are asked to evaluate the value of their learning experience. Influential too are the plethora of on-line fora where existing students, as well as potential applicants, share their perspectives about institutions and where more traditional institutional \"push\" communications have more limited influence. Recent changes to the funding model announced by the UK coalition government only accentuate the competitive pressures within the sector moving forward and provide a greater sense of customer empowerment to the future student.While there has been a recognition that marketing, however understood and practised in HE, is generally important the practical outcome of this perceived importance has gravitated towards promotion and recruitment activity (e.g. open days, advertising campaigns, alumni events) rather than on more holistic or strategic aspects of marketing such as orientation, market fit and the currency and relevance of the courses being offered.\nThe case university: This research describes a marketing context that existed within Ireland's largest university. University of Ulster physically operates across four campuses in Northern Ireland and has over 24,000 students registered and has undergraduate applications approaching 34,000 each year. The university prides itself on its economic, social and cultural engagement across the Northern Ireland region and is widely respected for its highly successful widening access and participation approaches which have provided a breadth of opportunity for aspiring students from across Northern Ireland to engage in HE. Ulster is respected for the delivery of teaching and research excellence that is relevant to the local economy in this context. With an international profile, the university also attracts a significant number of international students.In recognition of changes in the local and national market the university established a dedicated division responsible for marketing to students in 2007. Atypically, the traditional bureaucratic culture often found in universities was relatively absent and this new division was given a creative mandate to challenge existing \"student facing\" approaches and was tasked to develop new ideas that would serve to positively differentiate the University in the local and national market. It is from this new Student Marketing Division that the branding exercise described here emanated and was implemented between 2008-2010.\nConnecting and engaging potential customers: Within the HE sector, traditional \"University - customer\" marketing communications have often focused on attempting to influence rational decision-making processes and as such were often targeted to parents and other key influencers (e.g. school teachers, family members) rather than to the potential end-customer (the future university student).Traditionally, such rational messaging approaches focused on emphasising quality-assured teaching processes (UK's QAA is often cited), research assessment exercise results (RAE), levels of industry engagement and the quality of the student experience (e.g. issues of location, facilities, student community and support structures).The extent to which such messages and messaging strategies directly reached and influenced the younger potential customer is unclear. By moving away from this what might be termed, rational persuasion model, towards one more focused on creating an emotionally driven decision-making process at the level of the end customer, University of Ulster adopted a new approach within the sector. That is not to say that any attempts to influence rational decision-making were eliminated but rather that a more emotionally oriented approach would be used in an attempt to act as a bridge between awareness and understanding for younger potential customers with respect to evaluating Ulster's value proposition.Branding objectives\nResearch of concepts: Several branding and advertising concepts were initially explored and tested through both qualitative and quantitative methods. An animated character-driven treatment was shortlisted by the university and agency as having the greatest potential (see Figure 1).\nOrigins of the animated branding concept: Due to the increasing appeal of animation globally, the marketing team believed there was a real opportunity to both convey a message and connect with an audience through an animated solution for Ulster. This was felt to be particularly the case given that the audience being targeted is exposed and receptive to sophisticated animation daily from many media. Animation is no longer limited to the young but embraced both by teens and adults. The central character concept was informed by the styling of Japanese manga animation and specifically designed to appeal to prospective school-leavers. Efforts were made to make the character as androgynous as possible for the widest appeal, although internally the character was perceived as \"male\".\"He\" was specifically clad in colours reflecting the palette of the university, potentially becoming an effective \"icon\" for the university at undergraduate level. Indeed the character and his entire environment is uniquely tailored (as is only possible with animation), to represent the university at a visual and fundamental level.In so doing the Ulster brand was re-positioned in a more contemporary and innovative way, which was highly differentiated from the brand positions of key competitors.Additionally, and from a business perspective, the animated branding device of Eddie became an emotionally-connected \"carrier\" for the consumption of more rational selling messages that would be less likely to reach the target market in other less direct ways.The \"Eddie\" TV advertisement\nConclusion: Dynamic change within the UK higher education sector has many components. At the level of the customer, the fee-paying environment has brought changes in customer expectations and a consequent change to the search-buy behaviour processes employed by customers in terms of how a degree offering and institution is chosen. A new UK funding model and increasingly deregulated fee environment will come into being from 2012 and will impact further both customer behavior and potentially market structure itself.Accordingly, there has never been a more important time for marketing investment within higher education institutions. In the absence of universities engaging with potential customers and clearly defining and communicating differentiated value propositions, potential customers will begin to identify \"value\" on their own terms. This approach will likely be driven by a need to better understand not just what their course will do for them in terms of utility/employability but also in terms of the differential advantage conveyed by the institutional brand from which their degree comes. Such customer evaluation processes need to be understood by managers and then positively influenced and managed.This paper outlined how University of Ulster has responded creatively to this growing marketing challenge early, created a department focused exclusively on student marketing activity and engaged an emotionally-driven marketing approach through which to connect and engage prospective undergraduate customers.Early research findings over the past two years indicate that aiming to influence a decision in the mind of the potential young customer can be helped through the use of a branding a marketing strategy which uses emotion as a way of bridging the gap between institutional awareness, understanding and desire for affiliation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Through examination of a case study this paper aims to describe a brand re-positioning exercise and explore how an emotionally driven approach to branding can help create meaningful connections with potential undergraduate students and can positively influence choice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper's approach is a case study description with quantitative analysis in support.\nFindings: - The use of an emotionally driven branding concept has positively impacted business development and brand likeability within a UK university.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is specific to one case study and evaluation of success remains relatively early. Initial implications relate to the potential use of emotion in higher education marketing communications and how the use of emotion acted as an enabler of more rational decision-making processes within the case university context.\nOriginality/value: - An exploration of issues related to the marketing of higher education services is of great importance at this time. The case study described offers value and learning for readers of the journal from both a theoretical and practical perspective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Creating the maximum impact apprenticeship experience: The learning value of relationships from onboarding and beyond
|
[
"Informal learning",
"Professional development",
"Apprenticeship",
"Onboarding",
"Cognitive apprenticeship"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Delivering quality apprenticeships that add optimum value to the modern world is now about more than an expert passing on their skills to a trainee. The professional development of an apprentice along their learning journey and how well they are welcomed and integrated into a business during the onboarding process are both significant factors that can strengthen any business that executes them with strategic elegance.\nInside the mind of apprenticeship: When viewed against apprenticeships in the West, apprenticeship in Korea is less mature in its development. Therefore through establishing concepts built on success examples seen in the West, Korea's employment market can benefit without relying on time-consuming trial and error. An apprenticeship can be defined as a hybrid of practical training and education and one that cumulatively moves an individual into a workplace role by deploying their evolving skills to benefit the business. Indeed, apprenticeship as an overall concept is made up of, and must be aligned with, the rhythms of our current society, to be able to pump out the desired value into that society. This requires an effective apprenticeship strategy to address both an internal community-based process of learning and incorporating an operational view of maintaining and evaluating high-quality standards throughout the apprenticeship program's delivery.\nOnboarding and beyond: Thoughtful and well-planned onboarding aims to provide a quality social invitation into the culture of an organization and one that forms a foundation for an efficient performance trajectory in apprentices. In other words, onboarding can be defined as an employee's experiential landing strip into a new organization. There are three structural stages that the onboarding journey can be divided into:\nStructuring thoughtful strategy: Employers who deliver optimal apprenticeship experiences can enjoy the benefits of developing homegrown talent. Apprenticeships are most successful where they are interesting and where the apprentice is genuinely welcomed into the social aspect of the organization, which is a natural vehicle for informal learning. Considerate apprenticeship program design is therefore paramount to creating a platform that can support predictable success. The study found that Korea has some way to go in assisting apprentices to transition smoothly from a school learning environment to the collaborative practicalities of a skilled labor market, and the following guiding principles provide a foundation for planning and implementing improvements:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: This conceptual paper concentrates on how emotionally considerate onboarding and training serve to integrate an apprentice into the social fabric of an organization. In the context of apprenticeships, more work can be done in Korea to improve the commercial power that collaborative relationships between colleagues can inject into a workplace and its learning culture.\nPractical implications: The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent, information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Perceived organizational support and performance: Relationships across levels of organizational cynicism
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Organizational behaviour",
"Performance management",
"Employee attitudes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Steve notices that top management is taking a real interest in him lately.\nConceptual framework and hypotheses: Perceived organizational support\nMethodology: We conducted two studies to assess the magnitude and form of the POS-OC interaction on performance. POS and OC were measured identically in each study, representing what Lykken (1968) termed a \"constructive\" replication. Replications serve to bolster theoretical arguments if results across studies are consistent in form and magnitude (Tsang and Kwan, 1999).To be uniform with prior job performance research (e.g. Williams and Anderson, 1991), we considered both in-role and extra-role behavior (organizational citizenship behaviors; OCBs). In-role performance refers to behaviors that are directly linked to job descriptions and work rules, and are formally recognized and rewarded by the organization. Extra-role or citizenship behaviors represent voluntary (typically) work behaviors, not directly linked to job descriptions, that contribute to the overall performance of the organization (Organ, 1997). In study 2, we included an index of self-reported effort as a dependent variable. Demonstrating performance success is affected by a myriad of factors, many of which are uncontrollable (e.g. technology failures, waiting for others). Conversely, effort is more amendable to individuals' calibration, and hence represents a form of contribution that may be more proximal. We controlled for negative affectivity due to its documented relationships with job performance and cynicism (e.g. Johnson and O'Leary-Kelly, 2003) - both of which may disrupt our ability to accurately assess the relationship between substantive predictors. Lastly, we controlled for the potentially spurious effects of demographic (e.g. age and gender) and tenure variables (e.g. position and organization).\nStudy 1: method: Participants and procedures\nResults - study 1: Table I reports descriptive statistics. Regression results appear in Table II. NA was related to both in-role performance (b=-.22, p<0.01) and OCBs (b=-.27, p<0.01). Linear POS was significantly related to in-role performance (b=0.22, p<0.01), but not OCBs (b=0.06, NS). Finally, the linear-OC by non-linear-POS interaction term explained incremental criterion variance for both in-role performance (b=-.27, DAdj R2=0.03, p<0.01) and OCBs (b=-.41, DAdj R2=0.04, p<0.01). No variance inflation score exceeded 1.95, suggesting that method effects were minimal.As noted above, because significant effects emerged in the final regression step, mean splits were used to categorize high and low organizational cynicism groups (median splits offer comparable results in terms of form and magnitude). Linear and non-linear POS terms were regressed on each dependent outcome for both groups (full tables are available from the authors), to further explore the nature of the significant relationships.For the low organizational cynicism group, the linear (b=0.09, NS; b=-.04, NS) and non-linear (b=0.10, NS; b=0.15, NS) POS terms failed to predict in-role performance or OCBs, respectively. Thus, H2 was not supported. For the high organizational cynicism group, the linear POS (b=0.08, NS; b=0.02, NS) term did not predict in-role performance and OCBs, respectively. However, the non-linear POS term was related to in-role performance (b=-0.32, DAdj R2=0.06, p<0.01) and OCBs (b=-.29, DAdj R2=0.05, p<0.01) for the high organizational cynicism group. A negative beta in this step indicates a non-linear term represented by an inverted-U form (Cohen and Cohen, 1983); hence, H1 was supported. Specifically, performance improved as POS increased to a level just past the midpoint, where it began to decline. It is important to note that performance was lowest, in absolute terms, when POS was lowest for this group relative to when POS was highest. Figures of these significant associations are available from the authors.\nMethods - study 2: Participants and procedures\nResults - study 2: Tables I and II provide summary and regression results, respectively. NA, POS, and OC were associated with each performance outcome in the expected direction. The linear OC by linear POS interaction was significant for effort (b=-0.17, DAdj R2=0.02, p<0.05; graphic interpretations of this finding is available from the authors). The linear-OC by non-linear-POS interaction term explained incremental criterion variance for in-role performance (b=-0.22, DAdj R2=0.03, p<0.05), extra-role behavior (b=-0.15, DAdj R2=0.02, p<0.05), and effort (b=-0.24, DAdj R2=0.03, p<0.01). Again, variance inflation scores were modest by psychometric standards, failing to exceed 2.10.As in study 1, analyses were conducted for high and low cynicism subgroups. For the low OC group, the linear POS term failed to predict in-role performance (b=0.05, NS). However, the linear POS term predicted extra-role performance (b=0.14, p<0.05) and effort (b=0.21, p<0.05), thus providing partial support for H2. For the high OC group, the linear POS (b=0.02, NS; b=0.04, NS; b=0.12, NS) term was not associated with in-role performance, extra-role performance, or effort, respectively. Conversely, the non-linear POS term predicted in-role performance (b=-0.26, DAdj R2=0.04, p<0.01), extra-role performance (b=-0.27, DAdj R2=0.04, p<0.01), and effort (b=-0.30, DAdj R2=0.05, p<0.01) for the high OC group, supporting H1. These results are shown in Figures 1-3.\nDiscussion: We hypothesized that individuals' perceived organizational cynicism would differentially predict POS-performance relationships. Specifically, we expected that POS would linearly (and positively) predict performance for those reporting low levels of organizational cynicism. Further, we posited that cynics would demonstrate a low level of performance when faced with high or low levels of support. Many of these hypotheses received support. For example, POS predicted in-role and extra-role performance in study 1 and extra-role performance and effort in study 2.Most relevant to this research, we found that the relationship between POS and performance was uniformly non-linear for individuals reporting high levels of organizational cynicism across source of performance ratings (i.e. incumbents and managers), dimension of performance (i.e. in-role, extra-role, and effort), and sample characteristic (i.e. amalgamation versus specific occupation group). These results call into question the generally assumed view that increases in POS categorically facilitate performance improvement, and further demonstrate that such a positive linear assumption is conditional upon moderators. Further, these findings contribute to the stress literature in that we show that POS may be perceived negatively when the employee-organization relationship is tenuous (Ferris et al., 2006).A result in need of discussion relates to the significant bivariate association between organizational cynicism and perceived support. We expected that these constructs would be inversely related since each reflects either strong positive (i.e. perceived support) or negative (i.e. cynicism) aspects of the work experience. However, the specific causal underpinnings have yet to be addressed in the substantive literature to date. On the one hand, it is plausible that a lack of support promotes cynicism. On the other hand, cynicism-manifested behavior, such as badmouthing the company to others, slacking, or participation in tactics that reflect adverse perceptions of the job (Hochwarter et al., 2004), may limit the support one can expect. Charting the course of the POS-OC relationship over time represents a logical extension to the current research (Hochwarter and Byrne, 2005).Strengths and limitations\nConclusion: Our studies represent a first step in assessing the intricate relationship between organizational support and cynicism by considering non-linear relational forms. Our results indicate that those reporting high OC may actually construe levels of POS negatively; a finding that has received little consideration and confirmation to date. It is our hope that the results of our studies encourage others to expand their conceptual development to capture the realities of contemporary work environments.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - Perceived organizational support is considered a resource capable of positively influencing performance by reducing stressors and encouraging commitment. However, only a modest relationship has been shown between support and performance, suggesting that moderators affect this relationship. To date, no research has examined moderators that might serve to predict non-linear support-performance relational forms. The purpose of this research is to examine how cynicism moderates the relationship between support and performance in a non-linear form.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In study 1, 256 full-time employees from a variety of industries and jobs completed surveys. In study 2, 143 full-time state employees participated.\nFindings: - Those reporting high cynicism actually construe levels of support negatively. Specifically, performance for cynics was highest when perceived support was at moderate levels only. Conversely, performance for cynics was lowest when perceived support was either high or low.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A limitation of our studies was the use of survey methodology for data collection. Tests of multicollinearity suggest, however, that this did not result in method bias. Future research should consider other potential non-linear relationships with organizational support to determine when support is not perceived favorably. Additionally, it may be informative to expand the scope of research on cynicism to include sources (e.g. decision makers, legal system) and an examination of the creation of cynical climates (e.g. frequent layoffs).\nPractical implications: - Recognizing that not all employees (specifically those who are cynical) will perceive support efforts as positive, managers can limit potential negative reactions to support efforts by clarifying their intentions and those of the organization. An increased awareness of possible aversive reactions to what is intended to be supportive, allows managers to better understand and react to cynical employees' behavior.\nOriginality/value: - This study is a first to examine the non-linear relationship between organizational support and performance as moderated by employee cynicism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Multiple pathways linking leader-member exchange to work effort
|
[
"Management roles",
"Leader-member exchange",
"Job attitudes",
"Job performance",
"Organizational identification",
"Supervisory support",
"Organization-based self-esteem",
"Multi-foci perspective"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Leader-member exchange (LMX), the quality of relationships between supervisors and subordinates, has garnered much attention in leadership research. A plethora of research has demonstrated the positive effect of LMX on various forms of job performance, including task performance (Gerstner and Day, 1997; Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995; Kim et al., 2015), innovative performance (Dulebohn et al., 2012; Lee, 2008), and contextual performance (e.g. Wilson et al., 2010; Mahsud et al., 2010). Meanwhile, multiple theories have been employed to explain the LMX-performance relationship. However, researchers lament the fact that LMX research still lacks theory integration (Dulebohn et al., 2012; Kim et al., 2015). Echoing Kim et al.'s (2015) claim, the present research intends to integrate theories in LMX by exploring multiple pathways from LMX to work effort. Work effort is defined as the translation of motivation into completed work (Piccolo et al., 2010). It reflects the energy people commit to their work, and is the precursor of various forms of individual job performance (Brown and Leigh, 1996). Studying multiple mechanisms underlying the LMX-work effort link enables us to integrate theories in LMX research.\nLiterature review and hypotheses: LMX and role identity theory\nMethod: Sample and procedures\nResults: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)\nDiscussion: Taking a multi-foci perspective, the present research sought to integrate and distinguish the individual-, dyad-, and the collective-focused mechanisms underlying the LMX-performance relationship. Relying on role theory, we assumed that LMX motivated employees' work effort through cultivating OBSE, offering supervisory support, and inducing organizational identification. Using a two-wave survey, we found support for the unique and combined mediation of OBSE, supervisory support, and organizational identification in the LMX-work effort relationship. We will discuss theoretical and practical implications of the research in detail.\nConclusion: Taking a multi-foci perspective, the present research distinguishes and integrates multiple pathways linking LMX to work effort. Our time-lagged study suggests that leaders motivate employee effort via follower-, dyad-, and collective-foci, through shaping positive employee self-evaluation, perceived support from the supervisors, and identification with the organization. In particular, the three pathways are distinct, and each explains unique variance in the LMX-work effort relationship. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing and integrating the theoretical underpinnings of LMX, and provide new insights into theory integration in LMX research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to validate, distinguish, and integrate the multiple mechanisms linking leader-member exchange (LMX) to employee work effort. Taking a multi-foci perspective, the authors propose that organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), supervisory support, and organizational identification each explain unique variance in the LMX-work effort relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected using a two-wave survey among 184 employees from a wide variety of professions, industries, and organizations. Multiple mediation tests and path analysis were conducted to examine the hypotheses.\nFindings: The results suggested that when entered simultaneously, OBSE, supervisory support, and organizational identification each explained unique variance in the relationship between LMX at Time 1 and work effort at Time 2.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research shows that leaders stimulate employee work effort via multiple foci. The mediating mechanisms of these foci are distinct and unique. It implies that researchers need to take the multiple foci of leadership into account when studying LMX.\nOriginality/value: Previous studies generally treat LMX as a dyadic construct; the study is among the first to reveal the multiple foci in LMX. By simultaneously examining mechanisms of the individual-, dyad-, and collective-foci, the research substantiates the unique effect of the three mechanisms, and integrates theories in LMX research. Moreover, the research in the Chinese context further validates the effectiveness of LMX in non-western culture, and provides contextual implications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Implementing organizational learning initiatives: integrating three levels of learning
|
[
"Workplace training",
"Learning methods",
"Singapore"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: You want to roll out a series of action plans on organizational learning, but have you considered the key factors that will influence the way your employees learn? Do you realize that a clear definition of goals, a shared vision and appropriate rewards are all crucial for motivating your employees to learn? The following is a list of strategies proposed by four Singapore organizations - two government ministries and two private consultancy firms - for the different levels of learning. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with 24 senior management personnel.\nStrategies for implementing organizational initiatives: The following strategies are ranked in order of importance by the four Singapore organizations.Level 1: individual learning\nConclusion: The integration of the three levels of learning is understandably complex and volatile; however, conscious efforts put in to systematically promote continuous learning within an organization involving changes in systems, structure and strategy have proven to be worthwhile by many organizations worldwide. Of particular concern is the integration of such factors as people, process and purpose that will trigger greater learning in an organization.In summary, Smith (2003, p. 322) concludes that:[...] by changing the rules, all employees including managers will be persuaded to change their habits of thinking, learning, and interacting, without necessarily being made aware that this entails anything other than, for example, a change in roles. It must be borne in mind that new patterns have to emerge, they cannot be imposed; this is achieved as long as the managers and employees themselves help to create the conditions under which the new context can emerge.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to describe and analyze the three levels of learning which take place in organizational contexts. It also provides practical strategies on how individual, team and organizational learning can be developed and integrated to propel collective learning.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Semi-structured interviewing was employed in this study through four Singapore organizations. Views were gathered and collated from 24 senior management personnel representing both the private and public sectors.\nFindings: - Rich qualitative data were obtained and presented in meaningful excerpts from selected respondents. Additionally, suggestions on learning strategies were quantified according to the number of mentions and the concurrence of viewpoints. The usefulness of these strategies lies in the order in which they have been ranked, from the most to the least crucial.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Although this study was limited by the single geographical context, it provides theoretical insights for further research. For instance, the integration of human resource and cognitive learning perspectives is critical to the understanding of the way individuals behave and act in the workplace.\nPractical implications: - Aside from the specific organizational learning strategies outlined, this study has identified three overarching factors that motivate and drive individuals to learn at work. They are: a clear definition of goals; a shared vision; and an appropriate reward system.\nOriginality/value: - The value of this study is making actionable the complex processes of organizational learning, demonstrated in the step-by-step approach applicable to specific levels of learning. According to the respondents, some of these steps have been proven effective in harnessing learning at work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Systems thinking and CMM for continuous improvement in the construction industry
|
[
"Nigeria",
"Continuous improvement",
"Kaizen",
"Systems thinking",
"Capability maturity model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Background of the study: The existence of challenges in construction processes necessitates innovation and change. Considerations of the enormity and impact of cost and time overruns, financing, client satisfaction quality products and project success on construction companies have been the focus of most academics in proffering solutions to mitigate the challenges in the construction industry (Chang and Fan, 2017). The suggested panaceas for construction industry issues have been suggested as building information modelling (BIM); post-project reviews; lean construction and automation in construction to mention a few (Chang and Fan, 2017; Thunberg et al., 2017). Knowledge sharing in the construction industry (Arif et al., 2017), supply chain management (Reyes and Giachetti, 2010) and corporate performance management (Aho, 2013) are identified strategies for driving their adoption. However, the Capability maturity model (CMM) is also an emergent theme in more recent studies when considering continuous improvement through a step-wise approach (Onaopepo et al., 2018). This paper focuses on the latter within construction settings.\n2. Continuous improvement in the construction industry: The basic concept of lean construction is born out of lean production philosophy. The lean production philosophy has various sub-concepts such as just-in-time, responsiveness to change, effective relationship within the value stream, quality management, waste reduction and continuous improvement (Marhani et al., 2012, 2013). Marhani et al. (2012) supported this by adding last planner system, concurrent engineering, business process re-engineering, value-based system and teamwork as part of the major concepts of lean construction. The five principles of lean construction by Lean Enterprise Institute (2009) as cited by Marhani et al. (2012) include identifying the value, mapping the value stream, create flow, establish pull and seek perfection. These principles have been aimed at focusing on value over cost by reducing non-value-added activities, thereby creating more client satisfaction; this is the continuous improvement aspect of lean production.\n3. Bridging the gaps of implementing continuous improvement in the construction industry: Maturity models are described as a viable approach to improving an organisation's processes and business process management capabilities (Roglinger et al., 2012). It, therefore, offers organisations a simple but an effective way to measure the quality of their processes (Wendler, 2012). Typically, maturity models consist of a sequence of levels of how an organisation evolves progressively from an initial state to maturity in an anticipated, desired or logical path (Becker et al., 2009). Hence, patterns of organisational evolution and transformation can be predicted based on the levels in the maturity model.\n4. Research methodology: Qualitative data from survey interviews formed the primary data required to establish variables for CMM based on the outcome of the literature review findings. The structure of this methodology is expressed in Figure 1, as being dependent on the literature review and interviews. Semi-structured interview questions were designed to investigate the existence of continuous improvement in Nigerian SMSCC. Waste reduction policy, organisational culture and activities concomitant with continuous improvement formed the basis of the interviews. The qualitative data analysis, systems thinking model and CMM lead to the discussion of findings as illustrated in Figure 1.\n5. Analysis and model development: The interview transcripts were read multiple times by the coders (authors) to capture the participants' views regarding the phenomenon under study and to generate the initial coding scheme from the text data. As a result, content analysis was initially used in this study to identify common patterns that are relevant to the research purpose (Flick, 2009) and was facilitated by NVivo 10 to build up a theory from the text data rather than using preconceived themes from the literature. The software package follows the process of importing transcribed sources into a folder, coding the associated sentences into nodes, creating relationships and models. NVivo 10 makes it easy to analyse the presence and understanding of kaizen within SMSCC in Lagos, Nigeria. Using this approach, we coded the identified patterns into different categories and sub-categories (or cases) based on the similarity of codes to make sense of the participants' perceptions and reality. We later defined each category and sub-category to develop themes as agreed by the coders using the research question(s) and purpose as a guide. To achieve the overarching goal of this study, our analytical procedure as used in this study was consistent with Schmidt and Hunter's (2015) steps for conducting content analysis as presented below:\n6. The systems thinking approach: The findings from NVIVO 10 provided variables for systems thinking were additional variable was deduced. Systems thinking is applicable for solving complex problems for decision making (Lane et al., 2016; Joly and Rondo, 2017; Grohs et al., 2018). Organisational culture and policymaking influence decision making. For a comprehensive adoption of continuous improvement, certain factors have to be considered. In systems thinking, there are systems and subsystems (Tetuan et al., 2017; Molderez and Ceulemans, 2018). Hence, the variables which may determine the existence of a system have some sub-variables which are sacrosanct. System thinking explores deeper perspectives, internal and external variables and exposes unidentified obstacles to innovation.\n7. The archetypes from the causal loop diagram for the CMM: These key variables from R1 to R7 and B1 to B3 will be transferred to the continuous improvement CMM for SMSCC. Additionally, the trio of the exchange rate, fluctuating prices of building materials and interest rates can only have a reducing effect on continuous improvement when they increase. On the contrary, a reduced interest, exchange and fluctuation of building materials create additional challenges for the implementation of continuous improvement in SMSCC (Figure 15).\n8. Discussion of findings: 8.1 Level 1 - initial and chaotic\n9. Guidelines for continuous improvement implementation using CMM: The function flowchart model presenting CMM in Figure 11 requires an additional guideline to clearly show the implementation roadmap. The guideline is based on probable assumptions on long it may take for an SMSCC to remain in a CMM stage.\n10. Conclusion: The most important finding in this study is the plausible application of continuous improvement in SMSCC in developing countries. Although this finding may be limited to developing countries, the plan-do-check-act principle explicated in the discussion section is transferrable to any construction organisation irrespective of its location. There are cost implications of adopting continuous improvement; however, this is beyond the scope of this study. Notwithstanding, the findings of continuous improvement in construction in SMSCC within the context of the literature review, qualitative analysis and model synthesis all agree that post-project review is a major driver for continually improving a construction organisation. Further studies into strategic adoption of post-project reviews in the construction industry should realign the policies of construction organisation towards continuous improvement. The enormous data in construction companies can be used to develop an artificial intelligence to aid post-project reviews. The value of this study is inherent in the cybernetic interactions between all the major variables for continuous improvement within and outside organisation. A construction organisation interacts with itself as an entity and other external forces before it can improve. This clarity which is expressed in the causal loop diagrams is the exclusivity of this research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a capability maturity model (CMM) developed to implement continuous improvement in small and medium scale construction companies (SMSCC) in Nigeria.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A multi-strategy approach involving qualitative studies of SMSCC in Nigeria was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively selected construction experts in Nigeria to identify variables essential for continuous improvement in SMSCC. Data collected were thematically analysed using NVIVO. Subsequently, a system thinking approach is employed to design and develop the CMM for implementing continuous improvement SMSCC, by exploring possible relationships between the variables established.\nFindings: CMM provided a five-level approach for the inclusion of investigated variables such as team performance; culture; structure; post-project reviews, financial risk management, waste management policy and cost control. These variables are factors leading to continuous improvement in SMSCC, implementable within a six to seven and a half years' timeline.\nPractical implications: The system thinking model revealed cogent archetypes in the form of reinforcing loops that can be applied in developing the performance of SMSCC. Continuous improvement is feasible. However, it takes time to implement. Further longitudinal studies on the cost of implementing continuous improvement through CMM a knowledge transfer project can be initiated.\nOriginality/value: A methodical strategy for enhancing the effectiveness and operations of SMSCC in developing countries can be extracted from the causal loop diagram and the CMM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The impact of capital-structure choice on firm performance: empirical evidence from Egypt
|
[
"Capital structure",
"Business performance",
"Accounting",
"Egypt"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The theory of capital structure and its relationship with a firm's value and performance has been a puzzling issue in corporate finance and accounting literature since the seminal work of Modigliani and Miller (1958) (MM-1958). MM-1958 argue that under very restrictive assumptions of perfect capital markets, investors' homogenous expectations, tax-free economy, and no transactions costs, capital structure is irrelevant in determining firm value. According to this proposition, a firm's value is determined by its real assets, not by the mix of securities it issues. If this proposition does not hold then arbitrage mechanisms will take place, investor will buy the shares of the undervalued firm and sell the shares of the overvalued firm in such a way that identical income streams are obtained. As investors exploit these arbitrage opportunities, the price of overvalued shares will fall and that of the undervalued shares will rise, until both prices are equal.However, these restrictive assumptions do not hold in the real world, which led many researchers to introduce additional rationalization for this proposition and its underling assumptions showing that capital structure affects firm's value and performance, especially after the seminal paper of Jensen and Meckling (1976) which demonstrate that the amount of leverage in a firm's capital structure affects the agency conflicts between managers and shareholders by constraining or encouraging managers to act more in the interest of shareholders and, thus, can alter manager's behaviors and operating decisions, which means that the amount of leverage in capital structure affects firm performance (Harris and Raviv, 1991; Graham and Harvey, 2001; Brav et al., 2005, for overviews).Since, Jensen and Meckling (1976) argument regarding the possibility of capital structure influence on firm performance, several researchers have followed this extension and conducted numerous studies that aim to examine the relationship between financial leverage and firm performance over the last decades. However, empirical evidence regarding this relationship is contradictory and mixed. While a positive relationship between leverage level and firm performance had been documented in some of these studies (Taub, 1975; Roden and Lewellen, 1995; Champion, 1999; Ghosh et al., 2000; Hadlock and James, 2002). Other studies document a negative relationship between leverage level and firm performance (Fama and French, 1998; Gleason et al., 2000; Simerly and Li, 2000).While the literature examining the performance implications of capital structure choices is immense in developed markets (e.g. USA and Europe), little is empirically known about such implications in emerging or transition economies such Egypt. In such a country as Eldomiaty (2007) argued capital market is less efficient and incomplete and suffers from higher level of information asymmetry than capital markets in developed countries. This environment of the market may cause financing decisions to be incomplete and subject to a considerable degree of irregularity. It is, therefore, necessary to examine the validity of corporate leverage levels impact on a firm's performance in Egypt as an example of emerging economies.The main aim of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between debt level and financial performance of companies listed on Egyptian stock exchange during the period 1997-2005 using three of Accounting-based measures of firm performance: return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and gross profit margin (GM). The paper documents several finding: first, there is a negatively significant influence of short-term debt (STD )and total debt (TTD) on financial performance measured by ROA, but no significant relationship founded between long-term debt (LTD) and this measure of financial performance. Second, the study finds that there is no significant influence of debt (STD, LTD, and TTD) on financial performance measured by both of ROE and GM. These results may indicate, in general terms, that capital structure choice has a weak-to-no impact on firm's performance in Egypt.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: the following section gives a summary review of the related literature. The next section describes the research method. The subsequent section presents the analysis and results of empirical work.\n2 Literature review: Kinsman and Newman (1999) state that examination of the relationship between capital structure choice (i.e. debt level) and firm's performance is very important for many reasons. Among these reasons: first, mean firm debt level have risen substantially over the last periods, requiring an explanation of the impact of debt level on firm's performance, so that appropriate debt level decisions can be made in a particular firm. Second, since managers and investors may have different emphases, the relative strengths of any specific effects of debt on firm's performance must be known. Final, and most important, reason for studying debt level and firm's performance is to examine the association between debt level and shareholders wealth, since shareholders wealth maximization is a primary goal of firm's managers.The capital structure of the firm could be explained, in general terms, by two dominant theories: the trade-off and pecking order theories. According to trade-off theory, optimal capital structure could be determined by balancing the different benefits and costs associated with debt financing. Debt benefits include tax shields (saving) induced by the deductibility of interest expenses from pre-tax income of the firm (Modigliani and Miller, 1963), reduction of agency costs through the threat of liquidation which causes personal losses to managers of salaries, reputation, perquisites, and through the need to generate cash flow to pay interest payment (Grossman and Hart, 1982; Williams, 1987). High leverage can also enhance the firm's performance by mitigating conflicts between shareholders and managers concerning the free cash flow (Jensen, 1986), optimal investment strategy (Myers, 1977), the amount of risk to be undertake (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). On the other hand, debt costs include direct and indirect bankruptcy costs, debt financing brings with it commitment for future cash outflows in terms of periodic interest and the principal borrowed, and these commitments increase the likelihood of firm's financial default and bankruptcy. However, several studies suggest that bankruptcy costs do exist but they are reasonably small relative to tax saving associated with debt (Miller, 1977; Warner, 1977). Thus, according to trade-off theory more profitable firms have higher income to shield and thus should borrow more to take tax advantages (i.e. operate with higher leverage). Consequently, a positive relationship could be expected between debt level and firm's performance (i.e. profitability). A number of studies provide empirical evidence supporting this positive relationship between debt level and firm's performance (Taub, 1975; Roden and Lewellen, 1995; Champion, 1999; Ghosh et al., 2000; Hadlock and James, 2002; Berger and Bonaccorsi di Patti, 2006).The second theory of capital structure is pecking order theory developed by Myers (1984) and Myers and Majluf (1984). This theory points out that because of information asymmetry between managers and investors about the firm's investment opportunities, the market may undervalue a firm's new shares relative to the value that would be assessed if managers' information about their firm's investment opportunities were revealed to the market. Thus, issuing new shares may harm existing shareholders through value transfer from old to new shareholders. So, managers will prefer financing new investments by internal sources (i.e. retained earnings) first, if this source is not enough then managers seeks for external sources from debt as second and equity as last. Thus, according to the pecking order theory firms that are profitable and, therefore, generate high earnings to be retained are expected to use less debt in their capital structure than those do not generate high earnings, since they are able to finance their investment opportunities with retained earning. Consequently, negative relationship could be expected between debt level and firm's performance (i.e. profitability). A number of studies provide empirical evidence supporting this negative relationship between debt level and firm's performance or profitability (Kester, 1986; Friend and Lang, 1988; Titman and Wessels, 1988; Rajan and Zingales, 1995; Wald, 1999; Booth et al., 2001; Fama and French, 2002).Based on the above analysis, one may argue that firm's financing decision is influenced by many factors, and explaining that decision by one theory (trade-off or pecking order) may be short of providing a complete diagnosis of that decision. In fact, each capital structure theory works under its own assumptions and so does not offer a complete explanation of financial decisions. This means that searching for an optimal capital structure is not one-way to go (Myers, 2001; Eldomiaty, 2007). This could explain the mixed and contradictory results of the studies that empirically tested the predictions of these theories (i.e. relationship between leverage and firm's profitability). Jermias (2008) argue that prior studies have examined only the direct effect of financial leverage on performance where's this leverage-performance relationship may be contingent upon some factors such as competitive intensity and business strategy, he provides empirical evidence that the effect of leverage on performance is more negative for firms attempting to be differentiators than those attempting to be cost leaders, also competitive intensity negatively affects the leverage-performance relationship.From the cited empirical studies above, it is clear that most of the research concerning the relationship between capital structure and firm's performance was conducted in developed countries and markets. A few studies empirically examined this relationship in emerging (transition) economies. For instance, Majumdar and Chhibber (1999) examine the relationship between capital structure and performance of Indian firms showing that debt level is negatively related with performance (i.e. return on net worth). Chiang et al. (2002) examine the relationship between capital structure and performance of firms in property and construction sector in Hong Kong showing that high gearing is negativity related with performance (i.e. profit margin). Abor (2005) investigates the relationship between capital structure and profitability of listed firms in Ghana showing that STD and TTD are positively related with firm's profitability (i.e. ROE), whereas LTD is negatively related with firm's profitability (i.e. ROE). Kyereboah-Coleman (2007) examines the relationship between capital structure and performance of microfinance institutions in sub-Saharan Africa showing that high leverage is positively related with performance (i.e. ROA and ROE). Zeitun and Tian (2007) examine the relationship between capital structure and performance of Jordan firms showing that debt level is negatively related with performance (both the accounting and market measures). Finally, Abor (2007) examines the relationship between debt policy (capital structure) and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ghana and South Africa showing that capital structure, especially long-term and total debt level, is negatively related with performance (both the accounting and market measures).In summary, empirical studies regarding the relationship between capital structure and firm's performance in developed countries provided mixed and contradictory evidence, on the other hand there is a few studies empirically examine this relationship in emerging (transition) economies. The present study extends the literature on the impact of capital structure on firm's performance by empirically examining the relationship between capital structure and firm's performance in Egypt. In fact, Egypt is a unique case for tow reasons, first, although Egypt has transformed its economic system into capitalism and open market, the managerial decision making may still constrained by old school of government support to economic entities which could explain the high level of financial leverage of Egyptian firms, especially, those firms that belonged to public sector before the mid-1990s and gone to private (fully or partially) through the privatization policy adopted by Egyptian government by the mid-1990s, Second, capital market in Egypt is less efficient and incomplete and suffers from higher level of information asymmetry than capital markets in developed countries. Also, the capital market in Egypt is still to now an equity market, the debt market structure is still very immature. This environment of the market may cause financing decisions to be incomplete and subject to a considerable degree of irregularity. It is important, therefore, to explore the validity of debt financing firm's performance relationship under these unique economic settings.\n3 Research method: 3.1 Sample and data\n4 Analysis and results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5 Conclusions: A vast literature investigates the implications of capital structure choice on firm's value and performance since the seminal work of Modigliani and Miller (1958). Most of these studies investigate these implications in the developed countries, very little is empirically known about such implications in emerging or transition economies such Egypt. The study investigates the impact of capital structure choice on performance of listed firms in Egypt as one of emerging or transition economies. Based on a sample of Egyptian listed firms and using three of accounting-based measures of financial performance (ROA, ROE, and GM), the empirical tests indicate that capital structure (especially, STD and TTD) impacts negatively the firm's performance measured by ROA. On the other hand capital structure (STD, LTD, and TTD) has no significant impact on firm's performance measured by ROE or measured by GM. These results lead the study to conclude that capital structure choice, in general terms, has weak-to-no influence on the financial performance of listed firms in Egypt.However, issues relating to capital structure still remain contentious and a puzzle especially in emerging or transition markets such Egypt. Further research could examine the determinants of capital structure of Egyptian firms such as size, growth, business risk, etc. and compare results with those reached in developed markets. The relationship between financial leverage and Egyptian firms' value also need to be empirically examined. The results of the study reveal that STD impacts negatively the firm performance measured by ROA, so, further research could examine the relationship between maturity structure of the firm's debt and its decisions and performance. Finally, further research could examine the joint impact of both capital structure and ownership structure on firm's performance since a large number of Egyptian firms are family firms.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of capital structure choice on firm performance in Egypt as one of emerging or transition economies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Multiple regression analysis is used in the study in estimating the relationship between the leverage level and firm's performance.\nFindings: - Using three of accounting-based measures of financial performance (i.e. return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), and gross profit margin), and based on a sample of non-financial Egyptian listed firms from 1997 to 2005 the results reveal that capital structure choice decision, in general terms, has a weak-to-no impact on firm's performance.\nOriginality/value: - This is the first study that examines the relationship between leverage level and firm performance in Egypt.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Social media networks as drivers for intellectual capital disclosure: Evidence from professional football clubs
|
[
"Social media",
"Intellectual capital disclosure",
"Involuntary disclosure",
"Voluntary disclosure",
"Social media metrics",
"Football clubs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In this paper, the authors look at how social media metrics act as tools for voluntary and involuntary intellectual capital (IC) disclosures (Dumay and Guthrie, 2017). Against the backdrop of changes in communications technology and a growing awareness of the importance of intellectual assets, the authors examine whether the social media profiles of companies and their employees on four social media network platforms - Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Instagram - provide insight information about a company's IC that is both pertinent and timely for revealing information about relational and human capital.\n2. Literature review: IC disclosure: The purpose of this section is to outline the research that examines the relationship between IC disclosure and share prices. Over two decades ago, companies began to consider the relationship between intangible assets, such as human and relational capital and market value. The pioneering research was conducted at Skandia in Sweden (Edvinsson, 1997), and since then disclosing information on intangible assets and IC (Stewart, 1997) has increasingly become an integral part of a company's value creation process from a market perspective (Petty and Guthrie, 2000; Sullivan, 2000; Williams, 2001; Dumay, 2008). This led to research based on a grand theory that disclosing IC leads to greater profitability (Dumay, 2012; Llewelyn, 2003). The theory states that IC disclosure is important to investors because it improves their decision making, and is important to management and boards because it helps to discipline them with the reward of positive economic consequences (Zarowin and Lev, 1999; Andriessen, 2004). As Bismuth and Tojo (2008) argue, \"ensuring that the non-financial information is consistent, comparable over time and across companies, material and reliable would allow investors to better assess future earnings and the risks associated with different investment opportunities, thus reducing information asymmetry\". However, as we explore further, we find divergent views as to whether overall or specific IC disclosures affect share prices and thus we investigate other mechanisms for IC disclosure.\n3. Research context: To demonstrate that social media are tools to disclose IC information in capital markets, we examine the football industry. We chose professional football clubs because they are part of the entertainment sector with a high media profile and a growing public interest. Several authors have highlighted that football is no longer a purely sporting competition. It has become a sports-related environment connected to a complex set of economic, social and political structures with significant cultural and financial impact (Beech and Chadwick, 2004; Ssderman and Dolles, 2013).\n4. Methodology: In ICs third stage of research, several authors called for a more performative, bottom-up approach based on in-depth qualitative studies (Dumay and Garanina, 2013; Dumay, 2013). Despite the current focus on the fourth stage of research, there is still room for a statistical approach to IC (Massaro et al., 2015, p. 498). This research use a quantitative approach (de Villiers and Dumay, 2013) to identify the relationship between popularity in social media and the economic variables of companies that express the value of a club's IC and its human and relational components. Empirical analysis is based on the grand theory that disclosing IC leads to greater profitability (Mouritsen et al., 2001; Bismuth and Tojo, 2008). Many studies demonstrate that: market value is an expression of a firm's IC (Stewart, 1997; Firer and Mitchell Williams, 2003; Chen et al., 2005; Stewart, 2007); relational capital is an expression of a company's brand reputation (Stewart, 2007); and human capital is the total sum of an employer's integrated knowledge and competences (Stewart, 2007; Zanda et al., 2013). We argue that, for football clubs, this translates to: market capital is an expression of the value of their IC; their revenue reflects the clubs' relational capital value; and football player transfer fees reflect their human capital value. Thus, in answering our research question, the IC examined includes its relational and human components.\n5. Research findings: Our findings are based on the three hypotheses developed in the methodology section that examine the market value of IC and its relational and human capital components in professional football clubs.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: This research studies the correlation between social media metrics and corporate economic variables as an expression of IC. The emergence of social media influences both the voluntary and involuntary disclosure of information. Companies use social media as part of their disclosure process and, at the same time, they are affected by external disclosures (Dumay and Guthrie, 2017). Through analysis of the findings in this section, we explain how social media are tools providing relevant and timely ICD.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between popularity in a social media network and a company's revenue, expenditure and market value. Additionally, social media networks are analysed as tools for both voluntary and involuntary intellectual capital (IC) disclosure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: These aims are analysed in the context of the football industry. An empirical analysis evaluates the correlations between team and player social media metrics from Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram and their football club's market value, revenue and player transfer fees. Examples of timely IC disclosure are also reported.\nFindings: The results indicate that popularity metrics in social media are determinants of the value of human and relational capital in professional football clubs. Popularity in social media positively correlates to market capitalisation, revenue and player transfer fees. Additionally, examples are provided to show how social media can be a tool for disclosing IC information in a relevant and timely manner.\nPractical implications: From a strategic management perspective, the authors find that there are economic opportunities to be gained from managing social media platforms appropriately and that knowledge derived from social media needs to be used effectively by club managers, so that fans and followers can be transformed into consumers. One practical implication of this research is the need to hire social media experts that are able to develop, coordinate and manage digital communication strategies.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents an analysis of emerging changes in technology and communication platforms and different types of disclosure. It aims to demonstrate that the metrics derived from social media can be used as tool to disclose voluntary and involuntary information about IC - information that is particularly useful to investors because their shortage of tangible assets can make football clubs difficult to evaluate.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Locating periods of institutional change agency: a mixed methods approach
|
[
"Institutional logics",
"Institutional entrepreneurship",
"Content analysis",
"Mixed methods",
"Cognitive maps"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Researchers from several disciplines have used institutional theory to explore the nature of stable, valued and recurring facets of social life that determine dominant practice in industry sectors. It is now widely accepted that a multitude of these principles influence different sectors of society and that when these principles change, dominant practices change as well (Greenwood et al., 2011; Thornton et al., 2012). Institutional change research has focused on exogenous processes (e.g. those driven by jolts and crisis) as well as endogenous processes (e.g. those driven by individuals and organizations). The latter highlights the importance of key individuals and organizations in driving institutional change (Battilana et al., 2009; DiMaggio, 1988). These actors have been researched extensively and in various ways, mostly by qualitative studies that analyze their skills (Fligstein, 2001; Perkmann and Spicer, 2007), strategies (Garud et al., 2002; Munir and Phillips, 2005) and the conditions that make them particularly successful (Strang and Sine, 2002; Dorado, 2005).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 The institutional logics perspective\n3. Method: 3.1 Research design\n4. Discussion and conclusion: 4.1 Discussion of mixed methods approach\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper presents a new mixed methods approach which allows researchers to scan industry sectors for institutional change periods and to locate periods of significant institutional change agency.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach is grounded on the institutional logics perspective and on institutional entrepreneurship theory and combines an automated quantitative content analysis with a cognitive mapping exercise.\nFindings: The paper describes the development of this approach and its application to the urban water management sector of Australia. Three periods of significant institutional change agency are identified, described and discussed.\nOriginality/value: The paper puts forward a new methodological approach that enables a robust and objective identification of actor-driven institutional change periods which can be used as a precursor for more targeted qualitative inquiries into institutional change research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
What does "corporate governance" actually mean?
|
[
"Corporate governance",
"Corporate image",
"Boardroom effectiveness",
"Boardroom dynamics"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper sets out to develop an understanding of the contribution that academics have made to the development of connotative meanings of the term \"corporate governance\" through the published articulation of their ideas. This research identifies the contemporary use of the term \"corporate governance\" by a variety of stakeholders and the consequences of this usage in practice. A framework of connotative meanings, drawn from the literature, is the outcome of this review.\n2. Overview: The use of the term \"corporate governance\" intensified during the economic and political changes instigated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from the mid 1980s. Indeed, these changes resulted in a substantial increase in stock market activity in New Zealand and around the world (Cole, 1998; Shleifer and Vishny, 1997). During this time, the reputation of New Zealand and Australian business was tarnished by various corporate scandals and, in some cases, spectacular corporate failure (e.g. Equity Corp in New Zealand and the National Safety Council in Victoria, Australia). In more recent times, the \"high-profile mismanagement of large, multi-national private-sector corporations has brought heightened media attention to the whole issue of corporate governance\" (Mason et al., 2007, p. 287). Such sentiments are echoed by a number of academics (Agrawal and Chadha, 2005; Darus, 2011; Heath and Norman, 2004; Rubach and Sebora, 2009; Stein, 2008).\n3. Method: I conducted a guided word search on electronic databases using \"corporate governance\" as the search words. I restricted the scope of this study to information contained in refereed journals dating back to 1985 and held in the ABI/INFORM Global and Emerald databases. What follows is an analysis of the theory that is associated with the use of the term \"corporate governance\". This analysis identifies and speculates on the various lenses through which the idea of \"corporate governance\" is employed. This research supports Adegbite et al.'s (2012, p. 400) conclusion that there are considerable benefits to be gained from adopting \"multi-theoretical lenses\" when examining the \"practical implications for a global theory and discourse on corporate governance\".\n4. Findings: Brodkey (1989, p. 164) describes theory as \"an acquired taste\" that is contingent on the \"social and political arrangement that define scholarly practice\". It is suggested, in this paper, that the theoretical constructs of scholarly practice help explain the ideological variation between one school of thought and another because the application of theory \"defines the work of those who speak it\" (Brodkey, 1989, p. 180). By examining the theoretical constructs surrounding a particular word or phrase, researchers have the opportunity to ask questions about meaning, relationships and validity of posited phenomena.\n5. Discussion: The review of the academic literature has revealed that a form of organisation referred to as \"corporate governance\" has been practised in some form since the days of the Roman Empire. The theoretical analysis of this corporate form has generated a range of perspectives resulting in a considerable divergence of opinion on the connotative meaning(s) given to the term \"corporate governance\". Building on the competing theories of corporate governance previously identified (Table I), a framework of the connotative meanings of \"corporate governance\" was developed. This framework is presented in Table II. What is evident is the divergence of meaning that theorists assign to the term \"corporate governance\".\n6. Conclusion: This paper identifies the connotative meanings and theoretical bases used by academic writers in the study of corporate governance. It is evident from the literature that connotative meanings given to the term \"corporate governance\" vary depending on the theoretical viewpoint of the writer. Indeed, agency theorists, stewardship theorists, resource dependency theorists, managerial hegemony and stakeholder theorists each convey a different meaning when using the term \"corporate governance\".\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop a framework of connotative meanings afforded to the term \"corporate governance\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: An examination of academic publications from 1985-2012 containing the term \"corporate governance\" was conducted. The articles are sorted into the theoretical constructs that influence the contemporary connotative meaning of corporate governance.\nFindings: That a combination of a weak definitional base coupled with strong motivational forces have aided the development of competing theoretical perspectives of the meaning of corporate governance. The dominant meaning is written from an agency theory perspective.\nResearch limitations/implications: Theoretical analysis was restricted to articles found in academic journals published since 1985.\nPractical implications: This study provides a very useful analysis into the connotative meanings and theoretical bases used by academic writers in the study of corporate governance.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides an updated and developed analysis to the theoretical dimensions that underpin the contemporary use of the term \"corporate governance\".\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The application of knowledge management in call centres
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Call centres",
"Customer service management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The concept of knowledge management (KM) has been around for a while; management gurus and academicians in the last two decades have researched KM as a tool for achieving innovation and competitiveness. In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge (Nonaka, 1998). KM and research initiatives have been implemented in a wide range of industry sectors like manufacturing, consulting, software, banking, insurance, etc. across the globe, but very few initiatives can be found in a call centre industry.Reported management effort for KM in call centres is scarce or almost nil. In most call centres, the management efforts are currently aimed at achieving information management. Call centre operations are especially suited to information delivery, customer services and sales operations (Houlihan, 2000), and what expires between the caller and the agent is nothing but information. Customer service representatives were expected to locate and process information quickly so that customer queries could be handled expeditiously (Deery and Kinnie, 2002). At present, information and communication technology (ICT) has become an integral part of all call centre management.In this scenario, it is useful to know whether a formal KM effort would improve the quality of customer service in a call centre, and at what price. This research was conducted at Dixons Contact Centre (DCC) in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK. DCC offers a variety of call centre services. DCC in Sheffield employs approximately 1,200 trained customer service advisors (CSAs) to handle incoming as well as outgoing calls. The department that was subject to this research employs around 250 agents. Methodology adopted in this research is qualitative, namely ethnography, and literature search for secondary data.\n2. Literature review: Data, information and knowledge can be seen as existing on a single continuum (Probst et al., 2000; Tsoukas and Vladimirou, 2001). Also, many attempts have been made in the literature to define knowledge by distinguishing between data, information and knowledge (Wiig, 1993; Choo, 1998; Boisot, 2002). Various classifications of knowledge and KM models have also been attempted. An overview of this literature is presented in the following sub-sections.2.1. The data-knowledge continuum\n3. Research methodology: This research takes an interpretivist approach in epistemological orientation and takes ontologically a constructivist stance. The main aim of the research is to construct a social reality, a theory, a framework, through interpretation of social activity, i.e. the activity of the agents in a call centre (a particular work environment) and their part in creating and sharing (organisational) knowledge.In addition to the literature search for secondary data, the main methodology adopted in this research is qualitative, namely ethnography. This method (Bryman, 1995) has resulted in the researcher(s) in this study to:* immerse in a social setting for an extended period of time;* make regular observation of the behaviour of the members of that setting;* listen to and engage in conversations;* interview informants on issues that are not directly amenable to observation or that the ethnographer is unclear about (or indeed for other possible reasons);* collect documents about groups;* develop an understanding about the culture of the group and people's behaviour within the context of that culture; and* write up a detailed account of that setting.Hence, the overall scope of methodology in this research includes interviews, participant observation, and job diaries. This is conducted in a context of a case study.This research is not about testing a theory, it is about gaining insight to the functioning of a call centre, and understanding the creation, acquisition and sharing of knowledge among call centre agents, to construct a theory (framework/model). Being a participant observer gives the advantage of studying the daily activities of agents, this will help to observe routine actions as well as non-routine situations, gaining exceptional insights that would not have been possible even through an informal interview. This will also help in observing the origin and flow of information and acquisition of knowledge through experience, as tacit knowledge (gained from experience) is not easily modifiable into explicit knowledge for codification, this can only be achieved through experiencing the situation. Ethnography leads to an empathic understanding of a social scene. This allows the researchers to exclude the preconceptions that they may have and exposes them to a new social milieu, which demands their engagement to generate theory from data.Being a participant observer also gives another advantage of being a group member with the employees outside official activities, which would give an insight into the effective functioning of the informal channels of information sharing for knowledge creation. This insight may not be forth coming from an employee in a formal interview. Formal interviews with the staff will help to evaluate the effectiveness of the official channels of knowledge communication and identify possible shortcomings and areas of improvement in the information sharing activities and especially in the ICT facility. Thus, ethnography is found to be the most suitable research strategy for this research, as developing a theory (i.e. a framework/model) for KM implementation in a call centre is the main aim of the research.\n4. A case study: To start with, it is important to have a clear understanding as to what constitutes a call centre organisation. Like any other call centres, DCC in Sheffield can also be identified with some common features that distinguish call centres from other types of service organisation.Dixons Stores Group (DSG) consists of Dixons Ltd, Currys Ltd, and PC World Ltd and The Link Ltd. DSG is the number one retailer of electronic goods in Europe with operations in more than 25 countries world over. Dixons group was established in 1969 by Charles Kalms as a Photo Studio in London and during the late 1970s they diversified into electronic goods and presently enjoys number one position in Europe. DCC in Sheffield employs around 1,200 customer service advisors and takes on additional temporary staff during peak call times. The study is conducted in the after sales services department which houses approximately 150 advisors in the various sections of after sales services working full time and part time during the hours between 08.00 a.m. and 08.00 p.m. The customers' calls are received from all over the UK on issues such as branch locations and telephone numbers, product details, stock availability, prices, special deals and discounts, complaints, replacements, product returns procedures, refund of money, financial/credit queries, etc. Every agent has a computer with a number of application software and a head set for talking to customers and a box containing files and access to a locker to safe keep each agent's belongings.The management has also provided each agent with e-mail and every partitioned area has an overhead television on which constant messages regarding work appears. Electronic boards situated overhead at each end of the hall and in the middle provide information of number call workers available, number of calls being attended and the number of calls in the queue.Call centres are centralised, specialised operations for both inbound and outbound communication handling. A call centre is a dedicated operation in which computer-utilising employees receive inbound - or make outbound - telephone calls, with those calls processed by an automatic call distribution (ACD) system, or perhaps by a predicting dialling system (Bain and Taylor, 1999). In DCC, its customers are provided with sales, after sales and technical support services. Communication technology plays a critical part in this process, work is automatically allocated to telephone operators to minimise waiting time and increase the speed of service. Level of down time can be continuously measured and the quality of the interaction between the service provider and the customer can be assessed remotely and at management's discretion.4.1. KM perspective\n5. Conclusions: KM could be achieved by effectively managing these five roles of knowledge. Comparing the benefits against the efforts has clearly justified the KM efforts in the organisation. From the organisational point of view, the management only had to introduce KM on a gradual basis by making minor adjustments. There was not a single effort that requires financial commitment. All that the management had to do is to create awareness among the staff about KM, its benefits, and seek co-operation from all the staff to facilitate KM and implement the measures.Most of the suggested measures to assist the application of the KM model require better utilisation of existing resources. This included the need to utilise the available conference rooms and meeting rooms for staff to discuss and solve customer service issues in a shared team process. The benefits would far exceed the efforts in real financial savings like cost cutting, reduced employee turnover, reduction in operational issues. The application of KM will create a positive value to the CSAs' contribution of services to the organisation and to the customers. Management has absolutely nothing to loose in the process and everything to gain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper proposes to evaluate the need for knowledge management in a call centre for improving quality of customer services, by addressing the issues specifically relating to information and knowledge management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Methodology adopted in this research is qualitative, namely ethnography. After examining six models from literature review, a knowledge management model is developed for implementation to assess the required effort to compare against the expected benefits.\nFindings: - Knowledge management could be achieved by effectively managing the five roles of knowledge, namely knowledge acquisition, utilisation, adaptation, distribution, and generation. Comparison of the benefits against the efforts has clearly justified the knowledge management efforts in the case study.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The knowledge management model could be adapted in other service sectors with similar characteristics to a call centre.\nPractical implications: - The paper provides details of solutions to call centres on the approach to making knowledge management work in practice.\nOriginality/value: - A new knowledge management model was developed for applying the knowledge management concept in call centres. The approaches to managing knowledge in the model have yielded a number of benefits as demonstrated by a case study. This work will be beneficial to researchers and practitioners who are interested in applying knowledge management in call centres and/or service sectors with similar characteristics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of branding strategies on horizontal and downward line extension of luxury brands: A cross-national study
|
[
"Country of origin",
"Luxury brands",
"Branding strategies",
"Downward extensions",
"Horizontal extensions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, the worldwide market for luxury products has experienced significant growth reaching EUR317.5bn in 2015 from EUR153bn in 2009 (Euromonitor International, 2015). Luxury brands are synonymous with high-end products that are characterized by better quality, higher prices and distinct features that are often influenced by factors such as cultural and historical heritage (Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2012; Kapferer and Bastien, 2012). Known as horizontal line extensions, a traditional strategy of luxury brands is to launch new products at similar quality/price levels. Such extensions also refer to a new product with an existing brand name that launches into an existing product category or product class (Keller, 2013; Wilkie et al., 2015; Reddy et al., 1994). However, intense competition in the luxury sector in the last decade (Ko et al., 2016), and the growing trend toward the \"democratization\" of luxury has attracted price-sensitive consumers to lower-end products (Kapferer and Bastien, 2012). As a result, many luxury product manufacturers have been lured in by a volume-driven, stretched-down market and have considered the launch of downward line extensions to increase sales.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development: 2.1 Luxury, premium and masstige brands\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sampling procedures and data collection\n4. Data analysis and results: The independent variables were ordered as follows: two types of vertical line extensions (horizontal or downward), two types of branding strategies (direct brand, sub-brand or independent brand) and two countries (France or USA). Purchase intention of the extension was chosen as the dependent variable and that of core brand as a covariate.\n5. Discussion: In periods of economic turbulences, more and more consumers are attracted by \"good enough\" substitute instead of the ideal product especially when the switching cost is low (Mark et al., 2016). Luxury manufacturers are not spared by this situation and while they expand their market in countries such as China, they have been tempted to tap into lower end segments with the aim of expanding market share. In that context, it becomes essential to understand the theoretical and managerial effects of launching extensions that are either developed horizontally or downward. Acknowledging the shortcoming of existing literature to examine line extensions of luxury brands in a cross-national context, the objective of the current study is to investigate the effect of different horizontal and downward line extensions of a French luxury parent brand on luxury consumer purchase intentions in a cross-national context (i.e. France vs the USA).\n6. Managerial implications: Given the current context of democratization of luxury brands, this study helps luxury firms to carefully analyze decisions related to the launch of horizontal and downward line extensions, particularly if they are intended to gain additional sales. Thus, from a managerial perspective, French luxury manufacturers must be careful when launching downward line extensions in France and in the USA as consumers from both countries show a lower intention to purchase this type of extension. Horizontal line extensions of a French luxury brand are perceived positively by French consumers as compared to American consumers unless the marketing of it is \"Americanized\" at the retail level.\n7. Directions for future research: Further questions remain in terms of launching downward line extensions of luxury brands. First, future research should measure reciprocal effects on the parent brand, particularly for a French luxury brand. In future studies, it would be interesting to control for ethnocentrism in terms of cross-national effects. Other countries such as China, Korea and/or Japan should be studies as approaches toward luxury brands may vary significantly from the luxury culture in the USA and France.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the impact of branding strategies on horizontal and downward line extensions of French luxury brands in a cross-national context (France vs USA).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study is based on a two line extensions (horizontal/downward) x three branding strategies (direct brand/sub-brand/standalone brand) x two country (France/USA) between-subjects ANOVA design.\nFindings: The study shows that the subtyping effect created by a sub-branded luxury downward line extension tends to be rated similarly to a direct branded extension which oppose previous beliefs put forward in non-luxury settings. In contrast, a new independent/standalone extension fully uses the subtyping effect which helps attenuate this risk related to luxury downward stretches. The study also found that the effect of gender in cross-national settings must always be taken into consideration as significant variations occur in the process.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study covers two countries but should be replicated in other cross-national contexts.\nPractical implications: This study helps marketing managers of luxury brands make a better decision when it comes to launching vertical line extensions (upscale/downward) by carefully using types of branding strategies and relevant communications whether women and/or men are targeted in cross-national contexts.\nOriginality/value: This study breaks new ground in the international luxury literature by providing key theoretical and managerial insights in terms of launching new downward line extensions with the proper use of branding strategies when targeting specific genders.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Ecological systems approaches to sustainability and organizational development: Emerging trends in environmental and social accounting reporting systems
|
[
"Sustainable development",
"Reports",
"Ecology",
"Organizational development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The ecological approach has its theoretical and methodological foundations in the biological sciences. Thomas Malthus in the 1790s applied an ecological evolutionary analysis of population growth to describe famine, poverty and food shortages and resources scarcity (Hawley, 1986). Darwin extended Malthus's essay on population to develop the evolution of population growth by natural selection (Hawley, 1986). Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection has been further applied by social and behavioral scientists to explain societal growth and development. It has been broadly applied to address people, history, geographical locations, geology, climate, agricultural practices, technology, and environment, level of development, vegetation, societal change, culture, ethnic/local population characteristics as well as organizational development and management control systems.The ecological approach received prominence in the 1970s when economists suggested that existing natural resources create potential limits to growth (Davidson, 2000). They stressed current rate of population growth could adversely affect food and industrial production, environment (pollution), climatic conditions and geographical locations. Organizational ecology focused \"on the broader environment - community, nation, ecosystem and planet\" (Hansen, 2004, p. 66). It addressed the imbalance from pollution, environmental degradation and damages to the ecosystem. The publication of the Brundtland Report (The World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) highlighted the importance of conservation, and managing carefully non-renewable resources, and strategies that developed alternative renewable resources (Gray, 2006). Sustainability emerged as the underlying framework for governmental, international development and business organizations to guide their programs in meeting the needs of the current generation without sacrificing to meet the needs of future generation (The World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). It provided a multi-disciplinary perspective by linking the individual into community/organizations and to the society at large - market, economy and industry - as well as national and international/global concerns.\nContributions to the organizational change and development literature: Organizational ecology uses an evolutionary perspective to describe the demographic process of organizational inertia and environmental selection that contributes to organizational change and development. It provides a comparative analysis of competition and legitimation in industry life cycles: founding, growth and mortality rates over the internal adaptation process of change. It is this organization-environment linkage that determines the evolution of sustainable development and reporting of corporations within the same population or industrial organizations.This paper applies an organizational ecological approach to study the relationship between ecology, sustainability and triple bottom line (TBL) accounting reports. Within the organizational ecology framework, sustainability reporting is viewed as part of either internal and/or external accounting reports prepared by corporations. Accounting reports are broadly classified into two major types of reports: managerial and financial accounting reports. Managerial accounting reports are prepared for internal use by managers for planning and control of the operating activities of the organization. On the other hand, financial accounting reports are multi-purpose prepared to serve the various external users: investors, financial analysts, creditors, governmental regulatory agencies that have oversight responsibilities over the activities of business organizations. They are prepared for the general public and/or for government regulatory agencies.TBL reports refer to economic, social and environmental reports included in external financial accounting reports. Economic information in these reports is mandatory that has to be prepared periodically. Sustainability information on social and environmental issues is considered voluntary information. They are reported at the discretion of the organization either in footnotes, appendices or supplements to the annual reports. In some instances, it is included in the introduction of the annual report provided by the president or the chief executive officer in a separate publication prepared for external constituencies. In this paper, we have extended the ecological approach to study the evolutionary development of sustainability management programs included in the social and environmental sections of TBL reports.The paper is organized into five sections to describe the ecology of sustainability development and reporting. The first section provides an overview of the ecological systems approach to organization development. Section two discusses three ecological approaches: adaptation, organizational life cycles and incremental-transformational change strategies to sustainability development and reporting. The third section addresses the impact of ecological and environmental resources management on sustainability development. Section four deals with sustainability reporting and the accounting changes associated with corporate environmental and social reports. The last section is the conclusion of the paper.\nAn overview of the ecological systems approaches: The ecological systems approach focuses on populations of organizations to examine the effect the environment, market forces, technology, natural resources and geographical locations have on organizational forms and structures; growth, maturity, and mortality rates; and adaptation and selection strategies. The unit of analysis for ecology is on populations or groups instead of units or individuals.Ecology views organizations as communities having interdependency relationships among multiple and diverse populations. Ecological systems determine the rise and fall of organizations and shape the conditions that develop homogeneity, diversity, stability, change and growth among them (Astley, 1985).a. Ecology as a deterministic approach\nEcological approaches of organizational and sustainability development strategies: Organizations as ecological systems are affected by organizational and environmental changes. They are always in flux to attain a state of equilibrium to preserve and maintain system characteristics. Organizations process inputs and transform them into outputs. The transformation process requires organizations to sustain themselves by adapting to external environmental changes. Sustainability enables organizations not only to survive, but also to improve their organizational performance over time (Boulding, 1967; Sisaye, 2001). Systems are defined by internal and external processes linking them to their environment. The continued interaction between an organization and its environment introduces what Thompson and McEwen (1969) referred to as environmental control, which brings about changes or even alteration of goals. Accordingly, the level of environmental control over the organizational goal-setting process depended on sustainability strategies of adaptation, competition, bargaining, cooptation or coalition. Organizations incur sustainable transaction costs associated with technology, production and innovation arising from autonomous divisional interdependencies that are in direct competition (Williamson, 1987). While environmental changes affect organizational systems, structures, strategies, functions, procedures, and day-to-day activities; the impact of these changes on current performances of the organization depends whether or not they are minor or significant.As Haveman (1992) noted, environmental changes can have either a considerable or a peripheral impact on organizational core activities. When the changes are considered significant, it can have a negative effect on organizations' core activities of accountability, reproducibility, and performance, which could increase mortality rates. On the other hand, if the changes are minimal and peripheral, it is likely to have a positive effect on improved performance by enabling organizations to enter into new markets or develop related products. It is this surviving tendency that causes inertia to persist as organizations interface with their environment.Managing environmental change is dependent on the ability of organizations to adopt innovations to improve their operating technological capabilities in response to their competitive environment. Competitive strategy thus becomes a process through which a firm utilizes its resources or competencies to maximize environmental opportunities, while minimizing potential threats raised by the environment (Porter, 1980). Competitive performance is thus dependent on the ability of the organization to handle and process these environmental changes.In this paper, we discuss three types of environmental and organizational development strategies related to sustainability development and reporting. They are the institutional adaptation, organizational life cycles and incremental-transformation change strategies. We have approached sustainability development and reporting within the context of adaptation and incremental-transformation strategies.a. Institutional adaptation strategies\nEcological resources management impact on sustainability development: The theory and practice of environmental resources management draw their fundamental principles from industrial ecology, where ecological sustainability and preservation of natural ecosystems shape the redesign of industrial production systems, business strategies, the planning and implementation of improved productivity and conservation management programs. Accounting reporting systems are viewed as functional living organizational ecosystems that are capable of adapting, evolving, and growing over time to record and report the production and conservation of ecological resources. Sustainability thus provides a framework within which accounting reporting systems can be studied as ecological systems within the framework of SF assumption of institutional adaptation and selection strategies to environmental changes and constraints.a. The SF view of ecological resources management\nSustainability and TBL reporting: Although social and environmental reporting is a voluntary disclosure, many organizations issue sustainability reports to their stakeholders. Sustainability has become the underlying framework to legitimize profitability goals through sustained social-environmental programs and economic performance objectives. Accordingly, organizations have prepared and issued reports of environmental audits and performance indicators such as the consumption and management of water, energy, toxic materials and assets. The amount of space they allocate to environmental issues in annual and/or other accounting reports indicate the level of commitment they have on environmental management systems. Corporate management and employees commitment and participation in the design and implementation of environmental programs has institutionalized environmental concerns and issues as continuous and ongoing processes.a. Sustainability reporting: environmental and social accounting\nConclusion: The ecological approach has been applied to study the effect of the environment, geographical location, and level of technology, culture, social groupings and population characteristics on organizational growth and development. Ecology has incorporated natural ecosystems of nature, humans, and other animal species. Accordingly, organizations are viewed as living systems that are able to adapt, evolve and develop environmental management strategies for implementing a sustainable business enterprise.We have incorporated three ecological approaches: institutional adaptation, organizational life cycles or staged theory of growth, and incremental and transformation strategies to study the theory and practice of sustainability development and reporting. We used the Hailey and Balogun (2002) matrix to relate the adaptation and incremental-transformation strategies of growth to the evolution and adaptation change typologies. These approaches assume that the environment has significant influence on organizational growth and adaptation strategies. This includes the organization's business boundaries, the communities in which the business or industry is located to conduct its business, and its economic and social relationships to these communities. Ecology integrates a community-based approach to business strategies where sustainable development and environmental accounting provides them with competitive advantage. Ecological use of natural ecosystems links organizations to their communities and the effectiveness of these links is included in organizations' sustainability reports. Accounting reports record, accumulate, measure, and disseminate sustainability information to the public.The ecological approach considers both external and internal factors as being critical to the growth and failure rates of organizations. As organizations grow larger, inherent structural problems associated with growth arise. Organizations grow accustomed to these rules, making it difficult to change routine procedures. Because internal procedures and structures become rigid over time, there is resistance to change, resulting in organizational inertia that constrains the birth of new accounting rules. Accordingly, social and environmental reports operate through existing rules and administrative structures. Adaptation has become a strategic process that overcomes organizational inertia and accounting constraints to meet current environmental changes.Corporations are adaptive systems organizations who voluntarily prepare sustainability environmental accounting reporting systems to improve the collection, analysis and disclosure of economic, ecological and environmental data on organizational performance. When environmental reporting is integrated into an organization's strategic cost accounting and operating performance systems, it minimizes transaction and other related costs associated with technological changes in production, distribution and marketing systems. Adaptive organizations modify their financial accounting reporting systems for external use to meet sustainability disclosure requirements.However, changes in accounting reporting practices have occurred gradually over time. They evolve in increments over the years in response to changes in business requirements and environmental conditions. These developments have been particularly significant in the 1990s. The 1990s was a period of time in which international competition, global business changes, and environmental uncertainties brought significant developments in organization management. They have shaped financial accounting and reporting systems, particularly the methods that accountants use to gather, measure, interpret and report social and environmental data. The adoption of ISO 9000 and ISO 14001, and GRI disclosures have contributed towards the standardization of TBL reports. When the IFRS is adopted in the USA and accepted nationally and internationally as the generally accepted financial accounting reporting guidelines, the standardization will have significant impact on the overall format and presentation of TBL reports. These reports will contain uniform and comparable ecological and environmental data that will facilitate comparison of organizational performance among corporations. Ecological performance will constitute the new competitive advantage to attract customers and investors among corporations operating within the same industry or markets. Sustainability development will likely become one of the primary performance indicators for corporations who conduct international business to sustain their long term profitability and economic performance objectives.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The ecological framework focuses on ecosystems, natural resources, agricultural practices, geographical locations, conservation and environmental management. Recently, ecology has provided the underlying framework for sustainability development and reporting. This paper aims to relate the ecological approach to the environmental and conservation objectives embedded in sustainability development and reporting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper argues that sustainability reporting is an organizational development and management program that has to be studied within the context of ecological ethics. It examines the evolution of sustainability reporting in relation to triple bottom line (TBL) accounting systems prepared to report the economic, social and environmental objectives of organizations.\nFindings: - The paper shows that sustainability is a question that transcends several disciplines, including accounting and sociology. While sustainability has been within the domain of sociology (human ecology) and ecological anthropology, recently the subject has attracted researchers from other disciplines, notably from accounting and business management. This paper notes that sustainability development will continue to be of importance to financial accounting reports. TBL reporting has become a competitive advantage for many business organizations for sustained profitability and growth.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper examines how governmental and corporations' natural resources conservation efforts have shaped the disclosure of environmental and social information in sustainability accounting reports. It applies theories of functionalism, institutional legitimacy, adaptation, incremental and transformational growth strategies from the organizational ecology and sociology literature to study the evolution of sustainability development and reporting.\nPractical implications: - Accounting has benefited from sociological theory and methods of research. It highlights the importance of ecological issues in shaping the preparation of sustainability reporting in accounting systems, a subject of interest to practitioners and accounting researchers.\nOriginality/value: - The paper is one of the few attempts to relate ecology and sustainability to accounting reports. It integrates the sociological and organizational development literature related to ecology to advance behavioral accounting research in sustainability reporting beyond current social and environmental issues.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Investigating Emirati citizens' adoption of e-government services in Abu Dhabi using modified UTAUT model
|
[
"Abu Dhabi",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Adoption",
"E-government",
"Unified framework",
"Modified UTAUT model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: E-government is a new trend in the public management sector of Abu Dhabi. It is rapidly expanding with a phenomenal rise in the number of services provided by the Abu Dhabi Government. In 2015, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Government introduced its first ever vision 2021 which declares the intention to build a strong ICT-based infrastructure for the delivery of quality services through e-government. In late 2005, work began on a far-reaching services transformation programme that transcends all government departments, authorities and administrations. This programme strives to make the Abu Dhabi Government more effective and efficient in delivering modern services to its diverse customer base along a multitude of delivery channels (ADSIC, 2015). By May 2015, the Abu Dhabi Government was offering more than 420 e-services through 44 apps and 30 government entities. These services range from the City Guard initiative, which enables citizens to report cases and incidents to the contact centre via a smart phone app, to the e-citizen programme which seeks to increase computer literacy amongst citizens. Many services are being delivered electronically through e-government initiatives, and departments are being streamlined, with non-core services outsourced to the private sector (The Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, 2008). Furthermore, the government wants to implement a holistic strategy which encompasses all government processes and personnel, focuses on efficiency and keeps the needs of its end-users in mind (ADSIC, 2014).\n2. Literature review: UTAUT: Venkatesh, Morris and Davis aimed to establish a synthesised theory that creates a whole picture of the acceptance phases of adoption of technology called the UTAUT model as opposed to the earlier theories which had individual limitations. UTAUT used the unification of eight theories: theory of reason action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977), technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1989), motivational model, theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), combined TAM and TPB (Taylor and Todd, 1995), model of PC utilisation (Thompson et al., 1991), innovation diffusion theory (Rogers, 2003) and social cognitive.\n3. Hypotheses development: This study aims at exploring the factors that might motivate citizens to adopt e-government public services provided by the government of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. This research theorizes four hypotheses related to PE, EE, SI and FC affecting BI (H1-H4). Two hypotheses related to TGov, and trust in the internet affecting BI were incorporated into modifying the UTAUT model (H6 and H7).\n4. Methodology and research instrument: An empirical methodology approach using the UTAUT model to investigate Emirati citizens' adoption of e-government services in Abu Dhabi was adopted. A quantitative research approach based on a one-time online-administered cross-sectional survey questionnaire using Qualtrics was adopted. This method provides the researcher a deeper insight of the research objectives and a detailed understanding of the factors influencing the acceptance of e-government public services in Abu Dhabi from the citizens' perspective.\n5. Survey analysis: The survey was distributed online using Qualtrics.com survey tools and 638 participants responded. The analysis was conducted using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 23 and Analysis of Moments Structures 20 and includes the following eight stages of analysis:\n6. Discussion of the findings: The researchers used the UTAUT theory to validate the conceptual model of this paper. The UTAUT incorporates two main dependent variables, namely, the use made of e-government services, and the BI to use e-government services. The independent variables considered in this research are PE, EE, SI, FC, TGov, TNET and BI.\n7. Practical and theoretical contribution of the research: First, the present study focuses on expanding the body of knowledge about e-government in Abu Dhabi. Because e-government implementation is new to the Abu Dhabi Emirate and little research has looked at its success or how this is achieved, this study is well worth doing at a time when ICT-led projects such as e-government are penetrating modern cities, and require academic evaluation. In essence, it may be helpful to know which factors impact on citizens' perceptions of e-services. If the government knows the major factors that affect the adoption of e-government services in Abu Dhabi, it can maximise its return on ICT infrastructure investments and provide efficient services.\n8. Conclusion: The findings of this study about the factors which affect the citizens' intention to use and their actual use of e-government services in the Abu Dhabi Emirate are largely consistent with the findings in similar studies. This validates the use of the modified UTAUT model in this kind of analysis.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: E-government is new to the public administration sector of Abu Dhabi and it is rapidly expanding. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that might motivate citizens to adopt the e-government public services provided by the Government of Abu Dhabi Emirate. The insights of the study will help government leaders to plan the delivery of public services effectively.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study surveyed 638 United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizens living in three main districts of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. The research used an exploratory factor analysis that conforms the validity of the theoretical model to the data collected, confirmatory analysis to extract the latent factors and both multiple regression and structural equation modelling to test the research hypotheses.\nFindings: The finding revealed that internet trust and performance expectancy was the strongest predictors of intention to use e-government services. Effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and trust had a positive influence on behavioural intention (BI). However, social influence (SI) did not have a significant effect. Gender, age and experience did not affect the relationship between SI and BI. It was also found that BI to use e-government services had a significant influence on the actual use of e-government sites.\nPractical implications: When the government gets to know the major factors that affect the adoption of e-government services in Abu Dhabi, it can maximise its returns on ICT infrastructure investments by providing efficient service that could be adopted by the citizens.\nOriginality/value: The research has theoretical and practical value. Though the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model has previously been used in organisational settings, the present study uses a modified version in the context of citizens' acceptance and use of e-government services. The present study thus provides an extension of the UTAUT model that could be suitable for developing countries such as the UAE.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The social valuation of income: a survey approach
|
[
"Turkey",
"Elasticity of marginal social valuation of income",
"Social cost-benefit analysis",
"Turkish politicians",
"Welfare weights",
"Welfare parameter"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nI. Introduction: The question of how to weigh benefits and costs for individuals, or clearly identifiable socio-economic groups such as households, regions and generations, that are differentiated by income is a crucial issue in social cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The chosen weighting method has potentially important implications for welfare reforms and social policy concerning a wide range of issues, including taxation, social security, education, health-care, etc. The importance of welfare weights is made clear in the official CBA guidance issued by governmental bodies such as HM Treasury (2003) for the UK and the European Commission (2008) for the EU. In the context of regional policy, decisions on funding allocated by governmental bodies for investment projects in relatively poor regions are likely to be sensitive to the equity weighting placed on social cost and benefit impacts (Evans et al., 2005; Evans and Kula, 2011; Kula, 2002, 2007; Sezer, 2006, 2007)[1].\nII. Theoretical approach and modelling: This section starts with a consideration of the main theoretical properties that a social valuation function is expected to exhibit and the selection of a suitably flexible functional form for the purpose of empirical estimation and testing. The function yields an expression for the elasticity of marginal social valuation of income e showing that its algebraic form allows for the possibility of a constant, declining, or rising value of e as income changes[3]. We then consider the welfare principle upon which survey respondents are requested to reveal the social valuation weights (W\nIII. Survey sample data and regression results: III-1 Broad aim of the survey\nIV. Concluding remarks: This small-scale survey of Turkish politicians was designed to obtain welfare weight data reflecting each politician's marginal social valuation of income at different income levels. The range of income considered is very wide, stretching from just above subsistence level to an annual income of TL480,000. Regressions were then conducted for each sample of party politicians in order to estimate the nature of the relationship between welfare weights and income. In all cases, formal statistical testing failed to reject the hypothesis of an iso-elastic social valuation of income with the estimated value of e close to unity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate survey-based values of the elasticity of marginal social valuation of income, an important welfare parameter in cost-benefit analysis.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A model relating equity welfare weights to income is developed, and iso-elasticity of marginal valuation of income is tested using survey data obtained from a sample of Turkish politicians who are instrumental in policy making.\nFindings: Based on the survey feedback, formal statistical testing indicates that Turkish politicians, regardless of party allegiance, reveal preferences consistent with an iso-elastic marginal social valuation of income. The estimated value of the elasticity measure is close to unity for each of the political parties.\nOriginality/value: The originality of the paper is in terms of the survey method used to obtain from Turkish politicians estimates of the marginal social valuation of income. This welfare parameter is needed in the calculation of both social discount rates and welfare weights. The paper will be of interest to academics in the field of welfare economics as well as to practitioners involved in the appraisal of social projects and policies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Revisiting Weber's charismatic leadership: learning from the past and looking to the future
|
[
"Leadership",
"History",
"Managerial power"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Weber's work needs little introduction, as his writings made a terrific impact on the social sciences in general, and management research in particular. His writings are an important aspect of management history that shapes much of our thinking today (Houghton, 2010). Weber's approach was groundbreaking, as he used rich descriptions and analysis of societies as a whole. He explored the emergence, continuity, and change of social organizations and the phenomena embedded within (Eisenstadt, 1968). To this end, Weber's work was the springboard for many avenues of research in the management field. He paved the way for work on power (Courpasson et al., 2012; Jermier, 1998; Katz and Kahn, 1978), economic organization and change (Hannan and Freeman, 1984; Mintzberg et al., 2005; Suchman, 1995), and charisma (Bass, 1985; Bryman, 1993; Conger and Kanungo, 1987; Howell and Shamir, 2005). Particularly relevant, and our focus in this paper, is his portrayal of charisma. He describes charisma as a quality by virtue of which extraordinary individuals are distinguished from ordinary ones. This quality gives the bearer of charisma power, and the appearance of supernatural strength in leadership to drive change (Weber, 1947).\nTheoretical context: I. Weber's conceptualization of charismatic leadership\nLearning from the past and looking to the future: Comparing and contrasting Weber's conceptualization with contemporary charismatic leadership research\nDiscussion: In looking to the past to learn about the future, our primary purpose in this paper is to advance our understanding of charismatic leadership in organizations. By reviewing Weber's conceptualization alongside contemporary research, we make explicit three important, yet unanswered questions in charismatic leadership research. In this section we build on our historical findings with regards to the three remaining questions in order to provide conceptual and methodological implications of our work, and suggest several alternative avenues for future research.\nConclusion: Revisiting Weber's writings on charismatic leadership provides fruitful avenues for contemporary research on the role, nature, and impact of charismatic leadership on organizational relationships and performance. Yet, to date, other facets of Weber's work have been overlooked. We argue that attempts to propel contemporary charismatic leadership research forward require learning from the past. That is, incorporating original insights by Weber on charisma may broaden and shape the future directions of contemporary charismatic leadership research. Though we suggest fruitful avenues for future research, such as investigating the informal structure as a context for the emergence of charisma, the power of followers to shape charisma in leaders, and the temporally bound nature of charisma, other avenues may exist. In looking to the past of charisma in particular and leadership in general, current researchers can build on this groundwork to find unique, open-ended avenues for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Weber emphasized the informal structure, followers' power, and time in charismatic leadership; yet the extant literature either overlooks or underplays the significance of each of these facets. The aim of this paper is to revisit Weber's conceptualizations of charisma and illuminate these facets, thus creating new avenues for the contemporary charismatic leadership research.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The focus of this research is on analysis of Weber's conceptualization of charisma. The analysis of selected quotes is grounded within contemporary discourse in order to illustrate how three overlooked facets may propel future research on charismatic leadership.\nFindings: By revisiting Weber's seminal work, the paper illustrates several historical findings and identifies research opportunities that are yet to be addressed by contemporary study in charismatic leadership. In doing so, the paper generates a set of propositions as an impetus for future exploration.\nResearch limitations/implications: To address the three proposed questions, researchers should focus their attention on the exploration of charisma outside of the formal bureaucracy, the dynamic power relations between leaders and followers, and the temporally bound nature of charisma. Given the nature of these questions, researchers may also consider alternative research methods such as in-depth case studies and narratives in order to more fully capture the dynamic and unpredictable nature of charisma in complex contexts.\nOriginality/value: Contemporary research largely overlooks or underplays the issues of time, the informal structure, and followers in the study of charisma. Through analysis of Weber's writings, this paper brings to the forefront these issues, and thus provide rich opportunities for future research on charismatic leadership.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A talent development framework: tackling the puzzle
|
[
"Employee development",
"Learning methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Four challenges underpin any approach taken to develop an organization's talent. Talent building endeavors should be business driven, future focused, integrated, and deliver measurable results. In response to these challenges, and based on our work with a number of corporate clients, we have created the talent development framework (TDF) depicted in Figure 1. It provides a lens through which to view, organize, and monitor talent development activities. It can also be used to help guide the process flow for developing the right talents, in the right people, at the right time, in the right way, helping to insure that the talent pipeline has an abundant supply of \"ready-now\" executive successors and a cadre of emerging, high-potential managers. The TDF comprises four components that:1. start with a thorough understanding of the will of the organization (i.e. the real business drivers);2. bring to the fore the talent-development attributes via the learning model considerations;3. reinforce continuous learning over the course of a development journey; and4. focus on the results achieved.This framework, and the other tools related to it, can be used to efficiently, systematically, and robustly establish a leadership development plan.\nOrganizational will: The TDF points first to the importance of developing an understanding of the business strategy, goals, issues, opportunities, challenges, values, and culture of an organization. Such factors of \"organizational will\" comprise the context within which talent development endeavors occur. Context provides the touchstone for ascertaining the appropriateness of learning venues, takeaways, and priorities. For some organizations, this first step is a confirmation of the work that has already been done to identify organization values, strategic challenges, or executive competencies. For others, this step reveals that the self-examination required has either not been done, or has grown stale. In that instance, the first step becomes formulation, not confirmation.In order to flesh out \"organizational will,\" a handful of focused strategic questions are useful. Consider the dozen below. We recently used these for a major, publicly-owned, defense contractor engagement to help them crystallize their talent development context. These questions were forwarded to the client's senior executive team with the invitation to discuss them in order to come to a committed consensus.1. Markets:* How and when will government procurement priorities and levels change? Will new capabilities be required to develop and sell solutions to government customers?* Will commercial and government markets converge, and do we have the capabilities to compete in the commercial arena?1. Global perspectives:* How are global economic and political changes likely to impact our core business? What should we be doing now to help us respond to such changes?* What do our business leaders need to know to operate knowledgeably and ethically in a rapidly integrating world?1. Competitive advantage:* What are the competencies on which we plan to build a competitive advantage? What are we doing to invest in them?* How effectively are we utilizing our talent and knowledge across the enterprise? What keeps our talent and knowledge from becoming \"more mobile\" across the organization?1. Economic value creation and metrics:* Do our people have a clear understanding of how economic value is created?* Metrics galvanize behavior. How can we best align and assess the impact our metrics have on our people and organization?1. Culture:* Do we have the right processes and resources in place to manage the transfer of knowledge from departing colleagues, and the learning of the younger generations?* What culture(s) should we aspire to create and how can we best develop it? Will greater collaboration across business units, increased knowledge sharing, and more innovation be required and what steps might enable that?1. Leadership:* How well does our current leadership energize our work force? Do we have an abundance of new ideas and a pipeline of leaders to execute them?* Identify the top five key, future-focused leadership attributes which are \"mandatory\" for future success? How well are we performing on these competencies now? How will we close the gap from where we are to where we need to be?In general, such questions should be designed to stimulate and focus conversation in the critical arenas noted. The discussion of these sorts of questions ultimately feeds into what we call the learning model where the leadership attributes required to achieve an organization's business strategy will be identified, and thus, become the foci for ensuing talent development activities.\nThe learning model: The learning model, in the center part of the TDF, provides an explicit focus on two questions. The first is: \"What are the specific capabilities, skills, attributes, and knowledge that each organizational population needs to have addressed in order to meet the challenges and opportunities surfaced in fleshing out the 'organizational will' context?\" The second is: \"How do we best design the learning opportunity each targeted population needs?\" These two queries propel organizations to an additional level of specificity.Attributes to be developed\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present a concise, robust talent development framework for summarizing and guiding the organizational activities pertaining to having the right people, at the right time, getting the right type of talent development experiences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is the result of over 40 combined years of advising and working with executive education corporate clients on the assessment of talent development needs and plans.\nFindings: - Four challenges underpin any approach taken to develop an organization's talent. Talent building endeavors should be business driven, future focused, integrated, and deliver measurable results. In response to these challenges, and based on our work with a number of corporate clients, we have created the talent development framework (TDF). It provides a lens through which to view, organize, and monitor talent development activities.\nPractical implications: - The experience-based framework presented here is immediately useful to those responsible for developing and enhancing organizational talent.\nOriginality/value: - The organizational endeavors pertaining to the monitoring, managing, and motivating of talent development are numerous and varied in their foci, timing, and purpose. This article presents an organizing framework for \"seeing all the pieces\" and how they fit together, and apply to various organizational populations for different purposes. As such, it provides a codified, organized approach to talent development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Portfolio management of development projects in Danish municipalities
|
[
"Performance management",
"Ambidexterity",
"Portfolio management",
"Development projects",
"Resource utilization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Danish municipalities are public and political organisations that are responsible for important community/social tasks when providing services to citizens. The latest municipal merger in 2007 reduced the number of municipalities to 98. The primary motive for the municipal merger was cost savings through economies of scale. The total budget of the Danish municipalities in 2013 was 457 billion DKK (61 billion Euros; Okonomi og Indenrigsministeriet, 2013), financed by revenue from taxes, duties, and fees. In this spotlight, it is not surprising that questions regarding the size of the public sector are repeatedly raised. This concern includes the ability of municipalities to use resources efficiently for the benefit of citizens and businesses. With such large budgets, it is essential that proper planning and coordination is carried through and that resources are used effectively in daily operations.\n2. Theoretical frame of reference: This section develops the theoretical frame of reference and is presented with the objective of answering the research questions. The section it is organised in three subsections. First, NPM is reviewed, then the concept of ambidexterity is outlined, and finally, management of project portfolio and the program management office (PMO) are reviewed. The theoretical point of departure begins within the frame of NPM that provides public organisations with new perspectives on how to use the resources more efficiently. With NPM, there also follows new targets that require development projects. We then borrow the concept of ambidexterity in order to throw some light on the dilemma of prioritizing resources for both daily operations and development activities. Finally, the portfolio management of projects is included to analyse the consciousness in the municipalities with respect to orchestrating a number of development projects with the ambition of securing alignment of the projects.\n3. Method: The paper is based on two data sources; the research has been conducted both through qualitative and quantitative methods. Initially, two exploratory interviews were conducted with two municipalities (a major urban municipality and a small rural municipality). Both interviews were recorded and transcribed. The purpose of the qualitative interviews was to get insights into the challenges of managing development projects in municipalities, thereby gaining sufficient knowledge to construct the questionnaire. The questionnaire method was chosen in order to be able to generalise our results to a wider population by including all the Danish municipalities in our study. This method can also help us to inform about the scope of the issues from a municipality perspective. Before the questionnaire was distributed, a pilot test was conducted with a municipality. Then a questionnaire was distributed to the 98 municipalities.\n4. Analysis: As evident from the paper's theoretical frame of reference, the demand for efficient use of resources, explicit goals and focus on output play a significant role for the operation of a modern municipality. This focus raises the question of whether the municipalities are doing an adequate job in the day-to-day operation and the right thing in relation to the demand for development. In theory, the weighting of operation and the use of resources for development are of central consideration to municipalities. In practice, there is no clear-cut or definitive answer to this question. Municipalities are often required to return to the issue of weighting resources, underscoring the importance of the daily operations instead of development activities, time and time again.\n5. Discussion: Daily operations play an important role in most municipalities. This finding is not unexpected or strange, but daily operations is where the municipalities in the short term are evaluated on whether they meet users' requirements. Is the public getting value for their taxes? When developing, the municipalities operationalise tasks in the long term. This analysis indicates a degree of diversity and focus, but not as pronounced as the focus on day-to-day operations. Nevertheless, the number of new development projects over the past two years has been increasing, which indicates a certain awareness of the need for development in the municipalities. The growing number of development projects has also involved more employees at different levels, which is not surprising; it means that the public sector, despite several exercises aimed at eliminating bureaucratisation, has not become less complex. Quite the contrary, two conditions occur that are interesting to consider.\n6. Conclusion: This paper has put attention on development projects in Danish municipalities. NPM as a management paradigm is focused on streamlining work processes in the public sector, including putting more emphasis on performance management. Public organisations and, in this study, the Danish municipalities have a need to develop their business processes. This process is conducted mainly through dedicated development projects. The problem is that development projects or activities can conflict with day-to-day operations - a dilemma that, in organisational theory, is referred to as ambidexterity. The paper illuminated the following two research questions:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Danish municipalities are undergoing continuous changes. An important part of these changes are the introduction and implementation of a wide range of development projects. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the challenges of initiation and implementation of development projects in municipalities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The focus is on development projects, which are defined as projects undertaken to improve the workflow and processes of administrative functions in municipalities. The empirical component is based on two pilot interviews in two municipalities and a quantitative questionnaire distributed to all Danish municipalities.\nFindings: Extant literature contains limited contributions regarding the overall management of development projects in municipalities. There seems to be an awareness of the importance of developing working procedures to ensure greater efficiency in Danish municipalities, but this development is often not prioritised relative to operational tasks. The absence of prioritisation is an indication of the potential for improving the portfolio management of development projects.\nResearch limitations/implications: The response to the quantitative questionnaire is provided by one employee in a municipality. As such, the research may reveal the views of one individual in particular and not those of the municipality in general.\nPractical implications: The paper provides empirical evidence of the ambidextrous challenges in the context of public sector management. At a more generic level, the paper highlights the importance of improving portfolio management of development projects.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first that one to focus on the orchestration of development projects in the public sector (here analysed through Danish municipalities). Management and control of such projects is much more sensitive to political decision processes than are similar tasks in the private sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An analysis of safety advisor roles and site safety performance
|
[
"Advisor",
"Consultant",
"Job roles",
"Safety",
"Advisory services",
"Health and safety"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The high risk nature of construction work, in terms of occupational safety and health (OSH), results in a high proportion of safety advisors being employed in this industry sector (Jones, 2005b). There are frequent interactions between safety advisors and construction personnel which include site audits or inspections, safety committee meetings, safety training or accident investigations. Safety advisors undertake many different roles and the aim of this paper is to investigate which of these roles are associated with better site safety performance; and, therefore, what is the best use of the contractor safety advisor. The paper discusses the most common roles undertaken by contractor safety advisors, based on study of the research literature; and then presents findings from a UK study, funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), of the relationship between safety advisor roles and safety performance.\nRoles of the safety advisor: Safety personnel in the UK have a variety of titles: safety director; safety manager; safety advisor, safety representative or safety technician (Marchant, 2004). These titles reflect slightly different roles. The safety director, as the name suggests, will usually sit on the board of directors or be a senior manager. These individuals may not be as technically competent on safety matters as their subordinates, but rely on their advice to inform strategic decision making and invariably move on (or back) into line management positions (Hale, 1995). The title \"Safety Manager\" seems a misnomer since the management of safety is legally a line management function in the UK under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974). However, these individuals usually manage a team of advisors. The vast majority of safety personnel will be designated \"advisors\" in line with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999), Regulation 7 which requires safety \"assistance\". At operative level (on site) there may be safety \"technicians\" or \"safety representatives\", the latter are invariably elected by trade unions. These individuals usually deal with practical hazards and worker protection.\nConstruction safety advisors: Safety personnel who work in construction have a similar profile to the generalist, but with some additional industry-specific roles. This is illustrated by the work of Jones (2005b) who conducted survey research for IOSH entitled \"what practitioners do\". Although the study was pan-industry it has been possible to isolate construction respondents' data to ascertain the most common roles for safety personnel within the industry. These are:\nSafety advisors vs safety performance: Before discussing the methods used, however, an exploration of literature on safety personnel and safety performance is needed.\nOther factors affecting safety performance: Accidents are multi-causal in nature (Reason, 1997). Proximate factors such as the individual competency of the worker and the condition of plant and equipment, as well as more distal factors such as resource planning and organisational culture all act as intervening factors (Reason, 1997; Suraji and Duff, 2001).\nResearch method: Independent variables\nData collection and analysis: Ideally, several years' data would have helped to smooth out any short-term volatility in AIR. However, this benefit had to be balanced against the difficulty of obtaining several years' data, from all participating contractors. Therefore, it was decided to use data for the most recently completed financial year only. The dependent variable of safety performance was a ratio scale and the independent variables were nominal. Therefore, variance of means analysis was possible.\nFindings: The dependent variable for this study is AIR (per 100,000 site workers). Figure 1 illustrates how this variable is distributed for the sample. The values are positively skewed. The industry average AIR, 1,790 for the year data were collected, is also shown for comparison. Approximately 70 per cent of the sample was below the industry average. The mean AIR for the sample was 1,586 (median 952), with standard deviation of 1,580. The sample also includes two contractors with an AIR of 0 (turnover of PS 8 and PS43 m).\nDiscussion: Contractors that use only external consultants for their safety advice returned an average AIR approximately three times those with internal safety staff. The difference in mean AIR between organisations that only employ internal safety staff and those that only use external consultants was statistically significant. This finding is consistent with Hinze (2002a, b) who found a higher rate of injuries within construction organisations when the safety person was an external consultant. Hale (1995) presents the argument made by employers that external safety consultants cannot \"understand and influence company policy\" in the same way their internally employed counterparts can (this argument was made in response to calls from Trade Unions to establish external safety auditors by Law). However, it would be wrong to assume that these findings show external consultants to be less competent than internal safety advisors. The issue is their \"opportunity\" to affect change.\nConclusions: The aim of this paper was to establish what activities, functions or roles undertaken by contractor safety advisors are associated with better site safety performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Present findings from a UK study, funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), on the relationship between safety advisor roles and safety performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Roles and organisational factors for contractors' safety advisors (independent variables) were derived from existing literature. The dependent variable was \"safety performance\", measured by accident incidence rate (AIR). Data were provided by 101 contractors and variance of means analysis was conducted.\nFindings: Contractors using only external safety consultants had an average AIR approximately three times those with internal safety staff. However, simply increasing internal safety personnel did not lead to increased safety performance. Contractors, where at least one safety advisor had authority to give orders had a lower mean AIR than those who did not. Other significant variables were: delivering safety training to employees; vetting sub-contractors; and the inclusion of an environmental management role.\nPractical implications: Employing at least one full-time internal safety person is better than relying solely on a safety consultant. If these safety advisers report to senior management then they have a greater chance of influencing others to act safely or commit resources to manage safety. Delivery of training, vetting sub-contractors and including environmental duties should feature in safety advisor roles.\nOriginality/value: The assumption that merely increasing safety personnel improves safety has been challenged. It is apparent from these findings that what the safety personnel actually do is more important than how many are employed. This is a major finding in relation to theory and practice which challenges previous research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Hospitality operators' understanding of service: a qualitative approach
|
[
"Qualitative",
"Service",
"Trait‐based",
"Hospitality operator",
"Training",
"Selection",
"Hospitality services",
"Hospitality management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The far-reaching hospitality industry has a significant presence in today's global economy. Points of competitive differentiation have been a focus of research of late, more specifically factors that impact the guests' perceptions or satisfaction. Some of these studies have focused on service climate and guest perceptions in China (He et al., 2011), employee clothing formality (Yan et al., 2011), employee service encounter performance and affect (Jani and Han, 2011), and tangible quality (Kincaid et al., 2010). The greatest chance for hospitality organizations to have competitive differentiation is through service quality. Competitive differentiation can be realized through the quality of an employee-customer exchange (Mattila and Enz, 2002; Solnet, 2006), making service delivery by the employee essential. One way to drive differentiation based on service is through the employee.Interestingly, there has not been a strong emphasis on employee personality and its impact on guest perceptions. As Auh et al. (2011, p. 426) stated \"given the amount of contact and interaction that service employees experience as they serve customers, it is surprising that so few studies have been devoted to understanding which personality traits are compatible with customer service excellence and their association with customer service behavior\". This study seeks to highlight the potential for a service-related personality trait, a pre-disposition for the need to serve.Understanding and knowing which employees are more likely to deliver service due to their disposition or need to serve is one tool for use and the focus of this research. Therefore the purpose of this research is to extend current research and understanding of an employee's need to serve. Current literature has focused on service orientation, described by Hogan et al. (1984, p. 167) as the \"disposition to be helpful, thoughtful, considerate, and cooperative\", however within the hospitality context there are additional requirements for service providers. Some service providers are more naturally inclined to serve another. Using service orientation as the foundation for this research, the current study focused on understanding how service is conceived from the provider's perspective and how the need to serve develops in a hospitality employee in an attempt to view the need to serve as a standalone and unique personality trait, quite different and more specific than Hogan et al.'s (1984) service orientation. While this research can't complete this task, it can serve as a foundation that additional research may be built upon. For the purpose of this research three research questions were posed in an attempt to assess the development of one's need to serve as more specific than service orientation and likely as a unique personality trait:RQ1. How is the need to serve understood (conceived) by the service provider?RQ2. How is the need to serve developed within the service provider?RQ3. Is there support for a unique personality trait related to one's need to serve?\nLiterature review: Conceptualization of service\nMethods: Due to the nature of this study, a qualitative method was selected and carried out. Specifically this study used an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA). The IPA method \"is phenomenological in that it involves detailed examination of the participant's lived experience...[and] emphasizes that the research exercise is a dynamic process with an active role for the researcher in that process\" (Smith and Osborn, 2008, p. 53).Sample\nResults: How is the need to serve understood (conceived) by the service provider?\nDiscussion: The findings that emerged from the data add support that a person can be pre-disposed to deliver service or have a need to serve others. From the interviews a description of the service provider was developed and this description included two aspects, internal and external attributes. Service can be delivered using only external attributes; however the internal attributes provide support to carry out the external attributes. Without passion and a social demeanor, genuine care and above and beyond attributes are difficult to provide to the customer. The internal attributes must be present for an employee to fully engage in service delivery. These are also key to the longevity of the employee in his position and perhaps his level of job satisfaction. Without these internal attributes the external attributes are delivered in an unauthentic manner and the employee will become burdened with the service responsibility of his job, feel dissatisfied, participate in absenteeism, and likely separate from the organization. The attributes that were determined from the data analysis and themes that emerged are all positive in nature and wording. No negative attributes were identified in the data and therefore these attributes and their subsequent implications are all presented in the same positive manner that they were found to be in the data.The second finding, a spectrum approach to how the need to serve develops, also provides support that an employee can be pre-disposed with the need to serve through his/her experiences, choices, and socialization. With this support future research can continue to focus on the pre-disposition of the need to serve through development of an instrument to measure this potential aspect of one's personality. Not only do these findings support one's pre-disposition with the need to serve, but they also provide practical implications for service employers and professionals.Implications for service professionals\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research was to begin to answer the question \"Can a person as an employee, an individual or a leader be pre-disposed to deliver service?\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: - To answer this question the research began exploring service from the provider's perspective to better understand how it is understood and how the need to serve is developed. This study used an interpretive phenomenological approach and collected data through semi-structured interviews. Purposeful sampling produced hospitality management operators as participants. The focus of the interviews was their understanding of service, and how one develops a need to serve others. An editing style of data analysis was conducted.\nFindings: - Findings included an understanding of how hospitality operators view service, including necessary external and internal attributes. Additionally, a basic understanding of how the need to serve develops in service providers was garnered from the data collected.\nPractical implications: - Specific implications for service practitioners included training and selection. Selection based on these findings likely produces employees that are a better fit for service provision, resulting in more satisfied employees and guests. Training employees in these key areas is also likely to produce employees that deliver service effectively and are contributing members to the organization.\nOriginality/value: - This research is valuable to service practitioners as it identifies key attributes necessary of service providers that can aid in selection and training. Additionally, this research provides value to other researchers as it notes a spectrum approach to understanding how the need to serve develops.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The consumer of food products in organic markets of central Mexico
|
[
"Organic food",
"Consumers",
"Motivations",
"Characterization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the nineteenth century, and especially after the Second World War, the industrialisation of food production and the so-called \"green revolution\" caused dietary changes in virtually all countries. The increase in food production and the strategic distribution of processed foods changed the territorial model and broke the bond between food products and the land (Perez Izquierdo et al., 2012; Montiel and Collado, 2010). The use of agrochemicals brought several benefits such as increased food production and access to cheap food, but it had a negative impact on the environment, which generated discontent and gave rise to a negative social perception of the global food system and agricultural industrialisation (Zanoli et al., 2012; Pinstrup-Andersen, 2011; Krom and Mol, 2010; Montiel and Collado, 2010).\nMethods: Questionnaire\nResults and discussion: Factor analysis\nConclusions: Results show that consumers of organic foods sold in markets in central Mexico choose to buy these products based on a combination between hedonic and ethical motivations, such as environmental concerns, nutritional content, product availability, sensory aspects, certifications, health and trust and economic aspects; and all these factors interact with each other. Therefore, it is not possible to speak of exclusively hedonistic or ethical consumers; rather, one should speak of groups of consumers in which both kinds of motivations are present in greater or lesser degree.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the characteristics of consumers of organic food, based on their motivations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire based on the Food Choice Questionnaire was applied to a 656 consumers. A multivariate factor analysis and cluster analysis was performed to the data.\nFindings: Seven factors were identified: ecological concern; nutritional content; availability of natural products; sensory aspects; certifications, health and confidence; and economic aspects. Resulting clusters were named as: conscious and interested in certification; conscious with no interest in certification; opportunist in transition; unconscious opportunist. There are signs of different consumers. The consumers of these products are characterised by an interaction between hedonic and ethical motivations, where the most important motivation is environmental concern and the least important are the economic aspects.\nResearch limitations/implications: The reduced number of alternative markets in Mexico limits the amplitude of the research.\nPractical implications: The work herein reported is pioneer and contributes to reduce the lack of studies on the motivations and characteristics of consumers of organic foods in Mexico. Findings may set a path for new research in other cultural contexts; as well as for more specific work in Mexico as of consumers of industrialised organic products.\nSocial implications: Characterising consumers of organic foods will enable the development of these markets.\nOriginality/value: Social studies of eating habits have taken place in European countries; and several works have been developed in other areas of the world to determine the way in which consumers build their preferences and food choice patterns. In Mexico, specifically in organic foods, studies have focussed in agrarian economics, but the analysis of motivations for choice has not been addressed. Therefore, it is important to research this issue given the relevance for consumers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
TQM, innovation and the role of cultural change
|
[
"Total quality management",
"Cultural change",
"Incremental innovation",
"Radical innovation",
"Multidimensionality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The intensification of global competition requires an effort on the part of organizations to promote innovation at the same time as improving quality as a means of survival and growth (Cho and Pucik, 2005). While the importance of this fact has often been emphasized, much more remains to be understood on this topic.The arguments that underpin each of the viewpoints on the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and innovation are diverse. It is argued that the principles and practices that promote the use of TQM are consistent with those of innovation (Gustafson and Hundt, 1995). Several current empirical studies conclude that quality management practices assist firms in developing innovation capabilities (Perdomo-Ortiz et al., 2006), innovation results (Prajogo and Hong, 2008).Although empirical support for a positive relation is stronger than for a negative one, conclusive results are yet to appear. It has been claimed that standardization brought about by TQM inhibits creativity and innovation and leads to analytical, linear thinking, focusing only on the specifications of the customer (Slater and Narver, 1998). Some empirical research finds a negative relationship between process management and radical innovation (Benner and Tushman, 2002, 2003) and between formalization and technological innovation (Moura E Sa and Abrunhosa, 2007), or do not reveal any significant connection (Sing and Smith, 2004).In this sense, the contributions of Prajogo and Sohal (2001) and Kim et al. (2012) are fundamental, as they offer a broad review of the literature on this topic. Even though this is a widely researched topic that has engendered a sizeable body of literature, it is still open to new perspectives.Relevant scholars have called for a deeper understanding of the complexity of innovation (Linton, 2009; Chang et al., 2012), and this is of particular importance in our case because a narrow view of innovation may be a barrier to understanding with regard to the impact of TQM on innovation (Kim et al., 2012). Taking on board the complexity of the TQM principles and practices has also been pinpointed as a factor of utmost relevance (Bou-Lusar et al., 2009). Hitherto, studies have mainly examined the direct relationship between TQM practices and innovation, and there is a great potential in discovering mediating variables (Kim et al., 2012).This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationships between TQM and innovation by first dealing with the complexity of the TQM application and its multidimensional character (Moreno-Luzon and Valls-Pasola, 2011). In order to understand the amplitude of the applications of TQM, we can see its origins and how it has evolved from an entirely technical approach, strictly linked to the manufacturing department, to a global management approach that includes human, organizational, marketing and strategic elements. In order to reflect this essential aspect in our study, we classify these principles and practices into three major groups: processes, people and customers (Bou-Lusar et al., 2009; Dean and Bowen, 1994).The second contribution of our study lies in adopting a wide perspective of innovation in the analysis, embracing incremental as well as radical innovation (Linton, 2009; Chang et al., 2012). Radical innovation occurs in entirely new products or processes that require new knowledge, allowing them to satisfy new customers or emerging markets (Herrmann et al., 2006), while incremental innovation implies progressive improvements in characteristics of already existing products and processes (Green et al., 1995; Chang et al., 2012).Nevertheless, the main contribution of this research is to measure the role of the diverse cultural change generated by TQM as a mediator. Following the research that analyzes the cultural implications of TQM (Naveh and Erez, 2004; Dellana and Hauser, 1999; Prajogo and McDermott, 2005) and taking into account the concepts of exploitation and exploration expressed by March (1991), we have conceptualized the cultural change brought about by TQM including values related to exploitation such as control, discipline, precision, and improvement; and related to exploration like experimentation, creativity, risk taking and flexibility. This cultural change, made up of apparently contradicting values, has not been previously employed in the analysis of this relationship. Furthermore, this contribution provides an important practical implication: knowing the potential of this paradoxical cultural change allows managers to also promote and audit it in order to make TQM a platform for innovation.We propose two models: one that measures the direct relations between TQM and innovation, and another that includes the cultural change brought about by TQM as a mediating variable. We test these models by carrying out a survey on Spanish companies from the textile and furniture sectors.In the next section, we present the literature review and hypotheses. After describing our research methodology, we present the findings of the survey, ending with a discussion of the results and its implications.\n2 Theoretical framework and proposed model of relations: An analysis of the literature suggests that the discrepancies on the relation between TQM and innovation might come from the interpretation of the reality of TQM, which, due to its complex nature has a tremendous diversity of principles and practices (Prajogo and Sohal, 2001; Kim et al., 2012), which is why it is worth taking a closer look at these differences.2.1 Processes\n3 Method: 3.1 Sample\n4 Results: The analysis of a PLS model is carried out in two steps (Barclay et al., 1995). First, we assess the measurement model to evaluate if the theoretical concepts are measured correctly through the observed variables. Second, we consider the structural model, estimating the weight and magnitude of the relationships between the different variables.4.1 Measurement model\n5 Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Implications for research\n6 Limitations and future research directions: When interpreting our results, we must also consider a series of research limitations. This study focuses on the Spanish furniture and textiles sectors, which have been subjected in recent times to a sharp increase in competitiveness. Extending the conclusions of the study to other environments of an entirely different nature may not be possible. In terms of future research, we believe it would be interesting to study the case of emerging sectors, in which the majority of firms are \"born innovative\". In this case, the pattern would be inverted, and quality management systems are introduced when the company has grown intending to improve efficiency and effectiveness.In addition, in terms of future research, we believe it would be interesting to develop an in-depth understanding of the relationships between the values we have used to measure cultural change. We believe it would be interesting to consider the cultural values related to exploitation and exploration separately, to assess their mutual relationships, as well as their individual connections with incremental and radical innovation. In this sense, case studies would also represent a useful tool for achieving a better understanding of the phenomenon. It is also worth noting that the main determinants of cultural change in a TQM framework may not be identified. Other factors, such as maturity in TQM implementation, or country and sector culture may need to be considered in future studies.Moreover, the assessment of the variables analyzed is obtained by using subjective appreciations from managers and experts. Other actors could have been included, such as auditors, employees or customers, so as to improve the richness of the data gathered. The ideal circumstances would be to combine this data with more objective ones, referring to the quantity and depth of innovation in each company. Another weakness could be the cross-sectional nature of the empirical study. We consider it is necessary to obtain empirical proof from a longitudinal study that allows the confirmation of the results obtained. We also find it relevant to continue this line of research to achieve a larger sample size, which would allow us to make the most of the statistical analyses and improve the conclusions, as in our case we only have 72 respondents.Finally, a new relationship might also be considered in the model: the link between incremental and radical innovation. We can find literature that argues that systematic and incremental innovations would eventually result in radical innovations (Smed, 1997). Therefore, it is possible that TQM not only stimulates radical innovation through a diverse cultural change, but also through the promotion of incremental innovation. Studying this relationship could open a new interesting line of research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to better understand the influence of total quality management (TQM) practices on incremental and radical innovation, examining the role of diverse cultural change as a mediator, particularly in firms where ever-increasing competitive pressure demands a combination of quality and innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - From previous research on the influence of TQM practices on innovation, the paper proposes a model which is tested through a survey carried out on a sample of 72 Spanish firms that have been drastically hit by competition from Asian companies, achieving a 51.42 percent valid return rate.\nFindings: - None of the sets of TQM practices directly affects radical innovation, while all of them have a significant and positive relationship with incremental innovation. However, when the paper introduces cultural change as a mediating factor, the model's goodness of fit improves substantially, and all the relations are significant.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results reveal the power of cultural change to connect the diversity of the TQM practices and incremental and radical innovation. Further research is needed for a more comprehensive understanding of the role of cultural change in these relationships and to test the model in a longitudinal study.\nPractical implications: - Managers can use the potential inherent in TQM to stimulate a paradoxical cultural context that favours innovation. This is especially relevant for enhancing radical innovation.\nSocial implications: - Given the extent to which TQM has been applied over the last 20 years, the social impact of this study is relevant, particularly in the current environment of economic crisis which calls for an increase in efficiency and innovation, adaptation and change.\nOriginality/value: - The paper introduces a multidimensional analysis of TQM and a broad perspective of innovation. The paper also develops an original definition of cultural change made up of apparently contradicting values, including exploitation and exploration, and introduces it as a mediating variable in the TQM-innovation model.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comparisons of students' perceptions on BIM practice among Australia, China and UK
|
[
"Education",
"Case study",
"Pedagogy",
"Building information modelling",
"Comparative analysis",
"Constructions education",
"Questionnaire survey",
"Information and communication technology (ICT) applications",
"Subgroup analysis",
"Individual perceptions"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Building information modeling (BIM), which is the digital technology that enables creations of accurate virtual models and supports the project delivery process, was viewed by Eastman et al. (2011) as one of the most promising developments in the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. The movement of BIM in the global AEC market has driven practical, academic research and educational activities worldwide. Much academic research of BIM has focused on technical aspects referring to BIM application and implementation (Yalcinkaya and Singh, 2015), but less on the managerial part of BIM which is also a key critical factor for successful BIM practice (Oraee et al., 2017). One important aspect within managerial BIM is the collaboration among project team members (Eadie et al., 2013; Tang et al., 2015). It was further indicated by Jin et al. (2016) that there could be a complementary relationship between new college graduates with BIM skillsets and senior professionals with more industry experience. The study of perceptions toward BIM practice between AEC students and industry professionals is needed because: perceptions would have a direct impact on individual behavior (Dijksterhuis and Bargh, 2001); and BIM-based projects would involve team members from different background and experience levels (e.g. entry-level and senior employees), and their shared perceptions toward BIM could be a driver toward multi-disciplinary and cross-experience-level collaboration in the BIM environment (Jin, Hancock, Tang, Chen, Wanatowski and Yang, 2017).\n2. Background: 2.1 BIM movement in Australia, China and UK\n3. Research methodology: This study utilizes a multiple-case, single-unit of analysis (Gustafsson, 2017) case study method to investigate university students' perceptions of BIM practices among three cases which have been chosen using SRS strategy (Berger and Zhang, 2005) in UK, Australia and China. Although the main research instrument used for the single-unit analysis of this study is purely statistical - hence the choice of questionnaire survey as the main data collection means for this study, it is crucially important to note that the knowledge claim of this study does not follow that of a pure quantitative methodology. The case study method at the heart of this study, like experiments, bounds the findings of this study to be generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to the populations or universes the samples may seemingly represent. In this sense, the case study, does not represent a \"sample,\" and the investigators' goal is to expand and generalize theories (analytic generalization) and not to enumerate frequencies (statistical generalization) (Yin, 1989). The choice of questionnaire as a main instrument for the single-unit of analysis of this study was made to meet multiple purposes. First, it would have made it possible to conduct a pure statistical analysis between the cases which represented mainstream institutions in their country of origin. Furthermore, a statistical (pure and interpretative) analysis also made an internal comparison of perceptions of different aspects of this study within each of those selected cases internally. Last but not least, the other advantage of using questionnaire was that not only it could have used and did use the data collection methods as suggested by precedent studies (e.g. Eadie et al., 2013; Ding et al., 2015), but it will also provide a standardized tool for future studies on which identical or similar studies can be built that in return offers higher degree of validity and reliability of the current study. The validity and reliability of data collected through questionnaire survey were checked following the rules suggested by Heale and Twycross (2015). For example, the same questionnaire was reviewed and agreed by BIM instructors from all the three institutions in this study to ensure that the same variables (e.g. students' motivations in BIM-related jobs) were measured; theory evidence was applied by linking students' BIM perceptions to their learning behaviors; and homogeneity (i.e. internal consistency) of BIM categories in the questionnaire was analyzed using Cronbach's (1951) a value.\n4. Results: 4.1 Background of survey participants\n5. Discussion of findings: Two of the BIM functions (i.e. as a project management tool and as a digital platform for interdisciplinary collaboration) were perceived most positive by the overall student sample. This was consistent with findings from industry-based surveys (e.g. Eadie et al., 2013) that collaboration was a key issue in successful BIM practice. BIM as an interdisciplinary digital platform had also been emphasized in the institutional education (e.g. Jin et al., 2018). The survey question reflecting students' perceptions of BIM functions indicated that students from the three selected institutions had gained certain understanding of BIM, especially compared to some AEC industry professionals, who might still consider BIM mainly as a visualization tool (Zhang et al., 2018). Nevertheless, subgroup differences should be noticed among students from these different institutions. For example, compared to students from SUT and UoB, WZU students agreed more on the view that BIM was a software tool similar to CAD and as a 3D visualization tool. SUT students held more positive views of BIM as a project management tool, digital platform, as well as an environmental assessment tool. These differences among subgroups could be due to both external and internal factors. External factors include the local BIM climate defined by Xu et al. (2018) related to the local BIM industry culture. Internal factors include students' teaching and learning experience, which is not only related to students' time of learning, but also how the BIM course was delivered and assessed. For example, in SUT, the BIM education had focused on not only 3D visualization and engineering drawings, but also management-based BIM and environmental sustainability. In comparison, WZU's BIM education had highlighted more on training students with BIM software skills. WZU's BIM pedagogical method could reflect the local industry culture, as BIM had been largely applied as a 3D visualization skill (Jin et al., 2015) and there was a large need of BIM technicians. These different pedagogical delivery and assessment methods could result in students' differed perceptions toward BIM, as reflected in the questionnaire survey results summarized in Tables II, III and IV. Furthermore, the continental comparison of BIM education indicates the pedagogical and practical needs between technical and managerial skills in BIM. Both technical skill and management capability are needed in BIM practice, and the educational focus between techniques and management could be emphasized accordingly in institutional education.\n6. Conclusions: This study aimed to address the issue of limited research that had been conducted to investigate the individual perceptions of AEC students toward BIM practice and the lack of cross-institutional comparison of students' perceptions following their BIM learning. The questionnaire survey approach was adopted to gauge students' perceptions from three different case study universities located in Australia, China and UK. The statistical evaluation was carried out to study the overall sample and subgroup differences in terms of students' perceptions toward BIM functions, BIM's usefulness in different AEC professions, their motivation in multiple BIM-related jobs and their opinions on challenges encountered in BIM practice. However, as the main underlying method used for this research remains to be case study method, the generalization of the findings does not use the statistical discourse at its core. By contrast the discourse for making the generalization of the findings of this study lays its foundation on analytical discourse.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: University students are the future driving forces in and leaders of the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry advancement. Although BIM pedagogical studies have been performed in different institutions, there has not been sufficient research providing a global perspective of BIM education and students' perceptions toward BIM practice and application following their learning progress. The purpose of this paper is to adopt student samples from Swinburne University of Technology (SUT, Australia), Wenzhou University (WZU, China) and University of Brighton (UK) as three case studies to investigate the BIM practice and application-related perceptions and motivations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the thorough understanding of the BIM pedagogical delivery including teaching contents and assessment methods among the three institutions, a questionnaire survey approach was adopted to collect AEC students' perceptions of BIM. Within each selected case, statistical analysis was conducted to investigate both the overall sample and subgroup differences regarding students' opinions on BIM's functions (e.g. as a 3D visualization tool) and BIM usefulness in various industry professions, their motivation in BIM-related jobs and their perceptions of challenges encountered in BIM practice and application. Multiple factors influencing BIM learners' perceptions were discussed, such as pedagogical assessment approach, and individual factors (e.g. disciplines).\nFindings: The results showed that students were able to discern the latest industry practices and critical thinking in BIM movements. For example, SUT students perceived more challenges from the government legislation or incentive policies, which was consistent with Australia's BIM policy movement. WZU students tended to have less positive views on BIM usefulness. The results also indicated fewer differences regarding perceived challenges among students from these three institutions.\nOriginality/value: This study contributed to the body of knowledge in managerial BIM by focusing on learners' perceptions from the perspective of students' understanding, motivation and individual views of BIM, which were insightful to both BIM educators and employers. By initiating the framework of BIM learning process and its influence factors, the current study serves as a point of reference to continue the future work in strengthening the connection between institutional BIM education and industry practical needs worldwide.\n",
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Development of a school-based intervention to promote fruit and vegetable consumption: Exploring perceptions among 4-to-12-year old children and their parents
|
[
"Fruits",
"Vegetables",
"Diet",
"Children (age groups)",
"Schools"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This paper explores factors that are associated with fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption among children aged 4-12 years, with a view to developing a school-based intervention in the Netherlands.Over the last decade, the consumption of F&V has attracted considerable attention in health promotion research, since there is evidence that such consumption decreases the risk of chronic diseases, such as cancer, coronary heart disease and asthma (WHO, 2003). Dutch nutritional guidelines (Voedingsraad, 2001) as well as the World Health Organization (WHO, 2003) recommend a daily intake of at least 150-200 g of vegetables and two servings of fruit or fruit juice for children up to twelve years. However, Dutch children aged 4-12 years consume only 71 g of vegetables and less than one portion of fruit a day (Voedingscentrum, 1998).Children's low intake of F&V is particularly troubling since many food preferences and behaviours, including dietary habits, are established during childhood (Birch, 1990; Domel Baxter and Thompson, 2002; Sandeno et al., 2000) and appear to persist into adolescence and adulthood (Kelder et al., 1994; Krebs-Smith et al., 1995; Lien et al., 2001). Therefore, childhood is an important period for developing dietary habits and behaviours in order to maximize health benefits (Wardle et al., 2003).Recently, several initiatives to promote F&V consumption among children have been started in the Netherlands (Wind et al., 2004). The Regional Health Service GGD Noord- and Midden Limburg, in collaboration with Maastricht University, also intend to develop an intervention, within a primary school setting, to increase the daily intake of F&V among four-to-twelve-year old children. Prior to the development of this intervention, it is necessary to explore factors that encourage or hamper F&V consumption among the target group and its social environment. An extensive literature search identified several potential determinants of F&V consumption among children, such as knowledge (Reynolds et al., 1999; Zadellhoff and Snel, 2003), outcome expectations (Resnicow et al., 1997; Reynolds et al., 1999), preferences (Baranowski et al., 1993; Birch, 1990, 1999; Domel Baxter and Thompson, 2002; Domel Baxter et al., 1996; Gibson et al., 1998; Resnicow et al., 1997; van Assema et al., 2001), peer influences (Weber Cullen et al., 2001), habit strength (Brug et al., in press; Krebs-Smith et al., 1995), self-efficacy (Domel Baxter et al., 1996; Resnicow et al., 1997; Reynolds et al., 1999; Zadellhoff and Snel, 2003), and availability and accessibility (Baranowski et al., 1993; Edmonds et al., 2001; Kratt et al., 2000; Reynolds et al., 1999; van Assema et al., 2001; Weber Cullen et al., 2000, 2001; Zadellhoff and Snel, 2003). In addition, the influence of parents on children's consumption patterns, either by making certain food products available or by their own consumption, was repeatedly shown in several studies (Gibson et al., 1998; Kratt et al., 2000; Reynolds et al., 1999; Weber Cullen et al., 2000, 2001) and needs to be considered when developing interventions to change children's consumption patterns.Unfortunately most studies had been conducted among American parents or children older than ten years, so data applicable to the Dutch situation was limited. Therefore the aim of the present study was to obtain a better understanding of the factors that are associated with young Dutch children's F&V consumption, with a view to developing a school-based intervention to promote F&V consumption.Since it is difficult to get reliable information about eating habits from very young children, both children and their parents were interviewed, so as to combine information.\nMethods: Participants and procedures\nResults: Consumption and attitude towards F&V\nDiscussion: The aim of the present study was to obtain a better understanding of factors that are associated with young Dutch children's F&V consumption, with a view to developing a school-based intervention. Therefore, the results will be discussed especially from the point of view of implications for interventions. In interpreting the results, it should be remembered that the aim of the present study was to obtain information from a broad perspective, and not from a representative sample.The results showed that F&V consumption among the interviewed children did not meet the national recommendations. This is consistent with national data indicating that Dutch children (aged 4-12 years) consume too little F&V (Voedingscentrum, 1998). In agreement with the results of a study by Domel Baxter and Thompson (2002), preference for certain kinds of F&V was reported to be an important factor associated with consumption. Since food preferences are learned through experience with food and eating (Birch, 1990, 1999; Birch and Fisher, 1998), an intervention to promote F&V consumption should incorporate strategies to increase children's preference for F&V. This was successfully done by Wardle et al. (2003), who showed that daily exposure to vegetables could be an effective intervention to increase preference and consumption.The children in our study reported that they hardly ever brought fruit or vegetables to school. This might be explained by the fact that parents said they did not provide their children with daily F&V to take to school. Only the children in age group I sometimes brought fruit, probably because the preschool teachers encouraged this by implementing a fruit break, which is a common practice at most preschools in The Netherlands.Eriksen et al. (2003) conducted a study on the effects of an F&V subscription scheme in Denmark. In this intervention parents were offered a F&V subscription comprising one piece per day. It was concluded that the social implications of a fruit break could motivate those children who did not take part in the subscription to bring F&V to school. In addition, observing peers who consume F&V can favourably affect the consumption of and preferences for F&V (Birch, 1980). Our data suggest that bringing F&V to school does not necessarily imply consumption. For this reason, a daily F&V break in the classroom could have a positive effect on F&V consumption, because it reminds children to eat their fruit. Additionally, measures should be taken to make sure that F&V arrive at school undamaged, because children saw dented fruit as a barrier for consumption.Children reported that few teachers modelled F&V consumption or taught about the importance of F&V. Since a study by Hendy and Raudenbush (2000) showed that enthusiastic teacher modelling affects food acceptance by children, motivating teachers to model F&V in an enthusiastic way should be considered when developing a school-based intervention.Although both children and parents were in favour of activities to promote F&V at school and would also appreciate F&V distribution, parents do not tend to participate in activities to promote F&V consumption at school. Therefore other ways to get through to parents have to be considered. For example, according to the family reciprocal determinism model, (Baranowski, 1997) parents not only influence their children, but children can also influence their parents' behaviour, skills and cognition by providing information, rewards and punishment.Furthermore, it must be considered that F&V distribution at school could lead to a decrease in the corresponding behaviour at home (Eriksen et al., 2003).Surprisingly, the children reported that their parents did not encourage them to eat F&V, while their parents reported the opposite. Furthermore, most of the children as well as the parents reported that there were rules about F&V consumption at home. Several studies have shown that parental F&V consumption (Fisher et al., 2002; Young et al., 2004) and parenting style (Kremers et al., 2003) are related to children's F&V consumption. This is especially important considering that parents influence their children's behaviour, including their eating habits (Ferme and McManamon, 2003). This implies that interventions to promote F&V consumption should also include activities aimed at parents.Another factor that was mentioned in the interviews was the accessibility of F&V. Weber Cullen et al. (2000) showed that when F&V are not readily available to eat at home, this inhibits the children from eating F&V and makes them more likely to turn to more convenient snack foods. For interventions to promote F&V consumption, this means that activities should be considered to support parents in making F&V more accessible for their children. Moreover, the children said they liked activities in which they could prepare their own F&V. Providing parents with easy-to-fix recipes for preparing F&V snacks together with their children or teaching children at school to make their own F&V snacks could be useful activities. Moreover, the important role of accessibility implies that if F&V distribution at school is considered, the F&V should be provided in ready-to-eat form.Some limitations of the study need to be discussed. Since we used two different methods to collect data among parents, results have to be interpreted with caution. Although the group interviews and telephone interviews both used the same interview route, it is likely that the interviewer used somewhat different techniques to invite parents to elaborate on the previous question. Moreover, maybe discussion in group interviews yielded more information than individual telephonic interviews could ever do. When interpreting the results it is therefore important to recognize that despite the differences mentioned, all interviews were treated as of equal richness. Parents who participated in the \"coffee talk\" did not know on forehand what the subject of discussion was, we therefore do not expect a selective group that was more involved in health related issues. Regarding telephone interviews, participating parents were self-selected. Therefore, it is likely that parents more interested in health related issues were involved in the interviews. However, this is the case in all voluntary health promotion activities.Although studies involving children yield valuable information, especially when developing a child-based intervention, there are always some ethical considerations that have to be taken into account. Is it ethical to use children as a source of information? In our opinion the answer to this question depends on the kind of subject under study and the methods used to gather information from children. The current study looked at F&V consumption, which is not an emotionally charged subject. Furthermore, to minimize a potential burden on the children we chose interview methods that connected to the children's class routine as much as possible. The interview held with the youngest children was conducted with their teacher and resembled the recurring opening of the day; moreover working on assignments in small groups is also a common school activity for the older children.Finally, it can be concluded that this study has yielded a number of practical implications for designing school-based interventions aimed at promoting F&V consumption among children aged 4-12 years and making this healthy behaviour habitual. Although the children's and parents' perspectives are important, further study is required into teachers' willingness to implement an intervention and the conditions under which schools are ready to promote F&V at school.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to explore individual and social factors that are associated with children's F&V (fruit and vegetable) intake in order to develop a school-based intervention to increase their F&V consumption.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Group interviews were conducted with ten groups of Dutch children (n=104), aged 4-12 years, and two groups of parents (n=28). Additionally, a total of ten parents participated in an interview by telephone. Opinions about the actual F&V consumption, awareness of consumption patterns, attitudes towards F&V, promotion of F&V consumption by parents and F&V intake at school were explored. Transcripts were analysed using Nvivo 2.0.\nFindings: - Several factors that are likely to increase F&V consumption of the participants were identified, such as preferences, modeling of F&V consumption by teachers and parents and availability of F&V in ready-to-eat form at home and school. Although both children and parents favoured activities to promote F&V at school, most parents were not willing to participate in these activities.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The present study obtains information from a broad perspective, and not from a representative sample.\nPractical implications: - This article is a useful source for health promotion planners that are developing food-related interventions for children.\nOriginality/value: - Information on factors that influence children's F&V consumption is usually acquired through parents. It is questionable whether parents are aware of the factors that influence their children's food choice. Therefore this study combined information gathered among parents with information gathered directly among children.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Seeking serendipity: the paradox of control
|
[
"Information literacy",
"Information research",
"Individual behaviour"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although increasingly a documented aspect of human information behaviour, serendipity in information seeking has not been the subject of extensive empirical research. The seemingly random, elusive and unpredictable nature of serendipity presents considerable practical challenges both to the practising information professional and to the researcher; nonetheless, accounts illustrated in the literature suggest not only that serendipity exists, but also that it can be a critical occurrence, positively altering the course and outcome of information seeking.After exploring literature relevant to serendipity and addressing the difficult matter of definitions, this paper presents an overview of the author's recent study of serendipity in information seeking (SIS). The author presents the research findings and places them in the context of the literature, exploring the paradox of control in terms of seeking serendipity and reassessing current understanding of this paradox in light of the research findings. The author moves on to propose a potential role for information literacy education to play in encouraging some control of serendipity. The paper finishes with suggestions for possible future research directions.Chance and unpredictability are fundamental aspects of human existence. Although we may forever attempt to control these attributes and their effects, we can never be completely successful in our attempts. Such is the way of the world. In this context, serendipity should be an acknowledged and accepted aspect of information seeking. The author argues for a switch in professional thinking: a move away from the ever-constant focus on control accompanied by the view that chance and unpredictability are inconvenient yet, thankfully, somewhat manageable towards a much more active appreciation of the exciting opportunities these dynamic and vital attributes can offer information seekers. While seeking serendipity seems improbable, paradoxically, some degree of control may be possible.\nLiterature and context: Serendipity\nDefinitions and difficulties: Serendipity\nModelling SIS: introduction to a recent study: The author recently undertook empirical research with the aim of proposing and illustrating a model of SIS (McBirnie, 2008). To achieve this aim, detailed knowledge of the processes, behaviours, and conditions surrounding SIS was needed. A brief introduction to the study and a summary of the research methods, methodology, and limitations follows.Use of analogy\nModelling SIS: selected findings: Definition and description of serendipity\nModelling SIS: the research findings in relation to the literature: Serendipity and information seeking\nSerendipity and control: Reassessing the paradox\nLooking forward: Research exploring human information behaviours continues to produce rich findings, expanding and altering our knowledge and understanding of information seeking, organising and use. Increasingly, researchers are arguing for an interdisciplinary approach (Spink and Currier, 2006) which involves not only the social sciences but also the sciences and arts and humanities. As the author's study demonstrates, research exploring serendipity would likely benefit from such an approach; studies examining serendipity from a cognitive, social, contextual and creative viewpoint might produce interesting and useful findings.HIB research may also benefit from more attention to building upon and linking existing studies; Robson (2002) comments that replication is too rarely attempted with studies in the social sciences while Case (2007) argues that the focus of HIB research is currently too much on the \"unusual first\". Attempts could be made to replicate existing studies of serendipity; although this replication would not be identical, the use of the similar populations, methods, and research instruments might produce some interesting comparisons. Serendipity could also be examined in the context of existing information seeking models.Finally, it may be time for HIB research to focus less on theory and more on practice. Rather than aiming to introduce new terminology for information behaviours, researchers could work to establish consensus on the use of current terminology, including serendipity. Such consensus could allow the terminology (and the theoretical concepts the terms represent) to move into mainstream use in professional practice; for example, information professionals who have a clear understanding of the definition and description of serendipity can better integrate the concept into information literacy training.Once consensus has been established, research could then consider the application of serendipity in practice, focusing on information retrieval, knowledge management, or information literacy education; for example, practice-based information literacy education studies involving action and evaluation research might be constructive in increasing the understanding and manipulability of serendipity. As well, due to the possible link between complexity and serendipity, traditional HIB research methods could benefit from supplementation with non-traditional methods, particularly computer-based simulation.\nIn summary: This paper aimed to introduce a recent study of serendipity in information seeking and to reassess the paradox of control inherent in seeking serendipity in the light of this research. After exploring the literature, the author examined the lack of consensus surrounding the definition and use of the term \"serendipity\" in the context of information seeking. The author then moved on to introduce her study of serendipity in information seeking, presenting selected findings in relation to the existing literature. In the light of the research findings, the author explored the paradox of control inherent in the process-perception duality of serendipity, proposing a potential role for information literacy education in promoting the ability to gain some control of the perception aspect of serendipity. Finally, the author suggested possible avenues for future exploration.Serendipity seems to offer significant potential to information seekers. Professional practice is the poorer if it chooses to ignore this reality. The discussion arrives at the conclusion that although seeking serendipity remains beyond current theoretical understanding and practical use, paradoxically, the potential for control exists, waiting to be fostered by professional practice; however, this practice must be willing to relinquish its love of control, embracing instead the opportunity to act in the unpredictable dynamic environment that informs the reality of information seeking.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present selected findings of a recent study of serendipity in information seeking, exploring the paradox of control inherent in the concept of \"seeking serendipity\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: - After providing an overview of the research study, the paper locates the research findings in the context of the literature. The discussion explores the research findings in relation to both the paradox of control and the related concept of \"seeking serendipity\".\nFindings: - The definition/description of serendipity is examined, the concept of process-perception duality is introduced, and links with the literature are explored. The discussion reassesses the paradox of control in light of the research findings, raising the possibility that information literacy educators have a role to play in developing the perception aspect of serendipity.\nPractical implications: - The paper proposes that, despite the possibly uncomfortable challenges presented by the paradox of control, serendipity deserves more recognition in professional practice. Increased acknowledgement and understanding of serendipity may enable professional practitioners to function more effectively in the unpredictable, dynamic environment that informs the reality of information seeking.\nOriginality/value: - The paper adds to the limited existing empirical research investigating serendipity, increasing both academic and practical understanding of the phenomenon. In particular, the introduction of the concept of process-perception duality provides a useful grounding for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Talent management - competency development: key to global leadership
|
[
"Competences",
"Globalization",
"Assessment",
"Employee development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackdrop: India's pharmaceutical industry is poised for change. Enactment in early 2005 of patent protections that comply with the World Trade Organization's Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) has brought India to the forefront of potential outsourcing venues for the world's pharmaceutical multinational corporations. European and US companies are being drawn to India for both manufacturing and research and development (R&D) due to rising costs of developing, testing and marketing drugs. Over the past decade, some of the large Indian Pharmaceutical companies also have branched out, selling their generic products abroad (particularly to developing nations) and establishing foreign subsidiaries. The globalization trends have put onus on Indian pharmaceutical companies to reinvent themselves. As expected, the question oft debated at various forums is whether India's pharmaceutical firms rival and grow to compete with Big Pharma Multi nationals. The analysts maintain that the potential certainly exists, but Indian pharmaceutical companies will need to think strategically about their resources - human and financial - in order to take advantage of the opportunities.Such is the environment Bupharm has to survive in. Bupharm is a young and growing Indian Pharma Company operating in specialty space with a turnover of close to 80 million USD. It is driven by the vision of \"To become world's leading player in its industry\". It is essentially a family owned setup and, like most family-owned businesses regardless of location or industry, it operates with a high level of owner involvement, though it is trying to acquire a more professional image.The organization is realizing that most of its prospective alliance partners and prospective hires are interested in working with Indian partners who have not only owners, but also managers with experience to build the necessary global relationships. Being a family owned organization it is also experiencing that the nature of this work requires a different type of management style. It is encountering a marketplace where management supply is quickly becoming a deciding factor. The organization also faces the added talent management challenge of blending different cultures. The family owners are progressively dealing with individuals who expect access to technology and a working environment at least as up-to-date as that of an MNC, as well as policies and procedures more in keeping with what they experience abroad. Programs that help these new employees integrate into the organization also are critical.The decision-making environment is critical for high-level employees. In the USA and increasingly in Europe, companies generally operate in a de-centralized and collaborative mode. Department heads have high degrees of autonomy in budgetary, staffing and other matters. Boards of directors set strategy, but managers generally have the task of designing and implementing its execution. Thus, traditional top-down management styles may seem cumbersome or constraining to innovative individuals accustomed to speedy decision making. A bit of \"bending the rules\" may be necessary in certain situations.Deciding how tightly - or loosely - to hold the corporate reins as an organization grows are never easy. The owners are being called on to define \"Everything decentralized-but\" strategy. Managing expectations among all parties, therefore, is crucial. The organization will need to learn to accommodate and adapt as the situation dictates.The organization has presence across the globe in over 40 countries and is striving to capitalize on the product patent regime and strengthen its position in the highly regulated markets. Its workforce is highly specialized with skills in R&D, Manufacturing, Supply-chain and logistics and of course specialized relationship based selling and is moving together towards its mission of \"Making its therapy available to more and more people\".Being an organization operating in a niche market, the skills are rare to find and being one of the pioneers in its area of operations Bupharm is becoming a training ground for many. The attrition among critical and high performing individuals therefore, has become critical. At the same time attracting the best talent is becoming increasingly challenging. Retaining the people is as important as hiring the right people.\nTalent management amidst change: Bupharm is in an industry that is facing an acute talent shortage. The skills required are diverse. The ability to detail and diligently do the job is a great requirement. The demand is not being met with the supply. We now see a lot of turnover in manpower with the limited supply being chased by everyone. Candidates also have a short \"shelf life\" in organizations due to lack of fit. Recruitment and retaining of right kind of person is real challenge for HR.In this scenario, definitely the talent pool is not catching up with the requirement. The organization feels the need to keep on educating its employees to meet the ever-increasing technical demands after recruitment.Owing to its global spread Bupharm faces an added talent management challenge of blending different cultures. Bupharm HR (Structure - Figure 1) acknowledges and incorporates - at all levels - the importance of culture, the assessment of cross-cultural relations, vigilance towards the dynamics that result from cultural differences, the expansion of cultural knowledge, and the adaptation of services to meet culturally-unique needs.In many cases it has hired Westerners or non-resident Indians (NRIs) to fill key positions domestically or abroad. It has experienced that these individuals expect access to technology and a working environment at least as up-to-date as that of an MNC, as well as policies and procedures more in keeping with what they experience abroad. Programs that help these new employees integrate into the organization are also critical.\nTalent management strategy: Bupharm has realized that realizing strategic vision through human resource shall begin at assessment of talent needs of business. Through the talent assessment it has mapped out Competencies relevant globally in this new environment which it needs to harness and develop. It is now investing in competency based talent recruitment and creation, creating environments, evolving appropriate management styles and developing their leadership pipeline to compete globally.After due deliberations and brainstorming, the Bupharm management decided to do talent segmentation, based on a highly competitive competency framework, both for getting talent into the organization as well as existing talent. The management team clearly felt that the depth and quality of the organization's talent pool will determine whether they will lead its market and industry, or merely follow other companies that attract better, brighter, more talented people.Talent acquisition and management strategy\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to draw lessons on how building a talent management strategy based on competency profiling becomes a critical impact area within the field of strategic HRM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The case study discusses an Indian pharmaceutical organisation, the environment and the issues arising in context to talent management. The case discusses a well designed talent management strategy.\nFindings: - The talent mindset has helped the organisation in recruiting the best talent from the best pharmaceutical organisations. The attrition of the top and valued talent segment has come down. Some of the key positions have been filled through succession planning.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The case study is in a lesser known but emerging sector of the Indian economy. The case has concentrated on attracting and developing and retaining key talent, it does not concentrate on developing average talent into key talent.\nPractical implications: - The implications lie in whether to grow talent or buy talent. What signal through a communication strategy should a HR manager give when determining for talent segmentation? How to develop talent and retain employees when there are not challenging options available in the internal labour market?\nOriginality/value: - This paper provides insights to HR practitioners on how to attract, acquire and manage talent in a tight internal and external labour market. It also provides empirical support for, and theoretical understanding of, the strategic HRM literature on talent management theme.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Purchasing power at the bottom of the pyramid: differences across geographic regions and income tiers
|
[
"Purchasing power",
"Cross‐cultural studies",
"Disadvantaged groups",
"Income",
"Consumers"
] |
[
{
"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: There is recognition that, with markets in the developed economies experiencing slow growth (Emmons, 2007), private companies should look for business opportunities in emerging markets with low-income consumers; that is, at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). There is an untapped potential for marketing to this sector, which is composed of approximately four billion people worldwide (Hammond et al., 2007; Prahalad, 2004).The main argument for targeting the BOP market is that there is significant purchasing power in this segment. Prahalad and Hammond (2002) state \"tier 4 represents a multitrillion-dollar market,\" and argue that multinational corporations have an attractive opportunity at the BOP. Likewise, Hammond et al. 2007 estimate that people at the base of the pyramid - with annual incomes below US$3,000 - constitute a five trillion global consumer market per year. In both cases, the argument is that, based on income level and population at the BOP, purchasing power of low-income consumers exists.However, such gross estimates do not provide enough information to private companies that are looking for the opportunity to target the BOP market with their specific products and services, and/or orient their strategy to specific markets. First, these estimates of purchasing power do not consider the extent to which consumers actually spend their income, given that they consider population and income level only. Second, they do not shed light on how BOP consumers are likely to spend their money across different product categories, and how this consumption pattern differs by geographic regions and/or by income tiers.The BOP literature suggests that many for-profit companies have the misconception of the BOP segment as a huge market with homogeneous consumers, many times labeled simply as \"blue-collar,\" \"working class,\" or \"popular class.\" In reality, however, low-income consumers differ in several aspects and many sub-segments may coexist (Cui and Liu, 2000; D'Andrea et al., 2004). For example, there is evidence that the purchasing power of emerging consumers in China varies, depending on the regional market to which they belong (Cui and Liu, 2000).Hammond et al. (2007), together with the World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation, present a survey with estimations of the BOP market size in 110 developing countries, from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and Caribbean. They provide data on income level, population, and expenditure in different product categories, at the household level. They conclude that there are significant opportunities for market-based approaches to meet the needs of the BOP segment.This research builds on the work by Hammond et al. (2007) in two ways. To begin with, it contributes to the calculation of the BOP purchasing power by computing the buying power index (BPI), as used by Sales and Marketing Management. This methodology considers not only the population and the income level, but also the consumers' expenditures. Then, it compares the BPI of the BOP consumers at different geographic areas (continents), and for specific income tiers. As a result, companies evaluating business opportunities at the BOP will be able to assess the purchasing power of low-income consumers at specific countries and referred to particular product categories (or industries) - namely, food, housing, water, energy, household goods, health, transportation, information and communication technologies, and other products.\nThe buying power index (BPI) methodology: Sales and Marketing Management is a well-known magazine that publishes, annually, the survey of buying power, a reference guide to consumer purchasing trends. They compute the buying power index (BPI), which, by weighting characteristics of consumer markets, measures the relative buying power of consumers at different geographic areas, such as states, metros, counties and cities.Practitioners have used the BPI methodology for more than 30 years, for a number of purposes. For example, companies have used the BPI to compare the buying power across different geographical areas, to identify new business opportunities, to estimate the growth of specific markets, to measure the potential buying power of existing and/or new products and services, and to orient the advertising activity to specific audiences.The BPI takes into account three dimensions: income, expenditure, and population. The rationale is that, by including these aspects, the index considers the economic, the distribution, and the demographic components of purchasing power. The following equation represents the definition of the BPI for a geographical area: Equation 1 Thus, for a specific geographical area, the relative dimensions of income, expenditure, and population, are combined to produce the index. The weights for the dimensions - 0.5, 0.3, and 0.2, respectively - were previously determined by conducting a multiple regression analysis, with these dimensions specified as independent variables in a multiple factor indexing system. Based on this formula, income would be the most important dimension in determining buying power, followed by expenditure and the relative size of the population in a market.To illustrate, suppose a geographical area has an income, which is 30 percent of the total income in the market, expenditure, which is 45 percent of the total expenditure, and a population, which is 15 percent of the total population. Then, the relative buying power of this area is: Equation 2 The interpretation of the BPI in this case is that, given that this specific geographical area concentrates 30 percent of the income, 45 percent of the expenditure, and 15 percent of the population, compared to the total market, then its relative buying power is 31.5 percent of the market's total buying power.Applying the BPI to the bottom of the pyramid\nThe buying power at the bottom of the pyramid: main findings: This section presents the results obtained after applying the buying power index methodology to the BOP data. Table I shows basic statistics of population, income and total expenditure for the BOP by area, based in 110 developing countries. The total population at the base of the pyramid is almost four billion with an income of almost $5,000 billion and an expenditure of $6,000 billion. Hammond et al. (2007) provided the estimations for the population and income levels. The expenditure level was estimated after computing a coefficient that relates income (as an independent variable) with expenditure (as a dependent variable) in a regression analysis, using the sample of the previously mentioned 36 countries.Table II and Figure 1 present the buying power index (BPI) of the BOP relative to the mid and high income segments, by geographic areas. The total BPI of the BOP is 51.2 percent, which means that the BOP represents more than 50 percent of the buying power in these developing countries. We also observe that the BPI is highest in Africa with 76.9 percent and in Asia with 50.9 percent, while in Eastern Europe and Latin America and Caribbean the BPI reaches lower levels: 42.3 percent and 37.1 percent, respectively.Considering the BOP as a whole, Table III and Figure 2 present the distribution of the BPI and its dimensions across geographic regions. It is interesting to see that Asia takes more than 70 percent of the world buying power of the BOP, while the other three geographical areas are responsible for near 10 percent of the world buying power each. This result provides useful guidance to companies planning to expand their business to the BOP market.Table IV shows the distribution of the BOP buying power by region and by income tier. The latter is defined by the following income cutoffs: $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000. The BPI for each income tier, relative to the BPI of the total BOP for each area, is reported.We observe that 43.3 percent of the buying power at the BOP is concentrated in people with income of $1,000 or less, 39.3 percent is concentrated in people with income between $1,001 and $2,000, and 17.4 percent is concentrated in people with an income between $2,001 and $3,000. Interestingly, the segment with the highest BPI is the one defined for an income of $1,000 or less. However, we also notice that this overall result varies by geographical area: in Eastern Europe and Latin America and Caribbean, as opposed to Africa and Asia, the greatest purchasing power exists in people within the second income tier, i.e. with an income level between $1,001 and $2,000 per year. What is clear, though, is that people at the upper income tier within the BOP market have the lowest purchasing power.Table V shows the distribution of the household expenditure for each geographic area among the different product categories (or industries). For the sample of 36 countries, the food industry takes 53.2 percent of the expenditure, housing a 10.4 percent, and household goods a 7.5 percent. Basic services like energy and transportation corresponds to 6.2 percent and 4.5 percent respectively. In all regions, food, housing and household goods are the three most important product categories. We do observe, however, some differences in terms of the relative importance that people from different geographic areas give to each product category. For example, there is a significant variation in the proportion of expenses allocated to food; people on Eastern Europe spend 56.8 percent of their budget on food, while those in Latin America and Caribbean only spend 41 percent. Similarly, but in the opposing way, people in Eastern Europe spend 8.8 percent in housing, whereas those in Latin America and Caribbean spend a much larger 14.5 percent. There are some other differences in the rest of the industries, as shown in Table V.Finally, we analyzed, for each geographic area, the expenditure pattern across different income tiers. Tables VI-IX show the distribution of BOP expenditure in product categories, in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and Caribbean, respectively. These proportions have some patterns that are common to all geographical areas and some patterns that are region specific. In all regions, with higher incomes we observe an increase in people's spending in housing, transportation, information and communication technologies, and education, but a decrease in the spending on food. However, we observe a difference among regions in the consumption of household goods: it increases with higher income in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, but decreases in Latin America and Caribbean.Africa\nDiscussion and managerial implications: While there is agreement that the main foundation for attending the BOP sector is the existence of purchasing power, two problems prevent companies for estimating accurately the business opportunity in the low-income segment of consumers. First, to date the measurement of purchasing power at the BOP only considers the population and the income level as key dimensions, neglecting the importance of the level of expenditure as well. Second, there is little evidence on how the overall worldwide purchasing power at the BOP divides into different countries or regions, among specific product categories or industries, and among different income tiers within the BOP segment. As Batra (1997) suggests, regional disparities in consumer power often pose significant barriers for private companies to adopt uniform strategies in the BOP markets. Therefore, companies have little information to implement adequately a BOP initiative.This research proposes the use of the buying power index (BPI) to measure the purchasing power at the BOP, and characterizes the world BOP buying power in terms of location (geographic areas), needs (product categories or industries), and income tiers. Thus, we contribute to the knowledge on the assessment of purchasing power and characterization of the BOP market.Overall, the results of this study show that, relative to the total market, the BOP sector accounts, on average, for more than 50 percent of the purchasing power in developing countries, with Africa being the most prevalent BOP region. We also find that Asia is, by far, the region with the highest purchasing power, relative to Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, the results show that, in terms of income tiers within the BOP segment, the greatest buying power resides in the lowest tier (annual income of $1,000 or less) in the case of Africa and Asia, but in the second tier (annual income between $1,001 and $2,000) in the case of Eastern Europe and Latin America and Caribbean. Then, regarding consumption allocation among product categories, we see that the BOP segment spends mostly on food, housing, and household goods, although the pattern changes a little bit when we analyze this by geographic area and income level.This research may help managers from companies planning to reach the BOP segment to make better decisions about which specific geographic areas to focus on, and on which income-level consumers. Also, this study provides companies with information on the purchasing power of the BOP market in specific product categories, which becomes extremely relevant to firms that participate in only one or a few industries.We have a much clearer big picture of the buying power at the bottom of the pyramid. Future research may go deeply into specific countries and areas within countries, using the BPI methodology. In addition, future research should focus on characterizing the BOP segment in terms of other aspects, such as demographics, psychographics, attitudes, and the like.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is to examine the purchasing power at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), i.e. of low-income consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors analyze secondary data on income, population, and expenditure at the BOP from different countries, and apply the buying power index (BPI) methodology to assess the purchasing power of low-income consumers.\nFindings: - In developing countries, more than 50 percent of the purchasing power resides in the BOP segment. Asia is the region with the greatest purchasing power, relative to Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and Caribbean. On average, the greatest BPI is in the lowest income tier, and consumption concentrates mainly in food, housing, and household goods.\nPractical implications: - The article provides useful information to companies interested in reaching low-income consumers about the relative purchasing power at the BOP across geographic regions, income tiers, and product categories (or industries).\nOriginality/value: - The research proposes the BPI as a key indicator of purchasing power at the BOP, and shows how this purchasing power breaks up among geographic regions, income tiers, and product categories (or industries).\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Management control systems for business processes in uncertain environments
|
[
"Uncertainty",
"Management control systems",
"Business process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The notion that organisations can be represented as a set of business processes has its roots in the total quality management (TQM) of the 1980s and business process reengineering in the 1990s. Process management is an established and widespread concept and is integrated into models of business excellence which explicitly specify that process management is an essential part of achieving business excellence. For example, the process management criteria of the Baldrige National Quality Program (2009) emphasise the importance of core competencies and how an organisation can protect and capitalize on them for success and organisational sustainability. Managing by processes is seen by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) as one of the fundamental concepts of business excellence in its 2010 EFQM Excellence Award model and is described thus: \"excellent organisations are managed through structured and strategically aligned processes using fact-based decision making to create balanced and sustained results\" (EFQM, 2010). Similarly, ISO9001:2008 (International Organisation for Standardization, 2008) embodies an approach to quality management in which managing the organisation requires the control and, subsequent, improvement of these business processes.\nManagement control systems: In parallel with the research by operations research and TQM specialists into manufacturing process control, accountants and economists have been studying financial control systems. They are facing similar problems in that traditional MCS may not be relevant in unpredictable and rapidly changing environments. There has been surprisingly little overlap between the two research/practice streams though a notable exception is the study by Li et al. (2005) into linking MCS with product development in complex environments. They interpret MCS to be either strategic controls (i.e. long term and based upon information exchange and good knowledge of markets and competitors) or financial controls (i.e. short term using performance measures such as return on investment) while the MCS literature makes a distinction between systems whose use is primarily controlling and systems whose use is primarily enabling. Mundy (2010) summarises the controlling role of MCS as featuring predictability, efficiency, formality and the importance of meeting short-term targets and these characteristics are consistent with those of conventional business process control approaches. The enabling use of MCS is summarized by Mundy (2010) as concerning spontaneity, transparency, adaptation, information sharing, enterprise and adaptability (Ahrens and Chapman, 2004; Davila, 2000; Henri, 2006b; van der Stede, 2001; Wouters and Wilderom, 2008) which lie beyond the scope of conventional business process control. Sprinkle (2003) suggests that the use of enabling systems has the aim of reducing uncertainty and improving decision making while Zimmerman (2005) contrasts the use of controlling and enabling systems as decision influencing and decision facilitating. It would appear that these two uses, in an uncertain environment, are inextricably combined and both are necessary.\nResearch method: Unfortunately, it is difficult to answer these questions as formulated without uncovering further detail of the factors involved. Indeed, Malmi and Brown (2008) observe that there is very little theory to enable researchers to establish the relationship between the systems in a MCS package. Consequently, a first step in establishing the research agenda in this area would be to conduct exploratory research into business process control within an organization that operates in an uncertain environment. This is supported by Mundy (2010) who identifies frequent calls in the MCS literature for research that provides insights into different uses of MCS and their interactions.\nFindings: Investment partner management\nDiscussion: The literature suggests that organisations, in general, respond to uncertainty with a combination of formal and informal control systems. This was observed to be true in the case study company with regard to the business processes used for investor management and customer management in which combinations of diagnostic, interactive, belief and boundary systems were observed to be in place. The role of these control systems could be interpreted within the classifications of controlling and enabling systems. The diagnostic and boundary systems observed could be classified as controlling while the interactive and belief systems were observed to be guiding and enabling good behaviour.\nConclusion: Malmi and Brown (2008) suggest that determining the most effective MCS package for a given set of relationships and settings is an important business issue and observe that there is little theory to guide researchers in establishing the relationship between the systems in a MCS package. This research has focused on the specific setting of a small, high technology start-up company that operates in an uncertain environment and has examined the topic of MCS from a business process control perspective.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the application of management control systems (MCS) to business processes when an organisation is operating in an uncertain environment. The limitations of conventional process control in this context are described, and the opportunities to exploit current MCS ideas are considered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: One such model, Simons' levers of control, is used for case study research in a European high technology start-up company.\nFindings: The findings suggest that the organisation responded to its uncertain environment with a package of formal and informal control systems for its strategically important business processes. The relative importance of individual business processes was observed to positively influence the rigour of control systems' implementation. Also, the inherent uncertainty or unpredictability of an individual business process was observed to influence the type of control systems employed. The use of guiding or enabling systems, particularly interactive control systems, was more pronounced in those business processes which were inherently unpredictable.\nOriginality/value: These findings illustrate that adopting a MCS perspective to address business process control issues can yield new useful insights for managers when dealing with uncertainty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Enhancing information impact: how do we make the most of our information senses?
|
[
"Learning",
"Information",
"Impact",
"Visualization",
"Senses",
"Verbalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Our senses are crucial for learning, memory and engagement. The more our senses are used in our information sharing, individually and in combination, the greater our brains are engaged, and remember. The more vividly the memory of sense impression is created, the greater the impact. For example, some people are very sensitive to odours and can immediately recall an event when they associate an smell with it. The powerful sensory combination of words, images, sound, touch and taste enables information to be communicated, engaged with and understood by a wider audience. They effectively convey enhanced impact that, individually, may not have the same powerful effect. Examples include applications in safety, maps, instruction manuals, advertising, cartoons and comics.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper discusses the importance of effectively using senses in sharing information and managing the opportunities they individually and collaboratively offer.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper considers how information is best portrayed by each sense, individually and collaboratively.\nFindings: How information takes account of senses to ensure that information engagement is maximised through its entertainment and education value.\nResearch limitations/implications: As the value and importance of information continues to grow, so will the urgency of information engagement and ensuring that its portrayal is appropriate, effective and efficient through a variety of sensory approaches - whether individual or collaborative.\nPractical implications: One sensory size does not fit all. It is important that the dimensions and flexibility of information are reflected to ensure that it can adapt to suit various audiences. These flexible approaches will ensure that learner engagement is maximised.\nSocial implications: All information methods are of equal value. By ensuring that learners are able to access the information method that is most appropriate to them, then learning potential can be maximised. There is a growing urgency to move away from a status quo information approach and thereby enhance variety and enable potential.\nOriginality/value: Information is power. Each person is unique. How they learn combines these two qualities. A flexible approach to information engagement will encourage and enable information and learning sharing to maximise achievement and contribute to ongoing information entrepreneurship, resilience and sustainability.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Learning how to look: developing leadership through intentional observation
|
[
"Arts",
"Leadership",
"Creative thinking",
"Training",
"Perception"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Richard Serra, the American sculptor, has said: \"I believe that perception structures thought and that to see is to think and conversely to think is to see ... No one perceives anything alike; we only perceive as we are and it is our individual reality that counts\" (Serra, 2008).\nObserving with utter clarity: Prophets and wise beings have long exhorted us to look deeper into our surroundings. In the final book of the Pentateuch, the Book of Exhortations, the prophet urges us:If you can see, learn how to lookIf you can look, learn how to observe.As Sturken and Cartwright astutely point out in the Practices of Looking, \"Seeing is something that we do somewhat arbitrarily as we go about our daily lives. Looking is an activity that involves a greater sense of purpose and direction ... Looking involves learning to interpret and like other practices, looking involves relationships of power\" (Sturken and Cartwright, 2001, p. 10). Acknowledging the differences that lie in the practice of each of these action words is at the heart of every successful viewer of the visual field.In the fifteenth century, in his copious journals, Leonardo da Vinci harnessed the energy of his imagination by teaching himself how to see things as if for the first time. Thus, an ordinary coin merits multiple pages of description as well as a detailed, x-ray-like drawing that cuts through the object and seems to give it a life of its own. In these pages, as well as in his art, Leonardo teaches himself to observe with utter clarity so as to know the object and, by extension, his surroundings, without the presumption of external answers (Suh, 2005).All professionals seek resolutions to complex problems. At the same time, individuals are often entrenched in their own worlds, and have set beliefs on how they think and what they believe in, leaving little leeway for new ideas to intrude. By analyzing varied works of art according to specific modes of thinking, students are forced out of their comfort zones and into a scenario that requires them to be fully present to the problem at hand. It removes them from their work environments so they can concentrate on and develop the skills of looking, observing, reflecting, and making meaning apart from the need for a quick solution and its potentially distorting pressure.Thus, LHTL teaches participants to discover, recognize, visualize, and understand their world. The ways of observing (or looking with intentionality) require them to go another step (or two) and to use their judgment and inference-making abilities to arrive at a particular knowledge. The ways of observing naturally lead to reflection, from the Latin reflectere, which literally means to bend back. Reflection on what we see allows us to come up with new, refreshing, relevant, and unique perspectives; and ultimately to new solutions to the issues confronting us.\nThe LHTL/Union Institute collaboration: The Union Institute and University's LHTL program is held on-site at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Many of the students are not well versed in art, so would be initially uncomfortable doing analytic work in that setting. The medical program teaches its students to see, look, and observe, but does so with no resolution. It is Socratic questioning without closure. That, too, I thought, would be grating to businesspeople, who need eventual closure. My thoughts for how to adapt the course to the new audience were influenced by ideas from the Clay Street project of Procter & Gamble (labeled a \"mosh pit of creativity\" by BusinessWeek (2005)) and by the attention business schools are paying to Design Thinking. Using these and other sources, I sought a way to enable individual perception and creativity within a workshop structure appropriate for business and educational leaders.I changed the program for Union by exaggerating the separations among the three steps of seeing, looking, and observing so as to make each step more distinct and by drawing explicit parallels between the visual and cognitive realms of inquiry. That is, I equated seeing with inductive logic because when we see, we describe our landscape, we make declarative statements. We consciously refrain from editorial comments. Deductive logic is where we draw initial conclusions, make interpretations, and consciously or unconsciously let our biases and proclivities get in the way of drawing interpretation from fact. Therefore, looking became synonymous with deductive logic. Finally, looking with intentionality or observing became aligned with abductive logic. Here we use the data and interpretations gleaned from the first two steps and, often with the added element of expert knowledge, we reach broad-based conclusions that often provide unexpected outcomes.The use of cognitive models brings us to closure on each picture viewed and provides a business-like framework in which to balance the emotional and intellectual elements of their reasoning.\nMaking sense out of chaos: LHTL creates an artificial separation between the emotional and intellectual skills of intentional observation by using separate exercises. Seeing, looking, and reflecting, in each type of exercise, are equated with inductive, deductive, and abductive thinking. In actual decision making, the emotional and intellectual must be blended, but separation (to some extent) in training allows better understanding of the different skills required.Here is an example of an emotional exercise, designed to help students make sense out chaotic situations, deal with the highest levels of ambiguity, and develop \"confusion endurance\"?1. These issues are approached through engagement with Hans Hofmann's 1963 painting, Toward Crepuscule2, a work of art that is nonrepresentative, abstract, and even abstruse. Any art work with similar qualities could be used.The full workshop takes four hours in which students first study two pieces as emotional exercises, then move on to an intellectual emphasis with new works of art. Groups of two or three will study an art work, then report back to the class on their findings. The instructor will take their thinking from their initial seeing/inductive step through to observing/abductive learning. The examples below, first the responses to art and later to a business problem, are severely truncated and meant to give an idea of each type of reasoning, not to be thorough examples.Hans Hofmann, Toward Crepuscule, 1963\nCompleting the workshop: Intellectual exercises follow the same three-step reasoning process, but the steps are used in the context of art that has a representational, narrative structure that much more easily opens itself up to interpretation, thereby paralleling leadership situations where there are many and sometimes conflicting facts. Often, in art and leadership roles, there is too much detail and one must learn to be selective, or to quickly scan to locate the elements that relate to each other, thereby developing skills in pattern recognition. The repetition of the three-step process gives people a certain facility when they transfer the inductive, deductive, and abductive skills to a problem of their choice in their field of expertise. This is done through exercises built into the course that they then continue as they return to their jobs.I can see two types of questions in the minds of some readers, one relating to business and one to art. On the business side, \"I know how to think. I'm doing just fine, thank you.\" and \"Who really uses this stuff anyway?\" The art concern: \"Why use art to train people in these skills? Wouldn't an immediate application to business (or whatever the student's field is) be better?\" To deal with the art question first - when working in one's own field, there is too great a tendency to fall back on unstated assumptions, unacknowledged and habitual ways of thinking. True, there are many topics that could be selected to teach the three types of reasoning, but art is nonverbal. It forces people to get further from the accustomed ways of perceiving. It allows the concentration on how you're thinking to be unaffected by biases related to more familiar topics. Plus, the art is infinitely interpretable. It allows you to take the types of reasoning to as much depth as is needed (see Box 2).\nSuccess at Union: In recent years, a number of museums have collaborated with medical schools to develop courses that teach perception, empathy, and their relation to judgment. There have also been quite a few visual artists who have become practitioners of arts-based learning, teaching businesspeople the art of perception. However, LHTL may be the first program that has been adapted from a successful medical school course specifically to teach leadership skills. And Union Institute students, like the medical students, have had a positive experience.Union students are nontraditional learners who have had a broad swath of experiences in the world - from police officers and superintendents of school systems, to journalists, pastors, and businesspeople. Most have had limited exposure to art and often begin the program with a certain sense of ambiguity. Quickly, they learn to make sense of the chaos that is presented before them.In practice, I routinely saw Union students emerging from this process more empowered because they had come up with the answers from within themselves, with very little outside intervention. They learned to deconstruct their reality and then put it back in a way that was more relevant, meaningful, useful, and productive. The relationship of the parts to the whole was examined and the specific ways of breaking things down and then putting them together were also practiced.One learner commented: \"My previous academic experience has all been in business. As such, I have a certain way of approaching things that are deeply embedded in my thinking. I was way out of my element in this course, but it truly opened me to new ways of seeing and learning. I expected to have to be apologetic for 'treating myself' to this kind of activity while pursuing my degree. Now I see it as part of my studies and something that helps me unpack the questions around who I am and what I am capable of achieving\"3.Yet another commented: \"The program had several results for me. It told me that I need to look beyond familiar sources of information. I need to look at ways of interpretation that are not immediately apparent to me. I need to keep an open mind and not let my preconceptions influence my ideas of a situation/art work. The experience taught me that the value of slow and careful consideration of available data often leads to the right direction, even when one doesn't know where one is going\"4.Union Institute has deemed the course successful. We have recently begun to teach the program as a two-course sequence, the first being Cognitive Development and LHTL, the second being LHTL and Social Justice. Especially encouraging is the fact that our positive results have come with mature adults, leading us to recognize that you can teach an old dog new tricks.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper demonstrates how effectively developing visual skills from observing and analyzing works of art applies in developing leadership skills and examines one application where these artistic skills are viewed as specific thinking skills that are regularly used in new product development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The lead author adapted a successful collaborative program of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the University of Cincinnati Medical School into a program for doctoral students at Union Institute and University, then taught the course numerous times, recording the results.\nFindings: - The anticipated results were observed, judging from qualitative measures such as instructor and student evaluations.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is a study of one course. To become an accepted practice, further study is needed in similar museum-based learning situations.\nPractical implications: - At Union, the program has been adapted into a full course and should stimulate others in business, academia, and nonprofits to replicate the program.\nOriginality/value: - The use of museum-based training is widely used in medical training to increase diagnostic skills and empathy. It is less widely practiced in business and we believe this is the first program to adapt a successful medical training program to a successful leadership training program.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Railroad productivity analysis: case of the American Class I railroads
|
[
"United States of America",
"Railways",
"Benchmarking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Railroads are vital to the US-freight transportation system and economic growth. Economic activities and increasingly congested highways have led to growing demand for freight rail services[1]. While railroad productivity has improved since the early 1980s, data from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) (2008) indicate that five out of seven Class I railroads' return on investment (ROI) was below the industry's average cost of capital. The STB believes that revenue generated by railroads is inadequate to ensure long-term financial viability[2].The railroad industry is highly capital intensive, and the network operations are complex. Over the years, railroads have adopted new innovative technologies to enhance efficiency performance and productivity growth. Before Burlington Northern Santa Fe's (BNSF) 1995 merger, Burlington Northern started adopting alternating current (AC) traction locomotives in 1993 and Santa Fe began an inter-modal business relationship with J.B. Hunt in 1990. Inter-modal networking was soon proven to be a \"growth machine\" to BNSF and a key advancement in freight transportation. BNSF spends millions of dollars every year undertaking technology projects to promote growth (Vantuono, 2004). CSX uses the dynamic car-planning system to distribute empty railcars to fill customers' orders. The company estimates an annual cost savings of $50 million (or $561 million cumulatively) to CSX, and a cumulative societal savings of $600 million to the public (Gorman et al., 2010).Productivity is important to railroads because it affects profitability. Martland (2006) and Lim and Lovell (2009) concluded that railroad's financial performance had been driven primarily by productivity and not price recovery[3], and that productivity had resulted in increased cost savings to shippers in addition to financial gains to Class I railroads. In fact, US railroads are considered the most productive railroads in the world and have achieved remarkable productivity growth for more than two decades after the Staggers Act of 1980. However, Martland (2006) and Laurits R. Christensen Associates (LRCA) (2009) found that railroad productivity might had slowed or reached a plateau in recent years, leading railroad executives to call the past impressive productivity gains as mere \"low-hanging fruits.\" The railroad industry stresses that constraints on capacity are part of the problem. According to the Association of American Railroads (2008a), $148 billion in new rail capacity investments are needed to meet future demand, because US-freight railroad demand is expected to rise 88 percent by 2,035[4]. Railroads are increasingly operating in a \"capacity-constrained\" fashion which slows freight services and causes more congestions and delays. In spite of that, a recent study by LRCA (2009) found that there currently do not appear to be network-wide rail capacity constraints. The report concluded that capacity constraint issues in the past and future should be interpreted as congestion at various points or corridors.In light of recent developments, the objective of this paper is to evaluate productivity growth in Class I railroad companies. In this paper, we study railroad productivity for the period of 2002-2007, and through a decomposition process, we identify the sources of productivity change. The results will shed light on productivity and its underlying causal factors for the industry and individual railroads.The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 contains a review of relevant literature; Section 3 shows the methodology, including a discussion on the variables and data; Section 4 provides the results and discussions; finally, Section 5 provides conclusions.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Regulation\n3 Methodology: 3.1 Malmquist productivity index and decomposition\n4 Results and discussions: The sequential output-oriented technical efficiency measures for the railroads are reported in Table II. An efficiency score of 1 means that the firm is technically efficient and is on the industry's production frontier for that year. On the other hand, an efficiency score greater than 1 implies technical inefficiency, and that the firm is below the industry frontier or it simply falls short of its potential maximum production at a given input level.BNSF is the only firm that stayed on the frontier in every period. UP was technically efficient in 2002 and 2003, but slid below the frontier from 2004 to 2007. Its average annual efficiency score of 1.06 implies that, on average, UP could increase its output by 6 percent without changing its input level. The two eastern railroads, CSX and KCS, appeared to be the most inefficient, with average efficiency scores higher than 1.3, and followed by KCS, whose efficiency score averaged 1.24 per year.Table III presents the MPI and the decomposition results for each railroad from 2003 to 2007.BNSF experienced positive productivity growth in every year studied, with a peak of 7 percent in 2004. Its productivity averaged 4.6 percent per year, which is the highest in the industry. Since, BNSF was technically efficient in all time periods, its productivity growth was driven predominantly by TECH. BNSF's productivity growth which peaked in 2004 has slowed between 2004 and 2007. BNSF was recognized by InfoWorld magazine in 2004 as sixth on its list of 100 technological advancements by leading companies for its voice train reporting system (BNSF, 2004).UP's productivity growth averaged 1.5 percent per year, and UP experienced a productivity decline in 2004 and no noticeable productivity change in 2005. As in the case of BNSF, UP's productivity growth was due to technological progress. In 2006, UP introduced hybrid switching locomotives, and the Customer Inventory Management System was also introduced in the same year to enhance terminal operations (Union Pacific Corporation, 2007). Despite improvements in the underlying production technology, UP's productivity growth was hindered by technical inefficiency.With the exception of 2005, CSX showed annual productivity improvements from 2002 to 2007 with a peak of 9.6 percent in 2004. Productivity growth in these periods was driven by efficiency improvement, while TECH remained negligible. In its annual report, CSX offered several explanations for the dramatic increase in productivity in 2004. The first was the implementation of the CSX ONE plan and network simplification initiative, both of which simplified and optimized operations. CSX also mentioned the reduction of its management staff by approximately 900 positions, resulting in increased responsiveness and responsibility as well as lower labor costs (CSX Corporation, 2005). However, efficiency declined by 2.3 percent in 2005, causing productivity to drop. CSX's efficiency change has since been about 1.5 percent, and its growth in productivity averaged 3 percent per year.NS's productivity performance declined after 2004, a 1.2 percent drop was observed in 2005, due to inefficiency and stagnant TECH. The productivity loss in 2005 might be attributed to Hurricane Katrina. Five miles of track on Lake Pontchartrain were lost in the storm, disrupting traffic to New Orleans. Traffic had to be re-routed as tracks were cleared and repaired throughout the area, straining the operations of NS Corporation (2006). While TECH showed mild increases in 2006 and 2007, inefficiency remained a culprit that hindered productivity growth. On average, NS's productivity growth was less than 1 percent per year.KCS's productivity growth was consistently below 1, except in 2006. It experienced the only and largest growth in productivity in 2006. The largest productivity decline occurred in 2007. The productivity growth in 2006 was a result of efficiency gain, while the decline in 2007 was due to inefficiency. There appeared to be no noticeable changes in technical progress and efficiency change in other periods. Nevertheless, KCS's productivity decline was a result of persistent inefficiency of the firm.SL experienced a 4 percent decrease in productivity in 2005 due to efficiency decline. Productivity growth at SL was less than 2 percent per year, driven by both efficiency improvements and technological progress. The largest productivity growth (5 percent) was in 2007, resulting from a 3 percent efficiency gain, and a 2 percent technical improvement. CP, owner of SL, reported that integrated operating plan and co-production agreements with other railroads helped improve productivity and cost savings (CP, 2007).GTC's productivity growth averaged 4.4 percent per year - the second highest growth observed in the industry. GTC recorded a 7 percent productivity growth in 2003, and a 9 percent growth in 2004. It also showed the largest efficiency gains among the railroads in those years, implying considerable improvements in resource management. CN, which owns GTC, provides a series of educational and training programs for railroad managers, executives, and employees at various levels. \"Railroad MBA\" is one such internal program designed to enhance executives' knowledge and skill in railroad operations (Chaykowski, 2006).The cumulated MPI calculated as the multiplicative sum of the annual indexes is shown in Figure 1. Its cumulated efficiency change and TECH components are displayed in Figures 2 and 3, respectively.Figure 1 shows that BNSF's and GTC's cumulated productivity growths were above their peers in most periods. While KCS's cumulated growth topped the two firms in 2006, it dropped sharply in 2007. UP's productivity growth trailed BNSF's by a considerable margin of 18 percent in 2007. Productivity growth at NS started to decline steadily in 2004, while CSX's productivity began to rise in 2005. A sizeable productivity gap between these CSX and NS was observed; the cumulated productivity growth of CSX was considerably higher than that of NS in 2007.Figure 2 shows that GTC consistently led the industry in terms of efficiency improvements, while UP's efficiency change fell behind all Class I railroads' after 2003. However, GTC's TECH trailed all Class I railroads (Figure 3). As shown in Figure 3, the two western railroads, BNSF and UP, are the top two innovators of the industry. Nevertheless, there are noticeable innovation gaps of 7 to 8 percent between BNSF and UP between 2005 and 2007, implying that BNSF outpaced all its industry peers in adopting innovative technologies.We decomposed the efficiency change component as in equation (9). The results are presented in Table IV. CSX's efficiency decline in 2005 can be attributed to a decline in pure efficiency and scale efficiency. For KCS and NS, efficiency declines resulted mostly from pure efficiency declines, except in 2005, in which scale efficiency decline was the main culprit for negative efficiency change. UP experienced pure efficiency declines in four of five years. Its scale efficiency also declined in two of the five years studied.\n5 Conclusions: In our sequential DEA, CSX, NS, and KCS appeared to be the least efficient firms, while BNSF was consistently the most efficient between 2002 and 2007. This suggests that railroads' operations could still be improved with better resource management.We use a sequential MI to study productivity in the US-railroad industry and decompose the productivity index to identify sources of productivity change. BNSF led the industry in terms of productivity growth (4.6 percent/year), followed by GTC (4.4 percent/year), CSX (3.1 percent/year), KCS (2.8 percent/year), SL (1.6 percent/year), UP (1.5 percent/year), and NS (0.9 percent/year). The industry's annual productivity averaged 2.68 percent, which was slightly higher than the average growth of 2.2 percent (2002-2008) reported by LRCA (2009).Among all Class I railroads, GTC's efficiency change rate was the highest, averaging 4 percent per year, implying that GTC led its peers in moving toward the industry's production frontier. Efficiency declines were observed in fourof five years at KCS, three of five years at UP and NS, and two of five years at SL. UP resorted to innovation to increase productivity.Our results show that productivity growths at BNSF and UP were driven predominantly by technological progress, and the western duopolists were top two industry innovators. BNSF's TECH was the most impressive, averaging 4.6 percent per year. In fact, BNSF outperformed UP by all measures, possibly because UP was still upgrading Southern Pacific (SP) lines that it took over years ago[9]. Technological innovation at NS and CSX was not noticeable throughout the study period. However, both NS and CSX are spending heftily in infrastructure investments in preparing for an anticipated increase in inter-modal traffic[10]. In short, through consistent innovation and embracing of new technologies, BNSF led the industry in productivity growth.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide an economic assessment of the productivity growth and technical efficiency of US Class I railroads for the period of 2002-2007.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The US railroad industry has become increasingly concentrated with seven Class I railroads accounting for over 90 percent of the industry's revenue. Because the small sample size creates a dimensionality problem for data envelopment analysis (DEA) with contemporaneous frontiers, the authors use sequential DEA and calculate the Malmquist productivity indexes using sequential frontiers. Through a decomposition process, changes in productivity are attributed to technical efficiency change, technical change, and scale efficiency change.\nFindings: - Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) led the industry in terms of productivity growth (4.6 percent) and consistently stayed on the production frontier in every period studied; both BNSF and Union Pacific (UP) are top innovators in the industry, but UP trailed BNSF in both productivity growth and technological innovations by wide margins; and Grand Trunk Corporation was very good at \"catching up\" or leading its peers in efficiency improvements.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Railroads have invested heavily in technology over the years to enhance efficiency and productivity. However, two recent economic studies find that railroad productivity has slowed in recent years. The authors' benchmarking analysis sheds light on how individual railroads performed relative to their peers, and what they could learn from industry best practice.\nOriginality/value: - The benchmarking study enables the authors to report each railroad's performance instead of reporting industry-wide aggregate indexes or industry averages which tend to mask performance variations. The paper also examines the causal factors of recent productivity growth and provides useful information for the industry and its regulators.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Learning through fictional business: expertise for real life?
|
[
"Educational drama",
"Expert knowledge",
"Expertise",
"Working‐life skills",
"Professional ethics",
"Forest sciences",
"Higher education",
"Learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Besides mastering the academic knowledge in their area of expertise, graduating students also need to be prepared to meet different types of working-life challenges. However, the knowledge in the university is recognised as being in many ways different from the knowledge created and needed at work (Garraway, 2010). Further, traditional lecture-based tuition concentrates very often on transmitting explicit theoretical knowledge and the result is that the chosen teaching methods do not necessarily support competence and expertise development (Tynjala, 1999; Tynjala et al., 2006; Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1993).1.1 Expertise and expert knowledge development\n2. Method: 2.1 Educational settings and participants\n3. Findings: Based on the two research questions, the findings were grouped under two different concepts (themes): \"linkage to the real life\" and \"connection between perceived learning and educational drama as a teaching method\".3.1 Linkage to real life\n4. Discussion and conclusions: This study explored whether teaching professional ethics through educational drama could facilitate expert knowledge development by giving a sense of real-life and solving real-life problems. The findings support this proposition. Based on these results, it can be justifiably said that drama can bring a sense of real life to classrooms, and thus it can contribute to professional development by offering experiences that resemble working-life experiences.According to the students' learning journals, a course taught through educational drama had trained them for working life or had given knowledge of it. In addition, the course had made the students reflect upon the reality of business and working life in general. The quantitative data supported these qualitative findings. Compared to the students' opinions on their university studies in general, the course that was taught through educational drama seems to have been a tool that efficiently helped the students gain a sense of real-life experiences, of putting theory into practice, and of solving working-life problems. The students also felt that this course had made them more prepared for unforeseen situations in working life. As discussed earlier, all these areas, i.e. real-life experiences, putting theory into practise, solving real-life problems, and being prepared for tackling unforeseen problems, are issues that are regarded as being important for expertise development (e.g. Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1993; Tynjala, 2002).Although our drama story was completely fictional, it had nevertheless provided the sense of real-life problems. This seems to be in line with the findings of Pearce and Jackson (2006). They studied educational drama in marketing education, and their results indicated that even though fictitious, drama had actually enhanced the realism of the learning experience. Likewise, in our present study, a majority of the students felt that the course had given them resources for working life.However, it is not easy to determine the impact of one, specific teaching method - in this case educational drama (see e.g. Etherton and Prentki, 2006; Dalrymple, 2006). A certain amount of unpredictability and variance between students could be highlighted in a similar way as Deeley (2010) points out regarding the effects of service learning. According to her, the success of service learning depends on the sum of its parts. Considering this course, a challenging contradiction seems to have emerged through applying ethics - instead of economics - as the starting point for solving business-life problems. In other words, through drama we were able to create a fictional \"course life\", where ethics was always the first choice. The students very often felt that there was almost an insuperable conflict between the real life and this course life. This \"good friction\" (see Korhonen et al., 2008) between drama and real life had given the students new ideas and insights into both ethical decision making and the real business life. This type of learning can also be explained by the concept of distancing as defined by Eriksson (2009a). Our storyline can be regarded as a \"distancing device\" by which, according to Eriksson, the themes and issues can be seen to appear in a new light.As our workshops dealt with corporate responsibility and professional ethics, the students had a particular chance to prepare themselves for the challenges of ethics and sustainability. This is an outcome that is worth highlighting. According to Rosenberg et al. (2012), work ethic is an important need in the workforce, and Millican and Bourner (2011) argue that developing the student's sense of social concern should be an essential concern of higher education. Hence, according to our study, the combination of professional ethics and educational drama is a worthwhile tool to consider in higher education, when we want to prepare students for the ethical and social concerns of their future working life.Although not surprising, it was nevertheless interesting to notice how much our students also learned outside the actual learning targets, i.e. ability to identify and resolve ethical problems and to develop an understanding of their professional role. This \"unintentional\" learning stemmed from the roles students took in the drama, as well from the story that involved the functions and operations of forest industry companies. Because role taking can be seen a tool to increase empathy and understanding towards that particular role (see e.g. Eisenberg and Strayer, 1990), this once again made us alert to the fact that, when using drama in education we should also reckon in the potential unintentional learning outcomes. On the other hand, this can also be seen as an opportunity in teaching. The teachers can pursue several different learning outcomes, if they are familiar with the versatility of drama as a teaching method. However, because learning in drama is fundamentally about learning through an art form, it is essential that the teachers are also familiar with the artistic elements of drama.Our study revealed that shy students may feel uncomfortable in some drama conventions. This highlights the importance of using diverse drama conventions in order to support a fair and balanced involvement of different types of learners. On the other hand, if the intended learning outcomes include, for instance, improved presentation skills, the shy students can also be encouraged to train these skills in certain drama conventions. We are aware of some limitations associated with this study. First, it can be argued that, to please their teachers, the students could have exaggerated their learning in their journals, especially as the final journals were assessed for a grade (see e.g. Boud, 2001). On the other hand, according to Clarkeburn and Kettula (2011), the quality of reflection seems to be significantly higher in the assessed learning journals. This supports the decision to use the assessed final learning journals as research data. Moreover, the students learned only afterwards of the research, so the study should not have biased the writing of their learning journals. Second, this study offers an analysis of the students' experiences of their own learning and did not assess the quality of their learning outcomes. We also concentrated on their somewhat immediate responses and learning on a fairly short-term basis. Further studies are therefore needed to determine the quality of the students' professional learning in educational drama and to reveal the long-term impacts of teaching through drama. However, based on this study alone, it can be argued that educational drama can offer several benefits to in-class teaching and professional development in higher education. At its best, it has potential to serve as a mediating tool between the academy and working life.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this study is to investigate whether educational drama can be used as a tool to facilitate expert knowledge development and to help students prepare themselves for working life.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The target group consisted of 41 students of Forest Sciences who had participated in a course of professional ethics taught through educational drama. Qualitative research data were collected from learning journals and quantitative data from questionnaires.\nFindings: - The results indicate that educational drama has a potential to foster expert knowledge development, because it can bring a sense of real life to classrooms and thus give experiences that resemble working-life experiences. The course that was taught through educational drama gave students a sense of putting theory into practice and of solving working-life problems. The students also felt that this course had made them more prepared for unforeseen situations in working life. Further, teaching professional ethics through educational drama may be a worthwhile tool to help students encounter the working-life challenges of ethics and sustainability in particular.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Further studies are needed to determine the quality of the students' professional learning in educational drama and the long-term impacts of teaching through drama.\nPractical implications: - The findings have practical implications for higher education related to the enhancement of expert knowledge development and preparing students for working life.\nOriginality/value: - This paper introduces educational drama as an encouraging tool in higher education to simulate real-life situations in the classrooms, and thus providing students with opportunities to practise for working life and grow as experts.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The value of guanxi for small vegetable farmers in China
|
[
"Arable farming",
"Small enterprises",
"Trust",
"Customer satisfaction",
"Contracts",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is a growing recognition that business relationships play an important role in supply chain management (Brown et al., 1995; Narasimhan and Kim, 2002; Berthon et al., 2003). Many buyers and sellers believe that long-term relationships are a decisive source for competitive advantage, which will ultimately improve performance (Walter et al., 2000). Managing collaborative business-to-business relationships demands an understanding of how relationships create value for both buyers and sellers (Hogan, 2001) and how value is delivered throughout the supply chains (Ulaga, 2003). Therefore, the measurement of value and quality of business relationships has become an important topic in business-to-business studies (Ulaga and Eggert, 2003, 2006; Naude and Buttle, 2000; Woo and Ennew, 2004; Walter et al., 2000; Patterson and Spreng, 1997).Ulaga and Eggert (2006) discovered that relationship value is an antecedent to relationship quality. Walter et al. (2000) found strong positive effects of customer satisfaction on trust. Both studies call for further empirical research to improve the measurement of business relationships (Walter et al., 2003; Ulaga and Eggert, 2006). In the Chinese context, relationships are traditionally called guanxi. guanxi is translated as those personal connections or relationships on which an individual can build to secure resources or to draw benefits in business as well as in social life (Davies, 1995). Researchers have applied relationship marketing theory in China, based on guanxi, in different fields including themes like marketing and negotiation (Lee and Lo, 1988), network relationships (Wong and Leung, 2001) and industrial marketing (Fang, 2001). However there is still a lack of studies focusing on the measurement of the value of guanxi and investigating its interrelationships in a Chinese context. We try to fill this gap by looking for answers on the following questions:* What is the value or benefit of guanxi-based marketing in China?* How is this value created and transferred in buyer-seller relationships?* Does traditional guanxi support smallholders in modern markets in China?The purpose of the present paper is to develop an integrated relationship marketing framework on the value of guanxi in buyer-seller relationships and its relation to smallholders' marketing behaviour. This paper focuses on the Chinese vegetable sector. China is one of the biggest vegetable producers in the world (FAO, 2004), but its vegetable sector faces several challenges, such as over-supply of vegetables in domestic markets, low quality and safety image in international markets, and the exclusion of small-scale vegetable farmers from high-value markets, etc. (Lu, 2007). In the next sections, we will introduce the research model and the research design. Empirical data will be analysed with a structural model using Partial Least Squares (PLS). The last section will discuss the management implications.\n2. Guanxi value, buyer-seller relationship quality and marketing behaviour: a structural model: In the present paper, we developed an integrated model including the interaction between guanxi value, buyer-seller relationship quality and marketing behaviour (see Figure 1). We will discuss the concepts in the model below.2.1 Guanxi value\nSatisfaction: Anderson and Narus (1990) define satisfaction as \"a positive affective state resulting from the appraisal of all aspects of a firm's working relationships with another firm.\" The positive affective state is derived from a trade-off between the seller's performance and the buyer's expectations. Whenever the seller's performance exceeds the buyer's expectations, satisfaction will increase. Satisfaction in buyer-seller relationships does not merely depend on the product/service quality. It also largely depends on the dyadic relationship. This point is even more important in the Confucianism society of China. As an experienced American businessman stated \" ... guanxi seems to be the lifeblood of the Chinese business community, extending into politics and society. Without guanxi one simply cannot get anything done\" (Wong and Leung, 2001).\nTrust: Anderson and Narus (1990) view trust as the belief that the partner will perform actions that will result in positive outcomes for the firm. Moorman et al. (1993) define trust as the willingness to rely upon an exchange partner in whom one has confidence. Both definitions view trust as a behavioural intention that reflects some reliance upon the exchange partner. Therefore, trust is a relationship-based concept, which is created, reinforced, or decreased by bilateral relationship activities in a series of economic exchanges.Trust is directly influenced by the value of guanxi networks since trust is socially embedded (Granovetter, 1985). Trust is dynamic and continuous, as opposed to being a static and discrete variable (Wicks et al., 1999). The development of trust relies on the formation of one partner's expectations about the motives and behaviour of the other (Doney and Cannon, 1997), the reputation of the counterpart (Gabre-Madhin, 2001) and the satisfaction about the buyer-seller relationship (Ulaga and Eggert, 2006; Walter et al., 2000). This paper draws on personal interaction. Interpersonal trust reflects the extent to which a boundary-spanning agent trusts his or her specific counterpart (Zaheer et al., 1998).2.3 Marketing behaviour\n3. Research design: 3.1 Data collection\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Statistical description\n5. Conclusions and discussions: This paper explores how small-scale vegetable farmers in China can use their guanxi networks to improve performance in modern markets. The results reveal that guanxi networks play an important role in small-scale vegetable farming in China (Lu et al., 2007). The value of guanxi networks is positively associated with the quality of buyer-seller relationships. Farmers pose a high level of interpersonal trust in their vegetable buyers using sophisticated guanxi networks. Interpersonal trust shows a significant positive relationship with transaction relationships, especially with communication with buyers and transaction assistance from buyers. Interpersonal trust also shows a positive effect on smallholders' marketing behaviour in terms of (modern) market participation and (contract) governance choice. It is demonstrated that guanxi networks have also a direct effect on smallholders' marketing behaviour. Guanxi networks help small farmers in China to get access to modern markets, such as supermarkets and international markets. As argued before, using their guanxi networks, farmers have opportunities to negotiate with more buyers to get a good price. So they tend to use less formal contracts in order to increase flexibility in marketing their vegetables.Although the results are consistent with our theoretical considerations, two limitations of our study must be mentioned. First, we studied buyer-seller relationships from the seller's perspective. In a network setting, studying both sides of a buyer-seller relationship should be analysed to get a comprehensive understanding of the effects of guanxi. Second, we did not consider other marketing concepts which may influence smallholders' marketing behaviour. In a modern marketing system, quality standards, consistent delivery and production scale are important considerations. Therefore, the effects of such external marketing concepts on smallholders' marketing participation and performance should be further investigated.\n6. Managerial implications: From a managerial point of view, there are at least three major implications of this study.First, our research shows the critical role of guanxi for small-scale farmers in managing business transactions and conducting their marketing strategies. The results underline the importance of trust-building activities within a relationship marketing approach. Interpersonal trust is truly a pivotal constituent of buyer-seller relationship quality.Second, our research shows that guanxi value has both a direct and an indirect impact on farmer's marketing behaviour. The increasing importance of modern market outlets (such as supermarkets) in the retail of vegetables will probably lead to the restructuring of production and marketing systems. The development of guanxi networks not only facilitates transactions, but also helps farmers to achieve long-term business relationships in modern markets.Third, market transition in the Chinese vegetable sector increasingly asks for an accompanying adjustment in the sphere of market integration. Negotiation power determines whether small-scale farmers can obtain access to and survive in modern markets. Strengthening smallholders' negotiation power can be achieved through farmers' collaboration (Hu et al., 2004; Ruben et al., 2007). Therefore, farmers' organisations (e.g. cooperatives or professional associations) should deserve serious attention as devices to increase farmers' negotiation power in (modern) markets.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Following a guanxi value - buyer-seller relationship quality - marketing behaviour scheme, this paper aims to explore how traditional guanxi supports small vegetable farmers in modern markets in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Fieldwork was performed in Jiangsu Province, PR China. A stratified random sample of 167 vegetable farmers provided data for empirical testing with partial least squares analysis.\nFindings: - The findings suggested that the value of guanxi networks is an antecedent to buyer-seller relationship quality and marketing behaviour in China. Guanxi networks improve the quality of buyer-seller relationships in terms of interpersonal trust and satisfaction. Buyer-seller relationships influence smallholders' transaction relationships, their participation in modern markets and choice for formal contracts. Guanxi networks not only support Chinese small-scale vegetable farmers to get access to modern high-value markets (e.g. supermarkets and international markets), but also encourage informal transactions in the vegetable business.\nPractical implications: - Guanxi networks play a critical role in the modern marketing environment in China. Marketing strategies based on personal relationships should be further enhanced in order to increase participation of smallholders in modern markets.\nOriginality/value: - Quantitative evaluation of the effects of the Chinese cultural embedded concept of guanxi in the Chinese agrifood sector fills in an important research gap.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Predicting likelihood of cost overrun in educational projects
|
[
"Cost overruns",
"Model",
"Educational projects",
"Ghanaian construction industry",
"Multi linear regression",
"Predictive variables"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It has become almost axiomatic within the construction industry to measure project success based on cost, time and quality performance (Chan and Kumaraswamy, 2002). However, the project cost has been noted to be the most visible and significant criteria due to the objectivity that characterises its estimation and their direct economic implications if they are unnecessarily exceeded (Ogunsemi and Jagboro, 2006; Faridi and El-Sayegh, 2006). Project cost estimation is a technical process that requires the accurate integration of project information, resources and control over the project implementation period (Doloi, 2013). Meanwhile the estimate can only be as good as the information it is based on (Ahiaga-Dagbui and Smith, 2013). Cost forecasting therefore becomes difficult considering the myriad of uncertainties that characterises every construction project especially within the construction phase (Love et al., 2013; Ahiaga-Dagbui and Smith, 2014; Bhargava et al., 2010). Unfortunately, the early estimates whether grossly inaccurate or not have become the basis upon which all future estimates are judged (Pasco and Aibinu, 2008).\n2. Literature review: Research on model for predicting the likelihood of cost overruns within the building construction sector is scant. Notwithstanding, a number of researchers have examined various predictive variables either influencing the estimation of construction cost or cost overruns in other forms of infrastructure provisions. The authors reviewed both categories of research publications in order to narrow the initial predictive variables that could be included in the model development.\n3. Research method: 3.1 Data compilation\n4. Analysis of the sizes of cost overruns: Figure 3 shows the distribution of cost overruns experienced within all the projects surveyed. In all only 91 (28 per cent) of all the projects were completed within their initial budgeted cost. Additionally, out of the number of projects that overran their initial budget, 34.89, 31.46, 2.49 and 2.80 per cent experienced cost overrun between 0-5, 5-20, 20-50 per cent and more than 50 per cent, respectively. This means that 72 per cent of all the projects experienced cost overruns with majority of the overruns between 0-20 per cent.\n5. Summary and conclusion: This paper analysed 321 educational projects completed between 2010 and 2013 within public sector in the GCI. The main thrust of this research was to assess the feasibility of using parameters known before the contract signing phase of a project to develop a forecasting tool for predicting cost overruns. A preliminary assessment of the projects compiled showed that 71.59 per cent overran their IC by an average of 9.64 per cent. In total, 36 projects identified to be either outliers or influential data points based on their respective histograms of studentized residuals, leverage and Cook's distance were deleted after they failed the test for normality and heteroscedasticity. The selection of the most suitable predictive variables out of an initial ten variables identified through a combination of extant literature and expert interviews was achieved by adopting techniques such as the FSP, BEP, adjusted R2, Mallow's Cp and the AIC.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Being able to predict the likelihood of a project to overrun its cost before the contract signing phase is crucial in developing the required mitigating measures to avert it. Known parameters that permit the timely prediction of cost overrun provide the basis for such predictions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a model for forecasting cost overruns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Ten predictive variables known before the contract signing phase of a project are identified. Based on a survey approach, information on 321 educational projects completed are compiled. A multiple linear regression analysis is adopted for the model development.\nFindings: Five variables - initial contract sum, gross floor area, number of storeys, source of funds and contractors' financial classification are observed to influence cost overruns. The model, however, yields a fairly weak coefficient of determination with a mean absolute percentage error of 30.22 and 138 per cent, respectively.\nResearch limitations/implications: The model developed focussed on data only educational projects sampled from three out of the ten administration regions in Ghana based on a purposive sampling approach.\nPractical implications: Policy makers and construction managers working on public projects stand to gain tremendous assistance in formulating and strengthening their own in-house cost forecasting at the precontract phase based on \"what if\" analysis to generate various alternative predictions of cost overruns.\nOriginality/value: Considering the innate nature of cost overruns within the Ghanaian construction industry often resulting to project abandonment, this research presents a unique dimension for tackling cost overruns based on a predictive approach.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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